You may know there was a civil
war down there in the 80s, and Jorge's family is from there. So I know you all enjoyed comparing
your experiences together, how the Lord brought your family,
Daisy, out of El Salvador to Australia, and then from Sydney down to
Nauru, to meet the brethren there. God knows where his sheep are.
Daisy and I were talking about this last night, and he'll move
them all over the world to get them under the gospel. He knows
where they are, every one of them. He's not gonna lose a single
one of his sheep. The hymn on the back of your
bulletin, if you'd like to look at it with me for a moment, great
God, great God, thy glory and thy love, Our humble songs employ,
in mercy from thy throne above, look down and aid our joy. Our God reigns, and we so need
for him to condescend to us and make his glory known in our hearts
through faith. Let's stand together. Tom, you
come, please, and lead us in this hymn. Great God, thy glory and thy
love, our humble songs employ. In mercy from thy throne above,
look now and aid our joy. Thy presence and thy glory, Lord,
fill all the realms of space. O let thy presence, by thy word,
divinely fill this place. This hymn begins the solemn sound
of holy worship here. May every saint with joy abound
and reverential fear. Eternal Spirit, heavenly dove,
descend and fill this place. Reveal the Savior's matchless
love, the wonders of His grace. Please be seated. Morning. Let's turn with me,
if you will, to the book of Job, 19th chapter, please. We just
heard a message about the kingdom of God, and in this passage we'll
read about what the Lord does for every believer before they're
given entrance into the kingdom of God in their heart. We'll
start in verse one. Then Job answered and said, how
long will you vex my soul and break me in pieces with words?
These 10 times have you reproached me. You are not ashamed that
you make yourselves strange to me. And be it indeed that I have
erred, mine error remaineth within myself. If indeed you will magnify
yourselves against me and plead against me my reproach, Know
now that God hath overthrown me and hath come past me with
his net. Behold, I cry out of wrong, but
I'm not heard. I cry aloud, but there is no
judgment. He hath fenced up my way that
I cannot pass, and he hath set darkness in my paths. He hath
stripped me of my glory. and taken the crown from my head. He hath destroyed me on every
side, and I am gone, and mine hope hath he removed like a tree.
He goes on further, but I'd like to skip down to verse 25. For I know that my Redeemer liveth,
and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. And
though after my skin, worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall
I see God. whom I shall see for myself,
and mine eyes shall behold, and not another, though my reins
be consumed within me. Let's go to the Lord in prayer. Our Father, we ask that you would
strip each of us of our glory, take the crowns from our head,
Lord. Show us your Son, and the crown of thorns that was on his
head when he bore the sins of all of his people on the cross,
Lord. We ask that you would give us
ears to hear in this next hour and that you would be with us
through the week until we're able to meet again here, if it
be your will. Lord, we ask that those of your
people that need your hand of healing, you would keep it on
them. And Lord, that you would keep all of your sheep unto yourself. It's in his name we pray. Amen. Hymn number 352 in the hardbacked
hymnal. 352. Let's all stand together
again. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom fly, while the nearer waters roll, while the
tempest still is high. Hide me, O my Savior, hide, till
the storm of life is past. Safe into the haven guide, O
receive my soul at last. Of the refuge have I none, thanks
my helpless soul on thee. Eva, leave me not alone, still
support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is stained,
All my help from Thee I bring, Cover my defenseless head With
the shadow of Thy reign. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Thee I find. Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. Just and holy is Thy name. I am all unrighteousness. False and full of sin I am, Thou
art full of truth and grace. Plenty as grace with Thee is
found, Grace to cover all my sin. Let the healing streams
abound, make and keep me pure within. Thou of life, the fountain
heart, freely let me take of thee. Please be seated. Would you open your Bibles with me
to Judges chapter 12. Judges chapter 12. I've titled this message Crossing
the Jordan. Crossing the Jordan. The word
Jordan means to descend. And it is a picture in the Bible
of our death, which is appointed unto man. Every man wants to
die. And after that, the judgment. Will I be able to cross the Jordan
safely? Will I have safe passage across
the Jordan? I hope the Lord will put that
concern on each of our hearts because we get so caught up in
the temporal things of this world, don't we? We are men of flesh
and the flesh does mind the things of the flesh. And so we are often
consumed with fleshly matters, temporal things. But this is
a time for us to be spiritually minded, to mind the things of
the spirit. I've noticed in man-made religion
that it's all about how to have a better life in this world.
