It's lovely to see you all here
and I'm very much looking forward to Peter coming. So this might
be the last time I get to speak to you from Acts chapter 13 or
any of Acts for some weeks. So I trust that we've I don't
know, I trust that you've found it as delightful as I have it
and refreshing to actually go back to these gospel sermons
in Acts, the foundation of this mighty church of the Lord Jesus
Christ, the declaration of his victory over death and over the
grave and over Satan, that mighty victory that he won. And as we
saw last week, these sure mercies are mercies that were Promised. Promised in the Old Testament.
They were promised to Abraham and they were promised to David
and they were always promised in light of the fact that they
were promised. The promises are held by a seed. The promises are held by the
Lord Jesus Christ. All the promises meet their fulfilment
in Him. And His people meet with Him,
as those passages that we looked at in Isaiah and Psalm 89, His
people meet with Him and are at one with Him because of the
eternal covenant of grace. He and His people, He and the
people the Father gave Him in eternity and entrusted into His
care, are seen as one in a covenant of grace. And that's why the
mercies are sure, aren't they? The mercies are sure because
they're in the hand of a sovereign God. The mercies are sure because
they're promised mercies. As Paul says in Ephesians chapter
1, he says, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus
Christ, who hath blessed us. And the us there is the church
of the Lord Jesus Christ, all of the blood-bought children
of our God. has blessed us, he hath in past
tense and completed, it continues on. You are being blessed now
with all spiritual blessings. All of the church of God is blessed
with all spiritual blessings and they are kept in heavenly
places in Christ. What a wonderful place to have
the sure mercies of David. Kept, kept. by Him. They're in Christ, they're in
the heavenly places, unsullied by the things of this world,
unsullied by your sin and unbelief, unsullied and untainted by all
of the activities of Satan. The Church of the Lord Jesus
Christ is perfectly secure and doing perfectly well in this
world and always has been. because she's in the hands of
a great promise-keeping and promise-fulfilling God. And that's what Paul has
done in this sermon. He just said, this is the promise,
this is it fulfilled. This is the promise, this is
it fulfilled. Again and again and again. He's giving them a
history. He's given them a history of Israel. He's given them a
history of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's given them a history that
they all knew about. They'd come to this synagogue
to hear the law proclaimed to them. And they had the law proclaimed
to them by the mouth of Paul. He proclaimed the Lord Jesus
Christ to them. It is the great promise, isn't
it, the sure mercies. The sure mercies is that God
will be unto us a God and we shall be unto him a people. Abraham was taken out in Genesis
15, wasn't he? And he says, I don't have any
children. I'm old and barren. Sarah is
old and barren. It's impossible for us to have
children. And what did God do? He took
him outside and He says, look up there. Look up at the stars
in heaven. That's how many descendants you're
going to have, Abraham. That's how many descendants,
that's how many of the children of God, the faith children of
God. So all the promises are in and
of a saviour, aren't they? This saviour that's coming called
Emmanuel, God with us. And they are the promises revealed,
these sure mercies, the promises of God the Father, the two great
promises were God the Father and God the Son. And the great
promise revealer is the Holy Spirit. He has the delightful
task of taking the things of the Lord Jesus Christ and revealing
them unto you. He has the great honour of crowning
that work that was begun in eternity and fulfilled by the Lord Jesus
Christ, he has the great work of crowning that work in this
world by gathering the church together around the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The great fulfiller of course
is the saviour risen, the new covenant, the new testament it's
called. Brad was telling me about a neighbour
of his who's very wealthy, very old, very sick and very embittered
and here he is in hospital probably near death and none of his family
will go and see him because he's been such a miserable old fellow
trying to save his pennies rather than being concerned about his
soul. And what will happen in all likelihood, as it happens
lots of times these days, is that someone writes a will, and
when they're dead, the will then is contested by people, and sometimes
with some sense of justice. But nevertheless, the great will
and testament of the Lord Jesus Christ is a will. that was written
in eternity, signed in his blood. But the great benefits of that
will is that the one who made the will lives to ensure that
all the benefits, all the sure mercies of David that he bought
for his people will be revealed to them, revealed to them and
revealed in them. The great promise fulfilled is
that the King will have a kingdom. The Lord Jesus said to the Pharisees,
the rulers of the Jews in Matthew 21, he said, He says, therefore I say unto
you, he's talking about himself being the stone, the stone which
the builders rejected. They'd rejected him, but this
stone has become the head of the corner. It's the Lord's doing,
and it's marvellous in our eyes. Therefore I say unto you, the
kingdom of God shall be taken from you, taken from you Jews,
and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof. What's that nation? That nation
are those stars in the sky that Abraham was shown. That nation
is the true Israel of God. That nation is the nation that
all believers belong to. That nation will bring forth
fruits, the fruit of the Holy Spirit, love, joy, and peace. The simple fruits of believing
what God says in his word. and simply living by faith. There is that promised fruit.
