Three Central Truths, Part 1

Introduction to the Conference Theme and Sermon Focus

0:01 This sermon was preached at the 1987 Southeastern Reformed Baptist Family Conference held at Gardner-Webb College in Boiling Springs, North Carolina.

0:16 Now those of you who have read the brochure that was prepared in announcing this conference and giving some particulars about the basic framework of the conference will know that I have been asked to speak to you on these four evening sessions on the very broad but vital subject of the nature and work of faith in Christian experience. Now if that seems like a large title, in the letter of invitation it was even longer yet. And I imagine to save a little money at the printers, they chopped the announcement short. The original.

1:01 The original title was The Nature and Work of Faith in Christian Experience-Conversion and Sanctification. And what I plan to do, God willing, is to take up the subject focusing on the matter of faith as it relates to entering into life in our first two sessions and then the place and the actings of faith upon the road to salvation. The road of life as we move to the celestial city in the last two sessions. So we will be focusing upon faith on the threshold of all true Christian experience and then faith as we enter the house or the room of Christian experience until faith is turned to sight and we are ushered into the presence of our blessed Lord and see him. Face to face. Tonight I want to speak to you topically on the subject of three important perspectives concerning saving faith. Three important perspectives concerning saving faith.

Three Central Truths of Biblical Revelation

2:21 And as a backdrop and introduction to our study, I want to underscore three of the most basic issues of biblical revelation. Things that are no doubt known to the vast majority of you, even some of the children sitting here perhaps six, seven, eight years old and onward. These three fundamental issues that form, as it were, the backdrop and the foundation of all that we shall consider tonight will not be new, but we need to highlight them in order to place them as essential principles to our study. the whole subject of saving faith in its own biblical setting and those three central issues of biblical revelation are number one that all of us are sinners and as such are by nature under the wrath and condemnation of God all men to make it more personal all of us to make it more personal yet each one of us is a sinner and as such is by nature under the wrath

3:42 and condemnation of God from the account in Genesis 3 of the fall of our first father Adam all the way through to the rest of the closing chapters of the New Testament God makes it abundant abundant abundant abundant clear that when he says in Romans 5 12 wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world and death by sin and so death passed upon all men for that all sinned God is not indulging in pious exaggeration God is giving us the horrible ugly reality of the universal reign of sin and in that condition we are told in Ephesians 2 and verse 3 that we are by very nature the children of wrath that is we stand exposed to and justly liable to the wrath of God and we stand exposed to and justly liable to the wrath of God and we stand exposed to and justly liable to the wrath of God anyone who takes the message of the Bible seriously whether he believes that message or not must come away with the conviction

5:04 that this book does indeed teach that all of us are sinners and as such are by nature under the wrath and condemnation of God but then there is a second fundamental truth central to biblical revelation and it is this that God has graciously made but one remedy for sinful man's condition a remedy which focuses on the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ God has graciously made but one remedy for sinful man's condition a remedy for sinful man's condition a remedy which centers or focuses on the person and work of Jesus Christ when God announces his redeeming love to sinful wrath deserving men the focus is always upon Christ and his work for sinners for God so loved the world that he gave his only name to the world begotten son

6:24 and the only begotten son when he was here on earth said I am the way the truth the life no man comes unto the father but by me and what the Lord Jesus himself claimed in his own words was preached by his apostles in Acts chapter 4 and verse 12 Peter said neither is there salvation in any other for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved and so the scriptures everywhere teach us that God has graciously made a remedy but only one remedy for sinful man's condition a remedy which focuses on the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ which centers in the person and in the work of our Lord Jesus Christ now the third truth that is everywhere taught in the Bible is this that the divinely provided remedy for guilty wrath deserving sinners is appropriated is taken by the sinner

7:50 to the benefit of the sinner by faith take it is different everywhere in the Old and in the New Testaments scripture testifies that the divinely provided remedy for guilty wrath deserving sinners is appropriated by faith alone continuing John 3 16 that whosoever believes into him not perish but have everlasting life and the familiar text in romans 1 and verse 16 for i am not ashamed of the gospel of christ paul declares for it is the power of god unto salvation to everyone that believes and then the well-known words of ephesians 2 8 and 9 for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of god not of works that no man should boast and when that trembling jailer man described in act 16 conscious of the mighty

