Justification

Monday morning. This morning, I wanna share something. If you stop and think about it, it is the most important truth that any of you can embrace.

And I realize that some of you have not embraced that truth, this truth this morning. And so I want to present it before you and give you opportunity to know and understand the truth. And it's on the subject of justification.

Justification, that's a big word. It's a biblical word. It's found in the scriptures.

Let me define that word so we're all on the same page here this morning. When you think of justification, it's simply this, the act of pronouncing one righteous, acquitted and free from condemnation, the act of pronouncing one righteous. And of course, when we think of biblical justification, we're thinking of the Lord himself pronouncing you righteous.

You know, it's one thing to stand in a court of law here in the United States, and maybe you're being tried for murder and maybe you're an innocent person, but of course there's been witnesses and the whole thing has been brought up and finally the jury is taken out and they come back with a verdict. And the judge says to you, I pronounce you innocent. What he's doing is he is saying, you are just, you are justified.

You are innocent of the condemnation that was accused of you. And so someday, and everyone here, there might be, I don't know, 80 souls here, someday all of you and I are gonna stand before God, the eternal judge, and you will either be acquitted, meaning you will hear these words, I pronounce you righteous, I pronounce you just, or you're going to hear condemnation, you're guilty and you're condemned. And there is no bigger, no greater truth and important truth than that, the idea of being justified before God in the day of judgment.

And so I wanna open that subject up. We're gonna turn here in a minute to the book of Romans, but I'd like to share a few opening thoughts. And many of these things we've talked about in the past, but justification is one of the three parts of salvation that God is working in all of us.

He is seeking to justify man, and that's in the spirit, the inner man, the spirit of man. You know, when man sinned, his spirit died. He became a darkened soul.

Spiritually, he was dead in trespasses and sins. And so justification deals with that inner spirit of man. Then we have the word sanctification, and that deals with the soul of man, his mind, his will and emotions.

In our Bible study this Wednesday, we talked about the renewing of the mind, the need to be sanctified on a regular basis and to change one step at a time into the image of the Lord Jesus. And that's the work of the Lord too, his spirit within us, his word. And so we have sanctification.

And then finally, there's the idea of glorification. Someday in the future, the Lord's gonna appear and we're gonna be glorified. We're gonna receive a glorified body.

And so the Lord is doing a three-part work. He justifies us in the spirit, he sanctifies us in our soul, and he is going to, in the future, glorify us in our physical body, and we're going to get a new body. But justification is the first thing that God does.

In the spirit of man, justification is the first act of God in man's salvation, declaring you righteous, declaring you innocent from all wrong. And of course, that is done, and most of you understand this, that is done through the gospel, that is done through the preaching of the gospel. We call it, you must be born again.

You must have an experience there with the Lord where God declares you righteous, God declares you just, and that's the first thing he does. It is dealing with man, he justifies man. And that's our subject this morning.

And so the Lord says to go and preach the gospel, first thing, to every creature, because I want to start the work of justification in him. He needs to hear the gospel. After I justify him, I want you to teach him all things whatsoever I commanded you.

I want to sanctify him. I want to change him into the image of my son. And that's a process, a lifelong process.

And then he says, after teaching them all things, lo, I am with you always, even until the end of the world. And in the end of the world, the Lord will appear. And that's when you and I will be raised up and we'll be changed into his image.

And so that's the whole work of God, justification, sanctification, and glorification. I love the passage in Philippians. Paul says this, he which has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.

And so he will finish this work. And as we're gonna see here a little later on, we need to hold fast our profession that this work can be finished. Interestingly enough, before we get into justification here, interestingly enough, and I also love this concept, but all three of these are done by looking to Jesus.

Nothing is about you. Nothing is about your merits or your work or your efforts. It's all about you simply looking to Jesus.

You look to Jesus on the cross and you put your trust in his finished work and you are justified. You look to Jesus in his word. The Bible says we behold the glory of the Lord and we're changed into the same image.

