Guilt - Grace - Glory

The man Job, sitting in poverty, everything
swept away, a man who knew what it was to be wealthy and respected,
but now sitting in poverty, an outcast, rejected, scorned, mocked
and laughed at, sitting in sorrow, A man who knew what it was to
laugh and enjoy his family, now alone, whose own wife said to
him, why don't you curse God and die? Sitting in pain, through festered,
swollen lips, cursing the day that he was born,
longing for death, sitting on the ash heap, scraping his crusted
balls with pieces of glass, had a lot of questions for God. Some not very complimentary to
Job's righteousness and love and trust, but some literally
earth-shaking. And though we know nothing of
his poverty and nothing of his sorrow and nothing of his pain,
we know something of his sin. And we ought to be asking and
seeking an answer to the same question. It's found in Job chapter 9.
I'd like for you to turn there and look at it carefully. Now
he asked it. In this book it's asked twice.
But Job asked it first. in Job 9, verses 1 and 2, then
Job answered and said, I know it is so of a truth, what you
say is true, but how should man be just with or before God? How can man be just before God? And then if you'll turn to Job
25, You'll find this man who professed
to be a friend of Job, which is questionable, Bildad, asks
practically the same question. He says in Job 25 verse 4, How
then can man be justified? Now brethren, the word justified,
and we need to identify that word before we go any further,
pardoned, to be pardoned is to be released from the penalty.
So a man has committed a crime and he's put in jail, he's guilty,
guilty. Now he may serve a certain amount
of time or a certain length of time and then he's pardoned.
And he goes out of the jail, he goes out free, still guilty.
but he's been pardoned. That is, he's been released from
the penalty of his crimes. And when God pardons us, he releases
us from the penalty. Christ freed us from the penalty
of sin. We're set free from the penalty
of sin. We're not going to pay it. Those
for whom Christ died will never be condemned because there's
therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ. No
judgment. Paul said that. Who can lay anything
to my charge? All right, the word forgiveness,
now it's used in the Bible a lot in reference to salvation. Pardon
is used and forgiveness is used. But now you know what forgiveness
is? Forgiveness is giving up a feeling of enmity. Now if you
have, if I have wronged you and I come to you and I say I'm sorry,
And you say, well, I forgive you. You know what that means?
That means the feeling of enmity, of vengeance, of getting even,
that it's given up. I'm still guilty. I did what
I shouldn't have done, I said what I shouldn't have said, but
you've forgiven me. And the feeling of enmity is
gone. Now God, through Christ, has forgiven us of our sins.
And there's no feeling of enmity, there's no wrath against us because
of what we've done. God's forgiven us, we have the
forgiveness of our sins. And then you have the word remission.
Without the shedding of blood, there's no remission. Remission
means to put away sin, to put it away. Throughout the word
of God, the scripture tells us several things about our sins.
It says, our sins are cast into the depths of the sea. As we think about, I used to
be on a ship back during World War II. We'd dump the garbage
over the side. Here at home, we had to put garbage
in the garbage can and be picked up by the city because we really
can't dispose of it. But out there at sea, in one
place, it's several miles deep. And if you dump that garbage
in the sea, it goes to the depths of the sea. It doesn't matter
what it is, glass or paper or wood or whatever it might be,
it just is no more. It's out of sight. It's miles
out of sight. There's no better place you could
cast anything if you want to get rid of it than the depths
of the sea. And then the Scripture talks about our sins being separated
from us as far as the East is from the West. That's infinity.
And then God speaks of casting our sins behind his back. Well,
you say, God has no back. God is everywhere. Everything
is open, present before God. He sees all things. How can anything
be out of his sight? Well, that's what he's saying. Our sins are put away to the
extent or to the point that they're in an impossible place. They're
behind God's back. And then he said, I'll remember
them no more. But still I haven't used the
word justify. Pardon is to be released from
penalty. Forgiveness is giving up the
feeling of enmity. Remission is putting away sin. But justification is more than
that. And I think the best definition
of justification is this. It's to be by the grace of God
and the mercy of God through the merits of Christ, to be placed
in a position just as if I had never seen." That's what it means. Just as if I had never seen. Now if a man's in prison for
a crime that he did not commit, he's been accused of a crime.
