Would you open your Bibles with
me to Acts chapter 17 this morning, the book of Acts chapter 17.
While you're turning, let me again express my joy in being
here. And I thank you. Thank you, Pastor. Thank you for your hospitality,
the good food last night, which I overdid it. I dreamed all night,
but I did rest well. But I really enjoy being with
you and look forward to today and this afternoon. Good to see
Jim and Nancy again. We think about you often and
we pray for you. Pray for your son David and his,
I start to say accident, I know there are no accidents, but you
know how we grope around in the dark sometimes in this life.
We do think about you. Brother Ron Trabant, One of my
closest friends and brothers in Christ is preaching for Jim
this morning up in Almonte. He and his wife Trish traveled
up there yesterday. Pray for them as Ron preaches
this morning. I have two men in Ashland who
we've been working with, Ron and I have been meeting with,
who we plan to ordain as elders, Brother Joe Bryson. and Brother
Aaron Wiles, and I feel like that I sort of just shoved them
in the deep end of the water today, because this is the first
time that they are getting up to preach at 13th Street in my
absence, so I covet your prayers for them. They're just faithful
men who have a heart for the Word of God, the Gospel of Christ,
and have been gifted to communicate that gospel. And so we look forward
to many years, as the Lord allows, of ministry with them. I'm always
on the lookout for a better hymnal than what we have. And I've seen
the Trinity hymnal before, but you know, the way that started
out is a Presbyterian hymnal. But I think their goal was to
pretty much make sure that every song was scriptural in the sense
of the sovereignty of God and the redemptive work of Christ
and all of the great doctrines of sovereign grace. But I'd never
seen the Baptist edition. And I looked at that and I said,
I was thinking about this message here. One of my favorite hymns
is Immortal, Invisible, and that's the first hymn I looked at this
morning before you got up. I said, I wonder if that's in
there, and there it was, hymn number 35, and then Gary gets
up here and says, one of my favorites, hymn 35. Now that may seem like
a small thing, but the Lord tells us not to despise the day of
small things. And we who know God's sovereign
mercy and grace, we certainly learn not to despise the day
of small things. And especially when we who preach
the gospel of God's grace without compromise. Because a lot of
times we deal with many small things. But we know that our
Lord isn't small. Our Savior isn't small. He's
great. And that's what I want to talk to you about this morning.
I've entitled the message, our judge and our standard. Christ our judge and our standard.
Now I want to get to verse 31 here in Acts 17 where it says,
because he, that is God, hath appointed a day in the which
he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained
whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath
raised him from the dead." Now obviously that's speaking of
the Lord Jesus Christ as the sovereign judge of the quick
and the dead, and I believe also as the standard of judgment.
He is the judge and he is the standard of judgment. And that's
what I want to talk about, but I want to show you how the Holy
Spirit And his infinite wisdom inspired the Apostle Paul to
lead up to that great truth in this sermon on Mars Hill. You know, Paul, he went out and
he preached to the Gentile world as God opened the doors and allowed
him to enter in and gave him the opportunity to preach the
gospel of Christ, that gospel that Paul wrote about in Romans
1 by inspiration of the Spirit. of a gospel of God. It's not
the gospel of man. It doesn't have its origins with
man. No man could have ever come up
with this, and that's what this sermon teaches us. It's one of
the many sermons that teach us that. So it's not the invention
of men. Every invention of man in religion
has something to do with the works of man aimed at either
attaining or maintaining salvation. But not the gospel of God. The
gospel of God is built upon the glorious person and the finished
work, the redemptive work of Christ on the cross, whereby
He was buried and rose again the third day. And this gospel
is the gospel that sets forth both the glory of His person
and the power and the efficacy of His finished work, not to
try to save people if He'll let them, or if they'll let him,
but to save his people from their sins. Now, here Paul is in Athens,
Greece, the center of philosophy and intellectualism, debate,
discussion, religion, anything you wanted. I mean, it was a
hodgepodge of all kinds of ideas. This was the think-tank of the
ancient world there. And so here he stands. And you
know, I thought about this. As Paul went out through the
Gentile world, he met all kinds of different people, all kinds
of different ideas and cultures, languages. But God the Holy Spirit,
again in His infinite wisdom, always gave His preachers the
right things to say at the right time. And of course, these are
the inspired words of Holy Scripture. And so let's look at what Paul
did here. He says in verse 22, now I'm
going to divide this up into three sections. The first section
here is verses 22-23. And what Paul is saying in these
two verses is that God is. Now, when I say God is, I mean
more than just God exists. There are a lot of people who
believe there is a God. But it's more like this. It's
more like God is who He says He is. And we'll see that in
just a moment, too. We'll go to another scripture.
