If you will, take your Bibles
and turn with me to Romans chapter 3. Romans chapter 3, we'll be looking
at verses 23 through verse 28 this morning, Lord willing. Romans chapter 3, verses 23 through
28. The title of the message this
morning is The Issue of Sin and Justification. The issue of sin
and justification. The scripture says in verse 23,
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. The first question I want to
ask you this morning is what is the greatest issue of man? What is the greatest issue facing
man? In our day, we have many issues,
don't we? Man, that person's got issues.
That's what we normally say. That person's got some problems,
some troubles, issues. Every day we are faced with choices,
decisions, we are faced with troubles, sorrows and pains. We must face the issues of life's
necessities, our jobs, our finances, how much money we have, if our
family problems. We've experienced, we experienced
love, we experienced betrayal. We experience peacemaking with
our family members. Have you ever tried? I mean,
that's the toughest thing in the world, make peace with your
family. Your family and your kin. Or you offend one of them
sometimes, they just go off the rocker. They don't want to be.
And you've got an issue. You've got an issue. You've got
to deal with those people, especially if they're near your house, in
your home. In our day, we're facing a great
national issue, aren't we? Great troubles in our nation
like we've never seen in your lifetime and mine. We have a
nation facing bankruptcy, debt, protests, civil unrest, greedy
and corrupt politicians and government officials. I know that these all are great
issues and they all must be dealt with. We all must deal with these
issues. They're facing us. We must deal
with them. But are these the greatest issues? Usually, the one that's causing
us the most trouble, that'll be the greatest one, right? It'll
be the one we pay the most attention to. And they may seem like the greatest.
At times, they may seem the most overwhelming issues. But according to the Word of
God, they are not the greatest issue that we have. They're not
the greatest trouble that comes from the life of man. The greatest issues of life is
not with outside the man, but rather with inside the man. The issue is not without, but
rather the issue, according to God's Word, is within us. Proverbs 4.23 says, Keep thine
heart with diligence. For out of it, out of the heart,
are the issues of life. Out of the heart. Is it not from the heart that
all action is derived? Isn't that how we handle our
circumstances? By what is in our heart? And
what is in our heart affects what we do. It affects what we
do. It comes from the inside out,
never from the outside in. In Matthew 15, our Lord tells
us this very plainly. He says, Do you not yet understand
that whatsoever entereth at a man's mouth goeth out into the belly
and is cast out into the draught? But those things which proceed
out of the mouth cometh forth from the heart, and they defile
a man. For out of the heart proceed
evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, theft, false wickedness,
blasphemy, false witness, blasphemies. These are the things which defileth
man. But to eat with unwashed hands,
that doesn't defile a man. False religion always tries to
work from the outside in. You want to know if somebody
believes a false religion, then watch them. Ask them. Does it
come from outside in or from inside out? Their view is that environment
or circumstances can manipulate a man so as to change him within. to change him within. They believe
that man is essentially good and is influenced by his environment. That sin comes from without a
man. But Jesus tells us the truth
concerning the heart that sin comes from within the man and
then is generated out. The source of our troubles, the
source of all of our issues, does not come from our environment,
our family. If we have money or we don't.
Don't blame that. Well, I'm poor. That's not the
issue. Well, I have too much money.
That's not an issue. Well, it's those politicians,
they're not an issue. They're not the issue. If you take a man A sinful man,
you put him in a perfect environment, give him all the money and wealth
and honor that he can have in a perfect governmental system
that he runs, it'll be corrupt within the day. He'll destroy
himself. Why? Because none of those things
influence him on the inside. It is his inside that will destroy
everything else on the outside. Why? Because his heart is evil
continually. It is full of the most vile imaginable
sins. Murder. Adultery. Fornication. Evil thoughts. Blasphemous. This is all that we are. And it's all we can produce by
nature. We, by nature, are murderers,
blasphemers, adulterers, fornicators, thieves, covetous, false witness. Well, pastor, I haven't killed
anybody. Oh, yes, you have. According to the law of God,
you've hated someone. You've killed him. If you've thought
evil toward them, you've killed them in your heart. You've mowed
it. The law doesn't look at just
the actions of a man. He looks at the motive of the
man. These things are what we are
by nature, and I'll tell you this, this is all a man can produce.
This is the best that a man can produce, is nothing but vile
sin. You find him in his best religious
state, it is altogether vanity. Vanity. In verse 9, he says, all are
under sin. Well, I'm a Jew. So, I'm a good family. My family's Christian. So, all
are under sin. Children, listen to me. You're
under sin. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. And because of this depravity
of man's heart, man's condition, because man can only issue forth
sin, he will never be at peace with the outward issues of life. And he will either be the recipient
of troubles or he'll be the giver of troubles. That's all a man
can do by nature. You'll either be a problem or
you'll be in a problem. That's it. And that's all you
can do. That's it. Let me ask you this question.
