And look with me in verse 30. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
what did he predestinate us to do? To be conformed to the image
of his Son. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, In whom he called, them he also justified. In whom he justified, them he
also glorified. What shall we say to these things?
If God be for us, who can be against us? He that spared not
his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not
with him also freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. You see here that being justified
is mentioned three times. Twice, in verse 30. Once in verse
33. And that's what I want to talk
about today. Justification. Justification. Justification. Oh, what a subject. What a blessed
subject. A wonderful truth. Glorious truth. Glorious truth to believe. In
fact, it's necessary truth to believe. If you don't know anything
about justification, you don't know anything about God. You
don't know anything about how sin's put away. Let me tell you
what justification means. It's God that justified. Him
He also called, He justified. Whom He justified. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justified. What it is, is it's a divine
declaration respecting men. It is God himself, the righteous
judge of all the earth, the moral governor of this universe, who
is righteous himself. He declares a man righteous.
That's what it is. He declares a man righteous.
Abraham believed God, and God says, that's a righteous man.
That's a righteous man right there. God said, I'm going to
justify that man. I'm going to clear him and I'm
going to declare him to be righteous. It's what God declares about
a man. And God tells things as they really are. As they really
are. What it is, justification, is
the opposite of condemnation. There is therefore now no condemnation
to them that are in Christ. Condemnation is God condemning
a man. Who shall condemn us? Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God? Who is he that condemneth?
It's God that justifies. Ain't that what he just said? And what it is, beloved, is God's
justification. It's God not entering into judgment
with the sinner. It's forgiving the sinner. David
says, Blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. So if you don't impute sin to
him, that means, beloved, as far as God's concerned, the man
don't have any sin. He's justified. Now listen to
me right now. It's not to make a man righteous,
but it's to declare a man righteous. It's to declare a man righteous.
And I want to tell you seven things about justification today.
Seven things about it. I pray the Holy Spirit will come
and be our teacher. The first thing I want to say
about justification is this, that we're justified by God.
God justifies us. Ain't that what it says in verse
33? It is God that justifies. Verse
30 says this, Moreover, whom he called he also justified,
and whom he justified he also glorified. You see, God's the
source of everything. And as all things are of God,
according to 2 Corinthians 5.18, so as everything starts with
God, that's where justification starts. It starts with God. It's
God that justifies us. It's God Himself that declares
us innocent, righteous, not guilty, clear of all sin. Now listen
to me, it's a legal act of God. It's a legal act of God. He declares
the sinner righteous. Now, how can He declare a sinner
righteous? On the basis of the Lord Jesus
Christ and what Christ did. Ain't that what He says there
in verse 34? Who is He that condemneth? It's
Christ that died. And on the basis of God making
Christ to be sin. Who knew no sin. that we might
be made what the righteousness of God were at in Him. God can
justify man and clear him of all guilt on the basis of what
the Lord Jesus Christ did, bearing their sin and giving Him their
righteousness. Now let me tell you this, it's
not an act of renewal. God doesn't renew a person. And
it's not a process that takes over a period of time. It's something
God does just like that. He just says it, and it's so. When God said Abraham was righteous,
how long did that take? Did He review Abraham? Just declared
him righteous. Did it take a period of time?
No! He said he's righteous. Justified
him. Who did He justify before? Before
Himself. And let me give you three blessed
facts of justification. First thing about justification,
it removes the guilt of sin. Now, when you understand justification,
and when God justifies you, He removes the guilt of sin. He
takes the sin away. If God justifies you, He says
that I have no sin, I'm not in judgment against you, I'm not
against you in any way, on the basis of what my son did, I declare
you righteous and I justify you before myself. And what it does,
it restores the sinner, and I read it to you over there in Titus,
all the rights of the child of God. Oh, what rights does the
child of God have? The same rights that his son
has. As Jesus Christ is now, even so are we in this world.
Is Christ justified in the sight of God? We are. Is Christ righteous? We are. Is Christ not in the
flesh? We're not. Is Christ in the Spirit?
