Telling The TRUTH
050413 Telling The Truth 28 Minute Program
[music] You're listening to "Telling the Truth" from Triple T. Christian Youth Ministries, "Telling the Truth to and through Teenagers." Here is Triple T. Founder and President George Dumes. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You are about to listen to what I call the transitional verse, one that makes it known that God has given something to us, and that we in turn need to give it to others. Saint Corinthians 4-6, New King James Version says, "For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ." God gives us the light, and He gives us the privilege of giving the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ to people who need the Lord. What a wonderful privilege to be a light-sharer. Let your light so shine. That's what we are to do daily. If we are believers, if we have turned to Jesus from sin, believed on the Lord Jesus, and if we have confessed with our mouth the Lord Jesus, whom God raised from the dead. Have you done that? If you haven't, you can right now. If you have, then take that light and shine it brightly everywhere you possibly can. God loves you, and He gives you the privilege of serving Him. He doesn't force it, but He allows it. It's a God-given privilege. Are you a giver or a taker? Only you can determine that. But what if this were you? Listen to Luke 3-11, New King James. He answered and said to them, "He who has two tunics, let Him give to Him who has none, and He who has food, let Him do likewise." There are people in need, and you have something to give to them. Tangible things, clothing, food, and other things. What do you have that you should give in Jesus' name to someone who has a need? Will you prayerfully consider doing that? The greatest need in the world is, but if our gospel is hidden, it is hidden to those that are perishing. Those that are lost. Are you doing something about removing the gospel from its hiding place, perhaps in your heart, and exposing it to people who need the Lord? You can, if you will, if you really know Jesus. Someone has only one tunic, or none. You have the gospel. You could share Jesus effectively, even by investing your time, talent, and treasure to further the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Some were begging for alms. They wanted tangible presence, or something maybe they needed a great deal. Listen to Peter's response. Acts 3-6, New King James. Then Peter said, "Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk." Are you giving your faith away? You can, if you will. There are people who need to know that Jesus loves them. He loves them so much that he died. He died so they could live forever by believing on the risen Lord Jesus. Because Jesus didn't stay dead. He was buried and he rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures. Now we have that gift of eternal life that we can provide and present and make available to people who don't know Jesus. There is somebody waiting for you to give them not silver or gold, but to show them how they can have personal faith in Jesus Christ. And by believing on him can live forever as a child of God. Who do you know who don't know him? Will you go to them one by one or maybe even as a group and tell them Jesus saves? Givers and takers are everywhere. Which are you? Acts 20-25, New King James, presents a very, very pertinent portrait. Is this your picture? I have shown you in every way by laboring like this that you must support the weak. And remember the words of the Lord Jesus that he said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." There you have it. Listen to it one more time. Jesus Christ, Son of God, said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive." I like to give, but I don't always have what I want to give available. So I try to find what I do have and give it. And what I do have, of course, is the glorious gospel of Jesus. Sometimes it helps to give a present as you share the gospel to tell people how they by believing on Christ can be saved. Sometimes you need to do something. One of the things I do consistently is whenever we have the privilege of eating out is leaving a tangible gift and God's plan of salvation. I tell them, "Here is your ticket to heaven. It's free, and you have the privilege of sharing day by day, week by week with lots of folk, God's ABCs." We have them for you. If you would like some of God's ABCs, contact us, and we will send you as many as you would like to have to share with people who need the Lord. Listen to Ephesians chapter 4 verse 28, New King James. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands, what is good, that he may have something to give him who has need. Why work? Because others lack something that you could provide. They have a need you could do something about. The first thing you ought to do for people who have a need is to pray for them. Secondly, in love, go to them and provide whatever it is that you can that they need. But right now, what is your need? The best way to meet a need is to give away. You can't out give God. Many people have argued with me about that, but I have tried and he won't allow it. So give. Give your time, your talent, your treasure, and help people who have a need to have that need met. God will make you usable and use you if you will allow that to happen. It's totally your decision. God will not force it. He will not make you give, but he will make you a giver if you will pray about it and say, "Lord, change my whole personality, my whole outlook on life. Help me to give, to give the gospel, to give tangible things that I have the privilege of sharing with other people." And when you do this, God will make you usable and use you. Listen to God's formula to turn a taker into a giver. 