My prayer is that you who are
the Lord's children would know, would know that you are justified,
and to know what that justification is, and who the justifying one
is. And you shall glory, it says. And there's a simple command
from our God, isn't it? Look unto me, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else. Let's begin our time together
seeking the Lord's help. Heavenly Father, we thank you
for gathering us together in this way in these strange and
difficult times, Heavenly Father, and we thank you for the ability
for us to still hear the gospel and to hear from each other by
the means of the technology that you have provided. We pray, most
of all, Heavenly Fathers, in our time together, that we might,
as Paul was promised, see that just one. We might hear the voice,
of His mouth, we might hear Him speaking to our hearts. Now,
Father, we thank You that we can see Your dear and precious
Son in His true character by You revealing Him to us, and
that we, having seen Him by faith, might find ourselves looking
to Him and continue to look to Him. We pray your blessing on
our time together, Heavenly Father, and we pray for your preaching
of the gospel, the preaching of your gospel throughout this
world, Heavenly Father, that in these days, when men have
every reason to look to the things of the world around them, we
might spend this time casting our gaze to heaven and see your
dear and precious Son seated on the throne of the universe
and know that as you have promised, we are seated there together
with him. Bless us in your Son, Heavenly
Father, we pray in his name. Amen. I'd like us to spend some
time in Acts chapter 22 and before we begin in Acts 22, I want us
to consider the circumstances. Paul has been been delivered
by the sovereign hand of the Lord from bringing a blood sacrifice
with these four other men who put themselves under a Nazarite
vow at the temple. And the Lord, in sovereign mercy
to Paul and to all of us, in a sense, he reveals his sovereign
hand in so many ways, but he does remarkably reveal his sovereign
hand in the things that he restrains his people from doing. And God
sent a riot into Jerusalem and God shut the doors of the temple
and God sent a Roman army down to rescue Paul. And God carried
Paul above that crowd up to these steps where he now, as a chained
man, is enabled of God to bring this testimony. about who the
Lord Jesus Christ is and who he is as the servant of the Lord
and the witness of the Lord. There's a wonderful promise,
if you turn with me to Luke chapter 21, there's a wonderful promise
about the Lord in the midst of all these troubled times. He says that in verse 12 Luke chapter 21, before all these,
for all these troubles that will happen in this world with famines
and pestilence and all these great signs there shall be from
heaven, before all these, they shall lay their hands on you
and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues and
into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name's
sake, and it shall turn to you for a testimony. And I love this
next verse, how often we are in a situation where we have
some pressure on us and we wonder what to say and we often go away
wondering whether we've said the right thing or not. But the
promise of the Lord is, and the command of the Lord is, settle
it therefore in your heart not to meditate before what you shall
answer. For, or because, I will give
you a mouth and wisdom which all your adversaries shall not
be able to gainsay or resist." Here we have in Acts 22, Paul,
the apostle, speaking to the crowd of Jews at the temple. He's speaking to the church in
Jerusalem. He's speaking to the churches
in all the Gentiles' lands. And he's speaking to us now.
And remarkably and wonderfully, as we have in the rest of the
scriptures, we have God's testimony. God's words of testimony regarding
his son, the Lord Jesus Christ. It's God's testimony about God.
These aren't just the words of Paul. They are the words of God. Now let's read in our scriptures. Acts 22. Men, and brethren, and
fathers, hear ye my defence which I make now unto you. And when
they heard that he spake in the Hebrew tongue to them, they kept
them all silenced, and he saith, I am verily a man which am a
Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this
city at the feet of Gamaliel. and taught according to the perfect
manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous towards God,
as you all are this day. And I persecuted this way unto
death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.
As also the high priest doth bear me witness, and all the
estate of the elders, from whom also I received letters unto
the brethren, and went to Damascus to bring them, which were there
bound unto Jerusalem, for to be punished. And it came to pass,
that as I made my journey, and was come nigh unto Damascus about
noon, suddenly there shone from heaven a great light round about
me. And I fell unto the ground, and heard a voice saying unto
me, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? And I answered, Who
art thou, Lord? And he said unto me, I am Jesus
of Nazareth, whom thou persecutest. And they that were with me saw
indeed the light and were afraid, but they heard not the voice
of him that spake to me. And I said, What shall I do,
Lord? And the Lord said unto me, Arise, and go into Damascus,
and there it shall be told thee of all things which are appointed
for thee to do. And when I could not see for
the glory of that light being led by the hand of them that
were with me, I came into Damascus. And one Ananias, a devout man
according to the law, having a good report of all the Jews
which dwelt there, came unto me and stood and said unto me,
Brother Saul, received thy sight and the same hour I looked up
upon him and he said the God of our fathers has chosen thee
that thou shouldst know his will and see that just one and should
hear the voice of his mouth for thou shalt be his witness unto
all men of what thou hast seen and I was going to try and break
up our service a little bit by playing some hymns but with all
of our technical difficulties I thought I might just read number
four from our hymn book as we contemplate what it is for us
to have a God who is a rock that is higher than us and he draws
his people to himself and reveals himself that's who he is a just
God and a saviour. Rock of Ages, number four in
our hymn book. Rock of Ages, cleft for me, let
me hide myself in thee. Let the water and the blood from
thy wounded side which flowed. Be of sin the double cure. Save from wrath and make me pure. Not the labour of my hands can
fulfil thy law's demands. Could my zeal, no, respite, no,
could my tears forever flow? All for sin could not atone. Thou must save, and thou alone. Nothing in my hand I bring, Simply
to the cross I cling. Naked come to thee for dress,
Helpless look to thee for grace. Foul I to the fountain fly, Wash
me, Saviour, or I die. While I draw this fleeting breath,
when mine eyes shall close in death, when I soar to worlds
unknown and see thee on thy judgment throne, rock of ages, cleft for
me, let me hide myself in thee. It's a glorious description of
our Lord Jesus Christ that Ananias promised Paul, isn't it? that
you should see the Just One. You should see the Just One.
