The Golden Chain of Redemption: The God that Justifies

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Be Thou my vision, O Lord, of my heart.

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Naught be all else to me, save that Thou art.

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Romans Chapter 8. We're doing a study if you guys are new to Apologia. Through the book of Romans, verse by verse, word by word.

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An exposition of the book. We're calling it The Gospel According to Paul. An exposition of Romans.

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And so we're right now in Romans Chapter 8. And it's been awesome. I don't know about you guys, but it has just been a blessing over the last couple of weeks to be able to preach through these verses.

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It's not just transforming to the body when you're going through these. I mean, it's transforming to all of us, to the pastors. I mean, it is just such, this is a treasure right here in the midst of Romans.

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And so, I mean, it has just been the mark of what it means to be called by God and be saved and forgiven and transformed.

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All right here in Romans Chapter 8. And so, right now, we're in Romans Chapter 8. And we're in verse 33.

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So if you guys would join me as I pray. Let's ask for God's guidance and illumination tonight as we get into his word.

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Father, we come before you as your people, Lord, your possession. You brought out of darkness into light,

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God. Everything you say here, this is about you. It's about you, the

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God who justifies, not the people who justify themselves. This is,

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I mean, it's just so you and centered around you and all boasting going to you.

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And God, I am incapable in myself to fully unpack the treasure that's before us.

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Lord, we need your wisdom. And we need, Lord, your spirit to illuminate and teach.

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God, I desperately in this time want you to get me utterly out of the way. And I just ask that you would just help

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God to open our eyes to the beauty of justification. Lord, with all my heart, you know my burden about this issue,

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Lord, that so much of the history of your people has been marked by people trying to redefine this issue or push it away or deny it altogether,

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God. So I just pray that you would spark, Lord, reformation in your people, Lord, and revival in the midst of your people around truth and the beauty of you,

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God. And what you do here, this is all about you. And so God, I'm just begging you, Father, to show up in a mighty way.

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God, draw people who don't know you to themselves to you tonight. And Lord, for those of us that do, cause us to fall so madly in love with you.

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And Lord, specifically, Lord, with this truth of justification, you are the God who justifies in Jesus' name.

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Amen. Okay. So Romans chapter 8. I'll read the verse and then we'll unpack.

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Verse 33. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

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It is God who justifies. I mean, that is, I mean, can we just stop there, close our

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Bibles, and just start screaming and like freaking out and like fall down in worship? I mean, maybe appropriate response to this.

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Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Now, I mean, maybe if you don't have any context,

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I mean, you're like, what is this charging and the elect of God and God justifying? I mean, big whoop.

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I mean, if you don't know like what those words mean, if you don't have the context, maybe it doesn't mean a lot for them. But for those of you guys that have been tracking with us as we've been going through Romans, and specifically over the last couple of weeks, you know how much of a treasure this moment is.

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To be sitting here in this grand statement of no charges being brought against God's chosen, against God's elect.

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And it is God, this God who justifies. The God who declares ungodly people righteous.

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I mean, that's it. That's the whole thing. I mean, you know, right now we look at this, and most of you are like, oh, that's great,

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Pastor Jeff. Amen. Hallelujah. We sell t -shirts with that statement on it? We should, by the way. Pastor Luke, we need to get on that.

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Apology justified. We need to do that. But I don't know.

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I think that when your eyes close, and my eyes close, and we go to be with the

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Savior, and we stand before Him, I mean, this, in all of its majesty, is going to hit you right across the mouth.

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Because this God, no charges being brought against you before God, and a God who declared you righteous, is going to be so much more meaningful when you stand before Him, in all of His glory, right?

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I mean, you know that song? It's a famous Christian song, I Can Only Imagine. You know the song

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I'm talking about? I Can Only Imagine. That song, that brings tears to the eyes of Christians.

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I mean, you listen to that song 50 times, it still brings tears to your eyes, right? Because you think as a Christian, like, yeah, glorious. But let me tell you something, ready?

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That song is not so glorious if you have to give an account before God as judge.

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I Can Only Imagine is only a beautiful song for those who are the redeemed, those who have already passed through this court of charges and have them credited to Christ in their place, and those who already stand before God as declared righteous in Christ.

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How insignificant is this issue? I mean, it's everything. How significant is it that you get justification right, this issue right?

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Well, it's significant enough that Paul would write an entire letter to the church in Galatia because people were coming in the church distorting the issue of justification.

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They were teaching it's faith in Jesus and also, and you say, well, and also what?

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It doesn't really matter, does it? Because if it's Christ and you have something different than the

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Bible is portraying to you. I mean, listen, you have really ultimately two messages in the world.

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No matter what the issue of the God is or the ceremonies or the religious text, you have, ready? Man -centered gospels and God -centered gospels.

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Man -centered gospels and God -centered gospels. And the Bible presents to you right here in this text a

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God -centered gospel. What does it say? It says, who will bring any charge against God's elect? God is the one who justifies.

