St. Thomas Conference: 1975, Justification by Faith (4:4)
Address—G.H. Hayhoe
You turn with me to the 32nd Psalm, Psalm 32, the first verse. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no guile. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all the day long. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the draught of summer. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord, and thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin. Selah. For this shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee, in a time when thou mayest be found surely in the floods of great waters, they shall not come nigh unto him. Thou art my hiding place. Thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Thou shalt compass me about with songs of deliverance. Selah. I will instruct thee and teach thee in the way which thou shalt go. I will guide thee with mine eye. Be not as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, lest they come near unto thee. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked, but he that trusteth in the Lord mercy shall compass him about. Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous, and shout for joy. All ye that are upright in heart. We also turned to Romans chapter 4. Romans, chapter 4. Verse 4 Now to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness, even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. One other passage in Acts 13. Acts Chapter 13. And the 32nd verse. And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers, God hath fulfilled the same unto us, their children, and that he hath raised up Jesus again, as it is also written in the second Psalm, Thou art my son, this day have I begotten thee. The 38th verse Be at noon unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you. Forgiveness of sins. And by him all that believe are justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. Beware therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets, Behold ye despisers, and wonder and perish, For I work a work in your days, a work which ye shall in no wise believe. Though a man, declare it unto you. Well, in these verses that we have read here tonight, we see about two things, forgiveness and justification. You know, all of us who have consciences and everyone has a conscience, we know we have sinned against God and we know too, as we are reminded in our Bible readings today, that God is holy. God cannot pass over sin, not even one sin. Adam sinned in the garden and Eve, and they were driven out. Just for one sin, and they weren't allowed to get back into that garden. So serious was that sin in the sight of God and that they were driven out. Adam lived 930 years but was never able again to get back into that garden. And all to your friends, you and I may think very lightly of sin, but the question is not what we think about sin, but what God says about sin. You know a man like to measure sin. And by their own standards, we even hear it said today. Well, it's only a sin if you think it is. But dear friends, remember that isn't the way God speaks. He tells us all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. God has a standard as far as the laws of this land are concerned. It's not what you and I think it is what the law says.
And so with God. God in His Word has laid down to us now that which His Holiness requires, and He has told us that we have all sinned and come short of the glory of God. But oh, how wonderful, In spite of the fact that man has sinned, not only Adam and Eve, but all have sinned, you and I, young and old, we have all sinned against Him. And what He still loves us. His love has not been changed. By man's sin, indeed, I could say his love has been brought out by man's sin. As another has said, God is light, and because He is light He must judge sin. But He is love because of what He is in himself. No one has made him love, and man has made him a judge by his sin. But he is love because that's his character, and he delights to bless dear friends. And that's what the gospel is, it's good news, it's glad tidings, because a low sin has come in and spoiled this world, and God is the forgiving God. And as the Lord Jesus talked to that woman at Sikar's, well now there she was living a life of sin. And the Lord Jesus said to her, If thou knewest the free giving of God, and who it is that saith unto thee, give me to drink, thou wouldest have asked of him. And he would have given the living water. And so I say again tonight that we have good news to tell. We must learn of sin, because if you die in your sins, you can never be in God's holy presence. It tells us about heaven. There shall in no eyes enter into it anything that defileth. Neither whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they that are written in the Lamb's book of life. When I say again, God is a forgiving God, but in order to forgive, he must do it righteously. He must do it in such a way now that he does not in any way compromise his holy character. What would you think of a judge if a man is found guilty and the judge were to say, well, I'm kind hearted today. I'm just going to let this man go free if you'd say justice is gone. And, dear friends, righteousness and judgment are the habitation. God's throne, the Psalms tells us, and so God cannot either Passover sin, but He has provided a way through the work of His Son that we might be blessed. And the blessed work of redemption is a far greater work than creation. Many of us have looked out and looked up and seen the stars in the sky, seen some of the wonders of God's great creation. You can take. The microscope and see the very smallest things that God has made and see the wonders of them and yet they're not half as wonderful as what God has done through the work of his son because when God created this world yeah this vast universe, it tells us he spake and it was done he commanded and it stood fast he only had to speak the world the. Word and the and the sun and the moon and the stars were in their place. But when it came to the salvation of your soul and mine, God's Son had to leave heaven. Redemption must be accomplished so that we might be blessed. And so how wonderful these words with which this Psalm opens. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven. Whose sin is covered? Oh, friends, do you know that blessedness? Can you look up into the presence of a thrice holy God and say thank God? I know him as a forgiving God. I know that my sins are gone and they'll never be remembered again, that he's cast my sins into the depths of the sea, that he's cast them behind his back. And do you know that blessedness, my friend? Well, it tells us in those verses we read in Romans. That David in this Psalm. Describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. And that is, if we had to work for salvation, we could never obtain it, because God tells us that all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. He tells us that salvation is not of works by grace, He is saved through faith, and that not of yourselves it is the gift of God.
