You Must Believe in Jesus

Here we go. See anybody? That's one of those audience at one deals. Yeah. Or audience at three. Yeah.

Yeah. Well, here we are outside of Planned Parenthood. We're here to proclaim the excellencies of the Lord Jesus Christ. So our desire for you is that you would know Jesus Christ as your Lord and that he would be your savior because at this moment, God's wrath abides on you and he's your judge. And the reason we come to a place like Planned Parenthood is because this location is a place where great evil is done, where the murder of children occurs.

It's a place where people tear babies apart and kill them in the womb where they ought to be safe. Hey, Josh, that's Alan. That's my friend. so we want to announce what's called the gospel of jesus christ so this is the truth that there is a god in heaven and he sent his son into the world to be the savior of the world and when we say that we want you to understand what that means you see many many years ago there were two people who God placed in a garden, a garden of Eden it's called.

Their names were Adam and Eve. And God told them that they were not to eat of a particular tree, but that they could eat of every other tree. And this guy, Adam, did exactly what we would do, and he eventually ate from that tree, showing that he would not obey God, even under the best of circumstances. As the result, God cursed all of humanity. He cursed the creation.

He cursed this earth. That's why we have suffering. It's why we have death and disease. It's why we have thorns and thistles when we garden. But the other thing is, is that everyone who was then born after Adam and Eve was born with the guilt of original sin already on their person. That means that you and I and my friends here, you and I are guilty of sin before a holy God, a holy God who is also a righteous and just judge.

And so today what we come to tell you is that Jesus Christ, that holy God, came into the world to save sinners. So what does that mean? How can a person be saved because of Jesus Christ? When Jesus Christ came into the world, rather than just showing up as God, who he is, he actually took on human flesh and became a man. Man, I'll take it. I forgot I had it.

Yeah. Yeah, I forgot. I didn't realize nobody was using it. I can hold it. Okay. Well, we'll see you another time then.

Bye, Linda. Sorry, you didn't mean to yell. And so the Lord Jesus Christ came down from heaven and became a man. God in the flesh became a man. And he was crucified and suffered under Pontius Pilate. and he died. But before he died, he went around the world proclaiming his excellencies.

He went around the world proclaiming his righteousness and the righteous judgment of God. And he told people that there was a way that they could escape the judgment of God. There was a single way, one way given by God, which is more than we deserve. And that one way that Jesus Christ gave us that we could escape God's judgment would be to be perfect.

And yet none of us is perfect. And so Jesus Christ lived a perfect life that you and I could not live. He never violated God law every righteous demand of the law he fulfilled in his life And so Jesus Christ was a perfect man unstained by sin, not personally guilty of any sin whatsoever, not guilty of the sin of Adam. And Jesus Christ, when he suffered on the cross, He suffered the eternal plan of God for sinners.

Jesus Christ suffered so that God could punish him for the sins of all of his people. This was God's plan of salvation, whereby he would count sinners as righteous, who came to him by faith and by faith alone. For by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified before God. Nobody will be able to stand before God and live. Nobody will be able to say to God that they are innocent.

Even the smallest little sins that some of us commit, in God's eyes, are of a magnitude of infinite order. because God is infinitely holy. He will not abide with unholiness. He will not abide with ungodliness. He will not abide with any sin whatsoever. But Jesus Christ is the sinless Son of God. And when He was on this world multiple times, the Father spoke from heaven and said, This is my Son in whom I am well pleased.

And what God promises to all those who believe in Jesus is to place them in His Son. What this means is that if you will come to Jesus Christ, if you will repent of your sin, and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, if you will trust that only His righteousness alone is the only hope you have to be in God's favor, then God actually places you in Christ, it's said in the Bible. And God will forgive you of all your iniquity, of your drunkenness, of your fornication.

He'll forgive you of slander and gossip and maliciousness. He will forgive you of being insolent and haughty and boastful and faithless and ruthless. God is a forgiving God who on the basis of the righteousness of Christ will forgive all manner of sin and evil. There is nothing that you can do that is too great for God to forgive you if you will come to Christ.

Take one of these cards. Come on, Clyde. We announce the righteousness of Christ today, and we announce the unrighteousness of man, because that knowledge is required for you to have any hope of knowing God. You cannot know God if you do not know the truth about God and about yourself. if you do not know that you have a disease, you will not cling to the cure for the disease.

