How's everybody doing today? You know, today is an awesome day. Not only is the sun shining, and we're able to come together and worship the Lord. We got an exciting day planned for everyone.
We want to personally invite everyone in this church to come to our house this afternoon at five o'clock, and share in a nice meal. My wife's at home right now, and I know she's got three big, large roast beefs in the oven. And they're going to be tender. She's carving them.
We're going to have beef on a bun. And we're going to have some music. And actually, Maryam Sterling's going to be here, and she's going to give us a little presentation of the work of God in Africa and Benin. And we want to honestly and sincerely invite everyone to come.
So if you don't know where it is, you can contact me afterwards, and we can give you the details. OK, so today I want to talk to you about being justified by faith. Now, I would say this. I don't know everyone here.
And we're all different. We all come from different backgrounds. Some of us come from different countries. And really, we have a lot of history and baggage in our past.
And there's many ways that we are different. But I know this. There's some things that we all share in common. Number one, we are all sinners.
Everyone here has sinned. We are sinners, and we all need mercy. And here's what's amazing with the Word of God is that you can be justified freely by the grace of God. And there is no one excluded, not one person.
And I love those songs that we've been singing to worship God. We are free. Free. We are forever free.
And when Jesus Christ rose from the dead, He had our freedom in hand. And we can rejoice today that we are justified freely by the grace of God because of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. That's what it says in Romans 4 and 25. So I've been going through a study on the book of Romans.
And we've gone through chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4. And today, we are going to consider Romans chapter 5. And here's my top line of Romans chapter 5. It's about our position in Christ as a result of being justified by faith.
Our position that we have in Jesus Christ as a result of being justified by faith. Now, we've gone through some pretty heavy theology. If you look at where we came from, in chapter 1 of this book, God outlines very clearly that the world has been corrupted by sin. And so chapter 1 of the book of Romans is the corrupt man.
And as a result of that corruption, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all unrighteousness. Chapter 2, we get a religious man who is judging a heathen. And God makes it very clear that even in chapter 2, we have the inexcusable man. It doesn't matter if you're two or Gentile.
It doesn't matter if you're religious or heathen. There is absolutely no excuse. And there is no escape from the condemnation of sin. And when we get into chapter 3, it even gets heavier.
It's the guilty man. And there in chapter 3, God outlines for us that all humanity is condemned already. And that every mouth needs to be stopped. And that all the world becomes guilty before God.
So in Romans 3, all humanity is, as it were, before the bar of God. And God, the righteous judge, concludes five things. There is none righteous, not even one. There's none that understand.
There's none that seek after God. They've all gone away and they're all together, become corrupt. So when we look at Romans 1, 2, and 3, it's a pretty dark picture. It's pretty deep, thick, heavy theology.
And it's hard for us to really understand that and take it in. When we get to chapter 5, there is some beautiful, beautiful teaching about a justified man. In chapter 4, we talked about a forgiven man. How that righteousness is imputed to our account by faith.
And we can actually be forgiven of all of our sins, even though we're guilty. But what I want to look at today is what it means to be justified in Christ, cleared of all guilt of sin. And so I'm going to invite you to read with me the first 11 verses of Romans 5. Let's read the first 11 verses of Romans 5.
Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, and not only so, but we glory in tribulation. We glory in sufferings, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance or endurance. And perseverance produces character and character hope.
Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God is shed abroad poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, which is given unto us. Look at verse 6. For when we were yet without strength, that's Romans chapter 1, 2, and 3. We had nothing to offer God.
We were unregenerate. We were corrupt. We were simply bankrupt sinners with nothing to pay and without strength. The apostle describes us in Ephesians 2 as being dead, dead in our sins and trespasses.
But verse 6 here says, when we were without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for our righteous man will one die, perhaps for a good man, some might even dare to die. But God demonstrated his own love to us. In that while we were still sinners, still sinners, Christ died for us much more than having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.
For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, much more. Having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. All right, justified by faith.
This is probably one of the greatest topics that a believer can study and enjoy. Let me tell you what it means to be justified. First, it means to be completely declared righteous. From who?
From God. We have been acquitted from all the guilt of our sin, by the Almighty God, the judge of all the earth. And when we receive Jesus, by faith in him, we have a pardon that is unconditional and it is eternal, and we are brought into a righteous standing with God. Now, I just gotta tell you that is amazing.
That is something that every person that has ever experienced, the conviction of their sin would rejoice in. I gotta ask you this question. Have you ever been convicted of your sin? Have you ever had a moment in your life when you did something in secret, in the dark, that no one knows about, and your conscience is bothering you?
