Romans chapter 4. We'll be looking
at verses 24 and 25 this evening. And I've entitled this message,
Christ Delivered and Christ Raised. Christ Delivered and Christ Raised. The Scripture says, Let's go
to verse 23. He says, Now it was not written
for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also
to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. Now last time we looked at this
subject of faith. We've seen plainly now, many
times over, that the only way a sinner is justified is justified
by faith. He made that very clear, that
this promise of justification comes only by faith. You see, God who swore an eternal
covenant of grace to justify His elect, the Son of God came
and justified them by His righteousness and by His blood. He justified
them. And then the Holy Spirit's work
is this, to quicken the elect, to give them life and faith that
they should be justified before God. And the eminent type of
that was Abraham. Abraham believed God and what? It was imputed to him to righteousness. He was made righteous through
faith. And so then we're seeing faith
is necessary. The last time we met together,
we saw the necessity of faith. Seeing it's necessary, we must
make sure therefore our faith is genuine. You know, there will
be many in that day that... Our Lord Jesus said this, in
that day there will be many who say unto me, Lord, Lord, have
we not preached in your name? Have we not cast out devils? Have we not done many wonderful
works? And you know, Jesus didn't deny
that they preached. He didn't deny that they cast out devils.
He didn't deny that they did many wonderful works. But you
know what he called them? He said, that's what you profess.
Now listen to what I profess. Depart from me, you that work
iniquity. So what was their preaching?
It was iniquity. Their casting out devils was
what? Iniquity. Their good works was counted
what? Iniquity. Why? Because they believed not
on the Son of God. They called Him Lord. What do
you mean they didn't believe? They didn't trust in Him alone. What did they trust in? Their
preaching, their casting out devils, and their good works. And what did Jesus tell them?
He said, those things that you thought were going to admit you
to glory, He said, they're iniquity. They're iniquity. And so as Abraham
was justified by faith, then so are we. The text here says
it was not written just for his sake. Now if God just meant it
for him, he wouldn't need to write it. But he wrote it not
just for him, but for our sake. Why? Because faith, we who believe
on Jesus Christ, listen to me, you are justified. You are. And remember what we looked at,
we looked at what faith is. If we're going to know if our
faith is real, last time we looked at what is faith. What is real
faith? Well, you had to look at Abraham's
faith. Scripture says Abraham believed God. So what does true
faith do? It believes God. That's what true faith does.
Not believes in God, it believes God. True faith ignores all outward
influences. Abraham did. He ignored the oldness
of his body. He ignored the deadness of Sarah's
womb. And he believed God in spite
of what he saw. True faith believes God in spite
of what we see. Regardless of what happens. True
faith believes God. And we saw this, thirdly, that
true faith doesn't stagger at God's ability. Now listen, I
stagger at my ability. Don't you? I stagger. My faith
is up and down. Why? Because I look around me. I see how powerless I am. I see how powerless you are.
And it causes us to stagger. But you know what, when faith
looks at God, it doesn't stagger, because God is able to do anything
He pleases. And fourthly, all true faith
gives glory to God. Now we saw that, that this is,
in the end, true faith only glorifies God. It gives no glory to self. There's no boasting here. There's
no bragging here. There's nothing in it for me
that I get to brag about or boast over you. And that's just true
of you. You have nothing to boast in.