Sanctification is accomplished by looking to Jesus. And then one day you're going to look up and see him coming. And the Bible says, when we shall see him, we shall be like him.

And so everything is accomplished by looking to him, whether it's justification or sanctification or glorification. It is all accomplished by looking to him. And here's why God does that.

And we see this throughout the Bible. He does that because in the end to him be glory, to him be glory in the church's world without end. In other words, there is no one in heaven who will boast about their justification, about their sanctification or about their glorification.

Everything is done through the power of God, through the work of the Lord Jesus. And so when we get to heaven, we will understand that it is all the grace of God and that glorifying him will be our eternal place and that he'll receive glory forever. And so in Ephesians 2, it says that, for by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.

It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And there is no boasting in Christianity outside of boasting in the Lord and what he has done. So I'd like to come to that subject of justification because I know that there are people here this morning who are still not justified in the sight of God.

But, and so I want to specifically speak to them, although even in going through this message, my own heart has been helped and strengthened. And so I want to share this for the church too, to bring clarity to where we're at in our own life and in our own spirit. And so justification, let's pause.

Before we open up the Bible, let's have a word of prayer and invite the Lord to help us. Heavenly Father, we acknowledge you again this morning in all of our ways. What a wonderful thing it is to have truth, to have the word of God and to be able to open it up and to understand truth for the soul of man, the spirit of man.

And so Lord, may the truth of your word go forth today. And I think of the passage, Lord, where you've told us that the devil is seeking to blind the minds of them who do not believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus. And so may we overcome that today and may the heart be opened to understanding the truth of this idea of justification.

And so we humble ourselves under the mighty hand of God and also under the truth of the word of God, which is eternal, which is the only truth and the way and the life. And so Lord, bless our time together here this morning. We acknowledge that God is present amongst us.

May we humble our hearts here in Jesus' name. Amen. I'd like you to turn to Romans chapter number three as we start off here.

Justification, down in the depths of the human heart is the spirit of man. And it's down there where man senses his guilt. He senses his condemnation and especially he senses his disconnect from the spirit of the living God.

He senses his lostness, his lost condition. You know, in Adam's sin, those things happened immediately to him. He sensed his guilt, he hid.

He sensed his disconnect from the Lord as he is there trembling, hiding behind the trees in the garden. Something happened deep down in the human spirit and Adam became a fallen creature. And so let's look here in Romans chapter three and I'd like to start off with this.

We're gonna look at Romans chapter three, a number of verses here and talk about justification. Verse number nine, what then, are we better than they? He's talking here about Jews and Gentiles. No, in no wise, for we have before proved both Jews and Gentiles that they are all under sin.

Verse 10 says, as it is written, there is none righteous, no, not one. Now, if you go to your concordance, you'll see that that word righteous is the same Greek word as the word justification. The word justification and righteousness are the same Greek word.

And so you could go ahead and put in there, there is none justified. There is none that is righteous, no, not one. Now, in ourselves, it's not talking here about children of God, but in ourselves, humans are not righteous.

And not only humans, but it specifically says here, and it's gonna say it over and over again in verse 10, there is none righteous, no, not one. And I know there's a lot of people you might think of, or they're holy people, and a lot of people that are elevated like Popes and Cardinals and all these saints in the past. And we think of there has to be someone out there in that world of the billions of people that exist today, someone who is righteous, someone who is just before God.

But the scripture says, and I'm convinced of it, some of you might look at me and say, well, Brother Jerry, you're righteous. And I can tell you that I'm not righteous. I'm not just in every way.

And all of us, there is none that's unrighteous. No, not one. There's not a single human that can stand before God in his own merit, in his own righteousness, and be found innocent or be found just.

And so there is not one. Now, can we say that we are better than others? Of course. You know, there's a lot of people that do that.

You know, I can say I'm better than the murderer down there or the rapist or those things. And we can, you know, qualify and raise ourselves up and maybe appease our conscience by looking down upon others and elevating ourselves. But before the Lord, the scripture says there is none righteous, no, not one.

