Job chapter 19, we are continuing in our study of
the doctrine of justification, and particularly justification
from eternity. We've been looking over the last several
weeks about this particular doctrine, and just to Recap the doctrine
of justification. The term justification is a legal
term, which means that a guilty person who truly has guilt laid
to their account is accounted as not guilty, as
if they have no guilt to their account. And so when we speak
of justification, as far as scripture is concerned, We are speaking
of the very heart of the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the gospel,
we learn that God has justified sinners, his people that he has
chosen from the foundation of the world and given to Christ.
He has justified these people, even though they come into this
world natural with no ability for spiritual things, even though
they come into this world with the inability to keep God's law
and transgress God's law. As we all have the Bible said
that all for all of sin and all have fallen short of the glory
of God. that there is none right, just
no, not one. We are very familiar with these
passages of scripture, but as we see that that is the true
and actual case of each and every one of us, those who are the
children of God, those who are the child of grace, the elect
from all eternity, Those people have been justified of those
sins because of the faithfulness and the work of Christ Jesus
on their behalf in the everlasting covenant. His coming and living
perfectly and keeping the law on their behalf so that that
law keeping is accredited to you his coming and taking the punishment
for sin that you owed God because of your transgressions. The Bible
says that the wages of sin is death and that God is gonna extract
those wages in justice. God doesn't, he's not like these
judges that we have in our world today that just moves at whatever
whim that they desire, whatever justice they seem to think is
okay, bending the rules here, bending the rules there, turning
their blind eye to this, turning their blind eye to that. No,
God will deal in strict and complete pure justice. The Bible says
that he will not justify or acquit the wicked. He will not let that
go. He will not turn his eye to that. Now, God
in the course of time has what we would say overlooked or he
has been long suffering to these transgressions, not extracting
the price right away, but that that price will be extracted
one of these days that Christ, again, is dead. And so Jesus
also, in coming for his people, has not
only lived the perfect life according to the law for the person, and
that's accredited to their account, but the punishment of death,
of eternal death that Christ experienced on our behalf is
also credited as paid in full. God's wrath was satisfied. God's justice was satisfied. Everything was satisfied on their
behalf because of Christ Jesus. And so that is why I say this
is the heart of the gospel. The fact that God justifies sinners
or lets sinners go free is an egregious mark against God and
His justice and righteousness if God does that unjustly. So the only way that God can
actually justify you, save you, love you, save you, and bring
you into His presence for eternity is for justice to be satisfied. And the only way that that can
take place is for Christ to have died in your place, taken your
place, substituted for you. And so we have looked at this
act of justification and what it entails over the last several
weeks. As I mentioned before, One of
the reasons that we have been justified and that from eternity
is because we have an eternal mediator. The Bible speaks of
Jesus Christ being our mediator from all eternity. The Bible
says that he has stood as a lamb slain before the foundation of
the world. The Bible says that he in the
everlasting covenant has saved us and called us with the holy
calling, not according to our words, And so that calling, that
work that he has done on our behalf as a mediator, was before
the foundation of the world. We also looked and saw that Christ,
as our eternal surety, has made possible or sure the fact that
we have been justified from all eternity. The word surety, again,
means someone who is legally responsible for the death of
someone else. Jesus stood as that in the covenant
of God. He stood as the surety. He said
that, you know, I will make sure that these people will be brought
back to you and that I will go in their stead. I will be the
substitute for them. I will live their life. I will
die their death. OK, and so God accepted that
on our behalf. We didn't deserve that. We didn't
weren't owed that. God and his love for us did that. And so we see that Christ stood
for us and that while we were standing before God in actual
transgressions and enmity against God, wrathful against God, Jesus
is our surety, stood on our behalf and he made sure that the covenant
was secured. Then we learn that we are justified
from eternity because all spiritual blessings have been given to
us in heavenly places as we were chosen in Christ before the foundation
of the world. We looked at Ephesians chapter
one, we looked at 1 Timothy chapter, 2 Timothy chapter one and verses
nine and 10 and we saw how all the spiritual blessings have
been given to us and that God did not behold us in iniquity. He did not behold us in perversion
because of Christ's standing in our place. Therefore, the
punishment of sin was never proclaimed upon us. The Bible says that
we were not appointed unto wrath. And that is because of Christ
Jesus. He stood for you so that God
would not see your sin. Again, in Ephesians chapter one,
we read that the reason that he did that is so that we would
be before him blameless in love before him. Now, I'll be honest
with you, we're not blameless. We truly have sinned, but as
God sees us, because of Christ, He sees us blameless. And whenever
I begin to think, you know, I just think about all the sin that
I commit in a week's time or a day's time, much less, you
know, a lifetime, I think of not only the thoughts, the sins
I actually commit, or the sin of not doing something that God
has told me to do or said to do, That is a lot of sin, a lot
of sin. And yet God never once does he
look upon us in that sin because of Jesus Christ, if we are his.
