Well, it's so good to be here with
you. I just, I thank God. Turn with me to Romans chapter
eight. I thank God that we're able to assemble here. I was
thinking about that song. Tell me the old, old story. I
don't want to hear anything new. that hadn't been said from these
scriptures time and time and time again. It never grows old,
does it? Someone asked one time, don't
you have any new material? No, I don't, no. No, I don't,
I don't have any new material. Romans chapter eight. I'd like
to look at a couple of verses 33 and 34. Let's think about these questions.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is
God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us." Who born in Adam is going to call into debt? Who's going to bring a charge? against God's elect. The Lord Jesus Christ has died. Christ has borne the debt of
his people. Who can condemn those that God
has justified? God Almighty has justified of
people. Now, I'm going to do something
that I love to do, especially for my own sake. I like to define
these words again. We hear a lot of words, justification,
sanctification, propitiation. Whenever we hear these words,
let me tell you what you think. You think just what I think.
Now wait a minute. I know this. I know this. I know
this. Let me just think just for a minute. Justification. The scripture says, Who shall
lay, verse 33, anything to the charge of God's elect? It is
God that justifieth. What is it to be justified by
God? What is it to be justified before
God and God's law? Okay, here's what it is. It is
the act of Almighty God, the God of free and sovereign grace,
who has declared one of his own, chosen in the
Lord Jesus Christ, to be free from guilt. Free from deserving
punishment. No charge. No charge. Justify. Justify. And the reason
for this justification is because of the merit of the Lord Jesus
Christ and the shed blood that he shed, the shed blood of his
own body, that he shed before God, before men, upon the cross
of his sacrifice, and the imputed righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The charging, the actual application
of His righteousness, His righteousness to our account. He paid the debt
that we owed before God's broken law in full by His own blood and gave us, charged us, imputed
to us, to our account, His own blood. Righteousness, the righteousness
of Christ. And by his payment of our debt
and the charging of his righteousness to our account, justified, justified. Oh, the blessing of one that
has been made so before almighty God. Now this, I just want to
make a few comments about the truth of justification before
God. No charge, no debt. You say,
yeah, but I'm a sinner. He paid the debt. He paid for
it. But I still sin. He paid for
it. But I still find myself falling short. He paid for it. He charged us with his righteousness. There's a struggle going on in
every believer right now. I see two men in me. I see two
men in me too. Every believer does. Does that
ever get old to hear that again? No, that don't get old. You tell
me, I told you that last week. Well, by the grace of God, I'll
tell you next week too. I'll tell you why, because we're
all prone to forget. We forget. Prone to wonder. Lord, I feel it, prone to leave
the God I love. Now this truth of justification,
let me tell you this, the application of it, the merit of it, the truth
of it, is totally according to the free grace of God. What does that mean, free grace?
That means that you didn't deserve it. It was given according to
his good pleasure. He paid the debt of his people
and charged them with the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ freely. Romans 3.24, being justified
freely without a cause in you or me. There's no cause there. I can tell you right now. You're
just like I am. Ain't none of us worth killing.
We're all sinners by birth, by practice, by choice, being justified
freely by His grace. What's the merit of it? Through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. That is, there's no reason
in us The reason lies totally in the will and purpose of God
Almighty. It pleased God to save a people. It pleased Him to do that. It
pleased Him to bear their guilt in His precious Son, the Lord
Jesus Christ, God Almighty, and charge us with His righteousness.
The scripture declares that we, that is God's elect, are found
to be according to God's goodwill and purpose without accusation
that'll stick. Without accusation, it has not
been paid for. We don't have a charge that God
has not dealt with. God dealt with it. He dealt with
it. totally in the purse of Christ. Let me tell you why, why God
did this. It's such a simple sounding answer. It pleased him, it pleased him
to do so. It pleased him, he chose us. He chose his people, not because
they were worthy, There were none, there's none righteous,
not one. All of sin comes short of the glory of God. But he chose
us and redeemed us and called us by grace, justified us. And he condemnation
because he had laid all the charge on Christ. And he bore it, my
God, my God. hast thou forsaken me? You know
the answer, for thou art holy. And because God Almighty was
pleased to not lay to the account of his children, his people,
his church, his bride, his beloved, he charged it all to Christ. There's no skeletons in the closet,
I can tell you right now. There's nothing hidden, it's
all in open. And the total merit of our justification
before God, here's the total merit of it, the blood. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ,
Romans 5, 8 and 9. But God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us much
more than being now justified by his blood. We shall be saved
from wrath through him. And God Almighty would choose
to show mercy to such ones as we are. What
a miracle of God's grace. But also concerning this blessed
state of justification, we know it one way. by the revelation
of God's Spirit. It's the only way we know it.
