Gospel—John Kemp
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So we open our meeting with singing #15 oh, blessed gospel sound. Yet there is room. It tells to all around, yet there is room.
The guilty may draw near.
Though while they need not fear with joy they now may hear, yet there is room.
Some brother would start it.
Yes, there is no.
Price everything and there is room.
Oh, word again. Now come play came for the Mercedes and all day and you'll help me.
Yes, there is room.
Some guests will be the last.
Yet there is room.
Yeah, it turns out patrol day wrong. You will pass away.
That's correct. No more, we'll say. Yes, there is room.
Well, this is the last gospel meeting or the last meeting of the conference. I guess we are all aware of that. Certainly the last gospel meeting that will be held in this room.
Uh, for some time, perhaps, perhaps never again will the gospel of God's grace be sounded forth from this platform because we are on the threshold of the Lord's return. And at any moment we may hear the shout, and the master of the house will rise up and shut to the door. And then that woeful cry. No room, no room.
But God's heart is overflowing this afternoon with love for sinners, and you may be one of them. Those that we look at here this afternoon are.
All of the grace of God. There's not one of us that can do any boasting. We are all brands plucked from the burning. We are all sinners saved by the matchless grace of God.
We were once foolish, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in enmity and fear, hateful and hating one another. This was our life.
But now by.
But now, by the wondrous grace of God.
We have come to the knowledge of Christ and this is the purpose of our meeting this afternoon.
That if you still are a stranger to that Blessed One who stands with arms wide opened.
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And who invites?
Sinners today.
To come and receive.
Uh, forgiveness of sins.
Outside the Evergreen Cemetery in New York, there is a tombstone that has only one word on it.
Forgiven.
We don't know anything about the person whose remains lie there.
His name or her name or anything about their lives. But one thing we know, they were forgiven. They might have had a a wicked life to their credit, but they were forgiven. And that's what we want to announce to you today, that there is forgiveness of sins. Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren.
That's true. This man is preached unto you. The forgiveness of sins, an individual matter. You can't pass in with the crowd. God speaks to you individually.
Salvation is an individual matter.
And damnation is an individual matter, and so it says in the word of God to strive to enter in at the straight gate. For many, I say unto you, will seek to enter, and will not be able.
When the master of the house has risen and shut to the door.
And she began to knock and to say, Lord, Lord, open unto us, how solemn.
To leave these meetings here in Saint Louis without hope and without God and without salvation, when the invitation is coming to you this afternoon from the very heart of God.
God is interested in your blessings. So interested.
That he sent his son, not a prophet, not an Angel, but his own beloved son, the one who was in his bosom from a past eternity.
The one in whom was all his delight, he sent him into the world.
To reveal the heart of God to us.
To open the gate of salvation, to show that he really had an interest in our blessing, in our salvation from sin, from hell, from judgment. How marvelous to be able to proclaim.
Christ is the Savior of sinners this afternoon and to point you.
To the one.
Who has the living water? Whosoever will let him come and take of the water of life freely.
Knowing, I'm told, in the desert of Arizona, there's a lighthouse.
We don't think of lighthouses being in deserts as a rule there along the banks, dangerous.
Areas around the sea, on Shoals and so on, but there's a lighthouse.
In the desert of Arizona.
And it shines every night there. What is it for? It's to tell people that there is water there because for 30 miles around, there's no possibility of getting water.
And that lighthouse points them to that refreshment, which might mean, for a thirsty traveler, life instead of death. And you know, the living water is presented to you tonight.
From the heart of God.
God is beseeching. A last man is still refusing to be made forever glad. But tonight we have a message of pardon, a message of salvation. As I came down here to Saint Louis, I had the privilege of distributing some.
Distributing some tracks along the way.
Uh.
So high.
As we moved down through the airports, we gave out some gospel tracts and I said to a number of people, seeing it was Thanksgiving Day, I said, dear friend, thanks be unto God.
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For his unspeakable gift, well, there was some response, thankfully not from everyone, but there were some that seemed to appreciate the desire of my heart.
In offering them a gospel tract and a calendar. Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift and gift. And I asked a few, Now this is Thanksgiving Day, but have you thanked God for that?
Unspeakable gifts. The greatest gift of all.
You know, we thank God sometimes for our food, which is well and good, and for some of the mercies that we receive along the pathway of life.
God tells us He fills our hearts with food and gladness, but have we thanked Him for the supreme gift, His beloved Son?
Heaven's beloved one, think of God.
In his marvelous grace.
