Let's read a couple of verses
that we read a moment ago, Romans 5, Romans 5, verse 1. Therefore being justified, being justified by faith, justified
by faith, we have peace reconciliation, access with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Verse 9, Romans 5, Be much more
then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved
from wrath through him. What does it mean to be justified? That question's been asked many
times from this pulpit by me and other preachers. This subject
has been preached again and again. But I ask you again, what does
it mean to be justified? If you ask most people this question,
and most preachers, they'll confuse you and puzzle you. because most people do not know
what it means to be justified. I will try my best this morning,
my very, very best, God giving me the grace and the wisdom to
make the answer to that question as plain as I possibly can and
as simple. Justify. What is it to be justified? Well, number one, That's a legal
term. Always used in this way. Justified. You think about it a moment.
It's a legal term. He justified in what he did.
He wasn't justified in that. It's a legal term. Free from
guilt. The word justification means
simply not guilty. To be justified is to be not
guilty. pure before the law I stand. Take a person and stand him before
the perfect holy law of God and examine him, judge him in deed
and in thought and in word and in imagination and inwardly and
outwardly. And there's only one way for
him to be justified before that law, and that's to find him not
guilty. Not guilty. If we're justified before the
law of God, we're not guilty. Not in word, in thought, in deed. Not guilty. After you find him
guilty, he can't be justified. Guilty in one point. To offend
in one point is to be guilty of the whole law. It's to be
guilty. You've got to find him pure. Pure. Who shall stand? He that hath a pure heart. Who
hath not lifted up his soul to vanity. Who is not sworn deceitfully. Pure. If you find him guilty,
you can't justify him. No way. If you find him guilty, you can
forgive him, but you can't justify it. You can't make him just. You can pardon him, but you can't
make him just. You can't cleanse him. He's guilty. To be justified is to be not
guilty. And therefore, as Paul said,
to have peace with God. If a man's justified, not guilty,
he has peace with God. There's no condemnation. There's
no charge. There's no curse. There's no
fear. Because there's no guilt. And
now my heart condemns me not. Pure before the law, I stand. Well, that being the case, no
one here is justified. Because we're guilty. Turn back
to Romans 3. Romans chapter 3. Now that leads
to the next question. Well, how can sinners be justified? If justified means not guilty,
pure before God's law, without spot or stain, holy before God. If it means that, then how can
the guilty be justified? Well, Romans 3 tells us that
we're all guilty. In Romans 3, verse 19, look at
it. Now we know that what things
soever the law saith, God's word, God's law, it saith to them who
are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, no excuse,
no alibi. And all the world become what?
Guilty. Subject to the judgment of God. Subject to the wrath of God.
We're guilty. Everyone. Without exception.
Every son of Adam. Look back at verse 9. What then? Are we better than they? Paul's
talking about the religious Jew. Are we better than the Gentile?
Because we don't eat one another? Because we don't sacrifice blood
to idols. Are we better than they? No and
no wise. We both proved, we both before proved both Jew and Gentile.
They're all under sin. As it's written, there's none
righteous, no not one. There's none that understandeth.
There's none that seeketh after God. They're all gone out of
the way. They are together become unprofitable. None that do it
good, no not one. Guilty. Guilty. And I'll tell you, go down to
verse 20, and our attempts and our efforts to justify ourselves
are futile by religion, by works, by deeds. It's futile. Look at
verse 20. Therefore, because we're already
guilty before the law, guilty by the deeds of religion, by
the works of the law, by the deeds of the law, there shall
no flesh be justified in his sight. For by the law is not
the cleansing of sin, but the knowledge of sin. We may justify
ourselves before one another, get religion, make professions
of faith, quit certain outward sins, clean up our lives, then
we You're they, he said, which justify yourselves before men.
