Speaker 1: What I want to speak to you about here tonight is that decision that Matt Thrower talked to you about. And I want to tell you, as I kind of led up into here telling you that we were turning the corner, we don’t put on the war just to give you guys a good time.

Though again, I get a great thrill out of that. We put on the war and churches bring us in to put on the war in communities because there are some truths you’ve got to understand.

and I’m telling you there are some things that we if you find out you realize well I see why this whole message thing is so important there’s a decision that every single young person here in this room needs to make the decision’s not where am I going to go to college that’s not the decision

that I’m talking about here today the decision’s not what am I going to do with my life what vocation am I going to go into the decision as Matt mentioned isn’t who am I going to marry okay that that is nothing to do with it.

It’s not how much money am I going to make or any of those things. The decision that’s going to impact your life and your eternity is as the guy sang about what will you do with

Jesus. And what I like to do just kind of introduce this topic is I want to tell you a story about a gentleman I read about a couple years ago.

This gentleman’s name was George. And George was an average guy.

I would say just like you and me, just really trying to get through life, just trying to Ben’s Mead and so on. And this man, George, he ended up one day

running across a mail carrier, mailman. You’ve all seen those before. This was back early on in our country’s history.

This is a true story. Apparently, George saw something in that mailman’s satchel that he wanted.

You know how I want that? You know how I know that? Because he tried to steal it right out of his satchel.

Well, if you know anything about mailmen and members of the United States Postal Service, you will know that they do not give up their packages without a fight.

And a fight’s exactly what George Wilson got. In fact, the two of them had a scuffle right then, right there. In fact, it was such a fight that when it was done, George had won.

And George had won so much this fight that the mailman was lying on the ground dead. George had just committed murder. George, realizing the crime that he had just committed,

knew he was a wanted man and began to run for his life, run from the law, run from the police, run from anyone who had seen the thing take place.

And before long, the police caught up to him. They took him to prison where he deserved to go, where he awaited his trial.

The day of his trial came and there were plenty of witnesses. They saw the whole thing happen. It was pretty much an open and shut case.

The day came for the verdict and for the sentencing and the judge stood before the people and said, George Wilson is guilty.

his sentence he is to be executed by hanging well they took George down to the portion of the prison that’s known as death row because that’s where people who are awaiting execution spend their time in a cell contemplating what it’s going to be like to die that day and as George was sitting in that

cell I don’t know everything that he was thinking about there I have no way to know but I imagine he was probably wondering what it would be like to die by the noose, wondering what it would feel like, wondering what would be going through his mind, wondering what his body would be feeling as he

walked up to the gallows. And as he sat there in that cell, one day he heard the door at the end of the hall open.

He heard footsteps come down towards his cell. He heard them stop right outside of his cell, and the door opened, and he thought, here it is.

It’s time. They’re going to take me to kill me.

Well, instead of as he had imagined of the executioner coming him, grabbing him by the arm and saying, George, it’s time. Instead, the man reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a

piece of paper and held it in front of George’s face. This was kind of odd. Well, George looked

from that man’s face down to that piece of paper, and as he read across the top, he saw that it said from the desk of the president of the United States. As he continued reading, he realized he was looking

at a presidential pardon signed by Andrew Jackson, the president of the day. Before I finish the story, I want to ask you all a question

and please don’t answer out loud, but my question is this. If you found yourself in a situation like that where you had committed crimes that deserved execution

and someone held in front of you a piece of paper that could guarantee your freedom from that execution? Again, don’t answer me out loud, but what would you do?

You know, as you’re sitting there thinking, what would I do? You kind of try to imagine yourself in that situation. And we don’t really like to imagine ourselves

in that kind of a situation, do we? We don’t like to think of ourselves as criminals on death row because of a crime that deserves execution.

You know, we don’t like to think of even ever being in that situation, right? It makes us uncomfortable.

What would you say if I told you that every single person here in this room is in fact in exactly the same situation

as George Wilson? you may say preacher I don’t believe you I don’t I don’t think you quite understand who you’re talking to here today well let me just do this let me just read to you two verses out of John

chapter 3 verses 16 and 18 and I want you just to see what the word of God has to say about it John 3 verse 16 says this it says for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him, listen to this,

should not perish, but have everlasting life. Two verses later, it says this. It says, he that believeth on him is not condemned.

