In thinking about this chapter,
chapter 25, just after we witnessed the sovereign grace of God to
Israel in chapters 22, 23, and 24, when Balaam was hired by
a king of Moab by the name of Balak to curse the people of
God, we find that God was so involved in that unbeknownst
to even Israel. He was so involved in this that
he would not permit this false prophet, Balaam, to curse the
people of God. And I was thinking about that
very thing, and since the Word of God is absolutely true, we
must conclude that all the folks we ever might have thought were
good, were enemies of God at one time. No one that has ever been born
has not been an enemy of God. And it takes God to bring us
peace, to be at peace. When I think of Seth, he was
the young man that was born to Adam and Eve after Abel was killed
and the brother took off to the wilderness. even Seth, and we
can follow Noah, and Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, Moses,
Caleb, and Joshua. David, Matthew, Mark, Luke, John,
all of those that we ever read about and think, my, wouldn't
it be nice if I could be like that person? Or like Saul of
Tarsus who became Paul. Wow, what a preacher of the gospel.
He was, as all are, an enemy of the gospel and an enemy of
Christ by nature. And what kind of people did God
have to deal with since the fall? Everybody fell in Adam, all died
in Adam. He's dealing with people that
are contrary to Him, that are enmity against Him, and we just
thank God that He would do anything for anybody that would bring
them out of that condition. In Psalm 14, in verse 2 and 3,
it says, God looked down from heaven to see if there were any
that did seek after Him, that would follow Him, that would
come and be on good terms. And it says, He found none. That same thing is brought out
in the book of Romans, chapter three. He found none. There was nobody. So when we
get to looking at chapter 25 and find out all the nonsense
that's going on in Israel, it shouldn't be a shock to us, except
for the grace of God, there go I. So if you turn with me to
the book of Numbers, chapter 31, verse 16, for one verse of
scripture, as we think about this Balaam that has been there
to trouble Israel and to bring out a curse upon Israel. It's
mentioned here in Numbers chapter 31 verse 16. Numbers chapter
31 and verse 16. The scriptures share this, Behold
these caused the children of Israel through the counsel of
Balaam to commit trespass against the Lord in the matter of Peor,
and there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord.
Now, it appears that the king of Moab, on the instructions
of Balaam, went back to Moab and he talked to the ladies and
said, go over there and be nice to the men of Israel. And that's
what we're going to fall into in here in just a moment. We're
going to see that God used this man and God would not allow him
to curse Israel, we find him mentioned three times in the
New Testament, there in 2 Peter says, there were those that were
following the way of Balaam, who loved wages of unrighteousness,
in Jude verse 11, ran greedily after the heir of Balaam for
reward, and in Revelation 2, verse 14, the doctrine of Balaam
who taught Balak to cast a stumbling block before the children of
Israel to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit fornication.
So, As we come to the book of Numbers chapter 25, we find that
we should not expect anything different because they're just
like we are. They're just like we are and
many of them have no knowledge of the gospel whatsoever. They're
just like we were if we know Christ. They're just like we
are if we don't. So Numbers chapter 25 and verse
one, we read these things that are brought out in the scriptures
about what's going on among the children of Israel while God
is over there taking care of them, and He's also watching
over them. You know, the God of Israel neither
sleeps nor slumbers. He is in active control of all
things, and He is there, and here is the record. It says,
Israel abode in Shittim, And the people began to commit whoredom
with the daughters of Moab. And they called the people unto
the sacrifices of their gods. And the people did eat and bow
down to their gods. And Israel joined himself unto
Baal Peor. And the anger of the Lord was
kindled against Israel. And the Lord said unto Moses,
Take all the heads of the people and hang them up before the Lord
against the sun. "'that the fierce anger of the
Lord "'may be turned away from Israel.' "'And Moses said unto
the judges of Israel, "'Slay ye every one of these men "'that
have joined unto Baal-peor. "'And behold, one of the children
of Israel "'came and brought unto his brethren "'a Midianitish
woman in the sight of Moses "'and the sight of all the congregation
"'of the children of Israel, "'who were weeping before the
door "'of the tabernacle of congregation.'" We're gonna stop there today
because we find a terrible situation going on in Israel. We find that
God only has ever dealt with people that have fallen in Adam,
and they have the same nature as Adam. They're dead in trespasses
and sin with one hand, and they are enmity with God in the other
hand. We will not have this man rule
over us. Well, we find that as Balaam
intended to weaken Israel by rendering them harmless and seducing
them, we find that there is a trait that is brought out here in this
chapter of the book. Verse 3, it tells us, "...Israel
joined himself to Baal-peor, and the anger of the LORD was
kindled against them." people were changed by the anger of
the Lord. I find no record here that anybody
was changed by the anger of the Lord. And in verse 4 it says,
and the Lord said unto Moses, take the heads of the people
that were leading this insurrection against God, slay them. But I
find nobody was ever changed by slaying those who were guilty.
