Open your Bibles if you would to Romans chapter 3. We'll be looking at verses 24 to 26. Now Job asked a question in the book of Job about how shall a mortal man be just before God? How shall he be just before the Lord? How shall he stand before the Lord innocent when we sin from the top of our head to the bottom of our shoes? And how shall he be just, how shall he be innocent before God when everything we do is tainted with sin? See, the Lord told us with man it's impossible, but with God all things is possible. So in order for us to stand before God as innocent, We must be justified. Well, we can't justify ourselves. I can't justify you, and you can't justify me. I can't even justify myself, and neither can you. But there's one who justified his people through his blood and righteousness. Oh, my. And his name is the Lord Jesus Christ. And he justified chosen sinners. Isn't that amazing? Oh my, it's absolutely amazing. Here's a question Job asked. He's gonna ask how a sinner, how a mortal man could be just before God. In Job 9.2, he says, I know it is so of a truth, but how should man be just with God? So how shall a man or woman or child be just before God? How? Well, we can't do it on our own. It's impossible. So here's the question comes before us. How can God, who is holy, be just and yet justify sinners? How can that be? Again, with man, it's impossible. What a hopeless state that puts us in. But with God, All things are possible. And that's why Christ came to this world, to save his people from their sins, to justify them before God. This is good news for sinners. Let me tell you, oh my beloved God and sinner friends, give me your attention for a few minutes. And Lord, will and I'll answer this question. How can a man or woman be just with God? How can a man or woman be declared innocent before God when we're sinners from the top of our feet or top of our head to the bottom of our feet and everything in between? Well, Romans chapter three, oh, we have a wonderful answer from scripture. That's where we get all our answers from. I don't want man's opinion. I want to know what does the scripture say? Because man's opinion, they say, well, we can be just before God by something we do. No, not a works list any man should boast. Well, certainly if I follow the law, I can. Well, if you offend in one point of the law, you've broken it all. None of us can fulfill one law. So we can't be justified by the law. We can't be justified by our works. So that puts man in a hopeless state, doesn't he? Oh, but there's hope for sinners. There is hope for sinners, beloved. Oh my, there's hope for sinners in the Lord Jesus Christ, the just one. Oh, here's the answer to the question of how can a holy God, who is just and holy, how can he justify sinners? He has to justify sinners by his law being fulfilled and by his wrath being appeased. Because the scripture says the soul that sins, it must die. And here's the good news. God didn't come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Oh, he came to save his people from their sins. Isn't this wonderful, beloved? And look at this in Romans chapter 3, verses 24 to 26. Paul's writing to believers, and look what he says about us, being justified freely by his grace. Justified? Yeah. Oh, rendered innocent. Oh my. Is that really what it says? Yeah, it says this. Being justified freely by His grace. Paul's writing to these Romans and he's saying, these Roman Christians, and he's saying, we're justified, we're justified, we're declared innocent before God. How? How? By His grace. By God's grace. According to God's grace. According to His will and purpose. Look at this, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Oh, we're justified by the blood of Christ, beloved. We're saved from our sins by the blood of Christ. He's redeemed us from all our sins. Look at this, whom God, God himself. See, no man could save any other man. No man could save himself. So what does God do? He sends the only one who can save his people from their sins. He sends the only one who can save chosen sinners, who chosen Christ from before the foundation of the world. He sends them. And look what it says in Romans 3.25, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation. He's our sacrifice. He's our sacrifice. He's our atonement before God. And you know, Christ's atonement is perfect. And there's nothing to be added to it. It's complete. It's perfect. Look at this. set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood. Oh, I wholly declare unto you that the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed me from all my sin. Is it so for you? Oh my, I've been saved by grace through faith. And that faith has one object, the Lord Jesus Christ. And that faith was given to me by the mercy and grace of God. And I believe that Jesus Christ shed his blood to save me from my sins. And I'll praise his name and I'll preach him as long as the Lord gives me breath. I'll give him all the glory, all the honor, all the praise. whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness." Whose righteousness? God's righteousness. Christ is God's righteousness. What does it mean to be righteous? It means, again, to be pure and holy before God. And well, if our righteousness is like filthy rags, then none of us can be saved. But we're saved not by our own righteousness, we're saved through the blood and righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, because he perfectly fulfilled the law in the room and place of sinners. Isn't that wonderful? That's the best news this old sinner's ever heard in his life. Oh my, listen to this. To declare his righteousness, that's Christ. Christ is the righteousness of God. My, for the remission of sins. He's the one who saved us from our sins. My, that there are, that our paths through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say, at this time, His righteousness, God's righteousness. Every time the gospels preached, the true gospels preached, right? God's righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ, is exalted and proclaimed. My, that He might be just. Now, here I go. How can a just and holy God justify sinners? Only in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, through God the Son, shedding His precious blood to save us from our sins. Listen to this, to declare, I say it this time, Romans 3.26, His righteousness, that being Christ, that He might be just, our God is a just God, God the Father is a just God, and the justifier of Him, which believeth in Jesus. See, not only is God a just God, but He's our justifier, because He sent His only begotten Son to this world to die in the room and place of sinners. Sinners who will shake our fist at Him by nature. That's love. That's mercy. And He's loved us with an everlasting love, an unchanging love. My. And we see in verse 24 of Romans 24, Romans chapter 3, That all who are born again of God are justified freely by God's grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And then we see God is just. Beloved, justice and truth are the habitation of his throne. God's justice is as essential to his character as his love and mercy. Because he is just, he is holy. That's who God is. He's just and holy. And the only way that God can save a guilty sinner, the only way that God can bring a sinner into eternal union of life with him, himself, is if he can make that sinner