Let's go to Exodus chapter 8.
Exodus chapter 8. Now a mediator, what is a mediator? A mediator stands between two
opposing parties. Parties that are at odds with
one another. A mediator stands between these
parties, lays hold of one, lays hold of the other, and brings
them together in peace. There's a sinner. He knows he's
a sinner. He comes to Christ begging for
mercy. And he's asking Christ to entreat
or intercede with the Lord for him. He's wanting Christ to go
to God on His behalf. And God sends forth Christ to
His chosen sinner on His behalf. And Christ brings the two together
and brings them into peace with one another. In this passage,
we're going to read, Pharaoh, as we've seen before, we see
it right here again, Pharaoh did not truly repent. He did not truly repent. All
he wanted was the flies to be removed. But when we look at
this, when we see Pharaoh go to Moses and ask Moses to entreat
God on his behalf, And then we see Moses go to God on behalf
of Pharaoh, and we see what God does for Pharaoh for Moses' sake. We see a beautiful picture of
a mediator, of Christ the mediator. And we see what God does for
the sinner on behalf of Christ the mediator. Now let's read
this, Exodus 8, at the end of verse 28, Pharaoh said to Moses,
Entreat for me, intercede for me. And Moses said, Behold, I
go out from thee, and I will entreat the Lord that the swarms
of flies may depart from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his
people tomorrow. But let not Pharaoh deal deceitfully
anymore in not letting the people go to sacrifice to the Lord.
And Moses went out from Pharaoh and entreated the Lord. And the
Lord did according to the word of Moses. And he removed the
swarms of flies from Pharaoh, from his servants, and from his
people. There remained not one. And Pharaoh hardened his heart
at this time also, neither would he let the people go. The phrase
that caught my attention when I read this is, there remained
not one. There remained not one. By Christ interceding with the
Father on behalf of the repentant sinner, For the sake of Christ,
God the Father forgives us all our sin and before God there
remains not one. That's good news if you know
you're a sinner. That's the best news you can ever hear if you
know you're a sinner. Now, first of all, when a sinner
truly comes to Christ, when you have truly come to Christ, you
hear us say, come to Christ, come to Christ. What is it? When
you truly come to Christ is when you come to Christ asking Him
and Him alone to represent you to God, to intercede for you
before God, to be everything you need before God. That's when you've truly come
to Christ. Pharaoh asked Moses, intrigued
for me. Now I remind you again, Pharaoh
didn't really repent. He didn't truly repent. But when
a sinner comes and truly repents, he turns from his way, his works,
his will, himself, anything about him, and he comes in faith to
Christ, trusting only Christ can do for him what he needs
done. And he comes to Christ asking
Christ, entreat for me, intercede for me, represent me, be my advocate
with the Father. See, we're sinners. Here's the
problem. We are sinners. That means we
are guilty before God by nature. It means we are corrupt in our
sin nature as we come into this world. And God will not have
us coming to Him on our own because we are sin. God is holy. He can't look upon sin and He
won't have anything to do with us in that state. The Scripture
says the heavens are not clean in his sight. How much more abominable
and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water? You know
when the Scripture says the plowing of the wicked is iniquity? You
think, well, what's wicked about plowing? Oh, it's not the plowing
that's wicked. It's the sinner that's wicked.
And so even when he's doing something like plowing, He makes it wicked. That's how sinful we are. Now,
do you know that that's the case with you? Do you know you need
a mediator to represent you to God? This is the problem with
the reason why sinners have no interest in the Scriptures, why
they have no interest in in the Lord and here in the Gospel is
because they truly don't understand how desperately they need Christ. That's the problem. You know,
when you're desperately ill, you don't have to have somebody
twist your arm to go to the hospital. When your blood is gushing out
of you and you know if you don't have a blood transfusion or have
that artery stop you fixing to die, nobody has to twist your
arm to go to the hospital. And nobody has to twist the arm
of a sinner to go to Christ when Christ made them see their sin.
And only He can do it. Pharaoh there, Moses said, deal
not deceitfully anymore. Well, Moses couldn't make that
effectual to Pharaoh. But I'll tell you this, when
Christ speaks that word to the heart of the sinner and says,
deal no more deceitfully, you'll stop dealing deceitfully. You'll
stop covering your sin and we'll stop justifying ourselves and
we'll stop belittling God and we'll see God high and lifted
up and see ourselves low and in the dust. And then we'll come
to Christ. Then we'll come to Christ. So
that's the thing we need to set forth first. You need a mediator.
