Gospel—John Kemp
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Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls.
This is a gospel meeting tonight.
And.
We have a wonderful message to tell you.
But first of all, we're going to sing a hymn that is well known.
#5 on our hymn sheets.
Happy day that fix my choice and be my savior and my God some brothers started please.
Oh Happy Day, I face my choice.
I'll be my savior and my God.
What may this world make our free choice and tell its friends all abroad?
Happy days, happy days.
For Jesus was my sins are my sins are away.
Away.
Great transaction son. I am my Lord.
Dearest life, he drew me out and I followed. Why? To come back from one divine?
Happy day. Happy day.
When Jesus was Christ.
He told me.
To watch and pray and every choice sing every day.
I happy day and happy day when Jesus was my sins away.
Now rest my love denied in heart. Thanks on this class and center. Rest nor everyone thy Lord give life.
Every good person.
Happy day.
When Jesus?
My Saints away.
He told me.
To watch and pray.
For every choice, sing every day.
Happy day. Happy day when Jesus was.
My sins away.
Now we're going to have a word of prayer. We'll bow our heads. Our gods and our Father, look up to thee tonight with Thanksgiving.
For that unspeakable gift, the Lord Jesus, thy beloved Son.
And may He be glorified tonight as we seek to proclaim the message of pardon through His precious blood. We pray for any soul in the audience.
Unsaved who has never had that happy day in their lives, whether they be young or old, we are still in the day of grace. So help us Lord and guide us. Bless Thy freshest word abundantly tonight.
Where it made the last opportunity, We ask Thy help. We commit the meeting to the Thanksgiving in the worthy name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Amen. Turn with me also to #9 in yourself.
From every soul, by sin oppressed, and brotherhood started.
Come every soul by sin, oh grass says, blessing with the Lord.
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Your Jesus strength is precious. What a great blessings to be strong.
Bloodstone to the grandson fun. That was just why it had so.
Only trust him.
We trust him, only trust him now.
He will save you. He will save you.
He will save you.
Enjoy the soul, me back then, the closing of gold in the morning.
In my hand here I have a cup of water.
We don't.
Realized often how wonderful it is to have clean, fresh water at our disposal.
I often visit India.
And there.
It's difficult to get fresh water.
In fact, in the slums they can hardly get wood.
In order to boil the water.
With your friends tonight, I want you to understand that God is offering you living water.
We're going to look at a verse in Proverbs 25.
Verse 25 that's easy to understand, to remember fabrics 25 verse 25 as cold waters.
Through a thirsty soul so.
Is good news from a far country and tonight.
God has good news for you. It comes from a far country. It comes from the Lord of glory there in heaven.
We are still in the day of grace. Although we're going to end this year in a few days, it is still the acceptable year of the Lord.
It is still an opportunity for you to accept Christ, to take that living water that is flowing from the heart of God this evening.
Who desires your eternal blessing? Salvation?
Cold waters to a thirsty soul. Men and women are trying to quench their thirst with the pleasures of sin.
And this world and money and.
All sorts of entertainments to drown the thought that they must meet God about their sin, that there is a judgment before them. It is appointed unto men wants to die. But after this the judgment not the end of your existence, my friend.
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After death.
There will be, there won't be one drop of water to quench your thirst.
Because you have a spiritual thirst far greater than a physical thirst.
You need salvation, you need forgiveness of sins, You need to know not something about the Lord Jesus. You may have some historical idea of his life and so on, but He wants to be your Savior, your Redeemer.
Wants to fill your heart with a sense of the peace of God.
To have the assurance beyond a shadow of a doubt that your sins are forgiven, that you are ready to meet God tonight if you are called into eternity.
Life is uncertain.
I come from Canada.
Just about a week ago in the Toronto area.
A man who is 73 years of age took a gun. He lived in a Congo, a Congo. But he was dissatisfied with the administration. They wouldn't do what he wanted. So he took the gun and he killed 5 people. Some of them were members of the condo corporation. Five people went into eternity.
About one week ago, they didn't expect that.
They were looking forward, I suppose, to the holiday being with their friends, but they're gone into the next World. I don't know anything about their eternal destiny. It's too late. Nothing can be changed now. Life is real and life is earnest, and the grave is not its goal. Dost thou art, and unto dust thou returnest. Was not spoken of this old.
