The must of the gospel

And I was water built on the ground, built on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Neither does God respect any person, yet does he devise means that is banished, be not expelled from him. John's Gospel, please.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John in the New Testament. John chapter 3 and the very words of the Lord Jesus. Verse 7 of John chapter 3. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.

Now look at verse 3 while we're there. Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, or truly, truly, I say unto thee, notice, except a man, a man or a woman, a boy or a girl be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Verse 14, please, of John 3. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.

That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. The book of Acts, please. Chapter 4. Acts chapter 4 and verse 10, just the top part of verse 10.

And I appreciate seeing everybody turn to see it for themselves. Acts chapter 4 and verse 10, be it known unto you all. Verse 12, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.

The final reading in chapter 16. Chapter 16 is an interesting chapter. There's a jailer, and of course others in the prison, and there's Paul and Silas.

And we're going to break in reading at verse 29 of Acts 16. Acts 16 and verse 29. Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling, and fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Good question.

And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. Now we know the Lord will bless what we've heard already, and what we've read at the close of this meeting.

I hope that I can be as simple and as clear as possible. And with many of these verses we've read, we've got a simple little word. It's must.

It's the Lord speaking to us when we read the word of God, and he wants to make it very clear, and he wants to make it very plain. There's something you and I must have if we're ever going to be in heaven at the end of life's journey. Tonight we're reading from the Bible.

It's a unique book. Holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. 40 different authors, covers three different continents.

Countless controversial subjects are touched on, and yet we find one voice that gives unity. It's the most published book that's ever been published. Translated in more languages than any other Bible, any other book has ever been translated.

And you know it survives through time. Persecution, criticism, famines you develop at how you want. And the book is very, very honest.

It's full of honesty. It tells us about our sin. It tells us about our condition before God.

It tells us very clearly that we need a savior. This book, the Bible, has been said to have more influence on any person more than any other book that's ever been written. I had a grandson one time that asked me, he says, I'm having trouble at work.

I says, well, what's the problem? I thought it was something with the machines or something. He says, no, I'm having trouble to show that the Bible is true. I says, well, that's a very easy one.

He says, if it's so easy, let me know. There are 330 messianic prophecies in the Old Testament. All about the Lord Jesus.

All about Calvary. From approximately 500 years to 1100 years before it began. At 100% accuracy.

You can rest your eternal future on what the word of God says. You can rest searching, as it were, what's the most important thing in my life. As to what the word of God says.

I had a young fellow talk to me a couple months ago in some meetings. He expressed that he wanted to be saved. I wonder if there's anybody here not saved.

And I wonder if there's here anybody that would like to be saved. I want to make it very clear that the salvation is for forgiveness of sins. It's not that I want to be saved so I don't have the wrath of God.

It's not that I want to be saved so I'm not going to be in the awful place called hell. Those are all true. But a person will never be saved until they find out their problem is their sin.

And that's a big thing to consider. It's a big pill to swallow, if you want to put it in those terms. I sometimes have trouble swallowing a vitamin.

So I take it with a little bit of food and I get it down rather than just drinking the liquid that's still in my mouth. But the biggest pill that I ever swallowed was, I'm a lost sinner. And I need a savior.

So I'd like to just ask you to travel in memories lane. I won't ask any questions after the meeting. You can ask me or my brother in the Lord if you want.

But I'd like to ask you, have you ever found out before God that you have a very serious, piercing, pulsing problem and it's your sin? Because if you've never found that out, you're very far from the kingdom of God. The Bible tells us very clearly, Romans chapter 3 and verse 23, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Everyone that's walked on the face of this earth, aside from the Lord Jesus, has been a sinner.

And everyone that's been on the face of this earth, aside from the Lord Jesus, needs a savior. And I want to remind you, dear one of the gathering tonight, that you need a savior. You need forgiveness of sins because of your sin.

The Bible tells us the wages of sin is death, separation from God. But the gift of God is eternal life through the Lord Jesus Christ. When we go over into Isaiah 64, we find a verse, and some might find it kind of strange.

It says, All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in the eyes of the Lord. The best things that we try to do will never tip the scale. And so the Bible says we're weighed in the balances and found wanton.

I want to emphasize tonight, man's greatest need, your greatest need, if you're in here without Christ, without salvation, without having been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ, is to have your sins forgiven. Many times people say, well, it's somebody else, and they've got a greater problem. I remember one time I was meeting somebody at a prison.

