If you would please turn to Romans
chapter 5 Romans chapter 5 beginning in
verse 1 Therefore Being justified by
faith We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
I 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. Hope maketh not ashamed because
the love of God is shed abroad 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 I'm probably only actually speak
about the first two verses, but I have to get down there to read,
in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. That's me. And that's you. Whether we know it or not. And
you're not gonna know it until he shows it to you. But it's
still one of the greatest things that I can ever think of. When
we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for
the ungodly. But I wanna speak about what
Paul has written here in the first couple verses, mostly the
first verse. And what I want to actually speak
is of who Paul has written about here in these verses. And it's
Jesus Christ, of course. That's the idea for every message
that I try to preach. Like I said, that's the idea.
I will be the first to admit sometimes it doesn't work out
as well as I think it might. So I do appreciate it that you
don't criticize me. Uh, and nobody does. And I do
appreciate it. I just want to let you guys know
that. And I appreciate that Walter doesn't really critique my sermons. Although sometimes I feel I might
need it because To be perfectly honest about it, I criticize
and critique myself enough for everybody. You don't know what second guessing
is until you try to get up and preach. Because not only will
you second guess yourself, you'll third and fourth guess yourself. But Paul is writing here of Jesus
Christ while writing of the experience of the believer. Everyone who
has the faith of Christ, his faith is imputed to him for righteousness. Righteousness is imputed to those
who believe because of his faith. The first verse says this, therefore
being justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. Actually, what I wanna do here
is read from a different version. This is Young's Literal Translation,
and to be perfectly honest, I like this one better, because I think
it actually explains it out a little better. Romans five and verse
one says this, having been declared righteous, and I like that. A lot of people don't know what
the word justified means. That's what it means. you have
been declared righteous. I like that, I do. Then, then,
that's what it puts in the place of therefore. By faith, we have
peace toward God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now Paul had just finished There's
no chapter divisions. At the end of chapter four, Paul
had just finished and given us the account of righteousness
being imputed to Abraham, what? By faith. By faith. By faith. What's it say? And being fully
persuaded that what he had promised, this is talking about Abraham
being fully persuaded that what God had promised He was also
able to perform, to bring forth a son, Isaac. And therefore,
it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now, here's the key. It was not
written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him. You understand
that? It just hit me, Walter, when
I was looking at it again this morning. I looked at it yesterday,
it just hit me. That's why we preach the Old Testament. What
happened to Abraham didn't happen to Abraham just for him. It did
happen to him. What happened to the nation of
Israel in that captivity and how God brought them out? I preached
last week from Jeremiah 29. Guess what? That wasn't written
for their sake alone, but for us. It's just like, wow, okay,
there it is. but for us also to whom it shall
be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord
from the dead. Now how do you believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ? By faith. More specifically,
and I wanna be more specific, his faith. The true faith of
God's elect, the faith that Jesus Christ is the author and the
finisher of. That's how we believe that Jesus
is the Christ, 1 John. Who? Jesus Christ, our Lord,
who was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our
justification, therefore being justified. Now how are we justified? In reality, by Christ. It's by
Christ. See, I mean, this is the thing,
one of these reasons, Mason, you mentioned this outside last
week, this is why I ended up here, because it says being justified
by faith. It does say that, and it does
mean that. But what does that mean? Because
I've been in places, and I've heard people, and they say it
this way. Therefore, being justified by
our believing, That ain't right. That's not what Paul wrote. This
is the noun, faith. Pistis is the word, it doesn't
really matter, but it's a noun. It's not an action by you or
by me. We're justified by his faith. Why? He gave it to us. Why did he give it to us? Because
he was delivered for our offenses. He was raised again for our justification. For what? While we were yet sinners,
Christ died for the ungodly. You understand, it's not our
believing that justifies us. And it never has been. And it
never will be. And we believe. Isn't that great? See, there's a cart, and there's
a horse pulling that cart. And the cart is your believing,
but what's pulling that cart is his faith. And without his
faith, which is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should
boast, for we're his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto
good works. And it's a good work to believe
the Son of God. So why do you do it? By grace
through faith. and that not of yourselves, it's
the gift of God. Now, the next thing I wanna talk
about is this, where it does say we are justified, declared to
be righteous, okay? Let me be very clear. We are
not righteous or just or even good in our own selves. That's
why I do like this. When it says being justified,
no, we are declared to be righteous. Even though, especially though,
we are not. Christ died for the ungodly.
And if you don't fit the description, You don't know whether Christ
died for you or not. Walter and I talked on the phone
for a couple hours yesterday. And we brought this up in different
ways. But here's the thing. Man who is a sinner is a sinner. And the flesh never changes. Jesus Christ said that to Nicodemus.