They will live, they'll live in this world in such a way that
God will be glorified in them, and they in him. That's the promise
of 2 Thessalonians 1, 11, and 12. And so the assurance of promise The promises assurance is faith.
We have the full assurance of faith. We simply believe God. We simply believe what he says.
The guarantee is the eternal covenant and the grace of our
God. And what's the end? The end of
all these promises is the fulfilment of the prayer of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Father, I will, as this nation,
I will that they also, all the people of this nation, all of
these children of mine, these blood-bought children, all of
my bride, whom thou hast given me, be with me where I am, that
they may behold my glory. which Thou hast given me, for
Thou lovest me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father,
the world has not known Thee, but I have known Thee, and these
have known that Thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto
them Thy name, and will declare it, that the love wherewith Thou
hast loved me may be in them. They'll be loved. Loved by God
the Father. Loved as the shulamite in the
Song of Solomon. They might be loved. and I in them. The great promise,
the great promise of these covenant mercies is Christ taking up residence
in us, the believers, his children. The sure mercies of David, if
we go back to verse 33 in our text, in Acts 13. God has fulfilled the same. He has fulfilled all of these
things. He's fulfilled all that was written
of him. He's fulfilled the same unto
us in that he has raised up Jesus again, as it is also written
in the second psalm, thou art my son, this day have I begotten
thee. They preached on the second psalm
often. We've dealt with it before. But
he talks in Psalm about the absolute sovereignty of God and he says,
why do the heathen rage and the people imagine a vain thing?
The kings of the earth set themselves and the rulers take counsel together
against the Lord and against his anointed saying, let us break
their bands asunder and cast away their cords from us. Let
us have freedom. What does Satan say to us in
the garden? You will be as gods. You will be able to decide. You
will be able to rule your own life as you see fit. And you
can rule your own life as you see fit by casting God aside. He that sitteth in the heavens
shall laugh. The Lord shall have them in derision. Then shall he speak in his wrath
and vex them in his sordid pleasure. Yet have I set my king upon my
holy hill of Zion. He set his king on his holy hill
of Zion. That's the church. The word means
monument. It means a monument. We are.
The Church is a monument to the glory of God. I will declare
the decree. The Lord has said unto me, Thou
art my son, this day have I forgotten thee. Ask of me, and I shall
give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost
parts of the earth for thy possessions. Did he ask? He did. Does he have it in his possession?
No matter what you think, as you read the newspapers and watch
television, no matter what you ever think about this world being
out of control, please, please, by the grace of God, ascribe
all of it to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not out
of control. It's perfectly under His control.
People set themselves against Him, and they rage against Him,
and He rules. He rules. Thou shalt break them with a
rod of iron, Thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's
vessel. Be wise now, therefore, O ye kings, and be instructed,
ye judges of the earth. Serve the Lord with fear and
rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry
and you perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but
a little. Blessed, blessed are they all
they that put their trust in Him. The Lord Jesus Christ, back
to our text in verse 34, He was raised from the dead, no more
to see corruption. Why no more corruption? What
is the corrupting thing of this world? Sin is the corrupting
thing of this world. No more to see corruption, because
there is no sin on him any longer. That sin that was put on him,
that sin that he was made, is gone altogether. The world, as
we saw in Psalm 2, is a corrupting world, isn't it? It acts in concert
against the plans and purposes of God, and God sits in the heavens
and He laughs. It's corrupting, it's corrupting,
and it corrupts everyone and everything in it. We are, we
are corrupted. In our father Adam, we are corrupted
in thoughts, in words, in deeds, in the estimation of ourselves. Humanity is corrupted. The world
is corrupted, according to Romans 8, the world actually groans.
