Morning, everybody. If you'd
like, turn over to Matthew chapter 17. Matthew chapter 17, we'll read
a few verses out of this. Pick up in verse 24. Matthew 17, 24, and when they
were come to Capernaum, that's Christ and his disciples, they
that received tribute, a tax, tribute money, came to Peter
and said, does not your master pay tribute? You can detect a
sense of arrogance and aggression in what they say. Does not your
master pay tribute? Verse 25, he saith, yes. And
when he was coming to the house, Jesus prevented him. He spoke
before Peter could speak, saying, what thinkest thou, Simon? Of
whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? Of their
own children or strangers? Effectively saying, Peter, kings,
magistrates, people who have the authority to tax. Who do
they tax? Do they tax their kids, or do they tax the common folk? I think logically we can all
work through that question, the common folk. Verse 26, Peter
saith unto him of strangers, Jesus saith unto him, then are
the children free. Notwithstanding, lest we should
offend them, go that of the sea, and cast and hook, and take up
the fish that first cometh up. And when thou hast opened his
mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money, that take and give
unto them for me and thee. Now I'm gonna give you the point,
the main point of this passage of scripture up front, and then
we'll work through it from there. But here is the point of everything
we just read. Right now, if you were a believer,
what is that? That is a sinner who stands in
the hands of a holy and a sovereign God who demands perfection. And
your only hope is that Jesus Christ has done everything, absolutely
everything, to make you acceptable before God. You are looking to
him for every aspect of salvation, even those aspects you might
not even be familiar with. Everything in my salvation, where
do I look? To Christ. That's a believer.
I want to speak to believers here for a moment. If you are
a believer, this is the point. You don't owe anybody anything. The children are free. You are debt free. You don't
owe anybody anything. Now that's the point of this
passage of scripture. You say, that's great. How do
we get there from here? We got to walk the path to get
there. The first thing I want to talk
about is this tribute money, this tax. Now this tax, these
men come to Peter. They say, does your master pay
tribute? Is he going to pay this tax? And this was not a Roman
tax and these were not Roman tax collectors. These men were
Jews. And the tax they're trying to collect is what was called
a pull tax, or a temple tax, seemingly taken up for the purposes
of maintaining the temple, for the things of worship. And they
said, does your master pay tribute? And from what I read about these
fellas, this is the way they were employed. This is what they
were supposed to do. They would go out and they would
bully and they would intimidate and they would trick people into
trying to pay this tax, maybe guilt them a little bit along
the way. It was all about coercion, all about bullying. That's how
they were employed. And if you think about it, if
you remember, the temple at this time is in complete and utter
disarray. And the way it is and the way
it's being operated is actually a perfect picture of false religion.
What they had done is made worship more convenient, more palatable
to the worshipers. They said, you know what? These
people are bringing their sacrifices all the way from the lands they
came from. Here's what we'll do. We'll go inside and we'll
start selling lambs. We'll start selling doves and
we'll make a little money off this. We'll profit off of this.
You guys don't have to bring it with you. We've made it more
convenient. Just come the way you are. And that's man's religion.
watering down the message of who Jesus Christ is and what
he has done and who he has done it for, for the sake of making
it more palatable to the natural man. If you remember, you go
up just a few chapters in Matthew 21, what did the Lord do? He
goes in there and he makes a whip. He flips over the money changer's
tables. He drives everybody else. He
said, my house is called a house of prayer. You've turned it into
a den of thieves. The point is this, these men, these tax collectors,
They come with a bad motive and they're coming from a bad place.
I thought this was interesting. It's a question I had to ask.
Why did they go to Peter and not to Christ? They didn't look
at Peter and say, are you going to pay the tax? They went to
Peter and said, does not your master pay tribute? They were
inquiring as to whether Christ was going to pay this tax. He's
right there in the house. Why wouldn't they just go talk
to him? I think I know the answer. They were intimidated by him.
I look back, I wanted to see the first time that the Lord
had ever called the Pharisees a generation of vipers. It's
just back there in Matthew 12, just a few chapters before. I
have a strong suspicion these men were either there and witnessed
that, or they at least heard about it. They said, our job
is to bully. Our job is to intimidate. Our
job is to guilt. And this one, This man, he's
not going to be bullied. He's not going to be guilted.
