Good morning. Good to see you
all here today. Glad to have our visitors with us. We welcome
you. Today, I'm presenting the second
segment of a two-part series I've titled The Necessary Christ. And again, our text is found
in Luke chapter 24, verses 44 through 47. And I want to begin
by asking you the same question I posed last week that's in keeping
with this title, The Necessary Christ. That is, I want you to
ask yourself, is the Christ I worship, in keeping with my understanding
of how God saves sinners in and by Christ, is that Christ and
is that understanding such that I now see the absolute necessity,
not just the truth, but the necessity that he die and rise again from
the dead? Keep that thought, that question
in your mind as we go forward. Now look with me again in Luke
24. At the point of our text, the
risen Savior has appeared where the disciples had gathered together. He had shown them his nail-pierced
hands and feet, his wounded side, and then he had eaten with them.
He was assuring them thereby of his bodily resurrection. And
at that point, we pick up in verse 44 reading, and he, Christ,
said unto them, these are the words which I spake unto you
while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled,
which were written in the law of Moses and in the prophets
and in the Psalms concerning me. Then opened he their understanding
that they might understand the scriptures and said unto them,
thus it is written and thus it behooved Christ to suffer. and
to rise from the dead the third day, and, or even, that repentance
and remission of sins should be preached in his name among
all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. As I explained last week, the
title, The Necessary Christ, was derived from those two words
I emphasized there. It's the word must and the word
behooved. You will recall in the original
Greek, now those two words are the same word. It's a word spelled
D-E-I, pronounced die. And as I mentioned, many times
it's found in this same context that we see here, speaking of
the absolute necessity of Christ's death and subsequent resurrection. You'll remember we saw last week
where it was, it's used many, several times, even here in Luke
24 before we get to our text. I just remind you again that
the word itself denotes not that which should happen or that which
might happen, but that which is binding, which is inevitable,
that which must happen, that which is absolutely necessary. You'll recall last week I gave
you an outline of five things, five things that began with the
letter R to help us remember, five things that we see in our
text today. that are absolutely necessary
for the salvation of any sinner. We see here that in salvation
there is a necessary revelation to those who are saved. There
is in salvation a necessary redemption for those who are saved. And
we covered those two points last week. So today we're going to
begin to see how in our text that in salvation There's also,
thirdly, a necessary resurrection for those who are saved, how
there is a necessary remission of sins for those who are saved,
and how there's absolutely a necessary repentance by those who are saved. And all of this speaks of the
necessary Christ. This is his work, his necessary
work, and the necessary or inevitable fruit and effects of that work.
So having now reviewed how in salvation there is a necessary
divine revelation, just as we saw with the disciples, our understanding
has to be opened by God the Holy Spirit. And in that revelation
of faith, we are taught, secondly, that there's a necessary redemption
by Christ's suffering and death, whereby God truly redeemed a
people. purchased his church, he bought
them back, all who he saves. And now I want us to consider
how likewise in salvation there is thirdly a necessary resurrection. As we read there in the last
part of verse 46, it said it behooved Christ to suffer and
to rise from the dead the third day. See, as with his suffering,
his resurrection was inevitable, first in that it was prophesied
in those Old Testament scriptures they had, and God cannot lie. But it was also absolutely necessary
because a perfect satisfaction had been rendered to the law
and justice of God the Father by God the Son, a perfect everlasting
righteousness as the prophet Daniel described it. which, before
a just God, demands everlasting life, see, for each and every
one he represented, all for whom he established righteousness
as their substitute. You know, the verse is printed
in our church's bulletin, Romans 521. It teaches that just as
sin demands death, the Bible says the wages of sin is death,
Righteousness demands life. Now that righteousness of God
that is revealed in the gospel, Paul said, that righteousness
is that perfect satisfaction to God's justice, which Jesus
Christ, the God-man mediator, which he alone could and did
establish by his obedience unto death on the cross. That's the
way the Bible describes his work. It was an obedience. He perfectly
obeyed the law, but it was obedience even unto death, you see, because
