Good morning, this time you're hearing some truths from the Bible this morning speaking about Jesus Christ and God's love for us, the wonder of the work that he did on Calvary as he went to the cross for our sins. And I praise God that Jesus Christ bore our sins upon the cross. He took our iniquities and he nailed them to his cross, despising the shame of that because he loved you so much. You know, yesterday, did you go to church? Did you pick up a Bible? Did you think about God? I encourage you today, don't be somebody that walks two lives without God. There's a God in heaven that loves you, that sent his son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for your sin, so that you could be born again, so that you could have a restart in life. There's a lot of people today that are struggling with their mental health. You're in Scotland as you go into the darkness of the winter, and even the gloom of this morning, though the sun is shining elsewhere. You know, it's hard sometimes. And there's people today that are discouraged and depressed. And if they're honest about their life, they have to say these words, I am lost. You know, Jesus Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost. I praise God. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. He doesn't want us to walk step by step to eternity away from Him, but would have us come to faith in Him, to receive Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior, and to be born again. The Bible says there's no other name given amongst men whereby we must be saved. The Bible says about Jesus, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. And so the only way to God is through the Son of God, Jesus Christ. You could be an atheist today and you think, well, hey, if there is a God, God knows I'm a good person. The Bible says there's none righteous, no, not one. It says for all have sinned and come short of the glorious God. You might be a nice person, a kind person, you might be a helpful person, but the truth of the Word of God is that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And there's nothing that's clean about us because of the sin that's in our life, and that sin has separated us from God. Friend, there's one thing, again, keeping you from God. And that's the sin that's in your life, things that you defend. Things like drugs and drink and immorality and profanity and ungodliness and lies and deceit. All those things separate us from the love of God and from the grace of God. But God's greater than that. God took His Son, His only Son, Jesus Christ, and He crucified Him for your sin. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. And so the punishment that is ours to bear If we die without Christ, is eternity in the lake of fire away from God? The Bible says in the book of Revelation chapter 20, I saw the dead fall in great stand before God, and the books were opened, and the dead were judged at the book according to their works, and death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death, and whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire. Friend, that answers the question that might have been in your heart, why did Jesus die? Why did Jesus Christ go to the cross? He was innocent. He was sinless. He was righteous. The wages of sin is death. He had done nothing wrong his entire life. He died on the cross to be the substitute for you. To die for your sin. To pay the price so that he could say on the cross these words, it is sinning. It needs paid in full. And friend, I just encourage you today, you might be somebody that's walking through life, and if you die, you do not know that you go to heaven. In fact, you don't know if you go to heaven or hell, and you just don't know what's up about God. But can I tell you, there is an answer, and it's down in the Bible. And I encourage you to pick up a Bible and begin to read it. The Bible says at the end of the book of John, but these are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. and that believing you might have life through his name. God desires to bring you to saving faith today. God desires your soul's salvation. God does not want you to continue in life without a relationship with him and knowing his love and knowing his grace and knowing his mercy. But friends, you gotta seek God. The Bible says, you shall seek me and find me if you search with all your heart. You know, this past weekend, there were plenty of people at the pub seeking with all their heart to get drunk. Seeking with all their wealth to get drunk. Seeking with all their time to get drunk. Friend, use that energy to seek God and you'll find Him. Pick up a Bible. Begin to read it. Stop defending the things that are in your life that are destroying your life. Friends, sin never brings happiness, sin never brings joy, sin never brings peace, because sin only destroys your life. The Bible says, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. Sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren. Friends, you can go down into Prince's Spirit Garden, and you can meet men whose lives have been shattered because of sin. They started sniffing glue when they were young people. They might have defended, like young people in our day, their vaping and their cigarettes, but it leads to drugs and it leads to addiction and it destroys life. But we have a society that defends it instead of recognizing it for what it is. It's destroying our young people. And friend, that's what sin is. Every sin that you can think of, it never helps anybody. I had a young lady say to me, you know, as I asked her, name one sin that's good for you. And she said, stealing for the rich to give to the poor. And I leaned forward and acted like I was going to take her necklace and she thought that wasn't a good idea. Friend, our sin hurts somebody. If you're a thief, you hurt somebody. If you're an adulterer, you hurt somebody. If you're a liar, you hurt somebody. Friend, sin destroys. It destroys relationships. It destroys health. It destroys our wealth. But there's something that does satisfy. Jesus Christ is the water of life. Friend, if you taste of Jesus Christ, you'll taste of that which can give your soul satisfaction like nothing you've ever tasted before, because He's Almighty God. And He said to the woman that was living in sin, she was in fornication, living with a man that was not her husband. She had had five husbands. She had never found satisfaction in life. He said, look, I can give you the water of life. You have to leave for a drink, and it will satisfy you for the rest of your life. Friend, that woman was at a well. She was there to get water. She left her water pot. She went back to the city to get her family and say, come see a man that told me everything about my life. Friend, God knows everything about you today. The Bible says the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth to show himself