He's not going to be intimidated. So we'll go after the fisherman.
We'll go after the softer target. Their job was to intimidate,
but they were intimidated by him. And that goes back to a
point that I think our pastor has been making as long as I've
been attending here. And it's this. Who felt intimidated
in the Lord's presence? Only one type of person. Self-righteous,
religious folks who thought they were better than everybody else.
Thought they had something to bring to the table. Look at me,
look at what I've done, accept me because this, they always
felt intimidated as they should have. But who didn't feel intimidated? This man receiveth sinners and
eats with them. Sinners are always welcome. Always
welcome. If you were a sinner, I'm not talking about a fake
sinner, I'm talking if you were a sinner, a bad person, a wicked person, you
come down and sit down next to him and have a meal and you wouldn't
feel the least bit intimidated because this man receiveth sinners. That is the heart and soul of
the Gospel. I could almost stop right there. This man receives
sinners. It's the best news a sinner ever
heard. He receives sinners. He doesn't hold them off. He
doesn't intimidate them. This man receives sinners and eats with
them. Real sinners, not fake sinners,
real sinners. Now, where did they get the idea
for this temple tax? This is a man-made institution.
The Lord didn't bring this in. Where did they get this? I looked
at that word tribute. You know what it means? It means
half shekel. It actually speaks of an exact
value. And so here's what they had done. They had actually molested
and modified a concept, something that Lord had instituted long
ago in the Old Testament for a particular time and a particular
purpose. It was the atonement money. That was the exact value
of the atonement money, the ransom money. One half shekel. They had taken the idea of the
atonement money and said, we're going to change that. We're going
to modify it. And through doing that, we'll go get a temple tax.
We'll line our pockets with some of that tax money. We'll use
this thing that the Lord instituted to serve our own wicked purposes. But there's a whole lot we could
learn about the gospel through that atonement money. Turn over
to Exodus chapter 30. I'd like to see this. Exodus chapter 30 picked up in
verse 11, And the Lord spake unto Moses,
saying, Exodus 30, 11, When thou takest the sum of the children
of Israel after their number, then shall they give every man
a ransom for his soul unto the Lord. When thou numberest them,
that there be no plague among them when thou numberest them.
This they shall give every one that passeth among them that
are numbered half a shekel after the shekel of the sanctuary.
A shekel is 20 giras. And half shekel shall be an offering
of the Lord. Every one that passeth among them that are numbered
from 20 years old and above shall give an offering unto the Lord.
Now listen to this. The rich shall not give more
and the poor shall not give less than half shekel when they give
an offering unto the Lord to make an atonement for your souls.
And thou shalt take the atonement money of the children of Israel,
and shalt appoint it for the service of the tabernacle, of
the congregation, that it may be a memorial unto the children
of Israel before the Lord to make an atonement for your souls. Now here's the sum and substance
of everything we just read. The Lord mandated any time you
take a census, any time you number the people, you have to collect
the atonement money. Take a census, you have everybody
comes up. Every male, 20 years and older, he would come up,
he would pass under a bar, they would write his name in a book,
and he would carry with him a half shekel, the shekel of the sanctuary,
and he would give that money. And if they didn't, if they didn't
take the atonement money when they numbered the people, bad
things happened. This is very serious business.
You look over in 2 Samuel 24, David did this. He numbered the
people, but he didn't take the atonement money. You know what
happened? The Lord sent a pestilence that killed 70,000 people. This
was serious business. There could be no numbering of
the people. There could be no passing below the bar. There
could be no writing the name in the book unless you had the
half shekel, unless you had the atonement money. What's the point
of all this? what does this teach? Scripture tells us, what are
they going to do with the money? Yes, it was used for the upkeep
of the temple and for the things of the temple, but it says very
particularly in verse 16, this is a memorial. It's to bring
something to memory every single time you do it. Every single
time you step up there, and you pass onto the bar, and your name
is written in that book, and next to your name there is no
debt, and there is no blot, and there is no stain, and you have
a clean ledger, and you are counted as a citizen of the kingdom,
and you give that atonement money, you remember the only reason
your name is written in heaven, and the only reason you have
a clean ledger. And you don't have any balance in the book.
