Well, good morning. Good to see
you all here today, and I especially want to welcome our visitors.
Thank you for coming. As you can see, the title of my message
sounds kind of harsh, doesn't it? The God of Judgment. We like
to hear about the God of love, but as I hope you'll see today
that you can't know the God of love, the love of God that's
shed abroad in a believer's heart without knowing the God of judgment
or of justice. The text for today is taken from
the last book of the Old Testament, Malachi. Malachi was the last
prophet prior to John the Baptist who would not arrive on the scene
until 350 to 400 years later to herald the arrival of Jesus
Christ. And Malachi prophesies of their
coming. And God, from Malachi, he calls
the Jews in Judah to repentance. And that's a call that's certainly
relevant in our generation as it is in each one. In reading
through Malachi, you'll see this interesting pattern in his prophecy.
God, through the prophet, issues a series of indictments or charges
against Judah, expressing his great displeasure with them,
and particularly in the practice of their religion. And upon each
occasion that he does so, the people respond saying, wherein
or why, wherefore? Why do you say this to us? How
does your accusations and charges apply to us religious Jews? And each time, it's as if they're
saying to Malachi, you got this all wrong. You must have us confused
with the heathen. And sadly, you know, most of
so-called Christianity in our day responds in a similar fashion
as they unwittingly remain in a natural-born ignorance of God
that we all start out with, of God and His gospel. And when
I say His gospel, I'm referring to the good news of the Bible,
of how God saves sinners based solely on the doing and dying
of Christ in their place, with no causal contribution from the
sinner. I counted in going through Malachi
at least seven occasions in the four books, or four chapters
of the book, where such a discourse took place. That is, there was
an indictment leveled against them, followed by their reply
of puzzlement. Now, we're not going to review
all seven of these this morning, but I do want to look at a few
so you can see this pattern and also see the nature of the charges.
For example, look at the first such accusation and their response
to it in chapter one, beginning at the end of verse six. God
hears rebuking the priest, saying, O priest that despise my name. And you say, wherein have we
despised thy name? Ye offer polluted bread upon
mine altar. And you say, wherein have we
polluted thee? In that you say the table of
the Lord is contemptible. And if ye offer the blind for
sacrifice, is it not evil? And if ye offer the lame and
sick, is it not evil? Offer it now unto thy governor.
Will he be pleased with thee, or accept thy person, saith the
Lord of hosts?" See, God had been very specific in the law
he gave to Moses. And now they had compromised
it by not bringing unblemished sacrifices as he commanded. Sacrifices
that were intended, see, to picture the perfection, the unblemished,
sinless, eternal Lamb of God, Jesus Christ. So we see that
the Jews continued in their sincere practice of religion. But just
as is true of much religion in our day, there was no evidence
of a God-given understanding, as was demonstrated by their
very religious practices, having now degraded into that which
dishonored and displeased God. As we get then into chapter 2
and verse 13, God cites how they'd covered the altar with tears,
crying out. So clearly a lack of sincerity
was not their problem. God tells them that due to their
perverted religious practices, that he does not regard their
offering anymore, that he will not receive it. And in verse
14, they again reply, wherefore? Why don't you receive that which
we offer? And then he continues with other charges against them.