But he who was raised from the dead saw no corruption. And then we come No corruption, no more sin, no
more sin to be tainting anything of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
he bears those wounds in his own body right now. And he reigns
in heaven as Psalm 2 declares him to. But I love how Paul continues. He's given the history, he's
given the history of the Lord Jesus Christ in his life and
his death and his resurrection. Then he says in verse Thought
3080 says, through this man. Be it known unto you therefore,
men and brethren. Make a point of knowing this.
Take it to heart. Be it known unto you. Therefore,
men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you
the forgiveness of sins. Through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sins. Not the possibility of forgiveness,
not the offering of forgiveness of sins. Through this man is
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. not profit, not earned. It's just preached unto you the
forgiveness of sins. The forgiveness of sins. It means
a releasing, a releasing, a releasing from bondage. Those who know
something of sin because they have met the Lord Jesus Christ
know something of the bondage and the entanglement of it. The
forgiveness of sins is letting them go, is what it literally
means. Letting them go because they
are gone. Verse 39, and by Him, notice
how Paul attributes all the blessings of salvation, all the blessings
of forgiveness of sin, all the blessings of justification which
are so intimately linked together, they are by Him. Through this
man, by Him. By him all that believe are justified
from all things from which he could
not be justified by the law of Moses." Once again, note what Paul says. He says, And by him, all that
believe. Believing comes by him. Believing is the gift of God.
Believing is both the revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ and
the revelation that's actually become something that is part
of us, isn't it? By him, he actually reveals. He is ultimately the great preacher
of the gospel. And he reveals himself in the
gospel. And he does it all. By him, all that believe, and note what it
doesn't say. It doesn't say all that believe
and do something. It's simply all that believe. He has given these people in
Antioch, he's given them a description of the character of God, his
absolute sovereignty, his extraordinary faithfulness, his extraordinary
mercies, and now he's saying, you are justified. Justified
from all things which you could not be justified by the law of
Moses. This is the first mention of that word justified in the
New Testament church. Justified from all things. Graham read that amazing verse
in in Romans 5. But really, in some ways, the
chapter divisions of Romans 4 and 5 are sometimes not very helpful
to us. It speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ
in verse 25 of chapter 4, who was delivered delivered for our
offences. He was delivered because of our
offences and was raised again because of our justification,
for our justification. Therefore, being justified, and
that being justified is in the passive tense. which means that
you were passive, but someone else was active in your justification. Justification comes as a gift
from God. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. To be justified is to have peace
with God. I'd like us to contemplate this
glorious word justified. You're justified from all things. I love the extent of it. You're
justified from all things. You're justified by Him. You're justified by Him in believing. You're justified in this one. Therefore, as Romans 3, 28 says,
therefore we conclude that a man is justified without the deeds
of the law. We're talking about the sure
mercies of David. What are the mercies of David?
You might contemplate the one great mercy that's recorded for
us in 2 Samuel chapter 12. You know the story well and sadly
so often we concentrate on David's failings and fallings and spend
far little time contemplating the wonder of David's life. By
this stage, in this incident with Bathsheba, David had been
the most remarkable man from his boyhood up. He had slain
Goliath. He had turned the enemies of
God on their heels. He had been despised by Saul
and hunted like a dog for the best part of 20 years, knowing
all of that time that he was the anointed king of Israel.
All of that time, he had been the most remarkable man. He'd
written those extraordinary psalms that we delight in. He had known
the Lord as his shepherd in all of that time. And he's a great
emblem of the mercies of God. And he's also a great reminder
to us, isn't he, that when we think that we are strong, We
need to be very, very careful of how weak we are. What led
David to fall? What led David to fall and become a murderer and an
adulterer? He just looked at Bathsheba. He just looked at Bathsheba.
is a great reminder, a great reminder of how sure the mercies
are to God's children. You know the story well and you
can read about it in Psalm 51 and Psalm 32, the agony that
David felt all that time and how he tried in all sorts of
ways to cleanse himself from the stain of that sin, which
in many, many ways would have been public sin. To many people
in that army would have known what they did to Uriah when they
murdered him at David's hand outside that city. Many people
would have known. And you know the story. Nathan
comes along to him and tells the story of the man that had
just one precious ewe lamb and another man who had a kingdom
as it were. And he takes the ewe lamb from
that man. And David anger was greatly kindled
against the man and said to Nathan, as the Lord liveth, that man
that has done this thing shall surely die. And Nathan turned
to David and said, Thou art the man. You are the man. You have taken Bathsheba from
Uriah. And Nathan says some remarkable
things from God to David. He said, I've given you all of
this, and I would have given you more if you'd asked for it.