And so the punishment of sin was not decreed upon us because
of the son who stood in our place. And that, again, from the foundation
of the world. We read Romans chapter four,
verses six and eight, and we read Psalm 32 in that, where
David said, blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not
sin. And in his spirit, there is no
God, because the shadow of a king is among them. Now, this morning,
I would like to continue on in this, and I would like us to
look at a few things, and we'll probably close this study out
today. and we'll pick up with something
new next week. But the next thing that we look
at in this discussion about justification is there are, as I mentioned
at the beginning of this study, differing views on justification. There are some who are, in professed
Christianity, that believe that a man is justified at the moment
that he believes in the Lord Jesus Christ. There are some
that believe that God justified or declared people just whenever
Christ died upon the cross. And then there are those like
us who believe that the Bible teaches, and that's kind of why
I've had this study, is to show that whenever we look at all
of scripture in this context, we find that the declaration
of that justification was from eternity. that before anything
ever happened, before Adam ever sinned, brought sin and death
into the world, before any of that ever happened, God had already
declared that his people, even though they would be sinners,
that he had declared not to view their sin, but to put those sins
upon Christ and Christ's righteousness upon us. Now, we, again, all
of ourselves, aren't righteous. The Bible says that there is
none that are righteous, But those who are of the flesh, they
profit nothing, that they can do nothing to please God. So
we in the flesh, we can't do anything to please God. It's
an accounting, it's like an accounting term. It's a legal standing. We have a legal standing before
God. Although that we are actually guilty, God views us as righteous
because of Jesus Christ. So Christ's righteousness is
laid to our account. If you remember, I used the kind
of, generic illustration last week, as for Waylon, who doesn't
have any money, and I have maybe $100, and I give that money to
Waylon, and I put that in his bank account. Well, Waylon didn't
do anything to get that $100. He is still broke as a joke because
he has made no money. I've come and laid $100, and
now the bank accounts that to Waylon as his $100, even though
Waylon didn't do anything for that. The bank considers that
his $100 because it's been deposited to his account. And if I tried
to go back and take that money back, they're going to say, no,
that's his. Why? Because it's in his account,
right? And that's how it is with salvation.
God has laid Christ's righteousness to our account who was bankrupt. We were bankrupt. We had no standing
before God that would make any kind of pleasure to God, that
would survive His justice, the bar of His justice. And so we
were bankrupt, but yet because of Christ, His righteousness
was laid to our account. Therefore, the righteous judge
views our account as just as righteous as Christ's. Now that
right there to me is something that I can't fathom, is that
God views me as righteous as Christ is, even though I am a
sinful person. And that's because Jesus took
our place. Now, as I mentioned, those three
different groups that view justification, I want to ask, in view of Scripture,
how does those stand up to the person that says that a person
is only justified at the moment of their salvation. And they
say that justification is based upon the death, burial and resurrection
of Jesus Christ. OK, so if you take the cross
and see if I can write this down here, maybe make this clear as
mud. Alright, so you have the cross,
you have creation, you have the beginning, you have the ending. There are
some that say that everything that Christ did in time on this
cross, that's the basis of our justification, and I would agree
with them. The work of Christ on our behalf is based upon his
faithfulness to God in keeping the law 100%. In him was no sin. The Bible says that he was without
sin, that there was no guile found in him, that there was
nothing that Christ did that ever broke the law of God in
word or deed. And so that obedience is laid
to your account if you're a child of grace. Also, that death that
he died paid the penalty for all those sins that you commit.
Okay? So that is the basis or that
is the foundation or grounds on why God justified you. The term in the Bible is He is
the just and the justifier. He justified us by doing that.
Okay? Now, the question is, is justification
based upon that For all these people after the cross, they
say that it's based upon their belief in this. Okay? And so they are justified because
they believe in Jesus doing this. Therefore, God decrees them from
heaven at whatever point in time they believe. Well, the Bible says the justification
is by the faith of Christ, not by faith in Christ. So it's the
faith of Christ. So it's this right here that
is the grounds of it. But the timing of God saying,
that's true, I want to lay that to their account. If it only
can happen after this, then what about all the Old Testament saints
back here? If God had to wait until this
event occurred in time, to say that they're justified, then
only these people are being justified. What about all these people?