Or you said something that's rarely hurt someone else. Or you've looked at something you should never have looked at. Or you've gone somewhere that you should never have gone. And afterwards, you feel this haunting guilt in your conscience.
That is evidence of God. And that is the evidence of the Holy Spirit of God who is in the world to convict us of sin. An anti-person that has ever been convicted of their sin, and has really honestly come to God, and trusted in Jesus Christ. They love this truth, because they have been justified freely by the grace of God.
You know, sometimes we sing on a Sunday morning at the Lord's Supper. I love this hymn. It goes like this, to Calvary Lord, in spirit now, our weary souls repair to dwell upon thy dying love and taste its sweetness there. Sweet resting place of every heart that knows the plague of sin.
Yet feels the deep, mysterious joy of peace with God within. Have you experienced justification? It's likely one of the greatest truths in our Bible. To know that before God, all of your sin has been washed away.
You have a clean standing in the sight of God. There's nothing greater. How do we be justified before God? Well, this passage that we've read teaches us how we can be justified before God.
I want to point out five verses in the New Testament that give us the core teaching of justification. Now, if you just follow this for a moment, you'll understand what this truth is all about. Number one, I want you to think about Romans 3 and 24. And it says in Romans 3 and 24, that we have been justified freely by his grace through redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
And so the number one core teaching of justification is it's free. I'm so glad that we sang that. You know what? We are free.
Justification is a gift. There is nothing to pay. Now, just because it's free to you, doesn't mean it's inexpensive. It costs God everything.
It costs God, his well-beloved son, to die on the cross. But for you and I, when we come to Jesus, we accept this gift of justification, and there's nothing to pay. The second core truth of justification is that we are justified by faith, by faith, not of works, by faith. And in Romans 3 and 28, it says very clearly, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from any deeds or works of the law.
So in order to come into the good of all of these blessings, we have to come by faith. We have to come believing. Isn't that what it says in our verse that we read? Verse 2, through whom we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.
If you want to know the sins of your life to be forgiven, you're going to have to exercise faith. You're going to have to believe what God said. And if you don't believe what God says, you could work your whole life and never experience justification. Justification is a gift, and it comes by faith when we believe God.
Resting on God's promises. I'm so thankful for this. Jesus paid it all. All to him, I owe.
You know what? The last thing that I could pay, and if it was up to me, I would never be in heaven because my sin would just destruct me. But Jesus Christ has paid it freely. And we can be justified by believing what God says.
Justification is number one free. Number two, it comes by faith. Number three, we are justified by his blood. We read that in Romans 5.
And if you look at verse 9, it says it very clearly. Much more than we are now justified by his blood. What does that mean? Well, it reminds us of a number of things.
First of all, the blood of Jesus Christ had to be shed to fulfill all the Old Testament pictures. In order to fulfill all the Old Testament prophecy of God sending a lamb, a sacrifice for sins. It reminds us that the death of Jesus Christ was a violent death. His blood was shed.
He was crucified. There was a spear that pierced his side. They put a crown of thorns on his head. They scourged him until his back was like a plowed field.
It was violent. It was a violent death. Do you know how the scripture says, without the shedding of blood, there can be no forgiveness of sins. And the truth of justification is that we are justified by his blood.
Another fundamental truth is it was substitutionary. Do you know what this means? It means that someone had to die in your stead. Someone had to die on behalf of you for all the sins that you had committed your whole life.
The Almighty God had to have sin put away because of his character. And if there was no substitute, there would be no salvation. Without a substitute, no one can go free. Because God's holy character demands sin must be paid for.
Sin must be put away. But the beautiful truth in the book of Romans is now God can be just and the justifier of the one who believes in Jesus. We are justified by his blood. It was violent.
It was on our behalf. In other words, all the sins that you've committed your whole life, instead of you being punished for, Jesus Christ took those sins and he was punished as if he committed the sins himself. He died a substitutionary death on our behalf. We are justified by his blood.
We also know that this blood that was shed satisfied the claims of God. You know what? It wasn't just a good man. It wasn't just a good teacher that a lot of people say, no, it was a spotless, pure, impeccable sacrifice.
The only one who could take away our sin. The only one who could be accepted by God was the one who had no sin of his own. There's only one person that qualifies. It's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Scripture says in him there is no sin. Scripture says he did no sin. Scripture says he knew no sin. And yet God in his mercy gave Jesus to bear the sin of every person here, every person in Halifax, every person in the world so that we can be made the righteousness of God in him.
John wrote that, didn't he? He said he is the propitiation for our sins. Jesus Christ, the righteous, who sits at the throne of God? He is the propitiation, the sin atoning sacrifice.
