Gospel—Tim Roach
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I want to welcome everyone to the Gospel Meeting this evening, and let us start by seeing Hymn #10.
There's a Savior on high in the glory, a Savior who suffered on Calvary's tree. A Savior is willing to save. Now as ever, His arm is almighty, his love great and free. Oh come now to Jesus. That dear loving Savior receive him this moment and peace shall be thine verse 2.
That dear, loving savior.
Lived in the glory this world wants, Rejected and Nathan.
Some weeks ago I was in the accountant's office and I went in to sign some papers. And when we went into the office, the accountant's wife, who was the receptionist, was at the at the desk and she was on the phone and she was talking to her insurance company and she was this lady was suffering from cancer and she's had it for some time and they've tried different.
Medications and treatments. And this was her last hope of this medicine for the insurance to to approve. And she was talking to them on the phone and getting the message that they would not approve her for this new drug. She hung up the phone and she was sobbing and crying and she says, I think God just wants me to die.
Over in Africa.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the DRC.
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There's a family. The army came into their house and started shooting. The parents and the children, two boys aged about four and six, hid under the bed.
And they escaped the the killings. One of the soldiers came back in and checked and found them.
The soldier took them to, the commanding officer said. What should I do with these two boys? He was told. Take them out and shoot him.
He took the two boys and handed them off in compassion. He handed them off to.
His friend and his friend took them down to Malawi, to the refugee camp there, and abandoned them.
Two boys, young children.
We had that verse quoted today. Surely as the sparks fly upward, Even so, man is born to trouble.
If there is a God, why does he allow suffering?
Before creation, God chose to create people with whom he could have fellowship, and fellowship is important to God.
And will find that suffering and fellowship will find that they go together. And we know from Ephesians chapter one and verse six that God chose certain ones to be holy and to give praise and to give glory to God. God wanted to have fellowship with man.
Before that, one of the first things that God created.
Was the angels and the angels were created to serve God.
And in Job 38 we find that after God created the angels, he laid the foundations of the earth.
And while God created the heavens and the earth, all the angels were there, and they rejoiced.
At that time.
After this.
The suffering began.
Maybe we think that we are the only ones who suffer, but God knows what it is to suffer as well. He has suffered disappointments. He has suffered discouragements. He knows what pain is, and rejection and sorrow.
This God who created the universe.
Began to suffer.
Second Peter Chapter 2.
We'll read a verse here if you look back in Isaiah chapter 14.
We find Lucifer.
If you go to Ezekiel, you find the King of Tyrus.
And both of these personalities represent Satan.
And Satan was the chief of the angels, and he was going to attempt to overthrow the power of God. Satan wanted everything for himself.
And at some point in time, God was disappointed.
With some of the angels that had sinned, and we read about them in Second Peter chapter 2 and verse 4.
For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell.
And delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment. Here some of the angels have sinned, and they were cast out of heaven. They were cast down to hell, and they were delivered into chains of darkness, and they reserved there for their day of judgment.
The devil got started early.
There was a Christian girl.
She grew up in an assembly.
And we were at. We went to their home every summer with the gospel tent. We were in that area. We go to their home. Her family was, I'm not sure if she was at Lord's table or not. But she was very accustomed to coming to the meetings. She was there all her life when we were growing up, as as young people. Well, it started to be that she when she came into the meeting room and she'd sit down the chandelier above her.
Would start to sway.
This girl had been dabbling in the demonic in the occult.
Later on, she left home and she got deeper into the occult.
And she started calling up the dead and speaking to the familiar spirits, and she called up her dad, who had died, and she was talking. She thought she was talking with him, She told her mother, Come and I'll call up dad and you can talk to him.
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The mother refused, obviously.
Seton.
Can attack you.
If you come to the meetings, you're raised in a Christian home. You've heard the gospel so many times.
If you return your heart against God, Satan will take over and he will control you.
I don't. That girl was never saved.
God suffered with the angels way back and where we read about in Peter 2.
And he still suffers today as a result of all sorts of demonic activity. Genesis 1.
Let's read Genesis One verse 2 and in this verse we find that the earth was without form and void.
And darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face.
Of the waters. In this verse we find that the earth was without form and void, or you could say it was waste and empty darkness covered the face of the waters which covered the earth.
We know that God did not create the heavens and the earth in a chaotic condition as He found it in this verse, because we know that in Ecclesiastes 3 and verse 11 we're told that He made everything beautiful.
