That portion of scripture, that
portion that's so comforting to God's people, isn't it? It
tells us so many things about God's grace, the sovereignty
of His grace, and our security in Him. And this morning, I want to preach
to you not a new message. Of course, if it was new, it
wouldn't be worth your time. because this is an old, old story.
My old pastor used to say that in every generation the gospel
has to be emphasized and recovered actually because sometimes it
gets lost in the mass of religion and people don't hear it. And
so what I'm going to preach to you this morning is the heart
of the gospel. And you say, well, you do that
every time. I try to, but I'm specifically
gearing in this morning on doctrines, teachings that tell us about
the heart of the gospel. And these are things that we
as believers do not and cannot disagree on. I mean, there are
things we can disagree on, you know, people. People argue about
this. I'm going to talk about the essentials
of justification. And I have five points, and you'd
do good to write them down. This is good for you to understand
this, to make sure that this is sealed in. We pray, Lord,
seal it in our minds. Essentials of justification.
People argue about justification. I see people arguing about the
timing of justification. I wrote a little pamphlet called,
When Does God Justify His People? And of course, I believe it's
before the foundation of the world when he chose us in Christ
and made Christ our surety. And then others will say, well,
it's at the time of faith. Some say it's at the time of
the cross. And whatever we believe about
that subject, about when God does it, There are five essentials
that we have to keep in mind of how we're going to see this,
because it's biblical. And if I would do just an exposition,
you know, people talk about topical preaching, expositional preaching.
If I go to a scripture and tell you what that scripture says,
that's expositional. That means we're preaching verse
by verse. Maybe two verses, maybe three, maybe 15, who knows? Whatever
the spirit leads us to do. But I got to thinking here, if
I just looked at Romans 8, 32 through 34, and did an exposition
of those, I would see these five essentials of justification.
And it says here, it is God who justifies. What is it to be justified? Do you understand really what
it means to be justified? Well, to be justified means to
be declared righteous in God's sight. And we need to understand
that. Now, how can that be? Because,
you know, in the first part of the book of Romans here, the
apostle Paul does a masterful job, and I would say it this
way probably, that the Holy Spirit does a masterful job because
that's who wrote this, he used Paul. But he does a masterful job bringing
in the whole human race, Jew and Gentile, religious and non-religious,
the whole human race falling in Adam, born dead in trespasses
and sin, brings in the whole human race as those who deserve
from God nothing but God's wrath. Who have earned from God nothing
but God's wrath. Do you understand that? Because
to understand justification, that this is the glory of hell
in the world, can this be? Look back at Romans 3 in verse
10. What he says here, and he's not talking about somebody else
now, he's talking about all of us by nature. And when I say
by nature, I mean as we are naturally born dead in trespasses and sins. He says in verse 10 of Romans
3, this is the conclusion of Paul's indictment against all
humanity by nature, including himself. Paul's not just pointing
the finger away from him. This is us by nature. As it is
written, there is none righteous, no, not one. You say, well, I'm
trying to be good. And you should try to be good.
But you're still not gonna measure up to the righteousness that
God requires. You can't be that good. That's
what the Bible teaches. He says in verse 11, there's
none that understandeth. What is it we don't understand?
We have some pretty smart people here. You understand a lot of
things. But there's one thing by nature
you don't understand. And that's this, how God can
justify a sinner like me and still remain just and right and
be true to himself. You don't understand that until
God reveals it to you. There's none that seeketh after
God. Wait a minute, we've got churches all over this town.
People running to church, opening their... What he's saying here
is this, there's none that seeketh after the true and living God
as the true and living God reveals himself in his work. Men and
women will seek after a God, but as he said back in Romans
chapter one, it's a God likened to themselves. I'll prove that
to you. How many churches you go in today
that'll preach from passages like Romans chapter nine? tells us a lot about God. They
don't want to hear about that God. Oh, they don't believe in
that God. So he says, there's none that
seeketh after God. Look at verse 12. They are all
gone out of the way. What way? God's way. The straight
and narrow way. Even false Christianity. leading
people on the broad road that leads to destruction. Christ
said, I'm the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto
the Father but by me. They all together become unprofitable. In other words, the way they
choose is not a way that will profit them. It will not achieve
their goal. Everybody wants to live forever.
