You'll turn back to Isaiah 45. Let me read the text again. In the latter part of verse 21,
he says, There is no God else beside me, a just God and a Savior. There is none else beside me.
Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for
I am God, and there is none else. Charles Spurgeon, the, I suppose,
prince of preachers, that's what he's called, was raised in a
strict Reformed Presbyterian home. His grandfather was a Presbyterian
minister, a very strong minister of the grace of God. close-knit family. He was educated
in the scriptures and catechized in the creeds, confessions of
faith. But he couldn't find Christ.
He couldn't find peace. He couldn't find the joy that
they talked about in the scriptures and that believers talked about,
a rest in Christ. Just couldn't find it. He was
about 16 years of age. One cold, snowy Sunday morning,
he started for church, where he attended regularly. But the
weather was so bad and the snow was so deep that he saw that
he was not going to make it on time to the place where he worshiped. So he stopped off in a little
primitive Methodist chapel. just a very small building, probably
seat 50, 60 people. The pastor was not there that
morning because of the weather, and a man spoke who they called
a lay preacher. I'm not crazy about that term.
I suppose you aren't either. Anyone who handles effectively
the Word of God is a preacher, whether he's clergy, laity, or
whatever. But that morning, a man was standing
in for the pastor, and he was speaking from this passage of
scripture in Isaiah 45, 22. Look unto me. Look unto me. He kept saying that. Spurgeon
said he wasn't an educated man, he wasn't a prepared man. He
was speaking for the pastor on a sudden notice. He was doing
his best, but Spurgeon said he was speaking from God to my heart. There weren't many people there,
and he said, he looked back right at me, and he said, young man,
you look miserable. Look to Christ and be made whole. And Spurgeon said, as he kept
emphasizing the object of faith, the Lord Jesus Christ, he said,
God enabled me by his Spirit that morning to really look to
Christ. And the way of life was open for me, the way of redemption
was revealed to me, the person of Christ became real to me,
and God saved me. God redeem me. And Spurgeon spoke
from this scripture so many times all over Europe, he just made
everybody conscious of Isaiah 45, 22. Everybody's conscious
of Isaiah 45, 22. Look unto me, and be ye saved,
all the ends of the earth. I am God, there's none else.
That's Christ speaking. He was baptized and became a
Baptist preacher. His mother, who was a Presbyterian,
there was a Young Presbyterian boy heard the gospel in a primitive
Methodist chapel and became a Baptist preacher. And his grandmother
said to him later, she said, son, I was praying that God would
save you, but I wasn't praying that he'd make you a Baptist.
And he was always a wit and always had something to come back with.
He said, well, grandmother, you got more than you prayed for,
didn't you? But you know, as we think about this scripture,
and as I looked at the scripture, I felt moved toward this scripture
for the message this morning, I saw that in verse 20 he talked
about people praying to gods that can't save, praying to gods
that can't save. They don't have the power to
save, nor the will to save, nor the purpose to save. And this
can be applied not only to people who pray to graven images. This
can be applied to people who pray to a spiritual being who
does not have the power, nor the purpose, nor the will to
say. Now, don't confine this just to the heathen in Africa
or to the Romans in Catholicism who prayed to idols and false
gods and images and so forth. This can be applied to people
who bow their heads and look at no image and no idol. But
they pray to their own created image of God, a God who does
not have the power to do what he will do. And then there's
no God beside me, but there's a phrase, what I'm getting to
is this. Right here in verse 21, there's a phrase I want you
to underscore, either literally in your Bibles or at least in
your minds if you don't want to mark your Bible, but there's
a phrase, and I believe it's in essence the theme of the whole
Bible, a just God and a Savior. A just God and a Savior. This sums up in one sentence
the very theme of the Bible. Let's see if I can make that
good. God is just. He is a just God. Let's just
swing the pendulum over here as far as we can. and talk about
God's holiness, God's immaculate, eternal holiness. God is just. The judge of the earth will do
right. In him there's no darkness, no bearableness, nor shadow of
turning. He will in no wise clear the
guilty. God will deal with things as
they are. It's not gray with God, it's
black or white. God is just and holy and righteous,
unapproachable, incomprehensible. God is just. But lest a pendulum
swing all the way over here, he said he and, not but, he is
a just God. And, I say and. Every word here
is just filled with meaning. He is a just God, righteous,
unmovable. Almighty God is holy. And he
is a Savior. God is love. God is merciful. God is gracious. He is a Savior. God will punish sin. God will
forgive sin. God will deal in justice. And God will deal in mercy. If you can get hold of this,
believe me, you'll know the gospel. You'll be a theologian if you
can get hold of this truth. Now, here's what I'm saying.
