I read to you there out of Job
25, Bildad asked the question, how then can man be justified
with God? I titled this message, The Question
of Questions. How can God be justified How can a man be justified with
God? How can a sinner be justified
with God? How can he be clean that's born
of a woman from the seed of Adam? That's what he's talking about. He said, even to the moon, and
it shineth not, yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. When
I read that years ago, I thought, The moon and the stars are not
pure in his sight. He saw that man would walk on
the moon. I said, that's for telling that we'd walk on the
moon. We polluted it. We went up there and polluted
it, stuck a flag on it. Anything we touch, truth is unclean. If we have anything to do with
it. By God's word, by God's word. How much less man, if the stars
and the moon are not pure in his sight, how much less man,
that is a worm, and that word means maggot. You say, well,
that's harsh. Well, you know, truth on the
flesh is harsh. Look into the mirror of God's
Word, God's Law, God's Word. It shows us who we really are
and who God is, who Jesus Christ is, and our need of Him. That's
what it shows us. How much less man that is a worm
and the Son of Man which is a worm. Now this is the question of questions.
How can a man be just before God who is holy and demands perfection? Are you interested? Now, I know
this. I know this. Everyone here who
knows what the guilt of sin is, is interested in this. And everyone
that's not, that you do not know what the guilt of sin is, this
will bore you to death. It'll be nothing but cold, dry
doctrine, but it won't be that way to you who believe. to be
cleared of all charges, to be cleared of all sin, to stand
before God perfect, to stand before God with no sin? How? How can a man be just with God?
Let me tell you, I'm going to point this out. And this is telling to me, this
is really telling. I can preach a sermon here, And
I can title it, how do we get through trouble? How can we get
through this trouble? Put it on sermon audio and it'll get
a lot of hits. I can put, how can a man be just
with God? It gets a lot less hits. You know how telling that
is? This, how can this sinner right
here, standing in front of you, how can this sinful man stand
before God Almighty justified? I know my sins, I don't know
them as God knows them, but I know something of the guilt of sin,
I know something of it. And yet I can stand before God
cleared of all charges. How can that be? Well, go back
over to Acts chapter 13, and we have the answer. It's a very
simple answer. In Acts chapter 13, we will look
at verse 38 and 39. Verse 38, Be it known, be it
known and very clear, be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren,
that through this man, this man is preached unto you the forgiveness
of sins. Forgiveness of sins comes through
a man. That's how it comes. Forgiveness
of sins does not come just by asking. It comes by asking for
forgiveness through this man. This man, Jesus Christ. You can't
believe what you don't know and you can't believe on someone
you don't know. And that's why he says, be it known unto you.
Be it known. You're being enlightened right
now. Every person in this room is being enlightened. Be it known
to you how God can be a just God and a Savior. Be it known
unto you how God can forgive me of my sins. If God is pleased
to save any of us, He will make the gospel of Jesus Christ known. He will make this man, this man,
this God man, this man known. What is it that God is pleased
to make known? This man, His Son, His Son, that
through this man, this God-man mediator, this man whom God raised
from the dead, if you'll read the Scriptures before that, Paul
is speaking about God raised Him from the dead. God has raised
this man from the dead and seated him at His own right hand, and
it's through this man that we have, we have, Real forgiveness
of sins, the very thing God hates, we have real forgiveness of it.
