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Good morning. We're just down
here this morning sharing some truth from the word of God, letting
people know that there's still a God in heaven. A lot of people
don't believe in him. A lot of people say there is
no God. God hasn't ceased to exist. He hasn't disappeared.
He's still there. He believes in us and he desires
to save us. His son, Jesus Christ, is awesome. And I don't know if you know
Jesus Christ as your savior this morning. If you do, you can say
amen and praise God and rejoice in the fact that you know for
sure that if you died, you'd go to heaven. You know, the others
maybe don't know if there is a God or not. It's those type
of people that I'm out here today just trying to encourage people
to come to faith in God. A loving God. A designer God.
The God who gave us awesome sunshine. You know, people say that evolution
is true. You know, and I would say this,
it takes more faith to believe in evolution than it does to
believe in God. Evolution is this idea that something came
from nothing. It doesn't make much sense that
an explosion can make anything, let alone design anything. But
we look around today, and there is design. You look up at the
sky, and it's blue, and it's beautiful, and it's aesthetically
pleasing. You look at the autumn colors
that have disappeared now, but you see those and they're aesthetically
pleasing. Evolution can't explain aesthetics. But God can. God
created. God designed. And when He designed,
He made it perfect. The Bible says that every day
that God created, He saw that it was good. And you might say
to me, Ben, if there is a God, then why is there death? Why
is there sorrow? Why is there sickness? Why is there heartache?
Why are there these difficult things that are in life? Well,
God did not design it that way. The Bible says that God took
Adam and Eve and the Garden of Eden The day thou eatest of that
tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
surely die. Adam and Eve broke God's law,
ate of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil. That opened
the door to sin and death and sorrow and sickness and the things
that you and I look at and we say, you know, that is really
tough about life. But God didn't design it that
way. God designed it perfect. But God gave man a will, an opportunity
to decide whether or not they're going to love God, whether or
not they're going to believe in God. Man took that well, they
exorcised it against God, sadly, turned their back on God, opened
the door to death, sorrow, sickness, those things. But that's not
God's intent. God's intent is that we have
eternal life with Him forever. God wants us to know His love.
But as God, He also knows the things that hurt us are sin.
There's not a single sin that you can think of that's good
for you. A lot of people think alcohol is good for them, but
it's not hard to argue very easily against that as it makes them
drunk. It makes them defiled. It makes them abusive. It makes them use their language
in a way that's profane. It hurts their families. It hurts
their marriage. And again, sin's like that. Every
single sin that you just think of, you'd have to say, well,
you know, to be honest, it hurts somebody. If you steal from somebody,
it hurts somebody. If you lust and you commit adultery,
you hurt your marriage, you hurt somebody else's marriage. Fornication
takes away the purity of that person that you say that you
love. And so again, sin always hurts
somebody. The Bible says that the soul
that sinned shall die, but when it speaks about that death, it's
not speaking about physical death, it's speaking about eternity
in a lake of fire. The Bible says that the dead
small and great shall stand before God. And the book shall be opened,
and every man shall be judged according to their works. And
when those works are evaluated before God, and God sees sin
in the life of that person, there's just one thing God can say, and
that is, depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared
for the devil and his angels. Now God doesn't desire to do
that. That's why the Son of God, Jesus Christ, came to die on
the cross for our sins. The Son of God became a man.
He lived a sinless life. And as the Holy Son of God, He
came to die on the cross and pay the price for our sin. And when Jesus did that, He paid
the complete price. The Bible says that as Christ
was crucified there on the cross, he said these words, he says,
it is finished. Those words mean paid in full.
It means there's nothing more for man to pay. It's not today
that somebody would have to say, well, you know, to go to heaven,
I'm going to be a good person. I'm going to be christened. I'm
going to do more good deeds than bad deeds, and somehow God's
going to accept me. We can't earn our salvation. There's nothing
we can give to God for our soul. Salvation is a gift. It's a free
gift given to us by the Son of God, Jesus Christ, and the Father,
as He took His Son and His Son was crucified on the cross for
our sins. I don't know if you've taken much time to think about
the crucifixion. To begin to think about why God
would love you so much that he would take his son, his precious
son, Jesus Christ, and put him on an old rugged cross of shame
where he would die as a criminal looking like a criminal for our
sin. It takes a lot of love to do
that. But the Bible does tell us about that love. But God commended
His love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. For scarcely for a righteous man would one die. You know,
it'd be a very strange thing for somebody to give their life
for somebody else and to willingly die for them. But that's exactly
what Jesus Christ did. But when Jesus Christ did that,
Jesus Christ did not die for good people. Jesus Christ did
not die for religious people. Jesus Christ died for sinners.
