Would you turn to 1 Kings 8.
Verse 31. 1 Kings 8. Verse 31. If any man trespass against his
neighbor and an oath be laid upon him
to cause him to swear, and what that means is he promises he
didn't do it. He makes a promise, I didn't
do that. How many billions and trillions
of times has that happened in the history of the world? Somebody
did something and said, I didn't do it. I didn't do it, I'm not
guilty of that, that's, oh my. And the oath that he swore that
he didn't do it, come before thine altar in this house, speaking
of the temple, then hear thou in heaven and do and judge thy
servants, condemning the wicked to bring his way upon his own
head and justifying the righteous. to give Him according to His
righteousness. Let's pray. Lord, we come into Your presence
in Christ's name. And Lord, how we covet Your blessing
and Your presence and Your favor. We ask that You would walk in
our midst, that we might be enabled to See your beauty to hear your
gospel, give us receptive, believing hearts. Lord, may we be granted the reality of your presence. Lord, we confess our sins. We
pray for forgiveness and cleansing Lord. Every time we pray, we
have to confess our sins. Lord, we know when you hear we
must have our forgiveness. Now, Lord, bless us for the Lord's
sake. Meet each need here. Lord, we're
such a needy people and we don't even know what we need, but you
know what we need. And we ask that you would give
us that which we need. We ask that you would grant us
all faith in our son and a greater love to him and a greater love
to one another. Lord, we ask for grace to walk
and talk and think and conduct ourselves in a way that brings
glory and honor to the gospel of thy son. Lord, please enable
us to do that. Save us from ourselves. Lord,
be with all your people wherever they meet together. In Christ's
name we pray. Amen. In verse 30, the last statement,
he said, when thou hearest, forgive. That's always necessary, isn't
it? When thou hearest, forgive. And really the rest of the chapter
is about that. But in these two verses I just
read, we read of a man sinning against his neighbor and giving
an oath that he didn't do it. How many times has that happened? How many times have you done
it? You get caught up in something, and the immediate response is,
no, I didn't do it. I didn't do it. It's not right, but that
is the response most people make toward wrongdoing. I couldn't help but remember
one time when I was a kid, there was a peeping Tom in our neighborhood.
My mom and dad will remember this. And somebody looked in
the window, my sister's window, and she, it's not Sherry Susan,
she's the one who saw this. Somebody looked in the window
and she comes out and runs and tells mom and dad about it. And
they get on the phone with the boy's father and said, your son
did this. And he came back on the phone
and he said, well, he said he didn't do it. End of story. End of story. He said he didn't
do it. So how many times has that happened? And something
like, take it further. What if somebody broke into your
house and stole valuable things and then said they didn't do
it? Or what if somebody murdered somebody and brought great problems
in society and they said they didn't do it? This is what the
scenario is. Somebody sins against his neighbor
and then makes a promise, swears, I did not do that. Now what Solomon
says is bring them before the altar of the temple and Lord,
you decide. You know the hearts of everybody.
You say whether this one is guilty. You say whether this one is not
guilty. You justify that one who is not
guilty and you condemn that one who is guilty. The Lord is the
one who decides this case. Now we read here together, look
in verse 32. Then hear thou in heaven and
do and judge thy servants, condemning the wicked to bring his way upon
his own head. and justifying the righteous
to give him according to his righteousness. Now here, he's
just speaking. If he didn't do it, justify him. If he was not
guilty of this crime, justify him. He's righteous. If he was
guilty of doing it, condemn him. You're the one who must decide
this case. We read here of the righteous
and the wicked. Now this morning, me and you
are in one of those two groups, the righteous and the wicked. And this is talking about how
God sees. God sees you, God sees me as either righteous or wicked. There's only two kinds of people
in this world, the righteous and wicked. We're born into this
world, even if we're wicked people, even if we're evil people, which
we all are by nature, we're still born into this world with a strong
sense of right and wrong. Everybody is. We have God's law
written in our hearts. Everybody knows it's wrong to
kill, it's wrong to steal. And I think one of the most powerful
emotions a child feels is if he feels like he's been wronged.
