Take your Bibles this morning
and turn with me to 1 Timothy 2. We are going to be looking and focusing
our attention on verse 5 of 1 Timothy 2. Brother Joe Terrell sent me something
on the Internet this morning. And it was a film clip of something
that they picked up on YouTube on the Internet. And what it was, was a clip of
the Special Olympics. And his father was pushing him. He was on this little, something
like a baby carriage, but a little bit bigger. And he was running
along behind him in this decathlon, and he was pushing him. And then
he picked him up in his arms and he laid him in a little raft
and he took a rope and he held on to it while he swam across
this designated area, whatever it was that was involved in this
race. And then on the other side, he
picked him up in his arms and ran with him for a distance.
And then at the end of that distance, he put him in this little seat
and got up on this bicycle and drove him to the end of the race.
And as they come into town and all along the way, this little
fellow that was in the carriage was waving his hands and rejoicing
as though he ran the race. He didn't have anything to do
with it. He was just along for the ride. But he waved his little
hands and he smiled and tears come to my eyes as I thought
about this. How our Lord, us in Him, and we go through
this life and we rejoice and hold up our little hands
and rejoice in a victory that's not ours, it's His. But He's given it to us as though
we ran the race. And while they showed this film
clip, this lady with a voice out of this world was singing
this song, I know my Redeemer liveth. I know my Redeemer liveth. I
know my Redeemer liveth and on earth again shall stand. I know
eternal life he giveth, that grace and power are in his hands. That's where they are. And that's
where you are if you belong to Him, in His hand. He said, My sheep hear My voice, and they follow Me. And I give
unto them eternal life, and no man shall pluck them out of My
hand. How'd they get in His hand? My Father which gave them Me.
That's how they got there. That's how they got there. Now,
with this in mind, I want you to look with me here in 1 Timothy 2. Now, I was told years
ago by a faithful minister of God, as he got up and introduced
his message here in 1 Timothy, he told me that his hope that
morning was that when he left and was done with his preaching,
that he might leave me, by the grace of God, with some kind
of reasonable hope, something I could put my feet
on, something I could stand on, a little bit of assurance that
as I went through this world and lived and died, and one day
was raised to face the living God, I might have some kind of
hope. other than I just hope, I hope,
I hope. You know, we say, well, I hope
it rains tomorrow. We don't have any foundation
for that, do we? That's just a wish, is what that is. This
hope, the hope of the gospel, the hope of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the hope of eternal life, is a hope based on a foundation. It's based on reasoning. God
says, come, let us reason together. Now, you can't reason with yourself.
You reason with yourself, you're going to wind up in hell. God
said, Come, let us reason together. And we can reason with Him. Well, let me begin here with
this. Now, here's how this reads. He said, For there is one God
and one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. Now, let's start where all things
begin. There is one God. Do you ever just sit and think about
that? There is one God. One God. Not many gods. There are all kinds of gods in
this world with little g. Paul talks about them. There
are gods many, he says, over 1 Corinthians, I think it's chapter
5, there are gods many who are not gods. But there's
only one true and living God. One God. Eternal. Without beginning of days or
end of time. Everlasting. Listen to this here
in Psalm 90, verse 1. He says, Lord, thou hast been
our dwelling place in all generations. Before the mountains were brought
forth, or ever thou hast formed the earth or the world, even
from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God. He is everlasting. He has no beginning of days,
no end of time. Eternal. We can't even fathom
that term. I just sit and think about it
in awe. He doesn't age. You know, we
mature. We come into this world as little
babies, and we mature, and we grow, and then we begin to age,
and the wrinkles, and the soreness. I just, you know, I know I'm
going to wake up in pain. The new part about it is where
it hurts. That's age. That's what that is. There is
no age with God. There is no maturing with God.
