Exodus, just turn back to Exodus
around chapter 3, 4, and 5. I'm going to give you a summary
of what happened here without reading the entire text. And
then we're going to land at the end of chapter 5. Moses, God
had appeared to Moses. And God had revealed himself
to Moses out of the burning bush. God told Moses, I'm going to
send you to Egypt again. Moses was out in the wilderness.
He had fled Egypt. The people of Israel had rejected
him. The king of Egypt was out to kill him. And he was in the
wilderness for 40 years. God appeared to him. And God
said to him, I've seen the affliction of my people, Israel and Egypt.
I've heard their cry. I know their sorrows. And I've
come down to visit them, to deliver them, to bring them out of their
bondage. And now, God told Moses, I'm
sending you. Moses asked the Lord, this is
in chapter three, Who am I that I should deliver Israel out of
Egypt? Who am I to go to Pharaoh? And
God said, I will be with you. And this is how you know that
I'm with you, when you've brought them out of Egypt. And Moses
said, but Lord, when I come to Israel and tell them that you've
sent me, What shall I say your name is when I come to them?"
And God told him what his name was. I am that I am. He says,
I'm the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.
And this is the way that you will know who I am. I'm the God
of my people. A very significant statement.
The God of his people. Who is God? He's the God of his
people. Who are his people? Those that belong to the Lord.
Those were his people. But God spoke to Moses and gave
him signs, three signs to give to Israel. And so with these,
Moses went back to Egypt. And Aaron came and met Moses,
and then Aaron and Moses went to the elders of Israel, like
God had told them to do. Go to the elders of Israel. Tell
them the words I've given to you. Explain to them that I sent
you, and that I'm going to bring them out of Egypt. Deliver them
from Pharaoh's bondage, and bring them into the land, God, that
I had promised to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And
so Aaron and Moses went to the elders of Israel, and they explained
this to them. And you see that at the end of
chapter 4. But God told Moses, he says, when you go to Pharaoh,
know this, that I will harden his heart. He will not let the
people go. But when Moses gets to the elders
of Israel, and he tells them that God has sent him, he tells
them what God had said. They believed the Lord, and they
bowed their heads, and they worshiped. That was good news to Moses,
because Moses doubted they would even believe him. That's why
he asked God for these. He was concerned about that,
and God gave him these three signs. The sign of throwing his
rod down and picking it up again after it became a snake, and
God turning it back into a rod, and putting his hand into his
bosom, and pulling it out. It was leprous, and putting it
back in and bringing it out again. It was clean. And then pouring
water on the ground, and it turned to blood. And those signs were
given to him. But when the Israelites, the
elders of Israel, heard that Moses was sent by God, they seemed
glad. They bowed their heads and they
worshipped God. And then Moses went to Pharaoh.
And I can imagine, because of what we see a little while later,
that Moses thought that Pharaoh would also have, he would have
an easier time when Moses went to him. So he goes to Pharaoh
and he says, the God of the Hebrews has sent me to you, and God has
said, let my people go, that they may serve me. And Pharaoh
says, who is the Lord that I should let Israel go? Get back to your
work. You're idle. You have too much
to do. You're thinking about things you shouldn't be thinking
about. And so Pharaoh took away straw and demanded them to do
the same work they had before. Pharaoh responded to Moses's
demands from God with the same response that unbelieving preachers
respond today, when God comes in the gospel and tells the people
of what Christ has done, Pharaoh said, you are listening to vain
words. More work should be laid on them.
And so he laid more work on them. Now, the people, the Israelites
who were doing the work, making the bricks, Pharaoh had appointed
officers over them. And those officers were beaten.
Because the people couldn't produce the same number of bricks. And
so the people were beaten. I mean the officers of the people
were beaten and the people had to do more work. And Moses went
to Pharaoh and nothing seemed to come out of it. Pharaoh even
hardened his heart and got worse. And so we pick it up in Exodus
chapter 5 and verse 20. And so the people of Israel come
back to Moses and to Aaron in verse 20. And they met Moses
and Aaron which stood in the way as they came forth from Pharaoh. And they said to them, the Israelites
said to Moses and Aaron, The Lord look upon you and judge
because you have made our savor to be abhorred in the eyes of
Pharaoh and in the eyes of his servants to put a sword in their
hand to slay us. and Moses returned unto the Lord.
