Let's look in our Bibles again
to Isaiah chapter 45. I have a message from the Lord.
And it's a very important message. I was sitting here trying to
think how to say this. You can't hear a more important
message than the message we have from this text this evening.
That doesn't mean Sunday's not going to be important. Every
time we preach Christ, it's of the utmost importance. But this
message in preaching Christ will point you to Christ and will
protect you from the error of religion that's rampant in our
day. The title of the message is the
character of God in salvation. Now, the big problem with modern
day preaching is this. They ignore character. They ignore
the character of man. They ignore the fact that man
is dead in sins and incapable of doing anything good. And they
ignore the character of God. They think God is like their
grandfather or something. They ignore God's wholly just
character. And I want us to leave here this
evening understanding how God saves sinners in a way that's
consistent with his character. There is no real salvation if
that salvation violates the character of God, if it goes against God's
character. Now, almost everybody knows that
God saves sinners. But fallen man thinks that God
can save sinners just any way he wants to. And what they really
think is God can save sinners any way they want him to. But
that's not so. God can only save sinners in
a way that's consistent with his character. I'll give you
an example. There are some things God cannot
do. God cannot lie, can he? Because
that would be against the character of God. God is truth. God cannot
break his promise because that would be against his character.
God's character is to be faithful. As much as I think I would love
it. I can't fly around this room.
I'd love to fly like Superman. I'd have to drive. But I can't
do that. It's against my nature. Well,
it's impossible for God to lie. It's impossible for God to break
His promise just like it's impossible for me to fly because it's against
God's nature. In the same way, God cannot save
anyone by ignoring their sin. because that would go against
God's character. God cannot pretend sin's not
there because God's character is to be just. He must punish
sin. God cannot accept anyone who's
still in their sin because God is holy. If God's gonna accept
anyone, they've gotta be made righteous. They've gotta be made
holy. If God's gonna accept any sinner,
That sinner must be justified. Now somewhere we've gotten this
cute definition of justification in our mind. Just as if I'd never
sinned. Are y'all listening to me? That's
wrong. That's not justification. Justification
is not just as if I'd never sinned. Justification is being made literally
without sin. Having your sin taken away. Now, let me see if I can show
you from God's word how God saves sinners in a way that's consistent
with his character. Here's my first point. Almighty
God has chosen a people to save. He hasn't elect people. God chose
them. That's his sovereign right because
God's sovereign. Now God's sovereign. So if God
saves anybody, it's not because he had to do it, is it? If God
saves anybody, it's because he chose to do it. Look here at
verse 15 in our text. Verily thou art a God that hidest
thyself, O God of Israel, the Savior. Now you're a God that
hides yourself. There's several ways God hides
himself. God does not reveal himself in
grace to everybody, does he? God is hidden from fallen man
because man is dead in sin. Man is blind. So he cannot see. It's easy to hide from a blind
man. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 4,
if our gospel be hid, it's hid to them that are lost. It's hid
to them because they're blind. You read out throughout the Old
Testament scriptures, God hid himself from the Gentile world
for thousands of years, didn't he? He didn't send his word,
or his prophets, or his priests, or the law, or the sacrifices. He didn't send those things to
any of the Gentile nations. He only sent them to Israel.
But now, in our day, God's been pleased to reveal himself to
sinners from all over the world. And he's doing it by his word.
He's doing it by his gospel being preached. That's how God reveals
himself. You know, God almost always hides
himself in providence. We don't know what God's doing.
We don't know why God's doing it. You know, we don't know when
a sickness happens. We don't know why that happens.
