I'm going to ask you to take your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Job, chapter 8. Job, chapter 8. That's right. As I was going over my notes this morning, reading this precious passage of scripture, I truly, I mean this, I was all over the place wondering where am I going to start. How can one so insufficient as myself know how to even comment on such a subject. I pray that God bless this service. I really do. I thought to myself, if this is the last time I ever preach, Lord, help me. Help me to set forth your glory and your honor and your praise.

A man named Bildad in Job chapter 8 asked Job a question. Verse 3, Job chapter 8 and verse 3. Here was the question. Does God pervert judgment or does the Almighty pervert Is God going to, let me say it so you can understand it, a part for the righteousness of Christ being imputed to a man, a woman? except the Lord himself. Do something for helpless, sinful creatures like we are. Unless God does something, all men, all women are going to hell. That's what Bildad asked Job in Job 8.3. Does God prefer judgment? Is God going to cut any man, any woman outside of Christ any slack? The answer, no. No. If there's ever been a message that I need to hear again. Barrett's this one right here. I need to hear this because I'm going to tell you something. We're all going to meet God. We're all going to meet almighty God and we're going to meet him in absolute justice and judgment. For or against? If there's ever been a question that every person, every man, every woman needs to consider, it's this.

Job 9, chapter 2. I know it is so of a truth. But how should man be just with God? How? How? Here's what it's all coming to. Romans 14.10. For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. We're all going to stand before God. an almighty God who is fair, fair, just. The Lord Jesus said in Matthew 25, 31, 32, when the Son of Man shall come in his glory and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory and before him shall be gathered all nations and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divided his sheep from the goats.

Beloved, there's an issue, an issue concerning sin that should concern every man, every woman born in Adam. And this issue of sin is going to be dealt with It's gonna be dealt with. It's gonna be dealt with before or after everybody in this room leaves this world. It's gonna be dealt with. I shudder to think. I'm sorry if I sound serious, it's because I am. I've had a very serious morning. But I'm going to tell you something. Everybody in this room is going to meet God. And we're going to stand before God. I know this. Almighty God is holy. Almighty God is just. Almighty God is righteous. And here's our problem. We are all sinners before God. We were born in sin. We came forth from our mother's womb speaking lies.

Oh, I pray that God bless this message today. I cannot say that enough. If you would have only seen how when I was going over my notes, I was trying to decide whether to rewrite them, preach them as I wrote them, redo them, mark through them. I didn't know what to do. But it just caused me to cry out. Greg, God, have mercy. Have mercy. Here's where we are. Scripture says in Isaiah 1, 5, 6, the whole head is sick. and the whole heart is faint. From the sole of the foot, even unto the head, there is no soundness in it, but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. They have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. How can he be clean that is born of woman? my first point. I cannot justify myself. I cannot justify myself.

Job 920 says this, if I justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn me. If I say I am perfect, it shall also prove me perverse. That means if I say that I'm right before God, that I've done something, I've done something, I joined the church, I got baptized, I've prayed the sinner's prayer, If I say I justify myself, all I'm going to do is prove my corruption. That's all I'm going to do.

Listen, I cannot say this enough to myself. I'll say it, you listen in. But I'm saying this to me. Marvin, Romans 3.20. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, what does that mean? Therefore, by the deeds of the law. That means that if there's anything that you think you've done to justify yourself before God, you've done something, you've done something. I said, I got baptized, I spoke in tongues, prayed the sinner's prayer, I shook the preacher's hand, I gave my heart to Jesus, and therefore because I did that, I'm right before God. If, I just read this, I justify myself, my own mouth shall condemn me. If I say I am perfect, it shall also prove me corrupt. or wicked.

No act of man's ability. No act of man's ability. Nothing that a man or a woman can do. Listen. Listen, please. Nothing that any man, any woman can do will be considered by Almighty God profitable. Nothing that a man or a woman can do. Job 14.4 says, Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? The Holy Spirit said in the conclusion of that verse, not one. Who can do that? One born in Adam, nobody in Adam.