That which is flesh is what? Flesh. And I'm gonna tell you
this, that which is ungodly is ungodly still. But that which
is spirit is spirit. And it's never the flesh. We believers, those who have
been given the faith, have both flesh and spirit. You can go
on to Romans 7, and Paul will explain it further. We are not righteous or just,
we are declared righteous. And those two statements are
worlds apart. It's the difference between you
and Jesus Christ. He's righteous. He's holy, he's
just, he's good, he's perfect, and we are none of the above. That's the one thing we are not
in and of ourselves, is righteous. We're just talking about it before
service. It's that which comes out of a man that defiles a man. I may preach this next week,
but what's the first thing Christ says? evil thoughts, evil thoughts. You know why? There ain't no
evil actions until there's an evil thought. And guess what? I'm chock full of evil thoughts.
My cup runneth over with evil thoughts. And if somebody wants
to say that they don't have evil thoughts and they prayed all
that away or whatever, guess what? John said they're deceiving
themselves. and the truth's not in them. He says we are righteous though. We're not, but he says we are. He calls those things which be
not as though they are. Guess what? That's us. That's
us. Imputed righteousness is what
we are given, and that's the one imputation in the scripture,
and that's the imputation I want. I'll take it. Blessed is the
man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. That's what I need. That's what
I have to have. Because if God marks sin in you
or on you, you're dead. The soul that's in it shall surely
die. But by faith, it is imputed,
the righteousness of Christ is imputed, not for just Abraham,
but for us. Also, if we believe that Jesus
Christ is the Son of God, that the Lord raised from the dead.
Mm, I like that, I do. I am not declared righteous by
my believing, but by his perfect faith. By faith, it does say
that. And so are you. So are you. If
you believe. Because believing is how we know
that we have faith. You can't have faith without
believing. Now you're not gonna believe
in whom you've not heard. You're not gonna hear without a preacher.
But you're gonna know you believe. And the only way to believe that
truly that Jesus Christ is what come in the flesh. You understand? Jesus Christ wasn't born of the
flesh, Jesus was born. Christ came. But he came in the
flesh. The son of God. God manifest
in the flesh. The only way to truly know that
is by his faith given to you and you will believe his word. You will believe him. You will
believe his gospel. You will believe his men when
they preach his word. And there's no way to know that
you have faith unless you believe. It's just not possible. I'm not
gonna argue, Walter and I talked about, we're not gonna argue
about regeneration or whatever. Regeneration is necessary and
it is separate. It is an instantaneous act. Faith
is his gift and he dwells in you. And guess what? You believe
every day or you don't believe at all. That's the way it is. You understand? If you're not believing today,
you didn't believe yesterday. And here's the two things you
can't affect. You can't change what happened yesterday and you
can't affect what comes tomorrow. All you can do right now is believe
God. and you will if he's given you
faith. But I'm using, and I see this
word, these two words, this phrase here, by faith, as a bridging
phrase between therefore being justified and having peace with
God. There's those two little words
right there in the middle of them. Now which does that apply to, being
justified or having peace toward God? Yes. Yes, it's both. It's both. It's by his faith
you're justified, and it's by his faith you have peace toward
God. It's right there in the middle
of this statement, in both versions. But there are some who want to
put it with justified by faith, and they say, oh well, you make
peace with God. No you don't. That's not even what he's talking
about. We have peace toward God. You understand? Therefore, being
justified by faith, it says here, we have peace with God. And I
like the other version better. We have peace toward God. Can
I get the negative out of the way first? I already stated it,
we're not making peace with God. No one is making peace with God. That's already been made. That's
already been made. He made peace by the blood of
his cross. It's not possible, it never has
been possible except for Jesus Christ the righteous. And I don't
care what Lee Van Cleef or Clint Eastwood or anybody said in them
old westerns. You make your peace with God, pilgrim, you know?
And people take that to heart. They forget scripture, Mason.
It's not, it's Hollywood. Which usually means it's a lie,
unfortunately. And it's even worse in religious
movies, and I'm not going into that. But man has never been
able to make peace with God. And I'll say it, not even by
faith. Oh, are you denigrating the power
of faith? No, I am not. I'm denigrating
the power of man. Why? Because it needs to be,
and I am one. So I know what I'm talking about.
