Jeremiah 26. Jeremiah 26. We're going to read the first 11 verses,
verses one through 11. This is Jeremiah getting a word
from the Lord and then preaching it to the people here in Jerusalem. Starting verse one, Jeremiah
26 verse one. In the beginning of the reign
of Jehoiakim, the son of Josiah, king of Judah, came this word
from the Lord, saying, Thou saith the Lord, stand in the court
of the Lord's house and speak unto all the cities of Judah,
which come to worship in the Lord's house. All the words that
I command thee to speak unto them, diminish not a word. If so be they will hearken. and
turn every man from his evil way, that I may repent me of
the evil which I purpose to do unto them because of the evil
of their doings. Let's turn back to chapter 25
and see what this evil of their doings that he was speaking of.
Verse four, Jeremiah 25, verse four. And the Lord has sent unto you
all his servants, the prophets rising early and sending them,
but you've not hearkened nor inclined your ear to hear. They
said, turn ye again now everyone from his evil way, and from the
evil of your doings, and dwell in the land that the Lord hath
given unto you and to your fathers for ever and ever. And go not
after other gods to serve them and to worship them, and to provoke
me not to anger with the works of your hands, and I will do
you no hurt. Yet ye have not hearkened unto
me, saith the Lord, that ye might provoke me to anger with the
works of your hands to your own hurt." This is the evil that
they were doing. They were bringing works of their
own hands before God. Anything they touched, they were
trying to bring anything of their works. And that was evil. We
think of evil as all these people and everything we see out in
this world, murdering and raping. That's not evil. Evil is what
we are and what we do when we try to bring it before the Lord.
And he was telling them that here, but they weren't listening
back in chapter 26, verse four. And here's what he told Jeremiah
to say to him. And thou shalt say unto them, thus saith the
Lord. If you will not hearken me to
walk in my law, which I've set before you to hearken to the
words of my servants, the prophets whom I send unto you, both rising
up early and sending them, but you've not hearkened. Then will
I make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse
to all the nations of the earth." He had destroyed Shiloh, and
he's going to destroy Jerusalem if they didn't turn from their
evil ways. So the priests and the prophets and all the people
heard Jeremiah speaking his words in the house of the Lord. Now
it came to pass when Jeremiah had made an end of speaking,
all that the Lord had commanded him to speak unto all the people,
that the priests and the prophets and all the people took him,
saying, Thou shalt surely die. Why is our prophesy in the name
of the Lord saying this house shall be like Shiloh and this
city shall be desolate without an inhabitant? And all the people
were gathered against Jeremiah in the house of the Lord. When
the princes of Judah heard these things, then they came up from
the king's house into the house of the Lord and sat down in the
entry of the new gate of the Lord's house. Then spake the
priests and the prophets unto the princes and to all the people,
saying, This man is worthy to die, for he hath prophesied against
this city, as you have heard with your ears. I just want to
look at that one phrase in verse 11. This man is worthy to die. In my margin, it says the judgment
of death is for this man. He's guilty. He deserves to die.
He deserves a death penalty. I was going to preach on something
else and I came across this verse and the Lord opened it up to
me and I couldn't put it down. And it just kept coming back
to my mind. And when I read that phrase,
this man is worthy to die. First thing that came to my mind.
was the thrones of people as a condemned Christ and said he's
worthy to die. Natural man, that's his first
reaction when he sees God works on this earth to walk on this
earth. He says, this man is worthy to die. That's natural man's
reaction. And that's what this in a verse
we don't have to turn over. John, chapter 19. The people
said we have a law, verse seven, and by our law, he ought to die.
God himself. kept the law. And then here we
are saying he ought to die because he made himself a son of God.
So I think of how we accuse Christ and we say he needs to die. And
then I thought about Christ being made sin. And when he was made
sin, he became worthy of death. And God said this man is worthy
to die. So here I am thinking of all these other people worthy
to die. And then. It hit me, thou art the man. I'm the man that's worthy to
die. There's not a. When the Lord
shows you that he's shown you something. You sit there and
you're looking at everybody else and blaming everybody else, just
like Bob said this morning, Adam, the first thing he did was point
at that woman, kill her, not me. That's our first, always
initial reaction. But in truth, the man is worthy
to die is me, and you, in your sin and for your sin. And I want
to look at that phrase, this man is worthy to die, from three
different viewpoints. The viewpoint and the reasoning
of natural man, all of us by nature, what we think of when
we hear that phrase, we think of they're worthy to die. Not me, but they are worthy to
die. And they think that Christ is
worthy to die. We nail them to a cross. Then I want to look
at the reasoning of the spiritual man, the new man, the man born
from above. He's got a new mind and a new
reasoning. And then when he hears this man is worthy to die, it's
concerning himself. I'm the man that's worthy to
die. And it's also concerning Christ. He is worthy to die. He's worthy. He's acceptable. He's everything in my salvation.
