Gospel—Tim Roach
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Good evening. Let's start tonight by seeing him #13 man of sorrows.
What a name for the Son of God who came ruined, sinners to reclaim Hallelujah. What a savior. Maybe we could stand and sing #13.
Man of sorrow.
And standard, glorious glory. Glory forever.
One day when I was visiting in Malawi.
I went to an assembly. They were expecting me.
We had a meeting. We sat down.
We were there for several hours.
And then we left.
I hadn't been there for over a year.
Later on I heard that they were hungry.
They had said that when Roach comes, he will bring us food.
I didn't know it.
They were suffering.
Suffering from hunger.
Let's pray.
Our God and Father, we give thanks for your Son, the Lord Jesus.
We give thanks for all his suffering that he went through on the cross for sinners.
Tonight we have some suffering souls.
In our presence, Father, we just ask that you would reach down and touch their hearts.
We think of any who might not yet know the Lord as their savior that they might be released.
From their sins.
And to have eternal life, we just ask for help this evening. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
I want to speak tonight about a God who suffers.
There is so much suffering in this world.
The human heart cannot.
Is not able to be able to handle all the suffering that is in the world.
But yet the Lord Jesus.
He is able to identify with the sufferings that we go through. He is in all points tempted like as we are.
There are some refugees that came down through Karunga where we were staying.
There is a war in Rwanda and quite a number of years ago, but they're still fighting among the tribes. I think they're called the Hutus and the Tutsis.
The fighting is still going on and one man from one tribe married a girl from the other tribe and they lived happily. They had some children.
Then the tribe of the girl found out that this foreigner tribe was living in their neighborhood.
They came to kill him and they beat him.
Severely with machetes.
And they left him for dead.
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He recovered.
His father gave him His father-in-law gave him some land and a place where they could build a house.
And so they moved over there.
And they lived there for some time before the tribe found that he was still living in the area. They came and they beat him and they tried to murder him and they left him for dead. They took him to the hospital. He was in there.
For several months.
Regaining consciousness when he woke up.
His wife was beside him in the next bed. They too had attacked her. The whole gang abused her and she had been pregnant with child and they took their machetes and they stabbed her in the stomach and they killed the baby.
These two people, they ran from their country without anything.
They brought their children.
They're escaping for their lives.
They suffer.
If there is a God, why does he allow suffering?
God himself suffers.
Before creation.
God chose to create people with whom he could have fellowship, because fellowship is important to God. And if you looked in Ephesians chapter one, verse four to six, we find that God chose certain ones to be holy with whom he could have fellowship and those ones would have fellowship with God and they would give praise and glory to God.
God wants to have fellowship with man.
One of the first things we find Let's go to Job Chapter 38.
One of the first things we find that God created was the angels.
And the angels were created to serve God.
Job Chapter 38. We'll start with verse four, and he's talking to Joel.
And he says, Where were you, Job, when I laid the foundations of the earth? Verse 7 Where were you when I laid down the foundations of the earth? When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?
Here, before God laid the foundations of the earth, He had created the angels. These are the morning stars who sang together.
And they rejoiced. The sons of God shouted for joy when the foundations of the earth were laid.
We're told in Colossians one verse 16, all things were created.
By him and for him and so God created the angels, He laid the foundations of the earth.
It was after this that the suffering of God began.
We think sometimes when we are going through a trial.
That we are the only ones in trial and we block out everything else.
But God knows what it is to suffer as well.
He has suffered disappointments and discouragements. He knows what a pain is and rejection.
And sorrow.
This God who created the universe began to suffer.
Let's go to Genesis 1.
If you were to look back in Isaiah chapter 14, you would find that Lucifer who is the chief of the angels.
He attempted to overthrow the power of God. He saw what it was for those angels to rejoice when God laid the foundations of the earth. He wanted it all for himself.
And the whole creation was thrown into chaos.
In Genesis One and verse 2, the earth was without form and void. The darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. We find here that the earth was without form. It was out without and void. It was in the state of confusion, in a state of chaos.
Yeah.
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God did not create the heavens and the earth in this way. If you were to look in Ecclesiastes, chapter three, you would find that he created all things beautiful. But when the Spirit of God was moving across the darkness of the waters, he didn't find beauty. He found darkness. He found the judgment waters.
Isaiah 45 and verse 18 says he did not create it waste and empty.
Like it was here in Genesis chapter one, verse two, God did not create the world in that condition.
He created it, Isaiah says, To be inhabited.
God did not create the world in darkness.
John tells us.
God is late, and in him is no darkness at all.
But we can't imagine what God was thinking when the Spirit of God was moving across these waters.
He saw the darkness in the waters of judgment. God was surveying the state of confusion and the emptiness that the earth was in in that condition that it had become. God was suffering at that time. God suffered all the way up to Genesis one verse 3 where it says, God said let there be light and there was light and so.
