Life at the Crossroads

Israel abandoned God. They forgot the true and living God. They forgot the God who had delivered them from the slavery of Egypt. They forgot the God who had delivered them through the Red Sea. They forgot the God who had provided for them 40 years in the wilderness. They forgot the God who had brought them into the promised land. They had abandoned that God, but it was worse than that. Not only had they abandoned the true and living God, they had turned to polluted waters. Instead of pursuing the fountain of living waters, our great God, they had pursued and partaken of the polluted waters of the idols of the pagan nations. They abandoned God, and they fell into idolatry. Jeremiah says it was appalling.

It was unbelievable in one sense. It was an act of treachery. It was, he said, spiritual adultery.

They knew better. They had absolutely no reason at all for abandoning God, but they had done that and had turned to false gods. He says in chapter 2, verse 5, that they went after worthlessness and became worthless. That's what happens when you pursue worthless things. You yourself become worthless. You become hollow. You become empty.

You pursue vain things, and you end up just like that. You see, when faced with the truth of God, you either embrace that truth, and as you embrace that truth, your heart becomes softer and softer, or as the people of God did at the time of Jeremiah, faced with the truth, if you repel the truth, if you resist the truth, if you ignore the truth, your heart becomes harder and harder. So Jeremiah writes in chapter 5, verse 3, they have made their faces harder than rocks. They have refused to repent. Repentance.

Jeremiah preached more about repentance than any other prophet, and today, I want us to think as we look at the book of Jeremiah, to think of the subject of repentance. Repentance nowadays is not a very popular word, is it? Who wants to repent?

It sounds so negative, old-fashioned, something maybe our grandfathers did, but not us. Who wants to be told that they have to repent? Well, when Jesus began, His public ministry, Mark records in Mark chapter 1, that Jesus says, the time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel. And at the end of the ministry of our Lord, as He's commissioning His disciples, as recorded in Luke chapter 24, we read this, that repentance for the forgiveness of sins should be proclaimed in His name to all the nations. Repentance was the message of our Lord Jesus Christ. On that great day of Pentecost, when Peter filled with the Spirit of God rises to preach, he says, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. Repent.

Have you repented? Let's turn to Jeremiah and read from Jeremiah chapter 7, verses 1 through 15. This is Jeremiah's famous temple message. He goes into the temple, and he gives this strong, solemn message to the nation. And we're going to read it, and we're going to consider the call for Israel to repent, but also God's call for you and for me to repent. Here's the Word of God then. Jeremiah chapter 7, verse 1, the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, stand in the gate of the Lord's house and proclaim there this word and say, hear the word of the Lord, all you men of Judah who enter these gates to worship the Lord. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. Do not trust in these deceptive words. This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, for if you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, then I will let you dwell in this place, in the land that I gave of old to your fathers forever.

Behold, you trust in deceptive words of no avail. Will you steal, murder, commit adultery, swear falsely, make offerings to Baal and go after gods that you have not known and then come and stand before me in this house which is called by my name and say we are delivered only to go on doing all these abominations? Has this house which is called by my name become a den of robbers in your eyes?

Behold, I myself have seen it, declares the Lord. Go now to my place that was in Shiloh, where I made my name dwell at first and see what I did to it because of the evil of my people Israel. And now, because you've done all these things, declares the Lord. And when I spoke to you persistently, you did not listen.

And when I called you, you did not answer. Therefore, I will do to the house that is called by my name and in which you trust and to the place that I gave to your fathers and to you as I did to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of my sight as I cast out all your kinsmen, all the offspring of Ephraim. Can you imagine Jeremiah, this young man standing in the temple and declaring this very, very solemn words calling the nation to repentance and warning them, if you do not repent, this will happen. See, without repentance, there is no salvation.

Without repentance, there is no salvation. Israel's spiritual condition before God was very, very dire. Tragically, Israel at this time in Jeremiah 7 had a false sense of security.

Do you know what they're saying here? In verse 7, Jeremiah says, don't trust in these deceptive words. This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord. Israel knew that there were enemies.

They had the enemy of Egypt to the south, the enemy of Babylon to the north, but they thought they were secure. Surely God would not allow the temple to be destroyed. This was the temple built by the great Solomon. There it stood in all of its magnificence at the very center of Jerusalem. This was the place of worship, the place of the name of the Lord of hosts. Surely God would not allow His temple to be destroyed by pagans.

