I'm always, always delighted
to be up here. Open to Romans chapter 8, if
you will. I think the first time I came
up here, when Don used to have the meeting in the middle of
the winter, oh my goodness, he'd come up the steps and then, oh
that wind was so cold. And I believe it was 1982, And back then, I mean, they didn't
have no four-lane highways. Everything was just, and there
was a little town. I was trying to think of it the
other day. It's not far from here. You're almost here when
you get there. And it had a little statue right in the middle of
town, a little old bitty place. Something that was something
to do with somebody famous in this little old bitty tiny place.
I mean, man alive, it was just, it was on both sides of the road
till the barn burned down. But you know, I remember all
those times and oh my. But it's always a delight to
be here. Always, always delightful. I
want to talk about justification. Justification, that's one of
the most blessed subjects the most wonderful truth to believe.
In fact, it's necessary to believe it. See, the human race has to
face two things. We have to face the holiness
of God, the righteousness of God. God will never come down
in more than what he is. He will not compromise in any
way. And the second thing is the sinfulness of man. If God
is holy and righteous, And man is as sinful as he is. That's
why justification is such a necessary thing to know and believe. And
let me give you the definition of justification. What justification
is, is God himself declaring, making a declaration respecting
men. God, the righteous judge of all
the earth, as the moral governor of the universe, he declares
a man righteous. He does it. He declares a man
righteous. Abraham believed God. God said,
you're a righteous man. You're a righteous man. And what
justification is, is the opposite of condemnation. Very opposite
of condemnation. There's therefore no condemnation
to them that are in Christ. What it is, is God not entering
into judgment with the sinner. Not entering into judgment with
his forgiving the sinner. That's what David said, he said,
blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. Blessed
is the man whose transgressions are forgiven and sins are covered. And now listen to me now, it's
not to make a man righteous, but God to declare a man righteous. And I want to give you seven,
seven things about justification today, if God would help me,
and meet with us today. May the Holy Spirit come and
be among us, and be among us, God come down, meet with us today. But here's my first thing. Here,
let me read these verses of scripture now. Romans 8.30, down through
verse 33. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called. And whom he called them, he also
justified. And whom he justified, them he
also glorified. What shall we say then 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? And this is where
two times it misses justification here. Back from verse 30, and
here in verse 33, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's
elect? It's God that justifies. Now our justification is like
everything else that we have. It starts with God himself. Oh,
ain't that what he said? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. He's
the source of all things. All things are of God, it said
in 2 Corinthians 5, 18. All things are of God. And if
it says all things are of God, that means that everything that
happens on this earth to the minutest detail is ordered by
God himself. And I find great comfort in that. I find great peace knowing that
God himself, everything that happens, the numbers on my head
is numbered by God Almighty. My days are numbered by God.
My moments are numbered by God. All things are of God. And I
tell you, beloved, that's why so we start with justification
where everything else does, with God Almighty. But God, you know
the gospel starts with God. God who has from the beginning
chosen us to salvation. Thanks be unto God who gives
us the victory through Christ Jesus. Now I say we're justified
by God, but it's a legal act of God. It's a legal act of God. He declares the sinner righteous,
but he has to do it on the basis of something other than the sinner
himself. And the only way he can do that
is by the Lord Jesus Christ himself. God made him, Christ, to be sinned,
who knew no sin, that we, we, can be saved. might be made the
righteousness of God were it in Him. God took us and made
Christ our righteousness. God made Christ to be our substitute,
be our sacrifice, be the one to put away our sins. And God
can make us righteous and declare us righteous because what Christ
our Lord Himself did. And you know that's what the
scripture says, by the law no flesh should be justified. First
written, the just. How do they live? By faith. By
faith. And I tell you, and it's not
an act of renewal. It's not a process over a period
of time. Either you're justified or you're
not. You're either made righteous or you're declared righteous
or you're not. Let me give you three blessed facts of justification. Justification, here's the first
thing about it, it removes the guilt of sin from a person. When you understand that God
himself justifies you and that you stand in the sight of God
with no sin, then that guilt of sin, justification, removes
the guilt of sin. What do you got to be guilty
for? Christ already bore your sin. God's already justified
you, so how in the world are you gonna be guilty? You know
how long it's been since I felt guilty over anything? I'm telling
you the truth. I really believe the gospel. Do I do things wrong? Yes. Do
I sin? Yes. Am I a ill, hateful, contrary
person? Yes. And I say I'm sorry, I'm
so sorry. But here's the thing about it.
