Okay. I read this Psalm in the men's
study this morning. I'll read it again for you. Psalm
100. Make a joyful noise unto the
Lord all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness.
Come before his presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord,
he is God. It is he that hath made us and
not we ourselves. We are his people and the sheep
of his pasture. Enter into his gates with thanksgiving
and into his courts with praise. Be thankful unto him and bless
his name for the Lord is good. His mercy is everlasting and
his truth, his truth endureth to all generations. Let's stand
together. Tom's going to come lead us in
the hymn on the back of your bulletin. Yeah. Not all the blood of beasts on
Jewish altars slain Can give the guilty conscience peace,
nor wash away the stain. But Christ, the heavenly Lamb,
takes all our sins away, a sacrifice of nobler name and richer blood
than they. My faith would lay her hand on
that dear head of thine, while like a penitent I stand and there
confess my sin. To our Redeemer God, wisdom and
power belongs. Immortal crowns of majesty and
everlasting songs. Please be seated. Our call to worship scripture
would be found in the book of John chapter six, book of John
chapter six at verse 27. It seemed that it's pleased the
Lord the last several weeks to teach us the miracle of seeing
the miracle of hearing the miracle of believing. This passage that
we're going to read this morning, the Lord himself clearly distinguishes
the difference between the unbeliever and himself. Because the truth
is, the believer, our believer, the Lord Jesus Christ, believed
his father perfectly. Perfect faith. And by virtue
of our union in him, We too believe because He believed. And you'll
clearly see that as we read this. Pray the Lord will bless this
to your heart. Verse 27. Labor not for the meat which
perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting
life. And every believer knows that
our labor is to labor into his rest. which the Son of Man shall
give unto you, for him hath God the Father's seal. Here's the
first point of the unbeliever. Then said they unto him, what
shall we do that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered
and said unto them, this is the work of God, that you believe
on him whom he hath sent. No response. Here's their second
point. They said, therefore, unto him, what sign showest thou
then that we may see and believe thee? And what does thou work? Our fathers did eat man in the
desert, as it is written. He gave them bread from heaven
to eat. And Jesus said unto them, oh, verily, verily, I say unto
you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven, but my father
giveth you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God
is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the
world. Then said they unto him, Lord
evermore, give us this bread. And Jesus said unto them, I am
the bread of life. He that cometh to me shall never
hunger, and he that believeth on me shall never thirst. But
I said unto you that you also have seen me, and believe not. All that the Father has given
me shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I will in no
wise cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me. And this
is the Father's will, which has sent me, that of all which He
hath given me, I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. And this is the will of Him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son and believeth on
Him may have everlasting life. And I will raise Him up at the
last day." The Apostle Paul said, The just
shall walk by faith. May he increase our faith and
help our unbelief this morning. Let's pray. Our heavenly father, we again
come before you in the name of thy dear son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the one who believed you perfectly. The one who intercedes
for us now as we offer up this prayer to you, knowing that he
will make this acceptable in thy sight. Oh, how we do desire,
Lord, to believe thee and to know thee even more this very
hour. So we ask again that you would
be pleased to send your Holy Spirit that would enable us and
causes and desire to worship you, to believe you, to honor
you. Lord, we ask again that what
you have placed in our brother's heart, that you would give him
once again the power and the ability to proclaim and to lift
up Christ, that we all may worship him this morning. Oh, how we
desire to believe you more, help our unbelief. We need you, Lord, this very
moment. Enable us to hear once again by your grace, for we ask
it in Christ's name, amen. Let's all stand together. Once
again, we'll sing hymn number 355 from the Hardback Tymnal,
355. From every stormy wind that blows,
from every swelling tide of woes, there is a calm, a sure retreat. It is found beneath the mercy
seat. There is a place where Jesus
sheds the oil of gladness on our heads, a place that all besides
more sweet, it is the blood-bought mercy seat. There is a scene where spirits
blend, where friend holds fellowship with friend. Though sundered
far, by faith they meet, around one common mercy seat. Ah, whither could we flee for
aid When tempted, desolate, dismayed? Or how the hosts of hell defeat
At suffering saints no mercy seat? Ah, there on eagle wings
we soar, and sin and sense molest no more. And heaven comes down,
