I'm going to be in the book of
Hebrews chapter 12 if you would like to turn there. We're going
to focus, Lord willing, on verse 24. The first hour, he says,
but you've come to Christ and the mediator and the blood of
the new covenant that speaketh better things than that of Abel.
And the first hour, I titled that message, The Mediator. Second hour, I titled it, What
the Blood Speaks. So I pray the Lord will bless
it to our understanding. The subject, as always, is our
Savior. It's always our Savior, isn't it? And we look at Him
through different viewpoints. You remember whenever Daniel
saw the four-headed beast in the book of Daniel? The face
of a man, an eagle, and so on. It's all how we look at the Lord
Jesus Christ, how he reveals himself. We can see him as the,
we always see him as a triumphant, successful redeemer of his people.
But sometimes you can see him as the, as we're hoping to this
morning as the mediator, as the go between, between God and man.
And I trust and pray that he'll send his spirit or we worshiping
in vain. We'll be worshiping in vain.
So let's Oh, I need to remind us about the two mountains. And
this is what the writer of Hebrews is speaking on right now is the
two mountains. He said, you've not come to the mountain that can't
be, uh, that could be touched, that was burned. It was darkness
and blackness that even when Moses saw it, he feared exceedingly
and quaked. He said, but you've come to Mount
Zion. Last Sunday, we looked at the two mountains, part one
and part two. And it's a continuation of that thought that he had. But we know that that first mountain
is Sinai. It represents the law and the law could not save anyone.
Keeping the law cannot save anyone. Good works cannot save anyone.
It's the finished work of Christ. That's the only thing that can
save anybody. And that's what he says, you've come to Zion.
That's the city built by God on hand. His work represents
the finished work of God on the cross of Calvary. Let's read
this here, verse 22 through 24 of Hebrews 12. but ye are coming to Mount Zion
and into the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly
and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven,
and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of just men
made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new covenant,
and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better things than
that of Abel. titled this message, The Mediator.
The Mediator. Now the Mediator is by definition
one that intervenes between two parties to resolve conflict or
to establish a covenant. Establish a covenant. One that
resolves conflict or establish a covenant. Now is that not true
of our Lord? He established the covenant of
grace and he resolved the conflict. Well what was the conflict? It
wasn't between him and his father. The conflict was between us and
God. being born in sin, shaping into
iniquity, we were. enmity against God. There was
a conflict, wasn't there? And he fixed that. He fixed that. He resolved the conflict. There's
but one in himself, just one that can approach God and not
be destroyed. Just one. And it's the Lord Jesus
Christ. There is but one who is perfect.
One who had the right and the ability to redeem. One who, um,
was sent of his father for that very purpose, to redeem his people
from their sin. No one else can redeem. There's
only one intercessor. There's only one redeemer. There's
only one advocate between God and his people. The scripture
says in 1 Timothy 2, for there is one God and one mediator between
God and man. You know who that is? The man
Christ Jesus. The other day I was working,
and I got accused of something that I actually was innocent
in doing. Now sometimes, you know, you do something, you get caught.
That's not what happened this time. I got accused of something. And
it was like a trial was going on, but the decision had already
been made. So I just got the earful of what had happened.
They sat me down, and they said, OK, here's the situation. We've
got to do this, and this, and this. And I'm like, OK, do I
not get to speak? Can I say something? And they're like, no, it's not
a trial. We have this and this, and we're just going to do this.
I'm like, okay. And I would like to have an advocate, an advocate,
a mediator. In a court of law, that's exactly
what a lawyer does is he speaks on behalf of the client. He speaks
on behalf of the client, whether it's the defendant or the plaintiff.
The lawyer speaks on behalf of the client. As a matter of fact,
if you go to a court of law and you don't have a advocate, you
don't have a lawyer, most of the time the judge doesn't look
at you the same as if you did, because it's almost to them disrespectful
to not have a lawyer that has studied the law, that understands
the law. Um, so people are like, I'm just going to represent myself.
We, what do you, what do we know about the law? I mean, really
the laws of the land, we'd have to do a lot of studying, right?
When it comes to the Lord's law, we don't know. Uh, we know some
of it, but we can't keep any of it. Can't not in the flesh
because we're sinners by nature, by practice, by choice. Can't
keep the law. So what's our hope? Well, the
Lord Jesus Christ did. And he is our mediator between
God and us. He's the go-between. He speaks
on his people's behalf. He speaks on our behalf. You
remember on the cross where he said, father, forgive them for
they know not what they do. He was mediating. He was mediating.
