Yes, sir. Romans 3. I'll look just a few minutes,
hopefully, at the context, but I really want to concentrate
beginning in verse 23. Romans chapter 3 and verse 23.
Let's get in at the crutch of what I want to say. All have sinned and come short of the glory of
God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus, whom God hath set forth to be a perpetuation,
a mercy seat, atoning victim through faith in His blood to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are
passed through the forbearance of God. To declare at this time,
I say, His righteousness that He might be just and the justifier
of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is most of them then? It
is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but
by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Is he the
God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles?
Yes, of the Gentiles also. I want to concentrate, and this
evening this is the thought that I would like to set before you.
It's found there in verse 24, being justified. I've had this
on my mind for a few days. I wrote something in the bulletin
about this a couple of weeks ago or so. We've all read definitions
of the word justify. What does it mean? There are many, many definitions
written in the Articles of Faith of our forefathers. Most of them
are wonderful, just outstanding. I would suggest, if you have
access to them, that you read them. Webster's has one that
is very short, and it says this, and I think this really gets
at the crux of it. He says, to justify means remission of sin, pardon and
forgiveness, and absolution from guilt and punishment. Just consider this term justified. To be justified means that one
is beyond being justly accused, or called into question, or to
give account for his sin. To be justified means that one
is so thoroughly cleared from all charges, from any charges,
that even an accusation cannot be brought against him. Romans
8, 33, 34, listen to this. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies anything. Who can bring one charge against
the man that God has justified? That's what it means to be justified.
No charge, no accusation can be brought against Him. That
marvelous verse of Scripture that you and I sometime quote
in Jeremiah chapter 50 verse 20, listen to this. In those
days and at that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for and there shall be none, and the sins of
Judah, and they shall not be found." Now, you know why he
mentions Israel and Judah separately. After Solomon's death, they were
divided into the northern kingdom and then the southern kingdom.
Israel was the northern kingdom. Judah was the southern kingdom.
And those two kingdoms were made up of Jews. If you were a Jew,
you belonged to one of those two kingdoms. So what the Lord
is saying, there is not a Jew whose sins will be sought for
and found. When their sins are sought for,
they will not be found for this reason, because there are none.
There are none. And then he gives the reason
for that. Why isn't there any sin? Why
can't they be found? He says in the very next line,
"...because I will pardon those whom I reserve." Now, you and
I know that that prophecy concerning Israel and concerning Judah was
not meant for the natural Jew. It was meant for spiritual Israel. for spiritual Judah, the elect
of God, the believers. Who is a Jew? He is not one who
is one outwardly. Circumcision is not that which
is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew which is one inwardly,
whose praise is not of men, but of God, spiritual Israel. Peace be upon the Israel of God. You and I have never seen, and
there has never been a case, where either a natural Jew or
a spiritual Jew was without sin. Now, have you ever found any
man? Have you ever found a believer? Have you ever found a child of
God that says, I have no sin? He's not allowed to say that,
is he? John said, if you say that, you're lying. The truth
is not in you. You and I have never found the
first man, saved or lost, you're a Gentile, that's without sin.
have sinned. And yet what it means to be justified
is this. It means that sin has been so
thoroughly pardoned. Transgression has been so thoroughly
and wholly and completely forgiven. It's as though they were never
committed. Even in the eyes of God, when
He takes search, He says there is none. That's what it means
to be justified. Webster says to have one's sins
remitted. Well, I tell you what, you can't
remit any further than that. You can't remit and forgive any
more thoroughly than that. When God looks, He says there's
none. There's none. I will pardon those whom I reserve. There's a remnant of humanity,
even to this day. And the pardon of their sins
is so feral and it's so complete that no charge can ever be brought
against them. They're justified. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? So justification
is a pardoning, it's a forgiving, it's a remitting of all sins,
and it's a deliverance from the guilt and punishment due to that
sin. Even deliverance from any accusation,
any just accusation. Oh, there's accusations that
God won't accept any of them because they're unjust. Who shall lay anything to the
charge that God might be just and justify?" God justifies. Only God can justify. We can't
justify ourselves, can we? Nobody else can justify us. Who
is it that can justify after this manner? To take as man who
has sinned, and yet so clear Him, so forgive Him, so remit
His sin, that even God Himself can't find His sin. Nobody but
God can do that. I tell you one of the most difficult
things, one of the most difficult truths to get a hold of in this
Bible is scriptural justification. When God justifies an individual,
that individual can stand in the court of heaven even before
the judge of all the earth. And not one just accusation can
be laid to his charge. When the books are opened and
your life's history upon this earth has been reviewed and examined,
no iniquity will be recorded there. None. None. No sin can be found, not one. Let anybody, man or angel or
God, take secret search. None shall be found because God
has justified them from all things. God who knows all things, God
who sees all things, has justified them from all things. Ain't that a wonderful truth? You and I could never lay hold
of such a thing if we didn't find it recorded in God's Word.
