Turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter number 3. Romans chapter number 3. Find your place there in the pages of God's Word. Over the last several weeks we've been looking at the great words of the Bible. We looked at the sweetest word in the Bible, the word grace. We could say it's the most amazing word in the Bible. Aren't you glad for grace? The grace of God. And then the costliest word in the Bible, the word redemption. And we talked about what it means to be redeemed and we talked about the one who redeems us, the Lord Jesus, our great Redeemer that we stand who are saved. We stand redeemed. And then we talked about the most agonizing word in the Bible and that's cross. It was there where the Lord, it was His cross, not just any cross, but His cross. And it was there that He suffered in agony for my sins and for your sins. And then on a Sunday night we talked about the most paralyzing word in the Bible. We talked about the word fear. Fear will paralyze us. Faith will mobilize us. And then last Sunday, Easter Sunday, we talked about the most joyful word in the Bible, the word risen. Aren't you glad that He is risen? Aren't you glad for the message of the angel that first Easter morning? He is not here, but is risen. Come see the place where the Lord lay. And what an encouragement that we know that the Lord is alive today, that we're worshiping and serving a living Savior. But then this morning I want us to look at the most fascinating word in the Bible. The most fascinating word in the Bible. And you find it in Romans chapter 3. Of course it's in many places, but Romans chapter 3 and verse number 24 is where we're taking our text this morning. Romans chapter 3 and verse number 24. Notice the Bible says being justified. There it is. The most fascinating word in all of the Bible, the word justified. Being justified freely by His grace. through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Let's look at it one more time. Being justified freely by His grace. Aren't you glad it's free? By His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Did you notice in this one verse that there are three great Bible words that we're going to preach on today? There's the word justified, the most fascinating word in the Bible. the word grace, the sweetest word in the Bible, and the word redemption. And that's the costliest word in the Bible. All three of them in one verse. Isn't that amazing? And we want to look today at this great Bible word called being justified. What does it mean, preacher, to be justified? Let's pray together and ask God to help us. Father, thank you for your goodness, your mercy in our lives. Thank you for your Word today. Thank you for the comfort, the peace, the hope, and the help that we have from the Word of God in our hand and the Spirit of God who lives in the hearts of those who are saved. And Lord I pray you'll help me as I preach today. I confess to you my inadequacy, my insufficiency, but Lord you're all sufficient. My words are powerless, but yet Lord your word is powerful. Help me to say those things Lord that you once said today. Help your people to be attentive today. Lord, I pray for that one listening that's unsure of their eternal destiny. Lord, they don't know where they're going to go when they die. And Lord, I pray that through the service today and through the words that are spoken that they would come to know Christ and know what it is to have their sins forgiven and the hope of heaven. Lord, I pray that you would help us to lift up your Son this morning as we look at this great Bible word, the most fascinating word in all the Bible, The Word justified. Thank You, Lord. And we're going to praise You for it. In Jesus' name I pray. Amen. Well, a man by the name of George Barna has a Christian research group. And he published a book a number of years ago called The Index of Leading Spiritual Indicators. And what he did is he surveyed America wanting to know where America was spiritually. And in his survey through the series of questions, he found that most Americans believe that salvation being justified is an outcome to be earned through good behavior or doing good things. He went on to write that 6 out of 10 people believe that if a person is generally good or does enough good things, for others during their life. This is what most people believe. That if a person is generally good or does enough good things for others during their life, they will earn a place in heaven. And the survey also revealed a growing tendency to believe that all good people go to heaven And all people that are bad go to hell. And they think that if you stop doing certain bad things, you start doing certain good things, that you're going to heaven. Well, I'm going to let you in on a truth today. Good people don't go to heaven and bad people don't go to hell. Justified people go to heaven. People who are not justified spend eternity apart from God in a place called hell. There was a lady arguing with her pastor about this matter of being justified and this matter of faith and works and earning your way to heaven. And she said, I think going to heaven is like rowing a boat. She said, one oar is faith and the other oar is works. And together, she said, if you use both those oars, you'll get there. But if you only use one of those ors, faith or works, it'll just spin you around in circles. And the pastor looked at her for a minute and he said, Well, ma'am, there's only one thing wrong with your illustration. She said, Well, what could that be? He said, Nobody's going to heaven in a rowboat. You see, there's only one good work that'll take you or anybody else to heaven, and that's the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross by which you