And you don't owe anybody anything. You are spotless and sinless.
It's for one reason. It's because Christ made your
full atonement. That was the point of this atonement
money. I'm going to give you a few things to chew on here.
I thought this was interesting. Number one, out of what we just
read, who had to pay? Everybody had to pay. A patriarch
could not pay for his sons. A rich man couldn't come up with
a bag full of shekels and be like, hey, the next 60 guys behind
me, I'm paying for them. No, you personally passed under
the bar, you personally put your name in the book, and you personally
had to present your half shekel. This atonement money was personal. You know what that's called?
It's called particular redemption. And it shows how personal the
death, the atoning death of Jesus Christ is for particular people. Why do we make such a big deal
about that? Did Christ die for all men? No, that is not the
teaching of this book. Jesus Christ laid down his life
for who? For the sheep. known as the elect. Everybody the Father gave Him
before the world began in divine election. He came and He bore
the sins of those particular people. And for those particular
people He took away all their stain. He paid all their debt
to where they have a clean ledger in the book. This is particular
redemption. Now, why do we make such a big
deal about that? do we scream that from the rooftops? You can't
preach a message without talking about this. Jesus Christ died
for the elect, He accomplished salvation for His elect. Why
do we make such a big deal about this? Because if universal redemption
is true, that God wants to save everybody, and Jesus Christ died
to save everybody, but some men end up in Hell anyways, it maligns
the name of God. That means God can purpose something
and it not come to pass. means Jesus Christ can be a failure. I wanted to save him but I just
couldn't. It means God is unjust. That means He can punish my sins
in Jesus Christ and He can turn around and punish me as well.
It maligns the name of God and that's why we scream this thing
of particular redemption from the rooftops because it declares
the greatness of God that He chooses to He purposes, and everybody
He purposed to save, they are saved because Christ is the successful
Savior. He's the one who can't fail.
And here's the other reason we scream it from the rooftops.
If you're a believer, what other hope do you have? That is my
hope. That is everything. My hope is
this. Jesus Christ went to the cross bearing my sins. He put
them away and now my name is in that book and it's clean and
there is no blot and there is no stain. A clean leisure. I owe nothing. The children are
free. That's my only hope. And if you
tell me that's not true, then you have robbed me of every speck
of my hope. And this is a reoccurring theme
in this message. It's just one thing. We got one
thing, we got one hope, Jesus Christ and Him crucified, that
is our salvation. Now, not only did everybody have
to pay, everybody had to pay the exact same thing. The rich shall not pay more,
the poor shall not pay less. Everybody had to present the
half shekel. Why? Why did everybody have to
pay the exact same thing? What is the value of a man? I
like baseball nowadays. I like watching trade players,
guys going open contract and stuff like that. They say, well,
that guy's worth $30 million over 10 years. That guy's worth
$2 million over 5 years. They have different values because
they have different ability levels. This guy's better than that one,
so he's worth more, right? What is the value of the natural
man? Nothing. He has no merit before
God. He is dead in trespasses and
sins. He can't take the first step
toward righteousness or coming up with one. His value is absolutely
nothing. Therefore, to save a man, any
man, the same price has to be paid every single time. The very death of the Lord Jesus
Christ. If the Lord purposed to save
just one man, the exact same thing had to happen. He had to
bear that man's sins in his body and die that same death to save
that one man. The same thing it took to save
Abraham, to save Adam, to save Moses, to save David, to save
me and you. It's all the same. It's all the same price because
there's only one atonement for sin and that is Jesus Christ
and him crucified. That's it. That is salvation.
I noticed this. It was a particular shekel. This
is the shekel of the sanctuary. What does that mean? I read a
little bit about that. They would keep the standard shekel in the
tabernacle. It was minted in the tabernacle,
a very particular shekel. Not any shekel would do. When
you came up and you presented your half shekel, it had to match
perfectly that shekel of the sanctuary, the one that was minted
in the tabernacle. What does that tell us? The only
thing God will accept is that which He provides. He's not gonna
accept anything from you and me. This is a familiar scripture,
I'm gonna read it to you. Isaiah 64, six, most of you can
probably quote this. But we are all as an unclean
thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags, and we do
all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us
away. God's not gonna accept anything
from me and you. Your best work, He won't accept
it. Your best thought, He won't accept it. Your sorrow over your
sin, He will not accept it. None of that is acceptable to
Him. The only thing God will accept is that which He provides. That which came from the tabernacle,
goes out to the people, and goes back to the tabernacle. And that
is Jesus Christ and Him crucified. You have to have just one thing.
