We could find our seats. Good
morning. We have quite a few of our folks
that are sick and miss them. I think everybody's pretty much
on the mend. This coming weekend, Friday,
Saturday and Sunday, We'll have services in Sarasota on Friday
night at 6, Saturday morning, I'm sorry, Friday night at 7,
Saturday morning at 10, and Sunday night at 6. 7, 10, 6. Those are
the times for this weekend. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 3,
blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what we've come here to do this morning, to bless Him, to worship
Him, to acknowledge Him for who He is and for what He's done. We're not here to make Him Lord,
He is Lord. We're here to bow to Him as Lord. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. All the blessings
of God are in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
who is seated at the right hand of God right now, making intercession
on behalf of His people, according as He has chosen us in him before
the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without
blame before him in love. The only way you and I are going
to be holy and without blame is to be found in him. Not having
our own righteousness, which is of the law, but that righteousness
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ. chosen us in Him before
the foundation, having predestinated us unto the adoption of children
by Jesus Christ to Himself. So, why would God predestine
and choose some and not others? The answer to that question is
the last phrase of the verse we're reading right now. According to the good pleasure
of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace. And all
God's people said, Amen. Amen. Let's stand together. Brother
Tom's going to come lead us in number 33 in the hardback tent. Number 33. Stand up and bless the Lord,
ye people of His choice. Stand up and bless the Lord your
God with heart and soul and voice. So high above all praise, above
all blessing high, who would not fear His holy name and Lord
and magnify? hope for the living flame from
his own altar brought to touch our lips, our minds inspire and
wing to heaven our thought. God is our strength and song,
and His salvation ours. Then be His love, in Christ proclaim,
with all our ransomed powers. Stand up and bless the Lord,
the Lord your God adore. Stand up and bless His glorious
name, henceforth forevermore. Please be seated. Good morning. Please turn with me to 2 Samuel
chapter 7. Greg had mentioned Wednesday
night and then again this morning in the first service about Christ
being our house of God. And he is that tabernacle, he
is our house, and he's been symbolized in different types of structures.
like Noah's Ark and the door with the blood on the land, the
blood over it covering. And so he is with that being
our house of God. And that brings us to our scripture
here in verse 18. And just to give you a little
backdrop on what's going on here. David, like so many of us at
one point in our lives and continuously in our old man, tried to put
his hand on the gospel, tried to put his hand on salvation
by suggesting that he was going to build God a house. And instead,
the night after he and Nathan discussed this, the Lord spoke
to Nathan and he said, go tell David I'm going to build you
a house. And that leads us to our scripture. And anytime we
hear the gospel, this is, you know, I feel like this is where
we're at right now. And in verse 18, we begin, Then
went King David in and sat before the Lord. And he said, Who am
I, O Lord God? And what is my house that thou
hast brought me hither to? And this was yet a small thing
in thy sight, O Lord God. But thou hast spoken also of
thy servant's house for a great while to come. And is this the
manner of man, O Lord God? And what can David say more unto
thee? For thou, Lord God, knowest thy
servant. For thy word's sake and according
to thine own heart hast thou done all these great things to
make thy servant know them. Wherefore, thou art great, O
Lord God, for there is none like thee, neither is there any god
beside thee, according to all that we have heard with our ears.
And what one nation in the earth is like thy people, even like
Israel, whom God went to redeem for a people to himself, and
to make him a name, and to do great things and terrible for
thy land before thy people? which thy redeemeth to thee from
Egypt, from the nations and their gods. For thou hast confirmed
to thyself thy people Israel to be a people unto thee forever,
and thou, Lord, art become their God. And now, O Lord God, the
word that thou hast spoken concerning thy servant and concerning his
house, establish it forever, and do as thou hast said. And
let thy name be magnified forever, saying, The Lord of hosts is
the God over Israel. And let the house of thy servant
David be established before thee. For thou, O Lord of hosts, God
of Israel, hast revealed to thy servant, saying, I will build
thee a house. Therefore hath thy servant found
in his heart to pray this prayer unto thee. And now, O Lord God,
thou art that God, and thy words be true. and thou hast promised
this goodness unto thy servant. Therefore now, let it please
thee to bless the house of thy servant, that it may continue
forever before thee, for thou, O Lord God, hast spoken it. And
with thy blessing, let the house of thy servant be blessed forever.
