I brought this message to our
congregation a few weeks ago. I entitled it, The Great Question
Answered. God was pleased to give me great
liberty as I brought this message the first time several weeks
ago. And I'm much in prayer today that He'll be pleased to take
this message and speak to your heart because it is of the most
vital importance. I feel so very keenly about this
business of preaching. I feel like that we've relegated
preaching to the scrap heap. We're spending our time in churches
today entertaining sinners on their road to hell. We have too
much music, and too many contests, and too many socials, and too
many ball games, and too much promotion, and too much recognition
of the flesh, and too much begging for money, and too little preaching
of the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And by God's grace and
with the Spirit's unction and help, I'm going to present to
you this morning the vital, the great, the important question,
the important question, and I'm going to answer that question
by God's grace. Now, here's my text. Somebody
wrote in one time and said, how about giving the text two or
three times so we'll have time to find it? All right. Here it
is, Job 25. Job 25, verse 4 through 6. Job 25, 4 through 6. Now,
listen to it. Can man be justified? Now that's holy. That's without
sin. That's acceptable before God. How can man be justified? Clean,
holy, without blame, in the sight of God. How can he? Or how can
he be clean that's born of a woman? Behold, even to the moon, and
it shineth not. Yea, the stars are not pure in
God's sight, How much less man, that is a worm, and the Son of
Man, a worm. Now this question is asked over
and over again in the book of Job. I just didn't reach into
the book of Job and pull out a question. It's asked one time. It's asked four times in the
book of Job. That's chapter 25, verse 4. Now
listen to chapter 4, verse 17. Almost the same thing. Shall
mortal man be more just than God? Behold, God puts no trust
in His servants, His angels He charges with folly. How much
less does He put confidence in men that dwell in houses of clay? Now listen to Job 9, verse 2.
How should man be just before God? How? And then Job 15, 14. Listen. What is man that he should
be clean? Or he that's born of a woman,
that he should be righteous. And let me tell you this now,
and the reason the men are asking this, who shall stand in his
presence? He that hath clean hands and
a pure heart, who has never lifted up his soul to vanity. In order
to stand in God's presence, in God's fellowship, in God's communion,
man's got to be pure, holy, clean, without stain, spot, or blemish. That's the reason they're asking
this question. The heavens are not clean in God's sight. How
much more, listen, abominable and filthy, and you know what
that word is in the marginal reference? Stinking. How much
more stinking is man who drinks iniquity like the water? So four
times he asked this question, how can men, how can men be just
with God? How can he be clean that's born
of a woman? How can he be righteous in the
sight of God? You find the answer to that question,
and you'll find rest, and you'll find peace, and you'll find salvation,
and you'll find acceptance with God. That's what Paul is saying
in 2 Corinthians 5, 9, wherefore we endeavor, we labor, we endeavor,
whether present or absent, to be accepted of him. I'm not greatly
concerned about being accepted with you or you with me. That's not our problem. I labor,
I endeavor to be accepted of Him. God's my judge. I've got one life to live and
one death to die and one meeting with God at the judgment and
an eternity to spend. What do I care what men think? How can I be justified with God? That's my question. How can I
be clean in His sight? I'll tell you something else.
Find the answer to that great question, and you know the gospel.
How God can be just and justify the ungodly. Find the answer
to this question. You've got something to preach.
Up to that point, you don't have anything to preach. It's exactly
right. Here's the good news. How man
can be just with God. How man can be clean in God's
sight. How man can be accepted with
God. That's the good news. And up to that point, you don't
have anything to tell. They tell people, go out and
witness. If you don't know the answer to that question, you've
got nothing to say. Nothing but bad news, or error, or heresy,
or apostasy. But there are two questions,
my friends, listen to me. There are two questions which
give birth to this great question. There are two questions. The
great question is, how can man be just with God? How can a sinner
be clean in God's sight? And the two questions that make
this difficult to answer is this, just how holy is God? And just
how sinful is man? How big a sinner is man? You
see, those two questions, that's what gives birth to the great
question. Well, how holy is God? Well,
how sinful is man? How high is God? How low is man?
We're not going to make much headway in finding a solution
if we don't understand the problem. This is what's wrong with most
preaching today. The preachers themselves don't
understand the problem. Like our Lord said to the preachers
in his day, you don't know me or my father. You're ever learning
and never coming to the knowledge of the truth. A cure is not likely
to be found if we have no knowledge of the disease. That's what all
of the science and medical people are doing, trying to find a cure,
but they've got to find something out about the disease. And in
the matter of salvation, the problem, what is the problem?