To see the Just One and to live is to be justified. And some
of the greatest glories of the Gospel are tied up in this, isn't
it? The greatest glory of the Gospel
is the extraordinary reality of an eternal union between the
Lord Jesus Christ and all of his people. We were one with
him. We were placed as a gift into his hands before the foundation
of the world. We were the father's gift to
his son, and the son delighted in that gift. And in that eternal
covenant of grace, the son took full responsibility for those
people, to bring them back to the father. to justify them,
to bring them back and present them before the Father, wholly
spotless, unblameable, unreprovable in his sight. That's what it
is to be justified. That's what it is to be justified. You might recall the story that
we, the parable that the Lord Jesus Christ brought in Luke
chapter 18 of those two men that went up to the temple. There
are two groups of people in this story, aren't there? There are
a group of people who are enraged against Paul. And they're enraged
against Paul because they think they are righteous. They're enraged
against Paul because they believe themselves to be righteous before
God. And anything that interferes
with their righteousness, their legalistic righteousness, and
all of what they have in their zeal done, they believe. that the declaration of who the
Lord Jesus Christ is, is so offensive, so offensive. And he spoke this
parable to them in Luke chapter 18 verse 9. Under certain which
trusted in themselves and were right, that they were righteous. All people that think that they're
righteous and trust in themselves, they despised others. Two men, Two men went up to the
temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The
Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God I thank thee.
He prayed with himself. He thanked God, he thought. This wasn't a prayer that reached
to God, he prayed with himself. I thank thee that I'm not as
other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, even as this
publican. I fast twice in the week, I give
tithes of all that I possess, and the publican, Don't forget
that Matthew was a publican. The publican, standing afar off,
would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote
upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. God, be propitious to me, a sinner. God, look upon the sacrifice
of your dear and precious Son, absorbing and taking all my sins
away. God, be merciful to me, the sinner. I tell you, I tell you, the voice
of authority of our Lord Jesus, I tell you that this man went
down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone
that exalteth himself shall be abased, and he that humbleth
himself shall be exalted. My prayer for you, my brothers
and sisters in Christ, is that you might know that you can go
down to your house justified. Justified. It's a glorious activity of God
alone. So let's begin now, time in this
passage by starting at verse 12 of Acts 22. It says, And one
Ananias, a devout man, according to the law. I love what Ananias'
name means. In the original it means, He
whom Jehovah has graciously given. It's remarkable and it's wise
and helpful for us to understand that as with Cornelius when An
angel stood before him and yet the angel said, you go and have
a man come. You go and get Peter to come
and preach the gospel to you. The Lord Jesus Christ had met
Paul on the Damascus road and humbled him into the dust and
had sent him as a blind man being led into Damascus. And yet it's Ananias who comes
and preaches the gospel. It's Ananias who brings these
glorious words to Paul. Ananias, a devout man according
to the law. See, God's children love the
law of God. God's children honour the law
of God. God's children look to the law
of God and see it in the hands of the Saviour and see it completed. It's a good law. It's a holy
law. And God's people understand that
it's a holy law, but it makes no one holy. It's a righteous
law, and it makes no one righteous. It's good, and it makes no one
good. But nevertheless, the children
of God are not antinomians, and nor do they live in this world
as living with lawlessness or licentiousness. You listen to
what it says of Ananias. He's a devout man according to
the line, us. But may it always be a lie, the things that they
said about it. This crowd had gathered there,
this crowd enraged. They believed lies about Paul.
The reason for their rage was that they believed the lie that
Paul had taken Trophimus into the temple and defiled the temple. None of it was true. None of
it was true. Ananias, I looked up upon him,
but now Paul has his eyes open, he has eyes to see for the first
time, and the very first words that he hears with opened eyes,
and he said, verse 14, and the God of our fathers, the God of
our fathers hath chosen thee that thou shouldst know his will,
see that just one shouldst hear the voice of his mouth. The very first words an awakened
and enlightened Paul hears are the words of God's electing purpose. Paul was appointed. He had a
task appointed before him. He was appointed to be a witness
to the Lord Jesus Christ. You might recall that when Paul
met the Lord on the Damascus road, he said, who art thou Lord?
