Chapter 8. We'll be looking this
morning at verse 33 and 34. The Apostle says, Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is He that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. I've titled the message
this morning is, Four Pillars of Justification. Four pillars
upon which the souls of God's people may find rest and comfort
that you may stretch yourself out on. Four things here. He tells us
first of all about a charge. Who shall charge anything to
God's elect? He tells them why there's no
charge, because there's no sin. God justified them. Well, who shall condemn them?
Well, how can you condemn somebody that you can't charge? And then he lays out for us four
pillars of this justification. Four reasons why nobody can charge
you and nobody can condemn you. Here it is. It's Christ that
died. One. It's Christ that's risen, two. It is He that is at the right
hand of God, three. And four, He ever lives to make
intercession for you. Four pillars of justification.
Now then, as we've seen in this chapter, we've seen many infallible
proofs of God's love towards us. And Paul, after from verse
1 all the way down to verse 31 or 30, he gives us all these
evidences, all these wonderful things that are ours, that are
believers, that they belong to us, that God has given us. And
he comes to this question, he says, what shall we say then
to these things? And the only thing he can come
up with is this, if God be for us, who can be against us? If
God be for us, who can be against us? If God has decreed to save
us, if Christ has redeemed us, if the Spirit has called us,
and we are in Christ, who then can oppose God? If God's for
you, make no mistake, anybody opposes you, opposes God. If
anybody tries to unsave you, he's opposing God. He's opposing
God. Well, who can oppose God? Who? Will you oppose God or stop Him
from doing His will? To which the Apostle proves in
this argument by reason, if God spared not His own Son. Listen
to the reason here. If God spared not His own Son,
God gave you the best of everything He had, which is His Son, the
highest of His gifts. If God put your sin on Christ
and charged Him with your sin and Christ paid for it, if He
delivered Him up for us, how then should you suppose He
should not give you anything less? Now listen, you ask for
a lot of things. But you know why you don't have
it? Because it's not good for you. Has God taken anything from you?
Well, it's good He did. Why? You didn't need it. If you
needed it, He would let you have it. Why? Because how shall He
not freely give you all other things? If He's given His Son,
what are these other things? They're nothing. They're frivolous. They're toys. They're trinkets.
They're tokens. They're nothing. God has given
you the best. How shall He not give you the
least of these things? And listen, how does He give
them? Freely. Freely, not begrudgingly. He gives you all things freely.
And the highest of these things, what is the highest of the things
God gives to believers? He gave His Son, but what is
the highest reward that He gives to us who are in His Son? Listen,
justification. Justification. What is your biggest
problem? Sin. Sin is the biggest problem,
isn't it? Sin is the biggest problem. And
so what is this that He gives us freely is justified. Wasn't
it said in Romans chapter 3 being justified? How? Freely! By His grace. Freely. Now, which things, such as eternal
life, peace with God, justification, the kingdom of God, the return
of Christ, which things we are to expect and wait for? The Apostle,
if you go over to Hebrews chapter 12 real quick, we'll just look
at this real fast, Hebrews chapter 12, He says this in verse 1, "...wherefore,
seeing we are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses,
let us lay aside every weight and the sin that doth easily
beset us." That sin is unbelief. He laid aside, he gave us all
these witnesses of faith that have went before us, and he said,
what do we do? We need to lay aside the weight,
that sin of unbelief, and let us run with patience the race
that is set before us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. Now believer, as we are to run
this race, seeing that God is for us, how are we to run it?
We're to run it with patience. We're to run it with patience.
Looking where? To Christ. Looking to Christ. Now let me ask you this. Have
you not, in ignorance, often looked at your other brother's
race? Somebody else is running a race over there with you, and
you look at their race, and boy, they look like they're running
pretty well. They looked like, they got, you're a mess. And
there just seemed like everything's well with them. Everything's
going great. I know that's what people assume about pastors.
