I want you to remember, I want
you to recollect a time when you were thirstier than you ever
remember yourself being before. I'm talking about a time where
just about everything else faded into the background and the only
thing you could focus on was just getting a cool drink of
water to quench your thirst. Everybody's got a story like
that, right? Everybody has a story in their life where that happened.
I was so thirsty that No matter what happened, I could have won
the lottery, I could have done this, I could have done that. The only thing I wanted
at that moment was a cool drink of water. That's it. Everybody
have that thought? Now turn to Exodus 15. I'm going
to read our text. Exodus 15 and pick up in verse
22. And keep that thought in mind that I asked you to think
about, being thirsty. Exodus 15 verse 22. So Moses
brought Israel from the Red Sea, and they went out into the wilderness
of Shur, and they went three days in the wilderness and found
no water. And when they came to Marah, they could not drink
of the waters of Marah, for they were bitter. Therefore the name
of it was called Marah. And the people murmured against
Moses, saying, What shall we drink? And he cried unto the
Lord, And the Lord showed him a tree, which when he had cast
into the waters, the waters were made sweet. There he made for
them a statute, and an ordinance, and there he proved them, and
said, If thou wilt diligently hearken to the voice of the Lord
thy God, and wilt do that which is right in his sight, and wilt
give ear to his commandments, and keep all his statutes, I
will put none of these diseases upon thee, which I have brought
upon the Egyptians. For I am the Lord, at Heal the
Faith. Now what in the world does this
all about? In this story I see four things. I want to bring
out this morning four things. Number one, I see a great trial
and an evil response. Second thing I see is a picture
of false religion and particularly a believer's response to the
message of false religion. Third, I see a beautiful picture
of how a bitter sinner, somebody just like you and me, can be
made sweet. or a holy God. And fourth, I
just see a beautiful picture of faith. So there's four things,
and hopefully it won't take very long. Let's look at it. But what
I'm going to start with is this. I want you to put yourself in
the position of the children of Israel at this time, okay?
You have just been emancipated from Egypt. The Lord had come,
and he had passed over Egypt, and all those people that were
in the houses that did not have the blood over the door, their
firstborn was killed. And you could hear the screams and the
cries of these people losing their firstborn. But you were
safe and sound in that house with the blood over the door.
When the Lord saw the blood, he passed over you." That great
picture of Jesus Christ. And then you get thrust out of
Egypt. They say, go, go serve your God. Get out of here. Take
our gold. Take whatever you want. Take our cattle. Get out of here
and go. And you go on your way. And then you get to the Red Sea.
And the Lord parks the Red Sea. And about you and about two million
of your countrymen, you walk along a dry seabed with huge
walls of water. on either side, all the way to
the other side of the sea. And then when the last Israelites
set foot on dry ground, you all turn around and behind you, you
have Pharaoh and his army, your great enemy. And they are charging
along that seabed and they're coming after you. And you just
watch those huge walls of water just start falling down and the
Lord completely wipes out all your enemies. And there you were
safe inside, safe and sound on the other side. Can you imagine
what an experience that would have been? You imagine what confidence
these people had in the Lord at this time. But now you enter
the wilderness of Shur. And that word, Shur, means woe. This is effectively where they
hit the wall. The first day goes by. You start thinking, getting
thirsty, getting thirsty. But, I mean, look what the Lord
just did. I mean, he just emancipated us from Egypt. He just imparted
a sea. He wiped out all our enemies. I mean, water will be right up
around the next corner, no doubt. But it's not. Second day goes
by. I'm thinking, Lord, I'm getting
real thirsty here. Where's that water? But, I mean,
the Lord's always taking care of us. Just a little while up
the road, there's going to be water. No doubt. But it isn't. The third day comes. Now, this
is not a wilderness like you and I would think, like being
in Tennessee. Trees and stuff like that. This is a desert.