All of his religious zeal hadn't revealed anything of the true
character of God to him. The true character of God is
seen in the Lord Jesus Christ, and until your eyes are opened,
you might be as zealous as Paul was, and as zealous as his religious
people are. But until the Lord comes and
reveals himself to you, you won't know. See, Paul would have always
seen himself as chosen. He would have seen himself as
one of the Israelites, the chosen people of God. And he was of
the chosen tribe in that land. He was one of the tribes that
didn't indulge in quite the amount of idolatry that caused most
of the other ten tribes to be left. He was the tribe of Benjamin.
He's a Hebrew of a Hebrew. And when it came to zeal, he
was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. He was a gifted man. He had the
most remarkable worldly gifts and talents, Paul. And all of
his religion had left him completely ignorant. Completely ignorant
of who God is. Who God is in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He thought the Lord Jesus Christ
was one who deceived the people, he thought, all of the Christians.
All of the Christians that had borne witness in the most remarkable
ways to the testimony of the Lord in their lives. In his presence
in Jerusalem, he thought that they were all deceived and that
they were dishonouring the law of God and they were dishonouring
the nation, they were dishonouring the temple. And when he stood
there and approved of the death of Stephen, Paul would have gone
home thinking that he has now done the will of God. They're lovely words, aren't
they? They're lovely words of salvation. They're lovely words
of relationship, as God reveals himself to his people. They should
know that you should see, that you should hear the voice of
his mouth. You'll know his will. Paul thought that he knew his
will. Paul had lived all of his life. He, like the rich young
ruler, that came to the Lord Jesus Christ would have said
without any shame whatsoever and with the commendation of
all those around him, I've kept all these things from my youth
up, I've done all this law, I've been obedient to it, you can't
accuse me of being a lawbreaker at all. So he saw the Pharisee,
saw the Pharisee, thought he knew the will of command in the
law, and he thought he was fulfilling God's will. He didn't know that
the will of God is achieved in the Lord Jesus Christ and revealed
in the Lord Jesus Christ. I love how John describes it,
or the Lord Jesus Christ himself describes the Father's will.
He says in John 6 verse 38, For I came down from heaven, not
to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me. And
this is the Father's will which has sent me. that all of which
he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it
up again at the last day. This is the will of him that
sent me, that everyone which seeth the Son, and believeth
on him, may have everlasting life, and I will raise him up
at the last day. This is the will of God. This
is the will of God. The will of God is revealed as
the just one comes as the light of the world and shines that
light, shines the light of who he is in the hearts of his chosen
people. I love how Paul describes his
desire in Philippians 3. He counts all of these things
that he had but loss. All of that, all of that religious
zeal and all of that activity, all of it but loss, Philippians
3.8. 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 done. He lost all of what
it meant for him. to be an Israelite, a Hebrew
of the Hebrews. He lost all of what it was to
him to be a Pharisee of the Pharisees and zealous for the law. He lost
all of what? Self-righteousness, legalistic
self-righteousness he had to attain by all of his zealous
law-keeping. He suffered the loss of all things,
but I do count them but done, that I may win Christ and be
found in him not having mine own righteousness which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness of God by faith,
that he might know him, and the power of his resurrection and
the fellowship of his suffering being made conformable unto his
death. He'll know the will of that just
one, He'll hear the voice of that just one. He will hear the
voice of God. The word of God that comes out
from heaven, comes down from heaven, and does its work on
this earth and never returns to God void. See, Paul as a self-righteous
legalistic Pharisee, like all of the unregenerate Jews of his
day, hadn't heard the voice of God. They could quote it. They could quote it verbatim. They knew it off by heart. They'd
lived as they thought under its dictates. They saw themselves
as chosen. They saw themselves as righteous. Paul makes this declaration of
all of those Jews in Acts chapter 13 when he's preaching in Antioch
in Acts chapter 13 verse 27 he says for they that dwelt at Jerusalem
and their rulers because they knew him not nor yet the voices
of the prophets which are read every Sabbath day they didn't
know him they read them every Sabbath day and they didn't hear
the voice they didn't hear the voice of his mouth, to hear his
voice. Those men that went to arrest
him, they came back and said that no one's ever spoken like
this man. No one's ever said these words. No one has spoken
with this power and with this authority. And Paul says of them
in Acts 13.27, they didn't hear the voice of the prophets. They
read them every day and didn't hear them. And yet they fulfilled
them. They fulfilled them in condemning
him. Paul's testimony this day to
this religious crowd. Paul's testimony to the church
in Jerusalem this day. You've got to remember that he
was stopped by a sovereign hand of God from assisting those four
men in taking a blood sacrifice to the temple. The temple doors
were shut and God caused a riot. And God determined that day that
Paul was going to give this testimony, this testimony of the just one,
rather than bringing an offering. Paul describes these religious
people in 1 Timothy 1 verse 7, they desiring to be teachers
of the law, understanding neither what they say nor whereof they
affirm. But we know, all of God's children
know, we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully,
knowing this, that the law is not made for a righteous man.
