which turn back to Romans chapter
five. Tonight, I'm going to be preaching
upon this subject, heaven, where the Lord taught us to pray, our
father, which art in heaven. I've entitled the message for
this morning, the therefores of justification. Therefore is
a big word in the scripture. The therefore is of justification.
Now may the Lord enable me to preach this message as it ought
to be preached. And I'd like to begin by saying
this. God is just. God is absolutely, immutably
just. Thou hast loved righteousness
and hated iniquity. That's what said of God. He's
just justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne.
The psalmist said, Abraham said regarding God shall not the judge
of the earth do right. And do you believe this? God
is absolutely just. He will not let sin go unpunished. He said, I will by no means clear
the guilty. He identified himself in Isaiah
as a just God and a savior. God is just. You know, there's something in
our hearts that knows that so. God is just. He's a God of absolute impartial
justice. There's no respect of persons
with him. And we know that he is one who
rewards the righteous and he punishes the guilty. God is just. And God's justice is the great
ground of salvation. It's called in the scripture
justification. Romans 4 25. We considered this
last week. Here are the two great grounds
of our salvation. Speaking of the Lord Jesus who
was delivered for our offenses and was raised again for our
justification. Now here. is the two pillars
of salvation, the death of Christ and the resurrection of Christ.
He died. Now, why did he die? Why did he die? He was delivered for our offenses.
Who is the ours? Does that mean all men without
exception? Well, if it did, all men without exception would be
saved. It's all who believe. It's all
who believe the gospel. It's all those the father gave
him. It's all the elect. He was delivered for our offenses. And he died. Because God is just. God must punish sin. Amen. You believe that? God must
punish sin or he would cease to be God. He would lose his
Godhood. And that can't be. God is just. He was delivered for our offenses.
There's the first pillar of salvation. And he was raised again for or
because of our justification. And this is the work of God,
the great truth of justification. Now, justification is something
only God can do for him to take somebody like me when I'm guilty.
I can't help but think of. The public in the temple. He
beat on his breast, crying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner. He beat on his breast. He was
conscious of his guilt and of his sin. And yet the Lord Jesus
says regarding that man that he went down to his house justified. That's more than forgiven. That's
better than forgiven. Justified. If I'm justified,
that means I'm not guilty. I have no guilt. I have no sin.
Now, only God can do this. I love that scripture, Romans
4, 5, to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justify
the ungodly. Well, that gives hope for an
ungodly sinner, doesn't it? There's one who justifies the
ungodly. Now, this is the work of God.
Who is he that can condemn? It's, or who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. Who
is he that can condemn, it's Christ that died, yea, rather
than if it's risen again, who's even at the right hand of God,
who also makes intercession for us. And this is the work of God,
isn't it? Only God can justify somebody. If I'm justified, it's going
to have to be by grace. Romans 3, 24 says being justified
freely by his grace, his unmerited favor through the redemption
that's in Christ Jesus. Romans 5, 9 says being now justified
by his blood. You see the blood of the Lord
Jesus Christ actually put away my sin to where I stand before
God without guilt. Justified. Isn't it wonderful
to be justified? I never get sick or become tired
or it never becomes wearisome to me to think of this glorious
God honoring hopeful truth of God justifying the ungodly. You know, the gospel is called
justification by faith. Look in Romans 3 27. Where is boasting then? It's
excluded by what law of works? Nay, but by the law of faith.
Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without
the deeds of the law, without his own personal works. Now in
Romans chapter five, verse one, the apostle begins with these
words, therefore, being justified by faith. And that is literally,
therefore, having been justified by faith. Having been justified. Now, here's when justification
took place. And this is so important for us to understand what justification
is. He was delivered for our offenses and was raised again
for our justification. When was I justified? When he
was raised from the dead. That's outside of my personal
subjective experience. It's outside of me doing something
in order to get this. He was delivered for our offenses.
