How Can Man Be Justified With God?

I want you to take your Bibles
and follow along with me as I read the scripture this morning. I'm
going to bring you a message on the great question, the important
question, the most important question that can be asked. And
our text will be found in the book of Job, chapter 25, verses
4 through 6. That's the 25th chapter of Job,
verses 4 through 6. And here is the title of the
message. How can man be justified with God? How can man be justified
with God? Now, that's what Job asked in
chapter 25, verse 4. How can man be justified with
God? How can he be clean that is 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 is man that is a worm and the son of man which
is a worm? The great question, the most
important question which can possibly concern you and me or
every son of Adam for all time is this question. How can man
be justified with God? How can guilty sinners like you
and me be clean and pure and justified and accepted in the
sight of Almighty God. Now my friend Satan is crafty,
subtle, and deceitful, and he clutters our minds with all sorts
of questions and mysteries which only serve to take our thoughts
away from important things, which only serve to take our thoughts
away from important matters concerning our relationship with God. For
example, one day our Lord was speaking to the Pharisees and
the scribes and the Sadducees and some lawyers and religious
leaders, and they began to ask him questions. Now get this setting
here. Here is the Lord of Glory, and
here are these religious people, and they could ask him anything
they wanted to ask him, anything pertaining to God, anything pertaining
to eternity, anything pertaining to judgment, anything pertaining
to our relationship with God. So what did they ask him? Well,
one man came up with this question. He said, Master, Is it lawful
to pay tribute to Caesar? Should we pay taxes to the Roman
government, which has us in bondage and in slavery? Well, the master
dealt with that question. Then another one came up with
this. He said, Master, suppose a woman is married five times
and the woman finally dies. Now in the resurrection, who's
going to be her husband? He was concerned about this.
And then another one came up with this question, Master, which
is the greatest law of all the Ten Commandments? Which is the
greatest law? Which is the most serious sin,
the most serious offense? And that's the way Satan clutters
the minds of men and women and takes their thoughts off of important
questions. Even listen to the disciples.
Here are the disciples, the twelve whom our Lord had chosen to be
his preachers, his apostles, the leaders of the church. And
one of them asked him one day, he said, Lord, he said, when
you come into your kingdom, who's going to sit on your right hand
and your left hand when you come into your kingdom? Why not let
my brother and I, one sit on your right hand and the other
sit on your left hand? Then another question, Master,
Lord, what shall be the sign of thy coming and the end of
the world? And then another question, Lord,
Peter asked this, if I'm martyred, if I'm to be martyred, the gospel
What about John? What's he going to do? Doesn't
that remind you of this day? How that preachers and the world
in general, especially the religious world and even the inner circle,
even true regenerate believers, our minds become so cluttered
with the mysteries of the Bible and with the things that we don't
know, the things that are not revealed. We want to know this
question and that question, the other question. We're concerned
about the future and we're concerned about things many of which are
the secret things which belong to the Lord. Well, here's the
question of question. Here's the most important matter
that your soul can possibly deal with in this hour, and that is,
how can a sinner be justified with God? We know that God is
holy. Listen to Job here. Behold, even
to the moon it shineth not, and the stars are not pure in God's
sight. How much less is man. and the
Son of Man, which is a worm. How much less, how much more
abominable is man that drinketh iniquity like the water? God
is holy, immutably holy, unchangeably holy, immaculately holy. God is so holy that even the
cherubims and seraphims cover their mouths and cover their
eyes when they stand in his presence. He cried, holy, holy, holy Lord
God Almighty. God is holy and God requires
perfection. He requires perfection in thought,
in imagination, in word, in conduct, in conversation, in deed, you
that would be under the law. Paul said, do you not hear the
law? God Almighty can be satisfied
with no less than perfection. He can demand no more, but he
can be satisfied with no less. So it ought to be clear to us
how holy God is, how holy God is. Holy Temple, let all the
earth keep silence before him. And it ought to be clear how
sinful we are. We have so much sin in our thoughts,
and in our imaginations, and in our words, and in our conduct,
and in our deeds and actions. God demands perfect holiness,
and we're anything but perfect. It ought to be clear to us that
we're not holy. All that's sin comes short of
the glory of God. All we like sheep have gone astray.
