Let us turn back in our Bibles
to Romans chapter 5. I have a favor to ask of everyone
here this morning. For the next 30 or 35 minutes,
I want you to think of yourself as being in an office, maybe
a lawyer's office. for the reading of a will. We
all know what that means, a reading of a will, when a person who
has died and they have left, they have bequeathed their property
to different ones. And I'd like for us to think
of this scripture this morning as a reading of a will. And the
two things that we should notice First of all, do I have any interest
in this will? And second, if I do, then what
do I receive? What is mine? So first of all,
do I have any interest in this will? Well, if you notice, the
scripture begins, therefore, being justified by faith. Those who have an interest, those
who will hear what is theirs in the reading of this will are
first described, identified as being justified. Now in order
for you to know if this pertains to you or not, you must know
what it means to be justified. What does that mean, to be justified? Well, justification is a declarative
act of God by His pure grace whereby He pardons all our sins
and declares us to be righteous on the imputed righteousness
of Jesus Christ. It is a declarative act. In the court of heaven, before
God's strict bar of justice, God Almighty declares men and
women to be just, to be righteous, because of the merit of Jesus
Christ charged or imputed unto them. The Apostle Paul spells
this out if you look back a few pages into chapter 3. Romans chapter 3, and beginning
with verse 23. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. Now, if we have all sinned, and
we have, and we all come short of God's standard, God's glory,
then for us to be justified, God must do something for us. He must do something for us because
anything we could do or would do will be tainted with our sin. Because we have all sinned and
come short of the glory of God. Notice next, being justified
freely by His grace. Freely. Being justified freely
by His grace. Paul emphasizes the fact that
justification comes to a person not because he deserves it, not
because he earns it, not because he merits it, but because it
is God's good pleasure to justify a person. We're justified freely
by his grace. Most people are deceived. Most people believe that surely
I must do something. Surely there's something that
I must do. I must contribute in some way so that God may declare
me to be just. But no, the scripture says being
justified freely by his grace. Now notice, through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus. In other words, it is because
of Christ, because of what He has done, that we are justified
freely by His grace, whom God has set forth to be a propitiation
through faith in His blood. Now, a propitiation is to turn
away wrath. and all of us by nature because
of our sinfulness, we deserved and we merit the wrath of God,
the judgment of God. But God has set forth His Son,
Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, to be the propitiation for our
sins. And He and His work on the cross
is the only thing and the only one that will ever shield a person
from the wrath of Almighty God. Notice next, for the remission
of sins that are passed through the forbearance of God. You say,
what is that, preacher? Well, there were many people
justified before Christ died. Abraham, what does the scripture
say concerning Abraham? Abraham believed God, and he
was counted righteous before God. What about Seth and Noah? We could just go on and on. But
Christ had not yet died. He had not shed his blood. But
God forgave them. God justified them through his
forbearance, knowing that Christ had promised to come and give
his life a ransom for many. To declare, I say at this time,
his righteousness, God's righteousness. He just, think about this, he
justifies those he justifies in a way of righteousness. He doesn't just say, well, forget
about it. Well, let's just turn over a new leaf. Let's just start
anew. Let's just forget about all those
sins in the past and now just, no. God has a way by his wisdom
to justify, to declare a person who is guilty to be righteous. And do it in a righteous way. And that is only through the
substitute Jesus Christ in the stead and the place of the guilty. To declare, I say at this time,
His righteousness, that He might be just. God might be just. When God declares you to be just,
or me to be just, He's righteous. He's righteous. His law, His
holiness, His righteousness is not offended in any way because
of the person and work of Jesus Christ. Where is boasting then? It is
excluded. Well, I'm going to boast. I'm
going to brag on what I've done. I want to brag on how long I've
been a church member. I want to brag on how much I've
given to the cause of Christ. I want to brag on the fact that
I gave my body to be burned for Christ. No, boasting is excluded. Boasting is excluded. Our boast,
our glory, is in the cross or in the Christ of the cross of
Calvary. Not anything we've done. Never,
never. How is it 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. Our justification is through
the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. If you turn back to chapter
5 and verse 9, much more than being now justified
by his blood. But no, we read here, therefore
being justified by faith. When a person hears the gospel,
hears the gospel of Christ and trusts in him as his Lord and
Savior, at that moment this person begins to enjoy the benefits
and the blessings of justification. By him all that believe are justified
from all things. It's not our believing that he
existed. I would imagine almost everyone
in Houston, Texas believes that Jesus Christ, that he existed,
that 2,000 years ago there was a man in Palestine by the name