those for whom he obeyed that law were sinners. And so the
law's justice had to be, the penalty had to be extracted for
God to be just. And so he died as the sacrifice,
as the payment for their sins. As that verse, Romans 5, 21 reads,
it says, That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace
reign. Now how will grace reign? Grace
speaks of the unmerited favor of God. It will reign through
righteousness unto eternal life. Sin gives you death. Righteousness
gives you life. Now by whose righteousness? It
says by Jesus Christ our Lord. In salvation, we must have a
perfect righteousness if we're going to be accepted before a
holy God. Now there's the issue, not will
you accept Jesus. The issue in salvation is how
can a holy God accept me, a sinner? Well, we have to have a perfect
righteousness for that to be. That's the merit of his perfect
justice satisfying work of obedience on the cross. And because God
is who he is, he's immutable. That means he can't change. He's
holy and he's just. He can't set aside that justice. Christ had to come out of that
grave. He died to pay the sins and his
offering got the job done. When you think of that resurrection,
which we'll talk about further here today, think the word satisfaction. Satisfaction to God's law and
justice. the perfection of Christ's offering
demanded life for him, that he arise from the grave, and it
demands life for everyone for whom it was rendered. Well, how
does the merit of what Christ accomplished, his righteousness,
become mine? He did it, I didn't, I wasn't
there. Well, the Bible teaches us it was made to be mine in
the same way that the demerit or the guilt of my sins were
made to be his so that he could bear the penalty and pay the
debt for me. We regularly refer to that in
2 Corinthians 5, 21, where Paul wrote, for he hath made him,
Jesus Christ, to be sin for us, him who knew no sin, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. See, God has graciously
imputed, that's a biblical word, for putting or charging to the
account of someone else, putting to our credit, first he imputed sin to his dear
son. All the demerit of all the sins
of his chosen people, his adopted children, their past sins, their
present sins, their future sins, They were all put to Christ's
account that he might pay in full the sin debt due unto them.
And for each one of them for whom he died, God has graciously
imputed or credited to their account this justifying merit
of the very righteousness of God, that which Christ established
by his obedience unto death. In 1 Corinthians 15, where Paul
was explaining there the certainty of the future bodily resurrection
for all who are saved, we see in that explanation the absolute
necessity of the resurrection of our Savior. And it's evident
in that Paul's reasoning, you'll see here, is based upon an inseparable
connection, a union, a oneness which exists before God between
Christ and all those he represented, all those he saves. Look at that
with me. Picking up in verse 12, Paul
wrote, now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, as
certainly Paul did preach, how say some among you there is no
resurrection of the dead? speaking of believers who had
died. But if there be no resurrection
of the dead, then is Christ not risen? Paul's saying, look, in
other words, if there's no bodily resurrection for any sinners,
then Christ, who died and rose again, see as a substitute, as
a representative to stand in the place of some, to save them. Well, if they don't arise, then
Christ must not have risen himself. Now, keep in mind, these Corinthians,
they knew Christ had risen from the dead. That really was not
in dispute among them. But Paul continues his reasoning
in verse 14, saying, and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching
vain, and your faith is also vain. Christ arose because righteousness
was established. demanding life. And so if they
presume there's no bodily resurrection unto eternal life for true believers,
then their representative must not have gotten the job done.
Satisfaction must not have been made to God the Father, and he
would not have risen. And if that's the case, then
the preaching of the gospel, okay, Remember, Paul said that
the gospel's the power of God unto salvation, for therein is
the righteousness of God revealed. Well, then that preaching's in
vain. That would mean that none would receive eternal life, not
if Christ be not risen. He continues in verse 15. Yea,
we are found false witnesses of God, because we have testified
of God that he raised up Christ. whom he raised not up, if so
be that the dead rise not." I want you to see how Paul is. It's
just unmistakable. He's saying, hey, all those for
whom Christ lived and died, if he arose, they will rise. And if not, then he didn't arise. If the dead rise not, then is
not Christ raised. And if Christ be not raised,
your faith is vain. That means worthless, empty. And ye are yet in your sins. That means Christ, see, didn't
completely get the job done. God the Father wasn't satisfied
with his blood offering if he didn't come out of that grave.
