Reading Your Rights

Well, I hope you all have been walking in God's grace, over this, this past week, and I hope the message this morning will, will be an aid to you in, in that endeavor. So I want to have you guys turn in your Bibles this morning to Romans chapter 5 for our time of study, in God's word, this morning. Romans chapter 5, we're going to be learning about a doctrine that is the doctrine of justification this morning. And I think we're even going to be talking about this next week as well.

And if you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be reading you your rights. Reading you your rights. That's what I'm going to do this morning. And I know normally it's not a pleasant thing to have your rights read to you.

Normally in our culture, that means you did something wrong. It's not something to come home bragging about, like, hey, guess what kids? Daddy had a law enforcement officer read him his rights today. we wouldn't normally think of bragging, about that, but, this is a very positive, thing.

Something really good has happened to you and to me, to those of us in this room that have believed in Jesus for salvation, and that is that we have become justified. And, this morning, the way we're going to frame looking at Romans chapter 5, verses 1 and 2 is I basically have 6 rights that, that I want to read off to you this morning. But, first of all, let me just say a quick word about justification. Justification is a five-syllable word.

It is a, a big word. And I hope the fact that I have made reference to or that we're going to be talking about justification. I hope the size of that word does not cause you to shut down and, and tune out what we're going to be talking about, this, this morning. If you want to be a gospel breathing, gospel functioning Christian, You cannot run away from any word that's three syllables or more.

You, you have to take words like this and seize upon them because they're enormously valuable. And I know that I hardly need to say that to you, but I, I, I know that there are times where you're talking to somebody and you use a big word like this, and they're like, oh, you lost me there, and they just shut down on you. And which always amazes me because sometimes that same person, if you ask them, tell me about the medications you take. Man, they, they can wax eloquent about the 8 medications they're taking and the mgs that they're taking and the purpose of each.

They can speak fluent medicinese, with very esoteric sounding, names. And if you ask them, tell me about your health, they're like, well, I, I have osteoarthritis, big word. I have osteoarthritis and been taking the last two years, glucosamine chondroitin tablets. Which had been a little bit of help, but I went to the doctor who gave me the diagnosis and said that I need to start taking 600 mg of acetaminophen, and since I've been doing that, my condition has improved.

they can just so fluently speak about those things, but you say justification and they shut down on you. And I guarantee you a person like that who's in the doctor's office and the doctor says that you have osteoarthritis, I bet you anything that person doesn't say, Whoa, you lost me there. I'm shutting down. No, they're like, what is that?

Am I going to die from it? What, what is this? And what do I need to do for it? And what's the name of that medicine?

And they're going to ask the doctor questions. They're going to go home and they're going to Google osteoarthritis and acetaminophen, and they're going to try to find out everything they can and actually become experts on both their diagnosis and whatever the prescription is. And you might say, well, of course, I would do that. My physical health is at stake.

That's exactly my point, because something even more important than your physical health is at stake here. It just so happens that justification is a prescription. that God gives to those who believe in Jesus. And if you want to flourish and become everything that God wants you to be, you want to study justification, you want to Google this word, and you want to go through the Bible and see this word as it occurs and what it means, because it is such a valuable thing that has happened to you.

And God wants you day by day, to be feeding upon it and living in the good of it. each day. And so we're going to focus on justification this morning. And hopefully, I'll have your attention as we do so.

And like I said, I want to read to you 6 rights, that, God has given to you now that you are justified by God in Christ. And I think it's when we get to the 3rd or the 4th 1, I'll actually tell you what justification is. So just be, be patient. first of all, let's just get into this.

The first right I want to read to you this morning is you have the right to make a big deal about justification. You have a right to make a big deal out of your justification, and you have a right to make a big deal out of the doctrine. of justification, especially its placement in the gospel. It's interesting, in Romans chapter one, Paul's writing to the, the Roman Christians, and, and he says, I'm eager to evangelize you who are at Rome.

He's talking to the Christians. He's like, I can't wait to come to Rome. Because when I get to Rome, I'm gonna gospelize you Christians in the Church of Rome. I'm gonna lay the gospel open and preach gospel truth to you.

