I'm going to turn to three passages
that I want you to read with me. And my title today is Justification. So first turn with me to Romans
chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5 and verse 9. much more than being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Now turn
back over to Romans 3 verse 28. Romans 3 and verse 28. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. And one
more, James 2.24. James 2.24. James 2 24, ye see then how that
by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. I did a message with the title,
The Law of Faith, if you'll remember. And after I did that message,
I got to thinking about what I had said, or more of what I
had read from the scripture. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. And I just
got to thinking about justification. So, and we just went through
several verses where it speaks of being justified. All those
verses that we have just read speak of sinners being justified
by blood, by faith, and by works. The word for justified in all
those verses is the same word. That word means to render just
or innocent. Works justify me. I just read
it from scripture. What we see here is cause and
effect. Horse and cart. One brings about
the others. I will not exhaust this subject
this morning, but I want to talk about justification as it is
given to us in scripture as we've already read. Justified by blood,
justified by faith, and justified by works. And I will say from the start
that this is the order of it how I just read it. That's the
order of it. That's how we should look at
it. We are in word justified by the death of Jesus Christ
on that tree. It is his faith which secured
my salvation and rendered me innocent. It is his faith given
to me that God says he counts that for righteousness. God sees
the faith of Jesus Christ given to me by God and he counts that
for righteousness. He renders me innocent. Works wrought with faith justifies
me, they render me innocent, because his works bring forth
my works, which show me to be innocent. This order is fixed,
but I'm going to go into them backwards, if you will. So let's
start with works. So let's go back to James. I
think you were there last. And let's read verses 21 through
25. James 2 verses 21 through 25. Was not Abraham our father justified
by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works
was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled,
which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto
him for righteousness, and he was called the friend of God. Ye see then how that by works
a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was
not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received
the messengers, and had sent them out another way. For as
the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works
is dead also. We've said it here before, believing
is obeying and obeying is believing. We are told here that faith worked
with his works, that is Abraham's works. But I do want to point
out that they were specific works spoken of here. There are works
that are dead works. Hebrews 9 14 says, how much more
shall the blood of Christ who through the eternal spirit offered
himself without spot to God purge your conscience from dead works
to serve the living God? This flesh knows all about dead
works. This flesh likes to point out
those dead works too. But works that are wrought with
faith are works that serve the living God. A child of God, a
believer, a sinner saved by grace will have works. If they have
no works, then the faith they have is dead. That's what James
says in verse 20. But wilt thou know, O vain man,
that faith without works is dead. If you have no works, as is spoken
of here, then the faith that you have is a dead faith and
it is of no value. A living faith actively cooperates
with works to serve the living God. But let us also be clear,
we do not brag on our works. We do not point out our works
or point to our works. For one, we don't even know what
those works really are. It's been said before, James
did not talk about his works. What does he say in verse 18?
Yea, a man may say, thou hast faith, and I have works. Show
me thy faith without thy works, and I will show thee my faith
by my works. But you know, he never did show
his works. He showed others' works, and
that from Scripture. So he first mentions Abraham
offering up his son Isaac. So let's turn over to Genesis
and read that. So turn with me to Genesis 22.
Genesis 22. Genesis 22 verse one. We're gonna read just verse one
and two. And the Lord visited Sarah as
he had... 22, Paul. verse 1 and verse chapter 22.
And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt Abraham
and said unto him, Abraham, and he said, behold, here I am. And he said, take now thy son,
thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the
land of Moriah, and offer him there for a burnt offering upon
one of the mountains, which I will tell thee of. It says here that God was testing. The English word there is tempt,
but it means to test or to prove. God, as he does with all of his
people, will prove or test the faith which he has given. Here
we see it as God telling Abraham to offer up his son Isaac. He
was told by God to kill his son. What do we read next in verse
three? And Abraham rose up early in the morning and saddled his
ass and took two of his young men with him. And Isaac, his
son, enclaved the wood for the burnt offering and rose up and
went into the place of which God had told him. He rose up. And just me just thinking about
it, it's almost like Abraham just got up like it was just
any other day. This was several days journey to get to the place
they were going. What does that tell me? When
we are tested, when our faith is tested by God, it's not a
flash in the pan. It will be something we go through
for a while. I cannot give a number to it,
but it will take you through some things. But in verse five,
we can see faith cooperating with Abraham's words. Read verse
five. And Abraham said unto his young
men, abide ye here with the ass, and I and the lad will go yonder
and worship, and come again to you. God had already told Abraham
that the nations would come from his seed, Genesis 17, 19. And
God said, Sarah, thy wife will bear thee a son indeed, and thou
shalt call his name Isaac. And I will establish my covenant
with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him. Abraham knew his son would live.
