I want to turn in your Bibles
to John, the book of John, chapter 5. I've decided to take a detour
from our study in Exodus at least this one week and take a look
at a verse that I was reading this last week and it intrigued
me. And so that's why we're here. John, chapter 5. The words of
our Lord Jesus Christ, the words of all of Scripture, but I find
especially The words of the Lord Himself are like arrows that
pierce and go deep into the heart when you read them and see something
about what the Lord actually intends. His words were very
plain and direct and without a mixture of guile or any kind
of deceit or hypocrisy. He didn't withhold the truth
from difficult situations. He always spoke directly and
to the heart, even when it hurt. And so in John 5, there's this
account of a man who was 38 years at the pool of Bethesda, maybe
not there all the time, but certainly 38 years in the situation where
he couldn't get up. And he was at this pool in Bethesda
waiting for the water to move. And Jesus asked him if he wanted
to be healed. And and the man responded really
kind of in a funny way. But I'm not going to go over
that account right now. You can read it in your in your
own time. But he he told the Lord he was
impotent and he told the Lord he had no one to put him in the
water. But the Lord Jesus was standing in front of him. who
didn't need the water to be troubled to put him in. But nevertheless,
he was basically unaware of who Jesus was, unaware of his power,
unaware of what was about to happen. And when the Lord asked
him if he would be healed, he said the words that Jesus used
in verse six of John 5, wilt thou be made whole, which is,
are you willing to be made whole? They basically be saved in the
way that God saves. He didn't seem to get it. And
that seems to me to be a problem with this man. Nevertheless,
in spite of his ignorance and impotence, the Lord raised him
up. The rest of this chapter is about
the conflagration or the whole mess that came out, the concern,
the angst that came out of the Pharisees because of what Jesus
did, because he did it on the Sabbath day. And they assaulted
the Lord with words. They didn't actually lay hands
on Him at this time. And He explained to them that
He was the Son of God. He was sent from God. He did
God's will. And God the Father had given
Him to have life in Himself and gave all judgment to Him and
that He only did the works of His Father. All these things
He stacked up, statement upon statement, claim upon claim,
confirming to these men that He was indeed God, but He was
also man. He was the God-man, the mediator
who came to save His people from their sins. And we pick it up
in verse 39, and I want to focus especially on verse 44, but let's
read through from 39 to 47. He says, "...search the Scriptures,"
Jesus says to those men, even though that was an indicative
to tell them to do it, or it was an indication I'm in a command
or it was an indication that they actually did. But he says,
search the scriptures. And I understand it as you do
search the scriptures for in them, you think you have eternal
life. And they are they which testify
of me, the whole of scripture testifies to the Lord Jesus Christ,
that's the point of scripture. Now, that's another claim that
he's making here. He is the one sent from God in
all of Scripture, he says, testifies to him. Now, that's important
to understand that, because by understanding that his claim,
that Scripture testifies to him, he's going to prove that they
are actually opposite to what they claim to be. And he says
in verse 40, even though the scripture testifies to me in
verse 40, you will not come to me that you might have life. You search the scriptures, thinking
that by searching and knowing and hearing and even doing the
scriptures, you trust that by what you do, what the scriptures
say, you have eternal life. But you will not come to me that
you might have life. You will not come to me. You
will not. And that's the sad state of every
man. No man will come to the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is the fact of Scripture.
In our nature, the way we are in ourselves, without the grace
of God, we will not come to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's
why we cannot. Our will, our nature, is so inclined
to evil. We can only do what's wrong.
