This evening to the book of Job,
chapter 9, the book of Job. Job chapter 9, verse number 1
and 2. Job replies or answers to Bildad,
one of the physicians who Job determined was of no value. Job
answered and said, I know it is so of a truth. But how should man be just with
God? Or how can man be just with God? That is the question, a great
and important question for you and me, always has been and is
now. How can man be just with God? Now, I do not deny an interest
in the mysteries of providence matters of prophecy. But the
most important matter to me at all times, and it increases as
I grow older and approach the Day of Judgment, is how can I
stand before the Lord God justified and accepted? What do you think about that?
How can I stand before God and be justified and be accepted? I know that your experience is
like mine. You are interested in other things
of the Bible, the mysteries of providence, the great truths
of revelation and prophecy. But as we grow older, the thing
that interests us most is how can we be just before God? How can we be accepted with God? Now, you know, money won't do it. A lot of people
believe that somehow their material wealth and gain will somehow
be the means of their acceptance with God. Someone has said that
money will buy a bed, but it will not buy sleep. They say
that money will buy books, but it will not buy brains. Money
will buy food, but it will not buy appetite. Money will buy
finery, but it won't buy beauty. Money will buy a house, but it
will not buy a home. Money will buy medicine, not
health. It'll buy luxuries, but not culture. It'll buy amusements, but not
happiness. It'll buy a crucifix, but not
a savior. It'll buy a church pew, but it'll
not buy heaven. What's the answer to that question?
How can a man be just before God? How can a man be accepted
with God? In the 7th chapter of the book
of Matthew, the Lord is talking about this Day of Judgment, and
I want to read to you a few verses in Matthew 7 and verse 21. And it says this, Not everyone
that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom
of heaven. Not everyone. There are some
that will, but the implication here is that there's going to
be a whole lot of people. There's going to be a great multitude
of people that's going to say, Lord, Lord. But he says, not
everyone that saith, Lord, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of
heaven. And then the 22nd verse, he says, Many will say to me
in that day, and I think that he's talking about the day of
reckoning. There is a day of reckoning, a day of judgment.
A day when all the loose ends will be brought together. A day
when the dead in Christ shall rise, and they that are in the
grave shall rise, and they that are in that unseen abode of the
place of departed spirits shall rise, and the books shall be
opened. It is a day of reckoning, a day
of judgment. God is going to judge all men, all flesh. And I think that's what it means
when it says, "...in that day. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord..." Now keep in mind in the 21st verse he says, "...not
everyone that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven." Now he says, "...many will say, a multitude
of people will say to me that day, Lord, Lord, have we not
prophesied in thy name." We've preached in thy name, talking
primarily here, number one, to preachers. Have we not preached
in thy name? And that's the reason I say,
as a preacher of the gospel, the older I get and the closer
to the day of reckoning, to the day of judgment, the more interested
I become in the answer to this question, how can a man be just
before God? Money won't do it. Money will
buy a lot of things, but it will not buy acceptance with God.
What's the most important thing for a man to possess in this
life? A title to heaven. A title to
glory. That's the most important thing
that you can possess. Having your possession, retaining
your heart and your knowledge is a title to glory. So the more
we approach that day, Or we become interested in the answer to this
question. He says here, preachers, many have come to me and said,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? We've preached in
your name. We haven't preached in the name
of the devil. We haven't preached in the name of humanity. We haven't
preached in the name of any man. We've preached in your name.
And it was in your name that we cast out devils. and in thy name done many wonderful
works." We've done a lot of things that were determined by somebody
as wonderful works. We've preached in your name,
we've performed miracles in your name. People that had devils,
we cast them out. Demons, we cast them out. I was
talking to a man the other day, just in passing, let me pass
this on to you. I was talking to a fellow the
other day, That has been, he's been insane for fifty-some years. And I visited with him and talked
a little to him and he's taken to his bed and I asked him why
that he decided to get in bed and just stay there and not even
get up for his meals. Well, he said, just tired. Finally, he told me that he hurt
his ankle. He said, I hurt my ankle. I said,
well, how did you do that? He said, I fell down. I said,
did you fall down, slip on the stairs, or did you get tangled
up on a rug or something to that effect? No. He said, I fell down
right at the bottom of my bed. He said, a spirit knocked me
down. He said, I got out of bed and he said a spirit just come
to me like that and knocked me down. I believe that. I believe
a spirit knocked him down. I believe it was an evil spirit.
