Gospel—Bob Thonney
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Good evening.
This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
Let's pray.
Let's sing #4 on our hymn sheet.
Christ is the Savior of sinners. Christ is the Savior for me.
Christ is our Savior of sinners.
Rice is up there for me.
Long I was standing. Since I'm not now by his grape, I'm grateful.
Save your upstairs.
There is a sinners like you.
Shedding his blood for my wrath of this is a singer for me.
No, I can say I am bored of an happy and justified.
My blessed dream.
This is a savior for me.
To go out there.
Take your opportunities like this.
Platform Miraza. This is a singer for me. Shut up as I was irrelevant.
Now there is no condemnation.
This is a singer for me.
It's my purpose tonight to speak about the Lord's coming and how it relates to anybody.
That might not be a real believer.
As I look around the room, I think all who are here have been those who have heard the message many times.
But you know, it doesn't mean that you're straight with God necessarily.
To have a mom and a dad that are real believers is a real blessing.
But the time comes when you're going to have to make that decision for yourself.
I think of the time when I was seven years old.
My mom and dad. My dad had to leave early for work.
And my mom read the Bible some verses in the morning, and then we got down on our knees and prayed. I can still remember the morning when I said to the Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus.
I need to be saved. Please save me now.
That's quite a few years ago, but I've never regretted doing it early in my life. So you who are children here, think it through. I was only 7.
And I could understand my need of being saved, how important it is to do it as early as possible. But you know, the first verse I quoted, this is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. That Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners is not about the Lord's second coming.
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It's about the Lord's first coming into this world.
And if we don't have a proper perspective about the Lord's first coming, we won't be able to understand properly the Lord's second coming. So I want to spend a few moments talking about his first coming into the world. He came nearly 2000. Well, it's over 2000 years ago now that He came the first time into this world.
And I'd like to go to John's gospel chapter one, where we have the story.
Of the Lord Jesus.
Was interesting this afternoon.
In Matthew's Gospel and in Luke's Gospel, hearing about the Lord Jesus, his genealogy.
Matthew's Gospel as the King of the of the Jews, and in Luke's Gospel as the Son of Man.
And so the Lord Jesus.
Is God. And so in John's gospel, where he's presented as the Son of God, it's interesting you don't have a genealogy. And as our brother Re reflected, that's because he always was. I can't get my mind around that.
He never had a beginning. He is the eternal God. And So what you have here, it talks about a beginning.
In the beginning he was already there. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Tremendous statements of truth.
In the beginning was the Word his eternality, and the Word was with God, his distinct personality. In the Godhead, God is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Word was not the Father, the Word was not the Holy Spirit. The word was the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, it's an interesting title.
And I like to try to explain it sometimes.
In this way that if I stood up here and looked at you all without saying a word.
You wouldn't know what I was thinking. You could make some guesses maybe.
But it's not until I open my mouth and use words that you understand what I'm thinking about.
And the Lord Jesus is the word of God. He is the full expression of all that God is before he came into this world.
People knew something about God because it says in Psalm 19 the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament shows his handiwork.
So here in verse three it says all things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. In other words, He is the Creator.
There are false cults. Let's say that Jesus was the first one created and then he created everything else false. Here's very clear that everything that was created, he created it. He is not then a creature, He is the creator.
And it's amazing our brother Don this afternoon was talking about.
The starry heavens, and I must say that is a subject that I love to study.
Years ago I read something that the Milky Way Galaxy in which we are located.
Has approximately 100 billion stars in it.
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I was talking to the young people seeing out in California and a young man came up to me afterwards and said, you know what, Uh, they're saying it's really closer to 200 billion stars.
The other day I was out in California.
In the town of Tehachapi and a brother showed me a documentary on the.
Starry heavens. And in it, it said there's really 300 billion stars in the Milky Way Galaxy. That's where we're located.
Oh, the tremendous quantity of stars that there are. In our Galaxy alone, there's 7 billion people on the face of the Earth, but when we're talking about the stars in our Galaxy alone, it's 300 billion stars.
And as you know, there is. It's rotating in space as a dish out in space, rotating. And the distance across the Milky Way Galaxy is 100,000 light years.
And those numbers hardly have any meaning to us. But maybe it helps to say it this way.
That this light that started to cross our Galaxy when God placed Adam and Eve in this world is not even a tenth of the way across. That's how huge our Galaxy is.
And we're talking about one who created it by the word of His power.
But not our Galaxy alone. Listen to this to get a better picture.