And how many times do we see the Lord calling his sheep unto
him and praying unto his father, even in John 17, he's speaking
to his father, I finished the work you've given me to do. And
he said, I glorify them with the same glory that I've had
with you. He's mediating. That's the intercessory prayer
in John 17. We just see our Lord as the only
one that can be a mediator on our behalf unto salvation. He's the only one. You cannot
represent yourself in God's court of judgment and expect to survive. We cannot. We need a mediator. God's not approachable by man,
meaning men born in sin, and all are, and shaped into iniquity,
you can't and I can't approach a holy God that way. That's what
Sinai was all about. Said you're gonna die if you
come near this mountain. We need one that could approach
Sinai and live. And that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He satisfied the law's demands. He put away the sin of his people.
He satisfied the justice and judgment. And so there's now
therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
Why? Because he was successful in
his redemption. He is the mediator of the new covenant. He is the
one that established the covenant with his people, honored the
covenant with his father, and the father was well pleased.
He was well pleased. Christ isn't just the mediator,
but he's the executor. and the author and finisher of
faith. He's the author and finisher
of the new covenant. He's the executor. He's the mediator.
He's the advocate. He's all these things to his
people, all these things. He alone purged the sin of his
elect. He did. He was successful on
the cross. He didn't try. He didn't try to, he didn't say,
I'll be your mediator if you let me be. No, he said, I'm God. I change not. Therefore, you
sons of Jacob are not consumed. He says, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy and whom I will, I will harden. He's God.
He's God. And we love him that way. We
love him seated as the successful redeemer who purged the sin of
his people. Once and forever, he perfected
them that are sanctified. He's our mediator. He intercedes
on our behalf. He fixed what we broke in our
sin, in our state, in our fallen state. He fixed it. How did he
fix it? By his own blood. By his own blood, by his own
obedience, by his own sacrifice, by his own will and purpose. I wrote these words down. I started
writing, I wrote one word down. I said, well, there's another
one I could put. Another one, I ended up with five or six of them. I'll read
them to you. Christ actually, definitively, completely, totally,
absolutely, eternally, put away the sin of his people. Every
one of them, every one of those words. Now, the reason Christ being
our mediator is so necessary, I've already mentioned about
the court of law and how we can't approach the judge. The reason
it's so important and necessary is because we are born sinners. Did you know that you're a sinner
not because of what you do, but because of what you are? We're
sinners by nature, by practice. I said this several times with
the children. A dog doesn't become a dog when
it barks the first time, does it? A cat doesn't meow to become
a cat. They're cats and they're dogs.
We're sinners. We sin because we are sinners. Sinners by nature
and practice and choice. And unless God saves us, we won't
be saved. Unless God does all the work,
we will not be saved. He has to do it all, and he did.
He did on the cross of Calvary. He did, he was successful. Men think, well, if I obey the
law, if I live a moral life, if I don't talk this way, or
I talk this way, or I don't do this, or I don't do that, or
now I'm doing this, but I'll never do that again. And that's
the moral law is what that is. Or maybe I should treat people
better, and the Lord will have respect upon. That's the civil
law. And then you have ceremonial
law. Well, I've been baptized. I came to the front, and I prayed
a prayer, and I shook the preacher's hand, or whatever else. That's
the ceremonial law. And that's what men cleave to,
is the law for salvation. But there is no salvation in
the law. The law was given as a magnifying glass to show us
how bad we are. To show us our sinful state.
There's no one that's gonna be justified by the deeds of the
law. That's what he said in Romans four, wasn't it? No one be justified
by the deeds of the law. It was the knowledge for the
knowledge of sin. So why do we need a mediator?
Because we're sinful. Somebody said, well, I don't
think I'm that bad. Well, unless the Lord shows you that you're
a sinner and shows me I'm a sinner, we won't think that we're that
bad. We won't think that we're that bad. But we're comparing
ourself to others if we feel that way. We have to compare
ourself to God, to the Lord Jesus Christ. We're talking perfect. We're talking perfection. That's
what we compare to. So we break the law one time,
we've broken the whole law, the scripture says. We're guilty
of it all. We need to be made in his image, in his likeness.
We have to be perfect, just like him. We have to be holy, just
like him. We have to be righteous, just like him. Not just doing
good deeds. He said there's none good, no
not one. No, we need a mediator. One that goes between. Us and
God, he mediates, he mediates. The law exposed our unrighteousness.
