Chapter 5. The title of this message this
morning is, The Benefits of Justification. The Benefits of Justification. The Scripture says, Therefore,
being 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. the benefits of justification. Now, as we have looked at this
passage of Scripture the last few times, we see in this matter
of justification by faith that justification is an act of God. Justification is an act of divine,
sovereign, free grace toward God's elect. God the Father,
in sovereign grace, purposed to justify a chosen people, His
children, by adoption. And He did this before the world
began. And yet justification of God's
children was always to be according to a just judgment. Justification. Remember, the
word justification declares, it is a declaration of God of
the innocence of His people. The absence of guilt. of all
His chosen race, and He did this. Keep this in mind. He did this
justly. He did this justly. In Hosea,
chapter 2 and verse 3, God says, I will betroth thee unto Me forever,
yea, I will betroth thee unto Me in righteousness, and in judgment,
and in lovingkindness, and in mercies. The justification of
God's elect is not only a sovereign decree, but it is according to
righteous judgment. Now, if any judge If any judge
were to simply declare a guilty person to be innocent, we know
that is not according to justice. That's not according to judgment.
If a judge were to say to a guilty convicted felon, I declare thee
to be justified, we know that's not right. He can't do that.
That's impossible. That judge, by his declaration
alone, cannot take away the guilt of the man. Therefore, God, who justifies
His elect, does so in a way, in such a way that the guilty
sinner is truly made innocent. Truly made innocent. The ungodly
are truly made righteous. And this justification of God
is done justly by Jesus Christ. Therefore, being justified by
faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. In the preceding verse, it says,
Who was delivered for our offenses
and raised again for our justification. You see, God's justification
of you, believer in Christ, is done righteously. It's done wholly. This justification is done by
substitution. This was seen in the sacrifices
of the Old Testament, especially the great day of atonement. You
remember there were two goats that were brought before the
high priest, and one of those was the scapegoat. And that goat,
the high priest were to confess all of the sins of the people
onto that scapegoat. It was a transference of guilt. It was a picture of transference
of guilt. From the people to the goat. Then there was a sacrificial
goat. There was one who was killed
and his blood was brought before God for the atonement. Both of
these picture the Lord Jesus Christ who is our substitute.
It is He who offered Himself to God without spot and without
blemish. And yet He bore our sins in His
own body. You see, God can make us just
and holy because our sins are actually punished. They were
punished in a substitute. He truly bore our guilt so that
we could bear His righteousness. This is justification. It's done
justly. There was no way for the elect
to justify ourselves. There was no offering that we
had. There's nothing we could offer
God to satisfy His holy wrath against our sins. There's nothing
we have to offer. How foolish is it for men to
bring their works to God and expect Him to accept their offerings. Without the shedding of blood
is no remission of sins. We know that. And so what will
you bring to God? What will you bring to God? Your
works? Your goodness? No. We have no goodness. We have no works that we can
bring to God. And if we were to shed our own
blood, what is that but a just condemnation? We deserve to die. We sinned against God, and yet
here it is, in just, holy declaration and by imputation, God has justified
His people. He can rightly and justly declare. And that's good. If you have
been justified, listen, this is good because God will no way
twice demand payment. If you are justly justified,
there's no reason to look over your shoulder. There's no reason
to expect judgment to fall on you. It's already fallen on your
substitute. And God who is holy will not
demand payment for your sins. He's already accepted payment
in the substitute. You're justified. Therefore, God sending His own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh for our sins, imputed our
sins to Christ who willingly made His soul an offering for
sin, God condemned sin in the flesh. You see, God has already
accepted a payment. He's provided a payment and accepted
a payment. What did you provide? Nothing. Nothing. This is free justification. His justification is only free. God provided Christ and Christ
willingly bore our sins in His own body on the tree so that
the righteousness of the law that was done by Christ should
be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the
Spirit. This is the result of all that
God has justified by the blood of Christ is that they come to
God through Christ. by faith. This is the result
of His justification. See it. God declared us to be
justified in eternity in Christ. Christ actually came and accomplished
our justification by His own blood, by satisfying the just
demands of God's law for us. And now, in this time, has He
come in the Spirit and given us life and faith in His Son. so that now we receive the justification. We receive it. We receive it by faith. Over in 2 Thessalonians, Chapter 2 and verse 13, the Apostle
says, We are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren,
beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen
you to salvation. How? Through sanctification of
the Spirit and... Sanctification of the Spirit
and belief of the truth. Faith is necessary. Faith is
necessary. You must believe. You must believe. No one can claim to be justified
except they believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And we know this,
that it's by the Spirit that faith comes. Faith comes by the
Spirit. It's a gift of God's grace. And
we who believe We no longer walk after the flesh. I'll tell you,
it is easy to say, isn't it? I believe. Isn't that easy? Can't anyone say that? Can't
anyone say, I believe on Jesus? But I'll tell you, true faith,
true faith is an experience of grace. There's a change. There's a change. In someone
who truly believes, there is a change. New life is given. A new heart is given. There are
new desires, new loves. The desire that God be honored,
that God be glorified, that Christ be magnified and worshipped.