They calculate, according to one of the books I've read, that there are at least 250 billion more galaxies in the known universe, and they just keep on getting larger and larger than numbers. And here's a person who spoke and it was done, who commanded, and it stood fast.
What a person, what a great God and Savior we have come to know in the Lord Jesus. The Word is the one who made all things. What a God in Him was life, and the life was the light of men. You know you need the light of the sun.
Not only to see the sun, but through the light of the sun you see everything else.
As well.
And so the Lord Jesus in Him was life, and that life was the light of men. You can't understand life properly unless you see Him.
And then it says verse five, the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not. The Lord Jesus came into this world, He shone everywhere he went but the darkness because men were blinded by sin and Satan did not see it. You can shine a Searchlight into the face of a blind man and he doesn't see a thing.
The God of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not if you say I don't believe it.
OK.
You've been blinded by the God of this world, and I asked you to open your eyes as to who this glorious person is.
Now verse six talks about a man, just a regular man. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. This is John the Baptist. The same came for a witness to bear witness of the light, that all men through him might believe he was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light.
That amazing.
And we're so blind that he had to send a witness ahead of him to say, this is the true light. Open your eyes. He's come. Oh, what a wonderful thing it was.
And then verse 9, that was the true light, Speaking of the Lord Jesus, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.
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For as much as they do not receive the light, it shines on them.
God is not have favorites, He shines on all in the like manner He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not in an incredible man is the most blind of all God's creation. The animals knew him, the fish obeyed him.
The donkey knew who he was when he mounted. He mounted on his back.
But mankind didn't know him when he died. On that cross the rocks ran. Their Creator had died. They knew Him.
Mankind didn't know him. Oh the tragedy of it. He came unto his own. The Jewish people on His own received Him not, but as many as received Him to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.
How can you become one of the children of God?
What does it say you have to do? Does it say you have to pray?
What does it say you have to do to become one of the children of God?
Believe on his name how important that is.
They trust in your heart toward him. That is vital. We're not talking about a belief of the head, merely the devils believe and they tremble. They're not saved.
No, it's the belief of the heart, how important it is to believe, sincerely believe. You can fool me, and lots of people have. You cannot fool God. He knows exactly every little detail of your heart.
Then it says in verse 13 which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. You know the first time we were born was not our decision. It was our parents that wanted to have children and we were the result of the will of man, will of the flesh.
How about the second time when we are born again? How does that happen?
Viartwell, well, you might say I made a decision and that might be true.
But the point is, God wants children and His family, and He's sending forth His Word, and it's through His Word and His Spirit that souls are regenerated that are born again into His family. How wonderful it is to see it happen in this world.
Then it says verse 14, and this is the only verse in this chapter that really deals with the Lord's birth into this world. The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
The word was made flesh. There is his birth. He came into the world through.
As was read this afternoon, through the seed of the woman, every one of us has been born by the seed of man. Only one in this world was born by the seed of a woman. The Lord Jesus was born of a virgin, of a woman who had had no relations with man. That's important because God was his Father, and by the power of the Holy Spirit.
He was conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary.
Oh how important that is because every one of us born into the world as the descendants of Adam and Eve have a sin nature. Here was one who had to be completely without sin because he was going to be the sacrifice for our sins when it came to creating the world.
God could speak a word and it was done, but it when it came to saving your soul and mine, He could not merely speak a word. He Himself, in the person of His own beloved Son, had to come into this world.
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To pay the price of our redemption. Oh what a story. It's incredible. I still can't grasp it properly in my mind. The amazing wonder of it all. But notice it says we beheld his glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the Father.
And I don't know that I'm very qualified to speak about that glory, but it was something that they saw in Him. He is the only begotten of the Father, the object of the Father's affection from all eternity. This is the One.
You know he was the object of the most brutal treatment.
Anybody has ever received in this world what a story it is. But then at the end of the verse it says full of grace and truth. Isn't that beautiful? You know, you and I appreciate grace and truth, but I find more and more that we tend to be lopsided.
Maybe we go to the side of grace.
And we're not very good on the side of truth, or maybe we are very truthful and very strict and we forget about the side of grace. But the Lord Jesus was full of grace and truth. Beautiful to see how He handled it when he met up with that woman of Samaria.
And he offered her the living water to satisfy her soul's thirst.
And she says, Sir, give me this water that I thirst not neither come hit her to draw.
That's the grace of God reaching out to offer her something she did not deserve, and she wanted it.
But how about the side of truth?
