Gospel—D. Macnab
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Like to welcome everyone to The Gospel Meeting tonight.
You and I have a unique opportunity tonight.
You know, there's messages going out all over this world of a political nature and there's a lot of confusing things being said.
The politics in our country is different than the politics in the Philippines is different than the wars being fought in areas of countries. I don't even know their names.
And there are people standing up and very convicted about what they have to say.
What I want to say to you tonight at the beginning of this Gospel meeting.
That the gospel.
Of the grace of God. The good News through Jesus Christ is the same message everywhere in the world.
And whether you're in Des Moines, IA, or Alaska or the Philippines, there's a need common to every man. And that need is to know the Lord Jesus Christ as personal savior.
I wonder if we could sing together. And I'm going to ask you to stand at an old choir director in high school that said, you sing a whole lot better when you get your diaphragm up and let it go out. We're going to sing #19 together. Please stand with me. And if you really believe the chorus, sing it #19.
Oh Christ, in the my soul have found and found.
Till now I know. Now that is my Christ cancer.
I sigh. More rest and happiness.
I am without nothing.
But.
Whatever I say goodbye.
Islam.
No, no, but Christ.
And satisfied not other than for me.
There's love and light and.
Letting go Lord Jesus.
Found in thee.
I cry the road and sisters look at all the water filled me and as I still feel great.
And love me as I will.
And lasting joy.
Lord Jesus.
Found in the.
The pleasure squads are way more.
But never went for thee.
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Other name for me.
There's love and light and.
Lasting joy.
Lord.
Chapter 4, verse 16.
And he that's Jesus came to Nazareth where he had been brought up.
And as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day and stood up for to read, and it was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. I want you to get the picture of this. This is the man, Lord Jesus Christ, going about. And he came to a group of people and.
In God's wisdom, add the book brought to him. They only had part of what you and I have.
Available to us today, but he had the book brought to him and he opened the book.
To the book of Isaiah, Isaiah as we know it, and he came to a portion.
And he read it, and this is what he read. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me.
Because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel.
To the poor, he has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering of sight. To the blind, to set at liberty them that are bereaved, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. And he closed the book. That's really all we have to say. Our brother Noah set aside a little longer time, so we'll just with God's help to go on here for a few more moments.
Like to turn over also before we make any other comments to the 15th chapter of Luke.
The 11Th verse portion known to probably most here.
Luke 15 Verse 11 And he said, a certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Give me or give me the portion of goods that falleth to me. And he divided unto them as living. And not many days after the younger son gathered altogether, and took his journey into a far country. And there wasted his substance with riotous living. And what he had spent all there arose a mighty famine in that land. And he began to be in want. And when he went and joined himself to a citizen of that country, and he sent him into his fields to feed swine, and he wouldn't fain have filled his belly with the husk that the swine did eat.
And no man gave unto him, and when he came to himself.
I'd like to introduce you to a friend of mine that I've met recently. Two of them. The one's name is Luis.
The other ones name is Rudy.
Louise is probably about 35 years old.
He comes from somewhere South of Colorado, although he's semi permanently living there.
My guess is that Luis comes from probably South of the United States border.
He has a little different composure or?
Look on him then, most in this room. He's got a little different hair than most in this room.
Luis walks with a pretty good limp.
He has no telephone number where I can reach him.
Rudy's another man about the same age.
Rudy and Luis live close to each other.
Maurice carries some creases in his skin because he has nine bullet shots through him, some bullets still residing in him.
They both reside in the Buena Vista Correctional Facility, which is located 3 miles from my home, commonly known as a prison.
I sat with Louise and Rudy and three other men about a month ago.
In a Bible study.
And they carry this book under their arm with a smile on their face.
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Some of the happiest men I've ever met in my life.
And we sat that night and I don't remember what we were talking about.
But we got on the subject.
Of.
Where we are.
And there were five men at that table that night with my wife and I.
And four of the five, unequivocally. And the other one, it wasn't that it wasn't agreeing, said. The best thing that ever happened to me was that I went to prison and I got to the bottom of myself and I found Jesus Christ.
