Turn with me to Romans chapter
5. Romans chapter 5. We'll be looking at verse 1 this
evening. Romans chapter 5 and verse 1. Therefore, being justified by
faith We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Here again we have one of Paul's
therefores. it is another one of the stepping
stones if you were to look at the book of romans the book of
romans is a building block a building block one thing is built upon
another in these words the word therefore is very important in
this book and so as you read this book and you see that word
you want to know that paul is making a conclusion here he's
making he's made an argument and now he's making the conclusion
of the argument And he brings this conclusion here concerning
the justification of a sinner by faith. He, therefore, being
justified by faith. Paul is telling us that he's
already made this argument, he's made this conclusion that a man
is justified, not by the works of law, but by the grace of God
through faith in Christ. He's making this conclusion.
Now first of all, Paul in the preceding verses, preceding chapters,
has already proved that man by nature is a sinner. Man by nature is a sinner. that both Jew and Gentile are
sold under sin is proven. And he proves this by two ways. He proves it by experience and
by the Word of God. Both of these prove that all
men by nature are sinners. The law of God is first of all
written on the heart of man. The heart of man. Go back to
chapter 2. Go back to chapter 2 and look
at verse 13. It says, For not the hearers
of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law are
justified. For when the Gentiles which have
not the law do by nature the things contained in the law,
these having not the law are a law unto themselves, which
show the work of the law written in their hearts. their conscience
also bearing witness, and their thoughts, the meanwhile, either
accusing or else excusing one another." The apostle is saying,
look, even the Gentiles who've never heard of the law have the
law of God written on their hearts. How do we know? Because they
make judgments. They either excuse or accuse
someone. If anyone has ever made one judgment
against another human being, it is because of the law that
is written on their hearts and conscience. You can't find any
civilization that hasn't had assent of some type of law. no
matter where they are, who they've been. So we know this by experience,
by either judging or accusing or sentencing or excusing someone. We know the law of God is written
on the hearts of man. And the Jews are without excuse
because they have the written law of God. The Jews, they not
only had the law written on their heart, but they had it written
on stone. They had it written on tablets
for them. By the finger of God, they had
the ordinances of God. And yet, were they better than
the others? Were they any better than those who had not the law
written on stone, but written on... No. They were not any better
because they themselves did not obey the law. They themselves,
look at verse 25 of chapter 2. It says, For circumcision verily
profiteth if thou keep the law. But if thou be a breaker of the
law, thy circumcision is made uncircumcision. In other words,
there's no difference now. If you break the law, the commandments,
the commandments are good, but if you break them, you're no
better than the Gentile. your sinner. And thus Paul concludes
that all are under sin. All men are under sin. Verse
9 of chapter 3 said, What then? Are we better than they? No,
in no wise. For we have proved, before proved,
both Jew and Gentile, that they are all under sin. Therefore, in verses 9 through
12, the Apostle says that both you and Gentile, all men are
without righteousness, without goodness, without understanding.
We're unable and unwilling to seek God. All men are unprofitable. This is the conclusion that he
makes first, is that there is none righteous, none good, none
that understands. And not only does man passively
Not only is man passively guilty about not having righteousness,
not having goodness, but he's active in disobedience to God. Look at that in verse 15 of chapter
3. Verse 14, not only are we not
righteous, not good, But in verse 13, our throat is
an open sepulcher. Our tongues have used as seed.
Poison of ash was under our lips, whose mouth is full of cursing
and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Destruction and misery are in
their ways. The way of peace they have not known. There is
no fear of God before their eyes. Now is that not clear? That we
are not only passively unrighteous, passively sinful, but we are
actively sinful. Man by nature is actively, outright
in rebellion against God. Well if man is naturally depraved,
if man is naturally dead in sins and actively disobedient toward
God, hating God, then what use is the law? What is the purpose
of the law? He says that in verse 19, he
says, Now we know that whatsoever things the law saith, that saith
to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped,
and the whole world become guilty. before God. Paul, see how he's
building the argument. He says it's not only experience.