I believe that there's men and women that are possessed of spirits,
evil spirits. And he didn't bat an eye. He
just told me and he doesn't know anything about the Bible. He
doesn't know the ABCs of the Bible. I don't suppose anyone's
ever read the Bible to him. I doubt it seriously. And he
told me, looked me straight in the eye and he said, a spirit
knocked me down. I didn't fall, they knocked me
down. These fellas, these fellas over here in Matthew chapter
7, They said, We have done miracles in you. We have cast out devils,
demons, spirits in your name. We have done many wonderful works
in your name. And at 23rd verse, and then,
after they get through reciting what they've done, and then will
I, that I is the Lord Jesus, that I capital, I will profess
unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity." Now, I believe that is solemn reading there, isn't
it? Men that have done wonderful, what But just ask yourself, anything
that you've done in the name of the Lord Jesus lately besides
just going to church and trying to be faithful in attending church,
is that the sum and substance? Is that the total of our good
works? The Bible says we're created
in Christ Jesus unto good works. Is that all that... I mean, right
now, if we had dropped everything and judgment was there, What
kind of an answer, what kind of a plea would we make? These
fellows, at least they had something to offer. I'm sure their motives were entirely
wrong, but at least they did something in His name. It was
in His name, not in their name, not in the name of a church,
or denomination, or a people, but they said, we did this in
your name. We cast out devils in your name.
We prophesied in your name. We've done many wonderful works
in your name. Well, he turned to him and he
said, Then will I say. Then will I say. He doesn't say
it now. Men go on now. But he said, Then
will I say, I never knew you. I never knew you. You workers
of iniquity. Now, does not the answer to this
question become just a little more interesting? Job said, how
is it that a man can be just before God? How can he be accepted? Well, how can I stand before
God justified and accepted? Woe to the man who shall be weighed
and found wanting. If I justify myself, Job declared,
He said, my own mouth would condemn me. If I say that I'm without
sin and holy enough for God's fellowship, he said, I'm a liar
and I make God a liar. Now, the Apostle Paul declares
this. He says, it is God that justifies. Turn with me real quick to the
8th chapter of the book of Romans. That's what we're talking about.
We're talking about how can a man be just before God? How can a
man be accepted before God? How can a man be justified before
God? It'll tell us right here in the
8th chapter. It'll tell us who does the justifying. As soon as I find a new Bible
here and the pages stick together, it's difficult for me to do anything. It'll take a long time here,
I guess, before I kind of get them broke in, tore apart. In that 33rd verse of the 8th
chapter of the Book of Romans, listen to what the last statement
of that 33rd verse says. It will tell us who justifies. Listen to what it says. It is
God that justifies. It is God that justifies. He
can. Now listen, He can justify the
foulest sinner. God can justify, He can make
the foulest sinner accepted with Him. He can do it by the substitution
and the satisfaction of His Son, the Lord Jesus. He can make the
unjust just. Think of that. God, through the
substitutionary work, the vicarious substitution of the Lord Jesus
Christ offering Himself in our stead, in our place, and in our
room. God can make this unjust, the
foulest sinner, out of hell. He can make that foul, unjust
sinner just through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He
can make the unjust just, and He can make the unclean clean.
He can cover us with the perfect robe of righteousness so that
we are as pure and as holy as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. We are as pure and as holy as
the Redeemer is Himself. Now, if we could understand,
if men and women could understand that God will not accept anything
short of himself. He will not accept any righteousness
that falls below the standard of his righteousness. God will
not accept anything, regardless of what it is, intentions, various
motivations, various works. God will not accept them unless
they be as God is. Now, through the work of the
Lord Jesus Christ, who is God manifest in the flesh, God can,
and justly and righteously so, God can make us accepted through
the act of obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ by giving himself
into the hand of the Drinking, as we reminded you this morning,
drinking of that cup that God gave him to drink, that cup of
sorrow, that cup of separation, that cup of sin. The Lord Jesus
Christ exchanging, exchanging the love of God for the hatred
of God. God hates sin, and God punish
sin in the person of Christ on the cross. Alright? By and through the Lord Jesus
Christ, He can give us a perfect robe of righteousness and when
He does so, we are as pure and holy as the Redeemer Himself. And the important thing is now,
in light of this justification, through the Lord Jesus. The important
thing is that God can justify us in a way that is consistent
with His holiness, it glorifies His mercy, it honors His law,
and completely satisfies His justice. You see, God, as we've
said hundreds of times, God cannot, God will not show mercy at the
expense of His justice. He won't do it. We were talking
this evening, Bob, about people who are indifferent to the welfare
of their soul. They neglect. They neglect this
great salvation. They neglect the Bible. They
neglect God. They're just indifferent. They
don't care. They go along with their trials,
their troubles, they bear them all. They bear their trials,
let their wife get sick, their children get sick. They bear
all their troubles themselves. They've got no God to go to.
