Thank you, James. Open with me
to the book of Exodus. Exodus chapter 21. Exodus chapter
21. I've got several verses that I would
like to read to you and as I go down through these verses, I'm
going to especially make mention of some specific words or phrases
that I would like you to either circle or at least make a mental
note of them anyway. Exodus chapter 21, 33. Verse 33, Exodus chapter 21. This is God giving the laws to
Israel for them to live by. He says, If a man shall open
a pit, or if a man shall dig a pit, and not cover it, and
an ox or an ass fall into it or therein, the owner of the
pit shall make it good. I want to stress that, make it
good. And give money to the owner of
them, the dead beast shall be his. And if one man's ox, if
it hurt another, that he die, then they shall sell the live
ox and divide the money of it. The dead ox also shall they divide. Or if it be known that the ox
hath used to push and time pass, that he tends to gore other animals,
And his owner hadn't kept him in, hadn't kept him in a pen. And his owner has not kept him
in. He shall surely, here's a word
I want you to remember, pay ox for ox. And the dead shall be
his own. Chapter 22, verse 1. If a man
shall steal an ox or a sheep and he kills it or sells it. He shall restore, I stress that
word restore, he shall restore five oxen for an ox and four
sheep for a sheep. If a thief be found breaking
up, literally breaking in your house, and he be smitten that
he die, no blood shall be shed for him. That is if he breaks
in at night. the owner of the house or maybe
somebody who works, a servant. He sees this thief coming in
at nighttime and he kills him. No blood's going to be shed for
him. In other words, man got what he deserved. Verse number
three, however, if it's light, if the sun be risen on him and
Somebody still kills him, you see somebody break in, and they're
not out to murder. But they're just going to take
something that doesn't belong to them. And somebody does kill
them, then whoever kills them, their blood's got to be shed. Four. He should have made full
restitution. He should have just let the man
live so he could make full restitution. That's the next word I want you
to remember. And if he doesn't have anything,
this thief, well, he'll be sold into slavery for his thief. Theft be certainly found in his
hand, a life, whether it be ox or ass or sheep, he shall restore,
another word, restore, double. If a man shall cause a field
or a vineyard to be eaten and shall put in his beast and shall
feed in another man's field, of the best of his own field
and the best of his own vineyard shall the man make, there's the
word again, restitution. If fire break out and catch in
thorns so that stacks of wheat or corn or the standing corn
are in the field be consumed therewith, he that kindled the
fire shall surely make restitution. That's the title of the message.
Look at verse 7, if a man shall deliver unto his neighbor money
or stuff to keep and It be stolen out of the man's house. If the
thief be found, let him pay." There's a word again I want you
to remember, pay double. If the thief be not found, and
the master of the house shall be brought unto the judges to
see whether he hath put his hand into his neighbor's goods for
all manner of trespass, whether it be for ox or ass. or sheep,
or raiment, or any manner of lost things, which another challenge
it to be his, the cause of both parties shall come before the
judges, and whom the judges shall condemn, he shall, there's a
word, pay double unto his neighbor. If a man deliver unto his neighbor
an ass, or an ox, or a sheep, or a beast to keep, and it die,
or it be hurt, or driven away, and no man seeing it, no man
saw what happened, then shall an oath of the Lord be between
them both, that he hath not put his hand unto his neighbor's
goods, and the owner of it shall accept thereof, and he shall
not make it good. So in that case, there doesn't
have to be any restitution. However, if it be stolen from
him while it's in his care, he shall make restitution for the
owner thereof. If it be torn to pieces, then
let him bring it for witness, and he shall not make good."
