I believe God has given me a
message for you today that will be of interest to everybody here.
To you who are without Christ, troubled with your sin, vexed
with your guilt, fearful for your soul for eternity, God's
given me a message for you. Some of you, I suspect, are hard,
stiff-necked rebels, determined to keep your distance from the
Almighty. Some, I suspect, like Betty Burge,
couldn't help but be thinking about her. She attended services
here for eight years after she moved to this area, and she called
me one day, and she acknowledged before God saved her when she
wanted to confess Christ in baptism, She said, Brother Don, I've been
lying to you. She said, I've been mad, so mad
at you for eight years, I could bite nails into. And I suspect
some of you are just like that. You stay mad at the preacher
because you're mad at God. I've got a message that's going
to interest you. And for you who trust my Savior, for you who believe God, for
you who bow to Christ Jesus the Lord. God's given me a message
that you're going to find comforting, assuring, encouraging, and strengthening
for your soul. I'm confident. I hope you will
be compelled, each of you, by God the Holy Spirit to listen
carefully. My subject this morning is peace
with God. Would you love to have that?
I'm not talking about peace. Would you love to be able to
walk day by day through darkness and trouble and stormy seas having
peace with God? Every one of you would give you
a right arm to have peace if you could just find a way. Oh,
how we want peace. Peace. Our text is Romans chapter
5. Let's take one more look at verses
1 and 2. Romans chapter 5, verses 1 and 2, peace with God. Therefore being justified By
faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Our text
begins with the word therefore. Therefore being justified by
faith we have peace with God. Now whenever you read the scriptures
and you come across a chapter or a verse that begins with that
word, therefore, you need to look back to that which has been
written before it and see what it is therefore. What's the significance
of it? To what does it refer? Well,
what did Paul say in Romans chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4 to which this
word therefore refers? He's telling us in the opening
verse of Roman 5, Now what I'm about to tell you is so because
of all that I have stated in the previous chapters. He has
declared to us the fact of man's universal redemption all the
way down through verse 19 of chapter 3. Chapters 1, 2, and
3 show us the universal need of justification by the free
grace of God through the blood and righteousness of our Lord
Jesus Christ. He shows us that all men everywhere
need God's grace. All men everywhere need to be
justified and justified by grace because they cannot justify themselves
All are depraved, corrupt, and can produce nothing but that
which comes from depravity and corruption. And then in chapter
3, it tells us how it is that God accomplished our justification
by Jesus Christ's obedience unto death as our substitute. That
one who is the propitiation for our sins. That one who was delivered
for our offenses and raised again for our justification. And then
in chapter 4, he tells us that this justification is received
by faith. By faith in Jesus Christ, all
who believe on the Son of God receive from God testimony that
they're righteous. If you believe on the Son of
God, God declares in your conscience that you're righteous before
Him. You receive that testimony that Abraham received from God,
that testimony that Enoch received from God, while you walk on this
earth fully aware of your sin, fully acknowledging your sin,
yet God declares you're righteous, just, and free from sin in Jesus
Christ the Lord. In the light of all that, that
he said in these first chapters, the Apostle tells us in verse
28 of chapter 3, therefore we conclude, this is the conclusion
of the matter, a man is justified by faith without the deeds of
the law. And then he gives us two examples.
We're justified by faith in Christ without the deeds of the law.
The Spirit of God uses Abraham and David as examples of this
justification by faith in Christ. Now you know that Abraham was
twice called the friend of God in the book of God. David is
described twice as the man after God's own heart. God spoke to
Abraham as a man speaks with his friend. God himself says
of Abraham, this is my friend. Now that means that whenever
Abraham's name comes up, Wherever I find Abraham's name mentioned
in the book of God, I'm very interested because Abraham is
the one man in all this book personally identified by God
with these words, my friend. Oh, how I want to be so identified
as one who is friend of God and friend to God. Abraham, my friend,
is held before us here as an example of faith. Not only is
he the friend of God, this man Abraham is the pattern, the example
of all true faith. He's described in scripture as
the father of all them that believe. Abraham was a man who was accepted,
beloved, and honored of God. So much so that when our Lord
Jesus refers to heaven, he said Lazarus is in Abraham's bosom. This man, Abraham, was somebody.
