The Sinner's Plea

Q: What does the Bible say about coming to Christ?

The Bible teaches that all who come to Christ in faith will never be turned away. In John 6:35-40, Jesus states that He is the bread of life and that whoever comes to Him will never hunger or thirst. He emphasizes that those whom the Father draws to Him will certainly come, and He will not cast them out. The passage underscores the sovereign grace in the drawing of individuals to Christ and assures believers of their secure position in Him. The promise extends to every soul that looks to Christ for salvation, emphasizing His faithfulness in preserving all given to Him by the Father.

Q: Why is eternal life through faith in Christ important for Christians?

Eternal life through faith in Christ is essential for Christians as it highlights our dependence on Him for salvation. Eternal life is presented as a gift from Christ to all who believe in Him (John 6:40). This eternal life signifies not just a future hope but a present relationship with God through faith. Understanding eternal life as inherently tied to Christ underscores its importance; it establishes believers in a position of assurance, knowing that they have been given this life through the work of Christ. Peter's declaration of faith, recognizing Jesus as the Christ, affirms that true life is found in Him alone.

Q: How do we know that we are called by God?

We know we are called by God because we come to Jesus, believing in Him as the source of life. The assurance of being called by God is closely tied to the act of coming to Christ (John 6:44). Jesus states that no one can come to Him unless the Father draws them. This divine drawing reveals God's sovereign initiative in salvation. Consequently, the ability and desire to come to Christ are evidences of being called. Believers receive the gift of faith, which enables them to respond to Christ's call, demonstrating the interplay of divine sovereignty and human responsibility in salvation.

Q: What does it mean to plead our need before God?

Pleading our need before God is recognizing our complete reliance on His mercy and grace. To plead our need before God is to acknowledge our spiritual poverty and utter dependence on His mercy. In the sermon, it reflects the heart of true humility and repentance. As portrayed through the examples of individuals like the Canaanite woman and Bartimaeus, an authentic plea is grounded in desperation for Christ's intervention. This plea is not to manipulate God, but to earnestly express our recognition that only He can meet our deepest spiritual needs, thus bringing us closer to His grace and mercy.

Q: Why is assurance of salvation important for believers?

Assurance of salvation is crucial as it provides believers with peace and confidence in their relationship with Christ. Assurance of salvation is vital as it solidifies the believer's confidence in God's promises, leading to a life characterized by peace and hope (Romans 8:31-39). The security in knowing that God has justified them fosters a relationship free from doubt and fear. Sermons that focus on Christ's work rather than the believer's performance encourage a strong assurance, helping believers look to Jesus as the source of their hope. Understanding one’s standing in Christ leads to a fruitful, assured walk of faith.

