Maturity No.9 Counselling the Convert

And we're looking at the whole area of Christian maturity in terms of counseling other people, counseling others. And I want you to have your Bibles open at Romans chapter 15 and then, just to be awkward, to ask you also to turn to another scripture and that's found in the book of Ecclesiastes and chapter 4. So that's really testing your Bible knowledge because Ecclesiastes isn't too easy to find. It's no use my giving you the page number here because it's an American edition of the New International Version of the Bible but Ecclesiastes comes just after the book of Proverbs.

Ecclesiastes chapter 4 and I'm going to be reading to you from the 9th verse and then if you keep your Bibles open, as I say, at Romans 15 though we will be darting in and out of some other scriptures as the time goes by. Ecclesiastes 4.9 As I read these verses to you try and think of a proverb not in the Bible, but a proverb that perhaps fits as a summary of what these verses imply. Two are better than one because they have a good return for their work.

If one falls down his friend can help him up but pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up. Also if two lie down together they will keep warm but how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

Well it seems to me that if you put those verses through the sieve of your mind they start to suggest that little more modern adage that a friend in need is a friend in deed. After all, what more can verse 10 imply than that? If one falls down, his friend can help him up but pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up. Have you ever seen an old lady stumble off one of our buses because of her arthritic condition and it's sad and it's distressing for her just to fall down the steps of the vehicle but for no one to come along and assist her well that makes the situation even worse.

And so we're glad that when an accident occurs generally speaking there's someone to come along and minister and to give aid. Now how would you define a Christian? Well I came across an interesting definition some while ago. It says this, that a Christian is one who helps.

A Christian is a people helper. Well, theologically we would say that's an inadequate definition but experimentally it's pretty good. After all, if I'm a Christian then there are certain things that flow from that experience.

There are certain consequences that develop from my life in terms of offering assistance to other people. When the Lord Jesus spoke to His disciples and trained them in effect He trained them to be people helpers to influence others. Almost the last words that fell from the lips of the Saviour when He was taken from earth to heaven, indeed the very last words were go out into all the world and proclaim the Gospel.

Influence others and by influencing others you will be helping them. And that was the ministry that they got into in a very enthusiastic fashion. And throughout the New Testament you discover that when teaching is given to Christian people in the churches that form throughout the Roman Empire one of the bi-products of the teaching that they received was for them to not only learn it but to pass on its benefits to others.

So Timothy learns from Paul and what he learns from Paul he passes on to other men and what they learn from Timothy they pass on to others also. You remember the verses don't you in the pastoral epistles. This whole concept you see of people helping comes in.

Here is the idea a man has fallen, a woman has fallen sinners have fallen, they're desperately in need. Who are the Samaritans who are going to patrol the Jericho road of life? Well the Christian people operating under the flag of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now isn't it interesting that in the Old Testament, Psalm quoting from memory, that's always hazardous, Psalm 32 the Lord is referred to as a counsellor.

Some of you are perhaps not very pleased but nonetheless the translation is accurate in John's Gospel in the NIV when the Holy Spirit is referred to as the counsellor and not as the comforter, though the one involves the others, they're almost but not quite synonyms. And the Lord Jesus Christ is prophetically said by Isaiah to be the wonderful counsellor. So you've got God Father, God Son and God Holy Spirit and they all converge as they do in so many many areas.

And in this respect they converge in the essence of being counsellors. The ministry of the Godhead is a ministry of counselling and counselling by very nature of the word involves influencing other people. And because we have been brought into the family of God, we're all involved or should be in the ministry of counselling.

Indeed, I think you can work out something of your standard of Christian maturity by asking yourself, do I ever counsel others? Is the objective in my life to stimulate other people so that they come to a position of maturity? Now that was the target of Paul. He's writing to the Colossians and he tells us in the 28th verse of the opening chapter, we proclaim Jesus admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom so that we may present everyone perfect or mature in Christ. To this end I labour, struggling with all his energy which so perfectly and powerfully works in me.

It was Paul's goal to bring others to maturity. So, if you're a Christian, you have this as a target. Not only to encourage your own growth before the Lord, but to encourage other people also.

In other words, I'm arguing this, that maturity breeds maturity. One of the most popular words in the Pauline epistles as translated in the authorised version of the Bible is the word edification. You come across it particularly in the 12th chapter and the 14th chapter of the first book that he writes to the Corinthians.

