Whom Hath God Set Forth?

My text tonight is Romans chapter 3, verse 25
and 26. The title of the message is the
first line of verse 25, whom God hath set forth. whom God hath set forth to be
a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare God's 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 which believeth
in Jesus. Jesus Christ is worthy to receive
honor and power and glory divine, and blessings more than I can
give. O Lord, be forever Thine. I desire, and may God grant it,
that as long as this building shall stand, I desire, and may God grant it,
as long as a man stands in this pulpit and preaches, and as long
as sincere people In His name, come here to worship and to hear
the Word preached. I desire and pray that the subject
of every message preached from this pulpit in days to come shall
always be Christ Jesus, our Lord, His person and His Word. The Apostle Paul and the example
for every preacher, not only the pattern in conversion, but
the pattern in stewardship. And when you mention stewardship,
the average person thinks of money. We are to be good stewards
of the grace of God. That's what the Scripture says.
If that involves money or whatever, but it's the grace of God, that's
our stewardship. And Paul is the example of stewardship. And he said this, God didn't
send me to baptize, although he did, but he sent me primarily
to preach the gospel of Christ. And he said to the Corinthians,
I determine, I determine in my soul to know nothing among you
except Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And we preach not ourselves.
We preach not ourselves. We preach Christ Jesus the Lord,
and ourselves, your servants, for His sake. One of the shocking
things that you read in the book of Revelation, turn to Revelation
2, This is what the Lord said to
the church of Ephesus. Usually when I go somewhere to
preach, one of my first messages will be from the book of Ephesians. Paul's letter to the church at
Ephesus, that godly group, that courageous group of people there
in Ephesus. He bid bad farewell to the elders
of Ephesus over in Acts 20. But listen to what he says in
Revelation 2, to the church, to the angel of the church of
Ephesus, right, the pastor down there at Ephesus. These things
saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who
walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks, the seven
churches, I know your works, I know your labor, I know your
patience, I know you can't bear, you cannot bear them that are
evil. You've tried them that say they're apostles and are
not, found them to be liars, and you've borne and had patience.
For my name's sake, you've labored, you haven't quit, you haven't
fainted. But I got something against you. Think about this now. You've
left your first love. He's saying to this church, you're
hospitable to strangers, you're good to the poor and the less
fortunate, you're outspoken against the evils done in your day, your
doctrine is sound, and who can doubt that, reading the first
chapter of the book of Ephesians, and you're against false preachers,
and you support the work of the preachers and evangelists and
missionaries, But you've got a grievous fault.
You've left your first love. Do you have any doubt about what
that is? It's Christ. The gospel of Christ. The message of Christ. The worship
of Christ. The adoration of Christ. The
exaltation of Christ. Your love for and your interest
in the person and work of Christ has been neglected. Now, verse
5, Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent. And repent. This is what I'm
saying to you now. Repent and do the first works. What's the first works? Well,
Paul said, I'm determined to know nothing but Christ. We preach
not ourselves, but Christ. God sent me not to organize or
baptize or socialize. That's not our primary calling. It's Christ. Now get back to
the message and the worship of Christ. Or listen, or I'll come
quickly and I'll remove your candlestick. I'll shut you down. The candlestick is the church.