and I can be justified. You see, that is the heart of this matter of being justified. That a man is not saved, he doesn't go to heaven, because of what he does or what he doesn't do, or by keeping the Ten Commandments, or by some kind of religious effort, or any other things that might be mentioned by which a man would try to get to heaven. But according to our passage that it's something that's free, we're justified freely, it's by grace, and you're going to find a little bit later on in verse 28 where you're going to find the word justified again, that it's through faith and it's all because of the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross. Now the word justified is used nine times in the book of Romans. You could go through the book of Romans, read the 16 chapters, take a pen, a different color pencil, and you can mark the times you'll find the word justified or justification. And you're going to find that the word justified is used nine times, four times, in Romans chapter number 3. It's used in verse number 4. If you look over there in your Bible, middle part of the verse, "...that thou mightest be justified in thy sayings, and mightest overcome when thou art judged." And this was the idea of men judging God by this fact of giving salvation free. They were saying, God, you're overlooking sin. And God's saying, no, I'm not overlooking sin. I'm just. Sin is dealt with. And friend, listen, let me just tell you. God doesn't overlook anybody's sin. He always deals with sin. But friend, listen. Sin has been dealt with or will be dealt with in one of two places. It's either dealt with by Christ on the cross or it'll be dealt with in every one of us in a place called hell. That's the only two places that God deals with sin in that matter. And God's saying because He is just, okay? and that through His Son the penalty for sin has been paid, then He is the justifier of them which believe in Jesus and He's justified, He's right in doing so because sin's been dealt with. Look over if you would again in verse number 20. He said, "...therefore by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh, not some flesh, Not a lot of flesh, not a few people, nobody. No flesh be justified in His sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. God right there in that verse said that you can't be justified by doing good things. The only way you can be justified in His sight is through Jesus Christ. Then we read verse 24, being justified freely by His grace. I hope you're marking that we're justified in your Bible. by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Now look over at verse number 28 of Romans chapter 4. Therefore we conclude. Paul said, let me sum it all up for you. That a man is justified by faith without or apart from the deeds or the doings of the law or keeping the Ten Commandments. Did you notice that? And so that's what he's sharing with us. Now, the word justified, what does it mean? When you say that this is the most fascinating word in the Bible and probably going to be preaching this in a couple different messages because it's just such a vast such a vast truth when we talk about this matter of being justified. Preacher, what does that word mean? What's the term mean? I want you to understand that it is a courtroom concept. Imagine us being in a courtroom, but not just any courtroom, God's courtroom. And there is a prosecuting attorney. And the prosecuting attorney is the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is convicting us or showing us our sin. He's laying the evidence. We're guilty before God. God is the judge. And here I am, I'm the defendant, and you know what? Everything the prosecuting attorney, the Holy Spirit is saying is true. I'm guilty. I'm a sinner. I deserve to be condemned. And you know what? If we leave it right there, okay? And the prosecuting attorney who's convicting me, he's laying out the evidence that I've broken the law of God, I've disobeyed God. Listen, if God the Father right then was to make the judgment, boom! The gavel would fall. And you know what he would say of Kevin Broil? Guilty. Guilty. Do you know what He'd say of every human being? Guilty. Guilty. You know what I'm glad of? I'm glad that's not all that's going on in that courtroom. I'm glad that there is a defender. I'm glad there's someone there who is my defender. Isn't that a blessing? And notice, friend, that there's someone to deal with this sin. And so I'm glad that the gavel can fall and the sentence doesn't have to be guilty in the life of every person. Thank God! We can be justified. We can be declared not guilty. Isn't that amazing? So it is a legal term used in a court of law back in Paul's day, even in our day today. And judges would use that same word. To be justified is the opposite of being condemned. To be condemned is to be declared guilty. To be justified is to be declared not guilty. Isn't that amazing? It's to be declared right. Hey, friend, listen. You're going to learn. It's more than just being declared not guilty. It's being declared righteous. So to be justified is to be declared by the righteous judge of the universe that a person is just or they are right in the sight or the eyes of God. Friend, listen, can I tell you the gavel has fallen in every one of our lives and the reality of it is it's not we're going to get out there in eternity one day and find out whether we're condemned or not condemned. That's true of us right now. Every one of us is either guilty, we're condemned, or we have been justified. We are not guilty. We are not condemned. Do you realize that? Friend, listen, it's not a matter of hoping you get out there and God says, well, you know what? You're not condemned. No, friend, the Bible said if you've