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[0:00] Kids, how many fingers did God put on each hand? Not a trick question. Five?

[0:13] One of those fingers we call a thumb, don't we? So let's subtract that one. How many are left? Four. I have four important truths.

[0:24] In fact, I'm going to call them facts because that's what they are. There's stubborn facts to set before you this morning. And so you'll be able to follow with your four fingers.

[0:37] Facts are true whether you think they are or not. Facts are facts. And I've got four of them. The first two are bad news and the last two are good news.

[0:53] If you had to get one before the other, which would you want? Well, you'd want the bad news first so you could end on the good news. But there's another reason why I'm putting the bad news first.

[1:06] And it's this. For the simple reason that the good news will never be valued unless you understand the bad news first.

[1:19] You won't care about it. It won't be important to you. For instance, if I came to you and said, I have a cure for a rare killer virus that only five people in the world have.

[1:31] Well, you might congratulate me and say, well done, John. But no thanks. Not interested. Why not? Well, because it's not your problem.

[1:44] You don't have that killer virus. And that's precisely the response of most people to the gospel today. Thank you, but no thank you.

[1:55] They do not see their need for it. And therefore, we must look at the bad news first to see our need for the good news. Now, let's get started.

[2:10] Fact number one. All of us are born sinners. Now, sin's a religious term. What does that mean? It means breaking God's law.

[2:21] First John 3, 4 tells us that. Sin is breaking the law. It's either doing what God says don't do, or it's not doing what God says we should do.

[2:33] In both cases, it is sin. And that's something we all have done. Romans 3, 23 says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

[2:49] No one has ever measured up to God's perfect standard of holiness. Sin is missing the mark.

[3:05] There's the mark. That's what's required. And sin is coming short of it. Sin is coming short of it. Sin is coming short of it. So, you go to a theme park, kids, and all the most fun rides have a line on the wall there, don't they?

[3:20] And what's that line for? That line is for you to stand up beside. And if you're shorter than the mark, you're out. You can't ride on that ride.

[3:32] If you measure up to the mark, you're in. You can go on the ride. It's an objective standard by which we mean that it doesn't move.

[3:43] It's there whether you like it or not. And it doesn't move based on who you are and where you live and who your parents are and what you do. No, that mark is there.

[3:53] And you either measure up or you don't. Well, even so, God's moral law, His commandments are there.

[4:06] That's what He requires, that you obey all His commands all the time. He's right to require that of us. He made us. And He's holy.

[4:16] And He said, I made you that you might be holy, that you might be like me. So, there's the mark. And we must measure up to that mark in order to dwell with Him, to live with Him eternally.

[4:33] So, think of the Ten Commandments. They're a summary of all God's commands. If you boiled all His commands down to ten, that's what we have in the Ten Commandments.

[4:44] It's like a ten-linked chain. We've been looking at links in Romans 8, haven't we? Five links. But think now of ten links in a full circle, a necklace of ten links that you put over your head.

[5:01] How many links, kids, needs to be broken before the whole necklace is broken? Five? Two? Just one.

[5:14] You break the chain in just one place, and the whole chain is broken. And that's the way God's law is.

[5:25] It stands as a unit. It stands as one. And you either keep it all, or you break it all. That's what James tells us in James chapter 2 and verse 10.

[5:40] Whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles at just one point, is guilty of breaking it all. The whole chain is broken.

[5:52] And so, you may not have stolen, but if you disobey your parents, you are a lawbreaker. So, in God's sight, there's just two kinds of people.

[6:06] There are lawkeepers. They keep all God's commands. And there are lawbreakers. They break the law at least once. So, which are you?

[6:19] Are you a lawbreaker? Or are you a lawkeeper? Have you kept all God's laws, or have you broken one of them sometime in your lifetime?

[6:32] If so, you're a lawbreaker in God's eyes. You know, it was just one sin that got Adam and Eve thrown out of the garden of God's presence.

