What book are we in right now, church? Book of Romans.
Let's do a quick review. Romans chapter 1, Paul talks about the reprobate lost. That's the downright wicked nasty pagans that are lost. The reprobate lost. Chapter 2, he talks about the religious lost.
Self-righteous hypocrites who think they're okay with God because they go to church or they've been through some ritual, they're lost. Chapter 1, reprobate lost. Chapter 2, the religious lost. And now we're at chapter 3 and here's what Paul's saying, everybody's lost. Chapter 1, the reprobate lost. Chapter 2, the religious lost. Then he does a summary in chapter 3.
Hey, everybody are lost sinners under the righteous wrath of God. And in chapter 3, Paul actually uses some legal terms. And so for the next 20 minutes, I want you to do something for me. For the next 20 minutes, I want you to use your imagination. And this is no longer some creepy warehouse that we upfitted to make a church on the side of the interstate.
That's not what this is. For the next 20 minutes, this room is a courtroom. Acoustic Service who is watching us, that room is now a courtroom. Benson Campus, that campus is now a courtroom.
North Raleigh Campus, at this moment, it's a courtroom. I'm as serious as I can be. I could not sleep last night.
I don't know if it was the enemy keeping me up or me just excited about baptism Sunday. But I'm dealing with life and death stuff. I'm a dying man preaching to dying people. This isn't entertainment.
I'm trying to be as serious as I can possibly be. We're in a courtroom right now. And in this courtroom, you've got several people. You've got a prosecutor.
His only job is to point out how messed up you are, how guilty you are. That's the prosecutor. Secondly, you've got a defendant.
That's you. You're on trial right now. You have a prosecutor, you have a defendant, and you have a judge. There is no jury in this courtroom.
You have a judge that will determine if you're innocent or guilty and he will determine what your sentence is. You see that here in Romans chapter 3. Who is the prosecutor? The prosecutor is this book. It's the law of God. God says, do you really want to know what my standards are? Yes, God, I want to know what is your standard.
You really want to know what I expect from you? Yes, the prosecutor is the law of God. And the law of God says, if you really want to know just how messed up you are, let me kind of prosecute you right now. Let me ask you, is God the most important thing in your life? Do you love him with all your heart, soul, mind, strength, everything?
Well, I'm about 90% there. That's not enough, the prosecutor says. The prosecutor says, have you ever taken God's name in vain? Oh my God, yeah. Okay, that's called blasphemy. That's taking the Lord's name in vain. Have you ever disobeyed your parents even once?
Yes. The prosecutor says, time out. You're on trial. You're guilty. Have you ever committed adultery? Well, no, I haven't. You ever lusted after somebody?
Well, yeah. Then you've committed adultery, the prosecutor says. Have you ever murdered anybody? No, I haven't. Have you ever been angry with somebody without cause? Well, yes.
Then you're guilty of murder. Have you ever told a white lie? Yeah. Ever stole anything from a pen to a paperclip? Well, yeah, everybody does it. Have you ever looked and said, I wish I had what that person has.
I want that. That's called coveting. Here's what I'm trying to tell you. The prosecutor, the law of God, the Word of God is trying to tell you and me, okay, you're not as good as you think you are.
See, here's our problem. We compare ourselves to everybody else and it makes us feel better. Your standard of comparison is not each other.
Your standard of comparison is God and God says, no, I want you to understand you haven't even come close to reaching my standard, my expectation. Heard one story one time of a lady, remember the old-timers, one of these ladies, wash their clothes and then they'd hang them out on the clothesline. How many of y'all remember the clothesline? And this lady's always real proud of her housekeeping skills. And so she would wash her linens and hang them out on the line for everybody to see just how nice and clean her linens were. And she did that one night, hung her linens out and that night it snowed.
And she was mortified when she woke up the next morning because the linens she thought were so clean compared to that white snow, they looked filthy. And you and I think were so great and God says, no, compared to my standard, my holiness, my expectation, you're not as clean as you think you are. In fact, pause verse 20, for no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how simple, I'm sorry, sinful you are. The purpose of the Ten Commandments is not giving you ten steps to get right with God. That's not the purpose of the Ten Commandments.
That verse right there says, God gives us the law to show us just how messed up we really are. Hey, the flu's going around Raleigh and some people put a little thermometer in their mouth. Can I tell you something? You know that thermometer, it doesn't heal you. You know that, right? That thermometer doesn't heal you.
