“Assured of Salvation” – Hebrews 6:10

Let's bow together. Our Father, we have been able to sing to you such rich theology, things that are true of you by virtue of your nature and who you are, your character, your unfailing love, your infinite justice, your infinite righteousness.

All of these things are things that are worthy of praise and adoration from your people and our hearts rejoice in these truths.

We ask now that as we look at your word that you would show us in scripture where these things are true of you and the ways in which they are true and why that is a comfort to us as believers.

Open our eyes and our hearts to these truths. Now we pray through the power of your spirit who dwells within those who are yours.

We ask your blessing on this time in Christ's name, amen. We turn now to Hebrews chapter six.

We're gonna read together verse nine through verse 12 of Hebrews chapter six. Verse nine, but beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you and things that accompany salvation, that we are speaking in this way.

For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints and we desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end so that you will not be sluggish but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises.

The Bible college that I went to in southern Saskatchewan was located out in the middle of nowhere and when I say in the middle of nowhere,

I mean nowhere, it was 45 minutes to the nearest really service center where you could have like a

Walmart and a gas station, things like that and you had to drive through Hayfield after Hayfield after Wheatfield to Barleyfield in order to get out there and then when you finally got to the

Bible college, it was, and those of you who've been there know this, it's just a little, it's the Bible college and some houses around there and a post office, that's it.

I mean I say it's in the middle of nowhere, I mean it was in the middle of nowhere. There was a small town about 20 minutes away called Pontex and that was the nearest place you could go for burger and fries on an evening if you wanted to get out and get away.

So during our first year at Bible college, Deidre, who was my friend at the time, who's my wife now and a mutual set of friends that we had,

Chris and Bonnie whom many of you know, we decided to go out kind of on a double date to Pontex and so we headed out across the prairies and it's like I said, a 20 minute drive and as you're coming toward Pontex, the very first thing that you notice of the town because you kind of go across the crest of, they call them mountains in the prairies but they're not mountains at all.

You go across, you come across the crest of a prairie mountain and the first thing you notice is this massive

Catholic spire that sticks up in the middle of the prairies and it is an enormous

Catholic church in this otherwise very small town and I mean a town that's not even as big as Pendray, something the size of Kootenay here and this massive

Catholic church with a spire that sticks up and it dwarfs everything around it so there's a little cafe there in Pontex where we would go for burgers and fries and we went in there, since we were college students, we couldn't afford burgers so we just bought a big plate of fries, one for the four of us to share and we were eating fries and it was late at night, it was dark in the middle of winter and in comes this

Catholic priest and he was dressed up in all of his vestments, his white collar and black robe and everything, it looked like he had just come from a

Catholic mass and we had actually gone to Pontex, I had to go to Pontex a couple of times during my three years to sit in on different Catholic services there just so we could experience and hear and see what was going on, it was kind of part of our religious studies program that they had us involved in.

So this Catholic priest walks in and he started making his way from table to table, there's only like eight of them in this little tiny cafe, making his way from table to table, talking to the people and they all greeted him and made small talk, et cetera, eventually he kind of made his way to our table and shortly before he got to our table to engage us in small talking conversation, you could smell the alcohol.

To say that he was drunk was an understatement and when he walked in, he walked in with a cigarette in one hand and kind of staggered around and talked to people and I thought, well, that's kind of weird, a

Catholic priest with a cigarette, but okay. And by the time he got to our table, you could smell, of course, the cigarette smoke and I know, kids, there was a time when you could smoke in public places like this and this was back in that time.

So he walked into the cafe, nobody thought twice about having a cigarette between his fingers and when he got to our table, you could tell he was just inebriated, drunk, even dressed up in full priestly garments.

So we kind of sat there and eventually, somehow, the conversation came around to a conversation about salvation and the nature of salvation and what you believe, et cetera and he didn't really feel like, he didn't seem like he was really interested in giving us too much feedback or having too deep of a conversation with us, but at one point, either

Chris or myself and I forget which one it was, asked this Catholic priest, how do you know that you are saved?

Like your view of salvation, how do you know that you are saved? And he said to us, quite frankly, as a

Catholic, I can never know that. I can never know that I'm saved. All I can hope is that when

I die, I will stand before God and he will look at what I have done and look at who I am and he will accept me on that basis.

Now, being a first year Bible college student who, when I showed up at Bible college, I was a blank slate theologic, I didn't know anything.

And that was really my first exposure to any kind of Roman Catholicism or any kind of Catholicism at all. I thought that the only problem with Roman Catholic theology was just that you couldn't know you were saved and I thought, isn't it great that I'm not a

Roman Catholic? That way, at least I can have assurance of my salvation because they don't teach that you can have assurance of salvation, but now looking back on it,

I understand that the reason Catholics do not have assurance of salvation is because of the way that they view

God and the way that they view our righteousness. It is their theology of salvation and justification and righteousness that does not allow them to have any kind of assurance of salvation because ultimately, their righteousness does not depend entirely upon Jesus Christ.