The law is not made for a justified man, but for the lawless and
the disobedient, for ungodly and for sinners, for unholy and
profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for
manslayers, for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves
of mankind, for men-stealers, for liars, for purchased persons. and if there be any other thing
that is contrary to sound doctrine. Paul's testimony before this
crowd in Jerusalem is the same as his testimony to Timothy. He says, I thank, verse 12, and I thank
Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath enabled me, for he counted me
faithful, putting me into the ministry. It's what he's doing before this
crowd, isn't he? He's declaring the ministry that the Lord has
given him. He describes himself in verse
13. He says, Who was before a blasphemer
and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because
I did it ignorantly in unbelief. All of Paul's zealous righteousness
as it was with his crowd there in Jerusalem. All of it was unbelief. All of it was just ignorance. Ignorance of those three great
things that will be taken away when you know His will, when
you see that Just One, when you hear the Just One speaking. So what is it to be just? This
is a glorious description of the Lord Jesus Christ we read
about in Isaiah 45 and there are hundreds, literally hundreds
of times in the scriptures where you can go and examine those
words righteous or just and see that this is a description of
our God. and wonderfully and gloriously a description of all
those are in him. But what is it to be just? To
be just is to be upright. It is to be righteous. It is
to keep the commands of God such that you're innocent, faultless,
and guiltless. It's literally one whose way
of thinking and acting is wholly conformed to the will of God. to be justified to be justified
by that just one to see him and thrive to hear his voice and
his voice to be a voice of joy and comfort and peace to your
troubled souls is his glory in this gospel to
be justified means to be just like the Lord Jesus Christ It
means, as John says, to be as he is, so are we in this world
right now. You see, to be justified simply
means I have never sinned. I have always kept the holy law
of God. See, justification is the perfect
standing before the law of God. To be justified means that you've
never done anything wrong, and you've always done that which
is right as soon as I say those things
anyone but those who are completely deluded would agree and wonder
this Job did isn't it in Job chapter 9 he says and how shall
a man how shall a man be just with God The writer to Ecclesiastes says,
for there is not a just man upon the earth that doeth good and
sinneth not. If you turn with me just over
the pages to Romans chapter 3 and you have that great declaration
of God about all of humanity, all of humanity. He deals with
the Jews and he deals with the Gentiles. He deals with all of
Adam's children. What then? Are we better than
they? Verse 9 of Romans 3. Knowing no wise, for we have
proved, we have before proved, in his previous three chapters,
two and a half chapters, we have proved, both Jews and Gentiles,
that they're all under sin. If you're under sin, that means
sin is over you. As it is written, there is none
righteous, no not one, There is none that understand us, there
is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the
way, they are together become unprofitable. There is none that
doeth good, no not one. Their throat is an open sepulchre,
with their tongues they have used to seek. The poison of asps
is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.
Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery
are in their ways, and in the way of peace they have not known.
There is no fear of God before their eyes. There's no one righteous. No, not one. If you go on and
read in Romans chapter 3, you have a glorious declaration in
the midst of and against the background of the darkness of
that sin of what we are. What we are in Adam. What we
are as we come out of our mother's worms what we are by practice
and sadly by desire in this world. Now we know, Romans 3.19, that
what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world
may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law
is the knowledge of sin. There is nothing in any of the
scriptures that declares that there is going to be any justification
by your law keeping ever. Because every time you touch
anything or do anything It is all, as Paul says in Romans 7,
it's all mixed with sin. And this is the glory of the
gospel, isn't it, Romans 3.21. But now, but now, the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. All the Old Testament scriptures are speaking of this,
this righteousness of God. without the law of the prophets,
even the righteousness of God, which is by the faith, by faith
of Jesus Christ, unto all and upon all them that believe. For there is no difference. For
all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. That's a
great description of sin, isn't it? To come short of the glory
of God. And then verse 24, being justified
freely, being declared to be upright, to be righteous, being
declared that you have acted in complete and utter conformity
to the will of God. You've done nothing wrong and
everything right, justified freely. I love that word freely. The Lord uses the same word in
John chapter 15 where the Lord Jesus Christ said that they hated
me without a cause. to be justified freely is to
be justified without there being any cause in you. The cause is
in Him. The cause is in Him. You're made
righteous, he says in Romans 5. You're justified freely by
His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. You've
got to remember that Paul had written those words not long
before these events, maybe just months before these events. And
here he is, rescued from offering a blood sacrifice and offering
to God at the temple by the sovereign hand of God, bringing that right
and carrying him above the crowd so that he might declare this
just one, this just one. Let's go on reading in Romans
3 because it's so glorious. In verse 25 it says, "...whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation, to be a mercy seat, to be that
sin-absorbing, wrath of God-absorbing sacrifice, through faith in his
blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that
are past." through the forbearance of God. It's a righteous thing. It's a righteous and just thing
as we might see in time to come. It's a righteous and just thing
for God to declare his people righteous. Declare his righteousness. I declare and to declare I say
at this time his righteousness that he might be just. He might
be just and the justifier of the hymn which believeth in Jesus. There is in the hearts of any
trembling sinner before the holiness of God a great and urgent need for us
to know and to hear the words of this just one, this just one. It's remarkable how the very
words and the character of God described by those words are
the great comfort of God's people. We love the fact that he's absolutely
sovereign over all things. We love the fact that he's absolutely
holy. We love the fact that he doesn't
change. And we love, I trust, the fact
that he's a just God and a saviour. There are many descriptions of
the Lord Jesus Christ in Acts, and it's remarkable how often
this theme of this Just One is brought before us. Peter declares
in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost, he says, He's Thine
Holy One, Acts 2.27. And he declares the greatness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, that Just One, that God has made this
same Jesus. whom you crucified, both Lord
and Christ." Verse 14 of chapter 3, Peter
declares to those people who had murdered him and put him
to grief. Those people who now stood before
Paul, those people who bared the testimony of Paul's Opposition
and hatred to God, the same opposition and hatred that is in their hearts
as Paul brought this message to them. Verse 14 of chapter
3 says, but you denied the Holy One and just. Verse 15, and you
killed the Prince of life. He says, the church comes together
to pray in Acts chapter 4 after that persecution. And he says,
and against thy holy child Jesus. Paul may well, as he got up to
speak, thought of the fact that when Stephen was being stoned
to death, and Paul heard those words from his mouth, in Acts
chapter 52, 7 verse 52, Paul says that the prophets spoke,
you persecuted all the prophets that ever came, and they had
slain them which showed before the coming of the just one, whom
you have now been betrayers and murderers." This same crowd,
Paul is declaring this one. What a glorious description of
our God. All of his ways of thinking and
all of his ways of acting are perfect. They're perfect and
they're righteous. See our God, the just one, is
just in his very being as the angels declared to Isaiah, holy,
holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty and they're declaring that of
the Lord Jesus Christ when they saw him in the temple. He sits,
our great God, on a throne of perfect righteousness and perfect
justice. Nothing now enters his presence
which is not holy. The psalmist says justice and
judgment are the habitation of the throne. I wonder Paul would
declare to the Ephesian believers that you are to put on the breastplate
of righteousness. It's Him. It's the Lord Jesus
Christ. He protects your heart. He guards
your very life. He, our God, our great Saviour,
is robed in righteousness. He's girded about with righteousness.
He's that just one in the eternal covenant. He's that just one
in His surety obligations when He took full and complete responsibility
for all of the sin and all of the righteousness of all of his
people before God. He's perfect, he's just, in his
obedience to the law. I love how Isaiah 42 describes
our Lord Jesus Christ. It says, Isaiah 42 verse 21,
the Lord is well pleased for his righteousness sake. He will
magnify the law and make it honorable. He'll magnify the law. He will show the spirituality
of the law. He will show the holiness of
the law. He will show the justice of the law. He will reveal what
the law is as he lived it out himself before God and before
men. And while you're in Isaiah 42,
I just always want us to go and read verse 4 of Isaiah chapter
42. He shall not fail. Our Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world as the just one, that particular just one. He shall
not fail nor be discouraged till he have set judgment in the earth
and the isle shall wait for his law. He's just in all his does. He's just in his acts towards
his own. is just in his acts toward unbelievers
there is a phrase that is repeated again and again throughout the
book of Acts and it says they believed not they believed not
Peter would say it's a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense
even to them which stumble at the word being disobedient whereunto
also they were appointed it's just God's judgments are just. God's judgments are just in all
that he does. He's just in all of his words.
He's just. He's that just one in all that
he speaks. he speaks the truth doesn't he
I love what Psalm 6 12 verse 6 says the words of the Lord
are pure words as silver tried in the furnace of earth purified
seven times have you found the words of the Lord to be pure
words pure words in Isaiah 45 verse 9 and he says I like the
Lord righteousness everything he does is righteous
and just we can trust his words I love how Nehemiah described
it Nehemiah who had seen the horrors of nation Israel being
removed from that man because of their idolatrous religious
practices removed from Jerusalem and sent to Babylon for that
70 years And they are brought back by a sovereign hand of our
God to reveal the glory of his grace to his people and covenant
promises that he'd made to his people. And Nehemiah in chapter
9 speaks of the Lord and he says, Thou hast performed thy words,
for thou art righteous. He is that just one. He's the holy one and just. as John describes him in 1st
John chapter 2 verse 1 Jesus Christ the righteous as he says
in him there is light and no darkness whatsoever he is in his substitutionary
work as Peter describes him in 1st Peter 3 18 he's the just
substituting for the unjust We read of him in Romans chapter
3 verse 26 that he might be just and the justifier of him which
believeth in Jesus. To be just is to be perfect. To be just is to be without sin. To be justified is to be holy. To be justified is to be unblameable,
unapprovable. I love how he is described in that verse
we read from Isaiah 45 at the beginning of our time together.
