Let's look at Romans chapter
5. If you will, turn to Romans,
the fifth chapter. I'm reading one verse of scripture
for a text. Romans 5, 1. Therefore, as a
result of what I've been talking about, Paul said, therefore,
because of what's been said already, being justified by faith, being
justified by faith, justified by faith. We have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I'm saying this tonight,
and I want you to get it as clearly and simply as I can state it.
Justification by faith. is the theme of the Bible. You'll find four times in the
Word of God this one statement, that just shall live by faith. Four times. This is the thing
that came home to Martin Luther when he was wrapped up in salvation
by works and seeking acceptance with God by his deeds. Five hundred
years ago, Luther was born to a German miner, I don't suppose
a man's ever lived on this earth who was more greatly used of
God than Martin Luther, or from whom we have received more blessings,
that is, a human being other than our master. But Martin Luther
went right into Catholicism, which had a grip on the whole
world at that time. Catholicism, the greatest system
of works known to man. a great ecclesiastical religious
bondage, salvation by works. Well, he studied to be a monk
and he was off in a monastery trying to find acceptance with
God through his fastings, through his penance, through his reading,
studying, good works, separation from the world and all these
things. They'd find him often on that stone floor of his cell,
almost starved to death, having fainted from hunger and malnutrition,
fasting so often, so long. Bring him back to health, he'd
do it again. He'd beat his body with thorn
bushes. When he had thoughts he shouldn't
have, he'd just beat till the blood flowed. He'd forget his
thoughts and be concerned about his wounds instead. Well, he
was sitting one day at a desk where the Bible was chained.
And the Bible, they didn't allow it in the hands of the common
people, the ordinary people. The priests kept the Bible in
the monasteries and in the convents and other places, in the churches,
cathedrals. But they had the Bible chained
to that desk, and Martin Luther was reading it. And he came upon
this statement in God's Word. It's in Habakkuk, it's in Galatians,
it's in Romans. The just shall live by faith. The just. Not just in themselves.
No man's just in himself, but justified by God. The just shall
live by faith. And he went to one of his teachers
with this passage of scripture and he just somehow got Luther's
attention away from that scripture. But Luther kept coming back to
it. The just shall live by faith. Well, he went on in this type
of life for a while in his studies, studying to be a monk, a priest. And he went down to Rome and
visited St. Peter's Basilica, whatever that
thing is there. And in St. Peter's, they've got
the stairway they said was in Pilate's hall when Jesus Christ
was on trial there in the hall of judgment, a wooden staircase. And they said, this is the staircase
up which Christ walked in his suffering, in his sorrow. when he had the crown of thorns
on his head and so forth, went back into the judgment hall,
and they had a piece of glass over each tread on the stairway,
and under the glass were spots of red. And they said, that's
blood that dripped from Christ's forehead and his back as he walked
up those stairs in Pilate's hall. And Luther was on his hands and
knees crawling up those stairs, counting his beads and rosary
and saying, Hail Marys. begging for pardon and all these
things and kissing each spot as he climbed up the stairs.
And he said himself that the verse of scripture that he'd
been reading in Habakkuk and Romans and Galatians, that just
shall live by faith, just like God spoke it from heaven, rebuking
him. for this idolatry, rebuking him
for this type of seeking God, finding approval before God by
his deeds and works. And he said, the just shall live
by faith, by faith. And Martin Luther said, I jumped
up from those stairs and I ran down them and out the door of
that building, never to enter again. And I gave my life And
he almost did give his life. He was hounded and hunted and
persecuted and hated all over Europe. But God used him as the leader of the Reformation 500
years ago, from which we benefited so much. And that was the theme
of the Reformation, justification by faith. Not by works, but by
faith. And I'll tell you this, justification
by faith is what makes the gospel good news. If we were not justified
by faith, if justification came any other way, the gospel would
be as dismal and depressing as the law. There'd be no good news
in the gospel if justification were not by faith. And justification
by faith has been the cause of every drop of blood that's ever
been shed in the name of Christ. No man has ever died for preaching
salvation by works. That's the natural man's religion.
The natural man loves that message. He loves that gospel. Give him
something to do. Give him something to give. Give
him something to accomplish. That's what he wants. He will
not take justification by grace through faith alone. And every
drop of martyr's blood that has been shed on this earth has been
shed because that person preached justification by faith. And I'll
tell you this, justification by faith, by faith, is the only
hope of a sinner. If there's a sinner here tonight,
and I'm of the opinion that everybody here tonight is a sinner, well
justification by faith is your only hope, my only hope. And
justification by faith is the only assurance of a believer.
