Turn with me to Exodus chapter
21 again tonight if you would. Exodus chapter 21. I want you to listen carefully
to my opening statement. I wish we could get a hold of
this. The holy law and justice of God. takes absolutely nothing
into consideration but the sinner's guilt or innocence. Now let me
say that again. The holy law of God, the holy
justice of God and His law takes absolutely nothing into consideration
when it concerns us So as far as the law is concerned, all
that matters is are you guilty or are you innocent? God's law
forbids any special allowances, any special advantages given
because of the condition or the state of the offender. In other words, what I'm trying
to say is it doesn't matter if you're rich or poor. God's law
and justice requires the same from both, whether you have money,
whether you don't, whether you're wealthy or whether you're poor.
If you're strong or if you're weak, it doesn't matter. The
law of God requires perfection from you, male or female, it's
not even considered. Young or old, it doesn't matter.
Wise or unlearned, the law respects no one. It's not a respecter
of persons. As far as the law of God and
God's holy and strict justice is concerned, the only thing
that is considered at all is if you're guilty or if you're
innocent. Now, we've all heard the saying,
I'm sure, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But there
are few that know that it was God that said that. And there
are few today even that know that this was a command from
God, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Found in the law
and the commandments of God. Look at verse 24 here in chapter
21. An eye for eye, tooth for tooth,
hand for hand, foot for foot. Burning for burning, wound for
wound, stripe for stripe. Now that's basically what Paul
said in Colossians chapter 3 verse 25. I won't turn you there. But
Paul wrote and he said this. Now stay with me. But he that
doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done.
And there is no respect of persons. It doesn't matter as I said how
much money you got. It doesn't matter your Your social
status means nothing when it comes to restitution to the law. Holy justice hears nothing of
our sad excuses. Men and women say things like,
well, cut me a little slack. I'm doing the best I can. Well,
your friends might do that, but God's law won't. God's law won't
do it. It will by no means do so. Another
said, well, things are tight. I've come up a little short.
Your bank might extend you, but God's holy justice won't. No,
sir. All men and women by nature,
spiritually speaking, mankind is deathly sick. Men and women
by nature are dead in trespasses and sin. We say that, but do
we really know? Sick with sin. We're dying with
spiritual leprosy. And it's so much more serious
because we don't see it on the outside. It's an inward thing. We fell a great fall when Adam
fell. We fell in Adam. He was our federal
head. He was our representative. You
know this. We fell far and we fell hard. We didn't just stump our toe.
Men and women are depraved. We don't have much idea what
that really means. I'm telling you, we don't. We've
come up way short of the glory of God. The Scripture is so clear
that we have been weighed in the balances. You know what that's
talking about? Those scales. You've seen those
scales of justice. We've been weighed in the balances
and we've been found wanting. God said we've come up way short.
Now this is serious business. Has God shown you that? Has God
shown you that you've come up way short? Do you believe Him
if He's shown you? Men and women are standing behind
pool pits, and I'm not going to get on my high horse, but
they're standing behind pool pits much like this one, and
they don't tell their hearers that God requires perfection. Have you ever thought about this?
I did today for a bit. Why do you think every single
time in the Scriptures where it seemed like someone was convicted
by the Spirit of God, moved toward God through the preaching of
the Gospel, it seemed like every time that happened, the first
thing out of men and women's mouth was, what must I do to
be saved? We see that a lot in the Scripture.
You know why? Because it's the nature of man.
It's the nature of man to want to do something to be saved.
But man can't be saved by his own doing, only by the doing
of a perfect man. I have no new message tonight
with God. No sin goes unpunished. That's
why this matter of the law is serious business. God's too holy
and God is too just just to ignore our sin. We can't do anything
to appease God's justice. In order to remain just, God's
got to punish sin. And I feel like a broken record,
but this is what the scriptures teach us. So in order to be saved,
we've got to have somebody to stand in our place. We've got
to have a substitute. It's really not difficult to
understand. It's just impossible to want
a substitute and a savior apart from God giving you life. By
nature, we won't have Him to rule over us. Impossible to want
to substitute in a Savior apart from God giving you life, showing
you need. Oh, if God would be pleased to
show us our need. Now let me ask you, do you get
tired of hearing about Christ honoring and fulfilling and satisfying
the law and justice of God? I know I harp on the law. Are
you getting tired of hearing it? Well, if you are, then there's
good reason to believe that you really don't believe that God's
going to punish sin, or you really don't believe that you're a sinner.
