All right, let's open our Bibles
this evening to the book of Luke. The book of Luke chapter 18. Luke chapter 18. I feel impressed to use these verses
as my text tonight and bring this message to you. In Luke
18, beginning our reading with verse 9, and the Lord Jesus spake this
parable unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were
righteous and despised others. Two men went up into the temple
to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other The Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I'm not, as other men
are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even, and evidently he looked
back to the back of the building and saw this publican, notorious
sinner. Or even as this publican, I fast
twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. And the
publican, now listen to this, and the publican, here's my text,
standing afar off, he didn't feel at liberty to come down
to the front of the building or to the altar, but standing
afar off, would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven. He wouldn't lift his holy hands.
He wouldn't even lift his eyes. But they were downcast in shame
and embarrassment because of his great sin. And he smote upon
his breast, because that's where the problem was, the heart problem. And he beat upon his breast,
and he cried, O God, O God, be merciful to me, thee, sinner. Let thy blood be propitiation. Now, this man's back before the
cross. This man is looking to the mercy
seat. be merciful. That's where the
mercy was, the mercy seat, where the blood was sprinkled on the
mercy seat. Let thy blood be propitiation. Be reconciled unto me, the sinner. You see, if you'll turn in your
Bibles a minute to the book of Daniel, most of you are familiar
with this. Daniel chapter 6, you remember
Daniel was one of the three presidents derised the king, set over the
kingdom three presidents. Daniel was one of them. He was
the chief president. There were 120 captains and princes. But Daniel was the favorite,
and the other men were jealous of him, envious of him. And they
thought some way that they could discredit Daniel. So they got
King Darius to issue a decree. according to the law of the Medes
and Persians, which cannot be changed, that if anyone for thirty
days prayed to a god or asked a favor of a man, any man, any
god, any leader in the kingdom or wherever, other than the king,
he would be thrown in the lion's den. Daniel always prayed, even
in captivity, even in a strange country. In Daniel 6, watch this
now, verse 10, now when Daniel knew that this writing was signed,
he went into his house and his windows being opened in his chambers
towards Jerusalem. Towards Jerusalem. He kneeled
upon his knees three times a day and prayed toward Jerusalem,
giving thanks before his God as he did aforetime." What was
in Jerusalem? The temple. What was in the temple? The Holy of Holies. What was
in the Holy of Holies? The mercy seat. Daniel wasn't
an idolater. He wasn't praying to a city.
He wasn't looking to Mecca or something like that. He was looking
to the temple, to the mercy seat. That's what the Lord said in
Exodus 25. He said, take the broken law
and put it in an ark, and cover that ark with a mercy seat, and
put the cherubims, the winged creatures, on either side, and
I'll meet you at the mercy seat. I'll come down, and my Shekinah
glory will be revealed between the cherubims over the mercy
seat. And the high priest would go
in once a year with the blood and sprinkle it on the mercy
seat. And Daniel was looking for mercy to the mercy seat,
praying for Jerusalem. Let me show you another picture
of that in Jonah, in Jonah chapter 2. And I fudged on you, I marked
the book of Jonah. Those little prophets are hard
to find sometimes, you fumble around. And so I always put a
marker there. But turn to Jonah, and I'll give
you time. Jonah chapter 2. Now Jonah was in the belly of
the whale. And he said in verse 1, he prayed
to the Lord, his God, out of the fish's belly. And verse 4,
then I said, I am cast out of thy sight, yet I will look again
toward thy holy temple. What's in the temple? The Holy
of Holies. what's in the Holy of Holies. He said it again down in that
verse 9, I believe, he said, yeah, in verse 7, he said, My
prayer came unto thee, unto thy holy temple. And this man here
in Luke 18, this publican, standing afar, would not so much as lift
his eyes to heaven, but smote upon his breath, and cried, O
God, be reconciled. Let thy mercy, thy blood, be
propitiation for me, upon thy mercy. I'm a sinner." Years and
years ago, a hymn writer by the name of Frederick Whitfield wrote
a hymn And this is the first verse, it's one of those great
hymns. I need thee, precious Jesus, for I'm full of sin. My soul is dark and guilty, my
heart corrupt within. I need the cleansing fountain
where I can always flee. The blood of Christ most precious,
that's the sinner's. That's my subject tonight, the
sinner's perfect plea. What can a sinner plea? What
can a sinner do? Does a sinner have a plea? Will
God hear a sinner's plea? Yes, sir. And I'm going to deal
with that subject, the Lord willing, God helping me, the Holy Spirit
giving me some wisdom, I want to speak to you on the sinner's
perfect place. The sinner's perfect place. But
first, I've got to find the sinner. I've got to find the sinner,
you know, because everybody asks them. They're not sinners. Sinners are hard to find. Did
you know that? A sinner is hard to find. You ask them. Go up
to anybody. When you get back home, down
there where you work or where you shop or where you fellowship
or where you socialize, you say, are you a sinner? Me? We be not
sinners. When you call people sinners,
they get offended. A sinner is a sacred thing. The
Holy Ghost has made him so. Did you know that? God's going
to save all sinners. That's right. You say, well, everybody's a
sinner. No, they're not. It takes the Spirit of God to make a man
a sinner. If God ever gets a man lost,
he's going to save him. Now you mark that down. Christ came to seek him to save
the lost. Somebody asked Spurgeon one time,
said, Mr. Spurgeon, wherein lies the offense
of the cross? The Apostle Paul talked about,
if I preach circumcision, then is the offense of the cross perished.