The only confidence we can have is we're justified by the grace
of God. And justification by faith is
the only comfort for the dying. My desire is to preach it. Preach
it in such plainness of expression, not as a mere matter of doctrine. I'm not preaching a doctrine.
I'm going to define it in just a moment, but I don't want to
just preach a doctrine, justification by faith, and have us go out
of here, well, we don't believe in salvation by works, we believe
in salvation by grace. We don't believe in justification
by works, we believe in justification by faith. What do you mean justification
by faith? I want it to be a real experience,
a living experience for me and for you. a living experience
to be realized, to be felt, to be enjoyed, to be understood
as much as we can understand it, and to be rejoiced in. Now I took the time just to write
down exactly what I'm saying. I want you to listen carefully.
Maybe we'll put it in the bulletin next Sunday, but this is what
I'm saying. I'm going to spell it out. What I mean by justification
by faith. And what I believe the Bible
teaches about justification by faith. And what I believe that
men of the past, Luther, Spurgeon, Gill, Whitfield, all the rest
of them preached justification by faith. Here's what I mean.
I'm going to spell it out. Jesus Christ stood. Jesus Christ
stands. Jesus Christ will stand in our
place and stand before God. We are sons of Adam, sinners
by birth, sinners by choice, sinners by nature. And because
of our guilt and our filth and our shame, we're doomed to die
eternally with no hope of forgiveness, with no hope of salvation, unless
Jesus Christ takes our place and stands as our surety, as
our righteousness, as our substitute and die under the guilt of our
sins and the wrath of God. And if Jesus Christ is my surety
and is my substitute and obeyed the law in my place instead and
died as my sin offering, if he did, how can I perish? How can a just God punish me
for sins which have already been punished and paid for in the
body of my Redeemer and my substitute? I know that God demands of me
perfectly to keep his holy law, not only in deed, but in imagination
and in thought. I cannot do it. But Christ has
done it for me. But Christ has done it for me.
He not only kept the law, he honored it. He magnified it,
and he fully, in the presence of his Father, satisfied it.
What more can God demand of me? If I am washed in the blood of
Jesus Christ, if I am clothed in the righteousness of Jesus
Christ, with his spotless garments on, I am as holy as God's own
Son. If I am in Jesus Christ, if I
am seated with him in the presence and at the right hand of God,
near, so near to God, nearer I cannot be. For in the person
of his beloved Son, I am as near as he. So to be justified, we're
saying this, it's to be totally, immaculately, eternally, unchangeably
Richard without sin. That's what I'm saying. As holy
as God Almighty. And I'm saying that that's possible
for anybody here. Justified. And the only way it's
possible, you say, how can that be? How can one so guilty be
so righteous? How can one so sinful be so perfect? Only by faith. only by faith. Now turn to Romans chapter 3.
Now I want you to, I want to be as plain, I want to be as,
if you miss it tonight, if you miss it, you miss it because
you're prejudiced or you're wrapped in a tradition or a custom or
you're wrapped in your own nature of pride and you just refuse
to see it. But here it is in God's Word.
Now listen to it. In Romans chapter 3 verse 19,
now we know That what thing soever the law saith, whose law? God's
perfect, immaculate, unchangeable, infinite law. It saith to them
who are under the law, who is that? That's every son of Adam,
that's every human being, every person. That every mouth may
be stopped, all alibis, excuses stopped, all claims to holiness
stopped, and all the world become guilty, guilty, guilty before
God. Guilty before God. Now that's
our innate. By birth we're guilty, by imagination we're guilty,
by thought, by word, by every act we're guilty before God.
Guilty. No man can plead not guilty.
We're guilty before God. Therefore, in this condition,
by the deeds of the law, by the acts and works of the law or
the flesh, there shall no flesh, no human being be justified,
holy, perfectly righteous in God's sight. Nobody. Nobody. So that's out. By the law is
the knowledge of sin, is the condemnation of sin. The law
can't do anything for anybody except judge us and pronounce
us guilty. That's all the law can do. The
law can't help us, it can't aid us, it can't cleanse us. All
it can do is say guilty, guilty, guilty. But now, watch verse
21, but now there is a righteousness. And it's not man's righteousness,
it's the righteousness of God. And we're not talking about his
essential righteousness, his own personal righteousness. We're
talking about the righteousness which he has provided, which
is ours, which can be yours and mine. We're talking about a pure,
immaculate, perfect, holy righteousness. A holiness, indescribable holiness,
the same holiness that Isaiah saw when he saw God and he said,
holy, holy, holy. That same holiness, not the essential
holiness of God, but that with which he is pleased and that
which he has purposed and that which he has supplied and that
which he has given to man in order that man can have fellowship
with God and communion with God. That holiness is available. But
now, right now, that's available right now. Not when I get to
heaven, right now. Not when I'm changed and taken
into God's presence, right now. But now, right now, the righteousness,
and there can only be one righteousness of God, and it's a perfect righteousness. God is not righteous by degrees.