Sovation is not a word. We cannot buy our way into God's favor, but we can have what He has to offer, but it must be received as a gift. And this expression transgression. You notice there are different words used here for sin against God. There is transgression, there is sin, there is iniquity. These different words bring before us different thoughts in connection with our guilt. When it speaks about transgression, it means that we have broken a known command. And Adam was told not to eat of that tree. He broke a command that God had given. To him, and so he was guilty, and because of that guilt, as we were remarked, he was driven out of the garden. So I'm sure that every one of us here, if we're honest with ourselves and with God, we know that there have been times and that we have known the thing that we were doing was wrong and we still did it. Yes, we knew it was wrong. And in that sense we transgressed. If mother says nothing. To do something and to do it by then, that's transgression. You have gone against what she said. But I suppose all of us, when we're children, we've done something wrong. And when perhaps our father or mother said, you shouldn't have done that, we perhaps said, but you never told me not to. And perhaps father or mother said, but you ought to have known. You ought to have known. So you see, there were those things that we. We have been told we have been commanded not to do and we have done them, but more or less how many things there are that perhaps you say, well, I didn't realize and then I was doing wrong. And yet in God's holy sight, it is sin. It is sin because what is sin? Sin. Sin is lawlessness. Sin is the exercise of my will and independence of God. In other words, it's just doing what I like with no reference to God, with no thought of whether it pleases Him or not. Because God has made us for His own glory. He has a right over us and when we just act independently of Him. That's sin and all. Surely when we think of that, just think of what God must think of our lives. Sometimes it has been said to sinners, well, confess all your sins to God, and if you do, he'll forgive them all. But I want to ask you, could you remember all the sins that you've committed? Are you quite sure that you have God's estimate about sin? Or perhaps it's just your own? But isn't it a wonderful thing that when we come to God as sinners, when we confess that we are sinners, we find? That God Himself has taken up the question of our sins and settled it according to His own holiness. Who was it how that placed my sins on Jesus? I didn't put them there. I wasn't present there at the cross of Calvary. When the question of sin was taken up and settled, who was it that did it? All this is good news to my soul. The Lord hath laid on him. The iniquity of us all. Isn't it a wonderful thing to know that the very God that I have sinned against, who has made His own standard of holiness, has Himself satisfied His own holy claims by placing my sins upon the head of my blessed Savior and my Substitute? And So what a blessing to know. That your transgression is forgiven. And that your sin is covered, that it's gone. I just call attention to this little word covered here. And that's why the word atonement is used in the Old Testament, because the word atonement means to cover. And it is never said in the Old Testament that the blood of bulls and goats took away sin, but it was accepted to make an atonement. Now that is if there was some dirt on the table and I put something over that's covered you.