This is the only way we know this. How would we know that God Almighty
has justified us freely by His grace? I'd never think that up.
You'd never know it. But God's been pleased to tell
us this. And this is how He tells us through
the preaching of His gospel. This is the good news. Got some
good news in this book. And it's the truth. of God's
pleasure to justify a people. Let me tell you what else he
does. He gives them a heart to believe it. You know why you
believe this? Because he has given you something
called faith. You weren't born with it. All
men have not faith. Faith Faith is the gift of God. Romans 3, 28. Therefore, we conclude
that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Now, let me clarify what I just
read, that scripture. We're justified by faith. Faith is the gift of God. Faith is not the cause of our
justification. The will and purpose and grace
of God is the cause of it. The grace given to, shown to, is believed
one way and we know it by the gift of faith. The grace of God, the grace of
God is the way we understand this. you're taught, you go to
school, you learn some things, and you grasp hold of some things. And you go to work and you've
got some knowledge of something. Well, when it comes to the understanding
of why God Almighty would justify a people, the only way we know
it is that God was pleased to teach us something about His
will and purpose to show mercy. And had he not given us faith
to believe it, you wouldn't believe it without faith. We know it by faith. Without
faith, no man can please God. No man can believe God. No man
calls upon God. Paul declared man is justified
by faith without the deeds of the law. He believes it. He justifies it. It's the evidence
of his justification. Faith is God-given grace and
means by which we comprehend our justification. The more I went over these notes
today, yesterday, the more I realize how little I know. But if Almighty God has given
me a heart to believe Him, then it's so to me. It's the truth
to me. He said that the merit of my
justification, of my no charge before him, the merit of it is
the blood of Christ. I've never seen the blood of
Christ with these eyes that are failing. I've never seen it,
but I've seen it with these eyes. New eyes, I'm gonna give you
new eyes. He'd give you a new heart. And I believe it. He'd give me faith to believe
it. You actually believe. Do you actually believe? You
ask to believe. Do you actually believe that
when the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, do you actually
believe that all of the guilt of your sin, you believe this,
was actually charged to Him? Do you believe that every sin
that you've committed, that you know and you don't know, How
much have we sinned since we've been here? I've said that so
many times. Where my mind has gone, where I thought this, thought
that, disrespectful. You mean to tell me that every
debt that I owe before God has been covered, atoned by the blood
of Christ? You believe that? Yes, I do.
Yes, I do. That's the only hope I got. If he hadn't put away
my guilt, then it's not put away. The blood of Christ, and he given
me faith to believe that. And I wanna come back and I wanna
hear it again if he gives me breath one more time. This may
be the last time I ever preach to you, I don't know. Just life for vapor. I don't know if I'll ever be
here again. But if Lord allows me to be here again, I may not
preach it out of Romans 8, but Lord willing, I'm gonna preach
the same message. Be out of a different scripture, but it's gonna be
the same truth. Grace, grace, sovereign, free
grace. And when does scripture declare
that God has beheld? When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. Here's another question I got
for you. When does the scripture say that Christ beheld the blood
of his lamb? Well, I've got a couple of answers
for that, and they're both scriptural. On the day that he laid down
his life, on the day that the Lord Jesus
Christ went on the hill of Golgotha, and was nailed to the cross and
cried unto his father, my God, my God. When those Roman soldiers
were there and they whipped him, they pierced his side. Did God see that blood? Yes,
sir. Yes, sir. But did he ever see
it before then? Well, let's ask God. Let's ask
the Lord. I don't wanna get somebody's
opinion here. I wanna get what God has to say.
Revelation 13, eight, and all that dwell upon the earth shall
worship him, that is the beast, whose names are not written in
the book of life of the lamb slain from the foundation of
the world. Now here's something that I just,
I have by faith, this is what I got. by faith, God Almighty,
and I believe this, and you that know Him believe it too. Almighty
God beheld the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb,
before the foundation of the world. Can I understand the depth
of that? No, but I believe it. Somebody said, well, you're putting
all your hope and fantasy in something that you can't see. I see it by faith. I believe it. I believe it. Whenever a person dies, to be
absent from this body is to be present with the Lord. Those
of our congregation and other congregations that died in the
faith, Where do you think they are? They're with the Lord. Where
is that? Wherever the Lord is. What's gonna happen? Whenever
he comes back, he gonna bring them with him. There gonna be
a new heaven, new earth. You believe that? Yes, I do.