faithful on behalf of him who started cooking for him. But it says also that his eyes behold the evil and the good. Frank, you can't get away from God today. Nobody else may know about your adultery. They may not know about your fornication. They may not know about your drug addiction. They may not know that you're deep in debt because you're gambling. But I'll tell you this today, there's a God in heaven that knows. And He knows it's destroying your life. There are people today passing this point, they're suicidal, they might have the instrument of death already in their home. I say to people like that, look, there is hope because there is God. But friend, the answer is not in sociology, it's not in science, it's not in somebody justifying our sin by saying our sin is okay. Where it is found is in the righteousness of Christ and having a pure heart that has been cleansed by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says without the shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness of sin. Friend, there's nothing you can do to cleanse your own heart. The Bible says, Go thou watch me with nighter, and take me much so that thine iniquity is marked before me, saith the Lord. Friend, you can strut the outside all you want, it does nothing to get rid of your sin. But I praise God, there's a God in heaven that died for you, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and He went to the cross, and He paid the price, you can be forgiven. And He loves you, and He cares about you today. There's people today, they hate God because they love their sin, but I'll tell you this, God loves you despite your sin. Despite the godliness that's in your life that took his son, his holy son, and put him on a cross of shame and pain and suffering. He had God forsaken on that cruel cross for you where he died and paid the price for your sin. Despite that, God looks at you today and says, look, I love you. Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners. Jesus Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost. And friend, don't think today, I can never find God. You might say to me, Ben, I've never gone to church, I've never read the Bible, I know nothing about God. I could never come to faith in God. Can I tell you today, you absolutely can. And this book says that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Friend, pick up a Bible, begin to read it. Let God speak to your heart. I encourage you, if you're an atheist, you don't believe in God, because you can't see God. But I'll look at you today and I'll tell you this, you believe in aliens. And you'll say, of course I believe in aliens, because life happened here, it has to happen somewhere else. But you believe in them, despite the fact that you can't see them. And Fred, I'll tell you this about this book. The Bible says that all creation is right here. But you believe in something you can't see because it matches your ideology. And Fred, look around. Stop, look and listen. Look at the water cycle. Look at the cycle of life and reproduction. Look at the circulatory system. Look at the science behind it and the incredible facts that have to be there or it doesn't work. study symbiotic relationships and interdependence upon species and understand there is no way in the world it just happened. If you believe evolution, I'll just tell you, your faith is greater than mine. I believe in God. I believe in a creator-designer. I believe life comes from life. That's easy to believe. That's science. But friend, it's not easy to believe that those apes at the zoo are your relatives. You stand there and talk to your kids and say, those are our relatives. And you watch the smile come on the face of that kid because that kid is smarter than most adults in our day. And they understand there is no way in the world that that monkey that's not wearing clothes, that monkey that doesn't have a hospital, that monkey that doesn't spend money, that monkey that doesn't have a retirement account, isn't building a house, that that monkey is in any way related to them because they see the difference. Amongst pieces and friends life not only comes from life, but life always projects the same kind of life And that's what the word of God says it says they shall bring forth after their time dogs have puppies cats have kittens Cows have calves horses have foals. It's the way it works that science and yet you believe in a false science A science that says there is this transition between species. And friend, it's not there, it's not observable, it's not in the fossil record. It doesn't exist, but you believe it because it matches your ideology. But there are people today, they say, I believe science. But they don't believe the science of light in the womb. We can look into the womb and we can see the face of that child. We can see the heartbeat of that child. We can see a smile on the face of that child. They look at that child and say, it's not a child, it's a fetus. Friend, it's a child. But they don't believe it. Why? Because it doesn't match their ideology. Gender. That there is male and there is female. Science says there is gender. Science says that it takes male and female to procreate. But people that say they believe science and therefore do not believe in God, do not believe the science about male and female. And yet the Bible says that He created us male and female. Therefore shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall flee but to his wife, and they too shall flee. Nobody is interested. Nobody is interested. Nobody is interested. I praise God that there are people that are interested today, because God is interested in you, and God loves you, and God is gracious, and God is good, and God is merciful. Aren't you thankful today that God doesn't get angry? If God got angry today, you'd be in hell. You'd be in hell the moment that you sinned against God. But I praise God that He loves me today. And I praise God that He loves me today. And I praise God that He's able to guide me and direct my steps and help me to be a man of God and to stand today. And I encourage you today, if you're a Christian, do not be ashamed of God. Do not hide yourself in a corner and be ashamed to stand up when we've got wicked people parading these streets with their ungodly flag. Waving it in the face of God and defying the Almighty One that sent his son lovingly to die on the cross for them. They take his symbol of mercy, his symbol that he will not again judge this world with a flood, and they wave it in the face of God. And yet despite that, God loves him. Oh, I praise God today. You know that song is true. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. You know what I love? I love to go in the care home and begin to sing that hymn. Because you got older people that are here, they know that hymn and they begin to sing with me. Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. My friend, God does love you today. God does care about you. God does not want you to go to hell. God wants you to be born again. He wants to give you His gift of everlasting life. And I praise Him for His mercy today. I praise Him for His grace. I praise Him that He's Almighty God and that He's touching hearts even today. The Bible says about Jesus, Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come into him and will sup with him and be with me. Trent, God is reaching out again. Jesus Christ came into this world to seek and to save. That was his law. He told the story about a shepherd that had lost one sheep, and that shepherd left all his sheep in the block. And he went and he sought for that sheep until he could bring that sheep back, rejoicing that that lost one had been found. And friend, that's you today. If you don't know Jesus Christ as your Savior, you're lost in your sin. You're away from God. But there's a God in heaven that loves you, that sent His Son, Jesus Christ, to die on the cross for your sins so that you could be born again. Oh, what a story we've got in the Bible. You might say to me today, Ben, why do you believe this book? This book beginning to end, speaks about the most famous person in human history. It doesn't matter today if you're an atheist. It doesn't matter today if you reject the truth of the Bible. You'd have to say Jesus Christ is the most famous person in human history. when this book's all about Him. It's 66 books, 44 human authors, and it all agrees. It's one message throughout. It's a message that pointed to the coming Messiah, Jesus Christ, the Son of God that was died on the cross for our sin. It ends in the book of Revelation, speaking about Jesus Christ in glory, high and lifted up and exalted, the Lamb of God that was slain for our sin. And friend, I love this book because it brought me to faith in God. It brought me to a conviction that there is a God. That the Savior, Jesus Christ, died for me. And by the grace of God, I've been born again because I put my faith in Jesus. And friend, you can have that kind of faith. Many times, I have people say to me, I wish I believed in God. I want to believe in God. I just feel like I can't. Friend, you can. But it comes through reading this book, picking it up, beginning to study it. Don't let it scare you. Read the book of John. It's a gospel about the word Jesus Christ. It says at the end of that book that these are written, that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you might have life through his name. See, God loves you today. God doesn't want you to perish. He's not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance, who will have all men to be saved and to come into the knowledge of the truth. And friend, you need to be saved. You might say to me today, then why do I need to be saved? The Bible says that we're all sinners. It's unrighteous, though not one. It says for the wages of sin is death. He's speaking about eternity in a lake of fire. It's a place that the Bible tells a story about a man that died and then says in hell, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment. He said, I am tormented in this flame. At that moment that man became a believer, but I'll tell you this, it's too late when you die to get saved. It's too late to taste the mercy of God. The Bible says it's appointed unto men once to die, but after that to judgment. Friend, nobody gets a do-over. Nobody gets to stand there in eternity and say, you know, I get it now, I understand that there is a God. I've fallen off the cliff and I've felt the wrath of God against my sin. I'd like to go back. I'd like to get the mercy of God. Friend, it's forever too late at that moment. But right now you've got life. And right now you can pick up a Bible, right now you can go to a church. And I just tell you, you can judge a church by this book. If they stand with the Word of God and what it teaches about salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone. If they stand with what it says about a minister that he's to be blameless, the husband of one wife. We've got many churches today that say a woman can be a minister. That's not what the Bible says. The Bible says a minister is a man. The Bible says that a husband is the head of his wife and that he's to lead his family. And we live in a dysfunctional society that's upside down where kids rule and then wives rule. And the man is laughed at. The man doesn't work. The man doesn't provide for his home. He's not the leader that he should be. And we are disgraced as men in our day. But it's not too late to stand up and say, hey, let's get back to the Bible. Let's obey God and begin to lead our families to seek after God. My friend, God can absolutely bring you to saving faith. If you pick up this book and you begin to look at religion and truth and ask yourself that question, why is religion so powerful? Why is there such a battle between good and evil? You may not understand that, but I'll tell you today, there's a God in heaven and there's a Satan on this earth. There's a devil. The Bible says he's a deceiver. He wants the blind man's eyes to the truth of the glorious gospel. He's doing everything he can to keep you from coming to saving faith. He wants you to go to hell with him. The Bible says about hell, it was created for the devil and his angels. And friend, God doesn't want you to go there. That's again why he sent his son. He had a plan from the beginning of time. The Bible says about Jesus, he's the lamb slain from the foundation of the earth. Friend, salvation and the plan of salvation in the gospel, your death before Jesus Christ, it was not an afterthought. Friend, God planned that before he ever created, before he ever gave man a willing. And today you might say, well then, you know, if there is a God, why is the world like this? Friend, it's not because of God. The Bible says about God, when He created it, He looked at it, it was good, it was very good, there was no death. You might wonder, well, how did it happen? Because God said to Adam and Eve, the day thou eatest thereof of that tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt surely die. But God forbid them eating of it. He said, do not eat of that tree. And friend, they had everything in the garden. They had all the good fruit. It was a perfect place. But they lusted after that which they could not have. They exercised their will against God and they sinned against Him. And death, sorrow, sickness, war, all the things that bring us hard into life, it's all a result of our sin. And friend, if you want to blame somebody for the roughness of life, just look in the mirror and say, you know what? It's our fault. We have destroyed God's creation. We've turned our back on God. We're living as if He doesn't exist. And we're living as if we could get away with life without obeying the rules. And I'll tell you this about the law of