The death of God's darling son
at Calvary is without question the greatest revelation of God
that could possibly be made. The greatest revelation of God
in time and to eternity. The cross of Christ teaches us
everything we need to know about God. The cross of Christ teaches us
everything we need to know about God. Certainly, this is what
John had in mind when he writes by divine inspiration and says,
you know all things because you have an unction from the Holy
One. If God has revealed Christ crucified
in you, You know everything you need to know about God. Clearly, the cross teaches us
by divine revelation something of the supreme wisdom of our
God. God's wisdom is never so fully
made known and manifest to the angels of heaven or to men upon
the earth. as in his purpose to save sinners
by the substitutionary sacrifice of his own darling son. The cross,
the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ upon the cursed tree.
This center point of history, this hinge of all things, the
cross of Jesus Christ is the revelation of the indescribable,
infinite love of God for his people. Amazing love, how can
it be that thou, my God, shouldst die for me? Hereby perceive we
the love of God, because he laid down his life for us. There is
no knowing of God's love apart from the sacrifice of God's Son.
There is no knowing of God's love apart from the sacrifice
of God's Son. Now, we see tokens of God's love
in many, many places. We see his loving kindness displayed
in all creation and providence. But there is no knowing of God's
love until we know the sacrifice of his dear son on our behalf. Here we understand as God proclaims
to astonishing worlds, God so loved the world that he gave
his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish
but have everlasting life. What a declaration. What a declaration. Moreover, the death of Christ
is a demonstration of the fact that it is God's purpose to purify
unto himself a people zealous of good works. The Lord God Almighty
is determined. He is determined from everlasting
to have a people holy and without blame before him and to accomplish
that purpose He sacrificed his own darling son that he might
present his church to himself, a glorious church, not having
spot or wrinkle or any such thing. The cross of Christ is the singular
weapon of our warfare in this world with the powers of darkness. We do not seek to do battle with
the forces of evil in this world. either by the ballot box or by
legislation or by sword. We leave that to papist and Muslims. God's people have one weapon
of warfare. It is the power of the gospel
of Jesus Christ crucified, which is the battering ram of God's
church, by which the church of God and the kingdom of God does
always has and always will. prevail over the gates of hell. It is not our intent or our purpose
to conquer the world or to establish Christian nations. It is our
intent. It is our purpose to conquer
the hearts of chosen centers wherever they're found in this
world, redeemed by the blood of Christ and bring them in subjection
to King Jesus, building the kingdom of our God and our Savior. The
cross of Christ is also the battering ram by which we break down that
middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile. It is by the
blood of Christ that God's elect are one. Now, therefore, we are
no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints and of the household of God. In Christ. gathered around the crucified
Redeemer. Hearts united to one Savior,
to one God. Hearts united to one beloved
husband. All gods elect are one. In Christ, those things that
men are so proud of, by which we distinguish ourselves from
one another, by which one group is distinct from another group,
Those matters of race, those matters of place, those matters
of face. All those things that make folks
so proud and say, look at me, look who I am. I'm better than
you. Those things are insignificant in Jesus Christ. Doesn't matter
what color your skin is. Doesn't matter whether you come
from the poor side of town or the rich side of town. Doesn't
matter whether your mama and daddy are rich and noble or whether
your mama and daddy are both in prison somewhere. It doesn't
matter. Doesn't matter what your background
is. Doesn't matter what education you have or what limits you have
of education. Doesn't matter what abilities
you have academically or physically. Doesn't matter what limits you
have academically or physically. In Christ, there's neither Jew
nor Gentile, black nor white, male nor female. bond nor free. All in Jesus Christ are one. The cross of Christ is the great
leveling ground of humanity and only in Christ. It's only in
Christ that these things make no difference. Only in Christ. Would do God I get folks understand
that and realize that you you're not going to Change the barriers
that men raise up around themselves by which they elevate themselves
by law or by force You can pretend they're changed but only in Christ
do those things make no difference for in Christ He is all and in
all to all his people. That same blessed sacrifice has
also broken down the wall that stood between God and us. Our Lord shed his blood at Calvary
that he might reconcile unto God his people in one body by
the cross, having slain the enmity thereby. You and I were by nature
alienated from God, alienated from God, rightly alienated on
God's part until Christ Jesus reconciled us to God by the sacrifice
of himself. The reconciliation work was done
at Calvary when God was in Christ, reconciling the world of his
elect to himself so that God took away all that stood between
us and Him, the high mountain of our sins, the still infinite
high wall of His justice, the high, high wall of His righteousness,
that which separated us from God and God from us, God by Christ
has taken away. He's raised us up to Himself. He didn't bring Himself down
to us. He's raised us up to himself and we remain enemies to God
in our minds by wicked hearts, by wicked ways, enmity against
God until he comes by his grace with the cross of Christ and
conquers the heart. Oh, may God be pleased now to
cause you to see Jesus Christ crucified and conquer your heart
and cause the enmity that is yours by nature against God to
cease and reconcile you to his son. You who are without Christ,
young and old, you who are without Christ, spend your days hating
God and fighting God. You guard your life. You guard
your heart. You guard yourself from God.
