Overcoming Discouragement in the Face of Sin

Introduction to the Context of 2 Corinthians 2:5-11

0:04 Will you turn with me, please, in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 2, Paul's second letter to the Corinthians, and chapter 2, and I shall read in your hearing verses 5 through 11, 2 Corinthians chapter 2, beginning with verse 5.

0:28 But if any hath caused sorrow, he hath caused sorrow not to me, but in part, that I press not too heavily to you all. Sufficient to such a one is this punishment which was inflicted by the many, so that contrary-wise you should rather forgive him and comfort him, lest by any means such a one should be swallowed up with his overmuch sorrow. Wherefore, I beseech you to confirm your love toward him, for to this end also did I say to you, I am a man of God, and I am a man of God. I am a man of God, and I am a man of God.

1:07 And I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether you are obedient in all things. But to whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also. For what I also have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, for your sakes have I forgiven it in the presence of Christ, that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his divinity. Now, there is one great principle that I wish to extract from this portion of the Word of God this morning, and then to apply it in some very specific ways. But if we are to see the biblical taproots of that principle, we must first of all have a feel for the passage in which it comes to us. And so, as we begin our meditation this morning, I want to begin by giving you a brief description of the larger context of the passage which was read in your hearing. As many of you will remember, one of the problems the Apostle had to address himself to in his first letter is the problem dealt with in 1 Corinthians chapter 5.

2:29 It was a case of incest. A man was living with his own stepmother, and the Apostle had to write in very strong language. He wrote in very strong language to the Corinthian church, rebuking them for their laxity in dealing with this sinning brother. He rebukes them sharply.

2:50 He tells them that he has already in principle exerted an act of excommunication, that they are to gather together in the name of the Lord Jesus and to deliver this one unto Satan for the destruction of the flesh that the Spirit might be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus. Well? Well, by the time the Apostle writes the second letter, he has received information from Titus, and this is recorded in chapter 7, verses 5 through 8, that the Corinthian church did indeed receive the severe rebuke of the Apostle and did indeed excommunicate this brother. Furthermore, the excommunication had accomplished its God-intended end. It had been owned. It had been owned. It had been owned.

3:39 It had been owned. It had been owned. It had been owned. It had been owned.

3:39 The Holy Spirit of God to produce in this man genuine repentance. The man was swallowed up with true grief for his sin. He had manifested this repentance before the church so that by the time the Apostle writes the second letter, he not only records something of the repentance of this man, but he must, in the language of the passage read in your hearing, he must exhort the Corinthian believers to confirm their love to this sinning brother. So much then for this description of the larger context of the passage, now very briefly a running commentary upon the passage itself.

Running Commentary on 2 Corinthians 2:5-11

4:24 The apostle begins by saying that if any has caused sorrow, he has caused sorrow not to me, but in part that I press not too heavily to you all. In other words, he is saying now as he stands on the threshold of dealing with this problem, don't be concerned about the grief and pain that this sinning brother caused me, though it did cause me pain, but he said at this point we don't want to burden the man down with any unnecessary pressure in the area of feeling guilt for his sin if there has been true repentance. Now is not the time to rub the conscience raw. Now is the time to manifest in your congregational life, in your relationship to this man, the disposition which God has manifested to a repentant child of God, namely one of forgiveness and acceptance. And so he goes on to say that sufficient to such a one is the punishment that was inflicted by the man. Many, that is the act of excommunication, so that now he says, contrary wise, forgive him and comfort him.

5:41 So the great burden of this section of the exhortation of the apostle is, forgive this man and comfort this man. Where I had to write you previously and say, cast him out from your midst, a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump. It is in the best interest of his soul and your conscience. Now he says with language that is equally plain and explicit, forgive him and comfort him.

6:13 And then he goes on to tell them why. He says, if you do not do this, there is the danger that he will be swallowed up with his overmuch sorrow. Wherefore, verse 8, I beseech you to confirm your love toward him, for to this end also did I write, that I might know the proof of you, whether you are obedient in all things. But to whom ye forgive anything, I also forgive.