This man, Abraham, was impressive. This man, Abraham, was accepted
of God, honored of God, blessed of God, saved by God, the friend
of God. How could that be? Not by anything
he did, but by faith in Jesus Christ, the Lord. What does Paul
tell us about him? What should we say of Abraham,
our father? Chapter 4, verse 1. As pertaining
to the flesh hath failed. What did he find? Was he justified
by works, by something he did? If by works he has whereof to
glory in himself, but not before God. But what do the scriptures
say? Abraham believed God and it was
counted, reckoned, imputed to him for righteousness. In other
words, Abraham stood before God, justified. conscious of the fact
that God had forgiven all his sin, conscious of the fact that
he was redeemed by the precious blood of Christ, conscious of
the fact that God accepted him, conscious of the fact that God
said he's holy, upright, righteous, perfect before me, this man Abraham,
because he believed God. wasn't justified by his works
or by his obedience, but by faith. His works, his obedience, that
which he did was the result of his faith. But his justification
was received freely by faith in the Lord Jesus. We're justified
by faith. By faith. Not by our works, but
by faith. That's what the first four chapters
of Romans is all about. We're justified before God. by
faith in Jesus Christ. And then Paul uses David for
an example, an example of faith. These two men, Abraham and David,
perhaps were the most remarkable, highly regarded men of the Jews
in the day in which this man, Paul, lived. Abraham, the father
of the nation, the father of all who believe, the covenant
head of God's people. And David, the king, the king
of Israel, the great mighty king of Israel, that man who was a
man after God's own heart, that man who ruled Israel with might
and power in righteousness and in truth, that man who stands
out imminently as a type and picture of the Lord Jesus Christ.
David is the one through whom, according to the flesh, Christ
came into the world. He is our Savior's Lord. Our Savior is His Lord, and our
Savior is His Son. He came into the world through
David's seed. In Romans chapter 4, verse 6,
David describeth the blessedness of the man to whom God imputeth
righteousness without works. He describes the blessedness
of that man, that woman. God will not charged sin. That one God reckons righteous. That one God accepts. He says,
blessed is the man to whom God will not impute sin. Oh, happy, favored. Highly favored is that person
to whom God will not charge sin. That person to whom God imputes
righteousness without any condition or qualification found in him. If we have righteousness, it
has to be without works. It has to be by grace, and there's
a reason for that. Our works, Don Lanier, the very
best thing you and Don Fortner ever thought about doing is just
filthy rags. Our works, our righteousness,
Not just what we do. Just the very highest imagination
of our minds is so corrupt and polluted by the fountain from
which it comes, our depraved nature, that our righteousnesses
are filthy rags. You can't hope to be justified
by something you do because all you do is sin. All we do is sin. We pray. Which of you has ever prayed
without sin? Which of you has ever prayed
and had any thought that there was anything about you a prayer
but sin? Self, selfishness, our own desires,
our own ambitions, or how we corrupt our prayers with our
sins. We read the Word of God, and
we read the Word of God with more callousness, with more indifference,
than you read worn ads in the newspaper. Why? Because we read the Word
of God constantly, constantly, constantly with sin. Just sin. Sin. sin running through our
minds, sin running through our hearts, sin running through our
souls, sin running through our every imagination as we read
the holy book of God. No. Can't be justified by something
we do. All we do is sin. We must be
justified freely by God's grace through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus. Justification received by faith
alone. We're justified before God by
the faith of Christ, by his faithful obedience unto God. We receive
this justification by faith in Christ. We experience it by faith
in Christ, not by works. Justified freely by God's grace. through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus. But Brother Don, what does that word justified
mean? I've heard the word described
and defined many ways. I've read many definitions of
it over the years. Some folks say to be justified
is to be forgiven. Well, that's true, but it's more
than that. To be justified, we're told, is to be pardoned. That's
true, but it's more than that. To be justified is to be Not
guilty. We can't even think like that.