Every spiritual gift has as its end objective demonstrating its worthfulness, its worth, its value, edifying others. And the word edify means building other people up. And this is the objective.

It should be the target of ordinary people in the Christian church to help others, to stimulate others. I quote in your notes, and I'm not sticking all the way with the notes this evening, though there will be a little bit of an outline, the famous poem of John Donne. No man is an island entire of himself.

Every man is a part of the whole. And do you remember how he goes on? Never seek to ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for you. We're all influencing one another in the sea of humanity.

Just to shift his metaphor a little bit. Similarly in the Christian church. We're all influencing one another.

We either influence for good or for harm. There's hardly such a thing as a neutral influence incidentally. Now because we're Christians, or rather because we claim to be mature Christians, then we should have as our goal the stimulating of other people in Christian maturity.

This is not something that's left for the so-called clergy. You have heard me destroy the notion of the clergy as opposed to the laity on so many occasions. I no need to deal with my hobby horse again.

We are all priests of the Lord. We all minister before the Lord. We all have our close Christian contacts.

And our desire should be to encourage our brothers and sisters to a greater degree of maturity. Now the apostle Paul was not the sort of man who poured out grease in the way of compliments just for the sake. He was a man who when he offered a compliment, a piece of congratulation, he did so because the person or persons who received it full well deserved what he had to say.

And it seems to me that you've got a most outstanding remark made by Paul that's almost unique in the letters that he wrote in the epistle to the Romans. For there in the 14th verse of Romans 15, addressing the Christian community in the capital city of the Empire, he makes this remark, I myself am convinced my brothers that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge, and competent to instruct, or if you prefer the Weymouth translation of the New Testament, competent to counsel one another. This is something that fills Paul with absolute delight.

He wasn't responsible for the founding of this church, so he's not indirectly congratulating himself. Here are Christian people, he's looking forward to meeting them, and he knows of their reputation. And that reputation is significant because it speaks of their competence to counsel, to instruct others.

And it occurred to me when I was preparing this particular series of studies that if one wanted a launching pad for evaluating the teaching of the New Testament, and bringing Old Testament scriptures to bear also on the subject of maturity, Romans 15 is your start. This is where the Apostle isolates one outstanding virtue of a group of Christians, and he says, you're doing well brothers. And that word brothers is a general term, obviously including the ladies as well.

This church, it's excelling in this one area. It is full of people who are competent to counsel. He's not referring just to the elders, nor just to the deacons, he's referring to the whole church body.

And this I put to you, as a target for us, as we move towards how quickly this year has gone, as we move towards 1983, 500 people plus throng the membership lists of the tabernacle, all of us in some way are competent to counsel, stimulating younger people, middle-aged people, older people in the faith. And it's as you are competent to counsel another, that you indicate your degree of maturity, your stature before the Lord. Well then, what does the Apostle, using my few opening remarks, setting the perspective, the scene of our study this evening, what does he have to say about the basic ingredients of the counsellor? Who are these people that are so competent? What characteristics are so commanding that the Apostle Paul has set his eyes upon them? Well, look at that 14th verse.

And within the bouquet, one of the most attractive flowers, if you please, is that little phrase that says, you yourselves are full of goodness. You're full of goodness. Do you remember how Dr. Luke, in writing up the Acts of the Apostles, makes reference to Barnabas and he says he was a good man? I think that that's a great epitaph.

Just to have written across your life, when you go to be with the Lord, he was a good man. He was a good woman. This is what they said of the Lord Jesus.

He went about doing good. He epitomised goodness. And that's the reason why he was so successful as a counsellor.

And here are these Roman Christians who have been influenced by the power of the Holy Spirit to the extent that that outstanding characteristic of Jesus is dominant in their personality. I'm convinced, my brothers, you're competent to counsel. Why? Because you are full of goodness.

How does goodness manifest itself? You see, goodness is a practical quality. It's not something that you can have academically. You can't just have that in your mind.

So often the New Testament tells us that Christian virtues have to be expressed practically or claims to holding them are proof to be absolutely invalid. Now, how does Paul know that these people are full of goodness? Well, it seems to me by identifying two characteristics of what goodness entails. And the first, I argue, he touches on in the opening verse of that chapter.