Because if you did, how Christ satisfied God's law and God's
justice in a sinner's place would be all that you'd want to hear
about. I want to hear over and over
and over again about how Christ came into the world to save sinners. You know why? Because I'm a sinner.
And I know I'm a sinner. I live with myself. I know. Paul said that it was a faithful
sin. And that it was worthy of all
acceptation. That Christ came into the world
to save sinners. Worthy of acceptance. We all
ought to be interested in this faithful, blessed, gospel truth. Because we're all sinners. And
we're in need of such a Savior. But that's the problem. Sinners
are becoming instinct. It seems according to many today
that God now accepts men and women's best. That's what men
and women seem to think. I've heard it a lot. I can't
tell you how many times I've heard it. Oh, if I just do my
best and treat others like I want to be treated, I think everything
will work out just fine. Well, where in the Bible do you
find that? Seriously, where in the Bible
do you find it? that if you do your best, God
will make concessions for you. Where in the Bible do folks get
stuff like that? That's the problem, they don't
get it from the Bible. Men must think that the Bible's
become obsolete, but it hadn't. God's going to honor His Word,
and sadly, and this is the sad thing, most men and women don't
even know what this book teaches. They don't. You work with them.
They're in your family. You know them and I know them.
And we don't think ourselves to be better or more haughty
or what because God's revealed these things to us. We want them
to know these things. Oh, but they're going to have
to find it in this book. God's going to honor His Word.
No sinner's crime against God, listen, is going to be unpunished. God's justice won't permit it.
Remember the justice of God has the power of God behind it to
enforce it. Here's the beautiful thing. And
yet the same law, the same holy justice that demands the punishment
of the wicked is the same law that protects and preserves and
justifies those that are righteous. And it's the law that finds redeemed
sinners just. The law is God's measuring stick,
and there's only one measurement on it, and that's perfection.
It's a measuring stick of a different kind. You've got to be perfect
to be accepted. Oh my, the thought of being perfect
in Christ without sin. Who is he that condemneth? Who's
going to condemn me if I'm in Christ? The law is going to protect
all who are just and righteous. And I'm telling you, child of
God, you can be no more just and no more righteous than you
are right now in the Lord Jesus Christ. The law of God is all
or nothing. That's what I want you to see.
That's exactly why works and grace cannot be mixed. Remember
what Paul said in Romans 11. He said, and if by grace, then
it's no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. It can't be both. But if it be
of works, then it's no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work.
If it's by grace, then our works earn us nothing. And if it's
by works, then God's grace means nothing. So with that said, which
do you think is correct? If God gets all the glory and
we're saved by grace, God's grace means everything. And it's the
only way that you and I will be saved, by grace through faith,
and that's not of yourselves. What was it? It was the gift
of God. It wasn't by our works, not that
we would boast. With the law of God, it's either
full restitution, It's either full punishment by you or another
that somebody's going to be punished for. It's going to be full restitution. It's going to be full justification
and righteousness by you and a perfect work that you do, or
it's going to have to be by another. It's just that simple. It can't
be provided by us. It has to be provided for us.
I hear people say things like, I found Jesus. No, He's never
been lost. We're the lost ones. He found
us. He always knew where we were, too. Isn't that right? He knew
where that Samaritan woman was. He knew she was at that well.
He knew when she was going to be at that well. And He arrived
just at that time, didn't He? So He could be one-on-one with
her. Our Lord knew which trees Zacchaeus
was in. Didn't he? He walked up under
that tree and he looked up and he said, come down. I'm going
to your house today. I must go to your house today.
Just like he must go through Samaria. Our Lord knew that Lazarus
was sick. You better believe he did. He
knew it long before they came to tell him. Christ knew that
Lazarus was dead long before he ever went to him. Do you remember
why? I'll remind you, because the
Lord said, His sickness is not unto death, but for the glory
of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby. Which will
bring more glory to God, healing a sick person or raising a man
that's been dead for four days. Lazarus died, was buried, and
rose again, and it was all for the glory of God, and that the
Son might be glorified thereby. Oh, our Lord knows all things.