To be justified is to be not guilty. There's a cliche that's
used, and I've used it, it's wrong. To be justified is to
be just as if I had never sinned. That's not right. Mark, to be
justified is never to have sinned. Well, that can't be. That can't
be. How is it possible for a man
or a woman who knows his sin to declare that he's justified
and declare that with truth and honesty? How can that possibly
be? How can one be perfect, holy,
righteous before God without sin, having never sinned? This
is what the book of God says. The Lord God chose us in Christ
that we should be holy and without blame. Holy and without blame. What? Holy and without blame. Now, we're told by well-intending
folks, election is unto holiness, and they mean by that, election
is that God chose us to live a holy life. Lindsay, that'd be good if you
could do it. But you can't. You can't. He didn't say he chose us that
we should be holy and without blame to the best of our ability.
He says that we should be holy and without blame before God. Can it be true? Is this man? Are you? and without blame before God? Our Lord Jesus died for His church,
we're told in Ephesians 5, 27, to make us holy and without blemish. Holy and without blemish. In
Colossians 1 we're told in the body of His flesh through death
we're presented in Christ holy, unblameable, and unreprovable
in the sight of God. That's the whole theme of Romans
1 2 3 & 4 justified by faith in Christ we have no sin you
know that he was manifested to take away our sins and in him
is no sin well how can this be I've asked that question a thousand
times how can this be how can I a sinful man be justified perfect
before God I look at God's holiness and cry with Isaiah, I'm a man
of unclean lips. I dwell amidst a people of unclean
lips. I'm undone. I stand before God's
holiness and see my sinfulness in thought, in word, in deed,
in imagination. I stand before God's justice
and cry with David, if thou shouldst mark iniquities, O Lord, Who
shall stand? I look at God's law and I cry
with the apostle, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver
me from the body of this death? Before the law came, I was alive,
but the law came and I died. The law slew me. That which I
thought to be life, obedience to the law. First thing a man
does when he has some sense of guilt, He cries, what must I
do to be saved? And he starts trying to do. And
you think, this is how I'll get life. I'll start obeying God.
I'll start reading the Bible. I'll start going to church. I'll
get baptized. I'll join the church and everything
will be all right. And you try it all. And all that you try
to do to bring about life, you find to be only death. Death,
death, death. The law came, sin revived, and
I died. That's how God killed that Pharisee,
Saul of Tarsus, and caused him to be born again by the power
of his grace. The law came, sin revived, and
I died, and God raised him from the dead. When I look at God's
judgment, I say with Job, don't bring me into judgment with thee.
I look at my works, and I confess they're filthy rags. This man
at his best estate is altogether vanity. Turn back to Job 25. Job 25. Look at verse 4. Now remember, Job is probably
the oldest book in the Bible. It was probably written before
any other book. Written before Genesis, written before Exodus,
written before Leviticus, written before any other book. probably
is the oldest book in the Bible. And this is the thing that's
asked from the very beginning. Job 25 4, How then can a man
be just with God? Or how can he be clean that's
born of woman? Behold, even to the moon, and
it shineth not. Yea, the stars are not pure in
his sight. We read in Job 15 how much more
abominable and filthy is man. who drinks iniquity like water.
How can a man be declared holy without blame, without blemish,
unblameable, unreprovable, not guilty before God? How can he
do it? I'll give you one word that gives
you the answer. And this one word is the theme
of Holy Scripture from beginning to end, from A to Z, and that
word is substitution. Someone who is not guilty must
stand in the place of the guilty. And that one who is not guilty
bear the sins of the guilty one and take his guilt and make it
his own guilt. The substitute take the sinner's
guilt and make it his own guilt. That's what the Son of God did
for me. He who knew no sin was made sin. He who did no sin was made sin. He who is holy, heartless, undefiled,
and separate from sinners was made sin. And when he was made sin, the
Lord of glory suffered all the fury of God's holy wrath to the
full satisfaction of justice, enduring, satisfying, and conquering
what's called in the book of God the second death. He suffered
all the hail of God's fury until God said, fury is not in me. That's called substitution. He
did that in the room instead of His elect. He did that in
the room instead of sinners. He did that in the room instead
of every sinner who trusts Him. Oh, can you trust Him? Will you
trust Him? Will you cast away all your righteousness,
all your imaginary goodness, all that you think is excellent?