But he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

I just wanna say this. if you read those verses and take them for what they say, not for what you read into them,

but just take them for what they say, what you would conclude is that the natural, default condition of mankind,

if we all were just to let, float through life and just let things happen as they happen, what would inevitably happen

is every single one of us would perish. You say, why would we perish? What are you talking about?

Because what it’s telling us there is our default state is we are condemned. Just like George, condemned to death.

What is the end of that condemnation? It’s as it talks about in verse 16. It is perishing.

You know, really what I’m trying to get across and what this verse is telling us is every single one of us here in this room

is in exactly the same set of circumstances as George Wilson. We’ve committed crimes that are worthy of execution.

And what I want to talk to you about here this evening is not just the problem, but I want to talk to you about the solution. What I’d like to speak to you about tonight is the simple solution for a sentenced sinner. I’ve got two simple points for you that I’m going to let you go.

The first point is this. Your sin has earned for you a severe sentence. Let me say that again.

Your sin has earned for you a severe sentence. You might be sitting here and you might be thinking, Preacher, you don’t even know me. How can you say that I am a criminal and that I deserve to die?

Isn’t that kind of harsh? Well, hold on a second. Let’s just back up for just a moment.

You see, every single one of us here in this room, we’ve got a problem, and the problem’s called sin. And before we go anywhere else, we’ve got to define terms here

in what we’re talking about. What is sin anyway? When we look at the Bible at 1 John 3 and verse 4,

we find a definition of sin. It says this. it says sin is, definition’s coming,

the transgression of the law. Now I bet that as you all talk with your friends as you play basketball or something like that,

you don’t typically throw that word transgression around very much, do you? Pretty sure you don’t.

But the idea is kind of like this. If you all were on the basketball court, maybe you were in a game,

and you were going to the sidelines trying to get a three on the outside, and you backed up just a little bit too much

of the ref blew the whistle, he could rightly say, you just transgressed.

You stepped out of bounds. It’s like this. There was some paint on the court

that told you what was in bounds and what was out of bounds. And when you stepped outside of that line, you just transgressed.

The verse says it this way. It says, sin is the transgression of the law.

You see, here’s where we get in the problem when talking about sin. We think that sin is defined by what society thinks, what other people think.

We think, okay, what is sin? Okay, sin is what people think is wrong. Did you know that’s not what sin is?

You know, sin is not kind of take a vote on it, okay? More people say this is wrong than those people, so therefore it’s wrong.

No, no, no, that’s not what sin is. Sin is defined by what God says. It says sin is the transgression of the law.

We’re not talking about the laws of the United States of America necessarily. We’re talking about the laws of God

contained in his word. You know, when you look at the book of Exodus chapter 20, we find a list of 10 of them.

They’re kind of famous. They’re known as the 10. Oh, you’ve heard of them.

Good, good. I’m gonna talk about just a couple of those because what we’re gonna do is

we’re just gonna take a look at a couple of these commands and we’re gonna see if we’ve broken them. We’re gonna see if we stepped beyond those lines

that God painted on the court, so to speak, to see whether we ourselves have broken God’s law. Here’s one of them.

The Bible says, thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. You know what that means, right?

That means when you use God’s name inappropriately. I could say it this way. when you use God’s name like a cuss word.

You know, you’re at school, things happen. You know, sometimes things happen that surprise you. You know what I’m talking about?

Somebody jumps out and scares you or, you know, things happen and what can happen sometimes when we’re caught off guard,

we can just kind of blurt out, oh my, and put God’s name in there. Did you know that’s a crime against God?

Did you know that’s breaking God’s law? You say, but wait a second, everybody does it. I know, but hold on, who defines what sin is?

Everybody or God? God’s the one who defines what sin is in God. Right there in his word says,

thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain. By the way, Jesus is God. He said, I and the Father are one.

And when you take Jesus’ name and you fling it out there like a cuss word, it’s taking God’s name in vain.

You take Jesus’ name and you just, man, somebody says something you don’t like and you just, you use his name like a cuss word.

I want you to know God calls it sin whether people in society think it’s acceptable or not. You combine God’s name with D-A-M-N.

That’s not his last name, by the way. God calls it sin. Listen, friends, you might be here today

and maybe this has happened. Maybe it happened out on the field tonight. Maybe it happened on your way in today.