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It's about God and what he does and how can any charges be brought against God's chosen, against his people when they've already passed through his court and he's the ultimate judge and he's given the verdict?

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I mean, this is massive. And it really, it's going to have its bite in your soul and it's going to have its way with you and it's going to transform your perspective of God and it's going to transform tomorrow morning when you really settle in as to what's really going on in the text.

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And the first thing I have to do to allow us to really see this in all of its brightness and all of its goodness is

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I have to first take you into a very dark place. And you first have to hear the message that it's the beginning of Romans.

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I mean, hearing about charges brought against God's elect and God declaring righteous the ungodly is not such a significant message if you don't understand the depravity that exists beforehand.

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And if you think about the fact that one of the things that's sort of diminished in our culture is the holiness of God. The utter holiness of God.

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And the picture in the Old Testament of God, and most of you guys that have been going through Dr. Sproul's study in the

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REACH groups, you understand that one thing that's just popping right off the page is the visible display of the holiness of God in the

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Old Testament. To the degree that God says, don't touch the ark. Don't touch it or you'll die.

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And the guy's walking along, it looks like it's getting a little unsteady, and the guy goes, oh, catch it. Now what'd

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God say? Don't touch it! And then he touches it and what happens? Dead! The high priests in the

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Old Testament, they gotta wear ropes and go in the Holy of Holies, and you better hope that they don't die so you don't have to pull their body out of the

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Holy of Holies. I mean, the holiness of God on display that Moses comes off a mountain and his hair has turned gray just from a moment with God.

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Amazing moments with God where God says, take off your shoes! Because this is holy ground.

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We've lost that vision in our culture because we love our sin. And we've taken sort of like ourselves and said, we're not so bad and God's not so holy.

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That's really the picture that we have. And this is not really a significant text if your vision of God's holiness is not true.

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If we could see God as He is, we would see God like Isaiah sees Him in Isaiah chapter 6.

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Where according to us and our own perspective, I think that if you and I saw Isaiah, we would probably say he's the most righteous looking dude you've ever seen.

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He's got it all together. I mean, he looks solid. Like he's got his relationship with God right. He's obedient. He's solid.

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He looks righteous. He's a prophet. He's got it going on. We think he was a righteous dude. But in Isaiah 6, when he catches a glimpse of the holiness of God, the angels are singing, holy, holy, holy, which is a way in Hebrew of shouting out and exclaiming the holiness of God.

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That there's no punctuation in Hebrew. And so when you're repeating yourself like that, it is this screaming from the pulpit.

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It's on top of the roof and it's shouting it, wiggling around, throwing things at people. I mean, it's as emphatic as you can get.

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Holy, holy, holy. And what Isaiah's response is to the holiness of God, Isaiah's response needs to be noted.

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Isaiah's response when he catches a glimpse of the holiness of God and God's goodness and his sin, that God is righteous and he's unrighteous,

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Isaiah's response is, woe is me. We sort of have an interpretation today of what that means.

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You know, the person that's always complaining about life and everything, woe, woe is me. But no, no, I think we need to get into this biblical context.

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Woe is me is a way of calling a curse down on yourself. And so when you would have in the

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Old Testament the prophets calling a curse down on a foreign nation that rejected God, people worshiping false gods that were delivering their children over to fire and killing their children, participating in pagan worship orgies, they would say, woe is that city, woe to them, calling down the curse of God on that city.

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But what's amazing is that what does Isaiah do when he catches a glimpse of God's holiness?

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What does he say in response to it? He says, woe is me. It's a way of asking

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God to end his life. His vision is, now that I've seen this vision of God's holiness, he's saying,

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I am a man of unclean lips. The first thing he becomes aware of is his own sin before God. And what he actually says, if you can get behind what the meaning is, he basically says,

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I'm unraveling. I'm coming apart at the seams. I mean, that's the expression of what you and I would say is a really righteous dude.

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He's got his stuff together. But when he's presented before the holiness of God, he says, I want to die. I shouldn't be alive in front of this

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God. And I'm literally unraveling. And later on in the book is the famous thing, quoted by Christians all the time.

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All of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags to God. And it's almost like Christians, we just like, we whip that out, don't we?

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You know what I'm saying? Like out street, like evangelism. Someone's like a part of some cult or some ism, and they're trying to earn their salvation.

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So the first Christian response is, no, no. All of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And let me tell you what. Yes, use the verse.

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Sell bumper stickers and buttons with that verse on it because everyone needs to hear that. We even take into consideration the real ugliness behind ourselves in that passage.

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Think about it. All of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags to God. And the word there, and we've talked about this before, but the word there that Isaiah pulls from is not something like it's dirty laundry to God, which

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I was hearing on K -Love one time. I heard this woman, told you the story before. Woman on K -Love calls in. She's struggling with guilt and shame.

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She's trying her best to sort of like please God. The woman rightly said, you need to stop doing that. Quit looking at yourself and look to Christ.

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But she said, all of our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. And she said, typical mom, sorry.

