Take me this morning to the fifth
chapter of the book of Romans. Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. I want to talk to you a little
bit this morning about the present work of the Lord Jesus for us. The present work of the Lord
Jesus for us. So if you'll keep that in mind,
Then maybe what I'm about to say and the various scriptures
that we'll refer to will maybe make sense to our hearts. In
the fifth chapter of the Book of Romans and in the tenth verse,
we'll kind of use that as a basis for our remarks and our talk
this morning. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
His death, or by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled,
we shall be saved by His life." Now, I think it's understood
by at least the majority of those that are in our audience this
morning that all men outside of the Lord Jesus, that is, man
in his natural state is an enemy of God. I know that the word
sometimes frightens people that have not been introduced to the
truth of the Word of God in regard to themselves, but yet it's true nevertheless whether
we can submit ourselves to the reasoning of the Bible and the
declaration of the Holy Ghost in regard to this. We are, in
our native state, we are enemies of God. Enemies. There is a heart full of hostility
toward God who made us, and we're hostile. And this particular
verse that I read to you here, it says, then we were enemies. We were all at one time. If we're
not an enemy now, it's because God, in his mercy, by the Holy
Ghost, through the shedding of the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
has reconciled unto him, or us, unto himself, and therefore we
are no longer enemies of God, but we are friends of God. We are the friends of God. We
are the children of God. And as Roger said when he prayed,
that he believed that there were some of us that were the sheep
of God. And that's true. Now, a Christian,
a true believer, is one who is not only forgiven, but he's one
who has been delivered. That is, Christ has died for
him, and he has died in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's free. He is as free as one who is raised
from the dead and made alive, that is, unto God through Jesus
Christ our Lord. In fact, the Scriptures say that
a true Christian, a man who has experienced the grace of God
in his life and who has become the recipient of the Lord of
glory, who has bowed to the discipline of the Bible, he has passed from
death unto life. That is an expression that is
used in the Bible to describe the individual that has been
translated from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of
God's dear Son. He has passed from death unto
life, and death and judgment are behind him, and nothing but
glory is before him. Do you understand that? He has
passed from death unto life. Death and judgment are behind
Him. He has no fear in death or judgment
now, they are behind Him. His death and judgment and all
the penalty that is involved in death and in judgment have
been satisfied on His behalf in the person and the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ. So death and judgment are behind
him, he has passed from death unto life, and he has nothing
but glory before him. He has an unblotted title and
an unclouded prospect. Now, if all of this be true of
every child of God, and indeed it is, this is true whether we
can understand it, or whether we can see it, or whether we
can accept it, that which I have said in regard to the true child
of God is true. He has an unclouded prospect
and an unblotted title. He has nothing in the future
but glory. That is true of him. He has passed
from death unto life. He has been translated from the
kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. If
all of this be true then, of every child of God, from the
least to the greatest, what more do we want? What more do we want
then, apart from all of this, if these things be true? Well,
nothing as to title. We want nothing more as to title. We are the children of God by
faith in Christ Jesus. We are the saints of God. We
are the sheep of this pasture. That is our title. We are heirs
of God and heirs to glory. As to title, we want nothing
more. We are a saint of God. We will not have to wait until
we are canonized by some particular secular or civil organization
that would entitle us to that particular name or description. We are the saints of God now,
God's choicest people. Ye are the salt of the earth,
the scriptures say about the people of God, the salt of the
earth. Well, nothing as to title and
nothing as to standing. We're absolutely complete and
perfect in the Lord Jesus Christ, complete in Him. need nothing
more, nothing as to hope. As to all of these, we have an
absolute divine perfection. But, now this is the part of
it that I want you to become interested in, the present work
of the Lord Jesus Christ for us. I have said up to this point,
that we have this absolute divine perfection. We have an absolute
divine standing before God that can never be altered or erased. We are forever in Him and blessed
in Him and kept in Him. But our state, that has to do
with our situation right now in this body, our state right
now. I'm not talking about our standing
before God. Our standing before God is that
our life is hid in Christ, who is God. Christ is our life and
our life is hid in God, in Christ, and that cannot be erased or
altered. That's forever finished. finalized, absolutely, completely,
it cannot be changed. But our state, but our state,
that's what I'm talking about right now, right now, today,
November the 6th, or whatever date it is, 1978, but our state
is not perfect. And our walk is not perfect,
as our brother mentioned as he prayed. Our tendencies to yield
to temptation and how our sin, deliberate and premeditated many
times, affects not only us, but it affects the people around
about us. It's a sham and hypocrisy and
mockery and it's bothersome to us. bothersome to the people
of God, and it's a disgrace and it's a dishonor many times, and
we desire to be delivered from it. Our walk, that's what I'm
talking about, our state right now is not perfect, it's imperfect. And I'll tell you why, because
we're still in this body. We are still in this body of
flesh and as long as we are in this body of flesh, down here,
functioning and being active and existing here in time, in
the human race, we are going to have some problems. We are
going to have some problems. Our state is not perfect. Our
walk is not perfect. We are still in this body. We
are compassed about with many temptations, liable to stumble,
liable to fail, and liable to wander. That's true of all of
us. That's a problem. That's our
walk. And that has to do with our subject.
