We are going to start in the book of Romans chapter 10. There you are. Romans chapter 10. And we look at a lot of verses. This is Bible study. So we are studying a topic called dispensations. And it's a study of how God has dealt with people under different conditions. God has not dealt with everybody the same way all the time during different conditions. He has dealt differently with people. And I need to find the book of Romans myself. And Romans chapter 10. And I think this week and, Lord willing, next time I'm up here, I think it'll be very practical. It won't be so much information, but I think it'll be like a good understanding of law and grace. But I'm in Romans 10, there we go. So there is a very popular teaching out there. You may have heard it, you may have encountered it, you may even believe it. I don't know if you believe it, I hope you don't. I'll try to correct that tonight. But this teaching is, it sounds really good, but it's very misleading. People say you got saved in the Old Testament by looking forward to the cross. And people get saved in the New Testament by looking backward to the cross. Has anybody ever heard that, right? It's a very nice saying. It sounds really good. It sounds like it's magnifying Christ. But here's the Bible truth. Salvation in the Old Testament is not the same as salvation in the New Testament. It's just not the same, and I'll try to show you that tonight. Now look at Romans chapter 10, which is in the New Testament, which we put on all of our tracks, which you probably quote to people when you're trying to show them their need of Jesus Christ. And if that's you tonight, these are great verses for you to ponder. He says in Romans chapter 10 verse 9, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that the God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek, Now, we quote that verse today, and we put that verse on all of our tracks, and if we sit with people after a service who are interested in getting saved, maybe that's you tonight, we will probably turn to these verses, because that is one of the clearest passages on how you could take what Jesus did and make it your hope of salvation. It's right there in Romans 10. But, If that were true at all times, that means that Israelites in the Old Testament had to get saved that way. They had to know Jesus was going to die on the cross, get resurrected three days later, and then have to bow their head and call upon the name of Jesus Christ to save them. And there is absolutely, you'd have to believe in the Old Testament, in that death, burial, and resurrection. And there is absolutely no example or no evidence of anybody doing that in the Old Testament. So salvation in the Old Testament had to be different. And that's what we're going to talk about and compare. And if a dispensation is all about the terms of God relating to man, how he dispenses his grace towards people, then the question I want to think about today is, how did you get saved under the law of Moses? How did you get saved in that Old Testament economy? And how is salvation under grace, i.e. today, different from salvation under the law, i.e. way back when? So that's what we're going to jump into. We're going to talk about Old Testament justification versus New Testament justification. So I'm going to put a big scary word up here while you turn to Proverbs 10. Proverbs 10, if you want to turn to Proverbs 10. I said it, I didn't hear any pages turning. I thought, did I say Exodus again? All right, Proverbs chapter 10, all right? So justification is a big, scary Bible word, right? You gotta watch out for all those I-O-N words in the Bible, right? Those are the good words, those are the meaty words. Justification is the process or the act of justifying the sinner. You and I need to be justified because we're guilty. And justification is how God takes a guilty sinner, like all of us, amen, I'll say amen for you. Takes a guilty sinner and declares them righteous. Declares them innocent. Takes a guilty sinner and legally makes you innocent in the sight of God. So let's look at Proverbs chapter 10, and let's talk about what everybody needs to beat death. It's not a pill or a program. You need righteousness. Proverbs chapter 10, the Bible says in verse number 2, Amen? You need righteousness. Look at chapter 11, look at chapter 11, and go to verse 4, chapter 11, verse number 4. The Bible says in chapter 11, verse 4, riches profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivereth from death. So to be saved, you need righteousness. You need God to declare you innocent before a holy God. Because if you're wrong, if you've got sin on you, you ain't getting in. You need to be right in the sight of God. And a sinner is not right in the sight of God. And I'll just make the pronoun you, not just the third person. Let's make it personal. Let's say you. You as a sinner, because you're all sinners, you as a sinner are not right with God. Because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All unrighteousness is sin. So if you've ever done anything wrong, Amen. If you've ever done anything wrong, the Bible says you're not right. And you need to be made right. You need to be brought into a right relationship with God so he could give you his righteousness and have a relationship with you. What fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? God can't commune with wickedness, so he makes a way to give you righteousness and declare you righteous so he can enter into that relationship with you. So you need righteousness. The question is, how does the guilty sinner get righteousness under the law in the Old Testament? So let's go to Leviticus. We've got a lot of verses to look at. I'm trying to keep Matt Califano awake. It's going to be challenging. Leviticus 26, right? He's got to pass, though. Leviticus 26, all right? Leviticus 26, 46, all right? Here's something you got to know about the law. Leviticus 26, 46, it's the last verse of the chapter, and the Bible says there, these are the statutes and the judgments and laws which the Lord