He had nowhere else to go. Sometimes, have you ever felt
the stress and the frustration of dealing with someone? It seems
like you can't get anywhere with them. All they do is constantly
complain and complain and it wears you down. And here, Moses
has a whole nation of people coming to him through these elders
of Israel. And they're just beginning now
to complain to him. And they're saying, what have
you done? Things have gotten worse. Pharaoh is going to kill
us. And so Moses returned to the
Lord, nowhere else to go, and he said, Lord, wherefore hast
thou so evil entreated this people? Why is it that thou hast sent
me? For since I came to Pharaoh to
speak in thy name, he hath done evil to this people. Neither
hast thou delivered thy people at all. Now Moses at this point,
you can see what happened. It seems as if he forgot what
God said he was going to do. God said, I will surely deliver
them. God said, I'm going to harden
Pharaoh's heart. He's going to oppose you. And
then I will bring them out with a mighty hand at the height of
Pharaoh's strength. But Moses forgot that. At least
it seems as if he did. And the Israelites who believed
at the beginning, now have fallen into unbelief and doubting. And
the people are weary. And Moses wonders, why did you
even send me here? Why did you send me to Pharaoh?
You can hear what he's saying. I preached like you told me to. I told the people. I spoke to
Pharaoh. And he didn't even listen. What
good am I doing here? he's only feeling the humiliation
of failure and he's saying Lord you haven't delivered your people
at all the question that we have to ask is this why would God
promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would bring his
people out of Egypt and give them the promised land. And why
would he send Moses, choose a man, Moses, and send him to Israel
and to Pharaoh? And then why would he cause the
people to hear it and believe? And then delay his deliverance
so that these people feel as if the world is about to end
for them. All hope is almost lost. God
has exposed them to the power of their enemy, and they feel
discouraged, despondent, and despaired. Why would God do this? That's the fact. The matter is,
we just read Psalm 107 earlier. You see the pattern? Until God
afflicts us, until He puts us in trouble, We will not call
upon Him, and that's the fact of the matter is, that's how
sinful we are. In Psalm 107 says it over and
over again, until God brings us to trouble, until He causes
us to call upon Him, and then we call upon Him and He delivers
us, not till then will we say, oh, The Lord is good. He's redeemed us. Oh, that men
would praise the Lord for His goodness. So the people of Israel
are so discouraged. They're so defeated. The elders,
the officers have been beaten. The elders have lost confidence. They've fallen into unbelief.
And Moses himself is at his wits end. Why would God do this? for that very purpose. To expose
the weakness of the people. To expose the helplessness of
the people. The weakness and the helplessness
of Moses to actually do what God told him to do. And then
to show the power of their enemy in the height of his strength.
And how God at that point, at that point only, when the people
had no strength, Moses was made to look without strength. Pharaoh
rose up in the height of his power at that point. Read verse
1 of chapter 6 with me. The Lord said to Moses, you see
that word then? Then, not till then. The Lord said to Moses, listen
to what God says. Now shalt thou see what I will
do. Everything had been brought to
its end insofar as man was concerned. The people were at their wits
end. Moses is at his wits end. Pharaoh looks like he's going
to kill them. And God says, Now, you're gonna see what I will
do. You see, that's the pattern of
the gospel. In the fullness of time, God
sent forth his son, made of a woman, made under the law, in order
to redeem them that were under the law. Let's read on in chapter
6 of Exodus. He says, Now shalt thou see what
I will do to Pharaoh. For with a strong hand shall
he let them go, and with a strong hand shall he drive them out
of his land. It means that he had a strong
hand in opposition to God, and yet his opposition God would
use his opposition to actually make known his power and to bring
them out. And God spake to Moses and said
to him, I am the Lord. And I appeared unto Abraham and
unto Isaac and unto Jacob by the name of God Almighty. But
by my name Jehovah was I not known to them. The name Jehovah
means the Lord saves. He's the Savior, that's what
it means. In other words, God couldn't be known as Savior until
400 plus years of Egyptian bondage, helplessness, and feeling as
if the enemy had strength over their life and was going to destroy
them, and they had no hope. And God says, now I'm going to
save you. In fact, he says, this is how
you'll know me. I'm Jehovah the Savior. Verse 4, and I have also
established my covenant with them to give them the land of
Canaan, the land of their pilgrimage wherein they were strangers,
and I have also heard the groaning of the children of Israel whom
the Egyptians keep in bondage, and I have remembered my covenant. Our salvation is dependent upon
God remembering. God remembering His covenant.
