What you have just experienced
is a little bit of heaven. What heaven is going to be like,
only we're still in these fleshly bodies. You know, I was thinking,
I've heard people say this in very stressful situations, maybe
not so much in joyful situations, but have you ever got so full? Definitely the spirit of God
is in this place today. The Lord's here inhabiting the
praise of his people. Have you ever heard somebody
say something like this? Somebody do something! I was
standing up here thinking, somebody do something! You know, when
you've gone as far as you can go, when you've reached the peak, we joy in God. I think we were
at that peak, praising God. What a day that'll be when my
Jesus I shall see, I shall look upon his face, the one who saved
me by his grace. What a day, what a glorious day
that will be. Thank you for your praise today
to our God. What is man if thou art mindful of him? Why would God Even consider us. Why would he have a thought toward
us? We are anti-God. We are dead to God in our natural
state. We are inactive toward God. Job asked another question. If
a man dies, shall he live again? Greg has read Romans 5, what
a glorious chapter. Therefore being justified by
faith. Verse 9, much more than being
now justified by his blood. The apostle in the third chapter
said that we have been freely, without a cause, justified by
His grace. Justified by grace. Justified by faith. Justified
by His blood. We've been on the blood trail,
we continue on that trail today. Therefore, anytime you see in scripture,
therefore, you ought to find out what it's there for. Paul is saying, therefore, because
of what he has said in chapter four of Romans. Let's read it
together. Chapter four, verse one. What
shall we say then that Abraham, our father, as pertaining to
the flesh, hath found? What has Abraham found out about
all of this? For if Abraham were justified
by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God. If you're trying to go to heaven
by what you do, you're on the wrong path, totally. You've totally
missed it. You're not going to go to heaven
because your baptism, your works, your good life. In fact, your
good life sucks. You don't have a good life. We often get real around here. For what saith the scripture,
Abraham believed God. Abraham believed God. It doesn't say Abraham believed
in God. It says Abraham believed God.
He believed what God said. And it was counted unto him for
righteousness. Justified by faith. Justified
by grace. Justified by the blood. Look
at verse four. Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt. And my friend, the
only thing God owed you and I was hell. Let me say it one more
time, because you didn't say amen loud enough. The only thing
God, I hear people say it all the time. I've heard it for 50
years. I just want God to give me what I deserve. You truly
don't. Now to him that worketh is the
reward not reckoned of grace, but of debt, but to him that
worketh not. But believeth on him that justifieth
the ungodly. His faith is counted
for righteousness. It even gets better. Blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works.
Blessed are they whose sins are forgiven. Blessed are they whose
sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the
Lord refuses to charge with sin. How many saved people we have
in here? You believe that you have trusted Christ. Look at
that. Do you know God refuses to charge you with your mess
on a daily basis? Do you know that you have mess
on a daily basis? Do you know that Satan accuses
you before Almighty God? And he's got the facts on you.
He's got the goods on you. And God says, no, never, no,
never, I will never charge them with that sin. Aren't you glad?
We are a people that the Apostle Paul said, we rejoice in God. And so, Paul begins this fifth
chapter with, therefore, being justified by faith. Faith in
what? Faith! Faith! Faith is not a
works of your merit. By the way, I quoted it earlier. Do you know you're saved by grace?
And many people try to make faith notorious, like it's your badge
of acceptance. It's a work that you do when
the apostle is clear in Ephesians 2, when he says, for by grace
are you saved through faith. And that faith is not of yourself. It's the gift of God. Lest any
man should boast. Say, Pastor, how long? I've heard
you preach this. You're going down that same road.
I'm going to go down it, and when I get to heaven, it's going
to be the same road. Unto him who loved us and loosed
us from our sins in his own blood. Faith that embraces the precious
blood of Jesus Christ. You believe it was the blood?