He is trustworthy, and He is worthy to die for me, for He's
God Himself. Then I want to look at the reasoning
of this phrase, this man is worthy to die, from God's viewpoint,
in His Word. Concerning all men, by nature,
we all sin, we all die. But mainly, and most importantly,
concerning Christ His Son. When He looked down on that cross,
He saw sin on his son, and he said, this man is worthy to die. And in his death, I'm made worthy
of life. And that's the gospel. That's
the gospel of grace. And I hope we can see that and
hope the Lord brings it out to us as we go through this. So
first of all, let's look at the reasoning of natural man concerning
those around him. They're worthy of death. Isaiah
65, right in front of Jeremiah, Isaiah 65. Here's how me or you are born.
This is what we think coming out of the womb. Here's our natural
reasoning concerning this phrase. A man is worthy to die. Isaiah
65, we'll start in verse 2. Read down through verse 5. I
have spread out my hands all the day unto a rebellious people. which walketh in a way that was
not good after their own thoughts, a people that provoketh me to
anger continually to my face, that sacrifices in gardens and
burneth incense upon altars of brick, which remain among the
graves and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine's flesh and broth
of abominable things in their vessels, which say, Stand by
thyself, come not near to me, for I am holier than thou. These
are a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth, all the day. I
described you and me there in verse five. We're all self-righteous
Pharisees by nature. And as long as we can make ourselves
a little better than the next guy, a little holier than him,
then he deserves death instead of me. That man's worthy to die,
not me. I'm pretty good. We're so quick to judge and condemn
others in order to justify ourselves and to proclaim they're worthy
of death. But not me. Romans 2. Romans 2. Verse 1. Speaking of how we judge,
we're so quick to judge other people. Romans 2, verse 1. Therefore, thou art inexcusable,
O man, Whosoever thou art that judgest, for wherein thou judgest
another, thou condemnest thyself. For thou that judgest, doest
the same things." We do the same things that we're accusing all
these people of doing. And what are we accusing these
people of doing? Look up in chapter 1, starting at verse 28. And even as they did not like
to retain God in their knowledge, God gave him over to a reprobate
mind to do those things which are not convenient, being filled
with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness,
full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers,
backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of
evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenant
breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful. who,
knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things
are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure
in them that do them." So here we are, accusing all these people
of all these things, saying they're worthy of death, and in judging
them and in condemning them, we're condemning ourselves because
we do every one of those things in our hearts. All day, every
day, all the time. And for us to sit here and to
look out and judge others and see all this stuff that's going
on in this world nowadays, and yeah, it's evil and I don't like
it and it just breaks my heart, we're still not to judge them.
Or to say they're evil, or they're wrong, or I'm better than them,
or anything like that. Because in judging them, You're
doing the same things and condemning them. You're condemning yourself
because you never stopped one of these things in your heart
ever. But that's natural man's reaction to who this man is worthy
to die. It's always somebody else. It's
always somebody else. It's never me. That man is worthy
to die. So we see natural man's reaction
to that phrase, this man is worthy to die. It's that man. It's somebody
else. But it's also the reasoning of
natural man concerning the man, Christ Jesus. He's worthy of
death, and that's what we did to him when he came on this earth,
me and you. We weren't there, but if we were
there, we would have done it. Matthew 26, Matthew 26. This is the account of the Lord
right before his crucifixion. Starting verse 57. Now, this is just not describing
these men back then, it describes all of us by nature. 57, Matthew 26, verse 57, and they
that had laid hold on Jesus led him away to Caiaphas, the high
priest, where the scribes and the elders were assembled. But
Peter followed him afar off into the high priest's palace and
went in and sat with the servants to see the end. Now the chief
priests and elders and all the council sought false witness
against Jesus to put him to death, but found none. Yea, though many
false witnesses came, yet found they none. At the last came two
false witnesses and said, This fellow said, I'm able to destroy
the temple of God and build it in three days. And the high priest
arose and said unto him, Answers thou nothing? What is it which
is witness against thee? But Jesus held his peace, and
the high priest answered and said unto him, I adjure thee
by the living God, that thou tellest whether thou be the Christ,
the Son of God. Jesus saith unto him, Thou hast
said. Nevertheless, I say unto you,
hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand
of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Christ sits right
there and tells him the truth. He's God in the flesh. He's sovereign.