You'd think that if a man was beaten down and driven and deprived,
then somehow he'd look up. Somehow he'd look up and begin
to cry out. But in most cases, that's not
the case. And they bear their burdens alone.
And the question arises, this is why, why when men and women
are told that you have cancer, it's terminal. When they tell
you it's terminal, it means you're only going to live 30 or 40 days,
60 days. That's what it means. They say
it's terminal. They don't mean you're going to live for a year,
just a matter of days. And they say, well, it's terminal.
It's a term, we hate to tell you this, but it's a term, you're
going to die. You're going to die. Heard a fella say one time,
he said that he was operating on this, the doctor was operating
on this man, young fella, about 20 years old, operating on him.
And just before he was to go under, just before they was to
give him the shot that would put him under, he said, he said,
I'm going to give you the opportunity. Looked him in the eyes, he said,
young man, I'm going to give you the opportunity right now
to say something. He said, these will be the last
words you'll ever speak. He said, this is your last opportunity
and this will be the last words that you ever speak if you live
to be a hundred years old. He said, what is it you want
to say? Because he said, I'm going to cut your tongue off
just a little bit. The fellow had cancer of the tongue. Quite a few was told that. Would
you look to God? You'd say, well, I would. Well,
you're in the minority because the majority of people won't. Why is it that men will not?
Consider this question. How can a man be just before
God? Consider their soul. Knowing that they have a soul,
knowing that God demands perfection, knowing that God will not accept
anything less than Himself, but they will not turn. Continue
on. Continue on in their ways. I
told you about the most honest sinner this preacher said he
ever met. It was a heart. out in the state of Texas, said
that there was only one church in the whole town, several saloons, and a girl that was a harlot
there in one of the saloons, she took sick. And she was dying,
they thought. And so they called, they said,
well, the doctor said, well, I can't do anything. Someone
said, well, call the preacher. So they called the preacher,
and he came down. And he talked to her. He talked to her about
her soul. He talked to her about her deeds. He talked to her about
her wickedness. He talked to her about her depravity
and her rebellion against God. And he said, you've got to have
a covering. You've got to have a covering before you go out
into eternity, or you'll stand alone naked. You've got to have
a perfect covering. You've got to have a righteousness
that will make you accepted with God." And he preached unto her
Jesus and said, she just rolled over, turned the other way, big
tears in her eyes. Finally, she turned back to him,
wiped the tears out of her eyes, and she said, preach her. She
said, I'd be the biggest liar that ever was if I told you that
I believe what you She said, if I live, I'll go right back
to doing what I was doing. He said, that's the most honest
sinner I've ever met. The most honest sinner I've ever
met. That's the way most people are. They're indifferent about
this thing. We're talking about it here. I'll tell you why. They think
God's too good to send them to hell. That's right. Most people believe that God
is... They haven't got... They've got a false conception of the God
of the Bible. They think God is as they are. That's right. They think God
is like they are. They say, well, the way I reason
it, I sure wouldn't... or my children, bone of my bone,
blood of my blood, flesh of my flesh, and I love them dearly.
Boy, if they cut their finger wide, I'm excited. If they get
the flu or the measles, I'll stay up all night, and I don't
complain and whimper about it." He said, "'Cause it's the labor
of love to me. That's the way I deal with my
family, and I don't think God's other... I don't think God would..."
He made us? He made us out of the dust? Would
He send us to hell? I'll guarantee you, of course,
You can say you send yourself to hell and all that, and that's
what it amounts to. That's what it amounts to. If you ever say,
if you ever, you and I, any of us, if we ever die and go beyond
this veil of tears and wind up in God's glory, it'll be God's
fault. And if we ever wind up in hell,
it'll be our fault. It'll be our fault. Men are not
concerned about this question. Not concerned about their soul.
