Let's open tonight's service
with number seven from your Spiral Gospel Hymn book, number seven. The head that once was crowned
is crowned with glory now. Let's all stand together. The head that once was crowned
with thorns is crowned with glory now. A royal diadem adorns the
mighty victor's brow. The highest place that heaven
affords belongs to Him by right, the King of kings and Lord of
lords, and heaven's eternal light. The joy of all who dwell above,
the joy of all below, to whom he manifests his love and grants
his name. To them the cross with all its
shame, with all its grace is given, their name an everlasting
name, their joy the joy of heaven. Please be seated. Would you open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 51, please. Psalm 51. And I want to read this Psalm
with a little something different in mind. We know it to be true,
and we've heard it said, that it's not men's sin that keeps
them from Christ, it's their righteousness. David spent nine
months trying to cover up his sin. And I've titled the message
tonight, A Word for the Weary, but I started to title it, It's
not the crime it's the cover-up and Sin doesn't keep us from
Christ Sin will cause a sinner to flee to Christ. It's the cover-up
And so David's praying This psalm, I want you to think
about all the agony that he went through for nine months trying
to cover up his sin, trying to make up for it. I suspect that
probably David made as many sacrifices during those nine months as he
made in his whole life. And it wasn't until Nathan confronted
him that he was exposed before the Lord. So, this is the cover-up. Have mercy upon me, O God, according
to thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender
mercies. Blot out my transgressions. Wash me throughly from mine iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin. Everything David had tried to
do in order to salve his conscience, in order to hide his sin, in
order to fix the problem, he now realized was iniquity. For
I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.
When the sin with Bathsheba and Uriah, it was the sin of trying
to atone for himself, the self-righteousness. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest
be justified when thou speakest, and be clear when thou judgest.
Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive
me. I've been a sinner all my life. Behold, thou desirest truth
in the inward parts. That's where David's problem
was. It wasn't what he had done nine months ago. It was the cover
up, and now he realizes, I've got to be truthful with God. And in hidden parts, thou shalt
make me to know wisdom. Purge me with hyssop. Now, hyssop is the thing that
the priest dipped in the basin of blood and sprinkled on the
people, a symbol. of the shed blood of Christ. That's the only cleansing that
there is. Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me
and I shall be whiter than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness
that the bones which thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide thy
face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in
me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from thy presence,
and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the
joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. Then,
while I teach transgressors thy ways, and sinners shall be converted
unto thee, deliver me from blood guiltiness, O God. Thou God of
my salvation, and my tongue shall sing aloud of thy righteousness. Self-righteousness. That's man's
problem, isn't it? That was what David's problem
was, self-righteousness. For thou desirest not sacrifice,
Else would I give it. Thou delightest not in burnt
offerings. How many sacrifices and burnt offerings had David
made over the last nine months, trying to salve his conscience,
trying to calm the guilt, the shame? No, the sacrifices of
God are a broken spirit. Lord, I've been broken. I can't
fix this. I can't make up for it. I've
got but one place to go. I've got to come to Christ. A
broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Why will
the God not despise a broken and contrite heart? Because if
you've got one, he gave it to you. Do good in thy good pleasure
unto Zion. Build the walls. We looked at
walls Sunday, didn't we? Build the walls of Jerusalem.
Build up Christ. Then shalt thou be pleased with
the sacrifices of righteousness, with burnt offerings, and whole
burnt offerings. Then shall they offer bullocks
upon thine altar. Let's pray. Our merciful Heavenly Father,
we come before Thy throne of grace, thanking You that it is
a throne of grace. Thanking You, Lord, that we don't
have to come before the bar of justice, the law, and be judged
by Your holy law. We thank You that we have an
advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ, who is satisfied with all the
demands of Thy holy law. and who intercedes on our behalf.
