So when we get to the end of
the Sermon on the Mount, it went from chapter 5 through 6 and
then 7, and we looked at the last few verses of chapter 7
last week, but when we get to the end of it, it came to pass,
verse 28, that When Jesus had ended his sayings, these sayings,
the people were astonished at his doctrine. There was no shortage
of preachers there in Jerusalem and surroundings, in Galilee
in those days. There were the synagogues, there
were the scribes, there were the Pharisees, there were the
upholders of the oracle of God. There were no shortages. of preachers,
but the people having heard this man were astonished at his doctrine. Why? Why were they astonished
at his doctrine? For he taught them as one having
authority. He had the authority of God,
the stamp of the truth of God on every word he said, for he
is the Word of God. who is God, who was God in the
beginning with God, who is God, who made all things, who upholds
all things. He taught them as one having
authority, for He is the one who has come down from heaven
with the truth of God from heaven. Hear ye Him, this is my beloved
Son. The voice came from heaven on
more than one occasion. This is my beloved Son, hear
ye Him. This is the one in whom I am
well pleased. Not as the scribes, not as the others, the religious
leaders, they didn't teach clearly. But how do we know his teaching
was truth? Well, immediately after the Sermon
on the Mount, we're given chapter eight of Matthew, which is a
series of miracles. We see several miracles here. Now, what is a miracle? You see,
everything all around us operates in accordance with physical laws. The laws, as we say, of science.
It's not that the science invented the laws, the science describes
the laws. The science describes them mathematically,
and on the basis of their descriptions, we can predict things. If I pick
my watch up, and I drop it from a certain height, I can tell
you to a very good approximation how fast it will be going when
it hits the ground, because I know the distance and I know the force
of gravity, etc. It all operates in accordance
with physical law, but here is the way to view it. If you want
to view the world around us and the physical laws in accordance
with the teaching of God, the revelation of God in Scripture,
it is because He upholds all things. Hebrews chapter 1 verse
3, God upholds all things by the word of His, Christ's power. It's the word of God. Christ
who is the word of God, it's His word that speaks the laws
of science. Things go on as they are because
He actively now speaks them. It's not as if God wound up everything
at the start of creation and then just let it run its own
way without any interference. No, the teaching of the Word
of God is that He now actively upholds all things by the Word
of His power. So that gives us a very clear
way of understanding what a miracle is. A miracle is when God deigns
to temporarily change those laws that govern everything. And he
does it for one reason and one reason alone. It's to authenticate
the message that is being preached. That is the teaching. All of
these miracles were divine changes to natural processes. In the
first four verses of chapter 8 we see the leper being healed. Leprosy then was a completely
incurable disease. It was a picture of sin throughout
the Old Testament. It's still a vivid picture of
sin, the disease that we all have by nature. that with which
we were born, born in sin, says David in Psalm 51. And the leper
was a picture of sin. He came, this poor man, as so
many in his day, and his flesh was decaying, not a painful disease
apparently, you were numb to it, it was numbness, you didn't
feel it, but gradually your flesh died, your teeth died and decayed
away, everything about you, your flesh went white, your hair went,
everything about you decayed, a slow, slow death, and nothing
would have stopped it, and he would have gone on and died.
But here is the one who has just spoken the Sermon on the Mount,
and he heals him with a word. If you will, I will, be thou
clean. And immediately he's clean enough
to go and show himself to the priest and take his gift, as
Moses prescribed in Leviticus 14. Then the second miracle in
verses 5 to 13, the centurion's servant, the Roman centurion's
servant. And Jesus says, I've never seen
such faith as this, that here is a man who really does believe
that Jesus controls everything, and that if he speaks but a word,
the one who upholds all things by the word of the power of God
can speak a word, and his servant whom he clearly loved and cared
deeply for, that he would be healed. And then there's Peter's
wife's mother. Note in passing, Peter, whom
the Catholics claim was the first pope, had a wife. Is it not as
plain as the nose on your face there in scripture? How can you
get it so wrong? Such an enormous great religious
organisation, how on earth can you get it so wrong, with such
terrible side effect consequences of it? Peter had a wife, but
his mother was sick. and the normal course of events,
she would have died of that fever. But the Lord Jesus Christ, with
a word, with a touch, healed her, because he controls all
things. And him healing her was not showing
off, it was showing that the words he spoke, the words he
spoke, were life from heaven. And then they go out on a boat
and Jesus comes to them and in the boat they're terrified that
the storm, these squalls can flare up and in a little boat
on a little sea like the Sea of Galilee, it can very quickly
be swamped and they would all drown. And he speaks a word.