And the man who believes this, the man who has been given assurance
of this, and he lives in the reality of this, he must have
the most peaceful soul upon this earth. He's got a peace that
neither hell nor earth can disturb. He's got a peace that His less
than desirable circumstances cannot disturb. He's got a peace
that heaven will not disturb, because heaven is the author
of this peace. It's God who has justified it.
And because God has justified Him, being justified, we have
peace with God. God is not going to disturb that
which He has wrought. And the Lord Jesus said, My peace
I give to you, not as the world give. The world will clear you
one moment and find you guilty the next. The Lord's peace ain't
like that. When a man is convinced that
the judge of all the earth has justified him, not even the thoughts
of sin, Not even the thoughts of dying or death or judgment
to come can frighten that man. God who knows everything and
sees everything has justified him from everything. You know, one of the things that
makes us afraid when we think of the judicial system, and I
bet there's not a one here, that's not afraid of the judicial system.
If you've ever been to court, boy, I tell you, it's solemn,
ain't it? It's solemn. And you know one of the things
that makes us afraid of our judicial system? We know we've broken the law. We're lawbreakers. There's so
many laws that we don't even know about. And we've committed
crimes against society that we don't know about. But we know
we've done it. We know we've done it. And we
do it, and then we forget about it. We hide it back in our subconscious
until something happens to bring it to mind. Then our memory is
stirred up, it's jarred, and suddenly this fear arises, the
guilt arises. Have you ever been going down
the road? Maybe running 50 miles an hour in a 55-mile speed zone. And you see a state trooper sitting
there in a median. What do you do? You slam on the
brake, don't you? Your heart drops. You feel guilty. You feel afraid. You're 5 miles an hour under
the speed limit. What's the problem? You weren't speeding. No, but
you were yesterday. You were last week. and you didn't
get caught. But just seeing the police officer
there, it stirred up that memory, even in your subconscious. The
police officer, the law enforcement, the judicial system, the judge. I tell you, it makes me afraid,
don't it you? Sometimes we're not afraid. We get sort of arrogant about
it all because we're ignorant. I bet you, I bet you, most of
our crimes, most of our sins against God, I know we don't
even know about. We sin against laws that we don't even know
about. And most of our sins we forget. I heard about this fellow
driving, and the state troopers stopped him to give him a ticket
for going one mile an hour over speed limit. Boy, he is upset. I've taken this to court, he
said. You ain't doing me this way. Took it to court and got
all arrogant and hostile before the judge. And the judge stopped
him and said, Sir, I want to ask you one question. Were you
speeding? Don't give me any ifs. Don't
give me any ands or buts. Just answer me this one question.
Were you speeding? And the man said, suddenly dawned
upon it. I'm a lawbreaker. I was speeding. I was just going one mile, but
I was speaking. And the judge said, you'll not
only pay the fine, you'll pay the court costs. Our ignorance. Something happens. We're made
to face it. And then this guilt, this fear
stirred up. Verse 23 says this, All have
sinned. All have sinned. How many sins
have we committed against God's law and don't even know it? We're
ignorant of it. How many sins have you and I
committed and we forgot about it? But I'll tell you just one
look, just one look from the judge, just one question from
his lips, Just stand it in His presence. Sometimes through a
song. Sometimes through a prayer. Sometimes
through a verse of scripture. Sometimes through pains. Sometimes
through the death of a loved one. And suddenly, there it is. There it is. What I had done
and was ignorant of it. What I had done and forgot about
it. Suddenly, there He is. The law enforcement officer.
