Frequently I am asked by people,
sometimes by preachers, sometimes others, if it ever gets any easier preaching to men, speaking in
God's name to eternity-bound sinners. And I say no, not yet,
and I hope not. I'm often reminded, and I often
remind myself I try to think of it before I stand up here
to preach every time I stand to preach. I'm often reminded
and often remind myself of a story I read years ago of a young man
fresh out of seminary, sharp, gifted, talented fellow. He was
going to preach at this place in England where they make the
pulpits up so high you can't hardly breathe and they have
stairs going up to the pulpit, and they introduced this young
man to preaching. He had his notes in his hand
and his Bible, and he stood up real quick, and he took those
steps two at a time, and he was ready to go. And when he got
done, it didn't take long. He sat down in a hurry, and when
he came down, he was so embarrassed because he'd done so poorly,
and his head hanging between his legs almost, He came down
and kind of slumped down in the seat, and after everybody else
had left, one of the old men in the church said to the young
man, if you had gone up there like you came down from there,
you might have come down from there like you went up there.
This business of preaching does not lie in the power, the talents,
or the abilities of the man preaching, but in the power of God's Spirit. And if all you hear from me are
things that I have prepared in my understanding, in my learning,
you will have heard nothing to avail your soul. For as I preach
to you this evening, I pray, and I trust you are praying,
that God will be pleased to speak through me by his Word and his
Spirit to your hearts. Now with that in mind, let's
turn to Hebrews chapter Hebrews chapter 2, verses 9 and 10, and
I want to try to preach to you this evening on the satisfaction
of Christ. Hebrews chapter 2. Without question,
the most wondrous, most stupendous of all God's works is the work
of redemption. When we attempt to consider That
great, great work that is involved in the redemption of our souls,
we're lost in wonder, astonishment. When I think of the unutterable
depth of shame and sorrow into which the Lord of Glory willingly
entered in order to save our souls, I'm simply amazed, utterly
amazed, staggered. Arthur Pink said, that the eternal
son of God should lay aside the robes of his ineffable glory
and take upon him the form of a servant, that the ruler of
heaven and earth should be made under the law, that the creator
of the universe should tabernacle in this world and have not where
to lay his head, is something which no infinite or no finite
mind can comprehend. But where carnal reason fails,
God-given faith believes and worships. I can't begin to comprehend
the things I'm going to preach to you this evening. I can't
begin to explain them to you. I'm simply here to declare to
you that which is revealed in Holy Scripture and that which
I am made to know and understand by God-given faith in this blessed
book. I trust that you have the same
faith. as we trace the path of our Savior from the throne of
life and glory to the tomb of death and behold he who was rich
for our sakes becoming poor that we through his poverty might
be made rich. We simply cannot fathom the depth
of the wonders before us. We know that every step of that
path was ordained of God. Every step that he took in this
world was determined from eternity and agreed upon in the covenant
of grace. We recognize that. But the path
he took through his course in this world, from the time that
he came into the womb of the Virgin Mary to the time that
he laid his body in the tomb, was a path of sorrow, shame,
and suffering. Indescribable sorrow, indescribable
shame, indescribable suffering, such as the world has never known
and the world could never comprehend. It's amazing to realize what
the Son of God has done for us in his suffering, in his sorrow,
and in his death. The hymn writer put it this way,
yonder amazing sight I see, the incarnate Son of God expiring
on the cursed tree and weltering in his blood. Behold the purple
torrent, Ron, Down from his hands and head, the crimson tide puts
out the sun, his groans awake the dead. The trembling earth,
the darkened sky, proclaim the truth aloud, and with the amazed
Empyrean cry, this is the Son of God. He who died at Calvary,
he who suffered in our place, he who accomplished our redictions,
he who satisfied the justice of God on our behalf, is none
other than Jesus, the Christ, the Son of the living God. Now,
old as I am at that fact, old as I am, overwhelmed as I am
when I consider that fact, I can't help but to ask the question,
why? Why? If you consider who Christ
is, you consider the riches ineffable riches of his glory, with which
he was forever rich from eternity. And consider the depth of poverty
which he endured, the depth of sorrow he endured for us, the
ignominy, the shame, the suffering, the curse, the death. You too
would ask, why? Why did the Son of God suffer
such death? Why did the Lord of Glory condescend
to such humiliation? Was it to save my soul? I know
that he did so in order that he might give me life everlasting. He suffered the just for the
unjust that he might bring us to God. But was there no other
way for omnipotent God to save me? Was all of this done to demonstrate
the greatness of his love for us? All herein is love, yes sir. in that he loved us and gave
himself for us. God commended his love for us
in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Jesus who
left his throne on high left the bright realms of bliss and
came to the earth to bleed and die. Was ever such love exist? Never. But God could have revealed
his love in some other way. I find sitting before me a group
of people You demonstrate your love to me. Not one of you has
died for me. And God Almighty could demonstrate
his love for his people without dying for them. The love of God
was not the reason why Christ died. The love of God is that
which calls the Son of God willingly to assume our nature and willingly
to die. But it was not the love of God
that necessitated our Lord's death. Only one answer can be
found to the question. Why did the Son of God suffer
such a death? And that is because the justice
of God must be satisfied. Now if you learn this, you will
have learned the gospel at least in your head. The only way God
can forgive your sin, the only way God in his holiness can receive
you, embrace you, accept you, save you, and bring you to glory.
