I would like for you to open
your Bibles to the book of Isaiah chapter 45. Isaiah chapter 45. Now, what I'm going to preach
to you tonight from this passage sets forth the redemptive glory
of Almighty God in Christ. What I'm going to preach to you
tonight sets forth what I believe is the very heart of the gospel
message, the good news of salvation and how God saves sinners and
what we are commanded and invited to believe. Believe in the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Well, what does that mean?
What does that involve? It's not complicated. It's a
simple message, but it is a distinct message. It's a particular message. It's a message that has substance.
It's not just a pie-in-the-sky religion or some kind of a pipe
dream or some kind of empty hope or faith without substance. But
it sets forth the heart of the gospel. And then, this message
that I'm going to preach to you tonight also sets forth that
which I believe identifies and distinguishes the people of God
from the world. So, you can see this is important. When we look at passages like
this, it's really important that we understand what we're reading. Just like that Ethiopian eunuch,
when he was reading Isaiah 53, one of the first things that
Philip the Evangelist asked him, he said, do you understand what
you're reading? And he didn't, until Philip, a man sent of God,
pointed out to him who the prophet was speaking of in Isaiah 53.
And of course, he was speaking of the Lamb of God, the Lord
Jesus Christ. the one who taketh away the sins
of his people. And I've entitled this message,
A Just God and a Savior. I took that title from verse
21 of Isaiah 45, where the Lord says, There is no God else beside
me, a just God and a Savior. Now, in the preaching of the
gospel, and I want you to listen to this very carefully, in the
preaching of the gospel of God's grace in Christ, God commands
sinners to seek Him. And there is absolutely no good
reason not to seek Him. I've said this in the past few
messages because I've had this on my mind, that there is no
good reason, there are no excuses for a sinner, a true sinner,
in need of mercy and grace not to seek the Lord. But men and
women can find all kinds of reasons. Some use God's sovereignty as
an excuse. They'll say, well, if God's going
to save me, he's going to save me. Now, there's nothing like
that in the Scripture. I want you to know the sovereignty
of God is in the Scripture. God is sovereign. But you're
not going to find anything in the scripture from Genesis to
Revelation that tells or excuses or gives any sinner a reason
to use God's sovereignty as an excuse not to seek the Lord.
In fact, that's wicked. That's presumption. Did you know
that? That's what presuming upon the
grace of God is. And that's an excuse. And it
won't hold up. God commands us to seek it. And
there is a promise given to all who seek him." Now, look at Isaiah
45. Look at verse 22. He says, "...look unto me, and
be ye saved." Now, that's a command. That's the force of a command.
I know men argue over whether the gospel is a command, whether
or not it's an offer or an invitation, and I'll be honest with you,
I believe that's a silly argument. It is a command. It is an offer.
It is an invitation. God commands. Everything he has
is a force of a command because there is no other choice. What's
the alternative to looking unto God? Well, the only alternative
is hell. And that's no choice. So he says,
look unto me and be ye saved. Now, who's commanded to do this?
He says, all the ends of the earth. Christ told his disciples
to go in all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
He says, for I am God and there is none else. Seek the Lord. That's what the Scripture teaches.
Turn over to Jeremiah chapter 29. I want to show you this. Almost 130 years later, from
Isaiah, Jeremiah the prophet says this. And listen to his
word. Listen to the word of God through
Jeremiah the prophet. Look at verse 10. Jeremiah 29,
verse 10. He says, "'For thus saith the
Lord, that after seventy years be accomplished at Babylon, I
will visit you.'" Now, he's talking about the time period that God
was going to put the children of Israel in captivity in Babylon. Seventy years that was going
to take place. And he said, "'After that is accomplished, I will
visit you and perform my good word toward you.'" That is, God
will make good on his promise to deliver them from that captivity. in causing you to return to this
place, that is, back to their homeland, to rebuild the temple
and rebuild the walls of Jerusalem under Nehemiah and Ezra and Zerubbabel. And he says in verse 11, For
I know the thoughts that I think towards you. Now, here's the
source and the basis of their return. It's not their thoughts
towards God, because their thoughts towards God were not good. You see, salvation, deliverance,
Temporally or eternally is not conditioned on the sinner. It's
conditioned on Christ. And he said, I know the thoughts
that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace and
not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall you call upon
me. That is, when God delivers you,
he says, then shall you call upon me and you shall go and
pray unto me and I will hearken unto you. And listen to verse
13. And you shall seek me, and find me, when you shall search
for me with all your heart." When you shall search for me
with all your heart, and he says, and I will be found of you, saith
the Lord, and I will turn away your captivity, and I will gather
you from all the nations, and from all the places whither I
have driven you, and saith the Lord, and I will bring you again
into the place whence I caused you to be carried away captive.