These terror attacks in Paris, we don't know why God allowed
that to happen. He did, but we don't know why. Wars break out
and it seems like there's a simple solution to this, but nobody,
everybody's insisted on fighting the war. We don't know why God
allows it, but he does. We don't know why God allows
people to do anything that they do. But we do understand, even
though we can't understand what God's doing, we do understand
this. It's God who's ruling. He's ruling, putting all these
events together by His sovereign will. Look at Romans chapter
11. I'll show you that. Romans 11. We don't understand
it, but we know it's so. We don't understand how God's
doing it, but we do know it's so. Romans 11 verse 33. For God hath concluded them all
in unbelief that he, or verse 32, that he might have mercy
upon all. Oh, the depth of the riches,
both of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are
his judgments, and his ways are past finding out. For who hath
known the mind of the Lord, or who hath been his counselor?
Nobody. We can't understand what God
is doing, because his ways are past finding out, and that way
he's hidden himself from us in Proverbs. There are times God
hides himself from his people in a time of trouble and trial.
The bride and son of Solomon, she was going through times of
spiritual winter. She didn't have fellowship with
the beloved. She couldn't find him. She looked
for him. She couldn't find him. He hid himself from her. Now
when the Lord does that, when he hides himself from his people,
He's doing it for a purpose. He's going to return. Now, he's
not always going to be hid from his people. He's going to return
and give you deliverance and give you a time of refreshing.
But there are times he hides himself. And that's what the
Lord is prophesying up here in Isaiah 45. Remember, Isaiah told
him you're going to go into bondage in Babylon. And after a time,
a specific time God had appointed for them to be in Babylon, Israel
is going to feel like They can't see God. They feel like God's
hidden himself from them. And then suddenly God's going
to come and he's going to give them deliverance. And this King
Cyrus we've been looked at a few weeks ago. Then God always hides
himself from his people for a time. They're born. They're conceived
in sin. They're born in sin. They live
in sin and rebellion. God's hid from them because they're
not looking for him. And then one day, God reveals
himself to his people. He does it through the preaching
of the gospel. He gives them faith to believe. God's going
to do that for all of his elect, every one of them. And the rest,
he's going to pass by. That's what we read in verse
16. For they should be ashamed and also confounded, all of them. They should go to confusion together
that are makers of idols. But Israel shall be saved in
the Lord with an everlasting salvation. You shall not be ashamed
or confounded, world without end. Now these idolaters Isaiah
writes about, they'll be ashamed in the day of judgment because
they worshiped an idol. They're gonna be ashamed because
they worship something that's not real. Why do men do that? Why do they worship something
that's not real? Why don't they worship God? Because they're
blind. They don't know God. And God's
passed them by and left them in their blindness. And nobody
can argue with God for doing it because he's sovereign. It's his sovereign right. Mercy
belongs to God. You know, your money, the money
in your wallet belongs to you, don't you? Well, you can do whatever
you want with it. You can give it away. You can
keep it. It's yours. It's up to you. Mercy belongs to God. It's God's
to give and it's God's to withhold. And nobody can complain about
him doing it because God's sovereign. But the Lord will always show
saving mercy upon his elect people. Isaiah said, they shall be saved
in the Lord. They're going to be saved by
his election. They're going to be saved by his choosing, by
his blood, by his righteousness, by his calling, by his keeping.
They're going to be saved in the Lord. Now look over at Galatians
chapter three. that shall be saved is spiritual. You know this, it's spiritual
Israel. It's the spiritual seed of Abraham.
The Apostle Paul said in Romans 9, all of natural Israel is not
part of spiritual Israel. All of Israel is not Israel.
Well, now who is spiritual Israel? How can you tell? How can you
tell who is the spiritual seed of Abraham? Well, Galatians 3
verse 7, Paul tells, how do you know who it is God saves? Verse
7, Galatians 3, know ye therefore that they which are of faith,
the same are the children of Abraham. Those who believe God
like Abraham believed God, they're the spiritual seed of Abraham.