The only way the holy, just, and true God can ever deal with
sinners in mercy and grace is if his justice is satisfied. Having determined to save his
elect from the ruins of fallen humanity, the only way God could
save his people and forgive their sins was by the death of his
son. As it is written, without the
shedding of blood is no remission. No forgiveness, no pardon. The justice of God had to be
satisfied in order for God to save his people. Now tonight
I want us to look at the satisfaction of justice by our Lord Jesus
Christ. I want to show you from the Word
of God both the necessity and the blessedness of our Lord's
satisfaction by his death on the cross. Now this doctrine
is of utmost importance. The glory of God is here revealed
and the gospel of God is here established. It is this doctrine
which lies at the very heart of Christianity, of all true
Christianity, it is this doctrine which distinguishes Christianity
from all the religions of the world. Apart from the doctrine
of satisfaction of justice by the substitutionary sacrifice
of Christ, listen carefully to what I'm saying, apart from this
doctrine Apart from the fact that justice has been satisfied
by the death of Jesus Christ, Christianity is just as useless
a religion as would be Islam or Judaism or Hinduism. The very
heart of Christianity, the very soul of Christianity, is the
satisfaction of justice by the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Consequently, as I have said to you so many times, There is
no doctrine in all the world so horribly evil as that which
denies the effectual satisfaction of justice by the blood of God's
dear son. Hold your hands here in Hebrews
2. We're going to look at this text in just a moment, but turn
again to that passage in chapter 10 of Hebrews and verse 26. The apostle is talking here about
apostasy. The departure of men and women
from that which they know to be truth. If we sin willfully
after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth
no more sacrifice for sin. Now when it says if we sin willfully,
the text is not talking about just any act of sin. The fact
is, if you get mad and cuss somebody else, you did so because you
willed to do it. If you make up your mind that you're going
to steal something, you did so because you will to do it. There's
no such thing as unwillful sin. Our will is involved in all the
evil deeds we perform. But what he's talking about here
is a willful departure from divine truth. A willful departure from
the gospel of the grace of God. He says if we sin willfully,
that is if we willfully depart from the gospel of God's free
grace, After that we have received the knowledge, at least in our
heads, of truth, the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for
sin. In other words, if you depart
from this sacrifice, you've got no sacrifice. You forsake the
sin-atoning sacrifice of Christ, you've forsaken the only hope
there is for your soul, verse 27. But a certain fearful looking
forward of judgment, and a fiery indignation which shall devour
the adversary. He that despised Moses' law died
without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of how much sorer
punishment, suppose ye, shall he be thought worthy to have
trodden underfoot the Son of God, and have carried the blood
of the covenant wherewith he was sanctified an unholy thing,
and hath done despite under the Spirit of grace. Now in that
29th verse the word unholy means common. Those who make the blood of Christ
a common, ordinary thing, who make the blood of Christ to be
without merit and without efficacy before God are without hope,
because this alone is the sacrifice for sin. Now let's turn back
to this text here, Hebrews chapter 2, and I want you to look at
it with me line by line, and I want you to see here the clear
statement from scripture with regards to the necessity of Jesus
Christ's satisfaction of justice for the sins of his people. But
we see Jesus. We see him with the eye of faith.
