Alright, take your Bibles and
turn back with me to Romans chapter 2. Romans chapter 2. We're looking at verses 1 through 11
this morning, but I need to go back. We've been a week since
we've studied the last time in this book of Romans. I've entitled
this message, The Judge of Those Who Judge. The judge of those who judge. The Apostle says, Therefore thou
art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest. For wherein thou judgest another,
thou condemnest thyself, for thou that judgest dost the same
things. Now in the previous chapter,
the Apostle has set forth for us very clearly the distinction
between the Gospel of Jesus Christ, The gospel he was given by Jesus
Christ as an apostle, the gospel that he preached to them was
concerning the Son of God, Jesus Christ, witnessed by the prophets
and the law. He distinguishes between the
gospel of Christ and the word of God spoken by nature and conscience. So in verses 6, verses 16, through 32. He's going to talk
about the difference between the gospel. He says the gospel
that he's not ashamed to preach, the gospel of Christ reveals
the righteousness of God. That's what the gospel preaches
when we preach Christ. We preach how it is that God
can be just and justify the ungodly, how it is sinners are made righteous. That is the message of the gospel. Now there is another word that
is spoken of God, and that is the word of creation, the word
of conscience that is given to every man. As you look at this world and
how wonderful creation is, everyone knows this, and I don't care
what they say. I think anybody that says there
is no God and looks at this world, we all know they're a fool. They're
just a fool. Their conscience demands it. Creation demands
a creator and yet they still willfully deny it. And so the gospel is the only
means by which men are saved. But we know this, that creation
and nature and conscience saves no one. That's what Paul is telling
us. The gospel that is preached. This is what God uses. God does
not use creation to save anyone. God does not use reason or logic
to save anyone. What God uses is the gospel of
Jesus Christ in the hands of the Holy Spirit. Paul said this,
we know this, you are believers, you know the gospel is the power
of God unto salvation, you know that. You experience that. That is the experience of every
believer, is that someone preached the gospel to us, some weak man,
some sinner just like me that's been saved by grace, he preached
the gospel to me and by the power of God he saved me, he regenerated
me, he gave me faith by which I believe. And you can see this in many
places, I've got many texts and I don't have time. 2 Thessalonians
2 verse 13, We are bound always to give thanks to God for you,
beloved brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from
the beginning chosen you to salvation. And why do you say that? Because
God hath from the beginning chosen you to it. Now here's the means
through sanctification of the Spirit. Sanctification, we remember
that word many times, means made holy. That's how you're made
holy. By the power of the Spirit, you
are sanctified. You are made holy in the new
creation, and what produces out of that is belief of the truth.
He said, sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.
Where unto you were called? How? By our gospel. You can't be saved without it.
A gospel in itself, me preaching it, does nothing. except in the
hands of the Holy Spirit. It then is made effectual to
us. But what the word of creation
does is it only fuels man's hatred. It does not help men to God. This is why we have this idea
in theology of apologetics. It's just a big word that means
that we're going to save people by logic. We're going to reason
with them. God said let us reason together. He's not talking about your reasoning.
He's not talking about your education or your understanding. You reason
out of the scriptures. You don't reason by man's logic. So apologetics is useless. Useless. But what creation does teach
us, it does teach us something. All of us. I don't care if you've
ever been to church or you've been in the jungles or anything.
It doesn't matter. Creation does teach things. It
teaches three things. The wrath of God is against ungodliness. Everybody knows that. Everybody
knows that. You know this by creation that
God is powerful. Don't you? It took power to create
this thing. To keep it spinning. to keep
you breathing. We all know this, that if God
is and the creator of this world and he has judgment against ungodliness,
we know this, he's ruling the whole thing. God made it, it
just is logical that he rules it. Everybody knows this. This is not something, this is
common knowledge. But what do men do with this,
the apostle said. The apostle tells us in verses
18 through 32, he tells exactly what men do with this. That instead
of bowing to it, it inflames the hatred of God that is in
man's heart. Later on, Paul is going to tell
us that the flesh, the carnal nature, is enmity against God. And so what it knows about God,
what does it do? It makes a God of its own liking. That's what
men do. Men make gods of their, I don't
like this god, so I'm just going to make one of myself. Well,
your god sounds too strict, so I'm just going to go ahead and
make up one like this. This is what we do. Everybody does this.