He died for us. The Bible says there's none righteous,
no not one. It says for all have sinned and
come short of the glory of God. It says that, again, while we
are yet sinners, Christ died for us. Jesus Christ took our
sin upon Him on the cross. He died as if He was guilty of
our sin. He paid a judicial penalty for
our sin so that God judicially could look at us and say, I can
forgive you because of what my son did when he died on the cross
through his sin. Friend, are you thinking about
God today? Have you thought about God this past week? You know,
it's a very sad thing to walk through life and the God that
gave us everything, to be so unthankful in our hearts that
we never bow our head and say to that God, God, thank you for
life. Thank you for family. Thank you for the finances that
you provided. To begin to bow our head before
God, you know, the 10 commandments that God has given, some of those
commands are just to protect us in our understanding of who
God is. One of the Ten Commandments is,
Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain,
for he will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.
You might say, Ben, that law is a big deal. Who cares if we
take God's name in vain? Well, listen, the Creator-Designer
that made us, He cares. Why? Because when you take somebody's
name in vain like that, it just means, I don't care anything
about you. Stop and think about that. Almighty God, you don't
care anything about Almighty God? To think about that, the
Son of God, Jesus Christ, that died on the cross for our sin.
And again, people take that precious name, the name of Jesus Christ,
and they blaspheme it, and they mock it, and they curse it, and
you hear it used in profanity more than ever before in the
history of mankind. If you go to sporting venues
and things like that, you just hear the name of Christ, and
He is the Son of God, and He is God. He's the one that gave
you physical life. He's the only one that can give
you everlasting life. That ought to make people tremble
with fear this morning to begin to think how they blaspheme the
name of God, how they take the name of Christ in vain and just
think meaningless thoughts about God. He is the one that is the
one above all else. The Bible says that if He takes
away our breath, we die. Every bread that you breathe
was given to you by the Creator-Designer God. Every bit of food that you
eat was given to you by the Creator-Designer God. And to think today that
there are people down here on this street that are just passing
by just thinking nothing about God. Never picking up a Bible.
Never beginning to study it. Never beginning to understand
the love of God and what Jesus Christ did for them when He died
on the cross for their sin. It's such an easy thing today
to pick up a Bible, and you can begin to read it. I encourage,
if you don't know where to start, start in the book of John. At
the end of the book of John it says, but these are written,
that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God,
and that believing ye might have life through his name. God wants
you to come to saving faith. God wants you to have everlasting
life. Look, this physical life is very
temporary. The Bible says that it's 3 square
years and 10, 70 years. And if it would be more than
that, yet it's sorrow and it's difficult. And this life is not
what it's about. It's about eternal life. In eternity
there is no sorrow, there is no sickness, there is no death,
if you're in glory, if you're in heaven. If somebody doesn't
get saved, very sadly, eternity for them in the lake of fire
is one of torment and one of eternal damnation. You know,
I saw a business that was called Damn Something. And I started
to email them yesterday and say, what are you doing putting that
in your sign? Don't you understand that word
damnation? is speaking about those that
are suffering in hell. It'd be like standing outside
the towers that burned down in London, and mocking that, and
making fun of that, and taking that name, and using it profanely. And people take that word damn,
they take that word hell, and they take those words of sorrow
and eternal torment, and they think no big deal, they laugh
about it. They use that word profanely, and yet those words
hell and damnation speaks about eternity away from God. There's
a need in our hearts to wake up and to look up and to begin
to understand that there is a God. That there's a God that died
for us, the Son of God, Jesus Christ, that paid the price for
our sin, and only by Him can we have any hope of eternal life. You know, people can laugh about
it, they can mock it, but the fact is that God still loves
them. You know, one of the precious verses in the Bible is, For God
so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. That
verse starts with one of the most precious truths that there
is in creation, and that is that there is a God. The Bible says,
in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. We
are not the act of some random scientific process. We are designed
by Almighty God. And God, when He designed us,
He again made a way to save us. Though He allowed us that decision
to turn our backs on Him and to go into sin, yet God lovingly
provided a way through Christ. For God so loved the world. It's
amazing to me to think about today. I see sometimes people
laugh or people mock God and to think that, you know, God
cares for that person. God loves that person. God desires
to see that soul come to saving faith. He desires that person
to have his gift of everlasting life. I would tell you today,
God is not against you. God is for you. God is against
your sin. The reason he's against your sin is your sin separates
you from God. It's the one thing that stands
in between you and a relationship with God. It's the one thing
that will keep you out of heaven. and take you to an eternity in
hell. That's why God hates your sin. But God loves you. And because God loves you, He
made a way through Jesus Christ to take away your sin. It's through
the shed blood of the Savior that your sin can be forgiven.