Everything that God is now, everything that God will be in the future,
He was in the beginning. He is God. He is everlasting. He is eternal. And He dwells
in the perfections of His own attributes. And He needs nothing. He doesn't need us to be complete. He was complete for a billion,
billion years before we ever came along. He is complete in Himself. We
can add nothing to Him or take anything away from Him. He is
everlasting. He is eternal. He is God. There
is one God. And He is almighty according
to the Scriptures. When God appeared to Abraham,
Isaac, and Jacob, it says He appeared and declared His name
to be God Almighty. Ain't that what He said? He didn't
say, I'm another God. You can put
me up on the mantle with those gods you've already got." That
isn't what he told Abraham. Abraham was an idolater. He had
all kinds of gods. He had God's many. He had all
kinds of statues and things that he grew up believing in and thinking
about and calling deity and all this type of thing. And the Lord,
when He revealed Himself to Abraham in the land of the Chaldeans
over there in Mesopotamia, He said, Abraham, I am God Almighty. What does that mean? That means
he does what he wants to do. No power anywhere that can resist
his will. None. None can stay his hand. He rules in the armies of heaven
and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay
his hand. If he decides to do something,
determines to do it, I don't care how powerful the nation,
how powerful the man, He can't resist the hand of God. None
can stay His hand, or even say unto Him, what are you doing?
You can't call God into question. You're a fool. You're a fool. He said, let the partridge of
this earth strive with the partridge of this earth, but don't strive
with God. Don't strive with God. God is almighty. His authority
cannot be challenged by any. He has no equal. I am God. Beside me there is none other.
I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord,
which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty."
That is how he revealed himself to John over in Revelation. He ruleth. God is eternal and
sovereign over all things. He worketh all things, the Scripture
said, after the counsel of his own will. And men get together just like
they did at the crucifixion of Christ. It didn't just happen
overnight. These men all got together and
they said, you know, what are we going to do with this guy?
Here's the Jews, and he's turning their religion upside down. He's
turning everybody against them. And he's contrary to them. And
everything they said so, he said it ain't so. What they call light,
he calls darkness. What they call sight, he calls
blindness. And they're upset about it. And
so they hire false witnesses, and they plot and they plan how
they're going to get rid of them. And the Gentiles, they don't
much care for them either. And the Roman government, they
all got together, the big shots, the bigwigs, the leaders of the
nations, they all got together. And they got together with the
Jews, and they got together with the Gentiles, and they said,
here's what we're going to do. We're going to take him out here
and nail him on the tree. And we're going to get rid of
him once for all. We're going to get rid of this
fellow that's becoming a hindrance to our politics. He's upsetting the peace of the
nation. We're going to get rid of him. And here's how we're
going to do it. The Jews want to kill him anyway, so we're
going to turn him over to them. But the Jews wouldn't do it.
They said, no, you're the authority. You're the authority. Men say
that when it's handy, don't they? Otherwise, they wouldn't bow
to it for anything. But they all got together, and they did
exactly what they plotted and planned to do over a period of
years. And when they did it, The Bible said they did what
God's hand and God's counsel determined before to be done.
That's exactly what they did. And you may go out here this
morning kicking and screaming and squalling and hating everything
that I say, and when you do it, you're going to do exactly what
God's counsel and God's hand determined before for you to
do. That's exactly what you're going
to do. You're going to manifest the will of God in your resistance
to the gospel. That's exactly what you're going
to do. I wrote an article not too long ago called Evident Tokens
of Prediction. That's what that is. That's what
that is. There's one God, and He's almighty,
and He's eternal. And this God is just. He's just. I don't know in this country
if we even have a concept of what justice is. You know, they're actually on
there right now considering giving that idiot a parole, Charles
Manson. Huh? I'm telling you, I don't
think anybody in this country has a sense of justice as it's
declared in the Scripture. Justice under the law of God
demands penalty. There's no way out of it. If
you're guilty, you're going to pay. God is just. David said justice
and judgment are the habitation of his throne. Take away justice
and judgment, God has no throne. That's what he's saying. That's
what he's declaring. He revealed himself to Moses
and declared to him in plain and simple words, he said, I
will by no means clear the guilty. That means if you're sitting
on death row and you're waiting for pardon, it ain't coming.