There's only one thing that God will accept. The atonement money,
Christ and Him crucified, that's salvation. And finally this,
this is the only way you and I will be received if I have
this one thing, if I have Christ and Him crucified. But it must
be just that one thing. The rich shall not pay more and
the poor shall not pay less. If you have anything more than
Christ and Him crucified, you won't be received. What does
that look like? I have Christ, but I've got some
good works here too. I've got Christ, I've made some
good decisions along the way. I've got Christ, I read my Bible
quite a bit. I've got Christ, I let people cut in front of
me in traffic. I've got Christ and, if it's Christ and, the
rich shall not pay more. If you have Christ and, you won't
get in. But the poor shall not pay less. What does that mean? How does
that relate? These tax collectors went up to Peter and they said,
does not your master pay tribute? Peter gave him a one word answer. Yes. He didn't dilly dally, he
didn't explain it. Does not your master pay tribute?
Yes. My master pays all the tribute. Every single bit of it. And this
is a good question for a man to ask himself. Your master,
your savior, your God, does your master pay tribute? Does he pay all the tribute?
man says, Well, my master, he paid part of the tribute. He
paid a little bit, but you know, now I got to come up with the
other half. And my master, he paid 99% of the tribute. I got
to do my 1%. You know, something's left for
me to do. The rich shall not pay more, and the poor shall
not pay less. If you have anything less than
Christ in him crucified, if he didn't do it all, you won't get
in. The only thing God will accept
is that which comes from him, Jesus Christ in him crucified. That's salvation. What's the
logical question at this point? Do I have the shekel? And it's
not a matter of can I obtain the shekel? Where can I get it?
That's not it. This is particular redemption.
This is sovereign salvation. Either I have the shekel or I
do not have the shekel. God will either accept me because
of this shekel or I will not be saved. That's it. Do I have
the shekel? It's a very simple question to
ask. Do you need it? That's it. Do you need him to
do everything in your salvation? I'm talking about lock, stock,
and barrel. Whatever's involved, and that's a big word, a whole
lot involved in that I'm not even aware of, everything in
my salvation, do you need him to do it all for you? That's
all your only hope. My only hope is that whatever
the Father demands of me, Jesus Christ already took care of it. If you need it, it's just this
simple. You have it. You have that shackle. Now trust him. That's it. Can
it be that simple? It's a big book. A lot of words
in those pages. Are you telling me it means this?
Jesus Christ came to the world to save sinners. He did exactly
what he came here to do. If you're a sinner, he put away
your sin and he saved you. Now believe him. Is it that simple? Yeah, folks, it is that simple. That is the simplicity of the
gospel, the beauty of it right there. It's just that simple. Now what'd they do with that
atonement money? I'll let you read about it. It's Exodus 38,
25 through 28 if you want to look up later, but I'll tell
you about it for right now. gathered up all this atonement
money, the children of Israel did, and it was to be used for
the Temple. And they melted it all down,
this silver, these silver shekels, and it was used to make the sockets
for the tabernacle. You know what the sockets were?
So, the tabernacle was a portable Temple. And so what the children
of Israel would do is the Lord would say, go over here. And
they'd tear down the tabernacle, they'd pack it up, they'd move
over there, and they'd rebuild it. And every time they moved,
they didn't dig a new foundation every time they moved. These
sockets were That was the foundation, the sockets that were built,
the silver from the tabernacle. These big sockets that sat on
the ground and they'd lower the walls into these sockets and
that was the portable foundation for the tabernacle. You think
of how big this structure was. a massive structure. You'd walk
inside, the weight of all this, all the gold, all the wood, everything
that was involved there, it was all supported and it was all
held up by the silver from the atonement money. That was the
foundation of the temple. It's a great history lesson.