The sin is gone when you're justified. God removes the guilt of the
sinner. And what he does is he takes the sinner and breaks him
back as a child of God, as one of God's children, and gives
him the rights of one of his children. And you know what the
greatest thing he does when he does that? He said, I'm gonna
make you an inheritor. What am I gonna inherit? Everything
that his son has. Whatever he has, you got. And
the earth and the fullness thereof belongs to God. So whatever belongs
to him is ours. Ever how wealthy Christ is, that's
how wealthy we are. And here's the second thing about
justification. It takes place outside the center. It takes place in glory. You
know that? It takes place outside of us.
You know, this is one of the greatest mysteries that as far
as God was concerned, before I ever existed, before I ever
existed, justification was accomplished by His blessed Son and His eternal
purpose. But it takes place outside the
center. What do you do to be justified? Either God's the one that justifies
this. And here's another thing, and
here's the third thing about it. It takes place once and for
all. It isn't repeated. It isn't a
process. It's complete at once and for
all time. And you know, a lot of people,
they want to end up being justified when they get to the end of their
life. They say, boy, I hope I'll be justified when I get to the
end. What they're trying to get to, that's where we start. They
hope to be justified. We start with justification.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies us. Grace reigns through righteousness
through the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no condemnation to them
that are in Christ. And so justifications by God
himself And I tell you, God justified Abraham. God justified Noah. Everybody that's ever been justified
has been justified by God himself. And God's in glory, so if he's
gonna justify somebody, he's gotta do it up there. The transaction's
taking place in heaven. And here's the second thing about
it. Look in Romans 3. Here's the second thing about
justification. I love this subject. I just absolutely
love it. Look there in verse 24, Romans
3, excuse me, 324. Being justified freely by his
grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Justification
is by free grace. And that's my favorite phrase,
not sovereign grace, though I love sovereign grace. I love to talk about grace, but
I love the term free grace, because almost everybody will tell you
they believe the salvation's by grace. But it's not always
free grace. So what's free grace? That means
that there's no requirements from anybody under any circumstances
being justified freely by his grace. And I tell you, apart
from works, apart from works, If works enters into it, then
Christ died in pain. It's not of the law. It's not
of the law. There's no way in the world it
can be of the law. People do this all the time,
and it's a sad, sad thing. I had a fellow one time, I was
preaching out of Galatians, and I was preaching grace so free
and grace so powerful, and I said, I'm not never gonna bring myself
or the congregation or anybody I preach to under the law under
any circumstances. And he had been coming for years,
and he'd come in the summer, stay three weeks with his family.
Dr. Dennis, some kind of thing, and
boy, when he heard me say that, he met me, boy, said, listen,
you're an antinomian. I said, what in the world are
you talking about? He said, you believe you can be justified
without any kind of law, that you can just let people live
in, listen, no, salvation's by free grace, and if you're gonna
go under the law, then you got to keep the whole law. You can't
pick and choose what you wanna do. People, you know, people
pick their own sins and say things great. The other day, a dear
friend of mine was telling me, you know, he smokes. And now
he's not, you know, he's sitting out in his backyard smoking and
having an adult beverage. And he's sitting out in his backyard.
And this woman, this woman come over from next door. And she
said, you know, I've never had a cigarette in my mouth and I've
never tasted a beer or whiskey or nothing in my whole life.
But you know what she was doing? She was living with the fella
next door. But that's what people do, they pick out their own sins.
And that's why salvation has to be a free grace. Because I'll
tell you what, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's
elect? It has to be a free grace. It
has to be, if there's any condition put on it, then there's not one
soul on top side of God's heavens gonna be saved. If there's anything
left undone that Christ didn't accomplish, then we're all gonna
perish. And I tell you, there's not merit.
Now, if you're a Boy Scout, get you some merit badges, by all
means, by all means. But I'm telling you, works, merit,
works. Worth, none of that has anything
to do with it. I want you to, keep Romans here,
and I want you to look over with me in Titus. I want you to see
this. Titus, that little book right
before the book of Hebrews. Little three chapters there.
