I would like for us this morning
to open our Bibles to the Book of Romans. I'm confident this morning, at
least, that we should all know that the Scriptures speak of
Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ, he is
the key to all the word of God. He told some religious leaders
when he was here in the flesh, search the scriptures for they
are they which testify of me. So all the scripture speaks to
us of Christ. But it's also true that the various
books in the Bible have themes. The book of Genesis, of course,
the theme is beginnings, exodus, redemption, and we could go on
through. But the theme of the book of
Romans is justification by faith. Justification by faith. What is justification? What is
justification? It is God, it is Almighty God
declaring a person righteous in his sight. That's what justification
is. It's God Almighty, the thrice
holy God declaring a man or woman, boy or girl, to be righteous
in his sight. It is like an accused person
being tried, and then being pronounced not guilty. Now, in looking at
this truth this morning, I have several texts here in the book
of Romans that we will look at to answer four questions. Four
questions. First, who are justified? Who are justified? Obviously,
not everyone who has walked on the face of God's earth has been
justified or is justified, but who are justified? If you will, in Romans chapter
8, we see here who it is who are
justified, who are declared righteous in God's sight. Romans chapter
8 and verses 33 and 34, we read, Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? It
is Christ that died, yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even
at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for
us. who are justified. Well, it is God's elect. God's
elect are justified. Those whom he has chosen, those
whom he gave to Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ, in that eternal
covenant of grace, who are justified, those who are chosen by God,
those for whom Christ died and rose and ever lives, making intercession
for them. In Ephesians chapter one and
verse three, the apostle said, blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen, who hath blessed
us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ. A justification surely is one
of those spiritual blessings. In Ephesians, the apostle goes
on there to name several of the spiritual blessings with which
God has blessed His chosen, His elect in Christ before the foundation
of the world. He mentions election, adoption,
and the forgiveness of sins. And each and every one of these
things that the apostle mentions here, which are spiritual blessings,
he declares that they are all to the praise of the glory of
His grace. Every spiritual blessing that
you have received or shall receive, it is by the grace of God, all
to the praise all to the praise of the glory of His grace. Now, the forgiveness of sins
is one of those spiritual blessings that he mentions there, and we
refer to that as pardon, pardon. The psalmist of old, he prayed
like this. For thy name's sake, in other
words, for Christ's sake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity For it is
great. Pardon, the forgiveness of sins
is wonderful. That's a wonderful blessing,
isn't it? To think that God forgives you, forgives me, all of my sins. What a blessing that is. But
the truth that we're looking at this morning, justification,
is even more glorious. Forgiveness of sins, what a blessing
that is. But to be justified is even more
glorious. Pardon guilty but forgiven. Guilty but forgiven. That's pardon. Justify justification
is to be as if I had never sinned. You see the glory, the greater
glory, being guilty but pardoned, but then justified to be as if
I had never sinned. That's the reason men have broken
that word justification down over the years, to say just as
if I never sin, justification. They always go together, but
I might illustrate it like this. In one of the courts down in
Houston, Texas this week, maybe there's a man on trial for some
crime and the jury finds him guilty and the judge sentences
him, but the governor pardons him. You see, he's guilty, but
he's pardoned. But take that same man, accused
of the same crime, and the jury finds him not guilty. What a difference, right? Between
being guilty and pardoned, and being declared not guilty. Not guilty. Now I'm not saying
a person could have his sins forgiven. and not be justified,
because they're twin graces. They always go together, just
like faith and repentance. Sometimes people will ask me,
well, I'm not sure about repentance. Or someone else, I'm not sure
about faith. They always go together. If you
believe in the Lord Jesus Christ this morning, you have turned
to him, and you've turned away from something turned away from
your sin. Twin graces, both sides of the
same coin. To whom God grants faith, he
grants repentance. They come together. And the same
thing we might say about pardon and justification. They always
go together. But what I'm saying this morning
is justification is much more glorious. to be declared in God's
sight. Now, it's easy to justify ourselves
among men and women. That's easy to do. You just put
on a good face, you know, a good show. But I'm talking about God
Almighty. The scripture says the heavens
are not clean in His sight. He charges His angels with folly
for Him to declare a person justified, just as if he or she had never
sinned. That's what justification is,
and those who are justified are, as this verse of scripture here
tells us, God's elect. Who shall lay anything to the
charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Now, my second question is this.