The man who is good is sensitive in his attitude towards other people. We who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak. Dr. E. Stanley Jones says this, you can tell how high you have risen in the scale of life by asking one question, how widely do I care, and how deeply? I would call our Lord Jesus Christ, I would describe him as the man who cared.

The man who cared. Nobody else cared like Jesus. Isn't that a lovely song? Remember Beth Shea singing it? No one ever cared for me like Jesus.

No one ever such a friend could be. The woman who was hemorrhaging, she would identify with that remark. In the crowd she managed to touch the hem of his garment, and he knew that virtue had gone out, that something significant had happened.

Who touched me? Don't be silly, Lord. Why ask such an unacceptable question as this? There's so many people touching you in the crowd. Ah, but Jesus is sensitive.

He knows that there's one woman who needs him desperately, and he responds to her need. The man who cares, Bartimaeus is there waiting for the moment when Jesus passes by. There's so much commotion, there's so much noise.

Jesus, son of David, have mercy on me. And Jesus does not pass Bartimaeus by. His ears are sensitive as his feelings were sensitive in the case of the woman.

Here are mothers who want their children to be blessed by the Lord, but there's so much to do. The disciples act as a sort of Galilean security corps, stopping these women, contacting the Saviour. But Jesus says, enough of that.

It's important that I bless their children and encourage these mothers. Here are all these wealthy men putting their shekels into the temple coffers, but Jesus spots a woman with two farthings who drops in all that she has and identifies her generosity as far superior to the rest. That's Jesus, you see.

The man who cares. The man who's full of goodness. And the counsellor must always be a caring person.

Some lady who I love and very much respect in the tab, said to me when I came back from Africa, when I was asking about the preachers who had fulfilled, who had taken the pulpit while I'd been away, she said of one man, when he spoke to me, he made me feel so important. And I thought, what a tremendous tribute. When he spoke to me, he was so interested in what I had to say, he made me feel important.

That's a counsellor. Someone who wins the attention and who listens to the person who seeks their conversation, their help. So, we are told that the counsellor is one who is strong and is able to bear with the failings, with the weaknesses of others, as Paul puts it earlier in this epistle.

Chapter 12 and verse 15. The counsellor is able to rejoice with those who rejoice and to mourn with those who mourn. He's sensitive to every situation.

But you can put this negatively as well as positively. Not only is he sensitive to others, but he is insensitive to himself. We who are strong, back to 15 and verse 1, we who are strong ought to bear with the failings of the weak and not to please ourselves.

He mentions the point again in the second verse. Each of us should please his neighbour for his good. And then again, indirectly, by making allusion to our Lord, he re-emphasises the point.

For even Christ did not please himself. Three times the apostle underlines the counsellor's insensitivity to personal need, but sensitivity to the needs of others. And of course, he has Jesus as the great example in his mind.

One of my dear friends, dear brother, Mike Lithe, who lives out his life in Bangladesh, I heard him say on one occasion that the objective of his ministry out there in that land just north of India, was to pour himself, his personality and what he had learned into the minds and the personalities of Bengali young Christians. To live his life in the interests of the Bengali and in a most remarkable fashion, though he were blush if he ever heard this tape, I saw him and his wife and other missionaries doing that. Living at the level of the Bengalis, rejecting the European lifestyle, identifying with the Bengalis so that the Bengalis feel at home with these folks, sensitive to the Bengali need, insensitive to his own need.

And when I was at the High Street Church on Monday listening to a brother who I had not personally met before, he'd been out in Bangladesh and he made reference to the way that Lai's life was so effective amongst the Bengalis that here, here, here, here, here, on the map of Bangladesh are groups of young Christian believers going on with the Lord. Taking the example of a counsellor sensitive to them, insensitive to his own needs, and blessed by God. Well, you see, these principles that the Apostle here outlines that they are so important that they live on down the history of the Christian Church and you see success today in the lives of Christians who are implementing them.

Why did people flock to the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, because he was sensitive to them, insensitive to himself. He never put up an engaged notice. Do you have to wait sometimes? No disrespect to the medical authorities here, I've got tremendous respect for doctors in Worthing.

But do you ever at times have to wait three days before you get an appointment? Because they're so chock-a-block with patients queuing up? Not Jesus. Not Jesus' surgery. Come unto me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

And so they came by their hundreds and thousands throughout the years of his ministry, which were only three, therefore it was a very short one, relatively speaking, but they came, the neurotic, the down-and-out, the ones who'd lost their reputation. Not only those who were physically ill, but those who were spiritually and mentally and morally ill, they came to him and Jesus, the man who's sensitive to their needs, ministers. But the very sensitivity of the Christ to their needs makes him insensitive to his own needs.