There is nothing here but rocks and sand and mountains and the
hot sun. That's it. And most experts would agree
that three days is about the most you can go in this climate
without water. So you are effectively so thirsty,
so deprived of water, you're ready to die. That's how bad
things have gotten. And it's not just you. Keep in
mind, it's your whole family. So those of you who have small
children, Imagine having your kid walking along with you. Daddy,
where's that water? Where's the water? And they're tugging on
you. Maybe they're fainting. And you're thinking, Lord, where's
this water? And then all of a sudden, all
of a sudden, somebody from the front of the group, there's two
million of y'all, so it's a big caravan, right? From the front of the
group says, hey, there's water. There's water up here. You think, well,
the Lord's delivered us again. Here we go. And that first guy,
he sees that water. He just takes off running. He just jumps right
into that pool, that pool, Mark. And he takes a big gulp of that
water, and he gets in his mouth, and everybody's watching. and
he just spits it right back out. It was bitter. They could not
drink it. Then what do they do? What's
the next thing they do? What they do next is wicked.
It is evil. It is completely inexcusable.
And in this exact same situation, apart from the grace of God,
it is exactly what I would have done. They murmured against the
Lord. So they murmured against Moses.
But who was leading Moses? They have forgotten something.
It is the same thing that you and I and just about every believer
forgets in times of tribulation. That the same God who had emancipated
them from Egypt and poured in a sea for them and wiped out
all their enemies is the same God who had led them into the
wilderness of Shur and into this great trial. The same God who
before had delivered was now trying. Now, the scripture makes
no bones. In this life we are going to
have tribulation. Every believer wants to experience tribulation
and trial in this life, but it's not without purpose. The Lord
doesn't cause suffering to his people unnecessarily. It's all
for purpose. And the scripture actually gives
us some insight as to what tribulation works in the believer. Look at
it if you would. Turn to Romans 5 and look at
verse 1. What does tribulation work with? Romans 5 and look at verse 1. Therefore being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom also we have access by faith into the grace wherein
we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not
only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation
worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope,
and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us."
What does trial and tribulation achieve or work in a believer?
Chiefly, three things that are mentioned here. Patience, experience,
and hope. Now let's think of patience and
talk about that for a second. I want to grow in this grace.
this thing of patience. I don't want to be a man who
is constantly murmuring against the Lord's prophets, having an
immature attitude towards whatever the Lord has brought my way.
Whatever He does is right. It's best. I want to be brought
into a voluntary subjection to the will of the Lord, so much
so, I say, Lord, Your will be done and not my own. In the face
of adversity, in the face of trial, instead of kicking rocks
and getting mad and murmuring, I want to pour my heart out before
the Lord. and then seek whatever means he would use to deliver
me from that trial. If you're sick, pour your heart
out before the Lord and then go seek the best doctor you can
possibly find to cure your disease because the Lord's going to cure
you. He's going to do it through a man, through me. If you can't pay
your bills, pour your heart out before the Lord and then you
go try to find an extra job, a better job, something like
that. Seek the means the Lord would use to deliver you from
that trial. But while you're doing that, this is what My hope,
my reaction will be, I want to grow in this grace, is that I
keep my mouth shut. And I patiently and cheerfully
endure, waiting and trusting that the Lord is going to deliver
me. I want to grow in this thing of patience. And patience works
with experience. And that word experience is actually
proof, and it's in reference to faith. Understand, tribulation
does not produce faith. Faith is the gift of the new
nature, the gift of the Holy Spirit. What it does is it galvanizes
it. It strengthens it. It exposes
faith. And I want that, don't you? I
crave that. I want to have strong faith. I want to trust the Lord
Jesus Christ alone for everything. Nothing doubting. Everything
in my salvation. All my sin atonement, all my
righteousness, all my holiness. He's it. He's all I'm looking
to. But also for the food that's going to come on my table tomorrow. If I'm sick, I want to trust
Him to heal me. I want to trust Him alone for
everything. But how's that going to happen? How's that faith going
to get strengthened? The Lord is going to have to keep us down
in the dust in a constant state of need and dependence on Him.
Patience worketh experience and experience worketh hope. Now what is hope? Hope is a confident
expectation in reference to the future and you only have a true
hope if the expectation is certain and for any man or woman who
is looking to Christ alone right now you have a sure hope. Your expectation is absolute.
the work's already been done. Now in trial, in tribulation,
we find out something. We find out that this world is
not our home. That really there's nothing here
for us. And don't get me wrong, I am thankful for my family.
