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Martin Memorial Seventh-day Adventist Church

Norman McNulty

The Vindication of God

Father in heaven, we thank you for bringing us here to worship you today, and I pray that we would listen to the moving of the Holy Spirit and that you would speak through me so that what I say would be in accordance with your will.

So be with us now and speak through me now, I pray in Jesus' name, Amen.

The title for the message today is The Vindication of God.

You know the word vindication means to be proven right.

In a court of law, sometimes a defendant is found not guilty, but that does not necessarily prove their innocence or prove them to be right, it simply may mean that the evidence was not enough for the jury to find the defendant guilty.

But when it comes to the vindication of God In the scope of the great controversy, this is not simply God being set off, or let off the hook like, well I guess you were right God, but we're not sure.

No, God is setting forth in the plan of redemption and the plan of salvation and in the work that he is doing on this earth, He has set forth a plan so that we, as well as on looking universes, or worlds I should say, can be convinced of God's fairness and God's justice and God's mercy and of God's love and of everything that God does.

And so in our scripture reading Romans 3, verses 3 and 4, and we'll pick it up in verse 1 actually.

Paul sets forth this idea that he actually picks up from Psalms and we're going to build on that as we get into the message for today.

In Romans 3 starting in verse 1, and this is built on the idea after Romans 1 and Romans 2 where Paul shows that whether you are a believer, a Jew or a Christian or you are a heathen, no matter what your upbringing you have all sinned and you are all facing God's condemnation.

So then he asked the question, what advantage then hath the Jew?

Or what advantage then has the chosen people of God?

In other words, if we are all facing condemnation for falling short of God's glory, some might ask, aren't we at a disadvantage for knowing more because we're all bent towards sinning and therefore we're probably gonna end up in a worse place because we know so much, but then he says, no, hang on.

And he says, much every way chiefly because under them were committed the oracles of God." Well might the verse read today, what advantage then hath the remnant church?

Much every way chiefly, because unto us have been committed the oracles of God." Now, then he goes on to say, "...for what if some did not believe?

Shall their unbelief make the faith of God without effect?" In other words, just because you don't believe what the Bible says, and just because you know somebody else who says, I'm just not convinced about God.

I've heard what you said, I see what the Bible says, but that's not enough for me.

What Paul is saying, it doesn't matter what any finite human being says about God.

If you choose to not believe, That does not make the faith of God without effect.

And then he goes on to say, God forbid, yea, let God be true, but every man a liar, as it is written, and now he's speaking to God, that you might be justified in your sayings and might overcome when you are judged.

So no matter what anybody else says, doesn't matter if it's your pastor or your friend or your parent or whoever it may be, no matter what they say about God, no matter what they say about the Word of God, at the end of the day, compared to God, let God be true but every man be a liar.

Because a day is coming when God will be justified or proven right in what he has said in his word.

And he will be clear when he offers judgment.

Now, Paul is getting this idea from Psalm 51, and if you see what David is saying in Psalm 51, what Paul is saying here in Romans 3 starts to make a little bit more sense.

Psalm 51, now this is a famous chapter because this is the chapter that David wrote after he sinned with Bathsheba.

After Nathan came and said to him, you are the man, and then David pronounced his own judgment upon himself, let him repay fourfold, which he did with the loss of 4 sons." Notice what he says in this chapter, 17.

Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Thy lovingkindness, according unto the multitude of thy tender mercies, blood out my transgressions.

Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin.

For I acknowledge my transgressions, and my sin as ever before me." Now this is a good confession, he's saying, please cleanse me God, please forgive me.

But now notice what he says next in verse 4, "...against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight." Now this is where we see the connection to Romans 3, that you might be justified when you speak and be clear when you judge.

And I know God that you are a God of mercy and I know that you are going to speak and say that I have been forgiven but God here's the thing, I care so much about the honor of your name, I understand that you are putting the honor of your name on the line by saying that I have been forgiven for this evil sin.

And so when we hear that David is a man after God's own heart, Notice Ellen White says in Patriarchs and Prophets that David was not a man after God's own heart while he was sinning with Bathsheba and murdering her husband.

That was not when he was a man after God's own heart.

And people use that to say David was a man after God's own heart, therefore I can do whatever wicked sin that I want and I'll still be a man after God's own heart." No, that's not what that's saying.

We see David being a man after God's own heart when he says, God, I really, really sinned in about the worst way imaginably possible.

And you are forgiving me because of your mercy.

But I understand that when you forgive me, you are putting your name on the line.

And when you speak, you need to be clear in what you are saying by saying, David is a forgiven man.

David's saying that you might be justified or proven right when you speak, and you will be clear when you judge.

And so David doesn't simply say, please forgive me.