9:10 outbreaking of the power of god in the shaking of that prison and even the moral power of god in the transformation of those prisoners you are saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is the gift of god not of works to the unjustly treated were singing hymns and psalms of praise to god at midnight when he has brought perhaps for the first time in his life to the realization that god is not just a word he is the living eternal awesome being who made that jailer before whom that jailer had to stand in the day of judgment when that man in that condition asked the most important question any human being can ask and that was theabi answer the Tilak question who was the most important human being can ever ask, sirs, what must I do to be saved? What must I do to be delivered from the wrath which this awesome God could justly bring upon my head? The answer of Paul and Silas was this, believe, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved and thy house. And so the witness of the word of God everywhere points to this fundamental truth

10:28 that the divinely provided remedy for guilty, wrath-deserving sinners is appropriated by faith alone. Now, I am not saying that the Bible teaches that this faith will have no accompaniments. This faith will always, always be preceded by some degree of the sense and knowledge of sin. And it will always have as its handmaiden and accompaniment repentance, that turning from sin unto God with full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience, or as Spurgeon so beautifully stated it, repentance is the tear in faith's eye. And saving faith is never tearless. I am not saying we are saved by a faith that has no preceding spiritual exercises, or no accompanying spiritual exercises, or no subsequent spiritual exercises. No, the Bible makes it abundantly clear that the fruit of the faith that brings us into possession of God's salvation in Christ, will be a faith which works by love, as we will see later tonight.

11:53 A faith which brings in its train the graces of love, hope, and obedience, and a host of other things. But the Bible never, never says that we are saved by repentance, or saved by love, or saved by any of these other graces, but we are saved by faith! A unique place is given fact to the fact that no other grace, your life, or your power is said without knowledge and Probate, Prodigal Law by Augustin Struble, James Brady, Oral Lowe, and others, may be dafür of faith that faith is saved by grace with the very grace of faith! But as we have seen, the very basis for faith is yet past regret, it is the faith we have never. But in the Senate for its is given to faith as the grace of appropriating God's salvation in Jesus Christ. Now given those three fundamental central matters of biblical revelation touching the very nerve centers of the salvation of hell-deserving sinners, let me ask you a question. If you were the devil, that great arch enemy of God, that fiend of hell who is determined to steal, to kill, and to destroy,

Satan's Strategy Against These Truths

12:58 if you were the devil and you were set on the purpose of taking as many souls into hell with you as you could, how would you go about it?

13:12 Well, surely, if you were serious in your task, would you not seek? Would you not seek to attack these central, fundamental issues of revealed biblical religion? Would you not seek in the first place to blind men to the fact that they are sinners so that they will be utterly indifferent to God's provision for sinners, thinking, why get excited about the provision? I don't need it.

13:42 If someone were to break through these back doors within the next 15 seconds, running down the aisle, shouting at the top of his lungs, I have the remedy! I have the remedy! And someone says, sir, please stop. You're causing a disturbance.

13:57 The remedy for what? Why, the remedy for a deadly malaria that if a person has it, it'll kill him in the next half hour. I have the remedy! I have the remedy!

14:07 Well, the only thing we'd get excited about is how to get that character out of here.

14:12 Because we sit here, none of us, dying of malaria. We would not get at all enthused about, why get excited about the remedy because there is no malady for which the remedy is the answer. And so the devil does indeed set his sights upon many to blind them to the horrible reality of what it means to be a creature accountable to God, a creature fallen in Adam, a creature conceived in sin, a creature who by his own sins has heaped up a mountain of dust, of guilt in the courtroom of heaven, who even now stands under a heavy, awesome, dark, thunder cloud of divine wrath against sin that could break upon the sinner's head at any moment and press him into everlasting darkness where there is weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. You see, the devil seeks to blind men to the reality of their sin so, so that they might be indifferent to the remedy. But failing there with others, you know what he does? What he does is he places his attack

15:34 on the whole matter of what the remedy is. And if the one divinely appointed remedy is found in the person and work of Jesus Christ, then what the devil will do is to try to bring along some other remedy as a substitute or to confuse people as to who this person is who alone can save the sinner or the nature of the work by which alone the sinner is rescued. And so throughout the history of the Christian church there have been attacks upon attacks upon attacks on who Christ is as the God-man, as much god as though he were never man. As much man as though he were never god. Or upon his work, his life of obedience Lived in the room and stead of his people obedience culminating in his death upon the cross in which he bore in the stead of his people the wrath of god for the reality of his literal bodily resurrection from the dead. You see the devil concentrates his attack there.

