Gospel—D. Rule
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Someone started free.
I'll just mention it can be sung, I think to Oh Happy Day if someone likes to start that thing.
Saved. Why not tonight?
Lord must be saved by heart to life. Why not to lie? Why not deny?
Would you turn with me first for a verse in Revelation chapter 21?
Revelation chapter 21. Very solemn verse to begin a gospel meeting with.
Verse 8.
But the fearful and unbelieving and the abominable.
And murderers. And ************. And sorcerers.
And idolaters and all liars shall have their part.
In the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death?
The three words that particularly come before me in this verse are and all liars.
You know, it's one thing to tell a lie.
And it's.
Equally, if not more serious, to live a lie and the burden of my soul before the Lord tonight is the young people in this room.
Who may be living a lie?
And I want to start out because I believe that most of you to whom I'm speaking tonight.
Come from Christian homes where the Word of God has been read.
And give an honor to and the majority of you have been under the sound of the Word of God for many years.
But I want to contrast you as a young person with young people that.
It is my privilege and responsibility to speak with a couple of times a week.
Who have not had the same opportunities that you've had.
In the main there are some very happy exceptions, but.
Many of them have not known a Christian home.
And many of them have been in very, very undesirable circumstances of life from the time they were born.
Remember recently seven of them in a group.
And not one of the seven could say they have been brought into this world within a marriage.
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Solemn, solemn circumstances to come into this world.
And many of them, I would say, are addicts of sin.
And they know it in many cases.
Their circumstances are very different than yours.
But I want to speak to you earnestly tonight and tell you.
I am concerned that your soul.
Is more hardened.
Than theirs.
This is not a serious thing to say.
You who have been brought up in a Christian home could be more hardened.
Then these young people.
Are you living a lie?
You know, spoke to one girl the other night, her name is Jenny. And Jenny said to me, she said my dad. And she pointed to the book in her hand, the Bible.
He said my dad told me it was trash.
Don't read it.
You've never had anybody, even a parent in authority over you that said such words to you. Such awful words.
And yet Jenny was open. She had that book in her hand.
Another girl, Crystal.
Couple of weeks ago was had to go about 30 miles in a transporter, a police van.
To see the judge.
And as she was going in the van, she was reading her Bible.
And the man that was driving the van, he looked at her and he said to her, you don't believe that, do you?
That book's not true.
Pretty big test for a girl.
On our way to court.
Have a Bible in her hand. Have a man say that. And he didn't stop there. He started to speak to her about it and how he thought people had come to be on the earth and so on. And she said it sounded pretty good.
What he seemed to be saying.
I thank God she rejected what he said.
But I wonder about you tonight. You've heard over and over and over again.
The truth and the love of God for your soul. And perhaps tonight, at this moment, you said indifferently in this room and your mind's on the clock and what you're going to do in an hour or two from now.
Because there is a hardening in your soul against God.
I want to take up with you tonight three young men.
And two of them.
Went out in the presence of the Lord.
And the results are awful.
And one of them he went out from the presence of his father.
But thank God.
He woke up in time and he returned.
And I want to solemnly warn you by the examples of these young men.
The consequences to you.
Of going out present for the Lord.
Turn with me for the first instance to the beginning of the Bible in Genesis chapter 4.
And we have the brief history of a young man.
Who made an awful choice? More than one in his life.
And I believe it has brought for him eternal consequences.
That are almost too bad to want to save.
Genesis chapter 4 and verse one.
And Adam knew Eve, his wife, and she conceived and bare Cain and said, I have gotten a man from the Lord.
And she again bear his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of sheep, but King was a tiller of the ground.
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And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground, and offering unto the Lord.
And Abel he also brought of the first slings of his frock flock, and of the fat thereof. And the Lord had respect unto Abel, and to his offering, but unto Cain, and to his offering he had not respect. And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell. And the Lord said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth, And why is thy countenance fallen, if thou doest well?
Thou shalt not be accepted. Shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door.