when you seek me with all your heart." Back in the Old Covenant
Law in Deuteronomy chapter 4 and verse 29, God commanded, but
if from thence thou shalt seek the Lord thy God, thou shalt
find him, if thou seek him with all thy heart and with all thy
soul. Isaiah later on in Isaiah 55, he says, seek ye the Lord
while he may be found. Call ye upon him while he is
near. And then back in our text here, verse 22, look unto me."
Same thing, seek the Lord. And he said, you remember back
up in verse 19 of chapter 45, look at this, he says, I have
not spoken in secret, this is not a hidden message, in a dark
place of the earth. He said, I said not unto the
seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain. I the Lord speak righteousness,
I declare things that are right. Now let me tell you something,
it is a wicked thing. to think that God ever says to
any of his people, seek me in vain. That is a wicked thing. No sinner has ever sought the
Lord in vain. God has never commanded or invited
any sinner to seek him and that sinner seeks him and God turns
him away. That never happens. In the preaching
of the gospel of Christ, God identifies himself and he distinguishes
himself from idols so that sinners might seek him. Look at verse
20. He says, assemble yourselves and come. Draw near together. Get together now, he says, you
that are escaped of the nations. Now, this is the people God delivers.
And then he says, they have no knowledge that set up the wood
of their graven image and pray unto a God that cannot save. Now this is a call to repentance
to his people. Don't identify with, don't fellowship
with, don't get with those who are praying unto a God that cannot
save. This religious world today, I'm
afraid, are praying to a God that cannot save, a God who is
at their beck and call. Their God is more like a genie
in a bottle, that if you just pray hard enough and think it
hard enough and want it hard enough, rub the bottle three
times, make your wish, and if you've got enough faith, you'll
get it. And that's not the God of this book. That's a God who
cannot save. He'll only do what you let him
do. That's a God that cannot save. But the Lord says, look
unto me. and be you saved, a God not only
who can save, but a God who does save. So turn from your idols,
turn from your imaginations of God and seek him as he reveals
himself. And then he says, look at verse
21. He says, tell you, bring them near. Yea, let them take
counsel together. Who has declared this from ancient
times? Now, everything that God has
revealed and prophesied and promised has come true. But here he is
specifically speaking of the gospel message, how God saves
sinners. How God justifies the ungodly. Now, who's declared that from
ancient times? None of these gods that men look to, these
false gods, these gods who cannot save. He says, who has told it
from that time? He says, have not I, the Lord,
that is Jehovah, who saves? Who that is. He's the one who
declared it. He's the one who told it from
ancient times. He's the one who set it up before
the foundation of the world and gave it to his people in the
person of Christ. Remember what Paul wrote in 2
Timothy 1. And he says, And there is no
God else beside me. And then look at how he identifies
himself here. He says, A just God and a Savior. A just God and a Savior. And he says, There is none beside
me. Now think about this. Here's
how God identifies Himself, so as to be sought of His people.
Look unto Me. Look unto who? A just God and
a Savior. Israel shall be saved, He said
up there in verse 17. Remember that? Israel shall be
saved in the Lord. Who is the Lord? He's a just
God and a Savior. This is how He distinguishes
Himself from these gods that cannot save. If there is a God,
and there is, and if He can and will save, and He can and He
will, then who is He? How can we know Him? How can
we distinguish Him from idols? This is how. He's a just God
and a Savior. Now, I told you last week, this
right here was the portion of Scripture that I heard Brother
Mahan preaching when the Lord got my attention, right here. I'd been studying comparative
religion. I was going to be a master of comparative religion, Alan.
