Believe in Jesus

[0:00] Please take your Bibles and turn to the book of Acts chapter 16.! To go to Macedonia to preach the glorious gospel of his Lord Jesus Christ.

[0:37] So we'll start Acts chapter 16, beginning at verse 11. From Troas we put out to sea and sailed straight for Symmocris, and the next day on to Neapolis.

[0:53] From there we traveled to Philippi, a Roman colony and the leading city of that district of Macedonia. And we stayed there several days.

[1:06] On the Sabbath we went outside the city gate to the river, where we expected to find a place of prayer. We sat down and began to speak to the women who had gathered there.

[1:19] One of those listening was a woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who was a worshiper of God.

[1:34] The Lord opened her heart to respond to Paul's message. When she and the members of her household were baptized, she invited us to her home.

[1:46] If you consider me a believer in the Lord, she said, come and stay at my house. And she persuaded us.

[1:58] Once, when we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit by which she predicted the future.

[2:09] She earned a great deal of money for her owners by fortune-telling. This girl followed Paul and the rest of us, shouting, These men are servants of the Most High God who are telling you the way to be saved.

[2:27] These men are servants of the Most High God who are telling you the way to be saved. She kept this up for many days. Finally, Paul became so troubled that he turned around and said to the spirit, In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to come out of her.

[2:50] At that moment, the spirit left her. When the owners of the slave girl realized that their hope of making money was gone, They seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace to base the authorities.

[3:08] They brought them before the magistrates and said, These men are Jews and are throwing our city into an uproar by advocating customs unlawful for us Romans to accept or practice.

[3:23] The crowd joined in the attack against Paul and Silas, and the magistrates ordered them to be stripped and beaten. After they had been severely flogged, They were thrown into prison, And the jailer was commanded to guard them carefully.

[3:44] Upon receiving such orders, He put them in the inner cell And fastened their feet in the stocks. About midnight, Paul and Silas were praying And singing hymns to God.

[4:04] And the other prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly, There was such a violent earthquake That the foundations of the prison were shaken. At once, All the prison doors flew open, And everybody's chains came loose.

[4:22] The jailer woke up, And when he saw the prison doors open, He drew his sword And was about to kill himself, Because he thought the prisoners had escaped.

[4:33] But Paul shouted, Don't harm yourself, We are all here. The jailer called for the lights, Rushed in, And fell trembling before Paul and Silas.

[4:49] He then brought them out and asked, Sirs, What must I do to be saved? They replied, Believe in the Lord Jesus, And you will be saved, You and your household.

[5:06] Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him, And to all the others in his house. At that hour of the night, The jailer took them, And washed their wounds.

[5:17] Then immediately, He and all his family were baptized. The jailer brought them into his house, And set a meal before them.

[5:28] And the whole family was filled with joy, Because they had come to believe in God. What must I do to be saved?

[5:43] Paul's answer was, Believe in the Lord Jesus, And you will be saved. We don't know exactly how the jailer Got to that place, Where he was asking that question.

[5:57] But it seems that the violent earthquake Shook loose more than chains In the foundation of that prison. And it seems like that earthquake Shook loose something in that jailer's heart.

[6:11] And maybe it shook loose His self-satisfaction, His self-righteousness, His self-confidence. Maybe it was listening To Paul and Silas sing and pray.

[6:25] All the other prisoners were listening. We don't know. But whatever it was, After that earthquake, Into that prison he went, Trembling, Quivering, And he fell down Before his prisoners.

[6:40] And said, What must I do To be saved? Believe In the Lord Jesus. That's it.

[6:50] It's the easiest thing of all. Believe In the Lord Jesus. And it's done.

[7:01] It's not a ladder. It's not a process. It's not Do this or do that. It's believe. And there's nothing easier than that.

[7:13] But on the other hand, Oh, There is nothing harder Than that. Harder to understand Than that. For the lost soul, Nothing is Harder to understand.

[7:26] How were you saved? What did you do? Well, I believed. You believed. What do you mean? What does that mean? Well, I believed And that was it.

[7:37] Well, I don't understand. What do you mean Believe In Jesus? I don't get it. Nothing is easier. And yet, At the same time, Nothing is harder For the lost person To understand.