made between Him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses. Please remember that the law was a covenant between God and Israel. It was a agreement that God made between himself and Israel, that nation. He didn't give the Gentiles the law. He didn't even give us the law. He gave a nation the law, the nation of Israel. And God gave that nation a sign that that law was to be followed. And let's look at that sign, right? Let's go to Exodus 31. Let's go to Exodus 31. The Lord gave the Jews a sign under the Mosaic Covenant, the law, He gave them a sign. He gave them a sign to confirm what He was saying. God was always giving signs, right? He gave, He gave, what do I got? What do I have there? Yep, let's look at Exodus 31. Let's look at Exodus 31, right? Why did He give them a sign? Because the Jews require a sign. They needed something they could see to confirm what they were hearing. That's how they were raised by God, to believe and to behave, right? Look at Exodus 31, 13. He says, speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, verily, my sabbaths ye shall keep. Exodus 31, 13. Verily, my sabbaths ye shall keep, for it is a sign. between me and you throughout your generations that you may know that I'm the Lord that does sanctify you." The Sabbath was a sign between Israel and Jehovah God. They were the ones that entered into that covenant with God. So he says, I'm going to give you a sign. The sign is that sixth day of the week, right? I should say that last day of the week, that Saturday, whatever you want to call it, that Sabbath day is going to be a day you set aside just for me. That's going to be something you could see with your eyes that we have this agreement between each other. Now look at Ezekiel, which is much later in your Bible. Ezekiel chapter 20. Ezekiel chapter 20. I know it's Bible study. We get in there a little bit here. Ezekiel 20, verse number 10. Ezekiel 20, verse 10. All right, Ezekiel 20 verse 10. I think it's so important that we understand the relationship of law and grace, because we're warned about it in the Bible that a lot of people are going to screw this up. And I'll show you how they screw it up in a little bit. Ezekiel chapter 20 verse 10, the Bible says, wherefore I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt. We know who that is. That's Moses going through the Red Sea. And brought them into the wilderness. So he's talking about Israel. And I gave them my statutes and showed them my judgments, which Life by the law. Look at verse 20. He says it again. Here's some 20-20 vision. Verse 20. Listen. Noah makes an agreement with God, Noah gets the rainbow, right? Abraham makes an agreement with God, he gives him the sign of circumcision. Moses makes an agreement with God, he gets the Sabbath. The Sabbaths and these special days, not just Saturday, but the Passover, Pentecost, all these These feasts that God had that were called Sabbaths were days set aside for the Lord to show them with their eyes and show the world around them visually that these are special people for God. It was a Sabbath. Only, get this now, only the nation of Israel was expected to keep the Sabbath. Sunday is not a Sabbath day. You want to call it that, it sounds nice, but you're wrong. It's not a Sabbath day. You want to bump up to your friend who's a seventh-day Adventist, and they say, no, no, no, you got to keep the Sabbath. Sorry, I am not a Jewish Israelite born under the law. I do not have to keep the Sabbath. I could worship on Tuesday. I'm supposed to worship on Thursday. We congregate on a Sunday because it's the first day of the week. That was the pattern in the New Testament. But if we had to meet on a Monday morning, and that fit everybody's schedule, we can meet on a Monday morning. The Bible says have no respect about holy days or Sabbath days in the New Testament. But in the Old Testament, you broke that Sabbath, you could die. Because God says that was the agreement, that's the seal of the agreement. And anybody trying to keep the Sabbath today is in the wrong dispensation. They don't know what God's really doing. If you study your New Testament, the Sabbath is the only commandment that's not repeated to the church. He repeats murder, he repeats this, he repeats that. The church is never told to keep the Sabbath. Now it's a good idea not to kill your neighbor. That's good, yeah. The Bible talks about honoring your father and mother in Ephesians chapter six. Never tells you, Christian, never even brings up the Sabbath, because Jesus Christ is your Sabbath. He's your rest, right? Let's go to 1 Corinthians chapter nine. And the point I'm trying to make is brought out here in 1 Corinthians nine. Nothing like the old preachers said a Bible to clear up a a bad message, right? Nothing like a Bible to clear up a seminary education, right? And in 1 Corinthians chapter 9, we see very clearly the Jews are under the law, the Gentiles are not. God didn't go to the Moabites and say, you gotta keep these laws. No, they're over there eating chicken parm and the Jews are dealing with matzah, right? That's how it is, right? Look at 1 Corinthians 9 and look at verse number 20. Paul says, to them that are without law, verse 20, and unto the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews. To them that are under the law as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the law. to them that are without law as without law. So the Jews were under the law, and the Gentiles were not under the law. That's pretty clear. Now go to Romans chapter 3. Go to Romans chapter 3. We were in Romans before. Romans chapter 3. So many verses. Romans chapter 3. Pete's going to complain there's so many verses. Romans chapter 3. All right, good, good, good, Isaiah. See, I goaded you. Romans chapter 3, verse number 1. Speaking about the Jews now, here's what made the Jews special, because they were given the law, right? The Moabites and the Philistines and the Amalekites, they were not visited by God and given verbal commandments that were written on tables of stone. Romans 3 says, what