Thank you, Pastor Josh, and it's good to be among you. And it is a blessing to be here. Pastor Josh, as he noted, was a student at Laurier, and he would attend our church periodically when he was in town. So it's been good to get to know him over the years and see how God's using him among you. And I've always been encouraged, at least for, since I was in my early 20s or late teens, by your congregation. So this was a, there was a time in my, yeah, about 20 years old, 19 years old, when I was trying to understand the doctrines of grace and what that meant. and this was a church that I looked to to help me think through those things, and it was your faithful testimony on those issues was one of the reasons I was able to come down on the right side. So I'm grateful for you, and it really is an honor to be in your pulpit this morning, and I've gotten to know some of your elders over the last few years, and it's good to see some other familiar faces here. But I'm gonna ask you to turn to Isaiah 5, verse 16. I'm going to jump around a little bit this morning, not too much. But I'm going to start there by posing a question to you. And the first bit of my sermon, I'm going to reflect on what's said in Isaiah 5, verse 16, then we'll turn to Romans 3 for the second part of the sermon. Isaiah 5 verse 16 says, But the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, and the holy God shows himself holy in righteousness. Pay attention to that. The Lord of hosts is exalted in justice. We'll reflect on that and what that means for a moment here, but let me have a word of prayer. Father in heaven, who is exalted in justice and who does show yourself holy in righteousness, we pray that this morning as we gather on this Good Friday and we think upon the death of our Christ, whom you sent in to satisfy justice's demands. And we are thankful for him. And it is our desire to exalt you in justice. That you would be exalted in justice among us. For the lost who are here this morning, we pray that their hearts of stone would be turned to hearts of flesh, that they might be saved. And for those among us who are redeemed, we pray that this would be a source of strength to us, that you would anoint the hearing and preaching of your word this morning. Amen. So I am coming to Isaiah 5, verse 16, this little statement here, specifically the first half of it, the Lord of hosts is exalted in justice, with somewhat of a quandary, dilemma, puzzle. And the puzzle is this, if God is exalted in justice, how can he forgive a sinner? If you think about what justice means, And it is in this idea or concept or display, I think is the best term, in this display that God is exalted, how can he forgive a sinner? This is the quandary that I'm coming to you with this morning, this dilemma. And so I'm gonna explain why this is such a dilemma. And then I'm gonna provide a solution, and then I'm going to bring us to a few points of application in closing. But this is really a dilemma, that God is exalted in justice and that he would save a sinner. Let me talk for a moment as I think about this dilemma, what it means for him to be exalted. What does this mean? And for God to be exalted is essentially for God to be made much of, or to be worshipped, to be perceived as worthy. It's not for him to be worthy, he is worthy. Simply is, because he's God. But to be exalted in these things is to be perceived as worthy. It's almost like in the Lord's Prayer where Jesus taught us to pray, hallowed be thy name. It's, we don't, God's name doesn't all of a sudden become hallowed. His name is hallowed. But we want to see his name hallowed among the earth, that men would perceive him as holy. That men would hallow his name. This is the change we're looking for in the Lord's Prayer. And when we're talking about God being exalted in justice, it's not that he isn't already exalted. But we're talking about the perception of who he is in the eyes and the hearts and the minds of men. That men and women and little children would perceive God to be worthy in their hearts. And their hearts would be raptured up and taken up in this exaltation of God. God is exalted in justice. And so it's injustice. that God is all of a sudden perceived is worthy, is powerful, is glorious, is deserving of our worship. It's in displays of justice that God himself is exalted in the hearts of men and perceived as worthy of our worship. He already is, but it's in these displays that elicit this in our hearts. His justice, in other words, what I'm trying to communicate is that it excites worship in us. So it moves us, it puts us in a state where we're ready and wanting to worship because we are now perceiving the worthiness of God. And I'll give you a few biblical examples of that. You don't need to turn there, I'll just read them for you. But one of them would be, for example, in the Exodus. After the Exodus, there's