I hope everybody's doing great this morning. Oh, it was so awesome to have the whole church at our house last night. It was amazing. I'm sure our neighbors loved it.
We had the band here out on our front lawn. If you weren't there, I'm sorry you missed it, but those of us that were there, we had a great time. I'm just so grateful that we were able to finally get together. It was so nice.
So yeah, I hope everybody's good this morning. I want to welcome everyone that's come. There's some new visitors that haven't been here before, and so special welcome to you, Trevor and Julia. Great to see you guys and lots of others that have come.
Glad that you've come to hear the word of God today and to share with us in our worship. Just as we've been singing, it's all about Jesus. And he is the center of our worship. He is the eternal son of God, and he's our savior.
And it's just so awesome to be together to worship him. I'm gonna speak to you today as I continue my study in the life of Christ about Gethsemane. So this will be familiar to a lot of people, maybe to some of you, you've never heard about this before. So I wanna invite you to read the scriptures with us and hear what God has to say to us all.
Maybe just before we open the word of God, I just wanna bow and ask God for help. Father, we thank you today for the Lord Jesus. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And he is your eternal son that came into this world and stepped into time and died on a cross for our sins.
We thank you Lord that he was buried and rose again, and you have highly exalted him. He is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And we've been singing about this this morning. I just pray that you would guide us, help us today as we look into the scriptures and feed our souls and meet us Lord where we are, that each one of the needs of everyone that's here, that's come to church this morning, would be fed by your word, strengthened and encouraged and guided in their life.
And so as we open your word today, we just ask for help. And we give thanks in the name of the Lord Jesus, amen. The first reading is in Matthew chapter 26. So if you have your Bible with you, I'm gonna invite you to turn to the Gospel of Matthew and chapter 26.
Now if you don't, I think we're gonna pull it up here so you can follow along as we read. Matthew chapter 26 and we're gonna read a verse 30. It says, and when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives. Then Jesus said unto them, "'All of you shall be offended because of me this night.
"'It is written, I will smite the shepherd, "'and the sheep of the flock will be scattered abroad, "'but after I am raised up, "'I will go before you into Galilee." And Peter answered and said unto him, "'Though all men be offended because of you, "'yet will I never be offended.'" Jesus said unto him, "'Barely I say unto thee, "'this night before the rooster crows, "'you will deny me three times.'" And Peter said unto him, "'Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee.'" Likewise also said all the disciples. Then come with Jesus with them into a place called Gethsemane. And said unto the disciples, "'Sit here, will I go and pray yonder.'" And he took with him Peter and the two sons of Zebedee and began to be sorrowful and very troubled. Then said he unto them, "'My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death.
"'Teary here, I remain here and watch with me.'" And he went a little further and fell on his face and prayed saying, "'Oh my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass for me, "'never the less not as I will, but as thou wilt.'" And he commented unto the disciples and he finded them asleep. And he said unto them, "'Peter, what? "'Could you not watch with me one hour? "'Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation.'" Catch this phrase, "'The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.'" Let's look at the gospel of Luke in chapter 22.
Luke chapter 22, which is Luke's. Account of the same event, Luke chapter 22 and verse 31. And the Lord said unto Simon, "'Simon, behold Satan has desired to have you, "'that he may sift you as wheat, "'but I have prayed for you, that your faith fail not. "'And when you are converted, strengthen your brethren.'" And he said unto him, "'Lord, I'm ready to go with thee, "'both into prison and to death.'" And he said, I tell you Peter, "'The rooster shall not crow this day "'before you will three times deny that you know me.'" If you drop down to verse 39, and he came out and went as he was accustomed to the Mount of Olives, and his disciples followed him, and when he was at the place, he said unto them, again, he says, "'Pray that you enter not into temptation.'" And he was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and kneeled down and prayed, saying, Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me, nevertheless not my will, but thine be done.
And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him, and being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground, and when he arose from prayer, it was come to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow, and he said unto them, "'Why are you sleeping? "'Rise and pray lest you enter into temptation.'" Now, one final reading in the Gospel of John, the same account, Gospel of John, chapter 18, and I just wanna pick up an event that happened here. I'll refer to it, John chapter 18. And verse four, "'Notice that this is one of the proofs "'that Jesus is God, he knows all things.'" Jesus therefore, knowing all things that would come upon him, he went forth.
