I begin this morning by asking
each and every one of you, young and old alike, those who regularly
attend this assembly, those visiting among us, I say I begin by asking
each and every one of you gathered in this place a very simple,
yet profoundly important question. And the question is this. Within
the entire scope of the history of the world—past, present, and
its future history as described in the Scriptures—within that
entire scope of the whole history of the world, what is the most
solemn and sobering fact upon which you and I can focus our
attention? what is the most solemn, the
most sobering fact in the whole scope of human history upon which
your mind, my mind, can fasten its attention. Of all the things
that have ever happened since God spoke the universe into being
by the word of His own power, of all the things that have happened
in the rising and falling of the nations, everything that
is happening right now in the tumult and convulsion of the
nations, and all that will happen in the future as the future is
described in Holy Scripture, among them all, what is the most
sobering fact upon which you And I can fasten our minds. I want you to think about that
for a moment. The most solemn, the most sobering
fact in the whole sweep of history. Well, I'm going to be bold to
assert that it is this fact The fact that every single human
being, from Adam to the last person conceived before the return
of the Lord Jesus, every single human being, each and every one,
will be summoned to stand before God in the day of judgment and
be consigned to everlasting torment or ushered into the unspeakable
glory and bliss of the new heavens and the new earth. If you do
not agree with me that that's the most solemn, sobering fact
in surveying the whole scope of human history, what fact would
you put in its place? Of all the billions who now live
and have ever Every single one, without exception, will stand
in the presence of the living God and of His Son, the appointed
Judge. And at the end of that stance
before Him, ushered into the horrific, unthinkable pains of
everlasting hell, or brought into the glories heaven and the
presence of God and of the Lamb. In other words, I'm asserting
that the most sobering, solemn fact in all of history is the
fulfillment of those words spoken by the Lord Jesus in Matthew
25, 46, these shall go away into everlasting punishment, but the
righteous into life Now I ask you another question. Has this
fact ever become to you, to you, to you, to you, each of you,
has this fact ever become to you the focus of serious personal
concern and deep reflection? Has it ever become to you the
focus of deep concern and serious reflection? Or have you, like
many, thought, by thinking, not thinking about it, it'll never
come to pass? Or by dismissing it, I'll make
it go away? Or have you, with focused concentration
of mind and heart, reflected on this most solemn serious fact
in the whole sweep of human history. Well, if you have, and if you
have any accurate awareness of who and what you are as a creature
accountable to God, yet a sinner deserving the wrath of God, you
cannot think of that coming day without a legitimate sense of
dread and of deep terror. Unless, unless, blessed unless,
unless you have discovered and embraced God's way of facing
that day without terror and without dread of its consequences. And that wonderful possibility
is our subject for the preaching of the word this morning. I want
to preach to you on God's way, God's way of facing the day of
judgment without terror and dread of its consequences. And I want
to do so directing your attention to Romans chapter 8, and in particular
verses 33 and 34. For in these verses we have set
before us God's way, God's way, not man's way. God's way of facing
the day of judgment without terror and without dread of its consequences. Again, hear the reading of these
two verses. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is He that condemns? It is Christ Jesus that died,
yea, rather that was raised from the dead. who is at the right
hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Those of you familiar
with the contents of the book of Romans will know that from
chapter 3 and verse 21 onward, the Apostle Paul has been expounding
the wonderful and manifold provisions which God has made for guilty
and depraved sinners. In all of those chapters, 321
right down to the very point at which I broke into the reading
at verse 31 in Romans 8, Paul has been opening up layer upon
layer of God's marvelous provisions in grace for guilty, hell-deserving
sinners. And he has demonstrated and explained
how God has, in the person and work of Jesus Christ, and by
the ministry of the Holy Spirit, made it possible for boys and
girls, men and women of any background, of any particular enmeshing in
this or that sin, he's made it possible that they might be right
with God, given a just title for heaven, and be given a personal
fitness for heaven. That's what Paul has been expounding
