Good evening. Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 33 in your hardback timbals. Stand up and bless the
Lord. Number 33. Let's all stand together. Stand up and bless the Lord,
ye people of his choice. Stand up and bless the Lord your
God with heart and voice. So high above all praise, above
all blessing high, who would not fear His holy name, and laud
and magnify? Oh, for the living flame from
his own altar brought to touch our lips, our minds inspire and
wing to heaven our thought. God is our strength and song,
and His salvation ours. Then be His love in Christ proclaim,
with all our ransomed powers. ? Stand up and bless the Lord
? ? The Lord your God adore ? ? Stand up and bless His glorious name
? ? Henceforth forevermore ? Please be seated. It'd be hard to sing that hymn
sitting down, wouldn't it? Good evening. Will you open your
Bibles with me to Psalm 13 for our call to worship. Psalm 13. When a believer looks at himself,
he wonders how in the world could the Lord have mercy on a person
like me? And those thoughts drive him
to trust Christ alone for all of his justification before God.
But this psalm is our experience as believers. And more importantly,
it's the Lord's experience on Calvary's cross as he bore our
sins in his body upon the tree and satisfied God's justice How
long wilt thou forget me, O Lord, forever? How long wilt thou hide
thy face from me? How long shall I take counsel
in my soul, having sorrow in my heart daily? How long shall
my enemy be exalted over me? Consider and hear me, O Lord
my God. Lighten mine eyes, lest I sleep
the sleep of death. Lord, if you don't speak, we're
gonna die. We're dying sinners in need of
grace. Lest my enemy say I will prevail against him and those
that trouble me rejoice when I am moved. But I have trusted
in thy mercy. My heart shall rejoice in thy
salvation. Salvation belongs to the Lord.
It's all of Him. I will sing unto the Lord because
He has dealt bountifully with me. Oh, I hope the Lord will
deal bountifully with us tonight. We'll be able to leave here,
whatever state our minds and hearts might be in right now,
we'd be able to leave here rejoicing in Him and in all His provisions. Let's pray together. Our merciful
Heavenly Father, we thank You for once again directing our
steps to this place. We thank You for the promise
of Thy presence. For You said where two or three
are gathered together in Thy name, there You would be in the
midst of them. And Father, we come before Your
throne of grace in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing,
Lord, that He is our only ground, our only acceptance, our only
righteousness, our only hope. Lord, we dare not approach you
on any other basis than his precious name, glorious person, and finished
work. We pray, Lord, that you would
cause our hearts to rejoice in all that's been accomplished
for sinners. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen. Number 294 from the hardback
teminal, Savior, like a shepherd, lead us. Number 294. Let's all stand together once
again. Savior, like a shepherd lead
us, much we need thy tender care. In thy pleasant pastures feed
us, for our use thy folds prepare. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast bought us, Thine we are. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
Thou hast bought us, Thine we are. We are thine, do thou befriend
us, be the guardian of our way. ? Keep thy flock from sin defend
us ? Seek us when we go astray ? Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus
? Hear, O hear us when we pray ? Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus
? Hear, O hear us when we pray ? Thou hast promised to receive
us ? Poor and simple though we be ? Thou hast mercy to relieve
us ? Grace to cleanse and power to free Blessed Jesus, blessed
Jesus, early let us turn to Thee. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus,
early let us turn to Thee. ? Early let us seek thy favor ?
? Early let us do thy will ? ? Blessed Lord and only Savior ? ? With
thy love our bosoms fill ? ? Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus ? ? Thou
hast loved us, love us still ? ? Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus
? ? Thou hast loved us, love us still ? Please be seated. Will you open your Bibles with
me to Psalm 11. Psalm 11. Tricia and I were talking to
a very nice couple recently and my heart went out to her. She
said that she had joined a religious denomination some years ago and she said, she said, I was the
best church member I could be. He said, I did everything they
told me to do just tried to do my best and I'm still trying.