These are the desires of those who have been given a new life.
That old man is something now that we despise, that old life. I tell you, I know I sin, and
I know you, believer, you sin because you still live in this
body. But I'll tell you, it is to us as a rotten corpse sewn
to our back, and we hate it. So that I cannot do what I would,
I would live wholly. I would live righteously and
godly in this present world. You see, a believer that has
true faith has a new life. And I'll tell you, if someone
says they believe but there's no new life, something's wrong
with that faith. Something's wrong with that faith. He said, we that believe, we
no longer, we that have the righteousness of Christ no longer walk after
the flesh. Now, some people We can see those
people clearly who profess faith in Christ but walk in open sin.
They don't care who sees, they don't care what goes on. In other
words, they made a profession and then they go away from the
building living life as though nothing has happened, nothing
has changed. They still walk in their sin,
they live the same way they did before they professed faith. But there's a greater evil in
our day and that is hypocrites. You know what the word hypocrite
is? It's a play actor. Someone who's pretending. That's
worse. That's worse than people living
in open sin, because we can see those people. You can see them
clearly. But these people are those who
pretend to be godly, those who pretend to love the Lord on Sunday
or Wednesday, and then they go and live life like hell during
the week. There's no change. There's no
change. They say they love Christ, they
say they desire the things of God, and yet, really, in their
hearts they know there's no interest in those things. But those who
are justified, you who are justified by faith, I know this, you have
a struggle. You have a struggle. You have
a new nature, and you still have the old one. and you desire to
serve Christ, you are justified, you come by faith to Christ and
you cling to Him as all your salvation, you forsake all and
follow Him. You who believe, is that not
so with you? You not forsake all and follow
Christ. We forsake all our former life
and sin, we forsake all our false gods that we worship, and we
have a new heart and a new life, and we follow Christ. And I tell you, true believers,
rejoice. Rejoice that we are justified
before God. Rejoice that God has justified
us, that we have been washed from all our sins. by the blood
of Christ. Believer, know you not that you
are not your own, but you have been bought with
a price. You are owned by someone else. I'll tell you that makes the
natural man, that's offensive to a natural man. Who owns me?
Oh, not to us. We are gladly owned by the Lord
Jesus Christ. Know you not that you are not
your own, but you are bought with a price, even the precious
blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what it means to
believe on Christ. It is to rest all your soul on
Him and to receive what He's already done for you. It's already
done. Salvation accomplished. That's
what faith does if faith rests in His work, in His finished
work. Therefore, we are justly justified
by the object of our faith, Jesus Christ, because of our justification. Now then, let us see two blessings,
two benefits of our justification. Look at this here. You that believe
on Christ and are justified, look at this. We have peace with
God. We have it. I'll tell you what,
I struggle for peace. I do. In my own heart it seems
that this is constantly a whirlwind just blowing around and I'm struggling
sometimes. I want peace. I want peace. Instead of just realizing I already
have peace. Faith receives what we already
have. Peace with God. Whereas we were by nature at
war with God, haters of God, consider this, that God did not
wait for us to love Him, to make peace. God did not wait for us
to earn peace with Him. The Scripture says in verse 6,
For when we were yet without strength in due time, Christ
died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous
man would one die, yet perventure for a good man some would dare
to die. He's saying that, look, hey, if there was a righteous
man, an innocent man, who didn't earn death, who would die for
that man? Who would die for him? Who would
die for an innocent? I'll tell you what, who would
die for a good man? Some may dare die for a good
man because it might benefit them. You have some men who are
leaders and people have died for those people because they
thought they could do good or something. Someone would scarcely
die for a good man, but who would die for an ungodly man? Many people on death row today
deserve to be there. Who would die for someone who
deserves it? Our Lord Jesus said, but God
commendeth His love towards us, in that while we were yet sinners,
Christ died. Much more then, now being justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath through Him. For
if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the
death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved
by His life. We could not come to God in our
own strength. We had no righteousness to come
before God and we could provide no offering to satisfy God's
justice. It was then, when we were without