1 Timothy 6, 17 and 18, who King James says, "Command those who are rich in this present age not to be haughty, not to trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God who gives us richly all things to enjoy. Let them do good that they be rich in good works, ready to give, ready to share." You see, doing something for God's glory sometimes is far, far more important than giving dollars and cents. Although it takes dollars and cents for ministries to happen, for people to keep going, but doing good work in God's name and giving of yourself can be a tremendous blessing not only to the person for whom you are investing yourself, but a great, great blessing to you. God wants us to look at people who need whatever it is they need, but especially those who need the Lord and people do need the Lord. Are you going to do something about that? If you know Jesus Christ, don't hold it back, don't keep it to yourself, but tell the world about Jesus. Someone is waiting today for you to tell them how to get to heaven. Will you? Listen to a very special word from God's Word, 2 Corinthians 9, verses 6 and 7, New King James Version. But this I say, who who souls sparingly will also reap sparingly, and who who souls bountifully will also reap bountifully. So let each one give as he purposes in his heart, not grudgingly or of necessity, for God loves a cheerful giver. Are you that kind of giver? Do you have a smile on your face? Do you have a lilt in your step? Are you really happy in the Lord and giving to people who need Jesus? Maybe there is a tangible thing that you need to give. Maybe you need to give more to ministry. God knows what you need to do with what He is entrusted to you. Be a giver. Be a glad giver. And when you are cheerful with other people, they catch it, and they see it. And sometimes they say, "Wow, I want to be like that too." So cheerfully give the Gospel of Jesus Christ to people who need the Lord, and don't do it out of any other motivation than your love for God and others. We have God's ABCs to share with you. If you would like to give the Gospel to people that you see and come in contact with, write us or call us, and we will send you as many of God's ABCs as you would like to have. Every Saturday at 7.27 p.m., you are invited to attend a live youth event at Triple T, 13,000 US-41 North at Booneville and Harmony Road, mid-way between I-64 and Evansville Regional Airport. Every first Saturday, a good news club for ages 6 to 9 is available in a separate room. For more information, call 812-867-2418 or visit www.tripletchristianyouth.org. [music] Tonight at Triple T we'll be sharing the plan from Dave Breeze Book Life at Its Very Best. These are highlights that will help you know how much God loves you. And so today I want to share this with you. The greatest discovery that any of us will ever make in all of life is to learn that God has an exciting plan for each one of us, which He is working to fulfill in your life and mind. The name of that wonderfully designed arrangement is the plan of salvation. The plan of salvation is a wonderfully arranged design whereby the God of the universe has made it possible for each one of us to know life. Life at Its Very Best. This most remarkable entity, salvation, comes to us in the form of a free gift. That is the gift of life. Life abundant, life everlasting. To understand that plan and to receive the gift of God, which He presents and provides is to know life, life itself. What is that plan? How, then, can we understand it? We have already considered this marvelous fact that God has designed us and the universe. And not within it all the promises, but He put life here so that we can be a wonderful thing in His sight. The wonderful God who made us all thinks about you and about me every day. Because of His love, He is carefully working in each moment of our lives to bring us to Himself. In the beginning He made man in His own image, with the ultimate purpose of bringing us to our eternal home in the glory of heaven. So important is this divine intention for us that He has told us many times in the Bible what He has done and what we must do to realize in our personal experience the exciting plan of God for our lives. What are the facts that we must keep in mind? The first fact is that this planet has been subverted by the greatest enemy of God whose name is Satan. Sin has come into the world. The first appearance of this awful being on earth came when He appeared as a serpent in the Garden of Eden. He pressed upon Eve an alternative view of God and the world, a new set of strange ideas as to why God made man. He presented to her several believable lies as a result of which she was persuaded to go to the devil's way rather than God's way. She aided the forbidden fruit and then gave to Adam who also ate. As a result of this disobedience of our first parents, the world has become infected by a dreadful moral disease, a disease of the human will called sin. Reporting on this, the Bible says, "By one man sin entered the world and death by sin, and so death passed upon all men," Romans 5-12. Because of the rebellion of man, Satan has been able to deceive the whole world into following Him. He is therefore called in the Bible the God of this world. The second fact, therefore to keep in mind, is that every person has individually sinned and come short of the glory of God. You have sinned, I have sinned, each one of us because of our natural birth has inherited the sin and death in this world, which started with Adam's sin. Not only so, we have each one cooperated with that dreadful program of Satan by personally sinning. Therefore God has announced that concerning