The law revealed our sickness. The law revealed our sickness.
The law showed our sin. Mount Sinai was given, the law
was given to show you and I cannot approach God lest we die. Cannot approach God lest we die.
So we need a substitute, and that's what our mediator is.
The Lord Jesus Christ is the substitute of his people. On
the cross, he was made sin for us who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in him. He bore our sin on
the cross, on the tree, in his own body, and put it away. That's why there's no condemnation
now. It's because the sin's all gone. That's what the mediator
did. That's what he did on the cross. He put it away. No, sin's not what we do. It's what we are. You know, I
say this statement often. We're dead dog sinners. We're
dead dog sinners. I'm sure some of you have this
going on in your houses as well, but I have stink bugs in my house. Anybody else? Yeah, they're annoying,
aren't they? What good's a stink bug? I mean,
honestly, ask yourself that. You can't fish with them. You
don't want to get that smell on you. I can't think of one
use for a stink bug. My dogs, well, anyways, they
go after them, but they leave them alone. They stink. So what
good is a stink bug? Do you know in the book of Genesis,
whenever Genesis chapter 6, or Genesis chapter 8, whenever Noah
came off the ark, and he built an altar unto God, and he made
sacrifice on that altar. It says, it went up unto the
Lord a sweet smelling savor. When Christ died on the cross,
and it's a picture of our Lord and Savior on the cross, and
that's what the Lord, he was satisfied with his son. He was
looking to the cross. When Christ died, it went up
as a sweet smelling savor, and the father was well pleased with
his son. But you and I stink. Do we understand
that? Being born in sin, that's all
we can do is stink, like a stink bug. Now, the amazing part to
me is that the Lord became one in order to save a bunch of them.
I've never had compassion on a stink bug, but oh, he did. Are we not called worms in the
scripture? Think about that. Think about that. And didn't
the Lord say in Psalm 22, I'm a worm from the cross, prophetically,
David was speaking, I'm a worm and no man. It was the Lord on
the cross, he said, my bowels are like wax, my heart is melted. He was crying out to his father
whenever the wrath of God was being poured out upon him and
he was bearing our sin and iniquity on the cross at that time. And
I say that reverently that he become, he just became what we
are, you understand that. The fullness of time come, God
sent forth his son. and the likeness of sinful flesh
and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. We're just dust. You think the
Lord's gonna look at this dust that we are, this sin that we
are, and have respect unto us because we've done something
or haven't done something? No. No, why? Because he respects
one, his son, his darling son, and he has no respect to others.
He respects his son. Therefore, we must be in Christ. And that's what happened on the
cross as he was our surety and our substitute is we literally
traded places with him. He became what we are as the
center substitute that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. So we are now one with him and one with the Father.
That's what he talks about over there in John 17, when he said,
they and me, I and you, that's what he's talking about. We're
literally united with him, just as you see the picture of marriage,
bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh. That's what he did on
the cross. That's what he accomplished.
That's why we need a mediator. Hebrews 9 tells us, and for this
cause, He is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means
of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were
under the First Testament, they which are called might receive
the promise of eternal life. He alone can redeem. Can you
save yourself? You want me to tell you why?
The answer is no. Because they that are in the flesh cannot
please God. The flesh cannot please God. Anything done in the flesh doesn't
have spiritual. It doesn't fix anything spiritual.
If I'm doing something here, whether I'm praying, whether
I'm preaching, it doesn't, I don't get rewarded spiritually because
I did something in the flesh. Christ did. Christ did. That's why we need him. That's
why we need the substitute. Everything we do is tainted with
sin, and unless he washed away the sin, he put away the sin
with his own blood, I have no hope of eternal life. If the
Lord didn't choose to save us, choose to call us, choose to
mediate for us, we have no hope of eternal life. God is sovereign. And we use
those words often, but we're not sovereign. Everything he
purposes, he does. He's never made a plan in the sense of it being able
to fail or not. He purposes all things. He's
never looked to man to do anything, never begged a man to do anything.
I wrote an article this morning in the bulletin that says just
that. God's not a beggar, is he? God's not a beggar. He's
not wringing his hands, he's not pacing the floor, he's seated
as the successful redeemer, the sovereign king of kings and lord
of lords. You see that all throughout scripture. And him by his determinant counsel,
who'd he counsel with? Himself. He didn't counsel with
you and I, did he? He told Job, Job was having a
hard time with what the Lord had allowed to happen in his
life. He told Job, where were you when I laid the foundation
of the world? Did I counsel with you? Would you counsel with me? Where were you then? It was obviously
rhetorical, even a little sarcastic. And Job was like, I'm just not
gonna talk anymore. I'm putting my hand over my mouth.
