Okay, let's return to Acts chapter
13. Now, the title of the message
is Forgiven and Justified in Christ. Forgiven and Justified
in Christ. Now this portion of Acts chapter
13 that Brother Joe read is a sermon. by the Apostle Paul as he was
inspired by God the Holy Spirit to preach in a place called Antioch. In Antioch, God had raised up
or was beginning to raise up a church there. There were Jews
there. There was a synagogue there.
There were Gentiles. And Paul had gone there to preach
the gospel. He was a missionary. to spread
the good news of salvation by God's grace in and by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And this sermon is very similar
to Peter's sermon at Pentecost, if you paid attention as Brother
Joe read through it. But it's a marvelous sermon.
And what I want to do is just kind of go through this sermon,
bring it to verse 38 and 39. Verses 38 and 39, it says, be
it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man, that's
Jesus Christ, through this person, the God man, is preached unto
you the forgiveness of sins. Nowhere else, no one else but
in Jesus Christ and him crucified and risen again. And by him,
by Jesus Christ, all that believe are justified. You see, it's
not your believing that justifies you, it's Christ. We believe
in him who has justified us. were justified from all things,
not part. This is not a partial justification
from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. But I want
you to go back, I want to give you three words to think about
here. The first word is history. History. That's what Paul does
at the beginning of this message. He kind of reviews in a small
way the history of Israel. I was listening to a preacher
on tape a couple of years ago, and he made this statement, and
I didn't really see the significance of it then, but I do now. He
says, if you really want to understand the history of the world, you've
got to understand the history of Israel. And I believe he's
right, and I'll show you what I mean by that. But history,
that's the first word. The second word is religion.
Religion. Now, religion, for the most part,
and I know even among people who, quote, go to church, unquote,
religion is something of a negative word because religion brings
division. Well, there is false religion,
but there's also true religion. In fact, if you believe the Bible,
which we do, There's only one true religion. And those religions,
true religion, as opposed to false religion, is illustrated
very early on in the Bible. In Genesis chapter 4, you can
think about Cain and Abel. Cain is false religion. Abel,
true religion. Cain came to God seeking God's
blessing, seeking salvation based upon the works of his hands.
That's false religion. Now, false religion can do a
lot as far as humanity, as far as making people toe to some
degree a line, keeping people moral in some ways, keeping them
out of jail and all of that, but it cannot save eternally. Spiritually, it cannot bring
about the forgiveness of sins and the justification that Paul's
talking about. But now true religion, what did
Abel do? He came pleading the blood of
the Lamb, which typified Christ. The blood of Christ. And that's
what Paul's teaching here. So I want to talk about religion.
And then the third word is salvation. Salvation. History, religion,
and salvation. Now look back at verse 16. Here
Paul stands up. And what it was, he was in the
synagogue here on the Sabbath day, that's the seventh day of
the week under the old covenant. And they read from the law and
the prophets. They read the Old Testament, the law meaning the
first five books of the Old Testament, the Bible, the books of Moses,
and the prophets, what prophets they had. They had them in a
scroll. And they met there on the Sabbath day in the synagogue,
and in that synagogue there were Jews and there were converted
Gentiles. Paul mentions both here. And
after they read from the Law and the Prophets, it says here,
look at verse 15. After the reading of the Law
and the Prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent unto them,
saying, Ye men and brethren, If you have any word of exhortation
for the people, say on. So Paul, he was there, I think
Barnabas was there with him and some others, and they invited
Paul and these men to preach. So Paul wasn't forcing himself
on anybody. He wasn't trying to do what some
who come in the name of Christianity do, break down the door. No,
a door was open for him. This is God's providence. Now
we talk about history, that's what really we're talking about,
God's providence. What is providence? That means
God's government. It means God's working, he's
in control, he's on the throne. Ephesians 111, I mentioned this
to the Bible study class this morning, how God worketh all
things after the counsel of his own will. He didn't just create
the world, wind it up like a clock, then go off into outer space
somewhere, waiting for it to wind down. No, he's actively
involved, doing his work. So here he opens the door for
Paul to preach the gospel. And what does he do? Well now,
in this kind of culture, see, in these synagogues, you had
men who claimed to be national Jews, who believed they were
saved, believed that they were in the kingdom of God, children
of God, for three reasons. And here are their three reasons.
