Five questions. That's the title
of my message. Five questions. Five questions about things that
really matter. Believe me, I've been thinking
about things that really matter for the last little while. And you know what? I have thought
very little about. anything going on out yonder. Haven't even wanted to see who's
ahead in the political polls. Don't really care. Our church order, our church
discipline, our church history. Haven't thought much about prophecy.
Doesn't much matter to me whether the Lord's coming in a millennium,
before millennium or after millennium, just doesn't much matter. I haven't
given any thought whatever to creeds and confessions of faith. Haven't given the least bit of
thought about the nature of angels or the nature of demons. None of those things really matter. But I've got five questions for
you. Five questions about things that matter. Turn to Hebrews
chapter 10. We'll begin here. Paul speaks in verse 22 of full
assurance of faith. Do you know anything about that? Full assurance of faith. Do I know anything about that?
Let's begin reading at verse 9, Hebrews chapter 10. Then said
he, that is the Lord Jesus, lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first, the
old covenant, that he may establish the second, the new covenant,
by the which will, by this new covenant, God's will, which is
the salvation of his people, by the which will we are sanctified,
made holy through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ one
time. That's really how it ought to
read. Not once for everybody. You know better than that. I
know better than that. And the fellows who translated this book
from the Greek know better than that. They put the words for
all in italics because there's no such words relating to that
in the Greek text. The Lord Jesus made us holy through
the sacrifice of his body one time. And every priest, every
Old Testament priest that typified him standeth daily, ministering
and offering oftentimes the same sacrifices, which can never take
away sins. As long as sin remains, sacrifice
must be made. People who keep trying to make
up with God, keep trying to offer sacrifices, keep trying to do
things to please God, keep trying to do things to make it right
with God, still have the guilt of sin upon them. These priests
offer their sacrifices daily because sin remains. Everything
they do put together can't take away sin. But this man, oh thank
God for this man, this man who is God himself, Jesus Christ
the Lord, our great high priest, after he had offered one sacrifice
for sins forever, sat down. He sat down, where? In the Holy
of Holies. But pastor, there's no, no seat
in the Holy of Holies. Yes, there was. There's one right
smack dab on top of the ark of the covenant. It's called the
throne of grace. And he sat down. He sat down. How come? Cause there's nothing
else to do. He sat down on the right hand
of God from henceforth expecting, expecting. expecting, expecting
till his enemies be made his footstool. He's expecting it
because he earned it. He's expecting it because the
father promised it to him. He's expecting it because it
was so ordained from eternity. For by one offering, by his one
sacrifice for sin, Jesus Christ, the son of God, hath perfected
forever. He's made complete, complete
forever. Them whom he made holy, them
that are sanctified, whereof the Holy Ghost also is a witness
to us. Is he? Has the spirit of God given witness
to you? that you've been made perfect
and made holy by God's son. That's what he does in the gift
of life and faith. For after that, he said before,
this is the covenant that I will make with them after those days,
saith the Lord. I will put my laws into their
hearts and write them and in their minds. Will I write them?
He said that back in Jeremiah 31. And their sins and iniquities
will I remember no more. Now where remission of these
is, sins once put away, sins no more remembered. And the only
way God Almighty can remember them no more is for God Almighty
to obliterate them, to put them away, to destroy them. He says,
there's sins and iniquities. I will remember no more. Now
where remission of these is, listen, there is no more offering
for sin. No more. Bob Duff, you've got
to offer God nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Oh, but don't
I owe God? I owe him everything and I owe
him nothing. I'm a debtor head over heels to free grace. I owe
the law nothing. I owe justice nothing. I owe
righteousness nothing. Christ has satisfied God on my
behalf in all his holy character, in all his holy justice. Now, there's no more offering
for sin. Having therefore, brethren, boldness,
freedom, liberty, to enter into the holiest by the blood of Jesus,
by a new and living way, which he hath consecrated for us through
the veil, that is to say, his flesh, through the offering of
his flesh, and having a high priest over the house of God,
let us draw near with a true heart. Oh, God, give me a true
heart. Faith is found in a true heart.