This is all we do by nature and conscience. And what does this
produce? It produces this. Look what happens
when men do this. In verse 26, what is the end
result of this? For this cause God gave them
up to vile affections, even Their women did change the nature,
natural use into that which is against nature. Likewise, men
leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lust one
to another. Men with men working that which is unseemly and receiving
in themselves a recompense of their error which is meat." What
God does to a people and nation that refuses to retain Him in
their heart and mind, what they can know about Him, When men
refuse to retain what they can know about God, what God does
is simply give them over to what they want. The first outward sign of God's
abandonment of a nation and people is homosexuality. It just is. That's the first thing the Apostle
mentioned. When God gave them over, what's the first thing
that's visible? Now there were other things leading up to that. Adultery, fornication, wickedness,
theft, covetousness. All of these things are in a
people, but as God gives them over to it, this is the bloom. This is what it is when it is
in full bloom, man's rebellion, is this matter of homosexuality. Listen, if you can't see it in
this country, you're blind. No, you just can't. You can't
see it happening in front of you, you're blind. You realize that half this nation
bases who they elect their rulers based on sexuality? Half this nation, who they're
going to vote for, based on sexuality. Their freedom sexually, their
their right to kill their children. I mean, this is how they vote.
This is how they express their desire. They don't care if the
whole country burns. They just don't, as long as they
can have their way. Sexually speaking, this is the
sign of a reprobate nation, friends. This is the spirit of this generation
is this. God gave them over. God gave
them over. You remember in the book of Genesis,
we talk about Sodom. The angels, these beautiful men,
they had the man's appearance, they were angels. And they came
to get locked. And you remember that all of
that city had tried to press in on that house to have these
men, to rape these men. That's what they wanted, this
whole city. Now these men came out and they blinded the whole
city. Now you would expect that such
a miracle of judgment would cause men to run in fear. You know
what they did? They groped for the door. No
matter how much. No matter how much they were
threatened by the wrath of God, they still would have those men. They would still fulfill their
lust. I will have what I have, and I don't care about the judgment
of God. Now that's something, isn't it?
That's the spirit of this generation. It just is. The spirit of Sodom
is the spirit of this generation. Now look, if you deny that, it's
just because you're willfully blind. These are obvious things. I'm just saying obvious things.
But listen to me now, okay? Now that I've set that up. I
set that up on purpose. Because Paul is not content with
just judging those outside the church. Paul is not content to stop at
the reprobate and the pagan. Paul will now set his gaze upon
the moral. He will now set his gaze upon
the religious, the church, the Jew. To those who are religious,
you that have not only heard the word of nature in conscience,
you've heard that word, You know that. You've also heard another
word. You've heard the Word of God.
I'm sure that these Jews, when Paul said those things about
those heathens, they said, Amen. I preach it, Paul! You tell them! You tell them! I can just see
it! Because that's exactly how I
felt when I read the text. I'm sure you have done the same
thing. This wicked nation that I've
described, you and I say both this, amen, that's right. We say in ourselves, I know this,
God's going to judge and condemn those vile and wicked men. Now listen, am I wrong in saying
that? No. Are you wrong in saying that? No! That is true! That is true. But look now what
Paul says to the moral. He says, therefore. Now I just
set that up. The word therefore, every time
you read it, you have to find out what it's there for. You
have to read the previous to understand what he's saying here.
Therefore, that's true. These people are turned over
to a vile, reprobate mind. These people will be judged.
They will be condemned. If they remain in their sin,
they will be condemned. Therefore, listen to this, thou
art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judges. Wait, didn't we just judge? Did
we not just judge? We make a judgment. Now listen. And I'm going to tell you this,
and I'm going to tell you this kind of over and over, because this is a weird
thing about this generation. They don't like to be judged. They don't like it. So when you
say something that's true, they say, oh, judge not, lest you
be judged. It's the only part of scripture
I think they have a clue that's in there. They don't know what
it means, but they just know this. You're not supposed to
judge me. That's not what it's saying. Judge not until you're
ready to be judged. That's what he means. Now you
ready to be judged? You that believe, you understand
you are. Judgment is not an evil thing. What's the evil thing?
Look at the evil thing here. Paul said, You're inexcusable,
O man, whoever you are that judges. Judging's not evil. What is?