Sending into a world of wickedness and evil, a world that would spit in the face of His Son God, knowing the treatment that He would receive from hands like ours.
Would still continue to send that blessed one to would.
Would deep would leave?
Let his beloved Son leave the throne of glory.
Leave His very presence, veiling His divine glory that He had from a past eternity.
And entering a world.
That would reject him and had no place for him, unwelcome in the very world which his hands had made no room for him in the end.
Room for pleasure, room for business, but for Christ the crucified, not a place that he can enter in the heart for which he died. But God's love it could not.
Be quenched, you know. Every obstacle might be put in front of it. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. We know as children we used to.
Put those obstacles, little bridges in front of a stream that was coming down from a mountainside. We try to block up that stream with a dam of some kind, remember?
But it always.
Built up and overflowed. We couldn't stop it in its course down. Such is the love of God.
That comes from the heart of a Savior, God. That love, though it met with many obstacles in its course.
And in the Lord Jesus, in his pathway, we see him rejected, scorned, ridiculed, and finally crucified. This was.
Uh, the grace of God that overcame every obstacle in the way, dear friend, this afternoon.
We are here to give a little gospel message to you and we trust that, uh, you will hear not only the voice of the speaker here, but the voice of God. I want to turn for a few moments to Luke 12.
It's a passage that.
We're familiar with I'm sure probably we have heard this spoken on.
Uh, many times.
But, uh, we'll just make a few comments on this passage of scripture and look at a few other references.
Uh, that bring before us the heart of God.
The, uh, carelessness of mind and uh.
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The way of blessing.
For the Sinner, well, verse 13 one of the companies said unto him, Master, speak to my brother, that he divided the inheritance with me.
While this man was occupied.
With Earth, he thought that he didn't get his rights. He didn't get enough of the inheritance, perhaps from his brother. He was occupied with Earth.
And is that not the heart of man?
The Lord wanted to.
The heart of man for heaven. He was bringing heavenly riches to man.
But man was occupied with earth and with the things of this life.
That was his, uh, concern, Master, speak to my brother, that he divided the inheritance with me and uh, this is the Lord Jesus. He said unto him, man who made me a judge.
Or a divider over you? Yes, the Lord did not come to judge.
He didn't come to divide the things of earth, but he came with heavenly riches.
And he came to win the heart for heaven, and that is the purpose of the gospel meeting, that your heart might be one for heaven tonight.
And then the Lord goes on to describe here the sin of covetousness. He said unto them, Take heed and beware of covetousness, for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
Covetousness is that desire to acquire, to have something more in our lives and how much we hoard up. Man wants to acquire something. It may not be dishonestly.
But the desire to increase our goods here is called covetousness. And the Lord says beware of covetousness. Umm, it's gathering things around myself.
Uh and uh.
The determination to acquire things down here.
And we all have that failure, don't we?
Uh, but a man's life, the Lord said, consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
What does man's life consist of, then, if it's not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth?
What is the object of our lives? Is it to acquire something down here?
Uh, reputation or riches or whatever? Or is it?
To have Christ as the object of our lives, to serve Him, to live for eternity rather than the things that are going to pass away.
Because these things that we see are only for time, God would have us to look on into eternity, to endure as seeing Him who is invisible like Moses did.
He had all the glories of Egypt at his feet. He could have.
Then the next Pharaoh on the throne, the ball was at his foot, so to speak, but he turned his back upon Egypt when it looked the fairest and most promising. And his career down here, because he endured as seeing him who was invisible, he looked on into eternity and the recompense of the reward. Well, this is a a a word for the conscience of each one of us, a man's life.
Consisteth not.
In the abundance of the things which he possesseth.
And then the Lord Jesus goes on here to give us a.
A parable to illustrate covetousness.
The Lord uses the very interruptions that came along his pathway. This man here really interrupted the Lord in his discourse, but the Lord uses it as an opportunity to bring out truth.
He's bringing out truth to each one of us this afternoon. And so he spake a parable unto them, and I guess we are all familiar with this parable. Verse 16 He speak a parable unto them, saying the ground of a certain rich man.
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Brought forth plenty well this rich man.
He was prosperous. We might say he was a gentleman farmer.
His crops were prolific. He had undisputed right of all that he possessed.
And.
I suppose everyone in the neighborhood would have looked up to this man as being clever and.
Prosperous. He was a rich man.
The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully, and he had received God's blessing. The sunshine, the rains, uh, he had, uh, undoubtedly.