It just shows you if you're sick or not. The law of God doesn't heal you. The law of God just shows us just how sick we really are. And the prosecutor in chapter 3 tells us everything about us is sinful and messed up. Listen, our wisdom, verse 11 says, is corrupted by sin. Our wisdom, our mind, verse 11, no one is truly wise, no one is seeking God. Our wisdom is corrupted by sin. Our mind is corrupted by sin. Verse 12, our works are corrupted by sin.
Verse 12, all have turned away, all have become useless. No one does good, not even a single one. You say, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Well, Jack, why would you say my works are simple? I do some really good things. I don't agree with this thing that even our works are simple. I recycle, I buy Girl Scout cookies, I volunteer on my son's soccer team. How can you say even our works are simple?
No one even does good, not one. How can you say that? Let's say you go to a restaurant and you order a fruit salad and they come to your table with a fruit salad and it's a clean, fresh, beautiful fruit and it's sitting right there. And then your waiter comes up. Your waiter has these nasty hands with flies buzzing around them.
They're open sores. There's pus coming out of those sores and he takes those nasty hands and he starts mixing up your fruit salad. Do you want that fruit salad now?
No. His filth has corrupted that salad. And yes, sinners like you and me do good things but even our works are corrupted by our sin. So here's what the prosecutors say. Prosecutors saying our wisdom is corrupted by sin, our works are corrupted by sin, our words are corrupted by sin. Look at verses 13 and 14. Their talk is foul by the stench from an open grave. Their tongues are filled with lies, snake venom drips from their lips, their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. Our wisdom is corrupted by sin, our works are corrupted by sin, our words are corrupted by sin, our ways are corrupted by sin.
Look at verses 15 through 17. They rush to commit murder. Destruction and misery always follows them. They don't know where to find peace. And finally, our worship is corrupted by sin. They have no fear of God at all is what verse 18 says.
So do you understand what the prosecutor's doing? The law of God, word of God has come after you and me. And he says, you're not as good as you think you are. Again, compared to everybody else, you're all right.
But compared to God's standard, you are a sinner. That's the prosecutor. Now it's our turn.
We're the defense. And the law has done its work so thoroughly that the Bible cuts to the chase. And look what the Bible says in verse 19 to us, to the defendants. It says, now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, look at this, every mouth may be stopped. Do you know what the Bible is saying? Now that the law of God has pointed out just how bad you are, here's what the Bible says. It might be good if you just shut your mouth. You'd probably be good right now not to try to defend yourself. Just shut your mouth because the law has done its work and it's proven without a doubt you're a messed up person. Just keep your mouth shut is what that verse is saying. It's like, remember Chris Hansen, the To Catch the Predator stuff, you remember that?
Where they would set up these guys who were trying to proposition these minors and they would be on camera, they'd have the messages and when they finally caught the guys, the smart guys would just keep their mouth shut because the police right outside here. That's what this verse is saying right there. Might be good if you don't give God an excuse. She seduced me. My people are like that.
My parents are like that. No, just keep your mouth shut. You're a sinner in the eyes of God. The prosecutor does his work. You and I are the defendants.
And what's the verdict? The verdict in verse 19 says, and all the world may become guilty before God. That word guilty in the Greek means under a sentence. Basically that word means is we are all condemned. We are all guilty. There is none righteous, no not one.
Bible says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. The verdict, sir, is you're messed up. Ma'am, the verdict is you're a sinner from head to toe from start to finish.
That's the verdict. Are you with me? I came here to get five steps to a sizzling marriage, eight steps to financial freedom, and three steps to... I ain't giving you that today. Before I give you the good news, I gotta give you the bad news. You're guilty, I'm guilty, we're all guilty. And what is the sentence?
Now that we've been found guilty, what is the sentence? Over and over and over again, the Bible pronounces the same sentence over and over and over again. And that sentence is one word, death. Romans 6 23 says, for the wages of sin is death. Now remember this, in the Bible there are three kinds of death. There's physical death. One of the reasons why every human being who's ever lived is going to die is because sin has entered this world that is part of the consequence of sin. Physical death. But secondly, there's a spiritual death.