Who gave you faith? Well, he tells us that faith,
he said, it is a faith. What he says in, I think, verse
16, right? He said, therefore, justification is a faith. That,
how? By grace. Faith is by grace. So even so, we who believe the
gospel, We are persuaded concerning what God has promised. And so, I ask you tonight, is
your faith true faith? Do you believe God? Do you believe God concerning
His promise? God says, if you believe Me,
your faith is counted to you to righteousness, to righteousness. So now consider we too have the
righteousness of God imputed to us, charged to us. How? Through faith. In verse 24 and
25, the Apostle now will begin to show us again the object of
faith. He showed us that faith was necessary. He showed us what faith looks
like. Now he shows us the imminent
object of faith. We don't just believe abstract
things God says. You can believe God created the
world, right? Does that justify you? You can
believe God has all power. Does that justify you? No, there's only one object of
faith that justifies. It is the promise of God concerning
His Son. I am astounded when I read this
book. Sixty-six books written on multiple
continents over a span of 5,000 years, 3 to 5,000 years, written
by many authors who never met one another, and yet they all
have one subject. Jesus Christ, the Son of God,
and Him crucified. How in the world do you David
knew anything about hands being pierced? He said, they pierced
my hands. and my feet." That crucifixion
wasn't even invented at that time. We knew that because that
was the way Christ would come and die. But there's so many
other prophecies. We believe God concerning His
Son. So all who believe then in the
person of Jesus Christ, His person of Christ, and the work of Christ
are justified. So all who believe in the person
and work of Christ have the righteousness of God imputed to you. And listen,
God will not impute sin to you. You that have the righteousness
of God imputed to you, God will never impute sin. And God has constantly promised
that He would forgive us our sins. Forgive us our sins. Why? All because of this. Now
listen. All because Jesus Christ established
the law as our substitute. The law of God is established. It's accomplished. Every aspect
of the law is magnified, glorified by the work of the Son of God. This is the only way God could
justify us. One preacher wrote this, he says,
there are really only three paths a man could travel in this life.
Only three paths. A man could travel this path,
he could ignore the word of God altogether. A lot of people do.
A lot of people are traveling this path, they just completely
ignore it, They don't have any interest in the things of God,
and all they have concern is, is sin. That's all they want.
Whatever pleases this flesh, that's what they want. You can
travel that path. That path ends in one thing,
eternal hell. That's where that ends. The second
path a man could travel is this, he could believe that the scriptures
are of God, and then try to earn God's favor. You do that, he
can try to obey the law and be accepted of God by his works. But you know what James said,
if a man is guilty in one point, he is guilty of the whole law. So therefore, what's the difference
between these two paths? Nothing. They end in the same
place, hell. They end under the wrath of God. Cursed is everyone that continueth
not in all things written in the book of the law of the dune.
Is that the path, either one of those paths, is that where
you're traveling? Anybody traveling in those paths? I'll tell you, many people are.
Many people are traveling in those two paths. But this is
my hope, is that there is another path. There is another path that
does not lead to death, but to life. And this is the only one
there is. Our Lord said, wide is the gate
and broad is the way that leads to destruction. And many there
be that go in thereat, but straight is the gate and narrow is the
way. You know what that means? It doesn't mean everybody's walking
a tightrope into heaven. That means this, there's only
one. There's only one way to life. Isn't this what Jesus said
of Himself? He said, I am the way. That's
narrow, isn't it? Isn't that narrow? That there's
no other way to God except by Him. That's what He said. I like
when people come to you and they say, well, I believe Jesus was
a good man. Well, he said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to God but by me.
You believe that? And if they don't, then you're
caught. He must be a liar. How can he
be a good man? He's telling me, he said, I'm
the truth. So yeah, whatever I say is true. And I'm the way. The only way a man could be accepted
is by Jesus Christ. You can believe God concerning
His Son. You can believe this, that He
finished the law. He satisfied the law. He satisfied
the law by His obedience and by His death. So tonight I want
us to see how. How He did it. How he did what
no other man could do. Isn't that something that there's
none of in all of the billions of people that ever lived? He
is the only one that's ever done this. He's the only one that
has ever honored God. Completely, fully honored God. And listen, he established that
law not for himself. He established that law as a
substitute, as a representative man. Now I've got two points
of how you who believe are justified. Two points and they're in the
text. Look at this. Look at verse 25. Who was delivered for our offenses? Faith looks to Christ who was
delivered for our offenses. And secondly, faith looks to
Christ who was raised for our justification. So to be justified. If anybody is going to be justified,
you must believe these things. It's necessary. First of all, I want us to break
this first one down. First I want to see who was delivered. And what does it mean he was
delivered? for our transgressions, for our
offenses. And then, you know, I want to
see who he was delivered for. Who was he delivered for? Now,
first of all, as we view the object of our faith, I want us
to behold him, I want to set him before you. I want Christ
to be evidently, that's what Paul said to Galatians, he said,
Christ hath been evidently set forth among you. That's what
I want you to see. I want you to see the beauty
of His person, the glory of His person. Because to believe on
Him, you've got to know who He is. You can't believe on somebody
you don't know. And so all I'm going to do is
just describe Him to you as best I can. First of all, we see this,
that Jesus is the only God-man mediator. Isn't that what he said in 1
Timothy 2, 5? He said, there is one mediator. I love that text, destroy a whole
religion with one text. You know it? Destroy a whole
religion, a bunch of people bowing down to statues and idols and
things, and this one verse can destroy the whole religion. There
is only one mediator. between God and men, the man
Christ Jesus, the man Christ Jesus. Behold his person, that
he is, first of all, God. Jesus, the man, is God. In the beginning, John says,
was what? The Word, and the Word was with
God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God and all things were made by Him. Isn't that astounding? So when you read in Genesis,
God said, let there be light. Who is that? John says that's
Christ. That's the Lord Jesus speaking.