They don't care. Trusting in the general mercy
of God. They say, well, God's merciful. I'm trusting in his mercy. Well,
let me tell you this. That's one of the attributes
of God, but he's got another one, and that's that God's just. There's mercy and there's justice.
And God will not exercise mercy at the expense of his justice.
He will not do it. He won't do it. I'm telling you,
my heart bleeds, my heart cries, I plead with you in the name
of everything that's good and holy. God will not show mercy
at the expense of his justice. Justice must be satisfied. Justice
can only be satisfied in the Lord Jesus Christ. It is God
that justifies through the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ satisfies
God's justice that says the soul that sinneth shall surely die.
Christ died. He died on that scandalous cross. He bled. He suffered. He died. He was tortured. He died and
He was buried. And God was satisfied with His
offering and God raised Him from the dead and He ever lives now
for His people on God's right hand making intercession for
His people. Oh, yes, God does not exercise
mercy at the expense of his justice. So you can see then that it's
important, it's important, brethren, that God can justify us in a
way that's consistent. It's consistent with his holiness
and his righteousness. If God would justify us apart
from his righteousness, he would be inconsistent with his holiness.
His holiness would cry out for justice and is before him. Well, the first Adam, you know
about the first Adam? That was the first man that God
made. He's the head, the federal head
of the human race, Adam. God made him. He didn't make
himself. He didn't come up out of some
slimy pit. He evolved from some slimy substance
into a two-legged creature. God made him. God made him and
he made him as an adult. He didn't make him as a baby
either. He wasn't twelve inches long when he was born. And he
wasn't taught to talk. But he had perfect knowledge
right from the beginning. Did you ever think about that?
He had perfect knowledge right from the beginning. God made
him out of the dust of the earth, and he breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life, and he became a living soul. First Adam. Now, as the first Adam stood
before God, he stood there as a representative and federal
head of the whole human race. And it was by his sin, his sin,
you remember what his sin was, God put the tree in the midst
of the garden and told him, said, everything else is yours. You
rule and reign this garden. It's yours. It's your delight.
You do what you want to. Enjoy. Enjoy. Don't eat of that
fruit over there. Don't eat of it. The day that
you eat of it, the day you're going to die. You know what sin
is? It's the transgression of God's
law. God makes the law and you step across it. That's transgression.
That's sin. That's rebellion. That's rebellion.
If I tell my children, now don't do this, and they deliberately
go ahead, plan, premeditate, and cross over, well, you know
what they're doing? That's rebellion. That's rebellion. As the first Adam stood before
God as our representative and the federal head of the whole
human race, it was by his sin that guilt and sin were imputed
and imparted to us. That's how it comes about. So God in grace. In grace. Grace unmerited favor. The favor
of God. That's grace. The favor of God.
And it's not merited on your part. You didn't do anything
to merit this favor, neither did I. See, there wasn't anything
about us that God could see in us that He could say, well, now,
there's a quality about that fellow down there But I just
love his outlook on life and his attitude and that beauty
about his character. I just love that. And because
I see that goodness in him, I'm going to do something for him.
No, that's not it, because there was no goodness in him. No goodness. None whatsoever. A lot of people
can't understand it. They think they're good. They
think they're good and they think that it would be commendable.
for God to associate Himself somehow with them. That somehow
it would enhance the Kingdom of God or enhance the cause and
claims of the Lord Jesus if they were on God's side. They were
doing God a favor. But it's not like that. You see,
God looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if
there were any that do us good. If there were any that were were
righteous and doing good. And he said, no, not one. No, not one single solitary individual. He wasn't talking about was anybody
running around helping their neighbors, cutting their neighbor's
grass, or visiting the sick. He wasn't talking about that.
He looked down in a man's heart and he said, there's none that
do us good, no, not one. He said, they got a bad heart,
every one of them. Noah found grace in God's eyes. Noah found grace. He didn't have
any. He found it. God gave it to him.
It wasn't nothing about Noah. Noah was just as bad as you and
I. God singled him out with divine favor. People told me the other day,
said, well, I just can't understand what you're trying to say. I
can't understand He said, you make it appear that God's unjust. I said, no, you make it appear
that way. I don't. I don't make it appear that way.
I said, that's the conclusion that you've come to. You've drawn
that conclusion that God's unjust. You believe that God's obligated
to do something for you. I said, if you could see that
God's not obligated to do anything for you, then you'd draw the
same conclusion that I do. Well, I can't see it. I can't
see it. God's unjust. If He doesn't save
the whole world, He's unjust. I said the whole world doesn't
deserve to be saved. Nobody deserves to be saved. It's an act of mercy
if God just chooses one. It's an act of mercy on God's
part. He can leave them go. He doesn't need them. He's not
afraid of their opposition. God's not afraid of our opposition.