And then he says, because I'm not ashamed of the gospel, for it's the power of God into salvation to everyone who believes to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. And then by way of explaining what's in the gospel, the very first thing Paul says is in Romans 1:17, for in it, in the gospel, the righteousness, which is the same Greek word that is translated justification. the justification or the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. The first thing Paul wants to talk about regarding the gospel in the book of Romans, is that God's righteousness is manifested.

It's revealed in the gospel. And so we're not surprised. In Romans 1 and 2, in the first part of 3, Paul's laying out the sin problem, and the sin burden that's upon us. As human beings, our sins against God, and how that every mouth needs to be stopped and all of us need to concede that we're guilty before the God of heaven, being breakers of His holy and perfect and righteous law.

We have failed to live up to the standard that He has given to us. Paul lays out that case regarding our sins. And then it's in Romans chapter 3, verse 21, that Paul begins to get into the good news of the gospel. And what's interesting is beginning in Romans 3:21, all the way through the, the rest of chapter 3, through the length of the entirety of chapter 4, and all through chapter 5, Paul has one thing on his brain, and that's justification.

He spends 57 verses, I think. talking about when he gets to the good news of the gospel, talking about our justification, what it means and the mechanics of how it has taken place in the lives of those who believe in Jesus. Chapter 6, he does get into sanctification and, 7, the struggle that we have in Romans 8 gets into more gospel truths, but it's not until he has camped first for 50 plus verses on the doctrine of justification. So Paul made a big deal out of it.

It's the most important thing in his mind that needs to be addressed first. And so we have the right to make a big deal out of this doctrine. Let me give you a few quotes from Martin Luther. Understand that the Protestant Reformation was launched.

Regarding this doctrine because of disagreements on this doctrine. And Martin Luther was primarily the one that spearheaded. This in a way that really caught hold with the masses. Listen to some things he says about justification.

He says the doctrine of justification by faith is the head and the cornerstone. It alone begets, nourishes, builds, preserves, and defends the Church of God. And without it, the Church of God cannot exist for one hour. You remove the doctrine of justification by faith, and the church ceases to exist in any entity that calls itself a church is not a church.

The church dies instantly. If somehow you could remove this doctrine from the gospel. He goes on to say, when the article of justification has fallen, everything has fallen. you, you get this wrong, you get everything else wrong.

Therefore, it is necessary constantly to repetitiously teach and impress it, as Moses says of his law in Deuteronomy 6:7, for it justification cannot be repeatedly taught and urged enough or too much. You cannot preach on the doctrine of justification too much. He goes on to say, just some random statements here. If the article of justification is lost, all Christian doctrine is lost at the same time.

The article of justification and of grace is the most delightful. And the article of justification must be learned diligently. As a believer, you need to be a student of this doctrine. You need to make a big deal out of it.

You need to observe that in scripture, a big deal is made about this. Be a student of it and understand it as best as you can with the aid that God gives to you. So, that's the first right. You have a right to make a big deal out of this doctrine, and you have a right to make a big deal out of it when people go in a completely opposite direction with this doctrine than what is taught in scripture.

There's a second right that I want to read to you guys regarding this doctrine, and that is that you have the right to rejoice in your justification. You have the right to rejoice in your justification. justification, as we're going to see in a moment, is a once and for all event. But God doesn't come to you once you're saved and justified, and say, quit staring at this.

Come on, move on to other stuff. No, God, once he justifies you, he's like, come on, look at it. Keep looking at it. And rejoice in it.

Just do that every day. That's what God wants from us. And we see Paul actually doing this in Romans 5, and he's talking about justification throughout the length of this chapter. And in verse 2, he says, we exalt.

Verse 3, we exalt. Verse 11, we exalt. And all of these are present as we are exulting, we are exalting, we are exulting. A good visual for you when Paul gets to Romans 5 is not of him just very passively emotionless, sitting in an ivory tower and just writing sound theology.

It's definitely sound theology, but the image I have is when he gets to Romans 5, Paul is jumping up and down, running around the room with his hands in the air, and the poor scribe is just trying to keep up with Paul as he's dictating the letter. To him. That's what Paul's doing. He's exulting, just rejoicing.

He's excited. These are the inspired ravings of a man who's captured by this doctrine and the wonderful realities that are ours in Christ. And honestly, every one of us ought to read Romans 5 and basically see Paul just totally caught up with this doctrine, exulting, exulting, exulting in it. And we ought to come up to the counter and say, Lord, I'd like to order whatever he's drinking.