[7:51] It's the very simplicity Of How we are saved That Confounds us. We just can't imagine Something so simple. So nothing is easier, But nothing is harder.

[8:04] And this morning, I want to help you Help each one of us To understand What Paul was saying here. What the Apostle Paul Was saying when he said Believe in the Lord Jesus.

[8:16] We are saved. We're just saying it. Not by What I do. We're saved by Faith In Jesus Christ.

[8:28] We are made Right. We are put on God's right side. Our sins Are dealt with. And we are Readied For heaven. Just through this One act of Believing In Jesus.

[8:42] Believe and you Will be saved. And I want you To understand that. And maybe it's Something that You don't get. And maybe it's Something that You wish you got. It's hard to Understand.

[8:54] And you say, I wish I could Understand it. And so this morning, I want to give you Ten pictures Of Saving faith. Ten ways Of looking at What Paul was saying When he says Believe in the Lord Jesus.

[9:07] Ten different ways The Bible talks About faith. And maybe some Of these will Make sense to you More than others. And that's okay. The Bible comes at it And gives us Lots of pictures Because we are all Different.

[9:19] We understand Things differently. Things connect to us And they relate to us And we get things Differently. You know that. And the Bible Knows that. And so it gives us These ten pictures.

[9:31] Ten different ways The Bible talks About faith. And so we want To go through these. And I'll give you Something to hang Your hat on While we're going Through it.

[9:47] All ten of these Points Are like the four Songs that we Sung this morning. They all had As their central Focus Jesus Christ. Every one of them In one way Or the other We were focused On Jesus.

[10:02] And all ten Of the pictures That I'm going To give you Focus on Jesus. So believe In the Lord Jesus And you Will Be Saved.

[10:16] The first picture Is the very picture That we have. Believe in Jesus. What does it mean To believe In someone? I mean we Throw those words Around. We kind of know. But let's Flush it out.

[10:28] You take them At their word. When you Believe someone You believe What they say To you. You aren't Cynical about What they say. You aren't Listening to Them and Saying to Yourself Yeah right.

[10:41] Yeah right. Our age Is a very Cynical age And probably Rightly so. We have all Kinds of people Trying to Take our money Trying to Sell us Something Trying to Sell themselves.

[10:54] We have All kinds Of politicians Promising us The moon Saying they're Going to Make the Difference. They're Going to Change things. They're Going to Make our Lives better. And I Hear that And I Don't know About you But my Pretty much 100% Reaction is Yeah right.

[11:12] Yeah right. They're just Selling me Something. They're out For themselves. And so I Don't believe What they Have to say. And that Cynicism In our Culture is Probably a Good thing Because in Our culture The very Concept that I should Tell the Truth is Now under Attack.

[11:34] The very Concept of Truth is Under attack. And so in Some ways it's Smart to be Cynical. But we're Talking about Jesus.

[11:45] We're not Talking about Politicians. Not talking About car Salesmen. Talking about Jesus. And what is Saving faith?

[11:58] It's Believing Jesus. It's not Being pessimistic About him. It's not Being cynical About him. Instead of That we Become Optimistic Optimistic Believers In Jesus.

[12:17] You know How cynicism Feels? It feels Not good. But we All know How optimism Feels. It's that Confidence Of this Is good.

[12:28] This is True. I'm glad For this. And that's What it means To believe In Jesus. We believe What he Says. We take Him at His word And we Confidently And optimistically Say you Know what?

[12:40] I think Jesus is Telling the Truth. This is True and I believe It. That's what It means To believe In Jesus. You believe What he Says. He says I'm the Savior. I can Save you.

[12:53] I can Save you From your Sins. I can Bless you. Instead Of being A cynic We become Optimistic About that. And we Lean on Him And we Put our Confidence In him And we Believe him.

[13:05] We believe What he Says. Believe in The Lord Jesus And you'll Be saved. That's the First picture. The second Picture. The Bible Talks about Believing As receiving.

[13:18] So what Does it Mean to Believe in The Lord Jesus And you'll Be saved? It means You receive Jesus. You believe Jesus. You receive Jesus. John 1 12 Says To as many As received Him.