She said, but I can't get rid of my guilty conscience. I can't
get rid of my guilty conscience. And how do we get rid of a guilty
conscience? We are guilty, you know that. If our conscience
doesn't smite us, it's only because it's been seared with a hot iron. But what do we do with a guilty
conscience? I've titled this message, Imputation and Justification. Imputation and Justification. If the Lord's pleased to teach
us tonight from His word what those two words mean as they
relate to the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, our
conscience will be clear. imputation, and justification. Now these two precious truths
cannot be separated. They're two sides of the same
coin. And to understand one, you may need to understand them
both. They're just like faith and repentance. Faith and repentance
cannot be divided. They are two sides to the same
coin. And I want to share with you the verse that led me in
this direction and then We're going to look at some other passages
of scripture where the Lord speaks to us about these soul-cleansing,
conscience-clearing, glorious gospel truths, imputation and
justification. What do they mean? Do I believe
them? Do I believe what God says about
them? Look at verse 4. We dealt with
verse 3 last Wednesday night. If the foundations be destroyed,
what can the righteous do? All the glorious, these are foundations.
Imputation and justification are foundations. If they be destroyed,
the righteous have no place else to go. These are foundational
truths to the gospel of God's free grace in the finished work
of the Lord Jesus Christ. I want to have a clear conscience
before God, don't you? I want to be free. I want to
be able to worship Him. I want to be able to come into
His presence with gladness and with boldness. And I don't want
it based on one of the things I said to this lady. I said,
well, you know, if the religious persuasion that you've exposed
yourself to is not true, it's not going to help you. You've got to know the truth.
The Lord said if you know the truth, the truth will set you
free. And if the Lord makes you free,
you're free indeed, free indeed. Now I wanna know the truth. I
wanna know what God says about this subject of imputation and
this subject of justification. What do they mean and how do
they relate to me? Verse four, the Lord is in his
holy temple. The scriptures make it clear
that the church of the Lord Jesus Christ is His holy temple. And as I quoted in my prayer,
where two or three are gathered together in my name, not just
any church, not just any religious organization, but where the name
of the Lord Jesus Christ is lifted up, where He is honored and glorified
He said, there I am in the midst of them. When John saw the Lord
Jesus Christ in the book of Revelation, you remember there were seven
candlesticks representing the seven churches? And what was
the Lord Jesus doing? He was walking among the candlesticks. He says in another place, I inhabit
the praise of my people. That we would be, believe. that the Lord is here. This is
his place. This is where he's pleased. Now,
he says the Lord's throne is in heaven. Yes, it is. He reigns
sovereign over the armies of heaven and over all the inhabitants
of the earth. No man can stay his hand. No
man can say unto him, what doest thou? You don't make Jesus Lord,
He reigns Lord, God has made Him Lord over the living, that's
the believer, and over the dead. The Lord Jesus Christ is Lord
over the unbeliever, whether they want Him to be or not. But
here's where He manifests His grace towards sinners. You're
not going to hear anywhere else, not in religion, not in politics,
not in philosophy, not anywhere else in the world, you're not
gonna hear about how it is that God can be just and justifier
of sinners at the same time. This is where he's pleased to
make his glory and his grace known. And so he says, the Lord
is in his holy temple. Lord, make us, we're so dull,
aren't we? We're more aware of one another's
presence and of our own presence than we are of his presence.
