If you would, hold your place there in Jeremiah 5, and I want you to go to Psalm 14. I want you to go to Psalm 14. This morning, I'm going to be speaking on seeking the truth. This evening, I'm going to be speaking on knowing the truth. Seeking the truth and knowing the truth. And the truth is found in the Lord Jesus.

I want to begin here in Psalm 14. Look at verse 1. The fool hath said in his heart, there is no God or literally no God for me. You can have your God. You can believe what you want to about him. You can believe what the Bible says about him. But the fool says, that's not for me. The fool says, there is no God. They are, the Lord says, corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none that doeth good.

The Lord looked down from heaven. Now, we know the Lord always sees everything. He doesn't look as we do, but, you know, the psalmist here, by means of the Holy Spirit, accommodates our inability to comprehend the person of God. And so just as I'm looking down on you to see who's here and see all of your faces, well, the psalmist, by inspiration, portrays God as looking down from heaven. He looked down from heaven upon the children of men, upon everybody, to see if there were any that did understand and seek God. Is there anybody? Is there anybody that seeks the Lord? Is there anybody who seeks righteousness? Is there anybody who seeks salvation in Jesus Christ?

Now look what the response of the Lord is. They are all gone aside. They are all together become filthy. There is none, there is nobody, there is no man, there is no person that doeth good, no, not one. This is what the Lord has determined. And we may think, well, we're not so bad. We're not as bad as others are. The scripture tells us there's none good, no, not one. That's what God, that's how God assesses the situation.

Now go back to Jeremiah five. And I'm gonna note the first verse. Jeremiah five, verse one. Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, I want you to look, Jeremiah, and seek in the broad places, that's like the marketplaces where people crowd together. If you can find a man, anybody, anybody, If there's any that executes judgment, if there's anybody who loves righteousness, if there's anybody who's interested in the justice of God that has to be satisfied in order for sinners to be saved, you go into the marketplaces, he tells Jeremiah, you look, observe, is there anybody? Is there anybody? that executes judgment? Is there anybody that seeks the truth? And if you can find one person, if you can find one man who loves righteousness in Christ, if you can find one person, one man who loves salvation by grace only, if you can find one person who realizes that in order to be saved, the justice of God has to be satisfied if you can find one, just one. God says, I'll pardon. I'll pardon.

Give you another reference. Ezekiel 22. Ezekiel chapter 22. And the Lord says, I've looked, I've examined everybody. Is there anybody whose heart is consumed with the glory of God, with righteousness? Is there anybody? Is there one man, just one man? If there's one man, I'll pardon sins. I look at Ezekiel 22 and verse 30. Ezekiel 22 verse 30. I sought for a man, one man. I sought for just one person among all these people that should make up the hedge, that should stand in the gap before me for the land. Just one person. If I can find one person, if there's one person, one man who can stand in the gap, the gap that exists between God and ungodly man, if there's one person, then I won't destroy. But I found none.

Let me give you a gospel lesson here from that first verse in Jeremiah 5 and this verse right here in Ezekiel 22. Is there such a man? You say, well, in Jerusalem there was obviously Jeremiah, Zephaniah, there was A few others who loved the truth, but did they really comprehend righteousness? And were they qualified to stand in the gap?

You see, here's what this is talking about. Is there anybody, is there anybody who could stand between the guilty and a holy God? Is there anybody, any man, any woman, anybody? And I got some good news for you, there's one. There's just one. That's the Lord Jesus Christ.

Nobody else is righteous. Nobody else really appreciates to the fullness the necessity of the justice of God being satisfied. The Lord has looked. He has scanned the globe. He's looked at all of the population of all times. And God said, if there's one man, I'll pardon sin if there's anybody. Thank God there's one man. There's one man. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.

He came into this world. He came, that one who is now known as the Lord our righteousness. And he stood in the gap. He stood in the gap.

Over in the book of Job chapter nine, The Lord talked or Job talks about the need of a daysman, somebody to stand between him and God. Is there anybody who can lay his hand on God and satisfy all of the divine requirements? And at the same time, lay his hand on a foul sinner like me? and meet all my needs? Is there anybody who can stand in the gap?

I wish people would get interested in the only man who could stand in the gap. That's Christ our Savior. And He came and He answered every demand of God. And He met all the needs of us. What do we need? We need forgiveness. Does He do that? by His bloody death upon the cross of Calvary. Does He make us righteous? Yes. By His obedience through life unto death, He makes us righteous.

There is one man that executed righteousness and judgment in the earth. There was one man in our in this spiritual Sodom and Gomorrah in which we're living. One person who stood in the gap, who turned away the judgment of God from poor sinners like us, that's Christ the Savior.

