Y'all hungry? Well, I've just got a 31-point
message for this morning. I'm really tempted, and this
is no kidding, after what our brother said last night and this
morning. I'm really tempted to say what he said. Let's see. Job chapter 9. the familiar portion
of Scripture. Then Job answered and said, I
know it is so of a truth. But how should a man be just
with God? How should a man be just with
God? Gary preached the whole Bible this morning. And I was
tempted to turn over to that section where you learn how to
pronounce the different letters and just read that to you. Because what I'm going to say
he's already said. But you know, it's like a a dog-eared
book, something worth saying is worth repeating over and over
again. And basically that is what we
are. As ministers of the gospel, we stand up and just say the
same thing over and over and over again. The marvel of it
is that we have no talent to do it, and yet the people of
God just seem to feed on it over and over and over again. How
should a man? How should a man? be just with
God. This question has been called
the question of all questions. The question of all questions.
And taken by itself, it addresses the most profound truth that
you can imagine. The very words have an ominous
ring to them, don't they? How should a man be just? with God. And they have that
ominous ring because they suggest that the answer does not exist
in the realm of human ability to discern it. These words are not spoken as
a general question here. They do not pop up in a vacuum.
They are not found in the frequently asked questions chapter of Theology
for Dummies. This question is not asked for
the purpose of acquiring information. This question is an answer to
some statements made by a man called Bildad the Shuhite. And he was one of those forgers
of lies and physicians of no value who came to Job in the
days of his great suffering to explain to poor old Job why he
was in such a terrible fix. Him and two other of his cohorts
were religious men who had no more than a passing knowledge
of Job, but seemed to have a little bit of a passing knowledge of
Scripture. If you take all they said and
sum it up into a synopsis of their thinking, they told Job
basically two things. They said a whole lot of things,
but they told him basically two things. They told him that he
was suffering because he had done some specific sin, because
God would not allow suffering to come upon a righteous man. That's the first thing they told
him. Secondly, they told him that if he would straighten up
and fly right, God would turn His suffering into joy. Let me show you that. Look back
at verse 8 just for a moment. Look at verses 3 through 6. Here's
what. Bildad the Shuhite said to Job
as he sat there, scraping his balls with potsherds as he sat
in ashes, in horrible agonies and pain, having lost everything
he had. The only thing left he had was
a wife, which he probably wished he had lost with the rest of
the bunch, because she said, Why don't you just curse God
and die? And he looks at this poor, wretched man, whom God
said is a righteous man and is to his evil, and loves me and
worships me for nothing except because I'm God, and I'm worthy
of worship." He looks at this man and says, you're in this
condition. Do you think it's an accident
that you're here? Does God pervert judgment, or
does the Almighty pervert justice? If thy children have sinned against
him, he has cast them away for their transgression. If thou
wouldst seek unto God betimes, and make thy application to the
Almighty, if thou wert pure and upright, surely now he would
awake for thee, and make the habitation of thy righteousness
prosperous." Look at verse 20. It says, But behold, God will
not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evildoers.
