GRACE FOR TODAY Radio Message #456
Six Facts Plainly Revealed In The Gospel
Pastor
Don Fortner
Grace Baptist Church of Danville
2734 Old Stanford Road
Danville,
Kentucky 40422-9438
1. All men and women by nature, since the fall of our father Adam, are
sinners, alienated from God. “All have sinned and come
short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). As sinners, we are alienated from the life of God and have
become enemies unto God. The wages of our sin and enmity to God is death. Every
transgression must receive its just recompense of reward (Heb. 2:2). All sin
must be punished, either in the sinner or in the sinner’s Substitute. The law,
being broken, accuses of sin, condemns the sinner, and demands death. Unless
satisfaction is made, the sentence of the law must be executed. The sanction of
the law is death. It can never be abrogated, changed, altered, or abated. God
will never relax his justice! “The soul
that sinneth, it shall die!” (Ezek. 18:2). But…
2. It is the will of God to save sinners. “He delighteth in mercy!” God has decreed the salvation of some. Christ came
to save some. There are some people in this world who must and shall be saved
because it is the will of God to save them; and God’s will cannot be frustrated
(John 10:16). Every chosen sinner (2 Thess. 2:13-14), every predestined son
(Rom. 8:29-30), every heir of the covenant (Eph. 1:3-7), everyone whose name
was written in the Lamb’s Book of Life from the foundation of the world must be
saved (Rev. 13:8). There is no possibility that even one of God’s elect will
perish! However…
3. It is
impossible for a holy and just God to save any sinner apart from the
satisfaction of justice (Heb. 9:22). He declares, “I will
by no means clear the guilty” (Ex. 34:7). I know that God is omnipotent,
almighty, and sovereign. He does what he will! But God cannot do that which is
contrary to his nature and character. We do not rob God of his sovereignty when
we repeat the declaration of Scripture and say, “God cannot lie.” He who is the Truth cannot lie! Neither do we rob
God of his sovereignty when we assert this truth of Holy Scripture - God cannot
forgive sin without the satisfaction of justice. The just, holy, and true God
must punish sin.
4. The only way the justice of God could ever be satisfied is by the
substitutionary sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ (Job 34:23; Rom. 3:24-26).
God could not die, and man could not satisfy; but the God-man both died and
satisfied. Two facts demonstrate clearly that there was no other way for
justice to be satisfied. The love of God
the Father for his Son proves it. Would God almighty slay his darling Son,
if there were any other way to save his people consistent with his justice? And
the prayer of Christ in Gethsemane
proves it (Matt. 26:39). If the salvation of his people could be
accomplished by any means other than his death upon the cross, would not God
the Father have granted his tormented Son the desire of his soul?
5. It is
impossible for God, in his holiness, to punish any sinner for whose sins
justice has been satisfied by the blood of Christ (Isa. 53:11 Rom. 7:14) - The
law has no claim upon an executed felon! “Payment God cannot twice demand,
First at my bleeding Surety’s hand, And then again at mine!”
6. Every sinner who trusts the Lord Jesus Christ has been chosen,
redeemed, and called, and must be forever saved. It is written in the Book of
God, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
and thou shalt be saved” (Acts 16:31). May God the Holy spirit now enable
you by his sovereign grace to trust the Lord Jesus Christ.
AMEN.