Turn over to verse 19, or you may have to turn in your Bible. Verse 19 of chapter three, it says, now we know that what things, however the law sayeth, it sayeth to them who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.

Talking about here in the Lord's sight, no flesh. Now I want you to notice here the emphasis in verse number 19, it says here that every mouth, every mouth, there's no exceptions here. Every mouth may be stopped and all the world, every human may be found guilty before God.

Verse 20, therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh, no flesh, not a single individual, every mouth, all the world, and no flesh. Now, let me just throw this out to you and probably all understand this. It is an absolute, utter folly, folly.

Young people, it's a folly. Older ones, it's a folly to think that you can stand before God in your own merit, in your own person, and think that you are just or that you are righteous before him. It is utterly folly.

It'll never happen. And the Bible goes, it goes to the extreme to assure you that there is none righteous, that all the world is guilty before God. And every mouth is gonna be stopped.

Well, you say, well, but I'm not that bad. You know what? Yes, but God is gonna show you everything. He's gonna show you who you are in the day of judgment.

And of course, every mouth will be stopped. In Isaiah 64, by the way, some of these verses are taken out of Isaiah 64. The prophet Isaiah said this, but we are all, all, as an unclean thing, and all our righteousness are as filthy rags.

And so humanity, even trying to do good, humanity's righteousness is filthy rags. You know why that is? Because we're fallen creatures, and even our good things has a motive that is oftentimes an evil motive, a self-centered motive. As a matter of fact, Jesus said to the Jews, all their works they do to be seen of men.

They have a motivation. They do a lot of good works, and people appear that they look great, but the deep motivation is self-centered, is to elevate themselves in the sight of man. Chapter three here in verse 23, let's keep reading.

Verse 23 says this, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And I realize that some have sinned more than others, and even here, you know, there's some who have sinned more than others, and some sins are very grievous. Talked about adultery here this morning, and some have sinned more than others, but all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

And let me just remind you of this. It only took Adam and Eve one sin, just one, to separate them from God and to plunge this world into the mess that we're in today. Just a simple sin.

It wasn't murder. It wasn't adultery. It wasn't some great evil.

It was eating a tree from the tree that God said, don't eat from that tree. And it was a tragedy. And so it's only one lie.

It's only one evil thought. It's only one evil word. It's only one evil act.

And before God, you have been found to be a sinner. I love this story, and you hear me use it often, but human nature is found here in this Pharisee who stood, and it says two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. And the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee.

Now listen to what he says here. This is human nature. I thank thee that I am not as other men are, those extortioners, those unjust adulterers, or even as this publican.

I am not that bad of a guy. You know that, Lord. I'm not like these evil people, these adulterers, these extortioners.

You know, I'm not divorced and remarried. My marriage is still going on. I'm not an evil person compared to others, at least.

And that's human nature. That's the way we all are in many ways, is it seems to calm the conscience when we have our own issues and our own sin to deal with. It's nice to be able to say, well, look at that guy.

Oh, what a bad person. It makes me feel like I'm a lot better than others. And so in human nature, you'll see that a lot.

People comparing themselves among themselves. What does the Bible say? They that compare themselves among themselves are not what? Wise. They're not wise.

They're deceiving themselves and they're positioning themselves based upon what other people are doing. And it's not good thinking. And we'll see this man here a little later on, but the publican, he had a good perspective.

He just cried out, God be merciful to me. I know where I'm at. I know who I am.

And God just be merciful to me. He wasn't thinking about anybody else. He was acknowledging his own depravity.

Now let's remember that in the test of life, you need a 100% score. You know that? That when you stand before God, the scripture says in Revelation 22, that nothing will enter into heaven that defiles it. And that's why Adam and Eve, just one sin, cast them out of the garden.

Nothing will enter into heaven that defiles it. So when you violate God's law one time, you have put yourself outside of eternal life. You know, God requires 100% of obedience in order to find your way into eternal life.

