Alright, let's turn back there
to Psalm 15. It's good to see Brother Curtis Rogers and his
family. They're from Bethel Baptist Church down where Brother Rupert
is in North Carolina. Introduce yourself to them. Alright,
Psalm 15 in verse 1. David asked this question. We've
been looking at this psalm in detail. And tonight we're going
to take the second part of verse 5. But he asked this question,
Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in
thy holy hill? Now skip down to verse 5 and
here is the Lord's answer. He that putteth not out his money
to usury, nor taketh reward against the innocent. Now if we were
looking at the whole verse, we could sum it up this way. The
one who should dwell with God in glory for all eternity is
he who is perfectly merciful and perfectly just. You see that
first part there talks about giving to the poor man without
taking from him, not using extortion and not taking advantage. The
second part talks about being perfectly just in that he will
take not a bribe against an innocent man. He will not pervert justice. This is who will dwell with God
forever. Now, since we're only looking
at the second half of this, I've titled this, He Who is Innocent
and Just. That's who can abide with God,
he who is innocent and just. The only man who's innocent and
just of himself, as God regards innocent and just, is the God-man,
Christ Jesus the Lord. And those who can dwell with
God will be accepted of God are those who have been created anew
and robed in His righteousness through faith That's who God
will receive. That's who God will accept. Now,
I want you to see three things in this. I want to show you,
first of all, how that no sinner is innocent and just in ourselves. And then, secondly, we'll look
at how just God is. And then, thirdly, we'll see
what Christ has done for His people and the result of it. Now, first of all, no sinner,
nobody born of Adam, is innocent and just of ourselves. Both parts
of verse 5 taken together could be summed up this way. He who
is not covetous. Because the first part of verse
5 deals with money. It says not using extortion,
not taking advantage of the poor. And the second half deals with
money. It says not taking a reward, a bribe against the innocent.
Now since we fell in Adam, our nature by conception is covetous. That's the nature of natural
man. It's covetous. And covetousness
is the love of money. It's the love of money. And it's
the root. The scripture says the love of
money is the root of all evil. All evil. And scripture says
covetousness is idolatry. It's idolatry. Idolatry is the
worship of self as God. That's what idolatry is. We worship
the works of our hands. That's what idolatry is. The
worship of the work of your hands. That's what we do by nature.
Whenever Satan deceived Eve in the garden, He told her, if you
disobey God, he said, your eyes will be opened and you'll be
as gods, discerning good from evil. And like his preachers,
Satan tells half-truths. And the truth of it was, is man
was made a god only in the sense that we think ourselves to be
gods. We come forth thinking we are
God, and so fallen man worships his god. and that self. That's
who fallen man truly worships. I don't know, I don't care if
he calls it worshiping Christ, or God, or Buddha, or who he
calls, says he's worshiping, he's worshiping himself. That's
what a natural man does. And nothing brings out this truth
like money. Money brings it out better than
anything. In our sin nature, we're covetous
idolaters. And a god needs power. And by nature we think that that
power is money. We think that's where that power
is. And as far as sinners go, money is power amongst sinners
because all sinners think money gives you self-sufficiency and
gives you power. That's what most all men think.
So covetousness is idolatry. Fallen sinners are covetous by
nature. Now you look at the way sinners
who have less money regard Those who have lots of money. And you'll
see what I'm talking about. Take for instance, I just saw
this this week and it made me think of it. You take these entourages
that follow around pop singers where they go. These platinum
selling pop singers. They scrape and grovel before
these singers. Because these singers have all
the money. And as long as they stay close
to their God, they can do whatever their God does. They don't call
them idols for nothing. They really, they're God. They're
idols. They really are idols. Now, my point I'm trying to make
to you though is because we are this way by nature, because this
is what every man is by nature, given the situation, given the
the right amount of money, sinners will take a bribe against the
innocent. Now, we do this every day. I'm going to talk to you about
that here in a minute, but let me just show you that we come
forth sinners. We come forth guilty before God
because of Adam. But now, I want to show you how
broad and how wide and how far-reaching the law of God is. And that's
what we're dealing with here is the law of God. I want to
show you how far it goes and how wide and how broad it is.
