Good evening. Let's all stand
together. We'll sing hymn number 46. Number 46. O for a thousand tongues to sing
my great Redeemer's praise, the glories of my God and King, the
triumphs of His grace. My gracious Master and my God,
assist me to proclaim To spread through all the earth abroad
the honors of thy name. Jesus, the name that charms our
fears, that bids our sorrows cease. to his music in the sinner's
ears, to his life and health and peace. He breaks the power
of cancelled sin. He sets the prisoner free. His blood can make the foulest
clean. His blood availed for me. Hear Him, ye deaf, His praise
ye dumb, Your loosened tongues employ. Ye blind, behold your
Savior come, And leap, ye lame, for joy. Glory to God and praise
and love be ever, ever given by saints below and saints above
the church in earth and heaven. Be seated. We'll sing hymn number
204. 204. Oh soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you
see. There's life for it, look at
the Savior, and life more abundant and free. Turn your eyes upon
Jesus Look full in his wonderful face And the things of earth
will grow strangely dim In the light of His glory and grace. Through death into life everlasting. He passed and we follow him there. Over us and no more hath dominion. For more than conquerors we are. Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in his wonderful face. and the things of earth will
grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. His word shall not fail you,
he promised, Believe Him and all will be well. Then go to a world that is dying,
His perfect salvation to tell. Turn your eyes upon Jesus Look
full in his wonderful face And the things of earth will grow
strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace. Good evening. If you will, open
your Bibles to Genesis chapter 3. A well-known sovereign grace
preacher wrote this right up about Genesis chapter 3, and
if that's all right, I'd like to read it. He said, The sin
and fall of our father Adam, like all other things, was predestinated
by God in eternity and was brought to pass by the rule of God's
sovereign providence for the eternal good of God's elect and
the glory of his own great name. He said, Had Adam not fallen,
we could never have known the glory of God's grace in Christ. Adam fell in the garden according
to God's purpose so that we might know the love, the grace, the
wisdom, and the glory of God in Christ, the Lamb of God slain
from the foundation of the world. Genesis chapter 3. Now the serpent was more subtle
than any beast of the field, which the Lord God had made.
And he said unto the woman, yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat
of every tree of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent,
we may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden, but of the
fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, God
hath said, ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it,
lest ye die. And the serpent said unto the
woman, you shall not surely die, for God doth know that in the
day that ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and
you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman
saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant
to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she
took of the fruit thereof, and did eat. and gave also to her
husband with her, and he did eat. And the eyes of them both
were opened, and they knew they were naked. And they sewed fig
leaves together and made themselves aprons. And when they heard the
voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of
the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence
of the Lord amongst the trees of the garden. And the Lord God
called unto Adam and said unto him, Where art thou? And he said,
I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was
naked, and I hid myself. And he said, who told thee that
thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof
I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? And the man said, the
woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree,
and I did eat. And the Lord God said unto the
woman, what is this that thou hast done? And the woman said,
the serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. And the Lord God said
unto the serpent, because thou hast done this, Thou art cursed above all 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, and between thy seed and
her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and
thou shalt bruise his heel. And to the woman, he said, I
will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception in sorrow.
In sorrow thou shalt bring forth children, and thy desire shall
be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. And unto Adam,
he said, because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and
hast eaten of the tree which I commanded thee, saying thou
shalt not eat of it, cursed is the ground for thy sake. In sorrow
shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. Thorns also,
and thistles shall it bring forth to thee, and thou shalt eat the
herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt
thou eat bread till thou return unto the ground, for out of it
was thou taken, for thus thou art, and unto thus shalt thou
return." And Adam called his wife's name Eve. because she
was the mother of all living. Unto Adam also, and to his wife
did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them. And
the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to
know good and evil, and now lest he put forth his hand, and take
also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. Therefore
the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the
ground from which he was taken. So he drove out the man, and
he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubims, and
a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of
the tree of life. Dear Heavenly Father, in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Lord, we come thankful. Thank
you that you've caused us to come here. Thank you, Lord, that
we have a place that we can hear the gospel of Christ. Thank you,
Lord, for this body of believers. Pray that you'd bless them and
meet their needs. Pray for Brother Darnley that you'd send the Holy
Spirit to him and cause him to tell us once again this evening
about our Savior. Forgive us, Lord, of our sins.