What were they doing? They were trusting in their religiosity. They were trusting in their spiritual heritage because they had the temple.

They thought they were safe. This is the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, but they were deceiving themselves. They also knew the Abrahamic covenant, that great covenant entered into by their forefather Abraham, a covenant promising land and seed and blessing to them.

And they assumed because of the Abrahamic covenant that they were invulnerable as a nation. It was unthinkable to them that God would allow the temple to be destroyed. But God, through Jeremiah, is calling them to repent. Verse 3, amend your ways and your deeds. But if you don't repent, the temple, yes, this temple is going to be destroyed.

Temple worship will not prevent the judgment of God. And He says, remember Shiloh, verse 12, go now to my place that was in Shiloh. What was the place in Shiloh? That was the place where the tabernacle was. When Israel came into the promised land, according to Joshua 18 verse 1, they made Shiloh, which is at the center of the nation, the place where the tabernacle was erected. Some of us were recently in Israel, and with the privilege of going to Shiloh, I love going there.

It's in the so-called West Bank, and there it stands, but it's a place of utter desolation. What was Shiloh to the nation? Shiloh was a reminder to the nation that God had judged the nation in the past. Yes, that's where the tabernacle, that's where the ark of the covenant was when the people first came into the land. That was where the land of Israel was divided among the 12 tribes. It happened in Shiloh. Shiloh was the place, remember where Hannah came and prayed for a child. Shiloh was the place where the boy Samuel ministered in the tabernacle with Eli.

But what happened? They fell into apostasy. They go to war against the Philistines, and what do they do? They take the ark of the covenant as a kind of symbol that because we've got the ark of the covenant, we're going to win. They were trusting in the ark of the covenant rather than in the true God, and they're defeated. But from the time of Joshua through the time of Samuel, the tabernacle was in Shiloh.

Now it's desolate. Jeremiah is saying to them, you're trusting in the temple, Solomon's temple, remember your history. Go back and remember Shiloh, the place of desolation. That will happen to you unless you repent. Israel thought they were invincible because they had the ark of the covenant.

Instead of trusting in God, they forgot God. They put their trust in the ark, and Jeremiah is saying, don't put your trust in the temple. It will not save you. The desolation of Shiloh is a reminder that the temple in Jerusalem, with all of its magnificence, yes, the place of the name of the Lord of hosts, that will not exempt you from God's judgment.

That does not guarantee your security. You must repent. What a solemn message. You say, well, what would this repentance look like? Jeremiah tells us.

Look at verses 5 and 6. If you truly amend your ways and your deeds, if you truly execute justice one with another. You know, God's people are to be people of justice, people of integrity, and we treat others. We respect people, even those who disagree with us. We respect the integrity of each individual. When we do business, we are just. We don't deceive people. We don't lie.

We don't cheat. We want a society which is just, which is fair. We want law courts which are just. We want police officers who are just. We want judges who are just, who don't take bribes, who are not corrupt.

We want politicians who are just and evidence of repentance. First, justice, verse 6, if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, there is a sign that the nation has repented the way they treat the sojourner, the immigrant. I wonder how many of us are immigrants. We are immigrants. We have probably hundreds of immigrants here that come to Calvary Church.

Those of us who were born outside the United States and came to the United States and have been welcomed by this nation. But how we treat the immigrant, how we treat the sojourner, as it were, is very important, the fatherless. Think of all of our orphans. Think of little children raised with no fathers, with no mothers.

The widow, how we treat the widow. In that society, these were the oppressed people. They were marginalized.

They lived in the shadows, as it were. And the nation which is truly repentant before God is going to demonstrate their repentance by the way they treat the marginalized, the poor, the lonely, the childless, the widow, the immigrant. Rather than exploit them, rather than taking advantage of them, true repentance will be demonstrated by not oppressing these people. But there's more or shed innocent blood in this place. Part of the commandment, of course, thou shall not commit murder. We don't murder people. We don't kill people.

Increasingly in our country, we've got a violent country. No, the people of God who are repentant, we don't shed innocent blood. We realize that each individual is made in the image of God. No, we don't kill the unborn. We don't believe in abortion. We don't put to death the elderly with euthanasia.

No, we don't shed innocent blood. We respect that each individual is made by God that the Lord gives and the Lord takes. Blessed be the name of the Lord.

And then the other one is, if you do not, verse 6, go after other gods to your own harm. Idolatry. Idolatry.