You could have had anything you wished for, David. And you take
the one thing that belongs to Uriah. And he paid a price, and his
family paid a price. In verse 13 of chapter 12, and
David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. David's now confessed his sin
publicly. What does the law of God say
to David? It's really simple, isn't it?
The law of God says to David and to Bathsheba, we'll take
you outside the city right now and we will stone you to death.
That's the law of God. And yet Nathan, Nathan says these
remarkable words to David. And Nathan said unto David, the
Lord hath put away thy sin. Thou shalt not die. It's an easy thing for Nathan
to say. And you can imagine walking down
the street of Jerusalem the next day and meeting Uriah's mother. And she says to Nathan, what's
happening to David? Nathan said, he's not going to
die, the Lord has put away his sin. And the whole world, the
whole world would cry unjust. The whole world would cry that
that is an unjust thing, that you just put away his sin. Until, until. Until David's great son comes
and hangs on Calvary's tree, bearing that sin of David, the
murder, the blood of Uriah on his hands, and the blood of Uriah
was on the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. The sure mercies
of David are the forgiveness of sins. The sure mercies of
David are to be justified according to our text. To be justified
is to be declared by God to have no sin. The sure mercies of David. Justification the word justice
actually comes from in Leviticus this actually talks about it's
about weights and measures and Balances it's a correct beam
and just weights and a righteous balance. You can read about it
in Leviticus chapter 19 so a just or righteous man is one when
weighed in the balance is found to have an obedience which corresponds
to God's holy law. That's what it is to be justified.
Believe and be justified is the great declaration of the gospel,
isn't it? God says that he lays judgment
to the line and he lays righteousness to the plummet. It's a just God
and a saviour. He will measure you and he must
measure you against his holy law. His holy law. To be justified. To be justified
is to have your sins made to not exist. No wonder David could say, Blessed
is the man, Romans 4. Blessed is the man. This is a
blessed man. Blessed is the man whose sins Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Blessed are they whose iniquities
are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man. So you might think that Nathan
was acting contrary to the law of God. But Nathan was acting
exactly according to the holiness of God in the eternal covenant
that we've read about in those earlier chapters last week. That
the lamb was slain before the foundation of the world. Why
did Adam and Eve not die instantly when they ate the fruit of the
tree? Because one stood in their place
beforehand. Why does God persist with this
world now in its open and wicked rebellion against him? Because
the Lamb was slain before the foundation of the world. God
has his people in this world. Why does He persist with you
and me in our wicked rebellion and unbelief against Him? Again
and again, daily, daily, daily, we do things that should cause
His infinite wrath to be poured out upon us. And like Dathan
and Korah, the ground should swallow us up and the world would
be a better place. Why? Why does He persist? Because
of the sure mercies of David, he has a people in this world.
The Lamb was slain from the foundation of the world. They have always
been considered, in the sight of God, holy, spotless, unblameable,
and unreprovable. In our court system, we can pardon
someone. We can pardon a guilty person.
