I want to ask you to give me
about 30 minutes of your time this morning. Yesterday, Ronnie,
my granddaughter, asked me, she said, Papaw, how long are you
planning on preaching tomorrow? I said, about 30 minutes. The older I get, and the longer
that I walk by faith in Christ, The more I love the subject of
justification, the act of being made just, holy, sinless, and
perfect before God. So I want for you to first turn
with me to the book of Isaiah. Just want to show you one verse
here, chapter 45, Isaiah chapter 45. And here God tells us something
about himself that I believe will help us. Isaiah chapter
45. I want you to look at the last
phrase of verse 21. God says here, there is no God
else beside me, a just God and a savior. There is none beside
me. Now that statement by God concerning
himself, tells me everything that I need to know as to how
to be reconciled to God. You might say, well, how so?
Well, let's think about it. Let's look at it together. First
of all, there's only one God, and that's not you or me. There
are men and women today who think they determine their own destiny.
Their salvation is in their hand, them exercising their will or
making a decision to follow Christ. I'm telling you that's not so.
That's not what the Bible teaches. There's only one God and you
and I are not He. Secondly, that one God is a just
God. He said, I'm a just God. And
thirdly, that one God is a savior. If I'm ever to be redeemed, if
I'm ever to be saved, if I'm ever to be brought into fellowship
with God, I must look to him to be saved. Isn't that what
he says in verse 22? Look to me and be saved. all the ends of the earth, for
I am God." And he repeats those words again, and there is none
else. I must know, I must see, and
I must look to this God in a saving way. Isn't that what Christ said? He said, and this is eternal
life, that they might know thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ,
whom thou hast sent. And if you and I are ever to
have eternal life, are you interested in eternal life? If you and I
are to ever have eternal life, we must know the only true God. There's just one. Just one God. Not an imagined God. I hear men
and women talk about an imagined God. Not an imagined God. Not a helpless God. God is not
helpless. Not a God who is dependent on
man for anything, but the true God whom this book declares and
proclaims. You and I both hear folks talk
about their God and their Savior, and we scratch our heads and
we say, well, that doesn't at all resemble the God of the Bible. So let's talk about the foundation
of what the Holy Bible lays concerning God. We just mentioned it, let's
mention it again. There's only one God. There are
three persons in the Godhead, but there's only one God. God
is in three persons. God the Father, God the Son,
God the Holy Spirit, but He's just one God. That's not hard,
is it? Impossible to believe apart from
God's grace, but it's not hard to understand. Secondly, God
is a just God. You must ask yourself, is my
God a just God? Is your God a God of justice? That's what that means. Is your
God a God who must punish sin? Or, does your God love everybody? Did your Savior die for every
man and every woman? Will your God simply forgive
sin? We say, sweep it under a rug.
Will He simply forgive sin if you give Him your heart? There
are many who think that God loves sinners too much to condemn them
and send them to hell. Well, God wouldn't do that. He's
a God of love. Well, you better read your Bible.
God is a holy God and he will by no means clear the guilty. He must punish sin. Why? Because he's a just God. Is your God a just God? You better
find out. God didn't just make salvation
possible for all, and those who exercise their will and accept
Him will be saved. No, sir. That's not the truth.
The God of the Bible is a just God. He's a God of justice. He's
a God that must punish sin. God's holy law demands it. God's holy justice requires it. A just God must enforce His law. A law that is not enforced contains
no justice. Justice is the enforcing of the
law. What good, honestly, this is
a simple question, what good is it for us to have laws if
they're not enforced? What good will the law do us
if there's no consequence for breaking it? God is a just God,
a God of justice. He will by no means clear the
guilty. There's never been, now listen,
there's never been a sin pardoned, forgiven, without atonement made
since the world began. God doesn't just turn his back
on sin. There's never been an offense
forgiven without an atonement made. There's never been an offense
forgiven that the law didn't receive the fullest vindication,
or it cannot be forgiven. That's just so because God is
a just God. And I mean to be redundant. I
mean to be repetitive. I want you to see how just God
is. Every transgression shall have
its just recompense of reward, Hebrews 2.2. Every offense, for
every offense, for every sin, there's gonna be a stroke of
justice, and for every iniquity, there's gonna be a punishment.
