no claim on the righteous. Justice cannot arrest the righteous. Justice has been satisfied. The
world cannot swallow up the righteous. Though the righteous live in
this world and they are As the hymn writer said, prone to wander
and prone to leave the God they love, the Lord Jesus Christ is
faithful. The world cannot swallow up the
righteous. Death cannot take salvation from
the righteous. The grave cannot hold the righteous. Who is he that condemneth? It
is God that justify. Turn with me to Romans chapter
eight. When the Lord speaks of the righteous
scarcely being saved, he's not speaking of the uncertainty of
their salvation. Nothing is more sure, nothing
is more sure than the salvation of the righteous. Look at Romans
8, verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? God's elect are the righteous.
For it is God that justifieth. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather that has risen again who is even at the right hand of
God, who also maketh intercession for us. We have an advocate with
the Father. The Lord Jesus Christ has justified
his righteous people by his righteousness before God. And so there's no
condemnation. There's no judgment. And then he, continues to live
at the right hand of the majesty on high and intercedes for his
people. Who shall separate us from the
love of Christ? Who shall separate the righteous?
You see, When Peter speaks of the righteous scarcely being
saved, he's not speaking of the uncertainty of it. Nothing is
more certain, nothing is more sure than the salvation of the
righteous. Shall tribulation, distress,
persecution, famine, nakedness, peril, or sword? For as it is
written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are
counted as sheep for the slaughter Nay, in all these things we are
more than conquerors through him that loved us, for I am persuaded
that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities,
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus." Could that
declaration and that promise and that assurance be any more
clear? Ah, when Peter speaks of the
righteous scarcely being saved, he's not talking about the certainty
of their salvation. Nothing's more certain. Nothing's
more sure. Nothing's more settled in heaven.
We have a sin bearer who put away our sin. We have a righteousness
before God in Christ. We have an advocate with the
father who ever lives to make intercession for us. The Lord
is not going to lose one of his sheep. Death cannot separate
us from God. To the contrary, it is our It is our graduation to heaven,
isn't it? Our confidence, our confidence
is not in our feelings. Our confidence is not in our
work or our lack thereof. Abraham said, or the scripture
says of Abraham that he was fully persuaded that he which had promised,
he which had promised, would perform all that he has promised. And faith is fully persuaded
that the Lord Jesus Christ performed everything necessary for the
salvation of the righteous. So when Peter speaks of the righteous
scarcely being saved, what's he talking about? Well, for starts, he's talking
about the struggle that the righteous have between the old man and
the new man. Remember Rebecca, Isaac's wife,
what a picture of the church she is. Abraham sent Eleazar
to fetch for his son a bride and he brought back Rebekah.
And how the father has sent his spirit to fetch for his son a
bride. And Rebekah in God's providence
finds herself expecting twins. There's twin boys in her womb.
One of them, the first born, will be named Esau. And the second
born will be named Jacob. And these two babies in her womb
are struggling with one another in her womb. And she goes before
the Lord and she asks the Lord, she says, why am I thus? Why am I this way? And the Lord
said to her, because there are two nations within you, and there's
two manner of people within you, and they will be in conflict
with one another. But here's the good news. The
older, Esau, the firstborn, will serve the younger, Jacob, the
younger, the picture of God's elect. So
Jacob is the new man, the younger. We're born of the flesh in Esau
before we're born in the spirit, Jacob. And we didn't know we
had an old man until we got a new man. And when the new man came,
now we have a spiritual battle within us. And we come before
the Lord like Rebecca and we said, Lord, why am I thus? Why
is there this spiritual conflict in me? The unbeliever doesn't,
you see the righteous don't know anything about, the unrighteous
don't know anything about this. Those outside of Christ have
one nature. It's only the child of God who battles the spirit
against the flesh and the flesh against the spirit. but the older
Esau serves the younger. What is it in your life that
drives you to Christ for the hope of your salvation and for
all of your righteousness? Is it not your sin? Is it not
your old man? That man that, you know, David
said, my sin is ever before me. Paul said, oh, wretched man that
I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? And the
elder serves the younger. There we are. We've got, this
is the experience of every believer. Look with me at first Peter,
we're there in first Peter, look over in chapter five. Look over
in chapter five and look at me at verse six. Humble yourselves
therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you
in due time, casting all your care upon him for he careth for
you. Be sober, be vigilant, because
your adversary the devil is a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom
he may devour, whom resist steadfastly in the faith knowing that the
same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in
the world. This spiritual struggle, this scarcely being saved, this