He's a just God and a saviour. Not the order. He's a just God and a saviour. In saving his people, he will
reveal himself to be just. Paul had seen, and he bears testimony,
before that crowd that wanted his murder, he'd seen the glorified,
resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. He'd seen him as crucified and
yet alive. He'd seen him as humble and yet
glorious. He'd seen him submitting himself
in obedience to death and now he had seen him reigning. All of the glorious attributes
of God reach the epitome and the fullness of their glory and
the greatest manifestation of them is always at the cross of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Here we see the just God displayed. Here we see the justice of God
being poured out upon his Son. Here we see the just one bearing
that injustice. Here we see the holiness of God
in the punishment of the Lord Jesus Christ. Here at the cross
we see the sovereignty of God. It's because of the determinate
counsel and full knowledge of God. This was done before the
foundation of the world. He was the Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. We have in the cross a manifestation
and a revealing of those eternal covenant purposes. We have here
the fact that our God is immutable. We see here the grace of God. We see here the love of God. Every time you think of the characters
and the qualities of the character of our God, you take them to
the cross. He's a just God and a saviour. To justify us, to justify us,
our dear and precious saviour had to bear our sins to Calvary. to carry them in his own body. You see, it's the greatest display
of the character of God at the cross. It's a just act of a just
and righteous and holy God to put his son to death. You know
those words well from Isaiah 53 10. It pleased the Lord to
bruise him, literally to crush him. He hath put him to death
when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. It is one of the great testimonies
of the light that shone, the light that shone upon Paul and
the light that shone in the scriptures and we hear the voice and we
see that just one, is to see him in this monumental momentous
act as being just, one of the things that separates the children
of God from all the false religion that persists in this world to
this day. is that there is a blindness
about the character of God, a blindness at Paul and a blindness that
that religious crowd in Jerusalem had. And it's a blindness that's
now as much evident in the religious world around about us. I'll read
a couple of statements from religion of our day. One church states publicly in its
Declaration of Faith about the Lord Jesus Christ, that he willingly
sacrificed his sinless life as a substitute for human sin by
dying on the cross. I just read to you those glorious
verses in Isaiah, isn't it? He shall not fail. He's a just
God and a saviour. If he was a substitute for human
sin by dying on the cross, then all of humanity must be saved. Everyone that the Lord Jesus
Christ died for is saved, must be saved, shall be saved. Everyone that the Lord Jesus
Christ died for is justified before God. They are seen before
the courts of God to have never sinned, to have perfectly obeyed
God in thought and word and deed. Another one which is very common
in our day and in our land. We believe, they say publicly
to people, we believe that through his perfect life and sacrificial
death and victorious resurrection, Jesus Christ brings forgiveness
of sins to those who believe in him. Now, so often, faith
rather than being the gift of God, has been turned into the
work of man. And they betray the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ on Calvary's tree as him making an offer,
as him doing all that he can, laying out his life, laying out
his death, shedding his precious blood. And it's there available
to you if you will do something. Brothers and sisters, there is
no justice in that. There is no justice in that. He's a just God and a saviour. That's what Peter declares of
him, doesn't he? In 1 Peter 3, 18 he says, For Christ has once
suffered for sin, the just for the unjust. Now I love that little
word for. It's a little word that means,
the just for the unjust, that means he was standing over them. wrath of a holy God fell upon
his son and that holy wrath of a holy God in perfect justice
fell upon all those who were in his son and his son suffered
the full extent of the wrath of God until he cried out it
is finished To say that God the Father slew
his son in perfect justice and then to say that all of those
to whom he died are not saved is a blasphemy that I trust the
Lord by revealing himself to you as he did to Paul on Calvary's
tree. will expunge from your thoughts
forever. In that second last book of the
Old Testament, Zechariah 13, verse 7, there's those words
that the Lord, I trust, might write deeply on your heart. When
God the Father says, Awake, O sword! What is the sword? The sword's
the sword of His justice, His holy justice. Awake, O sword,
against my shepherd, against the man that is my fellow, the
one that is my companion, the one that is my equal. Against