Adam, God said in the day you eat, you die. There is no appeal,
there is no debate, there is no petition, eat and die. God is a just God. Adam is cast out of the Garden.
But Adam goes forth with the promise of a Savior. That's what
I'm talking about. Almighty God, it says, God said,
God looked down from heaven and saw that every imagination of
man's heart was only evil continually. God said, I'll destroy man, I'll
wipe him off the face of the earth, I'll destroy every creature. And he sent a flood, a devastating
flood that wiped man off the face of this earth. But riding
on the crest of that water of judgment is an art. God is just,
God will punish sin, and God is a Savior. God is a Savior. From Mount Sinai, covered with
clouds of smoke and lightning and the revelation of the glory
of God, so that the people of Israel backed away in fear and
couldn't look upon that mountain. God spoke his holy law, his holy
law, his law that will not break and will not bend, his holy requirements
for every creature in his kingdom. But right down there in the valley
is a tabernacle. And in that tabernacle there
is an ark with that law God gave, all broken because of man's inability,
man's flesh. But on top of that art is a mercy
seat where the Shekinah glory of God is revealed, and there's
blood on that mercy seat. There's an atonement. There's
mercy. I'm a just God and a Savior. I'll take you to Calvary's cross,
and hanging on that cross is God's own Son. You ask me, will
God punish sin? Who's on that cross? You stand
and look at that cross and you see that's God's Son. That's
God's dearest and best. That's God's well-beloved, only
begotten. That's the apple of his eye.
And he's there not for his own sins. He's there with imputed
sin. He's there bearing the sin of
another, my sin and your sin. But God's judgment and wrath
falls upon him, for he cries, My God, why hast thou forsaken
me? Why isst thou forsaken me? Will
God punish sin? At Calvary, as nowhere else,
you see the justice of God. God is just. God is holy. God is righteous. He is spared,
not his own son. You can't see God's justice anymore
in Eden or the flood or Sodom and Gomorrah. You can't see it
nearly as clearly as you do at Calvary. God will punish sin. Will God punish my sin? He sent
his son to death, pleased him to bruise him. You mean my dear
old grandmother, that dear old soul, who worked so hard, and
who labored so hard, and who just gave herself four or ten
children, and stayed in the kitchen over a hot stove, worked in the
garden, minded her own business, and this, that? You mean to tell
me that without Christ, God sent her to hell? Sent his son to
hell. I don't know any better proof.
Christ bore hell. But I'm your son. Now, wait a
minute, Father. I'm the apple of your eye. I
was with you when you laid the foundations of the earth. I was
daily your delight going out and coming in before thee. I
was your pride and joy. Sin is going to be punished.
I don't care if sin is in your grandmother or you or Jesus Christ,
God is going to punish That's what Calvary said. It just doesn't
matter. I'm telling you, I'm laying that
out as clear as I can lay it out. God is just. God is just. I think sometimes,
I just, I think about this. We see kind, compassionate people
who are seemingly so generous, they adopt children into their
homes, they mother children, they're kind to their neighbor,
they fix meals, they give people jobs, they work their fingers
to the bone, and so forth and so on, and here and there and
then. We say, well, surely God wouldn't send a man like that
to hell. I just know he's a just God. That's all I know. I know
we're not playing tiddlywinks with some old granddaddy with
his tongue in his cheek up there. I know that by the cross. That's his son on that cross.