The angel is the pastor. I'll close shop. Yeah, but who's going to feed
the poor? I'll feed the poor. You're supposed to preach the
gospel. That's right. I'll remove your candlestick
unless you repent. This is... Our Lord has promised. Turn to
John 5, verse 23. John 5, 23. Listen to this. He's
promised to bless those who honor Christ. My Father will honor those that
honor Me," he said. It's absolutely essential that
God blesses those who honor His Son. Listen to John 5, verse
23. "...that all men should honor
the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth not
the Son honoreth not the Father." And I guarantee you, and I promise
you this, and I say it must be so. And where Christ is honored in
here, where He's honored and preached
and exalted and glorified from here, where He's honored, exalted,
and glorified out there in the music, in the prayers, in the
scripture, in the congregation, in the worship, God will bless. He'll bless. He'll bless. He'll bless. And besides that,
no true believer ever tires of hearing the gospel of Christ. No true believer. Paul said,
turn to Philippians chapter 3. Listen to Paul over here in Philippians
3. You know, any time a preacher
has a message to preach and wonders what he ought to preach, brag
on the Lord Jesus. Tell people about Christ. Do
what Brother Joe did this morning. Exalt and magnify Christ, and
everybody will be thrilled and blessed who loves Him. That's
what Paul says in Philippians 3. Finally, brethren, rejoice
in the Lord. That's the theme of this book
of Philippians. Rejoice ten times. Rejoice, rejoice,
rejoice in the Lord. Again, I say rejoice. How long? Always. When? Always. To write the same things to you,
to me, indeed, is not tiresome. We heard that message last Sunday.
Well, it's not tiresome. For you, it's safe. It keeps
you from error of doctrine, error of spirit, and error of conduct. To hear Christ again and again
and again. Listen, go on, beware of these
dogs. He's talking about false preachers
there. Beware of these evil workers. Beware of the circumcision. We are the circumcision. We are
true Israel. And there are three marks of
true Israel. We worship God in spirit, in heart, not in form,
not in ceremony, not in outward demonstrations. Not in visual
aids and relics. We worship God in the Spirit. We rejoice in Jesus Christ only. We have no confidence in this
flesh or any other flesh. Christ. No believer ever tires
of hearing about Christ. Let me ask you a question. Does
anyone here ever tire of the sunshine? I rejoice to see it come up in
the morning. I rejoice to see it set in the
evening. And I look forward to it coming
up the next morning. The sun never gets tired of the
sunshine. Well, Malachi said this, unto
you that fear his name shall the sun of righteousness arise
with healing in his wings. The same yesterday, Today, tomorrow,
tomorrow, the next day. Never tire of Christ? Never. He's my life. He's my hope. He's my foundation. He's my salvation. Never tire of Christ. Do you
ever tire of bread? I don't know how many of you
are bread eaters, but I'm a bread eater. I eat it every day in
some form, every meal in some form. I take a bite of vegetable
and a bite of bread. It's basic for me. I never tire
of bread. Bread! I love bread. Biscuits
and cornbread and wheat bread and rye bread and light bread
and sourdough bread and any kind of bread. I love bread! Never
tired. Never have gotten tired of bread.
68 years and 2 days I'm not tired of bread. Well, Christ said, I'm the living
bread. We had bread this morning, we
got bread tonight. Living bread. I'm the living
bread which came down from heaven. And if any man eat of this bread,
he'll live forever. How could you get tired of that?
Living bread. Do any of you want to do without
water? Even for a day, a half a day. I get weary of these weathermen.
On the television, at 11 o'clock news, I'll tune in and one of
them said, we got bad news. Bad news? It's going to rain.
That's bad news? That's good news. Good news,
it's going to rain. It's going to rain, rejoice.
