All right, well, we'll go ahead
and get started here. I just wanted to talk a little
bit, unless anybody wanted to continue discussing what we were
discussing before, we'll talk a little bit about winding down
the study on substitution. I was given yesterday to preach
on some things out of Hebrews about
the better promises that the new
covenant brings. Matter of fact, I kind of struggled
clear up until yesterday morning on the way over there on what
exactly I was gonna talk about whenever I got there. I even
sent a message to my friend JC and I said, what are you gonna
talk about? So I don't maybe talk about the
same thing you do. He told me what he was going
to talk about, which was nothing even close to what I was even
considering either way. But there's a few things that
the Lord kind of laid upon my heart and everything. And as
we're kind of still looking at the topic of substitution, and
of course, that's kind of been very prevalent in my thoughts
and in my mind as we've been looking at that. I preached on, in Hebrews 8,
where it talks about the new covenant being built upon better
promises. And the reason that it's being built on better promises
is because the foundation of the eternal covenant is the Lord
Jesus Christ, the one who is the substitute. It doesn't have
anything to do with anything that we did. It was all purpose,
planned, and performed in eternity before that. And I talked about the sanctuary
and the tabernacle that the Old Testament was patterned after,
which was that of the heavenlies and how Jesus had come into that
sanctuary and that tabernacle before the foundation of the
world as the Lamb slain. And so that everything was secure
before anybody was ever made. I did have a couple guys that
completely disagreed with me, but it is what it is. Anyhow,
the theme of substitution We're kind of winding this down
a little bit and we're going to talk about this. I'm not going
to reiterate what I talked about yesterday so much as far as the
reason that Jesus can be the basis for better promises is
the fact that he is faithful and true. In the eternal covenant,
whenever he stepped forward as the surety and God took into
account what would be accomplished and what would be done and who
Jesus Christ is as the faithful and true one, then there was
no need for him to wait for the manifestation of that in time
for him to declare those things to be. And that's kind of one
of the reasons why I'm a strong proponent for eternal justification. is because God does not have
to wait for the actual events in time because everything is
based upon the righteousness and work of Jesus Christ alone.
And so that does not have to take effect for him to be able
to declare because he knows for a fact when his omniscience and
in his sovereign ordination of all things that exactly what
would be needed would take place. So there's no getting out and
there's no chance that Jesus, and I wanna use that word in
the meaning it's meant, there was no chance that Jesus would
by chance not fulfill the eternal covenant. But I also put forth
that there was a work that was done before the foundation of
the world, and it was upon that that God declared his people
righteous. But we see the manifestation
of that in time for us, so that we might know that, so that we
might understand that, so that we might see that. Otherwise,
the Old Testament saints weren't justified. If they had to wait
till Christ died, they weren't justified. What was it, though,
those great and better promises in this new covenant, what was
in that? Why did God send a substitute,
and what was it about the substitute that allowed God to declare the
things that he declared? And so we've been looking at,
and again, our backdrop is in John chapter 11, where Caiaphas
has, made the statement that it's better for one to die for
the nation than for the whole nation to perish. And we've kind
of taken a little segue here into a discussion about the doctrine
of substitution. And we've spent several weeks
now looking at that, and I began a conclusion the week before
last. on this very thing. And we looked and seen that as
we're concluding this down, we've seen that Jesus Christ is an
eternal substitute. But today I would like for us
to see one of the other aspects of this was that the reason that
he is a good substitute and there are better promises is because
that he is an obedient substitute. Okay, he's an obedient substitute.
He's the one that stood in our place from all eternity, and
it was his obedience that God accounted as our obedience. And so matter of fact, turn with
me if you would over to the first verse I want us to look at, and
that's in Romans Chapter 5. Romans Chapter 5. See, whenever
Jesus was here and whenever he walked this earth, for 33 years
or however, 33 and a half, however long it was. While he was here,
he stood as our representative. And as I've mentioned in this
study already, so many people, they put the work of substitution
was just on his death, burial and resurrection, that he substituted
for us in his death, in his death, in his death. But as we've seen,
he substituted for us in eternity. He substituted for us in his
life. He substituted for us in his
death and his resurrection. And as we've seen, he is still
today standing for before God as the mediator. And as I said,
mediator surety and substitute all have very close meanings.