And so in school, you know, the teacher stood up and said, you need 100% to pass. Here's James down here, smart guy he is. He gets 99%.

And I'm over here, not too good. I get a 62. Brother Chris back there has a bad day.

He gets a 40. And you know, James is feeling pretty good about it. 99%, I'm only 1% off of 100.

I mean, I'm pretty good and probably laughing and scoffing at Chris and myself, but ultimately the teacher says 100 is what's necessary to pass. James, you get an F. Chris, you get an F. Jerry, you get an F. And that's what the scripture says, that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. And I realize some people are better off in some ways than others, but when you stand before God, the whole world is gonna be found guilty before him.

So if you're sitting here this morning and you're gonna face God and you're gonna die someday and you're gonna stand in the judgment and eternity is gonna be before you. And if you're gonna stand on your own merit, I'm here to tell you, you've got no chance. You got no chance.

And throw the idea out because it's utter folly to think that you're going to stand in your own righteousness. We're depraved people. That word is, I don't believe it's a biblical word, but it's describes man's condition.

We are depraved, hopelessly depraved. And by the way, the Lord knows who we are. He knows us.

We were saying this morning, search me, oh God, and know my heart. Well, he knows it. He probably doesn't have to do a whole lot of searching.

He knows it really well. And I'd like to just share with you what Jesus said about humans. Yes, he loves humans, but in John chapter two, listen to what he said about humanity.

Verse 23, now, when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast day, many believed in his name when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men and needed not that any man should testify of man for he knew what was in man. Ah, Lord, we believe on you.

We want to follow you. Okay, but I'm not going to put my trust in you because I know what's in humanity. I know what's in man.

By the way, one of those people was Peter and it wasn't long before Peter just turned around and denied him. Oh, just a few days before, Lord, you know, thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. Yeah, I know what's in you, Peter.

You're a depraved human. And I don't trust you, Peter. By the way, the Bible says, "'Cursed is he that trusts in man.'" Amen.

And the Lord knows what's in us. Roman chapter three, let's go back there and keep reading. This whole chapter here is about justification.

Roman chapter three, verse 11. Here, God is going to describe humanity. Now, you may not think you're in this list, but God says you are, you know, in your unconverted state especially.

This is what God thinks of humans. As he writes here in verse 11, there is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God.

Now, do you realize that if the Lord doesn't do a work, if he doesn't, the Bible says, he lights every man that comes into the world. Do you realize we're so dark that none of us would seek God? The only reason why many of us seek God is because he is drawing us to himself. He's drawing us by the power of his spirit.

But the sense here, there is none that understandeth. There is none that seeketh after God. You and I come into this world in darkness.

They're all gone out of the way. They are together become unprofitable. There is none that doeth good.

No, not one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. That's what God's view of humans.

You know, humans, just let humans get in a corner somewhere and nobody can hear them. They're back and forth, you know, and they'll rip you up, these humans. I mean, they'll rip you out of their throat.

They'll speak. Their throat is an open sepulcher with their tongues. They have used to see.

You've probably found this out in your nature. There's something about those words that come out of your heart that somehow get tainted a little bit, you know, and they're exaggerated to make you look good. Those things that make you look bad, we hide those things.

And those words that come out of the mouth are deceitful. The poison of ass is under their lips. People will tear you up.

They'll kill you verbally. Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood.

By the way, this is the Lord trying to show humanity how he views them in their lost state. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways.

And the way of peace, have they not known? There is no fear of God before their eyes. People do wicked things. They don't have a fear of God.

In fact, you ought to thank God that you have a fear of God here today. That you tremble at doing evil. I hope you do.

Man left to himself with no intervention from God is in a hopeless, helpless state of being. A place of depravity. Oh, I know our pride.