Can you believe that? How foolish. I want to know what
they all said. That's what I wanted to know.
And in all my studies of all the religions, even what I thought
at the time, and I want you to understand this, even what I
thought at the time was Christianity, true Christianity, but it wasn't.
I had never heard this preached. I'd never heard this God preached.
I never knew this God who was both a just God and a Savior.
I remember when I first heard it, I said, well, why is that
even important? Which tells you where I was at the time. Why
must He be both a just God and a Savior? Well, look over here
again. He says in verse 17, but Israel
shall be saved in the Lord. They're not going to be saved
by their works, by their efforts. They don't deserve it. They're
going to be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation.
Who is the Lord? He's a just God and a Savior.
Now, who is this Israel that's going to be saved with an everlasting
salvation? Identify these people. Well,
let me say this, and understand what he's doing here now. As
God identifies Himself He also identifies his people, because
their identification and their salvation is wrapped up in who
God is. Who God is. Our God is God. Just like Elijah and all the
prophets of Baal. He said, if Baal be God, worship
him. But if God be God, then worship
him. I'm identified with God, the true and living God. Who
is He? He's a just God and a Savior. So who is this Israel? Who is
spiritual Israel? Well, they are those who, in
verse 22, look unto Him, look unto this just God and a Savior. What does this mean? Why is it
important? Why is it such an important truth? Why is it the heart of the gospel?
When I think about it, the Bible tells us who God is. The Bible
identifies God by His attributes. He's the God who is omnipotent. That means He's all-powerful.
There's nothing that He cannot do according to His nature. I
know people get silly about that. They'll ask stupid questions
like, can God make a rock He can't move? That's a silly question.
God can do anything that's according to His nature, that's consistent
with who He is. We know, for example, God cannot
lie. You don't have to be all-powerful
to lie. You just have to be a liar. Do
you know that? That's all you have to be. You
don't have to be all-powerful to lie. You just have to be a
liar. And the Bible says, let God be true in every what? Man, a liar. That's what we are
by nature. The only truth we have is from
God. So God cannot lie. Why? Not because He's not all-powerful. It's because He's truth. He cannot
lie because He is truth. God cannot sin. Why? Because
He's holy. He's not the author of sin. He's
the controller of it. He's the controller of providence.
All things work together for good to them that love God who
are called according to His purpose. And that's so. But He's not the
author of sin. He cannot sin because He's God. He's omniscient. That means He
knows all. He knows all because He's determined
all. No, we cannot explain all of
that. We cannot make it all jibe in our little minds. But He is
God, and His ways and His thoughts are high above us. But another
thing that the Bible reveals about God is this. God is just. He's a just God. What does that
mean? It means he's just, he's holy,
he's righteous, he's good. He will not compromise this. He must punish sin. God must punish sin. Mark it down. He told Adam in
the garden before Adam ever fell, he said, in the day that you
eat thereof of that tree of the knowledge of good and evil, Dying
thou shalt die. What was he teaching Adam? I'm
a just God, Adam. Sin deserves and earns death. And that's the only thing that
will satisfy God. That's why the Scripture says
without the shedding of blood, without death, there is what? No remission, no forgiveness
of sins. God must be a righteous judge. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. The wages of sin is death. God cannot compromise that fact. He cannot ignore it. He cannot
water it down. He is just. In other words, sin
has to get what sin deserves, and that's death. And yet, God
reveals also that he's also a Savior. He's a just God and a Savior.
What does that mean? That means God is love. You know,
the Bible says it this way. It's not just that God loves,
but that God is love. That's His nature, to love. God
is merciful. God is gracious. So how can God
be both a just God and a Savior? How can He be both a righteous
judge as well as a loving Redeemer and Savior? How can both of those
come together? We're sinners. What do we deserve?
We deserve nothing but damnation and death. Isn't that right?
O Lord, if Thou shouldest mark iniquities, who would stand? Psalm 130, verse 3. The psalmist prayed, God hath
not dealt with us after our sins. If he did, where would we be?