And that's what happens when the truth comes. It shows us
our state and shows us him. He's sovereign, absolute, absolute. He's sovereign. And by his determinant
counsel, he chose to establish the covenant of grace. He chose
to make a place. Christ said, I go to prepare
a place for you. And you've heard a hundred times or more probably
that, uh, different songs are written about mansions and different
things in glory. The place is in him. The place is in him. I don't need a mansion. I need
a savior. We have perfect bodies there.
We don't get tired. What are you going to do inside
of a mansion? You get what I'm saying? It doesn't
matter. It's irrelevant. It's just the fact that he's
prepared a place and there's room for every one of his people.
There's room. It's built to perfect specifications. There's plenty of room for all
of his people. The Lord Jesus Christ was the
only one that could resolve the conflict of our sin against God. And we are charged with just
that, the sin against God. And what is the wages of sin?
It's death. But he didn't stop there. He
said, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ,
our Lord. It's his choice. to save or not
to save. It's his right as God to save
or not to save. And it's all according to his
will and purpose given to his people in Christ before the foundation
of the world. You can read that in Ephesians
1, 4 or go over 2 Timothy 1, chapter 9 and 10. We've seen
that before, haven't we? It's his purpose before time
ever began. These individuals that he chose
unto salvation were placed, were given to Christ to redeem and
he successfully did it. Paul deals with that in Romans
nine. Turn over to Romans nine with me. Look how clear this is. This
is speaking of our Lord's election, his choice in salvation. His
purpose, and it says in verse nine of chapter nine of Romans,
and for this is the word of promise, at this time will I come and
Sarah shall have a son. And not only this, but when Rebecca
also had conceived by one, even by her father Isaac. Now look
at this part right here, for the children being not yet born,
neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of
God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him
that calleth. It was said unto her, the elder,
shall serve the younger. As it is written, Jacob have
I loved, but Esau have I hated. That's clear, isn't it? That's
so clear. That's not complicated. I understand
exactly what he's saying. He just said that it's his choice
in salvation. He chose to love Jacob. He chose to love Jacob. And he chose to hate Esau. It's his right, it's his choice.
Somebody said, well, that's not very fair. Well, let's keep reading.
14, what shall we say then, is there
unrighteousness with God? God forbid, for he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, even for this same purpose
have I raised thee up, that I might show my power in thee, and that
my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore, hath
he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will, he hardeneth
it. Now here's the question Menach
right here. That will say then unto me, why doth he yet find
fault for who hath resisted his will? What he's saying is, well,
then it's all God's fault then if I don't believe. That's what
he's saying. Look what he says, verse 20.
Nay, but, O man, who art thou that replyest? Who are you that
answerest God? Who are you that disputes with
God? Shall the thing form, shall the creature say unto him that
formed it, the creator? Why hast thou made me thus? Hath
not the potter power over the clay of the same lump to make
one vessel into honor and another into dishonor? What if God, willing
to show his wrath and to make his power known, endured with
much longsuffering, the vessels of wrath fitted to disruption,
and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the
vessels of mercy, which he had aforeprepared unto glory, even
us, that's his people, even us, whom he hath called, not of the
Jews only, but also of the Gentiles. It's God's right to save whom
he will. It's God's purpose to save whom
he will. And he did it by giving his people
a mediator. A mediator. If Christ doesn't
mediate, we have no hope of eternal life. He has to mediate for us.
He has to be the one that appeases the wrath. He has to be the propitiation.
That's what propitiation means, is appeases the wrath of God. He satisfied that. If he doesn't
do that, we have no hope. How are we gonna mediate for
ourself? If we think we can, we're failing to see what he's
saying right here. He calls us a lump of clay. That's what we are. That's just
dust with some water in it, isn't it? That's all we are. Men think
too highly of themselves, don't we? We think highly because of
something we know or something we've come to an understanding
of, but the truth of the matter is there's none good, no not
one. Flesh can't please God. That's
why the Lord had to come and die. It's God's choice. It's God's
purpose. It's His power. And it's according
to His own good pleasure. His own good pleasure. He's God.