Receive the blessing of God in his life.
Because it says that the crops were so plentiful that he hadn't he didn't know where to put them.
The store houses were crammed to the roof.
They were bursting at the seams, so to speak.
And he thought within himself.
What shall I do? Did he turn to God in thankfulness for what he had given to him? Did he think of the poor?
And the needy that were around him, no.
The whole center.
Of his interest was himself.
And, uh, we might ask the question, where was he, uh, making these plans? Because we see that he made plans for the future. Where was his counting house? I think it was his bed. I think it was, uh, in the.
Silent hours of the night that he was raising these plans in his mind.
He was the architect, and here, before his eyes are rising these piles of new storehouses.
The old barns would be removed.
He was planning for the future.
Uh, he was, uh.
A man who was a wise man in this world and he looked on to the future and he says.
I must make provision for the future because I have What shall I do? Because I have no room where to bestow my fruits, what shall I do?
That was his question. I have more than I can handle, but I I have plans for the future. As he lay on his bed there he.
Had everything laid out before him, what he was going to construct? Uh, what about the claims of God? They weren't in his calculation at all. You know, I think that we could label this parable here by one word. That is miscalculation. Yes, He had plans for the future.
But you know, he left the Lord entirely out of those plants.
There was no part of his plan that he brought God into. His thoughts were revolving only around Himself.
That's what he thought of his future.
Down here.
Much good many years.
He was looking forward to a a time of ease and, uh, retirement and the pleasure of his life.
Dear friend, you may not be as rich as the man in the parable here, but perhaps you have planned for your future as well, and you've left God out of those plans.
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Uh, you haven't thought of your eternity?
And where you will spend those endless ages which your soul has to face in blackness of darkness or riches of grace.
You may, uh, be thinking of your situation and your new business or your new home or your education and you have plans for the future, but, uh, you have left God out entirely. He's not part of your plan. And how many people there are in the world today who are living like this?
Without God and without hope.
And their one object is to enjoy themselves down here.
To enjoy, to, to have pleasure down here. It was a pleasure pole taken a few years ago in the United States. And, uh, I think it was 68% of the people who were asked what they found pleasure in said that they enjoyed television. That came, uh, at, on the first of the list and others, uh, eating and drinking was about 50%.
But religion, so-called, was at the very bottom. So man is just like the person we have in this, uh, in this parable here. Selfish, covetous, a godless man thinking only of himself.
And gratifying his own desires.
Contemplating a life of ease for years to come.
But leaving God out.
Dear friends, he was really a foolish man.
He miscalculated there in his counting house on his bed that night.
Because he had a rude awakening. He had a visitor that he did not expect would come in the middle of the night. It was death. You awoke with the dew of death on his brow.
And he heard those solemn words. Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee.
He had fallen asleep with contentment on his face.
He had provision for many years, but he was unprepared, He was unconverted.
He was.
Unblessed and unsafe. How solemn.
He left behind.
Everything in that soul returned to God.
And God is the one that had the the last word.
Because he left behind all his riches that he had trusted in and gloried in.
And he was.
He was conscious that he was in the presence of God and the voice of the Lord was speaking to him.
May I speak to you today, dear friend, if you are still without Christ.
You may have a lease on your health, but you have no lease upon your life. Your soul belongs to God.
So we we point you this evening.
Uh, to the one who, uh, loves you and has, uh, provided, uh, eternal salvation at, uh, such a cost.
That love that uh.
Brought the Lord of glory.
From heaven to suffer, to bleed, and to die on the cross for you. Years ago there was a great preacher. His name was Charles Spurgeon. I'm sure we've all heard of him.
And, uh, at the end of one of his, uh, masterly presentations from the platform because he was called the Prince of Preachers.
He found an old gentleman at the back of the hall who was weeping there.
And so he went over to him.
And he said.
What is it, dear friend, that is troubling you? Well, he said. It's my sins. Well.
We're pleased that you are concerned about your your sins, but what part of the message really touched your your soul? Because we can see that you have been affected by the word that you heard.
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Oh, he says, Sir, it wasn't the servant you preached. Because I I'm deaf, I couldn't hear much of it. But when you sang that last hymn, Jesus, lover of my soul, let me to thy bosom fly, he said. I realized that I was holding out against such marvelous divine love.
Uh, and.
God spoke to me. He showed me.
That I was lost and that I was refusing that marvelous love that He had shown to me here in His love. Not that we love God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. Well, a wonderful this man here in our story was not prepared.