Verse 6, Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the
Lord, I'm Jehovah, and I will bring you out from under the
burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you of their bondage,
and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm and with great judgments. Now I want you to keep that in
mind, because the whole history of the nation of Israel is meant
to teach us of our history of how God redeemed his people. All throughout the Old Testament,
God is only known to Israel as the God who delivered them out
of Egypt, who redeemed them out of the hand of their enemies,
who fulfilled the covenant that he promised to Abraham. To do
for them, to bring them out of this bondage and bring them into
the promised land. And the same history was but
just a shadow of the reality of what God would do throughout
time. according to the eternal covenant
he made with his son in heaven to redeem his people from the
long bondage of their sin and bondage under the law and to
bring them out by his mighty hand. And it wasn't until things
looked their worse that God did act. Now turn to Hebrews chapter
1. Because I want you not to focus so much on the history,
although it's important that we understand it. But this is
the way the scriptures reveal the gospel to us. First, the
historical is given. Second, the unfolding of it is
given in terms of gospel truth. The book of Hebrews itself does
this so expertly that every part does that within the whole, and
then it builds on itself, and the whole thing is brought together.
It's as if God has taken the Old Testament as a scroll, and
He's unraveled it piece by piece in the book of Hebrews, and He's
laid each dot from the Old Testament to the New, and shown its fulfillment
in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we read. Remember, these
three words, because this is the title of the sermon today.
Then, now and after. Exodus chapter 6 verse 1, God
says, then the Lord said to Moses, now thou shalt see what I shall
do. And that's what we're going to
read about here in Hebrews chapter 1. Look at this with me. God,
verse 1 of Hebrews 1, God, who at sundry times That means different
times. And in divers manners, different
ways, spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets. God spoke when he wanted to. He spoke how he wanted to. He spoke to whom he wanted to. And he spoke to them by whom
he wanted to. That's what verse one is saying.
But then it says in verse two, now hath in these last days spoken
unto us by his son. That's the then. That's the then
in this account of the Old Testament. All seemed lost and God sent
his son. When God sent the Lord Jesus
Christ into the world, the nation of the Jews was in its worst
condition in all of its history. Up to that point in time. The
very worst. How do you know that? Because
they killed the Prince of Life. They killed the Lord of Glory.
They took the Christ God had promised and they knew Him as
Christ and they destroyed Him anyway. They said in the parable
Jesus gave of the vineyard, the husbandman looked when God sent
his son and he said, look, this is the heir. Let's kill him and
seize on his inheritance. And that's exactly what the Jews
did. The Pharisees and the Sadducees and all these different sects,
all the rulers and the chief priests and the scribes and the
Pharisees, all of these people, according to what Jesus did,
He showed their total hypocrisy, their ignorance of Him in Scripture,
and their wickedness of their heart, that they would be in
so obstinate unbelief, they wouldn't even know Him when He came. They wouldn't honor Him, and
by dishonoring Him, they honored the God they claimed to serve
and claimed that was their God. They were hypocrites. and they
hated him without a cause, and they destroyed him. Then the
Lord spoke." It wasn't until then that God did this. God spoke
in the fullness of times, and when He spoke, He spoke by His
Son. All the prophets spoke of Him,
but when He came, it was God's Son who spoke to us. He spoke
to us in these last times. That's the then. God has to wait
until all of our resources are exhausted. Until our wickedness
appears in its height. And we're helpless and in bondage
under it. The curse of the law is against
us. Then God spoke. That's what happened in history.
And that's what happens in our experience. That's what happens
to us in our experience. But look at verse 2. God hath
in these last days spoken unto us. Now I want you to look at
what happens in the next few words here in these verses. By
his son. By his son. And what is his son? Whom he hath appointed heir. The one who inherits. That's
what the heir is. An heir is the one. Remember
what Abraham did when he was about to die? He had a son named
Ishmael through Hagar. He had a son named Isaac through
Sarah. And he took all that he had and
he gave it to his son Isaac. Everything was given to Isaac.
