Brethren, let me make two announcements
before I forget this. First of all, Brother Greg is
in the hospital in Philadelphia, and I sent you that information,
but I'm sure he would appreciate a call from you or a visit. So remember him as you go to
the Lord and seek his mercy. And also, this Friday, is the
4th Friday. So 7 o'clock here we'll have
the 4th Friday Bible class. So I think that's it. Let's go to Exodus 23. Let's
begin in verse 1. God says, Thou shalt not raise
A false report. Thou shalt not raise a false
report or receive a false report. Put not thine hand with the wicked
to be an unrighteous witness. Thou shalt not follow a multitude
to do evil, neither shalt thou speak in a cause to decline after
many to rest judgment. You don't want to follow a multitude
and answer in a false way to wrest judgment from somebody.
Neither shalt thou countenance a poor man in his cause. You don't consider him just because
he's poor. He says in verse 6, thou shalt
not wrest the judgment of thy poor in his cause. Keep thee
far from a false matter, and the innocent and righteous slay
thou not. Get that, the innocent and righteous
slay thou not, for I will not justify the wicked. And thou
shalt take no gift, for the gift blindeth the wise and perverted
the words of the righteous. God is teaching us here that
He's just. He's holy and just. That's the
purpose of this. These laws are chiefly judicial,
that is, to be carried out in a court of law. If you're brought,
you know, to be a witness in a court of law. But when you
think of this law, remember this, we're always before God. Not
just when we're in a court of law, we're always before God. And in the end, we're coming
before God's court. And what's gonna be brought up
is everything we've ever thought contrary to this law. So it's
not just in a court of law. Yeah, you wouldn't, we wouldn't
do these things in a court of law because you put your hand
on a Bible and swear to God that you won't. But we're talking
about all the time. We're talking about in any situation
we're in every day in life. God says, thou shalt not raise
or bear or receive a false witness. That means you cannot lie about
anybody or receive a lie about anybody. not even a little white
lie about them. Can't think it, can't receive
it, not at all. Thou shalt not put thy hand with
the wicked to be an unrighteous witness. Thou shalt not follow
a multitude that is a majority to do evil. Now this is where
we have a lot of difficulty here, peer pressure. If the reason
right now we receive We were talking about this on the way
over here. Before it's over with, they will legalize bestiality.
You'll be able to marry your pet if you want to. And the kids
thought, oh, that's horrible. Well, that's what generations
used to think about sodomy, homosexuality. You don't think that now. Why?
Because the majority says it's all right. It gets easier to
receive things as the majority, and they look down on you if
you don't receive. So in this situation, if there's
a majority, and they're going to look down on you and if you
don't go along with them in this wicked thing of condemning a
just man or releasing a wicked man. He said don't go with the
majority just because they're going to look down on you and
reject you because of it. Don't do that. Thou shalt not
rest judgment from the poor. Thou shalt not countenance a
poor man neither rest the poor in his cause. That means neither
be lenient nor harsh simply because he's a poor man. In other words,
don't pay any attention to his person whatsoever. It doesn't
matter if he's poor or not. That has nothing to do with justice
whatsoever. No sympathy is to be given because
he's poor and no injustice is to be tolerated because he's
poor. Scripture put it like this, God
said, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. That's justice. That's the law. It doesn't, it
don't matter who you are, rich or poor, male or female, it don't
matter. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. Justice is blind and justice can't be bribed. He says here,
for the gift, take no gift because the gift blindeth the wise and
perverted the words of the righteous. and saying to justice is blind.
Justice will not take a bribe whatsoever. Now this is the main
point right here in verse 7. I will not justify the wicked,
God said. He said keep thee far from a
false manner. The innocent and the righteous
slay thou not for I will not justify the wicked. If God is
just, He is absolutely just. And therefore the law and justice
of God does not take into consideration anything except guilt or innocence. That's all. God's law specifically
forbids any mercy. His law specifically forbids
any mercy to be shown on the basis of the offender's circumstances
and his condition. No mercy can be shown. Respecting
persons because they're rich or they're poor is strictly forbidden. If they're guilty, they're to
be punished. If they're innocent, they are
to go free. Now listen, that alone is justice. If they're guilty, they must
be punished. If they're innocent, they must go free. That is righteousness. That's what we talk about when
we speak of righteousness. There's no black or white. There's
no gray area. This is black and white. If they're
innocent, they're set free. If they're guilty, they're condemned. And that's just how it is. There's
no as-ifs with God in justice. He's not pretending or playing
as-ifs in any way in justice. You're either guilty or you're
innocent. When it came to calling Abraham the father of the faithful,
before as yet he had children, Scripture speaks of God as Him
that calls those things that be not as though they were. And
people like to go to that in matters of justice and say, see
there, God calls things that are not as though they were.