Like the Pharisees of old, Christ said, you clean the outside of
the cup, but the inside's full of pollution, corruption. He
said, you're like a grave that appears beautiful on the outside,
but inside it's full of bones, dead men's bones. Cleanse first
that which is within. That's what I can't do. Cleanse
first that which is within. That's what we can't do. We can't
make ourselves pure in thought, in word, in imagination. Can't do it. Are the deeds of
the Lord? Let no flesh be justified. The
key is in His sight. What is it to be justified? Not
guilty in His sight. pure and holy, without charge
or blame, blameless in his sight. How can it be done? Well, someone
says, well, let someone pay his debt, let someone serve his sentence,
let someone take his place, and down to the law. All right, let's
suppose that a moment. Let's suppose that a moment.
I say it's an impossible thing. It's impossible, but let's just
suppose it. Preachers have used this illustration
for years. Here stands a man guilty of murder. Now stay with me. He is, in fact,
a murderer. One of the worst of all murderers.
His hands are stained with the blood of his victim. And that's what we are. We're
murderers, thieves, adulterers, robbers, covetous. That's what we are before God.
We're guilty. Here he stands. He's been tried
and found guilty and sentenced to serve the punishment. But suppose I go to the judge,
and humanly speaking, before men, I'm not a murderer. haven't
killed anybody, innocent. And I go to the judge or to the
court, and I volunteer to serve his sentence. I volunteer to
take his place in the gas chamber. Will he then be justified if they turn him loose and kill
me? Is he justified? No, sir. He
is guilty when they had him. He is guilty when I volunteered
to take his place. And he's guilty when they set
him free. And he's still guilty. And an innocent man cannot take
the place of a guilty man. Cannot do it. And the law will
be honored. I may take his punishment. I
can't take his guilt. I may serve his sentence. But
I'm saying the law is still not satisfied till the law kills
him. The law is not honored till the
law kills him. And God's law is not honored
till it kills you and me. I've got to die. I did
the sinning, and I've got to serve the sinners. It's impossible,
impossible for the innocent Take the place of the guilty and justify
it. It cannot be done. Well, you
just shot your gospel to pieces. No, I hadn't. Now, wait a minute.
Listen. But what the law cannot do, God can do. The disciple
said, who can be saved? He said, with men, it's impossible. The ways of men, the plans of
men, the gospels of men, it's impossible. But with God, All
things are possible. Let's see what God did. Let's
see what God did. All right, here we stand. Listen to me. Here we stand.
Sinners, blasphemers, injurious murderers, thieves, robbers. Here we stand. sinners, sons
of Adam, guilty, guilty before God, guilty before the law, guilty
before justice, arrested and brought to court and found guilty
and sentenced to die. God says the soul that sent it,
it must surely die. Christ, the perfect, holy Son
of God, came to this earth. He laid aside his glory. He laid aside his position. He
came to earth and was born of a woman. How can he be clean
if born of a woman, Job said? For his substitute to be born
of a woman. Christ couldn't redeem me and
stay, only God. He's got to be born of a woman.
He's got to not just take my place, He's got to become me. He's got to become me. So He
came, the Holy Son of God, and was born of a woman, and was
made In the very likeness of this
flesh, my flesh, bone of my bone, flesh of my flesh, he became
me. He literally put me aside, object
of his love, object of his grace, object of his mercy, and actually
came into this world. Now, when I took the place of
that fellow down there in the court, I stayed like I was. I
didn't become him. I wasn't like him. I didn't take his flesh. They
killed me, the innocent man, let the guilty man go free, but
when Christ took my place, he literally became me. That's right. He became me. He set me aside. He became me. He took my place. He was actually numbered with
the transgressors. The Son of God was made sin. And justice came and looked at
him and said, how do you plead? He said, guilty. I did it. I did it. Punish me. This is the marvelous
doctrine of substitution that a natural man cannot understand
has to be revealed by God's Spirit. Isaiah caught it up. He said,
who believes this report? Who believes this gospel? Who
believes this message? To whom is the arm, the power,
the glory, the salvation of God revealed? Here it is, but who believes
it? He shall grow up. That's me. I was born of a woman
