Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program today.
I'm glad you could join us. Last week, I began a message
in the book of Isaiah, in the Old Testament, the prophet Isaiah,
chapter 45, entitled Salvation in a Look. And I want to continue
that and finish it up today. It's from Isaiah chapter 45,
verse 22, where the prophet, preaching to the people of Jerusalem,
He says, look unto me, and this is God speaking through Isaiah,
God speaking, look unto me and be ye saved, all the ends of
the earth, for I am God and there is none else. Salvation in a
look. And this look here, as I said
last week, is not just a glimpse, a passing glimpse, it is an intent
gaze upon the glorious person. and the finished work of the
Lord Jesus Christ that's brought about by God the Holy Spirit
in the new birth under the preaching of the gospel. Because when you
look, you're looking unto one who is real, who is unique, distinct. This is not a vision in the clouds
or a dream that you have. It's not mystical. It's not just
seeing things the way you want to see them. This is looking
at Christ as your salvation as He is identified and distinguished
in the Word of God. You know, there are counterfeit
Christ. Paul dealt with that in Galatians
1. He dealt with it in 2 Corinthians
11. He says, if those who come to
you preach another Jesus, one of a different kind, In other
words, they're saying things about Jesus. The word Jesus,
the name Jesus means salvation. But they say things about Him
that aren't true. Say things about His person.
Who is Jesus Christ? Isaiah was clear on this. He
is God manifest in the flesh. To deny His deity. If you claim
to believe in Jesus, but you deny His deity, you're looking
to a counterfeit. If you deny His humanity, then
you're looking to a counterfeit. He's both God and man, and I
know that's a mind-boggling truth. It's high above our limited understandings,
but it's true. It took this kind of person to
put away the sins of God's chosen people, God's elect. And so, He is Jesus, who is Emmanuel,
God, with us. God manifests in the flesh. And
to deny His impeccability, His sinlessness, there are those
who claim that Christ, when He went to the cross, that He was
made sin in some mystical way, that sin was transferred to Him
in such a way so as to corrupt Him or contaminate Him. Well,
that's a counterfeit. Let me tell you, Christ is the
just suffering for the unjust. Now, He was justly punished for
the sins of His people. And I'm gonna talk about that
in just a moment in more detail. Based on the sins of His people
imputed, charred, legally to Him. And He died justly under
the wrath of God as their surety. Assurity is one who takes accountability,
responsibility to pay the debt of another. My debt became his
debt. I'm the one who ran it up. I'm
the sinner. Christ is not the one who ran
the debt up. He's not the sinner. I am. But
he took my debt. It was charged, accounted, imputed
to him. God does not impute it to me.
God does not charge it to me. God was in Christ, reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, 2
Corinthians 5, 19. Who did he impute him to? He
imputed him to Christ. And so Christ died under the
wrath of God. And he remained sinlessly perfect
in himself throughout that whole work. He suffered. He bled, He
died. But in Himself, He remains sinlessly
perfect, yet God was just to punish His holy, harmless, undefiled
Son. The incorruptible blood of Christ.
Because of sins imputed to Him. That's how great that is. And
so, to call Him a sinner, or to make Him a sinner, is to look
at a counterfeit. Look unto me and be ye saved.
Look unto the true Christ. And then what did he accomplish
when he died? Did he make people savable? Or did he just bring about a
mere possibility of salvation if you'll make the right choice
or if you'll believe? No, that's a counterfeit. Everyone
for whom Christ died shall be saved. And that's what I wanna
deal with today. Let's look at Isaiah 45, look
at verse 20. God, through the prophet Isaiah,
is issuing forth a command to the people of Israel, the people
of Jerusalem, who as a majority had lapsed
into idolatry. And he says, assemble yourselves
and come. Draw near together. Come on,
let's congregate. You that are escaped of the nations,
those whom God had chosen out, and he says, they have no knowledge
that set up the wood of their graven image and pray unto a
God that cannot save. That's what idolatry is, praying
to a God that cannot save. Any God, let me tell you something,
any God who has not the power to save unless you let him is
an idol. that they had their idols. And
he says in verse 21, tell you and bring them near, yea, let
them take counsel together. Now come together and think on
this revelation of God. And he says, who hath declared
this from ancient time? Who from the very beginning has
always spoken the truth about himself, about sinners, Who has
always spoken the truth about idols and their evil? Who has told this, declared this
from ancient time? Who has told it from that time?