Whatever it is Paul's drinking right now, I'd like to order that. And the father would say, Well, he's drinking justification right now. And that's available for you to drink. what I have found in my own life is that When I turn my focus to this doctrine and just gaze at it, rejoice in it, and celebrate it, I catch myself being sanctified.

as a byproduct of celebrating this reality of justification, back 9 years ago when in reading Romans 5 just, I began to see things in this chapter that I just didn't see before for some reason and just began to find the spirit of release and rest in my justification. I, I wrote out truths regarding my justification from Romans 5 and I would just keep those. I'd have them in my pocket. I'd pull them out and go over them and over them, and I found that I'd go to bed believing them.

I'd wake up the next morning and I wasn't really believing them, so I'd have to preach those things to myself again and again, and I found that to the degree that That I was focusing and celebrating on these things, that I, I would catch changes taking place in my life as a result, changes I wasn't even planning on, I wasn't being intentional about them. I would catch myself changing. And I don't know if that's happened to you guys. I hope it has, but it's pretty cool when you catch yourself doing good.

And you catch good coming out of you. And especially when you're not even necessarily thinking about it, you're just rejoicing in something and you find your heart being rearranged in the process. I rejoiced some time ago when I read this from Timothy Keller about justification and the role that it can play. in, in our sanctification, he says, when we feed on, remember and live in accordance with our justification.

So that's his recommendation regarding justification. When you feed on it, when you remember it, when you live in accordance with it, it mortifies our idols and fills us with an inner joy and a desire to please and resemble our Lord through obedience. Yes, justification is a once and for all. Act of God.

But if we're feeding on it each day, eating and drinking it each day and remembering it and orienting our lives towards it, what we'll find is that our idols are getting mortified in the process. Our hearts are being filled with an inner joy, and we find desires just developing within us to please God. Do you want those desires developing within you? Do you want that inner joy?

Do you want your idols to be mortified? Well, orient your life to your justification and just exult in it, exult in it, exult in it. And as you're jumping up and down, as it were, exulting in it, you're getting sanctified in the process. Let's say it this way, justification is a once and for all occurrence, but a continuous celebration of this once and for all occurrence is a key to ongoing sanctification.

It is while exulting in your justification that you catch yourself being sanctified. And so God says, hey, I've justified you, but look at it and go ahead, rejoice in it and exult in it. And we see from Paul's example that that's exactly what we should do. There's a third right that I want to read to you.

this morning from Romans 5, essentially, and that is that you have the right to believe that justification is yours if you believed in Jesus. You have every right to believe that justification. is yours if you have believed in and put your trust in Jesus. If you are regenerated by the Holy Spirit, you put your trust in Christ and in Him alone for your salvation, and you become a child of God, you have every right to embrace the fact that this justification is yours by virtue of the fact that you have believed.

In Jesus. Well, having said that, let's, let's, let's ask the question, what is it? What is it? so let me give you a definition.

This is largely from Wayne Gruden's, systematic theology with just, one or two really minor wording changes. But here's what justification is. When God justifies a sinner, who prior to his justification is bound by sin and has his sins on him, as it were, and all of his sins are unforgiven. when that person comes and places his faith in Jesus Christ, God justifies him.

And here's what that justification is and means. Justification is an instantaneous legal act of God, in which he 1 decides to forever think of our sins as forgiven, and Christ's righteousness as belonging to us. And 2, God actually, as it were, speaks aloud, and declares us to be righteous in His sight. what, what it means is that God looks upon us in our sin as we have come to Him through faith in Jesus Christ.

And on the day of our conversion, at the moment of our conversion, God makes a decision. Justification is something that largely occurs in the mind of God. It has to do with how God looks at us. And in our moment of justification, God rendered a decision, and the decision was, I will from henceforth always think of your sins as forgiven.

And I will always think of Christ's righteousness as belonging to you. All the sins that you have committed up to this point of your life, all the sins that you're going to commit today, all of the sins that you're going to commit later in your life, you take that whole massive sin, God is saying, I will today and will forever always think of you as being forgiven of all of those sins. And I will think of all of Christ's perfect. Righteousness as he perfectly obeyed the law, every jot and tittle of the law, and obeyed every provision in the perfect law of God, went around just loving God, loving mankind, doing multiple miracles, doing just thousands and thousands of acts of righteousness, so much so that the apostle John says the world couldn't contain the books that would be written.

