Good morning. If you've heard
many of my sermons in the past, you may recall that I often quote
and rejoice in quoting Colossians 122, where we're told that through
the death of Christ, for all those he saves, that they're
presented unto God the Father as holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. I think that through all eternity,
believers will never stop marveling and rejoicing over the good news
of the gospel of God's sovereign grace that sets forth how sinners,
sinners like you and me, are truly viewed as holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in His sight, in His sight, in the sight of
the Lord. And that's the title of this
morning's message. As I was thinking of this verse, a lot of other
scriptures came to mind in which we see that same phrase or one
similar to it. So, out of curiosity, I did a
search through the Bible of the phrase, in the sight of the Lord,
or the other variations of it, such as in his sight, as I just
read from Colossians 1, or in the sight of God, or in thy sight,
or God speaking and saying in my sight. And I was amazed to
find that it's in the Bible, I counted 169 times where it's
found. So the sheer number of times
in which God is relating to us how he sees things, that should
cause us to see that God's sight of things, his perspective is
vitally important for us to understand. And in fact, when it comes to
the final judgment that all will face, declaring where we shall
spend eternity, I'm talking now of heaven or hell, his sight,
his perspective is the only one that ultimately matters because
he is the judge of all the earth, as we're told in Genesis 18.
Or the judge of all, as we're told in Hebrews 12. That makes
it incumbent upon each of us to examine where we stand before
him in his sight. A good question to ask ourselves
is, is my sight in alignment with God's sight? In other words,
do you see things as it pertains to your eternal salvation? Does
your perspective on that coincide with the way God sees things,
his perspective? Well, it's your better because
again, he's the judge, not you or me. And graciously, God speaks
to us through his word, telling us how things are in his sight. Now many of the passages where
that phrase is found, they do not all pertain to our standing
before God as either justified or condemned. But this morning,
I want to look at four New Testament passages containing that phrase
that do address that eternally vital subject. And if you'd like
to be turning to the first one, it will be Luke chapter 16. And
from these four passages, we're going to consider first God's
depiction of our sight, of how we naturally see things when
we first consider how we might be saved. In other words, our
natural thoughts. You'll hear me talking, saying
often this morning by nature or how we view things naturally. And I mean by that how we think
in the spiritually dead state with which we begin our lives.
Not having yet received the faculties of spiritual life so as to see
things God's way. And then secondly, we're going
to look at God's commentary on that, on our natural sight or
perspective. In other words, you might say
we'll look at his perspective on our perspective. And then thirdly, we're gonna
look at how we must be viewed in his sight to be found acceptable. In fact, how all who are saved
are viewed in God's sight. And then lastly, we'll examine
how saved sinners are able to obey God acceptably, in keeping
with what we heard during the 10 o'clock hour, so as to be
found well-pleasing in his sight. So first, let's look at God's
depiction of our perspective from Luke chapter 16. Here, Christ
was speaking to his disciples. And we're told there were some
Pharisees there that were listening as well. And in verse 13, Christ
declared that no servant can serve two masters. Adding further
down there, you cannot serve God and mammon. Now mammon, here's a word that
is the personification of greed or of wealth seeking or gain
seeking. And in verse 14, we're told that
these Pharisees were covetous. That is, they were gain seekers
at the expense of seeking to know the true and living God.
That was their driving force, apparently. And so in response
to what Christ had said, they derided or ridiculed our Lord,
we're told. And in verse 13, he then responded
to them saying, ye are they which justify yourselves before men. but God knoweth your hearts.
For that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination, and
here's that phrase, in the sight of God. Now he's telling them
that they presume to justify themselves, but that their justification
was only before men, not before God who knows their hearts. By
nature, that is apart from being given spiritual sight to see
things God's way, None of us recognize that this describes
all of us as well because none of us can know our own hearts. As Jim quoted this morning from
Jeremiah 17 9, God declares that the heart is deceitful above
all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? And then in
verse 10 begins, I the Lord search the heart. See, like these Pharisees
in our natural, spiritually dead states, we are all deceived about
ourselves. That's what God's word says of
us. But the all-knowing God knows
our hearts. And so he declares in his word,
thankfully, graciously, the reality of things in the sight of the
one that only matters, the only one that matters, his sight.