years ago, a suckling on a mother's breast, and I grew up as a tender
plant, a root out of a dry ground, having no farm and comeliness,
no beauty that anybody should desire him. Man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief, despised and rejected. We're here, as it were, our faces
from him, a nobody, a nothing. He was wounded by our transgressions
because they were laid on him. God literally laid on him the
sins of his people. He was a sinner. And I'll tell you how I know
that. Because when he was bearing those sins and dying on that
cross, that cross, God Almighty turned his back on him because he was sin. That's right. He was me. Literally, actually,
I died on that cross. That's the marvelous doctrine
of justification. God didn't pass over my penalty. He paid it. He took my unrighteousness and
gave me his righteousness. He took my guilt and gave me
his holiness. He took my wickedness and gave
me his purity. He bore my transgressions and
gave me his godliness. He was me, and I became him. That's tough substitution. God found him guilty. If God
hadn't found him guilty, God would have never put him on that
cross, and God certainly would have never turned his back. That's a marvelous doctrine of
full atonement, what we could have never paid nor satisfied
through an eternity. He fully compensated and satisfied
by that one offering because of who he is. And when God raised him from
the dead, God literally said to the whole
world, He satisfied me. He glorified me. Glorify me that
I might glorify thee. He did. He honored my love. And God raised him and took him
to glory. And when he took him to glory,
he took me to glory. and you, and every believer. Because when he died, we died. I am crucified with Christ. Christ
is me. I'm risen with Christ. I'm seated
with Christ, and therefore, I'm justified. I'm not guilty. We don't get into heaven by hook
or crook. We get into heaven by pure honesty. I'm not guilty. The reason there's
no charge laid to God's elect is they're not guilty. The reason there's no condemnation
is they're not guilty. If they were guilty, there'd
still be condemnation like that prisoner. I can't take his place.
I can take his punishment, but he's still guilty. I can take
his sentence, but I can't take his guilt. He's still guilty. And no matter where he goes,
he's got to wear a sign, guilty, guilty. My hands are dripping
with blood. I'm guilty. But when he dies
and the law satisfies, I'm not guilty. And I died. I'm not guilty. I kept the law. Oh, my, that's
it. So look at Romans 3, verse 25.
Look at verse 24. Verse 23 says we've sinned and
come short of the glory of God. Oh, how far short we have come.
All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. But being,
listen, justified, not guilty. Freely, no merit, no price to
pay. No price to pay. I read a little story the other
day about Roland Hill. I want you to listen to it. being justified freely. Roland
Hill was the priest at a county fair in England many years ago. And when he got up to preach,
he noticed all the vendors selling their wares. They were selling
milk and honey and wine and crafts and so forth. And he said to
the people to whom he was preaching, he says, our friends out there,
the vendors, bring their milk and their honey and their wine,
and they try to get you up to their price for their honey and their milk
and their wine. They try to get you up to their price. He says, I come and my milk and
my honey and my wine is better than theirs. It's an eternal feast. But my difficulty is not to get
you up to my price. It's to get you down to my price.
It's free. Free. Oh, everyone that thirsts
it, come to the water. Come and buy milk and wine without
money, without price. Oh, he said if I were to preach
justification for one sovereign, one Pence, everybody would leave
here justified because they'd all pay the price. If I could
preach justification for all who would walk a hundred miles,
everybody here would become a pilgrim tomorrow. If I could preach justification
for all who would take off their shirts and be beaten with stripes,
Most would bear their backs immediately. But when I come preaching the
gift of God, freely given by His grace in Christ Jesus to
the poor and needy, it's hard to find a taker. But it's still nevertheless true,
being justified, freely, without money, without price, without
Freely, by His grace, not because I would, because He would. No
man takes my life from me, He said. I lay it down. I lay it
down. Willingly, freely, by His grace,
through the redemption that's vested in Christ Jesus, laid
on Him, performed by Him, complete in Him, in Christ Jesus. Verse 25, "...whom God hath set
forth." God set him forth by promise.