What's the point? The point is this, salvation,
like I've said, is a big word, and there's so much involved
there. It involves God loving a people in Christ before the
world began. It involves him choosing a people
in Christ before the world began. It involves regeneration, God
the Holy Spirit coming to a man and giving him life to where
he can do what he could not do before, believe the gospel, repent
of his dead works, love Christ, love his people. It involves
so many things, preservation eternally, But the whole thing
is held up. The whole thing stems from, it
all flows from, the whole thing is supported by this. The atonement
of Jesus Christ, his atoning death for his people, that is
salvation. It's just one thing. And all
of salvation is a beautiful thing. In every aspect, it's beautiful.
Talk about it for days. But there's just one thing that
holds the whole thing up. It's the atonement money. It's
the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It is from that that every other
aspect of salvation flows. Who is he? We talked about in
Sunday school. What's his name? He's the lamb
slain from the foundation of the world. Where did salvation
begin? It began with an acceptable savior
for a particular people. That's where it began. and everything
flows from there. This is an eternal redemption.
God's people have always been safe and secure in Christ because
he's always been the eternally slain lamb for them. Before we
ever once committed one sin, there was already a propitiation
for our sin. Jesus Christ, the lamb slain
from the foundation of the world, it all flows from him. And folks,
this is the gospel. This is not just the centerpiece,
this is it. Jesus Christ and him crucified
is the gospel. This is the great accomplishment
of Christ. This is his glory. This is the salvation of his
people. It's the atonement money. It's Christ and him crucified.
And this is a reoccurring theme throughout these scriptures.
You can just walk through them and you see it over and over
and over. The first death, Adam and Eve. Adam sinned against God. They
fell. They saw their shame. They tried to hide their shame
from God, and they made some fig leaf aprons. And I find this
very interesting. They did the best they could
do. They made these coverings for themselves, said, we're gonna
hide our shame from God. And you know what? They still
hid when he came around. They knew what they did could
not hide their shame from God. And he came to them, he said,
that won't do. You can't stand before me with that, but I'll
show you what we'll do. And he took an animal, a lamb.
This is the first death. These people have never seen
death before. We're used to it. You can't turn on TV without seeing
somebody die. These people have never seen death before. And
violently, he killed a lamb in front of them. This is what it
takes, Adam. This is what it takes. This is
what I have to do to my only begotten son to undo what you
have done. You see all this blood? You see
all this violence? You see all this carnage? I got to do that
to my only begotten son. This is what salvation looks
like. It's not pretty. It's bloody. It's violent. A
man had to die, and he skinned those animals, and he took the
coats of that sacrifice, that death, and he covered them. He
said, now I can talk to you. Now you can stand before me because
of this death. Cain and Abel. Cain comes up,
he brings the fruit of the ground. He's a farmer. Brings the best
he can come up with. Lord had not respect to Cain
in his offering. Brought the best he could do.
Lord had not respect. He will only accept that which
comes from him. And Abel steps up. And he offers
what? I'm sure that Cain had many different things on that
altar. Tomatoes, cucumbers, many different,
a variety of different things. Abel had how many things? He
had one thing. He had a slain lamb. That was
it. Roast with fire. This is all I have before you.
My only hope is that Jesus Christ died for me and he put away my
sins and he made me acceptable before you. The Lord had respect
unto Abel and his offering. Passover. The Lord says, I'm
coming through Egypt. I'm gonna kill all the firstborn
in the Egyptian houses. But you, my people, here's what
you're gonna do. Take a lamb. All right, Lord, we have one.
What do you want us to do with it? Make sure it's spotless. It's blemishless. It has to be
a spotless lamb. Okay, Lord, now what? What do you want us
to do with it? Kill it. This is what it costs. This is
what it takes. This is the mechanism of salvation. Kill it. Catch
its blood in the basin. Take some hyssop, put it over
the door post or on the side post, and you get in the house,
and here's the promise. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you." And he didn't inquire about the morality of
those people inside those houses. And he didn't inquire about the
strength of the faith of those people inside the houses. He
didn't inquire about anything. He made a decree. When I see
the blood, I will pass over you. And then he honored his promise,
and every time he saw the blood, He passed over that house and
not one who was in the house with the blood of the door perished
that night. What was he looking for? One
thing, one thing, the blood, the atonement money, Jesus Christ
and Him crucified. It's always one thing. We get
an interesting illustration of that cross, that atonement in
our text here. Go back to Matthew chapter 17. This may be the strangest picture
of the cross I've seen in the scripture yet, but it's there.