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She said, you know what that's like? That's like your dirty laundry. It's like that to God. It's like dirty laundry.

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And that's what it's like. And so, you know, oh, that's gross, right? But no, it's actually not true.

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The word that Isaiah uses for all of our righteousnesses as filthy rags before our holy God is the same word used for the rags that women use for their monthly period.

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So throw them up. Like, try that. Throw before this holy God all of your good deeds.

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Throw them up. And they account as nothing but piles and piles and piles of used tampons.

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Yeah, and I love the response of the ladies. This every time. All right, now get a sense of that and understand that what

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God is trying to get across to us is his holiness, right? So when it says, who will bring any charge against God's elect?

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God is the one who justifies. It doesn't mean so much if you don't take it, if you don't have a full grasp and ownership and understanding of your own sin before God.

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Nobody ever comes into a relationship with Jesus first without first being broken. You don't understand the glory of this, the message of the cross, and a

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God who justifies by his grace as a gift through faith in Jesus that's accomplished through the redemption that's in Christ.

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You don't understand that until you understand how utterly broken we are before God. Remember the sermon,

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Jonathan Edwards, most famous theologian in American history, and necessarily so, and rightfully so.

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Jonathan Edwards' famous sermon, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. People say, oh, that was over the top.

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I don't know. I don't know that I believe that it is. Because you see, in the sermon,

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Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, God used a simple sermon that he writes down and he preaches to illuminate something that is missed often in our culture, and it brought about the

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Great Awakening. What he described was this utterly holy God and people who are utterly broken and fallen before him.

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And then at any moment, God, as a just judge, has the right to judge sinners and to express that, to vividly portray it so the people understand that this is something you must reckon with, a

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God who is holy. And the real question has to be asked here. If there is none righteous, not even one, none who seeks for God, if Romans itself, listen, if you only had, and we don't, but if you only had the book of Romans, chapters one through five, to display our brokenness, that's enough.

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The whole Bible expresses our fallenness, but just the first five chapters of Romans, the picture is ugly and it's dark and it seems totally hopeless and that's why the gospel is glorious.

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Because what it says is that we're ungodly, we're hostile to God, we all know him, we suppress the truth about him, we exchange

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God for idols, we are unapologetus before God, we have no excuse before God, there's no one righteous, none who does good, none who seeks for God, their feet are swift as shed blood, destruction and misery in their paths, the path of peace they have not known, there is no fear of God before their eyes, and do you know who he's talking about?

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You and me. The Bible tells us in Romans five, it says the ungodly, the helpless, sinners.

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You see, you don't really, I don't see the glory of 833 about a

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God who justifies and no charges being brought against me until I embrace that, until I embrace it.

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To really embrace it and understand that there is a real place called hell and a real place of eternal separation from God.

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No one likes to talk about that anymore. It's not a popular thing. You don't want to just preach on hell, listen, and you should not ever come to Christ because you're afraid of hell, don't do that.

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People who come to Christ because they're afraid of hell don't understand the beauty of the gospel. That's not why you should come to Christ, simply because I'm afraid of hell, so I think

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I'll believe in Jesus. That's bad, don't do that. More false conversions from that methodology than I think almost anything else.

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You have to come to Christ now because you need him and because he's right. But you think about the fact that God is love, amen?

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Yes, God is love. But when love takes on flesh and God becomes man, love talked an awful lot about a place called hell.

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And so it's a real serious reality. You say, well, why would Jesus do that? Isn't he loving? Well, yeah. His whole life was expressed by love.

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John is best buddy. The only thing he wants you to know, if there's a single thing you need to know about my friend Jesus, is that God is love.

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You know him because God is love. That's how loving Jesus is. But he's also so loving that he's real and he's true.

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And he talks to people and tells them about the reality of the consequence of abandoning this glorious God and not knowing him.

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You see, Jesus talked about that. And if you could take this whole scene and put it into perspective, there's a guy named

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Paul Washer. I like Paul Washer because when he preaches, my heart feels like it's being opened up and I feel like change happens because he's preaching truth.

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Paul Washer gives an example of a time he was invited to a university in the UK. And he knew why he was being invited.

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He was being invited because he's a dinosaur. He's one of those relics of an old period. He's like a resurrected

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Puritan, right? One of those guys. He actually believes the Bible is the word of God. He believes that Jesus is the only way.

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He believes that Jesus really died, really rose for sinners and that you really need Christ. And salvation is only through Christ.

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So he's being brought to this university because he's a dinosaur. And we want to come and we want to laugh at him. He knew that, so he's asking

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God, what do I say to these people? And he's praying and praying and praying. And, Lord, I don't know what to say, but I'm going to give you glory, and so help me,

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God. And so he goes before this audience of people who are really bringing him up to really ultimately laugh. And so he comes before them solemn and he says,

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I have the worst news you'll ever hear. The worst news you will ever hear in your life. And he goes on and he draws this thing out for like five minutes.