What will you do about this issue of sin? All the issues of the world are
temporary issues. They don't last very long, do
they? How many of you can tell me the
trouble that you had two years ago on today? You had trouble. I just, what was it? I don't
know. I couldn't tell you. Why? Because I got new troubles. I've
got new troubles today that are taking my attention. So temporary,
all our troubles and trials, issues of this life are temporary
issues. But this matter of sin is not
a temporary issue. It is not one that is going to
go away. It's not one that you can sweep
under the rug. It's not one that you can put
behind your back and just forget about it. and hope that everything
will turn out all right. You can't hope that everything
will turn out all right. This is because sin is against
an infinitely holy God. Ezekiel 18 verse 20 says this,
The soul that sinneth it shall surely, absolutely, positively,
without question, die. Die. Jesus said, don't be afraid of
them that can kill the body. You fear him that can kill the
body and soul and cast it into hell. That's who you should fear. Sin is not to be trifled with
because the living God will and must punish all sin. He must punish all sin. And how
does He punish sin? By eternal death and hell. That's how. The wages of sin
is death. If you are somehow expecting
God to give you what you deserve, He will. He'll give you and me exactly
what we deserve, not an ounce less. You know what that is? Hell. This is the merit of all sin,
and God will give every soul exactly what it has earned. John
says this twice in the book of Revelation chapter 20. He says
he judged them according to their works. How are you doing on that? How are your works? What will you do? What will you do when you see
God? Will you try to give him an excuse
like you give everyone else? Well, I tried. God doesn't take excuses. God
doesn't take your excuses. Is this not the greatest issue
of man? Is this not to be carefully and honestly looked at as the greatest issue
of your life? Well, pastor, I'm okay with God.
I'm not so bad. There are a lot of people worse
than I am. Surely, surely a person as good as I am Surely God will
forgive me, I'll do what I can, and the rest, God will just have
mercy. I'll do what I can, and then the rest, God will have
mercy. I'm better than that bunch of
sinners there at Redeemer Baptist Church. Surely, I'm better than
that group of people. And I've heard this before, and
it's like a chalkboard. You scrape your nails on a chalkboard
if any man says this to me. I have made my peace with God. Oh, that annoys me to no end.
I've made my peace with God. Liar. That's what I say. Liar. You've not made your peace with
God. Why? You're a sinner. You're a sinner
and God will not have mercy at the expense of His justice. God has one standard. There are
not many standards for your situation. There are not many levels that
God looks at your circumstances and says, Oh, you poor thing,
you were born an orphan. Oh, you poor thing, you've had
troubles all your life. I'm going to give you a little
leniency. No. There's one standard. One standard
by which all men must pass through in order to enter into heaven.
And that is absolute, complete, perfect righteousness. You and
I must be as holy as God or we will suffer forever in hell. There is no middle ground. There
is none. Do you meet the standard of holiness? Don't look at anybody else. You
look at you. I'm looking at me. Do we meet the standard of holiness?
Are we perfectly righteous? If you're not, then you're under
some kind of refuge of lies. If you're under that to think
that you have some goodness in yourself, you are under refuge
of lies. And God says this. Go to Isaiah
chapter 28. I love this text of Scripture.
Isaiah chapter 28 and verse 15. Because you have said. This is
what all men by nature say without without Christ, we have made
a covenant with death and with hail, we are in agreement when
the overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come
unto us. We have made a rise to our refuge and under falsehood
have we hid ourselves. Is this not true of every child
of Adam? That's not going to happen to
me. No, that's got to happen to somebody
else now. I can agree with that. I think
God is coming in wrath, Pastor, but I think He's going to let
me slide. I think He's going to let me go. I've already made
my peace. We've got a covenant, me and
God. We're buddies. We've got this thing down. I've
agreed to something, and God agreed to whatever I said. That's
about it. You've made lies your refuge.
You're under a refuge of lies. You're deceived. Deceived. To imagine that God will accept
some form of agreement that you make with Him. We talked about the covenants
this morning. I want you to know this. All the covenants of God
are one-sided. He makes them and we do them. That's it. I will and you shall. Those are the covenants of God.
