Okay brethren, let's turn to
Mark chapter 10. Mark chapter 10. We'll begin reading in verse
17. And when Christ was gone forth into the way, there came
one running, and kneeled to him, and asked him, Good Master, What
shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? Now, anybody that
knew this man, anybody that's looking at this man would say
that he appeared to be a good man. He was a moral man. He said in verse 20 that he had
observed the law from his youth up. He was a zealous man. He came running to the Lord.
He was outwardly respectful. He kneeled before Christ. He
called Christ good master. This man, Luke tells us, he was
a ruler in Israel. A so-called master in Israel. And so he addressed Christ with
the customary address for a ruler in Israel. He addressed him as
good master. He addressed him probably as
he would like to be addressed. Good master. And this man was
concerned about eternal life. He says in verse 17, Good master,
what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life? Here he stands
before this one who is God. Here he stands before the one
who is life. He is eternal life. The way,
the truth and the life. Here he stands before the one
who is the righteousness of God. He is the righteousness of the
law. He is the law-giver and the law-fulfiller. Here stands the One of whom it's
written, He's the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believes. And yet this man asked, Good
Master, what shall I do? What shall I do that I may inherit
eternal life? You know, if you do something,
Eternal life won't be an inheritance. It'll be a wage that you earned. Eternal life is an inheritance
freely given to God's children. Not by our works. Not by our
works. We can't do anything to make
ourselves righteous. We can't do anything to make
ourselves accepted of God. But now pay close attention to
what the Lord Jesus first says to this man. Notice what he first
says. He doesn't answer this man's
question first. Notice what he says first. Verse
18. And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but one, and
that is God. Now the Lord Jesus, He's not
saying that He's not good. But what He's saying here He's
giving two truths that we need to know. Two truths that can't
be expressed too strongly and they can't be expressed too dogmatically. They should be declared strongly
and narrow. Strongly and dogmatically. And here's what he said. First
of all, there is none good. That's the first thing he said.
There's none good. And here's the second point.
There is none good but one. And that's God. God is the only
one that's good. These two things right here,
this rich young ruler never heard what the Lord said. He never
heard this statement the Lord made. Had he heard this statement
with spiritual ears, with true ears, he wouldn't have went on
to make his boast of his law keeping. He wouldn't have went
on to make his boast of how he's kept the law. Because the Lord
said here there's none good. The Lord says here there's none
good but one, and that's God. Now brethren, this is what I
want us to get here. Just as this man didn't understand,
just as he didn't understand what Christ was saying, and so
he tried to come by his works, by his law keeping. We must be
made to understand that there is none good, and that there
is none good but one, and that is God. Or else we will not see
our need of salvation by the triune God through faith in Christ
Jesus, by God's grace. We won't see our need of salvation
by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. We will not
see this if we don't understand there is none good and there
is none good but one, that is God. First of all, among fallen
sons of Adam, there is none good. Now, I want you to listen to
the descriptions that God gives. We're going to look at some scriptures
tonight. We're going to stay on this point for a little while
because I want you to get this. I want you to look these scriptures
up. I want you to see this. But let me give you some descriptions
here that God gives of sinners, fallen sinners. He said in Psalm
14, they are corrupt. corrupt, corrupt. He says they have done abominable
works, works that are an abomination to God. He says there's none
that doeth good. He says they're all gone aside.