For my sins, for your sins, and for the sins of the whole world. Amazing truth. There's no limitations to this. If you're living, breathing, you can come to Jesus and you can have your sins forgiven.
Praise God. We are justified by his blood. So it's free, it's accessed by faith, and it's by the atoning blood of Jesus Christ. What else?
We are justified in the name of Jesus Christ. I love this. You know, I don't know what it must have been like in Corinth, but it must have been a pretty sinful place. Kind of reminds me of Halifax.
You know, if you read that passage in 1 Corinthians 6, Paul is giving a little bit of a catalog of the sins of the past of these people that were in the church in Corinth. And he lists all the immorality, fornication, adultery, all of the wickedness of their sin. And he says this, such were some of you. You know what?
I think that there's people here, all of us. We can relate to what this is like. But he says in that passage, such were some of you, such were some of you. But now you're washed.
You are sanctified. You are justified in the name of Jesus Christ. Why the name? God justifies us in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, because it's on his character.
It's on his record, not our record. If God was to judge me on the righteousness of my record, I would be separated from God forever. But we are justified in the name, in the person of Jesus Christ. Because of his righteousness, we are brought into this amazing opportunity of grace to be justified.
And then finally, it says that we are justified by faith in Christ. Not of works. Not of works. There are at least six passages in the New Testament that give us very clear instruction that our justification doesn't come by works.
If you read Galatians 2 and 16, it says, no flesh will ever be justified by keeping the law. Do you think you could keep the law? No, the law really is our school master to bring us to Christ. It shows us our sin.
It's like a spotlight that identifies all of our failures. They'll shall not lie. They'll shall have no other gods before me. They'll shall not take the name of the Lord God in vain.
Obey your parents. Do not kill. Do not commit adultery. Do not covet.
All of these things are an exposure to the human heart. And if we could actually go to heaven by keeping the law, then Christ died in vain. There's no reason for the cross. But the law shows us our failures and our sin to identify our need.
And so when we come to Jesus Christ by faith, we are justified on the basis of faith, not of works, lest any man should boast. So in this chapter that we read, there are seven benefits of justification. And I was reading this Psalm the other day, and I was just so thrilled with it. I'm gonna divert for a second.
I'm gonna share you the Psalm. You know what I think about it in the Old Testament? I said to myself, did they really understand the truth of justification, or did they not? Well, I think Abraham did, because the Bible says that Abraham was justified.
I think David did, because David said, blessed is a man whose transgressions are forgiven, whose sin is covered. David wrote this Psalm about the benefits of justification. And I'm gonna highlight a few things. You'll know all of this when I go through this.
This is the benefits of justification. David picked up his pen and he put it this way. Bless the Lord, oh my soul. And all that is within me.
Bless his holy name and forget not. Forget not, all his benefits. Forget not. Do you know what we're so easily, we forget.
We go back into sin and we forget that we've been justified. We've been set free from that bondage. We've been taken out of that sin and we don't need to go back in there again. But here's what David says.
He says, don't forget all the benefits that you have in the Lord who forgives all your iniquities, all of them, even the ones I haven't committed yet, who forgives all your iniquities, who peels all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction. How many of us left to ourselves wouldn't end in destruction? Apart from the grace of God, you know what? We would end our lives in complete destruction.
Forget not all the benefits of your God, who forgives all your iniquities, forgives all your sins, heals all your diseases, redeems your life from destruction and crowns you with loving kindness, grace and shows you mercy, tender mercies. And then it says that our God satisfies the mouth with good things so that they youth is renewed, like eagles. You know what this is? This is regeneration.
I did a study a little while ago on eagles. I had absolutely no idea. They reach a point in their lives when they go through a process and they get renewed and they actually pluck out their feathers and their beak and all kinds of crazy things happen. And they come out of this experience completely renewed.
And I found a really interesting reading about that. This is a picture of regeneration. Christ renews us. If any man be in crisis and new creation, all things are passed away, all things are become new.
And our past life of sin has been redeemed. It's gone. And we are walking with Jesus and we have this amazing standing of grace. And then it says this, the Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger.
He has not dealt with us after our sins. Okay, if you got dealt with after the sins that you committed, what would it be like? It'd be pretty horrible. Because we all deserve punishment for our sins.
We'd be separated from God forever. But God has shown us mercy. And he has not dealt with us according to our sins. And then it says this, as high as the heavens are above the earth.
So great is his mercy toward them that fear him. You know, there's a great distance between us and the heavens above. That's a picture of God's mercy to us. It's never ending.