Where is the offense, the offense of the cross? Virgin quickly
replied, when you tell men they're sinners, it offends their dignity. They don't like it. When you
tell people that salvation comes by revelation, that sin has so
crippled their minds and so polluted their hearts that they can't
even see the kingdom of God unless God reveals it to them. That
offends their wisdom. And when you tell men it's only
the blood, and the blood of God Almighty that puts away their
sin, that offends their pride. And then when you tell them that
Jesus Christ is the only Savior, by his person and work, men are
redeemed, that offends their love of self." So a sinner is
hard to find. A genuine, bona fide, self-confessed,
unadulterated, undeserving, ill-deserving, hell-deserving, separate sinner
is hard to find. But if we can find some sinners
here tonight, I've got a message for sinners. The Apostle Paul
said it's a fateful saying. And it's worthy of all acceptation.
It's worthy of acceptation by all men that Jesus Christ came
into this world to save sinners, of whom I'm the chief. You're
looking for sinners? Paul said, here's the chief.
If God can furnish a Savior, I can furnish the sinner. God
committed his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. One day our Lord was eating with
some publicans and sinners. And the religious Pharisees said
to his disciples, why does your master, why does your master
eat with people like that? Why does your master eat with
sinners and publicans? And the Lord knew their thoughts.
He turned and said to them, the well do not need a doctor, but
they that are sick. You go learn what that means.
I will have mercy. I'm not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. I'll have mercy, not sacrifice. I'm not come to call good people. I'm come to call sinners to repentance. Are you a sinner? I tell you, all of us here tonight
who are saved are still sinners saved by grace. And I'll tell
you this, the sinner will realize this. He'll realize that his
sins, like the pastor told us this morning, it's his sin that
has separated him and God. When our Savior was hanging on
the cross and cried, My God, why hast thou forsaken me? The
pastor turned to Isaiah 59, 2, and the scripture says, Your
sins have separated you and your God. He was bearing our sins
by imputation. We're guilty. Guilty. And our
sins have separated us and our God. If you'll turn to Romans
3, I want to introduce you to the first nuns. Here in Romans
chapter 3, the first nuns. Here's the first nuns. There
are four of them. And if you listen carefully, it'll help
you to remember. These are the four nones. Here
in Romans chapter 3 verse 10, as it is written, there's none
righteous. No, not one. Not one. Not a one. Me? No, not you. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. None righteous. That's not the
only one. Listen, and there's none that understand it. We call
bitter sweet and sweet bitter, good evil and evil good. way
that seems right to us, and it leads us straight to hell. None
that understand it. There's none that seeketh after
God, not the living God. They're all gone out of the way.
They're all together become unprofitable, and there's none that doeth good.