The present work of the Lord Jesus Christ right now for us. Well, we're unable of ourselves
for one moment to think a right thought about God. In ourselves
now, we're unable. There's not a soul here, regardless
of our rank or position or our relationship to God, regardless
of though we be preachers or deacons or those that we would
consider living closer to God maybe than others. There's not
one among us who's able of himself. for one moment to think a right
thought about God. Or to keep ourselves for one
moment in the blessed position into which the grace of God has
introduced us. True, we have eternal life. We have everlasting life right
now. We've got it. And it's not only
a, it has to do with a an element of time, but it has
to do with quantity. We have that. We have the eternal
everlasting life. We shall not come into condemnation. We have passed from death unto
life. We are in Christ and we have it right now and it will
not be dispensed to us at the end of time at some particular
judgment when our good deeds are balanced against our bad
and evil deeds and then be decided as to whether we'll be introduced
into eternal life. No, we either have it now or
we don't have it. But we have it now, those that
have been linked to God in Christ in this vital union who have
been made to see themselves ungodly and unjust and their sinnerhood
and sinnership before God and have been made aware of their
guilt and their hostility and their enmity and their hatred
to God and to everything that is good. Those that have been
brought to the end of themselves and have brought to see themselves. If a man has ever been brought
to see himself, Job said, I have heard of thee. I have heard of
thee by the hearing of the ear. I have heard of thee through
nature. I have heard of thee through
the philosophers. I have heard of thee in various
ways. But he said, Now my eye seeth thee. Now I really have
been brought to focus upon the beauty and the glory of the person
of God Almighty. And he said, I have come to wit's
end and I hate myself. I abhor myself. And that's the
place that every man's got to be brought to. He's got to be
brought to the end of self. Now, he might hear of God through
creation, through nature, and through human philosophy and
tradition and so forth, but he's got to see God for himself by
and through the Spirit of God. And if he ever sees God, he'll
see himself. He'll abhor himself. He'll hate
himself. And he'll repent in dust and
ashes. He'll do as Isaiah did. Isaiah, he'd heard a lot about
God too. But when he finally came into
the midst of the splendor and the glory of God, he decided
that he dwelt in the midst of a people, an unclean generation. He said, Behold, I'm guilty too. And that's what I'm talking about.
That's what I'm talking about. If a man ever sees that, sees
what he really is, what he really is, and then is introduced by
the grace of God and the Spirit of God into that heavenly position
of being without sin, That position of being absolutely, divinely
perfect in Christ, if he ever sees himself that way, and see
what God has done for him in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well,
I say it's true. It's true we have eternal life.
We have that. Nothing can touch our life inasmuch
as it is hid with Christ in God. While nothing can touch our life
or interfere with our standing, our perfect standing in Christ,
yet seeing that our walk is imperfect, we need the present work of the
Lord Jesus Christ for us. Is that not right? We need what
He is doing now in our state. Now listen to me. Let me tell
you just a little bit here this morning as to what He is doing
now for us in our state. Now the Lord Jesus Christ lives
at the right hand of God for us. That's what the Scriptures
say. His active intervention on our
behalf never ceases for a single moment. And that amazes me. That's enough for me right there.
There's more in that statement than I can lay hold of if I would
think about it for a month. If that's all that I had to say
this morning, if that's all, if I just say, well, now, that's
it. That's our lesson this morning. You go home and dwell upon that
dainty morsel that I have conveyed to you in regard to what the
Lord Jesus Christ is doing for us, that He lives on the right
hand of God for us. And His active intervention on
our behalf never ceases for a single second, for a single moment.
That would be sufficient. We could think about that. We
could roll that morsel on our tongue and never draw all the
sweetness out of it. He ever lived. on the right hand
of God Almighty, the right hand of power, the right hand of wisdom,
the right hand of glory, the right hand of love. He ever lives
there. He ever dwells there. And He
is in active intervention in our behalf constantly, continually,
perpetually, always, every second of every day. You see, the Lord
Jesus Christ has passed through the heavens in virtue of an accomplished
atonement, an accomplished work on his behalf. And there he ever
carries on a perfect advocacy for us before God. He is there
as our subsisting righteousness to maintain us ever in the divine
integrity of the relationship and position His atoning death
has placed us. He is there to guarantee that
security that His death hath provided for His people. Alright,
I read this verse to you in Romans chapter 5 and verse number 10.