And I want to read tonight from
the sixth chapter of John. The title of this message is not, The Sinner's Plea. The
title of this message is, This Sinner's Plea. And I pray that
it might be the plea of every sinner here. this sinner's plea. I can only speak for this sinner. I want to begin reading with
verse 35 of John 6. I'm going to read quite a few
verses, so let's listen to the Word of God. John 6, beginning
with verse 35. And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life. He that
cometh to me shall never hunger, and he that believeth on me shall
never thirst. But I said unto you that ye also
have seen me and believe not. All that the Father giveth me
shall come to me, and him that cometh to me I'll in no wise
cast out. For I came down from heaven not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which
he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. And this is the will of him that
sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, may have everlasting life, and I'll raise him up at
the last day." The Jews then murmured at him, because he said,
I am the bread which came down from heaven. And they said, is
not this Jesus, the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know?
How is it then that he saith, I came down from heaven? Jesus
therefore answered and said unto them, murmur not among yourselves. No man can come to me. except the Father which hath
sent me draw him, and I'll raise him up at the last day. It is
written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and hath learned of the Father cometh unto me. Not that any man hath seen the
Father, save he which is of God, he hath seen the Father. Verily,
verily, truly, truly, I say unto you, He that believeth on me
hath everlasting life. I am that bread of life. Your
fathers did eat manna in the wilderness and are dead. This
is the bread which cometh down from heaven that a man may eat
thereof and not die. I am the living bread which came
down from heaven. If any man eat of this bread,
he shall live forever. And the bread that I will give
is my flesh, which I will give for the life of the world. The
Jews therefore strove among themselves, saying, How can this man give
us his flesh to eat? Then Jesus said unto them, Verily,
verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of
man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you. Whoso eateth
my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life. And I will
raise him up at the last day, for my flesh is meat indeed,
and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh
my blood dwelleth in me, and I in him. As the living Father
hath sent me, and I live by the Father, so he that eateth me,
even he shall live by me." This is that bread which came down
from heaven. Not as your fathers did eat manna
unto dead, he that eateth of this bread shall live for ever."
Now, these things said he in the synagogue as he taught in
Capernaum. Many, therefore, of his disciples,
when they heard this, said, this is a hard saying. Who can hear
it? When Jesus knew in himself that
his followers, these were not the twelve, followers murmured
at it. He said to them, Doth this offend
you? Doth this offend you? What and
if you shall see the Son of Man ascend up where He was before?
It is the Spirit that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing.
The words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and they are
life. But there are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew
from the beginning who they were that believed not, and who should
betray him. And he said, Therefore said I
unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given
unto him of my father. And from that time, many of his
disciples, these learners, these followers, went back and walked
no more with him. Now watch this. Then said Jesus
unto the twelve, the inner circle, will you also go away? Will you also go away? Then Simon
Peter answered him, Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the
words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure. that thou
art that Christ, the Son of the living God. I love the Apostle
Peter. I believe that I can identify
with the Apostle Peter a little better than the other apostles.
Maybe it's because I know him so well. Can you identify with the Apostle
Peter? I identify with his impulsiveness, don't you? I've always been a
bit impulsive. He said, let's build three tabernacles.
Let's just stay on this mountain and not go back down there in
all that mess. Let's just stay up here where the glory is. I
can identify with his anger. Can you? When they came to arrest
our Lord in the garden and Peter whipped out his sword and was
going to do business with those fellows at the sharp end, he
cut a fellow's ear off. He wasn't aiming at his ear either.
The man ducked is what he did. Peter was going to fight and
settle the matter. I can identify with his depression.
He quit the ministry two or three times. The last time, after Christ
arose from the grave, They were sitting in the upper room and
he turned to all the disciples and said, I quit. I'm going fishing. Going back to the boats. That's
when our Lord came and said, do you love me more than you
