Turn with me, if you would, to
Jude 1. I cannot imagine a greater message
to be preached before this verse of Scripture. I honestly cannot
imagine a better message. If I had a say in the matter,
I don't believe I could have selected a better message before
this verse of Scripture. I want to emphasize one word.
In Jude verse 24, Now unto Him that is able to
keep you from falling and to present you faultless." This is my own little Silah. I believe we need a Silah right
there. If we had all entered in to what our brother just said,
Amen. I agree, so be it. Just the thought of our Lord
Jesus Christ being able to present us, not just redeemed, not just justified, Faultless. Faultless. Could you imagine
being faultless? Knowing that everything He said
is so. It's so. Now unto Him, that is able to keep you from
falling and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory. We're talking about the glory
of the throne of God Almighty. I'm not talking about before
brethren, or before, we're talking about before the presence of
His glory. And He's able to do this with
exceeding joy. I think I'd like to just sit
down. That saying, Christ is able to
remove all fault from us. All fault. All guilt. He's able to remove all guilt
from us so that there is nothing left on us or in us that could
bring blame or shame, or regret, or guilt, He is able to present
us faultless. I don't know about you, but that's
good news to me. The gospel is good news. Good
news. I preached from this in Kingsport
and I told the brethren there that, I told the children there that
they may not be able to enter into this like the adults can
because it takes a little while to learn the fact that you're
a sinner just like we are. You've got to go through some
things. We try to protect our children, but the Lord's going
to let them sin just like He let us sin. And if He's merciful
to them, He'll reveal to them what they've done and what they
are. And that will pierce their heart.
They'll say, I'm the man. But all of us have things in
our lives that have scarred us. I mean, we sin all the time.
We sin all the time. All the time. But we all have
things that have cut us so deep. Things that we have done. Things that as time goes on,
our minds have held on to. reoccurring memories, and they
are like worms that die not. Every time they work their way
back into our minds, we think, oh man, not that one again. Oh, not that one again. Daily, we know that we're sinners. daily, but there are some regrets
that we have that every time they enter back into our minds,
we think, if there was ever any doubt whether or not I'm a sinner,
that settles it. My goodness, I'm a sinner before
God. I mean, I'm the kind of sinner
that I don't know if I could ever find anybody worse than
me. Well, you look good on the outside. Thank God there's no window into
my heart. Hmm. I am a vile, wretched, wicked
sinner before God. All of God's children have experienced
that or will experience that. One of the two. If God's Holy
Spirit comes to a person, He will convince that person You
are a sinner. And this is how sin works with
a sinner. This is how sin works in a sinner. This is how the flesh tries to
deal with it. The flesh, the heart, the mind of a man or woman
says, maybe nobody will know. Maybe nobody will find out. Maybe word won't get out on this. Maybe those who do know have
forgotten about it. Maybe if it's not talked about,
maybe if it's just not thought about, maybe it'll just go away. Maybe it'll just go away. But
the problem is it won't go away. It keeps coming back. And we try to tell ourselves,
maybe I'm overreacting. Maybe it's not as bad as I think
it is. But here's a problem. The shame, the regret, The guilt, it won't
let us believe that. We try to say, maybe it's, you know, well, that
was what it was, but the shame and the regret won't let us believe
that. No matter how badly we wish we
could go back and change it, we can't. It's done. It's done. We're guilty. And we have no
choice but to acknowledge that to God. You know what I'm talking
about. We get to that place where after
all the thinking and the worry and everything's done, we just
stop and say, like David said, against thee and thee only have
I sinned and done a sin. Whatever you do with me, you're
right. It's my fault. I'm at fault before you. I'm
at fault before you. Now, if you know what I'm talking
about, some people don't. But if you know what I'm talking
about, then this gospel message is for you. This is for me, and
this is for you. Verse 24 says, He is able. Now unto Him that is able to
keep you from falling straight into hell, and to present you faultless without fault, without wrong,
without sin, before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy."
He is able... Tell me if you don't think this
is the greatest news you've ever heard in your life. He is able
to undo all of the blame that haunts you. This man, talking about a real
man, with a real ability, he is able to erase all the shame
you feel. You talk about the glory of heaven,
the glory of eternity. We try to think of what it's
going to be like to be physically sinless. We just can't. But it
has something to do with no shame. No regret. None. He's able to remove all the fault
you and I are trying to hide. We know we can't hide it from
God, but we're trying to hide it from each other. He is able to present you openly
without hiding. openly before the all-seeing
eyes of God, the eyes that see without and within, He is able
to make you stand there spotless, pure. That's what this man is
able to do. Nothing, I'm telling you, nothing
for all of eternity, nothing could ever be brought up or be
remembered, or come into mind that could possibly condemn you
before the throne of God. This is the absolute truth. This
right here is the absolute truth. The gospel is for the guilty. The gospel is for the guilty. The gospel cries, Take that burden
of guilt and that burden of shame that you are carrying around
because of your horrible sin. Take the blame of it, take the
shame of it, take the regret of it, take the whole burden.
This whole great burden that is dragging you down into the
depths of fear and despair and sorrow and condemnation. You take the whole burden to
the Lord Jesus Christ and leave it there. He said, I'll take it from you. What a man! What a man! He said, I'll take it from you.
