Let me go ahead and tell you
to turn to a couple of Scriptures while I just introduce this lesson. The title is Punishment and Pardon. And I'm going to be preaching
from Exodus chapter 34. So if you want to go ahead and
turn there. And also Mark Hebrews chapter 9. I'll be referring
over there a good bit. So Exodus 34 and Hebrews chapter
9. Punishment and Pardon. That's
the title of the message. And as those of you who know
the Gospel know, punishment and pardon is the heart of the Gospel. Because it's only under the grace
and mercy of God, and under a God who's just to justify ungodly
sinners, that there can be punishment and pardon. In other words, only
God can be just and yet show mercy to sinners. It's the heart
of our message. It's the heart of the Gospel.
And basically, I'm just going to consider two statements this
morning concerning punishment and pardon. First, there can
be no pardon of sin, no forgiveness of sin without punishment. Sin must be punished. And the
second statement, where there's been punishment, where sin has
been punished in Christ, there can't be anything but pardon. Punishment and pardon. Okay,
look in Exodus chapter 34 and verse 5. Now, let me give you
the context here before I read. This is the second time Moses
went up on the mount to receive the Ten Commandments. He's got
the new tablets and the Lord's given him the Ten Commandments.
And then at the end of that, Moses asked God to show him His
glory. And this is what the Lord said
to him and showed him. Exodus 34 and verse 5, And the
Lord descended in the cloud, and stood with Moses there, and
proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before
him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord, that's Jehovah who
saved, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering
and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no
means clear the guilty. visiting the iniquity of the
fathers upon the children and upon the children's children
unto the third and to the fourth generation. Now, our concentration
is going to be on verse 7 right there. And you can see that I
underlined a little phrase to start with. The first few words
of that verse, keeping mercy for thousands. God's mercy is
toward thousands. These thousands are those that
He chose and eternally blessed in Christ before the world began. That's who God's mercy is on.
Listen to Ephesians 1, 3, and 4. These are familiar verses
here. necessarily need to turn there because you'll recognize
Him right away. It says, Blessed be the God and Father of our
Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ, according as He has chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before Him. He blessed us, it says. He chose us. And he did it in
order that we should be holy and without blame before him.
That us and we, that doesn't include all mankind without exception. That us and we are a multitude
out of every kindred, tribe, and tongue, and nation. A multitude
no man can number. They are a mixture of every kindred
and tribe and tongue. In other words, there are no
distinctions of race, no ethnic background, no heritage, no geographic
location, no distinctions among these people. God is no respecter
of persons. He didn't choose these sinners
because of anything that He looked down a telescope of time and
foresaw in them, not even their faith, because you can't have
faith without the grace of God. But He blessed these sinners
in eternity in Christ. These sinners are eternally and
unchangeably accepted in the Beloved. He shows mercy to thousands and
He forgives their sins, all kinds of sins. If you look back in
our text, I underline the next phrase there. He says, keeping
mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and
sin. Some interpreters distinguish
these three words, that iniquity and transgression and sin. It's the words used for sin in
the Bible, the wrongdoing of mankind. These three words cover
everything. And these words, they say, some
say, iniquity signifies sins done through pride and presumption. Transgression covers rebellions
against God, and sin is what's committed through error and mistake.
But no matter the distinctions, what he's saying here is he forgives
all kinds of sins in the thousands that he's chosen to show mercy.
He pardons their iniquities. He shows them mercy for Christ's
sake. But He does not forgive, He does not pardon any sin without
punishment. This is the first of those two
statements I told you we'd consider. Back in our text, the next phrase
in our verse there is, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving
iniquity and transgression and sin. Here's the phrase, and that
will by no means clear the guilty. Now that phrase, according to
John Gill, and I like his idea here, that phrase can be also
interpreted, although it, the sin that God forgives in the
thousands, that sin, will by no means or will most certainly
not go unpunished. God forgives sin. But He doesn't
do it at the expense of His justice. That sin must first be punished. God does not clear the guilty.