We're talking about free grace. Free grace. Justified by free grace. Justified
freely by his grace. You know, God who has saved us
and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but
his own purpose and grace that was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. But look what he said here in
Philippians, excuse me, Titus 3.5. Not by works of righteousness,
which we have done, but according to his mercy, He saved us. And by the washing of regeneration
and renewing of the Holy Ghost, which He shed on us, poured out
on us abundantly, richly through our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen
to it. That being justified by His grace, we should be made
heirs. And when we're talking about
free grace, that means without cause in us, That means without
payment for us, people say, well, I don't understand why God would
do this for me. What is there to understand if
you're a sinner, huh? People say, I just can't get
over what God, and I can't, I really can't, but what I'm telling you
is, is that don't never look for a reason for what God does
for you. Never look for a reason. He just
does it according to his own good pleasure. And never, never
under any circumstances, for any reason, are we regarded righteous
or justified before God, but only through God's grace in Christ. When we talk about freely, it
means freely. By his grace means his grace.
If it's of works, it's not of grace. If it's of grace, it's
not of works. You can't mix them. You can't
mix them. And let me give you the third
thing. We're justified by God who shall anything to charge
of God's elect is God that justifies freely by his grace Now look
over here in Romans 5 with me You know it We're just to look what he said
here in Romans 5 8 But God But God commendeth his
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Oh, that's a mouthful. But the
apostle, it's one of the things he always does. He said, you
think that's something. He said that God commended his
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Then he goes, well, listen, I'm gonna tell you something
else. Much more, much more. Then, being now justified by
his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Say, justified by his blood.
When we talk about the blood of Christ, that means his death.
That's what it means. Whenever you find the blood of
Christ and you mention his blood, it always means his death. You
know, he shed his blood unto death. And you know without the
shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins. And our Lord
Jesus Christ, bless his holy name, God spared not his son,
but delivered him up for us all. How shall he not with him freely
give us all things? You see, our Lord Jesus Christ,
he satisfied God. He satisfied His Father in every
way possible, especially in two things, especially two things.
The first one was God's justice, God's justice. Oh, justice demands
my punishment for sin. Justice demands that I must die
for my sin. Justice demands that God will
not clear the guilty. He won't do it. And I'll tell
you what, in His holiness that was against us. Well, our Lord
Jesus Christ, under the law, they had the fire that would
consume the sacrifice. But when our Lord Jesus Christ
was on the cross, shedding His blood, dying, and believe me,
when He was on that cross, I mean, there wasn't a spot on His body
that didn't have blood on it. There wasn't a spot on His body
that didn't have blood on it. The only thing he had on him
when he was on that cross was a crown of thorns. Other than
that, he was hanging there naked. That wasn't a spot on him that
did not have blood. He'd already been beaten. Already
been slapped. Already been spit on. Already
been beaten and already had the crown of thorns on him. Already
had his beard plucked out. And they took him out there And
I'll tell you what, and there he is. It's like the, you know,
the reason the fire consumed the sacrifice, that's God's justice
demanding death, then God's judgment and wrath demanding death for
the substitute. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ is
our substitute. What he did when he was on the
cross and his blood was being shed, he, God's wrath fell on
him and he consumed all of God's wrath. Well, so if he's consumed
it all, you mean that there's none left for me? There's none
left for me. If he consumed God's wrath, there
ain't none left for me. I'm gonna tell y'all a story. Years and years and years ago,
I hadn't been in Tennessee very long. We had bought a little
old trailer. We was living in a trailer. And we was living
in a trailer and had an old armchair sitting there, and I'd sit there
and that's where I'd read. You know, didn't have an office
or anything like that, wasn't even a pastor. And I was sitting
there reading, and I was reading through Romans. And as I was
reading, I found out God wasn't mad at me anymore. I always felt
like I had to get on the good side of God. You had to do something
to get on His good side. You had to pray. You had to do
services. You give money away. You've done everything you possibly
could to stay on the good side of God. But when I found out that He wasn't mad at me anymore,
I'll tell you what, I still get pretty happy, I still get pretty
happy, but you would not believe how happy I got that day. I mean,
when I found out, I thought of both hands. Oh, bless the Lord,
God's not mad at me anymore. I found out Christ satisfied
him. God, Christ consumed his wrath. Christ bore all of my sin. Christ bore all of my judgment.