We're going to think of that more fully next week, Lord willing. How did Israel come? They had violated the commandments of God, but they still felt secure because they had the magnificent temple.

What's the point? The point is a very convicting one, and it is this. Religious observance without humble obedience will not save you. You can have all of that religion, but without humble obedience before God, there is no salvation.

Without repentance, there is no salvation. There's a story in the Old Testament of Israel's first king, Samuel. Samuel tells the first king, Saul, to obliterate the Amalekites, Israel's enemy, pagans. And Saul goes to war, but he doesn't obey the commandment of God. He keeps back some of the animals, and when Samuel comes, Samuel says, well, how's it going? And Saul says, oh, very, very well. And Samuel says, I hear the bleeding of sheep and the lowing of cattle.

What have you done? And Saul says, well, you know, the people wanted to keep some of them to make offerings to the Lord. He uses his own selfishness to rationalize what he's done. And Samuel says to him, no, obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hear is better than the fat of rams. In other words, God wants from you first and foremost not sacrifices, not ritualism.

He wants from you obedience. And Jeremiah is calling the people to repent, and that repentance is going to be demonstrated by them amending their ways. Again, verse 3, amend your ways and your deeds. Verse 23, obey my voice, no disobedience, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people and walk in all the way that I command you that it may be well with you, but they did not obey or incline their ear, but walked in their own counsels, and the stubbornness of their evil hearts, and went backward rather than forward. Anyone here going backward in their spiritual life?

It used to be called backsliders, somebody who went back. Instead of going forward with the Lord, we go back. And Jeremiah says, now, unless you repent, you're going to be destroyed, and the temple is going to be destroyed.

And you know, we know from Jeremiah and from other Scriptures, and we know from secular history that the Babylonians came and utterly destroyed the temple and took the people into exile because they did not repent. What about our spiritual condition? See when we forsake God, inevitably we worship other gods. We disobey God. How are we doing as a nation? Our nation largely has forgotten how to blush. Look at Jeremiah 6, verse 15. Jeremiah says, we could write this about America today, couldn't we? Were they ashamed when they committed abominations?

No. They were not at all ashamed. They did not know how to blush. Therefore, they shall fall among those who fall.

At the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown. We commit sin instead of being ashamed, instead of having guilt. No, we've forgotten how to blush. We're not ashamed. Rather than blushing, we take pride in our sin, don't we? And we're upset if other people don't applaud our sin.

But what about us here? Do you think because you come to worship service on a Sunday, because you sing some hymns, because you might perhaps even serve, and you may attend a Bible study, you may give some money. Do you think because of that, God is going to accept you? The message of Jeremiah is this, that authentic repentance, authentic Christianity must make a difference as to how we live. Paul says this in the New Testament, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creation. The old is gone.

The new has come. In other words, there's a radical difference between those who have repented authentically and those who only confess to have repented. Pursuing false gods, you're living in a disobedience to the Word of God. You say, yeah, but I still am a Christian. But you're deliberately disobeying God. You've embraced the pagan culture around us.

And if you do that, all of your churchianity, all of your religiosity, all of your good deeds will not exempt you from God's judgment. Shiloh is an example. Any Shilohs today, do you think? You know, in Europe there are many Shilohs. Some of you have traveled, even in my native Scotland, throughout Europe, and there's these beautiful buildings, churches.

I go back to Edinburgh. I see, even over the last 30 or 40 years since I was a student at Edinburgh University, I see some churches. You know what they are now? They're bars. They're restaurants.

They're theaters. They're Shilohs. God's judgment has come. They abandoned God. They went through a form of worship, but without reality, and now they are desolate. Now they have totally sold out to the pagan culture. Could that happen to Calvary? Could it be that in 20 or 30 years from now, this beautiful sanctuary could be turned into a theater, into a place where pagan entertainment takes place here? You say, oh John, that would never happen.

Really? It's happened elsewhere. Do we think we're exempt?

Do you think because of our heritage, because of our tradition, that that couldn't happen? It can happen, and can I say it will happen unless we adhere to the gospel and to obeying the Word of God? That's the answer to all of this. The answer is repentance. There must be authentic repentance before God. And that's why I want to give three things, three important things about authentic repentance. This is basic to the Christian life. This is basic Christianity, but it's often ignored. authentic repentance, first of all, means an acknowledgment of our specific sins. Look back to chapter 3, Jeremiah 3, verse 13.