And so why we are here is to tell you the hard truth that your righteousness is nothing in the eyes of a holy God. That even the best things that you can do in this world that accord with what is right and good are seen by God as wicked because they're done for your own glory and not for His. God is so perfect, He is only pleased with His own works. And God in heaven sent His only Son, Jesus Christ, into the world to pay the penalty sinners deserve. we also stand out here in an abortion clinic so that you may know what happens here so that you may know that your neighbor is being led to slaughter by another one of your neighbors so that you will know that the reason why we are here is that God is the creator of life it is God and God alone who can make life and God and God alone who can take life because Jesus Christ announced that he is the way, the truth and the life there is no life outside of Jesus Christ there's no life there's no hope and yet in Jesus Christ there is perfect hope An absolute certainty.

There is nothing at all that can separate those who come to Christ from their Lord. Not your family, not your old friends, not your old sins, not your future sins, not even yourself. those who come to Jesus Christ by faith are secure for all eternity because God is the one who holds them securely in the palm of his hand those who come to Jesus Christ are called sons of God adopted of the Father friends of God. Those who come to Jesus Christ are called forgiven, and justified, and sanctified, and saints, and the called.

Look at that tree. Did you see that tree? Kind of out of place looking What? Is it a fig tree? Yeah All the rest of them are straight Oh yeah, a car hit it probably And so what we call on you to do is consider your eternity You're going to spend a few decades here in this world. You're going to spend a few decades hearing the things that this world will tell you.

You may not even have those few decades remaining. I don't know, and you don't know. But you will spend eternity in heaven or hell. you will spend eternity being punished for your sin in this world or you will spend eternity basking in the safety and the glory of Jesus Christ but only only those who come to Christ will be saved only those who repent of their sin who turn from the evil that we mean to do and that we do and turn to Christ alone Only those will be saved.

There is no hope apart from Jesus Christ for anyone to be in God's favor. What this means is that God doesn't love you by nature. By nature, God hates each and every one of us because he is good and we are evil. This sounds a little harsh and it might sound weird because you probably don't hear that at your average church here in Seabus. But God's hatred for sin is the only way you can make sense of the fact that there is a place called hell where sinners will reside forever. most of you do not believe in a God who would hate and yet you hate any number of things there's any number of things that you would admit that you would hate that person if they did that thing and yet you won't give God in your mind the same freedoms thankfully none of you are in charge of God so God will do what he pleases when he pleases and how he pleases and where he pleases and what that means is that God is free to cast his hatred upon any sinner and God is free to also save any sinner and what he commands of you is to come to Him by faith, to repent of all known sin, to repent even of who you are, your very identity, and to put your full identity in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, to identify with Him and His humanity and His suffering in order that you may be glorified with Him and His glorification. this is a gracious gift that God would extend his only son send him to die on a cross in order to be raised again so that he could proclaim the righteousness of his life so that we might know that God is going to judge the world according to this man Jesus He raised Him from the dead and gave us the Bible that tells us of His perfect life and Jesus Christ has ascended into heaven and He is seated at the right hand of God and He will make His enemies His footstool and He has all powers under His feet And under his control.

And he has all authority over everything in this world and in the next. And so we plead with you today as your fellow man. As fellow sinners who have no righteousness of our own, we plead with you. Come to Jesus Christ today. believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for your soul's salvation trust in the Lord Jesus Christ today believe that he is God that he was born of a virgin and lived a sinless life and then suffered and died under Pontius Pilate for the sins of his people believe that God raised him from the dead and that you can be raised from your dead state as well and trust only that the righteousness of Jesus is your only hope that God would forgive you of your sins and iniquities God is a forgiving God He forgives all manner of transgressions People who have committed all sorts of evil deeds against their fellow men have been forgiven by God because our sin, although perpetrated against one another sometimes is ultimately against God.

Our sin is a violation of His holy commandments, of His moral law. And most of us sin far more in our hearts against this God than we ever do against other people. We tend to be generally kind to people, or at least we try to be nice and courteous so we could get along, often for selfish means, but a lot of times we just like people. We just want to help people.

We want to give people good gifts and show them love and kindness. But when it comes to God, because there's no immediate consequence to our sin, often we imagine that He's not serious about sin. because we can blaspheme God's name repeatedly and we never get struck by lightning. We flatter ourselves into thinking that he doesn't hear our blasphemies because in our hearts we can worship all sorts of other things and we don't see any immediate consequence to those sins in our heart. we flatter ourselves into thinking that God is not aware that these things are in our heart and that they offend him.