It was about 12 o'clock, and to get some of his clothing and arrangements for the sentence he had. And while I was sitting there, I watched two jailers, and they go through the doors, all electronic and high security. And all of a sudden, a while, I watched some of the prisoners being released.

Some of them are running. Others were walking very fast. Every one of them had a smile on their face.

I'm getting out of prison. I wondered how many would be back again. But I watched them exceedingly joyous and exceedingly happy.

They were free. You will never have true peace and true joy and true happiness until you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your own personal Savior. And so the Word of God tells us the reality of salvation.

The Word of God tells us the necessity of salvation. And the Word of God wonderfully tells us about the availability of salvation. It's through the Lord Jesus Christ.

It's not through anything you or I do. It's not through anything that any other person's done other than the Lord Jesus. But the Lord Jesus on the cross of Calvary paid all that any sinner needs that they might have their sins forgiven, peace with God, heaven as their home, and their name written in the Lamb's Book of Life.

And so the first place that we read was a verse that is kind of solemn. It's kind of searching. And it's something they maybe don't want to address.

Whether you're the youngest one in the gathering or the oldest one in the gathering, the Lord is reminding us something that's eminent. You and I must, need, die. And you might say, well, I'm very young.

I realize that. And I appreciate that. On our last trip before this one as we worked up along the coast, when we left Los Angeles in the morning, I noticed the traffic came almost to a screeching halt.

Finally, one lane was open. There was a little blue car. The little blue car ran under the back of the semi-truck.

And that driver that morning never got where he was going to go to. His life was over. When we were coming home on that trip, we went through Las Vegas.

Working our way to Phoenix. And in the northbound lane, we were in the southbound lane, was a white, one of the newer Ford type cargo vans, that ran into the back of a semi-truck. And it looked like a little soda can squish.

Both times on the trip north and on the trip south, we witnessed death. I'm not saying that to scare you. But I want to remind each one of us, and I'm speaking to my own soul, we don't have a guarantee of tomorrow.

And that's why the Lord mentions in one place in the word of God, slippery places. It's the thought of quickly slipping. And slipping into eternity.

And the thought of slipping into eternity without Christ would be the greatest of greatest tragedies that ever could take place in this life. And so the Lord Jesus graciously speaks to us kindly, tenderly. The Lord gives us his word.

The entrance of thy word gives light. And he reminds us there's something that we need to ponder. In the book of Amos, chapter 4, verse 12, it says, Prepare to meet thy God.

That's something that every one of us needs to do. How can I prepare to meet my God? It's appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment. How can I prepare that when death comes, I'm going to have my sins forgiven? How can I be sure when death crosses my path that it's well with my soul? All the busyness of life, all the other issues of life, really are very minor issues in life when we consider the most important issue, that your sins need to be forgiven, that your sins must be forgiven, and they can only be forgiven by the Lord Jesus Christ.

When we come into John, chapter 3, we find a man by the name of Nicodemus. He came to the Lord Jesus by night. He was a ruler.

He was religious. And as we read the portion, he wasn't right with God. Maybe there's somebody in the gathering tonight between you and God.

It's not right with your soul. You're not right with God. He began a conversation with the Lord Jesus.

He commented, nobody does miracles like Thalbus. And they began to converse closely, face to face, and the Lord Jesus told them something that he never heard before. He said, except a man be born again, he cannot be saved, cannot be in heaven.

I remember the first time I ever heard those words. That was in June, 1959, just out of the sixth grade. See, I didn't grow up in a Christian home.

Mom had one religion. Father had another religion. And I had been christened in the fifth grade, and I thought it was well with my soul.

But you know a christening won't give you forgiveness of sins. Joining a church won't give you forgiveness of sins. Raising your hand in a meeting won't give you forgiveness of sins.

Putting your name in a little line or a little box on a piece of paper won't give you forgiveness of sins. Forgiveness of sins comes alone by the Lord Jesus Christ. He tells us that we must be born again.

I've learned through the years that you don't as much ask people if they're saved, because people say, oh yes, I'm saved. And when you ask them how, they kind of evade the question. So I try to ask them more and more.

In fact, I just ordered a number of Bible papers for a village up north saying that we must be born again. It doesn't matter what translation you take. Every Bible has it very clearly that a person must be born again.

And people say, well, I don't know what it means. And Nicodemus said, I don't know what it means either. How can I enter my mother's womb again? It sounds absolutely ridiculous.