God who controls all things, he speaks a word, peace, be still,
and the storm is stilled. And they in the boat, though
they've seen many, many things, they say, who is this? That even
the wind and the waves obey him. You know, a storm normally will
blow itself out in a few hours, but he spoke, peace, be still,
and it was calm. calm. Just like that. Just like
that. As quick as that. He is the one who controls all
things. All things. He is the one who
controls all things in the natural world. All things in this physical
world. And so with the voice, from him,
with a touch from him, he can change the normal process. That's
a miracle. He casts out demonic spirits
towards the end of the chapter. These miracles really did happen. You say, oh, no, no, I'm, you
know, we know of some pretty good conjurers who can do some
good conjuring tricks. I'm telling you, this was so
overwhelmingly convincing was this. There were far too many
witnesses for this to be faked or made up, far too many. We
know that the authorities accused our Lord Jesus Christ of lots
of false, falsely. But they never ever could accuse
Him of anything to do with His lineage, which was exactly as
the Scriptures said, the lineage of the Messiah when He would
come, the Christ when He would come, would be exactly as the
Scriptures said, and His was, and nobody ever challenged it.
And the other thing nobody ever challenged, the miracles. You
see, It is the miraculous work of God to authenticate the message
of His Son, as it was with the apostles. With the apostles,
the same things applied. Paul writes to the Corinthians,
2 Corinthians 12 verse 12, truly the signs of an apostle were
wrought among you in all patience, in signs and wonders and mighty
deeds. The apostle Paul performed miracles. And they saw it. And what it said was, not that
Paul and the other apostles were workers of conjuring tricks,
it said the words that they preached, the words of the gospel, were
the truth. The words spoke the truth of
God, the gospel of His grace, and the miracles of the Lord
Jesus Christ that we see here in Matthew chapter 8, proved
the truth of His person. and His Word. We have another
account in Luke where a series of miracles are performed. I
think it's Luke chapter 7. And the conclusion of the people
was this. When they saw all the miracles,
the conclusion of the people was, surely a great prophet is
amongst us. Surely somebody speaking the
Word of God in truth is amongst us. That was what the miracles
said. That's what they said. Look at John chapter 10. I'll
show you this. In John chapter 10, And verse
32, they're taking up stones. Jesus had said in verse 30 of
John chapter 10, I and my father are one. And the Jews took up
stones to stone him. Why? Because the law forbade
the blasphemy of making yourself God or equal with God. And he
had done that, and they were in no doubt. And they took up
stones to stone him. And Jesus answered them, many
good works have I showed you from my father. Miracles. For
which of those works do you stone me? And the Jews answered, saying,
For a good work, for a miracle we're not stoning you, but for
blasphemy. Because you being a man, we can
see you're a man. He had no comeliness that we
should desire him, says Isaiah chapter 53. You being a man,
make yourself God. Jesus answered them, is it not
written in your law, I said, ye are gods, gods in the respect
of wielding authority over their society. He called them gods,
unto whom the word of God came, the scripture cannot be broken.
Say ye of him whom the Father hath sanctified, he's speaking
of himself, and sent into the world, thou blasphemest, because
I said I am the Son of God. He's only speaking the truth.
He's come from God, as the Messiah from God. If I do not the works
of thy Father, believe me not, but I do the works, I perform
the miracles. If I do, though you believe not
me, believe the works. Look, you can't deny the works.
Wouldn't this have been an opportunity for them to rise up and say,
we don't believe them. They're falsehood. Look at the ones that
you've healed. They're not really healed. They
couldn't do that. They just couldn't do it. Doesn't it show you, he
says, that the Father is in me and I in him, therefore they
sought again to take him, but he escaped out of their way.
You see, the miracles were showing who he was. Everybody today is
looking for what they think of as a miracle to deal with this
coronavirus pandemic around the world. Everybody's looking for
a miracle, hoping for a vaccine that will come along. so that
we can get back to normal without fear of death or of human weakness. That's what everybody is like.