love the boats? I'm going fishing. They went with him. I can identify
with his pride, can't you? He said, these fellows may deny
you, but I never will. I can identify with his selfishness.
When the Lord told him he was going to be martyred, he was
going to die for the gospel. He said, they're going to lead
you where you don't want to go, crucify you upside down. Well,
he said, if they're going to do that to me, what's John going
to do? If I've got to pay that kind of price, looks like he'd
have to pay a little bit too, you know. The Lord rebuked him,
said, that's none of your business. I can identify with his excuses,
can't you? When the Lord came and told him
to launch out into the deep and cast his nets, he said, Lord,
I fished all night and caught nothing, no use. But nevertheless,
at your word, I let down the net. All of those things we usually
speak about when we talk about the Apostle Peter, but it shows
his humanity. It shows his weakness, it shows
his impulsiveness, it shows all these things with which we are
plagued. And helps us, doesn't it? We
identify with him. But I'll tell you this about
Peter. I admire his confidence. I admire his assurance. When
it came to his Lord, when it came to Christ, when it came
to this matter of faith, Peter didn't waver. That's the reason
he drew that sword. He loved his Lord, and those
fellows were going to have to get through Him to get to Christ. When it came to faith, when it
came to Christ, when it came to love for Christ, Peter was
outspoken, strongly outspoken. For example, way back yonder,
way back yonder in the early days, in the very, very early
days, Our Lord was talking to these disciples one day, and
He said, Whom do men say that I, the Son
of Man, am? And the disciples said, Well,
some say you're John the Baptist, some say Elijah. You know the
story. He turned to those, and He said,
Whom do you say that I am? And immediately Peter spoke.
He didn't wait. He didn't hear them at all, did
he? Immediately he spoke out and said, You're the Christ.
You're the son of the living God. And that's when our Lord
said, Blessed are you, Simon. Flesh and blood didn't reveal
that to you, but my Father which is in heaven, and you are called
Peter, the little stone. And upon this rock I'll build
my church, and the gates of hell won't prevail against it. That's
Peter. He's not the rock now. He's the
little rock. But that testimony, is what our
Lord's talking about. Peter wasn't bashful. He was
confident. I know who you are. You're the
Christ. And then, here in our text, when
the Lord turned to the twelve, they stood there and watched
all these people leave. There were thousands of them.
They just watched them leave, you know. And finally, there
was no one left there but Christ and the twelve. And He turned
and said, will you go away? Peter. Where were the rest of
them? I don't know. He didn't hesitate. He said, to whom shall we go?
To whom shall we go? You have the words of life, and
we believe and are sure you're the Christ. No wavering. You say, that's His impulsiveness.
Maybe so, but that's His faith. He popped off a lot, but He popped
off about what He believed. He believed it. He said, I'm
sure. And he spoke for everybody else too. Then we believe and
assure you're the Son of God. And then our Lord, I want you
to listen to this. After all of that, John 21, the last chapter
of the book of John, our Lord brought Peter, the rest of the
disciples over there finishing their meal, our Lord had fish
and bread farm when they came to the shore, and he got Peter
off to the side there and set him down. And he said, You love me? Yea,
Lord, I love You. Feed my lambs. You love me? Yea, Lord, I love You. Feed my
lambs. You love me? I listen to Him. Peter boldly turned the answer
right back to his Lord, in reverence, in respect. But he said, you
know all things. You know I love you. This isn't
for debate. See that? He might have been
impulsive, and he might have been depressed, and he might
have been angry, and he might have been proud, and he might
have been selfish, and he might have been all these other things,
but he was sure about his relationship with Christ. He just turned this
thing right back, and he said, you know everything, and I'll
bank my faith on the fact you know I believe. You know I love
you. I know there's got to be self-examination. I know that. I know the Scripture
said, give diligence to make your calling and election sure.
If you do these things, you shall not fail. I know the Scripture
says, be ready to give an answer to every man that asks your reason
for the hope that's in you. I know the Scripture says, when
we come to the Lord's table, examine ourselves whether we
discern the broken body and shed blood of Christ. I know Paul
said in II Corinthians chapter 13, examine yourself whether
you be in the faith. But I don't care a great deal
for sermons that continually have me questioning my faith,
and questioning my relationship with Christ, and questioning
my hope in Christ Jesus, and questioning my position in Him. I get tired of them. Spurgeon said one time, and he
wrote this himself, he said, I looked to Jesus. I looked to
Jesus, and the dove of peace flew in my heart. And then I looked in my heart,