Not being able to justify myself, not looking to anything that I have done, not looking for anything in myself for righteousness. Everything that the Apostle Paul, Paul was a Pharisee, one of the strictest orders, one of the strictest sect, a Pharisee. And he bragged on himself, born the right day, I was born in the right family, I did this, I did that. And then he said, what things were gained to me, those I count lost. Lost. For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung. I'm right before God because I made a profession of faith and therefore that's dung. I'm right before God because I got in the baptismal pool, that is dung. if you think that you're right before God because you did that, not by the deeds of the law.

Paul says, to be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God. I never ceased to be amazed at my own stupidity before the Lord was pleased to call me out of darkness. I could read that scripture and it says, not by the deeds of the law, not by the deeds of the law, not by the deeds of the law.

Somebody asked me, are you saved? Yes, I am. Why are you saved? Because I gave my heart to Jesus. You say, well, then that's That's something you did in order to be saved. That's the law. No, no, it's not the law. Before a man or a woman is called out of the darkness of sin and unbelief, they can hear the word of God and they understand the words and they don't hear. They have to have a new ear of faith. I'll give you a new heart and a new ear. People will admit when you say, do you believe in salvation by works? Oh, no. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. I don't believe that. By works, no. Well, then how were you saved? Well, because I got baptized. I cannot justify myself. I can't do it.

Here's my second point. God alone justifies the ungodly. God alone justifies the ungodly. And listen to this. Man has no part in it. No part in it. Salvation is of the Lord. It's not salvation and me. It's not salvation and you. It's not the Lord in you. Salvation is of the Lord.

Romans 8, 33. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Now listen to this. It is God that justifies. Now was there anything else added to that besides God? Who shall charge God's elect with the condemnable crime of sin if God has justified them?

Here's my first point. I am a sinner that cannot justify himself. Here's my second point. Only God can justify a sinner. Only God can do it. Only God Almighty can pronounce them just in His sight.

Romans 3, 24, being justified. I've said this before, I'm saying this for my benefit too. Again, you can listen in on this if you want to. Justified. If somebody asked you, said, now what, when you're saying justified before God, what do you mean? This is what I mean. No charge. No guilt. No infraction. Justified. God Almighty looks at a man and a woman that are justified in his sight and said, no evidence of sin. No evidence. There's nothing there to charge.

I cannot justify myself. I'm a sinner. I cannot justify myself. And since I can't justify myself, then any works that I do, thinking that I've justified myself, makes me guilty of thinking that I can do what God says I can't do. I can't do it. According to God's word, no man has the ability to make himself clean before God.

So my first point was this. I cannot justify myself before God. I cannot make myself not guilty before God. I can't do it. I can't do it. And I can't do anything to change that myself. I can't do it.

Now if you're guilty before God, And you cannot do anything to change that state. Well, let me just come to this point. I can tell you right now, Lord willing, there's going to be another message after this one. Not today, but because I know I'm not going to finish this, Neil.

If I'm guilty before God, all of sin comes short of the glory of God. and I can't do anything to change it. Only God can do it. I'm guilty, and I can't change it. Well, here was Job's question. Job 9-2, I know it is so of a truth. But how? How should man be just with God?

Now, buddy, let me tell you something. That's a question of all questions. How? How? How should man be just with God? That I'm guilty is an absolute reality. I mean, I've got enough sense to know that I'm guilty. I'm a whole lot more guilty than anybody in here, I guarantee you.

Oh, he said, no, Marvin, no, believe me. We know that almighty God must justify a sinner. God's got to do it because I'm guilty and I can't change it. But how? How? That's the answer. This justification. before God is a point that is sure that we need. I need to be justified. If I'm going to spend eternity with the Lord, God is going to have to do something for me, something that I can't do. I can't fix it. I cannot fix it myself. I cannot do it. God's gonna have to do it for me.