Everything. And he sent Ishmael away. Because
the son of the free woman cannot be heir with the bond woman's
son. Or however it's worded in Galatians. And so God gave everything to
his son. Everything is his. What does
that include? Everything? But what is everything? It means
that God has given to Christ everything as the Creator. Remember
what Colossians 1.16 says? All things were made by Him and
for Him. God not only commissioned Him
to create the world and everything in it, but He said to Him in
creating the world, make it According to your own will. Make it according
to your own purpose. And then possess it. It's yours. And then administer it. Oversee
it. Bring about my will in creating
it. And do it all for your glory.
That's the heir. That's the one God has given
everything. Not only that. God has committed to the heir
of all things. His own will. his own will, to
bring his own will to pass. Everything God wanted in his
heart was in the heart of his son. All his son wanted to do
was what was in his father's heart from eternity. And so everything
he did in creation, in time, in providence, in all places,
he ordered it according to that eternal will to bring about what
God purposed. and what God would do through
His Son. He's the heir. Not only did He...
He gave Him all things. He says in John 17, He says in
verse 4, He says, "...as thou hast given Him power over all
flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as thou hast
given Him." He's given Him all things, all flesh, and all of
His people. In Ephesians 1 verse 4 it says
that according as God has chosen us in Him, in Christ, from the
foundation of the world, simultaneously God chose us, He gave us to Christ,
and He made Christ our head in order that Christ might fulfill
that covenant and save us by Himself. And so He adopted us
to be sons by Jesus Christ to Himself. He redeemed us by Jesus
Christ. He made us accepted in the Beloved
by Jesus Christ. All these things God did. In
Psalm chapter 2 verse 8, it says that God has given the heathen
into His hand, the uttermost parts of the earth for His possession.
Everything belongs to the Son. He has it all. He has not only
all things that are created, God has given to Him. And we'll
see this in the next few words. God has given to him his own
glory. Look at this with me together.
He says, "...by whom also He made the worlds, who being the
brightness of His glory." The words mean the outshining of
the glory of God, like the sun. How do you know? The last couple
of evenings, it's been smoky in the western sky. And I look
out and I see the sun setting. It's like a big ball of fire.
And you can see it going down. It looks like it's going down.
The earth is actually rotating away from it. Whatever. It's going down in this big ball
of fire. And you want to look at it. And
I'm wondering as I'm looking at it. I hope it doesn't hurt my eyes. Because
you're not supposed to look at the sun. But there's a whole
lot of haze in there. And it's red. And you go, how do I even know
there's a sun there? How do you know there's a sun
there? Because how do I feel it? How do I sense it? Because
of the rays that shine out of the sun. That's what it means
here. How do you know God? Christ is
the brightness, the outshining of the glory of God. We cannot
know God unless we see Him in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's only
revealed Himself in His Son. Jesus said, no man knows the
Father, but the Son. And no man knows the Son, but
the Father, and He to whomsoever the Son, that He will reveal
Him. God has to make Himself known and He makes Himself known
in His Son. And when we see Him in His Son,
we see the glory of God. And when we see God in Christ,
what do we see? Do we see Him coming on the earth
and picking up a lightning bolt? Jamming it through the hearts
of his enemies? No, we see the very heartbeat of God in truth
and in grace. He's taken his truth, his justice,
his holiness, and he satisfied them in his Son. And he's brought
them together so that he can redeem sinners in the person
of his Son. That's the very heartbeat of
God. We see him walking. the Son of God, the heir of all
things, the Lord of glory, the Prince of life, the one who in
essence is God, emptying himself, making himself of no reputation,
speaking to sinners, calling them to himself, sinners, wicked
men find comfort in his presence. That's the very heartbeat of
God. That's the brightness of his
glory. I like what Jeffrey Thomas says. He says, Calvary and the
broken body of Jesus is the most God-like thing that God ever
did. The glory of God is seen in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
he says this, not only is he this, but he's the express image
of his person. Nothing true. If you took a coin,
you look at a coin, you pull it out of your pocket, it's got
bumps and ridges and stuff on it. And you look at, there's
a head of a person on there. How did they make that? They
took another form and they took it on the metal and they smashed
it down so that the coin looks just like the pattern. Jesus
Christ has everything that God has. You look at Him, everything
about Him, and you see that's what God is. There's nothing
lacking in Christ that's not found in God, and there's nothing
in God that's not seen in the Lord Jesus Christ. Because He
is God. And so He says here, He's the
express image of His person and He upholds all things by the
word of His power. He gives the nod and creation
continues. The light beams that shine forth
from the sun, they only have their ability to make it to earth
because of His absolute active will to make it happen. Molecules
and atoms don't just hold together by themselves. It's the command
of the Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ, who not only made it,
but continues to uphold it. It's His active will. Christ
made everything, and the Lord Jesus Christ, by Him all things
consist, it says in Colossians chapter 1. And He's given all
this to bring about the will of God. And this is the will.
Look at what it says here. Here we have the second point
in the sermon. Remember what God told Moses?
Then the Lord spoke to him. Now you're going to see what
I can do. That's what God said to Moses.
What I can do. What I'm going to do to Pharaoh.
And I'm going to redeem you. I'm going to bring you out. I'm
going to rid you of their bondage. And you'll know that my name
is Jehovah by this. And here we see the now. Now
you're gonna see what God can do. What is the now? Right here,
the one who is the Son, the heir of all things, the brightness
of God's glory, the express image of his person, the one who upholds
everything by the mere word of his power. Now you see what he's
going to do. By himself, he purged our sins. He purged our sins. Now nothing
to a sinner can be more glorious than that. When God receives
glory, what did He say His name was? Jehovah. And what did God
announce when He brought the Lord Jesus Christ into the world?
He says to Joseph and to Mary, thou shalt call His name Jesus. Jehovah is salvation because
He shall save His people from their sins. The woman at the
well said, should we worship God in Samaria or at Jerusalem? Where should we worship? And
Jesus said, you know not what you worship, but we do because
salvation is of the Jews. Salvation, the way we worship
God, the way we know God, we see Him in His glory, is the
glory of His grace and His truth. The law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. He is the brightness
of God's glory, because when his people see him, they say
what they say in Revelation 1-5, unto him who loved us. washed us from our sins in his
own blood that is the cry that is the cause of worship that
springs from the heart of every sinner he washed me from my you
know what Naaman the Syrian leper did when Elisha told him to dip
seven times into the River Jordan on that seventh time he came
up and his flesh was like the flesh of a child He would give
everything to Elisha at that point. He was amazed. He was completely healed. And
that's the response of every sinner, when they understand...
in the depth of their depravity, in the bondage of their sin,
in the curse of the law, and knowing they face judgment with
no answer to God, and they hear from the throne of God that the
One who is God Himself, the glory of God, the brightness of His
glory, the Son of God, the heir of all things, this One, this
One, the Christ of God, has purged us from our sins. It answers
every question, doesn't it? How bad can sin truly be? Why would God get so upset about
it? It's Christ that died. The Son
of God, the heir of all things, the glory of God, the one who
upholds all things, emptied himself, made himself of no reputation,
became a servant, took on our nature, and died with our sins,
and paid the punishment to the full, that God might have peace
between his justice and his grace and lavish us with love and kisses
and abounding grace and shed it upon us because by himself
Christ purged us from our sins nothing could be more glorious
than that not to a sinner and Christ will receive honor and
praise throughout eternity because they will say with one accord
in glory there when I rise to speak with a song that I sung
on earth, but with a heart that was so mingled with unbelief
and doubt and all sorts of problems. There, there will be no inhibitions
unto him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood.
He purged our sins. But I think the problem that
we have is that we just don't believe it. Do you think that
way sometimes? Why is it that we have this lack
of confidence? to come to God openly. Why is
it that we have this reluctance? We come infrequently, or we find
ourselves coming in doubt and wondering, how can I make myself
right with God? If I can just get past this one
problem, this one sin, or whatever it is, if I could just fix things,
then I could come to God and have confidence. Do you know
what that is? That's called unbelief. And I
want you to think with me just for a moment about a few things
here. First of all, who is it that
died? It's Christ that died. Now you shall see what I shall
do. It's Christ that died. It's the
Lord Jehovah who laid down his life. Can God fail? Can the Lord Jesus Christ fail?
Can God commit to give everything to His Son, the heir of all things,
have Him create the world and everything in it, and uphold
it throughout the ages of this earth, have Him go to earth,
take our sins, and die under those sins, and not give Him
everything He promised to give Him? He cannot fail and God will
not fail to give him all the reward of his labors. He shall
see his seed. Christ the Lord Jesus Christ
will have his sheep he laid down his life for and he will bring
them to glory and no one is able to take them out of his hands.
