Are You Under the Benefits of Christ's Sacrifice?

The Nature and Object of Saving Faith: Christ as Prophet, Priest, and King

0:01 What does it mean to believe in Jesus Christ?

0:06 How can I know that my professed faith is the faith of God's elect and not the faith spoken of in the book of James, which is the faith of the demons?

0:17 What must I know about Christ in order to truly believe in Christ? These and similar basic questions are the thoughtful queries of the man or woman who takes seriously the declaration of Scripture which says, He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth upon him. In these morning studies, we're seeking to answer these and similar questions by considering the nature and the object of saving faith. Saving faith, by definition, is self-commitment to Christ.

1:00 In all the glory of His person and the perfection of His work as He is offered to us in the Gospel. And as we seek to bring into focus the glory of His person and the perfection of His work, we are doing so by considering Him as He set forth in the Scripture as God's anointed prophet, priest, and king. And all that is involved in Christ's work can be classified under those three offices of our faith. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who is set before us in the Gospel as a prophet to teach us, a priest to forgive and intercede for us, and a king to rule us.

1:42 In this series of studies, we have considered Him as our prophet. And the sober declaration of the Scripture which says, And it shall come to pass that whosoever will not hearken unto that prophet shall be cut off from among the people. The essence of unbelief is in part a refusal, to submit one's mind to Jesus Christ as teacher. And conversely, part of the essence of saving faith is embracing Him to be my teacher, to think His thoughts after Him about heaven, hell, man, the world to come, life, ethics, morality.

2:20 A Christian is one who is committed to Jesus Christ in the glory of His person and the perfection of His work as He is offered to us in the Gospel and He is offered as a prophet to teach us. And then He is offered as a priest to forgive and intercede for us and we are presently studying the priesthood of our Lord Jesus Christ. His priestly work can be divided under two great heads, that of oblation or sacrifice and that of intercession. We have considered the sacrifice which He made as God's appointed and divinely qualified high priest and we've done so under five key words.

The Voluntary, Objective, Vicarious, Penal, and Efficacious Sacrifice of Christ

3:00 I'd like to start with the first one, but trust if you don't remember all of them, you remember some of them. For in those words there is a summary of that sacrifice upon which your eternal salvation rests. It was a voluntary sacrifice. That is, what He did, He did willingly.

3:18 It was an objective sacrifice. What He did, He did with reference to God. The Scripture says He offered Himself without spot to God. What He did was on behalf of sinners.

3:30 It was a vicarious sacrifice. He gave Himself for us, the just, for in the stead of the unjust. And as we saw last week, it was an efficacious sacrifice. Our Lord will obtain that for which He shed His blood.

3:47 For the Scripture says He shall see of the travail of His soul and He shall be satisfied.

The Burning Question: Are You Under the Benefits of Christ's Sacrifice?

3:55 The Lord willing, next week we want to begin our study of the intercessory work of Christ as a high priest. But as we leave this, this area of thought, His sacrifice, I'm deeply concerned that we have something more than a measure of understanding about the nature of that sacrifice. For just as we considered Him as prophet and then pressed the issue upon your conscience, is He your prophet? Is your mind subject to His truth?

4:23 Do you think His thoughts after Him? So I would press the question this morning, is Jesus Christ your priest? Have you come under the category, have you come under the category, have you come under the canopy of the protection of that voluntary, objective, vicarious, penal, efficacious sacrifice? It's not enough to know that as a priest He offered such a sacrifice and that that sacrifice will attain its desired end in the plan and purpose of God.

4:55 For all this will do is send me to hell with greater facts in my head which will make the pit of burning all the more intense for me. For the burning issue having considered Him as a high priest who offered this sacrifice is this, am I under the benefits of that sacrifice? And this is the issue that by the scriptures and the help of the Spirit we wish to press upon you this morning. The purpose of my message I lay before you without any equivocation, without any dodging.

