The Sinner's Plea

Many, many years ago, a great
and famous hymn writer wrote this hymn. Here's the first verse. He wrote, I need thee precious
Jesus, for I am full of sin. My soul is dark and guilty. My heart is dead within. I need that cleansing fountain
where I can always flee, the blood of Christ most precious,
the sinner's perfect plea. Now that's my subject today,
the sinner's plea. What can a sinner plea? Does
a sinner have a plea? Will God hear a sinner when he
pleads? Yes, sir. And I'm going to address
that subject, the sinner's plea. I'm going to tell you what a
sinner can plead before God and be heard. But first of all, I
must find the sinner. Is there in this congregation
today a real, genuine, self-confessed, guilty sinner? Is there a sinner
listening to my voice? Now, most people do not believe
that they're sinners. In fact, most people are offended
when you call them sinners. You know, another great hymn
writer said this, A sinner is a sacred thing. The Holy Ghost
has made him so. And the Apostle Paul said, Let
every mouth be stopped, and all the world become guilty before
God. But there are not many people
who will admit to being a sinner, a genuine guilty sinner before
God. But this message will have no
meaning to you if you're not a sinner. Because Paul clearly
stated that the Lord Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. And he added, Of whom I am the
chief. Of whom I am the chief. And then
one day our Lord was was eating with a group of sinners, people
who were recognized and known to be sinners, publicans and
sinners. And the religious Pharisees observed
him eating with these sinners, and they asked his disciples,
said, why does your master eat with publicans and sinners? And
the Lord Jesus heard them, knew what they were saying, and he
turned to them and said, The well do not need a physician,
but they that are sick. I'm not come to call the righteous,
but sinners to repentance. Now you go learn what that means.
And have you learned what that means? Are you a sinner? I've
got to find, if I'm going to deal with the subject, the sinner's
plea, then the first thing I've got to find is a sinner. A sinner. Are you a sinner? And then the
second thing is this. That sinner has got to realize
there's a problem between him and God. Now, he's got to be
convinced of that, that he has trouble. He doesn't have trouble
with other sinners because we're all just alike. We're born of
the same Father, Adam. We're born with the same problem,
sin. We all live alike and think alike and talk alike and walk
alike. But there's a problem between us and God, and this
man's got to recognize that. He's got to realize that the
greater guilt and the greater condemnation of his sin is actually
his separation from God and his inability to please God, that
we are without Christ, without hope, and without God in this
world. We're without God. You see, when
I find a sinner, I'll find a man who realizes that his sins have
separated him and God. that God is at war with him and
he with God. And in the flesh, no man can
please God. We find out that even as Isaiah
said, our righteousnesses are filthy rags in God's sight. What
is pleasing to men and well-pleasing to men is an abomination to God. And if I'm truly a sinner, and
I am, whether I admit it or not, I can't plead my merit, I don't
have any. I can't plead my righteousness
because I don't have any. My righteousnesses are filthy
rags. I can't plead my good deeds because
I don't have any. By the deeds of the law shall
no flesh be justified. David said man at his best state
is altogether vanity. just like our God is altogether
lovely, we're altogether unlovely. Just like our God is altogether
holy, altogether righteous, we're altogether unclean. I want to introduce you to the
four nuns. Have you ever met the four nuns?
