Romans 1:16, the Gospel

Could we just take a moment and pray? Our Father, we thank Thee that we have heard testimonies tonight of the saving grace of God, and we ask Thy blessing upon the remainder of the meeting, and those that are here unsaved, we pray that Thou would speak loudly and awaken them from that sleep of death. So we thank Thee and ask Thy richest blessing upon the remainder of the meeting in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

Well, I was torn too to finish the story, but I think it's nice to hear the testimony, but I'm just going to complete what I was going to do and preach the gospel on Romans 1 and verse 16. Romans chapter 1 and verse 16. You all know this verse, I think, for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Now in this great epistle of Paul to the Romans, he is about to unleash upon all mankind the great need of the gospel, and he is going to level all, no deference, all have sinned. But before he does that, he says some wonderful things about the gospel. In verse 1, he calls it the gospel of God.

That's where this message is from. This message that we're preaching to you tonight is not something that we think is great for you to hear. This is from Christ himself.

This is from God. It's from heaven. It's the gospel of God.

And then in verse 9, he calls it the gospel of his Son. That tells us who this gospel is about. It's about the Lord Jesus Christ, and we read here that he calls it the gospel of Christ, and that will tell us what it will do for us.

What will the gospel of Christ do for you? Well, I was at a wedding, and I knew the man that got married, and I knew the man that was the best man. He was the man that this man got saved through. And for his speech at the wedding, he told the story of how he first met his best man.

And this happened in Hamilton, Ontario at the steel mills, and Dan was a boiler maker on construction, a rough, tough job. And as they were working, and this Guy Thibodeau was with him, he had his eye on Dan. And one day as they were washing up for dinner, he said, Dan, I've been watching you, and you're different than us.

He said, what makes you different? Dan said, what do you mean different? How am I different from you? No, no, he said, I don't mean by looks, but he said, there's something about you that is different. What makes you different from us? And Dan finished his washing his hand, picked up his dinner pail that went to the lunchroom, and said, Guy, you don't want to know, and walked away. Well, Guy thought about that afternoon.

He thought about quite a bit. When it came time for to clean up to go to, for home, Guy went over where Dan was washing up and changing his clothes to go home, and he said, Dan, I've been thinking about what you said. And he said, really Dan, I'd like to know what makes you different.

And Dan looked at him, and he said, Guy, I told you, you don't want to know, and picked up his dinner pail and went home. Well, you talk about reverse psychology. Guy couldn't hardly sleep that night.

Why won't he tell me? And the next morning, he couldn't wait to get to work. Dan was over there changing his clothes into his work clothes, and he went right over, and he tapped Dan. He said, Dan, listen, I've been thinking all night what you said, and I want to know what makes you different.

Why won't you tell me? Dan looked at him. He said, Dan, or Guy, if you get what I have, it will change your life forever. That's what the gospel of Christ will do.

It will change your life forever. You've heard testimonies to it, and I could tell you mine, from a drunkard, to a no-good, to a person who got Christ as his Savior on April the 4th, 1960, a wonderful, wonderful night. It'll change your life.

Maybe you don't want your life changed, but it will change your life. And he says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ. Listen, I don't know what Peter and Paul and all those disciples went through, but I'll tell you this, they were never, never, never, never ashamed of the person of Christ.

Paul was not ashamed of the person of Christ. You see, this gospel that we're preaching here tonight isn't a set of rules, isn't something you've got to do and you tick them off. This is about the wonderful, wonderful person of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you've been hearing about him.

But friend, I'd like to tell him to you like it's in the heart. My, every day I get up, I think of him. This wonderful, wonderful person of the Lord Jesus Christ that saved an ungodly sinner like me.

You know, when I got saved at 27, I thought, you know, there's nothing better than the gospel. And then, you know, at 50, I thought, you know, there's nothing to be compared to the gospel. But after 70, I say to myself, there's nothing like the gospel.