He spared not his own son, neither will he spare you and me. God
is just. But I tell you, I see something
else at the cross. God is a Savior. God is love. He sent his Son
to redeem people like you and me. That's why he died. Now,
how are you going to escape if you neglect so great salvation
if you miss faith in his Son? If God sends his Son, then we're
really lost. If God sends his Son, then sin
will be punished. If God sends his Son, then this
thing of salvation is the most important thing for God to accomplish. And if God sends his Son and
you miss his Son, there's no other way. That's what I'm saying.
That's how clear-cut and how serious it is. That's the theme
of the Bible. I want you to turn to the book
of Job, chapter 9. Now, this is the age-old question
that has occupied the thoughts of men of all ages who really
know this just character of God and this sinful character of
men. How can God be a just God and
a Savior? That's what we want to know.
How can He be a just God? How can God deal? strictly in
justice and righteousness and holiness with our sins. A just
God. And at the same time, forgive,
pardon, put away our sins, and justify us in his presence as
if we had no sin. That's plagued men who know anything
about God. That's asked in the book of Job
three or four times. Look at Job 9.2. I know it's
so of a truth, Job said. But how can man be just with
God? How is it possible for God to
be a just God and a justifier, a just God and a Savior? How? Look at Job 15, verse 14. This
is so important. We're striking at the very root
of this matter, Job 15, 14. What is man that he should be
clean, and he which is born of a woman that he should be righteous?
You say, does he have to be clean and righteous to have anything
to do with God? He does. Man's got to be perfect, as holy
as God. Well, how is that possible? Verse
15, he puts no trust in his saints. The heavens are not clean in
God's sight. How much more abominable and filthy is man? who drinks
iniquity like the water." And then Job 25, this is a scripture
I've used so many times in preaching here, in which Bildad asks the
question, verse 4, how then can man be just with God? How? How can he be clean, this born
of a woman? How? How can God? I am, he declares,
a just God. and a Savior. I am just and justified. And all these men are saying,
how, how, how? That's what I'm asking today.
How, how, how? How can he? How can he? How can
he? Well, turn to Romans 3. That's
the very heart of the gospel. Romans 3. And let me just rehearse
this in your hearing one more time. In Romans 3. beginning
with verse 19, Romans 3, 19. This is the very heart of the
gospel. I'm saying I am a just God and a Savior. I'm saying that's the theme of
the Bible. I'm saying that men who have any understanding of
God's holiness and man's sinfulness have been asking this question
for years. And I'm saying this is the heart of the gospel, Romans
3, verse 19. Listen. Now, we know, this is
what we know, that what thingsoever God's law saith, It saith to
them who are under the law." Now, who's that? That's every
son of Adam. This is the law of God's universe.
Are you in God's universe? This is the law of God's world.
Are you in God's world? This is the law given to his
creatures. Are you his creature? Then you're
under his law. And what does the law do? It
says that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world become
guilty. Guilty. I wish I could say that
word like I heard it one time and just send cold chills up
and down your back. Guilty. Guilty. Guilty. I attended a trial in
Japan. It was a war crimes trial back
in 1945 when I was in the Navy. The war was just over and we
landed in Japan. They were mopping up and cleaning
up all of this confusion that existed after the war. They were
trying some Japanese officers who had mistreated Allied prisoners. I dropped in on the last day
of a trial in Tokyo, and there was a young Japanese officer
on trial who had brought, according to what they told me, people
that had been there the whole time. of witnesses about his
atrocities against American servicemen and other servicemen. And this
was the last day, and they'd summed up their arguments, and
they had six American officers sitting up here on a tribunal,
some kind of judge's seat. There were six high-ranking officers,
colonels and majors. And the courtroom was clammy
and cold, and you realize the importance of this thing. This
young man was sitting there in front of these men. They'd come
in, sat down, and they told him to stand. And he got to his feet
very rigidly, but I know inside he must have been a torn-up whirlwind. And his family was sitting back
there weeping, and we were all seated around. And the judge,
the fellow in charge, hit the gavel, you know, and it was so
quiet. He said, we find you guilty. Guilty. Guilty. And my, I just, I just, it was
so impressive. And then he said, the decision
of this court is you hang by your neck till you're dead. If I remember correctly, I never
wrote all this down, but they said, take him away. And two
servicemen came and took him by the arm, and they laid him
out, and I got up and went out. And they put him in a jeep and
whisked him away. And that is just, you know how
things stick in your mind, that's just stuck in my mind through
these years. Guilty. Take him away, bind him hand
and foot, and cast him into hell. God is a just God. Guilty. That's
what it says. I tell you, before God, there's
two of the key words in this passage. The law, the law of
God, the unchangeable law of God says every mouth just shut
up, there's no alibis, there's no excuse, there's no appeal
for us. Guilty, guilty before God, before
God. Therefore, because of our guilt
by the deeds of the law, by the works of the flesh, by decisions,
by Granny's goodness and by Daddy's diligence, by
religious men's so-called self-righteousness, shall no flesh, no flesh, no
flesh, I don't care how old it is, whether it's Jew or Gentile,
rich or poor, old or young, no flesh by the deeds of the law
shall no flesh be justified in his sight. That's the key, in
his sight. I know we justify ourselves before
ourselves and before others. We can find a reason about everything
we do, and we can give a reason. That's the most amazing thing
in the world, how good we are at justifying what we do and
what we say and what we think, and our attitude and these things.