16:51 was there before the devil monter is where he said to himturn your image of comfort as you will interpret the bet of prayer before death is mine that shall be from your heaven. And then, and I believe in this conference, it's in this area that he does most of his work, failing in those first two areas, knowing that the one divinely provided remedy for guilty, wrath-deserving sinners is appropriated by faith alone. He will seek to confuse people's minds as to the nature of that faith which is unto salvation. And he will do this particularly where people are under a ministry which brings their consciences into constant contact with the Word of God so that it's very difficult for them to deny the reality of their sinnerhood. Right? And because they are in constant contact with the teaching and preaching of the Word in their homes and in their churches with regard to who Christ is and what He has done for sinners, and they see the evidence of the mighty power of the God-man transforming sinners all around them,

18:05 and they see the virtue and the power emanating from His perfect life, His substitutionary death, His glorious resurrection, His heavenly session, the sending forth of the spirit, they find it very, very difficult to entertain any serious doubts about those things. But you know where they get hung up? What does it really mean to believe? It just can't be so simple.

18:34 Or on the other hand, oh, of course, sure, I believe it's so wonderfully simple. And it is for that very reason that I have chosen to concentrate our attention tonight. Not upon opening up the reality of our sinful condition which necessitates a remedy, nor even to focus as much upon the appointed remedy that is set before us in the person and work of the Lord Jesus, but rather to concentrate upon three important perspectives regarding saving faith. What is it?

19:17 How can I know if I believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Or sitting here tonight, as someone who is very conscious that he or she, young or old, is a sinner, and under wrath, and knowing that there's no way out but in Christ, and by the faith that brings me into the possession of His salvation, what does it mean to believe upon Him? Well, let me attempt very simply to set before you, now, these three Biblical perspectives concerning saving faith. And the first one is this.

Perspective 1: The Sinner Brings Nothing to Christ

19:55 According to the Scriptures, in saving faith, the sinner brings nothing to Christ. The second, in saving faith, the sinner takes Christ and all that is in him. And thirdly, in saving faith, the sinner withholds nothing of his heart from Christ. First of all, then, in saving faith, the sinner brings nothing to Christ.

20:32 You see, one of the biggest stumbling blocks to a man, a woman, boy, or girl, awakened to some real awareness of his sin, lies right here. For many years, whether it's five, ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, sixty years, boys, girls, men, women, have lived in indifference to God's law. They have not loved Him. They have not sought Him.

21:00 They have not lived in His fear and unto His glory. And the Word of God and the Spirit of God, by a variety of means, has brought the man or woman to feel something of the reality and the weight of his sin. And then he is told, Look, if you would have every one of those sins completely pardoned, fully forgiven, blotted out, buried in the sea of God's forgetfulness, and if you would have God credit to you in the court of heaven a perfect record, a record as perfect as that of His own Son, for it is the record of His Son, all you need do is come as a guilty, filthy sinner, clanging with the chains of your own bondage to your sin, besmirched and defiled and polluted by your sin, reaching with the stench of your sin, and in that condition, go to Christ. And don't even take out a Kleenex to try to rub off one of your own spots. And the person who up till then thought that believing, oh, that's a simple thing, suddenly says, wait a minute,

22:27 that's too simple, that's too good to be true. Surely, surely, it isn't right that I should come reeking and stinking with all of my sins, bringing the clanging of my own self-imposed chains of bondage to this lust and that lust and this inordinate desire and that inordinate desire and coming with all of that which is so ugly and vile even to my own eyes. How much more to the eyes of God and believe that Christ will take me just as I am. And that becomes the great stumbling block of believing.

23:10 And so I'm here to declare what is the glory of the Gospel that in saving faith, the sinner brings nothing to Christ. Faith is described in Scripture as the empty hand that takes a full salvation in a glorious Savior, a thirsty soul that drinks of the water of life, a naked soul that comes to be clothed in a righteousness not its own, a hungry soul that eats of the bread of life, a bitten soul that looks upon the uplifted Christ, a pursued soul taking refuge in Christ. But perhaps the clearest text in all of the New Testament that underscores this, and I would ask you to turn to it with me, is Romans chapter 4, verses 4 and 5. Paul has established the great truth of universal sinnerhood, and then in a most condensed fashion, in verses 21 to the end of chapter 3, he has set forth the pith of God's provision of salvation in the person and work of Christ.