Lord, we confess to you that not only do we break thy law,
but Lord, we are constantly guilty of hesitating in our flee to
Christ. And Lord, we pray that you would
forgive us for our self-righteousness. We pray that you would cause
us, Lord, by your spirit, to have a broken and contrite heart,
to find ourselves depending upon your mercy and your grace alone
for our salvation. For we ask it in Christ's name,
amen. Let's stand together again. We'll
sing hymn number 326 from the hardcover. Hardcover Hymnal, 326. More about Jesus would I know,
more of his grace to others show, more of his saving fullness see,
more of his love who died for me, more More about Jesus, more,
more about Jesus, more of His saving fullness see, more of
His love who died for me. More about Jesus let me learn,
more of his holy will discern. Spirit of God my teacher be,
showing the things of Christ to me. More, more about Jesus,
more, more More about Jesus, more of His saving fullness see,
more of His love who died for me. More about Jesus in His Word,
holding communion with my Lord, hearing His voice in every line,
making each faithful saying mine. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus. More of His saving fullness see. More of His love who More about Jesus on his throne,
riches and glory all his own. More of his kingdom sure increase,
more of his coming Prince of Peace. More, more about Jesus. More, more about Jesus, More
of His saving fullness see, More of His love who died for me. Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with me
to Psalm 49. Actually, we're going to begin
in Psalm 50, but we'll go back to Psalm 40. Isaiah, I'm sorry,
I said Psalm. Isaiah, excuse me. Isaiah 50. Isaiah 50. All men by nature are self-righteous. There is a self-righteous spirit
that remains even in the child of God, and it's manifest in
how slow he is oftentimes to flee to the cross for his hope,
for his strength, for his joy. He will, and he does, by the
grace of God. The Lord speaks a word to the
weary. Let me ask you this, what is
it that makes you weary? And what is it that relieves
your weariness? Our weariness really comes from
our attempt to cover up our sin. It goes all the way back to the
garden, doesn't it? Adam discovered that he was naked, and in shame
of his nakedness, he did everything possible to try to cover up his
sin. And he fled from the Lord. The Lord pursued him and clothed
him in the righteousness of Christ. But we're just like our father
Adam, aren't we? When we sin and our conscience smites us,
we oftentimes find ourselves trying to fix it. We try to make up for it. We try to
atone for it. We think, well, if I can just
do this or do that, it'll get a little bit better. And the
Lord, in His mercy, does for His children what He did for
Adam. when he speaks a word to the
weary and says, where art thou? Come, come to me. Notice in chapter 50 of verse
four, the Lord hath given me the tongue of the learned that
I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.
Now that's the prophecy of Christ. The Father has given me a word.
A word of comfort. A word for the weary. A word
for the sinner. And that word is, come unto me.
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden. We still
find ourselves laboring, don't we? But it's our labor that causes
our weariness. It's not our sin. Sin, properly understood, will
drive you to the cross faster than anything. And in coming
to the cross of Christ, you'll find absolute deliverance. Notice what he says, The Lord
hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how
to speak a word in season to him that is weary. He waketh
He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth my ear to hear as
the learned. The Lord has to open our ears,
doesn't he? Cause us to hear a word when
we're weary. We're weary from our sin, we're
weary from our troubles, and we're weary because we're carrying
the burden of it. That's what wearies us. Paul in Romans chapter 7, O wretched
man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?
I'm weary, I've got this body of death. Thanks be to God. Through Christ Jesus I am free. There is now therefore no condemnation
to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
We're not trying to fix it with the flesh, but we walk after
the Spirit. By the Spirit of God, we've been
brought to look to Christ. David's such a perfect example
of that. This is my experience. Look what he says in verse 26
of the previous chapter. I will feed them that oppress
thee with their own flesh, and they shall be drunken with their
own blood. Now, a person who is able to
feed on their own flesh is a person who takes comfort in the attempts
that they've made in the flesh to atone for their own sins. I will make them feed on their
own flesh. And that's the world. That's the whole world of unbelievers.
They feed on their own flesh. They look to what they've done
as the hope of making up. You see, it's not the crime,
it's the cover-up. That's where the problem is.
