Gospel—R. Thonney
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It was First Corinthians chapter 15 that I read. Before we start at the start of this meeting, would like to go back there.
And speak from those three major facts of God's salvation.
Christ died for our sins #1.
He was buried number two. He rose again the third day.
According to the scriptures.
Tremendous facts of the gospel.
This we're talking about the salvation of God for us.
You know, there's a work of God in us that's necessary as well, and I want to touch on that a little bit later. But first of all, it's important to understand clearly.
The wonderful truth of the salvation of God for something that was accomplished almost 2000 years ago.
In this world, God sent his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, into this world.
And it's amazing to think about his advent into this world. He came into this world.
But the world did not know him.
Imagine here is the one that spoke the whole universe into existence.
And when he comes into this world.
Who is it that knows he's come into this world?
Almost nobody recognized him.
His poor mother, when he came into this world, you know, he was born of a virgin, of a woman who had never had relations with a man, and that is important because he was holy. At his birth the Angel declared to the Virgin Mary that holy thing which shall be born of these shall be called the Son of God.
It was important because if he was going to take on the question of our sins before a holy God, he himself had to be holy. If he had his own sins, he'd have to answer for that for himself alone.
But because he was holy.
And so he came into this world holy.
But when he was born, his poor mother was relegated to the stable where the animals were, and there she had to give birth.
To her son.
Imagine.
She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in the Manger.
And who was it?
That side all Was there any human witnesses?
Joseph was there, of course.
But it was the angels that came down because they had never seen their creator.
In human form. And here for the first time, they see their creator. And I'm sure they must have thought, where are these people, the people that have the Bible or the Word of God in their hands?
They should know.
That he came into this world and they didn't seem to have a clue.
So the angels had to go out into the fields, and there was the shepherds, and they were the first ones to get the news.
That this day in the city of David is born unto you a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Oh, what a tremendous message.
Later on.
Wise men came from the east. I find it very interesting to hear.
Different reports on wise men. You know how they painted in the pictures? Three wise men. And they always have him out there where he wasn't the stable. That's not accurate at all.
The wise men came almost two years later.
Because when Herod tried to kill those little boys that had been born, he ordered them killed from 2 years old and under.
So the Lord Jesus was probably at that time when the wise men came close to two years old and what we'd call a toddler.
And so they came from a far country it's not.
Said that there were three wise men. I heard one.
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Comment on it said it was probably closer to 20 or 30 wise men.
Because if they travel just three wise men, they would get assaulted by thieves and and they came with gold and frankincense and myrrh.
Things that were very costly there were probably close to 20 to 30.
There's a report and it's very interesting from China.
That there was an astronomer that was well known in the Chinese court and that he reported.
This is not scripture, but this is a report that reported that is seen the king star in the sky and he got permission to go.
And the record in the Chinese documents is that he was absent for close to two years after he'd seen the Star.
And that could have been possibly. Then we don't know for sure. But they came to Jerusalem and they said where is he that is born King of the Jews? We have seen his star in the east and we have come to worship him. Just think of it these people way away.
Far away came to worship him. His own people didn't recognize him. I find that so incredibly sad, but it's the truth of the matter.
And so they came to Jerusalem, and Herod and all Jerusalem were troubled at the news.
And they asked the scribes and the Pharisees.
Where he was to be born and they gave him the answer from the Bible. Is it possible that you know the answers from the Bible and you don't know him?
Yes, that is possible. It happened before. It could happen tonight too.
Oh, how important it is to be real with God.
Anyhow.
They told them the that it was in Bethlehem that the King of the Jews was to be born.
And so they left and went towards Bethlehem, and the star that they had seen in the east went before them until it stood over where the young child was.
And I just try to imagine it.
When they came into the house because they were in a Mary and Jesus, that little boy Jesus was or in the house.
And here the door opens.
One day an in file all these of these wise men, and they fall down on their faces and worshipped him.
Just wonder what Mary must have thought as she saw that happen. And they took out their treasures and offered him gold and frankincense and myrrh.
They recognized who he was. They worshipped him.
But then they were warned to go back another way. And so.
They left, and the people of Israel in general did not recognize him, but there were a few that did.
As many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God to them that believe on his name.
And so there were some that recognized who he was, but in general.