Forgive us of everything, a son like you. Pray for the sick and
the travelers, Lord. Pray that you'd be with them.
The sick, you'd heal them if it be thy will. Pray for our
families, Lord, the ones that don't know you. Pray that you'd
give them a need. Cause them to come hear the gospel.
In Christ's name I pray, amen. Page 31 in our course book, So
How Merciful. Page 31 in our course books. When I was lost in sin and shame,
how Thou let me take the blame. Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
was to me. when I could look down deep within
and see the sinfulness of sin. Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
was to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
art to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
art to me. A sinner lost and so hell-bent,
Yet thou say'st, I must repent. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
was to me. I wonder why should I rebel and
with the soul deserving hell blessed Lord how merciful thou
was to me Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
art to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
art to me. I'm not ashamed of all thy grace. when thou came and took my place. Blessed Lord, how merciful thou
art to me. And when this world ceases to
be, eternal blood to speak for me. Blessed Lord, how merciful
thou art to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful. Thou art to me. Oh, how merciful, how merciful. Blessed Lord, how merciful Thou
art to me. 1 John 2. 1 John chapter 2. Dealing with Christ in the A's
is altar, ark, atonement, and now an advocate. Now our
advocate. It says in verse chapter 1 John
2, verses 1 and 2. My little children, these things
write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He is the propitiation for
our sins, and not for ours only, but also for the whole world. Now, an advocate, of course, means a comforter,
means one who stands good for you. But the Lord Jesus Christ
has many titles, many titles. He's called the Wonderful, the
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. He's called a Savior. He's called
the Ensign of His people. He's called our intercessor. He's called our priest. He's
called our altar. And His titles or His names or
His offices given to Him tells us what He did for His people. And it reveals His names and
His titles reveals what His work on behalf of His elect sinners.
If he's called a Savior, that means he saves. No use being
a Savior if you can't save. There's no use being a high priest
unless you've got somebody that can offer a sacrifice, somebody
that can be on the right hand of God, as our great high priest. There's no reason to having an advocate or an arch or a Savior
a high priest or ANYTHING of our Lord Jesus Christ, and I
tell you, all of His titles tell us what work He did on behalf
of His elect, on the behalf of His elect. And here He's called
our Advocate. My little children, these things
I write unto you, that ye sin not. If any man sin, we have
an Advocate, we have an Advocate with the Father. And an advocate
is the same word as a comforter, the same word used as a comforter.
Our Lord said, I'll send another comforter, I'll send an advocate,
I'll send one to comfort for you. An advocate, and this is
the only place our Lord's called an advocate, and it also means
a lawyer, someone to be a comfort when you're in the presence of
a judge and you're charged with a crime. The first thing people
ought to say is, I need a lawyer. Give me a lawyer. Well, you know
why we need a lawyer? You know why we need an advocate?
Look down here in verse 8 of chapter 1. This is why we need
an advocate. This is why we need a comforter
before the judge of all the earth. If we say that we have no sin,
we deceive ourselves and the truth's not in us. Say we don't
have any. Say we've never had any, never
will have any. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves and there's no truth about us. If we confess
our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and
to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned,
we make Him a liar and His Word is not in us. So since we have
sinned, WE ARE SINNED, AND WE HAVE SINNED, AND WE CERTAINLY
DON'T WANT TO MAKE GOD TO BE A LIAR, AND WE WANT TO KNOW THE
TRUTH AND SAY THE TRUTH IS IN US. SO SINCE WE ARE IN THAT CONDITION,
I THINK WE NEED A LAWYER. I THINK WE NEED AN ADVOCATE,
AND OH, MY! AND THEN THE FIRST THING HE SAYS
IS, MY LITTLE CHILDREN. MY LITTLE CHILDREN. I looked
this up the other day. How many times he said this?
He called them nine times in this five chapters, five short
chapters. He called them MY LITTLE CHILDREN.
Why would you think he'd call them MY LITTLE CHILDREN? Why
would you do that? Because he said, you know, that
there was the fathers, the young men, the fathers, and the elders.