We justify ourselves first to ourselves, we get all these reasons
and explain them to ourselves, and then we effectively explain
it to others. He's a just God, and God is not
mocked, and God is not persuaded, he's not convinced. He says,
let every mouth be stopped, and all the world become just plain
guilty before God, guilty before God. You're not going to get
anywhere until you get right there, just where that young Japanese officer
was. Guilty! Ain't no use mama crying, no
use anybody saying, guilty! No flesh is going to be justified
in his sight, none. But, listen, now, but, right
now, the righteousness of God, the holiness of God, not his
essential holiness, but that which he's purposed and that
which he's planned and that which he's designated for men, that
holiness that he has provided, that righteousness without the
law, without any obedience to the law on my part. Without any
consideration of the law on my part, without any submission
to the law on my part, it is manifested, it's out there, it's
revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophet. It's
even the righteousness of God, that's what it is. There is a
holiness, there is a righteousness. And it's by faith, by the faith
of Jesus Christ. It's not talking about my faith
there, it's talking about his faithfulness and his faith and
his obedience and his work. Even that righteousness which
is by the faith of Jesus Christ, and it's unto all and it's among
everybody that believes. It's our righteousness. There's
no difference. We've all sinned and come short
of his glory. But we're freely justified, freely,
freely, by the grace, His grace, by His grace, through the redemption. What does that word redemption
mean? It means to buy back. It means to pay the price and
to buy it back. If I take this watch down there
to that pawn shop with the three little balls hanging outside,
I said, I'm desperately in need of money. He says, well, that
doesn't look like it's worth much. It's pretty old, you know,
but I'll give you five dollars for it. Okay, give me the five.
And he hangs it up in the window, and he puts a price on it, five
dollars. And I come back later with my
ticket and with my money, and I say, that's my watch there.
How much is it? He said, five dollars. I said,
I'll pay it. And when I pay it, I redeem it.
Isn't that what redemption is? It's mine. And that's what we
have in Christ's name. There's a price on our heads.