We're in the Spirit. Christ is at the right hand of
God, we're at the right hand of God. Oh, and then it includes
our eternal inheritance. You know what my inheritance
is? It's a heapsight better than
anything I'll ever get on this earth. I'll tell you that. Somebody
leave you a few dollars, leave you a house, leave you a car,
leave you a little money, That's God. That God gives us an eternal
life. Let me switch to this now. Justification. Justification takes place outside
the center. It takes place outside the center.
What do I mean by that? That it takes place in heaven. God's in glory. God's in heaven. God's on His throne. That's where
he was when he looked at Abraham and said, Abraham, you're a righteous
man. He justified Abraham. Justification
takes place outside ourselves. It takes place in glory. And
I'll tell you something else, it takes place once and for all. Once and for all. Once it's done,
it isn't repeated. It isn't a process. It's complete
at once and for all time. If God ever justifies you, you're
justified for all eternity. That's why he said, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies
it. And we were predestinated and
foreordained to be justified. And that's why, beloved, before
the world ever began, we stood in Christ. Look over here at
Romans 8. Look over here at Romans 8.1.
It says there, there is therefore, now. There is therefore, now. What's now mean? What does now
mean? No condemnation. To who? Them which are in Christ Jesus.
The Scriptures tells us that God Himself justified us. And what He says, whom He called,
He justified. And that's always in the past
tense. That means it's done once and for all, and once it's done,
it'll always be in the past tense. And let me show you this over
here in Romans 3.24. We'll give you another thing
about justification. Romans 3.24. Not only is God the one that
justifies us, it's something done outside ourselves. You know,
our salvation, I'll get to it in a minute, every bit of our
salvation is outside of ourselves. That's why you can't bring anything
to get God's sake. You can't get in. Justification
takes place from glory. Now listen, justification is
by the free grace of God. You say, well, what does that
mean? Well, look down there in verse 24, Romans 3, 24, being
justified freely by his grace. That's what we mean about free
grace, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus. So we see justifications by free
grace, and when we talk about free grace, that means, beloved,
what are you going to contribute to it? It's apart from works.
Look what he says over here in Romans 4.1. You know, works don't
enter into this thing. You're not justified by works.
He says in Romans 4.1, What shall we say then that our Abraham,
our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found? What did
he find according to his flesh, according to his fallen nature,
according to his standing in Adam? For if Abraham were justified
by works, he'd cast something to glory in. But there's no way
he can glory before God. Why can't he, Paul? For the scripture
says this, Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for
righteousness. So that's why Abraham ain't gonna
glory, because he can't glory before God. God counted him righteous
apart from works. And not only is it not by works,
but the law. Can a man be justified by law?
Romans 3.20 says this. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, and the deeds of the law is any work, any work, trying
to commend yourself, do anything, anything at all to try to make
yourself acceptable to God is the law, it's words. We cannot
do anything. When it says freely, that's what
it means. When it says free grace, that's
what it means. Nothing we can do can commend
ourselves to God. We say, I'm going to quit doing
this, and I'm going to start doing that, and I intend to do
this, and I intend to do something else. But there's no way that
God will justify you on the basis of anything you think, say, or
do. Abraham was a heathen idolater. Worshipped idols. He had idols. He put on his camel and carried
them around with him until God hemmed him up in the air of the
chalice and called him out. And when he called him, with
that calling comes justification. And he turned from his idols
to serve the living God. And that's what he says there
in Romans 2. Listen. Nose flesh. And I tell you, not
in any works or law, but no merit either. Look down in verse 9
of Romans 3. Or excuse me, Romans 10. Romans 3.10. Excuse me, excuse
me, excuse me. Romans 3.10, 3.10, 3.10, 3.10.
Surely there ain't no merit. As it is written,
there's none righteous, no, not one. You think you've got a righteousness,
you know, of your own doing? You're going to have something
to commend to God? Well, I've done some pretty good
things in my life. I've been a pretty good person.
I ain't hurt nobody. I've, you know, and I'm the only
person I've ever hurt myself, and I feel good about myself,
and I, you know, and all, and go on and on about it. But you
know what God said about the best thing you've ever done?