our souls to greet, while glory crowns the mercy seat. Please be seated. Will you turn with me in your
Bibles to Luke, chapter 7, please. Luke, chapter 7. I've titled
this message, A Savior for Sinners. A Savior for Sinners. If the
real difference between a believer and an unbeliever is that a believer
believes and they always believe, and an unbeliever doesn't believe
and they never believe, then we have to ask the question,
what exactly is it that believers believe? That unbelievers don't
believe. And we could answer that question
by saying, well, all of scripture, and that would be true. We believe
everything that God has said and they twist and rest the scriptures
to mean things that it doesn't mean. But I want to simplify
things this morning by saying that there is something that
believers always believe about themselves that unbelievers never
believe. And there is something that believers
always believe about Christ that unbelievers never believe. Now
those two things don't necessarily happen in that order. For in order for us to know the
truth about ourselves, we have to have the glory of the Lord
Jesus Christ revealed to us. Now, I saw the Lord, woe is me. We hear the gospel and we conclude
that we're undone. We see the glory of Christ and
we, for the first time, are abled by the Spirit of God to compare
ourselves to Him and come to the conclusion that there's nothing
in us like Him. He's holy. He's holy. So these are the two things that
I want us to see this morning. I was reading a comment by the
president of the Southern Baptist Convention this week, and I guess
they've written for themselves a new confession of faith. Why
would you need a confession of faith? You've got the Bible.
But they've written a new one. And his statement was, it's narrow
enough to unite us together in unity and broad enough to enable
us to differ on the peripherals. Well, why would you put something
in a statement of faith that was broad enough for you to differ
on the peripherals? Why would you put peripherals
in a statement of faith? You know, we believe the simple
truth, and I'm in agreement with what the
Apostle Paul said in 2 Corinthians when he said, I fear, lest by
any means, and Satan's got a lot of means, that as Satan beguiled
Eve, deceived her in the wilderness. So you might be drawn away from
that simplicity, which is in Christ. The gospel is simple. It's not complicated. Religion
is complicated. It is. It's convoluted. It's
complicated. It doesn't make sense. They talk
out of both sides of their mouth. They say God is sovereign, but
you have a say in your salvation. They say that God loves everybody,
but he's going to send a lot of the folks that he loves to
hell. And it's just, it doesn't make sense. Religion doesn't
make sense. The gospel is simple. It's simple. And the two points
that I want us to see from this passage of scripture this morning
are best summarized by John Newton, who was the author of that great
hymn, Amazing Grace. People sing it, they don't believe
their wretches. They don't. They just sing the words and
they don't have any idea what they mean. But John Newton knew
what it meant. And John Newton, at the end of
his life, said, my memory is fading. And I can relate to that
a little bit. As we get older, it's harder
to concentrate on things sometimes. But he said, there are two things
that I remember very clearly. Number one, I am a great sinner. Number two, Christ is a great
savior. Those are the two points of my
message this morning. And that's what believers believe
that unbelievers don't believe. We believe ourselves to be sinners. And we believe the Lord Jesus
Christ, the son of God, to be the successful savior of sinners. We believe that faithful saying
which is worthy to be accepted by all, Christ Jesus came into
the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Now the story
that we're about to read in Luke chapter 7 is about a woman who,
as I understand it, the scriptures were interpreted into Aramaic
also. And I understand in the Aramaic
language, the word here used about her actually translated
means a prostitute. And so this woman, according
to our scriptures, was a notorious sinner. But before we read the
story, let me remind you of something that we saw in the first hour.
And that is that the most offensive sin to God is the sin of self-righteousness. It is the sin that robs Christ
of his glory. It is the sin that sets man up
on the throne of God. The sin of unbelief is the sin
that doth so easily beset us. And so we read this story about
this woman. Might none of us ever even think
to say, as that publican said, or that Pharisee said in the
temple when pointing to the publican, God, I thank thee that I'm not
like other men. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not
an adulterer. I tithe twice a week. I'm not
a. I'm not a whoremonger. I'm I. Oh Lord. What did the publican
do? Smote himself upon his breast
and would not so much as even look up and cried God have mercy
upon me for I am the center. The truth is that men look at
the outward appearance. God looks at the heart. When
God shows you that you're a You realize that all those things
that men do, some of them you've done, all of them you've done
in your heart. All of them. And you agree with Paul, the
apostle, I'm the chief of sinners. No one's been given more grace.