And you do everything you can to keep God away. Do everything
you can to shove God out of your way. You fight him constantly
because your heart is enmity against him. Oh, spirit of God, go. And conquer
the hearts of rebel sinners, bringing reconciliation to God. where there is now only enmity.
Time and ability would fail me were I to try to set before you
all the blessed purposes of the cross. But this we know. The cross of Christ has everlasting
effect upon the highest heaven. And by it, our souls are saved
from the deepest hell. Wondrous, wondrous mystery, the
mystery of the cross. As I look upon the cross of Christ,
that cursed tree upon which our Savior died, I see in it far
more than a piece of wood. I see its top reaching to the
most excellent glory, bringing God's elect up to God. I see its base reaching and plunged
to the depths of human depravity and degradation. I see its arms
reaching across the span of time and reaching across the globe
until it's taken in all the host of God's elect, loved of God,
for whom the Son of God came to give himself a sacrifice for
sin. The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. is the key that opens the gates
of heaven to flood the world with God's goodness, grace, and
mercy in Christ Jesus. But now, I see something else. Turn to Romans chapter 3. Romans
chapter 3. It seems to me, the clear revelation
of Holy Scripture, that the primary purpose for the sacrifice of
God's darling son was the revelation of God's righteousness. The primary purpose for the sacrifice
of God's darling son was for the revelation of God's righteousness. In Romans 3, 24, 25, and 26,
the Apostle Paul, writing by divine inspiration, assures us
twice that the Lord Jesus Christ is he whom God has set forth
a propitiation to declare his righteousness. And as if that
were not enough, he repeats himself, to declare, I say at this time,
his righteousness. Let's read the text together,
Romans 3, 24. Being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom
God has sent forth 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, now watch this. That, in order
that, for this purpose, that He, the Lord God Almighty, who
declares that He will by no means clear the guilty, that He, the
God of heaven, who declares the soul that sinneth, it shall die,
that He, the God of heaven, who says that He will not forgive
iniquity, transgression, and sin. that he, the Lord God, might
be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. My subject this morning is justice,
the door of mercy. Justice, the door of mercy. The God of glory is gracious
and merciful to me, but God will never show grace at the expense
of his justice. No, the justice of God must be
satisfied. He cannot and will not forgive
your sin. He cannot and will not ignore
your transgressions. He cannot and will not pretend
that your iniquities never existed. He must and will punish sin. He must punish sin so thoroughly,
so fully, so completely that it is completely blotted out. That's how God forgives sin.
He must punish sin so thoroughly, so completely that it is blotted
out before he can justify the ungodly. God is now, through
the cross of Christ, by the satisfaction of his justice, merciful and
gracious to sinners, a just God and a Savior. Now, I've got nothing
new to say this morning. I would be ashamed if I did.
I want to show you just one thing, and I want to show it with all
the simplicity I possibly can. Just this one thing. The death of Christ is the resplendent
manifestation of divine justice and righteousness. The death
of Christ is the resplendent manifestation of divine justice
and righteousness. Now I want to show you that with
three statements. Here's the first. The death of Christ upon
the cursed tree manifest the justice of God in the highest
degree. Yes, it is the commendation of
God's love. Yes, hereby perceive we the love
of God because he laid down his life for us. But God's love is
expressed many ways. God's righteousness, justice
and truth is clearly fully manifest only in the sacrifice of his
son. Now we have many, many examples,
many illustrations, many pictures, many decisive acts of divine
judgment. by which God shows his justice. And men are fools if they don't
recognize that. We recognize God's justice in
punishing sin when we pick up the newspaper and read it. You
read about murder. You read about tornadoes. You read about famine. You read
about hurricanes. You read about pestilence. You
read about disease. You read about starvation. All
those things. All those things. All those things
are judgments of God warning you God's going to punish sin.