He did not know exactly know how it would happen, but he believed
God. And so he knew no matter what,
that his son would live. So he did what God commanded
him to do. Let's read verses 7, 8 of Genesis
22. And Isaac spake unto Abraham
his father and said, my father, and he said, here am I, my son. And he said, behold, the fire
and the wood, but where is the lamb? a burnt offering. And Abraham
said, my son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering. So they went both of them together. That work which Abraham did was
a work that manifest that he believed God. He trusted God. He feared God and he loved God. God tried his faith, and that
faith given by God wrought works that serve God. God talked with
Abraham here. He speaks to us as well, Hal,
through this book. What is it that we see here that
Abraham believed? That God was going to send a
savior and that it was going to come through his seed. Abraham
by faith was looking for that blessing to come. Hebrews 11,
17 through 19 we read, by faith Abraham when he was tried offered
up Isaac and he that had received the promises offered up his only
begotten son of whom it was said that in Isaac shall thy seed
be called, accounting that God was able to raise him up even
from the dead from whence also he received him in a figure. So we can see confirmed in scripture
that Abraham believed what God said in that the Messiah would
come and it would come through Isaac. Remember the lineage that
we looked through in Matthew? Abraham did what God told him
to do because he believed God. Let's look at the other one mentioned
in James Rahab. So turn with me to Joshua, Joshua,
Joshua 2. Joshua 2 is just after Deuteronomy. Joshua 2. And Joshua the son of Nun sent
out of Shittim two men to spy secretly, saying, Go view the
land, even Jericho. And they went and came into an
harlot's house, named Rahab, and lodged there. And it was
told the king of Jericho, saying, Behold, there came men in hither
tonight of the children of Israel to search out the country. And
the king of Jericho sent unto Rahab, saying, Bring forth the
men that are come to thee, which are entered into thine house,
for they be come to search out all the country. And the woman
took the two men, and hid them, and said thus, There came men
unto me, but I wist not whence they were. And it came to pass
about the time of shutting of a gate, when it was dark, that
the men went out. Whither the men went, I will
not. Pursue after them quickly, for
ye shall overtake them. But she had brought them up to
the roof of the house and hid them with the stalks of flax,
which she had laid in order upon the roof. Rahab had men come into the city,
and they came to her house. They did not come to her telling
her of their business. Rahab knew why they were there
without them uttering a word. They came in secretly, it says.
So they were not telling their business. But they heard, she
says, we have heard. She did not hear it from these
men, but this we she spoke of certainly did hear. Verses nine
through 13. And she said unto the men, I
know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror
is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint
because of you. For we have heard how the Lord
dried up the water of the Red Sea for you when you came out
of Egypt, and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites,
and were on the other side of Jordan, Sihon and Og, when ye
utterly destroyed. And as soon as we had heard these
things, our hearts did melt. Neither did there remain any
more courage in any man because of you. For the Lord your God,
he is God in heaven above and in earth beneath. Now therefore
I pray you, swear unto me by the Lord since I have showed
you kindness, that you will also show kindness unto my father's
house and give me a true token. and that ye will save alive my
father and my mother and my brethren and my sisters and all that they
have and deliver our lives from death. She already heard. She already
had faith. James tells us that faith wrought
or cooperates with works. And then he tells us of her works.
