Well, let me add my welcome to
Brother Jim there. I'm glad to see you all out too
on this beautiful Lord's Day. If you will, turn in your Bibles
to John chapter 16, and I'll tell you where we're going here
and where we've been already. Those who've been following along
know that I'm preaching a series of messages, the overall title
of which is known by judgment. It comes from Psalm 9 and verse
16 that says, the Lord is known by the judgment which He executes. The wicked is snared by the work
of His own hand. So, I'm in a series here. This
is probably the sixth or seventh message. I think I'll have maybe
a couple more after this one. But the last message was the
Spirit must convince. We're talking about God executing
His judgment here in the heart of His people, in regeneration,
when the Spirit is sent to them to convince them of some things
here. Let's read John 16, starting in verse 7 here. Nevertheless,
I tell you the truth, this is Christ talking, talking to His
disciples just before His crucifixion. Nevertheless, I tell you the
truth, it is expedient, it's profitable for you that I go
away. For if I go not away, the Comforter, the Holy Spirit, will
not come unto you. But if I depart, I will send
him unto you. And when he has come, he will
reprove or convince the world of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment. of sin because they believe not
on me, of righteousness because I go to my Father and you see
me no more, of judgment because the prince of this world is judged."
The title of this message is Convinced of Sin. I'm only going
to talk about one of these things that the Holy Spirit convinces
His people of when He visits them in regeneration. I'm going
to try to deal with each one of them in a separate message.
So we're going to look at a lot of aspects here of convinced
of sin. When the Holy Spirit comes to
a sinner in regeneration, He will convince that sinner of
this specific sin. that he has not rested, he says,
because they believe not on me. That's the sin. Because that
sinner has not rested his whole salvation in the Christ of the
Scriptures. That the Jesus we all believe
in by nature is a counterfeit. That he's opted for another Jesus. Like Brother Randy said this
morning, by nature we're a walking contradiction. We call on Jesus,
we pray in the name of Jesus, but the Jesus we call on and
pray on by nature is not the Jesus revealed in the Word of
God. It's a totally different Jesus. This is a prevailing evil
in each successive generation, especially among those who claim
to believe in Christ, those who name the name of Christ, but
who are not under the preaching of God's gospel, like you and
I are here today. This is a prevailing evil among
those who are not under that specific message wherein the
righteousness of God is revealed. Now, who in this world has done
this? Who among us has bought into
this prevailing evil? Who among us has opted for another
Jesus? Who among us did the gospel find
not believing in the Christ who is distinguished and identified
in the word of God? When God brought you and me to
the gospel, which of us was not looking to the Jesus the gospel
identifies and distinguishes from all counterfeits? Let's
go to the Word of God for our answer, because I can't take
your answer, and I don't want you to take mine. I want us to
see it in God's Word. If the Scripture is true that
there is none that seeketh after God, and that's what it says
in Romans 3. If the Scripture is true that all are born dead
in trespasses and sins, and that's what it says in Ephesians 2.
If the Scripture is true that all in time past walked according
to the course of this world, according to the prince of the
power there, If the Scripture is true that all were in league
with Satan, the spirit that now or still works in the children
of disobedience. If the Scripture is true that
we all had our conversation, we walked there in time past.