No, not one. None righteous, none that understandeth,
none that seeketh after God, and none that doeth good. The
sinner cannot plead his deeds, by the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. The sinner cannot plead his works,
not by works of righteousness, which we've done, but according
to his mercy hath he saved us. The sinner cannot plead his righteousness,
because Isaiah said, Our righteousness is a filthy rag and gone out. Bishop Rutherford said, Even
my repentance needs to be repented of. Even my tears need to be bathed
in the blood of Christ. I've never preached a sermon
that wasn't a sermon full of sin. That's right. Never done a good deed that didn't
have self in it. That's right. No man's ever perfectly
called on God or ever perfectly worshipped God or ever perfectly
did a good work. And if it's not perfect, God
can't accept it. It's got to be perfectly accepted, the sin
in all that we do. One of those great old Puritans
says, there's enough sin, there's enough sin, if it were tender, to set the fires of hell in the
heart of the saint nearest to heaven, if God lit the spot. Hoo-wee! Well, what can folks like that
believe? What can the plea? Wesley said, Depth of mercy can
there be? Mercy reserved for me? Can my
God, his wrath forbear me, the chief of sinners? Well, the sinner has a plea,
and I'm going to give it to you tonight, divided into six parts. Here's the six-fold plea of the
sinner. The sinner can plead his need. He can plead his need. If you
go through the New Testament and you read about those who
came to our Lord, people who came to the Lord in the New Testament
and were received and were blessed and received mercy and healing,
what did all of them have in common? All these people who
came to the Lord, what did they have in common? I'll tell you
what they had in common. They all needed Him. helpless
sinners immediately. Old Blind Bartimaeus was sitting
by the wayside, son of Timaeus, Bartimaeus, son of Timaeus, sitting
by the wayside begging, blind in darkness, in his poverty,
in his filth, in his loneliness, sitting there by the wayside
with his dirty hands outstretched for some kind of help, and he
heard a commotion A lot of people talking, a lot of things going
on. He asked somebody near him, what's going on? What is the
commotion? And somebody said, Jesus is natural, pacified. He'd heard of Jesus. He'd heard
how that Jesus made a blind man to see. He'd heard how that Jesus
had the power to give sight. And he began to cry, Jesus, Jesus,
my son of David, have mercy on me, Jesus. Couldn't see him,
but they said he was there. And somebody said, be still,
and he cried out to the Lord, Jesus, our son of David, have
mercy on me! He needed him. The scripture
said, our Lord is good for you. And he said, bring him to me.
And they said, he called it for you, and old Bartimaeus threw
that blanket aside and threw everything, his begging cup aside,
and he He ran in the direction of that voice and fell down at
his feet. And the Lord said, what do you
want me to do? He said, Lord, that I might see. And our Lord said, thy faith hath
made thee whole. And he got what he needed. And what did he please? My days. I didn't please my days. That's what this man in Luke
18 did. He said, Lord, be merciful to me. I need mercy. The Canaanite
woman came to our Lord, whose daughter was grievously ill.
And she said, Lord, have mercy on me. And he didn't even answer. He didn't even acknowledge her.
But she didn't leave because she was in need. And he was the
only one that could meet the need. She said, Lord, have mercy
on me. And he turned to her and he said, I'm not sent but to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel." She's a Gentile. She
still didn't leave. Most of us would have gotten
mad at that and walked off, but she had a knee, and he's the
only one who could meet that knee, and she stayed right there.
Lord, have mercy! He said, well, it's not right
to give the children's bread to dogs, Gentile dogs. She still didn't leave. She said,
but Lord, that's true. I'm a dog, but I'm your dog. I'm your dog. You're my master.
And dogs eat crumbs off the master's table. Did you just brush some
off of me? Can we come down to that place? You reckon any of us proud, arrogant,
self-sufficient, self-righteous sinners could ever say I'm a
dog? But I'm your dog." But Joseph,
there are all kinds of dogs. There's poodle dogs, and shepherd
dogs, and bulldogs, and big dogs, and little dogs, and white dogs,
and black dogs, and young dogs, and all, but they're all dogs. He said, brush them crumbs off.
I'll tell you another thing. When our Lord came down from
the mountain, there was a leper. He came running to him. He was
violating the law then. He wasn't supposed to do that.
He's supposed to go the other way, wasn't he? He's supposed
to stay unclean and go the other way. But he needed something.