Second of all, if God is waiting for this to happen in time, and
it's based upon the cross, which it is based upon the cross, but
the declaration wasn't until the cross, then all these people
back here was not justified. Now, the people listening or
watching that believe one of these two schemes here is going
to say, you're not presenting our position correctly. Our position
is this, that these Old Testament saints were looking forward to
the cross, trusting in what Christ would do, and then God laid that
to their account at the cross. So God, Wherever he is, out here
in, you know, eternity somewhere, is looking down in time to a
specific point in our timeline for this to happen so that he
can say these people are justified. Well, let me ask you, if God
can look down time to hear and see Christ fulfilling everything
that He promised He would do, and therefore go backwards and
justify all these people, why cannot God from the very beginning,
before time began, look down on here and justify all these
people based upon the same thing? Do you see the fallacy in that? They're thinking that God can
only decree people justified by looking down into this point
in time from this point in time. When God can, from all eternity,
doesn't the Bible say, known unto God are all His works, the
end from the beginning? Meaning that God, from before
time even begins, knows all the works that He's going to do all
the way to the very end. He knows every work that He's
going to do. Well, if He knows every work, He definitely knows
the work of Christ. If He knows every work, He definitely
knows that He's going to justify these people as well as these
people. He definitely knows that this is going to happen. There's
going to be sin come into the world. He's definitely going
to know that here there's going to be crucifixion. He definitely
knows down here that there's going to be judgment. And God
sees and knows all these things to end from the beginning. And
as we talked about this before, why does He know all that? Is
it because He's a soothsayer? He looks ahead to time? He's
a fortune teller? No, the reason He knows all this
is because from the foundation of the world, He declared it.
The Bible speaks of God has declared all things after the counsel
of His own will. All things. after the counsel
of His own will. So the reason that God knows
all this to take place is because before it all started, before
He began to do anything in time, with time, creating all things,
He declared it to be so. And because He declared it to
be so, we know that it's going to happen, right? Because the
Bible says that anything that God has thought or said is going
to take place. The Bible has said that God is
of one mind and who can turn Him. It's kind of a funny thing.
I saw a guy just recently was writing, trying to prove the
three-personal scheme of the Trinity He said that each individual
person of the Trinity had their own mind, their own will. Well,
that isn't what the Bible says. The Bible says God is of one
mind and who can turn Him. He has one decree, one plan,
one purpose, and that one purpose is going to be played out and
He can't be turned. If God decreed from all time
to do everything that happens from this point to this point,
And it doesn't happen that God lied. God was wrong. God didn't
see correctly what He was going to do. So, these things are fixed
because God has declared them. Not just because God foresees
them, it's because God declared them to be. Now, with that being
said, justification. Again, these people can be justified
even though the cross hasn't taken place because from the
beginning, before the foundation of the world, God decreed that
every man that is a child of grace, man, woman, child, that
is a child of grace, whether it be from the Old Testament,
whether it be from the New Testament, every one of them is going to
be justified based upon this work. So it covers all of time. So God's declaration before the
foundation of the world makes it sure that these people and
these people will be justified no matter what. Also, the good
thing about this is having all this decreed out here, that also
takes salvation out of the hands of man. Man can't put his hands
to salvation because it was all decreed before the foundation
of the world. That's why we believe in what we call sovereign grace.
That's why we believe in God's predestination. God predestinated. That means to choose one's destiny
beforehand. God predestinated who would be
saved and who would not be saved. God decreed who would be justified
based upon the work of Christ. So we have this, you know, whether
you stand with being justified in time, by experience, justified
in time by the cross, justified in Old Testament time by credit. You know, all of that can be
settled by looking here at what the Bible says, that it was before
the foundation of the world, by the faith of Christ, the faithfulness
of Christ. Let me ask you, whenever Jesus
stood before the foundation of the world in the everlasting
covenant before God, Do you think that there was ever
a chance that he would fail at doing what he was going to do?
God, again, who knows all things, he's omniscient, knowing all
things, and being God, Christ being God, who cannot lie, who
cannot sin, was there any way that this was going to fail to
happen? No. So the covenant was assured back
here before anything even happened as it was the day that it was
finished on the cross. Whenever Jesus cried, it is finished,
the basis and grounds for our justification was completed,
however manifested in time, completed. However, God didn't have to wait
until that time to see what would happen. and say, okay, now that
that's happened, all you guys are good, and going forward,
all you guys, if you'll look to that, you'll be good. No,
that's not what happened. God, based upon the faithfulness
of Christ, knowing the surety would be good for His Word. Remember
we read where Judah made pledge for his brother, Benjamin, whenever they were
going down into Egypt, and he told His father, Isaac, he said,
I will go down and I will bring Benjamin back. And he said, if
I don't bring him back, then you can hold this to my account. You can put the blame on me.