in chapter after chapter. And when he's done, it's as though
his own mind implodes with the weight of what he's been writing,
and he backs off and says, what in the world shall we say to
these things? His own mind and spirit are exhausted
in a kind of spiritual ecstasy in this display of the marvelous
grace and saving mercy of God extended in the person and work
of the Lord Jesus and by the ministry of the Holy Spirit. And in the midst of his reflection
upon these things, he asks a series of what we call rhetorical questions. questions that are calculated
to make the reader think, and thinking to reflect upon the
right answer. Just as I began this morning
with a rhetorical question, I began with a question calculated to
force you to think and to reflect upon this great and weighty issue. And as he begins to do that in
this passage, he brings us immediately into the theater of the divine
courtroom. When we come to verse 33, we
find the apostle with this question, who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? And there he uses the language
of the courtroom, where formal charges are made against a criminal. We find the verb used this way
in Acts 19.38 and 23, 28 and 29. And as Paul thinks of the
courtroom of heaven, in which God the Supreme Judge sits upon
the throne, a courtroom in which there is no higher court of appeal,
The judge is infallible. The judge knows the secrets of
men's hearts. The judge knows every word all
who have ever lived have ever spoken. He knows every single
deviation from his law. Yet Paul says, with respect to
a certain group of people, who in the very courtroom of God
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect, It is God that
justifies. The Supreme Judge has declared
them righteous. Who will come along and tell
Him He has not acted righteously in declaring them righteous?
Who will come along and say, Ah, but Judge, you declared them
righteous, but you overlooked this bit of evidence. He's the
God before whom all things are naked and open. You see, there
is no overriding, there is no appealing to a higher court.
And so the apostle says, who shall lay anything to the charge
of God's elect? It is God that judges. The supreme
justifies. The supreme judge has made his
sentence. Who will overrule it? And then
verse 34, who is he that condemns? who will come along and issue
a sentence of condemnation that will neutralize God's sentence
of justification? And he answers by saying, It
is Christ Jesus that died, yea, rather that was raised from the
dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession
for us. So in this particular passage,
we have Paul giving to us God's way of facing the final court
in the presence of the omniscient God with the confidence that
we shall come away justified. Now, how in the world did He
get there? How can we get there? What is God's way? God's way, not man's way. But what is God's way of being
able to face that awesome court with no dread and no terror? Well, let me answer by two negatives,
briefly, and then three positives, all right? First of all, negatively,
it is not the way of denying the reality of our sinfulness
and hell-deservingness. It is not the way of denying
the reality of our sinfulness and our hell-deservingness. This is what some attempt to
do. In answer to the question, who is he that condemns, they
would say, well, there's nothing to be condemned. There is no
such thing as absolute moral standard. There is no such thing
as real bonafide guilt and hell-deservingness. But you see, the problem is,
the man who wrote these words is the man who wrote from chapter
1 and verse 18 onward to chapter 3 and verse 20, demonstrating
that the entire human race, without exception, is all under sin. all in a posture of hell-deservingness. For example, when he comes to
his summary statement of all that he has been writing, from
verse 18 of chapter 1 all the way through to chapter 3 and
verse 8, now his summary, verse 9 of chapter 3, what then? Are
we better than they? No, in no wise, for we before
laid to the charge both of Jews and of Greeks that they are all
under And then he marshals texts from various parts of the Old
Testament. And then his summary statement,
verse 19, Now we know that what things soever the law says, it
speaks to them that are under the law. Now notice the particularity,
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought
under the judgment of God. He said there is not one mouth
that appears in God's courtroom that if he or she is dealt with
in terms of the reality of his or her sin, not one mouth that
is not stopped. A piece of duct tape is over
the mouth. There is nothing to plead. Our
guilt and its evidence is overwhelming. So God's way of facing that bay
without dread and terror is not the way of denying the reality
of our sin and our hell-deservingness. Paul spends almost three chapters
demonstrating the reality of our sinfulness and our hell-deservingness. Furthermore, in chapter 5 in