Why? Because if God be just, and He
is, if God must punish sin, and He will, if sin is what I am,
not just what I do, what then can I do to be spared? That's
the question. What then can I do to be justified? I'm here to tell you right now,
nothing. You can't do anything to be justified. Nothing. You and me, in and of
ourselves, are unable to do anything to appease God. Something must
be done for us. Now can we all agree on that?
That's what makes the third truth about God so glorious. Only one
God. He's a just God. And the third
thing is that God is not only a just God, but He's a Savior. He's a God who is just, and He's
a Savior. He's both. God hath made this
same Jesus that men took by wicked hands and crucified. The scripture
said He's made Him both Lord and Christ. He's a just God and
a Savior. He's the just one. He's the one
who justifies. He's both. He's too righteous
to excuse sin, and yet for His elect people, He became a Savior. Now I want you to turn with me
to Romans chapter 3. That's where we'll spend the
rest of our time. Romans chapter 3. And I'll begin
in verse 36, but we're going to jump all over this chapter. Romans chapter 3, verse 26. And
I want to remind you once again that this is who we preach. What
do you preach at your church? No, don't preach a what. We preach
a who. This is who we declare. Jesus Christ is our message.
Romans 3 verse 26, Paul says to declare, that means to preach.
To preach, I say at this time what? His righteousness. That's what we preach, the righteousness
of Christ. We declare, we proclaim His righteousness. Now, again, that'll mean something
to you if you see that you don't have any righteousness. Do you
see that you don't have any? It'll mean something to you if
you see that you don't. And I wanna remind you again,
we saw this in a study Probably been a year or so ago now, and
it's just such a blessing to me. I've never forgotten. That
word righteousness in the original language, original Greek, it's
the same Greek word that means equity. Equity. You all know what equity is.
You have equity in your home. It means you have value in your
home. It's worth more than you owe
on it. equity. God's righteousness is
what enables him. God's equity is what enables
him to be both just and justifier. You see, Christ justifies his
people. That simply means he makes them
equitable. As our justifier, Christ renders
and regards his people righteous. So again, God is just, God is
equitable. We have no righteousness, we
have no equity in and of ourselves. God makes us what Christ is and
God makes us what God requires. That's the gospel. It has to
do with substitution. It has to do with God, the only
God, the just God being not only just, but also the justifier
of them that believe in Him. That's who it's for. Christ is
both just and justifier for who? Look at verse 26. It tells us,
those which believeth in Jesus. We have no righteousness. We
have no equity. Isn't that what Paul tells us
in this chapter? Well, sure, look at verse 10.
As it is written, there's none righteous, no, not one. None
of us have any equity. None of us have any righteousness.
Not a one of us. We have no value to God in our
fallen state of sin. Verse 11, there's none that understands. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God, their foolishness unto him. Neither
can he know them because they're spiritually discerned. There's
none that understands God. There's none that seeks after
God. Christ came to seek and to save that which was lost,
but we weren't seeking Him. We were skipping right along
on our way to hell before God intervened in mercy and grace.
And I'm telling you, every child of God will tell you that's so.
Verse 12, we've all gone out of the way, out of the way of
the one who is the way. We were all traveling that way
that seemed right unto a man. We were all going our own way,
that way that leads to destruction. We all like sheep have what?