They don't have much hope. I don't know what their sentence is. None of my business. I don't know when they arrived there and I don't know when they're going to leave. Unless they go and shout with us. I know that'll happen.
But I'd like to speak tonight about getting to the bottom of it.
And these dear men are the inspiration for whatever comes out tonight other than the word of God, the inspiration of the Word of God and the Spirit. But it's really something, my friend.
To sit in front of people and have them say to you the best thing that ever happened to me was for me to get arrested and thrown in a prison where they don't respect you. They treat you not like any of you have been treated in the last 10 or 15 years. And it's all done for a purpose, respectfully, but not with the respect that you would expect.
We're in the furniture business. They don't have sofas. They don't have lazy boys. They don't have rocking chairs. But I'll tell you what these men have. They have Christ Jesus as their savior. And they're happy. They're happy. Are you happy tonight? You know, that's why the Lord Jesus came. We just read. He came to preach deliverance to the captives, to heal the broken hearted and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are brewed.
We work with another portion of men that come in on a crash program.
To find that they are nothing so that they can be something.
Dear friend, have you ever come to realize that you are nothing? You're a boy or girl? Have you ever realized that there's nothing in yourself before God that is a value for your eternal salvation? But yet God set his eye upon you. God has fixed his eye. He has focused it directly, individually on everyone in this room and said I love you and I sent my son for you.
The Lord Jesus has said, I have come to help you, to give you the opportunity because you have the right to choice, but to give you the opportunity to accept what I did on Calvary crop. Have you accepted that tonight? Does that have a meaning to you? Does that rise up in your heart so that you can sing that chorus now none but Christ can satisfy? I hope you're honest tonight when we were singing that if you are not satisfied.
You could have mouthed the words and that's fine. I often sing things. I'm not quite sure what I'm saying.
But dear friend, right now and all, open honesty before a God who loves you.
Can you say that I'm hurting? Can you say that I know down inside me there's no good thing?
Our dear friend, the Lord Jesus wants to reach out to you because he said right here, that's why he came. He affirmed it by what he read out of his scriptures, and then he even spoke it. And he wants to reach out to you tonight. He wants to come to you.
The man we just read about over in the 15th of Luke, it says. And when he came to himself, you know, this world has a lot to offer. So it thinks. And so we think. But here was a man that had everything that could be offered to him. He was in a good home. He was in a good family. We see a loving father, a tremendous home relationship. He had a brother that got angry with him later, but apparently they could get along before.
Did a good job.
But he got greedy.
And God had to speak to him, and he had to go down, down, down, down. Dear friend, have you gone down? Have you got to the bottom of it? Have you realized that there's nothing that you can do? There's a verse in Romans that says that in me, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. Have you realized that? That's God's word that says that to you? Not that I say it to her or your friend or your mother or your dad or your uncle or your aunt or your grandmother?
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Your friend, have you realized that that there's nothing that you and I can do in ourselves?
But we can accept the work of Jesus Christ. I'd like to go back into the Old Testament.
And look at some occasions back there of people that ended up in a pretty low place. Turn with me. First to Genesis chapter 37.
Genesis first book of the Bible, chapter 37 and verse 23.
And it came to pass, when Joseph was come unto his brethren, that they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colors that was on him. His father had made him a precious coat.
And he took this coat and he was went out to seek his brethren who were out in the fields.
And he went out to talk to them, and they became jealous of him. And they took him and cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty, and there was no water in it. And they sat down to eat bread. And they lifted up their eyes and looked. And behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead, with their camels bearing spicy and balm and mirror, going to carry it down to Egypt. And Judah said to his brethren, what prophet is it if we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh.
Brethren were content. Then they're passed by Midianite merchantmen, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver. And they brought Joseph onto Egypt.
Joseph.
Was put into a pit.
Now I don't know whether you've ever been into a pit or not.
I haven't been in very many pits. I remember one time when I was in the real estate business, I was showing a building that used to be a slaughterhouse and a meat processing plant. And I was told that here's the key and you take the key and you work your way and you go down into the basement and you go over and you take a flashlight and there's no light down there. And when you get to the bottom of that stairs, you position yourself in a certain angle and you shine the flashlight on the wall and you'll see electric box on the other side of the wall.