[13:34] As to those Who believed In his name He gave the Right to Become Children Of God. Believing Is receiving. So receiving. It's Welcoming.

[13:46] It's Taking the Gift. It's Welcoming Into your Heart And into Your Life. Believing Jesus Is opening Your hands And your Heart To welcome Him Into your Life.

[13:59] Now we All know How to Receive. Again, Didn't I Say that Nothing is Easier. What's Easier than Receiving? We all know What it's Like to Receive.

[14:11] So it's Christmas time Or it's Your birthday Or whenever You give Gifts And we Get Receiving. What do I Have to Do to Receive A gift? I just Take and Reach and Grab it For myself.

[14:25] I take it. I don't Prove I'm Worthy. I don't Say, Well, I've got to Make you Happy first. I don't Say I Need to Get ready First. I don't Have to Get my Chores. I don't Say, Wait, Hold on A second.

[14:36] Let me Get my Wallet and I'll Pay you For that. I've Worked for It, So let Me pay You for That gift. No, We just Open our You open Your hands And you Receive it.

[14:48] And so what Must you do To be Saved? Open your Hands. Open your Heart. Receive Jesus. Welcome Jesus in. Take him As your Savior. He came To you As God's Gift.

[15:01] God's Gift to Sinners. And so you Quit trying To give God Your best Efforts.

[15:12] You quit Trying To give God Your Promises That you're Going To do Better In the Future. You quit Giving God Your Oath That I Am Going To do Better.

[15:24] I Am Going To turn Over A new Leaf. I Am Going To start To give To God. I'm Going To start To obey. You Quit Trying To give God Any Self Generated Goodness. Any Self Generated Righteousness.

[15:36] Any Self Generated Obedience. And so Instead Of trying To give To God You Receive! From God. You Receive Jesus. So what Do you Have To do To be Saved?

[15:49] You Have To receive Jesus. He's God's Gift. And you Simply Receive Him. Take Him As your Savior. Take Him As the Only Savior God Has Given To Men.

[16:02] And you Take Him As your Own. And you Rejoice In that Gift. Third Picture. You Come To Jesus. You Come To Jesus.

[16:13] Receiving Jesus Is What We Do With Our Hands. And now We're Going To Talk About Our Feet. You Come To Jesus. Listen To Matthew Chapter 11 Verse 28.

[16:26] Come To Me. Come To Me. All You Who Are Weary And Burdened. And I Will Give You Rest. Come To Me. And I'll Take Your Load Off Of You.

[16:40] I'll Take Away That Burden. And What He's Talking About Is Your Sin. Your Sorrow. Your Spiritual Sickness.

[16:51] Your Shame. Your Guilt. There They Are. Something We All Have In Common. I Have It.

[17:04] You Know What I'm Talking About. You Have It. We All Know About It. And So What Do You Need To Be Saved From All Of That. Jesus Says Come To Me.

[17:16] Come To Me. And I'll Take It Off. And So What Do You Need To Do? There You Are With Your Big Burden. There You Are With Your Sin And Your Shame And Your Guilt And Your Sorrow And Your Sin.

[17:30] What Do You Need To Do To Be Save! We're Afraid Of We Say Well Jesus Really Probably Doesn't Like Me Jesus Doesn't Like Sin Jesus Doesn't Like Sin And I Would Say You're Right He Loves Sinners He Loves Sinners And So He Stood In The Public Places And He Said Come To Me And Who Was He Talking To Not The Righteous But The Guilty And He Said Come To Me And I'll Take Your Sin Him You Quit Running From Him And Instead You Go To Him And You Knock On His Door And You Tell Him About Your Burdens Tell Him About Your Sin Confess It All Maybe You Take Off That Burden And You Pour It Out On The Floor Before Him

[18:30] And One By One You Tell Him All About That Sin And That Shame And All The Guilt And He Says Take That Burden Off And I Will Give You Rest So Come To Jesus Fourth Picture Is Resting In Jesus Matthew 11 The Very Passage I Just Quoted Jesus Said Come To Me And I Give You Rest Resting Hebrews 4 10 And 11 Talks About Resting For Everyone Or For Anyone Who Enters God's Rest!

