To follow along please turn to
Romans chapter 5 Romans chapter 5 I'm gonna begin reading in verse
8. I'm just gonna read three verses Romans chapter 5 beginning in
verse 8 But God You know it's gonna be good when it starts
off with those two words. But God commendeth his love toward
us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than being now justified
by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. 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. Paul the apostle to the Gentiles
wrote that to you and to you and to me. Man, that's some big words. What I'm going to try and talk
about today, and please bear with me while I do, is justified
by His blood. I know it's a little early for
an English lesson. So I'm gonna give you one, I'm
sorry. I think it's important. I mean,
I'm not gonna try and get too detailed. I'm gonna try and not
get too theological. But there's a little bit of English
here, just something you mentioned a while back and it stuck with
me and I pondered it and looked at it. I got three different
words. One word is just. Second word
is righteousness. And the third word is here, used
in our text, justified. Okay? You have an adjective,
a noun, and a verb. But all three of these are all
based off the same word. You understand? Being just is
the same thing as being righteous in the scripture. It's the same
word, right? Being justified is a verb. This is something that has happened
to us. The adjective just modifies a
noun. It's a just man. He was a just
man and walked with God. That's an adjective. That modifies
the noun man. Or you might say that God's judgments
are righteous. It's a righteous judgment. That's
an adjective. The noun righteousness, a noun
is a person, place, or thing. And what I wanna say here is
this. Christ's righteousness is a real thing. You understand? It's not some heady spiritual
thing that you have to look for it even, no. Everything Jesus
Christ did was righteous. His righteousness is just as
perfect and as holy as God is holy. His character, his being,
and it's a real thing. Because you gotta take care of
that in your head. You wanna get a hold of that
if you can, as best you can, because that, his righteousness,
is what we have been given. He is made unto us, it says,
wisdom and righteousness. But we're gonna deal with the
verb here, justified. A verb denotes action, okay? Something happened. That's the
end of the English lesson, okay? I hope everybody got through
it all right. But all of these words, just like I said, all
of these words are all based on the same word. So when somebody,
you read in the scriptures where Christ said something or where
the apostles or somebody else wrote something, and they talk
about just, they talk about righteous, they talk about righteousness,
they talk about justification or being justified, it's all
talking about the same thing. Because all of those things,
the adjective, the noun, and the verb, are in Christ Jesus. Our justification, being justified,
is, well here it says, by his blood. By his blood. But he starts off where I started
this morning, but God commendeth his love toward us. In that yet. In that while we
were yet sinners, Christ died for us. First thing I want you
to take away from that is this. God's love is not dependent upon
us. We were sinners. We were sinners. You understand, technically,
literally, except in the mind of God, there was no righteousness
for you, me, or anyone else before Christ died. Now granted, God
doesn't see time the way we are. We're here and we can only go
forward. God sees it all. And he saw it all from the beginning.
As a matter of fact, even better than that, from the beginning,
he declared the end. And guess what? That righteousness
being manifested in God, manifest in the flesh, he knew it was
coming. And he acted accordingly. But God's love's not dependent
upon us. When, when we were sinners, Christ
died for us. Isn't that a great thing? What? In the love of God. Why? God commendeth his love toward
us. God wasn't looking for our love
toward him because there wasn't any. You understand? That's what
the definition of a sinner is. He don't love God. He don't love
God. You can kid yourself, you can
think you do, but it ain't so. It's just not so. Now, I know somebody this morning
will be in a place where somebody will tell them that Christ died
for everybody. Okay, first of all, that's a
lie. Second of all, it's a big lie. What else can you say? I mean,
it's either a lie or it's not. It's not even somebody being
evasive. Well, you know, well, Christ died for sinners and we're
all sinners. That's exactly right. Part of
it. But don't put those two together
because the apostle Paul doesn't. God commended his love toward
us. Yes, we were all sinners. But here's the thing. He's talking
about us being the sinners and us being the ones that Christ
died for. What? Y'all talking about election
stuff again? Yeah, I know, can't help it.