And we read here in verse five, it says, and Moses said unto
the judges, slay every one of the men that were joined to Baal
Peor. And we find in verse nine, if
we drop down here, I didn't read it, but it tells us in verse
nine, there were 24,000 people slain as a result of this insurrection
against the thrice holy God. They would bring these gods into
Israel. Well, There is a situation here
that we find that all men are sinners, and sinners by nature,
and sinners by practice, and sinners by choice. But here we
find in the midst of them is a man by the name of Moses. What's
the difference with Moses? And then we're going to find
in there that there is one of the grandsons, I believe, of
Aaron that He stops the plague. What's the difference with him?
With Joshua and Caleb, what's the difference with them? Why
did they have a different vote than the other ten? What's the
difference with them? How many of these sinners knew
that they were sinners? Well, you know, I've come to
the conclusion, not very many of them. knew they were sinners. When we went through the book
of Leviticus, there are five or six different sacrifices that
sinners could be given to demonstrate that they have a God Almighty
that has saved them from their sins and that this is a demonstration
of their relationship with God. I need a mediator. I need a sacrifice. There is even a sacrifice if
you realize that you had sinned unknowingly or unwittingly. I�ve
come to the conclusion in reading all the rest of the Bible that
there were not very many people that brought those sacrifices,
because there were not very many sinners in Israel, just as in
the days of the Lord Jesus. We heard there this morning,
as read there in the book of Luke, that there was a a publican
and a sinner, and compared the notes between the two, and we
have the group of people in Israel that knew nothing about the gospel,
and we have the group in Israel that knew something about the
gospel, and what is the difference? Well, what was revealed to that
publican? God, be merciful to me, a sinner. That's the difference. God reveals
that truth to his people that we are sinners. You know, one
person said, a sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Spirit hath made
him thus. That's put into one of the hymns
we have in our green book. Turn with me, if you would, as
we think about this awful condition going on in Israel as God has
just demonstrated to us. He is protecting his people by
keeping Balaam from speaking evil against them and only speaking
good. He took the mouth of a lost man
and pronounced good upon the people of Israel, blessings upon
them. In the book of the Psalms, Psalm
51, we run into a fellow that has committed a great crime against
God, against himself, against his friends, and against the
nation of Israel. In the book of Psalms, Psalm
51. Now, in this Psalm, we find some
important things that God's people have relevancy to. how God's
people have understanding of how God's people because they
are given a demonstration in the new birth that they are sinners
and that they do need someone to stand in their place. God
only saves sinners. He came not to save the unrighteous,
but He came to save those who are lost. That's His mission,
and that's what He's going to do. In Psalm 51, verse 1, the
Scriptures share this, as the psalmist is writing by inspiration
of the Holy Spirit. This is David, and a prophet
came to him. A minister of the gospel came
to him. Someone who loved him came to him. A lover of souls
came to him and said, David, you are the man. You have committed
great crime against the thrice holy God. And David says here,
the Nathan the prophet came unto him after he had gone into Bathsheba.
