Gospel—John Kemp
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I was to speak at 4:30 but.
Perhaps.
I can be excused for starting a little early because apparently we're not having a third speaker here.
But we enjoyed the word that our brother Steve gave us.
So this is supposed to be a gospel meeting?
And.
We certainly have some good news for you. It's not going to be a long gospel. Meaning it was supposed to be at 4:30.
But it's an important message and.
The gospel is the revelation of the heart of God.
It has its origin there in heaven.
As cold waters to a thirsty soul, soul is good news.
From a far country.
Dear friends, that news is coming from a far country today.
And it may not continue because we are on the threshold of the Lord's return.
At any moment.
We may hear the shout.
So, as our brother Wally brought before us solemnly last night.
It may be your last opportunity.
But God has a deep interest in your salvation.
God did not spare his own Son.
Heaven's Beloved 1.
The heavens were illuminated.
When Jesus was born in Bethlehem.
Not in Nazareth where they lived. Nazareth was a long distance from Bethlehem, but Micah the prophet said that the Lord Jesus must be born in Bethlehem.
And so the wheels began to move and Cyrinus, the governor of Syria.
He made a proclamation everyone must go to the town where they were born to register on pain of.
Severe penalty.
So here we have Mary and Joseph.
Taking the journey, you know, by car it's only about 8 hours.
Maybe 8 hours?
But in those days, if you were on a camel or an *** it might take several days.
To get from Nazareth to Bethlehem, but they had to go.
Because.
The records had to be completed and Joseph was of the lineage of the House of David.
And his birth. And his genealogy.
Went back to Bethlehem, so they arrived.
No room in the end.
You know.
My experience.
In Malawi.
If a white man comes to an inn or a hotel.
It doesn't matter how full it is, they'll find room for you.
But.
Joseph was not a rich man.
He was from a poor family.
When they presented the Lord Jesus in the temple at Jerusalem, usually they would have an animal.
As the sacrifice to commemorate.
The presentation of that baby to the Lord. But Joseph could not afford an animal.
He didn't have the money, so the provision was made for a couple of turtle doves. Well, yes, they could get a couple of turtle doves and and kill them at the inauguration there.
Dear friends, the Lord had to be born in Bethlehem.
No room in the end, why is there no room in the hearts of men and women today?
00:05:07
Room for pleasure, room for business. Look at the building that is going on around us in the city of Ottawa, where I live. They're building all around us, gigantic structures, huge apartments. I often say, how are they going to ever fill them?
But no room for the Son of God.
There she gave birth in the.
History tells us that it was a cave. Really, it was like a cave, but it was where the animals were kept. And she gave birth to the Lord Jesus and wrapped him in swaddling clothes there in a Manger. That's a place where there's hay. Where?
Animals eat, you know. That's where the Lord, the Lord of glory, was born in the Manger, and the heavens were illuminated. There were the shepherds watching over their flocks. By night they looked up and they heard the voice of an Angel. They had never seen an Angel before.
They were afraid, but they said, But this Angel said, Fear not unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. Do you know the angels? They fill the heavens.
It was illuminated at night.
And they looked down, and there they saw.
Their creator. For the first time, they saw the one who created them.
That Babe of Bethlehem was the eternal Son of God, who took manhood into union with Himself, emptied himself of all the glory that he had in a past eternity, the majesty and the power, the Creator of the universe.
Emptied himself.
Not of his deity, Oh no, but of all that outward glory.
Here's a little example.
We have the commander of the United States Army.
He has a beautiful uniform, metals shining, and when he walks down the street everyone admires him. There is the General of the United States Army.
Magnificent. But when he goes home?
He takes off that uniform.
And he puts on just maybe.
Casual clothes and if you looked at him, you would say this this wouldn't couldn't be the.
General of the Army. Yes it is, but it doesn't look like it.
Dressing so the Lord.
Was a perfect man, the woman of Samaria, when she came down with the water.
A tired looking man sitting on the well.
Looking back and.
He asked her for a drink of water.
But he was the Son of God, and he must needs go through Samaria.
An Orthodox Jew wouldn't go near Samaria. They were going up to Galilee. They would bypass that place. It was defiled.
We won't have anything to do with Americans.
You know their history. You can understand why they were.
Well, they had some some respect for the Old Testament, but.
They were affected by idolatry and Jeroboam and his golden calves and so on. We won't speak of that.
Dear friends, that was the Lord of glory and.
He was born in Bethlehem, but.