So he says to her, go call your husband and come here.
And she, I suppose, trying to make it simple and cover up, said I don't have a husband.
The Lord Jesus said you said it right, I don't have a husband because you've had five husbands and the one you have right now is not your husband. You said that right.
All of a sudden she realized she was in the presence of someone who knew every single detail of her life, that she could not hide anything. Do you realize that children, young people, older ones too, that we are in the presence of one who knows every single detail of your life and he loves you in spite of it all?
I sometimes say to people, if you really know me, I don't know if you'd like me that well.
But here's one who knows every detail about me and still loves me, full of grace and truth, and that amazingly wonderful.
But look down now at verse 29 talking about the same person, the Lord Jesus, and here John.
Sees Jesus verse 29 the next day John see if Jesus coming unto him and saith.
They hold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. The question of sin must be faced. It cannot be ignored. It cannot be swept under the rug. It has to be faced in all its awful consequences, because sin has a terrible effect on humanity.
When man was first created, Adam lived up to 930 years old.
And as time went on, the numbers kept coming down and down and down. After the flood, Noah's sons only lived about 600 years. A little bit further, 400 years, you read about Abraham's father was 205 years old, I believe, when he passed away. Abraham was 175 years.
Isaac was 180 years and Jacob was 147 years. We get down to Moses 120 years.
What's happening?
Today you very rarely hear about anybody 120 years old. The average is what David found to be that 70 years is the average.
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What's happened? Sin has degenerated the whole human race and so there is need of dealing with this question of sin. This is brought out today when the Lord Jesus came into this world. You never find Him in the record of Scripture laughing.
It doesn't even say it was smiling.
He was called the Man of Sorrows, acquainted with grief because as he saw people suffering under the ******* of sin, the consequences, he groaned. That's not the way I made it, that's not the way it's supposed to be. He saw Lazarus sisters whipping at their brothers tomb.
And even though he knew he was going to raise up Lazarus, he wept there, too. He feels the terrible degeneration that's taken place because of sin, and he came to address that issue.
And that issue had to be addressed by death. There is nothing that stops sin except death. Show me any man that has been a terrible Sinner in this life. When he dies, sin is deceased too. It no longer operates. The only thing that can take care of that's in question is.
Yeah, the problem is.
If it's ourselves dying for our own sins, then there's no salvation for anyone. So the Lord Jesus came as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the world. So when the Lord Jesus at the end of his life in this world, went to that cross outside the city of Jerusalem.
You know the story, but I can't tired and telling of it.
They took those hands and feet and nailed them to a cross.
They hung him outside the city of Jerusalem for all to mock and to jeer the Creator of the universe. There he hangs. Can you imagine the pain that was experienced? Not only the physical pain, but the pain of his soul when they he said, Reproach has broken my heart.
I'm full of heaviness and I look for some to take pity and there was none and for comforters but I found none.
They said he is the Son of God. He said he is the Son of God. Let God deliver him. And did God come to deliver him? No.
It broke his heart.
Broken heart is a tough thing to have to deal with.
That was another of the way ways he suffered.
But all that suffering could not take away sin.
And so the record of scriptures is that at the 6th hour, that's nine, and that's 12:00 noon where we calculate time when the sun is overhead, everything became dark and for three hours it was complete darkness and complete silence. What happened in those?
Awful hours we can never understand. We stand at a distance.
To watch what happened. Isaiah the prophet gives us what happened. 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. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way.
And the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
In those awful hours of darkness, God laid our sins on Jesus and then poured out the fury of his wrath on sin. Because sin had dishonored His name, God's name had to be vindicated. And in those three hours, God's name was vindicated because of what Jesus paid for our sins.
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The Lord Jesus.
Didn't make one cry during those three hours until at the end of those three hours he cries. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken He?
Why was he forsaken? We have to tell you that he was forsaken so that you would never be forsaken. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, and so God wants you saved.
Young person, child, older person too. And sin is an awful thing in the sight of God. God's holy character had to be vindicated. And so he died for God, and he died as well for our sins on that cross.
And when he died, he cried again. It is finished.
In the Spanish it is consumed.
All the wrath of God that was against me as a guilty Sinner was completely exhausted. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.
Oh, what a tremendous work it was. And then he died that battered that mangled **** on that cross. He had put his head down and died. And the soldier came and took a spear and pierced his side, and out flood blood and water.
And then they took him down from that cross. They buried him, and on the third day the women went to his tomb to anoint him his body. They found the tomb open and empty. The Angel had come down to push the stone away, not to let Jesus out.
