Morning, everybody. As always,
good to be here. Good to see you all. If you want
to turn to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. We're going to consider the first eight
verses of Romans 5 this morning. We'll read them first, see what
Paul has to say here. Romans chapter 5, and just pick
up there in verse 1. Paul says, therefore, being or
having been, past tense, justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience,
and patience experience and experience hope. And hope maketh not ashamed,
because the love of God is shed abroad or manifest in our hearts
by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. For when we were yet
without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.
For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure
for a good man. Some would even dare to die.
But God commendeth or displays his love toward us in that while
we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now the first word in the beginning
of chapter 5 here is that word therefore. Therefore it's in
big bold letters if you look down at it there. Therefore.
And what that means is consequence. So we live in a world of consequence.
There is cause and there is effect. I'm thirsty therefore I drink.
I drink, therefore I am no longer thirsty. Cause and effect. And
therefore speaks of the effect or the necessary consequences
of something. And what Paul uses these first
eight verses for is to give us the effects or the necessary
consequences of justification. Now, justification or being justified. What does it mean to be justified? It means to be made not guilty. It means to be made innocent,
to where you have no sin, you have no transgression, you have
no iniquity. When God looks at that man who
is justified, he's perfect and righteous before him. Now, I
wonder if any of us here this morning, speaking myself first,
have an interest in this thing, in this thing of being justified. We should. We very much should,
and I'm going to give you two reasons why. Number one, because
of the character of Gunn. Who is he? Well, number one,
amongst many other attributes, I'll give you three, he is sovereign. He is absolutely sovereign. That
means he is in absolute and utter total control at all times. Nothing moves, nothing happens,
nothing goes on without it being according to his purpose that
he purposed before the foundations of the world were ever built.
Nothing moves a muscle, not a hair falls from your head that is
not according to his purpose. He's in control. He rules and
he reigns. And since that is the case, that
means he has the power and he has the authority to judge me
and to judge you. He is holy. That means he's other,
he's different, altogether different than you and me. He's righteous
and pure and he's immutable. That never changes. He had no
beginning of days, he will have no end of days and he is always
the same, always perfect. And this is true holiness. The
standard of what is perfect, what is good, what is righteous
is what he does and what he thinks and what he says. He is the one
who creates the standard. Did he do it? It's holy, it's
perfect, it's righteous. That's him, that's who he is.
And because that's who he is, that means he has the right to
judge me and to judge you. He has the power, he has the
authority, and he has the right, he has the moral standing to
judge me, the right to do so. And this is the third thing you
need to know about him. He has a perfect sense of justice. Absolutely perfect. So much so,
this is what Exodus 34.7 says about him. It says, keeping mercy
for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and
that will by no means, no circumstances whatsoever, will clear the guilty. How guilty? James 2.10, for whosoever
shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is
guilty of all. Now that's theoretical language
because no man, no man, save the Lord Jesus Christ, has ever
kept the law, not one time. Not in his heart. But James says,
this is how just God really is. This is his perfect sense of
justice. If a man were to live an entirely perfect life and
offend in one point, he has offended, he has violated the entire law. And he will by no means clear
the guilty. That's the first reason you should
care about this thing of justification. Who God is. Here's the second
reason I'll give you. It's because of who you and I
are. This is what Romans 3.19 says. It says, now we know that
what thing 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. What did Exodus 34.7 say? He
will by no means clear the guilty. What did this say? All the world
is guilty. We're born in this world God-haters.
We're born in this world breaking God's holy law. We're born guilty. Now we should all have an interest
in this thing of justification. And I hope there is a question
that is brewing in you right now. I want to speak to you this
morning, Lord willing, as if you've never heard the gospel
before. And I hope that there is a question brewing in you
right now because it's a question that has been asked by every
generation that there has ever been. You go back to the oldest
book in the Bible, the book of Job. Job asked this question.
This is the question. How should man be just with God? That's always been the question.
How can man be just with God? Is there any hope for us at all?
Well, Paul uses the first four chapters of Romans to describe
this, to answer this question. How can a man, how should a man,
be just with God? And I want to show you some scriptures
here. Now, disclaimer, I'm going to give you four or five scriptures.