God starts.
To fix up the earth and he says let there be light and we find that God is starting to work on his plan.
And in six days, God fixed up his creation to prepare a place so he could put man, so he would have a place where he could have fellowship with man. Let's go to verse 26.
God said let us make man, He says let us.
Make man. This is God, God. There is one God, but it's a plurality of God, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. And he says, let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the sea and over the fowl of the air and over the cattle and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created He Him, Male and female created He them.
On day 6.
God made man in his own image.
That means that God made man with the Spirit so that God could have fellowship with man, and we find that God came down into the Garden of Eden and he was able to commune with Adam.
He came down in the mornings so he could have fellowship with man, and it was a good fellowship, and God was glorified. Through that fellowship with man, Satan saw the glory that God received.
In his fellowship with man and Satan became jealous again, and he wanted that glory for himself.
So Satan came into the garden with a plan to destroy the fellowship of God.
With man.
Satan came in, he saw Eve there, and he came in, and he deceived the woman, and she disobeyed God. And together with Adam they disobeyed God. And from that moment on, sin reigned in the heart of man, and the fellowship with God was broken.
The suffering of God increased.
As man was separated from God because of sin.
Buddha Chapter 6.
Here with Noah, we find that the sin of man grew worse and worse.
And the violence grew, and this God who is suffering looked down from heaven.
And in Genesis 6, verse five and six says, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
Oh, the suffering of God was too much. And so he says in verse seven. He says, I will destroy man, whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beasts, and the creeping thing and the fowls of the air, for repenteth me that I have made them.
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So God was sorry that he had ever made man.
And so, so it was in the day of Noah that again, though rains came down in the waters of judgment, again covered the face of the earth.
Now the long-suffering of God is not willing that anyone should perish.
And so God made a way of escape. He called Noah. He said to Noah, Go down and you build me a boat, a big boat, so that all who will may come on to that boat. And so Noah built that boat, and all were invited to come and escape the judgment of waters that was going to come on the earth and destroy this wicked world.
But we find that Noah and his family were the only ones who were saved.
Let's go to Chapter 11.
And God the Creator.
He took Noah and his family, and he put them back onto the earth in a new beginning. And then after many years, man continually turned, turned away from God again.
And they began worshiping the sun, the moon, the stars. And they built this Tower of Babel in an attempt to reach heaven so they could worship the stars. They attempt to reach the creation that they worship. They worship the creation instead of the Creator. And here in Genesis 11.
Verse 6 Down through nine. And the Lord said, Behold, the people is 1, and they have all one language. And this they begin to do. And now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the Lord scattered them abroad from thence, and upon the face of all the earth, and they left off to build the city.
Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord did confound the language of all the earth, and from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of the earth.
The heart of God was suffering again as he mixed up the language and dispersed man throughout all the earth.
Fellowship with God cannot happen in the presence of sin.
And so man was separated from God because of his sin, and man got further and further away from God. And man was by the difference of languages. They spread out over all the world. And so sin continued to grow, and sin began to control man some more. And so God was going to test man in yet another way.
The whole world was a sea of wickedness and idolatry, and God reached down into that sea of wickedness and idolatry, and he chose Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and the nation of Israel.
He chose them to be his special people, and he was going to give them every opportunity. He was going to give them every advantage to be blessed with the fellowship of God. God even had Moses build a Tabernacle, a tent where they could stay, where God could live, and so he could be with his people, so he could have a fellowship with his people. But Israel we find.
They didn't want it. They didn't want the fellowship with God. God gave Israel just a few commandments to keep. He gave them some rules to worship God in fellowship.
But Israel? They didn't want it. They turned away from God to go their own way.
Let's go to Romans chapter 3.
Romans chapter 3.
Israel was under this test, with these rules and these commandments in an attempt.
To honor God. But man in his own strength and in his own efforts, cannot please God. And we find here in Romans 3 verse 23, For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. This speaks about you tonight, those of you who do not yet know the Lord is your savior. You are.
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Falling short of the glory of God.
And so God had a test with Israel. And with this test of Israel, God proved the futility of man being able to approach God.
On his own works.
God suffered so much during this period of time in the test of Israel.
Most of the Old Testament that we read.
Is a history of the curses that came on Israel because they refused. The fellowship of God, they refused.
To obey the commandments of God.
They couldn't do it because man in his flesh comes short of the glory of God. And it was at this time that God decided to send his Son into this world to become a man, the man that we know as Jesus Christ.
He came to his people, Israel. He wanted to manifest himself to them. He wanted to bring them close to him so he could have fellowship with them. But he came unto his own people and his own people. They did not receive him.
God suffered when Israel rejected his son.
Jesus Christ.
When the Lord Jesus came into this world before He was born, Joseph and Mary came into Bethlehem. They were looking for a place where they could could stay because Mary was about ready to have this baby.
