Alright brethren, let's go to
Exodus chapter 22. Exodus 22. Our subject this morning is the
law of restitution. The law of restitution. And all
of these laws that we're going to be looking at, they all have
this one thing in common. Restitution. Now, restitution
is to restore what was taken away. It was taken by wronging
somebody. But however it was taken is to
restore what was taken away. But God says in the law that
we not only have to restore what was taken away, we have to do
more than that. We have to restore more than
what was lost. Now look at Exodus 22 and let's
read the first 17 verses. It says, if a man shall steal
an ox or a sheep and kill it or sell it, let me say this,
when you read these, I know our young people read this and think,
well we're not going to be stealing ox or sheep, what is this? But
when you look at the scriptures, the principle that is being taught
applies to any situation. It doesn't matter what you're
dealing with. And that's how God wrote the
scriptures. So look at the principle being
taught here. If a man shall steal an ox or
sheep and kill it or sell it, he shall restore five oxen for
an ox and four sheep for his sheep. Now that's restitution.
He only stole one, but he restores five. If a thief be found breaking
up, or that we would say breaking and entering, or breaking in,
and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him.
That means the homeowner caught him breaking in, middle of the
night, homeowner killed him, the homeowner's not guilty. Self-defense. Verse 3, if the sun be risen
upon him, that is, if the homeowner takes revenge after some time
has passed, there should be bloodshed for him. The homeowner is guilty
of murder in that case. Vengeance belongs to the Lord. He says, 4, the thief should
make full restitution. If the thief have nothing, then
he shall be sold for his theft. Either he'll be sold to the victim
and be an indentured servant to work off whatever the amount
of five-fold restitution is, or he'll be sold and the money
be given to the homeowner. And it says, if the theft be
certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be ox or ass or sheep,
he shall restore double. If a man shall cause a field
or a vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his beast, and shall
feed in another man's field, of the best of his own field
and of the best of his own vineyard shall he make restitution. If
fire break out, and catch in thorns, so that the stacks of
corn, or the standing corn, or the field be consumed therewith,
he that kindleth the fire shall surely make restitution. If a man shall deliver unto his
neighbor money, or stuff to keep, and it be stolen out of the man's
house, if the thief be found, let the thief pay double. If
the thief be not found, then the master of the house shall
be brought unto the judges. to see whether he hath put his
hand unto his neighbor's goods. For all manner of trespass, whether
it be for ox, for ass, for sheep, for raiment, or for any manner
of lost thing which another challengeth to be his, the cause of both
parties shall come before the judges, and whom the judges shall
condemn, he shall pay double unto his neighbor. If a man deliver
unto his neighbor an ass, or an ox, or a sheep, or any beast
to keep, and it die, or be hurt, or driven away, no man seeing,
then shall an oath of the Lord be between them both, that he
hath not put his hand unto his neighbor's goods, and the owner
of it shall accept thereof, and he shall not make it good. He
swore under oath that he didn't touch it. Okay then, he doesn't
have to make restitution. And if it be stolen from him,
he shall make restitution unto the owner thereof. He's borrowed
something and somebody stole it, he's got to make restitution
to the owner for it. If it be torn in pieces, then
let him bring it for witness, and he shall not make good that
which was torn, if it was already damaged. And if a man borrow
all of his neighbor, and it be hurt or die, the owner thereof
being not with it, the borrower shall surely make it good. But
if the owner thereof be with it, he shall not make it good,
the borrower shall not. And if it be a hired thing, it
came for his hire. And if a man entice a maid that
is not betrothed, she consents, but he deceived her, and he lie
with her, He shall surely endow her to be his wife. He must give
a dowry. And if her father utterly refused
to give her unto him, he shall pay money to her father. That
is according to the dowry of virgins. That's usually amounts
set by the father. Now, these laws were broken against
one's fellow man. But any law broken in the second
table of the law is a law broken against God. Go over with me
to Leviticus 6 and see this. Leviticus chapter 6. Any law that's broken is against
God. It doesn't matter what table
it comes out of. Now look here, Leviticus 6 verse
1. And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, If a soul sin, and commit a trespass against the Lord. You see there, it's against the
Lord. And lie unto his neighbor in that which was delivered him
to keep, or in fellowship, or in a thing taken away by violence,
or hath deceived his neighbor, or hath found that which was
lost, and lieth concerning it, and sweareth falsely in any of
all these that a man doeth, sinning therein. then it shall be because
he hath sinned and is guilty that he shall restore that which
he took violently away, that which he stole. He'll restore
it, that's restitution. Or the thing which he hath deceitfully
gotten, or that which was delivered him to keep, or the lost thing
which he found, or all that about which he hath sworn falsely.