And that's basically what Jesus was saying in the surety. He
said that he would be the one that does this, And God, no way,
no how, doubted the fact of that. He can't doubt that fact because
Jesus cannot lie. And so justification prior to
the cross is because of God looking upon his people prior to the
cross as having the work of Christ
laid in their account. Again, it's a legal thing. It's
not an experiential thing. Justification isn't something
that we experience that makes it happen. Justification is something
that we experience after the fact, whenever we believe. And
that's because of whatever, what happened. Let's see if I can... It's been on there too
long. It was more just about shock. The Bible says, and turn with
me, if you would, over to Job chapter 19. And look with me,
if you would, verse 25. I remember whenever I was a younger
man, and still even today, there are many people that believe
a scheme of theology called dispensationalism. And they believe that the people
in the Old Testament were saved differently than the people in
the New Testament. The people in the Old Testament
were saved by keeping the law and animal sacrifices. The people in the New Testament
are saved by faith in Jesus Christ. That's not what the Bible teaches,
that both people are saved by the exact same way, by the finished
work of Jesus Christ. But there are some that believe
that these people in the Old Testament didn't know the gospel. Now, I will say the gospel was
hidden in some regards. The fullest extent of the gospel
wasn't truly known in the back, but the gospel was known. They
knew that there was a Messiah that was going to come and that
Messiah, by his work of righteousness, would save them. They knew that. And the Bible is replete. I don't
have time to go into it today, but the Bible is replete in several
places that talk about how Old Testament believers knew or was
told the gospel. But here's proof on one account
In verse 25, it says, and this is Job. Now remember, if you
would, Job, the book of Job is thought to be one of the first
books ever written in the Bible, even though it comes later in
the Old Testament line of books. It is thought to be the first
book that was written in the Bible. Also, Job himself, as, as history and tradition, at
least, proclaim is that Job was older than we really think, that
he was actually a contemporary of Adam. He was born and around
during the time that Adam was alive, still alive. So Job was way back there. We do know, though, that Job
lived before Abraham was called out, we do know that Job lived
before the law was given by Moses, okay? And here we see in the
writing, well, actually it was, I believe that it was Moses that
wrote this, but it was the account of Job, and he says here in verse
25, he says, for I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he
shall stand at the latter day upon the earth." Now, Job here knows, or has been
taught somehow, some way, that there is a Redeemer for him. Now again, this comes in verse
19, after Job has been faced with his infirmities, who looked
to God, trusted in God, who knew that everything that he was going
through was by the hand of God, worshipped God, made sacrifices
unto God for his children, and yet here he says he knows that
there is a Redeemer, and not only that there is a Redeemer,
but that at this time when Job was written, that that Redeemer
liveth, and that not only did that Redeemer live at that time,
that in the latter day that he would live upon the earth. Job
believed in Christ. Job believed that Christ would
not only be his Redeemer, but that he was already his Redeemer.
This is before the cross. This is way before the cross. Not only way before the cross,
this was actually before the death by cross was even invented. But Job knew this fact. The Bible
says that the Gospel was preached to Abraham and other places that
tell us of these things. So we see that in the Old Testament,
the Old Testament people of God, that they knew of this Gospel,
they believed in this Gospel. It was a Gospel that was based
upon a work that Christ would come to do But yet the effects
of that, the declarations of that, was already pronounced
even before that time. And so God has Christ's atoning
word ever before His eyes. And so the elect of the Old Testament
are justified from eternity. We also see in the Bible that
the elect are justified when they are ungodly. As I mentioned
a while ago, we truly have sinned. Even though we have no sin laid
to our account, we have sinned. We are guilty of sin. But yet,
God does not hold that to our account. In Romans 4, if you
would, look with me down to verse 5. Romans 4 and verse 5. Pay close attention.
to what the Scriptures say about who are the ones who are justified.
It says, "...but to him that worketh not, but believeth on
him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness."
