A couple weeks ago I brought
a message that I titled, Restitution. God says an eye for an eye and
a tooth for a tooth. After I finished that message,
Clayton and I were talking in the back and he said to me, Christ
in our place gave an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth
and then some. And just that simple statement
opened up to me just a little more of the glorious gospel of
substitution. You know, a lot of times men
in this congregation, and women for that matter, say things to
me and wave comments after I preach that I wish they'd had the opportunity
to say to me before I preached. because it would have made the
message a little clearer, I think. But I do appreciate the comments
and I do appreciate the fact that many of you listen. And
as I kept thinking about what Clayton said, the fact that Christ
was the perfect God-man. He was God. God came to earth
and became a man. Isn't that profound? I think
sometimes you just flippantly think about that, but that's
an amazing feat. Only God could do it. And as
I kept thinking about that, Christ being the perfect God-man, that
making His sacrifice and His restitution for our sin perfect. As we go further into the law
of God here in Exodus chapter 22, we see the true restitution
as God defines it, and as God demands it to be made, requires
more to be restored than what was lost. I don't know that I'd
ever thought about that much until 1st Clayton said that.
And then as I begin to read these verses before us tonight. even
more apparent that we need Christ, the perfect substitute. Let me
show you what I'm talking about if I can from the verses we have
here. Exodus 22 verse 1. If a man steal
an ox or a sheep and kill it or sell it, he shall restore
five oxen for an ox and four sheep for a sheep. That's restitution. He's required to give back more
than he stole. Verse 2, if a thief be found
breaking up or breaking and entering, and be smitten that he die, there
shall no blood be shed for him. The homeowner's not guilty, no
deaths required. It was self-defense, he was protecting
his property. Verse 3, if the sun be risen
up on him, if the homeowner then takes revenge, then shall be
blood shed for him. The homeowner then would be guilty
of murder, because vengeance belongs to the loafer. For he,
it says, speaking of the thief, should make full restitution. If he, the thief, have nothing,
then he shall be sold for his thefts. sold to the victim for
the amount that he stole or given an equal amount of money to the
victim that he stole from. Verse 4, and if the theft be
certainly found in his hand alive, whether it be an ox or ass or
sheep, in other words, caught red-handed, got what he stole
with him, he shall restore double, double. And if a man shall cause
a field or a vineyard to be eaten by putting cattle or oxen in
another man's field to eat, the next line explains that a little
better, 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
thorn so that the stacks of corn or the standing corn or the field
be consumed therewith. He that kindled the fire shall
surely make restitution. And 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 him, that being
the thief, pay double. But 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 into his neighbor's goods."
In other words, did he just say it was stolen and he's hiding
it in his closet somewhere? Verse nine, 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. And 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 it, then
shall an oath of the Lord be between them both. And he hath
not put his hand into his neighbor's goods, and the owner of it shall
accept thereof, and he shall not make it good. And if it be
stolen from him, he shall make restitution unto the owner thereof. If it be torn in pieces, then
let him bring it for witness, and he shall not make good that
which was torn. And if a man borrow ought of
his neighbor, and it be heard or die, the owner thereof be
not with it, he, speaking of the borrow, shall make it good. That's restitution. He shall
restore it. But the owner thereof be with
it, he shall not make it good. If it be an hard thing, it came
for his hire. And if a man entice a maid that
is not betrothed, in other words, she consents, but he deceives
her and lie with her, he shall surely endow That means to restore. He should give her to be his
wife, give a dowry, a gift given at marriage. And if her father
utterly refused to give her unto him, he, the one that deceived
her, shall pay money to her father according to the dowry of virgins. And that was usually said by
the father. Now we can see here that if you
steal, God requires more from you than just what you stole.
