Turn with me to Romans chapter
3. Romans chapter 3. There's nobody
like the Lord's people and there's just nobody like them on the
earth. Our Lord called them the lie of the world, the salt of
the earth. Called them his sheep, his beloved. the apple of his eye, his peculiar
treasure. And boy, to be numbered among
the living, to be numbered among the saints of God, to be able
to meet with them, be in their homes, eat their food, enjoy
their company, enjoy their fellowship. Something the world will never
have known anything about. But here I am, I'm several miles
away from home, but I'm at home. Ain't that something? Ain't that
something? Well, I'm going to talk a little
bit about grace again. Can you all think you can take
it? Romans 3.24. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Being justified by His grace
When a soul that knows its sin, been brought to know its sin,
and has been blessed to see of God the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, and able to see Him there on that cross, and dying particularly
for you, dying particularly for you, there's nothing that'll
affect you more than any of that that'll ever happen in this world,
than you to see Christ dying for you, bearing your sin, bearing
your guilt, bearing your shame. And what a comfort, what a consolation
to the soul. The view of the cross by faith
brings consolation where there was misery, so much misery. And
our Lord cried in agony that we might cry with joy. He shed
tears of sorrow and was acquainted with grief and sorrow. that you
and I could be acquainted with joy and peace and happiness and
contentment. Now I know for sure there's no
comfort at Sinai. You'll not find any comfort at
Sinai. Don't go there for nothing. Moses
will beat you unmercifully. Moses will grab that rod of his
and he'll beat you till you absolutely can't hold your head up. You
try to go to Sinai to get sanctification, to get any strength, get any
help, and you'll just, Moses will just make you the miserablest
creature ever was. But oh, what comfort, what joy,
what peace, what hope, salvation is for the soul at Calvary. And there's three things in this
verse of scripture I want to look at this evening. And oh,
if God would be pleased to bless them to our hearts, to our souls. First of all, I want to look
at redemption. Secondly, I want to look at the justification
of sinners and then how they're justified. How they're justified.
Now look what it says here in this verse. Being justified freely
by His grace. Now watch this. Through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. I want to talk about redemption
first. What is redemption? When it says
through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Redemption's
definition, if I understand it right, is a man taken captive.
Somebody comes and takes someone captive. And for their freedom,
they set a certain ransom. They set a price. You pay the
price and I'll let them go. And that price is set to release
them and their freedom. Well, I'll tell you something.
We were taken captive by sin. Sin took and got a hold on us
and would not let us go. We were captives to sin, slaves
to sin, born in sin, lived in sin, sins part and parcel of
our nature. And oh, we were taken captive
by sin, by our guilt and our sin, and we were delivered, taken
captive by this sin, delivered over to the law of God, delivered
to its curse. And because of our guilt, we
were given over to the strict hands of God's justice. And justice
says, I will not, I will not, I cannot, and I refuse to let
them go unless, unless we can find a payment price that's been
set for their release, for their freedom, so they could be redeemed. And yet, when we go to try to
pay our way out, bankrupt, debtors, poor, So poor we could not possibly
ever pay the price. We couldn't pay the price for
one thought that went through our mind as long as we lived. But because we couldn't pay,
that didn't less our captivity and all was taken from us. God,
we didn't have no dwelling place excepted sin. We were naked in
the sight of God. I sat there and thought just
a little while ago, God, I'm sitting here and you see me.
There's nothing to hide in your presence. Nothing to hide when
you look at me. Nowhere to go. You're looking
at me through and through and see me. Nothing kept back from
Him whose eyes as open and naked were before Him. And there we
are, poor, miserable, and we could not find a ransom. Went
to Moses, he couldn't give us one. Went to our works, he couldn't
pay. Went to our praying, and our
prayers just stuck in a brass ceiling. But listen now, look
over with me in Job 33, just a minute. Job 33. Job 33 and verse 24. Look at
this. Well, look at verse 23 first.
But God said, I found a ransom, Look what he said here. If there
be a messenger with him, an interpreter, that's the Lord Jesus Christ.