because here's the point that Paul's talking about that the
world's not talking about. This is not about how God feels
toward us. This is Paul writing about how
believers and only believers relate toward God. That's the point, that's the
point. Our believing comes from his
faith. And it's by faith we have peace, and here's the key word,
toward God. That's why I like that version,
I do. Because you look at the word in the Greek, I did, Strong's
Concordance. And it says this, and I really
like this, I've never read this before. It said the word used
here, it's a Greek word, I don't care what it is. But it says
it is a preposition, which is nice, but it's a preposition
of direction. That's why I like the word toward,
rather than with. Because with, in our connotation,
with means oh, it's us and God, we're together, we're with each
other. No, no, this is from us toward God. It's in a direction,
and it's coming from us. It applies to us toward God. The word literally translated
means forward to, or toward. That's what forward to means,
toward. We have peace forward to God. Paul's not writing about God
having peace toward us, even by his faith, because here's
the thing, I can't make God have peace toward me. It's not possible. No matter what any preacher says,
no matter what anyone says, and the scriptures never teach that. I cannot make, you cannot make,
God have peace towards you. Without faith, it is impossible
to please God. And what Paul says, without faith,
you're an enemy of God. He won't even talk to you. He
won't even look in your direction. Key word, outside of Christ. He won't look at you without
Jesus Christ. Because what? You're ungodly.
You're ungodly. I'm ungodly. You were an enemy toward God.
And guess what? You had no peace. You had no
peace. What's that mean? Well, it means
that you fought and you fight against God. And you fight and
you fight and you struggle and you rebel against God's word. and you fight, and you struggle,
and you deny God's son. That's what enemies of God do.
And that's exactly where all we were. I couldn't change that. And thank God I didn't have to. Because let's be honest, folks.
I said this to Walter on the phone the other day. If God's
fighting you, you're dead. You don't have a choice. You
don't have a chance. You're dead already before you
can even start thinking about it. If God's fighting against
you, you can't make God have peace towards you. It's like
that thing where he said, I'll let you have mercy on me, God.
You go right ahead. No, it doesn't work that way.
He's merciful to whom he will be merciful. He's gracious to
whom he'll be gracious. And you know what that is? That's
good. I'll make all my goodness pass
before you. That's what he told him. I'll
make all my goodness pass before you. What'd he say? I'll be merciful
to whom I'll be merciful. I'll be gracious to whom I'll
be gracious. And guess what? God is good. God is good. We're not, he is. We can't affect
God. That's the definition of God
right there. Nothing I do affects God. Now what God does affects
me. Oh my. Yeah. And that can be for the better
or for the worse. And thankfully here, Paul's talking about the
better. The much better, you know? Way
better. Now, to be sure, God, right now,
does have peace toward his people. I wanna be clear about that. And we had nothing to do with
it. Absolutely nothing to do with his peace toward us. With his peace toward his people. Now Walter might be gonna deal
with this a little bit if he goes on and does what he says,
unless God changed his mind. But I wanna jump right here to
just, for just a second, Romans chapter five and go down to verse
nine. Much more than. One of these
days I gotta preach on much more. There's some much mores in Romans.
Much more than being now justified by his blood. That's where the justification
is. That's where we are declared to be righteous. We believe it
by his faith. but it's his blood. Without his
blood, my faith is absolutely, my believing is absolutely no
good. There isn't any without his blood. Much more being now
justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. Not even our believing, not even
his faith. We're gonna be saved 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. There is peace from God toward
his people because of his son. Because of his son. Not because
of our believing it. Not even because of his faith
that he gave us. His faith is a result of this
reconciliation. If I go not away, I won't be
able to send the Holy Spirit to you. I won't send the Holy
Spirit. But if I go away, he's coming. And you're gonna have
faith, Walter Pendleton. You're gonna have faith. You're
gonna believe God. It's amazing. But men will wrestle
this to death rather than give the glory to God By faith his faith we believe
God What's peace toward God Quit fighting God You know What's
the words that they used at the end of the Civil War? Unconditional
surrender. I like that. I like that. I don't like unconditional surrender.
But to him, yes. Yeah, yeah. Because he's the
only one that's got any condition. I got no condition. I got no
case. I can't even go back in the hills
and snipe them from the hills. No, you can't do that. He knows
where you are. and he'll send one of them cattle
from a thousand hills to run over you. You can't win a fight against
God. Give up. Give up. Stop. That's what believers do. By
his faith. By his faith, not because of
their own works or their own, oh, I figured this out in my
own brain. I think I got a pretty good brain.
Most days it works for certain things at certain times. But
it ain't from here. No, he put it in me. If it's
up here, he put it in me. By his faith, we believe. And we believe God now. We have peace with God. We have
peace toward God. Right now, if you believe Christ,
you have his faith in you, you're not fighting against God. Now
I'm not saying you do it perfectly. I'm not saying you don't struggle,
you don't rebel, sometimes against the scripture that you read.
I remember 30 some years ago reading in the book of John about
no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me,
draw him. And I said, whoa. And God said, no, it ain't whoa,
just go. Just go. All right, read on.