Have mercy upon me, O God, according to thy lovingkindness, according
to the multitude of thy tender mercies. Blot out my transgressions. wash me thoroughly from my iniquity
and cleanse me from my sin. Notice verse three, for I acknowledge
my transgressions and my sin is ever before me. One thing
David shares with us here in this passage of scripture, that
he was over blaming someone else for the condition. He was the
culprit. He's the one that was a sinner
before God. Just as we read about that publican,
God be merciful to me a sinner, he realized he was the sinner
before God. And in verse 4 it says, against
thee and thee only have I sinned. Now there was a lot of people
that were sinners in that camp. of Israel. We probably have three
to six million people there. And many of them got involved
with this problem that came in. These women were brought over
there and their religion and their acts were so contrary to
God's law. But they carried off much of
Israel, and 24,000 of them God slew, plus all the heads of the
people. And David says, Against thee and thee only have I sinned,
and done this evil in thy sight, that thou mightest be justified
when thou speakest, and clear when thou judgest. Behold, I
was shapen in iniquity. And in sin did my mother conceive
me. He takes us back to the core of the problem. He takes us back
as God did there in Psalm 14. Nobody's looking after God. All
have gone out of the way. Nobody in Adam's children have
ever sought after God. Why do people seek after God? Because God brings them to that
point. He's the one. And then He says,
let's purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Where do we
find hyssop? We find hyssop there at the Passover
time. It's what the blood was used
to spatter the blood on the doorpost. He said, I need the blood of
Christ. I need His blood to be for me. Wash me, and I shall be whiter
than snow. Make me to hear joy and gladness. The bones which
thou hast broken may rejoice. Hide my face from my sins, and
blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O
God, and renew the right spirit within me. Cast me not away from
thy presence, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore
unto me the joy of thy salvation, and uphold me with thy free spirit. Here, as we read these things,
we find that in verse 3 that David said, I acknowledge my
transgressions. I'm not going to blame anybody
else for this. And it tells us, as we travel over to Psalm 32,
back up to Psalm 32, we find much of the same words here as
again brought out by David. But this is the confession of
God's people in Psalm 32, verse 1. It tells us here, blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. We have a whole throng of people
over there in Israel that don't know the problem. We have a whole
throng of people over there that don't know the condition that
they're in. And they're doing what comes natural, and that
is to sin against God. It is a serious crime against
God to sin against Him. It is a damnable crime. God has
every right in this world to damn everybody that has ever
sinned against Him. And yet we find that God in His
good providence and His love for a people that He chose before
the foundation of the world says, I will make accommodations for
them. I will not just forgive their
sins or set them aside, they must be paid for. He can be just
and justifier. He can be just in what he does
and justifier of the law of God. And it goes on, blessed is the
man, verse 2, of whom God The Lord imputeth not iniquity, and
who sins, there is no guile. When I kept silence, my bones
waxed old through my roaring all the day. For the day and
the night, thy hand was heavy upon me. My moistures turned
into drought of summer, Selah. Verse 5, And I acknowledged my
sin unto thee, and my iniquity have I not hid? I said, I will
confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgavest
the iniquity of my sin. What is it to be a sinner? A sinner that God has made a
sinner is a sacred thing. It is to acknowledge my sin unto
thee and he will put our iniquity away. I must say to me, and I
have people come to me, been a long time, don't bring your
sins to me. I don't have any nail prints in my hands. Take
them to the Lord. He's the one that can do something
about it. Now there's only one exception
to that rule. If you have sinned against your
brother or sister, it is time to go to them. That's your business,
to take it to them. But all the rest, take it to
the Lord. He meets His people alone. He's never asked any preacher
to become somebody where sin is confessed. He's never asked
any missionary to do that. He's never asked anybody to be
the one that hears all the problems. He has addressed God Almighty. Bring it to Him. Now we're going
to find out people in the Old Testament as David brought their
problems to God. How did they know they had a
problem? It was revealed unto them that they had a problem.
That they were children of Adam. They were sinners by nature,
sinners by practice, and sinners by choice. And He and He alone
can acquaint us with that fact. We can be those who have done
things wrong. We read about Judas. It says
Judas repented. You know, I've had people say,
well, he must have been saved. That's not what that word means.