and the dove flew away. And it will. You can look to
Him and find peace, but you can't look in the end and find any
peace. And every time I hear a sermon on faith, the preachers
spend 30 minutes telling me what it's not. And I'm not interested
in what it's not. I want to know what it is. And
a lot of times preachers preach on salvation, they'll spend 30
minutes on what it's not. I know what it's not. I want
to know what it is. Isn't that right? I find this. Now listen to me. I find this,
that sermons which continually have people looking for marks
and signs and evidence of salvation, have a reverse effect. Rather than giving assurance
and comfort, they give trouble and doubts and fears. And I tell
you this, too often, the sermon having people always looking
for signs and evidences and marks and proofs of salvation, those
sermons upset the true believer and give confidence to the Pharisee.
Because the true believer can find no reason for God to save
him. The true believer honestly can
find no goodness in himself. He can find no evidences in himself. All of his goodness and righteousness
and evidences is in Christ and His Word. But along comes the
Pharisee dressed in his filthy rags of self-righteousness and
these sermons looking for evidences and marks and signs encouraging
him because he's quite content with his theology. And he's quite
content with his works. The Pharisees stood in the temple
and said, I thank you I'm not like other men. I'm glad I'm
not like other men. I'm totally confident I'm not
like other men. I pray, they don't. I fast, they
don't. I give alms, they don't. So I find all the evidences you
want. But you get a believer looking
in himself to find assurance and find confidence, you tear
him all to pieces. It's a reverse effect. Reverse. I'll tell you how to give confidence
and comfort to a believer is tell him about Christ. That's
where he's looking. Show him Christ. Show him the
promises of Christ and the promises of the Word and the glory of
His person and work and he'll go out of there walking on a
cloud because that's where his faith is in Christ, not in himself. So I'm going to give you this
sinner's plea. As I said, I identify with the
Apostle Peter. I have no confidence in this
flesh, but I have confidence in him. And I believe I can say
with the Apostle Peter, God knows all things. He knows I love him. He knows I believe on him, in
him, and him. So I'm going to give you this
sinner's plea and one with which I'm quite happy. I wouldn't trade
it for nothing. I wouldn't trade my confidence
and assurance and hope in Christ for anything. And I pray it might
give you some of that same confidence and assurance and hope. And really,
rather than like, I've run into some folks as they get older,
they start putting some question marks on a lot of things. Not
this sinner. No, sir. The older I get, the
more I believe this Word. The older I get, the more I believe
Christ. The older I get, the more confident
I am in Him and His promise. Like you read in the study a
while ago, I've been young and now I'm old, and I've never seen
God's seed begging bread or forsaken, and now I'm old and gray-headed.
He'll never leave me nor forsake me. All right, here you are. You
may want to write these down. I'm not going to tell you how
many because you start counting them and then when you get to
a certain one, you say, boy, it's through. Maybe one, maybe two, maybe three,
maybe fourteen. I don't know. But here's this sinner's plea.
First of all, I plead my knee. He looked beyond my faults. and
met my need. I plead my need. Now, you go
through the Bible and you study these people who came to Christ,
who came to Christ. I know they heard of Christ,
I know they came to Christ, I know they believed Christ, but they
had one thing in common. Every blessed one of them came
to Him because they needed Him. They needed Him. I need Him. I need Him. The Canaanite woman
came to him, Lord, have mercy. He didn't answer her a word.
But she stayed there. What kept her there? Her need. She said, Lord, have mercy. He
said, I'm sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Well,
covenant mercies and election didn't run her way. Why? Her
need. That's what kept her there, Cecil,
her need. She had to have Christ. Give
me Christ or I'll die. She said, Lord have mercy. He
said, it's not right to give children's bread to dogs. Never
moved. Why? Her need. She said, that's right. That's
what I am, a dog. But I'm your dog. And dogs eat
crumbs that fall from their master's table. How about brushing me
off some crumbs? Oh, he said, woman, great is
thy faith. Why was her faith so great? Her
need was great. Bartimaeus. Lord, he kept crying. Why? He was blind. The other
people wanted him to keep quiet. They weren't crying. They didn't
have a need. He did. And he knew Jesus of Nazareth
was the only one who could meet that need. And he kept crying,
Lord, Son of David, have mercy! What do you want, Lord, that
I may see? David said, Lord, blot out my
transgressions, purge me with hyssop, wash me and I'll be clean.
I'm hanging around till you do. That's what, I plead my need. And that's what he came to do,
meet the sinner's need. All right, secondly, I plead
his mercy. Now I want you to look at two