Number one, they were physical descendants of Abraham. That's
number one. We be Abraham's seed. Number
two, physical circumcision. That was for the males of the
family who represented the whole family. So if the male was circumcised,
the whole family followed right with him as far as being in the
kingdom of God. You had to be circumcised to
be saved. Thirdly, they claimed to keep the law of Moses. All
right? That was their three claims.
Now, a Gentile, there's no way you can make a Gentile a physical
descendant of Abraham. That's impossible. But they would
say, well, if you will buy into what we say about salvation and
the males be circumcised and then try to keep the law of Moses,
then you can be sort of like a second class citizen. You'll
be in the kingdom, you'll be second class citizens. Remember
in the temple, Back then, they had an outer court for the Gentiles.
They couldn't go into the inner court, you see. They were in
the outer court, so you had to be separated. But you could be
saved, and you're all right, but you're not as good as us. You're not as saved as us. You're
not as holy as us, but you could be there. And in these synagogues,
you had both those ethnic Jews and you had converted Gentiles.
They were known as those who fear God. Look at verse 16. He
says, then Paul stood up. beckoning with his hand and said,
men of Israel and ye that fear God. That's referring to converted
Gentiles, ye that fear God. So he had the men of Israel,
the national Jews, and he said, give audience, listen to what
I'm about to tell you. Now, you understand, see, these
converted Gentiles, they're sitting there and they're thinking, well,
boy, I tell you, it must have been something to be a real Jew,
to be a real physical descendant of Abraham. So what Paul does,
he deals with history. And listen to what he says here.
First of all, he talks about their deliverance from Egypt
and their being brought into the promised land, the land of
Canaan. He says, the God of this people, Israel, verse 17, look
at it. He chose our fathers and exalted the people when they
dwelled as strangers in the land of Egypt. And with a high arm,
God with a high arm, that's a powerful arm, he brought he them out of
it. They didn't deliver themselves
now. God didn't choose them because they were great. God didn't choose
them because they were good. And when they got down into Egypt,
they didn't deliver themselves out by their own power. It was
God who did it. Verse 18, and about the time of 40 years suffered
he their manners in the wilderness. You know what that means? It
means literally for 40 years, he put up with their sins in
the wilderness. He put up with it. People tell me that God won't
put up with sin. My friend, we wouldn't be here
if God didn't put up with sin. He's long suffering. Now there's
a time when his long suffering is going to be ended. I believe
that time's coming soon. I don't know exactly when, but
it's coming soon. But don't you ever think that
God doesn't put up with it? He puts up with a lot, even from
his children. And then he says in verse 19,
and when he destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, God did
this now, he divided their land to them by lot. That's when Joshua
delivered the land, divided the land out as he was instructed
and as it fell upon lots, that's God's work. He says in verse
20, and after he gave unto them judges about the space of 450
years, you remember the judges, the book of Judges. Now, if you
read anything in the book of Judges, what you would find is
that the recorded history of Israel under the book of Judges
is anything except to be proud of. That was a time, you know
how it's kind of, there's a couple of times where it's stated in
the book of Judges this way. Because there was no king in
Israel and every man did that which was right in his own eyes.
Now you think about that. Don't we live in that kind of
a day? Everybody's doing, you know, if it feels good, do it,
you know. If it's love, it's gotta be right. That kind of,
everybody's doing what's right in their own eyes. Not going
by the word of God. And that's the way the book of
Judges was. And he says, until Samuel the prophet. Now Samuel
was a judge. Samuel the prophet. Remember
Samuel, he was the son of Hannah. Hannah's prayer in 1 Samuel 2.