Seems like all the emphasis in preaching and teaching and religion
is to help men get by another day and be more happy and more
fulfilled and more content and more in control and whatever.
The gospel is all about teaching men how to die. And truth is
that we have no understanding of life until the Lord gives
us hope in death. And so if the Lord is able to
give, if the Lord gives us peace in Christ for death, he'll teach
us. That's what the verse we looked
at in the first hour. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God and his righteousness. All these other things have been
added unto you. Crossing the Jordan, in order
for you and I to cross the Jordan safely, righteousness must be
established, justice must be satisfied, and we must be born
of the Spirit of God. And those three points are in
our text this morning. Righteousness must be established. Justice must be satisfied and
we must be born of the Holy Spirit, born of the Spirit of God, born
from above, freeborn, as Paul said, freeborn, except a man
be born of God, born again, shall not see the kingdom of God. Judges chapter 12. The Ephraimites
are in conflict with the Gileadites. A judge by the name of Jephthah
is leading the army of the Gileadites and by God's grace defeats the
Ephraimites. And now those who have escaped
the battle are trying to make their way back home. This battle
takes place on the east side of the Jordan. Ephraim is on
the west side of the Jordan. Gilead is on the east side. So
it's happening in Gilead and the Gileadites have defeated
the Ephraimites and now those who have escaped the battle are
trying to get back home. They're trying to cross the Jordan
so they can get back to their homes and their families and
the place where they live, the place of safety. It is a picture
of our battle in this world. You know, the West side of the
Jordan represents everything from the Jordan River all the
way down to Egypt. The children of Israel spent
40 years wandering in that wilderness. And it is a picture of our life
in this world, which is a battle. It is a battle. It's a daily
battle. It's a struggle in this world. And there comes a day when the
battle comes to an end. And Joshua leads the children
of Israel across the Jordan into the promised land. Will Joshua divide the waters
of the river for me? Will there be a safe passage
for me when the battle is over in this world on the east side
of the Jordan to cross over the river of descent, the river of
death? Or will I be swept away by the
torrents of this river, which you know where that river ends.
That river ends in the Dead Sea. There's no outlet for the Dead
Sea. The water flows from the Jordan down into the Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea is the lowest point on the face of this planet, 660
feet below sea level. And the water descends into that
sea and there's no outlet for the Dead Sea. So the water in
the Dead Sea continually evaporates and what's left behind, nothing
but a concentration of minerals that will not support life. That's
why it's called the Dead Sea. God has given it to us as a picture.
Lord, I don't want to be swept away by the torrents of death. I don't want to be carried into
the Dead Sea where there is no life. Lord, I need a safe passage
home. That's what this story is about. Let's read it together, beginning
at verse At verse four, then Jephthah
gathered together all the men of Gilead and fought with Ephraim. And the men of Gilead smote Ephraim
because they said, ye Gileanites are fugitives of Ephraim among
the Ephraimites and among the Manassites. They called them
outlaws, criminals. And because they were falsely
accused, because they were They were called criminals. The Gileadites, verse five, took
the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites. And so it was
so, and it was so, that when those Ephraimites, which were
escaped from the battle, said, let us go over, let us cross
over the Jordan. They had to get permission. from
the Ephraimites. The Ephraimites took the passages
of the Jordan. Not every place on the Jordan
could be crossed safely. And so the Ephraimites stationed
themselves in those places where there was safe passage. And they
came to the Gileadites. These are all Jews. They came
to the Gileadites and they asked permission. Can we cross over?