It reaches to our heart. It deals with the thoughts and
intents of the heart, the very nature of a man. Now, what I'm
going to read to you here is the letter of the law, but it's
spiritual and it goes far, far further than the letter. It's
forbidden by God to take a gift when it creates a conflict of
interest. This is Exodus 23 and verse 6. God says, Thou shalt not wrest
the judgment of thy poor in his cause. You shall not wrestle
judgment from a man just because he's a poor man. Just because
he's poor. Keep thee far from a false matter. And the innocent and righteous
slay thou not. For I will not justify the wicked. God is saying, I will not justify
a man who does this, who slaves the innocent and the righteous.
And thou shalt take no gift, for the gift blindeth the wise,
and perverteth the words of the righteous. You could have somebody,
and you might not have the best opinion of them, but they give
you a big gift, and all of a sudden, they get a little bit better
in your estimation. Well, we're not to take money
to obstruct justice in any way. Proverbs 17.23 says, A wicked
man taketh the gift out of the bosom to pervert the ways of
judgment. To pervert the ways of judgment.
Let me give you a hypothetical situation. Let's say a person
is being tried in court before a judge. And you have a deciding
role in this whole process. You're on the jury, let's say.
And you don't have to take a gift from either side, from anybody,
because that will pervert justice. That's going to blind you and
that's going to pervert judgment. When somebody comes up to you
and they offer you on the sly, out of the breast, you know,
carefully trying to offer it to you when nobody knows it.
They offer you a thousand dollars. And you say, no, I can't, I couldn't
do that. I can't take money for this.
I can't do that. And they say, well, how about
50,000? No, I can't do it. Still can't do it. I'll give
you 100,000. I'll give you a million dollars. Every sinner has got a price.
He's got a price. He can be bought. He can be bought. At some point, you'll begin to
say, you'll begin to justify yourself about how it wouldn't
be too bad if you took that money and how you can't be perverted
by it if you took it. But even if we didn't take it,
just the thought of taking it, just the thought of it, We've
broken the law. And we've broken the whole law
of God. Just in the thought of it. Because we're covetous idolaters
by nature. That's what we are, by nature.
Alright, now let me give you something else here. It says,
Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person. In
other words, you can't take a bribe of any kind to slay an innocent
person. To kill them. To do a hit on
them. Well, you've given the right situation. Somebody severely
offended you. This person. He severely offended
you. And somebody offers you a large
enough sum of money. Somebody guarantees you the police
are not going to find out about this. Maybe it's a judge. Maybe it's a federal judge that's
asking you to take this hit out on somebody. I'm saying to you,
given the right situation, we'll justify ourselves for self-promotion. We'll justify to protect ourselves. And if we don't commit to act,
we will think hard about it. Think about what we could have
done with that money, such as that. And that's being guilty
before God. This is how God describes us.
Their feet run to evil. They make haste to shed innocent
blood. Their thoughts are thoughts of
iniquity. When God walked this earth, Christ
Jesus said, Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts and murder. and adulteries, and fornications,
and thefts, and false witness, and blasphemies. These are the
things which defile a man. The law reaches to the heart.
We're not to shed innocent blood for the bribe of religious acceptance. Look over at Psalm 106. Psalm
106. Look at verse 34. God delivered his people into
the land of Canaan. And it says in verse 34, They
did not destroy the nations concerning whom the Lord commanded them,
but were mingled among the heathen and learned their works. And
they served their idols, which were a snare unto them. God said
they would. God said they would. But look
at what they did. Yea, they sacrificed their sons
and their daughters unto devils. and shed innocent blood. That's
what our text is talking about. Don't take a bribe to shed innocent
blood, to bear false witness against the innocent. Even the
blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed
unto the idols of Canaan, and the land was polluted with blood.
