Well, being the humble person
I am, I like that introduction. He could have went on a while,
couldn't he? Brother Henry told me one time,
he may have told all of you this too, Brother Mahan, said, I said
something about, you know, I can't remember people's names. They
introduced themselves to me. And he said, you know what your
problem is? He said, you're listening for your own name. When you hear,
you know, Bruce Crabtree, you don't hear anything else. We're
that way, aren't we? Love to be bragged on. Just can't
hardly resist it. It is a joy to be with you. I want you to turn back over,
if you would, to Hebrews chapter 10. I want to look at just this
one verse this evening. Really, I had upon my heart in
Hebrews chapter 10 and verse 12. This man, but this man, after
he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on
the right hand of God. I want you to keep your Bibles
handy. I want you to turn to some places
here in this book with me. But I want to think just a few
minutes on our great high priest, our high priest. Under the Jewish
economy and the Jewish state, they had three main offices. We've all heard this so many
times. They had a prophet, they had
a priest, and they had a king. And if the Lord wanted the children
of Israel to know for sure that he had called a prophet or a
priest or he had set a king over his people, he anointed them. He sent other men to anoint them. When Elijah had finished his
ministry, the Lord sent him to anoint Elijah to take his place. Aaron was the first priest under
the Aaronic priesthood, and Moses anointed him with oil, and it
ran down his face and upon his beard that went all the way down
to his waist. And David, when he was chosen of God to be king,
David sent Samuel to anoint him to be king. So they had these
three offices and they were anointed in those offices. And the Lord
Jesus Christ, this man, he is all of those things. He is a prophet. Moses prophesied
of him and said, The Lord your God shall raise you up a prophet
like unto me. Him shall ye hear in all things.
And when Peter was preaching to the Jews, he said Moses was
speaking of Jesus of Nazareth. That this was the fulfillment
of Moses' prophecy, a prophet shall the Lord your God raise
up unto you. And, of course, He's a priest. We find this several times here
in the book of Hebrews. In this chapter here, verse 21,
we're told that having that high priest over the house of God. And several times in this book,
the Lord Jesus Christ is set forth to us as our high priest. having an high priest over the
house of God. And so often he's used in present
tense that he was not just a high priest, he's still a high priest
today. And then, of course, he is the king. He's the king. When the Lord sent his disciples
to Jerusalem, ahead of him, he was coming in, he said, you go
over there and find this colt and you bring him over here to
me, this little donkey. And he sat on that donkey, and
he rode into Jerusalem on that donkey to fulfill what was written
of him, Thy King cometh, meek and lowly. He was born the king. The wise men came and worshiped
the king. He was a king when he hung on
the cross. That was his title over the cross. And he's king now. In all of
those offices, Jesus Christ is prophet, priest, and king. Now,
why is this important? Well, when we think of what a
prophet did, when God wanted to reveal His Word, when He wanted
to reveal His will, He sent a prophet to teach the people. You and
I, brothers and sisters, we're ignorant, aren't we? We're just
ignorant. Since my wife is not here, I
can say that. If she was here, I couldn't say
stupid. But we're stupid, aren't we?
We're spiritually dumb. We need to be taught. How is
God going to teach us? He has a prophet. In the Old
Testament, He spoke to the fathers by the prophets. In this day,
He's speaking to us by His Son. He's teaching us. My sheep shall
hear my voice. I'm going to speak to them. I'm
going to teach them. And they're going to follow me.
We need a prophet. We need a prophet. Oh, may our
prophet teach us tonight. Speak to us through a song. Speak
to us through a prayer or the reading of the scriptures, a
message. May our prophet come this evening and speak to us.