6:40 Remember, the act of excommunication was a congregational act with the full sympathy and endorsement of the apostle. He said, when you are gathered together by my spirit and in the spirit of the Lord Jesus, deliver such in one to Satan. Now he says, as surely as you as a congregation excommunicated him, he has repented and you have now restored him in the context of forgiveness. I want you to know that I too extend my forgiveness to this sinning brother.

7:14 To whom ye forgive anything, I forgive also. For what I also have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, for your sakes have I forgiven it in the presence of Christ, that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan. For we are not ignorant of his devices. And the strange conclusion of this exhortation is the conclusion of verse 11.

7:42 It's, as it were, the summary statement giving a rationale for this entire directive to the Corinthian church with respect to the repentant brother who had been excommunicated. He says you must follow these directions. In order that no advantage may be gained over us by Satan, for we are not ignorant of his devices. And the word devices means his thoughts, his intentions.

8:15 The apostle indicates that he knows how Satan seeks to work in congregational life. And one of the ways he seeks to work was manifested in the previous condition at Corinth. Satan had brought that congregation under the spell of a sinful spirit of indulgence, which they mistook for Christian forbearance. So a man living in incest was not only among them, but it was known, and they were boastful about it.

8:50 They had no shame. Satan had deceived them into misconstruing for true Christian love a wicked, carnal sin. A sinful spirit of sinful indulgence. Now the same deceiver comes along, and after the man has repented, there is apparently some reluctance on the part of the Corinthian church to make their love and acceptance as visible and as earnest as had been their act of rejection in the act of excommunication.

9:27 And he says behind this, I see the... The thoughts of Satan.

The Vital Principle: Discouragement as Satan's Tool

9:33 I am not ignorant of his thoughts, of his devices, and if we do not act in the light of these directives, an advantage will be gained over us by the evil one. Now then, having given a description of the larger context of the passage, a brief running commentary upon the substance of the passage, now, thirdly, and this is the burden of the message this morning, what is the vital principle contained in this passage? Well, the immediate or specific expression of the principle is obvious. That whenever we as a congregation must engage in the very unpleasant responsibility of church discipline, we should always count it our joy to engage in the congregational act of restoration, when it is evident that there has been genuine repentance.

10:38 That's the obvious application of the principle. But that is rooted in a broader principle, and the apostle indicates it in verse 11, and it is that broader principle that I wish to open up this morning and apply in your hearing. And it is this. Discouragement in the face of sins repented of, is a great tool of Satan to hinder the believer's progress in grace.

11:13 Discouragement in the face of sins repented of, is a great tool of Satan to hinder the believer's progress in grace. The apostle says, Confirm your love to him. Forgive him and comfort him. Why?

11:35 Lest he be swayed. Swallowed up with overmuch sorrow. You see, the grief of his penitence, as genuine as it is now, can become a crippling, discouraging grief, unless this dear brother, who has repented of his sin, has manifested in the attitude of the congregation, the disposition of God himself, one of forgiveness, and of restoration. And the apostle recognized that if that poor brother was allowed to go on limping under the pressure of discouragement over sins already repented of, Satan would have gained a tremendous advantage in the church of Corinth. And what was true of them in that specific historical context is true of every single believer in the church of Corinth. In any context, the sin may not be so gross and evident a sin as to warrant public rebuke, let alone public excommunication. But any discouragement in the face of any sin of which a believer or towards which a believer has truly repented becomes a great tool of Satan

13:01 to hinder the believer's progress in grace. And perhaps, at no point is the character of the devil more evident than at this point. Jesus said in John 8, 44, Ye are of your father the devil, and the lust of your father he will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and then he goes on to say, He is a liar, and the father of it.

