Truth Archive

We were just singing, “Is it nothing to you?” Over and over in our convention, we have heard the servants thank God many times for the sacrifice of Jesus. That is one of the main reasons Jesus came to earth, to be a sacrifice for sin, but in the Gospels there are at least ten reasons why Jesus came to this world. Most people think that is the only reason – Jesus came and it will take care of everything but there are other reasons why Jesus came.
Matthew 5:17, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets; I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” In Vietnam, we have a lot of students that we teach English to from the Bible. It is a good way to get them acquainted with Jesus. They don’t know about the Bible or have not heard about Jesus. Jesus is the only man whose life story was told before He was born. 700 years before Jesus was born, Isaiah wrote many things about Jesus so that is one very good reason to believe in Jesus. There have been other individuals in this world in history books and thousands or millions of people follow their teaching, but not one word was said about them before they were born. They were self made people.
Jesus was with His Father in Heaven before the world began. God has a plan and God has a calendar, and everything is falling into place according to God’s calendar. After Joseph and Mary were married, maybe one night Joseph was reading the scroll of Hosea and he came to this verse, “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt.” [Hosea 11:1]. Maybe Joseph said to Mary, “Look at what was written by Hosea, 700 years before Jesus was born. We did the right thing when the angel spoke to us and we made that long trip to Egypt, because this is the very thing that was said before Jesus was born.” It is one good reason for people to believe in Jesus.
That hymn speaks about the great Judgement Day coming, and every one of us will be there fulfilling scripture (Matthew 25). All nations will be gathered and there will be two groups: the sheep and the goats. So, we are going to be there either as a sheep or as a goat, fulfilling scripture on that day. Can we picture ourselves? Which group are we going to be amongst, the sheep or the goats? God is going to separate the sheep from the goats. All a shepherd has to do is call his sheep and they recognise his voice and they come, but the goats will never recognise the voice of Jesus because they have never followed Jesus. Goats will respond to the voice of a goatherd, but none of those goats will respond to the voice of Jesus, the Shepherd. Those who recognise His voice are those who have heard it and responded to it in [their] lifetime, so every one of us here will be fulfilling scripture some day in the future.
Matthew 9:13, “But go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” Some were critical of Jesus because He ate with publicans and sinners. That is another reason why Jesus came to this earth, not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. When I listened to the Gospel, there was a lot I didn’t know. I didn’t start to read the Bible until I was 22. I thought that Jesus would just come back for the good people and leave the bad people behind, but that is not right. Jesus said that He did not come to call the righteous. People who are not sick don’t need a physician. God allowed sin in this world because sin will cause people to be drawn towards God, not to be repelled from Him. Sin causes people to do foolish things, maybe they become addicted to things and lose their jobs or their families. We know some who have lost businesses, homes, and almost lost their lives because of sin, but man’s extremity is God’s opportunity and some have realised that their only hope is calling upon God. So, Jesus said He came not to call the righteous, and sinners respond to the Gospel more than the righteous.
What is repentance? I like the Chinese character for repentance. It is two characters, one over the other; one means, “I’m sorry” and the other means, “I change.” Sin leads people into a lot of things they feel sorry about. Repentance is saying, “I am indeed sorry for what I have done but I want to change and I want to stay changed with the help of God.” Repentance is the result of listening to the Gospel; a change of heart and mind of life and master. Repentance is like making a u-turn and all things become new.
We heard about the two men at the temple praying. The Pharisee said, “Lord, I am thankful I am not like this publican.” The publican couldn’t even lift up his eyes. I had a companion once who used to say the Pharisee probably also added, “Lord, Heaven would be lonesome without me. I can just see the angels leaning out the door waiting for me to come!”
Matthew 10:34, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth; I came not to send peace, but a sword.” That sounds kind of strange but a lot of people think that Jesus came to make this world a more peaceful place. No, Jesus didn’t come to conquer this world square mile by square mile, but one soul at a time. After three and a half years of public ministry, it seems like there were just 500 souls who believed and were gathered together after Jesus arose from the dead; not very many. To those who choose to follow Jesus, it always makes a little conflict in families or conflict with friends. One young man listened to the Gospel and went against his family’s wishes. His father stood in the doorway and said, “You are not going past me,” but the young man did and as a result of him listening to the Gospel, his younger brother professed and is now in the work. Another brother professed and another brother who was separated from his wife professed. He and his wife listened to the Gospel individually and they ended up back together. It was too much for their father, and gradually Dad and Mum came and professed also, as a result of one young man going against his father’s wishes.