We can do things. I can drive my car or ride my
bike. I'll sit down or stand up. I
can do natural things. But when it comes to doing right,
my nature is such that I'll always go the wrong way. I'll think
the wrong thoughts. I'll say things. I'll mix in
evil with my attempts to be good, even in the best situation. And
it's sad. But the greatest thing that we
do naturally against God is we will not come to the Lord Jesus
Christ to have life. We are those who forsake our
own mercies by nature. Verse 41, Jesus says this, I
receive not honor from men. I receive not honor from men. He doesn't mean that men don't
honor him and that men ought not to honor him. That's not
what he means. What he means here is that it's not his aim
to gain the favor, the approval and the honor of men. He didn't
come to receive accolades from men. Why did he come? He came
to do his father's will, to receive honor from God, to honor his
father. So he says in verse 42, but I
know you, in contrast to me, he says, but I know you that
you have not the love of God in you. How does he know that
they don't have the love of God in them? Well, if you love God,
then you love those that God loves. And God loves His Son. And they hated Him. And therefore
He can say plainly, I know you, that you have not the love of
God in you. And then He says in verse 43, this is another
accusation against them. to shut them up to their sin,
but also to explain something to them. He says, I am come in
my father's name. To come in his father's name
means he was sent by his father, sent with God's word, sent with
God's message, sent to those God sent him. Sent to achieve,
to accomplish the will that God sent him to do. Sent to glorify
his father. In short, he was come to honor
his father. He says here, I don't receive
honor from men, but in this verse he's basically saying, I do honor
my father. And he says, and you receive
me not. So the conclusion is, If you
don't receive me and what I'm doing is in my father's name,
then what does that mean about my father? You don't receive
my father. Jesus said this in another place.
He says, if they receive you, then they receive me. And if
they receive me, then they receive him that sent me. You can't reject
the message. and not reject the one who sent
the message. If we reject Christ, we reject
His Father. And these men clearly rejected
the Lord Jesus Christ. They made no bones about it.
They didn't love God because they rejected Him. It was their
evidence that they didn't love God. But listen to what he says
further. He says, If another shall come
in his own name, him you will receive. Him you will receive. If someone else comes in his
name, you will receive him. But here he says in verse, look
what it says in verse 44. This is where I want to focus
the rest of our attention. He says, How can you believe
which receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that comes
from God only? How can you believe which receive
honor one of another and seek not the honor that comes from
God only? So I've entitled this message
The honor that comes from God only. The honor that comes from
God only. Now, when we look at the Scripture,
it's very amazing to me, at least at first glance, that God would
honor men. Is it true? Does God honor men? And when I ask those questions,
We might have thoughts about whether that's true or not. But
ultimately, we have to think, what does the scripture say?
And I'll read a passage to you clearly from this. He says, you
do not seek the honor that comes from God only. So he's saying
that there is an honor that does come from God. But listen to
these words from First Samuel, chapter two and verse 30. This is the setting here is that
Eli was old. He had two sons, Hophni and Phinehas,
and they were evil men. They were appointed to the priest's
office and they abused it. They made God's people hate the
worship of God. The way they treated the people,
the way they treated the sacrifice made the people not want to come
to the Lord's house and to offer what God had commanded them to
offer. And so it says in verse 30, among other things, God says
to Eli through the prophet, the Lord God of Israel sayeth, I
said indeed that thy house and the house of thy father should
walk before me forever. But now the Lord sayeth, be it
far from me. Listen to these words carefully.
For them that honor me, I will honor. You see that? Them that
honor me, I will honor. And they that despise me shall
be lightly esteemed. Now, Jesus says here in John
5, 44, How can you believe which receive honor one of another
and seek not the honor that comes from God only? In one place,
I recall Paul saying to the Corinthians, you compare yourselves amongst
yourselves. That's not wise. That's not wise. Why? Because when we compare
ourselves amongst ourselves, we're looking at ourselves through
the eyes of others. We're assessing our own condition
and state before God. by what other people think or
by what we ourselves think of ourselves. And that's fundamentally
flawed. In fact, this verse in John 5,
44, he says, How can you believe which receive honor one of another
and seek not the honor that comes from God only? Really, what he's
saying here is that you can either honor God or you can honor men. You can either seek the approval
and favor of God Or you can seek the approval and the favor of
men. But you can't seek both. You can't have both things. And
that, I think, is a summary of what the religion of men naturally
is. It's seeking. It's perceiving
ourselves through other people's assessment of ourselves. Always
doing what we do or saying what we say, looking the way we look,
thinking about our appearance, or how we're perceived by others
as the rule of how we behave ourselves. And I found this to
be so common in all of the years that I attended church. It seemed
like that people who go to church especially try to do what they
do to look like other people who are called Christians and
they understand what a Christian, a good Christian is. Whatever
a good Christian is, that's what I want to be. And so they do
that. And there's so many things that
come out of that. And it's sad to see it because
you go to one style of church, everyone's acting one way, you
go to another style, they're all acting a different way. They
all act differently depending upon who they're with. These are some things that are
not that important. We won't concern ourselves with
it, but I'll just give you some silly examples, perhaps. Sometimes
at a church, you'll hear people say amen all the time and other
people won't at another church. And then in the more extreme,
you'll see people waving their hands and saying things right
in the middle of the service or the way that they're always
saying things like, praise Jesus or something like that. And you'll
find those patterns in those churches because that's what
people do there. They're looking for and we fall
into this, don't we? It's not like what I'm telling
you is not a problem with each one of us. I'm telling you something
because I know myself and because the scripture has said these
things. But let's look at a few scriptures to see how this and
I'll give you a couple of examples here. Jesus says, first of all,
in this verse, how can you believe which receive honor one of another
and seek not the honor that comes from God? Let those words turn
over and over in your mind. How can you believe which receive
honor one of another and seek not the honor that comes from
God only? What does that mean? What does the Lord mean? How
can you believe which receive honor one of another and seek
not the honor that comes from God only? Isn't he saying here
that it's very, very important for us to seek the honor that
comes from God only? It's absolutely essential. If
we have the honor of God, think about what that means. God is
infinitely holy. God is infinite. He cannot do
any wrong. Think about how great God is.