And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him.
And Cain talked with Abel, his brother, and it came to pass when they were in the field.
That Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him. And the Lord said unto him, Where is Abel thy brother?
And he said, I know not Am I my brother's keeper? And he said, what is thou done?
The voice of thy brother's blood crieth unto me from the ground, and now art thou cursed from the earth.
Which hath opened her mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hands.
When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield unto thee her strength. A fugitive and a Vagabond shalt thou be in the earth.
And Cain said unto the Lord, My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, thou hast driven me out this day from the face of the earth.
And from thy face shall I be hid, and I shall be a fugitive and a Vagabond in the earth.
And it shall come to pass that everyone that findeth me shall slay me.
And the Lord said unto him, Therefore Whosoever slayeth Cain.
Vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold, and the Lord set a mark upon Cain.
Lest any finding him should kill him.
And Cain went out from the presence of the Lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.
There's two young men in the family that knew God in a very interesting and wonderful way.
At this time in the history of man, we know that God.
Personally spoke to them and visited them.
And these two boys, Cain and Abel's parents?
Had experienced God coming and visiting with them from time to time and speaking to them personally.
And here we find in this conversation, this little incident that's told to us, even Cain had that privilege of having Jehovah speak, as it were, face to face with him. And so we find that these two young men both present themselves to God. But I want to say to you that I believe that Cain was a young man that wanted God to accept him.
And deal with him on Cain's terms.
And I fear that there are many young people that grow up in this world and in Christian homes as well.
That have to do with God, but in the heart you want to deal with God on your own terms.
You want to decide the relationship that you will have with God as you want it to be.
And sometimes when it is presented to you that having a relationship with God.
Has to be on his terms. In your heart there's rebellion.
There's rebellion, and perhaps you sit in the room tonight and down in your soul there is a certain measure.
I can't wait to get out of here.
A feeling of restraint or constraint in you. Now, outwardly you're sitting quietly in your seat and you look fine.
You're nicely dressed. You were here perhaps all day. Maybe you didn't skip any of the meetings.
And you know that mother or father would perhaps be aware of it if you did. But when it comes to what God sees in you, and you don't have to do with me, and ultimately you don't have to do with your mother, your father either, but you do have to do with God. And God knows how to speak to you and speak to you personally in your life as he was speaking here with Cain and speaking to him concerning his own life.
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And so Cain brings something to God that he had produced for himself in the earth.
And he is aware that God has not accepted it.
And it produces anger in Cain.
I'm amazed.
But I guess I shouldn't be how many young people that I visit with?
Are when it comes down underneath the surface, extremely.
Angry people.
And perhaps tonight you relate to that. Maybe it doesn't show outwardly and in some cases.
You may not even be personally completely aware of it. Many times we aren't always aware of what's going on in.
But I want to say to you that if in your heart there is a rejection up to this point in your life of God.
And the Lord Jesus, his beloved Son, there may be in you a measure.
Of anger against God and if there is anger against God.
You know, Cain realized when he offered something to God and it was not accepted.
That in the answer that the Lord gave to Cain, he says to him, he says to him. In effect, Cain, he says, Your countenance would look up with confidence.
If you didn't realize that all was well, that is, he said. If you had a sense of what you brought was acceptable in my sight, you would have looked up in countenance to me with confidence.
And dear young person, I think that you can recognize that many times that which your life brings to God.
Is that that you don't want to lift up your head, your countenance and confidence to God?
Abel brought to God a sacrifice which presents.
Through our minds to our thoughts, the Lord Jesus Christ and if we can come to God.
Through the Lord Jesus Christ, we come to God in confidence and we say with Thanksgiving thanks.
Or thy beloved son, my Savior. But if you bring anything else to God, there will be a sense in you.
That.
It isn't accepted.
It's not God's way, and so here Cain talks. But you know when you're angry with God.
Many times that anger is going to focus its attention on something you can see.
It will be perhaps a brother, a sister, a mother.
