A crisis to face

Sermon notes from Sunday 18 August 2019 pm

1 Peter 5 verses 1 - 10

The crisis that was faced.  We too have a crisis.  If you are not saved there is a decision you have to make.  The crisis is that you were born in sin and shapen in iniquity.  Heaven will never be your home.  What should I do with Jesus who is called the Christ?  Remember the woman at the well.  When she went out into the city she told everyone "come see a man that has told me all things that ever I have done, is not this the Christ?" (John 4 verse 29)  She had a conversation with Christ that day and this was the outome.  Would you not come and see this same man who suffered and bled and died for you?  A crisis is a sudden change of events.  There is no greater crisis in any man`s life than the nature of sin.  Think of the man in Acts 10 Cornelius, a Roman centurion who had a crisis in his life because he was made aware of his sin.  He was sitting on his knees before God.  He was aware of his sinful nature.  He couldn`t go any further.  Maybe you have come to a crisis in your life tonight.  The weight of sin is bearing you down.  That is where Cornelius was.  He had thought of the Lord and how his sins could be forgiven but he didn`t know how to go about it.  As he lifted up his voice and cried out to the Lord an angel came down to where he was and told him "your prayers have been heard, send for Peter in Joppa, he will tell you words whereby you can be saved."  Cornelius realised his sin was separating him from God.  The wages of sin is death.  Death means separation.  We will be separated in this life because of our sin.  If we die in our sin we will be separated from God for all eternity.  If you are not saved, you may be religious, go to church regularly but if you have never come to Christ, trusted him as Saviour you are not saved tonight.  You are separated from God.  The Lord wants you to come and take from his hand tonight.  In Revelation we read of heaven, we see such a wonderful description, a pure place, a precious place created by the hand of God.  When God made this world he put his stamp of approval on it - he saw all that he had made and said it is very good.  He even made the heavens.  Revelation 21 verse 27 "and there shall in no wise enter into it anything that defileth."   Sin will not enter into the glories of heaven because it will defile heaven itself because of what Jesus has done on Calvary.  He took our sins on his own body on the tree.  That can cleanse us and we can enter into heaven one day.  The only one who can awaken you tonight is none other than the Lord himself.  I would plead with you.  If you have never been awakened, saved by the grace of God.  David in the Old Testament took Bathsheba`s husband out into the front of the battle knowing he would be killed.  He then took Bathsheba as his wife.  Nathan came in and told him a story of a man with a lamb.  An unjust man took the lamb away.  David was outraged and demanded that the man should be punished.  Nathan said "you are that man."  God showed him his sin

The comfort that is promised.  Verse 7 "casting all your cares upon him for he careth for you."  That is the comfort.  Think of the Lord as he travelled down to Lazarus` home on hearing of his death, as he stood at the tomb he wept.  Such was his care and concern.  He came into the world, took on himself the form of a servant.  He took your sin on himself.  He bore it on his own body, died that he might save you.  What a tremendous Saviour we have.  Remember how the disciples went across in the boat and a wind got up.  The disciples could do nothing more.  They wakened the master sleeping in the boat and asked him "carest thou not that we perish?"  The Lord is not willing that any should perish.  He is not slack concerning his promise.  He has done everyting to save your soul but he waits for you to come to him.  He could do nothing more.  He loved the world so much he sent the Lord into the world not to condemn but to save you from your sin.  That is what he wants to do tonight.  Will you let him?  See how grieved he was as he looked over Jerusalem, he looked on it and said "how often he had preached there in the streets, performed miracles but they would not come to him."  He is still weeping for you and your soul tonight as he looks on you.  Maybe he knows it is for the last time.  "Tomorrow might be eternity hidden from view"  If it was not for the Lord not one of us could make it to heaven tonight.

The command that is set before us - verse 7 "casting all your care."  That is the command.  What does the Lord say to you - "bring your sin to the cross and cast it down."  It is not something done for us.  We cannot do it for ourselves.  The only thing we can do is take it to him.  We cannot do it ourselves but taking it to the Lord can mean so much.  The Lord will take that in and cast it into the sea of his forgetfulness never to be remembered again.  Would you come?  Remember the last day of the great feast in Jerusalem when Jesus walked among the crowd.  "If any man thirst let him come unto me and drink."  He was speaking in the physical but he meant it in the spiritual.  He wants people to come to him.  There is a command tonight.  Will you come?  Is there a crisis in your life, an awareness of sin?  There is a comfort - the cross of Calvary.  You will see your sins forgiven.  There is a command tonight - he bids you to come.