the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of hosts, smite the
shepherd. And the sheep shall be scattered,
and I will turn my hand upon the little ones. He turns His
hand of grace and mercy upon the little ones. You see the
order, isn't it? He's a just God. He saves and
He honours His justice. He saves and He honours His holiness. As the scriptures say, He bear
our sins He bore them. It means he carried them. He
took them to himself and he carried them. He bare our sins in his
own body. It doesn't just say the penalty
of our sins, or the punishment of our sins, or the consequence
of our sins. It means the sins himself. That's
what the scripture says. Not the sins of everyone in the
world, but the sins of his elect. the sins of his bride, the sins
of those who stood as one with him in that eternal covenant
of grace, the sins of those who are united to him and joined
with him, flesh of his flesh and bone of his bones, one with
him, one with him in eternity, one with him when he walked this
earth, and one with him, one with him when he's baptized,
one with him when he was crucified, one with him when he was buried,
one with him in his glorious resurrection. The scriptures make it abundantly
clear that when he bore my sins in his own body on that tree,
he became guilty of the commission of that sin. We say that with
reverence. We say it acknowledging immediately
that we have really no idea we have no idea of what that means
we just hear the words of God and we believe him 2nd Corinthians
521 for he hath made him sin made him to be sin for us who
knew no sin that we might be made the righteousness of of
God in him, that we might be made just, justified. Just so that you have some scripture
to back up those words, it's good for us to go back and see
how the Lord Jesus Christ describes himself in relationship to his
people and in relationship to his son, to the sins of his people. I don't have time, for what a
time, I can't read all of it but I trust that you might go
and look at all of Psalm 40 and then go and read Hebrews 10 and
there is absolutely no question whatsoever that this is a psalm
that speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ and he says in verse 7
he says I come in the volume of the book it is written of
me I delight to do thy will oh my God yea thy law is within
my heart I have preached righteousness
in the great congregation. Though I have not refrained my
lips, O Lord, Thou knowest. I have not hidden up Thy righteousness
within my heart. I have declared Thy faithfulness
and Thy salvation. I have not concealed Thy lovingkindness,
Thy truth from the great congregation. Withhold not Thou tender mercies
from me, O Lord. Let not Thy lovingkindness and
truth continually preserve me this is a prayer
of the Lord Jesus Christ he prayed this prayer from his childhood
up and then he says in verse 12 for innumerable evils have
compassed me about have surrounded me and then what does he say
mine iniquities have taken hold upon me so that I am not able
to look up they are more than the hairs of mine head Therefore
my heart faileth me." When he saw that cup that the Father
had given him in Gethsemane's garden, the heart of the Lord
Jesus Christ was broken. He was sustained by his deity
in his humanity. And in that cup, in that cup
were all of the sins of all of God's people. And he took that
cup and took those sins and he took them to Calvary and he drank
them dry. There are many other Psalms and
for want of time I can give them to you and trust you might have
time to look them up in Psalm 18 verse 28. He says I've kept
myself from mine iniquities. You've never kept yourself from
your iniquities. He kept himself because they were his in union
with his people. Psalm 38 verses 1 and 4 and Psalm
69 verse 5. God is just. God is just. And he will not
let the guilty go unpunished. He says, I will by no means clear
the guilty. On Calvary's tree, Christ owned
my sins and all the sins of his own as his own. And he was guilty. And immediately when we say these
things, we must, we must, with as much emphasis as the Lord
would let us bring to this, that he never sinned. He never sinned. He is the just one. He knew no
sin. He knew no sin. But he was made sin. He was made
sin. This is the great transaction
of the cross. This is why, to justify people,
his blood is so precious. He made an offering to God for
the sins of his elect. The holy wrath of God, that sword
of God's justice, That holy fire that consumed the sacrifices
at the temple, that holy fire of God's wrath fell upon the
Lord Jesus Christ and he consumed it. He consumed it and it's gone
forever. He took my sins and sorrows and
made them his very own. He bore the burden to Calvary
and suffered and died alone. He died under the holy and just
wrath of God. The just one. The just one. He took my sin and he made them
his very own. because they were his very own
that's what it was for him to be a surety and he took his perfect
righteousness the just one took his perfect righteousness and
it became mine and was given And it's given, it is the robe.