See, if your righteousness before God depends entirely upon Christ, then you can have assurance of salvation, but if it does not, then you can never know for sure if you have been righteous enough or done enough righteous deeds to overcome your sin debt before God.

It is because of their view of human righteousness and their view of divine righteousness and their view of justification and ultimately, their view of God's characteristics and his attributes that a

Catholic does not have any assurance of their salvation. Today, we are talking about the things that are true of God that give us as believers assurance of our salvation.

We're looking at that in Hebrews chapter six and last week, we just looked at verse nine where after the very harsh warning concerning apostates who turn away from the faith even in spite of all of the light and the truth that they have received, that's in verses four through six.

We looked last week at verse nine where he says, I am confident, beloved of better things, convinced of better things concerning you, the things that accompany salvation, though we're speaking in this way.

Now, what are the things that accompany salvation? They're in verse 10, your works, your love for the name of God, and your ministering and still ministering to the saints, your ministry and still ministering to the saints.

Those were the fruits of salvation, but as I suggested last week, in verses nine and 10, the author expresses his assurance of their salvation and then in verses 11 and 12, he encourages them to persevere in that salvation.

He first tells them, I'm convinced that you yourselves are saved because these are the things that I see in you, and then in verse 11 and 12, he wants them to persevere in those things so that they may, as believers, hold fast to those things that they know to be true.

And so this whole passage, even in spite of the warning to apostates and the warning about falling away in verses four through verse six and seven and eight, actually verse eight, in spite of that, the author is expressing his assurance of salvation and talking to these

Christians about how they can know that they are saved. So there are certain fruits that are in verse 10. We looked at verse nine last week, and today we're looking, well, last week

I told you that in verse 10 there are two things that give him assurance of their salvation, something that is true about God and something that is true about them.

What is true about God? That he is not unjust to us to forget your works. God's justice and God's knowledge, those two things are true of God.

Because God is just and because he is omniscient, we can have assurance of our salvation. And the second thing that gives him assurance is the works that he saw, the work, the love that they had for the name of God, and their ministering and still ministering to the saints.

That's in verse 10. So today we're looking at those things which are true of God that give us assurance of our salvation.

Read with me again, verse nine and following. Beloved, we are convinced of better things concerning you and things that accompany salvation though we're speaking in this way.

For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward his name in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints.

God is not unjust so as to forget. There are two attributes of God there that we're gonna look at this morning, his justice and his unforgetfulness.

What would you call that? It's an attribute of God, it's called omniscience. So those are the two things that we're looking at today, his justice and his omniscience.

Now you'll notice how the author links them together because he says, we're convinced of this for God is not unjust so as to forget.

Indicating that if God were to forget something that is true of them, that that would be something that would be unjust of God.

So God's justice and his omniscience, they go together. Now this is something that is true of all of God's attributes.

You can't take any one of God's attributes and isolate them from themselves as if they are unrelated to all of God's other attributes.

His omniscience works with his wisdom and his goodness and his grace and his loving kindness, his righteousness, his justice, his infinitude, his transcendence, his unchangeableness.

All of those attributes exist in God together. And the only way we can understand any one attribute of God is to understand that one attribute in light of all of God's attributes.

Because it's not like we can step out of this life and say, well, I'm trusting in the goodness of God to save me.

Well, God is good. But God is also righteous and holy and just. And God is also infinite in his wisdom and all knowing and all present and all powerful.

So it is all of God's attributes together that work against the wicked and for those who are saved by his grace.

So you'll notice how these two things are connected. God is not unjust, so as to forget. So let's look for a moment here at the justice of God.

God is not unjust. And you'll notice that he states it as if it is a denial, a negative of a denial or the denial of a denial.

God is not unjust, which means what? That God is just. And this is the universal teaching of scripture from Genesis through Revelation.

In Genesis, the judge of all the earth will do what is right. Abraham had confidence in that.

The judge of all the earth will do what is right. That's in the book of Genesis. What does that mean? It means he is just.

So he will always and only do what is right. And this is the teaching all the way through scripture and then you get to Revelation and you see

God take the impenitent wicked and to throw them everlastingly into the lake of fire that burns forever and ever and ever and the smoke of their torment goes up before the lamb and before his people as his people are worshiping the lamb because of the justice that God has brought about for the impenitent and unrepentant wicked.

And what is that action in the book of Revelation? It is the justice of God. So from first to last, God is a just God.

And it is essential to his character as he is called the righteous one throughout scripture. Let me give you a couple of scripture references.

Psalm 7 verse 11, God is a righteous judge and a God who has indignation every day.