He says they're all together become filthy, filthy. He says there's none that doeth
good, no, not one. Now, these are the descriptions
God gives of sinners in our sins. He says that we are corrupt,
that we are filthy, that we are an abomination to God. This is
why God abhors, why God hates sinners in our sin, in our fleshly
nature. One time when I was in college,
we were studying Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God by Jonathan
Edwards. And it came across the part where
he said, God hates sinners. And man, everybody jumped up
and went to say, no, God doesn't hate sinners. He hates the sin,
but he doesn't hate the sinners. And I brought a Bible to class. the next time. And I showed them
these scriptures. Leviticus 20 verse 23. He says,
You shall not walk in the manners of the nation which I cast out
before you, for they committed all these things and therefore
I abhorred them. I abhorred them. The sinners
themselves. He says, All that do such things
and all that do unrighteously are an abomination unto the Lord
thy God. They are. The sinner is. Sinnery. Before the end of that class,
that whole class was on one side of the room and me and my best
friend was on the other side. They were against us because
they didn't believe. They said we've been taught all
our life God hates sin but He don't hate the sinner. Abomination
is one of the strongest words that God could give to describe
a sinner. One of the strongest words He
could give to declare His abhorrence of sin and of sinners. The word
means a sulfurous, noxious, nauseous stench that burns the nose to
smell it. That's what God says of sinners
in our sin nature. We began spewing out our toxic
fumes, our toxic hate for God in the garden in Adam. Like Adam
did in the garden, like we saw this in Genesis 3, like he did
in the garden, this is how we expressed our hatred for God. This is how we made ourselves
an abomination before God. These are the abominable works
that we've done. The first thing is we broke God's
law. We broke God's law and we all
broke God's law in Adam. Let me read this to you again
from Romans 5.12. Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into
the world, and death by sin, and therefore, so death passed
upon all men in whom all have sinned. And to show us that death
passed upon us, he said there is no law, sin is not imputed
where there is no law. And yet from Adam to Moses, from
Adam, from that one law in the garden until all that time later
when he gave the law at Mount Sinai, yet he says death reigned
from Adam to Moses. Men died, even over them that
had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression. In other
words, even those small little infants that had not had that
strong will that Adam had that sinned against God, they died
because they were made sin. It says, through the offense
of one, many be dead. It says, the judgment was by
one man to condemnation. It says, by one man's offense,
death reigned by one. It says, by the offense of one,
judgment came upon all men to condemnation. It says, for as
by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners. It says, sin
hath reigned under death. That's what happened in the garden.
That's the first way we manifest this hatred of God in the way
that we're made an abomination to God. We broke God's law in
Adam and we died in Adam. Now here's the second way. Our
abomination is spewed out to God by us covering up our sins
with what we call obedience. and what we call good works,
and what we call benevolence, and righteous deeds, and religious
works, decisions for our God, and baptism, and things that
we do in the church, thinking that's going to make us accepted
of God. We cover our sin, try to cover our sin with what we
call good deeds, but these things are what God calls wicked deeds,
abominable abominable works. Turn to John chapter 3 just a
moment. Sinners do all this while we're
hiding from the light of Christ. Just like Adam hid from the voice
in the garden. We hide from the light of Christ
because we know that God will reprove us for our wicked deeds. That's right. Even the man who's
done the very best deeds, the very best he can, And he's going
to be reproved for his deeds because they're wicked deeds.
If he's coming to God outside of Christ. This is the condemnation. This is what we must be saved
from. And this is what only God can
save us from. Look at John chapter 3 and look
at John 18. Well, you know John 16. God so
loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever
believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. For
God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world. That's
not why Christ came. But that the world through Him
might be saved. He that believeth on Christ is
not condemned. But watch this now. But he that
believeth not is condemned already. This is because he hath not believed
in the name of the only begotten Son of God. The man who does
not believe on the Son of God is under the condemnation of
God. He's under God's condemnation. This is Christ speaking. He knows
this. He knows what he's talking about.
Now watch. And this is the condemnation.
The man that does not believe on Christ is condemned already.
And this is the condemnation. Here it is. Light has come into
the world. Christ has come. Light has come
into the world. And men love darkness rather
than light because their deeds were evil. And I'm talking about
those good deeds. I'm talking about those things
men call good deeds. Their deeds are evil. For everyone
that doeth evil hateth the light. Why does he hate the light so?
Neither cometh to the light. Why not? Because his deeds will
be reproved. God will say, You have no righteousness. Your righteousness is not sufficient.
Christ said in that day some are going to come into His presence
and He's going to say, depart from Me, ye that work iniquity.
I never knew you. That's what it means by reproving
our sin. He's going to say, these deeds
are not righteousness. These deeds are not righteousness.
You mean my best deeds are wicked before God? My best deeds. My best deeds, outside of Christ,
trying to come to God by my deeds, are wicked before God. They're
wicked before God. We belch out this burning cancer
by everything we are, by everything we say, and by everything we
do. Outside of Christ, our sacrifices to God are noxious. their abomination. Look at Proverbs 15 verse 8.
Some of this I gave you recently, but I'm going to give it again.