And then it says this, as far as the east is from the west, they never meet. So far has he removed our transgressions from us. In other words, I will never ever, ever come in contact with my sins again, because God has removed them. This is the truth of justification.
And it says, as a father, pitties his children. So the Lord pitties them that fear him. We are blessed abundantly, justified freely, brought into the mercy of God, having our sins cleansed, given a standing of righteousness. And we have a heavenly father, with no barrier between us, that we can go to him at any given moment.
I wanna share with you seven things from this chapter, that are the benefits of justification. Number one, the sinner has been granted peace with God. Peace with God, because of the Lord Jesus Christ. By faith, we have a relationship with God.
Number two, we have a standing of grace. This doesn't fluctuate day in day out, depending on how I feel, how I mess up, where I go. No, we have been brought into a standing of grace, and God shows us undeserved kindness. There's nothing better.
Number three, the believer has hope of glory. Do you know how many people don't have hope in this world? Like just walk down the streets. See these drug addicts, people that have no place to live.
These people are absolutely desperate, and yet we have the gospel, and we can go give them hope. Their souls can be cleansed, their lives can be redeemed, they can be brought into the family of God. And everyone who's justified has this hope. And this hope is confident assurance, it's expectation.
It's not something that's a flimsy hope. Well, I hope it doesn't rain tomorrow. That's an English word. This word in the scriptures is confident expectation.
This is going to happen, because God has planned it. We have hope, hope of glory. And not only that, we'll never be put to shame, because divine love has been poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit. I love this.
The love of God has been poured into my heart. That's the only way I can love you, because you're not very lovable, honestly. And I'm not very lovable, I know that. And in ourselves, we're just wretched sinners.
And if the truth is revealed, God sees us as we are, but the love of God is poured into our hearts. We have a reservoir, it's like a fountain that never ever ends because of the Holy Spirit of God. That's amazing truth. We've been granted a substitute.
The one who represented us in our sinfulness died in our stead to bear our punishment. Christ died for us to appease the wrath of God on our behalf. One of the great teachers of the Book of Romans is really the doctrine of the gospel, the doctrine of salvation. And if you get a firm understanding of the doctrine of salvation, you've got a foundation under you for the rest of your life.
This is not flimsy, it's not wishy washy. It's not here today, gone tomorrow. Jesus said, in Matthew chapter seven, anyone who hears my sayings and does them, I will liken him unto a man who builds his house on a rock. And the storms will come.
And the rain will be, and you're gonna be rattled, but you will never be shaken off that rock because you have a firm foundation in Jesus Christ. He is our rock. He is our sure foundation. And he is our substitute.
He died on the cross for us, and he represents us before God. Let me give you this truth. First John chapter two, these things right on to you that you sin not. But if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father.
Jesus Christ, the righteous, who is the propitiation for our sins. And so I look at it this way. If and when I sin, and I go to my Father, and I say, Father forgive me for I have sinned, there is one who represents me right now in heaven, with nail pierced hands, who has already bled and died for my sin, who has already forgiven me. And my standing of grace is on his account, not my own.
I have been righteous by imputed righteousness and he gives to me because he's my substitute. That is amazing truth. That if you understand that it will give you safety, certainty, security, it will give you purpose. You can live your life, living your life for God, rejoicing in all that he's brought you into.
We are justified by blood, and we have been saved from the wrath of God. Do you know how many people there are right now that are exposed to the wrath of God? Every single person who does not believe on Jesus is exposed to the wrath of God. How do we know that?
John 3 and 36. He that believes on the Son has everlasting life. He that does not believe on the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of Almighty God hovers over him, and he will never experience life unless he repents of his sin and believes in Jesus. Jesus said that to Nicodemus.
He that believes on the Son is not condemned, but he that does not believe on the Son is condemned already because he is not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. So we have this amazing truth that we have been justified by blood, and we are saved from the wrath of God. You know Paul wrote to the Thessalonians and he characterized them by this. He said, you have been saved and you are waiting for his Son from heaven who will deliver you from the wrath to come.
There's wrath coming to this world. You better believe it. There's a tribulation that's coming. The storms of the wrath of God are gonna be poured out on this world, and everyone in that day that is without Christ will be exposed to the righteousness of God and will be judged in their sin.
But if you believe on Jesus, you are sheltered. You are saved. You are forgiven. You are justified.
You are cleansed. You are safe in the hands of God. This is great truth. You know, the last one that I wanna share with you is we are no longer enemies.
We have been reconciled to God. And in our sins, we are enemies. But when we come as sinners and repent and believe in Jesus, we are no longer enemies of God. We've been reconciled to God.