I'm going to give you time to turn to them. If you think you'll
get lost turning pages, it's OK. Don't turn to them. I'll
read them. We'll talk about them a little bit. But if you want
to, I want you to see what the scriptures have to say. I've
been thinking about this all week. It doesn't matter what
I think. And it doesn't matter what you
think. And my opinion doesn't matter. And my thoughts don't
matter. The only thing that matters is what this book says. This
is what God has to say. And in this book, it's the truth.
And it's to be believed. It must be believed. It's not
in here. It's a lie. And there's nothing else to it.
That's it. This is everything God has to
say. So this thing of justification. How should a man, how can a man
be just with God? We better know what God has to
say about that. So the first one I want you to turn to is
Romans chapter 4 and look at verse 5. Just one chapter back. Romans 4, 5. Paul says, but to
him that worketh not. He didn't do anything. Not trying
to earn anything. But believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness. Now, there's a whole lot in there.
You could talk all day about that. That deserves its own message.
But there's one thing I want you to key in on there. It's
this phrase right here. But believeth on him that justifieth. There is someone, someone who
justifies. And it's not us. Justification
is up to the ability and up to the wisdom and up to the will
and up to the choice of somebody, to a man. But it's not you and
me. It's not you and me. Justification can only be accomplished,
it can only be done by one man. That's it, Jesus Christ. He is
the one who justifies. That's it. Now, here's the second
scripture. Look over Romans 3 and look at
verse 28. Paul says, therefore we conclude,
all three chapters of Romans up to this point, this is the
conclusion of all of it, therefore we conclude that a man is justified
by faith, listen to these words, without the deeds of the law. It can't be earned. That's what
we can take from that. This thing of justification,
you and I can't earn it. There's absolutely nothing we
can do to influence God. Anything we'd bring to Him, anything
we'd say, you should justify me, you should do something for
me, you should accept me because I, and we put in what we did
or what we didn't do. Or what we thought or what we
didn't think. Or a choice we made or a choice
we didn't make. Something like that. Anything that comes from
me, there is no justification in that. Justification is impossible
by the law, by the deeds of the law. That thing of the deeds
of the law, all that speaking is, is anything you or I do.
That's it. That's what he's talking about
there. Then how? If I can't earn it, if there's nothing I can
do to manipulate God, if there's nothing I can do to earn my way
into justification, how can a man be just with God? Is there any
hope? Is there any hope? This is what Paul says, he says,
we conclude that a man is justified by faith. By faith. The question is this, whose faith
is he talking about? Is he talking about my faith?
Does God respond to me, I muster my own faith? And God responds
to me with justification because I came up with faith? No, no,
no, no, no. Turn to Galatians chapter 2. Galatians chapter 2, look at
verse 16. Whose faith are we talking about
here? Paul says, knowing, rest assured of this, that a man is
not justified by the works of the law. That's just over and
over again in the scripture. But listen to this, but by the
faith of God. Jesus Christ. That word of, of,
it's so important there, whose faith justifies God's people? The faith of Jesus Christ. Go
and read it. Even we have believed in Jesus
Christ that we might be justified, he feels the need to say it again,
by the faith of Christ and not by the works of the law, for
by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified. How can a man be just with God?
justification by faith, by whose faith? The faithfulness of Jesus
Christ on a man's behalf. That's the faith that justifies
a man. Christ was faithful. He was absolutely
faithful in doing exactly what his father sent him in this world
to do. What did he send him to do? John
6.39 says, And this is the Father's will which is sent me, that of
all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise
it up again at the last day. His father gave him a people.
They're called the elect. We just sang about him in that
bulletin hymn over and over. The elect, the elect, you read
this book, you're gonna read about the elect, a chosen people
before the foundations of the world. The father gave them to
Christ. He said, you're gonna do everything,
everything that is necessary to save these people. Live for
them, establish the righteousness, die for them, bear their sins,
put them away. And you do that, I will raise
you again at the third day. And that's gonna be the sign,
that's gonna be the token that what you've done, I've accepted,
and you were successful. That's how justification was
accomplished. This is what Romans 4.25 says.
