I want you to turn back with
me to the book of 2 Samuel. You can put a marker if you have
one, and 1 John will be returning there after a while. And I want
to open up my subject this morning by pointing out a few things
to you that we learn from this twelfth chapter of the book of
2 Samuel, some things that are very interesting to me. And I'm sure that they will be
to you as you concentrate, as you listen carefully as we point
them out. The first thing that strikes
my heart's attention as I look at this chapter is the honesty
of the scripture, the honesty of the Word of God. Had God left
the information on David and the information concerning his
sin and his fall just to man and to the will of man, it would
have never been recorded in the Holy Scriptures. No doubt this
dark blot on David's record would have been completely omitted
out of the Scriptures and we would have never known We would
have never known about this situation in the life of David, which has
been used of God in many, many ways to help and to assist the
poor, afflicted family of God in this world. But God's word
is absolutely honest. It's absolutely honest, reminding
us that every man, every man, even if it be King David, and
his best state is altogether vanity. David, he was a sinner
and he was saved by the grace of God and he was kept saved
by God's grace, saved by grace. Beloved, God dealt with David
through grace. God dealt with him when he was
in faith, believing, trusting, walking obediently before God,
and God dealt with David in grace when He fell. Even the discipline
of God was in grace. And so God was gracious unto
King David. And the scripture is honest,
holding back nothing, revealing all that we need to know about
David's fall, King David's fall. into sin. So the honesty of the
scripture. Have you ever been amazed at
the honesty of the Word of God? Making no attempt to conceal
what we are in a state of nature. Making no attempt whatsoever
to mislead anyone. Making someone feel or think
more highly of another than what is written of them. And then
the second thing that just appeals to me or that just seemingly
rises off the pages here of the Word of God is that we should
never think ourselves to be above committing some sin that would
bring reproach on the church and our families and ourselves. We should never feel that we're
above committing sins such as David committed in his life. Now many, many times we feel
that we just simply could never fall. that we just simply are
strong and that we're very able, very educated in the things of
God, and that we could never commit such sins as David committed. But we should never say that
we cannot fall into such and such sins, that we could never
do such horrible things. Now, beloved, if we had a better
understanding of the depravity of the human heart, we would
never question it for one moment. We would never question that
what any other person has ever done, any sin that has ever been
committed by a son of Adam, by one born of a woman, that we're
just as capable of committing that sin as that individual was
when he committed it. And so we should never, we should
never underestimate our own hearts. We are, we have a sinful heart. The Bible says in the book of
Jeremiah that the heart is deceitful above all things. It's desperately
wicked. It is, we're not able to find
any cure for it. It's incurably wicked. That is
our hearts. that we're talking about. And
so we should never say we would never fall, we could never slip
and fall into these kind of sins. We know better because we know
something about the depravity of our own nature. Then the third
thing that I see here is that we are naturally blind to our
faults, but we're very quick to see them in other people.
We're naturally blind to our own faults, to our own sins,
but we are quick to see them in other people. Now, when Nathan
illustrated David's sin by telling the story of the rich man who,
though he had many lambs, stole the only lamb his poor neighbor
had." You can read that or if you listen, as Brother Halbert
read, verses 1 through 4, David grew very angry with the man
who had done this terrible thing. never realizing that Nathan the
prophet was describing himself, that Nathan was speaking of David. And he said, David, when David
became very angry and said, the man that has done this thing
shall surely die, and he shall restore the Lamb fourfold, he,
David, pronouncing judgment as it were upon himself, because
he did this thing and because he had no pity. And Nathan said
in verse 7, David, You're the man. Thou art the man. So David,
he could see the awfulness of that sin in this straw man that
Nathan had built up before him. But he could not see it in himself. And we're exactly the same way. We're the same way. We're not
able to see our faults. It is as though we had, when
it comes to our own faults, we had blinders on, but when it
comes to other people, we just take them off and we can see
clearly where other people have sinned and where they've fallen.
The next thing I see here that I want to point out is that we
all need... Preacher, there was a faithful
prophet by the name of Nathan that would hold back nothing.