till he filleth his mouth with laughing, and thy lips with rejoicing. They that hate thee shall be
clothed with shame, and the dwelling place of the wicked shall come
to naught." He said, if you will just straighten up and realize,
you know, and list your sins. Make a list of them so you can
find out which one it is that has brought all this trouble
upon you. That kind of thinking forms the
mantra of self-righteous religion and reveals that natural man
know nothing of God and nothing of the righteousness that he
accepts. And there is only one that he
does. It is the one that he has accepted. The disciples, they stepped into
the same quicksand and there is a part of every man that looks
at suffering Somewhere inside wonders if the sufferer has done
some terrible thing. Just go ahead and admit it if
you think it did. You wonder it. It's a shame, it's embarrassing
to admit it, but it's just a fact. It's just a fact of life. We wonder if a person suffers
horribly, you know, well, maybe they did something wrong. That's what's religion. This
works religion and all this, but the disciples did that when
they came to that blind man that had been blind from his birth
in John chapter 9. They asked our Lord, well, who
sinned? Did his mama and daddy sin or
did he sin to make him blind? What are they saying? If this
fellow hadn't sinned, he wouldn't have been blind. If his mama
and daddy hadn't sinned, he wouldn't have been blind. Our Lord said
it isn't because of mama's sin or his sin. I don't have anything
to do with it. He's blind because I made him blind because I'm
going to reveal my glory in him. I'm going to save him. But we think like that. As angry
as we might be at Job's false friends, we ought to always seek
to be angry and take revenge against our own self-righteousness
in these things. We are not personally righteous. And we should not be in the business
of using the scripture as the proverbial blunt instrument to
bludgeon those who we have decided, by some warped perception of
our own, have done some horrible thing. The fact is, if you are
a child of God, you are going to suffer in this world. And
that is not the exception, that is the root. So enjoy those happy
days. They will be few. and far between. Our Lord says you will have everything
you need. You'll have houses and moms and
dads and brothers and sisters. I have tons of them here. Been
my moms and dads and brothers and sisters for 30 years. Have
tons. But you'll have it with a dose,
a generous dose of tribulation in this world. That's what He
said. That's how it comes. That's how it comes. In our text,
Job answers his accuser's religious formula for self-salvation and
deliverance with what I think might be called a rhetorical
question. That's a question that requires
no answer, because the answer is in the question. The answer
is in the question itself. This question is a statement,
and the statement is this. He said to these fellows, You're
right. He says, You're right. You're
right. God will not punish a pure man. God will not punish a righteous
man. He won't do it. He won't do it.
But here's the problem. You're saying to me, if I was
righteous, He wouldn't punish me. You're saying to me, if I
straightened out my life, my life would get better. And here's
what I say to that. How? How? How can a man, how should
a man be just before God? Be just before God? He's saying,
what you say that I must do, what you're saying that I need
to do, no man can do. The emphasis is on the word how,
not the word man. which simply means man cannot
undo his estate in any fashion. You can't change from the flesh
to the spirit. Now, you're mutable and you change
all the time. You change as the weather changes,
and I do too. There's only one person in the
whole universe, in the world, that never changes. That's God. So, whatever he's done, that'll
stick. And whatever you've done won't.
We cannot change what we are. Look over chapter 14 and verse
4. Listen to what this says. Who
can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one. You say, oh, but God can. No,
God can't. He makes something new. It's
a new creation. He don't take what you've got
and clean it up. What you've got ain't never going to get
cleaned up. What you've got and what you were born with, as you
were born in this world, that will never get better. It will
never improve. It's not on an ascending scale,
it's on a declining scale. I used to be young and vital
and robust and redheaded. The color is gone. The vitality
is gone. I'm not robust anymore. And if
I live longer, I'll be less and less. This is a declining scale,
folks. I'm not getting any better, nor
are you. Neither are you. You can't change. Can the leopard
change his spots? Can the Ethiopian change the
color of his skin? Then how can you who are accustomed
to doing evil do good? to put forth some kind of argument
concerning man's marriage is utter futility. Utter futility. Look at verse 3 of our text.
He says, If I will contend with God, or if man will contend with God
concerning this matter of righteousness, and Job tried it, don't get me
wrong, if you read the book of Job, Job did get a little into
a place where he said, well, you know, why has this happened
to me? That's why we all do that. You know, say, I wouldn't do
that. I'm a Christian. Hang around. Let's wait a while. You're going to say it. We all
are going to say it. It's embarrassing, I know, but
it's true. It's true. Job said, if I were to contend
with God, if I were able to bring forth something, after all He
said of me, I was a good man and this Jew was evil. God said
that of me. If I were able to bring forth some sort of argument
that maybe I didn't deserve all this stuff that's coming my way.