And he said unto them, "'Whom seek ye, or who are you seeking?'" They answered him, "'Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus said unto them, I am.'" And Judas also, who betrayed him, stood with them, and as soon as he had said this, "'I am," they went backward and fell to the ground, "'then asked he again.'" Whom seek ye? They said, "'Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus answered, I have told you, "'that I am he, if therefore you seek me, "'let these go their way, "'that the saying might be fulfilled which he spoke, "'of them who now gave us me, have I lost none.'" Then Simon Peter, having a sword, drew it, and smote the high priest's servants ear, and cut off his right ear. The name of the servant was Malchus. Then said, "'Jesus unto Peter, put up your sword, "'or put your sword away.
"'The cup that my father has given me, "'shall I not drink it.'" So I wanna speak to you today about this incredible event that occurred in the life of Jesus Christ. In April of 2019, when I visited Israel, I spent a lot of time in the garden of Gethsemane. It's just outside the city, it's across the Brook Kidron, and up towards the Mount of Olives, if you're coming from the city to the left, it's at the lower slope, and there's a garden there today that you can go in, and I've got some pictures of it that we'll show you in a second. And in April of 2019, when I was there, I spent a whole day just sitting in that garden, reading this account of what actually happened in this very place, and how moving that experience was and must have been for the Lord Jesus.
If you consider the topic of Gethsemane, I'm sure they're gonna bring this slide up here in a second, if you look at the topic of Gethsemane, it's really the subject of the intense, emotional and spiritual sufferings of Christ. Gethsemane literally means all of press, and this picture unfortunately is a little bit dull, we're trying to fix that, but what's at the bottom right hand here of the right hand corner is what looks like an olive press. Now this was a replica of how olives were actually compressed in those days, and what they would do is they would take the olives off these trees, they would beat them down with sticks, they would gather them and put them between a millstone, and that millstone would crush the olives, okay? And as that millstone was turned, that crushing experience pressed oil out of the olive into a coarse strainer, and then it was poured into a fine strainer, and it was purified again, and that's where you get extra virgin olive oil, whereas the purest of the purest, and this garden is called Gethsemane, which means olive press, and this was literally related to the experience that Jesus had in the garden.
Do you know that it was written 800 years before Jesus Christ came into this world that he would be crushed for our iniquities? And as I say, a 53, it says that he was wounded, he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities, and this was illustrated when Jesus went to the garden of Gethsemane, because he is all holy God, he knows everything that's going to happen, we read that verse, that he knows what's ahead of him, and as he moves into that garden, he is literally anticipating what it will mean for him to be crushed, just like those olives that are pressed and pressed again, and ground between those millstones that were hundreds and hundreds of pounds in weight. And Jesus, it was prophesied that he would be crushed for our sins, he would be put to death, pierced through for our iniquities. Further it says in that chapter, that it pleased the Lord to crush him.
He has put him to death when his soul was made and offering for sin. And so the greatest point that I wanna connect with you today about is that Jesus Christ was crucified, crushed, put to death on behalf of every single person here. And maybe you are here today, and you've never taken this personally, maybe you've never heard, maybe you don't know, but I wanna tell you today that God's son came into the world to be crushed for our sins. And this was in the plan of God.
I'm gonna show you that in a few minutes, how the whole scripture speaks of the prophecy of how Jesus Christ was going to be the sacrifice for our sins. Gethsemane is the place of suffering. Jesus spent the whole night, the night before he was put on the cross in this garden. In fact, the Passion Week, it is said that the Lord Jesus spent the nights in Mount Olivet.
And during the day he taught in the temple, but at night he went to Mount Olivet. You can visit this place today, and you can actually see historically the place where Jesus lay down with his disciples and slept. And in the morning he'd go back into the temple. Well, this was the last night.
This was the very eve of the crucifixion where Jesus was to be taken from that garden, bound with his hands, arrested, and brought to trial. And at nine o'clock the next morning, he was gonna be crucified and hung on a cross for the sins of the world. And he spent the last night in the Garden of Gethsemane. I wanna tell you today that this garden is a place of suffering.
It's also a place of surrender. And it's a place of surety. That's an old English word that we don't use very much today, but I'm gonna define it for you. But if you could remember that the Garden of Gethsemane is a place of suffering.
It is a place of surrender, and it is a place of surety. I'd like to sum up my comments this morning. Under four headings. Could you just go to the next slide?
These are my four headings that I'd really like to speak to you about because four remarkable events happened in this garden. And if you wait till the end of my message, you'll understand how every four of these relate directly to you. The Garden of Gethsemane, there was an adversary. And we're gonna see what happened when the powers of darkness overshadowed that place where Jesus moved into the garden.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, there was his agony. Agony, like no man has ever felt or understood. In the Garden of Gethsemane, he went a little further. And no one could follow him.