When we are cut off from the God who loves us, when we're separated by our sin from the holy God of the universe, that brings spiritual death. Can I tell you, one of the reasons, some of y'all here, I don't know what I'm feeling, I just feel so guilty. Why do I feel so guilty? Because you are guilty, that's why you feel guilty. We deal with this debilitating sense of guilt. I told you about a prominent psychiatrist who said one time, I could release half of my patients if I could release them from a sense of guilt. That guilt will mess your mind up. Some of y'all dealing with anxiety, that's a sign of spiritual death.
You think you're on your own, it's up to you, you're gonna have to try to make ends meet. How am I with the God of the universe? Is the big guy an I? You know, I hear guys, I think the big guy and I, we have an understanding.
First of all, if you call the God of the universe the big guy, you probably don't know him as well as you think you do. And you need to understand, we are not right with God. We are spiritually dead.
I'm trying to hit this thing hard. Y'all keep going to counselors and psychiatrists and therapists and that's fine, do whatever, but you got to get to the root to your problem at that point. And the root of your problem for some of you is you are spiritually dead, you're separated from God. The wages of sin, the verdict, the sentence is death. Physical death, spiritual death, and then eternal death. Some of y'all know, I've really been studying for quite a while this whole thing, the phenomenon of near-death experiences.
You know what I mean by that? People who are clinically dead, they have an out-of-body experience, medical technology brings them back and they say, I experienced something. And even agnostics and atheists are getting into that kind of stuff. And it used to be, did you notice six years ago, all the near-death experiences were just so positive. There were unicorns and rainbows and all that. Now we're starting to hear more and more near-death experiences where people are coming clean and saying, it ain't all rainbows and unicorns.
In fact, I ran into this years ago. I was going to college and I worked at a church and at that church, that great church, they had a young adult program and so I was part of that young adult program. And there was a lady in that program that was a hospice nurse and she shared this with us one night. She said, there's a man I've been dealing with with hospice, he has cancer, he's dying. And she said, I tried to share my faith with him and he'd ridicule me.
Talk about Jesus, he cursed Jesus. And she said, one night I was called out about six o'clock in the evening to his mobile home. She said, as I drive into the trailer park, she says, I'm just driving into the trailer park and I can hear the guy screaming through my car. She said, I park my car outside of his mobile home and I walk in and the guy has this wide-eyed crazy look in his eyes and he's screaming. I can feel the fire of hell. Oh God, oh God help me. He's screaming, he's shouting. He says, I feel it. And she said, this guy, I check his vital signs, he said, I realize he's dying, he could be dead in a few moments.
She said, I could not get a word in edgewise, he's screaming so much. He died and went into eternity right there screaming and shouting about the pain he was in. That's the first time I'd heard of a story like that and I started exploring that and it's happening more and more and more.
And this is not a new phenomenon. Even back in 1778, Voltaire, the philosopher who hated Christianity, hated the Bible, ridiculed God, even Voltaire on his deathbed, screamed to his doctor, I'm abandoned by God and man, doctor, I'll give you half my money if you'll help me live, I'm going to hell, help me, I'm in the fires of hell. He's screaming and a nurse who was there that watched that said, quote, I will never again watch an atheist die, I don't care if you give me all the money in Europe, I don't ever want to be part of that again.
You understand what I'm saying? The prosecutor, the law of God, is telling us we're not as good as we think we are. The verdict is, we're guilty.
The sentence is death, physical death, spiritual death, eternal death. Again, this courtroom and imagine the prosecutor, this book has done its job well and the judge finds you guilty. And imagine God, the judge, he lifts his gavel and he's about to bring down that gavel and there's tears in his eyes. You say, how do you know there's tears in the judge's eyes?
Because 2 Peter 3, 9 says, he doesn't want anyone to perish. He wants everybody to be saved. And just before he brings that gavel down, he nods to a bearded Jewish man sitting in the back of that courtroom. And that man nods back at God. And that man stands up in the courtroom. And he says, your honor, I'd like to enter into evidence my perfect record. I've never sinned, my record is perfect.
I would like to enter into evidence my legal record. And in fact, your honor, I make a motion to replace his guilty verdict with my not guilty verdict. And the judge looks at you, the condemned man or woman said, you just heard what the man said. He's willing to exchange your guilty verdict for his not guilty verdict.
What do you want to do? And you say, honor, I want his not guilty verdict. And he says, bailiff, let him be. That's a free man.
That's a free woman. And he brings down the gavel and says, I find you not guilty. That's the good news of Jesus Christ. And that good news is in verses 21 through 26. What I just described to you is right there in verses 21 through 26. Paul uses some conjunctions.