I'm thankful for the relationships I have with my brothers and sisters
in Christ. I'm thankful for y'all. But at
the end of the day, at the end of this valley of the shadow
of death, all that's going to fade. It's all going to dissolve.
And we are just pilgrims here. We are just passing through.
But at the end of this road, we know our end state. We're
going to meet our Redeemer face to face. And we're going to be
just like Him, conformed to His image. There's going to be no
more suffering. There's going to be no more tears. And we're
going to be in His presence for eternity. That makes me patient. It makes me patient. I can wait.
I can cheerfully endure, knowing my end. I don't want to say this
carefully. I don't want trial. In fact,
I want to get out of every trial I possibly can. Because in trial,
I find out a lot about myself. I see how easily I break. Now,
I'm tough. I'm smart, I'm strong, you know,
all that. And the Lord just has to touch me a little bit, and
then I drop down to my knees. I don't want trial. But I tell
you what, I do want this. I want to grow in grace, and
I want to grow in patience, and experience, and hope. Now, here's the first thing. We saw a great trial and an evil
response. Second thing, the message of
false religion. Now, what is the current condition of the
Israelites? We talked about it to begin with. They're thirsty,
right? And what does it mean to be thirsty? It is a conscious
need. And this is a need such that
if this need isn't fulfilled, you're going to die. You're going
to die. That's thirst. Now, as a side note, what do
these people represent? Who do they represent? They represent
Eli. What a blessing is it to be needy? to find yourself in a conscious
need. You know, not every man has that.
In fact, a natural man does not have that. And if the Lord just
passes a man by, he will never have a need. He will have absolutely
no need of Christ. He will not see himself as a
sinner. He'll know nothing of his sin. But you who do know
that you're a sinner, and you come hungry this morning seeking
the Lord Jesus Christ and have a great need of Him, what a blessing
is that? That you've been given and you've
been made needy. That's not natural. The Lord
has done something for you. Now, notice the language in verse
23 of your text. The waters were so bitter that
they could not drink of the waters. It's not that they didn't want
to. It's not that the waters tasted bad. It's that they could
not drink the waters. And I'll use my son as an example
here. Tucker Greenlee is probably the most particular kid I've
ever met about what goes in his mouth. He doesn't eat hardly
anything. If it's not a cracker or peanut
butter or something like that, he doesn't eat it. That's the
thing. But I dare say, that kid, as particular as he is about
what goes in his mouth, if he had went three days without water,
if he came to a body of water, and maybe it's pond water, right?
There's some cows been waiting there or something like that,
and it smells bad and it tastes bad. But if it's good for the
drinking, and he knows it's going to quench his thirst and keep
him alive, even that kid would drink it. And so would you, if
you were thirsty enough, if you knew it would keep you alive
despite how it tasted. But that's not the issue here.
The issue is they could not drink of the water because the water
wasn't bitter in the sense that it was just tasteless. It was
brackish. Now, what is brackish water?
What am I getting at here? Brackish water, the short answer
is it's salt water. But how the water becomes salty
is actually a point of interest. Brackish water implies that there
is a clear, clean flowing stream of water that's clear, it's good
for the drinking, it can support life. And as that stream flows,
another tributary flows in. And it's seawater. It's saltwater.
And where those two streams meet, a pool forms. And that pool is
brackish. The saltwater infuses with the
clean water, and the whole pool becomes salty. You say, what
in the world are you talking about? What's your point here?
This is a picture of false religion in our day. Now you will never
hear hardly anybody preaching under the banner of Christianity
He's going to come across and be like, listen, salvation has
absolutely nothing to do with Jesus Christ or His shed blood,
and it has everything to do with a man's obedience to the law.
You will hardly ever hear that. What will you hear? A mixture. They'll attempt to mix grace
and works. You'll hear this, listen, you
need the shed blood of Christ. Oh, absolutely. But what you
have to do is you have to do your part to make His work effectual
for you. They try to mix grace and works. They create a brackish pool.