Now, if you think about this, I'm wanting to put a, I'm wanting
to, instead of just talking about sin generically, I'm wanting
to, I want to point out some sin to you. I want this to be
something that we can see and identify with. You think about
this. In the scriptures, infants are
often referred to as innocent blood. And these people, what
they were doing was they were taking their infants. They're
called innocent because they have not sinned willfully like
Adam did. And these folks were taking their
infants and they were sacrificing them to their to idol gods in
Canaan. That's what they were doing.
In our day, though blood's not being shed physically that we
can see just yet, though blood's not being shed, men and women
who take their infants to be publicly sprinkled, Are they
not taking the bribe of public praise, the bribe of acceptance
with religion, the bribe of acceptance with preachers, even trying themselves
to bribe God by the sacrifice of their infants? to the idol
gods of Judaism and papacy, because that's what it is. Infant sprinkling
is not equivalent to Old Testament circumcision. That's what they
think. It is not. Old Testament circumcision
was a picture of what Christ has done and what the Holy Spirit
does in regeneration in putting off the sin of our flesh. That's what circumcision pictured.
Or what if we take the bribe of the praise of our children
toward us? We take their praise of us so
that we can let them give themselves to the world of pleasure and
of sports and of entertainment. Are we not sacrificing them to
the prince of the power of the air just for the bribe of their
approval? While we still can, we ought
to suffer their disapproval and make them attend the preaching
of the gospel. Because God's only hope, His grace is the only
hope for a sinner. Or, still, we can go further
with this. Here's something we might not think about personally.
What if, for respective persons, you've got one believer, one
true believer, and you like this person, you admire this person,
and they give you the bribe of their praise. Of them thinking
good of you and commending you and saying things to you. For
you to say something negative or critical about one of your
brethren. You know what we're doing when we do that? We're
taking a bribe against one who Christ has made innocent. That's
what we're doing. I'm trying to show you that we
constantly break God's law. We constantly do it. Now here's,
let's go further with this. This is the truth of the matter.
All free will works religion is taking a bribe to pervert
justice. That's what it all is. The people
pay the preacher the bribe, and the preacher tells the sinner
by his will he can be born again, by his works he can justify himself,
or by his works he can sanctify himself, and the bribe has been
paid, the deed has been done, justice has been perverted, and
the innocent, Christ the innocent, Christ the just, his cause has
been perverted in all of it. And so, I'm trying to show you,
in everything we do in this life, in everything as believers we
do. We'll take the bribe of a promotion. We'll take the bribe of honor.
We'll take the bribe of a position. We'll take the bribe of a new
title. All these things of the world. And turn from following
God as He says, follow Him and trust Him. We'll let something
come between us and God, between us. We constantly always depend
upon God to keep us and we constantly depend upon Him to receive us
by what Christ has done, not by what we've done. I'm just
trying to show you how wide and deep and broad and far the law
of God goes. In ways we don't see, in ways
we don't comprehend, we break the law. So we can't come to
God by our law keeping. We just can't. Holy law is a
mighty steed, too many hands high, for me to mount and ride
to glory, no matter how I try. We cannot come to God by our
law keeping. We just can't do it. Alright,
secondly, I want us to look at how perfectly just God is. Go over to Deuteronomy 16. Deuteronomy
16. We learn how Christ is a husband
by looking at God's commands concerning a faithful husband.
And we learn how God is a father by looking at his commands concerning
a faithful father. And so we look at, we see how
God is just by looking at his commands to his judges that he
set up. That's how we're going to see
how he's just. Now in matters of justice, this is how God says
it. God prohibits charging, imputing
anyone with righteousness unless they're righteous. And He forbids
charging someone with sin unless they're guilty. God forbids it.
And He says to do otherwise is iniquity. Alright? Deuteronomy
16a. 1618. Judges and officers shalt thou
make thee in all thy gates. We're talking about judgment
here. He says judges and police officers shalt thou make thee
in all thy gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee throughout
thy tribes. And they shall judge the people
with just judgment. Now, God's not telling us this.