God through Him. created all things. He is the
eternal Son of God. And the Son of God, the Son of
God was purposed by the Father to be the Savior. He was chosen. He said, Behold, mine elect. Now who was the first elect?
Christ was. He was the first chosen, and
He was chosen of the Father to do a very specific thing, and
that was to be the Savior, to be the mediator, to be the
surety for all the elect. Isn't that what we read in Ephesians
1, that according as God had chosen us in Christ, that we
should be holy and without blame before him, in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children. Now, how's all that going to
take place? Those words, by Jesus Christ. That's how it's going
to take place. God determined that he should be our surety. Now, you remember what a surety
is, right? It's a guarantee. One that stands in the place
of another and guarantees it. That's what Judah did for Benjamin,
wasn't it? He said, Father, I will be surety
for him. And if I bring him not again
to Thee, let me bear the blame. That's a surety. A surety takes
all the blame. If something goes wrong, the
surety is to blame, not the one he's surety for. So Christ said
of the elect, He said, Father, I will be surety for them. If
I don't bring them to you, it's my fault. Isn't it wonderful that the Scripture
says, He shall not fail? He shall not fail. He is the
representative, the high priest of all that the Father gave Him.
And so as a result of His office, of being sure in Him, you know
what God purposed? He purposed that He who is God
should be made man. And that's what John says in
1 John 1 and verse 14. He said the Word was made flesh. The Word was made flesh. In 1 Timothy 3.16 it says God
was manifest in the flesh. He said without controversy.
I like that. There's no debating this. There's
no argument here. God was manifest in the flesh. John said, we beheld His glory
as the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace
and truth. And so all who are justified,
listen to me, you're justified because of that one person who
is God and man. And so as we believe God, you
that believe God, do you see how necessary it is to believe
He is God? There's a whole group of people
that don't believe Christ is God. Whole religions. They believe He's a good man,
He came to do good work, and He may be even the highest of
angels. The highest of angels can't save
me. Can't represent me. I need something higher than
angel. I need God. And secondly, there's a whole
other group of people that believe he's God and don't believe he's
man. They believe he just took on
an angelic form of a man. Without controversy. Great is
the mystery of God in this. God was manifest in the flesh.
See how scripture can just destroy a whole religion's It just can. It's so simple. I was reading
something Moose wrote the other day talking about a man, I didn't
even know this was, this was even out there. Some guy said
that he believed that Jesus died, but Christ didn't. Well, all he did was quote, well,
the scripture says Christ died for the ungodly, didn't he? His
whole religion is destroyed. See that? See how easy you can
destroy a whole religion just by using the Word of God. Plain
simple. Christ died. So all his thoughts
and all his highfalutin theology just went out the window. Should
have just paid attention to the Word of God and he'd got it right
to begin with. It was God manifest in the flesh. Jesus said this,
If you believe not that I am, you shall die in your sins. You
see how important it is to believe He's God? Second of all, we believe that
He who is God and Man was sinless. In order to be delivered for
our offenses, in order to take on our offenses, He Himself must
have been without offenses. In the Old Testament, you remember
those high priests that were only pictures and shadows of
Him. They had to offer sacrifices for themselves. Scriptures were
very plain that the high priest must offer a sacrifice. Why? He was a sinner just like the
rest of the people he was representing. But the scripture said this man
did not need any offering for sin for himself. He was without
sin. And so look and see now how Jesus
offers. was as Jesus, as the God-man,
was tried. That's important. It's important
for us who believe to understand why He needed to live that 33
years in ministry. Why He needed to live that many
years before He died. He must be tested and proven. You know everybody tested Him?