It's there. It's there. Jesus Christ did
not die for everyone. You understand? Because we say
the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ has redeemed
us to God, reconciled us to God. You understand this reconciliation
was between the son and the father. Now it was about us, but we weren't
there for it. We were still yet sinners. I can tell you who God commended
his love toward, for sure, part of it. Therefore being justified
with faith, justified by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. Only those who have been converted,
who Christ has brought to himself, those are the ones who can claim,
who can know that God has commended his love toward us. Believers know they are justified. They are accepted in the beloved.
Now this is true of all his elect, but let me tell you this, all
of his elect may not know it yet, because he's still bringing
them in. And I'm going to tell you, before
God finds you and reveals himself to you, you're just as big a
rebel as the biggest reprobate that ever lived. You understand? I, in my natural state, was no
better than Cain who slew his brother and talked back to God
and wandered off. And whined because people might
kill him because he murdered his brother. We're no different. But he has
given us himself. Himself God commendeth his love
toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us Much more than being now justified
By his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him So before I get too much going,
I want to define what justified means. To be justified is to
be, in this case, declared, imputed, to be totally righteous, and
totally and completely without sin. Because I'm gonna tell you something,
to be justified with God, you've got to be as holy as God. That
was one of them scary verses, I still remember, I mentioned
it the other day. Be ye holy, for I am holy. That scared me to death. But
I knew I wasn't holy. Now it doesn't scare me so bad,
even though I still know I'm not holy. I'm not even close.
But in God's sight, in God's son, I am justified. I am righteous. I am holy in
God's sight, because when he looks at me, and when he looks
at you, if you believe, he sees his son, Jesus Christ. He don't
see you. And guess what? You don't want
him to see you. He sees one whom his son died
to save and paid the sin that they owed. To be as holy as Jesus Christ
is to the Father. That's what it means to be justified.
It means without sin. And here, this is the thing,
without sins of commission and without sins of omission. Now, sins of commission are easy. That's stealing, that's murder,
adultery, anger without a cause. Oh, wait a minute, that's evil
thoughts. Don't think I was gonna forget
that one, did you? Evil thoughts. Evil thoughts are something we
do. That's what a sin of commission
is. It means you have done wrong to God. Now sins of omission
are a little trickier. Not doing what we should do is
a sin. It's a sin. Because it's not
only what we do, it's what we don't do. Now that's not fair. You can't blame me for something
I don't do. Don't worry, I'm not. But God
will. God will, God always has. Because
you've heard the words read before in this pulpit, and I lay odds
a lot of people have, maybe even on the television, hear these
words. Thou shout. Okay, what's that
mean? It means you better. Thou shalt
love the Lord thy God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength. Okay, who said that? Jesus Christ said that. Well,
that makes it true. That makes it righteous. That
makes it holy. And that makes it thou shalt.
But guess what? If you don't love the Lord your
God with all your heart, mind, soul, and strength, you're sinning. It's what you don't do. That
matters too. If you don't love your neighbor
as yourself, and we went into that a while back, just passing,
not just love your neighbor, love them as yourself. If you
don't, that's a sin. And you know, one sin's enough
to damn you. You've got a lot more than that. I've got many
more than that. But here, I'm gonna tell you
this right now. I'll confess. I don't love the Lord thy God
with all my heart, mind, soul, or strength. But God has commended his love
toward us. Christ died for me. You understand,
when God looks at me, he sees one that loves him perfectly. God looks at me, God looks at
you if you know Christ as if you're his son, his well-beloved
and his loving son. Isn't that amazing? That's what it means to be justified.
To be justified is to be clear of guilt for every sin, past,
present, and future, and to have done all the right things. Jesus Christ didn't keep the
law for his health. He kept the law because that
was his character. Because the law is holy, just, and good.