But I think he called them my little children probably because
they were begotten of the gospel through him. So many people was
converted under this man. This was the man who the scripture
says the disciple whom Jesus loved that leaned on the breast
of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the same John. He said,
my little children. most likely begotten of the gospel
by him. And then also he calls them my
little children because they were so precious and so dear
to him and he loved them so very, very much, my little children. And he says in these things I
write unto you. I write unto you, who? My little
children, my children. I'm writing these things unto
you. And he said, This is the first thing I want to say to
you. I write unto you that ye sin not, sin not. And I'll tell you over here in
verse 7 it says, verse chapter 1, If we walk in the light, as
he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood
of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin. And then he
says also in verse 9, If we confess our sins, he's faithful and just
to forgive us our sins. And he said, I write unto you
that you sin not. And what he's saying then, can
we sin without fear? Can we sin without impunity? He said, little children, sin
not. So then we automatically think, Well, can we sin without
any fear of retribution? Can we sin without any fear of
impunity? Paul says, You know, shall we
continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! How can we
that are dead to sin live any longer therein? And he says,
Sin not! And what he's saying is, You
don't HAVE to sin! You don't HAVE to! You don't
NEED to sin! And what he's saying is, you
don't need to sin just because you've been shown grace. That's
what he's saying. My little children, I'll right
unto you that you sin not. You remember in our Lord Jesus
Christ, when the woman was taken in adultery, and he said, he's
without sin among you, let him cast the first stone. And they
all began to dwindle away. And he said, woman, thy sins
be forgiven thee, and go and sin no more. Do you think that
woman went and never sinned again her whole life? And you think
our Lord, when He says here that you sin not, what He's telling
us is, I would say that when I said, Sin not, sin not, your
love, and me included, and I tell you, you and me included, began
to make excuses. begin to think, oh, begin to
prepare arguments in your mind as to why you cannot not sin. What he just said about little
children, sin not. Sin not. Now I want to show you
something. And if any man sin, if any man
sin, now we just read why we need an advocate. If any man
sin, oh my. Now there's three ways to look
at the word IF, three ways to look at the word IF. IF, there
is a IF of certainty. You know, if you do such and
such a thing, this is gonna be the effect of it. This IF here,
if you do what it says not to do, then that IF, if you go against
it, it'll cause this effect upon you, cause and effect. And then
there's another IF which means maybe, maybe, it may happen. If, it may be, may happen. And there's an if, it may not,
it may not. You don't have to, you don't
have to. And that's why I said, any man
sin. Now, I'll tell you, beloved, we have to admit being sinners,
we have to admit to that. We can't deny it. We can't deny
it. Christ came to save sinners.
That's the saying of worthy all that temptation that Christ Jesus
came into the world to save sinners. And he said, I'm the chief. But
one thing about it, we're sinners saved by the grace of God. And
let me tell you something. We no longer love sin. Let's put it that way. We no
longer love sin. Anybody here love sin? We've been saved from the power
of sin, the dominion of sin. Romans 6, 14 says that sins no
longer shall have dominion over you. That means not have power
over you, not have rule over you, not have reign over you,
because we're under grace. And I'll tell you something else
we don't, we have to admit, if any man sin, we have to admit
we're sinners. And I tell you something else a believer doesn't
do. He does not boast over his sin. He'll never boast over his
sin. Paul talked about those whose
glory is their shame. Whose glory is their shame. And
we are ashamed of our sin. I'm so ashamed of my sin. I'm more ashamed of what I've
been in my life. So ashamed of what I think. So
ashamed of where I've been. So ashamed of the things that
I've said. So ashamed of it. Hold it, 1
John. Look over here with me in Romans
6, and look in verse 21. Romans 6, 21. And you know my greatest shame,
and I mean I'm ashamed of a lot of things, That's why testimonies
meetings are so awful, so, so awful. Everybody wants to talk
about how bad they were, how bad they were. And they glory
in and brag about how bad they were, how mean they were, all
the things. And they say, well, but now,
you know, but here's the thing about it. We don't have to tell
either one of us what we are. You don't have to tell me what
you are. You don't have to tell me what you think. You don't
have to tell me how you feel. all in the same boat, huh? And that's what he said here.
Look in Romans 6.21 with me for a moment. But what fruit had ye then, and
those things whereof ye are now ashamed? Did you have any fruit
in your sin? Did you have any fruit in your
religion? Did you have any fruit in your dead works? Did you have
any fruit in your self-righteousness? Did you bring forth any fruit
by the flesh? No, no. Oh my, everything we
done before coming to Christ, shamed. For the end of these
things is death. The things that we did was death.