Satan's Deceptive Tactics Before and After Sin

13:30 When you were contemplating that particular sin, which this morning holds you as it were in the grip of your heart, in the grip of discouragement, what was the lie of the devil to you? Oh, you're a Christian. You believe in Christ, whose grace and forgiveness is greater than any sin. That's a little sin.

13:51 Surely the grace of Christ can forgive you and cleanse you if you indulge that sin. And so by listening to the whisperings of that arch-deceiver, that fiend of hell, you became bold to sin with your eyes wide open as a Christian. Your eyes were wide open. And you sin deliberately and willfully because you believe the lie.

14:15 Oh, it is but a little thing. The grace of Christ is greater than that sin. Where sin abounds, grace does much more abound. Ah, but now what's happened?

14:25 God has uncovered that sin. For some of you in great measure, He's used the ministry of the past weeks that Pastor Nichols has been bringing to us from Ephesians chapter 4, 25, and on into chapter 5, to lay bare our sins. And now that God has been pleased to work in you a spirit of penitence, a spirit of true acknowledgement of your sin, and you have turned in the direction of the Lord and of His grace, what has that arch-fiend now whispered in your ear? He's changed his story completely.

15:04 Oh, wait a minute. You weren't simply surprised by that sin. It wasn't that you were walking, walking along with your face set to Zion and were suddenly surprised by a flank attack of the enemy. You conceived that sin willfully and deliberately and walked into it with your eyes wide open.

15:24 There's no forgiveness for sins like that in the Gospel. That's the willful sin that can only bring upon you the ultimate judgment of Almighty God. Why even bother to go to the throne of grace? You sin willful.

15:40 You sin deliberately. You sinned against light. You even sinned against the present promptings of the Spirit of God. You were conscious of that pull of grace away from sin at the very point that you indulged your sin.

15:55 Your sin is too great for the grace of God.

16:01 He's a liar, isn't he? He told you a short time before it was a little thing. Oh, grace can sweep that away in a moment. Now grace has arrested you.

16:14 The spotlight of truth has burned in upon that sin. And like David, you have to say, though I had covered it, though I had sought to hide it from the living God, I can no longer do that. And you have to cry out as he did, have mercy upon me. But this very morning, you are crippled as a Christian.

16:38 Because though you have to the best of your knowledge truly repented, of that sin or those sins, your spirit is bowed down with some doubt as to whether or not that sin is truly forgiven and you are truly cleansed so that your standing before God this morning in Jesus Christ is a perfect standing. My dear Christian friend, listen this morning. Whenever you allow discouragement, in the face of sins repented of, you fall prey to the influence of Satan who is seeking to hinder your progress in grace. And I know from pastoral dealings with some of you that this is not a theoretical danger.

17:37 And it is not merely something that occurs to one or two of the people of God occasionally. If the apostles, if the apostle was very conscious of the present activity in the church at Corinth, then I would be a fool to be less than conscious of the present activity of that wicked one in this assembly of God's people. Oh, do you see the principle? Satan will gain a tremendous advantage if you allow him to hold you in the grip of discouragement even when your sins have been repented of and confessed to God.

Overcoming Discouragement: Pleading the Blood of Christ

18:20 Well, you say, Pastor, how in the world can I come out from underneath that crippling discouragement? When you described the kind of sins you're talking about, you were describing me. How can I be brought out from underneath that? Well, the apostle had a specific prescription for these people.

18:41 And basically for them it was this. Manifest in your congregational life to this man. And in tangible ways that he can read and understand the disposition of the living God toward him. Let your attitude as a congregation be a mirror of the attitude and the disposition of God.

19:02 And likewise, my brothers and sisters, there are some specific things which you and I can and must do if we ever find ourselves, if some of you find yourselves this morning under that crippling power under that crippling power under that crippling power of discouragement in the face of sins committed, yes, but sins truly repented of. And let me suggest three lines of thought that I trust will be helpful to you. Number one is this. There can be no such discouragement while pleading the infinite worth of the blood of Christ.