Maybe it happened at school. It probably happens for some of you every single day of your life.

I want you to know God has, there’s a promise. God attached a promise to that command. It says, thou shall not take the name of the Lord,

thy God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain. that’s a double negative which put together it makes a positive which basically means this you

take god’s name in vain you’re going to be guilty you are guilty hands down listen it’s like this something happens you don’t like you use god’s name as a cuss word god says you’re guilty somebody jumps out at you and scares you use god takes god’s name in vain you’re guilty you get

the picture? You break God’s law. You’ve committed a crime against God.

Therefore, you are a criminal in God’s eyes. Are you getting the picture here?

Here’s another one. The Bible says, honor thy father and mother.

It’s kind of a, not a very long command, is it? Pretty simple, isn’t it? Y’all know what it means to honor somebody, right?

To give them respect. To treat them in an honorable way.

Think of how you would treat maybe somebody you greatly respect, whether it be a sports figure or a politician or something like that, somebody that you just greatly revere and respect from the past.

Man, if they said something kind of off the wall, you wouldn’t roll your eyes at them, would you? You would treat them honorably. God says you’re supposed to treat your parents honorably, and when you disrespect your parents,

you’ve broken God’s law. It’s like this. This may have happened today with some of you,

maybe within the last week. Mom and dad say, you’re not going to watch that filthy movie

in the movie theater. And you throw a fit. You say, but come on, Mom.

I got a friend who’s old enough. They can get me into that R-rated movie. You know, I know, Mom.

And they insist, no, you’re not going to that movie. And you just get madder and madder and madder.

And you end up flying off the hand ladder. Is that respectful? No, it’s not.

You disrespect your parents. You’ve broken God’s law. But it might be a little bit more subtle than that.

Maybe, you know, mom and dad, they’re going off on this one thing they go off on all the time,

and you just kind of roll your eyes. Listen, that’s disrespecting too. God calls it sin.

Maybe you don’t do any of these things in front of them. Maybe you’re yes, sir, no, sir, yes, ma’am, no, ma’am, to their face, but behind their back

is an entirely different story. Listen, they cross you left or right. You try to do the right thing in front of them,

but when you get alone with your friends, it’s a different story. Call them old man, old woman.

Talk about them like they’re yesterday’s trash. Trade them like garbage behind their backs. You’d blush if they heard the things

that you’ve said about them. Listen, I want you to know, God calls it sin. It doesn’t matter if it’s in front of their face

or behind their backs. God calls it sin. One more commandment, then we’ll move on.

Seventh commandment says this, thou shalt not commit adultery. Y’all know what that is, right?

Strictly defined, adultery is cheating on your spouse. Now you all may be sitting here and you may be thinking,

preacher, you didn’t know what age group you’re talking to here, right? You know, we’re teenagers.

We’re not old enough to be married yet. How could we cheat on our spouse? There’s no way.

Phew, I’m going to get by on this one. Okay, that’s good. Hold on just a second.

Jesus had something to say about this command. And here’s what he said in Matthew chapter 5. Jesus said,

You have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you,

That if a man look on a woman to lust after her, He hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. Let me put two and two together for you here.

What that’s saying is if you look at someone of the opposite gender lustfully, you are an adulterer in God’s eyes. Gentlemen, you get on your phone and look at filth on the internet,

God calls you an adulterer. You’ve broken his law. You’re a criminal in God’s eyes.

Ladies, you read the trashy romance novels. You watch the 50 shades of filth. Enjoy the storyline.

You get drawn into the lustful wickedness. I want you to know God says you are an adulterer. This is not my interpretation of this.

It’s what he said. I want you to understand that. I’m not calling you an adulterer.

God is. Listen, friends, it doesn’t have to be on a computer screen or on a movie screen. It could be people you look at down on the beach.

Look at him with lust in your heart. God says you’ve broken his law. You’re an adulterer.

But you know, I’d imagine there are probably several, perhaps more, here in this room where the problem’s not just what you think about. Don’t get me wrong, that’s a problem.

Some of you couldn’t think a clean thought if you tried. Some of your brains, you looked at this filth for so long and so often the default state of your brain

is to take things and twist them to the impure and unclean. But listen, you look at that stuff for long enough, it’s going to come out in your actions.