We won't get it until God makes us to in some measure abhor our
sin like He does. Proverbs 15 verse 8. The sacrifice of the wicked is
an abomination to the Lord. May not be anything wrong with
the sacrifice. The sacrifice may be fine in itself. But the
sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to God. Look at Proverbs
28 and verse 9. Without faith in Christ, Without
faith in Him, turning from Christ, turning from the doctrine of
Christ, turning from the Word of God, turning from hearing
what the Law of God says about us, that we're guilty and in
need of salvation by another. Turning from God. This is what
He said. Our prayers are abomination to God. Proverbs 28 and verse
9. He says there, He that turneth away his ear
from hearing the Law, That's not merely the moral law, brethren.
That's all the Word of God. That is particularly the doctrine
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Particularly the doctrine that
declares we're sinners, unable to come to God by our works.
He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his
prayer shall be abomination. A stench to God. Think of how
many men have prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed And it
just comes up like sulfurous stinking gas to God. Even the
thoughts of the natural heart are evil before God. Look at
Genesis chapter 6 and verse 1. Genesis chapter 6 and verse 1. I'm sorry, verse 5. This was in Noah's day, but brethren,
the natural heart has not changed one iota from then till now.
This is the same with the natural fleshly man as it is now. Look here, Genesis 6, 5. God
saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. That's the heart. That is the
heart. The heart's deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked who can know it. That means, brethren, you're
not going to know your heart and I'm not going to know my
heart unless God gives us spiritual discernment. Our heart will deceive
us. Yes, we sure will. For the sinner
who doesn't believe on Christ, even each everyday mundane activity
is sin before God. Brother Scott read this Sunday.
I believe it was Sunday. Proverbs 21.4. Listen to this
now, a high look, a high look, a proud heart, and the plowing
of the wicked is sin. Just mundane, everyday things.
The greatest sin of all, go back to John 16 just a minute, the
greatest sin of all, I'm going to say this again, the greatest
sin of all is that natural man does not believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is the greatest of our sin
right here. John 16, 8. The Lord said, when
the Holy Spirit has come, He said He will reprove the world
of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. This is what the
Holy Spirit is going to... When He speaks into the heart
of God's child, this is what He is going to reprove us of.
You know, this is why He is saying a natural man won't come to the
light unless his deeds should be reproved. Here is what He
is going to reprove us of in our heart. First, sin. Sin. And what is it? Because
they believe not on me. Now, all of these things I'm
telling you is sin. All of these things. Our heart,
our nature, our deeds, our prayers, our everyday mundane dealing,
everything a man does outside of faith in Christ is sin. And
this is what he's going to convince us of. The chief of it all is,
the condemnation of it all is, You don't believe on Christ.
You have not believed on Christ. This is particularly shown to
us on the day of Pentecost whenever the Lord Jesus sent the comforter
and Peter stood up and preached the gospel and he said, you men
of Israel, you've crucified the Lord of glory. And God has made
that same Jesus whom you crucified, both the Lord and Christ. And
the Holy Spirit convinced them. The Holy Spirit reproved them
of sin because they believed not on Christ. and of righteousness,
because I go to my Father and you see me no more." He's going
to make you to see your works are not righteous. The righteousness
of God is Christ Jesus. And it's evident because Christ
is received of the Father in the glory. He sat down. He finished
the work. He says, "...and of judgment."
This is the greatest thing of all. God makes us to see our
judgment is settled. It's settled with God. He's crushed
the serpent's head. He's put away our sin. Satan
has no ammunition. The accuser of the brethren has
nothing else to say. God remembers our sin no more.
and judgment is accomplished. It's accomplished by Christ.
This is what He reproves us of. Because whatsoever is not of
faith is sin. That's what the Scriptures say.
Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. Now do you get tired? I'm
particularly speaking here, believers don't tire of hearing this, but
I'm particularly speaking of those of you sitting here that
don't believe Christ. Do you get tired of hearing me talk
about sin? Do you get tired of me hearing
me talk about about your sin before God? I'm not going to
tire of talking about it. Here's why. Look at Ezekiel 16.
