He's turned with me in the Word of God to Romans
4. I say so often the Bible, but this is not just a book. It's the Word of God. It's the
word by which we'll be held accountable. Romans 4, I'll read one verse first, and
that is the last verse, verse 25. Who was delivered for our offenses
and was raised again for our justification. I thought about it. There will
be a lot said. Much talk today about Jesus being
raised from the dead. Some claim to celebrate, although
they have no biblical basis for it, just tradition and idolatry. But they claim to celebrate the
resurrection of Jesus Christ. That Jesus raised from the dead. is a fact. It's a historical
fact. But the mere knowledge of that
fact does not save anybody. It does not save us. As a matter of fact, what I want
to say oftentimes When people say that Jesus raised from the
dead, what I want to say sometimes
is, now what? Or so what? Lazarus was raised from the dead. by God's mercy have been raised
from the dead. So what is so special about Jesus
being raised from the dead? And I'm afraid their answers
reveal such an ignorance of the word of God. such a sad ignorance
and lack of understanding about the Word of God. And for that
reason, we have all the idolatry that is associated with this
day. God raised Jesus from the dead. As a matter of fact, The Apostle
Paul states it in our text, and he states it many times. But then he does more than that. He does much more than that,
and the gospel is much more than that. He says in that 25th verse, that he was raised for our justification. In Young's literal translation, he translates this verse like
this. He was delivered because of our
transgressions and was raised because of our justification. And I believe that it is an accurate
translation. Because what is pictured in the
Old Testament is what's stated in this text. Whenever the great
high priest once a year would enter into the Holy of Holies
with that God-appointed and God-prescribed sacrifice, the evidence that God had accepted
that sacrifice, the evidence that God had approved this work
and the work of that priest, the evidence that atonement had
been made was the fact that the high priest came out alive from
being in the presence of God. And that was simply a picture
of what Paul states here. It was likewise when Christ raised
from the dead, it was God's evidence, not to him, but to us, God's
evidence that he had accepted his work on the behalf of the
elect. That is, the people of God. When Paul begins this letter,
writing this letter, he addresses it to those that are in Rome
called saints. And the word saint there means
simply separated ones, and speaks of those separated by the grace
of God unto salvation. Separated by God from Adam's
race to be blessed with his saving mercies in Christ. They are called saints or named
by God to be saints. And he says here that he was
raised because of our justification. If we don't know something about
justification, we don't know anything about why Jesus Christ
was raised, we don't know anything about the gospel, We don't know
anything about the essentials of saving mercy in Jesus Christ. Because justification means to
declare or to pronounce one righteous. It's even spoken of God. When some said, or said in the
book of Acts, I believe it is, or one of the gospels, it says
that they justified God. What does that mean that they
justified God? They proclaim, they announce,
they accredited that he was right in what he did. They justified
God. But justification here is the
opposite of condemnation. When we hear the Bible speak
of condemnation, we know that that is the opposite of justification. And in condemnation, that condemnation
does not make one evil or account them evil by doing so, but it
simply pronounces upon them what they are. They are condemned
because they are evil. They are condemned because they
are wrong. Condemnation does not make them
such, it finds them such. And so justification, if it be
ordinary, can never look upon a sinner in himself or herself
and declare that sinner righteous. Because the Bible says of us
in and of ourselves, there is none righteous. No, not one. But justification, as it is in
the Bible sense, and it is in the grace sense, and you might
even say in the evangelical sense, is God declaring one or pronouncing
them righteous based on the righteousness of one outside of themselves. It is God declaring them righteous
based on the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul says here that he was
raised for our justification. But there is something that precedes
that, if you notice in our verse. There is something that precedes
that. It says that he was delivered
for our offenses. He was delivered first because
of our offenses. No matter how the Bible speaks
of it, whether it is our offenses or our sins or our iniquities,
or whatever word it uses, salvation has something to do with God
in mercy and Christ in his person and work saving us and delivering
us from our sins, our offenses, because God is the one who is
the offended one. It isn't like you have offended
your friend or your neighbor. It isn't like that I have offended
you. That isn't a problem such as
this one, because this is a problem that evolves from our having
offended God. And when we look at the scriptures,
it tells us that our race in our federal head, Adam, that
we rose and that we offended God in the garden so that we
see first of all how that his offense, one man's offense brought
something on all our race, which was condemnation. We are condemned in Adam. We are found offensive to God
in him. It says in Adam, all sin. Now we go beyond that. When we're
born in this world, it says that we're shapen in iniquity, that
we're born sinners, that we actually sin, that our thoughts, our words,
our deeds, they are all nothing but sin. So that means that Christ
Jesus, in order for us to be justified, had to be delivered
for. He had to die as a substitute
for. He had to be bearing in his own
body on that tree the sins of his people. But who does it say, or who do
