Even if you will be turning to
John chapter 16 Give y'all an update brother mark
made a home from a hospital Sunday evening and then I He's went
back to it. And so he'll probably be there
till tomorrow. His doctor recommended to go to the ER and he did and
they've admitted him and they're trying some different IV medication
to give him for the infection that he has. We'll see what the
morning brings. We'll see what the Lord does. Kimberly and I, Lord willing,
will be leaving out of town tonight, and we'll only be gone for about
44 hours. We'll be back. Real short vacation. I'd intended on it being about
a week and a half. It's about a day and a half, but I'll take
it. It'll be precious. John 16. Top of my message is,
has the Spirit worked? Has God, the Holy Ghost, come
to you and worked in you? Has he? Well, sure he has. I'm just going to go on and take
a nap. Are we that confident and arrogant to a holy God to
just be so complacent in things? David had cried out there in
Psalm 13, didn't he? That's our Lord speaking. But
he said, how long without forgetting me, O Lord, forever? That's low.
That's a hard time. And he ends, I will sing unto
the Lord because he hath dealt bountifully with me. He's been
comforted. I spoke to a lady here in this
town recently, and she's under an immense physical trial. She's covered in cancer. She's
a very young lady. She has a young family. And she
said, the Lord's been so kind to us. This is right. He hasn't
dealt with me with my sins, according to my sins. He's been gracious
to us. This is fine. He sent it. Did
you hear what I just said? Don't y'all wanna claw that door
down and go find her? That's a language I know that I speak. I know God's people speak, doesn't
it? I have a brother in Tennessee that's covering cancer right
now, and it breaks my heart to see what the Lord's putting him
through. I weep with him. And he says, this is right. God
did it. He hasn't dealt with me according
to my sins. He's good to us. That's fine. That's somebody
that has comfort. That's somebody the Holy Comforter,
the Holy Ghost. That's what God says, isn't it?
Holy Ghost has come to them. And they have comfort, and they
walk through this world like men and women that believe God.
That's what I want to have. Do you want that? Or do we want
to sit around and wring our hands all day long and turn ourselves
inside out, woe is me, and complain about every little ailment and
hiccup and sorrow that comes our way? That's called murmuring. I don't want to murmur. I want
to praise God. I want to sing to him instead
of sitting around with my snake oils and complaining about it.
Now I ask you, has God come to you? Has he sent his Holy Comforter
to you? Has the Holy Spirit come to you?
Has he come to me? I think he has. Has he today? That's good. I was talking to
a brother the other day about the messages. I sent them out
to y'all. Henry preached up in Mission Springs back in 1994.
They're wonderful. I take notes. I can learn a lot.
That man had been preaching for almost 50 years when he preached
there. If I was a plumber for 50 years, do you think I'd be
a good plumber? Think I'd be better than the day I started,
Mike? You think I would? Of course I would. And I thought, you know
what? Could you imagine if we was there when the spirit was
there? Now we got them we can listen to, but we ain't there
right now. That was 25 years ago. Could you imagine 30 years
ago? Could you imagine being there when the spirit was there?
What if he's here tonight? Do we expect him to be so? Are
we just going to take some notes or take a good nap and head on
home? I pray God, tonight's the night.
I think tonight's the night, honey. I think it every time.
Lord's gonna work tonight. These carpets, we're gonna have
to give them dry clean Monday. They're gonna be soaking wet.
It's gotta be today. I think so. John 16, verse six. Have I experienced the spirit
working in me. It's not what most people think,
you know that? I've had three times, I've been out here for
three and a half years, somebody said something about the spirit.
Most people think, you know, it's talking in tongues or a
powerful feeling or some emotional event or something like that.