He shall even restore it in the principle. He'll give back the
original, whatever it was, he'll give that back, and shall add
the fifth part more thereto, and give it unto him to whom
it appertaineth in the day of his trespass offering. And he
shall bring his trespass offering unto the Lord, around without
blemish out of the flock, With that estimation, that is, the
priest will add an amount from the shekel of the sanctuary.
It has to be double restitution to the Lord too. And it says
here, for a trespass offering, and he'll bring it unto the priest,
and the priest shall make an atonement for him before the
Lord. He'll do everything that was
required in atonement that you do to the lamb, he'll do that,
he'll make atonement for him before the Lord, and it shall
be forgiven him for anything of all that he hath done in trespassing
therein. Now, be turning with me to Psalm
69. Now this law of restitution,
it required that not only shall the principle be restored, but
also above the principle. In addition to the principle,
the person that was wronged was to gain by the injury that was
done to him. Did you get that? The person
that was wronged, he actually would be the gainer. from somebody
wronging him. He would be multiplied in whatever
was taken from him. Now these laws of restitution
were not given to teach us merely the moral precept of restitution. If that's all we get out of this,
we haven't gotten a thing out of it. Every sinner has, by our disobedience
to God, stolen, we've robbed the glory and the praise and
the honor that's due to God. By our disobedience, we fell
in Adam in the garden and we've stolen, we've wronged God in
that we've stolen the honor and the glory that's due to God.
by our disobedience. And not only that, every sinner
has, by our disobedience, robbed our own selves. Not only did
we rob God, we robbed ourselves. But Scripture says this, listen
to this now, Scripture says, Surely the wrath of man shall
praise God. Whatever is done wrong against
God is going to bring praise. and honor to God. And the rest
that could be done by man, the rest of the wrath that we could
do, the rest of the disobedience we could do, if it doesn't bring
glory to God, God doesn't allow it to happen. He restrains it.
That's scripture now. So, that's the case with the
wrath of man in the fall. God ordained from eternity that
both he and His elect would gain not only what we lost by the
fall, but more than we lost by the fall. God would gain more
and His people would gain more. There would be a double restoration
made to God and to His people. above and beyond what we lost
in the fall. How is that going to happen?
Here's what this is teaching us. The Lord Jesus Christ fulfilled
the whole law of God. Precept and penalty. And by doing
so, He made full restitution to God and to His people. He restored to God what we took
from God and He restored to His people what we took from ourselves. But not only that, He restored
above what we lost in the fall. He restored more to God and He
restored more to us. Listen up. I told you to turn
to Psalms. Let me read this to you. You
don't have to turn here. This is Acts 3. Listen to this.
Acts 3.18, those things which God before had showed by the
mouth of all his prophets that Christ should suffer, he hath
so fulfilled. Moses is writing the first five
books of the Bible, and Moses is a prophet. And everything
Moses declared in the law, Christ fulfilled. Repent ye therefore,
and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. When the
times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord,
and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto
you, whom the heaven must receive, listen to this, until the times
of restitution of all things. Until all things have been restored. according to the law of restitution,
which God had spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since
the world began. Now the first thing I want us
to get is that there is no sinner, absolutely no sinner that has
ever fulfilled the law of restitution, nor any other law. You know this
is where we're going to always start. We have to, first thing
we have to do is we have to just chop us down and declare plainly
we have never fulfilled the law of restitution nor shall we ever. We are the thief spoken of in
the law of restitution. We're the one who did the stealing
in the law of restitution. In the garden when we sinned
in Adam, we stole from God. That's what we did. and we robbed
ourselves. When God gave the law of restitution,
all sinners were already the thief talked about in the law
of restitution. We were already the robber. So
we couldn't keep the law of restitution. Now, a sinner ought to, especially
a believer, a believer ought to restore whatever is taken
from his neighbor. And he ought to restore above
what's taken from his neighbor. But don't think that when we've
done it outwardly that we fulfilled that law. Because we haven't. Because when you do it outwardly,
there's still an old man of sin in you that's just coverage as
it can be and hates the fact that you're having to restore
it. And that's so in you and me. Whatever it is that we do outwardly
that we ought to do, sin is mixed with it. Sin is always mixed
with it. And here's the problem with that.