verse 12, He demonstrates that the entire human race was piggybacked
on our first father Adam. Wherefore, as through one man
sin entered into the world, and death by sin, for that all sinned
in that first one, and the words sin, death, condemnation are
a trilogy of reality applied to every single son or daughter
of Adam. So unless we want to make a fool
out of Paul when he says, who is he? that condemns, we cannot
in any way think that Paul has joined the ranks of those who
seek to contemplate such a thing as a day of judgment, if indeed
there be one, and say, I have no fear, I have no dread, by
denying the reality of their sinfulness and their hell-deservingness. There is a way that seems right
unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. And all
of the modern psychological descriptions of aberrant human behavior that
make them various psychoses and would blame shift, none of these
overturns the clear teaching of the Word of God. All are under
sin, all are under condemnation, all will have their mouths stopped
in the presence of Almighty God. But then secondly, the way, God's
way, of being able to face the day of judgment without dread
and terror is not the way of denying the holiness and the
justice of God which necessitate the punishment of the sinner
and his sin. Do you follow me? There are some
who seek to come to some measure of peace when they think of the
future, and if there's going to be a day of judgment, they're
not too disturbed because they've tried to persuade themselves.
There is no such thing as holiness and justice in God that necessitate,
if God remains as God, He must punish the sinner and his sin. But you see, this couldn't be
Paul's way, because in that passage where he begins, By demonstrating
universal sinfulness, look at his language in chapter 1 in
verse 18. For the wrath of God, the outgoing
energy of divine holiness and justice in the presence of sin,
the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness
and unrighteousness of man. The wrath of God is revealed. There is in God, without in any
way being tainted with what wrath so often is in us, a pure, active
energy of combined holiness and justice that goes out to punish
sin and to punish the sinner. And so the words judgment occur
again and again in these early chapters. Chapter 2 and verse
2, we know that the judgment of God is according to truth. Verse 5, you treasure up wrath
in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of
God. Verse 9, tribulation and anguish
upon every soul of man that works evil, the Jew first and also
to the Greek. 212, For those who have sinned
without the law shall perish without the law. As many as have
sinned under the law shall be judged by the law. Verse 16,
In the day when God shall judge the secrets of men according
to my gospel throughout these previous chapters, Paul has made
it plain that there is a God of burning holiness and inflexible
justice who will sit upon that throne in the last day, and He
will not wink at sin, nor will He overlook the connection between
the sin and the sinner. So when this man comes in chapter
8 and dares to hurl out this challenge to the whole moral
universe, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is He that condemns? How did He come to this place
where He personally, and He believes all who have come to this place
as He did with Him, can face the day of judgment with no dread
and with no terror. Well, as we have seen, it is
not the way of denying the reality of our sinfulness. It is not
the way of denying the holiness and justice of God that necessitates
the punishment of the sinner and his sin. But now positively,
note from our text, it is the way comprised of three things. What are they? It is the way
that focuses upon a unique historical person who was given an exclusive
office and function. It is the way that focuses upon
a unique historical person who was given an exclusive office
and function. No sooner does he ask the second
question in this context, who is he that condemns? And in the
original, there is no verb, it is. You just see the words, Christ,
Jesus, who died. Yea, rather, who was raised,
who is at, who intercedes. When Paul hurls out the question
How can sinful, guilty, hell-deserving men and women anticipate the
Day of Judgment with no dread and no terror? He says, here's
the answer, Christ Jesus. Christ Jesus. Now, these two
names are not mere verbal tags of personal identity. I have
three names, Albert, Newton, Martin. Some of you wonder what
the end was. Now I've told you, the mystery's over. But there
is no real significance except that there's some emotional attachment
between a grandfather who was Grandpa Newton, and he only had
daughters, and my father wanted to make him happy that the Newton
name wouldn't die with him, so if it got stuck with me, it'll
die with me. I did not give the name Newton to my son. But it
has some significance, and my father's middle name was Albert.