Everybody. Satan tested him, didn't he?
In the wilderness, tried him. You know what Jesus said about
that? He said, the prince of this world hath found nothing
in me. That's astounding. I'll tell you what, you don't
have to look far to find something in me. You don't have to look
far. Matter of fact, I'll just tell
it to you. They're just overflowing in me. You know, that's what he said
to Peter. He said, Satan, that desire to sift you is weak. You
know how easy it is for him to grab ahold of you? He got a lot
to grab ahold of, don't he? He said, he ain't found nothing
in me. That's astounding. He was so without sin. And then
the Pharisees tried him. They tested him. Every time they
turned around, the Scripture says they tempted him. And they
just tried him. They said, you know, we had that
woman committing adultery, and she's laying out there, and they
thought they had him. Oh boy, they'd had me. I wouldn't
know anything how to answer that. He said, yo, you want to show
mercy. Law says she has to be put to
death. What do you say? See, if he said
show mercy, then they'd say, aha! See, he's against the law.
He's not a Moses. But if He said, kill her, they'd
say, Aha! See? He's not a God of mercy.
Out of wisdom, He said, okay, you without sin, you cast the
first stone. The only one who wouldn't cast
a stone was Him. He's the only one who could.
Had every right to. You know, He did. Which of these condemneth thee?
She said, No, man, Lord. He said, Neither do I condemn
thee. You know why? Because he was fixing to bear
that iniquity. He didn't let that iniquity go.
He was fixing to go and pay for that iniquity. Oh, they tried
him, and Pilate said, Don't you know I have power to crucify
thee? Jesus said, You would have no
power, except if we're giving you. You know what Pilate said
after he said all that? He said, I find no fault in this
man. Jews said, I never heard a man
spake like this man. And he said to them, which of
you convinces me of sin? You see, Jesus Christ who came
in the flesh was the only spotless man that ever lived. Now why
is this important? Because in His obedience to God,
He was doing something for us. He was honoring the law of God
in our stead. So when He said, which of you
convinceth Me of sin? You know what? He was telling
us that you're not going to be able to charge any of My people
with sin. Because I'm going to give them
this righteousness that I'm earning. It's theirs. This is how a sinner is made
righteous who has never done a righteous thing in his life.
I've never done a righteous thing in my life. And yet because of
his sinlessness, I have been made the righteousness of God
in him. And I believe this, that he is
all my righteousness. I know that He is all my righteousness. To believe on Him, to be justified
by Him, is to believe that He's all our righteousness. And I
know this. I know this with all my soul, that if I were to add
any of my righteousness to His, it would pollute it. It would
pollute it. It wouldn't be any good. I dare
not add anything to His righteousness. That's what faith does. It sees
Him as our righteousness. Second of all, we see this, to
be justified, a man must believe God concerning the offering of
Christ. We believe Him concerning the
person of Christ. He's God and He's man. We believe
Him concerning the righteousness of God because He is all my righteousness. And we believe God concerning
this, that His offering alone satisfied God's justice. Behold, the sinless God-man mediator
not only lived for my righteousness, but was delivered to death for
our offenses. Consider his offering. Consider
the death of Christ our Lord. Why did Paul say it this way?
He was delivered. Well, because it reminds us of
this, the purpose of God. He was delivered by God to death. It was the Father that delivered
Him to death. You know, everybody wanted to
kill Christ ever since He first started. You remember the first
message He preached in Luke chapter 4. What did they want to do? Scripture says they wanted to
throw Him off the hill. Could they? No. He walked right
through them. The Pharisees often spake of
killing Him. They often desired to kill Him. But what did He say? He said,
Mine hour is not yet come. And they could not do a thing. And I think this is quite amusing. You know that they determined
not to kill Him on Passover? They wanted to kill him for all
the 33 years of his life they desired to kill him. But when
the time was come and they said, well, we can't kill him on this
day. And God said, I beg to differ. You will kill him on this day.