Have not I the Lord? And remember the word Lord there
is what we have come to transliterate as the name Jehovah, which means
the God of salvation, God who saves by grace through Christ.
And he says, there is no God else beside me. That's the holiness
of God. That's the uniqueness of God.
There's no one like God. That's why we don't make representation. He said, don't make any graven
image. Why? Because God is Spirit. And He reveals Himself in His
Word and in His works and you cannot make a likeness of Him.
You can't paint God. You can't see God in that sense. And he says, there's no God else
beside me. And listen to how God identifies
himself. This phrase that you're going
to hear coming up is a encapsulation of all the attributes of God. Have you ever seen a book called
The Attributes of God? There are several. written by
different men, talking about God's attributes, God's characteristics. They speak of God's power, God's
knowledge, the infinity of God, the grace of God, the goodness
of God, the long-suffering of God. God has many attributes. that make up His glorious, holy
unity in person. And this phrase here, as He reveals
Himself through the Lord Jesus Christ, encapsulates His whole
nature. Because in the salvation of sinners,
by Jesus Christ, we see every attribute of God working consistently
together, engaged on behalf of His glory and the salvation of
His people. And here's the phrase, listen
to it. He says, he says this, he says, there's no God else
beside me, a just God and a Savior. There is none beside me. And
so then he says, look unto me. And he saved all the ends. Look
unto who? A just God and a savior. You say, well, why is that so
profound? Well, think about it. I've dealt
with this on this program so many times and I'll continue
to deal with it because it's the heart of the gospel. But
the greatest question of all is this. How can a sinner, how
can a man or a woman, a sinful person, be justified with God? Because God is just. The Bible
teaches us that justice is probably the main attribute of God. Anytime
it talks about the coming of Christ into the world in the
Old Testament, a lot of times it says justice and judgment
are the habitation of His throne. That's where He lives. So if
I were to ask you, what's the main attribute of God? People
today would say, well, love is. No, love is an attribute. God is love. The Bible teaches
us it's not that just that God loves, it's God is love. He's the very embodiment of love.
But God is not love apart from or in spite of or in opposition
to his justice, One of the attributes of God
is his hatred. And people don't like to hear
about that today. Why? Because, I'll tell you why. Because they equate God's hatred
with our own. When we hate, it's selfish, it's
murder, it's sinful. But when God hates, it's based
on a just and right ground. God hated Esau. God hates all
workers of iniquity, the Bible tells us. Who are those workers
of iniquity? It's all sinners to whom He imputes
sin. God's wrath is an expression
of His hatred, His hatred of sin. And when preachers tell
you, well, God, He hates sin, but He loves the sinner, don't
listen to them. The Bible doesn't teach that.
Here's the point. What I need to know, and what
you need to know, is how can a holy and just God, who must
punish sin wherever He finds it, and punish sinners. You see, God doesn't just hate
the sin and love the sin. God doesn't just punish sin,
He punishes sinners. Sinners will perish in eternal
damnation. Not just their sins, but the
sinner will. So the question that we have
to confront here is how can a holy and just and righteous God love
me, save me, have mercy upon me, be gracious to me, and still
be just in doing so? How can that happen? Well, certainly
it cannot be based on our works. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin, the Bible tells us. And no one shall be justified
in God's sight by their works. By deeds of law shall no flesh
be justified. Salvation is by grace through
faith. That not of yourselves is the
gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And somebody
says, well, we're justified by faith. Well, what do you mean
by that? Because if you go to the scripture and look at what
that means, it doesn't mean what most people think it means today.
Most people think it means, well, I'm lost in my sins and I'm unjust
until I make the right decision and believe and then God justifies
me based on it. That is not what the Bible teaches.