God doesn't tell us anything that He doesn't do Himself. He's
telling us, this is how God judges, with just judgment. Thou shalt
not rest judgment, thou shalt not respect persons, neither
take a gift. For a gift doth blind the eyes
of the wise and pervert the words of the righteous. that which
is altogether just shalt thou follow, that thou mayest live
and inherit the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee." We
turn into Deuteronomy 25. Deuteronomy 25. Now just in our
everyday dealings, in our everyday situation, if you had been alleged
of committing a crime that you didn't commit and you went before
a judge, You don't want a judge who is going to impute guilt
to you when you're innocent. You don't want that. And if someone
committed a crime against you of which they are guilty, you
don't want a judge that will impute righteousness to them
when they're guilty. We don't want that. Do we want
a God who does that? No. We want a God who deals justly
with his people. Well, God's laws to earthly judges
show us that God is a just judge. Let me read this to you from
somewhere else while you're there. This is from 2 Chronicles 19.
He said, Take heed what you do. He's talking to judges. For you
judge not for man, but for the Lord who is with you in the judgment. He's telling his judges there,
you're judging for the Lord. Wherefore now let the fear of
the Lord be upon you, take heed and do it, for there is no iniquity
with the Lord our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of gifts.
God is strictly a just judge. He's going to do things righteously. Look at Deuteronomy 25 verse
1. If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto
judgment, that the judges may judge them, then they shall justify
the righteous and condemn the wicked." You see this? This is
what God said to them. Justify the righteous and condemn
the wicked. Alright, turn to Deuteronomy
32. Deuteronomy 32. The God of Israel said, the rock
of Israel spake to David, and he said this to David, he that
ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God, and
he shall be as the light of the morning when the sun rises, even
a morning without clouds, as the tender grass springing out
of the earth by clear shining after the rain. We want a just
judge. Well, you know who that just
judge is? It's our God and our Savior. Christ has had all judgment
committed unto him, and he is that just judge. And this is
what God says. Now listen. This is from Proverbs
17, 15. Listen to this now. He that justifieth
the wicked. That means to justify him in
his wickedness. That means to say to the wicked,
you're righteous, when he's not righteous, he's wicked. He that
justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even
they both are abomination to the Lord. God's just, and He's
right in everything He does. Alright, Deuteronomy 32.4 This
is who Christ is, this is who God is, right here. He is the
rock. His work is perfect, for all
His ways are judgment, a God of truth and without iniquity. Just and right is He. All right, let me give you some
scripture. Exodus 34, 7 says, He keeps mercy for thousands,
He forgives iniquity and transgression and sins, and He will by no means
clear the guilt. This is who God is. This is who
holy God is. So by this we see something of
how just and how righteous our judge is. This is the judge that
I'm going to stand before and everybody in this room is going
to stand before. He does not justify the wicked in their wickedness
and he does not condemn those who are righteous. He said they
both are an abomination to the Lord. Both of them. Alright,
now thirdly, let's see what Christ did for His people. And let's
see what the result is. Now our text says, Psalm 15 says,
Who will God accept to abide with Him in His holy mountain?
That's the question. Who will God accept to abide
with Him in His holy mountain? Now, we've seen, he says here,
he that taketh not reward against the innocent. Now, we've seen
that we're guilty. We're guilty of breaking God's
law. We're guilty. We've seen that
God's just. He won't clear the guilty. He's
just. He will not clear somebody who
is Guilty. They're unrighteous. They're
unjust. He won't clear them. He's a just judge. So then the
question is this. How then can man be justified
with God? How can he that is born of a
woman be clean? How can we come to God's presence?
How can God be just? Satisfy his law. Justice be poured
out on you and I who are guilty. And at the same time, God justify
those who He chose and gave to Christ. Justify those who believe
on Him. How can that be? How can God, He honor His law
and justice be carried out and yet He be merciful to the guilty?