Wherein thou judgest another, thou condemnest thyself for,
because thou that judgest, what do you do? You do the same thing. You do the same things. He's saying, we who are the moral
ones, the ones who seem to be offended by these evil acts, He said, don't you know this?
That you that judge still do the same things? You're inexcusable! When you
judge another, don't you know this? You're condemning yourself.
Haven't you sinned also? Yeah, but I didn't do it as bad
as they did. You're going to find out that don't matter. Because
judgment is not based on how we view evil and good. It is going to be based on how
God views evil and good. He'll deal with this in just
a moment in Romans 3. He said this, for all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. Somebody put it like this. If
California fell off into the ocean and everybody had to swim
and Hawaii was the only place to go, I'm sure I wouldn't make it a
mile and I'd be gone. But you know what? I know this.
that the greatest swimmer in all the world wouldn't make it
either. So it is with man. God does not
demand your best. Listen, He demands perfection. And so, the evil part is not
judging, the evil part is this, that we do the same things. Now we know this, that murder
is evil, fornication, homosexuality, pedophiles, thefts, lying, envy,
drunkenness, adultery, covetousness, disobedience to parents, abortion. We all know that's evil. That's
evil. There's no denying this, that
those things are evil. Yet why do men seek to be excused
from these things? Why do they judge such things
as acceptable? Why? Because they have pleasure
in the same things. They have pleasure in the same
things that they judge or they excuse. And so again, the problem
is not in judgment of evils, but rather the hypocrisy of our
judgment. That's the evil, isn't it? It's
the evil of hypocrisy. We judge others, and yet we ourselves
are found sinners. Now I'll tell you this, you may
be the most moral person, you may say, well look, look preacher,
I have never done that. All those horrible things you
just mentioned, I've never done any of them. You know Paul used
to think that about himself? He said, touching the law, blameless. Nobody could accuse me of any
of those evil things. Well you may be right, maybe
you can't be accused of man, but what about God? Because that's really all that
counts, isn't it? You may not do these things outwardly,
but I'll tell you what, these very same things are done by
us inwardly. You may have escaped the sin
of commission. You know what that is? Committing
the sin. You may have not done the deed,
but I'll tell you this, you've thought it. You felt it. And what did our Lord say about
that? He said, if you look upon a woman to lust after her, what
have you done? You've committed adultery already. You may have
never committed the physical act of adultery. What is that?
That may matter between you and me. But what does that matter
with God? God said you've already committed
the sin in your heart. And so, O moral man that judgest,
you may surely escape the judgment of men, but can you escape the
judgment of God? That's what Paul's saying here. Will you fare any better than
those outside the church? When you stand before God, will
you fare better? Listen, if you are in any way
seeking to be justified before God based on your goodness, if
you are seeking to be justified based on your goodness, listen
to me, you in the end will be sadly mistaken. You will be just
as much under the eternal condemnation of God as the homosexual or the
pedophile. There's no difference. It's what
he's telling you. It's what he's making the case
for. Look at verse 2. But we are sure. We are sure
that the judgment of God is according to truth against them that commit
such things. Behold, the judgment of God is
true The judgment of God is holy. Paul is here beginning to clearly
set forth that all men, both vile and self-righteous, are
sinners before God. Those scriptures are a great
leveler, friends. It levels us all on the same
plane. So it doesn't matter if you're
a king or a pauper. It doesn't matter if you're religious
or you're moral. The deal is, God's judgment is
true. You and I judge. And you may
be right or you may be wrong in your judgment. The thing is,
what does God judge? How does God see things? You
may think, well, I think this is bad. Well, I think this is,
what does it matter what you think or feel if God says it
is or it isn't? Well, I don't think that's a
sin. God says it is. What does it matter what you
think about it? Well, lying ain't that, ain't, it's not that bad.
Well, that's what you think. But I am sure of this, Paul said,
God's judgment is true. It's right. It's holy. It's just. I'm sure of that. And what God says is evil, listen,
it's evil. And what God says is good, is
good. And so the self-righteous man
judges others who seeks to promote himself before God and men by
his morality. Paul asked this question in verse
3. And he, thinkest thou this, O man, that judgest them which
do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape
the judgment of God? Have you made judgments? Again,
who's made a judgment today? Shall you escape the judgment
of God? Now you know that they won't.