We need to get to the other side of the river. And the men of Gilead said unto
them, art thou an Ephraimite? And if he said no, then said
they unto him, say thou Shibboleth. And he said, Sibyleth, notice
there's only one letter difference in those two words. It is the
letter H. But these men, like men today,
We try to speak a word that's foreign to us and we cannot form
the organs of our mouth to articulate the words properly. And they
may say it one way in one part of the country and another way
in another part. And they said, the Gileanites
knew that the Ephraimites would pronounce this word Shibboleth,
which meant a river. So every time the Ephraimites
would come up, the Gileadites would say to them, what is that
right there? Well, that's Shibboleth. But the Ephraimites couldn't
say Shibboleth. All they could say was Sibboleth, which exposed
them for what they were, Ephraimites. So they said unto them in verse
six, say now Shibboleth. And he said, Sibboleth. And he
could not frame to pronounce it right. Then they took him
and slew him at the passage of Jordan. And there fell at that
time of the Ephraimites 40 and 2,000." I suspect that many of those
bodies ended up in the Jordan and were swept down to the Dead
Sea. All because they mispronounced
the word for the river. The first thing I want us to
see in this passage is that in order for you and I to cross
the Jordan safely, righteousness must be established.
So where do you get that from, preacher? Well, the Ephraimites
accused the Gileadites of being criminals. They said, you are
fugitives. You're not law keepers. They
in fact were accusing the Gileadites of the very things that they
were guilty of. Now here's my point, that the law must be kept
perfectly in order for you and I to cross the Jordan into the
promised land. Righteousness must be established.
Let those who believe in a freewill works gospel accuse us of being
anti-nomian. The word nomos is the word for
law, and when they hear about what we say in terms of our salvation
and our God, that we're freeborn, that we're not under the law,
we're under grace, we don't try to measure, Our salvation by
what we do or by what we don't do? We certainly don't look to
our lives as the cause of our salvation, a prayer that we prayed. That's contrary to everything
in man-made works religion. They are looking to their law
keeping and they're calling us fugitives, which is a false accusation. The only message of salvation
that honors God's law is the gospel of God's free grace in
the glorious person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ.
It's the only message of salvation that honors the law of God. He
made it honorable. He is the end of the law for
righteousness to everyone that believeth. We love God's law. We can't keep God's law. We're
not looking to God. We're not looking to, Lord, when
did we do those things is what the sheep say after they crossed
the Jordan and meet with their master. When did we do those
things? We didn't take notice of our
works or lack thereof for the hope of our getting across the
Jordan. The righteousness of Christ was all of our righteousness.
And God made him who knew no sin to be made sin for us, that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. We have one righteousness,
and that's Christ Jesus the Lord. Righteousness must be established.
They were accusing the Ephraimites were accusing the Gileadites
of being lawless, which is exactly what works religion accuses us
of. You must be a lawless people. If you're not, If you're not
measuring and monitoring and motivating and whatever else,
your salvation by your law keeping, then you must be a lawless people.
No, we're under the law of grace. We're under the law of love.
We're under the law of the spirit. No, we're not a lawless people.
That's a false accusation. Christ Jesus came into the world,
not to destroy the law, but to keep the law, to fulfill the
law. Jeff and I were talking about
this before the service. He says, you know, the gospel
is the only message that raises the white flag to the law. And the passage you just read,
Adam and Job 19, 10 times you have come against me. 10 times
you have accused me. Isn't that what Job said of his
friends? What is that a picture of? It's a picture of the law. The law cannot save us. The law can only condemn us. So we don't look to the law.
We look to Christ who has kept the law for us. Righteousness
must be established. They accuse us of being fugitives. They accuse us of being lawless.