It's not in anything else. Jesus Christ said, I am the way,
the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Jesus Christ is the only way.
A lot of people are seeking highs today. They seek it in drugs.
They seek it in sex. They seek it in alcohol. They
seek it in cigarettes. They seek it in relationships
and other things. But the high that God gives is
beyond anything. It's an eternal satisfaction
of the soul. An eternal relationship with
God that is undefiled. There's no guilt. Listen to all
those things about sin. The person gets up the next morning
and they think, why did I do that? Why did I sleep with that
person? Why did I drink that drink? Why did I get out of my
head with those drugs? Why did I seek to gain all that
money and I wasted all that money in gambling? Why did I do that?
There is regret with sin, but there is no regret with God.
There's no regret to the person that has Jesus Christ as their
Savior. There's no regret to the person that because they
love God, they have a strong marriage. There's no regret to
the godly mom and dad that are raising their kids in the fear
of the Lord, teaching them obedience, teaching them to understand authority
and to submit to authority, and raising God-honoring kids. There's
no regret with that. But there is regret in the heart
of a person that is suffering because of the ungodliness that's
been in their life. Divorced because of drinks, divorced
because of drugs, Divorced because of gambling divorced because
of adultery or things like that and they have defiled their life
that have hurt their family But God came so that we could be
forgiven of that the Son of God Jesus Christ came He died on
the cross to set us free from that that addiction to gambling
that addiction to drugs that addiction to sexual perversion
all those things Jesus Christ came to set us free from those
things that people are burdened about in their life. You know,
they can laugh about it, they can think, oh, this is the thing
that I love more than anything. But you think about it, is it
worth going to hell to have alcohol? Is it worth going to hell to
have sexual immorality? Is it worth going to hell to
have that unbelief and that ungodliness in your life, that spitefulness
against God that makes everybody around you think you're such
the man or such the woman because you can blaspheme God, curse
God? Is it worth going to hell for that? It'd be far better
to humble your heart and to not care what anybody else thinks,
but to be a God-fearing person and to begin to pick up the Bible
and to look at the Word of God and to say, now what does God
say? Why? Because the one person that we're
going to give an account to, it's not our friend, it's not our
neighbor, it's not the government, it's not the teachers that are
espousing truth against God. The person that we're going to
give an account to is God Almighty. Are you ready to meet God? You
know, there's no second chances when somebody dies. The Bible
says, "...is appointed unto man once to die, but after that to
judgment." And it would be a very real statement today to focus
on this truth. Prepare to meet thy God. Every
single person ought to be preparing in life to stand before God and
to be able to give an account to God. Holy God that is going
to stand in judgment upon them. Heaven is a perfect place. Heaven
has no sin. No sin will be allowed into heaven.
The only hope for us as sinners is that we deal with our sin
now. Get right with God now. Repent of our sin now so that
we can have God's forgiveness. God is willing to deal with us
in that way. The Bible says, Come now and let us reason together.