What about you? Paul said, do you think that
by your judging, by your morality, that somehow God's going to say,
well, hey, good job. Way to go. You judged them right. Good job. No, because you did
the same things. You sinned against God. And so
Paul says this, you're not going to escape it. Verse 4, he said,
or despises thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance
and longsuffering, and knoweth not the goodness of God leadeth
to repentance? Listen to me. The benefits of
a moral life are good. There is benefit to a moral life. Solomon, in Ecclesiastes, when
he's talking about things under the sun, he said, an industrious
man is better than a lazy man. Isn't that true? That's just
so, isn't it? You work hard, you get a reward
for your labor, and you're able to enjoy the fruits of your labor. You got a lazy man, he doesn't
work. He doesn't earn anything. He's going to suffer. That's
just true. That's a true maxim. Solomon testifies that life of
a moral man, industrious man, is greatly better than that of
a lazy and vile man. Yet do you suppose that God's
outward providence proves his love to you and hatred to them? This is what men think. I'm working
hard. I'm making a good living. My
family's taken care of. I'm a good man. And God is blessing
me with all of these physical things. He must love me. He must
think I'm doing a good job. Because of all the providence
that's laid out, everything's going good. You think you can
judge the love of God based on your providence or circumstances?
What about the vile, wicked man who's suffering for all of his
evil deeds. He got lazy, man. You got a drug
addict. You got an alcoholic. And he's suffering. And those
people suffer, man. It's a horrible life. Do you
think you can tell that God hates them by that providence? Listen to what he says in the
end. He says, I've observed all the works of God in the world.
And he says, you know what this is? You cannot tell the love
or hatred of God based on providence. Ecclesiastes 9, verse 1. You
read it later. You cannot tell the love of God or the hatred
of God based on providence. You can't. Thief on the cross. You suppose anybody thought God
loved that man? Couldn't tell, could you? And so it is with this, He says
what you're doing then is you're despising the goodness of God.
God gave you some goodness, some peace in your life, and you're
saying that that's the That's the testimony that God's not
going to judge you? No. You're just despising it. He
said, but after the hardness and impotence of the heart, treasure
this up to thyself, wrath against the day of wrath, and revelation
of the righteous judgment of God. He said, all you're doing
is treasuring up wrath. Think of the rich man. Remember
that rich man the Lord said, he said, in his heart, he said,
thou hast stored up much goods, and you built bigger barns. He
said, I will tear down these barns and build bigger barns.
He said, O my soul, eat, drink, and be merry. And God said what? Thou fool. Thou fool. This night thy soul is required
of thee. What was he doing with all that stuff? He was treasuring
up wrath upon wrath upon wrath. People think because God doesn't
judge an evil work immediately that everything's alright. It's not. Behold, listen to this very carefully,
everybody here, listen to me very carefully. Again, you, personally,
I myself, personally, will stand before God and face holy, strict
justice. Holy, strict justice. In verses 6 through verse 10,
he tells us this plainly. I'm going to paraphrase it because
I'm running out of time already and I haven't got to the good
part. He's saying this, a righteous
man is going to receive a righteous reward. Isn't that just? Tell me, isn't that right? You
the judge, isn't that right? A righteous man is going to receive
a righteous reward. That's what he says. God says,
who will render every man according to his deeds, to them that are
patient, in patient continuance and well-doing, seek for glory
and honor and immortality and eternal life. He said, those
that seek that, who do well, That's a little understatement
there. Really, who are holy? Those who do holy. Those who
are holy and seek after eternal life. What are they going to
receive? Eternal life. Why? Because God's just. But
to them that are contentious and do not obey the truth, but
obey unrighteousness, indignation, enraged, tribulation, anguish,
upon every soul of man that doeth evil, the Jew first and also
the Gentile, but glory and honor and peace to every man that worketh
good, Jew first and also to the Gentile." He's just saying this,
that everyone who is perfect will inherit eternal life and
everyone who has sinned will inherit exactly what they deserve,
eternal damnation. That is exactly what they deserve.
