In the name of our Lord and Savior,
Jesus Christ. If you have your Bible, you might
open it to the Book of Romans, chapter 8. The Book of Romans,
chapter 8. I want to read verse 28 down
through verse 34. Verse 28 through 34 of Romans,
chapter 8. The Apostle Paul is writing to
the church at Rome, and he says, And we know, that is all believers
know, all those who are in Christ know, all of those who are in
union, have a living union with the Lord Jesus knows, that all
things work together for good to them that love God. to them
who are becalled according to his purpose." God has an everlasting
eternal purpose which he purposed in his Son, the Lord Jesus, and
he calls men and women, boys and girls, according to that
purpose. He saves according to his eternal
purpose. For whom he did foreknow, He
also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that
he might be the firstborn among many brethren. He says here,
for whom he did forelove. This word fore and oh here means
forelove. And the Lord loved his people
before the song of the first angel had ever been sung, before
it had ever broken the solemnity of silence, the Lord had loved
his people. And so he loved his people and
he chose them, he predestinated that they would be conformed
to the image of his Son. He set this as the goal, that
they would all be conformed ultimately to the image of his glorious
and blessed Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that he might be the
firstborn among many brethren, that is that Christ might be
the pattern, and that he might be the firstborn among many,
many brethren. And the Lord does and has saved
many, many out of the sons of Adam. The Bible teaches that
they shall be more numerous in the end than the sand of the
seashore, the number of the redeemed, the number of the elect. Moreover,
in verse 30, moreover whom he did predestinate, Them he also
called, and that means he called them effectually. That means
he called them with an irresistible call. You see, they're being
called according to his purpose, and so therefore the calling
of God must not fail, and it will not fail. It shall not fail. And whom he called, them he also
justified, and whom he justified, then he also glorified. We'll have more to say about
those statements in just a moment or two. What shall we then say
to these things? The Apostle asks. Seeing that
God has foreknown us, seeing that God has predestinated us
to be conformed to the image of his Son, seeing that he's
irresistibly called us, seeing that he's cleared us and absolved
us of all blame, then what shall we say to these things? If God
be for us, who can be against us? And might I say that God
is for His people. He is for those that He's given
to Christ in the eternal covenant. He's for those for whom the Lord
Jesus Christ laid down His life, for those whom He suffered death.
He is for them. This morning, if you're in Christ,
if you know the Lord Jesus, if your sin has been pardoned, if
it's been put away, then, my friend, He is for you. And isn't
it wonderful to have the God of all creation, the sovereign
God of the universe, the God and Father even of our Lord Jesus
Christ to be for us. Wouldn't it be wonderful if you
could say that? God is for me. I know that he's
for me. And what good does it do anybody
to be against me because God is for me. He is for me. He's
for me in calling. He's for me in predestination. He's for me in justification.
He's for me in glorification. And what good would it do anyone
to be against me? He that spared not his own son.
showing here the investment that God has made in His people. He invested His own Son. His own Son, the Lord Jesus Christ,
laid down His life for us. He laid it down in our room instead. He laid it down in our place.