He was rejected. Can you imagine a man that could heal the sick, that could even raise the dead?
That could multiply food for the hungry.
Wouldn't you want a kind that kind of a person around? You would think they would, but in the end the Jewish people rejected him completely.
They didn't want him.
And so they pressured Pilot, Pilot declared three times. I find no fault in this man, but at the same time he.
Condemned him to the most awful death, the death of the cross.
And they took Jesus outside the city of Jerusalem.
He had his head crowned with thorns.
Pilot had had him scourged. I don't know if you've ever heard anything of the Roman scourging.
It was called, according to one book I've read about it, The living death and many of the criminals that were scourge died at the scourging. It was so terrible.
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Ripped.
Stripes in the back of the person that was being scourged and then they took Jesus outside the city of Jerusalem.
And they nailed him to a cross.
And they nailed him through the hands and the feet. Can you just imagine the pain, the excruciating pain that it would be?
To have your hands and feet nailed and then that cross picked up and dropped into a hole. And that's why he says one of the Psalms. All my bones are out of joint.
At shock as it jolted down into that hole, all his bones were out of joint.
And there he hung from 9:00 in the morning.
To 3:00 in the afternoon.
With life.
For six hours he was there in life on that cross suffering. The first three hours he suffered from the hands of man. They mocked him, they jeered him, they spit on him, he said. Reproach has broken my heart and I'm full of.
Trouble. And I look for some to take pity, and there was none, and then for comforters, but I found none.
Oh, my friend, how awful he suffered there.
They said to him, if God is his Father.
Let God deliver him.
Did God deliver him?
No. Why not?
Can God love his only Son?
Yes, he did.
But he loved you, too. And he loved you with so much love that he let his own son go on to suffer.
The last three hours of darkness on that cross.
Says at 12 noon everything got dark. And it was in those three hours of darkness that God laid on him. The iniquity of us all. It says in Isaiah chapter 53. He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace was upon him, and with his stripes we are healed. In those three hours God took all our sins.
I sometimes think of it this way that Jesus said to God, Bob, Tony can't go to heaven because of his sins, but I'll pay for them Father. And so in those three hours of darkness my sins were laid on him who was completely holy, and the full wrath and judgment of a holy God fell in old fury on God's beloved Son. In those three hours he paid the price of redemption for our sins.
And justice before he died, he said. It is finished.
I should mention, too, that he said toward the end of those three hours of darkness. Because in those three hours of darkness, it was basically silence.
As he suffered those awful waves and billows of divine judgment against sin, he said, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? No, God was his father. Why didn't he say my father? It wasn't because he that God was his father. He was his father, but it was because God was dealing with him as God.
In the holiness of His character, His Holiness had to be satisfied if He was going to extend forgiveness to you and me.
Oh, what a tremendous price he paid. And so at the very end, he says, Father, into thy hands I commit my spirit.
And he died.
That's the first of these three.
Major truths of the Gospel Christ.
Died for our sins according to the scriptures.
The next one, he was buried after he'd given up his life on that cross. They took him down and they wrapped him, as the Jews do, with linen clothes, and laid him in a tomb we know belonged to Joseph of Arimathea. It was a tomb where no dead person had ever lain, because here was one who would not see the corruption of death because he was holy.
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In every way, he was holy.
And so he was laid in that tomb.
And then the third major truth of the gospel is he was raised again.
According to the scriptures. He rose again according to the scriptures.
He was buried on Friday afternoon, the way we count time.
And then Saturday, and then Sunday early, the women came to look for his body, to anoint him with those perfumes, and they saw the stone rolled away from the mouth of the tomb.
And he was not there.
Mary Magdalene was the 1St to see the Lord Jesus in resurrection. But before she saw him she ran to tell the disciples Peter and John and they came to the tomb and they saw.
And they went back to their own homes.
Poor Mary.
She hadn't found him, and she wasn't satisfied, and she stayed there, and all of a sudden she sees some angels there. They say, Woman, why weepest thou whom seekest thou? She said. She thought he was the gardener. She said, If you have taken him away, tell me where you've laid him, and I will take him away.
A woman bearing the carcass of a dead person.
She didn't think about that. She just wanted to see him.
And then she turns around me. She turned her back on the angels.
She turns around and there's Jesus standing. She didn't know it was Jesus.