scriptures, both of them in the book of Psalms. And this is what
David, this is his place. He says in Psalm 51, verse 1,
now listen. You know while you're finding
that, I'm weary. I just don't want anybody here
ever to say this to me again. Oh brother man, I'm too great
a sinner. I'm just too great a sinner. I just don't believe
there's any mercy for a sinner like me." Don't ever say that.
It indicates one of two things. Either you don't mean what you're
saying, or you don't know who Christ is. I think I saw a false humility
is what that is. If I walked up to you and said,
you're too mean, God wouldn't say, you'd make you mad. Wouldn't it? It's Phariseeism. I tell you, where sin did abound,
grace, grace, grace did much more abound. He came to be gracious
to sinners. He came to save sinners. And
that's what David's pleading here. Listen, have mercy upon
me, O God. Based on what? According to your
lovingkindness. According to the multitude of
your tender mercies. That's my plea. I'm going to
bring you a great sinner because you're a great Savior. I'm going
to bring you this big debt to pay because you can pay it. You doubt His ability to pay
your debt? Well, He can pay my debt. Double,
He said, she hath received of the Lord's hand, double for all
her sins. Ask me something hard. That's
what He said. Expect great things from God
and receive them. Where sin did abound, His grace
did much. I plead His mercy. One other
scripture, Psalm 130. Look at this. Psalm 130. Oh,
I love this. I just love this psalm. Listen,
Psalm 130. Out of the depths. Just how far
down was he? The depths. How to the depths
have I cried unto Thee, the depths of sin and degradation and depravity
and the dunghill. How to the depths have I cried
unto Thee, O Lord. Lord, hear my voice. Let Thine
ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication, Lord. If
Thou shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who should stand? But
there's forgiveness with Thee, that Thou mayest be feared. I
wait for the Lord, my soul does wait, in His word do I hope.
My soul waited for the Lord more than they that watch for the
morning. I say, more than they that watch for the morning. Let
Israel hope in the Lord, for with the Lord there's mercy,
with Him there's plenty of redemption. You don't reckon one little mouse
could empty one of Joseph's silos in Egypt, do you? One little
mouse? He had enough food stored up
for seven years. And that little old mouse comes
and he grabs some and runs to his hideout. And he goes and
grabs some more and runs to his hideout. And another little mouse
said, you don't need to hurry, there's plenty. No use panicking. There's a whole lot more than
you can ever use. And there's a whole lot more of His mercy
than you can ever use. There's mercy enough for a world
of sinners. That's right. I plead His mercy. I plead my need, I plead his
mercy. Thirdly, oh, watch this now, I plead his right to show
mercy. He bought that right. He said,
all authority is given unto me in heaven and earth. He said
again, I have all power over all flesh that I should give
eternal life to as many as thou hast given me. Scripture said
he died that he might be Lord of the dead and the living. John
wrote, he quickeneth whom he will. As the father hath power
to quicken the dead, even so the son quickeneth whom he will. He has the right, he bought the
right to show mercy. He has privileges which he purchased. He can save whom he will. He
can show mercy to whom he will. And I plead that. Listen, turn
to Matthew 8. I want you to look at this scripture.
Matthew 8. Matthew chapter 8, verse 1. When he was come down from the
mountain, great multitudes followed him. Behold, there was a leper. You know what a leper was in
the Bible? I tell you, it's just about the
saddest thing you can be is a leper. Isolated, lonely, separated from
the people, couldn't even let your shadow fall on somebody.
Unclean. If you saw anybody coming, you
had to holler, unclean, unclean, don't come near me, I'm unclean. This leper ran right up to him.
He violated the law when he did that. He came and fell down and
worshipped him. And he said, Lord, if you will,
Nothing is said of the human will or the free will. If you
will, you can make me clean. That's what I plead. Ronnie,
that's what I plead. Nobody need come and sit down
and wrestle with me from 8 at night till 12 midnight trying
to make me willing. If He's willing, I'll be willing.
He'll make me willing. I plead my need. I plead His
mercy. And I plead His right. to show
mercy. I plead that right. I plead it. All right, stay at Matthew 8
there a minute. Let's look down here. I'll tell you something
else I plead, number 4. I plead His power over the enemy. I plead
His power over the enemy. In Matthew 8, verse 5, go down
there, right where we were talking about the leper. Go down a little
further. Matthew 8, verse 5. And when Jesus was entered into
Capernaum, There came unto him a centurion beseeching him, and
saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously
tormented. And Jesus said unto him, I'll
come and heal him. The centurion answered and said,
I want you to listen to this. Lord, I am not worthy that thou