Everybody needs to meet the four nuns. And everybody would do
well to remember the four nones. They're found in Romans chapter
3, the four nones. And you'll remember this by the
way I'm saying it. Listen to me. Romans 3 verse
10 says there's none righteous. No, not one. That's the first
one. None righteous. Secondly, there is none that
understandeth. We don't understand. We call
bitter sweet and sweet bitter. Good, evil, and evil, good. We
don't understand the mysteries of God. The third none is there's
none that seek after God. None that seek after God. The natural man seeks his way,
not God's way. We've all sinned and turned our
own way. And the fourth none is there's
none that doeth good. No, not one. None righteous. None that understandeth. None
that seek God. and none that doeth good." Now,
do you understand that? Have I found a sinner? Have I
found a bona fide, genuine, guilty sinner who's got a problem? His
sins have separated him from God. And by his own ability,
he cannot in the flesh please God. Nothing we do is pleasing
to God. Even the plowing, the plowing
of the wicked is an abomination. And the third thing is this,
you'll find that the promises of God, the promises of God are
inseparably joined to a need. The promises of rest are made
to those who need it. The promise of forgiveness is
made and held out to sinners, guilty people. You can only forgive
a guilty man. And the promise of mercy is for
the miserable. Grace is for the guilty. The
promise of salvation is for sinners. Christ died for sinners. The
scripture says, listen to these promises. Come, let us reason
together. Though your sins be as scarlet,
I'll make them as white as snow. Are your sins scarlet? Are they
red like crimson? They're not? Then I won't make
them white as snow. The promise is held out to the
needy. Listen to this promise. Come
unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, I'll give you
rest. Are you laboring, heavy laden with sin? No? Then there's no promise made
to those people. The promise is made, is addressed
to a need. We're in heavy laden, I'll give
you rest. When we were without strength,
Listen, Romans 5, for when we were without strength, weak,
powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Are you without strength? Are you ungodly? Heavens, no. Then Christ didn't die for you.
He died for the ungodly. He died. God committed His love
toward us in that while we were yet enemies, Christ died for
us. The promise, can you understand
this? I'm talking about the plea. The
sinner's plea. But it's the sinner's plea. And
it's the sinner's plea for mercy. For mercy. The miserable sinner. Out of the depths have I cried.
And if you're not a sinner, and your sins aren't great, and your
sins haven't separated you from God, and your sins haven't rendered
you incapable and unable to please God, why do you need any mercy?
Then if you realize that grace is for the guilty and salvation
is for sinners. Charles Wesley wrote this. Most of these great hymn writers
couldn't possibly find a home among us in our so-called worship
today. We're too good for them. Charles
Wesley wrote this, depth of mercy. Depth of mercy. Can there be
mercy reserved for me? Can my God His wrath forbear? What wrath? And me, the chief
of sinners, spare? Oh my, if this be your situation,
if I have discovered this morning another sinner, you say, another
one? Yeah, I'm one and I'm looking for another one so I can tell
him the good news. You know what witnessing is?
Witnessing is one beggar telling another beggar where he got something
to eat. It's one sinner telling another sinner where he found
mercy. It's one guilty man telling another
guilty man where he found grace. That is witnessing. Anything
else is wasted time. And if this is your situation,
if you can say, Preacher, you sure found a sinner here, a guilty
sinner who has a problem with God, whose sins have separated
him from God. Then I've got good news for you.
I've got a proclamation of pardon to the guilty, mercy for the
miserable, and life for the dead. That's right. And I'll show you
what the sinner can plead. It's sevenfold. The sinner has
a sevenfold plea. Number one, if he wants to know
God, if he desires mercy and grace, that's the first thing.
He can plead his need. He can plead his need. If you
go to the Bible, you'll find that all who came to our Lord
while He was in His earthly ministry, earthly pilgrimage, all who came
to Him, they came because they needed Him. They had heard of
Him, and they believed on Him, and they came to Him, but what
brought them to Him was a need. This Canaanite woman came whose
daughter was desperately ill. incurably ill. She came to our
Lord and said, Lord, have mercy on me. And He didn't answer a
word. Scripture says He never even
replied. But she never left. She stood right there. And she
said, Lord, have mercy upon me. And He said, I'm sent to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel. She still didn't move. She said,
Lord, have mercy on me. He said, It's not right to give
children's bread to dogs. She said, That's right. I'm a
dog. I'm a Gentile dog. But you're
my master, and dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's
table. And that's when our Lord said, Woman, great is thy faith,
be it unto thee as you desire. This woman had a need, and that
need kept her at his feet. Bartimaeus, sitting by the wayside,
blind, in darkness, poverty, begging, had a need. And he cried
out of that need, Jesus, thy son of David, have mercy on me. And our Lord stood still and
called him to him. And he said, what do you want?