Samuel was Hannah's son that she prayed for. And it says in
verse 21, and after they desired a king, Israel wanted a king. And God gave unto them Saul,
the son of Sis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space
of forty years. So they were under Saul. from
the tribe of Benjamin for 40 years. Well, what was wrong with
that? Well, there's two things wrong with that. First of all,
God had already told him he was gonna give him a king. He told
them that as he revealed it in Jacob, as Jacob lay on his deathbed,
and you remember as he was blessing his sons, his 12 sons, and he
said to Judah, his son Judah, He said the kings, basically,
I'm paraphrasing here, the kings are gonna come out of you. That's
Genesis 49 verses eight through 10. He said the kings are gonna
come out of you. The scepter, that's the king's
scepter, shall not depart from Judah until Shiloh, that's the
Messiah, come, the king of kings, out of the tribe of Judah. But
see, Israel wanted a king. The problem is it's not just
wanting a king. The problem is they wanted a
king like the other nations. Now what did the other nations
have? They had evil kings, ungodly kings. Now they may have been
moral and religious, but they were still not God's appointed
kings, the line. And so they wanted kings like
that. So what did God do? He gave them what they wanted.
And I want to tell you something. Man by nature, now we talk about
history. What is our history? We're ruined
in Adam, fell in Adam, born dead in trespasses and sins. All have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Let me tell you
something. You know the worst thing that God can do for us
in such a state of sinful human nature? Is to give us what we
want. That's what history teaches us.
Alexander wanted a empire. He got it. What happened to Alexander? They say he died a madman in
a drunken stupor. Where's his triumph? Hitler,
what did he want? He wanted to rule the world through
the super race. What happened to Hitler? And
we could go on and on through. And our nation, think about this,
our nation had some noble beginnings in the pursuit for freedom and
liberty, and that's fine, but look at where our nation has
gotten to. Where it's coming to. What does history teach us? It's the history of the sinfulness
of man. That's what Paul's teaching. You see, we all like to look
at history through rose-colored glasses. The Jews did. Paul said no. Look at it. He said, you wanted a king and
they gave you Saul. What happened to Saul? You know
how Saul died? In defeat, fell on his own lance,
committed suicide. He disobeyed God. It's a history
of sin and depravity. Now look at verse 22. He says,
and when he removed Saul, he raised up unto them David to
be their king. Now the Jews would look back
upon the days of David as being glorious days. And for the nation,
for the most part, it was a time of prosperity, military strength,
and all of that. But now think about it. Read
the history of David. David himself, he called himself
a failure. His last words recorded in 2
Samuel chapter 23, he said, although my house be not so with God.
He said, God has made a covenant with me, ordered in all things
and sure, and this is all my salvation and all my desire.
He's talking about his own salvation by the grace of God through the
promised Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way,
David. could claim salvation. Not by
his kingship, not by his nation, not by his strengths, not even
by the Psalms that God inspired him to write. Think about that. You read that sometime in 2 Samuel
23. Read that. Think about it. David didn't
say, God has made a covenant with me because I wrote a bunch
of Psalms. He didn't say God made a covenant
with me because I made the nation Israel great. He's not the one
who made the nation Israel great. He says it's ordered in all things
and sure. Why? Because it was conditioned on
the promise of one to come. One who would be here. the Lord
Jesus Christ. And this is what Paul's saying.
Look where he's headed with this. Look here at verse 22. It says,
When he had removed Saul, he raised up unto them David to
be their king, to whom also he gave testimony and said, I have
found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which
shall fulfill all my will. And that's exactly what David
did. God's will here, see that's the issue. And he says in verse
23, of this man's seed hath God, according to his promise, raised
unto Israel a Savior, Jesus. Yeshua. What does Jesus mean? It means he shall save his people
from their sins. His name shall be called Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. How do you know
he's able? Well, his name shall be called Emmanuel, which being
interpreted as God with us. Not David the king now, but of
his seed. Romans chapter one says he was
born of the seed of David. He was made of the seed of David
according to the flesh, but declared to be the son of God with power.