[19:05] Also Rest From His Own Work Just As God Did From His And So Let Us Therefore Make Every Effort To Enter That Rest And In The Same Passage He Says Now We Who Have Believed Have Entered That Rest In Believing We Rest And So What Does It Mean To Believe In Jesus Well It's Taking Your Time Card And It's Punching Out And Leaving Work It's Walking Away From Your Work And It's Dropping Your Tools!

[19:36] And It's Dropping Into Bed It's Relaxing It's Resting Into! Jesus And So Instead Of Laboring And Sweating! To Try To Build This Shack Of Salvation This This Thing That You Can Say God This Is What I've Done Look At What I've Made Look At What I've Done Look At What I've Built We Quit All The Building We Quit All The Making And We Quit All The Trying And We Rest In Jesus We Rest In What He's Done You Don't Add Your Work To His Work You Simply Say His Work Is Enough I'm Resting In Jesus Work Jesus Has Done Enough He Did Everything That Needs To Be Done And I Don't Need To Add Anything To That He Died And That Is Enough He Died For My Sin And That's All The Death And All The Punishment That Ever Needs

[20:37] To Be It's On Him And He Rose Again And That's Enough! And He's At The Father's Right Hand And He Says Come To Me And I Come Why Do I Come Because He Said To Come And I Rest In Him Again Do You See What I'm Saying Faith Is The One Hand It's The Easiest Thing Of All It's Not Working It's Resting It's Falling Into!

[21:05] It's Taking What Jesus Has Given You And So What Must You Do To Be Saved You Have To Rest In Jesus That Means Quitting Your Own Work Fifth Picture You Look To Jesus You Look And So We've Seen What You Do With Your Hands We've Seen What You Do With Your Feet We See What You Do With Your Whole Body You Rest And Here's What You Do With Your Eyes To Be Saved You Look To Jesus So What Must Do To Be Saved Just Look Just Look Don't Shut Your Eyes Don't Keep Your Head Down Lift Up Your Head Look To Jesus And You'll Be Saved Look Away From Yourself And Look To Him Quit Trusting In Yourself And Trust In Him And Quit Looking At Your Diseases And And Your Sin And Your Sickness And Your Spiritual!

[22:06] Death And You Just Simply Look In The Desert Israel Disobeyed God And They Complained And They Moaned And They Rebelled They Doubted His Goodness They Grumbled Against Him They Thought Ill Of God They Looked At Him And They Thought He's Of No Help He's Out To Get Us It Was So Unfair To The One Who Saved Them It Was So Unfair To The One Who Loved Them And Provided For Them And God Was Angry And He Sent Poisonous Snakes Among The People And Some Of The Snakes Bit The People And They Got Sick And They Died And And When People Started Dying Moses Cried Out Lord Have Mercy On Us And God Said Go And Make A Bronze Snake And Hang It Up In The Middle Of The Camp So Everyone Can Look And See It

[23:06] And Whoever Looks At It Will Live Whoever Looks At It Will Live And So What Did You Have To Do To Be Saved You Just Had To Look You Didn't Have To Do You Didn't Have To Go To The Pole You Didn't Have To Dance Around The Pole You Didn't Have To Go To The Do You Just Had To Leave All Of That And You Had To Look Wherever You Were Wherever You Were In The Camp You Had To Look And You Lived So What Do You Have To Do To Be Saved!

[24:12] Look To Look To Look To Look To Think I Not Ready To Look Don't I Need To Feel More Lost Before I Can Look Don't I Need To Feel The Disease More Than More Than I Do Before I Can Look Sometimes We Think That We Can Impress God With How Bad We Feel Impress God With How Bad Our Sins Are And We Say Well See Look How Badly I Am How Bad I Am And Maybe You're Thinking I Don't Feel Bad Enough Well My Question Is Do You Feel Like You Want To Look Do You Want To Look Do You Need To Look Then Look Sixth Picture What Must I Do To Be Saved You Trust In Jesus You Trust Him Trust In The Lord With All Your Hearts And Lean