There's another expression, make good that which was torn. Verse
14, if a man borrow out of his neighbor and it be hurt or die,
the owner thereof being not with it, he shall surely make it good. But if the owner thereof be with
it, he shall not make it good. He doesn't have to make restitution,
doesn't have to restore anything. If it be a hard thing, it shall
come for his hire. Each of those expressions that
I ask you to remember. As we look at it, if we could
read, if we could all read Hebrew, we would discover that it's really
all the same word. Whether it's make it good, or
restore, or pay, or restitution, make it good, It's all the same
meaning. Another verse that, let's just
look at this, Leviticus 5.16. Because this brings in another
expression. Leviticus chapter 5, actually
I'd like to read 15 and 16. Leviticus chapter 5 verse 15,
if a soul commit a trespass and that soul he sins through ignorance
in the holy things of the Lord, then he shall bring for his trespass
unto the Lord a ram without blemish out of the flocks with thy estimation
by shekels of silver after the shekel of the sanctuary for a
trespass offering and he shall make amends There's another expression. It's the same word as restitution
or make it right. He's got to make it right. He's
got to restore. He's got to make amends for the
harm that he did. All of these expressions. These are the laws that God gave
to Israel regarding restitution. making things right, making amends. And one of the unique things
about each of these, whether the expression is make it good
or restore or pay or restitution or make amends, not only do they
all essentially mean the same thing, But they all have the
same root word, which is the word peace. In other words, the only way
to have peace is to make restitution. Now, it doesn't matter what it
involved. It could have been an ox. You dug a hole. For some reason,
you decided to dig a hole. You just felt like digging one
day. And you dug a hole. And your neighbor, he's got an
ox. And the ox fell into the hole.
And you said, oops, I meant to cover that back up. Maybe he's
burying new garbage or something, which is something they would
have done back in those days. But I forgot to cover it up.
Your neighbor's ox falls in, and that's the ox. He goes out
here, and he plows with the ox. You've got to make amends. Somebody's
got to pay. In other words, there can't be
peace. Let's say it belonged to you. There can't be peace
between us unless amends are made. There's got to be restitution. Our brother read to us from the
book of Luke and in chapter 19, and you need not go back to it,
but in Luke chapter 19, everybody knows the story about Zacchaeus. The scripture says, and Zacchaeus
stood and said unto the Lord, he said, Behold, Lord, the half
of my goods I give to the poor. If I've taken anything from any
man by false accusation, I restore. I restore. I go above a law of
restitution. I'm going to make amends. How
would he make amends? He said, I restore him fourfold. Zacchaeus acted in both justice
and in charity. Because the law said, give back
fourfold. But the law didn't say, give
half your goods away. So in the case with Zacchaeus,
we see both justice, we see the law of restitution, but we also
see this man was charitable. Look at me in another reference,
a book of Proverbs chapter 6. Proverbs chapter 6. Proverbs chapter 6. By the way, Zacchaeus is an example
of a man's works revealing his real conversion. God did some
something for him in his heart. And he said, I got to make things
right. I got to make peace with him.
All these people I've been defrauding, because he is a tax collector. And he had been cheating people. He's going to make it right in
order for there to be peace among the people. He doesn't want them
mad at him anymore. After all, especially the people
of God, because the Lord's done something for him, he says, I
want to make restitution. I'm going to give you back fourfold
if I've taken something from you. I expect people to start
lining up, you know. Hey, here's my tax returns, and
you wronged me. And he said, boy, I'll give you
back fourfold. Fourfold. Proverbs chapter 6
verse 30. Proverbs 6 verse 30, men do not
despise a thief if the reason he steals is because he's hungry. That's kind of, you know, for
a man to break into your house and try to steal your jewelry
or, you know, whatever, something valuable, some antique that he
knew that you had, steal your gun collection. That's one thing,
but if a man breaks into your kitchen and you find him in the
refrigerator, he says, I'm so hungry, I've got to have something
to eat. We don't despise such a man.
We give him something to eat. In fact, verse 31 says, but if
it be found, we don't despise him. But if he'd be found, now
he's got to do some restitution here. He's got to restore sevenfold. He shall give all the substance
of his house. If that's what it takes, he's
got to give sevenfold to make restitution for what he did. Now, all of us agree with the
law of restitution. When a wrong has been done, Something's
got to make it right. If somebody does something against
somebody, restitution is to be made. There's got to be amends
made. You read in God's law an eye for an eye. That's what the scripture says.