They're almost identical. There is a little bit of difference,
but they're almost identical. But anyway, so we see that his
life is just as important, brethren, as his death was. Look with me,
if you would, at Romans chapter five, and look at verse 19. Well, let's back up that, let's
back up, I tell you what, I wanna move into this at verse 15. It
says, but not as the offense, so also is the free gift. For
if through the offense of one, many be dead, much more the grace
of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ
hath abounded under many. And not as it was by one that
sinned, so is the gift for the judgment was by one to condemnation,
but the free gift is of many offenses under justification.
For if by one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they
which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness
shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ. Therefore, as by the
offense of one, judgment came upon all men to condemnation,
even so, or in the like manner, the same way, by the righteousness
of one, the free gift came upon all men under justification of
life. For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so by
the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. So here we
see that by Jesus's obedience, we are made righteous. So Jesus
had to perform a perfect obedience so that we can have an imputation
of righteousness. See, just as Adam, one man, sinned
and that one sin brought condemnation upon everybody,
who he represented. Now remember, because a lot of
people, the universalist and the Armenians like to go to this
and how they say that how he brought justification, all men
unto justification of life, okay? You gotta remember who he, this
is representation. That's why in verse 19, he went
from all to many, okay? Who is he representing? All the
men that Adam represented was brought to death and condemnation. All that Jesus represented was
brought to life. No condemnation. And it was by Adam's one offense
that many were made what they were made, and it was by the
obedience of one that his people were made what they were made,
okay? And so we see that many were
made sinners by the disobedience of Adam, but many were made righteous
by the obedience of Christ. So that's why I say, brethren,
the life of Christ and his obedience does have to do with our being
imputed with righteousness and our salvation. A lot of these
reformed guys, they get so nitpicky about every little thing and
they say it had to be, it's his death, burial and resurrection
is the only thing that it talks about in scripture is by his
blood, it's by his death, by him taking on the wrath of God.
That's what's in view when it talks about our salvation and
how we were saved and how we are justified. We're justified
by The blood of Jesus Christ will were also justified by the
righteousness of Jesus Christ. If it wasn't for the righteousness
of Jesus Christ, the blood of Jesus Christ would be like the
blood of any other man. And so we see here that the obedience
of Jesus Christ was was very important in his being our substitute. And so. The sinless life of Christ
is extremely necessary for our redemption, our salvation. It
qualified him to be the one to die for us at Calvary. And he established the perfect
righteousness through that obedience. Matter of fact, turn back a couple
of chapters to chapter three. Another thing that I love about
the King James Bible. We're going to see this. Word here. Look at verse 22. It says. Or let's go to verse
21 by now, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested. Okay, so what does that tell
me? There was a righteousness of God before the law. Outside of the law. Not under
the law, not a part of the law. There is a righteousness of God
without the law. is manifested. It means it already
existed, but it's now being brought forth and shown. There again
is another reason I believe in eternal justification. I believe
in the land slain before the foundation of the world and that
tabernacle that I preached about yesterday. Even the righteousness
of God, here it is, oh, excuse me, being witnessed by the law
and the prophets. So the law and the prophets,
we keep saying the law and the prophets keep pointing to But,
and they do, they did, they were pointing to Jesus Christ. But
here it says the law and the prophets were a witness of. That the righteousness of God
without the law was manifested being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. The law and the prophets actually
was a witness of that righteousness without the law. Now that's kind
of strange. Kind of something to write down
in your Notes there to go home and study, right? Look at verse
22, though. It says, even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of the elect sinner. Is that
what it says? Even by faith of Jesus Christ
unto all and 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 by His grace through the redemption that is
in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for
the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness that
he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Now, we see here in verse 22, the righteousness of God is by
the faith of Jesus Christ. The righteousness of God is by
the faith of Jesus Christ, not the faith in Jesus Christ. You go to the NIV, you go to
the ESV, you go to the New American Standard, you go to all the other
wishy-washy versions that's out there, they all put in the word
in, in the faith in Jesus Christ. That is incorrect. Whenever you
look at those corrupted manuscripts, they always are gonna point away
from Christ and to man. Here we see the word is of, the
faith of Jesus Christ. Now, that's gonna lead somebody
to say, well, Jesus didn't have to have faith, he was God. Why does God have to have faith
in God? Have you ever thought of that?