But God is who He says He is. What was that old sermon that
I think was a black preacher preached? He said, it ain't like
you thought it was. Talk about naming the left. Well,
that's the way men have their thoughts of God. But it ain't
like we thought it was. God is who He says He is. God
says he's sovereign. You know what? He's sovereign. If God says he's just, he's just. If God says he's merciful, he's
merciful. All of these things. The second
part goes from verse 24 down to the first part of verse 30,
and that is God does. God does what he will. God doesn't
do according to our whims and our wishes and our desires. God does what God does. If God's going to be just, He's
going to be just. If God's going to show mercy,
He told Moses, He'll have mercy on whom I will have mercy. I'll
be gracious to whom I will. So then it's not of Him that
willeth, nor of Him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy.
But God does. God does, and He does without
the aid of man. Not as though He needed anything,
because He does. And then thirdly, in the last
part of verse 30 and verse 31 is God speaks. God speaks. God is, God does, and God speaks. Now in these first two verses,
verses 22 through 23, Paul is showing that God is who He says
He is. And what he does here, he pretty much sums up in these
verses the condition of man by nature. And you can sum it up
in this line. Man does not know God. Look at verse 21 too. Then Paul
stood in the midst of Mars Hill and said, You men of Athens,
I perceive that in all things you are too superstitious. Now
that word superstitious is religious. That's what it is. You're too
religious. Somebody might ask, well, how
in the world can anybody be too religious? Isn't religion good?
Now, let me tell you something. There's nothing that God hates
more than human religion. You know that? Man's inventions
of religion are nothing more than the works of the flesh and
pride." And God hates a proud look. Religion without knowledge. Look at verse 23. He says, "...for
I passed by and beheld your devotions." That's your services, your prayers,
your meditations, your ministries. He said, "...I found an altar
with this inscription to the unknown God, the God you don't
know, whom therefore you ignorantly worship, Him declare I unto you."
You see, religion without God, religion without knowledge, religion
without truth, listen, religion without grace, without heart,
sum it up this way, the whole thing, religion without Christ,
God hates it. It can clean up the outside of
the cup. And in many cases, it can hold
a person in check as not going the full swing of their depravity. It can do that. But it cannot
save a sinner from his sin. It cannot make a guilty person
righteous. It cannot make a filthy person
clean. It cannot change the heart. It cannot get a person closer
to God. In fact, it gets them farther
and farther away from God. And that's man's condition by
nature. This is the ruination of man
by the fall. We see that in Adam's fall. When
Adam Thelm brought the whole human race into utter depravity
and spiritual death, what was the first thing he did? Ran from
God. Hid from God. That's what man's
religion is. It's a hiding place from God.
Now, you can't hide from God. It's a futile hiding place. It's a pipe dream. It's a refuge
of lies, Isaiah called it in Isaiah 28. But it's man's futile
attempts to hide from the wrath of God represented in Adam and
Eve's fig leaf aprons trying to cover themselves, cover their
shame. That's what man does in religion.
He's trying to cover his shame with his prayers, with his works,
with his baptisms, with his attendance, with his morality. But it will
not work. It will not work. And this ignorance,
if we ever come to know God, the Scripture teaches us, if
we ever come to know God, the only way we can come to know
God is through Christ. Not through religion, not through
works and efforts, not trying to clean ourselves up, but casting
ourselves solely upon the mercy of God, beating on our breasts
like that old publican saying, God, be merciful, propitious,
literally, to me, the sinner. Look over at the book of John
chapter 17 with me. You know, the Scripture says,
that in Him, in Christ, dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead
bodily." What I believe that means is this, that in the God-man,
in the person of Christ as God-man, both God and man in one person,
we see the fullness of the revelation of the Father and of the Son
and of the Spirit in Him. Everything centers around Christ
in the true knowledge of God. Paul said, I'm going to preach
to you a God that you don't know. I'm going to tell you about this
God. He is as He says He is. Look at John 17 and verse 1 in
our Lord's high priestly prayer. It says, These words spake Jesus
and lifted up His eyes to heaven and said, Father, the hour has
come. Glorify Thy Son that Thy Son also may glorify Thee as
Thou hast given Him power over all flesh to do what? to try
to save a few folks if they'll let Him? No. That He should give. That's free grace. That's sovereign
grace. Eternal life to how many? As many as God the Father gave
Him. God's elect. His church, His
sheep. He said, all that the Father
giveth Me, what? Shall. come to me, and him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out." He says, this is the Father's
will which is sent me that of all which he has given me I should
lose how many? Nothing. But raise it up again
at the last time. But look at verse 3. He says,
and this is life eternal. Now here's a definition in the
Scriptures of eternal life. That they might know thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast seen. How am I
going to know the only true God? There's only one way. Through
Jesus Christ, whom God sent. God sent forth His Son, made
of a woman. The Word made flesh and dwelt
among us. Made under the law. That is, He became responsible
for all my sins. They were laid upon Him. He was
made under the law to do what? to pay the price, to pay the
redemption price and to redeem them that were under the law.
