Just how deep has the stain gone? Most folks don't think it's very
deep. They're trying to scrub it off
with the waters of baptism. They're trying to scrub it off,
the stain, with the ordinances of the Church, morality and law
and Church membership. But the Bible talks about the
stain of sin being so deep and so permanent that it's double-dyed. Your sins are as scarlet and
red like crimson. And that stain is deeper, deeper,
deeper than you can ever imagine. That stain of sin has not just
touched your hands and feet and your skin and your muscles and
bones. That stain of sin has permeated
the deepest recesses of your being, clear down to the last
thought of your heart and imagination of your mind. That's right. From
the sole of your feet to the top of your head, there's no
spot in you that's not touched by sin. And there's not but one
thing that can reach it and cleanse it and go deeper than the stain
is gone, and that's the blood of Christ. That's the blood of
Christ. And I'll tell you this, if any
man comes before God, and we're all anxious to get in front of
God, I'm not, be honest with you, I'm not anxious at all. I tremble in fear, and I get
a little more frightened all the time. To stand before God,
I'm telling you this, if his awesome, awful holiness can find
one spot in you at the judgment, you're going to perish. if he
can find one spot. If he can find one deed, either
openly or secretly, God's going to damn you. That's exactly right. You say we're in trouble. You
might be right we're in trouble, unless Christ is our advocate.
Unless Christ pleads for us, we're in greater trouble than
you can possibly imagine. You don't want to die. Anything
this side of hell is mercy. You don't want to die. You want
to postpone it long as you can, because any breath you draw tonight
is one less breath you'll draw in hell. Any step you take tonight
is one less step you'll take on the road to hell. That's right.
Unless Christ is your sure advocate, unless he's your great high priest,
unless he's your intercessor, unless he pleads for you, unless
he undertakes on your behalf, you don't stand a chance of a
snowball in a mandibless furnace. in the presence of God. It'll
consume you before you can even open your mouth. That's right. And this is the thing. This is
the thing I'm looking at here in Luke 7, if you care to look
at it. In Luke 7, 29. Luke 7. This is what John the
Baptist talked about. He said, you generation of vipers. You know what he said? You generation
of vipers. He didn't talk nice to folks.
He called a spade a spade. He told us what we are. He talked
about our sin, our sins, and our righteousness as being filthy
rags. He talked about the Lamb of God.
He talked about the sin offering. He talked about the substitute.
He talked about the sacrifice for sin. He talked about the
inability of the flesh. He said, you got two coats, you
better get rid of one and give your neighbor one. That's what
he said. They said, what are we going
to do? The soldier said, what are we going to do? John the
Baptist said, you don't do any more violence to anybody and
be content with your wages. That's what he said. Oh, I tell
you, he just took the hat off everybody. He knocked all the
foundations out from under everybody. John the Baptist called it like
it is. He told us what we are. He didn't pull any punches. He
let human nature know exactly what it is. And it says here,
and all the people that heard him and the publicans, the sinners,
justified God. They justified God. And they
were baptized with the baptism of John. But somebody didn't. Somebody didn't. The Pharisees
and the lawyers, they rejected the counsel of God against themselves. and would not be baptized of
John. Now what are these verses talking about? How does one justify
God? If I can get that across tonight,
I will have accomplished something. How does a man justify God? Because
if you can justify God, He'll justify you. That's what it says. That's what the Bible teaches.
If you can find it in your heart to justify God, And God will
justify you. I can show you that, but before
we start this, we're going to have to find out, for the benefit
of some people here tonight, who were these publicans and
who were these Pharisees. Now turn to Luke 18. This will
help us a little bit. Luke 18. Who were the publicans
and who were the Pharisees? Well, Saul of Tarsus was a Pharisee,
and Zacchaeus was a publican. And here in Luke 18, in other
words, Saul of Tarsus was a most religious man, a most orthodox
man, fundamental, a doctrinalist, a moral man. Zacchaeus was a
crook. That's what he was. He was just
a crook. He was a sinner, he was a crook, and everybody knew
it. And he knew it. And here our Lord said in Luke
18, verse 9, He spake this parable unto certain which trusted in
themselves that they were righteous. Now, my friends, there's none
righteous, no, not one. There isn't a righteous person
in this building tonight. There's no righteous person in
this city tonight. There's no righteous person in
this world tonight. There's none good, no, not one.
