Gospel—D. Buchanan
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And.
We look to the Lord for His health and blessing.
Blessed God our Father, we thank Thee for these precious words.
Come to think that our Savior, the Lord Jesus uttered those when He was here on earth.
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
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And to thank Lord Jesus and thou after having finished the work of.
On the cross, I'll just go back to heaven and send the Spirit of God down here to strive with our souls.
To bring us into the good and blessing of what thou hast done. And we're here with the Gospel meeting for this purpose, Lord Jesus.
To speak of thee, to announce.
The invitation.
Most all here have heard it over and over again, Lord.
But there may be still one or two that have not accepted the Lord Jesus as Savior. And so our hearts go out to them, and we pray for a blessing on Thy word as we open it up tonight.
Give us to open up our own hearts, Lord, to hear without a say to us.
Not just the speaker, but it might be in truth, thy voice speaking to us. Our God, we thank thee for lingering, for tearing until tonight in the gospel. This is the last gospel meeting in this conference, Lord. So if there's some someone that's not saved, they need to be saved tonight. And we pray for them, blessing on their soul. Help us, Lord, we pray in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.
Well, dear ones, my soul hath been filled with.
Joy and gladness and thinking of what the Lord has brought out here about the Lord Jesus.
During these meetings.
One shudders to think, could we add anything more to that? But.
You know there are precious souls here.
Your soul is at stake tonight here.
If there's someone here that's not saved.
All that we've had before us about the Lord Jesus coming down to this world.
Wanting to gather a people and take them up into heaven to be with him.
It's a wonderful story.
We want to enlarge on it a little bit tonight.
Maybe nothing new.
But maybe something that will reach your heart.
What is it that's holding back? You know, sometimes I think when we preach the gospel.
We speak about how the Lord Jesus came down into this world, how he died.
How he loved us.
How He took our place there on the cross so that we might not be judged for our sins.
And why is it?
We hold back.
Why is it we don't say yes Lord, Yes, Lord? You know, it's so easy to get saved.
Just two weeks ago tomorrow night.
The Lord touched my heart and seeing two cases and I want to tell you a little bit about it.
I was down in Peru.
Went off to a place I'd never been to before. It's called Shitari. It's over in the jungle of Peru. You have to cross way over the mountains.
And I won't tell you all the obstacles and the problems we encountered in getting there. It just seemed like one thing after another. Where we ever going to be able to make this trip?
So much so that some of us were saying in our hearts, well Lord, do you really want us to go?
Well, now as I look back on it.
I believe.
I believe there was an enemy working too.
And maybe that same enemy is working here tonight.
Maybe there's somebody that's holding back.
Not saying yes, Lord.
Before I go on with the story, I want to pick up with where one of the last verses that was quoted to us last night.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Now that's the gospel invitation. God loved the world. That verse is divided into two parts.
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The part that God has done and the part that you need to accept.
Whosoever believeth in him is the part that touches us. The part that God has done is for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.
What a beautiful thing to bring those two things together, God and a Sinner brought together and oneness and peace through the Lord Jesus Christ.
We were traveling over this mountain.
We arrived to a place near there.
We opened up our Bibles and began reading some of the Scripture verses and there was a couple sitting there on a little bench. They didn't even have a back on it. There were two candles up in the window sill and the one little other little Lantern over on this side. And it was difficult to read your Bible because it was dark and all we had were two candles, another little light over there.
And there was a young couple sitting there.
Close together, a man and his wife.
And their hits were bowed like this, and they were reading the scriptures. And as we read those scriptures of the Gospel, I think maybe even John 316 was read.
You could see.
Their hearts were touched.
Their heads were bowed, they didn't even lift up and look.
God was speaking to that couple.
And as the scriptures were read.
I believe.
God was touching their hearts.
And I believe they were saying yes, Lord, yes, Lord.
A brother said, Do you understand? They said yes.
Do you want to be saved?
They said yes.
And so we all got down together on our knees.
And they lifted up their voice in prayer.
And confessed that they were sinners. They confessed the Lord Jesus as their Savior.
Oh, there was joy in heaven. There were serious faces there.
They weren't laughing, they were serious. Why?
Because the sin question was in view their sins. What about their sins?
They learned that the Lord Jesus died for sinners.
And they accepted the Lord Jesus as our Savior.
We went to another house on this same trip the same day.
We walked into this house.
With the intent of opening up the scriptures.
A family also lived in this house.
And you know what?
There was no room for Jesus.
And their hearts.