I've been invited to tell the truth, and I've had people to
tell me, Preacher, all I need We see that we all need a preacher. And then in the next place, we
see that God deals with men individually. David was brought to the place
where there was no one but he and God. And he would say later
in Psalm 51 and verses 1 through 4, against thee and thee only
have I sinned. David, he was brought to that
place where he could see that all he had committed, all of
his sin, was open before God. And that it was really God that
he had sinned against. It was really God, it was God's
law that he had broken, it was God that he had sinned against. And so God deals with men individually. He deals with men and women individually. Your situation this morning is
open unto the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. And there
is nothing hid from Him. And this is one of the reasons
why we need to go over a chapter like this and deal with the subject
that we're going to deal with this morning is that we need
to come before God in our true character. I say we need to come
before God in our true character. and not try to hide it, not try
to conceal it from God. I'm not talking about revealing
things to our neighbors or talking to other people about it. I'm
talking about before God, we must be honest and we must come
before God in our true character. And so David said, it comes down
to this, Lord, it's against Thee and Thee only have I committed
this sin. And so the next thing we see
here is that once David was told about his sin, that he had a
repentant attitude about it. He had a repentant attitude.
When his sins were exposed, he offered no excuses, but he confessed
his guilt and said in verse 13, I have sinned against the Lord. I have sinned against the Lord. Now, beloved, this attitude is
one that I believe came because there had come a time before
in David's life when his heart was broken. There had come a
time when God had dealt with him and had forgiven him of his
sins and of his trespasses. And God, as it were, had plowed
the ground of his heart before. And David had a tender heart
before God. The Bible teaches that David
loved the Lord. He loved the Lord. He was a mature
believer when all of this took place. And David knew in his
own heart that he was wrong. And so his attitude was one of
repentance. I'm sorry about it, O Lord. I'm
sorry about it. I repent. I repent in my heart
of this sin against you. And then there's another thing
that I see, and that is, in verse 13, that God forgives sinners. Now, beloved, there's one thing
that I will never do. Whatever you think about my sin,
whatever I think about your sin, I couldn't care two whiffs out
of Hooterville, as the expression is, about what you think about
my sin, about what you feel about your own sin, really and truthfully. But here's the point I want to
make, is that God forgives sinners. Nathan told David, the Lord also
hath put away thy sin. You know, when God opens the
door, such as he opens the door here in this verse of scripture,
in verse 13, and he tells through Nathan the prophet, the Lord
also hath put away thy sin, and we read in 1 John 1, verse 9,
if we confess our sin, he's faithful and just to forgive us and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness, when he says, and if any man
sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ be righteous,
then I dare not shut a door that God has opened. And when God
has opened a door, and when the Word of God teaches free and
full forgiveness of sin, we must, in all honesty, proclaim free
and full forgiveness of sin. Somebody said it'll promote licentious
living, preacher. It will. If you preach that God
will forgive a sin like David committed, it will cause a man
to be unconcerned about whether he ever lives right or not. There
isn't an ounce of truth to that. There is no truth to it. David
often, I'm sure, as the scripture reveals that on one occasion,
he asked the Lord to keep him back from presumptuous sins. I have never known a child of
God. Now you hear me carefully. I've
never known a child of God who would deliberately sin that grace
may abound. I've never known one. Now I've
heard people talk about antinomians all of my life. I've been called
one day after day for years I've been called antonomian, but I
have never met anybody that would just sin that grace may abound. Would I sin because God loves
me? Would I sin against God because
he's forgiven me? Because he's been gracious and
merciful to me? Would that, would that ever?
I can't, knowing the depravity of the heart like I know it,
I still cannot visualize anybody sinning against God because he's
been good to them. There's other reasons why a man
will sin, but that certainly wouldn't be the reason. And I
realized, you know, beloved, that there are men that rest
the scriptures to their own destruction. The Bible teaches that. And the
Bible teaches clearly that that there are those that would presume
upon the mercy of God at times, but what we want to understand
here is that God has opened a door. In the gospel, God has opened
a fountain for sinners. God has opened a way whereby
men and women can be reconciled unto Him. And this is what we
need to understand. And shall we dry up the sea?