There's none righteous. All have sinned and come short
of God's glory. I know in this world there's
some sinners that are better than other sinners, but they're
all sinners. There's some of the sons of Adam who live more
commendable lives than others, but they're all sons of Adam.
They're all under the curse of the law. They're all under the
judgment of God. Every man's a sinner to some degree. Every
woman is a sinner to some degree. Man at his best state is altogether
vanity. In the sight of God, all the
world is guilty. God looked down from heaven.
to see if any did do good, to see if any were righteous, and
he said, they're all gone out of the way, they're all gone
aside. Non-profitable, no, not one, not one. But what our Lord
is talking about here, he's talking to people who trusted in themselves
that they were righteous. Now, there are a lot of those
in the world. There are no righteous people, but there are some who
think they are. There are no good people, but there are some
who think they are. There are no godly people, but
there are some who think they are. And this was the Pharisee. That's a Pharisee. He thought
he was good. He thought he was righteous,
and what he thought that made him good in the sight of God
was what he did, what he did outwardly. That's what he thought
made him good in the sight of God. He was religious. He read
the Bible. He fasted. He tithed. He prayed. He went to church. He kept the
law, he didn't kill, he didn't commit adultery, he didn't steal,
he didn't take God's name in vain, he kept the Sabbath day,
and he felt like these things made him good. And they did make
him good in the eyes of men, and they did make him righteous
in the eyes of men, and they did give him some hope in his
own eyes, but they didn't make him righteous in the sight of
God. Because God doesn't look on your outward deeds, He looks
on your heart. And that's what defiles a man. It's not what a man puts in his
mouth. The Pharisees had so many traditions and customs which
they kept, they washed their hands carefully before they ate.
Always before they ate, they washed their hands, because that's
what it said in the Old Testament. And our Lord and his disciples
ate one day without washing their hands, and the Pharisees said,
hey, you can't do that. You ate without washing your
hands. You're going to defile yourself. If you don't keep the
Sabbath day, you'll defile yourself. If you eat with unwashing hands,
you'll defile yourself. If you eat ham or pork, you'll
defile yourself. If you eat this, you'll defile
yourself. And our Lord said, you listen. It's not what you
put in your mouth that defiles you. It's what comes out of your
heart. That's what defiles you. To eat
with unwashing hands will not defile you. To put something
in your mouth may kill your body, but it can't touch your soul.
But our Lord said, out of the heart proceeds evil thoughts,
adulteries, murders, hatred, envy, malice. These are the things
that defile a man. You see, the Pharisees were all
twisted out of shape. They were all bent out of shape.
They got the wrong idea about holiness and the wrong idea about
righteousness. And they thought the things that
they did and the things that they believed made them righteous. And it did before men, but not
before God. Now look here in verse 10 of
Luke 18. Two men, our Lord talking here,
went up into the temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other
was at the other extreme. He was a publican. He wasn't
religious. He wasn't a tither. He wasn't
a pastor. He wasn't a moral man. He was
a publican. Our Lord chose two men at two
extremes, two opposites. These Jews thought if anybody's
going to heaven as a Pharisee, if anybody's going to hell as
a publican. That's what they thought. Our Lord chose these
two extremes. Isn't that right, Joe? They were
two total extremes. A Pharisee was a Jew, a special
Jew, a top-ranked Jew, an ecclesiastical Jew, a moral Jew. A publican
was a Jew who'd sold out his nation. He was a tax collector
for the Romans. He was a publican, and they hated
him. And he said this Pharisee stood
and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you. I thank you
that I'm not as other men are. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not
unjust, I'm not an adulterer, I'm not even as this publican.
I fast twice a week, I give tithes of all I possess." Well, he just
bragged, that's his righteousness, see. But the publican standing
afar off would not lift up, and these Jews prayed with holy hands,
they lifted up holy hands. That's where folks in the charismatic
movement get that raising their hands, they lift up holy hands. And this man wouldn't so much
as lift not even his eyes to heaven. He's under conviction,
broken, troubled over his sins. And he cried, oh God, oh God. He smote on his breast and he
cried, God, be merciful to me, be sinner. God, let your blood
be propitiation for me, the sinner. Let your blood sacrifice be on
the mercy seat for me, the sinner. And our Lord said, I tell you,
I tell you, this man, this publican, this sinner, you see, this man
judged himself. He judged himself. He confessed
his sins. He cried for mercy. This other
man is not asking for mercy. He's talking about merit. He's
not asking for mercy, he's talking about being rewarded. And I tell
you, this is the man that was justified rather than the other. Now that's a Pharisee and a publican.