A father authority of some sort in your life, and there will be that focus of anger.
Taken out on someone else that perhaps consciously or unconsciously you are angry with because of their relationship with God. And that was the case in Cain's life. As a young person. He saw his brother and as he was angry with God, he was angry with his brother. And he saw it an occasion.
To do the worst in this case, he murders him.
I've heard young people say awful things to or about their parents.
You might say in speech they murdered them.
And it is taking out that anger on another.
And I'm not here tonight to say parents are perfect or anything like that. You know, the young people that we visit.
You can't use a loving father as an example with most of them because they don't even.
They'll say which father, the one that I was born with, I've never seen him.
My foster father or the one my mother takes up with now?
They have no concept. You can't even use an example or an illustration of a loving father with them.
That is an earthly type of father. They don't know anything about it. And yet I say to you, you do.
And yet there is that anger. There is that rejection.
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That comes from wanting to have one's own way.
With God and not getting it.
To focus on another.
And yet here it says of this young man, the Lord asks him a question. The Lord said unto King, Where is Abel thy brother?
And he said I know not.
You know, it's one thing to lie to somebody.
And often it's not too hard to fool people, at least initially.
But it's a.
It's a, to me, almost an inconceivable thing to think it does any good to lie to God.
You may lie, but you can't fool God.
It's a foolish thing to think that you want to say to God. I don't know.
We can't fool God. God looks down tonight in love upon every single person in this room.
Beginning right here and going down every row, and he knows absolutely where you stand with him.
Be honest with God, at least. Maybe you're afraid to be honest with other people, maybe you're not.
When people seem to rejoice to say everything they think, or at least they think they think, and other people don't care to say.
But it isn't with man that you have to do, it's with the Lord. And Cain starts out and he lies. He says. I know not am I my brother's keeper?
He followed his mother, unfortunately.
But in the ways of his father, unfortunately.
But the point is, he himself, individually had to do.
With the Lord and the Lord had to do with him, and the Lord speaks a pronouncement upon him for what he had done.
And I want to say to you tonight.
You face an awful future when you die.
If you die without the Lord.
But I also want to say to you, if you've known the way of the Lord.
And you go out of his presence.
You face an awful present life.
Cain had the knowledge of the Lord stamped on him.
And the hand of the Lord on Cain's life was.
Such that he was a miserable man.
I was told a few days ago about a man.
I don't want to say too much.
But a man that.
Have been to meetings like this.
Remember the Lord Jesus in his death.
Leaked outwardly on Lord's Day morning.
And he turned his back on those things.
And on his family relationships.
When 1000 miles away and more started a new light.
He thought a new life.
Someone saw him.
In a grocery store, not even to speak to.
They said.
It was the most miserable looking face.
Anybody I've ever seen.
This man came he.
He said I'm going to be the Lord told him. He said, you know the ground is not going to yield its strength to you anymore.
Cain wanted to get his enjoyment of life, as it were, from the fruit of his own laborers from the ground.
And in this present life, Jehovah said to him, Cain, it's not going to give it strength for you anymore.
You're a young person, you can't trifle with God.
You may make choices, yes, but you can't trifle with God.
And I say to you, the ground is not going to yield its strength. That is whatever basis you form in this light as the ground on which you are going to find your happiness and pleasure, if you who know the way of God, leave it.
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You will not.
Be blessed in your life and you will find.
That the ground will not yield. You know another sad thing about this man? He was a fugitive.
He was a wanderer.
He was somebody who spent the rest of his life searching.
And never found.
Searching, searching. Going from this thing to that thing to the other thing. Seeking something that would give some measure of satisfaction to the soul.
You cannot, you must not turn your back.
And expect that you are going to accomplish.
That which satisfies.
You know too much.
You have been exposed to the love of God.
And if you sit in your seat, hardening your heart.
Saying in a few years I'll be on my own.
And then and then.
It didn't going to work.
God is not going to allow it to work for you.
You may see somebody else, but I say to you solemnly and before the eye of God, if you do as Cain did.