And it shows us the uncertainty of life. You know, we read in the book of James, what is your life? It is even a vapor that appeareth for a a time and then vanishes away.
But we want to point you this afternoon to the cross of Calvary.
In the north of England there is a, uh, there is a signpost. It's the, I suppose, the oldest signpost in the world.
And it is pointing the direction at the crossroads. It's pointing the direction that you want to go.
And although the writing is blurred, not legible entirely, that signpost has been there for 17 centuries, put there by the Romans, and it's still pointing the direction to the place you want to go.
And dear friends, if you're unsaved this this evening, you are at the crossroads, and the cross of Christ is the signpost, let me tell you.
Uh, that it that it points you to God into his marvelous grace.
And in giving his son to die for you. And the writing is not blurred, it is clear.
Clear for everyone to read the love of God expressed in the unspeakable gift of His Son, that you might be forgiven your many sins. I ask you the question, where have you left those sins?
You know, it says in the book of Jeremiah, though thou wash thee with and take much salt, yet is thine iniquity marked before me, saith the Lord. So those sins are either marked.
Before the face of Jehovah this afternoon, or they are washed in the blood of Christ.
John Bunyan was a great author. We've all read, I think, Pilgrim's Progress. John Bunyan wrote it in prison when he was a young man. He was a wild.
Careless youth. He made good resolutions, he said. From now on, I'm not going to break the 10 commandments anymore, especially the Sabbath day, which I have desecrated. So he made the resolution in church that day.
But before the day was over, he had thrown himself into sports activities there and on the green near Bedford, where he lived. His resolutions didn't last more than an hour.
But he heard a voice.
Coming from heaven to him, he threw down his bat, and he listened, and stood there as a statue. Wilt thou keep thy Wilt thou leave thy sins and go to heaven, or keep thy sins and go to hell?
The spot can be shown where John Bunyan heard those words from heaven.
And our speaking to him and, uh, well, with John Bunyan, he thought it was reformation.
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But, dear friends.
It's not reformation that you need, uh, it's regeneration that we have been Speaking of. A new life, a new object.
To come to know Christ, not simply by name, but to know Him as your Savior and your Redeemer, and the One who paid the price with His own precious blood to redeem you from all iniquity, to deliver you from that eternal condemnation that hangs over your head as a sword by a thread.
And to bring you into eternal blessing, to give you heavenly riches. So dear friends, this afternoon we want you to realize the urgency of the message. This man here.
Uh, he probably had his opportunities, were not told that he was an immoral man, but uh, he was a man that neglected eternity and how many there are we meet day after day who neglect their eternity, no concern for the next World and where they will spend those endless years.
Uh, that lie before them.
Uh, in heaven or hell? God's day of salvation is now.
Do not neglect.
Do not put off the strivings of the Spirit of God.
The story is told.
Of a uh.
A newspaper announcer who, uh.
Was in a burning building in the city of Minneapolis.
And he was on the 9th floor of that building. Fire broke out. The flames were raging below him. He was on the 9th floor, uh.
Announcing to all of America I'm on the 9th floor and the fire is on the 6th and in 1/4 time later I'm on the 9th floor and the fire is on the 7th floor. And then a little later still he was bravely announcing I'm on the 9th floor and the fire is on the 8th floor. But by this time he was getting a little uncomfortable.
And he thought he should make an escape. But.
The fire escapes were so hot that he couldn't descend by them. The stairwells were filled with smoke and flame.
There was only one hope that was to get out the window, and there was a guy rope that he thought he could reach if he jumped. That announcer stood on the ledge of the window and jumped to catch this rope and let himself down to the ground and he missed it.
The rest of the story, you know.
It was simply, uh, an example to us of neglect.
And how many people are neglecting their eternal salvation?
How many are?
Putting off.
Till tomorrow, the umm the most important matter as this farmer that we have read about, They think there's time enough, but God's house is filling fast and yet there is room.
When the Queen of the North, that great fairy that was plying through the inland passage there a few years ago of Canada, you probably have read about it making its journey down to Vancouver, I suppose from Alaska, when it hit a submerged rock in the middle of the night. I think there was 101 passengers on that.
That luxury ferry?
And it was soon evident that it was going down. There was no hope and.
They lowered the lifeboats immediately and they got everyone got in. At least they thought everyone was. And to be sure that they all had the warning, the captain of that.
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Liner, he said to his staff, go through the the cabins and knock at every door to be sure that we haven't left anyone behind.