You know, in our day, I think people often reply to the distinctive
message of God's gospel. And when I say distinctive, I
mean that which would distinguish it from the many, many counterfeits
that were warned about over and over again in the epistles to
beware of a false gospel. But they hear that gospel, when
they hear it in our day, They act or respond much the same
way, saying, you know, I don't really see the big deal. You
know, I believe in Jesus. You know, how is your gospel
any different from that which I believe? And you see, that's
common to us all by nature, this blindness, this unawareness. The next similar exchange where
the indictment or charge is made and followed by a puzzled reply,
takes place in verse 17 of chapter 2, which I've chosen as my text
for today. There we read, ye have wearied
the Lord with your words, yet ye say wherein have we wearied
him? When ye say, everyone that doeth
evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in
them. Or, where is the God of judgment? Now the Hebrew word there for
judgment is a word that can be translated and is translated
elsewhere as justice, or doing right. He's saying, where is
the God of judgment, of justice, of righteousness? Now, there
are two ways in which we can rightly consider this verse,
and we'll consider them both today. First, it can be considered
as an accusation that they're making against God. Things were
not going well for Judah at this time. They were no longer in
captivity, but they were still under foreign domination and
foreign rule. They were enduring a prolonged
drought and famine in their land. And on the other hand, their
enemies, the heathen nations, were prospering. In essence,
see, this is a complaint lodged against God, accusing him of
favoring the wicked, wicked in their eyes, as if he delights
in those who do evil rather than themselves, who they believe
were doing good. So they complain, where is the
God of judgment? He should do right and punish
these others. You know, our natural tendency to complain about undesirable
circumstances reflects our own self-righteousness as we think
this or that shouldn't be happening to me. You know, we measure good,
we tend to, by comparing ourselves with others. But Paul said in
the New Testament, men comparing themselves with themselves are
not wise. And so what we do, you know,
if tomorrow my house gets wiped out by a tornado, and believing
God is sovereign, I'm sure that would be in accordance with its
purpose if it takes place. I can't help but think, why is
this happening to me? What about these savages in Iraq
who are going through beheading people right now? I know I'm
better than they are, but you see, that's not how we're to
measure things. It's natural for us, though, to think like
that. And listen, we can't really deal with it well unless and
until God is pleased to show us otherwise and convince us
of sin. We don't really believe, see,
the truth of Romans 3.12, where we're told, there's none that
doeth good. No, not one. You know, with an
inflated opinion, see, of our own goodness, we tend to imagine
we deserve better. Listen, it doesn't matter if
I judge myself better than those crazy guys over in Iraq right
now. What God calls evil is evil, and what God calls good is good. The goodness we need is measured
by God's standard. And we often review that from
Acts 1731. He tells us the standard by which
we're all going to be judged, and he says it's the very perfect
righteousness that's rendered by the obedience and death of
Jesus Christ. The Bible teaches anything short
of that deserves God's wrath. So here's what you and I deserve,
what we all earn as sinners. As Romans 6, 23 says, the wages
of sin is death, eternal death. In preparing this message, you
know, when I think about that, I'm reminded of the book, you
know, written a few years back, Why Bad Things Happen to Good
People. Well, the problem is there are
no good people. And we don't see it that way. I know some of you are better
than some other people I know. I know some other people I know
better than y'all, believe it or not. But in preparing this message,
I listened to an excellent sermon by Bill Parker on the passage.
And he made the case very well for this sense of Malachi 2.17.
In other words, that it's an accusation against God and how
he deals with people in Providence. And he did so by showing how
it was in keeping with the verses that follow in chapter 3. Look
further down into chapter 3 at verses 13 through 15 with me. There we read, your words have
been stout against me, saith the Lord. Yet ye say, what have
we spoken so much against thee? Again, we have the indictment
with their incredulous reply. What have we said against you?
Ye have said it is vain to serve God, and what profit is it that
we have kept his ordinance, that we have walked mournfully before
the Lord of hosts? We serve God sincerely, crying
on the altar, and we get nothing for it, see? And now we call
the proud happy, they prosper. Yea, they that work wickedness
are set up, set for life. Yea, they that tempt God are
even delivered. It reminds me here, I thought,
of how those who hear the gospel of God's sovereign grace, again,
wherein we see how all of salvation is conditioned solely on Jesus
Christ, that we really do need the mercy of God, that salvation
is truly out of our hands. And when people are confronted
with that, we frequently hear responses that go something like
this. They say, you know, if I believed like you, I'd just,
I'd give up worship and I'd just go live like the devil. In essence,
they're saying, if I'm not going to get something for my efforts
to please God, why would I bother? They can't imagine a motive of
grace and gratitude for what God did in sending his dear son.
You know, many religious folks will read the same Bible and
so see the same words that describe God's sovereignty. Just as he
says of himself in Isaiah 46.10, he said, my counsel, now his
counsel, that's God's purpose, contrived by infinite wisdom,
his all wise purpose. My counsel shall stand and I
will do all my pleasure. Or as he says of those who are
saved in Ephesians 1.11, how that in Christ they have obtained
an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him
who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.