To be justified by faith is to be justified by Christ. So how
can God love me, be gracious to me, be merciful, and still
be just and righteous and true to Himself? He must be. And that's
why He says, He says, there's no God else beside me here in
verse 21. A just God and a Savior. A righteous
judge who acts according to strict law and justice, but also a Savior. Aren't those two things contradictory? Not in God. Because God has a
way, an eternal way, that He can be both a just God and a
Savior. Now, what is that way? Well,
look at verse 22. Look unto me, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else.
Verse 23, I have sworn by myself God swore an oath. And He swore
this oath by Himself. In other words, He engaged His
own reputation on the line here. His own glory. He says, the word
is gone out of my mouth in righteousness. Now that's injustice. You see,
God is a righteous God. The gospel, Paul wrote this in
Romans 1, 16, and 17. He said, for I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believeth, to the Jew first and the Greek also.
Verse 17, for therein is the righteousness of God revealed.
from faith to faith. As it is written, the just, the
justified shall live by faith. Now think about that. What is
the righteousness of God? Well, it's the justice of God.
But you know, he's talking about the gospel there. Now, if I were
just to preach nothing to you but the justice of God, I can
assure you it would not be good news. God is a God of justice. He must punish sinners to whom
sin is imputed. If God were to ever give me what
I deserve and what I've earned, it would be eternal damnation.
That's his justice. But this righteousness of God
is good news to sinners. So how can the justice of God
be good news to sinners? Well, he says, for therein is
the righteousness of God revealed from faith. to faith. Now the first from faith, that's
the message, the doctrine of Christ. What is our faith? What is my faith? What do I believe? I believe that Jesus Christ is
my surety, my substitute, my redeemer, the Lord, my righteousness,
my sins were imputed to Him. His righteousness has been imputed
to me. I have life from the dead, from
Christ, whereby I believe in Him, that's the second faith,
from faith to faith, from the gospel preached in the power
of the Holy Spirit, the revelation of God, to God-given faith given
to us in the new birth to receive Him. Bible says in John 1, that
as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become the
sons of God, even to them that believe on His name, which were
born not of blood, not of physical inheritance, nor the will of
the flesh, not of the works of the flesh, nor the will of man,
not of the free will of man, it wasn't because of our choice,
but were born of God. And so he says in verse 23 of
Isaiah 45, I have sworn by myself, the word has gone out of my mouth
in righteousness. That's the gospel. Think about
it. Over in Isaiah 46, he says in verse 12 of Isaiah
46, this is the next chapter over. He says, hearken unto me,
you stout-hearted that are far from righteousness. Now who is
the stout-hearted who are far from righteousness? That's all
of us by nature. As we are fallen in Adam, ruined
by the fall, and as we are born spiritually dead in trespasses
and sins. Stout-hearted means we're proud.
What is it to be proud? It's to think that we can do
something to make ourselves right with God, that we can work it
some way by our efforts, by our choice, or our wills. That's
stout-hearted. And he says, who are far from
righteousness? How good do I have to be to go to heaven? Well,
I'm gonna try to be as good as I can be, somebody says. Well,
that's not gonna work. That's stout-heartedness. So
he says, you proud sinners, listen to me. And he says in verse 13,
now listen to this, Isaiah 46. He says, I bring near my righteousness. It shall not be far off, and
my salvation shall not tarry, and I will place salvation in
Zion for Israel, my glory. Do you see that? How is God gonna
bring salvation to sinners like me and like you? He's gonna bring
near His righteousness. Now, what is that? That's His
salvation. And who is it in? Salvation in
Zion for Israel, my God, that's Christ. And so look back here
at Isaiah 45. He says, verse 23, I have sworn
by myself, the word has gone out of my mouth in righteousness
and shall not return. It's not gonna fail. Listen,
every sinner whom God chose before the foundation of the world,
whose names were written in the land's book of life, every sinner
whom He has justified based upon the righteousness of Christ imputed
to them, every sinner for whom Christ died on that cross shall
be born again by the Spirit, shall come to faith in Christ,
and shall enter glory. Not one of them will perish.