We see him because he has revealed himself to us by his Spirit. We see that Jesus is the Christ,
our Savior, the Son of the Living God. We see in Him all the fullness
of the Godhead. He is God incarnate. We see in Him all the fullness
of grace. The Fathers put all fullness
in the Son, that the Son should have preeminence in all things.
Everything that God gives to sinners, He gives to sinners
in, by, and through Jesus Christ the Lord. And we see in him the
fullness of redemption, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness
of sin. Redemption through his blood,
the forgiveness of sin. We see the Lord Jesus Christ
as our Redeemer, the Son of God, the Son of Man, the Lord our
righteousness. We see him as our all in all,
our wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. But we see him
not because we're smarter than somebody else. Not because we've
studied things out and others didn't. Not because we've investigated
these things. We see him, Rex, as you read
back there an awful little bit ago, flesh and blood had revealed
it to us. But my father, by his spirit,
which is in heaven. If you see him, it's because
God made you see him. If you see him now, it's because
God's given you eyes. If you hear his voice, it's because
God's given you a hearing ear. If you believe him and see him
with a heart of faith, it's because God's given you such a heart
of faith. Look again. We see Jesus who was made a little
lower than the angels. Here's God's creation. The Lord God Almighty sitting
upon the throne of glory and down here's his angels. Down
here men and down here fish and fowl of the air and animals and
down here the trees of the forest and the plants, vegetation and
down here the creeping things of the earth and on down you
go. The Lord Jesus who made everything. Made a little Made a little lower than the
angels, made a man, made human flesh. He who made the angels,
made of the seed of a woman, made a man, made under the law
to redeem them that were under the law. This is the reason for
his incarnation. Why on earth is he who is God
Almighty infinite, incomprehensible? Why did he assume human nature
and tabernacle in human flesh among men? Look at the next line,
for the suffering of death. The Son of God came into this
world for the purpose of suffering death. That's what that text
says right there. He was made a little lower than
the angels for the suffering of death. He didn't come here
to be an earthly monarch in Jerusalem. He didn't come here to establish
a new religion or a new order of religion. He didn't come here
to be a reformer, an example of morality and virtue. The Son
of God became a man so that he might die in the place of men
and bring men for whom he died into God's presence forever. The Lord Jesus Christ was made
of a woman, made under the law, made a little lower than the
angels that he might die for her. You see, in order for justice
to be satisfied, men must suffer the wrath of
God, for men Or one man must suffer the wrath of God for all
his people. And so the Lord Jesus Christ
comes to be a man. But no mere man nor all men put
together could satisfy the infinite wrath of the Holy God. But God
himself became a man to do for us what
no one else could do. satisfy the wrath of God the
Lord. Do you see that? God alone could never save us
and man alone could never save us, but the God-man is able both
to suffer and to satisfy in order to save his people. The Lord
Jesus became a man for the suffering of death. Now then, look at the
text again. We see this as well. We see this
one who was made a little lower than the angels, for the suffering
of death, crowned with glory and honor. Thou hast given him
a name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every
knee should bow, and every tongue confess of things in heaven,
and things in the earth, and things under the earth, that
everyone should acknowledge that Jesus is the Christ, the Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. The Lord Jesus Christ The man
God, the God's man, has been exalted to the throne of glory.
That man who died at Calvary as our substitute is now crowned
with glory and honor, given glory and honor as Lord over all. The
God-man who died for us now rules the universe, and rules the universe
for us, that he might give eternal life to as many as the Father
has given him. Look at the next line in our
text. Christ was made a little lower than the angels for the
suffering of death, that he, by the grace of God, should taste
death for every man. Now, I've called your attention
to this text of Scripture a number of times in the last few weeks.