Our natural tendency is to imagine we can justify ourselves. If
we presume to meet conditions or requirements as perhaps prescribed
by the religion we practice that would cause us to consider ourselves
in our sight to be saved thereby, we are in essence presuming to
have justified ourselves. and two others of like mind who
adhere to the same condition or conditions that we presume
to have met to be saved, well, we're going to be justified in
their minds from their perspective as well. Justified before men,
but not before God. Unless and until we receive the
spiritual eyes of God-given faith, we will seek to justify ourselves
on the basis, as this verse tells us in its context, on the basis
of that which is naturally highly esteemed by others. But God says,
here, those things we value and esteem are in fact an abomination
in his sight, in the sight of the judge of all. That means
it's revolting, that it's disgusting, that it's detestable in his sight. As an example, we may go to church
regularly, which is a good thing if we're going where the gospels
preach. We may make a profession of faith. We may get baptized. We may live a moral life. And
the list could go on. And those things which are held
in high esteem by others, listen, when presumed to be the difference
maker in our salvation, if we presume to be justified, to be
found acceptable before God on the basis of any such things
we do, as the context would say, if we are they who justify ourselves,
then that's when those things are an abomination in God's sight.
It's just natural for us as fallen spiritually dead sinners to attempt
to justify ourselves, to get ourselves saved so as to be accepted
into God's eternal presence in heaven. We attempt to justify
ourselves whenever we imagine that we do something to gain
that favorable standing before God. And that is to believe that
salvation is by works. But contrary to that, as we often
quote from Ephesians 2, 8, 9, for by grace are ye saved through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, not of
works, lest any man should boast. In our day, many will claim,
as some of us once did, that Jesus Christ is their Savior,
presuming that they too are saved by what they call grace. but
all the while believing Jesus Christ lived and died for everyone,
even those who perish. So that version of grace, see,
is that God sent Christ, but not to actually save anyone,
but rather to merely make it possible if they will do their
part. Some will say if they will accept
Jesus as their personal savior or invite him into their heart
or respond in some form or fashion. But that is an attempt to mix
grace and works. And it would actually describe
not the God-given gift of faith, but a faith that would be of
works, a work done by the sinner. And God declares that can't be,
that grace and works can't mix. We read of that in Romans 11.
In Romans 11, those whom God has chosen in Christ from before
the foundation of the world, to be saved, they're referred
to in verse five as the election of grace. And that's followed
by this in verse six. And if by grace, then it is no
more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then it
is no more grace. Otherwise, work is no more work. In other words, he's telling
us, he's declaring the truth that these are opposites. He's
saying if there's any element of works involved, it's not grace,
no matter what you call it. You can call it grace till the
cows come home, but they can't be mixed. I'm currently reading
a book as an aside that is showing how irrational it is to imagine
that God does not exist. And one aspect of the argument
that's made evolves from the use of what they refer to as
a law of non-contradiction. And here's an example they gave. They used the famous quote that
was uttered by Shakespeare's Hamlet, to be or not to be, that
is the question. And it was pointed out how that
question wasn't to be and not to be. See, something might exist
or it might not exist, but it can't be both. He couldn't exist,
he couldn't be, and at the same time not exist, not be. That
would be an absurd contradiction. Well, the all-knowing judge of
all now is telling us the same thing as it pertains to grace
and works, that they are mutually exclusive opposites which cannot
coexist. You either believe one or you
believe the other. So when folks are confronted
with the contradiction of calling Jesus Christ their quote, savior,
while at the same time imagining that his work really, his work
alone really doesn't save anyone unless they do their part. And
then when they imagine that they settle that contradiction if
confronted with it, as I once did, by replying something like,
oh, oh yes, it's of grace and he's the savior, but you must,
in my case, I'd say you must believe. Or some would say you
must do your part in order to be saved. Well, do you see that's
just as absurd? It's an irrational contradiction.
according to God who declares that grace and works do not mix.