No one's been shown more light. No one's been favored more. No
one's been blessed more. Then I have been and remain as
unbelieving as I am. One of the things I like about
I love being around believers, cause. In that regard, they're
not pretentious. We can be pretentious in a lot
of ways, can't we? But in that regard. In that regard. Believers. Don't look down their
self-righteous nose at one another or at other men. They take the
low seat. They know what they are and they
believe themselves to be sinful. Verse 36 of Luke chapter seven,
and one of the Pharisees desired him that he would eat with him. Now, we don't know this Pharisee's
name. Oh, no, we do know his name. His name is Simon. But
we don't know anything else about him. After this story, he's left out
of the picture, and there's no sense that the Lord was merciful
toward him. But he went into the Pharisee's
house. The Pharisee invited him to come
into his house. The Lord accepted the invitation,
sat down to meet and behold a woman in the city, which was a sinner. And that's the word that has the
meaning of a prostitute in it. The truth is that every single
one of us have been guilty of spiritual prostitution. We've turned away from our husband
and found love and satisfaction in another. And that's worse. You've heard
that it was said that if you take your neighbor's wife that
you're guilty of adultery, but I say unto you, if you look upon
a woman lustfully, you've already committed adultery in her heart.
You've heard that it's said that you should not commit murder,
but I say unto you, if you have ought in your heart towards your
brother without a cause, how many times have you done that?
You're just in a bad mood. You get mad at somebody for no
reason. You've murdered them in your heart. You see, that's
the issue, isn't it? Man looks at the outward appearance,
God's looking at the heart. May God peer into our souls and
cause us to believe that what he sees is that every imagination
of the heart is only evil and that continually. You see, only
believers believe that about themselves. Unbelievers don't
believe that. Without exception, they're self-righteous.
Without exception, they're going to present something. They're
going to tell you what they're doing for God. They're going
to tell you, well, at least I'm not like that guy over there.
Like I said, the first hour, the, the, the, the, the outwardly
moral, religious, ethical person will boast in their righteousness
and, and, and even feign their, uh, their humility as their righteousness,
won't they? And the guy in prison will look
down the hall at somebody that did something worse than him
and say, well, at least I'm not like that. At least I'm not like that. God's people believe themselves
to be sinful. They believe that their holy
things need to be, the iniquity of their holy things need to
be bore by the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be accepted before
God, don't they? They just believe that. So this woman, this woman
who was a sinner, when she knew that Jesus sat at meet in the
Pharisee's house brought an alabaster box of ointment. Now this happens
a few times in the scriptures with different women. Mary, remember
Mary and Martha and Lazarus in John chapter 12, Mary does the
same thing in anointing the Lord's body for his burial. And the
Lord says of Mary that her name will be perpetual for the glory
of God as long as the gospel is told. But here we have a woman
who we don't know her name. We just know that everybody in
town knew who she was. She stood on the street corner
and she heard that Jesus sat down at meat. You know that's what he's doing
right now. Right this very minute. You remember when the Lord went
back to Emmaus with those disciples after his resurrection. And then
the scripture says, and in the breaking of bread, their eyes
were opened and they beheld him. And he departed from them immediately.
And they ran back to the disciples and told we've, the Lord's risen.
We've seen him. How did they see? They saw him
in the breaking of bread. That still happens. The Lord
sits down with his church at meat. This word meat just means
food. Uh, we're going to sit at the
wedding feast of the, of the lamb one day and, and, uh, mysterious
to me somehow the scripture says he's going to be serving us.
I don't know what that means, but, uh, but right now he's serving
his people with the bread of life. He is that bread, which
came down from heaven, Bert. So here we have this woman who
heard. That's where it all starts. She knew that Jesus sat at meet
in the Pharisee's house and she brought an alabaster box of ointment
and stood at his feet behind him weeping and began to wash
his feet with her tears and did wipe them with the hairs of her
head and kissed his feet and anointed them with ointment.
Now, the Eastern tradition was not like ours. They didn't sit
in chairs with their feet under the table. They laid prostrate. on couches and leaned up on one
shoulder and ate that way and the table was flat on the floor
and the servants would be behind them so their feet would be away
from the table and that's the scene here. And this woman takes
the position of a servant and she begins to wash the feet.
You would have taken your shoes off when you went into the home.