This statement, like all others, must be interpreted within the
context, immediate and within the context of the entire Word
of God, not pulled out from the passage and just say he tasted
death for every man. That's not the way honest people
deal with Scripture. We interpret the Scripture within
its context. When the text here says that
he, by the grace of God, should taste death for every man, does
that mean that the Lord Jesus tasted death for those for whom
he would not pray, as he said in John 17.9? that he tasted
death for those who were not his sheep when he said I lay
down my life for the sheep and spoke to others and said you're
not my sheep but rather your goats? Does that mean that he
tasted death for the vessels of wrath who are aforeprepared
unto destruction? Aforeprepared and everlasting,
fitted for destruction by their own corruption and their own
depravity and their own fall? Does that mean that he should
taste death for those from whom God himself has written the things
of God? Oh no, that would be an utter
contradiction of every sense of reason. The scripture does
not mean that Christ died for those who suffer the wrath of
God in hell, but rather it is a declaration that there are
some men for whom Jesus Christ shed his blood, and they're here
described as every... Again, I remind you the word
man. is not in the text, there's no reason for it to be there
except that the translators added it to make the sentence read
with smoothness to completion. If you want to understand who
he's talking about, you read on in the context. Look at verse
11. For whom are these, or verse
10 rather, who are these folks described as everyone for whom
he takes to death? They're the many sons whom he
brings to glory. There are those in verse 11 described
as those who are sanctified, those who are his brethren. The
church in the midst of which he sings praise in verse 13,
or verse 12 rather. Then verse 13, they're described
as his children. In verse 16, they're described
as the seed of Abraham, as God's elect. So these, everyone for
whom the son of God tasted death, are those who are actually brought
to glory by him. Why was the Son of God made so
humble as to suffer and die for his people? What was the necessity
for it? Look at verse 10. For it became
him. The word became here is a strong
word. It quite literally means it was
necessary for him. Necessary? Well, how can anything
be said to be necessary for him? He's God. How can anything be
said to be necessary for him? Necessary for him as the God-man,
our mediator. Necessary for him as our substitute
and sugar-thing. Nothing, no necessity could ever
be laid upon him. It was no necessity that he should
save anyone. But if he saves your wretched
soul and mine, then there is a necessity. There's only one
way he can do it. It became him. It was necessary
for him. and bringing many sons to glory,
that he should be himself made perfect through sufferings. If
God would save sinners and bring them to glory, it was necessary
that the Son of God, the God-man mediator, suffer in the room
instead of those whom he would bring to glory. The scriptures
plainly declare that there was a necessity for the death of
our Lord. Turn back to Matthew 16 for a
moment. Hold your hands here. And turn
to Matthew 16 and verse 21. Rex read this passage of scripture
for us just a few minutes ago in the office. Look at verse
21. From that time forth began Jesus
to show unto his disciples how that he, do you see it? Must. How that he must. How that it
was binding upon him. how that he must go to Jerusalem
and suffer many things of the elders and chief priests and
scribes and must be killed and must be raised again the third
day. It was necessary for him. It
became him. Do you see that? The Lord Jesus
constantly spoke to his disciples about this that he must accomplish. He said, I have a baptism which
must be accomplished, which I must accomplish. A baptism to be baptized
with. When he spoke of that he was
talking about his death. He said, I must go to Jerusalem. Other
sheep I have put them off, so I must go. Because he volunteered
to become my shurikah and agreed to it in the covenant of grace,
now it became him, if he would bring many sons to glory, to
suffer for us as our substitute. The father decreed it. He was
delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of
God. His covenant engagements necessitated it. He said, this
commandment have I received in my father. The prophecies of
the Old Testament declared that he must suffer and die. And the
election of grace made it necessary. Why must he suffer? Why did it
become him to suffer in our room instead? Because he chose. Because he loved us with an everlasting
love. Because from eternity he said
I will be their God and they shall be my people. It was necessary
then that he suffer and die. I repeat God didn't have to save
anyone. There's no constraint placed
upon God in any way to save anyone. Someone says but God is love
and there's a great vacuum in God and therefore he must have
someone to love. Oh no. Father, Son, and Holy
Spirit dwell together forever in the ineffable happiness of
perfection. There's no vacuum in God. Oh
no. The Lord God Almighty loved us
and chose us. And having chosen to save us,
there came a necessity. If he would save sin from men,
sin must be punished. For God said, the soul that sinneth,
it shall die. when Paul says it became him,
that it was necessary for God to slay his son to save his people. Lest we begin to think that this
somehow implies a weakness in God, that this somehow implies
that God is less than the infinite self-sufficient, self-sustained
divine being he is. He immediately adds these words,
it became him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things."