He thought it was the height of pompous pride for a man to
make his son a junior, so he just gave me his middle name. And so there's some significance,
but there is no significance in terms of identifying me in
office or function. But when we read the words, Christ
Jesus, Those are not verbal tags by which this person can be distinguished
from Peter the Apostle or John. Those names point to a unique
historical person who was given an exclusive office and function. And I found in recent months
tremendous joy whenever I find particularly in Paul's letters
these words. Christ Jesus, to think what it
meant that from the pen in the lips of this self-righteous Pharisee
who thought his calling in life was to blot out this new religion,
to hear him say, Messiah Yeshua, Meshiach Yeshua, What a marvelous
work of grace, because Paul understood that those were titles that point
to this unique historical person who was given an exclusive office
and function. Think for a moment of the name
Jesus. Remember when it was given to
him? Oh, Joseph is scratching his head. What shall I do? Mary,
this noble, pure woman to whom I'm engaged, she's pregnant.
And I don't want to think the worst of her. And as he's wrestling
with, what shall I do? I'm a righteous man. I don't
want to do more than is necessary in terms of dealing with the
apparent sin in which she's been involved. What do I do? And the
angel appears to him and says, fear not to take unto you, marry
your wife. For that which is conceived in
her is not from some Roman soldier, from some guy down the street.
but is of the Holy Spirit. And she shall bring forth a son,
and you shall call his name Jesus. Why? For, here's the rationale
for the name, for it is he who will save his people from their
sins. Jesus, Jehovah, saves. That's the name to give Him,
for He is Jehovah incarnate. He is the God-man, constituted
in Mary's womb as the theanthropic person. As much God as though
He were not man, as much man as though He were not God, the
two natures in the one person joined forever. He is Jesus. And Paul says, when I think of
the courtroom in the future and all of my sins, I'm able to say
in this triumphalistic language, who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that condemns? Christ Jesus. I do not fear the
day of judgment because there is this unique historical person
called Jesus of Nazareth, conceived by the Spirit in the womb of
the Virgin, bringing to His work as Savior all the reality of
a true humanity and all the virtue and worth and power of undiluted
deity. Jesus. I love the little acronym
that I heard years ago. Jesus. exactly suits us sinners. Trivial and trite, but blessedly
true. He would not exactly suit us
sinners. If He were not a man, it is only
as man that He can live in obedience under the law. It is only as
man that He can identify with us whom He would save. It is
only as man that He can die and undergo the terrors of a death
under the anathema of God. But He is Christ, Messiah, the
long-promised prophet priest and king, God's anointed one,
God's final prophet to teach us infallibly. God's final and
ultimate priest to offer a once-for-all sacrifice for His people and
to intercede that they might receive all the benefits of the
death that He dies on their behalf. He is the anointed King to reign
over us and to defeat all of His and our enemies. Paul says,
in coming to know Christ Jesus, I am able to say who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect, who is He that condemns. The way, the way that God has
given that we may face the day of judgment with no dread and
no terror is first of all and fundamentally, it is a way that
focuses upon a unique historical person who was given an exclusive
office and function. Mark it down. Mark it down, my
unconverted friend. If you are ever to experience
God's way of contemplating the Day of Judgment without dread
and terror, you must have personal dealings with this unique historical
person who was given an exclusive office and function, for he said,
I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the
Father but by me. But now, secondly, God's way,
that we may face judgment with no terror and dread of its consequences,
is the way procured by four distinct activities of this unique person
in his exclusive office and function. God's way is procured by four
distinct activities of this unique person in his exclusive office
and function. Look at the four. It is Christ
Jesus, number one, that died. Yea, rather, number two, that
was raised from the dead. Number three, who is at the right
hand of God. Number four, who also makes intercession
for us. Would you face the day of judgment
with no dread and no terror, while not hiding yourself from
the reality of your sinfulness and hell-deservingness, and not
hiding yourself from the burning holiness and justice of God?