There was the sense of aloneness in the Garden that only Jesus Christ, the sin-bearer, could experience. He was alone when it came to the sufferings for sin. And there was an assault that took place in that garden. We read about it in John chapter 18, when Peter whipped out his sword and sliced off the high-preservance ear, and Jesus remarkably healed it.
But Jesus said something in that event, in that moment that was critical. He said, the cup that my father has given me. Shall I not drink it? And maybe you don't know what that cup is, but I'm gonna tell you, it is the cup of the wrath of God.
The cumulative effect of the entire sin, of the entire world. Every person that has ever lived from the beginning of time until today. The sins that they have individually committed against a holy, unrighteous God were in that cup. And that cup symbolically was given to Jesus to drink.
And what's amazing is that he went to the cross and he took that cup of your sins, my sins, the guilt of the entire world. And he bore it on his own body, and he drank it to the very last drop. And in victory, at the end of those three dark hours on the cross, he cried, finished. Which means paid in full, it is finished.
The work of redemption to save a guilty world of humanity is finished, it is accomplished. And today we rejoice in that we worship. I wanna speak to you about the adversary. In Luke chapter 22 and verse 53, this is what Jesus said.
So they have left the upper room. The last time I spoke, I spoke about the upper room, where Jesus washed their feet. They left the upper room that night, and they went out, there's about a 30 minute walk. You can walk it today.
I walked it when I was there from the upper room, down through the city of David, across the Brook Kidron, up to the Garden of Gethsemane. And during that walk, Jesus is telling his disciples what's gonna happen. Judas has escaped. He's gone out early.
Remember in John 13, Jesus said, what you do quickly. And Judas went out. He went to betray Jesus. And he goes to the Roman soldiers, and he rallies up a cohort of Roman soldiers, possibly five or 600 people.
And they come with sticks and chains and swords, and they're going to arrest Jesus. And Judas is looking for Jesus, and he knows that Jesus has gone to the Garden of Gethsemane because that was his custom. That's where he was every other night that week. He knew he was gonna be there.
Jesus didn't change his plans, because he knew all things that would befall him. When Judas comes at that moment, Jesus says to Judas, if you seek me, let these go their way. And Judas looks at Jesus and he says, friend, and he goes to kiss Jesus. And Jesus says, betray us, tell me with a kiss.
He said, if you seek me, let these go their way. And then he says this remarkable statement. He says, this is your hour, and the power of darkness. You see, there was an adversary in the Garden that night.
The adversary is Satan, the enemy of every one of our souls, the enemy of God. And Satan thought that he was going to win this incredible, intense spiritual battle that was going on that night. And the Lord Jesus looked at Peter in the Garden, and he said, Peter, Peter, Peter said it twice. He said, Peter, listen to me.
Satan is desire to have you. He's gonna rattle you. He's gonna shake you. He said, be strong.
I prayed for you. And when you are turned around and back on the right track, strengthen your brethren. Peter says, Lord, I'm not gonna deny you. I'm ready to go to prison.
I'll go to death. I will never deny you. Jesus said, Peter, you're gonna deny me three times before 3 a.m. in the morning.
Because by 3 a.m. in the morning, the rooster is starting to crow. And all the disciples, not just Peter, don't be too hard on Peter. This was a direct assault on Peter from Satan himself.
If you and I were in that position, we'd probably do exactly the same thing. All the disciples forsook him and fled. The adversary was on the prowl. The enemy, Satan, had stirred up the powers and the rulers of darkness.
He stirred up 600 men to come and arrest Jesus. He stirred up Judas Iscariot to betray him. He stirred up the Sanhedrin, the 72 men that falsely accused Jesus to make a mock trial to put him to death. The powers of darkness, Satan stirred up the Roman soldiers to crucify him.
They stirred up Pilate to deliver him up to be crucified. In all of these men, we're trying to figure out what was going down that night. The eternal Son of God was about to die for the sin of the world, the entire human race. All the sin that has ever been committed in the world was funneled and laid upon Jesus.
Matthew 16 and 23, Peter said to the Lord Jesus, not so, you're not going to the cross. And Jesus looked at Peter and he said, get the behind me, Satan. Get behind me, Satan. Because the powers of darkness were at play.
In Psalm 22, the prophetic utterance of the Lord Jesus as he died on the cross, we get the emotional, intense, spiritual sufferings of Christ. And in Psalm 22, Jesus cries out prophetically, save me from the lion's mouth. What is that? I believe that is the adversary, that is Satan, that is engulfing that place and wants to destroy Jesus.