And men by nature will do everything possible in their flesh to salve
their conscience. They know that there is a God
with whom they must do. They have a conscience that convicts
them when they do wrong and they think, well, I'll just take care
of that. I'll fix that. I'll fix it. And
God says, those that oppress you, those unbelievers, I'm going
to allow them to feed on their own flesh. Now how often have
you tried to feed on your own flesh? You can't do it, can you? You can't do it. And I will make
them drunken on their own blood. The sacrifices that men make,
the sacrifices in religion that they make, oh, they just cut
themselves and cry and make all sorts of efforts. And most men
become drunk on it. They become intoxicated with
what they've done to atone for their own sins. People of God can't do it. Now
an intoxicated person loses touch with reality, don't they? An
intoxicated person begins to boast in things that they would
never say when they were sober. And that's the way religious
people are, who are drunken on their own blood. They're intoxicated
with a false spirit. And they're boasting in their
righteousness. That's why you talk to religious
people, what's the first thing they want to tell you what they
do? What they're doing for God. What programs they're involved
in, how many people they're caring for, all the good deeds, all
the good works. And when we say, oh no, it's
Christ alone that gives this weary soul hope, what do they
say? What's the first thing out of
a self-righteous religious person's mouth? Well, what about good
works? What about good works? Well, what about what James says?
Without works, your faith is dead. Well, what about good works? We are His workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus under good works which He has ordained. We should
walk in them. How do we walk? We walk by faith.
And so when we're walking by faith, we're walking in a way
that pleases the Lord. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. For he that cometh to Him must
believe that He is and that He is the rewarder of them who diligently
seek after Him. David's a perfect example. Nine
months, David's trying to cover up this. David was a man after
God's own heart. David was a believer. He was a child of God. And yet
he was trying to fix the mess that he made. Can you relate?
Can you relate? And the evidence of his self-righteousness
is seen in his encounter with Nathan, isn't it? When Nathan
came to him with that parable and said to the king, he said,
there was a wealthy man who had a whole flock of sheep, and he
had a traveler come to visit him, and rather than taking one
of his sheep and killing it to feed to his visitors, he took
a ewe lamb from a poor man who only had one sheep. And he fed
his guest with the sheep, the pet. As a matter of fact, the
scripture says that that sheep was like a daughter to that man.
He held him in his breast. He slept with him. He was dear
to him, wasn't he? And what's the first thing out
of David's mouth? Kill him. Kill him. That man
should die. And make him return fourfold
of what he's done. Where did that come from? Where
did that judgmental spirit come from? It came from his self-righteousness. It came from his attempt to atone
for his own sins. And it wasn't until Nathan said,
David, you're the man. You're the man. And only then
was David able to say, I have sinned against the Lord. And
only then was he able to write Psalm 51, expressing not just
his sorrow for what he had done, but more importantly, the cover
up that he had spent nine months doing. I will cause them to feed on
their own flesh. And they will become drunk on
their own blood. And the natural man, he's content. Everything's good. What's he
doing? He's comparing himself to himself.
He's believing he's getting better. He's comparing himself to other
men, believing that he is better. He's comparing himself to the
law, thinking that he has somehow kept it sufficiently. Why? The Lord, because of his lack
of love for the truth, he didn't love Christ. He didn't want the
gospel, he didn't want grace, he wanted works. And because
of his lack of love for the truth, God turned him over to a reprobate
mind and sent him a strong delusion that he should believe the lie. The lie. Free will works. That's the lie. The child of
God can't be satisfied in the lie. He'll toy with the lie. But the Lord won't let him feed
on it. He can't get any nourishment
from it. The more you try to feed on your own flesh, it's
like eating that rotten corpse, isn't it? I mean, I know that
sounds gross, but that's what it is, isn't it? It's like eating
a rotten corpse. It doesn't satisfy you. I've
got to have Christ. I've got to have Him now. The
message tonight is, my hope is that the Lord will cause us to
flee quicker to the cross. To reconcile with our adversary
quickly. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
5. Matthew chapter 5. Now, I know when we read this,
we've read it many times and we've thought, well, you know,
when you offend somebody, make things right with them quickly.