And David, he let us know very clearly that all sin is against
God. Sin and trespasses against our
fellow man are sin against God. How do we know that? Because
against thee and thee only have I sinned and done this evil,
and I sought Now hold your place here in Exodus and look to the
book of Leviticus chapter 6 with me if you would. Just the next
book over. Leviticus chapter 6. I'm going to turn you to a few
places and we're going to read a fair amount of Scripture, but
I won't keep you over 30 minutes, I promise. Look at verse 1. Leviticus 6. Our sins against
the Lord. Remember that. And the Lord spake
unto Moses, saying, If a soul sin and commit a trespass 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 lie concerning it, and sweareth falsely, and all
of 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, 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 has sworn falsely, he
shall even restore it in the principle, 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. a ram without blemish, out of
the flock, with thy estimation for a trespass offering unto
the priest. And the priest shall make an
atonement for him before the Lord, and it shall be forgiven
him for anything of all that he hath done in trespassing therein. So here we see that restitution
required not only the principle, the thing that was taken to be
restored, but in addition, the person wronged was to gain by
the injury done unto it. Now it's very important to understand
that the laws of restitution are not merely to teach us the
moral precept of restitution, but they actually give us a beautiful
picture of the gospel. You see, every sinner, and that's
all of us, as we saw Sunday, we've all sinned and come short
of the glory of God. But every sinner has, by their
disobedience to God, stolen the glory and the honor that belongs
to Him alone. That's exactly what we do when
we endeavor to make restitution for ourselves, when we stand
before God and try to restore ourselves to God by the work
and power of our own hands. It's no more than an attempt
to rob God of His honor and glory because only the Lord can do
that. And He gets glory and honor by that. We attempt to take the
glory of God and the salvation of sinners unto ourselves when
we do so, declaring that we are able to somehow make spiritual
restitution for our own sins. That's one of the reasons God
won't accept our work. The other is that it's works
of unrighteousness, filthy rags. And God can accept nothing less
than perfection. As we've seen time and time again,
the one problem that stands in our way, the one problem with
many obstacles attached, that problem being that we're dead
in trespasses and sin. A dead man can't come, a dead
man can't believe, a dead man can't repent. Well, let's just
save some time. A dead man can do nothing. Absolutely
not. So how can we make restitution
for ourselves? The answer is simple and plain.
We can't. We can't do it. It has to be done for us. But
here we find the most glorious thing. God ordained from eternity
that both he and his elect would gain not only what we lost by
the fall, but much, much more than that. Now I want you to
turn with me now to the book of Acts, if you would, chapter
3. Acts chapter 3. We gain much
more than we lost in Christ. Acts chapter 3. Look at verse
18. Acts 3, 18. But those things which God before
had shewed by the mouth of all of his prophets, that Christ
should suffer, he hath so 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 unto the times of restitution of all things. which
God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the
world began. Now the restitution of all things
mentioned here in verse 21 speaks of the accomplishments of all
the promises and the prophecies of the Old Testament. Here he's
talking about the mouth of the prophets, talking about all that
Christ should suffer, and all that Christ should fulfill. And
this concerned the salvation of the elect Gentiles, and this
concerned the conversion of the chosen Jews. You know, not all
of the Jewish nation was lost. There were some that God saved.
All the promises concerning the gathering of all the elect of
God, and all the glorious things spoken of concerning Christ's
church, That's what that's talking about. Restitution of all things. But know for certain that this
restitution comes only by the work and righteousness of the
Lord Jesus. I know you know that. We say
it all the time. But no sinner has ever fulfilled
the law of restitution by a perfect work of righteousness that they've
done. Because they're incapable of performing that. And God accepts
nothing less. So when you really think about
it, we are the thieves spoken of in this law of restitution
in Exodus 22. In the garden, we send an Adam.
And it would do us good to learn something about federal headship. When Adam's sin is our representative,
we sin. And we're just as guilty as Adam
was. And in the fall of Adam, we stole from God. When God gave
the law of restitution, because of our sin, we find that we are
actually the thieves that have stolen from Him. And a sinner
might well make restitution outwardly, physically, to his neighbor.
And certainly he should. If he stole something, he should
give back equal and even more. No doubt about it. As I said
a moment ago, no one, no man, no woman, nobody has ever fulfilled
this law to restore his or herself. It's impossible to do. Nor can
they because of their sin. So again, we see we're shut up
to one way of being reconciled to God. It's God that must be
appeased. It's God's law that must be fulfilled.