[6:44] By one sin, they forfeited eternal life. They threw it away. God said, don't. And they did. And that's all it took to make them lawbreakers in the eyes of God.

[7:00] And even so, we too have all sinned and come short of the mark of God's glorious standard, His own holiness. So, we've all sinned.

[7:14] But our problem goes deeper than that. The reason we've all sinned is because we're all sinners. And sinner is what we are.

[7:25] That's our identity. That's why sin is what we do. And that's our deeper problem, you see. It's not just that we've committed a few isolated sins.

[7:37] We've had some slip-ups and mistakes, as people call them. No, it has to do with our very makeup, our very nature, our heart, the control center of our lives.

[7:51] We have a heart that's sinful. And that's why we sin. How many of you kids have ever gone bowling? Any of you?

[8:02] Okay. How many of you have gone lawn bowling? Well, that's an old man's sport. And so, maybe you've never done that.

[8:15] There's a little white ball. It's called the jack, about this big. And it's the first ball that's rolled out, about from here to the exit there, to the doors. And somebody rolls that little white ball, the jack, out there.

[8:29] And then they each have what are called bowls. They're black balls. The object is to roll those bowls and get them as close as you can to the little jack.

[8:42] And that's how the points are made in the game. Now, those black bowls are about five inches. And they're like a round ball that's had both sides sliced off.

[8:53] But not perfectly sliced off. One side has just a little bit more left on it than the other. And so, it's heavier on that side.

[9:05] Just a little bit. You can't see it, perhaps, with the eye. But it is heavier on the one side. So, what happens then when they roll that bowl with the weight, which they call a bias, on that right side?

[9:21] Well, that bowl will bend to the right. If they turn the bowl around and put the bias on the left, when they roll it, that bowl will bend toward the left.

[9:32] You can roll your bowl a thousand times, and every single time it will bend toward the bias.

[9:45] That's a picture of your heart. Your heart, as you came into this world, was bent, biased, not toward God, but away from God and toward sin, toward selfishness, toward me.

[10:02] And so, what does Isaiah say? We all, like sheep, have gone astray. We've turned each one to his own way.

[10:16] You see, that's because we were born with a bias. We all were born with this bias. And it's always a way astray from God. And it's always to each our own way.

[10:29] So, we all turn away from God, and we turn to our way. Our way. I'll live my way instead of God's way. And that's why we all sin.

[10:42] Because we've all got this bias in our hearts. And it affects all of our faculties. The mind as it thinks. The affections as we desire.

[10:53] And the will as we choose. The bias. Always away from God.

[11:03] Never toward him. Two passages in Scripture that make this plain. Psalm 51.5. David's confessing his sin of adultery and murder. And yet, he's not only confessing these specific acts of sin, but he confesses his sinfulness.

[11:22] The bias of his heart. Verse 5. Surely, I was sinful at birth. Sinful from the time my mother conceived me.

[11:37] David has got a clearer view of who he is through this experience of adultery and murder. And the cover up.

[11:47] And the whole mess. And he comes out of it with this, surely. Now I see it as I've never seen before. That I was born in sin.

[11:59] That I was sinful. Biased toward evil. From the time my mother conceived me. We hit the ground with a bias towards sin.

[12:13] And away from God. John 3 and verse 6. Jesus is talking to Nicodemus. He makes the same point to him. That which is born of the flesh is flesh.

[12:24] That which is born of the spirit is spirit. What does Jesus mean? Well, he means just as giraffes give birth to giraffes.

[12:35] And dogs give birth to dogs. So, sinful parents only give birth to sinful babies. Every time.

[12:49] The same bias that was in the parent is passed on to the child. And Jesus says to Nicodemus, that's why you must be born again.

[13:00] That's why we all must be born again. Because when we were born the first time, we were born with a bias to go away from God and to go our way. And Jesus says, you've got to be born again. This is a supernatural second birth by the Holy Spirit that changes that bias.

[13:16] And makes it move toward God. And away from sin and self. So, the Bible is clear on this point that all people are born sinners.