Somebody says, OK, how can I know if I'm listening to a brackish
message, a message that's been infused with works religion,
polluted with men's works? Let me give you a few facts about
saltwater. Now let's see if we can draw some comparisons. Here's
the first one. Saltwater can never quench a
thirst. In fact, the more saltwater you drink, the thirstier you'll
become. Any believer, If you hear a message
that in any way puts the burden of salvation on something you
must do, you won't be able to drink that water. That water
will never quench your thirst. Why? Because we are a needy people. We are a completely dependent
people. We're in need of a righteousness that we can't come up with. We're
in need of faith we can't muster. We're in need of atonement for
our sins that we can't come up with. We're in need of a new
heart that we can't give ourselves. We are a completely and utterly
dependent people. If you preach a message to us
that says, listen, Lord will save you if you fill in the blank. I'm just as thirsty, if not more,
than when I first walked in. It will never satisfy our thirst.
But this is what satisfies my thirst. I'll give you this passage
of scripture. Hebrews 10-11, and I'll just
read it to you. And every priest standeth daily. Why did they
stand? These Old Testament priests,
they standed daily. Why did they stand? Because there
were was never done because all those bulls and goats they offered
in the Old Testament they were just types. Types of the one
sacrifice the Messiah that would come and they never put away
sins. Every priest standeth daily ministering
and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices which can never take
away sins but this man after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever sat down. He sat down because his work
was accomplished and there was nothing left to do. at the right
hand of the Father, henceforth expecting till his enemies be
made his footstool. For by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified." That quenches my thirst. It is
finished. There's nothing left to do. The
work has all been done. How else can I know if I'm listening
to a brackish message? Here's an interesting point about saltwater.
Objects in saltwater are more likely to float. So, you have
two bodies of water, right? You've got a salt water body
and you've got a clean water body. Take the same object, throw that object
in each body. In the salt water body, it is
more likely to rise to the top. In the fresh water body, it is
more likely to sink to the bottom. Say, what's the point? Take the
natural man, throw him in the message. What does he do? In
the gospel message, he will always sink to the bottom. In the gospel
message, we are exposed for who we are. Unable, unwilling, unrighteous,
ungodly. and we sink down to the bottom
in a brackish message, in a message that is infused with works religion.
You know what man does? Throw the natural man in there
and he rises to the top. False religion. Salvation by
works will always find glory for the natural man somewhere.
Yeah, he's a sinner, but I mean, if he changes circumstances just
right, you know, if he cleans himself up, you know, he might
have a shot at salvation. No. No, it's a brackish message.
They always find glory for the natural man, but in the gospel
message, we sink right down to the bottom. And there's only
one who's exalted, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ, and we
love it that way. Amen? Here's another thing I know about
salt water. Drink salt water, it'll kill you. A man tries to
quench his thirst with salt water, he drinks enough of it, eventually
his kidneys shut down, and he dies of dehydration. And this
is how serious this thing is about determining what you listen
to, and discerning what you're listening to. If a man walks
away from a message, And he has been given reason to look anywhere
but Jesus Christ alone. And he takes that advice and
he looks somewhere else. That man has just committed suicide.
And if the Lord doesn't intervene, that man will die. He just drank
salt water. Here's the last thing I know.
Rather, it comes in the form of a question. How much salt
does water have to have before it's harmful? How much salt does
a glass of water have to have before it'll kill you if you
start drinking it? I tried to look it up, I couldn't find it
in an earthly sense. I have absolutely no idea. In a spiritual sense,
I know very well. Any and all. You throw one grain
of works into the pool of grace, the whole message is works. The
whole pool of salt water, it's all of works. Salvation is either
all of grace, completely and utterly dependent and determined
by what Jesus Christ has done, or it is all of works. is completely
and utterly dependent on what a man must do. And if a man comes
on those grounds of works, understand this, he is a debtor to do the
whole law. That means inwardly, outwardly, in the very imaginations
of your heart, every time. Does anybody want that burden?
Does anybody want that responsibility? The Lord will meet you on the
grounds you come to, huh? Come on the grounds of salvation by
works, He'll meet you on those grounds. And that is your debt.