One man who conducted himself in such a fashion in his life, but primarily in his death, that God, as a result of him laying down his life, pardons the sins of all of those in whose stead he died. Isn't that something? One man. God looked everybody over. He said, there's nothing good. Ain't nobody qualified. I'm sure. as we count goodness. All of y'all are good people, but you can't stand in the gap. You can't bridge that distance that exists between us and God.

But Christ came and he stands in the gap. You know, you think about in the book of Genesis. You remember when Lot was in Sodom and the Lord said he was gonna destroy the cities of the plain, Sodom and Gomorrah? And a man, Abraham, he tried to stand in the gap. He came to the Lord. You remember what he said to the Lord? Lord, if there's 50 righteous people in Sodom, Will you spare the city? If there's 50 righteous people, just 50 righteous people, people who understand the only way to be right with God, perfect with God, accepted by God is through an appointed Savior. If there are 50 righteous people in Sodom, would you not judge the city? And the Lord said, if I find 50 righteous people, I won't judge the city. And Abraham said, Lord, let me speak to you again. If you find 45 righteous people, would you spare your judgment? Lord said, yes, I will. Abraham said, if you find 40 righteous people, Righteous people, 30 righteous people, 20 righteous people. Lord, if you find 10 righteous people in the city, will you spare the city? He said, I'll spare, find 10 righteous people. You know how many righteous people there were in Solomon Gomorrah? One. And his name was Lot. And Peter tells us he was a righteous man. But Abraham was as an intercessor. He pleaded with the Lord on behalf of the guilty.

Hold your place and turn to Numbers. Turn to Numbers with me, chapter 16. Numbers chapter 16. A bunch of people had rebelled against the Lord. Korah, and Dathan, and Abiram, and a bunch of others. And God sent awful, awful plagues. And here in Numbers 16, 46, look at verse, Numbers 16, 46, where you get there. And Moses said to Aaron, take a censer and put on incense and go quickly into the congregation and make an atonement, atonement for them, for there's wrath gone out from the Lord. And the plague has begun. And Aaron took as Moses commanded and ran into the midst of the congregation, and behold, the plague was begun among the people. And he put on incense and made an atonement for the people. He stood between the dead and the living." That's what we need. But we need somebody greater than Aaron. To stand between the dead, that's us, and the living, that's God. And the plague was stayed. And the scripture says in verse 49, now they that died in the plague were 14,700, beside them that died about the matter of Korah.

Over and over again in the Bible, we see somebody that God used, one man, over and over again, and he would deal with all the people through that one man. And here comes Aaron, and he kills an animal. You know that every animal sacrifice in the Old Testament pictured the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. You see, God will not spare anybody unless his justice is honored and his justice says the soul that sent it shall surely die. So Aaron killed an animal. And he burned the carcass out on the brazen altar and then he went out there and took some hot coals off that altar. And he goes back in before the veil and he puts those hot coals on top of the altar of incense. And that picture's the intercessory work of Christ, because those hot coals on top of the sweet-smelling incense made a delightful smell to the Lord. See, that's the intercessory work of Christ. That's Christ standing in the gap. That's Christ representing us.

Let me give you one other reference. New Testament, John 11. John chapter 11. And you look through the Bible, over and over again you find somebody that God uses, and they are a picture of our Savior, who stood between the dead, that's us. That's us, isn't it? We're dead. And the living God, somebody who bridges the gap, but not fully, but they all pictured our Lord Jesus Christ. Would you come to God? You can only come to God through Christ. That's what this is showing. That's what I'm trying to tell you this morning. You have to come to God through the doing and the dying of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has, look, there's nobody, there's no man worthy. Nobody can stand in the gap except the God-man. I'll give you another reference. You can just write this down. 1 Timothy 2. 5, for there's one God and one mediator. Between God and men, who is that? The man, one man, the man, Christ Jesus.

Here in John 11, our Lord has raised Lazarus from the dead. And then the Sanhedrin, the highest Jewish court, they convened. They said in verse 47, what do we? Oh, what are we going to do? What are we going to do? This man works many miracles.

Verse 48, they said, If we let him thus alone, all men, a bunch of people, are going to believe him. And the Romans shall come and take away both our place and our nation. And one of them, named Caiaphas, being the high priest that same year, said unto them, You know nothing at all. nor consider," now listen to this, that it is expedient for us that one man, one man die, should die for the people that the whole nation perish not.

He understood that, but he didn't understand it spiritually because that which he said We're told in the next verse, verse 51, and this spake he not of himself, but being the high priest that year, he prophesied that Jesus would die for that nation, and not for that nation only, but that he also should gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad.