Let's go ahead and pray. Oh, Heavenly Father, we thank
you for your mercy and infinite grace on your people. We pray
that you would find us in your house and the son, the person,
the perfection of your will in Jesus Christ. We pray that you
would only find us in Christ, that we may one day be made like
him, dwell in your mansion in glory. We pray for Pastor Gregory,
we pray that You would be pleased to give your Holy Spirit to him
today to bless us through the truth that we may come to see
Christ a little bit more, that you'd be pleased to reveal yourself
unto us. Please open our ears to hear,
Lord, and we thank you for bringing us together this morning. In
your perfect Son's name, Jesus Christ, amen. Let's stand together once again,
hymn number 318 in the hardback timbral, number 318, 3-1-8. I need thee every hour, most
gracious Lord. No tender voice like thine can
peace afford. I need thee, oh, I need thee. Every hour I need Thee, O bless
me now, my Savior, I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, stay
Thou nearby. Temptations lose their power
when Thou art nigh. I need Thee, oh, I need Thee. Every hour I need Thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior,
I come to Thee. I need Thee every hour in joy
or pain. Come quickly and abide, or life
is vain. I need Thee, O I need Thee, every
hour I need Thee. O bless me now, my Savior, I
come to Thee. I need Thee every hour, Most
Holy One, O make me Thine indeed, Thou blessed Son. Every hour I need thee. Oh, bless me now, my Savior. I come to thee. Please be seated. Bri Weishi
is going to come now and bring some special music. Be still, my soul, the Lord is
on thy side. Bear patiently thy cross of grief
or pain. Leave to thy God to order In every change The faithful
will remain Be still, my soul Thy best, thy only friend Through
thorny ways Leads to a joyful end Be still, my soul, thy God
doth undertake To guide the future as He has the past Thy hope,
thy confidence let nothing shake All now mysterious shall be bright
at last Be still my soul, the waves and winds still know His
voice who ruled them while he dwelt below Be still my soul, the hour is
hastening on When we shall be forever with the Lord When disappointment,
grief, and fear Sorrow for God Love's purest
joys restore Be still my soul When change and tears are past
All safe and blessed We shall meet at last Be still my soul. God's made you to be a sinner.
The only way your soul can be still is to be resting in the
Savior. And that's my hope this morning,
that the Lord will do a work of grace in our hearts and enable
us to rest in Christ. We looked at a verse Wednesday
night that I want to revisit this morning. If you'll turn
with me in your Bibles to the second Corinthians chapter four,
second Corinthians chapter four, verse 18 for we look. I want to ask you this morning,
what are you looking at? Are you looking at your sins? Or are you looking at your sin? Sins are what we do. Sin is what we are. Sins are the manifestation of
our sin nature. The natural man can see his own
sins. God has created all of us with
a conscience. We come into this world with
the law of God written on our hearts. We know the difference
between right and wrong. And when we violate our conscience
and do that which is wrong, we're aware of it. You don't have to
be converted. You don't have to be a child
of God to know that you have sins in your life. To be made
a sinner now, that's a whole nother story. We look not on
the things which are seen, but on the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen
are temporal. The things which are not seen
are eternal. It takes a work of grace to see
your sin. Not your sins, your sin. This is a faithful saying, and
worthy of all acceptation, Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners, of whom I am chief. Coming to God to ease your conscience
from the guilt of your sins is religion. I'll say that again. Coming to God to ease your conscience
from the things which you see, which are your sins, is religion. Religion is very prevalent, very
popular, very necessary in a society of moral beings that have some
understanding of right and wrong. They know that there's a God
with whom they must do, and so man has devised a million different
types of religion in order to ease his conscience from the
things which he sees. We look not, faith looks not,
on the things which are seen. For the things which are seen
are temporal. The eye of faith looks to that
which is not seen. Natural man can't see it. To
come to the one who is holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate
from sinners, To come to Him, not to have your conscience salved,
not to ease the pain of your guilt for that which you by nature
can clearly see, but to come to Him as a sinner who is dead
in your trespasses in life and sins. that your mortality might
be swallowed up of life and that you might receive of Him eternal
life. Now that's something that only
a sinner will do. Our Lord made it clear in Mark
chapter 2 when the disciples of John and the disciples of
the Pharisees came to Him and said, The disciples of John fast, and
the disciples of the Pharisees fast, and your disciples don't
fast, why not? And the Lord said to them, a
man does not put a new piece of cloth on an old garment. What was he saying? He was saying
their religious activity is nothing more than an attempt to cover
up the holes in their garment. If you take a new piece of unshrunk
cloth and sew it on to an old piece of fabric that has a hole
in it, then when that new piece of cloth shrinks, the scripture
says that the rend will be worse in the end than it was in the
beginning. In other words, if you're just
trying to cover up your sins, your condition in the end will
be worse than the condition that you have now. I love Leviticus
chapter 13. Here's what the natural man cannot
see. Turn with me to Leviticus chapter
13. The Lord goes on to say in Mark
chapter 2, you do not put new wine in an old wineskin. They would take the intestines
of a sheep and when they were fresh, they could put wine in
them and the wine would ferment in there and the thing would
swell and then the wine would be ready. But once it swelled
and then became hardened, if you put new wine into an old
wineskin, that old wineskin is going to burst. You're going
to lose the wineskin and the wine. An old wineskin was good
for nothing more than just a water bottle. You couldn't put new
wine in it. The Lord said, a man doesn't put new wine in an old
wineskin. And what he's saying is, I didn't
come to patch up your life. I didn't come to fill you with
something that you didn't have before and to use your vessel
as a means of housing my life. I came that you might have life.
life. In Leviticus chapter 13, the
Lord has given to Israel the pattern or the law that is to
be adhered to in the cleansing of a leper. So when a man showed
signs of leprosy, he had to present himself to the priest. And if
it was determined that yes, he in fact had leprosy, then he
was to be put out of the camp and considered to be unclean.
And leprosy is such a picture of our sin problem. Leprosy is
a disease of the blood. Leprosy is contagious. Leprosy destroys the nervous
system. Leprosy is fatal. Leprosy requires
a miracle in order to be healed. All the things about leprosy
picture our sinful condition before God. And the Lord told
the children of Israel in verse 9 of Leviticus chapter 13, when
the plague of leprosy is in a man, then he shall be brought unto
the priest. And the priest shall see him.
And behold, if the rising be white in the skin, and if it
had turned the hair white, and there be quick raw flesh in the
rising. In other words, around this leprosy,
there's some new flesh being brought out. clean flesh. That's what he's talking about.
In other words, the body is trying to repel this leprosy and it's
producing clean flesh alongside the leprosy. If that happens,
it is an old leprosy in the skin of the flesh and the priest shall
pronounce him unclean and shall not shut him up for he is unclean. he's to be put out of the camp.
In other words, if this man had leprous spots on his body and
next to those leprous spots was clean flesh, then he was to be
considered unclean and to be put out of the camp. Read on,
verse 12. And if a leprosy break out abroad
in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin of him that
hath the plague from the head even to his foot, wherever the
priest looks, So the priest strips this man naked. Now the Lord
Jesus Christ is our high priest. He sees everything there is about
us. The priest strips this man naked. He inspects from the top
of his head to the bottom of his feet and he can find nothing
but leprosy. Then the priest shall consider,
verse 13, and behold, if the leprosy have covered all his
flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague. It
is all turned white. He is clean. Now, if you want
to look at that from a medical perspective, it's not going to
make any sense whatsoever to you. I have people say, well,
that just doesn't make sense. This guy's covered with leprosy,
but the priest calls him clean, and the other guy's only got
spots of leprosy, and he's... If the Lord makes you to be a
sinner, you know exactly what the Lord's talking about here.
From the top of my head to the bottom of my feet. We're not
talking about sins. That's the manifestation of sin. We're talking about being made
a sinner. There's not a clean piece of flesh anywhere on me. I have sinned. Now I want you to turn with me
to Exodus chapter 9. Exodus chapter 9. And I want you to notice with
me, in God's Word, some of the individuals who have
made that statement, I have sinned. And I hope that the Lord will
enable us to identify with the ones who were talking about their
sin, not their sins. The scripture says in Romans
chapter 9 that Pharaoh was a vessel fitted for destruction. God made him in order to demonstrate
his power through him and to destroy him. That's why God made
him. There's nothing redeemable about
Pharaoh. Pharaoh was a pagan king that
God made to destroy. Verse 27 of Exodus chapter 9,
now this was after the plague of hail and fire, and Pharaoh
sent and called for Moses and Aaron and said unto them, I have
sinned. This time, this time, what was Pharaoh looking
at? Was he looking at his sins or
his sin? Was he looking at that which
can be seen or that which cannot be seen? Was he looking at that
which was temporal or that which was eternal? The answer is pretty
clear, isn't it? He even goes on to say, the Lord
is righteous, and I and my people are wicked. Entreat the Lord,
for it is enough that there be no more mighty thunderings and
hail, and I will let you go, and you may stay, that ye shall
stay no longer. He calls the God of Israel righteous.
He calls himself wicked. But what does he want? He wants
the hand of God off his current circumstances because he says,
I have sinned this time. If you feel the shame and guilt
of particular sins, that's not necessarily the work of repentance.
That's not having a changed mind. The natural man knows that. Pharaoh
knew that. Turn with me to just over a page
to Exodus chapter 10, verse 16. This was after the
plague of the locust, which devoured everything that the hail and
fire had not consumed. And then Pharaoh, in verse 16,
called for Moses and Aaron in haste, and he said, I have sinned
against the Lord your God and against you. Now therefore forgive,
I pray thee, my sin only this once. What's Pharaoh looking at? He's
looking at his sins, wasn't he? How consumed we get in looking
at that which is temporal, that which is seen. There's no evidence in wallowing
in the guilt of a particular sin, or sins for that matter,
that the Spirit of God has done a work of grace in your heart. Repentance is not looking at
your sins. Repentance is when God enables
you to see yourself like that leper. You know yourself to be
a sinner. You know that you cannot manufacture
anything that will earn you any favor or any acceptance whatsoever
with God. You know that in you, that is
in your flesh, dwelleth no good thing. Pharaoh said at least
twice, I have sinned. Did that make him a repentant
believer? No. Do you remember when Samuel told
Saul, Saul was a wicked king. Saul died shamefully, and the
Lord gave children of Israel King Saul because of their disobedience,
and the Lord told Saul through Samuel to wait for Samuel, and
Saul became impatient and made a sacrifice before the priest
got there. All a picture of his attempt
to try to present something to God without the aid of an intercessor. He was coming to God without
Christ, without a priest. And when Samuel showed up, Saul
said to Samuel, I have sinned. And then he went on to say, yet
honor me now before the elders and before the people of Israel. I've sinned. I did wrong. Another time when David You remember
it came into Saul's camp and took his javelin and his water
bottle and came outside the camp and called Saul and Saul saw
the virtue of David and said, oh David, you're innocent, I
have sinned. And two verses later, Saul's
after the heels of David again. Making, taking notice of particular
sins is not repentance. And it does not require the work
of grace. It's looking naturally upon that
which can be seen. Seeing yourself as a sinner,
that's a miracle. That's a miracle of grace. You
remember Akin? When the children of Israel came
across the Jordan River and they marched around Jericho and the
walls came down and the Lord commanded Joshua, he said, everything
that you take as a spoil from this city is to be dedicated
to the Lord. And a man by the name of Achan, the scripture
says, took a wedge of gold and a Babylonian garment and some
silver and hid it in his tent and the children of Israel went
from Jericho to fight another battle against Ai which was a
much smaller city and they were routed by the people of Ai and
lost the battle and many of the Israelites died and Joshua knew
there was sin in the camp and so they identified Achan as the
one who had taken part of the spoils of Jericho to himself
And the scripture says that they stoned him, and his children,
and his wives, and his cattle, and after they stoned them to
death, they piled them up and they burned them. And before
that, here's what Achan said, I have sinned, for thus and thus
have I done. Achan knew that what he had done
was wrong. But he didn't see himself as a sinner. He just
saw that that one thing that he did was sinful before God. Who could in their wildest imagination
think that Judas was a child of God? The Lord himself identified
him as a child of the devil. What was the last words that
Judah spoke when he went back into the temple and he cast that
silver before the feet of the priest? He said, I have sinned
for I have denied innocent blood. Forsakenness,
I don't remember the word there. And the next verse says, and
he went out and hanged himself. Being conscious of the infractions
in your life having to do with the law of God is not being made
a sinner. Setting your mind on the guilt
and shame of the bad things that you've done in your life is not
being made a sinner. It's patchwork. It's religion. It's what all religion is all
about. Men taking the new fabric and putting it on the holes of
the old garment. Men putting new wine and old
wineskins. Lepers who have spots of flesh
that are clean and spots of flesh that are unclean. And the scriptures
are full of examples. Balaam, the mercenary prophet,
the prophet that was trying to find out some way that he could
curse the children of Israel so that he could get something
from Balak. You remember when Balaam, when
the angel of the Lord stood in front of the ass that Balaam
was riding and pressed him into a hard place. And the angel of
the Lord was talking to Balaam, the ass could hear him. Balaam
couldn't hear him. And so, finally, the Lord reveals
himself to Balaam, and Balaam says, I have sinned. I've sinned. And then he went
on to say, if what I'm doing displeases you, I will go back
and stop it. What Balaam was saying was, if
what I'm doing right now is not good, Lord, I'll stop doing it. That was the extent of his repentance. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
12. Hebrews chapter 12. Here's my question. I'll repeat
it. Do you see your sins or do you see yourself as a sinner. Are you looking at your sins,
plural, or are you looking at your sin? Your sin. Hebrews chapter 12, verse 16,
let there be I'm sorry, lest there be any
fornicator or profane person as Esau, who for one morsel of
meat sold his birthright. For we know how that afterwards,
when he would have inherited the blessings, he was rejected,
for he found no place for repentance." You remember he went before Jacob,
he wept, he cried, he begged his father to give him a blessing.
And this found no place of repentance means that he could not change
his mind. All he saw was the profane things
that he had done, but he could not be given a new mind. He couldn't
see himself as a sinner, though he sought it carefully with tears.
Now look at the next few verses. For you are not come unto the
mount that might be touched, and that burns with fire, nor
into blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of the
trumpet, and the voice of words. What's that? That's Mount Sinai.
If all you're looking at is your sins, the only way you would
see your sins is if you compared yourself to the law. That's the only way you're going
to see your sins. And the Lord says, you're not
like Esau. Esau was begging God to forgive
him of his sins because he compared himself to the law of God. He
said, but you've not come to that mountain, which voice they
that heard entreated that the word should not be spoken to
them anymore, for they could not endure that which was commanded. And if so much as a beast touched
the mountain, it shall be stoned or thrust through with a dart.
And so terrible was the sight that Moses said, I exceedingly
fear and quake. What God's saying is, if you're
looking at your sins, The only way you would see your sins is
if you are seeing yourself in relationship to the law of God. And you don't want anything to
do with God's law. It'll kill you. It'll kill you. It'll send your soul to hell
and never shed a tear. God's law is a minister of death. But You are come unto Mount Zion,
and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly
and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven,
and to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men,
made perfect." Perfect. Now here's the glorious truth
of the gospel. God's people are sinful and sinless
at the same time. At the same time. They've got nothing in themselves
but sin. And in the person of their Savior.
See, if God makes you to be a sinner, you're going to flee to Christ
as your Savior. We look not on that which is seen, for that
which is seen is temporal. Your sins are temporal. It's
your sin nature that you were born with. It's got to be, you've
got to have life. Esau could not find any way to
change his heart. And you can't change yours. And
I can't change mine. God himself has to make you to
be a sinner. It's a miracle of grace. He's got to show you, in me,
that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing. The book of Job
is not a book about human suffering. It's not. It's not an explanation
of why God allows you to have hard times in your life. That's
not what the book of Job is about. It's a book about law and grace.
It's a book that shows how Job was never ever made a sinner
until God spoke to him after chapter 41 and 42 and he says
the first thing out of his mouth, Behold, I am vile. Before that he was justifying
himself. Before that he was saying, I don't deserve this. This isn't
right. I've been a good person. It wasn't until Daniel, the prophet
of God, saw the Lord and his conclusion
was, when I saw Him, my comeliness, my beauty, my strength was turned
into corruption. It wasn't until Isaiah saw the
Lord high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple,
and the seraphim hovered over the throne of God. And what did
they say? Holy, holy, holy is the Lord
God of hosts. Heaven and earth is filled with
his glory. Isaiah saw the Lord Jesus Christ,
the one who's holy, harmless, undefiled, and separate from
sinners, sitting on his sovereign throne, and was the first words
out of Isaiah's mouth. Woe is me. I am undone. I live among a people of unclean
lips. I'm a sinner. Religion is based on fear, judgment. It's all, you know, pointing
out men's sins. And people pretending that they're
getting better because they're sinning less. Perfect love casteth out fear. When the Lord Jesus Christ makes
you to be a sinner, it's because He loves you. And in making you to be a sinner,
He's caused you to know that you've got no righteousness.
None! You can't stand in judgment of
anyone else. You don't take the high moral
ground and look down your self-righteous nose and think, you know, I'm
holier than thou. You esteem others more highly
than yourself. God makes you to be a sinner
when you see yourself in relationship to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's a work of grace. And
that can't be seen by the natural eye. Only God can do that. We look not on that which is
seen, for that which is seen is temporal. I'm not here to browbeat God's
sheep, try to make you feel bad about your sins. I'm preaching
to you the glorious person of the Lord Jesus Christ, His accomplished
work of redemption for sinners. And hopes, and this is a confident
hope. If you're a child of God, if
you're one of His elect, I know He's going to show you your sin.
You're going to see that which is unseen. We look not on the
things which are seen, but on the things which are unseen.
For the things which are seen are temporal. The things which
are unseen All those are the eternal things. You're not going
to flee to Christ until God makes you to be a sinner. Oh, you'll
try to patch up your life. You'll try to be a better person.
You may step up your religious activity. You go to church a
little more and read your Bible a little more and pray a little
more because you see the spots of leprosy on your life. You
are looking at that which is temporal. Everybody does it. Everybody does it. It is no evidence
whatsoever that you're a child of God. None. But, if the Lord calls you to
loathe yourself, if he calls you to know that in you dwelleth
no good thing, and that all your righteousnesses are as filthy
rags before God, If God should mark iniquity,
who should stand? Here's the truth. The best prayer
you've ever prayed, the best work you've ever performed, the
best deed you've ever done, must, must be washed to be made clean
in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ to have any acceptance
before God. Whatever is not of faith is sin.
God's pleased with Christ. He's pleased with His righteousness.
He's pleased with our acceptance before God is only in Christ. It's only in Christ. You can't
produce an ounce of righteousness Yeah, our sins bother us, just
like they bother everybody else. But Lord, it's mine. I'm a sinner. I've got no life. I've got no... Outside of Christ, outside of
Christ, I can't do anything. Luke chapter 15, the prodigal,
you don't have to turn there. You know the story, story of
the prodigal. Scripture says that he wasted his inheritance
in riotous living and ended up in a pig pen feeding swine and
eating the food that the swine did eat. And you know what that
means? That means he joined a church and he was teaching a Sunday
school class. That's what it means. He got feeling really bad about
all the bad things he'd done, so he went out and joined a church
and was teaching a Sunday school class. And he was eating the
same thing that he was feeding his pupils, his students. And
the scripture says, he came to himself. God did a work of grace
in his heart, and when he came home to the Father, what did
he say? Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight. And the father didn't even let
him get the words out that he had rehearsed. I'm no longer
worthy to be called thy son. Just make me a servant. Father
didn't even give him a chance to get those words out. He lavished
him with kisses. He put a ring on his finger and
shoes on his feet and clothed him with the righteousness of
Christ and killed the fatted calf, shed the blood of the Lamb
of God in order to make his son clean. David, Psalm 51, my sin is ever
before me. Did he stay there? We'll close
with this. Turn with me to Psalm 51. What did Peter say when he saw
the Lord after the resurrection? Standing there by the fire at
the Sea of Galilee, he ran up to the... he dumped out of the
boat, swam to shore. Lord, depart from me, for I am a what? A sinful man. Now something's
full, it's just full. You can't put anything else in
it if it's full. Lord called that Syrophoenician
woman a dog, what'd she say? Truth, Lord, that's what I am. Oh, would you feed me from the
master's table? David said, verse 2, wash me
throughly from mine iniquity and cleanse me from my sin. For I acknowledge my transgressions
and my sin is ever before me. He wasn't just talking about
what he had done with Bathsheba and Uriah. God had made him a
sinner. He saw that which the natural
man can't see. He understood that in him there
was nothing good, nothing righteous. He needed to be justified before
God. He needed a blood sacrifice.
