Would you turn back to Luke chapter
4? I have entitled the message for
this morning, Two Things I Know. Now, I hope my attitude every
time I get up and preach the gospel is that of weakness and
fear and much trembling. I have some idea of my own weakness
and I fear misrepresenting the Lord. I do. I am anxious about that. I don't
want to give my own thoughts. I want to give what God's word
actually says. Coming into this message, I feel
confident, not self-confident, but confident that I will be
preaching what God's Word actually teaches and two things that I
know. Now, I think it's interesting.
I told somebody about preaching this message on two things I
know, and they reminded me that that's what John Newton said
on his dying bed. He said, I can't remember hardly
anything, but there are two things that I do remember. that I am
a great sinner and he is a great savior. But I changed it to this. He is a greater savior. I am a great sinner. These are
two things I know. I am a great sinner and he is
a greater savior. Now I know this objectively. What do I mean by that? I mean
that I know that this is what the Bible teaches. This is not
just my opinion. This is not just my experience.
This is what the scripture teaches, that I am a great sinner. That's the teaching of scripture.
I'm going to show you that. But it also is the teaching that
he is a greater savior. That is my objective experience,
but I know this subjectively too. What do I mean by that?
It's my experience. I am right now while I'm talking
to you, a great sinner. That's my experience. And this
is my experience. He is a greater savior. Somebody says, well, I believe
this is what the word of God teaches. And so since I believe,
okay, no, no, this is what the word of God teaches, whether
you and I believe it or not. I am a great sinner and he is
a great savior. Now, what do I mean by saying
that I am a great sinner? And that's what I'm saying to
you right now. I am present tense right now as I'm preaching a
great sinner. What in the world does that mean?
What are you doing? What are you doing? What do I
mean by saying I'm a great sinner? Well, I'm not talking about those
personal testimonies where people talk about how sinful they used
to be and they even name and almost sensationalize the sins
they committed to show you what a glamorous lifestyle they once
had and all that they've given up to be saved. I hate that kind of stuff. You
know, as far as personal testimonies go, I hate them. I do. I mean, they're more accurately
called bragamones than testimonies. So what do I mean by saying I'm
a great sinner? Well, the first question I'd
have to ask is what is sin? Sin is the transgression of the
law. That's what the Bible says. There
are other things that, ways that defy, sins coming short of the
glory of God, the thought of foolishness of sin, the plowing
of the wicked sin. Let's, let's stick with this
one definition. First John chapter three, verse
four, sin is the transgression of the law. Thou shalt have no
other gods before me. The commandment against idolatry. commandment against taking his
name in vain, without proper reference. Remember the Sabbath
to keep it holy. Honor your father and mother.
Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not commit adultery. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt
not bear false witness. Thou shalt not covet. Ten Commandments. Somebody thinks of the Ten Commandments
and says, well, you know, I try not to put any God before God.
I certainly don't have any idols at home, any images. I try to
be reverent, keep his name. And I, well, the Sabbath, you
know, that's in the Old Testament. I try to honor my parents. I
certainly haven't killed anybody. And I know sexual sin is wrong. I have not, I've been faithful
to my spouse. I try not to steal. I try not to, I try to be honest. I, you know, I probably have
some problems with covetousness, but I try not to be covetous.
What kind of sinner is that? What kind of sinner is that? A sinner is someone who knows
they have not kept one of these commandments one time. You know that? All you've done
is put things before God. You've made foolish idols of
him in your heart to make yourself comfortable. Every time you've
used his name, it's been in vain. You don't know anything about
rest. You've not given proper honor to authority that God has
placed. You've killed people's character
by innuendo, by gossip. You've certainly been guilty
of continual sexual sin in your mind and in your heart. You have
never told the truth one time. You have not, you might have
quoted it, but you were saying it in such a way as to make you
look better. You have stole glory from God. You've stole, you're
a thief. And you've been guilty of covetousness
continually. As a matter of fact, when I think
of what the Lord said in his word that the greatest commandment
is to love God with all your heart and all your soul and all
your strength, and the second is like and do it, you love your
neighbors yourself. You know what that means? That
means I'm continually guilty of committing the worst sin that
Christ said there is. Non-stop. Sin is the transgression of the
law. I have nonstop continually broken
every commandment. I'm a great sinner. What is a
sinner? It's the one who commits the sins. Peter understood this
when he said, depart from me. I'm a sinful man. Oh Lord, that's me. I'm full of sin, you don't want
to have anything to do with me. Paul understood this when he
said, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of
whom I am the chief. The publican understood this
when he cried out, God be merciful to me, the sinner. A sinner is one who all he does
is sin. He lacks the ability to not sin. And he realizes that his sin
is all his fault. He's no victim. He's no victim. He realizes that he cannot sit
in judgment on anybody toward anything. And he knows every
time he does, it's an act of pure hypocrisy for him to be
judgmental. The sinner knows he has no claim
on God. If God passes him by, just and
holy is his name. Now notice, I am a great sinner. It's five to 11 on February. What is today? February 17th.
