The Gospel
Over the next few weeks, Lord willing, we will be examining Covenant Theology as a whole. I believe the primary purpose of the Bible is, first, to reveal to us who God is, and second, to reveal to us the Covenants He has made with mankind in general and, particularly, with His own chosen people. Through the course of human history God has always had one singular plan, and God has used all sorts of means and methods, from lock-jawed lions to talking donkeys to envious brethren and treacherous kings to accomplish this plan. Before delving into Covenant Theology proper, however, I would like to spend this morning examining that great acropolis of God’s Will and Plan, and the Foundation of our Christian faith, which is The Gospel itself.
The word “Gospel” comes from the Greek Word “euangelion” which literally means “Good News”. Before we can understand “Good News”, however, we must first comprehend something of the “Bad News”. If you are unaware that your house is on fire, you will never call the in the firemen. You may even be asleep in the burning building; yet be blissfully unaware of your dire circumstance. This is the very case with most today. False preachers at every hand are there to
proclaim, “Peace, peace, where there is no peace.” We drink down iniquity as if it were water, and being so continually surrounded by sin in this world and continuing in our very own personal sin, come to view sin, for the most part, as a rather light matter; and to view ourselves, notwithstanding our sin, as yet being quite alright people in the Eyes of our Maker. On a humanistic level, of course, in dealing with our fellow man, it is good to recall Ecclesiastes 7:20, that , "There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not." None of us are without fault and we must each of us live according to Christ's maxim, "Judge not, lest ye be judged." On a man-to-man level, we may very well consider certain individuals to be "good people" and certain others to be "bad people." This morning, however, I am not here to compare your life and your righteousness with any other man's. 2 Corinthians 10:12 says that some "measure themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise." I am not here this morning to compare your life to any man's standard. I am here to show you that God will and must hold you accountable to His own perfect standard- a standard of total holiness and complete moral perfection. Everywhere men are of the opinion that God is someone very much like themselves- a somewhat more perfected version of themselves to be sure; but after all, still very much like themselves. We think, “Surely God can tolerate our human imperfection,” and never do we consider the absolute heinousness of our sin. Much like a fish would never pause to consider how he is wet, being so continuously submerged in water. Or to be more crude; but more accurate, much like a man who cleaned outhouses all day would no longer realize how awful he smells. To such I read from Psalm 50, where God Himself says, “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.” John 3:17-18 says, “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” A good fireman, when called upon, does not go to create a fire and then extinguish it to save the lives of those inside. Even so Christ did not enter into a pristine world or a world where everyone was on the way to Heaven. Rather, Christ entered into a fallen world, a world undone by its own malice and wickedness, a world that was desperately in need of a Saviour.
The “Bad News” we must understand is found all throughout Scripture. Romans 5 famously speaks to us of Adam, our first parent and representative. The "Bad News" is, that as Adam disobeyed, so has every last one of his progeny. Romans 5:12 tells us, “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Psalm 14 tells us, "There is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Romans 3 quotes this passage and says, "As it is written, There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Though our sin seem slight to us, in the eyes of the Great, Almighty, Holy God our sins are damning, bringing upon ourselves God's indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon the soul of every man that doeth evil. Isaiah 64:6 even tells us that not only are our sins damning; but even "Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags."
One of the strongest reasons we are able to so excuse our own sin is that we have a false view of God. We do not recognize just how holy He is. You may recall Isaiah's vision in Isaiah 6, "In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of host." Any man who once glimpses the truth of God's holiness cannot but feel the depths of his own depravity. For us in our natural state to recognize the Majesty, Glory, and Holiness of God is not at all something that will cause us to rejoice and be exceeding glad. Far from that, to view God in Scripture as He truly is will necessarily cause us to see ourselves as exceedingly vile, and we will all cry out with Isaiah, "Woe is me! for I am undone!"
We have forgotten the truth of Hebrews 10:31, " It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
Though God has been incredibly merciful, and incomparably long-suffering towards us, the truth remains that ever since the day Adam ate of that forbidden fruit, ours has been a sin-cursed, and death-filled race living out our short years in a cursed world. God told Adam , "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." That warning was not made idly. Adam did die that day, for in that day there was a vast separation made between him and God. From that day forward man has been at enmity with God. Rather than being the children of God, as most men naturally assume we all are, the Bible tells us the opposite. Any one of us in our natural-born condition could be told by Jesus what He told the Pharisees in John 8:41-45, "Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God. ; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not." Rather than mankind being by nature the children of God, Ephesians 2: verse 3 tells us that by nature we are children of God's wrath. Rather than all humanity being by nature the children of God, John 1:12 says, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."
We only see the true nature of our sin when we honestly behold ourselves, not in our own imagined good light, and not, as it were, in the mirror of this world's low standards; but when we look into the mirror of the Word of God. It is in God's standards and in God's Law that we see ourselves as we truly are. For what reason do you suppose God gave us the Ten Commandments? If you are like most, you will say, "In order that we might better know right from wrong." You may even say, "In order that we might please God." While there are elements of truth contained in both these answers, the primary purpose of God's Law is not that we might know how to do justly; but that we might see just how hopelessly wicked, how truly guilty, we already are. Like a mirror, God's Law, and even our own God-given consciences, have within themselves no solution to our greatest problem, in the Law is no balm of healing to be found whatsoever. Like a mirror, all that God's Law does, is to show us what is already the case, to show us that we are indeed very great sinners. Therefore Romans 3:19-20 says, "Now we know that what things soever the Law saith, it saith to them who are under the Law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin."
To go even deeper into this bad news, the Bible says not only that you are a sinner; but also that "The wages of sin is death." This "Death" is a separation, not from the very Presence of God, for God is omnipresent. There is no place on earth, Heaven, or hell where God is not. But death is a separation from the favourable Presence of God, as Revelation 14:10-11 says of certain men who died in their sins, "The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night." The Bible says of death in Hebrews 9:27 "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment." Revelation 20:14-15 says that the day will come wherein, "Death and hell were cast in to the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." As our sin is against an infinitely good, infinitely worthy God, so is our sin worthy, even demanding, of an infinite punishment. More than anyone else in the Bible, Jesus warned time and time again of Hell, of Hell's reality, of its torment, of its eternal relentlessness. These are the things that constitute, "Death." Even as Christ said in John 17:3 that eternal life is to know God, so eternal death is to be under God's wrath.
(14 Minute Mark)
All this so far has been to show you the Bad News that you are a sinner at enmity with God, and on the broad way that leads to destruction. I hope that now you are able to appreciate something of why the Gospel truly is such "Good News."
The "Good News" is that though we were in bondage under the elements of the world, " When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.," as Galatians 4 puts it. Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, took on flesh and became man. This God-man, the man Christ Jesus, did what Adam did not do, and what we in our sinful nature could never do: He lived a life of total moral perfection, and obeyed perfectly every command of God. Comparing Jesus to Adam, Romans 5:19 says, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life. by Jesus Christ our Lord." Christ lived a totally upright life. Where Adam fell, Christ stood fast. Whereas Adam disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, Jesus obeyed God in the Garden of Gethsemane. Where Adam brought death and condemnation, Christ brought life and justification.
The reason for Christ's coming as man and living His perfectly upright life was that, as the Lamb of God, He might lay down His perfect life as a ransom for many. God is not a wicked Judge- He cannot merely overlook sin. To be absolutely Just and to be absolutely Holy means that no sin at all can be tolerated. Regardless of God's love for us, He cannot simply sweep our sin under the rug. Any earthly judge who withheld just punishment towards a thief or a murderer or any such thing could not justly overlook his crimes, regardless of whether or not the judge loved the criminal. Even if the criminal were the judge's own beloved son, still justice would require retribution. So God cannot remain just if He merely overlooks our sin, as Proverbs 17:15 states, "He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord." Likewise Hebrews 9:22 says that there is no remission of sins without the shedding of blood. This is why Christ died on that cross- that rather than our sins being merely overlooked, they were borne by the only One who could ever bear so infinitely awful a burden.
The truth is, ultimately, it wasn't the Romans who killed Jesus, nor was it the Jews; but as Isaiah 53 tells us, "It pleased the Lord to bruise him." Christ stated in John 10, "I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father."
Can you see Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, alone and praying to His Father that, if possible, He would remove that cup from Him? See Matthew 26, where Jesus prays, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." And again He prays, "O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done." Do you suppose in yourselves that such anxiety was raised in the Heart of our Lord because this "Cup" was full of the cruel nature of a Roman whip, a crown of thorns, and a cross? Was the cup so awful to Christ because it was filled with such severe physical suffering and His abandonment and betrayal at the hands of men? If you think so, I would refer you to Foxe's Book of Martyrs, or even to modern-day church history, where thousands of Christians have given up their lives for the sake of God's Gospel. Many Christians during the reign of Nero even suffered the agonies of a similar Roman cross, and not a few of these Christians went rejoicing and singing songs of praise to God! Do you suppose that the followers of Christ were unafraid of the very thing which caused Christ Himself to sweat as it were great drops of blood? What was it, then, that was in this great cup that Christ would fain have passed by rather than drink? We have read of it already today in Revelation 14. It was "The wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation." It is the cup written of in prophecy long ago in Jeremiah 25, "Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad." "Drink! And be drunken! and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you."
We find all throughout the Old Testament time and time again, pictures, great pictures, types and shadows of Christ who was to come. We see in Joshua's conquering of Canaan an actual historical event most certainly; but greater still, we see a foreshadowing of a greater Joshua who was to come. We see in the Exodus from Egypt an actual historical event; but we also see a foreshadowing of a greater Exodus to come. Likewise we see the sacrificial lamb as pointing to that one great Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. In similar vein, I hope this morning that you will realize that the Roman's many implements of torture and cruelty were hard to bear, and they were very bloody things; but they were merely a physical reality pointing to something much more horrifying indeed. You say that you have seen Christ suffering without the gate, blood streaming down His Face, which itself has been beaten to a point where you couldn't even recognize Him, you have seen Him whipped and lacerated so that you can see His bones and you have seen him hanging there by a nail in each Hand and one through His feet, so that the only way He can breathe is to raise Himself by means of those nails, take a deep breath and drop back down, all the while being mocked by those who pass by, wagging their heads at Him and saying, "He saved others; himself He cannot save. If He be the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him." I would have you know that once you have seen all that- brother you haven't seen the half of it. You haven't seen the half it. All that you have seen is still but a type and a shadow- you have seen only what the physical eye can see. I tell you this morning what Galatians 3:13 tells us, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us." 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." On that cross, not only was Christ being tortured by humanity; but Isaiah 53:10 says, "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; he hath put Him to grief." On that cross, when the sun refused to shine for three hours, and Christ called out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" God was placing all the sins of His people upon His only begotten Son and Christ suffered the agony of Hell, the fulness of God's just wrath! The full measure of punishment that we would have borne for eternity in Hell, Christ as the infinite Son of God of God bore to the full. As 1 Peter 2:24 says, "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye are healed." This is why our Saviour Jesus Christ had to take on flesh- that He might as a man fully identify with us and as a man live perfectly in our stead on this earth and in our stead die the death. One reason why our Saviour had also to be God Himself- because only God could bear such great, infinite suffering! The suffering finally being accomplished Christ cried out, "It is finished!" and He gave up the ghost.
Of course we know this is not how the story ends. Three days later, Christ arose. Death was not an original feature of God's creation. Death exists only because of sin. Christ, having paid the wages of sin in full, as no mere mortal, created being ever could, death had no more hold over Him. Hebrews 2: 14 says, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." Christ having defeated death through death, having paid in full that awful debt, we may now rejoice with Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:55, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." If Christ's awful death was the winning of the great war against the penalty of sin which Christ waged and won on behalf of everyone who believes, then the resurrection was the hoisting of the victory flag!
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Today you can be saved if you will simply look upon Christ and live. Rather than attempt to please God by your own deeds, you must simply accept, as a small child accepts a gift, the perfect righteousness of God, the righteousness which Christ lived out on your behalf and offers to you freely! You cannot do anything to earn your salvation or even to help earn it. Salvation is a free gift. Salvation comes by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone! As Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of work, lest any man should boast." We lean wholly upon the work and righteousness of Christ in our law-place, who both positively lived a perfectly righteous life in our stead, and then negatively bore all the wrath of God against our sin in our stead.
The law shows us that we are sinners in need of this great Saviour. Romans 3:20 I have already read, "Therefore by the works of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." The passage continues, and with it I close this sermon. Romans 3:21-28: "But now the righteousness of God" (not of ourselves, mark you, but the very righteousness of God) "WITHOUT the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." My hearers, if you are not this moment trusting in Christ alone who bore so much on that cross and rose victorious, it is my prayer that you will simply look and live- not work and live; but LOOK and live. If you are trusting in Christ alone for salvation, then continue to trust in Him alone for all things, and find strength for your every decision in the great sacrificial love He showed us.
Over the next few weeks, Lord willing, we will be examining Covenant Theology as a whole. I believe the primary purpose of the Bible is, first, to reveal to us who God is, and second, to reveal to us the Covenants He has made with mankind in general and, particularly, with His own chosen people. Through the course of human history God has always had one singular plan, and God has used all sorts of means and methods, from lock-jawed lions to talking donkeys to envious brethren and treacherous kings to accomplish this plan. Before delving into Covenant Theology proper, however, I would like to spend this morning examining that great acropolis of God’s Will and Plan, and the Foundation of our Christian faith, which is The Gospel itself.
The word “Gospel” comes from the Greek Word “euangelion” which literally means “Good News”. Before we can understand “Good News”, however, we must first comprehend something of the “Bad News”. If you are unaware that your house is on fire, you will never call the in the firemen. You may even be asleep in the burning building; yet be blissfully unaware of your dire circumstance. This is the very case with most today. False preachers at every hand are there to
proclaim, “Peace, peace, where there is no peace.” We drink down iniquity as if it were water, and being so continually surrounded by sin in this world and continuing in our very own personal sin, come to view sin, for the most part, as a rather light matter; and to view ourselves, notwithstanding our sin, as yet being quite alright people in the Eyes of our Maker. On a humanistic level, of course, in dealing with our fellow man, it is good to recall Ecclesiastes 7:20, that , "There is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not." None of us are without fault and we must each of us live according to Christ's maxim, "Judge not, lest ye be judged." On a man-to-man level, we may very well consider certain individuals to be "good people" and certain others to be "bad people." This morning, however, I am not here to compare your life and your righteousness with any other man's. 2 Corinthians 10:12 says that some "measure themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves among themselves, are not wise." I am not here this morning to compare your life to any man's standard. I am here to show you that God will and must hold you accountable to His own perfect standard- a standard of total holiness and complete moral perfection. Everywhere men are of the opinion that God is someone very much like themselves- a somewhat more perfected version of themselves to be sure; but after all, still very much like themselves. We think, “Surely God can tolerate our human imperfection,” and never do we consider the absolute heinousness of our sin. Much like a fish would never pause to consider how he is wet, being so continuously submerged in water. Or to be more crude; but more accurate, much like a man who cleaned outhouses all day would no longer realize how awful he smells. To such I read from Psalm 50, where God Himself says, “Thou thoughtest that I was altogether such an one as thyself: but I will reprove thee, and set them in order before thine eyes. Now consider this, ye that forget God, lest I tear you in pieces, and there be none to deliver.” John 3:17-18 says, “For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on Him is not condemned: he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” A good fireman, when called upon, does not go to create a fire and then extinguish it to save the lives of those inside. Even so Christ did not enter into a pristine world or a world where everyone was on the way to Heaven. Rather, Christ entered into a fallen world, a world undone by its own malice and wickedness, a world that was desperately in need of a Saviour.
The “Bad News” we must understand is found all throughout Scripture. Romans 5 famously speaks to us of Adam, our first parent and representative. The "Bad News" is, that as Adam disobeyed, so has every last one of his progeny. Romans 5:12 tells us, “Wherefore as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.” Psalm 14 tells us, "There is none that doeth good. The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that did understand, and seek God. They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Romans 3 quotes this passage and says, "As it is written, There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one." Though our sin seem slight to us, in the eyes of the Great, Almighty, Holy God our sins are damning, bringing upon ourselves God's indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon the soul of every man that doeth evil. Isaiah 64:6 even tells us that not only are our sins damning; but even "Our righteousnesses are as filthy rags."
One of the strongest reasons we are able to so excuse our own sin is that we have a false view of God. We do not recognize just how holy He is. You may recall Isaiah's vision in Isaiah 6, "In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood the seraphims: each one had six wings; with twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet, and with twain he did fly. And one cried unto another and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts: the whole earth is full of his glory. And the posts of the door moved at the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with smoke. Then said I, Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of host." Any man who once glimpses the truth of God's holiness cannot but feel the depths of his own depravity. For us in our natural state to recognize the Majesty, Glory, and Holiness of God is not at all something that will cause us to rejoice and be exceeding glad. Far from that, to view God in Scripture as He truly is will necessarily cause us to see ourselves as exceedingly vile, and we will all cry out with Isaiah, "Woe is me! for I am undone!"
We have forgotten the truth of Hebrews 10:31, " It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
Though God has been incredibly merciful, and incomparably long-suffering towards us, the truth remains that ever since the day Adam ate of that forbidden fruit, ours has been a sin-cursed, and death-filled race living out our short years in a cursed world. God told Adam , "In the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die." That warning was not made idly. Adam did die that day, for in that day there was a vast separation made between him and God. From that day forward man has been at enmity with God. Rather than being the children of God, as most men naturally assume we all are, the Bible tells us the opposite. Any one of us in our natural-born condition could be told by Jesus what He told the Pharisees in John 8:41-45, "Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God. Jesus said unto them, If God were your Father, ye would love me: for I proceeded forth and came from God. ; neither came I of myself, but he sent me. Why do ye not understand my speech? even because ye cannot hear my word. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it. And because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not." Rather than mankind being by nature the children of God, Ephesians 2: verse 3 tells us that by nature we are children of God's wrath. Rather than all humanity being by nature the children of God, John 1:12 says, "But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name."
We only see the true nature of our sin when we honestly behold ourselves, not in our own imagined good light, and not, as it were, in the mirror of this world's low standards; but when we look into the mirror of the Word of God. It is in God's standards and in God's Law that we see ourselves as we truly are. For what reason do you suppose God gave us the Ten Commandments? If you are like most, you will say, "In order that we might better know right from wrong." You may even say, "In order that we might please God." While there are elements of truth contained in both these answers, the primary purpose of God's Law is not that we might know how to do justly; but that we might see just how hopelessly wicked, how truly guilty, we already are. Like a mirror, God's Law, and even our own God-given consciences, have within themselves no solution to our greatest problem, in the Law is no balm of healing to be found whatsoever. Like a mirror, all that God's Law does, is to show us what is already the case, to show us that we are indeed very great sinners. Therefore Romans 3:19-20 says, "Now we know that what things soever the Law saith, it saith to them who are under the Law: that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin."
To go even deeper into this bad news, the Bible says not only that you are a sinner; but also that "The wages of sin is death." This "Death" is a separation, not from the very Presence of God, for God is omnipresent. There is no place on earth, Heaven, or hell where God is not. But death is a separation from the favourable Presence of God, as Revelation 14:10-11 says of certain men who died in their sins, "The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of His indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night." The Bible says of death in Hebrews 9:27 "It is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the Judgment." Revelation 20:14-15 says that the day will come wherein, "Death and hell were cast in to the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." As our sin is against an infinitely good, infinitely worthy God, so is our sin worthy, even demanding, of an infinite punishment. More than anyone else in the Bible, Jesus warned time and time again of Hell, of Hell's reality, of its torment, of its eternal relentlessness. These are the things that constitute, "Death." Even as Christ said in John 17:3 that eternal life is to know God, so eternal death is to be under God's wrath.
(14 Minute Mark)
All this so far has been to show you the Bad News that you are a sinner at enmity with God, and on the broad way that leads to destruction. I hope that now you are able to appreciate something of why the Gospel truly is such "Good News."
The "Good News" is that though we were in bondage under the elements of the world, " When the fulness of time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.," as Galatians 4 puts it. Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds; God of God, Light of Light, very God of very God; begotten, not made, took on flesh and became man. This God-man, the man Christ Jesus, did what Adam did not do, and what we in our sinful nature could never do: He lived a life of total moral perfection, and obeyed perfectly every command of God. Comparing Jesus to Adam, Romans 5:19 says, "For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life. by Jesus Christ our Lord." Christ lived a totally upright life. Where Adam fell, Christ stood fast. Whereas Adam disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, Jesus obeyed God in the Garden of Gethsemane. Where Adam brought death and condemnation, Christ brought life and justification.
The reason for Christ's coming as man and living His perfectly upright life was that, as the Lamb of God, He might lay down His perfect life as a ransom for many. God is not a wicked Judge- He cannot merely overlook sin. To be absolutely Just and to be absolutely Holy means that no sin at all can be tolerated. Regardless of God's love for us, He cannot simply sweep our sin under the rug. Any earthly judge who withheld just punishment towards a thief or a murderer or any such thing could not justly overlook his crimes, regardless of whether or not the judge loved the criminal. Even if the criminal were the judge's own beloved son, still justice would require retribution. So God cannot remain just if He merely overlooks our sin, as Proverbs 17:15 states, "He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to the Lord." Likewise Hebrews 9:22 says that there is no remission of sins without the shedding of blood. This is why Christ died on that cross- that rather than our sins being merely overlooked, they were borne by the only One who could ever bear so infinitely awful a burden.
The truth is, ultimately, it wasn't the Romans who killed Jesus, nor was it the Jews; but as Isaiah 53 tells us, "It pleased the Lord to bruise him." Christ stated in John 10, "I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This commandment have I received of my Father."
Can you see Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, alone and praying to His Father that, if possible, He would remove that cup from Him? See Matthew 26, where Jesus prays, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." And again He prays, "O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from me, except I drink it, thy will be done." Do you suppose in yourselves that such anxiety was raised in the Heart of our Lord because this "Cup" was full of the cruel nature of a Roman whip, a crown of thorns, and a cross? Was the cup so awful to Christ because it was filled with such severe physical suffering and His abandonment and betrayal at the hands of men? If you think so, I would refer you to Foxe's Book of Martyrs, or even to modern-day church history, where thousands of Christians have given up their lives for the sake of God's Gospel. Many Christians during the reign of Nero even suffered the agonies of a similar Roman cross, and not a few of these Christians went rejoicing and singing songs of praise to God! Do you suppose that the followers of Christ were unafraid of the very thing which caused Christ Himself to sweat as it were great drops of blood? What was it, then, that was in this great cup that Christ would fain have passed by rather than drink? We have read of it already today in Revelation 14. It was "The wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation." It is the cup written of in prophecy long ago in Jeremiah 25, "Take the wine cup of this fury at my hand, and cause all nations, to whom I send thee, to drink it. And they shall drink, and be moved, and be mad." "Drink! And be drunken! and spue, and fall, and rise no more, because of the sword which I will send among you."
We find all throughout the Old Testament time and time again, pictures, great pictures, types and shadows of Christ who was to come. We see in Joshua's conquering of Canaan an actual historical event most certainly; but greater still, we see a foreshadowing of a greater Joshua who was to come. We see in the Exodus from Egypt an actual historical event; but we also see a foreshadowing of a greater Exodus to come. Likewise we see the sacrificial lamb as pointing to that one great Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world. In similar vein, I hope this morning that you will realize that the Roman's many implements of torture and cruelty were hard to bear, and they were very bloody things; but they were merely a physical reality pointing to something much more horrifying indeed. You say that you have seen Christ suffering without the gate, blood streaming down His Face, which itself has been beaten to a point where you couldn't even recognize Him, you have seen Him whipped and lacerated so that you can see His bones and you have seen him hanging there by a nail in each Hand and one through His feet, so that the only way He can breathe is to raise Himself by means of those nails, take a deep breath and drop back down, all the while being mocked by those who pass by, wagging their heads at Him and saying, "He saved others; himself He cannot save. If He be the King of Israel, let Him now come down from the cross, and we will believe Him." I would have you know that once you have seen all that- brother you haven't seen the half of it. You haven't seen the half it. All that you have seen is still but a type and a shadow- you have seen only what the physical eye can see. I tell you this morning what Galatians 3:13 tells us, "Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us." 2 Corinthians 5:21 says, "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him." On that cross, not only was Christ being tortured by humanity; but Isaiah 53:10 says, "Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise Him; he hath put Him to grief." On that cross, when the sun refused to shine for three hours, and Christ called out, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" God was placing all the sins of His people upon His only begotten Son and Christ suffered the agony of Hell, the fulness of God's just wrath! The full measure of punishment that we would have borne for eternity in Hell, Christ as the infinite Son of God of God bore to the full. As 1 Peter 2:24 says, "Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye are healed." This is why our Saviour Jesus Christ had to take on flesh- that He might as a man fully identify with us and as a man live perfectly in our stead on this earth and in our stead die the death. One reason why our Saviour had also to be God Himself- because only God could bear such great, infinite suffering! The suffering finally being accomplished Christ cried out, "It is finished!" and He gave up the ghost.
Of course we know this is not how the story ends. Three days later, Christ arose. Death was not an original feature of God's creation. Death exists only because of sin. Christ, having paid the wages of sin in full, as no mere mortal, created being ever could, death had no more hold over Him. Hebrews 2: 14 says, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same, that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil." Christ having defeated death through death, having paid in full that awful debt, we may now rejoice with Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:55, "O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." If Christ's awful death was the winning of the great war against the penalty of sin which Christ waged and won on behalf of everyone who believes, then the resurrection was the hoisting of the victory flag!
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. Today you can be saved if you will simply look upon Christ and live. Rather than attempt to please God by your own deeds, you must simply accept, as a small child accepts a gift, the perfect righteousness of God, the righteousness which Christ lived out on your behalf and offers to you freely! You cannot do anything to earn your salvation or even to help earn it. Salvation is a free gift. Salvation comes by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone! As Ephesians 2:8-9 says, "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of work, lest any man should boast." We lean wholly upon the work and righteousness of Christ in our law-place, who both positively lived a perfectly righteous life in our stead, and then negatively bore all the wrath of God against our sin in our stead.
The law shows us that we are sinners in need of this great Saviour. Romans 3:20 I have already read, "Therefore by the works of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight: for by the law is the knowledge of sin." The passage continues, and with it I close this sermon. Romans 3:21-28: "But now the righteousness of God" (not of ourselves, mark you, but the very righteousness of God) "WITHOUT the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets; Even the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe: for there is no difference: For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God; Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God; to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law." My hearers, if you are not this moment trusting in Christ alone who bore so much on that cross and rose victorious, it is my prayer that you will simply look and live- not work and live; but LOOK and live. If you are trusting in Christ alone for salvation, then continue to trust in Him alone for all things, and find strength for your every decision in the great sacrificial love He showed us.