Have you ever had someone offend you and then they come to you
three months later and apologize for it? You think, boy, that
wasn't very sincere. Or you've offended someone and
the longer the time goes, the more hesitant you are to apologize
because you know that your apology now is not going to mean much.
And how important it is that we reconcile with our adversaries
quickly. But I want you to understand
this verse in light of the gospel, in light of your relationship
with Christ. Look what he says. Agree with
thine adversary quickly. Agree with God quickly. What
does John say? If you confess your sins, Now
that word confess just means to speak the same thing God says.
Just agree with your adversary. Isaiah said it's your sin that
separates you from God. And yet we wallow in the shame
of it and the guilt of it. We think well if we just work
a little bit harder or do a little bit more or we try to fix our
problems. The Lord says Agree with your
adversary quickly while thou art in the way with him. The Spirit of God convicts you.
Agree with him. Flee quickly. Don't look anywhere
else. Don't go anywhere else. Flee
to the cross lest at any time the adversary deliver thee to
the judge and the judge deliver thee to the officer and thou
be cast into prison. Now you know what prison's like,
don't you? You know what the prison of affliction is. You
know what the prison of weariness is. You know what the prison
of self-atonement and self-righteousness and trying to fix your own problems. You know what that's like, don't
you? That's where we become weary, isn't it? We become weary when
we take things into our own hands and try to fix our own problems.
That's what causes our weariness. It's not the crime, it's the
cover-up. The Lord says, I have a word
for you. A word fitly spoken in due season,
a word, come to me. All you that labor, heavy laden,
come unto me. Take my yoke upon you. Learn
of me. My burden is light. My yoke is
easy. Yes, that's his word. But we're
we're so slow of heart to believe, aren't we? We're so we're so
quick to try to fix it some other way. Oh, how David said in Psalm 51. Then I'll teach transgressions,
I will Lord return unto me the joy of thy salvation. Cleanse me throughly. If Judas, I know Judas was ordained
of God, a vessel fitted for destruction, but the truth still remains,
had Judas fallen at the feet of Christ in the garden and kissed
his feet rather than kissing his cheek, he'd have been forgiven.
The Lord's never turned anybody away, ever. Well, we're so slow, aren't we? We're so slow to come. We're
just like our father, Adam. You know, we look at our nakedness
and we're ashamed of our sin, and what is the first thing we
do? Sew together fig leaves. Thank God. He won't let us stay
there. Now, the unbeliever would have
walked out in public and paraded his fig leaves. He would have gone back out into
the open of the garden. And when the Lord showed up,
he would have said, Lord, look what I did. Check out these fig
leaves. Aren't they good looking? No,
not for Adam though. Adam had fig leaves on, but he
was hiding. Because he knew those fig leaves weren't sufficient
to cover his nakedness. And God had to slay a lamb right
there in the garden and clothe him with the righteousness of
the Lord Jesus Christ. What about Peter? Peter denied the Lord with cursing
three times the night of his crucifixion. was brought to bitter
tears when the Lord looked upon him. And yet, he continued to wallow
in his shame, he continued to wallow in his guilt, and he thought,
I go fishing. I'll just go back to my profession.
Maybe, if time allows, maybe I can work hard enough to make
up for what I've done. You say, well, why do you say
that? Because the Lord, when they came to Peter, you remember
when he asked him three times, Simon, Peter, lovest thou me?
Here's the first thing he said to him. He said, Peter, lovest
thou me more than these? He wasn't talking about the other
disciples. He was talking about the boats and the nets and the
work. Peter, are you looking to me?