You know that pride in there that says, well, I'm not that bad of a person. You know, if you are, if you have any goodness to you, it's because God has been gracious to you. I like the testimony here in the book of Revelation where God, after the Lord Jesus appears and judgment is falling on humanity, God's given up on man.

Man has passed his time of opportunity for reconciliation and justification. And man is shown who man really is in his depraved state of being. God is tormenting him with these creatures that are coming up out of this abyss and they have stinging men and tremendous pain.

And yet these people are not dying. But here in Revelation, it says this, and the rest of the men, which were not killed by these plagues, yet repented not of the works of their hands that they should not worship devils and idols of gold and silver and brass and stone and wood, which neither can see nor hear nor walk. Neither repented they of their murders, nor their sorceries, nor their fornication, nor of their thefts.

And all this judgment and all this things that are happening upon humanity. And God says, I've given up. They can't repent.

They can't get themselves to the place where they would cry out, Lord, have mercy. I'm sorry, because the Lord has left them to themselves. And by the way, if God leaves you to yourself, you're not gonna repent.

The Bible says it's God who grants repentance. A couple of chapters later in Revelation 16, you see the same situation. It says here that men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power of these plagues.

And they repented not to give him glory. Why don't they, oh God, you're right, God. And I'm sinful and I'm wrong.

No, they repent, they curse him. You would think that they'd have a fear of God and all these things would bring them to their knees where they would confess. And men were scorched with great heat and blasphemed the name of God, which hath power of these plagues.

And they repented not to give him glory. And so when God takes his hand off of man, man's depravity is seen. Man would never repent.

It's just like demons. You know, demons won't repent. They have no desire to repent.

So man in his fallen state is depraved. And if you're here this morning and you're not justified before God, you're in a state of being where God says, this is what I look at you. Your mouth, your throat, your feet.

It's not a good state of being. Even, and I think about youth, even the youth. Psalm 58 says, they come forth from the womb speaking lies.

You ever notice that children lie? I have some that do. In fact, all my children have lied. They come forth from the womb speaking lies.

We're living in a fallen world. Our nature is fallen. And as God, think about this, as God looks down upon humanity, let's say there's nine or 10 billion of them today.

He cannot justify humans. There is nothing here, nothing. Not one, not one that is righteous.

He cannot justify any of them. And we're all included in that, amen. He will not justify or cannot justify them based on their merit or based on obedience to the law.

If you look at chapter three here in verse 19, let's keep reading here. It says, now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore, by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight.

Yeah, well, I'll just turn over a new leaf. I'll try to do better. It's folly.

It's not gonna work. No flesh can be justified by the law, by obedience to the law, by human merit. And so I just wanna try to get that out of your mind.

And I'm gonna try to do better. I'm gonna work a little harder. I'm gonna give a little bit more.

I'm just going to try my best. I'm gonna turn over a new leaf. All those things are folly.

And so let's just try to think about how God looks at it from his vantage point, humans. They're a mess, literally a mess. And they're depraved.

And yet the Bible says in John 3, 16, one of those familiar verses for God so loved the world. He said, I want to save them. I don't want to lose them eternally because they are lost.

I want to save them. And so because he loves humanity, he has found a way or he finds a way to justify man. This is where justification comes into play.

He finds a way in which he can justify these individuals who are depraved. So let's keep reading here in verse 21. But now the righteousness or the justification of God without the law, he lay the law side is manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe for there is no difference.

Now, God in his wisdom decided that I will justify them. Nothing to do with their merit, nothing to do with their obedience to the law. That's not how I can do it because they're old laws.

They're depraved. I cannot do it that way. So I'm going to do it a different way.

I'm going to justify them on the basis of their faith in my son, faith in the work of my son. Righteousness or justification would occur based upon faith in Jesus Christ. Now to humanity, this is what's called good news.

Amen. It's called the gospel. This is good news from God's perspective, from the angelic world's perspective, God is going to open a way for these depraved humans who could not justify themselves to be justified in the sight of God, he has made a way.

Oh, heaven's rejoicing. God is going to make a way for humans. And by the way, you and I are one of them, humans.

