Romans 3. And look down in verse 24. This
is why I'm going to use this as my text today. Romans 3.24. Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. justified freely by His grace. When a sinful soul is blessed of God to see the
Lord Jesus Christ in His cross, what He Himself accomplished
on the cross, see Him there on the cross in their place, not
just this generic term, this general view of the cross and
Jesus dying there, but seeing Him there for you, particularly
you, bearing your sins, dying for you, then what a comfort. What a consolation to the soul
when God gives a view of the cross by faith, when you're sinful. Now, you notice I said a sinful
soul. What consolation to the soul!
A view of the cross by faith brings consolation where there
was misery, brings comfort where there was nothing but sorrow
and grief. And our Lord cried in agony that
we might cry with joy. Now, that's Sinai. There's no
comfort in Sinai. There's no comfort going back
to the Lord. There's no comfort going to Moses. There's no comfort
found in the Ten Commandments. No comfort there. Because when
I find and I look at them, I find that there's not one of them
that I haven't broken. If I haven't broken it in actuality,
I've broken it in my mind, I've broken it in my imagination,
I've broken it in my thoughts, I've broken it in my heart. But
oh, what comfort, what joy, what peace and hope and salvation
for the soul. by the death and cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, three things. There's three
things. Three things I want to look at here in this verse of
Scripture. And I hope that God in His sovereign
mercy will make them a blessing to our hearts and our souls.
First of all, redemption. In whom we have redemption? We'll
look at redemption. Secondly, the justification of
sinners. justification of sinners. Thirdly,
how they're justified. If there's a redemption, then
sinners are justified. Well, how do them sinners get
justified? Well, let's look at this redemption. First, it says
there in In Genesis, excuse me, Romans 3, 24, being justified
freely by his grace. Now watch this, through the redemption,
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now what does redemption
mean? Let me define redemption. Redemption
is when someone is taken captive. Someone comes and kidnaps them.
Someone comes and takes them captive. And they hold them in
bondage. And they hold them there, and
they will not let them go until they set a price. Now here's
a price. You pay this price. You pay this ransom. And I will
release them, and I'll let them go free. Well, now here's where
in the world we come into this redemption. It tells us there
that there is none righteous, no, not one. So we were taken
captive by the law of God, taken captive by the justice of God. taken captive by the sin of our
own natures. And so we were delivered up to
the law when we were taken captive by sin and by our guilt. And
so what happens is that they deliver us to the law of God
and the justice of God. And there we are. We're in the
strict hands of the justice of God. And justice. Now, here we are.
We're sinners. Have our guilt. And so what happens
is that this sin and guilt holds us captive. It has dominion over
us and holds us, and we're sold unto sin, and we're slaves to
sin, and we can't get our way out of it. And because of our
sin, because of our guilt, we're delivered over into the hands
of the law of God and the strict justice of God. And justice says,
I will not let them go, because they sinned and they got guilt,
and they've broken my holy law. They don't have any righteousness.
They don't understand. They don't fear me. They don't
seek me. And He refused to let us go unless, here's the stipulation,
unless we got the ransom price. You got to have a ransom price.
You got to have a redemption. Now, how are we going to pay
to justice to let us go? What are we going to pay to the
righteousness of God to let us go? What have we got to offer
to Him to say, please set us free and let us go free? Huh? How is our souls going to be
redeemed? Well, first of all, I find out I'm bankrupt. I ain't
got no money. I ain't got no way to pay for
my own redemption. I don't have any righteousness.
All I've got is sin. All I've got is guilt. And not
only that, but I'm a debtor. I owe for all the sins I committed
all my life. The one I was born with. The
one I live with. And I tell you, the ones that
I commit, I'm a debtor. And I'm so poor that I can't
pay for my first sin and all the sins that I've committed
up to today. Can't pay them. I couldn't pay
the price of my ransom, my redemption, could you? And because we couldn't
pay, does that mean, beloved, God's going to have pity on us?