But we find this reluctance in our hearts, don't we? We find
this seed of unbelief and just like
the disciples and just like Moses and the elders of Israel and
the people themselves they couldn't it's too big we couldn't understand
it and so God has to strip us down he has to break us down
and he has to bring us into trouble and in our trouble he has to
show us the one thing that will give us confidence that will
give us peace and assurance that Christ by Himself has completed
the work of our salvation. Now I want to read with you a
few verses of Scripture. And this one is perhaps one of
my favorite. Look at Leviticus chapter 16. On the day of atonement, the
high priest, all by himself, would go into the holy place,
into the holiest of all, would take the blood of first one goat
and sprinkle it on the mercy seat, and then take the other
goat and lay his hands on the head of the scapegoat and confess
over that scapegoat all the sins of all the children of Israel.
And then he would send that goat out into the wilderness to a
land uninhabited. And the summary of everything
that he did was stated in verse 30 of Leviticus 16. And I want you to look at this
with me. shall the priest make an atonement
for you to cleanse you that you may be clean from all your sins
before the Lord." Do you see that? When did the priest do
this? On the one day, the day of atonement. And what did he accomplish on
that day? He cleansed the people. He atoned
for their sins before God. And he cleansed the people from
all their sins before the Lord. Every sin. On one day. And the
priest was inside. Performing the service of God
on that day, and the people were outside, they didn't know what
he was, they might have known what he was doing, but they couldn't
see him. He was there alone, all by himself, and the people
were outside, doing nothing. the priest was acting for them
entirely by himself and that's what Hebrews 1.3 is referring
to by himself he purged our sins that's the now that's what he
did on one day the Lord Jesus Christ completely took away all
the sins of the people. He took them to Himself. God
made Him to be sin. God laid on Him the iniquity
of us all. And in that one day, He purged
us of our sins. And the proof of it is that God
raised Him from the dead, and then He sat Him at His own right
hand. Now, because we doubt these things,
in our heart, and you know that you do. You know that you do.
If you're honest with yourself, your conscience, your conscience
just can't believe it's true, that God would forgive me of
all my sins. Because we know that's the case,
because we don't come to God in In perfect consecration and love
and devotion, we come to Him, we think that because He has
something against us, that we can't just give ourselves freely
to God, because we're always trying to earn that assurance
to know somehow that we have a better standing. If there's
something I can do, if there's just something I could look at
my life and see that, then I would have confidence. But God says
there's only one thing, it's what Christ did. and what God
thinks about what he did. And I want you to see this in
a couple of places. First of all, if you're at Hebrews
chapter 1, look at the book just to the next of it, to the left,
Philemon. And look at Philemon. Now Philemon was a slave owner. Paul was his friend. Onesimus
was Philemon's slave. And Onesimus ran away from Philemon,
came to prison, met Paul, believed the gospel, and Paul sends him
back the runaway slave to his master Philemon but he doesn't
just send him back to Philemon he gives him a letter and he
sends Onesimus back to Philemon with the letter and in this letter
I just pointed out a couple of verses this is what Paul writes
to Philemon Onesimus' master he says And verse 10, I beseech
thee, he's speaking to Philemon in the letter, Paul is, I beseech
thee for my son Onesimus, whom I have begotten in my bonds,
which in time past was to thee unprofitable, but now profitable
to thee and to me, whom I have sent again. Now listen to these
words very carefully. Paul says to Philemon, thou,
therefore, receive him Onesimus, that is mine own bowels. Paul is pleading with Philemon
and saying to him, Philemon, receive Onesimus as if he is
my own bowels. And then he goes on in verse
17, he says this, he says, if thou count me therefore a partner,
Paul says to Philemon in the letter, receive him as me. Receive him as myself. When you
look at Onesimus, I want you to think you're receiving Paul.
Don't even think about what he did. I want you to think about
me. Because Philemon owed Paul a
lot. And then, in verse 18, Paul says
this, If he hath wronged thee, or oweth thee aught, if he owes
you anything, put it on my account. That's what Paul wrote to Philemon.
Now, Onesimus, you can see it in your mind's eye. He goes to
Philemon. And on his way back, he's holding
out his letter. And as he comes to Philemon and
he gives him the letter, no doubt, Onesimus knew what was in the
letter, and had been rehearsing it over and over in his mind.