And so they did that. They pounded at every door, and as far as they knew, everyone was in a lifeboat. And when they got to land there on the British Columbia shore, they took account.
9899.
100 but there's one, there's I think it was two people that were missing from the final count.
What happened to them?
I don't think we'll ever know because the ferry went down into several 100 feet of water. Not going to reveal many secrets now. But those people, they had a warning whatever happened, whether they thought it was some sort of a fire drill, but they didn't pay attention to the warning and they lost their lives.
The provision was there for them to get into the lifeboat and to escape, but they for some reason did not heed the warning. And how many people there are, dear friends?
Uh, in the world today, you are not heeding the warning.
How uncertain life is? We hear of catastrophes every day.
There, uh, traumatic, uh, events are taking place. We all remember that tsunami that took place was, was it 2004? You know, there was a warning given them too, uh, three hours before the tsunami hit the coast of India.
Where I have often visited and where we plan to visit Eleanor and I in December again, the warning was given 3 hours before those huge waves hit the the eastern coast of India.
Near a place called Nagapattinam, which is where the brethren go every year to proclaim the gospel and give out the word for for about 10 days.
In that very area where they yearly go out with the thousands of tracks and calendars was where the tsunami hit. Some say the 10,000 lost their lives. I think that's a little high, but the warning was given from the Asian.
Headquarters that the the waves were coming in three hours, but the Indian government, they they didn't have preparation.
They knew the warning, but what could they do? Things were not in place, they didn't have time, and they didn't have the provision for those people to be warned and to be evacuated. And when it hit three hours later, many, I guess several thousand were ushered into eternity.
The warning was too late, but dear friends, God gives you a warning because He loves you and that He wants you to, uh.
Have a place of safety for all eternity. We want you to be on the shoulders of the Good Shepherd. You know the Lord. As we say to the boys and girls, The Lord holds the whole world on one shoulder. The government shall be upon His shoulder. But a poor lost sheep that he picked up from the miry clay, he puts on both shoulders.
And takes it all the way home. What a savior we have the Good Shepherd who loved us and gave himself for us on the cross of Calvary. Well, we're just going to look at another expression in Acts chapter 2 in closing.
Now we're going to see the same word.
That was.
Pronounced by, uh, the farmer in the parable that we read coming down to verse 22.
The men of Israel hear these words. Jesus of Nazareth, a man, approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know Him, being delivered by the determinant, counsel and foreknowledge of God.
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Ye have taken in my wicked hands, have crucified and slain.
A very serious indictment here. Here were people that seven weeks before.
Had crucified their Messiah and Peter was preaching the gospel to them here.
He himself had denied the Lord three times, but he was restored in his soul, and he had a message for these people, warning them, showing them their guilt.
And if we, uh, we could go down the tractor here, but we see that it had a marvelous effect upon these people. They were convinced they were convicted of their sin.
In refusing their Messiah and crucifying Him, they were just like the man in Luke chapter 12. They miscalculated. They thought they would get rid of the Lord, put them out by that cruel death, and not hear of Him again.
But verse 24 God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it was not possible that she he should be old enough.
Therefore verse 36 let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
What a solemn message for these people who knew that Christ was crucified, who whose hands were, were stained with his blood, we might say. And here was a message to them that awakened them. And they weren't indifferent like the rich farmer. They had miscalculated like he did. They thought they were getting rid of Christ.
But.
Now.
When they heard that verse 37.
They were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles.
Men and brethren, what shall we do? But this wasn't in the same character as the rich farmer. What shall we do? They were.
Uh.
They realized their guilt before God. They were convicted by the message they heard by the Holy Spirit of God. Then Peter said unto them, Repent and be baptized, everyone of you.
In the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Repent. That was the message that was wrung out here by Peter to these people. Repent, that is, have a change of mind. You thought that you had got rid of Christ, but have a change of mind. God has exalted him, and God has appointed a day in which He will judge this world in righteousness by that man.
They realized that they were.
They were in opposition to God.
That he had exalted his Son. He had raised him from the dead, the one they had crucified.
One they had nailed to the cross was now raised from the dead.
And He was here 40 days to show the genuineness of His resurrection. Men and brethren, what shall we do? So they were brought to the the end of themselves.
And they repented and believed the gospel. They turned from their sins.
They bowed in humiliation at the feet of Peter and at the feet of the Lord here and received the wonderful salvation that God was providing, was offering to them, and they received the Holy Ghost and the remission of sins. Isn't that wonderful? The remission of sins, the forgiveness of sins and the Holy Ghost?