No. Justice wouldn't let Him. And because we couldn't pay,
they'd come and take everything that was away from us. We became
homeless. We don't have a home in the presence
of God without Christ. We're naked, we're poor, we're
miserable, and we couldn't find a ransom. But now, wait a minute. Turn over to Job 33. Turn to
Job 33. Man has been lied to all his
life, talked about what great power he's got, what abilities
he's got, and come to find out we can't pay for one sin, much
less all of them. And we owe, we indebt to the
justice of God, the righteousness of God. And how in the world
are we going to pay for our sins? We're poor, we're miserable,
we're naked. Couldn't find no ransom? Let's
get old Bill Gates to stand up here and give all of his money.
How much would all his money, how much, how many sins would
he pay for? Let's let old Warren Buffett,
who's probably the wealthiest man in the world, let him step
up here and see how many sins his money will pay for. Let's let one of these self-righteous,
free-will preachers get up here and tell us how in the world
we're going to get and save ourselves from our sins by our power and
our ability by letting God do something for us. Let's let somebody who's self-righteous
and got a righteousness that they've earned, let them stand
up and tell us how we can be made righteous the way they are
by the works of the law. When it says no flesh be justified
in His sight. Come on, somebody tell me. Well,
let me tell you. Our Lord Jesus Christ said that
he gave his life a ransom for many. And listen to what he said
here in Job 33, 24. Then he is gracious unto him,
and saith, Deliver him from going down to the pit. I found a ransom. You know what it says over there
on the margin? An atonement. And then watch what happens.
Then his flesh shall be fresher than a child's. That's that new
birth. That's God taking us and putting
it all away, and he shall return to the days of his youth. God
said, I have found a ransom. Now, here's what happened. Our
Lord Jesus Christ stepped in to be a surety for us, to stand
good for our debts. to stand good for our sin, to
stand good for our guilt, to stand good to the justice of
God and pay this ransom, to pay this debt. And he stood in the
stead and room of all believers. And he did pay the ransom price. And you know what the ransom
price was? God said, I'll require your lost blood. I'll require
you to shed your blood, being justified freely through the
redemption that's in Christ Jesus, through faith in His blood, in
His blood. And oh, beloved, and it's not
only He paid the ransom, lost blood, but His life's obedience.
When our Lord came into this world, His life's obedience.
Beloved, why was He obedient? Not for Himself. He was born
righteous, lived righteous, sinless, holiest, light. and a perfect
life, sinless life, holy life, holy harvest and undefiled. So
when he's in the life of obedience, who is it for? His life from
start to finish, what did he live his life for? Not for himself,
but he said, Father, I finished the work that you gave me to
do. I've saved those, I've kept those, I've prayed for those,
I've died for those, and I've laid down my life for the sheep. And from the day he was born
to the day he died on the cross until he cried and he's finished
everything he did, he did for somebody else. And who did he
do it for? He done it for his people. And now, beloved, since Christ,
God found the ransom in Christ, the atonement in Christ, we're
delivered from that curse of the law. What does the law, what
can the law say to me? Love God? I do. We're not loving
that in Christ. Don't have no other God before
me? I don't. Why? Because Christ is my God. Love your neighbor as I fell.
I do. Where'd I do that? In Christ.
Oh, we love Him. We're delivered from the curse
of the law. We're delivered from the vengeance
and justice of God. And we're set free now to go
on our way since Christ stood in our stead and He found that
ransom. We're clean. We're free. We're justified by
His blood. And I'm going to show you something.
I'm going to show you the value of this. Look in Romans, I mean
Genesis, Revelation chapter 5. I don't know why I've got Genesis
on my mind. But the value and the preciousness
of the redemption that's in Christ. You know how valuable it was,
how precious it was? It redeemed a multitude that
no man can number. Not just us, but a multitude
that no man can number. Look what he said in Revelation
5, 9. And they sung a new song, saying,
Thou art worthy to take the book, to open the seals there. For
thou was slain, and hast redeemed us to God. That redeemed means
he paid the ransom. He paid the price. By thy blood,
out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation. There's people down in Manitoba,
Mexico this morning, and a preacher standing up there, an American
preacher, Cody Gruber, standing up there preaching to them right
now. And he's preaching in Spanish, but he's preaching the same gospel
that I'm preaching, and there's people down there in Manitoba,
Mexico, listening out of every tribe, every kinsmen, every tribe.