He's God's messenger. He interprets our words to God,
our needs to God. One among a thousand to show
unto man God's uprightness. And then look what he says. Then
he is gracious unto him and says, deliver him from going down to
the pit. I've found a ransom. And His
flesh shall be fresher than a child's. He shall return to the days of
His youth. He gets renewed. He gets found. He gets paid for. And when we
were standing there in the hands of God's strict justice under
the curse of the law, God said, I found a ransom. I found a man
to go between us. And our Lord Jesus Christ, as
we stand in the presence of God, our Lord Jesus stepped in. Stepped
in to be our surety. to pay that price that was so
against us. And when He stood there, He stood
in our place, stood in our stead. And I tell you, beloved, He paid
a ransom. He paid a ransom for every soul
for whom Christ died. And I tell you, beloved, He paid
the ransom price. And you know what it was? It
was His life's obedience. It was His blood poured out. It was His death of humiliation
on the cross. Everything that God required
from Him, it was His life. From the day He took a breath
as an infant from His mother's womb, to the day He cried on
the cross, it is finished. Everything that our Lord did
in His life, that's what God required for our ransom. And
then He came because God found that ransom. We're delivered
now from the curse of the law. Christ, oh listen, Listen, a
believer is never under the law under any circumstances. Never. Christ is the end of that law
for righteousness to everyone that believes. I'll tell you
a fellow come one time, I was preaching from Galatians and
he'd come up to me as if he'd come and be in our services three
weeks out of the year when he'd come on vacation, him and his
family. And he was an Orthodox Presbyterian. And he enjoyed
the services. Then one night when I got through
preaching, he said, Brother Don, I believe you're an antinomian.
I said, what does that mean? He said, I believe that you don't
believe in the law. I said, well, you didn't understand
me very well. And I said, you're not going
to bring me under it or nobody else going to bring me under
it. Nobody's going to bring this congregation under it. Christ
redeemed us out from under the curse of the law. He's the end
of it. When you get the end of something,
you can't go no farther than the end. And oh, listen, we're
delivered from the curse of the law, the vengeance and justice
of God says now, set Him free. And we're set free to go our
way. We're clean, we're free, we're justified by His precious
blood. And you know what the value of
this redemption is? that's in our Lord Jesus Christ?
You know how valuable it is and how precious it is? You know
how many people He redeemed? Do you have any idea? The Scriptures
tells us that it's a multitude that no man can number. Ten thousand
times, ten thousands and thousands. So when our Lord Jesus Christ
was talking about redemption, there's a handful of us here,
and heaven's populated with more people right now than you can
ever imagine. My wife joined that glorious
throne just three weeks ago. She entered into glory to behold
the face of our Lord Jesus Christ. Why? Because Christ redeemed
her with His precious blood. That's why. And I tell you what,
they say, well, you all believe God's only going to save a handful.
Yes, I do, but it's God's hand. That whole pretty good bunch
of people want to mark. That whole pretty good bunch
of people. Oh, listen, He redeemed a multitude, not just you or
me. Not just you or me. And this ransom, this ransom
that our Lord paid, it was all paid. And all paid at once. Look in Hebrews 9 with me just
a minute. It was all paid and all paid
at once. You know, that's what the gospel
does. It doesn't tell us what we need to do to be saved, it
tells us what God's already done for us. You know, God saved us
and then he tells us about it in the gospel. Ain't that right? You hear the gospel and you say,
boy, I said, I believe that. You know why you believed it?
Because God's already saved you. Gospel just tells you what God's
done for you. Saves you. I mean, you know the word, but
it comes along and you start to find out. You mean this is
what my salvation took? This is what God did? This is
what Christ did? And look what he said here in Hebrews 9, 12. Neither by the blood of goats
and calves, but by his own blood, own blood, He entered in once
into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us. Not just redemption, eternal.
Eternal redemption. And you know he'd done that before
you or I ever were. My redemption was eternal before
I ever come forth from my mother's womb. It's already done. It's a done deal. Some preacher
come along, told me about it. That's a wonderful salvation,
ain't it? And I tell you, He paid to the
uttermost Father. He paid the debt of all believers,
of all ages, for all time. And we owe nothing, not a zero,
nothing to the law of God, nothing to the justice of God. Christ
honored the law and magnified it and upheld it by keeping it.
And then He satisfied the justice of God by bearing the curse of
that holy law in our room instead. And when our Lord Jesus Christ
said, It is finished. When He cried on that cross,
It is finished. What do you reckon He meant?
He meant that it left me and you and nobody else anything
else to accomplish. It was done. Sin is finished. Death is finished. Salvation
is finished. And we're complete in our Lord
Jesus Christ. Because when He paid the debt,
He paid it all. We sang that song. All to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain.