And all my ignorance is swept away. All my arrogance is gone. And now it's all made clear.
And I'm guilty in my conscience. And the fear arises. What's happened? What's happened? Facing what we are before God.
All have sinned. One thing that makes man uneasy,
and you go out there and ask any man, I don't care who he
is, you go ask any man, if he'll
be honest with you, if he has any apprehension at all about
death and dying, just ask him, are you uneasy about that? I'm
the man that don't profess, don't know anything about the Lord
Jesus Christ. And He, if He's honest, He will
confess His uneasiness about it all. I don't want to face
death. I don't want to face beyond death.
I don't know exactly what it's going to be, but I know this,
I'm uneasy about it. What's the problem? What is it? It's this matter of justice.
It's just this matter of we know, men know that they've sinned. They may not be able to articulate
it, tell you what laws they've broken, but boy, in the subconscious,
and you get sick, and you face death, or a friend is dying. And boy, that stirs it up. There's
that law enforcement officer. There's that judge. We have this perception, all
men have it, who have a conscience left, that God can see sin in
us when and where we can't see it in ourselves. We may be ignorant
of it. We may have sinned and forgot
it. But there is this, if nothing else, in the subconscious of
every man. They know that God remembers
it. This thing that scares the lost
and causes their conscience to be pricked and tormented, knowing
that God sees and knows all things. This turns to the advantage of
those whom God has justified. They've not justified themselves. They've confessed their guilt.
They've condemned themselves. But it is that God who sees all
things. and who knows all things, for
both time and eternity has justified them from all things. Even those
things they're ignorant of. Even those things they have forgotten. That too. That too. We don't have to be afraid, brothers
and sisters, of what we've done wrong and we're ignorant of.
We're justified from that too. Only God knows it, but it's God
who justifies from it. Those sins that we've committed
and we've forgotten, you mean you're not guilty of that? Do
you and I think we're so omnipotent we know ourselves to the point
that we know every sin we've ever committed? We know very
little about sins that we've committed, but God knows everything.
He knows the heart and the motives. We're all naked and open in His
eyes. And He, being the Judge of all
the earth, has justified us from that too. Ain't that wonderful? No charge. He didn't say just
some charge that you knew somebody was going to bring. No, He's
talking about some charge you was absolutely ignorant of. Some
charge of sin that you had committed and you had forgot about. No
charge. Nothing. It's gone. It's all
gone. Who shall lay anything, anything
to the charge? But he goes on here in verse
24 and he adds something to this. It makes this truth even more
wonderful. Justify. Webster says this means to be
in a fixed state. Existing in a certain and fixed
state. To continue in a certain and
fixed state. Being. Being. If God has justified
you, what is your fixed state? Being justified. If He justified
you yesterday, He has justified then. But you are justified today. And you will be justified tomorrow.
The state is fixed. That is why He goes on in Romans
chapter 8 and verse 1 and says, there is therefore now. A Christian lives in the now. Now. There is no condemnation. You got out of bed this morning.
What was your state? Now, no condemnation. You go
all through the day and you have this warfare. You are fighting
with yourself. But there is therefore now. You
will bow your knee tonight and give thanks to the Lord for His
grace and confess your sin. There is therefore now. You and
I live in the now. And what is the reality of now? Justify. But Bruce, I felt God's rod heavy
upon my back and my soul is grieved because of it. What's my state
now? No condemnation. Let now be yesterday. Let now
be today. Let now be tomorrow. If God has
justified you, your state is fixed and unchangeable for all
eternity. Justify. In Romans chapter 8
and verse 30, those whom He justified, them He also glorified. All of them? Every last one of them? He didn't lose a one. Not a one
had His sentence reversed and was finally accused and condemned
and cast out. Not a single one. All those He
justified, He glorified. How in the world could that be
because of who did it? Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God! It is God! And what He does, He does forever,
you see. It doesn't matter what one's
present state of mind is. His justification is not determined
by his present state of mind. It doesn't matter what adverse
condition he may find himself in. That has nothing to do with
his being justified. God has justified him once, then
he'll never be condemned. There is therefore now. Now. And these questions rise in people's
mind when we talk like this. Yes, but what about this? Yes,
but what about that? We're talking about justification. And when God justifies a man,
he's fixed. He's fixed. He'll never come
unjustified. Now, here arises this question.