He also says, wash me throughly or thoroughly from my sin and cleanse me from my sin for I acknowledge my transgression.

In other words, God, in order for you to be proven right in what you say, I not only need your forgiveness, I understand that my heart needs to be changed so that I will never do such a wicked thing again because I understand that you have set your name on the line by clearing me." Because think about it this way.

The onlooking universe looks at David and they see this awful thing that he has done.

The angels see this horrible thing that he has done, and the angels have friends that were kicked out of heaven, and then they're saying, you're going to let that guy come in here?

And David understands that God can say, on the basis of the fact that by my blood, I shed the blood of the Son of God, and David accepted that sacrifice and offered a confession, And not only that, his heart was changed.

And on that basis, I have forgiven him, because his heart was broken.

God was not vindicated by David's unfaithfulness.

God was not proven to be right when David sinned with Bathsheba.

However, when David confessed his sin in such a manner and opened his heart to God and says that you might be justified when you speak and that you might be clear when you judge, that is when God's name was brought back into honor by David's confession.

And sometimes I think we've lost that understanding when it comes to the plan of salvation.

So many times I hear of people who presume upon God's grace while they continue to sin with that grace that has been given to them.

And David understood that if he were to continue to sin in such a way after God had gone so far and come down so low to offer forgiveness and salvation to each 1 of us, to go back to that would be to dishonor God's name.

And you know, I see something that's happened in the church, and maybe I've said this here before, but I'll say it again because it's worth repeating.

How many times have you heard somebody ask the question, Is this a salvational issue?

And when have you ever heard that question asked where the intent behind that question was to uphold the honor and glory of God's name?

No, if we're honest with ourselves, the reason why we ask that question is because our carnal heart is looking for an excuse to lower the standard that God has set in Scripture and so the motivation behind that question shows a carnality to our thinking.

Now there might be some times and places where that is an appropriate question, so I'm not saying that there's never a time.

I've seen some extremism that is rightfully dealt with with that kind of a question.

But by and large, when that question is asked in the church, it's not to uphold a high standard.

And when the standard gets lowered, we end up seeing things come into the church that we never would have thought of would have been found in God's last day church.

You know, thinking of this concept of God's vindication or God being proven right against the charges of Satan, 1 of the most obvious examples in Scripture is the book of Job and I've spent some time in this book recently, studying this book.

And in Job 1, verse 8, after Satan comes wandering to and fro in the earth, in verse 8, God says to Satan, the Lord said to Satan, Have you considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, 1 that fears God and askeweth evil." You know, Job was a thorn in the side of Satan, Because Satan went around saying, you know, God's law can't be kept, God's law is unfair, we were perfect angels in a perfect environment and even we couldn't keep that law and then God arbitrarily kicked us out because we were asking questions he didn't want to be asked.

So he just kicked us out to get rid of our problem.

And so then God could say, have you considered my servant Job?

And Satan says, You know, Job is faithful to you because everything's great for him.

He has a lot of money, he has a lot of possessions, he has children, he has a wife, everything's going right for him.

But I guarantee you God, that if you take that away from him, he will curse you to your face.

And there's some things about this story that some of the finer detail perhaps, I have a few questions about that God will clear up when we get to the kingdom.

It doesn't in any way make me doubt God's sovereignty or His goodness.

And I dare say that there have been more than a few people in the church who have gone through such a terrible ordeal who have lost their hold on God because of such a thing.

And mind you, I can't imagine anything worse as a parent than what happened to Job here.

You know, he lost all of his possessions, and the cattle were stolen, and the flocks, and whatever.

But for his children to be taken away, That's a horrible ordeal to be placed through.

And if that weren't enough, he remains faithful and then Satan comes back to God and says, oh, skin for skin, if you let me touch his health, then he'll curse you.

So it wasn't enough for Satan to say, oh, well, I took all of his children away, I guess you're right, God.

And so he gets this horrible affliction of boils, and we know the story, I'm summarizing it largely.

I mean it becomes so bad that Job's wife says, curse God and die.

And it wasn't Job's wife that God spoke of when he said, have you considered my servant Job?

If you read through the story, it says that Job sinned not with his lips.

I mean, he was a model of faithfulness even though he didn't understand what was happening.

He didn't know that there was a great controversy between Christ and Satan, where Satan and Christ were debating Job's faithfulness and everything that was happening to him was because of that debate, he didn't know any of that.

And as his friends who don't understand what's happening try to speak on God's behalf, and it was so bad that at the end God said, My anger and wrath is kindled against you and Job had to offer a sacrifice so that God's wrath wouldn't be poured out on them.

During the midst of these unfaithful friends who are presuming to speak in God's name against him, he could say, when he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

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The Vindication of God

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