We've got it all down. There's nothing wrong. Cheryl
laughed. She knows better. You look at some other brother
and you say, you know, man, I wish I had his race. I wish I had
that guy's. Peter did that. Don't think you're
alone. You remember how God said to Peter, Christ said to Peter,
this is how you're going to die. You're going to die. Somebody's
going to come and get you. They're going to take you a place that
you don't want to go. And Peter didn't want to be crucified. Let's just put it that way. Who
wanted to be crucified? Nobody. He didn't want to be
crucified. God said, you're going to do
this for my glory. That's how you're going to glorify
me. And what did he do? He said, what about John? And Jesus said, well, if I want
him to live till I come back, what is that to you? You don't
worry about my other servants. You just run your race. You don't
worry about anybody else. Why? Because you're to be looking
to me. If you're looking over at your
brother, you're not looking to me. And if you're not looking
to me, you're going to fall. Don't look to your brother. Don't
envy your brother. There was this lady I know in
one of the churches down south. Every time I saw this woman,
she was happy. I mean, just wonderfully happy. Loved the gospel. She would hear
the gospel, and I mean, tears would pour from her eyes. And
there I was, sitting with my old cold heart. I couldn't get
her into the message, and I envied her. I said, man, that believing
woman, she is really wonderful. I had no idea that she'd had
cancer. I had no idea that she was struggling with her children
almost to the point of death. I had no idea those things were
going on, yet I envied her race. Be careful. God may give it to
you. So we don't envy our brother.
What are we to be doing? We're to be looking unto Christ.
Looking unto Christ. Let us with patience run the
race set before us, looking to Christ, Jesus, the author and
finisher of our faith. And so in your trials, in your
afflictions, consider who? Him. Consider Him. Look to Him. Now believer, you and I are always
going to be in trouble. I know that's a downer. I know
people don't like to hear that. Listen to the Word of God. Yet
man is born unto what? Trouble. As the sparks fly upward. Just as naturally as sparks fly
upward. That's what man is. He's into
trouble. He's born into trouble. In Job 14 verse 1, man that is
born of woman is of few days and full of what? Trouble. Full
of trouble. We are born in trouble. All the
days of this short life is full of trouble. One preacher said, life begins
with a slap on the bottom and dirt in the face. It ends with
dirt in the face and all in between are bumps and bruises. That's
it. What is our trouble? Believer,
what's your greatest trouble? Within. You have the greatest
trouble within. Sin. is our greatest and the second trouble is that
things those things that are with out The trouble within is
our sin and it causes us to fear the wrath of God that is against
sin. And the troubles without, they
alarm us to our weakness and helpless state. Isn't that what
the troubles without do? The troubles within causes us
to fear God. The troubles without show us
the weakness of our self, of our flesh. Now it is impossible
for us to ever be able to overcome outward afflictions unless you
first settle the matter inwardly. You know that? A lot of us are
trying to settle outward things, but those things will never be
settled unless you first settle this matter of sin. If that's
not settled, I don't care what you do with the rest, it ain't
gonna be any comfort to you. You won't find any comfort. That
problem has to be settled first before we are able then to look
without and find comfort in our afflictions. The trouble within is the first
dealt with by the Apostle Paul in our text. So then the second
would be dealt with afterward. Look at this. He's dealing with
our matter of justification, this matter of sin first, and
then the second part, he's saying outwardly who can separate us.
You see, he deals with the inward, and then he deals with the outward.
That's what we should do. We should follow that order.
Stop trying to deal with the trouble first, and then the sin
later. Deal with the sin first. Understand that first. And then
you'll be able to deal with the other better. And this is done
in Romans chapter 5 very well. Look at Romans chapter 5. See
how he does this in Romans 5. He says, therefore, being justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
by whom we have access into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice
in hope of the glory of God. You see, he first deals with
the inward justification, peace with God, and then look what
he does secondly. He said, not only so we glory
in tribulations. He deals with the outward second.