[13:29] It's a fact. It's a fact. Now, does your experience prove that to be a fact? Is that what you see as you live? Parents? Children?

[13:43] My son is the father of a six-month-old darling girl whose smile and belly laugh can lighten your day. And he sometimes brings her over to the house.

[13:57] And we have some good talks. And the last time, or one of the last times that he came over, he had this telling question for me. Dad, she's six months old.

[14:09] How old were we when you first started spanking us? And I laughed and said, oh, so you can already see, can you, that she's inherited that sinful nature from you.

[14:21] That's what you gave her, son. And I gave it to you. My wife and I welcomed four children into the world.

[14:32] And the bias towards sin was in four out of four. 100%. 100%. And it didn't take long for it to be seen.

[14:43] And here's the clincher. We didn't teach any of our four kids to be selfish, to lie, to steal. But all four of them were selfish and lied and stole.

[15:01] 100%. It's a fact. Psalm 58.3. Even from birth, the wicked go astray. From the womb, they are wayward, speaking lies.

[15:17] They hit the ground going the wrong way. Why? Because they've got that wayward bias in their hearts. That's the claim of the Bible. That's the evidence that we see all around us.

[15:29] And yes, within us. All of us born sinners. And that's why we all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

[15:41] Almost everyone is honest enough to admit that they're not perfect. They will admit that they've not lived up to perfection. We all make mistakes.

[15:52] They brush it off as. As if our sin is no big deal since we all do it. Does all of this doing it make it any different to God? Well, no.

[16:05] And that leads us to our second great fact. Fact number two. What's the first fact? We all were born sinners. Second fact. Our sin brings God's wrath.

[16:18] Okay. We've got two of the fingers. Our sin brings God's wrath. Now, we may think sin's no big deal. But God thinks otherwise. And he says so. Do you know the Bible talks about his wrath 200 times?

[16:31] 200 times. And many more where it uses words like his anger. You should be comforted to know that there's only one thing that stirs God's wrath.

[16:44] Just one. And it's sin. It's sin. Wrath is the reflex action of God's holiness to sin, which is the opposite of his being.

[17:00] God is holy. He loves righteousness. He must hate unrighteousness. And he does. Ephesians 2.3. Paul's talking to Christians.

[17:12] But he says, you know, we weren't always Christians. And all of us also lived among the unbelievers at one time. And we were gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature.

[17:24] And following its desires and thoughts like the rest, we were objects of wrath. We were the fitting objects that deserved God's wrath.

[17:36] Colossians 3.5 has a list of some sins that includes greed and evil desire. And then verse 6 says, because of these, the wrath of God is coming.

[17:48] You see, God's wrath is the response to our sin. It's such an offense to the holy nature of God that he has appointed a day of God's wrath.

[18:02] He doesn't always pour out his wrath immediately. And that's his mercy. His patience, his forbearance. He puts up with so much. But there's an end to God's patience.

[18:15] There's an end to God's mercy. There is a coming day of God's wrath. That's how the Bible refers to it. When he will pay back the unrepentant sinner for his sins against him.

[18:28] Romans 2.5, because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath for yourself until the day of God's wrath.

[18:43] It's coming. It's a fact, you see. Whether you think it is or not, it's a fact. It's coming. And that's a fact most unbelievers are trying to suppress. Trying to hold it down out of conscience, out of mind.

[18:56] And ignore it, neglect it, scoff at it, laugh at it. But it's a fact, and therefore it cannot be denied forever. It will catch up with them.

[19:10] Because it is a fact. That day is coming. And in that day, they will call on the mountains and the rocks. Fall on us. And hide us.

[19:20] From what? What is so bad that you would want the mountains to have an earthquake and fall on you to obliterate you and hide you from this?

[19:32] Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits on the throne. And from the wrath of the Lamb. That's Jesus.

[19:43] For the great day of their wrath has come. And who can stand? Nobody can.