We'd all die. So how can God be a just God,
a righteous judge, and act in accordance with his justice and
his righteousness and his truth and his goodness and still save
a sinner like me? How can he act towards me in
any way but as a just judge who brings death as the sentence?
for my sins. How can he do that? Well, the
great mystery, the great question is just that. How can he be both
a just God and a Savior? And that's the question of the
ages that has occupied the minds of men who really knew God and
who really knew themselves. Job, they say, is the oldest
book of the Bible. Job and his friends wrestled
with that problem. How can a man be just with God? How can a man who deserves death
because he's a sinner, how can he be just with a holy God? And
how can God justify such a man, such a sinner, and still be holy
and just and do so? Well, God answers that question.
He's both a just God and a Savior. And I want you to turn back to
the passage that Brother Terry read there in Romans chapter
3. Now, that question is answered
early on, long before Romans chapter 3 was written. But here
we have a concise answer to the question. Here's the gospel.
This is the heart of the gospel, as I said. This is why Christ,
the Lord Jesus Christ, came into the world and assumed human nature
without sin and died in the place of his people as the sinner's
substitute. You know, over in 1 Corinthians
15, Paul spoke of the gospel, which relates and reveals how
Christ died, how He died according to the Scriptures, how He was
buried and rose again. This is how, right here. This
is the how. This shows you how, what the
Scriptures say about how God can be just and justify. And
let me tell you something. There is – now listen to this
carefully. I was listening to a preacher
on tape one time. And here's what he said now. He made this
statement. He said God did not have to send
Christ to die on the cross. He said God could have, if He
wanted to, just snap His fingers and redeem His people, save His
people. That is a lie. That is a false
doctrine. I'm telling you, and I'll tell
you why. Because God must be just when He justifies. He can't just snap his fingers.
You know why? Because he's a just God and a
Savior. Again, without the shedding of
blood, there's what? No remission. The sentence has
to be carried out because God is just. Even in the salvation
of His people, God must be just. Mark it down. And this is what
he's saying, up here in verse 10, he brought in the whole world,
Jew and Gentile, guilty before God in Adam and by nature. There's
none righteous, no, not one. And you notice there in verse
10, he didn't say there's none religious, no, not one. He said
there's none righteous, no, not one. What does that mean? That
means this, among all men and women, the best and the worst,
There is none who have a righteousness that answers the demands of God's
justice. None of us. We don't have it,
you see. Adam, when he fell, he plunged
the whole human race into death and sin. Romans chapter 5 teaches
that. For by the disobedience of the
one, the many were made sinners. We were legally constituted sinners. Under Adam's federal headship,
we were legally constituted sinners in Adam. And when we're born,
we receive that sinful nature that Adam gave us, that human
nature. That's what that is. And we're
sinners in the sight of God who deserve death. And so there's
none righteous. No, not one. There's none that
seeketh after God. Did you see that? By nature,
men aren't going to seek after the true and living God. Oh,
they'll seek a God. He says they're all gone out
of the way. Well, what is the way? Well, Christ said, I am
the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. Well, by nature, we've gone out
of that way. We seek our own way. The Bible, twice in the
book of Proverbs, says there's a way that seemeth right unto
men, and it's the way of destruction. He says they all together become
unprofitable. What that means is that the ways
that man figures out in his religion, in his philosophy, in his own
way of theology to get himself saved is a way that won't profit
him. It's a way of works religion. I'm the captain of my own faith.
I'm the determiner of my own destiny. It's salvation by my
will, not God's will. And he goes on, he says, there's
none that doeth good, no, not one. Now, you've got to understand
this now. There's none that doeth good
in God's sight. Now, even lost people can do
that which is good in man's sight according to man's standards.
But when it comes to good in God's sight, that's a whole different
ballgame. You see, that requires perfection,
not of just the act, but of the mind, the thought, the motive,
the heart. You see, he said, and then he
goes on to describe their doctrine. Their throat is an open sepulchre.
With their tongues they've used deceit. Now go down to verse
19. He says in Romans 3, 19, Now we know that what thing soever
the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under the law, that
every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty
before God." Who's under the law? Those who don't have a righteousness. That answers the demands of God's
law and justice. Those who are seeking salvation
by their works of the law. That's who's under the law. And
he says that the only thing the law can do for them, is to show
they're guilty, declaring guilty. My friend, listen to me. The
law can only, can only pronounce death and condemnation to the
best of persons based on their works. That's all they can do. And that's what he says here.