And you go over there and you turn on, that's the main box, turn the lights on to the entire building. So I started walking over and they said there's a couple of steps you have to go down. So I walked down what I thought was 2 steps here was this nice, what I thought was a level floor to walk over to turn on that light switch. Well, that level floor was a grease pit. And I stepped into the grease pit up to my knees. They forgot to tell me that you had to walk around. That wasn't a very comfortable feeling to have the old cookie grease up around my knees and in my shoes and around my legs.
But that's about probably as close as I ever got to this position that this man was in.
And here was Joseph. He was put into a pit because of the jealousy of man's heart. But you know, God used that occasion to take him up out of that pit. And he was taken and he was separated from his family. He was taken off into a land, and even there he was abused. He was taken in the head man in the country.
Allowed him to be near his wife and his wife even abused him and he got thrown back into prison.
And finally, Joseph, however, was taken out of that prison and used, but he was down in a pit, and it was due to the treatment at the hand of those with evil hearts. And I want to tell you, dear friend, that there is an evil one out there, and he wants to throw you into a pit and to keep you there. And whether it's a grease pit or a sand pit or any other kind of pit, my dear friend, that's where they want to put you. And that's where Satan.
Wants to keep you. God saw to it that Joseph was taken up out of that pit. And dear friend, tonight God has made a provision to take you out of the pit that you are in. The question is do you recognize the pit that you are in? We had a young man about a year and a half ago riding a three Wheeler at the sand pits back where we used to live in Ohio and he was riding.
With some of my family.
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And he was riding one of these all terrain vehicles and he didn't realize where the wall was and he rode straight off into the sand pit and they carried him off to the hospital in an ambulance.
Dear friend, these are just simple examples, but you get the message of the spiritual example that you are in a pit.
Do you recognize boys and girls? Do you realize you're in a pit? You're down, down, down.
Down at the bottom. But God wants to provide you with a way out of that, and he has provided it in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn with me now to the Book of Jeremiah.
That might be a little harder to find. I can't tell you It's the first book. In fact, I can't tell you what book it is. Maybe one of your children came, but it comes after Isaiah.
Jeremiah.
Chapter 38.
Jeremiah was someone who was faithful.
To God and speaking to people. And he was faithful to God and speaking to the leaders of the place where he was.
And Jeremiah?
Told some things to the leaders.
That were very truthful, but not exactly what they wanted to hear.
And I suppose tonight that perhaps what we're talking about here is something that maybe some here don't want to hear.
But it's not what we have to say, dear friend. It's the truth of the word of God. And as I said earlier, this is a message that is not new. This message tonight is one that has gone out to the end of the world.
Dear friend, perhaps you've heard it before.
And perhaps you've rejected it before. That's OK. But tonight, for whatever reason, God has given you another opportunity.
What are you doing with the opportunity of the message of the gospel God speaketh once?
A twice. Yet man perceiveth at night. Are you willing to say to God, I'm going to shut my ears again tonight?
You probably can look back already based on what we've had to say and think about at some time in your life when you were taken to the bottom of something. Perhaps it was an accident.
Perhaps it was a financial difficulty.
Perhaps it was a personal problem, maybe an emotional problem, Maybe a health problem. God speaks once and twice.
Are you willing to say like Luis and Rudy? Thank God he took me to the bar.
Is that your cry tonight? Are you willing to realize that the end of anything in ourselves must be approached? And then God can take that which He created originally and use it for time and for eternity? Oh dear friend, it's God's message to you. I have really been impressed lately. We live out there in the hills of Colorado now, and you want to feel like a nothing.
You know.
Stand with 14,000 foot peaks all around you and look off and the nearest car looks like a speck on the dust and realize what you look like from up at the top of a mountain.
Now, but you know what? God focuses love down on every soul.
Our brother this afternoon so beautifully pointed out that God had a purpose in creating you, and he focused on you to make you so that you could have a relationship with him.