19:42 There can be no such discouragement while pleading the infinite worth while pleading the infinite worth while pleading the infinite worth while pleading the infinite worth of the blood of Christ.

19:53 I read two very familiar portions of the word of God, 1 John chapter 1 and verse 7. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son goes on cleansing us from all sin. Now notice there are no qualifications. The only condition described is the condition of the believer who is walking in the light.

20:32 He is not seeking to hide from God or hide anything from God. He is living under the searching exposure of the light of God's countenance, God's law, God's holiness. And in that context, sin is continually discovered. The discovery, that sin is no proof that he's not walking in the light, it's an evidence that he is.

20:56 It's only the man in a pitch black room who has no consciousness that he looks in the mirror, that his face is dirty, if indeed it is. But the moment the switch is flipped on, if his face is covered with mud and he looks in the mirror, he discovers his true condition. And so John assumes that the one walking in the light stands in need of continual cleansing, and so he gives this gracious promise. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sin.

21:33 And John was not at all afraid that he would overstate the virtue, the infinite worth of the blood of Christ. He was not ignorant of the fact that at that very hour in which he wrote this epistle, there in the churches to which the epistle would come, would be believers who had sinned willfully, who had sinned grievously, some who had sinned subtly, and others who had sinned in ways that caused shame even to the congregation. And yet he dared to write the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, goes on cleansing us from all sin. As surely as sinners dishonor Christ by being indifferent to His blood, indifferent to the overtures of mercy in the gospel before they are saved. It is an act of insult, highest insult to God, when Almighty God should stoop in grace and mercy and say, In my Son is a fountain open for sin and uncleanness for the vilest of sinners. Acknowledge your vileness and plunge and be cleansed. What an insult to walk by that fountain, either in the deception of self-righteousness, saying, I need no such fountain.

22:59 That was the Pharisees' problem. I thank Thee, I am not His other man. Or to believe that your sins are greater than the efficacy of that fountain. To stand by that fountain and say, oh, to think that a fountain is open for sin and uncleanness.

23:17 What a blessed thing. What a wonderful thing. But the fountain does not have that which is necessary to reach the depths of my sin-stained soul. Oh, unbelieving sinner.

23:31 Such unbelief in the efficacy of the blood of Christ is an insult to the Lord Jesus and to the Father who sent Him and to the Spirit who attends the preaching of the gospel. As many of us sitting here this morning, by the grace of God, have found that that initial, self-righteous indifference or that unbelieving hesitance have been overcome and we have plunged initially into that fountain open for sin and uncleanness. And we can sing, oh, happy day that fixed my choice on Thee, my Savior and my God. Well, may this glowing heart rejoice and sound its music all abroad. But now what's happened? After the flush of your newfound faith in Christ gave tremendous impetus to your early days as a believer and in a sense you almost thought that you were forever done with sin, God wonderfully, often wonderfully, neutralizes much of the power of indwelling sin in a new believer lest he be swallowed up with discouragement. But then God begins to bring you down to the world of reality where the rest of us live.

24:53 Where you're very conscious that the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. And these two are contrary, the one to the other, so that you may not do the things that you would, Galatians 5, 17. And as you began to discover more and more of your potential for sin, even as a believer, you have fallen grievously and in some areas you have fallen repeatedly. Child of God, you do insult to that fountain open for sin and uncleanness if you show any reticence to plunge as quickly and believingly now as you did at the first. That's why John can go on to say in verse 9, if we confess our sins. He does not say if we do penance, if we rationalize them away. No, no.

25:53 If we confess them, if we say the same things about them that God does, He is faithful. You notice, we confess, He is faithful. From our confession we are taken immediately to something totally objective to us. From our confession, our attention is riveted upon the character of God.

26:21 He is faithful and righteous. Upon the activity of God, to forgive and to cleanse. To forgive what? Our sins.

26:33 What sins? All against life and the sins against privilege. Yes. He is faithful and righteous to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all.