The Bible says that he spared not his own son, meaning that
God gave up his well-beloved son. He gave his well-beloved
son in order that we might be spared. He spared him not that
I might be spared. He spared him not that all of
his chosen might be spared. So then it says, but he delivered
him up. And the Bible teaches us in Isaiah
that He was delivered up by the Father. He was delivered up by
the Father. No accident that Jesus died. Jesus died, He was delivered
up to the cross by the determined counsel of God's own will. He was slain by the hands of
wicked men, but you know it was the eternal counsel of God that
delivered Him up to that hour and to that bloody cross. And
so he goes on to say here, then who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? God has freely given us all things
in Christ, and they have been made out to, they have been imputed
to, they have been accredited to the elect. And so, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect? If God has charged
all your sin to Christ, And if he has charged or imputed all
of his righteousness and all of his merit to you, then who
can lay anything to your charge? If we stand righteous before
God, just as righteous as if we'd never committed a sin, who
can lay anything to our charge? Let the devil, who's the accuser
of the brethren, let him speak up, but can he lay anything to
the charge of God's elect? He can't lay anything to the
charge of those who've been washed in the blood, those whose sins
are under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so then he
goes on to say, it is God that justifies, it is God that absolves
the people of God from blame, It is God that has worked out
the work of justification, and we want to speak about that this
morning. But he goes on to say, who is he that condemneth? Who
can condemn now, seeing that we've been justified in the sight
of Almighty God, and that we've been accepted in the Beloved
One? Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died. It is
Jesus that paid it all. It is the Lord Jesus that suffered
death in our place. It is the Lord Jesus who settled
the old account. It is the Lord Jesus that settled
it up. He's the one that paid it all,
and we glory in the Lord Jesus. And then we're told also that
He's risen again. The Lord Jesus is risen again.
Larry just played about it on the trumpet. He played that the
Lord Jesus has been risen again. He's been raised from the dead.
who is even at the right hand of God. The Lord Jesus, that's
his position now. He's seated at God's right hand. Who also, he says, maketh intercession
for us. In Hebrews chapter 7 verse 25,
it says he is able to save to the uttermost all that come unto
God by him seeing that he ever liveth to make intercession for
us. He ever lives to make intercession
for us. He's praying for us. Now, I love
you, brethren and sisters in Christ, and I appreciate your
prayers on my behalf. I appreciate you remembering
me. I appreciate you praying much for me. But I'm telling
you, the prayer that I'm really interested in is that prayer
of our Lord Jesus Christ. You know, Jesus said, Father,
He said, I know that you always hear me. I know that you always
hear me. And blessed be the name of the
Lord. He's praying. He's praying for us this morning. He's remembering us. He's remembering
this old preacher as he stands here before you, preaching to
never-dying souls, preaching the Lord Jesus Christ and the
way of salvation, the way of redemption to you, preaching
a finished salvation to you. He's praying for me. And I need
His prayer. And all the victories that we
have, we owe it to the intercessory work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And every soul that's born into
the Kingdom of God, every soul that is translated out of darkness
into the marvelous light of our Lord Jesus, we owe it all to
the intercessory work of the Lord Jesus Christ. The victory
belongeth unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Unto Him be glory and
honor forever and ever. Unto Him, our blessed Lord Jesus. And then he said, who shall separate
us from the love of Christ, seeing that we've been so loved of God?
My friend, I've always said that if God loved us, we're mighty
well off. And so who then can separate
us from the love of Christ? If He so loved us, He spared
not His own Son. If He so loved us that He in
the old council halls of eternity laid us upon His own bosom and,
as it were, spared not His Son, but delivered Him up for us.
Jesus was the Lamb slain, you know, from the foundation of
the world. It was then that the eternal
covenant was entered into, and the Lord Jesus answered to God
for us. But let's go back up to verse
30, where we find these words in the middle of the verse. Them
he also justified. Them he also justified, and whom
he justified. Those are the words that I'd
like to speak to you on for a few minutes this morning. Now, the
Bible says here that he, and we all know, I think, who he
is, don't we? We know who he is. the triune
God, the everlasting Father, Almighty God, Lord of heaven
and earth. He fills heaven and He fills
earth. He's the judge of all the earth.