He's God. And if the Lord's made you a
sinner, if the Lord's made me a sinner, you love Him that way. Because you know that if he wasn't
like that, you would have never chose him. What did the Lord
tell the Pharisees? You will not come to me that
you may have eternal life. Why? He tells them, because you're
of your father the devil. I didn't choose you, that's why.
You're not gonna come to me. We can't come to God in the flesh. Do we see that? The Lord has
to give a new nature. The Lord has to give a new heart.
The Lord has to save us. Then he'll call us. That's how
that works. It's his eternal purpose to redeem
those whom he loves back to God, to satisfy the darkness it talks
about, the mountain, Sinai, that darkness. He is the light that
got rid of the darkness. You know, we would've been wandering
in darkness still yet. You ever wandered around in darkness,
you hit your knee? You ever, you run into walls, you get discombobulated,
disoriented. Well, you turn the light on,
you see everything, it's just fine. I can walk fine now. But
we're blind in darkness, aren't we? We can't see in the dark.
The Lord's gonna have to give sight, number one, for us to
see anything, but especially to see him, especially to see
him. He will remain hidden if he doesn't
choose to reveal himself and he doesn't enable us to see him. Now let's go back to Hebrews
12, verse 22. but ye are common to Mount Zion,
and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,
and to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly
of the church, and the church of the firstborn, which are written
in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of
just men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of the new
covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaketh better
things than that of Abel. Everyone, you notice he said
you've come, we're talking about the mediator, Jesus being the
mediator, but understand we've also came to the judge of all,
and that's a capital J, that's his name. He's the judge. Everyone,
without exception, will be judged of God. Everyone. Everyone. Now the question is, were you
judged in Christ on the cross, or will you be judged without
a mediator before the great white throne judgment. It's one or
the other. There is no third option. Either you were judged
in Christ on the cross and your sin was put away, or you will
stand before God without a mediator, without an advocate, without
a savior, and give an account of yourself. And you know what
the Lord says to everyone that cries to him, Lord, I've done
all these wonderful things in your name. I've cast out demons,
I've done this. Amazing part about Judas is Judas
cast out demons just like the rest of them. The Lord left him
to himself. What did the Lord say? Depart
from me that work that iniquity. I never knew you. I never knew
you. Thank God he prayed for Peter.
Thank God he prayed for his people. If he hadn't prayed for us, we'd
be without hope, wouldn't we? The soul of everyone here and
all over the world will be in one of two places, in heaven
with Christ because you have a mediator. or in hell left to
yourself, lost, eternal darkness. And I find it interesting that
the Lord actually speaks more of hell than he does heaven.
You can research that if you want to. He talks about hell
often. Why? Not to scare us, but to show
us what he saved us from. To show us what we deserve by
nature. Were you born a human? That's
what you deserve, it's that simple. Somebody said, well I'm not,
I'm not that bad. Only the Lord can make a sinner a sinner. Only
the Lord can do that. There was two men, Pharisee and
a publican in the temple. You remember the story. The Pharisee,
what'd he say? Boy, he was so proud of himself
and his self-righteousness and all the things that he had done.
He said, I thank thee, Lord, that I'm not like other men are.
I tithe, I fast, I do this good, I do that good. I thank you that
I'm not like that publican over there. And the publican would
not lift up his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, and
said, Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. Christ said, one
of these went home justified. Who do you think it was? It was
the publican, wasn't it? No, the Pharisee was not of the
Lord. He drew too much attention to
himself. He wasn't a mercy beggar. The Lord saves mercy beggar.
What does the scripture say? Call his name Jesus, for he shall
save his people from their sin. This is a, This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to do what? Save sinners. He said, I didn't
come to call the righteous. I come to call sinners to repentance. Sinners to repentance. He said,
they that are whole need not a physician, but they that are
sick. Oh, if you find yourself sick, you need a mediator, don't
you? You need a physician. If you find yourself in darkness,
you need the light, don't you? The mediator. If you find yourself
lost, you need to be found, don't you? If we find ourself before the
throne of judgment without a mediator, then it will be under the law
and under judgment, we'll be guilty. And that's what the Lord
said about his law. The law was given that every
mouth would be stopped. That's what he said. Every mouth
would be stopped. And if we are in that sad state
where we will be when we die the eternal death, it'll be all
our fault because we did not want the Lord Jesus Christ. We did not want him. Someone
might say, well, that's not very fair. Well, first of all, we
can repeat what he said in Romans nine, who are you to reply against
God? But second of all, You and I will never come to Christ until
he makes us, until he makes us. He alone is the mediator of this
covenant of grace. He alone possessed the ability
to please the father, to be the propitiation, to be the redeemer,
to be the savior, to be the one that ransomed his people. And
he did just that. He did just that. There's no
other name given. No other name given but his whereby
we must be saved. No other name. If you see him,
I started this by saying I'm hoping and praying the Lord let
us see his face. If you see him, rejoice because he's the one
that showed you himself. He's not. We cannot obligate
God to do anything False religions constantly says, well, if you
do this, God will bless you. And if you do this, God will do this.