Cast it down as sin and bow to Christ, the Lord our righteousness,
trusting His blood and His righteousness. If you can, Christ died as your
substitute. Christ died as your substitute.
And the one for whom He died, the guilty one, the guilty one,
the one in whose stead he was crucified, the guilty one, the
one for whom he suffered the wrath of God, the guilty one,
is made to be the very righteousness of God in him. So that Christ
takes our iniquity and makes it his own. He takes our sin
and makes it his own. He takes our guilt and makes
it his own. And he takes his righteousness
and makes it ours, giving us a record of righteousness and
giving us by the new birth a nature of righteousness and giving us
in resurrection glory a body undefiled by sin, perfect, holy,
unblameable. Brother Bayhead used to tell
the story of a missionary he met a long time ago, lived in
India, and he was coming back giving a report of his work.
And he said in India, he was walking through the brush one
day and came out of the clearing and he heard a faint, faint raspy
voice. It was hard to make it out, but
it was a human voice. And he tried to find out where they
were, where the person was, and he finally, came on an old leprous
man out in the clearing. And the man's body was just eaten
away with leprosy. And he was crying, help me. Help me. Won't somebody please
help me? The missionary said as I stood
there and looked at that man, I thought to myself if I could
go over there and stretch my body over his, and put my mouth
on his, and draw out of him all his death and disease, and breathe
into him all of my life and strength. That's a pretty good picture
of what Christ has done for me. He drew into himself my guiltiness. And he said, oh Lord, thou knowest
my guiltiness. And he breathed into me his righteousness
in the gift of his spirit, giving me a new nature, making me a
new creature. And he says, you are righteous. That's substitution. He was wounded
for our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon him. And with his stripes
we are healed. We like sheep have gone astray,
we've turned everyone to his old way. And the Lord hath laid
on him the iniquity of us all. That's substitution. We can't
both bear the sin. We can't both bear the stripes. Either I must bear the stripes
and I must bear my sin or the substitute bears the stripes
because the substitute bears my sin in his own body on the
tree. You young people play sports.
Substitution is not hard to understand. This is not some kind of a deep,
mysterious point of theology. If you're playing ball and you've
got a substitute hitter, you step out and that fellow steps
in. There's not room on the field for both of you. You can't both
be on the field at the same time. The substitute takes the place
of the active player. And all that the substitute does,
he is the one who does it. And he bears the responsibility
of it. And if he makes an error, if
he makes an out, it's his error, his out. And the Lord Jesus He
stepped into our place. And our sin He took to be His
own. And His righteousness He gave
us and makes it our own. So that... I wouldn't dare think this, Merle.
let alone say it if it wasn't written right here in the book
of God. I am the righteousness of God. Isn't that wonderful? Oh, wouldn't
God I could make the world hear this. I am Jehovah's continue
the Lord my righteousness. Read it for yourself in Jeremiah
33 16. That's what God says. We are of God in Christ Jesus. God has made unto us wisdom,
and righteousness, and holiness, sanctification, and redemption. That's how sinners are justified.