I keep thinking about this. People say, well, I'm not as
bad as this person over here. In hell, do you suppose you're
going to be looking over and saying, man, I'm thankful I'm
not suffering like that guy. Is that what you think you're going to
happen? It's not going to happen. And so then this is the whole
purpose. There is no one who is excused from holy justice. Look at this in verse 11, God
displays by Paul clearly his character. This justice and judgment
I'm talking about, listen to what it says in verse 11. There is no respect of persons
with God. Now keep in view, he is talking
about the subject of justice. God's judgment is true, he said. which he will judge all men according
to their deeds, which a just judge does. Isn't that what a
just judge does? He judges according to deeds. And a just judge is no respecter
of persons. Isn't that right? In our judicial
system, they are a major respecter of persons, aren't they? They
judge based on. And what do we do? We get upset.
We get upset. Well, that's his cousin. He committed
murder and he's letting him off. That's not justice, is it? He
respected the person because he was his cousin. That's not
just. But when God judges you and when
God judges me, He is not going to respect our person, our situation,
our circumstance. None of that matters. The only
thing that matters is this, His holy law. That's the only thing
that matters. To a just judge, that's the only
thing that matters. And if God were to respect persons,
He would cease to be just. Now some fools will try to use
this text to disprove election. They say, see, God's no respecter
of persons, so obviously there's no such thing as election. I
don't have time to deal with this, but the Apostle is going
to deal with this in extensiveness in the future, but I want to
show you how the elect are justified, because I'm getting to that.
The Apostle will deal with this concerning the grace of God later,
but remember, we're focused on the justice of God, that no matter
who you are, God will not bend. His justice will not bend. It's strict. And I can say this
to you, to the elect and to those hated of God, listen to me, we
are judged on the same standard of justice. There's no two-tier
justice system here. The elect are not getting a different
level of justice than those who are hated of God. We're judged
on the same justice. Why? Because God's no respecter
of persons. The elect are not justified based and righteous
before God based on their election. But I know this, God in love
chose us to be holy. His election and love was never
based on our person. It was never based on our work
or our holiness. God purposed us to be holy and
without blame before Him based on the work of another. God could never accept His elect
based on their person or their work. Justice would not allow
it. Holiness of God would forever fail if He judged us based on
our person. If He allowed us to be accepted
based on our person, there would have to be a different level
of justice. Why? Because He just told us, we're
all sinners! And so the true believer knows
this, that if I'm to be holy before God, it cannot be based
on my personal work. If I'm ever going to be holy
and accepted by this justice system of God, it can't be based
on my work. So the question is then this,
if God is just, and I've just showed you he is, and you're guilty, and I just
showed you, you are. How can God be just, who has
no respect for persons, and still justify you? How is that possible? No religion
in the world can answer that except this one. Every other religion would lower
the standard of God's justice so you can make it. They always
do. They lower the bar to a level
that they think they can get over it. But how can God be just and justify
the ungodly? I'll tell you how. I want you
to look now and behold Jesus Christ. Behold how God is able
to be just, no respecter of persons, yet justify the ungodly. When
God put His elect into union with His Son, He made all their
salvation, all their righteousness that they needed, all of their
atonement for sin, God made Christ to be their representative. that all their salvation is totally
dependent upon the success of Jesus Christ. Go to Isaiah chapter
9. Isaiah chapter 9. Remember, I'm
not including that first five minutes that I talked. So, Isaiah
chapter 9 verse 6. Unto us a child is born. What
does that mean? A man. Isn't it? When a child is born,
you have what? You have a man. Unto us a child is born. Behold,
a virgin shall conceive and bear a son. Thou shalt call his name
Immanuel, God with us. Behold, a child is born. But not just any child, a son
is given, a son that already existed. The Son of God was made
flesh. A child was born, a son was given. Now this is a vital statement. Everybody focuses on the wonderful
Counselor, Mighty God. But really, this is the wonderful
part about this statement. The government shall be on his
shoulder. Now listen, the governments of the world are always on his
shoulder. They were always. It's not talk about the world
government. It's talking about His government. It's talking
about His people. It's talking about His church.
It's talking about His elect. They shall be on His shoulder. What does that mean? It means
He is going to bear the responsibility to satisfy the justice of God
for them. And what is He going to be called?
Wonder. Isn't that wonderful? You that
know the guilt of your sin and know the justice of God. Isn't
this wonderful? That God made Him to be responsible
for me? Who's carrying who here? Who's
carrying who? I'm not carrying my God. My God
is carrying me. He was made responsible for my
sins. He's going to be called Wonderful
Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace. And of the increase of his government and peace there
shall be no end upon the throne of David, upon his kingdom, to
order it, to establish it with judgment and justice. Isn't that
what we're talking about? To establish justice and judgment?