He who was rich became poor. He who had everything became as nothing. He who had heaven at his footstool is pinned to the cross.

And that's why Isaiah with prophetic sight, years before it happens, says of Jesus His name shall be Wonderful Counselor. He identifies the greatness of the Christ. Well then, let's move on.

Not only is a successful counselor full of knowledge, full of goodness, but we read also he has a maturity in the area of knowledge. I am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge. Now the knowledge here is the knowledge of God.

It's the knowledge of Scripture. You say, can the knowledge of God qualify me to be a counselor? Yes and no. Take the negative.

Not if your knowledge of God is just theoretical. Not if you're just a theologian and you never go beyond knowledge about God to knowledge of God. And there's a whale of a distinction between those two terms.

What do I mean? Well, let me make that point clear by giving you an illustration. The Apostle Paul has a great understanding of the theology of God, of the attributes of God. And when he writes to the Corinthians in the second letter and the first chapter, he reveals his, the Apostle's own humanity, his weakness, the problems that he has as an ambassador of the Gospel.

And he tells the Corinthian readers that there were occasions when he was played out, when he had almost given up hope. And he writes of this experience, not time to quote it all, from the third verse. We're in 2 Corinthians chapter 1, in case you forgot the reference which I gave earlier.

Praised be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort who comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. I think that's majestic. What's Paul saying? God is a comforter.

Ah Paul, how do you know? Well, not because I've analysed the character of God academically, but I was in a mess. I had despaired of life. I had given up.

And I discovered at the point where I needed God the most, He stepped in. And the God who has comforted me enables me in turn to comfort somebody else. So you see, the man who is going to be the successful counsellor is the man who knows of God academically and also experimentally.

The Apostle indicates that the counselling that people require is not simply the pooling of experiences, but it's the correct application of Scripture. Now this is very important. Sometimes counselling degenerates into story swapping.

You know, I can do one better than you. You've been very bad, but brother, two years ago, oh, it was much, much worse for me. Your circumstances are complex.

Ten years ago, your circumstances compared with mine would have been a piece of cake to have digested. No, counselling is not swapping stories. It's not outpacing somebody else by reference to the dire trouble that you reckon you have been through.

Counselling is using Scripture in a very winsome, in a very relevant fashion. Look at verse 4 of Romans 15. For everything that was written in the past was written to teachers, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures, we might have hope.

Just in case Paul thinks the Romans haven't got the point, he goes and gives them three or four quotations from Scripture in the verses that follow, as is quite obvious from the NIV, which indents the quotations. And so if you're going to be a counsellor, you need to use Scripture. And you need to use your common sense.

You need to listen to people talk. Do you remember when I gave an address on counselling a little while ago, I made this quotation? Listening is not thinking about what you are going to say when the other person has stopped talking. I repeat that because I think it's good.

Listening is not thinking about what you are going to say when the other person has stopped talking. You listen to what your brother, to what your sister has to say, and then it might be that God will bring to your mind some little verse of Scripture which will be of help. Not to throw a text in in an insensitive fashion.

Oh, how callous we evangelicals can sometimes be. You need to be skilful in the using of Scripture. There are times when that Scripture, all things work together for good to them that love God, can be most inappropriate.

You need skill. You need the sensitivity of the Saviour. But you do need knowledge.

You need knowledge of Scripture, and you need the patience of the Christ to listen to people. Let every man be quick to hear, a ready listener, slow to speak, slow to take offence and get angry. James 1 verse 19 records the need for us to listen, and not to dominate in conversation when we're endeavouring to help someone who is distressed.

And of course, one of the major areas in which the counsellor must be competent is the handling of Scriptural text which leads to salvation. The Apostle Peter, remember, says that we have a right to give an answer for the hope that is within us. And we all know that text, don't we? So we have our text, Marshall, John 3 16, and we'll take into Romans chapter 10, and so on.

We can go all the way through the Word of God, or we should be able to, quoting salvation Scriptures. Ours is the Apostle Peter. But when you use them, ensure that you use them with gentleness and respect.

It's not what you say, alone. It's how you say it. And the attitude of mind.

