If we could gather all the pastors, preachers and priests from Post Falls, Spokane and Coeur d’Alene into one room at one time, there probably wouldn’t be a great deal of good come out of it. In fact, there is a probability that more harm would be done than good. Yet that is the goal of a great many people – one world-wide religion – their religion, of course. Having said that, I think that perhaps some good could result, if we could gather all those religious leaders, and survey them on some pertinent questions. For example, how many answers would we get if we asked: “What is the primary purpose your church?” That wouldn’t be a bad question to ask all the “evangelical” churches of Post Falls, or even all the Baptists.
What is the primary purpose of your church? Not the secondary purpose, or the tertiary, quaternary, quinary or senary purpose. What is the primary purpose of your church? Some Baptists would answer that the purpose of the Lord’s church is the saving of souls. Some would talk about the importance of teaching the Bible – the revelation of God. Others would say something about changing or being a blessing to society. Others would talk about helping people through the difficulties of their lives. Although there really isn’t anything wrong with these things, they shouldn’t be our primary purpose.
I am convinced that Romans 14:11 is one way to express God’s answer to that question. And He says the same thing in different ways throughout the pages of His Word. As I have said many times, God doesn’t save souls in order simply to be a blessing to those souls. Are they blessed? Absolutely, but that is a secondary result. Would this world be a better place if there were scriptural churches in every community? Absolutely. I suppose that would be a tertiary – a third-place – answer to the question. After thinking about the hundreds of verses in the Psalms and other books, we return to the Apostle Paul. “Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.” The primary work of the church, the Christian, and, ultimately, of all creation – is the glory of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. What was the Saviour’s primary request in the prayer recorded in John 17? Glory – the glory of the Father and the glory of the Son.
As I mentioned last week, Romans 14:11 is not the only place where we find words similar to these. We see them first in the great Evangelical Prophet Isaiah, and they are repeated in Philippians. It seems to me that in each passage, the perspective is just a little bit different – but the message and purpose is the same – the glory of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That should be the ultimate purpose of our lives. This morning, I would like to look at this thought in just a little more detail, using all three of those scriptures.
These were not questions about clear and important doctrine. They were not about practices which the Lord had clearly forbidden or directly commanded. Everyone was agreed about salvation by grace through faith, and the necessity of repentance. They knew that the Lord’s elect could to be found in any nation or ethnic group. They were all agreed that Christ Jesus was the virgin born Son of God. They believed in a literal return of Christ, and they probably all agreed that it was imminent. They knew that there was a personal Devil and that the Lake of Fire was in the future for all those who refused to repent of their sins and idolatries. But they were not agreed about the celebration of the Passover, the birth of Christ, or the summer solstice. They were not agreed whether oysters and clams should be eaten – or meat which was bought in the public market and which had been slaughtered by heathen butchers.
To these things Paul simply said, “Every one of us shall give account of HIMSELF to God.” And in regard to these things “we shall ALL stand before the judgment seat of Christ.” Paul said, you brethren must not destroy the Lord’s church fighting over such secondary things as these. His argument was that we shall all stand before Christ – the Righteous Judge – God. And the scripture that he cited was Isaiah 45:23 – “For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.”
At the Judgment Seat of Christ – at the Bema – “We must all appear … that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.” The righteous Judge shall condemn our condemnation of our brothers and sisters in Christ who simply differ with us over these incidentals and opinions. The Lord will reward us for our service, and for our what we have tried to do for His glory, in such things as creating peace within the church and reconciliation between brethren. But He will burn up those inflammatory works and words which we have flung against our fellow Christians.
And once again, I point out that the Judgment Seat of Christ is the Judgment Seat of God. “For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of CHRIST.” “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to GOD.”
One of the many scriptures that I didn’t expand last week when we were thinking about Jesus’ deity is found in John 5. After our Lord healed a man on the Sabbath, ignoring the foolish extravagances of the Jews, He said: “My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God. Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise. For the Father loveth the Son, and sheweth him all things that himself doeth: and he will shew him greater works than these, that ye may marvel. For as the Father raiseth up the dead, and quickeneth them; even so the Son quickeneth whom he will. For the Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son: That all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father. He that honoureth not the Son honoureth not the Father which hath sent him.”
God, the Father, will not be the One to approve or condemn the wicked sitting on some Judgment Seat. He has committed all judgment unto His beloved Son. In order “that all men should honour the Son, even as they honour the Father.” And what is the primary purpose of divine judgment? It isn’t to punish the wicked, nor is it to reward those that do well, although these things will occur. The purpose of the Judgment Seat of Christ and the judgment of the Great White Throne will be for the glory and honour of God. This is Paul’s point here in Romans 14.