But we know that's not the case. But I want you to think of the
implication of this to us. You know, most who call themselves
Christian in our day, they believe that there will be a bodily resurrection
of those who are saved. when Christ comes again, but
any faith that places a hope for eternal life based on something
more than, something in addition to Christ's finished work. So
if according to your body of faith, there remains anything
more to be done to ensure, procure, secure, obtain for you your eternal
future, then that too would mean Christ didn't quite get the job
done, did he? And so Paul, as Paul is declaring
here, the same would be true. That is a vain, a worthless,
empty, false faith because it would leave you yet in your sins. If he died for some to pay the
debt due unto their sins and they perish anyway, then what
confidence could you have that your sins were paid for? It would
leave you still liable for the punishment due unto your sins,
which a just God must extract. You see that thinking that sadly
most of us almost, well, we all start out naturally thinking
salvation is somehow conditioned on us. That's before God gives
us life, that's what a spiritually blind, dead sinner Like we all
were, that's what we initially think. But that kind of thinking
imagines that Christ's blood was inadequate. And there's where
we start to see the evil of it. And so Paul continues in verse
18. He says, then they also which
are fallen asleep in Christ are perished. If in this life only
we have hope in Christ. In other words, if there's no
everlasting life hereafter, Winston quoted this verse, we are of
all men most miserable. I don't know about you, but I
would hate to think that the blessings, not to mention all
the difficulties of this life, was all there was. But there's
good news. Look at verse 20. He writes,
oh, but to the contrary, now is Christ risen from the dead
and become the first fruits of them that slept, that is, those
who had died. For since by man, that's our
federal head and representative Adam, came death by man, the
God-man mediator, the Lord Jesus Christ, came also the resurrection
of the dead. For, as in Adam, all die, even
so in Christ. All who are in Christ shall be
made alive. But every man to his own order,
or in his own order, excuse me, Christ the firstfruits, afterward
they that are Christ at his coming. That's referring to that bodily
resurrection at the second coming of Christ. So I ask, do you see
the necessity of his resurrection? Now here Paul's teaching to those
who'd imagine that when Christ comes that he would fail to rise
to heaven's eternal glory. Those for whom he lived, died,
and arose. But consider the implication
in Paul's reasoning again. His entire argument is based
on this inseparable connection that exists in God's eyes between
Christ and everyone for whom he lived and died. And to imagine
that any for whom he died might not be saved, that is to deny
the saving power of his shed blood. You know, that forces
us to look elsewhere for the remedy to our sin problem, not
to Christ alone. but his resurrection was absolutely
necessary. See, all he represented shall
live, and they only live because he lives. An inseparable connection. In salvation, so we see, there
is a necessary divine revelation. There is a necessary redemption. there's a necessary resurrection
and now let's consider how there in salvation there is also a
necessary remission of sins. Look again at verses 46 and 47.
Where Christ said unto them thus it is written and thus it behooved
Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead the third day and
and that word and at the beginning of verse 47 is better translated
even so as to read It behooved, or it was also absolutely necessary,
even, that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in
his name among all nations beginning at Jerusalem. You know, when
you get a bill in the mail, it'll often have the words, remit to,
and then it'll name the company and the address you're to send
in your payment. So when we remit something, we
pay for it. And that's similar to the Greek
word here that's translated remission. It's a word that's translated
elsewhere in the New Testament as forgiveness. And it actually
denotes a complete forgiveness, a full release or a full pardon. So here when Christ says that
it was necessary even that repentance and remission of sins should
be preached. He's communicating that repentance,
which I'll discuss in a moment, and this release from the obligation
or the debt due unto sin must be preached in his name. And you can see that in the,
you can see the similarity of that with how we commonly use
the word because, you know, when we remit money to pay a bill,
we're thereby released from that debt or that obligation to pay. The debt's been forgiven, but
it's only forgiven based on a full payment of all that was due. You're not forgiven the debt
until it's been completely paid. There is no forgiveness of the
debt unless it's been paid in full. Here Christ is telling
his disciples of the necessity that this be preached. He's telling
them that if we preach his gospel, we must preach that the debt
has been paid in full so as to be remitted, forgiven. A parallel passage to our text
in Luke 24 that records this very same occasion where he was
meeting with his disciples after the resurrection. We see in the,
it's in recorded for us at the end of Mark chapter 16. And there
Christ gave what we often call his great commission to his disciples
to go into the world and preach the gospel. And he says in that
commission, he says all those that believe that gospel. and
are baptized, they shall be saved. And all those that believe not,
he said, shall be damned. So it's a very serious thing
when he's talking about what must be preached in his name. Well, here in Luke, his record
of this very same occasion, see, more specifically communicates
that the preaching of God's gospel must include the preaching that
sins have been remitted, forgiven, that the debt be paid in full.