The heaven of heavens cannot contain Him. He, before His presence,
His throne, His eyes, His heart, everything beloved is naked. He, He's glorious in holiness. He's fearful in praises. He's
doing wonders. He's independent. He's a sovereign
God. He doesn't give an account of
His matters to anyone. In Him we live and move and have
our being. Everything we have or hope to
have comes from Him. But we add nothing to him. He's
sovereign. He owns the cattle, the Bible
says, on a thousand hills. And he does not count his cattle
by the head, but he counts them by the hill, because he owns
them. owns the cattle on a thousand
hills. He shuts up, the Bible says,
and no man can open. He opens and no man can shut. The Bible asks this question,
who has been his counselor? I'm talking about he that does
the justifying. He's the one true and living
God, whom to know is life. and that life eternal. The Bible
says he charged his angels with folly. He puts no trust even
in his saints, that is, his holy ones. Before him the heavens,
the very heavens, are unclean. He justified them. It means he acquitted them. It
means he cleared them. It means he absolved them of
all charges. He absolved them from all guilt
and all blame. Isn't it wonderful that we now
stand holy and without blame before Him in love, having been
justified? He restored them to His favor. Them, beloved, he justified. I'm interested in he and interested
in them that he justified. Them he justified. The Lord knoweth
them that are his. In 2 Timothy 2 and 19, it says,
Nevertheless, the foundation of God standeth sure, having
this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. In John 13, 1b,
Jesus said, having loved his own which were in the world,
he loved them unto the end. John 17 and verse 9, the scripture
says, I pray for them, I pray not for the world, but for them
which thou hast given me, for they are thine. And then in John
chapter 10 and verse 16, speaking of other sheep which were not
of that present fold, Jesus said, Them also I must bring. Them also I must bring. And in Matthew 25 and 34, Then
shall the king say unto them, Come, ye blessed of my Father,
inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of
the world. Them Beloved, he justified. Well, who did he justify? Who indeed did he justify? We want to answer that question
first of all, and then second, we want to try to tell you why
he justified them, and thirdly, I want to try to give you the
grounds upon their justification, and fourthly, what was the means
of their justification, and fifthly, if we have time, what the effects
are of the Lord's justification. Now, if you would turn back in
your Bibles to Romans chapter 4, we're going to consider a
few passages in Romans 4 and also in Romans 3. But in Romans
chapter 4, I want you to look at verse 5, and we're to ask
the question, who is it that the Lord justifies? It says he
justified them. Well, who is it that he justifies? Look, if you will, at verse 5.
Romans 4, but to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that
justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
So we're told in this verse of Scripture specifically that he
justifies the ungodly. justifies the ungodly. Whatever else could be said about
them, these people were unlike God by nature. These people that
the Lord declares to be without guilt, that He absolves of all
blame, that He clears of all charges, these people, it is
said that they're different. Whatever is in opposition and
unlike Him, these people were. Now, we're told that he brought
in the flood in the scriptures upon the world of the ungodly.
Back in the days of Noah, he flooded the world and drowned
everybody but Noah and his family, and the Bible says that was an
ungodly world. Because God saw that the wickedness
of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil, continually, Genesis
6, 5, God brought in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.
And in 1 Peter 4 and 18, the scripture says, if the righteous
scarcely or with difficulty be saved, where shall the ungodly
and the sinner appear? And in Psalm 3 and 7, it says,
he shall break the teeth, of the ungodly. Psalm 1 in verse
6 says, the way of the ungodly shall perish. And in Psalm 1
verse 4 it says, the ungodly are not soul, but are like the
chaff which the wind driveth away. Behold the Lord cometh
with ten thousands of his saints, we read in June 14 and 15, to
execute judgment upon all. and to convince all that are
ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have
ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly
sinners have spoken against him. Well, beloved, it is from this
mass of humanity, called the ungodly, that he chooses them
he justifies. Isn't that amazing? Isn't that
wonderful? The true grace of God out of
this mass of humanity, out of this cesspool of nature, those
who He destroyed, many that He destroyed, my friend, but yet
He justifies some of them. He justifies them. He clears
some of them. He absolves some of them from
all blame. Well, beloved, we've answered
the first question. Who does He justify? He justifies
the ungodly. So if you're here this morning
and you say, I'm just the opposite of God by my nature, then, my
friend, there's hope for you because He justifies the ungodly,
those that are just opposite from God. And by nature, we all
are opposite of God. And if we're going to be saved,
God, it is God that must justified. God only can justify you. Now a man, a priest of this world
might come along and absolve you in his way and manner, but
you're not, you are not absolved from your sin and from blame
and from eternal ruin unless the God of the Bible justifies
you. And if He justifies you, then
you are justified, justified indeed. And so therefore God
does justify the ungodly, so have hope, sinner. Number two,
why does he justify the ungodly instead of destroying them? Well,
in Romans chapter 3, if you have your Bible open there, you might
look at verse 23 and 24. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace. that is in Christ Jesus. So we've all sinned and come
short of the glory of God. But we've been justified by His
grace. God is a God of grace. He is gracious. That's just the
way that He is. He is a gracious and loving and
merciful God. In Ephesians 2 and 4 it says,
But God, who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith
he loved us even when we were dead in sin, has quickened us
together with the Lord Jesus Christ. His favor, beloved, is
unearned. His favor is unmerited. His favor
is unpurchased. His favor is unpurchasable by
the sinner. God is a gracious God, and He
justifies freely. Oh my, those of us that have
nothing to pay, and the Lord has forgiven us. All those that
are redeemed, the redeemed of the Lord, they've all been forgiven.