He was raised again for our justification. Therefore, having been justified
by faith. Now, it's not the act of faith
that justifies me. It's not the act of believing
that justifies me. Christ's righteousness is what
justifies me. Christ's bloody death, putting
away my sin, is what justifies me. Christ being raised from
the dead is what justifies me. That's what faith believes. You
know what I believe? I believe that Christ is my justification
before God. I believe that. That's what faith
believes. That's who I'm relying on. I'm
relying on the Lord Jesus Christ as my justification before God. justification by faith. Now, the first, therefore, of
justification by faith is peace with God. Therefore, having been justified
by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, when I say the therefores
of justification, there are necessary consequences of justification. Peace with God is a necessary
consequence of justification. Now, while these truths that
we're going to see in these first five verses of Romans chapter
five are altogether glorious, high and holy, they come through
with mathematical precision as the direct consequences of justification. If I'm justified, if God has
justified me, if Christ was delivered for my offenses and raised for
my justification, I have peace with God. And this is not talking
here about the feeling of peace. And I love the feeling I hate the feeling of unrest.
I hate the feeling of torment. I hate the feeling of whatever
is opposite of peace. You know what I'm talking about.
I don't like that feeling. I love the feeling of peace, but here
the Apostle is not talking about the feeling of peace. He's talking
about the fact of peace with God, where God is at peace with
me. I'm justified. I have no sin
before God. God doesn't have any reason to
be mad at me. You know, when the angels announced at the birth
of our Lord Jesus Christ, glory to God on highest and on earth. goodwill toward men. That's not
talking about peace between men and men having goodwill toward
each other. It's God's goodwill toward men. It's the peace that
Christ achieved on the cross. Having made peace, the scripture
says, through the blood of his cross. God's at peace with me. And I tell you what I get peace
from is seeing and believing that God is at peace with me.
All that's needed for complete peace, God being at peace with
me, was achieved by what my Lord did for me on Calvary's tree. He justified me, and God is at
peace with me. God looks at me, and he's got
no reason to be angry. You can only get a hold of that
by faith, can't you? You can't look in your heart
and say, well, I can see why God's at peace with me. No, you only know
this by faith. But thank God we do know this
by faith. God is at peace with me through the Lord Jesus Christ. I'm without sin. And what peace
we have through that. Romans chapter 14 verse 17 says
the kingdom of God is not meat and drink. It's not you'll be
more pleasing to God if you eat and drink this, or if you refrain
from eating and drinking that. It's not rules and regulations.
It's not do's and don'ts. The kingdom of God is not of
that. The kingdom of God, Paul said, is righteousness. Absolute
righteousness before God. That's what justification is.
Righteousness before God. If I'm justified, that means
I'm righteous before God. And what comes as a result of
that righteousness? The kingdom of God is not meat
and drink, but righteousness and peace. If Jesus Christ is my righteousness
before God, you know what I have? Peace in my heart. I'm at peace. And the same thing that gives
God peace, Christ gives me peace, Christ. Oh, what peace there
is, the joy and peace of believing. Now, thank God for this twofold
piece of justification. God's at peace with me. He doesn't
have any reason to be mad at me. What about your sin? What
sin? I don't have any sin if I'm justified. If I'm justified
before God, I have no guilt. It's not just as if I've never
sinned, it's I've never sinned. I stand before God without guilt. That's what justification means.
Now, with that, God's at peace with me and what peace I feel,
and this peace is mediated through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore,
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now, there's the first therefore
of justification. It's a necessary consequence.
If I'm justified, I have, I possess peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. And I feel peace. I know something
of the joy and the peace of believing. And here's the second necessary
consequence of justification. Look in verse two. By whom also we have access. We have access. Now that word
means freedom of entrance through the favor of another. We have
access. I have access into the very presence
of God all the time. Whether I'm aware of it or not.
I have access. I have freedom of inference.