No. What is it? What is it when the Holy Spirit
works and has he worked in me? Here in John 16, verse six, the
Lord told him all the sorrows are gonna kick you out of the
synagogue and because I'm going away, it's gonna be your turn. And he said in verse six, but
because I've said these things to you, sorrow hath filled your
heart. Hard times are coming. If you're
God's person, God's child, it's going to get rough. And he said,
because I've told you this, you're full of sorrow. You're sad. You're sad because of that. Nevertheless,
I tell you the truth, verse seven, I'm not going to lie to you.
Do you think I'm going to not tell you something because it
might hurt your feelings? That's not a friend, is it? I better
be brutally honest with you. Our Lord's brutally honest with
us, isn't he? As we can handle it. He said, nevertheless, I'll
tell you the truth. It is expedient for you that I go away. We might
come back and have a message on that. In our vernacular, it's
good. It's necessary for us. It's a
good thing that he goes away. What that word means is a union.
For us to be united with Christ, he must do this because we can't
do it. For I go not away, if I go not away, the comforter
will not come unto you. We need comfort. Why? They're
sorrowful, he just said to. Are you sorrowful? If he comes,
we're going to start out getting sorrowful, I can tell you that.
That's so. But if I depart, I, this is a
word you can stand on. I will send him unto you. If you're mine, and I go to the
father, I'm sending the comforter to you. It's gonna happen. If
he says it's gonna rain Tuesday, I suggest you buy umbrellas,
right? He said, I will send the comforter.
That's an important word, isn't it? Comfort, I will send the
comforter to you. What does it say next, verse eight? And when he
has come, he's gonna tell us what's gonna happen when this
comforter comes. He will reprove, that means convict, convince
the world of sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Is that everybody
in the world? No, of course it's not. Jew and
Gentile, in every tongue, nation, creed, under heaven, all throughout
the earth, and all throughout time, those that are His, He's
gonna come to them. He ain't gonna miss one. He's gonna convict
them and convince them of sin and of righteousness and of judgment.
Lord, what's that mean? He's gonna tell us. Of sin, verse
nine, because they believe not on me. Of righteousness, because
I, Go to the father, my father, and you see me no more. Of judgment,
because the prince of this world is judged. Who judged him? Christ
did. What's all this got to do with?
With him. You believe not on me, because
I go to my father and because I've judged the prince of this
world. All judgments to sons. We'll be convinced he is all. I have many things to say to
you, but you can't bear them now. I think I've learned a lot over
25, 30 years walking with the Lord. I don't know nothing. There's
so much I don't know. I can't handle it all. It takes
a lifetime to grow in these things, a lifetime to grow in grace.
You can't sit down and study yourself blue in the face with
a bunch of commentaries and learn something. It takes time. God
works in mighty, powerful ways. And most of the time, it's gentle
and it's gradual. John Newton said that, didn't
he? You saw it in that bulletin the other day? I know you did.
You all get them all, don't you? Don't need to put them in. He works
mighty, but he works gradual, and it takes a long time. And
it says in verse 13, how be it when he, the spirit of truth
has come, he will guide you in all truth. Who's that? For he shall not speak of himself,
but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak, and he will
show you things to come. He shall glorify me, for he shall
receive of mine and shall show it unto you. All things that
my father hath are mine, therefore said I, that he shall take of
mine and show it unto you. Everything we need to know, we're
going to know. Everything we need to be shown, we're going
to be shown. I don't know why the Lord did that trial. Well,
then he didn't need to show me. I'm comforted now. Go home and
eat your ham sandwich. Get your pulled pork sandwich.
You'll be all right. All the things we are reproved of, we're
convicted of, we're convinced of, they all concern the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said back in chapter 15 said
when the comforter has come whom I will send unto you From the
father the spirit of truth which proceeded from the father. He
shall testify of me of me Well, they have the spirit down there.
I don't know do they preach Christ? Well, I don't still have a lot
of activities for the kids and I don't feel warm and fuzzy and they
don't have a band nobody's dance around flailing their arms around
like some kind of inflatable piece of art and That ain't the
Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit preaches Christ.
