pick up where we left off last
week. We began looking at justification
from eternity or eternal justification. Justification is, as I mentioned
last week, is a legal term that means to reckon or count one
not guilty. to justify someone is to release
them, is to consider them, to look on them as having not done
anything wrong. Now, we know that we've all done
wrong, right? The Bible says, for all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. The Bible says
if we say that we have no sin, we make God out to be a liar
because we have all sinned. Every one of us have sinned.
Therefore, we have all transgressed God. Therefore, we are all guilty
before God. And being guilty before God means
that we have, in our account, We have stored up for ourselves
the iniquity and transgression against God, every one of us. And the Bible says that God will
not acquit the wicked. He's not gonna let it go. He
is not going to overlook it. He's not going to wink at it.
Now, that's not to say that he doesn't overlook it for a period
of time, but God is not going to forget about sin. The Bible says that there was
a period of time that God overlooked certain transgressions of men,
but those transgressions will be dealt with in one way or the
other. There will not be anyone who
ever makes it through this life and then into the next life that
there will not be an accounting for every transgression that
you have done before God. That can be a pretty sombering,
eye-opening experience when you come to know that, for real. If the Lord is not going to acquit
the wicked, if he's not going to remove guilt, or if he's not
going to, if he's not going to overlook
and let people in, you know, let people slip in, well, they
was a really good person. She was the sweetest old lady
that I've ever seen in my life. I never heard her say a bad word
about anybody or to anybody. She always was helping. You know,
when you think of the sweetest person that you've ever met in
your whole entire life, that person is transgressed God and
is going to have to account for those sins. Those sins. And what does the Bible say?
For the wages of sin is a slap on the hand. No, no. Right? Is that what it says? The wages
of sin is three days in purgatory before you get to come into heaven.
No, that's not what it says. What does it say? There's only
one penalty for sin. That's death. The wages of sin
is death. That's it. No, nothing else.
Not time out. Not put on hold. Not, well, you
have to stay in a lesser part of heaven. Okay? We got the good
part of heaven here, and then you're gonna have to stay outside
the city. Those in the city are gonna have all the fun, but you
gotta stay out there. Now, the wages of sin is death. So God has already told us from
the very beginning that all of us have sinned. Not one person
in this world, born of Adam, has ever got through this life
that has not sinned. And he says that the wages, what
are wages? You guys know what wages are?
You kids are old enough, you know what wages are. What are
wages? Payment. Payment for work, right? Whenever you went out and picked
blueberries, what'd you get? Not much, huh? Whenever you cleaned houses,
What did you get? Wage. Whenever you work, you get a wage. You get paid
for your work. And the workers of iniquity will
receive the payment for that iniquity. And God says that the
wages of sin is death. If you work sin, your wage will
be death. So that's the sentence of every
son of Adam, unless they're justified. So
that's why the term justification is a very important, important
word. Unfortunately, you can go into
many churches today and you never even hear this term. I've even
personally talked with preachers whenever I asked them about justification
and do you preach justification, sanctification, do you preach
redemption, propitiation? And I had a preacher, honest
to goodness here, told me, he said, well, we don't use those
words. Number one, those words are very big theological words,
and so we leave theological words where theologians meet, in the
seminaries and in the academia world and everything. We're just
down-home people here, and we just talk about down-home things. We leave all that to the scholars. Is justification something that
we should just leave to the scholars? No, brother. Why? Because justification
is the very heart, the very matter of salvation. For all have sinned,
and the wage of that sin is death. And God will not acquit the guilty
He will not acquit the transgressor. He will not give forgiveness
of sin unless there is someone that takes their place. The wage
is going to be paid. The wage will be paid one way
or the other, either by you or by someone who stands in your
place. And the scripture tells us that
there's only one person who is worthy and able to stand in your
place. And that's the Lord Jesus. Mama
and Daddy can't stand in your place. Whenever we get before
God, I can't go before God and plead for my kids. I can't say,
hey, you know, it's my fault. I didn't teach them good enough.
I can't plead for them and say, kill me and not them. I mean, even Paul said that at
one time whenever he was talking about his kinsmen according to
the flesh. He said, you know, I wish that
I could be accursed for them, for their sakes. Let me be accursed
and let them be saved, those who weren't believing in Christ.
But that's something that cannot happen. It can never happen. No, the wage is going to be paid
And it's going to be paid either by you or it's going to be paid
by Christ. If Christ doesn't pay for your
sin, your wage, then you will pay for your sin. Justification
is a very important doctrine and the understanding of justification
is a very important thing. It is found throughout Scripture.
The language is the language of Scripture. We shouldn't dumb
down the Bible for dumb people. And I don't mean that in a derogatory
way. I mean that in the sense that
we should not pull the standard of God, God's Word, down to compromise
for people who don't know It's always the purpose of church,
the purpose of the pastor, the purpose of teachers, the purpose
of God giving you your own words of God is to bring you up to
this standard of understanding as the Holy Spirit gives us teaching
of it. It's always bring you up to the
Word of God, not dumb it down. That's why we talked about a
few weeks ago that we do not preach in the wisdom of men.
That's bringing God's Word down. Many people think that having
the wisdom of men makes you understand the wisdom of God better. That's
not true. The only thing that helps you
know the things of God better is the work of the Holy Spirit
teaching you that anointing that you have from above. That's how
we learn the Word of God. That's how we know the Word of
God. And so to say, well, we don't want to talk about justification,
we don't want to talk about these deep theological things, is basically
saying that God's Word is too academic, I can't understand
it, and so let's make it simple. Make it simple for everybody.
Matter of fact, they've been trying to do that for years.