You say, well nobody sees that sin. It's in my nature. God sees
it. Scripture says, Jeremiah 17 10,
I the Lord search the heart. I try the reins. Even to give
every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his
doings. God's not looking at what man can see. God can see
the heart. He can see the motive and the
intent of what's going on in our hearts. All the ways of a
man are clean in his own eyes. You tell a man he's sinned against
God and he'll get right back in your face and let you know.
He's not going to hear it. All of a man's ways are clean
in his own eyes. But the Lord weigheth the spirits. He's looking at the motive. He's
looking at the heart and the spirit, the intent in which something
was done. It was due to our inward heart
sins that Christ said this. He said, except your righteousness
exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you shall
in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven. And you know what
I've heard people teach from that? I've heard people teach
from that that he meant you better try harder than the scribes and
Pharisees. That's not what he was teaching.
What did he say in the very next verses? He said, you've heard
that it was said by them of old time, thou shall not kill and
whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment. All
they taught was the outward. They said as long as you don't
murder somebody outwardly, you've fulfilled the law. But I say
unto you, this is what Christ said, but I say unto you that
whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause is in danger
of the judgment. He said, you've heard it said
by them of old time, thou shalt not commit adultery. But I say
unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman with lust to lust
after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. And men hear that and say, well
if I've already done it, I'm just going to commit the act.
That's not what God's teaching. He's abundantly clear in the
Scriptures that to commit the act is far worse than it just
being done in the heart. There is a degree of sin in the
Scripture. There will be no degrees of reward
in heaven, but there will be. The Scripture just talks about
rewards of punishment in hell. Didn't the Lord say it shall
be more tolerable for Solomon Gomorrah than it shall be for
those that have heard Christ and rejected Him? You see, what
He's teaching is God looks on the heart. That's what He's teaching.
So we've never kept the law. Even man at his best state is
altogether vanity. When God's given you a new heart,
you still have an old man of sin that makes sin to be mixed
with everything you do. So every sinner is guilty. And
God says this, now we not only owe God obedience, and we not
only owe God justice, we owe Him above what we stole from
Him. We owe more than we took. Now
we can't even pay what we stole. We can't even obey and pay the
justice that we owe. We can't do those two things.
How are we going to make double restitution? We can't do it. Now, if you can confess to God
truly in your heart that you are the guilty sinner, that there's
nothing you can do to honor God's law and bring glory to Him, then
I've got good news for you. If not, there's no hope. If a man won't
confess his sin, there's no hope for him. But if God brings you
to confess truly what you are, the sinner, God says, that's
the kind of people I came to save. That's who Christ came
to save. He said the whole don't need
a physician. Those that are well don't need a physician. I didn't
come to call the righteous. I came to call sinners to repentance. And you can't come to Christ
unless you're a sinner. But if you're a sinner, listen,
God sent His Son. And Jesus Christ made double
restitution both to God and to His people. Now look here at
Psalm 69 and look at verse 4. They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy
me being mine enemies wrongfully are mighty. Then I restored that
which I took not away. That's Christ speaking. He says,
I restored that which I took not away. I made restitution
for that which I did not take away. Our Lord Jesus Christ is
the ram without blemish. He is the spotless lamb of God. He's the ram without blemish.
And He's the holy high priest of His people. And you know who
else Christ is? Christ willingly became our sin
bearer that he might be the only one to make full restitution
for the sins of his people. He's the lamb and the high priest
who's holy and spotless and he's also the sin bearer. who put
himself in place under the law to make full restitution for
his people. Read on. Verse 5, O God, thou knowest
my foolishness, and my guiltiness is not hid from thee. You see
them marching, my guiltiness. is not hid from thee. He owned
the guiltiness of his people. And he even interceded for us.