The Bible is a word for individuals who involve themselves in sexual immorality. And that word is being a fornicator.

I don’t want to go too in depth here just because of some of the ages of individuals we have here in this room.

But I just want to say this. Listen, friends, you involve yourself. in immorality before marriage.

By the way, that act is something that’s honorable and pure within the bounds of marriage. Hebrews chapter 13 says,

marriage is honorable in all and the bed, yeah, that’s talking about what you think it’s talking about. And the bed undefiled.

But whoremongerers and adulterers, God will judge. See, preacher, what’s a whoremonger? Simply put, a whoremonger is someone who makes a lifestyle out of immorality.

Listen, some of you have bought into what the health teacher says, and you think as long as I take precautions, everything’s fine. That’s not what God says.

God says you involve yourselves in that kind of sexual sin pre-marriage. You’ve broken my law. And that verse there in Hebrews chapter 13 says,

whoremongers and adulterers, God will judge. listen for some of you he’s talking to you he’s saying listen

I’m going to judge you you’re here today you play fast and loose with your boyfriend God’s saying there in that verse I’m going to judge you

for that maybe you’re here and maybe it’s only happened once or twice a couple times you lost your purity

God says I’m going to judge you maybe you’re here and maybe you’ve retained your physical purity but as far as in your heart and in your mind

you’re as impure as they come God says I’m going to judge you what’s the judgment

This kind of leads to the next part of this. The point that I’m making here is your sin has earned for you a severe sentence. You say, okay, I see the sin part.

I understand what you’re talking about. I’ve broken God’s law. I’ve committed crimes against God.

I’m a criminal in his eyes. So what? What’s the punishment?

What’s the sentence? You’re saying God’s going to hang me? What are you talking about?

Let me tell you. The book of Romans chapter 6 and verse 23 says this. wages of sin is death.

And let me just put it this way. How many of you here have a job? Okay, several folks have a job.

You work, and you work hard. At the end of the week, what do you expect to get?

Money, a paycheck. Let’s say you go into a job interview at McDonald’s, okay, that shows you’re desperate, right?

You go to a job interview at McDonald’s, And you go and you talk to the manager, try your best to make a good impression. He says, you know what, I’m going to hire you.

And then a miracle happens. He says, and I’m going to give you $20 an hour. Whoa, talk about golden arches.

And let’s say, he says, and furthermore, I can guarantee if you want it 40 hours every week. And you’re thinking, 40 hours, 20 bucks an hour, that’s 800 bucks every week. I’m going to buy me a new iPhone every week.

This is great. wow and you go in and you agree to it who wouldn’t you know at that rate um you go in you work hard for a whole week you flip the burgers you take the orders you fill the orders you mop the floors you

do everything that you’re asked you work hard man the end of the week you are tired but you feel fulfilled the end of the week you walk up to the boss you put out your hand and you say all right right here right now i’m going on a shopping trip and he looks at you and he gives you one of those

sheepish looks. You know what I’m talking about? And he says,

you know, I know I promised that I would give you $20 an hour.

You know, maybe I misspoke. I guess what I’m trying to get around to say, costs are going up, inflation,

40 hours a week, you gotta pay for your health insurance, you know, all of these things.

And I can’t pay you that. In fact, yeah, I can’t pay you anything at all.

Let me ask you a question. Would you have a problem with that? Would you have a problem with that?

I think if you have any just bone in your body, you’d have a huge problem with that because you know what?

You deserve that money. It was the agreed upon rate, right? And the way that our bodies and our society works

is we crave getting what we deserve, right? You want to get what you deserve? Well, according to this verse in Romans 6.23,

what every single one of us deserves because of our sin is we deserve to die and go to hell. Yeah.

Whoa. Revelation 21.8 puts it this way. It says, all liars shall have their part

in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. How many lives does it take to become a liar?

Uno. Just one. And that verse says,

all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone. Listen, friends, it’s like this.

You break God’s law, whether you’ve done it once or 20,000 times, God says, here’s what you deserve.

You deserve to be sent to hell when you die. You say, isn’t that kind of extreme? It’s just.

