The entrance of the Lord Jesus
Christ into this world was perhaps the single most significant
event in history since the fall of Adam. What Adam lost the Saviour recovered. What the first man corrupted,
the second man restored. What our natural Father destroyed,
the Lord Jesus Christ, the spiritual seed, the quickening spirit,
recreated. The Apostle Paul says in writing
to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 15 47, the first man is of the
earth, earthy. The second man is the Lord from
heaven. This is the Lord of whom it was
said, he shall save his people from their sins. I want to pause for a moment
and our thoughts just to bring in a little aside, if I may,
to make a point that each of us ought to understand. These statements about Adam and
about Christ, about what Adam lost and what Christ won, what
Adam forwent and Christ has recovered, They're true. We believe them
to be true. But not everyone believes that.
Not everyone believes these statements to have any veracity at all. Many believe them to be mere
gibberish, senseless talk. without any foundation,
without any reality in life and certainly of absolutely no importance
to them. I suspect that there are very
few people believe in a literal Adam and Eve. Few believe in God or in Satan. or in sin. Now such people, they have to
construct their own worldview. They have to, in their own minds,
because we are rational, reasonable souls, we have minds, we are
thinkers, they have to construct their own view as to how things
are and have come to be. How did the world begin? Where did mankind come from? Where are we going? How do we
explain the complex design that we see around about us, the presence
of sin and evil in the hearts of men and women? the widespread
stubborn belief of the spiritual realm, even life after death. People have to come up with some
sort of thought process, some sort of way of thinking about
these matters. And of course, many of them do.
Scientists, university philosophers, Barstool philosophers, they all
have their ideas about how these things should be explained. Humanists, educationalists, all will have a shot at explaining
the way things are in the world, but they will not for a moment
countenance the Bible teaching about God and Adam, the first
man, Christ, the second man, or those things which Christ
accomplished? Of course, it's all speculation,
because none of these people that I have spoken of can prove
for a moment any of the ideas that they want to bring forward.
And at best, though they may parade their ideas under logic
or science or human experience or research of one kind or another,
it all ultimately falls to personal opinion. The men and women of
this world, they think, if they think at all, about the various
options that are before them, and they take their pick, and
they live accordingly. And religion has something to
contribute as well. Religion can give a good argument
also. And the world is full of religion. or religions, religious followers,
religious adherents who have and who follow their own ideas
or the ideas of their faith. The Jews, they have their thoughts,
Judaism. Islam has its interpretation
of the world and the origins and the ways ahead. as does Hinduism
or the more esoteric religions like Mormonism or Scientology
and the spacecrafts that come down to earth and the amazing beings that are there
in the ether watching us. And Christianity, well, of course,
Christianity has its contribution to make as well. It's estimated that there are
seven billion people in the world. And it is estimated that one
third of that seven billion, approximately, are Christian. Now within that category, you've
got Orthodox and you've got Reformed. You've got Catholic and you've
got evangelical. You've got charismatic and you've
got liberal. You've got Episcopalian and Baptist,
Presbyterian and Methodist. And everyone's got a story. Everyone's
got an explanation. Everyone thinks that their views
are right. They have an explanation about
the way things are, about life, a belief system. And I dare say
that all of those systems claim to be true. I don't know if I've
ever encountered a religion which says, and by the way, my religion's
false. They all believe their own views
to be true. And invariably, they are all
intolerant of contradiction. They don't like it when people
say what you say is not true, or my way is better. And some
intolerance can get very vicious. That's just the way it is. Now
I mention these things because I want to emphasise something. And I guess if we were to sit
down and think about it, it would become obvious. But here's the
point. Peace with God. Salvation, if you like. Peace
with God. Union with the Lord Jesus Christ
is not determined by what we believe. That might surprise
you. but it's not determined by what
we believe. It's not determined by the religion
that we follow or the lifestyle that we practice. 30% of the world may well be Christian,
but what does that mean? What does that mean? Does that
mean that 30% of 7 billion people are going to heaven because they
claim the name, because they say they're Christian, because
they follow a code of conduct, a way of life? I suspect it's true that most
people follow the religion of their parents or their parents'
parents. And maybe you can track that
back for generation. But the name that you take and
the worldview that you have and the belief system that you follow,
it means nothing in terms of eternal security. It means nothing
in terms of spiritual life. You may be a Christian from your
mother's knee and yet a stranger to grace. You may be a thoughtful,
caring, gracious individual, and yet a stranger to Christ.