5:26 I want each one of you seated where you are. Those of you that I've known for five years, those that are visitors, those that I've only known for a few months, I want each of you, each one of you, to ask yourself this question and seek to answer it with an open Bible. Do I stand this day under the privileges of that blood which was shed by the Lord Jesus, our great high priest? Well, you say, how can I know?

5:57 Well, if you're in earnest to know, it's possible to know. For the scripture teaches that the same God who made this sacrifice, this marvelous provision for sinners in the sacrifice of His Son, is the God who applies the benefits of that sacrifice with mighty power to those for whom the sacrifice was made. In other words, it's not only God who makes the provision of redemption, but it's God who applies that provision. Or as someone has written a book on this subject, redemption is not only accomplished by God, but it's also applied by Him.

Three Key Words for the Application of Christ's Sacrifice: Conviction, Illumination, Persuasion

6:38 And in the application of the benefits of that sacrifice to men, what God does in bringing sinners under the blessed protection and into all the wonderful benefits of that sacrifice can be summarized under three key words. Those are the three words I want to leave with you this morning. And I want you to ask yourself, have I experienced what those three words teach and set forth? The three words are these.

7:05 Conviction. Illumination. And persuasion.

7:11 Every single person whom God brings into the benefits of that atoning work of Christ, the High Priest,

7:20 every single one,

7:24 will be those who've experienced conviction, illumination, and a persuasion, all of which are the work of God. Now let's consider them in that order. First of all, conviction. Now what do I mean by that?

Conviction: Personal, Painful Awareness of Guilt and Pollution

7:38 Simply this. If you are under the protection and a benefactor of the blessings of the sacrifice of Christ, you have been made aware of your desperate need of such a sacrifice.

7:55 God does not apply to men the benefits of that sacrifice without making them aware of their desperate need of such a sacrifice.

8:07 Our Lord made clear that such conviction was absolutely necessary. There, if He is to save men, for you remember He said in the ninth chapter of the Gospel of Matthew, they that are whole, verse 13, need not a physician, but they that are sick. But go ye and learn what this meaneth. I will have mercy and not sacrifice, for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

8:36 They that be whole have no need of a physician, but they that are sick, I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance. In other words, the only people whom He effectually calls are those to whom He reveals their sinfulness.

8:55 We know that absolutely speaking, no one is righteous. The Scripture says there is none righteous, no, not one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. So what our Lord is talking about in verse 13 is the fact that He has not come to call people who are righteous in their own eyes, but those who are sinners.

9:15 They are sinners in their own eyes. They have been brought to that place of conviction. They have been made aware of their desperate need of the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord sets this forth so clearly when He describes the God-blessed man in the Beatitudes.

9:35 The first characteristic of a man who is blessed of God is this, blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. And what is the kingdom of heaven? Poverty of spirit. Poverty of spirit is the recognition that I have nothing.

9:52 I am nothing. I can do nothing. Acceptable to God, I stand in need of all things. Now what is the essence of this conviction?

10:03 You listen carefully as I have tried to choose words with some manner of precision. I'm not just spinning out words.

10:11 I've wrestled, my wife will bear witness to this, and struggled and sweated and I'm struggling in my own soul this morning to try to deliver it to that which I believe God wants us to know. What is the essence of that conviction which God brings to men who are brought under the blessings of the blood of Christ? It is a personal, painful awareness of my guilt and my pollution because of sin. A personal and painful awareness of my guilt.

10:51 I stand condemned and my pollution I am defiled both of which arise because of my sin. The essence of that conviction about which our Lord is speaking when He says, blessed are the poor in spirit, when He says, He came not to call the righteous but sinners, is that hearty, unhesitating acknowledgement that what the Word of God says about me is true. For in the Scripture we read, in Romans 5, four things about us. We read that Christ died for the ungodly.

11:29 We read that when we were without strength, Christ died. We read that He died for sinners and in verse 10 we read that we were reconciled when we were enemies. God says, I'm ungodly. I am a sinner.

11:45 I am an enemy. I am without strength. Now what is this conviction which is absolutely necessary? If men are to apply themselves to Jesus Christ the Great Physician, it's that personal painful awareness that this is true.