You know, I say this very carefully, and I hope it's acceptable, but God didn't want to be alone in heaven, so to speak. He wanted a people for himself. He wanted to be surrounded with those so that he could pour out his love for eternity and have a relationship. And he has his eye on you tonight, dear friend, dear boy or girl. Perhaps there's a boy or girl here tonight that doesn't quite realize what we're talking about when we say you have to get to the bottom of it.
But you know, I bet if you're thinking your family, you've heard about somebody that had an accident.
Or you can think about somebody that.
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Has a problem a whole lot worse than any of you ever ran into.
I was in.
Iowa City Thursday night.
Coming through on my way to go up to Iowa fall.
And there was a lady quite a bit older than myself sitting at the restaurant there at the Country Kitchen.
And I realized she was all crippled up. And you know, she had the sweetest smile on her face. She had a whole lot worse problem than I can ever conceive of ever having to live through. And I just looked at her and I could tell she probably had lived a long time with that difficulty. I didn't take the opportunity to speak to her about the Lord I should have, but just the smile on her face led me to feel that that problem wasn't dragging her down. Dear friend, let's look at Jeremiah here. Jeremiah spoke out, and he spoke out faithfully.
And here's what they did to him.
Verse four Therefore the Princess said unto the king, We beseech thee, let this man be put to death, for thus he weakened the hands of the men of the war that remain in this city, in the hands of all the people.
In speaking such words unto them, for this man seeketh not the welfare of his people, but the herd. Then Zedekiah the king said, Behold, he is in your hand, for the king is not he that can do anything against you. Then took thee Jeremiah, and cast him into the dungeon of Malchai, the son of Himalek, that was in the court of the prison. And they let him down. They let down Jeremiah with cords, and in the dungeon there was no water but mire. So Jeremiah sunk into Mire.
Pretty picture.
Number of years ago we were digging A manhole, digging to put a manhole in steel manhole that was 12 feet deep in the area. We were digging a lot of sand and we had a lot of watery sand and as we dug this hole with the big hydraulic backhoe.
Some of us had to climb down in that hole and I didn't have much experience at that time with excavation work.
And I had a pair of five buckle boots on and I stepped down. And I thought, well, when you step on sand, like when I was a kid at the seashore.
Finally compressed. Well, you know, I stood and it didn't compress. I just started going down.
And I went down and I went above the boot and finally I had to grab a hold of something, a cable. I was in quicksand. There wasn't just watery sand, it was quicksand. And I don't know how far I would have gone.
And that was an eerie feeling. I was thinking that I was going down.
And I could not lift my feet out. In fact, I hurt my back that day, jerking. When you jerk so hard with this part of your body and that part doesn't come, something's going to give. And it was the lower part of my back gave out that day. I was stuck. Jeremiah was stuck. There were dungeons. There was no water but Mire. So Jeremiah sunk into the Mire. Pretty sorry place to be for telling forth the word of God.
But you know, God used this for a purpose, and he's using it right now to speak to someone here tonight. Dear friend, you and I have to come to the point where we realize that we are stuck in the life. We are glued down, as it were. We are stuck. Well, Jeremiah had some friends, and he had some wonderful friends, and they decided that they were going to help Jeremiah.
And an 11Th verse. And so Ibad Mileck took the man with him and went into the House of the king under the treasury.
And took that old cast clouds and old rotten rags and let them down by cords into the dungeon to Jeremiah.
And ebed me like the Ethiopian said unto Jeremiah. Put down these old, put down these old cast plots and rotten.
Rags under thine arm holes under the cords. And Jeremiah did so. So they drew up Jeremiah with cords and took him out of the dungeon, and Jeremiah remained in the court of the prison. The last thing, the last thing that anybody thought would lift Jeremiah out of there, was old cast rags.
You know, dear friend, the heart of man.
Doesn't realize.
The power of God and perhaps the last thing that you would ever think of to turn to for salvation. Perhaps that which you would not want to bow to. Or you would say don't throw that to me, that won't do any good. What if Jeremiah said, hey, those are old rotten rag. They were under the treasury. They used to wipe off the gold cases with those things until they were nothing but no good.
He didn't say that because God had a way to get Jeremiah out of there. Dear friend, God has a way. He's provided a way, not man's way.