If I brought forth one thing, He could tell me a thousand reasons
for the fix I'm in, if I wanted to justify myself before Him. If He will contend with him,
He cannot answer him one for a thousand. If man can come up
with one good thing about himself, God could answer a thousand vile
things about him. You do the math. No contest. No one has ever contended
with God and had a favorable result. Did you know that? You
can't win. You can't win. Verse 4 says,
He is wise in heart, and mighty in strength, who hath hardened
himself against him, and hath prospered. Never works. In the matter of acceptance, righteousness, Man has nothing to offer, no
ground upon which to stand, no checking account from which to
draw. It is far better that a man just admit it and confess the
truth. Man cannot be just before God. He cannot be just before God. Not in himself, no matter what
he does. Left to himself with the equipment
he is born with and the ersatz expertise he thinks he has experimentally
attained, man cannot move one iota closer to acceptance with
God, no matter what he does. The practitioners of religion
will bring forth their valueless argument for personal merit.
They say it will earn recognition and blessing of God, but it doesn't. That is the promise of religion.
If you do this, if you act this way, if you be this way, God
will bless you. It is a promise of religion. It is a lie. It
is of no value. But the promise seems to work
on most folks. But what they are, they are like,
they remind me of Snoopy sitting on his doghouse, looking down
at that little bird. Woodstock, was that the name
of the bird? You remember how he hung his head over and looked
like a vulture? That's what these guys remind me of, these religionists. I've met with them at hospitals
and heard them sit by the bedside of sick folks and say, you know,
if you was living right, this wouldn't be happening to you. You know, your mom is sick. If
you'd straighten up, your mom would probably get better. I've
heard them say that. They're buzzards. They're buzzards
at the bedside of suffering, accusing the afflicted of some
heinous crime, being the source of their malady. They are purveyors of poison,
who reek of the putrescence of presumed piety. They are forgers
of lies. They don't just lie. They're
good at it. They've kind of got a mill where
they come up with this stuff. It's called theological seminary. How should a man, a man, be just
with God? If we would pause for a moment
and consider ourselves, we will come to the same conclusion as
Job did. I cannot be just with God. I am of all men most miserable. I am nothing and I have nothing
and can produce nothing that will alter my helpless estate
whatsoever. Job 25, just for a moment. Verse 4, How then can man be
justified with God? For how can he be clean that
is born of a woman? Behold, even to the moon it shineth
not, yea, stars are not pure in God's sight. How much less
man that is a worm, and the son of man that is a worm. Isaiah said, All our righteousnesses
are as filthy rags, and not to be crude. But the Bible is a
lot cruder than we are. It is. Because it tells the truth,
and we kind of hide it. We've got a whole lot of purity
in us. But we don't want to talk about
that. He is saying these are minstrelss rags. All my righteousnesses
are minstrels. Now there is a reason why he
would use that analogy because when a woman was in her cycle,
she was cast out of the camp. So my righteousnesses deserve
to be cast out. And she had to be atoned for
before she could come back into the camp. So he is saying my
righteousnesses have to be atoned for. My righteousnesses have
to be atoned for. And while she was outside of
the camp, She was under a curse. My righteousnesses are a curse. They're accursed. They're accursed. This is what we are. We are religiously
born human beings endeavoring to offer our cursedness, that
which causes us to be cast away, that which must be atoned for.
We're offering that to God. and saying, accept us on that
basis. But what if this weren't just
a declaration, this question? What if it was really a question? What if we could approach it
as such? Is there an answer to this? Because I really want to
know. Because I know in me, that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good
thing. I know that I cannot. I cannot
keep the law except in one way, and that's to die, and that's
the only way you keep it, too. It really is. The only way you keep
it is to die, because that's what its requirement of you is.
Die, because you're a sinner. How come we're a sinner? What
he said in Adam, all die. All die. But I would really like
to ask this question and see if I can get from the Scriptures
an answer, because it would do my heart good this morning. And
I believe if you are a sinner in need of Christ, it will do
your heart good this morning to know how man can be just with
God. Because we know Job has already
said, I can't do it. I can't do it. How should a man
be just with God? If this question can be answered
in the affirmative, that a man can be justified before God,
I reckon that would be good news, wouldn't it? That would be glad
tidings of good things, I believe. The question, how can a man be
just with God, or how should a man be just with God, suggests
that there is a problem between man and God. If man needs to
be justified before God, If man needs to be just before God,
before he is accepted by God, then there seems to be a problem
between man and God. Would you say that is a reasonable
assumption? Things are not as rosy as religion
has painted them. Religion said God loves you and
has a wonderful plan for your life. Well, God may hate you
but still has a plan for your life. And it may not be a favorable
plan to you. Christ died for everybody, men
say. It's not true. It's just a lie.