Friend, tonight we trust that you would get this gospel. Paul was not ashamed of the purpose of the gospel. Why is this gospel? What is the purpose of the gospel? The purpose of this gospel is designed that you could be saved, that you could be saved.

And I remember one morning that I put my feet outside that bed. And that was a day that God had elected for me throughout all eternity. Max, this is your day.

When I went to work that morning, I never realized that I was going to meet a man that was going to tell me how I could get saved. I had never heard beings born again or saved in my life. I was born in a home, a little country home east of Petroia, the youngest of four children.

And we had a quiet time. We didn't have any electricity. We were just a family.

Everybody was the same. We had nothing. But, you know, in that time, my father, he was a good man.

But my father had one thing that was wrong, and he drank a lot. And I had to quit school at 16 years of age to go and help my father. He used to go around and buy pigs and cattle around the country.

And I had to quit school when I was 16 to go and bring my father home. And one day at the beer store in Petroia, he went in from the liquor store. He bought two bottles of gin every day.

And he went into the liquor store or the beer store, and he came out with a little box. And driving down those old country roads at 20 miles an hour with the windows down to see any pigs in the farmer's yard, my father opened a bottle of beer. And I took my first bottle of beer from the hand of my father.

And I didn't even like it. I'm going to go over the next years until I was saved, because they're not worth talking about. But I want to say before I go any farther, my father was not religious.

I never saw one church in my life. I can never remember my father ever having a Christmas dinner with our children until I was maybe 25 years of age. He was always passed out, sometimes on the kitchen floor.

But my father got saved when he was 78 years of age. And he lived three years to prove it. And he used to say to me, Max, how could you live with me? And I'd say, Dad, it's OK.

It's over with. My father's in heaven tonight. It's like the gospel of Christ that changed his life.

And from being an ungodly man like that, and after he was saved for a couple of years, we had him down with my mother and them. They just lived down the street. And to hear my father as I was out in the kitchen helping getting dinner.

And I heard this noise inside the room. And I looked in and there was Michael and Don and Tammy, three of my oldest. The three of them was just little children sitting on my father's knee.

And my father is saying, Jesus loves me. This I know, for the Bible tells me so. I will never forget that.

A changed life. That's what the gospel of Christ will do for you. Not ashamed of it.

Not ashamed of the power of the gospel. Not ashamed of the power of the gospel. It'll do.

It's the most powerful thing this world has ever known. The gospel, what it will do. My, I think of it.

I was over in Siberia. And I met this woman and we had some gospel meetings. And she said, I want to tell you about my brother.

She said, Howard Pratt and and Eric Fowler were here. And I asked him to go visit my brother in the next town and his wife. She said, they've been in jail, out of jail, in jail, out of jail.

They're the worst people in town. And nobody will go near them. She said, would you go visit them? And Howard and Eric said, yes.

And they drove two miles or two hours in these old roads. And they went to that place. And they were just, they invited some people for the meeting.

And nobody had come in to that house. So they just the two of them. And Howard and Eric got up and they preached this gospel of Christ to them.

One meeting. And when I saw that woman 10 years later, she said, I'd like you to take it and meet them. She said, since that night, they've never had another drink.

And they go around town telling people about Jesus Christ, the savior of sinners. That's the power of the gospel. It'll change your life.

Paul was not ashamed of the program of the gospel. Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. And I've been in places in Siberia that was ungodly places.

And I preached the gospel to them. The same message I would preach if I had the opportunity to the president of the Chase Manhattan Bank in New York City. It's the same gospel.

And there was a man, Jack Nesbitt, come out to our assembly a while ago and preach the gospel. And he used this illustration. And I thought, my, he said, I was at the house.

And he said, my wife, I was sitting there and I heard her open the outside door quick. And she went, shoo, shoo, shoo. And I said, well, what's wrong? She said, I went yesterday and I bought good bird seed, but I didn't buy it for starlings.

Chase them away. And I said, I'm glad that when I got saved that night and I made my way to the cross, that God himself didn't look down at me and say, I didn't give my son for the likes of you yet. I don't want nothing to do with you.