A Pharisee is a morally straight, doctrinally straight, orthodox,
accepted by the general run of people as being religious and
sure for heaven. Publican is the lowlife, the
sinners, The traitor, the man that's a sinner knows it. All
right, go back to our text. Back to the text. Now here's
what I'm trying to do. And the publicans and the sinners
heard John. They heard John's message, this
condemning message. This message revealing our sins
and our guilt. And speaking of Christ, the Lamb
of God, that taketh away the sin of the world. And these publicans,
what'd they do? Two words, they justified God.
And you know what that means? To be justified is to be clear
and clean of guilt. It's to be cleared of guilt.
In other words, if a man's justified, he has no guilt. He has no charge
laid against him whatsoever. And what these people were doing,
they were justifying God, they were clearing God of all blame
in their condemnation. I'll show you that in Psalm 51.
That's what David is saying. That's what David is saying.
A man came up to me the other night down in Tennessee, and
he said, I want to tell you something that I've been thinking about.
He said, this may be plum crazy. But he said, I've been thinking
about this, and it's gone through my mind after I've heard you
fellas preach. He was a song leader there, and
a man in his 40s. I was sitting there studying. He pulled up
a chair and sat down beside me and he said, I want to tell you
what I've been thinking. I want to, it may sound crazy to you,
but he said, this is what I've been thinking. He said, I tell
you, if God, he said, I feel, I feel so unworthy. I feel so
unworthy of God's blessings and mercy and his grace and salvation.
If God were to come to me in my bedroom, And he said, I know
we don't see visions and all these things, but he said, this
is the way I'm thinking. He said, if God were to come
to me in my bedroom and stand there and look at me and say,
Bill, Bill Cooper is his name. He said, Bill, you're not one
of the elect. You're just not one of the elect,
and you're not in my jewels, and you're not in my kingdom.
And he said, I've thought a lot about that. And he said, I believe,
I don't know, but I believe that I feel this way, and this is
the way I'd reply to him. I'd say, that's all right. That's all right. You're God. And you can do with your own
what you will. But Lord, I'd sure like to be in your kingdom.
I'd sure like to be. Now he says, is that wrong? He
said, I'd say, Lord, I don't deserve to be in your kingdom,
and I have no right to be in your kingdom, and I'm not worthy
to be in your kingdom. And if you say I'm not, I'm not,
and that's the way it's going to be, but I'd sure like to be. I said, I don't see anything
wrong with that. In fact, I believe that's what the thief on the
cross said. Isn't that what he said? He was hanging there in
misery, hanging there in dying, and they were both cursing Christ,
and finally one of them stopped. The Spirit of God must have revealed
something to him, and he turned to the Lord Jesus, turned first
to the other thief, and he said, don't you fear God, don't you
fear God, seeing you're in the same condemnation, and we indeed
what? Justly. We're getting just what
we deserve. In other words, these men that
nailed us to the cross, They're justified in doing it. You know
what he's saying? Justly. We're getting what we
justly deserve. These people who condemned us,
that jury, that judge, these executioners, we're getting our
just, our just deserts. That's what he said. But this
man had done nothing amiss. And he looked at Christ and he
said, Lord, when you come into your kingdom, you're not going
to stay dead. You're coming into a kingdom. Would you remember
me? That's exactly what that man
said. And this is what that song leader is saying to me. He's
saying, if God said to me, you're not one of my elect, you're not
in my kingdom, you're not in my bride, he'd say, I'd say,
Lord, I'm getting what I deserve, but I sure would love to have
your mercy. Can you do that? That's what
David said. Look at Psalm 51. Psalm 51, let's
read the first four verses. He said, have mercy upon me,
O God. According to thy lovingkindness,
according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, Lord, blot
out my transgressions, wash me throughly from mine iniquity,
and cleanse me from my sin. I acknowledge my transgressions. I acknowledge my transgressions.