That's what that means. I will by no means clear the
guilty. The soul that sinneth, now listen,
shall surely die. Ain't that what he said? He said a little bit more than
that. He said, As I liveth, saith the Lord, swear by His own name. The soul that sinneth shall surely
die. It's not a threat of a future
judgment, but the manifest judgment of God against sin. There is
no compromise of it. There's no lowering of the bar.
There's no ignoring it. There's no wiping it away. Whatever soul, upon which the
all-knowing and all-seeing and everywhere present God finds
iniquity, that soul shall surely die. He is not going to let Satan,
he was the The Son of the Morning. He was
the most beautiful, most powerful angel in heaven. He's not going
to let Satan so much as entertain an evil thought. But when the
thought entered his mind, he was cut off from God, bound in
chains of darkness, and reserved unto the fires of judgment. That
quick. No mediator. When Christ came
into this world, he said he took not on him the nature of angels,
but the seed of Abraham. There's no mediator for the angels.
There's no possibility of ever being reconciled to God of the
angels. Their destiny was set. It's set. And there's no appeal from it.
There's no place else to turn to get around it. There's one
God. And in defense of his very name, he's going to judge all
sin. That's just the way it is. And that judgment of justice
is based on infinite holiness. Now, I know we make much of the
love of God, and we need to make much of the love of God, but
God doesn't make near as much out of the love of God as he
does out of holiness. the loving book. He calls it
his holy Bible. And his angels are holy angels. Holiness, without which no man
shall see the Lord. That judgment of justice is based
on infinite holiness. Job said, He putteth no trust
in his saints, yea, the heavens are not clean in his sight. How
much more abominable and filthy is man that drinks iniquity like
water. Boy, we don't like that, do we?
But that's the truth. That's the truth. Sin demands
judgment and justice and a righteous punishment against it. And God
hath appointed a day, Paul said, in which he'll judge this world
in righteousness by that man. And you can go a lot of different
directions with that. By that man is a standard. Anything you ever did, you want
put up against the righteousness of Christ? Any thought you ever
had, any prayer you ever prayed, you'd like to tack it up here
on the billboard next to his achievements, next to his righteousness,
say, what a good boy am I? Any thought you ever had, any
devotion, any feeling, anything you've ever experienced in your
entire life, would you like to set it up there in comparison
with his? This judgment is according to that man. The Lord said, I'll
hang him as a plumb line. As a plumb line. You builders
know what a plumb line is. They don't use them much anymore.
They use lasers. But that plumb line hung down
with that weight on it. It was straight as an arrow.
Straight as an arrow. Christ is God's plumb line. There's one God. And He's not
who and what men make Him out to be. He is what he is, and
he can only be known by his own testimony of himself and by his
own son. Over in 1 Corinthians 8, I misquoted
this a while ago. 1 Corinthians 8, verse 5, Paul
said, For though there be that are called gods, whether in heaven
or in earth, as there may be gods many and lords many, but
unto us There is but one God, the Father of whom are all things,
and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things,
and we by Him." One God. He dictates the terms. He makes
the rules. He has the authority. He exercises
the judgment and justice and all things. And ultimately, His
will will be done. We're to pray, Thy will be done. on earth as it is in heaven. Because His will is going to
be done. It's going to be done. Now, let me just take these things
here in this verse one at a time and let's take a look at them.
There's one God. One God. Go through the Scriptures
sometime with that in mind and read how God reveals Himself. You ought to just sit there and
quake. Moses come up to a picture of him in a burning bush. Come
up to that burning bush. It burnt, but it wasn't consumed.
And he started to approach that, and God said, Whoa, whoa, whoa,
whoa. You take your shoes off. This ground just near the top
is hallowed ground. Hallowed ground. Oh, I tell you,
we ought quiver when we think about who God is. He's God. This generation has lost sight
of who God is. They're not being testified who
God is. Paul told that group of philosophers
there on Mars Hill, he said, This God, this unknown God of
one blood, hath made all nations of men, for to dwell on all the
faces of the earth, and hath determined their times before
appointed, and set the bounds of their habitation." He's a
heathen in Africa because that's where God determined him to be. He's a suppressed people because
that's what God determined for him to be. He's a free man in
America and can go out and vote and go out and do things and
has freedom because that's where God determined for him to be.