It says her works were to receive the messengers. And she sent
them out another way. What do we read in verses 14
through 20? And the man answered her, our
life for yours, if ye utter not this our business. And it shall
be when the Lord hath given us the land that we will deal kindly
and truly with thee. Then she let them down by cord
through the window, for her house was upon the town wall, and she
dwelt upon the wall. And she said unto them, Get you
to the mountain, lest the pursuers meet you, and hide yourself there
three days, until the pursuers be returned, and afterward may
ye go your way. And the men said unto her, We
will be blameless of this thine oath, which thou hast made us
swear. Behold, when we come into the
land, thou shalt bind this line of scarlet thread in the window,
which thou didst let us down by. And thou shalt bring thy
father, and thy mother, and thy brethren, and all thy father's
household home unto thee. And it shall be that whosoever
shall go out of the doors of thy house into the street, his
blood shall be upon his head, and we will be guiltless. And
whosoever shall be with thee in the house, his blood shall
be on our head, if any hand be upon him. And if thou utter this
our business, then we will be quit of thine oath, which thou
hast made us to swear." There was one common thing that
we see here in type that bound them together. She sent them
out another way by binding this scarlet cord in her window to
let these men down, which saved them from being destroyed by
the enemy. And it was this same scarlet cord that would be the
token that would save her and her family. Her works were done,
and it was done in view of salvation and life. She wanted to preserve
those who brought a message of life to her. And the same work
of letting them out another way by this cord would be the very
same token which would save her and her family. Her faith wrought
works that manifested that she believed God. We know she did
this by faith because we are also told in Hebrews that she
received these men by faith. Hebrews 11 31, by faith the harlot
Rahab perished not with them that believed not when she had
received the spies in peace. Living works wrought with faith
are works that manifest forth that we believe God. Works can
be mimicked. So just doing some specific work
does not prove you are a child of God. There is a reason why
we're not told in scripture that if we do this or if we do that,
that it shows we believe God. Because this flesh will take
that and run with it. We are given an example in James
of a work that is dead, if you will. And that is, if you see
a brother in need and you tell him, to paraphrase, everything
will be okay. Don't worry about it. It'll be
okay. That's a dead work. Faith wrought works looks to
and gives honor to the God that gave them faith. If you do something
for a brother who is in need, you do it because you know God
has shown me the grace that he's shown me. Their works were done looking
to that one who died for them. and serve the living God by their
works. Abraham and what he did looked
forward to the coming Messiah. What are we told in Galatians?
Galatians 3.16. Now to Abraham and his seed were
the promises made. He saith not unto seeds as of
many, but as of one, and unto thy seed, which is Christ. Just as we said a couple of weeks
ago about this, it's said in scripture to be a good work.
And Jesus Christ is the one that called her to good work, so it
was. But that good work was anointing Christ for what he did and what
he does. Shedding tears for who you are
and what you have caused in him having to die for you. And kissing
and washing the feet of the king. Faith works, bows down to the
king of glory and obeys him. They manifest that we have been
given the living faith, that faith that is not dead. Works
alone do not justify us, but it is for certain that if you
have no works, as those we have read about, it is certain that
if you have no works and you do say you have faith, then it
is a dead faith. Because James tells us, faith
without works is dead. Now this faith, which cooperates
with our works, produces works. These works are the result of
faith. We've said it before that the
object of faith is Jesus Christ, and he is also the source of
that faith. So any kind of work done will
be a work that honors and praises the God of heaven. because that
faith that justifies is the faith of Jesus Christ given to us by
God. So next, we have justified by
faith. Turn back to Romans 3. Romans
3, 28. Romans 3, 28. Therefore, we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. I won't spend as much time here,
because I did go through this a couple of weeks ago. But this
faith, we are told, we are justified or we are rendered innocent by
faith. The scripture tells us that when
by this faith we believe God, he counts that to us for righteousness. Think about it though. This faith
is the faith of Jesus Christ. That's what we're told. When
God sees this belief, when you believe God, God counts that
for righteousness. It is counted to us as one who
is right before God. He says, this is my beloved son,
hear ye him. By faith, we do. But God Almighty
seeing this faith, sees his son, who by that faith that he had,
was just and the justifier of them that believe. His works
truly did justify us before God. It is certainly true that faith,
when it is given to us, lets us know that we are justified
before God. Our works manifest forth that
we believe God, that God has justified us by the faith of
Jesus Christ. But it's not just that. It says
God counts that for righteousness. God takes inventory of us and