26:56 All. All righteousness. Why? Because the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, goes on cleansing from all sin.

27:12 And as surely as unbelievers dishonor God and insult Him by their refusal to plunge initially, child of God, you dishonor God and cripple yourself with discouragement by failing to plead and believe in the infinite worth of the blood of Christ. There can be no discouragement in the face of sins repented of if there is a believing plea with respect to the infinite worth of the blood of Christ. Then secondly, there can be no discouragement while resting in the prevailing power of the intercession of Christ. There can be no discouragement while resting in the prevailing power of the intercession of Christ. And if you have your Bibles open to 1 John, just keep them there. Chapter 2, verse 1.

Overcoming Discouragement: Resting in Christ's Intercession

28:17 My little children, these things write I unto you that you may not sin. And if any man sin and notice he does not put a parenthesis, by that I mean a sin of surprisal, by that I mean a sin of ignorance, by that I mean an unpremeditated sin, no such qualification is given. Now I'm fully aware that later on in the epistle, John writes those strange words, there is a sin unto death, I do not say that you should pray for it. If you see a brother sin a sin not unto death, I'm fully aware that that language is used, but I'm also fully aware that I doubt there's anyone who can expound with certainty the significance of those words except John. Whatever the sin unto death is, it has nothing to do with that believer whose heart is broken over his sin, who desires with all of his heart to have restored communion with his heavenly Father. Whatever it is, it is not that. And so we have the word of assurance, and if any man sin, we have at the very point of our sin that would cry to God in terms of the rectitude of His law, that judgment be meted upon us.

29:38 If any man sin, we have. And in point of time, the intercession of Christ is coincidental, it is there. The time we sin, He does not cease to be our intercessor, but as our intercessor and advocate, He is there at the right hand of the Father. If any man sin, we have an advocate, we have a lawyer, we have one who pleads our cause with the Father, Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.

30:11 And He is propitiation for our sins. Thank God for that word, propitiation. It's a big word, kids, isn't it? But it basically means the turning away of divine wrath by the offering of the sacrifice of Jesus.

30:32 For God to be propitiated means that His wrath is turned away and Christ Himself at the right hand of the Father is the embodiment of all the virtue of His death upon the cross. And as our great intercessor, He pleads our case. How can a Christian be discouraged over sins committed and repented of while there is a rest in the prevailing intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ? Now let me ask you, do you honor Christ and His work by groveling, shriveling, drawing back, going limping all your days? No, my friend. You honor the Lord Jesus when in the holy reservation that is always present in true repentance, you may have to say with faltering tongue and with a chastened spirit, I have grievously sinned. I have dishonored my God and grieved and quenched the Spirit.

31:48 But I believe that my sin does not take me out of the orbit of the intercession of my Savior. That my sin does not cast me off from the sphere of His pleas on behalf of His own. There can be no discouragement in the face of sins repented of while resting in the prevailing power of the intercession of Christ. And then finally, there can be no discouragement while rejoicing in the covenant faithfulness of Christ.

Overcoming Discouragement: Rejoicing in Covenant Faithfulness

32:27 You remember when our Lord Jesus instituted what we now call the Lord's Supper or the communion service as we sometimes designate it. He said, This cup is the new covenant in my blood. And all that the Lord Jesus was doing in His death and resurrection had reference to that new covenant. And in that covenant God has promised to do some wonderful things.

32:58 We find a summary of what He has promised to do in Hebrews 8 and in Hebrews 10 quoting from the Old Testament. The briefer summary is found in chapter 10 of Hebrews, verse 16. This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, saith the Lord. I will put my laws on their heart and upon their mind also will I write them.

33:29 Then saith He that their sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Now where remission of these is there is no more offering for sin. Having therefore brethren boldness you see the boldness which is the opposite of the discouragement the shrinking, the drawing back can only be ours when there is an intelligent present rejoicing in the covenant faithfulness of Christ. He died to effect the promised blessings of the new covenant which are given to us in this language. Their sins, their iniquities will I remember no more. And you see part of the problem is we remember. And because we remember we believe God must still remember in the sense that He has not put the sin away.