So God is not just a judge, he's a righteous judge. And by the way, the ideas of righteousness and justice, they are connected ideas.

In the Greek words, it's the same word family that speaks of righteousness and justice and being a judge.

Psalm 9 verse 8, and he will judge the world in righteousness, he will execute judgment for the peoples with equity.

Psalm 11 verse 7, for the Lord is righteous, he loves righteousness, the upright will behold his face.

So foundational is the justice of God to the nature and character of God that I could fill hours just reading the scripture verses and the passages that speak of the justice and righteousness of God.

Those two things are connected. Or the fact that he is a judge and understood with his judgment is that he judges righteously because he is a judge who loves righteousness and he loves truth and he loves equity and he loves justice,

God loves justice. I made something of a stir at campus last year because in one session

I was talking to the kids about false views of Jesus. And I said one of the things that, one of the ways that the gospel is presented sometimes is if Jesus Christ is sitting in heaven just waiting and wringing his hands, waiting for people to come to him and turn from him and he has a

U -shaped hole in his heart and if you would just fill that, he would make him so happy. If you just come to Jesus today, be so fulfilled and happy.

And I said that is not the biblical picture of Jesus. The biblical picture of Jesus is he died on a cross and he went to the grave and he rose again and he is seated at the father's right hand and he is coming again to judge the living and the dead.

And he will raise all men to eternal life and he will take those who are righteous in his sight by virtue of faith in him and he will bring them into an everlasting kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world.

And he will take the wicked and with joy he will cast them into hell. And one of the kids raised his hand and said, can you clarify what you mean by God casting the wicked into hell with joy?

And I said, God delights in all his works. He delights in all his works.

Judgment is one of his works. God himself will delight in the vindication of his justice on that final day.

It is not that he delights in their damnation. He delights in the vindication of his righteousness and justice.

And so on that final day, he will with joy do what the father has given him to do, that is to judge the wicked.

And if God does not delight in doing what is righteous, then God is not righteous. Our lack of delight and joy in doing something righteous is a fault in us.

And if God does not delight in doing righteousness, that is a fault in him. He must take joy in all of his works and judgment is one of his works.

Doing righteousness is one of his works. And so he will, with a sense of love and justice and holiness and wrath, execute judgment on the final day and he will do so delighting in that act of justice and the vindication of his righteousness.

If God doesn't delight in doing righteousness, then he is not righteous. But because he is righteous, he delights in the doing of righteousness because he loves justice.

And justice is fundamental to his rule, Psalm 33 verse five. He loves righteousness and justice. The earth is full of the loving kindness of the

Lord. Look at those two things contrasted with each other, right? They go together. The earth is full of his loving kindness. Everywhere you look, everywhere you turn, you experience the loving kindness of God.

And he loves righteousness. Because he is loving and kind, he is also righteous.

Psalm 37 verse 28, for the Lord loves justice and does not forsake his godly ones. They are preserved forever, but the descendants of the wicked will be cut off.

Psalm 37 verse 23, the steps of a man are established by the Lord and he delights in his way. Psalm 89 verse 14, righteousness and justice are the foundation of your throne.

Loving kindness and truth go before you. And likewise, Psalm 97 verse two, clouds and thick darkness surround him.

Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne.

God's rule is established upon his righteousness and his justice. Not fairness, not necessarily equity.

It is not love, it is righteousness and justice which are the foundation of his throne.

He sits upon righteousness and justice. For God to do unrighteousness or to do injustice would be to violate his own nature and his own character.

And God cannot do that because he cannot deny himself. And so he cannot do that which is contrary to his own nature.

And if God were to commit one single act of injustice in all of his creation to any of his creatures, if he were to commit one single act of injustice, all of his rule would fall apart, his dominion would unravel, his reign would cease and his existence would stop.

You know how you know that God is just? Because you still exist. You sit here today which means that God has never committed an act of injustice or unrighteousness ever.

All his ways are righteous, all his wisdom is righteous, all his doings are righteous. Everything about him is righteous and just.

God cannot do injustice because instantly his power would vanish, he would cease to reign because his throne is established on righteousness and justice.

They are the foundation of his throne. And for him to violate and do even one act of injustice or unrighteousness would be to unravel everything that exists.

Everything would cease to be because it is all held together by the word of his power and the minute he did something unjust, everything would cease to be.

Because righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. And everything exists through him and apart from him nothing is held together.

It is all held together by his righteous rule over all that he has created. Now justice is different than fairness.

Do you understand the difference between justice and fairness? God is not fair because fairness is a human concept.

It's a human concept that we import into things. And we try and suggest that God must be fair in all of his doings, he's not, he's just in all of his doings.

When God allows a tsunami to wipe out 250 ,000 people in a country, he has done no injustice to anyone, not one.