Why? Because if you have the peace
with the one, you can have peace with the other. You can glory in tribulation
if you know your justification. If I'm justified before God,
if God has spared not His Son for me, how shall He not freely
give me all things and all this trouble is for my good? If I
know I'm justified. If you don't know your justification,
None of these troubles are going to... You can't glory in any
trouble. You can't glory in any tribulation. And so the first
must be dealt with. And so now then, look back at
your text. Look back at your text. And let's see him dealing
with this matter of justification or our sin. He says in verse
33, Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? First he says, Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. So then he says, Who shall lay
anything to the charge? Believers, shall we have any
troubles But listen to this, nothing shall
prevail against us even because no one is able to charge anything
to us. None of these troubles can affect
this matter of justification. No one can lay anything to the
charge of who? Listen, God's elect. God's elect. Believer in Christ, hear Paul
by the Holy Ghost reminds us of our election. We who believe
on Christ have not done so by chance. We've not done this by
chance. Not by accident, but according
to the sovereign will of our Father. Our election is not ascribed
to any merits of our own. It is never based on anything
we have done or would do or could do for God, but only as it to
be traced by the free and sovereign mercy of God. How is it, believer,
that no one can charge you anything concerning your sin? It is because
of this. God elected you. It's because
of your election. You were chosen of God. Chosen
of God. Look now at the foundation of
our being free from all charges of sin is rooted in our election. The election of God by whom we
were put into union with Christ, predestinated to be holy and
sinless sons of God. Isn't that what he said in Ephesians
1? Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who
has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.
Where? In Christ. According as He had
chosen us. Where? In Christ. Before the
foundation of the world. That we should be holy. What is holiness? Is it nothing
more than justification? Justification means that you
are holy. That you are without sin. If
a judge were to come to you and you've not committed a crime,
you have no crime to be charged with, how shall he ever condemn
you to anything? You would be what? Justified.
You would be free to go because you have no charge against you.
You're holy. And this is what God determined
for you, that you should be without sin. How? By any merit of your
own, by any work, by Jesus Christ. That's how. By Jesus Christ.
This is how we should be holy. The election of God makes all accusations of Satan,
the world, and even our conscience to be empty and vain, seeing
that we were to be chosen to be without sin by another, by
Christ our substitute. The election of God then abases
us and destroys all boasting in ourself. Does it not? You're
not justified. Why can't anybody charge you?
Rick, why can't God charge you? Why can't Satan charge you? Is
it in you? Anything you've done? No. You
have no way to boast. You've got nothing to boast in. It destroys all our hopes of
self-righteousness, all hopes of free will, works, religion,
and lays us prostrate at the feet of Christ, trusting only
in His perfect work. Now this generation, this matter
of election, This self-righteous religious
age, there's nothing more hated than the doctrine of election. Even because they vainly hope
to have some spark of life in themselves. Man really desires
to have something that he can boast in. Surely God left something
for me to do. Surely there's some hope in my
volition of will. Surely I have some alternative
method by which to please God in myself. No, you don't. This is why they hate election.
But to us, but to us who are saved, we know what we are. We
know there was no spark. We know there was no life. We
know if He never chose us, we never would have chosen Him.
We understand that. That is the revelation of the
Gospel in the heart of the sinner, is that there's no hope in us.
No hope in our abilities. Jesus said, no man can come unto
Me. I agree with that. I know what that is. Because
I never would have come to Him. We were, if man, if he were to accomplish all
our salvation, but if Christ were to accomplish all our salvation
but left one thing for us to do, we'd all die in our sins
and go to hell. If God left everything to your
one volition, one choice, if that's all he left, he said,
look, I've done everything else and I've just left this choice
to you to make. We'd all go to hell. None of
us would choose Christ. None of us would come to Him. Why? Because sin is mixed with
all we do. We cannot justify ourselves. We cannot please God
in the flesh. But the confidence and comfort
of the believer is this. God chose me. This is where I rest. This is
how I know why I came to Christ. I came to Christ because He chose
me. Because He ordained I should come to Christ. He gave me life
and power so as I could come to Christ. God chose us. And listen, He
chose us for Himself. even when nothing existed to
oppose Him. You got that? Your election was
done without opposition. Why? There was nobody to oppose
Him. There was nothing created. It was God and God alone. Nothing
could oppose Him anyway, but there was nothing there made
to oppose Him. Satan was not there. Your sin was not there,
and yet He said, I choose you. And consider this. You're chosen of God, as you
were founded upon the eternal, immutable purpose of God. Listen to Malachi 3.6. For I
am the Lord, I change not. This proves the immutability
of God. In other words, everything God
was in eternity, everything God thought, predestinated, determined
to do in eternity, He cannot and will not ever change. He cannot and will not ever change. Therefore, He says, you sons
of Jacob are not consumed. You know why you are justified?