A lot of modern translations, what are they trying to do? And
I'm not against translations being new. I love the King James. We preach out of the King James,
teach out of the King James. We believe it's a very faithful
translation. We believe that this is the inherent,
inspired Word of God. But there's a lot of Bibles today
that they weren't just trying to get the language into the
common vernacular. They are trying to get it to
where it's easy to understand for people. And so they're cutting
out all these big words. They're cutting out a lot of
the stuff to make it palatable and to make it understandable
to people that don't understand. But the fact remains is nobody
can understand spiritual things save the Spirit of God that's
in them. Nobody can understand it. So the purpose of dumbing
down God's Word for people who are ignorant or dumb to the things
of the Spirit is not going to help anything because it's going
to do two things. Number one, it's going to continue
to be a spiritual matter no matter how ABC 1, 2, 3 you make the
Bible. It's still going to be a matter
of a spiritual revelation and teaching from God. Second of
all, dubbing it down to the point where it's ABC's 1, 2, 3's to
everybody is going to compromise the Word of God. Thus you're
going to lose what God says. Listen, the Bible is not written
for unbelievers. It's written for believers. The
Bible is not written for the man who has not been converted
of God. Born from above and converted,
the Bible is not for them. They do not have the Spirit of
God to understand it. It's a book, a letter, it's a
teaching to the people of God about God and about what God
is doing. It's a book about Christ. From cover to cover, this book
is about Christ, low in the volume of the book. I can't. Christ is the center of this.
And so to dumb these things down, and especially terms like justification,
is doing a disservice to the people. And so why do we preach
these things? Why do we teach these things?
Well, we preach these things and teach these things because
they're in the Word of God. The Bible says that all Scripture
is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine.
So why do we do? We preach doctrine. What are
doctrines? They're teachings. Well, isn't
all the Bible teachings? Yes, all the Bible is teachings.
It's doctrine. But within the Bible, there are
certain subject matters that may not be in just one spot.
You may have to look here. You may have to look here. You
may have to look here through God's Word. And whenever you
compile these teachings over in this book, and this book,
and this chapter, and this chapter, and you compile those together,
then we have a teaching upon a certain subject. And eternal
justification is one of those things. The teaching of justification
is one of those things, where you can't go to one verse and
know what it means because there is one verse in the Bible that
says that there is justification by works. And if you took that
verse there and ripped it out of its context, ripped it out
of the context of the whole scripture, and you just stood on that one
verse, see there the Bible teaches that we're justified by works.
So now the Catholics have a leg to stand on. We can be justified
by words, the Bible says so. No, you have to hear a little,
there a little, precept upon precept, line upon line. We study God's word and we begin
to see that justification where it's talked about in all of scripture
gives us a cohesive doctrine. And that doctrine is what we
have been talking about, the doctrine of justification, eternal
justification as the Bible teaches it. So we started last week looking
at eternal justification and we've seen the first point and
that is that justification is an act of God from eternity. It's an eternal act of God. Okay? It's an eternal act of God. And
if you remember the definition of justification is a non- imputation
of sin. Justification is a non-imputation
of sin. Just if I'd never sinned. It's God reckoning you, declaring
you, accounting you as not having sinned. And God from all eternity
had declared, decreed within himself to not impute sin unto
his people that he loved and gave to the Son. So justification is an eminent
internal act as well as an eternal act. It's an internal act. God
has purpose within himself to do that and then he has as God
that Godhead has covenanted to through the Son, who was begotten
of God, brought forth as man, brought forth to be mediator,
brought forth to be surety, brought forth to be the propitiation,
to be the redemption, to be the Messiah, the Anointed One of
God, the One who would be called the Christ, the One who would
be the Savior, the One who would be with His people and be their
Savior. Didn't God say that? I will be
your God and you will be my people. I will dwell with you. I will
dwell with you and I will be your God. You will be my people. Whenever Jesus came, born of
a virgin, the Bible says that you should call his name Jesus,
for he shall save his people from their sins. So that means
that Jesus, just by name alone, means Savior. That he is a Savior. And the Bible also says that
he is the Christ. We're gonna talk about that here
in just a minute. But we looked last week at two passages that
is familiar with us. One is in Ephesians chapter one.
The first, well actually the first 14 verses basically is
very good verses to read. But specifically we looked at
two through four where it says, grace be to you and peace from
God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. So all spiritual blessings has
been given to us in heavenly places as it is in relationship
and our union in Christ Jesus. If we have been given to Christ
If we have been given to Him as His people, then by that union we have been
given all spiritual blessings, the inheritance. According as He has chosen us
in Him before the foundation of the world. So this came by
election. Our receiving this spiritual blessing came because
of our being elected of God, that election, that electing God in His sovereignty has right
to choose those He wants, those He loves, and those He
hates. You see that in Malachi chapter
one. That was God's proof whenever they said, where in hath thou
loved us? And he said, have not I loved
thee? And I've chosen thee, and not
Esau, but I've chosen thee. So how did God prove that he
loved those people? In the fact that he said, I chose
you. So in choosing here, the Bible says, according as he has
chosen us in him, that tells us that we are loved of God because
we are chosen of God. Matter of fact, God reiterates
that throughout scripture when he tells us that he hath loved
us, the elect of God, with an everlasting love. And this was before the foundation
of the world. This was in heavenly places, according as He had chosen
us in Him before the foundation of the world. So God did the
loving, the choosing, the giving, and the blessing, with all spiritual
blessings in Christ, before the foundation of the world. Why? So that we should be holy And
without blame before him in love, I was asked a question this week
by a dear brother, and I truly have a lot of respect for this
brother. As a matter of fact, I agree with him on just about
everything that I've heard him teach and preach. And I don't
know whether or not he was not believing about eternal justification
or whether he was just getting me to think of a couple of things. Anyway, this brother brought
up the fact that why is there a need for justification before
the foundation of the world when no one had yet sinned? Who were being justified before
God at that time? Because no one had been created
and no one had sinned. But if you'll look here in the
scripture and if we let it just tell us what to believe instead
of letting presuppositions on the outside tell us what to believe,
it says here that the choosing, that's election, and that the blessing is according
to that. The blessing of all spiritual
blessings takes place in heavenly places, and it's according to
election, and it's all before the foundation of the world.