Ezekiel 16. Ezekiel 16. Look here in verse 1. Again the
word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, cause Jerusalem
to know her abomination. You see what he said there? Cause
her to know her abominations. This is the missing note in preaching
today. Make Jerusalem know her abominations. When John the Baptist was being
sent, you know what he was told to go speak? All flesh is grass. All flesh is worthless grass. worthless crap. Today it is to
march in the oven. All the best blooms of it is
just blown away in the wind. It's nothing. He said, make her
know her abomination. Now I wish I could express to
you in some way to make us know our abominations. But we're so
used to sin that it just don't move us. You can say the word
sin, that just goes in one ear and out the other. It takes some
incredibly evil, incredibly wicked something to happen in the world
for us to kind of dawn on us, man, that's sinful. But if God
the Holy Spirit will make us know it, we can know it. But
I'm going to try now. I'm going to try to show you
what God says in His Word about sin, about how obnoxious it is
to God and how hated it is to God. And these are not going
to be pleasant things. These are going to be awful things.
I told Rob today, my goal tonight is to make everybody sick to
their stomach before they leave. I hope God will. Because this
is how God views our sin. But now listen to me. Listen
to me now. This doesn't even scratch the
surface. This doesn't even scratch the... This is just some earthy
images to get us some idea of how God views the natural fleshly
man. Look here now. The first thing
God describes sinners as is as an aborted baby cast out into
a field. Look here in Ezekiel 16, 4. As
for thy nativity, in the day that thou was born, thy navel
was not cut, Neither wast thou washed in water to supple thee,
thou wast not salted at all, nor swallowed at all. None eye
pitied thee to do any of these unto thee, and nobody had compassion
upon thee, but thou wast cast out in the open field to the
loathing of thy person in the day that you were born. That's
what we are in our sin. We're cast out, aborted babies. Now here's salvation, and this
is what I pray God will do. Verse 6, When I passed by thee,
I saw thee polluted in thine own blood, and I said unto thee,
When thou wast in thy blood, live. I said unto thee, When
thou wast in thy blood, live. That's how we're going to live.
God's speaking life into us, and He's saying to us, live.
Alright, turn to Isaiah 64. Isaiah 64. This is another image God gives
us to describe us and our sin. God says that we and all our
righteousnesses are dirty rags, menstrual cloths
that women use during that time of the month. Isaiah 64 verse
6. We are all as an unclean thing. And all our righteousnesses are
as filthy rags. Minstrel cloths. And we do all
fade as a leaf and our iniquities like the wind have taken us away. In Numbers 5, I'll just give
you this. You can look this up. But God
uses that horrible disease of leprosy. Leprosy. Leprosy eats
your skin. It just eats you away to nothing. That's what sin does. Right now,
sin's eating our flesh away. If we could film ourselves every
five years over the course of our lives and watch it in fast
motion, we could see sin just eat our skin away. It's leper. We're lepers. We're spiritual
lepers. Sin is leprosy. And he speaks
of sin as that disease of leprosy and he speaks of it as the oozing
wounds that somebody has when they have an issue of blood.
That's what we have, an issue of blood. And he speaks of those
who are defiled because they come in contact with the dead.
And that's what we are. We're defiled because we are
the death that we've come in contact with. Now listen to what
he says. Command the children of Israel
that they put out of the camp every leper. and every one that
hath an issue, an issue of blood, and whosoever is defiled by the
dead, both male and female, shall you put out without the count,
shall you put them, that they defile not their counts in the
midst whereof I dwell, God said. See, God wouldn't have them.
There's a picture of a sinner. Brethren, God will not dwell
with a sinner. He will not habitate a place with a sinner. He says,
cast them out. Put them out of the camp. That's
why He cast Adam out of the garden. That's why He cast us out in
Adam. Alright, go to Psalm 88 with me. Psalm 88. Imagine A body that's laying in a grave
for a long while and it's full of maggots and it's just writhing
with maggots and it's decomposed and it's just rotting away. That's
what God calls us in our sin. Right here, that maggot-filled,
stinking corpse in the grave. Psalm 88 verse 4. I'm counted
with them that go down into the pit. That pit is the pit of corruption. It's called another place, the
pit of corruption. It's the grave spoken of here. I'm as a man that hath no strength,
free among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave.
That means like the slain that have lain in the grave for a
long while and they're just rotted and they're just stinking. Whom
thou rememberest no more and they're cut off from thy hand.