The whole law, every time. But if you come on the grounds
of grace, pleading Christ alone, you know he'll meet you on those
grounds. And the work's done. Nothing left to do. All right, let's switch gears. How
can a bitter sinner be made sweet? Look back at verse 25 of your
text. And he, speaking of Moses, cried
unto the Lord, and the Lord showed him a tree. Now as a side note,
where was this tree the entire time? It was right there. He just couldn't see it until
the Lord revealed it to him. And the Lord showed him a tree which
when he had cast into the waters, the waters were made sweet. Now let's change the types here,
change the picture. You and I are now the waters of Moriah. What's
the condition, what's the natural condition of those waters? Bitter,
unpleasant, distasteful. And that's how we stand before
God in our natural state, bitter, distasteful, because of our sin.
Now, how did we get in that state? How did we get that way? Interestingly
enough, the story of our fall begins with the story of a man
and a tree. Adam was put in a garden. He
was created upright and innocent. The Lord said, you can eat of
all the trees of this garden except for this tree of the knowledge
of good and evil. In the day you eat thereof, you shall surely
die." And what does Adam do? He eats the tree, he disobeyed
God, and he dies. He dies spiritually, and he passes
down that fallen nature to each one of us. Now before we turn
the finger on Adam and blame Adam, number one, we should blame
Adam. Adam is not to be pitied, he is to be blamed. But as we're
blaming Adam, turn around and let's point the fingers back
at ourselves because we were in Adam. We were all in Adam. And when he reached out his hand
and he ate that fruit, that was just me doing that. That was
just you doing that. We were in Adam. We made that
decision. We bear that blame. Yes, blame Adam. Do not pity
him. Blame him. But turn around and blame myself.
And blame yourself. Our sin, our fall of nature,
it's all our fault. But just as the story of our
fall begins with the story of a man and a tree, the story of
our redemption concludes. It finishes. with the story of
a man and a tree. Say, what in the world is this
guy talking about? Turn if you were to Galatians 3 and look
at verse 13. Galatians 3 verse 13. I'm going
to wait until I hear the pages stop turning because I want you
all to read this for yourself so you see where I'm going with
it. Galatians 3.13, Christ hath redeemed
us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangeth on a tree. Now notice that word, hath. That
means it's done. It's been completed. This is
the story of how redemption was completed. Past tense, gone. And here's the picture. Just
as the waters of Moroc were made sweet, they were made to be what
they were not before, the Lord Jesus Christ was made a curse
for us. He was made to be what he was
not before. On that cross, as he hung on that tree, talking
about the cross of Christ here, when he hung on the tree, it
was for one reason, because his father cast him into the bitterness
of my sins and the sins of every member of the elect. He was made
a curse for us. He bore our sins in His body
on that tree. And because He was casting the
bitterness of our sins, the Father's wrath came down upon Him. He
was cast into the wrath, the bitterness of the Father's wrath.
And that wrath that was reserved for you and me, every member
of the elect, it rained down upon Him. Now, many sacrifices,
millions probably, of sacrifices have been offered up to this
time. And every time before this, the same thing happened. The
sacrifice was killed, it was laid on the altar, the fire devoured
the sacrifice, and it was over. At this one time in history,
the first, last, and only time in history this ever happened,
the sacrifice consumed the fire. He was casting the bitterness
of our sins. He was casting the Father's wrath, and he swallowed
up that wrath, and he put those sins away. And he put the Father's
wrath away. He endured it all. And there
is no more left for the elect because it has been done, finished,
put away as far as the east is from the west. And what is the
result? Every member of the elect, any man or woman right now looking
to Jesus Christ alone, he is sweet. He has been made sweet
before a holy God the one who is absolutely just, who will
not let one sin go unpunished, and he who sees things as they
really are. And it's all because of a man and a tree. Now, let's look at the last point. Actually, let me give you one
last verse of Scripture and I'll read it to you. If you're looking
for the best commentary you can find on this topic, 2 Corinthians
5.21, For he, the Father, hath made him the Son, to be sin for us, the elect,
who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in Him. The gospel, all in one verse.
And all my hope, all in one verse. Now lastly, a picture of faith.