And that's necessary. It's necessary in order that
the necessity of his suffering and death, his work of redemption,
that it be revealed in the hearts and minds of those who are saved.
Why is that important? So that God realizes his chief
design and purpose in salvation. So that he, not the sinner, but
God, might receive all glory. And that glory, That's the revelation
of what he's like. It's revealed in the hearts and
minds of all those he saves. And I'll come back to that in
just a moment. So again, those who imagine that Christ failed
to fully remit the payment due under the sins for which he died,
Listen, so much so that many believe that some for whom he
died, for whose sins he supposedly paid the debt, that they shall
still be held accountable for their sins. They believe that
Jesus died for all men and women without exception, but that many
of them perish. That means that they were not
fully released from the debt owed to the justice of God. And
to believe that leaves you having to rely on something else, not
the blood and righteousness of Christ alone. You know, it's
such a contradiction. When we believed that, when I
believed that, and I once did, I would sing nothing but the
blood. But obviously, in my mind, it
took something more than the blood, if any, for whom he died
could possibly perish. But the Bible tells us that God's
dear children, they have the remission of sins. They are forgiven
through his redeeming blood. I want you to look at that with
me in Ephesians 1. I'm going to begin reading back
in verse 3. Paul was writing to the believers
at Ephesus, saying, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ. who hath blessed us with all
spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according to
our decision to choose to follow Jesus. No, that's not what it
says, is it? It says, according as he hath
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him, in love having predestinated
us and to the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself. According to our free will decision,
that's not what it says, is it? According to the good pleasure
of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein
he hath made us accepted. He made us accepted in the beloved,
the beloved son of God. Look at verse seven. In whom
we have redemption through his blood. They're a bought people.
The forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his grace. That
word that's translated forgiveness here, it's the same Greek word
that's translated remission back in our text in verse 47 of Luke
24. The forgiveness of sins is sure
and certain for all for whom that blood payment was made.
and to rely on anything other than that or in addition to that. Listen, whether it's your good
intentions, your giving your very best, your act of faith,
your church going, your baptism, your decision for Jesus, whatever,
if the difference maker in your salvation is something done by
or through you instead of solely owing to the blood and righteousness
of Christ, then you're denying and you're refuting what Christ
said to his disciples in Luke 24 47. That the message of the
gospel, see, that must be preached and believed upon unto salvation
must of necessity include the preaching of the remission of
sins. Now that means we're to preach
and it means true believers will believe the proclamation that
Christ has truly cleared the sin debt. that was owed for each
and every one for whom he lived and died. So we see in salvation
there is a necessary divine revelation. Our understandings have to be
opened. There's a necessary redemption. It's a bought people. There's
a necessary resurrection. They live because he lives. There's
a necessary remission of sins for all who are saved. And lastly,
we see there is a necessary repentance by all who are saved. Look again
at verses 46 and 47, where Christ said unto them, thus it is written,
and thus it behooved Christ to suffer and to rise from the dead
the third day and, or as I've said, better translate it even,
so that we could read it It was also absolutely necessary even
that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in
his name. I found it interesting that repentance
and remission of sins were linked here together as that which must
be preached in the name of Christ. And after I thought some about
the nature of repentance, as that which always accompanies
genuine God-given faith, then it kind of fits. You see, these
two, repentance and remission, they go hand in hand because
we repent as a result of having our understanding open to see
with the eyes of God-given faith what we couldn't see before,
what we would not see before, The absolute necessity that our
sins be remitted, that we be completely released and fully
pardoned from that sin debt that we owed but none of us could