Let not them that wait on thee, O Lord God of hosts, be ashamed
for my sake. Let not those that seek me be
confounded for my sake, O God of Israel, because for thy sake
I've borne reproach. Shame hath covered my face. I'm doing something for you,
Father. And so he made intercession.
that we would not be ashamed for what He did for us. And I'll
tell you what, His people won't be ashamed for it. Because our
Lord Jesus Christ, He restored everything that we
stole from God, and He restored double to God and to His people. He restored that which He took
not away. Now first, let's look at what
He restored to you and me who are His people. If you believe
on Him, if He's brought you to cast all your care on Him, He
says you are His elect for whom He did this. And Christ said
for you and I that He's restored double. Go to Isaiah chapter
40. Double restitution is what was
required. Now look right here, this is
what God says declared to His people. Isaiah 40 verse 1, Comfort
ye my people, saith your God, speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,
and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished, that her iniquity
is pardoned, for she hath received of the Lord's hand double for
all her sins. Double for all our sins. That's
double restitution. That's what he's talking about.
In creation, Adam received from the Lord, from his hand, a sinless
life. That's what God gave Adam. A
sinless life. That's what he had in creation.
But in the new creation, in this new creation, God's elect received
from Christ's hand more than that. That's what we lost. We lost a sinless life. Christ
restored more than a sinless life to us. Christ restored to
us not only a sinless life, but a sinless, righteous, eternal
life. Listen to this, where sin abounded,
grace did much more abound. much more, that if sin hath reigned
unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto
eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. We have a righteous
eternal life. You go through the scriptures
and I love to look at this, Christ not only saved His people, He
saved us. He saved us from our sins. But
He not only saved His people from our sins, Scripture says
He's the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him.
Christ not only gives the believer righteousness, Scripture says
He gives us everlasting righteousness. Christ not only redeemed us from
the curse of the law, Scripture says, by His own blood He entered
in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption
for us. Christ not only gives us the
promise of inheritance, that's our second message, but they
which are called receive the promise of eternal inheritance. When this earthly building is
dissolved, we not only have a building of God in the heavens, We have
a building of God eternal in the heavens. What does that mean? Believer, Christ restored to
us double above all that Adam ever possessed in innocence.
And he did so eternally so that we can never fall again, ever. Now that's double restitution
that he's made to you and I. Now, but that's not all he did.
He came to restore to God what we robbed from God. He came and
by all that Christ accomplished as God in the flesh, He restored
to God more honor and more glory from His people and from all
flesh. All flesh is going to give Him
more honor and more glory. as well as He magnified and honored
His law and His mercy, and He did all this more than had we
remained innocent in the garden. Look down at Isaiah 40, look
down at verse 3. It says, the voice of him that
crieth in the wilderness, prepare ye the way of the Lord, make
straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall
be exalted, every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the
crooked shall be made straight, and the rough place is plain.
If you had a highway that was just on a level plain and was
straight, it just went right across a straight, flat land,
you'd say, well, those builders were good building that highway.
If you saw one that went across mountains and valleys and crooked
places and everything was straight and a level playing, you'd say
those builders were better than those builders that worked on
that level playing. Look at this, verse 5, and the
glory of the Lord, the glory of the Lord shall be revealed
and all flesh shall see it together for the mouth of the Lord has
spoken it. God came in human flesh. He wouldn't have done
this if we hadn't fell in the garden. And He manifests the
fullness of the glory of the Godhead in a human body. We'd have never seen that. And
so now all flesh, all men are going to see this together. Go
over to Isaiah 42. All flesh shall see all God's
glory in all His attributes manifest in the flesh in the God-man mediator. This is above and beyond what
we would have ever seen had we never fallen. All flesh will
see God's glory in the way that He magnified and honored the
law, making mercy and truth meet in harmony. All flesh will see
God's glory in the salvation of His people and the total destruction
of His enemies. We would have never seen this
without the fall. Now here in Isaiah 42, God is
expressing double delight in Christ His Son because of everything
He restored to Him. not only praise and glory from
His people which was already His due, He already was due praise
and glory from His people, but He restored double praise and
glory from His people for the great things He's done for us.
