Burbank Conference: 1973, The in Two Aspects (20:18)
Gospel—P.L. Johnson
Want to read here the words of the Apostle Paul to the elders? The Church at Ephesus. We'll read from verse 18, a few verses. And when they were come to him, he said unto them, Ye know from the first day that I came into Asia, after what manner I have been with you at all seasons, serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many tears and temptations, which befell me by the lying and wait of the Jews. And how I kept back nothing that was profitable unto you, but have showed you, and have taught you publicly, and from house to house. Testifying both to the Jews and also to the Greeks. Repentance toward God. And faith. Toward our Lord Jesus Christ. Then in the. Verse 24 But none of these things move me, neither count. I am my life dear unto myself. So that I might finish my course with joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus to testify the gospel of the grace of God. Now turn to 2nd Corinthians chapter 4, verse one. Therefore, seeing we have received. Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not. But have renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully. But by manifestation of the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not. Lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus sake. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Well, what I had before me this evening is to speak concerning the gospel. Of the glory of Christ. And in contrast with that, the thought of the gospel of the grace of God. Now I do not want to convey the thought when I make a statement like that, that there are two gospels. You remember what the apostle Paul says in First Corinthians 15 when he sets forth the gospel, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that he was buried and he rose again the third day according to the scripture. So you see, the gospel in the fullness of the thought of God is not only Christ died for our sins, but he was raised again. And he is seated now at the right hand of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is a living Savior. He is a living Savior. He is not merely one who lived in this world many years ago and went about doing good, healing those that were oppressed of the devil, and teaching the way of God. It isn't merely that he was a man after that sort, but he is one who has died for our sins as a substitute. From God for our sin. And he's one who has been raised again from the dead, and he is seated this very evening at the right hand of God, a living man at the right hand of God. That very man that walked this earth. That man who was here in lowliness and meekness and humility. That man who was here in love and who declared God in his every footstep brought glory to God. And that one who suffered for sinners on the cross of Calvary. Has been raised from the dead and is seated at the right hand of God. Oh, it's a wonderful truth. The gospel, as I say, takes us right on up to the glory. So when I speak of the gospel of the grace of God and the gospel of the glory of Christ, we're not saying that there are two gospels. No, there is only one gospel. But it's the gospel. It's the two aspects of the gospel that takes our eyes back to Calvary and. Shows us what God has done for us in giving His beloved Son to suffer for us upon the cross of Calvary. And then it takes our eyes up into the glory and shows us one who is even now at the right hand of God. So if you will, turn back to the 20th chapter of Acts.
And we will take up the expression that is found there first in connection with the gospel of the grace of God. Before we do this, perhaps you noticed in the reading of 2nd Corinthians 4 there was a little word there and the Spirit of God says if our gospel be hid. It is hid and are to them that are lost. What an expression it is hid to them that are lost. That may be a strange expression to the ears of some. To many of us, we've heard it many times, the expression lost. It's the contrast of being saved. We know there are those that are, that are sort of stumped by such a statement like this. Are you saved? We've come across persons like that and you ask them if you're saved. They don't know what you mean. What do you mean saved? Are you lost? These are terms that perhaps are strange to some people, but I'll tell you what they mean. In the Word of God, lost means that your soul is lost for God for all eternity. And if the Lord Jesus were to come tonight to take his saved people home, to be with himself. You would be lost for all eternity. You would be apart from the presence of God. And cast into the lake of fire, as we read in the Book of Revelation, It means that you are still a guilty Sinner, unfit for the holy presence of God. All one might say you mean that you're taking the ground that you're holier than thou, and you're better than I am. Oh, by no means. All have sinned. And the speaker takes his place right along with others in acknowledging that I have sinned. All have sinned. And we are unworthy for the presence of God. But the difference is this. As a saved soul, I have been cleansed in the eyes of God by the precious blood of Christ. The Word of God tells us that the blood of His Son Jesus Christ cleanses from all sin. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, that sacrifice of himself there on the cross of Calvary, that makes the difference. It is not what I am in myself as being better than what you might be. It is not that perhaps I have have done better things in my life than you have, and I consider you a worse person than I. But if one is not a believer in the Lord Jesus. If you have not come to the Lord Jesus Christ as a lost and guilty Sinner. You are lost this evening, and you will be lost as the Lord says. If you believe not that I am He, you shall die in your sins. Well, that is a rather strong term to use the word lost. And you know, the Word of God makes a distinction between those that are saved and those that are lost. First Corinthians chapter one, that the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness, but unto us who are saved it's the power of God. You see, there's a distinction between those that are perishing and those that are saved. There are these two classes. The apostle Paul says that the gospel, if it is hid, is hid to those that are lost. And if you have not believed the gospel, then you're lost. Well, I mentioned that because when we. When we come to the subject of the gospel of the grace of God, one never can really appreciate the grace of God until he feels what it is to be lost. Well, it feels what it is to be lost, I suppose, that everyone of us. At some time or another have have thoughts seriously, I hope it's so. I say I hope it's so I really do that Every one of us in the room this evening have thoughts seriously, as to our relationship with God. And if thought seriously as to how we would meet God in answer to God for the things that we have done. And we know that it has been the experience of most of us, if not all. When we have thought of the things that we have done, we have we are ashamed. And we feel that we we know that God is of holier eyes than to look upon sin, and we know that uncleanness can't dwell with Him. And what have we done? Well, perhaps we've said to ourselves, I'm going to have to stop doing what I've been doing. I'm going to have to make things right that I've been doing wrong and we resolve to do things better.
Or perhaps we say, I think I ought to go and and join a church. Perhaps we say, I think I ought to go and join this religious group or that religious group. Or maybe I ought to go talk to a priest, or I ought to go have a preacher pray for me. Maybe these different thoughts come into the mind of different individuals as one considers his sins and his guilt before God. Oh, you know what a wonderful thing it is to find out from the Word of God that God tells us we do not have to do any of these things, for none of these things could put away our sins. We read in the Word of God that none can by any means redeem his brother, nor give to God a ransom for his soul. There is nothing you can do to atone for your sins. There is nothing you can do to make yourself clean in the eyes of God. But the good news. And that's what gospel means is good news. The good news of the grace of God is that he has provided a way. Is that he who really understands our guilt in all of its terribleness, and he who alone really knows the great disparity that exists between the Sinner and himself. And the impossibility of a Sinner being in his holy presence, he is the one who has undertaken to do something about it. The Gospel, the good news of the grace of God is the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ has come down from heaven. As I say, not just to be a teacher or a martyr or a witness for God, but he came down from heaven in order to die on the cross of Calvary for sinners. We read that he gave himself a ransom for all. There is one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all. He says in the instituting of the Lord's Supper, as some of us had before us this morning, he speaks of the cup being bringing before his own there that precious blood of his weed, the blood of the new covenant which is shed for the remission of sins. That precious blood which was shed for many. And it's open. Or 1:00 and all and each and everyone to be included in that. Because you see the very word all is all inclusive, a ransom for all. But one says, well then are all saved? Oh no, we read in the Word of God that we are saved by faith in Christ. For there was one who asked that very pointed question, you remember, to Paul and Silas after he had been shaken up by an earthquake and he felt that he was soon to be called into the presence of God, where he didn't know how long he would be left here. He feared for his life. And he came trembling into Paul and Silas in the prison, and he said, Sirs, what must I do? To be saved while he was willing to do anything. Talk about these persons that pray several times a day, and these persons that get down on their knees and crawl towards some sort of a sacred institution are these persons that take pilgrimages. I believe that man would have been willing to do anything. Whatever they had said. And what did they say? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Oh, what a simple thing, what a simple word. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. You know there was one of old in the Old Testament, a man by the name of Naaman. And this man was a was a very sterling character in his day. He was a leader and he was a man no doubt looked up to by others. He was a man that was perhaps envied by by his peers and many good things are said about him. But there's one thing wrong with the man. It was said that he was a leper. Isn't that sad? With all of the good things that could be said and with all of the advantages that man had. Why this fact? Of being a leper spoiled everything and he wasn't satisfied. It bothered him. It bothered him that he was a leper. You know, he, he yearned to be cleansed from that leprosy. The fact that he was a great man in his country didn't mitigate the fact that he was yearning in his heart to be cleansed from that dreadful disease. And you remember there was a little maid who gave a testimony to him that she knew of a man in Israel who could cleanse him from his leprosy. And so he makes the journey over to Israel to see this man. And rather than coming to the prophet to whom he should have gone, he went to the king. But in due course he did come to the right man. He came to the prophet, came to the prophet. Elisha, remember. And Elisha told him what to do, that he should go and dip himself seven times in the river Jordan and he be cleansed from that dreadful disease. Why? The man scoffed at it. He scoffed at it.