Now whose faith is counted for righteousness? Well, it's not
your faith that's counted for righteousness. It's he that justifies the ungodly's
faith that is counted for righteousness. It's the faithfulness of Christ
Jesus. It's His faith that is counted for righteousness. That's
why Abraham, whenever, back in Genesis 15 again, we've read
that, right? Whenever God was telling Abraham
about the blessings that was going to come upon his seed and
that seed wasn't speaking of seeds plural but seeds singular. It was speaking of Christ and
he told him that about Christ and the promises that were given
to him in Christ and Abraham believed the Lord and it, the
seed, was accounted to Abraham for righteousness. Abraham accounted
the seed for him for righteousness. And so here we see the same thing,
that the one who justified the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. But it says there that he justified
the ungodly. So yes, we are ungodly people. But yet, that ungodliness, that
sinfulness, that transgression, that iniquity has not been imputed
to us. It's not been laid to our account
because Christ has stood for us as mediator and surety, taking
that account upon Himself and giving us His righteousness as
our account. So justification does not hinge
upon a sinner's obedience. it doesn't hinge upon their personal
faith because they're justified while they are ungodly. See, if you're justified by obedience,
it's only if you have perfect obedience. I know all of you. You all know me. Not one of us
have perfect obedience. And it isn't upon our personal
faith because, again, I know you. You know me. Our personal faith wavers, doesn't
it? It's not a perfect faith. Have you ever, after believing
upon the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation, have you ever had
doubts? I have. I'm sure you have. See, it's not based upon our
personal faith, it's based upon the work of Christ. A sinner
is justified upon the grounds of the perfect righteousness
of Jesus, which is eternal. And its imputation is made in
the settled purpose of God, declaration of God before the foundation
of the world. Now, the nature of justification. The nature of justification is
this. It requires nothing on your part. Justification literally
requires nothing on your part. So does that mean that we don't
have to believe? No. Does that mean that we don't have to trust
Christ? That's not what that says. Does
it mean that we're not to repent, be baptized, join the local church,
be taught of God? No, it's not saying that we disregard
those things. Those things are true. Those
things are needed. However, those are the overflow,
the outflow, the fruit of the fact that you've been justified.
Justification, though, the declaring one righteous, has nothing to
do with anything that we do. That's why we call this free
and sovereign grace. Free grace. Look with me if you
would at Romans chapter 3. You should be kind of right there
across the page if you're still in Romans 4. Romans chapter 3
and verse 24. The Bible says, "...being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus." So there the Bible tells us that we are justified freely. If you have to do something to
be justified, then does that make it free? No. That makes it a wage that you've
earned. Right? If you've done anything to get
something, then you've worked for that, and that is a payment
of wage. But for something to be truly
free, then that means you absolutely did nothing for it and it was
given to you, apart from anything that you did. And here we see
that we are justified freely by His grace, for by grace are
you saved, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, or His
faithfulness. Christ redeemed us by His faithfulness,
by obeying the law and by going to the cross on our behalf. He
lived the life for us and He died the death for us. His faithfulness. Look if you would at Romans 8. Verse 32. Again, we see the same
thing here. It says, 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. Remember we looked
at Ephesians 1 a couple of weeks ago. That He has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. According as He had chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world. This verse is saying
basically the same thing. Who spared not His own Son, but
delivered Him up for us all. that he died in our place, okay? How shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. See,
there is no way, no how, and no time that anything can be
laid to the charge of God's elect because God has freely given
us all things in Christ, and that includes justification before
the foundation of the world. Look over just a few pages into
1 Corinthians 2. 1 Corinthians 2. Look down with
me at verse 12. 1 Corinthians 2. It says, Now we
have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit
which is of God. Okay, so what does that speak
of? Let's just stop and think about this. Sometimes we glaze
over these phrases and words without thinking about it. Now
we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit
which is of God. Now if we look in context here,
He's talking about the people that have been born from above.
Okay, He's talking about the people. You go back to the very beginning
of the letter. He is writing unto the church
of God, which is that Corinth to them that are sanctified in
Christ Jesus called to be saints with all that in every place
call upon the name of Jesus Christ. So he's not just speaking just
to the Corinthian Christians, but he's speaking to all Christians
everywhere at all times. these truths. And so he says,
we have not received the spirit of the world, but the spirit,
which is of which is of God. And here's the reason that we,
those who have received the spirit, which is of God. Might know the
things that are freely given to us by God. So there were things
that was freely given to us by God that we didn't know was already
given to us by God. But yet, whenever the Spirit
of God came into us, then we have that spiritual knowledge
and ability to know, hey, these things were freely given to me.