He punishes the guilty. He doesn't fail to punish sin.
He punishes every sin with eternal death. Because a just God can't
do anything less than that. There's no pardon of sin without
the punishment of sin. Now how has God already punished
sin? He's punished the sins of His people in the death of His
Son. There's no doubt that the death of Christ was divinely
appointed. It's recorded in Acts 4 that
the whole world, that is Jew and Gentile, the whole world
was gathered together for to do whatsoever God's hand and
God's counsel determined before to be done in the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. No doubt about it, Christ's death
was by God's appointment. They did what God determined
before to be done. And there's no doubt that disappointment
was to a particular end. The prophet Daniel stated that
end in Daniel chapter 9 and verse 24, foretelling of what Christ
would do when He came. He said, Christ will finish the
transgression. He will make an end of sins.
He will make reconciliation for iniquity. He will bring in everlasting
righteousness. Christ's entire work in coming
to this earth was to deal with the sins of His people. It was
to deal with our legal guilt. It was to deal with our legal
standing before God. He came to deal with the sins
of His people. And He has dealt, and He is dealing,
and will deal with those sins in three different ways. As the
surety of his people, Christ has already dealt with the sins
of his people. He did that by his cross. The
cross is where Christ made an end of sin's legal guilt. The
cross is where Christ made a propitiation. In other words, that's where
he made the sacrifice that satisfied God's law and God's justice.
The cross is where Christ bore the full punishment that His
people deserved. And I'll have a lot more to say
about what Christ did in ending the legal guilt of His people
later on. But I'm showing you here that
He's dealt with sin three different ways. First, the legal guilt
at the cross. Christ is right now dealing with
the sins of His people. In regeneration, this Gospel
is going out where God has sent it. It's gone to Australia. It's going out all over the world.
Because Christ is dealing with his sins in regeneration. He's
right now delivering his people from their bondage, their slavery
to sin. He's right now bringing each
of his sheep to the light of the knowledge of God's glory
in the face of Jesus Christ in regeneration and conversion.
So he's dealing with that sin right now, and he will deal with
sin in eternity. When he returns, he's going to
deliver us from the very presence and the very influence of sin,
a future work. Christ's entire work is about his dealing with
the sins of his people. It begins with Christ taking
care of sin's legal guilt. It begins with Christ delivering
his people from the punishment that we deserve. Our understanding
of who God is and who Christ is has to begin right here as
well because that's where Christ's work begins. It begins with that
legal standing. and how He's dealt with it. So
we have to begin our understanding of God, a just God and Savior,
through the person and work of Christ. To honor God as a just
God and Savior, we must first see how Christ has dealt a death
blow to the sins of His people. Until sinners understand what
Christ has already done to save His people from their legal guilt,
Until then, we're in bondage to sin. We're slaves to sin in
a way that we don't even recognize by nature. But we will when God
opens our eyes and causes us to see what Christ has done for
us. Our deliverance from this bondage
can only come from an understanding of the work Christ has done to
end the legal guilt of his people's sins. Our deliverance from this
bondage can only come from a value for the work Christ finished
in order to accomplish the full salvation of every sinner he
was given. So, how did Christ deal with
sin's legal guilt? Two-word answer. He died. He became obedient unto death. As the appointed surety of His
people, Christ assumed the legal debt of the particular sinners
that God gave Him back there in eternity. We read that in
Ephesians 1. He said to His Father in this
everlasting covenant that was made before time in the Godhead,
this everlasting covenant of grace, He said to His Father
exactly what Paul said to Philemon concerning his runaway slave,
Onesimus. Listen to these words from Philemon,
verses 17 and 18. Only one chapter in Philemon.