And he gives it to Philemon, and Philemon opens the letter
and begins to read it. And he looks at his master, and
he looks at his eyes, and when he gets to that part, and Paul
says, receive him, that is my own bowels, receive him as myself,
and if he owes you anything, put it on my account. And Philemon
looks at Onesimus and he looks back at the letter. And Onesimus
knows that because of what Paul wrote to Philemon, because of
what Philemon thought of Paul, he was received for Paul's sake. We have this letter by himself. He purged our sins. We take it
to our father. He opens it up and he says, This
letter, this is the document I had covenanted with my son
in eternity. He accomplished that will, and
now I've given you that letter to bring it back to me, to present
it to me. This is the basis of your coming. And so he says this in 1 John
2, in verse 12, he says this, he says, My little children, I write unto
you, I write unto you, because your sins are forgiven you for
his name's sake. You see it? Exactly what Paul
did with Philemon. And look at Hosea, if that's
not enough, look at Hosea. Because we have to come to God
convinced from his word, drawing comfort. from his word that what
he said about what he did in the Lord Jesus Christ is all
our hope all our plea when we come to him there's nothing else
to bring Hosea chapter 14 and it says God says in verse 10
Israel And he's speaking about every
elect son he's ever determined to save and given to Christ to
save. And Christ took as his own and
laid his life down for it. He says, oh, Israel, return. If you've never turned, then
turn. But if you've gone astray, then
return unto the Lord thy God. For thou hast fallen by thine
iniquity." Doesn't that sound like Psalm 107? Fools, because
of their transgressions. Verse two, take with you words
and turn to the Lord, and I'll give you the words to say, say
to him, take away all iniquity and receive us graciously. So will we render the calves
of our lips. Oh, that men would praise the
Lord for his goodness. Asher shall not save us, we will
not ride upon horses, neither will we say any more to the work
of our hands, our works. You are our gods, for in thee
the fatherless find mercy." You see, God has given us every encouragement
to come as sinners, and only as sinners. and receive from
him what we must have, the knowledge of forgiveness of sins by the
Lord Jesus Christ." In one more passage, look at Luke chapter
7. Luke chapter 7. He says in verse 36, one of the
Pharisees desired Jesus that he would eat with him and he
went to the Pharisee's house and sat down to meet. Now, I
know the Pharisee had an intention here. to grill him and to interrogate
him and to make him look foolish. That was the motive of the Pharisees. And so it says, Behold, while
he's there, unexpectedly to the Pharisee, a woman in the city,
which was a sinner, When she knew that Jesus sat at meet in
the Pharisees house, she wasn't invited evidently, but she heard
about it. She brought an alabaster box
of ointment, and she stood at his feet behind him, weeping. Now here, understand what has
happened here. The Pharisees hated publicans,
and they hated harlots, and they hated sinners. Read Luke 18,
the Pharisee prayed with himself and despised others. He hated
these people. He wouldn't touch them. Stay
away from them. They'll defile me. Jesus received them. He received them. He received
publicans and harlots. And this woman was one of them.
And she came. It says, when she heard that
Jesus was in the house, because what had happened, what had happened
was that, it says in verse 33 John the Baptist came neither
eating bread nor drinking wine and you say he has a devil the
son of man has come eating and drinking and you say behold a
gluttonous man and a winebibber a friend of publicans and sinners
but wisdom is justified of all her children here comes a child
of wisdom this woman coming in bowing down to Jesus and she
is so overwhelmed with a sense of the forgiveness of her sins
that the God of glory would be among her and receive her to
himself that her tears well up like a flood and they cannot
be contained and she's weeping out of a combination of a long
guilt known and a long shame hidden But she couldn't hide
it. She was exposed as lewd and shameful
before men. And Christ receives her. And
didn't just receive her as a harlot. Someone who would say, well she's
a harlot, just let her in. No. He received her in order
to cleanse her. In order to take away her shame.
Taking that shame to himself. And she comes in weeping. She's
so thankful and the tears are flowing and she comes up behind
Jesus and the tears are coming out so much like rain on his
feet and as they fall she sees the mud mixed with her tears
and so she takes her hair and she wipes the mud and the water
from her tears away from his feet and then she takes his feet
and she kisses his feet. And the publican, I mean, the
Pharisee sees this and he says, if this man was a prophet, he
would know who's touching her, who's touching him. He would
know what kind of woman this is. And so, it says in verse
40, and Jesus, after he thought that thought, Jesus answering
said to him, Simon, I have somewhat to say to thee. And he saith,
Master, say on, very confident. There was a certain creditor,
Jesus said, which had two debtors. One owed 500 pence, and the other
one-tenth of that, 50. In other words, this woman had
broken every commandment. The Pharisee? Maybe he thought
he had broken just one of the ten. And when they had nothing
to pay, He frankly forgave them both. Tell me therefore, which
of them will love him most? And Simon answering said, I suppose
that he, now telling the truth, he knew he couldn't avoid being
caught in the trap of truth. He had to say it. I suppose that
he to whom he forgave the most. And he said, thou hast rightly
judged. And he turned to the woman. And
he said, Simon, seest thou this woman? I entered into thine house,
thou gavest me no water for my feet, but she hath washed my
feet with her tears, and wiped them with the hairs of her head.