Christ satisfied justice on my behalf. And it's the blood, it's
the blood that makes atonement for sin. Christ, not by the blood
of bulls and goats, but by his own blood, he entered once into
the holy place. And just like that high priest
went behind the veil once a year with the blood of bulls and goats,
and first he had to make a sacrifice for himself and put blood on
there for himself. Well, our Lord Jesus Christ,
I believe, and I've said this, and me and Don talked about it,
but I'll tell you what, I honestly believe that in that three hours
of darkness, before our Lord Jesus Christ, when it was dark,
I believe Christ, by spirit, entered into heaven itself, and
went in the presence of God, and presented his own blood,
there's an altar in heaven. And on that altar he put his
own blood. That's why they sing about unto
him that loved us and was slain and loved us and warned us from
our sins in his own blood. Oh. He went in there and I tell
you what, he put that blood on God's altar and now over in Hebrews
it tells there that he's freshly slain. He stands before God as
a freshly slain lamb continually and constantly. And the blood
itself speaks for us. Oh, Ed Hale, you remember Ed
Hale. He had a lot of old songs, and
he had one, and he sung it up at 13th Street one time, and
I got to get up and preach behind him. I tell you, you talk about
priming the pump. He preached on a song called
Eternal Blood, She'll Speak for Me. And oh my goodness, and that's
what speaks for me right now when we talk about justified
by His blood. That blood's always in the presence
of God. Always right there. God can't
ask no more than what his son gave. He gave what he himself
required. He gave his son, and his son
met every condition, and our Lord Jesus Christ, his blood
cleanses us from all sin and justifies us in the sight of
God. I tell you, the blood of Christ,
when God smells the blood of Christ, he smells the sweet smell
and savor. And I'll tell you something,
when I understand what it accomplished for me, it's a sweet smelling
savor for me too. Oh my, that's what they sing
about in the glory. And God said, when I see the
blood, when I see the blood, it's not your side of the blood.
God said, when I see it, when I see it, I can't see the blood
in glory right now, but it's there. And it speaks
to me, speaks for me. And then let me give you another
one. Let's go to Romans 4, Romans 4. Let's talk about justified by
the resurrection. Look what it says down here in
verse 25, Romans 4, 25. Talking about Christ, who was
delivered for our offenses. You know, wonder how many offenses
we've made against God. How many offenses have we made? How many offenses? But ever how
many there are, Christ was divvied up for every one of them. And
make what He said, and raised again for our justification. Now what does it mean, raised
again for our justification? Well, our Lord Jesus Christ,
he said, he said that he was the great I am. He said he was
the eternal Son of God. He said he always did what pleased
his Father. And when he was raised again
from the dead, after he was delivered for our offenses, for our justification,
it was proof of who he said he was. It's proof that he was who
he said he was. And it's also proof that God
accepted his works. You know, our Lord Jesus Christ
came to do something, not for himself, And here's the thing,
man is so enamored with himself that he thinks everything God
done, he done just for him, just for them. They feel so good about
themselves. But here's the first thing has to happen. God had
to do something, Scott Rich said this all the time, God had to
do something for himself before he could do anything for us.
And what he done was he sent his son, he said, Father, I finished
the work that thou gavest me to do. Now glorify me with the
glory I had with you before the world was. And when our Lord
Jesus Christ was raised again from the dead, that means that
God accepted everything that he did. Who else did he ever say, sit
at my right hand till I make you enemies of my footstool?
God accepted his person. That's the thing about it. God
accepted his person. Our Lord Jesus Christ, his worth,
his worth, his virtue, his worth and merit exceeds anything that
you and I can even think or begin to imagine what he's like and
the worth that he has. Now his death, God accepted his
person. God accepted his death. God accepted
his sacrifice. And that's proof that the work
is finished. The work is finished. Our Lord
Jesus Christ. This is, listen, you know those
fellas, those fellas, they said, listen, you know, This deceiver
said he's going to rise again on the third day. That's what
they said. The Pharisee said, these deceivers said he's going
to rise again the third day. Said, I'll tell you what you
do. I want some soldiers over there watching that grave. I
want some soldiers guarding that grave. I want to make sure that
they don't come and steal him, and then they'll make our worst
offense worse than the study. Can you imagine? Get some soldiers to watch over
the grave of Christ? Huh? They put a big stone where
he was laying. And then they had soldiers there.
But do you reckon those soldiers and that stone could keep our
Lord Jesus Christ in the grave? Can you imagine what they felt
like? You know, I don't, I don't, It was, you know our Lord Jesus
Christ, when He rose from the dead, I don't know if you ever
noticed this or not, but the scriptures tells us that His
clothes laid exactly like He was still in them. They were
all laying there just exactly, the only thing that was moved,
He had a napkin over His face. They wrapped Him in gray clothes,
fine linen, and he's laying there. And then the morning that he
rose again, the clothes was right there just like he was wrapped
in them. And the only thing moved was he took the napkin off of
his face and laid it right over here. And I tell you something, he
didn't sneak out of the grave either. He come out of there
with power. He come out of there with authority.