To satisfy it? I can't stand before a strict
God in myself. Luther said this, I will not
have anything to do with an absolute God in myself. What I need is someone to stand
between me and God. Someone to satisfy that strict
justice for me. And that's what Christ was sent
to do. Look at Isaiah chapter 53. How's he going to do it?
Isaiah chapter 53. When Christ came into the world,
verse 3, He was despised and rejected a man, a man of sorrows,
acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces
from Him. He was despised and we esteemed Him not. Why was
He esteemed not? Surely He hath borne our griefs
and carried our sorrows. Yet we esteemed Him stricken,
smitten of God, and afflicted. But, conversely, that really
wasn't true. That's what we saw. But he was wounded for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him, and by his stripes we are healed. Yet, look, we
all like sheep have gone astray. We turned everyone to our own
way. Yet this is true. The Lord had laid on him the
iniquity of us all. You see, iniquity had to be dealt
with. Sin had to be punished. God is strict. He's not going
to respect persons. So how then is my sin dealt with? How is God just and still able
to justify me? Simply by this. By Jesus Christ
bearing my sin in His own body on the tree. Behold how the Son of God was
made responsible, put away our sin, He bare our iniquities in
His own body. And look at verse 10. Yet it
pleased the Lord to bruise Him. What's he talking about? Was
God happy to kill His Son? Is that what he's saying? No,
he's talking about the justice of God. The justice of God was
pleased to crush Him. He hath put him to grieve, when
thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin. He shall see his seed
prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper his
hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied. Now, if you want to know how
strict God is about justice, then look at the cross. If you
really want to understand how God is no respecter of persons
in judgment, who was on the cross? He was His own Son. And the very moment that God
made Him to be sin for us, you see this, that God did not respect
His person. but poured out the wrath of God
on his sins without mercy. Do you see how strict God's justice
is? And at the same time, can you
not see the love of Christ in doing this for you? Can you not see the greatness
of His love and His mercy? to be willing to bear my sin? To be willing to suffer the wrath
of God in my place? Can you not see the love of Christ? I see both the severity of God's
wrath and the love of God in the death of Christ. Now when God made him to be sin,
I want you to know this, he was not pretending. God doesn't pretend. You get that? When he says God
is strict and holy and justice, God never pretends that someone
is righteous when they're not. He'd be like us, wouldn't he?
We see somebody and they're not so bad. We say, yeah, that's
a good person. God doesn't do that. He doesn't
pretend. You are either righteous or you're
guilty. There's no middle ground here.
So when God punished his son, I want you to see this. God punished
him as he was made to bear our guilt. You look this up later in Proverbs
6, 17. It says this, it's an abomination
to punish the innocent. It's an abomination. God could
not punish his son, though his son had no sin in himself. He was made sin in such a way
he actually bore the guilt of it. It's astounding. People focus
how that happened. I can't focus on how that happened.
I don't understand how that happened. It happened because God can't
punish an innocent man. And so Christ bore our sins.
For what reason, for what purpose was He made a curse for us? One reason. To satisfy the strict
justice of God for us. Satisfy justice. And so over
in Romans 8, look at this. Romans 8. Look what it says to
us who are in Christ. You who believe on Christ. Listen
to what it says. Verse 1. Read it. What does Romans 8 want
to tell you? There is therefore now no condemnation. Now, how can God do that? How
can God be no respecter of persons, saying, I'm really guilty? I
confess. How is it? Because Jesus Christ
was made to bear my guilt. And God was so pleased with his
offering. You know why hell's forever?
Because you're never going to pay. Your death is just just. It's right. You should die forever. But God was so gracious in this. When Jesus Christ died and he
said these words, it is finished. Three words, greatest words a
man ever spoke. in all the history of the world.
It's finished. What does it mean? God satisfied. My death satisfied the justice
of God forever for all my people, all of them. And so you are in Christ Jesus.