Why? He was delivered by the determinate
counsel, Peter said, and the foreknowledge of God. Now listen,
these men did exactly what they desired to do. But they weren't
going to do it one minute before God determined that they do it.
So who delivered Christ to death? It was God. It was the Father. See, it was God who purposed
to deliver Him to death. It was the Father that overruled
these men and gave them the power to kill the Prince of Glory.
But what for? Why would God deliver Him to
death? as our text says, for our offenses. Christ had no offenses. Scripture
says he is holy, harmless, isn't that something? Call him harmless.
Undefiled. Separate from sinners. He had no offenses. And yet consider that God delivered
him to death for our offenses. Now consider this, how? How is
it that all our offenses, all our trespasses, all our sins,
all our iniquities, how are they removed from us? When I told
you you were justified, that means this, that you have no
sin. That's exactly what it is to be justified. It means you
have no sin. It's not like you don't have
any sin. No, you don't have any. Well, how can God remove sin
from a man when that's all he's ever done? That's all I've ever
done. I confess that, that all I have done is sin. Everything
I do is mixed with sin. How can God remove my sin from
me, my guilt from me? The same way He made me righteous.
When Jesus Christ was delivered for our offenses, He bore our
offenses, our sins, in His own body on the tree. This is what
salvation is. The word substitute. One taking the place of another.
That's what He did. That's exactly what He did. As our substitute. It was on the cross that Jesus,
by the one offering of Himself, He made a payment for sin so
great that divine justice was forever satisfied. I'll tell
you what, whoever's sins He bore in His own body, whoever they
are, God was satisfied with his offering. However many sins were
placed on him, however many sins he bore, he alone extinguished the justice
of God. And he did this for us as a representative. That's another word we can use,
representative, substitute representative. You see, Adam, consider Adam
was a representative. You don't know Adam. You never
met Adam. And yet he was your father. He
was my father. Father of his soul. Adam. And when that one man sinned,
what was the result of that sin? Death. Not just for him, but for his
whole race. Wherefore, as by one man's sin
entered into the world, and death by sin so is included, death
passed to all men. For all have sinned. That's a representative. God established this in the very
beginning to show us how he would save us by another representative,
by his son, Jesus Christ, the representative. It says, look
over in chapter five in verse 19. Look, he says, for as by
one man's disobedience many were made, what, sinners. So by the
obedience of one shall many be made righteous. That's how we're
righteous. By the obedience of one. How
are we redeemed? How is our sin removed? It was
removed in that our representative bore it. So God declared the only hope
for sinners and means of eternal life is the substitute, Jesus
Christ. And he was delivered by God as
our substitute. I like to think of Isaac. That's
a beautiful picture, isn't it? When Abraham offered Isaac. There
he is. He's bound up. His son's laying
there on that altar. His knife is raised, ready to
cut his throat. And you know what? God says,
Whoa! Hold on. Don't hurt the lad. and he turned around and there
was a ram caught in the thicket. What'd he do? He untied his son
and tied up the ram. He killed the ram in the stead
of his son. It's a picture of Christ, isn't
it? God had from eternity purposed
that Christ be our substitute and he was a perfect substitute
And he bear our sins in his own body, Peter says on the tree.
This is something that every believer knows. We know this
with our whole being that I could never pay for sin. Ever. There's nothing I could
do. There's nothing I could do to
earn righteousness, and there's nothing I can do to satisfy justice. Yet behold, Jesus willingly was delivered. I want you to get that. When
Christ was delivered, He was willingly delivered. He said
this, I lay down my life for the sheep. This was no forced
thing. So when God delivered Him, it
wasn't by force. It was willingly. Christ laid
down His life. And what's the result of this
death? What's the result? Go to Hebrews. Hebrews chapter
10. One of my favorite passages of Scripture. This is a good,
this is a comforting passage of Scripture. You know, this
is just glorious. Speaking of Christ, He said,
Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. What was the will of God? It
was to justify His people. That was the will of God, and
Christ came to do that. And he said, verse 10, chapter
10, verse 10, he said, by the witch will, by the will of God,
we are what? Sanctified. You know you're holy because
God willed you to be holy, that's the only reason? How in the world did he do that?