You might be upright, good living, a moral example in your society,
and never know God. You could be a vocal, eager,
enthusiastic, energized soul winner for Christ. and be spiritually
dead. Because these things are all
just ways of life. Just ways of trying to get through
the days in our world with some sort of rational explanation. Tell you what the Lord Jesus
Christ said. In Matthew 7 verse 13 he said,
Enter ye in at the straight gate For wide is the gate and broad
is the way that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in
thereat. Because straight is the gate
and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life, and few there be that
find it. Few, few in this world will ever
find peace with God. few in this world will ever know
what it is to be united with the Lord Jesus Christ. And I
say these things and I say them publicly because I want each
one of us to be realistic and to examine,
to be earnest, to be sincere about our own soul's state, our
own soul's condition. Take nothing for granted. Examine
yourself. Look to see not what the person
next to you is doing or saying or thinking, but where do I stand
before a holy God? What grounds do I have for hoping
in eternal life? There's a million different,
wow, maybe there are seven billion different views out there in
the world. What makes yours better than
anyone else's? Let me show you what the Apostle
Paul says about saving faith and what he says about the Lord
Jesus Christ. In Ephesians chapter two, verse
eight, he writes, by grace are ye saved through faith and that
not of yourselves, not of yourselves, nor of your intellect, nor of
your works, nor of your earnestness or sincerity, nor of your smartness
when it comes to understanding these things, nor of yourselves.
Salvation is a gift. You don't deserve it if you've
got it. No one deserves it from God.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The legacy
that Adam has given to every single individual on the face
of this globe is a legacy of sin and damnation and judgment
and hell and separation for all eternity. That's just, that's
right, that's proper. That upholds the holiness and
the justice of God. But if God has taken one or two,
a remnant, a little flock, and he has granted peace with him,
forgiveness of sin, redemption, if he has granted saving faith,
then it is a gift from him. And it is only he who can give
that gift. Saving faith is a spiritual gift
from God. And it is powerful. It is quickening. It makes alive. It is illuminating. It is enlivening. It is God's
power, divine power from heaven. And it's divine power into the
soul of an individual. It cannot be earned. It cannot
be deserved. It cannot be manufactured. Oh,
there are many, many churches and organizations try to manufacture
spiritual life. Maybe we've been guilty of that
ourselves. It is bestowed freely and deliberately
by God himself upon whomsoever he wills. Furthermore, the effect of faith,
when it is given to a sinner, is transformative in that person's
life. Faith changes. It alters. It makes that which is old, new. That which is dead, alive. That which is wasted and destroyed,
recreated. Because God himself has come
into the life of an individual and he has come in and he has
informed that individual of a dimension and a reality beyond what the
natural man can ever comprehend. We need to pity the men and women
of this world who know nothing of Christ. For that is the reality
that they are blinded and they are dead in their sin and that's
Adam's legacy to them. There's a place to be judgmental,
but let the Lord be the judge. and let us seek at every opportunity
to lift up the Lord and to show this world what a wonderful saviour
he can be to those who are brought under the judgment and the conviction
of God the Holy Spirit. The heart of man, says Paul in
Romans 10, with the heart man believeth unto righteousness
and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. With
the heart man believeth unto righteousness and with the mouth
confession is made unto salvation. From this verse we conclude that
salvation is not of the will of man but the gift of God. It is the entrance of God the
Holy Spirit into the soul of the sinner with life and power. It transforms men and women,
sinners from the inside out. And it is that which ushers in
the experience of sins forgiven, of righteousness with God, and
of spiritual peace. It's not based on a religious
affiliation. It's a renewed heart and a renewed
soul. It's not dependent on doctrinal
purity or orthodoxy. And yet those whose hearts are
changed, they confess Christ in gospel terms and they learn
of Him. They understand what He has done
and they learn of him. Paul says they learn him. We
have learned Christ. The gospel language that we have
as God the Holy Spirit shows us our true nature and opens
to our gaze the person of Christ and what he has achieved. That
gospel language acknowledges and testifies to sovereign grace
and the substitutionary work of the Lord Jesus Christ on our
behalf. We have no other argument. We
have no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died
for me. And that's all that any of us