That's the righteousness. of Jesus Christ. And Romans 5 later says, the ultimate act of righteousness is Jesus loving God, and loving us so much that he was willing to lay down his life in the obedience of death on, on the cross. That was the ultimate single act of righteousness.

And in justifying us, God says, I will forever from henceforth think of you. forgiven of all of your sin, and I will forever think of Christ's righteousness as belonging to you, and I will declare you to be righteous in my sight. Now embodied in this is, is something to this effect that God doesn't just decide this and speak this, but he then binds himself to this decree of justification. And he essentially says this, I will never, now through all of eternity, I will never think a single thought about you that is not fully governed by this decision.

I will never allow myself to feel anything towards you that is not fully governed by this decision. I will never display any countenance towards you. That is not fully governed by this decision and by this decree. I will never do anything to you or allow anything in your life that is not fully governed by this decree that you are justified.

He decrees it, binds himself to it, and forever relates himself to us in a way that is absolutely consistent with that decision and decree. Now isn't that an amazing thing? We're sinners, we've sinned against God, and for some reason, God renders this verdict about us. You're forgiven of all your sins.

You're righteous with the righteousness of Jesus. And that's what I'm deciding and decreeing today. And I will always, always think this about you, and I will never think or do or feel anything regarding you that's not consistent with this decree. How in the world Does that happen?

How, how do, how can we get God to render this decision for us? Some of you are in this room, in a room this size with this many people, there's got to be some of you in this room that have never had God make this decision about you. And you come in here this morning with your sins. And I've got really good news for you.

that there is a way that God can make this decision about you. And you say, well, I, I believe there is a way and that's why I'm, I'm trying to do better. I'm doing my best. I'm trying to be a nicer person and And I'm trying to be more obedient and I'm trying to do better in terms of loving people and so forth.

Now listen. God says in His word, you will never be able to generate this justification for yourself. You will never by your own goodness, your own righteousness, ever be able to get God to render this verdict about you. That'll never happen.

And I'm amazed how people ignore that fact in Scripture. They want God to justify them essentially. The God who they want to justify them tells them how to get that to happen and how it won't happen, but they ignore what God says as to how it can happen, hoping that by their own righteousness and their own good works, they can get God to render this verdict of forgiveness and righteousness upon their lives when they stand before Him on Judgment Day. Here's how it happens.

And this is, here's the rules. Here's how it works. God says, listen, I'm, I'm, I'm giving this verdict out to anyone who follows these rules, and, and has this understanding that I'm, I'm telling you the path to this justification. Here's how you get it.

First of all, you understand that it's only found in Jesus. It's only found in my Son. There is no other name under heaven given amongst men whereby we can be justified other than through Jesus and Him alone. In Romans 3:24, Paul says, we've been justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus.

God says, if you want to get justified, you have to get into him, you have to get into Jesus. His righteousness exceeds yours. His is perfect and spotless. And it's only his righteousness that's going to get into heaven.

And so if you want me to justify you, you have to get into him. God also is communicating that he's giving this out as a gift, justified as a gift. By His grace or his undeserved favor. This is not something we earn by our works.

God is giving it out freely as a gift. But what's interesting is we can receive this freely. But the teaching of the Bible is that this justification is anything but free. It's very costly.

In Romans 5:9. Paul says, having now been justified by his Jesus' blood. Jesus had to go to the cross. And be crucified on a cross and shed His blood in order to purchase this justification that God now gives to us freely.

So He gives it freely as a gift, but it's anything but free. It had to be purchased, and Jesus, the perfect spotless, righteous one, purchased it by the painful shedding of His blood on the cross. His resurrection was also involved. At the very end of chapter 4, Paul says that Christ was raised for our justification.

What that means is that the cross was the purchase, the resurrection is the receipt. OK, it's the certificate that validates the purchase. And by the way, you need to take that receipt with you wherever you go. When you're being attacked, your conscience, your heart is condemning you, the devil is condemning you, saying you're not justified.

You're not under God's favor. Your sins aren't really forgiven, or yeah, maybe some of them are, but not this one. Whenever, whenever those lies come into your head, you need to pull out that receipt and wave that in the face of the evil one. God raised Jesus from the dead.