Can't see it, but it's much better when it's taken away and it tells us about the Lord Jesus that He was manifested to take away our sins, to take away our sins. The work of atonement is done and it's no longer necessary that God should provide through the sacrifices and that which would cover sin from His holy presence, because now the one perfect sacrifice has been made. And that precious blood of Christ cleanses from all sin. So here this was written many hundreds of years before the cross, and anticipatively God as it were, looked on to that cross of Calvary. But now, how good the news for the believer. The blood of Jesus Christ His Son, cleanseth us from all sin. Like the little boy. He was only, I think, 7 years old. And he took very ill and the doctor told his father that he didn't expect his boy would recover. The father himself was not saved, although he was a God fearing man. So he came in to speak to the boy and told him the news, told him that the doctor had said that he didn't expect that he would recover. But he said, it'll be all right with you, my boy. He said, you haven't got very many sins. And the dear old boy looked up and he said, Daddy, I don't have any sins. I don't have any sins. Well, his father said, I suppose half under his breath. Not very many. He couldn't help but remember that the boy hadn't always been obedient. He had done some naughty things. But again the boy looked up and with confidence he said, No Daddy, I haven't any sins because the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. God, dear little boy, had learned that verse in Sunday school. He had believed it. He had accepted it by faith. Oh, surely I can say how blessed that boy was. Is it true of every boy and girl here? Is this true of you? And to make it a little clearer, in Romans 4 it says that God imputes this without works. Without works. Oh, He wants us to say that this is His act. Who can forgive sins but God only? Who can put away sin so that the Sinner would be accepted in the presence of a holy God? And that verse, I like to quote the whole verse, John first, John one and seven. If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin. What is the first part of that verse? Come in. If we walk in the light as he is in the light, well, it's just something like this. You know, if my suit here was covered in spots, it mightn't be noticed in a dark room. If I was in a dimly lighted room, you might say, oh, your suit looks all right. I don't see anything on it at all just because the lights were dim. But if I was in the brightest lights and if the light in all its brightness was shining on me. Then it would have. To be clean before you could say why now you're clean. And isn't it wonderful, dear friends, that God first brings us right into the light of his holy presence. He says there's where you are, right in the light of my presence. And he said, I can't see a spot upon you. That's where the believer walks, right in the light. And in that light we have fellowship one with another. We like to talk here as those who belong to Christ of our common portion. We have common thoughts about the precious blood of Christ, and God would have it to be solved. He wants us to know it isn't a question of what we think about the blood. It's what God says about it. It's what God says about it. And so isn't it a grand thing when your transgression is forgiven, when your sin is covered? Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth, not iniquity. Well, this seems to me to go even further. And put it means put to account now that is God's never going to put sin to my account. Isn't that a blessed thing? There was a lady who got saved some years ago and then after a few months she came to the gospel meeting and she said to the brother who had been speaking, she said, I know all my sins were forgiven when I was saved.
But I'm afraid that I've sinned since I was saved. What about those? Well, the brother said to her, he said, I'd like to ask you a question. How many of your sins were future when Jesus died? Well, she said. I guess they were all future. I hadn't even been born. Well, he said, I'll ask you another question then. Is the Lord Jesus going to die again? Well, no, she said I I don't think so. No, the Bible says He won't. It says in that He died, He died unto sin once. And he said, well, if the Lord Jesus didn't settle the question of your sins at the cross, they'll never be settled. That's why it tells us in Hebrews 10 by 1 offering He hath perfect and forever them that are sanctified. Sin and the believer's life never changes his standing before. God. What it does is interrupt communion with God, but it never changes our standing. God sees us in Christ, the righteousness of God in him. And so it says, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Is this grand news? He'll never put a sin on the devil's side. It's all been taken care of at the cross for the One. Who believes? Is this blessedness yours? It can be, and without works, and without works. Now that's what God proclaims. No wonder that Paul said when preaching in the 13th of Acts. We declare unto you glad tidiness. This is good news indeed, and it's good news from the heart of God himself. And then it goes on to say, And in whose spirit there is no guile. Now, that is, there's a lot of pretense in this world. There's a lot of sham, isn't there? Guile means pretense. And you speak to people and they say, well, I don't think I'm such a bad person after all. I think I'm as good as my neighbors. And my uncle or my grandfather was a preacher, you know, And we've always given to the church. And they start to tell you all about these things. But what does the? What does the Sinner do when he gets? Into the presence of God. If he's honest, he doesn't try to justify himself. He just does what the man did in the Gospel of Luke. He condemns himself. He says, God be merciful. To me, a Sinner, that's the right thing to do in God's presence. Otherwise it's just pretense. It's a sham for me to say I'm good enough for the presence of a thrice holy God. If I haven't been cleansed in the blood of Christ. And so, friends, is there anyone here? And you've been putting on a sham, perhaps as a boy or girl here, and you're satisfied that your mother thinks you're saved. You're satisfied that your father thinks you're saved. But remember, that'll never do. In whose spirit there is no guile. God doesn't want pretense, He wants reality. Has there ever been a dealing between your soul and God? Can you say? Today, this very moment, I'm cleansed in the precious blood of Christ. I'm not asking you if you can tell about some great experience that you've had. Some perhaps brought up in Christian homes and may not be able to tell of some great experience because as little children in simplicity they receive Christ. But you do know whether you're trusting in Christ as your Savior right now. When I say this, it makes me. Think of a dear old brother, known perhaps to some older ones here, Brother Crosley. He was preaching down in New Brunswick one time and there was a nice work going on there and some souls were being saved. And one of the ladies who had been saved came to Mr. Crosley and Mr. and said, Mr. Crosley, when were you brought to put your trust in the Lord? Well, he said I can't remember. Or she said I can tell you when I was. How can that be that you can't remember? Well, he said the father knows. The father knows.