Repentance, conviction are things wrought of God in a heart made
true by his grace. The Lord, Job said, hath made
my heart soft. And if he made it soft, he makes
it true. A true heart. A true heart acknowledges
truth. with regard to myself and what
I am. With regard to God and his son
and his spirit, his character, his work, his righteousness,
and his grace. True with regard to the sacrifice
of God's son. True before God. Let us draw
near with a true heart. Now watch this. In full assurance
of faith. I'm interested in that. And I
want you to have that. I want you to believe on the
Son of God. I want you to leave this place
today, drawing near to God. Imagine that. God who is a consuming fire. God whom no man can approach
unto. God before whom no man can stand. Draw near to Him from this day
unto eternity with full assurance of faith. Have I got your attention? All right, here are five questions.
Number one, what would it mean to you to know that every sin of your past,
present, and future is forgiven? blotted out and remembered no
more. Every sin of mind, heart, and
deed. Every sin of tongue, soul, and
head. Open sin and secret sin. Past, present, future. blotted out, remembered no more. So thoroughly, absolutely and
completely blotted out that God Almighty himself says, I will
not remember their sins. Now, what would that mean to
you? To know that in the book of God,
There is not one mark against you. Oh, Brother Don, I can't
tell you what that means to me. Now listen, that is the true
declaration of every sinner who believes on the Son of God. Oh, look away now to Jesus Christ. Trust him by whose blood alone
sinners are made holy. And go home, drawing near to
God with this full assurance. God Almighty will never remember
sin against you. He'll never charge you with sin. He will never deal with you on
the basis of sin. Never. The blood of Jesus Christ,
God's son, cleanseth us from all sin. Turn to Isaiah chapter
43. The Lord God speaks to sinners from head to foot, nothing but
sin. wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores. And he says, come now, let us
reason together. Though your sins be as scarlet,
they shall be as white as snow. Though they be red like crimson,
they shall be as wool. Look here in Isaiah 43 verse
25. I, even I am he that blotteth
out thy transgressions. How come? For mine own sake. and will not remember thy sins.
He said, now remind me I said that. Remind me that I said that. Put
me in remembrance. Let us plead together. You plead
for forgiveness and I'll plead with you. Put me in remembrance. Let us plead together. Declare
thou that thou mayest be justified. Now, your declaring and your
praying doesn't justify you, but you'll never know it until
you do. You'll never experience it until you are made by God's
grace to seek it by faith in him. It is he who forgiveth all
thine iniquities. He will abundantly pardon. As
far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions
from us. If thou, O Lord, shouldst mark
iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand? But there is forgiveness with
thee. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that
are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after
the spirit. Sometimes, I run across people
who have had more than a checkered past. God saves them by his grace,
and they're baptized, joined the church, and folks kindly
accept them, but they've got to live it now. Let's give this
a little time. They've got to live, you know,
don't know where that came from. Brother Don, you know what they've
done. You don't want this person singing or this person doing
this, this person doing... I've got nothing to live down. Nothing. Nothing. You mean... You mean God has
completely, irreversibly, Forever so forgiven your sin that you're
not guilty before him. That's it. That's it. And if
I'm not guilty before him, I'll be honest with you. It doesn't
much matter to me what anybody else thinks. I'm not guilty before
him, before him. My body has been washed with
the pure water of his grace. My heart's been sprinkled with
the precious blood of his dear son. My sins are gone. Did you hear what Jesus said
to me? They're all taken away. Your
sins are pardoned and you are free. They're all taken away. Number two. Turn to Colossians chapter one. What would it mean to you to