He has done no unrighteousness at all. Is that fair? Maybe not by human standards, but the

Bible doesn't say that fairness and cotton candy are the foundation of his throne or fairness and good feelings and warm affirmations are the foundation of his throne.

No, righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. And God could right now wipe out every single individual on this planet in a heartbeat if he desired to and he would do no injustice to anyone.

He could take everything from me. He could do to me as he did to Job. There's no unrighteousness in God in anything that he did to Job.

Was it fair? Not necessarily fair, but it was not unjust. Nor was it unrighteous.

You see, the idea of fairness is contrary to the idea of grace. You see how those two things can't go together?

Some people suggest that in order for God to be fair, he has to give grace to one as well as the other and he has to give equal amounts of grace.

If he shows grace to this person, he has to show grace to this person in equal measure. But grace is unmerited favor.

Nobody can ever say, if God is to be just, he must show me just as much grace as he did to somebody else. The idea of grace and fairness cannot go together.

The idea of justice and fairness cannot go together. God is fair only insofar as he will judge every single sin that has ever been committed with equity and with justice.

In that way, God is fair. But you don't want God to be fair in that way because then you would get what you deserve.

But grace is unmerited favor. Grace is something that is extended to us beyond what we deserve.

It is not what we deserve. It's the opposite of what we deserve. So we don't want God to be fair, we want God to be gracious.

We want God to be merciful and kind, not necessarily fair. God can show mercy to Moses and he can harden

Pharaoh and destroy Pharaoh to demonstrate his justice and on Moses show mercy.

And he has done no injustice in that action. God can favor Jacob over Esau and he has not been unjust.

He's not been fair, but he's not been unjust. He is righteous in all of his doings and he dispenses grace according to his sovereign pleasure.

God can choose Isaac and not Ishmael. God can choose David and not any of his brothers to be king. Was that fair?

Was that a fair thing for God to do, to choose David over his brothers? That wasn't fair. And God made with David a covenant and said, from you

I will bring forth a ruler who will rule over my kingdom and over your kingdom forever. And that was the Lord Jesus Christ.

He promised to David and to the seed of David what he did not promise or give to any of David's brothers wasn't fair at all, but it was righteous and it was gracious and it was just.

And of course Romans chapter nine says, he saves some and he hardens others. That's not injustice. He's done no injustice in doing that.

So we understand the justice of God and this should terrify the unbeliever. How is this connected to salvation?

Well, if God is not unjust so as to forget his promises, how is the justice of God connected to our salvation?

Well, salvation entails the paying of a penalty for our sin. First Peter 2 24 says, he himself, that is

Christ, bore our sins in his own body on the tree, on the cross, so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness for by his wounds you were healed.

Second Corinthians 5 21 says that God made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

He made Christ who knew no sin and did no sin, he imputed to him all of our sin so that he might then take the righteousness of Christ and impute it to us so that we get his righteousness and he takes our sin so there is an exchange there where he pays the penalty, the ransom, the debt that we owe because of our sin.

Therefore, we can say in Romans 8 verse one, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

So that in the death of Christ, we're not talking about a potential payment, we're not talking about a blank check that you and I can fill out if we so want to.

In the death of Christ, when we speak of Christ's death and we speak of him bearing our sins, we're talking about not a potential payment but an actual payment for sin, an actual exchange that has taken place where he has borne in himself all our iniquity.

This is what scripture teaches. So that it is a voluntary, vicarious, substitutionary death on the cross where he takes the sin that sinners deserve and sinners get the righteousness that he has earned.

Is that fair to everybody? It's not fair but that is justice. That is how God can be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

That is how God can say to a guilty, undeserving sinner who has violated his law multiplied thousands of times, can say to that sinner, you are forgiven and there is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

How can God say that and still be just? How can he let the guilty sinner go and still be just? Only if a payment has been paid on his behalf.

Then the sinner can go free, then the sinner can be acquitted because justice is satisfied. If a substitute has paid the price, then justice is satisfied.

So there is, for those who are in Christ, the demands of the law have been met and paid entirely on behalf of those for whom that debt was paid.

Because Christ died in our stead, there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ.

All of my sins and yours if you're in Christ, all of your sins were laid on him, past, present, and future.

There can be no just demands of God's law upon you if you are in Jesus Christ, why?

Because his death, which he died, and his debt, that debt which he paid, which was our debt, he paid it and he paid it in full.

So the just demands of the law have been satisfied on behalf of all those who place their faith in Christ.

Listen to Hebrews 10, verse 11. Every priest stands daily ministering and offering time after time the same sacrifices which can never take away sins.

But he, that is Christ, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time onward until his enemies be made a footstool for his feet.

For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. One offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.

Not, he made perfection possible if you work it out. But in the offering of Christ he paid a penalty which purified, secured the salvation, paid the full price, and perfected forever everyone for whom that sacrifice was made.

