Gospel—John Kemp
DISCLAIMER: The following has been auto-transcribed. We hope it will help you to find the section of this audio file you are looking for.
We are.
Going to have a gospel meeting tonight and we welcome everyone to it, young or old, whoever you might be.
God has a message for you tonight and all we are.
Are instruments or channels some of us not very good but.
We trust that the gospel message will be clear and plain and that souls will be saved. We're going to open by singing number.
Just a minute here, there's life and a look at the Crucified 1.
Yeah, it's #26.
There is life at this moment for thee. Then look, Sinner, look unto him, and be saved unto him who is nailed to the tree #26 Some brotherhood started.
Here is my.
Christmas, if I was there, is life at this moment for being.
And understand her love. Understand.
Unto him who was there until the dream.
There is light in the world and the currency by one. There is life that is small and for thee.
We are being right in stripes whatsoever to the world.
And.
He is our right jumps and snakes.
00:05:46
If I won, there is life that there's no land for me.
I have a little tract here.
That I use many times in my gospel work.
I've had.
So many opportunities to speak to young people through this tract. I don't know if you know the background of it or not. I happen to be very familiar with that. The title of the tract, The rest of his time, that's a scriptural expression from the Book of Peter.
And the track takes up the subject of how long.
Is the rest of your time.
No one here can give an answer to that question.
For the young man in the track that I am holding his name, Jeff Highland, the rest of his time was very short, just one day.
And his father and mother.
Berwick, Highland and Helen as they looked at their sun, gasping for breaths in the Ottawa Hospital.
They knew that the time was short for Jeff and before the sunset he had passed from time into eternity. Thank God he went to be with the Lord where he has been since 1980.
I knew Berwick very well. He was, he was a gifted gospel preacher and he sat down and he wrote this tract.
In the context of the loss of his son, as I say, it's opened up many doors.
Opportunities to speak to young people as I've given them this tract and said to them, remember.
You have no lease on your life you may have on your house.
But your life is in the hand of the Lord, and you don't know how long you have in this world to prepare for eternity.
And I also say, remember that Berwick didn't send his son out to die. He said goodbye Jeff in the morning.
He got on his motorcycle in Smith Falls and he made his way to work, but he never arrived.
Hit hit broadside a car and the handlebars went into his body and he was rushed to the hospital but.
He never rallied. He never recovered.
And I say to the young people, remember that Berwick didn't send his son out to die.
He expected to see him that night for supper.
He saw him in the hospital struggling for his life.
But I want to tell you, young people and everyone here, that God purposely sent out his Son to die for you, the dearest object of heaven, Heaven's beloved 1.
Your Creator, the Sustainer of the universe, the God in whose hand your breath is, is interested in your salvation.
00:10:04
Jeff is gone. We know where he's gone. We have the assurance that he was absent from the body present with the Lord. But I say to them, remember.
You have no promise of tomorrow.
I come from Ottawa, the capital of Canada.
And.
We've had the opportunity to spread the gospel in that city time and again.
I can remember having a hobby class in the western part of Ottawa.
Many years ago now.
And it started with about three or four children, but it grew to nearly 100, I guess 75 to 100. And they were from a pretty rough background, French Canadians, not that I have any objection to that, but they were from.
Tough backgrounds and it was it was difficult to get them to listen to the gospel.
But we, by the grace of God, we conducted the classes week after week. And I can remember a little girl, she might have been 10 years of age, She was very severely handicapped. She had crutches. I don't know what the problem was, but she couldn't walk normally. But that little girl every.
Monday night that we had the class.
She hobbled into the meeting room. There she did her painting and she listened to the gospel. I can still see her, her face lighting up as she heard the message of God's love and grace. She was very poor. You might you might say rather an ignorant person, what you know. She listened all her family came to the.
Hobby class, but I can remember her in particular.
One December night.
Called below 0 and I know the house where the family lived. I used to visit around the community and go door to door with invitations and I know where they live.
But.
In the one December night, dark night, I think it was late in the evening.
A part of oil.
Spilled over the oven and the hot plate and in a short time the house was an inferno.