If the scripture is true that those who are now regenerated
are those who were sometimes alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works. If the scripture is true that
by nature there is no fear, no reverence and respect for the
God of the Bible, no fear of God before our eyes. If these
scriptures are true, And if they're true of every sinner who is now
born of God, then the answer to who has opted for another
Jesus is all. Every one of us. No exceptions
here. The sin that Christ said the Spirit will convince the
world he's sent to of is stated in a lot of different ways. It's
a specific sin, but it's stated out so many ways. It's thinking
that we're accepted by God while we're ignorant of that one thing
by which sinners are truly accepted by God. It's imagining that we're
in the favor of God while we are not submitted to Christ's
imputed righteousness for all of salvation. It's being ignorant
of God's standard of righteousness. It's being ignorant of how God
can rightly be declaring sinners like you and me. Not guilty,
but righteous in his sight. Or it might be thinking that
you don't think you need to be righteous before God will accept
you. It could be that. You might think, well, I never
thought of myself as needing to be righteous. I didn't know
God had to declare me righteous before He would accept me and
accept my worship. Well, that thinking is just like
Cain. You remember Cain? He brought
the best of his hands. He brought the best he had before
God, expecting to be accepted by God. He brought a sacrifice,
though, that did not picture and typify how God could be declaring
him righteous and accept his worship. You remember what happened
to Cain? God rejected his sacrifice as
well as his person. The sin we're talking about is
the same sin. It's just stated out in a lot
of different ways. It's specific, but it has a lot
of faces. The Christ of the Scriptures
is the one who has saved every sinner he was given from the
eternal wrath we all deserve. He's the one whose sacrifice
put away the sin of every sinner He died for. He's the one whose
obedience unto death established that one righteousness by which
God is just to justify the ungodly sinners of His choosing. Now
that's the Christ God has sent. And Christ said in John 6, 29,
He said that the work of God is for sinners to believe on
Him whom God has sent. That one God has sent is known
by His person. He's the God-man. He's known
by His work. He made an end of sin and brought
in everlasting righteousness. The one God sent is known by
what He accomplished for His people. Their full salvation
all the way from election in eternity to final glory in heaven. He obtained eternal redemption
for every sinner He was given. The one God sent is known by
where He is now. He was raised from the dead because
of the justification of those He represented. He ascended to
His Father and is seated at His right hand. Listen to Hebrews
1, verses 3 and 4, speaking of Christ. When He had by Himself
purged our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Majesty
on high, being made so much better than the angels, as He had by
inheritance obtained a more excellent name than they. The starting
point of believing on the one God has sent is being delivered
from our belief of the one God has not sent. In other words,
no sinner has begun to believe on the Christ of the Scriptures
until God has delivered us from the counterfeit that's in all
of our minds by nature. No sinner has begun to believe
on the Christ set forth in this Word until the Spirit has convinced
that sinner of sin. of sin because they believe not
on me. It's the Spirit's work in regeneration
to convince every sinner who's sent to of this sin, this sin
of opting for another Jesus, this sin of looking to a counterfeit,
this sin of not trusting the Christ who is identified and
distinguished in the Word of God. Why do all need to be convinced
of this sin? Why do we need to be convinced?
That's what I'm asking. We don't need to be convinced
that lying is sin. We know lying is sin. We know
that from early on. We know that murder is sin, that
adultery is sin. We know all these things are
sin. We don't have to be convinced
of any of them. But we have to be convinced of this sin. And we won't be convinced unless
the Spirit visits us and convinces us of it. I'm going to show you
three scriptural reasons why we have to be convinced of this
sin. And these reasons are all about the nature of this sin.
The first reason we all have to be convinced of this sin is
because of its deception. It deceives us all. It takes
us all in. All are deceived by this sin.
It is sin. It is unrighteousness. But we
don't see it that way. We think it's good. This sin
is believing in a counterfeit Christ. Believing in a Christ
who saves us because of something we do. Why are all deceived into
believing in such a Christ? Now, note the question here.
Not are all, without exception, believing in a counterfeit. But
why do we do that? Why do we do that? The answer
is this, because we have never distinguished and identified
the Christ we worship by the word of God. We've neglected
the word. We took what our father said. We took what the world in general
accepts. We took what tradition says.
And we never bothered to check it out. I'm going to show you
a woman that Christ addresses here in just a minute that did
the same thing. By nature, we worship. But we
don't know what we worship. By nature, we don't know who
the object of our worship is. We think it's the Christ of the
Scriptures. We call Him Jesus Christ. But our doctrine, that
is, what we believe about Him, won't support our claim. There's
the walking contradiction we are by nature. Look at John chapter
4 with me, if you will. You're right there in John. Just
turn back a little bit to John chapter 4. Now, this is Christ
addressing the woman at the well. John 4, verse 20. This is the woman speaking. She
said, our fathers worshipped in this mountain. And you say
that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship. Now,
she's going right to the tradition of her fathers here. Our fathers
worshipped in this mountain. But the Jews say, no, in Jerusalem
is where you're supposed to worship. Y'all remember how the kingdom
of Israel was divided into two tribes and ten tribes? Ten tribes
went up to the northern kingdom, led by Jeroboam. And he built
two golden calves up there. And the reason he did it was
because he knew God had said in Jerusalem is the place to
worship. And if he didn't do something to keep those people
up there, they'd go back to Jerusalem and lose their interest in that.