Down in New Guinea, Lance Heller down there preaching to them.
Oh, listen to me, I'll tell you why. So he redeemed a multitude. And let me tell you something. This ransom, this ransom, this
price that Jesus Christ paid was all paid, and it was all
paid at once. Was my sins paid for and my redemption
paid for when I believed? No, it was paid for 2,000 years
ago on the cross. Somebody preached it to me, and
because they preached it to me, I believe that what took place
back then. Huh? Oh, listen, the Scriptures
tell us in Hebrews 9, 12 says that He, by His own blood, entered
in once into the holy place, just once, into the holy place,
and He came back out with eternal redemption for us. Huh? And, O Beloved, He paid to the
uttermost farthest. the dead of all believers, of
all ages, for all time. And now, beloved, we owe nothing
to the law of God. I want nothing to do with the
law of God, and the law of God has nothing to do with me. The
justice of God, God said it'd be just to justify them who believed
on Christ. And all beloved Christ, our Lord,
honored the law of God by keeping it, and he's satisfied justice
by bearing the curse of it. Now, let me tell you something.
If a man's going to be saved by works and by his own obedience
and by the keeping of what he thinks is the law, well, then
he's got to keep it perfectly. Because if you don't keep it
perfectly, then if you're guilty of one
point, you're guilty of all that. And so here's what happens is,
not only do you have to obey the law, but if you don't obey
the law, you have to bear its curse. And what is the curse?
The curse is that one that hangeth on a tree. The soul that sinneth
it shall die. So here's what happens. If Christ
don't pay all the debt, and here's what he did, he not only obeyed
all of his precepts, down to the minutest detail, He took
all the guilt and all the sins of all His people, and He gave
them the obedience of the law, and charged it to their account,
and had the sins of all His people charged to His account. Huh? And oh, they love it. When our Lord Jesus Christ, when
He cried out on the cross, What do you reckon it meant? It meant
it left nothing else for him to do now and nothing for us
to do, for us to accomplish. When he said it's finished, sin
was finished. Sin was done right there. Death
is finished right there. Salvation is finished right there.
We're complete in him who's the head of all principalities and
powers. And I'll tell you something else, He paid this ransom, this
redemption, all by Himself. All by Himself. You know what
Hebrews 1, look over Hebrews 1, 3. Hebrews 1, 3. He paid this all
by Himself. He does not need our help. He
does not need our cooperation. When our Lord Jesus paid for
our sin on the cross, 2,000 years ago or a little better.
We weren't even there. We couldn't cooperate with Him
when He was on the cross. Could we? We couldn't do anything to stop
it. We couldn't do anything to add
anything to it. So when He said it is finished, He done it by
Himself. He did all this by Himself. He paid the ransom by Himself.
Look what it said here. In verse 3 of Hebrews 1, "...who
being the brightness of his glory, and the expressed image of his
person, and upholding all things by the word of his power," listen
to this, "...when he by himself purged our sins, sat down on
the right hand of the majesty on high." Oh, he did it all by
himself. Now, they had a fellow, they
called him Simon. He was a Cyrenian. Our Lord Jesus was carrying his
cross going out through Jerusalem, and they found Simon the Cyrenian
and said, here, you carry his cross. Simon said, I bear his
cross, but he won't be nailed to it. Huh? There's two thieves
beside our Lord Jesus Christ. Neither one of them were righteous.
They couldn't help him on his cross because they were nailed
to a cross. There were three men on them crosses. They couldn't
help him. They couldn't help themselves.
But there were three men on those crosses, one on either side of
the Lord Jesus Christ. One was dying in his sin. One
was dying to sin, because Christ said, today thou shalt be with
me in paradise. And one was dying for our sins. But all, all three of them, were
suffering the consequences of sin on that tree. Which is what?