The fire department did everything they could to save people. It was a large family. Everyone in that family, including this little girl that I mentioned, was ushered into eternity that night. I think one boy got out.
But she, that little girl, and all those in the family, they had heard the gospel of the grace of God. I don't know how many were saved. I'm hoping.
That I'll meet that little girl in the glory.
I'd rather think that she had put her faith in the Lord Jesus and all this simplicity of her understanding.
But tonight, dear friends, we want to give you a warning, but also we want to show you the way of escape from a lost eternity. God gives a warning, He warned in the days of Noah, 120 years.
And God gives a way of escape from that judgment.
That is hanging over your head if you are unsaved here tonight.
Judgment is hanging over your head.
The storm of judgment is going to break upon this world.
Very soon we feel the Lord is going to give the shout and ransom into the glory. All those who are saved. Will you be among the number?
The rest of your time it may be very short.
00:15:03
Last weekend.
In Ottawa.
About a week ago.
Yeah, about a week ago today.
A great storm passed through the capital.
Trees were uprooted, branches were everywhere. Bees on the roads, they were blocked. Live wires were dangling around.
Thankfully.
And I live, we didn't have any damage, but four or five people went into eternity as a result of that storm.
Trees falling upon them and so on.
They thought that they were safe. They were confident that all would be well. But they're gone and.
God gives warnings of judgment because.
He's a savior God. The heart of God longs to bless you tonight.
The water of life is flowing out from the heart of God to you. You know God didn't need to be reconciled to you. We needed to be reconciled to God. The idea that God was against the Sinner is is a false is a misconception from a past eternity, the heart of God.
Yearned for the blessing of man.
The reconciliation is on our part is not being reconciled with God as if there was some sort of compromise, reconciled to God through the work of the Lord Jesus. All that enmity, that hatred that was in the heart has been overcome by the love of God reaching out.
To sinners.
And we have believed that love, and we've closed in with the offer of mercy South. God gives the message tonight to you, to whosoever.
Be reconciled to God, not by your good works, not by turning over a new leaf, it'll get just as dirty as the other one, but by repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ.
How simple. I want to point you tonight to that man of Calvary.
The One who gave everything that love could give, He gave his life. There on the cross. He suffered the awful judgment of God. Stroke upon stroke from a holy sin, hating God came down upon the head of his beloved Son.
There was that awful cry that we remember.
And we speak of on Lord's Day morning. My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
There was no answer to that question because Christ was the sacrifice. He must bear the judgment for your sins, my friend, and tonight He is offering you a full and a free salvation.
He is not asking you to do something to make yourself better so that God will have mercy upon you. Reverently speaking, the Lord Jesus is not praying to God that He will be merciful to you, that the heart of God is reaching out to you tonight, the water of life.
Is offered the last invitation.
In the word of God, in the Book of Revelation, whosoever will let him come and take the water of life freely. How wonderful that God is offering salvation at such a cost.
His own beloved son.
And now He invites you to come. An invitation from the heart of God to whosoever, regardless of your background or how you have lived. God knows all about your life's history. You don't need to tell Him that He is. Your life is an open book before God tonight.
00:20:17
Every thought and every word and every deed is recorded in the books up there, and if you die unsaved, those books will be opened and you'll be judged according to your works. Revelation, chapter 20.
How terrible that that that a size will be when an unsaved man or woman or boy or girl stands naked before the Great White Throne. No blood to cleanse your sins then, my friend.
No mercy offered, no second chance.
The knocking will go on for eternity, but tonight is the night that the Lord wants you to be saved and to become a companion of the Lord Jesus for all eternity. How wonderful. What have you? What do you lose by accepting Christ as your Savior?
People talk about I'm going to lose my friends and I may lose my job and so on, but the only thing you lose is your sins and you're glad to be rid of them. What do you gain? Eternal life, forgiveness, a home in heaven, the companionship of the Lord Jesus in the wilderness scene, how wonderful salvation is.
I've been thinking.
In my meditation.
About a passage that I just want to speak on briefly. Shall we turn to Acts chapter 16?
I'm not going to.
Speak on the whole chapter, but I'm going to make a few remarks. The Lord's help.