Say unto the Lord, Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall
be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as gold. The Bible says, Let the wicked
forsake his way, and the ungodly man his foes, and let him turn
unto God, and he will abundantly pardon. Praise God today. God has the ability to take somebody
that's in a lifestyle of sin and unbelief and God rejection
God is able to take that person and make them a right Christian
a person that honors God a person that fears God a person that
loves God that Transformative change is something that God
does don't worry today and think I could never be like that Listen,
if you come to God in faith and bow before the Lord Jesus Christ
and accept him as his Savior as your Savior God takes that
person he makes them new The Bible says if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature, a new creation. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things are become new. God desires to change us from
the inside out. Again, you might look in the
mirror and say, Ben, I can't change that blasphemer that I
see in the mirror. I can't change that person that
curses, that person that is is corrupt in their heart, that
their thoughts are so ungodly, so wicked, so vile, so against
God, that it makes them almost afraid in their heart of the
depth of the ungodliness that's in their soul. But listen, God
has the ability to change the life of that person. God has
the ability to clean that heart. God has the ability to forgive
that person that lives their life against Him, that is in
rebellion against Him. One of the great stories in the
Bible is about a man named the Apostle Paul. Paul was a blasphemer. Paul hated Christ. Paul crucified
Christians. But the Apostle Paul got saved. He saw Jesus Christ for who he
was. He humbled his heart. He received Jesus Christ as his
Lord. The Apostle Paul is the human
author of most of the epistles, the letters that are in the New
Testament. They were written by that man as a godly man, a
man who God changed. He transformed. There was a thief
on the cross next to Jesus, a man that had stolen, a man that had
murdered. And that man there on the cross beside the Lord
Jesus Christ cried out, and he said to Jesus, he said, Lord,
remember me in paradise. The Lord said, behold, this day
thou shalt be with me in paradise. That man got saved. Listen, what
about you, my friend? Taking time to think about God.
taking time to pick up a Bible and to begin to read it and give
God a chance and begin to cry out to God and just be honest
with God. You might have to say, hey, God, I don't believe in
you, but if you exist, would you please help me to understand
and then pick up a Bible and begin to read it and begin to
understand what God did when God created and God designed
and begin to understand why life is like this. Why? Why did it
get so bad? Why is there sins? or sorrow,
sickness, and death. Where do these things come from?
They are the result of man exercising their will against God. Sadly, the end of sin is death. The Bible says, when lust hath
conceived, it bringeth forth sin. And sin, when it is finished,
bringeth forth death. Don't go down that path. There's
a lot of young people today. They got their whole life ahead
of them. And they're making decisions that are ungodly. Where are the
godly seniors that would stand up and say, this is not right.
We need to get a generation that fears God again. We've got ungodliness
in our schools. In Glasgow this past week, the
teachers are talking about, what do we do? It's so dangerous for
us to be teaching because the kids are unruly and there's no
discipline that we can effectively give because the government's
taken away the opportunity for teachers to discipline, for parents
to discipline. What can we do? And the answer
is nothing except get on our knees and begin to seek God and
repent of our sin and understand that we need a God-fearing generation. The greatest need in Scotland
is not health. The greatest need in Scotland
is not economics. The greatest need is not anything
to do with the climate. The greatest need is Jesus Christ
in the hearts of people again here in this nation that used
to be a Christian nation, that back in the 1800s was a Christian
nation. like no other nation in the streets
of Edinburgh here in 1905, that the Redeemed Drunkards Band would
come out on the streets down at the other end, they would
testify about what God had done in their life in setting them
free, and the Edinburgh newspaper reported that a religion that
can change an ungodly man like this is a godly father, is a
good husband, is a religion worth having. We know nothing of that
in this time. I don't know how many people
that would pass by today would be able to stand up and say,
I'm born again. I've received Jesus Christ in my favor. Of
those, I wonder how many would stand up and say, Ben, I'm unashamed
of God. I'm unashamed to pray in public.
I'm unashamed to take a stand and say, I believe God. I'm unashamed
to stand against all the ungodliness that is in our day, the sexual
perversion that's out there, and the killing of babies in
the wombs of their mothers. I'm unashamed to identify with
Christ. But there ought to be a generation that would step
up and say, I believe God. Well, where's that generation?
Where are those people that are going to humble their heart before
a holy God, before it's too late, get right with God, so that when
they stand before God someday, they don't have to be ashamed,
they don't have to be afraid, but they can have boldness before
God, because they've received Jesus Christ, and the blood of
the Son of God has cleansed their heart from their sin, so that
a person like that can lay their head on their pillow at night,
and know for sure that if they die, they're going to heaven,
because they have received God's gift of everlasting life. You
know, Jesus even said to a religious man, he said to that man Nicodemus,
he said, you must be born again. But a lot of times I'll even
speak to religious people and I'll ask them that question,
have you been born again? And they kind of laugh about
it. But the Bible says, Jesus said, except the man be born
again, he will in no life enter into the kingdom of heaven. Somebody
has to have spiritual birth. They have to have spiritual life.
It's given to them by God when they personally put their faith
in Jesus Christ. Your friend, has there ever been
a time in your life when you've humbled your heart? And you've gotten
on your knees before God, and you've prayed that sinner's prayer
to God. Dear God, I am a sinner, but your Son, Jesus Christ, died
for me. Will you please forgive me of
my sin and save me and give me your gift of everlasting life?