He washed it. Washed it. White as snow. And
I tell you, beloved, when He said it is finished, there's
a lot of meaning to that. It left nothing else for Him
to do, nothing for us to do. He read there this evening about
what Christ, how God loved us, commended His love toward us
while we were yet sinners. I tell you, all in the world
we can do in this salvation that Christ accomplished for us is
to just lay back and enjoy it. and rejoice in it, and delight
in it, and find comfort in it, lay our soaker souls in it, lay
our souls down at night, and let his satisfaction be the blessed
pillar for our heads when we lay down at night. And the scriptures
tells us not only that he is our ransom, and he's our redemption,
but he paid this ransom all by himself. Hebrews 1.3 said, He by Himself
purged our sins. He by Himself. You remember they
started out of Jerusalem and they found Simon the Cyrenian
and they said they laid the cross of Christ on him and out through
there he went with it. Simon might carry the cross but
he won't be nailed to it. There were two thieves beside
our Lord Jesus Christ. They were not righteous. They
couldn't help Him while He was on His cross. And there were
three men on those crosses. Three men on those crosses. One
was dying in his sin. That's a horrible thing to do.
One was dying to his sin. And one was dying for sin. And
our blessed Savior. And our Lord was left there alone.
Left there alone. There's those two thieves. One's
going to go and perish, one's going to die to his sin, one's
dying for our sin. But now look with me in Isaiah
63. This is one of the most astounding
things to me. Isaiah 63. Our Lord, when He
was on that cross, though there was two men beside Him, He was
there along. Though there was two men beside
Him and a crowd around Him, He was all along. And look what
it said here in Isaiah 63. Who is this that cometh from
Eden, with thine garments from Basra, this that is glorious
in his apparel, traveling in the greatness of his strength?
I this speak in righteousness mighty to save. Wherefore art
thou red in thine apparel, thy garments like him that treadeth
in the wine fat? He said, I have trodden the wine
press along, and of the people nobody was with me. And I'll
tread in my anger, and I'll trample it in my fury, and the blood
shall be upon my garments. And I'll stain all my raiment
with our sins upon Him, for the day of vengeance is in my heart.
And listen to this. and the year of my redeemed is
come." Oh, he did it by himself. He tread that awful winepress
all by himself. The awful debt of all his people
was laid upon our Lord Jesus Christ. He was wounded for our
transgression, bruised for our iniquities. The Lord laid on
him the iniquity of us all. He was bruised For our iniquities,
chastisement of our peace was upon Him. God poured out His
soul as an offering for sin. And all the travail, it pleased
the Lord to bruise Him. And there our Lord Jesus Christ,
when He was there to pay our debt, to pay our ransom all by
Himself. The only thing that he had was
his own holiness, his own sinlessness, his own purity. And beloved,
when God put all of our sin and all of our wretchedness and all
of our iniquity on him, God himself, God himself came down and our
Lord said, Father, Father, if it'd be possible, if it'd be
possible, is it possible? Lord, if it's possible, would
you let this cup, let this cup of wrath, this cup of dregs,
this cup of your justice and your wrath and the guilt and
the shame of your people, if it's possible, would you just
please let this cup pass away from me? And then he bowed his head so humbly
and so meekly, with no resistance in his soul at all. And he says,
nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done. And I tell you
what, our Lord Jesus Christ took that cup, and he turned it up,
and he drank, and he drank, and he drank, and he drank, and he
drank, and there was some old dregs from an old sinner named
Donny Bell, some old dregs down in there, and he took the dregs
out. Tom even took the dregs out and
drank them. That's all I had, that's all
I had, nothing but dregs. And oh, beloved, he turned that
pitter, and oh, he drank and dried God's wrath and God's justice. And oh, bless his holy name,
this ransom, this redemption price, God accepted it. That's what, God accepted it.
Our Lord declared that he'd pay all the debt to justice. They
came and arrested him in the garden, took him to Caiaphas,
took him to Herod, took him to Pilate, back to Herod, back to
Pilate, and he was judged of all. And payment was made. And he cried and it was finished.
And they took him down off that cross and they put him in his
grave. And he said, just make sure that
he don't get out of there. And they laid a stone over that
tomb. Well, that's over and done with.
So much for redemption. So much for his death. So much
for his bloodshed. But you know what happened on
the third morning? So that God accepted that sacrifice? They
went over there to look and see who was in that tomb. Wasn't
nobody there. Wasn't nobody there. How's God? Because our Lord was
accepted of God and to prove it, God raised Him from the dead.
He was delivered for our offenses and raised for our justification.
