I invite you to turn in your
Bibles to the 8th chapter of the book of Romans, and I want you to look, if you
would, at verse 30. There are three words in verse
30 that I want to try this morning to build a message around. Romans chapter 8 and verse 30,
Moreover, whom he did predestinate them he also called, and whom
he called, these next words, them he also justified, them
he also justified, and whom he justified, them he also glorified. And these words that I've read
to you out of Romans 8 verse 30, them he also justified. He justified them. Well, we know who he is, don't
we? We know who he is. He's the one that Paul says does
the justifying. He's the triune God. He's the
everlasting Father. He's the almighty God. He's 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. Before His presence, before His
throne, before His eyes, before His heart, everything in the
world is absolutely naked. He's glorious in holiness. He is fearful in praises, doing
wondrous things. He's independent. He is sovereign. He doesn't give account of any
of his matters. I say he doesn't give an account
of any of his matters, 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 is sovereign. He shuts up and no man can open. He opens and no man can shut. Who has been his counselor? He's the one true and living
God whom to know is life and life eternal. He charged his
angels with folly. He puts no trust in his saints. Before him the heavens are unclean. He justified them. He acquitted them, it means.
It means that He cleared them of all charges. It means He absolved
them from all guilt. He restored them, if you please,
to His favor. Them He justified. I'm interested in He, and you
can see that I tried to set Him forth. He, the mighty God, the
everlasting Father, the Almighty, the Lord of heaven and earth.
And also I'm interested in them. very much interested in them
he justified. Them he justified. The Bible
says in 2 Timothy 2 and 19, nevertheless the foundation of God stand assure
having this seal, the Lord knoweth them that are his. Having loved
his own, John 13 verse 1b says, which were in the world, he loved
them unto the end. John 17 and verse 9 says, I pray
for them, I pray not for the world, but for them which thou
hast given me, for they are thine. John 16 and verse 10 says, them
also I must bring, them. 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, first of all this morning I want to ask and answer the
question, if I can, who did he justify? Second, I'd like to
ask and answer why did he justify them? Thirdly, on what grounds
did he justify them? And fourthly, what was the means
by which he justified them? And fifthly, what are the effects
of this justification on these that are spoken of as them in
our text. Well, first of all, if you turn
back, holding your finger here if you want, to Romans chapter
4, I want you to look with me at verse 5, and the question
being, who does he justify? Who does he justify? And in verse
5, I'll read here this verse, but to him that worketh not,
but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted
for righteousness. We're told specifically here
that those that he justifies are the ungodly, the ungodly. Now the ungodly, whatever else
could be said about them, they are ungodly. These people were
unlike God by nature. They were just the very opposite
of God. Ungodly must be whatever is in
opposition or whatever is unlike him. We're told that he brought
in the flood upon the world of the ungodly back in the days
of Noah. He brought in the flood upon
the world of the ungodly to destroy the world because they were ungodly. 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. And so God brought in the flood
upon these ungodly ones. If the righteous scarcely or
with difficulty be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner
appear? Well, the Bible says he shall
break the teeth of the ungodly. The Bible says the way of the
ungodly shall perish. The ungodly are not so, the psalmist
says, but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away. Behold, the Lord cometh with
ten thousands of his saints, 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. Jude 14 and verse 15. Well, beloved,
it is from this mass of humanity called the ungodly that he chooses
them that he justifies. Oh, my friend, they are the same
cesspool and the same nature as those who he destroyed in
the days of the flood, but them he justified. They deserve the
same end, but them he justified. Well, who does he justify? Well,
he justifies then the ungodly. I think we have answered the
first question. All those that are here this
morning that have been justified, God says that you, in a state
of nature, when you were lost and undone before the regenerating
power of the Spirit of God came upon you, and before you were
quickened unto spiritual life, that you were ungodly. That was your condition, and
I do not believe that anybody is saved who were not first termed
by Holy Scripture as being ungodly. Now you may not agree with that