Look back at your text, Exodus 15, look at verse 26. And said, if thou wilt diligently
hearken to the voice of the Lord thy God, and will do that which
is right in his sight, and will give ear to his commandments,
and keep all his statutes, I will put none of these diseases upon
thee, which I have brought upon the Egyptians, for I am the Lord
that healeth thee." Now, if we read this without understanding,
we might find ourselves in a lot of trouble. If the only thing
that's holding back the Lord from raining down punishment
upon me is my personal obedience to the statutes and commandments
of His law, I've got a real problem. Because all I've done is break
those laws as long as I've lived, both inwardly and outwardly.
I've never kept one law one time. So in that case, I've got a real
problem. But what's the meaning? What's the meaning here? What's
the first condition? If thou wilt diligently hearken
to the voice of the Lord thy God, what does the voice of the
Lord say? Matthew 11, 28 says, Come unto
me. all ye who labor and are heavy
laden, and I will give you rest. That's what the voice of the
Lord says. And somebody says, why should I come? Give me a
reason. I'll give you five, and I'll make them real brief. Here's
the first reason, because it is not an invitation. It's a
gracious command. For anyone who matches this description,
labored and heavy laden, is there anyone here who is heavy laden
with the burden of your own sin? It is a burden on your back and
you can't get rid of it. Is there anyone here who's labored?
You've tried to work your way out of your sin, you've tried
to work your way into the Lord's favor, and you just can't. Does
anybody here fit that description? I'm talking about a sinner. You
are commanded to come. You are not invited. It's not,
if you feel like it, come on. You are commanded to come to
Jesus Christ and trust Him alone right now. That's the first reason. Here's a second reason because
of what is promised. Rest. A cease from labor. Nothing left
to do. No works to perform. Just rest
in Christ alone. Peace. Peace with God. Your warfare
has been accomplished. He's not angry with you. You
can have fellowship with God himself in the person of Jesus
Christ because of what he's done. Rest is promised. I'll give you
another reason because you have nowhere else to go. You're a
sinner. You can't look to your works.
They're no good. They're dead works. Nothing good
about them. You can't look into your feelings
and your experiences because you don't even know if they're
real. They're just emotions. Where else could you possibly
go? Are you going to go to the wall? The wall that says he's
guilty? Give them hope? Where else could
you possibly go? Where can you flee for refuge?
Nowhere else but Christ alone. That's the third reason, because
you've got nowhere else to go. Here's the fourth reason. You'll die
if you don't. That's a self-evident point, and I'm not even going
to comment on it. But you'll die if you don't. You're commanded to, and if you don't,
you'll perish. I'll give you the last one. Finally, because
if you're called by the Holy Spirit, it's impossible for you
not to come. See, grace is both irresistible
and invincible. And if the Holy Spirit calls
you, you know what you do? You come running. You've got
no other choice. But, in that same hand, you'll
want no other choice. He's everything to you. Does
that inspire apathy in anybody? Well, I guess I'll just wait
around. I mean, everything's in the Lord. Just wait around and see if he calls
me, and, you know, I can't do anything about it. No, that's
not the responsible man who's been called. The responsible
man who has been called won't call me. Call me today. Call
me like you did yesterday. Call me tomorrow. Call me. I'm completely in your hands,
and I can't do anything without you doing it for me. Call me.
Nothing apathetic. about a sinner. He's a man in
great need. What's the next condition we're
given in verse 26? Do that which is right in his
sight. How is every member of the elect
viewed by the Father? He's viewed in Christ. The Lord
Jesus Christ, has he always done that which is pleasing to his
Father? Did he keep the law perfectly? Did he honor his Father's will
in everything when he walked on this earth? say absolutely
he did. When he looks, when the father
looks at every member of the elect, when he looks at Tommy
now, when he looks at Dave, when he looks at Jimmy right now,
you know who he sees? Jesus Christ himself. Is he absolutely
content with him? Does he absolutely love him?
Is he his darling son? Absolutely. You are too. You
have always done that which is right in the person of Jesus
Christ. His righteousness really is yours and you have never done
anything that is wrong. You're a son of God. What's the next one? Keep all
his statutes. Now, what's a statute? A statute
is a decree. That's how the word is normally
defined, a decree. I think we can understand this
on a couple different levels. The first verse of scripture I thought
of was 1 John 2, 1, and I'll just read it to you. It says,
My little children, these things write unto you that you sin not.