Isn't that awful? But that's the way we are. And
yet he's reminding us right now, this is where I am. And this
is where I'm gonna show forth my grace. And this is where I'm
going to deliver sinners from their guilty conscience. This
is where the foundations of truth are laid. And this is where sinners
are saved. Nowhere else. Nowhere else. His eyes behold, His eyelids
try the children of men. The Lord knows our thoughts before
we think them. He knows every word before we
speak it. There's no hiding anything from Him. That's of great comfort
to the believer who has some understanding of imputation and
justification. That is of great comfort that
I can't hide anything from God. I want my God to be a just God. The Lord trieth the righteous. He trieth the righteous. There's
revelations of God that can be learned from creation. Go out in the world, look up
into the starry sky and see that there's a creator and conclude
that he must be all-powerful. There is general revelation that
God makes to all men and because of that he leaves them without
excuse. They are without excuse. All
men know in their conscience that there is a God. And they have some understanding
that he's holy and that he must punish sin. But how does he punish
sin? And how can I be justified in
the sight of God? How can a man born of a woman
be right with God? You're not going to learn that
from general revelation. You're not going to learn that from
your conscience. You're not going to learn that from any demonstration
of God's glory in creation, only through the preaching of the
gospel in His holy temple will you have that truth made known
to you. And so that's why we're here,
isn't it? That's what I want to know. I want to know how a
holy God could have anything to do with somebody like me. Well, it's by imputation and
justification. The Lord trieth the righteous. The trial of our sin and of our
circumstances has a purpose. It has a purpose. The Lord is
trying his people to see whether or not they will trust him. Faith that's not tried is not
faith. Let me show you that. Turn with me to 1 Peter chapter
1. 1 Peter chapter 1. When you try
something, when you try something, you prove its nature. You prove the nature of something
when you try it. Now, if the faith that we have
is true faith, If it's not feigned faith, if it's faith that's been
given to us by God, now faith that man comes up with, a decision
that he makes or a commitment that he makes, that'll be tried
and proven to be false. But when God gives faith, then
he tries that faith and he proves it to be what it is, God-giving
faith. And every believer through their
trials, though they be difficult and painful for a season, will
drive them to Christ. It'll drive them to Christ. And
that's the proof of their faith. Let me show you that. Look, you
have your Bibles open to 1 Peter 1. Look at verse 6. wherein you greatly rejoice,
though now for a season, if need be, you are in heaviness through
manifold temptations. And it is need be. These things
are necessities in order that saving faith may be proven to
be what it is. Trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's got to be tried. that the
trial of your faith be much more precious than gold that perisheth."
Oh, our faith. God's given you faith in Christ.
It's the most precious thing you've got. And you'll sacrifice
everything for it. Everything will be secondary
to your hope in Christ. Though it be tried with fire.
Now here's a picture. of a metalsmith who has taken
this precious ore mixed with impurities and put it into his
little crucible and he knows exactly how much heat to put
at the bottom of it so that he doesn't destroy the properties
of the precious metal. He can't get it too hot, but
he's got to get it hot enough to separate out those things
that would be not part of the metal and they float to
the top. And what does he do? He continues
to remove those impurities off the top. And what is his, how
does he know when the process is finished? He's got a bowl full of molten
silver. How does he know when all the impurities are out of
it? He looks down in that bowl and he sees a reflection of himself.
That's how he knows. And that's the purpose of the
trying of our faith, to get us, to have us looking to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Christ in you is your hope of
glory. And the Lord says, I'm gonna
try it. Though it be tried with fire, it might be found unto
praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. This is a lifelong process. Oh,
the impurities are always going to be there, aren't they? It's
just the Lord's going to keep, he's going to keep heating it
up until, until his reflection is perfect. In the day of his
coming, when we see him as he is, and we're made like him,
no more sin, no more sorrow. We're going to be made just like
him. How oftentimes when we're going
through these trials, we pray for the Lord to end them, don't
we? The apostle Paul did that, didn't
he? In 1 Corinthians chapter, 2 Corinthians chapter 12, turn
with me there. 2 Corinthians chapter 12, Paul
had a messenger of Satan as a thorn in his flesh. Can you relate
to that? You see, it's not so much our
circumstances that is our trial, it's our reaction to our circumstances,
isn't it? That's the thorn in the flesh.
That's the messenger of Satan causing us to look away from
Christ and to try to find some deliverance from these circumstances
apart from the grace of God. And that's what Paul did. Look
what he says in verse 7 of 2 Corinthians chapter 12. And lest I should
be exalted above measure through the abundance of the revelations
that were given unto me, a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of
Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure. You
see, with the grace of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ comes
trials. Why? Well, look what he says. For this thing I besought the
Lord thrice that it might depart from me. Oh Lord, take it away. Take away my doubts. Take away
my fears. Take away my insincerities. Lord, give me perfect faith. That's what the believer wants.
Deliver me from my sin. And he said unto me, I'm not
gonna take it away. I'm not gonna take it away. I heard this several years ago,
and I've repeated it to you on many occasions, but I'll say
it again. Believers are either going in trouble, or they're
in trouble, or they're coming out of trouble. So if you're
coming out, thank God for it, but you'll be going back in pretty
soon. You know, that's just, that's just the, that's, that's
the believer's lot. That's it. That's our life. And,
and this, and this sin problem that we have never goes away,
does it? I think that's what the thorn
in the flesh is. That's the messenger of Satan. Paul said, take it
away. No, not going to take it away. What did we learn from this?
