Go with me, if you would, back
to the book of Job. We know Job's story, his misery,
his trial. A couple of weeks ago, we looked
at chapter 1 and the Lord's dealings with him. And in Job chapter 7, The heading
at the top of my page for Job chapter 7 says, Job excuseth
his desire of death. He desired to die. He is experiencing such loathing
of his flesh and loathing of what he is. He just wishes he
could die. If you look at chapter 7 verse
4, He said, when I lay down, I say, when shall I arise and
the night be gone? I am full of tossings to and
fro until the dawning of the day. My flesh is clothed with
worms and clods of dust. My skin is broken and become
loathsome. My days are swifter than a weaver's
shuttle. and are spent without hope."
My days are spent without hope. Can we enter into the fact that
we have hope? That's what gets us through.
That's what gets us through another day. And he said, my days are
spent without hope. In verse 13, he said, when I
say, my bed shall comfort me, my couch shall ease my complaints,
then thou scarest me with dreams and terrifies me through visions,
so that my soul chooseth strangling and death rather than my life."
He said, I don't want to be here anymore. I don't want to be here. And what brings him his greatest
misery, he said in verse 20, I have sinned. I'm a sinner. I'm a sinner. All of this misery
on the outside is just evidencing the misery on the inside. I'm
a loathsome sinner. That is the cry of every soul
that God deals with. That is the cry of every soul
that God deals with. That is the cry of every soul
that God deals with. I'm a miserable, worthless sinner. I'm such a sinner. I am just
such a sinner. Well, in chapter 8, his friends, Job had his friends who don't
know what they're talking about. They do not know what they're
talking about. They're just telling Job the lie of religion. They
said, Job, if you stop being a sinner, all this will go away. That's what they said. You want
all this to go away? Just stop sinning. Verse 1 in chapter 8, Then answered
Bildad the Shuhite, and said, How long wilt thou speak these
things, and how long shall the words of thy mouth be like a
strong wind? Doth God pervert judgment, or
doth the Almighty pervert justice? If thy children have sinned against
him, and he hath cast them away for their transgression, If thou
wouldst seek unto God betimes, and make thy supplication to
the Almighty, if thou wert pure and upright, surely now He would
awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness
prosperous." If you do good, Job, God will bless you. But now, if you sin, Job, God
will curse you. God will get you. Isn't that
what men say and what they believe? Job, God helps those who help
themselves. He did not come to help the ungodly,
Job. He came to call the righteous
to Himself. Now, is Bildad a true preacher
or a false preacher? He's a false preacher. He's lying
to Joe. Who did Christ come to save?
We're about to find out. I was going to wait and I thought,
no, I'll go ahead and tell everybody. He came to save sinners. He came
to save sinners. When did He save those sinners? When they were ungodly. That's
when Christ died for them. After Bildad tried to brainwash
Job by telling him that God's dealings with him were a direct
result of his dealings with God. That's what he's telling him.
God's dealings with you are a direct result of your dealings with
God. If that was the case, we'd all be dead already. It's up to your will, Job. That's
what Bildad is telling him. It's all gonna come down to how
you run the course of this life. It's of him that willeth. It's
of him that runneth. That is just not the truth. That's
just not the truth. That's what is being preached
right now in so many places. And it's just not the truth. But after those lies, he warned
Job of this true statement. If you look at the end of verse
22, he said, The dwelling place of the wicked shall come to naught. God will by no means clear the
guilty. Now Job is about to answer him,
and Job is going to ask the question of all questions. He is about
to ask the question of all questions. This is the question of all questions. Chapter 9, verse 1. Then Job
answered and said, I know it is so of a truth. I know God will by no means clear
the guilty. I know the dwelling place of
the wicked shall come to naught. But if that's the case, He went
on to say in verse 2, How should man be just with God? The question of all questions.
How should man be just with God? If a man's salvation is dependent
on his own goodness and his own sinlessness, then how on this earth will a
man ever be able to be just with God? This is a question that's repeated
all through the book of Job. If you look at chapter 15, Job chapter 15, a man named Eliphaz
or Eliphaz, He's now asking the same question.