[19:55] Revelation 6, 16 and 17. This judgment that's coming, it was threatened before sin ever entered the world. God was kind to tell Adam and Eve before they ever sinned.

[20:09] Don't eat from this. You can eat from all the rest of the trees, but don't eat from this one. Because in the day you eat it, you will surely die. My wrath will fall on you. And you see, that warning was for their good.

[20:21] It was meant to be an encouragement to not eat from it. When mom and dad tell you, if you do this, these are the consequences. Is that because they're so mean?

[20:33] No, they're being kind to you. They don't want you to transgress. And so they're telling you ahead of time about the result of your disobedience.

[20:43] God was that way with Adam and Eve. But sin they did. And when they did, God's wrath fell upon them and was seen in the punishment of death that he had threatened.

[20:56] Death is a horrible thing. It's an unnatural thing. It's not the way God made us originally to die. And it reflects what a horrible thing is sin.

[21:09] The next time you feel something of the horribleness of death, let it just ring bells. That's how horrible sin must be to bring death.

[21:19] Now there's three aspects of death that result from sin. The basic idea of death is separation.

[21:30] Separation. Let's look at it, the three aspects of death. First, spiritual death. There was immediately a spiritual separation between Adam and Eve and their God.

[21:41] Before they'd sinned, they enjoyed friendship. Warm fellowship. God was their best friend in heaven. They talked with him. He walked with them.

[21:54] But once they sinned, they were separated from God. Sin came between them. And instead of being their close friend, he is now their enemy.

[22:08] And they are now under his wrath. Isaiah 59.2 Your iniquities have separated between you and God. Your sins have hidden his face from you so that he will not hear you.

[22:23] Ephesians 2.1 again. As for you, you Christians, you were dead in trespasses and sins. In which you used to live.

[22:36] How were they before they got saved? Well, they were physically alive. But they were spiritually dead toward God. Dead in their transgressions and sins.

[22:47] Which means that God was not there. That they were living with him and in fellowship and wanting to please him. And talking with him and worshiping and thanking him.

[22:57] No, no, no. God was not. Something that they lived with the idea of. No, no. They lived for themselves. They were dead in their sins.

[23:11] Spiritual death. So it's to be alive physically. But it's to have your spirit that was made for fellowship with God to be dead. It's like the walking dead.

[23:21] That's what we were before we were saved. But there's a second way that God's wrath and death is seen. And that's physical death. Now, that's what we're most familiar with.

[23:34] The separation of body and spirit. Again, it's separation. Perhaps you've been in a funeral home. And you've looked into the casket and there's someone who's died.

[23:49] It's clearly them. But not as you remember them. Something's missing. It's their spirit.

[24:00] Their spirit is gone from the body. That which animated them. That which enabled them to relate to you.

[24:14] The part of them that thought. That desired. That made choices. That loved. That gave them personality. It's gone.

[24:24] Oh, their body's there. But their spirit is gone. A separation of body and spirit. God made us body-spirit creatures.

[24:41] But at death, God's wrath separates body and spirit. As long as the body and spirit are together, we're alive physically.

[24:52] But when your spirit is separated, you're physically dead. James refers to this in chapter 2, verse 26. As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.

[25:06] The body without the spirit. That's why as we watch beside a dying loved one, there comes a point where we say they're gone. They're gone.

[25:18] What do we mean? We mean their body's still here, but there's a part of them that is now gone. Their spirit. That's the second way that the death is a separation.

[25:34] And the Bible is very clear that this is the result of sin. Romans 6.23, the wages of sin is death. Romans 5.12, just as sin entered the world through the one man, Adam, and death entered the world through sin.

[25:49] And in this way, death came to all men. Why? Because all sin. So that's why death is the destiny of every man. It's part of that wrath of God against sin.

[26:01] And then there's a third aspect to death. And that's the second death, as the Bible refers to it. The second death. So you die physically, but here's a second death.

[26:16] Eternal separation from God in the lake of fire. Revelation 20 tells us that at the end of this age, all the dead will be raised and called to the last judgment.

