your Bibles with me to Mark chapter
10. Mark chapter 10. We want to continue
to remember Peggy and Jim. Daryl's back up, able to sit
up and take a little nourishment. We're very grateful for that. Been very sick. After you get a certain age,
and I don't know what age that is, you just don't heal up as
quick as you did when you was young. Didn't pay attention to
nothing until, you know, I didn't pay attention to anything that
happened much until I was 50 years old. Not much past 50 now. On the south side of it. All
right. Let's start here in Mark chapter
10 verse 17. Can you girls sing in a minute
too? I don't want to forget that. Mark 10 verse 17. And when he
was going forth into the way, there came one running and kneeled
to him and asked him, good master, what shall I do that I may inherit
eternal life? Good question. And Jesus said
unto him, Why callest thou me good? There is none good but
one, that is, God. Thou knowest the commandments.
Do not commit adultery, do not kill, do not steal, do not bear
false witness, defraud not, honor thy father and mother. And he
answered and said unto him, Master, all these have I observed from
my youth. Then Jesus, beholding him, loved
him, and said unto him, One thing thou lackest, go thy way, sell
whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have
treasure in heaven, and come, take up the cross, and follow
me. And he was sad at that saying, and went away grieved, for he
had great possessions. And Jesus looked round about,
and saith unto his disciples, How hardly shall they that have
riches enter into the kingdom of God. And the disciples were
astonished at his words. But Jesus answered again and
saith unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that trust
in riches to enter into the kingdom of God? It is easier for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter
into the kingdom of God. And they were astonished out
of measure, saying among themselves, Who then can be saved? And Jesus,
looking upon them, said, With men it is impossible, but not
with God. For with God all things are possible. Then Peter began to say unto
him, Lo, we have left all and followed thee. And Jesus answered
and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, there is no man that
hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother,
or wife, or children, or lands for my sake and the gospels.
But he shall receive an hundredfold, now in this time, houses, and
brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands with
persecutions, and in the world to come eternal life, but many
that are first shall be last, and the last first. Our most blessed God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, we cry Abba Father, Lord we We bless
you and praise you and thank you that you've allowed us, that
you give us this time, set aside every week that we come and worship
you and come as a body of believers to call on you and look to you
and trust you and hear from you and ask for your presence. That's the old timers used to
say, come among us. Oh, Lord, if you would come among
us, come down. in power, come down in the Spirit
of God, and O Lord, enable the gospel to be preached with power.
Let it be effectual. Let it be powerful in the minds
and hearts of those listening today. And Father, we do pray
for those we mentioned, Peggy, for Jim, and I know others among
us are weak, frail, troubled, If they're not sick in body,
they may be sick in their soul, or worried in their minds. But
Lord, you know every one of us. You know us, you know what we
think, you know what we feel, you know our motives, you know
our desires. There's nothing, absolutely nothing,
hid from you. Your eyes run true and full upon
this earth, beholding all things that happen. And so Lord, I thank
you that you can see me and know me, that you know me, that you
know me just the way I am, and I bless you for that. God, bring
honor and glory to yourself, salvation to your people, merciful
to our children. We ask these things in our Lord
Jesus' name. Amen. I noticed in Tom Harding's bulletin
yesterday, or his son Caleb, going to be baptized this morning,
confess faith in Christ up there. Well, that's a blessing. You'd have to be a parent to
experience that. I've never experienced it. Now,
I want you to keep Mark chapter 10. Open your Bibles to Mark
chapter 10, where we read from. And then I want you, while you
hold that, to turn to 1 Peter chapter 4. Turn to 1 Peter, get
Mark chapter 10, then turn with me to 1 Peter chapter 4. And I want you to see something here,
and I want to run these two messages. This is where I get my thought
from this morning. And this is what Simon Peter
says in 1 Peter chapter 4 and verse 18. He says, and if the
righteous scarcely be saved, where shall
the ungodly and the sinner appear? If the righteous scarcely be
saved, that word scarcely means with difficulty. If the righteous
be saved with difficulty, where will the sinner, men that don't
confess their faith in Christ and those that are without God?