And yet, God is the all-knowing, perfect God. He is the all-knowing, perfect God. And he is going to punish the wicked on the day of judgment. And he's going to punish the wicked in a place called hell. But Jesus Christ went there for his people. Jesus Christ suffered the penalty sinners deserve.

And so we flatter ourselves into the belief that we are not really that bad or that God doesn't exist anyway. we suppress the truth that we know about God because of our unrighteousness for the wrath of God has been revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man we can look around at our creation we can look at the sun, moon and stars in the universe we can look at large mountains the oceans and we know that there is a God with divine power and an eternal nature there is actually no doubt there is total certainty everyone who goes to hell will go to hell knowing that they spent their life knowing there was a God because God says they are without excuse because the light of nature has made it utterly clear that there is a God who must be obeyed. So our call to you today is repent. Repent of all your sins.

Repent of your own righteousness that you think you have and trust only in the righteousness of Christ alone. You want to break or breathe? You want to breathe? Let me know. Yeah. I'll probably get staying with you so you don't have to take all that stuff off.

Well, I got to take... You think I can hear that? Oh, then I can hold it. Yeah, I don't want to make it complicated. You think I can reach it? No, I'll just try that.

You just got to stay close. I like being close. I'm his interpreter. Test, test, test. Here we go. Oh, so now they're going to throw stuff at me, though.

We come to you today in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. He's king of this world. He's king of this universe. He's king of heaven and earth. In the name of Jesus Christ, by his authority, we tell every person that can hear our voice, you must be born again. The reason you must be born again is because you are dead in your trespasses and sins.

You have by nature broken God's holy law in Adam, our first father. And by your own desires and your own will and your own choices, you've broken every one of God's commandments. He's told us not to worship idols. We worship sports and sex and drugs and even good things like family. He's told us not to commit adultery. You've looked at things like pornography.

You've had lust against a woman in your heart. We've broken that commandment. He's told us not to bear false witness. You've lied. You've cheated. You've stolen. all these things when we deserve God's holy and just wrath.

And as I stand out here beside Planned Parenthood on a rainy day, I'm reminded of two things. One, the Bible says that God makes His rain fall on the just and the unjust. Even though you're wicked and miserable, deserving God's wrath, this rain today, every raindrop that falls, is a revelation of God's kindness to you. The very fact that God cares about this universe enough that He continues to send the rain.

Another thing I'm reminded of is that Psalm 127 says this, Children are a heritage of the Lord. The fruit of the womb is a reward. And I'm reminded as I stand out here that this Planned Parenthood represents a double sin against God. First, we reject His goodness. Children are a heritage of the Lord, a reward. They are a blessing.

Planned Parenthood represents a slap in the face to God, an absolute turning our backs upon Him. We've taken this good blessing from God and we've spat in His face and said, we don't want it. Then, of course, the other sin is murder. We've taken this precious life of God that God has given us, that God has given a precious woman and a man, and we've killed it.

We have said that God is not God. We've replaced or attempted to replace Him. We've tried to sit on the throne that is only rightfully His. So what can be done about all this? Well, as I said earlier, you must be born again. The way that begins is the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ.

I said that Jesus Christ is king of the universe, and that's true. He has eternally existed, meaning Jesus has always been the Son of God, the eternal Son of God. But 2,000 years ago, the eternal Son of God, which I don't think is coincidence that we're sitting out here beside a Planned Parenthood and think that the way that God saved the world began in one sense in the fact that Jesus Christ became a baby.

Jesus Christ was conceived by the Holy Spirit and He was born of the Virgin Mary. Jesus Christ is the righteous one. As He walked this earth, He was righteous. All these things that we've done, all these commandments that we've broken, Jesus Christ kept them to the fullest. Amen. Every single thing that Adam was commanded to do that he didn't do in the garden, Jesus Christ has done.

In the Old Testament, there's a people known as Israel, commanded to do the things that God commanded Adam, and then beyond that they failed. Jesus Christ has kept those commands. Jesus Christ has done every single thing that God has required of man that we have failed. And then what happened? Not only is Jesus Christ the righteous one, but he's also our glorious substitute.

What does that mean? It means that on the cross, the Bible says that Jesus actually became sin. And think about this for a moment. You've heard about the agony of the cross, and no doubt the physical brutality of the cross was astronomical. But what was so devastating for our Lord Jesus Christ is not merely the physical brutality, but that He who knew no sin became sin for us.