Their debt was all wiped out. They had nothing with which to
pay. But the Lord wiped their debt
clean because He is gracious, because He justifies freely,
freely without cause on the behalf and part of the sinner. He justifies
men through faith in the Lord Jesus. Mr. Spurgeon preached
a sermon on justification by grace, and when he was finished,
a man came to him and said, I don't think God will forgive me unless
I do something to deserve it. And Mr. Spurgeon replied, he
said, I tell you, sir, if you bring any of your deservings,
you shall never have justification. If you bring anything and offer
it to God in order to induce Him to forgive you of your sin,
you'll never have your sin blotted out. Your sin will never, ever
be forgiven. God gives away His justification
freely, amen? He gives it away freely. He doesn't
charge for it. He gives it away. It cost His
dear Son His life's blood. But He gives salvation and He
gives justification away freely. And if you bring anything to
pay for it, He'll throw it back in your face and He'll not give
His justification to you. You'll die and go to hell. You
must receive it as a free gift from God. Salvation is God's
work from the beginning to the end, and He glories in that He
is able to take an old filthy sinner and He can forgive him,
He can absolve him of all guilt, He can wash away his sin in every
blemish, in every spot, and He can give him right standing before
Him. God glories in that. Now in Exodus chapter 33 and
verse 18, Moses said, now I'm in a hurry this morning, you
can tell that. But we got folks that need to leave early today
and so therefore you just stick with me and keep your ears open.
Keep your ears open and listen carefully to what we're saying.
Moses said, I beseech thee, show me thy glory. He wanted to see
God's glory. He had seen a small part of the
glory of God, such as the consuming fire on the mountain, and the
angels flying through the air, the sound of the trumpet exceedingly
loud, and the mountain quaking and shaking. Moses saw all of
that. But Moses just saw a part of
his glory. But Moses, God would say to him,
you've not seen my chief glory. You haven't seen much effort.
I'm talking about why did God justify them? Why did he do it? That's what I'm talking about.
Moses, you never saw what motivated me to save Noah and his family
when they drowned the whole world. You never saw that. You never
yet come to know what that was. You don't know what that is.
You've never seen that. Exodus 33 and 19, and he said,
I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and will proclaim
the name of the Lord before thee, and will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show
mercy. And in chapter 34 and verse 5
and 6, and the Lord pass by before him, and proclaim the Lord, the
Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and abundant in
goodness and truth. So when the Lord passed by, He
manifested to Moses His mercy, His goodness, His graciousness,
His long-patience that He has with His people. He's abundant
in goodness and truth. In verse 8, Moses made haste
and he bowed his head. Why not? Moses made haste and
he bowed his head as all of us should, seeing that the Lord
is gracious, merciful, and kind, longsuffering, and patient, and
that he's acquitted us of all sin. He bowed his head and he
worshipped. He bowed his head toward the
earth and he worshipped. And those of you that are here
this morning that has tasted and seen that the Lord is good,
those of you that have had your guilt clean wiped away, those
of you that have known and felt the nearness of Christ and the
power of the resurrected Christ in lifting your soul out of death,
then, my friend, you're a worshiper, are you not? Don't you bow your
head? Don't you give thanks to God
for saving you out of the cesspool of ruined Adam nature? Don't you give Him worship? Don't
you praise Him? Well, that's what Moses did.