Everybody wants to go to heaven. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. Now that's according to God's
measure of goodness, not man's now. Mom and dad may say you're
a good girl or a good boy, and that's okay in their standard,
but they're not the supreme judge of all. God is. He says there's
none good, no not one. And here's the conclusion, look
at down at verse 19. He says, now we know that what
thing soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the
law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may
become guilty, subject to God's judgment. Guilty before God. So there's the picture of man
by nature. All men and women falling in
Adam. At our best, the Bible says man at his best state is
altogether vanity. And how many times have I told
you, standing right here in this pulpit, if God were right now
to give me what I deserve and what I've earned, what would
it be? It would be eternal death and
damnation. So then, back to Romans 8. How
can it be that God... It says here, look here in Romans
8. Look at verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. How
in the world can God justify sinners like us? Job asked that question. In Job
9 and verse 2, listen to this. He said, I know it is of a truth,
but how should man be just with God? To be just is to be righteous. How can a sinful man be righteous
in God's sight? Verse 3 of that chapter says,
if he will contend with him, if man will contend with God,
what that means is if you will plead your case before God, you
say, well, I'm going to get before the bar of God's justice, I'm
going to plead my case. Well, if you did that, If you
would do that, he said, he cannot answer him one of a thousand.
God's got a thousand charges that'll hold up in his court
to answer your one plea. That puts us in a pretty bad
situation, doesn't it? If I say, well, Lord, I went
to church, or Lord, I did this, or Lord, I did it, he's got a
thousand charges. One old preacher said, sit down
and write a piece of paper, a blank piece of paper and write down
every sin that you think you have committed during that day.
And when you fill that paper up front and back, you haven't
even scratched the surface. You believe that? I do. Over in Job 25, this is one of
Job's friends. In verse four, he says, how then
can a man be justified with God, be declared righteous with God?
Or how can he be clean that is born of a woman? We're born dead
in trespasses and sins. Verse five says, behold, even
to the moon and it shineth not, yea, the stars are not pure in
his sight. How much less man that is a worm. The word for worm there is maggot.
And the son of man, which is a worm. Well, let's get clear in our
minds now what it means to be justified. Now God, the Bible
says God justifies the ungodly, and we're gonna look at that
in just a moment. But there's two things that involve God justifying
a sinner. Two things. One of them is negative,
the other is positive. Here's the negative. Number one,
to be justified, to be declared, is to be forgiven of all my sins
on a just ground. That's number one. If God justifies
me, that means He forgives me of all my sins. Past sins, present
sins, future sins. Not just some sins now. All my sins on a just ground. Now what is that just ground
that God forgives sins on? Is it your faith? No. Is it your
repentance? No. Is it your promises to do
better? No. One ground. Sing it in the
hymn, what can wash away my sins? Nothing, but the blood of Jesus. Because the blood redeems me,
the blood pays the price, the penalty. That's the only just
ground. That's the negative. Now the
positive is this, to be justified before God is to be declared
righteous. In his sight, on a just ground. Now when God declares a person
righteous, he's not acting. He's not play acting. He's not
saying something's true when it's really not true. It's not
legal fiction, as some people say. He actually declares a sinner
right on a just ground. Now what is the only just ground?
It's the merits of the obedience unto death of Christ. It's his
blood again, which is his righteousness. Now think of it this way. I'll
give you two illustrations of it. And both of these illustrations
are biblical. Both of them. You know, a lot
of times preachers give illustrations and they tug at your hearts and
they make you emotional, but they're not biblical. And they
don't really support the truth of the Bible. But these are biblical
illustrations. And here it is. Think of it,
first of all, as like standing in a court of law. and you're a criminal who's been
accused of a crime and you're guilty, you justly deserve the full punishment
of the law, but the judge has found a way
to declare you not guilty, and here's the glory of it, this
ought to amaze everybody, without perverting the law. How can that be? That's beyond
human beings' understanding. That's beyond our understanding
of it. How can God do that and not pervert
the law? Not deny Himself? But He does it in a just way.
Human courts cannot do that. Human beings cannot do it. God
can. And He does. And then think of
it this way, here's the other illustration. Think of it as
owing a debt that you cannot pay. But somebody, unbeknownst
to you, who is able to pay the debt, mercifully and graciously
and willingly steps in and pays it for you. And not only pays
your debt, that gives you a sum of money to your account so rich
that you can't even count it all. Wouldn't that be something? Here I've been going through
my life thinking that I owed a debt and then somebody preaches
a message to me that tells me the debt's been paid. Oh, great,
what a burden lifted off of me. But there's more. You've been
given a sum of money that you can't even count. Those are scriptural illustrations. As I said, many argue and differ
and even divide concerning these issues of justification. Some
argue over the timing, when does God, some argue over the way
of justification. How does God justify his people? Now that's something we cannot
divide over. We cannot remain in fellowship
if we differ. There's what I mean by that.
Some argue over the ground of justification. On what ground,
on what basis does God forgive my sins and declare me righteous?
Well, what are the essentials? Let me give them to you. Consider
these following five points. Number one, the source of justification. What is the source of justification?
Well, look at Romans 8.33. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. There's the source of it, God.