Those are the people, those are the sinners that God saves. And God is going to give all
of his elect faith in Christ and every last one of them is
justified by Christ. Back in Isaiah 45 verse 25, that's
what he says here. In the Lord shall all the seed
of Israel, all spiritual Israel be justified and they shall glory. Now, right now on this earth
is fallen humanity. This creation is made subject
to vanity because of Adam's sin. But you know, one day God's going
to wipe this thing out. He's going to create new heavens
and new earth. And those new heavens and that
new earth is gonna be populated with his elect. Look here at
verse 18 in our text. For thus saith the Lord that
created the heavens. God himself that formed the earth
and made it. He hath established it. He created
it not in vain. He formed it to be inhabited. I am the Lord and there's none
else. God made this first creation to be inhabited. And when he
makes the second creation, it's gonna be inhabited too. It's
going to be inhabited with his people, with his elect. God and
his sovereignty has elected a people unto salvation. Here's my second
point. God saves his elect through the
preaching of one gospel, through the preaching of one message,
the gospel that honors and glorifies his son. Verse 19, he says, I've
not spoken in secret in a dark place of the earth, I said not
unto the seed of Jacob, seek ye me in vain. I, the Lord, speak
righteousness. I declare things that are right. Now the gospel of Christ is not
being preached in secret. From this little teeny tiny place
every month, the gospel is preached all over the world. I don't know
how many different countries. We get a, I think Dan puts it
up out here, we get a report from Sermon Audio, all the different
states and countries People have downloaded and listened to messages
from this pulpit. This gospel is heard throughout
the whole world. Now, for generations, the Word
of God was hid, wasn't it? Only the Jews had it. Most of
them didn't understand it. But if you were a Philistine
or you were some other Steen, you know, you couldn't get your
hands on a copy of the Word of God. Now it's translated to practically,
I guess, every language on earth. You can buy it at the dollar
store. The word of God's not in secret. God has declared who
he is openly. You can know God if you want
to. The problem is we don't want
to. That's our nature. If you don't know who Christ
is, it's your fault. It's because you don't want to.
Our Lord said you will not come unto me that you might have life. It's not that you haven't heard,
it's that you haven't believed. Now, I'll grant you, you can
go places in this world, you can find somebody who's never
heard the gospel of Christ. Now, they know God is by their
own conscience, by creation, by just looking around. They
know God is, but They have, I'll grant you, they have not heard
the gospel of salvation in Christ. But you have. You have. Then what are we to do? We're
to seek the Lord. God didn't tell his people, seek
ye me in vain. If you seek him, you'll find
him. That's what that means. If you seek the Lord with all
of your heart, God said you'll find Him. Now seek Christ because
you're a sinner who needs the forgiveness of your sin. You
seek Christ like that and you'll find Him. And you know what you'll
find out? When you find Him, you know what
you'll find out? You'll find out you began to seek the Lord
because He was drawing you along. You began to seek the Lord because
He began calling you a long time ago. You began to seek the Lord
because He chose you. Now, God has an elect people,
and He's going to save them. He's going to bring them to repentance
and faith through the preaching of one gospel, the gospel of
the Lord Jesus Christ, His Son. Now, here's my third point, and
this is what brought me to this whole outline. God saves His
elect in justice. He saves his elect in full agreement
with the law because he's just. That's God's character. Now the
God of the Bible is the only God who can save a sinner. The God of the Bible is the only
God who claims to give life to a dead sinner. The God who wants
to save you if you'll let him is an idol. That's a figment
of man's imagination. The God who wants to save you
if you'll let him. A God who will take sinners to heaven and
accept sinners who've not been born again, who've not been given
a new nature, is an idol. It's a figment of man's imagination.
That's not God. The Jesus who has to wait to
see whether you'll accept him or not is an idol. He's a figment
of man's imagination. You'll never find that idol described
as God in this book. Now God, the God who saves sinners,
always does his eternal will. Before God ever created the world,
before God said, let there be light, God knew everything he
was going to do in creation, every detail. Now that includes
the fall of Adam. God knew that was going to happen.
