Episode Transcript
Jesus said in Matthew 28:19, go therefore, and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Welcome to go teach all nations, bringing you Christ's teachings through australian and international speakers.
And here is today's presenter, Pastor Uriah St Juste. Let's pray together that God will bring the gospel in this morning's message.
Father, we thank you for this beautiful Sabbath day and the gift of the Sabbath where all of us, Father, from various walks of life we can come together in worship, in communal worship. Lord, what a beautiful thing. All your people, all your saints, can come together on your holy day in your house to give you praise and thanksgiving and to worship you and to hear from you, from your Word.
Be present with us, Lord, even now as we open your word and we share the gospel. May the gospel shine. May Jesus be the centre and may the words of my mouth and the meditation of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight.
Let all God's people say, Amen. Please continue to pray that I keep my foot on the accelerator. Have you ever been accused of doing something that you did not do? Do you remember what that felt like? You were innocent, but you were blamed.
You may have felt a sense of unfairness, a sense that there is no justice worse than being falsely accused for something that you did not do is to be falsely punished. When I was in what then was known as, I think it still is, form one, which would probably be the equivalent of year seven, first year of high school, I was the class prefect and it was a period just after lunch and it was pretty noisy and there was a girl next to me. It was an English literature class, but the book that she was reading under the desk had nothing to do with our class.
So the teacher saw her and asked her to put it away and she didn't. So I turned to her and I asked her, could you please do as the teacher told you to? And then she just said, don't you see that's what I'm doing? And in doing so, she struck accidentally, the boy who was sitting behind me and he was minding his business. And as far as he was concerned, she hit him for no reason.
So he hit back and the two of them got into a big fight. Incidentally, the vice principal who was responsible for discipline was walking right by our class, walked in and asked what happened. Teacher said, these two are in a fight.
She called them forward, ask a student to go to the office and get the leather strap. And in interviewing the students, the boy said that she was in. The girl was in some kind of conflict with Uriah.
And the vice president said, oh, who is Uriah? You come forward. And I was never given a chance to explain. When I tried to, she shut me down and said if you were minding your business you would not be in this position.
And I got five strokes with the lettuce strap across my back for doing nothing wrong. Probably doing my job as the prefect. Even worse than being falsely punished for what you did not do is to be falsely executed.
Very serious. Now I'm going to walk you through some statistics. They are heavily US based because, and it's obvious reasons we don't have capital punishment in Australia.
In the United States there have been at least 273 post conviction DNA exonerations. What that means is after a person was found guilty of a crime, 273 of these cases, DNA evidence proved that they were innocent. This evidence produced irrefutable proof that there was a wrongful conviction.
And these were not isolated or rare. 273 It's a lot. But they indicate systemic defects in the legal system.
75% of these cases were as a result of eyewitness misidentification. 50% were for non validated or improper forensic science played which played a role. The third highest number was for false confessions.
People who were coerced to confess and make incriminating statements. And the smallest group was for informants who had an axe to grind against the accused. Those that were on death row, which means that they were convicted to death.
They were overturned and freed. Some were not so fortunate, some were not fortunate. The story of Colorado Governor Bill Ritter who granted a full and unconditional pardon to a man by the name of Joe Aridy, who had been convicted as an accomplice to a murder that occurred 72 years.
Well in 1936 he had been found not guilty 72 years after he was executed. And the saying goes that it is better for 99 guilty persons to go free than for one innocent person to be unjustly punished. Think about this and I'm not sure if you agree with it or not.
It is better than 99 guilty people to go free than for one innocent person to be unjustly punished. Especially if it is going to be execution. And so the point is, as long as we are dealing with a human system, there will be errors.
And I'm not sure if you remember, some of you may be old enough to remember the case of O.J. simpson. It was called the trial of the century.
Millions watched worldwide live. Every piece of evidence, every testimony, every hearing that was done was paraded on the television. Remember the judge of Japanese descent, Judge Ito, Prosecutor Marsha Clark, the Dream Team, Johnny Cochran.
