If Christ Had Not Come

LUKE 15:18-25 IF CHRIST HAD NOT COME

INTRO.

A. In these verses Jesus is endavouring to comfort His desciples for He had told them previously He was going to leave them.

a. He does this by assuring them His departure is only in the human and that only temporary.

b. He tells them the Holy Spirit will come and abide with them by living in them.

B. In the verses I have called your attention Jesus makes a statement I want to lift and use as the basis of my message.

a. That statement is in verse 22 where Jesus said, IF I HAD NOT COME.

b. I want to change the word I to Christ and speak from this thought. IF CHRIST HAD NOT COME.

C. This opens a field of thought that should give us a deeper appreciation for Christ than ever before.

I. IF CHRIST HAD NOT COME THE BIBLE WOULD HAVE ENDED WITH THE LAST VERSE OF MALACHI, "LEST I COME AND SMITE THE EARTH WITH A CURSE."

A. Its message would have been difficult to grasp.

a. It would have left us with a dark gloomy picture instead of a bright and happy one.

b. It would have left us with little or no hope

c. With no hope we would be of all men most miserable.

B. Psalms 23 would be only a beautifully worded poem

a. Its real meaning hid for we would not know about the good shepherd.

C. Isaiah 53 would be as hard for us to understand as it was the Ethiopian eunch.

II. IF CHRIST HAD NOT COME WE WOULD NOT HAVE THE NEW TESTAMENT GOSPEL PROTRAYING THE LIFE OF CHRIST AS SERVANT AND KING, SON OF MAN AND SON OF GOD.

A. The angle would not have said to Mary WITH GOD NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE.

a. There would have been no babe in Bethlehem

b. The angles would not have sang to the shepherds GLORY TO GOD IN THE HIGHEST AND ON EARTH PEACE GOOD WILL TO MEN

c. There would have been no star to guide the wise men and no need of a star.

III. IF CHRIST HAD NOT COME THE CRIPPLE WOULD HAVE SPENT HIS DAYS ON HIS MATRESS FOR THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN NO GREAT PHYSICIAN TO HEAL.

A. The man st the pool of Bethesda would have remained on his cot beside the pool.

a. Blind Bartamas would have continued to set by the wayside begging.

b. The widow of Nain would have burried her son

c. Mary and Martha would have continued to morn and grieve for their brother.

e. The leper would have died with leprosy

IV. IF CHRIST HAD NOT COME WE WOULD NOT HAVE

A. The lesson on preparedness as tought in the parable of the ten virgins

a. The lesson of forgiveness as tought in the parable of the unmerciful servent.

b. The lesson of full and copmlete forgiveness and restoration as tought in the parable of the prodigal.

V. IF CHRIST HAD NOT COME

A. John the Baptist would not have said BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD THAT TAKETH AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD.

a. The heavens would not have opened for the spirit to descend like a dove lighting on Him and a voice from Heaven saying, THIS IS MY BELOVED SON IN WHOM I AM WELL PLEASED.

B. Zaccheaus would have continued to defrod the people

a. The demoniac of Gadara would have remained untaimed amoung the tombs, neither clothed nor in his right mind.

b. Saul the blood thirsty persecutor wiuld have seen no light on the Damascus road and never become the great Apostle Paul to the gentiles.

VI. IF CHRIST HAD NOT COME SINAI WITH ITS LAW, FIRE AND THUNDER WOULD HAVE BEEN THE WORLDS SUPREME MONUMENT OF GOD’S GREATEST LOVE AND CLOSEST CONTACT WITH MAN.

A. There would have been no cross th span the awful gulf of hell giving us an escape.

a. We could not sing, DOWN AT THE CROSS WHERE MY SAVIOUR DIED, DOWN WHERE FROM CLEANSING FROM SIN I CRIED, THERE TO MY HEART WAS THE BLOOD APPLIED, GLORY TO HIS NAME.

b. William Cowper would never have written, THERE IS A FOUNTAIN FILLED WITH BLOOD DRAWN FORM IMMANULES VEINS AND SINNERS PLUNGED BENEATH THE FLOOD LOOSE ALL THERE GUILTY STAIN.

c. For the fountain wold not have been filled with blood from immanules vians and sinners would have to continue in their sins.

d. George Bennard would never have wirtten, ON A HILL FAR AWAY STOOD AN OLD RUGGED CROSS THE EMBLEM OF SUFFERING AND SHAME, AND I LOVE THAT OLD CROSS WHERE THE DEAREST AND BEST FOR A WORLD OF LOST SINNERS WAS SLAIN.

VII. IF CHRIST HAD NOT COME THERE WOULD HAVE BEEN NO RESURRECTION