Why, he says, are not the rivers of abandoned Farpar in his own country better than these dirty waters of Jordan? Why, it was ridiculous in his mind to require such a thing for him to be cleansed. Oh, what a picture I I would say to you this evening of many souls today. You see, that's a picture of souls in their sins. Leprosy in the Word of God is a type of sin, a picture of sin. And we know that if a person were to attain to great heights in this world, as many have. There are men who have made quite a mark in this world and history records their deeds. And they're admired by many persons, but if they're still guilty, lost sinners. They're just like Naaman with that leprosy. They're just like Naaman with that leprosy and with all of the things that might be said about them to their credit and for their good. It doesn't take away from the fact that they're guilty sinners. And sometimes persons are told a simple gospel to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and by faith to take him as Savior. And that alone is bring salvation to the soul. And persons almost scoff at it and think that's ridiculous. Why? Surely God would require more. More than that, surely God would require that we do some great thing like make amends for the things that we have done and go out and and do some great work in helping our fellow man, seeking to help the poor, the orphans, the widows and things of that. Of course, there's nothing wrong with that. But that isn't the way salvation is brought to the soul. That is not the way deliverance is brought from the sense of guilt and impending judgment from God. It's through faith in the Lord Jesus. And finally, when Naaman. Made the word and he went down into that river Jordan and dipped himself 7 times. We read that his flesh came again as a little child. Sure enough, he found that he worked. And I can say to anyone in the in the room this evening that if you will truly take the Lord Jesus as your Savior, you will find that in in that language it really works. You will be saved for there are those in the room along with myself who can testify. That we did that. There was a time when we saw that we were lost and guilty. And we turn to the Lord Jesus and saw that he suffered for our sins on the cross. We believe that in the heart and our souls have been cleansed. We're saved, we have the forgiveness of sins, we're justified, and we're made fit for the holy righteous presence of God through faith in him. Well, it's a wonderful thing, this, this grace of God. But now look in that chapter 20. Before he speaks of the grace of God, the gospel of the grace of God, he says in verse 21 he speaks about repentance toward God. As well as faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ, repentance toward God, and he says he testified this repentance both to the Jews. And to the Greeks. That may sound strange that he would, that he would testify repentance to the Jews as well as to the Greeks. For you see, the Jews were those who had the word of God. They were religious and they had a religion from God. I want to remind you of that. The Greeks, of course, they had their religions, but they were heathen religions. The Greeks worshiped a variety of gods. They had various gods for all sorts of emotions, human emotions. We know they had gods that were connected with the firmament of heaven. They had gods that were connected with the various circumstances of life. They had all sorts of gods. The Greeks. And one could understand why repentance would be required from such heathen in such darkness. But even repentance was required of the Jews. They were worshippers of the one true God. Well, at least they had the worship of it. I don't say they were all true worshippers in their heart. We know they weren't or they wouldn't have had to repent. But the point is these Jews, they had the, they had light from God, they had the scriptures, they, they believed in the one God. They were not worshiping all of these gods of the heathen and they had a superior morality and all of these things. They had them in their possession, but there were many, many, many of these Jews. Who had not in their hearts turned to God, they had not repented and they need to repent.