You see, it's our fears and our doubts, our sin that drive us
to Christ. When Jacob and Esau were born,
the Lord said the older would serve the younger. Esau was the
older. He was the one that was born
first and he was a picture of the flesh. Jacob I have loved,
but Esau I have hated. Jacob is a picture of the new
man. He was the younger one and the older man. It wasn't normal. See, usually
the younger would serve the older, but the Lord said the older,
Esau. is gonna serve Jacob and the
same thing is true for us our flesh serves our new man and
that he drives us to Christ so that where grace abounds I mean
where sin abounds grace does much more about John put it like this in first
John chapter 3 he said if your heart condemn you does your heart
condemn you Pretty much all the time, doesn't it? I mean, how
indifferent we are to the things of God. How attracted we are
to the things of this world. How unbelieving we are. It's
the sin that does so easily beset us. I mentioned Sunday, you know,
do you doubt your salvation all the time? If I look at myself,
I think, how could God save me? But it is those doubts that drives
us to the Lord Jesus Christ to know that His grace is sufficient
for thee. And He said unto me, my grace
is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in your
weakness. You see, if you didn't have these
weaknesses, you'd glory in yourself, wouldn't you? You'd glory in
the fact that, well, I don't think those things anymore. I
don't do those things anymore. I've got all these wonderful
characteristics and attributes. I'm just, I'm walking above everybody
else. When God makes you to be the
chief of all sinners, then you know something about His strength
being made perfect in your weakness. And so Paul goes on to say, Most
gladly, therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that
the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure
in infirmities and reproaches and necessities, in persecutions
and distresses for Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am
strong." See, what does the unbeliever
think? Well, I'm strong when I take control. When I get control
of everybody else in all my circumstances, that's when I'm strong. And the
unbeliever is so self-reliant and so cocky and proud. And when God shows you that you're
a sinner, you say, Lord, my strength, you are my strength. You are
all my strength. I have no strength outside of
you. Apart from the grace of God, we've got nothing but weakness,
nothing but sin. And so, the Lord trieth the righteous. And that's never going to stop. It's never going to stop. You
see, that's what growing in grace and in the knowledge of the Lord
Jesus Christ is. It's being tried by God. It's
having that faith, which is more precious than gold, tried in
a fire. It's acknowledging, Lord, I can't
do this. I can't fix my problems. I'm
completely dependent upon you. And the Lord said, My strength
is going to be made perfect in your weakness, and I'm going
to get all the glory. That's especially true in salvation,
isn't it? What are we going to do to save ourselves? And so
the Lord says, I try the righteous, but the wicked. Now I'll make
this statement again. I've made it a couple of times
in the last few weeks, but in case you didn't hear it, there's
two kinds of people in the world. There's the righteous and there's
the wicked. That's it. Nobody else. How do
you know which one you are? Everyone that's righteous believes
themselves to be wicked and everyone that's wicked believes themselves
to be righteous. They do. Every unbeliever is
holding on to some righteousness that they have as the hope of
their acceptance before God. And the righteous, they know
that the only acceptance they have before God is because of
the imputation and justification. No other reason. No other reason. So the Lord says, the wicked,
the wicked and him that loveth violence. Now this is the verse that got
me thinking about imputation and justification. Them who love violence. Now I suppose, I don't think
I've ever personally met one, but there are some psychopaths
in the world. There are few and far between,
thank the Lord, who enjoy violence, that would love violence. But
is that all he's talking about? Is that all he's talking about
is those few people in the world that take pleasure in pain towards
someone else? Is he talking about, like, you
know, I thought about, well, football's a pretty violent sport.
The Lord's talking about those who love violence? Does that
mean I can't watch football? What about movies? I mean, we
watch movies that sometimes have violence in them. What is it? What is this loving violence?
Well, so I looked up the word violence. It's the word injustice. Injustice. And I came to understand that
every unbeliever loves an unjust God. They love a God who's going to
be unjust towards them. Now, if a judge lets a criminal
go who's guilty of a crime, that judge is not just. if a judge was, and that's the
way most people think of God, well he knows I'm a sinner but
everybody else is, he's just gonna let it pass. He's gonna
let it go. That's not justice. You see,
men who don't know Christ and don't know anything about the
gospel and don't believe in imputation or justification, they love injustice
when it comes to God concerning themselves. Now, if a judge punished another
person for someone else's crime, that wouldn't be just either.