Oh, what a description of our Savior. He is that one for whom
are all things. He made all things for himself,
for the glorifying of all his perfections in all his nature. All things are of God, and all
things are for him. The Scripture declares The Lord
hath made all things for himself, yea, even the wicked, for the
day of evil. God Almighty made everything,
and he made everything for his own glory, including you and
me. Now you belong to him. You belong
to God. He made you. You will either
show forth the praise and glory of his name, bowing to him, and
showing forth the praise of his grace by his grace, or you will
show forth the exceeding greatness of his justice in your everlasting
condemnation. But you were made for him. And
that means, Larry Chris, you're going to glorify him one way
or the other. One way or the other. I'm going to glorify him
one way or the other. All things were made for him,
and all things were made by him. All things in nature are of him. All things in creation are of
him. All things in grace are of him. All things in providence are
of him. All things in redemption are
of him. All things in salvation is the
work of the Triune God, specifically the work of God incarnate Jesus
Christ our Savior. Now look at it again. It became
him for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in
bringing many sons unto glory. Now this is an intimation of
God's gracious designs toward his elect. Those whom Christ
came to save are many. And they were already the sons
of God by eternal adoption before he came to redeem them. We were
already here by divine predestination before redemption took place.
Galatians chapter 4 tells us that plainly. Redemption does
not cause us to be the sons of God. Our faith in Christ does
not cause us to become the sons of God. Regeneration does not
cause us to become the sons of God in the sense of our adoption. We were the sons of God by divine
election because the Father from eternity chose us to be his sons
and daughters. We were chosen to be the children
of God from eternity and we were given power and authority to
become the sons of God in the new birth when God the Holy Spirit
called us to life and gave us faith in Christ. We are openly
and manifestly the sons of God when we believe on him. Again,
faith does not make us God's sons. Adoption did that. Faith simply receives the adoption
of sons and looks upon God through Christ as Father, so that the
believer, that person who believes on the Son of God, is given liberty
by the Spirit of God to lift his eyes to heaven and look upon
the throne of God and say, my Father, my Father, my Father, you've
made everything You brought everything to pass
as it is this day, my father." What a blessed word, Abba Father,
Abba Father. The sons of God are here described
as many. A great multitude which no man
can number. 10,000 times 10,000, the many
chosen of God, the many for whom Christ laid down His life for
ransom. They are the many for whom His blood was shed for the
remission of sins. They are the many made righteous
by His obedience, the many for whom He has prepared many mansions
in the Father's house. I like what John Gill has to
say in this regard. He said, God has chosen them
through sanctification of the Spirit, and belief of the truth
to the obtaining of the glory of Jesus Christ. Christ died
for them, and by means of his death they receive the promise
of eternal inheritance and the inheritance itself. God calls
them, these who are the sons of God, these many sons whom
he brings to glory, God calls them by his grace to eternal
glory and makes them meet to be partakers of the inheritance
of the saints in life. If God Almighty has chosen you,
if Jesus Christ the Son of God has redeemed you, if now you
are called by God's purity and given faith in him, it is right
now declared of you that God has made you unique, worthy to
be partaker of the inheritance of the saints in life. Look at
that text again. the person by whom God's elect
are brought to glory, the Lord Jesus Christ is here described
as the captain of their salvation. I like that word, captain. That
means boss. That's the fellow who's at the
head. That's the man in charge. That's the one who's responsible
for everything and controls He's the captain of our salvation.
The Lord Jesus is called that because He's the one in charge
of it, the one responsible for it, the one by whose arm it is
accomplished. And then the captain of our salvation,
the Lord Jesus Christ, we are told, was made perfect through
suffering. Now, what does that mean? Made perfect through suffering?
made perfect as the captain of our salvation. Do you see that? He was perfect before he came.
He's God. He's the eternally perfect Son
of God. Everything about him is perfect.