24:37 And he has declared that that salvation is received by faith, and now he's going to demonstrate how this has always been so. It was so in the case of Abraham. It was so in the case of David. And in the midst of that argument, notice what he says in verses 4 and 5 of Romans 4.

The Commercial Analogy of Romans 4:4-5

24:57 Now to him that works, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. But to him who does not work, but believes on him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned, is reckoned for righteousness. Now what is Paul saying? Well, he's using commercial terminology.

25:29 And he says to him who works, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. Try to imagine with me back before the days when everything was computerized and transferred from one place to another by computer and shows up on a computer printout. Back in the days when you had real live pay clerks who had real live pay envelopes with real live dollar bills in them. Not Federal Reserve notes either.

25:57 Legal tender. So we're going back a ways. And it's Friday afternoon. It's pay day.

26:05 And the men have all signed out. They've completed their week's work. And they're going to that particular room in the shop where the pay clerk stands behind his window and hands out the pay for the previous week's work. And so one man after another comes up to the pay clerk.

26:24 Your name, sir? So and so. He takes his envelope, counts out what he gets for his work. It's put in his envelope.

26:32 He says, thank you. He goes his way. And about the seventh man that comes up to the gate, a strange thing happens. The pay clerk asked his name.

26:41 He tells him his name. Counts out his money. Puts it in his envelope. Seals it over.

26:45 And as he walks away, he begins to shout and dance and jump and says, can you imagine that? I have got, and now I'd have to put it into something reasonable for way back when they did it that way. I have $137.50 given to me by the pay clerk.

27:04 Isn't that an amazing thing? And people look at him. And they say, what are you talking about? I say, this is the most amazing thing.

27:10 Look, that man just gave me $137.50. And they say, well, what are you so excited about? We say, that's wonderful.

27:18 And I say, what do you mean wonderful? What do you think you were doing in that shop all week? You were earning every last penny. You don't get excited until the pay clerk has given you a gift.

27:32 And they're right. The man's not thinking right. Because what has happened is, because he has put in so many hours and performed so many services, that company is now indebted to him. And if they don't give him the agreed upon amount, they are thieves.

27:53 So in giving it, they are merely releasing themselves of a debt. Now that's what Paul is saying. To the man who works, the reward, payday, is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. But to him that works not, the full line is completed.

28:13 And suddenly, someone comes through the door that leads into that room where the pay is doled out. And the pay clerk calls out to him and says, Sir, what is your name? And he answers back. He said, What are you doing here?

28:29 He said, Well, I just happened to wander in. And the pay clerk says, Well, for some reason or other, I find I'm $200 over here, and I feel kind today. You want $200? Come over here, and I'll give it to you.

28:41 And the man looks at him. He said, This guy must be crazy. He says, No, I'm sincere. I mean it.

28:47 Come here. He said, I've got no time to go back through and open it up. If I was $200 in the red, I'd be in bad. But I feel kind.

28:54 Here, $200. And the man takes the $200. Now, does he have reason to dance for joy that out of the blue, something he didn't work for, something he didn't earn, it was freely given? Yes.

29:09 Why? Because the company was not in debt to this stranger. He performed no services. He didn't earn a dime.

29:16 It was all freely conferred upon him. And that's the point that Paul is making in this passage, that in the matter of God's salvation, if there was something that we bring to God and God rewards us with salvation, then salvation is no longer gratuitous. It is no longer free. It is no longer of grace, but it is of debt.

Biblical Examples of Bringing Nothing to Christ

29:47 Then if we are required to snap one chain that binds us to our sin before we can come, we can always bring the broken link and throw it on the counter and say, Lord, save me, for here's one broken link in one chain, and I broke it. You don't bring one broken link of one chain that binds you to your lust. You don't bring to God any vouchers for prayers made. You don't bring Him any sealed envelopes with vows of intention that somehow should move His heart to make Him merciful.