Every last one. Isaiah 53, verses four and six. Surely our griefs he himself bore and our sorrows he carried.

Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgressions.

He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastening for our well -being fell upon him, and by his scourging we are healed.

All of us like sheep have gone astray. Each one of us has turned to his own way. But the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him.

My iniquity and the punishment for it fell upon him. He's the substitute. Now if he has paid for it, if he paid for it, then it's paid in full.

The cost has been paid. The debt is no longer out. There is no demand or claim of God's law upon the one who is in Christ Jesus.

Isaiah 53, verse 11. As a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied by his knowledge.

My righteous one, my servant, will justify the many, and he will bear their iniquities. He bore our iniquities.

On the cross, he paid our price. That is what atonement means. That is what the death of Christ has accomplished.

He became a curse for us, according to Galatians 3 .13. So if Christ has died for me, and this has bearing upon what we've been talking about in recent weeks, upon the security of the believer.

If Christ has died for me, then how can I be condemned ever? How can

I ever be condemned? Romans chapter eight, verse 31. And then what shall we say to these things?

If God is for us, who is against us? He who did not spare his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how will he not also with him freely give us all things?

Who will bring a charge against God's elect? You hear the sarcasm, the irony, the boldness of that statement?

Who will bring a charge against God's elect? Is there anybody on heaven, in heaven or on earth, that can bring a charge against God's elect?

God is the one who justifies. In other words, if you're gonna bring a charge against God's elect, by which they would be condemned, you're gonna have to do it in the presence of God, and he is the one who has slammed down the gavel at the cross of Christ and said, it is finished, not guilty, charge is dismissed.

And not only not guilty, but righteous. Do we deserve that? We don't deserve forgiveness, we certainly don't deserve an infinite, glorious righteousness.

How are you gonna bring a charge against one of God's chosen ones? March into his courtroom and say, hey, against Jim, here are the charges.

The judge is the one who is already declared as guilty at the cross of Christ. Who is the one who condemns?

Paul says, Christ Jesus, it is he who died, yes, rather, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who intercedes for us.

Because he has died, and because he makes intercession for us, and because God is the one who has not only chosen us, but declared us to be not guilty in his sight, for those reasons, there is no claim of divine justice upon the believer at all.

Therefore, we are secure. If Christ has paid the price by his blood, then there is no demand of justice ever against the believer.

It can never happen. Now, you tell me, in light of God's justice, how is it that a

Christian can lose their salvation and end up being punished? How is that even possible? That would be for God to lay upon his son all of the sin of that repentant sinner, and to punish

Christ for all of that, and then to give to that penitent sinner all of his righteousness, and then for that repentant sinner to eventually lose that righteousness and then be punished for the same sin that Christ died for?

How is that possible? God cannot punish Christ in my stead and then punish me for the exact same sins.

If he has punished Christ in my stead, there is no condemnation that can ever come upon me, ever.

No matter what I do, no matter when I die, no matter how long I live, no matter how many times

I sin against him, there is no condemnation that can ever fall upon my head. Why? Because Christ is my substitute, has paid the full price for all my sin.

And if that has happened, then the just demands of the law have been met. And if God punishes me for them, if I lose my salvation, that would be unjust, because the price has already been paid.

God cannot exact, and he will not exact, for it would be unjust for God to exact the same penalty twice.

And if it has been exacted once upon Christ, if it has been executed there once, it will not be executed upon me, and it never, ever can be, because the price has been paid in full.

Now, of course, this has bearing upon a popular way of presenting the gospel, and what I believe is an erroneous teaching where people will say that Jesus Christ paid for in his death on the cross all of the sins of all of the people who have ever lived ever in the history of humanity from Adam's first sin all the way through the last sin that'll be committed before Christ returns.

And that all of those were poured out on Christ. So every sin has been died for, every sin has been atoned for, every sin has been paid for.

If that is the case, then why do sinners go to hell? Because scripture says that they go to hell for their lying, their thieving, their blasphemy, their adultery, their greed, their fornication, their covetousness, their idolatry, their hatred, their murder, their swindling, their offendance, their homosexuality, their impurity, their disobedience to their parents, and the list could go on and on and on.

Those are the things for which unbelievers are charged and they're punished for. So if Christ has paid for that whole price, then all of those sins, then tell me, what is it that the unbeliever is punished for in hell?

Now some people will say, well, it's unbelief. Because they didn't believe, that's why they're punished in hell. Because they didn't believe that that payment has been made.

They didn't believe and take hold of that payment. Well, is unbelief a sin? It is, right?

If Christ died for that sin, then tell me again, why are the wicked punished in hell? If he died for the sin of unbelief, why are the wicked punished in hell ultimately?

It is because God is just to pour out upon the unrepentant wicked what they deserve and give to those who are in Jesus Christ what has already been paid for in Christ.