The source of justification is God's sovereign love, grace,
and mercy in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only source of God
justifying sinners. It is God. Over in Romans 9,
he says it this way. He says in verse 15 of Romans
9, listen to this. He says, for he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. And it's already
been established that God's mercy must be based on a just ground.
He cannot have mercy without being just to do so. That's pictured
back in the Old Testament on the mercy seat. What did the
priest have to do when he came into the holiest of all? He had
to sprinkle the blood off the brazen altar. Just as satisfied. God's honor intact. Somebody
paid the price. He says, I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it's not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. God alone is the source of justification. It's God who justifies, it's
not man who justifies. Over in Luke 16 and verse 15,
the Lord spoke of those, he said, you are they which justify yourselves
before men, but God knoweth your hearts, for that which is highly
esteemed among men is an abomination to God. When men justify themselves
and others, they do it on a wrong ground and it's an abomination
to God. Job said this in Job 9 20. He
said, if I justify myself, mine own mouth shall condemn me. If
I say I'm perfect or complete, it also shall prove me perverse. In this sense now, I know it
matters what people think of us and how we project ourselves.
But in this sense, when it comes to being justified, the only
thing that matters is what God says. It's God that justifies. He's the source. Number two,
it's essential that we know that God is the source of justification. It's not man, it's not man's
works, it's not man's will. And here's the second one, what
is the ground of justification? That's the second essential.
Up on what ground? Well, we've already talked about
that. The only ground of justification is Christ's righteousness. It's
the only ground of God justifying his people. Look back here at
Romans 8. He says, in verse 32, he says, he that spared not his
own son, but delivered him up for us all, that's all his people
given to his son, the elect, How shall he not with him also
freely give us all things? And then down in verse 34, look
here. Who is he that condemneth? Whoever he's talking about here
cannot be condemned. It is Christ that died. Yea,
rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of
God, who also maketh intercession for us. The only ground of justification
is the work the merits of the obedience unto death of Christ
as the surety, the substitute, and the redeemer of His people. It's the merits of His obedience
unto death. It's His righteousness alone.
It's called the righteousness of God over in Romans 1 and verses
16 and 17. It's called the righteousness
of God in 2 Corinthians 5.21. but that's the ground, there's
no other ground. God does not justify sinners
on any other ground but the blood of his son, the righteousness
of his son. Here's number three. You following? Essentials of justification.
Number one, the source. That's God alone. God's sovereign
mercy. I'll have mercy on whom I will.
I'll be gracious to him. It's God. who makes that decision,
not you, not me. Number two, the ground of justification,
Christ's righteousness, the obedience unto death, the merits of his
work in his obedience to the law and his death on the cross.
Here's number three, the objects of justification. Who are the
objects of God's justification? We'll look back at Romans eight,
look at verse 33, Look at it now, who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? Isn't that what it says? Isn't that what it says? Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Over in the book
of Ephesians chapter one, look at this in verse three of Ephesians
one, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who
hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places
in Christ, according as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation
of the world. What does that mean? That means
before the world was ever created. That we should be holy and without
blame before him in love, having predestinated us unto the adoption
of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good
pleasure of his will. to the praise of the glory of
his grace wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Who's he talking about? Who shall
lay anything to the charge of who? God's elect. That's the objects. This justification
is not given to everyone without exception, I'm sorry. Because
I know this, if you're justified, listen to this. Back up in Romans
chapter eight, verse 30. Moreover, whom he did predestinate,
them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified,
and whom he justified, them he also glorified. That's all past
tense, and some of it hasn't even happened yet. Glorification. It tells us this, if you've been
justified, you will be glorified. You will spend eternity in glory
with Christ. They're called the elect. Look
back at Romans 4. Who are the objects of justification?
God's elect. And you know how else he describes
his elect? Now listen to this. Ungodly. Think about it. Here in Romans
4, he's talking about Abraham. He says in verse three, for what
saith the scripture, Abraham believed God and it was counted
or imputed or reckoned unto him for righteousness. Now to him
that worketh is the reward reckoned, not reckoned of grace, but of
debt. If it's something you work for, it's not grace. It's debt,
God owes it to you. Verse five, but to him that worketh
not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. His faith is counted for righteousness.
What does that tell us about those whom God justified, the
objects of this justification? They're sinners. Ungodly. God justifies the ungodly. Well,
how can he do that and still be just? On the ground of Christ's
righteousness. Christ's blood. Notice here. It doesn't say he makes them
godly and then justifies them. No, he justifies the ungodly
They're the objects of justification God saves sinners His name shall be called Jesus
for he shall save his people from their sins He justifies his elect, that's
the object. Now here's the fourth thing,
the fourth essential. The means and instrument of justification. What is the means and the instrument
by which God justifies the ungodly? It's in one word, folks, imputation. Where do you get that, preacher?