Yet while many, they claim to believe God's word, like me in
years past, they choose not to believe what he says here, as
they insist that their eternal inheritance, their salvation,
is owing to their own free will decision, not God's sovereign
will and purpose. So their response, in essence,
communicates the same that I just read from Malachi 3.14. If I
believed that, it would be vain for me to serve that God. Well,
no doubt you can see that this sense of Malachi 2.17, that is
seeing it as an accusation of injustice that they're making
against God and how he dealt with men and women providentially,
in the various circumstances of their lives, you can see how
that's valid, because it makes sense in this context. But I
want to spend the rest of our time this morning considering
Malachi 2.17 from a different perspective, but one that also
makes sense and is certainly compatible with that which we've
considered so far. So look at the verse again, where
we read, ye have wearied the Lord with your words, yet ye
say wherein have we wearied him? When ye say, everyone that doeth
evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delighteth in
them. For where is the God of judgment? Consider how that verse could
also be understood to be the Jews saying, and again, saying
here is saying in their minds, thinking, not necessarily spoken
words, but thinking that they were doing good and acceptable
in the sight of God, but God through his prophet tells them
they're mistaken, that God is weary and displeased and that
he sees it as evil. And that wording, you know, kind
of can trip you up. There you go. Well, wait a minute. It says
here, they say everyone that doeth evil. It's much like in
Isaiah 28, you know, when it says there, the people says we've
made lies our refuge. Nobody makes, knowingly makes
a lie their refuge. God's saying that's the truth
of the refuge you're trusting in. Just as he's saying here,
I believe that you who do evil, he's been telling them in each
one of these indictments or charges, you're doing evil. And you call
it good, which is why they reply, what are you talking about? So
we see that certainly makes sense. It's really just like taking
a mirror and looking at that same verse just from a slightly
different perspective. In other words, that which God
calls evil is evil. And they call it good. And they
imagine that God delights in them. And those incredulous responses
to the charges reveals that, and it reveals their mistaken
assessment of themselves, and particularly as it pertains to
their religion. They presumed, for example, God
was pleased with the lame and the blind animals they were offering
in sacrificial worship, that he delighted in this, in their
practice of religion. Now, this sense of the verse
is equally valid, I know, in that it reflects a truth that
we gain from the whole of scripture. And that is that we all start
out with a natural spiritual blindness. Even saved sinners
are described this way. You hath he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. And we will persist in that condition
unless and until God's pleased to deliver us and give us the
God-given eyes of faith to see differently and repent. we do
not start out with the faculties of spiritual life. And as we
consider this verse, not then only as an accusation being made
by them against God, but also God's declaration of their being
mistaken, and their own self-assessment of their state before God and
their condition, well then, that last phrase might well be considered
this way, where it says, where's the God of judgment? As an expression
of Malachi's dismay at how they had it all wrong, one commentator
I read said, it may well be understood as an exclamation, as if Malachi
was saying, oh my, where is the God of justice, of righteousness
in that which you're practicing, in which they were showing absolutely
no regard for? Remember that first charge in
chapter 1 where God rebuked the priests, the leaders of their
worship. They were bringing tainted sacrifices, again, which did
not accurately represent Jesus Christ, the spotless Lamb of
God, who those sacrifices were to picture. As Christ said, Moses
wrote of me. When I studied this, it reminded
me of those who in recent years promoted a heresy that Christ
actually became contaminated with sin, by sin, becoming a
sinner within himself as they misrepresented the teaching of
2 Corinthians 5.21. God, here through Malachi, said
he would not accept their contaminated sacrifices because they perverted
the unblemished eternal sacrifice he intended for them to represent. Now, God wouldn't accept unblemished
animals, lame, blind animals, even though they were just symbolic,
a type or a picture of Christ, so don't dare approach the judgment,
offering up the equivalent of a blemished sacrifice, trusting
in a quote, Jesus, you imagine, became a sinner within himself. That's what Paul called another
Jesus, not our dear Savior. As we see from Malachi's day,
God will not accept it. And when the Jews were told that
by Malachi, they were incredulous, saying, in essence, what's the
big deal? And that mindset is reflected, I think, in many of
the religious practices of our day. Their misrepresentation
in Malachi's day of what was to be pictured in the sacrifice
Reminds me of how many show a lack of understanding of that which
is represented in the New Testament ordinances of the Lord's table
and the water baptism of believers. For example, it's not uncommon
for folks to be presumed to be honoring God by observing the
Lord's table while having substituted grape juice and soda crackers
for wine and unleavened bread. And that's what was prescribed.