We know we're sinners. It's not only by the law we know
we're sinners. We have no righteousness of our own. We're actively disobedient.
And what is the purpose of the law? The law is not to save us,
but the law is to condemn us. The law was never meant to save
us. It was only meant to show us,
to shut our mouths to our guilt, to shut us up, to see that we
have no hope of saving ourselves. And he concludes, look at this,
there's the therefore in verse twenty of chapter three, therefore,
therefore, by the deeds of the law shall no flesh be justified
in the sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. Is there anyone here that supposes
that they could earn or merit God's favor by some obedience
that they've done. Do you suppose that being here,
although it is good for you to be here, although it is good
for you to hear the Word of God, do you suppose this has any bearing
on your justification before God? That this obedience that
you are performing by coming and being here, do you have any
inkling that this is going to justify you before God? Have you been told by some man
that you can please God by your best efforts? Anybody that tells
you that is a liar. You cannot please God by your
best efforts. The man who preaches justification
by works, by obedience to the law or traditions of men or creeds
of the church is a messenger of Satan. who has transformed
himself into an angel of light. Anyone who preaches worse religion
is a messenger of Satan. How do I know that? Because he
is in direct opposition to God's Word. Therefore by the deeds of the
law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. Not one. Not one
is going to be justified before God by their obedience. But now,
Paul said, the righteousness of God without the law is manifest,
being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness
of God. The righteousness of God which
is by the faith of Jesus Christ. You see, Jesus Christ is the
only righteous, obedient man that ever lived. There is only
one who has obeyed the law in perfect obedience. Every jot and every tittle, every
dot on the I, every cross of the T, the Lord Jesus Christ
obeyed the law of God. J.D. and I were talking about
forgiveness. And I'll tell you, sometimes
we forgive people and we say, I forgive you. Well, we've done
it to the letter, but we've not done it to the heart of the law,
have we? You see, the Lord Jesus Christ
never gritted His teeth to obey the law. He obeyed the law with
perfect love and perfect obedience. He obeyed the law, and He's the
only righteous man. He fulfilled it. He said, I come
not to destroy the law, but to fulfill the law. And this righteousness
of God that He merited, that He earned, that He obtained was
for the elect, and it is given to us, not by our obedience,
but by His grace. He gives us this righteousness. by his grace and this righteousness
that he obtained that we had no part in he obtained it he
gives it to us by the means of faith faith that's when he says even the
righteousness of God which is by the faithfulness of Jesus
Christ unto all and upon all them that believe Because of sin, because of sin,
there is no distinction between men in the sight of God. It doesn't
matter if you are the king of a country or a pauper It doesn't
matter if you are the most impoverished, vilest person that ever lived
or the most moral person that ever lived. There are no distinctions
here because both are sinners. Both cannot merit the righteousness
of God. And so no man is ever saved by
God, justified by God because of anything in them. If you are
justified by God, do you realize it's not because of anything
in you? Nothing in you caused God to
justify you. Nothing. All have sinned, none
are righteous, all are born dead in trespasses and sin, all are
born without any spiritual life and therefore without any merit
to please God. How then are sinners justified? How are sinners justified? The answer is always the same.
You can go to anywhere you want to in the Word of God. If you
are to be justified, it is going to be freely. Look at that in
verse 24. Being justified, how? How is
a man justified? Freely by His grace. That is how a man is justified
before God. Freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. And to be justified, what
does that mean to be justified? To be justified means to be innocent. I know that I've heard this all
my life. It justified, people used to say, was just as if I
never sinned. No. No. I never sinned. That's what it is to be justified.