He can steamroar over top of us anytime He wants to. He can send the whole world into
hell. Ralph Barnard said, before they
could pack their suitcases in hell. That's right. And I said, well, if you think
God's unjust, if you think that God loves everybody, if you think
God's going to save everybody, I said, what do you think about
this? And I told him that, give him that illustration, I've told
you. I said, the whole world was drowning. I said, God poured
out the waters from the heaven and the waters from underneath.
And I said, there was multiplied millions of people upon the face
of the earth. just as unconcerned and indifferent
and neglectful then as they are now. And I said, God brought that
water up and floated that big ark that Noah built. And I said,
there are seven souls out of the world's population on that
ark, just seven of them, just seven souls that God was merciful. And they got on that ark. And
that ark was a type of the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm the door. If any man enter in, he shall
be saved. I'm the door. I'm that ark. You
enter in and you'll be saved. There's safety there if you get
in the ark. Safety from the wrath of God on the outside. If you
get in the ark, you'll be alright. If you get in Christ, you'll
be alright. They all got in that ark. It was pitched within and
without. It had one wind in it, and it
was up to the top, all the way up towards heaven. They got in
that ark. And that thing went on. It began
to raise, and the people began to get excited. And they said,
Well, you know that fellow Noah, the preacher of righteousness,
that told us it was going to rain, and it was going to rain.
Maybe there's something to that, because it's rained now for two
or three days. The rivers have began to overflow their banks.
We've heard that up in the north here that there are certain areas
that are flooded out. People are fleeing. Fleeing to
higher ground. And they began to think about
that and reason about it. They said, well, I don't know
what we're going to do. One thing led to another. The
days began to draw short and the water still continued. And
the first thing you know, people began to move to higher ground
and then to begin to move to higher ground. And then they
doned on him that this man was right. God was going to destroy
them all. And there went that ark. There
went that ark floating by, seven souls in it. They'd come down
and laughed at him all that time. They'd come down and laugh, point
the finger and all that. Now, if God loves everybody without
exception, now hear me. If God loves everybody without
exception, why is it He showed that love by drowning the whole
world? That's mockery, isn't it? That'd
be mockery to say that God loves everybody and He let that whole
world drown. I'm not saying God is a beast. I'm not saying God's a monster.
I'm not saying that. I'm not saying that at all. Don't
you misunderstand me. Go away from here thinking that
I'm saying God's a monster. He's not. He's a loving, kind,
and just, and gracious Father. And He'll save whoever will come
to Him. But listen, if a man never comes to his Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, he'll wind up in hell. He'll wind up in hell. That's right. Listen, I told
you that it was by His sin the sin of Adam, that the guilt and sin was imputed and imparted
to us. Brethren, the Lord Jesus Christ
sent the second Adam. That's the Lord Jesus. He's the
second Adam. He sent him to stand in our stead,
in our place and in our room and impute and impart to us a
perfect righteousness." The Bible says, "...by the disobedience
of one," that's Adam, "...many became sinners. So by the obedience
of one," that's the Lord Jesus, the second Adam, "...shall the
many be made righteous." This is the good news to the guilty
and glad tidings of great joy to the helpless. that the Lord
Jesus Christ lives. The Lord Jesus stood in the stead
of poor sinners, endured their penalty. And how can a man be
just with God, be accepted with God? Through the Lord Jesus. Coming to Him, clinging to Him,
trusting in Him. I'll tell you what, you've all
heard of Isaac Watts. He was a great hymn writer. and
a great preacher. I think Isaac Watts, what are
some of the hymns that Isaac Watts authored? Alas, and did my Savior bleed,
and did my Sovereign die? I think he wrote that. But listen
to what he said. All of you know some of the writings
in form of music, Isaac was. This great writer and this great
preacher declared on his deathbed, this is what he said, he said,
I bless God that his promises are so plain and so simple that
I do not need great wisdom to grasp them. My hope is simply
in the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ, my Lord. And
I say with Isaac Watts this evening, my hope, my hope is in the blood
and in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, my Lord. I stand in Him alone. No righteousness, nothing to
offer God, only Christ. He's my all and my all. All right. That's all I got.