And I tell you, beloved, His resurrection is the receipt for
His payment of the debt. And our justification and proof
of it is His resurrection. His resurrection is proof that
the payment was accepted of God Himself. Now let me tell you
something. What's your justification for
God? to accept you. What's your justification
right now that God will receive you and accept you right this
minute? What's your justification? Mine's sitting at the right hand
of God. That's where it's at. How do you know your sins are
gone? He's sitting at the right hand of God. How do you know
you have a righteousness? He's sitting at the right hand
of God. How do you know you're accepted in the beloved? He's
sitting at the right hand of God. How do you know that you
have a holiness acceptable to God? He's sitting at the right
hand of God. How do you know that all your guilt's gone? He's
sitting at the right hand of God. How do you know that God
will accept you when you get to glory? He said that's the
right hand of God. And when he got there, he had
the 12 names of the children of Israel on his breast, had
the weight of them on his shoulders, and he took our names as forerunners
into glory. And I tell you, I believe that
all the people that go in there, our Lord said, here comes another
one, here comes another one, here comes another one, and he
calls us by our names as we get there. Bless His Holy Name. I tell you, you say, well, what
about the way you live? What about your preaching? No,
no, no. My justification is at the right
hand of God. He was delivered for my offenses.
Yes. But He is raised again. What
for? For my justification. Next time somebody asks you,
who are you justifying? They say, right up yonder. Right
there. Where else is He going to be?
Oh, my. And I tell you, beloved, our
Lord said, sit here till you make the enemies your footstool.
And I'm telling you, He's sitting right there now. Do you remember
what it was like when they said, open ye everlasting doors and
the King of glory shall come in? And when that King of Glory
entered in into that place, can you imagine what it was like
when our Lord Jesus Christ, after 40 days and 40 nights, ascended
to glory? And that King of Glory entered
in there, and He walked down the avenues of heaven, and all
the angels stood in wonder and astonishment, and all the saints
that were there. And our Lord walked down that avenue, and
went there, and ascended, and sat down on His throne. Can you
imagine what it was like that day when our Lord Jesus walked
through there in all of His glory, and all of His power, and all
of His majesty? And let me give you quickly,
what time is it? How long have I been preaching? 20 minutes? Fast talker. Let me tell you
about this ransom, this redemption. What does it say there in Romans
3.23? It said this redemption is in Christ Jesus. This redemption
is in Christ Jesus. That's where it's at. Of all
the things that we have in our Lord Jesus, this blessed redemption. And it's effectual for justification,
being justified freely by His grace. Being justified. The justification has to do with
something outside of ourselves. It's something done in a court
of law. And God in glory himself, he justified us in the presence
of God himself. And the only way in the world
a man can be justified on earth in a court of law, right now,
is for a man to be found not guilty, to be acquitted. And
he's justified in the sight of the law. The law says you're
justified, you can walk out of here a free man. put you on trial
for murder, and if it's a justifiable homicide, you say, well, we're
not guilty, you're justified, walk out a free man. But if he's
found guilty, you can never, ever justify him ever again.
You may pardon him, a president or a governor may pardon him,
but he's still guilty. The pardon doesn't change his
standing before the law, and the pardon doesn't change his
character. Nothing does that. But the way our God, the way
God justifies a sinner, if in our courts, under the law, if
a man was allowed, allowed to take another's punishment, he
may be able to do that, but he could never take the person's
guilt. He could not take the man's character upon himself.
Flesh and blood can't do this, but our Lord Jesus Christ can,
and He did. He became one with us, bone of
our bone, flesh of our flesh. And He, our Lord Jesus Christ,
by His redemption, became so identified with us. I stand condemned,
I stand guilty. God will and God must punish
me. The Lord Jesus Christ comes and just picks me up and sets
me aside. And He stands before God in my
place. And He not only takes my place,
but He also has the ability to take my guilt. He has the ability
to take my shame. He has the ability to take my
sin. He has the ability to take my punishment. And by this blessed
redemption, that was the price of mine and your salvation. And
now God being just, lets me go free. And our Lord stands before
him and says, let him go. Put my righteousness on his account.
And Christ says, let me have his guilt. Let him have my acceptance. Let
me bear his curse. Let him have all my blessings
that are in heavenly places. Let me stand before you as condemned. Let him stand before you as pardoned,
not guilt. Let him stand perfect in my stead,
and you judge me for all his imperfections. Let me bear his
sin. Let him bear my righteousness. And no wonder the psalmist says,
blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. And God doesn't save a sinner.