And you know, that once described me, and so I know that if any
who hear this message, if they practice those ordinances and
observe them in that way, they'll probably think as I once did,
well wait a minute, what's the big deal? We're just using some
different elements to represent the same thing. You know, Christ
shed blood in his broken body. Well, just as with the Jews bringing
tainted sacrifices, it's contrary to God's command. And you know,
God, His commands and His instructions, they're not given to us frivolously.
God's all wise, and there's infinite wisdom behind all His commands
and instructions. See, fermented wine does not
spoil. It symbolizes the incorruptible,
the everlasting blood of Christ. Unfermented grape juice spoils.
And so the intended remembrance of the everlasting righteousness
that was brought in by the shedding of that blood is lost when the
ordinance is observed that way. Likewise, leaven in the Bible
is used as a symbol of sin. Holy God will not commune with
sin. Paul told the church at Corinth,
know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lot? So for
God to be the God of judgment, to do justice, This holy God
would have to have a perfect, a sinless sacrifice, unblemished,
with no sin, as represented by no leaven. And so scripture instructs
us to use unleavened bread, representing the Lord Jesus Christ who knew
no sin. As we read in 1 Peter 1.19, saved
sinners are redeemed with the precious blood of Christ as of
a lamb without blemish and without spot. We're taught in Hebrews
7.26 that the mediator, the high priest that we needed, was holy,
harmless, undefiled, separate from sinners. And soda crackers
are not unleavened bread, so the intended remembrance of the
spotless Lamb of God, whose body was offered as a sinless sacrifice,
see, for the sins of others, not for his sins, sins that were
imputed to him, well, that's lost when the ordinance is observed
that way. And look, I know that a believer
could be wrong on these things, and I'm not trying to take something
that's not vital and make it vital, but it's an example of
the slope we go down when we adhere to men's traditions and
forget to consider what God has to say in his word. There's some
who profess to be of the Christian faith who fail to follow the
biblical ordinance of believers' baptism by immersion in water.
Some sprinkle water on their members and they call that baptism.
Others use that same practice on infants. And again, many would
say, well, what's the big deal? Well, in baptism we're professing
something. And it's our identity with Christ
who was buried and then rose again for our justification.
And so it's a profession that our entire hopes he's wrapped
up in our union with him and what he accomplished for us buried
with him. I wasn't there personally, but
I died when he died in the person of my representative and substitute.
buried with him as pictured by our immersion into the water,
and we arise from the water just as we are risen to live spiritually
and will arise to heaven's glory. Our entire salvation all owing
see to that union, that oneness with him, our representative
and substitute, and what he accomplished by his burial, death, burial,
and resurrection. Now I know some who baptize infants,
they say it represents something different. I've heard some say
that's the equivalent of the Old Testament circumcision, but
there's nowhere in the Bible that suggests we do that. Some
say it's more like the dedication of a child to raise them in the
faith, but that's not what the ordinance of baptism is intended
to acknowledge according to the Bible. The sprinkled infant has
no clue of what's happening. So there's no profession of their
faith and confidence in their union with Christ in his justice
satisfying cross work. That practice, see, misrepresents
the profession intended by the ordinance of baptism. In Malachi's
day, I suspect the mockery of God made by the perversion of
the sacrificial system had gradually developed to that awful state,
their ignorance likely being compounded over time as they
too adopted the evolving traditions of those who came before them.
What's the big deal? Well, the incredulous replies
of the Jews show they didn't see a big deal in their having
substituted lame animals as for the unblemished sacrifices that
they were to bring. But it's a big deal, whether
we think it is or not, because God calls it a big deal, and
His assessment's the only one that will ultimately matter.