Well, look back at Romans 8. In verse 33, what's the first
thing he says before he says it's God that justifies? He says,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Now what is that? That's the
non-imputation of sin, non-charge. I'm a sinner, but God doesn't
charge me with my sins. Well, how can he do that and
still be just? He's holy. He's just, he's right. Well,
look back at Psalm 32. Now, this is not just some New
Testament, it's biblical doctrine, biblical teaching. In Psalm 32,
the psalmist here, which I believe is David, was inspired by the
Holy Spirit to write these words in the first two verses. He said,
blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven. Remember, to be
justified, our sins have to be forgiven on a just ground. Whose
sin is covered. Now that's a picture of sin being
forgiven on a just ground because the covering here has to do with
an atonement which pictured the blood of Christ. The covering
over the mercy seat. I'm washed in his blood. Covered in his blood. And then
verse two, he says, blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth
not. What does impute mean? It's a
legal charge. The charge of a crime. Blessed
is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in
whose spirit there is no God. God doesn't charge him. Who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Now go back to Romans
four. This is what I read in the opening. where Paul is inspired
by the Spirit to use those verses I just read in Psalm 32 to describe
how God justifies the ungodly. And he says, God does not impute
our sins to us, to the elect. Well, what does God do with them?
Does He just take them out somewhere and put them in some kind of
a hinterland? No. God must punish all sin where
sin is imputed. What did he do with those sins?
He imputed them to Christ. That's what it means when we
say Christ is our surety. Our sin debt became his debt. He took it. And he said, I'll
pay it. And listen to how the Holy Spirit
inspired Paul to interpret what David said back in Psalm 32,
verse six, even as David also describeth the blessedness of
the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works.
Well, now, if you read that Psalm 32 passage, you don't see anything
placed there where David said imputing righteousness without
works. If you know what it means, it's there. Because David said
that, verse 7 here, Romans 4, saying, blessed are they whose
iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is
the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. The non-imputation
of sins means this. It means God imputed them to
Christ. And Christ paid that debt in
full. He satisfied the justice of God.
He brought forth an everlasting righteousness of infinite value,
and God has imputed that righteousness to his people. is the blessedness
of the man unto whom God imputed the righteousness without works.
I stand before God as a sinner, saved by grace, but not having
my sins charged to my account. They were charged to Christ.
He died for me. That's why he died. That's why
he was buried. And righteousness established.
The debt was paid. Justice was satisfied. That's
why he came out of the grave. So what is the means of an instrument
of justification? Sin imputed to Christ, righteousness
imputed to us. That's the legal accounting,
the legal reckoning of his righteousness to God's elect. That's the only
means and instrument by which God justifies the ungodly. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect. Now here's the fifth. Essentials
of justification. The fruits of justification.
What is the fruit? What are the fruits of justification? Well, the fruits of justification
are these. There's many. God-given spiritual
life in the new birth. All whom He justified, He sends
forth the Holy Spirit to give life in the new birth. Knowledge. They are all taught of God through
the preaching of the gospel, the preaching of His word. That's
the fruits, not the cause of justification. Faith, God-given
faith, for by grace are you saved. Through faith, that not of yourselves,
it's the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast.
Faith is the fruit of justification. Repentance, turning from our
idols and our dead works to serve the living God, to bow to Christ,
submit to His righteousness, to believe in Him and follow
Him, that's the fruit of justification. Perseverance, that's the fruit
of justification. God preserves us and he enables
us to persevere. And they're all fruits of God
having justified his people by his grace in and by the Lord
Jesus Christ. God-given faith that brings God's
elect to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ is neither the means
nor the instrument by which God justifies his people. That came
out of the Reformation, not out of the Bible. all whom God elected
before the foundation of the world, all whom Christ redeemed
by his blood on the cross, all whom the Holy Spirit brings under
the gospel and gives spiritual life from Christ, will be brought
by God to faith in Christ, to repentance of dead works, to
perseverance in the faith by the grace and power of God. And
let me tell you something. When we think about this justification,
no sinner has any biblical right to claim any of the blessings
of salvation, being elected, being justified, being adopted,
being redeemed, being regenerated, being converted, until that sinner
is brought to faith in Christ. So what do we tell sinners? Seek
the Lord while you may be found. Somebody says, but what if I'm
not one of the elect? That's God's business, not yours. You
see, I want to tell you something, let you in on a little secret.
You're not God. Neither am I. The Bible says
in Deuteronomy 29, 29, the secret things belong unto the Lord,
our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and
our children forever that we may do all the words of this
law, his word. The issue of this judgment is
that we are either righteous in Christ or unrighteous in ourselves,
so seek the Lord. Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone
that believe. And if you do, you have nothing
to brag about or boast in but God's grace in Christ. It was
and it is all of God's power and goodness and grace in Christ
and not of you. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's Elay? Okay.