34:33 And truly forgiven it. And it is no part, no little part of the Christian spiritual wisdom to know how to handle the actings of His own memory. What do I do when in the midst of the day the thought of that grievous sin comes back to me? What do I do?

34:56 Well I must do one of two things. I must believe what is true about that sin or what is not true. One or the other. I must believe that somehow that sin fails to come in the category of the promise of the new covenant.

35:13 Yes, God still remembers that sin and therefore because He does I must keep it a distance. I can have no boldness in prayer. I can have no joyous communion with Him. I must go on in my so-called evangelical penance for a period of time until somehow the walls of my own memory are scrubbed and I can no longer remember before I'll believe God no longer remembers.

35:41 I will magnify the grace of God in Christ by believing the promise at the point where my own memory calls the sin back and I feel as it were the inner shock and the inner horror. Such a thing! It's at that point that I need to rejoice in the covenant faithfulness. The covenant faithfulness of Christ and believe that for Christ's sake that sin is remembered against me.

36:16 No. Ah, but someone says, Pastor Martin, won't people take such a doctrine and use it as an excuse to sin with a high hand? If they do, that's their problem. And they'll answer to God for their wicked abuse of grace.

Addressing Misconceptions and Final Exhortation

36:38 And if there's anyone here this morning who, listening to such teaching, would say, Oh, in the light of all of that, man, I can just go out and sin as I please. And then I just ask the Lord, my friend, listen, even to think that way shows that you're not a Christian. You see, because the Christian does not want to sin with a high hand. He has seen his sin in the light of God's burning holiness.

37:05 He has seen his sin above all in the light of the agonies of the Son of God upon the cross. And even at the point when he sins most grievously, he does not sin with total abandonment. There is within him the principle of divine grace so that he can never, as it were, just utterly throw himself on the crest of any sinful passion and ride it to the shore and catch the next wave and ride it in again with glee and with delight and then pick himself up and say, oh, well, now I'll go and get a little cleansing. No, no, no, no, no, no.

37:48 Anyone who talks that way knows nothing of the grace of God. I'm speaking to those of you who are true believers, who do with all your heart long to be rid of all sin. If you could, you would live a life of sinless perfection. If you could, you would.

38:12 And it is that for which you yearn and long and that which makes heaven heaven to you. Above all else, in the language of Robert Murray McShane, is that you'll love him with an unsinning heart. Now, can you say from the depths of your being an amen to that reality? Oh, Lord, if I could live but one day free of sin, free from dishonoring you, disobeying you.

38:40 No, that's the disposition of the true Christian. But the reality is that such a person sins, and not only sins ignorantly, which he does, and not only sins by surprisals, that is, a sudden temptation. You whack the finger and before you know it some of the old language poured out of sin of surprisal. But even Christians sin willfully and deliberately.

39:04 Sin is willfully and deliberately as David sinned. When he looked, he lusted, he took and then covered his sin. Sin is willfully as Peter did. When he cursed and denied and cursed and denied and denied again.

39:26 The Bible does not cover up the reality of the magnitude of the sins of the saints, but it's against that very backdrop that it magnifies the glory of the grace of God. That God's grace is such that the sin of His children does not disinherit them. The sin of His children does not put them outside the orbit of grace. And I plead with you this morning who are walking with lead feet and with bowed shoulders and downcast eyes.

40:09 Thank God you're still plodding on your way to the celestial city, but you're a terrible advertisement for the gospel. You're a terrible advertisement for the gospel. Because the gospel can do something more than it's done for you. And the gospel is that you as a child of God are immediately and fully cleansed and pardoned by the infinite worth of the blood of Christ when you confess your sins.