And he's a priest. As a priest, he's accomplished
redemption already, already made reconciliation. He's a mediator
between us and God. We need a priest. We can't approach
unto God without a priest. God cannot approach unto us without
a priest. God has a priest. We have a priest
over the house of God. And he's a king. Why is it important
that he's a king? You know, if he wasn't a king, with all authority in heaven
and in earth, what use would his office as a prophet be? You
and I are in darkness. Somebody's got to come in our
darkness and open our understanding. Somebody's got to deliver us
from the power of that darkness. It's going to take power to do
that. He's a king. He has that power. He ever lives
as the king to accomplish what he has already, in our hearts,
what he's already accomplished on the tree. And as a king, When
he comes to us in his gospel and speaks to us, he makes it
effectual. He makes it effectual. Zacchaeus,
you made haste and come down. And he made haste and he came
down. The words of the King, when he
speaks, he teaches us. He has authority. And in all
of these offices, our Lord Jesus Christ, this man, was anointed
of God. He was anointed, not with the
anointment that Moses anointed Aaron with, but he anointed Jesus
of Nazareth, Peter tells us, with the Holy Ghost. The Lord
Jesus said, God has anointed me with his Holy Spirit to preach
the gospel unto you. The Lord told John the Baptist
the way he would recognize the Lord Jesus when he saw He said,
Upon whom ye see the heavens open, and the Spirit descends,
and lights on him, and remains on him, that's the Messiah. And
when John the Baptist was baptizing him, and he raised him up out
of the water, the heavens opened, and this dove, the Spirit in
the form of a dove, lighted upon the Lord Jesus, and John the
Baptist said it remained upon him. Now, that was very unusual. When God called prophets in the
Old Testament to do something, the Spirit of God would come
upon them just for a short time until they accomplished their
task. But when the Spirit came upon the Lord Jesus Christ, it
never left Him. It stayed upon Him. And I'll
tell you something else about this anointing. He anointed Him
without measure. You and I have an earnest, don't
we? We just have an earnest, a down
payment of the Holy Spirit. God filled us with the Holy Spirit,
but we have so little of Him. But the Lord Jesus Christ was
anointed with the Holy Spirit without measure. He was filled
with the Holy Spirit. God anointed Him as our prophet,
God anointed Him as our priest, and God anointed Him as our King. And I want to look with you just
for a few minutes concerning our priest. I want you to turn
over here to this same book in the fifth chapter with me concerning
our priest, this man as our priest. Look here in the fifth chapter and look here in verse 1. These
are some things pertaining to the priest. And first of all,
look at his duty. Here's the duty of the priest.
Every high priest taken from among men, is ordained for men."
For men. Get that? That's so important.
He's ordained of God for men. To stand in the stead of men
in things pertaining to God. See what I preached is? Nobody
approached Him to God. And God didn't approach Him to
anybody. When God did business with any man, any Jew, he went
through this priest. If any man had sinned, we are
told here in the last portion of that verse, and God required
a sacrifice of him, look at this. He wouldn't receive it at the
hands of the man who sinned. A mere man was not allowed to
approach unto God and take a sacrifice and offer it there in the holy
place. God wouldn't accept it, did He? It had to be at the hands
of the priest. God did business through a priest. We never approached unto God.
He never approached unto us, apart from this great high priest.
In other words, God communicated in His redeeming mercy. He communicated
in redeeming mercy through this priest. And they, in turn, communicated
to him through thanksgiving offerings through this same priest. It
all came through a priest. And, brothers and sisters, it
hasn't changed today, has it? We have a mediator between us
and God. And he's a faithful and merciful
high priest. And God cannot receive anything
at our hands except it come through this great high priest. He cannot give us any blessings.
He cannot bestow forgiveness. He cannot give us His presence
except it is through this priest. The priest is ordained for men
in things pertaining to God. And look at this in verse 2.
Look at his attitude. Look what an attitude he had
to have. who can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that
are out of the way. He had to be a man who had compassion.
The priest represented sinners before God. He didn't represent
innocent people. And he represented ignorant people,
people who were out of the way. Can you imagine a man Here he
comes to Aaron, and he has this sacrifice in his hands, and he
confesses his sin to Aaron. He gives him the sacrifice, and
Aaron takes it in, and he offers it before the Lord. And the next
day, here comes the same man back again. And he has tears
in his eyes, and his lips are trembling, and he has a sacrifice,
and he confesses sin again. And the next day you hear the
same man come back again, and he's got a sacrifice, and his
eyes are full of tears, and his lips are trembling, and his heart's
sobbing, and he confesses his sin. He gives the sacrifice to
Aaron. What does Aaron do? Does he say,
we've got to talk about this, buddy? Something's going on in
your life that I need to know about. You need to get your act
together. This is the last time I want to see you around here
for a while." Did he say that? No. He had to be one who had
compassion on who? Ignorant people. People who were out of the way.