a song that breaks out and it's led by Moses. And it's a praise song. They're exalting in God, praising God. And what are they praising him for? They're praising him for the execution of his justice. Dead soldiers are washing up on the shore that have just been killed by God in justice. God justly punished an army of tyrants for their wickedness, and Moses breaks into song. In Exodus chapter 15, verse one, he says, I will sing to the Lord for he has triumphed gloriously, the horse and his rider, he is thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and my song, and he has become my salvation. This is my God, and I will praise him, my Father's God, and I will exalt him. And then he says, listen, the Lord is a man of war. The Lord is his name. Pharaoh's chariots and his hosts he cast into the sea, and his chosen officers were sunk into the Red Sea. The floods covered them. They were down into the depths like a stone. Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power. Your right hand, O Lord, glorious in power. In the greatness of your majesty, you overthrow your adversaries. You send out your fury. It consumes them like stubble. So Moses says, we exalt in God. And then he lists all these reasons why. Threw riders into the sea. An army sunk to the bottom of the sea like a stone. God's fury consumed them. which causes the Hebrews to exalt in the Lord. His justice was on display, and that brought about an exaltation in God, worship. See, this excites worship in people, when God's justice is on display. It kindles, God's justice kindles exaltation. Another example in the Bible would be, for example, Psalm chapter, or the 9th Psalm, verse 19 to 20, where it says, arise, arise, O Lord, let not man prevail. Let the nations be judged before you. Put them in fear, O Lord. Let the nations know that they are but men. this call for God to bring about justice so that the pride of man would be humbled and we would understand that we are but men. And what will bring about this understanding? It is the greatness of God in judgment that brings this about. It strikes fear into our hearts. And it shows us how glorious He is in displays of His just judgments upon Man, it energizes the exaltation of God. God's judgment does. His justice does. It energizes exaltation. There's other examples. I'll give a couple more. Psalm 89, verse 8 to 14 says, you rule the raging sea. When its waves rise, you still them. You crushed Rahab like a carcass. You scattered your enemies with your mighty arm. The heavens are yours, the earth is also yours, the world and all that is in it. You have founded them, the north and the south. You have created them, Tabor and Hermon. Joyously praise your name. You have a mighty arm, strong as your hand, high your right hand. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne. Steadfast love and faithfulness go before you, blessed. are the people who know the feastful shout, who walk, O Lord, in the light of your face. What's he's doing? He's praising the Lord. God crushed his enemies to pieces. This is counterintuitive with 21st century niceties, I think, in a culture that prides itself on being nice. But this is a reality. When you see great displays of crushing power, You're overcome. And you become very small in your own eyes, and the one who is displaying the crushing power becomes great in your eyes. And this is what's being spoken of in Isaiah 5, verse 16, the Lord is exalted in justice. When he brings about these displays of crushing power, Wipes out an army that is in pursuit of the righteous. He wipes them out in a sea and throws them down in the bottom of the sea like a stone. Doesn't say like a boulder, like a stone. Where he crushes his enemy to pieces or displays his fury. Revelation 19, similar, where the city of Babylon goes up in smoke, the whore of Babylon goes up in smoke. And what do the people do? They praise the Lord. chapter 19 verse 1 and 3 Hallelujah salvation and glory and power to our God for his judgments are true and just For he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality and has avenged her Or on her the blood of his servants Once more they cried out hallelujah the smoke from her goes up forever and ever So what do we see there? The smoke of the great horror of Babylon is going up forever and ever. She's been crushed. And God's people are singing hallelujah. They are exalting in God. What is my point? I'm trying to explain Isaiah chapter 5 verse 16 that the justice of God, the judgments of God, the wrath of God on display It arouses the exaltation of God in the hearts of His people. It kindles the exaltation of God in the hearts of His people. It excites and energizes it. And this is seen on the pages of Scripture. And if you're a Christian, you should know this experientially. When you encounter God's greatness and His power, and you begin to believe this