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Man's way is to try to work himself out of the minor, and he doesn't get out very easily. But God's way is through the Lord Jesus Christ and what he's done at Calvary.
The way there is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.
That cast. Clout, the clods, the rags, whatever it was, which seemed hopeless, were use of God. And so, dear friend, there was a man, and his name was Christ Jesus. And he came here, and he went through this earth preaching what we read, reaching out to the bruised. Are you starting to feel tonight that maybe you're bruised?
To the blind.
Are you spiritually blind and need your eyes open, dear friend?
That man came and the world didn't want him then because they said that won't work.
But their friend at work, salvation is through Christ Jesus. He went to a cross and he hung there, and he just didn't go there as a martyr. There were other men there that day for punishment for sins. There have been martyrs all down through the ages, and thank God for them, but he went there for the sin, the sins of mankind. Oh dear friend, that's the message of the gospel from the bottom to the top.
It's available. It's open. Will you take it? Oh, dear friend, we're crying. But tonight you would hear God speaking to you in love. In love. You know, there is so much animosity in this world today, particularly in this country in which we live. You can just sense it.
Group against group, in some cases family against family, brother against brother.
Oh dear friend.
I met another man. Dear dear Christian.
Dear me.
But for a while, he wasn't a dear me. In fact, he got so far away into drugs out in the streets of California, and he was a small man. And he said I had power because I had a gun. And he said that was power to me. And he said that with that gun I could get anything I want.
And he said one day I was in a.
Nightclub.
And I got into an argument and they said let's go outside. And he said I took that gun and I put it right in a guy's stomach and I pulled the trigger in. The man fell. And he said I reigned and I reigned.
I ran for two days.
And I hid in culverts, and I hid and tried to steal a car.
And he said I finally went to someone that I had been dealing drugs with and I called him and I said you've got to help me.
You know how he helped him? Called the police and told him where he was, he said. My best friend turned me in and he was in jail.
And he was arrogant and he was frightful. And they came to him one day and said, here's your clothes.
With what's going on since you're released?
I gave him his clothes and he started to walk out and they clamped his hand on his shoulder and said the man didn't die. Now you're arrested for attempted murder.
And they took him back in and they sentenced him to six to seven years in prison.
And he was in his prison, arrogant, defiant.
And a man walked by as he described him, a little old man that didn't even look up, and he handed me a Bible.
And a track.
And he said, I'll be back. And you know what? He came back.
And they said I started reading that book and I started to read it and that book started to speak to me. And he said, God, I tried everything on myself.
And he said I could do anything.
But now I know I can do nothing.
Reveal yourself to me.
Ruben Chavez now is out preaching the gospel for Jesus Christ.
Back last Tuesday night, he was in Buena Vista preaching it again in the prison. I wasn't there, but I know he was scheduled to be there.
Dear friend, he got to the bottom of it. He thought he had power. He thought he had it all figured out. He had every way going. He was strong and mighty. But it was only through the work of Christ that now he can go out. He can tell the true messages.
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Turn over to the book of Jonah.
Second chapter, you know, Jonah was an interesting guy. I like Jonah because I like to see my name or Mike. I've got a lot of characteristics of Jonah. God says go that way and I go that way. God says something and I tend to rebel. Well, you know, Jonah had every opportunity. God wanted to go to a town and he wanted to speak. You all know the story.
But the part of it that I'd like to focus on is the second chapter.
Jonah prayed unto the Lord, is God out of the fishes belly? And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord. And he heard me out of the belly of hell, cried I, And now hurts my voice. For thou hast cast me into the deep in the midst of the Seas, And the floods compassed me about all the billows, And thy waves passed over me. And I said, I am cast out of thy sight, yet I will look up again toward thy holy temple. The waters compass me about even to the soul. The depth closed me round about. The weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountain. The earth with their bars was.
About me forever. Yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O Lord my God?
We live, as I said, in an area where the little county we live in, a smaller county in Colorado with boasts of more mountain peaks 14,000 feet and over than any other county in Colorado. Well, Can you imagine this was said he was down in the bottoms of the mountain and that Great Big Sea out there. There are mountains that are covered, and those mountains are tall and they're high, but they're covered with water.