Does anyone have sins here this morning? Do you have sins you
need forgiven? God can forgive us of any sin
and all sin through this man, this man Jesus Christ. God has
declared through the gospel the forgiveness of sins through Jesus
Christ, whom He sent to be the propitiation for our sins. His
blood answers for my sins. Look no other place than this
man. And by him, by this man, all that believe are justified. What did Bill Dadd say? How can
man be justified with God? And then we turn over here to
Acts 13 and he tells us, and by him, all that believe are
justified from all things. You say, well, you don't, you
just don't know my life. You don't know some of the things
that I have done. I, you know, God has allowed some of his sheep
to do some horrendous things. I mean some horrible things. David commits adultery and then
has her husband murdered. And God saves him. God saves
him. God forgives him. How did he
do that? Through this man. You know, Jesus
Christ suffered the wrath of God for that adultery. Jesus
Christ took the hell of God's wrath for David, putting her
husband to death. Christ died for that. Christ
suffered for that. Now you take every sin, even
the sins that we don't even know, and I think there's more sins
we don't know about than what we do. You know, you and I have
a habit of cataloging sin. You know, we tell little white
lies. There ain't no such thing. A lie is a lie. A lie is a lie,
even if Rahab tells it. Rahab lied to them. He died for
that lie too. A lie is a lie. You say, well,
there's good lies, there's bad lies. Well, to us there is, but
the lie is a lie. Right is right and wrong is wrong
with God. Isn't it? Isn't that so? That's so. By Him, all that believe are
justified from all things. And listen, that does not mean
all things up until the time you believe. No, it's Now listen,
God has forgiven me all of my sins, the ones I haven't even
committed yet. Is that too strong? That's how powerful, powerful
the death of Jesus Christ is. That's how effectual the death
of Jesus Christ is. In fact, when He died for my
sins, I wasn't even alive. I hadn't even committed the first
one yet. But God knew them all. God knew every one of them. And
He laid all my sins that I hadn't even committed yet on His Son.
He's called the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the
world. That's why when Adam sinned, he heard the voice of God walking
in the cool of the day instead of wrath like Mount Sinai, wrath
and fire and brimstone. He heard the voice of God walking
in the cool of the day. You know why? Because the matter
had already been taken care of. God already took care of the
matter. He laid Christ as the Lamb slain before the foundation
of the world. Justified from all things from
which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. He tells
us here how we cannot be justified. We can't be justified by obeying
the law ourselves. You know why? Because we've never
done it. Because the law has to be obeyed
first of all in the heart. David said, oh, how I love thy
law. You know who really loved God's
law? And David's speaking in the spirit of the Messiah, Jesus
Christ. Jesus Christ loved God's law
and he kept it perfectly. None of us can do it because
it's got to start here first. That's why back in those Jewish
days, they started taking the laws of God and substituting
the tradition of the fathers for them. They said, instead of honoring
your mother and father, they found a way out of that. They
said, this gift is for the temple, it's for God, it's for Corbin,
it's for God. And they thought, because they said, this amount
of money that I've got is for God. This is the way the priest
found a way around, or the Pharisee found a way around getting the
money. Get it in their pockets. And they don't have to support
mom and dad no more. They don't have to help mom and
dad no more, because this is for God. God said, take care
of your mom and dad first. And you know what? No tradition
will ever substitute God's law. No tradition. We cannot be justified by the
law of Moses. Can't be justified by it because
we can't keep it. It's the law that condemns us.
If you commit a crime right now, if you commit a crime, let's
say you go over there and break into my house over here. Are
you going to run down to the courthouse and stand before a
judge and try to get justified. That's the last place you want
to go, isn't it? The last place you want to go
is stand before the law, if you've broke the law, because the law
cannot justify a criminal. It has to condemn the criminal.
That's why you can't be justified by the law. But notice here how
simple Paul keeps it. He says, by him. It's not, listen,
He does not say, and by Him and keeping the Law, which is what
the Pharisees tried to do. They tried to incorporate the
Law and the Gospel together. You can't do it. You can't incorporate
grace and works together. It doesn't work. It doesn't work. Paul keeps it very simple. He
says, by Him all that believe. Paul summed up justification
in two words. You can sum up justification
in two words. To stand before God justified,
cleared of all charges. Here are the two words that simplifies
it all. By Him. That's it. By Him. By Him. This is the great mystery
of the gospel. How can God be just and justify
me? By Him. Don't add anything to
it and take nothing from it. By Him. How can God clear me
of all charges? By Him. By Him. Remember that publican and that
Pharisee? That Pharisee stood and said, I thank you God, I'm
not like other men. I fast. And he did. I give tithes. And he did. You know, what he
said he did, he did. But he claimed it as him doing
it, and not the grace of God in him. But that sinner said,
he just smote upon his breast and said, God, be merciful to
me, this sinner. And guess who went down to their
house justified? That sinner. Not that one who says, I did
this, I do that. No, no. The one who just said, I'm a
sinful man. Lord, forgive me. Forgive me. Now there are five words that
I'm going to look at. I'm going to try to look at them briefly.