And I still remember the day when the jury reached a verdict. The whole world stopped to hear what the verdict would be. O.J.
simpson was found not guilty. He was acquitted and people were divided. Most people were convinced that he was guilty and later on he was found liable in a civil trial that said that he did kill those people.
But that doesn't matter because he was found not guilty of a crime. He wouldn't face prison. And we know the story.
Ironically, he was found guilty of other crimes later on and did serve time in prison. Some people who thought he was guilty thought this was a travesty of justice. They thought, obviously he did it and he's walking free.
What was called the trial of the century is no match to what I call the trial of all ages. And it is not conducted in the High Court of Australia because criminal trials are not conducted there. In the trial of all ages, in every trial, every criminal trial, there is what? A judge, there is someone who's accused, there is a prosecutor and there is a defence lawyer.
And we understand the roles that these different people play. Who is the accused? You and me. We all are.
Second Corinthians, 5, 10. The Bible says, for we must. What's the next word? All appear before the judgement seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
So God is not going to be judging us as a church, God will not be judging you as a family. Each individual person who is old enough to know the difference between good or bad will stand himself before the judgement seat of Christ. Now, where's the good news? That's no good news, is it? So we have the accused, who is the prosecutor.
Aha. Some people think that it's God. Some people have the view that God is the judge.
And that means he is the one ready to condemn us. He is the one with a magnifying glass, a microscope, even scrutinising our lives, looking for the smallest sin. And if he finds any, then it means we are condemned.
We are going to hell. When I was growing up, I heard an elder presenting on the Judgement and he said, when your name is called, if you have any unconfessed sin, you are lost. And no one knows when his name will be called.
Nothing scared me more as a teenager than that thought what hope do I have? How can I be sure that my life is purely sanitised? How can I know that there isn't something that I have done, or maybe some sin that I have not overcome yet, or maybe something that I might do tomorrow? And there's no hope for confession because my name has already been called. I am doomed forever. That is not the gospel.
God is not the accuser. The Bible says in Revelation, chapter 12, verse 10, for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night. And In Revelation, chapter 12, the Bible gives us all of his names, calls him that serpent of old, the devil, all of his aliases.
Satan is the one who is the accuser. If you don't get anything from this message, please get that. God is not the one who is accusing you.
It's the devil. And it is a capital crime that we are accused of. What does that mean? The punishment is death.
Romans, chapter 6, verse 23. For the wages of sin is what? Death. Where's the good news? Where's the joy? Pastor, I thought this message was about joy in the judgement.
So far you are scaring us. And by the way, if you don't know the answer to the question, the hymn that we sang, maybe that's the reason why you have no joy. And we are all guilty.
Romans 3, 23, 4. How many? You cannot claim I'm innocent. No one can claim that they are innocent.
No one can claim I'm not guilty. The Bible makes it very clear that the wages of sin is death. And all have sinned.
So what does that mean? That we are all condemned to death. Where is the joy? We're still waiting for the joy. The first angel's message.
Some of us can repeat it. Revelation 14, 6, 7. Then I saw another angel flying in the midst of heaven.
Having what? Don't be scared. The everlasting what? Gospel. What's the gospel? The good news.
It's not the sad news. It's not the scary news. It's the good news.
So where is the good news? It continues to preach to those who dwell in the earth. To every tribe, to every nation, Tribe, tongue and people. Saying what? With a loud voice.
Fear God and give glory to him. For what? The hour of his judgement has come. So the judgement is supposed to be good news? Not something to scare you.
Not something to make you afraid. Not something where you are uncertain. I don't know what it will be like.
I don't know how it will stand when I stand before Jesus. Where is the good news, where is the joy in this? Daniel saw the judgement, this trial. In Daniel 7 he writes for us what it was like.
Daniel 7, 9, 10. I watched till thrones were put in place and the ancient of days was seated. So here we have God being the judge.
By the way, a judge does not condemn in a trial. In an earthly trial, the accused actually condemns himself based on the evidence. So God is sitting in the judgement.
His garment was white as snow and the hair of his head was like pure wool. Daniel writes, his throne was a fiery flame. A thousand thousands ministered to him.
10,000 times, 10,000 stood before him. The court was seated and the books were opened. The books were opened.