If I felt somebody did me wrong, oh, how my little soul was filled
with righteous indignation toward that person who wronged me or
perhaps accused me of something that I didn't do. When a kid
cries, it's generally because they're crying because I've been
wronged. I've not been treated fairly. This is not fair. We're born with a consciousness
of that. We have a strong view that there
is righteousness and there is wickedness. And we're born into
this world believing in God. We may become atheists, but we're
not born that way. We're born knowing that God is. We're born looking at the creation. This is only logical. I mean,
if we think logically, Somebody made all this. It couldn't just
happen. Somebody made all this, and He's
all-powerful. You can see that, and eternal.
Nobody made Him. Now that is the knowledge of
God. Somebody made all this, and nobody made Him. Now, it
could be that the implications of there being a God, people
don't like it, so they can figure out a way to not believe in God.
But you gotta do so against your own conscience. I was talking
to an atheist recently, and I could see that even while I was talking
to him, it was obvious to me he didn't really believe what
he was saying he was believing. When someone becomes an atheist, it's
because they don't like the implications of there being a God. Therefore,
they want a God not to exist. That's why someone becomes an
atheist, because they do not want God to exist. And I can
understand that. I mean, things are a lot better
for me if there's no God. That means I won't go to hell.
That means I won't be punished for my sins and so on. And so
that's why people do that. But still, there is... No excuse
for believing life came from some kind of, there was a big
bang and some kind of primordial stew and somehow life, chemicals
reacted to our life. There's no excuse for believing
something like that. There's nothing in science that would
verify something like that. And I know I'm not a scientist
and I know the Bible's not a science book, but still there's no excuse
for believing something like that. It takes more of a leap
of blind faith to believe something like that than it does to believe
that God is. And everybody is born with this
understanding that God will reward the righteous and punish the
wicked. Everybody automatically believes
that. Solomon appeals to this knowledge
that God has, you know who's righteous, you know who did it,
and you know who didn't do it. You decide this case. You demonstrate who is righteous
and who is wicked. Now, I've said this before and
there was some kind of philosopher who said this first, but I think
it's, I know it's true and I think it's almost humorous. All the wicked, across the board,
all the wicked believe themselves to be righteous. Or at least
they have the potential to be righteous. All the wicked believe
themselves to be righteous. And all of the righteous, without
exception, believe themselves to be wicked. Here we have the
righteous and the wicked. The first time these two are
mentioned together is in Genesis chapter 18. Would you turn with
me there? This is a familiar story of Abraham
praying that God would have mercy on Sodom. Let's begin reading
in verse 20 of Genesis chapter 18. And the Lord said, because
the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great and because their sin
is very grievous, I will go down now and see whether they've done
altogether according to the cry of it, which was coming to me.
And if not, I'll know. And the men turned their faces
from thence and went towards Sodom. But Abraham stood before
the Lord and Abraham drew near and said, will thou also destroy
the righteous with the wicked? Now he was talking about Sodom
and God had said, I'm going to destroy Sodom. He said, well,
what about the righteous people there? Will you destroy the righteous
with the wicked? We see very early that this concept
is very clear in Abraham's mind and everybody else's mind. He says in verse 24, per venture
there be 50 righteous within the city. Will thou also destroy
and spare not the place for 50 righteous that are therein? That
be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous
with the wicked, and that the righteous should be as the wicked.
That be far from thee shall not the judge of the earth do right. Now that's just, in the thinking
of everybody. It was in the thinking of Abraham.
I mean, we're born that way. We might, like I said, through
many reasons that we come up with, decide there is no God,
but everybody is born with this understanding that God will not
Judge the righteous and let him be condemned the same way the
wicked will. He's right. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right? And you're familiar with this,
that Abraham said, well, what if there's only 40? I'll spare
it for 40. What if there's only 30? I'll spare it for 30. What
if there's only 20? I'll spare it for 20. What if
there's only 10? I'll spare it for 10. Turn to Proverbs chapter 17. Proverbs chapter 17. Verse 15. He that justifieth the wicked,
and he that condemneth the just, even they both are an abomination
to the Lord. Somebody who justifies a wicked
man is an abomination to the Lord. Someone who condemns one
who is not guilty is an abomination to the Lord. Now, I want you
to think of that in light of the cross. I've heard people
say, and I can see where it's said in some senses, where on
the cross, the innocent was held guilty that the guilty might
go free. And when it starts out, I suppose
it is that way, but on the cross, it was not God condemning the
innocent. It was God condemning the guilty. That's just how truly my sin
became his sin. And that's the only thing really
that gives me any comfort. That when God justifies me, it's because
I really do not have any sin in his sight. And in his sight
is the way it really is. That's the believer's comfort.