It's God's holiness. That's our problem, God's holiness
and our sin. And only as we understand the
eternal, infallible, immutable, unchangeable, absolute holiness
of God, And the total depravity of the flesh, only if we understand
those two things can we recognize that we have a problem. The average
person doesn't know he's got a problem. He's reached up and
brought God down and lifted himself up, and they've met on one plane.
God votes for me, the devil votes against me, and I cast it aside
and vote. We're all three on the same plane. He doesn't know
how holy God is. He doesn't know how far he is
from God. He doesn't know how sinful he
is. He doesn't know that God's declared, your sins have separated
you and God. How holy is God? Just how holy
is God? Well, let me tell you. God's
so holy that even Moses, and you're not Moses, and neither
am I. He's so holy that even Moses
could not look upon God and live. That's what God said to him.
He said, Moses, Exodus 33, 20, you can't see my face, for no
man will see my face and live. Hide in the cleft of the rock,
and I'll cover you while I pass by. And old Moses was in the
presence of God as He gave him the law and the testimony. And
he came down off that mountain, and his face was so aglow, and
his countenance was shining with such power, that the children
of Israel couldn't even look on Him. He had to put a veil
on His face so they could look at Him. I hear preachers say,
I was with the Lord all night and the Lord said this to me
and the Lord said that to me. Let me tell you something, if
God Almighty ever spoke directly to you in His presence apart
from His Holy Word, turn your hair white as snow and you'd
be trembling for the next six months and nobody in this on
this earth could look on your face. It would glow with the
presence, the radiance, the reflected glory of Almighty God. Study
the Word a little bit about those who were in the presence of God.
God's holy. God's holy. He's so holy that
Uzzah reached up to touch the Ark. You remember the Ark of
the Covenant? David was bringing it back to Jerusalem. There were
some rules and regulations about how to carry that Ark. It wasn't
supposed to be on that ox cart anyway. supposed to be on the
shoulders of the priest. And Uzziah was reached up to
catch it when the ox cart hit a ditch and stumbled. And God
smote him dead just for touching the heart. That's how holy God
is, just touching it. God is so holy that the great
king Uzziah was stricken with leprosy and died because the
king went into the holy place and made like he was going to
offer a sacrifice in the place of the priest, and God killed
him. God is so holy that the heavenly seraphims cover their
faces and cover their feet in his presence and cry, holy, holy,
holy, holy, holy is the Lord God. God is so holy that righteous
Job, of whom God himself said he's a man that avoids evil and
loves righteousness, even righteous Job, when God appeared to him
in the whirlwind, cried out, I hate myself, I abhor myself. I put my hand on my mouth, I'll
never speak again. My eyes have seen the Lord."
Isaiah said, when he saw the Lord, I'm undone, I'm unclean,
I'm cut off. Isaiah. God is so holy that the beloved
John fell at his feet, paralyzed, when he heard his voice on the
Isle of Patmos. God is so holy that Paul came
back from the third heaven and said, didn't tell about what
he saw, he said, I can't even tell you what I heard. It's impossible
for me to put in words the holy, the holy atmosphere of that awful
place. God is so holy that He deserted
His own Son when He became sin and hung on the cross. How holy
is God? The Lord is in His holy temple.
Let all the earth keep silence. We just pick up another song
book and throw it, or walk on another pew, or scream whoopee
a little louder. Somebody give Jesus a great big
hand. That's not the God of the Bible.
He's holy. He's holy. Zephaniah says, hold
your peace in the presence of the Lord. God is holy. This generation's
been thrown a curve by this generation of covetous, money-mad, popularity-seeking
preachers who compromise the character of a holy God. And we've brought God down to
where He's just a co-pilot now, the King of kings and the Lord
of lords, whom the heavens won't contain and the earth is His
footstool, of whom David wrote, Let the people praise thy great
and terrible name, for thou art holy, O God. Exalt ye the Lord
our God and worship at His footstool. He's holy. He's holy. The old Jews wouldn't even pronounce
His name, God, Elohim. They called Him Jehovah, God
my Savior. No sir, this generation doesn't
know God. We're farther from God than we've
ever been. I don't know whether He'll smile
on us or not. Because we've compromised His
character, we've compromised His great name, we've made light
of His glory and of His holiness. God is holy. It's the Holy Bible
we read. When the priest went into the
presence of God on the mitre, up here was holiness unto the
Lord. His angels are called the holy
angels. The tabernacle was a holy tabernacle
and the holy place and the holy of holies. And His Son called
Him Holy Father, but we call some imposter across the water
Holy Father. We're confused. We're confused. How holy is God infinitely, perfectly,
unchangeably, immaculately, eternally holy? Beyond reproach, and I'll
tell you this, beyond Approach to. Not approachable. Not in the flesh. How sinful
is man? That's the reason these men ask
these questions. How can man be justified in his
holy presence? His holy presence. How can we
be clean? Well, the stars don't shine in
his presence. The moon's not pure in his sight. He charges his angels with foolishness. And how much more vulnerable
and filthy is man! How sinful is man! God saw that
the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and every imagination
of the thoughts of his heart are continually evil. Oh, you've
dressed up the outward flesh, but God looks on the heart. You've
smiled while you hated in your heart. You've said kind words
while you've cursed in your heart, and God doesn't look on the outward
countenance, and he's not fooled by whited sepulchres. Psalm 14,
the Lord God looked down from heaven upon the children of men
to see if any did understand. They're all gone aside. They're
all together become filthy. There's that word again, stinking.