He understood if there's one man that we can put to death, that'll satisfy God. Now, he didn't understand how it would satisfy God, but it would certainly satisfy them. But what he was saying was, by the power of the Holy Spirit, if there's one man who'll stand in the gap, if there's one man who will stand between us and God and that man die, then the nation will be saved, and not that nation only, but a whole bunch of other people.

You see, that's the way it is. You who are here this morning, you who are watching, please know this. Christ said, I am the way, the truth, the life. No man cometh unto the Father. But by me.

You say, well, boy, that preacher, you're saying that people who try to come some other way, God's not going to accept them. What about other religions and foreign countries? What about them? Well, that means they're going to perish. That's what that means.

Do you want to come to God? I do. I do want to come to God. And I'm coming to God by faith now through the only appointed man, the God-man who stood in the gap, who stood between the dead and the living, the only Redeemer. And I compel you to come to Him, to believe Him, to trust Him.

Well, look back here in my text. Now, let me give you a couple of other things. Look again at verse 1, Jeremiah 22, 1. Thus saith, I'm sorry, Jeremiah 5, excuse me, Jeremiah 5, verse 1. Got the wrong reference. I was thinking about Ezekiel.

Jeremiah 5, 1. run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth, and then I will pardon." I will pardon. He's speaking to the people of Jerusalem, to Jeremiah, but it's regarding the people of Jerusalem.

People of Jerusalem, remember this is the city of David. This is where the temple was. This is where the sacrifices were offered. And Jeremiah is writing his prophecy 1,300 or 1,400 years after Abraham lived. He says, can you find anybody who loves the truth? Is there anybody, toward the end of verse one, that seeks the truth? Is there anybody seeking the truth?

I wouldn't ask you for a show of hands. But I would ask you, and I direct the words to your heart, I hope, are you seeking the truth? Well, the truth is somebody. Christ is the truth. He is the truth. But you see, back in those days, the truth had fallen on hard times. Wasn't many people who believed the truth. As it was in the day of Simon Peter, who wrote in 2 Peter 2.2, the way of truth is evil spoken of. What is the way of truth? It's Christ only, grace only, the scriptures only, faith only. That's the way of truth. But the truth has fallen on hard times. Because that which is prevalent today is error. I read some many years ago, Mr. Spurgeon wrote, he said, error will go around the world while the gospel truth is putting its boots on. There's a whole lot of truth in that.

Are you seeking the truth? Seeking the truth? The truth nowadays is evil spoken of. The truth of who God is in his absolute sovereignty. God doesn't answer to you. And God's not waiting on you to act so that he can then react. God does his will in the armies of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and nobody can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou?

The truth. Are you seeking the truth? Do you want to know Christ Jesus? Who is He? Well, He's the Son of God. He's the Son of Man. He's the only Redeemer. He's the only Savior. Buddha's not a Savior. Allah's not a Savior. This Jesus who needs your permission before He can act, He's no Savior. The only one who can save is the Christ of God who came down here and lived and died for sinners to satisfy God. He's the one who stands in the gap. And I hope and pray the Holy Spirit will cause you to see and know He's the Savior you need. You don't know you need Him if you're still unconverted, but He's the only hope you got.

You ever think about meeting God? Who is holy? Who demands perfection? Standing before the Lord? You bring your works before Him and you see how far you get on that. I just want Him to weigh my works and I hope the good ones will outweigh the bad ones. Let me tell you something. Every work you produce in and of yourself, it's all bad. You won't have any good. You won't have any good works. Well, I take soup to my sick neighbor. That's a wonderful thing to do, but before God, that's not good work because it wasn't done for his glory. You can't do anything for the glory of God unless you know God through Christ.

How will you stand in that day? How will you fare when you stand before the God of justice, the God of righteousness? What are you going to say? And then the truth of Christ as the only Savior. The truth of Christ and His blood redemption. We sing, what can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Do we really believe that? Do we believe that the death of the God-man availed before God to put away all the sins of every sinner in whose stead he died? See, that's the truth there. He didn't try to do something or other. He didn't put everybody in a savable state. He saved His people from their sin. That's why He's named Jesus.

And the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God doing His work. He does it successfully. Well, I'll tell you this. The Spirit of God brings you to have no hope in yourself. He will then show you who stands in the gap. And Christ is the only one. He's the only one. Oh God, help us to seek the truth. The truth as it is in Jesus. Because every other religion, and really the gospel is not a religion, but all the so-called religions of the world, they're all false. They can't help you. Come to Christ. May the Spirit of God draw you with effectual grace. to that one who stands between the dead, that's us, and the living, that's God.

Well, let's sing a closing song.