Paul said to Philemon, he said, if thou count me therefore a
partner, receive him, that's Onesimus, as myself. If he has
wronged thee or oweth thee aught, put that on mine account. I,
Paul, have written it with mine own hand. I will repay it. See,
those are the words of assurity. Paul is becoming the assurity
for Philemon's runaway slave, Onesimus. And that's what Christ
said to His Father in that everlasting covenant of grace. He said of
those He was given by His Father, He said, if these have wronged
thee, or if they owe you anything, put it to My account, impute
it to Me, I will repay it. Those are the words of the surety.
So, first of all, Christ was made the surety of His people.
And as the surety, He was made sin. which means that he died
under the legal guilt of imputed sin. Not any sin of his own,
but the sin of his people charged to him. Listen to 2 Corinthians
5.21, For God the Father hath made him, Christ, to be sin for
us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. In other words, the only way
sin was on Christ, the only way he bore sin, was by imputation. He died under the legal guilt
of imputed sin. And it was sin imputed that reigned
under Christ's death. Listen to Romans 5 and verse
21. That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace
reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. Now where has sin already reigned
unto death for those people of God? It hadn't reigned over us,
but it's reigned unto death through Christ. In Christ, the sinner
substitutes in surety. Christ said in Revelation 118,
I am he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell
and of death. Christ died unto sin once. Sin had dominion over Him once. Listen to Romans 6, verses 9
through 10. Knowing that Christ, being raised
from the dead, dieth no more. He died, but he dieth no more. Death hath no more dominion over
him. For in that he died, he died
unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Christ died the death his people
deserve, the death that his people would most certainly be facing,
the death we would Have in our future had Christ the substitute
and surety not died in our place. He died the death of the accursed.
Listen to Philippians 2 verses 5 through 8. Paul writes, let
this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Who, being
in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with
God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of
a servant, and was made in the likeness of men. And being found
in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto
death, even the death of the cross." Christ became obedient
unto death, and even the death of the cross. The death of the
cross is the death of the accursed. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that hangs on a tree. Christ became obedient unto the
death his people deserve. His people are the accursed.
He died the death we deserve. Christ had done nothing in himself
to deserve death. In himself, he was holy, harmless,
undefiled, separate from sinners. Christ did no sin and knew no
sin. The apostle Peter said he did
no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth. Christ died the
death his people deserved. He died the death of the accursed. How has Christ dealt with the
legal guilt of his people? He became obedient unto death. He died under the legal guilt
of imputed sin, and he died the death of the accursed, the death
his people deserved. He suffered the full punishment
God's justice demands of every soul that sins. So how did Christ deal with sin's
legal guilt? He became obedient unto death.
And the death Christ died was not without results. Set aside
for a moment, if you can, in your mind who Christ died for,
and just consider three things that Christ's death actually
accomplished. Just forget about who He died
for. We're not going to forget about it ever, but for a moment,
just think about what Christ's death actually accomplished.
First, Christ's death put away sin. Look there in Hebrews 9. I asked you to turn there earlier. Hebrews 9 and look at verse 24. It says, for Christ is not entered
into the holy places made without hands, which are figures of the
true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence
of God for us. In other words, he's comparing
there that earthly tabernacle and their sacrifices. They entered
into that holy of holies, but Christ entered into heaven. Verse
25, nor yet that he should suffer often that he should offer himself
often as a high priest, enter into the holy place every year
with blood of others. For then must he often have suffered
since the foundation of the world. But now, once in the end of the
world, hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of
himself." In his first advent, Christ appeared to put away sin. What does that really mean? And
did he do it? Did he accomplish what he came
to accomplish? To put away sin means that Christ's
obedience unto death satisfied the law and justice of God. It
means that he answered the legal charges of God's justice for
the sins he bore. It means that he answered those
charges so completely that they will never be brought up again
in the court of God's justice. The Scriptures teach that God
remembers them, the sins Christ bore for His people. He remembers
them no more, Hebrews 8, 12. Those sins are removed from God's
people as far as the East is from the West. In other words,
they're removed infinitely, Psalm 103, 12. They are cast behind
the back of God. God never looks back. His vision
is future. He never looks back. But those
sins are cast behind His back. Isaiah 38, 17. And they're cast
into the depths of the sea. Micah 7 and verse 19. All that
language is to show us just how fully and completely the sins
Christ bore have been dealt with. And they've been dealt with according
to God's inflexible justice. When it came time for Christ
to bear God's wrath, when it came time for Him to bear the
punishment of His people, God spared not his own son, but delivered
him up for us all. Moses asked God to show him his
glory. And God said, I will make all
my goodness pass before thee, and I will proclaim the name
of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom I will
be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy. God's
goodness toward sinners is in the mercy He shows them in Christ. We must be taught God's goodness
in Christ. We don't know this by nature.
