The name of the message tonight
is For Comforting Truths. Going through this world, we
often have sorrow, and it comes from various places. It comes
from friends. It comes from family. It comes
from people who we don't expect it to come from. Sorrow and tribulation
and pain. And I don't know about you, but
I need comfort. I need comfort. Even though I'm
a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, even though I know my
soul is saved, I find myself sometimes getting down, sometimes
needing to be uplifted, sometimes allowing circumstances to get
me down. But my hope and my comfort, excuse
me, is in Christ Jesus, our Lord. So turn your Bibles, if you would,
to Isaiah chapter 40. I'm gonna read two verses from
Isaiah chapter 40. And everyone in this world needs
comfort at some point in this life. And comfort from the soils
of this world, comfort from the trials of this world, comfort
from the tribulations of this world, just comfort in general
we need as God's people. In this scripture, in Isaiah
chapter 40, verses one and two, it says, comfort ye, comfort
ye my people, saith your God. Speak comfortably to Jerusalem
and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished and that her
iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand
double for all her sins. So we need to be comforted. While
we're going through sickness, we need to be comforted. While
we're going through heartache, we need to be comforted. While
we're going through trials and tribulations, we need to be comforted.
And sinners who have been born again by the Holy Spirit of God,
in great faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, have been
shown that our desperate state before God, that we need Christ. We're sinners from the top of
our head to the bottom of our feet, which just means that we're
sinners in everything we say and do. And I had a fellow today
I was talking to, and he said that as a believer, we don't
sin anymore. And I said, well, then you're
calling God a liar. because we're still sin. And
he said, well, yeah, we need to confess our sin, and we need
to try to go through the whole day without sin. And well, I
said, that's impossible, because everything we do is tainted with
sin. So that's what God shows us as a born-again, blood-washed
people. He shows us our desperate need for Christ, our desperate
need of salvation. And we need to be saved from
our sins, don't we? We need to be saved from our sins, and we
need to be saved from God's wrath for our sins. and God's law and
justice, which has a legal claim upon us, we need to be saved
from those as well. And these wonderful verses in
Isaiah chapter 40, verses one and two, bring forth that the
preachers of God are to speak comfort to the Lord's people.
We're to proclaim comfort to the Lord's people. And how do
we do that? Well, we preach Christ Jesus,
and we preach the truths about the gospel. And I'm gonna give
us four comforting truths. There's many more, there's many
more, but I'm gonna give us four comforting truths from the gospel
about the Lord Jesus Christ. And God's preachers, we take
great joy in proclaiming these truths. It's wonderful. Because
we are but saved sinners as well. So we love to hear these truths. We love to declare these truths.
So here's four wonderful truths set forth in the Gospel. And
this is about the perfect sin atoning work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. in the room and place of his
people. See, God became a man, and his name is the Lord Jesus
Christ. And he came here to save his people from their sins. And
praise God he did it. And he came to save his people,
called the redeemed of the Lord, called the elect of God. He came
to save us from our sins. Now we don't have a clue who
they are, so we preach the gospel to everyone. But here are four
comforting truths from the gospel. The first comforting truth from
the gospel is a perfect atonement. A perfect atonement. God demands
a perfect sacrifice for our sins. And here's a great comfort for
the born-again blood-washed believer. The Lord Jesus Christ took our
sins upon himself. Our sins were imputed to him.
And he bore them all before God and before God's law and justice.
And he paid for them. He completely paid everything
that God demanded for the redemption of our souls, the souls of all
those who the Father had given him in eternity, a number that
no man can number. He paid absolutely, perfectly,
and completely everything God demanded, completely satisfying
the just demands of God's law. And the scriptures declare this
about Christ and his work. Christ hath redeemed us, being,
now Paul's writing to, in Galatians, he's writing to born-again blood-washed
believers, and he says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And he goes on and says, that
the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through
Jesus Christ, that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through
faith. And then listen to this wonderful
verse proclaimed in the Old Testament in Daniel 9.24 about the complete,
perfect, sinatonic work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It says this,
70 weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy
city to finish the transgression, to make an end of sins. That's
what Christ did. He made an end of our sins, beloved.
He paid absolutely, completely what God demanded for the redemption
of our souls and to make reconciliation for iniquity. He's sinless. He's
perfect. He's spotless. He's making reconciliation
for the iniquity of my sins and for yours, if you're a believer,
and for all the elect of all the ages. Isn't that wonderful?
Perfect atonement, beloved. And to bring in everlasting righteousness.
He brought in everlasting righteousness, didn't he? And we're clothed
in the perfect spotless righteousness of Christ as believers. And to
seal up the vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy.
So Christ Jesus our Lord, made an end of the sins of his people,
and he's reconciled us to God, beloved. And how did he do that?
Well, he did it by the shedding of his precious blood, redeeming
our eternal souls, redeeming us, as Galatians said, they're
out from under the law that had a just demand upon us. And when did he do this? When
he offered himself up as the perfect spotless Lamb of God.
That's when he did it. And he shed his blood to redeem
our eternal souls and marvel at this great redemption. It's
accomplished, it's finished. Listen to this, in Hebrews 9,
12, speaking about Christ and his sacrifice, it says, neither
by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood, he entered
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Christ
obtained eternal redemption. It's a perfect atonement. It's
a perfect salvation. Praise be to God, the Lord Jesus
Christ has obtained our redemption. He's obtained it by his death,
by his perfect life, and by his perfect death in our room and
place. A sin-atoning death. And remember, the atonement's
perfect. It's a perfect atonement. Perfect. He shed his precious blood as
our substitute and redeemed our eternal souls. The next comforting
truth for God's people when we're down and when we're going through
things is this, perfect righteousness. How must our righteousness be
in order for us to stand in the presence of God? It must be perfect.