That's good news to me. Our basis of faith is the word
of God. God's got a people. Christ has
loved them before the foundation of the world, bore their debt
in his own body. He was made sin. He was made sin before God. God
judged him for it. From the scriptures, we know
that God declared his people. Right now, are justified. They're justified. You're talking
about these sinners that I've been talking about? Yes, sir,
I'm talking about these sinners. Justified. What does that mean?
No charge. No charge. If I believed that,
I'd sin. I told you this recently. If
I believed that, I'd just do what I wanted to. That's what
I'm doing. I believe God. I believe Him. by God, by God's grace. Listen
to this. Before there was a sinner, before
there was a sinner ever created, God Almighty beheld, He beheld
the reality, the suredness of the sanctifying, justifying blood
therefore merit, before any sinner was ever made, before God made
man. Let us make man in our image.
Before God ever made man, there was the Redeemer. God saw
the blood. Before there was anything else,
in the beginning, God. And all that God has ever purposed
to do, We speak of justifications being
something that somehow, and this is the only way we can do it.
We think like that because we're creatures of time. Like I told
you, I don't know how to speak eternal. I don't know. I mean,
I can try to say it and I try to express it, but when I try
to speak of eternity, I don't have the words to say. I don't know how to speak eternal. It doesn't come out in my mouth
the way it is in my heart, and you know this. But listen to
this, before there was a sinner, before there was a sin committed
against God, there was a savior. There was
one that was the justifier. Listen, we speak of this justification,
I started to say a while ago, being something that begins in
time. Listen what scripture declares
when the scripture sets forth concerning this blessing. 2 Timothy
1, 8 to 10. Be not thou therefore ashamed
of the testimony of our Lord, nor me as prisoner. But be thou
partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power
of God, who hath saved us and called us with a holy calling,
not according to our works, but according to his own will, purpose,
grace, which was given us in Christ before the world began. but is made manifest by the appearing
of the Savior, Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, brought
life and immortality to light through the gospel. You're telling
me that before the world began, before there was a world created,
there was a Savior? Yeah. Nothing is new with God. God
is eternal. We're creatures of time. We're
creatures of just today and what we can see, what's fading. God
Almighty is God Almighty. Who's a God like a deity? Who's
a God like you? I want you to turn to Ephesians
1. Here's another. Ephesians chapter 1. I want to
read verses 3 to 7. We've read this so many times,
but it's so fresh. Ephesians 1, 3 to 7. Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ,
according as he has chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before
him in love. having predestinated us unto
the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself, according
to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of
His grace, wherein He hath made us accepted in the Beloved, in
whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of
sins, according to the riches of his grace, in whom we have
redemption through his blood. When was this book written? Well,
in time, I want to make a point. In time, it was written hundreds
and hundreds and hundreds of years ago. In whom we, who is the we that
the apostle Paul was speaking to. Well, he was speaking to
the church at Ephesus, that's true. He's speaking to God's
people, to the elect, to God's chosen. When did the elect that
have been born in our lifetime, when was these promises made
to them? How about those that have yet
to be born. If the Lord still has a people
to be born, which I believe he has, we're still here. God still
has a people, call them out. When did those words apply to
them? They've always applied to them. In whom we have redemption. God is eternal. Everything God
does is eternal. We're in time, he's eternal.
The justification, the declaration of the freedom from the guilt
and condemnation because of sin is freely, by God's grace, given
to God's people. It's based totally on the good
pleasure of Almighty God, the merit of the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ, and it's applied by God to whomsoever He will. The merit of it. God is eternal
in all that he does. Then the Lord declared this state
to be recognized by the world. It's by the free grace of God,
God's good pleasure, the merit and shed blood of Christ, imputed
righteousness. But the Lord has declared that
this state is recognized by God's people. There's something about
it. that they see that is the recognition of this truth. Now listen to this, James 2,
21-24. Was not Abraham our father justified
by works when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar?
See us how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith
made perfect. It means it reached its expression. The scripture was fulfilled,
which saith, Abraham believed God, and it, it was imputed. What? It was imputed, the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. The merit of it was imputed unto
him for righteousness. He was called the friend of God.
See then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith
only. Now I'm going to explain it.