And it's the only way. Jesus said, I am the way, the only way. You know, a lot of you came to church, different roads, different ways.

Some of you came up from the South. Some of you came from the North. Some of you came from the East.

Some of you visitors came different roads. And there are many ways to come to church here, but there's only one way to be justified in the sight of God. Now let's remember here that God is a just God.

I go to these campuses, have for a number of years, and I talked to a lot of Muslims. One of the things I bring up to Muslims, so one of the ways I try to deal with Muslims is, Muslims say, well, Allah just forgives. Allah just forgives.

You know, if you worship him, he'll just forgive. And I say, well, who's going to make atonement? Isn't Allah just? Doesn't someone have to pay for sin? No, no, Allah just forgives. And again, if you went to the court of law here in Mount Vernon, and someone was tried for murder, and the murderer walked in, and the judge said, I'm having a good day, and you're a lucky day today.

I'm just going to forgive you, and you can go free. The whole community would go crazy. Like, how can you be so unjust? And you know, the devil is also, he's also, he's wanting to accuse God of being unjust.

We're not going to read it, but in Zechariah chapter three, you know, Joshua the high priest stands before the Lord. He's got all these filthy garments. He's a mess, and the devil is standing there making accusation, and the Lord says, put on a robe and a white robe, put a miter on his head.

I'm going to justify him. And you know, the devil would like to accuse the Lord of being unjust. How can you do that? How can you just overlook this billions of humans who have just violated your law? And of course, we know that God is just, and he will, as the scriptures say, he will punish every transgression.

So sin must be atoned for, and we understand that. God became a human being. This is the gospel.

And he lived out a perfect obedience to the law. He has come not to destroy the law. He said, I came to fulfill it.

And then he went to the cross and placed all of the sins of humanity upon himself. And we talked about this in 2 Corinthians 5, but this is a beautiful verse. It says, for he hath made Jesus to be sin for us, who knew no sin, the Lord knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Now, not only is it that you and I get our sins removed, but we get his righteousness placed to our account. That's amazing. And God looks at you and says, you never sin, not only that, you've obeyed every law I've ever made.

That's gonna be a wonderful thing, isn't it? And the Lord is the lamb that suffers in our place. Not only does he take our sin, but we get his righteousness. Now, in the day of judgment, when you stand before the Lord, this is gonna be an amazing thing for you.

And we'll see a verse here in just a minute, but God's gonna say, you don't have any sin on your account, but all I see is the righteousness of Christ in you. Notice it says, for he hath made Jesus to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. And this occurs because you believe what I'm telling you here this morning, and you receive it for yourself.

Look at Romans chapter three here in verse 22. It says, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe. And so it's amazing, and I love the thought.

The Lord says, listen, I can't justify you based on your merit, based upon you're keeping my commandments. I'm gonna do it on the basis of you believing what my son has done for you. You believe it, and I'll justify you.

In verse 24, look what it says in chapter three there, being justified freely by faith. By his grace, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And that's the only way, you know that? I am the way, the truth, and the life.

But I love that word freely, being justified freely. It is not meritorious. It is something that God is doing freely.

And you can have it this morning freely, freely. Won't cost you anything. And turn over with me to Romans five.

Let's read a few verses here. This word gift shows up a number of places here in Romans five, verse 15, talking about the two Adams. It says, but not as the offense, so also is the free gift.

For if through the offense of one many be dead, much more the grace of God and the gift by grace, which is by one man, Jesus Christ has abounded unto many. And I trust you are one of those many. And not as it was by one that sinned, so is the gift.

For the judgment was by one to condemnation. That's what Adam brought to the world. But the free gift is of many offenses unto justification.

Justification, there's our word. For if by one man's death reign, for if one man's offense death reigned by one, much more they which receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness, the gift of justification shall reign in life by one. So this righteousness is something that God is offering man as a gift.