He needed the power of God. He needed the blessings and mercies
of Christ. And he came and ran and fell
down in front of Christ and worshiped him, said, Lord, if you will,
you can make me clean. And our Lord said, I will, because
I've claimed it. I had a friend that was a
missionary to Africa, Sudan interior. in Africa years ago, back in
the 40s. He preached for us. He's dead
now. He preached for us in the 50s,
but he said, have you ever seen a leper? Have you ever seen a
leper? I said, no. He said, I guess
it's one of the worst types I've ever seen in my life. A man just
rotting, just rotting, decaying. And he said, that's what God
says about us in his word. Leprosy, that's a type of thing,
leprosy. That's what he sees when he sees
us, leprosy. He said I was out with a group
of men going to a service one Sunday afternoon. He said we
were walking through the bush. And had a man in front of me
leading the way, and I was right behind him, and he said, I heard
a voice up ahead crying, Help me! Somebody help me! Somebody
help me! And he said, we picked up and
started running. And he said, I rounded a bush
there in the jungle, in the bushes around the curve, and there sitting
on the ground was a leper. In the last stages of leprosy.
He said his eyes were just slit and a mouth was slit, his nose
was gone and his face was one open ulcer covered with flies. And he said his fingers were
all rotted off and he's holding those stubby arms and hands up
in the air and crying, somebody help me. Somebody help me. And he said, I stood there and
looked at him and I thought, oh. If I could just reach out
and take his whole rotten, scaly hands of mine and lift him up,
and put his body against my healthy body, his diseased, rotten, dying
body against my healthy body, his face against mine, and pull
him up to me, and let his disease flow into me, every bit of his
hell and rottenness and death and pain just flow into me and
my healthy body. I'll have a little understanding
of what Christ did to this old rotten dying sinner. He took
my place. He paid a debt He didn't owe.
I owed a debt I couldn't pay. I can plead my needs. Lord, I
need Jesus. I'm a sinner, a helpless sinner. Can you? Secondly, I can plead
His mercy. Can you quote Psalm 130? Out
of the depths have I cried unto thee, O God. Hear my prayer. If thou, Lord, shouldst mark
iniquity, O God, do it then. I mean right now. I mean right
now. God charged us with what we thought
in the last 30 minutes. Huh? What's gone through our
mind? Have we loved our neighbor perfectly?
No. Have we loved God with all our hearts? No. To know to do
good and do it not is sin. Transgression of the law is seen
within her. If thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquity, who could stand? But, oh, thank God, but there's
forgiveness to be, that thou mayest be healed. So let Israel
hope in the Lord. Oh, with the Lord there's what?
Plenty of redemption. How much? Plenty! Tell my people
they've received of the Lord. Double for all their sins. Double
their iniquities of pardon. He delights to show mercy. This
is what David, David cried in Psalm 51. Turn to that psalm
of confession and repentance. Listen to David. Listen to the
king. Listen to the man after God's own heart. Listen to the
sweet psalmist of Israel. Learn how to pray for mercy.
Psalm 51, have mercy upon me, O God. According to thy loving kindness
not according to my dessert Not according to my merit according
to your loving kindness according to the multitude of your tender
mercies I have my transgressions That's a sinner's plea According
to your tender mercies I plead my need and I plead your mercy That's God's chief glory, did
you know that? Turn to Exodus 33. Let me show you something.
What is the glory? That's God's chief glory, to
show mercy. Moses, in Exodus 33, went out
to the Tent of Meeting. The Tent of Meeting. Every man
stood in his tent door and watched Moses go out to the Tent of Meeting.
This is not the tabernacle. Now, this is the Tent of Meeting
where God met Moses, talked to Moses. Moses went into the tent. Moses had a threefold request.
In verse 13, he said, Now therefore I pray thee, if I found grace
in thy sight, show me thy way, that I may know thee. Lord, show
me your way. He had a second request in verse
15. He said, Lord, if your presence
does not go with me, carry me not in. Christmas Eve in one
Sunday morning. That's the one-eyed Welchman,
wasn't it? Christmas Eve. He didn't show
up to preach. It's time for the service to
start and the people were all sitting there and no pastor.
One of the deacons said, where's the pastor? The other deacon
said, well, I don't know. I haven't seen him. He said,
well, let's go hunting. You go that way and I'll go this
way. I'll meet you back here. In a few minutes, they met back
at the back of the church First deacon said, well, I couldn't
find him. Did you find him? He said, I found him. He said, where was
he? In his study. Well, he said,
there's a time to study and there's a time to preach. Did you tell
him? Nope. Well, what was he doing in his study? He was praying.
Well, I know, but it's time to preach. There's a time to pray
and there's a time to preach. Tell him it's time to preach.
Not me. Well, he said, what was he praying? He's telling the
Lord that he'd gone in that pulpit by himself for the last time.
And if God didn't go with him this morning, he wasn't going.