So that's why she said, our fathers worshipped in this mountain.
That's just a tradition. It's totally opposed to the word
of God. Jerusalem was the place where God said he would put his
name and meet with them there and accept their blood offering.
Verse 21, Jesus saith unto this woman, believe me, the hour cometh
when you shall neither in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem
worship the Father. You worship you know not what.
We know what we worship. Our salvation is of the Jews. See, this woman had taken the
traditions of her fathers, just like I did, the tradition of
my fathers when I was in another religion, false religion. She
took the tradition of her fathers and she never bothered to check
it out by the Word of God. Had she checked it out by the
testimony of God, she would have found out, well, maybe we shouldn't
be worshiping in this mountain. Maybe we should go to Jerusalem.
And if I had been zealous in my former religion and checked
things out, I might not have opted for a counterfeit. I might
have said, wait a minute now, this word also says, Christ said,
I pray not for the world. I pray for those that you've
given me out of the world. Now, what does that mean? Well,
it means that maybe he didn't die for all without exception,
certainly didn't die for all without exception. What happens
when you don't know who you worship, when you haven't identified who
you worship by the scripture? First, you assume that you're
worshiping the Christ of the scriptures. I mean, that's just
a natural conclusion. And you also assume that everybody
who names the name of Christ is worshiping the same Christ
you are. That may or may not be true. Here's the truth of
the matter. If your doctrine describing Christ
is not in accordance with God's testimony of Christ, then your
wrong unscriptural doctrine disputes your claim to be in Christ. It
disputes your claim to be trusting Christ. For instance, If you
don't know Christ to be God and man in one person, the God-man,
then you are attributing qualities of character to the Christ you
claim to be Christ that can't belong to him. If he's not God,
why do you worship him? If he's not man, How could he
die in your place? If he's not God and man in one
person as the scripture presents him, then who is this you're
worshiping? Who is this you're calling Christ?
If you don't know Christ to be God and man in one person, you
are attributing work to him that he could not have accomplished.
Only the God-man could satisfy divine justice. Only the God-man
could make an end of sin, and only the God-man could establish
everlasting righteousness. Only the God-man could and did
save every sinner he died for from their sins. You can call
your Savior what you will if He's not God and man and one
person. If He did not establish the one
righteousness by which God justifies ungodly sinners, He is not the
Jesus Christ of the Scriptures. By nature, we claim to be and
think we are trusting the Christ of the Scriptures, but our knowledge
and understanding of Christ of the Scriptures does not support
our claim. Who in this religious world is
right now worshiping the Christ of the Scriptures? Only those
who are resting their whole salvation in the Christ declared in God's
gospel. Only those trusting the Christ
whose obedience unto death has established the one righteousness
by which God can declare ungodly sinners not guilty but righteous
in His sight. Only those who've been delivered
from worshiping we know not what. Delivered from the counterfeit
Christ that's in our mind by nature. Only those brought to
the Christ of the gospel in true faith and godly repentance are
worshiping the Christ of the scripture. The first reason we
have to be convinced of this specific sin is because of its
deception. We don't see it. We don't recognize
it. We don't admit it. We don't repent
of it until the spirit convinces of it in regeneration. The second
reason we all have to be convinced of this sin is because of its
dominion. You see, as long as we're under this sin's deception,
as long as we haven't identified and distinguished the Christ
in our minds by the Word of God, as long as we don't know what
we worship, we're also under this sin's dominion. This sin
is so powerful that it holds all of us by nature in its bondage. We're all servants of this sin.