Oh my, we're shamed. And oh my, and I'll tell you
something else. We don't sin with deliberation.
We don't get up and say, now I'm gonna go commit this sin
today. I'm gonna be mean today. I'm
gonna be hateful today. I'm gonna be contrary today.
I'm gonna hit somebody today. I'm gonna cuss somebody today.
We don't get up and say, well, I'm gonna be this cruel today. I'm gonna tell these stupid jokes
today. We don't get up with the idea
that we're gonna deliberately get up and do something against
God. Do something against the grace
of God. Do something against the word
of God. We don't get up like that, do we? Oh no, no, we wouldn't
do that. We don't plan our sin and we
don't plan our sins. We don't have to. We have enough
of it. Let me show you in Ephesians
5. Go over here in Ephesians 5. This is what I'm talking about. Oh, Ephesians 5. Oh my, that's
what we don't plan. We don't sin with deliberation. You know, I had a I had an uncle by marriage
years ago. And on Friday night, he'd say,
boy, I hate to do it. I just hate to do it. But I got
to go to town and get drunk. And you know, he planned on it.
He deliberately, he said, he planned on going and getting
drunk. Now there's lots of folks say
they plan their sin. They plan what they're gonna
get into. They plan where they're gonna go and who they're gonna
do it with and all the things that they're gonna do. Do you
get up and plan that I'm gonna be this certain way today? Wouldn't
you love to get up one day and by God's grace never let an evil
thought go across your mind? Never let a prideful thought
come across your mind. Never let a harsh feeling get
in your soul, huh? Wouldn't you love to do that?
But oh my, look what he said here, Ephesians 5.8. This is
what we're talking about. For you were sometimes darkness,
but now light in the Lord. Walk as children of light. Our Lord said, he that follows
me shall not walk in darkness. Now listen to this, for the fruit
of the spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth.
Oh, goodness comes from the fruit of, from the grace of God. Righteousness
comes from it, truth comes from it. And all these things we're
proven, we're proven what is acceptable under the Lord. Oh
God, please help us to honor you and glorify you and have
no fellowship No union communion with the unfruitful works of
darkness, but rather reprove them. Now listen to this. For it is a shame even to speak
of those things which are done of them in secret. Don't even
talk about what has been done in secret. Oh my. And I tell you what, and I'm
going to tell you another thing about if any man sins. We'd only
find enjoyment in our sin. You know, the apostle said there's
pleasure in sin for a SEASON, but all the consequences of it.
We never, never find enjoyment in sin. Do you enjoy being proud? Do you enjoy feeling self-righteous? Do you enjoy BEING HARSH AND
IMPATIENT AND CRITICAL AND JUDGMENTAL, DO YOU ENJOY THAT? NO, WE DON'T
ENJOY, WE DON'T HAVE ANY ENJOYMENT IN OUR SIN, AND I'LL TELL YOU
SOMETHING, WE DON'T EXCUSE IT, WE DON'T JUSTIFY IT, WE CONDEMN
IT IN OURSELVES. I WON'T CONDEMN IT IN NOBODY
ELSE, BUT I'LL CERTAINLY CONDEMN IT IN ME. I KNOW THAT I, OH GOD,
PLEASE DON'T LET ME. AND THAT'S WHY PAUL, HE SAID
IN ROME, HE SAID, IS THAT THAT I WOULD DO? I DON'T. And that
that I would do and love it, I end up doing what I hate. So
then I see this law, I see this principle, I see this principle
in my members that when I would do good, when I would do good,
here comes evil. It turns that good into something
that makes me feel good about what I've done that was good.
You understand that? Makes me feel good because I've
done something that I thought was good. That makes it bad right
then. That makes it unacceptable that
moment. Oh my. Oh. And I'll tell you something.
Here's the thing, we are different in the habits of sin. You know,
the Scriptures tells us we FALL into sin. We don't JUMP into
it, sometimes we FALL! And the Scriptures tells us it
OVERTAKES us! It overtakes us! But oh my, one
thing I can tell you, we don't abide in sin. We don't do it. No, we don't. Look what he said
here in I John 1, 6. If we say that we have fellowship,
union, and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ and the Father,
and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. Oh my. We may fall in it, we may overtake
us, but oh my. There's a great difference in
sheep and hogs, great difference in them. Great, great difference
in it. A sheep, he has to have a shepherd. He'll get lost going around the
barn. You know, you get him on one
side of the barn, he can't find his way back to the other side.