With Jeremiah's saying to them, only acknowledge your guilt that you rebelled against the Lord your God and scattered your favors among foreigners under every green tree and that you have not obeyed my voice, declares the Lord. Acknowledging your specific sins. See, biblical repentance is not easy, is it? Repentance, biblical repentance has the component of a deep burden about the shame and the guilt of our sin.

A.W. Tozer writes, beware of vain and overhasty repentance, particularly let us beware of no repentance at all. Regret, shame, tears, we all be present without authentic repentance before God. Prisons are full of people who say they're sorry.

Sorry they've been caught. Sorry for themselves. Sorry for the consequences of their wrongdoing, no doubt, but often no true repentance. The Westminster Confession of Faith states that men ought not to content themselves with a general repentance, but it is every man's duty to endeavor to repent of his particular sins particularly.

Do you get that? To repent of his particular sins particularly. So I ask you, what are you specifically and particularly repenting of? Don't hide behind the platitudes and generalities. Don't say, well, I've got a problem.

I've got an issue. And say, well, you know, we're all sinners. Yeah, I guess I am a sinner. I mean, we're all sinners, aren't we? I mean, none of us are perfect. You ever heard this? I hear this all the time.

All of that's true. Yes, we are all sinners, but that's not what we're talking about. We're talking about your sin and mine.

Don't hide behind the platitude. What does God want you to do? God wants the sin to be exposed. We have to isolate the sin. We have to name the sin. That's difficult, isn't it? We have all kinds of different words, don't we, to cover up our particular sin.

We want to make it very fancy. No, we have to name the sin. Your sin wants to be left alone. Your sin wants to be kept in the secret. Your sin wants to be kept in the dark. No, we're going to bring it out, and we're going to expose it with all of its ugliness, and then we're going to say, I am the sinner. I have committed this sin. You name the sin. That's what the Westminster Confession is saying, and saying accurately. We repent of our particular sins.

Have you done that? You know, maybe in your life, your business, your marriage, you've sinned, and you have not yet named the sin. And in authentic repentance, you don't see yourself as the victim. You take personal responsibility for your sin. Jesus gives us a wonderful picture in that amazing story of the prodigal in Luke chapter 15, where the young man is in a far country, and he experienced authentic repentance.

How do we know that? He says, I've sinned against heaven, and in your sight. Yes, he's sinned against his father. That is true, but he realized his sin was against heaven. He says, I'm no longer worthy to be called your son.

That was true. He said, I'm quite happy now just to work for you. I wish I could just as a hired servant. What's he doing? He's not pointing the finger at other people. I'm sure he could have pointed his finger at the father. There's no perfect fathers. He could have said, you know, you got this farm, you worked so hard, and you never spent the same time with me, and I really think you favored my older brother, and I always felt a bit neglected. I never felt loved.

You never quite hugged me the way you hugged other people. He didn't do that. He didn't blame his older brother, who sounds a kind of nasty fellow, doesn't he? He doesn't blame him. Look at verse 13 again of chapter 3, only acknowledge your guilt that you rebelled against the Lord your God.

Have you done that? First, authentic repentance means an acknowledgment of your specific sin. Secondly, authentic repentance means a change of attitude and action. Authentic repentance involves change, not just what you're saying, but how you're actually behaving. And Jeremiah often uses a term, return.

For example, chapter 3, verse 12. Go and proclaim these words towards the north and say, return. The Hebrew word sub, return. Faithless Israel. Israel has turned their back on God. Jeremiah is saying, your faithless, I want you to turn, turn from your idols to turn to God. I want you to return, faithless Israel, declares the Lord. Verse 12, verse 22 rather, return, O faithless sons, return. Verse 14, return, O faithless children. That's what it is.

That's action, isn't it? You're going in one direction, and I want you to come back. I want you to turn. I want you to return. The New Testament's main word for repent means a change of mind, but it's a change of mind leading to a change of action and attitude. The prodigal in Luke chapter 15, when he repented, he didn't stay in the far country. He didn't just call home as it were and say, Dad, I've really messed up. Please forgive me.

I've spent all of your money, and I guess I've really messed up. No, he didn't stay where he was. He returned. He first came to his father and said, give me, give me, give me. That was the prayer of a very foolish, willful boy, wasn't it? I deserve this.