I'll tell you something else you can consider when you think
of that pit of corruption too. Have you ever had your septic
tank cleaned out? That's a pit of corruption. That's
a pit of corruption. That's what abomination is. It's
that sulfurous stench to God. I remember that, I don't know,
two or three, it's been back in the 90s I think, or maybe
late 80s, but I remember some astronauts that had gone up and
they'd been gone from Earth for a long time. And they came back
and they said the first thing that just, they couldn't get
over was when they opened up that door of that plane and stepped
out, they just could not get over how awful everything just
stunk. And they got around people and
they said people just There was just a stench to it. We don't
smell it because we're around each other all the time. You
ever go in somebody's house? I used to deliver oxygen. I'd
go into folks' house that couldn't keep their house. They were just
laid up sick and all. Or they'd have a house full of
cats or dogs or whatever. And you'd just walk in there
and it just, man, you just couldn't hardly breathe. This is what
we are in our sin before God. This is what we are. Christ said
there's none good. None good. You remember Paul,
he trusted in who his parents were. He trusted in his denomination. He was a Pharisee of Pharisee.
They believed that you're saved by your works. Some regard, in
some way, your works count for something. That's a Pharisee. He believed in his law keeping.
He circumcised the eighth day. He was touching the the law he
was blameless, outwardly at least, just like this rich young ruler
was. But when God saved him, when God called him, you know
what he called that? You know what he called all of
that? He counted it exactly what God counted it. Dung. Dung. An abomination. A stinking bunch
of dung. That's what it was. Every bit
of it. That's what mine is. That's what yours is. If we expect
to be saved by something we've done, All it is is a stench. And that's all it can be as long
as we're in our flesh. And Christ said there is none
good. There's none good. That means
the Pope, the priest, and the nun. That means the preacher,
and the little old grandmother in the pew, and that sweet little
child she's holding in her arms. That means the man who's given
away all his goods to feed the poor, as well as the prostitute
who's given away all her goods to feed the pimp. We're all in
the flesh business until God sheds His grace upon us and calls
us out of darkness into His marvelous light. That's what we are. There
is none good. It can't be stated too strongly
and it can't be stated often enough. We are not good. We are not good. Now, here's
the second point. Our Lord said in our text back
in Mark chapter 10, He said to that rich young ruler, He said,
There's none good but one, and that is God. Christ is that good
God. He is that good God. Colossians
2.9 says, In Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. God sent forth God the Son. God the Father sent God the Son.
God the Father, God the Holy Spirit sent God the Son. And
He came, and in Him was the fullness of God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. Now here comes this noxious sinner,
running up to God, stinking, just can't smell himself, but
he's stinking, he's a stench, he's a rotten corpse, he's a
leper. This man comes up to God covered
in head to toe with menstrual cloths. He comes up to God, he's
just a rotten, dead, maggot-filled sinner. And he bows down to God. and he starts vomiting out to
God, Holy God, Holy Christ, and he calls him just another good
master in Israel. Just like he was, he thought.
Just another good master in Israel. And Christ corrected him, and
he said, why do you call me good? Why are you calling me good?
Christ knew his heart. He wasn't asking that question
for information. Why do you call me good? And then he told him,
he gave him just a little taste, a little glimpse. He said, there
is none good but one, and that's God. And it was the same as to
say, and He's standing right here in front of you. He's standing
right here in front of you. He's the good God. God is holy. God is holy. We won't ever, this
side of glory, we won't ever enter in, in any great measure
to the fullness of what that means. God is holy. Exalt the
Lord our God. Worship at His holy hill. For
the Lord our God is holy. His name is holy. His nature
is holy. He's the perfection of holiness.
He's holy and separate from us. He's holy. God is holy. He's
holy. And God is righteous. He's righteous. God loves judgment. The righteous
Lord loves righteousness. The Lord God executes the judgment
of truth and peace in His gates. Perfect God hates everything
that is not perfect. The Scripture says, Leviticus
22, 21 says, Whenever you come to God, whatever you offer to
God, whatever we come to God and offer to God, For acceptance
with God, to praise God, to exalt God, whatever it is we come to
God with and offer to God, the Scripture says, it shall be perfect
to be accepted. There shall be no blemish therein. That's God speaking. It's got
to be absolutely perfect. That means if you're going to
come to God, you have to be absolutely perfect. If you're going to praise
God, you have to do it absolutely perfectly. If you're going to
keep the law of God, you have to do it perfectly. If you're
going to pray to God, you have to do it perfectly. If you're
going to worship God and sing to God, you have to do it perfectly.