Gone astray. We've turned everyone what? To
his own way. And the world may love to sing
along with Frank and Elvis, I did it my way. But friends, I'm telling
you, I don't want my way. Do you? No, sir. We've all gone
out of the way. We've all gone our own way, that
way that seems right unto a man, but the end thereof is the way
of death. No, don't want my way. We are
together unprofitable. Do you see that? Do you know
what that word means? Spoiled. Spoiled. Boy, there's nothing
worse than to go to the refrigerator, and my, there's something spoiled,
and you're like, whew, what is that? Spoiled, it's spoiled,
it's damaged, disfigured, ruined, destroyed. We are all together
without equity, without righteousness, without value to God. We're spoiled,
we're damaged, we're ruined by the fall. We're destroyed. Has God shown you that? What is man that thou art mindful
of him? What is man that he should be
clean, and he which is born of a woman that he should be righteous?
How then can man be justified with God? Or how can he be clean
that's born of a woman? Because they're spoiled. And
these are the questions that we must answer from God's Word. If we're ever to have any understanding
of what it is to be justified by a just and holy God. Again, verse 12, there's none
that doeth good, no not one. And Paul just quickly here gave
us six things that by themselves would and should sin and condemn
each of us forever in hell. Then you add all these other
things. He's not through yet. Look at verse 13. Our words are
a grave. They're an open sepulcher. Words
of death is what we speak. Our tongues are deceitful. Our
lips are poisoned. Mouths full of cursing, verse
14. Now that doesn't mean that we use cuss words. That means
that we curse God. We curse His purpose. We curse
His providence. Oh, you know that it's so. Let's
be honest with ourselves. And with that comes, with that
cursing comes bitterness. The things of the Spirit of God
are bitter to us. A sovereign God has an unpleasant
taste and smell to it. Our feet are swift, quick to
shed blood, verse 15. Most of the time we shed blood
with the words of poison and cursing and bitterness. James
said, the tongue no man can tame. It's an unruly member full of
deadly poison. Verse 16, we're destructive. Destruction is in our way. We
run to destroy. We fracture. We break because
we ourselves are broken. Misery is in our way. Our way
is one of misery. That word means distress, despair,
wretchedness, adversity, affliction, tragedy, disaster. Oh, do you
see how God sees us? We don't know the way of peace,
verse 17. A sinner will not know where
to find peace until the Lord shows him. Men, lost sinners,
will cry, peace, peace, where there is no peace. They're looking
for peace in all the wrong places. We have no fear, that word means
alarm, of God before our eyes. And you know people this way,
by nature, no sinner sees God as one who must be obeyed, as
one who must be respected, bowed to, made subject to. Why, by
nature, we will not have this God rule over us. We want our
way, not His. Men and women try to make God
a servant to their will and to their work and to their way.
Men brag on what they do for God. Men think that God rewards
them for the things they do. Men in their fallen state have
no fear of God. They take God's glory for themselves. Now remember, Just don't forget
that there's just one God and He's a just God. God's a holy
God. God cannot forgive sin. Sin has to be dealt with for
God to be just. Sin has to be punished. The law
of God is holy. The law of God demands perfection. The law of God demands perfection
on every account. Paul said, or James said, for
whoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point,
guilty of it all. Guilty of it all. To obtain perfect
righteousness, to obtain justification, you've got to keep all the law,
or you're guilty of the whole law. You've got to keep each
law perfectly, or you're guilty of every single law. Now who's responsible to keep
God's law? Look at verse 19. Now we know
that what thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are
under the law. Well, how does that affect me?