we find in scripture delivered him to be dealt with in this
way? Who delivered Christ to be dealt
with for our sins, dealt with as our substitute? Well, without
a shadow of a doubt, it is God who delivered him and who dealt
with him in this matter. This and every act of salvation
is an act of God. That's something we ought always
to remember. We better remember that. Every
act in salvation, every act, the cause of it, the doing of
it is none other but the triune Godhead. He is God our Savior. Listen to this verse in chapter
two of the book of Acts. Peter says, Him, being delivered
by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, you have
taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain. The first cause of the death
of Christ, the first cause of the cross, and what Christ accomplished
on that cross is the determinant counsel and foreordination of
God. It is not an accident. It is not a reason for us to
gather today around a bunch of crosses and have a pity party
for Jesus. This is the determinant counsel
and foreordination of God. Romans 8 and verse 32 says, he
that spared not his own son but delivered him up for us all,
how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? So the very first cause, the
very first reason, the force behind the death of Christ is
first of all God himself. He said, you took him and by
wicked hands you slew him. You'll be held accountable for
that. But the first cause of it all,
the cause of this great mercy, the cause of this great thing
that is done on behalf of sinners is the purpose, the will, the
act of God. And he is delivered by God. Because God, acting in grace,
must nonetheless deal with our sins. We have a poor natural understanding
of this matter of sins. And consequently, we have a poor
and almost non-existent knowledge and understanding of God as he
is and how he must deal with sin. He says, I will by no means
clear the guilty. The soul that sinneth shall die. That hasn't changed one bit. But why? In order to our justification,
must Christ be delivered over to this cross death? Why must
he be punished? The scripture says for this reason,
because God imputed the sins of his people to him. In other words, That word impute,
meaning to charge or to reckon or put to the account of another,
the Lord Jesus Christ had by God put to his account all the
sins, all the penalty, all the death that was deserved his people
for their sins. Look at what it says here in
verse 6. Even as David also describes
the blessedness unto whom God imputes righteousness without
works, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven,
whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. Now I hear all these people when
I ask them quite innocently, how you doing? They'll tell me,
blessed. Blessed. I long for the day when this
religious world no longer finds all these religious cliches to
respond with. I'm blessed. Now here the Apostle Paul being
led by the Spirit of God, He tells you who's blessed. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Now, in the Old Testament, there
are several uses of the word. I want to just read you a couple
of them. One is when Abimelech is talking
to David in 1 Samuel 22 and verse 15. He says, did I then begin
to inquire of God for him? Be it far from me, let not the
king impute any thing unto his servant, nor to all of the house
of my father. For thy servant knew nothing
of this, less or more." Now what's he saying there? He's saying,
do not hold accountable. Do not charge. Do not reckon
to my account. Do not charge me with either
of this, any of this thing. neither to me nor to my family
because I didn't know anything about it." That's pretty understandable,
isn't it? Let me read you another one. This is when one is standing
before the king. I believe his name is Shimei. He says this, And he said unto
the king, let not my lord impute iniquity unto me, neither do
thou remember that which thy servant did perversely in the
day that my lord the king went out of Jerusalem, that the king
should take it to his heart. Now that's a pretty plain one.
Because Shimei was the man who, when David was going out of the
city of Jerusalem, he threw dirt at him and he cursed him. And here he is saying, don't
charge me with that. Don't hold that iniquity against
me. Don't you take it to heart. Don't
you execute judgment against me based on that act. Impute. Impute. You see, in all the scriptures,
The only way that a man can be blessed by the Lord so as to
not impute his sin to him is by grace. That's why it says, being or
having been justified freely by his grace. What is grace? Well, grace is God in the one
part, God not imputing sin to sinners, but imputing them or
charging them or laying on them to the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why Isaiah says it in
this way in the book of Isaiah. to all the Lord's people. This
is part of that good report, that good news that he stands
up to sound out. He says, the Lord hath laid on
him or made to meet on his head the iniquity of us all. That's good news. That's the
only good news there is in this world. That's the gospel, that's
what it is all about. The Lord hath laid on him, imputed
to him and charged to him because that's the only way God can be
just and yet justifies. Somebody's got to pay for sin. Somebody's got to pay the price,
bear the guilt, the responsibility of it. And God, in mercy and
grace and justice, imputes not the sins of his people to them. And the only way he can do that
is to impute them to one who can bear them. And the only one that can bear
them is he who is without sin, he who knew no sin, he who had
no sin. The Lord imputed to him the iniquity
of all his people. Now, I personally believe that
had to be before the world began. Because in order for God's purpose
to be one of purpose of grace to us, in order for him to do
all that he did, to purpose all that he did, this is the matter
that had to be dealt with first. Else the Lord Jesus could not
become our surety. That's what he is, you know.