Then you better take seriously these four distinct, specific
activities. of this unique person in his
exclusive office and function. Paul said it is by a spirit-wrought
understanding and personal grasp upon this person in the light
of these four distinct activities that enable me to say, Who is
he that condemns? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect. Let's spend a few minutes on
each of them. First of all, he says, it is
Christ Jesus that died. The Bible is clear that when
he died as Christ Jesus, he died a substitutionary death under
the wrath and the curse of Almighty God. Here's the language of Scripture. 2 Corinthians 5.21, He, God,
made Him, Jesus, to be sin for us, the one who knew no sin,
that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Galatians 3.13,
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made
a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed is
everyone that hangs on a tree. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 15,
This is the gospel I preach to you, by which you are saved if
you hold it fast. Christ died for our sins according
to the Scriptures. Or in the well-known language
of that precious chapter from the Old Testament, Isaiah 53.6,
All we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one of us
to his own way, and the Lord has made to strike upon him the
iniquity of us all. This is why in this very letter
When Paul has turned from demonstrating universal sinfulness and condemnation,
he says in Romans 3.25, this one whom God set forth to be
a propitiation, that is, a sacrifice that turns away wrath. And how
does he turn it away? By swallowing it up in his own
person. Some of these biblical truths
are captured beautifully in our hymnody, and I know of no hymn
that captures the sweep of it more beautifully and more soundly
than one of my favorite hymns. O Christ, what burdens bowed
Thy head? Our load was laid on Thee. Thou
stoodest in the sinner's stead, its bear all ill for me. A victim led, Thy blood was shed. Now there's no load for me. Death and the curse were in our
cup. O Christ was full for Thee, but
Thou hast drained the last dark drop. It is empty now for me. That bitter cup, love drank it
up. Now blessings draft for me. Jehovah lifted up His rod. O Christ, it fell on Thee. Thou
wast sore stricken of Thy God. There's not one stroke for me. Thy tears, Thy blood, beneath
it flowed. Thy bruising healeth me. The tempest's awesome voice was
heard. O Christ, it broke on Thee. Thy open bosom was my ward. It braved the storm for me. Thy
form was scarred, Thy visage marred. now cloudless peace for
me. Jehovah made His sword awake. O Christ, it woke against Thee. Thy blood the flaming blade must
slake. Thy heart its sheath must be. All for my sake, my peace to
make, now sleeths that sword for me." It is Christ Jesus that
died not some innocuous, undefined death, but death under the anathema
of God, that curse that will fall on your head if you do not
get into the Christ upon whom it fell. He met the God of burning and
inflexible holiness and justice head on at the cross. There was
no dimunation. There was no turning aside from
anything of the Father's full fury against the sins of those
for whom Christ hung as surety and as substitute. That's why
Paul can say, now who in the world is going to condemn me?
Christ Jesus died. And in his death, all of the
righteous anger of God against my sin was swallowed up in the
forsakenness of Jesus. But then he says, yea rather,
more than that, something in addition, and in a sense the
language almost says even more wonderful, that was raised from
the dead. And all four Gospels set forward
in straightforward, unadorned, simple narrative that when they
came to visit out of love their crucified and buried Lord, they
all found an empty tomb. And what's the significance of
the empty tomb? The significance is this. The
Bible points to a major answer, two directions. Romans 1-4, He
was declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection
from the dead. The open tomb says something
about the vindication of Christ's person, Son of God with power. And Romans 4-25 says He was delivered
up for our offenses but raised on account of our justification. It is the validation that the
payment was made in full. Vindication of His person, validation
of His work, so that when I look by faith and by sanctified imagination
into that empty tomb, I can with bunions say, that burden on my
back, what happened? It came off and rolled down and
went into the mouth of the open tomb. And I saw it no more. Hallelujah. I saw it no more
raised for our justification. I like to think of the empty
tomb with my funny imagination as God's echo chamber and amen
room to the cry of Christ's triumph from the cross. You remember
that in a way that is not revealed to us, when our Lord Jesus sensed
that the full payment of sin had been made. And from the shrouded
heavens and the horror and darkness of forsakenness, he begins to
sense again the light of his Father's countenance, and his
language is no longer, my God, my God, but it's going to soon
be, Father, into your hands I commend my spirit. And somewhere in that
transition, He has given the awareness that He has paid the
full penalty. And from the cross He cries,
Tetelestai! It stands accomplished! It is
finished! And heaven is silent. And then
people watch. They come and take down His bloody,
battered, contused form. They lovingly wash it, wrap it,
put it in a tomb. It's finished? People might say,
no, no, he's finished. He says it's finished? What's
finished? He gives the cry of triumph.
