I want so very much for you to believe God. You who are without Christ, oh,
may God give you faith in Him. And I pray that you who know
my Redeemer will, by what you have heard and you're about to
hear, that you'll be compelled to devote yourself to the Savior
fresh in utter consecration, worshiping and seeking to serve
Him. Oh, may God reprove our sin,
our coldness of heart, our unbelief, our overmuch love of self and
overmuch love of the world, and teach us to walk with God, believing
His Son. How can a man be justified with
God? Or how can he be clean that is
born of a woman? Find the answer to those two
questions and you find the message of this blessed book. Miss the
answer to those two questions and you miss everything. How
can the triune Jehovah be both a just God and the Savior? How can God refuse to justify
the guilty and yet forgive sin? How can God refuse to clear the
guilty and yet forgive iniquity, transgression, and sin? This
is what he said concerning himself when Moses said, I beseech you,
Lord, show me your glory. He said, I am the Lord, the Lord
God. merciful and gracious, long-suffering
and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands,
forgiving iniquity, transgression and sin, and that will by no
means clear the guilty. I don't believe I've ever read
a more contradictory statement in my life. I've never heard
anything more contradictory. God says, I am the Lord, the
Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in
goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity
and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the
guilty. How can both those things be
so? Now listen carefully to these
four facts. Four things I hope you know and
I pray God will burn in your heart again this hour. If you
and I enter into heaven's glory, we must be perfect. Perfect. Perfectly righteous. Completely free from sin. Perfectly holy. Perfect as God
himself is perfect. Righteous as God himself is righteous. We must be perfect to be accepted. Listen to the book of God. The
unclean shall not pass over Zion's highway. If you're unclean, you
can't walk in Zion's road. It can't be done. It is written. There shall in no wise enter
into it, into the New Jerusalem, anything that defileth, neither
whatsoever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but they which
are written in the Lamb's Book of Life. But nothing that defiles,
nothing that works abomination, nothing that makes a lie can
cross into the New Jerusalem. Nothing. Nothing. Here's the
second thing. The God of glory cannot and will
not simply pretend that a sinner is righteous and save him. This whole religious world is
deluded with the idea that God plays let's pretend we're sinners.
God will never pretend that you're righteous and take you to glory.
God Almighty declares, he that justifieth the wicked and him
that condemneth the just, even they both are abomination to
the Lord. He says, I will not justify the
wicked. I won't pretend you're right
if you're not. I won't pretend you're holy if you're not. I
won't pretend you're righteous if you're not. You gotta be perfect
in your glory and God's never going to pretend that you are
if you're not. Number three, God Almighty, God
Almighty cannot, cannot. Now you best believe when I start
to say God can't do something, I've thought about it long and
hard. God Almighty cannot, God cannot lie, he's God. God cannot
lie, he's God. And God Almighty cannot condemn
a just man, slay a righteous man, or punish an innocent man. I suggest you write that down
somewhere in your noggin if not on paper. God Almighty cannot
condemn a just man. God cannot slay a righteous man. God cannot punish an innocent
man. Holiness will not allow it. Justice
will not permit it. God says that's an abomination
to me. He will not condemn the innocent
blood. The holy and just God will never
slay the righteous with the wicked. Abraham understood that. In Genesis
chapter 18, Abraham pleaded with God and pleaded with God and
pleaded with God and pleaded with God again on one basis. He said, God, will you destroy
the righteous with the wicked? Will you destroy the righteous
with the wicked? And God said, Abraham knows I
won't do that. Oh no, God will not do that. Here's the fourth
thing. The only possible way for God
to save sinners, the only possible way for God to save you, the
only possible way for God to save me, the only possible way
for God to save sinners, is if God himself, the God of all grace,
finds a way in mercy and in truth to make filthy, hell-bent, hell-deserving
sinners perfectly righteous and perfectly holy. How can a man be justified with
God? How can he be clean that's born
of woman? Only if God finds a way. mercy and truth. By mercy and
truth, the wise men said, iniquity is purged. If God finds a way
in mercy and truth to make the sinner perfectly righteous, and
blessed be his name, he found the way. God Almighty looked
on his son, our Redeemer, the lamb slain from the foundation
of the world, the covenant surety accepted for us before the world