That's why we read in 1 Timothy. Chapter 1 and verse... I'm sorry,
2 Timothy. Chapter 1 and verse 9, who says,
Who hath saved us past tense and called us past tense, With
a holy calling, that holy calling, if you remember several months
ago, we preached through here and we talked about this holy
calling. And we see that the word calling is used in different
ways in the Scripture. One way whenever we talk about
being called of God, it talks about us being brought to spiritual
life. Being born again. Another is
being called, is being brought into conversion. We're called
in to the truth. Okay? But here, the calling is
taking place before the foundation of the world. So it can't be
talking about our being born again, and it can't be talking
about our being converted of God. It can't be talking about
our being called to the ministry, or our call to a church, or any
other calling that we might see in Scripture. This calling is
something that took place before the foundation of the world,
but it was according to God's purpose and grace, not according
to anything that we did in response or anything like that, who has
saved us, past tense, called us, past tense, with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to His own purpose
and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus. Okay, so the
purpose and grace is given in Christ Jesus before the world
began, but is now made manifest. So there's something that God
did before the foundation of the world, and then it becomes
manifested to us, or shown to us, brought to light to us in
time, as time goes by, as we see things. as we experience
things. That's when we begin to experience
our justification, experience the sanctification, experience
our salvation that we had in Christ before the foundation
of the world. But if you go back to Ephesians, you'll see that
the purpose of this, according as He had chosen us before the
foundation of the world, that we, who are we, the faithful
in Christ Jesus, those who have been called of God, those who
are the elect of God, that we should be holy and without blame
before Him in love. The purpose that God did this
before time is also to solidify the fact that there will be no
glory in salvation other than in the Lord Jesus Christ. God
has placed salvation in eternity in all its legal ramifications
and matters, has placed it in eternity so that there is no
way that man can ever say they had their hands involved in it.
And that goes for the unbeliever as well as for the believer.
The unbeliever can't say, I chose, I decided, I came, I made the
decision, it was by my will that I came. The unbeliever can't
say it was by my works, it was because of my dedication, it
was because of my good standing in the community. He can't say
that. And the believer can't say, all
these are here because I preach. You know, there's some southern
gospel songs that we've heard in the past and everything, and
one I've sung in the past before. And it talks about, when we get
to heaven, that there's going to be all this hoopla, fanfare,
that we're going to come in and everybody's going to be laying
at our feet, as it were, all these accolades because of all
the people that came to Jesus Christ because of us. There are going to be all these
faces there that are going to be shouting, Thank you. Thank
you. Because of you, we're here. Because
of you, we're here. Brethren, listen to it. There's
only going to be one person we're going to be congratulating and
thanking and worshiping because we are there. And he's the one that sits on the
throne. So justification, the heart of
the gospel, the very essence of the gospel, the very foundation
and substance of the gospel is the fact that God has not imputed
sin to His people. That's the gospel. a non-imputation
of sin. And when did God do that? Well,
according here, it says that that was before the foundation
of the world. So that we, at whatever time
period that we might come and be brought into existence by
God, and at any point in time when we transgress God, God does
not account that sin to us. but Christ, he accounts it to
Christ. And we're gonna talk about that
and the reason why in just a minute. So justification is an act which
begins and ends in God, and it takes place completely outside
of time, takes place outside of us, Your justification isn't
about your faith in Christ Jesus. It's about Christ's faithfulness
to His Father in the covenant of grace. That is the grounds. Is justification by faith? Absolutely
it is. But not yours. Not your act of
faith. Justification is by the act and
faithfulness of Christ Jesus. Look with me, if you would, at
Galatians chapter 2 and verse 16. And for anybody
that's watching via Facebook or listening to this by Sermon
Audio, if you're using a translation that comes from the corrupted
Greek text, a translation that comes from
the corrupted Greek text, and most modern translations do come
from the corrupted Greek text, it's going to read different
in your Bible. But in the Greek, this is how
it's read. Knowing that a man, verse 16,
knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but
by the faith of Jesus Christ. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified by the faith of Christ and not
by the works of the law, for by the works of the law shall
no flesh be justified. That, in the modern translation,
says faith in Jesus Christ. But in the Greek, it's faith
of Jesus Christ. It's Christ's faith that justifies,
not you. The fact that you believe is
the evidence that you have been justified by Christ. And having been justified, all
spiritual blessings have been given to you. And because all
spiritual blessings have been given to you, you have been given
the spiritual gift or the spiritual Gift, that's the right word I
was looking for. The spiritual gift of spiritual
life, of repentance, of faith, them are all spiritual things,
not natural things. Man has natural faith, right?