God told them He would not accept it. as in the religious practices
of our day, they had taken that which was sanctified, set apart
by God, that which he highly regards and which was intended
to honor him, and they've made it common. And so he has no regard
for it, and it's not acceptable in his sight. Now many who do
agree with what I've said about the elements of the Lord's table
and water baptisms, some do, I know many who don't, but regardless,
These are symptoms of an underlying problem. The problem, and you
may get those ordinances right, and you still have this underlying
problem, because it's a problem that's common to us all. It's
that one that we all start out with. It's called being spiritually
dead sinners. We, as Christ told Nicodemus,
you must be born again. You have to be given spiritual
life. And you know that initial spiritual blindness is even reflected
in our first religious thoughts. As we get serious, so to speak,
about religion, we say, I want to go to heaven. I believe there's
a God. And what is the question that immediately pops to mind? What is it now I need to do?
I need to do to gain eternal life. And that question itself
reflects a mistaken assessment of ourselves. is to imagine there
is something that me, a sinner, can do to be found accepted before
a holy God. And you know, while thinking
that way, you might do like I did, you might get religious. You
may get steeped in religion and in your sincere attempts to worship
God. But in the blindness of that
lost state, it isn't the substance or the gospel doctrine that typically
really matters to us. For many it's not what or in
whom they believe, but as we heard at the 10 o'clock hours,
their participation. It's just that they believe something,
perhaps in Christianity, is something pertaining to Jesus. So they
reason it's okay if you believe this and I believe that. And
there are non-vital things on which believers, true believers,
may disagree. But the saved believe the same
gospel. There's a tendency, see, for
us to judge ourselves as good and acceptable in God's sight
because we know our intentions. We know whether they're good
or not. And we know whether we're sincere or not. And I do not
doubt the sincerity of most religious folks I know. But wherein all
of that is the God of the Bible, the God of judgment, the God
of justice, of righteousness. That last phrase, Amalekai 217,
where is the God of judgment, I think sums up the problem,
and that's why I chose this particular verse to focus on today. From
our self-absorbed perspective, our thoughts center on ourselves,
on our doings, and that includes our religious doings. So the
particular ways in which we observe ordinances are lessened far more
importantly. the issues of our doctrine, of
what we believe. And this gets to the core of
the problem. In blindness, in spiritual blindness, that's kind
of secondary to us, if it's important at all to us. As I shared with
you, I recently was invited to speak before a religious group
of men from a denomination that I knew held doctrine contrary
to ours. So I expressed my reluctance
to accept their invitation when asked. I thought it would be
inappropriate to blindside them with forewarning them of our
differences. But they insisted, and so I went. And I was introduced by the one
who invited me. And he shared that initial reluctance
I had with the group as he was introducing me. He said, I told
Randy, don't worry about believing different doctrine. Doctrine
really doesn't matter to us. And, you know, I looked around
and that seemed to be the consensus of everyone there. But we better
quit reasoning from that which we feel we need, from man's perspective
upward, instead see what God has to say. In 2 John 9, we're
told, Whosoever transgresseth and abideth not in the doctrine
of Christ hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine
of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. Doctrine better
matter to you, and it better be the doctrine of Christ. And
that's found in the gospel of God's grace. So let's consider
the vital doctrine of Christ, God's gospel, by looking at the
God of the Bible, the God of judgment, or of justice, of righteousness. The knowledge of God that was
sorely missing in the religion of the Jews in Malachi's day,
just as it's missing in multitudes of professing Christians in our
day. God's gospel focuses our attention
on the character and glory of God, not on what we feel we need
or how religiously sincere we are. If we assess ourselves as
okay and acceptable before God, because we know we are sincere
about our religion. You know, that's how I gained
my assurance in years past from knowing how sincere I was. And
I knew I was more sincere than some. Well, if that's the basis
of that self-assessment of your state, of your judgment, I don't
doubt that it is to be sincere. I certainly was. But it's to
be sincerely wrong and to persist there is tragic. The question