God doesn't recognize righteousness by degrees. God does not recognize
sin by degrees. Evil is evil and holiness is
holiness. Righteousness is righteousness
and evil is evil. That's it. You can't catalog
sin before God. But now, the righteousness of
God, watch it now, without the law, without obedience to the
law, without my obedience, without your obedience, I said a while
ago, God demands of us to perfectly keep His law. And let me tell
you this, God's law doesn't demand that you do the best you can.
I hear people say, well, I'm doing the best I can. That's
not what the law requires. The law requires not only from
you the best you can do, it requires the best that God can do. The
law does not require you to love God. I beg your pardon. Somebody
says, the law says love God. No, it says more than that. It
says love God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, and
to love God partly, to love God three quarters, to love God seventeen
eighteenths is not sufficient. It's to love God with all your
heart, and to love God any less than perfectly is to be sinned.
Now that's it. We sin and come short of the
glory of God. The glory of God. The law doesn't
require that you love your neighbor. The law requires that you love
him like you love yourself. And so the righteousness of God
without the law is manifested, it's revealed. It's known. And it's witnessed by the Word
of God. It's witnessed by every prophet in the book, every preacher,
every apostle, every prophet. What is this righteousness? Look
at verse 22. It is even the righteousness
of God. the very righteousness of God,
the very holiness of God, the very immaculate, infinite holiness
of God, that which pleases Him, that which rejoices Him, that
which He allows to be in His presence, that kind of holiness,
that kind of cleanliness. And that righteousness is by
faith of Jesus Christ. And it's upon all, it's unto
all, and it's upon all that believe. There's no difference. There's
no difference. All is sin and comes short of
God's glory, but we're justified, we're righteous, we're holy,
we're immaculately pure through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. Now watch verse 25. Whom God
hath set forth, whom God hath foreordained to be a propitiation,
to be a mercy seeker. Through faith in His blood. That's
how it comes to us. You say, how can these things
be? I'm saying by faith. Only by faith. Not by works,
but by faith. God says, He that believeth on
the Son hath life. I believe, therefore I have life.
That's simple. That's what the Word says. God
says, He that believeth on Him is not condemned. I believe on
Him, I'm not condemned. Unless God's a liar. And He's
not. That's what He said. He that
believeth on him is not condemned. Do you believe on Him? Then you're
not condemned. But he that believeth not is
condemned already. That's what the Word says. I'm
preaching justification, holiness, righteousness by faith. And I
tell you, men have died for it for centuries. Men have been
hated for it for centuries. But it's the only good news there
is in this gospel. It's the theme of the Word of
God. Justification by faith alone. And Paul said, if it's by works,
it's not by grace. If it's by free grace, there's
no works in it. God says, All that my Father
giveth me, come to me, him that cometh, I'll in no wise cast
out. I have come to Christ, only to Christ. In simplicity to Christ, he can't
cast me out. That's what he said. Back at
verse 25. Now watch this. God has set him
forward. God has foreordained him, Jesus
Christ, to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to
declare his righteousness, his holiness, for the remission of
sins of the past. That's Old Testament believers
through the forbearance of God. To declare, I say at this time,
right now, God's righteousness, God's holiness to be upon us,
to be our possession, that God may be just and justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus. Where's your boasting then? Where's
your pride? Where's your arrogancy? Where's
your reward and merit? It's excluded. By what law? By works? No, sir. by the law
of faith. Therefore, we conclude, this
is my conclusion of the whole matter, that a man is justified
by faith, by faith, by faith in Christ, without the deeds
of the law. The hymn writer said, That soul
that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not
desert to its foes. That soul, though all hell should
endeavor to shake, I'll never, no never, no never forsake. Turn to Romans chapter 8. And
here's how confidently the Apostle Paul spoke about it in Romans
chapter 8. Listen to what he says beginning
with verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? Who can bring against God's elect
even one charge? Even one charge. It is God that
justifies. There is not against his elect
in heaven, earth, or hell one justifiable charge because his
debt's been paid. He has a perfect holiness, a
perfect righteousness, a perfect standing, and he has no sin.