Are you trusting the Christ who shed his blood on the tree of
the cross in your room, in your stead, and in your place? That he became sin for us. Well, why do we need to be justified? Because we're guilty. there needs
to be a just verdict come down from the Almighty God of heaven
that is a just verdict that says not guilty. That's what's so
amazing about this gospel. And there's not a day that passes
except I get goosebumps after 50 years when I think of this
glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. It is always to me amazing grace,
how sweet, how awesome the sound that saved a wretch like me. justification because we were
ungodly. And not just ungodly as in inactive,
we were at enmity with God. Man without Christ and without
faith and without the new birth, without regeneration is the enemy
of God. He works lasciviousness. Every day is rebellion against
God. You that are here today, you're
not good. And even if you were halfway
good, if you were keeping 50% of the commandments, you're still
a mess, a wreck. You're the enemy of God. You're
not for God. Some of you here today have no
thoughts of God. Some of you who are addicted,
And you're over at the center. You can't wait to get out of
there. You love to break the rules. And there are very few. And you can't wait till you get
enough strength to make another run. And some of you in this congregation
today are so religious, nobody can stand you or be around you.
You go to church all the time, but you are a God hater, because
you don't believe in his son. You don't believe his word. You
have not trusted Jesus Christ. This is my beloved son in whom
I'm well pleased. Hear ye him. Because we were without strength.
I hear all of this talk about, and God loves what I'm saying
right now, by the way. It is amazing to me what God
does for this place. And the people that he brings,
10th Avenue North, I got on that bus last night and headed for
Miami, Florida, where they're going to be on a cruise ship
for five nights, singing in the cover your wagon saloon or whatever.
You know where they were on Saturday night? in an inner city church. Finding out about grace and they'll
take that all over the world. Those are dove winner guys, you
know, dove award guys. How God brought in for that funeral.
People that have never heard the gospel before. Wealthy people
who sat in the inner city. How David Mardigian died at his
funeral was probably the biggest fundraiser we have ever had here
at Grace Centers of Hope. That's God at work, you see.
Those are not accidents. And you know why God blesses
this place? Because He inhabits the praise
of His people. He's here and we praise Him. And we give Him all the glory
and honor without strength. Romans 5 says, we were enemies
of God in verse 10. Enemies of God. Verse 12 says,
sin and death reigned. Verse 13 talks about the offense, the sin of Adam, the transgression
in the garden. And so since then, all men are
born into this world dead, inactive toward God, God haters. Your
baby's not an angel. I mean, how could it be? It came
out of you. It came out of you and it's daddy. And both of you are sinners.
Two sinners can't produce a saint. The offense, the sin of Adam,
all men died. And with the offense came condemnation. Because you see, Sin is not simply
what you do. And I want you to get that really
clear. Sin is not simply what you do, it's what you are. That's
why you have to be born again. And then because sin is what
we are by nature, we are born sinners. We produce sins, plural. We commit sins, plural, because
it's what we are. The hog loves... the mud hole
because it's his nature. I'll tell you why you love the
crack house, because it's your nature. Doesn't treat you very
good, or why you shoot up, because that is some false sense of getting
high, when it's really getting low. Sin will always take you
down, sins will. The only way to go up is to be
quickened by the Spirit of God, given a life and a new nature. So the apostle Paul in Romans
5 talks about being justified. And I know some of you say this,
he's always talking about this justification, justified. And I'm going to preach this
until all of you are repeating it. Till I hear you talk about,
I didn't come to him, he came to me. Christ wasn't lost, I
didn't find Christ, Christ found me. You know, watch what you
say. Make sure what you say gives
him all the praise, right? I was down in Lodibar. I was
dromer, chasing other lovers, and he sent the Holy Spirit after
me. Many of you can look back here and say, you know what?