I have a right to come boldly under the throne of grace. I
have access into the very presence of God. He'll hear me. He'll receive me. He'll accept
me. Ephesians 3.12 says, in whom
we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him. Hebrews 10.19 says we have boldness
to enter. That's that access. by the blood
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, that means I'm always welcome.
I'm always welcome. I can always come into his presence.
I'm always welcome. How many times in your experience
have you sinned and you felt, I can't come into his presence?
My sin is preventing it. I need to get my heart better.
I need to get, I need to get, I need to repent of this sin.
I need to, I need to deal with this sin. I need to somehow get
better and then I can come into his presence. No, no. A believer always has access
into the very presence of God through the Lord Jesus Christ.
I'm welcome. I'm come and welcome. This is to every believer. Come
and welcome. You have access now accessing
to have the ear of the father, to where he is. I was thinking
about this and I, and when I was thinking of this earthly illustration,
I've got one daughter and Aubrey's always welcome. She's always
welcome. There's no time when she's not
welcome into my presence. She has access at all times,
no matter what I'm doing. But I thought even that earthly
illustration drops to the ground. I can remember sometime in the
last, you know what, if you know me, you know what a sports fan
I am. And Aubrey and Lynn were talking about some kind of access,
some kind of crisis in our bedroom while I was watching a ball game.
And this is a constant source of irritation to Lynn, because
when she asked me something while I'm watching a game, I don't
answer. I don't respond very well. And they were talking about
some kind of problem. I'm not convinced that this happened,
but they said it did. But this is an example of how
Aubrey tried to bring this problem to me, and I turned the TV up.
And I thought, if I did do that, that's reprehensible. That's
reprehensible, but this is an example of how our earthly access,
Aubrey's always got access, but evidently she didn't then. Oh,
it's awful. But the Lord always welcomes
all his children at all times. Access, freedom of entrance by
the faith. of another. I'm always welcome. Access. This is the second necessary
consequence. This is the second, therefore,
of justification. Come and welcome. You have access
to your heavenly father and you won't be turned down. Everyone
who is justified has complete access all the time. Here's the third necessary consequence,
verse two. By whom? You know, everything's
through our Lord Jesus Christ, by our Lord Jesus Christ. I love
the way the apostles, when they write these epistles, they're
always very careful to put in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ
as the reason behind everything. By whom? We have access. Through whom? Now look what he
says, by whom we have access by faith into this grace, wherein
we stand. Because of justification, I have
a standing in grace. Now would to God that me and
you would believe this. Salvation is by grace. It's all of grace. It has absolutely
nothing to do with your works, with your personal character,
with your personal conduct. Salvation is by grace. Every
aspect of salvation is by grace. That's the unmerited favor of
God. Election. That's God's ancient
choice of his people before the foundation of the world. It's
called the election of grace. If I'm justified, that's an act
of God's grace. I didn't earn it to him that
worketh not, but believeth on him that justifies the ungodly. Being justified freely by his
grace is the redemption that's in Christ Jesus. Redemption,
Christ dying for me, is an act of his grace. The reason is found
in his own great heart, because he's gracious. called and regenerated. That's by grace. Every aspect
of salvation is by grace. The fact that I've been preserved
up to this point, oh, it's because of the grace of God. Because
of justification, because of this great justifying work, we
have a standing, a continual standing in grace. The free unmerited
favor of God. I love grace. And then he says in verse two,
by whom also here's the next necessary consequence of justification,
the next therefore of justification, by whom also we have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand and we rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. Now, this phrase, the glory of
God, isn't some undefinable nebulous concept that religious people
use. It's much more than that. You
remember, after Moses was gone 40 days, receiving the law from
God, the children of Israel, I mean, just 40 days, and you
think of all they'd experienced, they'd experienced the Ten plagues
and the parting of the Red Sea. They'd experienced manna coming
down and feeding them and water gushing from the rock and giving
them what to drink, what they needed to drink. They'd experienced
so much through Moses. It was God that did it, but Moses
is gone for 40 days. And what do they do? They make
a golden calf. And they say, these be thy gods,
O Israel, that delivered thee out of Egyptian bondage. What happened to Moses? We don't
know. We don't know. He's gone. We're changing things. Now, the Lord told Moses at that
time, they've sinned a great sin. Moses comes down and finds
that idolatrous party going around those golden cabs. Well, after dealing with some
of those people, he goes and prays to the Lord and the Lord
said, you go take him in to the land of the promised land. I'm not going with him. I'll
send an angel and I'll do all the things I said I was going
to do and I'll bring him into the promised land, but I'm not going in with
him. Not me. You take him in. And that's when
Moses prayed for the Lord's presence. Oh, give us your presence. If
you don't go with us, we don't wanna go. If I don't have your
presence, I don't wanna be there. I didn't. Give us your presence.