They accuse us of being criminals. You see, every other religion
of the world brings God's law down to where man can somehow
attain to it, or at least make a good effort to attain to it.
We hold God's law up where it belongs. God's law is holy. God's
law is just. God's law is good. We're not
criminals. We're just not looking to that
law. For the hope of our salvation, we're looking to Christ, the
keeper of the law. What is the greatest law? We
saw this in the first hour. The Pharisee asked the Lord to
love the Lord your God with all of your heart and all of your
mind and all of your soul and love your neighbor as yourself.
And he's the only one that ever did that. But oh, how he did
it. And what freedom we have, what
liberty we have. If the Son make you free, you're
free indeed. The law's been kept. The law's
been silenced. The law has no condemnation to
say against the people of God, against God's elect for whom
Christ died. A God who is not absolutely just. In demanding perfect obedience
to his law is a God that cannot be trusted. I'll say that again. A God who is not absolutely just
in demanding perfect obedience to his law is a God that cannot
be trusted. In other words, if he's got loopholes
in his law, and he's got leeways in his law, and he applies it
this way one time, and this way another time, or this way to
one person, and this way to another person, that's the way the laws
of men work. That God, that judge cannot be
trusted. We have a God who has a law that
is absolute. exceptions, no exemptions, no
free passes. He requires absolute perfection
and he will sell for nothing less and he demands nothing more
than what the Lord Jesus Christ did in fulfilling that law. You
You Gileadites, you're fugitives, you're criminals, you're lawless. If you haven't been called an
antinomian, you haven't stood for the gospel. Because that's what the self-righteous
believe about our gospel and about our God. That it must breed
lawlessness. And the reason they come to that
conclusion is because they're thinking, if I believe what you
believe, if I didn't have the law to restrain me and to keep
me, I'd be lawless. The law does have its effect
in restraining the flesh. threats of the law and the punishments
of the law. The law is for the lawless. God didn't give the law for the
believer. It's for the lawless. We want perfect justice. We do. We want to be able to stand before
a holy God with clean hands and a pure heart. and to have no
condemnation against us. And if that's to be, we must
be found in Christ. We must be found in Him. We've
got to have Christ. That's the first thing required
for safe passage across the Jordan into the promised land. Is that
not the most concerning thing to your soul? You know, we have
a lot of things in the, like I said, this life's a battle.
Some of you are struggling with health issues and relationship
issues and financial issues. It's a battle. But those who have escaped the
battle, you know, and here's a, here's a glorious picture
of the religious. Well, you know, we were in a
battle with the devil, but We exercised the influence of the
law in our lives, and we didn't do this, and we didn't do that,
and we did not do the other. What did the goats say after
they crossed the river? Or after they were swept away
by the river, what did they say? But Lord, we've done many wonderful
works in thy name. Depart from me, you workers of
iniquity, for I never knew you. We're to stand with clean hearts
and a pure mind before God. We've got to have Christ. Lord, we've escaped the devil. Listen, I've got a verse written
out here. Let's see if I can find it. Well, I'll get to it in a moment.
I'm not sure exactly where it is right now, but it goes like
this. They've escaped the lion only
to meet a bear. Now, the lion is the lion of
the tribe of Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ, but also devil
is described as a lion, isn't he? He is like a roaring lion
seeking whom he may devour. And men in religion pride themselves
that they're not doing the things that the world does. They pride
themselves in the fact that they've escaped the temptations of the
devil, only to turn the corner and meet a lion, a bear. And the bear is a picture of
the law, a picture of the law of God. So you may sweep your
house clean. You may change your behavior.
You may reform your life. You may clean it up and become
religious and get rid of that and start doing the other. But
there's a bear at the Jordan River. There's a law that has to be
satisfied. And none of the reformations
that men make satisfy the demands of God's holy law. Only Christ
did that. If we're to have safe passage,
those of us who have escaped the battle, if we're to have
safe passage, the law must be kept, righteousness must be established,
and justice must be satisfied. Notice in our text that the Gileadites
took the passages of the Jordan. Now Jephthah is leading them,
and Jephthah is the judge, and he's a picture of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And the Gileadites are a picture
of the people of God, and they've taken the passage of Jordan.