Listen, this is the joy of God's judgment. There is right now
and forever no condemnation. How can that be? A daily sin. How is that possible? When God
called us to life, He gave us a holy nature. God didn't pretend
us to be holy. God doesn't say, you know, Kathy,
I'm just going to deem you to be righteous and later on I'll
make you righteous. You can't do that. You can't impute righteousness
to someone who's not righteous. And so then listen to this, when
God gave us a new nature, he gave us a righteous nature. And
so then in the eyes of God, listen to me, you are righteous. I don't see it. You don't have
to. You don't have to. Could you
see Christ was made sin by his attitude, his actions, or his
On the cross, he still maintained faith in God, didn't he? Even
though God forsook him, he still trusted God. You could see no
sin in him. You couldn't testify of one sin
he ever did. And yet God made him to be sin.
Conversely, you could follow me around and never find anything
righteous about me at all. Yet this is the grace of God
is that He made me righteous. And then he charges me with being
righteous. Even though I'm still trapped
in this sinful old man that hangs about my neck, constantly tempting
me to sin, constantly pulling me towards sin. And yet, that
has no bearing on the case. I was a sinner before. He made
me righteous. And I still confess my sins and
have this hope. He is faithful and just, faithful
and just to forgive me of all my sins. Why? Because Christ
had already paid for them. Isn't this the glory of God's
justice that he can't demand twice payment? Isn't that good? That's just
glorious. God can't be just and demand
payment at Christ's hand and then again at mine. He can't
do it. That's not just. But see, I'm going to heaven
based on a strict standard of justice. Jesus Christ is all
my righteousness. And all the things I do, I want
to be righteous, I want to do good things. We as believers
desire to serve God. We desire to do good things.
But none of those good things are contributing to that righteousness.
They're not. They're products of it, but they're
not contributing to it. Why? Because it's already made
for me by Jesus Christ. And so when I stand before God,
what's going to be all my righteousness? He is. Who's going to be all my redemption? What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus
Christ. So what's my hope? My hope of
standing before God is this. He's all my redemption price.
What about sanctification? My holiness? He's my righteousness,
but you know what? I gotta sanctify myself. You'll
stand before God with that? No, you won't. He's all my sanctification. He's all my redemption. He's
all my righteousness. And if I know anything at all,
He's all my wisdom. He's all my wisdom. So the hope
of me standing before God is what? Jesus Christ. I'm not going to get in by the
skin of my teeth. That's what religion tells you.
You might get in by the skin of your teeth. Nope. The only people that make it
to heaven are holy people. And God is no respecter of persons.
I don't care who you are. If you are not as holy as God,
you will be cast out. Many shall say to me in that
day, Lord, Lord. Isn't this what people say? Oh,
Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord, Lord. What? He said, many shall
meet and say unto me in that day, Lord, Lord. But he shall,
I will profess unto them, I never knew you. Who will be accepted? Listen
to me. Only those who believe on him, and it's this word, completely. It's not a cooperative effort.
I'm not going to get by the judgment of God based on a cooperative
effort. I am going to be totally accepted
by a holy God because of Jesus Christ. He's all my hope. What about you? I told you we
all are going to stand before the judge How are you going to
stand complete? That hymn writer said, when I
stand before the throne, I stand in him complete. What are you going to stand in?
What are you going to stand in? Oh, I got no other hope but him. He's my refuge. I'm like Noah in the ark. You
know, Noah endured the judgment of God, didn't he? How? How'd he make it and everybody
outside the ark drowned? What was the difference between
him and the rest of them? The ark. You're in Christ. He endured
the justice of God for me. And I know this. I'm accepted
of God. You that are in Him, you're accepted
of God. And I'm thankful God's just.
Because if He wasn't just, there wouldn't be, maybe He'll save
me today and I'll be lost tomorrow. But because He is just, I know
this, if He has saved me, listen, I am saved. I'm saved. What did God, everybody in this
building say that? My hope that God be gracious
to you. My hope that he be gracious. That you'd see who you are unto
Christ. That's my hope, my desire for
you. Otherwise you will not escape
the judgment of God. I don't care who you are. I stand by this message. I plead with you, Father, be
gracious. Forgive the sin of this pasture.
Forgive the frailty of my voice and my... Overrule. for your own glory. Strip away the false vanity of
self-deceit. Expose the sinner before your
holy standard. Be gracious to show them Christ. Give them grace to run to Him,
to believe on Him, and be saved. Father, help us who are in Christ
to continue looking only to Christ in hopes of eternal life as you
have promised. Pray you forgive us and lead
us as we depart. Unite our hearts in this gospel. I pray you do it in Christ's
name.