This is Paul speaking of Christ. He says, who was delivered for
our offenses and was raised again for our justification. Christ delivered himself for
his people. He willingly took on the sins
of his people. He willingly went to the cross
and the father's wrath. You want to know how just God
really is. You want to know how holy God
really is. His darling son, when he found
sin on him, he didn't withhold his wrath. He poured it down
upon him. Everything that was reserved
for every member of the elect was poured down upon Christ on that
cross, and he died. He died because the soul that
sinneth must surely die. Bearing the sins of his people,
being made that sin, he had died. But this is the beautiful part.
He was raised again for our justification. What does that mean? He was raised
again because of justification. On that third day, God raised
him from the dead because full justification had been accomplished
for everybody he died for. Everybody. God looks at all of
them right now and he says they're perfect. They are without sin.
They are without spot. They are righteous. They are
beautiful. I could ask absolutely nothing more of them. They are
completely perfect. Justified. Now this thing of
justification, this is not something asking the question, do you want
to be justified or what do I need to do to be justified? That's
the wrong question. Justification is something that
happened outside our subjective experience. This is something
that was determined before the foundations of the world were
ever built. It was accomplished at the cross of our Lord Jesus
Christ, outside our subjective experience. The question is,
has he justified me? Because it's up to him. It's
a good question. Look back at Galatians 2.16. Paul says, knowing that a man
is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith
of Jesus Christ. Now listen to this. Even we have
believed in Jesus Christ. Now what is the evidence that
a man has been justified by the Lord Jesus Christ? That he stands
just before God right now. He is caused to believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ. What does that mean? What does
that mean? Does that simply mean that he
existed? That he exists? Does that mean that I think I'm
saved? Is that what that means? No. This is what it means to
believe in and on the Lord Jesus Christ. He is my only hope. My
only hope is that he died for me, that he was delivered from
my offenses, that they were taken off of me, they were put on him,
and they were punished in him, and they truly are gone because
he paid the price. My hope, my only hope, I have
His righteousness. It's freely given and imported
to me, so much so that it's mine. And I stand before God with that
perfect righteousness, the righteousness of Christ. My only hope that
He intercedes for me right now, that He enters before His Father.
And when He does and He finds that favor, I'm finding it too
in Him that I have that perfect union. That is my only hope. That's believing in Christ. That's
it. But the question may arise, do
I have the right? Do I have the right to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ? Do I have that right? Can I take
this home for me? Is this for me? You can look
back at our text. Go back to Romans chapter five. Look at verse six. Do I have
the right to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Paul says, for when we were yet
Without strength, in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Right here, right now, folks,
you can know whether Jesus Christ died for you and he justified
you before God. Two things here. They are without
strength and they are ungodly. Without strength, what does that
mean? Without ability. That ability, I can't bring anything
before God that he would look favorably upon me for. There's
nothing inside me. I can't keep his law. I can't
do that, which he would find pleasing. In and of myself, it
is impossible. With me, with me, salvation is
impossible. There is no strength. There is
no ability. Faith, if he doesn't give it
to me, I'm not going to have it. Not going to have it. Repentance. Having my mind changed. I can't
change my own mind. Unless he changes my mind, unless
he turns me, I am without strength. Love. Can't muster it. Impossible. Completely and utterly without
strength before God and ungodly. What does it mean to be ungodly?
The polar opposite of everything God is. Who is he? He's righteous and he's holy
and he's perfect. and he's sovereign, he's immutable,
and he's great, and he's good in all his ways, and I am the
polar opposite of that. I am a sinner, prone to making
terrible decisions, having absolutely no control, laying at his feet. That's it. Folks, if you are
without strength and ungodly, that scripture right there says
Jesus Christ died for you. Do you have a right to believe?
Do you have a right to trust Christ? You have every right. Do it. Now I want to use the rest of
our time to look at what Paul says in these eight verses. There's
eight things here, and I'm going to go very quickly. But eight
effects of justification, eight effects of a man being justified
by Christ himself. Look at verse one, Romans 5. Paul says, therefore, being justified
by faith, here's the first effect of justification. We have peace
with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now concerning history,
how many times have we seen peace treaties between countries broken?