Paul uses some prepositions. But now, of God, through faith, to all, by grace, in Jesus, with justice, that's the good news. Look at verse 21. But now, do you see that verse 21?
Those are the most, two most beautiful words in the world. You are guilty, lost, dying, and going to hell. But now, everything changes. But now, verse 22, the righteousness of God.
Do you know what that means? Your mama may call you a whore, your dad may say you're a mistake, the world may say you're a mess-up, but God says, I don't care what they say, I am God and I pronounce you not guilty. This is of God. But now, of God, verse 22, through faith in Jesus Christ. Not saying some Hail Marys and burning some incense and praying the rosary and throwing some money in the bucket.
No, no, no. It's through faith in Jesus Christ. The not guilty man, the Son of God says, I want to give you my not guilty verdict in exchange for your guilty verdict, and you say, yes, that's faith. That's how you're saved. But now, of God, through faith, verse 23, do you see this? To all, to all who believe. I looked up that word all in the original Greek, it's very interesting. Do you know what it actually means in the original Greek?
There's no way around it. Do you know what Jeffrey Dahmer, Ted Bundy, and David Berkowitz, the son of Sam, serial killer, do you know what they all have in common? What they all have in common is you may be spending eternity in heaven with them, because all three of those men have made some type of profession of faith in Jesus. Were they sincere?
Were they not? I don't know. All I know is all three of those men said that they had turned from their sins before they died and trusted in Jesus Christ. Well, Chad, I don't know if I want to spend eternity with men like that. Well, maybe they don't want to spend eternity with self-righteous people like you that think you're better than them.
Have you thought about that? Because all means all, and I don't care what you've done and how many times you've done it and who you've done it to or with, there is forgiveness to be found in Jesus Christ. But now, of God, through faith to all, verse 24, being justified by grace.
Do you know what that means? It means God just loving the unlovely. Explain that, how that kind of God could love somebody as messed up as me.
I can't. It's just grace. How God could love somebody that's done the things that some of you have done, I can't explain it. It's by grace. That's the love of God.
I want you to listen to me. We are not loved because we're valuable. We're valuable because we're loved. That's grace. But now, of God, through faith to all, by grace, verse 24, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, in Christ Jesus. And do you know what redemption means? Redemption means to be released. The judge of the universe has just said that man or woman was in chains. They were handcuffed.
They're gonna be led out to eternal destruction. Bailiff, that man, Jesus Christ, died for their sins, and on the basis of what my son has done, Bailiff, I'm telling you, take the keys and take the handcuffs off and let them go. That's redemption. And then there's one more, verse 26, with justice.
Do you see this? That he might be just and justifier. What does that mean?
Here's what that means. God can't just let your sin go, okay? If God just said, hey, you know, you've messed up, you've done some pretty bad things, but I love you, and everybody makes mistakes, it's all right. At the moment, God just says, it's all right.
At that moment, he stops being the judge God of the universe, okay? Somebody's gonna have to pay for your sin. In fact, Don and I were in an antique store years ago. I can't remember if it was in Charleston or New Orleans, wherever it was, and there's these kids running around, and these kids, parents weren't paying any attention. One of the kids bumped into something and knocked over an antique and broke it.
And everybody saw it. And the parents said to the antique store owner, we're sorry. And the owner says, okay, I know you're sorry, but somebody's gotta pay for this. Somebody's gotta pay for this thing that's broken. And when the Bible calls God the just God, he's saying the same thing, okay, I know you're sorry, but somebody's gotta pay for this thing. I can't just let your sin go, because at the moment, I cease being the God of the universe.
Somebody's gotta pay. And several centuries before Jesus Christ, Isaiah says in Isaiah 53 5, but he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. Do you see what Isaiah is saying right there?
This right hand represents you. This Bible represents Jesus. Isaiah 53 6 says this, I'm sorry, this is you. This is your sin. This is Jesus. And the Bible says, and God has laid upon him the iniquity of us all.
The best news I could give you today is but now of God through faith to all by grace in Jesus with justice. You don't have to walk around with that guilty verdict for the rest of your life. You can be forgiven in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ who died on the cross for your sins 2,000 years ago. Somebody's gonna have to pay for your sins and he said I'll pay for it.
So let me close with this. I've shared this story several times with y'all cuz every time I think of this story, I don't know why I think of me. There's a story of a man who wrestled with guilt. I'm gonna tell you something, I don't think you understand just how debilitating the guilt that you're carrying around with, you don't know how that's destroying your mind. He'd gotten saved but he couldn't forget. You ever been here?