Not almost true. It's not somewhat true. It's
not a little bit true. It's all the way a lie. Christ
died for His elect, His people, His sheep, His church, His bride. That's who He died for. But religion
tells you that, and you get kind of a warm, fuzzy feeling about
it. Christ died for all your sins.
He's already paid your sin debt. Well, even if you don't believe
it, it still feels good. And I know something about love.
My wife's here this morning. We've been in love for 37 years.
Actually, I've been in love with her longer than that, but it
took me eight years to convince her that she loved me. I know something about love when
people say, God loves you. I spent years under that false
notion. And listen, there was a sense
of confidence I gained from that that somehow everything was going
to be okay. And right before I died, I'd
say, I believe old Jesus and everything's going to be okay.
But the sense that I was loved and was told I was loved and
was smothered by this love of God, I felt I was okay. It gives
you a sense of comfort. But this question doesn't seem
to line itself up with that kind of thinking. Preachers stand
in pulpits today, and they don't use the Bible to preach Christ
and Him crucified. They use it as a self-help book. That's what they use it for.
You'll just follow these instructions and follow this here. You'll
have a better life. You'll have riches. You won't get sick. You'll
have a Lexus. You'll have everything you wanted.
If you just follow these instructions. But the Bible, this question
that Job asked seems to really kind of throw that whole thing
out of the mix, doesn't it? Because he said, how can a man
be justified before God? And that's the issue. That's
where it all, that's where the rubber hits the road. I find
in this book that God is not for man at all. He's not for man. If He were for man, He wouldn't
remake men and make them anew. The way man is born in this world,
God's not for him. He's not for him. He's not after
all waiting with bated breath to do something nice for somebody.
You reckon if He wants to do something nice for you, He can't
do it? I can do that. And I'm just a man. You reckon He's waiting for you
to show Him how you live so He can accept you on that basis?
Knowing what I am, there is no reason naturally to presume that
God is not angry with me. There is no reason naturally
to presume that God is not angry with me. Now, I know from the
Word of God, at least it's what I think I know from the Word
of God. I have friends who say, I don't know this, but I'm pretty
sure I know this, that Christ was my surety before
the foundation of the world. That God chose me before the
foundation of the world. that before man was on this earth
and sinned, God had already chosen a people out of that fallen race,
and Christ had been made their surety, and Christ had died for
them in the purpose and will of God. He is called the Lamb
slain from the foundation of the world or prior to the conception
of the world, and that's just so. That's just so. So I know this, that God's elect,
whoever they are, came into this world not owing God a payment for sin,
because their name was not on the paper. Christ had signed
His name And from all eternity, God Almighty looked to His Son
for the payment of their sin and never looked to them. However,
as they were born in this world, vile and undone and unclean,
they had no reason to believe that God is not angry with them.
Because they are sinners, and God is angry with the wicked
every day. It is not until they hear the gospel set forth the
pure gospel of God's free and sovereign grace in Jesus Christ.
It's not until they hear that that they have a reason to believe
that God was never angry with them. But if you're not a believer
today, don't you look to election. Say, well, I might be one of
the elect. You don't have a reason to believe that. How do you know you're
elect? I believe the gospel. That's
the only way. Do you feel elect? Do you have
a tattoo somewhere on you that says you are? How do you know? You believe. So man, as he is
born into this world, has every reason to believe that God is
really mad at him. Because the question arises that
a man needs to be justified with God. That means he is unjust
before God. Nothing in me. I can do nothing,
think nothing, and am nothing that is not worthy of eternal
damnation and separation from God. Nothing. If he would be just, I must be punished for my sin.
