So

Now we're going to read a number of scriptures. First of all from the book of Hebrews and chapter two is our first scripture. Hebrews and chapter two.

Each one is warmly welcome to the meeting tonight. Now Hebrews chapter two and we're going to read at verse number three. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation which at the first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed unto us by them that heard him.

Now we've read of so great salvation. Let's go back to the gospel of John chapter three please. A verse that has been quoted already tonight in the testimonies.

John chapter 3. Verse 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Now back to the Old Testament to the book of Isaiah chapter 52.

Isaiah chapter 52. I will read at verse 13. Isaiah 52 verse 13.

Behold my servant shall deal prudently. He shall be exalted and extolled and be very high. These verses are speaking about the Lord Jesus.

As many as were astonished at thee his visage was so marred more than any man and his form more than the sons of men. So shall he astonish, is the word, many nations. The King shall shut their mouths at him for that which hath not told them shall they see and that which they had not heard shall they consider.

Now one more from the Psalms. Psalm 103. Psalm number 103.

Psalm 103. We'll read from verse 8. The Lord is merciful and gracious. Slow to anger and plenteous in mercy.

He will not always chide neither will he keep his anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins, thank God, nor awarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth so great is his mercy toward them that fear him.

As far as the east is from the west so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. So far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Now that's all we'll read.

We trust with the Lord's blessing. It's toward the end of the day and at this stage our minds are tired and so we want to be simple tonight in the gospel and take up a very simple word to link these scriptures together. There's only two letters in it.

It won't be hard to remember. Just a little word so. And we have read from Hebrews chapter 2 and verse 3 about salvation so great.

And that has been the theme of the testimony meeting already. Tonight we'll speak a little more about salvation so great. Now when we come to John chapter 3 and 16 we're reading there about the love of God and we think of sinners that are so loved that God sent his only begotten Son into this world to die on the cross that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Then when we come back to the book of Isaiah chapter 52 verse 13 right through into chapter 53 that whole section of our Bible speaking about the Lord Jesus Christ and it says that his visage was so marred more than any man's. So we want to think about the Savior that was so marred. And then from Psalm 103 we have read in verse 12 about sins that are removed as far as the East is from the West.

So far has God removed our transgressions from us the believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. Their sins are gone. Their fears are o'er.

They shun God's presence now no more. Sins so removed and what a blessing that is to know with calm assurance in your heart. Now we've read from Hebrews 2 about salvation that is so great.

You ask me tonight what is salvation? What does that word really mean? Well salvation is the word that describes deliverance or a rescue or being loosed and set free set at liberty from some some bondage something that has been holding you. Now all of those ideas are found in this word of salvation and we have read about God providing salvation which is so great. It is so because it delivers from something so bad from sin and it brings the soul into something so good saved by the grace of God and instead of going to hell going to heaven and knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as one's personal Savior.

The problem with the human race tonight there are many problems but the one single root of it all is the problem of sin. Sin. Sin is the root cause of all pain.

Sin is the root cause of all suffering, of all heartache, of all terror, of all fear, of all separation from God. It can all be traced back to this dreadful thing called sin. Fools they make a mock of sin but remember this that a soul in their sin going out to meet God will never be in God's heaven.

They will be forever in that dreadful place called hell. They will be lost and lost forever but sin will be the root cause of it all and God's salvation is that which delivers from it. Now there are a number of things that can be said about that.

First of all we want to note that salvation is from the power of sin in the life. The power of sin in the life. Sin brings a man or a woman or a boy or a girl into bondage.

Makes them a slave to sin. Oh I know the Bible talks about the pleasures of sin and there are pleasures in sin but remember the very pleasures of sin are actually a part of that enslaving process and the medical people can describe it in terms of the chemicals in the brain and all that sort of thing. But the pleasures of sin are actually part of that enslaving process as sin imprints itself indelibly upon the soul of man and even on his body.

And as we've been hearing already from our brethren all struggles to free oneself from sin and from unaccusing conscience only makes the thing worse and worse. You think of the drug addict. A person who has become enslaved to that that lifestyle of putting chemicals into their body and even though they might hate the habit.

A habit that is destroying them yet at the same time strangely there's a love for it. Isn't that strange? To love something that's actually destroying you. That's what sin does.

Until a person is powerless of themselves to break that habit. Our brother Peter Orisak who's now with the Lord. Many of us have heard him preach the gospel.

In his unsaved days he was into this drug culture. He was actually instrumental I understand in introducing heroin to Prince Edward Island in Canada on the East Coast. And he was a slave to the habit.

Powerless to break until God and his mercy delivered him with so great salvation. The power of sin in the life. But God's salvation can deliver the soul from it.

And there's a problem of the penalty of sin. You see we live in not only a moral universe where there are consequences naturally that follow wrong behavior. God has built that into the whole system of things.