And go out from the presence of the Lord. It's not going to work for you.
God cares for your soul.
God would speak to you tonight in love and concern and say to you, don't go.
Don't go.
You need a change.
You know when Cain talks to the Lord here.
He says to the Lord.
In verse 14 he says a number of things to the Lord, some of which are true and some of which are not.
Some of the things that he says the Lord has said to him, and they're true.
He said in verse 14, I shall be a fugitive in a Vagabond. That was true. God had said it.
But he also said, And from thy face shall I be hid?
God did not say that.
God told him that there was an opportunity for him.
God was not driving him from his presence.
God was offering to have to do with Him now in His life as He found it. And I say to you tonight, God is here tonight to deal with you as you are tonight, no matter what has happened up to this point in your life, no matter what's hidden there but others don't know about. God is here tonight to deal with you in love as you are, not to hide His face from you.
You know, it says. And to me, I'm struck with a number of examples of these people, it says.
As it says of Cain, he went out.
You know what God's word to you tonight is?
Come.
Come, Lord, Jesus says to you tonight, come.
Come unto me.
That's the heart of God for you tonight. And yet with Cain, you're like Cain. Perhaps, Cain also says in that 14th verse.
And it shall come to pass that everyone that findeth me shall flay me.
You know, we judge other people by what's in our own heart.
And up to this point, there wasn't a single other person on the face of the earth that had ever done what King did. That is murder.
And yet, because Cain, in his own heart, had become a murderer, he judged everybody else that way. And he says, you know, everybody that sees me, they're going to slay me.
And if you stand here tonight or sit in your seat and you're in your sins, I say to you.
You have wrong thoughts about God.
And you have wrong thoughts about yourself.
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That's what the word repentance really is all about tonight. You need to change. You need a change in your thoughts about God and in your thoughts about yourself. You need to recognize tonight that God loves you, that He personally cares about you as an individual.
And that the Lord Jesus.
Personally died for you.
It's one thing to say that he died for all men, and that's absolutely true, but I want you tonight to think about it as regards yourself.
And recognize that God's thought toward you are good and loving.
And if your thoughts of God are different than that, you need to change them.
If you say in your heart God doesn't care about me, you've got wrong thoughts about God.
If you say in your heart tonight, I don't care.
What God thinks you have wrong Thoughts?
If you say I don't need to be saved, I've got wrong thoughts about yourself.
You are.
A Sinner. You're like pain.
What are you going to do about it?
What are you going to do about it?
Are you going to sit in your chair and harden your heart and say pretty soon I get to go my way?
And in the meantime, be angry in your soul.
Why not tonight?
Why not tonight? Tonight's the night for you.
To get right with God.
Don't be like Cain. Terrible solemn example.
As it says of him.
Verse 16 Cain went out.
The presence of the Lord.
And the record would seem to show to us that he stayed there the rest of his life.
And went into an awful eternity.
God didn't drive him out.
He went out, he made that choice.
To the awful loss of his soul.
I'll turn briefly over to Luke Gospel chapter 15.
Luke, chapter 15.
Verse 11 And a certain man had two sons, and the younger of them said to his father, Father, give me.
And his father gives him in verse 13. And not many days after, the younger son gathered all together and took his journey into a far country.
And there are ways to do substance with riotous living. And when he had spent all their roles of mighty famine in that land, and he began to be in one.
And verse 17. And when he came to himself, he said.
How many hired servants of my father's have bred enough and despair, and I perish?
With hunger I will arise, and go to my Father, and say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before thee.
We saw him less than here. He won't consider this young man in much detail, but just to look at a couple of things that may relate to you in your life.
One of them is you can't enjoy.
Sin in the presence of those who don't want it.
And many a young person who rejects the love of God.
And the word of God in their life.
Has to, as it were, be like this young man and say I've got to get away.
And if that's what's in your heart tonight, please listen to the story of this young man.