assessment of the Word of God, But nevertheless, it is a true
assessment. Let God be true and let every
man be a liar. God must be true. His word is
true. Well, the next question is, why
does he justify the ungodly instead of destroying them? Romans 3
verse 23 turn back there with me if you still have your finger
here in chapter 4 It'll be easy for you to find in the third
chapter. We're going to deal with the
question now Why why would God justify the ungodly? Why would
he reach in and to this cesspool and deliver out of that a mass
of humanity termed in the Bible as being those whom God loves,
those whom God has chosen. But here in the third chapter
of Romans, verse 23, it says, for all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Look at verse 24, being justified
freely by His grace. Well, why does he justify the
ungodly instead of destroying them? Well, Paul here tells us
that he justifies them freely by his grace. Beloved God is
a God of grace. He is gracious. That's just the
way he is. He is a gracious God, a very
merciful and a very gracious and loving God. His favor is
unearned, it is unmerited, it is unpurchased. and it is unpurchasable. God is gracious. Ephesians 2 and verse 4 says,
and I never get tired of quoting these verses, they're a great
blessing to me, but God, who is rich in mercy for his great
love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sin, hath
quickened us together with Christ by grace, ye are saved. By grace ye are saved because
of the rich mercy and the great love wherewith he loved us. I this morning would charge any
of you brethren that happen to be around on my funeral to stand
up and read that portion of the Word of God. Now, beloved, I
charge you to do that because that is a tremendous portion
of Scripture telling us about the great mercy and the love
of God toward the ungodly, toward those that he's quickened unto
eternal life. Now, I'm kind of like the fellow
that said that if he knew where he was going to die, that he'd
never go near the place. But nevertheless, I know that
the time will come, when being mortal, that we will die. And
it would be wonderful if we all could preach our funeral before
we die. And it certainly would be wonderful
if we could accumulate some things for those that must see us off.
to use in the time of our funeral. Well, Ephesians chapter 2 and
verse 4 and 5 are those verses. Well, I said that his favor is
unearned. I said that his favor is unmerited. I said it was unpurchased, and
I said that it is unpurchasable, God's favor. Well, after Mr. Spurgeon had preached the sermon
on justification by grace, a man came to him and said, I do not
think that God will forgive me unless I do something to deserve
it. And Spurgeon replied, I tell
you, sir, if you bring any of your deservings If you bring
any of your deservings, you shall never, never have it. God gives
away his justification freely, and if you bring anything to
pay for it, he'll throw it in your face, and you will never,
ever be justified if you bring anything to pay for it. God's
grace is free, my friend. It is free, and God will not
become indebted to anyone for having given them his forgiveness. He gives it. He's a gracious
God. In Exodus chapter 33, and if you want to turn there, you
might hold your finger in Romans because we'll be back there,
but turn over to the book of Exodus chapter 33. And there
came a day in the life of Moses that he said, in verse 18 of
this 33rd chapter, he said, I beseech thee, speaking to the Lord, he
says, show me, show me thy glory. Now, Moses had seen a small part
of the glory of God. He saw the consuming fire on
the mount. He saw the angels flying around
through the air. and the sound of the trumpet
that was exceeding loud, and the mountain quaking and shaking.
He'd seen all of this. But he now says, Show me thy
glory. I want to see, dear Lord, your
glory. And the Lord said, Thou canst
not see my face, for there shall no man see me and live. And the
Lord said, I'm going to place you, Moses, in the rock. And you'll stand upon the rock.
And it shall come to pass, while my glory passes by, that I'll
put you in the cleft of the rock, and I'll cover you there with
my hand when I pass by. But Moses, you've never seen
my chief glory. You've never seen it. Well, what
is the chief glory of God? Moses, you've never seen what
it was that motivated me to spare Noah when I drowned the ungodly,
the evil world all around him. You've never seen what it was
that motivated me to go into Sodom and fetch Lot out of Sodom
and bring him out. You've never seen it. Well, here
it is, right here in verse 19. He said, I'll make all my goodness
pass before thee. I 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. So the Lord did pass
by, and the Lord passed by before him in verse 6 of chapter 34
and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious,
long-suffering and abundant in goodness and in truth. My friend,
can you explain why it was that God ever come where you were?