God. The law was given to protect you. It was given to help you. It's not restrictive, it's protective. Just like me as a dad, you know, I love my kids, and I say to them, look, you cannot play in the road, I am not going to let you play in the road. And if you play in the road, there's going to be discipline. It's not because I'm restrictive, it's because I love my kids and I care so much about them, and I want them to be safe. My friend, God says marriage is between man and a woman, because that's where reproduction takes place. And that's where the family unit begins. And God defends the family. And think about the sexual sin in our day that is tearing apart families. We've got kids walking by here today, and they're bitter in their heart, and they're dreamed in their soul, because the ungodly sexual perversion that's in their parents. Because their parents do not fear God. And friend sin hurts. It hurts our kids. It hurts our relationships. And I'll just say this. If we get back to the Bible, it's the manual for life. Our church is very close to IKEA. And I would never say to anyone to go to IKEA and put a flat pack together without the instructions. Friend, it's just gonna be messed up. That's the way our life is if we try to live it without God. Understand, you know, you can look at your life and you can be frustrated and say, why is my life so tough? Why is it, you know, not going well? But understand this, our sin has separated us from the one person that wants to help us more than anybody else. And that's God. My friend, He's reaching out today. He cares about you. And so He brings you a message of the Word of God and the Gospel, the good news that Jesus Christ loves you, that Jesus Christ can set you free. But you gotta own your sin. You can't justify yourself in the eyes of men and think that does anything to purify your heart. Friends, again, the Bible says go thou wash thee with night, and it taketh thee like soap. If thine iniquity is marked before me, sayeth the Lord. You can clean up the outside, and I pray that you would. I mean, I hope that you get victory over drugs, and over drink, and over lying, and things like that. But say you get victory over that. It doesn't take the sin away that's there that separated you from God. There's only one way to get that sin away, and that's through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, God says to you today, come now, let us reason together, sayeth the Lord, through your sin free as starlight, they shall be as white as snow, though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. God wants to bring you to saving pain. God wants to purify your heart. God wants to cleanse you from the inside out. He doesn't want you to live in the darkness of sin anymore. And just think about it, friend. Our world is very spiritually dark. I've got unbelievers that they don't believe in God, but they're saying to me, I can't believe the moral decline that has taken place in Scotland in the last decade. And friends, we have children that only ever hear the name of God at a sports game, as they take God's name in vain, and then use the name of God like a curse word. They don't have parents that lovingly open up a Bible, begin to teach them about the Creator-Designer that the Bible says in the first verse of the Bible, in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Friend, God designed it. God made it. God's over it. Friend, this book said Israel would be back in the land. Whether you like Israel or not, this book said that a people would be dispersed, that they would keep their national identity, that they would return to their homeland. And there's only one nation that's ever done that, and that's Israel. Friends, study the Six-Day War, where that nation should have been destroyed, but they weren't. And I'll just tell you this about the Bible. The Bible says that Jesus Christ is coming back, and he's gonna reign in Jerusalem for a thousand years. And that Temple Mount is the very most fought-over piece of real estate in this world. And the eyes of the world are upon that nation, because this book said that nation will be there. In fact, read the Bible. In the book of Romans, chapter 1, it speaks about a society that turns its back on God. And it says, men with men working that which is unseemly, and women with women the same. And it's speaking about homosexuality. It's speaking about lesbianism. And if you ask yourself the question, what one sin is promoted more than any other sin in our society when we have rejected God, it's that sin. It's on our schools. They've got the flag on our schools. They're teaching it to our children. And it's promoted on the news more than any other perversion. And it is because we have turned our back on God. But God's Word said that's exactly what would happen. It said it in Romans chapter 1, 2,000 years ago. And, friends, you have things like that in the Bible. They're called prophecies. In Isaiah 53, it says about Jesus, 600 years before the cross, It says, He was wounded for our transgression. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement and the punishment of our peace is upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord hath laid on Him, Jesus, the iniquity of us all. Brenda spoke about Jesus 600 years, not before the cross, not naming him, but speaking about the sacrifice that she would make on that cross a thousand years before Jesus Christ went to the cross in Psalm chapter 22. It says they pierced his hands and his feet. It says they cast lots upon his vesture. Friend, a thousand years before it happened, the Bible spoke about it. That ought to be a wake-up call to your heart. How could we have a book not written by God that could tell us ahead of time what's going to happen in his tomb? Friend, this book said several thousand years ago, the circle of the earth. There's scientific foresight in this book. Things that men did not know. Things like the water cycle, where it talks about... Ecclesiastes, a thousand years before Christ came, 3,000 years ago, it talked about how the waters are taken up into the air, and how they go over the land, and how they return to where they were from, and how they come back into the sea. It's the water cycle. But friend, it was in the Bible 3,000 years ago. People found the Gulf Stream by the fact that the Bible spoke about the path through the sea. You go down to the end of Princess Street Garden and you've got John Simpson and we've got Simpson's maternity ward at the Royal. And you'll read about a man that read the Bible and saw that God put Adam to sleep before taking the rib by which he gave Eve. And that man thought, you know, it makes a lot of sense to put people to sleep to operate on them. And God gave him the wisdom to invent anesthetic. And, friend, it's amazing to me about Scotland. This nation invented so many things. Anesthetic, and the telephone, and the TV, and