advantage then hath the Jew or what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way, chiefly because that unto them were committed the oracles of God. I mean, the Jews were given the law, and therefore were accountable to what they were given. Every author in your Bible is Jewish. That's a Jewish book that talks about a Jewish savior, and they were given those oracles. Now, we have them now as well. They're entrusted to the church now, but they came through that nation. That nation was given the law, and we're accountable to it. So they had to not steal, keep the Sabbath, avoid shellfish, and all those things that were written in the dietary laws, the ceremonial laws, the civic laws. There were over 600 laws that were given to those people. Now, look at Romans chapter 2. The Gentiles didn't have that. So what did the Gentiles go by? Their conscience. Romans chapter 2, verse 14. For when the Gentiles which have not the law do by nature the things contained in the law, these having not the law are a law unto themselves. Now just because God didn't give those guys in the bush a commandment that said thou shalt not kill, doesn't mean God wanted them to kill. God put something on their heart to know deep down it's wrong to kill innocent people. I mean, every culture everywhere, I don't care if they're running around with a loincloth in the middle of Papua New Guinea, they know deep down it's wrong to kill innocent people. Why? Evolution? Of course not. Don't be silly. Don't be silly. That's just silliness, right? Because a moral God created us. And so a moral God who's a moral being is going to hardwire us with moral faculties. And we can shun them and avoid them and try to sear our conscience. But he says right there, even the Gentile has the law written on his heart. So deep down he knows he shouldn't lie. because you know you shouldn't lie. Deep down he knows he shouldn't kill, he shouldn't steal. I know you got a million exceptions running through your mind to try to prove the rule, but deep down we know it's wrong and we didn't have to be taught. Now God added the law because of transgressions to magnify it, but we hadn't written on our heart all along. The Gentiles had it written on their heart. And he says, which show the work of the law written in their hearts. And their conscience bears witness to that. That little conscience God put in there, that's not a cricket. That little conscience in there is saying, that's right. That's wrong. Don't do that. Do that. Now, you could shut that conscience up, or you could listen. And the Gentiles in the Old Testament, they weren't following the Ten Commandments. They were following their conscience. Remember the dispensation of conscience? Everybody's under that dispensation. It didn't stop at the flood. It's still going for those Gentiles. They're still accountable to God. They don't have the law, but they have a conscience, so they're still accountable to God. So, go to Romans chapter 10. So how is that different from now? Well, now God has made salvation very clear. It's not fuzzy. It's not ambivalent. It's not, you know, secretive. You don't have to search for it. Romans 10, 12 says, now salvation is by grace through faith in the finished work of Christ. It's not about following your conscience. It's not about keeping the Ten Commandments. It's about believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the standard now. He says in verse 12 of Romans 10, For there is no difference now between the Jew and the Greek for the same Lord over all. Jew and Greek is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. That's how we get saved today. Amen? If you think you're getting saved or forgiven any other way, you got the wrong way. That's the way. It's as clear as sixth-grade English, mostly one-syllable words. Thank God He put the cookies right down low where idiots like me could get them. Because God is not willing that any should perish. And if you're sitting here today, God didn't make salvation this brass ring you got to reach for. He came down from heaven to put it right down there on the ground. that anybody could pick up, right? Whosoever, that's you and me, call upon the name of the Lord, shall be saved. If a thief on the cross could do it, you could do it sitting here right now. Now, let's go to Ezekiel again, but we're not, let's go back under the law now. Jesus hasn't come. They don't know who Jesus is. They don't know anything about that. Ezekiel chapter 18. Under the law, a man's future depended on dying in a righteous state or a wicked state. If you died in a righteous state under the law, you were good. If you died in a wicked state under the law, you were damned. I'll show you. Ezekiel chapter 18, verse 4. Behold, all souls are mine. As the soul of the father, so also the soul of the son is mine. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. But if a man be just and do that which is lawful and right, and hath not eaten upon the mountains, neither hath lifted up his eyes to the idols of the house of Israel, neither hath defiled his neighbor's wife, neither hath come near to a menstruous woman, and hath not oppressed any, but hath restored to the debtor his pledge, hath spoiled none by violence, hath given his bread to the hungry, and hath covered the naked with a garment. He that hath not given forth upon usury, neither hath taken any increase, that hath withdrawn his hand from iniquity, hath executed true judgment between man and man, hath walked in my statutes, and hath kept my commandments to deal truly, he is just. He shall surely live, saith the Lord God. He said, if you wanted to get life, if you died right under the law, you got life. You were saved. You would live. You would go to paradise. I don't see anything about faith in there. It's works, works, works, works, works. You did this, you did that. You didn't do this, you didn't do that. God says, then you're just and you'll live. That's very different than today. Keep going. Look at verse 20. Go to verse 20. He says it again. See