because there's sharks that swim in it? Shall we refuse to give
a healing life, giving and healing drugs to sick men and women just
because some fool will go out and take them and poison themselves
with them? Shall we refuse to do it? Absolutely
not. Beloved, we'll preach full and
free forgiveness through our Lord Jesus Christ because God
opened the door and we We'll tell you that the Lord has put
away David's sin. He has put away his sin. The
Lord has covered his sin. The Lord has not charged his
sin to David. The Lord has charged it to David's
advocate, the Lord Jesus Christ. And this we need to see. Now
we'll come back to that point in a moment. I want to talk a
little bit more about David's advocate in a few moments. But
God forgives sinners. And that's one of the things
that just comes out clearly here to us in this chapter. Now the
next thing is this, that God forgives the guilty sinner, but
an innocent victim must die in his place. God forgives sinners,
but an innocent victim must die in the sinner's place. That baby,
which was innocent of the crimes of King David, innocent of the
crime that was committed when Uriah the Hittite was killed
will die in David's stead. That baby will die in David's
stead. Even so, Jesus Christ, who had
no part in our sin and no part in our rebellion against Almighty
God must die as our substitute in order that God could save
and pardon our sin. The innocent must die for the
guilty. If the guilty are to go free,
the innocent Son of God must die in their place. And you and
I this morning, if we have an ounce of freedom from the guilt
of sin, if we feel pardon, if we feel in our own hearts that
our sins have been remitted and been cast behind the back of
God as far as the East is from the West, never to be remembered
against us again, it's only because the innocent one The Lamb of
God, God's own beloved Son, died in our room and stead and place. I'm talking about the things
that just come to us out of this chapter. The next thing and the
last thing is this. David and the one who died in
his place, would someday be reunited. That's in verse 23. I want to
read that to you here. Look at it. Verse 23. But now
he is dead. The baby, the innocent one, is
dead. The innocent one who died for
the guilty, who died for guilty David, is dead. Wherefore should
I fast? Can I bring him back again? No,
I can't bring him back. But he says, I shall go to him,
but he shall not return unto me. So when our earthly pilgrimage
is over, When it's all over and the will of God, we've served
the will of God in our generation. We've done that which was our
duty to do in this world. We've walked with God. We've
preached his word. We've attempted to testify. We've
pilgrimaged in this world. We've attempted to find his mind
and to make that our mind in this world. And when all of that
is over, Then we shall see that one who died in our place. We're
going to go where he is, and we're going to be with him for
all eternity. Now, beloved, I want to talk
to you a little bit about the fact that the Lord also put away
David's sin. This is so very important that
we see some truths that are connected with that. Turn with me back
to the book of 1 John now. if you please, and let's look
at a few things here concerning the putting away of our sin and
our advocate. I rejoice in this truth. I was
talking with a preacher last night on the phone, Brother Aquino,
out in Baltimore, And I quoted this verse of scripture to him,
and he said, why, that's awful good news for a sinner. And I
said, well, exactly. That's good news for a sinner.
If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ,
the righteous. Now, beloved, I think that most
of you are probably grounded enough in the truth to know something
about your own depravity, the depravity of your own heart.
I read one time where Augustus Toplady, who lived from 1740
to 1778, died when he was 38 years old. He wrote that hymn,
you know, Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let me hide myself in
thee. He took a mathematical approach
to sin. And he calculated that every
human being commits at least one sin every second of his life. At least one sin every second
of his life. He said that anyone who lives
to be 80 years old will have broken God's law, now get this,
2,522,880,000 times. If a man or a woman lived to
be 80 years old, we know of some that have lived past that. And we know that they didn't
quit sinning when they were 80 years old. Now, it's no small
wonder that he could write that hymn, Rock of Ages, believing
that and having taken that approach to sin. The blood of Jesus Christ
Now get this, effectually cleanses us, if we live to be 80 years
old, from 2,522,880,000 sins and more. All the evil thoughts,
all the hate, all the enmity, all of the covetousness, all
of the pride, and all of the rebellion, all of the lust, all
the guilt, that we've ever had upon our
hearts, the blood of Jesus Christ, God's own Son, cleanses us from
all of those sins. Now, the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ cleanses us from all of our sin. David was cleansed by
the blood of his substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. And once
David, it was pronounced that God had put away his sin, David
did not go on bearing a guilty conscience for years later. No, when the baby died that had
been born to him in Bathsheba, The scripture says that he went
in and lay with Bathsheba and Solomon was born and God loved
Solomon and David went on with his life because he believed
when God said, I put away your sin, that your sin, that his
sin was put away. And so he did not continue to
carry it upon his conscience. Now listen to me now. I want
you to know that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, presents
us holy and unblameable, unreprovable, and faultless before His glory,
before His presence, before His face, And my friend, that's good
news. That's good news, that our sins
have been put away. Now then, I believe that John
here, I mentioned something about presumption earlier. I believe
there's another thing here that John is dealing with and does
battle with, and that is the extreme of despair. You know,
I have known more people in my time that have suffered from
despair over their failings, over their weaknesses, over their
sin, than I have ever known to have any degree of presumption
about them. People that are despairing about
their sin, their failings, and their weaknesses. Well, John
said, I write these things to you that you do not sin. I'm writing to you that you do
not sin. If any man sin, he has an advocate. Now John said if. That's a supposition
that is very small because he knows that we do sin. And he's already spelled it out.