began and says concerning all the host of his elect, deliver
him from going down to the pit. I have found a ransom and God
accepted the ransom on our behalf before the world was. The works
were finished from the foundation of the world. Nothing left to
chance. The gospel of God. The gospel
of God is the revelation of God's righteousness in saving sinners
like you and me. The gospel of God is the revelation
of God's righteousness, his whole righteous character in saving
sinners like you and me. Turn to Romans chapter 3 for
a minute. Romans chapter 3. Abraham said, or Moses said to
the Lord, said, Lord, I beseech you, show me your glory. And
the Lord said, Lord, I'm going to take you out here and I'm
going to put you in the cleft of the rock, and I'm going to
pass by you, and I'm going to declare my name to you. God,
merciful, gracious, long-suffering, full of love and kindness, forgiving
and equal to transgression and sin, who by no means will clear
the guilt there. And the Lord God passed by in
the person of his Son. The triune Jehovah made himself
known in Christ the Lamb by whom God can be just and justify the
ungodly. This is the revelation of God's
glory. This is the revelation of God's
glory. Jesus Christ crucified. By this God shows himself righteous. Romans 3 verse 21. Now the righteousness
of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and
the prophets. Even the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ. Our King James translators did
a marvelous job in the whole of our translation. It is without
question the best translation there is in the English language.
Amen, Brother Don, that's so. And they did an especially good
job when translating this phrase, faith of Jesus Christ. Everywhere in this book where
the translators translated the word of in this phrase, the faith
of Jesus Christ, and everywhere in the book where they translated
the exact same Greek phrase, faith in Jesus Christ, the translation
is exactly right. Your faith in Jesus Christ won't
justify a bug, let alone you. Your faith in Jesus Christ is
not righteousness. Your faith in Jesus Christ does
not satisfy God's law, but the faith of Jesus Christ justified
all the host of God's elect. His faithful obedience unto God,
believing him in perfection in the totality of his existence
as a man unto death is that by which we're justified. Read on.
The faith, the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. For there
is no difference. For all have sinned, come short
of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace. Justified
freely by his grace. What a word. Free to us, but
not to him. through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in his blood, a justice satisfying, sin atoning sacrifice
through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness for
the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance
of God. To declare, I say at this time,
his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of
him which believeth. Look down in verse 31. Do we
then make void the law through faith? Oh no, no, no, no. Oh no, no, no, no. Rather, by
faith in Christ, we establish the law. We establish the law. Now, I want you to turn back
to Leviticus chapter 19. Leviticus chapter 19. I've got
a message tonight with five texts, but I've just got four points,
and I'll state them very briefly. Look at Leviticus chapter 19.
I want you to look at these five texts. Verse 36. Pages are about to quit turning. Okay.
Leviticus 19, 36. Just balances. Just waits, a just effort, and
a just hen shall you have. I am the Lord your God, which
brought you out of the land of Egypt. Just, just. I knew a fellow when
I was a teenager who pumped gas at a service station, and sometimes
he would cheat customers until he got caught. Back in those
days, the pumps didn't cut off automatically. And a fellow would
come in and he'd say, give me $10 worth of gas, $5 worth of
gas. And he'd pump the gas in there, and then he would leave
the handle on. Next fellow would come in and
say, give me five gallons. He'd pump in a little bit more gas,
and he'd tell him to charge for five gallons. And the needle
didn't move. Something must be wrong. Yeah,
he cheated you. because the gauges weren't justly
set. That's what God's talking about
right here. A just weight, a just balance. Deuteronomy 25, verse 13. Thou shalt not have in thy bag
divers weights, a great and a small. This is God's command. Thou shalt not have in thy bag
divers weights, a great and a small. Look in Proverbs, Proverbs chapter
16, verse 11. Adjust weight and balance are
the Lord's. Adjust weight and balance. These
are God's weights. These are God's balances. All
the weights of the bag are his work. Look in chapter 20, Proverbs
20, verse 23. Diver's weights are an abomination
unto the Lord, and the false balance is not good. All right,
one more text, Micah chapter six. Micah the sixth chapter,
verse 11. I want you to see it. Now here the Lord God tells us
the meaning of all we've read about these weights and balances.