It's God's justice that must be satisfied. And we know that
God is holy, and our hearts are unholy, deceitful above all things,
desperately wicked. It's a heart matter. It's always
been a heart matter. Jeremiah 17.10, I, the Lord,
search the heart. I try the reins, even to give
every man according to his ways and according to the fruit of
his doings. Proverbs 16.2, all the ways of
a man are clean in his own eyes, but the Lord weigheth the spirits. Turn with me back a few pages
here in Acts to Matthew chapter five. Have you ever thought about why
the Lord said what he said here in verse 20? Look at it with
me. In Matthew chapter 5 verse 20, our Lord said, What did He
mean by that? Did He mean that we're to try
harder? I don't see dead men and women
improving much, do you? Not that we shouldn't try, I'm
not saying that. Not that we shouldn't strive
to be more like Christ. We should. But when God does
save us, we do grow in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord,
but an unregenerate man or woman that God has yet to save cannot
themselves make themselves holy. And God will accept nothing less
than perfect holiness. I believe what the Lord meant
here was that we are guilty from the inside out. Have you ever
thought about that? It's out of the heart that proceeds
the evil that comes from us. And these were sins which the
Pharisees didn't even regard to be sin. And that's proven
so well by what our Lord said to them next. Look at verse 21.
He said, you've heard, oh they heard, trust me, they were experts
of the law. You've heard that it was said
by them of old time, thou shalt not kill. And whosoever shall
kill shall be in danger of the judgment. But I say unto you,
that whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall
be in danger of the judgment. And whosoever shall say to his
brother, Rokkah, shall be in danger of the counsel. But whosoever
shall say, thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire. Look down at verse 27. The Lord
said, ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, thou
shalt not commit adultery. But I say unto you, that whosoever
looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with
her already in his heart." These are matters of the heart. Now,
every sinner is guilty, and God says that we're not only guilty,
but we owe God the justice that His law demands. That's only
right. God deserves justice. And He
deserves the perfect obedience His law requires. We owe double
restitution. And this is what it all comes
down to, friends, and it's the Gospel. If you can confess to
God that you're guilty, that you're a helpless sinner. Oh,
I've got great, great news for you. I mean, great news. Jesus
Christ is our Restorer. Jesus Christ is our restitution. God sent His Son and He made
double restitution both to Himself and to His chosen people. Do
you remember what our Lord said in Psalm 69? Probably not. I
didn't. Let me read it to you. It says,
They that hate Me without a cause are more than the hairs of Mine
hand. This is Christ speaking in prophecy. They that would
destroy Me, being Mine enemies, wrongfully are mighty. Then I restored that which I
took not away." Now what is he talking about? What does the
Lord mean when He says that He restored that which He took not
away? Well, Christ actually restored
that which man lost. That which Adam lost. And man
lost it in and by and through his sin. And how was that accomplished? Well, Christ veiled His own glory,
seeing only His Father's. And He became a man. And He came
into this world and He lived perfectly before God. Oh, I've
thought about that so many times. I can't get through ten seconds
without a horrible thought. I'm not the only one, am I? Maybe
I am. But Christ came and He worked
out the salvation of His people in such a manner that all God's
divine perfections were glorified in Him. And the good news is
also in us, by our union with Him. Christ satisfied the justice
that He had never injured. Others had. We had. But not He. Christ fulfilled a law that He
had never broken. We broke all of them. Christ
bore a penalty that He didn't deserve. The wages of sin is
death. He knew no sin. But yet He was
put to death. Why? Because of our sin. He bore
a penalty He didn't deserve. I deserved the penalty that He
took. And our Lord made satisfaction
for sin that He never committed. truly was a ram without blemish,
the holy high priest of his people, so that all who are his enemies
are his enemies wrongfully, as we read a moment ago. For they
hated him without a cause. Christ willfully became our sin
bearer. You ever think about that? Oh,
we ought to give it great thought. It should be constantly on our
minds. Our Lord became our sin bearer, and if that wasn't enough,
it was so that He might be the one who made double restitution. He restored double to God and