So the evidence that is well documented is presented. And there is a record of every act done, every word spoken, every thought processed. And you know, friends, this is the reason why on this side of heaven we are told to be very careful in the way that we judge, because we do not have those books that has every thought and every act and every word.
And so we cannot judge or condemn another person. We have to be very careful how we do so because we don't have all the facts. Ecclesiastes 12:14.
The Bible says, for God will bring every work into judgement, including every secret thing, whether it is good or whether it is evil. And the tension in the house of God this morning can be cut with a knife. Where is the good news? Where is the joy? Pastor? All of my secret deeds that nobody else might know about, God knows.
That's what you're telling me. Even my thoughts, everything that I did in the COVID of darkness that I think nobody else knows, not only does he know about it, he will bring it into judgement. And that can cause some people to shake in their boots.
But it is important that God reminds us of this. You know, I think Bo and I were having a discussion earlier this week and we talked about whether or not we should, you know, in presenting the Bible to, to little children, should we clean it up a little bit so that it's not too traumatic to kids? When you're talking about the sanctuary and slitting the throats of animals, that's probably not something that you want to expose kids to, right? But God has put it there for us so that we can see the full impact of sin. Sin is not fun and games.
It's not sweet. It is painful to God and he reminds us of the seriousness of our actions of sin. Great controversy.
A book that we all love. This is what it says on page 482. Every man's work passes in review before God and is registered for faithfulness or unfaithfulness opposite each name in the books of heaven is entered with terrible exactness.
You scared yet every wrong word, every selfish act, every unfulfilled duty and every secret sin with every artful dis. Dissembling. As the disciples ask, who then can be saved? But the message is entitled Joy in the Judgement.
So hopefully you're sitting at the edge of your seats waiting for the good news. Heaven sent warnings or reproofs, neglected, wasted moments, unimproved opportunities, the influence exerted for good or for evil, with its far reaching results, all are chronicled by the recording angel. We have to be careful and we need to repent.
As the features of the countenance are produced with unerring accuracy on the Polish plate of the artist, so the character is faithfully delineated in the books above. Yet how little solicitude is felt concerning that record which is to meet the gaze of heavenly beings. If we could only remember that eyes are watching, maybe we would be careful, maybe we would stop.
Could the veil which separates the visible from the invisible world be swept back and the record and the children of men behold an angel recording every word and deed which they must meet again in the judgement. How many words that are daily uttered would remain unspoken? How many deeds would remain undone? If we can remember that it is recorded, it is in the view of all of heaven. Just maybe we may think twice.
Hebrews 4:13 and it's important. That's part of the Gospel. Paul says, do we continue to sin, that grace may abound? And he says, God forbid.
It's not because we have full access to God's grace that we live reckless lives. As a child of the king, we want to honour him in the way we live. Hebrews 4:13 and there is no creature hidden from his sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
And one preacher said in the judgement, all of your life will be played like a big DVD projection in the sky. Everything you have done. So let that sink in.
When we were little we sang the song, oh, be careful, little eyes, what you see. O be careful, little lips, what you say, oh, be careful, little feet, where you go, why? For there is a Father up above, not looking down to judge and condemn you, but looking down in tender love. O be careful, little eyes and mouths and feet, what you see and say and go.
So how shall we stand when we stand before God in the Judgement where the record is there. Matthew 12:36 7 For by your words, sorry, but I say unto you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgement. And by idle words there it means things that you say without thinking, thinking of the eternal implication, the internal impact of what we say.
We may say, I'm no murderer, I've never killed anyone. But have you killed someone with your tongue? Have you destroyed someone's reputation falsely? By what you have said, it continues. For by your words you will be justified, and by your words will you be condemned.
Angry words that we speak. There's a picture of Moses striking the rock. Curse words that we speak that come out of our mouths.
Peter denying Jesus critical words. When the same set of people who were praising Jesus as he entered Jerusalem for the last time, saying, hosanna, Hosanna. Blessed is he who comes.
These same people were saying, crucify him, away with him. We don't want him. Give us Barabbas instead.