So if he has paid the price for those sins, there is no condemnation, there cannot be. God cannot pour out upon Christ all of the sin of Pharaoh, whom he hardened back in the book of Exodus, and then turn around and pour that out on Pharaoh for all of eternity.

That is unjust, and righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne, and God can do no injustice. Therefore, if your sins have been poured out on Christ, and the wrath has been meted out upon him, in your stead, for you, on your behalf, and he has borne that, he cannot and he will not ever exact it or make it fall upon your head for him to do so would be unjust and unrighteous.

It would be to deny himself, and to do that was wicked and unjust. And not only do we get forgiveness from the death of Christ, but we get his righteousness.

That is that all of our sin is imputed to Christ, and all of his righteousness is imputed to us.

Now, if God just forgave us sin, we would escape hell, but we could never enter into heaven, because to enter into heaven,

I need righteousness. To enter into heaven, I need God to view me as if I had fulfilled all of the demands of the law myself.

So, what scripture teaches is that Jesus Christ came not only to die for his people, but to live for his people.

We get his righteousness, so that God sees us in Jesus Christ with the full righteousness that he had as the infinitely righteous and perfect son of a

God who obeyed the law fully on behalf of all those for whom he died. So we get not only our sins taken out of the way, that means we can escape hell, but we get a righteousness that we do not deserve that is credited to us, so that now we can stand in God's presence, secure as a believer, not just because we've been forgiven, but because in the sight of God and the courtroom of God, we're actually righteous.

This might be hard for you to believe, but in God's sight, when he looks at me, he sees nothing but the blinding righteousness of Jesus Christ.

He sees none of my sins, none of them. He sees only righteousness. Does that mean I'm righteous in all of my doings?

It certainly does not. Does it mean I'm righteous in all of my thoughts and my conduct? No, it does not at all. But the righteousness that God has credited to my account is not a righteousness that is attached to my works or my deeds or my activities or my actions at all, because it's the righteousness that belongs to another.

So I can't tarnish it, I can't diminish it, I can't take it away, I can't make it less than what it is, I can't somehow throw it off, because it was credited to me by an act of God, and because his righteousness has been credited to me, he sees me, he sees you, if you're in Christ, as completely righteous, all of your sins are forgiven, and because he is just, no condemnation can ever fall upon your head.

I'm convinced of better things concerning you, brethren, things accompanying salvation. God is not unjust.

As a believer, you just have to sit back and think, that is so comforting. Is it not?

Does it not comfort you? Now, if you're an unbeliever, you should be terrified by that, that God is not unjust, because that means that he is not gonna turn an eye, a blind eye, to your sin on the day of judgment.

He will not let the guilty go unpunished. So the justice of God, for the unbeliever, is a cause of terror and angst and sleepless nights, at least it should be, if you understood the justice of God and his righteousness, that justice and righteousness are the foundation of his throne, and that he will not leave any sin unpunished, every sin will be punished, either upon the perfect, holy, righteous substitute who died in the place of sinners, or it will be poured out upon the head of the unbeliever who will not repent and perishes in eternal hell, but every sin will be punished.

And because God is just, that ought to terrify the unbeliever, but at the moment of faith, the justice of God goes from being something that terrifies us to something that is of immense comfort.

Because all of my sin has been poured out on him, there's no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

My assurance of salvation comes down to the fact that God is just, and that he will not exact from me the same penalty that he placed upon Jesus Christ.

The justice of God is my deliverance on the day of judgment. Because he is just,

I am free, free from that condemnation, and it is the justice of God which is a comfort to the believer, and God is not unjust so as to forget.

Now, if God were to forget something, and we're talking about the omniscience of God here in just a moment, if God were to forget something, it would make him unjust, specifically if he were to forget our deeds or our service or our love, and these are the things which are the fruits that are wrought by the

Holy Spirit in the lives of those who are his. Only those things would perish alongside of a believer if he were to go to hell.

So if a believer were to go to hell, it would mean that God would have to forget all of the things, the fruits in the life of the believer that he did while in a believing and saved state, that God would have to not reward the believer for his good and kind acts.

So the justice of God requires not only that every sin be punished, but the justice of God requires that every good deed be rewarded.

So if a believer can go to hell, that means that the believer would be cast into hell while he has good deeds credited to his account for which

God should reward him. But since he throws the believer into hell since he lost his salvation,

God then would be unjust because it would mean that he would have to forget all of the things that his justice requires that he reward you for.

Does that make sense? Somebody just looked at me like, no, that doesn't make any sense at all. I slept through the last two parts of that sentence, so let me give it to you again.