trouble that we have in this world and in this flesh is the
experience of every believer, every believer. And it will be
our experience until we shed this flesh. But the God of all
grace, verse 10, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by
Christ Jesus, after that you have suffered a while, make you
perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you, to him be glory and
dominion forever and ever. Oh, the pride, self-righteousness,
the struggle with the evil one, the attractions to this world
and to these fleshly desires. This is the experience that we
have. And by God's grace, by God's
grace, he continues to keep us coming to Christ, doesn't he? It was Peter that spoke of to
whom coming. It is a continual daily salvation. So when the Lord speaks of the
righteous scarcely being saved, he's not talking about the uncertainty
of it. Nothing's more certain. He's
speaking of this spiritual, battle that the righteous have with
their old man. And he's also speaking of the
narrowness of our salvation. The narrowness of our salvation. Only Christ Jesus the Lord can
save. Only he can save. and he cannot
save without blood. So here's what our Lord's talking
about. The scarcity of our salvation
is the narrowness of it in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Had he not left heaven, had he not lived a perfect life, had
he not died a perfect death and conquered the grave, and had
he not been received back into glory, we would have no hope
of salvation. This is the scarcity of it, it's
the narrowness of it. No other name has been given
among men whereby we must be saved. I am the way, I am the
truth, and I am the life. No man can come to the Father
except by me. If the righteous scarcely be
saved, in other words, they're saved, not as Job said, by the
skin of their teeth, their salvation is certain, but they're saved
in a very narrow and specific way. They're saved in the person of
the Lord Jesus Christ alone, who is all their righteousness
and all their justification before God. They have no salvation anywhere
else. They can't add to what Christ
did. They can't take away from what
Christ did. Had he not drank the cup of damnation,
on Calvary's cross, had he not suffered the full wrath of God's
justice, had he not offered himself up to his father on behalf of
his people, we would not be saved. And if the righteous scarcely,
in a very narrow, specific way, and in a very particular person,
If the righteous scarcely be saved, then what will happen
to the ungodly and to the sinner? Now by ungodly, we've looked
at this word before. The word ungodly in our text,
go back with me to verse 18. Where shall the ungodly? That is the word worship. with the Greek alpha in front
of it, which translated means unable to worship. Those who
are unable to come into the presence of God. The only way that you
and I are able to enter into the presence of God is to come
before him in the person of our Savior. That's the narrowness
of our salvation. We can't worship God outside
of Christ. We come before the throne of
grace boldly with confidence that the Lord Jesus Christ accomplished
everything that God required for our salvation all by himself. This is our hope. And if the
righteous are scarcely or narrowly saved, particularly by the person
and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, what shall happen to those who
are not able to worship God and who are still found in their
sin? Had the Lord Jesus Christ not
fulfilled the law? He said, I did not come to destroy
the law, I came to fulfill it. And not one jot or tittle will
be missing from the fulfillment of the law of God. Every I will
be dotted, every T will be crossed. The law will be satisfied. And
that's what the Lord Jesus came to do. And had he not done that,
we would not be saved. We would not be saved. The law
would still stand in condemnation of us. But what do we find in
Romans 8, verse 1? There is now therefore no condemnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. I want to spend just a moment
on verse 19. Wherefore, in light of this glorious
hope. Wherefore, let them that suffer
according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls
to him in well doing as unto a faithful creator. Second Timothy chapter 2 verse
13 says, if we believe not, in other words, we have lapses in
our faith, we take our eyes off of Christ, yet he remaineth faithful
for he cannot deny himself. You see, all those for whom Christ
died are part of his body. And he's saying to you and me,
commit yourself to him because he's faithful, even when we're
not. When we're not faithful, he remaineth
faithful for he cannot deny himself. Revelation chapter 19, verse
11, his name is called faithful. And then we find in Revelation
chapter 17, verse 14, that the believers are called and chosen
and faithful. He sees to it. The righteous cannot not believe. They just can't. They've been made to come, they've
been made to believe, they've been given a new nature in Christ. They look to Christ for all their
righteousness and they will continue to do that by his grace. Until they depart from this world,
they will continue to look to Christ. He's the one that convicts us
of our sin. Spirit of God, when he comes,
he convicts us of our sin because
we believe not, of righteousness because we believe not. And he's
faithful to do that. He causes his people to take
sides with Him against themselves. And that's exactly what 1 John
1 verse 19 says, or verse 9 says, if we confess our sins, if we
agree with Him that we are sinners, He is faithful and just to forgive
us of our sins and cleanses us of all of our unrighteousness.