[26:29] The books will be opened and each person will be judged according to what he had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. The lake of fire is the second death.

[26:43] And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. Revelation 20.11-15.

[26:55] Now that's the same place where the devil and the false prophet and the beast were thrown in chapter 19, where they were tormented day and night forever and ever.

[27:05] In the same way, all who die without Jesus Christ will with them go away to everlasting punishment with no rest day or night, as they will be made to drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured out full strength into the cup of his wrath.

[27:28] So this is the second fact we need to come to terms with. We're all born sinners and our sin brings wrath from God. So do you see the problem? I've spent more time on this than I will on the solution.

[27:42] And simply because most people in the world today just don't get it. If they agree they've sinned, they don't see the seriousness of it, that it brings the wrath of God.

[28:01] Many people try to save themselves by religion, by something that they do, but they've already blown it. What was required? Perfect life.

[28:12] They've already blown it. And now to get saved, they're going to try again and again? It's kind of like the baseball player. And he's just swung the third time and missed.

[28:23] And the umpire says, you're out. And he says, he refuses to leave the batter's box. I want another try. Yes, I failed, but I'm going to do better next time.

[28:38] Well, that's only going to get him into more trouble. He'll get thrown out of the game for rebelling and acting like he sets the rules of the game. And that's the way it is for sinners when they come short and they say, well, I'll do better next time.

[28:53] You don't get it next time. You don't make the rules. God requires perfect holiness all your life. And you've already got more than one strike, more than three strikes.

[29:06] You've added thousands of sins. And you are shut out from the presence of God because of your sin. And besides, even if you got a second chance, you would not do any better.

[29:20] Why? Remember the bias? Because your heart is biased towards sin. Mr. Batter in the batter's box.

[29:32] You've got a propensity to swing at wild pitches and you miss by a mile. You will not do any better the second, third, fourth, fifth time because you've got this bias towards sin.

[29:43] Do you see? Your situation is hopeless. You cannot do the first thing to save yourself. And that's what you need to see. Because if you see that, what I have to say next will be the greatest news in the world.

[29:57] And now we're to the third finger. The third fact is that Jesus Christ is uniquely qualified to be your savior.

[30:07] Jesus Christ is uniquely qualified to be your savior. He's the only human being ever born into the world without this sinful bias. And therefore, he's the only person ever born into the world who obeyed God's commandments 100% all of his life.

[30:30] Never disobeyed God. And he did it in the same world in which you and I live. He was supernaturally conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary.

[30:44] So he didn't share in this bias. Rather, the angel told Mary, the holy thing to be born will be called the Son of God. He will be the first holy one to be born of man.

[30:57] And he was not only born without sin, but he lived the whole 33 years without sinning in thought or word or desire or deed.

[31:10] Not without a battle. Hebrews 4.15 says he was tempted in every way just as we are yet without sin. We see in Matthew 4, 40 days and 40 nights he's tempted of the devil.

[31:22] And he comes off the battle. Victorious. Didn't fall once. But the devil was just leaving him for a more convenient season. And all of his life, Jesus was being tempted by devils and men to sin.

[31:39] And never once did he fall. But remained holy, blameless, and pure, separate from sinners. Not all the temptations are recorded for us.

[31:50] Hardly any are. But we know they were there. We're told that. And he was a real human being. So it doesn't take much imagination to figure out some of the temptations that Jesus must have grown up with.

[32:04] He grew up like every other boy with younger brothers and sisters and neighbor kids. Children, Jesus never disobeyed his mother. Ever.

[32:15] Ever. Ever. Ever. When given a cookie and then asking for another only to be denied. He never threw a temper tantrum. He never snuck back into the cookie jar and took one when mom wasn't looking.

[32:32] When playing with his toys. Maybe building a tower out of his blocks. And younger brother Andrew. James comes in the room and knocks the tower over. He didn't throw the blocks at him.

[32:44] He didn't scream for mom. No. When his sister came in. And took one of his toys.

