Good morning. Oh, how we hope the Lord will
answer that prayer this morning, that He will be glorified in
our hearts. It's good to see you all this
morning. It's good to be home. Thank you
for your prayers. We had, I thought, a good meeting
in Lexington. we were encouraged to be there
and I was so encouraged to listen to the messages that Dennis and
Michael brought here last Sunday and very very thankful for them. We're going to use this Bible
study hour this morning to do a Bible study and I want to move
very methodically through several passages of scripture that deal
with the subject of justification. This is a doctrine, this is a
truth relating to our salvation that if the Lord gives us grace
to understand it, it will give liberty to your soul and hope
in your salvation. Let's pray together, ask the
Lord's blessing. Our Heavenly Father, we're so
very thankful that you've promised that where two or three are gathered
together in thy name, there you are in the midst. You've said
that if Christ be lifted up, that you would draw sinners to
him. And we ask now, Lord, that that
your Holy Spirit would bless your word to our hearts and that
you would enable us to believe in the truth of the Lord Jesus
Christ being just and justifier of them who believe. We ask it
in his name. Amen. In Job chapter 25 verse
4, one of Job's ask a good question when he said,
how then can man be justified with God? How can man be justified
with God? Or how can he be clean that is
born of a woman? How are we as sinners going to
be able to stand in the presence of a holy God and be accepted
in his presence? And the answer to that question
is that we must be justified. We must be justified before God. Now, justification is necessary because God's law has been broken. Justification presupposes condemnation. You can't understand justification
unless you understand something about condemnation. All these
glorious truths fit together and if we are given grace to
understand one, we'll have the ability to understand the other. An innocent person has no need
to be justified. An innocent person has no need
to be justified. Justification is for the guilty. The Lord said that he would not
allow the guilty to go unpunished. Every sin God requires to be
paid for. So how are we, as guilty sinners,
going to stand justified before God? Now, Elihu, at the end of
the book of Job, in Job chapter 32, the scripture says that Elihu's
wrath was kindled in his heart because Job sought to justify
himself. Now we're pretty good at that,
aren't we? We're pretty good at justifying ourselves among
men. The problem is you can't justify
yourself before God. You can't do it. He knows better. You may fool someone else. You
may even fool yourself. We're able to justify ourselves
to the extent to where we believe it. We really believe it. God can't be justified by man.
Turn with me in your Bibles to Romans chapter 3. We can't be
justified before God by anything that we do. Romans chapter 3, look at verse
24. being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Jesus Christ. So justification and redemption
are inseparably linked one to the
other. Look at the next verse. Whom
God has set forth to be a propitiation In other words, God must be made
propitious. His wrath must be put away. God's angry at sin. He hates sin. It's an offense
to God. He's got to be made propitious.
God has set the Lord Jesus Christ forth to be a propitiation through
faith in His blood to declare His righteousness. Now this matter
of justification has to do with righteousness, it has to do with
redemption, it has to do with propitiation. All these glorious
truths are linked one to the other. For the remission of sins
that are passed through the forbearance of God to declare, I say at this
time, His righteousness. Now Paul goes on in Romans chapter
10 to say that that men being ignorant of the righteousness
of God go about to establish their own righteousness. But
now here he's talking about true righteousness, the righteousness
of God, the perfection of God's holiness and His righteousness. And so this matter of justification
declares the righteousness of God, that He, that God might
be just and justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. So God's the one that has to
justify us because He's the only one that is just. Now someone
has said that the difference between being just and being
justified is that one is just when they are righteous in their
own merit. One is justified when they receive
righteousness based on the merit of another. And there's some
truths to that, but I want you to see that it goes even further
than that as we work through this subject of justification.
Unlike election, unlike election, which is done by God's sovereign
will and purpose. According to His will, according
to His divine purpose, He chose a people before the world began.
I'll have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. I will harden whom
I will harden. God's sovereign in electing a people. But unlike
election, justification requires the obedience of a substitute. We could not just be justified
because God declared it to be so. His law had to be satisfied. A substitute had to present us
righteous before God. Now justification is a work that only God can do. Turn with me, you have your Bibles
open in Romans chapter 3, turn with me to Romans chapter 8. You can't justify yourself before
God. If we're going to be justified,
God has to do it. Verse 32 says that He spared
not His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, How shall
he not with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth."