and understand it and perceive it in your mind's eye, your heart is moved to the exaltation of God, to worship. God's law is just. And if it was unjust, you wouldn't exalt. If it was unjust, you would groan. But because His law is just, you exalt in His justice. So I heard an item in the news recently whereby the city of Toronto wanted to start taxing their citizens for rain. I don't know whether you heard that, but they're calling it a rain tax. And that doesn't cause your heart to exalt. It causes your heart to groan, because you understand that that is unjust. But when... Somebody enacts a just law, and that just law is executed, it causes you to exalt, not groan, wither. But you can have just laws, and not the execution of justice, and that doesn't cause you to exalt either, it causes you to moan. So if you have laws that forbid, for example, the theft of automobiles, but then you have police saying, leave your keys at the door for the burglars, that's not the execution of justice, is it? And then that doesn't cause you to exalt at all. But it's these executions of justice where good and righteous laws decreed by God are violated and then punished by God. Powerfully. This brings about the exaltation of His people. My brother reminded me of a story not too long ago. I completely forgot it, but I think there's a reason he remembered it, and that's when we were in grade school. He's my younger brother, and we were in grade school. We were young. I was probably in about grade 5, and he was in grade 2 or 3. And there was a bully in my class that was bullying him. And then I guess I told the bully to go bully my brother. I said, why don't you go beat up my brother? Because I knew this was going on. I said, my brother's over there. Why don't you go beat him up? And it was a trap on my part. Because when he beat up my brother, I taught him a lesson. And my brother remembers that story. And this guy took a, he never beat up my brother again, I'll tell you that. Right? Well, my brother remembers that story. I forgot that story. I still don't really remember it. But he does. So why would he remember that? Because it impressed something in his mind when I did that. There was laws, universal principles of justice were violated. And then I moved in, and I dealt with it. And that's a small, little thing. But when you see God do this on a great, massive scale, He's exalted in the hearts of his people. You begin to perceive him as greater. He doesn't become greater. He is great. But you begin to understand and fathom and contemplate his greatness. And so God's law is just, and his judgments are powerful. And then when his judgments are executed, God is exalted in his justice. That's what I'm trying to explain for this first part of my sermon. To explain this, John Trapp commented, and he said, God shall be religiously acknowledged, approved of, and worshiped, is an enemy to sin, and an upright judge because of his most righteous judgments. When we see that He is an enemy to sin, and He is an upright judge, we approve in our hearts, it resonates with us, and we worship Him for being just that and doing it. And so, here's the dilemma, though. This is bringing us back to the dilemma, the quandary I talked about at the beginning of my sermon. If God is exalted in justice, how can he forgive a sinner? His exaltation occurs in judgments upon sin and sinners themselves. So if he is exalted in justice, how can he forgive a sinner? And I know for a fact that he does forgive sinners, because the scriptures tell me he does. So, for example, Psalm 32, verse 1, blessed is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord counts no iniquity, and in whose spirit there is no deceit. are in the promise of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31. What does it say? Jeremiah 31 verse 34. They shall know from me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. And so you have this God who is exalted in justice worshipped in response to justice, executions of justice. And then this God who forgives sinners. How do you reconcile the two? Because you and I are sinners. We're lawbreakers. And the law doesn't come to us and say, it's OK, good job. The law is an accusing law. It comes and it says, you are bad. You are a sinner. You deserve this justice. And it names the sins specifically. And yet you have this God who forgives the people that the law accuses. How does this work? And yet he's still exalted. That's a quandary that I hope you can understand. An accusing righteous law comes to us and tells us that we deserve to be damned, and then God pardons us, completely freeing us from guilt for our sins, and then yet still finds himself egalted in his justice. It is a puzzle. You should understand it as that. And furthermore, this presents another problem as we think about this quandary. It's not only a problem that he could be exalted