pay. Seeing the necessity of forgiveness remission by the
blood payment that was made for us by our substitute and our
savior. You know, the Bible speaks of
believers repentance as being a repentance from dead works
and from idolatry. As Paul commended, you know,
the Thessalonians for having turned to God, he said, from
idols to serve the living and true God. Most of us don't think
of ourselves as idolaters. We picture someone bowing before
a stone or graven image or something. But you notice in that wording
to the Thessalonians, he said they turned to idols to serve
the living and true God. That means God as he is. We learn
something of God in truth that we were mistaken about before. And that which we were mistaken
about made him an idol in our minds, in our imaginations. Many
only think of repentance as a reformation of character, as a turning from
a life of spiritual indifference or immorality to a new lifestyle
where maybe we get religious or join a church perhaps, proceed
to walk what some might call the straight and narrow, clean
up our act, you know, maybe join a church, and we basically decide
to live right. And, you know, certainly there
is the sense of repentance. that involves, and for the believer,
it involves a continual sorrow and a shamingness that we have
over sin, and it should and it does impact our behavior. But
the command to repent in belief of God's gospel involves a turning
away from that which we previously, we didn't even realize we needed
to repent of. Our understanding, see, to this
need to repent, must also be opened by God's divine revelation
of faith, whereby we believe His preached gospel. I was thinking
about this, and the other day I heard an old, what they call
a country, quote, gospel song called, I Saw the Light. I know
many of you are familiar with that song. The last line of each
verse goes, praise the Lord, I saw the light. Well, there's
one stanza that goes like this. It says, I was a fool to wander
in astray. Straight is the gate, narrow
the way. Now I have traded the wrong for
the right. Praise the Lord, I saw the light.
Now I know when most people hear that, they relate it to someone. It was probably written with
that intention, to have you think of someone who they were sowing
their wild oats, so to speak. They were living wrong, as in
in moral life who decided then to turn over a new leaf. They
traded that wrong for the right. But do you realize that kind
of reformation or repentance, it doesn't require a new understanding
of things. It doesn't require a new revelation
from God. It just requires you to resolve
to do what your natural conscience already knows is right to do
instead of and refraining from doing what your natural conscience
already knows is wrong. But you know, as I thought about
that song, this is why I bring it to your attention, by God's
saving grace, God's children actually do see the light, so
to speak. Believers are those who at some
point in time are providentially brought to a place like this.
God orders the events in our lives. to put us under the sound
of this, his gospel of sovereign grace in the person, and listen,
the saving work of Christ. As 2 Corinthians 4.6 puts it,
in salvation, God, he shines into the heart of his people
the light, the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face,
the person and work of Jesus Christ. And with that divine
revelation, that light, we behold God's glory. And as I mentioned
earlier, that means we see what he is really like. We can know
a lot of things about God, but this is something we can only
know through a right understanding of Christ and his redeeming work.
We see there how he is both a just God and a Savior. And so with that God-given faith
and repentance, we do trade, we trade a wrong, a God-dishonoring
understanding of him for a new, a right understanding. For that
which is right, see, according to the only one who matters,
the judge of the earth, God himself who tells us he requires a perfect
righteousness for any to be accepted before him. And that's why his
justice-satisfying righteousness was absolutely necessary in the
place of and on the behalf of all those he came to save. The
preached gospel sets forth the necessity of the work of Christ
in our place for the remission or forgiveness of our sins, a
forgiveness which we only have and which we fully have by his
shed blood for us. And in belief of the gospel,
we return from the wrong. We turn from ever imagining even
that we might contribute even one iota to our own salvation. And we trade the wrong, listen,
our own self-righteousness for the right, the very righteousness
of God in Christ. As we heard in the 10 o'clock
hour, and I'll be repeating some of that, Paul, he describes in
Philippians 3 how in salvation we repent, not just in sorrow
for the sins that we already knew were displeasing to God.