[32:55] He didn't scream. Mom! Mom! I don't know what he did in every case. But I know this. He never sinned. He never sinned. All the other boys are out playing a game.

[33:07] And Joseph comes to Jesus and says, son, I've got a job coming due. I'm going to need a hand in the carpenter shop today. He didn't say, but dad.

[33:18] Dad! Dad! Okay, dad. What are we making today? He never sinned. And then during his three years of ministry, he was despised and hated and persecuted.

[33:36] And they're always trying to catch him and make him fall and trip. Not once. He's got a bunch of disciples that are slow to believe and slow to obey.

[33:48] Never once lost patience with them. But then how will he? And when he lost his stepfather, Joseph, we don't know how.

[34:00] But there was no bitter anger in his heart for God. How could you take my father from me? My dad. He was sinless. Sinless throughout the whole of his life.

[34:12] But what will he do with the hardest command of all? When God the Father will say, I want you, son, to go and be damned for your people. I want you to go and stand in the place that they deserve and receive that wrath of God that should be coming to them.

[34:28] What will he do then? Well, we're told what he did. In Philippians 2, he was obedient unto death. Even the death of the cross.

[34:39] Where men did their worst to torture him. And God poured the full cup of his wrath out and Jesus drank it down to the dregs. He obeyed, didn't he?

[34:52] He never sinned. Now, why is this so important, kids? Why is this so important that Jesus never sinned? Well, simply because only a sinless Jesus can save us.

[35:04] It's his sinlessness that qualifies him to be a substitute sacrifice in our place. You know why all the Old Testament sacrifices, the animals that were chosen for sacrifice, had to be without blemish and defect?

[35:18] Because they were pointing us to that coming perfect, sinless Lamb of God who would actually take away sin. And so to be a sacrifice that could atone for sin, he must be sinless.

[35:31] He must be sinless. He must be sinless. If Jesus had but one sin, then he's a lawbreaker like the rest of us. And he must die for his own sin.

[35:44] And therefore, his death would have no saving benefit for me or for you. None whatsoever. We'd have no savior. He'd be damned for his sins and we'd be damned for ours.

[35:56] It's so important that he was sinless. It's why we can be saved.

[36:07] He was uniquely qualified to save us. Only a sinless Jesus can do helpless sinners good. And it's because he never sinned and doesn't deserve God's wrath that he can step in as an innocent one and take what we had coming.

[36:25] And have that atone for our sins. And it's because he obeyed every command that he has a righteousness to give to us who had none.

[36:35] So he's uniquely qualified by his sinlessness. But not only by his sinlessness, he's also qualified because he is God. He's God.

[36:46] I wonder if you've thought of that. If Jesus was only a man, then his death could pay for my sins. But there'd be nothing left to pay for your sins. It would be the death of one innocent man satisfying God's judgment for one guilty man.

[37:04] Me. One for one substitution. One in the place of the other. And that's all it would have been. But because Jesus is also infinite God.

[37:16] His righteousness and death has an infinite value to pay. Not just for one man's sins. But for the sins of the whole world. For the sins of an infinite number of people.

[37:28] The value of the blood of Jesus is infinite. And it will save all who come unto God through him. So you see how uniquely qualified Jesus is to be your savior.

[37:42] That's the fact number three. He is uniquely qualified to be your savior. Now we come to the last one. If you trust in Jesus alone, he will save you.

[37:54] Do you see what we've seen so far? We've seen that we're all sinners by birth. And that sin brings upon us the wrath of God. And then we saw that Jesus has been sent by the father.

[38:07] And he's uniquely qualified to be our savior. That doesn't save anyone. That doesn't save anyone. Suppose you've got some disease that you're dying of.

[38:19] And I'm a surgeon who could make the operation that would save your life. That doesn't save you. Those facts do not save you.

[38:32] You've got to come to me and ask me to do the operation. And in that way your life could be saved.

[38:43] You see, these first three facts, even though Jesus is this wonderfully, uniquely qualified savior, that doesn't save you. You've got to come to him to have him save you.