You know why you will never be charged with anything? Because
God doesn't change. And God in eternity says, I choose
you to be holy. And it won't change. He did not
change. Why will the sons of Jacob, the
elect, never be consumed or charged with any sin? Are we not the
sons of Adam by birth and by choice? Yes! But we shall not
be consumed because God, who chose us, ordained us to be holy
by Christ, does not change. His will is immutable, unchangeable,
and it cannot be thwarted. But how shall men know of their
election? How did you know of your election? Except God had not chosen, we
know this, that God has not chosen all men without exception. That's
false religion. False religion believes God chose
all men without exception. That's foolishness. Isn't it
foolishness to say God loves everyone? And I mean equally. God, well God just loves everybody
the same. You mean the person in hell? No. Can't. You mean God changed? He loved that person, now He
don't. No. God doesn't change. God never
loved that person. God loves His elect. And He loves
them from eternity. If you are in Christ, listen,
you will never be charged because God doesn't change. God doesn't
change. The true gospel is God chose
some of Adam's race. He loves them with an everlasting,
unchangeable, immutable love. And God decreed for us to be
saved by Jesus Christ, by His blood and righteousness. And
the manifestation of all this is what? Faith in Christ. There's the evidence. There's
how I know my election. Look at that. Paul puts these
two together in verse 30. "...Moreover, whom he did predestinate
chose to be conformed to the image of his Son." Listen to
what he did. "...Them he also called." You see, predestination
is only known by your calling. You've been called. You've been
called. Not by me. Have you been called
by Christ? Have you come to Christ? Do you
believe on Christ? Why? You were predestinated.
He was chosen to. There was no way to miss it.
There was no way. I know this. Our brother JD,
he often just is so thrilled with God's grace to bring him
into the... He didn't know when he came to
our worship service that night when the Lord saved him, he didn't
know what he was doing. He was just there. He showed
up. And he said, you know, I just think, well, what if I had not
come? There was no way to miss it. There was no other alternative. No other path to go. God ordained
it. God purposed it. You didn't know
it, but He did. The only way you know it, I've
experienced it. Have you experienced the grace
of God? The faith in Christ? Faith in Christ is the only manifestation
of our election. We believe because we were called.
We were predestinated and He called us. Now listen, this morning, pay
attention, I'm calling all of you. Come in. I call every man. I don't know who the elect are,
so I just call everybody. That's what God tells me to do.
Just call everybody, and I'll pick out the ones that are mine.
My business is to call everybody. Come in. Come in. Come to Christ. Repent, and you shall be saved. This is God. I don't contradict
the Gospel to do that. God tells me to preach the gospel
to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. This is our message. Come in. Come in while there's
room. Come in while there's time. Come
in. Believe in Christ. I earnestly compel you to come
in. I do with all my heart. I want
everyone in this place to come in. Can you come? Then come. If you can, come. I tell you,
if you can't, you should plead that you can. Ask. But only those who are called
by the Holy Spirit can know their election. Now we who are the elect of God,
let us by this see our comfort. Look at your text again. Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Are you His elect
as He called you? Then listen to me. Who lays any
charge to you? Who? Anybody. Name them. Who? I know this. You charge you.
Don't you? Don't your conscience charge
you? Does not Satan come and accuse
you? tempts you to sin, you sin. It's not his fault, it's yours.
You sin willingly. And then he whispers, how in
the world could you ever consider yourself a child of God and do
such a thing? What is he doing? He's charging you. He's charging
you. But listen, none of these charges
will ever stick. Why? It is God that justified
you. It is God that justified you. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God who called us and it
is God who declares that you are without charge. So what then does your feelings
or Satan's accusations have to do with you? If God says you're
without sin, then listen to me, you are without sin. I didn't say it, the book did.
I wouldn't dare say such a thing if the book didn't say it. I wouldn't dare believe such
a thing if the book didn't say it. If God didn't say it. We by nature are condemned. We are the children of wrath,
even as others, but God is rich in mercy, wherewith is great
love, wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins. Hath quickened us together with
Christ. This is how God justifies you. He puts you in union with
his Son. One of my favorite passages has
been this last month has got to be in Isaiah chapter 6 verse
9. Unto us a child is born. Unto us a son is given. His humanity
and his deity. Child-born, humanity, Son-given,
deity, God-man, and the government shall be upon His shoulders."