You see, the Lord Jesus Christ says, when we were yet without
strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. So if you're
ungodly, without God, then Christ died when we were our strength
for those. But I want to talk about being
saved with difficulty. And we see how difficult salvation
is when we look at this rich young ruler here, this man that
came to the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know when we read that,
it says in verse 17 of Mark chapter 10, he was come forth in the
way when our Lord was, our come one running. I mean he was running. He didn't just walk up. He came
running up to the Lord Jesus Christ. He was in a hurry. He had an
interest. And then he got on his knees. Then he got on his knees, kneeled
to Him, and asked Him, Good Master, what shall I do? that I may inherit
eternal life. So I mean this fella is, he's
on fire, he wants to know what he needs to do to be saved. And
our Lord shows him how difficult it is for the natural man. And
the first thing he does is he rebukes him for calling him good,
good master. If that's all I am to you, you've
come to the wrong place. If all I am is a good rabbi,
good teacher you've come to the wrong place he said if you call
me good only God is good now you're going to have to realize
that I'm God or else and then he says and our Lord says you
know the commandments and he gave him the commandments and
this young man said master all these have I observed from my
youth of And he went away grieved. And
there's one thing I want you to notice that the Lord Jesus
Christ says there in verse 21, Jesus behold him loved him. Loved him. Now this is just my
opinion. I have no... If Jesus loved this man, if he
loved this man like he loved me and he loved you and he loved
his elect, this man's going to be converted sooner or later. And I personally, and you know,
and you could take this man to be a young Saul of Tarsus because
he was wealthy, well-educated, and he's got all the marks of
the same man that talked about, after the righteousness of the
law, I was blameless. And then he goes on to say, Now
you give everything you've got to the poor, take up your cross
and follow me. And he was sad, oh he was so
sad. Oh my, this is what it's gonna
take for me to be saved? For me to have eternal life,
to give up everything I've got? Yes sir, that's what it's gonna
take. And oh my, and he went away sad. And our Lord said, How hardly
shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God? How
hard it will be for them. Very few will do it. And the
disciples were astonished at his word. But Jesus answered
again and said unto them, Children, how hard is it for them that
trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God? He took it
a step further, that trust in riches. And he said this, and it's easier
for a camel to go through the eye of a needle for a rich man
to enter the kingdom of God. How you think it's possible for
a camel to go through the eye of a needle? It's an impossibility. It could never ever happen. No
way it could happen. And that's what our Lord means
through an eye of a needle. I don't care how big the needle
is, a camel's not going to go through the eye of that needle.
And he says, how hard for those who trust in their riches to
have anything stand. It's how hard it is for a camel
to go through the eye of a needle. And then they were astonished
where they just couldn't even stand how astonished they were.
Well, who then can be saved? And if the righteous scarcely
be saved, where will the sinner and the ungodly appear? And our
Lord Jesus look upon them, said, with me, That's why he meant,
with men it's impossible. It says it's impossible for that
camel to go through the eye of a needle. For a man to be saved
with men, salvation is impossible. But now listen to this, but not
with God. For with God, all things are
possible. Saved with difficulty, scarcely. If the righteous scarcely, with
difficulty, be saved, it's an astonishing thing to me that
the Lord Jesus would be a stumbling block or foolishness or a rock
of offense that people would stumble over our Lord Jesus Christ. Here's a young man that just
did. This young man goes away because of the difficulty of
salvation. And I'll tell you the very simplicity,
and our Lord said, with men, salvation is an impossibility.
The very simplicity of salvation is a stumbling block to most.
And what do I mean by that? Our Lord Jesus said, I'm the
way. One Lord, one faith, one baptism. No man comes under the
Father but by me. Paul says, you know, said, I'm
afraid because they might have beguiled you from the simplicity,
the singularity that's in Christ. Salvation's in a person. And if there's only one way,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one way to God, how simple is
that? There's not two or three ways
to get there. You cannot mix it up. You cannot be mistaken.
You cannot misunderstand the fact that there's only one way.