Satan appears as an angel of light. Scripture says that he is the father of lies. Sometimes he's a roaring lion. Sometimes he's an accuser.
Sometimes he's a deceiver. But he's always a thief and a robber. He's a serpent that stings. Why do I say this?
Because you and I have committed sins in our life. All of us, there's nobody in this room that is exempt. We have all committed sins and sin is your enemy and it will destroy you. It will bring your life down.
And the adversary works around the whole human race to get them to sin, to entice them into sin. And Jesus came to bear our sin, to free us from our sin, to deliver us, to set us free from all of this. And so that night in the garden, the adversary is on the prowl. And Jesus said three times we read it, pray that you enter not into temptation.
The spirit indeed is willing, but your flesh is weak. This is the human will. Every single one of us have been tempted to do what we know is wrong, to commit sin. And in that moment, our flesh is weak.
And what happens, we gravitate to do what we know is wrong. And we commit sin and then afterwards, it's on our conscience. We feel bad about it. And we dislike it, but we were enticed to do this.
This is the work of Satan, the adversary. He wants to destroy your life. Here's what's remarkable about what happened that night in the garden. Jesus surrendered to the will of God.
And let me stop here and ask you, have you ever surrendered your life to the will of God? God commands all men everywhere to repent, because he has appointed a day when he will judge this world in righteousness, Acts 17 and 30. But that night, Jesus surrendered himself to the will of God. In his surrender, Jesus destroyed the powers of darkness, completely destroyed Satan by surrendering to God three times.
Jesus prayed, Father, if it's possible, let this cup pass for me, I don't want to go through this. Nevertheless, whatever your will is, I will do. And that one who is 100% God. He's perfect, he's sinless, he has no sin.
He came from God and he stepped into this world. And he became the substitute for all mankind. He could not sin, but yet in his human, intense, emotional, spiritual suffering, he wrestled with anticipation of what this was gonna be like excruciating pain, worse than that, to bear the sin of the world. And he says, nevertheless, not what I will, I'm willing God to surrender everything to you.
Have you ever done that? Have you ever surrendered your whole life to God? It's a freeing experience when you take all your brokenness, all your past, all the issues and the messiness of your life. And you say, oh God, I want to surrender my life to you.
That's the experience of Gethsemane that relates to us. I can tell you four verses that scripture speaks so clearly of how Jesus destroyed the powers of darkness. Listen carefully. In Genesis two and verse 15, right in the very beginning of your Bible, God made a promise.
He said, the seed of the woman would crush the serpent's head. That was a prophecy made that Jesus Christ, the seed of the woman, was gonna come into this world and destroy Satan, Genesis two and 15. Colossians two and 15. He spoiled principalities and powers.
By dying and surrendering himself to God, he utterly destroyed the powers of darkness. He made an open show of them. First Corinthians 15 and verse 54, it says, death is swallowed up in victory. Oh, death, where is thy staying?
Oh, grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin and the strength of sin is the grave, but thanks be unto God who gives us the victory. And so when Jesus died on the cross, he took our sin. He took our death.
He took our curse. He destroyed our greatest enemy, Satan. And he crushed him and he defeated him and he offers victory to everyone who believes in him. Hebrews chapter two and verse 14 says, through death, he delivered those who all their lifetime were subject to the bondage of sin and he destroyed the devil.
This is what Jesus was grappling with in the Garden of Kissimony. Let me tell you about his agony. It says, being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly. This was the excruciating pain of anticipation.
Jesus is not just human. Jesus is 100% God. He knows everything that's going to happen. The end from the beginning.
And he knows the pain of crucifixion. But worse than that, he's experiencing what it's gonna mean for him a sinless, spotless, holy soul to bear the sin of the world. And in that agony, he's thinking about the separation between him and the Father, the curse of sin, the acts of sin, the condemnation of sinners that lay upon him. There was gonna be a sword of justice where God was going to judge his own son, justly for the sin of the entire world.
Have you ever heard these words? God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, the Lord Jesus, that whoever believes in him will never perish but have everlasting life. That's why there's a guessemone. That's why Jesus Christ came, to give his life a ransom, to pay the price of our sin so that anyone and everyone who believes in him will have their sins forgiven, will never perish, will have eternal life because Jesus took our death, he took our curse, he laid it upon himself.