I need a mediator. And Christ is the only mediator
between God and men. Now in our court, you take our
court for example, there's an old saying that says a man that
represents himself before a judge has a fool for a lawyer. And
that's so. And it's more so true if you
try to represent yourself before God. See, we can't come into
even an earthly court representing ourselves for several reasons. And in those reasons, we see
some of the reasons we can't come before God representing
ourselves. No sinner can represent himself before the just judge
of heaven and earth because we're sinners, we're guilty. Men that attempt to represent
themselves in our courts fail because they usually don't understand
the court system. They don't understand the law
and how it works. And we can't naturally come to
God because we don't understand God's justice. He said in Jeremiah
5.4, I said, Surely these are poor, they are foolish, for they
know not the way of the Lord, nor the judgment of their God. This is the problem. The world
over right now, every sinner included, knows not the judgment
of God. We wouldn't use His name in vain
every other word if we knew the judgment of God. We knew how
strict God is in judgment. He will by no means clear the
guilty. Men who come before a judge in
our earthly courts and try to represent themselves, they fail
because they don't understand what they need to make a persuasive
argument. They have no idea of the things
they need to make a persuasive argument. and a natural man does
not understand that the only thing that he can have that will
make a persuasible argument before God is Christ. He's the only
one that can make a persuasible argument to God, Christ alone.
God said, none calleth for justice, nor any pleadeth for truth. They
trust in vanity and speak lies. They conceive mischief and bring
forth iniquity. We don't understand God's what
it takes to come before God and make a persuasible argument. Men who attempt to represent
themselves in an earthly court before an earthly judge fail
because they usually insult the judge and insult the law he upholds
by their vain reasons why they ought to be excused. That's insulting
to the judge, a just judge, and insulting to the law he upholds.
And if a sinner comes before God, expecting God to have mercy
on him at the expense of his justice. And that's what all
men are doing. They're trying to come by their
works. They're trying to bring God's law down to their level
and think that by some half or less than half job they've done
in trying to keep the law, not to mention the fact all their
sin still remains, and they expect God to receive them. That's insulting. to the just God of heaven and
earth. That's insulting to His law. Men say things like, why does
He find fault with me? If He's a sovereign God and everything's
under His rule and everything's coming to pass like He wants
it to come to pass, then why does He find fault with me? Because
who's resisting His will? Or men will say, like Paul said
in Romans 3, if our sin Manifest the grace and power
of God to say, why don't we just sin more so that grace will abound? That's not what we preach. Those
are unjust things that insult God and insult His law. God says, will thou also disannul
my judgment? Will thou condemn me so that
you may be righteous? That's what it is. That's coming
to God. and trying to just think God
will receive us because we've done our best, that is trying
to disannul God's judgment, that's trying to condemn God so that
we might be righteous. That's what it is. Anything outside
of Christ expecting to be accepted of God, that's what it is. It's
an insult to God. Men who attempt to represent
themselves in our courts fail because they usually don't have
a good claim. They don't have a good argument.
None who stand before God apart from Christ shall ever be able
to claim themselves just by their works, not one. That's not a
good claim. Christ said, many will say to
me in that day, In that day of judgment, when this world stands
before Christ, there will be a whole host of religious folks. All the various religions in
the world will at that one time stand before this one Mediator,
Christ Jesus, this one Judge. They will all stand before Him,
no matter what banner they flew under, no matter what name they
came under, and even those that came under Christianity. Christ
said, ìMany will say to me in that day, ìLord, Lord, have we
not done many wonderful works and prophesied in thy name, and
in thy name have cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful
works?î And then will I profess unto them, ìI never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity.î See, we canít come expecting to be saved without
a mediator. Men who attempt to represent
themselves in our courts fail because they usually don't have
documented evidence to back up their claim. You've done so many
wonderful works. Let's see them. Where are they? A man will try to point to things
and say, there's a good work. Where? I don't see anything good
about that. Well, what about this work? That's
not a good work. You're going to bring forth something
that convinces God that you've really done a good work when
God says nothing we've done is a good work? Let them bring forth their witness,
God said, that they may be justified. Produce your cause, saith the
Lord. Bring forth your strong reasons, saith the King of Jacob.