Every one of you that came in here, you sat down in that chair,
You had faith that that chair was going to hold you up when
you got here, right? That's natural faith. That's not what saves
us. Diverting that natural faith
to God doesn't save you. I used to say that. I used to
teach that, preach that. It's a change in the object of
your faith. You take the object off yourself
for your salvation, and you put the object upon Christ. And so
it's that natural faith. So therefore, anyone with natural
faith, if they'll just turn their faith to Christ and off of themselves,
then they will be saved. Or off of the idol and onto Christ,
then they will be legally saved. That's not what the Bible teaches. This faith is a gift of God,
not of yourselves. So it's Christ's faith. It's
the faith of Christ. Look with me, if you would, at
1 Corinthians chapter 6. 1 Corinthians chapter 6. Actually, I'll tell you what,
I'm getting ahead of myself there. I don't really want to go there
yet. Sorry. I think it was supposed
to be... I'm sorry, it was Romans chapter
3 where I was wanting to go next. Sometimes my own chicken scratch
is unreadable to myself. Romans chapter 3, verse 20. Now we just read that
by the deeds of the law, no flesh shall be justified, right? Romans
chapter three, verse 20 says, 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. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested. Now there's that word again,
manifested. Remember in second Timothy one, nine and 10, There
is a salvation that took place before the foundation of the
world, but is now made manifest. The outworking of that salvation
in time is the manifesting of the reality and the completion
of that salvation in eternity. Jesus come forth to show forth
the salvation that was given to his people before the foundation
of the world. by the shedding of blood. It says, but now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifesting, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. Even the righteousness of God
The righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. So the righteousness of God doesn't
come by your faith in Christ Jesus. The righteousness of God
is by the faith of Christ. What does that mean? I know people
say, well, Christ doesn't need faith. He's God. Does not the
Bible say that God, as He manifested Himself in flesh, took on His
self even though being equal with God made Himself as a servant? Whenever God inhabited flesh
and took on flesh, He still remained God, right? All the fullness
of the Godhead dwelled in Him bodily. The Bible says in Ephesians
that though he considered himself to be equal
with God. And that being equal with God,
even though he took on the form of man, he still was equal with
God. He was God. but yet he took on
the role of a servant. Now that doesn't mean he divested
himself of deity. It doesn't mean he divested himself
of all of his godly powers, godly attributes. It just means that
he took on the role of servant. And in the role of servant, He
did all that God had decreed and purposed to do in the everlasting
covenant. And so He was faithful to the
Father. The Father speaking of God as He
has purposed all things and is the Father of all things. And so Him as God, whenever He
purposed all things and He created all things determined all things,
well Christ was there, right? As God. But yet Christ was brought forth
in a body as a man for the purpose of redemption. The purpose of
carrying out the everlasting covenant. So Christ, looking
to Himself as God, and what God had determined, lowered Himself. Keep dancing around, man. In Philippians chapter 2, he
says, "...who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery
to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, took
upon himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness
of man, and being fashioned As a man, he humbled himself and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore,
God hath highly exalted him, given him a name which is above
every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow. Of things in heaven, things in
earth, things under the earth, that every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
So again, Jesus took on the form of a servant. He became a servant and he followed and did all that
God had required. Jesus said, whatever the Father
has said, I've done it. Your God, the one you're calling
Father, the one that you're calling Abba, The one that you're calling
Jehovah. The one that you're calling Yahweh. I came because of Him. And I've
done everything that He has purposed and determined to be done. That's the faith of Christ. The
faithfulness of Jesus Christ to carry out all that God had
determined in the everlasting covenant and all that God had
promised to do in the everlasting covenant. God, having faith that the Son
of God would accomplish all of His purpose, had faith in Christ. The Son, the God-man, had faith
in God that God would do everything He promised to do if the Son
would do all that was planned and purposed to do. That's the
faithfulness. That's the grounds on which we
are saved. The work of Christ. By faith of Jesus Christ unto
all and of all upon all them that believe, for there is no
difference for all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God, being justified freely, here it is, by His grace." So
we're justified by the faith of Christ, but the Bible also
declares that we're justified by grace. Now grace isn't something
that you do either, right? Grace is something that happens
outside. As a matter of fact, the Bible says that we are justified
by grace. Didn't the Scriptures say that
before the foundation of the world, God saved us and called
us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to
His purpose and grace, which He gave us. in Christ Jesus. Here the Bible says that we are
justified freely by His grace. Now is that contradicting what
we just read that we are justified by the faith of Christ? No, that's
not contradicting that at all. Look at the rest of the verse.
Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ. See, it's through the redemption
in Christ that is the grounds. That's what God, whenever He
purposed all things, purposed that justification would be based
upon the grounds of Christ's faithfulness to redeem. And he knew Christ was going
to be faithful to redeem. Why? Because he cannot deny himself. He cannot lie. He cannot go against
his own word. If God, he's not of two minds. He is of one will. And the will
of God's purpose was that he was going to have the people
that he would love and be without blame before him. And so in that
purpose, God determined in taking on flesh
and saving His people that would come into this world, natural,
and sin against Him, and for the glory of His person, He would
redeem them from that sin. So even before it happened, God
determined that's what's going to be done, and it's going to
be based upon the faith of Christ and I'm going to give it to them
by grace. For by grace are ye saved through
faith. Through whose faith? Jesus' faith. The faithfulness of Christ. Do
we believe by grace you are saved through faith? Absolutely. You
just got to get it right. Whose faith it is. It's not your
faith. Okay? I used to say that all
the time. I used to argue with people like
me all the time and say, by grace are you saved through faith?
You've got to trust God first. You've got to believe in Christ.
If you don't believe in Christ, you can't be justified. We believe through faith, right? We've just got to believe what
God says, whose faith it was that it was through. It was right
here. Through the redemption that is in Christ. It's through
His faithfulness. Through His Word. By His grace. Through His faithfulness of redeeming. That's why Jesus said it is finished.
Right? Whenever you die. Jesus said
it's finished. What was finished? Accomplished.
The grounds on which God, before the foundation of the world,
declared all my people to be just, so that he was able to
love them, forgive them, redeem them, let them into heaven? The whole thing hinged upon my
faithfulness and all the work that he said,
all the promises that were made that needed to be done so that
he could have done that back then. so that he could have laid
all spiritual blessings on people that had not trusted in him. And while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. Even though that we were transgressing
God, God did not account that to us. So it's the faith of Christ.