Instead, they pushed the little button and the little apparatus turned on, and this was supposed to entertain us for the time that we were there.
And I thought to my soul.
What a hindrance.
What a pity.
This family has no room for Jesus.
The others did.
And they got saved.
Now I tell that because I believe it's a witness to us. The Spirit of God is still working.
Not big things.
One by one. In this case it was 2.
Got saved.
How about you, dear friend tonight? Where do you stand? What is it that is hindering you from accepting the Lord Jesus as your Savior?
Let's open up our Bibles to John 3.
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The Gospel of John, you know, we've had in these last meetings, we've had the purpose of God in coming down to bless how the Lord Jesus came from heaven.
Down into this world to save us. How he went to the cross, how he sent down the Spirit of God now to gather together in one the people of God.
And that's the purpose of the Spirit of God being here. That's why we're having a gospel meeting. We're inviting souls. We're inviting you, dear friend, if you haven't come to know the Lord Jesus tonight.
Listen, listen up. This is for you.
John's Gospel, chapter 3.
Verse 13.
No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have.
Everlasting life for God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world.
But that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds.
Were evil.
Now notice it will drop down to verse 36, the last verse of the chapter.
He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
Oh dear friends, we have two issues here. We have two things here. We have life and we have salvation and we have death and we have the wrath of God.
I want to speak a little bit about this tonight, the judgment.
It says.
In he that believeth.
Not is condemned already.
You don't have to do anything to be lost.
Were born in sin.
We prove it all through our lives by what we do.
We need to be saved and God.
Sent.
His son into the world to save us.
The Lord Jesus came down from heaven, He died on the cross and loved your soul, it says. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Why was the Lord Jesus lifted up on the cross like that serpent in Moses?
To bear the judgment.
God in mercy sent him to take your place and my place there on the cross, so that he could forgive you and me, and so that we could be saved.
Is this hard to understand? No.
So simple.
And yet there are people that are not saved.
Why? What is it that's hindering you, dear friend?
What it is that is hindering you?
From accepting the Lord Jesus as your Savior.
Recognizing.
First of all, that God loves you.
2nd.
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We see in this.
The consequences of sin.
You know.
Sin is treated lightly today.
It's one of the favorite. It's one of the favorite pastimes of the unbelievers.
To make light of sin, either with jokes or with amusements.
And when I walked into that home where they did not have an ear.
For the gospel.
What impressed my soul and something of the burden of my heart tonight is.
What is it that is hindering your soul?
There are so many things.
That the enemy can use to occupy our time.
It was electrical apparatus there that turned on and occupied.
People.
I believe.
That because.
They did not want to hear the gospel.
You know our brother mentioned last night he quoted a verse for Mark's gospel.
Where the worm dieth not and the fire.
Is not quenched.
I thought a little bit about that expression and we're going to turn to it maybe later on, but I want to introduce it now.
We're the worm, Dieth not.
What does that mean?
I believe that speaks of the conscious.
Conscience that God has given to everyone, that every soul in eternity is going to have.
Remembering.
The issues.
Of life, the conscience, accusing and speaking to one's own self, reminding for all eternity.
Of sin.
Of God's righteous judgment and where you will never be able to turn it off.
You know, people turn off their conscience. They try to.
When that little voice inside says something about your a Sinner or you need to, you know this is right and you don't want to do it. There's 101 Things that we can use, as it were, to turn that conscious off conscience off so we don't think about it anymore.
The sad thing is that in hell.
You won't be able to turn it off.
To die without Christ.
To go to hell, There are two things there that that verse tells us you can't.
Turn off your conscience. That tells you what was it that Abraham said to the rich man we were told last night.
Son, remember.
He had to remember.
What happened in his life, he couldn't turn it off.
The worm wouldn't die. It never will.
That's serious. That's sad.
But it also says the fire is not quenched.
The judgment of God.
No way to turn it off.
Can't stop.
These are the issues of your soul, dear friend.
This is the consequence of saying no.
Unto the Lord Jesus.
How can we look back to Calvary's cross? See the Lord Jesus there?
Hanging up there, being made a curse for us so that we can be forgiven.
Say no to him.
And go home and sleep.
Oh I pray God, you will not be able to do that, to go home and sleep if you're not saved.
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God doesn't want you to do that.
He wants you to be saved.
How much he has done for us.
What is it right now that you are using, dear friend?
To turn off those darts that are touching your heart that are saying turn to Jesus. What is it that you are using?
Oh, it was a wonderful to see a couple.