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And at first they're laughing. Then they start, like, they're all sucked into this vortex of like, what, what? For real.

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And they're on the edge of their seat and they're all, what's the most terrible news I've ever heard? What is it? And they start, like, saying, what is it?

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And Paul Walsh says, this is it. He says, God is good.

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And everyone started laughing. People start, you know, stirring and saying, what do you mean?

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That's awesome. What do you mean, God is good? That's great news. God is good is the best news ever.

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He said, no. God is good is the worst news you will ever hear in your life. He said, because we're not.

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And that has got to hit you, and if it doesn't, stop and think. If God is good, and not just in this, this

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Christianese kind of language. Not in just the Christian language you use in our little Christian ghetto, right?

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God is good all the time, right? You know, you sing this song. Like, not in that kind of way where we, like, we say these things as Christians that are just part of our language, right?

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We just, we throw these words out. Don't worry. Long enough you're here, you're in the ghetto, you'll learn the lingo. Don't worry. You'll be down.

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But we do, we do and become jaded to this stuff. Like, God is good. No, but think about it. God is good. He's limitlessly good, really good, in his nature, truly good.

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You see, we don't understand that fully because we're not. But that God is truly good, and holy, and perfect, and good, and just.

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And you have to ask the question. If God is really good, truly good, fundamentally good, and holy, and just, then what does a good

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God have to give to people who aren't? Justice. You see, none of us like to reckon with that because we're the criminals in the courts.

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And that's the truth. That's why we don't think about these things. And listen, the beauty, the beautiful thing about being a

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Christian is that you can think about these things. Why? Because you have a savior to fall on.

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You can embrace all the ugliness. I'm wicked, I'm broken, I'm ugly, I'm lost. For real and completely, utterly depraved.

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And I am righteous and justified in him. And forgiven in Christ. You don't have to run from anything.

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You don't have to put your guards up at all. You can say yes to that, yes to this. I'm guilty of that. I'm guilty of this.

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For real, completely, and holy, and truly, with no defense. And I have a perfect savior who saves perfectly for all eternity.

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See, that's what you can say as a Christian. But you see, what's amazing is that when you think about the context of this, ready? Who will bring any charge against God's elect?

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I want to say to something. You've got to embrace this. This is so critical. And if I could just get it across something that's on my heart, you need to hear this. Is that justification has been always, and ultimately, as long as they're sinners, will be under attack.

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For 2 ,000 years of church history, justification has been under attack. It's been under attack first, where?

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In the writings of the New Testament. You have justification under attack in the New Testament itself. Paul's warring against people who are denying it.

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You have people today, all over. You have from Roman Catholicism to every cult you can imagine denying the truth surrounding justification.

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So I want to get you this, and you need to embrace this. At Apology at Church, if you've been here for longer than a month,

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I hope you can answer this. What does it mean to be justified? Oh, don't whisper it at me, guys.

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What is it? Declared righteous. And you say, like, well, what do you mean by that?

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Well, the word justified is from the same root word of righteousness. It comes from the dick word group in the

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Greek, which, essentially, I told you, it's hard to actually get across in the English because it essentially means righteous -fied, right?

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To be justified means to be righteous -fied. But here's the important thing, and I want you to embrace this. Grab this.

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How do we know that it's legal in context? How do we know that this is pertaining to the courtroom?

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How do we know the word justified means declared righteous and not some other meaning? How do we know?

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Well, right here in this text. Ready? Here's the context. Who shall bring any charge against God's elect?

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God is the one who justifies. Now, watch the contrast. Watch. Who is to condemn?

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Do you see that? There's the context. Charges are brought against people in courts of law.

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That's where charges are brought, in a court. And it says, who's going to bring a charge against God's elect?

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He's the judge. He's given the declaration. Who's the one who condemns? All this is court context stuff.

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Now, this is important because, listen, like I said, when you close your eyes and go to depart to be with Jesus, oh, this will come to life in such a way that I don't think any of us have ever even imagined.

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This is glorious, to think that you stand before God with no charges against you, declared righteous already, today, now.

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I've been to court. So have you. Be quiet. Now, last year,

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I had to go to court for someone that I love. And it was a weird moment for me because I've been to court before.

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You know, people get traffic tickets or whatever. You go to court and, you know, you have to deal with those. And that's kind of scary.

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I mean, it is scary to go, even for a traffic ticket. It's scary when you're standing before the judge who has, he can swing it however he wants, right?

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So serious. And so it can take your breath away. But this is a weird moment for me because I had someone that I love who was standing before a judge and I had to give testimony for the person.

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I had to actually ask the judge for mercy. That was my role. I'm not even on trial.

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This isn't even my thing. I can come or go as I please. I wanted to come because I wanted to beg the judge for mercy.

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That's why I was there. I wanted to ask the judge for mercy. And what was amazing is that there was this, okay, we're in court that day and, like, sitting over here are, like, convicts that they brought in who are, you know, they walk in with their chains, right?