Now, during the course of his prayer, Moses said, show me your
glory. Now, what a request. He'd seen
some very glorious things, hadn't he? In his experience, he saw
some mighty things. But he says, I haven't attained
your glory. And God said, all right, I'll make my glory pass
before you. I'll proclaim my name before
you and I will be gracious. Now here's God's glory, that
he has the capacity to be gracious to such an unlovable, wicked,
evil people. I will be gracious to whom I
will be gracious. I'll proclaim my name before
you. I'll make all my goodness pass before you. My goodness
and saving of people like this. And I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. His sovereign mercy. I'll be
gracious to him, I will. Now, Paul says we rejoice in
the hope of that glory. That glory that causes him to
say. Now, I can say this with such
full assurance and confidence. I'm saying this knowing what
I'm saying is the truth. When I stand in glory, I'm going
to be a trophy of grace. It's going to be evident that
grace saved that sinner because he couldn't have been saved any
other way. And we rejoice. Oh, we have confidence. in the hope of the glory of God
that he saves sinners that he said, I will be gracious to whom
I will be gracious. It's his capacity to save people
like that, that we glory. And then let's go on reading
verse three. And not only so, not only do
we glory in the hope of the glory of God or rejoice or have confidence
in the hope of the glory of God, Not only so, but we also glory
in tribulations, in troubles, in difficulties. We glory in
these things. That doesn't mean we enjoy them.
I don't enjoy trials at all. I said this many times, I'm all
for getting out of every one of them I can. I'd like for everything,
I'd like to have no troubles, no conflict, everything just
easy. We don't enjoy trials. They're
painful. They're difficult. Sometimes we may feel as though
our heart is being ripped out by them. Disappointment in the
way we've handled them, but we glory in them for this reason. We know who sent them and why
sent them. And we know that all things work together for good. To them that love God, to them
who are the called according to his purpose. Every thorn,
every trial, every difficult thing that I go through, that
you go through, we know who sent them and why he sent them for
our good and his glory. And we rest in that. So in that
sense, we glory in the trials. I thank the Lord for sending
me the trial he sent me. In everything give thanks, for
this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you. That's
why we thank God for it. As difficult, as inexplicable
as it may be, as I might not understand why the Lord's sending
him my way, what does he teach him, I might not ever figure
any of that out, but I know who sent it. And I rest in that. He is the one who sent it. Now let's go on reading. This
is part of it. Not only so, but we glory in
tribulations also knowing that these trials and these troubles
work patience, patience and abiding under waiting on the Lord to
do whatever he's going to do. Now there's only one time when
we're ever patient. when we know the outcome. That's
the only time we're ever patient. And that does not mean I know
what the Lord is going to do through this, but I know He does.