What is it? That's the law of restitution.
Scripture says a tooth for a tooth. A life for a life. And I know this generation and
some other generations, they're absolutely against capital punishment,
but the scripture says, if any man shed man's blood, by man
shall his blood be shed also, because that has been proven
that decreases crime. You go over to some of the nations
like Japan, You only have as much thievery over there as you
have in our country because if you steal something, they cut
your hand off. I tell you what, that kind of
discourages from stealing when you find out, boy, if you steal
and you get caught, your hand's going to be severed from you
or your finger's going to be severed from you. That's the
law of restitution. Restitution. Now go with me to
Psalm 69. Psalm 69. There are several verses
here in Psalm 69 where we clearly understand and see that they
have to do with our Savior. In fact, this psalm, like all
the psalms, is about our Redeemer. Beginning with the very first
verse which begins to set forth His lowliness, Right all the
way to the last verse which sets forth his exaltation. Let me
lay up kind of a little bit more of a foundation for this message
and show you several verses of this psalm that are actually
quoted in the New Testament and said to be referring to the Son
of God. Look at verse 4. They that hate
me, Psalm 69. They that hate me without a cause
are more than the hairs of mine head. They that would destroy
me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty. Then I restored that
which I took not away. Listen to John 15, 25. But this
cometh to pass, that the word might be fulfilled that is written
in their law. They hated me without a cause. Drop down to verse number 9. For the zeal of thine house hath
eaten me up, and the reproaches, the disgraces of them that reproached
thee are fallen upon me. John 2 and 17 and his disciples
remembered that it was written, the zeal of thine house hath
eaten thee up. Romans 15, three, for even Christ
pleased not himself as it is written, the reproaches of them
that reproach thee fell on me. Note verse 21. They gave me also
gall for my meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. Matthew 27, 34. They gave him
vinegar to drink, mingled with gall. And when he had tasted
thereof, he would not drink. Look at verse 25. Let their habitation
be desolate. Let none of them dwell in their
tents. This refers to Judas. It's quoted
in Acts 1.20 with reference to him. For it is written in the
book of the Psalms, let his habitation be desolate. Let no man dwell
therein, and his bishopric let another man take." He was a bishop
and he says, let that be taken from him and given to another
man. But go back to verse 4. Verse 4, and here I see several
things. First, the Savior speaks of the
malice of his enemies. In verse 4, they hate me without
a cause. There's no reason for anybody
to hate the Lord Jesus. Even when he stood before Pontius
Pilate, he was compelled to crucify the Lord Jesus. And here's what
Pilate had to say. He said, why? What evil hath
he done? I find no cause in this man to
crucify. Later he would say, I find no
fault in this man at all, at all. And then the Savior speaks
here. He says, there are more than
the hairs of mine head. He speaks of the multitude, the
vast number of his accusers. Many, many men came to arrest
him, coming with spears and staves. They are in the garden. He said,
who are you looking for? They said, Jesus of Nazareth.
And He said, I am. That is when they all fell back.
Because this is God. He is the Divine One. They got
up and He said, who are you looking for? And they said, Jesus of
Nazareth. He said, I am He. If you seek Me, let these go
their way. Substitution right there. Thirdly, He said, they would
destroy Me. That's their goal. That was their goal, his death. They tried to kill him right
after our Lord began his public ministry. He angered the Jewish religious
leaders because He exposed their self-righteousness. He exposed
their hypocrisy. He preached the message of grace.