40:43 And that resting in the prevailing intercession of Christ and rejoicing in the covenant faithfulness of Christ you may go on your way rejoicing in the grace of Christ. But you say, Pastor, won't that lead us to treat sin lightly? No, no. There is no more powerful preventive against the repetition of sin than the joyous knowledge of the full pardon of sin.

41:11 Do you hear me? There is no greater preservative against the repetition of sin than the knowledge of the full pardon of sin. Because if you're discouraged and bowed down and you find no joy in Christ you are vulnerable to sin yet more. For you say, I find no sweetness in Christ and with a discouraged spirit you're vulnerable to sin.

41:37 Satan gains an advantage. But it's the man who is so rejoicing in the privileges of grace who realizes when temptation comes What? Shall I exchange the joy of my Father's countenance and the ambulance of conscious communion with my Savior for this little trinket of time? You see, it was when Christian was looking at his robes considering the scroll in his hand it was then that he's found himself you remember most preserved against lapses into sin. No, no, my friend. God keeps us in the way of grace. Not primarily by legal terrors but by the powerful pressure of the knowledge of the greatness of His grace in Christ.

42:43 And so I have bared my heart to you in a pastoral exhortation this morning. And that exhortation is based upon the principle of 2 Corinthians 2.11 that Satan gains an advantage when no advantage over us we are not ignorant of his devices. Discouragement in the face of sins repented of is a great tool of Satan to hinder the believer's progress.

43:14 And oh, how the enemy would love to gain an advantage when in past weeks the Lord by the Spirit has taken that Ephesians 4 and 5 passage shined the light upon many of our hearts and I know from phone calls I've received people getting things confessed to me attitudes and other things that I didn't know were there. Thank God and I know from talking with some of the other elders others of you have been dealing with sin and getting matters right with God and one another but oh how Satan would gain an advantage precisely at this point that having lost the ground of keeping us in the position of covering our sin rationalizing, excusing it now that we're prepared by grace to deal with it than to tell us the sin is greater than the grace of our Savior. Well it is not and we would not allow that wicked one to gain any advantage in our assembly but by the grace of God magnify the worth of the blood of Christ the certainty of the intercession of Christ and the glory of his covenant and the faithfulness to us his people. You see you who are not Christians we're not a bunch of sad sacks oh there are times when we're cast down because you see our greatest burden

44:42 is the very burden that will press you to hell unless you repent. It's the burden of sin and because God took it so seriously to send his only son to die upon the cross we take it seriously and until you take it seriously there's no hope for you. But if you begin to take your sin seriously my friend there is hope and don't believe the whisperings of the devil that there's no hope for you. There is hope and it's found in Christ but in Christ alone.

45:14 Let us pray. Our Father what thanks can we render to you for the greatness of your grace and kindness to us in the Lord Jesus Christ. We think of the number and the magnitude of our sins and we acknowledge that if we were the ones in the place of judgment in the place of disposing the destiny of creatures who would dare to rebel against their creator we would have disposed of ourselves a long time ago. But we thank you that you are not like us you are rich in mercy great in compassion infinite in love and we pray that the Holy Spirit who alone can convince sinners of their need and who alone then can convince them of the adequacy of the provision in Christ to meet that need oh that he may work mightily this morning in the hearts of those who have never once plunged into that fountain open for sin and uncleanness and particularly Lord

46:39 in the hearts of some of your struggling saints who are bowed down this morning with discouragement though they have repented of their sins though they have acknowledged their sins yet they go on crippled because they have fallen prey to the devices of Satan oh God deliver them this morning we pray give them such a joyous believing sight of the efficacy of the blood of Christ and the glory and power of the intercession of Christ that their hearts may leap within them in the knowledge that the blood of Jesus has indeed cleansed them and goes on cleansing them from all sin bless them the truth preached this morning may it prove efficacious in every heart hear our prayer and may the blessing of your grace and presence rest upon us and abide with us as we leave this place further to sanctify this day to your praise and to our profit through Jesus Christ our Lord Amen