That's what justification is. Look in Isaiah chapter three. Verse 10. Isaiah chapter three, verse 10.
Say ye to the righteous, that it shall be well with him, for
they shall eat the fruit of their doings." Now, understand this. The fruit of my doings are all
good. If I have the righteousness of Christ, that means my doings,
my personal doings before God are all good. It's called justification. Verse 11, woe unto the wicked.
It shall be ill with him for the reward of his hand shall
be given him. He'll be given exactly what he's
earned. He will be given exactly what he deserves. Turn to Psalm
11. Psalm 11. Verse four. The Lord is in his holy temple. The Lord's throne is in heaven. His eyes behold. His eyelids
try the children of men, every single one of them. The Lord
trieth the righteous. But the wicked and him that loveth
violence, his soul hateth. Upon the wicked he shall rain
snares, fire and brimstone, and horrible tempest. This shall
be the portion of their cup, for the righteous Lord loveth
righteousness. His countenance doth behold the
upright. God said in Exodus chapter 34,
verse seven, I will, and listen to this scripture, this ought
to be committed to memory, and we ought to look at everything
in light of this statement. God said, I will by no means
clear the guilty. Now everything we believe is
to be brought to that touchstone. God said, I will by no means,
under no circumstance whatsoever, I will by no means clear the
guilty. If I have any guilt on me at
all, God will not clear me. Now, with that in mind, I sure enough know I'm guilty.
I sure enough know I'm sinful. So the big question is, how can
that be true? And me get off the hook. How
can that be true? And yet God would justify me. How could that be just? How could
it be right for God in his righteousness to justify me when the fact of
the matter is I am a sinful man? How can that be? Remember, Ecclesiastes
7.20 says, there is not a righteous man on earth that sinneth not.
And Psalm 1.30 says, if thou, Lord, should mark iniquities,
O Lord, who should stand? Now, how can God be just and
righteous and holy and clear me? You know, that question is
addressed in the book of Job, the oldest book in the Bible.
Turn with me there to Job. Now, I realize that there are a lot
of people, this is not even an issue with them, religious people. They don't wonder how God can
be just and justify them. They think it's a given. It's
what God will do. And the reason people think this
way is they have a God who loves unconditionally. I hate that term, unconditional
love. Despise it. There's no such thing as unconditional
love. If God loves you, it's because
you're lovely. In Christ Jesus, you deserve his love. You're
as lovely as his son because you're in him. This very thought
of unconditional love. But men have made a God that's
good to all and benevolent toward all and wants to save everybody. And the very idea of his absolute
justice and righteousness isn't even given any thought. but this
is who God is. Yes, he's gracious. Yes, he's
merciful. That's his character. We love his character, but he's
absolutely just and absolutely righteous, and he will by no
means clear the guilty. Look here in Job 25, beginning in verse four. How then can 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, the word is actually a maggot, a
maggot before God, and the son of man, which is a worm. How can man be just with God? The one who said, I will by no
means clear the guilty. Now, that is what this book is
all about. That's what this book is all
about. Now, like I said, I realize a
lot of people don't even think it's an issue. They just take
it as a given. But if you ever find out who
God really is, you won't take it as a given. This will be the
question that you have to have answered. And you know, I have
talked about this so much over the years. I've been preaching
35 years and I hope this is the main subject of my preaching. And it's more glorious to me. It's more awesome. It's more
powerful. This is not, somebody says, well, this is just dry
doctrine. Well, it might be dry doctrine to you, but it's not
dry doctrine. It's God's doctrine. And if it's dry to you, it's
because you're dry. This is the absolute glorious gospel of the
blessed God. how he can be just and justify
the ungodly. And the thing that obviously
first comes to our minds is the two men in the temple that went
up to pray. One a religious man, a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee prayed thus with
himself. I love the way Christ says that. He wasn't praying
to God. He thought he was, but he prayed thus with himself. God,
I thank thee. He gave God the credit. But what was he thanking
him for? I'm not like other men are. Now
if your religion is a comparison between you and somebody else,
you're always going to be able to find somebody that you look
a little better than. The Pharisee certainly did. I thank you that
I'm not as other men are. And then he commenced to start
lying. I don't commit adultery. I don't steal. I don't all these
things he didn't do that he did. But somehow he convinced himself
that he hadn't done them. And then the publican, beating
on his breast, crying, God be merciful to me, the sinner. When he said that he was saying,
I'm the worst man to ever live. Do something about my sin, take
away my sin, be propitious to me, the sinner. And then the
Lord said regarding that man who made that confession, I say
to you, That man went down to his house, what's the next word?