Or are you looking to your self-righteousness, to your self-atonement, to your
efforts to make up for what you've done? I'm the only one that can take
that away. I'm the only one that can clear your conscience. I'm
the only one that can give you peace. I'm the only one that
can restore what's been taken away because of your sin. Come
to me, Peter. Turn with me to the book of Job,
chapter 8. You can look up Bildad's name. Translated, it means confusion
by mingling. That's what Bildad's name translated
means, confusion by mingling. Mingling what? Grace and works. Grace and works. And the scripture says that he
was a shuhite. That's the only place in all
the scriptures where that word is used and translated it means
a wealthy man. So here he was rich in his own
righteousness, trying to counsel Job on Job's problems. And look what he says in chapter
eight, verse one. Then answered Bildad the Shuhite
and said, how long wilt thou speak these things? And how long
shall the words of thy mouth be like a strong wind? Doth God
pervert judgment? Or doth the Almighty pervert
justice? This next verse is cruel. Job had just lost all of his
children. Not one child, every one of them. And his friend,
who's mixing works and grace, this wealthy man, comes up to
Job and says, the reason your children are dead is because
they sinned against God. Man, you're talking about putting
a burden on a man. If thy children have sinned against him and he
hath cast them away for their transgression, Job's already broken. If thou wouldst seek unto God
betimes, and make thy supplication to the Almighty, if thou wert
pure and upright, surely now he would awake for thee, and
make the habitation of thy righteousness prosperous. Job, if you'd just
get your life in order. Straighten out, Job. You've got
some secret sin, Job. That's the reason that you're
suffering the way you're suffering. And Bildad just put him under
the law, wasn't he? And look what Job says in chapter 9. And
Job answered and said, I know it is of a truth. What she says
is true. God will not forsake a perfect
man. And he's not going to change
his law. He's not going to pervert justice for me. But my question
is, how should a man be right with God? Now notice he says,
how should a man be right with God? Not how can a man be right
with God, or how might a man be right, but how should a man
be right with God? Everybody's trying to get right
with God. That's what religion is, that's what all self-righteousness
is, and everybody's self-righteous. Everybody's trying to be right
with God. Job asked this question, how should a man? How does God prescribe a man
to be right with Him when God requires perfection? How am I
going to be perfect? How am I going to stand in the
presence of a holy God and have acceptance by Him? Is there something? Can I do
what Bill Dadd's telling me to do? Can I become more pure and
more holy and more just? Can I search my heart enough
and find out all my sin and then start doing enough good deeds
for other people that I can somehow make up for it? Is that how a
man's right with God? How should a man be right with
God? What Bildad's saying can't be true, because I can't be perfect.
But I know God requires perfect. Bildad, what you said is true.
God's not going to lower His standard for me. And God's a
perfect God. And Job goes on to say, if he
will contend with Him, if a man should contend with God, he cannot
answer Him one of a thousand. God asked me a thousand questions,
I wouldn't be able to answer one. Now you take a test with a thousand
questions and you can't answer but one, you're going to get
a zero. And that's what Job's saying, I'm a zero before God.
How should I be right with God? Well, it's not by self-atonement. It's not by your self-righteousness. It is by agreeing quickly with
your adversary. Lest he put you in the prison. David was in prison for nine...
I mean, you wouldn't want to be around David one of those
days for those nine months. How do I know it was nine months?
Well, the next verse says the baby was born. After Nathan confronts
him, the next thing that happens is Bathsheba's child is born. And then, of course, Bathsheba's
child dies. But David was miserable. What makes you miserable? What
makes you hard to live with? What makes you contentious and
cantankerous and angry and unhappy? What makes you that way? I'll
tell you what it is. It's not your sin. It's your attempt to
atone for your sin. It's your failure to flee to
Christ. And I can say that to you because
I know that's my problem. You flee to Christ and all that's
going to go away. You're going to have peace. And
you're going to be a peaceable person to be around. But we just hesitate, don't we? We don't go, and it's our self-righteousness. It's that Pharisee that's still
with us. It's that old man that we need
to be delivered from. It's because we're thinking after
the flesh rather than after the Spirit. There is now therefore
no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not
after the flesh but after the Spirit, the Spirit of God. The Spirit and the Bride say,
come. It's just that simple. It's that
simple. It's come. Come to Christ. And the Lord restores the joy
of our salvation and gives us peace, forgiveness, Might God
give us the grace to agree with our adversary quickly? Lest we have to experience the
prison of our own shame and our own flesh. Go back with me to
Isaiah chapter 49. The natural man can feed on his own
flesh, and he does. He does. Oh, when he does something
good, he wants everybody to know about it. He does something for God, he
wants everybody to know about it. You know, it's just such hypocrisy. I'm not talking about just religious
people. I'm talking about irreligious
people who pride themselves in the good works that they do.