Constantly. Two countries are at conflict,
they come together, they make a peace treaty, you get the Treaty
of Versailles after World War I, they come together, there's
a treaty, we say there's a ceasefire, we're going to have peace, and
what happens? Little aggressions, little offenses along the way,
and give it a few years, just 20 years between World War I,
World War II. Happens all over again, and the
peace is broken because man cannot create peace, and he certainly
can't create peace with God. Man says, have you made your
peace with God? That is impossible. God has to
make his peace with you. But this is what Paul says here.
This is Ephesians 2, verses 14 and 15. He says, speaking of
Christ, For He is our peace. He's our peace. He is our rest. who have made both one. What he's saying there is this,
the Father and his people, he's created union. He's brought these
two parties that were at odds together through full reconciliation. Full reconciliation has been
made between the elect and between God the Father. This is what
he says, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition
between us. There was a separation, there
was a barrier between God the Father and his people. What was
the barrier? It was our sin. Our sin, that
was the barrier. It was the reason for the Father's
anger towards us on the cross when he was delivered for our
offenses. He removed the barrier. Having removed the middle wall,
that partition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity,
I think this is beautiful, that enmity, that anger God the Father
had towards the elect, it's removed because the sin has been removed.
But also, that natural hatred that his people had for God himself,
that's removed too. We are a people who have been
absolutely conquered and absolutely subjugated, and we love it that
way. We wouldn't have it any other
way, just desiring to be the bond slave of Jesus Christ himself. That's all we want. That's it.
Subjugated, made slaves, and love it that way. And this is
a peace, a peace that will never be broken. Never return to war,
never a conflict again. There is perfect peace and perfect
harmony between God and his people because Christ made our peace
and he is our peace. Now here's the second effect
of justification. Look at verse two. Paul says, by whom also
we have access by faith. That's the second effect of justification.
We have free access to the Father. Think of The day our Lord Jesus
Christ was crucified, what happened that day? What went on surrounding
him that day? There was a veil in that temple.
had the holy place in the temple, and you had the holy of the holies.
And no one could go back in the holy of holies. If you went back
there, you would be killed. You could not come into God's
presence. That's where the Shekinah glory of God dwelled. You couldn't
go back there. You couldn't. There's a huge
veil that separated the two. And when the Lord Jesus Christ
died, that veil was separated from the top to the bottom, wide
open. Imagine being a priest in the
holy place at the time, that place you had never seen before.
You could never even look on it before because of that veil.
If you'd have gone back there, you'd have been killed. And all
of a sudden, there was now free access. You can go back there,
and you had absolutely no fear. That's what we have with the
Father in Christ. And this is beautiful. To truly
understand the fullness of this, look at the first two words there
of verse two. It says, by whom also we have
access. How do I get to the Father? I
want to come to the Father. I want to be in His presence.
I want to find that love. I want to find that acceptance.
I want to have that favor. If you're in Christ, you're there.
by whom he walked into the holy place. He waltzes into the presence
of his father. He finds that acceptance. And
in him, we're there. Right now, as Christ is seated
at the right hand of his father, having everything the father
has to give, you're there too. Right now, in him, by whom, you
never know, you never even knew you waltzed into his presence,
but in Christ, you did. And you always have. Now here's the third effect.
Look at verse two again. It says, by whom also we have
access by faith into this grace wherein we stand. This is the
third effect of justification. You have a standing, a standing
in grace. Now what is a standing? I looked
up that word. It has a whole bunch of meanings, but there
were two that stuck out to me. This was the first one. It speaks
of a secured and a particular place. I remember when the Lord
was speaking to his disciples in John 14, 2, he said, I go
to prepare a place for you. He said, in my Father's kingdom,
there's many mansions. There's many bodies. There's
many, many places. And if it wasn't that way, I'd
have told you so. But I go to prepare a place for
you. Because of the justifying work
of the Lord Jesus Christ, because he is your justification, there's
actually a place, a particular place for you in the kingdom
of God. You know, we think of the body
of the elect, we think of heaven, we think of the kingdom of God,
and I constantly think of this communal area. I think the elect
is this broad group of people, nameless, faceless individuals.