30:27 The Scripture says to him who does not work but notice, believes on this God who justifies, forgives, and declares righteous the ungodly. And at the point that God mercifully saves the sinner, He saves him as an ungodly man. He will not reign ungodly. He will not go on in an ungodly state.

31:05 But at the point that God's upon the ungodly, it is grace upon the ungodly. Now you see, that is the great stumbling block of the Gospel to many. In the passage read in your hearing tonight, that was the stumbling block to the Jews. Paul wrote in Romans chapter 10 concerning of his own fellow countrymen that he was tremendously burdened for them.

31:40 Why? They were zealous for God. But it was not a zeal growing out of an accurate knowledge of God. And where was the point of their ignorance?

31:52 Verse 3 of Romans 10. For being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own, they have not submitted to the righteousness of God. And then he goes on to show that the righteousness of God is submitted to when the sinner comes in faith to lay hold of that which God free...

32:20 You see, that's where God had to bring Saul of Tarsus. There was a time when he thought what he did, what he was, what he had become, all these things stacked up merit that made him acceptable with God. And in Philippians chapter 3, he describes those things one after another from his breeding to his upbringing, to his zeal, to his service. And he said, I came to regard the accumulated pile of it as nothing but scubala, is what he calls it. That's what the farmer shovels out of the barn. He says, that's what...

33:18 That I might win Christ and be found in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but the righteousness which is of faith. The righteousness of God by faith. Remember that Philippian jailer, when he cried out, what must I do to be saved? What had he done prior to that moment to commend him to God?

33:44 As far as we know from the account, he had simply cooperated in the beating of Paul and Silas and in putting them in stocks. What had he done between then and the time that he cried? He was fast asleep, apparently like the others. What had he to bring to God?

34:03 Nothing. And yet Paul said, in that state, believe here and now upon the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved. Think of the thief upon the cross. What had he brought to the cross?

34:17 A life of crime that put him on that cross. He was self in his criminality. He spoke to the other thief and said, we are indeed here justly. This man has done nothing amiss.

34:32 And he turns and by the eye of faith sees in Christ the King and says remember me when you come in your kingdom or come into your kingdom. What did he have to bring to Christ? He couldn't get down off the cross and make amends for one thing. He couldn't make restitution.

34:51 He couldn't break a chain. He was impaled. Jesus said today, today you will be with me in paradise. Why?

35:03 Because by my life and my death I have provided that which you need. Dying thief. To make you fit to go into the immediate presence of my Holy Father. Oh dear people that's the glory of the gospel.

Pastoral Application: The Posture of Bringing Nothing

35:20 That it is a gospel that says to everyone that believes forgiveness and life and salvation are given and in saving faith the sinner brings nothing but evil. Now I ask you tonight is that your posture? Have you ever been able from the heart to sing? Nothing in my hands I bring.

35:54 Simply to thy cross I cling. Far I to the fountain fly. Not unsweet. Wash me Savior or I die.

36:23 And even Charles Wesley with a defective theology at some points surely speaks the truth of the Word of God when he wrote long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound in sin and nature's night. Thine eye diffused a quickening ray. I woke the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off.

36:54 He didn't say I took the hacksaw religious effort and I hacked and sawed and sawed and when the chains came off then I rose up to follow thee. He said my chains fell off. My heart was free. I rose went forth to follow thee.

37:17 My wife and I are reading through Pilgrim's Progress again in our own devotions recently and I was struck again with how beautifully Bunyan captured it. You see Christian wasn't even looking at his pack when it rolled off. It was the side of the cross. And the burden rolled off and it rolled and rolled until it was lost in the tomb and he says I saw it no more.

37:45 He didn't say oh look at the rags that are on me. How can I look at the cross? I'm too ill dressed and this horrible burden. I've got to shrink it first.

37:56 No. In all his rags and tatters with that heavy burden he looked to the cross and the burden rolled off. And then the shining ones came and they clothed him in that beautiful garment. I say especially to you dear children you young people.

38:14 You see you've got a conscience that's made very sensitive to sin and rightly so. You've got moms and dads continually honing your conscience by the word of God and by their godly example. You go to churches where you see the power of vital godliness. You hear preaching about the power of God and the power of God.