to consider is not, am I sincere enough? It's not even, have I
accepted Jesus? But rather it is this, how can
a holy God, holy, accept me, a sinner, and still be just and
righteous in doing so? And God's gospel answers this
question. Where is the judgment, the justice
or righteousness of God? It's revealed in the gospel,
as we often quote from Romans 1, 16 and 17, how the gospel
is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth, because
therein is the righteousness of God revealed. Now, if your
faith is like mine was in years past, if it knows nothing of
the righteousness of God of which Paul is writing here, then obviously,
if the Bible's true, it cannot be God's gospel that you're believing. That would be a false faith in
a false gospel, not true God-given faith. So that makes this righteousness
of God thing very, very important. Now, you often hear a good definition
from this pulpit of righteousness, the righteousness of God that
Paul is speaking of here. It's one that's summed up by
Paul in Romans 10, 4, where he declares that Christ is the end
or the fulfillment of the law for righteousness. You often
hear us put it this way, that righteousness means perfect satisfaction
to God's law and justice as we refer to that which Christ accomplished
in fulfillment of all that God requires to save those for whom
he lived and died. Sometimes I think we hear these
phrases so often that we don't stop and really ponder their
meanings maybe as we should, but this is too important of
a subject, and it is so absent from the pulpits in our day that
I think it always bears repeating, so bear with me again today as
I do so. In our Lord's walk on earth,
he did perfectly satisfy the law of Moses, the old covenant
law, which was abolished at that time by Christ's fulfillment
of it and of all that it pictured in his saving work. But if we
think more broadly of the law as being all that which a holy
God requires in the way of obedience, Then we know that would speak
of a perfection that goes far beyond the keeping of the letter
of that temporal law given to Israel. I'm speaking for the
need for all of God's revealed will to be perfectly complied
with, without fail, as being the righteousness we need to
stand accepted before God. And Jesus Christ is the only
person to ever walk on this earth in perfect compliance with the
Father's will, far more than just his obedience to the Mosaic
law. But as Christ taught in the Sermon
on the Mount, the obedience demanded by God, it goes to the heart
and the motive, our very thoughts. And being holy, God requires
uninterrupted perfection, both in thought and motive and deed. And that's a perfection that
no fallen son or daughter of Adam can produce. We're commanded
to love God perfectly in the Bible. And our neighbors, which
would include our worst enemies, as we do ourselves. And being
sinners, you and I can't do that. I think it might help some to
better understand that phrase, satisfaction to law and justice
as a definition of righteousness, by considering how it might be
applied to our civil laws in this land. For example, if you
go driving down the road, the law says you have to maintain
a speed lower than that which is posted as the speed limit.
Now, if you exceed that limit, you're guilty of speeding, of
breaking that law. Now, if you're not speeding,
you are innocent. You're not guilty of breaking
that law, at least at that particular time. So how is that law satisfied? Well, certainly it is satisfied
by your obedience, by remaining under the legal speed limit.
So law and justice are satisfied in precept when it's obeyed or
complied with. But how can law and justice be
satisfied if you disobey it and you get pulled over for speeding?
A ticket's issued and there's a penalty that has to be paid.
But once the fine's been paid as prescribed by the law, law
and justice once again has been satisfied. You don't owe a debt
to justice anymore if the prescribed penalty has already been paid
in full for your crime. Now, as you're driving down the
road and you see that speed limit sign, it provides some information. It provides you the standard
by which the law will judge whether or not you're speeding, whether
you're innocent or guilty. And in Acts 17.31, as I mentioned
earlier, God provides us the standard by which we shall all
be judged eternally. And that standard is the righteousness
of Christ. It's the perfect satisfaction
to the Father's holy law and inflexible justice that he made. To be not guilty before our holy
God, you must possess a righteousness equal to that of the sinless
Lord of glory. That verse really couldn't make
this any clearer, I don't think. Sin is the transgression or the
breaking of God's law, and of that we all are guilty. Listen,
I know that some people are better than other people. But again,
you can see that's not the standard by which God shall judge us.