You know if I put a title to chapter 16 of Acts?
You know what I would the word that I would use.
It's a big word, and maybe the boys and girls might have a problem understanding it, but I'll try to explain it. The word that I would use to describe Acts 16 is emancipation. That's a big word. What does it mean?
Well, it means simply to be delivered from someone who has you in *******.
You're emancipated.
Brother Robert spoke of the slave, and if you're unsaved, you're a slave to your lusts. You're in the service of the enemy. He's a strong man and he's armed with all the entertainments of this century.
To keep you.
Asleep, unawakened to your need of a savior. And he has all sorts of attractions for the natural man. Not not all are immoral. There's lots of that out there, but there's.
Other other.
Attractions, we might say. Education, Music.
Sports.
If we can get your heart occupied with those things, he's a strongman armed with all the pleasures of this world to keep his goods in peace. If you're unsaved, you're part of those goods.
But the Lord Jesus is stronger, and he defeated the enemy.
You know Satan thought that he got his greatest victory when he put Christ on the cross.
Behind the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus was every power of hell and Satan arrayed against the Lord at that time. Think of the Garden of Gethsemane when, in anticipation of the hours of darkness when he would be forsaken of God, He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood.
That was not the atoning sufferings of the Lord.
But it was the anticipation of being forsaken of the one of His of God.
00:25:09
With whom he had had uninterrupted communion from a past eternity. There wasn't a moment when there was any breach of fellowship between God and His Son.
The baptism of John, Baptism by John. The heavens were opened, and we hear the voice of God. This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And the mode of transfiguration. We have the same word. There he was in all his effulgence, His glory.
With shining garments. A millennial picture, really there the Lord Jesus was.
And the Father opened the heavens, and they gave his.
Approval expressed His delight in His beloved Son. Every step of the Lord's pathway emitted a fragrance to the heart of God. But at the cross there was no voice from heaven. There was no shining garments.
There was.
No answer to his cry. Why?
Because God.
Was dealing with sin.
In those hours of darkness.
Our sins in all their terror there God's wrath and Satans power.
Christ was becoming the sacrifice for you, bearing the judgment for those filthy sins that you and I have done, which were ashamed to admit, but God knows all about them. But in love, some people say, confess your sins and come to God. I can't do that. I'm sorry.
My sins were so many, like the hairs of my head.
Many I've forgotten, so I can't do that. But I know this, brethren and friends, that when the Lord Jesus was on the cross, God took that heavy load of my sins.
There I was in that awful, horrible pit, going down to a lost eternity with my sins indifferent to my need. And the Lord Jesus went down into that pit, and he bore the judgment for those sins that I had committed. Every one of them was placed upon his blessed head.
And then God from heaven he brought down the.
The sword of judgment upon his son, he stroke upon stroke.
As God's wrath awoke, there we have the the redemption that was purchased by the precious blood of Christ. The Lord endured those three hours of darkness.
Communion broken, not relationship. Communion broken in those hours.
We often say he wasn't forsaken of the Father.
That is true, but you want to be careful there. He did not. The Lord Jesus, reverently speaking, really did not have the enjoyment of that relationship in the hours of darkness, because He was the sacrifice. He was the sin offering. He was the Lamb of God. He was pouring out His.
Life blood for the salvation of sinners like you and me.
We who would spit in his face, We who turned our back upon the Son of God. He prayed for his murderers. And tonight he is a man in the glory, as we've been reminded. But he's still the same. He's still reaching out. His arms are wide open to receive.
A Sinner like you and me.
Whosoever will let him come and take the water of life freely.
00:30:01
Years ago in the City of London.
There was a an outbreak of cholera. That's a dreadful disease. It's common in India and it carries away hundreds of people. If it gets into a slum area of Calcutta, for instance, where they don't, they don't even have wood to boil water and cholera can just sweep through.
An area and take hundreds into eternity. Well, anyway, in 1854 there was an outbreak of cholera in the Soho district of London.
I used to live in London for several years. London, England.
When I was teaching school and.
Soho is a very famous entertainment area of the city, rich people who have lots of money to waste. And this cholera epidemic broke out and I suppose hundreds were being ushered into eternity. There was a doctor, his name was John Snow. He said there must be some reason that this is happening.