We're all slaves of this sin. The natural man is all of us
as we're born, and the natural man is a slave to not believing
in the Christ of this world, believing in something other
than the Christ of this world. The natural man is a slave into
believing something or someone other than Christ as he is identified
and distinguished in God's gospel. Let me give you the scriptural
answer to what happens when you've not identified and distinguished
the Christ you serve and the God you worship by the word of
God, more specifically by the gospel, wherein the righteousness
of God is always revealed. What happens? What does this
failure result in? Well, it results in the greatest
evil we can ever be a part in. It results in the committing
of sin. You're already in John. Look
over at John 8. John chapter 8 and verse 31. Christ addressed a group in His
day talking about this evil. Talking about this bondage. Bondage
they didn't recognize. John 8 and verse 31. Then said
Jesus to those Jews who believed on him, if you continue in my
word, then are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the
truth, and the truth shall make you free. Now he's telling them
they need to be set free, they need to be liberated. And here's
the answer. Verse 33, they answered him,
we be Abraham's seed and were never in bondage to any man.
How sayest thou you shall be made free? Jesus answered them,
verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the
servant of sin, and the servant abideth not in the house forever,
but the son abideth ever. The Jews in this context are
simply displaying the conviction of every natural-minded sinner. Why were these Jews in bondage
and in need of deliverance? They weren't physically bound.
They had been delivered from Egypt. They weren't physically
bound in any way. But they were in bondage. They
needed deliverance from. Why? Because they thought that
their physical connection to Abraham, something in them, God
calls them to be born a natural seed of Abraham. So they thought
that automatically meant that they were the eternal children
of God. They connected Abraham and their
lineage to him with being a true, eternal, spiritual child of God. By nature, all think that I'm
believing. or something else in us, something
we've done, something God might have enabled us to do, we think
that God has put us in the household and family of God and that our
service in that household keeps us in that household. By nature,
the object of our faith is our faith, and the proof of our faith
is our perseverance. Now these statements are true
of every natural-minded sinner, but here's a statement that's
also true. Not a one of us believes that by nature. We don't believe
that's what we're doing. We don't believe that we're looking
within for salvation. We claim to be trusting the blood
of Christ, and we think that's what we're doing, but it's not.
Why? Because we're deceived by this
sin. Committing sin is finding your hope of salvation in anything
other than the imputed righteousness of Christ alone. It includes
trusting in a savior and calling him Jesus Christ, who's not identified
and distinguished by this word. It's seeing yourself in the kingdom
of God, but not by right, not on the right ground or basis.
Anything short of or other than seeing yourself justified before
God on the basis of Christ's imputed righteousness is committing
sin. As long as I saw myself headed
for heaven based on anything but Christ's righteousness, I
was committing sin. Why is that so? Because whatever
was giving me confidence that I was saved and something was
giving me confidence I thought I was saved, I thought I was
headed for heaven, but it was not according to the word of
God. It was a presumptuous confidence that God's word would not back
up, although I couldn't see it at that time. It was confidence
in the flesh. It was confidence to be repented
of. And as long as I was committing
sin, I was a slave of that sin. I was in bondage to that sin.
Who can rightly claim to be the true child of God? I'll read
you a good definition of a true child of God from Philippians
3 and verse 3. Paul writes, for we are the circumcision. We are the saved of God, which
worship God in the spirit. In other words, we worship God
by that spirit within us. and by the truth that spirit
leads us to concerning Christ's person and his work. And we rejoice,
we make our boasts, we find our confidence in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence. We've been delivered from having
confidence in the flesh. Every natural-minded sinner is
under the deception of sin, and every natural-minded sinner commits
sin. We're in bondage to sin. These
are well-documented facts from the Scriptures. The context we
just looked at, John 8 said whoever commits sin is the servant of
sin. Romans 6, 17 says, but God be
thanked that you were the servants of sin. Hebrews 2.15 says Christ
came to destroy the works of the devil and deliver them who
through fear of death, fear of punishment, were all their lifetime
subject to bondage. This is a desperate wickedness
of the natural heart described in Jeremiah 17 and verse 9. It
says, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. Who can know it? This heart includes
the mind, the affections, the will, the conscience of all of
us by nature. It's the whole person, in other
words. And this heart is desperately wicked. In other words, our natural
heart is wicked in a way that that heart cannot overcome. It needs help. It needs a redeemer,
as Randy preached about in 10 o'clock. It needs a savior. It
needs a righteousness it can't produce. When you're desperate,
you don't have any way within you to get out. You don't have
any ability to deliver yourself. This natural heart must have
help to overcome its wickedness. Without this help, the natural
heart remains as it is born. deceived, wicked, and desperate. Without this help, the natural
heart remains under the deception and under the dominion of sin,
of trusting a so-called savior, which the scriptures will not
support. And that brings us to the third reason why all must
be convinced of sin. Sin deceives us, we're under
its dominion, and then we're going to talk about deliverance
from this sin. How will a sinner be delivered
from this legalism? How will we be delivered from
looking to a counterfeit Christ that the Scriptures don't support?