You know, we like to climb up to high peaks, but here Jonah was down, down, down, down, down at the bottom of the mountain. He wasn't just down in the sea. He didn't land on top of a mountain in the sea. He went right down to the bottom.
And the Lord spoke to him, and that belly of that great fish that Jonah realized that there was something that he needed to listen to.
Well, dear friend, I don't know that any of you or I will ever have the experience of being at the bottom of the oceans in the belly of a fish.
And let's pray God that we don't have to be there for God to get our attention. But he spoke to Jonah, and, you know, he brought Jonah up from that. And he put Jonah back out on the seashore. And Jonah went and God used it. You know, my friend, one of the things I think that people fear about coming to the salvation of the Lord Jesus Christ is they're fearful that God might use. What will they do then? Well, you know, we're given the privilege to speak to others.
Who are given the privilege to do things for.
The Lord Jesus were given the things to do, given things to do for our fellow man, our neighbors, our friends, our families.
With a new motive. Would you like to have that tonight? Would you like to have a motive in your life that is above and beyond yourself? Jonah's motive was wrong. He went in the wrong direction. He turned left when God told him to turn right.
But after he finally came up after turning the right direction, God used God brought him up out of that and put him on the right path. Dear friend, if you accept Jesus Christ as your savior tonight.
God wants to put you on the right path and he's not going to ever, ever leave him. My dear dad. He's up there in Iowa Falls tonight. I trust he's there. I left him this morning. But he used to say to me. Used to say, David, he said you can do anything you want.
You can take the name that nab off you. You can even get rid of the name David. You can move to another country, to another land. You can change your citizenship. But he says you will never cease to be my son.
Dear friend, that's the way it is. God wants you to be one of his sons or daughters, and he says I will never, never, never leave you out of my hand. One of the most wicked tools of the enemy today is to say that God would give up his own.
Dear friend, when you put your trust in the Lord Jesus, you're his for eternity and he will never let you out of his hand. You read that verse there in John, and that's the emphasis of it. It's the strongest word that the language can come up with for the word never. You think of the strongest way to say nothing can ever happen and multiply it, and that's what that means. Well, Jonah was brought up and he was put on that seashore and he was used. God wants to use you tonight, dear friend.
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And I'd like to also say perhaps there's someone here tonight.
That is bogged down. Maybe not all the way into the pit, but you feel the mire coming up around it and things are pretty tough.
Well, there are tough times, but you know the Lord wants to come in, steered David in the Psalms. He said, Restore unto me the joy of my salvation. Oh, we pray tonight. We were just in that room across the hall one hour ago, with people pouring out their hearts that there would not only be soul sage here tonight, but there would be those who perhaps are discouraged to have a sense of the joy.
Of Salvation fill your soul, and that the Lord will use you to go on for him.
Turn.
Now to the last book of the Bible.
To Revelation.
And this is a very solemn portion I'm going to read.
It's in the near the end of the book.
The 20th chapter.
And I saw an Angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit, and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent which is the devil and Satan, and bound him 1000 years, and cast them into the bottomless pit, and shut him up and set a seal upon him, That he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years should be fulfilled. And after that he must be loosed a little season.
Dear friend, I have to faithfully say to you tonight that this could be 7 plus years away.
This chapter.
When I say plus, it could not be very much more than that. It might be longer than that.
When this event is going to occur, God is faithful.
And he will fulfill his word.
And maybe you don't believe there's a hell, but God's Word says there is, and he tells us right here a little bit about it.
And he says that there was this bottomless pit.
And they cast Satan the devil, and Satan bound him 1000 years, and cast him in the bottomless pit, and shut him up and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nation's no more.
Dear friend, I can't describe to you all that hell is God's word. Gives us some hint, but I know that it's the absence of the love of God.
And that's a pit.
That I am very fearful that there should be anyone in this room should end up there.
That's awful scary. When I was in that quicksand, there were those that I knew could help me and they would help me and they did help me get in.
Jeremiah had some friends that helped him and got him out.