He is the Savior or He isn't. Salvation by grace, God's way
of salvation is a way in which all the conditions or requirements
for a person to be saved are fully met by the Lord Jesus Christ. That is, it's grace. That means
there's nothing meritorious that proceeds from the one being saved. That's the definition of salvation
by grace, and words mean something. Salvation by works, on the other
hand, is the mistaken presumption that salvation's conditioned,
at least in some way to some degree, on the person being saved. That would be a work, see, that
proceeds from them. Many call that grace, but that
doesn't make it so. That defines a salvation that
would be by works. So to consider Christ as your,
quote, Savior, while believing he died for everyone, having
done no more for those who were saved than for those who are
lost, is absurd, particularly if you also claim to believe
the Bible. Something other than, see, or in addition to Christ's
person and work has to be presumed to be making the real difference. And all we're left with, if Christ
didn't, if he died for some and they perish anyway, then it's
gotta be something done by the other party, the one being saved,
a work proceeding from them. And that highly esteemed among
men, self-justifying work is an abomination, detestable in
the sight of God. But that is the natural predisposition
of our desperately wicked hearts. See, apart from being taught
by God, through his preached gospel of grace, that's where
we will place our hope, on something, something done by or through
us. And so we're justified among men because you see the standard
by which we are presuming to be judged is found in our contrast
with other men. We're presuming that we would
do something that others will not do that will get us into
heaven. And so instead of measuring ourselves
by that which God says we're going to be judged in Acts 17,
the perfect righteousness of the risen Savior, we measure
our suitableness for heaven by comparing ourselves with others.
See, that's what we do when we presume to meet the prescribed
condition that they won't or don't. And in that way, we are
better. So there is room for us to boast.
In 2 Corinthians 10, as Paul was defending himself against
the false apostles who were attacking his authority as a gospel minister
and as an apostle, he contrasted the true with the false as he
made this statement concerning himself and other true followers
of Christ. in verse 12 saying, for we dare
not make ourselves of the number or compare ourselves with some
that commend themselves, and listen to this, but they measuring
themselves by themselves and comparing themselves among themselves
are not wise. Well, that's precisely what men
do when they presume to have a hand in saving or justifying
themselves. But now what about God's commentary
on this? His perspective on our natural
perspective? Be turning now to Romans 3 for
that. And in Romans 3, we see what
God has to say about all of us by nature. So that means what
he has to say about those of us who would compare ourselves
with ourselves as we're all predisposed to do. You see, we do that by
necessity when we initially imagine that salvation is somehow, there's
something I can do to be saved that's somehow conditioned on
me, the sinner. In Romans 3 verse 10, he begins
to describe what we all are like by nature. He says in verse 10,
There's none righteous, no, not one. Now I'm not going to read
all of this passage, but these descriptions continue to describe
us all by nature, all the way through verse 18. We see statements
in there such as, there's none that doeth good, no, not one. He tells us the way of peace.
Now the way of peace is the way of salvation, of reconciliation
or peace being made between a holy God and sinners. He says, the
way of peace, have they not known? And then when he gets to verse
18, he sums up this descriptive passage by saying, there's no
fear of God before their eyes. See, that is in their sight.
By nature, we have no regard for the honor of God's character.
That's what that's referring to. That's just not our focus. But I remember telling Bill when
I first come under the sound of the gospel, in trying to excuse
my past false religion, I said, well, I just didn't think of
it that way. And he took me right to this verse. He said, that's
what it is to have no fear of God before your eyes. Having
no regard, that's not my focus. He says, by nature, not having that regard
We're more concerned with figuring out if we've done our part. I
know I once would have probably reasoned like this. I said, OK,
I get it. Jesus, he died. That made everything
possible for me to be saved. But let's move on now to where
the rubber meets the road, to the real difference maker. What
do I need to do to be saved? And you see, that's the focus
in pulpits across our land this morning, sadly. You know, the question so many
major on is, have you accepted Jesus as your personal savior?
Well, if we have regard for the honor of God's character and
salvation, if we have this fear of God before our eyes, well,
if we have regard, see, for how things are in his sight, the
question we would major on isn't, have I accepted Jesus? It'd be
more like, how can a holy God accept me a sinner? who can do
no good that is acceptable to God, not if it's judged on its
own merit. The best I can do is tainted
with sin. So in God's sight, that which
is naturally presumed to be so in my sight just will not cut
it. Now just as the Pharisees and
many of the Jews thought they could be saved by keeping the
law of Moses, Likewise, in each generation, all naturally will
presume that we can meet a condition or requirement that's akin to
keeping a law in order to be saved. And with that mindset,
let's pick up now reading in Romans 3.19. Now we know that
what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under
the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
may become guilty before God. Now, as we get to verse 20, we're
about to see something very important. We're going to see how God sees
things. As we read, therefore, by the
deeds of the law, by your meeting a condition or a requirement
to be saved, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, in
the sight that matters. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. So our natural predisposition to justify ourselves won't get
the job done. The judge of all declares here
that by your keeping whatever law or requirement that you presume
will get you saved, if it's your acceptance of Jesus, your baptism,
your Bible reading, your prayer, you can just add anything in
there. If it's by that, he's saying not one soul is going
to be justified in his sight by that, by that. work of our own hand. Well, how
then are sinners justified in his sight? Verse 21, but now
the righteousness of God without the law, without your law keeping,
is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets,
even the righteousness of God, which is by faith or the faithfulness
of Jesus Christ unto all. See, before now, the Jews only
had the gospel in picture and type in the old covenant law.