Death. Where God finds sin, He punishes
it unto death. One man died for his own sin,
died there. Beloved, Christ didn't do anything
for him. One man, He says, today thou
shalt be with me in paradise. He died to his sin. And our Lord
Jesus Christ, beloved, He died for our sins, but the fact is,
all three of them suffered the consequences of sin. Huh? But Christ, only one of them,
Some of the consequences of sins for a multitude that no man could
number. And our Lord did this all by
Himself. Isaiah 63.3 says, He by Himself. He said there was none to help
Him. There was no man there to help him. And he tread the winepress
of God alone, and he tread it out, and he says, you know why
I done it? It was because the year of my
redeemed is come. And our beloved, the awful debt,
and bless his holy name, the awful debt his people owed, the
debt of sin, was laid upon our Lord Jesus Christ's shoulder,
was laid upon His heart, was laid upon His soul to bear. And our Lord Jesus in the garden,
He said, Father, if it be possible, if it be possible, but He says,
nevertheless, at Thy will. He said, Father, if it be possible,
let this cup pass from Me. But He says, nevertheless, at
Thy will. And so He took that cup That
cup of God's wrath, unmitigated wrath, full wrath of a mother
to get no man. All the wrath is due us. All the wrath of God and the
justice of God. Our Lord said, Oh, not my will,
but thine be done. And he took that cup. with all
the wrath of God in it. And he turned it up, and he drank
it, and drank it, and drank it, and drank it, and drank it, and
he took it down, and he says, My God, my God, why hast thou
forsookt me? And he turned it up again, and
he drank it, and drank it, and drank it, until there was nothing
left in it. And all of you lovers, since
that died Lord did that for me, then can God come and punish
me? Can God be angry with me? And let me tell you something
else about this redemption prize. It was accepted. Not only did
He do it by Himself, but it was accepted. How do we know that
God accepted His prize? How do we know that our Lord
declared that He would pay all the debt to justice? When they
arrested Him in the garden, they came out in the garden, over
500 men came out to take one man. And they took him to Caiaphas,
the high priest. Then they carried him and tried
him there. They took him over to Herod. They tried him there.
They took him over to Pilate. And he tried him there. And he
was taken to all of them to be judged by all. And then all of
them, beloved, is judged by all. And then God himself brought
judgment against him. And then when God brought this
judgment against him, there he was hanging on that cross with
the judgment of God on him, and payment was made. And when he
cried, it is finished, they took him down and put him in a grave. Huh? Put him in a grave. Dead. Dead. Lifeless. Wrapped him up. Held a funeral
for him. wept over his body, sealed his
tomb, just like we put somebody on the ground, throw the dirt
over them. That's what they've done, is they took that body
of our Lord Jesus Christ and sealed his tomb. But on the third morning, because
there was a covenant of grace in heaven, and beloved, when
sometime in there, And that time on the cross in that darkness,
our Lord Jesus Christ entered into that holiest of all, put
His blood on that altar and came back out and He ratified that
covenant with His blood. And how do we know that He was
accepted? Because He was resurrected from the dead. The resurrection
is the receipt of the payment being accepted. The resurrection is the receipt
of the debt being paid. And you know what? I read a few
of those revelations five minutes ago. It says that he was as a
lamb that had been slain. They saw the evidence of the
wound in his body, even in heaven itself. When we get there, he'll
still have the wound in his hands. Thomas said, I'm not going to
believe until I can put my finger in his wound of his hands. No,
we know sinners said it. Christ said, here they are, Thomas,
go ahead. And beloved, when we get to glory,
how are we going to recognize it? We'll recognize it because
of his glory. But we'll also, they said, there
it was as a lamb as it had been slain. And beloved, I tell you
what, that's the evidence that God accepted him as the wounds
in his hands and the ribbon in his side and the nail prints
in his feet. And what's the proof of our justification? Our justification that God's
no longer against us, that our sins have been paid, our debts
been paid, redemption price has been set and it's been paid.