Your soul is eternal.
Your soul is the most valuable part of your being.
Your soul is stained with sin.
Polluted. Corrupt.
Need a Savior? You need forgiveness and salvation.
I lived in London for four years and taught school in the City of London, England, the London and Canada. This is London, England. I think our brothers Stan will remember those days that we were in England.
But in 1854.
That's a long time ago. There was an epidemic. We just had an epidemic, haven't we? The coronavirus started in Wuhan, China, at 11 million people.
They tried to quarantine, keep people from going in and out, but they couldn't control the epidemic. You know that Well, it got out of Wuhan and spread all over the world.
And we're just getting out of it now.
Coming back to my story.
In 1854.
There was a terrible epidemic in London, so who square?
People were dying like flies.
They knew the name of the disease, cholera. That's an awesome disease, whether boys and girls.
Your body fluids just come out. It's a painful death, but people were dying with this, this terrible melody, cholera, which is common in India.
And when an outbreak occurs.
There's danger of death. But anyway, in those days, the doctors, they didn't know the cause of cholera.
Was it some vapors that came?
The water and the contaminated people that Or was it just?
Some mysterious disease that would have run its course and then it would be all over and it would disappear. But it didn't disappear.
And the medical profession got together and they discussed it and they said, well, we don't know where it comes from, we don't know what to do.
There was one doctor.
Doctor John Snow, he says. I'm going to get to the bottom of this.
So he took a big map of of London.
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And he went into the homes where people had this disease, cholera, and were dying. And he interviewed them. Where where did you get your water? This one over here.
Beside on Broad Street or Lexington, there's a pump there, so he marked on the map.
All the people that had cholera or had within the family, he marked it on this big map.
And he found out that in every case where there was death, they had got their water from a pump that was there in their area with a long handle on it, and in every case where there was a death.
The people had drunk from that well.
So Doctor John Snow, he said to the authorities, he said, cap that. Well, stop it. Don't let people go there anymore.
Because this is the cause.
While in those days there were over open sewers and slaughter houses and cow sheds of the Thames River, the water came from the Thames River and it was polluted when it came from from that famous river and the people were drinking it. They were drinking this contaminated water.
They were getting cholera, dying, he says. Cap that well.
So that no one will use it again and they did that and what happened?
The epidemic stopped it. There was no more cases of cholera.
So it was a contaminated water that had caused the death of those people. So, dear friends this evening.
Men and women are trying to get their refreshment from wells that are contaminated with sin.
And unclean living and vile dispositions and evil immorality. That's where they're getting their water.
That's where they're drinking polluted water and they think that God will forget about their sins and let them into heaven if they do the best they can.
But God demands a punishment for sin, and he demands another, another.
Essential.
Repentance toward God Repentance is taking sides with God against yourself.
Repentance is the teardrop in the eye of faith, and God now commandeth all men everywhere to repent because.
The day is coming, He has appointed a day in the which He will judge this world in righteousness by that man, the man of Calvary, the one that they nailed to the cross. The Lord of life and glory was put there on the cross by the hatred of man.
And they said, Away with him, crucify him, the one who had displayed in fullness the heart of God.
Healing the sick, cleansing the leper, opening the eyes of the blind, raising the dead, beating the multitude. The Lord Jesus was God manifest in the black.
He was gone and the person of the manhood.
Took a man body like yours and mine.
But one important difference.
He had a body and He had a soul, and He had a spirit. Constitutionally He was like us. But there was one great difference. There was no evil nature in the Lord. He knew no sin. He did no sin. In him was no sin perfect, spotless.
Holy Son of God conceived.
Naturally.
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Through the Virgin Mary he came into the world that his hands had made, and they rejected him.
The great leaders of religion in Jerusalem were completely ignorant of who had come into the world, the Creator of the universe.
The angels announced His coming, and for the first time the angels looked out and they saw their Creator. That vague in Bethlehem's Manger was God manifest in flesh at that very moment. He was upholding all things by the word of His power.
The eternal Son of God. Think of the humiliation.
That he would humble himself.