It's all about me. Give me, give me, give me. But when he was coming back, his prayer wasn't give me. His prayer was make me as a hired servant. There is the evidence of authentic repentance. It results in a change of life. This repentance is a daily turning from our sin and a daily surrendering to the will of the Lord Jesus for this day. On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther hammered his thesis on the doors of Wittenberg Castle.

The first thesis was this. When our Lord and Master, Jesus Christ, said repent, He meant that the entire life of believers should be one of repentance. It's a whole attitude, isn't it? Where we're sensitive to our sin, and we are daily turning from our sin, and daily turning once again to our Lord Jesus Christ for His mercy and His forgiveness. And can I say the reason why you may be caught in this terrible cycle of sin, glib confession, again, and so on and so on, is because you have never truly turned from your sin.

You have not really seen sin as God sees it. We were down at the beach for a week, and I took our two grandsons, they're 15 and 12. We took them fishing, and we caught Spanish mackerel — over 30 of them, I'm kind of boasting a little bit, but — and we took about 10 of them home and had them for lunch. And as we were out there in the sea, I remember the first time I caught mackerel, a little village where my mother was brought up.

We went on our vacation. It was a little harbor, a little boat, and there was a little boat owned by a man called Johnny Wood. He was a kind of doer, negative kind of Scotsman.

You say, well, I know that kind of guy. His name was Johnny Wood, and he would go out to fish. And those little boys, 8, 9, 10-year-old would go, and we'd say to him, can we get out with you?

And sometimes he said yes, and sometimes he said no. And so we'd go on his boat, and he had a long line, and had, I don't know how many shiny hooks on it. Sometimes he'd put a little bit of silver foil as a kind of lure, and then the line was cast into the sea for these mackerel, not Spanish mackerel, but North Atlantic mackerel, beautiful fish.

You've seen them with the green and black on top, and the beautiful silver belly. And these mackerel swim quite swiftly, and so he would trawl the line a bit, and quite amazingly, then almost invariably as you pulled it in, there were a lot of mackerel on his line, and we would take off the mackerel off the hook. And we say to him, Johnny, how is it that these mackerel just go for a shiny hook, even without a lure on it? And he would say, well, they think it's a little fish. Do you have any lures in your life that dazzle you? See, the mackerel sees the hook, and it thinks it's lunch, and it bites, and it becomes your lunch. And I want you, today all of you, what is that shiny lure in your life that entices you? What is it? The pleasures of life, success, popularity, promotion at work.

What is it that drives you? And you see that, and you have found yourself over and over again on that hook, the hook of our enemy. You've pursued that which is worthless, to use Jeremiah's term, and you're becoming worthless yourself. It's vain. It's pointless.

You know it's wrong. I want you to take a good look at the hook. I want you to take a good look at the lure, and to see how ugly it is, and to see how foolish it is for you to keep pursuing that lure. That's why every day you get up, you get in this book, you get your eyes on Christ, because our enemy is a master at throwing these lures in front of us, doesn't he? To dazzle us.

Some pleasure, some short-term enjoyment, and we grab it. And as we grab it, we realize that we've been caught, and it drags us further and further away from our Lord Jesus Christ. And so Jeremiah is saying, return, get back.

That's what I want you to do, a change of attitude and action. See authentic repentance never leaves you where you were. Remember the woman who was caught in adultery? Yes, Jesus said, I don't condemn you, but then He said, go and sin no more. Jesus meets us at our point of need, but we do not remain there where there is authentic repentance. There is a change. There's a radical change, not just in the confession of our lips.

That's easy, but a changing of our heart and our life. Our Savior is called Jesus, for He will save us from our sins. Jesus doesn't save you so that you continue to live a sinful life. Authentic repentance involves a change of attitude. Mere regret, mere sorrow will leave you where you are. Though this is going on a different path. Look at chapter 6.

Authentic repentance forsakes the sin, and it turns to walk on a path of our Lord, a path of righteousness. Jeremiah 6, verse 16, thus says the Lord, stand by the roads and look. You're at the crossroads? Look.

And as for the ancient paths, you say, well, that sounds bad. I want something new. I'm a young person. I want to experience life. I want something different.

No, says Jeremiah. I want you to stand by the roads. I want you to look and ask for the ancient paths where the good way is. That's the good way. I want you to understand that. The lure is the bad way. That is foolishness.

That is worthless. I want you to look at the good way. It's the narrow road which leads to life eternal and walk in it and find rest for your souls.