He really can't. Poor old sheep, they have to
be led. They have to have a shepherd
go before them. I watched a bunch of dogs one
time, and these dogs, heard sheep, border collies, and I watched
a fella one time with just a whistle. Every whistle was different.
And he could take sheep and separate one sheep from a whole bunch
of them and get them off by himself. He could take a bunch and he
said, I want them through that gate. And he'd whistle a certain
way. And he'd whistle and that dog
would lay down. And he'd say, I want five sheep.
I won't whistle and he'll put five sheep over here. He can
do anything out there that's unbelievable. And you can take
two dogs and take a hundred sheep and you can make them go wherever
you want to. And that's the difference is that God don't use dogs to
do us. He leads us by the shepherd.
The only dogs that we hate is that dog of sin that's biting
at our heels. But oh, there's a difference
now. Oh, hog, you take him out. And they have these... 4H things,
and they'll bring them pigs in there, them hogs in there, and
they'll curl their tail just right and brush it up good, scrub
them, and oh my, and they'll take them out there, and oh,
somebody will be the top hog. But you know what they gonna
do with it? They gonna kill it. But I tell you, you leave a hog
do what it wants to, and it won't be long, it'll have him a mud
hole, and you throw his food in the mud hole, and he'll eat
the food right out of the mud. And then there's a difference
between an old crow and a robin. An old crow will eat anything.
He'll lay down and start eating something dead on the side of
the road. He'll eat old dead rotten corrupt things. But a
robin won't. A dove won't. A dove won't do
it. Oh no, and that's the way we
are. I mean, a sheep may fall into the hog pen, but he's gonna
get out of there and Christ's gonna cleanse him. He don't wanna
be in that hog pen. No, no. The scriptures tells
us we're new creatures in Christ. Christ is in us, the hope of
glory. And I tell you what, our imperfect
nature is why we are sinners. They are in perfect nature. And
we cannot but sin as long as Adam is in us. Sin, I'm telling
you, mars everything we do. I've never, sin mars everything I do. It
does. Oh my. Sin is an attitude, it's
a nature. It mars our repentance. It mars
our Bible readings. It mars our prayers. It mars our tears, and we ought
to cry over our tears. We ought to repent over our repentance,
because sin mars everything we do. It mars my preaching. It
mars my praying. It mars my study. It mars everything
I do. Does it do you? Oh my, we leave off what we should
do, do what we shouldn't do. Sin is not only in what we do,
but sin's also in what we don't do. If a man knows to do good
and does it not, to him it's sin. It's one thing to do what
you shouldn't do, but it's also something that we do that we
shouldn't do. Oh my. Sinner is my name. Sinner's my nature, but thank
God I'm a sinner saved by His blessed, blessed grace. Look
over here in 1 John 3, 9, look what it says. 1 John 3, 9, Whosoever is born
of God, listen to this, This shows us our two natures plainly. Whosoever is born of God does
not commit sin. We got a nature that can't sin.
That's why this new nature hates this sin. And look what he goes
on to say. For his seed, whose seed? Christ's
seed remains in him, and he cannot sin because he's born of God.
Now that's a mystery, but that's what it says. But now you see
why we need an advocate. And it tells us back over here
in 1 John 2, we have an advocate. We have a lawyer. And guess who
that lawyer is, has a relationship with? And if any man see him,
we have an advocate with the Father. Who is he? Jesus Christ the righteous. We have an advocate. You know
what? When your lawyer knows the father, and is intimate with
the father, and in love to the father, I think you stand a pretty
good, it's gonna look good at you when you go into court. It's
gonna look good for you. And an advocate has to do with
law, law. And judge, and in a courthouse,
and in a courtroom. And you know, it told us about,
you know, the spirits of just men made perfect, the judge of
all the earth, judge of all who's in the spirits of just men made
perfect. Now, God's a judge of all the
earth and He must do right, He must do right. And here's our
problem, I just admitted, we're guilty, we're guilty. But what
is the, you know, we have an adversary, we have an accuser
of the brethren. And what's this advocate's qualifications? Everybody wants the very best
lawyer. You know, people that's got lots
and lots of money, they get off 99 out of 100 times because they
can afford the very best lawyer money can buy. Now, what does a poor man do?