This is the message of the Bible. Do you know that? This is the
message of the Bible. There is one message in this Bible. This
is the message of it. Now there's about a thousand million different
ways that God tells this story in this book. But the story is
the same. This is the one story. This is
the one subject everywhere in the book. How can God be just
and the justifier of him that believes in Christ? How can it
be? Christ Jesus himself is the innocent
and he's the just. Turn to Matthew 27. Matthew 27.
God came down. and took flesh, because those
he came to save were flesh and blood." Now, if the Spirit of
God records the words of an enemy of Christ in this book, it's
because they're bearing truth of Christ. And that's the case
here with Judas Iscariot and with Pilate. Now listen to this.
We're going to use his enemies to declare that he's innocent
and he's just. Here is Judas Iscariot. This
is his testimony in Matthew 27, verse 4. He betrayed Christ. He betrayed
the innocent. And he came back then and he
said this, verse 4, I have sinned in that I have betrayed THE innocent
blood. THE innocent blood. When you
say THE innocent blood, you mean the only one. This is THE innocent
blood. Christ is the only one who ever
walked this earth who was innocent. The only one since Adam. Here's
the testimony of Pilate. Look at verse 24. While Pilate
saw that he could prevail nothing but that rather a tumult was
made, he took water and washed his hands before the multitude,
saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person. See you to it. And listen to
what Christ's accuser said. Then answered all the people
and said, His blood be on us and on our children. That's tough. That is just bad. But now you
see, Christ is innocent and He's just. Now you listen carefully
to me. Christ being the only man not born of Adam's corrupt
seed. The only man innocent. being
sent by God to be the spotless Lamb of God, according to God's
eternal purpose, Christ was just. He was innocent. And therefore,
He was fit to take the place of the unjust whom God sent Him
to justify. If He had been any sin upon Him
at all, if He had done anything anything sinful, he wouldn't
have been able to be the spotless lamb. He wouldn't have been fit
to do it. But he was perfectly innocent, perfectly just. So
he was a fit lamb. And he did so the only way which
God could remain just. The only way. He came to declare
God righteous. And we just saw there through
those scriptures, God said, if a man's just, You don't condemn
him. If a man's righteous, don't condemn
him. But if he's guilty, you can condemn
him. If sin's on him, he's guilty. So God made him sin for us who
knew no sin. He was made a curse for his people. Christ was. Now the how is between
God and his son. But what's revealed to us is
that he did it. And so that's for us to bow to and to believe. This is what he did. The just
judge did to Christ, who is the express image, he did to Christ
what he foreshadowed in the scapegoat in Leviticus 16.21. He laid both
his hands upon the head of the living Christ, the Lamb God provided. And he
confessed over him all the iniquities of God's spiritual Israel, and
all their transgressions, and all their sins, putting them
upon the head of Christ. And for all the elect of God,
for all the elect of God whom God chose before the foundation
of the world, all we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned
everyone to his own way. And the Lord hath laid on him
the iniquity of us all. It doesn't say it just once.
It says it in various places in the Scripture. Now we got
the Old Testament Scriptures where God chose us. He's a just
God and He will not condemn the innocent. I want that in an earthly
court, don't you? Well, I sure want it with God.
I want a God who will not condemn the innocent. I do. I want that. I'll tell you why
in a minute, but I want that. We want that. That's what we
want as believers. Now our substitute of himself
was innocent. He was just. He knew no sin.