Needy people. He touched the sacrifice. He
touched the blood. And he offered it to God. for that man's sake. And he came
back out and he said, God bless you. And God calls His countenance
to rise upon you and be gracious to you. That's what he said.
And this poor man, this poor man, ignorant as he was, out
of the way as he was, went home with a measure of assurance in
his soul. because he had a high priest
to represent him before God, things was now well with his
soul. Now, brothers and sisters, ain't
that the kind of high priest we need? I don't have any need like that.
You don't need a high priest like that. He's up there in the presence
of God for the ignorant. Those who know nothing of God
in and of themselves. Those who can't take another
step except He lead them. Those who can't learn another
thing except He teach them. Those who can't see another spiritual
truth unless He show it. That's the kind of priest I need.
One that's full of compassion. Having done high priest over
the house of God, Jesus, the Son of God, led us come boldly
to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help us. This man, our high priest. And
there is something else here in verse 4. Look at this. And no man taketh this honour
unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron."
No man put himself in this office. He just didn't say, well, I think
this is a good occupation to be in. I could do so much good.
After all, people need a priest. So I think I'll run for election. And maybe I can get into this
office and I'll represent these people before God. You didn't
get in the office that way. You were called to this office
by God Himself. That's the only way to get into
it. Now you go down here, I'm sure you've got a local Catholic
church around here somewhere. And you go down there sometime
and sit and watch the priest as he goes and does all of his
duties. And he takes the little waker
and says he turns it into the physical, suffering, broken body
of the Lord Jesus, and he gives it to someone's mouth. And he
goes into a little booth and shares confession and absolves
somebody of their sins. You ask him, you ask him if you
get a chance, who called you to do what you did? Who called you to make another
sacrifice for sin? Who called you to absolve that
man of his sin? And if he says nobody, then ask
him why he's doing it then. And if he says God did it, ask
him to show you a chapter and a verse where God is calling
any man to do such a thing. And God is the one who has to
call him. The Lord Jesus Christ didn't even put himself in this
office of a high priest. Look what he said here in verse
6. So Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest, but
he that said unto him, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee. The Lord Jesus Christ never exalted
himself to do anything. or to be anything. Found in fashion
as a man, he took upon himself the form of a servant and became
obedient unto death. I find great joy in this. I find
such great satisfaction in this, because when God wanted a high
priest, he knew the qualifications, and he could not find it in any
mere man. But when he looked upon his son,
he saw in him everything that God required. And he saw in you
and I everything that we needed, and therefore he said, My son,
you are my high priest. You are my high priest. And old brother Scott Richardson
used to say, If God has provided, and he has provided us a high
priest, one of his own choosing. And if God has provided, then
he will accept what he has provided. Look back over here in our text
in chapter 10. Look here in verse 12. Our priest, and look at this,
and keep your Bibles handy. What he tells us here in verse
12 is our priest is a man, this man. But this man, after he had
offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down on the right
hand of God. He's a man. He's a man. And what the scripture does in
the book of Hebrews, it takes the first chapter and proves
to us that the Son of God is God Himself. Unto the Son he saith, Thy throne,
O God, is for ever and ever. Chapter 1 and verse 8. He is
the Creator. Angels worship Him. He is God. And then, beginning in chapter
2, he proves to us that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is also
man. He is our humanity. Let me show
you that. Look here in verse 5. Look at
this. Chapter 10, verse 5. Wherefore,
when he cometh into the world, he saith, Sacrifice and offering
thou wouldest not, but a body hast thou prepared me. A real body. Conceived in the
womb of a woman, a virgin woman, by the Holy Ghost. And the scripture
says that Mary brought forth her firstborn son. It was her
son. Jesus of Nazareth is as much
Mary's son as he is God's son. He is God and man, both in this
one glorious person. But here the apostle tells us
that he has a body. And that body was so much human,
brothers and sisters, that it was subject to all of our natural
infirmities. He grew weary, and he had to
rest. He grew hungry, and he had to
eat. He grew thirsty, and he had to drink. He is a man in a real body, subject
to death at his will. And look over here in chapter
5. Look at this. Not only did he have a real body,
He had a human soul. Look in chapter 5. This is amazing to me, and I
have no idea. I have no idea how to even understand
this or grasp any of it if we didn't find it in the Word of
God. I just look at it and I say, how in the world could this be?