He's ruler. I'm coming back to rule and reign
and judge. And as soon as natural man hears
this from Christ himself, that I'm king, I'm sovereign, I'm
coming to rule and judge and reign. What's our reaction in
verse 66? What think ye? They answered
and said he's guilty of death. What do you think of Christ?
What do they think of Christ? The Savior of sinners placed
right here in front of them. Instead of bowing to him for
mercy and thanking him for his salvation, they say and we say
he's guilty of death. That just shows you the awful
depravity of our hearts. and how evil and sinful we really
are, to stand face-to-face with God Himself there and say He's
guilty of death. And that's just us by nature. We're all by nature God-haters. Within our power, we would be
God-killers. And we killed Him at that time. Now, let's look
at that in Romans chapter 8. It's a real familiar verse. Just
one verse. Verse seven. This is speaking
of natural man, all of us by nature, how we're born into this
world. Romans eight, verse seven. I'm going to read the first phrase
because the carnal mind is enmity against God. It's against God. It's not just
enmity. It's not just hatred about God.
It's not just hating his sovereignty and hating his law and hating
everything about him. It's actually carrying out our
hatred against him, against God. And we did that. We hung him
from a tree. You know, we killed God in the
flesh because we hated him. And no, we weren't there, all
of us, obviously. But in our hearts, these natural
hearts, they're born in enmity against God. And God looks on
the heart. And Matthew 5, verse 22 says,
He looks on the heart, and if you hate or are angry with your
brother without a cause, you've murdered him. And because our
heart is naturally enmity against God and hatred towards God, we've
hated him in our heart, we've murdered him in God's eyes. And
I hate being like all this negative stuff. But this is natural man's
reaction to this phrase. This man is worthy to die. It's
not me. It's that man. It's not me. It's
not Barabbas. It's Christ. Somebody else needs
to die. I'm a little better than that.
But thanks be to God, he doesn't leave us all in this condition
of natural birth. He births a spiritual people,
and he gives them new hearts, born again, birthed of God spiritually,
and they have a new mind, the mind of Christ. And this new
mind has a new reasoning. And this new reasoning of the
new man is when he hears this man is worthy to die. It's not
anybody else. It's me. The man that's worthy
to die is me. I'm the sinner. Not the other
guy, not the murderer, not the rapist. Me. I'm the one that's
worthy to die. I want to look at that, David
and Nathan, in 2 Samuel chapter 12. 2 Samuel. Chapter 12, we'll read the first
seven verses. This is right after David had
taken Bathsheba in adultery and then killed Uriah, her husband,
right after that. So here he is, an adulterer and
a murderer. Verse 1, 2 Samuel 12, verse 1,
And the Lord sent Nathan unto David, and he came unto him and
said unto him, There were two men in one city, the one rich,
and in this story this is David, and the other poor, which is
Uriah. The rich man had exceeding many
flocks and herds, but the poor man had nothing, save one little
ewe lamb, his wife, which he had brought and nourished up.
Nick grew up together with him and with his children, and did
eat of his own meat, and drank of his own cup, and lay in his
bosom, and was known to him as a daughter. And there came a
traveler unto the rich man, And he spared the take of his own
flock and of his own herd. He wouldn't take one of his many
thousand sheep to dress for the wayfaring man that was come unto
him. But he took the poor man's one lamb and dressed it for the
man that was come to him. And David's anger was greatly
kindled against the man. And he said to Nathan, as the
Lord liveth, the man that hath done this thing shall surely
die. There's natural man's reaction.
Kill him. Kill that man. He did it. Kill somebody else.