But the Bible says all our righteousness is like filthy rags, which means
we're absolutely imperfect. We can't make ourselves righteous
because we're unrighteous. But listen to this, oh my. And listen to this, what Galatians
says, cursed is he that continueth not in all things which are written
in the book of the law to do them. So if we can't fulfill
the law, we're cursed, we're under a curse. And that's all the law, not just
one or two things that people like to cherry pick. No, that's
the whole law. But then here, marvel at God's
grace, and if you want to turn here, Romans 3, 19, or if you
want to just listen, we're going to read Romans 3, 19 to 28, and
listen and marvel at God's grace manifest to chosen sinners, all
because of Christ and all because of what Christ has done. Listen
to this. Romans 3, 19. Now we know that what things
soever the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become
guilty before God. So the law, the law makes us
all guilty. It shows that we're all guilty.
There's none righteous, no, not one, as the scripture says. Therefore,
by the deeds of the law, there shall be no flesh justified in
his sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. So no one can be justified and stand before God justified
by our own works, none of us, or by the law. But now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifest. Look at this. Being witnessed
by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God,
which is by the faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all
that believe. for there is no difference. So
the righteousness of Christ is manifested, the righteousness
of God is manifested in Christ, and the believers clothed in
that perfect righteousness. And look, it says, for there's
no difference for all sin to come short of the glory of God
being justified freely by His grace. Oh, beloved, we're justified
by the grace of God in Christ, freely, freely, through the redemption
of His in Christ Jesus, our Lord, whom God has set forth to be
a propitiation through faith in His blood, to declare His
righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time,
his righteousness, that he might be just and justifier of him
which believeth in Jesus. See, our God's a just God, his
laws upheld because Christ fulfilled it all. And he's also, he's also
a justifier. Beloved, he's justified us from
our sins by his perfect sinatoning work, by his perfect righteousness. Where's boasting then? I'll read verse 26 again. To
declare, I say at this time, his righteousness, that he might
be just and justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Have
you believed in Jesus? That's the key. If you don't
believe in Jesus, you're not justified. No matter how many
good works you think you do, they're all bad and they're all
rotten in God's eyes. Oh my. But then he says, where
is boasting in? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? Nay, but by the law
of faith. We can't boast in anything we
do. We can boast in Christ, though, can't we? In what he's done.
Oh, we do. We do. Therefore, we conclude
that a man is justified by faith, and that faith has one object.
That's Christ Jesus, our Lord. Right? Justified by faith without
the deeds of the law, without the working of the law. Christ
fulfilled the law. He did that which we could never
do. Remember, if you break one point of the law, you're guilty.
You're guilty. And remember what I mentioned
earlier? Cursed is one who can't keep the law. Cursed is he that
continueth not in all things which are written in the book
of the law to do them, Galatians 3.10. But listen to this. Therefore
we conclude that a man is justified by faith, faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ, the only Savior of sinners. So by the obedience of one, that's
his obedience, shall many be made righteous. God's people
are made righteous by the perfect righteousness of Christ. Oh,
it's wonderful. It's so comforting, isn't it?
Now, here's another point here. Here's the third point that'll
make God's people's hearts sing. Perfect imputation. Christ has
given us life, light, and understanding by the gospel, enabling us to
see and receive the imputation of his righteousness to us by
faith in him. For I am not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
that believeth, to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. For therein
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, as it is
written, that just shall live by faith. See, the righteousness
of God is revealed, and it's Christ. Christ is the Lord, our
righteousness. Christ is God's righteousness.
Righteousness is not imputed to us on the basis of our faith.
No, not at all. No, but upon the basis of Christ's
fulfillment and faithfulness as our representative. It's all
about what Christ did. We are undeserving mercy beggars. That's what we are. And this
imputed righteousness is received by faith. Righteousness is imputed
to us. Well, that works. It's unconditional
and it's irrevocable. God won't take it away. And it's
imputed to us. It's irrevocable imputation,
beloved. Isn't that wonderful? Listen
to this in Romans chapter 4. For what sayeth the scriptures,
Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness.
Now to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace,
but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on
him that justified the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
Even as David also described, the blessedness of the man unto
whom God imputed righteousness without work, saying, Blessed
are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. All praise God, our sins are
covered by the blood of Christ. The last point I'd like to do
is perfect liberty, perfect liberty. Since the justice of God has
been satisfied by the perfect sin atoning death of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and since the law has been honored by Christ's
perfect life and death, and since Christ's righteousness has been
imputed to us, then God's elect are completely freed from all
possibility of condemnation. Listen to this, Romans chapter
eight, verses one to four. There is therefore now no condemnation,
in the Greek that's a judgment, to them which are in Christ Jesus
who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. for the
law and the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free
from the law of sin and death. For what the law could not do,
in that it was weak, it couldn't save us. Through the flesh, God
sent his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin,
condemned sin in the flesh, he saved us from our sins. That
the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us, who
walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. So rejoice,
beloved God. Rejoice. Because where there's
no debt, there's freedom. There's freedom, beloved. Oh,
my. Where there's no sin, there's
no curse. Oh, where there's no guilt, there's no fear. Where
there's no fear, there's perfect freedom, perfect liberty. So
praise God for the fourfold message of comfort, of comfort, in these
precious gospel truths. May they be a blessing to we
who are the people of God. Until next time.