For the blessing of your soul. God gives us these accounts so that we can learn from them and not have to experience the same things in our own lives. But here's this young man, and he wanted.
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What his Father gave him and we can apply it to you tonight and say God has given to you.
Life a measure of health.
A certain amount of intelligence and capacity. God has given that to you as a loving Father.
What are you going to do with it?
Are you going to say as it were given me, I want it for myself. Remember what was said this afternoon? We are here. We are created.
For the pleasure of God.
Are we going to take the things that God has entrusted to us from Himself?
And as it were, say, no, it's not to be used for God and his pleasure for me. That's what this young man said, it's for me. And so he wanted to take from his father and use it, but he couldn't use it. You can't imagine, can you, that he would go next door and start a farm? No, Sir.
That wouldn't suit his desires. He was getting out of there. He was going where he could please himself without the eye of his father upon him.
And when we want to do that which we know is not pleasing in the sight of the Lord and in the sight of those who love Him, then our desire is to get out of that presence, to be free, if we can, in our conscience or our thoughts at least, from that influence that we reject.
And so this young man did. But I want to present him to you.
Because in one way, it's a wonderful thing to think.
That God didn't let him go.
He went right along with them, as it were his eye upon him, and he produced circumstances in his life that brought him to the point where the young man says I perish.
All God loved you.
And I trust that it won't have to be this way in your life, that you will have to be brought to the point.
Where you, as it were, waste.
All that God has given to you until it's all gone, and when you have nothing more to give than the friends are gone to.
Girl said to me the other night.
Named Bridget.
Comes from a home, she said. She said, you know, the greatest gift I have in this life are parents that love me and care for me.
But she said, you know my friend that I grew up with.
They got into drugs, they got into drinking and I got into it with them. You know, I wanted to go on with my friends. They'd been my friends all my life.
But she said, you know, tonight I'm here.
He's going to go to bed that night in the room.
Wall.
Cell door.
I'm here and she said they're out there.
And she said not only that, but.
You know, it was easier to start.
Than it is to stop.
Easier to start.
The path of sin than it is to stop.
It gained the control over the life.
So even we ourselves are aware.
That we are at it. Suspend we all are if we don't know the Lord Jesus.
But we're not always aware of it.
Solemn thing to come to the point where we have to say I perish with hunger.
And yet a wonderful thing that it says he came to the end of himself.
Give up tonight.
Give up.
Come to the end of yourself.
And turn around. Turn around.
And you'll find the Lord Jesus right there.
Became the Sikh.
And is saved. That was his life. And so the Lord Jesus has come to you tonight and he's right there. Turn around.
And let him hear his voice say to you tonight, come unto me, let him embrace you in the arms of love, as Savior is the one who died for you.
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To remove your sins from the sight of God.
Just notice in passing.
That it's related, but it relates to what was said last night in the Gospel in John Chapter 9.
No, no.
It's not the verse I want Doug the woman taking an adultery.
John chapter 8. Turn to John chapter 8.
I'm not going to take this back up again, but I just want to notice one point here.
And this story of this woman that was before us last night and the Lord Jesus speak suits on the ground and then in verse nine and when?
And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even under the last. And Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst.
Is that all important things, perhaps to notice that here with a crowd of people?
In the presence of the Lord Jesus.
And when the Lord Jesus spoke in such a way that their consciences were reached.
It says they went out 1 by 1.
From his presence.
Tonight, if God is speaking to your soul, don't go out those doors as they did 1 by 1.
With their consciences stirred.
Stay in the presence of the Lord Jesus.
This one woman.
Whose conscience was reached without a doubt.
Stood there while they all went out.
Sin was open.
You know, when they went out, in many cases, perhaps it was to continue to hide.
The sin in their lives of which they were convicted.
By being in the presence of the Lord Jesus.
If the Lord Jesus speaks to you tonight and convicts you of the sin that is in your life, don't go out of His presence.
Don't be like these people, they went out from the presence of the Lord 1 by 1 and left that one precious to the Lord Jesus soul to stay there and she got the blessing that day.