So if you are saved for a period of time, and hypothetically speaking, if a person loses their salvation, if you're saved for a period of time and you do these good deeds which are wrought by the

Holy Spirit in your life, fruits, all of the things that he describes in verse 10, your works, your service, your love toward his name, your faith, your hope, your perseverance, your ministering to others, you've done all of those things, the justice of God requires that you be rewarded for those.

But if it's possible for you to lose your salvation, then those things which the justice of God requires that he reward you for those, if he cast you into hell, it would mean that he would have to forget all the things that he should be rewarding you for, that those things would not be rewarded.

And if God doesn't reward the things that are worthy of reward, then he is unjust. Does that make sense? If it doesn't,

I'm not going over that again. If he doesn't reward you for what is worthy of reward, then he is unjust.

Just as if he doesn't punish that which is worthy of punishment, then he would be unjust, and God cannot be unjust.

This is the biblical reward for service, let this not only comfort you, but to motivate you. Every single deed that a believer does, every single deed that a believer does in the power of the

Holy Spirit is an act of service to God, is worthy of reward, and every last one of them will be rewarded.

That is his promise. He is not unjust as to us to forget that. Every act, every thought, every word, every deed, every motive of service that is worthy of reward,

God will not forget a single one of them. On the day of justice, just like he will forget no sin, he will forget no good deed that any

Christian has ever done that is worthy of reward. He will reward you amply for every last one of them. I think, and this is just Jim's speculation, but I think that when we get to heaven, we will be rewarded for things that we have totally forgotten we ever did.

And we will receive a reward, and what was that for? You remember that time you did X, Y, and Z? That's right, now

I remember. Called that back to my mind. Things that I am not even aware of today. We will receive a reward for those things, because God would be unjust if he forgot those things and didn't reward us for those things.

God is not unjust so as to forget your works, your deeds, done by the Holy Spirit. It's the fruit that he produces.

Now second, let's talk about the knowledge of God. Now I've almost forgotten to get to this point, and our time is almost up, but God does not forget anything.

So let's talk for a moment just about the knowledge of God and how that is a comfort to Christians. God's perfect memory is not an attribute of God in itself.

So on my shelf in my office, I had probably 12, 14 systematic theologies written by different guys, Grudem and Thiessen and a bunch of others.

If you go through those systematic theologies and you go through the section on the attributes of God, you're not gonna come across God's perfect memory as one of the attributes, because God's perfect memory is not an attribute in itself, but it is an expression of another one of God's attributes, which is his omniscience.

And by omniscience, what we are describing in terms of what God knows is the fact that God has always known everything that is to be known and everything that can be known.

And he has not forgotten anything that he has known, nor has God ever learned anything new.

Now, if God were to learn something new at some point in time or even in eternity past, it would mean that his knowledge prior to him learning something new was inferior at the moment that he learned something new, right?

When you learn something new, you improve. God cannot improve. He is as perfect and as excellent as he can ever be, and there will be no increase to his excellence or his perfections.

And so his knowledge cannot grow or increase. Everything God knows right now, he has always known, and everything

God knows right now, he will always know in the future. So God never grows in his knowledge.

His omniscience means that he never learns anything. He never has to adapt to anything that is new in his knowledge.

And by the way, this has bearing upon the timing and the purpose and the manner of God's electing grace. God did not look down through time and see who it was that would believe upon him and then choose them on that basis.

That means that at some point in eternity past, God learned who the believers were gonna be and said, oh, okay, I'll respond to that.

No, that would mean that God learned something at some point in time. So God didn't choose anybody on that basis because it would require an acquisition of knowledge in the person of being character of God.

So not only does God never learn anything, God never forgets anything. I thought in this illustration this morning, and this kind of wowed my head, and since you look like you could be wowed right now,

I'll share this one with you. The day that Jesus walked on water on the Sea of Galilee almost 2 ,000 years ago, God knew exactly how many molecules were in the

Sea of Galilee at the moment that he walked on the water. He knows exactly the exact number of molecules in the

Sea of Galilee when Jesus walked upon it. He still knows what that number is today, 2 ,000 years later, he hasn't forgotten it.

God knows everything that can be known. God knows everything that is to be known. God knows even what we would call counterfactuals, the things that might be if things were different.

If I went and did this, it would work out this way. Remember David, there was a point where he inquired of the Lord and said, if I go up,

I think it's against the Philistines, if I go up and meet the Philistines, what's gonna happen? Or if I run from the Philistines and hide, what's gonna happen?

God revealed to him the outcome of both those scenarios. God knows not only every factual thing, but every counterfactual, everything that might be if things were different.

He knows all of those, and he knows everything he has always known. From all of eternity, he has known it. He never learned anything, and he has never forgotten anything.

So since that is true, oh, by the way, what does it mean then when it says that God remembers our sins no more? Oh, see, Jim, you were gonna bring that up to me after the service today, weren't you?