What's the reason and proof of our justification? His resurrection. His resurrection. How do you
know that God accepted you and justified you? Very sensitive,
God's right hand. Proof that payment was accepted.
Huh? Oh, I'll tell you. Let me give
you another proof that he was accepted. That his sacrifice,
that his sacrifice was accepted. That his redemption was successful.
God received him. in the glory and set him at his
own right hand. Look in Hebrews 10, 12. Let me
almost show you this. You know, I read it to you there
a minute ago in Hebrews 1, where it says, you know, to which of the angels did God at
any time set at thy right hand? But look here in Hebrews 10,
12, what it said here. God received him in the glory
and set him at his own right hand. You know, he's sitting
in the majesty on high. You think about this. There's
a man in glory that was once on a cross, and now he sits on
a throne with all power and authority. Now watch what is said here.
But this man, the Lord Jesus Christ, after he had offered
one sacrifice for sins, forever, So now, where'd he sit
down at? On the right hand of God. What's
he gonna do? He's gonna sit there till every
one of his enemies made his footstool. And listen to the next verse.
By this one offering, by this one sacrifice for sins, he hath
perfected forever them that are sanctified. Now, can you get
any better than that? Can you get any better than that?
Perfected? Oh my. Sit here till I make you
into me as your footstool. Sit here far above all principalities
you can power. Can you imagine what it was like
when our Lord Jesus Christ ascended back to glory after forty days
on this earth? Forty days after His resurrection. Forty days. Can you imagine what
it was like when our Lord ascended back to glory? What it was like?
when the King of Kings entered there, after what he had accomplished
there. Arise! Oh you gays, lift up your
heads! Here comes the King of Glory!
Here comes the Lord, mighty in battle, strong! He's defeated
all of these foes, and now he's going to glory! And he sits at
the right hand of God. And as he sits there, you know
what he's got? He's got a girdle, he's got a
belt around his waist. And on that belt there's set
of keys hanging, two, two keys. And you know what those two keys
are? They're hanging on these bells. You can read about it
in Revelation? He has the keys of hell and the
keys of death. And neither one of them is ever
going to be used against me. Oh, let me hurry up here. Let
me tell you this. Second point, that was redemption. I tried
to tell you about redemption, what it accomplished, why it
was accepted. The ransom was made. We was in debt and couldn't
pay it. Christ paid it. And this ransom,
this redemption in Christ, it's essential for justification.
Look what it says there in verse 24 again. Being justified freely. Being justified freely. Now let
me tell you something about justification. Now, justification has to do
with law. Before law, you're justified
before law, or you're justified before God. And let me ask you
this question. What would be God's justification
for accepting you? What would be God's justification
to receive you? And then, beloved, and justification
is something done outside of ourselves. It's not something
we do. It's something done outside of
us. Something done in heaven itself. Now, let me say a few
things here. One way a man can be justified
on earth, and justified means to be cleaned of all your guilt.
I've got one in here somewhere. It started the other day. Oh, listen. One way a man can
be justified on earth in a court of law The only way a man can
be justified is to be found not guilty. He stands in the court
of law, he's charged with a crime, he's charged with a crime, and
then, beloved, the law finds him not guilty, he is justified. And so the law says he's a just
man, he's not guilty. And the law has to let him go.
But if he's found guilty, now listen to me, if he's found guilty,
Then nothing can justify it. The law can't justify it. The
court can't justify it. Now, they may pardon him, but
he's still guilty. The pardon don't do away with
his guilt. And the pardon doesn't change his standing before law.
He's still guilty. The pardon doesn't change not
only that, but it doesn't change his character. It doesn't change
his character. The law can't change his character.
It can't change his standing. But now I'll tell you the way
God justifies a sinner. Now, we're talking about a sinner
now. We're not talking about a fellow in court. We're talking
about it before God. In our courts, under law, if
a man was allowed, could take another man's punishment. But
if that was allowed, if it could take place, he may take his punishment,
but he couldn't take his guilt, could he? He could not take the
man's character upon himself. Flesh and blood can't do this,
but our Lord Jesus Christ did, could, and did by His redemption. Now here's what happened. I stood
condemned before God. The whole world was guilty before
God. Now they stopped. I got no way in the world to
clear myself. I got nothing to say for myself.