The standard is Jesus Christ. See, if the works of a believer
are acceptable and good in God's sight only because they've been
washed in the blood, they've been cleansed by Christ, our
mediator, they're accepted in Him, but if they're judged on
their own merit, even our very best works, it would be sin that
falls short of the perfection God requires. There's sin in
the best prayer I can pray. even those that are acceptable
before God as a justified sinner. But there's sin. You know, I
often catch myself and am appalled at how often I pray more for
me and my family than I do for you and your family. That's a
product of my sinful selfishness, self-love. There's sin in the
kindest act of charity I can do, in the best I can do, and
in all that I do. We sin in that continually. Now,
we strive not to sin. Well, why would you strive not
to sin? You're not going to get anything for it, as we talked
earlier. Oh, out of grace and gratitude, I try to obey the
Father because of the great love He showed me in sending His Son
to do for me what I couldn't do for myself. Now, you know, you might occasionally
speed and not get caught, but God, the Judge of all, He knows
all. He sees all. He knows our very
thoughts. The Bible teaches if we hold
the least ill will toward that worst enemy, at any point in
time we fail to comply with God's holy requirement of righteousness
and thereby we sin. And the penalty due unto our
guilt is eternal death, as we read in Romans 7.23, the wages
of sin is death. Wages. If you have a job, you're
paid wages. It's what you've earned. You
deserve it for the work you've done. And all that we sinners
can earn before God is just that, eternal death. It's what we deserve
outside of Christ. God tells us in his word that
he will not clear the guilty. That is, as a God of judgment,
of justice, of righteousness, he doesn't overlook our sins. They must be dealt with. He doesn't
pretend that those who are saved didn't sin. Justice must be served. That's why he sent his son as
a savior to die, the just dying for the unjust, that God might
receive all the glory, see, in their salvation. God the Father
imputed or charged to God the Son the guilt due unto all the
sins of all whom he chose unto salvation in Christ, chosen before
the foundation of the world, as we read in Ephesians 1-4.
And Christ willingly took on that responsibility as their
surety. In essence, this is what a surety
says. Put their sins on my account. I'll pay for them. And he walked
on this earth, not for himself as a private person. He was God. He was righteous, inherently
so. But he walked here as their representative,
as their substitute, and their surety. He obeyed the Father
perfectly for them. And thereby the precept of God's
law was satisfied on their behalf. God graciously imputed the merit
of that which he accomplished, righteousness, to his dear son,
to his dear children, the righteousness of his son to his children. Merit. I was talking about this with
Robert the other day, and he shared this illustration with
me. You know, the Boy Scouts award merit badges. It's what
kids earn for having learned or demonstrated some degree of
mastery in a certain area. You can earn like a fishing merit
badge by meeting a list of requirements of things you must learn, demonstrating
you know how to tie a hook on a line using the different types
of knots. You earn that merit badge. That's
what merit is. It's what we earn. So when we
speak of the righteousness of God as all the merit of his life
and death, we're simply talking about that which Christ earned
for his adopted children by his obedience and death on the cross.
Think of what he earned. The infinitely valuable precious
blood of Christ. Wow. What could that purchase
for me? He earned eternal life and every
blessing associated with it for everyone for whom he lived and
died. And that includes the blood-bought gift of faith by which we come
to know about it and submit to Christ and his righteousness
as our only hope. See, that which he established,
righteousness, is imputed or credited to the accounts of all
he came to save. So we do nothing to earn that
merit badge, so to speak. He earned it all. But those for
whom he lived and died, they were still sinners. They were
still lawbreakers. And as sinners, we can't earn
or merit anything before God. Instead, we can only produce
demerit. Demerit. You know, when I was
in school, they used to give out so many demerits, as they
were called, for misbehaving or breaking the rules. I think
the service academies still use the demerit system. Once you've
accumulated a certain number of demerits, you receive punishment
in some form. You might have to stay after
school in detention or whatever. So, save sinners, all we can
produce is a demerit. We can't earn anything for ourselves
and demerit deserves punishment. As I like to often repeat the
truth found in 2 Corinthians 5.21, what a glorious exchange.