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So they're coming in. So, like, that feeling is in the air. And then a person that I love is going to stand before the judge and the judge at any moment can say, done, over, jail, for years.

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And I'm just begging for mercy. That's it. So it's weird because I'm ready. This isn't about me.

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I mean, I love this person with all my heart, but it's not about me. So, you know, and so I've been to court before.

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I've had to do this kind of stuff before. So I'm in the court now. The judge is on the bench and the judge, this is a serious situation.

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You can rule that that's it. You're done. You're going to prison for years. So now Jeff Durbin come on up.

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So I walk up and it was the weirdest thing because this first time in court where this palpable judgment is in the air.

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At any moment, this hammer can come down and that's it. And I'm standing before this judge and I'm not even on trial and I can taste the justice in that room.

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And all I'm pleading for is mercy. And I walked up and I lost my breath.

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I walked up and as soon as I stood there with the person that I love standing right here, I lost my breath.

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It took me a second to regain my balance for a second because I couldn't breathe. And it was weird because I'm not even on trial.

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This isn't even about me. And I was gasping and I was like stuttering and I'm not one to stutter normally.

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And I couldn't find the words and I think I sounded rather probably soft and silly because I was sort of pleading for mercy but I couldn't express what

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I really wanted to say to ask for mercy. Now praise God the judge gave mercy and basically moved over a sentence of prison and gave mercy in that moment.

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But I wasn't even on trial. The justice wasn't even directed my way and I couldn't even breathe. And this is a human judge who's also a sinner.

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He's also fallible. But the justice was real and you could feel it and I took my breath away.

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Now move yourself, fast forward to your own life before a holy God who knows every thought, every word, every deed, everything about you.

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Has known from all eternity all his works. And this God that made you in his image for him to glorify him who is righteous and holy in every way and demands that you are like him.

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And the Bible says that if you keep his whole law and you stumble in one point you're guilty of the whole thing.

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Imagine standing before this God now the God of all the universe, the living God, the true God and having to give an account for a life of disobedience.

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Every aspect of your life on display before God and every single one worthy of an eternal death.

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Now, look at this.

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Who will bring any charge against God's elect? God is the one who declares righteous.

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So the picture there is this. The story goes all these charges are real, right?

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They're legit. No one's running away from them. They're for real. But the beauty of the gospel is what God accomplishes in justification.

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How can there be no charges brought against the elect? The story goes back to Romans chapter 4.

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Go to Romans actually chapters 3 and 4 and I'm going to go quickly to hit you with the beauty of this. What led up to Romans chapter 8 which makes it so glorious.

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If the problem is none is righteous. If the problem is none is good. No one seeks for God. Then Paul's answer in Romans chapter 19 set 319 is that now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law.

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So that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to it. To God for by the works of the law there shall no flesh be justified in his sight since through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

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If you need one verse alone that annihilates every form of man -made religion even cults and isms who profess to believe in Jesus but somehow mingle faith in Jesus plus your obedience to law in order to attain a relationship of reconciliation with God.

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This is that verse that annihilates them. This is all over the Bible but here's one specifically. It says the meaning of the law was to basically shut your mouth.

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Okay? Because it does. It shuts you up. The law is in front of you and you see it. It just shuts you up. It shows that you're guilty.

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But it says specifically no one will be declared righteous. See the word there? No one's going to be declared righteous in his sight through the law.

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So how's it done? Well, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law although the law and the prophets bear witness to it.

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The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe for there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are declared righteous by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom

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God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith.

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I want to say this. Seeing the text in front of you as it is you have to see how God actually accomplishes this because it's a pretty serious issue.

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Remember the court context I told you? All about justice, right? Who will bring any charge against God's elect?

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God is the one who justifies. Let me ask you a question. How in the world does a holy God look at my life and my sin and declare me righteous without violating his own goodness?

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You see, that's a real problem, isn't it? Because you say, well, God is love. That's what everyone wants to say. God is love.

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It's like all we want to know about God is God is love. He's good. He's merciful. He's love. He loves you anyways. That's the message, right?

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That's the real problem with that. Because you see, if he is good and I'm not, if he's righteous and I'm not, then we have a real problem here.

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What's the problem? If he says to me, I let you go, then what is God? Unrighteous.

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Right? What would you do in a court if they bring a criminal before the judge clearly guilty and admitted to it, yeah,

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I did it. It was in my heart to do it. I wanted to do it. And the judge says, well, I've heard the merits of the case. Your confession of guilt.

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I have all the evidence. And I've come to deliver the verdict. I declare you righteous. You're free to go.

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What? What? What? And your honor, wait, wait, wait. Pause, pause, pause, pause. Everyone, pause. Your honor, why?

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And the judge says, well, because I really like this person. And, and do you know that this person, since they were caught, has been doing better?

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You'd say, wait, wait, wait. That's all fine and good. And we all want to err on the side of grace. But your honor, it's not righteous and it's not just that you let this criminal go.

