Keep sharing good news without ads.
Source: https://www.sermonindex.net/speakers/john-fitzpatrick/must/
Opening tonight that have the little word must. 2 Samuel would be the first one, chapter 14 and verse number 14. You know when it comes to the gospel message it's not complicated, it's not cloudy, it's not difficult, you don't even have to be able to read to be saved.
But wonderful that everybody here old enough to read can read. But I trust that not only you to read, and I trust you not only know that you need to be saved, but I trust that you will be saved if you're not saved.
It's the most important thing in life. So we're just going to look at a few little verses in the opening for my brother Portman tonight. 2 Samuel chapter 14 and verse number 14, not really a popular verse and yet it's a very true verse.
For we, you and I, whether younger or older, are as water spilt on the ground, we must needs die, are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be gathered up again. Neither doth God respect any person, yet doth he devise means that is banished, be not expelled from him.
And so we've got the little phrase in there which is jam-packed you might say with meaning. You and I, be the Lord Jesus Christ, not coming to the air for his own, every one of us is going to die. John's Gospel please, chapter 3.
John chapter 3, the very words of the Lord Jesus Christ to a man by the name of Nicodemus. And the words that were spoken to Nicodemus applies to each one of us just as much. John chapter 3, verse 3, Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, or truly, truly, I say unto thee, notice, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Verse 7, marvel not that I said unto thee, ye, you and I, must be born again. The book of Acts please, chapter 4. Acts chapter 4, and just the first part of verse 10. Acts 4 and 10, the first part, and then we'll read verse 12.
Be it known unto you all, verse 12, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name under heaven given among men notice whereby we must be saved. Chapter 16 please. Chapter 16 is an interesting chapter.
You've got a jailer and you've got two preachers, Paul and Silas. And the jailer is asking a tremendous question. And I trust that question might be on your mind tonight and on your soul and in your heart with a true heart of sincerity.
And what is it in verse 30? The jailer brought them out and he said to them, sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. And they spake unto all the word of the Lord.
Spake unto him the word of the Lord and to all that were in his house. And the last reading I want to do is in Luke's Gospel, chapter 24. Luke chapter 24 and verse number 7. The seventh verse and the 24th chapter of the Gospel of Luke please.
Saying, the Son of Man, that's the Lord Jesus Christ, must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day shall rise again. That's all I want to read. And I know that the Lord will bless the public reading of the Word of God.
We've read a very solemn verse of the first one that I read. It's something that people don't like to consider and yet it's very fine. And the Bible tells us that you and I in the book of Amos have a solemn responsibility.
And it says in Amos chapter 4 and verse 12, prepare to meet thy God. God gives us instruction how to be prepared. God tells us very clearly who is prepared and who isn't prepared and the way that you and I can be prepared to meet God.
None of us likes to think about death. I tell people I'm not looking for the undertaker, but I'm looking for the upper taker if I can put it that way. I'm waiting for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.
But this past year in the journey of my life anyway, there's been more people that I've known that have left this scene for the great beyond than any one year I can ever think of. And it doesn't matter whether you're a young one or whether you're an older one.
It's something that God tells us very caringly, loving lovingly, very graciously because he wants us to consider our later end. You and I have an appointment and it's an appointment with death. And that's searching to think of because the greatest tragedy of all the tragedies that ever take place on the face of this earth is for one to be born and never have been saved and to end up in the awful place called hell.
You know as you read the word of God you find there's a heaven to gain and you find there's an awful place called hell and the lake of fire to shun. And I want you to know that God loves you and God wants to bless you with so great salvation.
And so I want to encourage you tonight not to run away from the gospel message, not to run away from the Savior, and not to say some other day would be a better time or a more convenient time. My mind goes to when we lived in Jervis, Oregon many years ago.
We had a little five-acre place about 13 miles out of Salem and I came home one night from meetings and I noticed in the house it was very quiet and I wondered what happened. But it turned out to be who my son-in-law is, his young brother Joseph at eight years of age drowned in the irrigation ditch.
And so he was very young. He could run like a deer and the dear brother that took the funeral told us about Joseph and how he could run so quick and how he could run like a deer. But you know what was important?
As to whether or not he was saved. And you know what's important in your life tonight? As to whether or not you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. You see the Lord is very kind with his word of God.
It's clear and he tells us that you and I must have the new birth. It's not an option, it's not an accessory, but it's a necessity. And why would everyone want to have a new birth? Why would one want to be saved?
