I would like to start tonight
in the book of Job. The book of Job chapter 25. Job
25. Then answered Bildad, the Shuhite, and said, Dominion and fear are with him. He maketh peace in his high places. Is there any number of his armies?
And upon whom doth not his light arise? How then can a man be
justified with God? Or how can he be clean that is
born of a woman? Behold, even to the moon, and
it shineth not, yea, the stars are not pure in his sight. How much less man that is a worm,
and the son of man which is a worm. Now this is a question that has
plagued men from the time that Adam fell in the garden. How
can a man be justified with God? We're born with a conscience
that tells us that there is a Creator that we will one day answer to
for wrongdoings. Romans 1, if you'd like to turn
there. Romans 1 makes it plain that
men are born knowing that there is a God. Romans 1, we'll start
in verse 20, where we read, "...for the invisible things of Him from
the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead,
so that they are without excuse. Because that, when they knew
God, they glorified Him not as God, neither were thankful, but
became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened,
professing themselves to be wise, They became fools. The Scripture
tells us the fool has said in his heart, there is no God. This
reminds me of professing themselves to be wise. So many folks that
are enlightened, as they like to say, have no use for this
thing we call God, this person, this being, whatever they want
to refer to Him as. And they refer to Him irreverently.
the man upstairs, the big kahuna, not knowing that by doing that
they are speaking blasphemies. But I want to address this question.
How can a man be justified with God as if everyone sitting here
tonight or everyone that will hear this message in the future
have no idea who this God is that I'm speaking about? And
I want to ask the five W's, who, what, why, when, and where, concerning
this question. First, who is this God before
whom we need to be justified? We're told in Genesis that he
is the one that created all things by the word of his power. He
simply spoke and it came to pass. A universe that our scientists
have yet to find the edges of. Our God spoke into being. He's
a God who is unimaginably holy, who we're told is of purer eyes
than to look upon sin. And he's a God who does what
he wants, when he wants, why he wants, with whom he wants,
and answers to no one. He's the one that we're told
has his way in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of
the earth. And he is not He is not the God
of modern day religion who loves everybody and would like to do
something for him if they would just let him. The scriptures
hold numerous verses which speak of God hating certain men and
women. And it's his only right to do
so. He is a God who will hold men and women accountable for
their sins in the day of judgment. A God who will be, or by no means
will clear the guilty. And in that day, if you're found
with even the slightest taint of sin upon you, you will forever
be damned to an eternity of unimaginable suffering. But thankfully, the
Scriptures also teach us that God is a God of love. In fact,
the Scriptures tell us God is love. He doesn't delight in wrath. He doesn't delight in punishment.
but rather he delights to show mercy to hell-bound sinners. There are many instances in the
Scriptures that speak of God's mercy, His abundant mercy, His
tender mercies, His exceeding great mercy, His great, great
mercy. Micah 7-18 asks this question,
Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth
by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage, he retaineth
not his anger forever. Why? Because he delighteth in
mercy. That ETH at the end of delighteth,
it means that it's a constant, ongoing process that our God
every minute of every hour of every day delights to show mercy
to sinners. Next question, what does it mean
to be justified? It's defined as follows, to be
free from the guilt and penalty attached to sin, to demonstrate
sufficient legal reason for an action to be taken, to show or
prove to be just, right, or reasonable, to declare one innocent or guiltless,
to show a satisfactory reason for something to be done. To be free from guilt and the
penalty of sin. That's what our God has done
for us. And to demonstrate a sufficient
legal reason for an action to be taken. The legal reason is
God's law has been completely fulfilled by our substitute.
Therefore, forgiveness is ours. To prove to be just, right, or
reasonable. God's justice is always right. He always does what's right.