Our righteousnesses are as a filthy rag. And if our righteousnesses
are as a filthy rag, imagine what our sin is like. Then you think about this, that
men would come to commend themselves to God. by their attitude, by
their words, by their intent, by their resolve, by their opinion,
good opinion of themselves. After God crucified His own Son
and declared Him to be the only righteous person and Him to be
our righteousness, you imagine what God thinks about a man or
a woman who comes and tries to commend themselves in spite of
Christ's righteousness. That's blasphemy to think that
you can walk up to God after what Christ has done and do something
to add to what He did? Oh, no wonder He says, justified
freely by His grace. Now when it says freely, what
does that mean? That means without cause in us. Is there anything
that would cause God to justify us? Is anything that would cost
God to take away our guilt? Anything that would cost God
to make us righteous? And to declare us so? And it
means when it talks about freely, not only without cost, but without
payment from us. In my hands, no price I bring. Jesus paid it all, all of Him
I owe. Sin and laughter, prison, stain,
He washed it white. And when before the throne I
stand, I want to stand only in His righteousness, and that's
the only one there is. Now, you hear me. Never, under
any circumstances, for any reason, are we regarded as righteous
or justified before God, but only through God's grace in Christ. When it says freely, it means
freely. When it talks about grace, it
means grace. And Romans 11 verse 5 says, if
it's of worse, it's no more grace. It's got to be all of worse.
And if it's of grace, it cannot be of worse. Now, you're going
to be saved one way or another by what you do or by what he
did. And I'm going to be saved by
what he did. Now, you know, if the grace of
God was like a big, huge lake, I would dive in head first and
never get out of it. And that's where we dive in.
We dive in the grace of God and water in it, revel in it, rejoice
in it, rest in it, embrace it, and give our whole lives over
to what Christ did. Huh? Not only we're justified
freely, but let me show you another one over in Romans 5. Romans 5.8. Look at this with
me. You know, people say, that just
can't be. That just can't be. We've got
to do something. We've got to do something. No,
no, no. Christ did it all. Why do you want to do anything
when somebody else has done it? You know, people buy a house,
and they have somebody build a house, and they'll say, I want
a turnkey job. That means they want the house completely done,
and then when you get it done, get it finished from top to bottom,
inside and out, and give me the key. You walk in, everything's
done. Well, Christ, He does it all. He didn't give us a key. He Himself
is the key. Oh, look here in Romans 5.8. But God commendeth His love toward
us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now watch it now. If Christ died
for us while we were sinners, and this is the way God showed
His love to us and commended it to us, much more than if Christ
died for us, much more than being now justified by His blood. If He died for us while we were
sinners, oh my, guess what happens if that's what happened? Much
more than being now justified by His blood. We should be saved
from wrath through Him. And when it talks about blood,
that's what He's talking about dying. Wherever you find blood
in the Scriptures, it's talking about a sacrifice. It's talking
about a death. And here He's talking about the
death of Christ. Why we were sinners, Christ died
for us. If He died for us, imagine what
His blood done for us. If those high priests, they went
into the holiest of holies with the blood of bulls and goats,
And that sanctified those people according to the flesh. He never
did anything for the heart, never done anything for the spirit.
How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal
Spirit entered in once into the holy place, and when He got in
there, He came back out with eternal redemption for us, and
His blood purges... Oh, that does sanctify their
flesh. His blood purges our conscience. Huh? Much more than being justified
by His death, His blood that washes us all away from all of
our sins? You see, beloved, here's what
happens. And Scott Richardson, I'll tell you why he dealt with
this over and over and over. There's only one person ever
satisfied God. Only one person. And that's the
Lord Jesus Christ. And what satisfaction did Christ
give to God? Satisfied the two things that's
against us more than anything else. His justice, that demanded
payment for our sins, the soul is sin if it must die. Christ
died, I just read it to you. If He died for us while we were
yet sinners, if that happened, then we're justified by His blood.
Alright, He satisfied God's justice. And He upheld God's holiness.
God demands perfection in His holiness. Christ gave Him holiness. So He put away our sins by His
blood and justifies it and gives us a holy standing before God.
