Thank you, Brie. Good morning. I find in trying to talk to people about
the gospel that people will say, well, I've got a problem. with
unconditional election. That God actually before time
ever began chose a people according to his own good pleasure and
will without looking down through the quarters of time and seeing
what man's response would be. He just did it. Yeah, I got a
problem with that. Or they'll say, I've got a problem
with this thing about particular redemption. That the Lord Jesus Christ, when
he died on Calvary's cross, he only died for the elect. That the atoning work of the
Lord Jesus Christ was limited to a certain people, that he
didn't die for everybody? Yeah. That's the gospel. Well, I've got a problem with
that. Or they'll say, irresistible
grace? Are you telling me that I don't
have a free will? Yeah. Well, I've got a problem with
that. You mean that God's just going to invade my soul and make
me willing When he's ready and then I've got no say so about
it? Yeah. Well, I've got a problem with
that. You mean to tell me that you
mean that once the Lord does a work of grace in a person's
heart, that there's nothing they can do to send their way out
of that? You mean that He's going to keep
them and bring them into His presence in glory? Yeah. Well, I've got a problem with
that. Truth is, men don't have a problem
with any of those things. They really don't. They really,
really don't. The problem that they have is
the one that I left out. The problem that they have is
that they've not been made a sinner. We say, well, you know, I'd like
the Lord to save some folks. Yeah, I would too. But you know
what? If He saves them, He's going to make them sinners. And
if the Lord's made you to be a sinner, I mean a real, bona
fide, biblical sinner, then you're not going to have any problems. with God doing everything in
your salvation. With Him electing you, Him atoning
for you, Him irresistibly drawing you, Him keeping you, that just
makes sense if you're a sinner. I mean, if you're really a sinner.
The problem is that most people think of sin as a behavioral
problem. They have Billy Joel's philosophy. You know, that horrible song
that he did, Only the Good Die Young, and what was his line
in there? I'd rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the
saints, for sinners have much more fun. You know, that's the
world's philosophy. That sinners and saints are two
separate people. In truth, if you're a saint,
you're a sinner. And only sinners are saints.
Sinners and saints are the same people. They're not two classes
of people. The title of this message is
Sinners and Saints. And you can't be one without
being the other. You just can't be. We are the true circumcision.
which worship God in the Spirit and rejoice in Christ Jesus and
have no confidence in the flesh. A sinner is a person who has
no confidence in their flesh because they know that in them,
that is in their flesh, dwelleth no good thing, nothing. They know that sin is not just
a behavioral problem, that's just the outbreaking of it. It's
a nature problem. What did Paul say? This is a faithful saying. This
is a faithful saying. This is God and worthy of all.
Acceptation is where this saying is worthy to be accepted by all,
and it's worthy in its entirety to be accepted that Christ Jesus
came into the world to what? Safe centers. And how do you? How do you conclude that of whom
I am chief? A center. and a saint are one
and the same people. And you can't be one without
the other. Oh, I want you and I to be able
to enter into the holies of holies. I want us to be able to come
before the throne of grace with boldness, with confidence. And if we do, we'll come as sinners. will come as mercy beggars. The publican and the Pharisee
went to the temple to pray. And the Pharisee prayed unto
himself, Father I thank thee that I'm not like other men.
He wasn't a sinner was he? I tithe, I fast twice a week,
I do this and that, I'm just not like it. The publican would
not so much as even look up, but smote himself upon his breast
and cried, Oh God, have mercy upon me. And if you read it in
the original text, it says the center. In our English translation,
unfortunately it says a center, but it says the center. The center. I'm just a center before God.
Turn with me to Leviticus chapter 13. Are you a bona fide biblical sinner? Has the Lord brought you to the
place to where you have absolutely no confidence in your flesh? Are you looking for evidence
in your life that you're a child of God? Don't look for anything
good. If the Lord's made you to be
a sinner, that's the best evidence you've got. That's the best evidence
you've got. Now I'm not going to try to explain
Leviticus chapter 13 medically. The Bible's not to be explained.
I can't explain to you how a 90-year-old woman was able to have a child
and nurse that child. I can't explain that to you.