No one can speak against God and bring against him any accusation. If God honors you, what else
is needed? But if God dishonors you, what
else do we have? We have nothing if we don't have
the honor of God. So I can see why it's important
here. But there's there's something
here that he's saying here that if you seek the honor of men,
it's like my little dog. If someone comes to my house
and pays him a lot of attention, my dog won't even listen to me.
You run to that person. And it's true, you've seen it.
And he's just a little dog, I can't blame him. I would be the same
way if I were a dog. You give him attention and that's
all he can think about. I remember when I was a kid,
it even happens now, the TV's on, my wife tries to say something
to me. I don't hear half of what she says because I'm distracted.
My attention is distracted. If you seek the honor of men,
you can't seek the honor of God too. So on a simple level, it's
just a distraction, isn't it? If you listen to rock music,
and someone's trying to talk to you, you're not going to hear
all of what they say, because your whole body is into this
whole thing of the music, right? And your attention is devoted
to that music, at least a large part of it is, and so you're
distracted. And so that's one thing. Your affection is split,
it's divided. And so we cannot please God and
men. We can't seek to please men if
we're going to please God. And thinking about distraction,
this verse in Ecclesiastes 9.17 came to my mind. It says this. Listen to these
words. The words of Solomon in Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, they
were like the words of the Lord Jesus. Very, very deep. Very deep. Listen to these words.
It says in Ecclesiastes 9.17, The words of wise men are heard
in quiet more than the cry of him that ruleth among fools.
Think about those words. The words of wise men are heard
in quiet more than the cry of him that rules among fools. What
the Lord is saying here is that even though God speaks quietly,
as it were, even though his word isn't shouting out in the streets,
yet when the gospel comes to us, even though it's a quiet
word, when God gives us the wisdom to hear it, that speaks volumes
to our heart. more than the cry of the whole
world's noise. But it takes God's grace to hear
it, doesn't it? The Lord Jesus says this in Luke
chapter 7, verse 31 through 35, that the people of his generation
could be compared to children. Children. Now, you've played
as a child. You've seen children play. And
children play, they're kind of demanding. They do certain things
and expect a response. And Jesus said, you guys are
like children. In chapter 7, Luke 7, verse 31 through 35,
he says, Where unto shall I liken the men of this generation, and
to what are they like? They are like to children, sitting
in the marketplace, calling to one another, and saying this,
We have piped unto you, and you have not danced. In other words,
we played music, but you didn't dance. And we mourned to you,
and you haven't wept. Where John the Baptist came neither
eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, he hath a devil.
But the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, behold,
a gluttonous man and a wine-bibber, a friend of publicans and sinners.
But wisdom is justified of all her children." So the men of
this generation were like children. They did all that they did to
try to get other people to respond to them. Listen to me. I'm giving
you cues. Why don't you follow those cues?
I'm listening to you. I mean, I do what I do. Come
on. Let's play the game. We're playing
a game here. Isn't it a game? I'm giving you
affection and attention for your favor. Now, when I do something,
you're supposed to acknowledge it. That's the way the whole
world works, isn't it? That's the way Hollywood works.
