Maybe somebody here handling today like a copy of God's work, his written work, offered to you quite freely. yours simply and only for the taking. It's God's written word and of course written that you might believe and that believing that Jesus is the Son of God that you might have life eternal that is in his name. A copy of God's word offered to you quite freely. No cost, no obligation to you. you would like one, do feel free to come and ask for one. Gladly place into your hand. Once again, this afternoon, and Hanley, to bring to your attention the good news, the gospel, the glad tidings, that is, that there is a Savior, there is one able to deliver us from the chaos, the calamity and of course the tragedy of human sin, which of course we're all involved because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. None of us who have reached the target, none of us who have even aimed for the target, all come short, all miss the target. But there's a way back to God from the dark and miserable, miserable path of sin. A way out of it, and a way into the grace and the glory of God. Hear the word of God for you this afternoon in Hanley. But after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared. not by works of righteousness which ye have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour. We, after the kindness and love of God our Saviour, It is because of the kindness and because of the love of God that we have a Savior. For God, says the Bible, so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that those within that world to believe Whosoever believeth shall not perish, but have everlasting life through Jesus Christ, the only Saviour. After that, the kindness, the mere kindness of God, no pressure at all upon God to send us a Saviour. No pressure on God to do anything about Our sin, our wickedness, and the mess and ruin that we've brought upon ourselves by our sin. No compulsion on God's part at all, merely out of His kindness, the great merciful kindness of God. He sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world, a gift to the world. And what did we do with Him? What did we do with God's precious, precious gift? We took Him and we nailed Him to a cross. Yes, yes, we were all there. Our sins nailed the Son of God to the cross. Guilty to a man, to a woman. All sin, all come short of the glory of God. All missed the target completely. But God in His kindness, merciful kindness, has provided us with a Savior and a way back from the dark, dark path of sin. After the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward the men, appeared in this world the Son of God. came down all the way from Heaven's glory into this sin-cursed world, this swamp of human sin, and that in order to rescue you from it, to get you out of this swamp, all the filth and muck and mire of human sin. The Son of God appeared. The Savior appeared. He came in the love and kindness of God. down into this world, that through Him that you might be saved. And how does a person receive this salvation? How does a person come to acquire this salvation? Simply by the reception of faith. Simply by believing. Believing is knowing, and knowing is believing. And knowing God and Jesus Christ, whom He sent, is eternal life, receiving, believing, not the deeds of your hands, not by works, He says, not by works of righteousness which you have done. For the righteous works that you have done are nonexistent, nothing to offer to God, Nothing at all. No good works at all. Oh, people, they tell me that they're good. They tell me that they're okay. I'm a good person, they say. God says no. He says there's none good, and there's none that does good, and there's none righteous. No, not one. So we have no works of righteousness in which we can offer to God. We have no goodness. The very opposite. We were, each and every one of us, conceived in sin. We were born nine months later, came into the world shaped and formed in iniquity and lawlessness, and have lived that way all our days since first we were conceived. live and shall die in sin and be lost for all eternity. But for the grace, the kindness and the love of God in sending us a Savior and coming as our Savior appearing in this world, the great God, the I Am, the Almighty, took upon Himself our nature, became a man that is and walked upon this earth, lived in love, died upon that cross, came, sent specifically for that purpose, that reason, to die on that cross because the sin, well, it must be punished. God can be merciful, kind and forgiving, dismiss our sins, pass them by, forgive them, cast them into the depths of the sea, but yet still, Still, He's a just judge. The sin must be punished. Somebody, somebody must take the punishment. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, came, lived and loved and died upon that cross to take the punishment Himself that was due to a sinner such as you. Died upon that cross. took the sin, took the curse, the wrath, the punishment in full, paid it all. Upon that cross, the Son of God was wounded, stricken of God, smitten of God for the sins of this world, in order that you might be a recipient of the mercy, the kindness, and the love of God. that you might not perish in your sin, that you might not die in your sin and go to a lost eternity forever and ever, where the smoke of their torment arises up forever and ever. Something I tell you to be saved from your sin, your iniquity, your transgressions, your lawless deeds, your rebellion against your Maker, and the consequence of the death that will come to you one day, for it is appointed unto man once to die, inevitable. Surely, as I'm standing here today, you will die one day, you will breathe your last, and you will go out of this world. But that's not the finish, that's not the end of it. After that, falling on its heels, comes the justice of God. It is appointed unto man who wants to die after that. Then comes the justice, then comes the judgment. And then, without the grace of God, then comes hell. The torments of hell, forever and ever. unless by the kindness and love and mercy of God you're redeemed by my gospel, my Savior sent by his Father into this world to die and rise again from the dead in order that you might be forgiven, in order that you might be freely justified before God. To justify somebody is to make them right. And you need making right because you're not right. You're wrong. You're the very opposite of right. Right with God is righteousness. God only is righteous. We are unrighteous by nature, unholy, ungodly, unfit for God, for life, and for heaven. We need justifying. We need making right. And the only way by which a person can be made right with God is by faith receiving the Gospel, receiving the gift of God, eternal life through Jesus Christ, the only Saviour. not by works of righteousness, He says, which we have done. Because that which we have done, you have done, is unacceptable in the sight of God. Your very best efforts, says God, they are like filthy rags in His sight, untouchable, unacceptable, unholy, defiled everything about you. And all that you say, do and think is all painted smeared and defiled with sin and so therefore totally unacceptable to a righteous and holy God. So if not by works of righteousness, of which you have none, if not by works of righteousness, well how? Well he says by the washing of regeneration, not the religion that is. According to the mercy of God, He saves men and women by the washing of regeneration. It's what Jesus said. You must be born again, regenerated. I say to you and keep saying to you week after week, religion's not enough. You can do that yourself. You don't need anybody. You don't need God's help to be religious. Just go to the mosque, the synagogue, the temple. They'll make you religious. Just agree to their tenets and you'll be one of them. No problem. The wickedest, the vilest, of course, can be religious. The wicked evil man, the murderer, the manslayer, the filthy sexually immoral. can go to the priest and receive absolution from him. Just enter into his box and mutter your crimes and he'll grant you the absolution. Contrary, of course, to what Jesus Christ says, that he and he alone has the authority to say to anybody, your sins be forgiven you. That power is not in any priest on this earth. That power is not in any Imam, any Pope, any religious order whatsoever. No, no, my friends, only Jesus Christ has the power, the authority to say to you, your sins are forgiven. So religion, you see, my friends, all the religion in the world will not do. Not at all. Just your doing, that's all. And your doing, what's that worth? Does your religion, let me ask you, does your religion, if you're religious, does your religion take the filthy lust out of your hearts? Huh? Does it take the covetous greed out of your heart? Does it change your heart? Does it make you a better, does it make you a good person, a kind, a merciful person? Does it cause you and make you to, your heart to burn with love towards God and towards His Son, Jesus Christ? Is that what your religion does for you? No, I don't think so. I don't think so. It just leaves you as you are because it's just of the flesh. Yes, sir. How you doing? Yeah? Okay, good. And you, sir? And you, sir? Have a good day, yeah? No, it doesn't change anything. It doesn't change a person's heart. Because it's the heart that's the heart of the problem. And why Jesus says to you, you must be born again, except a man be born again. The washing of regeneration. Not made religious, but resurrected. Dead in your trespasses and sins, says God. Not a little bit dead. Not a big bit dead. but totally, completely dead, as far as God's concerned. Dead in your trespasses and sins, because that's what sin does to people, you see. It kills them. It brought sin and death into the world. Adam, the first man, the head of the human race, he sinned and brought sin and death upon the rest of us. And so, here you are. Dead, dead and maybe even religiously dead. Dead