But I just believe it because I find it in the Word of God.
And here he is, look in chapter 5 and verse 7. Speaking of the Lord Jesus, the
Son of God, who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered
up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears
unto Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard
in that He feared. Though He were a Son, yet learned
He obedience by the things which He suffered." He's speaking here
of the things that concern a man's soul. He feared. That's of the soul. This crying
was from his soul. My soul is exceeding sorrowful,
even unto death. He believed God. He learned. He increased in wisdom and knowledge. He loved. He feared. He rejoiced. These are the things of a man's
soul. Jesus Christ had a soul. He made
his soul that offering for sin. This man, a real body and now
a real soul. And look here in chapter 4 and
look in verse 15. This is an amazing statement.
The Holy Spirit says this, For we have not, then, high priest,
which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Now, doesn't the Bible say that
God cannot be tempted of evil? Sure it does. You can't tempt
an absolute God. But here the Son of God is in
our humanity, and the Scripture says He was tempted in every
point. And I don't know how in the world,
brothers and sisters, to understand this unless we simply say that
Jesus Christ is man. He is man. This man. This man. And look here in chapter
2. Look over here in chapter 2. And look in verse 9. It's often
been said to us that God cannot die. And He cannot die. But a mere man cannot atone for
sin, even though he can die. So God must atone for sin, but
to do that he must die. How could this be? Well, look
what he says here. Look in verse 9. We see Jesus,
who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering
of death, crowned with glory and honor that he by the grace
of God should taste death for every man. Look in verse 14.
For as much then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood,
he also himself likewise took the same, that through death
he might destroy him that hath the power of death, that is,
the devil. Through death. Look at him in
verse 16. For verily he took not on him
the nature of angels, He took on him the seed of Abraham. Wherefore,
in all things it behooved him to be made like unto his brethren,
that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things
pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people."
How did he do that? Through his death, through his
blood, through dying. How can he die? He's in our likeness. He's one of us. He's not only
the eternal Son of God, but he's the Son of Mary. Both God and
man roll up in one. Ain't that amazing? The Incarnation
is the greatest miracle, the greatest miracle, I think, in
all God's Word. Great is the mystery of Godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh, and he calls him this man. Now, look back over here again.
This man. He was no ordinary man. No, you
cannot be God in the flesh and be an ordinary man. And the writer
of Hebrews compares him here to the priest under this ironic
priesthood. And he says in chapter 7, verse
23, let me quote it to you. There were many priests. There
were many priests because they kept dying. that grew old and
feeble, and they would die. But Jesus Christ, our priest,
is just one. He's just one. He ever lives,
therefore he has an unchangeable priesthood. The priesthood will
never change. And secondly, he tells us here
in chapter 10, verse 11, those priests offered off times. They offered all the time. Sacrifices. Verse 12 tells us this. This
man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin. Many priests,
only one. Many sacrifices, he offered one
sacrifice. And in chapter 4, that was read
to us just a minute ago, these sacrifices can never take away
sins. It's not possible, he said in
verse 4, that the blood of bulls and goats should take away And then in chapter 9, verse
26, he says, ìOnce in the end of the world hath he appeared
to put away sin by the sacrifice of his own.î Their sacrifices
can never take away sin. His sacrifice took it away. Where
did it take it away from? Well, look in chapter 10. Look
at this, verse 17. ìTheir sins and iniquities will
I remember no more from Godís mind.î Thatís where he took it
away, Clare. And chapter 10 and verse 1 says
their sacrifices that they offered under the law could not make
the worshipers perfect. Could not make them accepted.
