What is sin? True sin and all the basis for
sin is unbelief of God. Whosoever believeth in me shall
be saved is what our Lord says. If you take the basis of what
we would call sin and dwindle it down, whittle all the crud
that we can wrap around it down to what its basis is, it's we
do not believe God, we do not want to believe God. We don't
want to believe His Word. We don't want to believe who
He is. We don't want to believe what He's done. We'd rather think
of ourselves a little more than what we are. We turn to our own understanding.
When we believe and then act according to the flesh, we deny
the truths of God. Everything we do or think, we
do in sin, if it's not for the glory of God. And I and all who knew Lemuel,
Lem, know that he knew himself to be a sinner. I know that's what he thought
of himself. I've had deep conversations with
Len. And he knew the sinner that he
was before God, and he knew who the Savior was. And he knew that
the only salvation that he had was hope in our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. This is why he loved to hear
the gospel. This is why he wanted his son
to hear the gospel preached. This is why he wanted to hear
of Christ and Him crucified. Lem knew he was a sinner. He
loved to hear that Christ came to save sinners. As it is with
all of God's people, our hearts burn to hear more about our substitute. We walk all day long in this
body of death. We know the sin that's in us. Each and every one of us know
what sin is in us. Our God knows it too. And the only hope that we have
is hearing about this One who saved His people. This One who
said, it is finished when the cross was done. When salvation
was complete in Him. All of God's people. Our hearts
burn to hear about our substitute. To know more about Jesus. To
know more about God in the flesh. to know more about His love for
all that His Father hath given Him. And I've said this so many
times, and I'll continue to say it, oh, the wonder that God,
His love for His people is that He would give His only Son, that
He would put His glory behind Him and walk this earth so that
He would be made sin for you and I. So that you and I would be made
righteous in Him. To know more about God in the
flesh. To know more about His love for
all that His Father has given Him. To know more of where He
is right now. Sitting on His throne. ruling
all that is. That's hard to believe sometimes,
especially when we look out into the world. Or when a dear brother can't
take it anymore and he ends his own life. How is it, Lord? How is it that
any of us fall into a sin? Our Lord is interceding right
now on His throne. Right now, for all the sins that
we've committed today, yesterday, and He'll be on that throne in
five minutes, interceding for the sins that may go through
my mind now or might later. He's interceding right now because
He loves His people. How can the world say that Christ
died for everybody, yet some will still go to hell? What kind
of love is that? The Christ of Scriptures loves
His people perfectly. And not one sin will be charged
to them. Every one of them were laid on
Him. Period. End of story. It is finished. He's interceding on our behalf
of His elect, calling us His own. He says, I bought this one
with my precious blood. Hell shall not have Him. So you
see, the true question here is this. Has God forgiven all my
sins? And thus saith the Lord. Matthew
12, verse 30. He that is not with me is against
me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad. Wherefore,
I say unto you..." Our Lord Jesus is speaking to
the hearts of His people right now as we read this very Scripture.
Not with the audible voice, but through His Word in this book
that we're reading. Wherefore, Christ says to you, all manner of sin and blasphemy
shall be forgiven unto men, but the blasphemy against the Holy
Spirit shall not be forgiven unto men. And whosoever speaketh
the word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him. But
whosoever speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven
him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come. There's only one sin that's unforgivable. Only one. We just read that,
didn't we? All other sin. Is that what it said? All other
sin? And our Savior tells us of that
sin very clearly. Of what it is. Now do not dare. Do not dare. And if you do, You
need to consider yourself and examine yourself and weigh and
measure yourself whether you are in Christ. I do not in any
way condone any sin. Any sin. But I'm in the flesh
and I know we do it. I know what goes through the
minds of God's people. I know what we can fall prey
to. David wrote, my God, my God,
why has Alpha Satan me? You and I may not have felt that
yet. But I know one or two right here
in this room who have. All sin. There is only one that's unforgivable.