He said in verse 8, Now beloved, when you read the word of God,
you take seriously what you read. If you ever expect that God would
speak to you out of his word, you must develop a holy reverence
for what God says. And listen to John. Somebody
said, well, I don't think John believed that anybody would ever
sin. Listen to what the Bible says. God says through John the
Apostle, if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. John's not teaching that it's
likely we'll not sin. He says that I write these things
to you that you sin not. Sin is the breaking of God's
holy law. Sin is the raping of God Almighty. Sin is damning. Sin is terrible. Sin. Well, you know, David, he
was able to turn off the joy of the Lord in his heart, but
he wasn't able to turn it back on. He had to pray, God, you
don't restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. And he knew
God had to do that, and like I say, presumption, there's no
place here for that. There's no place here for that.
David was 20 years under the discipline of God for this sin.
Four of his sons, he lost them, and they died on account of this
sin. No small thing to sin against
God, but less come before God in our true character, and you
that would be given to despair. John takes that into account.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth
is not in us. If we say we've not sinned, we
make him a liar and his word is not in us. I have to say at
the close of every day, I've said things today I shouldn't
have said. I have thought things today that I should not have
thought. I have done things today that I should not have done.
Every day. I also must, if I'm honest, admit
this. In my flesh, there is no good
thing. In my flesh, I never please God. My flesh is not subject to the
law of God on its best day, neither indeed will ever be as long as
we live. I cannot breathe without sinning. If you're breathing, you are
sinning. Now listen to me, there's another
thing here that we must understand. We cannot do those things that
we feel are our duties to do without sin being present. We
cannot preach, we cannot pray, we cannot sing in our worship
without sin being present. Paul said, when I would do good,
evil is present with me. It's right there. Sin is there. Most of our alms are given out
of self-love. My sanctification arises out
of self-righteousness. My service to God reeks of self-glory. My feeling of holiness arises
out of my ignorance of God and my ignorance of myself and I've
known a whole lot of people just you know they were just so proud
of what little holiness they thought that they had mustered
up and worked up but let me tell you something that your goodness,
your righteousness is just that many more sins in God's sight. Because the Bible says our righteousness
is as filthy rags in the sight of God. And I'm telling you here
this morning that there is enough tender in the most moral men
and women in this group to keep the flames of hell burning for
all eternity. We are sinners. That's our nature. And we need to be aware that
we live by the grace of God. We stand by God's grace. If saved,
saved by grace. Now, beloved, listen to me. There's
a point that I want to make here out of this text, and that is
this, that our sins, whatever they be, if they be the sins
of David, Whatever our sins might be, they do not deprive us of
our interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if you can get anything
else out of verse 1 of chapter 2 of the book of 1 John, I'd
like to know what you get out of that verse. I'll tell you
what it means. It means if any man sins, he
has an advocate. It does not say if any man sins,
he's forfeited his advocate. but we have an advocate, sinners
though we be. It does not say if a man does
not sin, then he has an advocate, but the beauty of the text is
all the sin that a believer ever did or can be allowed to commit
cannot destroy his interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's
what it means. And I tell you the door's open
there and I'll tell you I won't shut that door. I'll tell you
this is what the verse teaches and this is what we're saying
this morning. that into whatsoever the child of God may be suffered
to fall, yet none of these things can by any possibility touch
his title deed to glory, to eternal glory. He is saved in and through
the Lord Jesus Christ. Indeed, Jesus is only mine when
I can claim the name of sinner. He's only mine when I can say
I am a sinner and say it honestly and truthfully before God. Now listen to me, you were born
in sin. David said, in sin did my mother
conceive me. You don't have to commit any
sin whatsoever to be a sinner because you're born that way.
And we've told you over and over again, a dog is not a dog because
he barks. He barks because he is a dog.