And she thought he was the gardener. And she said, Sir, if you've taken him away, tell me where you've put him and I will take him away.
And Jesus said one word. I think it's so beautiful.
Mary. She knew immediately who it was. It was the Good Shepherd calling his sheep by name, and she knew immediately who it was. Oh, the beauty of the fact that he has risen again. And we know he was amongst his people in this world for 40 days, 40 nights.
Before he ascended back into heaven. And I've tried to think of the glory of that moment when the Lord Jesus went back into the heavens.
To say, Father, I finished the work you gave me to do the glory of that moment no human, no other human eye could ever witness.
But we know he's there in the glory.
A real, living human being is in the glory of God tonight.
And that amazing to think about. I find that so amazingly so that's the work of God for us. God accepted what Jesus did on that cross. If he had not been fully satisfied with what Jesus had paid on that cross, he wouldn't have raised him from the dead. The fact that he did is a testimony to the fact that God was satisfied with the payment that Jesus made.
Oh, I think it's so amazingly wonderful to think that God is satisfied with Jesus without work of redemption that he accomplished on that cross.
So that's the work of God for us.
But I need to touch on the work of God in us, because that's important.
As well.
And for that, let's go over to John's Gospel chapter 3.
Here we have in the life of the Lord Jesus, the Lord Jesus talking to a Pharisee.
A ruler of the Jews. There's a man of position. His name was Nicodemus.
John 3 verse one there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
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The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
Nice religious talk, Nicodemus.
What does Jesus answer?
Verse 3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee.
Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.
Basically, he was saying Nicodemus.
All your religion.
Counts for nothing if you are not born again.
And so if you're not born again, you can't see the Kingdom of God.
And Nicodemus found that very strange.
Verse 4 Nicodemus said unto him, How can a man be born when he is old?
Can he be enter the second time into the mother his mother's woman be born?
He's trying to think of it in a natural way.
Jesus answered.
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
No, he's talking about it in a different way.
Be born of water and of the Spirit. Many people think that water is the baptism.
But that's not the case. Baptism speaks of death, not life.
What is the water?
We go over to First Peter, Chapter One. You'll see what the water is.
Just read the verse.
First Peter, chapter one and verse.
23.
Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible.
By the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away.
The word of the Lord endureth forever.
And this is the Word which by the gospel is preached unto you.
So the water is the word of God.
So he sent it to Nicodemus, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit. You notice that spirit is capital S It's the Holy Spirit of God.
The Holy Spirit takes the word of God and makes it penetrate into the hearts of those that hear.
Are you listening?
Tonight, are you hearing what God says? It's not so important what I say.
But it's what God says, and when God says something.
We need to listen.
God, by his Spirit takes the word of God and makes it penetrate.
And in that he creates a new life in a person. That's the work of God in US. God has done the work of God for us. But you need as well the work of God in you, because if you're not born of water and of the Spirit, you cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.
Oh, how important these things are.
And you know, we're born, as it says in Peter of corruptible seed.
By our parents. That's why I've got Gray hairs on my head. That's why I got a knee that hurts me when I walk lots of times.
It's because I've been born of corruptible seed.
That's the way we were all born the first time.
But that is not sufficient. If you want to see, if you want to enter the Kingdom of God, you must be born of water and the Spirit and that seed.
Is the word of God the incorruptible word of God? I think that's so amazingly wonderful.
Again I say what I say this evening is not important. What is important is what God says in His Word. And here it is.
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Except she be a man, be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh.
And that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
So no matter what, I would do as a natural man to try to make myself acceptable to God and sorry, it's not going to work.
I need to be born again of water and of the Spirit of God.
I often have given illustration in Latin America speaking to the Spanish people of.
The sinful nature that we all have.
And use the illustration.
Of a pig.
You know what pigs like?
They like to lay down in the mud and wallow in it.
Let's pull that pig out of the mud hole. Let's wash him down really good. Let's take a brush and get him really nice and clean.
And besides that, we're going to tie him and make sure he doesn't get back out in the mud.
Have we changed that pig?
What do you kids think?
No.
He's only changed on the outside, that's all.
What's going to happen?
When he gets loose.
You know what's going to happen? Go right back to them. And so there are people who dress up nicely. Oh, they're nice religious people. Yeah, I'm religious.