Look at that. Through the offering of the body
of Jesus Christ, how many times? Again, see how this destroys
whole religions? What is the Mass in the Catholic Church?
It's an offering of Jesus Christ's body and blood. They offer it
every day. Well, that's not my Christ. My
Christ only offered His body and blood once. What? Forever. Every high priest in
a daily ministering offering the same sacrifices which can
never take away sin but this man. After he had offered one
sacrifice for sins, he sat down on the right hand of God, henceforth
expecting till his enemies be made his footstool. For by his
one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified."
Sanctified by the will of God, sanctified by the offering of
his body, what are you? You're perfected forever. That's
what His being delivered for our offenses has done. He has
perfected us forever. By His one offering. Now tell me, how successful was
His offering then? How successful was it? How great
was His blood? It was so successful and great
that at the very moment when he cried out these words, it
is finished, when he said those words, listen to me, all your
sins were forever removed from you. Gone. Blotted out as a thick cloud
before the justice of God. They cease. The wrath of God,
the justice of God, the vengeance of God is forever ceased. It'll
never come to you. It'll never come on you. You
who believe, it'll never come on you. I like to think of those
people walking through the Red Sea when it was parted. You realize
that? That's a picture of God delivering us, isn't it? You
see the walls of water on both sides never touched God's people. They fell on Pharaoh, but they
never touched God's people. The wrath of God will never touch
you. Why? Because justice demands
it won't touch you. God himself would be unjust. He cannot demand twice payment
for sin. So Jesus Christ, he was so great,
The justice of God had forever ceased. Look at Isaiah 50, look
at, I'll read this to you, Jeremiah chapter 50 and verse 20, one
of my favorite scriptures. He said, in that day and at that
time, let me get it out here so I don't mess it up. In those
days and at that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for and none. The iniquity of Israel shall
be sought for and how many? None. None. The sins of Judah and they shall
not be found. Now who's searching? God is.
God is searching for sinners. Justice is always looking for
the guilty. And when it comes to God's people
and he looks at you, what does he find? Nothing. He moves on. He finds nothing but the righteousness
of God in Jesus Christ in you. Go to Isaiah 53. Look at verse 10. It says, Yet
it pleased the Lord to bruise him. He hath put into grief When
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed. Oh, this is glorious. You know,
that's you. When he was dying and God was
punishing him, you know what God saw? He saw you. So when
Christ died, you died. When Christ suffered, you suffered. He saw his seed. He shall prolong his days, and
the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. He shall
see of the travail of his soul and be satisfied. Listen to me. You can believe
me. Not to get to heaven by the scheme of the devil. You feel
that way. You feel like, today I'm telling
you, I felt like I'm crying out, Lord, if you just make me a doorkeeper
now. Just make me the least of your servants in your house.
I am the least worthy to receive this. I'll tell you this, when you
are received in the glory, you'll find out you're not gonna make
it by the skin of your teeth. You're gonna be as righteous
as God. Why? It's what Christ did. That
was His work. To make you the righteousness
of God. Make you something that you were
never born. You weren't born the righteousness
of God. He made you that. He made you that. His offering
was so successful, God was pleased with it. Now listen. And so God says this in a promise,
I will remember their sins. No more. So when will God remember
your sins? When? Now you don't forget them. As we live in this world, we
don't forget them. What I can't forget, God won't remember. Why? Because He was delivered for
our offenses. The only means that God can be
just and justify the ungodly is Christ. That's the only way.