The earth wasn't beautiful at this time, but he made it beautiful. But something happened. Isaiah 45, verse 18 says he created it not in vain, that is, he didn't create it waste and empty like is found in Genesis one. Verse two, he didn't create it that way. He created it to be inhabited. And so we can't imagine what the spirit of God must have been thinking as he was moving through the darkness over the waters of judgment.
And God was surveying.
The state of confusion and chaos and emptiness into which the world had become.
God was suffering and God suffered all the way up to the time of Genesis chapter one and verse 3.
Where we find that God was working on his plan and he was going to.
And in six days we find that he fixed up the creation that had fallen into chaos.
And on day one in Genesis one verse 3.
God said let there be light and there was light.
God was preparing the earth again so that man would have a place to live, a place where God could have fellowship with man.
Let's read in Genesis chapter one verse down to verse 26.
God said, let us make man an hour image after hour likeness. This is God, but he's using the plural term of us and our How can that be? Well, God, that word in that verse, it's plural.
There are three persons, 3 distinct persons that make up one God.
There's not one God that is revealed in three different characters.
The three Persons are the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
And these three persons are one God. And so on day six, God made man in their own image. And we know, we know that God made man with the Spirit, because God was going to have fellowship with man. We heard this afternoon, thank God he came down into the Garden of Eden in the mornings, and he could enjoy a time of fellowship with Adam.
And Eve. And there was a good fellowship that he had, and God was glorified.
In that fellowship, well, Satan was looking on. Satan saw the fellowship that God was having.
With man and it was a good fellowship, and Satan became jealous. He wanted that glory.
To himself.
And Satan, he came into the garden with his own plan, and he was planning to destroy the fellowship that God had with man. Well, Satan deceived the woman. She disobeyed God, She ate the fruit that she was told not to eat, and she gave the forbidden fruit to Adam. And together they disobeyed God.
From that moment on, sin reigned in the heart of man.
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By one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin.
And so Adam's sin brought death to the human race.
The fellowship of God with man was broken.
And Adam began to die, and the suffering of God was increased.
As man was separated from God because of his sin, Let's go to Genesis chapter 6.
Well, the sin of man was intensified, The violence grew, grew worse and worse. And God, this God who suffers, he looked down from heaven.
And in Genesis 6 verse five God saw the wicked that the wickedness of man was great in the earth.
And it grieved him at his heart.
For the suffering of God was too much, and in his grief God said, I am sorry I ever made man.
I'm going to destroy him off the face of the earth.
And so it was in the days of Noah. The waters of judgment once again covered the earth.
Now the long-suffering of God.
The long-suffering of God is not willing that any should perish.
And so God made a way of escape, he told Noah. He says go build a big boat.
Big enough for all the people.
And then all the people were invited.
To escape the judgment that was coming on the earth with the flood.
Hebrews 11.
After God told Noah to build the boat.
Noah took him 120 years to build the boat. And I believe during that time of 120 years he was telling people, warning them about the the judgment that was coming. And and he was, he began to tell everybody the good news of salvation from the coming flood that was going to destroy this wicked world. And we're told that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. Well, and what was his message? I'm sure he was telling them, you have a wit, you're a wicked.
Sinner you have a wicked, sinful life, but whosoever believes may come into the boat.
And be saved.
The offer went out to everybody.
But Noah and his family were the only ones.
Who took the needed steps of salvation?
They simply walked up the plane and got on the boat.
They believe God. They obeyed God who is simple and they were saved. Hebrews 11 verse 7.
By faith, Noah being warned of God, of things not seen as yet.
Moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house, by which he condemned the world.
And became heir of righteous of the righteousness which is by faith.
God is not willing that any should perish, and so God really suffered when mankind rejected His offer of salvation from the judgment.
And he had to destroy this man off the face of the earth.
Oh, how God suffered at that?
The love of God that is rejected will ignite the wrath of God.
Which demands God in his sovereign righteousness to send the lost Sinner into the lake of fire.
Genesis. Let's go down to Genesis 11.
The Creator God. When the flood was over, he put Noah and his family back on the earth in a new beginning.
But the heart of man, it continued to be at enmity with God and.
And after many years, man turned away from God and began to worship the sun and the moon and the stars. They began to worship the creation rather than the creator. And so they went out and they built the Tower of Babel to reach the creation that they were worshipping. And we can read about this in Genesis Chapter 11. We'll read from verse 6.