And guess what? So is he. He kept it. He performed all
the righteousnesses that I never could. He satisfied the law of God. You understand, when that law
came in the Old Testament, guess what? There were sacrifices that
came with it for when you broke it, because you were gonna break
it. You had sin offerings, you had burn offerings, wave offerings,
sheave offerings. Jesus Christ didn't need to make
one single offering to God because he never failed in any part of
the law. That boggles my mind. We are so flawed, we can't conceive
of absolute perfection. We're not capable of it. You know, when we are baptized,
we're confessing our identification with Him. Okay? Baptism doesn't save anybody,
just so you know. Not in water. Baptism doesn't
save anyone, but we are identifying ourselves with His death, His
burial, and His resurrection. You understand? We're not confessing
in baptism our holiness, we're confessing his. We're not confessing
our strength, we're confessing his. We're not even confessing
our minds which was smart enough to choose Jesus. No, we're identifying
His power to save sinners from their sins. He came to save His
people from their sins. We confess in baptism that He's
our life, He's our justification, He's our righteousness, and He's
our strength. So, much more than being now
And it's right now, just in case you're wondering. I know Paul
wrote this around 2,000 years ago, but guess what? It's still
right now. Being now. Being now. Don't forget that.
This is not something we have to look forward to. This is something
now. Justified by His blood. Okay. Now wait a minute. You
just read it just a minute ago. It says we're justified by faith. And I didn't read it, but you
may have heard this all. It says also we are justified
by grace. And now we're justified by blood.
Oh, you know the answer to this question, don't you? Yes. Yes. All of the above. Now I'm not
gonna get all theological on you and break it down, but I
will do this. I'm gonna back up a page here. to Romans 3.28, where it says,
therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without
the deeds of the law. And Paul just told you what he
was talking about. You're never justified by the law. Ever. Because the law just condemns
man. But before that, in verse 24,
he stated this. being justified freely by his
grace. Wait for it though. Through the
redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Whom God has set forth
to be a propitiation through faith in his blood to declare
his righteousness for the remission of sins that are passed through
the forbearance of God. And I'm gonna stop right there.
As I keep going, I'll keep going. justified not just by grace, justified
by His grace. And I'm gonna put that in here.
Justified by faith? Whose faith is it? There. Who's the author and the finisher
of our faith? It's His faith. It's his faith. If it's not his faith, it ain't
gonna do you no good. Yes, we are justified by grace. Yes, we are justified by faith. We are justified by grace through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. What? A propitiation through
faith in his blood. You understand, there is no faith of Christ Jesus
without the shed blood. There is no grace without the
shed blood. Sin had to be punished completely
and fully and totally to the satisfaction of God, not to my
satisfaction. Blood had to be shed. And justified by his blood means
that we'd be justified by grace. Means that we are justified by
faith. His grace, his faith, why? Because of his blood. Because
of his blood. Peter wrote it, we were redeemed
by Christ Jesus, not by anything else. but with His precious blood. Justified freely by His grace
through the redemption. You understand, it's all the
same thing. You can't separate His blood
and His grace and His faith. I didn't tie them together, He
did. Because it's His blood, it's His grace, and it's His
faith that He gives to us. There is no faith except by grace.
And there is no grace without the forgiveness of sin, and there's
no forgiveness of sin without the shedding of blood. The Old Testament put it this
way, for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I've given
it to you upon the altar, what? To make an atonement for your
souls. For it is the blood that maketh
atonement for the soul. I know it's not a pretty sounding
religion. You get up here and spend the
morning talking about blood. But you understand, we're going
to take this table here later. And one of the elements of that
table, one is the body. The other is the blood. And we're going to take it in
memorial. But you understand what we're
memorializing actually happened. Our Lord's body was broken. Our
Lord's blood was shed. What? For the remission of sin. Who is man? Excuse me, who is man? to devalue the blood of the Son
of God. Who do you think you are? You
know, there are those out there that says that Jesus' blood is
only a temporary fix. You better not sin anymore, because
that's it. If he didn't pay for a sin, if
his blood wasn't shed for a sin, whether I do it now or tomorrow,
I'm a goner. We're all goners. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord will not impute sin. It says here, mentions it about
sins that are passed in Romans 3. Then it tells you about those
to whom the Lord will not impute sin. You want to know why? Being
now justified by his blood. Being now justified by his blood
is just as true tomorrow as it was yesterday and as it is today. Being justified with God, verse
one said it, I just read it. We have peace with God. being justified by his blood,
by his grace and by his faith, we have peace with God. You know what that means, right?