It's His faithfulness that's saved. And it was the basis of
that. Now, being as that God did that from
eternity, and it's based upon the faithfulness of Christ, therefore
we needed a mediator. We needed someone to come between
us and God, because the wrath of God is going to be poured
out upon all the ungodly. And everyone from Adam down are
all sinners, they're ungodly. And so we need a mediator between
God and between man, not only so that God is shielded from
man and his wrath, but also so that man can be looked upon as
right before God. So we need somebody who could
do both. Well, who could do both? Well,
if it's all God, God is nothing but wrath against sin. And if it's man, man is not worthy
to do anything honorable enough or good enough to meet the standard
of God's holiness, and so he can't present himself or do anything
for himself. So there had to be a joining
of God and man. So Christ was brought forth sometime in time, but He was
brought forth before the foundation of the world as man. I know many
people had a lot of problems with that. Turn with me, if you
would, to Proverbs chapter 8, I believe it is. Proverbs chapter 8. I just want
to make this clear. And I've preached on this before
and I've talked with other men about this before. Some agree,
some do not agree, but I believe that Christ was begotten of God
in His manhood before Bethlehem. Now He came in time, born of
a virgin, yes. Took upon flesh and bone. Yes. Became like us. Yes. Conceived of the Holy Spirit.
Yes. But that manhood existed before then. And I want to show
you a couple of reasons why I believe that, but to show you that our
mediator is always God-man. The God-man. Proverbs 8. Look, if you would, at verse
22. The Lord possessed me in the
beginning of His way before His works of old. I was set up from
everlasting from the beginning wherever the earth was. Now, brethren, this is not talking
about Christ in His deity. Christ in His deity is from everlasting
to everlasting. Christ in His deity was never
created or begotten. There is no such thing as a begotten
God. A created God. God is the Creator. By Him, all
things are created. And Christ is the first creation
of God. But if you'll look here, you'll
see the Bible says, the Lord, speaking of Yahweh, Jehovah, possessed me. A body hath I prepared for thee,
and that all the fullness of the Godhead and dwelt Him bodily. All of who God is came in and invaded the body
prepared. The Lord possessed me in the
beginning of His way, at the very beginning of His workings,
before His works of old, before anything God began to
do in creation, there was one who was created
first, the body of the God-man, the Lord Jesus, Messiah, Christ. He says, I was set up
from everlasting. Set up as what? A ruler of all
things. Doesn't Revelation say that He
was set upon the throne? And that the only one that could
take the purpose of God, that scroll, and unroll it, and cause
everything written on the front and back to take place, was Him? Christ is the one who is bringing
to be manifesting all of God's purpose, all of God's will. He is the one who is controlling
all things. He's created all things, and
by Him all things consist and are held together. And it says He was set up from
everlasting. He wasn't set up at Bethlehem. He wasn't set up at the cross. And for some, He isn't going
to be set up at the beginning of the thousand-year reign. He's
been set up from everlasting. From the beginning, or ever the
earth was, when there were no depths, He says, I was brought
forth. When there were no fountains
abounding with water, before the mountains were settled, before
the hills was, I was brought forth. While as yet He had not made
the earth, nor the fields, nor the highest part of the dust
of the world, when He prepared the heavens, I was there. When
He prepared the heavens, I was already there. When He set a compass upon the
face of the deaf, whenever God drew out the circle of the earth,
Yes, I said circle of the earth, not sphere of the earth. When He set a compass upon the
face of the earth and drew a circle upon the earth, He established
the clouds above. When He strengthened the fountains
of the deep, when He gave to the sea His decree that the water
should not pass His commandment, when He appointed the foundations
of the earth, then I was by Him as one brought up with Him. Now,
let's talk about that for just a minute. Okay? Then I was by him as one brought
up with him. Sound familiar? In the beginning
was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Is that what it says? The Word was with God and the
Word was God. How is the Word with and God
at the same time? How can God, how can the Word
be God and with God? That sounds weird, don't it? Well, the Bible says, In the
beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, the Word was
God. The same was in the beginning with God. Isn't that what Proverbs
is saying? That there was somebody with
God before the foundation of the world, in the beginning.
All things were made by Him. But wait a minute, in Proverbs
though, he's talking about God making all those things, and
He's with God. But yet God's making all those
things. But yet in John, we're told that the Word, who was with
God and was God, and was in the beginning with God, is the One
who's making all things. And it says, in Him was life,
and the light was the light of men, and the light shineth in
darkness, and the darkness comprehended the night. There was a man sent
from God, whose name was John, John the Baptist, The same came
for a witness, to bear witness of the light that all men through
him might believe. Side note, that all men through
him, unless Christ enables us and gives us the gift of belief,
we're not going to believe. But look at verse 8. He was not
that light, but was sent to bear witness of that light. That was
the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the
world. He was in the world, and the world was made by Him, and
the world knew Him not. He came unto His own, and His
own received Him not. But as many as received Him,
to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believed on His name, which were born, not of the blood,
nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.
And the Word," now again, who is the Word? John took a little
sidetrack there to kind of give a little background on this word
here and who he was and John the Baptist witnessing of him.