Job 15 verse 14, he asked, What is man that he should be clean? Or he which is born of a woman
that he should be righteous? How is this possible? How is
this possible? How can a man who is born of
a woman Be clean and righteous before God. How can a man be
just with God? Justified before God. Look with
me at chapter 25. Job 25. Bildad is now asking
the question. The Lord is revealing some things
to him. He said in verse 4, How then
can man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is
born of a woman? Man thinks he has God all figured
out. And he thinks he has God's salvation
all figured out. Until God reveals two things
to him. God's holiness and man's sinfulness. As soon as God reveals that,
man is so blind to those two things. God's holiness and man's
sinfulness. Man believes he's on par with
God. But as soon as God reveals that,
every man or woman he reveals it to cries. How on this earth am I going
to be just with God? How can I be just before the
Almighty God? Now, what does it mean to be
justified before God? To be justified is to be without
blame, without guilt, without sin. It's to be unblameable in His
sight. That means when God looks at
you, He cannot blame you on anything. I mean completely unblameable
in His sight. Look with me at Romans chapter
5. Romans chapter 5 verse 1 says,
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. To be just with God, to be justified
before God is to have perfect peace with Him. Perfect peace. Total peace with God. Look at
verse 9. much more than being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if
when we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by His life."
To be justified with God is to be reconciled with God. It's to have perfect union with
Him. Peace and union. Peace and union. Look at Romans
chapter 8. Verse 30 says, Moreover, whom
He did predestinate, them He also called, and whom He called,
them He also justified. and whom He justified, them He
also glorified. To be justified with God is to
have eternal life and glory with Him. Verse 33 says, Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. To be justified with God is to
have no charges. None. No charges will ever be
able to be brought up ever again. The accuser of the brethren will
have nothing to accuse. Chargeless. That's what it means
to be justified. But let me show you something
in Psalm 143. Psalm 143 verse 1 says, Hear my prayer, O Lord, give
ear to my supplications. In thy faithfulness, answer me,
and in thy righteousness. And enter not into judgment with
thy servant, for in thy sight shall no man living be justified. To be justified with God is to
have all those wonderful things. But David said, in thy sight
shall no man living be justified. Why is that? God's holiness and
man's sinfulness. Our brother read down through
all of Job chapter 9. And Job said, if I try to justify
myself, I'll just condemn myself. He was saying, oh, I want to
be justified. But the last thing he said is,
it's not so with me. It's not so with me. In thy sight shall no man living
be justified. If only one word could be used
to describe the Almighty God, it would have to be holy. It would have to be Holy. Isaiah said, in the year that
King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne,
high and lifted up, and his train filled the temple. Above it stood
the seraphims. Each one had six wings. With
twain he covered his face, and with twain he covered his feet,
and with twain he did fly. And one cried to another and
said, holy, Holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of his glory. The post of the door moved at
the voice of him that cried, and the house was filled with
smoke. Then said I, woe is me. He saw God's holiness, and he
saw man's sinfulness. He said, I am undone. Because
I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips, for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord
of hosts." Holy, holy, holy. When Isaiah saw the Lord, that's
what he saw. He saw his holiness. David said
the same thing in Psalm 99. He said, the Lord our God is. Habakkuk cried, The Lord is in
His holy temple. Let all the earth keep silence
before Him. Let all the earth fear this holy
God. Don't come near this holy God
in sinful flesh. Do not try to reach out and touch
God's holiness with sinful hands. We'll never be justified in doing
it. Do you know the story of Uzzah? Have you ever heard of
a man named Uzzah? David was bringing the holy ark
of the covenant back to Jerusalem. And he set the ark on a cart,
and it was being pulled by some oxen. And a man named Uzzah was
driving the oxen. And the scripture says, when
they came unto the threshing floor of Chidon, Uzzah put forth
his hand to hold the ark, for the oxen stumbled. Now here is
a man doing the bidding that King David told him to do, driving
the oxen that are carrying the holy ark of God back to Jerusalem. and the oxen come to a place
and stumble and he put his hand on the ark to steady it and God
killed him. Now why would God do that? Here
this man is working in the service of the Lord. Why would God kill a man for
doing that? Here's the answer. God's holiness
in man's sinfulness. God is so holy He will not and
He cannot allow sinful flesh to touch His holiness. He cannot
do it. Man cannot mix his sinful deeds
with God's holiness. He'll die in his sins. Every
time he will die in his sins. This is why Job said, How can
man be just with God? How can man be just with God?