It reveals a person, reveals Him, and it glorifies Him. That's
the Holy Spirit. That's what He does, isn't it?
It's a work of regeneration, isn't it? That Spirit comes to
us and quickens us. Spirit quickening. It gives us
life. And I'll tell you what, when he does it, it can be gradual
too. A brother of mine said, the Lord
saved me somewhere between 1996 and 2003. I get that. But whenever we start getting
convicted of sin and judgment and that new creation's in us
and it sees what it's housed in, there's not to be relying
on emotions, but there's some emotions. Not to be relying on
experience, but buddy, I'll tell you what, you're gonna live it.
I saw a video of a man, he's on a roller coaster, and I thought
it was me. And it started going, he passed out. And them arms,
he's lifeless, just dead. Arms flailing around, right?
And that kind of went down a dip, and he come to, that blood came
back to his head. And could you, I thought, if I could wake up
on a roller coaster, you talk about terror, I'd pass right back out,
he did. Sometimes we kind of come to consciousness and we
see what sinners we are. and you about pass out, I don't
want to get out of bed. And thankfully the Lord takes
that from us. If he don't show us completely what we are all
in one go, we'd explode. We'd explode. That's what goes
through. He convicts us of sin. Is that singular in your Bible?
That's singular, isn't it? Old Brother Whitfield said there's
three things the Holy Spirit comes and convicts us of. First,
sin, that's singular. That's the nature. That's what
we are. People don't lie and then become liars. They lie because
they are a liar already. That's what we are. We're sin. Convicts us of sins, plural,
what we've done. Those acts of commission, the
things that we've done. Oh, people wouldn't sit with
me no more. The things we thought. Would
you like for your parents or someone you respect or love or
your children or your parents to know every thought you've
had today? Would you like that put up on a big old screen so
the whole world could see? Oh, we're sinners, huh? That's
our nature. It convicts us of sins of what
we've done and convicts us of sins of what we did not do. What
we could have been doing and didn't. And the righteousness
that we cannot make of ourselves. That's all kind of meshed in
together, isn't it? It's just attached, clinged on to that
nature like putty and kind of becomes one. Of sin. What's the sin? Because, verse
nine, they believe not on me. What? Unbelief? That's it. It takes a work of almighty God
to convict you that you didn't believe God. All that time you
was playing religion your whole life, it was an abomination to
God. Do you know that? I can tell you that and you won't
hear a word I say unless God, the Holy Spirit, unless a comforter
comes and convinces you that. I'm just a mouthpiece is all
I am. I keep saying it. Because they believe not on me. You know, to love is to believe.
If you love Him, you believe Him." That fellow come to the
Lord, and he was so wise, a good little lawyer, wasn't he? And
he said, Master, what's the great commandment? Which one's the
best? If I'm gonna keep this law, which
one's the best one to keep? And the Lord said, thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with
all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. That's
step one. And the second is just like it.
Love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang
all the law and all the prophets. The whole Old Testament, you
can sum it up in that. Love God with everything in you
always, even while you're sleeping. Believe in him and do in his
work. How have I done it, Dad? How have you done? You holding
up pretty good? You quit watching them movies that you used to
watch when you was a teenager? That ain't believing in God and
loving him with everything in you, is it? Brother Scott Richardson
said this one time. I had an uncle told me, he said,
Lord, don't care if you just do a little sin. Oh, really? There's no such
thing as a little sin. Brother Richardson said this,
there is no little sin because there's no little God you can
sin against. Oh, now we're starting to understand something about
sin. Now it ain't just saying a dirty word down there whenever
mommy and daddy wasn't looking. Now it ain't smoking a cigarette,
and now it ain't watching something you shouldn't be watching or
doing something you shouldn't be doing. It's against a holy God, because we
didn't believe him. We didn't love him with all our
heart, mind, soul, and being. Matthew 10, the Lord went to
eat in this house and there's a bunch of publicans there, a
bunch of mafiosos, you get that? And sinners there, people you
don't want to sit next to. And they came and they sat down
with him and the disciples and they said, what y'all want to
eat? They started eating. And those Pharisees saw it and
they said unto his disciples, they didn't go to war with him,
but they started putting question marks on him, didn't they? They
started sowing discord. And they said, your master eats
with publicans and sinners. He's holy. And this is him. That's what he's done. Jesus
heard it. And he said unto them. He hears
all, doesn't he? He sees all. That terrifies me. I don't know if it does you.