This is the Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, my friend, the Bible says
in 1 John 5, the Son of God has come and given us an understanding
that we may know God. I love this passage. Look at
Philippians chapter 3. Paul, before God brought him
down on the Damascus road, You know, he was Saul of Tarsus,
you remember. You know, his one goal in life
at that point in time was to wipe the name of Jesus of Nazareth
off the face of the earth and every follower of Jesus of Nazareth. And in his religion, he was one
of the most religious men on earth. He said that. In his religion,
he truly hated the God who is. He hated God. And yet God, in
sovereign mercy, saved a sinner like Saul. Isn't that something? Well, you shouldn't be amazed
at that. I shouldn't be amazed at that. I can remember sitting
in 13th Street, the church I pastor now, and I'm just telling you
the truth. I can remember sitting in the
back queues of that pastor hating every word that came out of Brother
Mahan's lips. And my sole purpose, the only
reason I went there was because I hated to see my mother go to
church alone. And I would take her because
my dad wouldn't go with her. So I'd take her to church. And
I'd sit there and my one goal was to search that Bible and
prove him wrong. That's right. That was my one
goal. And in my attempts to prove him
wrong, that's how God brought me down into the dusk of my own
Damascus road. and taught me the gospel, led
me to Christ, showed me my sinfulness and depravity and wretchedness
in my religion, and drove me to Christ, to His blood for the
forgiveness of all my sins and His righteousness for my complete
right standing before God. And now I pastor that church.
Isn't that amazing? That's amazing grace. But look
here in verse 7 of Philippians chapter 3, Paul says, what things
were gained to me, those I counted lost for Christ. The things I
used to think recommended me unto God. The things I used to
think made me righteous before God. He says, now they're lost. Well, what brought you to such
a conclusion? Christ, he says, verse 8, yea,
doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of
the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I suffered
the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may
win Christ. My friend, if we're ever going
to know God, it's got to be through His Son. Go back to Acts 17 now. Paul said, I'm going to tell
you about this God that you don't know. And you know, that's what
we do when we preach the gospel to the lost. They think they
know God. I thought I knew God. I didn't
know God. I had an idol. I had a God of
my own imagination. A God I thought could save, but
He couldn't. My friend, but one day, the Lord
confronted me. And He brought me down and showed
me the true and living God. Well, here's the next thing.
Now, this God who is, who is as He says He is in His Word,
He's also a God who does. He's a God who acts. Here in
verse 24, listen to what He says here. And what we can see here
in those first two verses, we saw man in his condition summarized
by He does not know God. Just like Adam. That's how we
identify with Adam in our depravity. We don't know God. Here in verse
24 all the way up to verse 30, describes the depravity and futility
of man's efforts to find God on his own. And to know God by
his own works. And here's what Paul does. He
starts out here. You know, man by nature, the
problem is we reason from the ground up. But let me tell you
something, salvation's from heaven down. This is the gospel, it's
by revelation. That's where man, the reason
he has an idol, he starts with himself. And he thinks God's
like, well, you know, I wouldn't do that, so God wouldn't either.
Or I'd do this, so I know God wouldn't. You see, that's idolatry
in the Scripture. And so Paul starts off here.