When he saw the goodness, the grace, the long-suffering, the
patience, the kindness and truth of God, he bowed his head. He
bowed his head. And you and I ought to do the
same. Well, why do you suppose, or
what do you suppose it was? that motivated God to have mercy
on old Noah. Well, he said to Moses, and Paul
quoted this because he wanted us to know it. He wanted everybody
to know it, the world over. He wanted, so he quoted it. Paul
did in the ninth chapter of the book of Romans in verse 15 and
16. He said, I'll have mercy on whom
I'll have mercy. and I'll have compassion on whom
I'll have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth, it's not of the free willer, but of him, of him that
calleth. It's of God. It's of God. Salvation's
of him. And praise his name. Well, what
do you suppose motivated God to send his angels to Sodom to
fetch old Lot out of the city before he destroyed that place?
What do you suppose it was? What moved God? Now, old Lot
was backslidden. Old Lot was, he wasn't walking
with God. He wasn't faithful to God. But yet, what motivated God to
send the angels to Sodom and get him out, to bring him out
before he destroyed the city? Well, what was it that that motivated
God to save me and mine? What was it? What was it that
motivated God to lay hold on you? What was it that motivated
God to have mercy upon you instead of sending you to hell? What
was it? Well, my friend, it was because God is gracious. because He is gracious. Well,
why me and mine? Why did He save us freely without
cause? It is in His heart to do so.
It is in God's great heart to do so. The heart of God is a
heart of love and mercy and kindness and grace. God's will of grace
it was. God's will of grace. The Bible
says of His own will He saved us by and through His Word. And we were born not of the will
of the flesh nor the will of man, but of God. And so it was
God's will of grace. Couldn't you praise Him from
your heart for His will of grace? That He had a will of grace. Oh my friend, he has a will of
judgment also. But thanks be to God that he
separated you out. Just like a man would separate
his cows from somebody else's. He separated you out. And he
had a will of grace. a will of grace, and it was through
that will of grace that you and I wind up this morning justified,
cleared, absolved of all blame, and that we have a right standing
before God. Clear, clear, the record's clear. It's as clear as the record of
the Lord Jesus Himself, because we're in Him. We're in the Lord
Jesus. Now then, That's sovereign grace. That's sovereign mercy. Sovereign
grace. Do you like the sound of that?
I like the sound of that. I really do. That rejoices my
heart. Talk about sovereign grace. Free, sovereign grace. You know
what that means? That means that this will of
grace is under God's control. That's what it means. It's under
the control of Almighty God. That He saves whom He will. He
saves whom He will. The Bible says in John 5 and
21, for as the Father raises up the dead and quickens them,
means He makes them alive, even so the Son quickeneth whom He
will, whom He will. And does that bother you that
the Lord, the God of heaven and earth, the God of creation, that
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has a will of His
own? Does that bother you? And does it bother you? It certainly
shouldn't bother you if that will included you. Oh, but the
sinner says, I don't know whether it includes me or not. And you
won't know until you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And
the Bible says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt
be saved and thou hast. Believe on Him. Believe on Him.