Paul asked the same question this way in Romans. He said,
O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body
of death? His answer, I thank God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. We go on deceived by this sin.
We continue under the bondage of this sin until Christ, that
is the knowledge of him, sets us free. We're slaves to this
sin until the object of our worship is changed. See, that's our problem
by nature. We got the wrong object of worship.
We look into a counterfeit who couldn't save anybody instead
of looking to the true Christ who saved every sinner he came
and died for. We're slaves to this sin. It's
our knowledge of Christ and a value for Him, His person and His work,
that delivers, liberates us from this sin. This liberation begins
with the revelation of the true Christ of the Scriptures. We
have to hear of Jesus Christ as He is identified and distinguished
by the Word of God. God has to deliver us to His
gospel. He either takes us where it is
or He brings it to us, whichever. Listen to Romans 10, 13 through
17 here. This is a true statement and
men like to use this statement a lot of times out of context
because they won't read this whole passage. It says, for whosoever
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's absolutely
true. Anybody calling on the name of
the Lord, the Lord identified and distinguished in this word
will be saved. No question about it. Go on to
verse 14. How then shall they call on him
in whom they've not believed? And how shall they believe in
him of whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher? And how shall they preach except
they be sent? As it is written, how beautiful
are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace and bring
glad tidings of good things. But they have not all obeyed
the gospel, for Isaiah saith, Lord, who has believed our report? So then faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the word of God, the gospel, the word of God.
When can we say we heard this good news, God's gospel? Not
until we heard these glad tidings of good things, not until we
heard a peace established between God and the sinners he represented,
not until we heard of the God-man whose obedience unto death put
away the sin of his people and established the one righteousness
by which God is just to justify the ungodly. That's when we first
heard of Christ, not before then. When God sat us down under His
gospel, He might have sent it to us on a tape or a video. I mean, we might have read it
on sermon audio. There are a lot of ways to get
it today, but you have to hear the gospel wherein the righteousness
of God is revealed to have ever heard of the Lord Jesus Christ
as He's distinguished in this Word. No sinner is liberated
from the sin that deceives us, the sin that holds us in bondage
until God sits us down under his gospel. God's gospel has
to be delivered to us. We have to hear it. But that's
not all that's needed. We have to hear the Gospel. I
mean, I always say the most pressing need in the life of any sinner
in this world, any fallen son or daughter of Adam, is to hear
the Gospel. You know why? Nothing can happen
until you hear the Gospel. Nothing can happen until you
hear of that righteousness revealed in the Gospel of a Savior who's
saved His people, whose sacrifice paid the debt, redeemed the people. that righteousness imputed by
which God declares sinners like you and me righteous in His sight.