I can't explain to you how another young woman was able to bear
a child who was a virgin. I can't explain that. I can't
explain to you how the iron axe had floated. I can't explain
to you how God became flesh. But I believe them. You know
why I believe them? Because I know that if God can
save me, He can do anything. He can do anything if He can
save me. Now, Leviticus chapter 13, the
Lord gives to the children of Israel the pattern that was to be followed
in diagnosing, identifying lepers. And leprosy is such a picture
of what our sin condition really is. Leprosy is a condition of
the blood. We've got an issue of blood.
Leprosy attacks the nervous system and deadens the nerves, and leprosy
is hereditary, and leprosy is contagious, and leprosy is incurable
apart from a miracle of God. What a picture of sin! And so
the Lord gave some very specific instruction as to how people
were to be diagnosed with leprosy and what was to be done with
them. And if you read Leviticus chapter 13, it's clear that if
a man was found to have white spots of flesh on his body with
the rising of white hair, that the priest was to inspect him
and shut him up. And if it didn't get better,
he was to declare him a leper and put him out of the camp.
And he was unable to enter into the worship of God. And then in verse 12, people say, I've got a problem with
it. It doesn't make sense to me. It makes perfect sense to me. It
makes perfect sense to me. God's made me to be a sinner,
and this is just a perfect picture of my condition before God. And if a leprosy break abroad
in the skin, and the leprosy cover all the skin, of him that
hath the plague, from his head even to his foot, wheresoever
the priest looks. The priest strips this man naked
and he inspects every square inch of flesh on his body and
he finds from the top of his head to the bottom of his foot
he's covered with leprosy. Then the priest shall consider. Now that's what you and I need
to do. We need to consider. We need to consider our condition
before God. We need to consider the only
man who ever lived without sin. We need to consider our high
priest who rent the veil and entered into the holies of holies
and placed his precious blood on the mercy seat as a covering
for our sin. Consider what God has done. Consider who he is. Then the
priest shall consider and behold, if the leprosy have covered all
his flesh, he shall pronounce him clean that hath the plague. It is all turned white. He is
clean. As I said, I'm not going to try
to explain that. If God's made you to be a sinner,
you know exactly what that means. You know exactly what that means. Truth is, if the Lord's made
you to be a sinner, it's because he's made you a saint. The Lord
never saved anybody halfway. He never made anybody a sinner.
I mean, really a sinner. I'm not saying that you don't
feel that a person can be an unbeliever and suffer pains of
conscience for bad behavior. Everybody does that. Everybody does that. But that's
not what we're talking about. We're not talking about cleaning
up the outside of the cup. We're talking about washing out
the corruption that's on the inside. We're not talking about
whitewashing the tomb. We're talking about the dead
man's bones that's on the inside of the tomb. That's our problem. People suffer pains of conscience
for bad behavior all the time, but that doesn't mean that they're
being convicted by the Holy Spirit. You're convicted by the Holy
Spirit when the Spirit of God makes you to know that in you
dwelleth no good thing. That everything about you before
God Almighty is sinful. That sin is not what you do,
sin is what you are. And if the Lord's pleased to
make you a sinner, that's your greatest comfort. Tell them they're
grass. That'll be their comfort. That'll
cause them to find all their hope and all their salvation
in the sinless one. The One who in and of Himself
knew no sin, but God made Him to be sin for us that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. The only people that
are going to flee to Christ are sinners. Everybody else is just
going to try to patch up the holy garment. That's all you're
going to do. You sew a new piece of unshrunk
fabric on an old garment that's got holes in it. And what's going
to happen when that piece of unshrunk fabric shrinks? You put new wine in an old wineskin,
but that's what men do. That's the religious way. Why? Because people think that their
sin problem is nothing more than a behavioral problem. And it goes much deeper than
that. Oh, I've got a spot of leprosy here. I've got a spot
of leprosy there. I've got a bad habit. I've got
something I need to clean up in my life. I've got to turn
over a new leaf. And God says, unclean! Unclean! Lord, I can't find a clean square
inch of flesh anywhere on my body. Clean! Are you a sinner? Sinners and saints are the same
people. They're the same people. When the Babylonians came and
took the children of Israel captive, the king of Babylon instructed
his servants, he said, I want you to find children in Israel
with whom there is no blemish, well-favored young people, skillful
in all wisdom and cunning in knowledge Young people that have
an understanding of science and those who are able to stand in
the king's court. Young people with confidence
and intelligence and beauty and strength. I want you to find
those children of Israel and let's teach them in the ways
of Babylon. And the servants brought a young
man by the name of Daniel. Daniel was head and shoulders
above all the other Israelites and chosen for the king's court
of Babylon. Turn with me to Daniel chapter
10. You know that Daniel ultimately
became the Prime Minister of Babylon. God elevated him. Gifted
man. Blessed man. In verse 5 of Daniel chapter
10, Then I lifted up my eyes, and looked, and behold, a certain
man. And if you look in the margin
of your Bible, perhaps it will say what it says in my Bible.