Why would one need to be saved? That's because we've sinned and we all need a Savior. You know I come into John's Gospel chapter 4 and I read about the Lord Jesus graciously, kindly, tenderly talking to the woman at the well.
And he begins to ask her questions and whetted her appetite you might say. And she says, I would like to have this living water so I don't have to come to the well and draw. She didn't understand what he was talking about.
And then he asked her if she would call her husband. And she says, I don't have one. And you know what he was doing? He was working in her life to touch a sore spot in her life to point out her sin. And she says, no you've had five.
And he says, by the way the one that you're living with is not your husband. And you know what she did what a lot of people do? They turn on the religious switch and they try to cover up what they're doing.
Our fathers worshiped in this mountain. What was the Lord Jesus doing in her life is exactly what he wants to do in your life tonight. He wants to address your problem with your sin. And if your sin is never forgiven, you'll never be saved.
And if you'd never find out from God I'm a lost, perishing sinner and I'm in a 911 condition, an emergency condition that I need salvation now, you may never get saved. I'm going to make a statement and maybe it's going to be surprising to some in the meeting tonight.
You can't get saved anytime you want. You say, well I think I can. I know the Bible verses. It takes God to save you. And it takes God to reveal to you, to illuminate to you, what the Lord Jesus Christ did on the cross at Calvary, that you might be saved.
Nobody will ever be saved until they found out I'm a lost, perishing sinner. That's a big pill to swallow. I have trouble swallowing pills sometimes and I get it in my mouth and it stays in there and it's not the best taste.
So I find if I take it with a little bit of food it works a lot better. But the biggest pill I ever swallowed was in 1959. I'm a lost sinner and I'm going down to an awful place called hell and I need a savior.
I didn't grow up in a gospel hall. I didn't grow up in a Christian home. I had a religion. I was christened at three days of age. I was baptized by water immersion in the fifth grade and wonderfully in the sixth grade I heard the gospel message in the June of 59 and I heard it for 10 mornings and I heard it for one night in the evening.
And we had to learn 10 verses, a verse a day to get a little New Testament. But when I left those meetings I learned a lot more than just those verses. I learned out that I was headed to hell and I learned that I needed to be saved and I learned that my sins were my problem and I didn't know how to get saved at all.
I didn't want to talk to anyone. I was very shy in my youth but wonderfully in the fall that year when a brother was speaking on a Friday night I found out that the Lord Jesus died for my sins on the cross.
And you know I'll put it in the words of Ephesians chapter 1. I trusted him. That was the best day in my life. It's never changed. It's the greatest thing, the grandest thing and the most valuable thing that anybody can have.
In fact I was standing at a store one time in a little town of Buckeye, Arizona. It was actually a thrift store and people are in line. I like to talk to people and so I told the young lady behind me I says I want you to know ma 'am that I'm the richest one in this town.
She said that's really an astounding statement. I said it is. Would you like to know how it is that I'm the richest one in the town? She said I really would. I says because the Lord Jesus Christ is my savior and my sins are forgiven and heaven's my home.
And you know what she said it surprised me. She says that I'm one of the richest ones in the town too. I'm saved and I have the Lord Jesus Christ as my savior. Can I ask you from the front wall all the way to the back of the hall and standing in the back of the hall we appreciate y 'all coming.
Do you have the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior? You see he loves you and he gave himself for in the cross of Calvary and he wants you to come to him. And so he reminds us you and I must be saved. He reminds us you and I must be born again.
I've got a fair amount of emergency medical training and often try to help people because I realize the danger and the evidence the urgency of the matter but this is a matter for greater than that and this is a matter about your eternal state of your soul as to whether you're going to be in heaven or you're going to be in the awful place.
Remember reading in the bible about a man by the name of Naaman? He wasn't born a leper though leprosy speaks of sin and one day somehow it was he discovered he was a leper. Leprosy speaks of sin. Leprosy speaks of death.
I wonder if one day in your life you found out that you're a lost sinner. You say why didn't you say a sinner? Sinners are everywhere but a lost sinner is one that knows that I need a savior. A lost sinner knows ones that I need to be found and the Lord Jesus has come to seek and to save that which is lost.
What did he do that you and I can have forgiveness of sins? What took place at Calvary? The Lord Jesus on the cross of Calvary paid for our sins. He suffered agonies untold. He laid down his life. No man took his life.
You know we mentioned in the bible reading this morning that there were 330 messianic prophecies all fulfilled around the time of Calvary. That shows the accuracy of the word of God. That shows the reality that we can rest our eternal future in what the word of God says.