That's the way politics works. That's the way it works a lot
in the workplace. That's the way it works in most
situations in the world, because that's the way we naturally do
things. We seek men's attention and we
follow men's cues. And when we don't follow their
cues or seek their attention, what happens? Men are upset.
You're not giving them honor. And men who don't receive honor
get mad and they get upset with us. And so we're inclined to
avoid getting people angry and we want their attention so we
make ourselves look pretty. It's like someone who stands
in front of the mirror when they have a great internal sickness
and they make their face and their outward appearance look
good so that people will think well of them when actually they're
in a terrible situation inside. That's what God is talking about
here. We need to be real with God. Don't seek man's honor. At all,
seek God's honor. Jesus said this in Luke 16, verse
13 through 17. If you want to follow me along
there, this is a very powerful scripture. Luke 16, verse 13
through 17. He says, and think about it in
this context here. How can you believe which receive
honor one of another and seek not the honor that comes from
God only? He says in Luke 16, 13, no man
can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one
or and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise
the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. And mammon is just another reference
for things that give us confidence and comfort in this world. You
can't serve things. You can't put your trust in things
and trust in God. And the Pharisees also, who were
covetous, heard all these things, and they derided Him, and they
said to Him, Jesus said to them, that is, you, you Pharisees,
are they, listen carefully, which justify yourselves before men. You justify yourselves before
men. But God knows your hearts. You see, the issue is that men,
Deal with the outward appearance, that God deals with the heart. God only deals with the heart. You, Pharisees, justify yourselves
before men, but God knows your hearts. And then listen to these
words. For that which is highly esteemed
among men is abomination in the sight of God. What you're trying
to do to get honor from men, When you finally achieve it,
is an abomination in the eyes of God. That's amazing, isn't
it? And then he says these words,
The law and the prophets were until John, and since that time
the kingdom of God is preached and every man presseth into it.
And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than for one tittle
of the law to fail. So, here the Pharisees were concerned
about what they did in the esteem of other men. And that was their
full concentration of effort. All they thought about, Jesus
said, was what was happening on the outside. But then He adds
these words. The law and the prophets cannot
fail. Not one jot or tittle will fail
in those. And so He says this in Matthew
5. Turn over there. Matthew 5, verse 17. The Lord says in Matthew 5.17,
Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets. I am
not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say to you, Till
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise
pass from the law till all be fulfilled. Whosoever, therefore,
shall break one of these commandments and shall teach men so, he shall
be called least in the kingdom of heaven. But whosoever shall
do and teach them shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven."
Isn't that honor? For I say to you, listen carefully
to this, except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and Pharisees, you shall in no case enter into the kingdom
of heaven. You see, When we seek men's honor,
we're dishonest, aren't we? Because men always look at the
outside. We can put on a facade. And we
do put on facades. A hypocrite seeks the honor of
men. Jesus said this in Matthew 23,
5. He says, All that they do, they
do to be seen of men. All that they do, Pharisees,
scribes, hypocrites, He says, do all that they do to be seen
of men. God help us. God help us, because
naturally all of us are hypocrites. All of us do what we do to be
seen of men. How many times have you found
yourself agreeing to something that inwardly you said not? I
know that's not true. Or by saying something or avoiding
saying something because you knew that that would not meet
the approval or favor of men. And how many times do we feel
like our life might even be lived in such a way that everything
we do and did and our goals and everything was because of what
someone else thought? Those things gnaw at us, don't
they? What does it mean? What does
it mean to have the honor of God? That's the next thing I
want to look at. What does it mean to have the
honor? Jesus said here, How can you believe which receive honor
one of another and seek not the honor that comes from God only?