God sent someone along to get Joseph out of that pit.
God himself brought Jonah out of that bottomless bottom that he would be. But my dear friend, I have to tell you faithfully.
Based on the word of God that if you reject Christ and go to an endless eternity, there's a description here of something called a bottomless pit.
And I don't know how deep a bottomless pit is, but I sure don't want to check it out. And I sure hope that no one here ends up there. We don't like to scare people out of it, but the reality of God's Word is here.
Luis and Rudy are happy that they're not going to be in this bottomless pit, that God took them to the bottom of a prison. And I got to believe, I can't say this for sure, that they spent some time in what they call the hole. And I've never been in a hole, but I'm told what holes are like and they're not very pleasant places to be. But dear friend, this is the place that we cry to God.
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There'll be no soul in this room tonight and go out of here rejecting and end up here. Now let's turn back to songs to the 40th song for a moment.
Get a picture.
Of someone.
Who came out of a pit for you and for me?
Put your finger in the 40th Psalm and I should have turned 1St to the 2nd chapter of Philippians.
From Philippians.
Chapter 2 and verse five it says Christ Jesus.
For being in the form of God.
Fought it not robbery to be equal with God.
But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant.
And was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, either the death of the cross. And I'll turn back to Psalm 40.
I waited patiently for the Lord, and he inclined unto me and heard my cry. He brought me also up out of an horrible pit, out of the miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my goings. And he had put a new song in my heart, my mouth, even praise unto our God. Many shall see it in fear, and shall trust in the Lord. Bless him, or happy is that man that maketh the Lord his trust.
Dear friend, the Lord Jesus Christ.
Came here into this earth.
It's kind of hard to believe, perhaps.
He came here.
In reality, and he came as a man.
And they came.
From a position where he could have been and was equal with God.
But he lacked that position to come down here and, as we read in Philippians.
He went down, down, down. I don't know the poem and maybe someone can quote it here. My dear father-in-law used to quote it and he goes something like go as low as you can go, some go as low as you can go. Someone has gone lower still. I don't remember the exact words of it, but perhaps you get the name. Dear friend, you and I can go as low as we think we can ever go, but someone has gone lower still.
The Lord Jesus Christ went down into death so that you and I would not have to go through that.
Would not have to suffer the punishment for our sin. You know part of one of the programs we deal with at the prison out there.
It's it's really kind of interesting to work with people.
This is going to come out wrong, but who realized?
That they got themselves into a mess.
A week ago Tuesday night, I spoke to a group of 40 some people who had been in the crash program.
And we were talking about some of the basic principles of the scriptures.
And I quoted John 316. I said John 316 and I didn't realize what was happening. 2/3 of them quoted the verse. They've never been to high school, most of them. One night I spoke about a physics class and they didn't even know what I was talking about. I was trying to talk about prisons. I was trying to describe how God looks down and he looks to us different than we look at each other. And I tried to use the example of a prism and they didn't even know what I was talking about.
But it talked about cracking guns and a few other things. They would have known it, but we came to John 316 and they knew it. Isn't that marvelous? Probably never been in his Sunday school, but they knew it. Grandmothers don't give up praying fathers. Uncles don't give up.
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But they have a sense that they've done wrong and they've gotten there of their own making.
And they listen.
Your friend, don't listen to me. Listen to the Lord Jesus. Listen to God calling to you tonight. He's calling to you. He went down lower than you ever went. He went to the lowest depths. He went below whatever any man could do to suffer. Then he came up out of that horrible pit, out of the miry plane. I mean, he describes what the sense of punishment is like.
Described as a horrible pitch full of Mirey play.
We had a property back in Ohio still have it that is on Clay and I mean Clay.
Tom, would TuneIn, if I said it's clay good enough to build a landfill out of nothing, would leach through it.
I mean, this play is gooey.
You go out there in the rain when you go out to work, and you go out in your boots and you could barely lift your feet. Just such mucky miry guck grass hardly grows in it. But that doesn't compare any way to the miry clay that's described here of sin and destruction. Oh dear friend, the Lord Jesus has come up out of that. He has come up out of that for you and for me.