never been saved by the grace of God, you're condemned already. So being justified is the free and gracious act by which God declares a sinner right with himself. Friend, I'm glad over 35 years ago the gavel fell in heaven and God said of Kevin Broyhill, justified. Not guilty. I had been guilty. Friend, listen. Had I died, I would have stood before God as a condemned sinner on my way to an eternity in the lake of fire. But thank God, hey, I was able to settle out of court. Isn't that a blessing? Friend, I was able to be declared not guilty. I was justified. It is the free and gracious act by which God declares a sinner right with Himself, forgiving them, pardoning them, restoring them, accepting them on the basis of faith in Christ alone. So we're going to learn some facts of justification. Here's fact number one. You say, preacher, what is it? The law. We've already seen this in our passage. The law cannot save you. The Ten Commandments can't save you. Doing the best you can can't save you. Trying to be a good person can't save you. Trying to quit sinning and start doing some good things in your life and adding some positive things in your life will not justify you before God. It will not justify me before God. Fact number one, the law cannot save you. Look over at verse number 28. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Look over at verse 20. of Romans 3. Therefore by the deeds, the doings of the law, there shall no flesh..." Friend, nobody's going to get out into eternity and God say, hey, you've been so good, so great, so wonderful. You have done the very best you could do. Friend, I'm going to let you in. Friend, that will not happen. As a matter of fact, the Bible said nobody will be justified in His sight because the law was not given to save us. It was given to show us what we are, that we're sinners and we need a Savior. Thank God. The Bible says that no amount of self-effort, no amount of good works, no amount of adhering to a list of rules will make us right with God. As a matter of fact, God never intended for the law to be a means of salvation. He says that the deeds of the law, but no flesh will be justified by the law, is the knowledge of the sin. The purpose of the law was not to save men, but to condemn men, to show us that we needed to be justified. Friend, listen. If there wasn't a law that I'd broken, I'd never know I needed to be declared righteous or to be justified. God shows me what I am so that He can give me what I need and that is to be justified. As a matter of fact, you know it's amazing how people think that they can be saved by doing good things or keeping the Ten Commandments. But you know, it's amazing. They sort of treat them like a buffet line. Well, you know, I ain't never killed anybody and I've never stolen anything that I know of, you know, purposely or anything like that. And you know, over here we sort of go through the list, but let me ask you a question. Have you loved the Lord thy God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength every moment of your life? Jesus said that was the great commandment. Have you treated your neighbor every time, every time as you would yourself? Every time? That's what Jesus said was next to that great commandment because He said all the Ten Commandments hang on those two things. Loving God with all my heart and loving my neighbor and treating him as I would myself. Matter of fact, you know what truth is? Every one of us has failed, haven't we? Matter of fact, we sort of want to pick and choose what we're guilty of or not guilty of, but I just want to remind you the Bible said we can try to keep the whole law, but James said if we offend in one point, we're guilty of all of it. We've broken this thing called the law of God and therefore we're guilty and we need to be saved. As a matter of fact, Galatians 3 verse 12 says, The man that doeth them shall live in them. It's not just starting to live them. Friend, that's something a person would have had to have done their entire life. That means that we would have had to have been perfect before God. And you know what? I talk to people all the time and I'll say, Do you know anybody that's perfect? They'll say, No, I don't know anybody that's perfect. You know what? I've got good news. There's one who is and his name is Jesus. Friend, listen, He not only died a death, I couldn't die, but thank God He lived a life I couldn't live. He kept every one of the law of God perfectly. Friend, the Bible said that He did no sin. He knew no sin and in Him was no sin. Thank God for that. He lived a life. You know, He lived the law for me. He's my substitute and He died in my place because I couldn't keep it. And so, fact number one, the law cannot save me. Fact number two, I want you to jot this down. The Lord can save you. Isn't that a blessing? I think we'll just stop and say Amen right there. Look at verse number 24. Verse 23 said, All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We've all fallen short of God's glory. We've all broken the law of God. You know what that glory of God is? That word come short has the idea of missing the mark or missing a target. I'm not much into this thing called archery. I've tried it for a while. A lot of people get into bow hunting and shooting archery and all that kind of stuff. And I tell you what, I'm just not really, I couldn't hit a barn with one, really. I've tried it before. But you know, you got a target out here and the idea when you pull back with that bow and you let the arrow go, I mean, you're not just aiming for the target, you're wanting to hit right in the center of the bullseye. That's what you're after. It's what I'd be after, right? Or shooting a gun, a rifle. I'm aiming. Boy, I've got the