And I know your preachers told you this many times. God doesn't
save a sinner by passing over the penalty. No, the penalty
has been paid. Christ is his people's perfect
substitute. I've not got by with one sin
I've ever committed. Not one. And I won't get by with
one in the future, Dwayne. I won't get by with another one.
You know why? They've all been paid for. That's
redemption that's in Christ. You say, well, are you going
to go out and sin just because you're saved by grace? I certainly
hope not. No, no. No, no. But I tell you what,
I don't have no sin because Christ paid the price. Paid the price. And God can save us with a perfect
salvation because our Lord Jesus Christ paid it all. And on the
blessings of this justification that God gives us in Christ,
He cast all our sins into the depths of the sea, carried them
all away. You remember when they had the
two goats on the Day of Atonement? One goat they took and put their
hands on him and their sins was laid on the head a bit and they
took and they slew him. And they went over to this other
one and they laid their hands on him and a fit man carried
him off into the wilderness. And them folks would stand there
and watch and watch and watch and watch and watch and that
scapegoat go way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way,
way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way,
way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way,
way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, way, was being carried away into a land
not inhabited. And they'd be watching for that
fit man to come back. When he come back without that
goat, they knew atonement had been made. Sin had been put away
by the death of one and by one carrying the sins from out of
the people's sights. And our Lord Jesus Christ put
him away on the cross and put him out of God's sight by his
death on that cross. And I tell you, our justification
never changes. You're as justified as you'll
ever be. Be no more justified in eternity than you are right
now. God never ever looked to us for anything. And I tell you
what, look what else it says about this justification. Being
justified freely, freely by His grace. Ain't that something? Freely.
Freely by His grace. Wonder how free it is. Just wonder
how free it is. Well, try to buy it. Can't get it. Can't be bought. Can't be earned. Can't be deserved. Freely. Without any cause in
us. Now I do know this about human
nature and I was this way myself. If we preach justification by
setting a price upon it, folks would line up to get it. Line
up to get it. You tell them all you got to
do is suffer a little bit. Suffer for your sins. Be sorry
for your sins. Give a little bit. Cry a little
bit. Come to the altar every once in a while. People would
line up for that, you know, torture yourselves. Beat yourselves. Deny yourselves. Afflict your body, afflict your
soul, afflict your mind, and you know He'd justify you. And
folks have been doing that as long as there's a human being
on the face of the earth. But you stand where I preach,
and if people around here understood what this preacher here was preaching,
there's not a building in Lexington, Kentucky would hold them if they
really understood. But you preach what somebody
needs to do to be justified, and they'll line up to get it.
But you stand up and say it's free, and you can't hardly get
anybody to take it. Can you? But God said, I'll love
them, I will love them freely. Do you mean I can have this justification,
this redemption, though I have nothing? How? Freely. How? By His grace. If Bill Gates and what's that
other real, real wealthy fellow named Forbes or what, no, Buffett,
two richest men in the world. If Bill Gates and Warren Buffett
took all ever dime they had and gave it all away would not pay
for one sin. that still be just as condemned
and guilty as they ever were. But they can come on the basis
of our Lord Jesus Christ's redemption, come by His blood shedding, come
by His death, come by His resurrection, come by His atonement, come by
this justification that's free. And I tell you, it's by His grace
and it's free. And if it was to be paid for,
I couldn't do it. Couldn't do it. Couldn't do it. But it's free. Free, free, free. Free grace. That's what I like
about free grace. That's why I like the term free
grace better than I do sovereign grace. When you understand free
grace, that means there's no attachments. It's free. That
means that nobody can do anything to get it. Nobody has to do anything. And may God in His sovereign
mercy. Oh, if you don't know what it
is to be justified, don't know what it is to have your guilt
gone. Oh, I tell you that with Christ's blood, when He takes
His blood, the Holy Spirit takes His blood and sprinkles it on
our conscience. Just like our Lord entered into
heaven and He took His own blood there. And when that blood's
been applied, the guilt leaves. The condemnation leaves. And
I'll tell you something, and I hope you all understand this,
even when I sin now, I don't feel any guilt. I don't feel
no condemnation, and I'll tell you why. Because Christ so atoned
for my sin, so atoned for what I did, that I go immediately
to him. I go to that fountain filled
with blood. I do. I do. It's been a long, long
time since I felt any guilt. Why would I feel any guilt? I
ain't got no sin. You say what you just said, you
did. But I said, but I go, I go where the payment's been made.
I just go up there and tell him what he done for. It's been done. Well, thank you.