It will not return. That unto me every knee shall
bow, every tongue shall swear. Now everyone's gonna bow in the
end. Every sinner, even those who
die in unbelief, they're gonna bow because God is sovereign. They're gonna be forced to bow.
But all who are brought to faith in Christ, they bow willingly.
They're made willing to bow. And so verse 24, he says, surely
shall one say, In the Lord have I righteousness. In the Lord
is all righteousness and strength. I don't have any righteousness
in myself. There are a lot of people today
who claim to. They claim they have a righteous nature. They
cannot sin and cannot be contaminated. That's a lie. That's a false
gospel. That's pride, that's stout-heartedness.
I believe that the Holy Spirit, when he brings us to the new
birth, he gives us a new heart, a new life. But my friend, that
new heart and that new life is not our righteousness before
God. Our righteousness before God
is the person and work of Christ on the cross. We are justified,
the scripture says in Romans chapter three, by his blood. Now what that means is His death
on the cross to put away my sins. He was made sin. That's what
the scripture says. Christ had the sins of God's
people, His sheep, imputed, charged to Him. For us, Christ who knew
no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. His righteousness imputed to
us. And so in the Lord have I righteousness. In the Lord have I strength.
The power to believe, the power to repent, the power to come
to Christ is not in me or in you. If left to ourselves, to
our own wills, we would never come to Christ. I think I may
have mentioned this in the last message or a couple weeks ago
about a young man who denies the gospel, claims to be a Christian,
denies the true gospel, believes a false gospel, and he said,
well, I just believe we all have a choice. Well, we do have a
choice. There's the choice of the broad
road that leads to destruction and the straight gate, narrow
road that leads to, narrow way that leads to life. And those
are the two choices. But if left to ourselves, we
will always make the wrong choice. We'll choose the broad road.
There's more people on the broad road, more people whom we love,
family members. We'll choose the wrong road if
left to ourselves. But God has a people whom he's
going to give life to and give them eyes to see and ears to
hear. They're gonna be born again. And they're going to choose willingly
the way of life because God makes them willing. God doesn't bring
them against their will, he gives them a new will. And Jeremiah
spoke of that. He said, I'll put my law within
their heart, write it on their heart, in their inward parts,
give them a new heart and cause them to walk in my statutes.
So he says in verse 24, surely shall one say in the Lord have
I righteousness and strength, even to him shall men come. to
the Lord. Look unto me and be ye saved.
All the ends of the earth. Salvation in a look. And all
that are incensed against him, that's unbelief, shall be ashamed.
But look at verse 25. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel be justified and shall glory. Now whoever this Israel
is, they're all going to be justified. They're going to be, it's declared
by God, and they will all glory in the Lord. Now, what is it
to be justified? The justified shall live by faith.
That's what he's saying here. To be justified is to be forgiven
of all my sins based on one just ground, the blood of Christ. To be justified is to be declared
righteous, right with God in His sight, based on one ground,
the imputed righteousness of Christ. That's what it is to
be justified. Paul wrote about that in Romans
four and verse six when he was quoting David in the Psalms. And he spoke of the blessedness
there in verse six, the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputeth
righteousness without works. And he says, David spoke of that
when he said in Psalm 32, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth
not iniquity. God does not charge me with my
sin. He charges me with the righteousness of Christ. And if I'm charged
with the righteousness of Christ, which means God chose me, which
means Christ died for me, I will be born again and brought to
glory in the Lord, to glory in the cross. The apostle wrote
in Galatians chapter six and verse 14, he said, God forbid
that I should glory, boast, save in the cross of the Lord Jesus
Christ. by whom the world is crucified
unto me and I unto the world. He says, for in Christ Jesus,
neither circumcision availed anything nor uncircumcision,
but a new creation. Glory in the Lord. So if God
brings you to this revelation, what are you gonna do? You're
gonna look unto me and be ye saved, he said. Salvation in
a look. And you'll continue to look.
Hebrews 12, two says it. We run the race of grace looking
unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. I hope you'll join
us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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today and may the Lord be with you.