Okay, now listen. I've got some good news for you here. Almighty God has eternally been pleased that he was gonna justify a people. And here's a wonderful thought. If the Lord does it, If the Lord does it, then he's going to accept it. Because if he does it, it's right. And he's not going to bypass justice. He is going to deal with it. And that's the best news I've ever heard in my life. Lord, would you allow me to just be able to hear one more time, just tell me, I know I've been, I've been here, I've been here for 22 and a half years trying to preach this. And I guarantee you before I was here, Scott was preaching it too. But Lord, would you allow me just one more time? One more time. Would you hear, let me hear it one more time. Just, just one more time. I want to just make sure I hear it because I need to.

The Scripture says, according to Jeremiah 31.3, that there is a people found in this world, in this world and those that's left this world, that there's a people out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. It's in Revelation 5, just for the sake of time, I'll just tell you, read Revelation chapter 5. There's a people out of every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue, that God has been pleased to set his affection on. In Ephesians 1, read Ephesians 1, God Almighty has chosen a people. Somebody said, well, now, if you're going to start on that election stuff, I just don't know about it. Well, okay. Well then, I'm not talking to you then. But I'm talking to the people that's interested in it. God hath been pleased to choose a people, Ephesians chapter 1. He's been pleased to choose a people that he's going to show mercy to. I'm going to show mercy to you. Now, if I know, if the Lord's given me a heart to be interested in this, then I want to hear it again. God's got a people that he's loved.

In Revelation 17, 8, this is what the scripture says. The names of these people that God has everlastingly loved has been written. Revelation 17, 8, if you want to take some notes, write it down. And those names have been written in the Lamb's Book of Life from the foundation of the world. Before the foundation of the world, God wrote their names. Before my mom and daddy ever decided to call me Marvin, David Stoniker, God knew my name before they were ever born, and I was born, and everybody else was born. And he wrote my name in the Lamb's Book of Life. And from the foundation of the world, Almighty God has been pleased. He's going to satisfy His justice for those that He's chosen.

The Lord said, I lay down my life for who? You know, the sheep. I lay down my life for the sheep. Somebody said, well, I've always heard that he died for everybody. Well, the only problem with that is that the Lord didn't say it. It doesn't matter. I can say that, you know, that I'm purple. But it doesn't make me purple. The Lord has laid down his life for the sheep. They've been considered, every one of them chosen of God, in the glorious person of their surety, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he betrothed them. unto himself as his bride in marriage, in that marriage covenant, a union that's never going to be dissolved.

Okay. I'm a sinner. I can't change it, but God has been pleased to show mercy to me. How? How is he going to do it? How has he done it? Let me say it like that. How should man be just with God when the scripture says he will in no wise clear the guilty? How am I going to be clean before God When Almighty God has declared that I'm a sinner, well, here's what he's gonna have to do. He's going to have to bear their guilt in his own body. 2 Corinthians 5, 21. I've looked at this scripture so many times, you have too, and it's still a passage that just amazes me. 2 Corinthians 5.21. He, the Father, made him sin. Now, somebody said, well, now explain it to me. I might say, now, are you saying that he was a sinner? No, sir. He was not a sinner. But God Almighty made Christ, for those that He everlastingly loved, He made him sin. Explain it to me. I cannot. I cannot. I'm not going to use a different word. I'm not going to ask. Are you saying that he was infused? Somebody say that. Are you saying that he was infused with sin? I said, well, I don't know. I don't even know what you're talking about. But I will tell you this. God made him sin.

I've told you before, I don't even know what sin is. I don't know what it is. I can see the effects of it. Sin is the transgression of the law, I've told you before, okay? Explain that to me. Transgression of the law. I know it has something to do with disobedience. I don't even know what it is. I am so simple minded. I don't understand, but I know whatever it is, God's going to deal with it and has dealt with it in the person of his son. He, the father made him sin. that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

How should a man be just with God? The Lord is going to have to take what I am, and He's going to have to be made that sin, that I might in Christ be made the righteousness of God in the Lord Jesus Christ. He's going to have to make me to be without sin, without guilt, to justify this sinner. He's going to deal with it and he's going to give me the righteousness of his son.