And this dear sister was telling me herself and she said I surely felt rebuked. Dear friends, if you know the Lord Jesus as your Savior right now, don't be concerned about whether you can tell and experience. The important thing is, are you trusting in the blood of Christ right now? That's the thing for your soul. What do you trusting him? I know a little girl. And as a child, she accepted the Lord as. Savior later on when she heard the gospel preached, she wasn't just sure whether she was really saved and she just said to the Lord, Lord, if I haven't accepted you before, I accept you right now. And so, dear friends, isn't it wonderful that God knows? You know, I don't remember when I was born, but my father remembered, my mother remembered and thought is we can be satisfied. The Father knows. And you know whether you're under the shelter of the blood right now. And so, and don't go, don't be satisfied with pretense, forgiveness from transgressions. Sin covered, no sin imputed. He imputes not iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no dial. It shows us the means that God uses. Notice first the third verse. When I kept silence, my bones waxed old through my roaring all day long. Perhaps this brings before us the trials of life, How many people there are going on. Life is full of trouble. Life is full of sorrow. And yet God intended that these sorrows would bring people to Christ for salvation. He intended that the troubles and sorrows of life would make sinners feel their need of Jesus. And so we find when the Lord was here, how often? And we see him dealing with people that were physically afflicted, blind people, lame people. So often we find cases like this showing us that the Lord intends. That all these things that causes such sorrow would bring us to himself, the 33rd chapter of Job tells us. Below all these things worketh God, oftentimes with man. He intends this to bring Him, bring sinners to Himself, that they might be saved. And so he doesn't intend them just to go on, and shall I say, do nothing about it. When I kept silence how many people there are, you know, I was struck in reading that the average person speaks several 1000 words every day. And just think of all these thousands of words that we speak every day. You say I never realized, but when you realize that normal talking, you talk over 100 words a minute. Why? It's not very hard to understand how many words you say in a day. And to think that people go on and they talk and talk and talk and never say to the Lord, I am a Sinner and I'll take thee as my Savior. In all the thousands and millions of words they say in their lifetime, you never have looked up and just told the Lord Jesus that they're sinners and they'll take the Lord as their Savior. Oh friend, don't remain silent. Come to the Lord Jesus. Speak to Him tonight and accept Him as your savior. For day and night thy hand was heavy upon me. My moisture is turned into the drought of summer. And then the happy result. I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord. And thou forgave us the iniquity of my sin. Have you ever acknowledged your sin to the Lord? Have you ever taken your place before him and just simply said, Lord, I am a Sinner? Have you done that? Have the trials of life brought you to that point? How often in visiting someone on a sick bed, we long that the trial that they're passing through would bring them to the point that's spoken of here when they would acknowledge their.
Their transgressions unto the Lord, they just simply say. And isn't it lovely? Here the same 3 words are used by sin, my iniquity and my transgression. I believe transgression is breaking a known command. Sin is doing our own will. And perhaps iniquity would speak of the wretchedness of our heart that leads us to do these things. Because why do people sin? Because they love to do their own will, that's why. They just love to indulge whether The thing is right or wrong. Why? They just love to indulge their lusts. And so isn't it blessed that God takes up the whole 3 words he speaks of that? Evil desire that's within us. He speaks of the sins that we commit. He speaks of the transgressions. Isn't it blessed that God, who sees the evil thought behind it and the actions that we have committed, he forgives? He puts those sins away, and then we can say my sins are gone. And as we read in that verse that we read in Acts 13, I'm going to look at it again later, but I just want to speak of it now. Be it known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. The Lord Jesus is waiting to put away your sins tonight. He's waiting to give you a clean sheet in his presence and to give you the knowledge that they're all gone. So the sixth verse For this shall everyone that is godly pray unto thee, in a time when thou mayest be found. Yes, this little verse brings before us the solemnity of accepting Christ as our Savior now. It reminds one of the verse in the 55th of Isaiah. Seek ye the Lord, while he may be found, while he may be found. And oh, I would warn you that there is a time coming when it will be too late, when the door will be shut, as it says in Luke chapter 13, when once the master of the house hath risen up and shut to the door. Then shall he begin to knock, saying, Lord? Lord, open unto us. There are a lot of empty chairs in this room here tonight. But dear friends, if the Lord Jesus were to come tonight and rise up and shut to