I'm telling you, our Lord knew which temple that man born blind
begged at every day of his life. Yes, sir, he did. Our Lord knew
which lame man it was that lay among that sick multitude of
impotent folks at the pool of Bethesda. He knew which man it
was that His Father had chosen and given to Him before the foundation
of the world to raise this day, that particular day. See, our
Lord knows everything. And it was to that man and no
one else, that day anyway, that Christ said, rise, take up thy
bed and walk. And the Scriptures say immediately
the man was made whole and took up his bed and walked. How many
times do we read that in the Scripture? Immediately. My point
is this, Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, is the only one that
can save you. In order to save you and me,
our substitute must be both God and man. Has to be the God-man,
and Jesus Christ is the one and the only God-man. You see, God
did actually come into this world. God became one of our kind without
any of the bad. Perfect, holy, just. He was perfect in every way.
And the reason that he came was to keep God's law in the room
instead of those that God gave him before the foundation of
the world. He said, I won't lose one of them. And he didn't. And
he won't. But we already knew that, didn't
we? We mentioned it all the time. We know. I know it in the sense
that we've heard it. And I know that we give mental
assent to it. But let me ask you, do we love
it? The real question is that. Do we love it? Does this mean
more to you than anything else in life? God not playing around
here with sin. You know why? Because it's all
against Him and Him only. God's holy law says in verse
23, and if any mischief follow, trust me it will, then thou shalt
give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand,
for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound,
stripe for stripe. Paul said in Galatians chapter
3, he said, for as many as are of the works of the law are under
the curse. What does that mean? It means
just what it says. Any man, any woman, anybody who
thinks that they can gain favor with God by keeping this law
is cursed. You can't do it. You're cursed.
Any man, woman who thinks that they can produce a righteousness
of their own by endeavoring to keep this law is cursed. Why? Read on. For it is written,
cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. Now, I didn't turn you
to that scripture, so you couldn't read it. I'm sorry. But to be
saved by the works of the law, listen, you've got to do them.
That's what it just said. For cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things which are written in the book of the law To do
them. You've got to do them. That's
not the only thing. You've got to do them all. You've
got to do them all perfectly. Phew, that's the problem. That's
the problem. You remember what James said.
I won't turn you there either. But listen, this is important.
James said this. For whosoever shall keep the
whole law and yet offend in one point. Just one? Can I have a little more leeway
there? No, one point. One point. I was thinking about
that today. One point doesn't seem like much,
does it? You play a game, you lose by
one point, that wasn't bad. I only lost by one point. One point doesn't seem like much,
but though it doesn't seem like much, it's enough to still determine
who wins or loses. One point on a test score sure
don't seem like much, but it can still be the difference in
a passing and a failing grade. One point still counts. And it
really, really counts when it comes to God's law. If you offend the law of God
in one point, just one, you're guilty of the whole law. The whole law. All your sin,
you're guilty of. And God says you're guilty. Guilty of the whole law. How
does God deal with the guilty? Well, I know this. He will by
no means clear them. Why? We know, don't we? His law's
too strict. His justice won't bend. It's
inflexible. It's an eye for an eye. It's
a tooth for a tooth. It's called restitution. It means
recompense for injury or loss. Now we've all seen the TV commercials,
the injury loggers. I think locally there's the hammer. We've seen the hammer and there's
girling the heavy hitters. We've got all kinds of them.
They're all out to seek restitution for the injured. And if you get
hurt, they want to help you. get the due recompense for your
injury and your loss. That's what restitution means.
But God's law is all about restitution. The law of God and its statutes
are saying, this is what the law of God and its statutes are
saying. If you do this, then this is what you have to pay.
There's a consequence to it. If you do this or if you do that,
you pay this. The commandments of God are saying
that to every sinner. God's law requires you that if
you insist on disobeying God, there's a consequence. There's
restitution to be paid. Holy justice demands it. And the problem is, is that most
everybody in the world today, they're just good, moral, outstanding,
and upstanding law-abiding citizens, and they don't much think about
the laws of God, because they don't break the law. If you don't
break the law, you have no reason to be concerned about the penalty
of it. And no reason to have concern for the judgment and
the requirements of justice for certain crimes if you obey the
law. Don't worry about that. But you
do if you're guilty. And in this world, if we break
the law and we get caught, if we're found guilty of that crime,
then there's a penalty for that crime that we committed. And
in order for justice to be served, we must pay the penalty of that
crime. The problem is that we can't.