No, it's the power of God. It puts the program of the gospel going to all the world and preach it to every person. I had this sitting here and I never said it yet.

This man was at oil springs with this man and had two series of gospel meetings. And Terry didn't have a note like I did, but he got up about every night. And you know what he said? And if you're unsaved here tonight, this is for you.

God is on your side. Did you get that? God is on your side. And when I heard him say that night after night, unsaved me to hear that.

And I made myself up a little piece of paper and I said it here. And when I preach the gospel, I like to take it out and tell unsaved. Listen, God is on your side.

And one night at the door going out, this man met me with tears in his eyes. He said, I never knew that. I never knew that, that God was on my side.

Listen, I'd like to say it again and I'll leave the note. You can say it to God is on your side. God wants you saved tonight.

Not ashamed of the pressure of the gospel. You know, if you think the gospel preacher gets up here and tries to preach some smart thing. We're just trying to preach the gospel to you.

And it puts pressure on us. And sometimes we leave the meeting and we go home and we don't say too much on the way home. We'd say, did I make it plain? Did I tell these people they're going to be in hell for all eternity if they're not safe? Did I make it plain? But it does.

It puts pressure on you. We had five children. The oldest one, Michael, has never professed to be saved and he doesn't seem too concerned.

But one day I said to him, Mike, do you ever think about getting saved? And he said to me, Dad, I think of it every day, every day. You see, the gospel puts pressure on him and it'll put pressure on you. I trust that you, if you're unsaved here tonight, that you don't go home.

And on the way home, laugh it off. I hope you're like these other men you've been hearing about. And it puts pressure on you and you can't get to sleep.

Trusting Christ is a wonderful, wonderful thing. Not a shame to the plan of the gospel. What's the plan of the gospel? Ninety nine times in the book of John, it tells you, believe.

Believe. That's the plan. That's how you get saved.

Believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. You're this far from getting saved. Believing.

On March the 4th, 1922, Howard Carter was in the, what they call the Valley of the Kings in Egypt. He dug for all these artifacts. And as they were digging this trench.

And as they were digging down and down and down, looking for something. They come to a wall. And they brushed away the dirt and it was a stone wall.

And Howard Carter said, take the stone out. And they took the stone out. He looked in.

He said, take some more stones out. And within a few minutes. They were standing in the tomb of King Tut.

And you've heard the stories or seen the. Solid gold. Things that were in his tomb.

And they were all. And they looked around for Howard. And he was sitting outside on a stone and they went out in his head down.

They said, Howard. You found it. You wanted this all your life.

You found it. What are you doing here? He said, I want to tell you. That 25 years ago.

I was here. And I stopped 66 inches. From where we are tonight.

If I had dug another 66 inches. He said, in those 25 years, it cost me everything I have. But mostly it cost me my wife.

And all my family. He said, if I'd have done that, I would have saved all that. He said, that's why I'm sad.

I could have had this 25 years ago. Listen, you might not be a Howard Carter and come back 25 years from tonight. This might be your last night.

You might not have another day to find this treasure. Listen, I trust tonight. That you will take the Lord Jesus Christ, your savior.

Paul wasn't ashamed of the pardon of the gospel. To know your sins forgiven. That night I got saved.

I didn't know. It was in my own bedroom. And I had wanted to get saved.

And as I laid there. I said to myself, I am going to believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sins. And I'm going to believe it right now.

And it wouldn't work. And, you know, I got out and I got down and prayed. And I got back into bed and Brother David had been out that night and said, unless you own up to every charge in Romans three, you'll never get saved.

I read them all again. And I got out of my bed. And I got down on my knees.

I knew John 3, 16 is a boy in Sunday school. The only verse I knew. And I said John 3, 16 that night.

I had to put Shakespeare to shame. I said, it's so nice. And I said, amen.

And nothing happened. I got back into bed. And I started to read.