of Jesus. But it's not just believing in
his existence, it is believing in him as he is revealed in the
Scripture. Who is he? Is he like Moses? Is he like Mohammed? Is he like
George Washington? Is he some historical person
who did, yes, exist? No, my friends, he's God. He's
God manifest in the flesh. And why did he come here? He
came here to live a perfect life, to establish righteousness for
his people. And he came here to die in the
stead of his people. He said, no man takes my life
from me. These other men who have founded
religions, they didn't come to die. Christ came on purpose to
die. And he has died and satisfied
God's holy law. And so, he was raised. Therefore,
we are justified by his resurrection. That when all of our sins were
placed upon him, and that's what the scripture says. That's what
the Bible says. He, God, hath made to meet on
him the sins, or our sins. When the sins of all of his people
were laid upon him, they became his. The law of God, before the bar
of God, they became his. In fact, in the Psalms he said,
my sins are more than the hairs of my head. Now he personally
had no sin, but he took our sins, the sins of his people. And when
he came out of that grave, God declared to the world that he
was satisfied, his justice was satisfied, the debt was paid,
the law was satisfied, so that he might be both just and the
justifier of the ungodly. When a person believes in Christ,
now let's just say, here's a point. Here's a point. Now, from this
point here, this man's been an unbeliever, and so he is described
as ungodly, ungodly, an enemy of God. But once he is justified,
when he comes and experiences conversion, and these things
all go together. Now, we separate them. We talk
about regeneration, the new birth. We talk about justification,
sanctification, pardon, all of these different themes or doctrines. We talk about them separately,
but let's remember they all come together. When a person believes
in Christ, that shows that he's been born of the Spirit of God.
Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. When a person believes, that
shows that his sins are forgiven, they're pardoned. And when a
person believes, it shows that he's sanctified. God the Holy
Spirit has set him apart for God's glory. And when he comes
to believe, it shows that he is justified. And it shows that
he is converted. Yes, to this point he lived as
an ungodly sinner, like all of us are by nature. But when he
comes to trust in Christ, he receives a new nature, regeneration. Conversion takes place, doesn't
it? And he doesn't continue to live
as he once lived. Why? Because if any man be in
Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation. All things are
passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. Look with me in 1 Corinthians
6. 1 Corinthians 6, Paul is writing
to the believers in the church at Corinth, and he reminds them of something
that they knew. Verse 9, Know you not that the
unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be
deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters,
nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with
mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers,
nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. And such
were some of you." That was this life, right? Such were some of
you. Not all of them, and not all
of them were guilty of all of these things. But don't you rejoice this morning
that the blood of Jesus Christ can cleanse the vilest sinner. No matter, my friend, what your
history may be, how ungodly it may have been, I want you to
know that Jesus Christ has the power. His blood may save you
and cleanse you from all sin. Such were some of you. But notice,
but you are washed. For there is a fountain filled
with blood, drawn from Immanuel's veins, and sinners plunged beneath
that flood lose all their guilty stains. You're washed and you're
sanctified. You've been set apart by the
Spirit of God and you're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus
and by the Spirit of God. So let me ask you this now. Do you want to hear the will?
Do you have any part in the will? Or do you want to get up and
leave? You're sitting in a lawyer's office and they're reading the
will and he tells who's involved in this will and you realize
my name is not in this will. I'm not identified in this will.
No need in me listening to the rest of it. But if you, this morning, When
I say, yes, praise God, I'm justified. I'm justified. God Almighty has
declared me to be righteous by his free grace upon the grounds
of the person and work of Jesus Christ alone. We don't put the
crown on our faith, we crown Jesus Christ, for by faith Are
we justified? All right, let's go on then.
The first thing that we have, if you're justified, the first
thing Paul mentions is we have peace with God through our Lord
Jesus Christ. The mention of peace here, we
have peace with God, that just thrills my heart, doesn't it,
church? Peace with God. Because that tells us that we
were all enmity with God. We were children of wrath even
as others. Those of us who this morning
are justified, at one point we were children of wrath even as
others. That's what we deserved. We deserved
God's wrath because we were enemies of God. Someone here might say,
well, I never was an enemy of God. Wait just a minute. Wait
just a minute. Before you go on, look down in
our text this morning to verse 10. For if, when we were enemies,
we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. You say
you were never an enemy of God. Well, He reconciled those who
were enemies. And if you say you were never
an enemy, You just cut yourself off from his work of reconciliation. Someone said, well, I don't know
if Christ died for me or not. Well, I know he died for me.