Can you? Our Lord Jesus Christ said that,
only one way. And yet this gospel, this way
of salvation is so profound and full of mysteries. For salvation
is a difficult thing. And let me ask you some questions.
Is this what makes it difficult? This is so profound and full
of mysteries and yet stumble over it because of its simplicity.
And here's the questions I ask. How can a holy and a just God
be a savior? How can an infinitely holy God
who cannot change and a God who is perfectly just in all his
dealings, how then can he at the same time be a savior? How
can man who is a worm be just or clear before God. Now you
keep this and look with me in Job chapter 15 and listen to
what Job says about it. This is what we're talking about. This is what we're talking about.
Look in Job chapter 15 in verse 14 with me. How can a man who
is a worm be just or clear before God? How can that happen? And look what he said here in
Job chapter 15 and verse 14. What is man that he should be
clean? What is man that he should be
clean? And he that which is born of a woman that he should be
righteous. And listen to what he says here.
Behold God putteth no trust in his saints. And he looks at the
heavens and they're not clean in his sight. How much more abominable
and filthy is man which drinketh iniquity like water? So how in the world, how can
you be clean? How can you be righteous? Look at the heavens. We stand
in wonder and astonishment and worry at a sunset or a sunrise. It's the stars at night. Jupiter
and Venus came together the other night that they said that's like
a star in Bethlehem where their father they came together in
that sunshine brilliantly in the night And God said that's not clean
It's not pure And no listen to me. This is what I'm talking
about save a difficulty. How can justice? justice be satisfied
with the death of the offender, and mercy relieve the sinner's
guilt and misery at the same time. How can it happen? How
can it happen? How can truth be upheld and honored
in punishing the sinner and yet grace be given to make the sinner
acceptable to that holy and just God? How can that happen? You see
the difficulty? You're not clean. You're not
righteous. And if the righteous scarcely,
would difficulty be saved? I don't know how many of all
ever heard of David Brainerd. He died when he was 29. He was
Jonathan Edwards' son-in-law. And he preached, spent his life
preaching to the Indians around New York. New York and, excuse
me, New Jersey. And around there, there's a creek
up there that's named after him where he's supposed to have met
with Indians. But he died as a very young man. But he was
faced with four great obstacles to his salvation. Four great
obstacles to his salvation. And he was trying with all of
his strength, with all of his might, to be saved. And this
was the first obstacle. This is what he said in his own
diary. You get it and read it. He said,
first thing was the strictness of God's holy law. Our Lord Jesus,
that rich young ruler, said to him, said, what must I do? He
said, you know the commandments. Oh, I've done that since I was
a little boy. He said, oh, you have, then let's
see how much you love God and see how much you love man. Take
everything you've got, sell it, and give it to the poor. Well,
I tell you what, you didn't want to be saved, did you? You certainly
don't love those that's in worse shape than you. And so I see
he saw the strictness of God's holy law, not just in his outward
actions, not just when he's done, but that it went to the heart.