God's going to punish sin. Now, you can pretend that's not
so all you want to. And you can talk about political
correctness. We don't dare say this is God's work. If it's done,
it's God's work. And if sickness and pain and
sorrow and death are involved, it's judgment to declare that
God must and will punish sin. Understand that. In the garden,
when Adam and Eve were found in sin, the Lord God drove them
from the garden and planted cherubs around the tree of life to keep
man from the tree of life. Judgment expelled Adam and Eve
from the garden. Justice expelled them from the
garden. And there we see the justice of God in punishing sin,
but not fully. Not fully. Adam and Eve died
spiritually. Adam and Eve were driven from
the garden. Adam and Eve were alienated from God, but they
were still walking around. If justice had been fully revealed,
Adam and Eve and the whole human race would have perished instantly
when they sinned against God. When the Lord God sent a flood
of waters upon the earth. Oh, what a picture of God's judgment.
What a picture of God's judgment. Unless I am mistaken, and I'm
almost certain that I'm not, there were at least as many people
living on the earth in Noah's day as there are today. At least
as many. At least as many. But when God
saw that the wickedness of man was only evil continually, God
destroyed the whole human race, except for eight souls. Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. And Noah and his wife and
his three sons and their wives were brought by God into the
ark and spared the judgment of God that fell upon the rest of
the world. Oh, what judgment! Imagine, imagine
if today suddenly God wiped the earth clean of humanity except
for eight souls. Who would dare imagine that's
not an act of divine judgment? But not fully. Not fully. Noah was spared. His wife was
spared. Sham, Ham and Japheth were spared
and their wives. Had justice fully been satisfied,
all the human race would have been wiped off the earth. We
read in the book of God about twin cities. I was raised in
a twin city, Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The first twin cities
we read about in the book of God were much like Winston-Salem,
North Carolina. They're called Sodom and Gomorrah. And God sent judgment to destroy
Sodom and Gomorrah with fire and brimstone from heaven. And
God destroyed the cities like that in judgment. In judgment. Because there, the name of Sodom
forever is written upon the minds of men associated with the horrid
sin for which Sodom was most well known. And that perversity
is continued to this day in increasing, increasing, alarming numbers. Oh, what horrible indication
of judgment, the fact of the sodomy itself and God's judgment
upon Sodom. Folks ask, well, is this contrary
to the will of God? If that weren't so painfully
sad, it'd be laughable. Well, folks, born this way, folks
can't help it. You're born a murderer, too,
but to kill somebody, you go into the electric chair. Man's iniquity. God judges openly
to warn everybody of judgment to come. But Sodom and Gomorrah
weren't completely destroyed. Justice wasn't satisfied for
lot with two reprobate daughters escaped the city in judgment. We see another act of judgment
at the Red Sea there in the Red Sea is buried in the depths of
the sea. Pharaoh and the mightiest army
of the mightiest empire the world had ever known in the Red Sea. Oh, what judgment, what judgment.
Noah sang about it as he spoke of God triumphing over Pharaoh
and the armies of Egypt in the Red Sea. But justice wasn't fully
revealed there. For standing on the other side
of the Red Sea is a whole host of folks who as much deserved
the judgment as the Egyptians who were in the sea. Oh, no.