It’s right. it’s the way things work what’s hell all about?

hell’s not just a four letter word it’s a real place the Bible teaches that Jesus spoke on hell

more than he spoke on heaven and you read throughout the word of God and it tells us that hell is a place full of fire

there’s a man who had a lot of money but he didn’t have Jesus and when he died

the Bible says and in hell he lifted up his eyes being in torment later on it says

he said I am tormented in this flame. Jesus described the fires of hell

as everlasting fire, fire unquenchable. In the book of Revelation chapter 14,

the Bible says the smoke of their torment, speaking of those in hell, ascendeth up forever and ever.

Put the pieces together of those verses that I just spoke on and what you find awaits us.

The sentence that we deserve because of our sin is eternal. conscious torment in the lake of fire.

That’s not cool. And I doubt there’s a single person here in this room that wants that sentence.

You know, we’ve talked a lot about sin. We’ve talked about the penalty of our sin. And let me just say this.

I didn’t bring you here just to tell you that part. I don’t get pleasure in telling you the bad news. I gotta tell you the bad news

because without the bad news, the good news wouldn’t make any sense. In fact, that’s what the gospel means.

The gospel means good news, okay? So I wanna turn to the good stuff here, okay? Shall I?

Isn’t that okay with you all? Okay, of course it is. This verse right here in John 3, 16,

it tells us the good news. I read it earlier. You’re probably familiar with the verse.

It says, for God so loved the world. Let me just tell you this. You may feel loved by no one.

Can I say this? God loves you. It means a little bit more when you see yourself

and that kind of a light is criminal, deserving to die and go to hell. Oh boy, God loves me.

Okay, this means something. In fact, God loved you so much, he didn’t just say, I love you.

I’m sure some of you had that happen. Somebody says they love you just to use you. God didn’t just say, I love you.

He did, I love you. And here’s how he did it. It says right here, for God so loved the world

that he gave his only begotten son. You say, preacher, what’s that talking about? He gave his son.

What in the world are you talking about? Let me unpack that here for you just for a few minutes. 2,000 years ago, a miracle happened.

A virgin was pregnant. You say, she must have been lying. No, she wasn’t.

It was a miracle. It genuinely was. The virgin’s name was Mary.

You’ve heard of her, I’m sure. This virgin and this baby had been foretold for centuries. In fact, hundreds of years before that lady Mary had ever been born,

there was a prophecy that said, Behold, a virgin shall conceive and be with child, and he shall be called Emmanuel.

You know what that word Emmanuel means in Hebrew? God with us. Okay, putting the pieces together.

Speaking of that baby in that same book, written hundreds of years before the baby was born, it says, and he, speaking of the baby,

shall be called Wonderful Counselor, the Almighty God, the Everlasting Father,

the Prince of Peace. This baby was being looked forward to by many people. And this baby was born,

and the angel came to Mary and told him, here’s what you need to name him. You need to name him Jesus.

You know what Jesus means? God saves. This baby was born,

And this baby, Jesus, was perfect because he was God. He was a human, but he was God all at the same time. God in the flesh, as it says in the Bible.

This baby lived a perfect life, never sinned, not even once. The Bible says, Christ who did no sin, neither was there guile found in his mouth.

He lived perfectly, sinlessly for 33 years. And in his 33rd year, something happened. His own people, the Jewish people,

apparently didn’t like what he was teaching. They were somewhat insecure about their own leadership, and they didn’t like what he was saying.

They didn’t like him. And so what they did is they took him and they decided to put him on trial,

and they wanted to kill him. They put him on trial. They brought a bunch of false witnesses in

who said all kinds of lies about him. They went as far as they could under Roman law, and then they had to stop.

They really couldn’t put him to death, so they brought him to the Roman leader there at that time. His name was Pilate.

They wanted him to put him to death. Well, Pilate, he began to try him and began to find out what was going on.

And what he wanted to do is he just wanted to whip him and send him off. So they took out the instrument of torture

known as the cat of nine tails. What the cat of nine tails is, is it’s nine strands of leather

with pieces of sharp objects embedded at each one of the strands. They took Jesus and they took off his shirt

and they bent him over. And they took this cat of nine tails and they whipped it over his back.

And this cat of nine tails would have wrapped around his back and embedded into his side and stomach. They then take the handle of that cat of nine tails

and they would rip it off and would literally rip his side and back into ribbons. They did this to Jesus dozens of times.