He did not commit that crime. He is not guilty. They thought
he was guilty. They put him in jail. They can't
pardon him. You can't pardon an innocent
man. There's no reason for forgiving him. And as far as putting away
his crime, he hasn't committed any crime. So the only thing
they can do is justify him, set him free, put him outside the
wall, saying, this man never did anything wrong. Therefore
there's no cause for condemnation. Now that's what justification
means. And that's what Bildad is asking
here, and that's what Job is asking. How can man be brought
to this place? We are guilty, we have sinned,
we have committed sins against God, we've transgressed God's
law. How can man be justified with God or before God? Listen,
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
which is a worm. Well, the Apostle Paul sought
this justification, this position of acceptance with God, but he
sought it in the wrong way. He sought it like the rest of
his Israelite brethren. He sought
it—turn to Philippians 3—he sought it in ceremony, he sought it
in works, he sought it in personal merit, he sought it in self-righteousness,
but he found it not. He found no peace. He said in
Philippians 3, verse 5, circumcised the eighth day of the stock of
Israel, this was important to him, of the tribe of Benjamin,
a Hebrew of the Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee concerning
Zio, I persecuted the church, touching the righteousness which
is in the law blameless, But what things? These things at
one time, he said, were important to me. They were gain to me.
They were my righteousness. These things were my foundation. These things were my refuge.
These things were my hiding place. But what things were gain to
me? Those I counted lost for Christ. doubtless, and I count
all things but loss, for the excellence of the knowledge of
Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all
things. And I do count them but them, that I may win Christ and
be found in him." Now, Paul is answering Job's question. He's
answering Bildad's question. that I may be found in him, not
having mine own righteousness which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which
is of God by faith." Turn with me to 2 Corinthians
5. Here are three things I want to point out in this scripture.
2 Corinthians 5, that we need to understand if we're going
to enter into this thing of how man can be just with God, how
God can be just and justify the ungodly. And my outline has three
points. Guilt, grace, and glory. Here in 2 Corinthians 5 verse
21, Paul answers Joe's question. He said, "...for he hath made
him," God hath made Christ, to be sin for us who knew no sin,
that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Now, my friends,
all of the people who knew God mourned over their sin, over
their guilt. David cried, O God, against thee
and thee only have I sinned. Purge me with hyssop, wash me,
and I shall be whiter than the snow. Behold, I was shapen in
iniquity, and sin my mother conceived me. I was brought forth speaking
lies. All who knew God mourned over
their sins. Peter cried unto the Lord Jesus
one day, Lord, depart from me. I am a sinful man. Isaiah cried,
I am a man of unclean lips. I dwell in the midst of a people
of unclean lips. Job cried, I abhor myself. I have heard of God by the hearing
of the ear, but now, man, I seeeth his holiness, his glory, his
sovereignty, his power, and I hate myself. I repent in sackcloth
and ask you." And listen to Paul. In Romans 7, verse 18, he says,
I know that in me, that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing. In verse 24 of Romans 7, he says,
O wretched man that I am. And then he wrote in Romans 3,
he said, All the world All the world is guilty before God. Guilty. Sin is synonymous with flesh. Our feet have sinned. We have,
like sheep, gone astray. We have walked everyone in our
own way. We have walked in paths of iniquity. Our hands have sinned. Our hands
have reached out and held to the idols of this world, refusing
to let them go. Our mouths have sinned. Paul
said they're full of cursing and bitterness. Our ears have
sinned. We've been deaf to the word of
God, and our ears attuned to the things of this world. Our
eyes have sinned. having eyes full of adultery,
they cannot cease from sin. Our hearts have sinned. God said
every imagination of man's heart is evil continually. Our tongues
have sinned. James says they are set on fire
with hell. Our knees have sinned, they have
bowed to Baal. By word and deed, by thought
and imagination, by commission and omission, in secret and openly,
asleep and awake, we have to cry, O God, we have sinned. I want to show you something.
Turn to 1 Samuel 24. I was reading a sermon this week
by a preacher from Tennessee, and he preached a sermon on chasing
dead dogs and fleas, chasing dead dogs and fleas. And he took
his text from 1 Samuel 24, verse 14. This is the story. You know how David had fled from
the wrath of Saul. Saul was king of Egypt, or king
of Israel. Saul was the power in Israel.