Speaking of his death, burial, and resurrection. And then verse
24, look at when John, John the Baptist, had first preached before
his coming the baptism of repentance, that was a baptism to confess
your sins, that's what that was, to all the people of Israel.
In other words, John didn't come to proclaim the goodness of Israel. John didn't come to proclaim
the power of Israel. John the Baptist now. John didn't
come to proclaim the righteousness of Israel. John came preaching
the baptism of repentance. That's the baptism of confession
of sin. You're sinners. That's what John
said. And you know what he told them
in Matthew chapter 3 when he said, repent. Repent of your
sin. He said, and don't think to say,
we be Abraham's seed. That's not going to save you. That's not going to save you.
Being a physical descendant of Abraham won't do. It won't save
you from your sins, it won't wash away your sins, it won't
make you righteous before God. Circumcision won't do it. That's
right. Paul wrote in Galatians 6 and
verse 14, God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ by whom the world is crucified unto me and
I unto the world. He said, for in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth anything. but a new
creation. What's the new creation? That's
the church in Christ. And then keeping the law of Moses
won't do it. The blood of bulls and goats cannot take away sin.
You say, well, I'm doing my best to keep the Ten Commandments.
Well, that's okay, but that won't save you. That will not make
you righteous. All that'll do is, like old brother
Tim James said, all that'll do is just keep on telling you you're
guilty and you deserve to die. You're guilty and you deserve.
There's the history of man. So when John come, he preached
the baptism of repentance. Look at verse 25. And as John
fulfilled his course, he said, Whom think ye that I am? And
he says, I am not. I am not he. What is he saying?
I'm not the Messiah. I'm not your Savior, John said.
I'm not, I'm not your hope. He says, but behold, there cometh
one after me whose shoes of his feet I'm not worthy to lose. I'm a sinner, John's saying there.
I'm a sinner who needs salvation just like you, by grace, mercy. I can't save my, I don't know
how many people John baptized, but you put them all together
and they still didn't save his soul. They still didn't wash. All the water that he dipped
people in, I guarantee you, didn't wash away one sin. You know what it takes to wash
away sin? The blood of the Lamb. The blood of Christ. So what's
Paul saying here? He's saying the same thing Isaiah
said. Turn to Isaiah 46. Look at verse nine. This is what
history is all about. The history of mankind, the history
of sin, the history of depravity, the history of failure. You say,
preacher, why are you being such a downer this morning? I'll tell
you why, because I'm talking about history. That's what it's about. History,
there are pockets in history of man's triumphs in certain
ways. but not in salvation. Not in
the forgiveness of sins. Not in being justified before
a holy God. How can a sinner be justified
before God? It's not by being a Jew. It's
not by being an American. It's not by joining the church.
It's not by getting baptized. That will not wash away your
sins. That will not make you righteous
before God. Look at Isaiah 46 and verse 9. Isaiah prophesying. God speaking through him saying,
remember the former things of old. That's history. And here's
the issue of history. For I am God and there's none
else. I am God, there's none like me. That's what history
ought to teach us. There's nobody like God. Declaring
the end from the beginning. You know what that is? You know,
we can declare the beginning from the end. I can tell you
how this day started. I cannot tell you how it's going
to end up. Can you? No. You can guess. You can guess
you're going to go out throughout the day and then tonight you're
going to go to sleep and lay your head down and go to sleep
and wake up. But that's just, you don't know
that for sure. You don't know what's going to happen between
right now this very second and the next second, the next second.