Everything he ever did was perfect, but he is brought to perfection
as the captain of our salvation through his suffering. That is,
his suffering is the crowning act, the crowning achievement
which he came here to perform. The Lord Jesus Christ, our great
Savior, who has saved us by His grace, having saved us, is perfected
or completed in His work as the captain of our salvation by His
suffering and death. Apart from His sufferings, for
the satisfaction of justice, there could have been no salvation
and no perfection of Him as the captain of our salvation. So
the Scripture tells us over in Hebrews chapter and verse 8. Look over there for a moment.
Hebrews 5 and verse 8. Though he were a son, yet learned
he obedience by the things which he suffered, and being made perfect,
the perfectly obedient son of God as our substitute, he became
the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obeyed him. So it was necessary for Christ
to suffer and die on the cross under the wrath of God to save
his people. Again, I repeat myself, he didn't
have to save us, but if he saved us, he could not save us in any
other way. Turn to Proverbs chapter 16 for
a moment. Proverbs chapter 16. I want you
to look at two texts of Scripture. Peter tells us he died the just
for the unjust, that he might bring us to God. Back here in
Proverbs chapter 16, the wise man Solomon gives us this word
of instruction concerning the gospel of the grace of God. Verse 6, By mercy and truth iniquity is
purged. Not by mercy alone, that would
never do it. Not by truth alone, that would
never do it. The truth of God says the soul
that sinneth it shall die. The mercy of God says he delighteth
in mercy. But mercy cannot put away sin,
and truth cannot put away sin. But by mercy and truth, by sin
being fully punished to the full satisfaction of justice, by God's
mercy it is put away. Mercy and truth are met together. Righteousness and peace have
kissed each other. Look in chapter seventeen of
Proverbs, verse fifteen. He that justifieth the wicked,
and he that condemneth the just, even they both are an abomination
to the Lord. Would you care to explain that? No, no, what's that talking about?
I said to Oscar Bailey and his son-in-law, wicked, and yet God declares
you just. And he says he that justifies
the wicked is an abomination to the Lord. How can that be? Yonderhane is the Son of God.
Holy, righteous, just. But he's condemned. And that's
an abomination to the Lord. How can that be? God made his son to be seen,
and injustice condemned it, and made you the righteousness of
God, and injustice has forgiven you." Do you understand that? God has taken our sin and made
it His so that He hangs before God as the guilty one, and taken
His righteousness and made it ours so that we stand before
God as holy ones. holy. With his spotless garments
on, I am as holy as God's own Son." Now, this is what the Spirit
of God teaches us in these two verses we've looked at, Hebrews
chapter 2, verses 9 and 10. Since it was the design, purpose,
and pleasure of God Almighty to bring some of the sons of
men into eternal and to bring them into everlasting happiness
as the sons of God, it was necessary for the Lord Jesus Christ, the
Son of God, to suffer all that the law and justice of God required
for the punishment of our sins, dying under the wrath of God
as our substitute. I do not say that the satisfaction
of Christ procures God's love for us. It doesn't. The death
of Christ is the fruit of God's love, not the cause of it. But
I am saying this, it is the death of Christ and the satisfaction
of justice by his death which opens the way for sinners and
embraces them in God's own arms. We could never have been reconciled
to God without the shedding of his blood. Now, let me make five
or six statements in conclusion. I'm going to try to see if I
can't make some real plain application of our message. Number one, all men and women by nature,
you and me, all of us, since the fall of Adam, are sinners. alienated from God. Roger Criss sitting there looking
at me intently. Just imagine there's a huge,
huge, black, dark wall between you and me. Infinite in height. Infinite in depth. Infinite in
depth. That's it. alienated from God. There's a black wall between
you and God. Sin. And that sin got to be punished. God's going to punish it. He
says that his soul, his righteous soul, loveth righteousness and
hates iniquity, and so it is. He's going to punish sin. The
soul that saideth it shall die. every transgression shall receive
a just recompense of reward. But secondly, not only are we
all sinners, many women who sin and come short of the glory of
God, whose wages for our enmity against God, our just wages,
is death. But secondly, it is the will
of God, listen to me now, It is the will of God, this holy
God whom we've offended, this righteous, just God, against
whom we sin, this God against whom we are in the thing. It
