Good morning. Alright, let's
go to Romans. Romans 5. And we're going to
be looking just at the first five verses in Romans 5. And
up until now, Paul has been laboring to show us that salvation is
by the grace of God. It's by His sovereign mercy in
revealing Christ to us. he's showing us, he's revealing
to us that salvation is his gracious work to sinners apart from any
works in them. And that's what he's been showing
us up to this point. Now today, what we're going to
see are the blessings that are ours, just in a small measure,
we don't want to talk blessings, we're blessed of God
in this justification because we are justified by the Lord
Jesus Christ. And so our title is Blessings
of Justification. Alright, so looking there at
the first three words in Romans 5.1, Paul says, being justified. And that word
therefore, every time you see it in scripture, tells you that
everything that follows the word therefore is founded upon and
based upon everything that's come before. And as we've seen,
Paul's laboring to show us the gospel, to reveal the good news
that God is pouring out upon us in his son, Jesus Christ. So, well, David said, well, let
me read Romans 4, 6, even as David also describeth the blessedness
of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. And Romans 3.22 says, even the
righteousness of God, which is by faith, by the faithfulness,
the faithful work of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all them that
believe. So, our justification, what he's
been showing us is our justification is based upon the work that Christ
has done. He's the one that justifies us,
and it's the faith which the Spirit reveals to us, and giving
us faith, and revealing Christ to the faith that He's given,
that's how we enter into these things. That's how we know that
Christ came as a substitute in my place, bearing the punishment
of God. He died to put away my sin. He rose again so that now I know
that I'm justified by God. I'm accepted of Him. I've been
forgiven for my sins. So it says in Romans 5.1, Therefore
being justified by faith, are therefore being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so, we don't lose sight of
the fact that our justification is Christ. He's why we are justified
of God. And by faith, we enter into that
justification. By faith, we lay hold of the
fact that God has justified us. apart from any works in us, by
his Son Jesus Christ. So, in Christ we're given faith
by which we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And we can understand that because
apart from Christ, before we know Christ, before we believe
in Christ, there's an enmity between man and God, between
us and God. There's an enmity there against
the true and living God. We're usually fine with the God
of our imagination, right? The God that we imagine to be
God. We can reconcile that and we
can think that everything's fine there, but the true and living
God? No, there's an enmity there between
us and holy God. Turn over to Romans 8. Romans
8 and go to verse 6. And here, Paul shows us this,
because it's not just me making this up, but Paul tells us that
to be carnally minded, Romans 8, 6, to be carnally minded is
death. Carnally minded is death. That's
just our natural state, our natural sense of things, our natural
reason about things, and Paul tells us that's death. And that's
how we are without the Spirit of Christ. Without his Spirit,
we don't know the things of God until by his Spirit, he gives
us life and reveals to us who God is. It's a revelation to
a regenerated man, to the new man that he creates in us. But
to be spiritually minded is life and peace, because the carnal
mind is enmity against God. That's what the scriptures tell
us. The carnal mind, the natural man, you and I, without the spirit,
is enmity against God. For it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be. So then, they that are in
the flesh cannot please God. We that only have our flesh,
no matter how smart, beautiful, wonderful, good you might be,
God's not pleased with that, with our natural state. He's
pleased with Christ, and so Christ justifies his people, he gives
us the Spirit, and by faith we enter into an understanding of
these things, of what God's will is for us and what he's done
for us in Christ. In Christ, we have this particular
blessing. We're talking about the blessings
of justification. We have this blessing, that we have peace
with God. And that peace was obtained for
us when Christ himself came as the Lamb of God, as a substitute
for his people, bearing their sins, bearing them in his own
body, and taking them to the cross and dying under the wrath
of God, so that God's wrath was poured out upon Christ in the
place of the sinner. He bore that wrath. He bore that
to justify us, so that now we come forth in Christ fully justified,
being forgiven of our sins, so that God looks upon us and says,
you're holy. You're holy. You know, previous to Christ,
before Him, we were in that group, you know, we know that our election
is eternal. God chose us in eternity. But
we're, previous to our knowledge of Christ, previous to us knowing
what Christ has done for us, we're of that group called the
children of disobedience and therefore we're of the children
of wrath. That's how Paul words it in Ephesians 2, the beginning
of Ephesians 2, that we're children of wrath because we don't know
who the elect children of God are until faith is revealed in
them, until they hear and believe the gospel and believe Christ. we understand that we have peace
now with God by faith which he's revealed in us by his spirit.