on 1055 AM, February 17th, I am, I am, present tense. Not I used to be, I am a great
sinner. Not I was a great sinner, I am
right now. Turn with me for a moment to
that great chapter of Romans chapter seven. Verse 14, for we know that the
law is spiritual, but I was carnal, sold under sin until God saved
me. I didn't read that right, did
I? Not at all. We know that the law is spiritual,
but I am, right now, as I'm speaking to you, I am carnal Sold, sold
as a slave to sin. Now somebody says, Paul's talking
about his experience before he was saved. No, before he was
saved, he said, touching the righteousness, which is in law,
I was blameless. I was a good guy. But when God
saved me, my language became altogether different. I am carnal,
sold under sin. As a matter of fact, if you go
on reading in this verse of scripture, these are all verbs in the present
tense. Look, verse 15, for that which
I do, right now, present tense. I allow not for what I would
right now, what I would desire to do that do I not, but what
I hate that do I. If then I do that which I would
not, I consent unto the law that it's good. Now then, it's no
more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me right now. For
I know that in me, now here's where the word is not in the
present tense, but in the perfect tense, I know this completely.
For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good
thing. For to will is present with me, but how to perform that
which is good I find not. For the good that I would, I
don't do it. But the evil which I would not,
that I do. Now if I do that I would not,
it's no more I that do it, but the sin that dwells in me. I
find then a law that when I would do good, evil is present with
me. For I delight in the law of God
after the inward man. But I see another law in my members
right now, present tense, warring against the law of my mind and
bringing me into captivity, present tense, to the law of sin, which
is in my members. Oh, wretched man that I am. Not that I used to be, that I
am. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ,
our Lord. So then with my mind, I myself
serve the law of God, but with the flesh, the law of sin. Now, this is me right now. And if this is not you right
now, you've never learned the gospel. You've never learned
the gospel. Now, I don't derive assurance
from the fact that I'm a sinner. I don't take any comfort in that,
but I do take comfort in this. When we were yet without strength,
In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Now, back to Luke chapter four. This is a text that the Lord
quotes from Isaiah 61, and there are five descriptions he gives
of what a great sinner is. See how you line up. First, he says he came to preach
the gospel to the poor. You have nothing to bring to
the table. You're poor. You don't have anything that
God could accept. You're poor. You don't have any victories
in your life. You don't have any sins you've conquered that
would obligate God to save you. You have nothing. You are poor. And next he says. He sent me
to heal the broken hearted. The broken. The broken. If you're broken, that means
you don't work. You're broken. You're broken. You cannot work. This speaks of inability. And then the next thing he mentioned
is captive. Captive. He sent me to preach
deliverance to the captives. Now, let me tell you something
about being captive. If you're locked up in a cell,
if you can walk out, you're not captive. Somebody that knows
something about being a captive, they know how ridiculous the
very thought of free will is. Their free will is dominated
by a sinful nature. They are captive. And isn't that
what Paul said in Romans chapter 7? We know that the law is spiritual,
but I am carnal, sold under sin, that I'm in captivity to the
law of sin, which is in my members. That's how he expresses this,
captive. And then he speaks of recovering sight to the blind.
A blind person is someone who can't see anything in themselves
as to why God would look in favor toward them. They're blind. They
can't see anything. To set at liberty them that are
crushed. Bruised means shattered to pieces. You can't be fixed. You're unreformable. That's what that means. That's
the people he came to deliver. Now, how did I get this way? When I say I'm a great sinner
and I say that described me, how did I get this way? Did I
do something to become this way? No, I was born this way. I didn't do something to become
this way. A man doesn't become a sinner
when he sins, he sins because he is a sinner. Like David, I was shapen in iniquity
and in sin did my mother conceive me. I was born this way. The wicked are estranged from
the womb. They go about as soon as they
be born. Speaking lies. I have inherited the nature of
my father, Adam, that he passed on to me. I was born this way. But I'm no victim. I'm this way
by choice. I'm this way by choice. I can't
blame Adam. I can't blame my circumstances.