And you do commit sin because you are a sinner. But the sin
that you commit, you may lie, cheat, steal, but that doesn't
make you a sinner. You are a sinner, and that's
why you lie, cheat, and steal. You were born that way. So it
wouldn't make any difference what you do or do not do in this
regard. You can say, I am a sinner by
nature. And therefore, because I am one
by nature, I am one by choice, and I am one by practice, I'm
a sinner. Well, who wants an advocate to
plead his case in a court of law if there's nobody suing him? Who needs a lawyer unless somebody
is suing him? Well, we don't need an advocate
unless we come to God in our true character And unless we
come to God and are in a mess, and I'll tell you, God only can
straighten out the messes that we get ourselves into. And God
only can forgive the sin that we're entangled with and the
sin that we're involved with every day. Sin, sin here and
sin there. Some sin maybe nobody ever heard
of. Maybe there's a whole lot of
sin that is homemade. But regardless, God only can
straighten out the messes that we're in. Grace, grace. What God is free to do on the
behalf of his elect because of what his son did as their representative. What God is free to do. Grace. Now this word advocate, and I'm
gonna hurry because I about used my time, This word advocate is
a metaphor taken from the Romans and the Greeks. And the proper
office of an advocate is to defend the accused person against his
adversary. Now, we know that we are the
accused. All have sinned and come short
of the glory of God. There is an accuser in the law
of God, the holy law of God. And when a man stands in his
lost condition, when a man stands in a state of nature, the law
of God charges him with all of these sins that Augustus' top
lady spoke of. But hear me out. If we be in
Christ, if the Lord Jesus Christ has taken our case, if we have
a standing in him, then, beloved, the law of God is the best friend
that we could have because we have established the law through
faith. We have believed in one who obeyed,
who kept the law of God every jot and till of the holy law
of God. Now, beloved, listen to me. I
want to say a word to you about this advocate. The advocate is
the Lord Jesus, and the Bible says that he has not entered
into temples made with hands. Let me read that to you out of
the book of Hebrews. Just listen to this. For Christ
is not entered into the holy place made with hands, which
are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to
appear in the presence of God for us. now to appear did you get that
in the presence of God for us Hebrews chapter 7 says that he
is able to save to the uttermost all that come into God by him
seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession for them that's
Hebrews 7 and 25 in Romans chapter 8 And listen to these verses. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. That's where he is. And what
is he doing? Making intercession for us. He's saying, yes, my father,
that sinner there is unrighteous. That sinner there as he stands
in himself, that sinner as he's cut off from me is unrighteous
and he can never be righteous. Make no difference. whatever
he would try to do, how earnest he was about doing it, he can
never be righteous. A sinner can never be righteous. He can never be. The only way
that we can be righteous is to be in that one Christ our righteousness,
to be in him. And as you stand in him, then
you are righteous. And he says, yes, my father,
that sinner was unrighteous, but remember that I was accepted
before you as his substitute. I was accepted. I stood to keep
the law for him. I gave my active obedience unto
you. And as he stands in me, then
he's kept the law. And you cannot charge him with
adultery. You cannot charge him with murder.
He stands in me. And I have kept the law. I went to the cross and I bled.
for his crimes, for his sins. And so I gave my passive obedience. I died for that sinner. I was the innocent one. And he's unjust, but I'm the
just one. And I died on that tree that
I might bring him to you. And I bring him, Holy Father,
having died for his sin. I've covered him. from head to
foot with my doing and with my dying. I've covered him. I've
covered old David. I've covered him with my doing
and with my dying. I've adorned him in garments
of white. I've given him my righteousness. I was made legally constituted
to be sin for him that he might be legally constituted righteous
before you And He's as righteous as I am, Father, because He stands
in me. I am come unto my people, the
Lord their righteousness. I've taken the jewels out of
my crown to beautify them. I've taken the garments off my
own back. so that they might be clothed
with the garments of salvation. The garments of salvation are
woven from top to bottom by the doing and dying of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Christ is our advocate. Well, what more can the sinner
need? Not if I do not sin, but if I
do sin, he is all of this to me. Did you get that? That's
the beauty, beloved, of the text. Now there are times When all
the faults, our failings, our wonderings, and our backslidings,
they just make us despair. And it's a bold thing to say that all the sin that a believer
can commit can never mar his interest in the Lord Jesus Christ. But we say it without fear of
being successfully contradicted by anybody that believes the
Word of God. It may mar the enjoyment of our
salvation for the present, This doctrine will not drive men to
sin, it'll draw them to love that gracious and immutable God,
who notwithstanding all of our sin and care and woe, will never
suffer us to perish. It'll make us love God more.