Saul was the sovereign of Israel, and David had fled from it. And
David was out there on the goat hills, on goat mountains, and
Saul got several thousand men, I think three thousand of his
choice warriors and his choice soldiers, and he went out looking
for David. David had a handful of ragged,
hungry fugitives. David himself, armed probably
with a sword and maybe a spear, but just going from pillar to
post here and there, hunting what he could find to eat and
some place to sleep and whoever to help him along. But here is
Saul, the mighty king, marching out of Israel, going out there
hunting David. And Saul found some caves, and
he went in and went to sleep. David was in that. And David
walked up to him while he was sleeping. David's men with him
said, Why don't you kill him now? You've got him here, now
kill him. And David said, No. The Lord forbid that I should
do this thing to my master. He's the Lord's anointed. He's
the Lord's anointed." So David reached down and just cut the
bottom off of his robe and flipped it in his jacket and left. And after a while Saul woke up
and Saul left the cave. And as he left the cave and went
down the mountain, David stood up and hollered at him. And he
said, Saul, Saul, God delivered you into my hands tonight, and
I didn't kill you because you're God's anointed. You see, I've
got right here in my hand the bottom off your robe. I could
have killed you. But he said, God Almighty judged
between me and thee, and the Lord avenged me of thee, but
my hand shall not be upon you. But this is what I want to know,
Saul. This is what I want to know. Verse 14. After whom is the King of Israel
come out? After whom doth he pursue? After a dead dog, after a flea? Think of it. The mighty sovereign of Israel,
with three thousand of his choice men, the man who had the scepter
and the crown and the throne, the man who stood head and shoulders
above any man in Israel, the man who had for his friend the
prophet Samuel, the man who had at his command an army of men,
the man who ruled the nation without chasing a flea. That's
what David's saying. Why would a man who has such
responsibility and such power and such glory and such a throne,
why would he be out here chasing a flea like me? What a foolish,
tragic comedy, David said, that the mighty King of Israel would
be wasting his time out looking for a dead dog and a flea. And
this preacher went on to say, "'Is not this the tragic comedy
of every worldly person, created in the image of God, with an immortal soul, with a
life God given, one life to live, with one death to die, with one
eternity to face, with one judgment before which we must And yet
we give ourselves to the business of flea-chasing and chasing dead
dogs. What are these fleas and dead
dogs? Material things. Worldly possessions. Pleasure. Fame. Ease. Luxury. Comfort. All which pertains to the flesh.
We're driving for it. We're organizing for it. We're
giving ourselves to it. Anything but God. David said
so. With all the business you've
got to take care of in Israel, with all the mighty things of
the kingdom, with all the important things that are before you, why
are you, the King of Israel, out here on Gold Hill, chasing
a flea? I've been thinking about that
all week, ever since I read that. Am I chasing fleas? Am I out
in pursuit of dead dogs, soap bubbles, things that God Almighty
said will pass away, giving my strength and my energy and all
that I am and I have to accumulate that which is nothing? Nothing. Why am I not about the business
of my Lord? Why am I not giving my time and
my thoughts and my energy and my strength and my mind and my
heart to those things which are eternal? My, my. Thank God, if you have it, for
the realization and the knowledge of your guilt. I got a letter from Tom DeJarnett
over there in Lucasville Penitentiary. He's now at Chillicothe. He's
not any longer at Lucasville. But he wrote me a letter and
he said, Brother Henry, he's serving a life sentence. He said,
Brother Henry, if coming to jail brought me to a knowledge of
Christ, then thank God he let me come to jail. If the sword of the law had not
slain me, I would not have claimed mercy, I would not have cried
for God's grace. So I can even give thanks, I
can even give thanks for the Holy Spirit's revelation of my
sins. Don't get, don't get provoked
at the Spirit of God and vexed with the word of God and unhappy
with the minister of God because he points out to you your sins. You know, if that woman found
in the act of adultery had not been found, she would not have
been brought to Christ. It was an unhappy experience.
It was a shameful experience. Those men roughly brought her
and threw her at the feet of the Lord Jesus Christ. She was
guilty, found guilty, discovered guilty, exposed as guilty. It was a humiliating time. But
without it, she would never have met the Lord. She would never have met the
Lord. Turn to Romans 5 with me. In Romans 5, verse 20, "...moreover
the law entered, that the offense might abound." It takes the law
of God to expose us. It takes the law of God to reveal
our sins. The law reveals sin. By the law
is the knowledge of sin. And he says, where sin abounded,
where guilt abounded, and that word abounded is overflowed.