You know what Judas did? He was sorry he got caught, and
that was it. He never acknowledged that he
was a sinner. Repentance so often is just that,
human effort to do away with something that we've done. Turn
with me if you would. There is a very clear plan in
scripture on how God deals with this, and in the book of Ezekiel
chapter 36. Turn with me, if you would, to
the book of Ezekiel chapter 36, and we find out that God has
just laid it out. It is not a formula. This is
just what God does. When I had made a profession
of faith, it was nothing but a formula. If you do this and
God does this, then it's going to be okay and you made your
profession of faith. Well, you find out that all that
stuff is not in accordance with the Word of God. You will not
find it in the Bible. You will not find that system
that is so prevalent in a religious world today. among good Christian
people, if you would. Well, we find that the Bible
is so clear, and here in the book of Ezekiel chapter 36, I
want to begin reading with verse 22. Chapter 36 of the book of
Ezekiel, here is how those people in the days of Numbers chapter
25, if God saved any of them, this is how it had to happen.
If he saved Moses, this is how it happened. If he saved Joshua
and Caleb, this is how it had to happen. And all the others
in the line that we read about that were faithful. Abraham,
he was a worshipper of other gods and held his fist to God
and said, I will not have you rule over me. But God came to
him in glory, and here in the book of Ezekiel chapter 36, beginning
with verse 22, we have this, which is what God does. He says,
Therefore say unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord
God, I do not this for your sakes. Who's going to get the glory
and salvation? Almighty God, it will not be
our glory. We will be given glory. I do
not this for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for my holy name's
sake. What does God save his people
for? For his name's sake. It is he
that's been offended. It is he that had sin cast against
him. And it is he that has the solution
for it. And when it takes place, we realize
this is for the glory of God. which ye have profaned among
the heathen, whether ye went, and I will sanctify my great
name. I want to set aside my name.
How does he do that? When he reveals to his people,
I had you in mind before the foundation of the world. I had
your name written down in the Lamb's Book of Life. I had a
covenant made between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit
that is going to save my people from their sins. I have a Lamb
slain. What is this? I'll sanctify my
great name and I will reveal this to my people that their
salvation is caused by God and for no other reason. It was not
because of repentance. It was not of crying a lot. It
was not of praying a lot. It was not signing a card. It
was not going forward. It was not coming to a bench.
It is because God will be glorified in it. I will sanctify my great
name, which was profaned among the heathen, which ye have profaned
in the midst of them, and the heathen shall know that I am
the Lord, saith the Lord God, when I shall sanctify it in you
before their eyes. What kind of activity did the
people of God have before God, before God saves them? They act
just like the heathen. They are angry with God. They're
enmity against God. They have no interest in God.
He looked down upon all men, and even those He has chosen
before the foundation of the world, and there's not one whit
in them that would encourage Him to do anything for them.
It is all because of grace. Verse 24, for I will take you
from among the heathen. He's gonna have to draw us out
of the position that we're in. There will be nothing on our
part. We don't grab a line and pull ourselves out of the muck
and mire. He lifts us. out of a horrible pit. He's the
one that is active in the salvation of his people. And I'll take
you from among the heathen, verse 24, and gather you out of all
countries, out of every nation, kindred, people, and tongue.
I'll bring my people where I placed them, and bring you into your
own land, and I'll sprinkle clean water upon you. There's going
to have to be clean water. This gospel message that God
has is clean to the core because it is the message of Christ and
nothing else. Nothing is added and nothing
is taken away. We find it is clean water. It
doesn't have any impurities in it. It is absolutely clean. It's the word of God. It's the
truth of the gospel. It is the gospel that God gave
from the very beginning mixed with nothing and added to nothing. I'll clean you with water from
your filthiness and from your idols will I cleanse you. Oh
my goodness, you're telling me that God only saves what? Filthy
and idolatrous. Yes, that's all he saves. Sinners
is all he saves. No one else. He came not to call
the righteous, but the sinners. And then he says, a new heart
also will I give you and a new spirit. You know, there's some
things that we find as we study the word of God. And number one,
God is, we need someone to deal with our sin. We find that someone
has to deal with it. I can't. And we also find out
that we need a spiritual life. By nature, we're dead in trespasses
and sin, and without a spiritual life granted to us in the new
birth, we'll never see God. And another thing that we absolutely
need is we must have perfect righteousness. Our righteousness
is filthy rags. We must have perfect righteousness.