One man. one man and there is about one
man the god man between uh... god and man one mediator one
mediator there is but one man that is able to touch man uh... without being defiled and he's
able to touch god without being destroyed and apart from him
we have no access in the presence of god and daniel sees him He
sees the Lord Jesus Christ, this certain man, this one man clothed
in linen, whose loins were girded with fine gold of Uphaz. His body also was like the barrel,
and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as
lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colored polished
brass, and his voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.
Oh, we could we could take each one of those descriptions and
show the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. But suffice it to say,
it's not unto us. It's not unto us. It's unto thy
name be all the glory, his strength, his beauty, his righteousness. His justifying centers before
God. That's what this is a picture
of. And I Daniel alone. I Daniel alone saw the vision. For the men that were with me
saw not the vision, but a great quaking fell upon them, so that
they fled to hide themselves." Oh, I've seen that happen so
many times. Men hear the gospel of God's free grace. They hear
about what the Scripture says about them being sinners, and
they run from it. But the Lord, in His good pleasure,
keeps the sinners at His feet. And look what happens. ìTherefore
I was left alone.î If the Lord makes you a sinner, youíre going
to be all by yourself. You know, weíve been playing
the blame game ever since the Garden. When Adam said, ìThe
woman that thou gavest me, she made me to eat.î And that just
comes natural to justify ourselves and blame someone else. I've
been in jails over the years preaching and not as an inmate,
but could be. I've never found a prisoner that was
really guilty. Well, I did it. Yeah, but. There's
always a but. Always a but. I was left alone. If God makes you a sinner, there
won't be any buts, there won't be any justifying, there won't
be any blaming God or anybody else. You'll know that what He
says about you is true. And I saw this great vision And
remember what Daniel was like. He was a child with no blemish,
well favored, skillful in wisdom, cunning in knowledge, understood
science, ability to stand in the king's court. This was an
exceptional man. And what does he say? When he
saw the Lord, there remained no strength in me. He there remained no, and my
comeliness, my beauty, my strength, my abilities that everybody's
been telling me how wonderful I was, was turned in me into
corruption. Nobody else saw me any different
than they saw me before. But in me, I believed what other
people were telling me about myself. But now I've seen Him. And my comeliness was turned
in me into corruption. Has your comeliness been turned
into corruption? Has God made you, in you, to
be a bonafide, biblical, leprous sinner? Remember, sinners and saints
are the same people. We're not talking about two categories
of people here. They're one in the same. Isaiah. Isaiah was a member of
the king's court. He was a counselor to the king
of Israel. He was a prophet of God. you
read the first five chapters of the book of Isaiah and Isaiah
was given by God rightly so a prophecy against Israel and six times
in those first five chapters Isaiah says woe unto you and
he identifies the sin problem of Israel their unbelief and
with without apology and with great boldness he speaks for
God and he says woe unto you woe unto you and then in Isaiah
chapter 6 what happens in the year that King Uzziah died I
saw the Lord And John makes it clear in John chapter 12 that
the one that Isaiah saw was none less than the Lord Jesus Christ
sitting upon his throne high and lifted up. And his train
filled the temple and the post of the door shook and the place
was filled with smoke. And what was the first words
out of this prophet's mouth? What did he say? Woe is me! I'm undone! I'm a dead man. I've seen the king. I'm a sinner. I'm in the presence of God. And one of the seraphim took
a coal from off the altar and touched it. He said, I'm a man
of unclean and I live among a people of unclean lips. Now it's not
woe is you, woe unto you. Now it's woe is me. My comeliness
in me has been turned into corruption. God made Isaiah to be a sinner. And he took the coal from off
the altar and he touched his lips. He said, your sin's been
purged. Listen to what God says about
Job. This is what God says now about
Job to Satan. Has thou considered my servant
Job? There is none like him in the
earth, perfect and upright, a man that fears God and eschews evil. Now that's what God said about
Job. And the Lord gave Satan permission
to afflict Job, didn't he? Job had some things to learn
about grace, didn't he? Job had some things to learn
about what it was to be a sinner. For as the difficulties became
more and more troublesome for Job, the more he justified himself. He cried out, he said, God, let
me bring my case before you. I'll prove to you that I'm not
innocent. that I'm not guilty. I'm innocent. This is not right.