I'm going to explain it. I know what it said. I know where
your mind went and everything. The truth of man's justification
before God is demonstrated and confirmed,
that justification, which is by the free grace of God, not
by works of righteousness that we've done. Abraham was not justified
because of his works. but he did something because
God had justified him. He didn't do these works that
he was talking about. He didn't offer Isaac in order
to be justified. What he did was he believed God
and he did something. because God had justified him,
given him heart. Not in order to be justified.
If it was that case, it'd be justification by works. It would
be by the works of man. No, the works of man is because
of a new heart. The truth of man's justification
is demonstrated and it's confirmed before men by this, a man's,
a woman's willingness to obey and believe God. I want to. I want to. Thy people shall be
willing in the day of thy power. Willing to what? Willing to follow
Christ. Willing to call upon the Lord. Willing to trust Him.
Are they justified because they did that? No. They do that because
God has justified them. Given them a new heart. True
faith. True faith, that heart of obedience,
is knit together with God's giving of a new heart, a new life in
justifying people. Works, we talk about the good
works. Our work of faith, our labor
of love, our patience of hope in Christ is not the cause of
our justification. People say, I got saved because
I, I'm going to give you some answer. I got in the water. I gave my heart to Jesus. I rededicated
my life. God's people never talked like
that. Not by works of righteousness that we've done, but are these
righteous works separated from God's people? No, sir. No, sir. It's a confirmation of what they
are. I love my wife. You don't know how I know that
I love my wife, because I got a heart for it. But you can't
see my heart. But my love for her is manifested
in a way that I treat her. And I act around her. And I act
around others because of my love for her. My actions is not what
made me love her. I loved her first. But this justification,
is a man justified by his works? Doesn't mean he's justified because
of his works. It means that he's going to act in a way that is
consistent. If there's anything that we have
done that's found to be the cause, we think, of our justification
before God, then our understanding of justification is wrong. We're
looking to ourselves for that. Then the scripture declares,
and I'll wrap this up, that our words are shown to be a revelation of our justification. Matthew 12, 37, for by thy words
shalt thou be justified, and by thy words shalt thou be condemned. And same thing as our works,
our words, our works. Are we justified because we said
a certain thing? You know, I've seen television
commercials. Somebody get on television and
they said, now listen, if you want to be saved, all you got
to do is say these words. I didn't know. Dear, dear Lord,
dear Lord, come into my heart, come into my heart. And they'll
repeat these words and they will put their merit, their hope of
salvation in those words, and that goes back to works. It's
all back to works again. A man is justified, he's justified
freely by God's grace. He's justified by the blood,
the shed blood, the merit of his justification is the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. He's justified by faith. Not because of it, he's justified
and it's known because he believes God. But you can't see faith
in me. You don't see it. How do you
know it? Because of what you evidence
in my walk. A walk that what? Has no inconsistencies
to it? No, I promise you, you're going
to see inconsistency in my walk. And you're going to hear inconsistency
in my talk. But even in the inconsistency
of my walk and my talk, there's still a new man there that loves
God. My faith that you can't see,
that God has given, is known by works. It's known by my speech. You'll know them. You'll know
them by their fruit. You'll know them. God's people confess that the
Lord His acceptance of them is totally according to God's grace. Justification is an eternal declaration
act of Almighty God, word of people, that he's everlastingly
loved and chosen in Christ according to his good pleasure. It's not
a state that comes into being in time. It's eternally purpose.
by Almighty God, but it's revealed in time, and the evidence of
it happens in time, and you see it in time, but according to
God's will and purpose, it was eternal. Was there ever a time,
now God who never changes, God Almighty who never changes, You think there's been a time
when he was at one state thinking one way and then another time
he was another state thinking another way? God doesn't change. There's no shadow of turning
with God. Everything is the same with God.
With you and me, no. It comes in stages. We see it. But we behold, Romans 4, 8, blessed
is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. That man that has been justified
according to God's eternal will, purpose, and grace. Justification. Justified. What a word we need
to hear again and again and again. Tell me the old, old story. Tell
me that story. Tell me one more time how he's been pleased to
put away my gift. Tell me one more time how he's never gonna
leave me. I've heard that. I've quoted that scripture before.
I'll never leave you. I'll never forsake you. Boy,
there's times that I've found for myself lately when I'd say,
Lord, you promised. Lord, you promised me. You promised
me. You'd never leave me. You'd never
forsake me. Lord, I believe you. I pray God bless these words
to our heart.