Did Jesus have faith? Well, the Bible does talk about
that as he came as the God-man in his humanity, that he came
as a servant of God, that he came in humility and was found
as a servant, that he lowered himself and became like us and
became a servant to us to do all the will of the Father. And
so it was the faith of Jesus Christ being enacted and shown
in His obedience that was imputed to us. See, Jesus actually is
the source of faith. He's the source of faith. And
whenever you and I are born from above, That seed that comes into
us has within it the faith of Jesus Christ. That is a part
of the new nature. The Bible says that we are new
creations and that we've been given this new nature. Well,
that nature is comprised of partly the faith of Christ. That's why the Bible says whenever
it talks about the gifts of the Spirit, one of the gifts of the
Spirit is what? Faith. Now, that faith isn't just a
general trust. All men in the world, men, women,
and children, all have a natural or a carnal faith. Okay? My son, right now, put faith
in that pube that would hold him up, even though it's got
cracks in it. He had faith that that pube would hold him up when
he sat down in it. That's a natural faith. It doesn't
take anything spiritual to look and say, will this hold me up?
Well, I got an idea than that. Whenever we jump in an airplane,
we have faith that that airplane is gonna get up off the ground
and get us to our destination. Okay, now our faith may waver
a little bit when we hit turbulence, but we have faith that it's gonna
get us to where we're going. That's natural faith. But the
Bible says that all men have not faith. So if we know we have
some faith, natural faith, and the Bible says all men have not
faith, then there obviously is different kinds of faith, right?
We also know that the Bible says that the demons believe, so they
have a faith. They have a faith that Jesus
is who he said he was. Even the demons believe and tremble
at that, so they have a faith. But is that the faith of Jesus? Is that the faith of Christ?
Is that the faith that is the gift of the Holy Spirit? Absolutely
not. That faith is given of God. That's
why the Bible says, it has been given unto you to believe on
Him. All that were ordained to eternal
life believed. Why? Because that belief, that
faith, come in the new birth. And so we see here that there
is a faith of Christ and that faith of Christ was evidenced
in his perfect obedience to the law and to the eternal covenant. Everything. Whenever he prayed
in the garden of Gethsemane, Father, if it be thy will, let
this cup pass from me, but not as I will, but thy will be done. Thy will be done. It's your determination,
whatever you say, that's what I will do. Whatever you want,
that's what I will do. And he looked and he seen all
that the law demanded, and he did everything the law demanded.
The whole time he lived here, that's why the Bible says that
they couldn't find any fault in him. That's why the Bible
says whenever Satan came and tempted him, there was nothing
there to tempt. They could find nothing in him.
There was no guile found in him. Why? Because the faith of Christ
kept him all these years in obedience to God's command. There was no
way that he could ever go outside of that. Why? Because he had
the faith of Christ. And the faith of Christ cannot
fail. It cannot do a part. That's why
Jesus said, I can do nothing except what the Father tells
me to do. Any deviation from that would
be disobedience to God, would be unfaithfulness, and I would
not be true. And the Bible says that I am
the faithful and true one. So he didn't do that necessarily
to live up to his names, although he did live up to his names and
titles, but he did that because of who he was. He was perfect
in his obedience because he is perfect. He is sinless, spotless,
no guile is found in him, but he also is perfect in his obedience
because he is faith. He is faith, the source of faith,
and any faith that we might exhibit in God Any faith we might exhibit
in his word and what he has told us to do and how to live and
all these things, any exhibition or manifestation of that in our
lives is only the byproduct of his nature in us. Because natural
man can't keep nothing of this. And so we see that it was needful
for him to be obedient. His obedience and his substitution
as our obedience was needed before God. And so he lived this life
of obedience by his faith. And so he brought in that everlasting
righteousness for him. In Jeremiah chapter 23 and verse
six, we actually sang these songs. And I thought I was going to
get to this portion of my message at that time that we sang, but
we sang about Jehovah. Sid can you, a few weeks ago,
And that's what that is, the Lord, our righteousness, the
Lord, our righteousness. But the Bible also talks about
us being called the Lord, our righteousness, and how tightly
knit our union is with Christ Jesus, that his righteousness
is our righteousness. That imputation, brethren, is
unbreakable and unmarred. I mean, it ain't going to be,
you know, God ain't going to kind of sift through a little
bit and say, oh man, I begin to see a little bit of evil there.