Beyond that, they beat him. They punched him, they kicked him. They ripped his beard out of his face.

They really mistreated him horribly. They took a royal colored robe and they put it around his back

and they wanted to send him out in front of the people, kind of mockingly, they put a crown of thorns in his head and beat it into his head till blood ran down his face.

And they put him out in front of the people and they said, behold, your king. Kind of wanted to release him.

And the people cried out. They didn’t want him to release.

Speaker 2: The Jewish people said, crucify him.

Speaker 1: They said this to Pilate a bunch of times. And they said, listen, this guy’s your king.

Speaker 2: And they said, we have no king but Caesar. Crucify him!

Speaker 1: Pilate felt bound to do it, even though he felt this man was innocent. Well, they took Jesus and they beat him more

and they decided to play games with him. The Roman soldiers, they’d blindfold him and they’d come and they’d punch him in the face

and then they’d say, oh, prophet, tell me, who was it that hit you? Oh, they just mistreated Jesus horribly.

They tortured him, they beat him, they hit him, they mocked him. And then they took him up.

Rather, they made him walk carrying a huge wooden cross on his back up to the place of his own execution. He couldn’t carry the load because he was already weak from all of the blood that he had lost. They actually had to have somebody help him carry it.

But they got up to the hill and they laid that cross down on the ground and they put Jesus on his back, his bare back with all of those wounds rubbing up against that rough wood would have been just excruciating. They took one of his hands and they put it on one of the cross beams and they took a large spike.

They put it on his wrist and they took a hammer and they nailed it through his wrist. They took his other hand and they put it on the other side of the cross beam and they took a similar size spike. And they drove that through his other wrist as well.

Blood running everywhere. They took his feet and put his feet together and took a similar size spike and drove it through both of his feet. Then they lifted that cross up.

They took the cross to, they lifted it up and took it to a post hole that they had dug and they let it drop into that post hole.

And when it hit the bottom, oh, the pain. The Bible seems to indicate that his bones went out of joint at that point.

As he hung there on that cross, physicians who have studied the position he must have been hanging in have said

that in that position, he couldn’t really breathe. If he wanted to breathe, what he had to do was he had to pull up on those spikes

and push up with his feet just to catch a snatch breath of air to asphyxiate.

Jesus was experiencing incredible physical torture. And he did it because he loved you.

You say, I’m still not seeing the connection. How does this all connect to me? So he was taken

and executed. So he didn’t sin. I’m still not seeing this.

Let me give you a couple verses that clarify this. Isaiah chapter 53, that same book we talked about that foretold Jesus being

God and being born and so on hundreds of years before he was born also speaks of what he was going to do when he was 33 years old. It says this in Isaiah 53.

It says, he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.

The chastisement, that is the punishment of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes, speaking of the whippings, we are healed.

All we like sheep have gone astray. We’ve turned everyone to his own way, but the Lord, that’s God, hath laid on him, that’s Jesus, the iniquity of us all.

That word iniquity is very interesting. has a threefold idea. It has the idea of the sins, the crimes.

It also has the idea of the guilt. And it also has the idea of the punishments. What he’s saying there is,

listen, as Jesus was hanging there on the cross, God put on Jesus your sins, my sins, everyone’s sins, but not just the crimes, but the guilt

that goes along with those crimes was put on Jesus, but not just the crimes and the guilt. God punished Jesus for our sins.

You say, okay, so what happened? Here’s what happened. As Jesus was hanging there on that cross,

there was a period of time where the whole region went dark. And what happened during that time is God the Father took your sin and mine.

He took your lying. He took your adultery. He took your stealing.

He took your pornographic habits. He took your sexual immorality. He took your dishonoring of your parents,

and he put it all on Jesus. He put it all on Jesus, And Jesus there took our guilt on himself.

And then God took the punishment that you and I deserve for that sin. The hell that we deserve to have poured out for us forever in hell. The wrath that we deserve to have incurred upon us.

God took that punishment. And God the Father punished Jesus for your lying, for your lustful thoughts, for your sins. Every one of them.

Ones you’ve done already, ones you haven’t even done yet. God punished Jesus for your sins. You see, what Jesus was there that day is he was our substitute.

And his substitution, his death, his punishment satisfies the justice and wrath of God. That’s what it means here in this verse when it says, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.