And to declare one innocent or guiltless, that can only be done
if another has stood in our place and suffered for our guilt. Next
question, but why is it necessary for us to be justified? As I
mentioned a minute ago, the God with whom we have to do is infinitely
holy. He demands perfection. In Leviticus
chapter 20, God had Moses instruct the nation of Israel, and in
verse 7, he says, Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be ye holy, for
I am the Lord your God, and ye shall keep my statutes, and do
them. I the Lord, I am the Lord which
sanctify you. In 1 Peter chapter 1, verses
15 and 16, it says, that hath called you is holy,
so be ye holy in all manner of conversation, because it is written,
Be ye holy, for I am holy." God demands perfection in order for
us to enter into His holy presence. Perfection that we're told we
cannot produce. We just read that God requires
men and women to do His statutes and to keep them. Yet we read
in Romans 3 If you want to flip over a couple pages, Romans 3,
verses 10 through 12, that is, it is written, there is none
righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth.
There is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good,
no, not one. Job knew this for a fact when
he said in Job 9.20, If I justify myself, mine own mouth shall
condemn me. If I say I am perfect, it shall
also prove me perverse. So then, if perfect holiness
is required to enter into the presence of a holy God, and there's
not one human that's capable of producing that holiness, the
next question I ask is how does that justification take place?
And the answer is that there must be a substitute found. A
substitute that can stand in the place of the guilty sinner
and supply that perfection that is required for that sinner to
enter into the presence of God. This is what we refer to as the
blessed doctrine of substitution. It's one of the most blessed
doctrines that we believe. one standing in our place in
order to justify us before a holy God. Isaiah 53.11 tells us this
very thing when it says, He shall see of the travail of his soul
and be satisfied. By his knowledge shall my righteous
servant justify many. How does he do that? For he shall
bear their iniquities. And because he bears or carries
our iniquities, he also bore the punishment that would do
those iniquities. As a scapegoat that we read of
in Leviticus 16 had the sins of the people laid upon him and
was led by a just man into the wilderness. It's a perfect picture
of our Savior taking our sins upon him and carrying them into
the wilderness of God's forgetfulness. God's divinely appointed requirement
for the forgiveness of sin is the shedding of blood. Hebrews
9.22 tells us, and almost all things are by the law purged
with blood. And without shedding of blood,
there is no remission. This word remission is another
word for absolution, forgiveness, pardon, or amnesty. So clearly
blood must be shed before any remission, before any justification,
before any forgiveness ever takes place. And our great substitute
shed his blood for the remission of the sins which were ours,
those sins which we have committed. Turn with me to Romans 5. We're
right near there already, Romans 5. We'll read the first nine verses.
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience
and patience experience, and experience hope. And hope maketh
not a shame, because the love of God is shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we
were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet for adventure, for a good man, some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth his love toward
us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more, then, being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. This ninth verse tells us we're
justified by the blood of Christ, and we shall be saved from wrath
through him. through his finished work of
reconciliation, of bringing the justified sinner to God. And a further question as to
how God justifies a sinner, or a further answer I should say,
is that it is done by God giving that sinner the gift of faith,
that faith that enables the sinner to see and to believe on Christ
for all his standing before a righteous God. Paul confirmed this in several
of his letters. Turn with me to Galatians, please. Galatians chapter 3. O foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you that you should not obey the truth, before whose
eyes Jesus Christ have been evidently set forth, crucified among you. This only what I learned of you,
received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing
of faith? Are ye so foolish, having begun
in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh? Have ye
suffered so many things in vain, if it be yet in vain? He, therefore,
that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you,
doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith? Even as Abraham believed God,
and it was accounted to him for righteousness. Know ye, therefore,
that they which are of faith, the same are the children of
Abraham. And the scripture foreseeing
that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before
the Gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be
blessed. So then, they which be of faith
are blessed with faithful Abraham. Verse 8 tells us that we are
justified through faith. Paul told the Romans in Romans
3.28, Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the law, without that man doing anything
required by God's strict law. Romans 5.1, which we just read,
says much the same thing. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
And Hebrews 11.6 makes it crystal clear how essential faith is
when it tells us, but without faith it is impossible. Now, it's rather difficult, but
without faith it is impossible to please Him, speaking of God.