God determines these things. You don't. You're sitting here
this morning by the decree of God, hearing one more time. And anything the sight of hell
is mercy. And He brings you here to hear.
Will you hear? Can you hear? There's one God. And you have to face Him. You
have to meet Him. You have to deal with Him. I
don't care if you like it or you don't. I don't care if you
fear Him or you don't. The reality is there's a day
set by God when you're going to face Him as He is, absolute
God, outside of a mediator. You're going to face Him. And
I tell you, you don't want to face God as absolute God. You
won't face him through this mediator. And there's only one. There's
just one. Listen to this. There's one mediator. A winner is a mediator. Strictly
speaking, he's a fit representative standing between two parties
at odds with one another. And his presence there is to
make peace. Now, if I view this As we have
squabbles among ourselves, let's say Russell and I have a difference.
We have a business agreement. He thinks I breached the agreement,
and I don't think I did. And we got to go get a mediator. We got to get somebody to settle
this thing. We've got to go to law, but we have to have a mediator. We have to have somebody in there
who has no interest really on either side. And what this guy's
going to do is he's going to talk. He's going to talk to you
a little bit, and he's going to come talk to me a little bit,
and he's going to go back and talk to you a little bit, and he's
going to try to get one, if not both of us, to compromise and
make peace. Not so with the mediator of God. God has no fault. God has nothing to confess. God
has nothing to compromise. God is God. This Mediator that
he sends is to reconcile us, not him. He is to make the peace not by
talking, not by tempting, not by trying to get you to do something
for Jesus. He has not sent us into this
world and I am up here trying to beg you to do something for
him to make the peace. This Mediator of God was sent
to accomplish peace. You remember I read it to you
a while ago? I read it to you three or four times. I repeated
that word three or four times. Jesus Christ came into this world
to accomplish peace, not to attempt to make peace. He accomplished. He made the peace. We have peace
with God. Ain't that what the Scripture
says? Huh? Well, we have it in this mediator. God's mediator. I hear folks
say, well, I made my peace with God. No, sir. No, sir, you didn't. All you did was build for yourself
a broken cistern that can hold no water. Only God can make the
peace. Only God. You might appease that
little peanut God you worship who loves everybody and wants
everybody to do this and that and wants everybody to be saved,
but everybody isn't being saved and He's just wringing His hands
and walking back and forth, looking down over back into heaven and
wringing his hands and worrying about what you're going to do.
You might make peace with that God, but you're not going to
make peace with the one God. Only He can make the peace. Only
He can make the peace. You can't do it, number one,
because you ain't willing. You didn't wake up this morning
hoping to make peace with God, now did you? Huh? You woke up
this morning thinking about what you're going to do today, and
what am I going to do for myself, and what am I going to eat, and
what am I going to wear. You know, your thoughts are all
together of yourself. Mine too. There's none, ain't
that what Romans 3 said? There's none that seeketh after
God. Nobody. All the seeking is on His part. He came to seek and to save that
which was lost. All things are of God who hath
reconciled us to himself. Huh? Man, I wasn't even in the
equation. I'm just the object of his grace.
That's all. There's one mediator. There's
one thing that stands between you and everlasting hell. One
mediator. Are we even slightly concerned
about who he is? Boy, I want to know. I want to
know. I want to know how this man can
make peace. In order for there to be peace,
God must accomplish it. Man can't do it. With man, it's
impossible, he said. All right, here's the second
thing in this sentence. There's one mediator, and it
says, between God and man. He stands between. He makes up
the gap in the hedge. He makes it up. He stands there.
Between you and everlasting hell, between you and yourself, between
you and your sins, between you and your rebillion, there stands
one mediator. That's the only thing there.
The only thing to keep you from rushing right into hell is this
mediator. That's it. That's it. Not some experience you had.