know that the eternal, holy, righteous, and just God has totally
reconciled you to himself. To know that there is no wrath,
no fury, no anger, no enmity in God toward you, not even a
frown. To know that you're accepted
in love and in peace. Now, I'm not talking about a
sham, pretended peace. I'm not talking about the kind
of peace that you get by some preacher telling you you've got
it. I'm not talking about the kind of peace you get by going
to some counselor and him persuading you you've got it. I'm not talking
about the kind of peace you get by taking the right kind of medication
keeps you so doped up you don't know any better. I'm talking
about peace. Peace. Oh, what would you give
What would it mean to you to walk before God at peace? Peace that God himself bestows. Our savior said, my peace, give
I unto you. And he is our peace. Colossians
one. This is what every believer has
in Christ. Verse 20. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto
himself, by him I say, whether they be things in earth or things
in heaven, and you that were sometime alienated and enemies
in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled. There was a time, Merle Hart,
when you, in your mind, were God's enemy. He never was yours,
but you were His. And now, He's come and preached
peace to you, and reconciled you by His grace. So that now,
you come to God in peace. Nothing between. How does the
hymn go? Nothing between my soul and my
Savior, so that His blessed face may be seen. Nothing preventing
the least of His favor. Jesus is mine. There's nothing
between. Nothing. Nothing between me and
God to prevent the least of His favors. No reason. why he should not be good to
me. No reason why he should not be
gracious to me. No reason why he should not do
me good and own me good and that continually. There's nothing
between my soul and my Savior. He took it all away. Number three. I'm going to camp here a little
while. What would it mean to you to
have a new heart, a new nature that really does love God. I told you I'm talking about
things that matter, Rod. I'm going to talk about theory. What would it mean to you to
have beating in you a heart that really loves God. A nature, a spirit as truly inclined
to God as your flesh is to self. A new nature which hates evil
and loves good Loves God, loves his word, loves his people, loves
his worship. A nature that finds no greater
delight than to be in his presence and in his will. What would it
mean to you to have a nature that makes obedience
and worship a delight and not a duty? Well, Sunday morning, I've got
to go to church. Sunday night, man, I'd like to
be at a soccer game, but I've got to go to church. It's church
time. Tuesday night, boy, there's a good TV program coming on,
but I've got to go to church. What would it mean to you to
have a nature that makes the worship and honor and service
of God A delight. That's the nature of every sinner
who believes on the Son of God. That's nature. David said, I
love thy precepts, O Lord. Neither he did or he was a liar,
one of the two. I was glad when they said unto
me, let us go into the house of the Lord. Either he was glad
or he was a liar. I just read that to you just
a little bit ago in Psalm 122. I was glad when they said to
me, let's go to the house of God. Now, either I was glad to
go or I just pretended it and I'm a liar, one of the two. But
this I know, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away and
behold, all things are become new. All things new. This is that holy thing that
is born of God that cannot sin. This is what Peter spoke of when
he said we're made partakers of the divine nature. This is
what Paul spoke of when he spoke of Christ in you, the hope of
glory. When a person is granted life
in Jesus Christ, when God the Holy Spirit comes and raises
a sinner from spiritual death to spiritual life, giving them
faith in Christ, it is Christ in them that makes all the difference. Christ in you. The life which
I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me
and gave himself for me. It's not me, but Christ living
in me. And when we speak of the believers'
obedience, the believers' faith, the believers doing anything
or being anything, I'm not talking about something Bobby Estes does.