in the forgiveness of sins because he's exalted in justice, but if God has a universal standard of justice, and then God forgives sins, how do we know that he won't unforgive sins? And here's why this is a problem. Because if God And his perfection is required to damn sinners. And then God decides, I'm going to forgive sinners, just like that. They deserve to be thrown to hell. And then I will forgive them, God says. I do forgive them, God says. And then he can shift gears that quickly. How is it that God can not go back and say, I will unforgive them? I mean, he's God after all. And if he can go against what we're perceiving as justice and forgiving sinners, how can he not go back towards that? Unless somehow in this quandary, in this puzzle, justice has been satisfied and sinners have been forgiven all at once, which is what happened. at the cross. But how did that happen? So this is where we get to the solution of this quandary, this dilemma. God is exalted in justice, yet God forgives sinners. And if God can forgive sinners, maybe He can unforgive sinners. Wouldn't that be a terrible thought? Well, how do we understand all of this? Where does this all come to kind of a solution and a resolution? And we see the solution in Romans chapter three. And you might want to look at that. You can turn there. I'll park there for a little bit here. Romans chapter three, verse 25 and 26, a solution to this quandary. Dilemma that I've been pressing upon you Romans 3 verse 25 and 26 says whom God put forward is a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith, this was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just. See that word? And the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus Christ. This is so important. So important. Martin Lloyd-Jones said of these two verses, there are no more important verses in the whole range of Scripture. I think that's likely. He further went on and said, there's nothing that the human mind can ever consider which is in any way as important as these two verses that I just read. So Welsh preacher Lloyd-Jones said, because this solves the riddle right here. These two verses, they solve the riddle. Let me explain. Verse 25 speaks of a propitiation by His blood. This is speaking about the death of Jesus Christ on the cross and the propitiation is to means to satisfy God's wrath and turn it away, and so in verse 25 you have this propitiation by blood, meaning Jesus in his shed blood, as he died, satisfied, he absorbed the wrath of God fully and turned the wrath of God away. And then you see in verse 25 at the end of it, speaking of this propitiation, this was to show God's righteousness. And then in verse 26, it was to show God's righteousness. Verse 25 showed us how God can be righteous by passing over sins of the Old Testament saints. And then verse 26 demonstrates how he can be just in forgiving sinners. How can he be just in forgiving sinners? Verse 26, it was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus Christ. The bloody cross maintains justice well-forgiving sinners. So this is, in following up until now, the dilemma is now solved at this point. If you see verse 26, it all makes sense. How does this all work together? How can a just God who's exalted in his justice still be exalted well-forgiving sinners because in the cross of Jesus Christ God is justified in his forgiveness of sinners. He demonstrates his justice. He shows himself to be just. Remember what I talked about? It's the demonstration of justice that brings about the exaltation of God. The armies being thrown into the sea and dropped to the bottom of the sea like a stone and crushing his enemies into pieces. Are the whore of Babylon and her smoke going up to heaven and all the people declaring hallelujah? How is this possible that God could forgive sinners and still be exalted? Well, in all those cases, he's exalting. He's being exalted because of his justice. And then right here in verse 26 of Romans chapter 3, it says that God is still demonstrating his justice in the forgiveness of sinners, in the punishment of their sins, but instead of looking at the punishment of those sinners, their sins are being placed on Jesus Christ, and God is literally pointing at Jesus Christ and saying, look, see, I'm just. He's justifying. his righteous standards, and his forgiveness all at once. Not as if he needs to do it for our sake, as far as our approval, but he had to do it for the sake of upholding his universal principles of justice. And then he puts it on full display so that we can look at his justice on display on the cross, and it excites worship in our hearts. It arouses the worship of God in the hearts of his people. It kindles it. It energizes it. When we understand why Christ was crucified for the justification of God in the justification of sinners. Let me explain this a little bit more here. It