With the knowledge of God by revelation, he says, look at
verse 24, he says, God that made the world and all things therein,
this is the God of creation. Let me tell you something, he
didn't consort with me and you over this matter, did he? He told Job that, didn't he? You remember when Job was perplexed,
as we all get sometimes in Providence, Job wanted to figure this thing
out, and he asked God about it. And you know, God basically told
him. He said, well, Job, I'll tell you what, I'll discuss that
with you if you can answer this question. Where were you when
I put the stars in place? Where were you when I put Leviathan
in the sea? Now, if you can say you were
around then, then I'll discuss this with you. But if not, the
basic answer to the question is you just fall at God's feet,
God's mercy, and worship Him, no matter what. No matter what. You say, well, I'm going through
hard times. God's still on the throne, friend. He hasn't come
down. You say, well, I'm having a good
time today. God's still on the throne. He hasn't come down. Not one iota. Not one second. So here's the God of creation.
He says, seeing that He's Lord of heaven and earth, He dwelleth
not in temples made with ants. God is omnipresent. You can't
contain God. You build a temple and you say,
that's where God lives. God doesn't live there. I know
back in the old covenant, the Shekinah, as the old Jewish writers
used to say, the Shekinah dwelt in the holiest of all. But that
wasn't the entire presence of the nature of God. That was the
manifestation of His glory revealed in those types and pictures of
the Lord Jesus Christ. as the sacrifice of the lambs,
the blood sprinkled over the mercy seat. That was a manifestation
of His redemptive glory. But you didn't contain God there.
You can't contain God in a church building, in a cathedral, in
a statue, in a stained glass window, or anything like that.
He's not a genie in a bottle that you rub every time you want
to wish for something. He's not at your beck and call.
He doesn't dwell in temples made with hands. It's foolish for
man to say, we dwell in houses. So we think God dwells that way
too. No, no, no. Verse 25, neither is He worshipped
with men's hands. You see, God desires those to
worship Him in spirit and in truth. And you can't have one
without the other. I'm sure you all had people come
in to visit your church service and say, well, I just don't feel
the Spirit here. Have you ever had that? And that's
because people aren't sobbing and emotional and jumping over
pews or whatever or talking in gibberish or whatever they do.
Let me tell you something how you gauge the presence of the
Spirit. It's the preaching of Christ and Him crucified and
risen again. Where Christ is exalted, let
me tell you something, There may only be two or three. There
may be 3,000. It doesn't matter. Where Christ
is exalted in His redemptive, saving glory, that's where the
Spirit is. That's exactly right. And this
is the only issue of the presence of the Spirit, you see. He's
not worshipped with men's hands, verse 25, as though He needed
anything. You see, that's the God of today.
He needs something. He needs you. He needs me. Yours
is the only arms he has, the only legs. Let me tell you something.
If my arms are the only arms God has, he's got awful weak
arms. If my eyes, I take these off
and I don't see clearly. If that's the kind of eyes God
has, he doesn't see much. That's right. You see, the God
of this Bible, this is what Paul's telling these Athenian philosophers,
these religionists. God doesn't need anything. He's
self-sufficient. He's self-contained. He's independent. He's a simple God in that sense.
And you don't worship Him as though He needed anything, seeing
He giveth to all life and breath and all things. Take that next
breath right now. He gave it to you. God gave that
to you. God gave that to you. That's
a gift from God. The next breath you take is a
gift from God. He says in verse 26, He hath
made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on the face
of all the face of the earth. That's by creation. And I'll
tell you what I believe is indicative in this and inherent in this
is the fall of man. We all came from Adam. We all
fell in Adam. By one man, sin entered in the
world, and death by sin, for death passed upon all men, for
that all sinned. By the disobedience of one, many
were made, were condemned. We're all of one blood. We're all from the same mould.
Now, there may be some who were kings, and there may be some
who were paupers, but there's no difference concerning their
fallen state in humanity in Adam. There's no difference, the Scripture
says, Romans chapter 3. We can look about all the differences
within this small group in this building, all of our differences,
all of our likes and dislikes, the way we look, the way we think,
the way we eat, all of those. But in this one area, there's
no difference. We're all sinners. We're all
equally in need of God's grace in Christ. I can't look at Jim
and say, now, Jim, you need more grace than I need. And he can't
look at me and say, Bill, you need more. No, sir. He'd say,
well, I was raised in religion. Well, I wasn't. Doesn't matter. It doesn't matter if your name's
Nicodemus or a Samaritan adulterous woman at a well. You are equally
in need of salvation by free sovereign grace. That's right. And this is the issue, see, we're
made of one blood. He says in verse 26, "...and
God hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds
of their habitation." He's sovereign. He works all things after the
counsel of His own will. That's right. Who determined
that you'd be born in the United States of America under a Constitution
that allowed you opportunities that some folks don't have in
other countries? Why weren't you born in Ethiopia
to a poverty-stricken family laying in a tent on a dirt floor
with your belly swollen? Starving to death. Who determined
that? Did God come to you before you
were born and say, now Gary, where do you want to be born?