In Acts chapter 16 we find a question. It's a wonderful question and I pray that it might be on your hearts and your minds if you're in the gathering tonight without the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior because the answer is found in the word of God.
What must I do to be saved? What must I do to have my sins forgiven? What must I do to be right with God? What would you tell him? I remember in meetings one time in Canada the Christians told me that a lady had gotten saved.
Mr. Van Wettering and I went over to visit her and I thought I would take her pulse not to see whether it's going 50, 60 or 70 times a minute but I wanted to find out whether she was saved. So I asked her maybe in a different way.
I said to her now if there was a bad auto accident side and somebody was laying on the street dying and you ran out to him and he wanted to know how he could be saved what would you tell him? Now this was a lady that was supposedly saved in meetings.
She says well that actually happened once and my mother called for the priest and I think that was a good thing to do. You know what I found out? She wasn't saved and I found out she didn't understand what it was to be saved.
The only one that can save is the Lord Jesus Christ and he on the cross of Calvary paid all that anyone needs so that you might have your sins forgiven. There's a cathedral in Italy. I've never been overseas but I read about it and over one of the doors is a wreath with roses carved into it and it says all that pleases is but for a moment and on the other door on the other side it says all the troubles is but for a moment and on the main door in the center it says only that which is important is eternal and we're looking at tonight what's important that you might have your sins forgiven.
Paul and Silas were asked a tremendous question in Acts chapter 18. What must I do to be saved? What must I do to have my sins forgiven? How can I be right with God? How can I be sure when death strikes appointed unto man wants to die and after this the judgment that I'm going to be in heaven and notice they both spoke at the same time and it would be the same answer from anyone that's saved how they can be saved and they told them believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and I want you to notice the verse underneath and they spake unto him the word of the.
They would have told him about Calvary. They would have told him about the Lord Jesus. They would have told him that on the cross why the Lord Jesus paid for your sins. They would have told him that he shed his own precious blood.
They would have told him that no man took his life but he laid it down and they would have told them when a sinner finds out when you find out that the Lord Jesus paid for your sins on the cross Mr. Jailer you'll be saved.
You see Calvary delighted God and Calvary will deliver you and I from the chains of sin and the bondage of sin and the penalty and the power of sin and Calvary will put our names in the ram's book of life and we sometimes sing who's a pardoning God like thee and who has grace so rich and free.
God wants to give you a pardon. God wants to like wipe the slate clean as far as the east is from the west so far can he remove our transgressions from us. Have you ever found out that the Lord Jesus paid for your sins on the cross?
That's what I'm resting in and relying on. That the Lord Jesus Christ died for the ungodly and a qualified me. You know it's possible to know the gospel. It's possible to know about the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's possible to be able to quote the bible verses maybe better than I can do it but it's all in the head and it's all intellectual. God's longing to awaken you tonight not only about your sinful condition but to open your eyes that the Lord Jesus paid for your sins on the cross and because of what he did you go free.
Calvary declares deity. The son of man must rise again. This is the day that celebrated his Easter up from the grave he arose. If Christ be not raised our faith is in vain. Hallelujah what a savior. But Calvary also divides humanity saved lost in Christ not in Christ.
I'll ask you a question. I'll ask you none at the door. You can ask if you want. Are you in Christ or not in Christ. Are you saved tonight or it's not well with your soul. It's one or the other. There's no middle ground and God loves you and his son in love went to the cross and paid the price that was required that you and I might have our sins forgiven.
And the exchange rate to heaven. It's not deeds or doing. It's not rites or rituals. It's not silver or gold. It's faith taking God at his word that on the cross he paid for my sins and I go free. Calvary will never be defeated.
And Calvary will always be remembered. And I trust as the meeting goes on this evening that you might realize you must be saved. The God who made you and gives you the very breath and loves you. And the demonstration of his love with his son who laid down his life on the cross of Calvary he says you must be saved.
You need your sins forgiven. He says it in love and kindness and tenderness. And it reminds us we need the new birth. We need to be rescued from above. And it reminds us graciously and tenderly that you and I must be saved.
But I want to emphasize above and all we must be saved. You and I can be saved because of what the Savior the Lord Jesus Christ did on the cross of Calvary. This is a faithful saying unworthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
The Lord Jesus graciously kindly tenderly paid all that you and I need that we might be saved in first Peter 3. Christ also suffered for sins the just for the unjust that he might bring us nigh unto God.
The Lord Jesus paid it all. Could I ask you tonight. Would you be willing to trust him. Would you swallow your pride. I'd acknowledge before God I'm a guilty vile sinner. And Jesus I will trust thee.