It is to be declared absolutely and freely innocent of all charges. To be innocent. To be declared
innocent not only passively innocent, but actively righteous. Actively
righteous. To be justified is to be passively
innocent and actively righteous. This complete innocence and perfect
righteousness is imputed and charged freely by the grace of
God to sinners only through the redemption accomplished by the
blood offering of Christ. The justification of sinners
was purposed of God in eternity. It was accomplished by the righteous
offering of Christ. Salvation of guilty sinners never
comes by the works of the law, but it's always come by the free
grace of God through Jesus Christ. There is no other way to be justified. There is no other way for you
and I to be declared innocent by a holy and just God and to
be actively righteous except by grace through the redemption
that is in Christ. That's the only way. therefore
Paul concludes in verse 28 again he says therefore in chapter
3 verse 28 therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith
without the deeds of the law and if you go to our text you
see the same sentence you see the same sentence he said therefore
being justified by faith justified by faith So then, tonight, I
just want to look a little closer at this, this matter of justification
by faith, and then its result. I want us to see this by way
of elimination. What does it mean to be justified
by faith? I told you to be justified is
to be innocent and righteous before God. And so I want us
to see this justification by faith, first of all, what it's
not. And then I want to tell you what it is, what Paul means
by this, and then we're going to see the result of it. First
of all, faith is not the beginning of justification. Your believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ was not the beginning of your justification. Your justification of God was
from eternity. God declared you, believer in
Christ, He has declared you innocent and righteous from eternity. This was the purpose of God.
God purposed your justification. Look over at Romans chapter 8.
You can see it clear here. So faith is not the beginning,
but look at this. Romans 8 and verse 29, For whom He did foreknow,
Then He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image
of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
Moreover, whom He did predestinate, them He also called. And whom He called, them He also
justified, and whom He justified, He also glorified. Very simply, when did He predestinate? When did He predestinate you?
From eternity. When did He call you, justify
you, and glorify you? In eternity. All those words
there are past tense. I was not here when this was
written. Were you? No. And I'll tell you, I wasn't
physically there when God did all these things. when God purposed
these things they were from eternity these are all past tense they've
already been accomplished in Romans chapter 4 and verse 17
we read this that God he said that Abraham believed
God who quickeneth the dead and calleth those things which be
not as though they were God justified me. He called that, even though
it was not yet, He called it like it was already done. Why? In the purpose of God, it was
already accomplished. Your justification before God
was already accomplished, already purposed before the foundation
of the world. So, when you believed in Christ,
you were not justified when you believed. You were already justified
before you believed. Isn't that something? That's
amazing. And so when God, when He came,
when Jesus Christ came, He was to justify us by His death. He was to justify us by His death. This is what we call the accomplishment
of God's purpose. The accomplishment of our justification
was when Jesus Christ suffered, died, and rose again from the
dead. Look at verse 25 of chapter 4,
Romans 4. It says, Christ who was delivered
for our offenses and was raised again for what? Our justification. He accomplished that justification
that was purpose from eternity. So faith is not the beginning.
So when Paul is saying that we are justified by faith, he is
not saying that our faith begins our justification. Second of
all, faith is not the crowning glory of our justification. I'll tell you this, faith is
necessary. It is necessary. No man can be
justified without faith in Christ. You can't claim to be justified
before God without faith in Christ. Impossible. You can't claim that. I know a lot of people that know
a lot about justification, but they've never believed in Christ.
Does that mean they're justified? No. No. You must have faith. This is... No one can claim this
without believing on Christ. And so we declare this. Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He that
believeth and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not
shall be damned. First John 3, 36. He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
of God shall not see life because the wrath of God abides on him.
You see, faith is necessary to know and experience and rest
our souls in justification before God. But faith is nowhere in
scripture said to be the cause of our justification. This should give you, believer
in Christ, this should give you great comfort. Because I know
you and I have the tendency to put our justification on our
faith. And so when our faith is up,
we feel justified. But when our faith is low, we
don't feel justified. And so we become cast down. We
become discouraged. Why? We're putting everything
on our faith rather than seeing by faith that God has already
justified us through the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, faith is not the root,
the power, the cause, or the glory of our justification. God
is. The scripture says in Romans
8.33, it is God that justifies. Not your faith. Your faith doesn't
justify you. God justified you. God justified
you. The lie of modern religion makes
faith the cause or the power of justification. No! Faith is
not the cause, the root, or the power of our justification. God
is! God justified me! Not my faith. These liars say that Jesus' blood
was made justification possible and all you have to do is exercise
your faith. That puts a crowning work of
glory on man's faith and not where it belongs on God. This gives the glory to your
faith or your will. But rather faith, your faith. You who believe on Christ, your
faith is a gift. It's a gift. Do you believe the
Son of God? If you do, it's a gift of God.