38:34 You hear preaching that speaks of your sin and of heaven and hell and God's claims and it's right that you should know that God is holy and he demands that we be holy and anything short of perfect conformity to his law makes us liable to death and judgment and hell forever. And you also know from what you hear at home and in your churches that if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ that work of the Spirit that brings us to faith has also brought us into vital union with Christ and we become new creatures with new desires and new perspectives and new ambitions and new power and grace. You say, but I don't see all those new things in me. I see all the things I'm supposed to do that I don't and I feel the weight of my guilt and I see the absence of a life of holiness and I don't know how to get out of all of this. Oh, dear young people, listen, listen. Look and live.

39:41 Go just as you are to Jesus. Just as you are to him that works not but believes on him who justifies the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness. So in saving faith the sinner brings nothing of his own to Christ.

Perspective 2: The Sinner Receives a Whole Christ and All His Blessings

40:07 But then secondly, and if we only get this far then that's all right. In saving faith the sinner receives a whole Christ and all that is in him. In saving faith a sinner receives a whole Christ and all that is in him. And why do I say that?

40:34 For this simple reason. That what God holds out to us in the Gospel is the whole Christ and all the blessings of salvation that he has stored up in him. Now let's just unpack that briefly. What do I mean by a whole Christ?

40:52 Well, I mean the Christ of biblical revelation in terms of who he is in his person and what he is in his offices. Who is he in his person? He is the God-man. In the beginning he was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

41:13 And when we read in John 1.14 the Word became flesh there's not a shred of evidence that all that he had ever been as the eternal Word that he ceased to be in the slightest degree. It was the eternal Word in all the integrity of undiluted Godhood. Who became flesh.

41:38 The Word takes to himself a true humanity. He never ceases to be what he had always been while he begins to be what he had never been. The God-man in human history in human existence and experience. And so the Scripture everywhere sets him before us as true God and as true man.

42:08 There is one God and one mediator between God and man. Himself man. Christ Jesus 1 Timothy 2.5 And the Bible's not at all embarrassed to set forth the undeniable evidences of the reality of his true manhood.

42:30 He gets weary by Jacob's well. He gets so overcome with weariness that he sleeps in a boat in the midst of a raging storm. When his dear friends do not stand with him in the hour of his trial he feels disappointment and says, What could you not watch with me one hour? He even felt a holy irritation in the presence of stubborn unbelief.

43:00 He said, Oh unbelieving generation how long shall I bear with you? Don't believe the Christmas carol that says the cattle are lowing the poor babe awakes. But little Lord Jesus no crying he makes. Why that's ridiculous.

43:22 When the cows went moo and it woke up Christ he cried with that piercing baby wah, wah as loud as any baby. Why? It's human for babies to cry. And when the Lord Jesus was a little boy and was out playing ball and fell down and skinned his knee he came in and asked Mary to kiss it and make it better and put a bandaid on it like any boy did.

43:50 He was true man in the mystery of God and man in one person joined forever. And he's set before us in that way. But he's also set before us as the whole Christ. Not only in his identity as God and man but as God's glorious and final prophet to teach us.

44:16 His priest to forgive us and his king to rule over us. And we don't have time to go into the many scriptures. But when we turn to our Bibles that's the Christ who's set before us in the gospel. Now I'm not saying that in every gospel sermon he must be set forth explicitly in that way.

44:37 Or that all of us in hearing the gospel understood those concepts. I am not saying that. All I am saying is that when we take the witness of scripture to God's answer to this question in whom is the remedy for sin? And the answer is it is in the person and work of the Lord Jesus.

44:59 And we ask who is he? The answer comes back he is the God man who is God's final prophet to teach us. Priest to forgive and intercede for us. And king to rule over us and defend us.

45:15 And he is set before us the whole Christ. And what God has done is treasured up every blessing he intends to give to sinners in that person. What is held forth in Christ for sinners are all the blessings of God's grace. The scripture tells us that God has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies in Christ.

45:46 Well what are those blessings? Well let me just enumerate a few quickly. The complete pardon for all our sins. Acts 13, 38 and 39.

45:57 Paul preaching could say these words, glorious words of gospel truth. Be it known therefore brethren this is what I want you to know. That through this man is proclaimed unto you remission of sins. And by him everyone that believes is justified from all things from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses.

46:25 Through this man is proclaimed remission of sins. How many sins? Every sin. Justified from every sin.