shouldest come under my roof. You just speak the word only.
You don't have to go to my house. You just speak the word only,
and my servant will be healed." Far. I'm a man under authority. I have authority. I'm a high-ranking
officer. And I have soldiers under me.
And I say to this man, you go, and he goes. And I say to another,
you come, and he comes. And I say to my servant, you
do this, and he does it. In other words, he said, I understand
authority. I command soldiers to go. or
to come, or to do something. You have authority over disease,
over germs, over demons, over devils, over Satan. You just
say to him, go. He'll go. You just say to him, go. He'll
go. You just stand right where you are. And will it, and he'll
be gone. I plead that right there. I want
to show you some scripture here in the book of John. Every one
of these verses are in John. I want you to look at them. First,
John 12. John 12, 30. Listen to this now.
John 12, 30. It's our Lord speaking. Now is the judgment of this world.
Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. John 14, 30. as John 12, 31. Now John 14, 30. Hereafter I'll not talk much
with you, for the prince of this world cometh. Who's that? That's
the adversary. That's the roaring lion. That's
the devil. But he hath nothing in me. He
came to those angels and led them astray. He came to Adam
and whipped him. Came to Noah after the flood,
no match. Came to Job, wrecked him. Came
to Peter, made him deny his Lord. This man, with all this bravery,
couldn't handle Satan. But Christ did, and He did it
for us. He found nothing in me to identify
with. Everything turned Him away. John
16, listen. John 16, 8. And when He's come,
the Holy Spirit, He'll reprove the world of sin, of righteousness,
and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe
not on me. Of righteousness, because I go to my Father and
you see me no more. Of judgment, because the Prince
of this world is judged. I plead His power over all my
enemies. I don't need to assist Him, aid
Him, or help Him. He has the right, the power.
You say to this sin, be gone, it's gone. You say to this germ,
be gone. You say to this Satan, be gone.
Just say it. That's right. I plead that. And
fourthly, I plead His efficacious blood. Now, I want to read something
I wrote down this afternoon, this morning. I do not associate the death of my Lord with either
failure or insufficiency. What He came to do, He did, and
He finished. The royal bath of mercy wherein
black souls are washed white was filled from the veins of
the Lord Jesus Christ and not a drop was contributed by me
or anyone else. By Himself He purged our sins. He died on the cross as our Redeemer
and He totally redeemed all for whom He died. Atonement is the
unaided work of Jesus Christ. In the garden I see the solitary
intercessor. No help. On the cross, I see
the man who trod the winepress alone by himself. At the right
hand of God, I see the triumphant conqueror who waits the complete
salvation of all for whom He's the divine surety and the destruction
of all His enemies. That's my Lord. And that's what
I plead, His efficacy, the efficacy of His blood. Somebody asked
me, if somebody applied for membership in the 13th Street Baptist Church
who did not believe in the efficacy and the sufficiency and the particular
redemption of Christ, would you urge the church to receive him?
Absolutely not. That would be an enemy in the
camp. Because a man who's an enemy
of the efficacy of the blood of Christ is my enemy. And he's
Christ's enemy. That's how strongly I believe
it. We're not redeemed with corruptible
things such as silver and gold and decisions and professions
and ties and offerings and church membership. We're redeemed with
the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without spot or
blemish, plus nothing, minus nothing. I'm confident. And I'm 67, 68 years old, just
have a few more sunsets to go, and I'm more confident now in
the efficacy of His blood than I've ever been, and less confident
in myself and religion. I plead the blood of Christ,
let thy blood be propitiation for me on the mercy seat and
I don't have a fear or a doubt or a worry. I once was lost but now I'm found
and by God's grace I'm heaven bound. My only hope, my only
plea is when He died, He died for me. That's right. And when you tell a sinner, God
loves you and Christ died for you, that's all he needs to hear.
That's all he needs to hear. That's all he needs to believe.
That's all he needs to rest in. God loved him. Not he loved God.
God loved him. And Christ died for him. Sixth,
I plead his command. You mean his invitation, don't
you? Well, not really. Not really. An invitation carries
a lot less weight than a command. A lot less weight. Zacchaeus,
come down. You ain't there as an invitation.
Oh boy. Abraham, get thee out of thy
folly. Can you imagine the voice of God when He spoke to Abraham? Get thee out of thy father's
house, and from among thy people, and from those idol-worshippers,
and go to land, I'll show thee." And Abraham started packing.
Matthew, follow me. And when those eyes looked at
him, and that hand beckoned to him, and that voice spoke to
him, he moved. He moved. The kings don't invite
people, they command. I have a command from the king.