My sin is ever before me. Against thee, thee only, have
I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight. Watch this now,
that you may be justified when you speak, and that you may be
clear when you judge. I'm justifying God, I'm clearing
God of all blame, I'm clearing God of all responsibility, I'm
clearing Almighty God's name, I'm saying that I'm a sinner,
that if I'm damned, if I'm condemned, if I'm cast into hell, I'm getting
just exactly what I deserve. If God saves me, if God redeems
me, if God lifts me from the grave, if God Almighty rescues
me from His wrath and from hell, it'll be pure mercy. I justify God. I justify God. Someone said to justify God is
to take sides with God against myself. To justify God. Turn to Isaiah 1 just a moment.
Let me show you a picture God paints of us in Isaiah 1. Can
you justify God in this? Can you justify God? Can you
say, I'm a sinner, I'm condemned, and I deserve it? Oh Lord, show
mercy. And if I'm lifted, if I'm washed,
if I'm saved, it'll be your mercy. Listen to Isaiah in chapter one.
God calls on the heavens and the earth to bear witness to
his complaint. He says in Isaiah one, verse
two, hear, O heavens, give ear, O earth. The Lord has spoken.
I have nourished and brought up children and they've rebelled
against me. Isn't that us? Sure it is. We're
rebels. We're born rebels. All right, verse three. The ox
knows his owner, the dumb ox knows his owner, and he recognizes
his owner, and he plows for his owner. And the ash knows his
master's crib, and he comes home to eat, and he'll lick his master's
hand, and he'll wear his master's saddle. Not my people. They're not only rebels, but
they're ungrateful. They do not know. They do not
consider who feeds them and clothes them and blesses them. They're
not going to thank God. They're ungrateful. Not only
that, but verse 4, he said, they're a sinful nation. They're a people
actually loaded with iniquity, laden with sin. They're a seed
of evildoers. They're corruptors. They've forsaken
the Lord God. They've provoked the Holy One
to Israel. Verse 5, they're proud people. I may judge them. I may smite them. But why should
they be smitten? They're on a revolt more and
more. Their whole head is sick. That's their mind. Their whole
heart is faint. That's their affections. And
from the sole of their feet to the top of their heads, there's
no soundness in them, nothing but wounds and bruises and putrefying
sores that have not been bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
What do we say to that? Amen. That's all you can say.
That's right, Lord. You see, that's what I'm saying.
When these men heard John the Baptist, These publicans and
sinners, and John the Baptist spoke of sin and unworthiness
and uncleanliness before God and guilt before the law of God.
They said that's right. Let me show you an example of
that. Turn to Luke, if you will, or rather Matthew. Turn to Matthew
chapter 15. Here's a perfect example of what
I'm talking about. And I'm simply saying this is
the beginning of repentance. A man doesn't take the first
step toward heaven when he believes on Christ, he takes the first
step toward heaven when he sees he needs Christ. A man doesn't
take the first step toward heaven when he accepts the doctrines
of grace, he takes the first step toward heaven when he knows
he needs grace, that he's a sinner, that he's empty, and defiled,
and unclean, and unworthy, and guilty, and he cries for mercy. It's exactly right. Look at Matthew
15, verse 21. Our Lord went thence and departed
into the coast of Tyre and Sidon. And a woman, behold, a woman
of Canaan, came out of the same coast. She was a Gentile. And
she cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thy son
of David. My daughter is grievously vexed
with the devil. But he didn't answer her a word.
Not a word. And his disciples came and saw
him saying, Send her away, she cries after us. But he answered
and said to his disciples, I'm not sent, but to the lost sheep
of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped
him, saying, Lord, help me, help me. And he answered her and he
said, It's not meat, it's not right to take the children's
bread and give it to dogs. Now, boy, that's hard, isn't
it? That's hard. He's calling her a Gentile dog,
is what he's saying. It's not right to take the bread
of Israel, the bread of the children, the bread of the elect, the bread
of God's chosen, and give it to dogs like you. Boy, that would
have offended us, wouldn't it, David? We'd say, well, keep your
bread. Yeah. Because we're so proud.
We can't justify God. But that woman, dear, listen.