when he sees the believing faith, he counts that as righteousness
being there, innocence being there. Just as Todd Nibert pointed
out one time, it is not just as if I have never sinned, but
that I am right before God. God says that I am right before
him. I have done no wrong before him
because he sees the faith of Jesus Christ in me. He imputes
that righteousness to me when I believe, therefore I am justified
before God. Blessed is the man to whom God
will not impute sin. And it is also true, blessed
is the man who God accounts his belief as righteousness. That one by the working of God
is absolutely righteous in God's eyes. I cannot boast in this
because it is His faith, although it is also mine because He gives
it to me. But both this faith and the works
which are wrought by that faith, both are because Jesus Christ
has already justified me before God by His blood. So next we
have justified by blood. Turn right over to Romans 5 again. Much more than being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. There
are other scriptures that says all that I'm talking about too,
but these are the ones I picked out. But we are justified. That is, we are rendered to be
right before God. I just keep saying that because
it's just amazing to me. Me. a sinner rendered by Jesus
Christ to be right before God by His blood. This was not just something that
circumstances brought to pass. It was the whole purpose for
all things. God purposed all things to come
to pass so that He might glorify Himself. He wanted to be praised
for His graciousness, and He purposed all of this to happen
to get it. God's promises are as good as
done. It says that Jesus Christ is
the lamb slain from the foundation of the world. I have been eternally
justified by Christ. We are said to receive eternal
life. We receive that in time, but eternal means perpetual. No beginning and no end. I can't
explain that. Jesus Christ, who is eternal,
is our life. We have always been his, even
when we were enemies, as it says in Romans 5. Do I believe in
eternal justification? I do, because the God who justified
me is eternal. Do I believe in justification
in time? I do, because the eternal God
came down to be born of a woman. Blood is what it took to make
me right before God. But not just any blood. It had
to be the blood of God, and it was. That blood, death coming
from it, took away my sins as far as the east is from the west.
Because of that, in Christ, I am now righteous before him. Although I have many sins that
I have committed and are committing and shall commit, Romans 3 24
says, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. He purposed to redeem a sinner
like me, and in so doing, shedding his blood on that tree to justify
me. I am justified. And I can't help
but to think of that song that John Davis sings from time to
time when I hear about justification. Yay justified, oh blessed thought,
and sanctified, salvation wrought. Thy blood hath pardoned, bought
for me, and glorified I too shall be. So how can I sum this all
up? The scripture says, by works
a man is justified. It is not that we do works to
believe God, it is we do works because we believe God. Faith
causes us to do those works when we are tested by God who tries
our faith. It is those works, those good
works that he has ordained that we should walk in them. And those
works which he caused us to will and to do of his good pleasure.
So we do not look to do works to justify ourselves, but that
those works wrought by faith show forth that we believe God,
they show forth or manifest that we are righteous before God.
If we have no works, then we are condemned before God and
guilty, because there is no living faith there to wrought the works.
We do not look to our works, we look to Christ, and in so
doing, we work those works he has ordained. The faith of Christ
in dying on that tree justified us before God. Jesus Christ by
his death rendered us righteous before God. In him dying and
raising to life again, we in time are then given that faith. Faith given to us is counted
to us for righteousness because God tells us to believe him and
it is the faith of Christ given to us that enables us to believe. That faith which is given us
cooperates with those works that we do which God has ordained
for us to walk in them. These works because they are
wrought by faith look at Christ and calls the believer to serve
the living God. Faith given because it comes
from Christ looks to Christ and believes God. These both look
to what he did at Calvary which made me totally right in the
sight of God. I am justified in God's sight
because of Christ. I see I am justified before God
because of Christ. It is manifested that I am justified
because I work to serve Christ, and that because of Christ. So
what else can I do to be justified before God? Nothing. But God
has made it clear because of Jesus Christ, not only was I
made righteous before God by Christ in God's eyes, but I am
made righteous and am a partaker, Joe, of that divine nature in
time and his faith causes me to work the works of God, manifesting
that righteousness. The blood of Christ justified
me. The effects of that is his faith
is given to me. and that faith being given when
tried by God produces works manifesting forth that we are justified. That, my friends, is something
that you can hang your hat on and sit down and rest. If that's me, if that's you,
it is well with my soul because God made it so, amen. Dear old God, Thank you for all
that you do for us. Seal these words to our heart.
In Christ's name we pray. Amen.