He's as holy as Christ. Look at the next verse. Who is
he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather,
that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who
maketh intercession for us. And that's the foundation of
our justification. And that's the cause of our righteousness. And that's the cause of our acceptance. It's Christ Jesus. Now let others
preach what they will. I believe this is the basis for
hope. I believe this is a foundation
for comfort and for peace. Our text says in Romans 5, verse
1, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, here are three things that
I want to point out. The first thing is this. There
are some things that a man must discover. You say, I'd like to
have that. I'd like to have that comfort. I'd like to have that
confidence. I'd like to have that peace. I'd like to enter
into that type of relationship with God. I've had religion all
my life. I've had works preached to me,
pushed down my throat. I've had so many frustrations. I'm like the woman with the issue
of blood. I spent all I had and tried many
physicians and I'm no better. I can't find a place of rest.
I can't find a place of peace. I can't find any fellowship between
me and God, any lasting fellowship. It just seems like it comes and
goes. How can I attain to this place of feeling comfortable,
feeling that there's peace between me and God? Well, let me point
out three things. First of all, this is what I'm
going to deal with if God will give me some liberty. There are
some things that we discover on this road to faith. There
are some things we discover. Now, let this be established
first of all. Justification is by faith. It's not by words,
it's by faith. It's not on the basis of what
I have done, will do, or ever shall do. It's on the basis of
what Christ has done, is doing. Christ alone. I'm accepted in
the beloved. We're reconciled in Christ. We
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. But there's
some things a man discovers on the road to faith. Secondly,
there's some things in the life of faith that a man must never
forget. We're not justified by faith and then made perfect by
the law. That's what the Galatians thought.
That was their era, Joe. The Galatians thought, well,
we're justified at the cross and we're sanctified at Sinai.
That's not true. We begin in the Spirit and we're
made perfect in the flesh. That's as great an era as you
can fall into. Because Paul said this, if you
are circumcised, then Christ profits you nothing. You've fallen
from grace. In other words, if you seek any
kind of acceptance with God at any time on this road to faith,
through any avenue except Christ, you've fallen from grace. You
know what he said? And then the last thing, some privileges we
enjoy. Now, the first thing is this.
Some things we discover on the road to faith. Now, if you want
to later on, you read the first four chapters of the book of
Romans. In the first four chapters of Romans, Paul talks about S-I-N,
sin. All the pictures he draws. Look
at Romans chapter 1. I'm not going to read most of
this, but just Romans 1, verse 29. Listen to this. Being filled
with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness,
full of envy. murder, debate, deceit, malignity,
whisperers, backed by haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters,
inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding,
covenant breakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful,
who knowing the judgment of God, and this is not just in deed.
You say, boy, I'm free from most of that. You're not free from
any of it. Not any of it. Because what you
haven't done in the flesh, you've thought in the heart. That's
exactly right. Everybody here is guilty of every
one of these things. He says over here in Romans 3,
9, he says, what then? Are we better than they? That's
what the religious Jew said. Are we better than the Gentiles?
Paul's been talking about these Gentiles. And he says, are we
better than them? No, in no way. We before proved
both Jew and Gentile, they're all under sin, under sin. That's
as written, there's none righteous, no not one, none righteous. None
that understandeth, none that seeketh after God. They're all
gone out of the way. They all together become unprofitable. None that doeth good, no not
one. Their throat is an open sepulchre. With their tongues they've used
deceit. I read in a man's bulletin the other day, if everything
we said behind our friends' backs were said to their faces, we
wouldn't have two friends in the world. Isn't that something? If everything we said behind
a man's back was said to his face, you would have two friends
in this world. Oh, how guilty we are. Our tongues have used
deceit. The poison of snakes is under
our lips. Oh, how we assassinate characters
and reputation. We assassinate them. It's the
same as killing a person. Your mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. Your feet are swift to shed blood.