It cannot have any blemish in it whatsoever or God won't have
it. God is holy. Perfect God hates
everything that is not perfect. Sinners must be as good as God
to come into God's presence. We must be as good as God to
come into God's presence. Right now and in that last day. The wages of sin is death. Every
sinner that sins dies. Now we just saw we're death.
We're death. We've sinned and the wages of
sin is death. So then how can a sinner put
away his own sin? That's impossible. It's impossible. How then, God's holy and we're
unholy. How then can we make ourselves
pure? How can we make ourselves holy?
It's impossible with men. Who can bring a clean thing out
of an unclean thing? Nobody can. Not one. Can the
leopard change his spots? Can an Ethiopian change his skin? Then may we do good who are accustomed
to do evil. We can't. There's no way we can't.
If we could burn every animal on the planet as a sacrifice
to God, it would not satisfy the justice of God. He said,
Lebanon's not sufficient to burn. All those giant cedars in Lebanon,
they're not sufficient to burn, nor the beast thereof sufficient
for a burnt offering. How then can a man be justified
with God, or how can he be clean that's born of a woman? Listen
to me carefully. God is so good. God is so good
that only God could come and save His people from our sin.
That's how good God is. God is so good that He had to
do the work of saving us from our sins. And He has to do the
work. It's an ongoing thing. God is
so good that in order to magnify and make honorable His law, God
had to send His own Son to do the work. He came to establish
the law. He came to fulfill the law. He
came to fill it so full that you couldn't put another drop
in it because it's full filled. It's filled full. He is the fulfiller
of the law. And God is so good that He took
the sin of all of His people and put that sin on His Son,
the Lord Jesus Christ, in order that He might be able to show
us mercy and do it in a way that's just. And God is so good that
when He saw sin on His Son, He pulled out His sword of justice
and He plunged His own sword of justice into the heart of
His own Son. And did not stop until He had
fully satisfied the justice of God for His people so that the
law of God, Holy God Himself, could never again charge His
people with ever transgressing the law. That's how good God
is. God is so good that we can only
have life and be made holy within when Christ himself enters into
us through the Holy Spirit. That's how good God is. We can't
have life, we can't have holiness any other way than God entering
in to us. And God is so good that we only
know God when He gives us the mind of Christ. and He teaches
us our sin and our salvation. That's the only time we know
God, when He makes Christ all unto us. Then we know God. We
know the triune God then, when He makes Christ all unto us.
Turn over to Micah 6. Micah chapter 6. God is so good that everything
we need for God to receive us justly, for God to receive us
justly, is in God, in His Son alone. That's how good God is. Everything
that you and I need for God to receive us and to receive us
justly is in God, in His Son. Everything. God is so good, He
will take nothing less from any sinner than that we come confessing
we are absolutely nothing. Nothing but sin. And our only
hope of being received of God and accepted of God is through
the merits of His own Son. That's the only way God will
receive us. Look at Micah 6 and verse 6. Wherewith shall I come before
the Lord, and bow myself before the high God? This is what that
rich young ruler did. He came and bowed down before
God. He bowed down before the door.
It'd be like this. It'd be like for you going back
there to that door right there and bowing down before that door
and saying, tell me some way I can get into this room right
here. Christ is the door. And he come bowing down to the
door and said, tell me how I can enter into heaven. That something
I can do to enter into heaven. Shall I come before him with
burnt offerings and with calves of a year old? That's what the
law said. Will the Lord be pleased with
thousands of realms or with ten thousands of rivers of oil? Shall
I give my firstborn for my transgression, the fruit of my body for the
sin of my soul? That's what they were doing out
in the groves in worship of Moloch. They were giving their sons to
the fire. Look, verse 8. He hath showed
thee, O man, what is good. Now we're talking about one is
good, right? One is good. He said one is good. God. And
He showed you what's good. He showed you what's good. And
what doth the Lord require of thee? Here's what He requires. But to do justly with thy God. How do I do justly with God?