You say, how do you know, preacher? Because he died for the ungodly. And I'll take my place there.
I know that. But I have peace with God. Therefore,
being justified by faith, we have peace with God. Do you know,
if you read the Gospel of Luke, I was looking at this the other
day, thinking about peace. After the Lord's death and resurrection,
in the Gospel of Luke, the first time that he appeared after his
resurrection, to the body of believers, to the eleven disciples
together. Now he had appeared to some of
the women, he had appeared to the two men on the road to Emmaus,
but when he appeared to the body of believers, to the church,
the disciples of Christ, the first, the first, the very first
words he spoke to them was, peace, peace be unto you. Three days before, Three days
before, He had left them and He had gone to the cross to make
peace for them, to establish peace for them through the blood
of His cross. And His first words to them when
He came back and appeared was, Peace be unto you. The first
thing that we have if we are justified, we have peace with
God. He made peace through the blood
of His cross. You know, he told his disciples
on one occasion they had troubled hearts. And I believe all of
us can identify with that from time to time, can't we? Do you
ever have a troubled heart? I do. I just confess, I do. But what did he say to his disciples? He said, peace I leave with you,
my peace I give unto you, let not your heart be troubled, believe. in me, neither let it be afraid. And the peace that God gives
is better experienced than explained. Did you hear what I said? It's
better experienced than it is explained. You said explain that
to me, preacher, the peace with God. I can't explain it fully
to you. I just know it's wonderful. It's
a better experience than it is explained. To know that between
you and Almighty God, there's peace. He's not angry with you. No, His Son experienced that
anger for you. And we have peace with God. Alright,
notice the second thing we have. But before I mention that, This
peace sometimes is disturbed, isn't it? Our peace. Our peace
sometimes is disturbed. Now, how may that peace be restored
to our souls? There's only one way. Look again
to Christ. Look again to the blood of the
cross, because that's the way he established peace. Look to
that blood. That blood that was shed for
sinners. Or the second thing we have,
we have access by faith into this grace. Well, what is this? Well, don't you know this morning
in Washington that there's a building there called the Pentagon? We
all studied about that in grammar school, didn't we? Pentagon. And it's headquarters for the
military power of this nation. We would think it's the greatest
power, we're told that over and over, greatest power on the earth,
you know, the United States military. Well, don't you know that there's
a room, probably more than one, but there's one room that not
everyone has access to. You may even work there. You
may be a janitor. You may mop the floors. But that
doesn't mean you have one of those cards that you slide or
however you are identified that will give you access into that
room, that special room maybe where the controls are located
of this great military power. Well let me tell you something,
we have access not to the room in the Pentagon but to the throne
room in heaven. Not to the greatest power, a
room that controls the greatest power on this earth, but we have
access to God Almighty on the throne who has power both in
heaven and earth. Not some power, but all power,
omnipotent power. And that's what we have. We have
access. unto God. This throne is called
a throne of grace in Hebrews 4 and verse 16. Paul said, let
us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace. Now listen,
that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in the time
of need. Now when he says we come boldly,
that doesn't mean we come bustering into the presence of God. We
come reverently, yes. But we come with assurance. Why? Because we are God's children. That's why. Reverently, but boldly. We have access into this grace
wherein we stand. And we have it through Jesus
Christ our Lord. And it is the throne of grace
because he's on that throne. And the apostle doesn't say let
us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace. It may be Maybe,
perchance, we might find some mercy there. No, he didn't say
that. That we might find mercy. And
every day we need mercy. And every day when we come to
the throne of grace, we find mercy. And not only mercy, but
grace to help in the time of need. And every day is a time
of need, isn't it? That we walk not in the flesh,
but walk in the Spirit. Every day is a day of need. The Lord Jesus told those in
his day, he said, If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts
unto your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father
give good things to them that ask him? There's not a father
here, not a mother, who would give some evil thing to their
children. They would not give them a poisonous
snake. They wouldn't give them a scorpion.
If they ask for bread or for an egg, well, if we wouldn't
do that, neither will our Father. He gives good things to those.