But now he's saying it's preached unto all, Jew and Gentile. And
then he says, and it's upon all. That is, it's put upon. It's
imputed or credited to the account of all them that believe. For there is no difference. So
justifying ourselves by meeting a condition which others don't,
whereby we measure ourselves by other sinners, that won't
get the job done because in God's sight, there's no difference
between me and anyone else when it comes to His standard. Verse
23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We've
missed the mark. Your righteousness before God's
got to equal that of the perfection rendered by the Son of Glory
in His obedience unto death, and sinners can't produce that.
The only way we can possess the righteousness we need is by having
His, His very righteousness imputed to us, credited to us, credited
to us undeserving, but we must be eternally blessed by God as
objects of His sovereign mercy and grace. We really, see, we
really do need mercy. So verse 24, being justified
freely, freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus, Christ Jesus whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation. Again, that's propitiations,
that sin-bearing, justice-satisfying sacrifice of himself, whereby
God's wrath is appeased, the wrath that would otherwise be
due unto our sins. but were poured out on our substitute.
Through faith in his blood, in his doing and dying, to declare
his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness,
that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. Him which believeth in Jesus.
To believe in Jesus is not to believe in believing. In other
words, if we believe in Jesus, we don't believe we're saved
because we believe, we believe in Jesus, in his doing and dying. Where then, verse 27, where's
boasting then? We no longer measure ourselves
as better than those who are lost, because this is what it
means to be saved by grace. So boasting, it is excluded. By what law or what rule or principle? Of works? Nay, but by the law
of faith. In other words, room for boasting
remains as long as the law or rule as to how we think we're
saved is presumed to be of works. But boasting is excluded by the
law of faith. In other words, by that which
faith looks to. Salvation by grace, through faith,
as we read, that is not of itself, but is the gift of God, that's
not of works, lest any man should boast. Boasting is excluded. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith, by that law of faith, or what genuine
God-given faith he looks to, without the deeds of the law.
So we've seen so far that in our sight, from our natural perspective
on how sinners are saved, that it is by deeds of the law. That's
the way we are prone to look at it. And you know, I never
even perceived that that's what I believed at a time when I believed
that. The heart is deceitful. It's
desperately wicked. Who can know it? In other words, I thought it
was based on some work of my hand. And in the sight of God,
we've seen that's an abomination. We also have seen that God's
perspective of our perspective is summed up as we just have
no regard for the honor of God's character in salvation. We have no fear of God before
our eyes. Now remember, That passage in
Romans 3 is speaking of every fallen son and daughter of Adam
universally that we looked at there. And now we've seen in Romans
3, God's clear declaration of one, how in the sight of the
judge of all, that no flesh shall be justified by deeds of the
law, but rather, secondly, how sinners are justified freely
by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, wherein
we see that it's his righteousness, the merit of Christ's obedience
unto death that makes all the difference. It's not based upon
a presumed righteousness of our own making. Now I introduced
this sermon from Colossians 1, and if you want to turn there,
I'd like to briefly revisit that. There in Colossians 1, we see
how those who are justified by the blood of Christ, how they're
viewed in God's sight, all based upon the merit of what Christ,
their substitute and their surety accomplished for them, his righteousness,
having been imputed or reckoned to their account. In Colossians
119 we're told, For it pleased the Father that in him, that's
in Christ, should all fullness dwell. That means there we have
everything we need. And having made peace through
the blood of his cross. Again, see we don't know the
way of peace as we read. Again, not by anything we did,
but by the blood of the cross, of His cross. By Him to reconcile
all things unto Himself. By Him, I say, whether they be
things in earth or things in heaven. Now, we've reviewed the
natural sight or perspective of all the fallen humanity, which
the Bible teaches is owing to the spiritual blindness of our
spiritually dead state, that state we all begin this life's
journey in. And in keeping with that, I want
you to look how those now who are saved are described as we
continue in verse 21. He says, And you that were sometime
alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, you yet
now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death,
you that were alienated in your mind by wicked works to present
you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. That's justified, not guilty,
but righteous. And that's what it takes to be
accepted before a holy God. This is how God describes all
whom he saves, all who will in time be given that blood-bought
gift of faith that excludes all boasting in themselves. unblameable and unreprovable
in his sight. That is cause for rejoicing.