He come out of there knowing that God was satisfied, that
salvation was accomplished once and for all, for everyone for
whom he died. And I tell you, the work is finished. Never was a seat for somebody
in the tabernacle, but our Lord Jesus Christ in glory after his
resurrection, he sat down because his work is finished. And I tell
you what, sin's put away. And now here's what's so wonderful
about it. His obedience is ours. Oh, he said in Hebrews 10, 17,
God said, their sins and iniquities will I remember against them
no more. Now where payment for sins is,
you don't ever need another offering. If the sin's been paid for, You
don't need another offering. And that's why we don't, you
know, over in Leviticus, it says there that Aaron had on his,
this mitre, holiest to the Lord. And it says that he done that
to bear the holy things. of Israel. Our Lord Jesus Christ,
he atoned for our holy things. What's our holy thing? We're
here today to worship God. We're here today to listen to
the gospel. We're here today to sing hymns.
We're here today to pray and read the scriptures. And those
are things that we do. We pick up our Bible and we read
them. And those are things, and every
one of those things has sin in them. I've got enough sin in
this message today to damn me for eternity and everybody in
this building. So what in the world am I gonna do? So here's
the thing, Christ, God said, I'll not remember them because
they're paid for so I don't ever need another offering. But he
bears our holy things too. He atoned for every sin that
we'd ever commit in our mind, in our hearts, in our words. You know, the law is proof of
my condemnation. People like to have the Ten Commandments
out in their front yard and in their churches. I don't want
the law. I don't want to look at it. I
don't want to look at it. You know why? I broke every single
one of them. Yeah. So I mean, it's proof of
my condemnation. My union with Adam is proof of
my sin nature. And Christ alone is our justification
before law. You know, when he said, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Law, come on, find anything wrong
with me. Well, I can't. Why can't you? Christ satisfied me, he honored
me, he magnified me, he kept me. Oh my. Oh sin, come and condemn me.
Come find something wrong with me, can't. I ain't got any. Why,
God said I won't remember them anymore. My own God, you come and condemn
me. I can't, I justified you. Conscience, you come and condemn
me. I can't, it's been sprinkled by the blood of Christ. Come on, Satan, and accuse me.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justified. Oh, my, bless His holy name.
Oh, my, ain't that wonderful? I tell you, this gospel, this
gospel, oh, what a blessed hope it gives us. What a blessed hope
it gives us. All right, let me give you another
one here in Romans 4 again. Faith is our means, is the means
of justification. Faith is the means of our justification. Look what it says in Romans 4,
24 and 25. Now it's talking about Abraham's
faith. And it comes down there and said,
but for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him
that raised up Jesus our Lord for the dead, who was delivered
for our offenses, raised for our justification. Now let me
just give you this here before I go on. If you want a reason
for your justification, all you've got to do, there it sits in God's
right hand. There it sits. There it sits.
But faith is the means. Faith is the means of our justification. And that's why it goes on saying
in verse one of chapter five, now see, therefore being justified,
we've already been justified. Christ was our justification.
God justified us. Therefore being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Now let me tell you something about faith. What faith does,
it receives the truth of the gospel. That's all faith does. When I'm preaching today, or
whoever's gonna be preaching, what happens is that while I'm
preaching, faith comes right to you. And you sit there and
say, yeah, that's right, that's true, that's it, that's it. You
know, your faith acknowledges that. And that's what faith does.
It receives the truth of the gospel. It receives the merits
of the Lord Jesus Christ. It receives the doing and dying
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, faith is not its own object.
You know, that's what people want to do all the time. They
want to try to find out if they got enough faith. You ain't.
You ain't. You ain't got enough. In fact,
you didn't have any. And all you got now, God gave
it to you. We didn't have any, and I'll
tell you, faith is not its own object. I do not look to my faith.
Faith did not die for me, Christ did. Faith did not put away my
sin, Christ did. And so that's what we're talking
about. Faith is not its own object. Christ, how you can tell if your
faith is real, you always look outside yourself. You always
look to Christ. You know, real, true, genuine,
saving faith always, always looks outside itself and looks to Christ.