tarmac, and steam engines, and things like that. But this was a Christian nation. Not a big nation. A nation of four million people, but a nation that feared God, and obeyed God, and believed God back in the 1800s. And this nation was used incredibly in the modern world. But look at us today. A hundred years later, walking away from God, acting as if God does not exist, no fear of God in the hearts of men, and therefore sexual sin is perverted, and sexual sin is promoted, and we've got a day of deep undoubtedness and deep wickedness, and if you don't believe that, listen to what's coming out of the mouths of men. The Bible says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. In fact, we've got little kids that are using the worst word in the English language, and they don't even know that they're using them. We've got older women, that it used to be that a woman would be respectful and gracious and not used for vanity and above that, and yet we've got older women here in Scotland that have foul mouths, and it just reveals the wickedness that's in the heart of our society, because the Bible again says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. But there's an answer to that. There's a solution. It's the mercy of God. It's the grace of God. It's the balm of Gilead. It's the good work of Jesus Christ on the cross as He died for us that He made a way for you and I by God's grace to be forgiven. And friends, you don't earn God's gift. Salvation's not because you've been christened. A lot of people here in Scotland are christened as a child. They're done for. And they think, well, you know, if you're into God, I was christened, so that's me. I'm okay. Friends, there's nothing in this book that teaches that water baptism does anything to cleanse your soul. It does nothing. It doesn't make you a part of the body of Christ. There's no other name given amongst men whereby they must be saved. The name is Jesus. Jesus Christ himself said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by me. Ephesians 2.8.9 says, For by grace are ye saved this day, but that not of yourselves. It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Friend, it's not something today that you can earn. It's great if you're a kind person, a nice person. but it does nothing to cleanse your heart. There's only one thing that cleanses us on the inside, and that's the blood of the Son of God, Jesus, that died for us. Friend, He was perfectly righteous. The Bible says about Jesus, He that knew no sin became sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Friend, the righteousness that God desires to give you is perfect righteousness. That's why when somebody gets saved, it's often my joy as I speak with them. They say, I feel different. Did you feel different? Did you trust in Christ as your Savior? And the experience that they're speaking of is the burden of their sin was lifted. Friend, it's heavy. It's heavy to have that guilt in your heart about the godlessness and the wickedness that's there. Immorality, fornication, adultery, lies, deceit, gambling, drunkenness, getting high. Those things just put a burden on our heart and they're heavy. But friend, God can take it away. He came to seek and to save that which was lost. He came not just to save us in our sins. He came to save us from our sins. And I praise God today. God has the power to set you free from drink, and from drugs, and from gambling, and from idolatry, and from adultery, and from fornication. He has the power to change your life for your good, and for the good of your family, and for the good of society. Friend, he's got the power. God is light. In Him is no darkness at all. He's perfectly righteous. And He wants to make you the righteousness of God through Jesus Christ, His Son, that died for you. Friend, He paid the price for your sin. He didn't stay in the grave, but He rose from the dead. I praise God today. I serve a risen Savior. And I know that He lives. Friend, I know that He's true. I know that He's righteous. And I know that He's reaching out in love for you today. And people can say to me, Ben, I don't believe in your God. Therefore, your God does not exist. Friend, truth doesn't change based on our beliefs. It doesn't matter if you can't see gravity or can't see wind if you don't believe in it. It doesn't change anything. Wind still exists, gravity still exists, and friend, God still exists whether you believe in him or not. It doesn't change anything. It just changes how you relate with danger. If you said, I don't believe in gravity, you stepped off the cranks, you're going to find out you should have believed in gravity. And friend, when you die without God, if you stand before Him, you're going to understand you should have come to faith in God. You should have feared God in your life. You know, there's no such thing, the Bible says, as a true atheist. He's written Himself into our hearts. He's put into our hearts an understanding that He exists. Friend, there's nobody like Jesus Christ. There's nobody like the Son of God that died on the cross for you. And again, you might say to me today, Ben, I don't believe in your God. But I'll tell you this, it's because you've never tasted of God. The Bible says, taste and you'll see that the Lord is good. Just like a fruit. You might look at that fruit and say, I don't believe it exists. I don't believe it's good. But you know, if I'm eating it and I'm tasting it, I'm satisfied with it. I'm just going to look at you and say, well, it doesn't matter if you believe in my fruit or not. I know that it's real, and I know that it's good, and I know how it tastes. And friend, I can tell you that about Jesus Christ because I have Jesus Christ in my heart. Friend, you have Jesus today. You could have a lot of things in life. I hope you're proud for it. You might drive a really nice car, a Porsche, a Ferrari, or something like that. You might have all the wealth in the world. You got a Rolex on today, and you're walking with the newest fashion, the greatest handbag. Can I just say, does that matter when you die? When you stand before God, are you going to give that to God and say, you know, God, I give you this to purchase my soul out of hell? The Bible says, what shall it profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Friend, it doesn't matter how popular you are today. People might know your name, they may not know mine, but it doesn't matter. Because God knows every single one of us, and the only thing that matters is God knows if you have a name that's written in the Lamb's book of life. If your name is written in the annals of heaven as a child of God, a citizen of glory. And friend, if you don't have that, it doesn't matter today how famous you are in this world. Nobody's famous when they go to hell, just like the biggest a pauper that's in this world, it doesn't matter. You die, you go to hell, your soul's in a fire, it's