We need to be careful in the words that we speak. Words of betrayal, words of gossip, words of backbiting. These are all recorded and God will hold us to account when we stand in the judgement.
The books were open, the Bible tells us. Malachi 3:16 Then those who feared the Lord spoke to one another, and the Lord listened and heard them. Those who feared the Lord.
Special class of people, God's people. So a book of remembrance was written before him for those who fear the Lord and who meditate on his name. It seems like we've rounded the corner and there is some hope in the Gospel, because God does not only record the bad things that you do, he records the good things that you do as well.
The Book of Remembrance records the good deeds that the children of God do. And even as it says here, those who meditate on his name, those thoughts, the words of encouragement that you give to someone, words of hope that you speak. And we are called now to think of the words that come out of our mouths.
Not when no one's speaking or no one's listening or looking, but when the person that we are speaking about in the first section is not present. What do you say about people behind their backs? But this section calls on us to what do we say to people in front of their faces? Do we encourage them? Do we give them hope? Do we give them words of encouragement, words of faith? These are recorded in the Book of remembrance. Psalm 56.
8. The Bible says, record my lament, list my tears on your scroll. Are they not in your record, the tears that you cry when you moisten your pillow at night, don't think that they go unnoticed by God.
He knows, he understands your grief, your pain, the reason why you do the things that you do. And when he stands before the mercy seat in heaven, he factors all of these things and he pleads on your behalf. And it's not a matter of whether your good deeds outweigh your bad deeds.
You know, sometimes we as Adventists, sometimes we think that's what it's like. That's how God judges, puts all our good deeds on one side of the scale and all our bad deeds on the other side. And if our good deeds outweigh, many religions of the world operate that way, but Christianity doesn't.
This is what the Bible says about our good deeds. Isaiah 64:6. But we are all like what an unclean thing.
And all our righteousnesses are like what filthy rags. So all of the good deeds that we do, it doesn't shift the scale one bit. Romans 3, 10.
As it is written, there is none righteous. No, not one. And so to help us to understand how we can pass the judgement, we go into the most holy place, the Kodesh Hakodeshim, the Holy of Holies.
The most holy place. In the sanctuary. It was separated from the rest of the sanctuary by a curtain.
And there was only one article of furniture, which was the Ark of the covenant. In Psalm 77:13 we discovered that God's way is in the sanctuary. God's character, God's nature, God's method of salvation is found in the sanctuary.
And every item in the sanctuary points to Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the one who takes away our sin. But there is no article, no piece of furniture than the Ark of the Covenant that displays the gospel. Its size 68 centimetres high by 114 centimetres long.
Sorry, 68 centimetres high and wide and 114 centimetres long. What was inside of it? Very important. The Ten Commandments.
Version 2.0 is 1.0. Moses broke Aaron's rod, that budded and pot of manna.
But notice something. The Ten Commandments are inside the Ark of the Covenant. And the lid of the Ten Commandments of the Ark of the Covenant was called the Mercy seat.
And it is there between these two angels where God's presence was manifested. And there is the Gospel. In that picture, mercy is above the law.
The law is there, but mercy, God and his mercy stands above the law. Didn't hear an Amen? Only one person was permitted to enter the Most holy place. And he could only go in there one day in the year, the 10th day of the seventh month.
What did he do? He made atonement. The Bible says for the sanctuary, for the priests and for the people. This was the day when all of the sins of the sanctuary were removed and the people restored to a new beginning.
Now, if the sanctuary is the place where God dwelt with his people, imagine all day long, throughout the whole year, people are confessing their sins. Their sins are symbolically being transferred from themselves to the animals and from the animals to the sanctuary. Sin is being piled up and piled up and piled up in the sanctuary where the place where God lives.
That's not good. And so it had to be removed. It had to be ceremoniously cleansed.
And that was what the day of atonement was about. And God was scrutinising the people to ensure that their hearts were one with him. And if you weren't, if you found outside of atonement, the Bible says you were cut off.
2 Chronicles 16:9 says the Lord's eyes scanned the whole world to find it. Says those whose hearts are committed to him and to strengthen them, I say praise the Lord. His heart, his eyes are not scanning to zap you dead.