People hang on to experiences and hang on to this and that
and the next thing. They hang on to feelings and
they hang on to all sorts of things. The only thing that stands
between you and fallen men and certain doom is Christ. That's
it. All things are of God who hath
reconciled us unto himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. I don't preach a want-to-can't-do
God. God does what he wills, and he
is willing, and it pleased him to save those that believe. Pleased
God. Pleased him. We have been talking
in Genesis. all through chapter 1 about the
creation of life. And if you picture those things,
you see them in the sea as a picture of the Father. You see just an
abundance of life that can't be seen anywhere else on earth
in that great sea. You see that life. And on that
body that he calls to appear up out of that sea, which represents
the Lord Jesus Christ, you see it covered with life, rooted
into it, eternally united to it. All the plants that have
roots, the grass and the herbs and the fruit trees and all these
things, they all get their fruit, they all get their life out of
that body. They are vitally connected to
that body. And all around the invisible
spirit. And God even creates life in
him to show you that there is a unity of purpose in God to
give life. And he creates out of those waters
a bird and it takes wing and flies into the grace of God and
moves. and rejoices and sees all these
things because God equipped him to do so. And that's the believer. It's a picture of the believer
who in Christ is given that life and ability to soar and to see. He goes up there with unobstructed
clarity and looks down on that body upon which God shines that
everlasting light. And he sees it, and he takes
in his full, and then he gently comes down and he rests on that
resurrected body and sings about his glory. That's the believer. It's not that experience you
had. It's him. He gives life. They're one mediator. And he stands between you and
everlasting death. Oh, I don't preach a want-to-can't-do
kind of God. The Bible declares this one mediator
to have accomplished redemption, accomplished justification, accomplished
reconciliation, accomplished righteousness. It's already done. It's already done. I just receive
it. Religion says do, do, do, do,
do. The gospel says it's done. In his agony, in his pain, in
his suffering, in his humiliation, when he drank the final dregs
of the cup of God's wrath, he hung on that cross and he said,
It's done. It's over. It's accomplished. All you have to do is receive
it. And you couldn't do that apart from him. Receive it. Just receive it. Just rest it
in. Ain't you tired? He looked out on that group and
they was out there bickering just like we do. They'd bicker
back and forth. I don't know about that. I don't know about that. I had to think about that a while.
They were out there dicking around and he said, Anybody thirsty?
Come get you a drink. Are you tired? Are you weary?
Are you confused? Come and get your rest. I'm the
rest. It's accomplished. Oh, it's hard
to get a hold of, ain't it? I have a righteousness in Him.
Think about it. I'm not trying to work out a
righteousness. That's how Israel fell. That's
what sunk the good ship Israel. They were going about, going
about every day, going about praying and reading and serving
and doing this and doing that. They were going about trying
to establish righteousness. Why? Because they were ignorant
of the righteousness of God. For Christ is the end of the
world for righteousness to everyone that believes. Do you believe? I can walk by faith with a confident
assurance before God that He is pleased with me. Not by what
I do, but by what He did. It's accomplished. We're running
around trying to get sanctified. That church I grew up in, that's
what it's all about. It's all about sanctification
by works. And they're running around doing
this and doing that and getting sanctified. And they actually
believe that you can get on this plateau up here where you achieve
it. Where you can achieve it. Turn with me to Hebrews chapter
10. Hebrews chapter 10. Oh, there's one mediator, and
he stands between God and men. Now listen to this. Verse 5, Wherefore, when he cometh
into the world, he sayeth, Sacrifice and offering thou wouldest not,
but a body hast thou prepared me. in burnt offerings and sacrifices
for sin, thou hast had no pleasure. Then said I, Lo, I come, in the
volume of the book, it is written of me, to do thy will, O God."