What I mentioned that because today in this country in which we live, we're not surrounded by heathenism, generally, there is some. And it seems that it's coming in more and more that people are actually going back and worshiping demons. It's very sad. It's, it's the apostasy is coming in. But generally we're not surrounded by heathenism and demon worship and these multiplicity of gods. We're surrounded by people who nominally believe in God. That is, they say there is one God. It's a rare thing to find, I'm sure in the in Southern California here if you were to ask the persons that you would meet, you would find very few people if they believed in God at all. Would say they believe in the God of Thunder, they believe in a God of lightning, they believe in a goddess of love and all of these things. No, they believe that there is one God. Yes, they were like the Jews like that, but have they really repented? Have they really seen themselves as guilty sinners in the sight of that God? You see these Jews, they had the word of God, they had the Scriptures and they had all of this light and yet they were, they were unrepentant in their hearts for when the Lord Jesus Christ came. From God himself, why they rejected him. A man come from God, the Lord Jesus. Well, I say a man, He was God manifest in the flesh, but he was a man. And he was come from God. He was indeed God manifest in the flesh, and he was rejected, showing their unrepentant hearts. But there is need for repentance. There is need for repentance. You know, I mentioned a few moments ago about that jailer in Acts 16 who came in and asked Paul and Silas how to be saved. And the answer was believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. But I want to remind you that that man had been thoroughly shaken up by an earthquake. And no doubt he had in his heart repented. That is he he had. He was conscious of the fact that he was a Sinner, and he was about to be called into the presence of God. That earthquake reminded him of the brevity of life. Or he when that when that ground began to shake, why, he was reminded of the fact that he could be taken out of this scene just like that. How easy it is that one could be taken out of this scene. And no doubt thoughts came into his mind. What shall I do to meet God? How can I meet God? What's going to happen when I'm taken out of this scene? And his heart was turned from being careless, indifferent or proud. And smug and all of that. He was turned from that into a trembling center that felt that he was lost. And so the Word is simply believed. And sometimes there are those who hear the gospel. They hear the gospel and the plain gospel, and it's presented very clearly of the grace of God in the salvation of lost sinners, and it has no effect because there is not real repentance. There is not repentance. Now, repentance doesn't mean that you have to go out and do penance. I know there is a version that some have made of these Scriptures in which that very word is used of doing penance, but it isn't that repentance is not even going out. And weeping, it isn't coming down to some altar and weeping and weeping for your sins. Repentance briefly and simply is merely that you have a changed attitude toward God. You're no longer turned from God in rejecting him and his word, but your attitude and spirit is that you want to receive from him what he has. That was the attitude of that, that Philippian jailer. That's why his attitude was, I want to know. He was turned to God. He's no longer had his back toward God. But he was turned to God to receive. And if you have, if your attitude and spirit tonight is this, that you are ready to receive what God has for you. You're in a right attitude and spirit, and you're not turned from Him in your heart. I believe God can show you from His precious word the way of salvation, and He will give you the answer, and it'll be very plain and very simple. But He speaks here of that repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ and how He testified the gospel of the grace of God. Now turn over to 2nd Corinthians chapter 4. Well, I would like to speak a little. On the aspect of the Gospel of the Glory. That expression. The Gospel of the Glory is not conveyed in the exact words that I've used here in the King James. But in the fourth verse. When he says, In whom the God of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not.