But simply to let everybody see that he was no longer dead.
He had risen again.
God was satisfied with the payment that Jesus made, and so Jesus rose again.
I'd like to go over to the 14th chapter now, and I wanna talk about the Lord's second coming. He came the first time to pay for sin, to make atonement for, uh, us, and he's coming a second time. What is the purpose of His second coming?
I want to say that there are two parts.
Through His Second coming chapter 14, let me read the 1St 3 verses. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, notice the next 4 words.
I will come again. There's the promise, he says. He's coming again. It hasn't happened yet. We know it's still future. We don't know when exactly, but he's coming again.
And receive you unto myself, that where I am.
There ye may be also. So He's talking here to His disciples, to those that have faith in Him, and He's coming for those who are believers. First of all, this is the first part of His second coming, what we call the rapture. We have it detailed in First Thessalonians chapter 4, the Lord.
Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
Oh, what a happening that's during the day and that for that part of his second coming, there is no sign that needs to take place.
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It could happen at any moment.
Are you ready? I would start walking around here to ask you individually.
Are you ready? What would you say to me? Children, young people, older ones too. Are you ready? It could happen. And if you put it off and it takes place and you are left behind.
You know the way of salvation, and you have decided not to accept that way of salvation. Yet you will be left behind for the most awful judgment this world has ever known. We do not want that for you, not for a moment. And that's why we preach the gospel.
Even to those who say they're Christians.
What's scary to me is.
I know four or five people.
Here in the United States that were brought up as Christians.
They brought bread.
And today, they say they're atheists.
That scares me stiff. Is there still somebody here who has not made it real in their hearts? I plead with you to get it right, get it straight. We're not talking about fables here. We are talking about historical truth. There was a man called Jesus who was born into this world, who lived, who died.
Who rose again? Those are historical, well established facts in human history, even if you don't want to accept the truth of scripture.
What do you do with that?
How important it is to recognize that. And so there's some that are going to be left behind.
I think it is the most awful thing when I see the condition of our country so terribly divided.
The Lord would come to take all this people out at a moment's notice.
This country is gonna be one of the most awful places to have to live or exist. Should use the word exist because it won't be light living.
In the whole world.
We've lived in South America, and I can say far rather I'm not planning to be here. Don't make me, don't make a mistake, but I'd probably rather be down in the jungles of South America than live in the United States. After that, it happened, that happens, The Lord comes to take his people out.
Are you ready? It's gonna happen at a moment's notice.
And so that's the Lord's coming to rapture his own people out of this world.
But the second part of his second coming we find, and I want to go over to Acts chapter one to speak a little bit about that second part of his second coming, sometimes called the appearing or the manifestation or the revelation. Whenever it uses those terms, it's not talking about the rapture.
It's talking about his coming in power and glory to reign supreme in this world, and I truly believe it's going to be the most tremendous display of glory and power that this world has ever, ever seen or ever will see afterwards.
That man that hung on that cross, dead.
It's coming again to reign supreme. Here's what he said before he left.
Let's just read a few verses here in Acts chapter one, verse six. When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the Kingdom to Israel? And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons.
Which the Father has put in his own power, but ye shall receive power. After that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.
And he shall be my be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. Verse 9. When he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight, and while they looked steadfastly toward heaven.
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As he went up, behold.
Two men stood by them in white apparel, which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven?
This same Jesus which ye have, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven. Did you see that He's coming again just as He went into heaven?
He's coming again, then returned they unto Jerusalem from the mount of the res, uh, the mount, uh, called all of it, which is from Jerusalem, a Sabbath day's journey. You ever seen a picture of the city of Jerusalem on the east side of the city what is called the Temple Mount?
There is a valley, it's the Kidron Valley and then over on the other side of the Kidron Valley.
Is the Mount of Olives. That's where the Lord Jesus was when he was speaking these words to his disciples. And all of a sudden he went up into heaven and they said this same Jesus, not a different one, this same Jesus is going to come. And according to Zechariah chapter 14, his feet shall touch down on the Mount of Olives, the very same place he went up from.
Is the place he's coming back to.
Oh what a glorious time that's going to be. This same Jesus shall so come in like manner.
But His purpose in coming will be different than it is for us at the Rapture. His purpose is to establish His Kingdom, and there will be those who are ready to resist him. Like to go over to Revelation chapter 19 to read about what takes place. There is a man.
That.
Is called in Scripture.