I wouldn't want to live without it. Never complain about the
rain. The water. And then our Lord
said over here, turn to John 4, and listen to what He said
to that woman. That woman in Samaria. He said
in John 4, verse 13, Jesus answered and said to her, Whosoever drinketh
of this water will thirst again, and again, and again. But thank
God for the water. Thank God for the water when
I do thirst. But now listen. But whosoever
drinketh of the water that I shall give him, Never thirst again. But he's not going to drink it
and leave it. It's going to be in him, the water. See that? It's going to be in
him. The constant supply of water
will be in him. It'll be in him a well of water,
springing up unto everlasting life, the water. A hymn writer
said, a fountain of life and of grace. In Jesus Christ my Lord, I see. For us who his gospel embrace,
for us the fountain is open and free. Jehovah himself doth invite
us to drink, drink of his pleasures unknown. This stream of still
water delights us because it flows from his heavenly throne. Come and drink. Everyone that's
thirsting, come and drink. You ever tire of water? No. Never
tire. Never tire of hearing about the
Lord Jesus, the Son of Righteousness, the Bread of Life, the Water
of Life. Look at my text. Let's start
back a few verses and read verse 19, Romans 3. Go back a few verses. Romans 3 verse 19, Now we know
that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are
under the law. That's every subject, every creature
in God's universe, born under God's law. Even the Lord Jesus
Christ, when He came into this world, was made of a woman, made
under the law. But it says to them who are under
the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world
become guilty, guilty, subject to the judgment of God, guilty. Therefore, because we're guilty
by the deeds of the law and the works of the flesh, the mechanics
of religion, the form of religion, There shall no flesh be justified
in his sight. We may justify ourselves in our
sight and try to justify ourselves in the sight of men, but not
in his sight. If Abraham is justified by works,
he hath world to glory, but not in his sight, not before God. For by the laws and knowledge
of sin, but now, watch it, Right now, by God's grace, the righteousness
of God, the holiness of God, that which is not His essential
righteousness, but His purpose-purchased, provided righteousness without
the law, is manifested, declared by the law and the prophets,
by the apostles and by the preachers. What is it? What is this righteousness? It's the very righteousness of
God which is by the faithfulness, by the obedience, by the blood
of Jesus Christ. For whom? Unto all and upon all
that believe. No difference. Jew or Gentile,
white or black, rich or poor, old or young, educated or ignorant,
no difference. Bond or free, barbarian. Because all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. But if we're freely justified,
being freely justified by His grace, through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth. Whom God has set forth. What
does this mean, whom God has set forth? What does the two
words, set forth, mean? God has set him forth. Here's
our hope. Here's our salvation. Here's
our life. Here's our acceptance. It's him
whom God has set forth. What does set forth mean? What's
God done to him or with him, setting him forth? Well, first,
the words mean foreordained, predestinated. That's what it
means. Back before the world was made,
back before God made the heavens and the earth, back before God
created man, God set him forth, predestinated him, foreordained
him to be the surety of his covenant grace and mercy. God set him
forth back yonder before the morning stars sang together,
before the world had any being, before the universe existed,
back yonder when only there was God. Christ was the surety of the
everlasting covenant. He talks about the lamb slain
before the foundation of the world. He talks about Christ
the surety of an everlasting better covenant. He talks about
him bringing forth that great shepherd of the sheep through
the blood of the everlasting covenant. You see, everything
God does in time, God ordained and purposed and promised in
eternity. Known under God are all His works
from the beginning. That's what it means. First,
whom God, being freely justified by the redemption which is in
Christ Jesus. We're justified, we're redeemed,
we're accepted through the righteousness and redemption that's in Christ
Jesus, whom God set forth, whom God predestinated, whom God ordained. before he ever made the world.
Listen carefully. Christ be my first elect, he
said. Then he chose our souls in Christ
our head. Before he gave the mountains
birth, or laid foundations for the earth, with Christ our Lord
we had a part. in the affections of God's heart,
nor can our souls ever be removed until He forgets His well-beloved. Isn't that something? That's what that means. I have to believe in covenant
everlasting mercies if I believe in God. If God is God, God is God. If
God is God, God is sovereign. What God does in time, God decrees
in eternity. I can't believe anything else.
I can't preach anything else. Christ be my first elect, he
said. Then he chose our souls in Christ
our head before he gave the mountains birth, or laid foundations for
this earth. With Christ our Lord, we had
a part in the affections of God's height. Nor can my soul ever
be removed till he forgets his well-beloved. Impossible. But what does the word set forth
mean, Father? Listen. Whom God has set forth. This is what it means. Whom God
hath ordained and predestinated, whom God hath put forward, put
him forward, placed him in public view before the eyes of the world,
the universe, whom God hath exhibited in a conspicuous manner. Paul
said to that ruler, this was not done in a corner. God doesn't
do things like this in the corner. He set him forth. Anyone who's ignorant wants to
be. Write her down. Write her down
right there. Put her down in bold letters.