In other words, the whole kingdom of God rests upon His shoulders
to perform the work of redemption. See, the whole of the elect's
justification did not rest in any measure upon you. The reason
you're not going to be charged has nothing to do with you. It
has everything to do with Him. You shall not be charged because
He is your representative. And so everything He does, you
get. And everything you did, He pays for. That's why you have
no sin, to charge. Because of Him. It's by grace
you are saved. You were quickened together with
Him. By grace you are saved. See,
believer, we were justified of God in Christ. Our sins were
imputed to Christ and He has paid them with His blood. God
seeing no more sin raised Him from the dead. And all of His
elect have been raised with Him. Thus we were justified by God
in Christ. But I tell you, we had no claim
to it. You can't have claim to it until
you're called. Except God call you. Except you come to God by
Christ, you'll never have claim in that. Do you believe on the Son of
God? Yes. Then you should rejoice. You
should find comfort concerning this indwelling trouble you have.
You should find comfort in this. God chose you for this purpose,
to justify you. Who then can lay any charge to
you? Any accusation to you? No one. Why? Because we were chosen to this.
God justified us. Friends, what good would it do If some man or some priest said
that to you, some preacher, if he comes up and says, I absolve
you from your sins, what good would that do? It wouldn't do
you any good because our sins are not against him, right? So
he has really no hope of justifying us. Our sin is against God. Our sin is against God. And so
who do we need to justify us? God. Now, if you were to kill
one of my children, and it's been possible in any
human sense for me to forgive you, but say that God had given
me some amount of grace so that I might have compassion and forgive
you for murdering my children. Would that also absolve you from
the state? No, because you broke a state
law or a federal law by murdering the child. Now listen, if you
sin against me, I may forgive you. But that does not absolve this,
that you sin not against me, but against God. So then who
has to justify? Only God can justify. Only God
can forgive sins. Only God can justify. Listen
what God says to his elect. I, even I, am he that blotteth
out thy transgression. Listen why he does it. For mine
own namesake. And will not remember thy sins.
What does it mean to be justified? It means that God has blotted
out your sins. But He cannot and will not ever look upon them
again. It is only against God we sin.
Therefore, if we are to find any comfort in this matter of
sin, we have to know, does God justify me? Am I justified before
God? I don't care if I'm justified
before men. Am I justified before God? Did your sin trouble you? Do
you accuse you and feel the weight and guilt of your sin? Paul asked,
who shall lay anything to your charge since God has justified
you? Since you have been chosen to
this, ordained to this, and Christ has accomplished this, who in
the world? Nothing. They can't charge you
with anything. Anything. Look, believer, the
elect of God, our justification is not unjust. You know what?
He doesn't unjustly justify you. We have that a lot today in our
court system, don't they? People just getting off scot-free.
And they call it what? Love, mercy. God can't do that. God can't really justify you
by just winking at your sins. That sin, in order for God to
justify you, must be paid for. God cannot just overlook sin. He must pay for it. But God sends us to do this.
He says, Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith the Lord.
Speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, Warfare is
accomplished. Her iniquity is pardoned, for she hath received
double at the Lord's hand, all for all her iniquity. In other
words, God says, I'm going to justify you because of a payment.
Because of a payment. Now look at this second part
here. He says, Who is he that condemneth? Condemnation. One thing to accuse somebody,
it's another thing to condemn them, right? People can charge
you with things all day long, but this matter of condemnation
has to do with judicial things. Condemnation is the execution
of a sentence against a crime. Imagine if a police officer came
to you and hauled you out of your house, brought you before
a judge, and the judge says, okay, what's the charge? And
the policeman Well, I don't have a charge. And the judge says,
well, how can I condemn him without a charge? Who shall lay anything
to charge? And if there's no charge, then
there's no what? Condemnation. Condemnation. And now he gives
us this fourfold reason for our justification. Look at the first
one. This is why God can justify you. This is why you can sleep
at night. This is why you can lay your head down in comfort
and die in peace. Here it is. You're justified
and you're not charged with anything for this. It is Christ that died. You see, by his death, the just
penalty of the law on account of our sin was executed and satisfied. I'll say it again, when Christ
died, The just penalty for our sins was both executed and satisfied. The justice of God's law. Forever. Forever. We know God's justice and absolution
for our sins could not be done unjustly. God could never pardon
or forgive us except His justice be satisfied and sin be paid
for. Atonement must be made by Christ
in order for God to ever justify us. This was set forth in the
types and shadows of the law. Under that dispensation of the
law, the scripture says almost all things were sanctified with
blood. And listen, without the shedding
of blood is what? No remission. That's what the
law proved. That's a principle God laid out
in the law. That without blood, there's no
justification. Without blood, there's no atonement.