I'm gonna say it again. He said it twice. And it blessed my soul the second
time, because I'd already submitted to the first time. That's why I asked somebody about
it. I said, what does this mean about no man can come to God
except the Father sent me drawing? What's it mean? What's it say?
I hate it when people do that sometimes. That's what I'm doing now. What's
it say? Ha! Because I'm on the other
side of it now. And when I read it the second
time, I said, all right, I believe that. That's already settled.
You know what? I quit fighting. I had peace
toward God over that scripture. Because I quit fighting. Jesus Christ said it. It's so,
whether I believe it or not, but I'm better off believing
it. And I'll tell you this right now, I'm better off knowing it. See that's the thing, some people
think ignorance is bliss. No, it maybe is in some ways.
But usually ignorance is just ignorance. And it shows up in
other ways that are not really so pleasant. And I'm not going
into that either. But this is the thing, I would
rather know the truth of God. And here's the thing, what did
he say? Don't fight against it, don't
struggle against it, don't rebel against it. Now some days we
may be dumber and stubborner than others. My grandmother used
to call me Henri. That was her word for mean and
stubborn, put together. I am. I was, I'm not as bad as
I used to be, thank goodness. But sometimes I just dig in my
heels for spite, or well, or principle is what I called it,
but it was spite. I'm not gonna do that. God says
yes you will, you will. And you might as well quit fighting.
Have peace toward God. And have it right now. Right
now. Guess what? That's a blessing
of the Lord Jesus Christ to his people. By faith, his faith. I love that, I do. That's one
of the sweetest things in this world that I know of. And then
what's he continue on? By whom also we have access by
faith into this grace. Said it again. He said it again,
in case we didn't get it the first time. What grace is he
talking about? Having peace toward God. You
know how you have peace toward God? It's by the grace of God. It's by the grace of God. It's
by grace through faith. and that not of yourselves. Yes,
this is a Baptist verse. It's still in there. Y'all deal
with it or don't. I love it, I love it. By faith we have access into
this grace wherein, we stand. This is where we are supposed
to stand. Don't fight against God. There's no percentage in
it. Try and get odds in Vegas. For
you versus God. I'm gonna bet on God every time.
And you know what? I'm gonna win every time. Because
nobody can stand before God except, what? In the Lord Jesus Christ. In his son, not only can you
stand, you can stand before God. How is that possible? How is
that possible? That a sinner, talk about me,
a wretched sinning sinner, ungodly sinner. I still got ungodliness
and because I still got ungodliness, I got unrighteousness. It's not
my unrighteousness that makes me ungodly, it's my ungodliness
that makes me unrighteous. You gotta get the cart before
that horse too. It's what I am that affects what I do. But how
can I stand before God? Well, I can't by myself, but
I can in him, in Jesus Christ. And I can be bold right behind
Jesus Christ. Him in front now, I'm not talking,
he might be behind me, I don't know, but that's all right, I'll
try and put him in front if I can. If I'm gonna stand before the
Father, I want the son in between us. Because that's where he put
himself. That's where he put himself.
And he'll say, this is one of mine. This fella right here,
this wretched sinner, this wretched ungodly sinner, who's without
strength still. I'm without strength. He's one
of mine. And you know what? He quit fighting
against me. He had peace towards you, Father.
He did his best to believe your word. That's the only hope I
got, is that Jesus Christ will be my advocate at that time. He already is. We have an advocate
with the Father. Guess what? Now. Well, that's
good, because when do I need an advocate with the Father?
Now. I need an advocate with the Father now. By faith we know
of being declared righteous in him. And by his death, by his blood,
and by his resurrection is how we are declared righteous in
him. Jesus Christ is our justification. Our righteousness, our holiness,
our sanctification, in our redemption. Because we believers are declared
righteous, holy, and without blame before him in love. That in love, the same thing
as in him. Behold my son, in whom my soul
delights. And by Jesus Christ, death, bloodshed, and resurrection,
we are reconciled to God. And I'm gonna let Walter preach
on be ye reconciled to God. Have peace toward God. Have peace. Quit fighting. What'd it say? Verse eight. but God commendeth
his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. He gave his son to save the people
that he gave to his son. If God be for you, who can be
against you? It don't matter. It doesn't matter. And I can tell you this, if God's
for you, it never has mattered who's against you. And it never
will matter who's against you. But have peace toward God. That's
a grace given to you by his son. Through his spirit, by his faith,
which he's given you to believe him. Our heavenly father, Thank
you again for this day and this time and this place. Thank you
for your word, which is so clear when we're unclear. Thank you
for your scriptures, which you've delivered to us, full of truth
and the story of your son, our Lord Jesus Christ, in whose name
we pray, amen.