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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. There's the US again, that's God, 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 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 therefore confound the language.
Of all the earth. And from thence did the Lord scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth, the Lord did scatter them abroad upon the face of the earth. The heart of God was suffering again as he mixed up the languages of man and dispersed the people throughout the world.
See, Fellowship with God cannot happen in the presence of sin.
And so man was separated further and further and further from God.
Sin continued to grow, and it continued to control man. So God was going to test man in another way. And so out of this sea of wickedness and idolatry, he chose a man, Abraham.
And his seed Isaac and Jacob, and the nation of Israel. He chose them to be his special people. And God gave the nation this. He gave this nation of Israel. He gave them every opportunity. He gave them every advantage to be blessed with having the fellowship of God.
God even instructed Moses and told him to build a Tabernacle, a place where God could dwell with his people.
And but they didn't want it. Israel didn't want the fellowship with God, and they turned away from God. God had just given them a few commandments to keep, and he gave them some rules for their worship to be in fellowship with God. But Israel turned away from God.
They couldn't keep those laws.
Romans 323.
And we know that man man in his own strength and in his own efforts, man cannot please God. In Romans 323 says all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
With this test of Israel, God proved the futility of man being able to approach to God.
By good works.
God suffered much during this test with his people, Israel.
They did not appreciate God's love, and they didn't appreciate God's will until they turned every man to his own way.
And So what was God gonna do now?
It was at this time that God decided to send his Son, Jesus Christ into the world to become a man and to be with his people, Israel.
And he came to be a man on this earth. He came unto his own.
And his own received him, not they didn't want him.
God suffered again when his the people of Israel rejected his son.
Jesus Christ. Then he suffered as a baby when Jesus.
Came into the town and there was no room for them at the end.
He suffered during the temptations by the devil when he was in the wilderness and he suffered hunger because he would not obey the commands of Satan and and then and we know that Jesus suffered, we're told he suffered for righteousness sake.
They accused him of blasphemy.
They tried to stone him to death.
They spit upon him.
They put thorns on his head. They beat him with a stick.
Then they put that stick in his hand, and with that crown of thorns on his head, they mocked him, this man who had been beaten brutally and hung on the cross. And they mocked him.
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And they said, this man, look at him. This is the king of the Jews.
God suffered.
When he saw sin at its worst, they hated his son.
They rejected him.
And at this point the long-suffering of God was about finished. And so God was ready to pour out his indignation and His wrath and the judgment of damnation on the heads of sinful men and women.
But who are these sinful men and women?
I'm afraid.
With a group of this many people.
There's always at least one.
Are you listening?
There's always at least one.
Who has turned away from God in his heart.
And I'm afraid that's you.
You are that sinful Sinner.
And your sin has raised the anger of an holy God. Let's go to first Peter chapter 3.
Up to this time, God was suffering because sin had separated man from fellowship with God.
But now now a change was going to take place, and the time had come for Jesus Christ to suffer 4 sins in first Peter 318. For Christ also hath suffered 4 sins, the just for the unjust that he might bring us to God.
God has prepared a way of escape for you.
John 14 Six Jesus is the way of escape. John 14-6 says, Jesus says I am the way, the truth, and the life.
No man comes to the Father but by me. Will you come to the Father tonight? Will you come through Jesus Christ? Jesus is waiting for you to come to him tonight. He's waiting.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.
What will you believe?
What are you going to believe?
I can see some people still aren't listening.
Trying to ignore the gospel.
What is it that you're going to believe? Why is it that you are ignoring the gospel? Why is it that you want to leave your family and run off to some other place where you don't have the influence of Christianity?
You need to believe on the Lord Jesus, believe that you are a Sinner and believe that Jesus suffered and died on the cross as your substitute because of your sin and believe that God hath raised Jesus from the dead and you will be saved. It's so simple. It's as simple as Noah walking on the boat obeying God, believing God and his family was saved. That's all you have to do is believe God.
Accept what he says, believe that you're a Sinner, and accept him as your Lord.
And your Savior. Now if you do believe on the Lord Jesus, there's some things that you can have assurance of. And maybe you are here tonight and you you think you're saved, but you're not really too sure. And but if you believe on the Lord Jesus, you can know that you have eternal life. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have everlasting life. So you can know that you have.