Lest the light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, as perhaps a clearer translation would put it. The light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ. Who is the image of God should shine unto them. Now what I was saying in the beginning is the gospel of the glory of Christ. It is that Christ is now in the glory of God, a living man at the right hand of God, and he's there as having accomplished redemption, as having finished the work. Turn over to Hebrews 10. Where we have the what connects with this thought of the gospel of the glory and being a finished work. Hebrews 10 Oh, there's so many portions in the word of God that gives clearly. The fact that the Lord Jesus. Has made one offering for sin. Verse 12. Well, we'll read verse 11 first, for it's a contrast with verse 12 in verse 11. And every priest. Standeth daily ministering and offering oftentimes notice that offering many times the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. And why? Why is the priest here the Jewish priest he's talking about in connection with their Jewish worship? They every year at the Passover feast, there was the Passover, there was the slaughter of an animal and an offering made for God to God. By the priests. But these sacrifices could never take away sins. Now they had their place in the Old Testament in this respect. Not that they ever took away sins, even in Old Testament times before the Lord Jesus came into this world. Those sacrifices of animals in the Old Testament never took away one sin. But they all pointed forward and were pictures and types of the offering of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose blood alone can put away sins, those animal sacrifices. As it were, were merely foreshadowing. Of the one offering of the Lord Jesus Christ. They never took away sins. Now it isn't that God has changed things. Some have thought that, well in the Old Testament. People were saved by animal sacrifices, and now in the New Testament it's not so. Well, that isn't true. They were never saved as far as their sins putting away by animal sacrifices, Romans 3 tells us. That those sacrifices of old, that God passed over the sins of believers, that is, He passed over them, He did not judge them for their sins, because He saw in those sacrifices that one brought by faith to God, He saw in those sacrifices the death of His beloved Son. And when the Lord Jesus Christ came, he bore the sins of all of those men of faith in the Old Testament, Abraham. Isaac and and all. Those men of faith, Moses and David, everyone who was a man of faith and who had faith in God and believed God's testimony, the offerings that they brought of animal sacrifices never took away a sin. But God saw in that animal sacrifice the death of His beloved Son, and so he passed over their sins for the time being. And when the Lord Jesus Christ was on the cross of Calvary, their sins along with your sins and mine, if you're a believer on the Lord Jesus. Were placed on him. On the cross of Calvary. And he bore the judgment of those sins. He bore the judgment of David's sin when David sinned, as we read in the word of God. No animal sacrifice could ever take away that sins. Even his weeping couldn't take away those sins. And David acknowledged that. He knew that. He knew there was nothing, but God could take it away. Now, I know that David didn't know exactly how God could take it away. In those days before the cross, they didn't understand exactly how God was going to take away their sins, but they had faith that He would. Abraham believed that what God promised, he was able also to perform. God had not yet performed it, but he believed he would. But you know, the day in which we live, it isn't that we believe that God will do something about our sins. Oh, the wonderful thing is we can say that God has done something. It's past. We look back. It isn't that we expect Him to do something. It isn't that God merely passes over our sins with a view of doing something about them in the. To come. It is that our sins were placed on the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary, and He bore them away. The sacrifice of Himself was the sacrifice for our sins. Now it says here these sacrifices could never take away sins, no matter how often they were offered.