For he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that
He is the rewarder of them that diligently seek Him. Now let
me be clear here. Simply having faith does not
save a man or make him justified before God. That faith must be
placed in one who can actually do the saving, do the justifying. I can have faith that my car
will take me wherever I want to go next time I get in it.
Or I can have faith that the chair at my kitchen table will
hold me up next time I sit in it. But simply having faith doesn't
cut it. It is the object of the God-given
faith that we have, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself, who by
faith in His name is the one who saves us, who justifies us
by His finished work and the imputation of that finished work
on our behalf. It is like a man who's stuck
in quicksand. sinking to his death. I don't
know if you all, most of you probably aren't old enough to
remember the old Tarzan movies, but I remember those as a kid.
Sometimes the bad guys would get caught in the quicksand.
Sometimes they would save him, sometimes they wouldn't. But
here's a man sinking in quicksand. He needs someone to save him.
One appears and throws him a rope by which they pull him from the
quicksand. Now the rope didn't save the
man. The one who threw the rope saved it. The rope was merely
a means by which he pulled that man to safety. And so it is with
us. Faith is the rope which Christ
uses to draw us, to pull us to himself. He's the one that does
the saving. The faith is not what saves us. Faith in the one
who is able to save is what saves us. So the next question is,
who accomplishes this justification of which we're speaking? Is it
the sinner? Romans 8.3 gives us the answer
to that question, where we read, Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Now when it says it is God that
justifieth, it's speaking of all three persons of the Holy
Trinity, the Godhead. The Father, we're told, chose
a people before the foundation of the world. The Son came to
this earth to stand in their place and to take the punishment,
do their sins, to make His soul an offering for sin so that ours
would not be. And in time, the Spirit brings
life to those chosen sinners and gives them faith in the Son. This very thing is spoken of
by Paul in the first chapter of his letter to the Ephesians. I think we're already in Galatians.
Ephesians chapter 1. I'm sure you all are familiar
with it. Most of you probably can quote it verse by verse,
but I'd like to read it. Ephesians chapter 1. Paul, an
apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to the saints which
are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus, grace be to
you and peace. from God our Father and from
the Lord Jesus Christ. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual
blessings in heavenly places, in Christ. according as he has
chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should
be holy and without blame before him in love, having predestinated
us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ according to
the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of
his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. in whom we have redemption through
his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches
of his grace. Wherein he hath abounded toward
us in all wisdom and prudence, having made known unto us the
mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, which he
hath purposed in himself, that in the dispensation of the fullness
of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ,
both which are in heaven and which are on earth, even in him,
in whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated
according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after
the counsel of his own will, that we should be to the praise
of his glory who first trusted in Christ, in whom ye also trusted,
after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation, in whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed
with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance,
until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of
His glory." Now, verse 5 tells us that God predestinated us
to become His children, that He did it because He felt like
it. It was done according to the good pleasure of His will.
And it tells us that our redemption came at a cost of blood, the
precious blood of Christ, that blood which required the forgiveness
of sin, And it was all done because our God is exceeding rich in
grace and mercy. Next question. When does justification
take place? The more accurate question would
be, when did this justification take place? We just read the
answer in Ephesians 1, where we read that it was before the
foundation of the world. One meaning of the word foundation
is establishment. Before this world was ever established
or mankind was ever created, our justification was already
firmly established. So, if our justification took
place before the foundation of the world, before our God who
spoke this world and universe into being, it should be quite
clear that the sinner who had been justified had nothing to
do with the accomplishing of that justification. Our justification
did not occur when we, as modern religion likes to say, gave our
heart to Jesus, decided for the Lord, or when we found the Lord. We just read it in Romans 5.8,
while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And Romans 5.10
says, for if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. Both of these verses make it
clear that our reconciliation Our justification was secured
long before we were ever born. As our pastor used to tell us
so many times, there's only two religions in this entire world.