And He actually quoted Psalm 22 on the cross, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? because in that moment, God laid upon the Son our sins. For all who would turn from their sins and believe the good news of this gospel that you're hearing, our sins were laid upon Jesus Christ. And the wrath of God was poured out on Christ, the wrath of God that we deserve.

Actually, the wrath of God that many will suffer for all eternity. God's wrath was poured out on the Son on Calvary. He became sin. Why? So that in Him we might become the righteousness of God. Our sins were laid upon Christ, and Christ tasted the bitter fruit of death.

He who knew no sin, who had never sinned, who deserved only the good things from God, instead tasted death He was buried But that not the end of the story On the third day he rose again from the grave Why is that Well, Romans 4.27, 4.25 says, he was raised for our justification. Meaning, the victory of Jesus is proven by the fact that he lives again. He lives today.

The God-man lives and He reigns. He rose from the dead having victory over death and hell and the grave. Jesus Christ lives. The very fact that He lives reminds us that there is only one way to God. You will not get to God by trying your best. You will not get to God by trying to be a good person. you will not get to God by trying to trust Allah or trusting the false gospels that are preached out there by Roman Catholics or Mormons or Jehovah's Witnesses.

The only way to God is to repent of your sins and believe the gospel. The only way to God is for God in His grace to cause you to be born again. And the instrument, the means of that is the proclamation of this gospel. Hear this gospel. Jesus Christ is King. Jesus Christ has paid our sin debt.

Will you repent of your sin and believe the gospel? You're reminded today of God's goodness to you, not only in this rain, but in the very fact that He has sent a group of men here to preach the gospel to you, to warn you of the futility, the wickedness, the horribleness of a place like Planned Parenthood where babies are murdered, where babies are chopped up, where women are told that they're merely victims of society rather than perpetrators, antagonizers. They are murderers. the only way to God is through Jesus Christ the only way to God is through the atoning work of Christ Jesus Christ was murdered on the cross so that murderers could be forgiven so that the sins of murderers could be atoned for but it's not enough for you just to hear this message it's not enough for you to just continue on in your own ways.

You must stop and surrender. Surrender to the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. You must bow the knee to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is King of the universe. He's already King of your life. You can't make Him King of your life.

But you can surrender now. You can bow the knee to His kingship. You can turn from your sins. And you can believe the Gospel. If that happens to you, it's only because of God's glorious and sovereign grace. Jesus Christ is coming back.

How will He find you? Will He find you trusting in His Word? Will He find you trusting in His Gospel? Or will He find you, like so many others, so many billions in this world today, living for yourself, living for your own glory, despite His goodness? the very fact that your heart is beating, the very fact that you have breath in your lungs, the very fact that you can hear this message is a reminder that God has been nothing but good to you, and you have been nothing but wretched before our holy God.

The Bible says that God is holy. In fact, in Isaiah 6, it says that God is holy, holy, holy. What does that mean? It means that God is perfectly pure and free from sin, It means that God is separate from this creation. It means that God is high above us. It means that God has never done one evil deed or thought.

All that He's done is good, perfectly righteous. And the very fact that God is holy means that He cannot laugh at our sin. It means that He cannot excuse our sin. It means that He cannot merely sweep our sin under the rug. but the Bible tells us that God sent His Son. God sent His Son to be an atonement for our sin. God sent His Son so that on the cross God could pour out His wrath righteously God sent His Son so that all who would believe in Him would not perish but have everlasting life.

The only way for you to be right with God is through the atoning work of Christ. You can't do it on your own. God punished Christ in our place for all who would look on Him. You need an atonement. Our sins will be punished one way or the other, either in Christ or the wrath of God for all eternity in a place called hell. This world is not all there is.

There is life after this. Life for those who trust on Christ or eternal conscious hell, eternal death. for those who have chosen to not repent of their sins and believe the gospel, for those who have continued on in their life of sin and wretchedness, those who have continued to rebel against God, to go their own way, to follow the courts of this world, to follow the prince of the power of the air, those who continue to be children of wrath, those who continue to walk in their disobedience. But Jesus Christ came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.

What does this life consist of? Well, it's really wrapped up, I think, in 1 Peter 3.18, that Jesus Christ suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God. That in Jesus Christ, our sins can be atoned for, our sins can be forgiven, and we are brought to God. That's the reason that we were created, that we would glorify God and enjoy Him forever.