You being dead in sin, you being lost and undone, you being a
wiggling maggot of the dust, you being empty and destitute,
you being a son of Adam, a sinner, can you explain why that God
would come nigh you? Why he would touch your life?
Why he would affect you? My friend, he said to Moses,
He said to Moses, back in the Book of Romans again, and I want
to read this to you. We can quote it, it's out of
the 9th chapter, verse 15 and 16. He said to Moses, and Paul
quotes it here, some of the verses that we often use, but blessed
are they, for he said to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will
have mercy. and I'll have compassion on whom
I will have compassion. So then, it is not of him that
willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. Well then, why did he justify
these? He justified them because he's
God, and because he's gracious, and because he's merciful, because
he's long-suffering, because he's a God of compassion, and
he will show his compassion. Well, that kind of answers that
question. And then I'd like to say that
these verses that I just quoted out of Romans 9 Verse 15 and
16 shows us something else. Of course it reveals the absoluteness
of the sovereignty of God's grace. But I want you to look back in
the third chapter of Romans again at that 24th verse where it says,
being justified freely by His grace. Justified freely, the
word freely there means without cause. means it's just in his
heart to do it. It's just in God's heart to do
it. The great heart of God. To have
mercy upon poor sinners. To come to where poor sinners
are and to draw them everlastingly unto himself. To bring them in
the fold and give them all that he demands of them. Now when
we speak of God's will of grace or when we speak of the sovereign
grace of God or the sovereign mercy of God, what we mean by
that is that it is under God's control and that He dispenses
that grace as He will. He dispenses it as He will. And there isn't anything that
He observes in the sinner that moves him or causes him to bestow
his grace upon that sinner. It's absolutely free. By grace
are you saved. Now if you're saved by grace,
then hallelujah, you can say I'm saved today. Salvation is
by grace, and if you're saved, then you are saved. You're just
as much saved as you ever will be. Even though you be in this
world and even though you still are dealing with many contrary
things in this life, my friend, we're saved by grace. Saved by
grace. And that grace is sovereign grace. God does not save everybody we
know He does not. We know that them He justified. Well, that brings me then to
the third thing, and that is, what is the grounds of this justification? We told you who he justifies,
that's the ungodly, and we told you why, that's because God is
gracious and he's compassionate, he's rich in mercy for his great
love wherewith he loved us. Don't find fault with me for
just keep going back to that. I can't get over that. I never
got over it yet. I don't expect to ever get over
it. God is rich in mercy. Now then, what is the grounds
of this justification? If I told you, and I have told
you, that God would freely forgive you, if He does forgive you,
He will do so freely, clear you of all charges, yea, justify
you freely, that wouldn't, I don't think, relieve your burdened
heart That wouldn't help your guilty conscience at all. You're
a sinner. You're a lost sinner. You're
a lawbreaker. You've offended God. You broke
his law. And you are guilty of every bit
of it. Every bit of the law of God.
You've turned thumbs down on and walked contrary to. If you
break one point, you're guilty of all of it. And God charges
you with the sin of lawbreaking. Well, my friend, if I get up
here and I tell you, God will forgive you. freely, that won't
necessarily unburden your heart, that won't necessarily grant
deliverance to your conscience. You would say, where is the justice
in that? Where is the justice in God just
delivering me, justifying me, declaring me to be without a
charge against me? Where is the justice of that? On what grounds, preacher, can
God do that and yet be the holy God that He is. What about the
holy character of Almighty God? What about the justice, the offended
justice of the holy God? What about all of that? Preacher,
how can God deliver, how can He justify me? Grace, let me
make this statement, justifying grace apart from a redemptive
sacrifice will not satisfy a screaming conscience. It will not. Now
you listen carefully to what I'm saying. There's got to be
some grounds upon which a holy God not violate his character
and his justice and yet say to the sinner, you're cleared, you're
absolved of all guilt You're absolved of all charges. Well
here, beloved, is the grounds. Look again in verse 24 of Romans
chapter 3. Being justified freely by His
grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. It is
in and through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, that
God has grounds upon which he can forgive our sin. He was given
a body, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ in the womb of the Virgin,
and he took upon him our nature, sin accepted, bone of our bone,
flesh of our flesh. If he, you see, were to make
me as he is, then he must become as I am. He must come down here
and take upon himself humanity, holy humanity, humanity nevertheless. He must be made like unto his
brethren. These that he would justify,
he's got to take upon himself their nature. He's got to be
made like them. Well, we know the Lord Jesus
that he took upon himself veil of our inferior clay. He did
the will of God in the body which the Lord gave him. He did the
will of God. My friend, that may sound like
a trite statement, but whenever we consider that nobody ever
done the will of God but him, it's not a trite statement. He
did the will of God. You and I might do it partially.