Who would block out everything else in this world, sit on a humble bench, bow their heads and listen to the gospel testimony and accept it and believe it and be saved?
And what a contrast another couple.
No.
And in order to appease the conscience for a time.
Turn something on else on to think about. Go somewhere else. What are you doing on your free time when God is speaking to you?
Is it really worth it to let these amusements?
Take up our time.
And I'm not saying that the amusements in themselves are bad.
But if I use some anything, any amusement, any apparatus, any good thing to hinder me from turning to the Lord?
I'm making a big mistake.
First of all, because now is the only time I can be saved. Second of all.
Because.
Later on to those who reject him.
You won't be able to turn them on. You won't be able to use them. There will be no amusements in hell. There will be nothing to take away, to distract your mind, to make it easier to appease things.
I hope I'm not speaking too strongly, dear friend, but I my heart has been.
Touched with.
How Satan is using those kind of things?
To allure people.
And to trick them or to cover the real issues, to postpone it or anything.
It made me realize how successful Satan is in the environment that we live in.
In this country.
Where there is so much to occupy our time.
And how often those things?
Which are not bad in themselves.
Satan is using them.
To keep our souls from looking back to Calvary's cross and seeing the Lord Jesus.
As our Savior.
These verses are so wonderful. As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, why did Moses lift up that serpent there in the wilderness? It was so that everyone easily could look at that serpent of a brass and be healed. Why was it that the Lord Jesus was lifted up on a cross? It was so that salvation could be so accessible, so easily, to be so easy to obtain.
How hard is it to be to get saved? It's the easiest thing in the world.
I can't think, you know, there's a lot of gimmicks out here in the world to get people to do things. And it's so much so that the normal American is turned off on on gimmicks and advertisement.
I have to. I just to show you, if you walk down the, if I walk down the street and somebody offers me a paper or something, you know what my first reaction is, no.
You go to a foreign country where they don't have all the immune advancement of the world and you offer them anything. It could be a lie. You offer them anything and they're they're flocking you to get it.
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This is Satan's way of distracting people, but in the middle of this, the Lord Jesus.
Is lifted up here just like Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. And so here tonight in the gospel meeting, we want to lift up before you the Lord Jesus Christ and say, do you want him?
Will you take him as your savior?
Will you accept and recognize that what He did there on the cross was what was necessary for your sins to be forgiven?
The judgment that was poured out there on him.
Nobody can understand how we understand a little bit what the men did to Him there and how they hit him and they put a crown of thorns on Him and how they put a spear up on his side and they put the nails in his hands and his feet. We understand a little bit of the pain and the suffering and the consequence of that, but really we don't really understand what went on during those three hours of darkness when God.
Laid on him.
The sins of those who trust in Him.
When God dealt in full measure the judgment of sin.
Upon him.
And now God lifts him up, and by the preaching of the gospel, he presents to you the Lord Jesus Christ.
What you have in.
Will you look to him in faith? That's all they had to do to be healed in Moses time. That's all we have to do tonight to be saved. A look of faith.
When the Lord Jesus was walking here and there was a woman who had an infirmity.
And she was walking along, and she believed in the Lord, and she believed that the Lord could heal her.
And she walked up behind the Lord and touched the border of his garment.
And she was healed, and the Lord Jesus knew the moment she touched her Him.
And he turned around and he said, who touched me?
That's the person we're dealing with tonight. You look to him and he'll know when you look in faith.
We can't touch him with our hands, but you can look at him by faith.
And say, Lord Jesus, thank you for dying on the cross for me.
That's why the Lord Jesus is lifted up.
The judgment.
Should not perish.
We've talked about hell. Let's go over to let's go over to refer to those verses we already referred to in Mark's Gospel, Mark's Gospel Chapter 9.
Read just a little bit here.
Mark's Gospel Chapter 9 and move begin with verse 42.
Whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me, it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea. And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter into life maimed than having two hands to go into hell. Into the fire that never shall be quenched, where their worm dieth not in the fire is not quenched.
If thy foot offend thee, cut it off. It is better for thee to enter it halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, Into the fire that never shall be quenched, where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out. It is better for thee to enter into the Kingdom of God.
With one eye than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire where their worm dieth not in the fire is not quenched.
These are very serious words. The Lord here himself is advising us about hindrances to being saved, hindrances to entering into life, and he's saying that it'd be better to lose a hand or a foot or an eye.
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And the parish in hell.
That's the that's the seriousness of the consequences.
You know, it was interesting to me. I was speaking to Brother Graham here this morning and he was.