How is justification accomplished? We know what it is and we know
who are justified, but how is justification accomplished? It's
God that justifies. It's God's work, that's for sure.
But how is it accomplished? And there are two texts here
in Romans I want us to look at that answer that question. They're
both found in chapter five, Romans chapter five. How is justification accomplished? First of all, in verse nine, we read much more than being
now justified through his blood. How is it accomplished? First
of all, through His blood. Now being justified through His
blood speaks of Christ's death. His death to pay the penalty
of God's broken law. We're all by nature, sinful nature
that we inherited from our father Adam, we're all guilty before
God. And that the Lord Jesus Christ
had to suffer He had to suffer, and that's what we call his active,
or his passive obedience, rather, when he suffered on the cross.
We're justified by his suffering, and his suffering is unto death.
It wasn't just suffering in the sense of shedding some blood,
but it was by his blood, that is, by the shedding of his blood,
by his death on the cross. were justified by his blood. No one is justified in any other
way. Now the second verse here in
chapter five, verse 19, down in verse 19, the last part of
the verse, we read for us, by one man's disobedience, many
were made sinners. Now here it is. So by the obedience
of one shall many be made righteous. shall many be justified, declared
righteous. You see, these two things were
necessary. His suffering and his obedience. His sufferings to pay our sin
debt. And we all have one. And it's
a big debt. It's a big debt. We were shapen
in iniquity. We were conceived in sin. We
go astray or we went astray from the womb, speaking lies. That's
true of all of Adam's children. From the very moment that we
came into this world, we have been mounting up a debt, a sin
debt, and that debt has to be paid for God to declare a person
to be righteous, to be just in His sight. Someone has to pay
that debt. But also, not only does the debt
have to be paid, but we need a positive righteousness. And that's by His obedience.
His obedience. When we think about the obedience
of the Lord Jesus Christ, Sometimes just take your time and meditate
on this man, the God man, who never had a sinful thought, never had a thought of envy,
of jealousy, of malice, of hatred, He never had any of those things
that are so common to you and me. You ever had a jealous thought? Ever
been envious of something someone else had? You wish it was yours? Never speaking a lie? Never having one time a lie come
out of your mouth And from the heart, the things come out of
the mouth. His heart was pure. And his heart
was in obedience unto God. And that obedience is necessary
to become your obedience, my obedience, for God to justify
us. That's how it's done, by his
work. And aren't you thankful this
morning, you know this, that when the Lord Jesus Christ upon
the cross had finished and every scripture had been fulfilled
concerning Him, that He said, it is finished. It's finished. What's finished? The work which
the Father gave Him to do, which was to glorify God here upon
the earth. What the first man failed to
do. What our father failed to do,
disobeying God, and all of us inheriting his nature have done
the same thing. We failed to obey and glorify
God. He did that for us. My third
question is, when is justification enjoyed by a fallen son of Adam? When is a fallen son of Adam,
when does he come to enjoy this great boon, this blessing, justification? Well, listen to the words of
the Lord Jesus Christ in John 3 in verse 18. He said, he that
believeth on him is not condemned. Now, condemnation is just the
opposite of justification. He that believeth on him is not
condemned. He that believeth not is condemned
already, because he hath not believed on the name of the Son
of God. When do we come to enjoy this
blessing? When we believe. That's the reason
I said the theme of the scripture here, the book of Romans, is
justification by faith. Not just justification, but justification
by faith. Because men have argued over
this matter of when is a person justified? Some believe he was
justified in eternity. He was justified in eternity,
and in a sense that's true when God chose him and purposed to
save him and justify him. Others believe justification's
still in the future, that when we all stand before God, and
probably this is something that the world probably believes more
than the other. that one day we'll all stand
before God and God's going to take your good works and He's
going to take your bad works and He's going to put them in
the scale. And if your good works outweigh your bad works, He's
going to declare you to be justified. Justification by faith. When
does a person enjoy this great blessing? Look in Romans 5 in
verse 1. Romans 5 in verse 1, the apostle
said, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We enjoy this blessing when we
believe, and if we believe, when we believe in Christ. When we
trust in Him as our Lord, as our Savior, when we submit to
Him, obey Him, then we come to enjoy this blessing, to know this morning that we're
justified before God. You say, well, faith, isn't faith
a grace? Absolutely. Just like love, that's
a grace. It's like joy, that's a grace.