There's a price on that Japanese boy's head, a price of death. He broke the law, he was guilty,
he had to die. And a just judge sentenced him
and a just executioner will take him out and kill him. There's
a price on his head. And you can't have him unless
the price is paid. Then you're welcome to his dead
body. Mom won't have him back now because he's met the law
and fulfilled it." Well, we can't do that. That's hell. But Christ
met the law, and we're redeemed in Christ Jesus, verse 25. Now
watch this. "...whom God hath set forth,
whom God hath foreordained, whom God hath anointed to be a propitiation,
to be a mercy-seeker." He is our mercy-seeker. He is our Passover. He is our blood atonement. through
faith in his blood, in his blood, to declare his righteousness,
his righteousness, not ours, his, for the remission of sins
of the past. Who's that? That's Abraham and
Moses and David. That's sins of the Old Testament
people, sins that are in the past through the forbearance
of God. All the time that Israel, the people, Abraham and Isaac
and Jacob and all of them, Christ was their Savior, too. They were
looking to his coming. And God provided this propitiation
for their sins, too, and for our sins, read on, to declare,
I say it this time, God's righteousness, that he might be just, just,
that he might be just, and, not but, and the justifier. David, that word is so important,
A-N-D. You say you're making a play
on words. No. God being God cannot do anything contrary to his attributes,
contrary to his character. So if he's going to forgive and
justify sinners and accept them, he's got to do it in a way that
is, that, in a way that is, that, that emphasizes his attributes,
in complete concord or accord with his holiness. I am a just
God, and I'm going to change that, and a Savior. And everybody, well, how can
he be just and justify? How can he be just and forgive
me in Christ? Now, that's the reason you come
to the next verse now, Isaiah 45, 22. That's when we come to
this verse, look unto me. Now, let me give you three points
in winding this up. I am a just God. I am a just
God and a Savior. And that's when he says, and
there's none else beside me, there's none other name given
unto heaven whereby we must be saved. There's no other way. Somebody says, well, heaven's
a great city and we're all going there, we're just traveling a
different road. No, sir, there's none else. Other foundations
can no man lay. The only way that God can be
a just God and a Savior is for Christ to fulfill our righteousness
in personal obedience and fulfill God's justice in dying. That's
the reason he says, look unto me, as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,
that whosoever looketh or believeth on him." That's the gospel. I
ask three questions, to whom are we to look? He doesn't say,
look to the law. Brethren, all I can see in the
law is condemnation. Do you see anything else? All
I can see in the law is a revelation of my sins. He said, Tell me
you that desire to be under the law. Do you not hear the law?
Do you not hear the law? It's not, Look to the church.
It's not, Look to your religion. There's a passage over here in
Isaiah 1 where God tells Israel, he's weary, he's tired of their
doings, he's tired of their tradition. In Isaiah 1 he said, to what
purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices? I'm full of your
burnt offerings and your rams and your fed beasts. I delight
not in the blood of bullocks, and lambs of heath goats." He
said in verse 13, your Sabbaths and your new moons and your assemblies,
they are iniquity, I'm sick of them! Sick of them! It's not
looked to the Church or religion, it's not looked to your works,
it's not by works of righteousness which we've done. And let me
say this right here, it's not even looked to your faith. Don't
look to your faith. I want to see if I'm saved. Now,
I'll go back here to my experience and I'll go over it again. Did
I do this? Did I do that? You're making a serious mistake.
You're looking to your faith. You're looking to your decision.
You're looking to your works. You're looking to something you've
done. You're looking in the wrong direction. He says, look to me. Look to
Christ. If you want evidence of salvation,
if you want evidence of your relationship with God, don't
look even, don't look to the Lord or look to the Church, don't
look to your baptism, don't look to experience. Well, was I saved
when I was baptized? Was I saved when this? Well,
you better quit that. Now, he says, look to me. Look
to me. I can't emphasize that too strongly.
It's look to Christ. Look to Christ. Look to Christ
how? Well, let me give you this. Personally, I look to Christ
as my covenant surety. I know this is high doctrine,
they call it. This is theology. They say, don't
preach doctrine, preach Christ. All right. But I look to Christ
as my eternal surety. Back before the foundation of
the world, God made a covenant, and Christ is the surety of that
covenant, and his blood is the blood of that covenant. I look
to Christ as my covenant surety. I look to Christ incarnate in
Bethlehem's manger, who is that? That's none other than the Son
of God. I believe that. I believe that that's the Son
of God. I believe that just like Simeon said, mine eyes have seen
thy salvation. I believe that. I believe that. I looked to him walking on this
earth, that man in flesh, that man bone of my bone and flesh
of my flesh, that man who walked by Galilee, that man who fed
the people in Capernaum, that man who healed the sick, that
man who spoke, that man who said, I and my Father one, that's none
other than my representative, that's God Almighty in human
flesh. That man, that perfect, pure, holy man, I believed that,
and I looked to him. And that man on the cross, hanging
between heaven and earth, that mass of flesh that's been so
abused and doesn't even look like a man, with blood running
down his face and spittle on his beard and his bones poured
out like water, hanging between heaven and earth, forsaken, deserted,
denied. That's my Redeemer. He died for my sins. And I look
to him where that tomb, that rock is rolled away, and he walked
out of that tomb. And the angel said, he's not
here, he's risen. That's my risen Lord, justified. And he's ascended to the right
hand of God where he ever lived to make intercession for me.