Look, look, you know, all right, we've had enough of this. We're
tired of this. We've been very grateful for
the lovely weather that we've had in Britain whilst this has
been going on, but I think enough is enough. Yeah, we get the point,
right. We want to just get back to normal
life where society goes about its own business without bothering
God and without God bothering them. So can we please get back
to that? Few seem to be heeding the lesson
of this divine judgment, for that is what it is. Few seem
to be heeding the lesson that this is bringing, and preparing
to meet Him in eternity. You know, I quote it many times,
it is appointed to man to die once, and then the judgment. Appointed once. That's it. You
die once, and immediately after that, the judgment. The judgment. Are you fit for the presence
of God? Are you guilty under the justice of God? Are you guilty? What is your situation? Are you
heeding the warning that this is bringing? Because all things
like this bring a warning from God. It's exactly as Revelation
says, several places, but here's one, Revelation 9 verse 20, when
the plagues come along, when the judgments of God come along
on this kingdom of Satan, to frustrate the kingdom of Satan.
It says, the rest of the men which were not killed by these
plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands. Look
at it, look at society all around us. They're paying no heed. Oh
that we might pay attention to what God is saying through this
judgment. Oh that we all might have faith
to heed the signs, to seek God, to find peace with him before
it is too late. Seek him while he may be found.
Let's focus on this leper for the time that remains this morning
in the first four verses of chapter eight. We see one leper and one
multitude. Great multitudes followed Jesus
down the mountain after that sermon. Great multitudes followed
him. They were amazed. This was something that nobody
had ever seen before. And behold, there came a leper
and worshipped him. Behold, there came a leper. Think
about it. Leprosy was a slow death. It was a painless progression,
destroying flesh, destroying bones, destroying teeth. It was
a numbing disease, and it was incurable then. It's a bacterial
infection. We can treat it now with antibiotics
quite successfully, but then it was an incurable disease.
And if you were a leper in that society, as in most societies,
but in this Jewish society, this society that had been given the
law of Moses, You were immediately a social outcast. From the king
on the throne to the pauper lying in the gutter, you were a social
outcast. And talk about social distancing.
You read the rules about leprosy. Social distancing and quarantine.
You had to go into quarantine with all of the others, you had
to carry a bell and ring it to say, unclean, people get out
of the way, here am I, a leper. You were scorned by the crowd
that didn't have leprosy. The crowd that wasn't afflicted
with leprosy was repulsed by your presence. Can you imagine
that there's a crowd of people going about their business and
some horrendous sight of humanity in a dreadful condition comes
into the midst and there's a great gasp of intake of breath and
a stepping back and a not getting near in case we get infected
with it. He shouldn't have dared to come near because there were
multitudes there. but by divine revelation. He
knew that his salvation, he knew his cure, but also his salvation
depended on this man. His leprosy, as all leprosy in
the Old Testament, pictures sin, pictures our common condition
before God. God is holy God is majestic in
purity. God dwells in unapproachable
light. Even the sinless angels veil
their faces from the purity that is God. We struggle to understand
in our fallen human condition. But God is holy, high and lifted
up. He is, as Habakkuk says, of purer
eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity. And
we, by nature, are as repulsive, and afflicted, and diseased,
and sinful, and deserving of separation from everything else
as this leper was, because of sin. How did this leper hear
about Jesus? We don't read that he was up
there on the mount when Jesus was preaching that sermon. How
did he hear? How is it that he heard about
him? Well the word will have spread, there was multitudes,
it must have spread like wildfire as they say. And the testimony
must have echoed. of the promised Redeemer. You
know the scriptures throughout, the Old Testament scriptures,
these are they, said Jesus, that speak of me. These scriptures
speak of me. And they spoke about the day
when Messiah would come. And it says in Isaiah 35 verse
5, to quote one out of hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of
scriptures, then in that day when Messiah, then shall the
eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf, spiritually
blind, spiritually deaf, spiritually blind and deaf, unstopped. And
he thinks, is this the one? Is this the Messiah? Is this
the promised one? Is this the one that Israel is
waiting for? The one that was promised to
the woman, the seed of the woman, the one that was promised to
Abraham, the seed of Abraham that would come and in him would
all nations of the earth be blessed with salvation. Is this the one
who is going to accomplish salvation from sin? If he's able to accomplish
salvation from sin, surely he's able to accomplish the healing
of a leper. Here is the only one, thinks
this leper. Here am I, in this hopeless situation,
destined only to die in condemnation and separation from society.