It just covered the whole place. There was no place where it hadn't
touched. It overflowed, it covered. Filling
a glass with water, and it just keeps filling up until it overflows
and runs all around it, and there's nothing around or in or on the
bottom or top of that glass that's not covered with the water. Where
guilt overflowed. Thank God, here's our second
point, grace did much more abound or overflow. How can God be gracious
to the guilty? We've already established from
the Word of God, from our own experience, from His servants,
our guilt. Well, how can God be gracious
to folks like us? How can God justify folks like
us? How can it be possible that I
can be clean, that I'm so full of filth and guilt and sin? Well,
that's the question. Well, is not the law of God just? Yes, it is. When the law of God
condemns me, is it not just? Yes, it is. Has God any reason
to recall his law? No, he hasn't. Is God under obligation
to do anything except allow his law to condemn me and his justice
to damn me? No, he's not. Well, will God in mercy remember
grace? Will God in love show mercy? All right, Job says, how? That's what I want to know, how?
How? Well, this is given over here
in 2 Corinthians 5, the text I read a moment ago, and it's
given in nine words. How can God? Here we are, guilty. Don't deny your guilt. Christ
came to save sinners. He died for the ungodly. He came
to call not the righteous but sinners to repentance. Face your
guilt. Thank God you realized it. Thank
God you have a knowledge of it. To whom much is forgiven, you
love much. I'll tell you this. If I were
going to be in Simon the Pharisee's home, I'll tell you where I'd
want to be. I'd want to be down at the feet of Christ, because
that's where mercy is. I wouldn't want to be in the
uppermost seat. I wouldn't want to be in the compromiser's seat. I'd want to be right down there
on the floor, guilty, because that's where his mercy was. Here
in 2 Corinthians 5.21, what's this? Here's nine words. He hath
made him to be sin for us. There's your answer. That's how
God can be just and justify the ungodly. That's how I, born of
woman, sinful by birth, by nature, by practice, by choice, that's
how I can be justified. He hath made him to be sin for
me. This word, Christ, was made.
Christ was made. It's very interesting if you
look that up in the scriptures. First of all, it says in John
1, 14, he was made flesh. He was made flesh. The word was
made flesh and dwelt among us. Then it says he was made of a
woman, born of a woman, made under the law. Every jot and
tittle of the law was upon him as a human to obey. Then it says
he was made a curse. Turn to Galatians 3. In Galatians
3, verse 13, it says, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us. For it is written, Cursed
is every one that hangeth on a tree." And here Paul said he
was made sin. Made flesh as our representative. Made of a woman under the law
as our righteousness. Made a curse as our substitute. Made sin for us as our redeemer. I found the ransom. Christ was
made saint. And we are justified by his grace,
by his blood, by his righteousness, by his obedience, by his faith
in his name. There was a missionary in Africa
some years ago And he preached to the natives, he preached to
them and preached to them and preached to them about God's
grace, about God's mercy, about God's love in Christ. One day
the natives came to him and they said, we wish that you would draw us a
picture of how God saved sinners. Show us a picture of how God
saved sinners. Well, the missionary thought
for a while. He wanted to illustrate how we were in trouble and how
our inability kept us from delivering ourselves, how that we were imprisoned,
how that we were doomed and damned, and how that God, in mercy and
love and grace, lifted us and washed us and cleansed us and
made us whole, all because he would. One day he thought he
had a good picture. He took the natives out there
and they stood around in a circle, and then he began to make a little
circle of leaves. He got some leaves and he put
them around in a circle, like the leaves and twigs and anything
dry that would burn. And then he took a little worm
and put it right in the middle, right in the center of that circle.