There's none that doeth good, no, not one. Behold, I was shapen
in iniquity, in sin my mother conceived me. The wicked are
strained from the womb, they go astray as soon as they're
born, speaking lies. In the flesh, no man can please
God. We can please each other, and
justify ourselves with each other, and brag on each other, but that's
one worm bragging on another worm. But in the sight of God,
who knows, detries the rains, and searches the heights, He
knows what we are with our lust, and envy, and jealousy, and covetousness,
and bigotry, and prejudice, and ingratitude, and murmuring against
His divine providence. He said, your whole head is sick.
That's what's wrong with you. Your whole head is sick. Your
whole heart is faint. That's the mind and the affections.
From the sole of your feet to the top of your head, there's
no soundness in you. Nothing but wounds and bruises
and putrefying sores that haven't even been treated. Not bound
up, neither mollified with hauntment. They're all under sin. Old Paul
wrote in Romans chapter 3, they're all under sin. He talked about
the Jew in Romans 1. The Gentile in Romans 2 and Romans
3 talk about the whole shooting match. He says they're all under
sin. There's none that understand
it. There's none that seek God. They're all gone out of the way.
They all together become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good.
And I'll emphasize it again. He said, no, not one. We hear them talk of, he's such
a good man. Compared to whom? She's such
a good woman compared to whom? Well, compared to a harlot, I
suppose she is. He compared to a drunk, I suppose
he is. But compared to God, there's
none good, no, not one. Listen to the description. Their
throat is an open sepulchre. Don't roll away the stone. He'd
been dead four days. He stinked it. And that's what
our throats are before God, open graves. full of dead men's bones
and how it smells. Our tongues are full of deceit.
Our lips, under our lips is the poison of rattlesnakes. Our mouths
are full of cursing and bitterness, and our feet are swift to shed
blood, and there's no fear of God. No fear of God. Everybody's
going to heaven. There's no fear of God before
their eyes. No fear of God. Everybody's religious. Everybody's
a Christian. But God says you're without God,
you're without Christ, you're without hope in this world. God
is a spirit in man's flesh. God is life and man is dead in
his trespasses and sin. God is truth and man's a lie. God is good and man's evil. God
is light and man's darkness. He's a child of darkness. He's
a son of darkness. He's a dweller in darkness. He's
a lover of darkness. Who shall stand in His presence?
This awesome, holy, terrible God. This perfect, pure God of
truth and justice and mercy and grace and love. Who shall stand
in His presence? I'll tell you. He that hath clean
hands and a pure heart. Who has never
lifted up his soul, spirit, thoughts, mind, imagination to vanity.
O Lord God, if thou shouldst mark iniquity, who shall stand? That leads to the question, how
then can man be just with God? We got a question on our hands.
We got a problem before us. How can he be clean? God can't
have you any other way. God can't have anything except
that which is perfect. God can't commune with that which
is not perfect. He couldn't even deal with his
son on the cross because he bore our sins. He didn't even have
any sins of his own. He was a sinner by imputation. Bearing another and God turned
his back on him. My God, why has thou forsaken
me? Because he's holy. Because he's
holy. That God you're worshiping, the
only reason he hasn't anything to do with you is he's not holy.
He's a God of your imagination. He's a figment of your imagination.
You whittled him out with your own penknife like Jehorakim of
old. You got your God that you've
made of your own imagination, but the living God is another
matter. Here's the answer. Turn in your Bible to Romans
3, verse 19. I'll give you the answer to this
question. How can man be just with God? Romans 3, 19. Listen.
Listen to it. Now, this follows that description
I gave you a while ago of man. None good, poison of asthma under
their lips, their feet are swift to shed blood, none good, no,
not one. Then Paul said, now we know. That what thing soever
God's law saith, it saith to them who are under the law. That's
every one of us, me and you and everybody else. There's none
exempt. That every mouth may be stopped.
But preach out, stop your mouth. I've been a good, stop your mouth.
If my daddy was a priest, shut your mouth. Let every mouth be
stopped. I taught Sunday school. I never did taste the liquor.