Why would God ever justify a sinner? And as you read the book of Romans,
nobody else is justified. That's amazing, that. When we
go to court, boy, they've got to prove your innocence. Or you're
in trouble. You've got one trying to prove your guilt and one trying
to prove your innocence. And the Lord says, find me a sinner!
I want to justify it! I want to clear him, forgive
him, put him in this state. where no charge can be brought
against you. All have sinned and come short of the glory of
God being justified. Ain't that amazing? That publican
went up to the temple to pray and says, I'm a sinner. And God
says, you're justified. Why would God justify a sinner? Well, we're told here, being
justified freely by His grace. God's unmerited, unearned favor. Freely. Without any obligation. Without any merit on the sinner's
part. Without him making any contribution.
Without any cost to him. He's justified because God is
good God is kind. God is merciful. God is grace. That's the cause of His justification. Could you and I have ever merited
such justification? Do we have any right to complain
and kick against God if He left us in our sin to suffer our just
reward? Could we have complained? There's
no such thing in this matter of being justified as deserving
a break. Oh, so-and-so, now they've just
suffered. That poor woman, she's suffered.
Surely, she deserves a break. Surely, God will give her a break.
That fellow over there, he's so generous, he's made all kinds
of money, and he gives 90% away. Surely, that guy deserves a break.
But the fact is that no man living deserves anything but hell, the wrath of God. When God justifies
any man and doesn't give him what he deserves, it's all because
of what's found in God, not what's found in man. It's in spite of
the man. All have sinned, being justified
freely by God's unmerited favor. Grace. Grace. It's not what man has earned
or merited or deserves, but it's what's found in the heart of
God. Grace. Arthur Pink and Spurgeon used
to tell about kings in some of the old countries going once
or twice a year down to the prison to release a prisoner. And he
would basically go in there at random without knowing the records. And sometimes he'd find out the
records and he'd find the meanest, sorriest, lowdownest criminal.
And to show his goodness, he would release one criminal. He had pardoned that criminal.
He would just open the door and let him out. Say, you're free
to go. The crimes, though they were
horrible, they're pardoned, and you're free. And out he went. Nobody could complain against
the king for doing that. What you find out when you go
to the prison to visit a little bit, the prisoners, they're so
jealous of each other. They can't do one good deed to
one inmate without everybody else getting jealous of that.
Start complaining about it. Could any of those criminals
complain against the king for pardoning this one man? Could
they say that's not fair? That's not just? The king did
them no harm, did he? They were just in there because
of their crimes, and He left them to suffer their just reward. They can't complain that there's
injustice in the King, and that poor criminal that He freed cannot
claim any merit. He can't glory in anything but
the goodness of the King, the kindness of the King. Why does God justify any sin?
The cause is found in Him. Are you justified? What do you
attribute that to? You attribute it to God's grace,
free grace. That's the cause of it. That's
the cause of it. Hell is full of people this evening,
just so God can prove. If nothing else, I don't have
to pardon anybody. I don't have to justify anybody.
Listen to the groans of the damned. And then he points up to heaven,
and there's a multitude that no man can number. And he says,
because I'm willing to do it. There you see him. Because I'm
good and I'm gracious. I'm willing to show my wrath
upon those. I'm willing to save others by
my grace." The goodness of God and the severity of God. And
you can't find any fault with it. Justice and grace. Wrath and mercy. And here's a
mystery that's revealed in this matter of justification. It's
revealed to you and I. for us to believe it. And it's
this. How, how can God justify sin? How in the world can God be just
and justify a sinner? Now, I'll be honest with you.
If some fellow had killed one of my loved ones and they put
him in jail and the governor pardoned him, I mean I'd be flat
out mad. Wouldn't you? That just ain't
right. What about justice? What about
justice? Well, how can the judge of all
the earth justify a sinner? And he tells us here in verse
24, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption,
through that salvation, through the deliverance, through the
ransom that is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me explain it like this.