He preached Himself as being the fulfillment of all the Old
Testament prophecies concerning Messiah, the Son of God. And
they hated Him. Without a cause. Without a cause. And there's a bunch of them. He says of His innocence, He
says, they hated me without a cause. What did he do? Well, he healed
every kind of disease there was. In fact, everybody who came to
the Lord Jesus for healing, he did heal them. And I do not believe
that all those people that he physically healed, I don't believe
they were spiritually healed. But no matter who was brought
to Him, whatever the case may have been, no case was too difficult
for the Great Physician. He went about doing good. He
fed the hungry. Thousands of people fed because
He multiplied food in His very hands as God Almighty, the Creator. And they still hated Him. Without
a cause. He says of his enemies, notice
this in verse 4. He says, being mine enemies wrongfully
are mighty. They're mighty. Think about the
ones who set themselves in opposition against the Lord Jesus. Boy,
they were the greatest men in the world. They were the political
leaders and the religious leaders. There stood Herod and Pontius
Pilate. They opposed Him. There were
the religious leaders. There's the Sanhedrin. There
are the scribes. There are the elders. There's
the priests. Oh, what a powerful combination. The political leaders
of the world and the religious leaders of the world. They all
set themselves against Jesus of Nazareth. He says, they're
mighty. They're mighty. And yet, He never
veered off from His goal. of dying on the cross. His goal
was the redemption of His people. He set His face like a flint. It's what Isaiah says, like a
flint. When His disciples said, don't
go to Jerusalem, He said, the Son of Man must go and must suffer
many things at the hands of the priests. He must die, He must
be raised again. What's the reason for that? To
make restitution, don't you see? to make amends, to make things
right. Otherwise, there can't be any
peace between us and God. See, that's what restitution
involved. That's the reason if you get
your strong concordance out and you look up the word restitution,
you look up the word make amends, look up those words, look up
the word peace, You read it and it says, Shalom. Shalom. What is restitution? It's Shalom. Well, we know what that means.
Peace. Peace. But there can't be any peace
between us and God until somebody makes amends for what we did. That's what the law of restitution
really teaches us. That's what it's all about. Somebody's
got to pay. Because a wrong has been done. A wrong has been done to God. And we did it. We did it. We're the thieves. We're the murderers. And we're guilty. Our brother read to us back in
the office Romans chapter 3. Read about man's guilt. before
God. God's law has been broken. Somebody's
going to have to make amends now. Somebody's going to have
to make restitution. Somebody's going to have to make
satisfaction. And here's the thing, we can't
do it. We can't do it. That's why it's
so foolish to say you need to make your peace with God. No,
you can't make amends. You can't make restitution. Let
me tell you something. Even if you die in your sins
and you perish in hell, you still can't make amends for your sins.
You can't make restitution to the judgment of God because you
can never satisfy His justice. Because infinite justice, it
demands infinite vengeance be poured out on whoever it is that
breaks God's law. Wrong has been done to God. We've
tried to steal His glory. Do you know that? We've tried
to steal His glory. We've tried to steal His position.
Adam in the garden, he would have snatched God off the throne. I will be God. That's what Lucifer had said.
Read it in Isaiah. What is it? Isaiah chapter 14.
And this was man's sin. The scripture
says, Adam ate of the fruit. He willed to eat first. He repelled
in his heart. And immediately, peace was broken. No more peace. No more peace? God told Israel, your sins and
your iniquities, they're in the way. Somebody's got to make amends. Somebody's got to pay. Somebody's
got to make things right. Somebody's got to make peace.
We talk about that word restitution, restore. You know, the same word
is used in Psalm 23. He restoreth my soul. That is, He made restitution
for my soul. Psalm 23, what a lovely portion
of Scripture. And the people of God, we've
loved that passage of Scripture ever since David wrote it. But
the man of the world, he seems to love that Scripture as well.
But he doesn't know what it really is talking about. He doesn't
know what it means for the Lord to be your shepherd. And he has
no idea, the man of the world has no idea what it took for
our souls to be restored to God. There had to be restitution.
Somebody had to make peace. That's why Christ came. He is
the mighty peacemaker. He came to restore us to God. He came to pay. He came to pay
a debt that we could never pay, could never satisfy God's justice. Solomon says there are six things
that God hates or something like that. I can't remember the exact
wording now, but he says there are three things that never say
it's satisfied, and one of them is the fire. The fire never says
it's enough. You take people, you take Cain, He's been in hell longer than
anybody I reckon. Thousands of years. You know
what? He can't ever make restitution
to God's justice. He can't. He can't do it. And
when he's been there 6,000 more years or whatever, 10,000, 10
billion. We can't even comprehend this.