But you and I have God to meet and God is absolutely holy. And if we meet God in our sins. God who is holy will not let sin into his heaven.

Belongs to him. And so there's a penalty for sin. The soul that sinneth it shall die.

Not only physical death. When we'll be separated from loved ones and separated from life here on earth. But spiritual death separated from God for all eternity.

When you stop and think of that that is very serious. Because after all God is the author of all the good things that we enjoy. He's the God of all comfort.

The God of all comfort. That's one of the titles of God in our Bibles. The God of all comfort.

Now to be separated from God. The God of all comfort for all eternity. Means there's no comfort in hell.

He's the father of mercies. To be separated from the father of mercies for all eternity. Means there would be no mercy in hell.

And so you can go on. God who is absolutely holy. God who is light and in him is no darkness at all.

To be separated from God who is light and in him is no darkness at all would mean nothing but the blackness of darkness forever. There's a penalty for sin. And you don't want to die in your sins my friend and be lost forever in those conditions because God has provided so great salvation that would deliver you from that.

For those of us who are saved we're looking forward to that moment when we'll be delivered not only from the power of sin in the life and the penalty of sin of being lost forever but the very presence of sin because the Lord is coming and he's going to take us out of this old world. This old stinking world. And take us home to heaven.

To see the King in all his beauty. To be with him and to be like him. To never sin again.

Boy that's one of the things that's going to make heaven heaven. We'll never be plagued with sin ever again. So great salvation.

God in his might matchless power has come in and provided a salvation, a rescue, a deliverance for poor sinners that are plagued with the power of sin in their life and the penalty of sin of being lost eternally. The very presence of sin that is so contaminating. And God has provided salvation.

It's only God who could provide it. Remember this religion can't help. Religion can't help.

Oh no. That's the immediate, that's the immediate response in the human mind isn't it? Whenever we think of the problem of sin our brother was telling us about just this sense of unease and being unsettled and his conscience was bothering him as he thought about eternity and going out to meet God. Religion can't help in those situations.

Religion is man trying to do something to improve himself before God. You know the Apostle Peter he preached to the likely the most yeah the most religious people on the planet back there in Acts chapter 4. The very leaders of the Jewish religion. Men who had actually taken their own Messiah and had been instrumental in putting him to death.

But Peter confronted him with the problem, their own personal problem. And he told him this. He told them that they needed salvation.

And salvation was not found in religion. It was not found in any other name under heaven or given among men but the Lord Jesus Christ. And he goes on to say we must be saved.

We must have this salvation. If we're going to be in God's heaven, if we're never going to be in hell, we must be saved. It's so great a salvation.

But I want to think about the love of God. Sinners that are so loved. You know when we think of what we are by nature and think of what we have done in our practice of sin with the eye of God upon us.

There's not a one in this world ever deserved salvation. Not one. You and I if we got what we deserve, we would be forever perishing.

We'd be ever lost. We'd be forever in that dreadful place called hell. But why has God provided salvation? If nobody deserved it, why has God moved toward mankind to provide so great salvation? Here's why.

John 3.16 tells us. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. And it's so simple but it's so profound.

The love of God has reached out to poor sinners on the road to hell and he has sent his only Son into the world to die for them. That whosoever has discovered their need of him as their Savior, whosoever believeth on him should not perish but have everlasting life. Wasn't that good of God to do that? Wasn't it? Sometimes we we sing about it.

Love that no tongue can teach. Love that no thought can reach. No love like his.

Sinners that are so loved by the very heart of God himself. You know there's much talk in this world about love. Hollywood and the soap operas and all the rest of it have what they call is love but really that's a misnomer because if it's all analyzed it's nothing more than than just lust.

They fall into it today, they fall out of it tomorrow almost on the same day. They call it love. It was back in January of 2004, Britney Spears got married and to the wedding ceremony in the little white wedding chapel in Las Vegas she wore a baseball cap and jeans and so on.

Married her childhood friend Jason Alexander. They were married for quite a long period of time. I suppose if you were to count it in microseconds, 55 hours.

55 hours until they had the thing annulled. They fall into it today, they fall out of it tomorrow. That is so unreal, isn't it? But you know that's not like the love of God.

Oh no. The love of God is so meaningful, it is so real. He so loved the unlovable, you and I, that he sent his only son, eternally the only one that ever delighted his heart from all eternity.

He loved him and yet he sent his son into this world for you and I who are so unlovable. There's the love of God in all its magnitude, positive toward the love of Christ and yet negative so far as we're concerned in all our unloveliness and yet he sends his only son into the world that the world through him might be saved. There's the love of God.

That's the greatest love story ever told. There's love that is meaningful, I tell you. There's love that will take a poor sinner on the road to hell and place him on the road to heaven.