that? The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him. But if the wicked will turn from all his sins that he hath committed, and keep all my statutes, and do that which is lawful, no believing, do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. Right there, he says, if you die right under the law, you live. If you die wicked under the law, you perish and go to hell. It's so plain. That's Old Testament salvation. That's salvation under the law. Now, Please note this. Note this well, Bible students, if that's you. Heresies, false teachings, errors are very often truths in the wrong dispensation. And you've got a lot of people out there today teaching that you've got to die in the right state to be saved. And some of you are nodding your heads, because you know what I'm talking about. You've got to die in a state of grace. You've got to die in this right position, this right standing, with all this stuff confessed. And that's going to save you. That's Old Testament. Old Testament said, if you die just, you go to heaven. If you die wicked, you go to hell. That's being taught today. That's being taught today. And they're misapplying an Old Testament truth to New Testament salvation and damning people. That's a damnable heresy, right? That thief on the cross didn't die just. He was, he says, We indeed justly, but this man hath done nothing amiss. That man was dying for his sins. But Jesus Christ was going to give him grace because he was showing that something new was coming, a different dispensation. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 6. Look at Deuteronomy chapter 6. Right? Deuteronomy chapter 6. Am I making sense so far? All right. Trying to clear up some stuff here. Deuteronomy chapter 6. I know it's slow going, but I hope it's helpful. Deuteronomy 6, look at verse 24. See, in the Old Testament, in the Old Testament, you got personal righteousness when you kept the law. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, right? Look at Deuteronomy 6, 24. It says, And it shall be, what, 24, and the Lord commanded us to do all these statutes to fear the Lord our God for our good always, that'll preach, that he might preserve us alive as it is at this day. And it shall be our righteousness if we observe to do all these commandments before the Lord our God as he hath commanded us. In the Old Testament, the sinner got personal righteousness for his obedience to the law. If he kept those commandments, God would deem him righteous. And it wasn't Christ's righteousness. It was his righteousness. I was righteous. It's my righteousness because I'm doing all these right things according to the law. But look at Romans chapter 4. Look at the contrast here. Romans chapter 4. If you get this, it is it sorts the whole thing out. I really, I kind of knew it foggy this week and I just zeroed in on it. You know, I was looking at some stuff and I was like, oh man, this is like playing as the nose at the end of my ugly face. Romans 421, right? In the New Testament, you don't get personal righteousness. In the New Testament, you get the righteousness of God. You get God's righteousness when you get saved, right? Look at, Romans 4.21, it's speaking about Abraham and how Abraham got righteousness. And it says, of Abraham and being fully persuaded that what he had promised he was able also to perform and therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now, it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed unto him, but for us also, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our justification. In the Old Testament, the sinner gets personal righteousness for his obedience to the law. In the New Testament, the sinner gets the righteousness of God by believing. for his faith. They're totally different. Abraham, the picture is Abraham. Abraham believes in the Lord and the same way Abraham believed, the sinner believes. And if the sinner believes God, he gets righteousness imputed to him by faith. You know what to impute means? It means to charge to somebody's account. It means to attribute to them. It means to set to their account. It's an accounting term. God put His righteousness in your account. When you called on Jesus Christ, he took his righteousness that I could never earn, get, deserve, and deposited his righteousness into my account so I can pay the debt to get to heaven. You couldn't do it without him. In the Old Testament, you were working for it. It was your righteousness that was getting you just with God. Now, it's his righteousness as a gift. You see, before Calvary, God didn't impute His righteousness to anybody. There was no permanent righteousness in the Old Testament. You had to keep bringing those sacrifices. You had to keep keeping that law. You had to keep obeying those commandments. And if you stopped, you were cut off. But if you kept up the payments, God kept you in the right relationship with God. Now, one time. One time God deposits His righteousness, which is everlasting, the Bible tells us, His righteousness is everlasting, so you're good, amen, you're good, if you have Christ. Look at 1 Kings 8, I'll show you. 1 Kings 8, before Calvary, let's look under the law. 1 Kings 8, under the law, under the law. You've got to see this. If you get this one, it's worth the price of admission. 1 Kings 8, verse 31. 1 Kings 8.31, if any man trespass against his neighbor and an oath be laid upon him to cause him to swear and the oath come before thine altar in this house, then hear thou in heaven and do and judge thy servants and condemning the wicked, watch this, to bring his way upon his head and justifying the righteous to give him according to his righteousness. Now listen, look at 32 closely. Under the law, God justified the righteous. The ones who were doing right, God justified. That's different than now. Did you have to do right to get saved? No, you were actually doing wrong and realized how wrong you were. And God said, I'll save you in spite of yourself. In the Old Testament, God says, I'll justify the righteous and give him according to his righteousness. Because he's been doing right by my law, I'm going to justify him. He says, if you kept the requirements of the law, you were right with God. If you fail to keep the law, your soul's cut off. Notice he's justifying the righteous. We got that? Now look at Romans chapter 4 and look at verse 5 and look at this contrast. Look at the contrast in Romans chapter 4 verse 5. I'll give you a chance to turn there and read it, right? Old Testament, I'll justify the righteous. New Testament, Romans chapter 4 verse 5. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Do you see the difference? Under grace, God justifies the ungodly. Under the law, He justified the righteous. I'm glad God changed programs. I'm glad God justifies the ungodly, because that's me. I was ungodly. I am ungodly without Him, right? There are no good works for us to keep. Jesus did the works. He said it is finished on the cross. The works are finished. We don't get good to be saved. We do good because we are saved. That's the change. That's the difference. Scofield said it this way a lot better than I could. He said, the righteous man under the law became righteous by doing righteously. Under grace, he does righteously because he has been made righteous. So it's kind of like I was thinking of like this. You got good works in the Old Testament. that got you saved, and then you have good works in the New Testament because you are saved. I mean, salvation has got works all around it, but in the Old Testament, those good works are getting you justified. In the New Testament, those good works are because you are justified. It's a change. It's a difference. But that's us today. But under the law, the Jew had to be obedient to the law in order to be right with God. That's it. Here's another thing to note well as you're studying these dispensations. In every dispensation, God gives you something to do. God gives you the terms of the agreement. He gives you the terms to have a relationship with Him. Think about it. We read about innocence in the Garden of Eden. And there was one thing man had to do in the Garden of Eden. Just don't eat from that tree. Those were the terms of the deal. Those were the terms of the contract. Those were the terms of the agreement. Under conscience, after the fall, what were the terms? Do well and you'll be accepted. Follow your conscience and you'll be okay. That's what God told Cain. If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? Under government, God said, overspread the earth and punish evildoers and you'll keep that wickedness in check. They built the Tower of Babel and tried to get rid of God. And under promise, he told Abraham, believe in me and leave the world behind. You see, God was always giving man like a yardstick. Like, here's what I want you to do. Here are the terms of having a relationship. And in the law, it's keep the commandments. Those were the terms of the relationship. In the church age, it's Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. God's giving different terms to have these relationships with him. Look at Deuteronomy 11. I'll show you. All over the place, he's talking about keeping the commandments, keeping the commandments, keeping the commandments. Deuteronomy chapter 11. Make it any sense so far? All right, Deuteronomy 11, verse 26. Oh yeah, I got about 30 more, don't worry. Deuteronomy 11, 26. Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse, a blessing if you believe, a blessing if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day, and a curse if you will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God." Look at chapter 13, same book, chapter 13, and look at verse number 4. Chapter 13, verse 4, he says, Ye shall walk after the Lord your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice, and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him. How about chapter 15? Chapter 15, verse 5. Over and over again he's saying it. Only if thou carefully hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe, to do all these commandments which I command thee this day. You were blessed in the Old Testament if you kept the law. But let's get something straight. Keeping the law didn't make you sinless. It didn't even mean you were sinless. Look, go back to 1 Kings 11, I'll show you. Go back to 1 Kings. You asked for it, Pete. 1 Kings 11. I want you to see these things, because I want you to see them, note them in your Bible, and that way you can get this sorted out, and you might not get it all in the first, right around the neighborhood, but you'll get it the next time around. 1 Kings 11.34, the Bible says David kept God's commandments. 1 Kings 11.34 says, how be it I will not take the whole kingdom out of his hand, meaning David, see the previous verse, but I will make him prince all the days of his life. I'm sorry, that's Solomon. For David, my servant's sake whom I chose because he kept my commandments and my statutes. The Bible says David kept the commandments of God. You and I know he wasn't sinless. We know about Bathsheba. We know about some of his grievous sins. He obviously sinned, but God said he kept the commandments. Look at chapter 8 again. Go back to chapter 8. God says nobody was sinless in the Old Testament. Nobody was perfect. Look at 1 Kings 8.46. 