You say, okay, preacher, so what you’re saying is we’re all good then? We’re all good to go because he died for all of our sins? Is that what you’re saying?

Well, hold on. The verse doesn’t stop there. It goes on and it says that, okay, he gave his only begotten son, that, so that, in order that,

whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. So you see what he’s saying there? The difference is between someone who perishes

and someone who has everlasting life is as the whole point of this message is what you’ve done with Jesus.

The key word there in that phrase is believe. We get all messed up on this. Church is all over the place.

They get all messed up on this. Let me just, in the remaining moments we’ve got here, let me just explain this

because this is what makes the difference between dying and going to hell, going to hell and going to heaven when you die.

The Bible word believe has the idea not just of understanding and agreeing the facts, not just, okay, yeah, I believe that Jesus was real, that he was God, that he died on the cross

for my sins. So that’s an important part of it. That’s not all of it.

It’s not just agreeing that he died for my sins. The Bible takes it one step beyond.

And the idea of that word believe is to put your weight on something, to count on something, to depend on something, to do something for you.

It’s like this. What God is saying is, listen, if you don’t want to perish, if you want to have everlasting life, here’s what you need to do.

Put your weight on my son. Count on my son. Depend on my son to do something for you.

To do what? To give you everlasting life. To forgive you of your sins because he’s already paid for them on the cross.

To deliver you from perishing, from dying and going to hell. Yeah, that’s what he’s talking about here. But here’s where we get mixed up.

We think, okay, I know about Jesus. And so we just kind of tune everything out. We’re like, oh yeah, I’ve already done that.

I believe about Jesus. I believed about him ever since I was a little kid. I’m not just talking about believing about him.

I’m talking about depending on him to rescue you. Let me give you the difference this way. I want you to imagine, well, let me just say it this way.

A couple of years ago, my wife and I went to Boston, Massachusetts, which I wouldn’t want to be at this time of year right now. Lots of snow.

We were there in the summer, July 4th, actually, and they had a big concert. the Boston Hatch Shell, the Boston Pops were playing as a really neat concert.

Some of the music we had on the field, they played live for us. There were fighter jets that flew overhead

in sync with the music. It was pretty cool. And we had the plan all laid out because there were

millions of people on a very small plot of ground, and we wanted to get home at a decent hour. So what we said was as soon as the last firework popped, we were going to grab our stuff and run

as fast as we could to the subway station. So that’s what we did. The last firework popped,

We grabbed our stuff. We ran. I had my hand.

I was holding my wife by the hand. We were running through the streets of downtown Boston with homemade fireworks going off all over the place,

flashing red and blue and white and garbage all over the ground. People running left and right. I felt like I was in a war zone.

It was really cool. We got to the subway station, and apparently a lot of other people had the same idea

because it was jam-packed full of people. So I put one hand on my wife and one hand on my wallet, and we dove in.

And it came time for us to get on the subway car, And I want you to imagine if I was to stand on that subway platform and I was to, the door opens right in front of me. And I turn around and I look at everybody behind me and I say, I believe in this subway car.

I believe that this subway car can take me home. I believe that this subway car is a subway car. And that it can take me to where I need to go.

And you keep standing on the subway platform. I want to ask you a question. Would I get home?

No. What do you got to do? Get on.

Let’s say I get a bright idea. I say, you know what? I’ve been standing on the subway platform for two hours now.

Me and the subway platform have really become good friends. I know it can hold my weight. Now, this subway car, I think I can, but I haven’t really gotten on it before.

Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to put one foot on the subway platform and one foot on the subway car. Am I going to get home?

No, I’m going to get squished between those doors as they close. You know what I’m talking about? But I’m not getting where I want to get.

You know, what do I got to do if I want to get on the subway car? If I want to count on the subway car, if I want to put my weight on the subway car, if I want to depend on the subway car to take me home, what do I have to do?

Somebody tell me. Both feet, right? All the way on.

put my entire weight on that car. Not the car and the subway platform that’s not gonna work on just the car.

I need to let the car do 100% of the transportation, if I can say it that way. Here’s what a lot of people get tripped up

on this whole believing on the Lord Jesus Christ thing. Here’s what we think. Either one of two areas.