There's love that will bring that soul so near, so very near to God as actually to be in union with Christ, his only begotten Son and for all that embrace him as their Savior, for all that will rest upon him and him alone. Wasn't that the theme that came out in those testimonies? Every one of our brethren, they came to that point where they were resting alone in Christ. Just resting.

There's no effort there, there's no striving there, there's no trying to work up enough whatever there. It's just resting. On Christ, the solid rock I stand, all other ground is sinking sand.

That's what the little verse is talking about when it says, whosoever believeth on him rests on him for salvation. Whosoever believeth on him, God's word for it, should not perish but have everlasting life. That life is needed for heaven, everlasting life, and it's yours the moment you trust Christ as your Savior.

Now, how did all this come about? Well, it's only available to us because the Lord Jesus was so marred. Now this is part of that love story. Isaiah 52 was written about 750 years BC, but it perfectly describes on into chapter 53.

Well, tremendous day when the Lord Jesus died on the cross at Calvary. One who was wounded for our transgressions, who was bruised for our iniquities, the chastisement to bring us into peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. You know that love that they talk about in Hollywood, it is so flippant, so casual, it's actually rebellious.

But when we think about the Lord Jesus, when we think of him expressing the love of God to us by going to the cross, there was nothing flippant about Jesus being put to death by crucifixion, nothing flippant about that. There was nothing casual when they took his hands and they kneeled him to that cross. There was no rebelliousness in his heart when he allowed men to do their worst to him.

And then the Lord made to meet upon him the iniquity of us all. What does that mean? Just this, that all of our sins were laid upon him. And Jesus bore them on the tree, and God who knew them laid them on him.

And believing, we go free. And God dealt with his own son, the Lord Jesus Christ, upon that cross, as God, listen to it, would deal with sin. For he has made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin.

See how the sinlessness of the Lord Jesus is preserved in that? Who knew no sin, but he was made sin for us. It's the great switch. It's the one who is absolutely sinless and holy, taking the place of those who are nothing but sinners, deserving the wrath of God.

But he takes the wrath, he takes the punishment, he takes the stroke of justice that's aimed at me. It's the great switch that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. His visage was so marred.

That's a statement to the effect of crucifixion upon him. We'll never understand what he had to endure. Not only the physical agonies, not only that, but there was the rejection of his people.

And then there was the spiritual battle that was fought. Satan and all his hordes were arrayed against him. And then the Lord, his God, actually forsook him upon that cross.

And he cried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? The Lord Jesus on the cross, reverently speaking, was enduring the wrath of God that a sinner would endure, would endure forever. But the marvelous truth in the gospel tonight is this, that on that cross there came the point where the Lord Jesus cried, it is finished. It is finished.

There's nothing more required for the soul that embraces him as their Savior, takes him as their Savior, believes on him as their Savior, rests on him as their Savior. There's nothing more that God requires because it is finished. It is finished.

Yes, indeed. Finished every job. Sinner, this is all you need.

Tell me, is it not? He was so marred more than any man. We would entreat you tonight and urge you not to take this matter flippantly, not to treat it casually. Don't be rebellious and put it off any longer, but embrace the suffering Savior as your very own tonight and understand, he died for me, my Lord, the King.

He was so marred. But then we've read as well from Psalm 103 about sins that are so far removed. You see, the tremendous effect of the Savior's work to put away sin has so satisfied God that for the believer on the Lord Jesus Christ, God says this, their sins and their iniquities, I will remember no more.

And we have read here about sins being put away. God says, as far as the east is from the west. Now that's pretty far, isn't it? You can go east and never reach west, never.

You'll just keep going east. Good job the Word of God did not say as far as the north is from the south. Because you can go north, but there'll come a point as you're going north where you'll meet south and you'll start to go south.

But never the other way around. When you're going east, you can keep on going east around the globe ad infinitum. Or go west, you can go west and west and west and west and never meet east.

As far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. You know, man can do a lot with his technology today. It's amazing really what can be done at the microscopic level and in the big sphere as well.

Reaching out into outer space. Amazing, the technology that man has. But with all his technology, with all his technology, mankind cannot remove one sin from a human soul.

Not one. But the good news tonight is this in the gospel. The blood of Jesus Christ, his Son, cleanseth us from all sin.

He doesn't leave any out from all sin. I remember one time we were sharing meetings, brother Robert Orr and I, in a certain location and there was a young girl that called up her grandpa and said, I've gotten saved. So her grandpa said to her, well what about your sins? Where are they? And her answer was this.

She says, as far as the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us. That was Jessica Winger, by the way. So there's the great truth in the gospel.

This so great salvation removes sins so that they'll never be found again. Because God so loved the world of poor sinners lost and ruined by the fall. Sinners that are so loved.

You're one of them tonight. But mind you, you have to appreciate personally the one that was so marred upon the cross for poor sinners. Understand it was for me and then you will be able to appreciate as well.

My sins are so far removed as far as the east is from the west.