46:39 And then what is held out for us is a perfect righteousness. Romans 5, 19. By the obedience of the one the many shall be constituted righteous. Not only all our sins erased and pardoned and forgiven but then credited to our account a record as though we had perfectly kept God's law in every point for every moment of our conception till we breathe our last.

47:11 A perfect righteousness credited to us. Adoption into the family of God as many as received him. To them gave he the right to become the children of God even to them that believe on his name. The gift of the Holy Spirit is offered to us in Christ in the gospel.

47:33 Peter could say repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The gift of the Spirit is promised to us in the gospel. Not in some exotic second work of grace for few but in Christ for every sinner. The gift of the Spirit is freely offered and furthermore deliverance from the bondage of sin Jesus said whom the Son sets free is free indeed.

48:13 Now those are the blessings that God has treasured up in Christ and the Christ he sets before us is the God man who is prophet, priest and king and in saving faith the sinner takes the whole Christ and all that is in him. Now again let me qualify I am not saying that in every act of saving faith every sinner knows all he will eventually know about who Christ is in his person and his offices all that God has stored up in him forgiveness a perfect righteousness adoption the gift of the Spirit the pledge of resurrection a host of blessings but what I am saying is that when the sinner in the felt need of his lostness embraces the Savior in the glory and perfection of his salvation he embraces in principle a whole Christ and all that is in him and though his knowledge may be very limited the evidence that his faith is real is that when that knowledge is expanded by the accurate understanding of the word of God he embraces the expanded knowledge

49:42 of who Christ is and when he sees I not only got forgiveness in Christ I had a perfect righteousness credited to me I've been adopted into the family the judge has not only declared me pardoned fully acquitted and then declared me cleared before the court with a perfect record he's put his arm around me taken me into his home and adopted me as his son and I say it reverently set me upon his knee and put his Spirit within me enabling me to call him in the most intimate terms of filial affection Father because ye are sons he hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Abba Father and as we come to understand that and our knowledge grows then our appreciation grows and our love grows but we're not getting anything new it was all ours when we embraced him that's why Paul could write to the Colossians in Colossians 2 6 as therefore you received Christ Jesus the Lord so walk in him root it and build it up in him and increasing in knowledge he prayed again and again for the believers at Colossae

51:10 and at Ephesus and at Philippi that they would grow in their knowledge of all that was theirs in Christ and that they might then in their experience appropriate more of Christ but it all begins in that saving faith in which the sinner receives a whole Christ and all that is in him now I ask you as you sit here tonight do you know what it is to embrace a whole Christ and all that is in him whatever you know of him you say it's good whatever you know of him you say it is glorious and you say whatever of what you know is in him it is gracious it's beyond what I deserve it's the exact opposite of what I deserve and I rejoice that Christ is mine and in him all the blessings of God's salvation in saving faith the sinner always takes a whole Christ and all that is in him and by way of application I want to drive home two very vital points some of you need this truth

Pastoral Application: Encouragement for Doubters and Warning for the Complacent

52:37 for your encouragement you need for your encouragement to know that it is not the strength of your faith that saves nowhere does the Bible speak of degrees of faith unto salvation it speaks of degrees and kinds of faith strong faith and weak faith in believers but the universal testimony of scripture is he that believes shall be saved he that believes on the Son hath life he that believes not is under wrath and some of you again particularly those of you who have had the privilege of much Christian nurture who have allowed yourself to get on this endless treadmill this downward spiral of always trying to measure your faith and saying well back when I thought I believed on the Lord for the first time I knew so little and now that I know was that faith real because there was so little content and so you say well if that wasn't real and I'm not your Lord I do believe now I do take all that I know you to be and all that is in you without reservation Lord Jesus be to this sinner all you said you'd be to believing sinners and then a few months and years later as you found the horrible reality

54:06 of indwelling sin working in your own life and parallel to that a growing knowledge of who Christ is and what he's done you began to doubt well maybe those actings of faith weren't real and you keep going back examining your faith and picking it apart stop it until the preoccupation of your soul is with whatever measure of knowledge and faith you presently possess believing on Christ no sinner ever went to hell and so don't allow the enemy to get you looking back over your shoulder and scrutinizing examining and picking apart ask yourself this all that Christ is presented to you to be in the glory of his person and the perfection of his work do you want him and all that is in him for your soul's good and you may have him that's the teaching of the word of God and I have found in wrestling thronging with people who have known something of the terrible mental and psychological trauma of periodic scrutiny that leads to a kind of paralysis