strength, Christ died. Where were you when Christ died? Where was I? We were without
strength. We weren't even there. We weren't
even in being yet. And yet Christ died for the ungodly. Herein is the love of God manifest
that while we were enemies, He made peace on our behalf. While we were rebels, Christ
died. He loved us and sent His Son
to die in our stead. What great love is this? What great love is this? Can
you find any love to rival this love? There's no greater love than
this, that God would send His Son to die for the guilty. And now that He's revealed this
love to us, much more now. It's much more precious now that
I know about it. It's much more precious now that
He saved me in time. I heard this message for many,
many years before the Lord actually revealed it to me. But when He revealed it to me,
it was much more. It was much greater than when
I'd heard it before. Because now I have peace with
God. In Isaiah chapter 44, Isaiah chapter 44 in verse 21, Remember these, O Jacob and Israel,
for thou art my servant, I have formed thee, thou art my servant,
O Israel, thou shalt not be forgotten of me. Isn't that good? Do you
think you've been forgotten? God said, I formed you, I made
you, I won't forget you. I have blotted out as a thick
cloud thy transgression, and as a cloud thy sins. Return unto
me, for I have redeemed thee. You have peace with God. You've
been justified. You believe on Christ. You've
been justified by God. You have peace with God. Stop trying to merit your peace
with God. Behold the Savior who has merited
your peace. Sin separated us. But now that
sin has been removed from us, how far has our sin been removed
from us? As far as the east is from the
west, so far has God removed our sin. How far has our sin
removed? It's so far that God can't find
it. God can't find it. He said, In
that day and in that time, saith the Lord, the iniquity of Israel
shall be sought for, and there shall be none. the sins of Judah,
and they shall not be found, for I will pardon them that I
reserve." And lastly, we who are justified
have access with God. We have access. By whom? We have access. By Jesus Christ
we have access into this grace wherein we stand. This grace
means the throne of grace. You have access to the throne
of grace. How many times have we needed
someone's help and had to wait for them? You've had to wait on them. They're
not there. You need their help and you can't
do it without them. And so you don't have access
to them at that time. I tell you, you have access always
to God. You who are justified, there
is nothing that stands between you and your God but your mediator. There's nothing that stands between.
Why then do we struggle so much with prayer? If we have such
an access into the grace of God, into the presence of God, why
do we not avail ourselves to it? By faith in Jesus Christ, we
have access to God. This grace is the throne of grace. Believers, seeing you are justified
by the blood of Christ, seeing He's already entered into the
presence of the Holy, He's already rent the veil into, the way has
been made clear. It's open. God says, come, make
your requests known unto Me. Who knows to what to pray for
as they should? It doesn't matter about your ignorance.
God understands that. And yet He still says, come to
me. Do you realize how many things
we deny ourselves because we do not come? That He would readily
give these things to us and yet we do not come. God says, I will be inquired
of these things. Prayer is a mystery, isn't it?
It's a mystery. God knows what you want, He knows
what you need, even before you ask, and yet He said, you should
come. You should come. Cast all your
cares on Him, for He careth for you. And the only reason we don't
come is because we don't believe that. Isn't that right? Just unbelief. The only reason
we don't come is unbelief. He says He cares for us. He says
our sins have been put away. Believer, are you not full of
needs? Do you have needs? If you don't have needs, you
are a very particular person. I'd like to meet you, whoever
it is that don't have any needs. Hebrews 4.16 says, Let us therefore
come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may find grace
to help in time of need. I tell you what, I have needs. And God says I have access. God give us grace to come, to
avail ourselves to the throne. God give us faith to see that
God cares for us more than we think He does. If He has given us His Son, how
shall He not with Him freely give us all things? All things. When we appear before
God, When we die and this body goes to the ground, when that
great day comes and God divides the sheep from the goats, do
you not realize that this is the words of our Lord Jesus?
He said, come you blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom
prepared for you from before the foundation of the world. The kingdom of heaven was prepared
for you. Do you think God needed a heaven?
He didn't need that at all. We did. And He prepared it for
us through Jesus Christ. Believer, you have peace and
you have access because God has justified you. And praise God
if He's given you faith and life to see it. May God give us rest
in our souls for these things. Comfort us with these things.
Pray God will bless that to your heart.