My work is done. I paid the full price. But God's
going to validate that he truly died. No swoon theories will
take root in any thinking man. So God allows him to be in that
grave as prophesied three days. And then, Easter morning, he
comes out of that grave. And as I say, I like to think
of that empty tomb as God's echo chamber and God's amen chamber. God's Son said, It is finished! Easter morning, God bellows out,
Hallelujah! Amen! It is done! And He raises
His Son from the dead. Now, you better know that. If
you want to face the day of judgment, without dread and fear, in your
weakest moments, in your moments of greatest doubt, in your moments
of the greatest awareness of the sin that still clings to
you, and you think of that awesome day when you'll face this great
God. How can you say, Who is He that
condemns? Who shall lay anything to my
charge? Yea, rather He was raised from
the dead. And in a risen Christ, and in
the reality of his resurrection, we have the confidence that indeed
his work is done. But then thirdly, it says, who
is seated at the right hand of God. And when we trace out the
scriptures as to the significance of what the writers, the theologians
call his session, as being seated at the right hand of God, There
are many strands of biblical truth, but let me suggest that
there are two that dominate. As with His resurrection, it
was vindication of His purpose, person, and it was validation
of His work, so is being seated at the right hand of God. points,
on the one hand, to the total, complete nature of His sacrifice. It is done, the completed sacrifice,
and secondly, His being officially installed as the Messianic King.
Hebrews 1.3 says, When He had by Himself purged our sins, sat
down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. In Hebrews chapter
10, the writer to Hebrews says, every priest daily stands, ministering,
offering sacrifices. But he, when he offered one sacrifice
for sin forever, sat down at the right hand of God. His being
seated points to the accomplishment of his work of sacrificial death. And then it points to his being
officially installed as the messianic king. In Ephesians chapter 1,
Paul's prayer for the Ephesian believers, that they would be
given spiritual illumination and understanding and insight
to some great realities. The third is this, what is the
exceeding greatness of God's power, which He wrought in Christ
when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His own right
hand, far above all principality and power and every name that
is named, not only in this world but in the world to come. and
gave him to be head over all things to the church. There in
Acts chapter 2, Peter points in this direction. He says that
this Jesus whom you crucified, whom God has raised from the
dead, God has exalted him to his right hand. And his first
act of messianic kingship was to send the Spirit to fill the
company of his new covenant assembly. You want to face the day of judgment
with no dread and fear? You better understand something
of the session of Jesus. He sits at the right hand of
God. Can I be truly sure that there's nothing lacking in a
full atonement for my sins? I think of my Savior sitting. He's sitting. He's sitting. No more sacrifice. He doesn't
rise up and cut himself up into a million pieces and appear on
every Roman Catholic altar today. He is seated. He is seated. One sacrifice for sin forever. And I'm not nervous about Iraq.
And I'm not nervous about the U.N. We pray. We prayed this
morning. And I'm not nervous. There's someone who's the Lord
of the nations seated at the right hand of God, to whom the
Father said, Sit at my right hand till I make your enemies
the footstool of your feet. And though the nations gather
and the great ones and the kings of the earth gather and say,
Let's break their cords, cast their chains, what does God do?