That's a good prayer. Lord, I've gone into that place.
We know something about that, don't we? By myself for the last
time. If you don't go with me, I'm
resigning. And that's what Moses said. He said, Lord, if you don't
go with me, don't take me. And then here's the third request
down here in verse 18. He said, Lord, I beseech you,
show me your glory. Do you know who this is speaking?
Moses. Moses is the one that saw the
river turn to blood, the dividing of the sea, the death of the
firstborn, the smitten rock, the manna from heaven. Moses
saw all of these miracles, mighty miracles of God, and here he
is saying, Lord, would you just give me a glimpse of your true
glory? of your real, true glory. I want
to see. Let's see what the Lord says.
And he said, all right, I will make all my goodness pass before
thee. I will proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. I will be merciful. I'll show
mercy on whom I'll show mercy. Do you know the greatest glory
of God is saving a sinner? That's right. Forgiving sin. That's God's greatest glory.
Running to meet the prodigal when he returned home and kissing
him, putting his arms around him and forgiving him. Let's
see what the Lord said. And he said, all right, I will
make all my goodness tax-supported. I will proclaim the name of the
Lord before thee. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. I will be merciful. I'll show
mercy on whom I'll show mercy. Do you know the greatest glory
of God is faith in a sinner? That's right, forgiving sin. That's God's greatest glory.
Running to meet the prodigal when he returned home and kissing
him, putting his arms around him and forgiving him. That's
God's greatest glory. That's what he said. My glory
is my goodness. I can plead that, Lord. Show me your mercy. And I'll
praise you forever. Like that lady said, you know
if the Lord saves me, he'll never hear the last of it. I'll praise
him as long as I live. I can plead his mercy. He gets
glory showing mercy. Thirdly, listen. This is important. Now listen to this. I can plead
his right to show mercy, the Lord Jesus Christ. I can plead
his right to show mercy. The Son quickeneth whom he will.
He has the right to save whom he will. That's what the thief
on the cross said. I want you to listen to this
man who died on that cross, this thief. First of all, he acknowledged,
he acknowledged who Jesus Christ is. He turned to the other thief
and he said, don't you fear God? This man's God. Don't you fear
God? See, we're in the same condemnation. Don't you fear God? This is God.
Secondly, he owned the fact that he deserved what he was getting,
and he said, and we getting what we deserve. We indeed justly,
we are bearing our sins justly. But this man, listen, the holiness
of Christ has done nothing wrong. And then he said, Lord, Lord,
Lord, you're not going to stay dead. You're coming into a kingdom. You're the Lord, the Lord and
Christ. and the king, you're coming into
a kingdom with crown rights, authority, a king. Would you remember me? What? He's playing the crown
rights of Christ. Thou hast given me authority
over all flesh that I should give eternal life to as many
as thou hast given me. He's got the crown rights. We look to Jesus Christ and we
plead his crown right. He has all authority in heaven
and earth. And that's what this man's saying.
And then turn with me to Hebrews 7. He not only has the crown
right, but the Lord Jesus Christ is the high priest. In Hebrews
7, I appreciate so much what Brother Otero said about the
book of Hebrews. I tell you, if you want to learn
the gospel, If you want to read and study a book that brings
together the whole Bible, the Old Testament and the New Testament,
if you want to read a book that speaks of the excellency of Christ
over Moses, over the law, over the angels, over the tabernacle,
over the priesthood, over all things, write Hebrews in it.
Hebrews! And here in Hebrews chapter 8,
listen to this. Chapter 8, or chapter 7, I'm
sorry, chapter 7, verse 21, listen. Those priests, those Old Testament
priests, they were made without an oath. But this man, with an
oath by him that said unto him, the Lord swear and will not repent,
thou art a priest forever after the order of Melchizedek. You
see, these Old Testament priests were pictures and types of Christ,
but they were, they weren't the best kind of picture. See, there
were many of them, one of them, one, he's only one. They were
men, he's the God man. They lived and died, he lived
forever. They offered animal blood, he offered his own blood.
They ministered in a tabernacle made with hands, he ministered
in heaven. They offered many sacrifices, he won. Their sacrifices
could never put away sin, he by one offering perfected forever
them that are sanctified. They had a limited priesthood,
he's a priest after the order of Melchizedek. King of Faith,
King of Peace, Priest of the Most High God that met Abraham.