I didn't work for them. It wasn't based on anything that
I did. They were freely given to me. See, that's why we say
that if those who do not believe that salvation is truly given
freely by free and softened grace, then they have not been yet given
the Spirit of God to know those things. Because the Spirit of
God which is in you teaches you so that you can know that you
have been freely saved, freely given these things. See, this work of justification
and the nature of it is a single comprehensive work for all the
elect of God forever. It's a complete act for every
individual of God, and the elect are never partially justified. Look back, if you would, with
me, one of my favorite passages in Scripture, in Isaiah chapter
53. Isaiah 53. I'm going to begin
reading in verse 1, and then I'll highlight a few things as
we're going through this. Very familiar passage to us. Who hath believed our report, and to whom is the arm of the
Lord revealed? Now if you remember, I preached
on this chapter many months ago. And if you remember during that
time, we've seen that the answer to that first question is answered
by the second question. To whom hath believed our report?
Well, it's the one to whom the arm of the Lord is revealed.
Whenever the Lord reveals the truths of Scripture to you by
His Spirit, then you believe the report about what God has
said. It says, for he shall grow up speaking of Jesus Christ.
Now, even though Jesus hasn't been born into this world yet
by Mary, this is before time, God telling us about what Christ
was going to be doing and what it was all about. It says, For
he, Christ, shall grow up before him as a tender plant, as a root
out of dry ground. He hath no form or comeliness,
and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire
him. He is despised and rejected of
men. a man of sorrows and acquainted
with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces
from him. He was despised, and we esteemed
him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we did esteem him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions."
Not for his, but for our transgressions. That's the substitution that
we were talking about a while ago. He was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities,
because our iniquities have been laid upon Him. Okay? Chastisement
of our peace was upon Him, and with His stripes we are healed. And that isn't talking about
a physical healing. The Pentecostals and Charismatics
like to take that verse and say, there you go. the crucifixion
of Jesus Christ and we can claim physical healing at every turn. That's not the case. He's talking
about spiritual healing here. This whole entire passage is
talking about Christ burying our iniquities. He's talking
about a spiritual work that is being done, not a physical work. Now, that doesn't mean that Christ
still doesn't heal today. He does. Now, I don't believe
that he has healers out here like the Benny Hens and Kenneth
Copelands and these crazy guys you see on TV. going out here
with all these false claims that they have of what they're doing.
But God does truly miraculously heal today still. We know of
occasions that he has done that, but he isn't doing that through
men who are healers going out, laying hands upon people, and
them just magically being healed. I'm not saying that he can't
do that if he decides to do that again, but that doesn't seem
to be the norm. He says, all we like sheep have
gone astray. We have turned everyone to his
own way. And the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all. So see, even at this point in
time, Isaiah is understanding God to say that our iniquity,
the iniquities of God's people have already been laid upon Christ.
This is something that's going to happen in the future. But
to them, hey, his iniquity has already been laid to Christ's
account. and the work of Christ has been laid into their account.
It says in verse 7, He was oppressed, He was afflicted, yet He opened
not His mouth. He is brought as a lamb to the
slaughter, and as sheep before His shearers is dumb, so He opened
not His mouth. He was taken from prison and
from judgment, and who shall declare His generation? For He
was cut off out of the land of the living, before the transgression
of My people was He stricken." Again, we see substitution there.
His substitution on our behalf. And He made His grave with the
wicked and with the rich in His death because He had done no
violence, neither was any deceit in His mouth. And here it is,
verse 10. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
Him. He had put Him to grieve when
Thou shalt make His soul an offering for sin. He shall see His seed. That's talking about Jesus' seed.
He shall see Jesus' seed, His spiritual seed. That's the ones
that He was talking to whenever He was talking to Abraham about
there being many, but yet He was talking about the promise
being made to the one. It was made to Christ who was
the seed. He is the spiritual life. He
is the fountain of spiritual life. And in Him is all the seeds,
His spiritual seed. Now you remember me talking to
you about an apple tree, right? If you take an apple seed and
plant it into a ground and it grows up, that apple tree may
produce, you know, 25, 30, 50, however many apples, right? Every
one of those apples also has a seed in it. And if you plant
those seeds, they're going to produce more apple trees with
more apples. and on and on and on and on.