eternal, and you're separated from God. I pray God doesn't want you to go there. If somebody asked me today, Ben, what's the worst thing about hell? Well, it's a fire. It's eternal. But I'll tell you the worst thing about hell. The worst thing about hell is God's not there. Ben, in this life, you could be the most wicked person in the world. You can be deeply ungodly, but you can cry out to God and say this, God be merciful to me, a sinner, and save me. And put your faith in the Son of God, and God will take away your sin. God will give you the stick of everlasting life. But I'm telling you this about somebody in hell. They're in hell for all eternity. My friend, when people laugh about hell, and when they mock the idea of hell, understand this. There are people that have died that you know that are in hell today. And they would plead with God, God send somebody back to warn that person about hell. But God would say to them, look, they've got the Bible, they've got the truth of the gospel about what Jesus Christ did. And if they're not going to believe that, they're not going to believe, even if I send somebody back from the dead to speak to them, they're still not going to come to faith. And friend, the worst thing about hell is God's not there. And for all eternity, you'll regret the fact that you never picked up a Bible, never came to faith in the Son of God, Jesus Christ, that died for you, never received the mercy that God desired to give. You didn't have to pay anything for it. Jesus Christ paid it all when He died on the cross, but you rejected Him. But don't be somebody like that, that eternally regrets they never came to faith in Jesus. Friend, the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is God. You might ask, Ben, how do you know the Bible teaches that? The Bible says about Jesus, without Him was not anything made that was made. Friend, the powers that are unseen and the powers that were seen, all things were created by Him and for Him, is what the Bible says. The Bible says in Genesis chapter 1, in the beginning God created Him. Friend, Jesus Christ is God. The Bible also teaches about Jesus that He was worshipped. Friend, when He healed somebody, He received worship. When He rose from the dead, He was worshipped. When He ascended up into glory, He was worshipped. The Bible says in the book of Hebrews that God commands the angels to worship Jesus Christ. If you read the book of Revelation, Jesus Christ in glory is worshipped. Who is He? He's God. The Bible says about Jesus that He forgave sin. The Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sin. He said to people that you may know that. And you know what? Only God can forgive sin. Friends, you know today that God is the judge. The Bible says about Jesus that all judgment is committed to Him and that He's the one in the great white throne of judgment. He's the one at the judgment seat of Christ to whom each one of us will answer, is Jesus Christ what? Because Jesus Christ is God. And friend, He loved you so much that He entered into this creation. He became a man so that He could die as a sinless substitute sacrifice for our sins. He was our sacrifice. And friend, it's good today if as a family you begin to humble your heart and to say to God, God, thank you for life. Thank you for family. Thank you for the work that you provided. And God, I'm going to seek you with all my heart because I want to know you. And I encourage you, even if you're an atheist, to begin to cry out to God and say to God, OK, God, if you exist, help me to come to faith. And just be honest with God. Friend, I have no doubt as a preacher of the Bible that you can come to faith. I know that beyond a shadow of a doubt. But you've got to be willing to give God a chance. You've got to be willing to open up a Bible, begin to read it. The Bible says faith cometh by curing, and curing by the Word of God. And so, friend, if you never pick it up, you'll never really praise the Lord from your heart. You might say, hallelujah, but it's empty because your heart wasn't in it. The Bible says in the book of Romans, chapter 10, verse 9 and 10, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thy heart, that God hath raised him from the dead. Thou shalt be saved. But with the heart, man believeth unto righteousness. With the mouth, confession is bade unto salvation. And if it was a prayer that saved, I would beg you today, pray this prayer. But if you don't mean it from your heart, it is meaningless, it is empty, it is nothing, because God knows it's just a hypocritical statement coming from the lips of a person that wants nothing to do with Him. But, Frank, if you want something to do with God, Then I encourage you to be repent of your sin The Bible says your iniquities have separated your sin is separated between you and your God your sins have hid his face from you that you will not hear a lot of times people say to me Ben I don't believe in God because there was a time in my life I really I cried out to God and I said God help me in this and that but can I tell you something about God? God cannot help somebody in their sin He can help somebody who's willing to deal with their sin Friend, if you want to hold on to your sin, don't try to come to God. Your sin is what put Jesus Christ on the cross. Your sin is what crucified Him. Your sin is what separates you from God. And so friend, to come to God, you've got to be honest with God and look in the mirror at the Word of God and say, God, it's just like you say. I'm a sinner. It's just like you say. My sin is taking me to hell. It's just like you say. The Son of God, Jesus Christ, died on the cross for my sin. And friend, I encourage you today to come to faith. I encourage you today to believe in God, to obey the gospel. And friends, you can be saved today. You know, it's a great thing today. I wonder today how many people in Ann Arbor are going to put their faith in God and receive his gift of everlasting life. It's courageous for me as a preacher to think, you know, the Son of God paid the price for everybody that we could see out here and around the world, the 8 billion people on this planet. God has the power to cleanse our heart, give them this gift of everlasting life. And the only reason they don't have it is because they rejected His salvation. My friend, that's sad. It's just like somebody drowning in the Persian forest and an R.N.O.I. guy comes down onto Winston from the helicopter. He's like, right, I'm here to rescue you. And they're like, I'm fine. I'm fine. They're not fine. They're going to perish in the North Sea. Friends, you're not fine if you do not have Jesus Christ as your Savior. If you have not received Jesus, you're on your way to hell. You're step by step walking into an eternity away from God. The Bible says, wide is the way that leads to destruction. Many there be that go in there and out. Narrow is the way that leads