May the Word of God come with power to your heart and may you
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And then claim the promise, and
my house, and my house, and my house. And I believe that if
you step out in faith and grasp that promise to your bosom and
never give up, pray that God will save the members of your
home, the members of your household, your children. God will bring
them in to the everlasting salvation of His grace. So lay claim to
the promise and believe the Word of God. Well, He's a sovereign
God. It's under His control. So He
dispenses His justification as He will. Them He also justifies. Number three, what is the grounds
of this justification? Look again in verse 24 of Romans
3, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. Now, beloved, we need to focus
on the fact that there is a redemption that had to take place in order
for God to have grounds upon which He can justify you. There had to be a redemption
take place. If I told you that God was going to freely forgive
you, clear you of all charges, then that wouldn't relieve the
burden of your heart. That wouldn't help your guilty
conscience at all. You would say, where is the justice
in that? On what grounds, preacher, can
God declare me to be just? On what grounds can He forgive
my sins? On what grounds can he do it?
What about his holy character? What about his righteousness
and justice? Grace, justifying grace. Somebody
said, smarter than I am, but this is a good statement. He
said grace, justifying grace, apart from a redemptive sacrifice,
will not satisfy a screaming conscience. You've got a conscience
that feels its guilt. You've got a conscience that
knows that you've sinned and broken God's law and that you
stand judged before God, condemned already as if he was already
in hell. My friend, nothing is going to
satisfy your conscience except a sacrifice, a redemptive sacrifice,
being justified freely through the redemption that is in Christ
Jesus. He was given a body in the womb
of the Virgin Mary, took upon Himself our nature, sin accepted,
bone of our bone, flesh of our flesh. If He were to make me
as He is, He must become as I am. And so He became as I am, but
I might be as He is. Is that alright? Isn't it wonderful
to be as He is before God the Father? To be accepted, to be
as Christ is? You got nothing against being
like Christ, have you? To be as He is? Praise God! The Bible teaches that He was
without sin. Did the will of God. He did the
will of God in all things. The Bible says every deed was
a just deed when He was in the world. Every thought holy. Those
who knew Him best said, that he had no sin, that he had no
sin. The father said, this is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. The law spoke up and bore witness
and said, he magnified me and made me honorable. That's what
the law said. He magnified me and made me honorable. The only way he could have done
that was by living out in his character the law. in his fullness,
fulfilling it, every jot and tittle of it. And so the Lord
said, he magnified me and he made me honorable. And every
believer in Christ has magnified the law and he's made it honorable. Don't anyone accuse us of being
antinomian. We have fulfilled the law. We have obeyed it. And the law
of God now is the best friend that we have in all the world
because the law is satisfied. Justice no longer has anything
against the people of God. And so we can say hallelujah
to that. He walked and he worked as our
representative and he rendered perfect obedience unto God in
all matters. I'm talking about my substitute. I'm talking about the one who
lived and represented me on this earth. I'm talking about the
Lord Jesus Christ. But that's not all. The Bible
says in 1 Peter 2 and 24, who his own self bear. Our sin is in His own body on
the tree. He bore my sin in His body on
the tree. Romans 5 and 9, being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him being
justified by His blood. I'm talking about the grounds
of justification. It's Him being put on the tree. It's Him shedding His blood.
It's His life and His death. This is the grounds of our justification. 1 Peter 3 and 18, For Christ
also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that
He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but
quickened by the Spirit. 2 Corinthians 5 and 21 says,
He hath made Him to be sin for us. He knew no sin, but that we might
be made the righteousness of God in Him. Galatians 3 and 10
says, As are the works of the law unto the curse, for it is
written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things
which are written in the book of the law to do them. And in
verse 13, Hallelujah, Christ hath redeemed us from the curse
of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written, Cursed
is everyone that hangeth on a tree. He was made a curse for me. Ah,
that's the grounds of my justification. He was made, He was M-A-D-E,
made a curse for me. The penalty and wages of my sin
must be paid and He paid it all. The Lord Jesus paid it all. Isaiah
53 and 6 says, we all like sheep have gone astray. We've turned
everyone to his own way and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity
of us all. The grounds of a justification. Listen to me, Isaiah 53 and 11
says, He shall see in the travail of his soul and be satisfied.