Well, whenever you have that first initial seed, the very
first seed, in that seed is the life of all those other trees,
right? Even though they've not been made manifest or brought
forth or seen. That in that one seed are the
lives of every apple tree and every apple bearing fruit. Seed bearing fruit. That's the
way that it was promised. Christ is the first of those
who are of the Spirit. Christ is the first. That which is first was not that
which was spiritual, but that which was natural. That is the
first Adam. But the second Adam, who is the
Lord from heaven, he is of a spiritual nature. While we were of Adam
in a natural way, We who are the children of God are after
Christ in a spiritual way. We are his spiritual seed. And
that's what this is talking about here. He has made his grave with
the wicked and with the rich in his death, because he has
done no violence, neither any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He had put him to grief when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed. He shall prolong his days. and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. The reason
for the Lord putting Christ to grief, putting Christ to being
crucified was so that all the children of God would be justified.
Remember, known from God are all his works, the end from the
beginning. So before the foundation of the world, God's purpose was
to all these people that were elect in him during this time
period who sinned and transgressed God God is going to justify them
based upon the work of Christ. So he's going to see the work
of Christ and be satisfied. That's what this is saying. The pleasure of the Lord will
prosper in his hands. He shall see the travail of his
soul and he shall be satisfied. What was satisfied? Well, God
was satisfied, number one, in the work that Jesus did. That
was enough for God to say, not guilty. God was satisfied in
the life that Jesus lived. That was enough for him to say,
you're perfect. And that substitutionary life
will be laid to their account. He was satisfied in the fact
that his justice and his righteousness were both met. He says, For he shall see the
travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied. By his knowledge
shall my righteous servant justify many, for he shall bear their
iniquities. So there again we see that justification
is based upon him bearing our iniquities, but the declaration
of it is by God beforehand, before it even happens. He says, therefore,
will I divide him a portion with the great, shall divide the spoil
with the strong, because he had poured out his soul unto death,
and he was numbered with the transgressors, and he bare the
sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors. That word
intercession there is also another word for mediator. He made mediatorial
shit for the transgressors. He mediated that covenant on
behalf of God and man. Thus, God is satisfied. So the
nature of justification is the fact that God is not just partially
satisfied, but He's completely satisfied. Therefore, the child
of grace is completely justified. Not partially. There's no degrees
of justification. Radiations of justification.
It's equal for all the elect. No one is more justified than
the other person. And this justification is irreversible. God has made a legal declaration. Christ has made a legal substitution. Therefore, there is no reversal.
Why? Well, if there was nothing that
you did to get that declaration placed upon you, There's nothing
that you can do to undo that declaration that's been put upon
you. Now, just a side note, that does not mean that we just go
out and live like hell. That doesn't mean that, okay,
they go send it up, send as much as you want, okay? That's not
what I'm saying. What I'm saying is, is your grounds
of justification had nothing to do with what you did, and
the keeping of that that accounting of justified has nothing to do
with how you live. Your continual walk, no matter
how rocky it might be, is not going to cause you to lose that
salvation. Look with me, if you would, at Hebrews chapter 5.
I'm just about done. Hebrews chapter 5. Hebrews chapter 5. Look with
me if you would to verse 9. And being made perfect, this
is speaking of the Lord Jesus here. And being made perfect,
He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that
obey Him. Called of God a high priest after
the order of Melchizedek. Okay, so he became, Christ became
the author of eternal salvation. So here we see that whatever
salvation it is that Christ has secured for his people, and that
in that declaration of justification, that being laid to their account,
that it is of an eternal nature. That tells me a couple things.
Number one is if it's of an eternal nature, then that means it began
in eternity. If it's an eternal salvation,
then it began in eternity. It didn't begin in time or in
time. It was an eternal salvation.
Also what that tells me is that it never ends. It's eternal. It's one that began in eternity
and continues on through eternity. So that means we don't lose it. And the reason we don't lose
it is because it was never ours to attain. Christ attained it
for us. We have obtained eternal redemption
by Christ Jesus. Look, if you would, at Hebrews
chapter 9, verse 12. Now, remember a while ago I said
that some people believe that the people of the Old Testament
were saved by keeping the law and by the sacrifices during
that Old Testament period? This is the reason why that is
untrue. Verse 11, But Christ being come,
a 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. For if the blood of bulls
and of goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling the unclean,
sanctify to purify the flesh, how much more shall the blood
of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered himself without
spot to God, purged your conscience from dead works to serve the
living God. And for this cause, he is the
mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death for the
redemption of the transgressions that were under the First Testament,
they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
So here we see that this eternal covenant of God is something
that precedes and is over that old covenant. That old covenant
has gone away. Because by it, God never intended
to save anybody by that. That old covenant was to show
us our inability, show us our need for Christ. and Christ is
the one by His blood that has obtained eternal redemption.