And He has conquered it. He has been delivered, He has delivered us from any.
Need for us to ever approach that He came here and God has highly exalted him and given him a name that is above every name. Do you respect the name of Jesus? You know, maybe you can quote John 316.
But are you saved? For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not care, but hath everlasting life. Are you saved tonight, dear friend, boys or girls?
Is there a boy or girl here tonight that's been as I used to do?
I used to write on the tablet, but my ears were at the podium. Mom and Dad didn't know whether I was listening or not.
I was a pro addict. I used to count every light in the ceiling.
I used to know how many chairs there were in the room.
Sat in conference after conference like a lot of you do.
But you know, somewhere along the line somebody got into here.
With the message of the gospel.
And I was lifted out of the miry clay too. And I can say that Jesus Christ died for me.
Can you say that tonight you know that you were in a mess?
I was going to look at the lady there and 2nd Kings. Her brother talked about Elijah.
With the lifestyle thing, you know, the creditors were at her door, they were going to take her son. I run into some people and some financial difficulties, but I never ran into anybody whose son was going to be taken by the creditors and she said we need help.
And the prophet called to God, and God filled the pots and said go out and get some more. The emptiness of that house was.
Filled with the sense of the Spirit of God that day do you want the emptiness at your house. Filled with the sense of the Spirit of God. He wants to come down and not only save you, he wants to indwell you with his Spirit and then wants to give you a path.
And go on and happiness to him. Not a path without difficulties, but a path of happiness and joy in him. Our dear friend, I cry to you tonight. I beg of you. The solemnity of it just overwhelms me. Think that there's a soul here tonight. He could go into an eternity. Who was here tonight?
And walked out of his room.
It's overwhelming.
To think that a boy or girl or a neighbor friend, we're going to eternity loss tonight. My dear dad used to take us on take me on a walk. We used to go on a lot of walks together and we walked through. For whatever reason, we'd end up walking through a cemetery. And I used to just be amazed. I always thought cemeteries are full of old people.
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Not only old people die. We'd stop and we'd read the tombstone.
Go, I'll tell you, there's a lot of tombstone where the children don't get to be 5 years old or 10 years old or 15 years old. There's a lot of them.
There's no guarantee of tomorrow, dear friend, dear boy or girl.
Life is short. Eternity is sure. Are you willing to accept the Lord Jesus Christ? I want to tell you another story about a friend I met, and then we'll close. Thanks. Tom Hemingway. Tom spent 25 years in the Marine Corps.
Tom went to Vietnam.
He was a commander or whatever. I don't know all the terminology, the right terminology to use.
Tom got saved. I'll tell you how he got saved. He was born as a strong guy. I mean, he was just born strong.
And his dad was a Marine. He was just tough. I see some guys in this room that I know that could have whipped me at any age. You know, they were just born strong.
But it got in the way of Tom. One day in Japan, when he was in the Marines, he picked a guy up. He was so mad at him and he picked him up and smacked his head on the concrete and he thought he killed him.
And he went home that night. He went back and he saw that he hadn't killed him.
But he went back home that night and he said God.
This has got to change. Would you come to me? I don't know what I'm saying, but would you come to me?
And he got a Bible, and he started reading the Bible.
They got saved.
God has used him mightily, but he got captured with two other men.
In Vietnam. And he got tortured. He spoke to the boys at the prison and he told him, You think you've been tortured? He said. How'd you like to have your arms tied behind your back to your feet on the cold concrete? And then they jump on you? He says you think you have it wrong. I'll tell you got their attention.
But Tom.
Was imprisoned and his two friends were, and they were both.
Kept separate. They were kept separate from each other and along the way.
Each of the three was individually offered the opportunity to leave the others and go and negotiate for them.
Say a good deal. Would you take that you're being trapped on? You know those three men were so bound to each other.
And they didn't know it, but each of the three turned it down and said I will only go if you let my buddies go with me.
Now that's true.
You know in John 15 and I want to close with this, it says.
Greater love in the 13th verse hath no man in this than a man lay down his life for his friend. Ye are my friend that was spoken by the Lord.