religion is no cure for a dead corpse. Dead religion can't make a corpse alive, can't resurrect anybody or anything. Muhammad himself is dead. Just like John Brown, he lies a-molding in his grave. Muhammad is dead. Jesus Christ is alive and alive forevermore. The Savior sent into the world to die on that cross and overcome death, send death and help to conquer it. Alive and alive forevermore. And those who believe and trust in Him get life eternal also. They too shall never die. But religion, religion, your works won't do that for you. You're going to church. Many, many people sit in churches week after week, all their lives long, dead as dead can be. Never heard the gospel in many of your churches in your land today, because the vicars, the priests, and the preachers are all just as dead as the occupants of the pews. No, no dead religion will not cut it. You must needs be made alive first of all. till God breathes the breath of life into your soul, till He gives you eternal life in the name of His Son, Jesus Christ. You see, you must, says Jesus, you must inherit it. You must be born again. What do you do with the dead cocks? Go, if you will, go to the local cemetery. Cry out to them. Come out of the graves. Nothing they can do. Nothing at all that you can do, dead as dead can be, and that's you, in your trespasses and sin. Only God and Jesus Christ can make you alive, resurrect you. I am the way, the truth and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me, says Jesus. He is the resurrection and the life. He alone can give you life. That's what the gospel is about, my friend. It's not about religion at all. It's not about your doing. It's not about anything that you can do. It's about God putting life into your soul. I ask you, you religious this afternoon, does it matter what the brand name? might be, whether it be popery or whether it be Islam. You're religious here this afternoon. Let me ask you, do you have the divine life in your soul? Do you have the life of God in you? The love of God in your heart? If you have it, may I suggest to you respectfully that you take your religion and you bin it. You cast it from you because it's of no value to you. None at all. You must be born again, says Jesus. There's no other way by which you can enter the kingdom of God. No other way by which you can even begin to understand. Get it, grasp it, see. The kingdom of God, except a man be born again, says Jesus. He cannot see, perceive, understand, that is, remains a fairy tale to you. Why you smile, why you sneer, why you mock, why you laugh and jeer as you go past, because you just don't get it, understand it, and you never will until God switches the light on. breathes the breath of life into you, switches the light on, illuminates, gives you understanding. Then you say, now I see, now I understand, now I get it, what a sinner I am, how awful dreadful my sin is and how I need to be rid of it. And then, and then, and only then do you see the One who's able, able to take that sin away. And His name is Jesus, the One, the only One who died on a cross to save you from that sin, who shed His blood, who died that you might live, and who lives forever that you might live forever. you begin to see your need of Him, and when you begin to see the reality of your sin, and the reality of what Jesus did, then and only then I tell you, you'll be willing to swim shark-infested waters to get to Jesus Christ, because only He can save you from it, save you from the wrath that lies upon you because of your sin, and relieve you of it, lift the curse from off you, Take away the wrath of God, that's what He came for. And the mercy and love of God, that's what He came for. And that's what He did, that's what He accomplished. He accomplished that which you cannot do. Died the death that you ought to die and lives the life, the life now that could be yours for trusting, for believing. resting in Jesus Christ, the person of the Son of God. The washing of regeneration made a new creature. That's what counts as God. Not religion and not religious activity. It's a new life. It's a new creature being made all over again because that's what's necessary, my dear friend. The old you is no good. The old you needs to be discarded. You were conceived and you were born in sin and lived in sin. All your days you need to be made all over again. Maybe sometimes you look at yourself in the mirror and you think to yourself, you wish that you were somebody else. Well, that's what I wish for you. That God would make you somebody else. That He would make you a new creature. that your old self taken and nailed to the cross where Jesus bled and died and raised again, raised again to a new life, a new heart. One that no longer hates God and hates your neighbor, but one that loves God and loves your neighbor. Summoned substance of all, of all God's commandments says Jesus. Love for God, love for your neighbor, but you do the very opposite. You can't help yourself, so help you because you're