I would never have dreamed four years ago, two years ago, or
six months ago that I would find myself in a church with my hands
lifted up praising God. Condemnation, offense, judgment. And then in verse nine, Paul
talks about this being justified by his blood. Justified by faith,
verse one, justifies by his blood. Faith that embraces this bloody
message. It is a bloody message. Several
years ago, many years ago, actually, somebody said, you're still preaching
that old bloody hellfire and damnation message. I'm going
to preach it till I wake up in the presence of Jesus the Nazarene
and wonder that he could love me, a sinner condemned unclean. You need to think about words
like this when you read your Bible. Atonement. That's verse
11. Paul said, we joy in God. I want
to ask you, are you glad there's a God? I mean, are you overwhelmed? Thank God for God. Every day
do you thank God. Even when you're all messed up,
even when things aren't going well, thank God He's sovereign
and on His throne. Thank God that my sorrow, my
pain, my suffering doesn't go unnoticed. The Bible says he's
touched with the feelings of our infirmities. Whatever you're
going through, he knows all about it because you're his kid. Our grandbaby got sick, Caleb,
Friday night. you know, was really sick. I think maybe food poisoning,
because he got over it quick. So you can shake hands with me
today, and you won't get the flu. But anyway, mainly Miss
Pam, because she stayed up all night with him. There's such
a helpless feeling when your kids, or grandkids in this case,
is hurting, and he wasn't talking, and he, I don't think he'd ever
thrown up before, because he didn't know what to do. Miss
Pam was just there with him. And even though I was not real
active, because I'm not real good when kids are throwing up. But I have a tendency to gag
too. But I'll tell you what I did
feel. I wish I could fix him. I wish there was some way that
I could just magically taken him up in my arms and held him
and it would go away. Do you know God's touched with
the feelings of your infirmity, child of God? And so we joy in
God. We are people who joy in God. And so that's what the apostle
says in verse 11, that we joy in God. And my point is simply
this, when you see words like, satisfaction, atonement, propitiation,
substitution, or even faith in his blood. You see how the trail
of blood gets bigger and bigger and bigger and the Bible truly
becomes an HIM book. It becomes a book where you see
God as the mighty Savior who invaded history in the person
of Jesus Christ to save you, to deliver you in a just and
righteous way and not get himself dirty. That's amazing that God
can take hold of me and not get himself dirty. Because in my flesh draws no
good thing. I didn't, you know, when I was converted, my conversion
experience as an eight year old lad was awesome. I mean, it was
glorious. But I'll tell you, 60 some years now later, I am more
thrilled. I am more overcome and taken
back as I see the pieces of the puzzle all fitting. And I see
this awesome message that God has come down, not to spy out
my sins, but actually to deliver me from my sins, me personally. You see, my name was written
in the book before the foundation of the world. I am not saved
by accident, I'm saved on purpose. for a purpose and blessed every
single day. And all things are working for
my good. I was raised somewhat in a religious
atmosphere where you really weren't supposed to be real happy on
Monday. I mean, through the week, you
know, I mean, there's all kinds of things. And as a child, after
I was converted, I really worried about, I mean, all kinds of things
were happening in my life. I was converted when I was eight
years old. All kinds of things began to happen by the time I
was 12 that I knew God wasn't real pleased with. Anybody honest
here? By the time I was 16, I thought,
sure, I can't be saved. Oh, I'm glad you're getting the
message. And so the Apostle, after saying
that we're justified by faith and we're justified by grace
and unmerited favor and were justified by the blood. And when
you begin to see how all of that comes together, the apostle in
verse 11 says that we have now received the atonement. That
word atonement means appeasement has been made. Satisfaction has
been rendered. Propitiation, appeasement. We have, I love the little word
now. Now, in Kentucky, we say it like
this, right now. I mean, right now. Do you know
that God is not angry with you as a Christian? Why would God
be angry with you? He doesn't see your sin. They've
all been dumped in the sea of his forgetfulness. I'm about
to get happy by myself here. They've been removed as far as
the East is from the West. So when I was a young boy and
in my teens and you know, all that stuff happening, I began to doubt. And then on
top of that, I went to church and the preacher said, God's
going to see everything you've ever done since you've been saved.
He's going to reward the good. When you get to heaven, it's
all going to be put on the movie screen. And I would, How would you like your life
put on a movie screen since you've been saved and rewarded for your
work since you've been saved, whether they be good or bad?