Scriptures give many, many examples of judgment. We see them every
day in our lives. But these things are not such
manifestations of justice as to fully reveal it. The death
of Christ is. Oh, when God found sin on his
darling son. When God's only begotten son
stood before him. The just in the place of the
unjust, the sinless in the place of the sinful, the guiltless
in the place of the guilty, the holy one being made sin. God
arose in all the fury of his holiness and demonstrated his
anger against sin to satisfy justice. God punished his son. This is called the day of the
vengeance of our God. The day of the vengeance of our
God. On this day, when God sacrificed
his son, the vengeance of God was fully executed until justice
was fully satisfied. Even hell itself can never so
fully demonstrate the justice of God as did the sacrifice of
Christ. Should God send the whole human
race to hell? Should sinners suffer all the
wrath of God they can suffer? Hell goes on because justice
can never be satisfied by the sacrifice of a man unless that
man is God himself. Behold the Lamb of God. He takes
away the sin of the world because he satisfied justice fully. See him as he drinks the cup
of woe. See him as he swallows the sword
of justice into his own soul. He endured the penalty of our
sin. He paid to the utmost farthing
all our debt. And then he cried, it is finished. The hymn writer expressed it
better than I can. Once it was mine, the cup of
wrath, but Jesus drank it dry. When on the cursed tree transfixed,
he breathed the expiring sigh. No tongue can tell the wrath
he bore, the wrath so due to me. Since just dessert, he bore
it all. to set this sinner free. Now,
not a single drop remains. Tis finished was his cry. With
one tremendous draft of love, he drank damnation dry. There is therefore now no damnation
to them that are in Christ Jesus. No condemnation Let me show you
how the justice of God was manifested in the death of our son, just
a little. Let me show you just a little
how it manifested. The death of Christ shows us
that sin can never go unpunished. Our God appointed the salvation
of his people, but the dearest desire of his soul The salvation
of his people could not be executed without the fulfillment of his
justice. Without the shedding of blood
is no remission. Some imagine that God could have
put sin away many ways. If there could have been any
way found by which God in his holiness could put away sin without
the sacrifice of his son, the death of his son would be the
greatest act of barbaric cruelty ever recorded in history. But
that's not what it is. The death of God's son is the
greatest revelation of the love of God in the justice of God
ever demonstrated in human history. The justice of God is demonstrated
in all that our Lord endured. You see, part of the penalty
of sin is shame. We're told that the wicked will
rise to shame and everlasting content. Sin always has its shame. Sin always has its shame. That's the reason folks hide
to do things they do. And so I do what I do in front
of anybody. Well, you will don't act like
you do. But find somebody who acts different and you'll hide
what you're doing. Sin always has its shame. And the Lord Jesus. Oh, what
shame covered his face. He was despised and rejected
of men. His disciples hid from him and
departed from him. He became the song of harlots
and drunkards. Men in public cleared their throats
and spit in his face. Wagging their heads, they mocked
him and laughed at him. Another part of sin's penalty
is its sorrow. Oh, Who can imagine the meaning
of our Savior's words when he said, my soul is exceeding sorrowful
even unto death. Our most tender sympathies can
never interpret the pains of his heart when blood poured from the pores
of his skin. in Gethsemane's garden as he
anticipated being made sin for us. Hearing the sorrows of death
come past me, the pains of hell got hold upon me. I found trouble
and sorrow. Then called I upon the Lord,
O Lord, I beseech thee, deliver my soul. Sin brings another punishment. Desertion. Desertion by God. The damned in hell have been forever deserted by
God. And now they know what that desertion
is. Oh, who could imagine such? The Son of God does. He cries,
my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? Why? Because God is just, and the
soul that sinneth, it shall die. Number two. I want you to see
that by the cross of Jesus Christ, it is evident now that God can
be and is both a just God and a Savior, both just and the justifier
of all who believe. When a man is first made aware
of his lost and ruined condition and sin, two things trouble him
greatly. First, he sees that he's sinful. And then he sees that God's holy.
Since he knows that God is holy and he is nothing but sin, he
knows that God must punish sin. He's full of fear for his own
soul. Satan terrifies and tells the sinner, God will have nothing
to do with you. God will never save such a wretch
as you. Satan whispers in your ear and he he says, as you listen
to this preacher, oh, that's for other folks, not for you.
God wouldn't have you. Your conscience torments. Saying that God, the almighty
pervert justice, God can't save me, maybe other folks, but not
me. And the law threatens the soul that sinneth it shall die.
So the sinner cries out how then? Can a man be just with God? Understand
this. You can't be justified before
God by the deeds of the law. I'll say no more than this. You
can't keep it. Is that simple? Oh, I do best
I can. God won't accept that. God demands
perfection. You can't keep the law. No, no
breach. No breach from beginning to end,
all the days of your life, in your heart, in your soul, in
your mind, with your mouth, with your hands, with your feet, no
breach of the law, but complete fulfillment. You can't do it.