12:00 It's not just a verbal assent that it's true.

12:06 There's all the difference in the world between the two things. It's a personal painful awareness that when the Scripture says certain people were without strength, that means me. That when it says Christ died for the ungodly, that means me. When it says that enemies were reconciled, reconciled by the death of His Son, that means me.

12:30 The source of that conviction is always twofold. A revelation of the character of God and a revelation of what I am and what I've done in the light of the standards of that holy God.

12:47 You remember in the Old Testament, and I'm convinced that this is a beautiful picture and God gave it for that purpose, that when a sinner, when an Israelite, pardon me, would come and approach God in worship, he knew that inside the veil, God dwelt in Shekinah glory. There was the visible manifestation of the presence of God between the cherubim that overlooked the mercy seat and the Ark of the Covenant. And within the Ark, the Ten Commandments were placed, the two tables of the law. And when the high priest would go in to the holiest of holy once a year, God commanded him that he was to sprinkle blood before the Ark and upon the Ark, before the mercy seat, I'm sorry, and upon the mercy seat, the mercy seat resting over the Ark. And within that Ark were the Ten Commandments and above the Ark, the manifest visible presence of a holy God. What was God saying? He was saying that all approach of men to Him is in terms of His holy law.

13:52 And that because men have broken that law, there is but one way that sinful lawbreakers can approach a holy God, and that's on the basis, of the blood of sacrifice. So the priest did not dare come into the presence of God in His manifest glory without sprinkling blood before the mercy seat and upon the mercy seat. A beautiful picture of this principle, that man who approaches God must approach Him with the recognition that God is holy. He has rights, and He has expressed those rights and those demands with respect to His creatures in terms of His holy law.

14:30 But I have broken that holy law, therefore there is only one way that I, a guilty sinner, can approach Him, the holy God, and that's on the basis of the blood of sacrifice. Listen carefully. To approach God on any other basis is the essence of sin.

14:50 To approach God in some vague, nebulous way, saying, well, I'll just come to Him and I'll pray to Him and I'll believe He's all love and all mercy, without a conscious recognition, He is holy. Infinitely. Infinitely holy. He charges His angels with folly.

15:06 The heavens are not clean in His sight, the Scripture declares. So holy that seraphim and cherubim veil face and feet and cry one to another, holy, holy, holy. He is holy. I am sinful.

15:19 That law which says, this do and thou shalt live, this fail to do and thou shalt die, that law condemns me. The requirements of that law stand over me, demanding that I love Him with my whole heart, love my neighbor as myself. I stand condemned before that law. I cannot approach Him in any other way but on the basis of the blood of sacrifice.

15:43 Now, all whom God brings to embrace the sacrifice of Christ the High Priest, He first of all brings to a place of conviction, which is that personal painful awareness that I stand before this God guilty because of sin. I stand before Him polluted because of my sin. That's the only way men will ever approach Him. We see some clear illustrations of this in the Scripture.

16:13 You remember the instance of the publican who stood outside the temple, and it's recorded in Luke chapter 18 and verse 13 that he prayed this prayer. He would not so much as lift up his eyes to heaven, seeming to be an indication that he knew the God who dwelt in the heavens was too holy, but probably hung his head upon his chest, and he cried, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. You see, there was a personal painful awareness of guilt and pollution that held him back in a distance. He didn't come crashing and rushing brazenly into the presence of the deity like that proud Pharisee who lifted up his eyes and his head and puffed out his chest and said, I thank thee I'm not his others. No, there was a personal, painful awareness of guilt and of pollution. You know what that is? That's why it says he beat upon his breast.

17:11 It was painful. He just didn't come to somebody or someone come to him and say, now look, the Bible says you're a sinner. Are you going to admit it and say, oh yeah, I admit it. The Bible says it and God knows better than I.