There are five words that are used in the Word of God that
speak of justification. The first one is this, grace. Turn over to Romans 3. We're
going to do a little turning this morning. Romans chapter
3. He says in verse 23, in Romans
3, "...for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God,
being justified freely by His grace." Well, we came up short.
And what he said? We came up short. So now how
are we going to be justified? By grace. You know, by grace. being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Grace
was the moving cause, as the old writers would say. It's the
uninfluenced and unmerited favor of God. That's what grace is. I didn't influence God. You didn't
influence God to save you. God was gracious to you. Noah
found grace in the eyes of the Lord. You know that one time
Noah was just as wicked as those people that he grew up with. Some of you, you're just as rotten
as the people you ran around with, right? And you found grace
in the eyes of the Lord. You're just as rotten as everybody
else on this. I'm not even gonna go there. And there's no sense in it because
then we gotta be careful we start gloating in it. because that
old man's still there. But grace, grace separated us. Grace made us a member of God's
family. God chose us before the foundation
of the world in grace. Nobody on this earth wants to
be saved from sin. A whole bunch of people want
to be safe from going to hell. They'll take any away. You just
tell me how to escape it and I'll do it. You know what that
young man said? What must I do to inherit eternal
life? He said, keep the commandments.
He said, I've kept them all. No, you haven't. You haven't? You haven't kept one of them.
If you wind up in glory, you wind up in glory by grace. That's
how you wind up there, by grace. The uninfluenced and unmerited
favor of God. When God chose you in Christ
and justified you in Christ, He did so by grace. Wasn't it? Look at the empty seats. If people
really wanted to be saved from their sins, this place couldn't
contain the people. Our being justified has to do
with our union to the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. It's our union to Him. And when
was that? Before the foundation of the
world. I don't back up on the fact that
God chose a multitude of sinners to save, or nobody be saved. Are any of the fallen angels
saved? Has any of them ever asked God for mercy? Or why do we think
the human race would? Why would I think that a man
would ask God for mercy when a fallen devil wouldn't ask God
for mercy? Because the only difference between
a devil and a lost man is the man has a physical body. That's
the only difference between me and a devil by nature. That's
the only difference. I got a body and they are spirit.
And they never ask for mercy, and neither will I, and neither
will you, unless God, by His grace, calls you. And if He calls
you, it's because He chose you in Christ before the foundation
of the world. Or nobody be saved. Nobody. Our being justified has to do
with our union to Christ. It says in Ephesians 1, now listen,
"...he hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in Christ..."
Does it stop there? No. "...before the foundation
of the world." That's what it says. In Romans 8.30, it says,
"...them he also called, and whom he called, them he also
justified." Past tense. Past tense and all that. And
if you notice it said back there in Romans 3.24, freely, freely. This means without a cause in
them. Freely. There was nothing about
us or in us to cause God to justify us. It was all found in grace.
The second one, the second one. We are justified by His blood.
Turn over to Romans 5. In Romans 5, look in verse 9,
"...much more then, being now justified by His blood, we shall
be saved from wrath through Him." His blood speaks of His sufferings
and death. And let me tell you something,
His sufferings and His death were for someone. Now listen, His sufferings and
death His dying under the wrath of God was not to make salvation
possible, but to make it an absolute. It's an absolute. Think about it. If people would
just stop and think, God put his son through this torment,
the hell of God's wrath. He put him through the hell of
God's wrath. He was tormented. My God, my God, why hast thou
forsaken me? Go read Psalm 22. That's the
Psalm of the cross. And then he's gonna leave the
end result up to a bunch of rebels. He's gonna leave the end result
to a bunch of people who hate God by nature. The scripture
says our natural mind is enmity with God. We come into this world
with enmity and our minds against God. And He's going to leave
the end result, which is His chief glory, His redemptive glory
is His chief glory, and He's going to leave that up to a bunch
of rebels? God's going to glorify His Son. He's going to populate
Heaven with a people just like His Son. He's going to see to
it. He's going to see to it that his son is honored and glorified,
and he's not going to lose a one. That's what the Lord said in
John 6. All that the Father giveth me, I shall lose nothing, but
raise it up again at the last day. I'll not lose a one. He
said in John 17, Father, you've given me power over all flesh,
that I should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given
me. Well, it couldn't be any more plainer than that. Our Lord suffered at the hands
of justice, Now, wouldn't that be double jeopardy? Some of you
know anything about the law. If I'm cleared of all charges,
if Christ died for me, if he died for me, if he died under
the penalty of the law and he died for me, and then when it's
all over, it's said and done, and then I die? And then I die
for my own sins because I didn't accept him as my personal savior?