We must have sin dealt with. We must have a new heart. And then we find out that we
must have his righteousness. It tells us here, a new heart
also will I give you. That's something we cannot do.
We can't create a new heart. We can't create a heart that
loves God. We can't create a heart that will put God first and us
second. We're always the other way around.
Thank God that I'm not like other men. My, that's a religious man
talking. That's a Baptist. That's a Methodist. That's a Mormon. That's a Jehovah's
Witness. That's all the religions of the
world. Mohammedan, whatever you want to go, wherever it is, all
the same. I thank God I'm not like other folks. And then by
the grace of God, you hear a cry from one man and says, God, be
merciful to me, a sinner. That man went down to his house
justified. How did he get justification?
God gave it to him. He's the only one that can justify. I'll put my spear with you, verse
27, and cause you to walk in my statues and keep my judgments
and do them. We find out that the only way
we can keep what God has commanded us to keep is in Christ Jesus
the Lord. He fulfilled the law. He's kept
it and we are in him. And ye shall dwell in the land
that I gave your fathers and ye shall be my people and I'll
be your God. What's the land that he gave?
That is the covenant of grace, glorified. And then he says,
I will also save you from all your uncleanness. I will call
for the corn and increase it and lay no famine upon you and
I'll multiply the fruit of the tree. How God works in his people
to have fruits of righteousness. We find we are by grace are you
saved through faith and that not of yourselves It's a gift
of God not of works lest any man should boast for we are his
workmanship Created in Christ Jesus unto good works good works
never paid for anything good works are a result of activity
of Almighty God I Will multiply I'll receive You shall receive
no more reproach of famine among the heathen verse 31 Then shall ye remember. It is now we can see ourselves
as God writes about us. He's done all the work. One preacher
asks, what is it that we bring to the table? Verse 31, our sin,
our very nature. Then shall you remember your
own evil ways and your doings that were not good and shall
loathe yourselves in your own sight for your own, your iniquities
and for your abominations. Oh God, be merciful to me, a
sinner. You know, David said it and every
believer has said much the same way. Against thee and thee only
have I sinned. I confess my sins. I come as
a sinner. I know that God saves sinners
and I'm thankful for that because without it I'd not be saved.
You know, when we think about confessing sin, acknowledging
God is right on the matter, taking God's side against ourselves. Our nature says, I'm okay. I've
got a few bad things in there, but I'm okay. I've got so many
more good things that will outweigh my bad things. I'll be okay.
And God says, no, you won't. You are not. You are not okay. From the bottom of your feet
to the top of your head, you are wrong. There's sores and
all kinds of indignities that are there by nature. Well, when
it comes to the confession of sin, we find out that when we
do that, when we acknowledge our sin, when we as the publicans
say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. You know what that
does? First of all, it honors God's
law. Now the law has never been something
to cause people to be saved by. Keeping the law will not save
anybody. Nobody is saved by keeping the law. The Lord fulfilled the
law on our behalf. But when we confess that we are
what the Bible says we are, we're honoring His law and we are saying,
I have broken them all. Not one have I kept. Oh, to say,
how are you doing with the Ten Commandments? Well, I got most
of them down. I'm working on a couple of them. That's a lie
because we cannot keep any of them. But when we come before
God, as He has revealed to us our very nature, we are honoring
what God said in the Word of God about His Word. It is right. He has the right to have this
standard. And we cannot keep it. Keeping
the law is impossible. Confessing this as David did. Against thee and thee only have
I sinned. You know, we are admitting that
God is just. And his justice is right, that
he had the right to condemn everybody in the fall to an everlasting
pit. That what he has to say about
those on the left-hand side is absolutely right. We cannot argue
against it. We cannot kick against it. We
must admit, if it wasn't for the grace of God, I'd be there.