He says, verse 20, therefore, by the deeds of the law, there
shall no flesh be justified. And remember what I said, when
you talk about good, you got to talk about good in God's sight.
Well, that's what we're talking about. See, God is the judge.
You see, your mom is not going to be your judge. Your friends
and family aren't going to judge you at the judgment. You've got
to go to meet God. And so he says there shall no
flesh be justified in his sight. in God's sight. And that's who
we have to do with, God. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. So then, here's the question again. How can God be both a
just God and a savior? How can he save me and still
be God? Does he say, well, I'll just
forget about justice and let's not talk about it ever again?
No, God can't do that. He's a just God. Does he say,
well, I know you can't be perfect, so I'll accept you on a lesser
qualification, such as faith. You can't keep the law perfect,
but I'll take faith as a substitute. Absolutely not. I'll show you
that in this passage right here. God is holy and just, and he
cannot accept anything less than perfect satisfaction to his justice. So how can he be just and a savior? Well, look at verse 21. Here's
how. But now, the righteousness of God. Now, that's what we need. You see, I don't need the righteousness
of Bill Parker. I don't need the righteousness
of any man. I need the righteousness of God.
Back over in Romans 1, 16 and 17, Paul used this same term,
righteousness of God. And here's what he said, he said,
For I'm not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power
of God and the salvation to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first
and to the Greek or the Gentile also. For therein, verse 17,
is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith, for as it
is written, the justified shall live by faith. So he says there's
the righteousness of God is revealed in this gospel. So what is that? Well, here it is. Now, the righteousness
of God without the law. Now, what he means by that is
without our works of the law. That's what the context tells
us. And it's manifested. It's come. It's been made known.
It's been revealed. And it was witnessed by the law
and the prophets. It's the same message that was preached by
the law, the old covenant by Moses. You say, well, the law
preached that? Yes, it did. Now, hold on. And
the prophets, Elijah, all of them. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah,
this is the same gospel. Verse 22, now here it is. Even
the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. It's a righteousness that was
established, worked out, performed, and finished by the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's His obedience to the law. It's His death. on the cross
to satisfy God's law and justice. It's not salvation based on my
obedience to God. It's salvation based totally
upon Christ's obedience to the law. It's the righteousness of
God. It's unto all. That is, it's
to be preached out to everybody, Jew and Gentile, and upon all
them that believe. Back in the Old Testament, This
righteousness of God, which was the entire merit and value and
virtue of the obedience and death of Christ, whereas in the Old
Testament they looked forward to him coming and working it
out on earth, the very virtue and merit of the obedience and
death of Christ was laid to their charge. placed upon them, they
wore it like a robe." That's how it was described. In other
words, God justified them based upon the righteousness that Christ
would bring in. That's how Abraham was justified. That's how Noah found grace in
the eyes of the Lord. That's how God looked at Noah
in Genesis chapter 7 and verse 1 and said, Noah, I find thee
upright and righteous and just in this generation. based upon
what Christ would come in time and do in his obedience unto
death. Noah was saved the same way you
and I are saved. That's how he delivered just
Lot out of Sodom, when his righteous soul vexed him by their behavior. He was vexed by their behavior.
You see, this is how God saves sinners. And it's imputed. That's what the word imputation.
Our sins were imputed to Christ, legally accounted to Christ.
And he went under the death of the cross, under the curse of
God and the wrath of God, for sins that he had no part in committing. It was for the sins of his sheep.