And I know the outcome is for my good and His glory. And when
God gives me the grace to see that, you know what I am? I'm
patient. I'm patient. Let patience have
a perfect work. We're waiting on the Lord to
do whatever it is he intends on doing. We're just waiting
patiently, knowing the outcome. And I've used this illustration
before, but I'll use it again. If I'm watching a game that I
already know the outcome, I'm patient. If things look bad,
Kentucky's behind, but I know they're going to win. I'm real
patient while all these bad things are happening because I know
the outcome. I already know. Now that is patience. Patience. Trouble worketh patience. And patience, verse four, experience. Patience, experience. Through
this patience, we're given experience. We're allowed to prove the reality
of our faith. Now, experience is when what
we believe is not theory. not theoretical, but we find
it out in our experience. I don't want to have just a theoretical
faith. That's something that scares me. I don't want to, I
don't want to believe something simply because I see it in the
Bible and I read it and say, yeah, that's what it says. It
must be so. I mean, that's, that's God's place. I mean, we've got
to have that, but it's got to be more than that. You see, salvation
is an experience. Knowing Christ is an experience. Faith to rest in Christ is an
experience. Repentance, having your mind
changed. You used to believe something
and you don't believe it anymore. You believe something different.
That's an experience. Love to Christ is an experience. You know when I think of experience,
here's what comes to my mind. You got to begin right here.
when what we believe leaves the theoretical realm and becomes
actual that we experience. It's one thing to believe the
Bible teaches that men are dead in sins, totally depraved. It's
a completely different thing for you to really believe in
your heart that you're totally depraved. Do you believe that
about yourself? I'm not asking you if you believe
the Bible teaches that, because if you can read, you know the
Bible teaches it. Do you believe that you in and
of yourselves are totally depraved? Now, if you do, what we call
grace becomes a thing of experience rather than just a thing of theory
with you. You have to have God choose you. You have to have
Christ's atonement to be successful. You have to have his grace to
be irresistible and invincible. You have to be preserved by him. You see, everything becomes experience,
not just theoretical knowledge, but experience. Trouble, tribulation. You know what you usually learn
during trouble? You learn about how weak you
are. You learn about how you didn't
hold up under the trial the way you should have. You find out
how weak. If you say, well, I got through
that trial real good. It wasn't a trial then. I'll
assure you that. If you're ever tried, you're
going to see how weak and helpless you are. There's where your experience
comes from. When you experience that, you
think of the church at Laodicea. The Lord said, You say you're
rich and increased with goods and had need of nothing. That's
that's how you feel. But you don't know that you're
wretched and naked and miserable and poor and blind. You see,
you're a lot better off being naked, wretched, miserable, poor
and blind. The one who says, well, I'm rich
and increasingly everything's fine, everything's great. Christ
says, I'm going to spew you out of my mouth. You see, that's
not being hot or cold. Our experience in trials, where
we see we're so weak, it shows us our need of his grace. Patience, experience, verse four,
here's the next necessary consequence, experience, hope. Now, how's
that, how's that line up? Well, when you're made to see
in your experience that you're nothing but sin, Then you're
made to trust Christ's righteousness as your personal righteousness
before God. And then you have this thing
called hope. I have a hope that all is well between me and
God because I have justification. And I have a hope that everything
between that day when I'm accepted on judgment day, between now
and then, everything is working together for my good. What hope
there is in that. And verse five says, and hope
maketh not ashamed. Now, if I have this hope in Christ,
I guarantee I'm not ashamed of that hope. And I'm not going to be put to
shame. Twofold. Number one, I'm not ashamed of
my hope. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of the gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ. And I'm not. I'm not ashamed
of being saved by Christ's righteousness. Are you? I'm not ashamed of the
peace he accomplished for me by his death on the cross. I'm
not ashamed of this standing I have in grace. We're not ashamed
of the gospel. We're proud of it. I am, I am
truly, genuinely proud of the gospel I believe. I'm not proud
of myself, but I'm proud of, I'm proud of the Lord. I'm proud
of his gospel. I'm proud of his way of saying
it's worthy of God. He glorifies God. And we're not
ashamed of it. Not only am I not ashamed of
the gospel, I'm not going to be put to shame. No secrets, no skeletons in the
closet. No things that might be brought
up at some other time. No, I stand before God without
shame because of justification. Look what he says next in verse
five and hope maketh not a shame because the love of God is shed
abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. Now the next, therefore, of justification
is the love of God being shed abroad in our hearts. The love
of God. The love of God. The love of
God is the love He has to His Son. Don't look at the love of
God in some kind of generic term. How does God the Father love
God the Son? How does He view Him? Oh, He
sees Him as altogether lovely. It's the love of complacency.