The doctors didn't have any solution to the problem. They they had some ideas.
That perhaps it was.
Fumes coming from polluted water or something, but they really didn't have an answer to the problem.
But John Stoll, he said, I'm going, I'm going to get to the bottom of this. And he interviewed the families where there had been deaths and he did a lot of research on the whole, the whole subject of cholera, and he found out.
In every case that where there was death, they had been using water from a well in that area. Long handle on the well but.
Everyone, every family that had a fatality, a lost, a dead son or daughter, whatever, they all had used that water from that well and so he solved the problem.
He said, you see, in those days the slaughterhouses were all there on the Bank of the Thames, Thames and animals were being killed and the Thames was like an open sewer and they were throwing dead carcasses and everything. This is where the water came from. So it was polluted undoubtedly. And those.
That was the only source they had of of water which they thought was clean.
But it was polluted, contaminated, so he said, he said now you cap that well.
Stop it.
Put a lock on it that it will not be used again.
Immediately.
The number of cases of cholera dropped.
He had found the cause of the terrible malady. Well, I want you to know, dear friends, that the heart of God is reaching out the water of life that the Lord Jesus is offering. Like the woman of Samaria. Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again.
But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him, shall never thirst.
But the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into life everlasting. In Acts Chapter 16 we have three classes, but we're not going to have time to speak very much on each section of the chapter.
At the beginning, here we have the story of Paul meeting Lydia. Let us read a few verses here there came.
Then came me to Derby and Lystra, and behold, a certain disciple. Oh, just a minute.
Or going down the chapter a little more here.
I'm going down to verse.
Eight and they passing by Messia came down to troll as and a vision appeared to Paul in the night.
There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia and help us. And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.
00:35:04
You know, this is the first entrance of the gospel into Europe. Lydia was not really a European. She was from Thyatira. She was from Asia. But you know, Lydia was a hungry soul. She wanted to have emancipation. She was earnest, an earnest seeker.
She was a seller of purple and I'm sure she kept her business in good order.
But she wanted to be at the prayer meeting. There was number synagogue in Philippi. So a few women gathered by the Riverside as we read here. From thence, verse 12, they went to Philippi, chief city of that part of Macedonia. On the Sabbath. We went out of the city by a Riverside where prayer was won't to be made. And we sat down and spake unto the women which resorted thither. Well, that seemed.
Be a very.
Inauspicious way of the Gospel entering the continent of Europe.
There was no great campaign.
Paul had the vision that someone was in need over there. He took the journey.
By ship and it it went over the Aegean Sea in about two days. God gave him a a good wind and he arrived there. But where's the man?
He and Silas didn't see the man at all. So what did they do? They went where they knew. There was some women where that would be at a prayer meeting, wasn't it? That's the way the gospel entered Europe and Paul the Apostle, the greatest evangelist since the Lord, lived.
Sat down in a very informal way.
And he spoke to the women, and as we read here, a certain woman, verse 14, named Lydia, seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us, whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul. My, what a wonderful revelation to Lydia. She was an earnest soul.
She was looking for light. Walking up to the light she had.
But she really didn't have peace in her heart and soul about her eternal salvation. But she was a quickened soul, like Cornelius in chapter 10, like the Ethiopian eunuch in chapter 8. She was a prepared heart and the Lord had a prepared message for her, just as He has for you tonight. So they sat down and spoke to Lydia and the women.
And the Lord opened her heart, and that day was the most wonderful day in the life of Lydia, because she found peace with God. She opened her heart and she opened her house to the servants of the Lord, and she was brought into the enjoyment of the full salvation that the Lord Jesus had provided.
And she, I guess, was the first convert in Europe. But the work spread, and the second class was this poor demoniac woman here who came to pass for 16. When we went to prayer, a certain damsel, possessed with the spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying, of course.
Satan always tries to spoil the work of the Lord. Wherever the Spirit of God is working, be assured Satan is working too. And so here imitation. What she said was the truth. She didn't speak about Christ. But you know, Paul had a lot of patience. This went on for many days, but.