So his feet were bare and he was lying down at meat with his
friends and she comes and she's weeping. Now, how sorry do we
have to be for our sins in order to be sorry? I pray the Lord will cause us
to weep over our sin. But don't make that your righteousness. Don't think that, well, you know,
if I can just, if I can just lament a little more. You know,
there's been traditions in religion where they had mourners benches
and, you know, you would have to mourn over your sin for days
or weeks or months or years before, you know, before the Lord would
save you. And then finally, when you got to the point of mourning
enough and showed enough sorrow, Sorrow for sin is taking sides
with God against yourself. It's saying when the Lord says
you're a sinner and everything about you is sinful, it's saying
amen. Truth Lord, you're right. I have no righteousness. All
my righteousnesses are as filthy rags. I have no righteousness
outside of Christ. So We read this story, the Lord
does break our hearts from time to time over our sin, but here
she wipes his feet with her hair,
and washes them with her tears, kisses his feet, and anoints
them with the ointment. And when the Pharisee, which
was bidden, saw him, he spake within himself, saying, This
man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner
of woman this is that toucheth him, for she is a sinner. Not only did he know everything
there was to know about her, but we're going to see in the
next verse that the Lord Jesus Christ knew what Simon was thinking. He knew his thoughts. And you
know what? He knows your thoughts and my
thoughts. Psalm 139 says he knows our thoughts
before we think them. How about that? Before we think of me knows.
He knows every word that goes out of our mouths. He knows everything
that we do. No fooling God. Just take sides
with him. Just just take sides with him.
Just say truth Lord, you're right. You're right, I'm like this woman.
I'm like this woman, I'm just a sinner. And all I can do is
come to the feet of the master. sit at his feet. The father said,
sit down here at my right hand, speaking to the Lord Jesus Christ
until I make thine enemies thy footstool. And that's what we
are. By nature, we're at enmity with
God. By nature, our sin is an offense to God. By nature, we're
unbelievers. Now, this matter of becoming
a sinner is a miracle of grace, isn't it? You know, we get aggravated because
people don't hear. I do. I get aggravated when somebody
responds to the gospel with, well, that was a wonderful service. That was a good message. And
I know they didn't hear a word of it. It aggravates me. But
I also know that the Lord's going to have to be the one to speak
to them. He's going to have to be the one to open their ears,
just like he was the one that opened our ears. What make it
thee to differ? What do you have that you've not received? That's
why the Lord said, it's good for you, it's necessary, it's
expedient for you that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter
will not come. But when he comes, he's gonna
do three things. He's going to convict the world
of sin. Now the word world in that passage
of scripture is used in the same context that it's used in John
3, 16. For God so loved the world, I'm
not talking about every individual person in the world anymore.
The Spirit of God, has he convicted the whole world of sin? No. Of righteousness and of judgment,
of sin because they believe not on me. There's the root of our
sin problem. And the more you grow in grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the more you see in your own heart
this insidious sin of unbelief that keeps rearing its ugly head
and keeps causing you to complain against God and not believe God
and not trust God. And the older, most gracious,
loving believers are the ones who believe themselves to be
the greatest sinners, the humblest, most gracious believers
who have walked with the Lord long enough to see more of his
glory. You see, that's what growing
in grace and in the knowledge of Christ is. It's as you grow
in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, you grow equally
in your need for more grace. Don't you? World doesn't believe this. They
don't believe it. They don't believe they're sinners.
And if the spirit of God doesn't make us a sinner, we won't believe
it either. Say, we're a preacher. Are you
suggesting that God makes us sin? I didn't say that. We're
already sinners, but makes us to see our sin. And somebody
asked me that one time. No, no. Let no man say when he
sins that, that God made me do it. For every man sins when he's
drawn away of his own lust, when lust is conceived to bring it
forth sin and sin bring it forth death. We are fully, completely
100% responsible for our own sin. But it takes the spirit of God
to show you your unbelief. Lord, I've not been trusting
Christ. I've been trusting in my own righteousness. This thing of being a sinner
is a positive thing. I heard a preacher say, well
we don't talk about sin, that's too negative. Nothing's more
positive to a child of God than to be reminded that they're a
sinner. Why? Because the scripture says
that the Lord Jesus Christ is a friend of publicans and sinners. Now the other side to that coin
is that he's not a friend to the self-righteous and the Pharisee. Christ came into this world to
save sinners and sinners are the only ones that he saves and
he saves every one of them. Oh, you like being reminded of
your sinfulness before God, don't you? The world doesn't. They
think we're, they think we're brow beating folks. They think
we're, we're, we're making people have a low self-esteem. We're,
we're, we're, you know, we're make you feel bad about themselves.