And in agony, as he's anticipating that, his sweat was as it were great drops of blood, evidence of the excruciating pressure that he felt as he agonized about the cross. There was the aspect of aloneness in guessemone. You know, it says that he went a stone's further, he would take the eight disciples and leave them at the gate, you can see that there's a gate in this garden and he would leave them at the gate, and we take Peter and James and John and go a little bit further, and then he could say to them, just watch and pray, watch and pray. And they would fall asleep, it's two o'clock in the morning, they're exhausted, Jesus goes a little bit further and alone.
There was the aspect of guessemone that it was alone. And alone before God Almighty, the Lord Jesus, the eternal Son of God is wrestling and grappling with the sin of the entire world. And he knows what it's gonna be like. He's gonna be separated from God.
He's gonna taste death on behalf of every man. He's gonna bear our sin in his own body as he's crucified on the cross and he knows it. And he's in agony and he is alone. Let me stop and tell you something.
There is no other person that would ever be qualified to pay for your sin, not you, not me, not a priest, not some kind of religion, nothing. There's only one person who qualifies to pay for your sin and that is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is verily God who became truly human, lower than angels to die in our stead. And there is the aspect of what Jesus did at the cross that no other person could ever do.
You're not capable of dealing with your own sin and neither am I because one sin in the sight of God who is so holy demands that we're separated from God eternally. Not one sin will ever enter heaven. If you're gonna be in heaven when you die, all your sins have to be forgiven. And if they're not forgiven, you're gonna perish.
You will be in hell forever. That's what the Bible teaches. This is a serious issue. And yet God in his intense love, his great mercy, he loves the entire world.
He provides a substitute, a surety, a sacrifice for your sin and for mine to bear our sin so we can go free. You might think, well, that's pretty crazy. That's even too hard to believe. Let me explain this word.
Jesus became the surety for sinners. And you might not be familiar with this word. Let me explain it to you. It means that Jesus would stand in the stead of sinners.
It literally means if you look it up in the dictionary, one who becomes legally liable for the debt or failure of another. That's what Jesus is. One who becomes legally liable for the debt or failure of another. You know what our equivalent English word is today?
A guarantor. You know what happens when you go to sign a mortgage or you take out this massive loan and the bank is a little bit worried if this guy is good enough for it. You know what they want? They want a guarantor.
And they pick someone who's qualified and they drag this person in and they say, sign here. If this guy fails to pay his mortgage, you're on the hook and you will become legally liable for the debt of this person. And when that guarantor signs his name, that person is legally liable for the debt. Catch this guys.
Everybody stay awake, please. Jesus Christ became your guarantor. He became legally liable to pay the debt of your sin. Yes.
Every time you have taken God's name in vain, use the name Jesus Christ as a curse word or said without even thinking, oh my God. Every single time that you have done that, you have blasphemed the holy God of the universe. He will not take that lightly. Every time you have looked with lust to someone that you're not married to, Jesus said you have committed adultery.
Every time that you have stolen something, taking something that's not yours, you've committed a sin which is a crime against the holy God of the universe. And catch this, there's nothing any one of us can do to pay for any one of our sins. Going to church will not forgive your sins. Going to a priest is not gonna forgive your sins.
Getting baptized is not gonna forgive your sins. There's only one person that can forgive your sins. It is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he became the guarantor, the one who became legally liable to pay for all your sins in mind.
And he offers you forgiveness, mercy. Hey, you know what? Can you imagine if somebody rolled in and said, John, you can't pay your mortgage and you're in trouble? I'll tell you what, I'm gonna pay it all.
That's what Jesus did for you and me. He paid our debt of sin that none of us could pay against the holy God of the universe. Jesus became the surety, the one who stood in the stead for guilty sinners, the substitute, the sacrifice for our sin. And he said that night in the garden, Peter put your sword away.
Peter whips out his sword, he's gonna assault this guy. In fact, he did, sliced off his ear. I'm sure that Malcolm is like, holy God, what happened here? And Jesus touched his ear and healed him.
What grace? Jesus is going to the cross. These men have come to arrest him. And Jesus says, Peter, put your sword away.
Peter, I'm going to the cross. I'm gonna pay the debt of the sin of the world. Don't worry about it. He touches Malcolm's ear and he heals him.
And he puts forth his arms and then he says, who are you seeking? They said, Jesus of Nazareth, imagine this, 600 armed Roman soldiers. These guys were not wimps. 600 armed Roman soldiers.
Who are you seeking? Jesus of Nazareth, he says, I am. All of these men were overpowered, fell backwards and fell to the ground. You know what I am means?