But why is it that you say we're justified by faith? What is special
about this grace, this grace of faith? Well, look here in
Romans two verses. In chapter three, in verse 27,
the apostle said, where is boasting then? There's a person, he boasts,
well, I'm justified. I'm justified because I have
done this, and I have done that, and I have done the other, and
I've not done this. That's like that Pharisee, remember,
in our Lord's parable. I thank thee, Lord, that I'm
not like this publican. I fast, I tithe, All these things,
he can boast, he can brag on himself, but not if he's saved or justified
by faith. You see that verse, the rest
of that verse? Where's boasting then? It's excluded. How is it excluded? By the law
of faith. By what law? Of works? No. If you're saved by works, then
you can boast. But you know, here's something
I know you've learned, and if not, you should. God will not share his glory
with another. You know, husbands and wives,
we share with one another. You love someone, you're happy
for, maybe you did it, but you're happy for them to get the praise. God's not like that. God will
not share his glory with another, and if man is justified in some
other way than by faith, by trusting in Christ, then he can boast. But God's not going to allow
that. So you can be sure that person's not going to be in heaven.
Everyone in heaven's going to be boasting of Christ, bragging
on him, praising him. He's the center of heaven, isn't
he? Look in chapter four, verse 16. Why is it by faith? The apostle says, therefore,
it is of faith that it might be by grace. To the end, the
promise might be sure to all the seed. Now the seed here,
of course, is Abraham's seed. Abraham's seed, that is Christ
and all of his chosen people that are in him. The promise
might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of
the law, not only to Jews, they were of the law, but to that
also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of
us all. that is Gentiles as well as Jews. It is of faith that it might
be by grace. My last question is this. What blessings does justification
mean to a believer? Well, I think of these three. I think of these three blessings
that when I think of the fact that By faith in Christ, I'm
justified, that God has justified me. And you might say, well,
you started off, preacher, by saying who are justified, God's
elect, how does a person know if he's one of God's elect? If
you believe, if you believe in Christ. If you trust in him, that's the
evidence. You know, the scripture is very
clear about this, isn't it? When the apostle Peter said,
make your calling and election sure. He didn't say make your
election and calling sure. Why? You can't know, no one can
know that they're one of God's chosen except by their calling,
by being called to faith in Christ, trusting in him. This is a present blessing. There
are three things that come to my mind. First of all, the word
now. Now. We're not looking to be
justified sometime in the future. Today, the 31st of December,
2023. Now, it is therefore, there is
therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.
Now. You know when that thief, remember there were two thieves,
the Lord Jesus Christ was being crucified between two malfactors. And the scriptures tell us that
in the beginning of their crucifixion, they were both railing upon Christ,
both of them. If thou be the Christ, come down,
save us, come down. They were both railing upon Christ,
but then, Remember one of them, and this has to be God's sovereign
grace, doesn't it? Who could fail to see God's sovereign
grace in this one man looking to the Lord and saying, Lord,
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And the Lord
speaking to him saying, this day. Today, thou shalt be with
me in paradise. And do you know that man right
then, when he looked to Christ, was just as justified, just as
declared righteous in God's sight as the apostle Paul was at the
very end of his life, after a long life of serving and suffering
for Jesus Christ. Paul was no more justified than
that thief. The justification is now. It
is by his imputed righteousness. The scripture says Abraham believed
God and it was counted or imputed unto him for righteousness. It
wasn't Abraham's faith that was imputed to him, but it was the
object of Abraham's faith, that is the Lord Jesus Christ, his
righteousness, was imputed to Abraham. This justification is
now. You may be here this morning
and you've never looked to Christ, you've never trusted in Christ.