We've turned everyone to his own way. God looked down from
heaven and found that every imagination of man's heart is evil continually. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. There's none that seeketh after
God. They're all together become unprofitable. We all do faith
as belief. And our righteousness is a filthy
rag. And Isaiah said, from the sole
of our feet to the top of our heads, there's no soundness in
us, nothing but open-running sowers that have not been bound
up nor mollified with ointment. I'm not talking about as we compare
ourselves with people that are worse than we are or more cruel
than we are. I'm talking about as we look
at ourselves under the searchlight of God's holy character and God's
holy law and God's holy presence, how sinful and wretched and wicked
that we are. So here's the reason I entertained
the question, as Job entertained it, How can man be justified
with God? How can man be innocent? And
that's the word. Justification is to be without
guilt. It's to be declared innocent,
without sin, without mark or stain or spot or any such thing
or blemish. How can man be just with God? How can he be clean that's born
of a woman? How can he be accepted by a holy
God? Well, that's our question. If
you don't have the answer to that, we're in trouble, aren't
we? If we can't find the answer to that question, because two
cannot walk together except they be agreed, and God can't walk
with evil, God can't walk with sin, God can't have fellowship
with iniquity, something's got to take place so that we can
be one with a holy God. All right, I'm going to give
you four texts to answer that question. I'm going to deal with
the question, how can man be justified, innocent, holy? righteous, acceptable in the
presence of a living God. Now, here's the first text. It's
found in Job chapter 9, verse 20. Job says, and this is what
many people are doing, and it's a tragedy. Job says in Job 9,
20, if I justify myself, my own mouth would condemn me. If I
say that I'm perfect, my own mouth would prove me perverse. Now, my friend, that's what many
people are doing. They're trying to justify themselves.
They're claiming what they don't have. They're laying claim to
what they don't possess. Now, if any man might have reason
to believe that he's justified by his works or by his righteousness,
if any son of Adam, it would be Job, wouldn't you say? Because
when Satan appeared before God, when the sons of God met and
Satan appeared in their midst. God asked Satan, he said, have
you considered my servant Job? There's none like him. He's a
man who fears God. He's a man who's upright. He's
a man who shuns evil. Now, even God said that about
Job. He said there's none like Job as far as men go, as far
as the rule of men is concerned. There's none like Job. He's righteous,
upright. He's upright. He fears God and
hates evil. So if there's any son of Adam
who might feel that he has just cause to be accepted before God
by his works, it would be Job. But Job is the man who's saying,
if I justify myself, my own mouth would condemn me. If I say that
I'm perfect, righteous, he said my own mouth would prove me to
be perverse. Why? Well, first of all, because
it would be a lie. it wouldn't be true. If this
preacher or anybody listening to my voice today were to say
that I am clean, I am holy, I am perfect before God, I am justified
by my deeds, it would be a lie because 1 John 1 says if we say
we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If
we say that we have no sin, We deceive ourselves. I'm not without
sin, nor are you. I'm not without sin in thought,
in imagination, in word, in deed, and neither are you. Even our
best righteousnesses are filled with sin. Before God, they're
with great stain in the presence of God. So if I claim righteousness
within myself, then I'm a liar and the truth's not in me. And
then, unfortunately, if a man claims to be without sin, he
not only reveals that he's a liar and is a deceived man, but he
makes God a liar. The scripture says in 1 John
1, 10, if we say we have not sinned, we have made God a liar
and his words not in us. The truth of his word, the truth
of his law, what foolishness! What perverse claims! I am perfect,
I am without sin. We are liars if we say that,
and we even make God a liar, and his word is not in us. And
then thirdly, if I justify myself, if I lay claim to a righteousness
and a holiness before God, worked out by my own deeds, the statement
itself would be enough to condemn me, to say I have kept God's
law perfectly, to say that by my own merit I'm worthy to enter
heaven on the basis of my works and deeds. What pride! What arrogance! What haughtiness! And pride goeth
before destruction, and a haughty spirit before the fog. And God
said seven things I hate, and the first one he named is this,
I hate a proud look. So the statement itself would
be enough to condemn me. It would be enough to bring God's
judgment down upon me. It would be enough to bring God's
wrath upon me just to make that statement, because it would reveal
the pride and arrogance of an evil heart. And then I'll tell
you something else. If I justify myself, my own mouth
would condemn me, it would make me a liar, it would give God
the lie, it would reveal the pride of my heart. And fourthly,
if I claim I'm without sin and that I'm holy in the sight of
God, it would reveal that I'm in rebellion against God's grace.
It would reveal that I'm in rebellion against the substitutionary sacrifice
of his son. Men who attempt to establish
their own righteousness and who attempt to enter the kingdom
of God by their works are in rebellion against God's grace
and against God's substitutionary work in the person of Christ.