It's a picture of how the Lord Jesus Christ has defeated death. He's taken the Jordan River. He crossed over. Safely, he established
divine justice. He died in our stead and offered
himself not to us, but to his father to meet the demands of
God's holy justice. That's what required in the day
in which you eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge
and good and evil, you shall surely die. Death is the penalty
of sin. Death. The wages of sin is death. And it's not just talking about
physical death, it's about spiritual separation from God. Adam and
Eve were cast out of the garden because they sinned. They didn't
walk with God anymore in the cool of the day. They were separated
from God. It's spiritual death. It's being swept away by the
Jordan River into the Dead Sea. That's the wages of sin. The
problem is that You and I die and cannot satisfy the demands
of God's justice. An eternity in the devil's hell
will not be enough to satisfy the justice of God. A lamb had
to be slain, one that was without spot and without blemish. He had to bear the full penalty
and shame and guilt of sin in the eyes of God. And that's exactly
what he did on Calvary's cross. The full fury of God's wrath
and justice was laid upon him. Righteousness must be established. Justice must be satisfied. They took the passages of Jordan. Jordan, what a picture. Joshua led the children of Israel
across the Jordan, didn't he? Moses had to die on the east
side of Jordan. Moses is a picture of the law.
Moses couldn't carry the children of Israel across the Jordan.
Joshua was the only one that could do that. And you know,
the Old Testament name for Joshua and the New Testament name for
Jesus is the same name. It's the same name. Joshua is
a picture of Christ. The law, the bearer of the law
will station itself at the Jordan, but it can't get you across the
Jordan. Only Joshua can move that law out of the way. Put his foot. The ark went before
the children of Israel when they crossed the Jordan. And that
ark is a picture of Christ. The priest, Joshua told the priest,
said, you take the ark and you walk down to the, and with each
step that they took, the ark, the water moved. The water moved. It didn't just wall up on both
sides. It moved with each step of the
ark. The Lord Jesus Christ, he walked
through the valley of death. He's the one that said, I fear
no evil. For thou art with me, thy rod
and thy staff, they do comfort me." And we're able to say that
because of the fact that he conquered death. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. This is a very familiar passage,
but it's so It's so glorious in relationship
to what we're talking about right now. 1 Corinthians chapter 15,
look at verse 50. Now this I say, brethren, flesh
and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, neither doth
corruption inherit incorruption. Behold, I show you a mystery.
We shall not all sleep, but we should all be changed. in a moment,
in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump, for the trumpet
of God shall sound, and the dead in Christ shall be raised incorruptible,
and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put
on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal
shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass
the saying that is written, Death, is swallowed up in victory. O
death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?
The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.
But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord
Jesus Christ." He got the victory. He conquered death. He conquered
the grave. He's the firstborn among many
brethren. We have the hope of the resurrection.
Paul preached a Jesus that was alive. That's what they hated?
There's our hope that our Lord has walked through the Jordan
for us. Righteousness has been established. Justice has been satisfied. There is a river that you and
I must cross. The Bible says the tree of life
is on both sides of that river. He's on the east side where we
are now, and he's on the west side where we shall be. And he
will open up the waters. so that he came, the scripture
says in Hebrews chapter two, to destroy the works of the devil
who had power over death. He by himself conquered death
in order that he might free those who all their lives were held
subject to its bondage. We're held subject to the bondage
of death. Let me tell you what men in religion are doing. They're
whistling through the graveyard. That's what they're doing. They're
trying to salve their conscience and calm their fears by pretending
to be okay. We've made a covenant with death.