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He's violated people. He's violated me. He's, he's broken the laws. He's violated the court. I mean, he's admitted to the guilt and he's guilty.

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Correct, your honor? Is he guilty? And a judge says, yes, he's guilty. How can you declare somebody who's guilty to be righteous?

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And by the way, wouldn't you know that that's precisely what Proverbs 17 .5 says? That it's an abomination.

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Listen to this. It's an abomination in God's eyes. Tells you how much God loves social justice here.

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It's an abomination in God's eyes to declare the wicked to be righteous and the righteous to be wicked.

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Do you get that? It's an abomination for a judge to declare somebody that's wicked righteous.

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All right, now that's a massive problem because what does the Bible say about us? Ungodly, unrighteous.

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So how does God, who is good, declare the ungodly righteous? Here we go. Are you ready for this? Imputation. You're gonna love that word.

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You're like, what? And what? It means that Jesus is the substitute and God credits to you righteousness, not yours,

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Jesus's. And it means that Jesus was credited your life. That's how

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God solves the problem of injustice. And by the way, are you ready for this? Take heart.

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Did you know that the Bible is the only revelation in history that actually deals with sin and justice?

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Other versions of God's never ever deal with sin and justice. Only the

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Bible says God takes His glory so seriously that He actually deals with the sin in a substitute so that His righteousness can be on display and He can declare you righteous through faith.

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So what I wanna give you here is imputation. How are charges not brought against God's elect?

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Are you ready? It's right here in Romans chapter 3. What does it say? It says in verse 25, whom God put forward as a propitiation by His blood to be received by faith.

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This was to show God's righteousness because in His divine forbearance, He had passed over former sins.

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That's speaking about the Old Testament, guys. It was to show His righteousness at the present time so that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

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Let me give you that in a nutshell. And it is beautiful. What does it mean? That God displayed

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Jesus publicly, publicly as a diversion of wrath.

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Remember the Passover picture in the Old Testament? They're enslaved in bondage to Egypt and the Passover lamb, no spot, no blemish.

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His bones weren't broken. The blood was put over the doorposts. And when God's judgment came, it passed over that house.

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Quick observation. If the Jews hadn't done that, what would have happened to their kids? The same thing. Notice there the electing grace of God in that moment.

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That judgment would have fallen on every house without the blood of the lamb. But it was God's chosen people that got the

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Passover. How do you like them apples? But they got it. The Passover went over the house.

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Judgment went over the house. And the Passover lamb was what essentially caused the justice of God to pass over that house.

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And that is, by the way, when Jesus died on Passover. And that is what the meaning of the cross is. It's that God was having

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His just condemnation fall on His Son to be received in full by Him.

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To be exhausted in Himself. So that Jesus receives what His people deserve.

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So that we would get all that Jesus is through faith. So that God can remain just.

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Because God never says to a sinner, well, I like you, so I let you go. No. He says, I love you so much that I condemn my son.

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And that He represented you. You have His righteousness. He took your condemnation.

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That's the beauty of the Gospel. Justification is the heart of the Gospel. Listen, people of God.

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If you lose justification by faith alone and Christ alone and what He's accomplished, you've lost the Gospel.

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You've lost it. If we deny being credited

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Christ's righteousness by faith and Christ receiving our guilt and shame, then we've lost the

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Gospel. R .C. Sproul said this. If the imputation of Christ's righteousness is passé, then so is the

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Gospel. Listen to what it says here in Romans 4 because this is beautiful. I just want to read it to you tonight.

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This is all online, guys. We've been doing this over and over and over again. But I want you to capture it in 4. What then shall we say was gained by Abraham, our forefather, according to the flesh?

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For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the

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Scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness. Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due.

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In other words, if you're working for justification, right standing with God, then what you earn for working is a wage.

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Salvation is a gift. So that doesn't work. He says this. But to the one who does not work, are you ready for this?

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But believes in him who justifies the ungodly.

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Wait a cotton -picking minute. Yeah, I said it. Does that work?

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Think about that for a second, because we skipped so fast over that. Did you just hear what it said?

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And to the one who does not work, but believes in him who declares righteous, the ungodly.

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You sound like an absolute statement of lunacy. Declaring righteous the ungodly.

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Oh yes, because listen, his faith is credited as righteousness. Now watch what it says here.

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It says this. In chapter 7, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom

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God counts righteousness apart from works. Did you catch that? Listen to it again. To the one whom

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God counts righteousness apart from works. To the one whom God credits righteousness apart from works.

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Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.

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Let me ask you a question. Ready? Are you the blessed man? Are you the blessed woman?

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And some of you guys are hesitating right now, and I need you to shout something. Yes. Yes. If you're in Christ, you're the blessed man.

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You're the blessed woman. It was funny. I was listening to Dr. James White debate a Roman Catholic priest on this issue.

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Roman Catholic priest. Years and years of school and theology and background and everything else, and he asked him a simple question.

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He quoted to him, Romans chapter 4, right here in this text, the blessed man. He said, Sir, who is the blessed man in the text?