That's much better than the many years that this farmer was looking forward to, uh.
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The pleasures and the many years, and the much goods, all which he lost. But here God had something infinitely better. He had the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Ghost. So they did repent of their.
Of their sins they turned to the Lord and found a full and a free salvation.
This one more scripture I want to look at in closing in Luke's Gospel chapter, uh.
20.
Luke Chapter.
20.
We're going to see the same words used again.
We'll just read a few verses here.
Uh, verse 9 Then began he to speak to the people, this parable. A certain man planted a vineyard and LED it forth to husbandman, and went into a far country for a long time.
And at the season he sent a servant to the husband, that they should give him of the fruit of the vineyard, but the husband men beat him and sent him away empty.
Again he sent another servant, and they beat him also, and entreated him shamefully and sent him away empty. And again he sent a third, and they wounded him also, and cast him out. Then said the Lord of the vineyard.
What shall I do? The Lord of the vineyard is God, and he's asking this question here. What shall I do? Rather strange that God should make that inquiry. What shall I do?
I will send my beloved son. It may be they will reverence him when they see him.
So God could have righteously drawn the sort of judgment as he saw the way that his prophets had been used, had been killed, had been entreated shamefully. He could have drawn the sword of judgment.
But instead, he says, I will send my beloved son.
Surely they will reference him and so.
This was the last resource that God had.
And he did not spare his own son, delivered him up for us all.
But we know the result. Man rejected the Son of God.
And even after that terrible exhibition of the heart of man, because at the Cross of Calvary you see the heart of man displayed in all its evil.
And wretchedness and hatred of God at the cross, after man had done his very worst.
God steps into the scene, and He brings down upon His Son the awful judgment which those sinners deserve if they will but repent, as we had in the case of the children of Israel. If they will but repent of their sins, God will offer them forgiveness through the work of Calvary, and there in the hours of darkness.
After man had done his worst, God laid upon Christ the iniquity of us all.
How wonderful to leave your sins there.
And to know that they are no longer marked before the face of God. So this was God's resource in himself. He, uh, in spite of man's evil, he would, uh, show the heart of his, his heart of love and his heart of grace toward guilty man.
So we know the treatment the Lord received.
Yet where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. Well, dear friends, we're coming to the end of our.
Of our gospel meeting tonight.
You know, I think of a story in closing. It won't be long.
But it's often struck me.
Because it brings before us.
The uh.
The the UMM plan of the enemy of souls. There was once a man that had a dream.
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And in his dream he saw Satan on his throne. There and before him were all his hosts of demons and angels. And he asked this question, Who will go forth to ruin the souls of men?
One of the demons stood up and said, I will go. What will you say?
I will tell them there is no God.
Oh, Satan said that will not work because although they try to stifle the thought, still in their conscience they know there is a God, and when they get sick and into trouble, they turn to God. That's not going to work another.
Themed stood up and said.
I will go forth and deceive the souls of men, and what will you say? Satan said. Well, I will tell them that there is a God in heaven, but they are too bad to come to him.
All Satan said that will not work either because.
All they need to do is read their Bibles and they will see that.
God is a merciful God. He's a God that will forgive.
Umm, that will not work. They have the gospel right before them. There they can read and know that though they are sinners, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.
No, that will not work. So a third demon stood up and he said, I will go, and what will you say? Well, I will tell them there is a God, and I will tell them that he is a God of love, and I will let them hear the gospel as often as they want.
Uh, that, uh, there is salvation through Christ and that uh, the God of mercy waiting on sinners, all Satan said, Uh, how will that ever deceive men?
All he said with a.
Laugh, he said. I will let them hear all those things, but I will tell them there is time enough. There is time enough. And there was applause throughout the hosts of the hell there. They said go forth, you will be successful in that plan.
Which, uh, was hatched in hell, is still being used of the enemy today. Time enough and to spare. When God says that now is the day of salvation, now is the accepted time. We have no promise of tomorrow. May we close in with God's offer of mercy today, the day of grace.
Because Satan is a powerful enemy, procrastination is not only the thief of time, but is it is the thief of souls. May God bless His word to us tonight as we.
Word of prayer. Maybe we could sing that, uh, uh, stanza. There you have your hymn sheet.
We could sing.
#17 Have you any room for Jesus, He who bore the Lord of sin?
Have you any room or?
Sin not stand outside. There's a chance.
Then they're blessed in life and then you're in the end.
Roger's house for all four of the.