17:22 You see, we've been blighted with this terrible, terrible, terrible practice of mistaking a mere admission of guilt for a personal, painful awareness. Corruption and guilt wrought by God the Spirit. That's why so many can profess to love Christ and trust him and show so little fruit of devotion to him. Another clear example of course is the prodigal as recorded in Luke chapter 15 who said, I will arise and go to my Father and say, Father, I have sinned against heaven.

17:58 I've sinned against heaven. I've sinned against heaven and in thy sight. I want to ask you some very searching questions this morning. And I want to call in some witnesses.

18:12 It's one thing for us to vindicate ourselves and say, oh yes, I have been brought to that place of personal, painful awareness of guilt and pollution. But at the mouth of two or three witnesses the Scripture says every word should be confirmed. May I call in some witnesses to either vindicate you or condemn you this morning? May I call in some witnesses?

18:33 Let me call in the law of God. Call into the witness stand. Could the law of God, if it could speak, let's give him life and form and let him speak. Could the law of God stand as a witness on your behalf this morning and say of you, no one else but of you, I have done my killing work in that sinner.

18:54 I am witness to the fact that he has seen himself condemned before my righteous demands. Could the law of God be summoned in as a witness on your behalf this morning? Could the law rise up and say that it had done its work in your life, bringing you to a personal, painful awareness that you are guilty and you cannot approach God any other way but on the basis of the blood of sacrifice? Could we call, and I say it reverently, could we call the Holy Spirit to bear witness?

19:29 And could the Spirit of God say, I have opened the eyes of that sinner to see a little of himself. I have opened the eyes of that sinner to see enough of himself. To make him painfully aware of his need of an atoning sacrifice to turn away the wrath of the Father. Could the Spirit stand as a witness to his own work in your life and say that you had been brought to that place by his probing work?

19:59 Could God the Father say, I bear witness to the circumstances, to the time, to the place when that sinner came as the prodigal saying, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight am I no more worthy to be called thy son? Could God the Son be called in as a witness and could God the Son say, Yes, I found that sinner like the poor blind beggar on his knees crying out, Son of David, have mercy! I found that one pleading mercy from me, bringing nothing but guilt and corruption and depravity and sin. Looking away from every other hope of mercy and crying to me, Son of David, have mercy! Could we call in those four witnesses on your behalf this morning? Could we call God's law to witness that you were slain with a sense of your sin and your guilt? Could we call in the Holy Spirit to bear witness to his work of opening your eyes to see your guilt?

21:03 Could we call in the witness of the Father? Could we call in the witness of the Son? All whom God brings to himself he brings by way of conviction. And talk not about being under the protection and covering of the blood of Christ if you are a stranger to this.

Illustration of Conviction: George Whitefield's Brother

21:24 For Jesus said, I came not to call the righteous but sinners, those who have been brought to a personal painful awareness of their need. Let me illustrate from an incident in history. Most of you have heard of the great saint, first of all, and servant of God, secondly, George Whitefield. George Whitefield had a brother.

21:47 We don't hear of his brother. And his brother was once an earnest Christian as was Mr. Whitefield. But he entered a period of his life in which he strayed from the Lord in the true biblical sense, was backslidden for a period of time.

22:03 But the Spirit of God had dealt with him. Whom the Lord loves, he chastens and rebukes, and scourges every son whom he receives. And God had brought his child back into a way of holiness and fellowship. And shortly after this incident of his spiritual recovery, he heard his brother George preach.

22:23 And what he heard so wounded and smote his heart that the next day when he was at tea with Lady Huntington, who was one of the nobility of that day, who used to hear Mr. Whitefield with great profit to her own soul apparently. He sat there at tea, and he could not eat. And he bowed his head over in his hands, and he cried out, Oh, I'm a lost man.

22:48 I'm a lost man. And Lady Huntington said, What did you say, Mr. Whitefield? And he said, I'm lost.

22:55 I'm lost. She said, I'm glad. Oh, I'm so glad. He turned to her and said, My lady, you're glad?

23:04 That's a cruel thing to say to a man who feels himself lost. I'm glad, she said. Oh, Mr. Whitefield, I am glad.