[25:12] Not On Your Own Understanding So We're Talking About Where Do We Put Our Confidence Well We Put It On Him You Trust Him Trust Is A Personal Thing You Know We Trust People We Trust People Saving Faith Is Trusting Jesus And So What's The Opposite Of Trust The Opposite Of Trust Is Fear Fear Jesus And That's Where Some Of You Are Afraid Of Him You're Afraid That He's Going To Hurt You You're Afraid He's Going To Turn You Away You Think Of Him And In Your Heart You Think Like The Israelites Thought He Is Really Out To Get Me And You Think Of Him Only As This Judge Only As A King And Who Someday You're

[26:12] Going To Have To Face He Is So Holy He's So Placable He Will Not Be Entreated And So You Hide From Him And You Shirk Him You Say Like That One Servant Who Said I Know What Kind!

[26:26] Of Master You Are You Are A Hard Master So You Try To Stay Away From Him As Far As Possible You're Afraid Afraid Of Jesus What Must You Do To Be Saved You Must Trust Him He Doesn't Want To Hurt You He Doesn't Want To Hate You He Doesn't Want To Ruin You He Says Come That They Might Have Life Life To The Fullest He Came To Give You Life He Came To Give Sinners Life He Came To Save Sin From Sin From Judgment Hell Misery From Loneliness Guilt Shame He Sets The Prisoners Free He

[27:26] Destroys The Destroyers He Is Good He Is Good And He Is Love Itself And So What Must You Do To Be Saved Instead Of Fearing Jesus And Thinking He He's Going To Ruin My Life I Need To Get Away From Him He's A Bad Person And I Wish I Just Didn't Have To Deal With Him I Wish He Wasn't Even Real Instead Of All That Fearing Jesus See what a grief it must be to Jesus To always having people thinking so badly of him so poorly of him Thinking he isn't kind What a disservice to him Here he comes I've come that they might have life What an injustice That people run and hide and doubt and fear So let me Say are you Are you that skittish?

[28:26] Injured Animal That dog That cat That animal And you're wounded And you're hurt Let me say Jesus Is holding out A gentle hand to you And he's saying trust me He's like the veterinarian That says trust me I can make you better Let me heal you What do you need to do to be saved?

[29:01] You trust him You're hurt He can heal you You trust him Seventh picture You call on Jesus So you receive him You look to him You trust him You believe him And you call on him We receive him with our hands We look to him with our eyes And we go to him with our feet And now What do we do with our mouths?

[29:27] We call on him Faith is not A mute Thing It's not something merely that you do In your heart We trust him in our hearts We believe him in our minds And we call on him with our voices Romans 10 113 Everyone Who calls On the name of the Lord Will be saved Believing is calling Saving faith Is vocal It says something It opens its mouth to Jesus And says Come and help me Have you ever been stranded on the road?

[30:05] I'm sure we all have You're stranded on the road It's night Cars broken down Back in the Old days You had to walk And find help But now we have cell phones So who do you call?

[30:27] Who do you call? Well you need to call somebody And you do call someone To help you You think of who can help you And you call them And let me say We come into this world Spiritually broken down Car is dead And there's no fixing it There's no fixing it You tried the ignition Again and again It's not going And you've popped the hood And you probably are looking at it Like I look at my hood I don't know what That's where you are spiritually Broken down No help Out of your depth What do you need to do?

[31:29] You need to call Jesus You call Jesus to help you You get on the phone And you say This is me I know I've been ignoring you I know I haven't done anything To earn your help I know I don't deserve it But you can help me You're the only one That can help me You're the only one That can help me And so Please come and save me Help me Come out to me I'm broken down Come to me I need you to take me And I need you to take my case And I need you to help me So what must you do to be saved?