1 Kings 8.46. The Bible says 1 Kings 8.46. if they sin against thee, for there is no man that sinneth not. That's Old Testament. Ecclesiastes 7.20 says, for there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Right? They're all sinners. So keeping the law didn't mean you were sinless, didn't mean you were, you know, immaculate. Keeping the law just meant you kept the requirements of the law. And the law had prescribed sacrifices for when you broke the law. So you weren't destroyed, because God knew you weren't sinless. So if you broke the law, if you transgressed, if you stole, you had to do this. If you did something, you had to do that. You had to bring this offering. And you kept the law by keeping those sacrifices and feasts that will allow you to stay in that right relationship with God. Somebody put it this way and then we'll move on to our last point here very quickly. Justification under the law was very different from justification now in the church age. Justification under the law is based on works. Now it's based on grace. Under the law, man's righteousness was a required precondition to be saved. You had to have righteousness first. In the church age, God's righteousness is a received present to be saved. A required precondition in the Old Testament a received present in the New Testament. That's a big difference. So let's go to Hebrews chapter 10. So what is the biblical answer to people all around us that claim, well yeah, everybody got saved the same way. They got saved by looking forward to the cross, and we get saved by looking backward to the cross. Let's see how we can answer that a little more precisely. That I gave you the 10,000 foot view. Let me just take these last few minutes and zoom in a little more closely. Listen, Old Testament saints may have had some knowledge of the atonement, they may have known something about God sending a suffering Savior, but they didn't understand the cross. They didn't understand the cross. Look at Hebrews chapter 10 verse 1. having a shadow of good things to come and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices, which they offered year by year continually, make the comers there unto perfect. They could see the shadow, but they couldn't see the substance behind the shadow. You think because they brought a lamb on Passover, or they brought a lamb on Passover, whenever they brought these different sacrifices, you think they could figure out that that meant that a man named Jesus Christ was going to die a few thousand years later on a cross on Calvary? Of course not. They couldn't see the substance of them. Verse 2, for then would they not have ceased to be offered? If they got saved like you got saved, why'd they keep bringing sacrifices? Do you keep bringing sacrifices? No. You got saved once for all forever. Why do you keep bringing sacrifices? Oh, there's a lot of people that bring sacrifices every week. They think they got to keep sacrificing this or sacrificing that or, you know, doing this or doing that. And God says, no, not you. They did, but not you. He says, because that the worshipers once purged should have had no more conscience of sins, there was no perfection or completion under the law. They had to keep coming. They had that day of atonement. Guess what? Next year, they had to do it again, and do it again, and do it again, and keep on doing it if they want to stay in a right relationship with God. Look at verse 3 and 4. But in those sacrifices, there is a remembrance again made of sins every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should take away sins. In those sacrifices, there was just a remembrance that they were sinners, not a receiving of a Savior. There was a remembrance that they were guilty before a holy God. There was no removal of that sin going on. Now, just because we can look back and see God's witness in the Old Testament doesn't mean they saw it in the Old Testament. You think in Hosea, when it says, I called my son out of Egypt, they knew that meant Jesus was going to flee Egypt when he was a baby? Now, you can look back and do that, because hindsight is 20-20. But they didn't know that when they were going through it. They just said, well, this is what God tells us to do. This is what I got to do. We see the witness. We see the testimonies. We see the hints and the clues that God left. But God left himself a witness, but they didn't see it going forward, going through it. Now, let's go to Luke chapter 7. Because somebody says, well, what about John the Baptist? You know, because John the Baptist, I don't know why he became Brooklynese all of a sudden, but John the Baptist is rolling up there and he says, hey, behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. Hey, see, John the Baptist knew. Did he know? Did he really know? Look at Luke chapter 7. Yeah, he had a good moment there, John the Baptist, when he saw him after the baptism, after the dove landed on his head, after the God the Father spoke from heaven. Then John the Baptist said, oh, this is the Messiah. But a little bit later, John lost his faith, real quick. John 7, verse 19, John gets thrown into jail, and it says, Luke 7, 19, yes, Luke 7, 19, I'm sorry. And John, calling unto him two of his disciples, sent them to Jesus, saying, Art thou he that should come, or look we for another? John's like, are you the Messiah? Because I got thrown in jail. I thought you were going to bust me out of this and give us the kingdom. So on one hand, he's like, hey, look at the Lamb of God, we're taking away the sin of the world. Now he's like, I'm not sure if Jesus is who I thought he was. John didn't understand why Jesus Christ had not yet liberated Israel. He wasn't looking for what you found. The Old Testament Messiah John was looking for would be a conquering king, a political master, one that would destroy the Romans. They didn't understand that Jesus would first be a suffering Savior. In fact, we read it before, but in Romans chapter 10, verse nine, it says, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Folks, if you don't believe the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, you're lost. If you don't believe that Jesus died for you, went to hell and rose again for you as your only hope of salvation, I don't care what building you walk into on Sunday, or don't walk into on Sunday, or on Saturday, or on Friday, or on Wednesday morning, it doesn't matter. You've got to have that faith in your heart that that death, burial, and resurrection is it. But if you didn't know about that death, burial, and resurrection, how could you look forward to it? I mean, can you look, you're in Mark, right? You're in Luke. Can you look at Mark chapter nine? We've looked at these verses before, but let's look at them quickly again. Mark chapter nine. You know the disciples who'd been with Jesus for three and a half years, lived with him, slept in the same house as him, went on these itinerant preaching messages with him, watched the miracles. You know they didn't have a clue about the cross? How'd they look forward to it? If you don't know the cross, what it means, you can't be saved. How could they look forward to it if they didn't know what it was? Look at Mark chapter 9, verse 9. Mark 9, 9. And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen. So the son of man were risen from the dead. And they kept that saying with themselves, questioning one with another what the rising from the dead should mean. What was he talking about? What was Jesus talking about? Dying? Look at verse 30, look at verse 30. 