What does it mean to have the honor of God? Look at Romans
chapter 2. The honor that comes from God
only. And Romans chapter 2 gives us
insight into this. He says in Romans chapter 2, And I'll just pick up the reading
here in verse 4. The point of the flow of what's
being talked about here is that the Apostle Paul is convincing
the Jews who trusted in the law that their confidence was not
going to save them. Trusting in their ability to
keep the law was going to fail them. Basically, he was teaching
what we're trying to understand today Right now, and so he says
in verse 4, Do you despise the riches of his goodness and forbearance
and longsuffering, not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth
thee to repentance? But after thy hardness and impenitent
heart, impenitent just means you will not turn, treasurest
up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation
of the righteous judgment of God. Look at verse 6. who will
render to every man according to his deeds." God is so just. God cannot do unjustly. He will do what's right. And that's both a comfort and
a dread, isn't it? You see, the wisdom of God starts
with the fear of God, and the fear of God has this at its low
point, at the foundation of it, God knows me, and you can't fool
Him. You can't pull the wool over
God's eyes. So, He will render to every man according to his
deeds. To them, look at this, who by patient continuance in
well-doing seek for what? For glory and honor. and immortality,
eternal life. In other words, God says here
to those who patiently, continually do well and do well to honor
God, this is what God will do. They will have glory and honor
and immortality and eternal life. But it's to them that are contentious
and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation
and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth
evil, of the Jew first and also the Gentile, because there's
no respect of persons with God. It doesn't matter how old or
young, how rich or poor, how smart or how simple you are. God rewards every man according
to his deeds. He's infinitely just. Verse 10,
but glory, look at this, glory, honor, and peace to every man
that worketh good, to the Jew first and also to the Gentile,
for there's no respect of persons with God. Here's the way, in
these verses, God says men receive honor from God, patient continuance
in well-doing, and to him that worketh good. You see that? What
does God say that God will give them? Glory, honor, immortality,
eternal life. Those are the things. He's going
to basically give them three things. Glory, honor and peace. Those who do well, continually
and patiently do well. That's what it means. Now, look
over at chapter 3 of Romans. Now, that isn't good news. I
don't know if you are one of the Pharisees, you would say,
no problem, I kind of like that. I've been doing fine all my life.
If you ask me, from my youth up, I've kept the commandments.
And Jesus, in fact, when the rich young ruler came to Jesus,
he says, Master, what good thing should I do to have eternal life? And Jesus says, if you keep the
commandments, you'll enter into life. Keep the commandments.
Isn't that what we just read? The terms of the law say to receive
the honor of God, to receive honor from God, you must honor
God. Isn't that what 1 Samuel 2.30
says? To them that honor me, I will honor. But those who despise
me were lightly esteemed. If you honor God, God will honor
you. That's plain. That's what it
says. Jesus says, how can you believe
that receive honor of men and do not seek the honor that comes
from God only? So if we're to have honor from
God, then we have to honor God. And according to Romans 2.7,
honoring God means patiently, continually doing well. And in
Romans 2.10, He says, it's him that works good. And God gives
glory, honor and peace to all that do. And God is not a respecter
of persons. He will invariably, unfailingly
do that. But look at Romans 3.23. I know you've read it before.
You've probably quoted it. You've probably said it a hundred times.
Romans 3.23. For all have sinned. And look
at the next words carefully. Come short of the glory of God. You see that come short of the
glory. What does it mean to come short?
It means that there's it's like a race and I'm running in the
race. And as I'm running in the race,
suddenly I lose complete strength and I have to stop and drop out
of the race. And at the end of the race, there's
a prize. The prize is the honor and glory
that comes from God. And the race is honoring God.
And in this race, I run out of strength. Why? Because I've sinned.
All have sinned and fallen short, come short of the prize of obtaining
the honor that comes from God only. That's what he's saying
here. All have sinned. And that leaves us with a problem.