nature. You came into the world with a sinful nature, out of which can only come that which is naturally sinful. Everything about you. Hating God. All the good gifts that He gives you. Intellectual gifts. skills, all the good things that God gives you, what do you use them for? For your own glory and your own pleasure. You use them in the service of sin. It's not what you are made for. It's not what you are given being for. You are made to fear God and glorify Him. Stand in awe of God and glorify Him. You've come short. You've come short of the glory. Come short of the standard that God has set for you. What is that standard? The target that God has set. Perfect holiness. Perfection and holiness. No such a man, no such a woman ever walked the face of this earth. Save Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Not that you've just missed the target, but you set up another target. God requires of you that you should glorify Him. But what do you do? You set up another target. Your own glory, your own pleasure, your own sinful wickedness. And my friends, unless you be born again, Unless God changes your heart, changes your nature, not something you can do. You must be born again, born of God. Not of the flesh, not of the human will, says God. Not of him that willeth or him that worketh, but of God. God must do it. How does He do it? Through the preaching of the Gospel. That's what I'm doing here today. by the power of His Spirit, convicting men and women of their sin, bringing them to a sense and awareness of the reality of their sin, seeing, understanding, hearing that there's a way back to God from the dark path of sin, that you might be brought to that place of crying out to Him calling upon the Son of God that He have mercy, mercy upon your soul, that He would cause you to be born again, that He would come to you in mercy and kindness and love, and cause you, cause you to be changed. A new creature is what God requires. Thank you, Pastor. You too. So, according to His mercy, He saves. He saves men and women lost in sin. I tell you the worst, I tell you the best. Whatever you've been doing, whatever you've been about, whoever you've been sleeping with however long, there's mercy with God the moment that a sinner truly believes in Jesus. That same moment At same moment of pardon, they receive saved salvation. Not religion, regeneration. Not religion, resurrection. Not religion, salvation. It's salvation that you need, saving from a certain and known danger. That is your sinful heart, your sinful nature, and all the sinful deeds that come from that sinful nature of yours. You must needs be washed and made clean. filthy, dirty, defiled, unclean before God, unacceptable to Him, separated from Him by your iniquities, and one day to be separated from Him for all eternity, unless you're reconciled to Him. Saved. He saved. by His Son, Jesus Christ, sent into the world to die on that cross, to spill His blood upon that cross, in order that you might be washed and made clean. His blood, you see, the only commodity that will wash away the stain, the defilement of your sin, that keeps you from Almighty God, from your Maker, your Best Good, the fountain of all good, the overflowing fountain of all good, God himself. Your filthy stains, your mucky stains upon your soul, your sin, your defilement can be washed away with the precious blood of the Lamb. Go where you will. Any religion you choose, any store department you like, ask them for some commodity that will wash away the stain of your sin. They'll laugh you out of the place. Not even the habit can provide you with that. They have no bloodshed there. They have no sacrifice for sin there. They can't help you. They can't remove the deep-dyed stain from your soul. Impossible! Without the shedding of blood, says Moses, there can be no remission, no forgiveness of sin. The blood had to be shed. There had to be a death. Somebody had to die. Somebody had to pay the price. And that one is Jesus Christ. The Lamb of God was taken away the sin of the world. He was offered up to God. His blood was shed. His blood was spilled. In order that you might be washed and made clean. The only commodity, I tell you, the powerful blood of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, able to wash away all the filth and muck and mire of your sin, however young or however old you be, wash it all away in His precious blood and make you clean and white as snow. Come now and let us reason together, saith the Lord. Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow. Washed and made clean, reckoned righteous before God, and the enablement to stand before Him. In that day of judgment, righteous altogether, not because of yourselves, Not because of what you have done, but because of what Jesus has done. Because of the person of Jesus, and because of the work of Jesus. His living, His loving, His dying, His rising. Because of what Jesus has done, reckoned to be righteous in the eyes of God. You see, in that day when you stand before God in judgment, and you must We must all appear before the judgment throne of God. That will happen. That will happen. However young or old you live to be, you stand before God in judgment, and you stand there in your own righteousness, in your own filthy rags, God will blow you away for all eternity. Depart from me, ye workers of iniquity, he will say. Get out of my sight, I never knew you. But trusting in Jesus, washed in His precious blood and made clean, righteous by faith in the Son of God, trusting, trusting in the person, trusting in the work of another, even Jesus. On that day, saved for time and for eternity, Well done, he will say, my good and faithful servants. My friends, faith in Jesus Christ, believing in the Son of God, His, His work not yours, His righteousness not yours, renewed by the power of God's Holy Spirit made altogether new. which He and He alone can shed upon you abundantly through Jesus Christ, my Savior, only through Him. There is no other. There is no other Savior. There is no other who died for sinners. There is no Pope who ever died for sinners. Mohammed didn't die for sinners. Nor Buddha, nor Confucius, nor Charles Darwin either. You see, whatever your religion be, whoever you are, you're all religious to a man. You've all got your own gods, the gods of your imagination. Islam, evolutionism, Roman Catholicism, Buddhism, Confucianism, all the same. Useless, dead religion that does not save only through Jesus Christ, my Savior, being justified by His grace. It's what He came for. The law came by Moses, says the Bible, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. That grace that He would impart to you by faith, The grace of God, the free gratis of God, that is. Free, you see. You can't be religious for it. You can't pay for it. You can't do anything for it. Or it's no longer grace. It's no longer free. It's freely given and freely received. Grace. Grace. Through Jesus Christ, my Savior. the only mediator, the only saviour, the only way back to God from the dark, dark, grievous path, path of sin. Justified, made right by grace, by the free gift of God. The wages of sin is death, death, death hangs over you. All your life, all your existence rather, And all your achievements, all your works, all your pleasures, all your delights, they're all spoiled because of the shadow hangs over you constantly every day of your life. You're going to die. It's all you've got to live for, exist for, without Jesus Christ. You have but one life. and you're going to die, and that hangs over you. You live in the valley of the shadow of death. That shadow hangs over you, spoils everything about your existence. Without Jesus Christ, you have but one life, and you cling to it. With all your might, you cling to it. Do everything you possibly can to preserve it. But death will come. Death will come. That day will come when the grim reaper will come to you and slip his slimy fingers around your soul and draw it out of your body and return it to God who will judge you. Unless you have another life, Eternal life, that is, everlasting life through Jesus Christ, my Savior, justified by His grace, freely justified, freely made right with God, and enabled to live and to live forever, made heirs according to the hope of eternal life, The gospel is good news for hopeless sinners, sinners that have no hope, that only have death to look forward to and nothing else. Hope for you, hope that won't disappoint, hope that won't fail you, but a sure, a concrete hope because of the Savior who came. and loved and died, and rose again from the dead, who's alive and alive forevermore, and gives life eternal to those who hear and who follow them. My sheep, he says, they hear my voice. Do you hear his voice today, or do you just hear the voice of a man? My sheep, they hear my voice. Maybe perhaps, as Jesus said to the Jews, perhaps the reason you don't hear His voice is because you're not one of His sheep. But if you are, you will hear His voice. My sheep, they hear my voice, and they obey me, and they follow me, and I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish. His sheep. He only died for His sheep. He didn't die for everybody. He died for His own sheep. Those His Father gave to Him. And those that the Father draws to Him. No man, He says, can come to Me unless except the Father who sent Me draws them. You must be drawn to the Saviour. How does He draw men and women? How does He draw His sheep to the Savior? Well, by the preaching of the gospel. He causes His sheep to hear His voice. And why the gospel? It's a nuisance. I understand it's a nuisance. It's aggravating to the goats. But you see, the gospel must be preached in all the world. Because the sheep must hear His voice, and be saved, come to Him, and receive eternal life. It's by God's command, the Gospel to be preached in all the world. And until that happens, the end shall not come, but when it does happen, then the end shall come. And it will be judgment time. And if