I'm gonna give it to you freely. Now, I have to think that people in hell who have come to realize that God was offering them a free gift of eternal life that through his son, that they're pulling their hair out of stupidity. Why in the world? Well, of course, the Bible says the devil blinds the minds of them, that Pharisee, he was blinded.

Thou blind Pharisee, you know, Pharisee, you keep looking at your own righteousness, you keep comparing yourself with others and it's blinding you to the reality of getting on your face like that poor publican and just crying out, God, I'm depraved, be merciful to me a sinner and humbling yourself and your eyes will be open. A lot of people need that today, man. Open your eyes, humble yourself under the mighty hand of God.

Now, it's a gift whereby grace are you saved through faith that not of yourselves, God's not gonna do it based on you, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. So when you stand before God, you can have this gift of justification. I'm gonna read to you here what'll happen to you and this is a familiar verse for all of us, but here's where you'll be.

Colossians 1 says, and you that were sometimes alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you, and here's justification, to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable in his sight. Wow, that's good, isn't it? Holy, unblameable and unreprovable. Who wouldn't want that in the day of judgment? God says, you're holy.

Why are you holy? Because I gave you my son's righteousness. You're unreprovable. Why are you unreprovable? I gave you my son's righteousness.

Unblameable. Why are you unblameable? I gave you my son's righteousness. I can just see people who are lost at that point, and say, what was I thinking? What was I thinking? I don't know how many of you turned down gifts, but if you wanna give me a gift, I'll take it, amen? I think Brother James and I's birthday's on the same day.

Isn't that right, Brother James? Okay, same week. You'll take a gift if I give you one. And James usually gives me a gift on my birthday.

I'd gladly take it. Amen. So God is offering humanity justification.

God declaring you just. This is justification by faith. Turn over to Romans 5 here real quick.

It's all right in here. We can't look at all these verses, but 5.1 says, therefore being justified by faith. Oh, that's what we want.

We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's how you find peace. If you do like the public and you say, God, I recognize I'm a depraved individual.

I'm a sinful individual, and I cannot justify myself on the basis of my human merit. I'm just gonna fall upon my face and say, Lord, you've done it. You justified me by your grace in the offering of your son.

I believe it. Amen. And it might do you good like I did when I was a 19-year-old young man, just to say, God, lift up your voice, save me.

Amen. Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Peace.

You know, if you're gonna stand before God someday on the day of judgment, and you know he's gonna say to you, you're holy, you're unblameable, and you're unapprovable, then you can have peace, can't you? Huh. Well, I can live my life and have peace because I know that I'm justified before God. When I stand before him in spite of my depravity, he's gonna say, Jerry, you're holy, unblameable, and unapprovable.

And I can live a happy life right now without any dread for the future, without any fear of dying because I believe. So God is offering humanity, and there are people here that still need to accept this wonderful offer. God is offering humanity an incredible opportunity.

It's incredible. Verse 26 of Romans chapter three, let's keep going here. It says, to declare, I say at this time, his righteousness that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.

God has done an amazing thing. He's got no one in heaven that can say, you're unjust. No, I'm just because I paid for the sin myself.

Every one of them, I'm just. They've been taken care of. And I'm just in saying to humanity, you can be justified on the basis of your faith.

In my son, verse 27, where is boasting then? It is excluded. Yeah, there's nobody in heaven's gonna say, but I was a good guy. I gave money.

I helped the church. I was a Pope. I did all these things.

That's humanity. That's the fallen nature. Boasting.

Where is boasting? It is excluded, or I could say it's eliminated. By what law of works? No, but by the law of faith. Verse 28, therefore we conclude that a man is justified.

That's our subject this morning, by faith without the deeds of the law. Verse 29 says, is he the God of the Jews only? Is he not also of the Gentiles? Is this something just for those Jewish people, the special people? No, it's for every human, Jew and Gentile. Verse 30, seeing it is one God which shall justify the circumcision by faith and the uncircumcision through faith, both circumcision and uncircumcision.