This is amazing. Paul keeps using this term, the
righteousness of God. Look back over here in chapter
1. He's very fond of this phrase. He uses it often. The righteousness
of God. Look in chapter 1. Verse 15 said,
As much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who
are at Rome also. I'm not ashamed of this gospel
of Christ. For it's the power of God unto
salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also the
Greek. Look at this. For therein, in the gospel, is
the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith. The righteousness of God is revealed
in the gospel. What righteousness is he talking
about? It's a gospel righteousness. It's not God's essential righteousness. It's not God's essential holiness.
It's not God's essential justice. It's not God's essential and
eternal purity. That's not the righteousness
that's revealed in the gospel. The righteousness that's revealed
in the gospel is good news. And here's why it's good news.
Look back over at chapter 3 again. Look in verse 10. As it is written, there is none
righteous. No, not one. There is not a just
man upon this earth that doeth good and sinneth not. There is
none righteous. Look in verse 19. Now we know that whatsoever
things the law says, this law is what God requires of us to
keep. It's a holy law, a just law,
a spiritual law. And whatever things the law says,
it says to them who are under the law, that every mouth may
be stopped, and all the world become guilty before the judge
of all the earth, before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the
law, by our attempting to keep the law, no flesh can ever be
justified in His sight. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. Look at verse 21. The righteousness of God without
the law is manifested. It's revealed. We're being witnessed
by the law and the prophets. The law and the prophets talked
about this righteousness of God. You find it everywhere. Even
the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto
all and upon all them that believe. Look what he says down in verse
25. God hath set forth, Jesus Christ, set him forth in the
Scriptures, set him forth in the message, set him forth in
the gospel, set him forth in all those types and promises.
He set him forth to be an atoning victim, a mercy seat, through
faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission
of sins that are fast. What is it that remits our sins?
It's the righteousness of God. That's what He says, ain't it?
To declare His righteousness for the remission of sins. Look
in verse 26. To declare, I say at this time,
His righteousness, that He might be just, and to justify them
which believe. What is this righteousness of
God? What in the world is it? What is it that the prophets
and the law declared that comes to us and is unto us? He said there, it's unto us.
It's unto everyone. And it's upon everyone. What is this righteousness of
God that justifies us and enables God to justify us? And gives
us peace with God? And saves us? What is it? What is the righteousness of
God? You know what it is? It's Jesus Christ. The Lord, our righteousness. You say, Bruce, what do you mean?
Just that. It's Him. It's this glorious person. But
it's more than that. Just His person. Who He is. in His wonderful, mysterious
nature. But it is His work. It is His
doing, His dying, His sufferings, His birth, His obedient life,
His vicarious death upon the cross of Calvary, His burial,
His resurrection, His ascension. This is the righteousness of
God, Jesus Christ and His person and His work. It's this righteousness
that He brought in, Daniel said, and worked out and perfected
in the day of His flesh. It's called the righteousness
of God because God's the author of it. It's God who planned it,
who schemed it. It's called the righteousness
of God because the Son of God worked it out and brought it
in. And God the Spirit reveals it to us through the gospel and
gives us faith to believe it. And this perfect righteousness enables God, enables God to forgive
us All our sins. To so take away sins that there's
none left. And did it in a just manner.
Not a cover up. But took them away. Atoned for
them. Through the redemption. Just as said, you owe me so much. And Christ said, I'll pay the
debt. And He paid it in full. That's the righteousness of God.
God hath made Christ to be sin for us, that we might be made
the righteousness of God in Him. Ain't that wonderful? We never
get tired of this, do we? How can a sinner be saved? By
God. And how in the world can God
save him and be just? Through this righteousness. And that's why it'll never change.
Larry said, it ain't ours. It's not ours. It's in heaven,
ain't it? It's in heaven. The Lord, our
righteousness. It's imputed to us. It comes
to us to justify us. And it clothes us. It's called
the garments of salvation, the robe of righteousness. But it's in heaven. And for it
to change, somebody has only got to go up there. But he has
to be somebody that's stouter than the Lord and drag Him off
the throne and mar Him somewhere or the other. I don't think that's going to
happen to you. I just got a sneaking hunch that ain't going to happen. What did Jesus Christ do? He
rendered a perfect obedience. to God, to all God's just demands. Lord, I come to do Thy will,
O my God. I come to do Your will perfectly.