Huh? Oh, you see, He endured. He endured
God's wrath. And not only did He endure it,
but He consumed it. Under the law, God's wrath came
down and consumed the sacrifice. That's why when they put it on
the altar, and they had that brazen altar and the fire was
constantly on it, they'd put it on there and they would consume
it. They'd burn it up. Well, instead of God's wrath
consuming Christ, Christ on the cross, He consumed all the wrath
of God. And since there's no wrath of
God, For those he justified, then God's not angry with us. And it's the blood. You keep
romancing. Let me look over here at Leviticus
17. Leviticus, third book of the
Old Testament. Leviticus 17. You see, beloved, it's the blood
that makes atonement. Without the shedding of blood,
there is no remission of sin. And people make fun of bloody
religion. But let me tell you something.
Let me tell you something. There has to be death inflicted
wherever there's sin. Has to be. And whenever there's death inflicted,
it's always inflicted in a substitute. And when that blood is shed,
you know, and that's why, beloved, a man, when he goes to hell,
he's going to be there for all eternity, because he himself
could never satisfy the justice of God. You know, when you sin
against God, you sin against an eternal and an infinite being.
And so since you could never pay God for your sin, then you
have to suffer eternally because you could never put away your
sin. So when Christ came, and it's the blood that makes atonement,
it's the blood that satisfies the justice of God. It's the
blood that God demanded death. Well, God provided death. He
provided in the sacrifices in the Old Testament, and He provided
in the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the Lamb. Now look here
in the verse 11 of Leviticus 17. Leviticus 17, 11. For the life of the flesh is
in the blood. You go to the doctor, first thing they want to do is
test your blood. I go to the doctor and they take out three
or four vials and they test it for everything. And I go in and
she lifts it all up here and says, well, your perglycerides
is this, your cholesterol is that, your PSA is this. And she
goes through a whole bunch of things because my blood tells
everything in order. And you know what? They'll tell
you you've got cancer. They take your blood and all the white
cells. You're in trouble. The blood
tells you that. Well, listen. The life of the
flesh in the blood. Now, listen. And I have given
it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls. It is the blood that maketh atonement. And what blood did God give?
The blood of His own Son. No. The blood of His own Son. And it was the soul. You see,
beloved? Oh, bless His holy name. I'm
so grateful that no wonder God said that night in Egypt when
all those lambs were slain, God says, when I see the blood, those
folks were inside the house. It's God's view of the blood.
It's the blood speaking for us right now in glory. God said,
when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. And you know what we're
going to sing about in glory? this song, a new song, unto Him
that hath redeemed us by His own blood out of every kindred,
every tribe, and every tongue under heaven. That's what the
song we're going to sing when we get there. We'll stand and
we'll start singing. Unto You, Lord, Blessed be your holy name for
the blood that you shed to redeem us. You redeemed us in people
in Crossville, Tennessee, people in China, people in Africa, people
in Jerusalem, people in Chicago, people in Mexico. No matter what
tongue you spoke, what nation you was out of, everybody sings
the same song up there. And now let me hurry up and let
me look back over in Romans with me. Look in Romans chapter 4 with
me just a moment. Romans 4, 25. Not only are we justified by God, God's the
one that justifies. Who's going to lay anything in
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. And what that
means is this. If you go into a court of law, And you, for some reason, had
to kill somebody, had to do something horrible. And you go to court, and they
decide that you was justified in doing what you did. You're
justified in doing it. And so they say, well, he was
justified in what he did. That means all your guilt's gone.
You don't have no record. And the judge says, Well, this
jury says you're justified. You're justified in what you
did. You're justified in how you acted. Walk out of here a
free man. And that's what God does with
us who are sinners. Though we were guilty when we
walked in, Christ's blood answered the judge and said, let him go
free. All right, look here in Romans
4.25. Let's look at verse 24. But for
us also, to whom it shall be imputed, if we believe on him
that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered
for our offenses, and was raised for our justification. Now, what
does this mean? Now, we talk about justification.