That was his purpose. It was his plan, his will. God
purposed before he ever created man on earth at all. God purposed
the flood of Noah to flood the whole world. God purposed all
of his dealings with the Jews and going down to Egypt and come
back to the promised land, them going into idolatry and carried
off into captivity. How many times? And then him
bringing them back. He purposed all that. God purposed
the coming of his son, the very moment that his son would come
incarnate on this earth. He purposed his life, his death,
his resurrection. Before God ever created this
earth, he purposed every natural disaster, every tornado, every
hurricane, every flood, every mudslide. He purposed it all. Every election. Every coronation,
every military dictator that takes power through a coup, God
purposed it for the foundation of the world. Every day there's
war and every day there's peace. God determined that it would
be that way before the world was created. Every child that's
born, that's ever been born, God purposed the exact moment
that child would be born. And He purposed the exact moment
that child would someday die. No detail, no detail was left
to chance. God ordained it all. And then
God said, let there be light. And in six days he created the
earth. And you know what he's been doing ever since? He's been
carrying out that eternal purpose, bringing to pass everything he
purposed before time began. Now the one who can do that is
God. Isn't that right? And any idol
that can't do that is not God. So don't you look to him. He
can't help you. Look here at verse 20. This is
what God says. He said, now assemble yourselves
and come bring your idols. Now let's do some comparison
here. Draw near together ye that are escaped to the nations. They
have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image
and pray unto a God that cannot say. Tell ye and bring them near,
yea, let them take counsel together. Who hath declared this from ancient
time? Who hath told it from that time? Have not I the Lord? And
there's no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior. There's none beside me. Now, no idol can carry out its
will. An idol's always gonna beg you
to do something, doesn't it? And idols depended on you to
keep doing stuff for it. When you do something wrong,
an idol can't save you. He's got to cast you out. But
when you sin, God saves his people. An idol can't give you a new
nature that will do the right thing, but God gives that nature
to his people. See, God's the only one who can
do that. There's none beside him. Now, Here is one of the
most important phrases in all of the Bible. Brother Henry says
it sums up the whole Bible. God is a just God and a savior. Now, if you can understand what
that means, you can understand the gospel. You can understand
how it is that God saves his people. God is going to save
his people in a way that's consistent with his character. God is holy
and just. Is there any argument to that?
Now we know that, don't we, from God's word. God's holy and he's
just. Well, then when God saves a sinner, that salvation is going
to be holy and just, isn't it? The law is going to be satisfied
because that's God's character. But now don't forget this. God's
character is also to be gracious and merciful, isn't it? Well,
the salvation of God's elect is going to glorify God's mercy
and grace too. Now, left our own devices, this
is what we do. If we had to think of a way,
how can we think of a way that God could be just? How can God deal with us in justice? How can God satisfy his holy
requirements? Well, this is what we think. Send me to hell. That'd be just,
wouldn't it? That's what we deserve. And then
we think, well, how can God be merciful? How can God be merciful
to somebody like me? Well, he's going to have to forget
about my sin. Well, now that would magnify God's mercy. But those two ways we can think
of go in the opposite direction. Those two things don't ever meet
together. Only God can do both those things
at the same time. Only God can cause righteousness
and peace to kiss one another. Only God can be just and still
justify the sinner. Now God being just, God remaining
holy and just and still forgiving sin is an absolute necessity
if a sinner is going to be truly saved. Whatever God does, he
must remain holy. He must remain just. That's his
character. God can't do anything that goes
against his character. If you look back in Exodus chapter
34, I'll show you how important this is. The very glory of God
depends upon it. God's hung his name on this.
He's hung his reputation upon it. In Exodus 34, verse five. And the Lord descended in the
cloud and he stood with him there, stood with Moses there and he
proclaimed the name of the Lord. And the Lord passed by before
him and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, merciful, and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and
that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity
of the fathers upon the children and upon the children's children
unto the third and the fourth generation. And Moses heard that
and he made haste and bowed his head toward the earth and worshiped."