For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
the death of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be
saved by His life. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
4. Hebrews chapter 4. And verse 13, neither is there
any creature that is not manifest in his sight. Speaking there
of the absolute power and omniscience of the Lord Jesus Christ. Neither
is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight. but
all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom
we have to do. Seeing then, seeing then that
we have a great High Priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus
the Son of God, let us hold fast our profession, for we have not
a High Priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our
infirmities. but was in all points tempted
like we are yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Then turn with me to the seventh
chapter of this book. The seventh chapter and the twenty-fourth
verse. I'll begin reading there at verse
22. By so much was Jesus made a surety
of a better testament, and they truly were many priests, because
they were not suffered to continue by reason of death, but this
man, the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm talking here this morning
about His present work for us. But this man, there is a man
in glory. There is the God-man in heaven. And where is he at? He is on
the right hand of God. Actively intervening in our behalf,
never ceasing for a single second or a single moment. For us. For
us. Seeing, but this man. But this man. Because he continueth
ever hath an unchangeable priesthood. This man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
continueth ever. He ever continues. He does not
cease. He has an unchangeable priesthood.
Wherefore he is able also to save them, to the uttermost,
that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth. to make intercession
for them. For such an high priest became
us, who is holy, harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners, and made
higher than the heavens." And then turn to the ninth chapter
of this same book, and verse 24 again. For Christ is not entered into
the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the
true, but into heaven itself now to appear in the presence
of God for us. So you see, brethren, when I
said that the Lord Jesus Christ lives at the right hand of God
for us, and that his active intervention on our behalf never ceases for
a single moment, that the Bible firmly establishes this truth. Then turn with me, if you will,
to 1 John, chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2. My little children, these things write I unto you,
that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And he
is the propitiation for our sins, not for ours only, but also for
the sins of the whole world. How precious is these Scriptures
that I've read to you. Four or five Scriptures here.
Every one of them focuses upon the subject that we're dealing
with here this morning. The present work of the Lord
Jesus Christ for us in the heavens on the right hand of God. Every
one of them says something about His ever unchangeable priesthood,
His ever unchangeable work there on behalf of you and I. How precious is all this to the
true-hearted believer, especially to him who is ever conscious
of his weakness, of his need, of his infirmities. How many,
under the sound of my voice this morning, are not conscious of
their weakness and their failures and their needs. No one that
has been introduced to the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity and
in truth can say with any honesty whatsoever that he's not conscious
of his need. We're all conscious of our weakness
and our failures and our stumbling and our falling, as our brother
mentioned as he prayed, our sin against God and our sin against
our fellow man. We're all conscious of our inability
to maintain a righteousness or a righteous attitude and conduct
in this life that would be becoming unto God. We're all failures,
every one of us. ever one of us. The more we see
of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ, the greater desire we
have to be like Him, but yet there is that light that floods
our soul, the witness and the consciousness of the Spirit of
God in our lives that points His finger at our walk here in
this life, that our walk is imperfect. Our thoughts are imperfect. We talk about our purity. We
have no purity. We have no purity whatsoever,
only in Christ. I know that without holiness
no man shall see the Lord. I understand that. I understand
that we are to pursue and to follow after holiness. I understand
that, but you can pursue and follow after holiness every hour
of every day of your life and live to be 150 years and you'll
never, you'll never meet the standard of Almighty God in regard
to true holiness. You'll never get that. I know
where to seek after, pursue it. But the more we pursue it, the
more we seek after it, the more we see our need, the more we
feel of our infirmities, the more we feel of our proneness
to wander and to stumble and all of that. I think you are
all agreed with this. Oh brethren, this is precious,
I believe to the true hearted believer that he does have one
on the right hand of God, whoever lives, whoever lives to make
intercession for him. I say that this is precious to
the true-hearted believer who is conscious, conscious of his
weakness, of his need, of his infirmity. He has a sense of
his imperfect state. He has a sense of his imperfect
walk. But yet he knows something of
the priesthood and the advocacy of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
is on the right hand of God, pleading every moment. every
single solitary day, every month, every year, throughout our life,
He pleads for us. He pleads for the believer. Well,
if it wasn't for that, brethren, if a man doesn't understand something
about the advocacy of the Lord Jesus Christ, then He's going
to lead him into this theory of sinless perfection. He'll
get over there and walk, and this spurious walk, and spurious
work in regard to being perfect, and doing this and doing that,
and trying to maintain a perfect standing and state before God
here in this life, and it will prove nothing but a failure to
him. He will be disappointed, and the first thing you know,
he will just quit it all. If he doesn't quit it all, he'll
live and die in doubt and fear. If he doesn't understand something
about what the Lord Jesus Christ is doing for us now, if we have
all that I've said we have, if we are perfect in the Lord Jesus
Christ, what is it more that we want if we're perfect in Christ? Well, we see that. We see that.