If we're going to be justified before God, He's got to do it. He's got to reckon the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ and charge it to our account. We can't do anything to make
that happen. God's got to do it. It's God
that justifies. It is a judicial act of God Here's
the definition of justification. Justification is a judicial act
of God whereby the lawgiver, God, reckons the obedience of
Christ to be complete satisfaction for His law, and declares the sinner to be
free from all the demands and all the punishments of the law. You cannot be justified without
a substitute. You can't do it. Galatians chapter 2, will you
turn with me there? Galatians chapter 2 at verse
16. Justification. What is it to
have God as the just one and as my justifier? What is it to be justified before
God? Galatians chapter 2 verse 16.
Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law. That's
clear. The message of the book of Galatians
is contrasting law and grace. The Galatian heresy was that
God has to do a sovereign work of grace in order to regenerate
us, but when he does, he takes us back to the law. And the law
becomes the motivation and the means by which the Lord sanctifies
us. And what the Lord's saying in
the book of Galatians is, you've ruined the gospel of grace. You've
just ruined it. You've inserted works. And if
it is of works, it can no longer be of grace. Otherwise, grace
is not grace. You cannot mix the two. And so
here he says, a man is not justified before God by the works of the
law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ. Now, if you have a translation
of the Bible that says any other thing, and every other translation
of the Bible other than the King James says, by your faith in
Jesus Christ. But the glorious truth is that
our justification is by the faithfulness of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
was faithful to the Father to satisfy all the demands of the
law and present himself before God as our righteousness. Here's
the only way that we're going to be justified, is if we have
a righteous substitute who was perfectly faithful before God.
The scripture says whatever is not of faith is sin. Now you
know what that means? That means that you and I have
never done anything that hasn't been infected with sin. Because your faith is not perfect. His was. His was. If you had perfect faith, you
would never sin. You wouldn't. Lord, I believe,
help thou mine unbelief. Our faith is so fraught with
failure and his wasn't. We're not justified before. Here's
what I'm saying. Don't present your faith before
God as hope of your justification. It's not sufficient. His faith
is the only thing that will justify us before God. His faith is the
only thing that measured up the demands of God's righteousness.
All right? Go back with me to Romans chapter
3. We already read this verse once, but we'll read it again.
Romans chapter 3 at verse 24. Being justified freely by His
grace. Grace. Grace. It's a gift. It's not anything you do. It's free. Freely. Justified
freely by His grace. Don't bring anything to the altar
of salvation. Don't bring anything. You don't
have anything. Not that's pleasing to God. He's
the one that has to justify us. And the only hope that we have
of being justified is having the faithful obedience of the
Lord Jesus Christ offered up to God on our behalf. Look to
Christ. Trust in Christ. Rely upon Him
alone for all your justification, being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Based wholly, wholly, W-H-O-L-L-Y,
wholly on the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. based wholly on
his merits. Can we have any hope of justification
before God? Turn with me to Titus, first
2nd Timothy and then Titus. Titus chapter three. Look at
verse five. not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by
the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost,
which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior,
that being justified by his grace." We're justified before God. by
the grace of God through the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. We should be heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. The only thing that will give
your soul hope in eternal life is to rest it wholly on the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ as all your justification before God.
Don't seek to be justified before God any other way. If the Lord
gives us faith to rest in Christ, then we will have hope of eternal
life. So justification is a work of
God's grace. It is predicated on condemnation. It is God that must do the justifying. Our justification before God
is all of grace. Go back with me to Galatians
again. I should have put these in order
in the books that we were in, huh? Instead of going back and
forth. Galatians chapter 3. I saw something, the Lord showed
me something in this passage of scripture I've never seen
before, and I want you to rejoice in it as much as I have. I hope
you can rejoice in it more than I was able to. You understand,
and I've made a reference to the King James a moment ago,
one of the other good things about the King James Bible is
that when the translators added words to the text, it's in italics. And most of the time, as we've
seen over the years, most of the time those italicized words
actually take away from the meaning of the text. Now there are some
words in this verse I want you to take a black magic marker
and mark them out. They don't belong there. And
they change the meaning of the text in a way that I never saw
before. Just scratch them out. They're italicized words. They
don't belong there. And the book of Galatians is
contrasting law and grace. And the message of the book of
Galatians is before being regenerated, before having the life of Christ
in your heart by experience, you are under the law. You're under the dominion of
the law. You're under the condemnation
of the law. And when the Lord's pleased to
regenerate you, then you discover that you're no longer under the
law. You're now under grace. And you're free from the law.