He's looking for those that are committed to him. And even then he wants to strengthen you. He has the full picture.
And this high priest cleanses the sanctuary by applying the blood of the animal to the ark of the covenant. And in so doing, he is interceding on behalf of all of the people. Now, in the trial, we have identified who the judge is, we have identified who the accused is, we have identified who the accuser, the prosecutor is.
Who's the defence lawyer? First John, chapter two, verse one, and the full context of it. He says, my little children, I wish that you sinned not. But if you sin, God does not want us to sin.
We have seen that. We have seen the ugliness of sin and the reason why it is recorded so that hopefully we stay away from it. But God has made a provision that if we sin, we have an advocate, the Bible says, or a lawyer.
That word advocate in the New Testament, Greek is the word parakleton, which means a person that you call to stand beside you. Literally, that's what it means, to call to stand beside. So when you stand in the judgement alone with all of your sins guilty, all the evidence is there.
You call on Jesus to stand beside you and he pleads his blood because you are guilty and you are condemned to die. And Jesus says to the Father, I give my blood for you. He is the one who is righteous, perfectly righteous.
He is the one who kept all of the law. And we are told that when Jesus died, the veil of the earthly temple was rent, split in two from top to bottom, which showed that that earthly system was no more. We no longer needed an earthly priest to intercede for us.
When we sin, we can go directly to God through Jesus and confess our sin. And he pleads on our behalf and he takes away our sin, our unrighteousness, and he replaces it with his. I heard one preacher describe it very beautifully.
You know, sometimes you're working on a document on your computer and it's all messed up and you want to start over again. What do you do? You. Well, because I love keyboard shortcuts.
Control A. Everything is selected. And then you press what? Delete.
But that doesn't help you. It's all gone. You still don't have perfection, he says.
This is what Jesus does. He presses Control A on his document. That's perfect.
And presses Control C. What does that do? Copy. And then he comes over to your document and then he presses what? Control V.
I'm teaching you some keyboard shortcuts. Paste. He pastes his perfect document over your messy document and you become perfect.
His righteousness covers your unrighteousness when you accept him as your Saviour and you ask him to forgive you of all your sins, and he writes your name in the Lamb's book of life. There are only two classes of people in the end. Revelation, chapter 22, verse 11.
He who is unjust. Jesus will declare after he has finished interceding, after he has finished with the judgement that is going on now. That is spoken of in Revelation 14.
He declares, he who is unjust, let him be unjust still. He who is righteous, let him be righteous still. In other words, if you insist on being unjust and unrighteous, he will honour what you want.
If you insist on being righteous and holy, he will honour that. When we confess our sins, the Bible tells us in 1 John 1:9 that God is faithful and just to forgive us all our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And this is what Isaiah Sundays.
In Isaiah 43:25, he says, God is speaking. I, even I, am He who does what? Blot out your transgressions for my own sake. God is invested in us.
He wants us to succeed. He says he does not wish that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And he says, what? And I will what? Not remember your sins in Micah chapter seven.
And I want us to actually read this one. Verse 18 and 19. Micah, chapter seven, verse 18 and 19.
It's very important, very beautiful passage. We don't have longer to go, trust me. Who is a God like you? Remember we talked about joy last time when we talked about praising God for who he is? Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage.
When you ask God to forgive you of your sins, you get up off your knees in your house, not in the church. Maybe you do a happy dance when you consider how marvellous God is. When you look at how you have messed up and God says, it's all forgiven.
I have forgiven you. And maybe that's why some of us don't have joy. Because we are not convinced that he has forgiven us.
We don't trust him. We can't believe it. The word of God says, so who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of his heritage.
He does not retain his anger forever, thank God he doesn't because he delights in mercy. That's the kind of God that we serve. Doesn't take away from everything we said about the exactness of how he records our sin.
But he's a God of mercy. Verse 19. He will again have compassion on us and will subdue our iniquities.
You will cast our sins into the depths of the sea. Hallelujah. But you know what the problem is? Some of us put on our scuba gear and we go deep sea diving.
You know, let me say this, permit me to say this. I've seen it far too many times among our people. Seventh Day Adventists.