I cannot escape punishment. God would be unjust if he let
the guilty go free. It would be unjust to do that. Look at Proverbs 17, 15, just
for a moment. Here is the principle. He that justifieth the wicked,
verse 15 of Proverbs 17, he that justifieth the wicked, and he
that condemneth the just, even they both are an abomination
to the Lord. So if you are saved today, it
is not because He justified the wicked. It is not. Because that means he hates himself. That word abomination comes from
the word from the natural gas that people produce. That's where
that word comes from. It stinks. That's the origin of the word.
When God said that, that's bad. He viewed the whole world as
stinking. That's what abomination means. Violence. There you are. I'm wicked. I'm
undone, I'm lost. God can't justify me. He can't justify me. The only way for God to remain
just and punish my sin and at the same time justify me is for
him to come up with something, I reckon, because I sure can't. do it himself. All of it. It is clear that I could never
come up with such a plan, so God Himself must satisfy His
own law. I cannot come up with a plan.
For me to suggest such a thing in my own accord, to imagine
that it is a reasonable plan conceived in an unreasonable
recess of my human logic, it would be nothing short of blasphemy. for me to say I am a sinner and
wicked and vile and undone and God should die for me. That doesn't seem reasonable,
does it? And if I said that, you know,
I wouldn't dare say it if I didn't know it was so. No rebel born in sin conceived
in inequity and who drinks iniquity like water can even vaguely presume
to think that such a thing is reasonable on any human scale,
that God should die for me, that I can't do anything at all,
and my only hope is that God Almighty, in the person of His
blessed Son, come down to this world and die for me makes no
sense at all unless you've been given spiritual
understanding. And even then, the sense that
it makes is so marvelous that you can't ever stop talking about
it. One man said this is a very logical
book, but not to us. But not to us. If the judge of
all the earth, the one God who always does what is right, conceived
such a thing, he would have to do so in the secret chambers
of his own will, according to the good pleasures of his own
will. And what utterly unfathomable, amazing grace that is to see
it first displayed in Scripture. All we have to do is go back
to the garden. Back to the beginning. Back to
the source. Back to the fountainhead. Our daddy Adam sinned against
God. He disobeyed God. Sinned against his Creator, his
Sustainer. His love sinned against God,
transgressed the law, because God had said, Don't eat of that
fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for the day
you eat therein you shall die. You shall surely die. Dying you
shall die. You shall die physically and
die spiritually. God has said he must die, so
he has got to die. Well, how will this death ensue?
This man who is now running and hiding from God. Sewed himself
together fig leaf aprons to cover his nakedness. And then when
he got caught, he blamed somebody else for his problem. Did you
ever do that? The Lord said, where are you?
He said, I am in the bushes, hiding. Why are you hiding? What have you done? The woman you gave me. That's
what he said. She made me do it. You're to
blame because you give me that woman. Woman, what have you done? That
serpent you made. It's his fault. The devil made
me do it. That's what we all do, don't
we? Blame something else by nature. How? Well, these two just deserve
to die. Don't you think so? I mean, treat
their God like that, the one who made them and provided everything
for them, made them king over the creation. They act like this.
Well, just kill them. Well, that's what they're going
to die. They're going to die. They have to die. God has said, you're
going to die. Well, how in the world will that death ensue?
Will fire and brimstone descend from heaven and consume this
vile duo? Our God is a consuming fire.
Will He thrust them through with a dart? Will He open up the earth
and swallow them into the very bowels of hell like they deserve?