says right here in verse 26, so that he might be just. The bloody cross justifies God for forgiving us even is it acquires our forgiveness by justifying us. Robert Haldane said, in the propitiation then of Jesus Christ, the justice of God in the salvation of sinners shines conspicuously. In the cross, God is just to forgive sinners because His justice is upheld in the punishment of Jesus Christ in our stead. And that should cause us to exalt in God because it's His justice on display. Just as Isaiah 5 verse 16 says. He was crucified, says Matthew Poole, that no wrong might be done to his immediate justice by which he cannot but hate sin and abhor the sinner as such. He can only hate sin. He can't just wink away sin and move from, oh, angry against sin, happy towards sinners. It's not within his nature to do that. Because if he could go from angry towards sinners to happy towards sinners, he can go back to angry towards sinners. But God doesn't change. His standards don't change. But His anger towards sinners was satisfied in this man that died on the cross and was crucified so many years ago. God forgives you, the sinner. Well, he hates your sin in Jesus Christ. And Christ satisfies God's holy hatred towards sin. Think about this, verse 25 and 26 of Romans 3. It says it twice. It was to show. It was to show. This was to show. It was to show. To show is justice. That he's just. It's like God raised up Jesus Christ on the cross and shone a spotlight on him that was as bright as 10,000 suns and pointed with both his hands at him as he's raised up and thunders forth, I am just. He declares it. in the crucified Son of God. It is a declaration of justice upheld that Jesus Christ was crucified, not for his sins, but dying in our stead, where we should have died and should have suffered. Justice was upheld in that moment. As Bunyan said, Christ, when he died, died not to satisfy Satan, but died to satisfy his Father, not to appease the devil, but to answer the demands of the justice of God. John Gill said he was smitten by God, by the sword of justice. is he stood in their place, our place. The sword of justice smit him. Isaiah 53, he carried our sorrows, was wounded for our transgressions, was crushed for our iniquities, ours. His soul makes an offering for our guilt. The Lord laid on Him the iniquity of us all. Justice. Satisfied. God Himself is exalted in justice. Look, Jesus didn't die to make you feel sorry for Him. That's not why He died. He didn't die primarily to set an example for you. No. He didn't even die primarily to show you how evil men are, although he did in his death. That's not primarily why he died. No. The bloody cross was to show the justice of God in the forgiveness of sinners, so that God can be just and the justifier, the forgiver, all at once. Otherwise, it would all fall apart. We couldn't be forgiven or God would be unreliable and unjust, one or the other, or all of the above. The riddle is solved. If God is exalted in justice, that's the question I asked at the beginning, how can he forgive sinners? How does he do it? He justly forgives sinners with his bloody cross. Because on the cross, justice and forgiveness come together. It's all there. They're brought right together. So that justice is not violated in the forgiveness of sinners. Psalm 85 verse 10 says, righteousness and peace kiss each other. at the cross. And so because of the cross, we will not come into judgment and our escape from judgment is just. Because God justified himself in the cross for his justification of sinners. John 3.18 tells us, we are not condemned because of the cross. Justly so, not condemned. Our sins are remitted, and justice has been satisfied. Because a man without sin satisfied God's burning anger, His hot anger for our sin, so that we do not need to. The payment was made. So the question was, if God is exalted in justice, how can He forgive sins? He justifies forgiveness with the bloody cross. So this is beautiful display of the wisdom of God, that God himself would conceive of this plan of salvation to forgive sinners like me and you, and yet uphold his justice and bring about his own exaltation in the process. It's glorious. And so just a few points of application as I wrap this up. Forgiveness did not come easy or cheap for God. We need to do away with these ideas that, well, God just kind of winks away sin. One day He's angry with sin, the next day He's not angry with sin. No. It came with a price. It was difficult and it was expensive. It came by the offering of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. By Christ giving up Himself for our forgiveness. And then beyond that, we can rest at peace because he has objectively cleansed our record. And so maybe some of you are coming here today and you've professed faith in Jesus Christ, and you have your faith in God, and you're asking real questions. Am I