But look in verse 14. By one offering, He hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. How has He perfected us? What does that mean? By His one
offering, He hath perfected. Will they have forgiveness? from what? All sins. They are justified from what?
All things. They are accepted, how? In the
Beloved. Complete in Him. They are perfected
forever through this one sacrifice. And how long? Forever. He hath perfected forever them
that are sanctified. Oh, God, grant me grace to believe
this. I know it. I read it. I've read it for 35
years. Grant me grace to believe it. That's what we need, ain't it?
Augustine said, we're not looking for anything new. We're looking
for grace to believe what we already know. And we know this. Oh, for grace to believe it. And he says here in verse 11,
they stand. They're always standing. They
stand daily, the Apostle says here. Always working. Always
doing. But in verse 12, the Scripture says, after he had offered one
sacrifice for sins forever, he sat down. Why did he sit down? It is finished. The transaction
is done, brothers and sisters. Sin has been put away. It has
been atoned for. It is no more. Behold, the Lamb
of God that taketh away, it is gone. Reconciliation has been
accomplished already. God is not angry anymore. You
may be angry with him. God's not angry. You know how
we know? Jesus has said it. If it wasn't
done, he'd be up doing it. But he's said it. It's finished.
Five things right quick. Five things that's evident from
this verse of Scripture. And then I'll let you go. And
the first of all, five things that's evident is this. Sin, our sin, my sin, your sin,
our sins of thought, the sin of the thought of foolishness,
the sin of motive, not doing everything perfectly for God's
glory, sin against His law, sin against His gospel, sins, our
sin, my sin and your sin is an exceeding evil. It must be terrible. Why is that? Somebody said, well,
I know I'm a sinner, Bruce. Everybody's a sinner. Nobody's
perfect. But I'm not too bad. I ain't done too awful bad. Well, you know how you estimate
sin? You don't estimate it with looking within yourself. You
know where you and I should go, brothers and sisters, if we want
to estimate the exceeding sinfulness of our sin? Go to the cross.
Go to Calvary. I used to have a pastor of mine.
He said he had this idea that when he was lost, him and God
was walking along side by side. And he said all he thought that
he had to do someday was just step over in God's path and they'd
walk on together. And he said one day he'd come
to realize that God was walking one way and I was walking the
other. And he said by my sin I'd walked
a long, long, long way off. Our sins, our sins, how bad are
they? They were so bad and taken us
so far off from God that it took a tremendous sacrifice to put
them away. Our sins, brothers and sisters,
are not a trifling matter. Dark the stain. Dark the stain. For all, therefore, we were.
And it took the blood of God's own Son to put those sins away. It must be bad. It must be bad.
Secondly, and quickly, is this. God will punish sin. That's what this verse of scripture
teaches us. Our sins are exceeding bad. They
must be because it took a sacrifice like this to put it away. And
secondly, God will surely punish sin because he punished it in
his Son. Every transgression, every disobedience
shall receive a just recompense of reward. God has appointed
a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness? Is God so holy that He won't
let one sin escape His eye? This is what you and I are laboring
and begging God for grace to teach our children, that God
is so holy He must punish sin. And we're struggling with our
neighbors? We're struggling with our co-workers? By the grace
of God, to help somebody to see that God is so holy that even
in His most favored creatures, He will not look upon sin to
justify it. His eyes are too holy. He's too
pure. How do we know that? But we see
it right here in this verse. God spared not his own son. Somebody
said this. Somebody made this statement.
I think it's a good statement. Somebody said, if you want to
know how God hates sin, think about what He did to the fallen
angels who sinned one time. Think about what He did to our
first parents when they sinned one time. Think about what He
did to the old world when He brought in His blood upon them.