Oh no, no. They that behold me not a physician,
but they that are sick, I am not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. It's a good reason to be reminded
that we're sinners, isn't it? then drew near unto him all the
publicans and sinners for to hear him." They're the only ones
that draw near to him is the publicans and sinners. And the
Pharisees and the scribes murmured saying, this man receiveth sinners
and eateth with them. Yes, he does. Yes, he does. God commended his love towards
us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.
For when we were yet without strength, God in due time, Christ
died for the ungodly, for the ungodly. You see, the truth is that we
have to be killed before we can be made alive. We have to be lost before we
can be saved. We have to be made blind before we see. Pharisees were offended at the
gospel when the Lord told them that they were blind, and he
told them very clearly, and they say, are you suggesting that
we're blind? And what did the Lord say? If you were blind,
then you would be able to see. But because you say you see,
therefore your sins remain. These things, by the way, happens
simultaneously. There's a cause and effect, but
in terms of chronological time, they happen at the same time.
In other words, in other words, if God's made you lost, you're
saved. If God's made you blind, you see. If God's made you a
sinner, you're righteous. They happen simultaneously. In
terms of a cause and effect, one has to bring about the other.
In other words, regeneration has to bring about faith. That's
the cause, the new birth. The faith is the cause of the
new birth. But when do they happen at the same time? How do I know
I'm saved? Cause God made me lost. How do
I know that I'm righteous? Cause God's made me to be a center. How do I know that I've been
born again? Cause I believe faith is the substance of things
hoped for the evidence of things not seen. What do I believe?
I believe that I'm a center. I believe I have no righteousness.
I believe all my righteousness before God is this filthy rags.
I believe man at his very best state is altogether vanity. That's what I believe. Job believed it. He said, behold,
behold. And that word means I see something
now that I never saw before. What did he see? Behold, I am
vile. Surely I had spoken without knowledge. Lord, I didn't know what I was
doing when I was charging you of wrongdoing for my suffering. Now I see. Now I see that I'm
vile. David said, wash me throughly
from my iniquity, cleanse me from my sin for I acknowledge
my transgression and my sin is ever before me. Against thee
and thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight that
thou mightest be justified when thou judgest. For in sin, I was shapen in iniquity
and in sin that my mother conceived me. I've been a sinner since
I was conceived in my mother's womb before I drew my first breath. Before I drew my first breath,
before I had a conscious thought about things, I was a sinner.
I inherited this sin nature from my father. Came all the way down
from Adam. For in Adam, all died. Even so in Christ shall all be
made alive. You see, this is why men hate
the gospel. Because all men by nature are self-righteous and
the gospel robs them of their hope. It strips them naked and
robs them of their righteousness and robs them of their hope.
And that's why they hate it. They hate Christ. Right after the resuscitation
of Lazarus in John chapter 11, the scripture says that some
of the people that saw, four days he'd been in the tomb, he
came out dressed up like a mummy. They had done loosing. Martha
was worried that his body would stink. And everybody knew it
was a miracle that had never been seen before. A man raised
from the dead. And some believe the scripture
says, and some ran back to the Pharisees and told them. And
the Pharisees, believing the report, got together and had
a council and said, what are we going to do? For everybody
is going to believe on this miracle man. And the Romans are gonna
come and we are going to lose both our place and our nation. We're going to lose our position
and our power. You know nothing's changed. That's
the response. The clear evidence that Jesus
of Nazareth is the son of God and the savior of sinners. And
men will still say, what are we going to do? I'm going to
lose my place and my power. I'm going to lose my position
and my nation. I'm going to lose all my authority.
I'm not going to have this man reign over me. Quickly, the second thing that
believers believe, apart from knowing what was it that John
Newton said? Two things I know for sure. I
am a great center and Christ is a great savior. Let's read that. Let's read the
rest of this story. And verse 40, and Jesus answered
and said unto him, Simon, I have somewhat to say unto thee. And
he saith, Master, say on. There was a certain creditor
which had two debtors. The one owed 500 pence and the
other 50. And when they had nothing to
pay, one of them owed 10 times more than the other. But neither
one of them had a penny to their name to pay towards their debt.