Nothing can happen until you hear that gospel. But like I
said, that's not all that's needed because everybody listening to
a gospel message It doesn't matter whether you believe it, whether
you embrace it or not. Everybody listening to a gospel message
is called by that message to faith in Christ and repentance
of their dead works and idolatry. Everyone. But the scripture says
many are called, but few are chosen. Not many embrace that
Christ. Not many come to that Christ,
believe on him and repent. Not all is needed. Just hearing
the gospel is not all that's needed. The gospel being delivered
to us is not all that's needed. We also have to be delivered
to that gospel. Look at Romans chapter 6 and
verse 17. These are familiar verses to
most of us here. Romans 6. I quoted part of this
verse 17 here a little earlier. Romans 6, 17, Paul writes to
converted sinners here, believing sinners. He said, but God be
thanked that you were the servants of sin, but you've obeyed from
the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered to you. Being
then made free from sin, you became the servants of righteousness. Now these verses tell us that
by nature, None of us, not even God's elect, are servants of
righteousness. We start out servants of sin. We're servants of this specific
sin, slaves to a counterfeit Christ. Being by nature ignorant
of God's righteousness, we are busy trying to work out our own
righteousness in opposition to God's righteousness, in opposition
to the gospel of God, in opposition to the person and finished work
of Christ. Not only are we not looking to Christ for salvation,
In fact, literally, we're working against everything Christ came
to and did accomplish by his death for those he was given.
We're servants of the sin that deceives us. But in regeneration,
under God's gospel, the Spirit enables us to embrace that gospel. He delivers us to the gospel. If you look back there in verse
17, you see those words that are interpreted there You've
obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered
to you. This is really more than just having the gospel delivered
to you. Those words right there should go like this, that form
of doctrine to which you were delivered. In other words, The Spirit of God, when He comes
to us under the Gospel, He enables us to obey that Gospel from the
heart. He enables us to embrace the
truth and call that Gospel the truth we believe now and support.
He enables us to see every other message and evil because that
message opposes the glory of God and the preeminence of Christ
in salvation. And being delivered to that gospel,
and to Christ it alone declares, is the evidence of true sonship. Being delivered to God's gospel
gives evidence that we're liberated from our bondage to sin and made
to be servants of righteousness. We didn't start out there. We
started out servants of sin. But God's people, everyone, in
time, in each successive generation, be delivered from being in that
bondage and become servants of righteousness. The state we've
seen described in this message is the state of all of us by
nature. Even God's elect are deceived by this sin. Even God's
elect are in bondage to this sin. But that won't be the final
state of those Christ died for. That won't be the final state
of those given to Christ. It won't be the final state of
those God has chosen for His glory. There is a deliverance. Christ will deliver His sheep.
Look back at John 8 there. I hope you stayed there. I didn't
tell you I should have. John 8 and verse 36. Having said, whoever commits
sin is a servant of sin, and the servant abides not in the
house forever, but the son abides ever. If the son, therefore,
shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. In other words,
if and only if the son makes you free, you'll be truly free.
If and only if you see yourself no longer a servant in God's
household, that is, one who got there by his works, by his service,
and stays there by his service, when you see yourself no longer
there, but you see yourself Find yourself an adopted son based
on Christ's imputed righteousness alone. Then and only then will
you have a permanent and abiding place in the household and family
of God. Then and only then has the Son
made you free. This deliverance, this liberation
is why Christ came in His incarnation. Listen to Hebrews 2, 14 and 15
here. For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh
and blood, Christ also himself likewise took part of the same,
that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death,
that is, the devil, and deliver them who through fear of death
were all their lifetime subject to bondage." Now, it says Satan
has the power of death here. He doesn't have the power to
put anybody to death. That's not what that's talking
about. But he does have the power to pronounce condemnation on
the sinful sons and daughters of Adam. We are sinners. We do
deserve condemnation. We do deserve the eternal wrath
of God because sin demands death. Christ's death destroyed Satan's
power. That is, Christ's death has rendered
Satan's power ineffective on those he died for. His death
deprived Satan's power of its strength over those he represented. God could no more punish a sinner
Christ died for than he could cease to be God. It's impossible
for God to punish any sinner Christ represented in His death.
Christ had the sins of His people charged to Him, and He put those
sins away by a just satisfaction. It's not possible that they'd
be punished. Christ has already borne that
punishment in His person. A just God has already executed
His judgment against the sins of His elect in Christ on the
cross. Their sins were imputed to Christ, and He bore that punishment. And God's justice now demands
of them their full pardon, the full remission of sin. Nothing
can be charged to them. Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Satan can and he does still accuse
the brethren. But because of Christ's work
as their substitute in purity, his accusation of the brethren
are without any force and any strength. As Bill says, his accusations
no longer stick. When? After we learn of Christ,
after we come to the gospel, after we're submitted to Christ's
righteousness as our only ground of salvation. Failure to believe
in the Christ of this world leaves a sinner without any fear of
God, without any reverence for a God who justifies the ungodly.