She said, Lord, that's the truth. That's the truth. What's the
truth? You're sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
It's right that we don't deserve the bread. It's children's bread,
and I'm not asking for the children's bread. And it's the truth that
I'm a dog, and I'm on the floor, and I'm in the dust, and I'm
under the table. But Lord, I'm your dog. I'm your
dog. You're my master. And the dogs
eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table. And I'm
not asking for the children's bread. I'm taking my place in
the dust, under your feet, under your table, as a beggar, as a
beggar dog. And I say, Lord, just brush some
crumbs off. And our Lord said, O woman, great
is your faith. Great is your faith. Wonder if
us high and mighty folks in this day could ever come down that
low. Reckon we could. Reckon we could. Reckon any of
us here. would find ourselves tonight
in the dust, at the feet of the Son of God, crying for mercy. You reckon we could? Well, these
people did. Turn back to Luke 7. That's what
I'm trying to say. Luke 7, 29. These folks heard
John. They heard John. And the publicans
heard John, and they justified God. They said, that's right.
Everything you say is right. John said, we'll come to the
baptism of repentance. What is that? That's death, death,
death with Christ, death to the old life, death to myself, death
to my religion, death to my word, dead and buried with Christ and
risen with Christ. That's the baptism of repentance.
That's saying my sins deserve death and Christ died for them.
My sins deserve the sacrifice and Christ is that sacrifice
and I'm identified with him in death. Man's not going to live
until he dies. And they were baptized with the
baptism of John. Now watch this next verse. But
the Pharisees rejected the counsel of God. Now, my friends, when
I talk about depravity and sin and guilt, when I read verses
like I read from Isaiah, that's not my description of us. That's God's description. That's
God's counsel. If you'll just hold that, look
at Romans chapter 3 a minute. Now listen to this. Turn to Romans
3. When you reject verses like this,
it's not rejecting me, you're rejecting the counsel of God
against you. That's what these Pharisees did.
These religious, these moral, good people said, we won't have
it. We're not coming to be baptized
of John. We're not going to have this.
Look at Romans 3 verse 10. This is God's counsel. He said
Jew and Gentile, they're all under sin, verse 9, verse 10.
As it's written, there's none righteous, no, not one. There's
none that understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They're all gone out of the way. They've together become
unprofitable. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. Their throats are an open sepulcher.
Verse 4, their mouths are full of cursing, bitterness. His feet
are swift to shed blood. Verse 17, the way of peace, if
not known, no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that
what things for ever the law saith, it saith to them who are
under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
become guilty before God. What are you going to do with
that? Well, I tell you what the Pharisees did, they rejected
it. They rejected it. They rejected
it. Turn to Luke chapter 16. Let
me show you what they felt in Luke 16. This is a verse that
needs to be underlined in everybody's Bible. Luke 16, 15. Listen to
it. And he said to them, ye are they
which justify yourselves before men. You justify yourself. Now hang on to that, you justify
yourself. Our Lord was speaking to a man
one time. He said, what must I do to inherit
eternal life? Our Lord said, keep the commandments.
Do you know what they are? Thou shalt love the Lord thy
God with all thy heart, mind, soul, and strength, and thy neighbors
thyself. What's the next verse? It says,
but he willing to justify himself said, who is my neighbor? We're
always willing to justify ourselves. Let's get off that subject on
something else, you know. Justify ourselves. And here in
Luke 16, 15, it says, he said, you are they who justify yourselves
before men. But God knows your heart, and
that which is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in
the sight of God. I want to show you one more verse
in 1 Corinthians 11. Listen to this. And this is the
groundwork of the whole message. This is what I'm trying to say.
If we would judge ourselves, if we would clear God of all
the blame, if we would clear God of all the blame, if we would
justify God in his counsel against us, in his charges against us,
in his word against us, in his law against us, and say, Lord,
you're right? You're right, I'm all wrong. You're truth, and I'm all error.
You're light, and I'm all darkness. You're good, and I'm all evil.