So many have believed a lie that this life is about drugs or sex or even money. So many have believed a lie that this life is about living for yourself. No, friends, this life is about the glory of God. He's made us for Himself. And though we have willfully rejected Him, though we have willfully sinned against Him, He's offered atonement in Christ. He's offered forgiveness of our sins in Jesus Christ.

You can have forgiveness of your sins in Christ, but you must repent. You must look to His sacrificial offering. You must understand that it's only the sacrifice of Christ that is the propitiation, that is the wrath-satisfying sacrifice for our sins. you can be forgiven you can be forgiven today but the only way is through the finished work of Jesus Jesus Christ said in John 14 6 that he is the way, the truth, the life what does that mean? well, it means that definite article means he's not a way He's not one of many ways today, but He's the only way.

That's it. It's only through Christ. There is no other way. Through His life, through His death, through His resurrection, there is a way to eternal life. The way to eternal life. Through the Son.

He is the door. It's only through Him. God will not compromise with your sin today. God will not negotiate with your sin today. You don't get to come to the table and make a deal with God. The only way to heaven, the only way to eternal life, is for you to forsake all else, for you to turn from your sins, for you to see God as He is, Lord of the universe, for you to bow the knee to Jesus Christ, to repent of your sins and believe the gospel. there are more benefits to that obviously that is you can live this life as it was meant to be lived you can live this life walking in joy and newness of life with god you can understand that this world is not about you you can live not in fear of a virus or not in fear of the government or not in fear of the other things in this world.

You can live in fear of God And actually living in fear of God is the only way the best way that we can live We can fear God and nothing else We can live in joy knowing that our sovereign God no matter what happens our sovereign God is in control, that he has a plan for this universe. And we can live in the confidence knowing that one day, no matter what happens, no matter who's president, no matter the state of this country, we know that Jesus Christ is returning, and we know that God is in control, and that God has a glorious future for His church. God has a glorious future for His elect.

God has a glorious future for His people. But you have the opportunity now. You have the opportunity while you're hearing the sound of our voices. You have the opportunity to acknowledge the truth of what we're saying to you. You need to understand that we don't come to you today in our own name. We don't come to you today in the name of some sort of organization.

We don't come to you in the name of any sort of political party. We come to you in the name of our King. We come to you in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. How can I say all this? Because He's given us a book. Our Lord, our King, our Master has given us a book, and in this book, He has told us to proclaim the glory of His name to all who will hear, well, even to those who won't hear as well.

But I pray that you are one who will hear. You will hear today that in this book, we see the way to life, the way to eternal life. and this way is through our Lord Christ who has given Himself for us on the cross, who has pierced in His hands, pierced in His feet, pierced in His side. And yet on the cross, God laid upon the Son our iniquity for those who would look to the Son in faith.

What does that mean? What does that mean to look to the Son in faith? It doesn't merely mean that you must acknowledge that Jesus existed. Honestly, any fool ought to acknowledge that Jesus existed. The abundance of evidence for the existence of Jesus, it's not even worth talking about. It's indisputable that Jesus existed.

Everybody should acknowledge that Jesus existed, but faith is even more than that. Faith is understanding that Christ existed, that Christ walked this earth, that Christ exists now. But faith is actually trusting that. An illustration I often use in my own hometown is there's a bridge right outside of town. Faith is not merely seeing that bridge and believing that that bridge can hold us up.

Faith is actually driving over that bridge. Friends, Jesus Christ is a bridge. You must not merely acknowledge that He exists. acknowledge that He will forgive you of your sins, you must put your faith in Christ. You must trust that Jesus Christ truly is our only suitable and all-sufficient Savior. And that the only way that you are able to be saved is because Jesus has lived the life that you didn't live, a perfectly righteous life, perfectly keeping all of God's commandments, and He died the death that you and I deserve, taking on the wrath of God.

He who knew no sin became sin on our behalf. And you must trust that. And in so trusting, you turn from your sins. You repent of your sins. Meaning you hate your sin. You begin to see your sin for what it is.

Black, vile, evil, wretched in the sight of God. And then you see the sweet and tender mercy of Christ our Lord. You know the only qualification? For the mercy of our Lord is that you are a sinner. And guess what? You qualify.

So you must exceed your sin. You must see your wretchedness. You must see your vileness before a holy and good God. And you must put your faith in the finished work of Christ. You must repent of your sins and believe the gospel. you