He's the surety of his people. And the surety is one who from
the beginning bears all the iniquity, bears all the responsibility,
bears all the price in an agreement from the beginning. From the beginning. That's why
I believe that Young's translation is accurate. He raised him because
of our justification. The evidence of it. Not only that, but in this text
of scripture, we see what is the character of those who are
justified. The more people seek to run from
God, and hide, as Adam and Eve did, in their own fig leaves
of self-righteousness, the more they run from salvation. Look over in the third chapter
in the 20th verse. Paul says, and to me, this settles
it. Don't write anything else about
it. Don't defend the law, any kind
of things whatsoever. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by
the law is the knowledge of sin. Now, the Pharisees had the law,
but they didn't know themselves to be sinners. They took the
very law, and they sought, by their obedience to it, to stand
accepted, and just not accepted, but approved by God. But the law was given. And I
don't believe you need to preach the law so far as to show sin. But the law was given. And we
look at Israel, who had the law, who had much more than the law. They had the law over and over
and over and over again for centuries. But they weren't justified. They
never kept it. They never obeyed it. They never
were blessed by God at any point because of their obedience to
it. So what did it show? Sin. Sin. We don't have the Ten Commandments
given to us so as to live by. We have the Ten Commandments
given to us so that we know we can't live by them. It's like a speed limit sign.
A man is speeding down the road. There's no signs up. He doesn't
know that the speed limit is 55. You put a sign up. It shows
that he's speeding. No, it's not based on a person
or their person. It's not based on anyone's performance
or their obedience to the law. Look at verse 5 of chapter 4. but to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness." Somebody said, well, that means
that the only condition to salvation is faith. No. No. Faith is not a condition of salvation,
it's a consequence of being saved. He says here, it's to him that
worketh not. There's something engraved in
our sinful nature. And religion, false religion,
responds to it and knows it very well. Preachers know it very
well. And that is that we have a natural
tendency to try to do something to be saved, to be justified. If I do enough, God will justify
me. He'll declare me righteous. You
can't do that much. After the fall, the very first
thing that Adam and Eve did was they sought to sew themselves
a fig leaf apron, cover themselves. Where'd they learn that from?
It's natural to a fallen sinner. It's natural for us to try. It's
natural for us to think we can please God. It's natural for
us to want to do better and want to do right. And man just simply is deceived by that. It doesn't
matter how many times I read this verse. It's to him that
worketh not. Will the Bible speak so good?
To him that worketh not to be justified, to be counted righteous
by God, is to him, oh, I believe if you do the best you can. That's
it. That's wrong. I just try. I just try to live by the Ten
Commandments. I just try to do all these things. No, he was raised for our justification. There's nothing you can do. The
best you can do, God can't accept. Everything is tainted by sin. Everything is simply not what
God will accept. It says that heed that to him
that worketh not, but believeth on him, God that justifieth the
ungodly. When in the book it says that
those that justify the wicked are an abomination and here is
God who justifies the ungodly, how does he do it? He does it in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He does it in one outside of
ourselves. He does it by work accomplished
outside of ourselves. He who works not to be saved,
he who confesses himself to be ungodly. I read Psalm 32. I was going to read it to you
this morning. But the psalmist, it's David,
who says in verse 5, I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity
have I not hid. I said I will confess my transgressions
unto the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. Next verse, For this shall every
one that is godly pray unto thee in the time when thou mayest
be bound. The Pharisee prayed, Lord, I
thank you that I'm not like other men are. He was the really ungodly one. But the publican prayed just
like David speaks of in that psalm. He confessed his sin. He says, God, have mercy to me,
a sinner. And he went down to his house,
what? Justified. He went down to his house justified,
God declaring him righteous. No, it's Christ's obedience unto
death. It's his satisfaction of the
law and the justice of God. Verse 13 says, for the promise
that he should be the heir of the world was not to Abraham
or to his seed through the law, but through the righteousness
of faith. Now faith, if it be real faith,
if it be that faith that's a gift of God. It only looks to one righteousness,
and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. Hence, He is the Lord, our righteousness. Now, I'm here to tell you that
you can stand before God clothed in that righteousness. But you
can't stand before God clothed than any other. You can find that righteousness
that is in Jesus Christ through his person and work acceptable
to God. But he won't accept any other
kind. He won't accept your best. He
won't accept the fact that you've never drunk or you've never stole