But you can't forget. And he said God this thing is killing me. And that man said that that night after he prayed God I'm at the end of my rope with this guilt thing, help me. He said he had a dream that he was in heaven. He said there's this big long line in heaven and at the very front of that line was the throne of God with angels, the power and the magnitude of God.
It was an incredible. And he said everybody in line had a placard, had a little sign around their neck and on that placard was written every wicked thing they'd ever done, every nasty thing they'd ever thought, every wicked website they had ever visited, that the things that they thought everybody else were oblivious to was written right there. And he said the line was moving and when you get to the front of the line God would say to the angel take off the placard and the angel would take that off and read for all of heaven to hear all this filthy stuff. And this man looked down on his placard and there was his wickedness, his sin, every wicked thought he'd ever had, the things he thought nobody else knew, it's all right there. And he said furthermore he's looking at the front of the line he said in a few moments that angels gonna take this off and read it and my grandma's sitting right there, mama's sitting right there, everybody's gonna see this.
And he said he's starting to sweat and he's starting to shake and he's starting to panic and he sensed a presence of somebody walking very slowly down that line. And he said that presence got closer and closer and closer until it stood by him and he turned and looked and it was Jesus. And he said Jesus didn't say a thing, he just turned and started reading what was on that placard and he said Jesus don't don't read this, your eyes should not see what's written on this placard and Jesus just pushed the guy's hand away and kept reading. And then he said without a word Jesus took that plaque from around my neck and put it on himself and he took the placard that had been on Jesus's neck and he put it on me.
Didn't say anything just kept walking down the line. He said a few moments later I'm standing at the front of the line and God says to the angel, take off this placard and read it for all of heaven to hear. And the angel took off that placard that Jesus put around my neck and said he has no sin, he is innocent. That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. He took my sin upon himself and gives me his righteousness. And so today we have individuals who are dealing with guilt and anxiety and I'm gonna say it again, the reason you're guilty, you feel guilty it's because you're guilty. The reason that you're anxious is you're not right with God and you can play all the games you want and you can climb the corporate ladder and you can get a big savings account, you can do all this stuff to try to numb your brain but at night in the back of your mind you're asking yourself what's gonna happen to me when I die. What happens when this circus is over with? You're guilty and you're anxious and God says today the judge is offering you freedom and amnesty.
How do I do this? ABC, you admit to God you are a sinner. Stop running and just keep it, just admit you're a sinner. B, you believe that that man, that God man, Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago took your punishment, took your hell on the cross when he died in your place and that he was buried and he came back to life, you believe that. And then C, you turn the control of your life over to Jesus. He said Lord this longer my life this is now your life I turn away from my sin and I turn to you.
I don't understand it, it don't make any sense to me but the moment you do that your sins are forgiven and you're a new person in Jesus Christ. Can I tell you something? Eternal life does not begin the moment you die.
Did you know that? Eternal life does not begin the moment you draw your last breath on earth. Eternal life begins the moment you say yes to Jesus Christ. Your body may wear out but that you, the real you will never die. Jesus says he she that believeth in me will never die. And we got some people already who've done that.
They've admitted to their sinners, they believe that Jesus died on the cross of their sins and rose from the grave and they turn the control of their life to Jesus Christ. And in just a moment those of you who are signed up and I want you to listen to my instructions very carefully. In just a moment I'm gonna pray when I say in Jesus name, Amen. Those of you who are signed up I want you to come forward.
But there's some people here today at North Raleigh, at Benson, in that acoustic room over there. This may be your last chance to get right with God and I'm gonna ask you in just a few moments when I say Amen I want you to get up out of your seat and I'm gonna ask you to come forward and I'm gonna ask you to be baptized. Baptism doesn't save you.
It doesn't save you. But Jesus told us to get baptized so if you're truly saved you're gonna do what he tells you to do so get baptized. You say well Chad, oh I did not come dressed to be baptized today. We got clothes to put on top of that, we got towels. I've said this before if you're more concerned about your clothes getting wet than where you're gonna spend eternity you're probably not ready to get saved okay.
Hey some of you said well let me think about it I think I got a little bit more time. I'm not gonna go over this story again I can give you two three or four stories of Sundays like this when people came not ready to get saved till they heard the gospel and they came forward and got saved and got baptized. I'm not making this up y'all know I'm telling the truth within a week that person was dead.