The beast, you know, a beast doesn't have any consciousness of God, has no reference to God, and there will be a man in this world that will have no reference to God. He's called in the Scripture a beast.
And he's going to have 10 kings under his command.
And he's going to get his armies together when the Lord Jesus comes out of heaven to go to try to totally kill him and defeat him.
This time, it's not gonna happen. The reverse is gonna happen. The beast and his armies are gonna be totally destroyed. It's scary when you see what's going on in our world and how things are shaping up toward this end.
Some of our number were over at the conference in Belgium.
Barry Buchanan, you know, his last, uh, prayer meeting night mentioned how that people over there are apostate, they have given up on Christianity and even those who profess to know something about religion or God are fed up with the terrible testimony of those who.
Evidently are leaders in that religion.
And so they are going to rise up against the Christ of God. Let's just read about what happens here when the Lord Jesus comes out of heaven.
Revelation 19, verse 11 I saw heaven opened, and behold a White Horse, and he that sat upon him was called faithful and true.
And in righteousness he does judge and make war. Did you know that Jesus is going to make war? That's why it's in the revelation of Jesus Christ. John, who knew the Lord Jesus in life down here, did not know him in that way, but he got this revelation. Yes, Jesus is going to make war.
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Because he's righteous.
Or the awfulness of that time when he will make war. I sometimes say to people, it's not a God of love that lets sin run without any control and people do whatever they wanna do and establish their own norms with God, the God they think they know.
That's not love. The time is gonna come when God is gonna say that's it.
And he's going to directly intervene and he's coming back to establish his Kingdom in this world.
Verse 313 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the word of God.
We already talked about that. Who That is, the armies which are in heaven, followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. That's the host, the armies of the redeemed. You ever stopped to try to think how many of the redeemed there are going to be in that company?
From the beginning of time.
Till now I think we could probably speak about billions. It's going to be a major invasion from outer space with the Lord Jesus that they had of those armies.
Another facet to consider, not only will it be his Saints that will accompany him in that day, according to Second Thessalonians chapter One, also to be accompanying him are the hosts of his mighty angels. Those angelic hosts are gonna come too. The beast and his armies are not gonna stand a chance.
We won't have to fight in that battle.
But the Lord Jesus with the sword of his mouth is going to level one army after another after another, until they all dead on the battlefield and the Lord comes to establish his Kingdom. People think they can have a word with God and tell it like it ought to be. They don't know God yet.
Oh how awful it's going to be. Verse 15 out of his mouth. Go with a sharp sword that with it he should smite the nations.
And he shall rule them with a rod of iron. You can't bend a rod of iron. He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God, and he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written.
King of kings and Lord of Lords. And I saw an Angel standing in the sun, and he cried with a loud voice, saying To all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven.
Come and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God.
That you may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men.
The flesh of horses and of them that sit on them. The flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great.
And I saw the beast. There's the man I was talking about. Good chance that that man is alive in the world today.
And the kings of the earth, there's 10 kings that are arrayed under him, and their armies gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse and against his army. And the beast was taken. And with him the false prophet, that's the Antichrist, that wrought miracles before him with which he deceived them, that received the mark of the beast, and then that worshipped his image.
These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. They're caught in red handed rebellion against the Lord Jesus and they're not even given a trial. They're cash directly. They're the 1St to arrive in that place that's called.
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Guiana, the lake of fire, an enclosure where there is no getting out.
Anymore, forever and ever, the lake of fire.
Verse 21 The remnant that's the armies were slaying with a sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth, and all the fowls were filled with their with his with their flesh. So the Lord Jesus is going to introduce his coming.
With tremendous judgments.
The inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness when they see His judgments in the earth.
Oh, it's an awful day that's ahead for this country. It scares me when I see the way things are developing and how there is so much animosity against God and against His order in creation. How important it is to submit to Him. Our brother Don mentioned today that word repent. You know what that word means?
Means to rethink.
You have your thoughts, OK.
But you need to rethink and thank God's thoughts. That's what repent means. How important that is when we're dealing with God and His Word.
So our purpose here tonight is to ask you again to seriously think about your state before God. If there is any question that we can be a help to you about, I'll be sitting up here for a little while after the meeting. I would appreciate it if you would have the frankness to come and speak if you got a question that's troubling you.
I trust we can.
Answer your questions in the light of the Word of God. But if you're here and you haven't got the matter settled, I urge you, and I know so many others here would join with me in urging you get it straight. And get it straight tonight. Let's pray.