We know now what the honor of God is. The honor of God is God
giving glory. And when he says glory there,
it's the same word that's used In Romans 2.10, where he says,
glory, honor and peace to every man that works good. The word
there for glory is the same word that says that Jesus appeared
in his glory on the Mount of Transfiguration. It means that
God gives basically eternal life in his presence with his full
favor towards all such to whom he gives that honor. All of God's
favor in his presence eternally, God giving that recognition,
that honor to all who honor him. So I would love to have that
honor. Think about this. The other part
was glory and honor and honor. There is the same word that's
used in John 5, 44, where he says, That how can you believe
if you seek honor from men and seek not the honor that comes
from God only? It's the same word, honor. It
means recognition. And what would it mean for God
to recognize a man? Well, understand what he's saying
here in Romans 2, 7 and 10. He's saying by doing the law,
by honoring God with what we do, in honoring him, that he's
going to reward us with honor. And that honor means that God's
going to say this about us. He's going to say, that man,
he has perfectly kept and conformed in all points to my law. Perfectly. There's no lack. I can find no failing. He's actually achieved all that
I've set out for him to do to honor me. He's done it. And such
a man. In the presence of God, before
all of the angels and saints and everybody there, can you
imagine the honor that God would bestow to say such things about
a person? The holy God who cannot lie. Everything that He says is certainly
true to say, this one has done it all. That's honor, isn't it? And peace, He says in Romans
2.10. Peace. Because all that God would so
honor are So at peace in His presence that they could look
into the face of God and see Him without any reluctance or
feeling of shame. I don't know about you, but I
don't have any confidence that I would have honor like that. Because it says right here, all
have sinned, all have sinned and come short of that honor
from God, that glory from God. We've already missed it. But
then we have to ask this question. If that is the honor, that is
the honor that God gives the recognition, basically it means
that God has declared a man to be right, to be just in his eyes. If that's what God gives as honor
and then he gives eternal life to such a man. And yet all have
sinned and fallen short of that honor. then how can anyone achieve,
how can anyone obtain the honor that comes from God only? Jesus says, how can you believe
which receive honor one of another and seek not the honor that comes
from God only? And here the answer is actually
given to us in Romans 3.24. Notice these words. And sweeter
words cannot be found in Scripture. Romans 3, 24. Notice, being justified. You see the word justified? It's
important that we understand this word very carefully. Justified. What does it mean to be justified?
Well, first of all, who does the justifying? God does. A man cannot justify himself. Jesus told the Pharisees, you
are they which justify yourselves among men. Justified. What does it mean? Well, if you
go to court and there's a case in court and the judge looks
at the evidence and comes to a conclusion, and the person
has done nothing wrong, what does the judge say? Not guilty. Not guilty. And what does that
mean? That means the judge has cleared
you, right? You're clear. You're not guilty. You're just,
the judge says to you. You did justly. I can see that what you did in
this matter was just. That's what it means to be justified,
to be declared by God to be just. It means to be declared by God
to perfectly conform to everything God requires in His law. That's what it means to be just.
And to all who are just before God, God honors them. God honors them. But look at
Romans 3, 24 carefully. He says being justified. How
do we become justified? Well, look back up at verse 20. By the law. I'm sorry, verse
20, therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh
be justified in his sight. In other words, even though if
a man hypothetically were to keep the whole law, Yet God is
saying here, because He knows men and He knows our condition,
absolutely no man on earth has ever done that. No one has ever
done it. All have sinned and fallen short
of the prize of obtaining God's glory, His honor. No man is just
before God, and no man can be just by what he does. That's
what this means. He says, that by the deeds of
the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, because
by the law is the knowledge of sin. The law, every jot and tittle,
Jesus says, must be fulfilled. And unless your righteousness
exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you
can't enter heaven. And so he says here in verse
24, that even though that's the case, all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, yet being justified freely. You see the word freely? It means
without cause. In John 15, Jesus said, they
hated me without cause. And that's what he means here.
Without any cause that God can find in the person he justifies,
God justifies him. Now, that's not the way it works
in our court. God does. I mean, our courts look at what
you've done. And if and if and if what you've done doesn't measure
up to the law, you're guilty. Right? God has already run that
courtroom, and He says, all have sinned and come short of the
glory of God. All are guilty. All are under
the wrath of God by what they've done, by who they are. And we
would naturally ask the question, then, is there no hope for obtaining
the glory of God? But here, God graciously gives
the answer. Look at verse 21. Romans 3, but
now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested.