Paul says that in Galatians 2.21 clearly. Listen to him. He says,
I do not frustrate, and that is to confuse or distort. I do
not frustrate the grace of God. If righteousness comes by the
law, Jesus Christ died in vain. How'd you like to have that on
your conscience? How'd you like to have that charge laid at your
door? How would you like to have that charge brought against you
in judgment? You said that my son died in
vain. And that's what you're saying
when you're going about to establish your own righteousness. You are
a liar and the truth's not in you. You're making God a liar,
you're revealing the pride of an evil heart, and you're saying
that Calvary's cross, God wasted his time, that Jesus Christ died
in vain. If righteousness comes by the
law, if men are sanctified and justified and declared righteous
by their deeds and by their works, then here's the charge laid at
your door. You're saying that God Almighty
sent his son down here to the cross on a foolish venture. He
died in vain. if righteousness comes by the
law. What a serious, serious, serious charge. So that's the
first text. We'll lay it aside. How can man
be justified with God? Well, if he justifies himself,
his own mouth condemns him and proves him perverse. All right,
here's the second text. Now, Romans 8, 33 and 34. It
is God that justifies. Here's the answer to the question,
right here in Romans 8, 33 and 34. Who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who
is he that condemns? It is Christ that died, yea,
rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand
of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Here's the answer to
the question, how can man be justified with God? It is God
that justifies. Only God can justify. If I justify
myself, my own mouth will condemn me, but God is able to justify. God can do all things, consistent
with his character, consistent with his nature. God can take
an unjust, unholy, unclean sinner, and by his wondrous plan of grace,
which leaves the angel speechless, make that sinner holy and pure
and righteous. He did in the case of Saul of
Tarsus. He did in the case of Mary Magdalene. He did in the
case of the thief on the cross. He did in the case of Simon Peter.
He did in the case of John Newton, George Whitefield, you, me. God is able to take the guilt
from the guilty, the sin from the sinful, forgive it, cover
it, blot it out, cast it into the depths of the sea, cast it
behind his back, And remember it no more. God is able to cover
the righteous with a spotless robe of purity so that that sinner
will be as fair and as pure and as holy and white as the driven
snow. That's what he said, though your
sins be as scarlet, I'll make them as white as snow. And my
friend, here's the key. God can do this in a way that's
consistent with his holiness. Now you've got to learn this.
Almighty God can't just erase sin. Sin must be punished, must
be paid for. God must be just and justified. And God can take that guilt and
put it away in a way that's consistent with his holiness, and he can
do it in a way that's glorifying to his righteousness. He's got
to still be God. He's got to still be the judge
of the universe of whom it is said, shall not the judge of
the earth do right? God's going to do right. He's
going to do right by his son. He's going to do right by his
law. He's going to do right by every attribute. He's going to
do right by the sinner. God's going to do right. And
then he can do it in such a way that satisfying to his justice,
every sin shall receive a just recompense of reward. The soul
that sinneth, it shall die. Sin, when it's finished, bringeth
forth death. It can bring forth nothing else. And then God can
do it in such a way that's magnifying to his love and his mercy. How? How can God justify the ungodly? Two words sum up this wondrous
plan of redemption. The first word is substitution.
The second word is satisfaction. Now you take your Bible and turn
over there to Romans chapter 5, verse 12, where it says, Wherefore
by one man sin entered the world. and death by sin, so death passed
upon all men for all sin." That's Adam. Adam was our representative. As in Adam, all die. As we have
borne the image of the earthy, the first Adam was of the earth
earthy. The word Adam is man. God created Adam and all men
were created in Adam and they stood in Adam. He was their representative. He was their federal head. And
when he sinned and when he fell, they sinned and fell. Well, God
sent another Adam. The second Adam, the first Adam
is from the earth, earthy, the second Adam is the Lord from
heaven. As we have borne the image of the earthy, even so
we shall bear the image of the heavenly. In Adam all died, in
Christ we are made alive. Now look at Romans 5, 19, turn
over that verse. Wherefore, by one man's disobedience,
the many were made sinners. So, in the same way, in like
manner, by representation, by the obedience of one, shall the
many be made righteous. In Adam, we died. In Christ,
we're made alive. He was our surety. He was our
substitute. He is our representative. Christ
represented us, came down here and represented us. And then
the other word is satisfaction. Why was Christ, the word substitute,
why was Christ made of a woman? Because I'm made of a woman.