Look at verse 27 of Matthew 17. This is what the Lord tells Peter
to do. He says, notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go
thou to the sea and cast a hook. Now what I want you to notice
there, he didn't say bait it. Don't put any bait on that hook.
You cast a hook, a metal piercing bear hook, and take up the fish
that first cometh up, the very first one. And when thou hast
opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money, that take,
and give unto them. For who? For me and to thee. Now folks, this is a picture
of cross as much as anything else. Where was that fish? It was down
in the depths of the sea. Where did Christ go? He went
down to the depths. He became the sins of his people
and he went down to the depths and in those depths he experienced
God's wrath. Where was the atonement money?
It was in the fish. Where is full atonement found?
Full and complete atonement is found in one place. It's in somebody. It's in Christ. The hook, that
piercing hook. Did the hook hook the fish or
did the fish bite the hook? The fish bit the hook and there
was no bait on that hook. The Lord Jesus Christ went in
this thing with his eyes wide open. There was no trickery here. He voluntarily substituted himself
for his people. He voluntarily laid down his
life for his people. He knew exactly what he was going
to experience. When the father said, you have to go and you
have to lay down your life for them, he knew exactly what that
was gonna be like. I gotta bear their sins. I'm
a holy man who has to be made the sins of his people, and I'm
gonna have to experience that. The wrath of God, this one who
loves me, he's gonna pour down all his wrath down upon me. He
knew exactly what he was going to do. what it was going to cost.
It was a bare hook. And what did he do? Because he
loved his people and he would honor his father, he bit the
hook. And then the Lord tells Peter, he says, you pull up the
first one that comes up. You know what that implies? It
means there's other fish going to come up too, but you take
the first one because that's where the atonement is going
to be. What's that money going to do? It's going to be enough
for me and you. It's going to be enough for that
fish, the first one you bring up, and for every other fish
that comes up too. Christ being brought up from
the dead, being brought from the depths, having secured full
atonement for all his people, for himself and everybody he
died for. Is that not the strangest picture
of the cross you've ever seen? But that is everything in our
salvation, isn't it? That's it. Now what are the effects? of
his atonement for his people. Look at verse 25, he saith, yes,
and when he was coming to the house, Jesus prevented him, saying,
what thinkest thou, Simon, of whom do the kings of the earth
take custom or tribute? The kings, do they tax their
kids or do they tax the common people? Of their own children
or of strangers? Verse 26, Peter saith unto him
of strangers, Jesus saith unto him, then are the children free. Now this is the effect of this
full atonement being made by the Lord Jesus Christ for his
people. The children are free. That means right now if you're
a believer, if you need this, you have it. If you're a believer,
you're free. You don't owe anybody anything. You say, in what respect are
you talking about here? Let me give you a few scriptures. This is
Galatians 5.1. It says, stand fast therefore
in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not
entangled again with the yoke of bondage. You've been freed
from the law. The Lord Jesus Christ kept the
law, and when he did, you did as well. The law demanded that
you be punished under the justice of God. You were punished in
Christ. That means you are dead to the law. The law has been
put away. The law, all it has to say about you now is this,
he's honored me in every way, shape, and form. There is an
end to the law. Jesus Christ is the end of the
law. The law has absolutely nothing to say to you. Don't go back
to it. Don't be entangled again in that
yoke of bondage. Does that come naturally to us?
As long as we have this old man, it certainly does. When the children
of Israel were traveling along the way, every time they get
into a hardship, many times at least, you know what they start
doing? They start talking fondly about Egypt. At least in Egypt,
we had the flesh pots. In Egypt, we had this, talking
fondly about their days in Banjik. Egypt? Egypt, where the taskmasters
beat you? Egypt, where you made bricks
without straw, you never could come up with the goods, and they
just beat you and beat you, and you never could comply, you never
could meet the output? Egypt, who nobody cared about
you, your master didn't care about you, it was all about your
output, what you could produce? Egypt, you think fondly of that?