Everlasting life. And you can know that you're a child of God, and if you're a child, you're not going to be disposed of when you sin. God loves you. You you may come under His discipline, but He loves you. You will not lose your salvation. And you can know that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, has washed away all of your sin.
You can know that you will never perish, You will never be punished by the wrath of God for your sin because Jesus took all the punishment. And now you are free to enjoy the fellowship of God because the sin which had separated you from God.
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Has been taken away.
And the sin which has caused God Southern much suffering has been taken away and been put as far away as the east is from the West. It is no more. You are forgiven, you are justified, You are on your way to heaven. And the peace of God which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and your minds. And we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
You can have peace tonight.
I think we need to realize that.
When you are saved.
You are not promised. We are not promised a life without suffering.
And as you go back home after these meetings.
You, you you're you're going to need to face the trials and suffering that you left back at home.
Some of you perhaps have some marital disputes.
And you just can't get along with your wife or your husband. You can't agree. And you're always at each other.
Maybe you're gonna go back to some financial suffering and distress. Your credit cards are built up too high. You don't know how you're gonna pay them off. But you still need to eat. You still need to feed your kids and and clothe them. And you're you're having troubles. Maybe you're suffering from some injury or disease that nobody knows about and you're suffering.
And then there's the pain, the daily, never ending pain. And you can't get away from it.
Everyone's here today and everyone looks healthy and happy and most people are.
But many are suffering.
Many of you know all too well what suffering is, and so I want to encourage you to remember to pray, as David did in Psalm 23 verse four. I will fear no evil because you are with me.
Then we're reminded in Isaiah 53 and verse four that surely Jesus has borne our griefs and has carried our sorrows. Jesus is the man of sorrows, and he's a Quincy with grief.
The Lord Jesus as he goes through your trial.
He'll go through that. As you go through your trial, the Lord Jesus will go through that trial with you. And as that that process goes on, you will get to know Jesus better. And we're told in Philippians chapter 3 and verse 10 says that I may know him.
In the fellowship of his sufferings, and so as we said earlier.
The fellowship and the sufferings they go together.
Jesus, Jesus has suffered so many things.
That he's able to identify with you and your sufferings.
And so, if you have suffered with Christ, you can be sure that if you suffer with Him, you will also be glorified together with Him.
The suffering of redeemed man.
Will not cease until God stops suffering.
When will this be?
After sin and death and hell and Satan and all the unbelievers have been cast into the lake of fire. That's when the suffering will cease. Where will you be? Will you be one of those who are with Christ in fellowship with him, without suffering? Or will you be the one who walks out without Jesus?
And you will suffer for eternity.
Well.
There's some good news that we've had.
Christ is the Savior of sinners, the one who has suffered on the cross.
Has taken your suffering for you.
But this good news comes with a warning.
Jesus is here tonight looking at you.
He's looking for you.
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He's looking for the lost Sinner.
You can whisper.
You can ignore what I'm saying.
But Jesus is still here looking.
That's you. He wants to save you tonight. Will you trust Jesus as your Lord and Savior tonight?
If you go out that door without Jesus, his eyes are looking at you.
Jesus eyes will be looking at your back as you turn away.
From him and walk out that door without Jesus Christ.
And you walk out of his presence.
Don't leave this room without Jesus. Don't make him suffer anymore.
Because of your sin, if you make Jesus suffer like that by walking out.
On him.
His sovereign righteousness demands that you must be put into hell and cast into the lake of fire, where you will suffer forever and ever in torment. And we read the smoke of your torment will rise up forever and ever.
There is no end of suffering in hell.
Right now, there is still a way of escape for you.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved, and the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, will cleanse you from all your sin, and you will have everlasting life.
That's the gospel tonight.
Believe on the Lord Jesus.
As we why don't we sing in closing?
First, I want to sing #13.
Man of sorrows.
Man of sorrows, what a name.
For the Son of God who came ruined, sinners to reclaim.
Hallelujah. What a savior.
Jesus is the man of sorrows. He was acquainted with grief. He suffered so much all through time he suffered.
And he suffered for you.
Teen.
We have time. Maybe we could sing also #4 Christ is the Savior of sinners and as we sing this hymn.
I want you to recognise that Jesus, the man of sorrows, was crucified for you. I want you to ask the Lord Jesus to save you tonight.
Nsnoise.
To let anyone know that if you are uncertain of your salvation, maybe you're not saved, or maybe you're not sure, come and talk with me. I'll be glad to discuss salvation with you.