He that sits in the heavens shall laugh. I've used the illustration. The three or four little cockroaches
should meet me on my front stoop when I go home today, rear back
on their hind legs and say, hey buddy, what you doing going in
this place? You're not going in there. We're going to line
up around the front door and keep you. I'd laugh at them and
squash them. I'd laugh. What is a phalanx
of cockroaches? He that sits in the heavens shall
laugh. I set my holy king in Zion. Rule in the midst of your
enemies. He rules in the midst of that
bunch there in New York, in the United Nations. He rules in that
place called the White House, and he rules in Beijing, and
he rules throughout the earth. You say, what's that have to
do with my salvation? Well, it has lots to do. You'll
then be able to go on as Paul does in this very chapter. And
then he says in chapter 8, beginning in verse 35, who shall separate
us from the love of Christ? We've got all this now, and this
confidence we can face the day of judgment without dread and
terror. But will that condition remain? He said, Who will separate?
It's his confidence in the reigning Christ that nothing can separate
us from the love of God. And then he says, fourthly, that
Christ intercedes for us, who also makes intercession for us. And here again, The Bible points
to the interest of the intercession in two directions that have tremendous
importance for this confidence as we face the day of judgment.
His intercession is both legal representation, 1 John 2, 1 and
2, if any man sin, we have an advocate. We have a lawyer in
heaven, Jesus Christ the Righteous One, and He is propitiation.
He embodies in His person, at the right hand of the Father,
all the virtue of the once-for-all sacrifice that He offered while
here on earth. He is. It doesn't say He made.
He is propitiation. He embodies in His person, representing
me and you and all who trust Him. And then it points to His
sympathetic, effectual supplication. Peter, Satan has desired you
to sift you as wheat, but I have made supplication for you that
your faith fail not. Wherefore, he is able to save
to the uttermost wide, seeing he ever lives, to make intercession
for us. Now I know some would say, well,
that's pretty stiff theology, Pastor, but I want to tell If
that's this theology, I want to have something more than sawdust
when I anticipate the day of judgment. My sins are real and
my sins are many. And God's holiness and justice
are real. And blessed be God, we have a
Savior who's effected a real salvation that answers to every
dimension of my need and of the character of God. And it is in
the spirit wrought understanding of and the faith suffused embrace
of Jesus in his unique historical person, in his exclusive office
and function, dying, rising, sitting, interceding, that constitutes
what the writer to Hebrews calls so great a salvation. No wonder This way of enabling
hell-deserving sinners to face the day of judgment without dread
and horror is called so great a salvation. But now, thirdly
and finally, not only is God's way the way focused on a person,
the way rooted in these four distinctive acts of this person
But it is the way of becoming united to this unique person
in the virtue of his saving activities. You've got to be united to him.
You see, all the blessings of that salvation have stored up
in the Savior. God has blessed us with every
spiritual blessing in Christ. You see, God doesn't ladle out
the blessings apart from His Son. He stored them up in His
Son, and He says, if you can get into His Son, you've got
them all. And Romans 8, very interesting,
begins with this significant little phrase. Let's look at
it. Romans 8, 1, There is therefore now no condemnation to them that
are where? In Christ Jesus. And how does the chapter end?
Nothing shall separate us from the love of God which is in Christ
Jesus. Everything that is laid out in
this chapter is predicated upon a people who are in Christ Jesus. And that is why the Bible uses
this language, even the familiar text, John 3.16, God so loved
the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes
into Him Believing into Christ, ice, a pea, a palm. It is engagement
of person to person. You see, saving faith is not
tipping your hat to the fact Jesus died for sinners. Jesus
rose from the dead. Jesus ascended. Jesus is seated. Jesus intercedes. I get sick
when I hear people say, if you'll confess you're a sinner and believe
Christ died for sinners, you will be saved. No, you won't.