And here, here, What I'm hearing, all around me, is of One who
I know alone can save me. I must go to Him. I must go to
Him. There's nowhere else. I must
go to Him. Has God's Spirit shown you what
you are as a sinner, what you are as guilty, as condemned? A sinner is a sacred thing. The
Holy Ghost has made him so. Everyone's a sinner. All, without
fail, have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. All, to
differing degrees, but all have sinned. But, praise God, A few
are shown by the Spirit of God what they truly are before the
holiness of God. Has God, has God's Spirit, the
Holy Spirit, made you aware of your lost condition? That as
far as eternity is concerned, you're lost, you have no righteousness
of your own, the holiness without which no man shall see the Lord,
you don't have it, you can't get it. There's only one place
you can get it, and that's in the Lord Jesus Christ. Has he
made you aware of your divine appointment with judgment? You
know, everybody, everybody hankers after a miracle in these days.
I wrote my little article this week. Please get the bulletin
and read it. And there it says, there's only one miracle that
you will be interested in when it comes that day of your appointment
with death and with judgment pointed to man to die once and
then the judgment. There's only one miracle you'll
be interested in. and that's, did Jesus die for me? It's that. Has the Lord Jesus Christ paid
the penalty for my sins? Is the charge sheet, as concerns
me, clear? Is my name on that charge sheet
or is it blotted out Is my name written in the Lamb's Book of
Life? You won't be interested in whether
you've seen any miracles in this life. You'll only be interested
in, has Christ died for me, to redeem me from the curse of the
law, to redeem me from my sins. That's the thing that will be
overwhelmingly your concern in that day. You'll be aware of
your unfitness. You'll be aware of the justice
of your eternal separation from God. You'll see how, however
much you might want it to be otherwise, God being God as He
is cannot possibly have a sinner like you in His presence for
eternity. You'll see yourself with the
same vivid picture as leprosy gave as a sinner before God.
This physical leprosy showed this man in his true spiritual
condition. This was his physical condition,
but it spoke so powerfully of the spiritual condition of every
one of us. The message he heard of Christ
was applied by the Spirit of God to his heart, and it persuaded
him that he must risk all to go to Jesus, through a crowd
that wouldn't have him there, through a crowd that was repulsed
by his presence. He was emboldened to go where
he was forbidden to go among the multitudes. Think about it. Is that you? Is that what God
is saying to you by His Spirit today? You, the sinner? God,
be merciful to me, the sinner, said that publican in his prayer
by the temple wall. Has your sinful condition so
alarmed you that you must seek the only one who can save you
and fit you for God's presence? Has he done that? You know, there
is none other name under heaven given among men, said Peter,
none other name. whereby we must be saved than
the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. You know, the men who were most
vehement for the cause of Christ and the gospel of Christ were
the men who lived with Him and were taught by Him and saw what
He did and experienced His redemption and saw His death and His resurrection
and saw His ascension into heaven and were equipped with His Spirit
to proclaim Him and went in most cases went through terrible persecution
for the cause of this, but it was so vivid to them and so true
to them that it was the only message that they had to get
out there. Oh, how I admire. What do I admire men for? I mean,
you know, there's been some great men in history, but do you know
the thing I admire amongst my acquaintances most is those who
are preachers of the Gospel of Grace, who, for the cause of
Christ, not for their own honour, not for their own glory, not
seeking the praise of men, for them, the truth of the Gospel
of Grace is their life's work, to make it known, to constantly
remind people of it. This is it. So then look at the
manner that this leper came to Jesus in. It says he worshipped
him. He worshipped him. What is it
to worship God? What is it to worship the Lord
Jesus? No, but Jesus didn't tell him,
no, no, no, you mustn't do this. You know, in Revelation, when
John worships the elder, the elder immediately says, no, don't
do that, don't do that, worship God, not me. Jesus is God. He accepted the worship. When
Thomas, after the resurrection, and he met him in that room,
Thomas who had doubted, saw the nail prints, he fell at his feet.
My Lord and my God worshipped him. He worshipped him. What
is it to worship? It's to acknowledge the person. the divinity dwelling bodily
in this man. You know, in him, in Christ,
dwelt, Paul tells the Colossians, in him dwelt the fullness of
the Godhead bodily. The divinity dwelling bodily
in the man Christ Jesus. Seeing and acknowledging the
sovereignty, this one though just a man, to the appearance
of the eye, Is God incarnate? Is the One who upholds all things
by the word of His power? Who is sovereign over everything?
Is the One who has all power? You've got an incurable disease,
leper! What are you doing here? I know that this is the one who
can speak a word. He prostrates himself before
Christ. This is how we come to worship.