And above, when he said sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings
and offering for sin, thou wouldst not neither have pleasure therein
which are offered by the law. Then said he, Lo, I come to do
thy will, O God. He taketh away the first that
he may establish the second, by the which will, by the which
doing, by the which body, by the which mediation. We are sanctified
through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. That's my sanctification. That's
my righteousness. And not only that, look down
at verse 14. For by one offering he hath perfected forever, then
never sanctified." Forever. There is never a time
when I come to rest in my own righteousness, but by inheritance, by predestinated
inheritance, he gives me his righteousness freely. Justification. Boy, we like to
talk about that, don't we? Huh? We like to talk about justification. I was reading through a pamphlet
that Brother Winston gave me. He got it from the First Baptist
Church over in Texarkana. And I was reading through his
pamphlet, and it's a pamphlet that has little blanks you fill
them in at the end. And it says, God wants you to
be wise. If God wanted you to be wise, if He wanted all men
to be wise, why would He have made His Son to be unto us wisdom? That's my wisdom. Huh? Of God is He made unto us wisdom. Ain't that what it says? God
wants you to be wise. God wants you to understand your
role. I know what my role is. I'm a
sinner. He's the Savior. I'm the servant. He's the master.
God wants you to be encouraging. You can't even encourage yourself. Free will. Men talk about free
will. Your will can't even turn away
a germ to keep you from getting a common cold. But you're going
to resist? Your will is free in the sight
of the sovereign God. Give me a break. Oh, what God wants, He takes. He said, if I was hungry, I wouldn't
tell you. He said, the cattle on a thousand
hills, they're mine. He said, I wouldn't tell you
if I was hungry. God appointed His mediator, and
as the mediator of God, He alone stands between God and men, and
in Him reconciliation is accomplished. All of the sins of all of His
chosen from beginning to end were laid on Him, and He bore
our sins in His own body on the tree. Nothing else separates
you from the wrath and vengeance of the Holy God. Nothing else
stands between you and eternal hell but this one mediator. Now let's consider the last part
of that verse. Paul identifies him in the text
like this. He says, the man, Christ Jesus. In order to save sinners, God
must take to himself the nature of a man. A man. Ever with a man. This same God
I described to you, this one God who is eternal, all-just,
all-wise, all-seeing, all-knowing, took to himself the nature of
a man, walked on this earth, born of a woman, nurtured in
her arms, wrapped in swaddling clothes, laid in a manger. Because man don't know the mind
of God. He cannot, in what he does, satisfy
God because he has no idea who God is. He does not have the
mind, the heart, the attributes, the spirit of the living God.
None but Christ, this one mediator. There's nothing else in the universe
even close to him. He is different in this respect
from God the Father and from God the Spirit. He is man and
God in one person. And he stands there alone to accomplish this redemption
and to glorify God. He is the man Christ Jesus. He must take to himself the nature
of a man. Not like a chameleon. You know, a chameleon, he's sitting
up here on this plant, he's green, he goes down that brown route
and he turns brown. That's not what the Lord did. He become man. I don't even have
the words to tell you what that means. But in every sense of
the word, he was made like unto us. In order to be your high priest,
he's got to be touched with the feelings of your infirmity. He's got to be touched. When
you cry out of your weakness, he has to understand what that
means. I can cry out to him in my weakness
and he understands. I can cry out to him in my pain
and he understands. I can cry out to him in my fear
of death, and he understands. I can cry out to him about my
unbelief and all these types of things. He understands. Think about it. At the right
hand of God sits a man. Oh, I love that message that
man preached that time at the Bible conference twenty-some
years ago up in Aspen. There's a man in glory. And if
there's one, there might be two. There's a man in glory. Sitting
at the right hand of the triune God sits a man. And this man
become a man to save men. That's what he's there for. And
He has accomplished the righteousness. He accomplished our justification.
God raised Him again from the dead to justify us. We are justified. It is God that
justifies. Who is He that can do it? God
that justifies. My, my, my. this reconciliation, God the
Son, the eternal Word, took to Himself the form of a man, become
obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He became
a servant unto that holy law of God as a man. Obeyed that thing in every jot
and tittle, every last thing it said. He obeyed it not just
in outward obedience, but from his heart. He loves his neighbor
as himself. Boy, I got a problem with that.