Verse six, And he shall restore the land fourfold because he
did his thing and because he had no pity. And Nathan said
to David, Thou art the man. David's sitting there judging
and accusing and condemning someone else. And it's him all along. And that's me and you. We are
the man that's worthy to die. Verse 13, And David said unto
Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. He had sinned against
Uriah and Bathsheba, but all of our sin is against the Lord.
It's against the Lord. It's His law we break. We sin
against the Lord. And natural man does not know
that. Cannot see that. But when the
Lord reveals Christ to us, He also reveals The spirituality
of the law, that the law is not just some outward ceremony actions
that we keep to prove ourselves. The law is inward and spiritual. It's the motive behind everything
we do. And it's from the heart. Let's
look at this in Romans chapter seven. Romans chapter seven,
another real familiar chapter. Apostle Paul speaks of his own
sin and warfare with his two natures going on inside him.
But when the Lord shows the law, reveals the law to him, the spirituality
of the law, he sees one thing here. Romans 7 verse 9. For I
was alive without the law once. I was alive, I thought I was
saved when I kept the law outwardly, but when the commandment came,
when the commandment came in power, when the Lord revealed
to me the spirituality of the law, that it's the motive behind
the law and not the outward keeping of it. But when the commandment
came, sin revived. And I died. Sin came back to
life and I died. I thought I was alive. I thought
I kept the law. I thought I was a good person.
I thought I deserved heaven. I thought I was worthy of God's
favor. But when God showed me the law and the evil of my heart,
I've got one thing to say. I'm worthy of death. I'm the
man that's worthy of death. Only a man with a new nature
knows this. Only one that God has given a new mind and a new
heart understands and realizes that everything we do is sin.
Every good and kind act I do to my family, to you, to everybody,
is sin. In and of itself. Because there's
a sinful, selfish motive behind everything I think, say, and
do. Everything which corrupts it. Look over in verse 18. For I know that in me, that is,
in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, not one good thing. For
to will is present with me. I want to do good. I want to
serve God. I want to love you. I want to be the best I can be.
But how to perform that which is good, I find not. Because as soon as I touch it,
I corrupt it. And it's no good. And it's evil. Look at verse
21. I find in a law that when I would
do good, when I would do good, believers have a heart that wants
to do good. They have a new heart. They have a holy heart. They've
got the love of Christ in them. And they want it to come out.
And it does come out. But it comes out through this. And when it does that, he says,
evil is present with me. I corrupt it. I ruin it. And
I'm worthy of death for everything done or touched by my hands.
This man is worthy to die. But when the Lord shows you that,
when the Lord shows you your sinfulness, and shows you the
spirituality of the law, and that it's the motive, and that
everything you think, say, and do is sin, He won't just show
you your sin. He'll show you the Savior. He'll
show you the Savior. And you'll have another reasoning
concerning this phrase, this man is worthy to die. It'll be
concerning Christ. He is worthy. He is acceptable. He is worth everything in my
salvation. He's a spotless lamb. Bob read from that verse this
morning in Exodus 12 verse 5. Your lamb shall be without blemish. A male of the first year, the
sacrifice must be sinless, blameless, holy, perfect, and we have a
worthy substitute, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's worthy. The
man is worthy to die. He is worthy to save his people.
He's able to save his people. And notice it says your lamb
shall be without blemish. It is for you, but it's God's
lamb. He was the lamb. He provided the lamb. He offered
the lamb, but it was offered for a people. Offered for a people. Offered in place of a people
as their substitute. I want to look in Hebrews chapter
10. Hebrews 10. concerning this worthy
sacrifice and just to see how valuable a sacrifice our Savior
is. And I want to look at these verses
in light of that, of his worthiness, of his value, of the riches of
Christ. Hebrews 10, verse 10. By the witch will, by God's will,
we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus
Christ once for all. He's so worthy, so valuable,
worth so much that just his offering once, one offering, put away
all the sin of his people and sanctify them and made them holy
right then. Just one offering. That's the
worth of that offering. It's worth the lives of every
one of his elect. Verse 12. But this man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on
the right hand of God. He's so worthy, so valuable or
so much that his one sacrifice after his one sacrifice, God
accepted and made him king and sat him down in his throne to
rule forever. Verse 14, for by one offering, he had perfected
forever them that are sanctified. He's so worth. worthy of our
faith, worthy of our love, but that His one offering of His
own body hath perfected forever. I wasn't perfected when I came
to faith and when He gave me faith in Christ. I've been perfected
forever in Christ, and I always will be perfected forever in
Christ. Faith is just a gift that He gives me to see that
I've always been in Christ. It doesn't make me savable. It
shows me that I've already been saved. I've already been justified.