That can't be. That can't be. If He satisfied justice, He satisfied
justice concerning a person, a people. And they are clear. They are clear of all. And who
are they? He says, Christ died for sinners. Well, you just find
one. You just find a biblical description, described center. Everybody says, well, I'm not
perfect. Well, you're in trouble. Because God said it must be perfect
to be accepted. Didn't he? Well, the only way
I could be perfect is in Jesus Christ. I can't do it myself. But God made me perfect in his
son. Our Lord suffered at the hands
of justice, He suffered the just for the unjust. The scripture
said He suffered the just, the just one, the just and holy one,
He suffered for the unjust. That He might do what? Offer
salvation to them? That He might bring us to God.
That's why He suffered the just one, suffered for the unjust
one, that He might bring that unjust one before God just. That's
what He did. His blood is the blood of atonement
that God required. And what we have here is His
obedience from the cradle to the grave. And by His blood and His righteousness,
we are justified from all things from which we couldn't be justified
by the law of Moses. And thirdly, the third word,
justified by faith, Romans 5.1. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Faith, as we know, is the gift
of God. You know what Scripture says?
It's the gift of God. And by faith we receive Him who
justifies us. That's what faith does. It receives
Him who justifies. We drink His blood by faith,
we eat His flesh by faith, and we speak only of His righteousness
by faith. Without faith, no man will be
justified. As it says, all that believe
are justified from all things. Thomas Bradbury said this, Faith
is not a work performed by us in order to be justified, but
a work performed in us by which we apprehend in glory in our
justification. Faith is a gift of God. Faith receives Christ, and that
faith is the work of God. You see, we're justified, he
says, by faith, but we're justified by the object of faith. It's
Christ. And then fourth word, justified
by works. You say, oh, you're crossing
the line now. You went too far. James 2.24
says it, you see then how that by works a man is justified and
not by faith only? You know, for a long time, many
had trouble with this years and years and years ago. One writer at one time thought
it shouldn't even be in the scripture. But when God gives you light
and understanding, you keep it in its right place. Scripture
interprets Scripture. The evidence of true saving faith
that lays hold of Christ who justifies us are works. It's the evidence. It's the evidence
of faith. Works are the outward evidence
of an inward heart faith. A man's faith is known by his
works. Faith without works, James says, is dead. It's evident you're
lost. It's called works of faith and
labor of love. It's God working in us and God
working through us. We are a fruitful people. God's
people are a fruitful people. They bear the fruit of the Spirit,
love, joy, peace, and I tell you, love. You find where real love is and
you'll find people putting forth an effort to help one another,
to look after one another, to support the gospel. Where there's real faith, that'll
happen. You remember Abraham and Isaac? God told Abraham to offer up
Isaac. You know what he did? He did just as God told him.
You know why? He believed God. It was the evidence of his faith.
If God had said, Abraham, offer up Isaac, and Abraham would have
said, No! No! That's my only son. That's
the son you promised me. Why are you going to take him? He didn't argue. We read
no argument with God. No argument. He said, son, he
got the fire and the wood. He said, let's go. And he took
him up there to sacrifice him. And I like what Abraham said
when Isaac said, father, here's the fire and the wood, but where's
the lamb? Where's the lamb? And Abraham said it right. God will provide himself a lamb. God will provide for Himself
a Lamb. Now listen, this is important.