As I told you, this is the fourth thing about justification. Fourth
thing. And it says, was delivered from
us and raised for our... What is this resurrection? It's
proof. It's proof. The resurrection
is proof. And what's it prove? Well, it
proves this. First of all, that He was who
He said He was. He says that He comes to save His people from
their sin. He says that, I have an hour
to come to. I have a cup to drink. I must be crucified. I must be
slain. And I must rise again from the
dead on the third day. So the resurrection was proof
that He was who He said He was. And not only that, but it's also
the resurrection is proof that his work was accepted of God.
God raised him from the dead. Why? Because he was accepted
for what he'd done. Huh? Who else did God ever say,
set at my right hand until I make thine enemies thy footstool?
He never said it to any angel. But he said to the son, O son,
thy sceptre is forever, and thy righteousness is forever, and
set thou my right hand, till I make thee in him as ye pushed
to him. And beloved, it's proof that God accepted his person,
God accepted his death, God accepted his sacrifice, God accepted his
blood. And I'll tell you what else it's
proof of. It's proof that the work is finished. You know He's delivered for our
offenses, raised for our justification. So that's proof that the work
is finished, that sin's put away. That His obedience is ours. You
read Romans, and look at Hebrews 10 with me just a moment. Hebrews
10. Sin's put away. His obedience
is ours. Hebrews 10, 17. My when I Lord said it is finished.
That's what he means. Well, how do we know it work
was finished? He's resurrected from the dead What's what it
says here in verse 17 God says this now and their sins and iniquities. I will remember no more. Oh My
Now what's what this is now? We're remission of these ends.
We're payment for these years. I Where these have all been paid
for, there's no more offering for sin. Why don't you need another
offering? Because you don't have any sin. Why would you bring
another offering if Christ already put away your sin? Sin has been
put away and God said, I don't remember it. So why in the world
do you need another offering? Back over in Romans 4. Now you
see, let me tell you something about proof. The law is proof
of my condemnation. The law proves that I'm condemned.
The law shows me. It's proof of my condemnation.
By the law is the knowledge of sin. The law pronounces me guilty.
The law pronounces me condemned. That's proof of my condemnation.
My union with Adam is proof of my sin nature, my fallen nature. So, Christ as a resurrection
is proof of my justification from the law that it no longer
condemns me. That my union with Adam, that
my union with Christ is stronger. He alone is our justification
before law. Who's going to lay anything charge
of God's elect? Christ is God. It's our justification before
sin. Sin can't condemn us. Why? Because Christ just put
it all away and just read that to you. And it's our justification
before God. God Himself said, I justify you.
And our own consciences. Does your conscience continue
right now? Why don't it? Because you understand
what Christ did for you. We believe the book. And from
the accusations of Satan himself. Well, let me give you another
one here. Look in Romans 4. Again with
me. Look in Romans 4.20. Faith is the means. Now, resurrection
is proof of our justification. Faith is the means of our justification.
It says here that Abraham staggered not that the promise of God through
unbelief, but was strong in faith. And this is what faith does.
It gives all the glory to God. and being fully persuaded that
what he had promised he was able also to perform, and therefore
it was imputed unto him for righteousness. Now, now, it was not written
for his sake alone that God imputed righteous unto him, but for us
also, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead. Now, when we talk about faith,
Romans 3.26, look over there at Romans 3.26. Talk about faith. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God. Romans 3.26, talking about faith
as the means of our justification. To declare through the gospel
now, at this time, God's righteousness now. His righteousness, His right
to do what He does, and the righteousness involved in what He does. That
God will stay just, stay holy, stay righteous, and He'll justify
them that what? Believe in Jesus Christ. Now you say, what in the world
is His faith at work? No. I'm going to tell you something
else. If you was in your bed asleep and your house is on fire,
and you didn't know it was on fire, fire was engulfing, your
neighbor come running and banging on the door, busted through there,
woke you up, come on, get out of this house, get out of this
house, you'll die. You'd get out of that house immediately. If you just had your underwear
on, you wouldn't make, you wouldn't stop to try to get dressed to
get out of there. You'd get out of there immediately. Then when
you got out, you says, boy, man, I really done something good. Whoa, my, what a good deed I've
done. I believe my neighbor who just saved me. I bet I assisted
him to get out of the house. No, no, you know what you'd do?