We've got nothing in my hand I bring. Simply to thy cross
I cling. Not clinging to the cross as
an object of idolatry, but clinging to the notion, the concept of
what Christ accomplished at the cross in his death and his shed
blood. He prostrated himself before
Christ. with nothing of his own to offer,
with no worth of his own to offer, with only a plea for mercy to
the one alone who is able to dispense it. You know that? Christ, our great high priest,
our priest forever after the order of Melchizedek, we've been
looking on Wednesday evenings in Hebrews and we've been seeing
what a glorious high priest we have to intercede for us, a priest
an altar and a sacrifice and our Lord Jesus Christ is all
of those and because He is, it says in Hebrews 7.25, He is able,
has the resources, has the power, has the capacity to save to the
uttermost all That includes you, who come to God by Him, because
He says, Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. Did you hear Him? Did you hear
that call? Come without money and without
price. Come and buy. Come and drink
of the water of life. Take it freely. For there he
is, saying, Come, he's able to save to the uttermost. He is
the only one who is able, and here am I, a leper, in such dire
need, and he is the only one who can save my soul from hell,
and he's the only one that can cure my body of this disease.
And he realized, and confessed, that his cure was not in his
own will, or his own power to perform or obtain, but it was
entirely dependent on the grace of God in Christ. As the scripture
tells us again and again, it is not of him that wills, it
is not of him that runs. It's a lie is that so-called
Christian gospel that says God has done everything he can, it's
now over to you. Oh if only you will let him save
you, what blasphemy. God's not dependent on you, God's
not dependent on your will, not of him that wills or runs, but
of God that shows mercy. All we can cry is this, what
that man cried, Saviour, dear Saviour, hear my humble cry,
whilst on others thou art calling, for you patently are calling
on others, please, in your grace and mercy, do not pass me by. the people of Nineveh, when Jonah
finally went there at the command of God to preach the Scriptures,
to preach the truth of God to them as God told him to go. And
they heard what Jonah preached, and they threw themselves at
the mercy of God, the sovereign God. And they said this, Jonah
chapter 3 verse 9, the people of Nineveh said, who can tell
if God will turn and repent and turn away from his fierce anger
that we perish not? God isn't obliged to be gracious. He's not obliged to be gracious
to you or me or to this leper. Not at all. But this leper hears
his voice and dares to come. and pleads his cause. And he
says this, this leper says, I know who you are, Jesus of Nazareth,
the son as it was supposed of the carpenter and of Mary, with
brothers and sisters in Nazareth. I know who you are, but I know
you are God over all. I know that you being God are
able to make me well if you will. I will it, of course. I want
it, of course I want it. But the only thing that matters
is whether you will to make me clean of leprosy. Was the Spirit
of God ever going to bring anyone to this state and then turn them
away? Was he? Was He ever going to
bring anyone to this state and then turn them away? John 6,
37, All that the Father gives me shall come to me. And him
that comes to me I will in no wise cast out. Did you hear that? Does the doctrine of election,
the teaching of election, the teaching of the sovereign grace
of God, is that keeping you out of the kingdom of God? He says,
He that comes to me I will in no wise cast out. Has He made
you burdened and heavy-laden with the knowledge of sin, what
does he say? Come to me, all you. Who's the invitation to?
Everybody without exception? No! To those that are burdened
with sin. Come unto me, all you that are
burdened and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest with just
a word. With just a word. Look, he says,
Jesus put forth his hand and touched him, a touch of sympathy,
saying, I will. Be thou clean. I will, a touch
of sympathy, and a word, a command to this disease, be thou clean,
a command to all the subatomic forces holding this disease,
be thou clean, with a word, and the result, immediately, look,
immediately, his leprosy was cleansed, immediately. You know
people that go on about charismatic gifts in these days and they
make such a big thing of it and they're all proven to be complete
sham. There's no truth to any of it.
I might have told you that years ago I went along to a charismatic
meeting just to satisfy somebody that said how could I possibly
know unless I went. So I went and it was exactly
as I expected and I saw miracles taking place of those who were
so lame they needed to be in a wheelchair. And I saw, I remember
vividly, one woman, and they were slinging their arms in the
air and praising their idol, not the true God, their idol,
that a great miracle had been performed. And as I was leaving,
about 20 minutes later, I saw that poor woman in tears, leaning
up against a wall, hardly able to stand, begging for somebody
to go and get her wheelchair. That sort of thing is the sort
of sham that goes on, but not this, immediately. his leprosy
left him. Immediately it left him. With
a word, immediately. Coming to Christ believing, though
your sins be as scarlet, says the scripture, they shall be
white as snow. By the decree of God alone, based
on the work of Christ alone to pay the price and satisfy the
justice. On that basis, the justly condemned
sinner is released from all debt to God's broken law. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is Christ that
has died. When God forgives sin, He doesn't
overlook it or ignore it. He does it on the basis of having
cleared its debt. That's what he does. Read the
little article by Scott Richardson. As I say, Scott died years ago.