Christ died for imputed sins, sins he had no part in producing,
that those for whom he died would have his perfect righteousness,
which they had no part in producing. And that's good news. to a sinner,
one truly convinced of his sin, his sin nature, you know, who
really needs the mercy of God. Boy, you know, if you ever really
need that, there's good news. You got it, because you won't
come to that point apart from that blood-bought gift of faith.
So those who are saved here have here what his obedience earned
for them. But what about that which they
deserve now due to their guilt? How are the penal demands due
to God's law and justice satisfied? We've done the crime. Somebody's
got to do the time or pay the fine for God's holy justice to
be served. God does not pretend. He doesn't
look over sin, as I've mentioned, and the penalty for sin is death.
And sadly, many will suffer just that, eternal death, if they
persist in unbelief of this Savior as he set forth in this gospel
wherein we see the God of judgment. In other words, where his righteousness
is revealed. But for those who are saved,
Christ paid the debt due to their sins in full by His death on
the cross where God's wrath was emptied out against the sins
of those Christ came to save. See, only the death of one who's
sinless whose both God and man is sufficient, valuable enough,
infinitely so, see, to pay the debt due before an infinitely
holy God. And that's why the separation
from God for those who perish, die without Christ, is an eternal
one. See, no amount of their suffering,
their death, by any mere sinner can ever pay what is owed to
God's holy justice. took the precious blood of Christ
the God-man, and that got the job done. His dear children for
whom He died, they're declared not guilty, but righteous in
Him. See, to be found in Christ having His righteousness imputed
is not only to be pardoned from the guilt due to my sins, but
it's to have all that He earned for me. It's to have an eternal
inheritance as a child of the King, the entire merit. whereby I'm accepted as holy,
me a sinner, holy and righteous in the sight of God for all eternity
in Jesus Christ, having not a righteousness of my own, but His very righteousness
made to be mine." You know, many in our day, as I mentioned at
the onset, prefer to focus on God as a God of love, and He
is. God is love. But you really don't
know the love of God until you've seen it manifested in the execution
of judgment and justice by Christ. That's what the Apostle John
told us when he wrote, herein, he told believers, herein is
love. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our
sins. Propitiation. That is His justice-satisfying,
sin-bearing sacrifice that appease God's wrath for their sins. Therein
is love. Not many hear of the God of judgment
or justice, but whether you've heard of Him or not, He's the
one we've got to do business with. He's there, and He's on
the throne, and He's the one you will face at the judgment.
In Jeremiah 23, 5, we read this prophecy of the coming Messiah
and his cross work. Behold, the days come, saith
the Lord, that I will raise unto David a righteous branch, and
a king shall reign and prosper and shall execute judgment and
justice in the earth. Salvation is a matter of God's
law and justice being satisfied. Well, did Christ execute judgment
and justice in the earth for you? Well, if so, He will without
fail reveal it to you by drawing you to value and submit to His
righteousness as set forth and revealed in the Gospel. That
Gospel that the Bible tells us is believed by all who are saved,
showing how He can be just and still save otherwise ungodly
sinners like you and me. Hear God as he speaks through
the prophet Isaiah in chapter 45, saying, there's no God else
beside me, a just God and a Savior. There's none beside me, look
unto me and be ye saved. Unto who? A just God and a Savior. All the ends of the earth, I'm
God and there's none else. Where's the God of judgment?
Well, he's seen in Jesus Christ, the Lord, our righteousness,
who executed judgment and justice in the earth. by His finished,
justice-satisfying work of obedience, that obedience even unto the
death of the cross." You see, therein we behold God as He's
uniquely revealed to believers in His redemptive glory. How
He is both a just God and a Savior. It's all about Him. He receives
all glory in the salvation of a sinner. Well, I pray God has
given you faith to look to Christ alone for your salvation. So
is to behold the God of judgment, a just God and a Savior. See,
His love providing what His holiness and justice demanded. So put
your trust in Christ and in the satisfaction to the Father's
holy justice that He made. submitting and resting in His
imputed righteousness as your sole basis for acceptance. And
do so with a promised assurance from our Lord Himself that all
who truly come to Him, He will not turn away, the God of judgment.