[32:12] Everyone Who calls on the name of the Lord Will be saved Anyone who picks up the phone And calls to Jesus And says I need help Save me Everyone No exclusions No Provisos No Exceptions Everyone Is everyone Everyone means you You call on the name of the Lord Jesus And you Will be Saved That's what faith is That's the seventh picture The eighth picture Is you turn to Jesus You turn You turn to him 1 Thessalonians 1.9 Paul says That the Thessalonians Turned From idols To serve The living God They made a 180 degree Directional Change Saving faith Is turning away From our idols And turning To Jesus And we've each turned

[33:14] Our own way We've turned toward our idols And your idols are different Than my idols But there they are God replacements Our made up gods The things that we have Poured our heart into And invested in In such a way That now we say If I don't have this I am ruined What makes me a good Right Healthy Whole Person Is if this Is in my life And the one thing That we all have in common Is it's not Jesus Some of you It's Some of us It's money Popularity The approval of others Sex Pleasure Order Peace and quiet Love of ease And that's where you're headed That's who you're facing And you're

[34:16] Headed that way Your face is To that Your back is to Jesus And saving faith Is then turning To Jesus From those idols You have to recognize That that's what we're doing That's what we're talking about Is in repentance In saving faith You turn It's not I'm going to put Jesus Right next to those They're at 100 degree Opposites They're like You can't go north and south At the same time You can't go towards the idols And towards Jesus And saving faith Is taking that 180 degree turn From north To south From idols To God That saving faith Is turning To Jesus Faith is stopping It's turning around The road you are The road you are on Is Is not headed Towards salvation It's not headed

[35:17] Toward life It's headed for Everlasting Destruction So you turn around And you face Jesus And you run Into his arms That's how you're saved Ninth picture What is saving faith?

[35:38] It's eating And drinking Jesus That's a very strange picture It's eating And drinking Jesus But it's another picture It's a strange picture But it's another picture That the Bible uses And so I just want you to think with me What is food for?

[36:00] Well We need to eat To live And food is also For satisfaction We have this created Gap It's created Whole We're hungry Or we'll be hungry We'll get hungry We need food We have hunger We have empty stomachs And we need to eat And fill that need And saving faith Is eating And drinking Jesus And so I'm not talking about A physical eating And drinking I'm talking about That spiritual eating And drinking Augustine said Our hearts were made For you Our hearts were made For you And we are restless Until we find Our rest in you In John 6 Jesus is talking To a large crowd And he says I Am the living bread I am the living bread That came down From heaven If anyone Eats this bread He's talking about himself If anyone eats this bread

[37:01] He Will live Forever And then later He says For my flesh Is real food And my blood Is real drink The one who Feeds on me Will live Because of me And when he said that You know what happened?

[37:30] Many who were there Who were his disciples So called They heard that And they said You've gone too far No We're done And they left And Jesus turned To his twelve disciples And he said You don't want to Leave me too Do you?

[37:56] He's a real man You don't want to Leave me too Lord To whom shall we go? You alone Have the words of life And the same Choice Is before You For every one of us We eat And drink Jesus And live forever Or we go And we perish What must I do To be saved?

[38:33] You have to take Jesus You have to Eat Feed upon Jesus To fill your Emptiness with him To fill your Spiritual hunger For him To believe that He is the living bread And he can satisfy me And in eating him I can live And so you take him And you eat him He can fill your Spiritual hunger And your Spiritual thirst Instead of eating The junk food Of this world The pleasures Of this world That only makes you Feel miserable Isn't that true?

[39:11] You eat a bunch Of junk food And your stomach Is full for a little bit But the cost The cost It's like drinking Ocean Sea water Why Do people Die of dehydration When they're in a boat In the middle Of the ocean?

[39:33] Because the only Water available To you Is the water That will Dehydrate you More The more you Drink it The thirstier You get The thirstier You get The more you Drink it The more It dehydrates You That's the World's Pleasures And you Probably have Started to Discover that What Once Almost Satisfied you But not Quite Doesn't even Come close To satisfying You now Now it Only makes You thirstier For sin And hungrier For sin And what You would Have said I would Never do That Now you're Doing Because that's The only Thing that can Sort of give you A good feeling Instead of Feeding on The junk Food of This world How do You How are You Saved Well You turn Away from All that And you Take Jesus And you Feed him And he's Your life And he's Your satisfaction And I can Tell you This I can tell You This You eat And drink Jesus And you Will be Satisfied You will Be Satisfied The endless Hunger The endless