But God declares the end from the beginning. You know what
that is? That's predestination. That's exactly what it is. I
know people don't like that, but I'm sorry, that's what it
is. How else could you declare the end? You say, well, God looks
down through the telescope of time. No, he's not a fortune
teller. He's not gazing into some crystal
ball called fate and then kind of manipulating. He's not playing
chess with us. He declares the end from the
beginning. That's history. And from ancient times, the things
that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand. You see,
his declaration of the end from the beginning is his counsel.
That means his wisdom, his workings, his determinations. And he said,
I will do all my pleasure. I'm going to do all I want to
do. Can you say that? Can you say you're going to do
all you want to do? No. You might try to do all you want
to do. I might try to do it, but we can't do it. But God does.
He says in verse 11, calling a ravenous bird from the east,
the man that executeth my counsel from a far country. I won't get
into all that, but that's talking about the deliverance of Israel
from Babylon. He said, yeah, I've spoken it,
I'll bring it to pass. I've purposed it, I will also
do it. That's the God of history. Now what's it all about? Why
is it all there? Why does God do it this way,
that way? Well, look at the last two verses
of Isaiah 46, Harken unto me, you stout-hearted that are far
from righteousness. What is stout-hearted? That means
proud. Self-righteous. That's what that
means. Rebellious. Another way of saying
it, Stephen said in Acts chapter seven, he said, you stiff-necked,
you won't bow. That's what he's talking about.
That's man by nature, that's human history. Rebels, all right? He says that are far from righteousness.
You're trying to make yourself righteous, but you're far from
it. That's righteousness. Well, here's the issue, verse
13. I bring near my righteousness, God's righteousness. And it shall
not be far off. In other words, the more we try
to make ourselves righteous by our works, the farther off it
gets. But God's righteousness won't be far off. He said, in
my salvation shall not tarry. For man to work his way into
righteousness, it's always something he's waiting for because he's
never quite there. And if he thinks he gets there
one day, he may lose it. He may get there on Sunday, but
he may lose it on Monday. I remember one time I was in
the service and a fellow had a chart and he was talking about
the Christian life. He said, you start here and then you want
to get up here. And he said, you're going up
this way and then all of a sudden you lose your temper and you
get down here. Then all of a sudden you start back up, you know.
And then all of a sudden you have an evil thought and boom,
there you go. And I thought, man, are you crazy? Now we do
have our ups and downs. No doubt about it. But our up
times do not make us righteous. Now that's so. He says, my salvation shall not
tarry for I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory. That's Christ saving his people,
spiritual Israel. Look back at Acts 13. Now that's
history. All right, here's the next word,
religion. Now religion. Now as I said,
there's false religion and there's true religion. And let me just
cut to the chase on true religion, the only right religion, the
only good religion, the only godly religion is wrapped up
totally and founded upon completely the glorious person and finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now that's true religion, that's
the only right religion. Every other religion is false.
You say that's narrow, well that's why he called it a narrow way.
He said, I am the way, I am the truth, I am the life, no man
cometh under the Father but by me. The way of forgiveness is
in Christ and him crucified. The way of righteousness, justified,
is in Christ and him crucified. Now look at verse 26. He says,
men and brethren, children of the stock of Abraham, this is
Acts 13, 26, and whosoever among you feareth God, this is spoken
to Jew and Gentile here, not just Jews, not just Gentiles,
but anybody who wants to hear it. He says, to you is the word
of this salvation sent, the preaching of the gospel. Right now, whether
you believe it or not, this word is sent to you in the preaching. And he says, for they that dwell
at Jerusalem, verse 27, for they that dwell at Jerusalem and their
rulers, now who were their rulers? Well, you can remember the Sadducees,
that was the priesthood, the Pharisees, He said because they
knew him not, they didn't know Christ. They didn't know their
scriptures. They were looking for the Messiah
to come and when he came they didn't know him. That's all of
us by nature. He said, they knew him not, nor yet the voices of
the prophets, which are read every Sabbath day. They read
the prophets every Sabbath day, and the prophets spoke of the
Messiah to come. They described him, they identified
him, they distinguished him, and when he got there, they didn't
see him. Man by nature will not see the glory of Christ. You
won't, I won't, until God reveals him. He came unto his own, and
his own received him not. John 1 11. But as many as received
him, to them gave he the power, that means the right, to become
the sons of God, which were born not of the will of men, nor the
will of the flesh, nor of natural birth, but born of God. And he
says they fulfilled them in condemning him. When they condemn Christ,
when we condemn Christ, We do so by nature in our unbelief.