And we have access 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days out of
the year. We have access always to this
throne. Now, the third thing we have,
we have hope of the glory of God. You read that here. By whom
also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand
and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Now what is this? This
glory of God. It has reference to the fact
that every justified person, everyone that God declares just,
has peace with God, has access unto God, and number three, has
a home in heaven. That's what this has reference
to. It has reference to our home in heaven. The Apostle Paul said,
if in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all
men most miserable. But our hope in Christ, and I
know Christ is our hope, but this hope that the Apostle is
speaking of here is that which is laid up for us in heaven. That which eye hath not seen
and ear hath not heard. That which is the hope that is
set before us. We've been begotten again unto
a living hope which is incorruptible, and it fades not away, and it
is reserved for us in heaven. When you read the Bible, when
you study the Bible, and you say, I'm going to study the Bible,
and I'm going to see what it says about heaven. Some of you,
I'm sure, have done that. If you haven't, Let me tell you
what you're going to find. You're going to find when you
study about heaven that the scripture reveals more of what heaven isn't
than what it is. That's what you're going to define.
What it isn't. Now it could all be summed up
in this one statement. There is no more curse. Everything
that sin has brought into this world, disease, sickness, pain,
sorrow, death, loneliness, everything that man suffers, there'll be
no more. It tells us more what will not
be there. But it does tell us this about
heaven. Paul said to depart and be with
Christ. which is far better. So it tells
us that heaven is to be with Christ, where He is. I think it was Samuel Rutherford,
one of the men who suffered in England for the gospel years
ago, who said this, if you took Christ out of heaven, it would
not be heaven. And if you put Christ in hell,
it would not be hell. to be with Christ, which is far
better. And the psalmist tells us that
at his right hand are pleasures forevermore. And in his presence
is a fullness of joy. How do you define joy? I find
that is one of the most difficult words to define, to have a good
definition for joy. What is joy? Most of the time,
if you look it up, you'll find somewhere in the definition you
will see the word happiness. Happiness. And heaven is a place
that is full of joy because of his presence and there will never,
ever be anything there to cause us not to be happy. There will
be no more sin. And our Lord Jesus said, Father,
I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where
I am, that they may behold my glory. We have a home in heaven. Number four, we have grace to
glory in tribulations. Believers do not glory in the
tribulation. I mean, whatever the tribulation
is, and the apostle Paul is talking about tribulation here that men
and women suffer for the name of Christ, for the cause of Christ.
The hatred of this world, ridicule for believing the scriptures,
ridicule for trusting in Christ, the sly look and however the
world may may view you. But we know, and I know there's
other tribulations, such as sickness and loneliness and the death
of a loved one and loss of a job, and there's many tribulations,
I understand that. And none of us enjoy the tribulation,
but we know, this is what Paul says, knowing that Notice how
he says it here. Not only so, but we glory in
tribulations also knowing the results. The result, the fruit
that will be produced by the tribulation. And what is it?
It's patience. It's hope. It's being made not
ashamed. These are the fruits of tribulation. Sometimes when a person is in
tribulation, they experience more of the sense of the love
of God, the presence of God. When everyone else has deserted
and everyone else has turned their back on a child of God,
God hasn't, and God will not. And many times that's when God
manifests His presence more to a child of God. And we learn
patience. Yes, this will only last for
the appointed time, the time which God has appointed. And we're not ashamed. We're
not ashamed of Christ. We're not ashamed of his gospel
because he has been with us through the tribulation and helped us
and given us grace for whatever the tribulation may be. And number
five, here's the last thing, we have the love of God shed
abroad in our hearts. The Holy Spirit, the third person
of the blessed Trinity, we know that he comes to dwell in every
believer. And he sheds the love of God
abroad in our heart. Now this is not our love for
God. We do love him because he first
loved us. No doubt about that. But this
love that the apostle is speaking of here is God's love for us
is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. He has loved
us as he has loved Christ. That's what the Lord Jesus Christ
said, as thou hast loved me, even so have you loved them. This love is manifested for us
that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Verse 8, God commendeth his love
toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for
us. Nothing is able to separate a
child of God, a person who is justified from the love of God. Not tribulation, not distress,
not persecution, not famine, nakedness, peril, or sword. The Apostle Paul says, not even
death or things to come shall ever be able to separate us from
the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. All this, these
five things, and much more have all of those who are justified. Well, I pray that the Lord would
bless this word to all of us here this morning.