on the back of your bulletin,
so let's stand together. It is words fail to say how thankful
we are to be here. If you would turn in your Bibles,
please, to Ephesians chapter 4. We'll start at verse 1. I pray the Lord will put in our
hearts what He once said. The Lord has blessed me beyond
my understanding. And one of the great blessings
in my life is he has allowed me to witness the miracle of
the birth of my children and my grandchildren. And I have to tell you, on those
days when that happened, you'll know this, parents and grandparents
could not hold back the joy, tears of joy, could you? I couldn't
stop crying. Today he's going to allow us
to witness an even greater miracle. And that is the profession of
those who have the great joy of his rebirth, the second birth
into the kingdom of God. And I can say with great certainty
I will not be able to hold back the tears of joy. So please forgive
us But if you see those tears, you'll notice our hearts are
just overflowing with the joy from God's goodness. I'd like
to read what the Lord has put in Paul's mouth about baptism.
Paul says, I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, prisoner of the
Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation. It's not our job, it's our life's
calling. It's not something we do on Sundays,
it's something we do the minute He saves us until the minute
He comes and gets us. Where when you are called, He called us
to that vocation. And we, with all lowliness and
meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love. I'm so thankful that you folks
are long-suffering and forbearing towards me. Endeavoring to keep
the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace One body there's only one church
One body and one spirit and even as you are called in one hope
that is Christ of your calling Verse 5 is what I want us to
look at this morning Paul says there is but one Lord Now, God, they'll profess this
morning that Christ is salvation, start to finish. And He done
all the work. And your brothers and sisters
will say, Amen, because He did the same thing for us. There
are others who say, well, Christ didn't accomplish salvation,
He just made it possible. That's a different Lord. I'm
telling you right now. And it's not the Lord of the
Gospel, the Lord of truth. There is but one faith. That's
why we have brethren from different churches. We all have the same
faith. Our faith is in Christ and Christ
only. Not in ourselves or one another.
And there is but one baptism. I thought about it. I don't want
to be sprinkled into Christ. I want to be immersed into Christ.
I want Him all around me. I don't want me exposed on any
part. I want Christ to engulf me just
like he did in the cleft of the rock. That's what I want him
to do. That's baptism. That's baptism. Everything else
is just religious ceremony. There is one God and Father of
all who is above all and through all and brothers and sisters. He's in you all. But unto every one of us is given
grace according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Christ was our gift. We didn't
merit it, we didn't want Him, we didn't earn it. It was a gift. God the Father. Brother Greg's going to baptize
you this morning. In the name of God the Father,
Christ the Son, and God the Spirit. And you're going to profess what
every believer from the start of the creation of the world
professed, that you wouldn't be doing this
morning if God the Father had not ordained you to eternal life.
And He did that before the foundations of the world. You didn't decide
for Christ. You didn't look for Christ. You
didn't want Christ. As Brother Greg said already,
we hated Christ. But God the Father ordained us
to eternal life, not because of good in us. And Christ the
Son. That Christ is life. He's life. And we are totally
dependent on Him for all things. And without Christ, there is
no life. he will baptize you in the name
of the Holy Spirit who came brothers and sisters he came to you and he gave you he had to give
you the faith to believe what God has done the word of God
says Abraham believed God and it was accounted to him as righteousness
That's what he's done for you this day. I don't know how to say it, but
thanks be to God for allowing me the great blessing of witnessing
this morning. And the reason we're so joyed
is twofold. One, every believer in this room,
it reminds us of what God has done for us. And he had to do
it all. But it also gives us a great
hope. to know that God's not done saving his people and there's
a hope for our lost loved ones still. And we pray, oh God, have
mercy on them. They don't even know they're
lost. But unless you come to them, as you have our brothers
and sisters, they'll perish. I pray God will give us the ability
to pray this morning. Lord, we come before you today Unless you enable us to pray,
we can't even do that. Send your spirit to us, Lord.
Give us the ability to praise and glorify you. Lord, we pray
for your servants, your gospel preachers. Pray that you would
put your words in their minds, in their hearts, in their mouth,
to give them the ability to declare Christ clearly and concisely. We pray for their wives who have
to comfort, encourage them. Thank you for them for sharing
their husband with us. Lord, I thank you for your people.