You and I might be involved in the will of God, but he did the
will of God and did it perfectly. Every deed was just. Every thought that went through
his brain was a holy thought, and those who knew him best said
that he did no sin. Those that knew him best said
he did no sin. The Father said, speaking out
of heaven, this is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased. If the father was pleased with
him, you can be sure he was without sin, is that right? You can be
sure that he was wholly spotless, he was without blame, he was
without blemish. And then the law bore witness
and said, he magnified me and made me honorable. That's what
the law said about the Lord Jesus Christ, the servant of the Most
High God. He magnified my law and He made
my law honorable in that that He fulfilled the law and that
that He obeyed every jot and tittle of it. I'm coming to something
here. He walked, the Lord Jesus walked,
and the Lord Jesus worked as our representative and He rendered
unto the Father perfect obedience. in order that there might be
a righteousness that he might be able to impute unto his people. But that's not all. That's not
all. And the Bible says in 1 Peter
2 and 24, who his own self, after he had lived a perfect life,
after he obeyed the law of God, after he had satisfied God to
the full in obedience under the law to him, then the scripture
says, who his own self, bear our sin in his own body on the
tree. That's in 1 Peter 2 and 24. Romans
5 and 9 says, being now justified by his blood. For Christ also
at once suffered for sin, the just for the unjust, that he
might bring us unto God, being put to death in the flesh. Blood had to be shed. The blood
of the Son of God had to be shed to make an atonement, in order
that redemption might be real, in order that God would have
grounds on whereby he could say, them I'll justify. I've got grounds to justify those
that are my chosen. 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. I said last week
at the baptismal service that that's the greatest transaction
that ever took place in this world. The greatest transaction
that ever took place in the universe! when God transferred sin, my
sin, and all those whom He would justify unto the Lord Jesus Christ. God put our sin on Him. You see, there's got to be some
grounds whereby God says, them I justified. Now, in Galatians
3, verse 10, it says, for as many as are the works of the
law under 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 it said,
Christ hath. H-A-T-H 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. So the Lord Jesus
Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law being made
a curse. What's the grounds of my justification? It is that Jesus Christ stood
in my room instead. It is that Jesus Christ was cursed
of God. I should have been cursed. He
was cursed in my place, and he suffered the vengeance of Almighty
God. He bore in his body that wrath
that was due the elect, that wrath that was due those that
the Father would justify. The penalty and the wages of
sin must be paid, and bless God, he paid it all. Isaiah 53 and
verse 6 says, all we like sheep have gone astray, and the Lord
hath laid laid upon him the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53 and 11 says,
he shall see the travail of his soul and shall be satisfied and
by the knowledge of him shall my righteous servant justify
many for he shall bear their iniquities. Beloved, our God
searched out and got every one of the iniquities of these that
He would justify and He laid them on the Lord Jesus Christ.
Every one of the black devils He laid on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the grounds of our justification. Every sin that we committed or
anybody else had committed that is in the family of God, either
have been, will be, or is now in the family of God, every one
of their sins was laid on the Lord Jesus Christ. Now this is
the grounds And justice demands, this is the grounds of our justification. This is how I can get up here
and say, them he justified. Them he justified. Now justice
demands that they be cleared of all guilt. You see, the justice
demands that they be cleared of all guilt because they don't
have any sin. These are sinless before God. They have no sin. Now, brother,
sister, in my and your experience, sin may be in two places at one
time, but not with God. Not with God. Now, you listen
to me carefully. Sin cannot be in two places with
God. Now, with me, I can be talking
about my sin, having been laid on Christ, and I know there's
yet sin in me. All have sinned and there's not
a justified man on the face of the earth that doeth good and
sinneth not in the doing of it. And so there's sin in every one
of us. But we talk about sin being in us and sin laid on Christ,
but with God, He only sees sin as it was laid on His Son and
He dealt with it. and he dealt with it. Anybody
here in question about whether or not God slew his own son on
Calvary's cross, the innocent one, the righteous one, that
one who had no guilt, that one who had no sin, in order that
he might justify, justify all those who would come to faith
in him. Laid on him Laid on Him. Can you get those words in your
mind? Laid on Him. That's where our sin was placed.