He's in the presence of God now. Before we can worship God in
peace of conscience and liberty of heart, we must know upon authority
of God's Word and by the power of God's Spirit that the entire
question of sin has been forever settled by the blood of a divine
sin offering. All of God's claims and all our
necessities as ruined, guilty sinners have been forever answered.
This gives us peace. And in the enjoyment of that
peace, we worship God. We have a perfect sacrifice and
a perfect conscience. That's the sure hope of the believer. That's it. In Leviticus 14, Jesus
told the man to go and show himself to the priest. Go and do what
Leviticus 14 tells you to do in the Law of Moses. There were
gifts that had to be taken by the cleansed leper to the priest. The priest would look, yes, you're
clean, and then he had to offer gifts. And those gifts were two
birds, one to be let go and one to be killed. And the one let
go was dipped in the blood of the one that was killed. But
it all speaks, I'm not going into the details now, but it
all speaks of the sin cleansing that Christ has accomplished
for his people in his work and his shed blood. What is the greatest
thing? To pronounce forgiveness of sin,
or to cure the leprosy? You see, the cure was just to
demonstrate the power. In Luke's gospel chapter five,
we were reading this the other morning in our readings. They brought a man, some friends
brought a man on a mattress and let him down through the roof.
The Pharisees said that, this is terrible, because Jesus said
to the man on the bed, your sins have forgiven you. And the Pharisees
in verse 21 of Luke chapter 5 said, who is this speaking blasphemy?
Who can forgive sins but God alone? Of course, it was God
that was forgiving sins. But when Jesus perceived their
thoughts, he answering said unto them, what reason ye in your
hearts? Whether is easier, to say, Thy
sins be forgiven thee, or to say, Rise up and walk, but that
you may know that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive
sins? He said unto the sick of the palsy, I say unto you, Arise,
and take up thy couch, and go to thine house. And immediately,
there it is again, He rose up before them, and took that whereon
he lay and departed to his own house, glorifying God. And they
were all amazed, and they glorified God, and were filled with fear,
saying, We have seen strange things today. What is the greatest
thing? It's to know that your sins are
forgiven. How do you know your sins are
forgiven? On the basis of that certain accomplishment of divine
grace, of the Son of God, the sinless one, the infinite one,
God contracted to a span, dying in the place of His people to
save them from those sins. The miracle cure just demonstrated
the power to justly forgive. For as I've said, if you read
that article that I put in, When you get to that divine appointment,
the only miracle that matters is, did Christ die for me? Has Christ satisfied offended
divine justice for me? Because this brings salvation
from sin's curse. Imagine that state of leprosy,
of despair, and seeing the only hope being in Christ, and coming,
believing, and the immediate cure, and imagine his experience
of it, This all pictures salvation from sin. This is the testimony
of the one who knows what it is to be a sinner and yet be
saved from the curse. Christ has redeemed us from the
curse of the law, being made a curse for us. It says in Psalm
32 verse 1, blessed, blessed, favoured by God. Wouldn't you
like to be in the favour of God who controls all things? Blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. That sin that would separate
you from God and condemn you to hell for eternity. Blessed
is he whose transgression is forgiven, not swept under the
carpet, but paid for in the blood of Christ. Blessed is the man
unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. It doesn't put it on
your account. There's no sin on your account. When the day
of judgment comes, it will be looked for, but it will not be
there. In whose spirit there is no guile. For all who know
this, and I'll close with this, for all who know this, including
me, I pray for a deepened experience of the blessing of it. That's
what I pray, that's my prayer. For you, all of you listening,
and for me, if we believe, I pray for a deepened experience of
it, especially in these days. And for those who know that they're
not right with God, those who know that they don't believe
the gospel of grace, I pray that God's Spirit will show you your
sin, and grant you repentance, and convince you of the Saviour's
accomplishment, and give you faith to trust Him alone. Death is everywhere, all around
us in the news today, but here is good news of abundant, eternal
life. Who's it for? The final hymn
we're going to sing says this, and if free grace, why not for
me? Amen.