31, I'm sorry, 31. 31, for He taught His disciples and said unto them, The Son of Man, that's Him, is delivered into the hands of men, and they shall kill Him, and after that He is killed, He shall rise the third day. We will rejoice and sing His power in the blood. 32, but they understood not that saying and were afraid to ask Him. They had no clue. I mean, in Matthew chapter 16, I guess we'll look at it, I gotta do it. Go to Matthew chapter 16. I'll just go look at a couple more verses, sorry. Matthew chapter 16, this is a really important one. Here's Peter, right? The big dog. The one that was supposed to be the big chief, Kahuna Rock, right? Peter, that You thought he was going to build his church on Peter? Peter had no clue. Peter was clueless. Jesus, look at 21, 1621. Then Peter took him. He grabs Jesus, drags him over to the side. and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord, this shall not be unto thee. If that was how Peter thought he was supposed to get saved, why is he rebuking him? Imagine grabbing somebody and saying, What's the matter with you, Jesus? Are you nuts? That's what Peter did. He didn't understand it. Look at Luke 24. Look at Luke 24. Look at Luke 24. I'm going to finish it. Hurry with me. Luke 24. You know, even after the resurrection, the disciples still didn't understand? They still didn't get it. They're staring at the empty tomb, and they're like, huh? Luke 24 11. They've come upon the empty tomb. They know the tomb is empty. And it says, Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary, the mother of James, have come back and said, we went to the tomb. It's empty. The body's gone. And 24 11 of the Book of Luke says, and their words seem to them as idle tales. And they believed him not. He said, you ladies are crazy. You're crazy. You're inhaling too many cleaning solutions. You're crazy. Right? And look at Luke 24, 25. The disciples were not converted till they saw the risen Lord themselves. That's when Jesus says, oh fools and slow of heart to believe. And then after that, they're like, oh my goodness, and they start blazing abroad the matter. So why do so many people teach this? Why do so many people teach that you're looking forward? Here's a big part of the problem. A big part of the problem comes from the influence of Calvinism, the heresy of Calvinism. And if you don't know what Calvinism is, great. Stay ignorant. But the replacement theology and the covenant theology and the Calvinist influence teaches things that the church replaces Israel, and if you teach like our Reformed brethren do, that the church replaces Israel, you destroy the dispensations that God has in his Bible. Your Bible just collapses on itself, like a pile of oatmeal, right? If you hold to covenant theology, here's what you profess. Their words, not mine. Quote, believers of the Old Testament looked to Jesus, and in him they trusted. That's heresy. That's not true. You just saw that. That couldn't be true. They didn't know what the cross was about. They say there is one covenant of grace and thus only one way of salvation. It's all one covenant called grace. Let me tell you about the doctrines of grace. If somebody rolls up on you and says, I want to tell you about the doctrines of grace, hold on to your wallet and run the other way. Because they're about to sucker you into splitting your church and confusing you. Now go to Revelation chapter 13. Here's one of their big verses about it. Revelation 13. They'll say, oh no, no, they knew about the blood in the Old Testament. Revelation chapter 13. Revelation 13. Revelation 13, look at verse eight. The Bible says, and all that dwell upon the earth, speaking of the Antichrist, shall worship Him, meaning the Antichrist, whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. And people read that and say, you see, the blood was shed from the foundation of the world. They knew. We all got saved the same way. Can you just compare verses with me just one second? Revelation 13, 8. Can you compare Revelation 13, 8 with its companion verse, Revelation 17.8, and we'll see what's really from the foundation of the world. You've got to put Scripture with Scripture first. A text without a context is a pretext. Somebody's trying to sucker you. Revelation 17.8, here's the companion verse. Here is the same verse the next time God tells the same narrative in the book of Revelation about the tribulation. He says, See that? It wasn't the blood from the foundation of the world. It was the book of life from the foundation of the world. The blood wasn't shed from the foundation of the world, but there's been a book from the foundation of the world where those that have been justified with God, the names have gotten put in it. So when they say, well, the blood was shed. No, it wasn't the blood. There was a book from the foundation of the world, not the blood shed from the foundation of the world. Does that make sense? All right. You're a little shaky on that. You give me some mental odds. Let's go to 1 Peter 1. Let me show you what was from the foundation of the world. 