in Christ through faith alone according to the Holy Scripture as maintained in the historic Orthodox Christian faith. We started last Lord's Day, Sermon 5. We did not complete it. We will go back, review just a bit of what we dealt with, and then finish the rest of Sermon 5, which is now Sermon 6 as well. It's entitled, The Doctrine of Justification in the Old and New Testaments, Part 2. Romans 3, beginning, if you will, at verse 21. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith to demonstrate His righteousness. because in His forbearance, God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Shall we look to the Lord our God in prayer? Our Holy Father, we are so thankful to come again to Your Word. to examine its great truth. My God, we understand clearly not only the doctrine, but its implication. For the doctrine of justification is the linchpin of our teaching concerning redemption in Christ. Might we hold faithfully to your truth? Might we better understand it? And thus we pray, O God, Thy Spirit would teach us. We ask now, Father, that You would give us eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to receive that which Your Word and Spirit would teach us today. For it's in Christ's name we pray, Amen. Last Lord's Day, we began by noting that all of the New Testament writers built on the Old Testament teachings concerning salvation. And that such a contradiction between the Old Testament and the New Testament, or even a soteriological shift, would have been to them inconceivable. There is a coherent meaning in teaching in redemptive history. that has the same theme running throughout the Scripture as it relates to redemption and is expressed in our covenant theology. We also acknowledge that the New Testament authors realized that the Old Testament teachings were early light. That is to say, regarding the subject of salvation, it spoke in shadow and in copies of what later would clearly be revealed in the New Testament. And we talked about St. Augustine's maxim in which he said, in the Old Testament, the new is concealed, and in the New Testament, the old is revealed. And what we were looking at is the very issue of how to make these comparisons. How to look at the Old and New Testament. And to do so, covering the doctrine of salvation. There is much that could be paralleled. But we in particular wanted to deal with the highlights as it relates to justification by faith, salvation by grace, according to what we are taught, both by Old and New Testament writers. And we noted in Hebrews 9, verses 6 through 10, and just quickly let me touch upon the passage. Now, when these things have been thus prepared, the priest always went into the first part of the tabernacle performing the services. But into the second part, the high priest went alone once a year, not without blood, which he offered for himself and for the people's sin committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit indicating this. that the way into the holiness of all was not yet made manifest while the first tabernacle was still standing. It was symbolic for the present time in which both gifts and sacrifices are offered, which cannot make him who performed the service perfect in regard to the conscience. Concerned only with foods and drinks and various washings and fleshly ordinance imposed until the time of reformation. And again, in Hebrews 10, 1-4, the law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with these same sacrifices which they offer continually, year by year, make those who approach perfect, for then they would not have ceased to be offered. For the worshippers, once purified, would have made no more consciousness of sin. But in those sacrifices, there is a reminder of sin every year. For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats could take away sins." Here you have an understanding. The Apostle Paul says in Hebrews, the Old Testament practices These things that were done, especially concerning the ceremonial laws, they were copies and shadows of what was yet to be revealed. And what was being revealed to us in the New Testament was the Lord Jesus Christ. As our Lord even tells us in Luke 24.44, Then He said to them, These are the words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the prophets and the Psalms concerning me." Well, we understand the context then of why we're looking at the relationship of Old and New Testament as it deals with this doctrine of redemption that is through Jesus Christ our Lord. And we have emphasized this over and over again. How important it is to understand Christ is that redemption. And that we base that on the electing love of God. For election never saved a person. Because election is not salvation, but it is in Christ who is salvation. And so, it becomes very important to us that we understand that. Because that's to whom the promise of the covenant is made. Christ. And He is the federal head. And we will see that in the comparison that we've already looked at, but we're just going to review. He stands on our behalf and fulfills all the demands of God for redemption for us. So that nothing can be added. Nothing can be merited by man whatsoever. But fulfilled by Christ alone. Well, we noted first the Proto-Evangelium of Genesis 3.15. Here we have the photograph, if you will, of the evangelical gospel. Here we have the promise that Satan would bruise the head of the Son promised of redemption and that he would bruise the head of the serpent. And so we have that comparison in the gospel. And we have that as well in Romans chapter 5. where we also have not only the aspects of Adam and the garden and the fall and the promise of redemption, but that in relationship to the first Adam as our federal head, and the second Adam, Jesus Christ, as our federal head in redemption. We see that in Romans 5, verses 12 through 21, that through one man sent into the world, But redemption has come through the second man, Adam, to redeem the elect of God. And then we noted about Abraham. Abraham believed God when God gave him promises. And thus, Abraham was counted as righteous as a result of his faith. A faith which