I see that. I see that I'm perfect in Christ.
But I also see that right now I'm imperfect here in time. And I need someone. I need someone
to intercede with God on my behalf every day. Because there's not
one second during the day that I can think a right thought about
God. I must have something. You see
that? You see that? I must have someone then. I must
have an unchangeable advocacy, advocate. The Lord Jesus Christ. All right. For whom then? For
whom is Christ now living and acting at the right hand of the
Father? Well, we've indicated that. It's
for true believers. It's not for the world. It's
not for the world. In the seventeenth chapter of
the book of John, Jesus said, I pray not for the world. Who's
he acting for now? We read to you several verses
of Scripture here. On the right hand of God. That's
where he's at right now. He's not in the Sea of Galilee.
He's not here. He's not in an airplane someplace.
He's not in a vision there in the sky, but He's on the right
hand of God. That's where He's at right now.
Jesus Christ is on the right hand of God right now. And who
is He living and acting now for on the right hand of God? Not
for the world. Not for the world. I pray not
for the world, that's what he said in John 17. I pray not for
the world, but for them. I pray for them which thou hast
given me, for they are thine. Who are these that Jesus is talking
about when he says, I pray not for the world, I pray for them?
I don't pray for the world, I pray for them. Who are these? They are the children of God.
They are the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus. They
are those that have been brought to the end of self. They are
those that have submitted themselves to the Lord Jesus, who have received
Him. Use whatever expression that
is natural for you. Received the Lord Jesus. He came
unto His own, but His own received Him not. But to as many as received
Him, they are those that received Him. They are passing through,
right now, this sinful world. And they are liable to fail.
And they are liable to contract defilement every step of the
way. And he died to make them clean,
and he ever lives to keep them clean. His people, his people. They contract defilement here
in this life. And that is what the Lord Jesus
had reference to when he washed the disciples' feet. He girded
himself about with a towel and got before these disciples and
began to wash their feet. And Peter immediately said, no,
he was reluctant to submit to this humble virtue of the Lord
Jesus. And he said, not so, Lord. He
said, you will not wash my feet. And the Lord Jesus said, If I
wash not thy feet, Peter, thou hast no part with me. Now Peter
had been brought into a saving relationship with the Lord Jesus
Christ. But that part that he was talking
about, that good part that he was talking about was fellowship
right there. He said, in other words, Peter,
Well, Peter, he said, you have no part of me. And then finally
Peter said, well, if that's the case, wash me all over. And he
said, you don't need to be washed all over. He said, you've already
been washed. You've been washed in the blood
of the crucified one. You don't need to be washed all
over. You just need your feet washed
because you've contracted a defilement. as you journey in this life,
living in this world, and there needs to be that continual confession
of our sin before God. We are passing through this world.
I pray not for the world. I pray for them, these that are
passing through this world, who are subject to defilement, who
contract this awful disease from time to time. I pray for them. And I said, brethren, that He
died to make us clean, and He ever lives to keep us clean.
And I'll tell you this, that the Lord Jesus Christ is going
to have a people. He's going to have a people that
are clean ever with. He died for that people, and He'll have that people. Now,
I read to you in the book of 1 John where it says, If any man sin, it doesn't say,
If any man repent. Now, no doubt there is, and there
must be repentance and self-judgment. Now, that's involved in that,
If any man sin. But he didn't say, If any man
repent. if any man sin, we have an advocate with the
Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous. There is repentance,
though, and self-judgment. You know, we have the mistaken
idea that repentance is, and we know that it is one of the
inseparable graces of God that God gives to every believer.
He cannot repent of himself. It's foreign to him. God must
give him the gift and the grace of repentance. And repentance
is the changing of a man's mind. That's what repentance is. It
has to do with attitude, the changing of a man's attitude,
the changing of a man's mind. And the reason I say that it
is of God is because man cannot
change his mind. He can't change his mind. We
talk about changing our mind, but really what we're saying
is we're changing our opinion. It'd be better to say, well,
I changed my opinion. I don't change my mind. Only
God can change our mind, and that's what repentance is. The
changing of our mind toward self and toward God. Now, I say that
self-judgment and repentance is involved in this, but how
are they produced? Here it is, we have an advocate
with the Father. It is the intercession of the
Lord Jesus Christ that produces and procures the grace of repentance
and confession. If any man sin, we have what?