In other words, the very righteousness of God is made known now, where
it wasn't made known before. Up to this time, we've been talking
about the righteousness of men. But now, he says, the righteousness
of God is introduced. And it's witnessed by the Law
and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. There's
no difference. All have sinned and come short of the glory of
God being justified freely with no cause found in you. God justifies
you. How? By His grace. By His grace. That means Freely
and by grace are really redundant here. He could have just said
justified by grace, by His grace, and that would have been clear,
but He doubles it up to show us this has nothing to do with
what you do. No action on your part, no virtue
found in you, no experience you can come up with, no behavior,
especially outward behavior. You're not going to reproduce
any inward behavior, but nothing you can do can change you in
order for God to justify you. God justifies freely, and it's
by His grace. It's an act of God's free and
sovereign grace, without any consideration for what He finds
in you, but all consideration for what He finds in the obedience
of His Son. That's what he means when he
says, now, now the righteousness of God without the law, without
your own personal obedience to the law is introduced. It's made
known by God. And that righteousness, that
righteousness, he says, is given to all that believe. He says,
being justified freely by his grace. Notice the next words
carefully. Through. the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. The redemption. Big word. What
does it mean? To be redeemed means that someone has laid down
the price to pay what was necessary to free you from prison and debt
and to set you at free and to give you back what was yours
by inheritance. And the Lord Jesus Christ took
the sin of his people as his own. It says in 2 Corinthians
5.21, God has made him sin. Made him sin. And having been
made sin, he yielded up perfect sacrifice of himself. as the
sinner, as one who had sinned and yielded to God full satisfaction
for that sin. All the penalty God required
of us, from us, for our sin, God found in His Son. He satisfied
His justice with what He did to the Lord Jesus Christ in punishing
Him for our sin. And because of that, payment
was made. And when Jesus did that, He was
also the Redeemer. He was the one who took the debt
as His own and paid all that He paid in order that He might
pay off the debt of His people and give to God a perfect righteousness. A perfect righteousness. The
righteousness of God. Do you know what the righteousness
of God is? The righteousness of God means
God himself cannot find anything that he could possibly add to
it in order to make it more righteous. It's God's righteousness. And
he says the righteousness of God is given and that's the basis
of our justification before God. Our justification before God.
Because that's the way God justifies us. He looks at the obedience. Look at Romans chapter five and
verse 19. First of all, look at Romans
four, verse 25, the very last verse of Romans four. The Lord
Jesus was delivered up, was delivered for our offenses or because of
our offenses. And he was raised again for or
because of our justification. He went to death because of our
sin. He rose from the dead because
God received full payment from him. And since God received full
payment, like the judge, he said, everything is satisfied here.
All righteousness has been completely established. Such a righteousness
that it's everlasting. In the Lord Jesus Christ told
his disciples, when you have done the whole law, when you've
done everything that's required of you, say this, I am an unprofitable
servant. When Jesus had done everything
God required of him, guess what God said? Very profitable. Everlasting righteousness has
been established because his merits, look at Romans chapter
5 and 19, he says, As by one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. That's Adam. By one man's disobedience,
many were made sinners. That's me and you. We were made
sinners because when God created Adam, he made him the representative,
the head, the man who acted for all of his children. And God
said, what you do is considered theirs. And his disobedience
was our sin. By one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners. Even so, by the obedience of
one shall many be made righteous." By the obedience of one. That
one is the Lord Jesus Christ. By His obedience, and His only,
many are made righteous. You see that? It's the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we're justified freely by
His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now
look back at John, chapter 5, verse 44. He says, How can you
believe which receive honor one of another and seek not the honor
that comes from God only? Now, as men, we're naturally
hypocrites. We naturally are willing to accept
the judgment of men to see if we're good or not. We will even
accept the judgment of our own mind and conscience. And if it's
too sensitive, we'll continually bludgeon it until it stops speaking
and we feel good about ourselves. How many times have you heard
people say on TV, you need to just forgive yourselves and everything
will be fine. Those are indications that there's
something so deeply wrong with us and we can't find a solution
for it. So The only answer we can come
up with is just stop thinking about it. Just stop beating yourself
up over that. You just need to get over it.
That's not the way God says to do it. God does not say, just
forgive yourself and everything will be okay. God says, seek
the honor that comes from God only. And if you seek the honor
that comes from God only, then you will say, You will honor
God by what God has said about yourself. And what does God say? All have sinned. All have already
dishonored God. All are in the state of hypocrisy
and receiving from men honor and not in the state of giving
God honor. All men justify themselves instead
of justifying God. But when God does His work, And
His work starts in eternity. His work was in the Lord Jesus
Christ when the Lord Jesus Christ stretched forth Himself and gave
Himself up for the sins of His people and obeyed God perfectly.
He honored His Father. Isn't that what He says here
in John? He says, I come in My Father's name. I come in My Father's
name. And in fact, He says, I'm just
reading from verse 23, that all that all men should honor the
son, even as they honor the father. He that honoreth not the son,
honoreth not the father which hath sent him. Well, that doesn't
make the point I was trying to make. But the Lord Jesus Christ honored
his father by what he did. There's no doubt about that.