I've got better sense than that. Do you know what I expect out
of Bobby Estes? Nothing but sin. That's what I expect out of Don
Fortner. You know what I expect out of Christ in Bobby Estes? Huh? Righteousness, obedience,
faith, willing sacrifice, willing devotion, willing consecration. That's not me. That's Christ
in me, Paul said. All right, here's the fourth
thing. What would it mean to you to know that every trial, every failure, every joy, and
every sorrow, every good day and every difficult
day is ordained, designed, purposed and ordered by your heavenly
father for your eternal good and his glory. Now be sure you
understand what I just asked. What would it mean to you? to know, to know that every trial and
every failure, every joyful thing and every sorrowful thing, every
good day and every difficult day is ordained, designed, purposed,
and ordered by your Heavenly Father for your good and his
glory. That is the experience and the heritage
of every sinner who believes on the Son of God. All things that come to pass
in my life and in the life of my family is for my good. All things that come to pass
in this world is for my good. They don't just come to pass,
they are brought to pass by our God. This particular difficulty
Shelby and I, Faith and Doug have to deal with right now,
and you, because you're my family, was put in me 58 years ago. Got it from somebody else in
my family. And I knew nothing about it until
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday this week, whenever the doctors told
me it was there. Didn't have a clue it was there. Didn't have
a clue. My nephew has the same condition. He's known it for
38 years. They found it when he was born.
And been wondering for 38 years where he got it. Now he knows
the one thing I gave him. This is ordained. By my God. Well, what are the contributing
factors? Can't we blame the carcinogens
in the air? I went to school where they had
asbestos in the walls and we'd chip the stuff away and make
us a whole lot of cigarettes. Oh, let's sue the school. No,
God did it. God did it. And there's nothing
else that contributed to it, nothing. Not even Shelby's Good
Cooking or my tobacco, nothing else contributed to it. Nothing.
God put it there. That's all. And it's good for
a man. And good for you. Good for her. Does that mean you experience
no pain? Of course not. It's good for
us. Good for us. Turn to Isaiah 3,
verse 10. Say ye to the righteous. Are
you there? Isaiah chapter 3 verse 10. This
is what God commands of his prophet. Say ye to the righteous that
it shall be well with him. Or read it without the italics. Sometimes the passage reads awkwardly
this way, but boy, it reads good. Say ye to the righteous that,
well, Well, what have you got to say
about this? Well, I'm not talking about a rhetorical
pause. I'm talking about well, well,
say you to the righteous, it shall be well with him. Here's
the reason for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. Who are the righteous? Those
who are made righteous in Christ. Those who have his righteousness
imputed to them and imparted to them. Those who have received
his righteousness in the experience of grace by faith. Now. Say ye to the righteous. That
it shall be well with him. You can read that statement as
broadly as your heart's imagination will allow. No limitation. No condition,
no qualification. God simply says, with regard
to the righteous, well. All things well. Always well. In all circumstances, well. It's
well to the righteous right now. I recall when I was 17 years
old, going through what I thought were some struggles. You know, when your baby starts
walking and falls down, scrapes his knee, poor thing thinks the
world's coming to an end, and if it's your first child, you
think it is too. Second and third ones don't get
that kind of attention. But you recognize a little scrape
on the knee was nothing. But if it never fell and scraped
its knee, it never learned to deal with losing its arm. Called growing. But I had scraped
my knee one day. And I ran across this passage.
First Thessalonians 5 verse 18. You don't need to look at it.
I'll give it to you. In everything, give thanks for this. What this, is whatever you're
dealing with right now, is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning
you. It's well with us now and when
we want to cry like Jacob, all things are against us, it's still
well with us and never ill. It'll be well with the righteous
when it truly is ill with everyone else. There was a famine in the land
of Zarephath, but God had one righteous widow there he took
good care of. And it doesn't matter what happens
in this world, God personally takes care of all his own. When
temptation comes, he gives us way of escape that we may be
able to bear it. When trials come, it is that
he may wean us from this world and set our hearts upon heaven.
When Satan buffets us, it is that we may know our weakness
and find strength in Christ. When we sin, Nothing changes. It's still well
with the righteous. For we have an advocate with
the Father, and he's the propitiation for our sins, Jesus Christ the
righteous. When we fall, it's still well
with the righteous. Go ask Peter. Say ye to the righteous, it shall
be well with him. For though he fall, he shall
not be utterly cast down, for the Lord upholdeth him with his
hand. So long as we live in this world,
it shall be well with the righteous. And in the hour of death, it
shall be well with the righteous. For the Savior is but saying,
come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. In the day of judgment,
it shall be well with the righteous. For the Lord says, I know whom
I pardon. and in eternity, oh, it shall be well with the righteous.