every person in the human race, they are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable. There is none that does good, no not one. They are already judged, condemned, before the eternal bar of justice. Because of this, the condition of our world is that it is dead in transgressions and sins. No one properly understands this world, who does not remember that its loveliest ladies, the handsomest men, the most brilliant scientists, the most capable leaders, the nicest people are all dead in sin as far as their relationship with God is concerned. That's why all purely human causes must ultimately fall. Everything that autonomous man builds organizes, arranges, or takes pride in will ultimately be destroyed. This world is lost. No one whose life is built only on the course of this world can possibly succeed. The next fact to remember in which we rejoice is that God has arranged for the gift of life to become available to every man. The message concerns this wonderful gift. It's called the Gospel. It is the good news that God has provided a safer for mankind and offers salvation by faith in him. This wonderful news is best summed up in the Bible when it says, "I declare unto you the Gospel that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." And that he was buried, that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 1 Corinthians 15, 3 and 4. What this means is that the sins of the whole world have been placed upon Jesus Christ at the time of his death on Calvary's cross. God literally made him to be sin for us in order that we might receive his gift of divine righteousness. When Jesus Christ suffered and died on the cross just outside Jerusalem over 2,000 years ago, all sin, yours and mine, past, present and future was laid upon him. We therefore say that he was a toning death. The price of sin must be paid, and on the cross the payment was made, which ransoms you and me. When the hymn writers put it well, when he wrote, "Jesus paid it all, all to him I owe." Sin has left its crimson stain, he washed it white as snow. Quite obviously then, the most important event in the history of the universe was the death of Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross followed by his resurrection. As a result of the astonishing sacrifice which Christ the Son of God made for us on the cross, we are offered the forgiveness of every sin. We are also offered a new life to live, both in this world and in the world to come. Another fact to remember is the response which I must give to this offer of salvation which God presents to me. What is the response which makes this salvation, this deliverance from sin, become mine? It is faith alone in Christ alone. This very question, "What must I do?" was asked by the Apostle Paul by the keeper of the jail in the city of Philippi. The jailer was a man who had probably beaten prisoners and dealt cruelly and harshly with them. In his prison one night, however, he heard two prisoners pray and sang praises to God. He was surprised that these men despite their utmost imprisonment in his jail were not bitter and resentful. Rather, to the jailer's astonishment, these prisoners were happy and confident in their God. He saw in them the kind of life that he had never seen before. The life that comes from heaven indeed Paul and Silas were living above their circumstances. They were living life at its very best. They showed evidence of true happiness which comes from heaven. Then came the earthquake. The doors of the prison were thrown open but even so Paul and Silas made no attempt to escape but continued. To thank God for his kindness and love, what a contrast was this pitiful jailer. He was so distraught by the earthquake and the prospect that his prisoners had left that he was just about to commit suicide. At this point, the scripture says, "Paul cried with a loud voice saying, 'Do yourself no harm, for we're all here.' Then he called for a light and sprang in and came trembling and fell down before Paul and Silas. The frightened jailer cried, 'Sir, what must I do to be saved?' Notice especially the simple but beautiful answer that Paul had for him. Paul the Apostle said, 'Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved and your household.' The answer of the Apostle Paul to this concerned question of the jailer was a simple formula. You must believe. Paul said faith in Christ was presented as the soul and only way of salvation. Notice also, Paul did not say, he did not say clean up your life, work hard for God, go to church, say you're sorry, never sin again, hold out for years. More of these now familiar substitutes for the truth are part of the message of the Apostle Paul he preached on the way of salvation as being faith and faith alone. The same way of salvation is the door to life for you and me. What must I do to be saved? I must believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God that he died for my sins on Calvary's cross, believing this I must trust Christ in a personal way for my sins. He can be my Savior. I must have no more confidence in my own works to save me, but be confident alone in the finished work on the cross. Once a 16-year-old high school student was invited to a meeting where teenagers were gathered to study the Bible, it was called High School Bible Club. There, this young high school junior heard about how Christ died for his sins on the cross. He listened to the gospel and then he was invited to receive Christ to believe on him. That night, this young man accepted Christ and became a true Christian. Everything changed and he discovered life in his very best. He is the author of this book, "Dave Breeze", and he invites you to make the same discovery. Stay tuned. What then