That's what I mean by looking to Christ. I look to him. I don't look to an experience
or a decision or a baptism. We come to a place where we do
understand these things as God reveals them, we do believe on
Christ, we do confess Him, and we do take the Lord's name, we
do preach Him, we do praise Him, we do sing praises to His name.
But my salvation and hope and the evidence thereof is not looking
to any of these things. I'm looking to Him from eternity
to eternity. In all that He is, in all that
He did, in all that He's doing, Christ is my Redeemer. Is that
clear? He said, I am a just God. Now,
you whine around and alibi, and I just don't believe God will
send people there. I am a just God. I wish I could
emphasize it. I wish I could get it. I am a
just God. And praise God, I'm a Savior.
And the only place you will meet, where it doesn't meet, Righteousness
and peace. Turn to Psalm 85 just a moment.
I want to show you something here. You need to underline this
in your Bible. These are tremendous verses,
tremendous. Psalm 85, verse 10, mercy and
truth. Mercy and truth are met together. Where on earth? Righteousness
and peace have kissed That means they're in love, that means they're
reconciled, that righteousness and peace. God will deal in righteousness
with sin. God will deal in peace. How? They kissed at Calvary, that's
where it was. All the love that drew salvation's
plan. Oh, the grace that brought it
down to man. Oh, the mighty guff that God
did span. What guff? The guff between perfect
holiness and rotten sin. The guff between His justice
and His mercy. He spanned it at Calvary. That's
where it was. That's the reason the Apostle
Paul came to this world preaching. He said, he came to these cities
and he said, I'm determined not to know anything among you save
Jesus Christ and him crucified. Now brethren, I said, if we can
take a man to Calvary, he'll learn all he needs to learn there.
That's where doctrine, that's where theology, that's where
godliness, that's where holiness, that's where love, that's where
everything's learned at Calvary. And a man who doesn't manifest
these things just hadn't been there. Look unto me, all right,
what's this? The results of looking. What
is the results of looking? And be saved. And be saved. Now, Bradley, listen to me, please.
I've never found it necessary to depart from scriptural language.
I know it's a new day. I know this is a new generation.
I know we're a whole lot smarter than our forefathers, and I know
you've got to speak to this day in a contemporary fashion. You've
got to do it differently. You can't be like Paul, so exacting. You can't be like the old-timers
of the past. You've got to adapt to this generation. You hear that all the time. Well, let me tell you this. God
is still the same. Sin is still the same. Men are
just as lost. Death is just as certain. And
judgment is just as sure, and hell is just as terrible, eternity
is just as long, and salvation is just as necessary, and the
way of salvation is still Christ. I don't know any other way to
put it. That's just the way it is. I
don't know why we have to adjust. He said, look unto me and be
S-A-D-E-D-C. Well, what does being saved mean?
It means to be righteous before the law. That's what it means,
to be perfectly righteous before the law. That's in Christ. He
who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be righteous
before God. To be saved means to be justified
before God. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. Justified by Christ. To be saved
is to be a new creature. Ruth came to her mother-in-law
and she said, where you go, I go. Where you lodge, I lodge. Your
God is my God. Where you die, I'll die. And
where you're buried, that's where I'm buried. That's a believer.
That's a believer's relationship with his Lord. I'm yours inseparably,
eternally, I'm yours. I belong to you. Everything I
have belongs to you. And where you go, I go. Where
you lodge, I lodge. A new creature. To be saved is
to be a son of God. To be a son of God. Now, here's
one other thing I want to give you, and I'll close. Right here
in verse 22, he says, look to me. Here's the key. I'm a just
God and a Savior. So you can look to me. You can
look to me. Justice has been met. Righteousness
has been honored. The law has been satisfied. And
be saved, all the ends of the earth. That means everybody will
look. Here's the encouragement to look, for I am God, and there's
none else. There's nowhere else to look.