I want to, but I just can't. I just can't. He loved God. That one God. That just God. That holy God. That one God. God as He is revealed in all
the texts of Scripture. as He is revealed in the agony
and suffering and death of Christ on the cross. He loved that one
God with all His heart, soul, mind and strength. And He did
it for me. Hope. I've got hope. I've got hope in Him. And you see, I think what our
problem is, is we try to get these things individually. We
try to get a sanctification, and then we go after justification,
and then we go after this, and we go after that. Brethren, the
whole thing is in Him. It's in Him. Get Him and you've
got it all. You see what I'm saying? I just
want some assurance. Lay hold of Christ. You'll have
all you can handle. You want to sow up there at the
eagles? Lay hold of Him. Lay hold of Him. Christ hath
redeemed us from the curse of the law. Why in the world would
God call the holy law of God a curse? Because of man. Man can't keep it. It's not a
curse to God, it's a curse to you. It's a curse to me if I
try to keep it, because I can't do it. Oh, as a servant under the law
of God and as the mediator of God's everlasting covenant, he
put himself under its demands, put himself under its requirements,
made himself accountable as our surety and representative, and
not only fulfilled the law's demands, but actually took a
law that meant nothing to nobody. And he took that law and he exalted
it and raised it up to a place of honor by his obedience. You want to honor those Ten Commandments,
honor them in Him. Just stand back and look at Him
and praise God. Praise God. He honored that law. He exalted that law. You're not
going to do anything by your little gestures around trying
to keep it. What are you going to do? You're going to bring
dishonor to it. That's what you're going to do. Just leave it alone.
Christ is the end. He's the goal of the law to everyone
that believes it. You can't honor that law any
better than you can when you look to him. He said, By the deeds of the
law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for by the law
is the knowledge of sin. Now, stay with me. This is Romans
chapter 3, verse 21. The righteousness of God without
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 all
have sinned and come short of the glory of God." So then Paul concludes in Romans
10.4, he is the end of the law. I walk before God. with a humble
but confident assurance, God is pleased. Listen to this in
Romans 4. Abraham staggered not at the promise of God. Boy, I
try at times to put myself there. It's hard to put myself there.
He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but
was strong in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully persuaded
that what he had promised he was able to perform if God made
the promise. God can fulfill it. That's his
confidence. That's his confidence. And therefore,
God imputed it to him for righteousness. Now listen to this, Romans 4.23. Now, it was not written for his
sake alone that it was imputed unto him, but for us also, to
whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him. that raised up
Jesus our Lord from the dead who was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. Justification and righteousness
and sanctification are all works accomplished in the mediator. He came to do, he said, I come
to do thy will, O God, and he did. Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
5, and I'll close. I just want to read a few verses
to you. In verse 18, he said, And all
things are of God. Can we view them that way? Can we just stop and leave off
our and leave off the influences
of this world, can we just stop and think a minute with the Holy
Scriptures? All things are of God who hath
reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. He made and accomplished
the peace, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation
to wit. that God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. All their trespasses were charged
to him, every last one of them. From Adam to the last man into
glory, all their trespasses were charged to him, laid on him. And he has committed unto us
the word of reconciliation, that is, the justification and the
sanctification and the righteousness and the wisdom and everything
that God requires from the sinner is accomplished in Christ. The
peace is already made. Just take your guns and stack
them in the corner. The war is over. The war is over. Now, you won't go out and face
judgment on your own or face judgment by some other. And I'm telling
you, he tells us here there's one mediator between God and
men. Don't start adding mediators
with him. Huh? Don't go home and pray to
Mary. Mary is not a mediator. Christ
is the mediator. Don't go on and pray to St. Vincent
and St. James and St. somebody else.
Just pray to Him. He's the one mediator. Don't
add a bunch of mediators with Him. Look to Him. Receive Him. Glory in Him. That's where God put everything
that is. That's where the peace is accomplished. And you'll receive
Him and be at peace with God, or you'll go to hell for another.
That's the message of this book. O our God, how deep and inflated is the
sin of this world that blinds these minds from seeing the gift
of God and the treasures of your gospel in your Son. God, tune
our hearts and our minds to him. Give us of your grace and your
power to bring us low. Shut us up to Christ. if we might enjoy these blessings
of God freely bestowed on the sons of men. Help us for Christ's
sake. Amen.