Now listen to these verses, I'll be reading from Colossians 1,
starting in verse 20. He says, and having made peace
through the blood of his cross. And I'll skip down to verse 21
here. You that were sometime alienated, and enemies in your
mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled in the body
of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable
and unreprovable in his sight." So that understand what he's
saying to us is that we who stand and in Him is no sin, because
of Christ's work, because of what He's done in justifying
us, we stand before God holy, unblameable, unreprovable. And that's quite from him. There's nothing that
he doesn't see or know or understand, and yet he's telling us that
we are now in Christ, holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in his sight. Now look at verse 2 in our text,
Romans 5 2. He says, by whom also we have
access by faith into this grace. So again, that's what I was saying,
that faith, it's not that faith is the thing that justified us,
but faith is our access into our justification in Christ.
That's how we know the blessings that we have been given in Christ. And so, in this grace, it means
that the fact that we are brought in, we have access to this grace,
it's another way of saying what we saw in Ephesians 1-3, where
it says that we're blessed of God in Christ, in whom we have
all these spiritual blessings being poured out upon us. And
so that's what it is, to be in grace is to be a recipient of
everything that God determines and sees fit and necessary for
us according to the measure of the grace which He's shown us
in Christ His Son. We have all those spiritual blessings
being poured out. They're all ours. And it begins
for us in faith. That's how we enter into it.
That's the first gift revealed in us. But that's just the beginning. It continues to grow from there. He says, into this grace wherein
we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And I like
that word stand, because again, you have that picture, just picture
yourself, you that believe Him and hope in Christ, standing
before the throne of God, sitting upon His throne, and you stand
there before Him, holy, unblameable, unreprovable in His sight. That's what Christ has accomplished
for us. And outside of Christ, the scriptures
describe us as a dead leaf, a crinkly old leaf that's withered and
dying. You can see tons of them out
there at this time of year. And our sins are compared to
wind, which comes against that weak, light leaf, picks it up
and blows it away. And that's how all those outside
of Christ will be, standing before the throne of God. They'll stand
before Him, and like a leaf, they'll be blown away because
of their sin and iniquity. But in Christ, we stand. we stand, we're whole, complete,
able to stand before holy God who sees all things and says
you're holy, unblameable, unreprovable in his sight. That's what Christ
has accomplished for each of his people. So that, like Revelation
14.5 says, we are without fault before the throne of God. Without
fault before the throne of God. There's many in that day who
are gonna wish that they were without fault before the throne
of God. But you that believe him now, you're without fault
before the throne of God. Without fault. So, it's a strong
hope of comfort that we have to meditate upon these blessings
that we have in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he tells us these
things because it's meant for our strength. It's meant for
our comfort. It's meant for us to know that
in Christ we have power in the sense that we're able to stand
before God confident that he's put away all our sins and made
us unblameable so that there's nothing left for us to pay for
or have to do. Turn over to Ephesians 6. We'll
look at a couple of verses here. All right, Ephesians 6 says,
verse 10. Finally, my brethren, Be strong in the Lord and in
the power of His might. That's the power that we have,
it's His might. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of
His might. And so we're declaring this word to you that you be
strong and not faint in this life, not faint in the fight
that we're in. Verse 11, he tells us, put on
the whole armor of God that ye may be able to stand against
the wiles of the devil. So we have this grace in Christ
that we might stand in him, even against the wiles and the attacks
of the devil. And verse 12, for we wrestle
not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against
powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world. against
spiritual wickedness in high places. And Paul's telling us
these things, and he even says it earlier in Ephesians, but
he tells us these blessings that we have, that we not sleep, that
we're not content to just sleep in this life. He doesn't reveal
these blessings to us in Christ that we go to sleep in Christ
and just labor in this kingdom to build up this kingdom and
to do what we want to do in the flesh in this kingdom. And sometimes
I think that we think of our hope of glory in Christ as though
it's some kind of a conspiracy theory, that it's not really
gonna happen, that it's really not ours. And we imagine that
that's the illusion, and that that's the flimsy idea in the dream, and
that this is reality, and that this Paul, and it's the exact opposite. He's always saying to us, why
as though in this life, why as though this is your life? Are
you laboring and doing these things and worried about these
things and troubled by this life and so focused on here when that
life to come is the reality. That's our eternal lasting things. You know, these, this stuff here
is all going to fade away like the pixels on a computer screen.