He committed no sin. But God will not condemn the
just. And therefore, as agreed upon
in that eternal counsel of peace, Christ, his own self, bear our
sins in his own body on the tree. I've given you three, four, five
places that it says this in the Scripture. So then Christ being
made sin. So then God justly charged him
with sin. A man can't be made sin by being
charged with it. God forbids it. The Word of God
forbids it. A man can't be made sin by being
charged with it. God charged him with sin because
he made him sin. And then he punished him for
sin until Christ said, it is finished. And he gave up the
ghost. And then he raised him from the
dead declaring, that His law has been honored, it's been magnified,
it's been upheld, justice has been satisfied fully, completely,
and that now He has justified everybody for whom Christ died. That's what He declared when
He raised Him from the dead. that he's justified his people
and he's declared God just in the process. He has upheld everything
that's written in this book. All those Christ represented
are reconciled to God and they must be washed in the blood of
Christ and they must be given repentance and life and faith
and repentance and brought to cast all their care into Christ's
hand because without faith it's impossible to please God. And
so, by Him, all that believe are justified from all things
from which could not be justified by the law of Moses. Now listen,
this is important too. I want you to listen carefully
to this part. God does not impute the righteousness of Christ to
His child personally until God has created us in righteousness
by the new birth. He does not. Wherever you find
imputation in this scripture, and you can look at the scriptures
up and see, but wherever you find imputation in these scriptures,
you find that it is always a personal charge. A personal charge. Sin is imputed personally, either
in justice, on the great day of judgment. Some are not going
to... God's... He's not going to do
anything for them. And they're going to close their
eyes in death, and they're going to wake up in that great white
throne judgment. And God's going to charge them
with the sin they are, and that's going to be the first time they're
going to be forced to admit, I am what you say I am. Now,
I'd listen. I'd listen to this. This is serious
business. Serious business. Or, God, in mercy, when He begins
to convert us, makes us to know, in the court of our conscience,
we're sinners. personally. He charges us with
it personally. That's when we find out, I am
a sinner. That's when we will, by His power,
confess we're sinners. When He makes us to know we're
sinners. And righteousness, righteousness
is imputed personally to us when God has brought us to cast all
our care into the hand of Christ. Then He makes it known in that
conscience that He's heard that you're righteous in Christ. It's
a personal charge. Imputation's always a personal
charge. But sin or righteousness is not imputed personally to
us until we have a being. I mean, you can't impute something
to somebody that don't have a being, to them personally. Now listen,
we became guilty in the sin of Adam. When Adam sinned, our federal
head, we became guilty. But without a being, sin could
not be personally imputed to us. It couldn't be. We were given that being when
we were conceived in natural generation by Adam's corrupt
seed. So, having sinned in Adam, our
federal head, and having been born of his corruptible seed,
we were the fruit, we were the product, the dead fruit, the
dead product of our federal head. So when God does impute sin to
us, you know what we are? We're exactly what he imputes
to us. We're exactly what our federal head has made us. We're
sin. That's what we are when He imputes
sin to us. All right? Likewise, Romans 5 says, Even
so, likewise, all God's elect became righteous in Christ our
Head by His doing and by His dying, by what He did. But without
a being, Without us being born, righteousness can't be personally
imputed to us by God. All we are, until we're born
again, by the Holy Spirit, is the dead fruit of Adam. That's all we are. Until we're
born again, we're the dead fruit of Adam. Do you think anything
about us that's born the first time is going to go into God's
presence and glory? Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. He said, I'm going to give them
a new spirit. That's where we're going to God with. And he said,
and I'm going to raise their bodies like unto my glorious
body. That's what we're going to God
with. In God's holy mountain, everything
there will be the creation of God through the blood and righteousness
of Christ. Everything. Everything. It won't
be the product of Adam. Nothing will be. We're either
going to be the product of... We're either going to stand before
God in Adam or we're going to stand before God in Christ. If