You and I have a debt towards God that we can't pay. We're
paupers where. We're poor. We don't have anything. When they had nothing to pay,
he frankly forgave them both. Now that's what you and I need.
We need forgiveness. We need our sin to be taken away.
We can't make up for it. We can't cover it up. We can't
excuse it. Tell me therefore, and by the
way, when we. When we. All this talk about
being a sinner. Lest I be misunderstood. We're
not. We're not excusing sin. We're not justifying sin. We're
explaining it. OK. In the believer's heart, there's
no excuse for sin. He was grieved over his sin.
And he doesn't go about saying, well, you know, we're just nothing
but sin, so, you know, we might as well eat, drink, and be merry,
indulge ourselves. We're not antinomians. We're
not against the law. The law is holy. The law is just,
and the law is good. But what we know is that the
law can't make me holy. And the law can't justify me
before God. And the law can't make me a good
person. I need Christ, who is the end
of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. I
need him. And then we're under a new law,
aren't we? James calls it the law of liberty. It's the law of grace. It's the
law of love. It's the law of the spirit. We're
not, we're not justifying. We're just explaining what we
are. We're, we're taking sides with God against ourselves of
what our real nature is. Tell me therefore, which of them
will love him most? And Simon answered, verse 43,
and said, I suppose he that to whom he forgave most. And he
said unto him, thou hast rightly judged. And he turned to the
woman and said unto Simon, see thou this woman? I entered into
thine house, and thou gavest me no water for my feet, but
she hath washed my feet with her tears and wiped them with
the hairs of her head. Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman since
the time I came in, hath not ceased to kiss my feet. My head
with oil thou didst not anoint." Now, these were common practices. If you went into someone's home,
they would have a servant there to wash your feet and anoint
your hands and head with oil and give you a kiss of welcome. These were the common practices
of the day. And the Lord's saying, you didn't
do any of those things. Why didn't Simon do those things? Because he wasn't a sinner. He wasn't a sinner and he didn't
need a savior. He was a curiosity seeker and there's lots of those
today. Let me see what God can do for me. He was, I'm sure he's
probably hopeful that the Lord might perform a miracle in his
house. The Pharisees were always asking
that, you know, show us a miracle, then we'll believe on you. You
did it over there, come do it over here. Simon didn't need a savior. He
wasn't a sinner. He was just a curiosity seeker
and didn't even show the Lord the common courtesy of the custom
of the day when you have a guest come in your home. And so the
Lord says, this woman, look what she's done. Why did she do it? Why'd she do it? Because she
was a notorious sinner. Everybody knew who she was. Wherefore, I say unto thee, here's
what I want the Lord to say unto me, don't you? Wherefore, I say
unto thee, her sins which are many are forgiven, for she loved
much. But to whom little is forgiven,
the same loveth little. To whom much is forgiven, oh,
they love much. That's why the, the oldest, most
mature child of God has been walking with Christ for so many,
they've been forgiven more than anybody else. And he said unto her, thy sins
are forgiven. Our Lord is a great savior. He
is able to save to the uttermost them that come to God by him.