The law wasn't given for that purpose. The law was given specifically
to show you, you can't do it. And no sinner could ever be justified
before God. By his religious works, ceremonies,
decisions, or experiences. When did you make your decision
for Jesus? You can make all the decisions
you want to. It won't satisfy justice. Tell me when, when were
you baptized? You can be baptized. All you
can be baptized. It'll never wash away sin. When
did you get right with God? You didn't. You can't. When did
you decide to start serving the Lord? You didn't. You can't.
When did you give your heart to Jesus? You didn't. What would
he want with that filthy thing? Oh, no, no, no, no, no. Salvation
can't be accomplished by religious deeds, decisions or experiences. Oh, I had such a feeling, such
a tingling feeling. I've been reading some histories
recently and with a good bit of disappointment reading about
a preacher, Back in the 1700s, mid-1700s, a very famous, popular
preacher. And everything going pretty good
until I started reading about folks gathering and they'd fall
on their faces and wallow in the ground. And oh, what experiences! Enthusiasm and the revelation
of God! Not hardly. Find me where you
find such in the scriptures. Not hardly. Not hardly. Faith
in Christ doesn't produce insanity, religious or otherwise. Doesn't
produce it. No, no. And the religion of this,
of just religious feeling. And folks being slain in the
spirit. Who's that fellow? A bunch of
them. The one with the crazy hair.
Benny Hill. Hits you in the head and you
fall out. Folks in an insane asylum got more sense than that.
Oh, no, no, no. Religious experiences won't save
your soul. They won't do you any good. No
sinner has ever been justified by his works or his experiences
or his feelings. But blessed be God. He has forever
met. And given and satisfied all that
he demands from me. yonder seated on the throne is
God's darling son, who by his life fulfilled righteousness
of infinite worth. For Bob Pottser, that man is
God. And by his one sacrifice, by
his death, fully satisfied the justice of God, he alone could
do it, because that man is God. God in Christ provides both righteousness
and satisfaction in his dear son. Now, through the death of
Christ, sinners coming to God by Christ find him a just God
and a Savior. Believing on the Son of God,
I am fully confident, I am fully confident And Lindsay Campbell,
I know something about what's in here. I know something about the depravity
of my nature and the corruption of my heart. Oh my God, I know
that. And in the teeth of what I know
I am by nature, I am fully confident that I have free access to and
everlasting acceptance with God in all his holiness, because
I bring him what he gives. I bring him what he requires,
righteousness and satisfaction in the person of his son. Now,
one last thing. Since Christ died in the place
of sinners. The justice of God. Has become
mercy's strongest plea at the throne of grace. Our text declares that God is
just and the justifier of him that believeth. Is that what
the text says? Is that what it says? God is
just and the justifier of him that believeth. How does a sinner
come to God? Lord God, I come to you. trusting your side. You require righteousness. He
is all my righteousness. You require atonement. He is
all my atonement. You require the punishment of
sin. He is all my satisfaction. I come to God trusting your side. Here, him in whom Justice is
satisfied. Well, you can't do that. But
sure you can. Sure you can. Sure you can. Aaron could not
go behind the veil. He could not go behind the veil. No man could go behind the veil
in the tabernacle. Couldn't be done. except upon
penalty of death. Except once a year, one way with
one sacrifice. Once a year, one way with one
sacrifice. On the Day of Atonement, Aaron
could take the blood of the Paschal Lamb. He'd caught in a bowl and
he could pull back the veil. Reverently, yes. Oh, yeah, reverently,
yes, yes. I have no question about that.
Taking seriously what he was doing, yes. But I'm going to
guarantee you something. Unless it was because of age
with a trembling hand, Mark, his hand never shook with that
bowl in it. He didn't reach and, oh, I wonder
what's going to happen when I pull back that curtain And go in there
in that holy place. Oh, oh, oh, I just can't do it. I just can't do it. I'm not worthy. That's not how he came in there.
That's not it. That's not it. He didn't come
in because he was worthy. He knew he wasn't worthy. God
has showed him that repeatedly. He knew he wasn't worthy. Oh,
I just I can't go in. Oh, yes, I can. God said, bring
this blood of this sacrifice to me. And I'll meet you On the
propitiation. I'll meet you on the mercy seat. And there. I'll show myself to you. God,
I come to you. For mercy. Oh, mercy. Through your justice. Now, it's just for you. Oh my
God, my Father, it's just for you to save this sinner in Christ
Jesus the Lord. God give you grace now. Plead
his justice and find his mercy. Amen.