we stand before God in Adam, we can't come into his holy mountain
because we're defiled and we'll defile whatever we touch. We've
got to come in Christ. That's the only way we can enter
in. But we're given our being as a child of God when we're
made the living fruit of Christ, the last Adam, by being conceived
in regeneration by Christ's incorruptible seed. That's when that child
of God is born. That's when He's born. That's
our birthday. That's a believer's birthday. When we're created
in regeneration. When we're born. And so having
been made righteous in Christ our head by what He did for us
legally, having been made righteous by what He did in His doing and
dying, and having been born of His incorruptible seed, whenever
God personally charges us with righteousness, you know what
we are? Altogether righteous. Altogether righteous. Because
of what He did. because of what he did. And that
nature he gives us, it doesn't make us, it doesn't, the very
nature of a believer that God gives doesn't make you look to
you. You know that your nature dictates
what you do. The nature of a sinner who has
cleaned up his act, turned over a new leaf and made himself religious,
you know what his nature to do is? Look to himself and praise
himself. He looks to himself to see his
sin, he measures himself by the law, and then he cleans it all
up, washes it all up, stops doing this and starts doing that, and
goes back to the law and says, now look how good I've measured
up. His nature is to look at Himself. That's His God. That's
who He's serving. That's His religion. But the
nature of God gives to a believer, a child of God, is to look out
of ourselves to look to Christ only. He's the only one by whom
we've been made righteous. It's by God the Father choosing
us in Christ. It's by Christ redeeming us by
His blood. It's by the Holy Spirit quickening us and making us one
with Christ in our experience of it, that we're made to be
united with Him. And when we're united with Him,
we look to Him. We don't look to us, we look
to Him. That's why Romans 8 says this. Look at Romans 8, verse
1. And I want you to stay there
because I'm going to come back to it in just a second. Romans 8,
1. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them which are in Christ Jesus. There's more to that. Who walk
not after the flesh, but after the spirit. There's more to it.
For the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made
me free from the law of sin and death. God elected a people. He gave them to Christ. Christ
died for them. But a man is not coming into God's presence until
God has created him. in righteousness and true holiness
and giving in faith in Christ. If God didn't elect people and
Christ died for them, so it doesn't matter if they ever hear the
gospel or not, they're going to be able to come into God's presence.
No. No, not at all. God the Father,
God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are going to be glorified
in this thing. He's God. He's God. So, now do you suppose
that a God so just that He gave His own Son, so just that He
made His Son to bear our iniquity, so just that when iniquity was
fell on His Son, He would not clear His Son. Do you imagine
that this just God is going to pour out justice upon one that
His Son purged of all their sin? That his son made innocent by
his blood? Do you think he's going to pour
out judgment on one of them? Absolutely not. As Abraham said
to the Lord, that be far from thee to do after this manner,
to slay the righteous with the wicked. And that the righteous
should be as the wicked. That be far from thee, shall
not the judge of all the earth do right? If God has but just
one just light, That man may not even know he's been saved.
That man may be lost as he can be in this world of Solomon Gomorrah. But if he has one that Christ
has died for, that Christ has redeemed, and he's in this world
of Solomon Gomorrah, God will not destroy this world until
he has brought out that one that he's made righteous and brought
him to Christ and given him repentance in Christ. Is that why the world's
still held in place? That's exactly why. Hebrews 1
says it's held in place by the Word of Christ's power. And the
Word of Christ's power is that New Testament written in His
blood that says, I've redeemed them. Justice can't be poured
out on him. It can't be poured out on him.
And therefore, Peter said, the Lord's not slack concerning his
promises. Some men count slackness. But
he's long-suffering to us-ward. The us-ward is his people. The
us-ward are those Christ died for. He's long-suffering to us-ward,
not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. And they are. They shall. They
will. Because repentance is of God.
He's not just sitting back wringing his hands saying, Oh, I hope
they'll repent. He's going to give them repentance.