You might wonder today, Ben, how does salvation take place?
The Bible says salvation takes place by faith. We've got to
come to that point where we believe what God says about His Son.
That His Son, Jesus Christ, died on the cross for our sins. And
again, people can laugh about it, but they won't be laughing
when they stand before a holy God. They won't be laughing as they're
cast into hell for all eternity. Those people that are like that
are going to look back and they're going to think this. I had that
opportunity to think about God in life. I had that opportunity
to repent of my sin. I had the opportunity to put
my faith in Jesus Christ, but I wasted it. And sadly, someday
when Jesus Christ comes, there's going to be a fearful terror
in the heart of that person where they will cry out, my God, my
God, it is too late, too late for me to accept Jesus Christ
as my Savior. Praise God, if you can hear me
today, it's not too late. It's too late when you die. When
you stand before God and you give an account to Him, it's
too late. You can't go back and say, God, I want a do-over. It's
too late when you stand at the judgment. But in life, it's not
too late. If you can hear me, it's not
too late. You can accept Christ. You can believe in God. You can
come to faith. You know, there's a scripture
in 1 Thessalonians. It says this about the wicked
who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence
of the Lord and from the glory of his power. The glory of God's
power is this, that right now in life, he has the opportunity
and ability to save anybody. But when somebody goes to hell,
it's too late. That person in hell cannot cry
out to God and say, God, deliver me from hell. That's too late. And so the opportunity is now.
There's a lot of people that are busy. They're busy with life.
They're busy with things. They've got their work. They've
got their schedule. They've got their family. They've got their sports.
Sunday, as the buses have advertised, is fun day to most people in
this world. But listen, Sunday is the Lord's day. Sunday is
the day to stop as a family and to say, if you're going to worship
God, to stop as a godly dad or a godly mom and say, we're going
to go to church and we're going to listen to preach about God.
Friend, are you doing that with your family? As a dad or as a
mom, have you begun to pick up the Bible and say, you know what?
We're going to do something different. We're going to read the Bible.
We're coming up to Christmas. It would be an awesome thing as
a godly parent to pick up the Bible and say, we're going to
look at Luke 2 in the Bible. We're going to read about the
birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. We're going to read about those
angels that came, that testified, said, unto you is born this day
in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And
now those shepherds went down to that place in Bethlehem and
saw the Son of God, Jesus Christ, as a babe in the manger. It would
be great at Christmas time for parents to pick up that Bible
and to begin to read it with kids and to tell them, look,
there is a God. The world is teaching our children
that there is no God. There's no hope. There's no peace. There's no joy. There's no one
that can really intervene in your life. Praise God that's
not true. Because there is a God. And because
there is a God, there's hope. And because there's a God, there's
justice. And because there's a God, He loves you today. And
He's reaching out to you today. And He's trying to convince you
in your heart to pick up a Bible, to begin to read it, and begin
to think about God, and give God a chance in your life. I
admit, we live in an ungodly day. I'll tell you this, probably
95% or better of Scots did not go to church this past Sunday.
Churches are empty, but the shopping is full. Churches are empty,
but the wicked venues are full. What a sad day we live in. And
again, people can laugh about it, but the profanity and the
undoubtedness of our day is grievous to the sexual perversion and
the fact that sex is like one of the main topics on the telly.
Sex is one of the main topics on the news. I mean, it's just
continual. It's not just sex. It is wicked, vile, perverse
sex. And it's being pumped into our
schools. It's being pumped across the telly. We've got an undoubted
government that's standing up against this undoubtedness. Where
is the generation? Where's the generation that's
going to get on their knees and say, dear God, we ought to be
ashamed. We ought to blush because of the deep ungodliness of our
society. Somebody comes out of the closet
and says, I'm a sexual perverse person. And people pat him on
the back. They bow down to them. They say,
hey, that's great. We ought to be embarrassed. other
generations, did they step up and say, we gotta talk about
sex all the time, we gotta put that in front of our kids all
the time? And even in speaking about it, as I preach about it,
I hope a lot of people go, what is that guy talking about? Because
it's such an offensive topic, but our society has embraced
perversion as no other society before it. Where's the people
that can bow their heads and blush and say, I'm ashamed of
the ungodliness of this day. I'm ashamed of the ungodliness
against Christ, against God, the hatred for God, the hatred
for the Creator-Designer that gave us life, that desires to
give us His gift of everlasting life. Again, praise God, John
3.16, for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have everlasting life. God is not against you, God is
for you, but God is against your sin. I can't preach that strong
enough out here this morning, that there's not a sin in our
life that's defensible before God. The Bible says, though hands
run in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished. The Bible says God is angry with
the wicked every day. Because they're sinning, and
that sin separates them from God. That sin separates them
from God's gift of everlasting life. That sin is going to take
them to eternity in a lake of fire. That sin destroys God's
creation. God is not against you, but God
is against your sin. That's why He sent His Son, Jesus
Christ, to die on His cross for your sins. He sent His Son to
pay the price for your sins. He sent His Son because He loves
you. He sent His Son because He cares for you. He sent His
Son to be the Savior of the world. You know, the angels, when they
came, unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior,
which is Christ the Lord. Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace, goodwill toward men. They cried out and
they rejoiced in the Son of God. Why? Because He came to pay the
price for our sin, to reconcile man to God. But it's only through
Christ. It's not through a religion.