Because it does because every fallen wretched son of Adam is
under the law and responsible to keep it. You are responsible
to keep God's law. Read on, verse 19. Why did God
give His law? That every mouth may be stopped,
and all the world may become guilty before God. If God ever
shows a man who he is, that man's going to shut his mouth, and
he's going to become guilty before God. Has the holy law of God
stopped your mouth? Has the holy law of God convinced
you of your sin and guilt? Do you see yourself as guilty
before God? That's a very important thing. You need to consider that question. Remember, only one God. That
one God is holy and just. He will not excuse sin. He requires perfection. You cannot
provide what God requires. Here's the reality of salvation
by works. Look at verse 20. Therefore,
by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in
His sight. With that said, is there any
hope of salvation by works of righteousness that we do? Is
there any way a sinner can be saved by doing? Absolutely not. So, is there any way a sinner
can be saved Yes, there is. God is a just God and a Savior. God never expected
for us to save ourselves. Why then did God give us His
law? Well, the last part of verse 20 tells us, for by the law is
the what? Knowledge of sin. In Romans chapter
7, verse 7, Paul said, I had not known sin, but by the law. For I had not known lust, except
the law had said, thou shalt not covet. You see why God gave
the law? To show you you couldn't keep
it. Right? Friends, if you and I can really
get a hold of this truth, I'm telling you, we'll shout for
glory. God didn't give us the law for us to keep in order to
be righteous. That's great news when you see
you can't keep it. God gave us the law to show us
that we couldn't keep it. God gave us the law to drive
us to Him for mercy. The law was our schoolmaster,
what? To bring us to Christ. that we
might be justified by faith, by believing in Him, that we
might be made righteous by believing. And that's the gospel. Remember,
we have to be as holy, just, and righteous as God in order
to be saved. Verse 21, but now the righteousness
of God without the law. is manifested. All that just
jumped out on the page to me. Without the law is manifested. Key words, without the law. That's
so important. There's now a righteousness,
and I might add a perfect righteousness, available to a sinner without
the law. Oh my, the law condemned me.
The law proved me to be guilty. The law exposed my wickedness. The law demanded holy justice. The law pronounced judgment on
me. The law demands that my sin be
paid for. But now, there's a way that perfect
righteousness can be provided for me without the law. Do you
wanna know how? How can I be made sinless? That's
what I have to be. How am I going to be made perfect?
Perfection is what God's law and justice requires. Notice
at the end of verse 21 that this righteousness of God that I must
have was witnessed by the law and the prophets. The Old Testament
is all about Christ. That's speaking of Him. What
was witnessed? No. Who was witnessed? Christ
is God's righteousness. Now, what have we learned? Well,
we've learned that there's only one God. He's holy. He's just. He's a just God. We've learned that our sin must
be punished. In order for God's law to be
holy and for God's holy justice to be satisfied, sin's gotta
be punished. God's justice must be satisfied. How can God's justice be satisfied? Verse 22. the righteousness of God, which
is by faith of Jesus Christ. Now we've talked about that little
word thereof so many times, especially in this context, but I want to
talk about it some more. You see, the perfect righteousness
that you and I must have can only be obtained by the faith
of Jesus Christ, not faith in Jesus Christ. the faith of Jesus
Christ. You see, if it could be obtained
by faith in Jesus Christ, we'd wind up trusting in our faith
instead of Christ. You know we would. But this is
the faith of Christ, not faith in. What did Christ have faith
in? You ever thought about that?
Christ had faith in the holy justice of God. What do I mean
by that? Well, just what I said. And hear
me on this. I don't want you to miss the
blessing of this. And I wrote this down because I didn't want
to misquote it. Christ knew that if he kept the
holy law of God perfectly for those whom the Father gave him
before the foundation of the world, he knew that God's justice
would be satisfied and those for whom he died would be spared
of God's wrath, judgment, and justice. You see, Christ knew,
Christ had faith in the fact that if He voluntarily offered
Himself as a sacrifice, as a propitiation, the payment of His people's sin,
that they'd be forever justified in the sight of God. In other
words, Christ had faith in Himself. Christ had faith in His righteousness. Christ had faith that God's holy
justice would be satisfied by the sacrifice of himself. It's the faith of Christ that
accomplishes these things. In, by, and through the Lord
Jesus Christ, the law of God cannot charge guilt upon any
of his elect people. Can't do it. Why? Because God
is just. and His holy justice has been
satisfied in Christ. And I'm telling you, that's the
gospel. That's the gospel. Look at it again, verse 22. Let's break this down into sections
real quick. Even the righteousness of God.