Thou gavest me no kiss, but this woman since the time I came in
hath not ceased to kiss my feet. my head with oil thou didst not
anoint but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment poured
the best on his feet oh how beautiful are the feet of them which preach
the gospel of peace and bring glad tidings of good things and
so he said wherefore I say unto thee her sins which are many
are forgiven for she loved much Now, if we're not careful, we
might twist it around and say, because she loved much, her sins
were forgiven. But that's not what it says.
Why did she love much? Because her sins were forgiven.
Why did she pour out her tears and wipe his feet with her hair
and put ointment on his feet and kiss his feet? Because she
loved much and her love came because she had been forgiven
much. And to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. And unless
we love much, we don't love at all. And he said, thy sins are
forgiven to the woman. She knew it, but she heard it
again. He said, your sins are forgiven. He had said it to her in her
heart. She had heard his words. She
had come to him. She had received, as it were,
that document that Onesimus took to Philemon with Paul's commitment
to take everything and put it on his account. beseech Philemon
to receive Onesimus as himself. And with the words of Hosea,
and now these words, and Jesus says to her, your sins are forgiven.
Just like the paralytic man, Jesus said to him, son, thy sins
are forgiven thee, while he's laying there paralyzed. And then
the next thing he did was he said, rise, take up your bed
and walk. Because until we know our sins
are forgiven, we can't walk. We cannot walk. We cannot love
God. We can't do anything right until
we know that with the Lord Jesus Christ, all of our sins have
been washed away. We're clean before God. There's
nothing between my soul and the Savior. Nothing. Regarding the least of his favors,
all is forgiven. Moses was sent to Pharaoh. God
said to him, tell Pharaoh this, let my people go. that they might
serve me." Until God releases us from the debt of sin we owe,
we cannot serve Him. We cannot serve Him. Lord, we
need to know in our hearts that Christ has finished the work,
has purged us from our sins, and then the after. He sat down
on the right hand of the throne of the majesty in the heavens.
After Acts 5.31 says God has exalted him to be a prince and
a savior for to give repentance to Israel and the forgiveness
of sins. Jesus told the woman, your sins
are forgiven you. And because he sits on heaven's
throne, God has exalted him to that throne because he procured
for his people all the salvation that Jehovah Jesus was sent to
procure. He did it. He finished it. He
brought it to pass. He washed us from our sins. He
accomplished our redemption. And now he gives that forgiveness.
He sends the gospel to us and he says, he has by himself purged
our sins. And he sat down, and he finished
the work, and God says to him, and says to us, very good, very
good. Nothing is lacking. God himself
can't find a sin. God himself can't add a righteousness
to the perfection Christ worked out for his people. Nothing is
lacking. They are holy, without blame,
unreprovable, unspotted, no wrinkles. Nothing's wrong. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ that when things
looked their worst, and we were deep in our sins, had no hope,
We were far from God, alienated from the hope of Israel, alienated
from all the promises that the Lord Jesus Christ made peace
by his blood. And now you send your gospel
freely to harlots and publicans and all who are sinners who hear
it and say, my son, thy sins are forgiven thee for his name's
sake. Help us to take your word. to take it to the throne, to
come boldly to the throne of grace with the blood of Jesus
and open our hearts and like this woman, Lord, we pray that
you would release the spring of tears that we might know that
our shame in the Lord Jesus Christ has been removed by his blood.
He's washed us before God. Our conscience is clear. His
blood has paid it all. Our debts have been paid. Our
sins are forgiven. We stand before God without sin
in the Lord Jesus Christ. By one obedience, he's made us
perfect before God. Thank you for this mercy. Lord,
we pray, give us this grace that the redeemed of the Lord may
say so. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.