I am this way by choice. A sinner by nature, a sinner
by choice. And a sinner by practice. Actual commission of sins. Now here's where I'm at. When The disciples see that rich
young ruler unable to comply to the command, going away sorrowful. They say, who then can be saved? With men, it is impossible. That's where I'm at. I cannot. save myself. I'm a great sinner. I know this
objectively. I know this is what scripture
actually teaches. Now remember, the Bible is the word of God.
If you don't have the Bible being the inspired word of God, who's to
say what's true? I can't. You can't. I mean, there's
no objective truth, but the Bible is God's inspired word. Let me remind you, if he's able
to create the universe, and he did, He's able to inspire men
to write a book and keep it preserved. This is the objective truth. And this is what the Bible says
about me and you. And God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. That's you. That's me. The heart. Someone says trust
your heart. You better not. The heart is
desperately wicked, deceitful above all things. Your heart.
You believe that? Your heart. Don't trust it. There is none righteous. No,
not one. There's none that understands.
There's none that seeks after God. They've all gone out of
the way. They've together become unprofitable. There is none that
doeth good. No, not one. That is the objective
truth of scripture regarding me and regarding you. But not only is it the objective
truth. I've experienced this. It's the
truth regarding me. I'm not exaggerating. I'm not
overstating the case. This is the truth regarding me. I am. a great sinner. And this describes every believer.
This describes every believer. Ask them. Ask them. They'll say,
yep, that's me. Here's the second thing that
I know. First thing I know is I'm a great sinner. I know it
because the scripture teaches it. I didn't figure this out.
I didn't come up with this on my own. This is what the Bible
actually has to say about me and you. That's important. If
you look at somebody that makes a claim like that and say, well,
what do you reckon they're doing? Are they doing really bad stuff?
You know, I can keep up before man and look okay. I can, by
his restraining grace. But I'm talking about what I
am before God, what you are before God. I am a great sinner. It's what the scripture teaches,
and I find it true to be concerned in myself. I know it is. He is a greater Savior. Grace greater than all my sin. He is a greater Savior. Now, just as I cannot do anything
to save myself, He's such a greater Savior that there's nothing I
can do or be that can prevent Him from saving me. Saving me
completely with no contributions from me. Just as I cannot not
sin, He cannot not save. if it's his intention to save. He's never lost a case. He's
never failed to save somebody that he intends to save. I think it's demonstrated by
him telling Peter, Peter, you're going to deny that you know me
three times. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God? Believe also
in me. Let not your heart be troubled,
even though you're going to deny three times you know me. Is that
so? Yes, it's so. Yes, it's so. Turn up to John chapter 13. Remember, chapteral divisions
are man-made. Verse 38 of John chapter 13,
Jesus answered him, Will thou lay down thy life for My sake?
Verily, verily, I say unto you, The cock shall not crow till
thou hast denied Me thrice. Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God? Believe also
in Me. I'm God. I'm all-powerful. Is God all-powerful? I'm all-powerful.
Is God eternal? I'm eternal. Is God all-wise? I'm all-wise. Is God able to
save? I'm able to save. I'm the God-man. You believe in God, whatever
you believe concerning God, believe concerning me because of who
I am. You see, when we talk about the
greatness of the Savior, He's a greater Savior, it's because
of who He is. He's God. He's the creator. He's the second person of the
blessed trinity. He's the absolute sovereign of the universe. He
controls everybody and everything. Why? He's even controlling the
thoughts that are going through your mind right now. He's in
control of them. Somebody says, I don't believe
that. Well, he's in control of that too. You see, he's God.
He is in complete control over everybody and everything. He's
all powerful. Whatever his will is, is done. He's God. He's man. The God-man, the Word
was made flesh and dwelt among us. His greatness to save is
in who He is. And His greatness to save is
seen in what He did. Now remember, the first point
is who He is. He's God. He's man. The God-man,
Christ Jesus the Lord, the creator, the sovereign of the universe,
the one who controls everybody and everything, the one whose
will is always done, the one who has complete control. That's
who he is, the God-man. Now, what did he do? Well, Revelation
13, eight lets us know that he's the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world. You know what that means? Before
there was ever a sinner to be saved, he was the Savior. And
salvation was accomplished by what he did before time began.