He can't ever make satisfaction to God's justice. He can't ever
pay. He can't ever pay because it's a debt that is absolutely
impossible for a man to pay. So God can't be satisfied. God
has no pleasure in the death of the wicked. God says, no satisfaction. That's the reason you're not
getting out. I would say to everybody, flee
to Christ Jesus. You don't want to perish. You
don't want to face an angry God. God whose wrath, whose wrath
cannot be quenched by even your everlasting punishment and damnation. You don't want to face God without
a mediator. You don't want to face God without
righteousness. You don't want to face God without
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Come to Christ Jesus. I urge
you, I compel you to come. Because you can't make amends. You can't make amends. God's been robbed. He's been
robbed of His glory. He's been robbed of the obedience
that is due His law. His law is good. Somebody robbed Him of that obedience
that is due Him. God said, of every tree of the
garden thou mayest freely eat, but of this tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, don't cheat of it. And what did they do? They ate of it. They robbed God
of the obedience that He demanded. And they robbed God of the worship
He deserved. Prior to the fall, Adam and Eve
worshipped and adored God, but after the fall, they tried to
hide from God. In fact, God had to make a law.
God made a law that said, Thou shalt have no other gods before
Me. Well, why would man ever entertain
the thought of having another god? Because of what sin had
done to him. Sin has robbed us of right thoughts
about God. Somebody's got to pay. And thank God somebody did pay. And I love this illustration in the
book of Philemon. Onesimus was a servant in the
household of Philemon. And he stole. He's a thief. He stole from his master. And
he hightailed it out of town. He ran to Rome, all the way to
Rome. And in the providence of God,
which is mysterious, he runs right into the Apostle Paul.
I don't know how he heard about Paul being in prison. Don't have
the details. But I'll tell you, he had to
hear a preacher. And he wouldn't hear him. And
it wasn't in the purpose of God for him to hear him when the
Apostle Paul visited with him before. But that wasn't the time. See, things happen according
to God's schedule. But this was the time. Somehow
or another, he heard that Paul was in prison in Rome. He could
receive visitors. He went in to see him. Probably
didn't know anybody else in Rome. He said, well, I'm safe here
anyway. I don't know anybody. I'll go in and see Paul. And
Paul preached to him. Boy, the grace of God got a hold
of his heart. He is an object of God's mercy.
God saved him. The Spirit gave him a new heart,
the heart of faith. The Apostle Paul wrote a letter to Philemon. Just one chapter. And he sealed it up. He gave
it to Onesimus and said, take this back to Colossae and give
this to your master. Well, boy, I tell you he's going
to be rough. No, you give it to him. So he took that letter back to
Philemon and the letter said, now receive him as a brother.
Don't receive him as a servant or a slave. Receive him as a
brother. He's a brother in Christ Jesus. And this is what the Apostle
Paul said, and if he owes you anything, if he owes you anything,
you put it on my account. I'll pay. I'll make restitution
for him. And that is exactly what the
Lord Jesus Christ did for us in the old covenant of grace. God the Father chose a people
under salvation, a people who would fall into sin. And Christ
Jesus said to the Father, just put it on my account. I'll pay. I'll pay. I'll make it right. I'll make amends. I'll make full
restitution. And you know what? He did. He did. He suffered, bled, and
died. Satisfied divine justice to save
His people from our sin. He restoreth my soul. He made
restitution, made peace with God for me. You can't make peace
with God. And it's an insult to the Son
of God for you to try. Did you know that? That's insulting
the Son of God. Peace has been made by the blood
of His cross for all of His people. And you come to God through Christ
Jesus the Lord, and here's what you're going to find. Peace has
been made for you. He's made things right. Restitution. Restitution.