That's what we have to have, the perfect righteousness of
God, right? How is it obtained? Which is by the faith of Jesus
Christ. Christ believed that He could
redeem His people by His perfect work of righteousness, satisfying
God's justice against His elect. And this salvation, who's it
for? It's unto all and upon all them that believe. That believe what? That Christ
is our righteousness. That Christ did for us what we
couldn't do for ourselves. that Christ paid for our sin
debt, and He put it away by taking it upon Himself, and in return,
giving us that perfect righteousness that God requires. Oh, that God
might enable us to believe it. This goes for all of us, for
there is no difference, Paul says, verse 23, for all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. We're all in the
same boat here. And here again is the gospel,
verse 24, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. That's where redemption is, it's
in Christ Jesus. How are we justified? Where is
this redemption found? In Jesus Christ. How is it given? Freely by His grace. It's free to us, but it cost
Him His life. It wasn't free to our Lord, was
it? Verse 25, whom God has set forth.
And that word, those words set forth mean foreordained, predestinated. Well, do you believe predestination's
in the Bible? I believe it's on every page.
Every time we read in it came to pass. It came to pass because
God caused it to come to pass, right? Do you know it says that God
has set forth ordained to be a propitiation? Do you know?
what that word propitiation means. I couldn't believe it when I
actually looked it up in the Strong's Concordance. It means
an atoning victim. Isn't that amazing? An atoning
victim. Christ was foreordained by God
to be an atoning victim through faith in His blood. Do you believe
that Christ became an atoning victim for your sin? Look at
it. Verse 25. Do you believe that
His blood was shed so that God could rightly declare His righteousness
for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God? I do. I believe. Help thou my
unbelief. I want to keep looking at me.
Would a believer do the things I do? Well, he shouldn't. But it doesn't have anything
to do with that. It has to do with His blood. It has to do
with Him being the atoning victim for our sins. You see, the satisfaction
of God's holy justice comes through faith, believing in the efficacious
power of Christ's shed blood. Jesus Christ was the atoning
victim for His people's sin. And look, we're right back to
where we began. Verse 26, we preach, we declare,
I say, at this time, His righteousness. Now that's all I want to hear.
I want you to tell me again about His righteousness and how it
was given to me. That's what I want to hear. It's
not about our righteousness, but His. It's in and by and through
His righteousness that He is what? Both just and justifier
of those who believe in Jesus Christ. Do you believe in Jesus
Christ? What think ye of Christ? You
remember we talked about that a couple weeks ago. That's the
most important question you'll ever be asked. Verse 27, I'll
finish. Where is boasting then? Where
is boasting? What is man going to boast about
in the matter of salvation? Huh? It's excluded. Isn't that what he says? It's
excluded. Are we saved by the works of
the law? God forbid. Absolutely not. We're saved by
the law of faith. Verse 28, therefore we conclude,
this is the conclusion of the whole matter, that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the law. Only one God, that God is a just
God, but praise His name that God is a Savior. Verse 29, is He the God of the
Jews only? Is He not also of the Gentiles?
Yes, of the Gentiles too. Oh, Gentile, aren't you glad
to hear that? Seeing it is one God, you know
what Isaiah said? See, and it's one God which shall
justify the circumcision by faith and uncircumcision through faith.
Well, what does verse 30 mean? Just this, God is gonna justify
some Jews, those who were circumcised. And God is going to justify some
Gentiles, those who are not circumcised, but he's going to justify them
all through faith in his son. That's all it means. Circumcised
or uncircumcised, there is no difference. We're all in the
same boat. If you're going to be saved,
it's going to be by the mercy and grace of God, by the propitiation
of Christ, who is the atoning victim for our sin. And I'm telling
you, that's the glorious gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. God's
going to justify His people. Jesus Christ is God, and He's
a just God, and He's a Savior. And He's both just and justifier
of them that believe in Him. Verse 31, do we then make void
the law through faith? God forbid, we establish the
law. You see, friends, Christ is the
end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. Amen.