And God will provide Himself as the Lamb. That man hanging on that cross
is God Almighty in the flesh. And that's what justifies us.
That person, by Him. By Him. A man's faith is known
by what James says. James contends for a living faith
attended with living works. And then, fifthly, justified
by your words. Justified by your words. Matthew
12, 37. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy
words thou shalt be condemned. A man who is born of God agrees
with God. David did, against thee and thee
only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight, that
you may be just? When you judge me, you'll be just? You agree
with God, and you receive the righteousness
of Christ as your only righteousness. You know you don't have any.
You have no righteousness of your own. The only righteousness
we have is the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. And
your words will confess all the above that we have just looked
at. Now, in all of justification, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
are involved in our justification. It is God that justifieth, that
is, God the Father. It's by Him you are justified,
the Son. and it's through and by the Holy
Spirit, the work of the Holy Spirit. Listen to 1 Corinthians
6, 11. You are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
and by the Spirit of our God, the Holy Spirit. He's the one
who convinces the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment.
I didn't convince you. No preacher, if God has saved
you, no preacher ever convinced you of your sins. No preacher
ever convinced you of the righteousness of Jesus Christ and your need
of it. No preacher ever convinced you of judgment, the judgment
that you deserve and I deserve. The Holy Spirit did that. No preacher convinced you to
come down an aisle and to make a false profession. But I tell
you what, the Holy Spirit convinced you to flee to Christ. The Holy
Spirit did. He's the one who convinces us.
He's the one who takes the things of Christ and reveals them to
us. I can stand here and tell you
the truth and take the word of God and give you the truth, but
only He can put it in your heart. I can't put it there. I can't
put it there. The new birth is of Him. You
are not born again because you believe. You believe because
you are born again. Life has to happen before you'll
believe God. Dead people don't believe anything. The new birth is of Him, and
that new creation is in righteousness and true holiness. If any of these are missing,
it's evident we've not been justified. And all that I have mentioned,
all of it is packaged up. and put into Jesus Christ and
were justified in Him, by Him. Now Paul says back over here
in Acts, and I'll close. He says in Acts 13 and 40, Beware
therefore, now beware, I'll tell you this, beware that you don't
walk out that door and forget what you just heard. Beware. It's easy. It's easy for something
to come along and you, it's gone. Beware, therefore, lest that
come upon you which is spoken of in the prophets. Behold, you
despisers and wander and perish, for I work a work in your days,
a work which you shall in no wise believe, though a man declare
it to you. And I just declared it to you this morning. I just
declared it to you. And after Paul preached this,
There were some Jews and Gentiles who wanted to hear this message
again. You want to hear this message again? And you know that
the next Sabbath that almost the whole city came out to hear?
That whole city almost came out to hear. And you know what it
says in verse 48? And when the Gentiles heard this,
they were glad and glorified the Word of the Lord, and as
many as were ordained to eternal life believed. believed. Oh, I want to be one of those
that believe. Lord God, I told Vicki yesterday, I said, there's
a lot of things I, you know, I want to enjoy a comfortable
living. I want to enjoy a comfortable
living. You know, there's some things I want to enjoy. I said,
there's one thing that I want more than anything else. I want
the Lord to save me. I said, I want to, I want to,
I want, I want, And I want this. I pray that God will be gracious
and grant it to me. I want to die looking forward
to it. I want to die with excitement.
I'm about to get to go to heaven. I'm about to go to paradise.
I'm about to get to see Jesus Christ that I preach here every
week. I want death to be a happy occasion. And the only way that
can be a happy occasion is if I and you grow in grace and in
knowledge of Jesus Christ. If we don't, we're gonna be hanging
on. We're gonna be grabbing onto
everything and not wanting to let go. Let it go now. Oh, let's
grow up. Let's grow up in Christ and look
forward when that day comes. I think it'd be a wonderful thing
if the doctor says, you've got six months to live, and you say,
whoo-hoo, I get to die. I get to die. I get to go home. All right.