It's the love of delight. You see, God doesn't look at
His Son and say, well, I love Him because I've got this love
in my heart, but it's not because of anything in Him. No. The beauty
of the Son draws out the love of the Father. Now that's the
love of God we're talking about, the love He has to His Son. Our Lord tells us that as thou,
that thou has loved them, those united to Christ, as thou has
loved me. That's the love of God that is
shed abroad in our heart, the eternal, unbounded, unequaled,
unvarying, unsleeping, undying, unfailing love of God. A love that can't love you anymore
than it does. And a love that cannot love you
any less. That's poured into our hearts. God's love to me. I love the hymn we sing. I stand
amazed in the presence of Jesus, the Nazarene, and wonder how
he could love me, a sinner, condemned, unclean. I stand amazed at that
love, but I believe it. God loves me. Paul spoke of him who loved me. and gave himself for me. God, the love of God poured into
our hearts. Jeremiah 31, three says, behold,
I have loved you with an everlasting love. This is that perfect love
that's cast out fear. The love because of justification.
And this is what gives us this confidence in this love. If I
didn't believe justification, I wouldn't believe any of this.
But because of justification, I really believe that God sees
me as lovely. However lovely He sees His Son,
that's how He sees me. And this love of God is shed
abroad, is poured in our hearts by the Holy Ghost that's given
to us. And here's the last, therefore,
of justification. The Holy Ghost is given to us. The Holy Spirit, the third person
of the blessed Trinity, fully God, just as much God as God,
the Father and God, the Son, God, the Holy Spirit is the one
who pours the love of God into our hearts. Now, if I'm justified,
what else? I'm regenerated by the Holy Spirit.
I'm given life, spiritual life, by the Holy Spirit. All I experience
of God in Christ is through God the Holy Spirit, the third person
of the Blessed Trinity, the Spirit of God. Now, all... We've got justification. You know what else we have? Every
other spiritual blessing that we experience through God the
Holy Spirit. I have the new birth. I have
faith. I have repentance. I have love to God. I have adoption. Everything that I experience
through the Spirit of God we have because of justification. All of this is ours. Peace. access, a standing in grace,
rejoicing in hope with the glory of God, glorying in trials that
work patience, patience, experience, experience, hope, hope makes
not a shame. The love of God shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Spirit of God. All this is given to
us because of his great high and glorious work of justifying
us. I love that verse of scripture. To him that worketh is the reward,
not reckoned of grace, but of debt. In other words, if there's
anything you can do to achieve this justification to have it,
that means God owed it to you. And it's a reward of debt where
God owed you and not of grace, but to him that worketh not. but believeth on him that justifieth
the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. May this describe
me and you, folks who work not, but believe on him that justifieth
the ungodly. Let's pray together. Lord, how we thank you. For your son, our justification,
our righteousness. Our life. Lord, how we thank
you for the peace. That you have with us. Through
him. And how we thank you for the
peace we have in knowing that he is our peace. And Lord, how
we thank you for the access we have into your very presence. And how we thank you for the
standing we have in your grace. How we thank you that we can
rejoice in hope of your glory. And Lord, how we thank you that
we can actually rejoice in tribulation, knowing that the trials you see
and work patience. and patience, experience, and
experience hope, a hope that makes us not ashamed. And Lord,
having your love shed abroad in our hearts, poured into our
hearts by your spirit. Lord, how we thank you for the
blessed spirit of God. Lord, we ask in Christ's name
that you would take this word and bless it for your glory and
for our good. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.