Unto death, even the death of the cross, made in the likeness of sinful flesh, the likeness of sinful flesh, but no sinful flesh within him.
He was the image of God. When he speaks of the image of God, it refers to the Lord representing God.
Man is is is still created in the image of God, but sin has martyred. He spoiled the image.
But the Lord Jesus was the perfect representation of God.
But it doesn't say that he was made in the likeness of God, no.
Because that would infer that he was inferior to God. He was just resembling God. No, no, he was God in the person of the Lord Jesus, in spotless humanity.
And I just want to look at a few verses.
About openings, we won't have time to look at all of them, but we're going to look at a few here. Matthew's Gospel, chapter 3.
You know, we have a lot of.
Divine openings in the scriptures.
And this is the first one I'm going to refer to in Matthew chapter 3.
Familiar to us.
We're 16 and Jesus when he was baptized.
Went up straightway out of the water, and lo, the heavens were opened unto him. He saw this, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him. And low a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved son.
In whom I am well pleased.
Now this is a remarkable scene. The Lord was just stepping into His public ministry at 30 years of age. He had been baptized by John, and as he came up out of the water, the Spirit of God alighted upon that perfect man. He was just going to step into his public ministry and God.
Attested his perfection by sending the Spirit of God.
Down as a dove, a lighting upon the Lord.
And the voice of God the Father from heaven, proclaiming this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. What a wonderful scene this was. This had never happened in earth before. For 4000 years the dove had been looking for some place to alight.
Some place to come down and there was nothing but corruption.
And sin everywhere.
And.
Here the Spirit of God.
Gives testimony to the perfection of the Lord Jesus Christ and He.
Abides on him. Notice that it is without redemption the Spirit of God.
Indwells each believer in this room this evening. We've spoken of that in the meeting of The only reason the Spirit of God can dwell in your body is because.
The blood of Christ has cleansed your sins away, but the Lord had no sin to be cleansed.
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So the Spirit of God came down, people say.
The Trinity is not found in the Bible, but is found right here. Here is the Trinity right here. Spirit of God coming down on the Person of the Lord Jesus the Father's voice from heaven.
Declaring his pleasure in that man, could he say that of you? And the eye of God looks down in this room, and he sees you as you are tonight.
He could not say that.
He could not make that remark that you are pleasing to God. Our lives have been.
In rebellion against God.
And we are sinners by nature and by practice. And.
We are far from God and.
We don't want the knowledge of God in our lives. We want to have our own will and please ourselves. But your friend the Lord Jesus took the place of that lowly man.
And he walked through the land of Palestine. I think he visited every little town in that land of Palestine, proclaiming the gospel.
Healing the sick.
Winding up the broken hearted, delivering the captives under the power of Satan, because if we're not saved, we are under the power of the enemy of our souls. Satan is a strong man and he's armed. Luke Chapter 11, He's armed with all the pleasures of this world.
To keep man in a false peace.
In a false security, not knowing where he's going to spend eternity. Well this is 1 opening here, a divine opening and.
It was at the beginning of the Lord's.
Public Ministry, but let's look over at Luke chapter 4 to see another opening here.
Here we find the Lord returning to.
Nazareth, where he had been brought up.
Nazareth was quite a dirty city with a bad reputation, but that's where the Lord grew up as a boy in the city of Nazareth, and his custom was to be in the synagogue. Whenever there was a meeting, he was there in the synagogue and he returns to his home.
Home city here, and we read in 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. The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to them, to the blind, to set at liberty.
Them that are bruised. What a wonderful message this was.
That the Lord referred to the book of Isaiah and you notice that he does not quote the whole verse in the book of Isaiah.
He stops before he mentions the day of vengeance of our God. He did not use those words. You look in the quotation from the book of Isaiah and you'll see it speaks of the day of vengeance of our God. But the Lord did not come to judge. He came to save. So we are still today in the acceptable year of the Lord.
We wonder at the long-suffering mercy of God that has extended the day of grace over 2000 years, but the time is coming when the door will be closed and other books will be opened there at the judgment seat of Christ at the great White Throne.
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The whole history of your life.
You're unsaved. The books will be opened, and there every thought and every word and every deed is recorded. But if you're not saved?
Whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the Lake of Fire.
The last invitation of the Bible is this. Whosoever will let him come and take the water of life. Really.
I guess this story is a little threadbare, but I heard it from our late brother or I heard our late brother Gordon Hale tell the story of a.
Of a young man who was given a.
A New Testament When he went into the war, he was a soldier, and he was.
Going to be in the battle on the front lines.
And so you received the New Testament, but he really was not interested to read it. He put it in his coat, in his tuning pocket here, and he went into battle.
And he was right in the fire. He was right in the front lines.
You know, a bullet hit him, it went through the New Testament and it stopped a few millimeters from his heart.
And he pulled out, he kept that book which he had not read, and he showed it to our brother Gordon. And he said here, this saved my life.
If that New Testament had not been there, I would have been gone. But you know he had not accepted Christ. And you know where the bullets stopped and stopped at that verse. Whosoever will let him take the water of life, created the last invitation from the heart of God.
Are you going to refuse it tonight, my friend? Are you going to close your heart? The one who loved you and died for you and gave everything that love could give? If the Lord hasn't won your heart, what more could He do to win it? He gave everything for your eternal blessing and salvation.
There's a poem that's often quoted.
I, I didn't memorize it, but it's a well known poem and it speaks of the poor. You know, in London where I live, these blacks there apartments just filled with poor people. Some of them, they hardly have enough money to buy fuel to keep warm. They're like scourge. Scourge. You aren't, but.
The poem that is about a poor woman in London.
She had very little of this world's goods. She lived in one of those bleak apartments. Probably she had enough to eat. That was about all. In the heart of London City, midst the dwelling of the poor, these 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 saved. I have Christ. What one I more than that wasn't that wasn't that a wonderful testimony from that poor soul? And I want you to know this evening, my friends, that the Lord has a deep interest in your eternal blessing.
And if you accept Christ tonight, your name will be put in the book of life.
Boys and girls know what rubbers are erasers. There's no Angel or devil that can ever take your name out of the book of Life. And when you die, the Lord will open up that book in there if your name is there. December the 24th, is it due?
1022 Her name is there. It will be there for all returns. Rejoice that your names are written in heaven. Boys and girls, are you trusting the Lord as your Savior? Have you put your faith in Him? Have you repented of your sins and asked Him to save you?
I've been to Bombay, India many times.
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In Bombay.
Mumbai. I walked the streets of Bombay many times. It's a huge city, I suppose 11 million or probably more now. The slums of Bombay are the worst in the world. They're indescribable, the condition of people there.
But sometimes.
The apartments become so.
Deteriorated that they put a sign on the on the apartment.
Uh, unfit for human habitation. Uhhh, unfit for human habitation. In other words, the authorities are saying get out and you can't, you can't live in this apartment anymore. It's not fit for you.
And moving in the monsoon, you know what the monsoon is in India that comes in about our summertime about.
May. June.
Downpours every day, the water just filling the streets. Having to move in the monsoon is a difficult thing.
But you know that apartment was condemned by the authorities. But you, if you're unsaved, you're condemned already. You're condemned within the sight of God, you're.
You're unfit for the eternal glory. You can't make yourself fit for that place. Your good works cannot put away your sins or give you a title to eternal glory. But if you receive the Lord Jesus.
You can put fuu fit for heavenly habitation. If you take the Lord, you can put those those letters.
FUUF.
Visit for heavenly habitation. So the Lord wants to have your company. He wants to have your company, boys and girls. And he died not only to have your company for a few years, but for all eternity. He wants to fill your heart with peace and joy.
And satisfaction, as our brother mentioned this afternoon.
But you know, there's lots of poor in the world and as you go to India, as our a number of our brothers here have been there, like our brother Howard, you find great poverty but.
It's among those four that you receive an open ear for the gospel. As I preach the gospel in the villages of India, it's basically among the poor, the upper class, Hindu.
In in the upper, the upper castes very seldom comes to hear the gospel but the poor and India is filled with poor people everywhere. They have an open ear to hear the gospel of God's grace. So deliverance to the captives. How wonderful that the Lord can deliver man from all those.
Evil, unclean habits and addictions.
With all sorts of.
Sorts of.