But it goes back, in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with
God, the Word was God. The same was in the beginning
with God. All things were made by him, without him not anything
that was made was made. And the Word was made flesh and
dwelt among us. And we beheld his glory, the
glory as the only begotten of the Father, full of grace. and
truth. The Word was made flesh. Now
back to Proverbs 8, he says, I was by Him as one brought up
with Him. This is speaking of Christ as
being one brought up by God. What does that talk about? Well,
I have three sons. Those sons are brought up with
me. I bring them up, train them,
teach them. And so it's in a reference to
a son. It says here that I was by him
as one brought up with him. The person that this is talking
about is someone who is there with God as a son. That's why we believe that the
son is from eternity. The son didn't come into existence
in Bethlehem. The son was already there. But
make no mistake, the son is always in reference to Him being manifested
in flesh. The Son is always in reference
to Him taking on flesh. The Word was made flesh. The Lord possessed me in the
beginning of His way before the works of old. Now, we've talked about the manhood
of Christ, and there's a lot more that can be said, especially
in John chapter 6, where Jesus Himself said that His flesh came
down out of heaven, that He was the man from heaven. 1 Corinthians 15 says that He
is the man from heaven, that Adam was natural and of the earth,
but He is a spiritual man and He is from heaven. The man Jesus Christ is from
heaven. And so whenever we talk about
justification and needing a mediator, the mediator didn't start when
Jesus began His earthly ministry. The mediatorial ship of Jesus
Christ began before the foundation of the world in the everlasting
covenant. The mediator had to be brought
forth before the covenant was ratified. Before any covenant
can be ratified, the mediator has to come with both parties
and discuss the terms of the covenant and ratify that covenant. And so for God to make an everlasting
covenant to save His people, there had to be representation
and God wasn't going to speak and talk to man. He did it through the God-man.
The Bible says, that there is only one mediator between God
and man, right? Turn with me. Let's see. Let
me make sure we're done there in Proverbs 8. I'm kind of getting
ahead of myself a little bit. In verse 30, he says, Then I
was by him as one brought up with him, and I was daily his
delight. rejoicing always before Him,
rejoicing in the habitable parts of His earth, and my delights
were with the sons of men." Now, we've talked about in the Old
Testament all the times where we see Christ, right? The man
Christ. I'm not talking about the burning
bush. I'm talking about the man, Jesus Christ. He walked with
Adam in the garden. Talked with Adam. He talked with Cain. He accepted the sacrifices of
Cain and Abel. We see that he talked to Abraham on
the plains of Mamre. The wife of Manoah talked to
him. Moses talked to him face to face. The Bible says talk to face to
face to him as a man. Matter of fact, in the Exodus
account, the Bible says that he came down several times in
a pillar of in a cloud or in fire. And a lot of people say,
well, he was with them as a pillar of cloud or as a pillar of fire. But that's not what it says.
If you go back and read the scriptures, it said that he came down in a pillar
of cloud. In fact, the time they talked
to Moses, he came down and stood in the doorway. The Bible said
he came down in a pillar of cloud and spoke to him face to face. Clouds don't have faces. Men
have faces. And that's why the Holy Spirit
said he talked to him face to face as a man. Moses talked to
Jesus as a man, not a cloud. Can God talk out of things that
are not men? Yes. He talked out of a donkey.
He talked out of a bush. He can do those things. Okay. But we see here that his man,
Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. when they were thrown into the
fire. What does the Bible say? There was a fourth man that was
in there walking around, and as we've seen it, it was as if
the Son of Man, right? That's a reference to Jesus in
the flesh. Isaiah saw the Lord high and
lifted up, and He's trained, filling the temple, angels crying,
Holy, Holy, Holy unto the Lord. John tells us that that vision
that Isaiah saw was Jesus Christ on the throne. I mean, there
are several places in the Old Testament where we see that Jesus
was with His people. And here it says that He rejoiced
in the happy part of His earth and His delight were with the
sons of men. But in 1 Timothy 2, I'm going to have to find the
stopping place for today, but... 1 Timothy chapter 2. Look with
me if you would. Verse 5. In Timothy, chapter 2, verse
5. For there is one God. There is only one God. That's
been taught from the beginning of Scriptures. The Bible says, Thou shalt have
no other gods before me. I am the Lord thy God. Thou shalt
have no other gods before me. There's only one God. Hear, O
Israel, the Lord thy God is one God. There are three that bear
record in heaven. The Father, the Word, and the
Holy Ghost. And these three are one. There's
only one God. There's not many gods. There's only one God. It says, for there is one God and
one mediator between God and men, the man, the man, the man,
Christ Jesus. The Mediator wasn't the Son before
His incarnation. The Mediator wasn't the Word. Never ever is the Scripture ever
referenced the Word by itself. The Word as the Mediator. It's always the Word who had
taken flesh. It's always God who had taken
on flesh. The mediatorship, whether it
be Christ, whether it be Messiah, whether it be Savior, whether
it be Redeemer, whether it be the word Son of Man, or whether
it be the term Son of God, all those terms the Bible uses is
always in reference to God manifested in flesh. And here the Bible
says there is only one mediator. If the everlasting covenant is
truly everlasting, then that means there was a mediator there
when it was drawn up. And there's only one mediator. Not two, not three, not ten,
not twelve. There's only one. There's not
even a half and half. There's one mediator. The Man Christ Jesus. Jesus was brought forth from
before the foundation of the world to be the mediator. He is an eternal mediator. That's why his name is called
Christ. Y'all know what the word Christ
means? The word Christ means the anointed
of God. We kind of tipped our hat at
this a little bit last week, but who is anointed according
to the scriptures? Well, kings were anointed. Priests were anointed. Prophets
were anointed. Jesus is the prophet, priest,
and King of God. The Christ is the anointed one. In Matthew chapter 1 and verse
1, the Bible says, the New Testament comes right out of the bag and
says, the book of the generation of Jesus Christ. No, Christ isn't Jesus' last
name, despite what I used to believe
as a little kid. What's his name, Jesus Christ? Christ isn't his last name. Christ is who he is. That word Christ in the Old Testament
is Messiah. It's Messiah, and it means the
same thing. Anointed. The anointed of God. And so whenever
the Bible talks of Jesus Christ, anytime it speaks of Christ, it speaks of His mediatorial
work. Because the very fact that anointed
means the one who has been anointed of God for the purpose of redemption. The prophet was the one who was
anointed to tell of the redemption. The priest was the one anointed
to do the sacrifice. And the king was the one who
was anointed to govern the kingdom. And brethren, the Bible speaks
of Christ in all three offices for His people. He is the king of kings, but
he's also the king of our lives, the king of who we are. He is the king in his kingdom,
and we, his people, are his kingdom. The offices of Christ regarding
His saving, His substitutionary and representative work, it can
only exist, those offices can only exist, and if He is the
mediator of the everlasting covenant that was before the world began,
and He is the man who is the mediator between God and man,
then for that office of Christ, the anointing of God, to exist is if the elect were already
brought forth as the ones for whom He would mediate. We call
that eternal, vital union. The elect had to already be in
Christ Jesus viewed in Christ before the foundation of the
world. Well, preacher, do you have anything to substantiate
that? Well, yeah, we have already read
it, and we'll read it again for a thousand more times. But Ephesians
chapter one. Blessed be the God and Father
of the Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in Christ, according as He has chosen us in Him before
the foundation of the world. that we should be holy and without
blame before Him in love, having predestinated us unto adoption
of the children by Christ to Himself according to the good
pleasure of His will, to the praise and the glory of His grace,
wherein He hath made us accepted in the beloved." Remember our
sermons on accepted in the beloved and how everything before that
and ramifications? How are we accepted in the Beloved?