Why? Because they're feeding on their
own flesh. And they're intoxicated with
the sacrifice of their own blood. And it makes you sick, doesn't
it? Doesn't make them sick. Doesn't make them sick. Oh, ask
God, Lord, when I feed on my flesh and I drink my blood, make
me sick. Don't let me get intoxicated
with it. Don't let me boast in anything
other than Christ. I will feed them that oppress
thee with their own flesh, verse 26, and they shall be drunken
with their own blood, as with sweet wine, and all flesh shall
know that I, the Lord, am thy Savior. Now how is the world
going to know that Christ is our Savior? Is it because we're
living a better life than everybody else? I don't believe for a minute
that Mother Teresa was a hypocrite, I mean, was living a double life. I don't believe that. But I do
believe she was desperately attempting to atone for her own sins. There's
a lot of people in this world that live virtuous lives. So how are they going to know
that the Lord, Jehovah, Christ, the Lord, is our Savior. How are they gonna know that? Because we're gonna tell them.
That's how they're gonna know. When we preach the gospel and
we share our faith with people, what do they say? Well, my God's
not like that. And what do they say? Well, what about good works?
Well, what about this and what about that? And we say, oh, no.
My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. I dare not trust the sweetest
frame, but wholly lean on Jesus' name. That's my testimony. Christ
is my righteousness. I have no righteousness outside
of Christ. I'm not trying to atone for my own sins. I have an atonement, Jesus Christ,
the righteous one who ever lives to make intercession for me.
He's all my hope and all my salvation. That's the only way the world's
gonna know that Jehovah is thy Lord is if you tell him. If you disagree with what everybody
else believes. Everybody else believes in self-atonement.
at some level, in some form. And the only way they're going
to know that the Lord Jesus Christ is thy Savior. He's my deliverer. I can't be delivered from my
sins by making up for them. I've tried feeding on my own
flesh. I've tried drinking my own blood. It doesn't work. I've
got to eat the flesh of the Lord Jesus Christ. Lest you eat of
my body and drink of my blood, there's no life in you. The body
and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ is the only thing that relieves
my weary soul from the guilt of my sin. He's the only one
that can do it. Isn't that your experience? They shall know that Jehovah,
the emphasis on thy, Jehovah is thy God. You see, it's them
and thy. I'm going to give them their
own flesh to eat. I'm going to give them their own drink, their
own blood to drink. But for you, they're going to know that your
flesh and your blood makes you sick. Isn't that what the Lord said
at the Day of Judgment? He's going to separate the sheep from the goats
and He'll say to the goats, I was hungry and you didn't feed me.
I was naked and you didn't clothe me. I was in prison. Lord, when
did we see you like that? We've spent all our lives doing
good works. We've prophesied in your name.
We've cast out demons in your name. We've done many Wonderful
works and the Lord says to them depart from me you workers of
iniquity For I never knew you all the things you've done in
order to try to atone for your sins were iniquitous They didn't
measure up And then he looks to the sheep and he says, I was
hungry and you fed me. I was naked and you clothed me.
I was a stranger and you took me in. Lord, when did we do that?
Every time you preach the gospel. Every time you participated in
sharing the gospel. Your membership in the body of
Christ and the body of Christ, that's all we're doing. Whether
it be the church here, the churches in Mexico, the church in Kentucky,
and we're part of the body of Christ preaching the gospel of
God's free grace to weary sinners who need to be delivered from
the body of their death. And the Lord said, in that you
did it to the least of these, my brethren, you did it unto
me. You ate the right food when you were hungry, didn't you?