God shall wipe away all tears from their faces and they shall
see His face. Face to face with Christ my Savior. Face to face, what will it be? When with rapture I behold Him,
Jesus Christ who died for me. It shall be well with the righteous.
That's God's promise. Well, how can you say that? How can you be so sure? For they
shall eat the fruit of their doings. Because the righteous
always get exactly what they deserve. Did you hear me? Rex Bartley,
the righteous always get exactly what they deserve. Oh, but Brother
Don, I deserve God's wrath, me too, in myself. loftiest thoughts, my noblest ambitions, let alone
deeds, are fit for hell, nothing else. But in my Redeemer, in
my substitute, in my surety, Jesus Christ the Lord, I have
fully obeyed God's holy law and will through the perfection of
the age of humanity. And it is right for God to do
me good. I shall eat the fruit of my own
doings. Say ye to the righteous, it shall
be well with him. One more question. What would
it mean to you to know assuredly that growing
old and dying is the very best, most blessed, most wonderful
thing that could happen to you. Now, Brother Don, you don't mean
that. Yes, I do. That's the experience and the
assurance Christ gives to those who believe. For me to live is
Christ. That's good. But to die is gain. Turn to Revelation chapter 7.
Verse 9. After this, I beheld and lo,
a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations
and kindreds and people and tongues, stood before the throne and before
the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands. I'll be standing there. You too,
if you're his. And that's far better. That's
far better. Now, no man ever had it better
here than I have. Oh, my. No husband ever had a better
family than I've had. No pastor a better family than
I've had. Oh, no complaints. I got no complaint
about life. Even the things prior to God
giving me the sweet experience of life in Christ that were so
bitter, were things ordained of God to bring to pass things
that are now this day. I have no complaint. But all that is nothing. compared
to that. Chapter 14, verse 13, And I heard a voice from heaven
saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die
in the Lord. From henceforth, yea, saith the
Spirit, that they may rest from their
labors and their works do follow them. Now, what would it mean
to you to go home this morning knowing that your sins are all
forgiven, that God is not angry with you and never will be, that
you have a new nature, that Christ dwells in you, that all is well
with you, and that death will be a blessing to you. All those great boons of grace
are the promises of God in Christ Jesus to every believing sinner. And God's promises in Christ
are all yea and amen. Believe Him this day and go home
drawing near to God with full assurance of faith. What is that
full assurance of faith? I've been thinking about that
a lot. Full assurance. In the sense that most people
talk about it, I don't know a thing on earth about it. I just have
to be honest with you. I don't know a thing about it.
I can't imagine the kind of full assurance that most people who
pretend to have assurance pretend to have. Does that mean that
you don't have any questions? No. Does that mean you don't
have any doubts? No. No. I've got a lot of questions. I've got a lot of doubts. We
don't have any fears. No, I have a lot of fears. Have
a lot of fears. Well, how can you talk about
full assurance of faith? God has spoken. God has spoken. I have his word
right here. I've read it. And his word is
true. And that is the assurance of
my faith. Believing the Son of God. And I, I can't speak with absolute
confidence about much else. But I tell you this, with confidence,
I trust God's Son. This sinner, looks to Christ
alone as my salvation, my rock, my refuge, my righteousness,
my redemption, everything. I trust Him. And that means God
Almighty has forgiven all my sin. That means God has no quarrel
with me. That means I have a new nature. Christ dwells in me. That means
all is well with me. That means death shall be an
everlasting blessing to me. In a word, that means I'm satisfied. I'm satisfied. Let's see if we
can sing that. Number 446, Satisfied by the
Ninja.