It's not of works. Otherwise, we would boast in
our faith. We would boast in it. God knows
that. If you are justified because
of your faith or because you exercised your will, then you've
made faith the grounds of your peace with God. This is why man boasts of numbers
and converts, so that he might have something to glory in. I
saw this and I thought I'd mention it because it was really good.
It's a mathematical equation. Some of you mathematical geniuses. Now, this is not a hard equation,
so follow with me. Salvation, that is 99% grace
and 1% works. equals works. There it is. If you add anything to salvation,
you have made it a salvation by works. And what men have done
is they've made faith a work. Faith is not a work, it's a grace. It's a gift. See that our justification is
not by any work of our own, but is a solely a free act of God's
sovereign grace in Christ. It is a free act. If you're justified,
it's because God justified you freely. Freely. Justification is not even the
work of God in you. Get a hold to that. Justification
is not a work of God in you. His justification of you is completely
outside of you. His justification for you has
nothing to do with you. Nothing. Justification was purposed of
God wrought in Christ. Now we do have the work of the
Holy Spirit, and this is called sanctification. He said, We are
bound to give thanks unto you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
that God hath be chosen you before the foundation of the world through
sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth. You
see, the matter of our justification is righteousness, and that righteousness
is imputed to you by the Holy Spirit. That's given to you.
But this matter of justification is something completely outside
of us. Do you suppose that the judge
would ever ask the guilty man, do you want to be justified?
No! No! That's something that's totally
outside of the man. God never asked us if we wanted
to be justified. God just justified you. See then the glory of your justification
belongs only to God. It belongs only to God. And when
the Holy Spirit comes to the heart of the dead sinner and
gives him life, you see we knew nothing of our justification
that God purposed it, we knew nothing of Christ accomplishing
it, but when the Holy Spirit came and gave us life, it was
then He also gave us faith. And so then, faith, being justified
by faith, what does faith have to do with justification? Faith
is just the realization of it. Faith is seeing what God has
already done. If a blind man were to open his
eyes and light comes in And with light comes knowledge. That's
what faith is. Faith, the light of what is around
us, the light of justification, comes into our eyes as they're
opened by the Spirit and we acknowledge, we know what God has done for
us. And therefore by faith we receive
what God has done. Just as the eye receives the
light and the light creates the knowledge in the mind, that's
what happens in the heart. The heart is open, the light
of the gospel comes in, and the knowledge of the gospel floods
our soul. See, our justification, faith being justified by faith. Faith is the realization of the
grace of God and the blood of Christ that justified us. What's the result? We have, we have peace with God. You have peace with God. The result of God's justifying
you and God giving you faith to see it, you may embrace this,
you may take this as far as you want to, you have peace with
God. You didn't do anything to get
it, you didn't do anything to merit it, and you'll do nothing
to keep it. The peace of God was accomplished when the blood
of His Son was spilt for your sins. finished. You're justified and
you have peace with God. Faith just receives it. Faith
just realizes it and embraces it. I have peace with God. I didn't make my peace with God. I have peace with God. Christ
made my peace with God. And I am accepted. You, believer,
are justified and accepted. You have peace with God. What troubles you? What stirs your heart and causes
you great trouble? When God says, I've made peace, for you. Jesus said, My peace
I give unto you. You have it. Now embrace it. By faith embrace
what God has given you. He's justified you and you have
peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. May God bless you
with that. Hold on to it. Your faith is not the beginning
of your justification. God justified you from eternity.
Christ is the cause of your justification. He, by His blood, faith only
receives what God has done already. And you have peace with God. May God bless that to you. This
stand will be dismissed in prayer.