I do not excuse anyone that they may commit this or any other
sin for that matter. We never encourage one to sin. Our Lord says, God forbid. God forbid. Walk as children
of light, for we are no longer children of the darkness. And
all that that I said along has brought me to the message for
today. In last Sunday's message, we
considered the subject, children of light. And in doing so, our
Savior instructed us to walk as children of light. You'll
recall once again, I brought before you, that it's not my
duty to tell you how to live. God will tell you in His Word
on how to live. And we read in Ephesians 5.1,
you don't need to turn there, I'll read it for you. Be ye therefore
followers of God and dear children, and walk in love. as Christ also
hath loved us and hath given himself for us, an offering and
a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling Savior. But fornication and uncleanness
and covetousness, let it not be once named among you, hath
become a sin. This is the Lord guiding us in
what we should and what we shouldn't do. For this ye know that no whoremonger
No unclean person, no covetous man who is an idolater, hath
any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God. Let no
man deceive you with vain words, for because of these things cometh
the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. Be ye not therefore
partakers of them. For ye were sometimes in darkness,
but now ye are in light. Ye are light in the Lord, so
walk as children of light. For the fruit of the Spirit is
in all goodness and righteousness and truth, proving what is acceptable
unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the
unfruitful works of the darkness, but rather reprove them. For
it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of
them in secret." Now as we read these very verses last week,
I pondered these instructions. I thought about it, and I could
not help but feel that I had covered the point of grace, that
I could have covered the point of grace a little deeper than
what I did. I didn't dive into that grace
as much as I'd want to, so in a way, today you're getting a
continuation of last week's. You see, I desire to fulfill
these instructions also. I want to walk like that as best
I can. It literally bothers me when
I don't. I remember a time when it didn't bother me at all, when,
in fact, it was quite fun. But it bothers me greatly now. I desire to fulfill these very
instructions, but honestly, I come up short quite a bit. Would you look at the verse on
the front of today's bulletin with me? 2 Corinthians 2.14, it says, Now
thanks be unto God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ. and maketh manifest the Savior
of His knowledge by us in every place. For we are unto God a
sweet saver of Christ in them that are saved and in them that
perish. To the one we are a saver of death, unto death, and to
the other the saver of life, unto life. And who is sufficient
for these things? Who is sufficient for these things? For we are not as many which
corrupt the word of God, but as of sincerity, but as of God
and the sight of God, we speak in Christ. My title for today
is, Who is Sufficient? Who is sufficient for these things? Not I. I've just told you a moment ago.
Those very instructions that our Lord spoke to, I fail at
all the time. And I'm not going to go through
and name any of it to you because it shames me. But you know what
I'm talking about, don't you? This is why the gospel was so
wonderful to Lem and Jennifer. They get up every day to this
very day. I don't know when they first
started coming here. I believe it was just after I
did, which was 20 years ago. Pastor Gene gave them the book
of Don Fortner, Daily Devotional. They have worn that book out.
Jennifer assured me they'd get up, even right up until the day
Lim took his life, they would get up every day and read from
that book. Looking into God's word, having it explained, having
it expounded on what their day was. They loved to hear, and
you and I know, Don Fortner doesn't do anything but preach Christ
and Him crucified. They loved to hear the Gospel. This is why all of God's people
love to hear the Gospel. This is why the Gospel is so
wonderful to me. I know that I cannot fulfill
all that my Lord requires, for He requires pure holiness. Not just a little bit, Not just
for a moment here and then, you know, you're going to go over
here for a bit and then come back to your holiness. There is no holiness
in us. At all. And our God requires perfect
holiness to be in His presence. How can any of us? How can anyone? Well, here's the good news. God provided himself a sacrifice. A spotless lamb. A substitute. A scapegoat. One who is as perfect
as himself. One who knew no sin. One who
is as holy as God Himself. And this is the gospel that there
is one who is sufficient. Only one. Who is sufficient for
such things? None of us. That's what we're
here to praise and thank. And seeing our praises to is
the one who is sufficient. The one who sufficiently walked
perfectly in our stead. When you see yourself walking
in a little bit of a trail this way, God help us to get back
on the right path. But when you veer off a little
bit, there was one who walked that path perfectly for you.