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And the guy said, Um... Jesus? And Dr.

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White said, Jesus is the blessed man to whom God will not count his sin? Who's the blessed man?

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He goes, Oh, I hope me. And he said, Okay, but will your mortal sins be counted against you?

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He says, Yes. Will your venial sins be counted against you? He says, Yes, they will. He goes,

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Then you're not the blessed man. Do you see? Religion has no answer for what is so gloriously behind the text of the gospel.

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That God justifies, declares righteous the ungodly. How? Through the propitiation of Jesus Christ in the cross, he remains just and the one who declares righteous those who have faith in Jesus.

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Because guess what? You've got a foreign righteousness, an alien righteousness. You've got a

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God righteousness credited to your account. And all your sins went to Jesus on the cross. And that is the beautiful exchange that is the only thing that really counts in the end.

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That's the glory of the gospel. Can you imagine? Think about it. That song has to come to life in your life.

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That song, I can only imagine. You see, you can sing that song with meaning if you have been justified.

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What will I do? Will I fall on my knees? What will I do? Like you can ask those questions as a

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Christian. You know why? Because you're not thinking about the consequence of condemnation. None.

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That's the glory of the gospel. That we have the God who declares righteous. This is a God -centered gospel.

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And listen, again, I say this constantly at the end of every message that we have to move through just the theology and display just how it actually changes lives.

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You see, if you think somehow that through your own personal righteousness you will attain a right standing with God, then every single day is a failure.

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Every single day is guilt and shame. Every single day is misery. And it should be because God is holy and you've already fallen short of His glory and you're already condemned.

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Every day should be lived in fear. It's like the Roman Catholic priests that Dr. White debated. Are you the blessed man?

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I hope so. Will your sins be counted against you? Yes, they will. You see, all you have to look ahead in that point is you have to look ahead at an eternity of condemnation and guilt.

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The beauty of the gospel for those who know Jesus is they can say things like this in Romans 5, 1. Therefore having been declared righteous by faith we have peace with God through our

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Lord Jesus Christ. Oh man, it has to change you. Please let it do it.

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Let it dig into your soul. You know, I've said this the last couple of weeks. You know, if you need to, if this has not changed your life over the last 4 or 5 weeks you've been in these texts then you need to go up a mountain.

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And what did you say Robin on Thursday? You need to stomp your feet until God shows up. Throw rocks up into the sky until this text takes root into your soul because it will bring a fire into your life that will transform you.

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And listen, this message is what saves. The gospel is the power of God for salvation.

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And so if you have a gospel that's not the biblical gospel you have no salvation, no transformation, no life, none.

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It's the gospel that saves. And let me just say this. If you haven't been transformed by the glory of passing through the court of God unscathed you will never be able to express to anybody else just how glorious Jesus is.

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If you don't delight in these truths nobody will see it in your life or taste it in your life and they will not see the significance of Jesus at all.

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None. You have to walk through this and let it affect you. Let me just have one thing as an observation.

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Answering an objection surrounding justification by faith being declared righteous as a gift of God that God who justifies you through faith apart from works.

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What do you think? What is the objection to the biblical statements here?

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What's the objection? Now it's not going to be exegetical. It's not going to be based on the text. It's going to be more or less an assumption made, a wrong one, a wrong -headed one.

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They'll say something like this. So what you're saying is that justification is by faith alone and Christ alone as a gift of God alone to the glory of God alone has got nothing to do with you.

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Yes. Good job. So what you're saying is is that if I say

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I believe in Jesus I can just live however I want because I'm justified by faith. No, you weren't listening because you see nobody's saying that a person is saved by a mere profession of faith.

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We are saved through living real faith in Jesus which means it's not necessarily the works like do

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I have enough works? It's this question right here. Have you truly turned from sin to trust in Christ? Yes or no? Have you come to die with Him and be raised with Him?

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Yes or no? Those are the questions that have to be asked. But Paul basically answers the problem of the challenge.

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So what? Shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase? We're justified by faith in Christ alone. God declares it righteous.

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No sins counted against me ever again. I have Christ righteousness. I can live how I want. Paul says, shall we continue in sin so that grace may increase?

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Romans 6 .1 May it never be. How should we who died to sin continue to live in it? And let me just say this to you.

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For anybody who believes a bootleg gospel that professes to believe in Jesus that thinks that they have faith in Jesus and their life doesn't change.

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Let me tell you what. If your life doesn't change after coming into a relationship with a living God you don't know God. Stop pretending.

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And if that bothers you what are you saying? I'm saying this. If a person goes from spiritual death to spiritual life it looks like it.

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It looks like it. And listen, it's not to say that sinless perfectionism comes because that is absolutely not going to happen.

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If it were true then you wouldn't need Jesus. But let me tell you something. If someone says, well I've been justified through faith in Jesus and then they can continue to live the same life that they were in it says something.

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Ready? Watch this on the line. Faith brings you to justification which leads to works.