I am God. I am Jehovah. I am the eternal God of the universe. He spoke and the power rolled these guys.
And then he says, if you seek me, take me. They shook it off, they got up. They bound the hands of Jesus in the garden where he prayed. They led him through the streets in shame.
They bring him to the Roman soldiers and they whip his back with 39 lashes until the flesh is torn. They crown him with a crown of thorns and they take a 200 pound cross and they laid it on him. And he carried it down the Via de la Rosa, the way of sorrows to the cross. And he was crucified.
Please don't miss my message today. He was crucified for your sins, for my sins. He became our guarantor. He became our shorty.
So we could have our sins forgiven. My ultimate question to everyone of you today is, do you know him? Have you believed on him? Are your sins forgiven?
Or are they not? You might be sitting here thinking, wow, this is pretty strong. I don't know. Let me make this very, very clear.
Everyone that sits here today, either the sins that you have committed your whole life are on your head and you're gonna stand before the judgment of God and be accountable for your sins, or, or, you have accepted Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and savior. And you've accepted his payment for your sins and you are free. You are forgiven. You are not condemned.
Can I tell you today? Jesus offers this to every single person. There's no one here exempt. There is no one in this world that is living, breathing that can't know for sure their sins are forgiven.
Because when Jesus died on the cross, He drank the whole cup. He paid it in full and in darkness, God Almighty took your sins in my sins and poured it out on Jesus. And He bore in His own body, our penalty, our sin. And at the end of those three dark hours, Jesus cried with a loud voice, finished literal interpretation.
It is paid in full, the dead of our sin. You know what? I'm so thankful that I know my sins are forgiven. I've committed a lot of sins in my life.
Maybe more than you have. And I'm not done yet. I'm probably gonna commit a lot more sins in my life. Between now and the time that I die, I'm broken.
I'm just like you. I have a weak flesh. We are all going to commit sins in our life. The ultimate question is, are your sins gonna be forgiven?
Or are you gonna go to the grave rejecting or refusing this offer of mercy that God has given? Let me be very clear. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. That's the reason we're gonna die because we all commit sins.
The wages of sin is death. But the free gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. You can walk out of here today with the free gift of God, saved by God's grace. All you need to do is acknowledge your own personal sin to God and believe in the Lord Jesus as your savior.
And thank God that he died on the cross for you. Guys, this is a personal matter. It's between you and God alone. And every single one of us need to do business with God Almighty.
And there needs to be a time in our lives when we reflect. But the sins we've committed our whole life. And we bow the knee and acknowledge that Jesus is Lord. He is my savior.
He's my substitute. And God offers me mercy. I take him as my Lord and savior. And I receive him right now by faith, believing that Jesus Christ died for my sins.
You can have it today. Yeah, it's no big thing. You don't need to go through weeks and months of some kind of remorse or do penance or anything like that. You just need to get real with God.
You need to tell God, I am guilty. I have sinned and I need my sins forgiven. And believe that when Jesus died on that cross, he died for you. He was buried and he rose again and he is alive.
And the greatest message for mankind is this. Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. I'm a sinner, you're a sinner. Jesus died for you, Jesus died for me.
Accept him as your personal savior. And you'll have all your sins forgiven. You'll walk out of here, peace with God, knowing that you're justified, set free. Will your life change?
Oh yeah, your life will change. Because you will have new desires. You're not gonna want to go back to your sin and feed on the messiness of this world. You're gonna wanna live for God.
You're gonna wanna tell others about Jesus. You're gonna wanna serve him because he's your Lord and your savior. I trust that everyone here today that's heard this message. If you haven't already come, that you'll come today and come in faith believing that Jesus Christ is your personal savior.
He bore your guess, seminy. He died in your stead. He paid your debt so you could be free. And so it's a pleasure to be here again today to share with you the word of God.
I trust that all of us will be blessed by this and that you have a great rest of the day. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for this time that we can share the word of God. We thank you Lord for this incredible message that God sent his own son to die for us and to bear our sin and that you are so amazing God.
That you offer mercy to everyone who believes in him. I just pray Lord that every one of us will go away today just thinking about what we've heard. And if there's any here Lord that have not been right with God that you would work by the Holy Spirit to bring them to repentance and faith in Christ and that many souls would walk out of here today, save by the grace of God and enjoy all the blessings that you have for us in our life. We love you.
We thank you for this time to read your word and ask your blessing upon us for the remainder of the day in the name of the word Jesus, amen. We're gonna sing one song, maybe we can turn the lights on and we're done. Thanks for listening.