He says, I don't receive honor from men. I did come in my father's
name. And he does honor his father. You see, that's what he says
in Matthew 5 we read earlier. Don't think that I came to destroy
the law and the prophets. I did not come to destroy the
law. I didn't come to destroy it.
I came to fulfill it. And that's the honor. That's
the righteousness that exceeds the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees. So in John chapter five, he says,
How can you believe which receive honor one of another and seek
not the honor that comes from God only? If we seek man's honor,
we're satisfied with what they say. If we're satisfied with
what men say, we don't care what God says. And if we don't care
what God says, then we won't seek to honor God and we won't
seek his honor because we have the honor of men. But the truth
of the gospel is this. We have already dishonored God.
We've already fallen short of receiving honor from Him. The
only way we can honor God is by looking to the Lord Jesus
Christ, who alone honored God. He's the one who obeyed from
the heart, the soul, the mind, and the strength. With all of
His heart, soul, mind, and strength, He did that. And He did it Not
in order so he could get something for himself, but for his people
to bring honor to his father. He glorified his father in his
death, in his obedience. He sought the honor of God, and
he established an everlasting righteousness by that. A righteousness
which God cannot add anything to. And that's the honor that
honors God. And he says to us, Don't pretend. Don't be satisfied with anything
less than the righteousness of God before God. And the only
way that that righteousness can be there is if the Lord Jesus
Christ obeys His Father. And He tells us to look to Him,
to believe on Him, being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. How can we believe if
we don't seek God's honor? We can't. But if we seek God's
honor, we will believe. Because believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ gives honor to God. That's the only thing that gives
honor to God from us. And it doesn't even come from
us. In fact, if we believe, God has already honored us. He's
given us faith to look to the Lord Jesus. And if we believe
on the Lord Jesus, we honor God. You know what Jesus said? about
those who were given talents. And then he came and found what
they had earned from those talents. And some men had earned some,
and others had... another man had wasted his talent. He says, take from him that had
one talent and give it to the man who had ten talents. And
someone said, Lord, he already has ten. And Jesus said, because
everyone who has more will be given. To everyone who has, more
will be given. But to him that has not, even
that which he seems to have will be taken from him." When God
gives us faith, He not only gives us faith, but He gives us all
things. Because faith looks to Christ
and honors God by saying, Christ alone has honored Him. God said
to Eli, them that honor Me, I will honor. And how we honor God is
by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the grace God
gives. And when we have that, you know
what God says? He looks at the righteousness of His Son and
He says, everything has been met here. No lack. And all debt has been paid. And
I'm so satisfied that I'm going to give eternal life to everyone
for whom He died. And He's happy to do that. His
justice cries out to reward this one with eternal life, with glory
and honor and peace. And God is at peace with us because
He's received from the Lord Jesus Christ everything He requires
of us. And He's received it in the greatest
abundance possible. It wasn't like it was a second
choice, an alternative He had to take because we failed. He
took this up on the outset. He received the greatest honor
possible from His Son. There was no other way that could
have honored God more greatly than that. And that's what God
teaches us. He teaches us, first of all,
that the issue is in our heart. We have failed, miserably failed,
to honor God. And God, therefore, cannot honor
us. He must dishonor us. But in His Son, God has honored
Himself. Christ has honored His Father.
And He's done it for all those who have dishonored Him. We admit
that we're hypocrites. We admit that we're sinners.
And we come to God and we say, Lord, have mercy upon me. Remember the publican? God, have
mercy upon me, the sinner. Look to Christ alone for me. And Jesus said about that man,
He went down to his house justified. God honored that man. He justified
him. When God justifies us for what
Christ has done, He is showing us the greatest honor possible. Let's pray. Father, we thank
You that You do, in fact, honor Your Son because He honored You. Give us grace to so honor Him. The Scriptures testify to Him.
And they say this, that He fulfilled your will in every part, satisfied
every demand, met every obligation, glorified you to the maximum
extent possible. Lord, help us to rejoice in what
Jesus has done. Not to envy Him, not to think
that we need to add our part or to think of something that
we need to do in order to get something from you. but to recognize
that He did it all. We couldn't have added to it.
We only would have messed it up. We already did. Lord, help
us to look to Jesus only and come to You and seek to honor
You by looking to Him and believing on Him and coming to You through
Him and asking all things from You because of Him. In Jesus'
name we pray. Amen.