What does somebody like us do? Oh, my. But I tell you what,
what are his qualifications? I know this, the greater the
charge against us, the greater the lawyer we need, and there
are some awful charges against us, oh my! And then look, not
only does it say we have an advocate with the Father, oh, he's well-qualified,
he's with the Father. And then look what it says, he's
the perpetuation for our sins. Oh my. What's a propitiation? What is a propitiation? You know,
and there's two ways of looking at propitiation. Propitiation
means a mercy seat. And it also means on that mercy
seat to appease the wrath of God. To take away the wrath of
God by that mercy seat. Because sins are put on that
mercy seat. And Christ is our mercy seat.
That's what propitiation is. Christ Himself is our mercy seat. And His blood is what's on that
mercy seat. and listen to me now, and the
Father sent him forth to be a propitiation. God ordained him, predestinated
him, ordained him to be our sacrifice, our atoning victim, the one that
God would take away his wrath and he would appease the wrath
of God and put it away. And God now, when He looks at
the mercy seat and He looks at the propitiation, He looks at
His Son. So he's well qualified, oh my! And as a mercy seat, he's the
atoning sacrifice to pay debt to justice. He's just, faithful
and just to forgive us our sins. Why? Because of Christ being
our propitiation. And then it says he's the son
of the Father. Oh, what a qualification that
is! Oh my, he's the son of the Father. Worn with him, always
loved by him, always with him. I read a story one time, I believe it was during the Roman
Empire, I believe it when Rome was ruling the world, that a
judge was sitting on the throne and they brought
his own son in to face him. And what his son had done, it
required that one of his eyes or both of his eyes be put out. Take his eyes and put them out. And that judge had to pass a
sentence on his own son. And you know what he did? He
said, if you want two eyes, take one of mine and just one of his.
And that's the way our Lord Jesus Christ said, you want them? Come
get me. You want both their eyes? Take
mine. You want their death? Take mine.
You want blood? Take mine. You want sin put away? Give it to me to do, and I'll
do it. Oh, my, He's the Son of the Father,
and look what else it says about Him there. It says, Jesus Christ
the Righteous. You know, most lawyers are They're
pretty slick, they're pretty sneaky. They'll do whatever's
necessary. But some lawyers can be bribed,
some judges can be bribed, but our judge, the judge of all the
earth can't be bribed. But he is Jesus Christ the righteous. How long has he been righteous?
As long as he has been. In fact, He was righteous when
he come into this world. He was born righteous. He lived
righteous. And I told you the other day,
righteous means doing everything absolutely right all the time,
24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, all the days
of your life. And that's the way our Lord Jesus
Christ did. He was born righteous. And God raised him from the dead
because he was righteous and he satisfied God Almighty. He
is righteous in his life, Jesus, the man, God, the righteous one. And that's what the gospel does.
The gospel reveals, reveals to us the righteousness of God. And then he shows us where we
get that righteousness at. CHRIST IS OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS,
GOD MADE HIM TO BE SIN, THAT WE MIGHT BE MADE THE RIGHTEOUSNESS
OF GOD IN HIM. OH MY! OH, HERE IN COURT, YOU
GET IN A COURTHOUSE AND GET IN A COURTROOM, YOU MAY HAVE AN
UNJUST LAWYER, YET HE PLEADS A JUST CAUSE AND HE WINS. CHRIST IS JUST, CHRIST IS RIGHTEOUS,
AND LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING, He only, only, only takes on
every case that's guilty. He won't take on anybody that's
not guilty. He won't do it. Oh my. And I'll tell you something,
if you're not guilty, you don't need Him. Don't need the Lord. He's the only one, I'll tell
you something else, He's the only one that can practice in
heaven. His practice is in heaven, in
the presence of the Father. And He's the ONLY Advocate, ONLY
Lawyer who has NEVER, EVER lost a case. And I'll tell you something else
about Him, He's the ONLY Lawyer who takes ONLY the GUILTY, and
THEY have to ADMIT their guilt before He'll even take the case. He always makes them. You know,
that's the first thing your lawyer tells you when you go up and,
you know, and I don't care how many things are against you.