guiltless. Guiltless and sinless in his own eyes. In the eyes of his law and justice. And he's done that in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. This act of God, oh, this is an act of God's matchless grace. You cannot measure this grace. You cannot plumb the depths of it. You cannot plumb the width of it. You cannot plumb the height of it. My, what matchless grace by which God himself declares men to be guiltless and sinless. This is what the Apostle Paul calls justification. Justification is a legal term. It means that God declares chosen, redeemed sinners guiltless, sinless, and perfectly righteous before his law. And when God declares that person That person is guiltless and sinless and perfectly righteous before Him. That person is really, in the eyes of God, perfectly righteous, no matter what anyone else says. And yet here we are still sinners, but God looks upon us and sees Christ. That's the wonder of the gospel, that God can take guilty, hell-deserving sinners and turn us into trophies of His matchless grace. And our righteousness before God is not just a merciful supposition. He's not made us righteous before himself just as a supposition. No, it's a blessed reality in Christ, beloved. It's a blessed reality in Christ, and only in Christ, as every believer in the Lord Jesus Christ is truly justified. truly justified, perfectly righteous in the sight of God, in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. And this, this makes us say hallelujah, doesn't it? Makes us praise his name. This is, this is wondrous. And this is truth. It's wonderful. How is this justification accomplished? How does God take a guilty, hell-deserving sinner and make him, render him innocent before his holiness and before his justness? Well, this is the great question of the ages. With Job, we ask, how can a man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? Because we're born into this world sinners. We're conceived in iniquity. We come out of the womb speaking lies. Well, how can God be just and justify the ungodly? Well, if you find the answer to that question, you've learned the gospel. You've learned the gospel. Why? Because the only answer to that question is we can only be justified in and through the Lord Jesus Christ and His blood and righteousness. That's the only way. That's the only way. Why? Well, because God's holy, because God's just, because God's true. Therefore, He demands an infinite satisfaction, an infinite satisfaction for our sin. And no man or woman on this earth can ever be saved until he has suffered the just penalty or the law due unto his sins, so that his crimes and offenses against the law no longer exist in the eyes of God. How can that be? Only through Christ. Only through Christ. Only through Christ alone. God is as good as his word, beloved. And he says this, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. A hundred percent of people in this world are going to die. Oh my. And some will step into eternity. And God will be their judge. Christ will be their judge. But some will step into eternity, who have been saved by the blood and righteousness of Christ. And He will be their Savior forever. They're going to look upon Him who saved them with His precious blood. Oh, my. Oh, my. So the sentence of eternal death in hell is a sentence against man's sin. And that sin's against God. Therefore, God's law says the soul that sins, it shall die. Shall. It shall die. So what does Christ do? He dies in the room and places sinners. Oh, what a Savior. What a Redeemer is Jesus Christ our Lord. Oh my, not only does God require an infinite satisfaction for our sins, he also requires of man perfect righteousness. So he requires, his law requires of us perfect righteousness. Well, we're doomed, aren't we? In our natural state, we're doomed. That's why the Lord said, you must be born again. You must be born again. Oh my, and that's the work of God, the Holy Spirit. And those who God Regenerates or who are born again are born again because Christ died for them on the cross at Calvary's cross Because there are sons God sends the spirit of his son of the hearts whereby they now cry. I have a father There's nothing good in them. There's nothing no merit in them. Nothing at all. It's all through the Lord Jesus Christ in him alone My oh my So the only way that someone can enjoy the eternal bliss of heaven with God is to be perfect in his sight. Because God, no man will ever be accepted in God's presence. No man will be bought into union with the eternal God until he is perfectly holy and righteous, even as God himself. Well, here I am a sinner. I'm still a sinner, but in God's eyes, in Christ, I'm perfectly holy and righteous. I can't explain that. I'm a sinner saint, but that's what God, God sees me in Christ. He doesn't see, now I'm still a sinner and I will, any man tells you that they're not sinners anymore, they're lying to you. We'll be sinners till the day we leave this earth. Oh my, there's no such thing as sinless perfection. Not until the Lord glorifies us and that's all his work, not ours. My, oh, my. God said, be ye holy, for I am holy. So God requires total, absolute perfection, and he will accept no one who is not perfect in holiness. Unless we render unto him a perfect perfection of heart, perfection of thought, and perfection of life, with never so much as one deviation from that, from absolute holiness, none of us shall ever see his face. So that's why the Lord said salvation with man is impossible. It's impossible. But the Lord God, here is the wondrous wonder. The Lord God has anointed one in whom mercy and truth are meant together, in whom righteousness and peace have kissed each other at Calvary's cross. Oh, my! The one who is mighty to save, the one who is our defender, the one who is our king, the sent one. Oh, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross to save his people from their sins. His name is the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know who he is? He is God in the flesh. That's who he is. He's the sent one of God. He's the Messiah. Oh my, he's the long-awaited Messiah that the Jews were waiting for. But He's not just the Messiah of Jews, chosen Jews. He's the Messiah of chosen Gentiles. Praise His mighty name. He's the Messiah of what the scriptures call the elect of God, who are made up of Jew and Gentile. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, cast yourself upon Him. He's the only hope for sinners. so oh my is there is there therefore is man without hope yeah by his own works but no bless me the god there's hope for sinners as god says i've laid upon i've laid help upon one that is mighty that's the lord jesus christ oh God has set forth his own son, the Lord Jesus Christ, as a substitute of his people and the representative of his people. He died in our room and place. He died before God's law in our place. He endured the wrath of God that was due us. The eternal wrath of God. Remember that. The eternal wrath of God. He extinguished it against us. That's amazing. Oh, Christ died for us. He did for us what we could never do for ourselves or anybody else. He saved us from our sins. He put away our sins. He bought an everlasting righteousness for us. He accomplished our justification by his obedience to God as our representative. And what did we say? Beloved, we say, praise his mighty name. Amen and amen.