You'd run up to that neighbor and hug his neck and kiss him
and say, Oh, I sure do appreciate you warning us. I'm glad you've
seen that fire. We'd all died. And that's what
faith does with Christ. Oh, Lord, I bless you. I believe
what the preacher says. I believe what your word says.
I believe that I'm a sinner. I believe that you're the only
hope, that you're the only righteousness, that I don't have anything to
offer. I'll tell you, I was in a burning house. I was a worm
in that house, and you came, and I was under the wrath of
God and the justice of God, and you came and drug me out with
fire! A brand put from the burning.
Oh, that's why faith only gives the glory to God. Faith receives
the truth of the gospel. There's no glory in believing
the truth. A man's a fool who doesn't believe
the truth. And faith receives the truth
of the gospel, the truths of the merits of Christ, that Christ
is all the one with the righteous. Christ is the one with all the
obedient. And as beloved, the doing and dying of Christ is
what we believe. Faith is not its own object. Look right over in Romans 3.28,
look at that, what it says there. Therefore we conclude, this is
a conclusion now, that a man is justified by faith without
the deeds of the law. He believes the testimony of
God. Now listen to me, faith is not
its own object. There's a lot of people that
think their faith is their own object. They look at their faith
and say, boy, I look at my faith. No, no. Christ is faith's object. We look outside ourselves and
we look at what He's raised for our justification. Justified
by His blood. Justified by God. Justified freely
by His grace. It ain't talk anything about
what we've done yet, has it? Huh? Faith is not its own object. I don't look to my faith to see
it. No, no. I look to Christ. I believe Him. Paul said, I know whom I have
believed. Our whole salvation is objective. And what do I mean by that? Our
salvation is done completely outside ourselves. Two thousand
years ago, my salvation was perfect and complete, right then and
there, once and for all. Is that not right? And when somebody come and told
me the gospel of what Christ did, I said, oh, bless His holy
name. You know what I'm going to do?
I'm going to believe Him and I'm going to rest in Him. I've
been working, I've been praying, I've been giving, I've been doing
everything I possibly could to get peace. But when somebody
told me that Christ made peace through the blood of His Christ,
that Christ justified God, that I was justified by His blood,
that I was justified by His grace, and I was justified by God. You
know what I done? I said, He done it all. I'm going
to quit working. I'm going to rest. I'm going to believe Him. I'm just going to believe Him. Oh, you see, sin was put away
when Christ died, not when I believed. Faith didn't die for me. Faith
didn't put my sin away. Faith wasn't crucified. Christ
was. So that's why faith goes outside
and looks to Christ. How do you know you have faith?
Are you trusting Christ alone? And let me tell you, faith is
based on knowledge. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. For how shall they call on Him
of whom they have not heard? You've got to hear about it,
and I'm telling you about it. And how can you hear without a preacher? That's what I'm doing. I'm telling
you everything I know right this minute. I'm doing my damn level
best to tell you who He is and what He did. Oh, the faith is
based on what God says. What God says. And with the heart
we believe. In our heart, we go outside to
Him and say, Oh Lord, I thank You, I bless Your Holy Name.
I listened to Scott preach the other day, and he says, Oh, God
give you a love. And he said, Does God give you
a love? Does God give you a heart to love Christ? A heart to love
Him? To love Him. To love Him from
saving you out of that house. To save you as a friend from
the burning. To save you from putting away all your sin. Oh,
to keep you day in and day out. Does God give you a heart? Has
He given you a heart to love Him? And there's some people
He has. He's given a heart to love Him. To love Him. To love Him. And love goes outside
itself to its object. We don't trust our faith. We
trust the Lord Jesus Christ. We don't trust our feelings.
What's some of your feelings right now? We don't trust our
feelings. We trust the Lord Jesus Christ.