Behold, you're of nothing, and your work of nothing, and abomination
is he that chooses you. Pretty harsh, isn't it? There
have been cases, rare cases, where men have actually won by
trying to represent themselves in a court of law. Rare cases. Not one case in God's court. Not one. Now, go with me to 1
Timothy 2.5. I'm going to show you why not
one person has ever succeeded in representing themselves before
God. This is it right here, 1 Timothy
2.5. For there is one God and one
Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. That's
why no man's ever been successful representing himself. I'll show
you another reason. Go to John 14, 6. And I'll show
you what I mean by that, by what I just read. John 14, 6. And
this is Christ the Mediator declaring why None have been successful
on their own. John 14, 6. Jesus saith unto him, I am the
way, I am the truth, I am the life. No man cometh unto the
Father but by me. There's no other way to come
before God. Job said, God's not a man as
I am that I should answer Him and we should come together in
judgment. But Christ is the daysman betwixt us that might lay His
hand upon us both. So those who come to God, and
God's granted true repentance, they come to God asking, they
know their sin, they know what they are, they know there's no
way they can represent themselves to God, and they know they must
have an advocate with the Father. They know they've got to have
a mediator. Something's got to be done about
their sin. There's a sin problem that's
got to be dealt with. And they come to Christ and say,
will you entreat for me? Will you be my representative?
When you're guilty or you're charged with a crime in this
court system, you better not go in that court system and try
to stand before that judge on your own. If it's a serious offense,
you better go into a lawyer's office and sit down and say,
I can't represent myself. I'm going to keep my mouth shut,
and I need you to do all the talking for me. Well, that's
what we need with God. We've got to come to Christ,
sit down, shut up, and tell Him, ask Him, will you, if you will,
will you represent me? Will you be my advocate? Will
you be my mediator with the Father? Entreat for me. Now secondly,
for every sinner who truly does come to Christ and ask Christ
to entreat for him, Christ shall do so. Without reservation, I say that,
any sinner that truly comes to Christ, repentant, begging Christ
for mercy, begging Him to intercede for him, to be his mediator,
Christ will be his mediator. He will not turn him away. Christ
said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him
that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. He will represent
you. Look here, we see it typified,
Exodus 8.30, And Moses went out from Pharaoh and entreated the
Lord. Pharaoh asked him, Entreat the
Lord for me. Moses went out from Pharaoh and
entreated the Lord. Scripture says, If any man sin,
we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Christ is the advocate only for
the totally guilty, helpless sinner. But Christ is the advocate
for every totally helpless, guilty sinner. Because totally helpless,
guilty sinners have been made to know they're totally helpless,
guilty sinners by the Spirit of God. And they're being drawn
to Christ. And everyone that comes to Christ,
He said, no man can come to me except my Father which is in
heaven. Draw him. And every sinner that
knows he's really a sinner comes to Christ. And every sinner that
comes to Christ, Christ represents him. He will not cast him out. He will not. He's the advocate
for sinners whose only hope is Christ. Now, on behalf of true
sinners who come to Him, Christ intercedes by pleading the cause
of His people before the judge of heaven and earth. He intercedes
by pleading the cause in place of His people. Instead of them
pleading their case, He pleads their case. But he doesn't plead
their case based on any work his people have done. You know,
you see a court of law and the lawyer stands up and he tries
to convince the court that this guy hasn't done what they said
he did. He tries to convince the court
that this guy is a pretty good guy. That's not what Christ does. Christ comes before the Father
and you're not even in the equation. Your works are not even mentioned.
All you've done is sin. All you are is guilty. Christ
comes pleading His own person and His own word. See, that's
why He came down. He came down and took flesh and
went to the cross and bore the sin of His people so that He
stood there before the just judge Himself as the one who is guilty. And He suffered the punishment
justly. And when he suffered that punishment
justly, he knew no sin, he did no sin, he bore the sin of his
people and that sin became his own and he owned it. And he bore
that justice, that justice became his own and he owned it. So that
when justice was satisfied, the judgment of everybody he represented
was settled. We think of our judgment going
to be when we stand before Him in that day. When we stand before
Him in that day, He is just going to say, Our judgment took place at Calvary.