No, no. You've been freed from that law.
The law had, this is, I wish I could believe this and say
this the way I ought. We've kept the law. We've kept
it in Christ, and that's real. The law has absolutely nothing
to say to us. You're free from it. Don't go
back to it. Don't go back to it. Enjoy that liberty. Turn
to this one. This is Romans 8, verse 1. Romans 8 and pick one verse one
there. Paul says, there is therefore
now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk
not after the flesh, but after the spirit. for the law of the
spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law
of sin and death. How much condemnation is there
for the believer? How much condemnation from God
should we expect? There is therefore now no condemnation. Why can there be no condemnation?
How can that possibly be possible before a just God? There's only
one answer, because there is no sin. There is therefore now
no condemnation. Jesus Christ, if you're a believer,
has put away your sin. If there's no condemnation, there
is no sin. And you know what that opens
the door for? The Holy Spirit comes and he gives you that spirit
of life in Christ. Nothing prevents it. It's yours.
It's been secured for you by Jesus Christ. Everything flows
from the foundation. Everything flows from the atonement.
Now the spirit comes and he gives that spirit of life in Christ
and that new man in Christ, that holy man in Christ. What is his
confession? I live because he lives. That's it. There's only
one reason I stand before God and I live. I have this. Because
he lives. Because he laid down his life,
he did what his father gave him to do, and his father brought
him back from the dead. I live because he lives. And
that's the confession of every believer. And that is the evidence
of this. That you have no sin. And that
means there's not going to be any death. And we're all gonna
physically die, that's not what I'm talking about. You and I
will never experience the wrath of God. I was thinking about
this last night. I talk about that quite a bit,
the wrath of God, hell, things like that. I have absolutely
no idea what I'm talking about. And you know what, in heaven,
not one person there is gonna have any idea what that's like. One man is gonna know what it's
like. Jesus Christ because he experienced it. You and I, we're
never going to experience it. Here's the next one. Turn to
1 Corinthians 9. I want you to see this one as well. I had never considered this one
before. Paul said this, look at verse 19. 1 Corinthians 9, 19, he said, for
though I be free from all men. I never considered that before.
You're free, if you're a believer, you're free from all men. You
know what that means? That means no one has the right
to put you back under that law. It doesn't matter what anybody
thinks of you. There is one person you have
to be concerned with what they think, and that is your master.
And if your master says that you are holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight, that means you are holy and you
are unblameable and you are unreprovable. That's the truth of the matter.
And whatever anybody else says, it just doesn't matter. Nobody
has any right to put you back under that law. But look what
Paul did with his liberty. Complete liberty in Christ. What
did he do with it? Go back to verse 19. For though I be free
from all men, yet I have made myself servant unto all, that
I might gain them more. And unto the Jews I became as
a Jew. that I might gain the Jews. To them that are under
the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under
the law. To them that are without law, as without law, being not
without law to God, but under the law to Christ, that I might
gain them that are without law. To the weak became I as weak,
that I may gain the weak. I have made all things to all
men that I might by all means save to some. Paul had complete
and utter liberty. He said, you're free. If you're
a believer, you're free, free from everything. You have complete
and utter freedom. What did he use his freedom for?
He said, I became whoever I had to be for this purpose, that
I might have an audience with a man, that I might be able to
preach the gospel to him. Around the Jews, I was a Jew.
Gentiles, I was a Gentile. If you were weak, I was weak.
If you were strong, I was strong. I became whoever I had to be
for this one opportunity that I might have an audience, that
they might listen to me, that I might be able to tell them
about my Savior and what he has done for sinners, that he might
save some. He became a servant to all. That's
what he did with his great liberty. You can do whatever you want,
Paul. You're free. You're scot-free, there's absolutely no blot next
to your name in the book. What are you gonna do with that?
I'm gonna preach the gospel with every opportunity I have. I'm
gonna tell other sinners where I found bread. Now, how does a child of God, one
who has this atonement, find out that he has it? because this
is a matter of either having it or not, right? We talked about
that before. Our example in verse 27 tells
us that as well. What the Lord told Peter to do
was this. He said, you go out there, he goes, and you cast
a bare hook into the sea. Don't bait it, just a bare hook.