I've already been sanctified by the offering that one worthy
sacrifice of Christ and what he offered for me and for his
people. And it's a worthy sacrifice.
I wish we could see how worthy it really was. One day we will.
Right now, I'm just talking about it and I feel absolutely ignorant. trying to talk about Christ and
how worthy and how valuable He is to every sinner. He'll teach
you and He'll show you. And if He hasn't shown you, He's
worthy to be trusted because He's trustworthy. He's God. He
keeps His covenant. He keeps His promises. And He's
worthy. He's trustworthy. You can trust
Him to save your soul. He saved my soul. One of these
days, I'll thank him like I ought to thank him. Right now, I flip
and flap and flop and can't do or say nothing like I want to
say it. But, you know, if he saved you,
you know how worthy he is. We don't realize it all the time.
We spend too much time on ourselves and He's worthy of all of our love
and praise and thanks and everything. He's so worthy. Christ alone
is worthy. Christ alone. Not us. Him. Revelations
chapter 5. Speaking of His worthiness, His
value, His worth. Verse 11. Revelation 5 verse 11. And I beheld, and I heard the
voice of many angels round about the throne, and the beast and
the elders, and the number of them was ten thousand times ten
thousand, and thousands and thousands, all of the elect, saying with
a loud voice, Worthy is the lamb that was slain to receive power. He's worthy to receive all power
because He's sovereign. He's God. He's worthy to receive,
as we continue in this verse, and riches. He owns everything. He's worthy. All wisdom. He's worthy to receive all wisdom. Worthy to receive all strength.
Worthy to receive all honor. Honor means to regard or to highly
esteem and regard someone. It means to look up. To look
up to someone. We all look up to men in this
world. And that's okay, but they're
just men. I want to look up to Christ.
I want to honor Him. I want to trust Him and follow
Him. He's worthy. He's worthy of being
trusted. He's worthy of being followed.
He's our Savior. And I hope He gives us grace
to regard Him as highly as we should, to honor Him and esteem
Him. And He's worthy of glory. We
glory in nothing but the cross of our Lord and Savior, Jesus
Christ. That's all we're to glory in. And He's worthy of all blessing. Blessing comes from the word
eulogy, to speak well of others. I was thinking on this. I think
it's kind of ironic. Every man or woman in this world
that dies, no matter how bad a person they've been, they're
going to find something good to say about that person at their
funeral. They're going to find something good to say. But when
Christ came to this earth, the only good man that ever walked
this earth that was well deserving of a eulogy that nobody could
ever say, we spit on him. So, I mean, that just shows you
how stupid we are. We can sit here and say good
stuff about evil men at every funeral we go to, but when Christ
came to this earth and deserved to be blessed and honored when
he died, we were cussing him, whipping
him, and spitting on him. We're pretty pathetic. We're
pretty pathetic. All right. The natural man's reaction to
when he hears, this man is worthy to die, it's always somebody
else. It's that man, not me. Blame him, not me. Kill him,
not me. When the spiritual man hears
that, this man is worthy to die, he knows it's him. I'm the man
that's worthy to die. I'm the sinner. I deserve eternal
hell. But thanks be to God, there's
another man that was made worthy to die. And this is the gospel. God's reasoning concerning this
man is worthy to die. Concerns his son. Concerns his
precious son who he sent down here. Hung him on a cross, guilty
as charged because there was sin found on his soul. That sin
was the sin of his people. He took it and made it his own.
And when God looked down, there was a man worthy to die, for
he had sinned. But in his death, we're made
alive. Because he became worthy to die,
we all became worthy to live, every believer, because of Christ. We try to understand this. We
think we're such a smart race. We've got all this technology
and all the Internet and all. We can control atoms and do all
this stuff. We're really highly intellectual people. But can
you truly understand how God Almighty sent his own precious
son down here, put the sin of the people on him and then killed
him in their place? I can't understand it. But I
believe it. I believe it. It's in His Word.
And we're going to look at a couple of verses that tell us this.
That He was made worthy to die because there was sin on Him.