I'll repeat what I said a moment ago. Man thinks he has God figured
out. Well, what we're going to do
is we're going to carry the ark back to Jerusalem. We're going
to get all the rituals right. We're going to get everything
in order. We're going to Man thinks he has God's salvation
figured out, but then God reveals his holiness and man's sinfulness. And every time he'll cry, how,
how, how can I be just before him? When every imagination of
the thought of my mind and my heart is only evil continually. Let's bring this close to home.
inside each one of us. How can I be just with God when
every imagination of the thought of my mind and my heart is only
evil continually? How can I be just with God? If
you could only see what was in my mind and in my heart, how
on this earth could I be just with God? When every work that I've ever
tried to do for God has turned out to be absolute filthiness
before him. It's all filthiness before him.
When there truly is none good and none righteous. When the scriptures actually
declare that I am spiritually a dead man walking through this
life. How can I be justified before
God? Here's how. This is the only
hope a sinner has. We have already stated, it is
God that justifieth. We just read in Romans 5, by
His blood, by faith. Let's read what Romans 3 has
to say about it. Go with me over to Romans chapter
3. Romans 3 verse 20. Therefore, by the deeds
of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For
by the law is the knowledge of sin. This is the greatest news
I could ever tell sinners who are trying as hard as they
can to live according to this law. trying to justify themselves
before God, knowing in their heart that they're not doing
it. Some people know they're not doing it. And they are scared
to death to stand before this holy God because they see what
He requires and they know they're not doing it. And they've tried
to hide it to everybody and pretend and put on a good show, but they
know they're not doing it. This is the greatest news that
sinner could ever hear. It is not by the deeds of the
law that a person is justified before God. Galatians 3 says all the law
can do is curse a man or a woman. Verse 21 right here says, but
now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets. Even the righteousness
of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon
all them that believe, for there's no difference. For all have sinned
and come short of the glory of God. God sent His Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, into this world to do for His people what they
could not do for themselves. We could not stand just before
God. So Christ came and Christ stood
just before God. We could not justify ourselves
through our deeds. So Christ came and justified
us through His deeds. Verse 24 says, Being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. How can a sinful man be just
with God? Through the perfect life and
perfect death of the Lord Jesus Christ. Verse 25 says, Whom God
hath set forth to be a propitiation, a substitute, a bloody substitute,
through faith in His blood, to declare His righteousness for
the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God, to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness,
that He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. This is the only way a man or
a woman can stand just before God. By believing on and looking
to and claiming for our own the perfect life that the Lord Jesus
Christ lived. By looking to Believing on and
claiming for our own. The perfect life of Christ. Him becoming my substitute. Him trading places with me. When
I look at what God requires, and then I look at the life I've
lived, all I see is failure. Failure. I can't even justify
myself. How can I expect God to justify
me? But when I look at what God's
law requires, and then I look at the life that Christ lived,
all I see is success, perfection. And that's all God sees too,
perfection. When I look at my sin, I cannot
see one possible way that I could stand in perfect peace with God. free from all charges, unblameable,
without guilt, totally reconciled. But when I look at Christ's death,
I don't see one possible way that I could not stand in perfect
peace with God. When I see the blood He emptied
from His body to put away that sin, put away that guilt, put
away my blame, I don't see one possible way I cannot stand reconciled. In perfect union with Him, free
of all charges. In His life, in His glory. How
can man be justified with God? In the person, in the work, in
the life, in the death, in the blood of Jesus Christ. Did you
know it takes God's gift of faith to cause somebody to believe
that? You tell that to men and women and they will not believe
it. That is impossible to believe. How is a sinner justified before
God? Totally by the work of Christ
doing alone. I don't believe that. You give
me a list. Isn't that what Naaman said?
You give me a list to do and I'll check off that list and
that's how we'll do it. In Christ, righteousness and
peace have kissed each other. In Christ, God is just and man
is justified. In Christ, God has punished all
the sin that's on the record of his people, all of it. And
in Christ, the record of his people is wiped clean. It is
wiped clean. This is how you'll know who his
people are. This is how you'll know the justified. They will
believe and they will obey the word of their Lord. What did
he say? What is the word of the Lord
to his people? We'll close with this. Go over
to Isaiah 45. Isaiah 45 verse 21 says, Tell ye, and bring them near,
yea, let them take counsel together, who hath declared this from ancient
time, who hath told it from that time. Have not I the Lord, and
there is no God else beside me, a just God and a Saviour? There is none beside me. Look unto me, and be ye saved. All the ends of the earth, for
I am God, and there is none else. That is a just man and a just
woman. That's how a man stands just
with God, by looking to the Lord Jesus Christ. totally looking
to and hoping in Him. He said, you look unto Me and
be saved. Look unto Me and be ye saved. He is a just God and He's a Savior. All right, let's all stand together.