Why did he live in a home subject to parents and in a city subject
to the civil law and under God's law, subject to God's moral law
and ceremonial law? Because I was subject to those
things. I'm born under the law and my representative had to
walk the same route I walk. He had to be subject to the same
law to which I'm subject. And that's what Christ did. He
stood here. He was bone of our bone and flesh
of our flesh, numbered with the transgressors. And then the word
satisfaction. He who knew no sin. was made
sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. Christ Jesus actually went to the cross bearing our
sins in his body on the tree. And there he didn't die as an
example, he died as a substitute, he died as a sin offering, he
died to make satisfaction to God's holy law, to God's holy
righteousness, to God's holy justice. Sin demands death and
Christ died for sin. Christ didn't die as a martyr.
He didn't die as a defeated reformer. He died as a substitute, a sin
offering. He made satisfaction before the
law. For example, you see in the Old
Testament when they brought the sacrificial lamb. And all of
these lambs in the Old Testament were pictures of Christ and types
of Christ. They pointed to Christ. And the
high priest would put his hands on the head of the lamb and he'd
confess the sins of the people. And then that lamb would be slain.
And the scapegoat, they'd confess the sins of the people on the
head of the scapegoat and he'd be borne out, taken out into
the wilderness and let loose and never to be seen again, never
returned. And the songwriter put it this
way, my faith doth lay her hand on that dear head of thine and
there like a penitent I stand and there confess my sins. Christ
took my sins. They were taken from me and laid
on him. And he was wounded for my transgressions, he was bruised
for my iniquities, the chastisement of my peace was upon him, by
his stripes I'm healed." That's satisfaction. He satisfied God's
law. Christ didn't buy us from Satan.
He bought us from the law of God. He bought us from the justice
of God. He paid the debt. The sin offering
was made to the Lord. So God can justify the ungodly.
He can do it in a way consistent with his justice, his holiness,
his law, and his love. All right, the third text, Romans
5.1, therefore, being justified by faith, I have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let me tell you something.
There is no religion in this world that advocates works and
deeds of the law for salvation and human righteousness that
can give you any peace. It can't give you any rest of
soul because you're always constantly, if you're depending on your works
for salvation, If you're depending on what you do before God for
salvation, you've got to constantly worry about this. Have I done
enough? Am I doing the right works? Do
I belong to the right church? Am I listening to the right preacher?
Am I deceived? Will I fall? I'm just a human
being. If human, someone said to err,
all right, when am I going to err? And as soon as I do, I lose
that salvation. So you can't have any peace.
There's no way to have any peace building on a foundation of sand.
You're always worried about when the tide's coming in, when the
rain's going to fall, when the wind's going to blow, and when
the storm's going to come, and your house is going to slip.
But when you're built on Christ, you have peace, because that
rock is a triad stone and a sure foundation, and it cannot be
moved. And the Scripture says in Colossians
2.10, you're complete in Him. He's already died, so I don't
have to. He's already borne my sins, so
I don't bother. He's already paid the debt, so
I don't owe it. He's already been buried and
risen and conquered death, therefore, because he lives, I shall live.
He's already ascended and already seated on the right hand of God,
so in him I'm seated. I can have peace. Christ has
ceased from his work. He's already performed them.
All the works that God the Father requires. He's ceased from his
labors. He's ceased from his work. He's
entered into rest. He's seated. He's not standing
up. He's not walking the floor. He's not wringing his hands.
He's sat down, waiting until his enemies become his footstool.
And if I'm in him, I can sit down. Not that I don't serve
God and labor and works of love and labor of love and faith,
but not in order to be saved, but because I'm obedient to him
who loved me, and I love him who loved me. And I can sit down,
I can enter into his rest, cease from my work. Now, you can find
peace there, and that's the only place you can, if you're justified
in Christ, accepted in the beloved. All right, last of all, Romans
8, 30. Here's good news, the fourth text. Whom he predestinated,
he called. And whom he called, he justified.
And whom he justified, he glorified. In other words, in the mind and
purpose and plan of God, all who were given to Christ and
redeemed by Christ and who are by faith in Christ are already
glorified, already glorified, already seated on God's right
hand, because where Christ is, we are. We're in him, we're chosen
in him, redeemed in him, justified in him, and Ephesians 1, 6 says
we are accepted in the Beloved. In the Beloved, accepted am I. risen ascended, seated on high,
saved and redeemed by his wonderful grace, with his loved ones afforded
a place. In the beloved, God's wonderful
grace caused me to dwell in that beautiful place. God sees my
Savior and then he sees me. In the beloved, I'm accepted
and free.

How Can Man Be Justified With God?

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How Can Man Be Justified With God?

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