Because of the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf as mediators.
We are accepted in the Beloved because we have a mediator that
makes us blameless before God in love even before the transgression
even begins. You say, well, man, preacher,
I really don't know about all of that stuff. It's just like,
man, come on. You're kind of stretching things,
aren't you? In Psalm chapter 32, if you would. We are blessed with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places, correct? Amen? Anybody? Anybody wait? Psalm 32. This is reiterated in the New
Testament as well. It says, blessed is he. Blessed is he. Blessed. Blessed
is he. Well, who's the ones blessed?
Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Now, if we just stop right there,
we'll say, well, there, Okay, well, that has to wait until
Christ died, because by the shedding of blood, there's forgiveness
of sin. But the transgression, you know,
we're still sinners until we're born again, right? Then we become
saints. Well, we're saints all right,
but we're still sinners. If we just stopped right there,
blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven,
whose sin is covered, we could easily say, well, that only speaks
after you're saved. Then the question comes up, well,
when are you saved? To some people, you're saved
at the moment that you pray a prayer, make a decision for Jesus Christ,
get baptized, join the church. One of those. Some people say
that you're saved whenever you believe on Christ and repent
of your sins. Then you're saved. Some people say that you're saved
whenever you're born again and given the gift of faith to repent
and believe. That's when you're saved. And
most of us tend to reference ourselves to that, right? Well,
wouldn't you think you were saved? Well, I was saved back in 2000
and whatever. And what your meaning is, is
my conversion experience. The day that I realized that
I was a sinner before God and there was a need of salvation
and I cried out to God to save me. That's the day that I got
saved. Well, that's not the day you got saved. That's the day
that you began to experience salvation. But we call it getting
saved. We call it, that's what we would
say. And in a sense, you were. You were saved from wrong thinking
about your being okay with God. To come into grips with knowing
and seeing, ah, I'm not okay with God. I'm in enmity with
God. I'm wrathful against God. I'm not worthy. And my sin is
gonna be my demise. So in a sense, you were saved
from that wrong thinking. But to be legally saved goes
back again before the mountains were ever made. The salvation
that we read in Timothy and in Ephesians is before the foundation
of the world. Blessed is he whose transgression
is forgiven, whose sin is covered. God decreed the blessings, but
we don't get the blessings, or they're not applied to us personally
until we're in time. Now, we experience them in time.
But brethren, I believe that they are also, also declared
and given to us personally before the foundation of the world.
Because look at the second verse. Blesses the man. That man there
is general. It's not just saying you women
are out on it, can't get just by it, okay? That's a general
term. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is
no God. Now, the word imputeth there,
what does the word imputeth mean, or impute? To lay to one's account,
right? That's what the word impute,
we talked about that earlier. The word impute means to lay
to one's account. And here the Bible is saying
that there is a blessing that comes upon to men who never have
sin laid to their account. Blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Now let me ask you, I was born
September the 19th, 1972. The moment that I came forth
from my mother's womb, the Bible says that I was shapen in iniquity,
and from the womb I am a liar, I am a cheat, I am a, you know,
I am sinful from the womb. Why? Because I'm born a natural
man. Not spiritual, I'm born natural. With a sin nature. that sin nature brings forth
sin in its due time. When tempted and lust goes its
way, it brings forth sin. And the Bible says in the wages
of sin is death. The Bible says that sin, whenever
it's finished, brings forth death. And so from the time of September
the 19th, 1972, until July the 7th of 2000, whenever I felt my need for Christ,
whenever I truly believed the true gospel and realized that
it isn't about my will or my decisions or my work or my faith
or my repentance. It's all about Christ and what
He did. From that time till that time, did God impute my sins
to me? Because if He imputed my sins
to me, then I don't fit this category. If He ever laid that account
to me, then I don't fit the category, blessed is the man unto whom
the Lord imputed not iniquity, because I at one time had it
imputed to me. And let me ask you this, does
God impute sin? Now, we're talking about legal
terms here. We're not talking about actuality, practicality. We're not talking about experience.