You're not an academic, impassive person. Impersonal. When you're dealing with someone, that person is a human being with feelings.

And to be a counsellor and get through, you need a sensitivity, an ability to use your knowledge in a winsome fashion. Let's hasten on. The Apostle, again, congratulating these Romans, says, he's convinced my brothers, you yourselves are full of knowledge, full of goodness, mature in knowledge, and competent to instruct one another.

Now, that last phrase indicates that Paul wants us to go beyond the mere handling of concepts to dealing with people in a feelingful way. That's not a word that's often used, but it's a good word. It's an old-fashioned word, feelingful.

Do you know what it means? Let me try another synonym, another word that's allied to that, to try and get across what I'm trying to say. You know the word empathy? Some of you still are not encouraging me very much at the moment. Let's try another one.

You know the idea of insinuating yourself into somebody else's circumstances so that you're feeling for them. That's what Paul, thank you, identifying. Identifying yourself with the circumstances of another.

You see, that's what counselling is about. It's not only having the knowledge and having the words, it's having the feeling. You're not encouraging me very much at the moment.

Let's try another one. You know the idea of insinuating yourself into somebody else's circumstances so that you're feeling for them. That's what Paul, thank you, identifying.

Identifying yourself with the circumstances of another. You see, that's what counselling's about. It's not only having the knowledge and having the words, it's having the feeling.

It's being able to to so insinuate yourself into a person's circumstance that you're beginning to feel for them and where they hurt, you can understand. This is why the best counsellors are very often middle-aged and older people and not so much younger people. No disrespect to youngsters, don't misunderstand me.

You see, middle-aged, older people, they have the experience. When I came here in my mid-twenties, very hard to sympathise or one tried, with someone who was bereaved. I'd never been bereaved.

Never knew of bereavement in my family. Never had to conduct a funeral service. Fancy that, turning into the tabernacle.

The elders perhaps never knew. I'd never even taken a marriage service. All my confessions coming out, so wet behind the ears.

And gradually you gain some experience, don't you? Over the years. And when someone's been bereaved and you've been bereaved, when there's been tragedy in your circumstance and then someone else goes through it, you feel. There's an empathy.

And this is where Jesus is a master craftsman because he has all the feelings. And he gets through to people that they trust him. The woman who's taken in the act of adultery, she will speak to Jesus in a way that others, she never could because this man can feel for her.

He'll not condone but he'll understand and he'll correct and she'll take his corrective because of who he is. And because of the attitude of his mind, of his personality. How is this feelingfulness worked out? Well, in terms of encouraging someone.

Look at verse 5, Romans 15. May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves. Forget the unity business at the moment.

Just take the aspect of encouragement. This is the characteristic of the Lord God. This is the by-product of Scripture.

The previous verse, it's the Scriptures who give endurance and ability to cope and encouragement. Now the counsellor, the winsome counsellor who feels, who empathises, will encourage someone. I've dealt with several alcoholics and drug addicts and people with differing sexual perversions.

It's very difficult for folks who are caught in that sort of trap to get out of it even if they're Christian. Very, very difficult. Sometimes they'll come, they've fallen again, and they feel ready to just give up.

And somewhere as a counsellor, you look for a grain of comfort, a grain of encouragement, and you say, well look it's bad enough. But at least a time lapse has gone since you last fell in this way, which is longer than it's ever been before. Have you ever thought of that? Have you ever looked at it from that point of view? No counsellor will ever cloak sin and cloak guilt.

He will expose sin and expose guilt, but he will try to give encouragement and stimulus so that the person will go on. This is why the Apostle Paul is so very careful, and our Lord Jesus in his ministry is so very careful to encourage the followers who are in the faith. Encouragement.

And not only encouragement but acceptance. Look at verse 7. Accept one another then, just as Christ accepted you. One is never going to be a counsellor if the person who you're trying to help feels that well, you're doing them a favour.

You know, you're very pious in your attitude. You keep them at a distance. No, says the Apostle.

Accept one another. We have no understanding at all here in England of how difficult it was in New Testament times for believers to accept one another on an equal footing. Some were slaves.

Some were rich. Some were Jews. Some were Gentiles.

The whole of the ancient world was riddled by class distinction. And Paul says you to accept one another. And you can't be a counsellor unless you do this.