Be turning now to Hebrews chapter 13. Those who come to see the necessity
of and are drawn to value their righteous standing in Christ
are They are all also given a desire to serve and please God. Not
in order to be saved, or to find favor with God, or to avoid God's
wrath, but from a motive, as Jim preached this morning, of
grace and gratitude. For Christ having done for us
what we could never do for ourselves. We're grateful for his mercy
in not giving us what we deserve. And we're grateful for his grace
in giving us what we do not deserve. Believers desire to serve Him
and please Him out of the love for God that they possess solely
because He first loved them, as we read in 1 John 4, 19. But as I noted earlier, there's
nothing even a justified, born-again sinner can do that would be acceptable
for a holy God if it's judged on its own merit. Remaining sin
will taint all we do. And yet, there's no such thing,
from a pure motive. And yet the Bible says that true
believers do please God. So how is this so in God's sight? Well, in the last of our four
passages, Paul closes out his letter here to the Hebrew believers.
And he does so by praying for them as we read in verse 20,
Hebrews 13, 20. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
make you perfect, complete. In every good work to do his
will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight,
look through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen. So be it. A true believer's
efforts to obey God and live in accordance with his revealed
will is acceptable. It's even well-pleasing in God's
sight because we are his workmanship. The indwelling presence of the
Holy Spirit influences us, and that influence, that principle,
keeps us ever looking to Jesus Christ for our acceptance, not
to any works of our hands. Notice it's well-pleasing in
his sight through Jesus Christ. our sin-tainted efforts to obey
God, to serve Him. They're well-pleasing because
they've been sanctified and washed by the blood of Christ. The Christ
who the Bible tells us is ever-making intercession for us, see, based
on the blood of that everlasting covenant that was shed for us,
by which He presents us and our works as acceptable, holy, unblameable,
unreprovable. They're well-pleasing through
Jesus Christ. You know, when I was studying
this and contemplating how perfect or complete we're made in Christ,
I was reminded of one of the stanzas of a chorus that we sometimes
sing that I always like. It goes, he is all my righteousness. I stand in him complete and worship
him. And I love that little chorus.
But notice here, though, how Paul has closed out his prayer
at the end of verse 21, speaking of Christ, through whom our works
are well-pleasing in His sight, to whom be glory forever and
ever. The Bible teaches that God's
glory is the reason behind all that He does, and that would
include why He saves any of us. This thing is about Him. Our
natural side or perspective is typically about us, and it will
have us getting the glory. If we make the difference, we
get the glory. But God will not have that. He's
not going to share his glory. Jesus Christ alone makes the
difference, and thereby God is glorified. as He reveals Himself
to us as a holy, strictly just judge, as well as a loving, merciful,
and gracious Father, so that we can worship Him as He is,
as both a just God and a Savior. Believers are reminded of what
takes place in their regeneration and conversion in 2 Corinthians
chapter 4, beginning in verse 6. For God, who commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, the one that spoke this world
into existence, who said, let there be light, and there was
light, likewise hath shined in our hearts to give the light
of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face, that's in
the person and work of Jesus Christ, But we have this treasure,
this revelation of God-given faith in earthen vessels, meaning
we're still just sinners, but we are sinners saved by grace.
Look, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not
of us. Does your sight, does your perspective
as it pertains to the gospel, to how God saves sinners, Does
it align with God's sight, His perspective? What He declares
to be His way of salvation by grace in Jesus Christ alone?
Well, it better, because His sight and His perspective is
the only one, as I've said before, that's ultimately going to matter.
By God's grace, all those for whom Christ died are in time,
given that blood-bought gift of faith, whereby they come to
see things differently. That's why God declares that
all men, he calls all men everywhere to repentance. In Matthew 13,
13, when the disciples asked Christ why he spoke in parables,
he said, because they seeing, meaning seeing with the physical
eye, see not. They can't spiritually, the natural
man cannot discern the things of the spirit. He says, because
they seeing see not, and hearing they hear not, neither do they
understand. But down in verse 16 he adds,
but blessed are your eyes, for they see, and your ears for they
hear. And I pray that God's grace will
so shine upon someone, you, who hears this gospel message. of
how God saves sinners so as to bless you with spiritual eyes,
to see God's way of salvation, how sinners are saved in the
sight of the Lord.