[40:33] Thirst Of this World Is filled Up And yes You want More of Jesus But it's Only because He's so Sweet It's only Because he's So good That's Saving Faith It's making Christ Your satisfaction It's filling Your heart With him And that's The ninth Picture The last The last The last Is the tenth It's Obey Jesus Obey Jesus So What do You have To do To be Saved You have To obey Jesus You have To obey The gospel Obey The gospel Second Thessalonians 1a Is a very Sobering Verse And I Want to Put it Into Context For you And so I'm Going to Read You a Paragraph And I Want you To hear What this Is saying It starts Out with God Is Just God

[41:34] Is Just Have you Made a Fundamental Miscalculation About God's Character Where you Think that Somehow you Can sin And get Away with It Paul says God is Just To think That you Can somehow Slip out Of this It's a Fundamental Miscalculation Of God's Character God is Just He Will Pay Back Trouble To Those Who Trouble You And Give Relief To Those Who Are Troubled Does God Do Nothing Will God Do Nothing No It Says It's Mine To Repay I Will Avenge And This Will Happen When The Lord Jesus Is Revealed From Heaven In Blazing Fire With His Powerful Angels And He Will Punish Those Who Do Not Know God And Do Not Obey The Gospel Of Our Lord Jesus They Will Be Punished With Everlasting

[42:35] Destruction And Shut Out From The Presence Of The Lord And From The Majesty Of His Power What Have We Seen So Far Well We've Seen What Do You Have To Do To Be!

[42:50] You Have To Believe Jesus You Have To Receive Jesus You Have To Come To Jesus You Have To Rest In Jesus You Have To Look To Jesus You Have To Trust Jesus You Have To Call To Jesus You Have To Turn To Jesus You Have To Eat Jesus There's No Work There's No Waiting!

[43:09] No Getting Ready There's No Long Process! All But Is It And Am I Standing Here Saying Take It Or Leave It It's Up To You You're Free To Do Whatever You Want God Doesn't Mind No No No Everything I've Said Believe Receive Look All The Rest Is A Command It's A Command God Is So Serious About Your Salvation He Commands You To Believe The Gospel And Be Saved It's Not Take It Or Leave It Every

[44:10] Moment You Don't Do Those Nine Things That I've Already Talked About You're Disobeying God And So Will You Obey God And Be Saved Or Will You Disobey God And Be Punished With Everlasting Destruction That's What Second Thessalonians Was Talking About!

[44:26] And So Instead Of Fighting! And Instead Of In Stubbornness Saying No! What Must You Do To Be Saved? You Have To Bow You Have To Bow That Proud Will You Have To Bow That Will That Says I'm Going To Do What I Want You Have To Drop Your Weapons You Have To Run Up The Flag You Have To Surrender And You Have To Say Yes To The Gospel You Have To Say Yes To Jesus You Have To Say Yes To God What Must I Do To Be Saved Submit Surrender Obey I Hope The Sermon Has Been Sort Of A Battering Ram Upon Your Heart If You're Lost Battering

[45:28] Ram On Your Heart Breaking Down Your Resistance But Now It Is Time To Surrender It Is Time To Obey It's Time To Quit The Revolt Quit The Rebellion And It's Time To Obey He Is Your Lord He Is Your Lord God Says I've Put My King On My Holy Hill No One Else It's Not A Vote Not A Democracy God Didn't Ask You He Is Your Lord You Say I'm Not A Christian He's Your Lord And So The What You Do Is You Have To Fall Down You Have To Fall Down Before Him And You Have To Open Your Hands And You Receive Him And You Trust Him And You Call Upon!

[46:22] And So Today Is The Day Of Our Heavenly Father Our Lord Jesus Christ And Holy Spirit You Are The God Of Salvation You Are The God Who Plans Salvation You Are The God Who Brings About The Salvation Of Lost Sinners And It Is The Gospel Which Is The Power Of God Unto Salvation And I Pray And I Hope That The Gospel Has Been Preached Jesus Has Been!

[47:20] Before! And So I Would Pray Oh Lord Take That Gospel And Exert Your Power Exert Your Power Upon Lost Sinners Hearts Make It Bear Down Upon Them With Such Weight That They Are Brought To Their Knees Brought To Their Senses And Will See Their Need And Turn Call Receive Believe Try Trust In Jesus The Savior Of Sinners Exalt Him In Their Hearts Make Him To Stand Tall And Humble Them Before Him Pray This In His Name Amen