Or think what he did to Sodom and Gomorrah when he rained fire
down out of heaven. But this man said, if you want
to know not only how God hates sin, but if you want to hate
it and you want to abhor yourself because of it, then go to the
cross of Calvary. Consider this sacrifice that
was paid for your sins. for our sins in his own body. The soul, his soul, was made
an offering for sin. He was wounded for our transgressions. He gave himself for our sins,
not our goodness, not our potential, not our righteousness, but for
our sins. Consider that, brothers and sisters. Thirdly, this scripture would
teach us this, that man is completely unable to atone for his own sins. In part or in whole, he cannot
lift a finger to atone for his sins. I saw in the media just
the other day in one of the foreign countries that they were walking
down the street and they were whipping their backs. to atone
for their sins. I was talking with a friend of
mine. He said years ago when he was in the service that he
was out in the street and said this whole group of men came
down the street. They had these large whips, long
whips. And he said every time they took a step, they would
whip their back. And he said as they went by,
blood had soaked all the way down to their feet. They were
running out of their back in an attempt to atone for their
sins. There's nothing you can do to
atone for your sins. And I hope I'm not misunderstood
when I say this. Jesus, our Lord, could not atone
for our sins by His living. If any man could atone for his
sins through doing good, it would have been the Son of God, because
He went about doing good. That's all He did was good. Honored
the law of God. Magnified it. God looked upon
him and said, look at my son. My soul is wrapped up in him.
I love him. Look how perfectly obedient he
is. But you know that didn't put
away one sin. That didn't atone for one sin. Sin was not atoned for, brothers
and sisters, until that blood and water came from the side
of our Savior. I have given you the blood, I
have given you my blood upon the altar, for it is the blood,
the shedding of my blood that atones for sin." And there is
nothing a man can do. Sin, sins were atoned for back
there at the cross. And those that were not atoned
for back there will be punished in hell, because there is no
other sacrifice. There is no other way to atone
for sin. The Lord Jesus told those that
were pure in His message one day, He said, My flesh ain't
going to profit you nothing. You can't eat My flesh, He said.
They thought He was talking about physically eating His flesh.
He said, My flesh, My living flesh is not going to do you
a bit of good. As long as my heart's beating,
as long as my blood's running through these veins, as long
as I'm alive and well, he had to die. He had to shed
his blood. That's what a tomb for sin. This
man, after he had offered one sacrifice for sin. Fourthly,
consider this. Can you imagine? how courageous
this man was. This man, how fearless he was. And when you and I remember that
he was man, subject to our infirmities, the only time I ever saw him
draw back, the only time we ever see him draw back, is when he
was there in the Garden of Gethsemane. when he saw that cup. And he
apprehended something of what was in it. The only time we ever
see him flinch. He set his eyes, he set his heart
to go to Jerusalem, knowing why he was going there. And he went
there so willingly and so lovingly and so courageously. He was on
his face in the Garden of Gethsemane. His hair was matted with his
blood and sweat. No doubt his clothes were wet.
on a cold night when they had built a fire to warm themselves,
he was sweating drops of blood. And the scripture says this about
him, knowing all things that would come upon him. He knew
He was going to the judgment hall. He knew how they were going
to shame Him, strip Him naked, whip Him, pluck the hair from
His face, put the crown of thorns. He knew all of that. He knew
what was going to take place at the cross. Knowing what was
coming upon Him, the Scripture says He got up and went forth
to meet them. I'll tell you, I ain't never
found anything to scare Him. He ain't afraid of nothing. He
ain't afraid of nobody. I was reading in the newspaper
this week, someone had called me and said they were scared
to death of this coming war with the Muslims. I was just reading
a thing where one of them said that he, one of the clerics,
one of them over there, talking about this man that's supposed
to be coming here any time. I don't know what his name is. He's coming and when he comes,
He says, everybody's going to be converted or you're going
to lose your heads. You're going to lose your heads.
And my sister, she called me. She's scared to death. She said,
you know, it's time Christians took up some arms against me.
My poor old right hand is so full of arthritis, I can hardly
hold a coffee cup, let alone take up a sword. It's too late
for that. Too late for that. What would
I do and what would you do? If those people do rise up and
they hate Christians, you mark that down, they hate the Lord
Jesus Christ, I don't know what I would do if one of them backed
me up against the wall and said, you convert to our God, we're
going to take this dull knife and saw your head off. I saw
that happen on the video. Some of you may have saw it.