That's how sinners are justified by substitution. Jesus paid it
all. All the debt I owed. Sin had
left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. We'd
love to sing the chorus. Did you hear what Jesus said
to me? They're all taken away. Your
sins are pardoned and you're free. They're all taken away. Now, look back at our text. Therefore,
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into
this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. The only path to peace, the only path to peace, the only
path to peace is faith in Jesus Christ our Lord. There is no other, there is no
other You can take all the medicine you want to until you're so doped
up you can't even know your own name. You can go to all the doctors
and psychiatrists and psychologists and counselors in the world until
you are confused about everything and you hear their opinion about
everything and you can try to shift responsibility away from
yourself until you die, but you won't have peace. You may be
deluded and you may be stupefied, but you won't have peace. You
can go through all the religion in the world and do all the reforming
that's possible for a man to do. Drunks can quit drinking. Whoremongers can quit fooling
around. Prostitutes can quit their evil lifestyle. Dopeheads
can quit their dope. And you can go to church and
become a priest or a missionary. You can live as a monk the rest
of your life and never find peace. The only path to peace is faith
in Jesus Christ the Lord and no other. Therefore, being justified
by faith, we have peace with God. All my life, I heard people
say, peace with God. They use the phrase all the time.
Have you made your peace with God? You go to the funeral home,
you look at a fellow lay in there, he may have been the biggest
rogue in town, but Once they die, everybody's in heaven. Once
they die, everybody's saints. If you hear the preachers talk,
they say, well, he's better off. He made his peace with God. How'd
you do that? How'd you do that? Could you satisfy justice? Did
you suffer God's wrath in hell until the fires of hell were
quenched by what you suffered? Oh, no. Oh, no. Does church membership
Does reforming your life, promising to do better, give you peace
with God, justify your soul? No! It only comes by faith in
Jesus Christ the Lord. Christ Jesus, by the blood of
His cross, has reconciled us to God and given us peace with
God. What's it mean to reconcile?
You take two men who are enemies and you take away the enmity
and you bring them together. There's a wall of enmity between
you and God. A wall of enmity separating you
from God is called sin. And the only way that wall can
be taken away and you be brought to God is by the blood of His
cross. Oh, God give you grace now to
believe over the Son of God. Now, look at verse 2. Not only
do we have peace with God, this peace is a very distinct blessing
of grace. It gives us rest, a quiet spirit,
comfort and confidence, by whom also we have access by faith
into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. We not only have peace with God,
we have access to God. Uninterrupted, constant access
to God so that we can lift our hearts to heaven and call the
God of glory, Father, and do so with confidence and peace.
Oh, what peace, what peace. No wonder our Savior said, my
yoke is easy, my burden is light. We have peace with God and access
to Him. It's quite possible for a person to have greatly
offended another and do something to make up to the one he's offended
and be forgiven and the two of them part company and never see
each other again. But that's not what we have in Christ. Oh,
no. In Christ, sinners are brought
nigh. and given access to God. And
God comes to us so that there's nothing to separate us. No barrier,
no wall, no hindrance, nothing to separate us. Oh, but preacher,
if you don't live right, I've sinned so much. Me too. You may have shown yours to the
world and I may have hidden mine from you. But if sin creates a barrier
to separate a man from God, I could never speak to God. I could never do it. And sin
does make a barrier that separates a man from God so that you can't
ever come to God. And God can't ever come to you
until the wall is destroyed. Christ destroyed the wall and
I cannot resurrect it. Did you hear me? Christ destroyed
the wall and I cannot resurrect it. Therefore, the Lord God himself
bids us come boldly to the throne of grace. The God of glory calls for sinners
like you and me, to come with complete freedom, to come with
just, see that door there? God bids us to walk through the
door just like the door wasn't there because the door's not
there. He says come boldly with no fear of rejection, with no
possibility of being denied, with no thought that he won't
hear. boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy
and find grace to help in time of need. Martin Luther said,
Although by nature I am a sinner, I despair not. For Christ Jesus,
who is my Redeemer, and my righteousness, and my Advocate, and my Intercessor,
liveth in the presence of God. In Christ, because of his death,
by his blood, I have no sin. That's peace. My sins are gone. They're put away. I have no fear
of God, no sting of conscience, no dread of judgment. I'm justified. Justified in Christ. That's peace. Peace with God. access to God,
rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. Augustus Toplady, who lived in the late 1700s in
the southern part of England, wrote many hymns. He was a fantastic
preacher. His sermons are just outstanding. And he wrote many hymns, though
he died as a young man. You're familiar with Rock of
Ages. Here's another one he wrote.