is the key to life? It is to know Christ as personal Savior. Being dead in trespasses and sins, I cannot save myself. I must, therefore, depend upon the saving power of Jesus Christ, which is applied to me when by faith I receive Him. Let us then be utterly clear in our understanding of the way of salvation. The gift of God, which is eternal life, becomes mine when I receive Jesus Christ and His finished work on the cross. And that moment, it can be yours too. Do you understand what has happened that you are a sinner? And when you accept God's way of salvation, that moment, you become a child of the living God. At that moment, I am translated out of death unto life, out of darkness into light, out of the kingdom of Satan, into the kingdom of Christ. That moment, I cease to be dead in trespasses and sins and receive life anew from Jesus Christ. By natural birth, I am a member of Adam's race. By spiritual birth, I am a child of God and become an heir to heaven. The plumb line then is correct. Perfect. I have met in Christ God's perfect standard. So it is that Jesus gives the absolute imperative for salvation, saying, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." In this presentation of the New Birth, Christ gave us that verse in the Bible, which is more familiar than any other. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son, that her believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That can be yours. First admit that you've sinned. All have sinned and come sure the glory of God. The wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, God so loved the world that he gave. And then tell other people, "If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in your heart that God has raised him for the dead, you will be safe. For with the heart when believes to righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation." We have those verses in a little piece of paper called "God's ABCs." And on the flip side is a picture of our billboard that appears out across the tri-state with the message, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ." This is Christ, telling the truth to teenagers, and our website www.ttchristianyouth.org. We want you to have as many of these as you would like to give away to people. We're giving them away by the thousands, and we have them for you to give to your friends, to your family, to people with whom you come in contact. You see, all we have to do is, first of all, admit we sin, believe on Christ, and confess Him publicly, and then to take that gospel and to keep confessing Jesus publicly wherever we go. Somebody is waiting for you to tell them how to get to heaven. Let me tell you something. You probably know this, but I want you to get it. I don't want you to miss this. Every person you come in contact with, every person is headed for heaven or for hell, depending on whether or not they know Jesus Christ. Yes, Jesus gave us John 3 16, but He also said, "He that does not believe in the name and the only begotten Son of God is condemned already because He has not believed." That means this condemnation has already happened. We are in sin, and we are headed away from God. We will never go to heaven unless we receive Jesus Christ. Hell was prepared for the devil and his angels, and God does not want any person to go there, but every person is going there until and unless they receive God's gift of eternal life. So if you haven't, you can. If you have, then tell other people who need to know the Lord. We're so excited about what God has done and is doing here at Triple Depression Youth Ministries, and every single Saturday we are continuing to share the gospel, and many, many times between Saturdays. Perhaps you know this, perhaps you don't, but in just a couple of weeks we will be preparing the Old Testament tabernacle. We have a crew coming up from Team Missions International in Florida, they're unloaded out of the semi, we will erect it and have it ready for touring at least by the 18th of May, hopefully maybe a few days before. And it will be open every single day, seven days a week, all the time it's here through October 17. That's right, our ongoing impact increases from every Saturday to every day in the middle of May, and it will go that way until the middle of October and perhaps beyond. So we want you to know about what's going on here at Triple T, we want to invite you to come by anytime that you can, and also to see, together toward tomorrow, the ongoing impact, the continuing story of youth evangelism in America from 1931 forward. And we want to let you know that you too can have a home in heaven by receiving God's gift of eternal life. And if you have, then tell others, and we have tools to put into your hands, we have a Bible, a free one to give to you, to send to you, or you can come here and pick it up every first time or every Saturday night, and every Saturday we're having first timers and second timers and third timers come. And you're invited to come tonight at 727, four miles north of Evansville Regional Airport, four miles south of I-64. Know this, Christ through you can change the world. Every Saturday at 727 p.m., you are invited to attend a live youth event at Triple T, 13,000 US-41 north at Booneville and Harmony Road, midway between I-64 and Evansville Regional Airport. Every first Saturday, a good news club for ages 6 to 9 is available in a separate room. For more information, call 812-867-2418 or visit www.tripletchristianyouth.org. For your free copy of The Telling the Truth newsletter, call 812-867-2418, 812-867-2418 or write Triple T, 13,000 US-41 north, Evansville, Indiana, 477-25. Tune in to Telling the Truth next week at this same time on This Same Station. [MUSIC]