I never did smoke. Shut your mouth. If God could show your heart
on this TV screen, you'd never be seen in public again. You
know it and I know it. Your sins are well hidden and
well covered. And the law stops your mouth
and says all the world becomes guilty before God. Guilty, guilty,
guilty before God. Therefore, look at verse 20,
therefore, by the deeds of the law, by the works of religion,
by the doings and activities of religion in your denominations,
there shall be no flesh. No flesh. White or black, rich
or poor, male or female, Jew or Gentile, Catholic or Baptist,
there shall no flesh be justified in God's sight. By the deeds
of the law, by the doings of religion, by the merits of the
flesh, there shall no flesh, no son of Adam. You go on standing
at the judgment and tell God how many tithes you paid, how
many souls you won, how many Sunday school lessons you taught,
how many sermons you preached, what a good boy or girl you were.
God says no flesh. going to be justified in my sight
on the merits of the law. For by the law is the knowledge
of sin. But now, but now, the righteousness of God, the cleanliness
and immaculate holiness of God, and I'm not talking about His
essential holiness in His own character, I'm talking about
that holiness He provided and purposed and gave to sinners,
that righteousness of God which I need, which I want, which I
desire, which God requires, which the law demands, that righteousness
of God, without the law, without the law, without the law, is
manifested, is revealed, and is witnessed by the Word of God
and by the prophets. It's written right in the Word.
What is it, preacher? It's the righteousness of God,
which is by faith of Jesus Christ, by the faithfulness of Christ,
and by the faith in Christ. by the obedience of Christ and
by obedience to Christ, by relationship with Christ as a substitute who
took our place and did for us what we couldn't do. And that
righteousness is unto all and upon all that believe. There's
no difference for all that sin and come short of the glory of
God. It's for everybody that's a sinner. It's for everybody
that needs it, and wants it, and desires it, and will receive
it as God gives it in the person of His Son. Do you want it? No,
I'm going to keep on working my way. Well, you're welcome.
You're welcome to that. But my works are filthy rags,
and my righteousness is a filthy rag. And in the flesh, I've never
pleased. God never prayed a prayer yet
or preached a sermon or did a deed that was perfect in God's sight
or one which God could dictify with even noticing it, much less
rewarding it. My righteousness is Christ. He
came down here. God can satisfy, but God can't
suffer. Man can suffer, but man can't
satisfy. And so Jesus Christ came down
here to the earth as the God-man. as our representative, and he
both suffered as man and satisfied as God. And therefore, verse
24, look, being justified freely, got to be free because we got
nothing to pay, justified freely by His grace, not by our works,
through the redemption that is in Jesus Christ, whom God has
set forth, predestined, foreordained, given to men, to be a propitiation,
a mercy seat, a reconciler, an atonement, a propitiation through
faith in His blood. His blood is the blood of atonement.
His blood is the cleansing blood. His blood is the redeeming blood.
His blood is interceding blood. His blood is sanctifying blood.
His blood is reconciling blood and declares unto us the righteousness
of God that He may be just and the justifier. God's not changed
His essential holiness. He's still on the throne of holiness
and justice and righteousness. Hadn't moved a peg. Not a peg. And bless your heart, every one
of us, just as much flesh as we ever were, sons of Adam, born
and seen. But God Almighty gave His Son,
and He came down here and did for me what I couldn't do. He
lifted me from the dunghill. He raised me from the cesspool.
He washed me in His blood. He put His Spirit within me,
and a song in my heart, and praise on my lips, and gave me a righteousness,
and covered my sins, and paid my debt, and put away all my
transgressions. And now when God looks on me
in Christ, robed in His righteousness, God, even God with His sovereign
eyes, cannot see any fault in me. With His spotless garments
on, I am as holy as His Son. Not only has He imputed to us
a perfect holiness, but He has imparted to us a desire for holiness,
a desire to glorify His name, a desire to please Him, a desire
to be like Him. That's the reason the people
of God will tell you, I'm not perfect, but I sure like to be.
I'm not without sin, but I sure like to be. I want to be like
Christ. I want to please Him. I want
to love Him more. I want to grow in grace and in
the knowledge of Christ. I want to be more like my master.
I want to show forth the praises of him who called me out of darkness
into his marvelous light. So I say to you in closing, when
you come to realize the holiness of God, when you have some understanding
of the extent of our guilt, you'll be overwhelmed with a question,
how can I be just with God? And the answer comes back, in
Christ, in Christ. Now this message is on a cassette
tape, The Great Question, The Great Question, along with the
message I brought last week, I Believe, Therefore I've Spoken.
If you want these two messages, I believe they'll be a blessing
to your friends, maybe, your family. Write to them and send
two dollars donation, and we'll mail you the tape. God bless
you, is my prayer.