A couple other people within two weeks they were dead. What haunts me is what if they had said no to Jesus. So in just a moment I want to pray and when I say in the name of Jesus amen I want you to come forward those of you signed up and those who want to get right with God today and get baptized. And you say now Chad why don't you make them go through a baptism class, six months baptism class read the book of Acts. In the book of Acts they get saved and they get baptized that day. They don't go through a six-month baptism class they get saved and baptized. I'm gonna say this as well a lot of y'all been telling me that I'm saved but I doubt my salvation and when I ask have you ever been baptized it's amazing how many people who have been saved but they're not been baptized they struggle with with assurance of salvation. Maybe if you did it Jesus's way that would kind of seal it in your mind that you're right with God stop doubting this stuff. You say what about these kids we got kids getting baptized today you saying they're sinners yes we are sinners by nature and by choice. And wouldn't it be great some y'all wouldn't it be great if you'd gotten saved and started following Jesus when you were nine years old and short-circuited a lot of this heartache you've been through I love seeing young people saying I'm from my beginning I'm gonna follow Jesus Christ. One more thing here's I want you to do today those of you who are being baptized I want you to stand in that water I want you to listen to me you stand in that water I want you to basically saying I'm a guilty man I'm a guilty woman and we're gonna put you under that water when you come up I want you to say I'm a not guilty man I'm a not guilty woman I am innocent in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ you go in guilty and you come out not guilty beautiful so I'm gonna pray again acoustic service I want you to listen to me North Raleigh Benson I'm gonna pray and when I say in Jesus name Amen those of you who are signed up come forward those of you who don't want to get right Jesus Christ today I want you to come forward as well I am as serious as I can possibly be eternity is at stake right now stand with me father the Word of God calls you the judge of the universe your word says will not the judge of the world do what is right we are sinners we are sinners by nature and by choice God we deserve to be judged we thank you that 2,000 years ago you sent your son into this world to take our guilt and take our punishment and father they're men and women young people in this place father they've been they've been under the burden of guilt for way too long today is the day of salvation father do not allow the enemy to lie to them and to tell them that they got more time they may not have time this be the last chance they ever have to say yes to Jesus and so Spirit of God go right now and do what only you can do and draw people right now to Jesus in Jesus name Amen y'all come right now wherever you come come come come quickly come on down yeah come on down real quickly you come there's more come right now there's somebody in this place you've been toying with your mind too long am I saved am I not am I right am I not today's your day to give this thing right you come right now come and stand right here in front of everybody just come stand right here right right here come right down front here the judge is about to bring down his gavel and Jesus is saying your honor I want to exchange their guilty verdict for my guilt not guilty verdict you want that right now you just come in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ everybody come and look at me right now come come come come come stand right here how many times have you heard me say this repeating some magical words at unsaved it doesn't save you Jesus saves you but if this capture is going on in your heart I want us all right now to bow and I want you to forget about everybody else in this church right now is only two people in this church you and Jesus and I want you to say this to Jesus I don't want you to mean with all your heart Jesus I'm a sinner I don't deserve to go to heaven I deserve to be punished but say this to him but Jesus I believe you died for my sins I said that to him again I believe you died for my sins I believe you were buried and I believe three days later God raised you from the dead you're alive right now Jesus now say this to him Lord I turn away from my sin and I turn to you mean this with all your heart Lord please forgive me of all my sins come and take control of my life when I die take me to heaven you said isn't there more than that no I don't have to do something listen to me there's a man died on the cross next to Jesus a wicked man and in the last moments of his life for the last breath he has do you know what he just said to Jesus Lord Jesus just remember me when you come into your kingdom and Jesus said today you're gonna be with me all who call upon the name of the Lord will be saved Church you believe that right now and so can we thank the Lord for these people right now but have given their life to the Lord Jesus Christ just a moment when you stand there I want your this I stand here a guilty man a guilty woman go down to that water and you come up and you say I stand here an innocent man an innocent woman in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ now church the rest of you Bible says Jesus said this when one person gets right with God the angels throw this big party in heaven you know Jesus said that so I want us to outdo the angels this morning when they come out of the water I want you to shout slobber moonwalk high-five do all that stuff we're gonna celebrate some new lives in Jesus Christ y'all ready to do that gang if y'all go right out there they'll take their team lead us in this right now if you would