was, by the way, not the object, but the instrument. It's not that we have faith in faith, but we have faith as an instrument from God, given to us by grace, revealed clearly in Ephesians 2, verses 8-10. given to us so that we can believe, respond, because of the regenerating work of the Spirit in our life, to the Gospel message, to be obedient unto God in all that He commands of us. And thus, He tells us about the first and the second Adam in Romans chapter 5. That's where we left off, and this Lord's Day we will continue. The Old Testament also teaches us that he who does not keep all parts of the law all the time is condemned. For example, in Psalm 14 we read, and I quote, The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none who does good. The Lord looks down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there are any who understand who see God. They have all turned aside. They have together become corrupt. There is none who does good, no, not one. Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge? Who eat up my people as they eat bread? And do not call on the Lord. There they are in great fear, for God is with the generation of the righteous. You shame the counsel of the poor, but the Lord is his refuge. Oh, that the salvation of Israel would come out of Zion when the Lord brings back the captivity of his people. Let Jacob rejoice and Israel be glad again. Psalm 143, too, speaks of man's inability to keep the law of God. And yet the demand was to keep it. Do not enter into judgment with your servant, for in your sight, no one living. Is righteous. And Jeremiah 17.9, again, the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Ecclesiastes 7.20, for there is not a just man on the earth who does good and does not sin. Ecclesiastes 9.3, this is an evil in that is done under the sun, the one thing happens to all. Truly, the hearts of the Son of Man are full of evil. Madness is in their hearts while they live. And after that, they go to the dead. Job 15, 14-6, what is man that he could be pure? And he who is born of a woman, that he could be righteous? If God puts no trust in His saints, and the heavens are not pure in His sight, how much less man who is abominable and filthy, who drinks iniquity like water." Do you see the depiction of man's plight as a result of Adam's sin and transgression? Isaiah 53, 6, "...all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned every one to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all." And again, Isaiah 64, 6, But we are all like an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are like filthy rags. We all fade as a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away." Clearly, the Old Testament depicts man in a state of total depravity, in a state of inability. He is a transgressor of God's law. There is nothing he can do. He is not right with God. As a result of Adam's original sin and the plight and condemnation that has come upon all his posterity, we have all fallen under that just condemnation. The problem between man and God is a legal issue. We are violators of God's law. And the question is, how can we who are sinful, how can we who are violators of the law of God, restore ourselves to be right with God? It ought to be clear to us that the Old Testament thus far has said, you can't do it. It's impossible. If you're going to be made right with God, it is not through anything you can do, for you are not righteous. You're as filthy rags. That which is to be discarded, thrown out, used up. And we drink iniquity like water. Well, have you ever heard that in the New Testament? Well, of course we have, especially in our study of Romans in the third chapter. Beginning at verse nine, the Apostle Paul states, What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin, as it is written. Oh, he's going to quote the Old Testament writers. And you see, again, it shows the consistency of understanding, the coherency of the theme that has been given from Old to the New Testament. There is none righteous. No, not one. Who can affect righteousness in their life? None. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. And again, I would remind you, when we entered this passage and exegeted the passage, we're saying that man is not religious. He is by nature created in the image of God. He is a religious being. But what Paul was writing is the same principle the Old Testament saints and prophets wrote about. He doesn't seek the God of Scripture. He'll be religious. You can see that in all the tribal customs. of the lands throughout the nations. They're religious by their very nature. It is built within the constitutional structure of man. But the problem is they don't worship the true God. Because of the result of the fall into sin, man's understanding of God is corrupted. And he will not seek the God of Scripture. He says they have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable. There's nothing profitable about God's creation as it relates to man. There is none who does good. No, not one. Their throat is an open tomb, with their tongues they have practiced deceit. The poison of asp is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their way, and the way of peace they have not known." Very good description, is it not? Of man in his state of depravity? You don't have to go far outside the door this morning and look around and you can begin to see all of that taking place. Or if you at least got your newspaper delivered this morning, you could open it and see exactly what the apostle was teaching. And he sums it up so well in the next phrase. There is no fear of God before their eyes. I think that is probably the greatest statement that can be made of our generation. It's the problem. We no longer fear God. And by the way, it wasn't the humanists who took the fear of God away from our generation. It was the church. That unsound preaching of that so-called gospel that wasn't a gospel at all. that made God our big buddy, that made God our go-to when we need Him, and if you name it and claim it, it's going to be yours because He owes it to you. A God who looks more like a financial officer at a loan bank so He can give you what you need at the time that you want. We have heard that gospel that is no gospel at all preached for so long has inundated the church and polluted it, and it is rotting the very essence of the church today in America from its very core. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now, we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, The law says what? You have a responsibility to keep every aspect of the law. And who is under the law? Romans chapter 2 made it very clear when we went through it. Jew or Gentile makes no difference. Every man who is generated from Adam, and we all come from Adam and Eve, is under that condemnation. that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh..." Do you get it? Not the law. But in relationship to the law, the deeds that are done, no flesh will be justified in His sight. And remember, the word justification we have said is to make right with God, to legally restore us to God and restore that breach that was caused by Adam's original transgression. Through the deeds of the law, no flesh can be made right, can be legally restored in His sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed. The way of being right with God is now revealed to us, but being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets. The Law and the Prophets not only told us that man is under condemnation, the Law and the Prophets also told us the way of redemption and how one could understand who that redemption must reside in. Christ was, in the Old Testament, symbolically exhibited and typically prophesied by all the ceremonial practices and especially by the sacrificial system of the temple. Colossians 2 16 through 17 says, So let no one judge you in food or drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or Sabbath, which are a shadow of things to come. But the substance. Is of Christ. Clearly tying the principle of what the Old Testament sacrificial ceremonial practices were all about. They spoke of Christ, they were the type, He is the anti-type, if you remember your hermeneutics. Hebrews 10, 1 through 9 also refers to Christ in this way, as we have read it earlier. Clearly tied Him as the true substance. and redemption. God has revealed the way of being right, but it's not in man. The promise was given before the law, yet the law was added because of transgression. What does the law do? Galatians chapter 3, Paul says, the law is a schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. How does it bring us to Christ? It constantly reminds us we are incapable of being right with God by our own merit. There is nothing we can do. We stand before God guilty. What can a violator of the law do to restore? Well, God says there is something you could do. Do you know what it is? You can die and go to hell because that's the penalty. But there's no way of restoration. in your own being. You need someone to mediate for you. And that someone is the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, we also see that faith was the instrument of salvation both under the old dispensation and, in the very sense, it is the same in the new dispensation. Or, if you will, the Old Testament and the New Testament. Habakkuk 2.4 says, Behold the proud, his soul is not upright in him, but the just shall live by his faith. The same we see in Romans 1.16-18. For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. For the Jew first, and also for the Greek. For in the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the just shall live by faith. In Psalm 2, 12, we're told, Kiss the son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all those who put their trust, their faith, in him. The mediator between God and man in the Old Testament is Christ. The promise of redemption was to those whom God hath chosen in Christ, who would be His own. We are to believe by faith. Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness. We too are to believe what God has promised about His Son in order that we too might be redeemed. And we understand from the Old and New Testament that man cannot do anything himself. Even the faith must be provided. And we're going to see this as we move toward justification and our understanding of covenant theology. So we're going to review some aspects of covenant theology that we've done a few years back again. Because it's very important to see God has provided not only Christ, but He also provides to us through Christ, by His Spirit, all the essential elements by which we are capable of coming forth, having been renewed by the Spirit, to exercise faith and to repent, which we could not do apart from Him. God fulfills all the demands, supplies all the necessary elements in our redemption. We're also told by the prophets. The prophets themselves insisted upon, of course, much of the practical works of righteousness that is held forth in the Scripture. They spoke over and again to Israel, the nation of Israel. that Israel needed to do that which was right before the Lord. As we see in Micah 6.8, what doth Yahweh require of thee but to do justly, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with thy God? However, no religious attitude or services could take the place of a righteous life. Yet this does not mean that the Old Testament writers understood or believed that men were justified simply by their good deeds. We've seen that clearly already. But it was always believed that underneath all the religious services and practices was the mercy and the loving kindness of God, whose forgiving grace was toward the broken and contrite spirit, the iniquities of whom were to be carried by the servant of Yahweh, who should justify the many. Listen to what the writer of Psalms wrote in the 103rd Psalm, beginning at verse 8. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is the mercy toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgression from us. As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him." God is truly a God of mercy and of grace. Psalm 85, 10 says, mercy and truth have met together, righteousness and peace have kissed. Isaiah 57, 15, for thus says the high and the lofty one who inhabits eternity, whose name is holy, I will dwell in the high and holy place with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite one. God is the One who revives the heart. Isaiah 53, 11. He shall see the labor of His soul and be satisfied by His knowledge. My righteous servant shall justify many, for He shall bear their iniquities. Again, God supplying the mercy and the grace necessary. Who? Through His appointed Son, Jesus Christ. He shall justify the many. For the many could not be justified apart from Him. In Micah 7, beginning at verse 18, who is like God? Who is a God, excuse me, like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He does not retain His anger forever because He delights in mercy. He will again have compassion on us and will subdue our iniquities. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea. You will give truth to Jacob and mercy to Abraham, which you sworn to our fathers from days of old." And in Psalm 106 and verse 31, "...and that was accounted to him for righteousness to all generations forevermore." And Isaiah 58, "...he is near who justifies me, who will contend with me Let us stand together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near me." And all that was accounted to him for righteousness, all that was accounted unto Christ. This is the emphasis between the Old and the New Testament. This is their testimony to the doctrine of justification. that if one is going to be justified, it will not be through his own meritorious effort. It will not be through his own worked-up faith ability. And it is a sad mistake to think that faith is something we conjure up when the Scripture is clear it is but the gift of God Himself. Nor is it right, as Rome tries to teach us, that in baptism, through the infusion of grace, God has delivered us faith and what we do with it is really up to us. The Scripture is clear. It is God who justifies. It is God who reconciles man through Christ to Himself, who restores him right again. It is based upon the regenerating work of the Spirit as He is appointed to go through every generation to those who are the elect of God before the foundation of the world. And as He renews them and He gives them faith and repentance in order to believe, they turn from their sin, put their faith in the promises of God that He has given to His Son. That if He would do the will of the Father, all that He has promised to Him will come upon those whom He has given unto Him. That's the objectiveness of the covenant in our redemption. Do you remember what we looked at last Lord's Day in Galatians chapter 3? Again, I want to emphasize it to us. He says in verse 15, "'Brother, I speak in the manner of men, though it is only a man's covenant, yet if it is confirmed, no one annuls or adds to it.'" He says when a covenant is made, it's like a contract. You can't add anything or take away anything once you have entered into a covenant. You've made an agreement. So it is with God. God has made an agreement. He has given promises in His covenant. But note what he says. Now, to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. Not one promise. All the promises were made. And he does not say, into seeds, as of many, but as of one, into your seed, who is Christ. The promises of the covenant do not bypass Christ. The promises of the covenant are to Christ. And since we are elect in Him, we receive because of His perfect obedience as the right sacrifice, as the one who can truly justify us with God. We receive the benefits of that promise. But it's wrong to think that somehow God will justify us apart from Christ through promises being called objective promises of the covenant that are directly to us. They're not. The promise has always been to Abraham that through his seed, the Christ, redemption will be accomplished. And we who are in Christ He who is our representative, He who is that second Adam, our federal head, He accomplishes for us the redemption that is necessary for our soul. That's how the promise is fulfilled. It's not a promise to you in that somehow now you have obligation and God speaks. It's very generically in the Old Testament in that way, in redemptive history, when He speaks to the people of Israel. But He does not do that apart from what the intent meaning was. He says, on the one hand, here are promises. On the other hand, you have obligation. But what we will see from our study of the covenant, It's very clear that that work of justification is hinged not upon the obligation that you can do, but upon your federal head who can do it for you. And so it becomes important to understand precisely the centrality of Christ in this work of redemption. He is the one who can justify us in His work. as mediator of the covenant on our behalf. The Scripture says God is the just, the one who demands righteousness, and the justifier, the one who can provide the redemption, who can provide the restoration. But, my friends, it's not promises to us in the sense that it bypasses Christ. Galatians 3, verse 16 alone clarifies that for us. The promises were to Abraham's seed. It is Christ. But you know, when we understand that promise, how much more should that anchor our soul, our hope, our faith? I mean, it's not dependent upon me, but of Christ. And again, I remind you as our study in Romans, although we've discontinued to do this series, Romans 8, remember how he said, there is therefore now no condemnation in Christ? Here is our hope. Here is where we anchor our faith and our trust. Not in meritorious effort by man. Not in ritual ceremonies. not through any physical aspect of redemption as Rome would want us to believe. It's not conjured up by the will of man. But it has been decreed from eternity in the gracious mercy of a loving God and His Son, Jesus Christ. There's the heart of our theology, says Luther. Calvin says, if we stray from that, we will end up in damnation. And the Old and the New Testament are clearly testimonies to that. And we'll continue next Lord's Day. So look in Part 3 of the Old and New Testament teachings concerning justification by faith. Shall we pray?