You all know it, justified. Not pardoned, not forgiven, not
shown mercy, although all those things are true, but justified. That means he never sinned. That's the only thing that gives
me any comfort, that I have never sinned. But you have. If Christ put them away, they're
gone. And I have never sinned. I stand before God's law justified. Now, how can that be? Turn with me to Romans chapter
3. You know, if the Lord gives me
another 10 years, another 20 years to preach, I sure hope
I'm still preaching this. This is so glorious. Romans chapter
three, beginning in verse 24. Well, let's begin in verse 23. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. I think that's an interesting
and glorious definition of sin. What is sin? It's coming short
of His glory. Anything that comes short of
His glory is sin. All have sinned. In the previous
verse it said there's no difference. No difference between men. You
take the most immoral man and the most moral man. There's a
difference with us. Who would you rather buy an item
from a moral man or an immoral man. I'd rather buy it from the
moral man, somebody who's not going to rip me off. With us,
there's a difference, but with God, he sees the heart. There
is no difference between one and the other because all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. Look in verse 24,
being justified freely. Now what that means is there's
nothing in you that caused this. He didn't look for something
in you to do this great and glorious work. Being justified freely. Here's the second way we're justified
by his grace. God by his grace can make it
to where you are justified. Don't you find that attractive?
Don't you find that exciting? God can, by his grace, make it
to where you are justified. Just like Noah. He said regarding
Noah, thee have I seen as righteous before me. Now Noah was in that
group in Genesis 6, 5. God saw the wickedness of man
was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually. But God saw Noah as righteous. Now, God's grace can do that,
but let's go on. We have to have all these things.
It's through, we're justified without a cause in us, by His
grace, through the redemption, the redeeming work of Christ
Jesus on the cross. whom God foreordained, that's
what that word set forth means, it's foreordained, he's a lamb
slain from the foundation of the world, whom God set forth
to be a propitiation. Now that word is a sin-removing
sacrifice. A sin-removing sacrifice. Christ removed my sin and made
it not to be. Next, through faith in his blood. Do you have faith in His blood?
Do you believe His blood is sufficient to make you justified before
God? Perfect, without sin, without
guilt, to where God would look at you and say, they're perfect. Through faith in His blood, for
the remission of sins that are past, that have already been
committed through the forbearance of God, to declare, I say at
this time, and here's the key word, not His mercy, Not His
grace, not His love, but His righteousness. To declare, I
say at this time, His righteousness, that He might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. The righteousness of
God demands the complete justification and acquittal of everybody that
Christ died for. Turn to 2 Corinthians 5. I'm sorry, Romans 5. Verse 20, moreover, the law entered
that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound. that as sin hath reigned unto
death, even so might grace reign through mercy, through, no, through
righteousness. This grace is a righteous grace. It glorifies God's righteousness,
and it makes me righteous before God. You know, even while I am
talking about this, There's a little voice inside of me that says,
this seems too good to be true. And there's another little voice
that says, well, what about obedience? What about you seeking to please
God in your life and walk? Does this just negate that? There's
something in my heart that responds that way, but that's the old
heart. That's the wicked heart. That's the natural man. Does
this Encourage sin? No. No. What does it do? It gives me the hope that I really
am righteous before God. This, my friends, is the gospel. Amen.