23:11 I repeat, I am glad. For the Scripture says, The Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. And George Whitefield's brother said, Oh, how that Scripture comes to my heart with power. Oh, how I now have hope that there is mercy for me and that God will forgive even me.

23:34 And he rose up from that place rejoicing that God received lost sinners, walked outside, fell over, and was dead. You see, God in mercy wanted to bring that person to a place of conscious, delightful embrace of the sacrifice of Christ. But he had to, first of all, get him lost. In that sense, only God can make a lost sinner.

24:08 Follow me? You say, wait a minute. I thought the devil in our sin made us lost. Yes.

24:15 But the problem is we're not conscious and painfully aware of our lostness until God shows us that's what we are. For the subtlety and the power of sin is such that we're blinded to the malady that will damn us and destroy us. I ask you this morning, is the word conviction in any way descriptive of what God has done in your life? All that he brings to Jesus Christ as a high priest, all that he brings to embrace him in the glory of his person and the perfection of his work, he brings to a place of conviction.

Illumination: Seeing the Perfect Suitableness of Christ's Sacrifice

24:58 Second word, we'll deal with it but briefly, illumination. Illumination. Now what do we mean by that? Simply this.

25:06 You have been made to see the perfect suitableness of Christ's sacrifice to your need. Not only have you been brought to see your need of that sacrifice, but you have been made to see the perfect suitableness of that sacrifice to your need. Now why must there be a work of illumination, of revelation by the Spirit if this is to be true? Well, the Scripture tells us because of the state we're in by nature, we cannot grasp such things.

25:41 1 Corinthians 2.14 declares, The natural man receives not the things of the Spirit of God, they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them. He has no faculty to perceive such misguidance. 2 Corinthians 2.25 declares, The blind man is blind because of the counsel of the Lord. The blind man is blind because he has no faculty to perceive such misguidance. 2 Corinthians 2.15 declares, The blind man is blind because he cannot see what is in his eyes.

26:13 Why? Because the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ will shine upon him. There's not only that natural blindness that is a part of us in nature, but there is that positive infliction of blindness by the devil himself. And that to which he blinds men is the glory of the gospel. And what is the glory of the gospel? That in Jesus Christ, prophet, priest, and king, all that sinners will ever need for acceptance with God is to be found and to be had in the embrace of faith. So it's no surprise that we read a statement such as we read in 1 Corinthians 1.18, the preaching of the cross is to them that perish what? Foolishness. Foolishness. Why? Because the mind sees no soupleness. All this talk about a bloody

27:05 cross and perhaps the past few weeks, you couldn't care less that his sacrifice was voluntary, that it was vicarious, that it was offered to God on behalf of sinners, that it's an efficacious sacrifice. You couldn't care less. Why? Because the preaching of the cross is foolishness. You see nothing in the story of that bloody cross that answers to the need of your own depraved nature and your guilt. Ah, but not so with those whom God is bringing to partake of the benefits of that cross. For the last part of 1 Corinthians 1.18 says what? Though the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, unto us who are saved it is the what? It is the power of God. It's the power of God. It's the power of God. It's the

27:51 power of God. You see, the preaching of the cross becomes the very point at which the power of God becomes operative in the life of a sinner. Why? Because he sees by the illumination of the Spirit that the cross and the sacrifice offered is perfectly suited to his need. The greatest problem that looms before the mind of a man or woman convicted of the Spirit is this. How can a holy God, that God who's given his law, that God who's given his law, who's given his law, who's law I've broken, that God who's just and says the soul that sinneth it shall die, that God who is said in his word the wages of sin is death, how can that God do anything but destroy me, damn me, banish me to the nethermost part of his universe because of my sin? That's the great problem that looms before the mind of a sinner. How can God be just and do anything else but destroy me?

28:48 Has that problem ever loomed up in your mind? If it hasn't, dear one, I doubt you know the first thing about the gospel. For the gospel is God's device to solve that very problem. How God can be just and still justify sinners, that's the core of the gospel.