That's what we do. By nature in our unbelief we
take sides with the Jews who condemned him against God and
against his Christ. You know what they did? They
fulfilled the will of God. He came to die. Christ came to
die. His religion, true religion,
is a religion of death. The death of Christ. The Bible
says without shedding of blood, there is no remission, no forgiveness
of sins. Why is that? Because the wages
of sin is death. That's what sin deserves. It
must be punished. God is just. And it says in verse
28, now I want you to think about this. He says, and though they
found no cause of death in him, he was an innocent victim in
man's view. Now let me make this distinction
because it's important. When Christ went to the cross,
he went there as truly guilty before God. Truly cursed before
God. When God, the Bible says in Isaiah
53 and verse 10, it pleased the Lord to bruise him. It pleased
God to bruise him. Now, that doesn't mean God is
some kind of a sadist or someone who has pleasure in hurting things,
people, but it means he was satisfied. It satisfied the Lord to bruise
Christ, his son. Now, how is that possible? He was an innocent man. He was
the only perfect, righteous man who ever lived. He's the only one who ever kept
the law. He's the only one who ever loved perfectly. He's the
only one who ever told the truth, the whole truth, and nothing
but the truth. He's the only one. And yet we condemned him. And yet, in that sense, of God
putting his son to death on the cross, Christ went before his
Father as a guilty person. cursed of God, how is that possible?
It was not by his own sins, it was by our sins charged, imputed,
accounted to him. He was made sin, Christ who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.
But in the view of man, There was no cause of death in him.
It says in verse 28, yet desired they Pilate that he should be
slain. They wanted Pilate to put him to death. Look at verse
29. And when they had fulfilled all that was written of him,
see this was all prophesied. This was not Satan taking God
by surprise. This was not plan B. This was
all according to the plan. He says they took him down from
the tree and laid him in a sepulcher. You see that? Let me show you, think about
this now. Let me show you one more thing
here. I want you to turn to Romans chapter nine. I want you to see this. What
was the issue? Why did natural man, and we'll
say it this way, religious man, you know the greatest enemies
of the Lord in his days on earth were the most religious, moral,
dedicated men on earth. Why did they hate him so much?
Why did we hate him so much? In our natural state, in our
unbelief. Well, he tells us right here
in verse 31 of Romans 9. Look at it. It says, But Israel,
which followed after the law of righteousness, they were trying
to keep the law, to be righteous, have not attained to the law
of righteousness. Why? Wherefore? Why? Because
they sought it not by faith. What is it to seek it by faith?
It's to seek it in Christ. He says, but as it were by the
works of the law, they sought righteousness by their works.
And it says they stumbled at the stumbling stone. You see
that in verse 32? Now what is that stumbling stone?
Verse 33, as it is written, behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone
and rock of offense, and whosoever believeth on him shall not be
ashamed. That stumbling stone is a person.
I mean, here's these fellas, they're physical children of
Abraham, they've been circumcised, they're trying to keep the law,
and they think that's enough? And this carpenter from Nazareth
comes along. Out of Nazareth! Can anything
good come out of Nazareth? That's what one of the disciples
said. Who does this guy think he is? And he stood up in a synagogue
and he said, except your, or he stood on a mountain and he
said, except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the
scribes and the Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter into the
kingdom of heaven. Look at verse one of chapter
10. He says, brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for
Israel is that they might be saved. For I bear them record,
they have a zeal of God. They're religious, but not according
to knowledge, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness,
and going about to establish their own righteousness, remember
that's by their works, have not submitted themselves unto the
righteousness of God, for Christ is the end of the law for righteousness
to everyone that believe. Go back to Acts 13. That was
the issue. Now we put him to death. Look
at verse 30. But God raised him from the dead.