We don't trust our intellect. But we trust His omnipotence,
His infinite knowledge. He knows us. I find great comfort
in He knows us. Well, I'm going to show you another
thing here right quick. Look with me in Matthew chapter 12. God justifies us. Justified by
free grace. Justified by the blood. Justified
by the resurrection. Justified. Faith is the means. Now, I want
to show you something here. Romans 12, verse 34. Our Lord Jesus here is speaking
to some Pharisees, and he says this, Oh generation of vipers. My goodness, what in the world
would people think about a preacher calling people a bunch of snakes,
vipers. How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of the abundance of the
heart the mouth speaketh." If you've got an evil heart, evil's
coming out of it. A good man out of the good treasure
of the heart bringeth forth good things, and an evil man out of
the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things. But now listen,
"'For I say unto you, Ever out of word that men shall speak,
they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment.'" Now
this is what I want you to look at. "'For by thy words thou shalt
be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.'" Now
what does that mean? That means what you say about
God, what you say about yourself, what you say about Christ, what
you say about salvation, either justifies you or condemns you.
These Pharisees, that's what our Lord said, their words condemned
them before God. What they thought about Christ,
how they considered Christ, the words they said about Christ.
And let me tell you something, when you hear a preacher preach,
and he's talking about free will, And he's talking about works
and our own obedience. And he's talking about what we
need to be doing for God in order to get a blessing from God. That
man, every time he opens his mouth, he's condemning himself
in the sight of God. Because he's not telling the
truth on God, he's not telling the truth on Christ. You understand
what I'm saying now? He said, out of the abundance
of the heart, the mouth speak. Whatever's in that heart, that's
what's coming out. And if Christ is in your heart, Words about
Christ coming out of there. If love's in your heart, love's
coming out of there. If grace's in your heart, grace's coming
out of there. And if you love Christ, love's coming out of
there. If faith's there, it's going out to Christ. And what
do you say about yourself right now in the sight of God? What
do you say about Christ? What do you say about grace?
What do you say about sovereignty? What do you say about election?
What do you say about justification? What do you say? And I'll give you a perfect illustration
of that. Let me show you. Look over here,
I believe it's in Luke 7. Luke 7 with me real quick. Oh,
I'm still in good shape here. Luke 7, 29. Let me show you something
here. This is what I'm talking about.
And these Pharisees, the words they use concerning the Lord
Jesus Christ, they condemned themselves. God knowing that,
they condemned themselves. Look what it says here, Luke
7, 29. And all the people that heard
him, heard who? John the Baptist. That's what
Christ is talking about there in verse 28. John the Baptist.
And all the people that heard him and the publicans justified
God. How'd they do it? Being baptized
with the baptism of John. They says, what he's telling
us is the truth. We're going to do what John said.
We're going to believe John. We're going to be the testimony
that God preached through John. But watch this, but the Pharisees
and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves because
they didn't believe John. They didn't believe John. And
it's like that, and I'm going to give you another illustration.
Luke 18, the Pharisee and the Publican both went up to the
temple. Is that not right? They both went up there to pray.
The Pharisee stood and prayed dust with himself. I thank you
that I'm not like other men. I pay the price of everything
I possess. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not
an adulterer. He started bragging on himself
before God. Every time he opened his mouth,
he condemned himself. He never said anything about
God. The Publican smote on his breast. Couldn't even look up
to heaven and say, God, be merciful, be the sinner. You see the difference? By your words, you justify. By your words, you condemn. And
I tell you, when you're talking to somebody, and one day start
talking about God, start talking about Christ, start talking about
scriptures, you know right quick where they stand on business
of salvation and their belief of the Word, don't you? Don't
you do that? How do you know it? Because you
know what the gospel is. You know the difference. And
you'll say, you'll walk up and say, boy, that's one of the most
self-righteous people I've ever seen. That's what they do. Listen, we can't talk about our
righteousness and the righteousness of Christ at the same time. We
can't talk about our works and His works at the same time. We
can't talk about having strength in light of His omnipotence.
And we surely are not going to talk about his sovereignty and
go around complaining all the time about our loss of life.