To be born again would be to be rescued from above. It would be to be saved by the Lord, by the Lord Jesus. It is something that you and I cannot produce.

It is something that comes from God. Salvation is an illumination from the God of heaven, what the Lord Jesus did on the cross, to a lost, perishing sinner. I would like to ask you to go over Memories Lane tonight.

Can you remember when you found out you were not saved? That it was not well with your soul and your problem was your sins? I remember it well. Can you remember when you found out, labeled how you want, that on the cross he paid for your sins and you go free? My wife's in the audience. She'll tell you I'm terrible at dates, sometimes have difficulty with names, and I couldn't tell you the date I was saved.

It was a Friday night in the fall of a year, either end of October or the beginning of November, when I came home very troubled from a children's meeting about my soul and laying on that bed that night, 9.30 at night, in a little bungalow on 107 Colgate Avenue, I rested, that when the Lord Jesus died on the cross it was for my sins, and I was saved. You know what? It changed my life completely. My parents thought I was kind of bonkers even though I lived in Yonkers, but I really wasn't.

But I found out that they didn't really want to hear the message. So I want to remind you this afternoon at almost a quarter to five, you must have a new birth. It's essential.

We read in John chapter 3 that as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And whoso looketh to him, why, they'll have everlasting life. What does that mean? The children of Israel had sinned.

They moaned and groaned that they didn't like the manna, a sufficient portion, and the Lord sent fiery serpents in, and they began to bite the people, and many of the people died. And Moses was told to make a serpent of brass. Sometimes in a doctor's office you'll see a certificate on the wall if you have to wait long enough, and you'll see a little curly thing like a snake on a pole.

It comes from the book of Numbers. A serpent of brass on the pole. It speaks of healing.

And the Lord Jesus was reminding Nicodemus, I'm going to be going to a cross. I'm going to be lifted up on the cross. And when one would rest in what I've done for him on the cross, they'll have the new birth.

When we come into Acts chapter 4, and verse 10, it says, Be it known unto you. And when we drop down to the 12th verse, it tells us, There's none other name under heaven given among men whereby we should be saved? No. Ought to be saved? No.

Must be saved. I want to leave it with you tonight, dear ones. I appreciate you listening so well.

You must be saved. You must have the new birth. It's available alone through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Sometimes when I get in a little town, one of them I was in, I was in a thrift store in line, and I turned around to the younger lady next to me, and I said, You know, I'm going to make an astounding statement to you. I'm one of the richest ones in this town. She said, That is a big statement.

And I said, Let me tell you how it is. The Lord Jesus is my Savior, and I'm heaven bound because of what he did for me on the cross at Calvary. I was surprised.

She says, I'm one of the richest ones too. Why, I'm saved also. If you've got Christ as your Savior, you're one of the richest ones in the land of Ankeny.

And if you haven't got the Lord Jesus as your Savior, no matter what riches or what land you have or whatever it be, you're the pauper of paupers. None of us has a guarantee on life. That's why the word of God in Amos said, as we quote it, we must prepare to meet our God.

And so the Lord's reminding us, salvation is not in any other. It's not in our religion. It's not in rites and rituals.

It's found in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Isn't it thrilling to know that God loves you? Isn't it thrilling to find the gospel message is clear? It's concise? It's plain? God tells us about our problem of sin. He tells us about our need.

And he tells us about the remedy for our sin found in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts chapter 16, we also had the word must. It's a very interesting chapter to me.

Maybe because of younger days, I've done more work in prisons. I don't do it any longer. Very hard to get in, it seems.

But it's about a man by the name of Paul and Silas. Two radical, fanatical Christians, you might say, on fire for the Lord Jesus. And they're brought into prison on false charges.

I've had a few of my days that I thought were on false charges, but I couldn't prove it, of course. And they were very strange prisoners. They were beaten.

Their feet and their stocks, they were like in the inner pen. And they're singing praises to God at midnight. I think the other prisoners must have thought, we've got a couple real loonies here.

Because at night, voices carry very far without an amplifier. And God put those two men in prison so that the jailer might be saved. So you say, what are you trying to say? It's not just your coincidence tonight you're in the meeting tonight.

But it's because God loves you. And he wants you to hear the gospel. And he wants you to ponder the path of your feet.