We seem to be sometimes the most unforgiving people towards each other. Where? Well, remember 20 years ago he did ABC and XYZ. Hello.
While you're doing that, God has already forgot. That person has already talked to God and God has already forgiven them. And God has even forgotten about this.
God has cast it into the depths of the sea. But you have put on scuba gear and you are going diving for it. Have mercy.
Can we not do that, please? In Jesus name. Revelation 3. 5.
He who overcomes. Hallelujah. Shall be clothed in white garments.
And I will not blot out his name from the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father and before his angels. You know, speaking about judging people and condemning God has the big picture. God he says, I think it's Psalm 103, 14, that he knows our frame.
He knows that we are dust. Another version says, he knows that we are weak. He created us.
He knows everything about your life. That's why it's all recorded. All the stuff that you've been through, all of your brokenness, he knows it.
And in the earthly courts, when you stand before a judge or magistrate to be sentenced, there is a principle called bug me which says that the judge or magistrate must take into consideration your past, your childhood, whether you grew up in an abusive home, whether you were subject to abuse and trauma as a child, which explains perhaps the reason why you're so messed up now. If an earthly judge has to do that, how much more does our Father in heaven know and understand who we are when we cry? He understands he's not there to condemn you and throw you into the fires of hell. He wants you to be safe.
That's why he sends Jesus his son to be your advocate, to stand beside you and to plead his blood for you. So, yes, there is a recording angel, but there is also Jesus who stands with us in the judgement. So we are not standing alone.
So the question, how shall we stand? I will stand with Jesus next to me. I don't know about you. Jesus, my advocate, and he will plead his blood for my confessed sins.
So we have the power of choice whether we listen to God through His Holy Spirit or the influence of the enemy. How can I pass the judgement? By applying the blood of Jesus on our lives, confessing our sins, asking him into our hearts, and most importantly, asking him to give us the victory to live overcoming lives. Because you are not bound to be a slave to sin.
He gives you overcoming power. It says in 1 Corinthians 15. And we can overcome through Jesus Christ Our Lord.
John 5:24 as we read in our scripture reading, most assuredly I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in him, who has sent me has everlasting life. This is not future tense, this is present tense. I think many of us struggle with this.
I asked you the question some time ago. How many of you believe you are saved? And the Adventist answer is by faith, I hope to be saved. You're not sure? Well, the Bible tells us Jesus says to you that if you hear His Word and you believe in him, you have everlasting life.
It is a present reality by faith. By faith, accept it and shall not come into judgement, but has passed from death to life. So you do not stand in the judgement condemned.
I Want to tell you the story of a man named Martin. Martin was a troubled young man. He had not experienced the joy of knowing Jesus.
One day, he was walking through a forest, and he was caught in a thunderstorm. Lightning was striking all around him and he was scared. He fell to his knees and he looked up.
The only person he knew to pray to was his patron saint, Saint Anne. And he cried out, oh, Saint Anne, protect me. Lightning flashed and thunder clapped.
And Martin said in his prayer to St. Anne, if you protect me and save me today, I will give my life to God and become a priest. Soon the rain stopped and the sky cleared and the sun appeared.
And faithful to his promise, Martin Luther entered a monastery. But he felt separated from God. He felt condemned by his sins.
In the monastery, he endured penance after penance, but there was still no peace. He stayed up late into the night, early into the morning, 1 2am he whipped himself, but there was still no peace. And one day, he began to study the Bible.
And he discovered the Epistle to the Romans, one of the greatest books on the gospel. And as he read, something amazing happened to Martin Luther King. Martin Luther, who? Martin Luther King Jr.
Was named after. He read Romans 6:23. For the wages of sin is death.
But the gift of God is what? Eternal life through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Martin prayed for that gift. Peace flooded his soul.
A sense of freedom from guilt. And one night, Martin was sleeping and he had a dream. In his dream, Satan appeared to him.
Satan had a scroll and unrolled the scroll. On the scroll was written specific sins that Martin had committed. Cheating, lying, unclean thoughts.
Sins that Martin knew were his. Devil asked Martin, are these your sins? Martin said, yes. The devil asked, is death the wages of sin? Yes, said Martin.