Lord, you're right, you're clear. If you send me to hell, I'm getting
what I deserve. I'm a sinner, unworthy, undeserving. If you do that, God will justify
you. That's right. Listen to verse
1 Corinthians 11 31. If we judge ourselves, we would
not be judged. But I'll tell you, this is the
most difficult thing for a man or a woman. This is the most
difficult thing. This is the beginning of a work
of grace. This is the very beginning of
regeneration. This is the beginning of a true
awakening to salvation. This is the beginning of a walk
to glory. When a man judges himself, a
woman judges herself, you can't get them to pull their fingernails
out with pliers, and they won't do it. But I'm not near as bad
as some folks down at your place. See what I mean? Well, I may
be a sinner, but I'm not a big sinner. See what I mean? Well,
I may have done a little drinking, but I've never cursed. I may
have cursed, but I've never done this. I may have done and never
killed nobody. Never did do this. We just keep
justifying ourselves. The most difficult thing in the
world is for a sinner just to fall into dust and say, Guilty!
They just won't. They justify themselves. But
I tell you, grace is for the guilty, mercy is for the miserable,
forgiveness is for sinners, and salvation is for lost folk. And
if you judge yourself, you wouldn't be judged, but you won't do it.
We won't do it. Those old publicans, they justified
God. They skedaddled down to the water,
and they went down beneath the water while everybody laughed
at them, but they justified God. They said, God's word is true.
Every charge against me is true. Almighty God's clear of the blame. Guilty. God justified. Those old Pharisees, they wouldn't
do it. They wouldn't do it. If you read Psalm 107, you'll
find the key to this thing. You'll find the key. In verse
2 of Psalm 107, Let the redeemed of the Lord, he's the Savior,
salvation's of the Lord, he only saves sinners, lost people. He's
gonna save every sinner. You say every sinner? Yeah. You
mean all the sinners? Yeah. You know anybody that's
a sinner? There's not many. He's gonna
save every lost person. Every lost person? Uh-huh. Every
one of them. You know many lost people? That's
the hardest thing in the world to find, is a lost person. Let
the redeemed of the Lord say so, whom he hath redeemed from
the hand of the enemy, and gathered them out of the lands, from the
east, from the west, from the north, and from the south. They
wandered in the wilderness in a solitary, lonely way. They
found no city to dwell in. Hungry, thirsty, their soul fainted. And then they cried unto the
Lord in their trouble, and he saved them, delivered them out
of their distresses." And if you read that whole psalm, you'll
hear that repeated over and over and over again. Look at verse
27. They reel to and fro and stagger
like a drunken man. They're at their wits' end, then
they cry unto the Lord in their trouble, and He bringeth them
out of their distresses. It's all the way through. And
then verse 43, the last verse. Whosoever is wise and will observe
these things, even they shall understand the loving kindness
of the Lord. You ever been lost? If not, you've
never been found. If you've ever been a sinner,
if you've never been a sinner, you've never been saved. One
old man said this, the end of all true preaching is to bring
all true sinners trembling at the feet of Christ. The road
to eternal life is plain. All who would be saved by his
grace will walk that road. Lo, at thy feet my soul would
lie. Have mercy, O Lord, give peace
divine. Still let me live and not die,
for eternal life, eternal life is thine to give. Let me give
you four things and I'll quit. This is what I'm saying. I'm
saying John the Baptist came with a message of guilt. He came
with a message of condemnation. He came with a message of God's
holiness. He came with a message of God's
sacrifice. And these publicans and the sinners
threw up their hands and surrendered. They threw up their hands and
surrendered. They said, true, true. They justified God. They said, we're guilty. We're
guilty. We're getting what we deserve.
Oh, Lord, have mercy. And they went down beneath the
water of baptism, picturing their death, their burial and resurrection,
their identification with Christ, the Son of God. They didn't understand
a whole lot about it, but that's what they were doing. The old
Pharisees heard John, and they rejected the counsel of God against
them. They said, we're not submitting,
we're not surrendering, we're not confessing, we're not falling
into the dust, we're not repenting. Now here's the road to life.
It's plain. Number one, here are just four things quickly.
All are in debt with nothing to pay. All are in debt with
nothing to pay. Point two, all who will justify
God. I'm telling you the truth. All
who will justify God in his holiness and confess their sinfulness
and their need of his mercy, all who will do that. will be
recipients of God's mercy. That's exactly right. All who
will, all who can find. But I'm not saying now that's
a partial confession, that's a complete confession. I'm not
saying that's a partial owning of a partial guilt. I've got
some ragged clothes, if you'll patch them, Lord, I'll be better
off, you know. No, sir. It's taking off the
fig leaf apron of self-righteousness and casting it aside and being
clothed completely in his righteousness. It's admitting I am nothing,
I know nothing, I have nothing, I deserve nothing. And receiving
from his hands all that I need, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification,
and redemption. I need everything. I don't need
a little help. I need everything. Thirdly, all
who will look to Christ and call upon Christ shall find mercy. His righteousness is my righteousness. His death is my death. His resurrection
is my resurrection. His life is my life. All who
will look to Him and call upon Him, whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved. Nobody is too far away
that he cannot hear. His ear is not heavy that he
cannot hear. Nobody is too far gone that his arm cannot reach.