Who was that? That's Christ. That's Christ. A lot of fellows have said, but
man, I don't think that's Christ. Yes, it is. I'll tell you one
sure way I know. That's a pre-incarnate appearance
of Christ, as the angel of the Lord knows him. Because when
Melchizedek met Abraham, he blessed him. And he gave him what? Bread
and wine. There's no blood. No Old Testament
priest would ever give bread and wine. He'd slay an animal.
He'd shed blood. There has to be blood. Well,
Christ shed his blood. And he gave his church the same
thing he gave Abraham. Bread and wine. As a symbol of
my broken body and shirt. That's Christ. Christ. Now kids, read on. Hebrews 7.
By so much was Jesus made a surety of a better testament. Verse
23, they truly were many priests because they were not suffered
to continue by reason of death. But this man, and Brother Otero,
that's almost the key to Hebrews, but this man. He keeps saying
that, but this man. I know Moses was great and all,
but this man. I know the priests were that,
but this man. I know their sacrifice, but this man. Look to him, oh
my goodness, because he continueth ever hath an unchanging priesthood,
wherefore he's able. My friends, he's able to save
you. I plead my need because I need him. I can't do without
him. I plead his mercy because he gets glory out of showing
mercy, and I plead his ability and power because he's the king.
And he's the high priest, he's the king, prophet, priest, and
king. No man ever held those three offices. But him, he's
got a right to show mercy. Because he's got a right to come
into the Holy of Holies. The only one who could come into
the Holy of Holies was the high priest once a year, not without
blood. The only one who can come into
the presence of the Father is my great half-priest, the Lord
Jesus Christ, with his blood. That gives him the right to show
mercy. And then something else. Turn
to Hebrews 8. Here's where I want you to look here. You know, he's
got the right. He's got the right. Oh, have
you read the book about John Jasper, the great preacher in
Virginia? John Jasper, it's called Rhapsody
in Black. Somebody asked John Jasper one
time, said, John Jasper said, when you say you're going to
heaven, when you get to heaven, and they stop you at the door,
or the gate, and they say to you, John Jasper, what right
have you got to be here? Now just tell me, what right
have you got to be here? He said, I'm gonna say to them,
I ain't got no right to be here at all. I ain't here on my right. I'm here on the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's got a right to be here.
And I'm here in jail. He's got a right. But listen
to Hebrews 8 verse 3. Every high priest is ordained
to offer gifts and sacrifices, wherefore it's necessary that
this man have somewhat to offer too. Does our Lord have something
to offer? Yes, sir. His own gift. And that brings me to the next
plea. I can plead his blood. I can plead his blood. Look at
Hebrews 9 verse 11 and 12. I can plead his blood. That's
what a sinner can plead. In verse 11 of chapter 9 of Hebrews,
but Jesus Christ being come, a high priest of good things
to come, by a greater and more perfect tabernacle not made with
hands, that is to say, not of this building, neither by the
blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood. By his own
blood, he entered once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption. I plead his blood. When I see
the blood, I'll pass over you, God said. We're not redeemed
with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with
the precious blood of Christ, because the blood of Christ cleanses
us from all sin. Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is he that can mimic this Christ that died? Yea, rather he's risen
again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession
for us. His blood cleanseth us from all
sin. Back in the old pioneer days,
I read about a wagon train that was moving west. Moving west,
coming out this way. And the scout was out ahead of
the wagon train, way out ahead, two or three miles, looking for
trouble. And one of the things that they
feared, as much as anything, was those prairie fires. The fires just sweeping. You
folks out in California know something about the destructive
power of fire. And the fire just sweeping down
the valley, the devour and everything. that grass burning up. And the
scout came riding back quickly and told the wagon master, he
said, there's a fire sweeping this way, just burning this high
grass and sweeping this way. And the wagon master told the
people, to set fire back here and burn it out. Burn it out.
They let the fire go from there back. And then they took all
the wagons back here on that burnt ground. And they circled
them around. And there they had this ground,
black, burned already, burned off all around them. And here
came the fire down the valley by the riverside. And the little
boy was sitting in his daddy's lap, you know, and the wagons
were all around. And he was shaking like a leaf.
And his daddy said, what's wrong with you, son? He said, I'm scared.
And his daddy patted him and said, son, you don't have to
be afraid. We're on burnt ground. We're on burnt ground. And I'll
tell you this, if you're on burnt ground, if the fire of God's
wrath is already been bested on Christ, they won't be bested
on you. He died for me. Isaiah 53 verse
4 through 6 says that he was wounded for my transgression.