All of our unrighteousness, He puts it away. Oh, what a faithful
Savior He is. Hebrews chapter 11 verse 11 said
that Sarah, though she was unable naturally to give birth,
she conceived because she judged Him faithful that had promised. And notice that our Lord identifies,
he defines himself, he describes himself to us as a faithful creator. You see that in our text? Just as God, the Father, purposed creation, and
the Son actually executed creation and the Holy Spirit gives life
to creation. In the beginning, the earth was
without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
God said, let there be light and that light is Christ. The
sun and the moon weren't created till the fourth day. So we know
with that light, that light was Christ. And nothing has been
made that was made that he didn't make. So the Lord Jesus Christ
is the light of creation. The Father was faithful to purpose
creation. The Spirit, the Lord Jesus Christ
actually created it and the Holy Spirit gives life to it. The Spirit of God moved upon
the face of the waters. So we have the triune Godhead,
God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit in perfect
union with one another, bringing into existence the physical creation. And the Lord's giving us that
as a picture of the new creation that we have in Christ, God the
Father, purposing the salvation of his people by electing them
according to his own sovereign will and purpose in the covenant
of grace before time ever was. God the Holy Spirit is the lamb
slain before the foundation of the world and in entering into
that covenant promise with his Father to redeem the ones that
the Father chose. And then the Lord Jesus Christ
coming into this world and fulfilling in time what had been purposed
in eternity, actually redeeming his people by the sacrifice of
himself on Calvary's cross. And then the Holy Spirit taking
the message of the gospel and making it effectual to the hearts
of God's people through the miracle of the new creation, the new
birth. elected by the Father, redeemed
by the Son, and regenerated by the Holy Spirit. He is a faithful
creator. He's faithful. He's faithful to his covenant
promises. The Father said, I will raise
me up a faithful high priest. And the Lord Jesus Christ was
faithful to go into the holies of holies and sprinkle his blood
on the mercy seat. And the father was faithful to
accept the sacrifice that Christ made to redeem his people. And the Holy Spirit now is faithful.
He's faithful. What will we do without the faithfulness
of God? Commit yourself unto him as unto
a faithful creator. The righteous are scarcely saved
by the narrowness of the gospel, but they are certainly saved
by the surety and narrowness of the gospel. And the Father,
God is a faithful creator. Christ was faithful in his obedience
to the Father, being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the
cross. Wherefore, God has highly exalted him and given him a name
that is above every name. He's faithful. Our God, the scripture says,
cannot lie. He's faithful to all of his promises.
He was faithful to redeem those that his father chose, and he
will be faithful to carry them into his presence in glory. Not one of his promises will
fail. He's faithful to keep us from falling. Though we stumble,
he's faithful to keep us from falling headlong into destruction. He's faithful to present us faultless
before his father. Commit yourself unto him. He's
a faithful creator. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
five. Look at verse eight. Oh, verse
seven, who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up
prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto
him that was able to save him from death and was heard and
that he feared Oh, he's faithful, he's faithful.
His prayers were faithful, his supplications were faithful,
he's continuing to be faithful as our intercessor. He said,
Father, I pray not for the world, I pray for them which thou hast
given me out of the world. Oh, when When we believe not,
yet he remaineth faithful, for he cannot deny himself. Look
at verse eight. Though he were a son, yet learned
he obedience by the things which he suffered and being made perfect,
being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation
onto all them which obey him. What is it to obey Him? It's
to believe Him. It's to rest in Him. It's to
look to Him. It's to follow after Him. It's
to give to Him all the glory for your righteousness and for
your salvation before God. It's to not try to add anything
to Him for your righteousness. It's to believe that he is all
in your salvation. Who better to commit ourselves
to? The righteous, scarcely saved, not by uncertainty,
nothing's more sure, but by the struggles that they have in this
life, and by the narrowness of their salvation in the person
of Christ. Commit yourself unto Him. He's
faithful. Faithful. Let's take a break.