to life everlasting. Few there be that find that. You're right. If you say to me, Ben, I know nobody that goes to church. I get it. I know nobody that believes in God. And I see this. The world laughs at people that believe in God. They laugh at people that believe marriage is between a man and a woman and that children in the womb ought to be protected. They mock people like that. I get it. But friend, it's not worth going to hell because everybody else is. It's not worth rejecting the Savior because your mates are going to laugh at you and make fun of you if you pick up a Bible, begin to read it, and understand the love of God, and the grace of God, and the goodness of God, and the power of God. Friend, it's not worth going to hell to please a family that despises God and has turned their back on God. Friend, I encourage you. Pick up a Bible. Begin to read it. Understand the love and the mercy of God. Understand the grace of God and the goodness of God and the power of the gospel to set you free from your sin. Oh, I rejoice today in that grace. Again, the Bible says in Romans 5, 8, that God commended His love for us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. See, you can say to me today, Ben, God doesn't love me. You know, I just look you in the eye and I tell you, He died for you. He paid the price for you. The ultimate price of laying down His life so that you could receive God's gift of everlasting life. Friend, if you don't believe the love of God, read the end of the Gospels. Read that story about Jesus. Read about the mock trial. As He was put on trial, they brought false witnesses to lie about the Lord Jesus Christ and how He didn't open His mouth, how He didn't defend Himself. Fred read about how he began to be beaten by the soldiers as they put a cloth over his face They brought to the camp saying who hit you and he could have told them everything about that person, but he was silent Friend, read about them plucking the beard out of the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. Read about the crown of thorns that was put upon His brow, and how that was pressed into His brow, and the blood that flowed down His face. Read about how He was stripped, and His back was whipped with a cat of nine tails, ripping the flesh off the back of the Lord Jesus Christ. Read about the Son of God being nailed to that cross, His hands and His feet, and being crucified for you. there in the cross inside out father forgive them for they know not what they do my friend i get it today you don't believe in god you've lived a life against god you've cursed god you take the knee of god and dave and you think it's okay i get it and and god gets it and understands it you're living your life as if he doesn't exist but he's there he's still there my friend he still loves you What I praise God for is love today. Again, the Bible says in Romans 5-8, but God commended His love for us. He demonstrated that. When He died on the cross for you, when He paid the price for your sins, He showed that He loves you, that He cares about you. And Fred, self-justification is nothing. It doesn't matter whether Keir Starmer and the Labour government or John Swinney and the SNP justify men's sin and say their sexual sin is okay because as a government we're going to say it's okay. It doesn't matter. It changes nothing. When you stand before God, John Slimy won't be there with you to hold your hand. Pierce Thamer is not going to be there. Social media is not going to be there. The educators that are the false prophets, they're not going to be there. I'll tell you this, what matters on that day is do you believe God? Did you understand the Word of God when it spoke about your sexual sins? Did you understand the Word of God when it spoke about the lies that are in your life and the immorality that's in your life and the fornication that's there? And friend, did you own your sin for what it was? That which put Jesus Christ upon the cross, that which has taken man and woman and child to hell, that knew not Jesus Christ as their Savior as they died in their sins, you understand, with soberness of heart, the deep ungodliness that's there. And friend, have you ever cried out to God for mercy? Have you ever said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner, and save me for Jesus' sake? Are you proud today? Pride is a great sin against God. He says things that the Lord hates. Number one is a proud look. And friend, we live in a proud society. In fact, we're so unashamed of our pride, we label our movements as pride. And friend, that's what it is. It says to God, God, it doesn't matter what you say. Because you're no longer God. I'm God. And that's a humanist mantra. A humanist mantra is I am God, I make the rules, therefore it doesn't matter what any other authority says. I can do what I want and it doesn't matter. But friend, God didn't get off his throne and say, okay, I guess you're right, you go ahead, you take the throne of God. Friend, he's righteous, he's just, he's holy, he's powerful, he's almighty God, he's Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. He's the creator, designer, and just like Lucifer that said, I will be like the most high God. Friend, God cast him out of glory, and I'll tell you this, you're not gonna succeed where Lucifer failed. But friend, there's hope for you today. because there's mercy. Friend, there's hope because there's a God in heaven that's reaching out in love, again, trying to get us to look and to listen and to think about God. And friend, if you're saying there is no God, the Bible says the heavens declare the glory of God. The firmament, the water cycle, the sky showeth this handiwork. Day into day, uttereth speech. Night into night, showeth knowledge. All over the world, nature shouts that there is a God. Friend, the trees give us oxygen. In the autumn, the leaves fall off the trees, and when the snow comes, the trees don't collapse, and that cycle of life continues. The leaves go into the ground, and they come back off, and they begin to take in the nutrition from the sun. And all the ways that God's creation is designed, it all works together. It all works beautifully. Why? Because there is a God. Friend, there's a greater designer. And there's a Savior. There's a lawgiver. And there's a judge. And friend, this book tells you all about it. I encourage you to pick it up. Begin to read it. And read in the book of Genesis about God's creation and how He designed it and how He loved it, how He exalted it. And friend, notice this in the Word of God. That was written by Moses 3,000 years ago. The Bible says that God created in six days, and the seventh day He rested. And then observe that we still have a seven-day week. Isn't that interesting? But that's what the Bible teaches, and that's, again, from 3,000 years ago there in the Word of God. But friend, do you know my Savior? Do you know my Jesus? Have