Cpr for Man in Bog

I'm sure many of you have heard the term CPR used in the medical world when you want to bring someone back to life physically. My message today, friends, is entitled CPR for the man in the bog. You see, you may be dead while you're listening to this message, not physically dead, but dead spiritually.

Let me demonstrate to you what CPR means using the Word of God. The following across will be our focal point for our study today. C stands for condition, P stands for position, and R stands for reconciliation.

Allow me to explain. You see, man is born into the world alive, but dead to God. Because of the sin of Adam, the entire human race is spiritually dead.

We lie, we give in to our lusts and the desires of our flesh. We live our lives for ourselves rather than for the glory of God. God is holy, but we are sinful even though we try our best to be good people, honest people, and caring about others.

The first part of CPR we need to know is this, C, condition. The Bible describes man's condition in the following way. And you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins.

See, we each are born in a lost condition and apart from God because of our fallen nature which we inherited from Adam. The Bible says dead in trespasses and sins, and this means spiritually dead and lost. We cannot know God in this lost condition and we are dead to the things of God.

The next part of the CPR that we need to be made aware of is our position. Because of our lost condition, we're living in a perilous position. Our position is perilous because we are on the wrong side of God.

Because of sin, God views us as his enemies and he considers us objects of wrath. God tells us among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. You see, friend, in the CPR of God's word, we are awakened to the fact that we are children of wrath on the wrong side of God and following the course of this evil world wherein in time past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.

Because we are living our lives for ourselves and not for God, we are following the world's set of values and we are treading a dangerous and perilous position since we are enemies of God because of our condition and position. This is how God presently views someone outside of him. God is angry with the wicked every day.

Any moment we can die, be killed in a car wreck, or fall victim to an unforeseen fatal accident or illness, God is the giver of life and he can take it from us without any notice. To me belongeth vengeance and recompense. Their foot shall slide in due time, for the day of their calamity is at hand, and the things that shall come upon them make haste.

We see how fragile our life really is. It can be taken from us quite suddenly. We can slip into death at any moment in this perilous and dangerous world.

Surely thou didst set them in slippery places, thou didst cast them down into destruction. How were they brought into desolation as in a moment? Therefore, it is critically important, friend, that we pay attention to our present perilous position outside of God. But there is good news in this CPR of the gospel.

The last part of the CPR of God's word is wonderful news. We want you to know the third letter, R, reconciliation. What does this word mean? It is God's solution to man's dilemma.

Listen, but God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ. By grace ye are saved. Did you notice that the word mercy came before the word love from this verse of Scripture? As sinners in a lost condition, we need mercy and the forgiveness of sin so we won't go to a terrible place called hell.

You see, God is a holy God, and he hates sin. God is a just judge who must judge sin and sinners. Hell is a place where people are cast when they die apart from Christ.

The Bible tells us that hell is a place where the worm dieth not. Jesus spoke of the agonies of hell, describing it as outer darkness where there would be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Wailing speaks of great loss and sorrow, and gnashing of teeth signifies regret and anger.

Good people don't go to heaven. Only forgiven people go there. Angels escort the saved person to heaven, and demons drag the lost down to hell.

Oh, I beg you, friend, to repent of your sins and place your trust and faith in Jesus Christ immediately. I don't want you to go to hell. God doesn't want to send you to hell.

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but is longsuffering to usward, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance. Listen, friend, the CPR of God's Word provides a remedy to your sin problem. That remedy for sin is in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

How that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures. You see, Christianity differs from other religions because Jesus rose from the dead and sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven, and he got there by way of a bloody cross. To partake of God's gracious offer of mercy, we must repent of our sins and place our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus, our sin substitute, paid it all on the cross, bearing the wrath of God on our behalf. He took our sins upon him so we can escape God's wrath. But we must repent and run to the cross, kneeling there in brokenness and surrender, brokenness over our sins and surrender of our rebellion against God and seek his mercy and forgiveness.

The Bible promises us that if we place our trust in Jesus Christ as our Savior, he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him. Jesus said, but except you repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Jesus came to save sinners.

Will you admit, friend, that you are a sinner? If you do that, there is hope for you. Then you can be saved. Listen to what Jesus tells us.

I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Do not take these truths lightly or reject them, for we have this warning from the word of God. He that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck, shall suddenly be destroyed, and that without remedy.

O friend, please take this remedy for sin. Please place your trust in Jesus Christ as your Savior and surrender all to him. He offers this gift of salvation freely.

It cannot be earned. It is a free gift. Listen to the invitation of the gospel.

And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that hear it say, Come. And let him that is a thirst, Come.

And whosoever will, let him take of the water of life freely. Let me close this little outline of the gospel, this outline of the CPR, with the following true story about the man in the bog. My great mentor, Dr. Stephen F. Oldford, related the following story to me.

He said that when he was born in Africa to missionary parents, he grew up in the African bush in a humble little cottage. Well, one Christmas, he decided as a young man to go sneak out of the cottage early that morning to go bag a wild goose for Christmas dinner for his parents. And before daylight, he left his parents' home quietly so not to awaken them.

Into the darkness he walked with his rifle beneath his arm, making his way to the gate. He unlatched it, but it made a squeak. He kept going into the dark bush to a distant field where he knew wild geese would be.

Slowly, he moved in the darkness. But unfortunately, his next step landed him in a treacherous bog of mire, quicksand. There he was, sinking in the miry bog as he held his rifle above his head with one hand while frantically trying to extricate himself with the other.

He realized he was in grave danger and sinking to his death. But unknown to him, the native servant of his father's house was awakened by the squeak of the gate. And this African had followed him in the darkness without his knowledge.

There stood the African as the morning sun began to break over the field. He was attired in a colorful robe of silk which was wrapped around his naked body. Quickly, the native began to unfold his cloak about him.

It unfolded into one long piece of material. And as he unfolded it, he reached the garment over to the desperate Stephen Offord. Stephen grabbed it and hung on for dear life.

And he was pulled to safety. Dr. Offord would relate that this action of the African was like the gospel of Jesus Christ. Jesus stepped out of the glories of heaven to come to earth to save lost man who was sunk in the mire of sin.

And in his great mercy, he unfolded his royal robe of righteousness and reached it out to us to grab hold of. Jesus saves his people from their sins. Once we acknowledge that we are sinners lost and without God in the world, we see our great need of the remedy of a substitute for sin, of our Redeemer who saves us from sin.

And when we turn to God in repentance and place our faith in his dear son Jesus Christ, then God imputes his righteousness to us and we stand justified in his sight. And no longer are we guilty before him. We then have the promise of heaven and eternal life.

Friend, will you grab hold of Jesus Christ right now? The Bible depicts our need of deliverance. I waited patiently for the Lord and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me up also out of a horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock and established my goings.

Friend, God has offered the remedy for sin by the death and resurrection of his dear son Jesus Christ. We see the love of God displayed by the following. 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.

But listen to this, friend. We too see the wrath of God in the following verse as well. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.

You see, friend, in the CPR of God's word, you've been shown your present state. Apart from God and Christ, you've been made aware of your condition, which is lost, and your position, which is perilous, and you have been offered the remedy for sin, the remedy of God's reconciliation through his Son, Jesus Christ. I now make this final plea and pray that God will grant you grace and light to be reconciled to him.

Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. May God bestow upon you his marvelous grace that you may have life, friend.

This is the CPR of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is life-giving. Jesus declared, I am come, that they might have life and that they might have it abundantly.

Repent immediately and grab hold of Christ, friend. I implore you.