And the devil said, you must die. And Martin noticed something. That Satan's hand was covering the top part of that scroll.
And Martin said to Satan in the dream, move your hand. The devil said, no. Martin said even louder, move your hand.
And the devil trembled. He said, no. And Martin said, in the name of Jesus Christ, who wore the crowns of thorns and nails through his hand for me, in the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to move your hand.
And in mentioning the name of Jesus, Satan trembled and he fled. Under his hand, Satan was attempting to hide the words. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses Martin Luther from all sins.
That blood cleanses all of us. That blood that cleanses all of us is what entitles us to receive the gift of salvation. The blood of Jesus.
And when we confess our sins, the Bible tells us that Jesus blots them out. He erases them, he forgets about them, and we do not have to face them ever in the judgement. Because what God sees is not our sins, but the blood of Jesus.
If we confess. That's the condition. If we confess.
And so you may wonder, how can I receive? How can I be sure? The Bible tells us in Hebrews 7:25, he is also able to save to the utmost those who have come to God through him. So if you come to Jesus, he will in no wise cast you out. So I want to present to you the gospel in two minutes.
First thing to do is accept that you have made mistakes in your past. Accept that you are a sinner today. Romans 3:23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
Second, believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and died to save you, and accept that he can wipe away all of your sins today. All. Do you believe this? Third, confess your sins to Jesus.
First. John 1:9 says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of all of our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And this is not limited to any class of people.
Anyone. John 3:16, which I believe is the best verse in the whole Bible. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.
And finally decide that you want to follow Jesus and commit yourself to him. Revelation 3:20, the Bible says, behold, I stand at the door. Knock.
That's Jesus. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him. Any man.
Any man, woman, boy or girl, I will come to him and sup with him, and he with me. Acts 3:19 says, Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. When we receive Jesus, we receive eternal life and we can joyfully and confidently stand in the judgement with Jesus, our Saviour, at our side.
How many would like to say, today, I want to receive this gift of salvation. I want to be sure that I can face the Judgement with confidence. Beautiful to see your hands go up.
Beautiful to see your hands go up. Let me say a quick prayer with you, Father in heaven. Lord, I have attempted to present the Gospel.
I have attempted to present the biblical view of a Saviour who is merciful. But it will in no wise clear the guilty. Father, I have uplifted your word that Jesus has died to save us from sin.
Father, There may be someone who have had it twisted, didn't fully understand before. I pray Lord, that there will be a little bit more clarity, that we understand that you are not here to condemn us, but to save us, that we can understand the ugliness and the seriousness of sin, that there is a record and that we will live our lives not just in fear of being exposed, but living a life of holiness to Jesus. Help us to understand that our deeds and our good deeds and righteous acts will not get us anywhere in your sight.
But it's only the blood of Jesus. Help us to love and cherish him and so be willing and hungry to live our lives according to his will. Father, help that someone here listening to me, maybe here online in the future will accept that they are a sinner and that only Jesus can save them.
Help them that they may trust Jesus, confess their sins to him, repent, ask him into their hearts and that they may ask him to give them the power to live victoriously over sin and give us all, Lord, your people, the confidence that we can face the judgement with joy, knowing that our Saviour has saved us. Keep us till that day. We pray in Jesus name.
Amen. This message was made available by the Dora Creek Seventh Day Adventist Church. For more resources like this, visit Dora Creek Church.
When Jesus lived on earth 2,000 years ago, he said in John chapter 5, verse 30, I can of myself do nothing. Jesus also said, I do not seek my own will, but the will of the Father who sent me. If Jesus said this about his human nature, how much more does it apply to us today? Jesus confirms our helplessness to save ourselves in John, chapter 15, verse 5, where he said, without me you can do nothing.
If it behove Jesus to seek His Father's will and to rely on His Father's strength, how much more should we also seek the will of God and rely on his strength? Then we can claim the promise of God in Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. I'm Etienne McClintock for In A Bible Minute where God can change your life in a moment and in the blink of an eye.
This programme has been brought to you by 3ABN Australia radio.