And go over in your mind, in your heart, in your soul, do I have the new birth? Have I been saved by the Lord Jesus Christ? The Lord arranged an earthquake in the prison. Everyone's bands were loose. Thrilling for a prisoner.

The doors were open. Thrilling for a prisoner. But very strangely, none of them ran.

And Paul cried with a loud voice because a jailer under Roman law would lose his life. And he'd suffer if he lost the prisoner. He was going to fall on his own sword.

I can see the security of the prison because no jailer carries any weapons in our prisons. Because the prisoner might overpower him. And Paul cries with a loud voice, Do thyself no harm.

We're all here. Could I take that little phrase at the close of the meeting and say here when in the gathering, Do thyself no harm. Take heed to what the word of God says.

Do thyself no harm. Take side to what the word of God says. You see, the jailer was awakened that night.

And he had a question. And it was, What must I do to be saved? That's a question every Christian would love to hear people ask them. Whether it be the neighbor, the workmate, or the school trump, or any way you want to put it.

Or any preacher would love to hear. What must I do to be right with God? What must I do to have my sins forgiven? It's a thrilling question to hear. And it's a tremendous answer to find in the word of God.

And you know as we read it here, why, it says, And they said. I found that interesting. They both spoke at the same time.

Maybe sometimes you've been with some others and the two of you said almost the same thing at the same time. Kind of coincidentally, you might say. And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

Thou shalt be saved in thy house. But notice verse 32. Don't think verse 31 is a formula or something.

It says, What does that mean? They would have told him of the cross. They would have told him of the Lord Jesus that was on the cross. They would have told him that the Lord Jesus on the cross paid for his sins.

You see, Calvary delighted God. And through Calvary, you and I can be delivered from the chains of sin and the bondage of sin. And you and I can be saved.

Calvary defeated the enemy, the devil. Calvary declares deity. Up from the grace he arose.

Hallelujah, what a Savior. If Christ be not raised, our faith is in vain. And Calvary will divide humanity.

Saved or lost. Born again or not born again. Calvary will never be defeated.

And Calvary will always be remembered. And when we come into Luke's Gospel, we find when they came to the place called Calvary, there they crucified him. It only occurs one time in the word of God, the King James Version, Calvary.

And a person's only saved once. And how can I be saved? How can I have my sins forgiven? It's through what the Lord Jesus went through on the cross of Calvary. He bade our sins in his own body on the tree.

He was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities. The Lord Jesus paid all that any sinner needs. Have you ever found out that the Lord Jesus paid for your sins? I heard a story many years ago and it helps me.

It's a story about a classroom. The school teachers kept quitting because the boys were so rowdy. And so another school teacher was there and the boys were there.

And he told them, this is your classroom. You make the rules. And they wrote it on the blackboard.

No lying, no stealing, no cursing. Then the teacher said, well, what happens if somebody breaks the rules? If they break the rules, they get the rod on the bare back 12 times. He said, that's very severe.

Anybody that does that deserves it. Several days later, Big Billy says, somebody stole my lunch. The teacher inquired.

Little Willie was shaking in his boots in the chair. He says, did you steal his lunch? I did, sir. Why did you do that? You didn't have any food at home last night.

I had nothing this morning. I was so hungry. I took the sandwich and I ate it.

He says, nevermind. In front of the class, you know the rules. Take your coat off.

He says, I don't even have a shirt. The boy that he stole from, the big, pearly boy, ran up. He says, I'll take his beating.

And the little boy put his arms around him. He says, I'll love you the rest of my life for taking my beating. The Lord Jesus was punished for our sins.

He was punished for all that we would endure for all eternity as a substitute. I commend to you tonight, this afternoon, the Lord Jesus, that on the cross, he paid all that any sinner needs. The exchange rate to heaven is not deeds or doing.

It's not rites or rituals. It's not silver or gold. The exchange rate to heaven is faith, trusting, taking, resting, relying on what the Lord Jesus did on the cross at Calvary.

You and I must be exiled. You and I must be born again. The Lord Jesus must be risen, raised up on a cross.

You and I must be saved. It's through the Lord Jesus, through what he did on the cross at Calvary. I would ask you to ponder why, tell me, why was he there? Jesus, the helper, the healer, the friend, why, tell me, why was he there? Everyone of us that's saved can say he was there because he paid for my sins.

He took my place and I go free. And our prayer would be, if you're in the gathering tonight, not saved, not born again, that you might find out that the Lord Jesus paid for your sins and you can go free. That's right.