And with that command comes permission. And with that command comes power. To the man with a withered hand,
stretch out your hand. He couldn't, but he did. To the
man 38 years with a withered legs, withered arms and withered
limbs, lying on the bed, take up your bed and walk. That's
no invitation. That's a command. And with that
command comes the power. And he walked. You come unto me, all ye that
labor in the heavy laden, I'll give you rest. Tom, that's a
command. You come to me. Don't you go
anywhere else. You come to me. You come. You come. I'll give you rest. I'll give you rest. And you take my yoke upon you.
You don't have any choice, Father. You're going to take his yoke
or perish. My oxen are going to wear my yoke. They're not
going to roam around in the field doing what they want to do. I'm
going to put the yoke on them. They're going to wear it and
wear it willingly. They're going to wear the yoke. And that's
not an invitation. He doesn't say, would you like
to put my yoke on your Noah and I'd be awful happy if you would.
You take my yoke upon you and you learn of me. And when you
do, you'll find rest. I'll give you rest when you come,
and you'll find rest all along. The longer you wear my yoke,
the more restful it'll be. You get used to it. That's right. I plead. I plead His command. And seventh, I plead compliance
to His terms. That's what Peter said. He said,
Lord, to whom shall we go? That's the words of life. When
Saul of Tarsus saw the Lord, the Lord said, Why persecutest
thou me? He said, Who art thou, Lord?
I'm Jesus of Nazareth, whom you persecuted. What do you want
me to do? I accept your terms. I bow to them. I'll comply with
them. Believe. I do. Help my unbelief. Trust me. I do. Help me to trust
Him more. II Timothy 1.12, Paul said this,
I know whom I have believed. I know whom I have believed.
Do you? Yes, you do, don't you? There's not anybody in this building
trusting their righteousness. I know every one of you. There's
not anybody God you need to trust. That's how come I know you so
well. Nobody is trusting your profession.
I know better than that. Who are you trusting? With one
accord, everybody say, Christ! Isn't that right? Well, that's
what he said. Trust me. Whom do you believe? I know whom I have believed.
And everybody in here is persuaded and confident beyond a shadow
of a doubt that he's able to keep. Isn't he? He's able to
do what he said. He's able to keep our soul against
that day. Well, what have we done? We've
committed it to him. Now, come on. Have you committed
your soul to Christ? Yes, sir. Then rejoice. Rejoice. Rejoice. I've committed it to him. I've
complied with his terms. He said, believe. Phrygian said
one time, he said, believe, I believe. He said, he that believeth hath
life. I believe I have life. Well, how do you know? He said
so. I don't need any other word. He said so. Feelings come and
feelings go and feelings are deceiving. I trust the unchanging Word of
God. Nothing else is worth believing." He said so. He said, I'll never
leave you. So I can boldly say, He's my
helper. That's where it is. That's where
faith is, foundational. Here's the last one. This is
the eighth one. This is it. I plead, I plead
my hope and my rest in Him. in Him. That song says, I take you to
the time and take you to the place. Not me, I can't do it,
but I can take you to Him. I can take you to Him. And I plead my hope, my rest
in Him, His person. Will you go away? Here's my plea. Lord, to whom shall I go? Thou hast the words of eternal
life. And I believe, and I'm sure, I'm confident, you're the
Christ, the Son of the living God. And that's where I rest,
I rest my case. I rest it. Now you tell me where
you can find any doubts and fears in that, if you're honest. And
why wouldn't we be honest with God? Why would we play at this
thing? I can't find any other thing
to say. I rest my case. I turn it over to my advocate.
People say, well, you see my lawyer. And that's what I say,
you see my advocate. See him. That's the reason Paul
could sum up those questions in Romans 8. He said, if God
be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not his own
son, how shall he not with him freely give us all things? Who
is He that condemneth? It's Christ that died. Yea, rather
He's risen again. Who's at the right hand of God?
Who intercedes for us? Who can lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
can separate us from the love of Christ? Brethren, that's comfort
for the chief of sinners. This sinner's plea.

The Sinner's Plea

What does the Bible say about coming to Christ?

Why is eternal life through faith in Christ important for Christians?

How do we know that we are called by God?

What does it mean to plead our need before God?

Why is assurance of salvation important for believers?

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The Sinner's Plea

What does the Bible say about coming to Christ?

Why is eternal life through faith in Christ important for Christians?

How do we know that we are called by God?

What does it mean to plead our need before God?

Why is assurance of salvation important for believers?

Sermon Transcript

About Henry Mahan

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