My sin. Let's look in Lamentations. Right after Jeremiah is a little
book of Lamentations. Chapter 1, verse 18. Now, these are the words of Jeremiah,
the prophet. That's true. They're the words
of Jeremiah confessing his sin. But these are also the words
of Christ. Luke 24, verse 27 says, and beginning
at Moses and all the prophets. Jeremiah is a prophet. He expounded
unto them in all the scriptures. the things concerning himself.
So these words are the words of Christ. Every word in this
book is about Christ. So as we read these things, this
is the words of Christ from the cross. Jeremiah one or Jeremiah
Lamentations one verse 18. The Lord is righteous. For I
have rebelled against his commandment here, I pray you all people and
behold my sorrow, my virgins and my young men are going into
captivity. I called for my lovers, but they deceived me. My priests
and my elders gave up the ghost in the city while they sought
their meat to relieve their souls. Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress. My bowels are troubled. My heart
is turned within me, for I have grievously rebelled. Abroad the
sword bereaveth, at home there is his death. They have heard
that I sigh. There is none to comfort me.
All mine enemies have heard of my trouble. They are glad that
thou hast done it. Thou wilt bring the day that
thou hast called, and they shall be like unto me. This is the
verse I want to key on, verse 22. Let all their wickedness
come before thee, and do unto them as thou hast done unto me
for all my transgressions. For my sighs are many, and my
heart is faint. Let all their wickedness, it's
our wickedness, it's our sin. We're the ones that commit it.
We're responsible for it. We own it. We own our sin. We're
the ones that have sinned. It's our wickedness. Yet Christ took the sins of His
people and made them His very own. Look in the middle of that
verse. Do unto them as thou hast done unto me for all my transgressions. He called them His very own.
He called them His very own. That's how much He took them.
He made them and called them His very own. They just weren't
pasted on to Him. He took them on His very soul.
And He did that. He just didn't take sin away
from me and take it on to Him. He took me to the cross with
Him. That's how all my sin was put
away. Because I was put away on the cross, I was killed on
the cross. And what I am and every sin that I am was put away
and killed when Christ was killed on the cross. That's called union
with Christ. And through this union, what
was done unto him He says here, do unto them as thou hast done
unto me. What was done unto him was done
unto me, because I was there with him and in him, and every
believer was with him and in him. And when God said that man
is worthy to die, he killed Christ and he killed every one of his
elect in him. And that's where my salvation was accomplished,
through what Christ did. By him taking my sin and dying
in my place, he did it all. We spend too much time talking
about ourselves. We spend too much time trying to puff ourselves
up and make ourselves look good. I want to get up here and look
good and sound good, but it ain't about me. It's about our Savior. He is worthy of all of our trust
and all of our hope and all of our love and everything. He alone
is worthy. Because He took my sin, made
it His very own, and died in my place. And I died with Him
and in Him. First Peter, chapter two, that's the Old Testament. Scripture concerning Christ taking
my sin and first Peter, chapter two, we have a New Testament.
Description. Verse 21, first Peter two verse
21. For even here unto where you
called because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example
that you should follow his steps. Who did no sin, neither was guile
found in his mouth. Who, when he was reviled, reviled
not again. When he suffered, he threatened
not, but committed himself to him that judges righteously.
Who, his own self, bear our sins in his own body on the tree,
that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness,
by whose stripes ye were healed. He bore our sins in His own body. He took our sins and made them
His very own. And He died on that tree. And by His death,
by God's wrath being took out on Him, by His stripes, we're
healed. We're healed. We're healed of
the disease of sin. We're healed of the disease of
death. We're healed of everything by His stripes, by His doing,
by His living, by His dying, by His everything. Man tries
to heal himself through works religion by striving to make
himself worthy to be saved. That's our natural religion.
That's what we like to do. We like to turn over a new leaf.
We like to clean up our act. We want to let Jesus into our
heart and just become a good guy and we'll be made worthy
of heaven. That's works religion. Well,
Christ actually healed a people through grace religion. He made
a people worthy of acceptance with God through His righteousness,
and through His shed blood, and through His alone. It's all His
work. That's what grace means. You
don't contribute one ounce, one effort, one thought, one step,
one nothing. You sit and rest in Christ. And you know that He's worthy. And He accomplished it. And He
satisfied God. And He's acceptable to God. He's
the worthy sacrifice. We have no ability, because we're
dead, but Christ is able. He's God. We have no worth of
our own. No value. But Christ is worthy. He's the spotless Lamb that was
sacrificed on that tree. And He's worthy. What we are,
at our best state, and everybody knows this verse, Psalm 39, verse
5, man at his best state is all together Take all seven billion
people on this earth, put us all together, we bring our best
works, and we're nothing. We're vanity. We're nobodies.