Anyone who's ignorant of who Jesus Christ is wants to be ignorant,
willfully ignorant, sinning against life and truth. God set him forth
before the eyes of all. in a conspicuous manner, in public
view, not to be questioned. I know, King, you know what I'm
talking about. This wasn't done in a corner.
That's right. Turn to Genesis 3.15. Turn there
with me just a minute. All you young people, be sure
and turn now and watch this now. This is right after Adam fell.
And God said to the serpent, Genesis 3, 15, I'll put enmity
between thee and the woman. I'll put enmity between thy seed
and her seed. It shall bruise your head, and
you'll bruise his heel. Who is that? It's not you, it's
not me, it's not any other human being. Who is it? It's not an
angel. Who is it? It's Jesus Christ. That's who
it is. It can't be anybody else. The woman's sin. Woman's sin. Turn to Isaiah. Come on now,
Isaiah 7. God set him forth in promise. These are promises. Now listen.
God set him forth. Here it is. Here it is. Anybody that's ignorant, willfully
ignorant. Isaiah 7, 14. Listen. Therefore, Isaiah 7,
14, therefore the Lord Himself, God set him forth, Himself will
give you a sign. Behold, a virgin shall conceive
and bear a son. You call His name Immanuel. Come
on, who is it? Who's the virgin's son? It's
Jesus Christ. Tell me someone else. Look at
Isaiah 9. Listen to this. Isaiah 9, 6. Who is it? God set Him forth. Isaiah 9, 6. Unto us a child
is born. Unto us a son is given. Who's
this that's the son of somebody before he was the son of his
mother? Who is this that's the son of
somebody else before he was the son of his mother? You weren't. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. A
child is born, a son is given. And the government shall be on
his shoulders, and his name shall be called Wonderful. What's thy
name? Wonderful. Secret. Counselor. Who's the counselor?
The mighty God is. The everlasting Father. The Prince
of Peace. Please tell me who that is. Even an ignorant Ethiopian treasurer
of a pagan queen riding in a chariot, reading this scripture, ask that
question, who is this? Of whom does the prophet speak?
God sent him forth. He shall grow up before Him as
a tender plant, as a root out of a dry ground. He hath no form,
no comeliness, but no beauty about Him that we should desire
Him. He's despised and rejected of men. A man of sorrows acquainted
with grief. But He was wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was laid upon Him. By His stripes we're healed.
Who is this? Jesus Christ. God set Him for. In promise. Jeremiah 23, 6, a king shall
reign, a branch, and his name shall be called the Lord, our
righteousness. Who is this? Go on through this
word. Who is this? God set him forth
in picture. Do you see that ark floating
on that water? Between the floods, the flood
above and the flood beneath, and there's that ark. And inside
that ark are eight people. and the animals, and they're
kept from the flood. Well, I know what the flood is.
It's God's wrath. He said, I will destroy this
world. The overflowing scourge of God's
wrath passes through. But there's an ark. What's it
all about? It's Christ. In Christ, I'm saved. In Christ, I'm secure. In Christ,
I'm delivered. from the wrath of God. That's
Christ. Moses goes out and selects a
lamb, the firstling of the flock, one year old. Watch it now. Don't have spot or blemish. No,
not a spot or a blemish. The finest lamb in the whole
flock. Put him out. Keep him four days. I take him out after four days,
cut his throat, and catch the blood, and roast his body with
fire, and eat the body, eat the flesh, and take that blood, put
it on the lintel, and on the side pole. And when I come over
in wrath, I'll pass over you." Who is that? That's Christ. What's wrong? God set him forth. People bitten by serpents, and
God said, Moses, take a brazen serpent, just like those that
have bitten the people, and put it on the pole and lift it up
between heaven and earth. And whosoever looks will live. Who is that? You young people, who is that?