Not God's law we can't. But the law makes no concessions
for us. Our sickness of sin is no excuse. Can't bring that up. Can't ask
God for allowances because of that. Pleading our ignorance
and our inability won't do any good. Confessing our frailties,
that's just, we're just wasting our breath. The law could care
less. If you study the book of Romans,
in Romans chapter 1, Paul talks about the unbelieving, the heathen,
those who observe no law. In Romans chapter 2, he starts
talking about the Jews who knew a great deal about the law. is
the problem. And we heard the same thing a
minute ago in the book of Galatians chapter 3. Turn with me if you
would to Romans 2. You can just let your place go
in exodus. Look at Romans chapter 2 verse
13. I want you to notice what Paul
wrote here. Romans chapter 2 verse 13. He
says, for not the hearers of the law are just before God. You just can't hear the law of
God and be justified. But the doers of the law shall
be justified. Remember, we're cursed if we
continue not in all things which are written in the book of the
law to do them. Now these laws must be kept.
They must be kept by us if we're to be saved. You can't disobey
God and be saved, be one of His. The commandments of God are not
requests. The law is not a request from
God. God's commandments aren't requests. They're commandments. God didn't say do the best you
can. What God said was your best isn't good enough. That's exactly
what He told Cain, wasn't it? Cain brought the offering of
his hands, brought the best that he had, and God asked that boy
right then and there, he said, if thou doest well, shalt thou
not be accepted. The only way we can do well is
to offer the sacrifice of blood, the sacrifice of the lamb like
Abel. The Lord had respect unto Abel and his offering. God's
respect of Abel and his offering was the same. You know, I got
to thinking about that. God's respect for my offering
and me are the same. He has respect for me because
of my offering. Jesus Christ is my offering.
He's my sacrifice. He's my substitute. He's my salvation. God doesn't accept our best.
He accepts perfection, nothing less. And that's our dilemma,
that's the issue between God and men. God's commandments are
not requests. And the keeping of the law is
not simply a pledge and a promise from us to God to do better. I believe that's why religion's
in the mess that it is today. It was the ten commandments,
it wasn't the ten requestments. Men try to make God out to love
man too much than to send him to hell. Trust me, that's not
so. Not just requests by God for us to do better, I know that.
Men and women are going to abruptly find out that that ain't so when
they go out to meet the God of the universe. You'll find out
it's an eye for an eye, and it's a tooth for a tooth, and a foot
for a foot, and a hand for a hand. Men and women reject the Son
of God. They spit in His face. They make
Him, in their own minds anyway, to be altogether one likened
to themselves. They say God loves everybody.
Jesus died for everybody. I'm telling you, if that's the
case, you might as well just close up hell. There won't be
anybody there. And if that's so, then the holy
law and justice of God doesn't mean anything. And Christ's blood
doesn't mean anything. And God's a sham, and He's an
imposter, and so is His Christ. But that's not so. He that hath
the Son hath life. And he that hath not the Son
hath not life. That's coming straight from God,
friends. We need Christ. God give you
Christ. If you don't have Him, you don't
have life. It's just that simple. There's no other way that God
can justly save you. And people say, well, why don't
you teach us the deeper things of God? Is there anything deeper
than God loving a wretch like you? Do you want to know any
more than that? I don't. I don't. The nature of the law of God
is holiness and light. The light of the law was given
to show us God's holiness. The law of God shows us something
about who God is. And in the light of God's holiness,
that's where we see our sin. Oh, compared to one another,
we'd look all right. But not compared to God. Not
when we're matched up against His perfect holiness and righteousness. The law was given for one reason.
It was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ that we might be
justified and we can only be justified by faith. Faith in
what? No. Faith in who? Faith in Him,
the Lord Jesus Christ. I know this much. The law doesn't
give an unrighteous person any hope. None. It's an eye for an
eye. But if you're a sinner, if you're
ungodly, great hope, abundant hope. But the gospel is this,
Christ died for the ungodly. Christ died for the ungodly.
God took those who had no likeness of Him and conformed them into
the perfect image of His Son. He was made sin for me. Can you
even fathom that? God was. I don't know how God
did it. I don't need to know. But I know
that God made Christ sin. I know that He had no sin. The
scripture says that. He knew no sin. He had no sin.
He committed no sin. I know that Christ was no sinner. But I know I was. And I say was
because in Him I'm not any longer. God made him so that I might
be made the perfect righteousness of God in him. And I stand before
the law and the justice of God justified. An eye for an eye
doesn't apply to anyone who's already been justified. Jesus
paid it all. I don't have to pay. Sin had
left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. It's
not there anymore. I'm pretty happy about that.
Aren't you?