Now that's a God a man can worship. Well, all right, I'm hearing
what God says. He proclaims His name and boy,
I'm right with Him. He says He's going to be merciful,
gracious, long-suffering, abundant in goodness and mercy and truth. Boy, I'm with Him, aren't you?
Keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression
and sin. Oh, I'm with Him, aren't you? Now, wait a minute. and will by no means clear the
guilty? How can that be? How can God
be abundant in goodness and truth? How can he be gracious in long
suffering? How can he forgive iniquity and
transgression and sin and still by no means clear the guilty?
How can both of those things ever be true? Substitution. Substitution. God charged the sin of his elect
to his son. Lord Jesus Christ, the sinner
substitute, he made his son to be guilty of the sin of his elect. Brethren, the father did not
forgive that sin. He punished it fully by punishing
his son and putting him to death. When the father made his son
to be guilty of the sin of his people, he didn't clear the guilty,
did he? No, he killed the guilty. The only way the Lord Jesus could
die is if he's guilty of sin. Because to put an innocent man
to death would be unjust. That's against the character
of God. God did not clear the guilty. He put the guilty to
death. He put the substitute to death. Now, since the Father justly,
rightly, fully punished the sin of his elect in Christ, now he's
merciful to his elect. The father was just to punish
Christ for the sin of his elect. And now that sin's paid for in
him. So the father is just to show mercy to his people and
to justify them, to make them innocent and righteous in Christ.
Look at Romans chapter three. Now this is the very heart of
the gospel. God is just and justifier to
the death of the substitute. Romans 3 verse 19. Now we know that whatsoever things
the law saith, it saith to them that are under the law, that
every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty
before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. For
by the law is the knowledge of sin. No sinner can make himself
righteous by keeping the law, by doing something legally ourselves. Well, how can a sinner be made
righteous then? Only in Christ. Read on, verse
21, in Christ's substitute. But now, the righteousness of
God without the law, without your obedience to the law, is
manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even
the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ.
unto all and upon all them that believe, for there's no difference
for all of sin to come short of the glory of God, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus,
whom God set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
past through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at
this time, His righteousness, that He might be what? just and
the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. You see, the Lord Jesus
Christ is the propitiation for sin. He's the covering. His blood covered the sin of
God's elect. And when I say covered, I don't
mean just they left it there and covered it up. I mean, he
took it away. He took away the sin of his people
by his blood. Well, since the sin's gone, God
took away what made him angry, then he's just in showing mercy
to his people because sin has been punished in the substitute.
God is both just and justifier. That's the only way salvation
can be served. Now, here's my fourth point.
God's sovereign. He's got a people he's gonna
save. He saved him through the death of his son, through the
righteousness of his son. He calls out his people through
the preaching of the gospel. And that gospel is not an invitation. That gospel is a command from
the sovereign. Verse 22 in our text, Isaiah
45, this is the command. Look unto me and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. For I'm God and there is none
else. Now it always amuses me, I see
this, men have done it in the past, men still do it today,
they write a book. They write a book on how to be
saved. And usually they're pretty long
books, but you know, somebody writes a book, even if it's that
thick, telling you how to be saved, it's wrong. They've overcomplicated the simple.
Men have made up their systems of theology that are so complicated,
a normal person cannot understand them. If a child, if one of these
children cannot understand your system of theology, it's wrong.
The gospel's simple. How does God describe salvation?