And in hell, we're in agreement. And God said, I'm gonna disannoy
your covenant. Christ Jesus, the Lord, the only
one that can do that. And we died in him. Precious
in the eyes of the Lord are the death of his saints. Precious
in the eyes of the Lord are the death of his saints. When did
you and I die? You see, the passages of the
Jordan have already been taken. They've already been taken. We
don't have to fear the torrents of the Jordan River carrying
us down into the Dead Sea. The passages have been taken
through death. When did we die? Well, God has
never seen his elect people outside of Christ. They've always been
in him. We were placed in Christ from
the foundation of the world. And the scripture says that the
Lord Jesus Christ is the lamb slain before the foundation of
the world. So if we were in Christ in eternity
past in the covenant of grace before time ever began, then
we died there in him. When he came in the flesh, born
after a woman, born under the law to redeem those who are cursed
by the law, he bore in his body the sins of his people and hung
on Calvary's cross. Cursed is everyone that hangeth
upon a tree. He was cursed by the law of God.
The law of God saw our sin on him. And Paul said, I am crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, not I,
but Christ liveth in me. The life that I now live, I live
by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and died for me. Precious in the eyes of the Lord
are the death of his saints. When you hear the gospel as the
gospel, you die to yourself and all your righteousness and all
your false hopes and all your false religions God puts you
to death. That's what the sword of the
Spirit is. It's a double-edged sword. It kills and it makes
alive. So we die to all the things,
all the false hopes we thought we had when we hear the gospel.
And God's pleased to translate us from the kingdom of darkness
to the kingdom of His light. We die. That's the third death. Paul said, I die daily. You see
here, You're tempted with your own self-righteousness every
day, aren't you? You're tempted to look somewhere other than
Christ for the hope of your salvation. And to that, you must be put
to death. And so you've got to die daily.
This dying is a daily affair. One day when it's appointed, we'll draw our final breath.
And this body, this corruptible mortal body will be made incorruptible
and immortal. And we will see him as he is
and be made like him. The passages of the Jordan have
already been taken. They're taken by death. You've already died. I said this
recently, if you're born twice, born of
the flesh, born of the spirit. You only have one death to have
to deal with. And that's the physical death
of your body. The Bible speaks of a second
death, and that's when the souls of men will be cast into the
lake of fire. And the second death, we don't
need to fear. Don't need to fear. That's the
death that he conquered. He conquered the second death.
Oh, there's still some fears and trepidations and anxieties
over physical death, particularly when we're threatened with it.
But that's not the death we need to be concerned about. It's the
second death. And that's the death he conquered. So if you're born twice, you
die once. If you're only born once, you die twice. I've got to be made alive in
Christ. I've got to have the breath of
God breathe upon me. Here's that passage, I found
it in my notes, Amos chapter 5. Woe unto you that desire the
day of the Lord. Now this is a description of
the religious people who talk about the day of the Lord as
if it's some great delight to them. Woe unto you that desire
the day of the Lord. To what end is it for you? The
day of the Lord is darkness and not light. As if a man did flee
from a lion and a bear met him. Men pride themselves in thinking
they've fled from the devil only to meet the law of God. Righteousness
must be established Death, justice must be satisfied if we're to
have safe passage across the Jordan. Now let me get to my
last point quickly. I mentioned that the word that
they were to speak only differed by one letter. The Ephraimites
said, what do you call that right there? And if they said Sibyleph
instead of Shibyleph, they killed him. The H, particularly in the Hebrew
language, but also in the English language, is not so much pronounced
as it is breathed. We breathe the letter H when
we speak. Heaven. Hell. It's a breathing sound, isn't
it? And it's particularly so in the
Hebrew language. The word rach is a breathing sound, and that's
the word for breath in the Old Testament Hebrew. Abram's name
was changed to Abraham. The H. Sarai's name was changed