Ain't that right? I'm going to show you one other
thing and then I'm done. James. James chapter 2. James chapter 2. James is right
after the book of Hebrews. James chapter 2. Oh my, God help us to always
speak well of you, speak glory, bring glory to you, be like Abraham,
bring glory to you. And here he says this, we'll
be justified by our works as the fruit of our justification. Look here in verse 18, James
2, 18. Yea, a man may say, you have
faith. A man's got the right to say,
you say you have faith. And I expect, you know, for people
to have faith, to have evidence of that faith. How do you expect
them to have evidence of that faith? Have words. Well, what
kind of words? Show me your faith. That's what
he says. Show me your faith. I cannot see your faith this
morning. No more than you see mine. I told you I got it. I told you I believe Christ.
But you can't see it, can you? Well, how do you see it? He says,
show me your faith without your works, and I'll show you my faith
by my works. He said, well, I believe God.
Well, that's wonderful. The devils do that. And they
even tremble. But wilt thou know, vain man,
that faith without works is dead? And knew you Abraham? That's
an illustration. The same man that God said, and
Abraham didn't do anything to be justified. God just declared
him a righteous man. But seest thou, was not Abraham
our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his
son upon the altar? Now who did he justify? Who was
justified? His faith was justified. Now
listen to me. I'm going to try to make a distinction
here, and I want you to hear me. And I'll be done in a minute.
Faith justifies us before God. Only faith justifies us before
God. our works and how we carry ourselves
and conduct ourselves and how we treat people and how we treat
others in this world. Our works justifies our faith
before one another and before other men. Does that make any
sense to you? My faith, my justification before
God, that's something God does. But how in the world is anybody
going to know I'm a believer? How is anybody going to know
that I have faith? How do they know Abraham had faith? He had
a bunch of fellas with him when he offered up Isaac. He said,
I'm glad I'm going to go up there and do worship, and we're coming
back in three days. They know what he's going to
do. They says, Abraham, that fella believes God. How do you
know it? But he offered up his son. How do you know he believes God?
He left his home and run around in a tent all the days of his
life, never on the spotty ground. Why don't he settle down somewhere?
Because God told him that he was looking for a city. And he
hadn't found it yet. He just kept looking. Why is
he looking? God told him to keep looking.
I'm looking. Why are you moving again, boy? I'm still looking
for that city. Admit what else it says now.
You see how faith wrought with these works, and by works was
faith made perfect, faith made mature for folks to look at.
And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed
God, and it was reputed unto him for righteousness, and he
was called a friend of God. And that's what we're talking
about. We're talking about our faith justifies us before God.
Works justifies our faith before men. And I'm telling you, beloved,
Where there's grace in the heart, there'll be grace in the life. Where there's love in the heart,
there'll be love in the life. Where there's faith in Christ
or there's faith in the heart, there'll be fruit in the life.
And I tell you, I care what people think about me. I care what you
think about me. I care what my neighbors think
about me. I care what people think about me when I go to do
business. I care what they think about me at the bank. I care what they think about
me. I care what they think about me wherever I do business. I
care what they think about me up here at 101 Market. I care
what they think about me. I care how they view me. Don't you? Why? I want Christ
to get all the glory. And I certainly don't want them
to look at me and say, man, if that fellow's got faith, I'll
tell you what, I'm as good, you know, And that's why we care
about what people think about us. And if you don't, you're
in trouble. You're really in trouble. Our Father, O gracious, gracious
God, in the blessed name of the Lord Jesus Christ, Thank you
for your gospel. Thank you for the truth as it
is in Christ. Oh, God, cause this message to
bring forth fruit to your glory. Oh, thank you for this wonderful,
blessed truth. May some soul find rest today,
find peace today, find comfort today, find assurance today. May they in their very heart
of hearts right now be going outside themselves and say, Lord,
I believe you. I need you and I want you. Oh
God, please forgive me of my sin. Forgive me of my self-righteousness. Forgive me of my self-confidence.
Forgive me for ever thinking I could bring you anything. I
just come to you as I am. Come to you without anything
to offer. So oh God, please work that in their heart. We ask these
things in Christ's name. Amen. Amen.