And who do you want to be? No, God determined that. God
did. God determines our ways. Where
we go, where we don't go. All these things. Somebody says,
well, I can't wrap my brain around that. And I say, well, join the
club. Because none of us can. His ways are past finding out.
His thoughts are higher than our thoughts. But I know this. In all of these things, God never
does anything wrong. He never makes a mistake. He's
always just. He's always fair. He's always
right. And He delights to show mercy,
the Scripture says. Look at verse 27. He says that
they should seek the Lord, if happily they might feel after
Him and find Him, though He be not far from every one of us.
Sometimes the King James Version, the language, might seem a little
strange. That word happily, it doesn't
mean happenstance or by chance. There's no such thing. That would
contradict what he just wrote. But what it means, that word
happily, is wherefore or therefore. And so what he's saying here
is that God determined all these things. He put sinners here.
And what he's saying is that they should seek the Lord if,
therefore, they might feel after Him. What he's saying is that
men sort of grope in the dark. They do. But there's enough revelation
in nature and in conscience for God to hold men accountable that
they should seek the Lord. The problem with man by nature
in his groping in the dark is he always stops short. It's almost
like this. There's a tribe in some remote
island and they look up and they see the glory of the sun. And
instead of seeking the God who made that sun, they stop short
and they worship the sun. That's the problem. And again,
they're reasoning from the ground up. Look over at Romans chapter
1. That's what this is all about. Brother Jim read these first
few verses here and he's talking about the gospel of Christ. This
is the revelation of God in Christ. Verse 17, for therein is the
righteousness of God. You see, I don't need my own
righteousness. I don't need your righteousness. I don't need the
righteousness of man. I need the righteousness of God.
Now, where am I going to find that? In Christ. In His blood
is the righteousness of God. In His obedience unto death.
That's what I need. Well, why do I need that? Well,
look at verse 18. For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who
hold the truth in unrighteousness. You know, there's enough truth
in nature. for God to hold a man accountable to seek Him. The
heavens declare the glory of God, Psalm 19. The firmament
showeth His handiwork. That's a book of revelation right
there. And then he says, because in
verse 19, that which may be known of God is manifest in them, for
God hath showed it unto them. You see that? For the invisible
things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen,
being understood by the things that are made. even His eternal
power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse. Because that
when they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were
thankful, but became vain in their imaginations, and their
foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise,
they became fools. Like the fellows in Athens, they
had all kinds of gods, but they didn't want to leave out one,
so they erected an altar to the unknown God, just in case. Isn't
that foolish? Well, my friend, that's the way
we are by nature. That's the way I was before God stopped
me. And he says, they changed the
glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible
man and to birds and four-footed beasts, creeping things. Wherefore,
for this reason, God also gave them up to uncleanness through
the lust of their own hearts to dishonor their own bodies.
between themselves, who changed the truth of God into a lie,
and worshipped and served the creature, that which was created,
more than the Creator, who is blessed forever." Now, if we know better than that, to whom does the credit go? But by the grace of God I am
what I am. Who makes us to differ? God does. Look back at Acts 17 now. He
says in verse 28, For in him we live and move and have our
being, as certain also of your own poets have said, for we are
also his offspring. Everything begins with God. Everything
centers around God. We live, we move, we have our
existence. The Bible says in Colossians
chapter 1 that by Him, by Christ, all things consist. He might
have the preeminence in all things. Do you know if it wasn't for
the Lord Jesus Christ, we wouldn't exist at all? That's exactly
right. We wouldn't exist at all if it
weren't for Christ. For in Him we live and move and
have our being. And He says even your own poets
will talk about the brotherhood of man. That's by creation. He's
coming, not by redemption. You see, God, all men without
exception are brothers by creation. But only God's elect, Christ's
sheep, His church, are sons of God, children of God, and brothers
by redemption, by election. So he says in verse 29, for as
much then as we are the offspring of God, we ought not to think
of the Godhead as likened to gold or silver or stone graven
by art and man's device. That's how foolish it is for
man to think that. They construct their own gods.