And Job justified himself. Matter of fact, when Elihu steps
in, who's the gospel preacher at the end of the book of Job,
Elihu, his wrath is stirred up within him because he says, Job,
you've justified yourself before God. Now I'm going to tell you
the truth, and Elihu preached the gospel to him. And after
Elihu got finished preaching the gospel, then the scripture
says that the Lord began to speak. And the Lord said to Job, who
is this that darkens my counsel without knowledge? Brace yourself
like a man, Job. I'm about to interrogate you.
I'm going to ask you a few questions. You've been asking me. I'm going
to ask you a few questions. And for four chapters, God reveals
himself to Job. Job, where were you when I divided
the land from the sea, when I cast the stars into the sky? Come
on, Job, tell me. Cast a hook into the ocean and
hook onto a leviathan, see if you can bring him in. Come on,
Job. And the Lord's revealing himself
to Job, isn't he? And what's the first thing out
of Job's mouth? Behold. Now that word means,
I've seen something I never saw before. Behold, I am vile. It's always the case. You're not going to see yourself
a sinner until you see Him in His splendor and in His glory. Why? Because we naturally compare
ourselves to ourselves. And we convince ourselves we're
getting better. Or we compare ourselves to one
another and we convince ourselves that we are better. Well, at
least we haven't done that. You find, you try this sometime,
you find the most despicable, unconscionable person that takes
pride in their behavior of just worldliness. And I promise you, you talk to
them. I mean, it's a person that just has no regard for the things
of God, seems like they have no conscience whatsoever. That
person, you talk to them, they're going to have some righteousness. There's going to be something
about them that they haven't done. There's going to be something
about them that they consider to be better than somebody else. What is a sinner? A sinner is
a person who has no righteousness. No righteousness. Saul of Tarsus circumcised the
eighth day, tribe of Benjamin, Israelite. Oh, he was concerning
the law? This is what he said, concerning
the law, I was blameless. In other words, he had excelled
above his peers and no man, no man could find anything wrong
with the way he lived his life. And when the light of the glory
of the Lord Jesus Christ shined down from heaven and knocked
him off his high horse and put him in the dirt, Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus,
whom thou persecutest. Now what does the Apostle Paul
say? What's he say? In me, he says, the will is present
with me, but how to perform that which is good I find not, for
in me dwelleth no good thing. Oh, wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this
body of death? Thanks be to God through Christ
Jesus, I'm free. I'm a sinner and a saint at the
same time. And when Paul wrote at the end
of his life that Christ came to save sinners, of whom I was
chief? No. Was he speaking with exaggerated
language when he said, I am chief? Was he trying to just be pious? Or did he believe himself to
be the chief of all sinners? If God's made you to be a sinner,
you know that there's no one on the face of this earth that's
in need of grace more than you are. No one that needs grace more
than you are, than you do. And as you grow in grace and
in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, you come to realize
that more and more clearly. You see, the truth is that the
way up is down. And that sinners and saints are
the trees of righteousness, the plantings of the Lord. And like
a tree, the closer it grows to heaven, the deeper the roots
go down into the darkened earth. Has God made you to be a sinner?
Do you rejoice in Christ Jesus knowing that all of your righteousness
before Him? Are you leprous from head to
toe? They're one in the same. They're
one in the same.