And they think that they've got it together with God.
But there's just on the outside, nothing on the inside.
And so if it were possible, I know this isn't possible, but if it were possible, we could operate on that pig.
And put in him.
A sheep's nature.
Then we could let them go and he wouldn't go to the mud hole anymore because he has a different nature. He has a different life. And that's what happens to a believer in the Lord Jesus when he's born again. He has a nature that wants to do the things of God. That's why it's so important to.
Listen to the word of God.
Your children thankful to see that many of you have parents that read the scriptures daily.
I did. When I was a boy, I had a mom. My dad had to leave for work really early in the morning, and my mom every morning read something of the scriptures and then pray before we went off to school.
And it was one of those mornings that the word of God seemed to register with me, and I said Lord Jesus.
I'm a Sinner. I need to be saved. Will you please save me? And he saved me.
That's almost 73 years ago that that happened and I'm so glad I did it when I was young.
So I want to encourage you to do it when you're young.
Place your faith in the Lord Jesus.
And so you must be born again. That's the word of God, work of God in US. It's the work of God for us, what was accomplished at the cross of Calvary almost 2000 years ago. But also is necessary the work of God in US.
Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.
That's why it's so important the Lord Jesus said multiple times in the gospel he that hath ears to hear, let him hear.
Book of Revelation It says he that hath, and eager let him hear.
You got ears there?
On your head.
Listen. Hear what he has to say to you. So important.
But I want to touch something that I believe is really important.
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You know why I am burdened.
Because.
I.
At least four.
Men that are alive today.
That used to break bread.
In our assembly meetings.
And today?
They say they are atheists.
What in the world has happened?
Where have they been?
Does it mean that somebody that's saved can lose their salvation?
No, I don't believe that's the case.
If they were not saved.
It was that they were never saved.
But they can appear as people that are saved.
And that's what scares me.
I don't know if I've told the story here, but if I have, please forgive me, I don't remember.
Where and when I told some of my stories.
When Barb and I after we were married.
Went from.
Oak Park to Bolivia to establish our first home in Bolivia.
We decided to build a house on a lot next door to the meeting room in Montero, Bolivia.
And we contracted a brother and fellowship there to build us a house.
And he had working for him a young man who was a bricklayer they built with bricks there.
And he did his work well, I thought he was a believer.
And he would go on us sometimes in the weekends to visit different meetings in the Amazon Basin area where there were different meetings.
After we got done building the house, he disappeared. I guess he went somewhere else to work and I lost track of him.
Sometime later I got.
Met up with him in a marketplace. Where have you been?
Don't worry, don't worry. I'm going to come back to meeting. I'm going to come back to meeting, I said. I don't talk about meeting, I said. Where have you been?
Anyhow, I lost track of them again.
But if you've ever been to Montero, Bolivia.
You're going to find that there we have taxis, they use motorcycles for taxis and you can climb on the back of a of a taxi, motorcycle taxi and they'll take you where you want to go.
Well, these taxis.
The men that had those taxis started appearing.
Outside the city in different areas.
Dead.
With a bullet through their head.
Nobody knew who was doing it. Who in the world is doing it?
234567
Anyhow, one day, Amen.
Was found at the side of the road and he had been shot in the head too, but the bullet had gone around his skull.
Didn't go through his brain, he's still alive and they brought him into the hospital.
And he told who it was.
That did it was this man.
That had helped build our house for us.
And at that time there was military government in Bolivia.
And they don't handle it like a democratic government news.
But he confessed.
Under I don't know if they'd use torture what it was to having killed 12 People.
They decided to do an investigation as to where he had taken the.
Motorcycles of the people that he had killed and sold them. And so one day two soldiers and he were taken out into the countryside where he said he had sold one of the motorcycles.
And I think they did this purposely. They kind of let loose of him and he started running for the jungle and they called for him to stop. And he didn't stop. Boom, boom, boom, boom.
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They killed him.
That was capital punishment.
You know, I cringe. I cringe. I cringe to think that I broke bread with a man that is in hell now.
Is it possible?
Where are you With the Lord? You can fool me. You cannot fool God. He's looking down into your heart and he knows exactly.
Where you stand with God.
And I'm here to say to you, be real with God. Don't fool around with God. You can fool around with me. Been plenty of people that fooled me.