[38:54] And if you do, he will. It's a fact. Whoever comes to me, I will in no wise cast out. You must trust in Jesus alone.

[39:12] Remember the Philippian jailer's question, what must I do to be saved? What must you do to be saved? The answer of the Bible is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.

[39:26] Trust in him. What does it mean to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, you give up all hope of ever saving yourself. You give up all hope of being better and doing better.

[39:40] And instead, you put all your weight on Jesus and you let him save you. You trust him to save you. You trust in what he did for sinners by living the perfect life that we couldn't. So he has a righteousness to give to you.

[39:51] You trust in that atoning blood that he shed so that our sins could be forgiven, past, present, and future. You put all the weight of your trust on what Jesus has done to save sinners.

[40:04] And zero upon something you can do to make yourself right with God. That's what it means to savingly believe. You're the sinner who needs saving.

[40:17] Jesus is the Savior who does all the saving. The rescue is his. Let me close with an illustration. Let's say a swim team goes to Lake Michigan for an outing on a Saturday.

[40:30] But as it would happen, the red flag is out. And no one's to get in the water. The riptide is too dangerous. But after a while, Mr. Showoff has got to show the rest of the team what a quality swimmer he is.

[40:46] And he wades out and he starts to swim. And sure enough, the riptide starts to pull him out. It's not long before he's in trouble. And it's not long before he's going down for the last time.

[40:59] He got himself into that mess. Unbeknownst to him, when he first waded out into the water, the lifeguard saw it.

[41:09] And he was watching him. And he saw him in trouble. And he took his float. And he started to swim out to that drowning boy.

[41:24] And when he gets there, what is the instinctive thing for a drowning boy to do? Well, when I was taking Red Cross Lifesavers many moons ago, I was told that they instinctively grab for you.

[41:43] And that's dangerous. They can grab you and hold you to where you both die. The grabbing instinct is there, but it doesn't help you. So what is the swimmer supposed to do?

[41:59] Nothing. He's to stop his efforts and to entrust himself to the lifeguard to do all the saving.

[42:11] You, by sin, have the wrath, the billows of God's wrath coming against you for your sin.

[42:23] And in the day of judgment, no one will say, but, but, but. Every mouth will be stopped because everyone will know it is right. I deserve to be damned for what I have done against the holy God.

[42:36] And there you are. You've got yourself in this trouble. And the good news is, is that there is a lifeguard. There is a savior who is uniquely qualified to save you. But that doesn't save you.

[42:50] There is something that you must do. What must I do to be saved? You must stop doing for yourself. And entrust yourself into the arms of Jesus to do all the saving for you.

[43:09] That's the four facts. And if you do that, what will he do? He will save you. It's a fact.

[43:21] Everybody here this morning who's been saved did just that. They, they, they quit trying to save themselves. And they let Jesus save them.

[43:31] They trusted that he can save me. And he did. And you know, of all these people sitting around you, there's not one that regrets.

[43:46] Having trusted in Jesus to save them. There are some regrets. And it's that we didn't do it sooner. That we might have had more of a life to live for him who died for us.

[43:58] Now, why is there a Savior uniquely qualified to save? It's because God so loved this wretched world of rebels that he gave his one and only son.

[44:13] That whoever believes in him shall not perish under his wrath, but have everlasting life. You, you're at a crossroads this morning, sinner friend.

[44:26] What will you do with Jesus? Will you trust him to save you? And to be your God? The one for whom you were made and the one to whom you live.

[44:40] Throw yourself upon his mercy and he will save you. Let's pray. Thank you, Father, for that love that we sang about that is deeper than we could ever imagine.

[44:55] Thank you that it was an active love that sent your son on this saving mission. Thank you that this salvation does not depend on our doing enough, but our trusting in the Lord Jesus to save us.

[45:11] Save some even here this morning. We ask for your great name's sake. Amen. Amen. Amen.

[45:32]  Amen.