You drank of his blood. You were clothed in his righteousness. You were a stranger and were
taken in. I, the Lord, am thy Savior and
thy Redeemer. I'm your Redeemer. I didn't help
you to redeem yourself. I didn't make an offer of redemption
that you had to accept in order to make it work. I am thy redeemer. I paid for your sins. I bought
you with a price. The precious blood that I shed
on Calvary's cross bought you. You belong to me. You're not
your own. I'm your kinsman redeemer. I'm your Boaz. She loved what Naomi said to
Ruth when she said, she said, sit at that man's feet, for he
will not rest until he has finished the work this day, this day. And what'd Boaz do? Boaz went,
he said, there is a kinsman nearer to you than me. I've got to go
reckon with him first. And he went and went and reckoned
with the law, didn't he? And he said, Naomi's back. You
gotta redeem her. You gotta buy all of her property
back. And he said, I'll redeem her.
Well, when you redeem Naomi, you gotta redeem Ruth, the Moabitess
also. Oh no, I can't do that. What'd
he say? She'll mar my inheritance. If
I take a Moabitess into my family, then all my property is at risk. The law can't redeem. You can't
take in a Gentile, can't take in a sinner. The law can only
be reckoned with by our kinsman redeemer. And he reckoned with
him, didn't he? Christ Jesus the Lord is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believe it.
And yet we find ourselves just instinctively in our fleshly
minds going back to the law, don't we? And we compare ourselves
by the law and we think, you know, well, you know, I can do
a little better with the law. No, you can't. Don't go to the
law. Go to Christ. Agree with your adversary quickly. Flee to the cross. Nathan says
to you and me, thou art the man. And what do we say? I have sinned
against the Lord. I suggest to you that the cover-up
that David spent nine months doing was worse than the crime. And it's the same for us, isn't
it? It's our self-righteousness that keeps us from Christ. It's
not our sin. When convicted of sin, we flee
to Christ. It's our self-righteousness that
causes us so much trouble, causes us so much weariness and so much
distraught and lack of peace and comfort. Lord, keep making us sick when
we try to feed on our flesh. Keep making us sick when we try
to drink our own blood. Take us back to feed on the flesh
of Christ, to look to His perfect life for all our righteousness,
and look at His sacrificial death on Calvary's cross for all of
our justification. I am thy Redeemer. I actually
bought you. I paid the full price for every
one of God's elect. He wasn't making an offer of
redemption for man to accept or reject. He was making a payment
to the father. And the father accepted his blood
payment and all those that he redeemed were saved, redeemed. They're justified. He was offered up for our offenses
and raised again because of our justification, because of our
justification. We were justified, all of God's
elect were justified in the presence of God at the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ. We discover our justification
in our regeneration, don't we? And then we keep looking back,
put our hand to the plow and we look back, don't we? Every
time we look back, if you've done any plowing, you'll know
you gotta keep your eyes straight on the end of that row. You look
back to, what do you look, if you've done any plowing, you
look back in order to take pride in what you just did. That's
what you look back for. I've been there. You know, you
run in that rototiller, and you get about halfway down through
the garden, and you wanna see what you've done. And you look
back to check it out. And when you get to the end of
the row, you look at that row, and every time you look back, it
does this. And that's what we do, isn't
it? Look back to see what we've done. Just look to Christ alone. Alone. He's your Redeemer. And all the world's going to
know that He's your Savior and He's your Redeemer because you're
not going to agree with Him about who their Savior and who their
Redeemer is. Their Savior and their Redeemer
is their flesh and their blood. It's their will and their works.