God looks on the heart. I want to crawl underneath the
rock, don't you? If you're convicted of those
things. He said, they that behold need not a physician, but they
that are sick. I can't convince a healthy person to go to the
hospital. Go take the medicine. I don't need it. I'm healthy.
I'm fine. I had pneumonia a couple of times
in my life. Well, you didn't have to ask me to go to the hospital.
One, they took me. And two, the doctor said, I'm
going to admit you. And I said, good, I need to be here. This is where
I need to be. I need that medicine. Put it
in me. Lord said, the whole don't need a physician, but they are
sick. People that ain't sinners don't need a savior. People that's
already, they're doing fine. They don't need salvation. God has to come and convince
us we need those things. God the Holy Spirit. He said, but
they that are sick. He said, go learn what that meaneth. You
want a big old theological problem? Take that home and find out what
it means. He said, because I will have mercy and not sacrifice
for I am come to call the righteous, not the righteous, but sinners
to repentance. Wait a second, I'm a sinner.
That's good news. That's who he come to save. That's
all I am is sin. I can't keep, I want to do good,
I can't. Verse nine says, of sin because
they believe not on me, on me. That's a sin. It's a blessing
to be reproved of sin. Did you know that? If the Lord
convicts you, you're an unbeliever, that you didn't believe him,
that you hated God, you was at war with him, and you wasn't
seeking God, and you wasn't almost right at that other place. You
was just dead in your sins, and salvation's his. That's a good
thing. That's a good thing to be able to not cry out of bed
in the mornings. Why? This is a faithful saying. It's worthy
of all acceptation. Take it to any continent you
want and you look a bit dead in the eye. That Christ Jesus came
in the world to save sinners. And Paul said, I'm the chief
of them. And I'll tell you what, if the Lord makes you a sinner,
that's a special thing the Holy Ghost made himself. If you're
made to see you're a sinner, you're the chief, ain't you?
Paul said that and I understand what he means, but he ain't me.
I'm the chief. I'm the chief. Are you the chief? The Lord said about that publican,
Luke 18, he said, he was standing far off. There was a separation
between him and where that holy place was. I ain't even going
near it. Pharisees just walked right up in there like he owned
the place, didn't he? And that publican said he wouldn't even
lift up his eyes to heaven and not hold his hands up and have
these long and oratating prayers and these jargon he's been regurgitating. That means throwing up since
he's a little kid. He put his head down, he beat on his breast
where the problem was, and he said, God, be merciful to me,
a sinner. God does that. He walks in him
and he shows us what we are and he makes us cry out that way.
What other option do you have? He said, I'll tell you, this
man went down to his house justified rather than the other. Not that
Pharisee told all the things he did for God. That's what they
say, that's what comes out of the mouth, isn't it? Isn't that
what I started talking about? That's a language I understand.
I can't, he must. I'm decreasing, he's increasing.
Is that you? If he's working in you, it is,
isn't it? I heard this a lot growing up. I know you've heard
it a lot too, but I'm going to tell it anyway. Somebody hasn't.
If a person misses, my pastor said this, if a person misses
Holy Spirit conviction of sin, they're going to miss repentance.