29:06 That's why Paul said in Romans 3, 26, look at that text, it's the core of the gospel. If anything lies at the very center of gospel truth, it's that statement given in Romans 3 and verse 26, to declare, I say at this time his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus. The whole message of the gospel is declaring how a holy God who must punish sin and who cannot relax the demands of his law, how he can still be just and punish sin and wonder of wonders at the same time declare sinners free from the curse of the law. How can this be? Ah, that's the message. Of the cross. Because in that sacrifice, when he stood in our room instead and offered himself up to God and became a curse for us, when he who knew no sin became sin for us, justice was being fully satisfied in the sufferings of Christ, so that God may say to all believing sinners, thy sins are forgiven, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, not because I've closed my eyes to them, Punished in the person of my son.

30:30 So the scripture now says if we confess our sins, he is faithful and what? Just to forgive. Well, how does justice enter into forgiveness? I thought all justice does is punish.

30:45 Ah, you see, justice is now the friend of the believing sinner. For justice found its full satisfaction in the sufferings of Christ. So that I can come pleading forgiveness, not only on the basis of God's faithfulness, but on the basis of his justice, Lord. My sins were punished in my substitute.

31:06 I plead forgiveness. I plead forgiveness through his wounds, through his sufferings. That's the nature of that illumination that shows the suitableness of the sufferings of Christ, the sacrifice of Christ to my need. I ask you as you sit here.

31:24 This morning, has the Holy Spirit shown you the suitableness of that sacrifice to your need? Has this been the most precious revelation that's ever been born home to your soul? How God, holy, thrice holy, can actually say to the likes of you and me, Son, thy sins be forgiven me. If you've never felt yourself hopelessly, helplessly lost, the gospel is just so much religious.

31:54 It's just garbage to you.

31:59 That's all.

Persuasion: Powerfully Drawn to Rest on Christ Alone

32:01 But oh, when you begin to feel yourself helplessly, hopelessly lost, it's the power of God, the only basis upon which you know you can approach the Holy God. And then the third word is the word persuasion.

32:19 Are you under the protection of the blood of Christ?

32:23 If you're a stranger to the word conviction, you cannot be. If you're a stranger to the word and what it means, that illumination, as in increase inè youIMO, and also if you're a stranger to the word persuasion, what do we mean by that? Simply this, that you have been powerfully drawn to rest the weight of your soul upon Christ and His sacrifice. Not only have you been brought to that place of personal, painful awareness of your need of the sacrifice and not only have you been brought to see the perfect suitableness of that sacrifice to your need, but you've been powerfully drawn.

33:00 drawn by the Spirit to actually rest the weight of your soul upon Christ and upon His sacrifice.

33:10 The statement in the Shorter Catechism is beautiful at this point. What is effectual calling? Effectual calling is the work of God's Spirit whereby convincing us of our sin and misery. That's the first thing, conviction.

33:25 And enlightening our minds in the knowledge of Christ. That's illumination. And renewing our wills, He does persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ freely as offered to us in the Gospel. It's all right there.

33:44 I didn't know that until after I had the message all prepared. It would have saved me a lot of work. Convincing, enlightening, persuading. See it? It's all there.

33:54 And all who've come under the canopy of the protection of the blood of Christ are a persuaded people. They have been powerfully drawn by the Spirit to rest the weight of their souls upon Christ. You take the moralist, the man or woman who feels, well, my virtues are good enough. Oh yes, I sort of need Christ to supplement my virtues, for there are a few chinks in the armor, but my virtues will add to it.

34:23 I'm not as bad as others. When that person, when that person is drawn by the Lord, by the Spirit, into an active embrace of Christ, he will gladly leave all of his professed virtue, and he'll stand before God like a publican and say, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. The moralist who thinks his virtues will add to the benefits of Christ forsakes even his virtue, just as the profligate forsakes his sin and his vice. The legalist, the man who feels that his deeds can add to the sacrifice of Christ, is glad to come to Christ.