But we repented of the very things we beforehand thought were gain,
things we erroneously presumed would gain us favor and fellowship
with God. Look at that with me, beginning
in Philippians 3.7. Paul here, he had just finished
listing all these things that he previously thought counted
for something. And then he wrote, but what things
were gained to me Those I count at loss for Christ, yea, doubtless,
and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge
of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss
of all things and do count them but dung. Those things I used
to think counted for something. That I may win Christ and be
found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the
law, not based on my doing, my law keeping, my act of faith,
whatever. but that which is through the
faith or faithfulness of Christ, the righteousness which is of
God by faith. And so in God-given faith, we
embrace that. We repent of those dead works
and of the false notions that we had of God. See, there are
wrong thoughts of God that necessarily accompany the natural religion
of man. We naturally assume that there
has to be some Something I can do, some contributing factor
that I can add to the mix or bring to the table to make a
difference in my own salvation. This mistaken assumption is exposed
to us, you know, in the question we all would naturally ask when
we first kind of get serious about religion and the fact that
we got an eternity to spend somewhere. We think, well, now that I'm
serious about it, what do I need to do to be saved? Embodied in that question, see,
is that by nature we imagine there is something we can do
to be saved, to save ourselves. And that is salvation by works.
We might call it grace, but it's not. And our natural sinful pride
recoils at the thought. You're telling me there's nothing
I could do, that it's truly out of my hands? See, we recoil at
the thought of being reduced. in humility to a mercy beggar
who can do nothing to save themselves. In other words, we recall at
the idea, we may talk about, oh, I'm glad, I need God's mercy. But we actually, naturally, would
recall at the idea that we're truly at the mercy of God. And that man's natural religion
of works, he carries with it a mistaken and a God dishonoring
understanding of God, a view of God that stands opposed to
the character of the true and living God of the Bible. If you
didn't hear last week's message, I'd suggest you get that because
I stressed last week how we must assume by that way of thinking
that God, although we knew he's described in his word as unchangeable
and just and holy, that thinking says that he actually has to
become unjust, that he actually has to set aside his justice
and his holiness to accept us based upon our own sin-tainted
offering. And when I say offering, I'm
talking about that which we presume to be able to do to save ourselves. And so our repentance includes
a repentance of this false concept of God of this Listen, unjust
God. That's what he would have to
be. He killed his sons to pay for the sins of some people that
he went on and sinned to hell anyway. What an unjust monster.
And when we see that, oh, in repentance, we turn to a just
God and a Savior. See, in genuine faith, we come
to behold God as he is. We behold his very redemptive
glory. Now, when I say that, That just
means that which we can only know of him in the redemptive
work of Christ by the divine revelation of the gift of faith
in belief of God's gospel. This gospel, his way of saving
sinners by Christ alone. See, thereby we see that God,
he doesn't have to dispense with his holiness and justice in order
to save sinners. In fact, his holiness and his
justice is magnified and honored, and we see how he remains true
to himself as both a perfectly just God and a merciful, loving
Savior. That redemptive glory of God,
see, is only revealed to us through the God-given understanding of
the person and redeeming work of his dear Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, the absolutely necessary Christ. Well, can you see then
how remission and repentance are connected? If you now truly
believe that the remission or the forgiveness of sins is fully
accomplished by the redeeming blood of Christ, then you will
have repented of ever having to dare to the contrary, that
something else could accomplish or even contribute to your being
forgiven, your being saved. Listen, God knows your every
thought. He knows my every thought. So
don't dare, not even for one minute longer, to place your
act of faith or your so-called free will decision or anything
that proceeds from you, a sinner, in a position of rivalry with
God's way of salvation, with what it actually took, putting
it in rivalry as if it could stack up and accomplish what
only the precious blood of the God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ,
could accomplish. See, truly in salvation, there
is a necessary repentance. There is a complete reversal
as it pertains to our understanding of God and how he saves sinners. And as we heard in the 10 o'clock
hour from Bill, that repentance, it cannot be separated from faith,
from the revelation of faith. You see, when by God-given faith,
with having been given spiritual life, we gain a new understanding
so as to believe a new truth. the gospel of God's grace. Well,
if you believe in something new, you, by necessity, are turning
away from that which you now know to have been wrong. We really
do trade the wrong for the right. I like how some of you put it.