Shall I count them pure? with wicked balances and with
a bag of deceitful weights? That's my subject. Wicked balances
and deceitful weights. Wicked balances and deceitful
weights. Here's God's question. Shall
I count them pure with the wicked balances and with a bag of deceitful
weights? These commandments given by God
throughout the Old Testament concerning just balances and
just weights were not just so that if you run a butcher shop
and you got scales down there, you make sure you weigh out the
right amount of meat when your fellow comes in and orders four
ounces or four pounds. That's not the intent. That law
was given, those commands given, because God says, I will not
make you pure. with wicked balances and wicked
weights. Wicked balances and deceitful
weights. Those are things in which wicked
men deal all the time, religious or otherwise. Wicked balances
and deceitful weights are the way wicked men, for their own
purposes, measure things, even the things of God. The Lord God
asserts in unequivocal terms that he abhors all injustice. If he saves, he will be a just
God and a Savior. Now listen to me, listen to me. all these young faces here, old
faces here, you who let yet live with your fist in God's face
and refuse to believe on God's darling son. If God sends you
to hell, if God damns you, it will be a matter of absolute
rightness. and nobody's going to raise an
objection. If God saves you, he'll save
you in a way that shows him a just God and a savior. And if God
damns you, he will damn you forever in a way that shows him just
and true. And you'll say amen, that's who
he is, to your everlasting torment. Here the Lord God shows us his
absolute unbending justice in the exercise of his mercy. Behold, God will not cast away
a perfect man, neither will he help evildoers. He that justifieth
the wicked and he that condemneth the just, even they both are
an abomination to the Lord. All right, let me make four statements.
The first is the most important, and I'll spend the bulk of my
time there, and I hope I get to the other three, but these
four statements I want you to get. Here's the first. I want you to see that the Lord
God did not use wicked balances and deceitful weights when he
punished his darling son as our substitute at Calvary. In 2 Corinthians
chapter 5 and verse 21, we're told how that took place. If
we were to be redeemed, Christ had to die in our stead. The
just must die for the unjust. The innocent must die for the
guilty. The holy must die for the sinful. The righteous must die for the
unrighteous. because the Lord God is holy,
just, righteous, and true. God would not, God could not impute sin to his
son until he made his son sin. God would not God could not impute
sin to his son until he made his son sin for us. Oh, what an amazing thing. No court
on earth can impute guilt where there is none without tarnishing
justice. Unless the court is corrupt and
the judge unjust, Guilt cannot be imputed where there is none.