Alcohol or drugs or whatever it might be that they try to drown the convictions, but the Lord can fill your heart, Deliver.
Deliver you from the captivity of sin and Satan and recovering of sight, opening your eyes spiritually setting at liberty them that are bruised.
This world is filled with broken hearted people.
There was a man in a preacher in London, he said.
Forget his name now, but when he spoke to the young men that were going to be pastors or evangelists, he said.
You'll always have an audience if you speak to broken hearted people and there's no man.
In this world that can heal a broken heart, it's only the Lord Jesus that can do that. He can heal the broken heart with the bomb of His love and grace, some people think.
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That God needed to be reconciled to us.
They think that God was against us. They have wrong thoughts about God. God did not need to be reconciled to us. His heart was always full of love and grace and compassion for man. We are the ones that needed to be reconciled to God and that is by believing in the love of God.
Giving the dearest object of heaven to die on the cross for you.
You know.
The Lord bore his cross up to the hill of Calvary, and as they looked upon that man bearing his cross, they thought he's going to die.
He's so weak.
Remember the Garden of Gethsemane, when he sweat, as it were great drops of blood, when he looked onto the cross, where he would be forsaken of God, They said he's going to die.
And so they said, Simon, come over here, you take the cross and bear it up to the hill of Calgary. You know why they did that is they have compassion on the Lord. Not at all. They did that because they wanted to have the pleasure of crucifying the Lord. They wanted to do that. Such was the hatred in the heart of man. Just think of it.
And the Lord submitted to all that ignominy and shame.
And it was our sins that nailed him to the cross.
We won't elaborate. We know the scene of Calvary. There were the sufferings from the hand of man which were terrible. He was scourged. The Roman scourge. Men died under the Roman scourge, and the Lord was Scourge, an innocent man, Pilot said three times. I find no fault in this matter.
Scourge spit upon isn't that awful to think of?
Buffeted, mocked and.
Nailed to the cross, the Son of God.
There, but that wasn't the worst of all. Is it nothing to you? All ye that pass by, behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord has afflicted me. In the day of His fierce anger. At 12 noon it became dark.
And your sins and mine were placed upon the war. Some people say confess your sins and come to God. I can't do that. My sins are too many. I've forgotten. They were like the hairs of my head. I've forgotten many of them. But when the Lord.
Was on that cross. God took all my sins so great, so many, and he placed them on the head of His Son, and then the judgment came down in all its terror.
God's wrath.
Storm of judgment that broke upon the Lord.
We cannot measure the sufferings that he endured to save my soul from a lost eternity from hell. Are you going to turn your back upon such love as that?
And go on with your sins when the Lord is giving you an invitation to come to Him. There's another little poem that I found as I was.
As I was doing a little preparation.
I can find it. I thought it was very good. You've carried your burdens. You've carried it long. Or bring it to Jesus. He's loving and strong. He will take it away and your sorrow shall cease. He will send you rejoicing with His heavenly peace.
Well, it doesn't mean that the Lord is going to open all the prison doors and penitentiaries in Bangor and let people out, but He'll deliver you from the the unclean living, from those evil tempers and those vile dispositions.
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God is looking in grace upon poor sinners. It's the day.
Of God's grace and mercy, the acceptable year of the Lord, dear friends.
We're coming to a close of our gospel meeting, but we do trust that you have heard the voice of the Son of God.
There's one track that I use probably more than any other as I move around.
I use this track with young people all the time.
You may know it.
It was written by a dear brother, well known to some dear. His name was Berwick Highland.
I've used that track among young people. It's opened the door for conversations more than any any other track that I've given out. The name of it is the rest of his time.
And if you don't know it, I hope you can get a copy of it and read it. It's about the oldest son of Berwick Island.
His name was Jeff and he was 20 years of age. And I say to people as I give this out to the young people, how old are you, 1718? Some say I'm twenty. Well, I said, here is a message from from a man that loves you. And he wrote this track with tears for you. And I'll tell you he didn't send Jeff out to die.
He said goodbye, Jeff, we'll see you for supper tonight.
He saw him struggling in the civic hospital in Ottawa that we know well, struggling for his life, and before the end of the day it was gone.