Folks, it's personal. It's personal. He said, I go
to prepare a place for you because of justification, because of
the Lord Jesus Christ justifying you. You have a particular place
in the kingdom of God. Got your name on it, reserved
just for you. means this as well, this thing
of a standing, it speaks of a just weight and a balance. He says
we have a standing in grace. Because of the justification
made by the Lord Jesus Christ, the Father now is free, absolutely
free, to shower down his grace upon his people, to shower down
his mercy upon his people, to shower down all spiritual blessings
in heavenly places in Christ upon his people without doing
any damage to his perfect sense of justice whatsoever, rather
honoring it. And this is a thing that is hard
to say, and it feels wrong in saying it. But all the blessings
God the Father brings down upon his people, we have them because
we earned it. Let me clarify that. We earned
absolutely nothing. Sinners, nothing more. Christ
earned it. Christ earned every bit of it
and now all the mercy, all the blessings, all the grace that
God the Father bestows upon His people, it's just and it's right. Because it's a just weight and
balance. Everything's perfect. There's
no sin. There's no transgression. Everything's perfect. Couldn't
be better. Now here's the fourth effect
of justification. Look at verse 2 again. It says, by whom also
we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand,
and listen to this, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. What's the effect of justification?
We rejoice in the glory of Jesus Christ. This is a good scripture. This is Galatians 6.14. It says,
but God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our
Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Paul said. He goes,
if there's anything to be proud of, if there's anything to glory
in, it's this. It's the glory of Christ and
his cross. And we do. This is what man wants. This is why men, the natural
man, hates the gospel, hates Jesus Christ, and will have absolutely
nothing to do with grace. Because in grace and in the gospel,
there is absolutely no room for man's glory. None whatsoever. But for every believer, we love
the fact that Christ is going to get all the glory and our
salvation. And chiefly, it is for this reason.
It's for this reason right here. If He is due and He gets all
the glory in my salvation, that means He has done all the work. If there is any glory, do me.
If there's any glory that even has the potential to come my
way, that means there is something I must do to be saved. And if
there is something I must do, if it's on me in any way, it
will not happen. But if he gets all the glory,
that means he does all the work. And I'm completely and utterly
off the hook. So don't you feel like a worthless
freeloader? Yes. And this is a worthless freeloader's
religion. Thank the Lord. Here's the fifth effect. Look
at verse three. Paul says, and not only so, but
we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh
patience, and patience experience, and experience hope. Now, when Paul says we glory
in tribulations, that doesn't mean that we enjoy it. Talking
about trial, talking about trouble, God-given trials, doesn't mean
it feels good and we enjoy it. It means we have comfort in it.
And this is the effect of justification. We have comfort in trial, comfort
in tribulation. Why? Why can we have comfort? Why can we have consolation in
trial and tribulation when things are so hard? Because of Romans
8.28. And we know that all things work
together for good. Not separately, together. All
together for good. To them that love God, to them
who are thee called according to his purpose. Who sent the
trial? Who sends the trial? The Lord
does. Why does he send it? On purpose. What does he do with it? He always
accomplishes his purposes. What does the purpose lead to?
What's the final effect? My good. It may not feel good
in the moment, but it's always for good. What a great consolation
we have. The Lord's in control of it,
and it's all for good. And he mentions this, I guess
the best way you can call it is a tribulation cycle. A tribulation
cycle. He speaks of tribulation working
patience, patience to experience, and experience to hope. How does
that work? How does that work? This is the
strengthening of faith. This is how the Lord does it.
It's a cycle. So how do we live? We have this
state of what you would call relative peace, relative contentment. And I say relative because there's
always some problem going on. But there's a relative contentment.
The Lord sends trial. He sends tribulation. And when
it's a real trial and real tribulation, what happens? We're left where
we can do absolutely nothing but wait on the Lord. Seek the
means that He would use to deliver us because He's going to. Seek
His face, seek to learn what He's teaching, what He's causing
us to know through all this, but ultimately, patience. We
just have to wait on the Lord. And then what happens? What happens
every time? In some way or another, He delivers
us. There's some sort of relative peace again. And then what happens
again? Tribulation again. Made to wait
on the Lord again. Patience again. Deliverance again. Relative peace again. And you
go through that cycle over and over and over, and patience worketh
experience. What do you have? You get an
experience of the Lord delivering you. And through that experience,
what does it breed? It breeds hope. Hope. And what is the hope? The hope
is this, that if he thinks of me, this nothing, this nobody
in this vast universe, And he considers my lesser needs, that's
the needs of this earth, my health, my finances, my family. When
I say lesser needs, I'm not being disrespectful. There's nothing
lesser about cancer. There's nothing lesser about losing a
loved one. I'm talking about in the broad scheme of eternity.