We don't see this goodness until we see Christ's death bearing
sin away to a land uninhabited, cast behind the back of God,
separated as far as the east is from the west. We don't see
God's goodness until we see Christ's death putting away every sin
he bore so completely that it will never be brought up again
in the court of God's justice. We don't see God's goodness until
we see Christ being punished so completely for the sins that
he bore that those sinners he substituted himself for cannot
be punished or ever face any wrath from God because of their
sins. Their sins cannot be charged
to them. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is He that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea rather,
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. Not only did Christ's death
put away sin completely and fully, His death also obtained eternal
redemption. Look again in Hebrews 9, look
back at verses 11 and 12. But Christ, being common high
priest of good things to come, by a greater and more perfect
tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this building,
neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood,
he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. Christ's death didn't make redemption
a possibility. He paid the ransom required by
the justice of God. The Son of Man came not to be
ministered to, but to minister and to give Himself a ransom
for many. Matthew 20 and 28. His death
actually redeemed a people of God's choosing. Their ransom
price is paid. They must go free. Job said,
we found a ransom. Let these go. Not only did Christ's
death put away sin, not only did it obtain eternal redemption
for every sinner he died for, his death also established in
the earth the righteousness of God. Listen to this last verse
in Romans 4 in verse 25. And it's talking about those
who believe the same way Abraham believed, who believe on him
that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered
for or because of our offenses and was raised again because
of our justification. Christ's resurrection from the
dead is a testimony from God that He has done everything required
by a just and holy God. For those sinners He chose in
eternity and gave to Christ, and Christ died on the cross
for, to make it right for God to show those sinners mercy,
to declare them forever unchangeably righteous in God's sight. By
his obedience unto death, Christ has satisfied the law and justice
of God. He put away the sins of his people.
He's established the righteousness by which God is just to justify
ungodly sinners. Whether it be Christ's resurrection
from the dead or our own resurrection as those that are in Him, righteousness
is the requirement for resurrection from the dead. Nothing else will
do but righteousness. It takes righteousness to raise
anyone from the dead. Christ was raised because he
had established the one righteousness by which God is just to justify
those that he chose in Christ before the world began. Christ
died under the legal guilt of imputed sin. He endured the full
punishment God's justice demands of every soul that sinned. And
Christ's death was not without results. It put away sin, it
obtained eternal redemption, it established the very righteousness
of God by which he justifies ungodly sinners. Next, Christ's
death was not in vain. In other words, his death was
not without effect. It accomplished something. Something
was accomplished when Christ died, and it was accomplished
for those that he represented. Christ's death put away the sin
of, it obtained eternal redemption of, and it established the righteousness
of God for every sinner he died for. Christ didn't die for a
sinner only to end up having that sinner in the end found
yet under the eternal wrath of God. No. I used to believe that,
but that can't happen. If Christ died for a sinner,
that sin's been punished and put away. Their ransom's been
paid. They must go free. They can't
ever face that punishment of sin. Christ was never acting
as a private person. You see, in all His work, He
was always acting as the representative to substitute the surety of a
chosen people. He was punished for that chosen
people. He bore their sins in His body on the tree. By His
stripes, they are healed. They must and they shall be pardoned
because of Christ's death alone. Now here's that second statement
that I said I told you we'd consider. Where there's been punishment,
There can't be anything but pardon. Where sin has been punished to
the satisfaction of God's justice, God must, and He shall, pardon
those sinners. God, where there's punishment,
there must be pardon, and there is. Each and every sinner Christ
represented has been healed by Christ's stripes. This is the
passage I read at the opening of the message today. Isaiah
53 verses 4 and 5, Surely Christ had borne our griefs, carried
our sorrows. Yet we did esteem Him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. Notice in this passage, and many
like it, which I'm going to show you a couple more, there's no
difference in the names or the number of those Christ was wounded
for and those who are healed by his stripes. Those names are
written in the Lamb's Book of Life before the world began.