That's Christ. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
God set him forth. Nobody but a fool cannot see
that. And I say the man's a fool because
he won't see it on purpose. That's why he doesn't want to
see it. And then on that eventful day,
When that little maiden, down in Bethlehem, But thou, Bethlehem,
if but thou, thou art little among the thousand, Out of thee
shall he come, whose glory forth is of old, For everlasting, who
is that? That's Christ. That little baby
cried as it came forth into this world. And the angels came down
from heaven, and they said to a bunch of shepherds, Don't be
afraid. We bring you good tidings of
great joy, which shall be to all people under you, as born
this day down there in the city of David a Savior, Christ the
Lord." And certainly there was with them a multitude of heavenly
hosts crying, Glory to God! In the highest and on earth peace,
goodwill toward men. And a star came and stood right
over that manger. God sent him forth. And the voice
from heaven said, This is my son. Anyone who denies who he is and
what he did and who sent him and where he is now is nothing
but a man closing his eyes against undeniable truth. Fact. And our Lord chose twelve apostles. Judas was the son of perdition
from beginning. Judas betrayed him, but Judas
never denied who he was. Judas betrayed him, sold him
out, but Judas came back and said, he's innocent. He has innocent
blood. I betrayed innocent blood. But
all twelve of these men, and five hundred who saw him risen,
none of them ever denied the message. If you get a bunch of men to
gather women, or human beings, And they concoct something like
this. Now listen, young people, listen to me. If you get twelve
or fourteen or five hundred people together, and they make up a
religion, and make up a way of salvation, and make up a way
of redemption, and make up some way to get to God, and the authorities
come and arrest them and start killing them one at a time, somebody's
going to crack. And somebody's going to say,
hey, hold it, it's despotic. I ain't going to die for this.
I'm not going to die for this. Somebody's going to crack. Somebody's
going to surrender. Somebody's going to say, hey,
wait a minute, this is not true. We just made it up. Not a one
of them. Not a one of them. Oh, come on,
and even Judas. Joe, not a one of them. Denied
it. Peter, the apostle Peter, they
nailed him to a cross upside down. And he still wouldn't deny
it. They exiled John to that lonely
island, and he died saying, even so come Lord Jesus. And he appeared
to 500 brethren at once, and none of them ever backed down. And believers don't. You know
why they didn't back down? They saw him. They saw him. They saw him and heard him. And
everybody here tonight, this guy right here and everybody
out here who's seen him and heard him, will never deny him. They'll
die first. That's what the gospel does.
Religion can't do that. Religion's as phony as a three-dollar
bill it won't spend. But faith that God gives, they're
not one of them ever denied. God set him forth. He set him
forth on a cross, publicly set him forth on a cross. The Lord
Jesus died on that cross. Your calendar tells you that.
We measure time by his life, before Christ and, O Domine,
in the year of our Lord. Yonder amazing sight I see the
incarnate Son of God dying on a cursed tree, shedding his own
precious blood. Behold, a crimson torrent runs
down from his head and his hands, but that bloody tide puts out
the sun, and his groans awake the dead. The trembling earth,
the darkened sky proclaim the truth aloud, and with that amazed
centurion say, Surely this man is the Son of
God. When he died, the sun quit shining. The earth trembled. The dead
arose. And the centurion said, he was
the Son of God. Yeah. And then God raised him
from the dead, whom God set forth. And then he gave this assurance
to everybody. I'm going to judge the world,
he said. I got a day. God has set forth a day. He has
determined a day in which he's going to judge the world. by
that man whom he set forth. And he gave this assurance, raised
him from the dead. And if you'll turn to Romans
1, I'll show you something here. Romans chapter 1, it says he
set him forth in the gospel, what I'm preaching tonight. God's going to bless what we
preach here. Because Paul said in Romans 1, 16, I'm not ashamed
of the gospel of Christ. It's the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believe it, to the Jew first and also to
the Greek, because therein, in that gospel, is the very righteousness
of God revealed from one degree of faith to the other. As it
is written, the just shall live by faith. By faith. Turn back to the text. Let me
show you one other thing before I close. whom God hath set forth
before the world began in covenant mercies, in promise, in tithe,
in sacrifice, in person, in death, in resurrection, in the gospel.