And I stopped. And I said to myself, there's no use. I said to myself, if you were God, would you save you? And I said, never, never.

And just in disgust, I picked up my wife's pillow. I was laying in bed and I was just going to throw it. And I let it come over my face.

And it went like this. I wasn't thinking of getting saved. I said, Max, you say you're a sinner.

Is that right? Yeah. You say you're a sinner bad enough to go to hell? Yes. You say that not only bad enough, but God would be right in putting you there.

Do you believe that? I said, yes. Do you sit there and try to believe it and try to believe it? I said, no, I believe that. Well, look, they showed you in the Bible.

And one place in the same verse that said you were going to go to hell. If you only believe that Jesus died for you on your cross, you'd be saved. Now, why can you believe this so easy and you can't believe that? And some little thing in here without even trying said, you believe that? I don't believe that.

And I got up. Something was different. You know, the first thing I noticed, the load was gone.

And I got out of bed and I lit a cigarette and I tried to figure out the timing order in my car. Anything to get my mind off of religion. And I don't think I took three puffs and I butted it.

And I sit at the bed and the door was there. And I asked myself the most important question I was ever going to ask myself in my life. And if you just said to me that night, what's a false profession? That's I don't know.

But I sit there and I, I looked at the door. And I said, don't you take it out that door if you don't believe it? You see, I didn't want something that I could tell Dave Kember the next day I'm saved. And I didn't want to come out here with a big story and tell you people I'm saved.

You know what I wanted? I wanted something. If it should be that the doctor was in a deathbed and the doctor said, Max McLean has four minutes to live. I wanted something for them.

And I said, do you honestly and sincerely believe when Jesus died on the cross, he died and put away your sins? And I really wanted to say no, but I couldn't. My wife was coming upstairs. I didn't know what happened.

I pretended I was asleep at three o'clock in the morning. I turned the pillow over. It was too wet.

And I wet tears that night and I wasn't weeping. Surely you'd weep. Wouldn't you weep if you knew you'd never be in hell? I didn't know that.

Well, surely it weep for joy. If you knew you were going to be in heaven for all eternity. I didn't know that.

The only thing I knew was that Jesus died for me and whatever that gave me, I had it. Then why would you weep? I'll tell you why. That was 53 years ago.

And I look down at you people. And for some way in my heart, someplace I can see why he would die for you. I can.

But to think that he would ever die for me broke my heart that night. And 53 years later, I can never understand why he would ever love an ungodly wretch like me. I went down.

I got up in the morning. I was afraid to go to sleep because I might be gone. And I went to work the next morning.

And I wasn't going to be like Brother Dave Kemper. He would bow his head and that he'd get orange peels and apple cores in his dinner pail. I said, I couldn't do that.

I went to work. Bud Mitchell and I went out to do a job. And we didn't get three feet out the door.

And Bud just turned to me and said, well, Max, what's new? And I said, what? What? He said, what's new? I don't know where it came from. But I said, well, Bud, about 11 o'clock last night, God saved me. And he turned to me and he said, well, isn't that nice? I preached to him all morning.

I didn't have anything. It was great. And I come home from work.

And we sit at the table. And I sit closest to the fridge. And my wife says, oh, get the butter out of the fridge.

And I went to the fridge and opened the door. And there was two miracles. One, three bottles of beer.

How I was down to three bottles of beer is just, you just never get there. I drank every day. Miracle number one.

Miracle number two is, when did I have the last one? I think it's two or three or four days, five, I don't know. And I took the top off one. And I smelled it.

And it smelled exactly the same way a Divvy's did. And my wife sat there and she saw it. And she said, are we going back to this? And I took the top off the other two.

And I took them over to her. And I said, you know, this has most likely caused you more grief than it's even caused me. And she took the two bottles and I took the one.

And we walked over to the kitchen sink and we poured them down the sewer. And there's never been another one since. It'll change your life.

The gospel of Christ. I'm not perfect. But I want to tell you, God's on your side.

And he would love to save you tonight.