It's well known that the King or the President of the United
States will pardon people and they will be released. But their
iniquities still remain. We can pardon a guilty person
and we can excuse the sins and fall, but we can't justify. We can't justify them. To justify
them, as I said, is to have made them as if their sins do not
exist. To make them so that they are
perfectly fit inhabitants of the throne of God. His throne,
His throne is the throne of justice. Justice and judgment are the
habitation of Thy throne. He makes His people to be fit
habitations of God by the Spirit, that He can take up residence
in us. It's God, it's God that justifies. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. See, justification is a gift
of God. It's part of the sure mercies
of David, isn't it? Being justified, as Romans 3.24
wonderfully says, being justified freely. And that word freely
means without cause. The Lord Jesus said, they hated
me without a cause. It's being justified freely by
His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. We read
about those, us, in Romans 5. Graham read them out to us, isn't
it? We're ungodly. We're sinners. We're enemies
of God. And yet, in the glorious work
of redemption, that glorious transaction in redemption, I
love verse 19 of chapter 5 of Romans. For by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. All of Adam's race were made
sinners by Adam's disobedience. So by the obedience of one, shall
many be made righteous." If you're going to be righteous with God,
you're going to be made righteous by God. It's the great transaction. It's the great transaction. is
the great transference of sin and righteousness. That verse
in 2 Corinthians 5.21 is remarkable, isn't it? For He has made Him
to be sin for us. who knew no sin, that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him." So the great transaction
of the Gospel, isn't it, is that God the Father, this great transaction
promised by God the Father, enacted by God the Son, proclaimed and
illuminated by God the Holy Spirit, is this remarkable transfer of
sin and righteousness. It's common in modern religion
to talk about God putting away the consequences of our sin.
That's not justification. Justification is not just removing
the effects and the consequences of sin, it's actually removing
the sin itself. We are justified, as our verse
said, from all things. We are God's children, complete
in Him. complete, accepted in the Beloved,
as that great chapter, Romans 8, begins with no condemnation
and it finishes with no separation. And it's always, it's always
ascribed to the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Iniquity was
laid on Him. Therefore it cannot be on us. What does God say? Through the
mouth of a false teacher, but he speaks great truth in Numbers
23 through Balaam. He said, God has not beheld iniquity
in Jacob, nor perverseness in Israel. He's not beheld it. Why hasn't he beheld it? Because
it's not there to behold, brothers and sisters. That's why Nathan
could say to David, He's put away your sin. That's why Romans
6 says that believers are freed from sin, because we died with
Christ in baptism. No wonder David could go on in
Psalm 51 to say, purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me, wash me and I'll be
whiter than snow. when we partake of the Lord's
Supper. The Lord Jesus said, this is the blood of the New
Testament, this is the blood of the New Covenant, this is
the blood of that covenant that's new and ever living, this is
the blood of the eternal covenant, the everlasting covenant, the
covenant of grace and the covenant of peace. It says, this is my
blood of the New Testament which is shed for many, not for all,
it's shed for many, for the remission of sins. They are remitted. Some of the other words that
the scriptures use to describe The glorious work of the Lord
Jesus Christ in justifying his people is that it says that they're
blotted out. Sins are blotted out. It means
that they're obliterated. He says, our God, in Isaiah 44,
he says, I have blotted out, as with a thick cloud, thy transgressions,
and as a cloud, thy sins. Return unto me, for I have redeemed
thee. And the church goes on in Isaiah
44, in the next verse, to do what God's children who have
been led by the Spirit to see what the Lord Jesus Christ has
really done. In verse 23, they sing. They sing.
Verse Isaiah 44, 23, they sing. I, even I, am he that blotteth
out thy transgressions for mine own sake, Isaiah 43, 25, and
will not remember thy sins." He can't remember them because
they have ceased to exist. That is what justification is,
brothers and sisters. That's why he says in Isaiah
43, he says, put me in remembrance. Cause me to remember these things,
and in causing me to remember, you will remember them. You'll
remember what I have said. Sins are declared to be taken
away. Behold the Lamb of God, John
proclaimed the Lord Jesus Christ. That Lamb who taketh away the
sin of the world. They're taken away. They are
removed. Psalm 103 says, As far as the
east is from the west, for he has removed our transgressions
from us. He'll remove the iniquity of
the land in one day, says Zechariah 3.9. He was manifested to take
away our sins. These are the sure mercies of
David. They're not legal mercies. The
law can only condemn, and the law rightfully condemned David,
and it did it in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord Jesus Christ
paid all of the price of God's holy law for those sins of David. And David is a recipient of sure
mercies, and so is all of the church. It says that they are
annihilated, they're destroyed. In Daniel 9, it speaks of the
Lord Jesus Christ, he'll come and he'll finish transgression,
he'll make an end of sin, and he'll bring in everlasting righteousness. In Hebrews 1, you have that glorious
picture of the Lord Jesus Christ sitting on his throne of glory
in heaven right now. This son, whom he's appointed
heir of all things, by whom he also made the world, who being
the brightness of his glory and the express image of his person
and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had,
and I love what it says here, when he had by himself purged
our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on a high."