He said, I laid down my life for the sheep. He was bruised
for our iniquities, Isaiah said. The chastisement of our peace
was upon Him. In other words, the punishment
that was required to bring peace between God and His people was
put upon Christ. For God made Him sin. Christ was made sin. How? God
legally accounted all the demerit and all of the filth of sin legally
upon the charge of Christ. He was not made a sinner. He
was not infused with sin. But our sins were laid upon Him. It's like they became His by
imputation, laid to His account, charged to Him. You know something
about charging, this generation especially. You go out and run
up a debt, and you can't pay the debt. Let's say you don't
have even one penny, and you go down there to the bank, and
you're just going to throw yourself at their mercy. And if they ask
you, I'd laugh too. Yeah, fancy that. If they do
what's legally right, they shouldn't show mercy. Back a long time
ago, they put them in debtors' prison, didn't they? That's why
the law of bond slavery was brought about in the Old Covenant, so
that they wouldn't lose their land and their possessions. And
so you go down to the bank, and you say, I've run up this debt,
and I don't have the first penny to pay that debt. And the banker
opens up the books, and he says, well, you don't owe any debt.
That's been paid. That's been paid in full. And you say, well,
who did that? Well, there was a fellow come in here one time,
and he said, you know Bill Parker? And he said, yeah, I've got him
on the books here. He said, put it on my account, and I'll pay
it in full. And not only that, not only that,
not only did he pay my debt in full, it was almost, put it this
way, he said, here, I've got a million dollars, put that to
his account. You see, that's what he did.
That's what Christ did. He took my sins, and in return,
you know what he gave me? His righteousness. For God made
him sin, who knew no sin, Christ, and He did it for us, that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him." That's the great
exchange. That's how God can be both a
just God and a Savior. You see, my sins have not gone
unpunished. They were punished 2,000 years
ago on Calvary, when Christ shed His precious blood. The soul
that sinneth must die. Either I've got to die eternally
in hell, or somebody who's appointed of God, somebody who's able,
and somebody who's willing to stand in my place and take my
punishment and drink the damnation dry, pay my debt in full. That's
what Christ did on that cross. You see, God is just as well
as a Savior, and that's what He's saying here. It's upon all
them that believe. How do I know that He died for
me? Well, do you believe on Him? What did he say back there? Look
unto me and be ye saved. Well, there's no difference.
Look at verse 23 of Romans 3. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. All of us have missed the mark.
We all need him. We all need grace. You see, you
don't need just a jump start to be saved. Some of you, I don't
even know you. I'm telling you right now, I
know this about you, because this book says this, because
it's true of me too. You don't need just somebody
to help you help yourself. Isn't that right? They say God
helps those who help themselves. When it comes to salvation, the
worst thing you could have is somebody just to help you help
yourself. You need somebody to reach down and pick you off of
the dung heap of sin and depravity and set you on high. You need
someone who can work out all the righteousness that God requires
of you, all that you need, totally, completely. You don't need someone
who will just do it part of the way. I don't care if they come
99% of the way. That's not what you need. That's
not what I need. We need someone who can do it all and who did
it all. And that's what Christ did. Verse
24, he says, being justified freely, being declared righteous
before God. being declared not guilty before
God freely. You know what that means? That
means without a cause. There was no cause in me for
this to happen. I didn't deserve it, and I didn't
earn it. It was the sovereign will of God, and He said it's
by His grace He's a gracious God, but now listen to me. Grace
cannot cancel justice. Grace cannot cancel holiness. Love cannot cancel justice and
holiness. So he says it's by his grace
through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. You see, grace
reigns through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ
our Lord. God's love and grace provided
in his mercy what his justice required in the person of Christ.
And he goes on, verse 25, look, whom God has set forth to be
a propitiation. Now, remember what that word
propitiation means. It's a satisfaction to God's
justice. It's a sin-bearing sacrifice,
shedding blood unto death for satisfaction to justice. And
it says, through faith in His blood. You see, it's not faith
in your faith. It's not faith in my faith. It's
faith in His blood, in His death. Christ on the cross, satisfied. God's justice in my stead. And it says, to declare His righteousness
for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. How did God justify Adam and Abel and Enoch and Noah? And Lot and Abraham and all the
Old Testament saints, how did he do it? It was based on the
same blood, the same righteousness that he justified me and you.
The Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, he said there that
the law, it was witnessed by the law and the prophets. You
know what the old covenant law was? The old covenant law was
not a way for sinners to be saved by their works. The Old Covenant
law was a schoolmaster to lead sinners to Christ. They had the
Ten Commandments, which exposed their guilt, but they also had
the ceremonial law, the priesthood, the sacrifices, the tabernacle,
all which pictured how God can be both a just God and a Savior
in the Lord Jesus Christ, the promised Messiah. Christ told
them, he said, Moses wrote of me. He said, if you believed
Moses, you'd have believed me. He said, Abraham rejoiced to
see my day. And he saw it and he was glad.
Are you glad to see his day? The day of his coming, the day
of his obedience, the day of his death on the cross, the day
of his burial, the day of his resurrection under glory because
of our justification, his ascension. He's seated at the right hand
of the Father ever living to make intercession for us so that
when we sin we have an advocate with the Father, even Jesus Christ
the righteous. And he's the propitiation for
our sins. And that's what he's talking
about, verse 26, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness,
not ours, but his, that God might be just and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus. So where's boasting? Well, there
is none. It's excluded. Now, what what
excluded the boasting? By what law? By what principle?
By what message? Of works? Well, if salvation
is by your works in any way, to any stage, to any degree,
you've got room to boast. You can talk about how much better
you are than those who didn't do the works. But he says, nay,
that's not so. By what law? By the law of faith. Now, what is the law of faith?
That's the preaching of faith. That's the principle of faith.
What does faith do? Faith looks unto Christ. Look
unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I
am God. Faith doesn't look to faith for salvation. Faith looks
to Christ. Faith has an object. Faith has
a foundation. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by what? The Word of God. What does the Word of God
say? Look to Christ. Rest in Him. Seek Him and His
righteousness. Quit trying to establish one
of your own. Repent of your dead works and idolatry. Come unto
the Lord and be saved. So by what law? Verse 28. Therefore
we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of
the law. What does it mean to be justified by faith? It doesn't
mean to be justified based on your believing. He'd already
said that. What the foundation is, it's
Christ through the redemption that is You're justified by faith
as you look to Christ. Faith looks to Christ. You understand
that? Faith in His blood. It's His
person and His work. And so he says in verse 29, is
He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the
Gentiles? Now, who is Israel that shall be saved? Now, next
time I'm going to give you a bunch of scripture on that. I don't
have time tonight. But I'll tell you who they are.
They're every sinner, Jew or Gentile, who looks unto Christ. That's the Israel that's going
to be saved, spiritual Israel. That's what he's talking about.
He's not just the God of the Jews. He's the God of the Gentiles.
Yes, of the Gentiles also, verse 30, seeing it as one God which
shall justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision
through faith. In other words, if you're a Jew
and you're saved, you're justified based upon the blood and righteousness
of Christ. If you're a Gentile and you're
saved, you're justified based upon the blood and righteousness
of Christ. And he says there's no difference in other places.
There's no difference. So do we then make void the law
through faith? Does faith, does looking to Christ
and resting in his blood and righteousness for my whole salvation,
does that cancel or make void the law? And he says no. That's
how we establish the law. Now let me show you what he means
and I'll close on that. You take the most dedicated religionist. who's doing his dead-level best
to keep the law. That person, and he's trying
to be saved by his works under the law, he's trying to be made
right, he's trying to be righteous before God based on his works
under the law. That person doesn't even come
close to establishing the law. All that law can do in that situation
is condemn him and declare him guilty. But do you want to know
how to establish the law? Do you want to honor the law
of God? Now, God's law is an extension of Himself. There's
nothing wrong with God's law. And sometimes preachers preach
like there's something wrong with the law. There's nothing
wrong with God's law. It's written by the finger of God. Can anything
be wrong with it? What's wrong? I'll tell you where
the wrong is. It's in us. We're the wrong. But do you want to establish
the law of God? I'll tell you exactly how to do it. Look to
Christ who kept the law. Look to Christ. Rest in Him and
His blood as a satisfaction to the justice of the law. Look
to His righteousness for your complete justification before
God. That's how the law is established.
For Christ is the end of the law, the finishing, the fulfillment
of the law for everyone that believeth. for righteousness
unto everyone that believeth. That's how faith establishes
law. It looks outside of ourselves, away from ourselves, and looks
to Christ. Come to God, a just God and a
Savior.