He he knew that the source of this.
This statement was from the enemy, and he wasn't going to allow the devil, Satan to mix himself up with the work. And so he commanded that that evil spirit come out of that girl. And it came out that same hour and of course there was an upheaval. Her masters who made a lot of money.
00:40:07
Using her her demoniac powers. They were incensed.
They were hostile to the gospel and you know the story. They dragged Paul and Silas.
Through the marketplace, beat them with with rods and then deliver them to that brutal jailer, a hardened Sinner if ever there was one, that took delight in taking Paul and Silas and putting them into that dungeon and those dungeons there, they were awful places under the Roman, Roman cruelty.
Damp and dark, and there Paul and Silas with their backs bleeding. There they were, in stocks, that awful, uncomfortable position in the dungeon, in the darkness.
Paul might have said, Lord, you told me to come over here, but here I am. What good am I here with my back bleeding and my feet in the stalks?
Here what? What good are we doing? But God's purposes will ripen fast and God had a purpose There time is going. God had a purpose. He wanted to reach that hardened Sinner with the gospel and at midnight.
Paul and Silas prayed first of all, prayed, and then they sang praises. The prisoners heard them.
Never before had those walls heard the notes of praise and Thanksgiving and prayer. They had heard curses and blasphemies. But here were two men.
Praying and praising God. Then God sent the earthquake. In fact, I think there was two earthquakes that night. That earthquake shook that prison to its very foundation.
The doors flew open, the chains fell from the prisoners hands and legs and the and the jailer, that brutal man.
He realized what had happened, and I don't think it was the earthquake that really touched his conscience. But in the middle of the night, in the darkness, he heard these words.
We read here.
Orchestrated by Paul and Silas.
Let's read it.
Down in the chapter here, read verse 25 at midnight, Paul and Silas prayed, signing praises unto God, and the prisoners heard them. This is their their position as holy priests. They were offering up spiritual sacrifices to the Lord, but now we're going to see their work as royal priests. What do they say here?
Verse 27 and the keeper of the prison awakening out of his sleep.
And seeing the prison doors open, he drew out his sword and would have killed himself, supposing that the prisoners had been fled.
Well, that was the that was well known in the Roman military system. If a jailer let go of the prisoners, his life was forfeited. So he didn't have the courage to meet the authorities. So he said, I'm going to put an end to it. And he raised his sword. He was on the very brink of eternal judgment and woe. He was just on the precipice and Satan was.
Behind them, ready to push them over into a lost eternity. And he heard those tender, loving words. He didn't know where they came from.
Sounded out in the prison. Do thyself no harm.
Brought them out and said Sir is what read verse.
28 But Paul cried with a loud voice, saying, Do thyself no harm, for we are all here. And he called for a light, and sprang in, and came trembling.
And fell down before Paul and Silas, and brought them out, and said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Well, there was an earthquake, moral earthquake, in the soul of that jailer. And he heard those tender words, even though he had been.
00:45:08
So brutal, unkind, cruel to Paul and Silas. There he was hearing a message of grace, the grace of God.
Was reaching that poor darkened soul, that healing man. The grace of God is like a golden chain from the bosom of God down to the depths of man's degradation and ruin, and back to the glory. And he heard the voice and.
He was convicted trembling. How little we see of people trembling today like Felix trembled as.
The apostle, as the apostle Paul, spoke of righteousness, temperance, and judgment to come. He trembled, but he said, go thy way for this time when I have convenient season I will call thee. This man was trembling under conviction, but he heard a message of pardon and forgiveness. What must I do to be saved? That's the first reaction in a person when they're convicted.
What must I do to be saved? But my friends, God is not asking you to do anything.
He's done all the work for you. I'm going to tell a little story in closing.
I often think of it. William Tweedy was a good living man, as we would say. He lived in the Perth area, not 60 miles from where I live. This is many years ago and he was a religious man, attending church and a moral man and so on. He had good works to his credit, but he didn't have peace with God.
He felt there was something missing. All his works, his sacraments, his ceremonies and so on. It didn't give peace to his troubled heart.
And he was earnest. He was plowing out in the field, in the.