I stood condemned guilty. God will, God must punish me. The Lord Jesus comes, and what
He does is He takes me and stands me aside. Stands me aside. And then He stands up before
God and says, punish me. Punish me. He not only takes
my place, but here's something He can do that nobody else can
do. He can take my guilt. He can take my guilt. And beloved,
I tell you, men are guilty whether they feel guilty or not. Is that
alright? Men are guilty whether they feel
it or not. But He can take my guilt. He can take my shame. He can take my sin. He can take
my punishment. He had the ability to do this.
That's what substitution was about. And by shedding His blood,
that was the price of your and my salvation. And so Christ set
me aside and He took my guilt, took my shame, took my sin, took
my punishment. When the law says, die, put him
on death row, Christ says, I'll go to death row for you. And
God being just, now listen to me, God being just, He lets me
go free. If somebody else bore my sin,
bore my guilt, bore my sin, then I get to go free. Our Lord stands
before him and says, let him go. You've got me, let him go. I've borne his guilt, let him
go. I've borne his sin, let him go.
I've borne his punishment, let him go. He has my righteousness. He's
as righteous as me. Christ says, let me have his
guilt. Give him my righteousness. Let
me bear his curse. Let him have all the blessings
there are in me. Let me stand before you imperfect
with justice bearing down on me and let him stand before you
perfect. Let me be just for all of his
imperfections, and let me bear his sin, and let him bear my
obedience and righteousness." No wonder David says, "'Blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord imputed not iniquity.'" Huh? Oh, listen, let me tell you something.
God does not save a sinner by passing over the penalty. That's
something that you and I get outraged about. We get outraged
when we see somebody commit a crime. It's about that man that took
all those girls and held them captive for all those years and
kept them chained up. Why in this world can earthly
justice punish him the way he ought to be punished? And we
get outraged when we see somebody get off. And justice don't come
down on them. But I'll tell you what, God doesn't
save us by passing over the penalty. No, the penalty's been paid.
Huh? Christ is His people substitute. Substitution. What a word. That's
why Christ was called the Lamb of God. Every morning, under
the law, they had a morning lamb that they offered every morning.
And then they had an evening lamb that they offered every
evening. And what it did, it was offered for Israel every
morning, every evening. That lamb bore the sins of those people
every day. Morning and evening. But Christ
bore our sins once in His own body on the tree. Once. and put
away all our sin once and for all. And by this way, God can
save us with a perfect salvation. God Himself sent Him forth to
be our propitiation. And let me tell you some blessings
of this justification. Look over here in Psalm 103.
Look at some of these blessings. Oh my, justified. There's people
here this morning And we know how weak we are, we know how
frail we are, we know our own thoughts, we know our own imaginations,
we know what we think, we know what we do, we're not fooled
in ourselves, we're not deceived in ourselves. And so how in the world can we
stand here before God and say that I'm perfectly justified,
I have no sin, I have a righteousness? That God Himself is the one.