Either we think we can just say, I believe about Jesus, Or maybe you really believe that Jesus is who he said he was, and maybe you really believe that he died on the cross,

but really all you’re doing is you’re saying, I believe about him, and you’ve never stepped on. That could be where you’re at.

Maybe you come from a religious home, a religious background, and you hear about Jesus all the time,

but there’s never been a time in your life where you’ve actually put your weight on him and depended on him to save you

from the consequences of your sin. That’s one possible scenario. Another possible scenario is this.

You know you gotta depend on him. But here’s what you do. You depend on Jesus.

and fill in the blank. You depend on Jesus and being a good person to get you to heaven.

You depend on Jesus and going to church to get you to heaven. You depend on Jesus and keeping the rules

to get you to heaven. And the Bible says, by the works of the law, by the deeds of the law,

shall no flesh be justified in his sight. The Bible’s very clear that it’s not by works of righteousness which we have done, but it’s according to his mercy.

he saves us. The Bible’s very clear. For by grace are you saved through faith.

That’s depending. Same word as believe. And that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. If you could work your way to heaven, you could strut your stuff around heaven and say,

look where I got myself. And God says it’s not the way it works. Romans 4 verse 5 says,

but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him, his faith is counted for righteousness. Listen, friend, if you’re here today and you think that doing good things has anything to do with getting you to heaven, you’re going to die and go to hell. You’re here today and you think going to church has anything to do with you getting to heaven, you’re going to die and go to hell.

Let me just give a visual illustration just to kind of drive this point home. I want you to imagine that this right here represents everything that you’re depending on to get you to heaven. Okay?

So let’s say, up until tonight, you’ve thought, I think I’ve got to keep the rules to get to heaven. You know, be a good person. Obey the Bible to get to heaven.

And let’s say beyond that, you think, you know what, I think if I’m gonna get to heaven, I’ve got to go to church.

And let’s say on top of all of that, you think, you know what, I think Jesus has something to do with it too.

Let me ask you a question. If this is where you’re at, are you depending on Jesus alone?

Yes or no? No. You’re depending on Jesus plus fill in the blank.

Jesus said, I am the way. If he’s the way, how many ways are there? Just one, okay.

I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Romans 3.28 says, therefore we conclude that a man is justified,

that means saved, by faith, without the deeds of the law, the other things, okay? So if you’re right here and you’re saying, you know what, I thought, you know, that I had to do good and go to church

and Jesus has something to do with this all. If somebody dies like this, where are they going to go? Hell.

Because what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to depend on Jesus alone. If it’s Jesus plus anything, it’s not going to work. So maybe you find yourself in a situation like this.

What do you do? Do you stop doing good things? Is that what you do?

Start being a bank robber so you can get to heaven? No. but here’s what you do, do.

You stop depending on doing those good things to get you to heaven. Listen, it’s not that you stop going to church

but you stop depending on going to church to get you to heaven. And what you’ve got to do is you’ve got to get it down

to where you’re depending on one thing and one thing alone, just Jesus. The moment you get to this,

The moment you make that switch to where Jesus Christ is the only thing that you’re counting on, at that moment, you got eternal life. Your sins were forgiven in God’s sight.

You were delivered from the consequences of your sin. That’s why the verse says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son,

that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I want to wrap up that story about George and then we’re going to close this down here

remember George, I left him in death row true story again just to remind you

George had that fellow hold that piece of paper in front of his face, a presidential pardon guaranteed to get him out of there if you just take it

here’s what George did he looked at that from that piece of paper back up to that man’s face and here’s what he said

no thank you no thank you the guard was shocked, as you can imagine.

He turned around and he went to his boss and said, he said he didn’t want it. What do we do?

The boss said, I don’t know. Can somebody even refuse a presidential pardon? Well, they both didn’t know.

So they went and they started asking around. And before you know it, this thing got to the United States Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court deliberated and came out with its ruling. And I quote,

A pardon is a piece of paper, the validity of which is dependent upon its acceptance by the person implicated. It is hard to imagine that someone under such a penalty would refuse such a pardon, but if it is to be refused, it is no pardon.

George Wilson must hang. And he did. listen friends

Jesus is holding a pardon in front of some of you here tonight you’re guilty you’re on death row right now

whether you think you are or not and listen friends the question is

are you going to take his pardon by depending on his son friends what will you do with Jesus