Religion doesn't do anything for anybody. Religion is empty. By the way, this book is what
stands in judgment upon a religion. You might have heard that the
Church of Scotland has come out and they've edited the Bible.
They've changed the Bible. They've said sin is okay. That
God says is not okay. They haven't changed it in God's
Word. They've changed it in their church.
And ministers that do that ought to, again, bow their heads in
shame. They ought to be embarrassed to stand up and say God says
something that God does not say. The Bible says that sexuality
is reserved for marriage, and it's between one man and one
woman for life. He's the creator. He's the designer.
He's the one that gives us the laws about marriage. He's the
one that gives us the laws about family. He's the one that puts
that precious life into the womb of that mother. That baby that's
there. By the way, I saw a news article
this past week about a 24-week-old baby that lived. Praise God. And that mother was excited because
they said, chances are that baby's going to die, but no, it lived.
Now think about this. They killed babies at 24 weeks.
They killed babies at 25 weeks. They killed babies at 26 weeks,
at 27 weeks, at 28 weeks. At 29 weeks, if that baby survives
that abortion, they'll often lay it down and it will die on
the table. And they act as if they've done
no wrong, and yet the Bible says there's blood guiltiness in their
hands because they have shed innocent blood. Again, where's
the generation that'll stand up and say, you know what, Ben,
I believe the Bible. I believe what God says. And I don't care
what anybody else says. I'm going to stand with God.
Where's the generation that will do that, that will identify with
their Savior, that Son of God that died on the cross? People
think, well, hey, Christianity should be popular. People ought
to come up and pat you on the back and say, hey, that's great
that you're a Christian. And I love the idea about churches.
But the fact is, think about the Savior, Jesus Christ. They
took Him and they crucified Him. And if they treated our Lord
that way, why wouldn't they treat his children that way? If you
want some scripture about that, read the book of John and get
to John chapter 15. And Jesus said, marvel not if the world
hates you, it hates me. If somebody really stands with
the truth of the Word of God, they're going to be despised.
I'll just tell you today, I'm not ashamed of a single word
in this book. It is an inspired Bible that God has given to us.
It is God's Word. And God meant every word of it.
God has not edited it. God has not changed it. Our government
can try to change it. Our schools can try to change
it. Our churches can try to change it. But the Word of God stands.
Forever, O Lord, Thy Word is settled in the heaven. So what
do we need to do as men? We need to take this book, this
precious book, and begin to read it. I begin to believe it. And
to begin to understand that that's what God says. It doesn't matter
what the Scottish government says. It doesn't matter what
the educators say. It doesn't matter what ungodly man says. What matters is what God says.
Oh, for a generation now, get on your knees before God and
say, Dear God, forgive us. We have turned our back on you.
We have acted as if you do not exist. We haven't thanked you.
We haven't praised you. We've just been doing our own
thing all these years and acting as if there is no God. God, forgive us. We acted as
if your son, Jesus Christ, was nobody. We turned our back on
him. We laughed at him. We mocked
him. We despised him. God, forgive us. God, forgive
us because we worship at the pub instead of at the church.
God forgive us because we're abusing the bodies that you've
given to us by taking things into them and abusing them, acting
as if we have no responsibility to you for what we've been given.