I'm God. Let me ask you a question. Who
can forgive sin but God? Sin is against God. So if the
terms of forgiveness are laid down, he lays them down. If the
way of mercy is set forth, he sets it forth. He says, you look
to me and be saved, for I am God, and there's nowhere else
to look. That's the first question. Who
can forgive sin? That's the reason he said, Bob,
look to me, for I'm God, for I am God, and there's nowhere
else. So you can look to me. I have the power, I have the
ability, I have the ransom, I have the willingness, for I am God,
so look to me. Here's a second question. How
can he do this? He said he's a just God and a
Savior. He can do it in Christ, and that's the only way, and
I want to be careful saying this, the only way that even God can
forgive sin and reconcile sinners is in the crucified redeemer.
That's the only way that God can be just and just. I can't
justify myself. I can't justify myself. Men can't
justify them. He can. How is he able to do
it? In the person of his son. That's
how. And now that will bring me to
my message tonight on who can condemn. Now watch this. If that
young Japanese boy had appealed to another court, a higher court,
and that higher court had justified him, acquitted him, then there's
nothing anybody could say. In other words, if he went to
a higher court and that higher court acquitted him, then there's
nothing anyone can bring against him, no charge they can bring
against him. Well, what's the highest court in the universe?
It's God. God's throne, God's throne, that's
the highest court. That's where I've been justified. at the highest court. It doesn't
matter what Satan says, or what the angels say, or what man says,
or what my own heart says. I've been justified and acquitted
and reconciled by the highest court. It is therefore no charge can
be laid to me or to any of God's elect. God justified us at the
highest court. So he says, you look to me and
be saved. All the ends are there, for I'm
God. And there's no one else. No one else to whom to look,
and there's no one else who can condemn. There's no one else
who can say anything. There's no one else who can bring
any charge. You're not dealing with anyone. But Satan bothers
me. He's not even in this picture. There's none else. See what I'm
trying to say? And there's none else. Look,
look, look, look. Not work, look. Not strive, look. Work, to me, and be seen. Reconcile, justify, pardon, right
to be saved, all ends there, for I'm God. I'm the one that
gives forgiveness. And when you look to me, there's
no one else to consider. Not what they think, not what
they suppose, not even your own heart. Nobody in heaven or the
hell. It's the highest court. I'm looking to Him. I'm looking
to Him. Right now, I'm looking to Christ.
Are you? Can you? Barney said, if you
can, do. If you can. Our Father, honor the word. This
is the way. Lord God of heaven and earth,
thou art a just God. I know thou art immaculately,
eternally holy. Your word says so. Our consciences
say so. You are a holy God, just God.
And yet it says, and I am a Savior. Now, I don't want to deal with
your justice. I want Christ to deal with your
justice. I don't want justice. We don't want what's coming to
us. Lord, we want to deal with you as a Savior, a Savior, a
merciful Lord, a forgiving Father. a tender shepherd in Christ Jesus. Give us faith to look to Christ.
Lord, take away these tendencies on our part to argue and to reconcile
and to justify and to offer our excuses, but this, that and the
other. Lord, take all this out of us
and just give us that desire to look, that will to look, that
encouragement to look unto Christ. eternal surety, our crucified
Redeemer, our reigning High Priest. Look to him and him alone and
find the peace and joy that comes from looking to Christ, looking
to Christ. He is our hope. We say, oh, wretched
man that I am, what a sinner, but yet thanks be unto Christ
for the victory that he gives us in his sacrifice. Lord, if it please you this morning,
give faith to look to Christ. Give everybody here that saving
faith, that confidence in Christ Jesus. Shut our mouths, strip
us, bring us down into the dust. Right now, spiritually, empty
us. Empty us. We've got to be empty.
Strip us. and turn our eyes away from ourselves,
within, without, and turn our eyes upward to look to Christ
on the throne, in the manger, on the cross, and on the throne
as our intercessor. Christ alone. We pray this for
his sake and in his name. Amen.