What's repentance? Some old fella in New Jersey
a long time ago said repentance is the pilgrimage from the mind
of the flesh to the mind of Christ. It has a beginning, a continuance,
and an end. It takes a long time. It's a lifetime. If we miss conviction
of sin, we miss repentance. If we miss repentance, that's
towards God because of sin. Then you're gonna miss faith.
You miss faith, you don't turn to it, you're gonna miss Christ.
You miss Christ, you've missed eternal life. This is necessary. It's a good thing to have. Believe. If we love him, we believe him. If we love him, it's because
he first loved us, wouldn't it? My father loved me, and I was
his child, and because he loved me so much, he believed me. He
built, this man was a master builder. He built multiple schools
and hospitals and bridges and a thousand houses. I mean, he
built all kinds of stuff, knew everything about it. And I was
about four years old and he said, don't you touch that lawnmower.
And I wanted to cut grass so bad, I wanted to work so today
I could walk. I want to be like daddy. I want
to be like my brothers. I want to go out and do something. I
want to cut that grass. He said, don't you touch that
lawnmower. It'll hurt you. You'll burn yourself. And I just, I
had to find out what a carburetor it is. And I had to go touch
it. And he went inside. I went and touched it. And boy,
a big old blister come up on my thumb. Right there on the
palm of my hand. And I went inside screaming.
And they put car grease on it and salved it up somehow. And
he said, you touch that lawnmower. And I started lying. Did that
make me a liar? No, I was born a liar. And I
said, I didn't touch that lawnmower. And what'd you touch? I said,
it was that pipe out there in the garage. And this master builder
went out there and I pointed a white PVC pipe. I don't know
if any of y'all know anything about pipes. You don't run hot
water through white PVC pipes like that. It don't come off
a water heater that way. And he went, what? He knew better than that.
Why'd he do it? He believed me. Why would he
believe a four-year-old? Because he loved me. Now that's polluted,
and that's a horrible illustration, isn't it? You love the Lord?
My love's polluted. If you do, you believe Him, don't
you? You believe Him. This is the
very work of God, and it's the very beginning of this work to
be convinced we're sinners, that we did not believe Christ, and
that He came to seek and to save the lost, because we's lost.
Was you lost, or was you on a pretty good path? I know what I hear. Wish he'd give you give us hearts,
huh? He came to seek and to save the lost to have salvation. That
must be us. We must be that lost, sin-filled
sinner. You don't need a savior. But the Lord does not just send
a comforter only to discomfort. That's not his name, is it? He
calls him the comforter. He doesn't just make us feel
horrible all the time. He convicts us of righteousness. Verse nine,
of sin, because they believe not on me, of righteousness,
because I go to my father and you see me no more. That means
he goes there and he didn't get kicked back with some corrections.
You ever tried to send in some paperwork and they kick it back
and say, oh, you didn't fill it out right, do it again. And
you put it in, you're like, all right, I'm done, it's finished.
And it's no, it ain't finished. I need a photo ID. We experienced
that just daily life, don't we? He said, I'm with my father and
I ain't coming back. in your lifetime, because you're going
to know this was accepted. You're going to believe me. You
didn't before, you do now, of righteousness. If you and I are
ever convinced of sin, you're going to find out real quick
right then, you need a mediator. You need a high priest. You need
a substitute. And that's not checking a block
on a needs list. That's not some prayer request that we're going
to fill out and triplicate and then submit to God. No, I need
substitution. I need to go between right now.
I need an advocate with the father and that's an all consuming thirst
and hunger for a savior. I'm not righteous. I got to have
somebody. Who's it going to be? Is my older
brother? He's stronger than I am. He's
smarter than I am. No, it can't be that. That ain't gonna do
it. He's just like me. He's a son of Adam. David asked this. He
said, who shall ascend? Lord said, I'm gonna go to my
father. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? Or who
shall stand in his holy place? What man born of woman can do
that? David went on and he said, he that hath clean hands, I washed
my hands in muddy water, old Stonewall Jackson said. I washed
my hands and it didn't come clean. He that has a pure heart, my
heart deceives me and I still know how wicked it is. Who has
not lifted up his soul unto vanity, he hath done nothing vain, nor
sworn deceitfully. He, the one that has all those,
he shall receive the blessing from the Lord and righteousness
from the God of his salvation. There in John 3, the Lord told
him, he said, no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came
down from heaven, the son of man which was in heaven. He's
the only one that could ascend. He's the only one that come down.