All right? Look at verse 24 of Galatians
chapter 3. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster. Now a schoolmaster was the slave
in the house that had responsibility of getting the children from
the home to the rabbi. And those children, even though
he was a slave, and they were heirs of the owners of the house. They had possessions that that
slave knew nothing about, yet those children were instructed,
when you're with the schoolmaster, you're under his authority. You're
to obey that schoolmaster. And the schoolmaster took you
to Christ, took you to the rabbi. And that must be the reason why
the translators put the next three words in our text. Because they thought, well, that
makes sense. The schoolmaster takes you to Christ. No, he doesn't. No, he doesn't. The schoolmaster doesn't take
you to Christ. Christ takes you to Christ. Grace takes you to
Christ. All the law does is condemn.
All the law does is say guilty. The text is saying you're no
longer under the schoolmaster, now you're under Christ. Now
men say, well, you've got to preach the law in order for men
to find out that they're a sinner so that they'll see their need
for a Savior. No, you don't. No, you don't. All preaching the law will do
is make men feel either overwhelmed with guilt or it will make them
feel self-righteous. It won't bring them to Christ. The law doesn't take a man to
Christ. You say, well, isn't there a
story about a rich young ruler who came to the Lord and said,
good master, What must I do to inherit eternal life? And the
Lord took him to the law? Yeah. Yeah, there is a story
like that in Luke chapter 18. Was that man converted by the?
No, as a matter of fact, when the Lord said, you know the commandment,
do not commit adultery, do not bear false witness, do not steal. And what did the rich young ruler
say? Well, I've done these things from my youth up. The law didn't
have an effect on breaking his heart. And that's the same story. He
went away sad. He wasn't converted by the law.
He went away sad. All the Lord was doing in that
story is answering his specific question. He said, what must
I do to inherit eternal life? You want to inherit eternal life?
You keep the law perfectly. Keep the law perfectly. That's
what the Lord was doing. He was answering his question.
And after he left, the Lord turned to the disciples and said, it's
impossible for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
It's easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than
for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of heaven, for he
had much wealth. And the disciples threw up their hands and they
said, well, who then can be saved? And the Lord said, what is impossible
with man is possible with God. If he's going to be converted,
he's not going to be converted by having the law preached to
him. He's going to be converted by having Christ preached to
him. For the glory and the beauty and the perfection of the Lord
Jesus Christ is what we need to see. And if we see that, we'll
say like Job, I had heard of you by the hearing of my ear,
but now my eyes have seen you and I repent in dust and ashes.
If we see him, we'll say what Isaiah said, I saw the Lord high
and lifted up, woe is me. It's the glory of the Lord Jesus
Christ that causes us to see that we're sinners. It's not
the law. It's not the law. We don't preach the law to men.
And people who believe that, I know, I've got some friends
that are, you know, that they think, well, you gotta preach
the law to people to make them to be sinners. All they're doing
is promoting themselves as law keepers. That's what they're
doing. They're preaching the law in their own self-righteousness
saying, you need to be like me. You need to be like me. We don't
preach the law. All men need to know about the
law. Here's the only thing you need to know about the law, is
that you have never, ever in your life, in heart, in motive,
in action, in no way, ever, have you ever been able to satisfy
one jot or one tittle of God's law for one second. Never. That's all you need to know about
the law. That's what a sinner is. We don't preach the law in
hopes that men will feel the weight of the law and become
guilty and use the law as a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ. The law
doesn't bring you to Christ. It doesn't bring you to Christ.
What this verse is saying is, verse 24 of Galatians chapter
3, Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster, We were under its
authority unto Christ. Now we're under his authority.
We're not under the law anymore. We're under grace. That's what
he's saying. That we might be justified by
faith. We're not justified because we
feel convicted by the law. Whatever conviction you feel
about your sin, Whatever conviction, whatever sorrow, whatever guilt
and shame you feel about your sin, mark it down. It is infinitely
worse than you think it is. Infinitely worse than you think
it is. Conviction of sin doesn't bring
us to Christ. It's faith in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's faith in His faith. It's
trusting in His righteousness that justifies us before God. You see that? When I saw those words in italics
and I got to thinking about what it is to be justified and what
part the law plays in our justification, my heart just leaped for joy.
to realize the law's not our schoolmaster in that it brings
us to Christ. All he's saying was that you
were under the schoolmaster at one time, now you're under Christ.
You were under the law, now you're under grace. You were condemned
by the law, now you're justified in Christ. Isn't that glorious? Don't go back to the law in order
to see your need for Christ. Tell me about Christ. Lift him
up. Show me his beauty. And his beauty
will be sufficient to expose the ugliness of my sin. Daniel said, when I saw him,
my comeliness was turned into corruption. That's all we need. We just need to see Christ. The
Lord said, and I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men to me.
Let me ask you this, didn't Paul say, when the law came, I died?