He might do that concerning Abraham not having children yet and God
saying, you're the father of the faithful. But when it comes
to justice, God does not call things that are not as though
they are. No. Not in justice. Would you call that righteousness?
Would we really call that righteousness? We wouldn't. If a judge did that
to us, we wouldn't call that righteousness. Righteousness
is if they're innocent, they're set free. They're declared righteous.
If they're guilty, they're declared sinners and they're condemned.
That's justice. God's character is that he is
holy and just. This is God's character. This
is his chief attribute. I will not justify the wicked. Maybe somebody will think about
Romans 4. Go there, Romans 4, chapter 4. Somebody might think about this
verse. I've had people throw this up to me, talking about
God's justice. I don't know why anybody would
want to defend God being unrighteous. Why would anybody defend that?
And that's what men will do. And men will use this scripture
to try to defend that. Romans 4, 4, they'll say, yeah,
God does justify the ungodly. He does justify the wicked. And
they use this verse, verse 4. Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly,
his faith is counted for righteousness. And people say, see there, he
justifies the ungodly. Listen to what John Gill said.
Particular reference is had to Abraham. who in his state of
unregeneracy was an ungodly person. As all God's elect are in a state
of nature and are such when God justifies them, being without
a righteousness of their own, wherefore he imputes the righteousness
of another, even that of his own son unto them. And though
he justifies the ungodly, he does not justify their ungodliness. When God speaks of justifying
the ungodly, He's saying, you don't declare an ungodly man
to be just. God doesn't do that to us. He
did everything necessary to make us just, and then He declares
you just. But when He finds you, you're
ungodly. That's what He's saying here.
But He doesn't justify the ungodliness, but He justifies us from it.
Nor will He, nor does He leave us to live and die in our ungodliness. He removes us from it. When God
says, I will not justify the wicked, He means I will not declare
one just who's guilty of the crime charged against him. And
if sin's found on the person, if he's not found to be righteous,
then God will not impute righteousness to him. God will not declare
him just if sin's found on him. Now first of all, The most comforting
attribute of God to a righteous man is God's justice. I mean, think about it. If you're
a righteous man, the most comforting thing to use to know God will
never impute sin to you because He's just. God judges justly. Go to Proverbs 17. I quote this
to you a lot, but I don't know if I've ever had you just turn
here and read it. Proverbs 17, 15. Listen to this. God says to this, of this thing
of justice. He says, he that justifieth the
wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are
abomination to the Lord. You see that, if a man justifies
a wicked man, declares a wicked man, a guilty man to be just,
or if he condemns a man who is just, both of those are an abomination
to the Lord. In Nahum 1.3, it said, the Lord
is slow to anger, He's great in power, He will not at all
acquit the wicked. Not at all. Romans 1.18, the
wrath of God's revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of men who hold the truth in unrighteousness.
Romans 2.6 says God will render to every man according to his
deeds. Now that's justice. Now if you're
righteous, that's the greatest thing you could ever hear, that
God will not ever impute sin to you. Now here's the problem. Left to ourselves, we're only
guilty. Left to ourselves, we're only
guilty. God will not justify us because we're ungodly by nature. And He won't look at us in our
sin and say, yeah, there's a righteous man. He won't do that if we're
left in our sin. He will not. God's just. If we
meet God outside of Christ, God is going to hold us responsible
for every sin we ever thought because it's all against Him.