really forgiven? Am I? Or can he really forgive me? What about that big sin that I don't like to think about, and every time I do, it burns me on the inside because I have so much shame and regret for him? Can he really forgive me for what I did? Maybe there's one or two really bad sins that, I mean, he can forgive the really, the decent people, but not me. And the answer is objectively, yes. He does forgive you. If you're in Christ, your sins are objectively forgiven and God is just to forgive your sins because He has punished your sins historically in an event when Christ was crucified. Your record has been cleansed, justly so. Justice has been satisfied. He didn't change his universal standards of justice. It was objectively satisfied in that event. And maybe even more of a blessing than hearing that, as much of a blessing as that is, because justice has been satisfied, that forgiveness cannot be revoked. It's not like he loves me, he loves me not. He forgives me, he forgives me not. That doesn't go on with God at all. If your sins are forgiven, they're forgiven, and it's irrevocable, because Christ atoned for them, and justice was satisfied in that moment, so it will not be satisfied on judgment day with you, because on judgment day, it was already satisfied way, way, way before. When Christ was raised up on the cross, And as if God raised him up and with the brightness of 10,000 suns shone down on him and pointed his fingers at him and boomed and thundered and said, he is just. God is just right there in the cross where the good Savior died for sinners like me and you. God justified himself is he justified us. so that his principles of justice can be upheld. I don't know whether you ever wonder this. Can he change his mind? What if he changes his mind? Some people change their minds. Does God change his mind? He cannot change his mind on your forgiveness because his justice has been objectively satisfied years ago on Good Friday in an event He's not going back on his word, and he's certainly not turning back history. It actually happened. So when you stand before God on Judgment Day, if you're in Christ, there's no more justice to be satisfied. You're not going to stand before God, and he's not going to say, well, there's a little bit of justice that needs to be satisfied in you to purgatory for 100 years or something like that. No. It was done and accomplished. The record was paid. And this is so wonderful because if justice is an unchanging principle, which it is, it's unchanging. God is immutable and so is his justice. Cannot change or mutate. So is forgiveness. Because his forgiveness is grounded in his justice. His forgiveness isn't grounded in him waking up in a benevolent mood one day and saying, oh, I'll forgive them. His forgiveness is grounded in immutable, unchanging, transcendent principles of justice. And therefore, his forgiving disposition towards the believer in Jesus Christ will not, cannot, is impossible to change. Sure as the Lord changes not. because he grounds his forgiveness in justice. He can't unforgive you because that would be unjust. And he's exalted in justice. And so you really shouldn't be berating yourself for your sins because God isn't. He isn't. He berated your sins in Christ. There's no more berating. And this type of truth that is so touching to root our forgiveness in immutable justice, I think it should cause you to relax a little and sleep well at night. Because your greatest burden is lifted. It's removed from you. Your sorrows are gone because your sins are gone. But above and beyond all of that, he can't revoke it. Your record is objectively cleansed. It's grounded in immutable justice. This should give you a sense of peace in your hearts as you go about your days and as you lay your heads down on your pillows at night. But above and beyond all of that, it should provoke you to exalt in God. Why should it provoke you to exalt in God? Because God is exalted in justice. And your forgiveness is grounded in justice. The news of your forgiveness stimulates and kindles and energizes and excites you to exalt in God. Because the news of your forgiveness is grounded in justice. And as we learned at the beginning of this sermon, God is exalted in justice. In justice. Let's have prayer. Father in heaven, we are grateful for your word and the truth it communicates to our ears and our hearts and our minds. Oh, strengthen your people for having heard what is true. Would these wonderful thoughts about your justice and your forgiveness being grounded in it rattle around and permeate our hearts and provoke us to truly exalt in you the God who is exalted in justice? We thank you for this objective satisfaction of justice in Christ. And because of that display where you showed your justice in justifying sinners, we do exalt in you. And it's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.