Destruction and misery in your way. The way of peace, you haven't
known the way of peace. You don't make peace. You stir
up discord and disunity and trouble. There's no fear of God before
their eyes. What ungodly, wretched, rotten, hell-deserving people
we are. Talk about holiness. There ain't
a holy person in this building. If we could cut into our hearts
tonight and expose our thoughts and our deeds and our attitude
and imaginations and dreams to the gaze of the multitude, it'd
turn everybody's stomach. That's exactly right. And Paul talks about sin and
the depths of it and the nature of it, the universality of it,
and the impossibility of ever being justified by works. No
way, no way a man is going to understand justification until
he has some grasp on this thing called S-I-N, sin. There's no way, there's no way
you're ever going to be justified or even understand justification
or seek it. There's no way you're ever going
to even come, as one man said, within spitting distance of justification
until you have some conception of sin. That's just right. The whole first three, four chapters
of Romans deal with SIN, man's ruin, rottenness, corruption,
depravity. That's what it talks about. And
I know people get upset when you get on this subject, but
under God, I wish that's where we start. A man will never take
one step toward God, not one step toward God, till he sees
he's a sinner. That's exactly right. You don't
take a step toward God when you start believing there's a God.
When you start believing the Bible is His Word, when you start
believing Christ is His Son, you take the first step toward
God when you start believing you need God's mercy. That's
right. That's when you take the first
step toward God. Man will never be saved until he's lost. He'll
never be clothed until he's stripped. He'll never be healed until he's
wounded. He'll never be raised until he's slain. He'll never
get his sight until he's blind. That's right. He'll never call
on Christ until he's in trouble. And that's the reason most people
aren't saved. They've never been lost. Never been lost. Never.
Some of you sitting right here have never been sinners. And
you know a lot of sinners, but you've never been one. You've
never been lost. No, sir. And that's the first
thing a man discovers on the road to faith. First thing. He
discovers that he needs to be justified. He needs to be justified
in God's sight. There's the key. In God's sight.
In God's sight. Can I illustrate that? Well,
look at Romans 3.20. Here's the Scripture on it. Some
of you are awful concerned about what others think, but you ain't
too much concerned about what he thinks. Now, here's the whole
problem. It's not what anybody thinks.
It's what he thinks, in his sight. That's where the problem is,
in his sight. in his sight. Now go out here
on the street, stop the average man, and ask him about himself
and the matter of sin and his relationship with God and church
attendance. And he'll tell you something
like this. He'll say to you, he'll say, well, I'm just as
good as anybody down at your church. I've had folks say that
to me so many times. I'm just as good as the people
who go to your church. Just as good. And you know, my
stock reply is this. You're probably right. I expect
you are. Because down there at our church,
there's none good, no not one. And you're probably just as good.
And the average person out there, they think, well, you know, I
don't do anybody any harm. I'm married to the same wife
I've been married to all these years, and I raised my family,
and I've minded my own business, and I've stayed out of meanness,
and kept out of jail, And I got a pretty good reputation in the
community, and I'm pretty clean and upstanding and outstanding
and all this sort of thing. I've succeeded in my business.
I'm well thought of, got a good reputation. Well, that's not
the matter. That has nothing to do with it.
What you're talking about is justification in the sight of
men. That's all in the world you're talking about. You got
a good reputation where? On earth, in this town, with
your neighbors, friends, in the church. You're in trouble, though. You see, the problem we're dealing
with, the requirement, is not down here, it's in His sight. That's what we're talking about,
in His sight. Now turn to Luke 16. This is the thing we've got to
discover. This is the thing we've got to be made aware of. And
this is the thing, bless your heart, so many of you have trouble
with in Luke 16.15. He said to them, You are they
which justify yourselves before men. And that's what the Pharisee,
he said, I'm not like other men. I haven't done the things other
men. I'm no adulterer. I'm no extortioner. I'm not unjust.
I've paid my dues. I've paid my debts. I've paid
my tithe. I've fasted. I've given alms
to the poor. I'm a pretty good Jew. And everybody
says, yes, you are. And he's justified himself before
men. But, here's the problem. But,
verse 15, Luke 16, God knows your heart. God knows your heart. And oh, God sees the envy. God sees the jealousy. God sees
the hatred. God sees the spite and bitterness. God sees the self-righteousness,
God sees the lust, God sees the fear and unbelief, God sees the
blasphemy, God sees it, and that which you're resting in, that
which you're bragging about, and that which is highly esteemed
among men, all these outward veneers and shows that you're
carrying on and all this having your head high and your chest
out and your pride sticking out like a sore thumb is an abomination
to God Almighty. God hates it. He just despises
it. Oh, I tell you, it's an abomination
in His sight. That's what I'm talking about.
This thing of cleanliness and holiness, if we're ever going
to reach justification by faith, this is the first discovery.
And I'm telling you, you need to pray, Lord, save me. I'll
tell you what you better pray. Lord, get me lost. Because if
you ever get lost, He'll save you. He's going to save sinners.