That's what we want, isn't it? Rest, satisfaction, a deep joy, not a nervousness, not an anxiety, but rest. Isn't this what Jesus says? Come to me and I will give you rest.

That's what Jeremiah is saying. This is the place of rest. Rest for your souls. You're at the crossroads. I want you to repent, he's saying.

I don't want you to go on pursuing these idols. I want you to repent and to walk in ancient paths. So authentic repentance first means an acknowledgment of our specific sins.

Secondly, it means a change of attitude and action. Thirdly, authentic repentance means asking God for forgiveness of your sins. Isn't this wonderful? Notice again chapter 3 verse 12, return faithless Israel declares the Lord.

Think of this. I will not look on you in anger, for I am merciful, declares the Lord. I will not be angry forever, only acknowledge your guilt that you've rebelled against the Lord your God.

How wonderful. Sometimes when we've sinned and it's affected someone else, we're very nervous, almost scared to come to the person and acknowledge that we did wrong because we're not sure of the reception. Here is the wonder of the gospel.

When we come with true repentance, a turning from our sin, our understanding that by ourselves we're sinful people and we will always be sinful apart from the grace of God, that when we come to the Lord, He is merciful. Verse 22 chapter 3, return, O faithless sons, I will heal your faithlessness. Spiritual healing.

Isn't that wonderful? To be spiritually healed. This is a healing a physician can't do.

No, this is the healing of a good physician, isn't it? He heals our soul. We're battered and scarred and we're shamed and we're of guilt. And the Lord is saying, oh, come to me, return to me. And when we confess our sins, let's read that in 1 John 1, well-known verses, ones that we all need to know. In 1 John, 1 John chapter 1, great preparation as we break bread now. 1 John 1 verse 7, but if we walk in the light, that's the ancient paths.

You're at the crossroads. Are you going to walk in the light, or are you going to go to the darkness? If we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, cleanses us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. The truth is not in us if we confess our sins.

Are you going to do that? He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. This is the magnificent work of our Lord Jesus Christ, the sinless Christ who comes into our broken world. And when we come to Him, He will not cast us out. God has great joy and pleasure that through the perfect work of His Son on the cross of Calvary, sinners are saved, sinners are forgiven.

Those who are backslid in are restored. God loves to forgive. God's speciality is restoration. David says in Psalm 23, He restores my soul, and David knew about sin. David knew about biting that lure, which had been dangled in front of him, and he bit it, and he bit it very strongly, but now he knew as he'd experienced the mercy of God and the grace of God, he says, he restores my soul. This is the God we have. This is our blessed Savior. We were singing about it.

His mercy is more. No, we are to acknowledge our guilt. We are to acknowledge our failure. We are to confess that we have sinned, and we do that particularly not in general terms, and then we flee to our Lord Jesus Christ.

We come to the cross of Christ realizing that is the only place where I can receive cleansing for my sin. No sin is so small that it doesn't need forgiveness. No sin is so great that God will not forgive you. Psalm 103 verse 12, I love this, as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us.

As far as the east is from the west, infinite distance is the point. You can't measure that. So far has God removed our sins from Him. Do you feel dirty with your sin? Do you feel that sense of shame, that sense of guilt that's clinging to you? Just think of the wonder as you repent, as you come to Christ, as you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, your sins are forgiven, and these sins are removed, and can I say removed permanently as far as the east is from the west. He puts them away. He forgets them.

He'll never bring them before you. Such is the wonder of the power of the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ. Have you lost your way standing in the crossroads? This is a time of decision we're going to do. Joshua said, choose you this day whom you will serve. Elijah on Mount Carmel says, if the Lord is God, follow Him, but if Baal, follow Him. Some of you haven't made up your mind. Some of you want to stay, as it were, on both sides, and Jeremiah is saying you can't do that. You can't have all of the religiosity. You can't just have an outward confession without the reality in your heart. No.

Who's it going to be? Repent and believe in the gospel. Turn from your old paths and walk, as Paul would say, a newness of life. Come to our Lord Jesus Christ who will forgive you, will cleanse you, and make you a new person in Jesus Christ. Father, we thank You for the wonder of salvation, that we come with our sin, but we thank You for the complete cleansing. And as we break bread, Father, may this be a time of confession, a time of repentance, a time of turning to Christ, a time of praising Him as we come to Him, just as we are. In His precious name, amen.