I'm glad he did it all by himself, because anything we touch, brothers
and sisters, is polluted. Anything we touch. They are cast
into the depths of the sea. Not only is that one part of
this removal, isn't it? No wonder God can say, who can
lay any charge? Who can lay anything to the charge
of God select? It's God that justifies. God
justifies. And so it is with the righteousness
of God. We are made the righteousness
of God in Him. This righteousness of God is
unto all and upon all them that believe. That's why the church
is arrayed in fine linen, clean and white, which is the righteousness
of the saints. See, God doesn't play let's pretend. He doesn't play let's pretend
with sin and righteousness. What he declares to be is what
really is. God creates by a word and when
he creates, when he speaks, reality comes into existence. He speaks
reality into the lives of his people. That's why in Romans 5 this righteousness
is the free gift, it's the gift of grace, it's the gift of righteousness,
and it abounds to many. And the many receive it, it comes
upon them. Their righteousness is of me. It's the heritage of all of the
servants of the Lord. with all of what goes on in your
life, with all of the sins and all of the sorrows, with all
your doubts, like mine, and all your fears, with all your weaknesses
and failings. God's children have always been
and are always perfect in the eye of the Lord. They are clean. They are whiter than snow. Now under the Lord says of his
bride in Song of Solomon, my love, my dove, my undefiled. And if you read Song of Solomon,
you'll see that she had a lot that was defiling about her.
Thou art all fair, my love, he says of her, there is no spot
in thee. He has washed them, he has loved
them and washed them in his blood, washed them from their sins in
his blood, and he's sanctified them. He declares them to be
holy. It's a great success of the Gospel,
isn't it? That God has a people in this
world for whom the Lord Jesus Christ died, and in the manifestation
of Him through the preaching of the Gospel, God rightly and
fitly and legally takes up residence in His people. He causes them
to believe. He causes them to see the Lord
Jesus Christ. as he is, causes them simply
to believe. That's why it's so lovely in
our text, isn't it? To these people who were sitting
there reading the law, to these people who thought that in some
way they were obeying the law, to these people who were gathering
the Gentiles in to hear the law with them and to put them back
under the law and to have them circumcised. Paul says nothing
about their law obedience. In fact, in reference both to
David and to Abraham, it's very, very clear, isn't it, that God
saves by grace and not by works. He who sanctifies, he who makes
holy, says Hebrews 10, and they who are sanctified are all of
one. They are both one. God sees no
difference between His Son and His people. Bone of His bones,
flesh of His flesh. His title to eternal life, His
title to eternal life is our title to eternal life. The sure
mercies that were given to Him were given to Him in covenant
union with all of His people. The sure mercies of David are
our mercies. How much more, says Romans 5,
shall abundant mercy and the gift of righteousness reign by
Jesus Christ? The work of righteousness, this
work of righteousness in the hearts of people shall be peace,
says Isaiah 32, 17. The effect of righteousness shall
be quietness and assurance forever. So the glory of the gospel, as
I've been saying, is the declaration of the character of God. It declares
Him a just God and a Saviour. He saves by enacting absolute,
perfect, holy justice, infinite justice, holy justice, and infinite
mercy meet. Mercy is not displayed at the
expense of righteousness. God won't save you and not honour
His holiness and honour His holy law. And justice shines in all
of its holy glory. He's magnified the law and made
it honourable, our Lord Jesus Christ. But that justice exalts
sovereign mercy. The glory of the justice of God
exacted on the Lord Jesus Christ means that the mercy shines.
No wonder we have a throne of grace. No wonder it's declared
that grace reigns. Grace reigns through righteousness
until eternal life by our Lord Jesus Christ. They're sure mercies. They're purchased, they're guaranteed,
and they're faithful. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ according to His abundant mercy. If you're
a sinner, we don't need just ordinary mercy, we need abundant
mercy and we need sovereign grace. We're not ordinary sinners, we're
far worse than that. Abundant mercy has begotten us,
born us again into a lively hope, a living hope. He won't see corruption. He lives to enact all of this
by a living hope, by a lively hope, by the resurrection of
Jesus Christ from the dead, says 1 Peter 1.3, to an inheritance,
an inheritance incorruptible, undefiled, that fadeth not away,
reserved in heaven for you. Sure mercies. blood-bought mercies,
obedience-earned mercies, faithfully-earned mercies, covenant mercies, mercies
that are distributed by a sovereign hand of grace and love to all
His. The Lord Jesus Christ earned
them. He secured this inheritance for us. And it's kept in the
best place of all. It's kept in his hands for a
start. He earned them. They're his to
distribute as he sees fit. And they're kept in heaven. Satan
can't touch them. This world can't touch them.