35:03 He is glad to confess that there is nothing which can add to the perfect merit of that once-for-all sacrifice. The religionist who feels that his round of religious activity will somehow cause God to be favorably disposed to him acknowledges that even his prayers have been sin because they have flowed from an unrenewed heart. And I want you to listen carefully. The decisionist, the person who thinks all is well because he can look back into the dim, murky past and remember when he raised his hand, when he raised his lily white toward heaven and made a decision, he is glad to acknowledge that decision is nothing,

35:42 that he must cling to Christ and seek for mercy in Christ and in Christ alone. You see, the man who is powerfully persuaded and enabled to embrace Christ freely as he is offered in the gospel, he is the man who pens hymns like these that we sing so often, just as I am without one plea. Without one plea. But that thy blood was shed for me and that thou bidst me come to thee, O Lamb of God, I come, just as I am, and waiting not to rid my soul of one dark blot to thee whose blood can cleanse each spot, O Lamb of God, I come.

36:20 Oh, the gospel is a great leveler of men, isn't it? Here the man, faithful to his wife, a good father, a good provider, honored in the community, he's got to stand with a drunken, cursing man in that prison. Isn't that? And he's got to say the same words.

36:37 Nothing in my hands I bring. Brings them all down, doesn't it?

36:43 Brings them all down.

36:47 Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. It causes people to pen hymns like this familiar one. Not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy law's demands.

36:58 Could my zeal no longer know? Could my tears forever flow? These for sin could not atone. Thou must save.

37:06 And thou alone,

37:09 nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling. Foul I to the fountain fly. Has that been the honest confession of your lips and of your heart?

37:21 Guilty, vile, and helpless we. Spotless Lamb of God was he. Full atonement can it be. Hallelujah.

37:29 What a Savior. Have you been powerfully drawn by the Spirit to rest the weight of your soul upon Christ alone? Let me explain what I mean. As I look out today, I see each one of you, starting up here with our good friend the Gabriels, right back through.

37:45 I see that each one of you is resting the full physical weight of your body upon that pew. I can see that. Even with my astigmatism, I can see the folk on the back row and call you by name. And I see that each one of you is resting the full weight of your physical frame upon that pew.

38:02 I don't see anyone who's sort of half in a half squatted position. I see each one of you sunk right down. Maybe some of you are sunk down a little bit too much. You're getting a little bit drowsy.

38:13 I don't know. But I can see that with my physical eyes that you're resting the full weight of your physical frame upon that physical object, the pew. Now I want to ask you a question. Does God who knows the hearts of all present this morning, does He see that you're resting the full weight of your soul's well-being upon Jesus Christ upon Jesus Christ and His perfect sacrifice and on that alone?

38:46 Does He see that? Does He see that as you sit here you can honestly say, hangs my helpless soul on thee. That's what the hymn writer had in mind. Hangs my helpless soul on thee.

39:04 My friend, if it isn't you're in dangerous, dangerous ground this morning for what is saving faith? He that believeth on the Son hath life. It is self-commitment to Christ in all the glory of His person and the perfection of His work as He's offered to us in the gospel. And how is He offered?

39:26 Not as a priest to help us save ourselves,

39:31 but He's offered as a priest who entered into the terrible agonies of bearing the sins of men, bared His breast to the arrows of His Father's wrath against sin, tread the winepress alone, and offered unto God a perfect salvation. And now in the gospel He is presented to us as a high priest who offered a sacrifice once for all to which I can add nothing,

39:59 but upon which I am to cast the weight of my soul.

40:05 Do you know this work of persuasion? It's no small thing to bring the proud moralist off from his pretended virtues to the place where he says nothing in my hands I bring. It is no small thing to bring the strictest, legalist away from his deeds which he thinks will add to the merits of Christ. It is no small thing to bring the religionist to the place where he sees that all this round of religious activity earns no merit.

40:37 And it is no small thing to bring the decisionist who feels that because he's done something for Christ that all this is of no avail unless he is resting upon Christ.