It's His sufficiency that we look into. It's His sufficiency
that we place our hope on. This one who knew no sin. He is the one who is sufficient
for things. And that is Jesus Christ our Lord. Turn to the
first book of John, please. When Paul was troubled by a thorn
in his side, of which many believe to be a possible sin, that beset
him, so much so that he cried unto the Lord three times. I'll
read that for you in 2 Corinthians 12, 7. Paul wrote, lest I should be
exalted above measure through the abundance of revelations.
Paul had so many things being revealed to him, so quickly. One day he was persecuting the
church, and the next day he was seeking out God's lost sheep,
and telling them of the wonderful love that Christ has for His
people. So many of those revelations
that were coming against him. How would it not be the natural
man not to be puffed up all of a sudden and think about how
good things are for him? There was given unto me, he says,
a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan, to buffet me. To keep him humble. To make sure that Paul didn't
start thinking too much of himself. Like maybe the Pope. For this thing, Paul goes on
to say, I besought the Lord thrice that it might depart from me,
and He, the Lord, said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee. Who is sufficient? God's grace. My grace is sufficient for thee,
for my strength is made perfect in your weakness. Most gladly,
Paul goes on to write, therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities
than that the power of Christ may rest upon me. You see, dear
brothers and sisters in Christ, it is the grace of our dear Savior.
He is our sufficiency. We have no confidence in the
flesh. Our confidence and hope is in
Him and Him alone. It's in who He is. We know that
that man called Jesus who walked this earth in the flesh is God. With the power of God to back
Him. For He and the Father are one.
That blood that went through His veins was the perfect blood,
precious blood of God Almighty. That makes it effectual. That makes it effectual in every
way. Everything that He had purposed
to accomplish was accomplished perfectly in that blood. Our confidence is in what He
had done. We know that when he said it
is finished, it's done. There's nothing for us to contribute
to it. We don't have anything we can
contribute to it. It's all done in him. Our confidence is where he is
right now, making intercession for everything about his people. And that doesn't just mean saying,
OK, no, you can't That one was mine. I paid for him. My blood
was spilt for him. But it also means this. It means
this is going to happen. Because down the road, I have
one who's going to be born down there. And I want that person,
because that one's mine, too. There's our hope for our children. There's our hope for our loved
ones. God still has children out there who need to hear the
Gospel preached. Do you ever pray for your unsaved
loved ones? That's what I'm talking about. Our Lord still has His people
to hear His Gospel preached. And our confidence is in that,
and that alone. Are you with me in 1 John? Would you join me in verse 3
if you would? Well, it would help if I turned
over there with you. Verse 3 of chapter 1. That which
we have seen and heard declare we unto you. In our Bible study
this morning, we talked about this very thing. What is it that
we would go out and share with those that we love? The most
important thing in the world that we could share with anybody
is, Jesus came to save sinners, of which I am chief. That which
we have seen and heard, declare we unto you, that ye also may
have fellowship with us. And truly, our fellowship is
with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. And these
things write we unto you, that your joy may be full." This then
is the message which we have heard of Him in declaring to
you that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship
with Him and walk in darkness, we lie and we do not the truth.
But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship
with one with another. and the blood of Jesus Christ
his son cleanses us from all sin. Who is sufficient? Our Lord Jesus
Christ cleanses his children from all sin. I don't believe a true child
of God could ever say anything about the Holy Spirit that would
not I don't believe God would let them. He couldn't. He's promised
to save them. They shall be saved. No empty
seats. Every one for whom the Father
giveth Him shall come to Him. If we say that we have no sin,
then we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we
confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. All unrighteousness, every sin
we will ever commit has been laid upon Him. If we say that we have not sinned,
then we make Him a liar and His Word is not in us. My children,
these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. Sin not. Turn away from whatever it is,
whatever it is that's turning your eye away from Christ. Call
out, Lord, my God, my God. And if any man sin, we have an
advocate with the Father. Jesus Christ the righteous. Ain't that cool? I don't know about you folks,
but that blesses me a lot. That blesses me because I fight
with this sin in my flesh all day long. And we know that Paul did too,
don't we? Who will deliver me from this
body of death? Is what he says. The sufficient
one. The only one who is sufficient.
Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.