Our relationship has been restored. We are saved by his life. Everyone wonder what that means? I wondered about that.
And this is what I think it means. I could be wrong, but this is what I think it means. I believe it means that his perfect life, the righteousness that Jesus displayed and lived in sinless perfection is vicariously granted to us. And we are seen in Christ on his record of living, not seen in my record of my own sinful living.
We are actually seen by the righteous living of Christ. He was the only one who fulfilled the law. He was the perfect man. The only one that the heavens were open to declare, this is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased.
And when we come to him and believe in him, we are brought into this perfect relationship. We are reconciled to God. We are restored. Our life has been purchased.
And we are actually given a standard of righteousness based on his righteousness, not on our own righteousness. So I'll wrap this up today by this beautiful story. I couldn't help think about this when I read Romans 5. You know, Jesus taught this truth.
Everything that we've talked about today, Jesus taught this truth. And grace and justification is illustrated in this parable of the prodigal son. Do you remember the parable of the prodigal son? Luke chapter 15, the son turned his back on the father and came to the father and said, give me the portion of goods that followed to me.
And a very wise father looked at him and said, okay, now if it was me, I think I would have said, are you kidding me? Yeah, just cash in your RSPs, sell the farm. You know, you're gonna die soon. So let's just get on with it.
I want the money. And this wise father says, okay, okay, you want that? Okay. He divides unto them his living.
The wise father, a wayward son, not many days later. The son gathers together his belongings and goes into the far country. And the father's watching him go. He knows what's gonna happen.
You know, the Bible says, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned everyone to our own way. That's exactly what this prodigal son did. Turned his back on the father, went into the far country and lived a life of sin.
You know what it says in that parable? It says that he wasted his living, wasted his father's resources with partying and riotous living. And all his buddies are there and he's buying drinks and he's having fun and there's music and dancing and he's wasting all of his money. And then his money comes to an end.
And then there's a famine. And now his friends are gone. He's lonely, he's empty. He's spent all and he goes into a field to feed pigs.
How disgusting, especially for a Jewish boy. And here's this man. And it really, he realizes that he has spent all. You know what he did?
Wasted living, he just came to himself. And he said, how many hired servants of my father have bred enough and despair and I perish with hunger? I will arise and I will go back to my father. You know what this is?
Repentance. It is 100% a great example of repentance. I will arise, I will go back to my father. He repented, he returned to his father.
And he said, I have sinned. And most earthly fathers would say, you bet you've sinned. You're gonna pay for this for the rest of your life. But what does God do?
In his mercy, in his grace, in his tenderness. The father sees him, afar off. And he runs to him. And he throws his arms around him.
And he hogs him. And the prodigal says, father, I have sinned against heaven and in your sight. And I'm no more worthy to be called your son. And he doesn't even get his speech done.
And the father says, bring forth the fatted calf and kill. We're gonna have a party. Put a robe on this young man. Shoes on his feet, a ring on his hand.
He is my son. This, my son was lost and is found. He was dead and he's alive. And there was rejoicing in heaven.
That is a picture of every sinner that comes to Jesus and believes in him. And is justified freely by the grace of God. Washed from all of our sins, give it a standing as sonship reconciled to God. Redeemed by precious blood, purchased safe and secure, a standing in Christ that is eternal.
No one will ever be able to take that from you if you've come to Jesus, honestly, and believed in him. You know, there's a beautiful song that I think depicts this truth that we've talked about today and I wanna sing it. Here's the words of the song that we're gonna sing. By grace alone, somehow I stand, where angels fear to tread, invited by redeeming love, before the throne of God above, he pulls me close with nail scar hands into his everlasting arms.
When condemnation grips my heart and Satan tempts me to despair, I hear the voice that scatters fear, the great I am, the Lord is here. O praise the one who fights for me and shields my soul eternally, boldly, I approach your throne, blameless, now I'm running home into the arms of majesty. I'm gonna pray and then we're gonna sing this hymn. Thanks for coming.
Father, we ask your blessing upon the words of God tonight. We pray, Lord, that you would remember each heart that's bowed here in your presence and if some are not right with God, I pray that they would come into an understanding of this deep truth and rest by faith at the cross and accept Jesus Christ as their only Lord and Savior. We thank you for your grace, for your love, for all your mercy. And we thank you that you have invited us as guilty sinners to come home and receive grace.
And we have all been like the prodigal that have come to you and we thank you, Lord, for this amazing truth that you've given us. And so we ask you to bless us today for the remainder of the day and part us with your blessing and bless this church and every family here, we ask you to name the word Jesus, amen.