And in raising him from the dead, God is saying his death is sufficient to purchase justification for anyone who comes to me by faith. This justification is found only in Christ. It's bought by his blood. It's validated by his resurrection.

How do I actually get this for myself? The Bible says, God says, it's acquired by faith, we're justified by faith, meaning you don't do any works. In fact, listen to what the scripture says, Listen to what God says in Romans 3:21 and following. It says, but now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, even the righteousness of God through faith, which is in Jesus Christ, to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.

So you can just sit where you're sitting and receive this. Isn't that amazing? God says you don't need to do any work. Just right where you're seated.

Just Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and call upon His name, and it can happen, and I will give this to you as a gift purchased by Jesus, validated by his resurrection, and you acquire it as a gift from me to you through faith and faith alone. So You have the right to believe that this justification is yours if you believed in. Jesus. You think of Jesus telling the story about the Pharisee that comes to the temple and the tax collector comes to the temple and the Pharisees is justifying himself before God and God, I'm a good person and I'm better than these other people and I'm, I'm glad, Lord, I'm not like this tax collector over here.

And that guy prays a self-righteous prayer and he goes home unjustified. But the tax collector, He is so broken over his sin that he can't even look up into heaven and he's beating his breast and he's saying, God, be merciful to me, the sinner, be merciful to me, the sinner. And Jesus says that man went home justified. He went home being declared righteous by God.

God made a decision in that moment to forever think of that tax collector's sins as forgiven. That's how you get it. And, and he didn't do any works. Now I'm sure he went home and, and lived out the reality of what God was doing in his heart, but he hadn't done a single work other than pleaded for God's mercy, and God justified him.

He went home justified before he did any works. And so you need to embrace the fact that you have the right to believe that justification is yours. If you believed in Jesus, there's a 4th right that I want to read to you regarding your justification, tied to this, and that is that you have the right to enjoy peace with God, as a result of your justification. You have the right to enjoy peace with God as a result of your justification.

Look at verse one. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. I love this, because now we're past the legal dimension, as it were, and we're beginning to look at the blissful consequences of our justification. And we realize as legal as our justification is, God did that legal thing because he was wanting something relational to take place between us and him.

And thinking of us and declaring us to be forgiven of all of our sins and And declaring us to be righteous with the righteousness of Jesus. God did that not as an end in itself, but to get our sin out of the way and our lack of righteousness out of the way, clothing us with the righteousness of Jesus so that God can now thereby bring us into a relationship with Himself. It's the friendship that God is after and justification is a means to that. I love what one writer says, he says, God does not confer the status of righteousness or justification upon us without at the same time giving himself to us and friendship and establishing peace between himself and us.

God wanted to bring us into relationship, into friendship with Him. That word peace speaks of more than just the absence of hostility, but just, just a wealthy presence. Of all that is needed. To have a vibrant, loving, great relationship with God.

God has justified us. And if you're a justified one because you've been regenerated and born again, and you put your trust in Jesus, then you have the right to enjoy peace with God. And you're being encouraged here. Enjoy this.

Walk in the good of this. Believe that you have peace. You used to be his enemy. You were hostile against him.

His wrath was against you, but God loved you so much that he made provision through Christ for your sins to be judged on the cross, and for you to receive a perfect righteousness, and he did all of that so he could bring you into relationship with Himself. Very much tied to that is 1/5 right that I want to read to you. This morning, and that is that you have the right to believe you are under God's gracious favor at all times, because of your justification. You have the right to believe that you are under God's gracious favor at all times, because of your justification.

Look what he says in verse 2. Speaking of Christ, in fact, let's start back in verse 1. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. Through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom, in other words, through Jesus, also, we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand.

Look at verse 2. Through Christ, we've obtained an introduction which speaks of an entry into the presence of God. God is the king of the universe. And wherever it is, however we might quantify where God is, let's just use the metaphor of a palace, just to have a visual.

And because we're a justified one, we, we can now get into the presence of the King. Of the universe and it's through Jesus. So Jesus says, Hey, you're justified, and what that means is you can now come into God's presence and I want to take you there because that's why you got justified, so you could come in to God's presence. And so Jesus takes us on a journey and, and, and takes us to where His Heavenly Father is and And, and Jesus ushers us in, we have entry into the very presence of the King of the universe, the Judge of the universe through Jesus.