The best way we can love our families is by following Jesus. If I had listened to my parents, I would not be here tonight but as a result of my choice, my parents made their choice some 17 years later. It brought a sword, but gradually things changed. In the 1980’s, a couple in Canada were looking for peace. They wanted to find a place to live where there was no trouble. That is not peace. Peace is having the presence of God in the midst of trouble. Anyway, they read about the Falkland Islands and decided they would go and live there. Two weeks after they moved there, war broke out and they were lying on the floor dodging bullets. They didn’t find peace in that place. Peace comes as a result of listening to the Gospel story of Jesus and surrendering to the will of God. In Vietnam, many of our friends came through the Vietnam War. Some spent two years, five years or ten years in prison but through it all, they still had peace in their hearts because they had the presence of God with them.
Mark 1:38, “And He said unto them, ‘Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also for therefore came I forth.’” That is another reason why Jesus came, to preach the Gospel. I like what Matthew told us about the Gospel being like a little seed. The Gospel is a miracle waiting to happen. If a little seed could talk it would say, “Just give me the right conditions and I will produce a life just like the life I came from.” The Gospel would say, “Give me the good soil and the right conditions and I will produce the life of Jesus.” Inside a pumpkin seed there is a miniature pumpkin plant. In the Gospel seed, I believe there is a miniature life of Jesus, the spirit of Jesus. Colossians 1:27, “To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Gospel: God Offers Sinful People Eternal Life. What else is good news in this world? It would be a challenge to find anything in a newspaper that is good news. Most people know that Cain slew Abel, but they don’t know that Adam and Eve also had other children. People thrive on bad news, but the Gospel is good news. An unusual thing happened in a school on the first day of a Grade 12 class, when the teacher asked the students to write an essay about their faith. They got up and ran for the encyclopedias, but one of our friends just took a piece of paper and started writing. She handed it in and she got an A+. The other students said, “How come you gave us Bs and Cs?” The teacher said, “She wrote from her heart.” She wrote, “My church has been from the beginning.” That is what John said, “My Gospel is from the beginning.” It doesn’t come in books; it comes in boots. The Gospel is a living message brought by living messengers that are sent by a living God.
Adam Hutchinson was in India many years ago visiting with the Indian High Commissioner. This man, Mr. Wilson, asked him about his work and he said, “It’s the living Gospel and it comes to people in boots, not in books. That is why we travel with the Gospel.” Mr. Wilson said, “If that is the case, how would the Shah of Iran happen to hear the Gospel?” When President Gandhi was assassinated in 1948, this Mr. Wilson had professed by then and moved to Iran, where he was asked to give a memorial service. Mr. Wilson was moved to give his testimony and the Shah of Iran was there. So, the Gospel comes in boots, not in books.
I was invited to my first Gospel meeting in someone’s home. When I walked into the room all was quiet, a few folks were looking at their Bibles and it struck me that this is how it would have been in Jerusalem 2,000 years ago. I will never forget the feeling I had in that Gospel meeting. I John 1:1, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life.” John spoke about the word of life. When we speak words to one another, it is a way of getting what is in my mind to your mind. This was the living word, the means of getting what was in God’s heart into your heart. That is why Jesus was the living Word with a capital letter. “Manifested” means “demonstrated.” John saw it demonstrated before him and the life of Jesus is still demonstrated in the lives of God’s servants and people. I once saw a man cutting circles out of plate glass. I had never seen that done before. He was demonstrating the tool and I was tempted to buy that tool, but what would I do with a circular glass cutter? Jesus demonstrated that which we have seen and heard.
Our fellowship is with the Father, and there are two kinds of fellowship: golden and silver fellowship. People have become like gold to Him because that gold has been brought to the surface. We all have a potential, but it is hard to dig it out of some. When we have fellowship in the Gospel, it is very precious to God. On the other side, this fellowship with one another is silver fellowship. The fellowship with God and His Son is gold and it comes first. After that comes silver fellowship. We cannot have it unless the golden fellowship comes first, and as a result, we love God’s people more and more.
I John 3:14, “We know that we have passed from death unto life, because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother abideth in death.” It is a wonderful assurance when we feel that we love God’s people and we love God’s servants. It is an assurance that we are alive to God. We have fellowship with God and we are in God’s care, so that is the invitation that God gives you. When you choose to follow Jesus and to have fellowship with God’s people, it is choosing to have fellowship with God and with Jesus. It is also choosing to allow the power of the Gospel to bring this gold to the surface so that we can know wonderful fellowship with God and have the peace of God within our hearts in spite of what is happening around us. We can have eternal hope and fellowship with God and with His people continuing in the ages to come. Eternal life is not something that happens after you die; it is something that happens now. If a doctor could give you a pill to live another 100 years, would you take it? I don’t think so. Eternal life is not just quantity, it is quality. It begins now and leads on to the eternal ages, and there will be a quality about it that is much better than you can ever imagine.