He died for sinners. He came to save the lost. And
God's not going to save you like you are. He's not going to have
you. You see, you'd push him off his throne when you got up
there. You'd take some glory away from Christ. You'd get over
there bragging about what you did and how many souls you won
to Jesus and what a fine church you built and all these different
things you did. In fact, I heard a preacher,
one of the great presidents of Southern Baptist Convention one
time, I heard him say this in a sermon. He said, and I get
to heaven, I'm going to say, Isaiah, you move over and let
me talk a while. Yeah, if God lets you up there with that attitude,
you'd spoil it all. So you're not going. You just
put that down. This whole thing is based on
the glory of Jesus Christ. He's going to take to heaven
everybody He can get glory in. All the glory, the supreme glory,
the preeminent glory, and the rest of them He's going to cast
out. He's going to put them where they can't do any more harm,
where they can't take any more glory. This is a discovery. We're going to have to get to
it. We're going to have to come to this place. We're going to
have to get lost. We're going to have to pray,
God, get me lost. Shut my mouth. Strip me, break me, do whatever
you have to, don't spare me, whatever you have to do, get
me lost, because if I ever get lost, I'm going to get found.
That's just so. I know that's not being said,
but you see, we honor this other thing, and God honors Christ.
We honor men. We brag on men. We dignify the
flesh. We scratch the back and tickle
the ears. We've got to have you. Can't
build a church without you. God has no eyes but your eyes,
no feet but your feet, no hand but your hand. Joe got up here
and quoted Scripture. If I was hungry, I wouldn't ask
you. That's what God said. Second, Matthew, what we discover
second. We discover first of all, and this is primary. If
you don't hear anything else, hear this. It starts there. I'm
a sinner. Without plea. without any reservation,
without any alibi, without any excuse, without any claim from
a sinner. Paul said, the chief of sinners.
Paul said, less than the least of all the sinners. He said,
not worthy to be an apostle. But secondly, we discover this,
there is no way to be justified in God's sight, in his sight,
in his sight. by my works or my deeds. No way.
My past is too filled with sin and iniquity. My past is shot,
I can forget that. And Spurgeon said my present
don't look much better, not much better. And he said the future,
notwithstanding my resolutions, will probably be just like the
past. My past," this is quoting Spurgeon,
"...is full of sin and iniquity. My present, because of the weakness
of my flesh, is no better than my past, and my future, notwithstanding
my resolutions and vows, will be no better than my past." And
you know what the law says? Turn to Galatians 3. Now listen
to this, Galatians 3. And brethren, if we could just
see, and I'm not telling you what I think, I'm telling you
what Scripture says. And we've been playing church so long,
and we've been moving in this circle of our own thoughts so
long, and deceiving ourselves so long, that God, I'm afraid,
has left us to rest the Scriptures to our own destruction. And we've
rejected the truth so long that he's given us strong delusions
to believe a lie and be damned for it. How do you reckon? I
was reading this last night. How do you reckon that Pharaoh
was ever dumb enough to take all his cherries and drive down
in that water? Huh? How do you reckon he was that
dumb? I'd have been a whole lot smarter than that. Now the same
God that raised that water on either side in the Red Sea could
turn the valve on and turn it loose just quick as He raised
it. But you know what Pharaoh did? You know what he did? Israel went down in the Red Sea,
there was a cloud between them and they couldn't, the darkness
and all, so when he came up, he saw them, there's already
halfway across, already almost across on dry land. And he stood
there and watched that water, he says, boys, let's go right
down in it. And every one of them went, you know why? God
hardened his heart. Read it. God hardened his heart. And I'll tell you this, you don't
turn loose of that little religious profession, God will harden your
heart, and you'll look on it as a crown jewel. That's what's
saying. You'll look on it as a sacred
possession. You'll look on it just as stupidly
as Pharaoh looked at that sea and saw no danger. Saw no danger. A blind man sees no danger. He
sees no danger. And if God, and God judicially
blinded Israel, He blinded them. They were blinded. They were
blinded, first of all, legally. Legally. And then God Almighty
blinded them judicially. He blinded them so that they
couldn't see. And they believed a lie and were
damned for believing it. And this is what's sad. And what
we've got to come to realize is this thing called sin. Isaiah
said it's from the sole of our feet to the top of our heads.