Oh, they might be like Bildad. They might mix it up with a little
grace, but works and grace don't mix. If it's of grace, it can
no longer be of works. Grace is not grace if it's got
any works in it. It's got to be all grace. The
whole world will know that I am thy Savior, I am thy Redeemer,
the mighty one of Jacob. The strong man, that's what that
mighty one means. The strong man. The man who's
able to satisfy the demands of the law. The one that's able
to satisfy his father. the one that's able to get the
pleasure of the Lord. I saw the travail of his soul
and I was satisfied. He's the strong man, the one
who was able to defeat Satan. Now, you remember what the Lord
told Eve in the garden? That the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent,
but the serpent The serpent will bruise the heel of the woman. Now, go back with me to Jacob
and Esau's birth. We oftentimes refer to Jacob
as the supplanter, and that's what his name means. But literally,
if you take Jacob's name and look at it, it means heel grabber. When Jacob was born, he came
out right after Esau, and he was holding on to the heel of
Esau, wasn't he? Now the Lord says I'm the mighty
one of Jacob. I want you to be a Jacob I want
you to grab on to that bruised heel of the Lord Jesus Christ
And don't let go Don't let go The mighty one of Jacob There
we are all we can do is grab on to the heel of that's been
bruised by Satan, knowing that that very heel that was bruised
was the thing that crushed the head of Satan. Verse 1, chapter 50, Thus saith
the Lord, Where is the bill of your mother's divorcement, whom
I have put away? Or which of my creditors is it
to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities Sin, transgression, and iniquities.
Those are the three words used in the scripture to describe
our sin problem. Sin is missing the mark. Transgression
is breaking the law of God. Iniquity is what we do to try
to make up for it. Behold, for your iniquities have
you sold yourself, and for your transgressions is your mother
put away. Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? Yes, there
was a man. The God-man. I came as a man, born of a woman,
born under the law, to redeem them who were cursed by the law. Say, I haven't divorced you. It's your iniquities. And your
iniquities came as a result of your transgressions. But all
you did with your iniquities is accentuate the problems of
your transgression. When I called, was there none
to answer? When the Lord Jesus Christ called
out to the Father, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?
When he cried in his dying breath, Father, into thy hands I commend
my spirit, was there none to answer? No, there was one to
answer. The Lord heard him. Is my hand shortened at all that
it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver?
Why are you adding iniquities to your transgressions? Why are
you trying to fix your own problems? Do you think my hand is short?
Do you think I'm not able to redeem? Will you not come to
me quickly? You're just making the problem
worse. You know this is your experience.
If you're a child of God, it's my experience. Behold, at my rebuke I dry up
the sea. Oh, and I'm thankful. He dries
up the sea, and I make the rivers a wilderness, and their fish
stinketh because there is no water, and they dieth for thirst. The more I try to fix my own
problems, the more it stinks, and the more thirsty I get, and
the Lord just lets me go until I finally say, oh, Lord, I've
got to have you. I've got to have you. I can't
do this. I've got to have Christ. I've got to agree with God right
now. Lord, I've got to have you remove
all my sin. I clothed the heavens with blackness. Now when did God close the heavens
with blackness? Three hours on Calvary's cross
when the Son of God suspended between heaven and earth was
cut off from His Father. because of the sin that he bore
in his body. He suffered the full wrath of
God. It pleased the Father to bruise
him. God forsook him. And God forsook him so that we would
not have to experience the forsaking of God. And yet we try to add to what
he's already accomplished, and what do we experience? The forsaking
of God. I clothe the heavens with blackness,
I make sackcloth their coverings. The Lord hath given me the tongue
of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season
to him that is weary." Are you weary? Weary from trying to solve your
problems and make up for your sin and fix your Shortcomings. It's a wearisome thing, isn't
it? To try to bear the burden ourselves. What's the hymn we're going to
sing, Tom? 239. 239. Are you weary? Art
thou weary. Art thou languid. Let's sing that song together.
239. Let's stand. Art thou weary, art thou languid,
art thou sore distressed? Come to me, saith one, and coming
be at rest. Hath he marks to lead me to if
he be my guide. In his feet and hands are wound
prints and his side. Is there diadem as monarch that
his brow adorns? a crown in very surety, but of
thorns. If I still hold closely to him,
what hath he at last? Sorrow vanquished, labor ended,
Jordan passed. If I ask Him to receive me, will
He say, be nay? Not till earth and not till heaven
pass away. Finding, following, keeping,
struggling, is he sure to bless? Saints, apostles, prophets, martyrs,
answer yes. I'll answer yes.