And those that he was wounded for, it says here in Isaiah,
and it says again in Peter's Gospel, by his stripes those
sinners have been healed. Those are one and the same people. If he was wounded, those that
he was wounded for have been healed by his stripes. In addition,
God must and shall give each of these sinners every benefit
and blessing that Christ's obedience unto death has already earned
for them. Listen to Romans 8, verses 31 and 32. These are also
familiar verses right here. What shall we then say to these
things? If God be for us, who can be
against us? He that spared not his own son,
but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? God spared not his own son. for
every sinner he was given. He was delivered up for those
sinners. And they will each freely receive
every benefit and blessing that his life and death earned for
them. None of them can perish. Not one of them is facing God's
eternal wrath. Christ delivered them from that
wrath and punishment, and they are blessed forevermore in Christ. These sinners just need to hear
about the Savior who has suffered the full wrath of God, the One
who has endured the full punishment of sin, the One who has satisfied
the law and justice of God, the One who has obtained the pardon
of every sinner He was given. And they will hear about Him.
They will each hear about Him. In time, in each successful generation,
God will send the Gospel out, and He'll sit those sinners down
under that Gospel, and they'll hear about this Savior. They
will each be brought to Him. They will each rejoice in Christ
alone, because Christ's death was not in vain. In the context
of the Scriptures, we're considered here Exodus and these others.
mainly in Exodus, Moses asked God to show him his glory. And God showed him his highest
glory, his Shekinah glory, his redemptive glory. He showed him
the person and work of Christ and the mercy that would be found
in Christ and Christ alone. And we too need to be shown God's
redemptive glory. And we are. Under the gospel,
God shines in the hearts of His people. He shines the light of
the knowledge of His glory in the face, the person, and work
of Jesus Christ. That's when we see God's glory
in salvation. That's when we see a just God
and Savior. That's when we see the sins Christ
went to the cross for punished and put away. That's when we
see the sinners Christ died for pardoned, in other words, delivered
from any possibility of punishment in themselves. That's when we
see that the sinners Christ died for, these sinners died when
He died. That's when we see these sins
fully and finally punished in Christ's death. These sinners
cannot be punished in themselves. To think they can is to worship
an idol, a god of your imagination. The issue in salvation is not
what sinners do to make themselves savable. It's not what sinners
do to earn their acceptance with God. It's not what sinners do
in order to avoid the wrath of God. The issue in salvation is
what Christ has done to make it right for God to be just and
yet show mercy to sinners like you and me. The issue in salvation
is how God can punish a sinner with all the punishment that
sinner deserves and God's justice demands of that sin. And yet,
at the same time, pardon that same sinner's sins, not charge
them to the sinner, but fully forgive the sinner and declare
them unchangeably righteous in His sight. That's the issue in
salvation. What Christ has done to make
it right for God to show mercy to sinners like you and me. That's
the goodness of God, the mercy of God, and the justice of God
working together consistently in God's salvation. Punishment
and pardon. No sin can be pardoned that has
not been fully punished with all the punishment that the sinner
deserves and God's justice demands. But the sin that has been punished
in the death of Christ cannot be punished further. That sin
can only be pardoned. God is just to punish the sins
of His people in Christ and to pardon them, forgive their iniquity
based on Christ's imputed righteousness alone. I would pray that the
Lord would enable His people to rejoice in this Savior and
this great salvation.