No matter how great the faith of the individual that offered it, now you know there is often the thought. And the breast of individuals that if a person's faith in a certain thing is just strong enough, well, that's sufficient. No, it isn't. No, it isn't. It simply isn't true. It simply is not true. It isn't true even in in human things. It's not true even in human things. Now we know, and I might give a little illustration, that happened some years ago when my children were younger and small and still at home. We were taking a hike up in the Colorado Rockies on vacation. And we came to a little stream and there was a, there was a log that had fallen across the stream. And my boy Tom at the time, while he was, he was, he started to walk right out over that and go across it. He had he, he, you might say he had faith that, that, that that log that had fallen over, it wasn't a very large one would hold him up when he went across. But I was an unbeliever in that regard. I didn't really believe it would hold him. So I said, no, you better not you better. You better just step out there a little bit and see if it'll hold you. And so he did. Where he was in a safe spot, he put out one foot and sure enough now and it went, if he'd have walked out, he'd gone down. No matter how much faith he had had that they would have held him, it would not. If he'd have walked right out, it would have gone down the weight, his weight would have broken and snapped it and he would have fallen into the water. You see, so regardless of how much confidence one has in a thing, if, if it is not sufficient, if the thing itself is not sufficient to to do what 1 even say has faith that it will do, one's faith can't make something out of nothing. You can't do that. You can't do that regardless of how much faith one has. You see, these men could have had all sorts of strong. Faith in these animal sacrifices put the word of God says they can never take away sins and these priests were offering them year after year continually and oftentimes and no doubt they were doing it in faith, but it never took away sins but now notice verse 12. But this man. After he had offered one sacrifice. For. Forever. Sat down on the right hand of God. Well now I'm going to read it like it like it should. I didn't really read it smoothly. This man after he had offered one sacrifice for sins. Forever sat down on the right hand of God. One sacrifice for sins. Now we'd like to ask everyone in the room is that the sacrifice you're depending upon for your sins is the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus, that upon which you have staked the salvation of your soul. Can you say that that is the sacrifice that I am trusting God for the removal of all of my sins? There is only one sacrifice for sins, that's all. And it's already been made. It's already been accomplished. For when he finished it, he sat down. We read here forever. He sat down on the right hand of God, one sacrifice for sins. There will never be another. It'll never be repeated. The Lord Jesus will never come again. He for that purpose, we read in the Word of God that He appeared once in the end of the age, at the end of the world, to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. But when he comes again, he's not coming again to deal with the question of sin. To receive those whose sins are put away, those who have trusted him in that one sacrifice, those who have believed from the heart that that one sacrifice puts away their sins forever. Now he sat down on the right hand of God. You know what that means, do you not? It means that the work is finished, you see. These priests, you notice in verse 11, it says every priest standeth. They were standing because they were, they were busily at work. They had a work to do. And they never finished the work because they had to keep offering more and more sacrifices. We don't read of them sitting down. But the Lord Jesus sat down because he finished the work. He would have never sat down. On the right hand of God, unless the work was finished, and I'd like to say this, that God would have never taken him up to his right hand if God was not satisfied with that work.
Now that's what the Gospel of the Glory means. It means the work is finished, and it means that God is satisfied with the work. God himself is satisfied. God says that's all the sacrifice that's necessary. Isn't it a shame that men and women and boys and girls would require more in their thinking for the putting away of their sins than God requires? God says that one sacrifice is sufficient for me. That's all that I require, That one sacrifice is sufficient. And when he had done that? God raised him from the dead and seated him at his own right. And the Gospel of the glory tells us that the man in the glory is the one who has finished the work to God's satisfaction. To God's satisfaction, God is satisfied. God will require nothing else. God will require nothing else. And so we have the witness of the Holy Spirit in verse 17. Their sins and iniquities I will remember no more. Remember no more, for God did take an account of them when He put them upon the Lord Jesus. And when the Lord Jesus suffered for sins, yes, God remembered my sins. You know, it's a wonderful thing to know. That God knows more of my of the sins that I committed than I know myself. It is the usual habit of individuals, you know, all of us, and I'm not Speaking of others. I say to myself too, we were all this way. We like to present ourselves in the best light we can. And very often when we we there is in the thought the heart of man, you know, to sort of cover up things. And they say, well, yes, perhaps we did this wrong and but it wasn't quite so bad. Or perhaps we did this wrong, but it wasn't quite. Bad. Then we forget a lot of things that we that we don't even own up that we have done. But the wonderful thing of it is that God knows every one of our sins. He remembers them. Now you might think that sounds rather strange, that God could remember the sins, individual sins of every individual person. But it's true. You know, they're, they're marvels we run across. I don't know much about computers. In fact, I'm just awed and confused every time I see anything about them. But I'm told that these things store such immense amount of information. It's just tremendous. I can't really comprehend the the amount of information these things are able to contain. Well, if man can make machines like that, think of God. God who is over all. How that he can contain, as it were, this vast amount of information on every individual? Every individual in the world. It may be, you know, that that most people know very little about you. There are some people that are sort of in this world that are sort of hidden in a way. Maybe they live very quiet lives. Maybe they don't have many acquaintances and and they and they really make very little mark in the world. Very few people know them or something. But you know, God knows all about that person. God knows about all about everyone of us. He knows our thoughts are far off. He knows our downseedings our. Our uprisings, He's acquainted with all of our ways, we read in Psalm 139. All things are naked and open under the eyes of him with whom we have to do, you know, Adam thought. That after he sinned. And he was conscious of his condition, and he heard the voice of the Lord God speaking in the garden. He hid himself. Behind in the trees, among the trees, he wanted to just sort of get off someplace and, and, and get away from things because he was conscious of, of his condition. But God knew where he was. God knew where he was and God found him out and spoke to him. And so God knows each and every one of us where we are and what we're doing and what we think. And He knows our sins, He knows our iniquities. But here the wonderful thing is he says their sins and iniquities. I will remember no more those who believe on the Lord Jesus. And we can say to each and everyone in the room tonight, if you receive the Lord Jesus as your Savior and own that sacrifice for your sins that he accomplished on the cross of Calvary, you can have this word of God to your soul, your sins and iniquity.