God's confession is justice to damn me. You know, I've visited
with a lot of people in religion. I've visited with a lot of people.
And very, very, very few people, including myself, ever did anything
bad enough to go to hell. I can understand why there's
a religious group that's got a whole doctrine that's unscriptural
by nature, unscriptural by practice, but there's a place that you
can go to and get cleaned up a little bit. Do you know that
there are even some that believe that there's going to be enough
time spent in hell you can come out? Not in the Word of God,
it's not. It is justice served. Depart
from me, ye workers of iniquity, I never knew you. But confession
of sin is an admission that God is right to do what he does. He has every right to sink me
to the devil's hell. He is God, I have sinned against
him and he has the right to do that. But thanks be unto God
for grace. He has lifted me out of that
pit and out of that condemnation. We find out that God, we hated
Him with every fiber of our being, but He never hated His people. He never had a wrong thought
towards them. He said, I've loved you with
an everlasting love, and from the very beginning, we hated
God, enmity with Him. Well, we're thankful that God
was working on our part because we'd not have anything. Confession
of sin recognizes that God is omniscient. You know what? He knew all about it. Who knew
about David's sin with Bathsheba? Well, he took Bathsheba's husband
and put her finally on the front of the line and had him killed.
Tried to evaporate all of the consequences and everything about
what was going on. We find out that God, when we
come before him saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner,
we are agreeing that he knew all about it from the beginning.
He knew that we were sinners. In fact, Christ died for sinners. He loved us, even while we were
yet sinners. This is God's activity, active
grace on our behalf. Hebrews chapter four and verse
13. Would you turn there with me? Hebrews chapter four and
verse 13. We find out in Hebrews chapter
four and verse 13, there's nothing goes on that he does not know
of. Hebrews chapter four and verse 13. Here's the one we have
to deal with. Here's the one with whom we have
to do. This is him. It tells us here
in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 13, neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight. He knows it all. He knows the
fish that brought the gold. He knew the fish that he created
to swallow Jonah. He knew all about that. And in
fact, he goes on to say, but all things are naked and open
unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. He is omniscient. He knows all things. He knows
the very thoughts of our heart. He knows everything about us
and everything about everybody and everything about everybody
that's ever lived. And so when we come, as David
did, says, I acknowledge my sin. We're saying, God, you knew all
about it all along. You're omniscient. Besides that,
you're omnipotent. Besides that, you're omnipresent. You have all the wonderful characters
of an almighty God. You are the Savior. No one, nothing
else could do what was necessary to save His people from their
sin but a great God. He has a great Bunch of sinners
that are great sinners, so we need a great God. Confession
as David did, and as we're going to find a few of the people in
Israel did. Confession against thee and thee
only have I sinned. You know, when we do that, we
are exalting the very mercy of God. What did that publican say? God be merciful. God be merciful. Oh, I need your
mercy. Mercy cannot be demanded, but
it can be pled. Boy, when we go into a courtroom,
I plead the mercy of the judge. You cannot demand it. Mercy is
not demanded. Mercy is given by God. And this
mercy, oh God, be merciful to me, the sinner. God, be merciful. So when we do as David did, when
people throughout the scriptures we find, and those that he saves
even today, what does God do with those he
has caused to know their sin? He does show them mercy. What
God does with those who come like David and said, against
thee and thee only have I sinned. You know, it works. Godly sorrow. Not, I'm sorry I got caught.