He was bruised for my iniquity. The chastisement of my peace
was upon him and by his stripes I'm healed. Is that right? I
plead his blood. And then next, I plead his command. I plead his command. Preacher,
don't you mean his invitation? No, sir. Now listen carefully
to me. I plead his command. I plead
his command. The gospel is a command. The
scripture says God commanded men everywhere to do this. Kings
command men. They don't invite them. They
command them. Christ commands us to believe the gospel. When
our Lord came to Abraham, he said, Abraham, Get thee out of
thy father's house, and go to a land I'll show thee, and I'll
make of you a great nation." Abraham left. He came to Noah
and told him that he's going to destroy the earth with a flood.
He said, Noah, build an ark. That's a commandment. And Noah,
being warned of things not seen, moved with fear and built an
ark. When our Lord walked by the Matthew
sitting at the seat of customs, he said, Matthew, follow me.
That's a command, and he followed it. Our Lord said, Zacchaeus,
if you're disposed to do so, why don't you accept my invitation
and come down out of the trenches? Zacchaeus, come down. I'm going
to your house. I'm going to your house. He's the son of Abraham. He also
is a son of Abraham. There were a lot of sons of Abraham
around there, not this kind, not the kind you're talking about
today. These are sons of Abraham. He's a son of Abraham. You come
on down. Lazarus stumbled. Oh, I'll tell
you, with the command comes the power. With the command comes
the ability. He saw a man with a withered
hand, and our Lord said to him, you stretch out your hand. He
couldn't, but he did. He'd never stretched it out before,
had he? He had no ability to stretch it out. But when our
Lord commanded him, he stretched it out. He walked by a man that
had been on a bed for 38 years, and he said, take up your bed
and walk. Well, don't you know I can't walk? You can if I tell
you to. You see, you can if I tell you
to. I can't stretch out my hand.
You can if I tell you to. With the command comes the power. All you labor and heavy laden,
you come to me. Can I come? I command you to
come. If any man thirsts, let him come
to me. And out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
You see what I'm saying? I can plead his command. If I invite someone to come to
my house for dinner, he has a right to come, doesn't he? If I tell
him to come? If Christ tells me to come, I
got a right to come. Come ye sinners poor and needy,
weak and wounded, sick and sore. Jesus ready stands to save you,
full of pity, love, and power. Let not conscience make you linger,
nor fitness fondly dream. All the fitness you require is
to feel your need. And this he gives you. This he
gives you. Come ye guilty, come and welcome.
God's free bounty glorify. True belief, true repentance,
every grace that brings you life. Come to Jesus. It's a command. And you can plead that command.
He told me to come. They stopped that man carrying
his bed and said, it's the Sabbath day. You're not supposed to carry
your bed. The one that healed me, told me to carry my baby.
And that's why I'm here. The sinner's plea. I plead my
knees. I plead his mercy. I plead his
right to show mercy. I plead his precious blood. I
plead his precious, precious cleansing blood. And I plead
his command. Lord, you said come, I come.
You said believe, I believe. You said cast all my cares on
you, I do. I believe that. Am I saved? Yeah,
he told me if I believed him, I'd be saved. That's his word.
That's the sinner's plea. Old Brother Barnard used to pastor
a church out in Texas. I knew Ralph Barnard. Some of
you know who I'm talking about. He died in 1969. And I preached
his funeral. He was a dear friend of mine.
He was a great preacher, the grace of God. And in the 30s,
he pastored a church in Borger, Texas. There was an old man, a member
of his church there, called Brother Burke. And Barnard told me, he
said, sometimes in prayer meeting, Brother Burke, just before the
gift's missed, he'd say, Pastor, could I say something? And Brother
Barnard said, yes, sir. He said, and I've told you how
the Lord saved me. Barnard said, well, he's told
us a dozen times, but he said, I always like to hear it. So
I'd say, well, Brother Burke, why don't you tell us how the
Lord saved you? And he said, that old fellow is standing in
front of the congregation and he told this story. He said, my wife and I got married
because she was a godly woman, loved Christ, believed the gospel. But said, I didn't have any use
for the church or God or the Bible or anything like that.