He's going to bring them to repentance. Just like he brought light out
of Sodom and Gomorrah. He didn't... One spring of water
didn't spring up from the ground and one drop didn't fall down
from the heaven till he put Noah and his family in the ark. And
then, judgment fell on the rest of the world. And judgment didn't
touch them because they were in the ark. And judgment aren't
going to touch His people, won't touch His people because we've
been put in Christ and Christ has redeemed His people. He's
bore the judgment for His people. Turn over to Romans 8 one more
time. You still there? Now, do you suppose that God,
so just, will dare take a bribe or He will dare allow any to
lay a charge to you, believer, for whom Christ died? You who
are trusting Him to present you to the Father spotless and without
blame, do you think God's going to let anybody lay a charge to
you? Is anybody going to be able to bribe God to lay a charge
against the innocent? You're innocent. God says we're
innocent. We're innocent. When Paul said,
sins mixed with all that I do, you know he didn't say holiness
is mixed with all that I do. If he'd have said holiness is
mixed with all that I do, he'd have been saying the I is his
old man. Now he said sins mixed with all that I do. He was saying
the I is my new man. The sins from my old man. So, we got sin in us, and we
sin, but that's the old man, and God says the old man's dead.
He died with Christ, and God said, I don't remember him, I
don't regard him, I don't even know who you're talking about.
Who? Who is he? God says, you've been made righteous
in my son. So here's what he said. Here's
what he said, Romans 8 verse 33. Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. It
is, who is he that condemneth? It's Christ that died, yea, rather
that's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God, who
also maketh intercession for us. So who's going to dwell in
God's holy mountain? Who is it? Those made innocent
by Jesus Christ, who once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust,
that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh,
but quickened by the Spirit. That's who. Can anybody make
one of Christ's saints take a bribe against Christ the innocent,
who made us innocent and made us just? Not as long as his incorruptible
seed dwells in us, they can't. They cannot make a believer not
trust Christ. They can't make a believer turn
from Him. Now we turn from Him a lot, but
we're not going to be turned from Him. Nobody's going to be
able to separate us from the love of Christ. He's going to
keep feeding that faith He's given and keep bringing us back
to His feet. That's what He promises. That's
what He's going to do. Now, if there's a sinner here that objects
to my gospel, this is what the burden that lays on you. This
is it. Your objection has got to be
at least as wise as my gospel is. Because this is wise. This is wisdom. And I can assure
you, whatever the objection is, it will not be as wise as this
gospel. It will not be. And if you are
too ignorant to see the wisdom that's here of how God could
be just and justifies people, I pray God make Christ unto you
wisdom. And if you're too unrighteous
to stop trying to take bribes against God and against His Christ
and against His people to try to get people to get on your
side, I pray God make Christ's righteousness unto you. And if
your heart's so defiled and so corrupt in sin that you can't
see and bow to a God so merciful to send His Son to do this, I
pray make Christ's sanctification unto you. And if you just want
to wield your sword and fight against God and against His people
and lay charge against me and try to bribe people into turning
against me or against His people or against His Christ, I pray
God make Christ redemption unto you and melt that sword and turn
you and your sword into an instrument of peace. That's what He'll do.
And if He doesn't, I guarantee you this, When we come up and
meet this just God, He's going to lay judgment to the line. Just look to the cross. He didn't
spare His Son. He'll lay judgment to the line. And the sad thing is, is the
one who's going to be doing the judging in that day is the one
that we've been saying is not the Son of God. The one we've
been saying didn't redeem His people. The one you've been saying
didn't do what He said He did. Won't that be horrible to wake
up and be given the eyes to see who Christ really is and that
He really is who He says He is in these scriptures? And see,
this one that you've been rejecting all your days has now got all
of your judgment in His hands. What do you reckon an earthly
judge would do if that was the case? I guarantee it won't be
near as bad as this judge. But believer, you can be assured
of this, our just judge shall see to it that you, who are his
innocence, those he's made innocent, are brought to him without one
trace of the defilement of your sins, where we shall abide in
that pristine holy mountain with him, the judge and savior who
saved us with a just and holy salvation. We're going to be
there with Him forevermore. And we're going to be saying
to that judge, to God be the glory. To God be the glory. What a just God. Now, do you
see why I say you want a God who will not lay a charge to
the innocent? Because He's made us innocent in Christ. And nothing
and no one can make Him lay charge against you. Amen.