you heard He loves you? Have you heard about His mercy and His grace and His goodness and His power to work in your heart and work in your life? And I rejoice in God's grace. A lot of people take drugs to try to get them to feel different from the inside out. A lot of people drink, same thing, from the inside out to try to get a feeling of peace that's there. But it doesn't last. It's empty. And it's destroying their life. But I'll tell you this about Jesus. The Bible says about Him that He's the Prince of Peace. And He gives the peace to that passive understanding that keeps your heart and mind in Christ Jesus. He has the power to cleanse us. He has the power to come in and give us peace. But, friend, it's not through self-justification. It's saying our sin is okay. The Bible says your iniquities have separated between you and your God. Your sins have been saved from you that He will not cure. And, friend, the Bible says about that sin, the wages of sin is death. But the Son of God came. He died. And friend, if you want to know why Jesus Christ died, He died to pay the price for your sin. He satisfied the wrath of God. There on the cross, as it went dark, the sin of the world was put upon Jesus Christ. And Jesus Christ cried out. He said, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Jesus Christ was God forsaken on the cross so that he could take your place. And I'll tell you this, as I said earlier, the worst thing about hell is not that it's a fire. It's not that it's eternal. It's that you're separated from God eternally. And friend, that's what Jesus Christ did. As He died on the cross for you, the Godhead was broken. The Father and the Son and the Spirit were separated because Jesus Christ died for you. He paid the price for your sin. But friend, I praise God He didn't stay in the grave. He rose from the dead. Friend, He's living. And I rejoice today. I serve a living Savior. He's in the world today. I know that He's living. Whatever man may say, it doesn't matter to me today how many people would say there is no God. Jesus Christ is not God. Jesus Christ is not the Savior. I rejoice because it changes nothing. Forever, O Lord. Thy Word is settled in the heaven. So, heaven and earth shall pass away. The smallest diacriticals in the Hebrew Old Testament, the Bible says, will not be changed because there is a God. It's because He reigns. But friend, you know Him. As I preach on the streets, yes, I'm a minister at Southside Pre-Baptist Church in Lonehead. Our church is about seven miles from here. But I don't come on the street to represent my church. I come on the street to represent the Lord because I'm not preaching a religion. I'm preaching a relationship. A relationship with Jesus Christ. A relationship with God by faith in the Son of God. Friend, you need the Savior. If you die without Christ, you'll spend eternity in hell and God did everything possible to save you from that. Friend, if you die, go to hell. If you die, go to hell over the dead body of the Lord Jesus Christ and his death for you and his burial for you. Now again, praise God who rose from the dead, but he did that on the cross for you. But friend, you know him. You know, an atheist might think, you know, I'm not a bad person, I'm just an atheist. But an atheist is somebody that never thanks God for anything. Never says thank you to God for my food, thank you God for my wealth, thank you God for my family, thank you for my job, or anything like that. Beyond that, they never thank God for the Son of God, Jesus, that came and died on the cross for their sin. You know, the Bible says about an atheist, the fool has set in his heart that there is no God. Friend, why is it so foolish to say there is no God? It's because you're pushing away the Creator-Designer, and you're pushing away the only way of salvation. And friend, I'll tell you today, you need to be saved. You know, I'm an ambassador for Christ, and so God will beseech you by being reconciled to God. It's time to get right with God. It's time to bow the knee before God, because the Bible says that every knee shall bow And every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. And friend, it's a much better thing in life to willingly bow to me, to give before God and say, God, I'm so sorry that I've treated you like rubbish and I've hated you and I've despised you and I've mocked you and I've cursed you and I've lived a profligate life and a life of adultery and fornication and so on. But God, please forgive me and I recognize that your Son loved me and that your Son died on the cross for my sin. And friend, it's an awesome thing when you put your faith in Jesus. Friend, you could have that gift today. The only thing you have to do to have a gift is take it. Friend, it's a free gift. It was paid for by Jesus Christ. There's nothing for you to do. You don't have to become religious. You just have to be honest. You have to repent of your sin. You have to understand that that profanity that's in your tongue, it's not okay. That the lies that you told are not okay. That the pornography that you watch, it's not okay. That the adultery that you're living in, or the fornication that you're living in, it's not okay. Because it's sin. It violates God's law. It hurts you, it hurts your family, it hurts your relationships, it hurts your wealth, because that's what sin does. Sin destroys. But friend, God can set you free from that. God desires you to have this gift of everlasting life. He wants to bring you to saving faith. Again, He's not willing that any should perish. Friend, there's some bad people in life. There's some wicked people in life who might have been hurt by somebody like that. But friend, what did your sin do to Jesus on the cross? And the bitterness that's in your heart and the unforgiveness that's there, if you look at that person and you say to that person, you owe me, I will never forgive you. Can I tell you this about the love of God? Jesus says, you owe me, but I'm willing to forgive you. I'm willing to take that away. But friend, if you harbor that bitterness in your heart, the Bible says, if you don't forgive men, God's not going to forgive you. Because you don't begin to understand what the Son of God did when He died on the cross for your sin, and He paid the price so that you could be forgiven. And I'll tell you who you're hurting by your bitterness. You're hurting yourself. Friend, it's wrecking your life. You hold on to that hurt. You have that grudge that's in your heart. Let God take it away. Let God show you how you can forgive others. Let God show you how you can have His mercy, how He's willing to forgive you. Father, in your mercy today, I just pray, would you take the message of the gospel, the good news about Jesus Christ and his death on the cross to mend sin. And Father, in your mercy, I pray, would you bring many to saving faith. It's in Christ's name I pray. Amen.