the door, there wouldn't be enough chairs in this building to accommodate all the people that would like to have one more opportunity. Just one more opportunity. But this is the time when He may be found. This is the time when you can be saved. Because. It's still a day of grace. And he's listening for your call tonight, and if you'll turn to him, turn to him in honesty of heart, and acknowledge your sin, why, he'll meet you in all your need. He wants you just as you are, the little hymn says, just as I am, without one plea, but that thy blood was shed for me, and that thou bids me come to thee, O Lamb of God. I come. Then it says in the seventh verse. Thou art my hiding place, Thou wilt, thou shalt preserve me from trouble. Oh, isn't it blessed, our sins gone, and his precious blood forgiven by God himself. And then how lovely it says, Thou art my hiding place. All we need a hiding place because there is a time of judgment coming. And it tells us that sinners. Will call to the mountains and to the rocks to hide them from the face of the one who sits upon the throne. But isn't it lovely to be able to say I have a hiding place? We were reminded this afternoon of how conditions are getting worse in this world. The suicides are increasing too, because people can hardly face up to the realities of life. And of all the things that are beginning to happen in this world, people are becoming more and more discouraged. What is life all about? Is it really worth living? Oh dear friends, we need a hiding place. And oh how grand it is to have. Hiding places, a hiding place in times of trouble. And it may be if the Lord Jesus doesn't come, that even in this fair land of Canada, things may become more difficult. We've been reading lately about Christians and other lambs and what they're suffering for the name of Christ. It may come to this land too. We don't know.
Isn't it blessed to have a hiding place? Isn't it wonderful to have one? As it says, Behold, a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covered from The Tempest, as rivers of water in the dry places, the shadow of a great rock in a weary land. We all know that little hymn. That tells us hail, sovereign love that first began that scheme to rescue fallen man. Hail, matchless, free, eternal grace that gave my soul a hiding place. And I like the way the last verse reads. Should sevenfold storms of Thunder roll and shape this globe from pole to pole, no Thunderbolt shall dot my face. For Jesus is my hiding place. Do you have such a hiding place? When trouble comes, have you got that hiding place? Not only knowing Jesus as your Savior, but knowing Him as the One who cares for you, who even in trouble can compass you about with songs of deliverance? When Paul and Silas were in prison with their backs bleeding, what were they doing? They found a hiding place. They were praying and singing praises to God. Why? They had a hiding place. They weren't afraid. The jail. Was going to kill himself when he saw trouble coming. Foolish man. Because when a man tries to put an end to his troubles down here, he just goes into something that's far worse than this world. This world is full of all kinds of tokens of God's goodness. Most of us had a good supper tonight. Most of us have enjoyed quite a few things this day. But in hell, there will be no such pleasure. There will be no such pleasure. And the man? Who lifted up his eyes in hell? He was tormented. There was no deliverance for him, not even a drop of water. All my friend, let me tell you that when people commit suicide and when people die and say that's the end of it, they're only fooling themselves. After death, the judgment, this is the place for you to be saved. This is the place to find Jesus as your Savior and as your hiding place. Oh, don't turn your back upon such a Savior. You need Him. And if you don't feel your need of Him tonight, there's a time coming when you will feel your knee when you long for the opportunity that you are receiving tonight of accepting Christ. And then isn't this lovely, this eighth verse? I will instruct thee, and teach thee in the way which thou shalt gull. I will guide thee with thine eye, or the margin says, I will counsel thee, Mine eye shall be upon thee. Isn't that lovely? Oh, I think this is so. Blessed, dear friends, this one whom we speak about tonight as Savior the One. Can forgive you. The one who can pardon you, the one who wants to be your hiding place, will then be concerned about every detail of your life. He's the captain of our salvation, bringing many sons to glory, and he'll guide us with his eye upon us. Isn't it a lovely thing? I can say that I was saved many years ago. And I've proved the truth of this verse that. The one who saved me is the one I can turn to. In all the decisions of life, I suppose there is nothing, no expression, hardly more common than we hear people say. I don't know what to do, I don't know what to do. Isn't it wonderful to have one who has undertaken to guide us? A little hymn that we sing sometimes says the protection of his child and treasure is a charge. That on himself he lay, he picked us up. He wants us in glory with himself. He's not going to enjoy heaven alone. He wants companions. When you enjoy something that's nice, the first thought that usually comes into your mind if you have a dear friend is oh, I wish so and so was here. We could have it together. I wish we could enjoy it together.