In the hot sun, in the summertime, and still that burden was there. I don't have peace with God. I'm a religious person, yes, but I don't know that my sins are forgiven.
The sweat was pouring off his forehead. He said I've got to have a rest. So he hitched the horses up there, and he sat down by the fence for a little rest in the afternoon. Beside him was a sack of grain.
Well, that's common in in that area, but there was a hole in that sack and someone had taken a little piece of paper.
And folded it up and put it in the hole so that the grain would not flow out. So he had nothing to do. He pulled out the paper and he opened it up. And here it was a verse from the word of God. Romans chapter 4. To him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, His faith is counted for righteousness.
Romans 4, he was ready to jump with joy. He said this is just what I needed. I was trying to make myself acceptable to God and it was a complete failure. But I see to him that worketh not, but believeth on Him that justifieth the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness. You know that verse. I want to just turn to it in closing because I want to get the exact words.
Chapter 4 of the Romans, I guess we're familiar with it.
Yes, verse five, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. So as we draw our meeting to a close, dear friend, I want you to know that the heart of God is yearning for your blessing tonight. And remember if you go out of this room unsaved.
You.
Do not go out the same way that you came in. You've heard the gospel, though it may be feebly presented. You've heard the way of salvation from sin and judgment and hell, the realities of a lost eternity. You've heard the message. Therefore, you are responsible, you are accountable to God, and the gospel is for you. God so loved the world.
00:50:05
His heart reaches out to every poor Sinner in this in this globe. I've had the privilege of preaching the gospel in India many times and I've seen.
Souls that were in the pit of corruption brought to Christ and delivered from the ******* of sin and Satan. So tonight we we just entreat you.
As it may be your last opportunity, we entreat you to bow the knee.
To that Blessed One who gave his life for you to acknowledge that you are a Sinner.
Guilty, lost, ruined in misery.
And look to the Lamb of God.
We sang that hymn. There's life in the look at the crucified one. There's life at this moment for thee by a time. I tell you the story behind that hymn, but the time is gone.
That was written by a lady.
Amelia Hall, but I don't have time to describe the whole story. She was from a very wealthy family. Her father was the captain.
Of the military.
Highly respected soldier, but he was without Christ. He said to Amelia, don't you go to that gospel hall again. She had gone there and she had been convicted. She had a hunger in her heart for the gospel and she went again. He said, remember, if you go to that place again and bring back.
This nonsense into my house.
You see that horse whip there? I'm going to use it on you. And he meant what he said.
Well, this didn't. This didn't stop Amelia from going and hearing the glad tidings and she went and she heard the message and her heart was opened like Lydia and she was saved and she came home and told her father. Of course he flew into a rage and he said.
Amelia, you're my daughter. I'm not going to have this in my home. You go up to your room.
And you think seriously during the night about this matter and you come down in the morning and you tell me what your decision is. Remember, there's the horse whip in the library and I'm going to use it on you so.
Amelia understood very well it wasn't, it wasn't a threat, so she went up to her room.
And she didn't have a very good night's rest. She was in prayer, much in prayer for her dear Father, and burdened and weeping. But she wrote to him that we sang tonight.
There is life in a look at the crucified one. There is life at this moment for thee. Next morning she came down. Her father met her at the foot of the stairs and he said, what is your decision?
And she passed him that him that we have just sung. She passed him to him. He read it. He sank down in his chair. This, this mighty military commander.
He sank down in his chair and he repented of his sins, and he accepted Christ. Captain Hall was for many years gathered with us among the brethren and preached the gospel all over s s England was much used in the Lord. That's how he was saved. May the Lord bless His word. Do forgive me for prolonging the the.
Meeting longer than I should have. Shall we have? We'll sing a just A1 stanza and then we'll have a word of prayer.
Well, maybe we could sing.
The first stanza of #36 or do not let the word depart. Some brother would start it, please.
And the chorus.
Maybe you don't know the tune for it.
00:55:04
I know what to import but.
Depart and close, and I again the light.
Horse Sinner.
Hard enough.
I would be saved. Why not denying?
Goodnight.
My heart, goodnight.
You're what? She said. Why not?
Tonight.