Look here at verse 1. Behold My servant whom I uphold,
Mine elect in whom My soul delighteth with double delight. I have put
My Spirit upon him. He shall bring forth judgment
to the Gentiles. He shall not cry, nor lift up,
nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed
shall he not break, and the smoking flax shall he not quench. He
shall bring forth judgment unto truth. He shall not fail, nor
be discouraged, till he has set judgment in the earth, and the
owl shall wait for his law. Christ brought forth double praise
and double glory to God from His people because we see how
God's righteousness is manifest in Christ crucified. He brought
forth judgment on the cross and He brings forth judgment in our
hearts to make us to behold with some discernment the truth of
this thing. And now we're waiting for His
law, His gospel from His holy Mount Zion. And we praise Him
in a double way for that, that we'd have never praised Him for
without the fall. Look at Isaiah 42, 5. Thus saith
God the Lord, He that created the heavens and stretched them
out. Look at verse 6. I the Lord have called thee in
righteousness, speaking of Christ, and I will hold thine hand and
will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people,
for a light of the Gentiles, to open the blind eyes, bring
out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkness
out of the prison house. I am the Lord, that is my name,
and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise
to graven images. Here we were, a people praising
our idols, and He sent forth His Son and Christ brought double
honor and double praise to God from His people because of what
He accomplished in Christ. He not only restored light to
His blind people, He not only brought His people out of bondage,
out of our prison houses, He gave us Christ Jesus who is the
light and who is the covenant of God to His people. The light
that will never be put out and the covenant that will never
be broken. And so we praise and we glorify God more than we ever
could have had we remained in innocence. Look at this next
thing we see as he brought double honor and praise to God from
his people by putting a new song of praise in our mouth and in
our heart. Not only from his elect in Israel
in one little spot of the earth, but also for his elect scattered
in all the corners of this world and the Gentiles. Look at this,
verse 9, Behold, the former things are come to pass, and new things
do I declare before they spring forth, I tell you of them. Sing
unto the Lord a new song, and His praise from the end of the
earth. Sing His praise from the end
of the earth. Ye that go down to the sea and
all that's therein, the isles and the inhabitants thereof,
let the wilderness and the cities thereof lift up their voice.
The villages that Kedar doth inhabit, let the inhabitants
of the rock sing. Let them shout from the top of
the mountains. Let them give glory unto the
Lord and declare His praise in the island. More people, not
just Israel, but His elect scattered in the four corners of this world,
He's turned to praise Him with a new song that's better than
anything we would have ever sung in innocence. And He brings double
honor and praise to God because He conquered all His enemies.
Those that He saves by His grace, you and me, we were His enemies.
He conquers us and He conquers the enemies that are left in
rebellion. Look at verse 13. The Lord shall go forth as a
mighty man, as the God-man. You read that now. The Lord,
God Almighty, shall go forth as a mighty man, the God-man. He shall stir up jealousy like
a man of war. He shall cry, yea, roar. He shall
prevail against his enemies. I've long holding my peace, I've
been still and refrained myself, and now will I cry like a travailing
woman. I will destroy and devour at
once." He does that in our hearts and he does it, he did it on
the cross in one moment. in one moment. He devours and
destroys at once. When He said it's finished, He
devoured and destroyed all His enemies right there. And when
He comes in your heart and gives you judgment in your heart and
brings you to faith in Christ, in one instant He devours and
destroys all the enemies. Who is this that makes the mountains,
brings down the mountains and brings up the valleys and makes
the crooked straight? Look at verse 15, I will make
waste mountains and hills and dry up all the herbs. I'll make
the rivers islands. I'll dry up the pools. I'll bring
the blind by way they knew not. I will lead them in paths that
they've not known. I will make darkness light before
them and crooked things straight. These things will I do unto them
and not forsake them. That's what he does for his people.
That's how come we give God double honor and double praise. But
here's what shall happen to his enemies. They shall be turned
back. They shall be greatly ashamed, doubly ashamed that trust engraven
images that say to the molten images, you are our God. He not
only restores double restitution to his people and to God, he
gonna restore double recompense to his enemies too. Because there's
more reason now to be ashamed than there would have been if
we had rejected him in innocence. You and I have more reason to
be ashamed than Adam did when he sinned against God in the
garden. We see what Christ has come and done. You see? He said at the name of Jesus, every
knee is going to bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus
is Lord to the glory of God. And then look at this. He brought
this double restitution of honor and glory to God from His people
by manifesting God's righteousness. By showing how mercy and truth
could meet together by honoring God's law so that He could have
mercy on us. Look here, verse 21. The Lord
is well pleased, doubly pleased. Double restitution has been made.