And of course, anyone hearing that would argue that there's
many, many more. And I don't know about you all,
but when I'm curious, about something. I usually ask Siri. Any of you
that have a smartphone, have Siri on your smartphones. I like
to ask her all kinds of questions. What's the highest mountain in
America? What's the deepest point of the ocean? And I ask her,
hey Siri, how many religions are there in the world? And I
was astonished at the answer. And I think you will be too.
Shiri replied, there are more than 10,000 distinct religions
in this world. Yet, all those can be grouped
into two groups, and I dare say about 9,999 of them fall into
the category of works religion. What we believe falls into the
second category of salvation by grace, And if we believe that all things
necessary for salvation have long ago been accomplished, then
it is not necessary for us to do anything. But some would protest,
you have to believe, and indeed you do, but even that is done
for us when we are given faith to believe. Which the Scriptures
make plain is the gift of God, a gift not given to everyone. Saying we have to believe is
like saying that a newborn baby has to decide whether or not
to breathe after it's born. That newborn baby breathes because
it comes naturally. And so it is with faith in the
life given to us by God in Christ. As that newborn baby cannot help
but breathe because it is alive, so we cannot help but believe
once we're given faith. And now we believe and we are
alive in Christ. Acts 17, 28 says, for in Him
we live and move and have our being. So we come to the last
question. Where did this justification
take place? In the mind and purpose of God,
our justification was done in the untold ages of what we call
eternity past. Our justification was not something
that God was just sitting around and thought up one day. In the
mind of being of God, the entire gamut of salvation has always
been in place. It's hard for us to understand
this because of our limited knowledge. And our experience teaches us
that we can only think of things occurring in time. We look back
on our lives and we see that things occurred at a certain
time. And every time I try to even think about that, it's so
confusing I don't think about it long because we just simply
cannot relate. But there is a place in time
where the event that secured our justification took place. The answer to where that event
that secured our justification took place is Jerusalem, Israel, on a hill called Golgotha. John 19, 17 says, And he, bearing
his cross, went forth into a place called the place of a skull,
which is called in the Hebrew Golgotha, where they crucified him and
two others with him on each side one and Jesus in the midst. And there is Christ Jesus hung
on that Roman tree. Our justification, our redemption,
our forgiveness was accomplished. It was finalized. Which is what
our Lord proclaimed when He shouted those words, It is finished. So there you have it. The what,
when, where, why, who, and how of justification. It was accomplished
by the Triune God in eternity past. Because it seemed good
in His sight, it was accomplished at Calvary by our glorious Savior. And since we have assurance that
all that is needed for justification is long since done, we can lie
down and rest in the bosom of Christ as He invited us in Matthew
11, 28. Come unto Me. All of you that labor and are
heavy laden, and I will give you rest. The work is done. It's time to take our rest in
Christ. Justification is accomplished. So this is the answer to the
question which Bill Datt asked. How then can a man be justified
with God? Now if you're here tonight or
you're listening over the streaming and you've yet to throw yourself
at the feet of Christ, I would implore you, if you're able,
to look to Christ for all that's required for your justification.
He cannot, He will not fail. You can trust Him. You can believe
Him when He says, He that cometh unto Me, I will in no wise cast
out. Now, if you're able, Come to
Him with your heart, not with your feet. It is our path for
you to say, come to Christ, but don't move a muscle. Trusting
His shed blood to be sufficient for all your justification. And
trust me, if you are able to come to Him, He will not turn
you away. If you are able to cry out to
Him for mercy, it is a sign that God has begun a good work in
you. I hope the Lord has blessed that
to your heart. As I mentioned before, Lord willing, Aaron will
be with us Sunday, and we can deny it for that. We will just
pray for one another, pray for those that cannot be with us,
and remember the Parks family in prayer. They are going through
a heavy trial and will be for quite some time. Many of you
sitting here know that from experience. The Lord bless you. You're dismissed.