That's the immaterial and the falsehood, but that's reality
and that's our hope and that's why Paul said, I've, I trust
him, I've committed all these things to him. In other words,
I'm laboring now and just putting off all my rest for that day
in him because I know that it's using our life now to occupy
ourselves so as though there's not an inheritance
for us in Christ, and that's why Christ tells us that there's
an inheritance, all right? So, verse 13, Ephesians 6, 13,
says, Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that
ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done
all to stand, stand therefore. And so, The picture for us is
that we're standing in Christ, faultless, before the throne
of God, having been made holy, unblameable, and unreprovable
in the sight of holy God. All right, now, I could go on
looking at Ephesians, but go back to our text in Romans 5.
because we'll just look at how he words it, Romans 5 verse 3. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience. And so, it isn't only just the
hope of glory that will receive these things, but we're given
strength now. to see the hand of God, to see how He's implementing
His will in the earth. And it's kind of like, you know,
as I was, you know, before you got here and I'm just thinking
and praying, you know, to the Lord that, you know, I remember
praying something like, be kind to us today. And I thought, well,
the Lord's always kind to us. And so I then pray, well, help
us to enter and understand and see your kindness to us. Because
he's always kind to us. We just don't see it. We don't
always recognize it. But he is very kind to us. And
that's what I want for us to enter in to his kindness for
us. And Paul says that we glory in
tribulations. And that's because we bear more
fruit than just faith. We bear the fruit called patience
in that. We learn patience in the tribulations
that we go through and the exercising of the faith that the Lord brings
us through here together in this life. And as we're going through,
He's exercising us. And it's all a part of our maturity,
growing, growing up in Christ and maturing in Him. Now patience,
if you think about it, is the opposite of covetousness. It's the opposite of covetousness,
because covetousness makes us just want to go right out and
get it. Just get what our eyes have laid hold of, or what we
think we need, and we're hasty, and we just go and get it. Patience
teaches us to wait, to wait upon God. The Lord is wise. He knows
exactly how to bring us through things that we can't just go
and get. I have a credit card. If there's
something I want to get, I usually just Now I try to make a decision
which month I'm going to do it, now more so, but there's things
that the Lord does that I can't just go and get, that I just
have to be patient and endure. the moment in the trial and just
wait on Him, knowing that I may never get that thing that I think
I need or want, but just wait on the Lord. Regardless whether
I get it or not, the Lord's teaching me well even in that. And James
spoke of these things. He actually put them in the same
order as Paul. He said, My brethren, count it all joy when you fall
into diverse temptations, knowing this, that the trying of your
faith worketh patience." So he put it in the same order as Paul,
faith to patience. Faith leads to patience, that
the Lord's training us in that. And so there's a joy in is in this. The Lord is my Lord. He is my God and he's given me
faith to believe him and now he's putting me through the exercise
of that faith and he's teaching me patience and that's a there's
a joy in that because you know he really is the Lord. He has
shown me these things. I really do know him and he's
revealing himself to me as he is in in his word. All right
now from patience We continue to grow, and it says in verse
4, Romans 5, 4, and patience, experience, and experience, hope. So, what the trials and the temptations
and the troubles and the sorrows that we go through, they bear
fruit in us. They work in us. There's blessings
in it because we are being turned from the love
of this world, because naturally there's a love of this world,
naturally it's there, and the Lord There are some things when
you first believe, there's some things that go immediately away,
but there's other things that try us, improve us, and really
exercise us a lot in this life. And we don't always want to let
certain things go, and we want to deal with things the way we're
used to dealing with them, and doing what we like to do, and
don't want to do it another way. but the Lord is the one that
will bear that fruit and turn us from the love of this world
and give us a heart and a desire to be with Him. We grow weary
of this world. We grow weary of just the disappointments
and the failures and the frustrations that we experience and we're
turned more to Him so that rather than taking root here, and taking
root here and putting our roots down deep here, we see that these
pleasures are fleeting, that they go quickly, that there really
isn't any true lasting substance to these things. And it's the
Lord that's got to teach us that. Me saying it doesn't help you,
but the Lord revealing it to you and having shown you these
things, you see and know, yep, I see it more and more. And when
we forget, he shows us again. the truth of it. So by experience,
as we go from patience to experience, that's that maturity in the faith,
and what he's doing is he's revealing the genuineness of your faith. He's revealing the genuineness
of your faith. So trials don't produce faith, they prove true
faith. Trials will prove true faith,
that it's real and genuine, and false faith that goes through
the trial will fall away. False faith will be tried in
the heart, gets hardened in the trial, and it shows the hypocritical
spirit in us. If that faith is hypocritical,
if it's not genuine of the Lord, that'll be seen in the trial.