That wouldn't be justice. God said, I will by no means
clear the guilty. I will by no means clear the
guilty. I will punish every sin. How can we get deliverance from
our guilty conscience? We know we're sinners. We know
we can't measure up to the holiness of God and that's what sin is.
We're not talking about just the horrible things. I hear preachers
oftentimes talking about how awful people are in terms of
how they live. You know, I'm sure there are
some people like that, but most of the folks I know aren't that
way. Most of the irreligious people I know are attempting
to do what's right. They're moral. They're outwardly
ethical. They try to be honest and treat
people right. They speak to you. They're not,
you know, they're not. And what is the sin problem? All have sinned. and come short
of the glory of God. God says whatever in your life
falls short of my glory, that's sin. And the least infraction, God
says the soul that sins shall surely die. Die. Now God is a just God. He is
turning me to Isaiah chapter 45, Isaiah chapter 45. The wicked love violence. Why do they love violence? Because
they love a God who's unjust. And Paul put it like this in
2 Thessalonians Chapter 2. He said, because they have no
love of the truth, therefore God has sent them a strong delusion
that they should believe the lie. So we're not talking about
people that are just living horrible lives. We're talking about people
who are attempting to justify themselves with God. but they
have no love for the truth, but rather they love injustice. They
love a God who's not going to punish sin, not by imputation
and not by justification. Look at Isaiah chapter 45 and
we'll begin reading at verse 20. Assemble yourselves together,
come. You see, this is it. The Lord's temple is, this is
where he, that's what we've done right now. We've assembled ourselves
together and we've come. Draw near together, ye that are
escaped of the nation, that have no knowledge, that set up the
wood of their grave in the image. Now he's talking about the nations
that you've escaped from. He's talking about the religious world
out there. And everybody's religious. I
mean, I know we live in a more, irreligious culture, but even
the irreligious have a religion. They've got a view of God. They're
self-righteous. They're trying to justify themselves. What does God say? They have
no knowledge. They don't know anything about
me. They don't know anything about imputation. They don't
know anything about justification. They don't know anything about
my holiness and my demand for punishing every sin. They pray unto a God that cannot
save. He's not talking about, you know, the psychopath, the
murderer. He's talking about people that
are religious praying to a God that cannot save. It's like this
poor lady. I talked to this recently. You
know, I gave everything I could to this religion, to this denomination. I'm still doing it. But my guilty
conscience is, I can't get rid of it. It's because you're praying to
a God that cannot save. 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's no God beside me, a just God
and a Savior? I don't look over sin. And I don't even punish someone
else for someone else's sin. Now get this, this is key to
understanding imputation justification. You know, we think of God punishing
Christ for our sin but hang with me. 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. I have sworn by myself. The word
is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return that unto
me every knee shall bow and every tongue shall swear. Surely shall
one say in the Lord, have I righteousness and strength. All my strength
and all my righteousness is in him. I have no righteousness
and have no power and no strength outside of him. God says I'm a just God and I'm
a Savior. Now Paul brings this out in Romans
chapter 3. Turn with me there. Before I read this passage, let
me Let me read Ecclesiastes chapter
7 verse 20. There is not a just man upon
the earth that doeth good and sinneth not. Now that's what
God says. And we just read the eyes of
the Lord are trying all men. And God says, I look into the
hearts of men. You look at the outward appearance,
I consider the heart. And when I peer into the hearts
of men, I see, this is God speaking, Genesis chapter 6, I see that
every imagination of their heart is only evil and that continually. They're not capable of having
a holy thought. They're not capable of having
a sinless idea. Everything they do and everything
they think and everything they say is corrupted with their sin. And God says there's not a just
man on the face of the earth who doeth good and sinneth not. In Romans chapter 3, look at
verse 26, I declare, or to declare, I say at this time, His righteousness
that He might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. So God's a just God and he justifies,
he justifies those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, trusting
him for all their righteousness, believing that his work of redemption
is the only hope they have of having their sin put away, but
that it actually did put it away. It actually did put it away.