God says, I have a door open for both of you. You can come to me on the basis of faith in my son and the gospel. And I'll make you holy.

I'll give you my son's righteousness. Take your sin away. You can have peace with me.

You don't have to get on your knees and crawl a thousand miles to Mecca. You don't have to give all kinds of money. You don't have to weep and wail and pull your hair out.

Come to me. It might be good to come to me with humility, acknowledging who you are. Now look at verse 31.

Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid. Yea, we established the law. And here's something that's just a beautiful thing.

We come to the Lord. We come to Him not on the basis of the law, on the basis of commandments. We come on the basis of faith.

But after we are saved on the basis of faith, then the scripture says to go and teach them all things that I've commanded you. Why? Because God now wants you to live a righteous and a holy life before men. And so that law is not to be thrown out.

His commandments are not to be thrown out, although they will never justify you. Now God wants to do a work of changing you by those very commandments and sanctifying you more and more into the perfect day. Now someone asked the question, where is repentance in all this? Repentance.

Well, I like the publican. The publican said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. God, I'm changing my mind.

By the way, the word repent means to say I'm changing my mind, Lord. I'm not anymore justifying myself on the basis of my own merit, on the basis of your commandments and my obedience to them. I'm justifying myself solely on the basis of the death of your son.

I repent. And that publican acknowledged his condition. You know, that's one of the things the Lord's really looking for.

I'm a sinner. I'm depraved. And I see it in my nature.

I don't want it. I don't like the way I am. God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

An acknowledgement also that your righteousness is worthless. It's filthy rags. And I lay all that stuff down and I come to him by faith.

And I would hate to, my heart just, you know, I tremble just to think about it. I would hate to have such a beautiful door and opportunity. And you sit in a congregation week after week and not take advantage.

Now, you may not believe the Bible, I can understand that. You'll have to take your chances. I don't know, I know what you do believe in.

But if you do believe God's word, I would encourage you to embrace the work of the Lord and justification by faith. Embrace it. Just be honest with God.

Here's who I am. And that's my only hope. How many of you would say that's your only hope? Your only hope.

I think of myself, my humanity, and I can't, I don't have a chance. I don't have a chance to stand before God and to be a righteous person. There's no chance.

Not with me. And so the only chance I have is I have to cling to the work of the Lord Jesus on the cross. And I believe that.

And I trust in that. Thou art the Christ, the son of the living God. And every human has to make a choice.

What will you do with Jesus? You have to make a choice. Somewhere along that life's line, you have to make a choice. And it's God's heart that you would be justified by faith.

Well, that brings us here to this morning. I think we can just appreciate the work of the Lord on the cross. And so let's remember him with the Lord's supper.

And maybe if you're sitting here and you believe, you take this and you just thank God for it. Thank you, Lord. I personally wanna testify that my faith is in the Lord Jesus and his finished work.

That's how I'm justified. It's nothing about me. It's nothing about my works.

It's all about him. And in doing so, you take that bread and that wine and you thank God. And I believe that's one of the reasons why we're doing this as much as we do.

You do it often as you do it. Remembrance of me that this is the center of Christianity. And if you don't get justification, you got nothing.

You don't have justification, you don't have sanctification. You can't even start the process and you're certainly not gonna get glorification. Changed body, you're gonna be left in eternity with a corrupt body in a fiery hell.

And so let's give thanks to the Lord. Lord, I'd like you to take your red song book here. I'd like you to turn to the back.

We're gonna have a responsive reading this morning. Responsive reading is number 548. Why don't you stand to your feet with your red book? And 548, I'm gonna start with light colored words and you all can respond in the dark colored words.

You got in the back of your book, you have your responsive reading. Number 548, law and gospel. Many of our verses that we talked about here this morning are here.

Let's read down through here. Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law. Therefore by the deeds of the law, there shall no flesh be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

Even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that believe, for there is no difference. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith.

For you are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

You can be seated. Let's have a.