Paul would call those our light afflictions. They don't feel
light. But if he thinks of me in these earthly matters, he
puts food on my table. Keeps me alive for as long as
he's going to. causes me to wake up every day, and he is faithful
to tend to those lesser needs. If he's given thought to that,
how much greater thought and attention has he given to my
greatest need, and that is my salvation. Now, trial and tribulation,
folks, it does not cause faith. Faith is the gift of God. It
comes in a new birth, but this is where faith is strengthened.
This is where faith is exposed, and this is where faith is galvanized,
and I'm constantly praying for stronger faith. Constantly just
want stronger faith. I wish I could wake up and just
believe God. How much happier would I be?
How much easier would it be to be around me if I could just
believe God? Just trust Him. Just trust Him. And every time
I pray that, I wince a little bit because I know exactly how
it has to happen. Patience and experience and hope. The fire,
the hammer, and the quench. Over and over and over. But here's
the point. This is the effect of justification.
We have great comfort in that tribulation because we know who
sent it and we know why he's doing it. Now let's look at the sixth effect.
I won't have you read this, but the sixth effect of justification
is hope, his self. He says, and hope maketh not
ashamed. I want to say this. I want to
be very clear about this. Hope that is just wishful thinking
is not hope at all. Now let me explain what I'm talking
about here. I hope that the weather stays nice because I want to
go shoot clay pigeons this afternoon. That's what I want to do. I hope
the weather stays nice. I want to go shooting. I've been
thinking about it all week. That's what I want to do. It's not a
good hope though. I have absolutely no control
over the weather. I don't know what it's going to do. I don't
know what circumstances are going to allow me or keep me from going.
I have absolutely no idea what's going to go on the very second
I step down from here. Right? So it's not a good hope
because there's no certainty behind it. I have no idea what's
going to happen. The only hope that is a good
hope that is grounded in certainty if you already know the outcome. Folks, if your hope is in Christ,
you have a good hope because you already know the outcome.
The way things are, or the way things we hope for them to be,
are the way it is right now. Here's what I mean by that. I
hope, right now, I stand before God in Christ without guilt. That is my hope. I hope that
right now when God looks at me, He sees nothing but His Son.
He sees nothing but perfect righteousness. He does not see the stain of
sin in any way, shape, or form. And you know what? In looking
to Christ, that's a good hope because it's the way it is. Right
now, if all you have is Christ, that's it. That is the way it
is. As He is, so are we in this world. It don't feel like that, but
that's the way it is. I hope I'm dressed in the very
righteousness of Jesus Christ. I have that hope. That's a good
hope. Because looking at Christ, I am. I absolutely am. I hope
that everything between now and the day I die, it's going to
work out just fine, one way or the other. I hope it does. And
you know what? That's a good hope, because it
is. The Lord's in control of it. And everything, one way or
the other, is going to work out just fine. And folks, the time
we have here, it's just like that. It's gonna be over real
soon. There may be some misery, there
may be some hard times, but at the end of the day, is everything
going to be okay? Do you have anything other than
Christ? No? Everything's gonna be just fine. Now here's the second one, the
seventh effect of justification. Look at verse five. It says,
and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed
abroad, or it's made manifest to us in our hearts. This is the seventh effect of
justification, an astonishment at his love. Now I want you to
read verses six and eight again. Look down there. Paul says, for
when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the
ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even
dare to die. But God commendeth or shows,
manifests his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died for us. Now Paul mentions two men here,
two men. He speaks of a righteous man
and he speaks of a good man. Now here's the righteous man,
right? This is a man who's probably very morally strict, but he's
kind of a self-righteous jerk. Not somebody you'd want to be
around. This is a guy that looks down on other people, thinks
he's better than them. Yes, he's morally strict. He's probably,
as far as men go, got a strong moral compass. But he's not generous. He's not kind. He's not a good
neighbor. He just kind of is what it is. And Paul says for
that man, scarcely you'd find somebody who would die for him.