God set him forth, listen, to be a propitiation. What does that word mean? Now
listen to me, carry just a moment. Propitiation. Look it up. It's an expiator. A propitiation
is an expiator. Secondly, it's an expiatory place. God said, I'll meet you at the
mercy seat. It is an expiatory thing. It
is an atoning victim. It is the leader of the ark.
It is the mercy seat. What theological writer did you
get that from? None. Daniel Webster. Even old Dan knew that. Was that
Daniel or Noah? Noah, what? Who wrote the dictionary?
The dictionary. Noah? Noah. Even Noah Webster
knew more than the preachers today know. A propitiation is
an expiatory place. Expiation. What is expiation? Well, to do this. Here's expiation,
Mr. Noah Webster said, to make satisfaction. It's to make an atonement. is
to make amends for guilt or wrongdoing, is to pay the penalty or suffer
the consequences. That's who Christ is, and that's
what He did. He's an expiation. He's an expiatory
person, place. He's the leader of the earth.
That's what that fellow is. What's a perpetuation? It's the
leader of the earth. It covers the broken law. It's
where the blood is. Isn't that something? God set him forth. And if people
really wanted to know the way to God, some of them don't even
need a Bible, just turn to Webster's Dictionary. The blind want to be blind. The
hard-hearted want to be hard-hearted. God set him forth. from way back
yonder to right now, as an expiation, as an expiatory sacrifice. To do what? To make satisfaction,
to make amends, to atone for guilt, not his, mine, in wrongdoing,
to pay the price. And why'd God do that? Verse
26, to declare His righteousness, that He might be just, and the
justifier of them that believe. Just. Let me tell you a story. I told it years ago. You young people who are 40 years
old will remember this story. You who are 15, you probably
never heard it. 16, 14, 13. There's a little one-room schoolhouse
somewhere in the mountains. And in that school was all the
grades. first through wherever. One teacher, one room, one stove,
one blackboard, one playground. Kids from six years to seventeen
years old. And they couldn't keep a teacher
up there because the old big boys were just too mean. Big
old boys wearing big old clodhopper shoes, you know, and muscle-bound
in the head and the body. And they wouldn't give a teacher
any peace. They gave him a hard time, so
they quit. They just kept quitting. They'd come stay a while and
quit, come stay a while and quit. Finally, they got a teacher. A little
fella, a man, a little fella. And when he showed up that first
morning, all those boys began to bet how long he'd last, how
long it'd take them to run him off. But he wasn't a running
kind. He was a smart fella. And he
got them all together in the room. And he said, now, young
people, he said, this is not my school, it's your school.
And we're here for you, for your betterment, for your education,
to help you. And I want you to run the school.
Well, they kind of laughed. They'd been running it, you know.
But he said, we're going to let you run it, let you make the
rules, and let you set the punishment. We're going to run this thing
together. He said, now let's make some rules. So he got up
to Blackboard, began to write up here and said, now what's
the first rule? And they said, well, don't be late for school. What's
the punishment? Stay after school. Number two,
don't leave school and play hooky, you know, stay for the whole
day. That's the rule. And it went on down. Finally,
one old boy named Jimmy stood up and said, hey, teacher said,
make a rule up there that you don't supposed to steal anybody's
lunch. And the teacher said, why, somebody been stealing lunches?
Yeah. So they put up there, he said,
I shall not steal lunches. What's the punishment, Jimmy?