It's the robe that his people wear. It's the righteousness
of the saints is the robe. We're robed in his perfect righteousness. I love that verse in Colossians
1.22. In the body of his flesh through
death, he suffered, didn't he? To present you. It's His delight
to take His people and present them before the Father, holy
and unblameable and unreprovable in His sight. God sees all of His children
now. Holy. Unblameable. That's in His sight. In His sight. No child of God sees themselves
as such. That's why we live by faith and
not by sight. We live on the basis of what
he says. The life I now live in the flesh,
I live by the faithfulness of the Son of God, says Paul in
Galatians 2.20, who loved me and gave himself for me. He purged my sins, it says. He made them not to be. In the laws of our land, a person
can be pardoned of their sins. But justification is much, much
more than pardon. Justification is a declaration
by God that the sins do not exist any longer. We can forgive, and
we need to be forgiving, and we especially need to be forgiving
of one another. We need to be forgiving as God,
for Christ's sake, has forgiven us. But there is much more in justification
than just forgiveness. Justification is the removal
of the sins themselves. He purged our sin. I love how
John, in 1st John 3, speaks to them. It says, 1st John 3, 4,
Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the
transgression of the law. And you know that he was manifested
to take away our sins, and in him is no sin. The holy justice of God, so the
sin on our saviour and it punished him. The judgment of God upon
sins falls in two places and two alone. It falls on Calvary's
tree or it falls in hell where he will never be satisfied. What
a glorious gospel. And for those who think Those
who think that somehow by their legalistic obedience they can
purify themselves, 1 John 3 goes on to say, and whosoever abideth
in him sinneth not. Sinneth not. For abiding in him is to be justified. You're going to pull Paul was
told, wasn't he, you're going to see the Just One. Paul is
a pattern of all those who will believe unto eternal life. You're
going to see the Just One. You're going to abide in Him. John goes on to say in 1 John
3.6, Whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him, neither known Him. Whosoever abideth in Him sinneth
not. In Him is no sin that was a great
cry from Calvary's tree wasn't it when the Lord Jesus Christ
gave up his life and gave up the ghost submitted himself to
death he cried out it is finished it
is finished the debt is paid in full their sins are taken
away they no longer exist in God's sight seeing the just one Paul was
on his way to jail to a ship journey which ended in more jail
but Paul was sent on his journey to testify before that crowd
in Jerusalem that he had seen the just one. Do you see him
as the just one? It is really who he is. Paul could have written extensive
words on what it was for the Christ to come and what he was
going to do but he didn't have a clue. He saw and heard the
testimony of him and he didn't have a clue who he was. is to have eternal life. Do you
see that just one in exercising his will of redemption? Do you know his will? To see that just one is to hear
his voice declaring it is finished. A just God and a saviour reigns
from heaven and now. Has the light of the world shone
the light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ?
It shines in the hearts of God's people. God shines. This was the promise that Ananias
brought to Paul. It's a promise of God to all
of his people. How can I know How can I know
that I'm a justified one? To go back to the story that
the Lord Jesus Christ told in Luke chapter 18 Luke chapter 18 we had that story
of two men The man that went down to his house justified. The man that went down to his
house justified. He smote upon his breast. The heart and cause of all of
his problems was in his heart. He had a heart problem with sin.
The religious Pharisee and the self-righteous religious person
see sins as external things. God's people see sin as a heart
problem. He beat upon his breast. He wouldn't
so much as lift up his eyes unto heaven. He was a humble man,
Paul. Paul was a humble man, humbled
in the dust. Laid as a blind man. to this
place where he heard the gospel and heard these glorious words. And he cried out, he said, God,
to be merciful to me, a sinner. The Pharisee had said, I, I,
I, I. He thanked God for what the I
had done and what the I have achieved and what the I saw in
the eyes of men. How do you know that you're a
just one? If you can look to anything in
your life, your changed life, your sanctified life, you've
missed the gospel. And may this light that shone
upon Paul shine upon your ignorance and reveal the glory of God to
you. See, faith, faith is the evidence. Faith is the evidence that I'm
looking to the Lord Jesus Christ alone for all my righteousness
before God and nothing of myself. This man went down to his house
justified. This man went down to his house
justified. That is the glorious work. This man cried out to his God. God be
merciful to me the sinner. He cried out to God. You look
to your son. You look to your son and his
shed blood. You look to him. You look to
him my God and not to me. and have mercy upon me. There is no mercy beggar, no
mercy seeker who's ever been turned away by our great and
glorious God. May he, in his mercy and grace,
turn your eyes and cause you to look to him Nothing in my hand I bring, simply
to the cross I cling. I thought I might finish our
time together before I pray with those words that we sing each
morning when we finish our service. These lovely words that Jude
spoke. Now unto him, now unto him that is able to keep you
from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence
of his glory with exceeding joy to the only wise God our saviour. Be glory and majesty, dominion
and power, both now and forever. Amen. Let's take a moment to
pray. Our Heavenly Father, we thank
you that as we come and bow before you in prayer, Heavenly Father,
that in heaven your dear and precious Son bears the marks
of Calvary upon his resurrected body. I, our Father, we thank you and
praise you that salvation is of the Lord. Dealing with our
sins is too big a problem for us, but not too big a problem
for you. And we praise you, Heavenly Father,
that in taking away our sin, you reveal your holiness, you
reveal your justice, you reveal the depth of your love. You show
us, Heavenly Father, how you can be a just God and a saviour,
that you can save your people and glorify your holiness. You can save your eyes away from ourselves that
we might see your son seen high and lifted up see him seated
showing that the work is finished may we find ourselves heavenly
father in him in him the just and the justifier
in him that just one and to save you. We pray that you might bless
us in these troubled times, Heavenly Father, and lead us to that rock,
the unnervable rock in these troubled times. We pray, Heavenly
Father, that you'd cause us to walk by faith as this world is
shaken, that we might know Him who shakes it, and that we might
know Him who works all things for the good of his people. Bless
your people, Heavenly Father. Bless your word to the hearts
of your people. For Christ's sake, and in his name we pray.