He doesn't leave one sin unforgiven. His death on Calvary's cross
was successful. You remember on Mount of Transfiguration
when Peter, James, and John were there and they saw the veil of
our Lord's humanity briefly taken away and the radiance of his
deity shined forth like the noonday sun and they fell in the dirt
and what was happening Elijah and Moses were there and this
is what the scripture says, they spake with the Lord Jesus Christ
of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem. Now
when have you ever heard of a person's decease being something that
they accomplish? What was he going to accomplish
in his death? Well what does Moses and Elijah represent? Moses
is the law and Elijah is the prophets and all the law was
accomplished. The Lord Jesus Christ was obedient
unto the father even unto death and he accomplished the fulfillment
of the law and he fulfilled everything that the prophets ever had to
say about his successful work of redemption. You remember when Judah came
back from Egypt with his brothers, and Joseph hasn't revealed himself
yet, but Joseph said, don't come back without Benjamin. And so
Judah has to go to Jacob, his father, and said, you know, the
man won't have us back without Benjamin. And he said, and what
did Jacob say? You know, I've lost Joseph, his
no more, and Simeon is down there now, and now you want to take
Benjamin? All these things are against me. And what did Judah
say? Here's what he said. I will be
surety for him. Of my hand thou shalt require
him. And if I bring him not back unto
thee and set him before thee, let me bear the blame forever. Now Judah, the Lord Jesus Christ
is the lion from the tribe of Judah. And the scripture says
that he hath prevailed. He's able to open the books and
he's our surety. Just as Judah said to Jacob,
I will be surety for him. In other words, that word surety
means I will be everything necessary to secure his salvation. And
if I don't bring him back and set him at your feet, then I
will bear the blame forever. When the Lord Jesus Christ ascended
back into glory, he took with him those for whom he lived and
died. And when he sat down at the right
hand of the majesty on high, everything necessary for the
preparation of our salvation was accomplished. Everything. And he brought before the father
All the names of those that the Father chose in the covenant
of grace. You think the Lord Jesus Christ is going to bear
the blame for not being surety of his people before God? No. No. Oh yes, he is the forgiver. Of sin. The Lord, when David
said in Psalm 23 verse 1, the Lord is my shepherd, I shall
not want. I'm not just talking about temporal
things. He said, the Lord's my shepherd,
I shall not be in want for anything. Everything I need to stand in
the presence of God, he's accomplished. He's accomplished. He finished
the work of redemption. What can wash away my sins? nothing
but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. All precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. You see, the truth is, brethren,
where sin abounds, where sin abounds, grace does much more
bound. By his own blood he entered in
once to the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for
us. He offered himself without spot
to God to purge our conscience of dead works. And verse 49, and I'll close.
And they that sat at meat with him began to say within themselves,
who is this that forgiveth sins? Who does he think he is? God
alone can forgive sins. Yup. That's true. You see, Simon,
the Pharisee didn't believe that Jesus was God and no unbeliever does. I don't care how much they honor
him with their lips, they can use all the proper titles and
names that are in scripture for the Lord Jesus Christ, but you
listen to the definitions that they give to those titles and
names and they don't mean what we mean. They don't believe what
we believe. They don't believe that Jesus
shall save his people from their sins. They don't believe that
he's the accomplished Savior. She did! She did, look at the
last verse. And he said to the woman, thy
faith has saved thee. Go in peace. Now faith is what the regenerated
heart does. It believes. And because of that,
we don't bring faith to God for him to regenerate us. He regenerates
us. He breathes life into our hearts
and gives us the gift of faith. But there's no salvation without
faith. No salvation. For without faith it is impossible
to please God. For they that come to him must
believe that he is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently
seek him. Faith is the substance of things
hoped for. For by grace are you saved through
faith. Believers believe two things. And they always believe them.
I am a great center. And Christ Jesus, the Lord, is
a great savior. And no unbeliever believes either
one of those. I don't believe it. What about you? What do you believe? Remember what the Lord said to
Martha when He said, I am the resurrection and the life. He
that believeth in me, though he die, yet shall he live. Believest
thou this? The Lord asked him, ask her,
do you believe? Do you believe? See, that's our
problem. That's our problem is unbelief.
Only the Spirit of God can give us faith to believe. I'm a great
sinner. Christ is a great Savior. Our Heavenly Father, we ask that
you would bless your word to our hearts and cause us to believe
you. For we ask it in Christ's name,
amen. 199, let's stand together. Uh-oh. ? Sinners Jesus will receive ?
Sound this word of grace to all ? Who the heavenly pathway leave
? All who linger, all who fall ? Sing it o'er and o'er again
? Christ receiveth sinful men Make the message clear and plain,
Christ receiveth sinful men. ? Come and he will give you rest
? Trust him for his word is plain ? He will take the sinful rest
? Christ receiveth sinful men ? Seek it o'er and o'er again
? Christ receiveth sinful men Make the message clear and plain
Christ receiveth sinful men Now my heart condemns me not Pure
before the law I stand He who cleansed me from all spot Satisfied
its last demand In Oregon, Christ, receive a
sinful man, receive a sinful man. Make the message clear and
plain, the message plain. Christ, receive a sinful man. ? Christ receiveth sinful man
? Even me with all my sin ? Purged from every spot and stain ? Heaven
with him I enter in ? Sing it o'er and o'er again ? Christ
receiveth sinful man ? Make the message clear and plain ? ? Christ
received his sinful man ? Amen.