It dealt with the comprehended, covered all things, our attitudes. It covered our thoughts, our
motives, our desires. He that thinketh ill of his neighbor,
if a man even calls a man a fool, he's in danger of judgment. And
the second thing that was an obstacle to him, not only the
strictness of God's holy law, but that faith alone, faith alone,
In Christ was how a man would be saved. And he found out that
God would not come to lower terms than faith. God would not accept
his sincerity. God would not accept his prayers
and though I prayed so much, God would not accept his endeavors
and his preaching, would not accept his staying up all night
reading the Bible. He wouldn't accept him staying
out in the cold preaching to the Indians. He wouldn't accept
anything you did. And then the third thing he found
out about faith is he didn't know what faith was and were
in the world he could get it. And he didn't know what faith
was and he certainly didn't know what it was to come to Christ. And you know, and the fourth
thing was this. The sovereignty of God, what
a great obstacle that was to him. You know what he said? He
could not bear. He could not bear. the thought
and the feelings and the anger that came up in him. He could
not bear that he was completely at the good pleasure of God himself
to save him or damn him and there wasn't a thing in the world he
could do about it. Now he was faced with all this
difficulty of salvation. What am I going to do about God's
law? Justice says I got to die. I have not kept God's law. My
heart knows that. My attitude knows it. Everything
about me knows it. I know there's faith in Christ
alone and where in the world is this faith at? I don't know
what it is to come to Christ and I don't know where I'm going
to get faith. And then to come to find out
that I'm in God's hand, that He can save me or damn me? Oh,
that's just, oh, that made Him so angry. And oh, let me, I've got two
points to my message this morning, very simple. What makes salvation
difficult? I'll tell you the first thing,
it's difficult for man, even impossible. Ain't that what our
Lord said there in Mark 10, 27? He says, with men, it's impossible,
but with God, all things are possible. You know what our Lord
Jesus said? He said, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you can't
enter the kingdom of God. So their righteousness is strictly
outward. And I tell you what, let me give you some things that
are impossible for a man in his natural state of sin and death
to do. Absolutely impossible. First
thing is, he cannot please God. They that are in the flesh cannot
please God. Cannot satisfy God. Cannot honor
God. The second thing I know a man's
impossible for him to do, the natural man receiveth not the
things of the Spirit of God, neither can he know them. He
don't understand the spiritual thing. And I'll tell you something
else, our Lord Jesus Christ said, He says, you will not Come to
me that you might have eternal life. You will not. You talk
about man talks about his will and the power of his will and
the freedom of his will. Our Lord says you will not come
to me. You just will not do it. And
I want you to stop that and I'm going to tell you something else.
You cannot believe. It's not in your power to believe.
Look in John chapter 10 and verse 39 with me just a moment. John 12, 39, excuse me. John
12, 39. Oh, you know, men brag about
their, you know, preachers has been telling people all their
lives, you got faith, you got faith, you got faith, all you
got to do is exercise it. You've got the will, all you
gotta do is make the right choice. My neighbor told me that the
other day. He said, you know, we gotta make the right choice.
And I says, man, man already made his choice, and this is
the wrong one. He cannot make the, it's not up to man to make
the choice. Man made his choice in Adam.
He chose that I want my freedom, I want my sin, I want my self-righteousness,
I want my self-strength, I want my self-ability. I want to be
able to meet God on my terms. regardless of what he says. So
don't tell me what the Bible says. I don't care. I want to
meet God on my terms. Look what he said here in John
12 in verse 39 with me, just a moment. Look in verse 37, but though
he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed
not on him. Miracles won't cause it to happen.
that the saying of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which
he spake, Lord, who has believed our report? Who's believed our
preaching? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?
Who has God stretched out his arm and anybody seen it? Therefore
they could not believe, because that Isaiah said again, he hath
blinded their eyes, hardened their hearts, that they should
not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart,
and be converted, and should heal them. Oh, muster up you
some faith. That's what old David Brainerd
said. Where am I gonna get this thing called faith at? And our
Lord Jesus says in John 6, 44, no man can come unto me except
my Father which sent me draw him. And Jeremiah 13, 33 says,
can the Ethiopian change the color of his skin? Can the leopard
change his spots? So you can't even change the
way you are. You can't change yourself. If
a person could change themselves, I would change a lot of things
about me. I certainly would. Certainly would. And let me tell
you, beloved, man is in an awful, awful bad condition before his
creator. What makes him bad before his
creator? What makes him in such an awful state? First of all,
he's born wrong. He was shaped in iniquity and
conceived in sin. Came forth from his mother's
womb speaking lies. Little old baby will scream like
it's dying. Pick it up, it'll just grin at
you. Nothing wrong with it. Nothing wrong with it. Not only
they born wrong, but they act wrong. Cannot but help rack wrong. Think wrong, talk wrong, walk
wrong. How can a man be clean before
God? How can he be just? We use the
term totally depraved. And when we talk about total
depravity, let me explain something to you. That doesn't mean a man
is as bad as he can be. There's some of you here that's
lost. You're not as bad as you can be. You're not as bad. You're not as bad as somebody
out in the world cussing and ripping and roaring and stealing
and lying and drugging it up, drinking it up. You're not as
bad off as other people. You're not as bad as can be.