He grew up in Nazareth. Nazareth was not. It didn't have a good reputation.
In fact, Nathaniel said, can anything good come out of master?
It was a dirty city. When I passed through it, I had the impression it was a rough place, and it was. But the Son of God was raised in the city of Nazareth.
00:10:03
Boys and girls.
He never missed a meeting.
He was in the synagogue when the scriptures were read as a boy, I'm sure the blessed Lord, as he grew up in that defile city, pure, holy, spotless, not one evil thought in his, in his mind, and he went to the synagogue of Nazareth.
No doubt every year.
Perhaps every few weeks, I don't know, but he was there.
When there was a meeting in the synagogue and he used to take the big long scroll.
Have Bibles like this, but the the scriptures were written on big long scrolls that were all wrapped up and they a man would take it out and they would he would say, where do you want to read today? Well, this day the Lord now was a young man, I don't know how old, but he said I want to read from.
The prophet Isaiah. And so the man took the school out and opened it up and he gave it to the Lord. Now let us look at Luke chapter 4. Take your Bibles and we'll just make a few remarks on Luke chapter 4 and verse 16. I'll wait till you get it.
Luke 4. Maybe one of those boys would like to read verse 16 for me.
OK, have we got it?
Who's going to read it? Yes, you stand up lad, please.
Read out loud.
Right. So he took the scroll, he found chapter 61 of Isaiah, and he began to read.
You can look it up in the Old Testament if you want, but we have it right here. Look at verse 17. And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written. Now here's the Lord speaking in the synagogue. He was given that privilege to read the Scriptures and I suppose to comment on them. And he read.
A scripture that.
Was prophesied of his coming.
By Isaiah, 700 years before the Lord was born.
Isaiah spoke of the coming of the Messiah, and here was the Messiah in their midst. And we read in verse 618, The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted.
The Gospel to the poor.
Thank God for that as I've traveled around the world with the message. Or how many poor have been opened to the gospel message? Perhaps in India the majority of those that are saved are from the poor and the needy that are struggling for life.
And they are ready to listen to the gospel. They have nothing in this world enough food to keep body and soul together. But they have an opened ear for the gospel. May we never forget the poor and the needy. The common people heard him gladly, but those self-righteous Pharisees and those.
Elders and scribes, they had no sense.
Whatever of their sinfulness.
We are the people of God, We have the scriptures, the Lord said. They that are whole don't need a physician, but they that are sick.
I lived in London for three years, taught school in the City of London, not Ontario, London, England. Well, London is one of the largest cities in the world.
It compares with Sao Paulo, where my wife comes from.
A gigantic city. I had the privilege of visiting many poor places in London. Some of those, they call them flats. Those tenements are just filled with poor people and the streets are overflowing with people.
00:15:17
I'm going to. I'm going to give you a poem.
Some of those poor ladies, they only have a gloomy.
Perhaps up at the 5th or 6th story of the building.
What do they have?
Here's the poem.
In the heart of London City, midst the dwelling of the poor.
Those brought those bright golden words were uttered. I have Christ, what want I more? He who heard them ran to fetch her something from the world's great store. It was needless died.
She's saying I have Christ, what want I more? That poor woman in London, she had nothing. Perhaps she didn't have any.
Anything in her purse, She was dying going into the next World.
She couldn't speak about.
About any riches. She was poor and just surviving, but she was dying.
And she had Christ. She didn't need anything else. He was enough for her as she passed into eternity. There's no substitute for the Lord Jesus and that woman. She had him as her Savior, the Redeemer. So she left that gloomy.
Apartment or flats as they call them. And she entered into the the presence of the Lord.
Well, we have the privilege of presenting the gospel to the poor, but also it says here the broke he has sent me to heal the broken hearted.
Oh, how many?
Hearts are bleeding and broken in the world today.
Let me tell you, there's nobody in Montrose or any place else that can heal a broken heart. It's impossible. Only one person can heal a broken heart. Who's that?
Lord Jesus.
There's a famous preacher in London, he said to his young men.
Always preach to broken hearts and you'll never lack an audience.
Yes, there's many broken hearts in this world today, and what they need, they need a Savior.
The one that can heal the broken hearted. Only the Lord Jesus can do that.
Another poem. I'll leave you here.
I'll quote it there a little later. I want to go on with our with our verse here to heal the broken hearted. Preach deliverance to the captives. What does that mean? Deliverance to the captives. You know, Satan is a master deceiver.