I was just a rowdy rebel. And she'd go to church. He said
they didn't have church but once a month. They had a circuit rider
that came around. A fella preached in different
churches. He'd come to where we lived and he'd preach on Saturday
night, Sunday morning, Sunday night. Then he'd go somewhere
else the next week. He said she'd always go. He said, I never went. Never had any interest. But he
said for some reason. I got interested in going. I
can't explain it. He said, I just wanted to go.
And so that Saturday, he said, I got everything done that needed
to be done. I came in the house and told
my wife, I said, you're going to church tonight? She said,
yes, I am. He said, I'm going with you. Well, she was shocked,
but she was glad. So he said, we got ready and
I went out and hit the horse to the buggy and said, we go
to church. And he said, we sat down back
there in the back, my wife and I, and that preacher got up to
preach. And he said, preacher, he laid in on me, that he told
those people everything I'd ever done, everything I'd ever said. He just read my life story. He embarrassed me. He made me
mad. And he said I just couldn't sit
there. I just, I could have whipped him. And said he just tore me
up when he said amen. I got out of that place and went
out and sat in the wagon Grabbed the reins and waited on the wire
just chomping at the door. She came out and got up in the
buggy and she said, what's wrong with you? He said, that's pretty
true. He said, that ain't right. Isn't that right for a man to
tell everybody in town what a fella's like? You been talking to him? She said, he don't know you.
Well, he sure talks about me. He'll never do that again. I'll
never come back to that place. So he said we went home and Sunday
morning, I got the milking done, fed the chickens, and took care
of them. Came in and said to my wife, said, you going to church?
She said, yes, I'm going. I said, I'll go with you. Thought
you wasn't going back. I'm going back one more time. But he better
not start in on me this morning, not like he did last night. So he said we went, and he took
up right where he left off that night. I took up right where
he left off and tore into me a few. And he said, I sat there
and listened to him and he just told those folks the rest of
the story. He said, I've decided then I'll
never come back here again. And we went home and said, Sunday
night, said, I couldn't stay away. And he said, I went in and told
my wife, I'm going back with you. She said, I just don't feel
like going. She said, I feel real bad. I'm just sick. I just
can't go. He said, well, I'm going. You're
going by yourself? Yeah, I'm going by myself. But
he said, I went in. He did it again. Oh, he said,
I felt like I was the only one there. That man's finger was
up in my face, and that Bible he read just cut me to shreds,
just cut me to rips. And he said, about two-thirds
through the message, I hollered, that's enough. That's enough. I'm coming. I'm a sinner and
I'm coming to the Lord." He said, I cried my way to Jesus. Oh, he said, on the way home
that night I was riding that little buggy, riding along. He
said, the wind whistling through the trees came to say, glad you're
saved, Brother Burke. It drove by that little stream
and it rippled over the rocks and it came to say, we're glad
you're saved too, Brother Burke. He said, I got home and I put
the horse up, put the buggy up, and I walked up the path, stepped
up on the porch, and my wife was lying in there in the bedroom.
She said, the Lord saved you, didn't he? He came in the room, he said,
yeah, how'd you know? She said, I knew he was working
with you. I knew it. God always strips a man before
he clothes him. God always breaks a sinner before
he heals him. God always humbles a man before
he brings him to faith. God always kills a sinner before
he gives him life. He shuts his mouth, shows him
he's lost, and shows him Christ. always does. She said, you can't
have faith without conviction. You can't have faith without
repentance. You can't come to Christ until
you need him. And when you need him, he'll come. But she said,
I heard you when you came up to stand. And you were singing. There is a fountain filled with
blood. Sing it with me. Drawn from Emmanuel's
veins. And sinners plunge beneath that
flood. Lose all their guilty stains
Lose all their guilty stains Lose all their guilty stains
And sinners plunged Beneath that blood, lose all their guilty
stains. The dying sea rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day. Can you say this? And there may
I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. Wash all my sins away. And there may I go vile as he. Wash all my sins away. Our Father, we are sinners, sinners in Adam, born sinners,
sinners by nature, sinners by practice, in imagination, in
thought, in deed, sheep of sin, unworthy of your love and mercy.
But we thank you tonight for your grace in Christ and for
your mercy. And thank you for the blood of
our Savior that cleanses all sins. And we look to thee in
Christ. We come to thee in Christ. We
plead for your mercy in Christ. We rest and trust in the Lord
Jesus Christ, our substitute and our Savior. Thank you, Lord,
for paving our way.