But there is no room for them in the motel.
They didn't want Jesus in their town, and so Jesus was born in a Manger.
Later on in his life when he was tempted by the devil.
Jesus refused the offers of Satan and because of it he suffered. He suffered hunger because he refused to do the commandments of Satan.
And then later he suffered the delay of his Kingdom because he would not fall down and worship Satan. Satan has all sorts of things to try to lure you into his net, to drag you down into hell. Satan thought he could defeat the Lord Jesus.
But he could not.
As Jesus ministered through the world.
Here on Earth.
Man blasphemed him. They did not like the fact that he claimed to be who he said he was the person of the Christ God himself who had become a man. And they rejected him, and they accused him of blasphemy, and they tried to stone him to death.
And then when they came, and they brought him closer to the cross, they spit in his face, and they put the crown of thorns upon his head. And they took a stick, and they beat him on the head, pressing those thorns down into his skull.
They hated the Lord Jesus.
They put those thorns in his on his head.
They gave him a stick in his hand. They put a robe on him and they bowed down to him and mocked him. They mocked the Son of God.
At the last, they crucified Jesus.
As we sang, Jesus was the man of sorrows, and he was acquainted with grief.
Let's go to John 3.
God suffered when he saw sin at its worst. In John 317 we see that God sent.
Not his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.
He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
God sent his beloved Son into this world. He didn't come in here to condemn Israel to death. He didn't come here to condemn you to a lost eternity in hell.
But verse 18 says, if you believe you are not condemned. But if you do not believe, is there anyone here who has not yet believed on the name of the Son of God?
You are condemned already. God has signed your judgment.
Eternity in hell without God.
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He But Jesus did not come to condemn you to hell. He came to save you.
But they hated the Lord Jesus. They rejected him.
The Lord was very long-suffering.
But his long-suffering of God.
Was coming to an end. Sin must be judged, and God was ready to pour out his indignation of wrath and the judgment of damnation on the heads of the sinful man and woman.
Who is that? Who is the sinful man and woman that is you tonight who has rejected the Lord Jesus up to now? You have not accepted him. That means you do not believe him.
Your sin has raised the anger of an holy God. Let's go to first Peter 3.
Up until this time.
God was suffering because of sin.
Because sin had separated man from fellowship with God. But now there was a change going to take place now instead of suffering because of sin, the Lord Jesus. The time had come for the Lord Jesus to suffer for sin. And here we read in First Peter 3 and verse 18.
For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust.
That he might bring us to God.
Christ has suffered for sins. He only had to suffer once.
He doesn't have to suffer again.
He knew all my sins and he put them all on Jesus at that time.
Most of the sins that I've committed.
I committed them after I was saved.
I've done some pretty bad things and had some pretty terrible thoughts after I was saved.
But God knew them, and he took them, and he put them on Jesus.
And Jesus suffered.
For my sins.
God has prepared a way of escape for you. The judgment is very real, and the judgment is hanging over your head tonight. But God has prepared a way of escape for you, and God is waiting for you.
To accept his way of escape.
John 14.
In this verse we find that Jesus is the way of escape.
Verse four, Chapter 14 of John and verse 6.
Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father, but by me.
Jesus is the way of escape.
Man likes to think that he has his own way. If I can just be good enough, if I just make a decision tonight to decide to keep the commandments, decide to start a good life and forget those things that I did in the past, all it takes is a decision, man says. But that doesn't work because there is no power in and of yourself.
To please God.
Man like thinks that they can approach God through Mary.
Man thinks he can approach God through Allah or Muhammad.
Jesus is the only way. There is one mediator between God and man. It is the man Christ Jesus.
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes unto the Father, but by me will you come to the Father through Jesus.
He's waiting for you, he says. Come unto me. All ye that labor you're heavy laden under your sin, come unto me and I will give you rest.
Jesus is waiting for you to come tonight.
Acts 16 tells us Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
Believe. What does that mean to believe? What are you going to believe? We are told that the demons believe and they tremble.
The demons, They know that Jesus is God and they're afraid of him.
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So when it says believe on the Lord Jesus, it means more than just believing.
About Jesus.
How can you be saved?
First of all, you need to believe that Jesus is God.
You need to believe that you are a Sinner, that you have sinned against God, that there is nothing good in you that can please God. I know man thinks likes to think that there's something good.
That we can do, that we can attain some level of goodness, but it is impossible. You need to admit that you are a Sinner, and you must believe that Jesus had to come into this world, and he had to hang there on the cross, and he had to suffer and die and to shed his blood.
To take away your sins. Jesus had to die because of your sins and he suffered there. He suffered there stroke upon stroke of God's wrath as it fell on Jesus for you.
Romans 10 and 9 tells us that if thou shalt, confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus.
And believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead.