He's a strong man, armed with all the pleasures of this world.
Men and women are captives to unclean living.
They're in prison cells, captive to sin and evil habits and vile dispositions.
And evil tempers, men and women drug addicts.
Given to drink and carousing. They are captives of the enemy. Only the Lord can deliver them. Doesn't mean he's going to open the prison doors and let everyone else know, but he can deliver men and women who are bound.
With the light chains, you know a person that's bound with a chain, they can't get away.
They're boundless to change. Someone has to come and take the chain off them. That's what the Lord does to these people who are captives to sin and to Satan. Recovering of sight, to the blind. We had a good message about that last night.
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Men's hearts are darkened and.
They don't have understanding of of eternal spiritual realities. They don't understand anything, the natural man.
And receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God.
But the Lord's glory can shine through those darkened eyelids.
And the understanding can be illuminated and.
Man is able to understand spiritual realities. And so, dear friends.
The Lord is the one who can set you free from those cords the the wickets will be holding by the cords of his own sins, how many there are that are bound with the unseen.
Chains of sin and evil, but the Lord is able to deliver them whatever the the need might be.
He is able to set at liberty those that are bruised.
You know, humanity, humanity has been bruised by sin. We're part of the ruin.
In the fall of Adam, the whole human race has been bruised by sin, and you are part of it.
The Lord is able to bring deliverance, salvation.
Forgiveness of sins through faith in that precious blood that He shed. The blood of Jesus Christ has affected the memory of God.
And he says their sins and iniquities I will remember no more.
How wonderful that for all eternity when we are with the Lord.
Not one word will ever pass his lips that he remembers my sins. I know them, you know them. You have a you have a memory. And sometimes we'd like to efface those memories in our lives. But we cannot turn the clock back. That's not possible.
But the Lord forgives.
All those sins I wouldn't exactly say forgets because when we're in the glory, he's going to review our whole lives. And there, oh, I, I didn't know that I was such that I had committed so many sins. I knew much of what I had done, but I never thought that.
My sins were so great and so many, and the Lord had to.
He did had to die on the cross.
And suffer that terrible judgment when he made those filthy sins of mine his own, there, there on Calvary.
Suffering the judgment exhausting the wrath of God. So to set up liberty them that are bruised to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Now I'm going to ask a question. Listen the acceptable year of the Lord. If you look back in Isaiah, you'll see that there's more to that sentence.
But it's not here in Luke chapter 4. If you take the time to look at Isaiah 61, it says.
And the day of vengeance of our God, it's theirs. Isaiah 61 verses one and two. The Lord stopped the sentence right there. Isn't that wonderful grace? The Lord could have brought judgment. That's not why he came he didn't come to judge the world. He came to save the world and it's not the day of vengeance of our God yet but dear friends, the.
Coming when the books will be opened and when the.
The trumpet will be sounded and the vials of God's wrath will be poured out on this world.
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Not now. It's the acceptable year of the Lord today.
How long? I think it's going to be short, but today.
Is the acceptable year of the Lord. Today is the day of God's grace if you're not saved.
Today you have the opportunity. I can't promise tomorrow the Lord may wait a little longer. Today is the acceptable year of the Lord for you.
So the Lord Jesus is offering you a full.
And a free salvation.
Without money, without price.
And remember, God did not need to be reconciled to you.
Some people have the idea.
We have to make ourselves fit for God's presence. Maybe if some of the Saints or Mary would.
Immersible to us or if I do some good works and present them to God then.
Then I can be reconciled. That's a falsehood. God does not need to be reconciled to you and me.
We are the ones who are the enemies. God's heart from a past eternity was full of love for man in the Old Testament. Of course, he was revealed in the law as a holy God, but still the heart. And he hates sin just as much as when he gave the law. But he does not need to be reconciled. His heart was never against man at this moment. His heart is.
Filled with love and grace for guilty man and soul, he has extended the day of Grace a little longer for you if you are still unsaved.
With without the Lord Jesus.
Today is the acceptable year for you and the Lord. close the book there and then.
After his baptism he went out, and he bound the strongman in the wilderness.
Satan was overcome there and then. He went out and spoiled his goods, healing all that work oppressed by Satan, the blind, the dumb, the deaf, the Lord. Everyone was healed, No one.
Was disappointed they all received healing and forgiveness.
And pardon, May the Lord bless His word. That time is up now, and we're going to close with a word of prayer. Thank you for your attention. Our goal.