That's how complete a Savior he is. He's the Lamb slain from
the foundation of the world. And the world was created, the
universe was created for the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ.
He came in time. as the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, as the one who's the surety, the one who, let's
put it this way. Before time began, God the Father
gave God the Son, Todd Nibbert, and he said regarding Todd Nibbert,
I will take full responsibility for his salvation. Everything
you require of him, you look to me for, and that's what the
Father did. That's what the Father did. He took full responsibility
for my salvation. Is there any way I can be anything
but saved if He took responsibility for me? Oh, I love thinking about
that. I mean, He came as the mighty
Savior. And in the flesh, He perfectly
kept God's law. And He did it for me. I was in
Him. He did it for me. Somebody says,
well, how can I know if He did it for me? What do you think
concerning Him? I'm not asking you to look within
yourself to see, well, can I see any evidence in myself that He's
done something for me? What do you think concerning
Him? Do you believe He's the Son of God? Do you believe He's
the Christ? Do you believe He is who He said
He is? Do you believe He did what He
said He'd do? That's what faith is. It doesn't have anything
to do with what you think about yourself. It has wholly to do with what you
think of Him. Do you believe He's the God-man? Do you believe
that he actually accomplished salvation, that he kept God's
law, that when he died, he actually put away the sins of everybody
he died for? Oh, what a mighty savior. Oh,
he's my, he can save me without my help. I love it when those
blind men come up to the Lord, Matthew chapter nine, and he
says, believe ye that I'm able to do this. Yay, Lord. I do. I believe he is able to
save me. As great a sinner as I am, I
believe that he's a greater savior. Oh, the greatness of the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, that quotation in Luke chapter
four is from Isaiah chapter 61, where he's presented. I love
the gospel of Isaiah, don't you? I love calling it that, the gospel
of Isaiah. He's presented in this book as the divine king,
the divine servant, and the divine messenger. And I love to think
of what it must have sounded like when he said, the spirit
of the Lord is upon me. You know, everybody in there
knew exactly what he's saying. He's saying, I'm the one. I'm
the one. He's saying that. Can you believe
he's saying that? The Spirit of the Lord is upon
me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the
poor. You have nothing to recommend
Him? Nothing is required. Everything God requires of you,
everything, He looks to His Son for. Can you rely on that? Are you
poor? You have nothing to bring? Nothing
is required. Is that good news? That's good
news, isn't it? That's the gospel. That's the
glad tidings. That's what you rejoice in. Are you broken? Brokenhearted? That's not just talking about
your Husband or wife left you, and that would break somebody's
heart, or your boyfriend or girlfriend broke up with you, but that's
not the kind of broken that's talking about. That's talking about broken. You don't work. You're no good. What do you do with broken stuff?
You throw it away. Broken. He came to heal. the brokenhearted. And I can tell you how he does
it. He does it as an act of his will. Speak the word only and
my servant shall be whole. All he has to do is will your
healing and you're healed. And he does it by his stripes,
by his work on Calvary's tree, by whose stripes, by his work
on the cross, by whose stripes you were healed. And he came to preach deliverance
to the captives. One thing you're sure of when
you're a captive, you can't get out. You can't just open up the
jail cell and walk out. You're kind of like Brabus. Brabus
lay in there in the jail cell, bound. He hears the soldiers
coming and he's filled with fear and he's filled with dread because
he knows he's going to be nailed to a cross. He hears them open
up the jail. And they say, you're set free. Somebody has taken your place. That's the only way anybody's
set free, by his will and by his strides. And then there's recovering of
sight. You couldn't see any reason why
God would look in favor on you, but you do now for Christ's sake.
For Christ's sake, not for your sake, not because of anything
you do, not because of anything you are. For Christ's sake, be
kind, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for
Christ's sake, hath forgiven you. And then he says in Verse
18, the last phrase, to set at liberty them that are bruised. And that word bruised is crushed,
smashed to smithereens, unrepairable, unrepairable. And that word set
at liberty is the same word translated more often, forgiven, forgiven. And let me tell you
something. Salvation doesn't end with the
forgiveness of sins. There's not something you need
to do in order to be forgiven. Salvation begins with the full,
free, complete forgiveness of sins. There's nothing you do
to achieve it. He came to announce the complete
forgiveness of sins. And then in verse 19, he says
to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. Now you know what
that's a reference to? That's a reference to the year of Jubilee. That is the acceptable year of
the Lord. Now, I think it's interesting
if you look throughout history, men have always tried to look
for some kind of way to make society better. The French Revolution,
they wanted to get rid of all class distinctions. And what
it ended up doing is everybody started killing everybody else.