Sin revived, then I died. Well, when was Paul converted? When was he converted? And what
part did the law play in his experience with the Lord Jesus
Christ on that road to Damascus? Who art thou Lord? I am Jesus
whom thou persecutest. Oh, he was broken. Why? Because the law of liberty was
lifted up. He saw the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord didn't stand there and
point his finger into the heart of of Saul of Tarsus and say,
you've sinned here and you've sinned there and you've sinned
here. No, he just revealed himself. He revealed himself. And Saul
was broken and converted. We don't preach the law. We don't
take man back to the law. We don't need to. You're not
under the law. Romans chapter 5. I really should
have stayed with one. We've got Romans, Galatians,
Romans, Galatians. You understand Galatians is an
abbreviated Romans. That's what it is. Galatians
chapter 5. How are we going to be justified? Verse 8, But God commendeth his
love toward us, and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. While we were condemned by the
law, while we were just sinners, Christ died for us, much more
than being now justified by his blood. How are we going to be justified?
How can a man be right with God? How can a sinner be justified
before God? How can a man born of a woman
stand in the presence of God? How can it be? Only by having
his garments washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. You are not redeemed with corruptible
things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of
the Lamb, the Lamb of God, without spot and without blemish. It
takes the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why God told Moses,
when I see the blood, I'll pass by you. What made the difference
between the Egyptians and the Israelites in Egypt? It was the
blood. It was the blood. we're justified
right here justified by his blood Matthew chapter 12 verse 37 it
says by thy words shalt thou be justified and by thy words
thou shalt be condemned what does that mean if God's gonna
condemn me by the words that I've spoken I'm in trouble He's
talking about what you say about your righteousness before God.
What you believe is what you say. Out of the heart, the mouth
speaks. You want to know what a person
believes? Just listen to them. Let them tell you about what
they believe and who they believe. And you'll find out real quick.
The Lord says you'll be justified by it. What are our words? Well, we've been speaking them,
haven't we? I got a dear email from a young
lady this past week, and she was telling me about trying to
have a conversation about the gospel with her boyfriend. Let me insert something right
here. Have you noticed how prevalent the word conversation has become
in our vocabulary recently? We need to have a conversation
about this and we need to have a conversation about that. And
what that means is we need to come together and compromise
and find some, and I'm sure there's a lot of subjects we need to
have conversations about, but not the gospel. We don't have
a conversation about the gospel. You don't give me your opinion.
I give you my opinion and we find some middle ground of compromise. That's why we preach. Preach
to me. Tell me what God says. Don't
leave me any wiggle room. Don't leave me any place to have
a conversation. Just tell me how it is. That's
what I want to know. Tell me what God says. Tell me
truthfully from the scriptures. And anyway, she said in her email,
she said, she said, I just don't feel capable
of debating with him over this. She said, every time I get in
a conversation with him, I lose. He's more skillful in his debating
skills and I just feel like he walks away thinking that he's
right. And here's the thing I want you to hear. She said, I know
what I believe. And when I hear it preached,
I'm able to rejoice in it and I see the difference. I see the
difference between the gospel that you're preaching and what
my boyfriend believes. I see the difference. I just
can't, I can't, young lady, she said, I just can't, I don't feel
capable of defending it. But I do know the difference.
And when I hear it, I say in my heart, amen, that's the truth. Maybe that's you. Maybe you feel,
you know, I just, by my words I'm justified, but I can't speak
the right words. But when I hear them, when I
hear them, I know they're true. I know the difference, and I
rejoice in them. And I'm able to say, here's how
you're going to be justified before God. When you hear the
gospel, you speak, Amen. Amen. That I believe. I may not be able to defend it
well, I may not be able to explain it well, but amen, that's the
truth. By your words, you'll be justified. And if that's the only word you
can speak, that'll be enough. That'll be enough. But if you hear the gospel and
you say, yeah, but, then by your words you'll be condemned. justified. Oh, to be justified
before God. Might you find the Lord Jesus
Christ to be just and the justifier? Let me close with this. I opened
up by saying that some have said to be just means that you're
perfect before God in the merit of your own righteousness and
to be justified means that you're perfect before God in the merit
of another's righteousness and that's true but but the scripture
says the just not the justified the just shall live by faith
and the scripture refers to Lot of all characters in the Bible
Lot who lived in Sodom And the scriptures refers to Lot as just,
not justified, but just Lot. What's the point? The imputation
of the righteousness of Christ is so real and so personal that
it goes far beyond just a legal arrangement that God has made
with God. It's yours. And in your new man,
in your new man, As He is, so are we in this world. God says, not only are you justified,
you're just. That's glorious. That's glorious. All right, let's take a break. All right.