crosshairs on that bullseye right in the center. I'm trying to hit it. But the idea is that I just don't miss the bullseye. That word comes short means like shooting that arrow. It don't even hit the target. I dig up in the ground before it ever got there. God said, friend, it's not that we just miss the mark a little bit. We don't even hit the target. We've all fallen short of the glory of God. And notice verse 24. But aren't you glad we don't have to stay that way being justified? Hey, I'm a sinner. But when it comes to verse 24, I can be justified. I can be declared not a sinner. Isn't that amazing? Being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Now notice verse 24 links justification with redemption and the bridge is grace. Did you notice that? Justified is what I need to be. I need to be just in the sight of God, right with God. The only way I can do that is through the redemption, the payment for my sins in Christ Jesus and grace is the bridge that gets me from justification to redemption or from redemption to justification. For in because of God's grace, Christ died for my sins and therefore because He died for my sins, God in grace can justify me. Isn't that an amazing truth? That's why it's so fascinating that God would take guilty sinners like you and I and say, listen, I love you so much, I'm going to pay the debt you owe. I'm going to pay for your sin through my son Jesus Christ, and then I'm going to treat you when you trust my son just like you've never sinned. Isn't that amazing? That's why it's so fascinating. Salvation being justified is not a human achievement but a divine accomplishment. Salvation is not something I do for God, but it's something that God's done for me through His Son Jesus Christ. It's not a reward I earn. It's a gift I receive. Notice the key here that the Bible tells me that it's by faith. that I'm justified by faith. I receive it through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Notice in verse 28, Therefore we conclude, we sum up the entire matter, that a man is justified, he's declared right with God, he's declared not guilty, not condemned by faith. Did you see that? from the deeds or the doings of the law. Friend, that is a plain statement of Scripture. I mean, there's no question. It didn't say that being baptized. It didn't say joining a church. It didn't say having religion. No, it is by faith in Jesus Christ that I'm justified. It's by faith. Galatians 3.16 said, Even we have believed in Jesus Christ, that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, not by the works of the law. For by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. A person is justified by faith in Christ and Christ alone. works can't save us, but Jesus can. So the law can't save us, but the Lord can save us. Isn't that a blessing? For listen, we're drowning in our sins, thank God. There's a life preserver. There's someone who can save us and His name is Jesus Christ. He's the person of justification. It's centered in Him. We're declared righteous in Him. I'm not declared righteous because God's just wiping all my sin out. No. It's because my sin's been paid for. That's why. And notice it's because of His redemption. It's through the precious blood of His Son Jesus Christ. I want you to look over one chapter to chapter 4 and look at verse number 25. Would you do that? Look over at Romans chapter 4 verse 25. who was delivered for our offenses, you could say crimes against God, and was raised again for our justification. Did you see that? It's through His death and resurrection that you and I can be delivered from our offenses and declared just or justified. In order to justify sinners, God didn't overlook sin. He dealt with it. At Calvary, God took all of our sin and guilt and placed it on His Son. And there, friend, the wonderful truth is that His Son died for our iniquity. Who can imagine the number of sin, the nastiness of sin that was placed on Christ? But yet, when He shed His blood, He fully, finally, and forever, and freely, paid the penalty of sin and God's justice was satisfied. There's another great word in our text. I want you to look at verse number 25 of Romans 3. I want to show you another great word. Look at verse 25. Whom God hath set forth. Now he mentioned Christ Jesus in verse 24. Then he comes down in verse 25. Whom. Alright, so Christ Jesus verse 24 is the whom of verse 25. whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood to declare His... not my righteousness, His righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through the forbearance or the long-suffering of God. Look at that word propitiation. That is a great big $3 theological word. And you say, Preacher, I can't even hardly say it. What does it mean? It just means to be satisfied. That Jesus Christ satisfied, He propitiated Satisfied the demands of God's law through His death on the cross, through faith in His blood, God is satisfied. Friend, do you realize that I'm a sinner and the moment that I put my faith in Jesus Christ for salvation and His blood that was shed for me, at that moment God is satisfied that my sins are forever dealt with and gone. Isn't that amazing? To me it's fascinating. How do you get it, preacher? Look at verse number 25 again. I already mentioned it. Alright? Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith. By faith. That word faith is not just believe it's all true. I believed it's all true for 17 years of my life. It means to depend on. It means to trust. The moment I put my trust... I quit trusting me. I quit trusting my religion. I don't trust the Pope, a preacher. a church, a religious act. That's what repentance is by the way, the most forgotten word in the Bible. And it might be a mess in the future. But anyway, I repent. I change my mind. Those things can't save me. And I put my faith in Christ because He can save me. At that moment, I'm declared right before God or justified. I put my trust in Jesus Christ. I quit trusting what I've done or can do or what somebody else can do for me. And I trust in Christ alone. And at that moment, God declares us forgiven. Now, Christian, let me tell you how great this is. Okay, you ready? You may have been justified at five years old when you trusted Christ or nine years old. For me it was 17. For somebody else it might be 45. I have no idea. But the moment that you trusted Christ as your Savior, friend, the gavel fell in heaven and God said not guilty. God said justified. At that moment, God said, not condemned. Isn't that powerful? Now let me tell you that being justified is more than just an acquittal. It's more than being acquitted. That means I've successfully defended myself against the charges and therefore the judge says, okay, you've defended yourself. I acquit you of the crimes. Oh no, that didn't happen. Friend, I didn't have a defense. I'm guilty. There's another thing I can say. I'm guilty. I've done what's been charged. I'm guilty as charged, not acquitted. Friend, listen. I've been justified because those sins have been taken care of. It's more than being pardoned. I'm thankful for the pardon and we understand that, but justification is more than being pardoned. You see, pardoned... is to be found guilty but I'm given a second chance. So when the president pardons someone he's not saying they're not guilty. He's just saying that because of this I'm going to give you a second chance. God doesn't give second chances in the area of salvation. That's a decision that I either trust Christ or I don't. It's not like, well, you know, Kevin, for about 17 years you haven't been doing real good and you've really been messing up bad. But I've got good faith in you that you're going to turn it all around and I'm going to give you a second chance. I'm going to pardon you. That's not what God does. No, He can't. Because God's just and therefore sin has to be dealt with. It's not being paroled. It's not being found guilty, serving a little bit of the sentence, and then with some certain restrictions being paroled. No. You see, if I'm acquitted, I'm pardoned, or I'm paroled, there's still a record of our sin. Did you know that? I still got a record. You'd still have a record. But God takes it a step further. When God said justified, when God declares us righteous in Christ, friend, listen, there's no record. As a matter of fact, my sin's gone. It's taken away. You know, friend, you can go to the file cabinet in heaven, you can go to the bees, you can open the drawer, you can go back to the B-R-O-Y, you can pull Broyhill, you can open it up at Kevin Broyhill, and there is no record, friend. righteous, it's clean before God in heaven. I'm justified in His sight. Isn't that wonderful? There's no record of sin. A number of years ago, before warranties on automobiles were commonplace, a wealthy Englishman had purchased a Rolls Royce. and took it on vacation to the south of France. That means they took it across the English Channel. He was going to ride through Europe. He was going through the south part of France and it broke down. He wired back to the factory and the company flew a mechanic over to France from England to diagnose the problem. Excuse me, from England to France to diagnose the problem. And so after determining what was wrong, the mechanic flew back to England, picked up the parts, flew back to France, and then he fixed the problem, sent the man on his way. And the man expected there'd be a sizable bill for the services rendered, but time passed and no bill came. Finally the man wrote a letter to the Rolls-Royce factory thanking them for the excellent service he had received when his car broke down, how they had gotten on it, and all the things that the mechanic went through to fix his Rolls-Royce. And he said, listen I know that there's a cost and he said, I want you to send me a bill and I'll take care of it. Time went by and he hadn't received a bill and then suddenly a letter showed up in his mailbox. That's what they called them over there, a letterbox, from the Rolls-Royce company. And he opened the letter and here's what it said, Dear Sir, We have no record of anything ever having gone wrong with a Rolls-Royce. They didn't even acknowledge that he ever broke down. They never acknowledged the mechanic that flew from England to France, back to England, back to France, fixed it, flew back with all the... said, we don't have any record. When the devil brings up my past and he brings up your past as a Christian, and he brings up our sin before God, you know what God's reply is? I have no record that one of my children's ever done anything wrong. That's amazing, isn't it? That's justification. A Christian stands before God just as if they had never sinned. We've never done anything wrong. There's no record. It's gone. Friend, when the devil digs up your past, why don't you just take the time to show him his future? Because we don't have a past. You know, when a person's born again, regeneration, another great Bible word. When a baby's born, baby doesn't have a past. All it's got is a future. When I was born again in February 1984, brand new baby in Christ, I didn't have a past. All I had was a future. Friend, my past is gone. And if you've trusted Jesus Christ, your past is gone. Friend, I'm glad God says we're not guilty. Now let me give you three facts. I'm going to close the service, okay? when it comes to this thing of being justified and the Lord justifying us, it's individual. God doesn't justify people in mass. It is an individual. Look at verse 28 of Romans 3. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified. That means that in order to be justified it's the decision. God wants to justify us. As a matter of fact, God wants to justify us more than we want to be justified. It's a man that has to be justified. And so once the person who recognizes they need to be justified individually comes to the Lord. See, I can't be justified for you. You can't be justified for me. You have to make the decision. I want to be justified. It's individual. It's amen. Watch this. It's instantaneous. Therefore we conclude that amen is, present tense, justified. It's not, well, one day I'm going to go out there in heaven and I'm going to stand before God and I hope it all works out and that God's going to declare me justified and not righteous and I'm going to get into heaven. No, no, no. Friend, listen, the moment you trusted Christ as your Savior, not only was it individual, it was instantaneous. The moment we said, Lord, save me. The moment we believed on His Son, the gavel in heaven fell and God said, justified. Freely forgiven. Sins are gone. My child, there's no record. He's my child. Isn't that a wonderful truth today? You ought to hit that emoji button and say amen right there. Maybe some hallelujah hands. I don't know how that works. Individual. It's instantaneous. And I've got one step further. It's irreversible. It's irreversible. Would you look over just a few chapters with me to Romans chapter number 8? You see, the person that believes you can be saved and lost, saved and lost, that you can lose your salvation, they don't understand God's salvation. They really don't. They don't really understand the depth to which God went to save us and the depth to which God goes in salvation. They don't grasp it. As a matter of fact, they don't grasp the great depth of this matter of being justified. God says it's irreversible. Once you are justified you can never be unjustified. God's not going to come back and say, you blew it right there. I'm going to have to take that away. No, God doesn't do that. Look at Romans chapter 8 and find verse number 1. Romans chapter 8 verse number 1. There is therefore now. That's another great Bible word by the way. At this moment. There is therefore now at this moment no, not some, not a little, no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. Meaning that we are no longer in the flesh, realm of the flesh, but we now have the Holy Spirit living inside of us because we're converted, we're redeemed, we're saved, we're justified. There is now no condemnation. There is a law on the books of America that's been there from the inception of our country. It's called double jeopardy. Double jeopardy. You know what that means? That means that you can't be tried for the same crime twice once you have been declared not guilty of that crime. Now that's not talking about a mistrial. are not talking about additional evidence. It's not what it's talking about in that regard. What it's saying is once the judge has declared you not guilty of a crime, you can never be tried in a court of law in America again for that particular crime. Can I tell you that came from God? Because God doesn't practice double jeopardy. Once God has declared us to be justified before Him, He'll never try us for those crimes again. You know what that means? That means I'm never going to face my sin again. You say, Preacher, but you don't know how bad I am. You don't know what I've done. You don't know the skeletons that are in my closet, Preacher. Can I tell you, in the eyes of God there aren't any skeletons. Because there's no record of your sin. There's no record of my sin. They're gone. God doesn't have any record that any of His children ever did anything wrong. You know why? Because they've all been taken out of the way by His Son Jesus Christ through His cross and therefore there is now no condemnation. at this very moment, and that is ongoing. There's never going to be a time that something's going to come up and God, oh, wait a minute, let me look at that justification matter. No, absolutely not. See, because God, when He justified me, He didn't just justify me from some of my sins or from my past sins. Friend, He justifies us from all our sin, past, present and future. You say, well, how in the world can God justify me from sins I haven't committed yet? Can I remind you that all your sins and my sins were future before Jesus died on the cross? That God in His omniscience took the sin of the entire world and He took that and He laid it upon His Son. And friend, He died for all sin, past, present, future. I have been justified, freely forgiven. I am not condemned. And friend, can I tell you, I will never be condemned. Isn't that a wonderful truth? What confidence! What assurance, what blessedness to be justified. Let me ask you a question. Have you been justified? Have you been declared not guilty by God? For him, can I tell you, that's the most wonderful fact that can be said of any human being. Really, there's only two kinds of people on planet earth. We want to divide people in all kinds of race categories, social categories, finance categories. We put people in all kinds of... But God only has two categories. Justified, not justified. Condemned, not condemned. Saved. Lost. That's the only categories God has. We're either justified or we're not. And friend, if you've never been justified today, you're under a state of condemnation. God doesn't want you to be that way. He loves you. He wants you to be saved today. He sent His Son Jesus Christ to Calvary's cross in order to justify you. He did. Me. He wants you to be saved today. You can be saved today. You can. You can. Let's bow our heads in prayer.