Thou shalt be saved. This is what it means to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. And when you are saved tonight you can bring joy and glory to God the Father as you accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. We're told that there's going to be joy in the presence of the angels over 1 Sinner that repents. And so if you repent tonight, you turn away from your sins. There's going to be a rejoicing in heaven.
Won't you come to Jesus tonight? Won't you leave behind your burden of sin? Confess it to Jesus? Repent.
And be saved. We read that verse in in John chapter 3 and verse 18 that if you do not believe.
You are condemned.
Verse 36 says if you don't believe, the wrath of God abides on you.
We're also told that if you don't repent and turn away from your sins, you will perish, so there must be that believing on the Lord Jesus.
After you are saved.
You can believe that Jesus has given to you the gift of eternal life. That life, we have learned, is the very life of Jesus Christ himself. Could Jesus ever sin? No. Why? Because he is God. Did Jesus ever sin? No. Jesus had no sin. He is eternal life, and Jesus wants to share that holy, righteous life with you. He's given to you eternal life if you have believed.
On the Lord Jesus as your savior.
You're a child of God. He is not going to allow anything to happen for you to get out of his hands, he says. I give unto you eternal life and you will never perish. No one can ****** you out of my hands. No one can take you out of my father's hands. You are forever safe when you have eternal life.
You can believe, as we mentioned earlier, you can believe that that must believe that the blood of Jesus Christ has taken away every sin.
Even the sins that you committed after you are saved, God knew them and he had already put them on Jesus. And so you will never ever be punished by the wrath of God for your sin.
Because Jesus has already taken that penalty and took that punishment for you if you have accepted Jesus Christ as your Savior.
Now that you have eternal life, you are free to enjoy a fellowship with God because that sin that separated you from God has now been taken away and the you have been reconciled to God by the death of his son. Let's go to Philippians chapter 3.
I have presented to you the gospel tonight.
You have been offered eternal life. You can be saved this very evening, but I want to give you a warning because if you accept the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, I want you to know that you are not promised a life without suffering.
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As you get, go back home to your home after this meeting.
You will once again face your trials alone.
Maybe you're having some marriage difficulties and you're suffering in your relationship with your husband or wife. As you leave these meetings, you're going to have to go back.
To that suffering.
Maybe you have some financial troubles.
You're able to forget about those things when we're here amongst everyone.
But you'll need to go back.
To your financial troubles, or to that disease that is eating away at you, or to that pain that is inflicted on you.
For whatever reason.
God allows suffering.
But I want you to remember a verse in Psalm 23 verse 4 where God.
Where there's a prayer there, and I want you to remember that prayer. It says I will fear no evil because you are with me.
The Lord Jesus is going to go with you.
As you leave the room tonight, if you know the Lord as your savior, he's going to go with you. He's going to be with you as you face your trials.
As the Lord Jesus goes through the trials with you, you will get to know him better.
Philippians 3 verse 10.
That I may know him and the power of his resurrection.
Listen to this next part.
And the fellowship of his sufferings.
Made conformable unto his death, that I may know him, and the fellowship of his sufferings.
Jesus suffered himself.
He suffered so much.
That he is able to identify with the suffering that you are enduring, that you may be called to go through.
And God encourages us in that verse in Romans 8, verse 17 that her brother quoted that earlier today. If we suffer with him, we shall be glorified together with him.
You may suffer for this present time.
But it's nothing compared to the glory that will follow.
I don't believe the suffering of man will cease until God stops suffering.
When will that be?
When all of sin and death and Satan and hell have been cast into the lake of fire is burning with brimstone.
At that time, when we go into the eternal state, there will be no more pain, there will be no sorrow, there will be no more death, there will be no crying.
At that time we will be able to enjoy to the fullest.
Our eternal life.
You can enjoy the eternal life today as much as you want.
We were speaking earlier, some of us that we have that eternal life. We have the power of the Spirit of God in us to help us live a holy life.
But don't forget.
Or maybe it's good to forget that we have that old nature and just keep it buried. But you will have that old nature.
Until you die, or until the Lord Jesus comes. And so we need to keep that old nature in the place of death and allow the Spirit of God to use us through the power of His Spirit to live.
With the turn, with our eternal life, the life of Christ, let's sing #11.
Will your anchor hold?
Through the storms of life.
Will your anchor.
Name.
On the right.
You can never have.
For your own.
Who they can live in, Jesus Lord.
If anyone is suffering tonight, maybe you're suffering with your sins. You're suffering knowing that the wrath of God abides on you and you'd like to believe tonight and you'd like to talk to me. I'll just be sitting here on this side after the meeting. Let's pray.
Our God and Father, we give thanks for the Lord Jesus. We give thanks for His perfect love.
That came down into this world to be a man.
To share with us in our sufferings, and then to go to the cross to suffer alone.
For our sins.
Jesus, we just give thanks for all that has done for us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.