Our judgment, that's where you see Him paying it all, right
there. Settling the matter. So now,
He's risen. He goes to the Father now. Look
at John 17. This is His intercessory prayer. This is the prayer of
our Lord, John 17. And He pleads His work. He pleads
what He's done on behalf of His people. The wounds in His hand,
the wounds in His side, Look here, John 17, 1. These words
spake Jesus and lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Father,
the hour has come, glorify Thy Son that Thy Son also may glorify
Thee. As Thou has given Him power over
all flesh that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou
has given Him. And this is life eternal that
they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom
Thou sent. Now listen to what He pleads
right here. I have glorified Thee on the earth. I have finished
the work which thou gavest me to do. And now, O Father, glorify
thou me with thine own self with the glory which I had with thee
before the world was. When he stands before God at
God's right hand, this is his intercession on behalf of his
people. I have glorified you on earth.
I have finished the work you gave me to do. Now glorify me.
Look over their sin. Pass by their sin. Glorify me.
Pass by their sin. You and I don't answer. I open
our mouth. We don't have anything to say
in the matter. Go to Hebrews 9.15. Hebrews 9.15. Christ is pleading on behalf
of His people. That's why it was sent. I'm going
to read this down to verse 24. But I want you to read here with
me. Hebrews 9.15. For this cause, He is the mediator
of the new covenant. that by means of death for the
redemption of the transgressions that were under that first covenant.
He died for the sins of his people to redeem us from the sin that
we incurred in Adam under that first covenant of works. He came
to redeem us from that by death. So that they which are called
might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. For where
a testament is, there must also of necessity be the death of
the testator. If a man's got a will and testament,
the only way it's going to go to his children is he's got to
die first. For a testament's a force after men are dead, otherwise
it's of no strength at all while the testator liveth. Whereupon
neither the first testament, neither the first covenant was
dedicated without blood. This is what all that pictured,
it pictured Christ. When Moses had spoken every precept
to all the people according to the law, He took the blood of
calves and of goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop,
and sprinkled both the book and all the people, saying, This
is the blood of the covenant which God hath enjoined unto
you. Moreover, He sprinkled with blood both the tabernacle and
all the vessels of the ministry, and almost all things are by
the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood there
is no remission." See, when that first covenant, that covenant
of works was put into place, Lambs died. Blood was sprinkled
on everything and everybody to purge the sin and ceremony. And
all that pictured Christ. Now read on. It was therefore
necessary that the patterns of things in the heaven should be
purified with these. Those were just patterns. But
the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
This New Testament. Remember Christ He said, this
wine represents my blood of the New Testament. This is what he
was talking about right here. This represents my blood which
is sprinkled by which this new covenant is ratified and you
have the sure word that this new covenant is signed, sealed
and delivered. will and testament, and your
father has died, and you sat down, and it's read to you, and
it's told what's given to you, you're not going to have to do
a work to get it. You're going to get it because he died and
gave it to you. That's what Christ did. Look
here. Better sacrifices than these, for Christ has not entered
into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures
of the truth, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the
presence of God. for us. That's what we see pictured
when Moses went out from Pharaoh. And he left Pharaoh and he went
to the Lord and he entreated for the Lord. Christ has gone
out from His people. Christ has risen to the right
hand of the Father. And He now appears in the presence
of God for us. That's the intercession. He doesn't
really have to say anything. He just appears there in the
presence of God and God looks at Him. And God sees his perfect
righteousness when he looks at him. And that's why he receives
us. Therefore will I divide him a
portion with the strong, and he shall divide the spoil with
the strong. I'm going to give my inheritance
to my son, God said, and he can give it to the other sons as
he pleases that he represented. And he said, because here's why
I'm doing it. He poured out his soul unto death. And He was numbered
with the transgressors. He was accounted with the transgressors. It was imputed to Him with the
transgressors. And He bare the sin of many and
He made intercession for the transgressors. On the cross He
made intercession. On the cross He entreated God
for His people. That's what He was doing. Hebrews
7.25 says, Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost,
to come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession
for them. So then thirdly, because Christ
pleads His own blood, what does God do? When Christ comes to
God, the Father, representing the guilty sinner, and Christ
pleads His own blood, what does God do? Exodus 8.31, And the Lord did according to the word of Moses. And he removed the swarms of
flies from Pharaoh, from his servants and from his people,
and there remained not one. Here's the good news. For all
who come to God through Christ, by Christ's intercession, God
has removed all our sins and there remains If we confess our sins, He is
faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us
from all righteousness. How can He be just to do that?