I love God more after having preached this gospel than I loved
him before I started. And every time I preach the gospel,
it's just that way over and over. Now, beloved, listen, if I have
a guilty conscience and an aching heart and feel that I'm not worthy
to be called God's son, I still have an advocate. And because
I am one of the any men that sin, I have this advocate. And all that means, it means
it to me, because I'm in the Lord Jesus. Now, this truth,
so divine, should be practically remembered. It ought to be remembered. You must remember it. You must
remember, you will not go through life without sinning, without
falling, without failing, without having difficulty. We're all
failures, every one of us. There's nobody here this morning
that says, I am where I expected to be. On the last Sunday in September,
1996, I'm all that I ever expected I would be, and I am proud of
myself. Brother, sister, there isn't
anybody here that believes that. Every one of us, our failures,
we're falling. There was a lady last week, and
it grieved my heart, heard the gospel, and she said, I don't
want my children to hear that. I don't want them to believe
that they're not all right in and of themselves. Worst plague
that could ever come on you or your children. is to believe
that you're all right in and of yourself. The most blessed
thing you could ever hear is that there is one in whom we
can have a standing before God just as if we'd never committed
a sin. One before whom we can stand perfect and accepted. That grieves my soul. But listen,
there are times when we ought to remember this. Somebody said
you ought to remember it all the time, and that's true. But
in order for me to remember this truth, I must continually come
to God in my true character. I must come to God as a sinner. That's how I must come to God
every day. I would seek to be perfect. I would strain after
virtue, forsake every false way. But still, as to my standing
before God, I find it best to sit where I sat when first I
looked to Jesus on the rock of His works, having nothing to
do with my own righteousness but only His. Depend on it, beloved. The happiest way to live is a
poor sinner and nothing at all, be nothing at all, have in Christ
as our all in all. That's the happiest way to live.
Remember this truth. You're a sinner, and you come
as a poor sinner unto the Lord. Never put anything where Christ
should be. Have your graces, your development,
your virtues, and if you've begun in Christ, finish in Christ.
If Christ is your Alpha, let Him be your Omega. Don't think
you're going up when you get beyond this. You're not rising. You're slipping down to your
ruin if you get away from the fact that you're just a poor
sinner and nothing at all. But Jesus Christ is our all in
all. Still a sinner. but still having
an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. Let
this be the spirit of your everyday life. You have an advocate. Now, beloved, you know there
are many, many people who, and due to the blindness of nature,
and the blindness, what they've heard, or because of what we've
got where we are, but what we've heard, they're blind in their
sin, they believe the lie. and they're blind and they say
well you know preacher I have Saint Jude to pray for me or
I have Mary even to pray for me but you see beloved we believe
the gospel and we don't need Mary's prayers I'm sorry I don't
need them I don't need them I got the Lord Jesus praying for me
and Jesus told old Peter he said I prayed for thee. And you know
why old Peter made it through after all of his falls and slips?
He made it because Jesus prayed for him. And you know when it
all boils down, it won't be because Saint Jude or Mary or somebody
else prayed for us. It'll be because the high priest,
the Lord Jesus, prayed for us. He made intercession. He was
our advocate. He just pled his righteousness
and his merit, his grace, goodness, and his obedience to the Father
on our behalf. And so the Father delivers us.
And you know there's another time when I think this should
be so remembered, and that's when we're praying and making
intercession. This come home to me so forcibly
the other night, in the middle of the night. Jesus Christ the
righteous. I always believed, I always believed
that God would hear, I think we all do, we all believe
that if we were perfectly righteous, God would hear us. Whatever we
would ask of Him, He would give it to us, if we were perfectly
righteous. But you know, many times as believers, we ignore
this aspect of this truth, that we come in the name of Jesus
Christ the righteous and to always remember that my standing is
in him and when God looks my way he sees him and his righteousness
before he ever sees me he sees him and he deals with me on the
basis of my representative and my substitute and he's righteous
and I've been pleading with God I've been begging God to do some
things for me and you know a lot of times you live for years and
you let things, things just are like they are and you live with
them and you live with them and you live with them and they must
be changed, you know they must be and you want them changed
and sometimes you lose heart because you don't know.