And then he kind of wipes the, wipes the slate back a little
bit and covers it up. Well, I better not look any further
or I'm going to see too much and get mad. Now he always sees
the righteousness of Jesus. See, Jesus voluntarily submitted
himself to every law, to every ordinance, to fulfill the righteousness
as our representative. I love what it says there in
Jeremiah, if you'll turn to Jeremiah chapter 33. This is what I was talking about
about our union with him in those days. Verse 16 in those days
shall Judah be saved and Jerusalem shall dwell safely. And this
is the name wherewith she shall be called the Lord our righteousness. It's just amazing to me. I just
ponder that. When you meditate on that verse,
that God so looks upon the obedience and the righteousness of Jesus
Christ, that whenever he looks at us, that's all he sees. In
so much that he says that she shall be called the Lord our
righteousness. Man, we just really don't deserve
that, brethren. God demands that we fulfill the
law and perfect righteousness. And those who have been given
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ have fulfilled the law. See, this is why a lot of folks
would call us, here's your big 50 cent word, antinomian. I'm sure some of y'all has probably
heard that before. I see Larry back there chuckling
and shaking his head. He's probably been called one
before. but an antinomian, one who is lawless, without the law. That's what that word means.
No law. And so a lot of people say, well,
you know, you guys have just believed that your obedience
don't matter. that you're just anti-nomineer
without the law. I mean, the Bible tells us we
got duties to fulfill and we've got obedience that we must perform
and if we don't, matter of fact, and I love him to death, but
my good friend JC yesterday, I had to disagree with a little
bit of what he said whenever he talks about whenever we come
before the judgment of God that we're gonna be held accountable
and judged for what we do as preachers and how we perform. Does God chasten his children?
Absolutely he does. But brethren, whenever the day
of judgment comes, there's only gonna be one thing that's said
over each one of God's elect. Well done, my good and faithful
servant. You say, well, how can that be?
Because he's only looking at one thing. We were already judged
every sin that we're ever gonna, me failing as a pastor and as
a preacher up here, just like, and I'll use yesterday's illustration
whenever he talked about pastors being held account at a higher
standard than everyone else because of their preaching the word of
God and holding the word of God, okay? Are we held to accounts? Absolutely. You know who we're
held to accounts by? I'm held accountable by you.
What I say to you, you ought to be able to come forth and
say, brother, you're an error and hold me to account. or confirm
and say amen, that's what the Bible said, just like the Bereans
did. They held Paul to account. And how did they do that? By
searching to see whether these things be true. There's an accountability
there, yes. And we are held to an accountability
because we are called of God to preach the word of God and
there is an accountability upon us. But brethren, if I fail,
to do as a pastor or preach something just right? Is that not any other
sin than any other sin that Christ has already died for and was
judged at the cross for? And whenever I stand before God,
is he gonna say, oh, you did great, but I gotta hold you to
account because you didn't pastor very well, or you didn't preach
very well, or you didn't go visit very well, or you didn't evangelize,
or you didn't, am I gonna be brought into judgment Well, if
so, then them were sins that Christ did not die for. See, we gotta get our tradition
out of our mind and tradition, at least mine that I grew up
in, is that we're gonna come before the judgment seat of God
and all things are gonna be laid bare and all the things that
were done for God are gonna be jewels and precious stones and
everything that wasn't that was done by Mike is going to be wood
hay and stubble and it's going to be burned up and we're going
to be tried as by fire and we might make it in just by the
skin of our teeth and that's going to happen at the judgment
seat of God. Brethren, that's happening now. God is burning
up in his people the wood hay and stubble now. and revealing
jewels and precious stones as he works in us to willing to
do his good pleasure now. The people of God have been judged
in Christ Jesus and they are being chastened now and that
conforming, when you conform something, there is required
sometimes a whittling away. To conform an image to the image
that you want it to be, if you're a sculptor, you take a block
of granite and you start chipping away. You have to take things
away, and it's not hard. I mean, it's not easy. You gotta
chip it away. Whenever you make a sidewalk,
what do you gotta do? You gotta lay down forms, and
then whenever you're put in there, it will conform to the form that
is laid against it. The concrete wants to just spread
out, but the form keeps it compressed in and keeps it into the form
that it is desired to have, and God is doing that now. He's doing
that with us now. And there will be a completion
of that one of these days. But brethren, there is not going
to be any judgment because the Bible says, therefore, there
is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation
means there will be no condemning when we come before God. We have
been justified in Christ. We've been justified. That means
that the account is settled, not guilty. And so whenever we
come before God, not guilty is gonna always be the verdict. Did Mike mess up as a preacher?