God doesn't let you make up your own way to heaven, your own covenant. He doesn't let you make your
own atonement for sin. Verse 16, Therefore thus saith
the Lord, Behold, I lay in Zion a foundation stone, a tried stone,
a precious cornerstone, a sure foundation, and he that believeth
shall not make haste. Judgment also will I lay to the
lion, and righteousness to the plummet, and hell shall sweep
away the refuge of lies, and the waters overflow the hiding
place. And your covenant with death
shall be disannulled, and your agreement with hell shall not
stand. When the overflowing scourge
shall pass through, you shall be trodden down under it. How long? From the time it goeth
forth, it shall take you. From morning by morning shall
it pass over, and day by day and night by night shall it be
a vexation. Only to understand the report,
the bed is shorter than a man can stretch himself on it, and
the covering narrower than he can wrap himself. When God comes
in His mighty justice, He'll sweep away all the lies of men,
all the fig leaves of false religion. And God says He will send them
to hell and day and night and day and night forever it will
pass over them. What will? The report that I
give you, the bed is shorter than a man can stretch himself
on. Your righteousness are as filthy rags. You have no hope
before God if you stand in your own righteousness. Your righteousness
is too short and it's too narrow. It won't cover you when the overflowing
scourge of God's wrath and judgment comes. Is this not a great issue? Is this not the greatest issue? that you face right now, your sin. Friends, everything is naked
and open before God. You may fool me and, you know,
I may fool you. But I'll tell you this, we will
never fool God. You'll never fool him. And we all must stand and be
judged by God. Look at our text. For all. Have sinned. And miss the mark. of the glory of God. There's God's righteous standard. And infinitely in the opposite
direction is our righteousness, totally opposed to one another. If California fell off into the
ocean, or say the whole United States
fell off, I don't want any single one little state, say it all
fell off and the closest island was Hawaii. Now I'll tell you
what, some swimmers would make it about two feet and they would
drown. Some people can't swim. There may be some athletic swimmers
who can make it a hundred miles, maybe two hundred. Maybe 300. Guess what? All of them drowned. All of them are going to drown.
Some of you may be a little bit moral. Some of you may be doing
good things. You may not be out in the other
things of sin. But your righteousness is just
as good as theirs. It's no good at all. You won't
make it. What then is the remedy? If that's the issue, what's the
remedy? Don't you always try to find
a solution for your issues? We do. Is there a remedy? Is there a hope? Yes, there is
a hope. There is a remedy. In the very
next verse, being justified freely, there's the remedy. Justification. Justification. What does it mean
to be justified? It's simple. Not guilty. That's what it means. It means
to be not guilty. Not declared not guilty, but
to actually be not guilty. We have a lot of courts in our
land and a lot of people, the judge swings the gavel, he says
not guilty, and that guy is guilty as sin. We see that a lot, don't
we? Of course we do. We live in an
unjust world. We live in a sinful world. But
God is just, and God says that He shall justify Some of Adam's
race. Justify. Make them innocent. Innocent. Before the law of God. Didn't you say we were full of
sin? Pastor, are you saying that we're
not actually guilty? No, you're actually guilty. You
are actually guilty. There is nothing we can say about
that. We are truly, completely guilty of sin. We've done it.
It's ours. We've done it. Well, how then can God be just and still declare us innocent?
Isn't that the question? How can God be just and still
justify the ungodly? Verse 26, to declare, I say at
this time, his righteousness, that he might
be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
You see, most religious men don't care so much about God's justice.
They don't mind being justified. They like that idea. They just
don't have any love for God's justice about it. They say, well,
you know, God, He's going to justify me, but, you know, He's
going to take my sins and somehow sweep them under the rug. He's
going to actually somehow overlook them. That's not the gospel. God is
not taking our sins, which we literally committed and sweeping
them under the rug and putting a nice little robe on us saying,
OK, I declare, I know you're guilty, but I declare you innocent.
No, that's not the gospel. The gospel declares that God
will have mercy, but he will not clear the guilt. keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity and transgression of sins. Oh, they like that,
but will by no means clear the guilty. Huh? How can you have
mercy and forgive sins and not clear the guilty? We're guilty.
We're guilty. How is it possible, seeing that
we have sinned? There's only one way that God
could justify us then. How? Freely. He must do it freely. It must not be by merit. It must be by grace. If God is
going to justify anyone, it has to be by grace. By grace. Because men could not merit it.
Because none of us were by nature innocent, we were born dead in
our sins, but in sovereign love He purposed in eternity to show
us mercy. And He freely justified us then
by His grace. If justification were of merit,
none would ever be justified. But because it is of grace, it's
free, it's undeserved, unmerited favor, and God gives it to whomsoever
He will. That's justification. Where does it come from? It comes
only from God. He's the only one who can give
it. And how does He give it? He gives it without merit freely. Freely. God freely predestinated us to
be conformed to the image of His Son, which is holiness. He
freely purposed our salvation in election only through His
justice and never around His justice. He purposed to justify
sinners only by the death of His Son. Do you see that God
is still just? That God is holy and He cannot
overlooked sin. Well, how can he justify us?