I come to obey with all my heart, my mind, my soul, and strength. A perfect obedience in our flesh. Isn't that what you said, Brother
Larry? In our flesh, in our likeness. Not in our likeness when we were
back there in the garden. In our fallen likeness, sin accepted. But I tell you, He wasn't exempt
from our natural infirmities. He hungered and thirsted and
grew weary and weak and was tempted in all points. Yet He rendered
a perfect obedience to the Father. And in His death, by His own
blood, He paid everything the broken law demanded on our behalf.
And God looked down from heaven and He said, what a righteousness.
I've never in my life seen such a righteousness. And He hadn't. He hadn't. It wasn't in Adam.
He had a righteousness that He lost through sin. But oh, when
the Father looked down from heaven, He said, well, right there is
my righteousness. And all I've got to do to save a sinner is
just give it to Him. We go back down to the prison
with the king to pardon the criminal. And here's something we realize,
that pardon is only one aspect of it. Pardon is just one aspect
of this whole business of being justified and being saved and
redeemed. The king not only pardons him,
he not only commands the doors to be opened and let him go,
But then he washes him. He cleans him from all of his
filth. He commands the best robe to be brought and put on him.
But he doesn't stop there. He says, I'm going to adopt you
to be my son. And you're going up to the palace
with me. I've got a bed for you to lay
down and rest yourself in. I've got a table that I've spread
with all my dentists. And you're going to be my son,
world without end. And he has sweet fellowship with
him. And they love one another. And have sweet communion, one
with another. Ain't that amazing? All because
of the righteousness of God. This gospel righteousness. David often made mention of it.
Look over in chapter 4 right quickly, and I'll close. David made mention of it. Abraham
made mention of it. Moses made mention of it. Here's
what David said in chapter 4 and verse 6. David described the
blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth righteousness without
work. Where does God get a righteousness
to impute to anybody? Well, that's this righteousness
we're talking about. Christ Jesus our Lord. His work, His doing,
His dying. David said this, "'Blessed are
they whose iniquities are forgiven, and blessed are those whose sins
are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin.'" A Christian is not a man who has no sin,
but he is a man to whom God will not impute it for Christ's sake,
for this righteousness' sake. David said this. Listen to what
he said. He spoke often of this righteousness. Lead me, O Lord,
in Your righteousness because of my enemies. Well, I want God
to lead me in this righteousness. I don't want to go about to establish
my own righteousness to you. I want Him to lead me in this
righteousness. Lead me to it. Give me grace
to see it and believe it. Then lead me in it, to walk in
it. because of my enemies, because
of sin that would destroy me or bring me to despair, because
of the wrath of God that sometimes the believer feels in his conscience,
because of death, because of the judgment. Lead me because
of these mighty enemies in the righteousness of Christ. Make
thy way straight before my face. Boy, you don't want to be crooked
on this, do you? You don't want to err on this.
In the Lord do I put my trust. Ain't no other way to have this
righteousness. Somebody said faith don't save
you, faith don't justify. Well, sure it does. And here's
the way it does. It brings this righteousness
to the soul. Ain't no other way to get it. But through this channel of faith, This righteousness comes to those
who believe in Christ for it. So here's what David said. In
Thee do I put my trust. Let me never be ashamed. Deliver
me in Thy righteousness. Deliver me, O Lord, in Your righteousness
and cause me to escape. Psalm 89.16. In thy name shall
we rejoice all the day. Who is he talking about? Christ's
name. We rejoice in Christ Jesus all
the day. And in your righteousness shall
we be exalted all the way to heaven too. I will make mention
of your righteousness even of thine only. Oh, what a wonderful
text. What a wonderful thought. Brothers
and sisters, I tell you the truth. The whole nation of Israel, the
nation of Israel as a whole, they perished. And you know why
they perished? Because they did not understand
what I just told you this evening. They went about to establish
their own righteousness. And Paul said they did it because
they were ignorant of the righteousness of God, and they would not submit
themselves to be justified by it. And they perished. Well,
how did they seek to be justified? As it were, by the works of the
law. As it were, by 650 traditions. And they perished. If there is
everything you and I need to be clear upon, it is this matter
of justification. Let's pray.