I would probably be scared to death. I'd probably tremble in
my shoes. I don't know what I'd do, brothers
and sisters. But the question is not, am I afraid of him? The
question is, is Jesus afraid of him? And he's not. He's not afraid of anybody or
anything in heaven or in this earth or in hell. This man who
gave himself a sacrifice and faced the judgment of God and
the wrath of God in our place, he's not afraid of some pipsqueak
man. And you know something? If he's
not afraid, we shouldn't be afraid. He said, when you go through
the fire, I'm going to be with you. When you go through the
waters, they're not going to overflow you because I am with
you. Therefore, fear not." If he's
not afraid, brothers and sisters, don't be afraid. Don't be afraid
to get on a jet plane if you need to and go somewhere. You
think he'd be afraid to? You think he's afraid to go to
work? You think he's going to hide out in the house and tremble? Oh, he's not afraid of anything.
He's so courageous. I don't know what's coming. I
really don't know. But boy, you can almost feel it in the air,
can't you? And our poor country and a whole bunch of other countries
have got this ostrich syndrome. They've stuck their heads in
the sand. I don't know what's coming. We're
dependent upon our government, aren't we? What are we going to do? Get
together in congregation, get our rifles out, start shooting
and killing people? We're dependent upon our government,
aren't we? Really, we're dependent upon
our God. And we've got one that's courageous, fearless. And lastly
is this in closing. We see fifthly this. We see a
design here, don't we? God has a purpose, something.
This didn't take place by accident. This man offered himself a sacrifice
for sin. Could such a thing take place
by accident? Could this be a plan B because plan A failed? We see
purpose in this. God has designed to be gracious. He's designed to forgive sins.
We know he has, or his Son would have never gave himself a sacrifice. Peter said, Christ suffered for
us to bring us to God. That's the design of it all.
To bring us to God. God's willing to be merciful.
I will be merciful. How do we know? Well, look at
this. This man offered himself a sacrifice.
Mercy. The door of mercy is wide open.
Wide open. If somebody comes to us and says,
you know, it's not written anyplace, but
did you know that God sent His Son into this world and He gave
Himself a sacrifice for sin to reconcile sinners to God? And
I would say, well, boy, that's awfully good news. That's too
good to be true. Where did you find this at? Well,
it's not written anyplace. But I just think that's the way
it is. Well, I'm not going to believe something like that.
That's too good to be true. Show me where it's written, and
then I can believe that. Well, brothers and sisters, this
thing wasn't done in a corner. We don't have to be in doubt
about this. Here it is. God has designed
to be merciful to sinners. How do we know? Well, here it
is. Well, I fit that. I fit that. I'm a sinner. I'm an awful sinner. I'm a needy
sinner. I'm a hell-deserving sinner.
If God has designed to be gracious, then maybe He'll be gracious
to me. I will be merciful, then maybe He'll be merciful to me.
Bruce, what should I do? Believe Him. Believe Him. Here it is. Believe His Word.
Believe Him. You say, I'm so unworthy. It
has nothing to do with worth. Believe Him, brothers and sisters.
Believe Him. Don't miss out on this. Anybody
here this evening that's lost, don't miss out on this. Believe
Him. Come, look, believe, trust the
Lord Jesus Christ. You might as well be a partaker
of it as me. Or is Tom? Look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Give yourself up to the Lord
Jesus Christ, right where you're sitting. Don't say, I'll go home
and think about it. I'll go home and pray about it.
No, right now. A man came to me the other day,
and he said, Bruce, I'm so burdened over my sins. I just don't feel
like I can live through this day. I said, have you been seeking
the Lord? No, no. My dear soul, don't miss
out on this. God is designed to be merciful.
And it might well be you as anybody, since it's not according to merit
or worth. Give yourself up. Give yourself
away to the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything about you. With all
that's within you, give yourself up to Him. Do it right now. Do
it right now. That's how urgent this is. That's
what a great Savior He is. He'll save you now. Jesus will
save you now. Bless His holy name.