It's all unjust. And the soul that sinneth, it
will die. God will reward us according to our deeds. There's
no doubt about that. And this one law right here is
enough to find us guilty. This one law that we're looking
at. We've gone through and looked at each of these laws one at
a time. If each of these laws was the
only law there was, we'd be guilty. Can't you say that? This one
law would find us guilty. We've all borne false witness
about another. This is why it's such a sinful
thing to repeat gossip. What somebody says to you that's
second or third hand, you don't know if that's true. Don't repeat
it. Don't even receive it. God says
don't bear false witness against another. And we've done all this,
even if it's a small matter to us, it's not a small matter to
God. We're guilty. There's not one
of these laws that you and I, even as believers, there's not
one of these laws that we can't look at and say, yep, I'm guilty
of that. We're guilty. And in all these things that
God says not to do, we did all this against Christ the Lord
when He walked this earth. You go through the, thou shalt
not raise or bear false witness. We, as mankind, what did we do? We charged Him falsely and lied
about it. That's what we did. Thou shalt
not put thy hand with the wicked to be an unrighteous witness.
Thou shalt not follow a multitude, a majority to do evil. Simply
because everyone was for the crucifixion of Christ. Everyone
joined in with it. And the angry mob had a payday
with it. Because it was the popular thing. Thou shalt not countenance a
poor man, neither rest the poor in his cause. Christ the poorest
man there was on the face of this earth. when he walked this
earth. He said, I don't have a place to lay my head and he
would do nothing to show the contrary. And it was seeing him
as a poor man, politically it's not harmful to do anything to
a poor man. What can he do to you? And so it was no problem. The political rulers of the day
were bribed to do what they did against Christ because politically
it was a good move for them. That was the bribery. So they
did what they did because it was a good political move. All
these things we've broken. We're guilty of all these. But
here's the third thing. When God dealt with His Son in
place of His people, the matter at hand was God's righteousness. The matter being manifest was
God's justice. In Romans 8, We're going to look
at Romans 8 in the next message, but in Romans 8, 32, we read,
he that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all,
that is, for all God's elect, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? Why does it say he spared not
his own son? Because why does it say he delivered
him up? What's he talking about? He's
talking about even though this was his only begotten son. God
didn't spare him. When sin was found on him, God
didn't spare him. He delivered him up to justice.
That's the chief thing being spoken of right there. Let me
say this. I'm not going to get into all
the debate and all that junk. Don't you do that either. Here's
what I want you to forget. However God made him sin, The reason that you read in these
scriptures that he was made sin, the reason you read the Lord
laid on him the iniquity of us all, I don't care how you think
it was done. The reason it's in the book of
God is God would not pour out justice on him until he was made
sin because he's jealous. It doesn't do any matter. The
issue is not how he was made sin. That's really not the issue.
The issue is why. Because God's just. God's just. Men want to argue
and say, well, God imputed sin to him, treated him as if he
was sin. Well, why? Why did he do that? Because God's just. So it couldn't
have been an as if thing I mean, you're arguing for a false premise
there when you argue God was just treating him as if. Well,
why was he even treating him as if? Because God's just. He had to be made to sin for
God to pour out justice on him. He himself is just. He himself
is the just one dying for the unjust. He did no sin. But God's not going to even pour
out justice on him before he's made to bear the sin of his people
because God's just. It was necessary for God to be
just that His Son be made to bear the sin of His people. It
was necessary before God would pour out justice on Him. God's
manifesting His righteousness. This same God that said, He that
declares a guilty man, a wicked man just, and He that declares
an innocent man guilty, I hate them both, God said. So what's
He doing on the cross? He's manifesting that He only
does right. This is, to argue against this
is to argue against our very peace, brethren. Do you want
God to just treat you as if you're righteous? Or do you want God
to be saying, no, He is righteous? Well, however Christ was made
sin, that's how real you're made righteous. And here's another
thing, do you want to honestly say that the righteous judge
of the whole earth punished an innocent man that was not made
to bear sin? Punished an innocent man without
there being any sin laid on him or anything, he just punished
an innocent man? Do you want to lay that charge
to the righteous and holy just God of heaven and earth? If he
did it once, he can do it again. Does that give you peace? That doesn't give me peace. I
want to know he's going to do it justly, righteously, so that
when he said, I'm just, I don't have to ever worry about a thing
again. Don't you? This is the issue. When he delivered him up, he
fulfilled this whole law we're looking at. God did not count
us a poor man in his cause. He did not rest the judgment
of the poor in his cause. even when it was his own son.
He kept himself from a false matter. The innocent and the
righteous he slayed not. No. He made him bear our sin. In himself he's just and innocent
and righteous. But with our sin upon him, God
did what was just. I will not justify the wicked.