His arm is not short that it cannot save. And last of all,
And they shall love and cling to Him forever, for they found
in Him all they need. And they shall love and cling
to Him forever, for they found in Him all they need. Let's bow for prayer. Our merciful Father, there's
no way that the words of a man can reveal the sin of the heart. There is no way in the world
that we, with words, preaching, singing, witnessing, even reading
out of your Bible, that will shut a proud man's mouth, that
will strip a man whose clothed in his own self-righteous garments,
that will bring down the high, proud, arrogant Only you can
do it. Only your power and only your
spirit can knock our foundations out from under us and strip us
and lay us low in the dust at your feet. And we pray tonight
that you would, everyone, starting with this preacher in the pulpit
and right on out through every person in this congregation,
that you would strip us and lay us bare. Reveal to us what we
are in your sight and before your law and before your word.
Enable us, O Lord, to see sin as it is, the exceeding sinfulness
of sin. Enable us to see what that thief
on the cross saw. Enable us to see what Paul saw
when he wrote Romans 7 and declared, O wretched man that I am. Enable
us to see what David saw in Psalm 51 when he said, My sins are
ever before me. Purge me with hyssop and I shall
be clean. Enable us to see what Isaiah
saw when he said, woe is me, I'm a man of unclean lips. Oh
Lord, that we might justify you in your righteousness and holiness
in your charges against us individually and personally. And Lord, I'm
not talking about the general charge against nations and men
as a whole, the sons of Adam as a race. I'm talking about
I want to see my sins, my personal individual guilt before the I
want this congregation individually and personally to see our own
sinfulness, the sinfulness of our righteousness, the sinfulness
of our best deeds, the sinfulness of our thoughts and imagination,
the real self that we are. And when we see it and we're
shocked by it and we're brought to grieve over it and to confess
it to you that we might clear and justify and relieve you of
all blame, and say, Lord, You're just and righteous to damn us,
but we sure would be grateful for Your mercy. We'd be so grateful,
Lord. Lord, deliver us from pride and
arrogance and a haughty spirit that goes before a fall, and
bring us to Your feet in submission and surrender, seeing ourselves
as we are, and Christ as He is, a sufficient, effectual Savior.
Help us to judge ourselves. We're so capable of judging our
brothers and others, and our prejudices are so keen, and our
bigotry is so keen. And Lord, we excuse ourselves. We want to cast the moat out
of our brother's eye, and we overlook the beam in our own.
Help us to judge ourselves that we be not judged. find in Christ
a resting place. Lord, make it personal tonight.
Make it real to every person here. Our need, our guilt, our
debt, the impossibility of satisfying this enormous debt that's upon
us and before you. These sins that have separated
us from you, the impossibility of cleansing the stain that's
gone so deep. Help us to see it. Weep over
our sins. Cry over our sins. And find in
Christ the cleansing blood, the cleansing stream, the fountain
of life. The dying thief rejoiced to see
that fountain in his day. There may I, there may I, though
vile as he, wash all my sins away. Father, I know if we miss
this, like the Pharisees of old, we'll perish. If we miss this,
like the Pharisees of old, we'll be condemned forever, because
you're going to be justified. You're going to be justified
before men and angels, before the whole universe. You're going
to be justified. I know it. I know you're right. You're going to be justified,
and we're wrong, and we're going to be exposed. There's not a
secret thing that shall not be revealed. There's not a word
spoken in the closet that won't be spoken from the mountain.
We're going to be judged. Help us now to judge ourselves. that we be not judged, that in
secret before thee, before your throne of mercy that will someday
be a throne of judgment, let us come clean and clear you of
all blame, take our place as sinners, and find the mercy of
the Lord in Christ Jesus. Grant it, Lord, for your glory
I pray. Amen.