But this is what total depravity means. It means that you're as
bad off as you can be before God. That's what it means. That's what it means. That's
what it means. That means that if you take a
mother as good and fine a person as she could possibly be. And
take a woman over here that lives on the streets, nasty, walked
off and left her children when they was little and just done
for herself. This one over here is about as
bad as she can be. This one over here is not as bad as this one. But you know what? They both
is bad off in the sight of God. It's going to take the same blood,
the same righteousness, the same grace, the same power. It's going
to take God with, it's just impossible for that mother with all of her
goodness and all of her works. And it's going to take that woman
that's on the street stinking and rotten. It's going to take,
it's going to take, it's impossible for either one of them. Oh, the scriptures teaches that
men are dead toward God, dead toward spiritual things, dead
toward holy things, not dead physically. You're not dead physically.
That's where the responsibility comes in. You're not dead physically. You're not even dead toward religion.
Religion's easy to get a hold of. If you don't like this message,
and you don't like it here, and you don't like preaching, and
you don't like what I have to say, I tell you what, go right
down the street here, and you'll find somebody to do it. Go that
way. Go all over this. You'll find somebody that'll
meet your needs. But I'm telling you the truth.
You're not dead toward religion. Man's religious by nature. But oh my, my, my, my. You're not dead like this right
here. You can hear. You can understand. You've got
light in your brain. You've got a heart that can feel.
You've got emotions that can be touched. You can think. You can understand. You've got
rationality. And I tell you, you're not like
this right here. You're not deaf. You're not dumb. You're not like
a stick. You're not like a stone. You're a living being, comes
from the hand of your maker with ability to do lots of things,
but one thing you can't do, you cannot raise yourself up to God. And oh, and I tell you what,
you know, we're talking about difficulty man, where the difficulty
lies in man's unwillingness to deny himself. That's man's unwillingness to
deny himself. The first date Shirley and I
went on, I'm going to tell you what she said. We were sitting
there talking, visiting a while, and I was as white as that paper. It's guaranteed totally to death. We got to talk a little while,
and she said, I don't, you know, she said, you need to know this
right up front. I said, what's that? She said,
I'm a sinner. I mean, I'm an awful sinner. I said, well. I don't know. You'd have to tell
me that if you're like me. But that's why she said, you
know, don't expect a whole lot out of me, what she's saying.
You know, you're not dating a saint. You're not dating somebody here
that's perfect. You're not dating somebody, I
don't have anything to do with somebody that's just got it all
together. You're not dating somebody here that's just got all of her
ducks in a row and all of her T's crossed and all of her I's
dotted. That's why she was letting me
know. If you're looking for perfection and you're looking for goodness
and you're looking for glory and you're looking for something
besides that, she said, you done come to the wrong place. That's what she is saying. You
know what she is doing? She is denying herself. Denying yourself means that you
deny who you are and Christ gets all the glory. You become nothing,
and Christ becomes everything. You count everything you've done
before you come to Christ as done, and everything after you
come to Christ to be right, just, holy, and true. Now, let me look
at this thing. That's man's difficulty. That's
the difficulty on man's side. Now let's look at the difficulty
on God's side. He says with God, nothing is
impossible. So let's look at it from difficulty
from God's side to God's word. Now let me ask you, how can holy
justice be satisfied? How can holy justice be satisfied? How can offended God be reconciled
to rebels like ourselves? How can God clear the guilty
or acquit the wicked when he says he won't? Exodus 33, he
says, Exodus, yeah, he said, I will not at all acquit the
wicked. I will not at all acquit the
guilty. I cannot do it. How can God be a just God and
a Savior? Now listen to what I'm going
to tell you now. Some attributes of God, they've got to be reconciled.
They can't fight one another. They can't be against one another.
How can holy justice be satisfied? How can it be a just God? How
can God be offended, be reconciled to offended whose we've offended
to rebels like ourselves? Some attributes must be reconciled.
Truth and mercy, how are they going to be brought together?