Well, if it's eternal redemption, then that means that that redemption,
even though Christ came and manifested His death in time, the Bible
says that that redemption is an eternal redemption. If that
redemption starts right here at the cross, then that's not
eternal, is it? If it starts here, whenever you
believe that it's not eternal, right? Eternal redemption starts
where? In eternity. And it moves through eternity. It's manifested in time. Brethren,
that's why I have stressed and stressed and stressed those two
passages in Ephesians chapter 1 and in 2 Timothy 1.9. who has saved us past tense,
called us past tense with a holy calling not according to our
words. We're never saved according to our words. But according to
His own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus
when? Before the world began. That's
eternal. That's eternal. So yes, redemption
starts in eternity. And the foundation of redemption. The foundation of salvation is
the fact that God justified the sinner by the work and faithfulness
of Christ Jesus. Justification is apart from our
faith. It doesn't require the instrument
of our faith. But yet, when we are given faith,
we see and believe are justification. Faith flows from the fact that
we have been saved. The righteousness of Christ is
given to sinners so that faith and repentance might take place. Justification is the cause of
faith and faith is the effect of justification. The cleansing
blood and perfect righteousness of Christ is the efficient cause
of our justification. The faith of the elect is the
instrument or means by which they apprehend justification
and is the free gift of God in Christ. Again, in Ephesians chapter
2 and verse 8, and I'll read this and we'll be done. It said,
for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourself. So grace is not of yourself.
That faith is not of yourself. It is a gift of God. not of works,
lest any man should boast, for we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them." So brethren, we have a justification
before God, if we are His, that the hands of man cannot taint.
It doesn't come from a preacher. It doesn't come from a church.
Although those things are very important That's not where they
come from. They come from eternity. They come from God electing us
in Christ and blessing us with all spiritual blessings and laying
that judgment to our account. The Bible speaks that the works
were finished from the foundation of the world. The Bible also
speaks that God speaks these things as though they were, even
though they have not yet been done, and that is because known
unto God are all His works. So our justification is a very
important doctrine. It is the heart of the gospel.
It's a shame that more churches aren't preaching this doctrine.
They think that justification to some theological thing that
should stay in seminaries and places of higher learning. But
brethren, this is things that every child of grace needs to
know. This is what we should be preaching and teaching in
our gospel because it's the very foundation of it. And so, does
anybody have any questions or comments or reproves or corrections
you might want to make about this? Well, let's bow and have a word
of prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
You for the day, and we thank You for Your mercy and grace,
and we ask You, Lord, to be with us now as we go our ways, and
we ask, Lord, that You just might minister to us this week. You
might use us and minister through us to others. Father, we pray
for our church, and we ask that You just might be with us. Lord,
we ask that You might continue to keep us faithful to You as
well. Lord, we pray for those who do
not know You, that You might draw them by Your Spirit. Lord,
that You might teach them the Gospel. You might reveal those
things that are freely given to them. Lord, I pray that You
might continue to work and minister through this church to this community.
Lord, I ask that You might Help us to understand and to
know the things that we spoke about today. We thank You for
the Word of God that's been given to us for us to know about You
and about us and our salvation. We thank You, Father, for the
Lord Jesus Christ, who despite the fact that He was perfect
and we were sinful, He died upon a cross for us and that we have
life because of Him. And so, Father, we just thank
You for that salvation that we have. We know that we don't deserve
it, Father. We know that each and every day
our sinfulness shows the unworthiness that we are before You. And it's
only because of Your grace that You've given to us in Christ
that we can stand and praise Your name and thank You for what
You have done and to know the good things that have been given
to us freely by Christ. Father, we boast not in these
things. We do not desire to be puffed up because of this, knowing
of our salvation. The only thing that hinders us
from anybody else is the fact that You have given us grace
and mercy. Father, we know that we're no better than anybody
else, and no more deserving than anybody else. But because of
Your sovereign grace, Your sovereign mercy, You have saved us. And so, Father, we don't know
how to express our thanks enough, and we surely could never repay
the work that You've done on our behalf. But, Father, we just
take and say thank You, and we pray that You would keep us.
And we look forward to the day of Your return. Lord, we pray
it come quick. We pray for our country, our
leaders, Lord, what a mess that we are in today and the increase
of wickedness and sinfulness in our country and in this world,
Lord. But we know that all of that is under your control, that
nothing happens apart from your purpose and will. And so, Father,
we pray that if it be your will, that you would turn the hearts
of the people of this country back to you, Lord, that they
would become and seek after righteousness, justice. Father, we just thank
you again for all that you do for us. We ask to bless this
time together. It's in Christ's name that we
pray. Amen.