What a great blessing it is to be able to come where your gospel
is preached. Give us the faith this morning
to believe, to look to you and live. We're easily distracted. Our faith is weak, but oh, thanks
be to God that the faithfulness of our Savior, the Lord Jesus
Christ, is strong. We especially pray this morning,
Lord, for any who are here or who may hear this message. Lord,
I pray you give them no peace, that you would put a fire under
them, that they might see their need for Christ and their lost
condition. especially those of our own households. We ask this
for your glory. Amen. If not that I did choose thee,
my Lord, I could not be. This heart would still refuse
thee, as Thou not chose me. Thou from the sin that stained
me, hast cleansed and set me. Your love had no beginning No
cause in me was found That you should choose to save me This not-earned-or-scarred thought
was purpose for my soul. For thee, salvation wrought,
for grace made the dreadful toll. T'was sovereign mercy called
me, and taught my opening. The world hath lost and called
me to heavenly glory's power. My heart owns none before thee,
for thy rich grace I thirst. This knowing is I love thee. Thou dost have all of me. Thank you, Berea. It's not that I did choose thee
for Lord, that could not be. Had thou not chosen me, Lord,
I'd never choose thee. We love Him only because He first
loved us. He has to make us willing. And
I'm so thankful that He's pleased and powerful enough to do that.
I wonder this morning if you are in need of an advocate before
God. If you are in need of one to
plead your case, one in whom you would be able to find acceptance
before God. John put it like this in first
John chapter 2 verse 1 he said if any man sin now there's the
question there's the question are you in need of an advocate
if you're a sinner you are if you're a sinner you are if any
man sin we have an advocate with the father Jesus Christ the righteous
one the advocate is only for sinners this is a faithful saying
and worthy of all acceptation Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners it's all he saves but he saves every one of them
every single one of them now don't misunderstand what the
scripture means when it calls us sinners for in fact God has
to make you to be a sinner We come into this world with the
law of God in terms of the moral code already written on our hearts. We know the difference between
right and wrong. We've been given a conscience
and that conscience convicts us when we do something that's
wrong. But just because you have a convicted
conscience or just because you have violated the law of God
at one point or another does not make you to be a sinner.
In fact, the way the scriptures describes a sinner is one who
has never for a moment been able to keep one of God's laws one
time. Does that describe you? That's
what a sinner is. That's what a sinner is. I read
a man this week and he was talking about, he likened the gospel
of God's free grace in Christ as the scarlet thread of grace
that mends the broken heart. But he used this illustration,
he said, in order for the scarlet thread of grace to be sewed into
the heart, it must first be pierced with the needle of the law. And
he advocated preaching the law in order to bring men under conviction
of sin. The problem with that is that
if I just preach what you ought not to be doing, you're going
to come to one of two conclusions. You're going to come to one conclusion,
you're going to say, well, at least I'm not doing that. Or
you're going to come to the second conclusion and say, well, I can
quit that. Now, we're not here to try to
get people to measure up to, you've not satisfied any of the,
the Lord, they asked the Lord, what is the summary of the law? What's the greatest commandment?
And the Lord said, to love the Lord thy God with all of your
heart, all of your mind and all of your soul and to love your
neighbor as yourself. Truth is, you and I have never
ever for a second been able to love the Lord our God with all
of our hearts, all of our minds, and all of our souls. And there's
not a person on the face of this earth that has received as much
of our thoughts and attention as ourselves. Never had a pure thought. God
said when he looks into our hearts he sees that every imagination
of the heart is only evil and that continually. That's what God says a sinner
is. A sinner is not a person who, I've done something wrong
here, something wrong there. Never done a pure deed. God says
that the stars are not pure in his sight. All have sinned, God says, and
come short of the glory of God. Now let me ask you a simple question.
What in your life measures up to the glory of God? because
God says everything that fails to measure up to His glory is
sin. You got anything to measure up
to the glory of God? The Lord Jesus Christ is the
only one. He's the only one that measures up to the glory of God.
Paul said, Oh, to be found in him, not having my own righteousness,
which is of the law, but that righteousness, which is by the
faith of Jesus Christ. To be found in him. The Lord
said in Matthew chapter 25, agree with your adversary quickly while
thou art in the way. The law is our adversary. God's
our adversary. He says, Agree with him quickly
while thou art in thy way, lest at any time the adversary deliver
thee to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and thou be cast
into prison. Sinners need someone to be their
advocate before their adversary in order to reconcile them to
God. The Lord said, if you say that
you're without sin, you're a liar and the truth's not in you. But, if we confess, and that
word confess means to agree with God. It doesn't mean to make
a sin list and try to identify all the things in your heart
and life. You don't have the time for that. There's not enough
paper in this world. You don't even have a clue what
they are. It means to agree with God that
everything about me falls short of Thy glory. Everything about
me is sin. In me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth
no good thing. It means to say with the Apostle
Paul, I'm the chief of sinners. The chief of sinners. To will
is present with me, but how to perform that which is good, I
find not. there's but one good before God
and that's the Lord Jesus Christ I need him to be my advocate
if any man sin if most folks haven't haven't been made to
be sinners you find a center you found a
miracle of God's grace that's just the truth as most people
are not centers They're just not sinners. They don't believe
that everything about them is sinful. But if you're a sinner, if by
God's free grace, if by God's divine intervention, you've been
made to be a sinner, here's your hope. We have an advocate with
the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One, The one who never
violated the law of God in thought, deed, or motive, or action, word,
he never did. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
5. The Lord Jesus Christ was appointed by God to this
position of advocate. He was appointed by God to this
position of advocate. You have your Bibles open to
Hebrews chapter 5, look with me at verse 4. And no man taketh
this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as
was Aaron. So also Christ glorified not
himself to be made a high priest, for he, God, said unto him, Thou
art my son, today I have begotten thee. Now when the scripture
speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ being begotten, it's making reference
to His resurrection. He's the firstborn among many
brethren. So when God says, I have begotten
thee, I have raised thee from the dead because I am satisfied
with what you've done and I've restored you to your rightful
place at the right hand of the majesty on high that you might
ever live to make intercession for my people. You're going to
be made their advocate. Their advocate. For he saith
unto in another place, Thou art a priest for ever after the order
of Melchizedek." The Prince of Peace. How are we going to have
peace with God? How is a man going to be made
right with God? How is a sinner, a sinner, one who is nothing
but sin, How are they going to stand in the presence of a holy
God? Only if we have an advocate.
A lawyer. One to plead our case before
God. When did the Lord Jesus Christ
become the advocate? When did God appoint him, as
we just read, to become the advocate? There's an article in your bulletin.
I'll ask you to open it if you'd like. Don Fortner wrote it. And
I don't know words that would better answer that question that
I just asked than these words. Before the sheep went astray,
God made his son to be our shepherd. Before we fell in the first Adam,
we stood in the last Adam. Before we ever broke God's law,
Christ stood before God as our ransom. Before we became polluted,
Christ was the cleansing fountain of our salvation. Long before
we incurred the debt of sin, Christ stood as our surety and
paid our debt before God. Before we were cursed by the
law. Before the law ever came to be.
Christ stood before God as our Redeemer. Before we ever died. Before we ever died. The Lord
Jesus Christ stood before God as our resurrection and as our
life. Before the foundation of the
world. The Lamb was slain before God. God has never seen His people
outside of Christ. Never. Chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world, Ephesians chapter 1. The stars are not pure before
Him. His eyes are too pure to look upon sin. How are we going
to find acceptance before God? Only in the person of our eternal
advocate. Still have your Bibles open to
Hebrews chapter 5. Christ is approved of God. Not only was he appointed by
God, but he is approved by God in this office. Look at verse
7 of Hebrews chapter 5. who in the days of his flesh
when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong
crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death
and was heard because he feared God. Do you know, now we're talking
about being a sinner and needing an advocate. Do you know there's
enough sin in your most sincere prayers and tears to send you
to hell? Do you believe that? If you really believe that, God's
made you to be a sinner. And you have an advocate with
the Father. If any man sin, if any man sin, he has an advocate
with the Father. When the Lord Jesus Christ prayed,
and wept, and shed drops of blood, and bowed his mighty head on
Calvary's cross, and cried, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? It is finished. Father, into
thy hands I commend my spirit. His prayers were heard. When
he said in John 17, Father, I pray not for the world. I pray for
them which thou hast given me out of the world. Thine they
were. He was approved in his office
by God because of his faithfulness. Look at verse 8. Now that's what
God requires. We're talking about being a sinner
and needing an advocate. And whatever in your life falls
short of perfection, God calls sin. And God demands not just
for you to be perfect for a moment. He demands everything to be perfect. He requires it. He's holy. How are we going to be perfect? Being made perfect, he became
the author of salvation. He's the Alpha and the Omega,
the beginning and the end. He's the one that laid down his
life for the sheep in the covenant of grace before the world ever
began. David said, though my house be not so with God, All
the tabernacle of this flesh, my home, my life is in shambles. It's in shambles and David's
life was. And so is yours. And so is mine. If God gives us grace to see
it for what it really is. Yet, He has made with me an everlasting
covenant. a covenant of grace established
by God before the foundation of the world and ratified by
the shed blood of the lamb that was slain by God before the foundation
of the world he's made with me an everlasting covenant and David
said this is all my salvation this is all my desire you know
the last phrase of that verse is though he make it not to grow
In other words, when David looked at his life, he saw the same
thing that every sinner sees when they look at their life.