And I'm here to tell you today that if by the grace of God you
could look to him right now, if you could trust in him right
now, you would be justified when you walk out that door. before
God Almighty declared, just as if you had never sinned. It's
now. A second thing about it, it's
complete. You know, the apostles said,
who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God
that justifies. Satan, the demons, they may accuse. They may bring charges up. God
won't hear it. He won't answer. Why? Because He has justified us. And in His sight, we are just
as if we had never sinned. The third thing is forever. It's forever. You know, I think
it's so degrading. I get upset when I even think
about some so-called Christians who teach that you could be saved
today and lost tomorrow. Doesn't that demean Christ and
His work? Sure it does. And it tells me
they must be trusting in their works and not in His work because
He doesn't change. When God declares a person to
be just, justified, just as if he had never sinned, that'll
never change. That'll never change. Forever. Paul said, for who shall
separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus,
our Lord. There is no separation. Now, in preparing this message,
you say, well, preacher, you've preached on that before. Hey,
I've been preaching here over 40 years. If I had never preached
on justification before, what kind of a preacher would I have
been? Sure, I've preached on it. But when I stand to preach
every message, I've prepared the week before. And over the
years preaching on this subject, I've gone to a book that has
been a real blessing to me, one of the first books that I was
able to buy when I first confessed that I was called to
preach. It's called A Body of Divinity
by Thomas Watson. And I just want to share with
you in closing on his chapter on justification. The three uses,
the three uses of this truth for you, for me, the three uses
of this truth. Number one, see from hints that
there is nothing within us that could justify, but something
without us, not any righteousness inherent, but imputed. And then he said, we may as well
look for a star in the earth as for justification in our own
righteousness. Give that up once and forever. If you're ever going to be justified,
it's not going to be because of your righteousness. It's going
to be because of the righteousness of Christ. counted to you. Number two, of exhortation. This is a use of exhortation.
Adore, adore the infinite wisdom and goodness of God that found
a way to justify us by rich grace and precious blood. the wisdom
of God. And people think, well, salvation,
you know, that's so simple, that's so easy. Let me tell you something. God said he would by no means
clear the guilty. And you're guilty, and I'm guilty. How then is he going to clear
us? How is he going to declare us just before him? infinite
wisdom found a way by his son, his darling son, his eternal
son coming into this world as a man and in the place and in
the stead of his people suffering the consequences of sin and obeying
God, establishing a righteousness that when imputed to you, allows
God to be both just, now listen, and justifier of the ungodly. Justify the ungodly? That's the
only kind he justifies. There ain't no other kind. It's only through Christ. Adore. Thomas Watson said, this is a
use, adore the infinite wisdom and goodness of God. The infinite
wisdom and devising the way, but the goodness of God in giving
his son. And the third use, comfort to
the justified. Comfort to the justified. It
is comfort in case of failings. In case of failings. Alas, he
said, how defective are the godly. They come short in every duty. That's you, that's me. We come
short in every duty, but though believers should be humbled under
their defects, they should not despond. They should not despise. Why? Because your justification
never hinged rather on your righteousness, but always upon the righteousness
of Christ. The Lord Jesus commanded that
his gospel be preached in all the world to every creature,
he said. Go ye into all the world and
preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. I'm thankful this morning that God sent the gospel to me. Aren't
you? I was raised in religion, but
I realize now there was very little gospel then, evidently.
It was always do the best you can, rededicate your life, but, oh, to learn that we're
saved by the righteousness of another, by the person and work
of Christ, and to rest and to rejoice in Him. We're going to sing a hymn.