You can't fool God.
So I want to talk the time we have left. Let's go first of all to a verse in Acts chapter 20.
That is important. That talks about.
Salvation.
Acts chapter 20 and verse 21. This is the Apostle Paul speaking and he says testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks.
Repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Two things that are necessary for salvation.
Repentance toward God.
Faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ.
Look at a couple verses or few verses in Luke chapter 13.
Luke, Chapter 13.
Verse one.
There were present at that season some that told him of the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices.
And Jesus answering said unto them, Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffered such things.
I tell you, Nay, but accept ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
Or those 18 upon whom the tower of fell, and slew them.
Thinking that they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem, I tell you, Nay, but accept ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.
If you want to be saved, there's something that's necessary repentance.
What does that mean? Repentance.
Pent comes from the Latin root. To think Spanish, it's Pennsylvania.
But it's to think repent means to rethink.
To have a change in your thinking, you know, I think it is especially critical here in the United States because we are taught that we can. We are the masters of our own destiny. We can take our own course of things just as we think best.
For a question of justice, man to man, that might be right. But it's not. We're talking about God and man.
And so there needs to be a repentance. And if you don't repent.
You're going to perish.
Let me be clear.
Repentance does not save a person.
What saves a person is faith in Christ.
We are saved by faith.
Through grace.
And that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.
But if you don't repent, you won't be saved. And that's what has to happen. And that's what costs, sometimes terribly, in the life of a person.
We have to come, and sometimes it takes a crisis in a person's life to bring them to repentance.
I'm not getting it right. I'm not getting it straight with God.
You know, it's interesting to me that the verse we often use in the gospel.
Romans 8, Romans 10.
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9.
If thou shalt confess with thy mouth.
Jesus as Lord, and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved.
Confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord.
In other words, to recognize I'm not Lord of my life any longer.
I surrender.
I repent of my own ideas. I surrender to the lordship of Christ.
How important that is to recognize him as Lord. You know what I see so often as people think? And if I just ask the Lord to save me in a minute and then I can go on living my life just like I want to, and nobody's going to say anything because I'm saved. I'm already saved now because I trust in the Lord. But there's been no repentance.
That's scary. That's scary.
No, you need to repent and then believe in the Lord Jesus. And so I want to.
Speak about 3 persons in scripture.
One who repented but didn't have faith.
Another who had faith. At least it says he does did.
But he had never repented.
And then another who had repentance and faith.
Let's go to the book of Matthew chapter.
27.
Matthew Chapter 27.
Verse 3 This is talking about when the Lord Jesus was taken.
To deliver him to Pontius Pilate, to the Governor. To crucify him.
You remember what had happened? Judas Iscariot, one of the Lord's disciples, one of the 12 disciples.
Had made an agreement with the chief priests and the Pharisees.
To deliver him to them for 30 pieces of.
And it does seem like Judas that the Lord has walked out of so many traps.
Well, he'd just walk out of this one and I'll have the 30 pieces of silver in my pocket. No one will ever know.
It didn't happen that way.
When it came, the time when he betrayed him, they took him, and it was the time for the Lord to go to the cross.
And so here's the story about Judas, verse 3. Then Judas which had betrayed him when he saw that he was condemned, that Jesus was condemned.
Repented himself.
Another translation says filled with remorse, and brought again the 30 pieces of silver to the chief priests and elders, saying, I have sinned and that I betrayed the innocent blood. And they said, what is that to us? See thou to that. And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.
Oh, the awfulness of the end of Judas Iscariot.
One of the Lord's disciples.
One of the apostles, I'm sure. He had done miracles. He had preached the word.
And here he is.
Betraying the Lord.
And after he had done it, it was so shameful what he had done.
That he went and hanged himself.
The book of Acts, chapter one, gives us a detail that we don't have here. When he hanged himself, he fell down and his body broke in two.
All is inside spilled out. What an awful end to one who is so close to the Lord for 3 1/2 years listening to him, whereas Judas Iscariot now.
In hell fire.
Oh, what an awful thing.
Couldn't he have turned back to the Lord to say I'm sorry? Forgive me, with the Lord have forgiven him, I'm sure he would have forgiven him.
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Didn't have that faith.