And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus
Christ the righteous. Now a decree. A decree says this.
A decree is normally, using the scriptures, when this happens,
do this. It speaks of a particular circumstance.
So when this happens, this is what you're supposed to do. But
what does 1 John 2-1 tell us? What's the condition? What happened?
What's the circumstances? I've sinned. If any man sinned,
it's not saying in the event that you do sin, it's saying
when you do. When you do, when you sin. When this circumstance
arises, what's the prescription? What am I to do? You flee to
the advocate. This is a very special advocate.
He is the judge's son. He has a very special relationship
with the judge. And this advocate can waltz into
the judge's presence, and the judge always gives him exactly
what he wants, because all he has to do is show the judge the
nail prints in his hands and his feet. And he points to the
spear mark on his side, and the judge says, anything he wants,
he gets. Anything he wants, he gets. That's the end of it. You
flee to that advocate. And you beg Him to represent
you. And everyone who begs Him to represent them, you know He
does. He represents them for His Father. Here's the other
way I think we can understand it. The eternal decree of God
before the foundation of the world. And what was that? Before
the foundation of the world, the Lord had a chosen lot of
people who He elected in Christ. And He determined, He predetermined
those people, He decreed that they would be brought back to
Him safe and sound. without a scratch on them. He laid the responsibility
of that solely at the feet of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.
And the Lord Jesus Christ honored that decree. He kept it. What's the last condition given
in verse 26? Give ear to His commandments. I want you to turn
to this scripture. Turn to 1 John 3. Look at verse 23. Give ear to His commandments,
1 John 3 verse 23, and this is His commandment, that we should believe on the
name of His Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another as He gave
us the commandment. What's your commandment? To believe
on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the sum and substance
of the other conditions given in this verse. His is the voice
we hearken to. He's the only place we can plead
for refuge. It's His righteousness we're trusting. It's His atoning
death that we're trusting. It is Christ alone we're trusting. Your condition here, you trust,
you believe on this one, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is
the substance of the entire verse, not by the works of the law,
but by faith, faith that's freely given. Now I'm going to conclude,
and I want to address how the Lord refers to himself in verse
26. He says, I am the Lord that healeth thee. And this is a particular
name of the Lord, Jehovah-Rapha. And I want to give you one purporting
scripture. Luke 9, turn to verse 11. I am the Lord that healeth thee. Luke 9 verse 11, and the people,
when they knew it, followed him, and he received them, and spake
unto them of the kingdom of God, and he healed them that had need
of healing. Now notice the word it is in
italics there. It was provided by the translators
to try to give the meaning of the verse, but actually detracts
from it. Take away that word, it's not
when they knew it, it's when they knew him. When they knew
Christ, when they had been brought to a saving knowledge of who
that man is, what happened? They followed him. This is what
happens when Christ reveals himself to a man, he follows him. How
do you follow somebody? You look to him. You keep your eyes on
him. And then what did he do? What
a blessing this is, he received the And he spoke to him, he spoke
to him like a man speaks to his friend. And he healed all of
them that had need of healing. And it all boils down to this,
folks. Is there anyone in here who has a need of healing? The great picture of sin in the
Old Testament, leprosy, right? Leprosy. When they referred to
a man who had leprosy, how did they refer to him? They say,
well, that's John who has leprosy. That's naming the leper. He's
not a man who has leprosy. He's a leper. His disease defined
who he was. Everybody here who is a leper,
you are sin sick from the top of your head to the sole of your
foot and everywhere in between. Your disease defines who you
are. You're a sinner. I tell you, if you meet that
description, you come to Jehovah Rock. You follow him. You look to him. and you have
this blessed promise, he will receive you. He receiveth. This
man receiveth sinners. A blessing is that. And he'll
speak to you. He'll speak to you like a man
speaks to his friend because there's no more reason for him to be
angry because that reason has been put away. And he'll heal
you. I'm going to get down now. It's been a real pleasure being
with you all today.