Oh, what relief.
What joy through her heart and conscience there was she too could go that day to her home.
At peace and enjoy, and in a knowledge that all was well between her soul and the Lord.
Now turn with me over to.
John 17.
John 13.
John's Gospel, chapter 13.
John 13 and verse.
21.
When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.
Then the disciples looked on one another, doubting of whom he spake. Now there was leaning on Jesus bosom, one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved.
Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him that he should ask who it should be of whom he spake.
He then lying on Jesus breath, said unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He, it is to whom I shall give us up when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped us up, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the slob Satan entered into him, then said Jesus unto him, That thou what that thou doest do quickly Now no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him.
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For some of them thought because Judas had the bag that Jesus had said to him by those things that we have need of against the feast.
Or that he should give something to the poor. He then, having received the stop, went immediately out.
And it was night.
Is the Spirit.
Of Judith.
Present in this room tonight.
Do you have?
Solemn, solemn thought. But do you have tonight young person or older one?
The same spirit that Judas had.
Consider this young man.
He spent three years and more.
In the daily presence of the Lord Jesus.
He was exposed to all the love that's in the heart of God.
And in his case, perfectly so, without any spots or wrinkles or weakness that might be seen in other in the presence of the Lord Jesus.
He had a perfect expression of God's heart given to him and day by day for three years and 1/2 or so through this company with the Lord Jesus.
And here.
Right at the very end of the relationship between Judas and the Lord.
Lord, the stop was something that's given, that's in such occasions as a measure or expression of favor.
And here Jesus gives special expression of favor.
To this man, Judas.
And Judas.
Had in his heart.
Something else?
Judas was for Judas.
In his heart there was something that was more important to him in the Lord Jesus. In his case it was money. I don't know what it is in your life.
It is just fun.
But nonetheless, Judas lived to please himself.
And he did so in the face of the love of the Lord Jesus for his soul.
And he comes to this way and.
Says and he went out immediately.
And it was nice.
If you go out.
In the presence of the Lord.
It's going to be nice for your soul.
And for Judas, he went out into eternal night.
Forever.
What a example tonight.
For everybody in this room.
What an awful thing.
To have the love of the Lord Jesus.
Showered upon you to have the opportunity that the people of this room have been given in contrast to many.
Not had such opportunity, who have not had such love expressed to them from God's heart in the same open way that you have. And yet here this this young man.
Still in the prime of his life.
He goes out.
And God says of him, as it were, it was night.
Out into the darkness.
And I think of one other solemn thing about Judas.
The last public act of Judas with respect to the Lord Jesus.
Was to go up to him.
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And embrace them.
With kisses.
Not a problem thing.
A liar to the end.
I have spoken much of going out.
But I say to you tonight, you must be real with God.
You might stay outwardly.
But don't be like Judith.
Here he was, a man that went right up into the presence of the Lord Jesus, as it were, and he embraced him, and he covers them with kisses.
But it wasn't real.
It was not real.
This night in the soul of Judith.
Turn with me.
But one last verse.
In John chapter 6.
John chapter 6 and verse 30.
7.
We'll read verse 36.
Verse 35. I guess we'll read the three verses. John 635 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life.
He that cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But I say unto you, that ye also have seen me, and believe not all that the Father hath given me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
You're a young person. The Lord Jesus is here tonight in spirit.
Right there with you. And he says to you, come now.
I will not cast you out.
I will not ask you out.
I don't even want to think about, you know, there's coming a time if we go out from the presence of the Lord.
If we refuse the one whose hands are outstretched, hands that are pierced.
A side that has shed his precious blood that cleanses from all sins stretched out to you tonight.
To refuse that.
Is to make certain that the time will come.
When it will have to be said.
And you?
Were cast.
Into the Lake of Fire.
You were cast.
Into the lake of fire. Now is the time in God's arms, and love is extended to you in grace and mercy and love, with arms outstretched. He says to you tonight I will not cast you out.