As the simplicity that's in Christ. Brother Henry made this one of
my favorite statements, I love this. He said, God makes salvation
so simple, he puts it in one word. That one word just has
four letters and two of them are alike. Look. L-O-O-K. Look. Look to Christ. Now, I know what's going through
a lot of minds. Because it went through mine
for a lot of years. If you'll just Tell me where
to look, I'll look. When I say look, everybody here knows what that
means. When I tell you look to Christ, you know what that means
and I'll show you that. Numbers 21, here is the preeminent
example of looking to Christ. Look and be saved. Numbers 21, verse six. And the Lord sent fiery serpents
among the people. They'd sinned, they rebelled
against God. He sent fiery serpents among
the people and they bit the people. Much people of Israel died. Therefore,
the people came to Moses and said, we've sinned. For we've
spoken against the Lord and against thee, praying to the Lord that
he take away the serpents from us. That's why it's got to be
done with our sin, it's got to be taken away. And Moses prayed
for the people, and the Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a
fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole, and it shall come to
pass that every one that's bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall
live. And Moses made a serpent of brass,
and he put it upon a pole, and sure enough, it came to pass
that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent
of brass, he lived. Don't overcomplicate this. You
didn't have to understand how Moses made a serpent of brass
and how he got it to stick to the pole and how he lifted it
up. You don't have to understand that. Just look. You don't have to understand
how God will heal you if you look. Just look. You didn't even actually have
to see the serpent of brass. It could be you're too weak to
get close enough to see it. You've been bitten by the serpent
and you're dying. It could be your eyes are swollen shut. You
can't see. You're blind. But if you turn
toward that serpent of brass, if you turn your heart toward
that serpent of brass, you'd live. You'd be healed. Now you
don't have to understand how God puts your sin upon Christ,
your substitute. Just look. You don't have to
understand how his righteousness could be imputed to you so that
you'll live. You don't have to understand
that. Just look. Christ died over 2,000 years
ago. You can't physically sin, but if you'll turn your heart
toward him in faith and look, you'll live. Salvation is that
simple. It really is. The gospel just
has one answer. I used to hate multiple choice
tests because you know what the teacher did? They made two of
them were obviously wrong and two of them could be right. There's
just enough truth in one of them to make it possible. If you pick
it, you're wrong. The gospel is not multiple choice.
There's one answer. It's Christ. The gospel is just
one way. You don't have to worry about
taking the wrong fork in the road and getting lost. There's
just one way. It's Christ. He's the way. There's
just one name of Savior, just one. It's the name of Christ. Now look to Him. That's why our
Lord told Nicodemus, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Well,
why is it so important He be lifted up? That whosoever looks
to Him will have eternal, and not perish, but have eternal
life. Now Christ is the Savior. Christ
is the remedy for your sin. Lift it up on a pole. Lift it
up in the gospel. Now you look and live. Look. You look to Christ in faith,
believing. Christ is all you need to stand
complete before God. Don't look anywhere else. Don't
look to the law. There's some law that I could
keep to make myself savable, to make myself less sick, so
it may be easier for Christ to save me. Don't do that. You look
to Christ. Don't look at your sin. Don't
look at your wounds and your bruises and your putrefying sore
and say the situation's impossible with me. There's no sinner so
great, Christ can't save them. You look to Christ. Don't look
at others who are dying and won't look and wonder, what about them? My friend, you look to Christ
and you look to Him right now. right this moment. I have an
outline of a message from Brother Scott Richardson. He had three
points to his meeting. I think Scott pretty much always
had three points. He had three points. Salvation,
Scott said, begins with a look. Isaiah 45 verse 22 is his text. Look unto me and be ye saved. Scott's second point was this.
Salvation is maintained by a look. Hebrews 12, 2, looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. And look at Revelations
22. You wanna know how the thing
ends up? Salvation's gonna end with a
look. Revelations 22, verse 3. And there shall be no more curse,
but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it, and
His servants shall serve Him. And they shall see his face. Oh my. Salvation will be complete
when we look into his face. Now you look to him. Now I have
one more point. God's sovereign and every one
of us must bow to him. Salvation is not the sinner deciding
to accept this poor little Jesus and let Him into your heart and
let Him be the ruler of your heart. The poor little Jesus
that they described has got to have me let Him into my heart.