Now, when I tell you that these things are too high for me, we sit here and debate this all day long, and just say, well, no, no, no, no. I said, I'm going to tell you something. I'm going to believe God, and I'm not going to believe me. I'm not going to believe my foolish thinking or trying to listen to somebody lie to me. God Almighty, whose law requires Perfect obedience. No infraction. Not one thought of disobedience. Not one thought of sin. I can't even preach a message without having stupid stuff fly through my brain. I can't do it. I cannot do it. If I'd say I'm clean before God, if my thoughts while I've been preaching, would be brought before the bar of God's judgment, I'd be out of here in hell. I can't do it. I need God to do something for me that I can't even figure out. I need the Lord to save me. I need to make, I need for Him to make me clean in His sight.

How? There's one way. There's one way. God must deal with me in a substitute. He must become what I am that I might be made who He is in Him. I said, are you saying that you're perfect in Christ Yes, in Christ, yes. Apart from Him, no. I am one with Him. Again, don't ask me to explain this to you. I'm just telling you what the scriptures are saying. The scripture says, in Him, there is no sin. There's no sin. Is that not the most amazing thing? that you've ever heard in your life that God Almighty would have his people, would be made what his people are. He made him sin that we might be made the righteousness of God.

Now, I've still got a bunch of notes, but I'm going to wrap this up for today. Like I said, Lord willing, I'll just pick it up next time. I've got a few other things to say, We've had a good morning. At least for myself, I've gotten a few things off my heart that I wanted to say. But I want you to turn with me to Ezekiel 36. I saw something this morning that I thought, Lord, help me. I'd like to end this message on this. Ezekiel 36, I want to read verse 24 and 25. I think to myself, how is God gonna do something? And I'm just gonna take the word of God. I'm gonna take what God has to say, and I'm not gonna sit here and try to dazzle you. Brother Don Fortner told me one time, he said, Marvin, some of the biggest messes that we ever make as preachers is trying to explain something that we can't even grasp hold of. He said, don't try to mess it up by making people think you understand more than you do. Just tell them what God says.

So here's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna just tell you, when Job asked, how, how should man be just with God? Ezekiel 36, 24, 25. All right, now listen. Verse 24, Ezekiel 36, for I will take you from among the heathen. All right, now, Lord, that's good news. You will take your people from among the heathen and gather you out of all countries. Okay, so you're gonna do this. I can't gather myself. I'm just here. And I will bring you into your own land.

Now here's one that I just rejoice in. Then I will sprinkle clean water upon you. Now I can tell you that this clean water is the blood of Christ. That clean water, it's the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I will sprinkle clean water upon you. Now, if you want to know how can a man be just with God, number one, he's going to have to be sprinkled by the blood of Christ, with the blood of Christ. Now, let me ask you this. How are you going to do that? How are you going to do it? You see what I'm saying? It's just the more I looked at it, Pat, the deeper it got.

I will sprinkle clean water upon you. And then here's another precious promise, something I can sink my teeth into, and I can say, the Lord said this, and this is the way it is. And you shall be clean. Well, I can tell you this, I don't feel clean. I think stuff I wish I didn't. I do stuff I wish I didn't. I will sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean. From all your filthiness and all your idols will I cleanse you.

Here's what I know. How should a man be just with God? Almighty God is going to have to take clean water, the blood of Christ. Can you imagine where you're going to get it? Where are you going to come up with it? The blood of Christ, how you gonna get it? With man, this is impossible. With God, all things are possible. He provides the blood. He sprinkles the blood. And he sees the blood. And he said, when I see the blood, I'm gonna pass over you.

Lord, would you save this feeble creature? Lord, would you have mercy on me? And Lord, do what only you can do. And God forbid that I could sit here and think that there's something that I can do by the deeds of the law and justify myself before God. I can't do it. But you know the only one that believes that he can't do it? You know the only one that believes he can't do it? Is the one that the Lord's taught he can't do it. Man by nature thinks he can. And he'll hold on to that, and he'll hold on to that, and he'll be holding on to it all the way to hell.

God have mercy on us for Christ's sake. Amen.