Laid on Him. And He answered to God for our
sin. He answered to God for it. Now,
beloved, listen. It's no longer on us if it's
been laid on Him. He rendered to God. All that
we owed, His justice, He rendered it unto God. This is the grounds
of our justification. I have to hurry because the time
is getting away from me. Fourthly, look at the means.
I talked about who, I talked about why, and I've talked about
what the grounds were. Now, I want you to look at the
means. Back in Romans 3 again, and look
at verse 26. To declare, I say, at this time
his righteousness, that he might be just, and the justifier of
him which believeth in Jesus. Look at verse 28. Therefore we
conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of
the law. Faith, beloved, is the means
of our justification. Faith owns the truth. of all this that we've been talking
about. Faith owns this gospel truth. And then I want you to look again
at Romans 4 and verse 5 again, the first part of it. But to
him that worketh not, but believeth. But believeth. Faith, I say,
is the means. Now I want you to turn back with
me to the book of Acts. Hold your finger again here in
Romans, but turn back to Acts chapter 13. And I want us to
look here at a scripture that the Lord has impressed upon my
heart for a few days here. Acts chapter 13, and I want to
begin with verse 38. We're talking about the means,
and the means is faith. Through faith, God justifies
the sinner. To him that worketh not, But
to him that believeth on him that justifies the ungodly, his
faith is counted for righteousness. Now look here in verse 38. Be
it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through
this man, that is Jesus Christ, is preached unto you the forgiveness
of sins. Look at verse 39. And by him
all that believe, and by him all that believe are what? Anybody can say it if you're
not tongue-tied. Justified. And from what? From all things from which you
could not be justified by the law of Moses. Justified from
all things. And how you're justified? Well,
through the means of faith. Oh, them that believe are justified. Now then, I want you to look
down at verse 42, and I want you to see what happened after
these things were preached. And when the Jews were gone out
of the synagogue, they were all ratcheted up, they were mad,
because the Gentiles were having the gospel preached to them,
and the Gentiles besought, that means that they asked, that means
they desired, that these words might be preached to them the
next Sabbath. They wanted this same message.
Paul, you won't even have to change your notes. You don't
have to change anything. Just come back next week and
preach the same thing to us again. Just preach it again. Preach
it again. And we're told that the next
Sabbath day came almost the whole city together to hear the word
of God. To hear this message that through
this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sin and by
him all that believe are justified from all things from which you
could not be justified by the law of Moses. Now then, they
wanted to hear it again. God help us. You know, we can
take it or leave it ourselves. Well, some of us can. Maybe just
take it or leave it. God help us. What's happened
to us? Ah, you say, well, I've heard
that justification business for a number of years. Are you justified?