Without blood, there's no salvation. Blood must be shed in order for
a sinner to be accepted. And this, Paul says, was a pattern
of things. Not the very things, but patterns
of them. For Christ is not entering into
the holy place made with hands, which are figures of the true,
but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God
for us. Nor yet should he offer himself often as the priest entered
in the holy place with their blood every year, the blood of
others. For then he must suffer since the foundation of the world.
But listen. But now once at the end of the world he hath appeared
to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself as it is appointed
unto men once to die, but after this the judgment. So Christ
was offered once to bear the sins of many. And unto them that
look for him the second time he shall appear without sin unto
salvation. Why? Why is he going to appear
without sin? Because he paid for it. Because
sin has been forever put away. This is how you're justified.
Because Christ bore your sins in His own body, and God laid
out and poured out the justice that you deserve onto Him. And He died in your stead. He died in your place. For you. For what purpose? that nobody
could charge you, much less condemn you, for any sin. That passage I just read to you
in Isaiah, it says, the Lord hath received double for all your sins. You know,
we're not going to get into heaven by the skin of our teeth. You're going to get into heaven
and be welcomed into heaven just as welcome as Christ Himself
was welcomed into heaven. He didn't make it by the skin
of His teeth, did He? Oh no. He busted it wide open with glory
and praise and honor. That's how you're going to enter
heaven. Why? Because He bore your sins in His own body. He
paid for them. They are doubly paid for. His
sacrifice was so good so acceptable that God put them away forever,
casting them behind His back, never able to look at them again. Why? They're paid for. They're
blotted out with a thick cloud of blood. Christ's blood. That's why you're justified,
and that's why you shall never be condemned. Therefore, the
death, the death, His death, utterly forbids the condemnation
of God's elect. You get that? His death forbids
it. He forbids it. None for whom
Christ died can ever be condemned, for His death has forever satisfied
the justice of God once for all. We all like that song. Free from
the law, O happy condition, Jesus has bled and there is remission.
Cursed by the law and bruised by the fall, Christ hath redeemed
us once for all. There on the cross, your burden
upbearing, thorns on His brow your Savior was wearing, never
again your sin need appall. You have been pardoned once for
all. Once for all, O sinner, receive
it. Once for all, O brother, believe it. Cling to the cross, the burden
will fall. Christ hath redeemed us once
for all. You got any question about your
sin? Any concern about your sin? This first pillar is important.
Christ died. Not only this, secondly, Christ
rose again from the dead. Christ rose again from the dead. This is the second pillar. Christ
is risen. Now if Christ had died for our
sins but failed to rise again, what would be the result? You
would be condemned. That's what Paul tells them in
1 Corinthians 15. He says, if Christ be not risen,
then we are preaching His vain and your faith is vain. In other
words, I'm a false prophet and your faith is foolishness, empty. If Christ is still in the tomb,
that means He failed to pay for all our sins. And we cannot be
justified if all of our sins are not paid for. So here's the
second pillar. God raised Him from the dead.
So how do you know you can't be charged? How do you know you
can't be condemned? Well, God chose you to it and
justified you in Christ before the world was. When He called
you to this, you understand this, that all your hope is dependent
on His blood to pay. And all your life and faith is
dependent upon His resurrection. Why do you think men spend so
much time trying to disprove His resurrection? Because it
hinges, all of our justification hinges on that resurrection.
You know, in the book of Acts, they spend so much time in every
message on what? The resurrection. Why? It's important. If He's still in the tomb, there's
no hope for us. But He is risen. You know, there are more men
that have seen Christ alive after His death than signed the Declaration
of Independence. 500, Paul said, had seen Him
alive. Not to mention all the apostles
and their word that they had. I tell you, He's risen. How do
I know I'm not going to be charged or condemned? The tomb is empty. The tomb is empty. The third
pillar is this. Look back at your text. He says,
"...it is Christ that died, yea, rather is risen again." Listen,
"...who is ever at the right hand of God." Now this language
is taken from earthly monarchs who used to honor men by allowing
them to sit at their right hand. And I tell you this, The Scripture
says in Hebrews 1, it says, He being the brightness of His glory,
the express image of His person, upholding all things by the word
of His power. When He had by Himself purged our sin, God raised
Him from the dead and sat down at the right hand of the Majesty
on high. You know how I'm not going to be charged with sin?