And it leaves a sinner under the fear of death, the fear of
punishment. This is the fear Christ came
to deliver his children from, and this is the deliverance that
comes to us in regeneration. Remember, we're all by nature
the servants of sin, but we don't know that. And that's why Christ
comes to each of His sheep in regeneration. Like all other
natural-minded sinners, Christ's sheep are born under the fear
of death, the fear of punishment. But the revelation of Christ
in His work, that work that He's done to put away sin and bring
forth the righteousness that answers the demands of God's
law and justice, that revelation of Christ delivers Christ's sheep
from the deception and the bondage of sin. We're slaves to and in
bondage to this specific sin until the blood of Christ purges
our consciences from dead works. Until our judgment of saved and
lost is changed. Until our judgment of what and
who saves us is changed. Until we're delivered from not
knowing what we worship. Until we're delivered from looking
to a Jesus who's not identified and distinguished by the gospel
of God. Listen to Hebrews 9 and verse 12. It says, neither by
the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, Christ
entered in Watson to the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. For if the blood of bulls and
goats, and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling the unclean, sanctified
to the purifying of the flesh." In other words, under the Old
Testament, they sacrificed, they shed blood. And if they had done
wrong, they shed blood, and they were under that blood, and that
blood made them right with God so they could come back into
the camp and be a part of that nation. Verse 14 says, If that
did that unto the Old Testament, how much more shall the blood
of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God? What are the dead works our consciences
need to be purged from? Well, dead works are works performed
by a spiritually dead sinner. They're aimed at gaining or maintaining
that sinner favor with God. And if they continue there, they
end in eternal death. Dead works are looking at anything
other than Christ's righteousness for all of salvation. That conscience
is the seat of our judgment. We judge. That's where the conscience
is. Without this purging, before this purging, the judgment rendered
by our conscience is evil. It's really the pinnacle of evil.
It's the worst evil. Only those delivered from this
specific evil are headed for eternal life. Only those delivered
from this specific evil have been taken off that broad road
that leads to destruction, that way that seemed right to us,
but it ends in eternal death and put on that narrow way that
leads to life. Christ came to deliver, and He
does deliver His people from trusting their salvation to a
counterfeit. Now, before I close, I got a
little short warning here. of a tendency of those natural-minded
sinners who hear God's gospel. They like it. They like the way
it's presented. They like it because it looks
directly at the Word of God and the preacher preaches right out
of the Word of God. They like it. They might even
embrace it. They might even call it their own. But here's the
tendency. is to think that the Christ declared
in God's gospel is just a better version of the counterfeit Christ
we all serve by nature. That's not true. It's not a better
version. This is a totally different savior.
I worshiped a Christ in my former religion, a counterfeit. I know
that now. I didn't know it then. It's not
the same Christ I worship now. This is a totally different savior.
This is a savior that the scriptures identify and distinguish as the
God man who established the righteousness by which God justifies ungodly
sinners, such as we all are by nature. Christ will not leave
his sheep under such a deception. Not only does every believing
sinner turn to and embrace the Christ of God's gospel for all
of salvation, we also turn away from. We repent. of the counterfeit
Christ we trusted before we heard God's gospel. God executes his
judgment in the hearts of his people. The Spirit of God convinces
every believing sinner of sin of looking to a savior and calling
him Christ, whom he's not identified and distinguished by God's gospel.
And he does this in order to bring God's elect to true faith
in Christ, faith in the true Christ, and repentance of dead
works and idolatry. And all of this conviction is
based on one thing. It's based on the righteousness
of God, which is always revealed in God's gospel. And I'm going
to speak more specifically about that righteousness, just as I
did about this sin, in another message called Convinced of Righteousness. But for now, may the Lord bless
His people with an understanding of His word.