There's no soundness in us. In the flesh no man can please
God. In the flesh dwelleth no good thing. God looks down upon
us and that which we brag about and take glory in and that which
is highly esteemed among us is an abomination in His sight. That's what I'm saying. In His
sight. Now here's the thing. We discover
that there's no way to be justified in His sight by works. Look at
Galatians 3 verse 10. As many as are of the works of
the law are under the curse. It's written, cursed is everyone
that continueth not in all things that are written
in the book of the law to do them. One great old preacher
of the past was talking to a Jewish rabbi. And he said to him, he
said, Rabbi, he said, you believe in your law, don't you? God's
law? The rabbi said, I certainly do.
And the preacher said, but rabbi, with all respect, with all respect,
doesn't your law say, cursed is everyone that continueth not
in all things written in the book of the law to do them? He
said, yes, it says that. He said, well, I ask you, have
you continued in all things? And the rabbi said, I have not. Then the man said, according
to your own law, you're under the curse. You know what your
law says? You're under the curse. He said
to him, how shall you escape, Rabbi? And he said, the old man
bowed his head and shook it and said, I don't know. I don't know. Well, my friend, I'm not a rabbi.
And I'm not real intelligent and smart, don't claim to be,
but I do know how to escape the judgment of the law. I do know.
It's right down here in verse 13. Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. That's the way
we're redeemed. Substitution. You get the word?
Substitution. That's my hope. I don't have
any hope in myself, in my works. I have a hope in substitutes. Substitute. Christ is my substitute. He came down here in the flesh
and he met the law in every jot and tittle. He was tempted in
all points. He frankly obeyed that law to
the full satisfaction of God. And he did it for me in my stand. And then the law said, Cursed
is everyone that continues not. And I have it in Christ's person,
in my stead, God's judgment and wrath fell on Christ. He was
nailed to that cross for sin. Whose sin? My sin. And he cried,
It's finished! It's finished! What's finished? His life? Well, his life was
never finished. He had no beginning of days or
end of days. He lived just as much when he died as when he
lived before he died. Sure, he's a living Christ. He's
a living one. His body died. He didn't die.
His body died. He didn't cease to exist. What
was finished? His sufferings? Well, in a way. But you know
what he's saying is finished? All the Old Testament types?
Finished. Our sins are finished. The plan
and purpose of God in righteousness for the believer is finished.
Don't you try to add anything to it. Don't you try to add anything
to it. It's absolutely finished. His
people are justified. Justified. Totally, in God's
sight, fully justified. Now, watch this. Get this. There's
some things we discover on the road to faith. We discover that
we need to be justified, not before men, not even in our own
eyes. We justify ourselves. Well, I
had a reason for what I did. We always do. And secondly, we
need to realize that we can't be justified in His sight by
what we do. What we do just adds to what
we've done. That's all. We just mess up. If you ever
tried to write something and you didn't make the word right
and you tried to change it and you kept messing up, finally
you just rubbed through it, you know, and wrote it somewhere. That's
what we need to do, just rub through it. You just keep messing
up, trying to add to it, just messing up. And just scratch
the whole thing and look to Christ. Scrap the whole thing. And here's
the third thing. We discover that our condemnation is now,
not later. You know, a lot of us, now here's
a problem. There are a lot of us that think
we're going to be condemned when we come to the judgment. No,
that's not right. You turn to John 3, 18. Let me read you a
scripture. You know, somebody walked in
here tonight and walked up on this pulpit while I'm preaching
and said, Preacher, Reverend Mahan, could I make an announcement?
Well, I said, who are you? He said, I am the FBI agent here
in town. Well, I said, yes, sir, you certainly
can. I respect our government and law, and you certainly can.
You can have the floor. And he'd stand up here and take
a piece of paper out of his pocket and start reading off the names
of Bob Coffey and David Atkins and Richard Pennington and Jim
Harris and Ron Traybant and Mike and Gene Neal and say, you fellows
are under subpoena from the United States government for breaking
the law. You appear in court in the morning.
You freeze. Now, brother, I'm telling you
the truth. You talk about, you talk about, you talk about a
state of shock to be under condemnation of your government, of the Federal
Bureau of Investigation. To be under the cloud of their
judgment and condemnation, you wouldn't sleep one wink. I guarantee
you, you wouldn't sleep a wink tonight. Not one wink. You'd
start calling everybody you knew in town that had any influence.
Well, listen to this. John 3, verse 18. He that believeth
on him, on Christ, is not condemned, but he that believeth not is
condemned already. Ain't nobody shaking in here. We're condemned not by the FBI,
not by the United States government that's here for a while. We're
condemned by the government and throne and court of heaven already. Old Barnard used to say we're
not on probation. Haven't been at all. We're already
guilty. The evidence is already presented.