In fact, we read a few moments ago, the Lord God said, by mercy
and truth, iniquity is purged. Our Lord Jesus Christ, who knew
no sin, who did no sin, who could never sin, was made sin for us. Now this is not a debatable thing. And I don't waste my time or
energy or thought trying to answer the cavils of folks who get upset
with what God says in his word. I just, well, just ignore them. Just ignore them. I like to ignore
them so they know they're being ignored, but I just ignore them. This is a wondrous thing. Too
magnificent to be debated. Too wondrous to be argued. Hear
the Son of God as he prays. Innumerable evils have compassed
me about. I couldn't dream of thinking
this, let alone saying it, if it wasn't written right here. I couldn't dream of thinking
it, let alone saying it. The Son of God says, mine iniquities
have taken hold upon me, so that I'm not able to look up there
more than the hairs in my head. Therefore, my heart faileth me. O God, thou knowest my foolishness,
my guiltiness, and my sins are not hid from thee. When our Lord
Jesus was made sin for us, The Lord God looked on his son in
holy justice, and he cried, awake, O sword. against the man that
is my fellow, smite and slay the shepherd. There is sin and
it must be punished. And God slew his darling son
because his darling son, being made sin for us, fully deserved
all the fury of God's holy wrath, else he could never have known
it. He fully deserved all the fury
of God's holy wrath, else he could never have known it. What a wondrous thing. We won't
turn there and look at it, but in the second chapter of John's
gospel, our Lord performed his first miracle. this beginning
of miracles he performed in Cana of Galilee when he began to manifest
forth his glory. Do you remember what he did? He and his disciples and his
mother were at a marriage feast. And they ran out of wine. Apparently somebody just went
by and bought a pint and that was all they had. But they had six water pots. containing between two and three
firkins a piece. That's about 20 to 25 gallons
a piece. They had six of them. And the
Lord's mother said to those folks standing there, I said, whatever
he says to you, you do it. And the Lord Jesus said, fill
them up with water. Fill them up to the running over. And then
he said, get you a dipper now and pour some into a glass and
take it to the governor of the feast and took it to him. And the governor said, man, that's
the best wine I ever tasted. Lord made about 120 gallons of
it for him. Now you teetotallers just sit
on that for a while. What? He turned water into wine. He didn't make it taste like
wine. He didn't make it look like wine. He didn't put a sign
on it to say this water is wine. He didn't pretend that it was
wine. He made water wine and thereby
began to show forth his glory. What? His glory? the glory of
God in the face of the crucified Christ. He's showing us in the
beginning of miracles. I'm telling you, everything he
did, every miracle he performed, every work was showing us something
concerning this great wondrous thing, how that God can be just
and justify the ungodly. And the glory of God is seen
in the sacrifice of his darling son made sin for us. We could never have obtained
righteousness. We could never have been made
the righteousness of God in Christ if Christ had not been made sin
for us. Now turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I once heard a man say with regard
to Christ being made sin. Now this is an exact quote. I
see nothing mysterious about it. It's a legal matter. And
I shook my head in disbelief. Is it possible for a person to
see nothing mysterious? Nothing mysterious about the
Son of God in human flesh, our substitute, the Holy One, being
made sin? The fact is the word translated
made means precisely that. It means mysteriously, wondrously
made. Made in a profoundly mysterious
way. A way that's beyond explanation. Our Lord Jesus was wondrously,
mysteriously, profoundly made, caused to be sin for us that
we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Let's begin at
verse 17, 2 Corinthians 5. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold,
all things have become new. You ever think about your life
and think, man, we don't have cassette tapes anymore, so the
illustration, some of you folks don't even understand it. Wish
you could hit a rewind button. You used to listen, hit a rewind
button, start all over. What would you give if you could
hit a rewind button and start all over from the beginning,
perfectly whole and perfectly holy in all your life without
the possibility of messing up? That's what it is to be in Christ.
a new creature, and there's no possibility of messing it up.
If any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. All things have
passed away, and behold, all things have become new. And all
things are of God. This whole thing is God's work.
Who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us the ministry of reconciliation. to wit that God was in Christ,
reconciling the world of his elect unto himself. Well, preach,
that's not what my Bible reads. Yes, it is. You're just not reading
it right. God wasn't reconciling everybody in the world to himself.