Always. It cannot find any peace anywhere
else. Our whole, you know, our whole
salvation is objective. Everything that God done for
us, he done outside of us. Do you know that? My sin was
put away 2,000 years ago on the cross. I didn't even exist, but
they was gone. And there's people that ain't
been born yet, if God tears his coming, that Christ died for,
and one of these days, he'll cross their path with the gospel,
and they'll believe the gospel, they'll believe Christ. And I'll
tell you, our salvation's outside ourselves. And do you know Christ
did it all, all to him I owe. Sin left a crimson stain. He
washed it white as snow. And I'll tell you something else,
faith is based on knowledge. Now what do you mean, preacher?
Well, faith is not blind and faith is not dumb. Faith is not
blind and faith is not dumb. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, how shall they call on
Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in
Him of whom they have not heard? And how are they going to hear
without a preacher? You know, this idea that you
know your... that Jesus is standing and he
just wants you so bad to do something for you if you'll just let him,
no, no, no. That's why faith, that's why it says faith comes
by hearing. The more you hear, that's two things that's more
precious to me on this earth than anything else. Let me tell
it to you. First of is hearing the gospel. I love to hear the
gospel. I don't have to be the one preacher, I just love to
hear it. I enjoy that more than anything on this world. And the
second is being with the Lord's people, being fellowship with
the Lord's people. Those are the two most enjoyable
things on this earth, two most blessed things that we have on
this earth. We have the gospel and we have one another and all
based on the Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you what, This
idea that, you know, faith is dumb, faith is blind, and, you
know, all you got, you know, they say, well, you know, receiving
Christ is like if I received this watch. No, no, no, no, no,
no, no, it's not like that. But you start listening, and
you start hearing, and you'll say, boy, and I'll tell you,
I've had this happen several times. Elder Boring did it, Elder
McSherry now. I remember years and years and
years ago, her children, she was a woman and her kids were
still at home. And she stood up in the service
one night and she said, Brother Donnie, and she's a very, very
quiet person, she said, Brother Donnie, she said, I'm gonna tell
you something, the Jesus I believed in and the one you're preaching,
It's not the same one, and I believe the one you're preaching. You
see what I'm talking about? And that's what happens to people
all the time. I don't know how many times people have said that.
That Jesus said, I did believe in, and the one you're preaching,
they're not the same one. Not the same one. And I tell
you, here's what I'm trying to say. We believe with our hearts.
We don't trust our faith. We trust the Lord Jesus Christ.
We don't trust our feelings. My feelings, oh my, last Sunday
I had the awfulest feelings. I just, I just, you know. I dreaded
going to service. I said, man, these folks, I feel
sorry for them, they had to listen to me this morning. And the Lord
has mercy anyway, but what I'm telling you is, if we go by feelings,
some of you wouldn't even be here today. But we don't trust
our feelings, we trust our master. We don't trust our intellect.
We trust his knowledge of us. I'm so thankful that he knows
us. Don't you? And I may let the
seventh one go. I don't know how long I've been
preaching. But I tell you, I want you to
see this in Matthew 12. Matthew 12. Here's my sixth thing. I think this will be a blessing
to you. I hope it does. Now we're going to say we're
justified by our words, by our words. Look what our Lord said
here in Matthew 12, 34. You know, people talk about picking
up, people talk about handling snakes and all that kind of thing,
you know, these tentacles and all that. Listen to what our
Lord said, old generation of vipers. Human beings are some of the
poisonous things on the earth that come out of their mouth
and the things they say and do. And that's what he called them,
vipers. How can you, being evil, speak good things? For out of
the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. 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
I say unto you that every idle word that men speak, they shall
give an account in the day of judgment. Listen to this now.
For by the words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou
shalt be condemned. Now what do you think he's talking
about here? Well, let's talk about basketball. Let's talk
about baseball. Let's talk about the weather.
People say, that's idle talk. No, that's not what our Lord's
talking about here. That's not what He's talking about here.
He's talking about what we say about God, what we say about
Christ, what comes out of the heart. If there's something real
in the heart, something real's coming out. And that's what He,
by the words of these Pharisees used concerning our Lord, they
condemned themselves. They condemned themselves. Every
time they opened their mouth, they condemned themselves. Everything
they said about Christ. The whole world's going after
him. They put a family out of church because they kept, that
young, the blind man said it was a man named Jesus. And I,
you know, and so these Pharisees, they condemned themselves by
what they said about Christ. And how they, words that they
used against Christ. And accusations they made against
Christ. And they said over in Hebrew
7, they said over there that they justified God being baptized
of John's baptism. They said, listen, I'm gonna
be baptized by John, and they justified God by that. And let
me say it like this, if I can. A lot of words is not us talking
about the weather. A lot of words is not us talking
about a baseball game or a basketball game or asking, just sit around
talking about different things, you know, and places we've been,
things we've done. That's not what we're talking
about here. But by our words, you know, what do we say about
God? What do we say about Christ?
