How Again Received Into Favor?

Minister:
Date: AM
Text: Exodus 22, 23; Lord's Day 5
Psalters: 411, 41, 109, 162
  1. By satisfaction? A must.
    1. If man is to have God’s favor, it can only be in accordance with God's perfect justice.
      1. He will “not justify the wicked” (Ex. 23:7); He “will by no means clear the guilty” (Ex. 34:7).
      2. God’s justice requires full satisfaction.
    2. We must understand that hell is not satisfaction.
  2. Can we ourselves make this satisfaction?
    1. Natural man thinks that he can.
    2. But Scripture declares that no man is able to deliver himself – utterly hopeless.
      1. First, to pay off my debt to God I would have to spend an eternity in hell for each sin.
      2. Second, I only increase our guilt, and do that daily - my debt grows longer every second.
      3. Third, I cannot earn God’s love and make it right between God and me.
    3. Nor can satisfaction be made for us by another creature.
  3. A proper mediator and deliverer must be a real man who is perfectly righteous and very God.
    1. The gospel is the good news that there is full remission and perfect righteousness.
    2. God gave His own Son into our flesh to make the necessary satisfaction.
    3. God took our transgressions from us and placed them on His own Son, and laid His own Son on the altar of His wrath.
    4. Believe God’s Word that reconciliation is through the shedding of Christ’s blood, and trust in nothing else.