55:34 that there's no way out of that until they determine I'm not going to look back and try to analyze what did I have here then or there but from this point on I shall rest solely in who Christ is and what God offers to needy sinners in him because that's what I am and that's what I'll always be and that's what he always is is the perfect savior of needy sinners and I shall continue to fix the eye of faith upon him may God help some of you for whom perhaps that is the word most needed in application but then there's a flip side to that there may be some of you in a very cocky and in a very indifferent manner can speak of believing on the Lord Jesus and because in the initial actions of what you thought were saving faith you had some measure of peace and joy you have as it were riveted to the wall of your mind all of the memories of that initial experience and from that time to this day there's been very little evidence of any loving attachment to Christ you don't get excited when his servants expound more fully the glory of his person the wonder and the fullness

57:02 and the nature of his work there's an inward switch that you flip and say I know enough of Christ who he is and what he's done and I believe in him to be safe and that's enough for me my friend if that's the disposition of your soul it is most likely you are as much a stranger to grace as the devil himself for the Holy Spirit who opens the eye of a sinner to behold the perfection of Christ as Savior who he is in his person what is offered to him in his salvation that spirit implants in the heart of every believing sinner a measure of thirst to know him more and to appreciate the glory of his salvation more and if you have a smug contentment saying I know enough of him and experienced enough of him to make me safe and there's no passion to know more of him who he is and what he's done to make you more like him and to make you more holy and to make your love for him deeper and purer then it is most likely you're a stranger to that faith which takes a whole Christ and all that is in him

Concluding Exhortation and Prayer

58:31 well we'll hold off the third point till tomorrow it's been a long day for many of you and it's coming up on nine o'clock and I think it best that we stop but as we do we come around full circle to where we began have you come to the conviction that you by nature are a sinner under condemnation have you come to the conviction that God has provided but one remedy for sinners that in the person and work of his son and that the one appointed way to lay hold of that remedy is by faith then I ask you do you know anything of that faith in which you as a guilty defiled chained sinner have brought nothing of your own to Christ but have believed on him who justifies the ungodly and have you taken a whole Christ and all that is in him if not I plead with you to use the language of Paul he uses a word in 2 Corinthians 5 that is the standard word in the New Testament for a beggar he said I beg you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God

59:57 the Savior in all the fullness of his power and the glory of his person with all of the salvation that God has stored up in him he comes to you here tonight in the only way he'll come to you this side of his second coming or the day of judgment that is in his word that's the only way he's ever going to come to you until the skies are split and rolled back as a scroll and every eye sees him and you're summoned before the power of judgment there's only one way Christ will come to you that's in his word and he comes to you in his word and said I'm a Savior perfectly suited to your needs what is there in me that makes me undesirable to you what will you answer Jesus when he comes to you in the gospel that way tonight? young person teenager adult old man or woman whoever you be what will you say to Christ when he comes to you and says in me there is plenitude of grace and power to save the likes of you to break your chains to cleanse your defilement to pardon your sins to take you into the family of God to put my spirit within you to keep you and guard you and bring you safe

61:25 to come at last into my very presence what is there in me that makes me undesirable that you won't have me what will you answer him what will you answer him what is undesirable in him may God give you to see his loveliness his willingness to receive even you let us pray oh our Father we thank you that though impure and unstained justice you could have cut us all off in our sins and magnified your justice through all eternity by our groans and sighs in hell we thank you that you have spared us that you have brought many of us to the knowledge of our sin and to the knowledge of your salvation in the Lord Jesus and we earnestly pray for those who sitting here tonight have never believed on the Lord Jesus Christ oh God by your spirit may they behold the Savior standing before them in his word

62:53 the only way he will ever come to them and may they not bid him go away but may they cry out son of David have mercy upon me refresh the hearts of your own people as together we've reviewed the wonder of your grace to us in our need oh that we may know more of the glory of the person of your son appreciate more fully all that is ours in him and live out more consistently the implications of belonging to him hear our cry and may the blessing of your spirit rest upon your word in all of our hearts we plead through the Lord Jesus Amen