Your wicked flesh can't touch them. This covenant, no wonder
David said, the Lord has made with me an eternal covenant,
ordered and sure in every detail. It's all my salvation, he says.
It's all my salvation. You can't look anywhere else. We are united to him, our Lord
Jesus Christ. See, the law is not of the promise. So much of our flesh and so much
of modern religion joined with the flesh of men wants to go
and put people back under the law. As I was told that the Lord
Jesus Christ, the gospel leads you to Jesus, then Jesus takes
you back to the law. Or I was told in Bible college
that all the law of God comes to the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ and then some of it stops and the other bits of it go on. Paul is saying in this sermon,
absolutely no way. How do you have all those blessings
of justification that I spoke about? In our verse 39, you receive
them by Him, they are His to give, and what He gives is faith. Faith is the gift of God. Faith
lays hold of all these promises. So no wonder Abraham is a great
example, isn't he? In Romans chapter 4, and I'll
close with this. I'm glad Graham went back and
read those verses out of Romans 4. The promise, verse 13, the
promise that he should be heir of the world was not to Abraham
or to his seed, through the law. Abraham didn't have the law.
In fact, when Abraham took matters in his own hands to fulfil the
promises of God, what did he produce? Exactly what you and
I produce every time we lay our hand to the work of the Lord
Jesus Christ and say, somehow I can embellish this and make
it happen. I can get God's things happening. I can do stuff that
will honour God and that cause these promises to come about. Ishmael's are what you have.
Ishmael's. The Word of God says you cast
them out. When they come along, these thoughts that you have
to do something to earn favour with God, to do something to
be justified, Cast them out with the bondwoman. Cast them out,
says Galatians 3. The promise that he should be
heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his seed through
the law, but through the righteousness of faith. For if they which are
of the law, and that means origin, if you trace anything of your
work, your relationship with God to something that you do
of the law, it deals with origin. If they which are of the law
be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none
effect. May God protect us from doing
that to His promises. Because the law worketh wrath. The law just reveals how sinful
you are. The law worketh wrath, and where
no law is, there is no transgressions. Therefore, all of salvation,
all of the sure mercies of David, it is of faith. that it might
be by grace, something that comes as an unearned gift from God,
unmerited, unsought, that it might be by grace to the end
that the promise might be sure, the sure mercies of David might
be sure to all the seed, Not to that only which is of the
law, not only to the Jews, but to that also which is of the
faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all. By him, all
that believe are justified from all things that you couldn't
be justified by the law of Moses. Abraham was weak. in his body, and his body was
about dead. Verse 20, and he staggered not
at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith,
giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what he had promised,
he was able to perform. That's faith, brothers and sisters.
That's faith that gives glory to God. Is he able to perform? Is he able? All of history says
he's able. All of God's children will be
caused to wait like Abraham. He's able. Fully persuaded. Are you fully persuaded? Fully persuaded. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we do pray that
you would cause us to rejoice in the eternal justification
of our Lord Jesus Christ, that we might, Heavenly Father, as
we consider His broken body and His shed blood, we might be considered
to remember Him. and the sure mercies of David,
which are won and earned by him. O our Heavenly Father, we thank
you for the glories of justification, for the glories of sins forgiven,
that we pray, Heavenly Father, that you would cause us again
and again to go and contemplate Your dear and precious son, hanging
on Calvary's tree, shedding his life's blood because he was made
surety in that eternal covenant. He bore the sins of his people. He bore our sins, our Father. that we may never bear them ever
again. And he robes us in the glorious
robe of the very righteousness of God, which is the inheritance
of all the saints. Our Heavenly Father, please,
by your sovereign mercy, grant us simply to find ourselves trusting
the Lord Jesus Christ and trusting Him alone. Fix our eyes on Him,
our Father, for His glory and for our good. Amen.