Verse 30, it says, in the times of this ignorance, God winked
at. That word winked is a little misleading. It almost portrays
God as being whimsical or something, but that's not what it means.
It means He overlooked it. What that simply means is that all
this time, man was going about in his idolatry and depravity,
but God, He suffered long. He did not immediately judge
all sin with the wrath that it deserves. Not because He's delaying. All the times are appointed.
There's a time. We're going to see that. Not
because God is reluctant. No, sir. No, sir. It's because
God had a purpose. Now, what was that purpose? Well,
look at verse 30. But now commandeth all men everywhere
to repent. Repent. That's a command of God. Yes, it's a gift of God. Faith
is a gift. Repentance is a gift. But it's
a command. Repent. Why? Look at verse 31. Now, we saw where God is, where
God does. Now, here God speaks. Here's
what He says. You want to listen to God. He
says, because He hath appointed a day. There's a day coming.
You know what that day is? It's a day of judgment. This
is the end of all things. My friend, what we're going to
see here is that God speaks. There's hope. There's hope here. There's good news here. There's
good news here. Good news for the needy. There's
water here for the thirsty. There's bread here for the hungry.
There's clothing here for the naked. There's mercy here for
the downtrodden. There's healing here for the
sick. There's mercy. And he says there's a day appointed.
Who appointed it? God did. God did. And it's not going to change.
He's not waiting on a temple in Israel to be rebuilt for this
day. It's already appointed. This day was appointed before
the temple was actually built by Solomon, wasn't it? He's not
waiting for that. He's not waiting on Israel to
turn to him. He's not waiting on America to
turn to him. It's a day appointed. I don't
know when it is, and you don't either, but I know it is. He
says it is. And this day is a day of judgment,
and it says, in the which he will judge the world, the whole
world, the quick and the dead. The quick refers to his children
regenerated. The dead refers to all who don't
know him. And what's the standard? He says
he's going to judge the world in righteousness. Righteousness
is the standard. Righteousness is the standard.
What does that mean? That means to pass this judgment,
you've got to be righteous. Well, hold on. Doesn't the Bible
say in Romans 3 and verse 10, there's none righteous? No, not
one. Well, man by his own works and
his own nature and all of these things, there's none righteous.
No, not one. Somebody says, well, where's
the good news then? Where's the good news? Well,
look here, he says, he's going to judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom he hath ordained. He's ordained a man by which
he will judge the world in righteousness. Now, this man is the judge himself. This is the Lord Jesus Christ.
How do you know that? Well, read on. Whereof he hath
given assurance unto all men in that he hath raised him from
the dead. Now, you want to talk about the
resurrection? I agree with Brother Gary. We celebrate it every day,
not with Easter egg hunts and all that. We celebrate it because
our life is in Christ, who arose from the dead. We celebrate it
because of the gospel of the redemptive work of Christ, wherein
He died, He was buried, and raised again the third day. According
to the Scriptures, He finished the work. What did He do? He bore away our sins. He was
made sin. Christ, the God-man, was made
sin. And He stood in our place, in
the place of His sheep. He said, I laid down my life
for the sheep. And He stood in our place, and
He suffered. Soul suffering, mental anguish,
physical suffering, all the suffering that we can't even describe.
having the sins of all of his sheep imputed, charged, accounted
to him. He became literally responsible
for all our sins. Legally responsible. But it wasn't
a legal fiction. He died. He died. This person whose God died, I
can't explain that. I know that's to be attributed
to his humanity, but it was an act of his entire person. But
he died. And that death is our salvation. Now, how do you know that? Because
He arose again the third day. That means His death was an accomplishment. I like that over, I think it's
Luke chapter 9, isn't it, where the Mount of Transfiguration,
and it says they spoke of His decease, and that word decease
there is the Greek word for exodus. Just like Moses, Because of the
blood of Passover bringing the children of Israel, the Hebrew
children, out of Egypt, out of the bondage of Egypt, Christ,
because of His own precious blood, brought His people out of the
bondage of sin. And it was an accomplishment.
What an accomplishment. He was raised again for our justification. And that's a testimony that God
will punish sin wherever it's found. The punishment is death. But Christ conquered death. And my friend, He's the judge.