We all were created here. We come on the scene here. He
always has been. And he descended so he could
ascend. That's him. Why? Because he's righteous.
He's holy, holy. That's a miracle, isn't it? Paul
told Timothy, he said, without controversy, great is the mystery
of Godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. He was justified
in the spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles. That's
the world, that's us old Gentiles. Them Pharisees get mad you say
something like that. He was believed on in the world,
them Gentiles believed him, and he was received in the glory.
He went to his father and didn't come back. He's coming again. But that payment, that life that
he lived for us was accepted. He is righteous. We believe he
is righteous and righteousness. He's holy. He is God in human
flesh. And I'll tell you what, he's
able. Because he's the holy one of Israel, he's able, he's able.
Hebrew writer said this, but without faith, it's impossible
to please him for he that cometh to God must believe that he is.
He is what? You bet. Whatever the Lord requires,
that's it. What does He demand? What He
provided. And it's in a person, my Lord. What do you bring to God? Him
and what He provided. Him and Him alone. I believe
that He is. He's righteousness. I'm convinced
of it. I'm nothing, He's all. I know
it. And he said in Hebrews 7, wherefore he is able to save
them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever
liveth to make intercession for them. That's good news too. Who's
making intercessions for us? The righteous one, the Holy God. I can say that all day long.
God, the Holy Ghost has to come into somebody's heart and work
in them and convince them of that. I pray he does. I can scream
it. I can whisper it. It don't make a difference. I'm
going to have to say it, so I'm going to do that. How can he go? How can the Lord
ascend? Work's finished, isn't it? What
did Christ come to do? What was that finished work that
he completed about the will of his father that he did go to
his father? He said, I must be about my father's business. He
came to lay down his life for the sheep. to live a righteous
life for us. That's the acts of a holy nature,
to be our holy nature and to be made sin for us that we might
be made to the righteousness of God in him. Come to save a people. He come
to glorify the father. He come to satisfy eternal judgment
for a people. That's something. It says there
in verse eight, when he has come, he will prove the world of sin
and of righteousness and of judgment. Of sin because they believe not
on me. That's right. Of righteousness because I go
to the father, my father, and you see me no more. Lord, that's
right, only you can. Of judgment because the prince
of this world is judged. Of judgment. He said it's finished,
I believe him. Judgment settled. And he said,
but because the prince of this world is judged, Satan came to
Adam, and whooped him. He conquered him, didn't he?
Satan came to the Lord and tempted him, and tried him, and put him
on a cross, and the Lord crushed his head. He thought he had him.
He thought he had him. Nope. He's the victor, isn't
he? What is this? You know, what happened way back
in the garden? Eve was deceived. I hear women
around the world getting awful mad about that. All them poor
little women. Well, they was deceived. That's trick. What'd
Adam do? Willingly ate that fruit. we willingly sinned against God.
You get that? That's our seminal head. That's
the form I was made out of. That's who I sinned in. And with
that nature, I acted on it all by myself. I'm convinced of it. That's what happened back then.
My sin from Adam to eternity. My accuser, my shame, my guilt,
all of it's been settled. Judgment's been put away. What
started in the garden? It ended on that cross for his
people. Every jot and every tittle, it's
done. Adam experienced all three of
these things just in a different order. Do you know that? I'm
incorporating staples in my notes, hold on. I color on my notes
and draw sometimes. Kim, I said, what in the world
did you write down? I got staples today, excuse me. In Genesis
3, Adam was convinced of sin. Nothing's changed from Adam to
right now. Nothing's gonna change till that last sinner is called
home to glory, is it? Till Christ is revealed in him.