If he did, they'd all be reconciled. He's reconciling his elect, scattered
through all the world, unto himself. How is that? Not imputing their
trespasses unto them, and hath committed to us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we are ambassadors
for Christ. As though God did beseech you
by us, we pray you in Christ's name, be you reconciled to God. How come? For he hath made him
to be sin for us, who knew no sin. that we might be made the
righteousness of God in him. Traditionally, it is said that
Christ was made sin by imputation. I have erroneously used that
statement myself, but the Word of God never says that. In fact,
there is no place in this, not one single place in this book
where sin is ever said to be imputed to Christ. Not one place,
not one place. Yes, sin was imputed to him,
but he was not made sin by imputation. Sin was imputed to him when he
was made sin for us. There's a huge difference. Our
sins were justly imputed to him because he was made sin. I had a fellow ask me three times
this week, how Christ was made sin. And I finally said to him,
being nice, and he was nice, that's all right, I said, I would
no more think of trying to guess about how Christ was made sin
or explain how Christ was made sin than I would guess about
how God became man and explain how God became man. but I hang
my soul on the reality of both. I don't know how the Word was
made flesh and dwelt among us, but He was. I don't know how
God became one of us and never ceased to be God, but He did.
I don't know how God's darling Son, who knew no sin, could be
made sin for us, but He was. And all the hope a sinner has
is that fact. Take that away and you've taken
away all hope. You've taken away all hope that
anybody could ever be saved. Here he manifests forth his glory. Throughout the Bible, we're told
about this holy one. who knew no sin, and did no sin,
in whom is no sin. But on Calvary, the Holy Lord
God made him sin. Not a sin offering, sin. In fact,
if you go through the Old Testament and get your concordance and
look up the word sin offering, everywhere it's used in the Old
Testament, the word is sin. But I'll tell you an easy way
to find out what it means. Read Isaiah chapter 53 and verse 10,
when thou shalt make his soul a I'm in his son. I'm in his son
who was made sin for us that we might be made the righteousness
of God in him. Now, here's the second thing. I told you to be very brief on
these next three and I will be. God doesn't use wicked balances
and deceitful weights when he makes sinners the righteousness
of God in Christ. This is real. This is real. He was made sin for us that we
might be made the righteousness of God in Him. God's made us
righteous. God's made us righteous. Can
you imagine that? God's made us righteous. How? Well, let me give you the second
part first, because that's the way we experience it. In the new
birth, God stepped into you. Christ came in. Christ came in. God put a new nature in you,
a new man. You were made partaker of the
divine nature. Christ, Dwayne, was formed in
you. Christ in you, the hope of glory. That new man created
in righteousness and true holiness. That new man that can not sin. 1 John chapter 3 verse 9. Born
of God. Can't say it. Can't say it. Born
of God. The old man's still there, but
there's a new man in you. And that new man believes God.
Believes God. That new man walks with God.
and that new man has testimony from God, you're justified, you're
righteous, you please me. Because he has put a righteous
nature in you, he causes you to hear the declaration of righteousness
imputed to you in the free grace of God through the sin atoning
blood of his darling son. So that in Christ Jesus, this
is what the book says. We are made meet to be partakers
of the inheritance of the saints in light. Worthy to go to glory. That's what it says. Read it
for yourself. Colossians chapter 1 verse 14.
Meet to be partakers of the saints in light. And this is what it
is to be justified. I'm older than most of you, some
of you. The noodle ways back there are
older than I am, but I'm older than most of you. And my wife used to, she's always
done things like this for me. I'm not, I'm not much doing anything
except what God's given me some gifts to do, but I write the
articles and things for the bulletin, she'd type them up. And we used
to do it on a mimeograph machine. Didn't y'all ever use a mimeograph
machine? Wasn't that wonderful life? You'd type the article,
and we always liked things neat, so you'd justify it. Now, the
way you justify it, these days you just hit the J button and
the control button and it's justified. That means the left-hand margin
is exactly equal with the right-hand margin. The right-hand margin
is exactly equal to the left-hand margin. Used to be, you'd type
a map and it'd be all jagged. And she'd take a straight edge,
mark it down there, and then count the letters. And you'd
go back and type it again and space it out on the stencil and
hope you didn't mess up right at the bottom. And it's called
justifying the right hand marching. Here's what God has done for
us in Christ. Here's all God's holiness, all
God's righteousness, all God's character, all the demands of
God's law, all the perfection of his being. And here I am justified. justified, justified with his
spotless garments on, holy as God's own Son. Oh, that's called
good news. That's called good news. This
is the work of God's free grace. It is the work performed by Jesus
Christ for every sinner who trusts Believe on the Son of God and
go home tonight as that publican did, our Lord spoke of in Luke
18. Justified. Justified. Justified in the sweet experience
of grace, knowing that Jesus Christ is made of God and to
us, wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. God reckons us like Christ is. And God tells us to reckon ourselves,
dead indeed unto sin or alive unto God, like Christ is. Reckon, reckon. Folks often say,
well, that's the way God sees it. God sees us in Christ. Aren't you glad? God sees us
as holy. God sees us without sin. Aren't
you glad? Now let me add something to that.