Marvel of Marvel's The one that died for me and the one that died for you, says I don't want the joys of heaven alone. I want companions. I want those who can share with me all that I have to offer. And through this wilderness world with all its troubles and trials, I will guide thee with mine eye upon me. Did you ever get into some situation that was difficult and then you look up and. Somebody you loved, and they were watching you, and they just gave you a little look that made you feel that they understood and they felt for you. Oh dear friends, there's one who's up there in glory who lives for us. We were reading about his prayer for us. Before he went away, we were speaking about his present work. I will guide thee with mine eye upon thee. What a wonderful thing to have. Not only a Savior, but a friend, one who cares for us, one who is concerned. I say his name is wonderful Counselor, the mighty God. Then it goes on in the ninth person says, Be not as the horse or as the mule, which have no understanding, whose mouth must be held in with bit and bridle, unless they come near unto thee. He doesn't want us to be like the horse of the mule. Why, when a man drives the horse, why he has to put the bridle on so that he can direct the horse? But God doesn't want to guide us that way. It's not very pleasant for the horse to have to be pulled around with that bridle, but isn't it lovely? The Lord said, I don't want to guide you that way. I want to guide you with mine eye upon you. And when it says I will instruct thee, He's given us his word. There are many younger ones here tonight, and I want to commend to you the reading of this blessed book. It's God's revelation to us. It's His communication to us as we had in our chapter. He's given to us His Word because He has the instruction that we need. All things that pertain unto life and godliness. Perhaps you say, but there's a lot of things in the Old Testament that I don't understand. Read them just the same. The Spirit of God is the remembrance, Sir, and he'll bring them back to you. And many of these lovely stories in the Old Testament, as you read them, perhaps you don't just understand them at the time, but they're just like God's picture book. And I've sometimes said, I don't believe that there's a situation in which we as believers can be found that we won't find something in God's Word. To give us light and instruction. And I like to store my mind with those stories. And then I tell you what I do when I get into a difficult situation. I try to remember some story in the Old Testament where someone else was put in a situation just like that. And I see that every time there's something comes up, I find somebody was in one of those situations. And how he acted, whether wisely or unwisely. Has been given for our instruction and the Spirit of God as a remembrancer he instructs us, then he looks down upon us in love and even when we go wrong. Dear Peter denied the Lord and got warming himself at the world's fire, but he still wasn't out of the sight of the Lord Jesus. And when the cock crew it says. And Jesus turned and looked at Peter, and when Peter saw that look, he went out and he wept. He got restored. His eye is upon us. When you say I've got away from him, yes, sometimes we do get away from him, but his eye is still upon us. Oh, you say I've got out of the light. No, you couldn't get out of the light. He's brought you into it. Someone said to Mr. Darby, But if you're in the light, what if you turn your back on it? Well, He said the light will shine on your back. That will, dear friends, and you and I have been brought into the light, and his eye is upon us. And when we err, He tries to, just like we do with our children sometimes we try to catch their eye. We try to catch their eye. And they know what that means when we catch their eye. That's what the Lord does when He sees us going astray, tries to catch our eye. Why? He loves us. He loves us. He wants us to be blessed.