to His people that which He Himself took not away. Turn with me to
Isaiah. This is the last spot. Isaiah
chapter 40, verse 1, if you would please. I often read these verses
here in Isaiah 40. It's an admonition to all God's
peoples. I think especially to preachers
and pastors. But the Lord says in verse 1,
Isaiah 40, you got, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your
God. Speak ye comfortably. If you
have a marginal Bible, you might notice that says, speak ye to
the heart. To the heart. speak ye comfortably
to Jerusalem, and cry unto her that her warfare is accomplished,
and that her iniquity is pardoned. For she hath received of the
Lord's hand double." Double for all our sins. In creation, Adam
received of the Lord's hand a sinless life. He truly was, I suppose,
other than the Lord Jesus, the only man that ever lived that
had a free will, a true free will. The only man that ever
besides the Lord Jesus. But friends, in the new creation,
the elect of God receive of the Lord's hand double, not only
a sinless life, but a sinless, righteous, eternal life. But it's only through the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ not only saved His people,
He's the author of eternal salvation. Eternal salvation. Unto all them
that obey Him. Hebrews 5, 9. And Christ not
only gives the believer righteousness, but He gives them everlasting
righteousness. Daniel 9.24. And Christ not only
redeemed us from the curse of the law, but by His own blood
He entered once into that holy place, having obtained eternal
redemption for us. Hebrews 9.12. And Christ not
only gives His people the promise of inheritance, but they which
are called receive the promise of eternal inheritance. Hebrews
9.15. I like that. As we saw recently
when this earthly house is dissolved, we not only have a building of
God in the heavens, we have a building of God eternal in the heavens. You know what that means? We
can never fall again. Not if we belong to Him. Kept
by the power of God. My, my. All that Christ accomplished
as God in the flesh, He restored to God more honor and more glory
than had we remained innocent in the garden. That's the honest
truth. Look at verse 3. 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 Lord. And every valley
shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and
the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain. Friends,
God came in human flesh and He came manifesting the fullness
of the glory of the Godhead bodily. It's all seen in Him. And men
shall see it together. All flesh shall one day see God's
glory and all His attributes manifest in the flesh in the
God-man, the Lord Jesus Christ, our one mediator between God
and man. All flesh shall see all God's
glory in the way He magnified and honored the law. All flesh
will, not just believers. One day, every person is going
to see. They'll see how Christ made mercy
and truth meet together in harmony. All flesh shall see God's glory
in the salvation of His people and in the total destruction
of His enemies. At the name of Jesus, every knee
shall bow. Of things in heaven, and things
in earth, and things under the earth, and every tongue shall
confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. To the glory of God the
Father. Christ brought this double restitution of honor and glory
to God from His people by manifesting God's righteousness. Isn't that
what Paul said we preach? We declare His righteousness,
Christ's righteousness. Not our own, we don't have any.
And by doing so, justice and mercy meet together in harmony
in the salvation of God's elect. It's called the gospel. And it's
the most glorious thing a sinner ever heard. God must be just
in order to justify us, and Christ is the only way that He could
be. Not a new message, friends. Same one, just from a different
place. I like to think about that Christ did this for God
first and foremost. He's the one that we offended.
It's His justice that we've offended. It was against God that we sinned.
So first and foremost, Christ died for God. Wouldn't you agree?
He died to satisfy God and to justify us. He provided Himself
as the sacrifice and He provided for Himself the perfect sacrifice. And God's justice is satisfying.
Only Christ could accomplish that. And He also did it for
His people. Justice and mercy in the Lord
Jesus Christ are able to come together in perfect harmony in
the salvation of God's elect. And Christ did this for us. Who would not and who could not
do it for ourselves? It's called substitution. It's
Christ and Him crucified. And I'm determined not to know
anything else among you. Are you trusting in Christ alone
for your acceptance with God? If you are, then you have a calling
and an election that's sure. I like sure things, don't you?
This is certainly one. May God be pleased to make it
so.