This second Adam, this Adam from above, this Son
of Man, this representative was promised the seat of woman. immediately after man's fall. God set him forth in promise. He promised him. And in the Old
Testament, God set him forth in picture. He slew a Passover
lamb. Set him forth in picture. God
set him forth one day on this earth in person. Flesh. The God-man. And God's last Old
Testament prophet, the forerunner, pointed at this man and said,
Behold, look, with wonder, the Lamb of God that taketh away
the sin of the world. God set him forth. And then one
day outside the walls of that capital of religion, Jerusalem,
God hung him on a tree. in the room and in the stead
and in the place of every one of his elect, between heaven
and earth, our substitute, our sin offering, our scapegoat,
our savior, bearing in his body, in his body, numbered with the
transgressors, guilty, all the sins of all his people of all
generations, between heaven and earth, forsaken of everybody,
Finally, even of God, he descended into hell. What is hell? Hell is to be separated from
God. Hell is to be separated from
God. My God, why have you forsaken
me? Almighty God never forsook an
innocent man. He said to you, I'll never forsake
you. I'll never leave you. I'll never leave you. I'll never
forsake you. You're not guilty." But he was
guilty. And God forsook him. And he died. They took his body
down and laid it in a stream. And God set him forth, for he
raised him. He raised him. And let him appear
before many witnesses. And then one day, out on top
of a mountain, God took him to heaven. and said, sit down on
my right hand and I'll make all your enemies your footstool.
God set him for us. Verse 25 said to be a propitiation,
a sin offering, a substitute, a mercy seat through faith in
his blood. Well, what do I do, preacher?
Faith in his blood. To declare God's righteousness
for the remission of sins that have passed all those Old Testament
believers through the long-suffering of God to declare, I say at this
time, God's righteousness, that God might be just and the justifier
of him that believes in Jesus. Now, where is boasting? Well,
we've got to brag about it. It's excluded. By what law? Of
works? No. By the law of faith. Therefore,
we conclude that a man is justified through faith. without the deeds of the law.
What do I do? You believe. You believe on him. You look
to him. And you have two examples here
in chapter four. You have one example, Abraham.
Everybody knows Abraham. Abraham was called a friend of
God. Well, how'd he get such a title? He was justified. How is he justified? Let's read
it. What shall we say then that Abraham, our father, as pertaining
to the flesh, hath found? Well, if he were justified by
works, he hath whereof the glory, but not before God. God knows
him. What does the scripture say? He believed God, was counted
to him for righteousness. He justified by faith. I believe
in God. I believe in Christ. And then
David is the next one. Look at verse six. He uses the
example of David. He said, even as David describes
the blessedness of the man under whom God imputes righteousness,
holiness, purity without work, saying, blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven. Blessed are they whose sins are
covered. Blessed is the man to whom God
will not impute sin. How'd that come on Abraham? He
believed God. How did that righteousness and
justification come to David? He believed God. I believe. He said, therefore I was spoken.
What about us? Chapter 4, verse 21. And Abraham being fully persuaded
that what God had promised he was able also to perform, and
therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. That was not
written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him righteousness,
justification, holiness, but for us also to whom it shall
be charged, reckoned, imputed, if we believe, if we believe on him that raised
up Jesus our Lord, our substitute, our sin offering, our high priest
from the dead. He was delivered for our offenses,
our guilt. And if he was, then he was raised
for our justification because he satisfied them in full. He
came down here and became me. He was delivered to this experience
and worked for my offenses. He became me. my offenses became
his. He became guilty in my place,
and he died. And he was buried, and when he
arose, I arose. And he came forth without sin.
And when he did, that left me without sin. Now that's justification,
not guilty. And I'm saying that every person
in here this morning who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ who
trust the Lord Jesus Christ, who rest in Christ, for whom
he died, for whom he was delivered into
the hands of wicked men, crucified and slain. You're not guilty. God said their sins I remember
no more because they don't exist. You say, how can God forget?
God doesn't forget. But there are no more. There are no more. We're not
guilty. You say, will we go to the judgment
for what? We'll be betrothed for what?
Are we going to go to heaven and weep over our sins? We don't
have any. That's what Scripture says. I'm
justified. I'm not guilty. Pure before the
law, I stand in Christ. Now, that's justification. Now,
religion won't do that. It won't do it. But Christ can,
and he does. All right. All right. I hope
that's a blessing. Let's sing, I know whom I have
believed, number 224. persuaded is able to keep that
which I've committed to him.