In Genesis 3, it says, that woman saw the tree was good for food,
and that it was pleasant to the eyes, a tree to be desired, to
make one wise. And she took the fruit thereof, and did eat, and
gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat. He ate of
it, and the eyes of them both were opened. Nothing happened
when Eve ate it. Why? She wouldn't have. When
Adam ate it, both of their eyes were opened, and they knew they
were naked. They knew they were naked. If Lord, mankind naturally, we start realizing
something about sin. Uh-oh, I did something wrong.
I gotta cover it, right? I gotta start going to church.
I don't know about you all. That's what we told children
all throughout Kentucky. You do something bad, you're
going to church Sunday. We're gonna start taking you to church.
Gotta do something, right? Gotta do something. And when
we start getting entertainments of sin, then we know we're naked
and that ain't good. So what did Adam initially was
convinced of righteousness, knew of need of it, wasn't it? So
what'd he do? He covered himself. He sewed some fig leaves together.
Sewed some fig leaves together. And he made themselves aprons.
Have you ever done that? Was you ever sewing fig leaves
together? Trying to make God happy because you thought you
could? Because you didn't know what sin was? You didn't know what
a holy God was? Well, I'll go to church. I'll clean up my life.
I'll start handing out Bibles. I'll start handing out tracts
down at the county fair. That's what I'll do. I'll tell
people to read their Bible. Go home and read your Bible.
That'll be a good thing I'll do. That's what Adam did. Nothing's
changed. It's just fig leaves. It's going
to wither away. Turn back and it's going to compost.
That's all it's going to do. But God, is that where you were? And then God came in and he said
unto Adam and his wife also, and the Lord made coats of skin
and clothed them. Trying to make something. Go
on, cover yourself. And then all of a sudden you saw a lamb that was slain.
Who did that? God did. Who provided the lamb?
God provided the lamb. They had him say, Lord, you know,
it'd be real nice if you give me an outfit. No, he just went
and clothed him. And he started learning about
that outfit as he wore it, didn't he? And complete covering. He knew he was naked. Lord showed
him that, didn't he? Gave him an understanding of
it. He knew he tried to cover himself and that wasn't going
to do. And he knew God provided the lamb. God provided the righteousness.
God provided the atonement and the covering, didn't it? And
then he's also commenced the judgment. This is where it's
real important for us. The Lord God said to the serpent,
it was back a few verses before that though, it was out of order.
He said to the serpent, because thou hast done this, thou art
cursed above all the cattle and above every beast of the field,
upon thy belly shalt thou go. And thus shalt thou eat all the
days of thy life, and I will put enmity between thee and the
woman. Wait a second. Well, we used
to have some enmity, didn't we? You know what the word says?
But who was it to between us and God? And then the Lord stepped
in, didn't he? Provided his son as the offering,
provided himself as the lamb. And now he said there's enmity
between the woman, between my church, my people, and you serpent. We see that? That's judgment.
He declared the settlement of judgment then. And he said, I'll
put him between thee and thy woman, and between thy seed and
her seed, and it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise
his heel. We learn later on the New Testament, don't we? What's
that seed, singular? That's Christ, isn't it? Where'd
he do all, where'd all this take place? Calvary's cross, wasn't
it? His heel was bruised, he crushed
the serpent's head. Judgment. That's concerning Satan,
isn't it? The prince of this world. That
judgment also concerns us. He used to have dominion over
us. Sin used to have dominion over us. But there's therefore
now no condemnation. When the Lord comes to us and
we're convicted of sin and of righteousness, of judgment, right
then, you're fit for heaven. Ain't nothing to add it to, nothing
to take away. Right then, there's a holy creation inside of you.
He did it. You're his workmanship and you're
right for heaven, as people say. Right then. It doesn't take 30,
40 years. What if you got hit by a truck?