Do we sin? Yes. Just because we say we've
never been imputed with sin doesn't mean that we have not actually
sinned. And to those who say, well, if
you've not been imputed with sin, God's never laid sin to
your account, then why did Christ come and die if you never had
sin laid to your account? That's what we're saying. We
go all the way back to eternity that God said, I'm going to send
Christ in the fullness of time. And by his shed blood and that
and all of his faithfulness is going to be the ground where
I can look upon these people before me in love, blameless
before me in love. for all of time. But Christ still
had to be faithful in the covenant, right? The ground still had to
be done. Christ still had to die, still
had to shed His blood, rise from the dead, declaring Him to be
the Son of God before all men, so that all men prior to the
cross and after the cross would know that He is God. That's why
in 2 Timothy, But now is being made manifest by the appearing
of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who has abolished death
and has brought life and immortality, that's what we have before the
foundation of the world, to light through the Gospel. So to the one that says, well,
if God never imputed sin to you, then why did Christ have to die?
Christ came to die in faithfulness to the covenant so that before
the foundation of the world, God could look on every one of
us as blameless before Him in love. But remember, remember,
salvation isn't about you. Salvation isn't about you. Salvation
is about the glory of God. Salvation is about Christ being
glorified before all of creation for that. So the need for you to be imputed
or not imputed, it really isn't that big of a deal as far as
when it took place, because it's really not about you and your
salvation. That's a wonderful gift that
we receive because of it. But the whole thing is about
Christ's glorification. And Christ is being glorified
in coming and redeeming a people who in actuality did sin. And so when God declares them
not guilty, He can do that and be just and the justifier. He can justify the guilty and still be just. Because the
Bible says that he cannot justify the guilty. The only way he can
be just in doing that is for a mediator. And Christ has been
our mediator from everlasting. He was set up as the mediator
from everlasting. And so if God sees His elect
in Christ from all eternity, which we believe the Scripture
clearly teaches, Does He view them as condemned,
guilty, or justified? Well, I believe the answer is
self-evident. The elected Christ in whom, verse 11 of Ephesians
1, we've obtained an inheritance. We have obtained an inheritance
in Christ. as our mediator. All right, brother,
I'm going to stop right there. We're going to look next week,
Lord willing, continuing this study on eternal justification,
justification for eternity. And we're going to talk about
Christ. We talked about Him being our
eternal mediator today, but we're going to talk about Him being
our eternal surety. And we'll still be in some of
the same passages, but we're going to talk about that. Lord
willing, next week. Does anybody have any questions
or comments or reproofs or remutes, corrections? All right. Let's bow and have
a word of prayer. Once again, Lord Jesus, we come
to you and we're so grateful for the life that we have in
you. We thank you for your salvation. We thank you for your mediatorial
work on our behalf. That even before we were born,
before we had done anything good or bad that the purpose of God
according to election might stand, we were chosen in you. And in being chosen in you, you
stood as our surety, as our mediator. That as that, you guaranteed
the redemption of everyone that was given you. and that because God's Word cannot
change, because God cannot lie, because God Himself cannot change,
we have the blessed assurance, we have hope, we have the promise of God that
everything that was purposed in that everlasting covenant,
not one will be lost, And Christ will be glorified. Christ, we
know that if you lose one, that you will bear that responsibility. We see that in the picture of
the sons going to Egypt. And the brother declares that
if I do not go and bring him back, then it'll be his responsibility. Father, we see you in that. We
see that you have promised God that you will go and bring your
brothers back. The Bible tells us that we are
your brother, you are our elder brother, and that you do not
feel ashamed to call us brethren. and that we are adopted of God.
And if you being the son of God and we being the adopted of God,
then that makes us brothers. Father, we thank you for the
Word of God. That you give to us so that we might know these
things. The Spirit of God that reveals them and teaches us of
these things. Father, I pray for those that
are here that are watching or listening. Father, I pray that
You have encouraged them, that You have edified them today,
Father. But more than anything, Lord, I pray that today You have
been glorified through the things that have been said, through
the songs that have been sung. Lord, I thank You for the way
that You watch out, take care of us, provide for us, that You're
there for everything that we need, providing it. And Lord,
we cry out to You even now, Lord, in just a small handful, that
if it be your will, that you might bring others to join us
in worship and service in the kingdom and the gospel of Jesus
Christ. Father, that you might bring
others to come into the labors here at the church. Lord, we pray that You might
keep us faithful, that we might not become discouraged even though
we're just a small handful of people, that Lord, You might
keep us encouraged, looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher
of our faith, looking for His soon return. That we might be
faithful, kept faithful in our service
to God, not only in the preaching of the Word, but in the sharing
of the Gospel. So Father, I just thank you once again for all
these brethren that are here today, my children that are here
today. Lord, I pray that you might bring
salvation to them, that you might bring your life to them. Lord, I pray for my friends and
my family who do not believe the gospel, Father, I pray for
them. Lift them up and ask, Lord, that You give them understanding
of the Word of God by the Spirit of God. Lift up my family also,
Lord, and especially my Aunt Jay. I ask, Lord, that You just
be with her, be with her husband, be with my mom and my grandmother
and all the family, Lord, that are ministering to her for my Aunt Judy All those that are
with health problems that's going on, Lord, we just lift them up
to you. We pray for Brother Ed's son
also. We hear each week about the health
problems that he is undergoing. And Lord, we pray for him as
well. Lift him up before you. We pray
for Sister Louetta now in Tennessee. Lord, you might not only continue
in her healing, and rehabilitation. But Father, we pray that you
would make her time with her daughter a precious one, a time
of peace and comfort. And Lord, that you might have
encouragement there around her and that even that there might
be a fellowship of believers there preaching the Word of God
that might be food for her soul. Father Lord, we just continue
to thank you for all that you are. And we ask that you bless
the food that we're about to eat to the nourishment of our
bodies for which in Christ's name we pray, amen.