The second place where Isaiah 45:23 is used in the New Testament is found in…
Paul’s reference to the fear that these people had points to the faltering condition of their hearts. “God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” But many of these brethren didn’t have that sound mind, because their hearts weren’t sound. Some of this was spilling over into problems between the members of the church, prompting Paul to say, “Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” Was this church having the same kind of problems as the church in Rome?
Whether they were the same problems or not, the solution was to be more like the Saviour. “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” In Philippians 2 Paul’s reference to Isaiah 45 was more about the glory of the Lord than about the judgment which will play a part in contributing to that glory.
In my studying I was struck with a consideration that I had never made before, and I’ll pass it on to you. Some of the experts believe that THE every knee that shall bow, and THE every tongue that shall confess, will only be the knees and tongues of the saints. As logical as that appears to be in some ways, in other ways it isn’t logical at all. I think that such as idea actually robs the Lord of the glory which is due unto His name. That the saints should all bow and worship is as natural as the rising of the sun, but when the wicked, the idolater, and the rebel are forced to agree that the Son of God reigns, that will be glory indeed. Not only will the things in Heaven, but also all the things on the earth and under the earth shall confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Even the souls in eternal judgment, will have to agree with their condemnation, and they will glorify the Lord
Isaiah is often called “The Evangelical Prophet,” because he says so much about salvation by grace through our Lord Jesus Christ – but – about 700 years before His birth. For example, speaking of the One whom we now know as the Lord Jesus Isaiah said, “Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
Here in chapter 45 the Lord, through Isaiah, is talking about the time after Israel’s captivity, which hadn’t yet taken place. But the lesson applies to us as well – those who have been captives to sin. You who have been delivered, gather yourselves together and come away from the idolaters of the world. Those people who put their trust in any other god but Jehovah, are being foolish, because there is no deity beside the Lord. They are praying unto gods that cannot hear and who certainly cannot save them.
Notice that verse 21 says, “there is no God else beside me; a just God and Saviour; there is none beside me.” Jehovah is both just and still the Saviour. This takes us into the nature and pre-requisites of salvation – The law demands that sinners pay for their transgressions with their lives and souls – and that means more than just their physical existence. The wages of sin is death – eternal and spiritual death. But the Saviour provided the means for God to be both just and yet still the Justifier of them that believe. Through Christ Jesus, the death penalty was paid on behalf of His chosen children.
This verse also says that the God with whom there is none else, is both God and SAVIOUR. When verse after verse in the New Testament tell us that Jesus Christ is the Saviour, and when there is such abundant testimony and evidence of the deity of that Christ, we aren’t the least bit surprised to hear Isaiah speak of the Saviour as God. And so we agree with Thomas, who years later said that Christ Jesus is our Saviour AND our God. It is to this God and Saviour, that the escapees from captivity are to encourage their captors to come. “Tell ye, and bring them near.” Tell them that there is no God besides Jehovah. Tell them that the Lord is both God and Saviour.
Verse 22 points out that after the Lord has done all the hard work, salvation is left to be relatively easy for us. “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth.” Look at the sinless and holy life that Christ Jesus lived; how did He do that and why? Deity! Look at the temporal miracles which He performed; how could He not be the Creator? See His arrest and His trial, carried out in exactly the way that Isaiah said that it would be.
Isaiah 53:7 – “He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth…. He made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.” See the way that the Lord Jesus fulfilled the prophecies which were made about the coming Christ. But don’t just look with your eyes or your mind – look with your heart and with your soul. You must look in faith; you must see and believe that when Jesus died on the cross, the sacrifice that he was making was for you – for your sins and for your redemption. “Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes ye were healed.”
As verse 24 says, only in the Lord, can people who are sinners – us – have righteousness. In ourselves righteousness is impossible, because we cannot undo who and what we are by nature. “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.” It’s a rhetorical question for which an answer is unnecessary – it is impossible. There is only one way that we can be righteous – by the gift of God – by the imputation of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus – our sacrifice. Only in the Lord, as verse 25 says, can the seed of Israel, or the sons of Japheth, or Canadians, Americans, Koreans or Mexicans ever be justified.
So with verse 23 we have the origin of Paul’s quotations in Romans and Philippians. In the context where we find this verse the Lord is saying that there is no Saviour but Me. And if that Ethiopian, Egyptian, Canadian or Coloradan will, in repentance bow before Me, and in faith humbly confess Me to be his Lord and Saviour – his Lord and Saviour I am. “Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”
Isaiah is talking about salvation through Christ. Romans is talking about judgment through Christ. And Philippians is simply saying that all creation is going to eventually acknowledge Jesus Christ as Lord. But each of them individually and all of them together uplift the Lord Jesus and declare His ultimate glory.
And that is our primary purpose as creatures from the hand of God. You are going bring glory to the Lord, either through your judgment or your willing and joyful praise of Him. Which will it be for you? Please, repent of your sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.