Yes, not guilty. Did Mike mess up as a husband?
Yes, not guilty. Was Mike not a great father?
Sometimes not guilty. And you say, well, wait a minute,
that's not fair. He's getting off. He didn't walk in obedience
to God's commands. You, you, you said that without
holiness, no man will see God and he sinned after he was saved. Well, praise God, it isn't. by the obedience of this one,
but the obedience of that one. Praise God that it's the holiness
of another and not me because there is none holy. There is
none righteous but God. You say, well, that command though
is for us to obey and be holy. We have to be holy. God can't
be holy for us. Brother, you better fill your
Bible out then. Because the whole of this scripture is God being
for us what we cannot be. And God giving us grace in what
we could never earn and merit. So Christ's obedience is paramount. That's why the Bible speaks in
Romans chapter three and verse 28. Therefore we conclude that
a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law, Is he the
God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles?
Yes, of the Gentiles also. Seen it is one God which shall
justify the circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith.
Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid, yea,
we establish the law. In Romans chapter eight in verse
three, it says, for what the law could not do and that it
was weak through the flesh, we could never do the law. So if
you're wanting to be accepted by your obedience and not Christ,
if you don't want to believe that it's imputation of Christ
obedience that did anything for you, have at it. That's all I
can say. I'm to the point now where the
people that want to argue about this, well, have at it. How are
you doing it now? How are you getting along in
that obedience? Okay? Because the Bible says that if
you don't keep it in every point, you're guilty of all of it. Okay? So if you're gonna go that route,
there you are. For what the law could not do
and that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own
son in the likeness of sinful flesh, not in sinful flesh, but
in the liveness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemn sin in the
flesh, that, or so that, here's the result, that the righteousness
of the law might be fulfilled in us. How is the obedience to
God fulfilled in us? God said in his son, and him
being condemned in the flesh. How did Mike Smith, whenever
he got before God and God said not guilty, how did he get there
without fulfilling all the laws God commanded or obeyed or become
holy? Because God sent his only begotten
son who was condemned in the flesh for mine. Substitution
and imputation. God looked at the substitute
and said, good enough for me. You're not guilty. Brethren, it's indispensable.
We can't be without it. It has to be. The obedience of
Christ has to be. If Christ be not obedient to
God for us, then there is no obedience for us because his
fulfilling of the law is what God looks at. And whenever he
condemned him in the flesh, a man who was not guilty condemned
him in the flesh so that those who are guilty could not be condemned
then God would be unjust. That's why it says he was the
just and the justifier because God made that switch and said,
I will take the not guilty and deem him as guilty. I will take
the guilty and I'll deem them as not guilty. And in my wisdom
and omniscience and my sovereignty, in my righteousness, in my holiness,
in my perfect justice, I see that that is acceptable. And so now I can say, come. Now I can say to the sinner,
I love you. Now I can say to the sinner that
you're welcome at the table. Can't do that. Apart from that,
God would be unjust. God would be unjust. And so Christ
had to be obedient. that obedience had to be a substitution
for us if God would be just in justifying us if he just went
to the cross and not fulfilled that law for us he would have
just went and that obedience would not be laid to our account
so we must have that all right we'll stop right there brethren
and let's stand