The devil believes Christ died for sinners. That's why he tries
to obscure the message of substitutionary atonement. It is not any facet
of the work of Christ that is the object of faith. It is Christ
himself. It is Jesus. As Professor Murray
has said in the closest to inspired language that I've ever found
defining and describing saving faith, saving faith is, what
is it? It is self-commitment to Christ
in the glory of His person and in all the perfection of His
work as He is so freely and fully offered to us in the gospel.
Saving faith is self-commitment to Christ. It is engagement of
person to person. It is your person casting yourself
upon His person in the glory of His person as the God-man,
in the perfection of His work effected in death, resurrection,
ascension, and seated and interceding. You've got to get into Christ.
And the way you get into Christ is believing upon Christ. going out of yourself into Him
by faith. And when you do, then this very
epistle says some marvelous things happen. Not only in union with
Christ will all the virtue of what He's done in these acts
be yours, but in a mysterious way, as the Spirit of God comes
to indwell you, you are so united to Christ that His death to sin
becomes your death to sin. His being raised to newness of
life becomes your resurrection to newness of life. That's the
whole truth of Romans 6, 1 to 14. So that to talk about trusting
in Christ while still wedded to sin is nonsense. No, if I
have believed into Christ, then in Christ I experience the virtue
and power of His death, of His burial, of His resurrection,
even of His ascension. And we are raised, Ephesians
chapter 2, to be seated with Him. Well, I must bring this
to a close. I hope I've demonstrated from
the Scripture God's way, God's way of facing the day of judgment,
God's way of facing the day of judgment without dread and without
terror. And I say to those of you who
are not in Christ sitting here this morning, go back to that
question. Have you grappled with this thought?
A moment is coming. As surely as a moment came when
I got out of bed this morning, took my shower, shaved my whiskers,
or put on my face, put on my clothes, brought myself here.
A moment is coming, dear people, when you and I will stand before
the great God of the universe. Can you face that day without
dread and terror? Are you trying to face it your way,
or have you embraced God's way? You, the people of God, These
are the realities upon which your souls must feed. This is
why, among all the things Jesus could have given us by which
to sustain and strengthen us in our wilderness pilgrimage,
he gave but two visible enactments to sustain his people. Water
and bread and wine to bring us back again and again and again. to this central truth, bring
near that day and say, Oh God, in the light of what I am, having
come through Romans 7, I know, I know, I know something of that
reality and the agonizing, cry, wretched man that I am. How can
I say? Who is he that condemns? There
is enough to condemn an army in me. Christ died. Hallelujah. Christ died, Christ
is risen, Christ is seated, Christ intercedes. Who shall lay anything
to my charge? Bold shall I stand in thy great
day, for who ought to my charge shall lay? Don't you get the
goosebumps thinking of the boldness of the Apostle in this? He challenges
the whole moral universe. Can you? Child of God, if this
is your resting place, you with Paul will be able to do the same.
My final word is to my preacher friends, my brothers, with all
of our determination to teach the whole counsel of God. Teach
our husbands how to love their wives and teach our wives how
to be submissive to their husbands and teach our people this and
teach our people that. Don't let too many weeks go by
without focusing on these nerve centers. The souls of your people will
dry up for want of focused, concentrated attention upon Jesus and His
saving work. There is a subtle Pharisee left
in every one of us, and it is only repeated sights of Christ
and His saving work that drives that demon out of us. More of that, God willing, tomorrow
morning in the opening address. Well, I've said what I wanted
to say, and now it's in God's hand to bring the fruit. Let's
pray. Father, what can we say when
we have sought in some little way to bring our fickle minds
to focus upon realities that transcend our ability to grasp,
that make us feel the pygmy-like stature of our inner being. But
we pray that Your Spirit will help us, that we may with fresh
faith and delight in You grasp all the blessed realities of
Your way of facing that awesome day without dread and terror. Be gracious to seal your word
to our prophet and to your praise, we ask in Jesus' name. Amen.