Are you justified? You say, well, I've heard that
preaching over and over and over and over again. But my friend,
has it come home to your heart? Have you believed it? Nobody's
justified who does not believe this truth. Well, what does it
mean? Faith believes the record that
God gave of his son. Faith receives the atonement
into the heart. Faith is the ear of the soul. Faith is the pencil of the soul
that draws pictures of heavenly things through faith. A justified
soul is a soul as white as heaven itself. Is that right? As white
as heaven itself. So then faith receives the atonement. Faith is the channel that brings
the Lord Jesus and his life and his blood into the heart of an
individual. He that heareth my word and believeth. Listen to those words. He that
heareth my words and believeth hath everlasting life, John 5
and 24. Now, beloved, faith has but one
thing that it looks to. Faith has but one thing it looks
to, and that is the naked Word of God. It looks to the naked
Word of God. Believe it and be saved. Believe
it and be justified. Take its hat off. take its shoes
off, take its socks off, strip it down, naked, the naked Word
of God. Believe the Word of God. He that heareth my word and believeth
on him that sent me hath everlasting life. I say believe it! Believe
it! and be saved. Romans 10 and 10
says, with the heart man believeth unto righteousness. You cannot
become righteous any other way before God but believing unto
it. Believing unto it. And I'm preaching
to sinners. If you're already very capable
and you think, well, I'm righteous in myself, the Lord Jesus didn't
have anything for you. He said, I didn't come to call
the righteous. What you doing in a New Testament church? What
you doing listening to the gospel? Jesus don't have anything for
you. He said, I didn't come to call the righteous. The whole
need not a physician. It's the sick that needs a physician. Well, somebody said, well, where
is feeling in all of this? Where is emotion in all of this? Preacher, where is good emotion
in all of this? You say faith has for its object
the naked Word of God. Well, where is feeling in all
of this? Well, faith says to joy, it says
to peace, it says to assurance, you're welcome to come along,
but you must follow. You must follow faith. You don't
get in front of me. You follow me. Now, my friend,
you say, I haven't felt anything, preacher. Well, you are not going
to feel anything, my friend, until faith comes down from God
into your heart. And when faith comes, these other
things follow. Faith is not going to let these
things get in front. Faith says, you follow me, emotions. You follow me. Now listen, beloved,
I say again, that what we are to believe is the naked Word
of God. Just because God said it, I believe
it, and that's how faith, that's how God justifies. He justifies
us as we believe on His Word, as we believe on Christ as He's
revealed in His Word. Now, beloved, I say the Word
of God unadorned, the Word of God without any trappings, the
Word of God without any ornaments, the Word of God without any tradition,
the Word of God, the plain, unadorned Word of God without your expoundings
and your confoundings. One old colored preacher read
a chapter and instead of saying, I'm going to expound it, he said,
I'm going to confound it. And there's a lot of people confounding
the Word of God in our day, but my friend, without any of all
of this confounding and expounding, and all just the naked Word of
God, when you come to say, I believe what God said, and because it
was God that said it, God who cannot lie, promised eternal
life before the foundation of the world, I believe, God, that
it shall be just exactly as He said it. I believe it'll be just
like He said it. And do you believe that? Do you
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, I want you to see here
how faith in Romans 3 here shifts the emphasis. In Romans 3, now
Paul has been talking, those of you who listen to Brother
Randy read, The third chapter of Romans, you know that he's
been talking about depravity, been talking about sin, been
talking about how that there's no fear of God before men's eyes,
and how that through the law that every mouth be stopped,
all the world becomes guilty before God, and by the deeds
of the law, no flesh gonna be justified, just darkness and
blindness and eternal guilt and hell, judgment to come and all
of that. But now, beloved, the emphases
are shifted. And I want you to see this. This
is glorious. Down in verse 22, or verse 21,
he says, but now the righteousness of God. He starts talking about
righteousness. to these people that are depraved,
these people that are godless, these people that are ungodly.
And he says the righteousness of God. There's some righteousness
out there that can be had without the law. Without the law, without
a man's personal obedience to the law, but he substitutes obedience
to the law through that. there is a righteousness to be
had. And then he talks about redemption
as we read it in verse 24. And then how that in verse 25
there it says, through faith in his blood to declare his righteousness. There's a declaration of his
righteousness to declare at this time, verse 26, his righteousness
that he might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. And then he said, where is the
boasting then? Where's the boasting? The emphasis
is all shifted. He said, it is excluded. It's
excluded. Why are these people that he's
talking about earlier, all these depraved people, which takes
all of us in, all of them, what can they boast of? I told you
before, they're ungodly. Well, what can they boast of?