He's well pleased for his righteousness sake. He, Christ, will magnify
the law and make it honorable. But this is a people robbed and
spoiled. They're all of them snared in
holes. They're hidden in prison houses. They're for a prey and
undelivered. They're for a spoil and there's
not any that says restore. There's none of them that can
fulfill this law of restitution for themselves. They've robbed
themselves. Who among you will give ear to
this? Who will hearken and hear for the time to come? Who gave
Jacob for a spoil and Israel to the robbers? Did not the Lord,
He against whom we've sinned? For they would not walk in His
ways, neither were they obedient unto His law. Now watch this.
Therefore He, God, hath poured upon Him. Upon who? Upon Jacob. All his elect, that's
what God calls us, Jacob. He poured upon Jacob in the person
of Christ Jesus. When he poured upon Christ Jesus,
he poured it upon Jacob. What did he do? What did he pour?
The fury of his anger and the strength of battle. And it had
set him, Christ our substitute, on fire round about. Yet he,
Jacob, you and me, dead in our sins, knew not. And it burned Him. It burned
our old man of sin which died in Christ on the cross. Yet He,
that's me and you, Jacob, we laid it not to heart. That is,
until God sent the Spirit of His Son into our heart. And this
is what He said to us. Read verse 1. But now thus saith
the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and He that formed thee, O Israel,
fear not, For I have redeemed thee. I have called thee by thy
name, thou art mine. And you know what happens when
he does that? Paul said, the light shines out of darkness
and we behold the light of the knowledge of what? The glory
of God. We behold double glory. How he
made righteousness and mercy meet in harmony. Double glory
in Christ Jesus. Now to all you lost Jacobs, I
don't know who you are, But if there's any lost Jacobs here,
I'm standing here beseeching you on behalf of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and I'm saying, by Him double restitution has been made.
God and His elect have gained more than was lost in the fall,
for in Him the glory of God is revealed. Turn you to the stronghold,
ye prisoners of hope. Even today do I declare that
I will render double unto thee. You turn to Christ and you cast
all your care on Christ and God promises I'll render double restitution
to you. And here for you Israelites that
He's already called, this is the promise to you. Look at verse
2. When thou passest through the waters, I'll be with thee.
And through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee. When
thou walkest through the fire, thou shall not be burned, neither
shall the flame kindle upon thee. For I am the Lord thy God, the
Holy One of Israel, thy Savior. I'm God in Christ, your Savior.
I gave Egypt for thy ransom, Ethiopia and Saba for thee. Listen
to this. Since thou was precious in my
sight, Thou hast been honorable. You've been honorable, he said.
You and me who robbed him of his honor and glory, he said,
you've been honorable. And I've loved you. How can that
be in Christ Jesus? That's the only way. Read on. Therefore will I give men for
thee, and people for thy life. Fear not, for I am with thee.
I'll bring thy seed, your brothers and sisters from the east. I'll
gather them from the west. I'll say to the north, give up.
I'll say to the south, keep not back. Bring my sons from far,
and my daughters from the ends of the earth. For everyone that
is called by my name, for I've created him. For what? My glory. I've created him. and restore
double to Him so He'll come and give me double praise and double
honor. That's why I've done it. See,
we're not, we've not been called to pat ourselves on the back
for what we've done for Jesus. We've been called to give God
double glory and double honor for all that Christ has done
for us. Let's stand together. Father, we thank You for this
Word. Pray You bless it to our hearts. Make us to see the great,
great glorious truth that You declared to us in this law of
restitution. We've gained more. We've gained
more than we could have ever possibly had had we remained
innocent in the garden. Oh Lord, the wisdom, the infinite
wisdom the depth of Your wisdom that You ordained all of this
before the world was made to bring double honor to Your holy
name. Thank You, Lord. Thank You for
Christ our Redeemer. Forgive us our sins. In His name
we pray. Amen. Brethren, I knew I was
going to go a little longer on this first