Truth can't be set apart. Mercy can't come at the expense
of truth. Justice and grace, how are they
going to be reconciled? Justice says the soul that sinneth,
it must die. Grace says, but oh, I will save
them. And then there's righteousness.
God's holy righteousness. He's righteous in His nature.
He's righteous in His deeds. He's righteous in everything
that He does. The judge of all the earth must
do right. How can righteousness and peace
be reconciled? And as the love of God, how can
love and wrath be brought together? How can love be expressed? at
the expense of wrath? And how can wrath be expressed
and love at the same time? How are all these attributes
gonna be reconciled? Paul said in Romans 11, 36, he
said, oh, the wisdom of God. How unsearchable are his judgments
and his ways past finding out. Well, how in the world will all
these things come together? How will they be reconciled?
So there's a covenant and it's called grace. It's a covenant
of grace. And let me tell you something,
it's between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It's not between us. We've never
made a covenant with God. God never made a covenant with
us. He made a covenant with Himself and His Son and the Holy Spirit.
And here's how this covenant runs. It's a blood covenant. It's ratified with the blood
of the Son of God. Justice comes and says, the sinner,
the rebel, he must die. I will settle for nothing less
than the death of that person that's offended me, that person
that sinned against me. I will not settle for less than
death. Truth jumps up and said, yes,
yes, yes, that's so. That's truth. No denying it. I'll stand by justice. I'll stand
with you. Righteousness comes along and
says, yes, that's the righteous thing to do. Righteousness says
it's true. I'll tell you, justice, truth,
and righteousness, we'll all stand together. And wrath stands
back with its awful thunder, with its awful boom. And wrath
comes, he says, oh, listen, I'm ready. All you got to do is tell
me when to fall and I'll fall on them and I'll fall on them
hard. And love stands over here. Love
is willing, willing, willing to save. Love is willing to forgive. Long-suffering in pity. They
keep saying, wait, wait, wait, justice, wait, wait, wait, truth,
wait, righteousness, wait. Long-suffering and pity says
wait, and mercy stands with tears in her eyes and weeps. At the thought of justice coming
to kill, righteousness coming to judge it, and truth standing
to honor itself. But, oh, listen. Wisdom stands
up. Wisdom stands up. Oh, the wisdom
of God. Christ, the wisdom of God. Wisdom
stands up and says, I tell you, I know what we'll do. I know
how we can do this. Justice will be satisfied. Truth
will be upheld and honored. Righteousness will be magnified
and stay righteous. And wrath will be expended. And I tell you, he said, I tell
you what we'll do, says Emmanuel. Emmanuel will come. I'll send Emmanuel. Emmanuel,
you ready to go? I am. Do you know what it'll
cost you? I do. So Emmanuel will come down
and he will take on their nature. He'll become like them except
for sin. He'll take on himself the likeness
of sinful flesh. And, oh, justice said, I'll be
satisfied with that. Righteous said, oh, yes, that's
a righteous way to do things. And, oh, I'll become one of them. I'll identify with them. I'll
live a life and said you want the law to be honored and magnified? You want truth to be upheld?
You want justice to be honored and glorified? He said, I'll
tell you what I'll do. I'll live under that law. I'll live under that. I'll live
a sinless, obedient life that they could not do. I'll render
obedience to you, oh Father. All your attributes, I'll render
obedience to every single one of them. And then, you take everything
that's against them. You take that sword of justice
that you say has got to kill them. You take truth that's got to
be upheld. You take the righteousness of
God and magnify it and all set it up in all of its glory. And
you take the wrath and pour it out on me. Give me every one
of their sins. Give me all their rebellion.
Give me all their guilt. Give me all their sin. And give
it all to me. And then I'll become their substitute.
I'll become their sacrifice. I'll become their sin offering.