He said, make it tough, teacher. Make it tough. Said, give him
ten lashes on the back back. Teacher said, that's a hard punishment. He said, we ought not steal lunches.
So he wrote up there, shall not steal lunches, punishment, ten
lashes on the back back. Went on, made some more, and
you know, it worked. Those kids, they just made the
rules and came to school, liked the teacher. He was, you know,
very likeable, and it worked fine until one day, Jimmy came
in and said, Teacher, I got bad news for you. I said, What is
it, son? He said, Somebody stole my lunch.
It's missing. Not in my desk. Oh boy. I got to do something now. So
he called them all in off the playground, sat them down and
said, now, somebody stole the lunch. And I want to know who
it is. I will find out who it is. So
you might as well confess. Quiet. Finally, one little old
boy held up his hand. He said, I stole the lunch. Teacher
told him to come down front. Well, he was real pitiful looking,
had on a pair of overalls, you know, an old coat, and it was
pinned together with a nail. I don't know if any of y'all
remember that, those days, you know, when you'd put it through
the buttonhole and stick a nail through there to hold it. He
looked real pitiful. He came down, and the teacher
said, Well, you see the rule? Yes, sir. See the punishment? Yes, sir. Bend over the desk,
take off your coat. I said, Don't make me take my
coat off. He said, Take off your coat. He took off his coat, and
you could see his little ribs. He looked so pitiful. He didn't
have a shirt on, no overalls, bib overalls. And he bent over
that table, and about half the school was fixing to cry. And
the teacher got that stick and raised it. And a boy said, Teacher! Don't you whip that boy. And
it was old Jimmy. God made the rules. He stood
up, said, don't you whip me. Jesus said, now Jimmy, this is
your law. You set it. You made it. Your
punishment. You decreed it. You decided it.
I'm going to punish you because I got to carry out the law. The
law has got to be satisfied. Justice has got to be done. If
we don't enforce the law and give this boy punishment for
breaking the law, all of those laws have to go. And the school's
gone. Here he came down now, and he's
taking his coat off. And he said it! And he said,
Teacher, don't whip that boy. Whip me. And he took little Billy and
pulled him off the table and got in his place. Teacher said,
All right. And he raised the stick and put
her ten times on Jimmy's back. Paid the debt. Satisfied the
law. The teacher was just, and yet
he did what he had to do. He was just and justified Billy. And when old Jimmy stood up,
having been caned, in Billy's place, Billy put his arms around
him and said, Thank you, Jimmy. Thank you for taking my licking.
Well, that's what this is saying. God, God's the lawgiver. God's the law enforcer. But God
has set him forth. himself, an expiator, one who
makes amends, one who pays the penalty, one who takes the blame,
one who moves the guilt, one who stands in the praise of,
and he bore my sin. That's the gospel. That's the gospel. Substitution.
Now then, could the teacher whip Benny after this? No. That would have been a catastrophe.
Oh, he couldn't do that. Death pay. Payment God's justice
cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding shirt, His
hand, then again at mine. What's wrong? God, whom God has set forth. I'm glad He opened these eyes.
Aren't you glad He opened your eyes? Aren't you glad? You young
people, aren't you glad your mama and daddy brought you to
hear the gospel? Aren't you glad that God in His
grace Reveal this gospel to you. There is no other gospel. This
is the gospel of God. It's the gospel that allows God
to be just and justify. This teacher couldn't set, he
couldn't set Billy free. The law's got to be, it's got
to be honored. You've got no use for judges
that turn criminals loose, that can be bribed. A judge has to
be just, and my God, the judge of all the earth will do right.
That's what Scripture says. Shall not the judge of all the
earth do right? He did. He did right by Christ.
And he'll do right by those who do not know Christ. Well, that's
it. That's the gospel. Let's sing
a hymn.

Whom Hath God Set Forth?

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Whom Hath God Set Forth?

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