It's God that justifies. Who is He that condemns? If God
be for us, who can be against us? Now, we may justify ourselves
in something that we do. But when we talk about justifying
ourselves before God, being justified freely by His grace through Christ
paying the ransom. Now, listen here. Psalm 103,
verse 10. He hath not dealt with us after
our sins. He didn't deal with us after
our sins, but who did He deal with? He dealt with Christ, if
you pray. Listen here, and listen to this. Nor rewarded us according to
our iniquities. What did He reward us with? The
obedience of Christ, the righteousness of Christ. And this is what else
he says, "'For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great
is his mercy toward them that fear him. As far as the east
is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions
from us.'" That's a long way off, ain't
it? Huh? Cast them into the depths of
the sea. Carry them all away. And you know, on the day, great
day of atonement, that one day a year, they'd bring a goat. The priest would lay his hands
on the head of that goat and confess all the sins of all of
Israel. And then they'd take him and
they'd confess them sins, lay all their sins on him. Now that
goat had sinned. And that goat couldn't put their
sin away, but from one year to the next. So they'd take that
goat that he'd laid his hands on, put his sins on. They'd take
him off his throat, and take the blood, and take it into the
holiest of holy offerings. Then they had another goat. It
was a live goat. And this live goat was what they
called the scapegoat. This one over here died for sin,
and then to make sure, to give them evidence that sin was all
taken away, they chose a fit man. And he would take this other
goat, this scapegoat, and he'd confess it over him, and away
he'd go. And he was to take that goat way off into the wilderness
and leave it there. And what it meant was, beloved,
that this sense had been paid for him, death, death, the innocence
for the guilty. And then to show that the sins
are gone, really gone, to give it, just as a type, and to show,
give comfort to the people. The way he'd go, leading that
goat off, and the folks would stand there and watch and watch
and watch, and in a little while he'd go outside. And he'd come back, and the goat
wouldn't come back with him. Our Christ went into the tomb.
Went to the cross and went into the tomb. He died for our sins. And then as that Lord's fit man,
he carried our sins as far away till God himself can't even remember
them anymore and can't find them. Can't find them. Can't find them. Where's your sins at? God said,
I don't remember. You sin? You got sin? I don't
remember. I don't remember you having any
sin. I don't remember that. And I'm
going to tell you something, this justification never changes.
Never changes. You're as justified as you'll
ever be. You'll be no more justified at
one time or another. Even in eternity, the debt's
been paid. God will never ask for it again.
In the righteousness of Christ given us. Let me show you this
quickly. Here in Romans 3.24, look what it says. being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption. I've talked about redemption,
talked about justification, the justification of sinners, and
then how we get this justification, this redemption that's in Christ.
Look what it says, freely by His grace. It's free. Free. Free to us. Freely by His
grace. It can't be bought. It can't
be earned. It can't be deserved. Now, if
we preach justification by setting a price on it, most would be
very happy to have it. But to set no price on it, to
be justified freely by grace, till God said, I'll love them
freely. But if you tell folks, if you suffer enough, give enough,
weep enough, attend church enough, Quit this bad habit, that bad
habit. Most folks will say, boy, I'm going to do that. I'm going
to be justified. But when you're justified freely,
and you have nothing to do with it, do you mean I can have this
justification? I can have this redemption. I
can have this grace and this justification freely? That it
don't cost anything, me anything? that I don't have to do anything,
don't have to do nothing? Yes, freely by His grace. And
let me tell you something, if it's by grace, that means that
it's free. And let me tell you something,
can you believe this blessed truth? Can you believe that?
I can. Because I know that the only
way I'm going to be justified is for Christ to pay my debt.
For him to be accepted of God, and for him to justify me by
his grace. And he has to do that freely
because I have absolutely no way in the world to earn it. I don't deserve it. I'm not good
enough to get it. So if I get it, he's got to give
it to me. He's got to do it all. All to him I owe. Ain't that
right? Our blessed, blessed Savior, I bless you today. I praise you
that you allowed us to preach the gospel again. I pray that
the Holy Spirit would make it clear, make it effectual, make
it understandable, make it real, make it vital to a heart. And
for that soul, that soul, who believes, who rests in the Lord
Jesus Christ. I thank you for them. I thank
you that you taught us this blessed, blessed gospel, this justification
by the free grace of Christ, this paying of our debt by the
blood of Christ, this our acceptance in our Lord Jesus Christ, this
righteousness that is charged to our count will we stand righteous
before God himself, without spot, without blemish, holy and unreprovable
in his sight. Father, we thank you for these
things. And Lord, we're going to have dinner after a while,
and I thank you for the ladies and the men that prepared this
food, the love and care that went into it. all the effort
that's been done to prepare it and set it up. I thank you for
it. And Lord, you bless your people
according to your riches in glory. In Christ our Lord, I pray. Amen. Amen.