God forgive us for the sexual perversion and just today it
being said, you can have sex with anybody as long as it's
not a minor. Just have a way at it. Fornication is okay. Homosexuality
is okay. And God forgive us. God, forgive
us for saying divorce is okay. Wrecking families, destroying
families. God, forgive us. God, forgive us for our lies
that we say. No big deal. They're just white
lies. God, forgive us. God, forgive us for that alcohol,
for the cigarettes, for that addiction, that intoxication
that makes us violent, that makes us hurt our families, that makes
us abuse our marriage, abuse our children, abuse our society. God, forgive us. God, forgive
us for those fights that take place on the streets because
of alcohol. God, forgive us for the idolatry of sports and acting
as if sport is our God and bowing down to it and being so religious
to it. God, forgive us. God, forgive
us for being that person that just works and works and works.
I've got no time for God. I've got time for family. I've
got time for my priorities, but I've got no time for God. God,
forgive us. God, forgive us for using profanity,
for taking our lips and speaking so freely and so wickedly and
so defiled women as well as children, as well as men. God, forgive
us. God, forgive us for taking your precious name, the name
of the Son of God, the name of the man that died on the cross
for sin and using it like a curse word, using it like it's the
worst word. God, forgive us. God, forgive
us for dressing as if we're just naked animals and walking around
without clothes on and being so immodest and indecent. God,
forgive us for putting pornography onto the screens and putting
all the ungodliness onto the telly. God, forgive us. God,
forgive us for being so ignorant of who God is and, again, walking
through life as if there is no God and just living a life that's
blasphemous against God, cursing God, laughing about God. God,
forgive us. God, forgive us for ignoring
the book that you've given to us, the precious book, the Word
of God, the Word that speaks above all books to the needs
that are in our life and acting as if it does not exist. God,
forgive us. God, forgive us for editing it,
for taking pages out of it, ripping them, tearing them out and saying
that sin is okay and saying that God says that sin is okay. God,
forgive us. God, forgive us for Being somebody
that thinks as long as I don't hurt somebody else, I can just
do whatever I want to do. As long as it doesn't bother
me, that's fine. That's humanism. That is God. Forgive us. You
know, praise God. There's a God in heaven that
looks at us today and honestly, if in our heart, we would bow
before God and begin to repent of our sin and begin to cry out
to God, He is the God that will give us His gift of everlasting
life. And again, I wholeheartedly say
to us this morning that God is a God that is not against us,
He's for us. He's against our sin because
our sin separates us from God. Our sin is the very thing that's
going to take us to eternity in the lake of fire. Our sin
is the thing that crucified the Son of God. You know, people
today that think, surely God's not going to cast somebody into
a lake of fire. Surely sin isn't that bad. They ought to look
at the cross and what Jesus Christ did because of their sin. The
crucifixion of Christ shows us what the wrath of God looks like
when it falls upon mankind. It looks like a God-forsaken,
stripped man, abused and beaten and bloodied and suffering for
sin. We praise God today that Savior
did that for us. And I'm not ashamed of the old
rugged cross, and I'm not ashamed of the Savior, the Son of God,
Jesus Christ, that died on that cross for my sin. I praise God
that there was a time in my life where I bowed my heart before
a holy God, and I said, Dear God, I'm not worthy of your gift
of everlasting life, but I recognize that your son, Jesus Christ,
when he died on the cross, he paid the price for my sin. I
got on my knees as a young man, and I bowed my head, and I received
Jesus Christ as my Lord. I can tell you today, I don't
wonder if there is a God. I don't think there is a God.
I know there is a God, because I personally put my faith in
Jesus Christ. I've received God's gift of everlasting
life. That doesn't make me better than
you, it just means this, when we stand before God, if you don't
have what I have, when you die, you'll spend eternity in a lake
of fire. Because you don't have Christ. But you don't have to
die that way. Nobody has to be godless. Nobody
has to continue in unbelief. And again, people would often
say to me, Ben, I could never believe it. How do I come to
faith? The Bible says, faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. It comes by us looking
at the Scriptures and recognizing what God did for us. He created
us. He designed us. He is Lawgiver.