Lord have mercy. And he did. And he did. And so the apostle Paul said,
you need to know the atonement has been made. Satisfaction has
been rendered to the justice of God. There is therefore, What's
the next word? Now! There's therefore now no
judgment, condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus right
now. Now, you can live your life with
a smile on your face. I've been born again, born by
the Spirit of God. There was several sponsors here
last night. And, you know, outside people,
people that don't attend our church, but a lot of wonderful
folks that go to other churches. But you know what they say to
me, they get a group together and they say, Pastor, if you
don't mind, tell them how God did this and tell them how God
did that and how God did the other. Somebody told me last
night, said, I will sponsor the book. If you will just, and I
will find a writer. If you will just sit down at
a recorder and dictate what God has done by his grace here at
Grace Centers of Hope. Joe, you heard, you heard it. What I'm getting at is this,
you know how privileged you are to be here? Now I'm not knocking,
I'm not trying to be negative here at all, but do you know
how lots of religious people and a lot of saved people who
go to churches and they never leave there happy? They never
leave there at peace. They never leave there saying
the spirit of God was all over that service. I have experienced
God today and the goodness of God and the graciousness of God and the mercy
of God. I probably shouldn't have said
somebody do something. I just got a shoe thrown at me. Oh my goodness. That's what I'm
talking about. For those of you who are fearful
right now, the first time in the African American churches,
that's very common when people get happy to throw a shoe at
the pastors. It wasn't like that guy threw the shoe at President
Bush that time. That was a happy shoe and I'll
get it back to you. Yeah, okay, all right. All right, here's the deal. Here's the deal, here it is.
This is what Paul wants you to know and I want you to know and
God wants you to know. Where sin piled up, just sometimes
do you feel like, oh my sin. It just seems like sometimes
sin has a run on us, right? where sin piled up, Paul said,
I want you to know grace piled up higher. So whatever's happening
in your life right now, whatever you're going through, and it
may be a struggle just with yourself. It may be your own mess, your
own demise, your own doings, and you just can't seem to shake
your way free. And it just keeps coming and
coming kind of in waves. and you think there is no hope.
Let me tell you, grace centers of hope. That's why we named
that. Because with God's grace, it's unmerited, right? You can't
out send the grace of God. I know what people are saying.
You're giving people an excuse to sin. No, I'm not. No, I'm
not. I'm just, here's what the scripture tells me to do. I'll
come down there because the shoes are that really close. Where sin did abound, grace did
much more abound. Don't leave here today under
condemnation. Leave here with joy in your heart.
singing the praises of Emmanuel, shouting it's by grace and experiencing
it. One of the worst things I think
that can happen is for Christians to live out their daily life
without experiencing God. I talked to the Lord just a few
minutes ago, that kind of thing. We ought to be like a child lost
in a department store looking for mama. I mean, right? Crying out to God. That's the
way we ought to be. We've been justified. The gospel
coming together for you under, it's the gospel of the glory.
It's the gospel of the glory. Paul talked about that in the
first few verses. The gospel of the glory. In other
words, the glorious gospel. Paul would get to points where
he just couldn't, like he would say things like this, which I've
often wondered how he felt. Oh, the exceeding sinfulness
of sin. Well, that doesn't make sense. But he couldn't say how awful
sin was. And even in the Greek language,
it is where the apostle Paul would say, thanks be unto God,"
or use that kind of verbiage. It was, or when he would say,
God forbid, Paul would never even have used that kind of verbiage. Exactly. So our translators didn't
know exactly how to translate it. And it is translated the
best it, I suppose, can be so we can understand it. But sometimes,
I think we need to understand that it's all right for us to
be almost out of our mind. I mean, to reach a point, it
doesn't, you know, don't show off in other people how spiritual
you are. Don't be doing that. But on the inside, we need to
experience God. We ought to be experiencing God
daily. And we ought to talk back to Sloughfoot. His greatest desire
is to get you down. If he can get you down, and he's
got the goods on you too, he knows what you've done. But you
need to talk back to him. There's therefore now no condemnation.
The atonement has been made. I am persuaded that neither life
nor death, nor principalities, powers, things present, things
to come, nor any other creature shall be able to separate me
from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. All right, let's
stand together and praise him.