The way God sees us, that's the way it really is. God made it so. God made it so. We are really and truly one with
Christ. When our Lord Jesus lived in
obedience to God, Every sinner who trusted Him, every one of God's elect lived
in obedience to God perfectly. I can't communicate this like
I want to. I know I can't. If I did, you couldn't possibly
sit still. I really did obey God perfectly. I really did. I really did. I'm in Christ. And when Christ
died on Calvary's tree, I really did suffer all the wrath of God
until God said, there's no fury in me. I really did. And I really
did die. I really did. I'm crucified with
Christ. I have been one time with finality
crucified with the Son of God. Nevertheless, I live. Yet not
I. Christ came in. That's who's
living in me. Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who
loved me and gave himself for me. When Christ ascended up to
glory and took his seat at the right hand of the majesty on
high. I really did ascend into glory
and sat down in heavenly places with him. The moment a sinner believes
and trust in the crucified God, his pardon, and once he receives,
redemption in full through the blood. The faith that unites
to the Lamb and brings such salvation as this is more than a motion
or name, the work of the Spirit it is. I'm crucified with Christ
and I live with Christ. Turn to Revelation chapter 20.
Revelation chapter 20. The Lord God will not use deceitful
weights and wicked balances when he sends you to hell. Listen to what he says in verse
11. I saw a great white throne and him that sat on it from whose
face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found
no place for them. And I saw the dead small and
great stand before God and the books were open. And another
book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were
judged out of those things which were written in the books according
to their works. God's going to send you to hell,
and you will suffer the wrath of God in exact proportion as
your works demand. No more and no less. That involves indescribable,
everlasting torment. And what that torment is, no mind has ever And that will be right, especially
for you who go to hell from this place, as it were, shoving God
out of your face with your fingers in your ear saying, God, shut
up. I won't hear you. Get out of my way. Leave me alone. I won't have you. When God sends
you to hell, It will be exactly according to just weights and
just balances. One more thing. In the day when the books are
open. And the Lord God says to Cecil
Thornberry. Well done, thou good and faithful
servant. He won't do so with crooked balances
and crooked weights, but only in strict justice. Because you fully deserve eternal
glory in Christ the substitute. Well, in Jeremiah, there are
three texts of scripture. You can look at them later. Jeremiah
23 6 says the name of our Redeemer is Jehovah Sikinyu, the Lord
our righteousness. Jeremiah 33 16 says the name
of Cecil Thornberry is Jehovah Sikinyu, the Lord our righteousness. That's the name of God's church,
the Lord our righteousness. You mean we're so really and
truly one with him that his name is our name? You got it. That's
exactly what it says. And Jeremiah 50 verse 20 says
that in that last day, God's going to open the books. And
he's going to look for Don Fortner's iniquity. Just ask me, I'll tell you about
it. I'm not interested. I want to see what God's got
to say in the books. Or talk to his mother and daddy.
I'm not interested in that. What does God say in his books?
And God looks and looks and looks. He says, I can't find any iniquity,
no transgression, no sin. Oh, here's his name. Jehovah
Sidkenia, the Lord, our righteousness. Come, inherit the kingdom prepared
for you from the foundation of the world. Amen.