Well, the Lord's plans would be out the window, wouldn't it?
That's not a holy sovereign God. We're babes, that's all we'll
ever be. We might be 12 months old looking
down on 11 months old, making more big shots. The Lord took
not the nature of angels, but he took on the seed of Abraham
to crush Satan's head. deal with all judgment we earn,
and someday this world's gonna be judged by him. All judgment's
given to the son, isn't it? Those that always hated him,
those that never were convinced of sin, those that were never
convinced he was righteous, they thought they was righteous in themselves. Someday they're
gonna be judged. At this point, a man wants to
die, and after this, judgment. I wanna tell him beforehand,
do you? If you know him, if the Lord spoke to you, don't you
wanna, you want somebody to tell you before you meet him in glory?
I want to tell people. He came to see the Abraham. Wherefore,
in all things that behooved him to be made like unto his brethren, that we might be a merciful and
faithful high priest, in thanks pertaining to God, to make reconciliation
for the sins of the people. For in that he himself had suffered
being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted.
I just feel like sin's ripping me apart. Take it to the Lord.
I feel like the devil's after me. You ain't got a clue. Take
it to the Lord. He can sucker. That's an old,
old English term still used where I grew up. That goes beyond comfort. That's not like giving some good
words and pat him on the back. That reaches the heart. He's
able to do that. Knowing this, knowing we are
sin, singular, in nature and instinct. Sins of omission, sins
of commission, inside, outside, it's all we are. Knowing he is
all righteousness. He's the only one holy, perfect,
accepted. He's accepted and knowing we're
accepted in him. Knowing the work he came to do is accomplished.
We have true comfort. Judgment satisfied. There's no
condemnation. He said he would send the Comforter.
Does that comfort you? You ready to take the world on?
Or something bad's going to happen. I don't care. He's on his throne.
Hits right, hits good. He hasn't dealt with us coordinator
sins. He's just a little chastening. A little chastening. That's all
it is. I've always and evermore been
guilty all by myself. He's altogether lovely. He's
altogether right and holy. And I believe him when he said
it's finished. I believe him. You believe him? I could stand
firmly that there's no condemnation because he said so and the spirits
convinced me of it. There's no work left to do. Nothing
left to do. There ain't nothing that gets
me more motivated to do something than that. Somebody told me Sunday,
they said, you give us less morality, you just told us what God did.
I know, boy, that makes me wanna be moral. That's the motivation,
isn't it? I wanna live upright, not bring
condemnation to the gospel, bring no reproach on the gospel. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh,
but after the spirit. For the law of the spirit of life, he
says in Romans 8 too, the law, that's what rules us now, the
spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me Plum convinced of
it, free from the law of sin and death. The Lord tells us in Matthew 10,
you can read that when you get home, Matthew 10, 28 through
33. He said, don't you be afraid of those that kill the body,
not able to kill the soul. He said, you fear him, which
is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. That's who
we fear, that's who we honor, isn't it? I pray I could walk,
be a person that walks through this earth in my day-to-day life
and trials and good times and bad times as one that believes
he's on his throne and he's able. I pray you do too. Amen. Let's
go to him. Father, as you see fit, as it
pleases you, said your spirit, Today, Lord, those of us you've
already dealt with, Lord, reprove me of sin today that I haven't
believed you. Reprove me of righteousness today
that Christ is all and holy and right and accepted and on his
throne right now interceding for us. Reprove me of judgment. Lord, don't let me fear this
world. I want to know that The salvation's finished. Just make
me declare it. Not add anything to it, not take
anything away from it, Lord. Just declare your work. Forgive us for what we are. Lord,
thank you for your mercies. Be with those that are sick,
that we love, and the ones you love are sick, Lord. We'll leave it there. Thank you
for this day. Because of Christ, who he is
and what he did, we come to your throne. Amen.