is the will of God to save sinners. Oh, what a miracle it is. It is true. He delighted in our
sin. Judgment is his work, but the
book calls it his strange work. Lord Christ is delights in mercy. What can that mean? How on earth can I describe it? You know how readily a thirsty
man drinks cool water, That's how anxious God Almighty
is to save sinners. Do you know how readily a man
burning with lust commits iniquity? That's how readily God Almighty
saves sinners. Do you have any idea how anxious a condemned man as he
lays stretched out on that stretcher. And the appointed doctor of execution
is about to inject him. Do you have any idea how anxious
he is to hear someone say, wait, the governor has given a requiem,
he's been pardoned. Have you any idea how anxious
a guilty man he is? God Almighty is indescribably
more anxious and delighted to save sinners. That's right. Well, you're not supposed to
preach like that. You believe in election, predestination. Yeah, I know, but I'm not scared
some of the non-elect are going to get saved. I'm just, I'm delighted
to tell you, we delight in mercy. And that means that every chosen
sinner must and shall be saved. Every predestined son must and
shall be saved. Every heir of the covenant must
be saved. Every child of Adam whose name
was written in the book of life before the world began must be
saved. Every sinner who seeks his grace
in Jesus Christ must and shall be saved. It is impossible for a holy and
just God to save sinners apart from the satisfaction of justice. God says, I will by no means
clear the guilty. Nobody on this earth declares
more fully, more frequently, more forcibly than I do, God's
omnipotent sovereignty. But I'm here to tell you that
God cannot act contrary to his nature. The Scripture says God
cannot lie, and so we place no limitation upon God when we declare
what Scripture says. God cannot lie. and God who cannot
lie has sworn the soul that sinneth, it shall die, and we place no
restriction at all upon God. We're simply declaring His nature
when we assert that God in His holiness cannot forgive sin until
sin has been satisfied or paid for by the sacrifice of His Son. So, fourthly, the only way the
justice of God could ever be satisfied is the substitutionary
sacrifice of his beloved son. Now let's look one more time
at this precious, precious instructive passage in Romans chapter 3.
Romans the third chapter, verse 24. Being justified freely, freely
on our part, without a cause as far as we're concerned, by His grace, but only through
the redemption that's in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth
to be a propitiation, a justice-satisfying atonement through faith in His
blood, that is, to declare His righteousness for the remission
of sins that have passed through the forbearance of God, to declare,
I say at this time, God's righteousness that He might be just. and the
justifier of him that believeth. Now then, upon the basis of Christ's
satisfaction of justice by his blood, the Lord God says a symbol,
he says. Come near. Come here. Come here. You can read it in Isaiah 45.
Come here. Behold me. Behold me, a just
God and a Savior. Look unto and be ye saved, O
the ends of the earth, for I am God, and beside me live." Come
on, look to me, look to me, and be saved. God could not die, and man could
not satisfy, but the God-man has both died and satisfied. Now hear this as well. I want
you to hear it well. It is impossible for God Almighty
in His holiness to punish any sinner to any degree for whose
sins justice has been satisfied by the blood of His Son. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not induce sin. Blessed is the man. Blessed. The law of God has no claim upon
an executed fellow. And Bobby Estes stands before
God tonight as an executed fellow, as far as the law is concerned.
And the law can't claim any more. He's gone. In Jesus Christ we
were executed 2,000 years ago, and the law of God has no claim
upon us. As Toplady put it, payment God
cannot twice demand, first at my bleeding shirt, his hand,
and then again at mine. Now let me repeat this one last
statement. Every sinner Every sinner in all the world, every sinner. I'm not talking to the world
there, I'm talking to you. Every sinner sitting in this
room, every one of you, every one of you, who looks to Christ,
the man with God, in faith. Boston shall be saved, for God
said so. He that believeth on the Son
hath everlasting life. Look, O guilty, ill-deserving,
helpless, vile sinner, look my soul away! to the Son of God
and to Jesus Christ. Now let's sing
number fifty-four. For me the spotless Lamb of Greece,
his Father's wrath to bear, for me his precious blood he shed,
my guilty soul to spare. I see his head, his hands, his
feet, I hear his groans and cries, For me, he bears hell's awful
heat. For me, the surety dies." All
right, let's sing the next two verses, and this will be our
benediction.