Tell me a little bit about the history of the assembly up there in Springfield, where he comes from.
And to me, it was remarkable that he told me three stories.
A man who lost a hand. A man who lost a foot.
And if I'm not mistaken, there was an I or there was another member anyway, a man that lost that.
When the assembly was established way a long time ago, over 150 years ago I believe it was.
And it made me think of the faithfulness of God and working in that city a long time ago.
The beginning, a little gathering there, he said. There were six souls that began breaking bread there a long time ago.
You know it's still the same.
When I was down in Bolivia.
A friend of my son Caleb here, who grew up as a little boy with him.
Whose name is Willie? Used to climb up in a tree and play.
I don't know if my son Caleb remembers this now, but when he was little they used to climb up in trees and play together.
The years went by and this friend Willie.
Got away from the upbringing he had. He was brought up by Christian family.
And he got out into the world.
Poor Willie.
And he was on the road to a lost eternity.
And God spoke to him.
And he lost his hand.
After he lost his hand.
Willie turned to the Lord.
He came back.
He preached the gospel.
And he does it every year I go there.
He stands up and he holds his Bible like this because he doesn't have this part of his hand.
And every time he preaches the gospel, I think.
Yes, it's better to enter into heaven with one hand.
That's what it took for Willie to get saved.
What is it going to take for you to get saved?
How is God going to have to speak to your heart? It may not be a hand.
It may be a foot, it may be something else, it may be some pleasures.
What is it?
For God so loved the world.
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish.
But have everlasting life.
If thy hand offending.
Don't let it hinder.
Don't let it hinder. We could tell some other stories. Others.
Dear brother Lino Bueno down in Bolivia, another brother.
He lost an eye, he lost an ear, he lost a hand.
But he told me, he said thank God.
Before I blew my brains out.
You brought me to know to say yes, Lord.
The Lord Jesus loves us.
The faithfulness of God that deals with us.
Dear friends.
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The Lord Jesus wants to bless you. He wants to save your soul.
When we looked at Calvary's cross.
How can we doubt?
Yes.
What he wants to do with your life is better than anything you can imagine.
No doubt many times we don't say yes for the Lord because we want to do our own.
Well, the Lord Jesus warns us about this.
Let's go back to John's Gospel, Chapter 3.
Verse 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.
You know God told Joel. Because there is wrath. Beware.
There is wrath.
Now this is not a part of the gospel. The gospel is that God loves you. He sent his Son to die for you. By faith in him, by trusting in Him, receiving Him as your Lord and Savior, you're delivered your past from death unto light.
There is no condemnation.
But the wrath of God abideth on those.
That reject the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's amazing that the gospel can be concentrated in one person.
You know, to the natural mind this looks like very narrow minded. It says in Acts 4 there is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must save, where whereby we must be saved. That looks very restrictive doesn't it? There is none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Why is that? That's because there was only one.
Who could satisfy God's claims? Regard sin, regard your sins, regard my sin.
There is only one who was holy enough to bear all that judgment and to exhaust all the judgment, and to be able to say to you and me now.
Should not perish, but have everlasting life.
Because there is wrath to beware.
Now, we've told some of these stories about Willie. We've told stories about Leno Bueno and others.
These are these stories that judgment.
When Willie lost his hand, that was just the mercy of God. I look at that as.
Our brother was speaking about the Spirit of God. Compelling.
Compelling.
He compels us.
He knows it's serious. He knows it's necessary. He knows we not must be saved.
And so these things that may happen.
And don't test God on these things.
Don't see how far you can go with in the course of this life without Christ, and see how far you can go before accepting the Lord Jesus as your Savior. That's dangerous.
It's dangerous to do that.
Except him now.
Before it's too late. We have no promise of tomorrow.
Tonight's the last gospel meeting. We're going to have meetings tomorrow, but I don't believe there's going to be a gospel meeting. That doesn't mean you that somebody might not be able to get saved, but we have no promise of tomorrow.
Getting saved.
Tonight is the night.
Now is the accepted time.
I'd like to close with the hymn #6.
In our M sheet.
God in mercy, then his Son to a world by sin undone, Jesus Christ was crucified.
Was for sinners. Jesus died number six.
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God and mercy and his Son go away in my God.
Give him a surprise. It's much really sick Friday.
One sources and it is a sky.
Jesus Christ.
Is Lord of all.
The Lord.
Grace.
Shyness.
My favorite girl's friends.
Run blah blah blah blah blah blah blah.
God.