One of the most remarkable things I remember in India was a Brahmin top class Indian with his arm around an untouchable. No way in India would that ever be acceptable outside of the context of the Christian Gospel. But the Gospel bound them together and instead of being poles apart they were fused as brothers.

And so to be a counsellor you have to accept the person who you are trying to help on the business that Christ accepted you on the basis that Christ accepted you and forgave you. Well then let's bring all this to a conclusion. Here's the Apostle and he's congratulating these people.

They're understanding the ministry of counselling. The whole church. What a mighty church it must have been.

That Christian fellowship at Rome. Would to God that we hear might reproduce and thank the Lord to the extent that we are some of these great qualities. Well Paul congratulates them because they're competent to counsel.

Competent to instruct one another. But have you ever thought that God didn't really need them? You say what do you mean by that? Why do you keep your final bullet and make it such a provocative one? Well just to ensure that you're staying with me right to the end. You see the Lord God could perfectly competently deal with the discipleship problems of anybody.

Everyone. Without using ordinary people. But he doesn't.

You know the illustration at least if you read through the notes then it will be at the front of your mind of Lazarus. Here is the Lord Jesus Christ and he raises Lazarus from the dead. He's been in the grave for three days.

Martha, Mary, they're demented. You remember the scene in that little tomb outside the village of Bethany. And Jesus says Lazarus come forth.

Somebody said he had to say Lazarus or else everyone who had died would have gone forward at that particular point. Lazarus come forth. And he comes forth bound.

Now Jesus could quite easily, miraculously have released him from the clothes that bound him. But he didn't. What did he do? He said loosen him.

Let him go free. Let him walk comfortably. And so it seems to me that God in his great sovereignty has lifted men and women from the death of sin and destruction.

He's given them life. And he uses Christian folks. Gifted Christian people to bring liberty.

To release them from their grave clothes. And encourage them to have freedom and movement within the kingdom of God. In a word to go on to maturity.

Now I repeat what I said at the beginning. This ministry of counseling was never just for the so called pastor or elders or the reverends. This ministry is for everyone.

And to the extent that you are competent to counsel you can measure your own maturity. Well may this study have been a blessing to you. Father we're so grateful to you for the way that your word counsels us.

And for the way that you stopped us by your grace many of us here years ago some much more recently. And caused us to look into the word of scripture. And we discovered there the encouragement we required to come to you.

And the acceptance at your throne. And realized in awe and wonder that you do receive sinful and simple creatures like ourselves. Because of the ministry of the Lord Jesus.

Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We bless you for the ministry of counseling which has been mediated to us by the grace of the Triune God. Help us in turn to counsel others also.

And to have the empathy of Jesus Christ to be able to identify with the needs of others. And when we are in need may some identify and empathize with us. So that we shall receive the ministry at that point that we require.

We thank you for the practical nature of our study this evening. May it live on in our minds and help us in our discipleship to come to greater maturity for Jesus Christ's sake. Amen.

Has never lost its power. And today by the Holy Spirit that blood can be applied to your sins and wash them all away. You see what happened was this.

When Jesus died on the cross He took all of your sins. Now let me this is a type of sermon I wish there was just two of us. You and me together.

If I were just sitting with you having a cup of coffee. Could I just talk to you like this? Suppose that this book I have in my hands was a book that had all of your sins you know included here. Every sin you've ever committed.

We could just turn over here to 1974 3 o'clock in the afternoon on June the 3rd and find out you know a sin you committed. And you may say well that book's not big enough to hold my sins. Well let's say that they're all here in microscopic print that every sin you've ever committed is right here.

You see when Jesus was on the cross dying all of your sins were transferred to Him. Now He knew no sin. He had never sinned.

But there was a moment in time sometime between 12 o'clock noon and 3 o'clock on Good Friday it is as though Jesus said to the Father and for all I know this is what He said Father get me punish me I will take their sins and every sin you've ever committed in your life was charged to Jesus as though He committed them. And God punished Him. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all that pleased the Lord to bruise Him.

He was smitten of God. That's what happened on Good Friday. So it could be that right now you're feeling real dirty inside.

Guilty feeling. Shameful. You've never even told another person how you really feel.

And you just wish something could clean you inside. Let me tell you something. You can leave this place clean.

You can leave this place with a light heart. Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden said Jesus and I will give you rest. For you to confess before God that you're the sinner.

And that blood that blood will be applied and it will wash away all of your sins. And God will remember them against you no more.