Lack of growth. You can always tell a person
is not a sinner because they think they're getting better.
If you think you're getting better, you've not been made to be a
sinner. If you've been made to be a sinner, then the light of
the gospel just continues to reveal more and more and more
of your sin to you. And you say with brother David,
though he make it not to grow, I see no growth in grace. I see
no improvement. I'm just becoming more dependent
and more sinful with every passing day. But the hope of my salvation
is not being able to find something in my life that's getting better.
The hope of my salvation is that everlasting covenant which is
ordered in all things and made sure by the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ. That's all my salvation and that's
all my desire. Isaiah chapter 42 verse 21, the
Lord God is well pleased with His righteousness and for He
will magnify the law and He will make the law honorable. The Lord
Jesus Christ is the only one that magnified the law. He's
the only one that made it honorable. He's the only one that fulfilled
it. We don't go to the law. We don't go to the law in order
to get saved and we don't go to the law in order to prove
our salvation. We're done with the law. Christ
is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Flee to Him. He's the only one that magnified
the law of God. You can't do it. You can't do
it. Stand fast in the liberty wherewith
Christ has made you free and be not entangled again with the
yoke of bondage. Don't go back to Egypt. Well the children of Israel said
when they were being fed with manna from heaven every day,
fresh manna every day, Sweet to the taste, had all the nourishment.
What'd they say? We're tired of this light bread.
We loathe this light bread. That bread coming from heaven
was none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. What'd they say?
And this proves that they weren't sinners. They died in the wilderness. What'd they say? We want to go
back to Egypt. For in Egypt we had melons and leeks and garlics. Where do they come from? Right
out of the ground. They just wanted to go back to
earthly things, didn't they? They weren't satisfied with feasting
upon Christ. God Almighty spoke audibly from
heaven in Matthew chapter 17 to Peter, James, and John, and
He told them on the Mount of Transfiguration, this is My beloved
Son. in him I am well pleased hear
ye him listen to everything he has to say or if you gonna have
any access at all to God you gonna find it in him God's pleased
with Christ and with Christ alone and God is made appeased by the
Lord Jesus Christ But that next verse in 1st John chapter 2 says,
for He is made for us our propitiation. Now that's just a big Bible word
that means that God's appeased, that His wrath has been put away.
that there's no more anger, there's no more judgment, there's no
more condemnation. Who is he that condemneth? It
is God that justifieth. There's no condemnation to them
who are in Christ Jesus. God has been pleased. He is the propitiation for our
sins. And John went on to say, herein
is love. Here's the definition of love.
Not that we loved God. Don't try to define what real
love is by your love. but that He loved us and gave
His Son to be a propitiation for our sins. God Almighty has
been made propitious. All of His righteous judgment,
all of His righteous indignation has been put away. He's satisfied. The fire of His wrath fell from
glory on Calvary's cross, and the Lord Jesus Christ extinguished
that fire. The sword of His justice has
been sheathed. It was sheathed into the very
heart of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no more wrath. God's pleased. Turn with me to
Romans chapter 3. God has made his soul to be an
offering for sin and God has seen the travail of his soul
and is satisfied. Now that's what the prophet Isaiah
said, God's satisfied. He saw the travail of the agony
of the Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross and he's satisfied. That's
the kind of advocate he is. He's a successful advocate. As
Michael said, he's not making an offer of salvation for us
to secure by our decision making or by our free will or by our
works. He secured it once and for all.