I want to read it to you. folks have ever heard it. A debtor
to mercy alone, of covenant mercy I see, nor fear with thy righteousness
own my person and offering to bring. The terrors of law and
of God with me can have nothing to do. My Savior's obedience
and blood hide all my transgressions from view. The work which is
goodness began The arm of his strength will complete his promises
yea and amen and never was forfeited yet. Things future nor things
that are now nor all things below or above can make him his purpose
forego or sever my soul from his love. My name from the palms
of his hands eternity will not erase. Impressed on his heart
it remains in marks of indelible grace. Yes, I to the end shall
endure as sure as the earnest is given, more happy but not
more secure the glorified spirits in heaven. Would you have peace? Would you
have peace with God? Come to Christ. Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and go home being justified, having peace
with God. Peace with God that will keep
your heart. Peace with God to rule your heart
and mind. Peace of God to give you rest. Peace with God's providence. Peace with God's purpose. Peace
with God's salvation. Peace with God. Turn back to
that passage I read before the message this morning, Micah chapter
4. Micah chapter 4. I tried to get some idea of peace. And of course you know I am always
happy to let folks know I'm a southerner. And I can't think of a more peaceful
scene than an old man in the south sitting in his lawn chair
with his wife and his children and his grandchildren and maybe
a few great-grandchildren in the yard and sitting there under
the shade of a huge elm tree drinking lemonade and enjoying
life. Just a picture of peace. That's
the very picture that God gives us here, Micah, in this last
day when men and women are born again and given faith in Christ.
In the last days it shall come to pass that the mountain of
the house of the Lord shall be established in the top of the
mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and people shall
flow into it. Many nations shall come and say,
Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and to the house
of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we
will walk in his paths. For the law shall go forth of
Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. He shall judge
among many people, and rebuke strong nations afar off. And
they shall beat those who are judged of God, and rebuked of
God, converted by His grace. They shall beat their swords
into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. They get
over being at war with God, being at war with each other. Nations
shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn
war any more. But they shall sit every man
under his vine, and every man under his fig tree, and none
shall make them afraid. None shall make them afraid,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it. When I was a boy, I took all
kinds of jobs like most of you fellas did. Before I started
carrying papers when I was eight, I would sometimes get ahold of
some grit, and we'd sell grit. I remember I sold it for a nickel. I might have made a half a cent
on each one, but we'd go all over the neighborhood selling
grit. I read about a boy one time years ago during the Depression
era in Chicago selling grit on the streets. And one day he flagged
down a fella in a really nice car, obviously a very wealthy
man, and sold him one of his grit papers. looked at him and
realized he was just a street urchin. And he asked him where
he lived, and he said, just wherever I could sleep. And he said, well,
where are your parents? He said, I don't have any parents.
They're both dead. And the man looked at him and
chatted a little bit, and he said, you know, my wife and I
live in a great, big, huge house, and we don't have any children.
And I believe she'd just be tickled to death if you'd come live with
us and be our son. And he said, you mean it? I believe
she'd just be tickled to death. If you just come live with us,
you get in the car, and I'll take you home with me. And he
got in the car, and they drove up this huge palace of a house. And the old man walked to me
and said to his wife, said, I found this boy today, and he doesn't
have any parents, and we don't have any children. And I thought
it'd be good for us to take him as our son. And she said, oh,
that's wonderful. He's agreed to come. And he got
his bath, and had supper, and just ate like he hadn't eaten
in a long, long time, and went up to bed. The old man and his
wife took the boy up to bed, and they said, now, this will
be your room. Everything here is yours. He got in bed. They prayed. He snuggled up under
the covers, and he said, everything here is mine. He said, yours. He said, free for nothing? Free
for nothing. And he just snuggled up and went
to sleep in peace. Everything God has is yours,
free for nothing, in Christ the Lord. Oh, God give you faith
in Him. Amen.