We're worthy of nothing. But Christ alone is worthy. And the power of his blood and
the power of his life makes me worthy to stand before God, accepted
in every believer. That's salvation by grace, by
what Christ did. And because my Savior, the Lord
Jesus Christ, lived a life of perfect righteousness as a spotless
lamb of God, the sacrifice without blemish. He was a worthy sacrifice. This man is worthy to die. He's
an acceptable, perfect sacrifice. And because Christ took my sin
and the sin of all his people and made it his very own, God
says to him, this man is worthy to die, deserving of death. He's
guilty. He had sin on Him. And now through
His worthy life, and through His worthy death, every believer
is made holy, spotless, blameless, perfect before God Almighty. And it can be said of us, this
man is worthy to live. I'm worthy to live. I'm worthy
to live eternally with Christ just because of what He did for
me, and only because of what He did for me. And that's the
gospel of grace. And that's the good news. Revelation
chapter three. We're worthy, all believers are
worthy, fit for heaven because of Christ. Yeah, we don't feel
it, but I don't care. His word says it, and I believe
it, and we're worthy of heaven. Revelations 3, verse 1, And unto
the angel of the church in Sardis write, These things saith he
that hath the seven spirits of God and the seven stars. I know
thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and are dead.
Be watchful and strengthen the things which remain that are
ready to die, for I have not found thy works perfect before
God. Remember, therefore, how thou hast received and heard,
and hold fast and repent. If therefore thou shalt not watch,
I will come on thee as a thief, and thou shalt not know what
hour I will come upon thee. But thou hast a few names, even
in Sardis, the elect, which have not defiled their garments. They
have not brought their filthy rags or their own righteousness.
And they shall walk with me in white, covered with the righteousness
and the robe of Christ, made holy within and without. And
because of that, the last four words says it all, for they are
worthy." Me, worthy. Every believer, worthy of heaven
because of the blood and righteousness of Christ. He made us worthy. He became a man worthy to die
so that I would be worthy to live. And because of this, because
He became worthy of death, making me worthy of life, He alone is
worthy of all the glory, honor, and praise of my salvation. Christ
alone is worthy of all of our honor. Last verse, Psalm 107. Psalm 107. It's going to be a couple of
verses, and the last verse will be the last verse. Psalms 107,
starting in verse 17. Fools, that's me and you, because
of their transgression and because of their iniquities are afflicted. Their soul abhors all manner
of meat, and they draw near unto the gates of death. Then they
cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and he saveth them out of their
distresses. He sent his word, Christ, and
healed them by his stripes, and delivered them from their destructions.
Oh, that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for
His wonderful works to the children of men, and let them sacrifice
the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare His works with rejoicing. That last verse 22, may God give
us grace to let these two thoughts come out of our mouths at all
times. Thanks to our God, our sacrifice for saving our souls,
and to declare his works with rejoicing. It's good news to
this sinner that in and of myself I'm worthy of death. He took
my sin and made himself worthy of death and saved my soul. And
I'm going to live forever with Him. And I'm going to praise
and kiss and love and hug on my Savior forever because of
what He did for me. He's worthy of our trust. You
can trust Him. You can rest in Him. We've been
made worthy of eternal life in Him and by Him. How we should
thank God above that salvation is all of grace, free grace.
Amen. Let's stand and sing hymn number
359. 359. My faith looks up to thee. My faith looks up to Thee, Thou
Lamb of Calvary, Savior divine. Thou hear me when I pray, take
all my sin away. O let me from this day be wholly
Thine. May Thy rich grace impart Strength
to my fainting heart, I still inspire. As Thou hast died for me, O may
my love to Thee And changeless be the living fire. While life's dark plagues I tread,
And griefs around me spread, Be Thou my guide. In darkness turn to day, wipe
sorrows, tears away, your let me ever stray from thee. Women's life's frenzy of dream,
wind as cold sun's stream. Shall o'er me roll, As Savior
in love, Fear and distrust remove, O bear me safe above the ransomed soul. you