And that's not to say to ever cut off your brethren, or those
that you have a hope still, the Lord just may be taking them
down deeper. They just may be more stubborn
about it and go lower, lower, lower until they're broken and
cry out to the Lord for mercy. So, be patient. Don't just assume
because someone stumbles or you know, seems to be showing hypocrisy,
because it's in all of us. So we need the grace of the Lord. He's sovereign, He knows exactly
what He's doing, and He does these things in a way that is
for our good, and for their good, and the good of the body. You
can trust Him for that. So true faith is made stronger
in the trial, and it's exercised so that we grow from patience
to experience in these things. Experience. And that experience,
therefore, leads to hope because, again, we see, wow, the Lord's
really the one doing this. And he shows me time and time
again how he appears for my good in these things. Paul would say
in 2 Corinthians 12, 10, Therefore, I take pleasure in infirmities,
in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses,
for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then am I
strong." And it isn't that we love the trials. It isn't that our flesh loves
the infirmities and the weakness and the exposing of our sin and
the exposing of our weakness. That's not what we delight in,
but we're made thankful as we see the effect that the trial
has had in bearing the fruit that it's had. We're thankful
for that as we've been drawn near to Him. And there's things
that we've experienced or felt or had happen that we would,
to this day, in our flesh, want to see changed and put back to
the way it was before, but we can't do that. And so we've got
to move forward, but we see how the Lord has used it to bring
us nearer to Him. And in that sense, we're thankful
because we know He and his wisdom determined that this was good
and necessary for me, to bring me to his feet and to cry out
to him. Turning over to Hebrews 12, if
you go there, Hebrews 12 shows us this in verse 11. He says, now no chastening for
the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless, afterward
it yielded the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which
are exercised thereby." And so he tells us, because you're being
exercised in this faith, he says, lift up the hands, verse 12,
which hang down. Lift up the hands which hang
down. and the feeble knees." Be encouraged that the Lord is
directing this trial and it's for your good. And he's telling
you, seek him in the trial. Just seek him because he's drawing
you near to himself in the trial. Now verse 13, make straight paths
for your feet. We don't do that, but I believe
what he's saying is pray. Cry out to the Lord in the trial
and hear what he's saying to you, what he's revealing to you,
and showing you through the trial. Hear him and be open to what
he's saying, lest that which is lame be turned out of the
way, but let it rather be healed. Follow peace with all men in
holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord. So, as the
Lord is teaching us in the trial, draw near to him. and pray to
him that we enter into an understanding of what he's doing and see his
purpose and wisdom in it to the degree that we can. We don't
always know, well, we rarely know things as we ought to know
them or the fullness of them, but we can trust him. He's good
and he's wise and he's doing it for our good so that we stand
before him one day in the Lord and have no worries about that. The Lord makes it certain. All
right, now Romans 5.5 says, and hope maketh not ashamed. You
that trust the Lord, you're not going to be ashamed. You that
put off things are not going to be ashamed. No one is going
to stand before the Lord and that heavenly host and say, man,
I wish I had just done more in the flesh. I really wish I just,
you know, not worried about it and done more sinning and more,
you know, had more unbelief. No one's going to say that. But
you that stand there, if there's any tears shed, it's going to
be, Lord, why did I not believe you? Why was I so hard and so
resistant and so unbelieving in the flesh? Why didn't I trust
you? I mean, when you see him, you're
going to know, wow, this was, whatever sacrifice I made doesn't
even compare to the worth of being with our Lord. And so you won't be ashamed. You won't be ashamed. Only those
that believe not Christ And he says at the end of verse five,
because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy
Ghost, which is given unto us. And so you that are the Lord's,
he gives you the Holy Spirit. That's how you know him. We wouldn't
even know him and believe him without the Holy Spirit giving
us life from this dead flesh, giving us life in the new man,
whereby we have faith and he reveals this justification to
the faith that he's given us. whereby now we know that God
loves us. Holy God loves us in His Son,
Jesus Christ, and He receives us in Christ, and we stand before
Him holy, unblameable, and unreprovable in His sight. So, I pray that
that'll be a comfort to you, and just seeing the blessings,
just the taste of the blessings that we have and the justification
that is ours in Christ. Let's pray. Our gracious Lord,
we thank you for your many blessings in this justification from sin
and from unrighteousness that we are in this flesh, that you've
so blessed us richly with salvation in your Son, Jesus Christ. Even
while we were yet enemies and didn't know anything, Lord, in
spite of us, you saved us and put away our sin and forgiven
us of all our sins. And Lord, we're thankful for
the blessings wherein we stand before our God, made holy in
the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, thank you and help us to
continue to enter in to these blessings and that you would Just make us to stand and to
be faithful even in the trials, and that you would draw near
to us, Lord. And if there's anyone struggling,
Lord, whether they're here or not, Lord, that you would have
mercy upon your people, and that you would cause our hearts to
soften, and that you would turn us to Christ our Savior. It's
in his name that we pray and give thanks, amen. All right,
we'll come back in, oh, let's come back in 15, so two minutes
after the hour on this clock there.