Pilate's wife got it right when she warned her husband by saying,
have nothing to do with this just man for I have suffered
many things this day in a dream because of him. Now Pilate didn't
heed his wife's warning. But the Lord gave that unbelieving
woman a vision to say to her husband, that's a just man. Hebrews says, we come with the
spirits, we come to Christ with the spirits of just men made
perfect. Now, how am I going to be just
and justified before God? How am I going? It's through
imputation. It's through imputation. And imputation is not just a
doctrine. Remember what I said Sunday, when Abraham paid tithes
to Melchizedek, the Lord was saying, that the law, Moses,
who was the representative of the law, was in the loins of
Abraham when Abraham paid tithes unto Melchizedek. So Abraham,
Moses was paying those tithes. That's what God said. Moses was
in Abraham, in his father Abraham. And in the same way, you and
I were physically, physically in our father Adam in the garden. so that what he did we are charged
with. We are guilty before God for
the sin of Adam. And somebody says, well, I don't
like being guilty for something that somebody else did. Well,
if you don't have imputation with Adam, you can't have imputation
with Christ. Because God said that before
time ever began, God the Father gave to the Lord Jesus Christ
and literally put in the Lord Jesus Christ all of his elect. And so just like we were physically
in the loins of our father Abraham in the fall and suffered all
the consequences of that fall, we are spiritually in Christ
and benefit. You see, When Christ died on
Calvary's cross, he wasn't just dying as a substitute, though
he was. Though he was. Turn with me to
Isaiah chapter 53. The Lord showed me something
here that's just glorious. I hope it will be a blessing
to you. 53. Remember I said if a judge lets
a criminal go who's guilty, he's not a just judge. If a judge punishes one person for the crime
of another, he's not a just judge. Now look what God says in Isaiah
chapter 53 verse 10, It pleased the Lord to bruise
him. God the Father is the one who
slew his son on Calvary's cross. The sword of his justice killed
his only begotten son. And it said that, you see, when
God saw our sin on his darling son, his just nature, gave him
no choice but to put his son to death. Remember, I'm a just
God. Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise
him. He hath put him to grief when thou shalt make his soul
an offering for sin. So it wasn't just the body of
the Lord Jesus Christ that was suffering, it was his soul that
was suffering. And God saw the travail of his
soul and was satisfied. What was in the soul of the Lord
Jesus Christ? What was he bearing in his soul
besides the sins of his people? Well, look. Thou shalt make his
soul an offering for sin. He, that's God the Father, shall
see his seed. Who's the seed of the Lord Jesus
Christ? His church. When God was putting
the Lord Jesus Christ to death on Calvary's cross, God was looking
at those for whom He was dying and putting them to death. That's
why Paul said, I'm crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live. You see, we died on Calvary's
cross just like we died in our father Adam. We died in Christ. And so God is able to be just
and justify. Why? Because He punished sinners
on Calvary's cross. He killed us. He killed every
one of us. He shall see His seed and shall
prolong his days and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in
his hand. Turn with me to Romans chapter
six. Romans chapter six. God saw everyone that he put
in Christ in the covenant of grace before the world. You see
that's why the wicked love injustice because they think that Christ
died for everybody, that God loves everybody and God wants
to save everybody and then he punished Christ for something
that other people are going to be punished for. That's injustice. Everyone that Christ died for
died in him. God put you to death on Calvary's
cross and God saw the seed of the Lord Jesus Christ and God
said, I'm satisfied. I'm a just God. You've been put
to death. It's like I said Sunday, you
put somebody to death for a crime, you can't punish him again. That's
it. So look at what God says in Romans
chapter 6 at verse 3. Know ye not that so many of us
as were baptized unto Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? That's why Paul said, oh, that
I might know him in the fellowship of his suffering. I want to be
more thoroughly, I want to believe more fully that when Christ died,
I died. God punished me. Therefore, We are buried with
him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised from
the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life. For if we've been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him. The old man of sin was crucified
with Christ. that the body of sin might be
destroyed. Now, when God said, when God
used the word might, it's not like, well, it could be or could
not be. No, the body of sin was destroyed at the death of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Sin has no more dominion over
us. You say, well, he sure is real in my life, preacher. Let
me say this. There was a time when sin had
dominion over you. You could not believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. You couldn't believe on him.