Not guilty. Not guilty, your honor. That's
what they say. Not guilty. Well, Christ ain't going to be
your advocate until you say guilty. Boy, you went where you shouldn't
have gone. Guilty. You said what you shouldn't have
said. Guilty. You acted where you shouldn't have.
Guilty. Listen, one fellow said one time,
if I haven't done it, I've thought about doing it. And that's the
way we are. What we haven't done, we've thought
about doing it. And oh my. I'll tell you something
else. He always, always gets his clients
off. Gets them off. And how does he
get them cleared of all their guilt? How does he do it? HOW
DOES HE CLEAR THEM OF ALL THEIR GUILT? HOW DOES HE DO IT? OH
MY! HOW DOES HE GET THEM? I TELL
YOU WHAT, HE PLEADS HIS PROPITIATION. HE PLEADS HIS OWN PROPITIATION,
HIS OWN SACRIFICE, HIS OWN BLOOD. HE PLEADS HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS.
HE PLEADS HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS. I'M THE ONLY ONE RIGHTEOUS HERE
IN YOUR PRESENCE. And I tell you what, He was righteous
in His life, and He was righteous to His death, and He's a righteousness
for us. And you know what evidence He
presents before the judge for us? Gotta have some evidence
that'll clear us, get us off. We've already pleaded guilty,
well how in the world is He gonna get us off? How's He gonna get
us off? Before the judge of all the earth.
Who must do it, how's he gonna do it? Well, I tell you one thing,
he never mentions us. Never mentions us. He only mentions himself. Only
talks of himself. And the first thing he does,
he says, Father, see these nail prints? That was for them. See these
nail prints here in my feet? That was for them. See this cut in my side? That was for them. He said, Father, was I not obedient
to you all the days of my life? Was I not even obedient unto
death? Did I not obey you? And here,
Father, is the proof, the proof that they're not guilty
because my hands and my feet and my side and my suffering
and my death shows that I took everything that was against them
and took it out of the way. And you know what the Father
says? Let them go free. to let them go free. Not only
let them go free, but they're gonna walk out of this court
acquitted, justified, and not only that, but the Father will
accept them from here on out. Huh? Oh my. Are you... Oh my. You reckon the wisest thing to
do is say, Lord, I sure am thankful that you're my advocate. I sure
am thankful that you're the one that stands good for me before
the throne of God. And never, ever forget that when
Christ stands before the Father, He never talks about us being
good, us having merit, or us having any works. He can only
plead Himself in what He did and who He did it for. That's
the only thing he can plead. And that, you reckon he's accepted? Now every one of us can say here,
free from the law, oh, happy condition. Oh, thank God, thank God, thank
God for our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, what a Savior, what a Savior,
what a wonderful Savior. Our Father, oh, our Lord Jesus,
oh, how wondrously gracious, how wondrously merciful, how
wondrously kind and pitiful you are towards us. Lord, that you
give us these precious words, these things that tells us what
you accomplished for us, that what you accomplished for us
is gives us a perfect standing, gives us an acceptance before
the Father, gives us freedom of speech and freedom and liberty
to come into your holy presence. God bless the gospel to our hearts
and our souls. Bring glory to yourself through
the preaching of the gospel. Bless these dear saints, and
we ask it for Christ's sake. Amen and amen. We're just gonna
sing one verse, What a wonderful savior. I don't know, I most
should know what that is. How much? $4.54. No, no. No, it's the, Oh my goodness, I know that it's
got, not my wonderful savior, but it's high something. I'll
find it here in a minute. Ain't that awful? I should know
it right off the top of my head. 308. Well, maybe we can remember one
verse. A wonderful Savior is Jesus my
Lord, a wonderful Savior to me. He had soul in the cleft of the rock,
where rivers of pleasure I see. He hideth my life in the depths
of his love, and sheds a sharp He hideth my life in the depths
of His love, and covers me there with His hands, and covers me
there with His hands. Well, I'll see you Wednesday
night, God willing. I'm going to find that. How much? $258. It's real close
to what? Yeah, but it hideth my soul.
That's it. Hiding. If I said hiding, but it's right
beside, it's well with my soul. Back to back. Well, I'll not
forget that. But, oh I'm so thankful for the
Lord.