Justice demands vengeance. The law demands death. How will
God execute judgment? He kills an animal. Adam, you and Eve have sinned
against Me. I'm going to kill this goat. I'm going to kill
this goat, I'm going to shed his blood, and I'm going to take
his skin off him, and I'm going to cover your nakedness with
that. He kills an animal, and with skin he covers that sinful
pair. He spares their life by killing
something else. They're spared by substitution. That's a good word. One time
I was preaching down in Nashville, and old Scott Richard was preaching
down there. Somebody forgot and turned the wrong thing. It was
in June, and Nashville's hot in June. Somebody turned the
wrong thing on the thermostat, and it got about 99 degrees in
that place. Oh, we was all just sweating
and carrying on, and Scott got up to preach. And he just started
pouring sweat. And Scott, not like me, wouldn't
take off his jacket. He'd think I'd be ungentlemanly
to do such a thing. And sweat was pouring down his... And he
preached for seven minutes. Whatever you do, just preach
seven minutes. He says, I'm hot. I'm done. And I was sitting on the side
of the pew like Brother Richard was there sitting. And Scott
come by and tapped me on the shoulder. He says, well, at least
I said substitution. And it just went on down. At
least I said substitution. The law got death that day. Justice got its reward that day, beginning with that sacrifice.
and progressing all through the Old Testament history. Tens of
thousands of lambs and bullets were slain, and together they
formed kind of a crimson catalog describing the intimate detail
of this one person, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is our substitute. He is God incarnate, and he voluntarily
executed this wondrous plan of substitution. He is God incarnate. He, this triune Godhead, and we use
words like Trinity because it's just too much for us to understand.
We can't understand God. It's past finding out. He dwells in a light to where
no man can approach. Old A.T.T. Shields up in Canada
said it would be easier for us to empty the Atlantic Ocean with
a teaspoon. that it would begin to understand
God. God Almighty, the Father, the
Son, the Holy Spirit came up with this plan, this wondrous
plan in eternity that He would come and give Himself to men to be
abused and used and mocked and spat upon that he would undergo
severe punishment for sin, so much so that it's called the
shedding of blood. That's what somebody alive does,
you know. Live people shed blood, dead people quit bleeding. That's
a synonymous with punishment, drawing blood. I'm going to bleed,
God said, and then I'm going to die. Then I'm going to die. He died voluntarily. Scripture
says he was made to be sin for us, and you know, sin that we
might be made the righteousness of God in him. You see, Proverbs
17 is right. When Jesus Christ hung on that
tree in agonies and blood, and all the sins of all the elect
from all ages were made to meet on him. God punished him because
the wicked have to be punished. Was he really wicked? I'll tell
you, I believe if we understand the concept of sin, he was worse
than wicked. Was he a sinner? He was worse
than a sinner. Whatever makes a sinner a sinner
is what he became. He became essential sin. He was made to be essential sin.
It's the difference like being corrupt and corruption. He wasn't corrupt. He was corruption. And when God viewed him, the
Father viewed him in such a condition when God had laid those sins
on him, He did not, though He was innocent in His person. He did not. God did not let the
guilt to go free. He condemned the wicked. And
here I am, vile and unclean and undone, but God has made me His
righteousness. And you are accepted today not
because you are pardoned. That implies guilt. You are accepted
today because you are righteous. And that's what took place on
Calvary Street. So God is not an abomination to Himself. Because
He has punished the wicked, and He has let the innocent go free
or justify the innocent. You don't stand before God guilty.
It's like He said. What He said. We're in Christ. That's a settled issue. God is
just because He's got blood where blood must be shed. He's got
death where death must be the payment. And He did it Himself. That's how it's worded in the
book of Acts. When Paul left the church at
Ephesus, there was a vision of elders and told them, Y'all take
care of the church of God, whom God has purchased with His own
blood. We are the God's purchased possession.
He declares that he is righteous. He is righteous to justify and
save his people. To declare it, this time, his
righteousness, it says. His righteousness. I love that
fact. I do. Richard, you old rascal. God saved you. Do you know what
he said? That is the right thing to do. That's what he said. He declared
that he was right when he saved the day. It's the right thing
to do. How can a man be just with God
if God does it? From beginning to end, if God
does it. Because man by himself cannot. Of himself cannot. There is a
verse in 2 Samuel chapter 14 that says, �For we must needs
die, and we are as water spilt on the ground, which cannot be
gathered up again. Neither doth God respect any
person, yet doth he devise means that is banished be not expelled
from him. To God be the glory. If you are
justified, it is because God did it from start to finish.