It's not that we said, okay, God, we won't fight. You don't
know. God says, I'm not going to require anything at your hand.
My son's paid it all for you. That's peace. That's peace. You understand? I don't know
if I really wanna put it this way, but I don't owe God anything
now. Well, if I believed that, I'd
live like I wanted to. Yeah, you probably would. And
you don't believe it, and guess what? You still do. Live exactly
the way you wanted to. I wish I could live the way I
wanted to. I wish I could live soberly,
righteously. Righteously is the key. But here's the point, God is
at peace with us. Because there's no judgment,
there's no sin, there's not even disappointment. because we are
justified by his blood, the blood of Jesus Christ. And, what does it say? We shall
be saved through him. Guaranteed, 100%, no doubt. We shall, wow, all right. We shall be saved from wrath
through him. I wonder if I read it right. John Newton, when he was getting
old, said this. He says, I've forgotten a great
many things. He said, but I remember two things.
I remember that I am a great sinner. But I also remember that
Jesus Christ is a great savior. Tell you something he's the greatest
Savior of the world's ever not seen because the world don't
see Only believers see the true and
living Christ Because Jesus Christ is a great Savior when we were
enemies Hmm I Was against him I was against
God. Christ was for me. Guess who
won? It weren't me. Thank God it wasn't
me. Because if God be for you, you
can't even be against yourself. I kind of paraphrase something
here I read on Henry's short things. Wanted to tell you this because
I believe it We believers are justified by his blood his grace
and by his faith Now here's the thing a proof of the power and
the truthfulness of Jesus Christ and his gospel is this very fact
that the Lord's cause His way and his gospel, both, has survived
2,000 years of weak believers like ourselves. Weak disciples like us. Because
here we are, some 2,000 years later, and what are we doing?
We are coming together to hear a sinner preach the Lord Jesus
Christ to other sinners. Who are we? And I mean all of
us. We're nobody. We're nothing. We are such clay pots, it's not
even funny. Because we're not even good earthen
vessels. But here's the thing. His wisdom
has not been affected by our foolishness. His power has not
been lessened by our weakness. And His holiness has not suffered
because of our unholiness. And His grace shines in the face
of our selfishness. His arm is not short that He
cannot save, because He saves every day. In His places, And
in his times, our Lord saves. How? He's justifying by his blood. They're justified by his blood.
And sometimes, Walter, when he saves, we get to see it. And
it's glorious. Jesus Christ saves sinners. And I know how Paul felt when
he said, of whom I am chief. I don't feel that there's anybody
in the world worse than I am. More of an abject failure toward
God. But here's the thing. Don't look
at the clay pots. Look to him. You know, earthen vessels can't
save you. All we can do is proclaim Him. That's it. And here's the thing,
if you look to Him, truly look to Him, you will never be disappointed. Because He has justified, if
you look to Him, He's justified you by His blood, by His grace,
and by His faith. And I said all that to say this,
because if you want to know about being justified by blood, I can
tell you exactly what it means in 10 words. I'm cheating, I'm
quoting scripture. Here it is in 10 words, being
justified by blood. When I see the blood, I will
pass over you. Amen. I love that statement. I love
that statement. I understand people, I've had
Jewish rabbis tell me, they didn't really kill all those animals
in the Old Testament. I thought, you're kidding me.
Yes, they did. Now, trust me, the blood of bulls
and goats never took away one sin. But every sacrifice, every
drop of blood that was shed and offered back in those days pointed
to this man right here. His blood is the real atonement
for you. Why? Because being now justified
by his blood and we have peace with God. The Lord saw the blood from the
foundation of the world because he was a lamb slain from the
beginning. And when I see the blood, no
matter whether you see it or not, that's not what he's talking
about. You understand? This covenant
is between the father and the son. And when he sees the blood,
he's going to pass over us because we are justified by his blood. Heavenly father, we're thankful
again for this time and this place. Oh Lord, Thank you for
all that you have done, all that you are doing. Give us, Lord, the grace to go
on in this world. We get vexed, we get discouraged. Not in you, Lord, but in ourselves. Help us. to go on and learn to love you more each
day. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.