1 Peter 1. First Peter chapter one. Almost there, almost there. Look at First Peter 1.18 says. All right. for as much as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold received from your vain conversation, I'm sorry, from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you." Listen, the sacrifice was foreordained. God appointed beforehand that this was gonna happen. It wasn't like, oh, let's, yeah, let's go with the cross. Oh, the Romans are in power? Yeah, let's go with the cross, that works. No, God knew the end from the beginning. He foreordained, he knew this was the determinant counsel of God, that Jesus Christ would be betrayed in the hands of sinful men and die on a cross. God knew it, but it was manifest in these last times. It was manifest at that appointed time, right? Look at, go to the left a little bit and go to Hebrews chapter nine. I got just a few verses left. Hebrews chapter 9, verse 25. Let's take it from 24. Hebrews 9, 24. For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us, nor yet that he should offer himself often. He doesn't get offered every Sunday. He offered himself once. As the high priest entered into the holy place every year with blood of others? In the law, they came every year. They came every year. They came every year. Jesus Christ went in there once with the blood. Finished it. 26, for then must he have often have suffered since the foundation of the world. You thought he was suffering all that time? No. But now, once, in the end of the world, had he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. You see, it was appointed. God knew it was going to happen. But the Bible is very clear about when the atonement was made. It was made at a certain time, 2,000 years ago. Look at Galatians chapter four. We're right around there. We're rounding the bases now. Galatians chapter four. I so want you to see this. I know I'm blitzing you with a lot of verses, and I'm just, I got three more to blitz you with. But if you can get this, you sort your Bible out, man. Nobody's gonna trick you into working for salvation or whatever. You know it's grace, you know it's law. You get those two things straight, you can help a lot of people and keep yourself straight. Galatians chapter four, God says this. Galatians 4.4 Folks, how could the blood be applied by anyone before the blood was shed? The blood had to be shed before you could appropriate it. He says, when God's time was right, He sent forth His Son, and at that time, He shed the blood that you could call upon and have faith in for salvation. And while the cross was in the mind of God, the Old Testament Jew under the law was not given the gospel of the grace of God like we preach today. They didn't know what we know today. and I'll prove it to you real quick right here. 1 Corinthians and then 2 Corinthians and we're done. Go to 1 Corinthians 15, ready? Here is the gospel that we preach right now. Here is the gospel of the grace of God that Paul told us in the church age we're supposed to declare. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 1. I'll let you get there. 1 Corinthians 15 verse 1. The Bible says, moreover brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received and wherein you stand, by which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. The gospel we preach today is, and I know this is old hat to you, the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's the good news. The good news is not join my church. The good news is not turn over a new leaf. The good news is not keep the golden rule. The good news is, hey, there's somebody that did it for you. And he was such a perfect sacrifice that God said, it is finished, and now you can just receive what he did. That's good news. It's not good news to be like, maybe you'll make it to the end, and maybe you'll never know for sure. But you keep trying, but you'll never know for sure. That's not good news. Good news is... These things have I written unto you that ye may know that ye have eternal life. That's good news. You know how I know? Not because I'm a good guy, because he's a great God. And he gave me that salvation as a gift. And I received it. Like Paul says he received it. Like the Corinthians received it. Like I hope you received it. How do you receive it? By faith. Lord, apply what you did on that cross to my wretched soul. And that's how someone's saved. Now look at verse 17. But if the resurrection hasn't happened, you can't believe it to be saved. If the resurrection hasn't happened, your faith in that don't count. He says in verse 17, and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain, you're yet in your sins. Now I know how we apply that to today to prove that Christ came up from the dead, but he didn't come up from the dead in the Old Testament. So what were they believing? They couldn't believe in a Christ that wasn't raised. If they believed a Christ that wasn't raised, they were still in their sins, that verse says. So how could they have gotten saved by looking forward to the cross? It makes no sense according to the scripture. And last verse, 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Last verse, 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Last verse, famous last words. Last verse. 520, now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. As though God did beseech you by us, we pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Christ can't make you righteous till he became sin for you. So you can't get the righteousness of God in the Old Testament because it wasn't until 2,000 years ago on an old rugged cross that the sinless Son of God became a curse, became sin. Why? So that you could be made righteous. So it wasn't happening then, but it's happening now. Abraham is the picture. He's declared righteous for believing in the Lord. That's the preview. He didn't believe what you believe, but he believed in something God told him, and that was what God helped him with. Today, you get the righteousness of God for believing the gospel, for believing Him, and that's the real thing. So, let's have a word of prayer. I hope that makes sense. And if you've never believed on Christ for salvation, you could do that now. You could do that tonight. You could talk to somebody that might have brought you or asked me. But now there's one way. Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Let's pray.