The trial's over. We're condemned already. That's
right. We don't believe that. No, we
don't believe that. I tell you, our indifference
to that scripture right there indicates that we don't believe
that God is holy and we don't believe that we're sinners. Because
if God's holy and we're sinners, then there's a gulf between us
that's impassable. And we're condemned already.
If the law of God's holy, if the justice of God is holy, if
the wrath of God is true, And if we don't have a substitute
and a mediator and a perfect righteousness, we're condemned.
And brother, to be under condemnation is to be in the very shatter
of hell. That's just so. I got to quit,
but let me give you this, some things we never forget. Turn
to 1 Corinthians 15.10. I'm 56 years old going on 57. I've been preaching 35 years.
I've been a believer in the gospel of God's grace for 30 years.
three years next month. And I'll tell you this, I confess
right now, everything I have, everything I am, everything I
hope to be is by the free grace of God. It always has been from
eternity and will be to eternity future. That's what Paul said
in 1 Corinthians 15 verse 10, by the grace of God I am what
I am. Now, God has determined to deal
with men in a way of mercy. He has purposed to save the chief
of sinners through the righteousness and blood of His Son, Jesus Christ,
freely, freely, as if we had perfectly obeyed His every command,
the way of salvation by grace and grace alone, and where there's
grace, there's no more works. The hymn writer said this, "'Twas
grace that wrote my name in God's eternal book, It was grace that
gave me to the Lamb who all my sorrows took. Grace taught my
soul to pray. Grace made my eyes overflow.
It was grace that's kept me to this day and grace will not let
me go. Oh, let thy grace, my Lord, inspire
my soul with strength divine. May all my powers to thee aspire
and all my praise be thine. And we stay right there all the
time. We never climb above that center saved by grace, free grace,
but justified by grace. Now look at the text, and let
me close with this, the text in Romans 5. Let's look at it
one more time, Romans 5, and let me show you some privileges
we enjoy, and watch what it says here. Therefore being justified,
being justified, being made holy, righteous, pure, perfect in God's
sight, being justified in his sight, in his sight. What does
it say? We have peace. Right now. We're justified right now. We're
not going to be justified. We are justified right now. Just
like he said, beloved, now are we sons of God. Now are we sons
of God. This tells every believer that
he's already justified. You know what? What Adam was
in the garden before he fell? He had sweet and holy and perfect
communion with God before he fell, before he stood there naked
without any shame or embarrassment or guilt or fear or doubts or
anything. Perfectly holy, talked with God,
walked with God. What he had then, I have right
now. You know that? Only better. He could have fallen, which he
did. I can't. You believe that? That's so anyhow. That's right. Being justified! Being justified! Justified! Right now! Justified! In His sight. That's what I'm
saying. Right now. Right now. How? By faith. By faith. It'll never change, it never
has. It's gonna stay there, because that way God gets all the glory.
And that way you can be justified. Because any other way you couldn't,
you couldn't come in. You couldn't come in. There wouldn't
be any way for you or me, either one. And we have what? Peace with God. Peace with God. That's where it is. being justified
by faith. But now here's the source, and
here's the whole source, and he gets all the glory, and it
must be his because God's not going to have it any other way.
It's through our Lord Jesus Christ. It's through Christ. He's the
source. He's the foundation. He's the fountain. He's the mainspring.
He's everything. He's going to get the glory. And the person that said, I've
made an idol out of Jesus Christ, I hope by God's grace I can make
a greater idol out of him for the next 10 years. The lady said,
I've listened to his tapes, all he preaches is Christ. Yes, sir,
that's all I preach is Christ, because that's all they talk
about in glory is Christ. And I'm rehearsing my song. That's
exactly right, I'm rehearsing. And I'll tell you this, if you
sing with that glorious choir around the throne of God, you
best start practicing it too. You better start running around
here whining about what you've done and what you've given and
what you've sacrificed and what you've done, all these things,
and start talking about Him because you're nothing but a sinner and
that's all. Jesus Christ is all in all. He's everything. And God can
sure get along without you or me, either one. But I don't want
Him to. I don't want Him to. I want to
be found in Christ. Oh, that I may win Christ and
be found in Him. That I may know Him and the power
and the glory of His resurrection. That's it. That's justification
by faith. And if you don't love it, you
can line up with all the religionists and the advocators of works and
stand before God on the ground you choose to stand on. He'll
judge you anywhere you want to stand. You stand right there. He'll deal with you. I want to
stand in Christ. Nowhere else but in Christ. Mercy,
mercy, mercy.