Scarcely. You might find a couple, right?
But it's going to be pretty scarce. And he talks about a good man.
And a good man is this, somebody in an earthly sense, got a strong
moral compass, right? He's principled, he's ethical.
But not only that, he's a nice guy. You like being around him.
He's the kind of guy who'd mow your lawn for you when you went
on vacation. If you got sick, he'd probably come visit you.
Fell on hard times, he'd probably give you some money. He's generous,
he's kind, he's nonjudgmental. That's a good man, right? Humanly
speaking, a good man. And Paul says, there might be
some who would dare to die for him. You still wouldn't find
many. You might find a couple. But God commends his love toward
us. He loved us while we were yet
sinners. Sinners. Who did he love? He loved a whole bunch of people
who by nature hated him. He loves and loved a whole bunch
of people who wanted absolutely nothing to do with him. He loved
a whole bunch of people who put his son to death. The blood of
his son on their hands. That's who he loved. He loved
some of those people. People get mad. People get mad. They say, God should love everybody.
They get mad at God. He doesn't love everybody. And
if I haven't said that up to this point, let me be very clear.
God doesn't love everybody. God loved everybody. Everybody be
saved. Because everybody God loves, he saves. No, he loves
his elect. Men get mad. They say, God should
love everybody. Christ should have died for everybody.
And I think it's interesting. Those same people who make that
argument, they don't love everybody. They certainly don't. And they've
never given their life for anybody. And this God who they sit in
judgment on, they absolutely hate Him. Fair as hell, folks. That's it. God commendeth His
love toward us. This is who we are by nature,
a bunch of God-haters, a bunch of people who wanted absolutely
nothing to do with Him, and yet He loved us. God the Father loved
us so much, He was willing to send His Son, His darling Son,
to ransom us. Christ loved us so much, He's
willing to lay down His life for us. What astonishment we
have in His love. Here's the final thing. Verse five again. Paul says,
and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. Now this is the eighth effect
of justification. The Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit,
is given to us. And this speaks of regeneration.
This is the new birth. Nicodemus said, how can a man
be born again? How is it even possible? Well,
with men, this is impossible. With God, it's possible. This
is exactly what he does. He regenerates. He gives life. And in that life, we have all
the spiritual blessings. And we have spiritual faculties.
We actually do believe. I find this amazing every time
I think about it. Do you actually believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? I mean, do you actually believe
that this God-man, he actually single-handedly accomplished
the salvation of his people? That's what he came here to do.
He did exactly what he said he did, and he ascended back to
his Father, and right now they are all secure. Do you believe
on him? I actually do. I really do. And there's absolutely
nothing natural about that. You have to be born again. We're
brought to repentance. I think it was Hebrews 10.1,
it refers to it as the repentance from dead works. We don't think
the way we used to think anymore, right? I don't want anything
to do with my works. I don't want God to see anything
I've done because if he does, if I stand in any of my works
whatsoever, I will be hacked down immediately. I've been turned
from that. turned from those dead works
to Christ. I just want you to see his works.
That's it. We've been brought to repentance. Love. We actually
love this one whom we formerly hated. Born in this world hating
every one of his attributes, those things the world hates
about him, that he is sovereign, that he is holy, that he is perfect,
that he is a perfect sense of justice. I love him that way.
Wouldn't have him any other way. Because we have the Holy Ghost. Why? Why are we given that? That
free gift of life. because of justification. Justification
in Christ. Now, I'll leave you with this
thought. We've already discussed it, but I'll leave you with it.
Have I been justified? The question is not, how do I
get justified? Justification is something that happens outside
of our subjective experience. It's up to somebody's will, it's
not ours. It's up to somebody's power, not ours. It's up to Christ.
The question is this, has Christ justified me? Well, two questions. Are you without strength and
ungodly? Yes? Do you believe on Christ? Is your only hope of acceptance
with the Father is that this man laid down his life for you? Do you have anything other than
that? If that's the case, You stand, this very moment, justified
before God. I'm going to leave you there.