He is Judge. He is Savior, because the Son
of God again came and He died on the cross for our sin. Friend,
have you ever had the blood apply? Has there ever been a time in
your life where you humbled your heart, you bowed before God and said,
Dear God, I'm a sinner. I don't deserve your gift of
everlasting life, but your son Jesus died for me. I bow my head
right now and I receive you as my Savior. Can I tell you today
that salvation is not something that you grow into? It's not
a process, but it's a crisis. like somebody out on the 4th
and 4th that is rescued by the helicopter and the winchman comes
down and puts that rope around that person. As soon as the rope
is around that person, they are saved. That's what salvation
is. It's a point in time. It could
be today for you, my friend, if you'd humble your heart and
receive Jesus Christ as your Savior. It's a point in time. He wants to die, but after that,
the judgment. But Jesus Christ came to seek and to save. That
was what's lost. Are you lost today? Are you lost
in your sin? You're waking up and going, why
am I like this? Why am I living a life of fornication?
Why am I living a life of gambling addiction? Why am I living a
life addicted to cigarettes, addicted to alcohol, addicted
to drugs, addicted to sin? Why am I living a life like this?
It might trouble you in your heart if you're honest about
it. But listen, Jesus Christ came to seek and to save that
which was lost. His salvation is not just spiritual.
His salvation is also physical. There are people that by the
grace of God have been set free from drugs, alcohol, sexual addictions,
lies addictions, embezzling addictions, stealing addictions. God set
men free. There was a man that was in Al
Capone's gang in Chicago. That man became a devout Christian.
That man would go into the prisons. He would preach about Jesus Christ.
You know, the gang would come and laugh at him as a street
sweeper on the streets of Chicago. But that man turned his life
to God. You know, where's the person that will step up and
say, my mates are going to laugh at me, my friends are going to
laugh at me, but you know what? I'm going to go to church. I'm
going to pick up a Bible. I'm going to begin to think about
God because life's too short and life's too real. It's not
worth going to hell because of what my friends think. It's not
worth going to hell because of my drugs, or my addiction, or
my sexual perversion, or my sin that's against God. It's not
worth going to hell for that. And so, I'm going to start seeking
God. I'm going to start picking up a Bible, reading about God.
Again, the Bible says, Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing
by the Word of God. Is somebody just picking up that
Bible, beginning to read it, and beginning to understand that
there's a God? Yes, He's against sin, but He's for the sinner. And He wants to take away that
sin, wants to take away the punishment of that sin, wants to take away
your eternity in a lake of fire. He wants you to have your name
written in the land's book of life. You can read about that
in the book of Revelation. Again, there's a lot of people,
they say, Ben, how do I believe the Bible? Well, let me just
say about the Bible, it's written over 1,500 years. It's written
by 44 human authors. It's 66 books, and they all agree. The printing press was designed
to print Bibles. The Bible is outsold every book
every year. It's been translated into more
languages than any other book, and it's about the most famous
person in human history, that person is Jesus Christ. All of
that ought to make somebody stop and think, you know what, maybe
I should pick up that book and begin to read it. Read about
the Savior, who the Bible says a thousand years before it took
place, in Psalm 22, they pierced His hands and His feet. They
cast lots, they gambled for his vesture, his clothing. But God
said that way before it happened. Why did it take place? Why was
the Son of God crucified? Jesus Christ was crucified for
our sins. My friend, God loves you. His
Son, Jesus Christ, died for you. My prayer today is that God will
work in your heart, that you begin to think about God. Maybe
you're a God-fearing person, that you begin to pray for Edinburgh
and ask God for revival. Ask God to shake this nation. Ask God to awaken this nation.
By the way, God's trying. When is the last time our world
had a pandemic that shut everything down? Shouldn't we stop and think,
well, maybe God's trying to get our attention? When has the economy
been like this before? All these things, Brexit, and
the political upheaval, and all these things taking place, ought
to make us realize that God is trying to get our attention.
God is trying to wake us up. Why? Because man, as never before,
is raising the flag of ungodliness against the Holy God. Or would
the God that this nation would repent? Father, I pray for Scotland. I pray the Spirit of God would
awaken the hearts of her people. I pray, dear God, that there
would be believers that would rise up and begin to pray for
this nation, begin to pray through a Bible. Father, I pray for a
people that would begin to open the book, the Bible, and begin
to read it, and begin to understand that there's a God in heaven
that loves them, that sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross
for their sin. Father, I do ask for a revival.
Father, an awakening that would shake this nation, that would
shake this nation to its core, that this nation would get on
its knees again before God. In Christ's name I pray. Amen.
Street Preaching 13
Series Street Preaching
Proclaiming Christ on Princess St. Edinburgh, 29 November.
| Sermon ID | 112922143212942 |
| Duration | 41:46 |
| Date | |
| Category | Open-Air Ministry |
| Language | English |
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