We have the blood to return to? No, that's not it. I want you
to notice carefully what the Holy Ghost declares here. It says, if any man sins, we
have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ the righteous. Now, let me ask another question
then. We're talking about the present
work of the Lord Jesus Christ for us. Why does the Scripture
say or why does it refer to him as Jesus Christ the Righteous? Why couldn't it say Jesus Christ
the Gracious? Why couldn't it say Jesus Christ
the Merciful? Why couldn't it say Jesus Christ
the Good Shepherd? Why couldn't it say Jesus Christ
the Sympathizing One? He is all of these and a million
more. But here the Holy Ghost declares
unto us this blessed truth, that in all of our errors and all
of our sins and all of our failures and all of our mistakes, we have
a righteous representative. We have Jesus Christ the righteous
as our representative before God. He ever lives on the right hand
of God before us. Who? Jesus Christ the righteous. We have a righteous representative. Only one truly righteous man
that ever lived on the topside of God's green earth. Only one.
Only one. Of the millions and billions
and untold and countless numbers of members of this human race,
there has only been one whole and complete and true man. Is that not right, Roger? The
Lord Jesus Christ. Only one. Only one. When we think
of the untold numbers of this human race and realize that of
this human race, there is only one that is truly righteous. One. Only one. Not two. Not a half a dozen, but there's
only one. And that one is none other than
Jesus Christ. And the Bible says it's Jesus
Christ the righteous, and this righteous man ever lives on the
right hand of God to plead as our righteous representative
before God. Now, if that's not solid comfort,
then I don't know what is. Now, if that won't stay you in
hard times and in difficult places and in times of doubt and fear
and dismay, I don't know what will. Brethren, it's not up to
you. We kind of divert our thoughts
and thinking from this and begin to look at self. We begin to
say, well, I'm this and I'm that, but that doesn't make it. We
have Him! He ever lives. He's ever there. He pleads day and night. You
think that the time that you sin against God, He's already
taken up your case. Before you ever come to confession,
He's taken up your case and began to plead for you. He died to
make you clean. He ever lives to make you clean.
He'll get the job done. He'll get the job done. Oh, what
solid comfort. It's not up to me. It's up to
Him. He ever lives. He ever lives.
He always lives. Oh, brethren, we have a righteous
representative, even before the righteous God. He is there in
our stead, in our place, and in our room. He ever lives to
make intercession for us. And because He ever lives, the
Scriptures say that He is able to save to the uttermost that is right through to the
very end, them that come to God by Him. What solid comfort for
the people of God! We have Him continually, our righteousness before God. He lives to keep us always righteous
in heaven and set us right when we go wrong, even here upon the
earth. the divine link between our souls
and God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Where is he? He's on the right
hand of God. What's he doing there? He's pleading
the cause of his people. Who is his people? Those that
have submitted to his Son. Those that have kissed the Son,
lest ye be angry and ye be consumed Those that have submitted themselves
to the Lord Jesus. Those that have given up in despair
when they have seen themselves unholy and unrighteous and ungodly. Those that have felt the guilt
of sin, not only in their minds, but they've felt it in their
hearts. They've felt it in their hearts and they've fled to him.
They've come to him, they've responded. when he said, Come
unto me, all ye that labour under heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. These that he pleads for have responded to his gracious
invitation, and they have come and received him. And all that
he is, they are. And he ever lives for thine.
Don't despair. Don't despair. May this cause your doubts and
fears to fly away. the Lord Jesus Christ. You talk about the perseverance
of the saints and the preservation of the saints. Well, all that's
true, but when it's all said and done, it's the perseverance
of the Son of God. That's what it is. It's the perseverance
of the Lord Jesus Christ, the preservation of the Lord. He'll
never die. He'll never die. What do I need? I don't need
anything as far as title, as far as standing, or as far as
hope. I don't need a thing. But I need Him to plead my case
as long as I'm here in this life, as long as I contract dirty feet,
as long as my feet get dirty as I go hither and thither. In
this life I need someone to wash my feet. He doesn't need to wash
me all over. I've been washed, but I need
my feet washed. I need my feet washed every day. I need to come
to God and have my feet washed. I need to plunge beneath that
fountain filled with blood that flows from Emmanuel's veins.
That's what I need, plunged into the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ
to have my feet washed. All right, I trust that this
has been some help to you. It has been to me. We'll stand
and sing a verse and be dismissed until this evening.