Because my Savior is glorified by God Himself. God honors my Master. God honors
my Savior. He raised Him from the dead,
and He says this, that every knee shall bow at My Savior's
feet. It's giving Him a name above
every name, and everyone's going to bow at His feet. But this
has something more to do than just honoring Him. This shows
that His work is done. I know this. I'm not going to
be charged with sin, and I'm not going to be condemned with
my sin, because He sat down. In other words, the work is done.
There's nothing more to do. What else you got to do? To be
justified before God, what do you got to do? What justifies this? Blood. Shedding any blood? Nope. Making
any offerings? Absolutely not. What's left for
me? Nothing. There's only one offering. It's
already made. He's risen. God honored him. And he sat down.
Work's done. I'm not going to be charged because
the work's done. Christ said, it is finished. There's something
deep and theological for you to take with you. It's finished. It's finished. I don't feel finished. I don't
care. It's finished. I still feel condemned. It's
done. What does my feelings have to
do with it? They change. They change often. But this doesn't
change. This pillar's forever. He sat
down. And look at the fourth pillar
of our justification. He ever liveth to make intercession for
us. The intercession of Jesus Christ is for us the last pillar
that holds up our perfect justification before God. And this pillar is
a daily and constant and perpetual and practical pillar. It's very
practical for us to understand this pillar. Why? Because we
still have this rotten corpse about our neck. Believer in Christ, are you yet
without sin? Are you yet completely free of
the presence of sin? No. No, with any amount of honesty
you have to say no. I know a lot of fools believe
they are. But we know we're not. But if we say, John said, if
we say we're without sin, what? We make him a liar. I ain't making him a liar. No, he's not. I'm the liar. He's
not. We are still in this old frame
of body of death wrapped around our neck, dragging us into the
dust. And John says this though, He says, if we confess our sins,
He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins. That's good news.
How is that possible? Because He is our advocate, our
intercessor, daily, constantly, perpetually, pleading His wounds
before God concerning our sin. Daily. He says, John says, I'm going
to read it without having to butcher the passage. But 1 John
chapter 2, after he says, Faithful and just, forgive us our sins.
He said, My little children, these things I write unto you, that you sin
not. Believe it, don't sin. Well, you don't have to tell
me that. I know, I don't want to sin.
Look at this. And if any man sin, that word
if is better translated when. It's not just a matter of if
you sin, it's just a matter of when. You sin constantly. If any man sin, here is our hope
daily. It's a constant pillar of practical
application. We have an advocate with the
Father. Jesus Christ the righteous that
daily washes us from all our sins. Daily. constantly, perpetually,
washes us from our sins. When you go into the ocean, you
go out and swim in the ocean a little while, a lot of water,
wash yourself. You can get all cleaned up in
the ocean if you want to. But as soon as you step out,
what happens? Dirty feet. Isn't that constantly
the way it is? You come in the worship service
and you feel washed. As soon as you step out the door,
what happens? Your feet are dirty again. So
what do you need? You need to be washed. That's
why David said, wash me. Why? You need daily washing.
Even though my sin is gone, in my experience it's not gone.
I need my conscience to be cleansed. And so where is that cleansing
coming from? How do I know that today He's going to cleanse me?
Because He ever liveth to make intercession for us. So then,
again, dealing with this first problem of sin. Who can lay anything
to your charge? It's God justified me. Well,
who can condemn you? Christ had died, risen again,
sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. And fourthly,
we see this last one, He daily, perpetually, constantly intercedes
for us. A four-fold justification. Four-fold
justification. I just lay down on it, rest on
it. My God, how wonderful He is to
me. That the sin I can't forget,
He won't ever remember. And one day I'll be completely
experienced the fullness of His justification when I see Him face to face.
I pray that God bless this to our hearts. Stand be dismissed
in prayer.