Now how's that possible? Well, God is the author and giver
of life. But you see, Christ died having the sins of his people
charged to him. God was just in putting his son
to death, so how could he be raised from the dead? You see,
sin demands death. The wages of sin is death. The
only way that you can have life is righteousness. Righteousness
demands life. But as sin hath reign unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. Well, in his death, there was
the establishment of righteousness. In his obedience unto death,
he gained victory over sin. He put away the sins of his people.
Look at verse 31. He was seen many days of them
which came up with him from Galilee to Jerusalem who are his witnesses
unto the people. This resurrection was no myth. It was no hoax. It says, and
we declare unto you glad tidings how that the promise which was
made unto the fathers, the promise of salvation by grace in Christ,
God hath fulfilled the same unto us, their children, in that he
hath raised up Jesus again, this is the whole reason for his resurrection
now, as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my
son, this day have I begotten thee, he's quoting from the second
psalm, David's psalm, and as concerning that he raised him
up from the dead, now no more to return to corruption, he'll
never die again. He said, on this wise, I will
give you the sure mercies of David. That's quoted from Isaiah
55, the sure mercies of David. What was David's mercies? How
were they sure? He said, God has made a covenant
with me, ordered in all things insure. This is all my salvation. It's in Christ, my surety. He
says in verse 35, wherefore he saith also in another psalm,
thou shalt not suffer thine holy one to see corruption. Now, who
was David talking about? Was he talking about himself
or somebody else? Look at verse 36. For David,
after he had served his own generation by the will of God, fell on sleep
and was laid unto his fathers and he saw corruption. David
saw corruption. His body deteriorated. Verse
37, but he whom God raised again saw no corruption. In three days
time, Christ arose from the dead. Now what does that mean? Now
there's religion, all true religion, wrapped up in the person and
the finished work of Christ. Well, what does it all mean?
Here comes salvation. Here's the third thing, look
at it. Here's what it means, verse 38. Now, be it known unto
you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man, the Lord
Jesus Christ is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.
What can wash away my sins? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Religion won't do it. Man's religion. Works won't do
it. Tears won't do it. You can cry. I read an old Puritan one time,
he said, if you haven't cried all night over your sins, he
says, you're not forgiven. You can cry all year over your
sins and it will not wash them away. Through this man is preached
unto you the forgiveness of sin. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth
us from all sin, past sin, present sin, future sin, all sin. By one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. There's no other forgiveness
of sin. Baptism will not wash away your sins. Joining a church
will not wash away your sin. Being a Jew will not wash away
your sin. Circumcision will not do. Only the blood of Christ,
His death on the cross to pay the sin debt in full. And then
39, look here. And by Him all that believe are
justified. What does that mean? They're
declared not guilty. They're declared righteous before
God from all things. From all things that would condemn
us. When Satan accuses us, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies.
Who can condemn us? It's Christ that died, yea rather
is risen again and seated at the right hand of the Father,
ever living to make intercession for us. When our own hearts condemn
us, what do we do? Look to Christ, looking unto
Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith, from which you
could not be justified by the law of Moses. Christ is my righteousness. Christ is my sin bearer. There's
no other way. There's no other salvation. If
history teaches us anything, it's man's failure to save himself. It's man's failure to cure the
disease of sin. It's man's failure to make himself
righteous. Where are we going to find all
of that? In the glorious person and finished work of the Lord
Jesus Christ. I stand before God in Him, in
His righteousness alone. And that's our hope. All right.
Let's sing as our closing hymn, hymn number 299.