But you know what? His people have already been
judged. We were judged with Him at Calvary. That's what Romans
6, I believe, means. When He died, I'm going to tell
you something now. If you're resting in Christ,
believing in Him, if He's your all in all, if He's your hope,
and your salvation. When He died, you died. He was
your representative. He was your substitute. He was
your surety, sin-bearer. When He was buried, you were
buried. When He arose again, you arose again. And one day
in your life, that was applied to your soul when the Holy Spirit
came as the fruit and result of Christ's death on that cross
and raised you from the dead spiritually, called the new birth.
You see, we were talking about this the other day. The Holy
Spirit's work in us in the new birth is a necessity in salvation. It's not an option. It's not
just a byproduct. It is a necessity. You must be
born again. You must be born again. But the
reason we must be born again is not because the blood of Christ
was not enough. The reason we must be born again
is because the blood of Christ is enough. His death demands
our life. That's right. He conquered death. And you see, one day we'll be
resurrected from the dead because of what He accomplished at Calvary
in His death. That's why Paul said, God forbid
that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, He's the judge, but we've
already been judged in Him. The only thing will appear at
the judgment seat is for a declaration, a declaration of God before the
whole universe that we're in Christ. And what's the standard
of judgment? Righteousness. Now, how am I
going to stand at judgment? Righteous. There's only but one
way, in Christ. Washed in His blood, clothed
in His righteousness. That's the only hope I have.
It's the only hope you have. I must be His right. Let me read
one more verse and I'll close. Turn to Romans chapter 2. There's
no other way. There's no other way. Paul said
in Philippians 3, he said, that I may know Him, that I may be
found in Him, not having mine own righteousness which is of
the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, even the
righteousness of God which is by faith. Now look at verse 11
of Romans 2. He says there's no respect of
persons with God. When you stand before the judgment,
God's not going to say, now, who are you? And who was your
daddy? And how big was your bank account? And what kind of job did you
have? And what's your pedigree and
bloodline? No. There's no respect of persons
with God. He says in verse 12, for as many
as have sinned without law shall also perish without law. That's
the Gentiles who didn't have the law of Moses. And he says,
many as have sinned in the law shall be judged by the law. That's
the Jews under Moses. He says, for not the hearers
of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall
be justified. If you're going to be justified,
declared righteous by your works, here's what you got to do. You
got to be a doer of the law. How much of the law? All the
law. Cursed is everyone that faileth
to do in all things, in all things which are written in the book
of the law. He says in verse 14, for when the Gentiles which
have not the law, that is the law of Moses, do by nature the
things contained in the law, that is the moral precepts in
that law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves
which show the work of the law written in their hearts, their
conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts the mean while
accusing or else excuse one another. They have the law of nature,
they have the law of conscience, whereby God holds them accountable. Look at verse 16, "...in the
day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ,
according to my gospel." The standard of judgment then, and
as written back there in Acts 17, verse 31, is this, Jesus
Christ, as He has manifested, in the gospel. Did He die for
my sins? Am I washed in His blood? Am
I clothed in His righteousness? That's the only thing that's
going on. Am I in Christ? That's my only hope. Now, if
I'm not in Christ, there's no hope for me. But if I'm in Him,
I can have boldness, 1 John 4, verse 17 says, in the day of
judgment. I can have confidence. Because you see, in myself, I
have a lot to be ashamed of. But in Christ, I don't have anything
to be ashamed of. You know? I don't have to be
ashamed of Him. He's perfect. He's my Savior.
He loved me with a perfect love. He did all that His Father sent
Him to do. He accomplished the work. He
glorified and honored the... I don't have to be ashamed of
Him. And He's my hope. He's my Savior. Let's have a
word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we do thank
you for the blessings of your grace and mercy in Christ. We
thank you, dear Lord, for the gospel that in the power of the
Holy Spirit has revealed Christ in our hearts. We thank you,
dear Lord, for all that he accomplished at Calvary in the shedding of
his blood and the establishment of righteousness whereby you
can be both a just God and a Savior. Dear Lord, we thank you for the
presence of the Spirit within us and among us so that we can
worship thee in spirit and in truth as we exalt Christ in the
glory of his death, burial, and resurrection in the way that
you revealed all these things to our minds and affections and
will. Thank you for these men who preach the gospel. We thank
you for this congregation, the congregation in Alma. Pray for
Ron as he preaches today and for the men at 13th Street. Guide
us and direct us throughout the day. Keep us safe, dear Lord,
as you see fit. And we pray all things according
to thy will. For it's in Christ's name we
pray. Amen.