The Call to Rest on Christ and the Fruits of Sanctification

40:56 There are some of you this morning that I fear, will not venture upon Christ because you say, well, until I see more evidences that I'm a holy man or a holy woman and love God and pray more, I just dare not venture on Christ just as I am. My friend, you've got to come just as you are. Sanctification follows justification. You cannot know what it is to serve Him with a pure conscience until your conscience is purged by the blood of Christ.

41:26 And I know that in this assembly this morning there are some of you that need to come just as you are. He justifies the ungodly, Romans 5 said. He doesn't wait until you get yourself out of the state of ungodliness. He justifies you as an ungodly man coming to Him, turning from sin and throwing yourself upon His mercy.

41:46 And so there are some of you to whom I trust this will be a word of encouragement that this morning, right as you are, you just cast yourself upon Jesus Christ as He's offered in the Gospel. Say from the heart nothing in my hands I bring simply to thy cross I cling. That's how He's offered in the Gospel. As a free, willing, able Savior to all who come unto Him and come just as they are.

42:12 On the other hand, I fear there are some of you who think that you've come, who think that you're resting upon the sacrifice of Christ, but there are not the fruits of sanctification following in your life. And the blood which purges us from sin is the blood of Christ. It is the blood which leads on to a life of sanctification. For the Scripture says how much more shall the blood of Christ purge your conscience to serve the living and the true God.

42:38 And if you've been for years professing to be cleansed by the blood of the High Priest and there is no indication of His continued work in your life leading you on to service and sanctification, my friend, you're deceiving yourself. For the blood that He spilt for sinners He spilt to ensure not only their justification but their sanctification, not only turning away the wrath of God but progressively then working into them the very likeness of Himself.

43:10 And I trust that this morning's word will be a word of conviction and disturbance to you. God one day will fill His presence, will fill heaven with men and women who gladly glory in the fact that they are there solely by His grace and by the covering of His blood. When John opens the book of the Revelation he says, Unto Him who loved us and loosed us from our sins in His blood. If you think of God's love apart from the blood of His Son you're conceiving of a love that is utterly unknown in the Scripture.

43:47 Unto Him who loved us and loosed us by His blood.

43:53 God's forgiveness is not based upon His love.

43:58 It's based upon the sacrifice of His Son. It's love that moved Him to make the sacrifice. But it's the sacrifice that removes the obstacles to our being forgiven and accepted in His sight as righteous.

Concluding Challenge: Examine Yourself by Conviction, Illumination, and Persuasion

44:12 Jesus Christ, our great High Priest, stands before us in the Gospel offered to us freely. All those who've embraced Him know the meaning of these three words by experience. Conviction. They've been made personally, painfully aware of their need of the sacrifice.

44:31 Illumination. They have been brought to see the suitableness of that sacrifice to their need. Persuasion. They have been brought to gladly rest the weight of their souls upon Christ and Christ alone.

44:48 Are those three things true of you this morning? Conviction. Illumination. Persuasion.

44:56 If not, may you mark this day as the day when you cry to God that He would show you how desperately you need His Son. If you don't see it, now you'll see it in the day of judgment and the weeping and wailing in the pit of eternal burning will be eternal witness to the folly of men who perished in the self-delusion of thinking all was well.

45:26 If you see yourself and your need but you somehow can't see how what Christ did upon a cross is answerable to that need, pray that the Holy Spirit will illumine your mind and reveal Christ crucified as the power of God to salvation. If in some measure God's been pleased to give you to see that, but you just can't seem to close with Christ and embrace Him, pray that the Lord by His Spirit will enable you to embrace Him. For He is exalted to give repentance and remission. Faith flows down from an exalted Christ as one of the gifts of grace.

46:05 Plead with Him to enable you to embrace Him. May God grant that each one of us here will take a moment to take soberly and reflect often upon those three words, what they mean in relationship to the faith that unites us to Him who is offered to us in the gospel. Let us pray.

46:37 O Lord, we confess this morning that we know that you are the one