He will remember no more. The debt is fully paid, you know, I suppose. If a person were had run up a lot of debts and there are people that do this, you know, they run up a lot of debts and they're not able to pay them. And if someone came, this man that that owed all of this, all of these debts in his house and someone knocked at his door, a man that he didn't really recognize, he would probably say to himself, now that's a bill collector. And he's going to come and he's going to he's going to try to collect these debts. And so when he answers the door to the man, the man says, now I understand that you're Mr. Soins. Oh, yes. And he said, I understand that you have a little bill down at this store that you owe. Well, the man would probably try to minimize. He'd say, well, yes, I it's a little bill. I don't really owe very much, but I'll pay it to you one of these days. And the man mentions other little debts, you know, and and he says, well, he tries to minimize them, that he doesn't owe really very much. And the man says, well, now are. Other things that you owe. Do you have other debts? Well, the man perhaps would say, no, that's all I owe. Hoping that this man that he thinks is a bill collector will not, will not be aware that he owes other bills. You say, no, that's all I owe. And suppose this man were to say, Now what I've come here for is this. I'm not a bill collector. I have come here to pay all your debts. I have come here to pay everything you owe and I want you to have a clean slate. When I finish, I want to pay everything. I don't want to leave even the smallest unpaid bill. I want to pay everything you will. But you know, that man wouldn't begin to say I don't owe here and I don't know there. He'd say, well, I owe here. He'd tell him everything he owed. He'd bring out every bill. He'd say, oh, I owe here and I owe here because here's one who's going to take care of it all. Well, you know, the Lord Jesus Christ is the one who has, as it were, paid to the debt, the bill for us. And we can come and say to him, we can own before him. All of the sins that we have committed, we don't want to hold them back. We don't want to hold them back. We can say that we are sinners and we have sinned because we know that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleanses from all sins their sins and iniquities. I'll remember no more. And now that the debt is paid, and you know, you might say the Lord Jesus Christ in the glory is our receipt that the debt is paid. We know the debt is paid because the one to whom we were a debtor has received the one. That paid the debt for us. That's the gospel of the glory. There he is in the glory now and all There's much more. I know there's much more to that that one can go on in this second Corinthians 4 to speak of our position in Christ and taken into all of his favor and how that now we're a part of a new creation of which he is had all in connection with the Lord Jesus Christ in the glory. But I would just like to leave this with you to exercise heart and conscience of everyone in the room this evening. That do you know in the presence of God that your sins and iniquities are no more, and that you can look up and see Christ in the glory that he is your Savior. He's there as the pledge and assurance of your salvation. And you know that he's coming again to receive you along with all of his blood bought children to take us up to be with himself. And so shall we ever be with the Lord. This is open to each and everyone who will. To him as a lost and guilty Sinner, and believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved.