In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of understanding the love of God in the context of our own sin and darkness. He uses a simple illustration of giving a piece of bread to illustrate how the value of a gift is perceived differently depending on the recipient's need. The preacher then delves into the heart of the gospel, explaining the dilemma of God being just and yet justifying wicked men. He poses the question of how God can forgive sinners and still maintain His justice. The preacher suggests that only the gospel can answer this question and encourages the audience to explore this further by examining the book of Exodus, where God reveals His glory to Moses.

I cannot overemphasize the importance of the gospel of Jesus Christ. If you were to consider the truths of Scripture to be mountains, then the gospel of Jesus Christ would be the Mount Everest of all those mountains. As a matter of fact, compared to the gospel, compared to the gospel of Jesus Christ, all those other mountains are like hills. It is the greatest truth of the Bible. If we look at creation, the story of creation, it's absolutely essential. But creation would not help us if it were not for the gospel. If we looked at the book of Revelation and all the magnificent truths that are revealed there, they would just bring our condemnation if it was not for the gospel of Jesus Christ. We can say this, that all the other truths of Scripture are in the shadow of the gospel. The gospel of Jesus Christ. Now, in our last session, we talked about a very dark subject, about man's sin. And we tried to paint a very dark picture. Now, you may ask, why? Well, I pointed out in the last sermon that. The purpose of the law is to point out our sin, and the purpose of pointing out our sin is to cause us to see that we are broken. That we are wrong, that we need to be reconciled to God and that we cannot reconcile ourselves to God through our own deeds, our own virtue or our own merit. It's absolutely impossible because in reality, we have none of these things. God alone is holy and righteous, but we have become corrupted and sinful. Let me give you an illustration to point out just how important this is. One time a young man asked me, he was rather angry and he asked me, he said, why are you always talking about sin? And I told him it is because I want you to love God. He said, what does that have to do with the doctrine of sin? And I asked him this question, the question I am going to ask you. During the day, say noon or two o'clock in the afternoon, where did all the stars go? Did they move? Did some giant cosmic giant come by and put all the stars in a basket and carry them away? Where did the stars go? When you look up in the sky, you can't see them. You can't see the stars because there's so much light. When do you see the stars in all their glory? In the pitch black of night. And. In the same way. We most see the grace and the goodness and kindness of God. When we see it in the backdrop. Of our sin. When I got married, my wife and I, well, we were missionaries and we were very poor, and I did not buy my wife an engagement ring until three years after we were married. And. And it was a little diamond. I mean, a very little diamond. So I went to the jeweler and and I said, I want to buy a ring for my wife. And he said, well, what kind of ring? And I said, well, I have this much money. He looked at me with a frown on his face. He went back into the place where he kept all his rings and he came out and he brought. A ring with a diamond in it, and I said, where's the diamond? I can't see it. And then he did something. He put the diamond on a black cloth. And even though that diamond was so small on that black cloth, it shined, you could see it. I want you to see the love of God, the love of God that he has shown you how great it is, how magnificent it is, but in order for you to see how special that love of God is in the gospel, you must see it in the light of your darkness, the light of your sin. You see, if I walked up to the richest man in Russia and I handed him a piece of bread. He probably would not be very impressed. He could buy the store that from which I got the bread. He would probably dismiss it, he would probably tell me, I don't need your bread, I don't want your bread. But if I took that same piece of bread to a third world country where children were starving to death and I gave that piece of bread to an individual there, they would kiss my hands, they would weep with joy. They would consider it the greatest gift, they would talk about me. For years. What's the difference? The need is the difference when you see your need of Jesus Christ and his gospel, then you can begin to appreciate Jesus Christ and his gospel. All right, well, we read in verse twenty three of Romans three, we read, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Now we're going to talk about the solution to this problem. He's going to start in verse twenty four and he's talking about Christians. Now, when I mean Christian, I don't mean someone who just calls themself a Christian or someone who goes to church or someone who says they're Orthodox or evangelical or Baptist. I'm talking about a real Christian, someone who has believed in Jesus Christ, repented of their sins and believed and. God continues to work in them, sanctifying them, changing them, giving, demonstrating evidence that they have truly been converted. Now, look what it says about this person. The Christian says in verse twenty four, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus. Now, let's look at the first two words being justified. Now, what does that mean? Well, before we get to a biblical definition, let's just look at a general idea of justified in in all the world, in all the religions or most of them. In the world, justified in the simplest form could mean being right with God, being reconciled to God, being OK with God. There is a positive relationship between the person and God. Now, isn't it interesting, very interesting that in almost all the religions of the world, their goal is to become justified. To do certain things in order to be right with their God, not only in the major religions, but even in some private, a primitive and tribal type of situations, sacrifices are made, things are done in order to be right with God. It seems to be universal now that shows us something that shows us that what the Bible says is true. Men do know there is a God, they do know that he has a moral standard. And they do know that they have failed in that moral standard. And for that reason, they are trying or attempting to be right with God. Now, having said that, let's look at these two words being justified in a sense, a Christian sense or within the context of the Bible. What does it mean to be justified? Well, it does not mean that the moment a person believes in Jesus Christ, that they are turned into a perfectly righteous being who never sins again, that they are literally and physically transformed into a creature that is impeccable or without sin or unable to sin. That is not what that means. It also does not mean that a person who believes in Jesus is infused with grace or moral power or virtue so that they never sin again or that they live in such a way that they can make themselves acceptable to God through what they do. That's not what it means. Well, then what does it mean to be justified? Well. To begin, let's look at it this way, justification is a legal term or a forensic term, a term that we could use in a court of law that the moment a person believes in Jesus Christ trusts in him for their salvation. God legally declares that person to be right with him. And not only does he legally declare that person to be right with him, but he treats that person as right with him. Now, this very, very important that we understand both things. The one who believes in Christ, God legally declares that person. Although he is a sinner, God declares that person to be legally right with him, legally reconciled, and not only that. But God treats that person as right with him, and that's good news for those who believe in Christ, that though we have sinned and even the most sincere Christians will continue to struggle with sin, that we have been pronounced right with God and that God treats us as someone who is right with him now. The question is, how does this happen? And you say, well, by believing in Jesus, but that doesn't fully solve the problem. The problem, how can how can God? Be just, truly just, and yet at the same time, forgive, pardon. The center, this is one of the greatest questions in the Bible, and we're going to have to deal with it, but before we do that, I want to look at one other thing that is very, very important again, let's go back to all the religions in the world. In all the religions of the world, just about, it seems that all are seeking to be made right with God to do something in order to get to heaven or to leave this earth and go to a better place. Well, let's compare them for just a moment. Let's look at the Muslim for a moment. Let's say that I'm a reporter and I'm talking to a Muslim man and I say, sir, if you died right now, where would you go now? He may say if he has confidence and security and in himself and his faith, he may say, well, I believe I would go to paradise. Then we ask him why. And he would say, well. I'm a good man. I have read the Koran. I try to obey the Koran. I have made the pilgrimages to the holy places, I have said the prayers, I I'm a good man. Then we go to the Jew and we say, sir, if you died right now, where would you go? And he might say, well, I would go to heaven or paradise and we would ask him why. And he would say, well, I love the law of God, the Torah, and. And. I seek to obey the law of God and and I walk in the way of the righteous. Yes, I think I would go to heaven. I'm a good man. Then you come to the Christian. Now I'm talking about the real one. You come to the Christian, you say, sir, if you died, where would you go? And he says, well, I would go to heaven. Then you ask him why. And he says something very different from the others. He says this, I was born in sin. In sin did my mother conceive me and I went astray from God, from the womb. I have broken every law that God has ever made. At this point, we would stop that man and say, sir, I don't understand what you're talking about. I mean, the other men, I understand they say they're going to heaven because they deserve to go to heaven. You're saying that you're going to heaven, even though you clearly admit you are not worthy to go to heaven. How are you right with God? He says this. I am right with God, not because of my own virtue and merit, but because of the virtue and the merit of another Jesus Christ, my Lord. You see, there's really only two kinds of religions in the world, religions of works. You do this and do that and do this and you go to heaven, religion of grace. You believe God for the work of salvation that he has done. Now, let's look at the the religion of works for a moment. We've already demonstrated, at least from Scripture. That God is holy and man is not that God is so holy and sin is so horrible that one sin casts the entire universe into chaos. So in order for someone to say that they're going to be right with God through their works, one of two things has to happen. One, they have to lower God and make him not quite as holy as the Bible says he is. A God who can be neutral with regard to sin. Or overlook sin or maybe think that sin is really not that bad. Or if we're not willing to do that, we must exalt man and say that man is much better than the Bible says he is Christianity. Christianity. The scriptures puts forth these truths, God is holy, God is righteous, man is a sinner, man can do nothing to reconcile himself to God and therefore God must save man. Now, in the end, you have another great difference between these two religions in this religion, a man can boast. In all that he has done. As a matter of fact, he almost makes himself or maybe he does make himself greater than God, because you see a man who says that he's going to heaven based on his works is saying God owes me. God has become a debtor to me, I have done this, I have earned this, God owes me, he sets himself above God and not only that. It is great grounds for pride, but the man who says, no, God is holy and I am not, I will not lower God, nor will I raise myself, that man has nothing to boast in except the goodness of God. God receives all the glory in this case, but in the case of works, man receives all the glory. Now, let's look again at this text, it says being justified, how is the Christian declared right with God this way? As a gift by his grace. Now, this is almost a repetition. He seems to to say something and declare it again because there's so much in common between these two ideas, it says that we are declared right with God as a gift. It's not something we earned, it's a gift by his grace, his grace is when he gives to us what we do not deserve a gift. Now, let's look a little closer at this text, he says, being justified as a gift, this word gift in the Greek, it comes from a word Dorian. Now, this word is used somewhere else in the New Testament, in the Gospel of John, where it says this about Jesus, they hated him without a cause. Now, think about it, no one ever had a good cause to hate Jesus, Jesus never sinned against anyone. No one ever had any reason whatsoever to hate Jesus in the same way, Paul says, God or we gave God no reason to save us, he saved us without us giving him a cause. These other men say that God must save them. Because they've given him cause to do so, they are good enough to be saved, they have done enough good things to be saved. But Christianity says, no, God saves us, even though we do not give him a cause to do so. As a matter of fact, we give God cause or reason to condemn us, not save us. So he saved us, even though we did not give him a cause, why did he do it? His grace, his love, his mercy. Now, when we look at Christianity, in whom are we going to boast in man? Or in God, when we look at religions who believe they can work their way to heaven, in whom are we going to boast? Definitely in men who earn from God, wrestle from God salvation. The Christian, as Paul will go on to say in verse twenty seven, has no boasting except in the salvation and the goodness of God. On this side, men are boasting in their own goodness. On this side, men are boasting in the goodness of God. Now, let's go on, he says, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. Now, here we come to the very heart of the gospel. If you do not learn anything else, this is what you must learn. And I want to put it before you in a very, very simple, simple illustration. The Bible says God is just, but here's the problem. If God is just. He cannot. Forgive you. And the great question in the Bible is, how can God be just and at the same time justify wicked men? How can he do this? Let me put it before you another way. I was talking to a group of students one time and well, before I went out on the platform, I knew that they were going to be somewhat hostile to my message. So I was praying, Lord, what do I do? You know, I I don't want to go out there and just be a martyr. I want to help them. What can I say to them to get their attention? And as I was walking out on the platform, something came into mind. So I walked out and came to the pulpit and. I looked at the crowd and I said, I am going to tell you the most terrifying news in all the Bible, whether you believe it or not, at least when you walk out of here tonight, you will know the most frightening, terrifying, disturbing truth that exists. And so, wow, I had their attention. So all the students were leaning forward and waiting to hear what was this horrible news. And I even said, you know, this news is so horrible that maybe some of you ought to leave right now. I mean, I wouldn't want to put anyone in the hospital out of fright. And that even made them more interested, and so they drew near. And this is what I said, here's the news. It's the most terrifying thought that a man can conceive. God. Is. Good. Now, when I said that you could see the students look for a moment, kind of confused, and then most of them sat back in their seat and then some of them started to giggle, looking at each other and basically saying, and what's so scary about that? And finally, one person said it. God is good. What's so frightening about that? And I said this. What's so frightening? God is good. You're not. So what does a good God do with people like us? And you say, well, he can just forgive us. No, no, you're forgetting he's just he's holy. Do you want him just to sweep the sin under the rug? Do you want him to forget about it? Pretend that it didn't exist or say to you that sin's not that big a deal to him. It really doesn't bother him. Would you really want an omnipotent God of the universe to be apathetic about sin, to be neutral about sin, to just cover it up after all? Isn't that what our complaint is about the judges that are in our countries? Sometimes we say our countries are suffering. Why? Because the judges are so corrupt. They cover up sin. They do all sorts of injustice. But what do you want God to do? Do you want him just to cover your sin? And so the great theological and philosophical question in the Bible is this. If God is. Just. How can he forgive wicked men? And still be just. That's the problem of the Bible, and only the gospel answers that question. Now, to make it a little more clear to you, I want you to hold your place in the book of Romans, and I want you to go with me for a moment to the book of Exodus chapter thirty four. The book of Exodus in the Old Testament, chapter thirty four. Now, in this text. Moses has been used of God to bring the people of Israel out of Egypt. But he longs for something more and he cries out that he longs to see God's glory. And so God is very gracious to Moses and he comes to him and proclaims himself to Moses. So if you want to know what God's like, you need to listen to this because this is where God describes himself. It says in chapter thirty four, verse five, the Lord descended in the cloud and stood there with him as he called upon the name of the Lord. Then the Lord passed by in front of him, in front of Moses and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin. So far, all of this is wonderful. We have a God who is what he is compassionate. He's gracious, he's slow to anger, he's abounding and loving kindness. He's abounding in truth. He keeps loving kindness. He never lets it go. He forgives all kinds of sins, it says here, iniquity, transgression and sin. That's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. But now we come to the second part, even though it says who forgives iniquity, transgression and sins, it then it then says, yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Now, think about that, that appears to be a contradiction, doesn't it? On one hand, he forgives all kinds of sin, all kinds. But then right after that statement, he says, but he will not leave the guilty unpunished. So how can God forgive all kinds of sins and yet leave the guilty unpunished? It's a very good question. Now, let's look at another passage which also illustrates this point in the book of Proverbs, chapter 17, Proverbs 17, verse 15. Listen to what this text says. He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord. Now, think about this. What is he saying? Anyone, particularly a judge, someone with authority, a king, anyone who justifies the wicked, justifies the sinner is an abomination to God, an abomination. Well, it's the worst thing you can be. There's probably no harder word in all the Bible against a sinner than the word abomination. So anyone who justifies a sinner. Is an abomination to God. Anyone who declares a sinner to be right when a sinner is not right is an abomination to God, and yet God says that's exactly what he does. Romans three, God, who is just justifies the wicked. So how do we reconcile that? Now, let's look again. We go back to Exodus 34. He forgives all kinds of sin, and yet he will not allow the guilty to go unpunished. Deuteronomy 17. Anyone who justifies a wicked man is an abomination. But in Romans three, God justifies wicked men. Now, let's go back to Romans and look in chapter four, verse seven. Romans chapter four, verse seven. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered. Blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account. So the Lord covers sin. I mean, when we read about judges in the newspaper who do that, we become very angry. That judge just covered up that man's sin. So that he did not receive the punishment he deserved. So you see, this is why Romans three is so important, because it's setting up this heart, this center of the gospel, the part that you must understand in order to understand the gospel. If God is just. How can he justify wicked men? How can he pardon all kinds of sin and yet still claim not to let the wicked go without punishment? How can God be just and cover up sin? Well, we have our answer here in Romans chapter three. Verse 24, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. There are two words here that answer this dilemma. The first is redemption. The second is propitiation. Learn what these words mean, because they are absolutely essential to the understanding of the gospel. Now, first of all, redemption. What does redemption mean? It means the payment of a price in order to set a captive or a slave or a prisoner free. That's redemption. Now, the price that was paid in this context is the person of Jesus, the life of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, the people who were redeemed, of course, are those who believe in Jesus. But now the question is, to whom was the payment made? Back in the second, third century, there was a heresy that continues on until today that when Jesus died, he made payment to the devil, that since Adam had sinned, man had fallen under the dominion of the devil. And in order to get us back, Christ had to pay the devil. Well, when man fell, he did come under the dominion of the devil. But in order to be set free from that dominion, the price was not paid to the devil. Then to whom was it paid? The price was paid to God. Now, we've got some explaining to do and we're going to go back for just a moment and we're going to look at. Who God is, you have heard sung in songs and probably preached in sermons that God is holy. You've also probably heard that God is righteous. He is a righteous God. You've also read that God is love. Now, here's some things that you need to understand. God's attitude towards sin and God's attitude toward the sinner, because God is holy. God is good. God is righteous. God is love. God hates sin. He hates it. He's not neutral about it. No, he hates it in a way that you and I could never begin to describe. And we can see the hatred of God for sin throughout the Old Testament and in the new, especially in the book of Revelation, in which God judges not only sin, but also the sinner. We are all aware that the Bible teaches that one day God will return. Christ will return and he will judge the wicked. And the wicked will experience something called the wrath of Almighty God. Wrath refers to God's fierce anger, even his hatred poured out on the wicked. Now. How does that work, because in one place we understand that God is righteous and God will judge the wicked, and in another place we hear that God is love and slow to anger. So how does that work? Well, here's what I want you to see. God hates sin and God's wrath, fierce anger, judgment, holy hatred, indignation will one day be poured out on all the wicked. But here's the way it's working now. God looks at our world, he even looks at your sin if you are outside of Christ and it fills him with indignation, anger. Why? Because he's good, because he's holy, because he hates that which is evil. But in his mercy, God restrains his wrath. He holds it back with one hand and with the other hand, God calls you to come to him. That's the mercy of God because of your sin. You should be judged now. You should die now. You should experience the wrath of God now. But God, in his mercy, is holding back judgment. He's holding back his wrath. And with the other hand, he is calling to you to come, come, be saved, be saved, be saved. But know this one day, whether it's in the second coming of Jesus Christ or in your death. God will pull back his hand and no longer invite. He will pull back his hand and his wrath will be poured out on you for every evil thing you have done. Now, you say to yourself. I don't like that, I don't believe God's angry, I don't believe that God pours out wrath, I don't believe in righteous indignation because I believe God is love. Well, here's what you need to understand, God is love and because of that. God hates. Let me give you an example, do you love babies? If you do, you must hate abortion, that which kills them. Do you love Africans? Then you must hate slavery. Do you love Jews? Then you must hate the Holocaust. If I walked up to you and said, what do you think about the Holocaust? And if you said to me, oh, I don't think it was a big deal at all. Then I'm going to realize you're just as immoral as the men who killed six million Jews. Or enslaved millions of Africans, you see, if you truly do love, you truly will burn with anger if you love that which is excellent, that which is beautiful, that which is right, you will hate that which is twisted and immoral. And dangerous and violent and destructive. Let me give you another example, one time a person told me they said. I don't agree with God being righteously indignant or angry against sin. And I said, let me ask you a question. If let's say that tomorrow we read in the newspaper that a little girl was stolen when she was five years old and she was put in the basement of a man's house and for 20 years she was starved, tortured and abused. And when they found her, she was dead with no hope in the darkness, in chains. When you hear that, when you read that, how will you respond? And the person said, well, I'd be angry, I did justice. We need I hate that. That's horrible. I would burn. I said, do I need to argue any further? So you reserve for yourself the right to be righteously indignant about the sins of others, but you're telling me that God cannot. My dear friend, you have sinned against God, you have sinned against creation, you have sinned against other people. There is nothing against which you have not sinned. God's anger rightly burns toward you, but God's love is of such a nature that he is able to work for the salvation of those who have made themselves the object of his wrath. With one hand, he holds back his wrath and with another hand of mercy, he calls you to come to him. But make no mistake, one day both of those restraints will be gone. And the only thing left for you is the wrath of God. Now, let's get back to our central problem. And to whom was the redemption paid? The redemption price was paid to God. With your sin, you had offended a holy God, with your sin, you have you have offended his justice, with your sin, you have riled his wrath, you have caused it to come forth in order for God's wrath to be appeased regarding you. His justice must be satisfied. It must be paid. Christ took your place on Calvary and he paid that price on your behalf. You have sinned. Justice of God demands payment, if you do not give that payment. Then you will be consumed with the judgment of God, but God in his love sent his son who died in your place, who paid the price, who satisfied justice, and now that God's justice is satisfied, his wrath is calmed and you can be declared right with him because of what he did for you. Now, let's look at the the idea of propitiation, verse twenty five, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. A propitiation is a sacrifice that is made in order to satisfy offended justice. And in satisfying justice to appease wrath, when Christ was on the cross, he suffered the wrath of almighty God in your place. This is how it works. Because of your sin and the righteousness of God. God's wrath burned against you, and apart from him doing something to save you, there's no hope, but God in his love sent his son, his son took your place. His son on the cross carried your sin, then all the judgment of God that should fall on you fell on God's son. And right before he died, he cried out, it is finished, which means he paid the price in full. He paid the redemption price that you can now be saved. He was the sacrifice that satisfied God's justice, appeased God's wrath. How can God be just and also justify wicked men? Because he himself paid the price for their sin. Through the cross of Calvary, and this is, my friend, the only way in which your crimes can be paid for. Oh, I'm sorry, there is another way you can spend an eternity separated from God. From God's favorable presence. In hell, this is a reality and you must realize it, you see, the gospel has to do primarily with who God is, he is just, he can not just forgive you. He is righteous, he cannot deny his righteousness in the name of love, he must be loving and righteous at the same time, and the only way to do that is through the gospel in his righteousness. He declares that you must pay in his love. He pays the price through the sacrifice of his own son. He has done it all through Jesus Christ. Through Jesus Christ, this is an absolutely amazing, amazing truth, and it is one that that should resonate with your heart if you're a Christian. And now that you understand it, it ought to compel you to live for Christ with everything that you have. If you're not a Christian, you should realize that God is righteous. God will judge you one day unless you turn to Christ and make him your hope, trusting in Jesus Christ, if you do that, God can freely and truly forgive your sins, not because he just swept them under a rug. But because he himself paid for your sins, what marvelous love is this? That God would do such a thing for his enemies, that he would do it for you, that even though we have sinned, we have broken every law, he sent his son to die and his son willingly died in our place that we might be saved. What will you do, what will you do? The Bible commands you to repent and to believe the gospel and to do so because of this magnificent work that God has done for you now. Christ died. He died. For you. He died carrying your sin. He died covered in your curse. He died having suffered the wrath of almighty God that should have fallen upon you, and when he died, he paid the price. Now we talk about the death of Christ and that is the important centerpiece of the gospel, but you need to understand it's not the only important piece of the gospel, because not only did he die for your sins, he rose again from the dead on the third day. Now, what does that prove? I want you for just a moment. We're in the book of Romans. I want you to look at Romans chapter one. And in verse three, talking about the gospel, it says concerning his son, who was born of a descendant of David, according to the flesh, who was declared the son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ, our Lord, on the third day, Jesus rose again from the dead. What does that prove? It is God's public declaration. The evidence that God is giving that Jesus of Nazareth was truly his son. And not only his son, but this text is also referring to his coronation day and the resurrection of Jesus Christ proved that Jesus was the son of God and also declared to be God's king and God's savior. When people try to disprove the Christian faith, they immediately go to the resurrection, because if Christ did not rise again from the dead, if he is still dead, then he is not the son of God and he is not the savior of the world and he is not the king of kings and lord of lords. But if he has risen from the dead, that is God's public declaration that he was everything he claimed to be and that the resurrection is the evidence God's seal of approval on the man, Jesus of Nazareth. Now, many people will say to me, if the resurrection is proof, then I need more proof. And I always tell them this, then you will die in your sins because God has declared that he would give one proof and it's the resurrection. If you will not believe that nothing else will be given to you. It is the testimony of scripture and it is the testimony of history. That Jesus of Nazareth, who died under the reign of Pontius Pilate, rose again from the dead by the power of God, by the power of the Holy Spirit, by his own power, he was raised and that is proof that he is who he claimed to be. If you look in Romans chapter four, we have another text regarding the resurrection that is very, very important. It says in verse twenty five, Romans four, twenty five, he who was delivered over because of our transgressions and was raised because of our justification, he was raised because of our justification. What does that mean? It means that the resurrection is proof that God accepted Christ's sacrifice on our behalf as full payment for our sin. If he had remained in the tomb, it would have mean that God did not accept his sacrifice, that our debt was still outstanding and we still needed someone to pay for our sins. But the writer of Romans, the Apostle Paul here in chapter four, verse twenty five, as well as the writer of Hebrews, is telling us our sins have been paid for once and for all. And the proof is on the third day, God raised him from the dead. Now, we don't have time to continue this study much further, but I will say this, the resurrection of Jesus Christ, according to the Apostle Paul and the teachings in the book of Acts also proves not only that Jesus is the son of God, that his sacrifice made payment for our sin, but it also proves that this world has a governor and a judge because God raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand to be king of kings, lord of lords and the judge of all men. Know this one day, one day, two thousand years ago, Jesus Christ hung before men for their salvation. But one day in the future, all men will stand before Jesus Christ and be judged and all men will bow the knee and cry out that he is Lord. Some will acknowledge his lordship and enter into the joy of heaven, others will acknowledge his lordship and enter into the judgment of hell. Now, where will you be on that day? Where will you be? You say, well, I'm all right, I'm a good person. No, we've already proved that's not true. You may say, I'm all right. One time in my life I was baptized. That doesn't matter at all. You say, well, I'm all right, because one time I prayed a prayer and asked Jesus to come in. Many people have done that and will go to hell. Where will you be on that day? Salvation does not come through baptism. It does not come through our good works. It does not come from repeating a prayer or coming forward in an evangelistic event. Salvation comes through genuine repentance of sin and faith in Jesus Christ. And how do you know that you have repented and believed because you continue repenting and you continue believing, how do you know that you've been justified by faith? Because the one who justified you. Sanctifies you, he keeps working in you all the days of your life to change you, to transform you, to make you in the image of his son. The evidence that you were saved is that God continues saving you. The evidence that you were justified and are justified is that he who began a good work in you continues it. Many will come before him on that day and say, Lord, Lord, and he'll say, depart from me. I never knew you. Where will you be on that day? Where will you be? God bless.