or you've never lied. He won't accept that. Because you have. We all have. Well, I've never
committed adultery. If you look in your heart and
lust in your heart, you have. I'm born false, if you lied,
if you thought to lie in your heart, everything that is absolutely
lacking, absolutely imperfection before God is sin. You see, your whole problem is
that you don't know the God you've sinned against. I'm afraid that's it. In Romans 5 and verse 9, it says,
much more than being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved
from wrath through him. That means we can't just look
at Christ in some mystical sense, but we have to trust that His
work, that the shedding of His blood, that His death satisfied
God entirely in the matter of our sin. Why wouldn't we want that? Why couldn't we lay hold of that
and find peace in that and joy in that? It is because that we
want to do something in order to get glory for it. Romans 3 verse 24, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. And without the shedding of blood,
there is no redemption. The shedding of blood, perfect
blood, sinless blood, is the price of redemption. Why? Why must it be the price of redemption? Because God said so. Because God is God over all,
because God is the one who sinned against, because God rules and
does what He will and requires of His creatures what He will. And the only perfect blood was the blood of the Lamb. Oh, He shed it so voluntarily,
freely, laid down His life for His sheep. Well, you say, preacher,
am I one of his sheep? I don't know. But his sheep,
he said, my sheep hear my voice. Thank God he gave me an ear to
hear his voice, to hear this book, to hear this gospel, to
hear that Christ did it all. And for that reason, this justification is not received
through our doing, but through faith. Oh, you say, well, everybody's
got faith. Mm-mm. Not faith. They have natural faith. They have a faith of devils. The Bible says that the devils
believe that there's a God, and the devils believe that he rose
from the dead. But the devils can't believe
that he rose for their justification. He rose because of our justification. Because his work was so mighty
to put away our sins. It was so accepted by God. It was so perfect. It so put
them away, made an end of them, that God raised him from the
dead. And therefore, in Him we have
justification of life, or unto life, which means we have a right. As you prayed, we have a right. God is going to see to it that
we get it. We have a just right to life
because of this that Christ has done. And the basis for our being declared
righteous is not only that God does not impute our sins to us,
but that he imputes the righteousness of Christ to us. He only sees his people in Christ. He only views us in Christ. He doesn't view us in Adam anymore. He views us only in the last
Adam, in his son. You know what he says? What he says of his bride? He
says, there is no spot in you. Because when he looks at me,
When He looks at you, He looks at Christ. He has legally, He
has totally put away our sins by the sacrifice of Himself. Why should we believe? Why should
we have hope? Because of Him who was delivered
because of our offenses. Because He has been raised for
our justification, our sins are no more, and God declares us
to be what we can never be any other way. Because to enter into God's heaven,
we're going to have to be perfectly righteous. You might think that God just
saves a person and makes them better so that they can attain.
Oh, no. It's Christ. It's grace. It's God from start to finish. Alpha and omega. By one man's obedience, The free gift came upon those
he represented, which is justification of life. Turn over to Romans chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. I do so love
this Romans chapter 8, verse 33. Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. It's not that just he's raised,
but he's enthroned. Our representative is there at
the throne, and he makes intercessions for us. I'll show you one more verse,
and I'm sure you're familiar with it. It's in 2 Corinthians. 521, for He, that is God, God in grace,
God according to His own will, for He hath made Him to be sin
for us who knew no sin. that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. If I've been made the righteousness
of God in Christ, I'm justified. Somebody said that means just
as if I'd never sinned. Well, that ain't quite enough. means I'm just like Christ in
God's sight. I know I'm not in your sight. I'm certainly not in my sight.
But thank God that's not what matters. I want to serve Him. I want to please Him. I have
a desire to want to be like Christ. But I'm not. But by the imputed righteousness
of Christ, God looks at my account over by my name, my special name. Nobody else has my name. Well,
there may be somebody else named Gary Shepherd. There is. But
he doesn't have my name. By my name, God says righteous. And that's the best news a sinner
can ever have. He lay his head down, die, face
what comes in this world. It doesn't matter if I'm righteous. Men will make a mockery of the
fact that Christ raised from the dead because they will not
declare this good news that he was raised because of our justification. That's the proof of it. Father, we thank you for your
mercy, for your strength, for your help,
for your grace to this poor sinner. Weak and sinful, but righteous by your grace.
We thank you for that grace that reigns in righteousness through
Christ Jesus our Lord. We pray in His name. Amen.