And so he doesn't want us to be like the horse of the mule that have to be steered with a bitten bridle. It says. Unless they come near unto thee. Many sorrows shall be to the wicked. But he that trusteth in the Lord mercy shall compass him about. O friends, those words, many sorrows, many sorrows. Oh, I can't tell you the awfulness of those words. I can't tell you the blessedness of knowing Jesus. I can't tell you how wonderful it is to know Him as your Savior. It's beyond me to tell it one of the brothers. When we were praying for the gospel, he said we just can't tell out as we would wish to, all that's in the heart of God. And we can't. Dear friends, neither can I tell you the awfulness of what it will be to be banished from God's presence forever. I can't tell you. Thank God I'll never experience it. The Lord Jesus suffered in my place. He bore the judgment so there'd be none left for me. Will you have this Blessed 1 as your Savior? And then it says in the 11TH verse, Be glad in the Lord, and rejoice, ye righteous, and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart. How good it is, truly. He tells us to be glad. Then He tells us to shout for joy. Surely we have every reason to shout for joy as we think of what He has done for us. Now, just before I close, I'd like to turn over to those verses I read in Acts 13. I'd just like to bring out a couple of thoughts from these verses. Acts 13. Verse 38. Be it known unto you, therefore, man and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sin, and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses. That 32nd Psalm tells us about forgiveness. But here we find some a word that we get in the New Testament, a word that we can now enter into and enjoy as the result of the work of Christ, and that is justified. Now you know, dear friends, to be justified is more than to be forgiven. Perhaps a simple illustration would make this clear, supposing that I was a thief and I broke into someone's house and I stole $200 and this person very kindly forgives me. I know he's forgiven me. But you know, I don't feel very much at home in his presence. Because every time I meet him, I think, well, I know he's forgiven me, but he must think of me as a forgiven thief. Forgiven, all right, But you know, I just can't feel relaxed in his presence. But supposing when that person forgave me, he said. Now I want you to know this. I've not only forgiven you, but I'm going to look at you as though you had never committed that sin at all. I'm going to look at you with all the love and affection of my own son. And I want you to remember that every time I meet you on the street or every time we stop and talk, that I'm not thinking of that. I'm looking at you and thinking of you as my own boy whom I love. And that's not even going to cross my mind what you did. Your sins and iniquities will I remember no more. Dear friends, God not only forgives, He justifies. And more than this, it says in Romans 5 justification of life, which is a very remarkable expression, because God not only looks upon me as though I had never sinned, but He has placed me before Him in a life that never sinned and cannot sin. That's how wonderful a place is. Every believer is not only forgiven, but you know if you've taken the Lord Jesus. As your Savior, He's forgiven you. He's undertaken to bring you safely home to guide you with His eye, and if you err, His eye is still upon you. He is promised that He will never leave you nor forsake you. And more than this, He has told you that you have been placed before Him in this marvelous place, that you're not only forgiven, how about your before Him?
Accepted. In his beloved Son, that's where the believer is brought. That is your standing before God. How remarkable that is justification of life. And that's why it says, by the way, he could not be justified by the law of Moses. The law of Moses could only condemn a guilty man, but God not only forgives, but I say again, He justifies. And this is true of every believer tonight. When you take the Lord Jesus as your Savior, a Father's face of radiant grace shines in light upon you, and never again will he look upon you as even a forgiven Sinner only. But he'll look upon you. Forgive him certainly, but justified from all things. Justification of life made the righteousness of God in him. Accepted in the Beloved. Could his love have done more? Would his love do less? And how long does it take to get all this blessing? How long does it take, dear friend? Only a moment, only a look to Jesus. Oh, why not take it now? Oh, why not take that look of faith to the Lord Jesus tonight? You can come just as you are. You can come while you sit in that seat and just look up and say, Lord Jesus, I'm a Sinner. I accept thee as my Savior. And whether you understand all the blessings or not. It's all going to be yours from that moment. And there's a lovely verse in the third in the 53rd chapter of Isaiah, it says. He shall see of the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied, I want to say, if he takes me, and he'll certainly be disappointed because I don't think I could live the Christian life like I should all. But when he gets his own safely home to glory, he's going to look at everyone and he's going to say I'm glad I died to bring that one here. Oh, that's the kind of a savior we have to preach. About tonight. That's the glad tidings that God has given. Well might the Spirit of God say, we declare unto you glad tidings. But, oh, I just want to close with a solemn warning here in the 40th and 41St verses. Beware therefore, lest that come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets. Behold, ye despisers, and wonder and perish, for I work a work in your days, a work which. She shall in no wise believe, though a man declared unto you again I say to your friends, it's God's work. And all I have tried to declare to you is the work that Christ has done. I'm only a man. I'm just a Sinner saved by grace. And you may look at me and say, well, you're only a man. What right do you have? Well, Paul said I'm just a man too, but he said it's God's message. It's a work that Christ. Done. And I beseech of you not to despise it, because do you know this? You're going to see the blessing that is brought to believers another day if you reject the Savior. Because the rich man in hell saw the blessing that Lazarus had entered into and he didn't share it. He couldn't cross over to possess it. Old friend, just think. The last view that sinners will get of that precious Savior. The One who died on Calvary's cross will be at the great white throne and see that One who wanted to be their Savior and who has to be their judge. Oh, don't reject Him. Open your heart tonight and receive Him. And if there's a doubting soul here tonight, rest upon His word. It's not your work, it's what Christ has done.