My mother and my dad both used to wear out my backside because
I got caught doing something. And I have to admit that I didn't
get caught for near all I did. They couldn't catch it all. You
got four or five in the household and you got one of them actively
involved in causing hate and discontent, parents can't catch
it all. But when they did, they actively
got involved. Well, with God, it's more than
just having a sorrow about being sorrowful. It is a godly sorrow
that worketh repentance. You know, repentance is a gift
of God. Repentance really means a change
of mind, a change of mind about God. I will not have you rule
over me till please take over. Sorrow that had God for its author. It did not arise from power of
free will, nor from the dictates of natural conscience, nor from
the work of the law on our hearts, or from the fear of hell and
damnation, but it springs from the free grace of God. Godly sorrow works from the free
grace of God. It's not how bad we feel towards
the situation, it's godly sorrow that God works. You know, God,
as we confess our sin, we find out that we're in union with
Christ. What's that mean? You know, in
the book of Isaiah 53, it says, and he was numbered with the
transgressors. It's hard to find transgressors.
It's hard to find sinners. They are a sacred thing because
the Holy Spirit hath made them thus. But when they are, as David
shares with us, with regard to his sin, against thee and thee
only have I sinned, I acknowledge my sin, God. He didn't take it
to the priest, he took it to God. Thank God it was written
down. We can read it and say, oh, I
know how he felt. I know. Why? Confession of sin puts us in
union with Christ. He was numbered with the transgressors
and bear the sins of many and made intercession for the transgressors. Transgressors have intercession
made for them, and it gives us that union. If we're not a sinner,
we're not with Christ. If we're not a sinner, He didn't
die for us. If we're not a sinner, He has
no place for us. If we're not a sinner, we're
on the left-hand side, and He says, depart from Me. Oh, I've
done many mighty works in thy name. I've even preached in your
name. I've went door to door in your name. I've passed out
boxes of food in your name. I've done the feeding of people
in your name. He says, that doesn't count one
whit. You have no knowledge of Christ.
You have not acknowledged him. And so we find there's no transgressions. He is just. It tells us that
in Mark chapter 15, they crucified two thieves, the one on the right
hand and the one on the left. Why did they do that? Because he's demonstrating his
union with sinners. You know on one side there's
a Jacob and on the other side there's an Esau. The one on the
Right hand side, God be merciful to me. When you enter into your
kingdom, remember me. And the other guy says, if you
be Christ, take this down from this place. That one man said,
we're getting justly what we deserve. We're getting exactly
what we deserve. This is what we deserve. And
the other guy, he just went out of this life a vessel of dishonor
from the same lump. And the scripture was fulfilled,
which saith, and he was numbered with the transgressors. For when
we were yet without strength, Christ in due time, Christ died
for the ungodly. You know, it's hard to find ungodly
people. It's hard to find sinners. I remember hearing about a preacher
that went into a hospital. And he went into this room, any
sinners in here? Nobody said a word. Go to the next room,
any sinners in here? No, not a word. Went to another
room. Finally, he went into a room and says, is there any sinners
in here? One man said, yes, I am. I am a saved sinner by the grace
of God. You know, that's what God calls
sinners. Turn with me, if you would, again,
back to the book of the Psalms. This is the people that God's
dealing with. They're in Numbers chapter 25. A whole bunch of
people. that without God, without Christ,
without hope in the world, they're not sinners. Oh, everything's
going on fine. There are just a few that know
anything about their place before Almighty God. And here in the
book of the Psalms again, Psalm 32. Let's go back there to the
book of the Psalms. Psalm 32. Psalm 32 in verse 2.
What do we read here? Psalm 32 in verse 2. Blessed. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. There's only one that can deal
with us in such a way that he does not impute our sin against
us. And in whose spirit there is
no guile. That word guile means deceit
or treachery or sneakiness. Sneakiness. Blessed is the man
unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit
there is no guile. Verse 5, I acknowledge my sin
unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will
confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgave us
the iniquity of my sin. And what did that do for David?
We just read those things. honors God's law. God is just. He had every right
to judge me, but he gave me grace. It recognizes God's omniscience. He knew all about me to begin
with. I didn't hide anything anyway. Oh, I don't know how
many times I failed to let my parents know all the things were
going on. Well, God knew it all along. Confession of sin exalts
God's mercy. It works godly sorrow. It puts us in union with Christ.
He loves sinners. Brother Nathan.