My little children, these things write I unto you that you sin
not and if any man sin. I write these things to you so
that you don't go out and sin, but when you do, We have an advocate with the
Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation for
our sins. That's true. And not for just
this group of believers right here, but for His people that
believe on Him all over this world. Jeremiah 50.20 said this,
I love this, there remain not one. There remain not one. You
mean to tell me if I come to God through Christ, because of
Christ's blood, because of Christ's righteousness, I don't have any
sin before God, past, present or future? In those days and
that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought
for and there shall be none. And the sins of Judah, and they
shall not be found, for I will pardon them whom I reserve. Ah, even I am He that blotteth
out thy transgression for mine own sake, and will not remember
thy sin. For whose sake did God remove
those swarms of flowers? Did He do it for Pharaoh's sake?
Nope. Nope, He did it for Moses' sake.
And you know for whose sake God removes the sins of His people?
Not for our sake. We get the benefit of it. But
he does it for Christ's sake. Because he's pleased with his
son. Now sinner, you and I by nature are nothing but sin. We're
guilty. We can't come to God. We can't
represent ourselves before God. We need Christ formed in our
hearts. And we need Christ representing
us at God's right hand. And then this is what we'll find
out. Now listen to this. Who is a God like unto thee,
that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression
of the remnant of his heritage. He retaineth not his anger forever,
because he delighteth in mercy. Now if I hear that, and that's
not hard to understand, the judge before whom you're going to have
to stand, the judge before whom you're going to have to stand
one day, everybody here, me included, delights to show mercy. But He is going to show that
mercy on His terms, not on your terms. If you had an earthly
judge and you have a fixed goal before Him and you know you are
guilty, but you hear that judge delights to show mercy to people
who come before Him, but you have got to come the way He says
you have got to come, what are you going to do? I am going to
find out how does He say I need to come before Him so I can have
mercy. Why don't we do that knowing we're going to come before God? God delights in mercy, but only
for those who come to Him trusting Christ alone to represent them. That's the only ones He delights
to show mercy to. Sinner, believe on Christ and
not one of your sins shall remain. to Him give all the prophets
witness that through His name, whosoever believeth in Him shall
receive remission of sins. Be it known unto you therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins, and by him all that believe are justified
from all things from which you could not be justified by the
law of Moses. Now let's bring this home. Will
you be like Pharaoh? Exodus 8.32 Exodus 8.32, And
Pharaoh hardened his heart at this time also, neither would
he let the people go. You go harden your heart like
Pharaoh, walk out of here when the service is over, and just
go on like yesterday and the day before and the day before
that. Never knowing that this might be the hour that you meet
God and stand before the just judge of heaven and earth. Hearing
how He delights in mercy for those that come in Christ alone,
It would be utter insanity for me to harden my heart and pass
that by, pass Christ by and meet God in judgment. That's utter
stupidity. Or will you truly repent and
trust Christ to be your advocate and hear this good news from
God concerning your sin? There remains not one. There
remains not one. I pray God now, draw His people,
give you true repentance and make them come to Christ. Amen. Let's stand together. Father, we thank You for this
beautiful picture of Christ, our Redeemer, our Mediator. And
Lord, how earnestly we ask You to comfort us, Assure us as we
wait on You to reveal Yourself to Your people. We have loved
ones here that our hearts break for. And we're watching them
get older and older and hardened and hardened. We're afraid, Lord, that soon
they'll be just cast off, swallowed up in the world and gone forever. And we ask You, Lord, give us
grace and assurance in that which we know to be true as we wait
for You to work in the heart of Your people. And if it's Your
will not to work in the heart of one of our loved ones, Lord,
give us grace to receive that. Give us grace to trust You to
do this work. And Lord, we ask You now, would
You give this grace to one of Your people? Make them repent. Make them come to Christ and
beg Christ to entreat for them. Show them their sin, Lord. Put
them in the dust. Break them. and show them their
need of Christ. That they might find out this
good news that in Christ there remains no sin for His people.
Lord, that's our prayer. We pray for stuff sometimes. We pray for a lot of things,
but what we need is Christ. Make us see Him. Make your people
see Him that don't yet see Him. We ask this in Christ's name,
Amen.