The Civil War, the communism was initially designed to give
everybody the same. You know, that's what they thought,
you know. And men have always been looking for some kind of
utopian society. But there's not going to be one.
Not as long as you're around, there's not going to be one.
You see, men are sinful and they're selfish, and they're always going
to be acting in their own best interest, even if they have to
step on you. That's just the way it is. That's the world we
live in. But if there was anything that
could have ever been close to a utopian society, it would have
been the year of Jubilee. I love to think about this. This
happened. It was supposed to happen. Every 50 years, in the
land of Israel. A trumpet would sound, and at
that time, and I want you, do you owe any money to anybody?
Maybe some of you don't, but if you owe any money, can you
imagine if all of a sudden your debt was completely canceled?
All of a sudden, just because of the blowing of that trumpet,
you owe nothing. And if you were a slave, you
were set free. You are not a slave anymore.
You can read all about this in Leviticus chapter 25. What you
lost through your inability to pay was restored completely to
you. And the land was given a year's
rest, jubilee. Now, here's the deal. There's not one instance in the
scripture where the year of jubilee was ever observed. Not once. Now, if somebody owed me $100,000,
I wouldn't want your jubilee taking place, would you? I tell
you, the people who didn't want it are the people who thought
they'd be losers from it. I understand that. And there's not one time
we ever read where it was actually observed. And to this day, this
day, the Lord said, is this scripture fulfilled in your ears? The year of Jubilee. Now, here is the objective truth. By objective, I mean not because
I figured it out. It doesn't have anything to do
with me. It's what the Bible teaches. I am, right now, present
tense, a great sinner. And He is a greater Savior. But that's also my subjective
experience. Right now, I am a great sinner. That's not an exaggeration. That's
not just giving agreement because the Bible says it. I find it
to be true with regard to me. And I find this to be true. He
is a greater Savior. You see, I trust him to save
me. There you go. I really, I trust
him to do it all. Somebody says this kind of preaching
will encourage men to continue in sin. That's all it does. It encourages men to continue
in sin. No it doesn't. It's the only
thing that causes men to want to quit sin. Nothing else does. Let me show
you that in scripture. It's what we'll end with. Turn
to 1 John chapter 1. Verse 8. If we say we have no sin, we
deceive ourselves. And the truth is not in us. We've
lost all credibility. At all times, I have a sinful
nature. That's not talking about actions.
That's talking about nature at all times. If we confess our
sins, if we take sides with God against ourselves and agree with
what God says about our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If
we say we've not sinned, they're the words of verb with regard
to anything I do. If we say we've not sinned, we
make him a liar because he says we have and his word is not in
us. My little children, these things write unto you that you
sin not. Everything I've said up to this
point, that you are nothing but sin and that all you do is sin,
I'm writing this to you that you sin not. And when you do, we have an advocate with the
father. We have a lawyer whose father
is the judge. You're talking about one who
has pool with the father. And he is one who has never lost
a case. He's incapable of losing. And
he does something that no human lawyer does. He makes you plead
guilty. Guilty as charged and causes
you to be justified before the law. What a lawyer. And these things write unto you
that you sin not. I'm a great sinner. And I'm not
saying that by way of pride. I hope, probably am, probably. You know, everything about me,
everything about me, my faith is not good enough. My repentance
is not good enough. My sorrow for sin is not. I'm
glad everything God requires of me, he loves Christ for, aren't
you? Everything. I'm a great sinner, but he is
a greater savior. Let's pray. Lord, how we thank you for the
revelation that we are indeed great sinners, a truth of which
we're ashamed that we confess that we take sides with you against
ourselves. But Lord, how we thank you that
he's a greater savior. And Lord, we are relying completely
upon him for everything that you require of us. And Lord, we know that you look
to Him for everything you require of us. Bless these words, feeble
words from a feeble man, for your glory and for our good.
In Christ's name we pray. Amen. Dwayne, come lead us in
closing hymns. Let's stand and sing 209, grace
greater than our sin. 209. ? Marvelous grace of our loving
Lord ? ? Grace that exceeds our sin and our guilt ? ? Yonder
on Calvary's mount outpoured ? ? There where the blood of
the Lamb ? was filled. Grace, grace, God's grace, grace
that will pardon and cleanse within.