And if you do this, God will, you won't find that in scripture.
You won't see where God came to give health, wealth, and prosperity.
He said, the foxes have holes, the birds of the air have nests,
but the son of man have no place to lay his head. He didn't come
here for an earthly kingdom. He came here to establish Zion,
the heavenly kingdom, the new Jerusalem, the place where his
people are going to be forever. He said, my kingdom's out of
this world. If it were, you'd fight. No, he came to establish
the spiritual kingdom. If you see him rejoice, your
sins are gone. You remember the disciples came to the Lord and
said, Lord, we're able to cast out demons. This is awesome.
You know, we're able to do this and we're able to do that. And
they were really happy about that. He said, don't rejoice that you
can do miracles. Rejoice that your name is written
in glory. Rejoice that your name is written
in the Lamb's book of life. Rejoice that you're saved, not
by works of righteousness that you have done, but according
to my mercy were you saved. Rejoice in that. I love the thought that if your
sins are forgiven, they've been cast into the sea of forgetfulness.
It means it'll never be remembered again. It'll never be brought
up again. It'll never be hinted at. Oh,
I remember some things that you used to do. Not going to happen.
You ever had a situation with somebody and a few years later
they bring up that situation again that you thought was resolved?
That's not going to happen with the Lord. They're gone. It never
happened. The sin never happened. Not in God's eyes, and the way
he sees it, that's exactly how it is. They'll never be mentioned
or hinted at. This is what our great God and
mediator accomplished all by himself, all by his purpose,
all by his will, all by his choice. The successful redemption of
God's chosen people. He did it successfully. And now he is our great mediator. If you've never saw him, if you've
seen him rejoice, if you've never saw him cry out for mercy. He
promised, ask and you shall receive. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ
and thou shalt be saved. But the only way you and I will
cry out is if we're made to have a need. made to have a need. Isn't that what we pray for our
family and our friends? Lord, give them a need. They
don't have a need. They don't have, they don't desire
this truth. They don't desire your word.
They desire whatever going on in their life. They're perfectly
content. And the scripture says that those who are like that
mentality says, in hell, we are in agreement. With death, we've
made a covenant. That's what the scripture says.
And they think they're good to go. And one day they draw their
last breath, they'll find out everything they were holding
onto, they lost and they have nothing. They have nothing. You're gonna
hear this the second hour, but I'll say it now. The Lord has
to strip us of our righteousness. And he'll do it here, or he'll
do it there. But he's going to strip us of
our righteousness. And every knee's going to bow, and every
tongue's going to confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Oh, if
you desire a mediator, one that can intercede on your behalf
before God his Father, who declares his people justified freely by
his grace, cry out for him. Cry out for him in the heart.
Lord, have mercy on me, the sinner. Only one mediator between God
and man. If I don't have him, I don't have anything. But if
I have him, I have everything. I have everything. Last Sunday,
I wrote an article that said those that hold on too tightly
to the things of this world, they hold on to the things, the
goods, the concerns, the worries, too tightly, when they die, they're
gonna lose everything. But those who have been enabled
by the grace of God to set their affections on things above and
lay up treasures in heaven, which is Christ, look to Christ, that's
what that is. Then when they die, they're gonna
gain everything. They're gonna gain everything.
They already have it, but you can't see it yet. See it by faith,
one day you're gonna see it when you see him face to face. Flee any notion that Sinai will
bring you peace with God. Peace is only found in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Flee any notion that you can please God yourself.
Took Christ to do that. If you could please God, Christ
wouldn't have had to come. But he did because we couldn't.
He is our mediator. He is our mediator. Believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ, our great mediator. Let's pray. Father,
we ask that you would take this and bless it to our understanding
for your glory. Thank you, Father, for being our mediator and successfully
redeeming. In Christ's name we pray, amen.