There was a little worm in the center of the circle, surrounded
by all this. And then he began to light with
a match all the way around, until that whole circle was nothing
but a blazing, burning flame. And that little worm began to
hunt a way out. He went over here, and he couldn't
find a way out. And he came over here, and he
couldn't find a way out. And he went over here, and he
couldn't find a way out. And he went over there, and he
got panicky. And he went around the circle,
but there was no way out. And finally he just curled up
in the middle and waited to die. And when he did, the missionary
reached over and just picked him up and lifted him out and
set him over there. And that's the condition you
and I were in by nature. We were born in sin, helpless,
hopeless, without any escape, without any hiding place, without
any refuge. And God in his love and in his
mercy reached down and lifted us. He lifted me out of the deep
miry clay. He settled my feet in the straight
and narrow way. He lifted me out. His grace. How is a man justified? Jesus
Christ was made flesh, came down here as my representative and
took my place, made a curse for me, made under the law, made
sin. And by his righteousness and
by his obedience, I am made holy. And with his spotless garments
on, I am as holy as the Holy One." Last of all, the glory of it.
The glory of it. Oh, Rowland Hill. Rowland Hill was the man who
gave, I think, one of the greatest definitions of gospel preaching. He said, "'Gospel preaching is
preaching the three R's.' not reading, writing, and arithmetic,
but ruined by the fall and redemption by the blood and regeneration
by the Holy Spirit. That's preaching the gospel.
He said one time that any sermon that does not contain ruined
by the fall and redemption by the blood and regeneration by
the Spirit ought not to be preached. The last time that Rowan Hill
ever preached This man has been such a blessing to me. I read
anything about Roland Hill that I can find. Roland Hill was the
one that opened my eyes to the sectarianism and the unpleasantness
and the unscriptural position of what we call local church-closed
communion. Roland Hill one time was preaching
for a Baptist church. He was there as a guest and he
was supposed to occupy the pulpit and he was sitting right there
on the front row and they were passing the communion plate.
The deacons came to Roland Hill and he reached to get the board
and they pulled the plate back. And he looked up surprised. He
was, remember, the guest minister. He was there occupying the pulpit,
preaching the gospel, fellowshiping with the people. And he pulled
the plate back. And he looked up and said, what's
the problem? And the deacon said, sorry, you can't come to our
table. And Roland Hill said, I beg your
pardon. I didn't know it was your table.
I thought it was the Lord's table. Now you think about that a little
while. I didn't know it was your table. I thought it was the Lord's
table. But Roland Hill, the last time
he ever preached, he brought his message and he died right
after this, but the last time he ever preached, he remained
in the church, in the building after everybody had left, everybody
had gone home. And the old preacher finished
his message. He didn't know it, but it was
his last message. His last message. And he was
walking up and down the aisle of the church. The caretaker
was there. He's the one that reported it. He's walking up
this aisle, down that aisle. Across the front, up this aisle,
down that aisle. Nobody was there, just him walking
around in that auditorium. And the old caretaker said he
was walking around singing this hymn. This was the last time
he was ever in God's house. This I shall find, for such is
his mind. He won't be in glory and leave
me behind. He bore on the tree that burden
for me. Thank God both the sinner and
the surety are free." That's glory, to be with Christ, wherever
he is, to be with him. To be like him to enjoy his presence
forever, to be an heir of the Father and a joint heir with
Jesus Christ. All who partake of his grace
will partake of his glory. When all my labors and trials
are over and I'm safe on that beautiful shore, just to be near
the dear Lord I adore, that'll be glory for me. That'll be glory
for me. How can a man be just with God? He can't be just in church membership,
he can't be just through the ordinances, he can't be just
through the works of the flesh, he can't be just through the
ceremonies of religion. He can be just through Christ,
in Christ, and because of Christ. Our Father in Heaven, we thank
Thee for every promise of Thy blessed Word, the precious promises that are
given to us because of the precious blood of Him who is precious
to us. We pray that this message shall
be taken by Thy Holy Spirit and used to bring sinners knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the feet of him who loved us
and gave himself for us. Enable us to preach the gospel. Enable us to preach it in the
power of the Holy Ghost. And O God, enable the people
to hear in the power and strength of the Holy Spirit. Leave us
not to ourselves. O God, deliver us. In Christ's
name we pray and for his glory. Amen. Lord, you come lead us
in a closing hymn. Shall we sing hymn number 240?
240. Band, please. I hear Thy welcome voice that
calls me, Lord, to Thee. For cleansing is Thy precious
blood that flows from Calvary. I am coming, Lord, coming now
to thee. What will cleanse me in the blood that flows on Calvary?

Guilt - Grace - Glory

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