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If there are no works there was no what? Justification.

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And there was no justification because there was no what? Faith. Do you see the point? Faith will lead to justification which the

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Bible says emphatically and unequivocally leads to works.

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So if there are no works there was no justification which means there was no faith. So what do you need to focus on?

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More good works. No! Faith! You need to turn from sin and trust in Christ.

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Someone sat before me today like oh I thought I believed in Jesus then my life went back to where it was and I'm just working on trying to like you know like live my life so God's pleased with me.

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I said stop! Stop! And you need to ask the deeper question.

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It's not do you have enough righteousness and good works? Stop! Abandon that wretched message and fall on the truth that it is through Christ and Christ alone and you turn from sin to God and you're reconciled to God and the glory of the gospel which has to be shouted in this generation is that Jesus is about more than simply saving your soul from hell and he's about saving you today and reconciling you today and reconciling you to himself and that comes with the indwelling presence of his spirit.

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Ezekiel 36, Jeremiah 31. Listen, if anybody says they know Christ you're in those passages and what does it say about my life in those passages?

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Ezekiel 36 God makes these promises. He says this, I will cleanse them of all their sin.

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Amen. And then he says I will cleanse them from all their idols. I will put my spirit within them and cause them to observe my statutes.

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I will give them a heart of flesh and remove a heart of stone. That's what he says he does.

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And then he says in Jeremiah 31 the new covenant. Read it. I'm giving the whole passage. Read it in context. Jeremiah 31 God promises a new covenant and what does he say?

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It's not like the covenant before. It's a new one. He says I will be in them. I will write my law in their hearts.

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You see justification isn't just about God going see ya when you get here.

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It's about a whole lot more It's about the whole transforming work of the glorious God in the Bible. Are you ready? I'm going to go backwards.

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Who foreknew a people for Jesus Christ. Who predestined them. Who called them.

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Who justifies them. And he glorifies them. That is the golden chain of redemption.

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And that is why you should be freaking out over God who says that he declares the ungodly to be righteous and that there are no charges being brought against God's elect.

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I'm telling you if it doesn't change my life then what is this all about? So what?

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So what? So what? If you're a believer you know so what. And if you're in this room today and you don't know

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Christ I am not going to call you to walk an aisle raise your hand. If you heard what I said to you you should feel the weight of your own sin and you should see the beauty of this glorious Savior.

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And you should repent and turn from darkness to serve the living God to trust in Him to be joined to Him.

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Now and forever and receive this gift of life and forgiveness. And if you're a believer in this room today what else is there?

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What else is there that means more than this? Honestly. I mean how many of you guys some of you guys are older than me?

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And you know how many times have you lost something? How many times have you had money then lost money?

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How many times did you have a job then lose a job? How many times did you have a car then lose a car? How many times did you have family then lost family?

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Have a friend lose a friend. Have a spouse lose a spouse. Haven't you seen the pattern that it's a vapor?

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Right? And what is the only steadfast thing in your life? He is.

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Who is the only one that never moves? He is. Who is the one that is always for you?

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Who is the only person that has demonstrated verifiably that he loves you and gives everything for you and will never leave you or forsake you?

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He has. If you say like what could someone display to display their absolute utter full commitment to me and my good?

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He did. He already has. God's displayed his love for you and that he gave you what was the most supremely valuable thing in all of eternity.

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He gave it to you and you have to do it. That is everything.

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And it has to change tomorrow. You have to wake up tomorrow and say what am I going to do? What am I going to do to grow in him and intimacy with him to know him more?

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I have just no charges being brought against me. I've already been declared righteous baby. I'm righteous fine. So you walk through the life going not condemned so now what?

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Now what? Know him. Get to know him deeply and then start asking questions like how is he going to use my life for his glory?

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Where is he going to send you? Here in town? Good. Let's do it. What's he going to do with your life to bring him praise to grow his kingdom because that's what it's about.

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If you're here today and you're in Christ you are part of the kingdom of God and it's going to be expanding. So the question you ask is how's

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God going to use me for his kingdom? How's he going to use me to reach others with his gospel to save his people out of the world bring him to himself?

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How's he going to use me to bring justice into this world where there's so much depravity and brokenness and poor and injustice?

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How will he use me to be his light in this world? That's what you have to ask. Because the beauty of it is that you know at any moment if your breath is taken away glory.

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And that's all that matters. Let's pray. Father I want to thank you Lord for this message of goodness.

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Thank you God that you are the God who justifies. Thank you God that there are no charges brought against your elect, your chosen.

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That we have passed unscathed because of your goodness and mercy and love out of condemnation out of your court.

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And that Lord you show how militantly committed you are to our good and that you've given your son and we have his righteousness and it's not our own and that he took our condemnation.

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And that God you as a past tense reality in our lives have declared us righteous and that we have peace.

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And so Lord give us Lord that rest and that joy that comes with the salvation we know we have in you.

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Oh God use this church for your glory. Let this world as we depart from it