He said, Lord, that I may see. And he's the only one who could
meet Bartimaeus' need and is the only one who can meet my
need. I need a righteousness, a holiness,
with which the Father will be well pleased. I don't have it.
I need a substitute. I need a Savior. I need someone
to bear my sins in His body on a tree. I need a mediator. I need one to pray for me, intercede
for me, an advocate to stand between me and God and plead
my cause. Do you? I have a need. That brings
me to Christ. Secondly, I can plead not only
my need, but I can plead His mercy. That's what the publican
set forth. He came to the temple. Now, the
Pharisee, Christ said, two men went up to the temple to pray,
one of them very religious, one of them a sinner, publican. The
very religious man stood before God right down front, and he
began to boast about what he was and who he was and what he
had done. He said, I'm not like other men.
I fast twice a week. I tithe my income. I give alms
to the poor, and I'm not an adulterer, and I'm not an extortioner. And
our God said He went home damned, condemned, and doomed in His
own self-righteousness. But way back there in the back,
a fellow that wouldn't so much as lift his eyes to heaven, let
alone his hands, but he smote on his chest, and he cried, O
God, O God, be merciful to me, the sinner. And my Lord said,
that man went to his house forgiven and justified. He didn't plead
his merit like the Pharisee or his good works. He pleaded one
thing before God. He said, be merciful, be merciful,
have mercy upon me. David prayed that way. Have mercy
upon me, oh God, according to your loving kindness, according
to the multitude of your tender mercies. That's the basis of
our plea, God be merciful. I don't want justice, do you?
We want mercy. If we get justice, we'll be damned.
Scripture said in Psalm 130, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquity, who could stand? But there's forgiveness with
thee that thou mayest be feared. And John said, if we confess
our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us. What's the sinner's
plea? He pleads his need. I'm a sinner. He pleads God's mercy upon sinners. And then thirdly, he can plead
the right of Jesus Christ to show mercy to whom he will. My
friends, God is not obligated to us. God is not obligated to
forgive us. He's not obligated to pardon
us. obligated to show mercy to us.
He doesn't owe us mercy. He owes us the wages of sin.
We've earned that. It belongs to us. The wages of
sin is death. That's what we've earned. But
the gift of God's eternal life, He doesn't owe us any mercy.
Listen to that thief on the cross. First of all, he acknowledged
that Jesus Christ was God. He turned to his companion who
was also dying on a cross and he said, Don't you fear God?
Don't you fear God seeing you in the same condemnation? This
man is God. This is the Lord. And he said,
secondly, he acknowledged his sin. He said, seeing we're in
the same condemnation and we indeed justly, we're getting
the due reward of our deeds. I'm getting what I deserve. If
God Almighty is not pleased to save you or me, if he's pleased
to pass us by, it'll be just exactly what we deserve. We're
getting what we deserve. And then also he talked about
the holiness of Christ. He said, This man has done nothing
amiss. And then he looked at Christ.
Now listen to me. And he said, Lord, you're not going to stay
dead. You're coming into a kingdom.
Remember me when you come into your kingdom. You're a king. You have all authority, all power,
all rights, all privilege. Will you listen? Will you think
on me? Remember me." So this man, the
plea of the sinner was this, Lord, you be merciful to me,
a sinner. Can you plead that? I'm a sinner. Jesus Christ is the God-man.
He has all power in heaven and earth. He has all authority over
all flesh. Lord, remember me. All right,
here's the fourth. Now listen to me. I can plead
my need. I can plead His mercy. I can
plead His right to show mercy. And then I can plead, listen
to this carefully now, I can plead the power and ability of
Christ because of who He is, because of His person, who He
is, what He did, where He is now, enables him to do for us
what we need to have done. Listen to Hebrews 7, 24. Hebrews 7, 24. This man, because
he continueth forever, hath an unchanging priesthood. This man,
this God-man, because he continueth forever, hath an unchanging priesthood. Wherefore He is able to save
them that come to God by Him. Do you understand what I'm saying? I'm saying that who Jesus Christ
is, who He is, what He did and where
He is gives Him the right and the power to exercise mercy or
judgment, grace or condemnation. You see, He's able to do all
that He promised. Abraham believed that. Abraham
believed that God was able to do all that He promised. Jude
said He's able to keep us from falling. He's able because of
who He is. This man, because he hath an
unchanging priesthood, because he continues forever, he is able
to say, He's able to keep that which I've committed to Him.