There's no other way. And so by faith, believing the
Word of God, we see the spotless Son of God who has offered himself
as a lamb without spot and without blemish. He was made sin for
us who knew no sin, and God delivered him for our offenses. So now we who believe know this,
as far as the East is from the West, so far hath He removed
our sins from us. Now listen, I know you don't
feel that way. I know you don't. You still have
this old man of sin struggling within your own then you despise Him. I know you do, but He's still
there and He doesn't go anywhere. Wherever I go, there I am. Have
you found that out? Yet He's placed in us a new nature
that cannot sin. So what then am I to do? What
does true faith do? It ignores all outward influences,
doesn't it? It ignores what I feel and what
I think, and it believes the word of God as God said it. He was delivered for our offenses,
and God is satisfied. God's satisfied. And lastly,
we see this, that he was raised from the dead. Go back to your
text. He was delivered for our offenses.
He was also raised again for our justification. Now his resurrection
did not justify us. His obedience and blood did that.
But what it means is this, without the resurrection, we would have
no hope of being justified. No hope, no confidence of ever
being justified. And so we often struggle with
doubts. concerning the success of Christ. I know this. I am positive that
He's successful for you. But I tell you, sometimes I struggle
for myself. My faith wanes. I'm like Asaph. Me and Asaph,
I tell you, we were cut from the same cloth. He said, I know
God's good to Israel, but as for me, I don't know. At times,
I just look at my own heart. What I've done is I've taken
my eyes off of him. Taken my eyes off of him. What
satisfies me is this. The tomb is empty. Was he successful? How do you
know? The tomb is empty. That's how you know everything
he said is right. When he said it was finished,
you can know it's finished because God raised him from the dead. Why do we go to the grave? Because
we still have this sin nature, don't we? That's why believers,
this body will die. It's because corruption cannot
put on incorruption. Mortal cannot put on immortality. It must die. But when Christ was raised, his
body saw no corruption. Why? Because there was no sin. There was no sin left. He paid
for it all. And this testifies to us, the
resurrection testifies to us that we are accepted. So when he lived, we lived in
him as a representative. When he died, we died in him
as a representative. When he rose again from the grave,
we rose with him. That's why Paul said this, my
life is his. Where? With Christ in God. That's where my life
is. Where's yours? It's in Christ. Just as sure as He's seated on
the throne, I will be there. Because I'm already there. In
Him, I'm already there. I know we have trouble with that.
Because we see things in time. God sees things as never present
now. So we're already with Him. In
the mind and purpose of God, we're already with Him. It's
done. It's finished. And I know it's done because
God raised him from the dead. Therefore, Paul says this, reckon
yourselves dead to see and alive to God. That's what you can reckon. You can just see this as so.
It's so. Impute this because it's so,
that you are alive. That's how Jesus could look at
Lazarus and not be troubled. He said that
to Martha, Margaret, Mary, they were all, he was sick and he
was a friend of Christ and he died. And she came to him, she
said, Lord, if you'd been here, he wouldn't have died. You know
what he said to her? He said, whosoever liveth and
believeth in me shall never die. Lazarus is dead. His body
was. But he wasn't dead. And so how do we have hope of
the resurrection? Because God raised him from the
dead. Paul said if he be not raised
from the dead, our faith is in vain. There's no hope for us
if he's still dead. But because he's not dead, He
is ascended to the throne of God. There, right now, he ever
lives to make intercession for us daily. That's what John said,
didn't he? He said, if any man say he hath
no sin, the truth's not in him. If we confess our sin, he is
faithful and just to forgive us our sin. He said, therefore,
little children, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ
the righteous. We have somebody to daily plead
our case. Don't you need that? I do. So what's your hope of being
justified? Well, I believe God concerning
His Son. I believe who He is. He's God
and man to represent me. He's all my righteousness, sinless
Son of God. God delivered Him for my offenses. And he was so successful, God
raised him from the dead and set him on the throne. And just as sure as he is seated
on that throne, everyone who believes in him will be with
him. He said, I must needs go to the
Father. And you know, that where I am,
you may be also. This is the comfort of God's
people. I know you're in dark times. The future to us is uncertain. This is certain. This is sure. Faith does not
look at outward influences. It believes God concerning his
So, I pray God will comfort your
heart with this. Let's stand and be dismissed.