And God didn't. not even when it was his own
son. Thou shalt take no gift. The gift blinded the wise and
perverted the words of the righteous. Nothing could turn God from unleashing
the sword of justice upon his only begotten son when sin was
found upon him. He spared not his own son but
delivered him up to the teeth of justice. You think you're
going to slip Sneak by? You think you're going to slip
by God when He wouldn't spare His own son when sin was found
on Him? This is a holy just God. This
is the chief attribute of God. I know men want to say it's His
sovereignty. Well, if He was sovereign and
had all power but He was wicked, would that give you any comfort?
He's sovereign, yeah. but he's right and just so the
only thing he's ever going to do is what's right and just.
There! That gives me comfort. He delivered him up to justice
because it was the just thing to do. And Christ satisfied justice
for his people by dying under the wrath and justice of God
in our place. This is the gospel. The devil
never ceases to try to figure out some way to attack the gospel.
to diminish God's glory. And this has been the attack
for a while now, is this point of what was Christ bearing and
what was He really doing on the cross? He was bearing the sin
of His people and God was satisfying justice. That's what was happening.
Now, fourthly, this same unyielding justice of God now declares all
His people innocent because Christ bore our sins. Romans 8, go there
with me, Romans 8 verse 6. Paul is quoting David and he
says, Romans 8 verse 6, Even as David described it, the blessedness
of the man, the happiness of the man unto whom God imputeth
righteousness without works. We didn't do anything. We did
nothing. God is imputing righteousness
to us freely through faith. Here's the blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. You see that? It is a reality brethren because
of what Christ did. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Why won't he impute sin? Go to
Psalm 103. The reason God will not impute
sin is because we have no sin to impute. Not anybody for whom
Christ died. Look at Psalm 103. And look at verse 12. Let's begin
at verse 11. As the heaven is high above the
earth, so great is his mercy toward them that fear him. As
far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions
from us. You see, we don't have any sin
to impute. Isaiah 43, go there. Isaiah 43,
look at verse 25. God says, I, even I am he that
blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake and will not
remember thy sins. They're blotted out. Jeremiah
31. Jeremiah 31, go there with me.
Jeremiah 31, and look at verse 34. They shall teach no man, no more
every man his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know
the Lord, for they shall all know me. From the least of them
to the greatest of them, saith the Lord, talking about his people,
for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sins
no more. Is he just treating us like we
don't have sin? Go to Jeremiah 50. Is he just
treating us as if we don't have sin when in reality we do? I
know, brethren. You and I, in ourselves, looking
at ourselves, we always see sin. Yeah, we're sinning every day.
Every sin that you and I commit, Christ has already put it away
so that before the judgment seat of God, God says there is no
sin. That means a believer can't commit
sin before the justice of God. It can't be done because Christ
has put them all away. He's answered to them and He's
fulfilled everything perfectly for us. So look here. Is it a reality or is God just
treating us as if? In verse 20, Jeremiah 50 verse
20. In those days and in that time,
saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for
and there shall be none. And the sins of Judah and they
shall not be found for I will pardon them whom I reserve. They're gone. They're gone, brethren. And that same justice recorded
in God's law in our text, he said, the guiltless and the innocent
now are protected. He said, and keep thee from a
false matter and the innocent and righteous slay thou not,
for I will not justify the wicked. We're innocent now. We're righteous
now. God says, you can't be slain.
My holy character will not allow it. I'm just, you can't do it. He said, I won't do it. Now listen,
here's the glory of God's wisdom. It's written in the scripture,
by mercy and truth, iniquity is purged. Now what we've read
in our text here, iniquity could never be purged and truth be
maintained unless there's some way only God knew that he could
do both. Because this law is saying you
can't show mercy and justice still be upheld. It's an impossibility. So if mercy and truth are going
to meet, God's got to figure out the way to do it. God's got
to have the wisdom to make this happen. That's what happens when
of God is Christ made into you wisdom. This is when you begin
to understand the righteousness of God and the mercy of God. And you see how they meet in
harmony now. And now you understand the gospel.
This is the gospel, brethren, how God could make mercy and
truth, mercy and justice meet in perfect harmony and both be
honored and upheld. And the only way that could happen,
brethren, was in a substitute. God providing His own Son, sinless,
spotless as a man, fit to go and take the place of His people.