have to hold on to in this world. Everything is passing. Everything
will go the way of flesh and sin of the natural man, it must. But if the Lord God applies the
saving work of Jesus Christ to an individual's soul and to their
heart, then we have blessings beyond measure and an eternal
opportunity to be grateful and to praise his name. Hebrews 9.26
says, Now once in the end of the world hath he, that is the
Lord Jesus Christ, appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice
of himself. And this is what Paul is teaching
when he is teaching us about justification. He is teaching
us that there is peace with God through the taking away of sin. The taking away of sin. Romans
5 verse 8, the verse that we read together, God commendeth
his love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Those four little words at the
end of the verse, that's what it's all about. Christ died for
us. God's love is revealed in Christ's
death. That's what it's about. The manifestation
of God's love and many people talk about God's love. The manifestation
of God's love, the revelation, the presentation, the only way
to understand God's love is through the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you talk about God's love,
it must be in the context of a bloody sacrifice. You cannot detach the one from
the other. You cannot detach God's love
from the death of Christ or the death of Christ from God's love. You cannot have one without the
other. Those God loves, Christ died
for. Those Christ died for, God loves. We have a limitation. in the extent of these spiritual
graces from on high. Christ died for us. Christ is God, the promised Messiah. He is the chosen one. That's
what his name means, the anointed one, the one long promised, the
one that was to come. And it's the Lord Jesus Christ
to whom a sinner must look. There is no other way. And the
religions of the world, or the philosophies of the world, or
the psychologies of the world, or the philosophies of the world,
will tell us that there are many ways. The Bible says there is
one way. Christ died for us. He came to put away sin by the
sacrifice of himself. He died. Christ died. It was a real death and it was
a substitutionary death. He died in the place of those
whom God loves. He did not die as a martyr. He
did not die because of the things that he believed or the things
that he preached or the things that he knew. He did not die
as a martyr. He did not die as an example
in some way to show us the meaning of sacrifice or what it is to
be obedient to God's will. He did not die to shame us or
to constrain us in some way, to follow after Him and have
a more dedicated, committed life to the things that He taught. That wasn't the purpose of the
Lord Jesus Christ's death. He died for in place of, as a
substitute for, as a representative of those whom God had committed
into his care. He died in order to make a payment. for the debt that that people
had racked up against God. He died to atone for their sin. He died to redeem them out from
under the burden of their own iniquities and transgressions.
Now, if you have never had to confront or face your own sinfulness,
then I dare say you cannot begin to have any understanding of
what it is to have your sins atoned for or to have them redeemed
for. The Lord Jesus Christ, as the
Redeemer, as the Atoner, He had the sins of His people taken
from them and from their account and placed upon his account,
his own shoulders. Corinthians tells us he bore
our sins. The Lord Jesus Christ made satisfaction
before the holiness of God in paying with his precious blood
to the last cent those costs of our sin. His death was a sacrifice. His death was a ransom payment. His death propitiated God's wrath
against us. And he atoned and he made peace
and he reconciled sinners to God. Christ died for us. It is a particular work, a definitive
work. It is a work that is limited
in its extent by design. The Lord Jesus Christ died for
a certain number of known individuals, a people whom God the Father
had chosen before time and committed into the care of His Son for
their deliverance, salvation, and union with Him. Persons for
whom Christ died are not every individual in this world, not
every individual of mankind, but for his sheep, for his people,
for all the members of his church, for all the sons he has, as the
great captain of their salvation, that he is committed to bring
them to glory. Paul says to the Thessalonians,
1 Thessalonians 5.10, who died for us, speaking of Christ, that
whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. That's the great end of the work
of the cross. whether we live or die, whether
we prosper in this life or perish, whether we enlarge or diminish,
we for whom Christ died, we who the Father loves, we who the
Holy Ghost illuminates and quickens, we live together with Him. David says, we mentioned it last
week, this is all my salvation, all my desire. Lord, grant us
grace to come unto thee by faith. Grant us grace to experience
thy quickening power in our hearts and to testify of thee. with
these lips as thou art pleased to give us understanding of thy
holy ways and will. Amen.