How am I going to magnify the justice of God? I'm going to
come to God, and I'm going to bow down, and I'm going to say,
Lord, everything you've ever said about me is just. a hell
deserving sinner worthy of nothing but condemnation. That's all
I am. How am I going to justify God? How am I going to do justly with
God? I'm going to agree with God that
His Son, His Son made full satisfaction of God and His Son is the only
way God can receive me justly. That's doing justly with God.
That's doing justly with God. To come in that one who is good
is the only way to come to God. Justly. And he says, and to love
mercy with thy God. It means come to God a mercy
beggar. Come to God delighting in mercy. Don't come saying, what must
I do that I may inherit eternal life? Come saying, Lord, will
you have mercy on me? Like that publican. That publican
came and that Pharisee stood and he prayed with himself about
how good he was and all that he had done. And the publican
wouldn't even lift up his eyes to God. He smote on his breast
and he said, God be merciful to me a sinner. And Christ said,
that man went to his house justified. This rich young ruler came saying,
Lord, I've kept all the law from my youth up. And Christ said,
there's one thing you lack. You've broken the first commandment.
You've made your money and you've made your self-righteousness
your God. Your covetousness is your God. And he said, and you've
broken the first law and thereby broken the whole law. And he
said, go sell everything that you have and give it to the poor
and take up your cross and follow me. And that man went down to
his house sorrowful because he's trying to come another way. He
didn't do mercy with God. He didn't come to light again
mercy with God. He came wanting to delight in
His law-keeping. And then He says here, "...and
to walk humbly with thy God." The sacrifices of God, the sacrifices
of God, that which God is pleased with, the sacrifice God is pleased
with, is a broken spirit. A broken and a contrite heart,
O God, thou wilt not despise. You see, what God requires is
for us to come like little children. little children who totally,
entirely dependent upon their Father for everything. Everything. For righteousness, for holiness,
for redemption, for wisdom, for everything. And delighting that
God gives it to us justly and mercifully in His Son. That's
what God delights in. That's what He delights in. Will
God really receive me in Christ? If I come this way, will God
really receive me in Christ? God is so good that He will not
turn away any sinner that comes to Him this way, in Christ. He will not. Confessing our nothingness,
confessing Christ is all. He's so good He won't turn away
one sinner that comes to God that way. By believing Him. By believing Him. by believing
Him. He said, as high as the heavens
are above the earth. He said, that's how much higher
my thoughts are above your thoughts. And He said this. Look at Isaiah
55. I want you to see this. Isaiah
55. I read that verse to you before
we started because I want you to see there. He said, I'm going
to wait on God to plead my cause. He's going to execute judgment
for me. Did you see that in the first verse I read early before
we started? He is going to execute judgment
for me. Alright, now look here. Will He receive me if I come?
Look at Isaiah 55 verse 7. He says, Let the wicked forsake
his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him
return unto the Lord. And He will have mercy upon him.
He will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for He will abundantly
pardon. God says, For my thoughts are
not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the
Lord. What would you do to somebody who treated you like we've treated
God? What would you do to somebody who's such an abomination to
you as we've been to God? Well, God said, But my thoughts
aren't your thoughts, and my ways aren't your ways. I will
delight in mercy. I delight in mercy. And you know
what we're going to find if we come this way? We're going to
find this. Look at Isaiah 38. I want you
to see this too. Isaiah 38. This is what we'll
find. Behold, for peace I had great
bitterness, but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it
from the pit of corruption. For thou hast cast all my sins
behind thy back. That's what we'll find if we
come to God in Christ Jesus. You've delivered me from the
pit of corruption. You've delivered me from myself and cast all my
sins behind your back. Why? Because it says the grace
of God and the gift by grace which is by one man Jesus Christ
abounds. It abounds unto us brethren.
The free gift is of many offenses unto justification. They which
receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one Christ Jesus. Our sin abounded, but
grace did much more abound. Much more. That as sin hath reigned
unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto
eternal life by one, by Jesus Christ. He's that good one. He's
that good one. Come in Him. Come in Him. These are the two great truths
that are missing. There is none good. And there's none good but
one, and that's God. Preacher, preach it. Preach it. And sinner, believe it. And let
us all renounce ourselves in faith at the feet of that good
God and Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, and give Him all the
glory. Amen. Let's stand together, brethren. Father, again we ask you now
to make this Word to be real in our hearts. Make us see truly
how abominable our works are and make us rest in the personal
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Make us to see how good He is.
We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.