We change gods. In Luke 13, 5, Christ was speaking
to a group, and in the context, you can see that it was a group
who thought they were better sinners than other sinners that
they considered to be lost. And he declared to them there,
he said, nay, but except you repent, ye shall all likewise
perish. If we think we're saved because
we're willing to do something, make a decision that others will
not. And when we did that, and I once
did that as I know most of you did, didn't that equate to a
presumption on our part before God that we're actually better
than they are. See, I was willing to do something
to make a decision for Jesus that they wouldn't make. Maybe
I thought I was less stubborn. Maybe I was just a little more
pliable. Nonetheless, you can't get away from it. I had to think
I was somehow better. And hear what God the Son says
to such. He says, unless we repent of
such, that we too will perish. That's the context that that
verse is found in. Well, in Acts 17, Paul concluded
his sermon on Morris Hill saying this, beginning at the end of
verse 30. He says, but now God commandeth all men everywhere
to repent. Why? Because he hath pointed
a day in the which he will judge the world by what standard? In
righteousness. Whose righteousness? By that
man whom he hath ordained, whereof he hath given assurance unto
all men in that he raised him from the dead. Now I know, and
I hope you don't get tired of this, but I often refer to these
same verses, but I couldn't think of a better passage to conclude
this two-part series with because just as we see in Luke 24, we
also see here in Acts 17. We see the necessity of Christ
and his word. We see here also that there is
absolutely a necessary divine revelation concerning how God
saves sinners. a revelation that would bring
us to repentance. See, how can any obey this command to repent? Experience this 180-degree change
of mind as it pertains to God and how He saves sinners apart
from having something new revealed that would prompt such a reversal.
According to God's Word, there is a necessary revelation. We
also see here that in salvation there's an absolutely necessary
redemption for us. His establishment of righteousness.
That's that perfect satisfaction to God's law and justice. That
righteousness was completed by His finished redeeming work on
the cross. And that righteousness here,
we're told we're going to all be judged by it. We must be found
righteous in Him to be accepted by God and that requires a necessary
work of redemption for us. He had to buy us. He bought back
his people. We also see here that in salvation
there is absolutely a necessary resurrection for us. We're told
that we're going to be judged now by the righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ here. And as we read, it's the righteousness
of the one God ordained. That means that's the one God
appointed from all eternity who agreed in that everlasting covenant
of grace to come and be a surety and a substitute to come in time
and save his people. And it's further described there
as the righteousness of the one he raised from the dead. And
so, you know, there's no need for us to doubt about this. He's
assuring us all that this is precisely how we're going to
be judged. And where do we get that assurance
from? By having raised Christ from the dead. See, that proved
satisfaction had been made. It proved that Christ truly had
put away remitted sins. Satisfaction to justice that
was made demanded his resurrection from the dead and it demands
the future resurrection of each and every one for whom he lived
and died. Fourthly, we also see in this
passage that an absolutely necessary remission of sins took place.
The satisfaction he made to God's justice was accepted. Righteousness
was established. It demanded he come out of the
grave. And it demands that for all for whom he lived. And look,
that both spiritually in the new birth and unto heaven's eternal
glory. And so we see that any who are
saved, they must stand accepted in him, forgiven of their sins. That means released from that
sin debt, a necessary remission of sins. And without that, you
see, you cannot stand righteous before him. But we see here,
we must be righteous. We're going to be judged that
way. That means we've got to have his very righteousness imputed,
or charged to our account. Because that's how we're all
going to be judged. We're going to be judged in righteousness.
And then lastly, going back there to the end of verse 30, we see
there's absolutely a necessary repentance. God commands it.
So repentance is both necessary and it's inevitable. for those
who are saved, you see, because it can't be separated from that
blood-bought gift of faith. Thereby the believer repents.
He turns away from that which they now see as wrong, even evil,
repenting of having imagined that God could possibly save
them based upon anything other than or in addition to the imputed
righteousness of Christ. Well, if you've yet to have your
understanding open to see from the scripture the absolute necessity
of these things, I pray God will use this series of messages toward
that end. And by his saving power, that
he'll grant you the eyes of faith that will have you turn to Christ
for all of your salvation. In repentancy of ever having
imagined something done by you could accomplish or even contribute
to what actually took his doing and dying to accomplish. See,
we turn in repentance of having had such a low regard for His
precious shed blood, regarding it as inadequacy to save His
people. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
this necessary Christ of Scripture. Place all your hope and trust
in Him, in His doing and dying alone. See, God, He can't lie,
and He says that those who believe on Him shall be saved. So believe
on Him. Believe on him, the Lord Jesus
Christ, as he described himself to be in Luke 24, the necessary
Christ.