You couldn't believe that you were in him on Calvary's cross. You couldn't believe that God
was justified by what the Lord Jesus Christ did. You could not
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because you were dead in
your sins. And when God quickened you and
made you alive, then he showed you that the body of sin was
put to death at Calvary's cross. That henceforth we should not
serve sin, for he that is dead is freed from sin. Now, if we
be dead with Christ, we believe that we should also live with
him. Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no
more, death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died,
he died unto sin once, but in that he liveth, he liveth unto
God. Likewise, reckon, reckon, You know, in the South we say,
well, you know, I reckon so. It could be this way, it could
be that way. No, that's not the word here. It's the word impute.
It's the word impute. Consider it to be so because
it is. And that's what faith does. Faith
just believes God. Faith believes that when Christ
died on Calvary's cross, I died in Him. When Christ was raised
from the dead, I was raised in Him. Sin's been put away. I'm
no longer under the law. The strength of sin is the law. Thanks be to God. I'm no longer under the law.
I'm under grace. I've been set free. I've died. so that when God looks at me, I have no sin. I have no sin. That's what it is to be justified.
You've heard preachers say, well, justified means just if I'd never
done it. Well, that's, you know, you could
say it like that, but that doesn't really give it enough influence. You never done it. It's not just
as if you've never done it, it's been put away. Sin's been buried in the depths
of the sea. All sin, all the sins of all
of God's people, every single one of them. So that he said,
I separate your sins from you as far as these sins from the
west and I remember them no more. He was offered up, Romans chapter
4 verse 25, he was offered up for our offenses and raised again
because... I know the King James says four,
but that little preposition, matter of fact, I looked it up
today. If I can find the... Oh, here it is. Romans 4.25. He was offered up
for our offenses and raised again for our justification, that little
preposition for, because of, for this reason, our justification. You see, it wasn't the resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ that justified us before God, it was
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ and his resurrection was because
we were justified. Justified. No sin. Now I can I live on that. God says I have no sin. God says
I've separated your sin from you as far as the East is from
the West. God said I remember it no more. I'm justified. How am I justified? By imputation. I was the seed of the Lord Jesus
Christ. I was in Him when God killed
Christ. He killed me. You died with Christ,
Romans chapter 6. And that's why Paul said in Galatians
chapter two, I am crucified with Christ. Let's close with that
passage. Turn with me to Galatians chapter
two. Verse 16. knowing that a man
is not justified by the works of the law. How are you going
to be justified by the works of the law? You can't keep God's
law. The law was given in order to
make sin utterly sinful. But by the faith of Jesus Christ,
even we have believed in Jesus Christ that we might be justified
by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. You see,
the wicked love injustice. They want to try to be justified
before God by something they do. But if while we seek to be justified
by Christ, we ourselves also are found sinners, is therefore
Christ the minister of sin? God forbid. For if I build again
the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.
I'm just exposing what I am. I'm a transgressor. For I through the law am dead
to the law that I might live unto God I am crucified with
Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth
in me, and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by
the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself
for me. I do not frustrate the grace
of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ
is dead in vain. I saw hope, the poor lady I talked
to recently will come to hear this gospel. Because it's the only hope for
an honest person to be delivered from a guilty conscience. Imputation
and justification. The wicked The righteous love
it. And God keeps trying the righteous
in order to prove that therein lies all their hope. Amen? All right, let's stand together. Brother Tom, number 27 in the
Spiral Hymnal, number 27. Free from the law's great curse,
in Jesus we are free. For Christ became a curse for
us and died upon the tree. The rituals of the law And all
the Law's commands Have been fulfilled in Christ the Lord,
Established by His hands. No covenant with the law can
now with us exist. Complete in Christ we stand by
grace, both free and ever blessed. No more the dread of wrath. No more constrained by fear. We worship and we serve our God
with gratitude and cheer. In Jesus we are free. In Jesus we are free Free from
all sin and from all guilt We live in liberty We'll join the
happy song With all the blood bought wrong And sing the praises
of the Lamb, Whose grace makes us His own. Thank you.