to Sarah. with an H. Jehovah has two Hs
in it. The H in the Hebrew language
is the word for breath. And we know that as Adam was
made in the garden from the dust of the earth, yet there was no
life in him until God breathed life into his nostrils, the breath
of life. So my third point is, we must
be born of the Spirit of God in order to cross the River Jordan
safely. God must, when the Lord met the
disciples in the upper room after the resurrection, the scripture
says, and he breathed on them and they received the Spirit
of God. Why did God breathe life through Adam's nostrils? Well,
When your mouth is shut, the only way you can breathe is through
your nose. And the law of God shuts the
mouth of man, that all mouths might be shut and that all men
might be guilty before God. We've got nothing to offer out
of our mouths. Our mouths are shut. And if we're
to breathe, God's gonna have to breathe through our nostrils. It's the breath of life. It's the same thing that happened
in Ezekiel. Valley of dry bones. When the Lord said to the prophet,
he said, son of man, can these bones live? And Ezekiel said,
Lord, thou knowest if they're going to live, you're going to
have to make them live. I can't make them live. And the Lord said, prophesy
to them, preach the gospel of God's free grace to them. And
bones started coming together and sinew and skin and flesh. And the scripture says, and yet
there was no life in them. And the Lord said to the prophet,
prophesy unto thee, the wind, the rock, prophesy to the spirit
of God that he might come and blow. What happened on the day
of Pentecost when the wind of the spirit blew? And the spirit of God came and
took the message of God and make it alive. There's no life without
the breath. These men could not say Shibboleth
because it had that H sound in it. All they could say was Sibboleth. Someone might be thinking, well,
how do I know if I have the Spirit of God? The Lord said, when the
Comforter comes, which I'll send in my name, He's going to do
three things. He's going to convict the world
of sin because they believe not on me. Child of God, you know
you have the Spirit of God. If you believe that your unbelief
is the root of all your sin. The problem you have is not with
a bad habit or with, you know, something else. The problem you
have is you don't believe God like you ought. Lord, I believe,
help thou mine unbelief. Spirit of God has convicted you.
And you know that your root problem to everything else is not believing
God as you are. Lord, I may increase our faith.
He will convict the world of sin. This is how we know we have
the spirit of God. Of righteousness. Because I go to my father. Child
of God, you know you have the Spirit of God. If all of your
righteousness is bound up completely in the person of the Lord Jesus
Christ, seated at the right hand of the majesty on high, interceding
for you and presenting himself for all your acceptance before
God, you have no righteousness outside of him. And of judgment, Because the
prince of this world has been judged. The passages of the Jordan
had been taken. Death has conquered death. Heaven
has been opened. Sin's been put away. God's satisfied. We can't add anything to what
the Lord Jesus did to satisfy his father on behalf of his people
on Calvary's cross. You believe that? Those who have escaped the world
only thought that they escaped. They got to the Jordan and they
couldn't give evidence of having the Spirit of God. More than anything else, I want
you to have safe passage across the Jordan. I want to have safe
passage across the Jordan. Pray that we will be able to
look to Christ for all our righteousness, all of our justification, that
he will give us his spirit as a comforter for our souls. We
have no fear of death, no fear. Our Heavenly Father, thank you
for your word. Bless it to the souls of your
people for Christ's sake and for his glory, we ask it, amen. 32 in the Sproul hymnal, let's
stand together, number 32. All children of wrath, in bondage
and sin, we helplessly lay, condemned and unclean. God's law, in its
infinite justice and wrath, demanded we suffer an eternal death. But long before time had ever
begun, One stood in our place, God's glorious Son. He offered Himself to go live
among men, And give His own life to atone for our sin. The great substitute, behold,
he has come. The price has been paid, the
work is all done. Christ took on himself the great
load of our sin. He poured out his blood and he
put away sin. God's justice and law are now
satisfied, and all who believe have been justified. Through faith in the blood of
the Lamb we are free from sin's condemnation, eternally free.