The shame, I'll take it from you. The blame, I'll take it
from you. The guilt, I'll take it from
you. And He says, I'll do this because
I've already taken the punishment from you. I've already taken
the wrath from you. I've already taken the judgment,
I've already taken the penalty from you, away from you, by laying all of it on myself.
If you from sin, really, are longing to be free, He alone is able to keep you
from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence
of His glory with exceeding joy. Just look to the Lamb of God. The Gospel is the most freeing
thing that a guilty soul could ever hear. Nothing is more freeing
than the Gospel. Our Lord said, You shall know
the truth, and the truth shall save you. Just like Adam and Eve, they
sinned against God. And what's the first thing they
did? They hid from Him. They sewed some fig leaves together
to try to cover their sin, and they hid from Him. They tried
to hide who they were, they tried to hide what they'd done, but
God in love and in mercy exposed their sin to them. That's what He did in love and
in mercy. He exposed their sin to them,
and then He slew a lamb. And He covered them with the
skin of that lamb. And in doing that, He said to
them, I'm your lamb. I'll take that sin from you.
And I'll suffer this judgment right here. Do you see this?
I'll suffer this judgment for you, so that you can take my
innocence, my spotlessness, and you can
stand faultless before the throne of glory. The gospel is for the
guilty. It is for the guilty. He said,
I did not come to call the righteous, I came to call sinners. The Apostle Paul said, this is
a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. He said, thank God, because I'm
the chief. I'm the chief. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians
6. 1 Corinthians 6 verse 9, it says,
Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom
of God? Be not deceived, neither fornicators,
nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with mankind, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor
revilers, nor extortioners shall inherit the kingdom of God. And
such were some of you, but you're washed." But you're sanctified,
but you are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by
the Spirit of our God. Washed, sanctified, justified
in Christ. Look with me to Ephesians 1.
Ephesians 1 verse 3 says, Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He hath
chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy. and without blame, before Him in love. Holy and without blame. Look at Ephesians 5. Verse 25 says, Husbands, love
your wives even as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself
for it, that He might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing
of water by the Word, that He might present it to Himself,
a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing,
but that it should be holy and without blemish." No spot, no
wrinkle, no blemish. Without or within. In body or
in character. Paul said, I have espoused you
to one husband. that I may present you as a chaste
virgin to Christ. Martin Luther said, Every time
you insist that I am a sinner, you call me to remember the benefit
of Christ my Redeemer, upon whose shoulders, and not mine, lie
all my sins. There's a dear man in the church
there in Kingsport. He's been attending now for about
three years. And he saw us on our TV broadcast. And from the moment he came,
he's just been such a blessing to me. This man, he's just dear. He's just a dear,
dear. First time he saw me, I pulled
up at the service, and he was parked in the parking lot, and
he was looking, and I got out, and he came up and he said, I
know you don't know me, but you're like an old friend. Came up and
hugged me, first time I'd ever met him. But from the moment
he came, he was worried about his sin. He had a sin problem. And He wanted to come with us
because we were dealing with it. We talked about it a lot.
And He wasn't hearing it anywhere else. They weren't getting to
that issue He needed to have dealt with. And He wanted to come and talk
to me a lot. And He did. He'd come by my study
a lot and I'd ask the Lord to give me wisdom and what to say
to Him. He needed and wanted to ask the
same questions and he needed to get his mind around now. And
he just, he really, really wanted to know, but what about my sin?
You know, what about, well, how come I still sinned today? I mean, I thought I was supposed
to stop sinning. No, no, no, no. It's all of our
sin. It's even the sins we haven't
lived out yet. Cradle to the grave. Well, yeah, but what about
this thing that I did back when... I mean, this man was worried
about his sin, worried about his sin. How wonderful! I wish I was as worried about
my sin as he was worried about his sin. Anyway, we have a Bible
study and then a morning message, and he came up to me, pulled
me aside one morning before the Bible study. And oh, he was just
torn to pieces about his sin, what he had done, what he is
doing, what he thinks he might do. And I said, Danny, cast your
all on the mercy of the Lord Jesus Christ. You look to His
blood. You plead His blood. You don't
plead any reformation. any change of works, anything
you've done, you just beg God for mercy. Anytime that you're
feeling this fear and this worry, you go into your heart and you
beg God for mercy that He provided in the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. He said, okay, mercy. Okay. So
we had our Bible study. Thirty minutes later, between
the Bible study and the morning message, He pulls me into my
office and He said, How much mercy does the Lord have for
me? I said, it's infinite. I said, it starts over brand
spanking new every single morning. And he just belly laughed. He
busted out laughing, just laughing, laughing. He said, that's the
greatest news I've ever heard in my life. I said, me too, brother. That's
the greatest news I've ever heard in my life. In Christ, there
is hope for every soul that is hopeless. In Christ, there is liberty for
every soul that is bound. In Christ, there is purity for
every soul that is filthy. And in Christ, there is blood
for every soul that has sinned. The gospel of the Lord Jesus
Christ is for anybody who's guilty. Anybody who's guilty. David said
there in Psalm 51, I've done this, but he said, if you purge
me with Hisself, I'll be cleansed. He said, if you wash me, I'll
be white as snow. I'll be white as snow. I think it's just time to stop. How glorious is it? It says,
now unto Him that's able to keep you from falling and to present
you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy. The next verse says, to the only
wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power,
both now and forever. Amen. All right. Let's stand and sing