He purposed to send one in our place who would take our guilt
to himself and God would pour out his wrath. on Jesus Christ. And He did. He accomplished that. God poured out His wrath on Christ. And Christ said, It is finished.
I've paid the ransom. I've paid the price for sins.
I've suffered under the justice of God. And as He laid in the
tomb for three days, God rose, raised Him from the dead. And
where is the sin? It's gone. It's gone. He paid it. Justice was satisfied. Justice was satisfied. God has
set forth, in verse 25, God has set forth Christ to be a propitiation. Very simply, A sacrifice. A sacrifice. Through faith in His blood to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins. Friends, Jesus came to accomplish
one purpose. You shall call His name Jesus,
for He shall save. his people from their sins. And he did just that. He accomplished what God had
purposed. Justification. And it's given freely to his
people. Jesus accomplished redemption
and brought in an everlasting righteousness and justified His
people by taking their sins and God imputing His righteousness
unto them. So then everyone that God purposed
to justify in eternity, everyone that Christ accomplished justification
for on the cross, the Holy Spirit will come and apply that blood
to our hearts. If you remember the Passover,
they took that lamb and they sacrificed it. They took His
blood and dipped it in a branch and they pasted it on the door. And God, when He passed through
that night in judgment in Israel, every firstborn in that house
was saved. Why? The blood. When I see the
blood, I'll pass over you. Friends, the only way for a sinner
to be passed over by the judgment and justice of God is to have
the blood of Christ on your heart. And that can only be put there
by the Spirit of God. Only God the Holy Spirit can
reach down in power and create in us a new nature. Make our
hearts new so that we would love Christ, love the Gospel, believe
on Him for the remission of sins. Believe on Him for all our righteousness. Remember, it is our heart of
sin, that's the issue. We must have a new heart, do
you have a new heart? You know, if you have a new heart. Things change. OK. Now, the old man didn't change
one bit, but I'll tell you this, everything else changed. I saw
life through a different set of eyes that I'd never seen before. It's the eye of faith in Christ. God promised a new heart also
will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you and I will
take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give
you a heart of flesh, a heart of feeling. You know, God saves
the whole man. He doesn't just save the intellect.
He doesn't just save the will. And He doesn't just save the
heart. He saves the heart, the will,
and the mind. All are transformed in the new
man. In the new man. See, the gospel deals with the
whole man. Pentecostals deal with the heart, don't they? The
affections, don't they? They just want you to get emotional.
Reform doctrine, that just wants to deal with your mind. They
want to change your mind. The Armenians, they want to deal
with the will. They just want to change your will. But when
God comes in the power of the Holy Spirit, He changes all three.
He changes all three. The gospel speaks to the whole
man. The whole man. Listen to me very carefully. You know the remedy for this
issue is this. Behold the Lamb of God that taketh
away the sin of the world. Behold God's servant in whom
He delights. Behold the only Savior for sinners,
Jesus Christ, and all who look to Him and His blood by faith have the remission of all their
sins. All their sins. What about before
I came to Christ? Yep, they're gone. What about
now? They're gone. What about in the... They're gone. our sins. And God Himself has given us
His own righteousness. Told you this before, there's
only one righteousness. There's not many. There's only
one. Scott, you have the same righteousness
that I do. It's the same. And it's not His. He didn't make it. And it's not
mine. I didn't make it. Righteousness was imputed to
us and imparted to us, and God will never charge us with sin.
Never. Why? We are justified. Justified. Innocent in the eyes
of God. Never will we be judged by our
sins. Why? Christ paid for them. God who is just cannot demand
twice payment. He cannot demand it of Christ
and then demand it of us. That would be unjust. That would
be unjust. Have you believed on the only
Son of God? Have you seen your issue? That
your issue is not everybody else. Your issue is you. Your issue
is your sin. It's yours. It's the only thing
you can claim. It's all that you do. It's all you are. Have you seen God's righteousness? in Christ. Why will you die in your sins? Why will men continue to try
to hold on to something they're going to do? Instead of believing Christ,
in something He's already done. And we who believe, we rest in
that. And because of that, we do love
Him. We do love Him. We are created unto good works. Not by them, but because of God's
grace, we are created unto good works, which God hath before
ordained that we should walk in them. I heard this yesterday. I thought
it was great. I'll share it with you. This is not my ministry. This is not my church. This is our church. This is our
ministry. And every one of us who are believers
in Christ, we should lay down our lives constantly for the
cause of Christ. Is that justification not worthy
of such actions? You bet it is. It's worthy of
us laying down our lives for the gospel. Christ should be our issue. Christ
should have all of our heart, all of our mind, and all of your
will, all of your actions should be done in service to Christ.
Is he not worthy? Yes. He's worthy. I pray that God
would, by grace, bless the message to your heart. Let's stand and
we'll be dismissed in prayer.