When the Lord first found Peter, what was he doing? He's fishing. He said, you follow me and I'll
make you fishers of men. How does a believer find out
that he's one of God's, that he has this atonement money?
Well, it's very simple. It's through the preaching of
the gospel. We cast out that bear hook. No
bait. There's absolutely nothing appealing
about the gospel message to the people of this world. It is naturally
offensive. We don't sugarcoat that at all.
Nothing appealing about it. It's offensive. It offends men's
sense of self-confidence, their pride, Their sense of self-worth,
their sense of self-righteousness, their sense of self-will, of
free will, it offends all that. We throw that bare hook out there.
Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners. He did exactly
what he came here to do. If you're a sinner, he accomplished
your salvation. Now trust him. That bare hook
gets thrown out there, and the people of this world, I don't
want anything to do with that. And you know what a sinner does
every single time? He bites the hook. He bites the hook and he
is brought all the way up. Here's what I think is interesting
though, and I thought this was a very interesting point. The money
was in the fish long before it ever bit the hook. What do I mean by that? Faith
isn't the cause of salvation. Salvation is the cause of faith.
What happens when a man believes the gospel? He finds out he's
been saved. That's what he finds out. He
finds out that he was the lamb slain before the foundation of
the world for me. Always has been. I was chosen
of God before the world ever began. I've always had the love
of God upon me. He's always been watching out
over me. Long before I ever loved him, he loved me. Long before
I ever knew him, he knew me. This whole time, And all that
time prior to my conversion, and post, when I'm warring against
him, you know what he was doing? Lovingly and long-sufferingly
guiding my footsteps, bringing me to him. The entire time, he
was after me, and I was running away from him. You don't find
that out until the Lord reveals himself to you. But the truth
of the matter is, you've always had that atonement. You've always
had the work of Christ for you. I believed and I was saved. Now,
if you were saved and you believed, That's the way that works. I'll give you this last point,
I'll quit. These men approached Peter and they say, does not
your master pay tribute? And they're being kind of jerks
about it, right? And I think this, what if the Lord were to
come out of that house and said, tribute, I am the tribute, I
am the atonement money. Are you taking a temple tax for
the maintenance of the temple? I am the temple. You can use
this money to buy sacrifices. I am the sacrifice. Did he do any of that? He told
Peter this. He said, notwithstanding, lest we should
offend them, we're going to pay them. We're going to pay them
this money. What do you take from that? What
do I take from that? Well, I take this from that.
If you're a child of God, you're free. The children are free. You don't owe anybody anything. Now, how am I to conduct myself
as I walk through this world in a manner that's not offensive?
a manner that brings no shame upon my master and upon his gospel."
Because this is what Paul said, this is 1 Corinthians 6, 1 through
3. He said, we then as workers together with him beseech you
also that you receive not the grace of God in vain, giving
no offense in anything, listen to this, that the ministry be
not blamed. Paul's saying this, he goes,
you go out there and you act in an offensive way and you act
up, they're not going to blame you. They're going to blame your
master. And you're going to blame his
gospel. You see this man? This man says that he believes
on the Lord Jesus Christ alone. He is relying on free grace,
works excluded. When you believe that, this is
what it gets you. Every time, you're going to end up just like
this, with this bad conduct, this poor attitude, and things
like that. They're not going to come after you. They're not
going to blame you. They're going to blame your master. How are
we supposed to walk in this world in a way that is non-offensive,
that we would bring no shame upon that one that has been so
merciful and so gracious and so long-suffering with us? And the hope is this, when it's
all said and done. Peter said this, and be ready
also to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason
of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear. It's never
happened to me yet. But maybe one day, somebody walk
up, say, why? Why do you have so much hope?
Why are you so optimistic? Why do you keep on saying everything's
going to be just fine? Let me tell you about my master and
how great he is. I suppose if you had to sum this
up, it's real simple. Jesus Christ is everything in salvation. If
all your hope is in him and what he's done, he's shed blood, you're
free. You don't owe anybody anything.
I'll leave you there.