You were gonna come up and say, what does it mean then when it says that God remembers our sins no more? It doesn't mean that he forgets that we were sinners, or that he has even forgotten our sins in the sense of it is no longer, it's out of his memory.

It just simply means that God doesn't deal with us in terms of our sin anymore. It is not before his eyes or before his face.

He takes our sins, and he puts them out of the way. It's not that he has forgotten what they are. It's not like when I get to heaven, God's gonna come up to me and say, why are you here?

Well, because your son died for me. Well, why did he die for you? Well, because I was a sinner. Well, what exactly did you do? It's not that God forgets any of our sins ever, and again, it's not forgotten in that sense.

It's just forgotten in the sense that it is taken out of the way to the point where he does not call it to mind in terms of dealing with us on that basis.

You know what he does call to mind when he deals with us? The righteousness of his son.

Not our sin, and not our righteousness, and not our deeds. We are accepted on the basis of none of those things, but save only the righteousness of his son.

It is on the basis of that righteousness that God deals with us, and this magnifies God, and it magnifies his grace, because my standing with him is not dependent upon his senility, his ability to forget something.

It is dependent upon the righteousness of his son, and as long as his son is perfectly righteous,

I will be perfectly righteous in his sight, and as long as God is God, no condemnation can fall upon me.

Why? Because he is just, and righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. So what is it that God remembers?

He remembers our every righteous deed, and he forgets, remember, in our anthropomorphic sense, he forgets our sin, but he remembers every righteous deed, every act of love, every work of grace, every fruit produced by the

Holy Spirit, every thought, word, and deed that is worthy of commendation, that is wrought by in his people, by the

Holy Spirit, and the power of his grace. Every last one of those, God remembers, but our sins, he remembers no more.

Those things are put out, and they're never punished, because they've been laid upon Christ, but he deals with us according to the righteousness of his son.

If God were able to forget, then he might forget that he has chosen me. He might forget that he has promised me the kingdom.

He has promised me the inheritance. He might forget the good things that I have done. He might forget my labors of love, and my works of service.

He might forget the fact that he has promised me eternal life. He might forget the fact that the Holy Spirit has indwelt me, and called me to himself, and granted me the gift of grace, and faith, and repentance, and all of that.

God might forget all of those things if it were possible for God to forget, but God, if he were to forget, would be unjust, because the minute he forgets anything, his justice is undone, and if his justice is undone, then what happens to his rule?

So just as you sitting here today are the proof that God is just, you sitting here today are his proof that God has never forgotten a single thing.

He will not forget. He can't be unjust, so as to forget. It would be impossible for God to forget those whom he has chosen, for whom he has sent his son to die, who are indwelt by his spirit, who are adopted into his family, who are his children.

It would be impossible for him to forget whose sins have been paid for, and whom the spirit has drawn, and whom the spirit has regenerated, to whom the spirit has given to faith and repentance, in whom the spirit dwells and does good works.

It would be impossible for God to forget those who cry out to him, Abba, Father. Possible for him to promise us and to not give us eternal life, and to forget to whom he has promised eternal life.

It would be impossible for God to forget those to whom he gave to Christ, and for whom Christ calls his sheep, for whom

Christ has died, who are Christ's bride, that he has declared us righteous, that we are forgiven.

It would be impossible for God to get any of that. He cannot forget any of those things. Now, if you're an unbeliever, the omniscience of God should terrify you, because there is no thought, word, or deed that you have ever had that the just judge of all of the universe will ever forget, not one.

But as a believer, God's omniscience, that is comforting, isn't it?

He cannot forget. Because he cannot forget, I am secure.

Because he is just, I am secure. But if you are an unbeliever, he has never forgotten any of your sins, and he is just.

That should terrify you. I hope it does, if you're in an unbelieving state. Come to Christ in repentance and faith, and believe upon the one who died in the stead of sinners, and when you do that, he will forgive your sins, he will declare you righteous, he will give you eternal life, and the omniscience of God and the justice of God will go from being a terror to you to being the thing upon which you lovingly embrace as your hope and confidence of eternal life.

Let's bow our heads. Father, we do thank you for your righteousness and your justice, your holiness, your goodness, your love, your mercy, and your grace, all of which is evident all around us each and every day.

The loving kindness of our God fills this earth, and yet you are a just judge who will judge sinners.

We pray that by your grace, God, you would draw those who do not believe upon Christ, that you would convict them of their sin, open their eyes and their hearts to respond by your grace to the offer of salvation that is to be found in your word, that they may find in Christ all of their hope of eternal life, their righteousness, and their sin -bearer who bore their sin on their behalf.

Draw on, believers, to yourself, that you may be glorified through this and that the Son, the Lord Jesus, may receive the full reward for all that he has suffered, all those whom you have given to him.

May you be glorified and honored by your people, both now and forever, we pray, amen. Please stand.