you're not found in Jesus, you're in serious trouble. Your religion won't cover you then. Your works of righteousness that you claim will not cover you then. Nothing but the blood, nothing but the blood of Jesus. What will wash away my stain? The hymn writer says and he answers, nothing but the blood of Jesus. What will make me whole again? He says, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? You must be. Whoever, whatever you are today, if you're not washed in the precious blood of the Lamb of God. In that day when you stand before God in judgment, that will be a terrible, terrible day, I tell you, of retribution. Now the Bible says, even now as I speak to you, now says God, His wrath is revealed from heaven against all the ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth, hold down the truth in unrighteousness and wickedness. Wrath of God, I tell you. Oh, the fury of God upon this generation of sinners. What a wicked generation is this. What apostasy departure from God there is in your land, in your nation. What ungodliness, what wickedness, what perversion of human sexuality, heathen religion, idolatry, wickedness to the uttermost. this ungodly generation. In that day, in that day, when you stand before the judgment throne of God, you give account, you give account in that day for every idle word, every idle word that you've ever spoken. I bid you flee The present wrath of God and the wrath to come. That day when the full, implacable, righteous wrath of God will be poured out upon you. Do you reckon God doesn't like it if I'm gay? I think if that's the case, I think he thinks you're an abomination. I'm an abomination! So there you go, you see my friend, that's the wickedness of your day. God, if you repented of your sins and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, God would love you. He'll damn you for your mockery. So like I say, my friend, this is the generation. This is what you've raised up. This is your children. This is your offspring. This is what you're raising up today. Think on. Think what another generation in this country will be like when you're raising that up. Think on, think in the way you take. Judgment is coming. Wrath of God's already upon this generation. But nothing like the wrath that will be visited upon you in that day. The implacable righteous of a furious God will pour out His wrath upon you in that day. when He dismisses you from His holy presence, because you did not believe, because you would not believe, because you would not turn, because you would not repent, because you would not obey the voice of the Savior calling you, calling you by His gospel, He's coming. He's coming, says the Bible, with His holy angels in flaming fire to take vengeance upon all that know not God and who obey not the gospel. The gospel that Christ died for sinners and rose again from the dead. That gospel that obeyed not the gospel, the call of the gospel, repent ye and believe the gospel. that day when God judges you by His Son, Jesus Christ. I tell you, flee the wrath to come. Flee into the arms of Jesus. Hear His admonition. Repent ye and believe the gospel. Repent ye and believe the gospel. For the kingdom of God is at hand. The kingdom of His grace Love, forgiveness, pardon, mercy, kindness, salvation, new life, new heart, new destiny, heaven, a heavenly mansion opposed to a hellish oval. Which will it be for you? Hear the admonition of the Son of God repenting and believe the gospel. Repent ye, repent ye, repent ye and believe the gospel. For his kingdom, his kingdom is at hand. Today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts. Many have done in the past and do today. The Gospel I preach to you today, it will either soften you or harden you further. Maybe perhaps the latter is the reason why it's sent to you, I don't know. The Gospel you see, it's a savour of life unto some, but it's also a savour of death unto others. It's sent to harden the reprobate and to save the elect, those that God has chosen to eternal life. Which are you? Which are you? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, except thou be reprobate. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And thou shalt be saved. The gospel will be to you a saver of life, a life everlasting, life eternal. Believe, repent, and believe the gospel. For the kingdom of God is at hand, like a copy of God's Word. Check these things out for yourself. Don't take my word for it. God's written word offered to you. quite freely, no cost, no obligation to you, none whatsoever, like a copy of God's Word. You come and ask for one, read, study, digest. Who knows, maybe perhaps you'll hear the Savior's voice. Maybe perhaps you'll shine the light into your heart and mind. Bring you, switch the light on and bring you to an understanding of his way, and grant you the grace to be saved. You'd like to have a copy of God's word, you come and ask for one. May God bless you, Hanley. And of mercy, mercy I say upon your precious, never dying soul.