He's able to raise our bodies and make them like His. One day
our Lord came down from the mountain, Matthew chapter 8. And when He
came down from that mountain, the Scripture said He was approached
by a leper, an unclean leper. And this man fell down and worshiped
Christ. And this is what he said, Lord,
if You will, You can make me clean. And my friends, I'm not
preaching that Christ is trying to do anything. He's not trying.
He does what He wills to do. The Son will quicken whom He
will. Moses said, Lord, show me Your glory. He said, My glory
is this. I will be merciful to whom I
will be merciful. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. And this leper said, Lord, if
You will, It's not if I will or anybody else will. If you
will, you have the power, you can make me clean. And that's my plea. I plead my
need. I plead His mercy. He delights
to show mercy. I plead His power. And I plead
His right to exercise that power and to show mercy to whom He
will. Now, listen to this, 5. I plead His blood. Do you think Christ died on the
cross in vain? Do you think that He could possibly
fail to accomplish what He came to do? The Scripture said, If
God spared not His own Son, how shall He not with Him freely
give us all things? I believe the blood of Christ
is sufficient and effectual to completely save from all sin
and condemnation all for whom He died. You know, the blood
on the door in Egypt delivered all who were under the blood.
God said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And every
house, the scripture said, every house where the blood was on
the door, God passed over in mercy. And every house where
there was no blood, death visited. Death visited. And I'll tell
you, the blood of God's Son is infinitely more sufficient infinitely
more effectual, infinitely more powerful to deliver than the
blood of that Passover lamb in Egypt. The blood of Jesus Christ, God's
Son, cleanses us from all sin. If Christ died for us, we'll
be redeemed. Paul said, who can lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemns? It's Christ that died. yea rather
is risen again, who is ascended to the right hand of God, whoever
lives to make intercession for us. Payment God's justice cannot
twice demand, first at my bleeding surety's hand, then again at
mine. I plead the merits of his blood. The blood is sufficient. The Passover lamb in Egypt is
typical of Christ who is our Passover. They put the blood
on the door, went in the house and sat down. And God passed
through. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. Here's the sixth plea. The sinner can plead his command. His command. Preacher, don't
you mean invitation? No, I mean command. The gospel
is a command. God commands all men everywhere
to repent. God doesn't invite men to repent. Even the laws of our land do
not invite people to obey them. They command you to obey them.
upon penalty for disobeying. God doesn't invite men to believe
the gospel. He commands men to believe. Men
ought to believe the gospel. There's no alternative. We either
believe the gospel or we make God a liar. And I'll tell you
this, when the command comes to repent and believe, with the
command comes the power. With the command comes the power.
Matthew follow me he arose and followed him Zacchaeus Come down. He came down Lazarus. Here's
a dead man Lazarus come forward with the command Goes to power
And Lazarus came forth alive. There was a man with a withered
hand Christ said stretch forth your hand He couldn't but he
did There was a man lying on a bed 38 years afflicted. Our Lord said take up your bed
and walked That's a command. That's not an invitation. That's
a command. And with the command came the
power. Abraham, get out of your father's house. He left. All the way through the scripture,
you find our Lord giving commands to people. And with the command
goes the power. Thy people shall be willing in
the day of thy power. And when you hear this gospel,
not just with these ears, but this heart. And the gospel comes
to you not in word only, but in power, power, life-giving
power. You'll respond. And last, I can
plead this, my compliance with his terms. Lord, what would you
have me do? Confess my sins? I do. Believe
on Christ? I do. Trust him? I do. Commit yourself to him? I do.
That's the sinner's plea. May God give us the grace to
exercise the sinner's pleasure. If you want this tape, write
for it. It's on a cassette. On the other
side will be another message. We'll send you both of them.
Send $2. Till next week, God bless you.

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The Sinner's Plea

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