When He took the place of His people, it had to be a real substitution. He had to really take our place
in every way. And He did. And He took our sin. That's why it's hard to get this
when we think about, we know our Lord is holy and just, and
we don't want to ever charge anything to Christ, that would
diminish his glory. But don't ever forget this, there's
something, I don't know how to say this, I'm going to say it
this way, don't hold it against me if you think I'm being dishonoring
in some way, but this is so. There's something even more important
than the innocence of Christ on the cross and that is the
justice and righteousness of God. There I said it. I hope you understand what I'm
saying. What Christ was doing on the cross was not there to
maintain and show you He's innocent. He was there to show you God
is just and He only does justly. That's why He was there. The devil will trick you into
pleading for the glory of Christ for His innocence on the cross
to get you to totally neglect and dishonor the righteousness
of God on the cross. That's how tricky the devil is.
Don't fall for that. What He's doing on the cross
was to manifest the righteousness of God. Surely His salvation
is nigh them that fear Him, that glory may dwell in our land.
Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Truth shall spring out of the
earth. Righteousness shall look down from heaven. This thing's
about truth, brethren. This thing's about righteousness.
This is the truth that we maintain. This is the truth. This is the
gospel we're talking about. And I behold the Son of God hanging
upon the cursed tree, made sin for me, bearing all the terror
of God's holy wrath for me, forsaken of God and slain for me. I see
the glory of God's absolute truth, His infinite inflexible justice,
His infinite immaculate holiness. That's what I see when I look
at the cross. And I see His inflexible, perfect, infinite, immaculate
mercy. in their perfect harmony, in
perfect harmony. Brethren, this is the only way
that God could make this manifest to us was by sending Christ to
die in the place of His people and when He found sin on Him
and He poured out His justice on Him and His law was honored
in every jot and That's when we read, then He's gracious unto
him and He said, deliver him from going down to the pit. I
have found a ransom. I found a ransom. whom God hath
set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at
this time, His righteousness, that He might be just and the
justifier, just and merciful to him that believeth in Jesus.
Don't you love the fact that God is holy and just? Now, you that believe Him, you're
a righteous man. And God says, I'll never slay
the innocent. I'll never slay the innocent.
This is our hope. This is our salvation that God's
holy and just. Now when you're born of God and
you behold him, spare not his son, you know you can't keep
this law in yourself. You can't keep any one of God's
commandments in yourself, of yourself. But we've kept them
all through faith in Christ because He established them all. But
what His love for us in seeing this does constrain us to do.
He says, put away lying and speak every man truth with his neighbor
for we're members one of another. And His love makes His people,
this is the desire of our heart. This is a motive of our heart
to be truthful with men, with every man. Abstain from all appearance
of evil. You know what that means? That
means it's speaking about the truth and if it even sounds like
it's not true, he's saying abstain from it. If it just has a little
appearance, if it just sounds a little bit like it might not
be true, it's pure evil and he said abstain from it. And he
constrains us in our heart. That's why his people stay where
the truth's at. That's why they stay with the
gospels preached. They have to have the gospel and they can't
stand lies anymore at all. He has showed thee, O man, what
is good, and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly,
to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God. And this we do
through faith in Christ. Amen. Let's stand together. Father, we thank you for this
word. Oh, how we thank you that you're holy and righteous and
merciful. And Lord, we thank you that you
found a way to make them meet in harmony and truth in Christ
our Redeemer. We pray for our brethren that
you would make this clear in every heart, that you'd make
us rejoice in this, the truth of God. And Lord, it's so hard
when we have loved ones that are confused and pushed this
way and that way. Our first inclination is just
don't say the truth. Don't speak it because it's going
to be hurtful and hurt feelings. Lord, this is salvation. This
is how you save is through the truth. Give us boldness to speak
the truth in love. Give us boldness to not back
up from the scriptures just because the devil would win the day if
we did that. Lord, don't let us renounce the truth just to
be kind. That's countenancing a poor man
just because he's a poor man. Let us be just and merciful.
Let us preach justice and mercy and truth. Lord, we pray for
our brethren who are sick, pray for Brother Greg, pray for Brother
Darwin, that you'd comfort them and whatever it is that our brethren
are going through, that you'd be with them and guide them and
protect them and comfort them, Lord, point them to Christ. Help
us now to worship you in this next hour as you have now. Forgive
us our sins and our doubting and our trespasses. We ask it
in Christ's name, amen.