I'll bear their sins in my own body on that tree. Father, I'll
let you take that sword of justice, do them, and plunge it in my
heart. Go ahead and take that cup of
wrath and pour it out all over me and let it come down on me
till I'm crying out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Just pour it out. And injustice does that, puts
a sheath in his sword never to be brought out again. Righteousness comes in that person
of the Son of God. Truth is upheld, honored, and
magnified. Wrath is expended. It has no more to offer. Oh, look in Romans with me just
a minute. Romans chapter 3. Now God can
be just. Now God can be just and justifier. Now he can. Oh, my. Do you see how God does this, that
God does it all? He took it upon himself. Emmanuel,
God with us, came down. God with us came here and all
of God's attributes, love and peace, met together. Justice
and mercy was reconciled. Righteousness and grace was reconciled. Love and wrath was brought together. God reached across eternity. In the person of His Son, there's
God in glory. And there's man on earth. And
God spanned that great gulf in the person of His blessed Son. Look what he said here in Romans
chapter 3, verse 23. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. But now wait a minute, being
justified freely without a cause in us, how? By His grace. How did that happen? Through
the bloodshedding of the Lord Jesus Christ. Through the redemption.
For the payment. For the paying off of our debts.
Paying off justice. Justice has received all it can
possibly receive from my sins. Wrath has done all it can do
against me. How? Christ paid what I owed. Listen now. And then God set
him forth. I just got through saying, oh,
the wisdom of God. God set him forth. God put him out there for the
world to see, for us to see. Put him out in obedient life
and sacrificial death. Set him forth on the cross. And
then why did he do that? To be a perpetuation. You know
what a perpetuation is? It's the mercy seat. It's the
mercy seat. It's like that mercy seat behind
the holiest of holies, behind the veil. And that high priest
went behind the veil once a year and put that blood on that mercy
seat. And because it's on that mercy
seat, their sins were taken care of, their sins. God said, I'll
be merciful now. And so that mercy of God was
shown. But now look here. So Christ set forth to be a mercy
seat for us. Now listen to it, through faith
in His blood, what can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood. And oh, faith in His blood, and
here's that righteousness I was talking about, to declare His
righteousness for the putting away of sins of the past. Through
the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, God is righteous. Righteous to nail his son to
a tree. Righteous to give his son. Righteous for justice to
be satisfied. Righteous for truth to be upheld.
Righteous for Christ to bear our sins. Righteous for our Lord
Jesus Christ to be our substitute. That God might be just. And he'll justify who? That soul
that believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh my. Look in Romans 11, 33. Romans 11, 33. Now how in the
world will we get this great salvation that I talked about? God took away all the difficulty.
God Himself removed the obstacles. Did he not, through his son,
the Lord Jesus Christ? Listen to verse 33. Oh, the depth
of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God. How unsearchable
are his judgments and his ways past finding out. For who hath
known the mind of the Lord? Who hath been his counselor? For who hath first given to him,
and it shall be repensed unto him. For of him, through him,
and to him are all things, to whom be glory both now and forever. You know the only difficulty
left now? The only difficulty left now
is you. Refusing to come to Christ God's
removed the difficulties on his side on his part Now what about you he's took
you all the obstacles out of your way he's moved everything
out of you And that's why our Lord Jesus can say come That's why our Lord Jesus can
reach now and embrace the sinner Old Maurice Montgomery used to
say, hug up to the Lord Jesus Christ. Hug up to him. Hug up to him. You know how far
he is away from you? You know how far away the Lord
Jesus Christ is from you? That with thy mouth thou shalt
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, and with the heart You
believe under righteousness. Christ is in glory, but you can
get to him right now without moving a muscle. Right from here
to him. You can do that. You can do that. Oh, our Father. What a salvation. What a salvation. Took awful, awful depraved sinners
like ourselves. Sinful inside and outside. And Lord, you saved us in spite
of ourselves. Removed every obstacle. Took
away our sin. Gave us life from the dead. gave
us a blessed hope in our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord Jesus, thank
you. Blessed be your holy name for
coming, coming and becoming one with me, identifying with me,
me. Oh, such a wretched, wretched
man. Identifying with me to save me, to save me. Lord, blessed be your name. And
our Lord Jesus Christ, I bless you. Amen. Amen. Gary, let's
sing that song, How Great Thou Art. OK. 37, I believe. 37. You
all stand with me and sing this, How Great Thou Art. God is greater
than you and I can even begin to imagine. to any degree.