Says it. Repented himself. Is filled with remorse. I'm sure realized how awful it's going to look between for everybody.
And there he is now.
And that lost eternity.
Repentance in itself doesn't save, so let's go over to the book of the Acts, chapter 8, to see a man who believed.
And was baptized even.
Here Philip verse 5.
Went down to the city of Samaria, and preached Christ unto them. And the people with one accord gave heed unto the things which Philip spoke, hearing seen the miracles which he did.
Verse.
12:00 But when they believed, I'm sorry, let's read verse 8 or verse nine first. But there was a certain man called Simon, which before time in the same city used sorcery and bewitched the people of Samaria, giving out that himself was some great one, to whom they all gave heed from the least to the greatest, saying, This man is the great power of God, and to him they had regard because that of a long time he had bewitched them with their sorceries.
But when they believe Philip preaching the things concerning the Kingdom of God in the name of Jesus Christ.
They were baptized both men and women.
Then Simon himself believed. Also he believed.
And when he was baptized, he continued with Philip, and wondered, beholding the miracles and signs which were done.
Verse 14 Now when the apostles which were at Jerusalem heard that Samaria had received the word of God, they sent it to them. Peter and John, who when they were come down, prayed for them. They might receive the Holy Ghost.
For as yet none he was fallen upon none of them. Only they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. Then lay they their hands on them, and they received the Holy Ghost when Simon saw that through the laying on the hands of the Holy Ghost.
Apostles hands the Holy Ghost was given, He offered them money, saying, Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands he may receive the Holy Ghost.
But Peter said unto him, Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent.
Therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, that if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven me, for I perceive that thou art on the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.
With Simon the Sorcerer saved.
No, he believed he was baptized.
Wasn't saved.
He had never repented of his sorcery.
He was a great man in the sorcery world.
Now greater power comes to Samaria, power of God in the gospel.
And he wants to be a great man in the Church of God.
Peter detects that he had never repented. Oh, how solemn this is. There's no evidence with Simon that he ever repented. He does say to Peter in verse 24. Pray ye to the Lord for me that none of these things which thou has spoken come upon me.
Poor Simon. I don't know that he ever really, truly believed because he never had repented.
So believing without repentance.
It's not salvation, and I think that's what the Apostle Paul was referring to in the book of First Corinthians 15 when he said except you believed in vain. What does it mean to believe in vain?
So believe in a way.
That God doesn't recognize when there's no repentance, He doesn't recognize believing.
Pretty interesting to think about, and I just challenge you to search your hearts in the presence of God. Have you surrendered to the Lord Jesus?
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Or are you still maintaining you're going to do things your way which how you want?
Well, the third one is in Acts 16. Quite well known story of.
Paul and in the prison at Philippi.
And their backs were beaten and their feet were put in the locks.
In the prison.
Verse 25 says, and at midnight Paul and Silas prayed.
And sang praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them.
Not interesting.
Didn't happen right away, I'm sure they.
We're kind of feeling bad.
Especially their backs and their feet.
And the impossible situation that was on their hands.
But at midnight.
Sometimes it takes us a while.
To realize that the Lord is still over all.
It says verse 26 and suddenly there was a great earthquake so that the foundations of the prison were shaken. Immediately all the doors were opened and every man ones bands were loosed and the keeper of the prison awakening out of sleep.
Seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
Paul cried with a loud voice, saying. Do thyself no harm for we are all here.
Then he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling.
Fell down before Paul and Silas. There is the evidence of his repentance.
Brought them out and said sirs, what must I do to be saved?
They said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved in thy house.
They spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house. And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes and.
Was baptized he in all his straight way. When he had brought them into his house, he set meat before them and rejoiced.
Believing in God with all his house.
There we have a man.
Who was repentant and had faith in the Lord Jesus and he was saved and all his house. What a wonderful thing.
And so I just wanted to say to you.
Where do you stand?
In connection with God and his great salvation.
Not enough?
To merely repent. But you need to repent and believe in the Lord Jesus to be saved. And so this jailer was and all his house.
Oh, I plead with you.
Be real with God.
Don't go for him, don't fool around anymore.
If you have any questions, I'd be glad to talk to you afterwards. Don't feel intimidated to come and talk to me or anybody else too that you have confidence in. It's so important you get this straight. Let's pray.