He needed God to do a work of grace in his heart. He needed
to be saved. For I acknowledge my transgression,
my sin as 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 speakest, and be clear when thou judgest. Behold, I
was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me."
What's David saying? Yeah, I've shamed God and shamed
myself and shamed Israel what I did with Bathsheba and Uriah.
But Lord, I've been a sinner since I was born. I came forth
from my mother's womb speaking lies and drinking water, drinking
iniquity as if it was water. Lord, that's all I've ever been
able to do is sin. All I've ever been able to do
is sin. Verse six, behold thou that desirous
truth in the inward parts and in the hidden part. Thou shalt
make me to know wisdom. Lord, you're gonna have to give
me a new heart. Purge me with hyssop. What do we see there? The scourging of the Lord Jesus
Christ. By his stripes, Isaiah 53, we
are healed. And I shall be clean, wash me
and I shall be whiter than snow, sinful and sinless at the same
time. And the only people that are
sinless, the only people that are perfect before God are those
that God has made to be sinners, sinners. Brethren, we look not on the
things which are seen. Everybody sees their sins. Everybody. Why do you think everybody's
so religious? Why do you think your neighbors are so good to
you? Why do you think people go out of their way? You think
they're just that way naturally in their heart? No, they're trying
to make up for their sins. People are trying to atone for
their sins. They've got a conscience. They know there's a God. That's
why people are the way they are. They're atoning for themselves.
Don't do that. There's only one atonement that
will take away your sin and make you sinless before God. That's the shed blood of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Be kind to your neighbors, be
kind to one another, but don't do it as a means of atonement. Let's pray. Our heavenly father,
we're thankful for the simplicity of the gospel, for the clarity
of thy word, and Lord, for the hope that you give to your children
in the finished work of thy dear son. We thank you for the putting
away of all our sin. We ask Lord for faith to trust
him now. Lord, we thank you for this table. We thank you for the bread and
for the wine and for what it reminds us of. And we pray Lord
that as we receive these things that you would cause us to see
beyond that which is temporal. to look not on the things which
are seen, but on the things which are not seen. Lord, give us grace
to see the body of Christ in the bread, and the blood of Christ
in the wine. For His flesh is our meat indeed,
and His blood is our drink indeed. Bless this table to the encouragement
of your people, and the glory of thy dear son. We ask it in
Christ's name. Amen. Ask the men if they'll
come and number 2 12 in the hardback 10. No, you could just remain
seated, please. What can wash away my sin? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow That
makes me white as snow, No other fount I know, Nothing but the
blood of Jesus. For my pardon, this I see, Nothing
but the blood of Jesus. For my cleansing, this my plea,
Nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Nothing can for sin atone, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. Not of good that I have done,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. This is all my hope and peace,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness,
nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that
makes me white as snow. No other fount I know, nothing
but the blood of Jesus. This is all my righteousness. Unleavened bread. A little leaven
leavens the whole lump. If that's true, a whole lot of
leaven leavens a lot, doesn't it? That's all we are is leaven. The Lord had no sin. His life
is perfectly righteous before God. Is his life your life? If it is, then you can take this
in remembrance of him. How are you going to atone for
your sins? You can't. You can't. That's why He shed
His precious blood on Calvary's cross. The only thing that hides
our sin before God is the blood of Christ. When I see the blood,
I'll pass by you. Without the shedding of blood,
there's no remission of sin. But His precious blood, put away. all the sins of all of his people,
of every generation, once and for all. And we do this in remembrance
of him. All God's people said, amen,
amen. Let's stand together. Brother
Robert, would you dismiss us, please, in prayer? Father, we stand before you this
morning, Father, knowing that we cannot make ourselves pure,
Father, and you must do that. We cannot make ourselves humble,
Father. It's something that's not in
our power. Only you can bring us true humility,
Father. We cannot love the brethren,
Father, unless you incline our hearts toward you. Without Christ,
Father, we can do nothing. we'd ask father that you bless
us with more truth father you be with greg as he brings us
the gospel father that that you might apply it to our hearts
father give us the grace to be at ease around the brethren father
to to know that we