By his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many. By the knowledge of him shall
many be justified, for he shall bear their iniquities. He shall
bear their sin to the tree and pay the price. Now this is the
grounds of our justification. What justice demands, justice
has received. And therefore, them he justified,
because they now have no sin. Brother, sister, in my and your
experience, sin may be in two places at one time, but not with
God. Not with God. Laid on Him, no
longer on us. Laid on Him, no longer on us.
He rendered to God what and all we owe His justice, and this
is the grounds Oh, you say, I feel like I'm still the center preacher.
Well, if you've been justified, then God don't see you as the
center anymore. He sees you as cleared. He sees
you as absolved. He sees you as not any longer
worthy of blame because you're in that one who was blameless. Fourth, look at the means of
this. And we're hurrying right along.
We're going to get this in, I believe. Romans 3, verse 26 and 28. the
means of salvation, the means of justification. What is it?
Well, let me read verse 26 and 28 to you. To declare, I say, at this time
his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus. which believeth in Jesus. Where
is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law
of faith. Therefore we conclude that a
man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. Therefore
we conclude, the conclusion of the whole matter is, that the
means through which God justifies them is by faith. without the deeds of the law. Faith owns the truth of all this
that we've been sitting before you this morning. While we've
been sitting on the table for your spiritual consumption, faith
owns the truth of it all. Look at verse 5 of Romans 4 again. Verse 5 of Romans 4. And notice
what it says. But to him that worketh not,
but what? believeth, believeth on him that
justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.
I'm talking about the means, the means. Turn back in your
Bibles quickly if you have your Bible to the book of Acts chapter
13 and notice these verses. Beginning here with verse 37,
I want to read verse 38, 13, out of the 13th chapter, verse
38, 39, and 42. 13th chapter, verse 38, Be it
known unto you, therefore, men and brethren, that through this
man he has preached unto you the forgiveness of sins, and
verse 39, and by him all that believe are justified from all
things. you that believe are justified
from all things, which you could not be justified by the law of
Moses. And what was the reaction of
the people hearing this? And when the Jews were gone out
of the synagogue, the Gentiles besought that these words might
be preached to them the very next Sabbath. And when the congregation
was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed
Paul and Barnabas, who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue
in the grace of God as being the means of faith and the means
of justification. They said, we just want to hear
it again. You can come back next week and you can preach the same
thing over again. We want to hear it again because
we believe this is to be the true message of the grace of
God and this is what we need to hear. We need to hear it.
You know, we've got used to too much. We've got to have, you
know, we just got to have something new all the time. But all my
friends, these people said, you just come back and speak the
same words next week to us. We want to hear the same thing
over again. Don't even have to change your outline. Just come
right back and speak the same thing over to us again. We want to hear it. We want to
hear it. That the means of justification
is faith. in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith
believeth the record that God gave of his Son. Faith receives
the atonement into the heart. Faith is the channel that brings
the Lord Jesus and his life and his blood to the heart of the
sinner. He that heareth my word, and
believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life. Romans
10 and 10. For with the heart man believeth
unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation. Somebody said, well, where's
feeling in all of this? Well, faith says joy and peace
and assurance. You're welcome to come along,
but you must follow me. Don't get in front of me. Follow
me. Faith is what is important in this matter. Now, the Lord
gloriously saved one of my older boys last Sunday morning at home
before he went to church. Gloriously saved him. You've
heard about that little dog called Rover? When he died, he died
all over. Well, when this boy got saved last Sunday morning,
he got saved all over. This is a marvelous and amazing
thing. How God saved our son Mark. Saved
him. I mean, it's wonderful. And all
week long, he'd been walking on a cloud. I mean, the trees
have been clapping their hands all week. The mountains have
been singing. Now, you don't even have any
mountains out there, but they've been singing anyway. He's been rejoicing,
had lots of feeling, a lot of feeling, a joy, peace, and assurance,
even afraid to get up in the morning, afraid it'll be gone.