I don't want Him ruling. I'll take care of it myself,
thank you. That's not salvation. Salvation is bowing to King Christ. He's the King of kings and Lord
of lords. It's bowing to Him, begging Him
for mercy and confessing His glory. whether he saves me or
damns me. Verse 23 in our text, God says,
I've sworn by myself, the words gone out of my mouth and righteousness
and shall not return that unto me, every knee shall bow and
every tongue shall swear that every knee of every son of Adam
is going to bow to Christ either now or in judgment. But one way or another, all of
us are going to bow to Christ. How can you be so sure? Because
God said He swore by Himself that it would happen. You know,
a person always swears by the greater. I've been to court before,
had to testify, and they had me lay my hand on the Bible and
raise my right hand and swear to tell the truth. The whole
truth and nothing but the truth, so help me God. You know why
they had me put my hand on the Bible? Because that word is greater
than me. We swear by the greater. Well,
there's none beside God. Not only is there none greater
than him, they're not even beside him. So he can't swear by the
greater, so he swore by himself that every man, woman, boy and
girl who ever lived is going to bow to his son and they're
going to swear. Now look in Philippians chapter
two, what are they going to swear? Philippians two verse nine. Wherefore God also hath highly
exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name, that
at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, things in heaven
and things in earth and things under the earth, and that every
tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory
of God the Father. Every knee's gonna bow. Every
tongue's gonna confess. And this is what the believer's
gonna confess. object of God's electing love is going to confess.
They're going to confess and swear to the glory of Christ
in saving me. Verse 24 in our text, this is
what the believer will say. Surely, shall one say, in the
Lord have I righteousness and strength. Even to him shall men
come, and all that are incensed against him shall be ashamed. Now the elect are going to testify,
only Christ could say That's what it took to save somebody
like me. It took the power of God. And I have righteousness
because God gave it to me. But more than having righteousness,
I am righteous because that's what God made me. And the unbeliever
is going to confess that when God damns them, they're going
to say God's just. God's given me exactly what I
deserve. They're going to be ashamed because
of their sin against Him. They're going to be ashamed because
they trusted an idol. But they'll say, God's just in
sending me to hell. And the believer will say, God
is just to justify me. Not because I did anything, but
because of Christ, my substitute. He was punished for my sin. He
took my sin away. He gave me His righteousness.
I'm not ashamed because I trusted in Christ. He bore my shame away.
I'm not ashamed because Christ made me not guilty. And the reason
I'm not being punished for all of eternity is this, Christ was
punished in my place. God is both just and justifier. Now that's the character of God
in salvation. God's sovereign. God elected
a people to say that's his sovereign right. And when God saves them,
He's both just and He's justifier. He punishes their sin in the
person of their substitute. And God's sovereign. He got a
gospel and He issues that gospel. It's a command. Now you look
to Christ. You bow to Him and you look to
Him. God's sovereign in salvation. And when He saves a sinner, it's
going to be done in such a way that we bow and we confess Christ
is all. Christ is all. Oh, look to Him. Look to Him. Let's bow in prayer. Our Father, we thank You for
this, Your Word that we've just read. And Father, I beg of Thee
that You'd mix faith with what we've heard, that You'd apply
Your Word to the hearts of Your people. that you'd cause us in
faith to look to Christ, to behold Him as our all and in all. He's all of our hope. He's all
of our salvation. He's all of our righteousness.
Father, we thank you. How we thank you that you've
sent the command of your gospel to this place. You could have
passed us by. You'd be right in doing so. but
to magnify your mercy, you didn't. You sent your gospel to this
place. Father, I pray you'd bless it,
that you'd bless it to the glory of the name of your son, and
that you'd bless it to the hearts of your people. Cause us to be
strengthened in Christ, to rest in him, to lean None upon the
arm of the flesh and completely and wholly upon the Lord Jesus
Christ, the sinner substitute is in his name. And for the glory
of his name, we pray.