What do we say, what comes out of our mouth about God, about
Christ, about salvation, about sin, about ourselves? What do
we say about ourselves? What do you know about justification?
Out of the heart, that's what he said, out of the heart. A
good man out of the treasure of his heart, he'll bring forth
good things. He'll come out with words that's
right and true about God, about Christ. It's like that Pharisee
and Publican. That Pharisee went up there and
every time he opened his mouth, he condemned himself. I thank
you, oh Father, that I'm not like other people. I'm not this
way, that way, and another way. Listen, I'm a fine man. And he
condemned, every word he said condemned him. But that Publican,
all he said, God be merciful to me, the sinner, And his words
justified him. You know why? Because it honored
God. He believed God. Well, and what
I'm trying to say is this. We can't talk about our righteousness
and Christ's righteousness at the same time. We can't talk
about our works and his works out of the same breath. We can't
talk about his strength in light of our impotence. We can't talk about his sovereignty
and all things work together for good and then go about griping
all the time. Can't do that. That's not good. That's not good. Oh my. So you remember that. How many times have you, you
fellas at work and you go out in public and a lot and things
like that, you hear people say things about God, you hear people
say things about Christ, you hear people talk about their
church and how many people they got converted and all that kind
of stuff, and you just sit there and just, you know why? Because when they open their
mouth, they're condemning themselves. Because they're bragging on themselves.
The one thing God's people ain't gonna do, they're gonna brag
on anybody, they're gonna boast in Christ and thank God, thank
the Lord for the Lord Jesus Christ. And let me say this and I'll
be done. The last one is justified by
works as the fruit of salvation. Now you know, this is a hard
subject for me to deal with. But you know, it's scriptural.
But Abraham, when it said he was justified by his works, what
it means is, is that when he went up on that mountain, he
said, he knowed he was gonna offer his son Isaac upon that
altar. And what he said, said, I'm the lad to go yonder and
worship, and we're gonna come again. And they went with wood,
and they went with a fire, and they went with a knife. So they
knew there was gonna be something happening up there. But he said,
me and that lad's coming down, back down off this mountain.
So his faith was justified before God. But his works justified
his faith before men. Faith justifies us before God. Works justifies our faith before
men. And let me say it this way. Where there's grace in the heart,
there'll be grace in the life. Where there's faith in the heart,
there'll be fruit in the life. And I know you're like me. I
care what people think of me. I really, really care what people
think about me. I do. I mean, you know, if they
don't like me, that's another thing. But see, I'm a representative
of the master of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's why he said, adorn
the doctrine of God our Savior. Dress it up, make it look good.
And you know, I care what people think of me. And I believe you
care what people think of you. Because you know, you want people to care about
your master. And I care about how I treat other people. And
that's what we're talking about here. You know, if we treat people gracious and kind, if there's
grace in the heart, it's gonna be in the life. There's grace
in the life that's going to be fruit in the life. And we're
going to honor God. We want more than anything else
in our life, oh God, please, please, please, please, don't
let me bring shame on your name. Don't let me dishonor you. Please
don't let me do that. Don't let me dishonor you. Our Father, oh, in the blessed
name, glorious name, of our Lord Jesus Christ, oh, our great God,
oh, our great and glorious God, blessed be your name. Lord, you
allowed us to meet this morning. You gave us the presence of your
Holy Spirit. You moved in our midst, and Lord,
I thank you for it. Oh, how I thank you. Lord, you
could have let us sit here and not felt anything. You could
have confounded our minds, but you didn't. You gave us the truth. God bless these dear saints here.
Lord, provide for them. Provide preachers, provide a
pastor, provide the means to take care of this congregation.
God bless every one of them. O Lord, preserve them and keep
them. Give the men wisdom to guide their services. Give the
men grace to know what to do and what to say and how to deal
with things. And I thank you for every one
of them. Thank you for allowing me to be here today. Blessed
be your name for Christ's sake. Amen. Amen.