Well, hallelujah, but wait a minute. Wait a minute. All of this must
follow faith. Faith is what saved him. And
the effects of it is joy and peace and assurance. Faith has
but one thing that it looks to, and that is the naked Word of
God. Just look at the Word of God, the naked Word, what God
has said. Just because God said it, I believe
it. It's that. It's that faith justifies
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, believing all that we've preached
about in faith. shifts emphasis here in Romans
3. Paul's been talking about depravity
and sin and guilt, but now he's talking about, toward the end
of this chapter, about justification, redemption, and righteousness.
In verse 27, by the law of faith, he says, there's a law. in the
kingdom of God, and that is that no man can be justified by his
own works. No man can be justified by the
law, but man must be justified by faith. That's the law of the
kingdom, and nobody comes in except they're justified by faith. That's the only way you can get
in. You've got to believe unto it. And now Paul makes that clear
by the law of faith. We look outside ourself to Jesus.
We look outside of ourselves. We look beyond. Listen, we don't
look anymore at these old grave clothes. Faith doesn't look within,
but looks to Jesus. Looks to Christ. What saved us
happened outside of us. Happened on the gourd tree. It
happened on Calvary's Mount. That's what saved us. Quit looking
inside. You don't want to be discouraged.
Just keep looking in. Anything in you, you couldn't
find anything in you worth looking at. But it's Christ that we must
continue to look to. So faith says I won't look at
these old gray clothes anymore. Too long I've viewed these old
gray clothes and smelled my stink as it arose. No longer, not me,
I'm not looking any longer at this. I'm looking to Jesus, the
author and the finisher of my faith. Today, tomorrow, and always. unto the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is the means. Now that brings me to the last
thing and that is the effects. Romans 5.1 says therefore being
justified by faith we have peace with God. through our Lord Jesus
Christ. This peace has been earned and
brought in. It's consistent, as we've tried
to show you, with the demands of God's holy law and justice,
but God, hear me, is satisfied. He's satisfied. God now is satisfied. Well, now if God is satisfied,
why not me? Why not you? If God's satisfied,
why don't you have some peace? God's satisfied. You believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ. He's satisfied. Why not you?
Why not you? Believe it. And if you believe
it, you will be satisfied. You will. I'm justified in a
way that's consistent with every law God ever made. Therefore,
I ought to rejoice and be glad and I ought to have peace. Now
in the 20th chapter of John, You know, when the Lord Jesus
had been crucified and raised from the dead, He appeared to
the disciples, and Thomas, doubting Thomas, was not there. But in
the 19th verse of the 20th chapter, He came in, and the first thing
He said to them was, Peace be unto you. Peace be unto you. He was saying, Here's the ground
of your peace. What did He do? He showed them His hands, and
He showed them His side. He said, peace be unto you. Peace
be unto you. Now listen my friend, if God
hung his son on a cross, if the Lord Jesus was nailed to that
old rugged cross, and if a spear entered his side and out come
blood and water, then here's the grounds of your peace. You
got peace. The sacrifice has been made.
Christ has made it. Now your sin has been paid for.
It's been paid for, behold my hand. and my feet, behold, look
at my hands, look at my feet. God has not winked at your sin,
behold, my hands and my feet. And you know some people get
the idea maybe that when we preach the gospel that we're preaching
that God isn't really serious about sin, that he just up and
pardons people and makes them clean. Ah, my friends, God crossed
his T's and dotted his I's at Calvary. Yes, he did. And God
never winked at sin. See my hands and my feet. Look
at them. Look. Think. Think. When you
begin to doubt your salvation, look and think on the hands and
the feet, the wounds, the side, the five bleeding wounds received
on Calvary. Think about these wounds. That's
the price of your peace and of your redemption. Payment ye cannot
twice demand. Behold my hands and my feet. It's enough. It's enough. Oh
child of God who is plagued and, as it were, just weighted down
with the lack of assurance. It's enough. He cannot twice
demand. Once at his bleeding shirt, his
hand, and then again at mine. He's not going to come along.
Just behold his hands and his feet and his sigh. And the burden
will be lifted.