Look at Romans chapter 3 at verse 21, but now No flesh shall be justified in
his sight by the law, previously he says, for by the law is the
knowledge of sin, that's all it does. Even the righteousness
of God, verse 21, but now the righteousness of God without
the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the
prophets. The righteousness of God, that's what we need. Jesus
Christ the righteous one to be our Advocate before God and he
is revealed without the law without the law Even the righteousness
of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ Now if you have any translation
that reads anything other than that, that's just a that's just
a paraphrase and it's not a translation Because that's what God says unto all and upon all them that
believe for there is no difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God being justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for
the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God, to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness. Now men go about trying to establish
their own righteousness, being ignorant of the righteousness
of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is that
righteousness. And He gives to His people the
faith to believe Him, to trust Him, to rest in Him and to rely
upon Him. Faith is not your work that rewards
you with your salvation. Faith is the result of salvation,
not the cause of it. It's the gift of God, not of
works. As our advocate with the Father, do you need an advocate? You know the Lord Jesus Christ
has never lost a case. Not a single one. And the reason
why He has never lost a case is not because He argues our
innocence or presents extenuating circumstances to excuse our guilt. That's not how he advocates for
us. When he goes before God, he argues
his own person and his own perfect work of redemption to the Father
on our behalf. It is impossible for the Father
to refuse him. In the Lord Jesus Christ's case
before God on behalf of His people, He never presents anything about
us. We're not in the equation. He
doesn't say to God, they didn't mean it. He doesn't say to God,
they're really sorry. He doesn't say to God, they've
committed themselves to us for the rest of their lives. He doesn't
say to God, they accepted me, so we ought to accept them. He
doesn't say to God, I heard their prayer. He doesn't say to God, you know,
they got baptized and they joined the church and they've turned
over a new leaf or they've invited me into their heart. He doesn't
say any of that to God. When the Lord Jesus Christ is
our advocate before the Father, He presents Himself, His faithfulness
and His work before God Almighty. And you know what the Father
does? You know that story of the prodigal there in the book
of Luke, it's such a glorious picture of God accepting us when
we come. But you know it's a picture of
the Father and the Son as well. When the Lord Jesus Christ came
home to the Father, how did He receive Him? He lavished Him
with kisses upon His neck. He put the robe of righteousness
on His back. He put the ring of authority
upon His finger. He received His Son. Nothing about the guilty defendant
is presented to the judge in our defense. If anything about
us was presented by our advocate before the judge, he would have
no choice but to charge us guilty. You know the worst thing that
a defense attorney can do with a guilty defendant? is let them take the stand. If you're a competent attorney
and your client is guilty, you're not going to put them on the
stand. The prosecutor is going to expose everything there is
about them. Guilty sinners, they just sit there with their
head down and their mouth shut and they let the Lord Jesus Christ
plead their case for them. He's never lost one, and he's
never going to. In religion we used to ask, we
used to in our attempts to proselyte people, we called it evangelism,
but we were just turning people into twice as much devil as we
were already ourselves, traversing land and sea in order to make
one disciple. And we liked asking people, if
you stood before God and He asked you, why should I let you into
my heaven, what would you say? You know what we'd say? Nothing. With tears in our eyes, and shame
on our face, and hope in our hearts, we would point to our
advocate. And if we said anything, it would
be, speak for me. Speak for me. Present yourself
to God on my behalf. I have no words. And what does he say? Here's
what he says, John chapter 17 verse 24, Father, I will that
they also whom thou hast given me. When did God give them to
Christ? In the covenant of grace before
the world began. God chose a people according
to his own will and purpose and wrote their names in the Lamb's
book of life. And here's what the Lord Jesus Christ says to
God, Father, I will. Men are proud of their will,
but their wills are not sufficient. Father, I will, that they also
whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may
behold my glory which thou hast given me, for thou lovest me
before the world began. And Jeremiah said, he has loved
those who are found in Christ with an everlasting love. Do you need an advocate? Are
you a sinner? If any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous one, who is our
propitiation before God. Oh, guilty sinner, hang your
head. Guilty sinner, ask God to fill your heart with faith
and hope in your advocate, and let Him plead Himself for you. God's satisfied with Christ.
He's satisfied with Him. He's satisfied with His work
of redemption. He's satisfied with His shed blood. He said,
when I see the blood, I'll pass by you. He's satisfied with His righteousness.
He's satisfied with His prayers. He's satisfied with everything
He ever did. He's satisfied with the accomplishment
of His work. And the Lord Jesus Christ will
not deny His own before God. All the accusations of the accuser
will be silenced by his voice. All your crimes against God will
be covered by his blood. All the demands of the law will
be satisfied by his righteousness. And all the hallelujahs of heaven
and all the praise of the host of angels in glory will not distract
him from standing up for anyone of his elect. He's a faithful advocate. He
ever lives to make intercession for us. Are you a sinner? A sinner as
God describes a sinner? There's a righteous substitute
that God Almighty is completely satisfied with. Look to Him. Point to Him. Rely upon Him. Believe Him. Hear His voice. Hear His voice. And if you do,
you'll know that it was He that gave you the grace. It was He
that opened the ears. It was He that opened your eyes. It was He that opened your heart. It was He that opened His Word.
and he'll get all the glory. He'll get all the glory. And
you won't speak another word of justifying yourself before
God. You'll know that you have an
advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly
Father, We ask Lord that you would be
pleased now to reveal to the hearts of your
people their need for an advocate. That you would cause us to be
what only you can cause us to be. Sinful. Sinful and yet sanctified through the satisfaction of our
advocate. We ask it in His name. Amen. Tom? Number 8 in the blue handout,
if you'll find those blue handouts, number 8.