It's excluded. It's excluded as long as you
don't have a place. Nobody's got an inch of ground upon which
to glory in this matter of eternal salvation. By what law? Well, is it by some law? The
law of works? No! No! The Apostle Paul said,
we're shifting the emphasis here. No! Nay! But by the law of faith. By the law of faith. You see
how that he shifts from all of this depravity and sin and guilt
to righteousness, redemption and salvation and life through
faith. And here in the 28th verse, therefore
we conclude that a man is justified by faith, that's the means, without
the deeds of the law. We conclude that, that's our
conclusion, that a man is justified by faith. Well, I've been trying
to tell you here that this is the means. Now we look outside
ourself to the Lord Jesus Christ. Beloved is the means of escape
from your depravity, from your sin, from the awfulness of your
crimes and your guilt. I don't look anymore to myself. I'm done looking at myself. But
to Jesus, I just look to Jesus. Faith just don't look within.
Faith looks to Jesus. Faith says, I won't look anymore
at my old gray clothes. Not anymore. The poet said, too
long I have viewed these old grave clothes. Smell my stink
as it arose. No longer, not me, I'm looking
to Jesus today, tomorrow, forever, always I shall look to Jesus. No more, no more shall I look
to myself. Well, that brings me to the effects
and we'll hurriedly finish this off. Therefore, in Romans 5 and
1, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So we're justified by the means
of faith, now we have peace with God. Say, I'd sure would like
to be at peace with God. I tell you, it'd be wonderful
to be able to lay down and not have any feeling of guilt. Not
to know that I'm righteous before God. Know I'm justified. Know
that there isn't anything between me and God. To know that I'm
clean before God. It'd be wonderful to know that
my sin, that God took it and He laid it on His Son. He punished
it in His Son. And forever, I'm righteous before
God. That'd be a wonderful thing.
Well, this peace has been earned. It has been bought. It has been brought in, and this
peace is consistent with the holy justice of God. God is satisfied. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
propitiation. He's that satisfaction unto God
for our sin. God is satisfied with what Jesus
did. Well, why not me? Why not me? I mean, if he's satisfied with
it, I'm satisfied with it, and I got some peace because I know
that God is satisfied. Well, why not you, my friend?
If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, you have peace with God.
I'm justified in a way that is consistent with God's holiness. One more verse, and I promise
you I'm finished. John chapter 20, and verse 19. after our Lord Jesus was raised
from the dead. He appeared to Mary Magdalene,
and she told the disciples in verse 18 that she had seen the
Lord, and that he had spoken these things unto her. Then the
same day, in verse 19, at evening, being the first day of the week
when the disciples were shut in, the disciples were assembled
for fear of the Jews, came Jesus, and stood in the midst, and saith
unto them, Peace. be unto you." Our Lord Jesus
has been resurrected from the dead. And then here in verse
20, I want you to get this, and when he had so said, peace be
unto you, peace be unto you, and when he had so said, he showed
them his hands and he sighed. He showed them his hands and
he sighed. Somebody said, well why in the
world Did he do that? He said, peace be unto them.
Why did he do that? Well, he was saying here, here's
the grounds of your peace. I want you to show you, I want
to show you that your peace has been bought. Your sin has been
paid for. Behold my hands and my side. They've been paid for. Look at it. Behold my hands and
my side. God has not winked at your sin,
my friend. Behold his hands and his side. He not winked at your sin. God,
payment he cannot twice demand. Behold his hands and his side. Jesus paid for our peace. And I want you to see this. It
says, then were the disciples glad. I think they were glad.
for two or three reasons, I won't get into them, but one of the
reasons they were glad was that they saw that the inflicted wounds
upon the Lord Jesus Christ, that was the payment of their sin
and they had peace with God through what He did and what He accomplished
on the cross. Certainly they were glad He had
been raised from the dead. They were glad that it was the
same Jesus and that He was raised from the dead. But He spoke to
them again now and He said, verse 21, Peace be unto you Peace be
unto you. And it's because of what has
happened. I've been wounded in the house
of my friends, and I have paid the price. of your redemption. Romans 8.33 says, Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Amen. Amen. It is God that justifies. Them he also justified. I hope this morning that the
Lord has been pleased to give you some better understanding
of the message of the gospel as we've tried to answer these
questions. Who? Why? What were the grounds? What
was the means? And what was the effect? I hope
this simple, very simple gospel message, one that the Lord might
use and own in your life. May the Lord glorify himself
and honor himself. Mike, would you come