He, he brings us in and there might be a part of us that, that might be inclined to shrink away from a holy God and an immense God, an amazing God, but Jesus is like, no, no, you're justified, you're justified. Come with me. And through Him, we have entry, but more than entry, look at this, by faith into this grace in which we have come to have standing. In other words, we have received standing, and the abiding results of that are that we continue in that grace in the presence of God.

It's not like we're brought into the presence of God, the Father, as it were, And we were like, wow, what an amazing privilege that I can come in here and we get to speak to him for like 5 minutes and then we got to be ushered out because more people need to come in. it's not like that at all. We're ushered in and we never have to leave. We get to live in his courts, we get to live in his throne room, we get to live in his presence and be his servants and, and to love him and to stare at him and to watch him and all of his ways and to be loved by him and enjoy friendship with Him.

Jesus. This brings us into this entry point over the threshold into God's presence, and we get to just stand in that, we get to stay there in God's presence. And God looks upon us and says, this is why I justified you, so you could be close to me in friendship. Notice his wording.

Here He says, we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand. You want to mark the word grace. If you're taking notes, there's two words that you should think of whenever you see grace in a passage like this. One of them is favor.

Meaning that at the very least, what Paul is saying is that you always as a justified one, are standing under the good favor of God. You are always a favored one. and, and calling it grace, he's speaking not just a favor, but an undeserved favor. More literally, an ill-deserved favor.

Meaning this is not just a favor that we failed to earn. It's a favor that is precisely the opposite of what we have indeed earned. OK? And Paul says, I want you to know that this standing that you have in relationship with God is a justified one.

That it's a gracious standing. It's an ill-deserved favor. And you might be, why does Paul have to throw that up, you're here, but you don't deserve to be here. Actually, this is incredibly liberating if we could just wrap our minds around it by telling us that we have this favor and We don't deserve it.

We haven't earned it. In fact, we earned the opposite. But nonetheless, it's ours anyway to enjoy. If we really believe that and wrap our minds and hearts around it, it will forever deliver us of ever thinking that our standing with God and being under his favor ever has anything to do with our performance.

It'll, it'll cure us of that evil of thinking God favors me because I'm doing really well lately, or I'm condemned and God doesn't want anything to do with me because I haven't been doing well lately. in, in my own life story, I, For years, I, I believed I was saved by grace, but in the mechanics of how I related to God, I felt like that, being under God's favor had something to do with my performance. And if I was doing really well spiritually, I felt like, God, God liked me.

He favored me.

in fact, what would often happen is I'm doing real, real well spiritually, having my devotions, abstaining from sin, and, and the devil comes up to me and says, you're, you're doing really well lately, Milton. I'm like, yeah. And he says, actually, you're doing better than most people around you, aren't you? Yeah.

And then he says, God must really favor you because of how well you're doing. And I'm like, yeah, yeah. And you, the story, you've been here, right? What happens right when you buy that lie?

The rug gets yanked out from underneath you, you fail miserably. And because you bought into the lie that your favored status had something to do with your performance, now that you've failed, you have lost God's favor and you're in a place of condemnation. And I'll tell you there's been a number of times I've made that journey back and forth from pride to condemnation, and back to pride and condemnation. That's an ugly cycle to be on, and many people can testify that that's where they often end up going.

Paul cures us of both possibilities if we would just dare to believe this. And that is, you are under God's favor all day, every day, 24/7, your good days, your bad days, when you're awake and when you're asleep. And this favored status has absolutely nothing to do with your performance or your merit, but only with the performance of Jesus on the cross and what he does presently as your advocate before the Father in maintaining your justified status. And it's all of grace.

It's all of grace, and so you can't affect it. By somehow not meriting it. you don't have to try to perform to maintain it. It's all of grace, so it has nothing to do.

With your performance. Guys, fantasize a little bit. And imagine believing what I just said. Just dream a little bit.

Imagine believing. That you actually, every moment of every day are under God's good favor, and it has nothing to do with your performance. You get up in the morning, God favors me. He favors me.

what, and you need to preach this to yourself on your good days. what, by God's grace, I'm actually doing pretty well, I think, to the best that I can see my heart. But that has nothing to do with the fact that I'm under God's favor, or I've not been doing well lately, but what, I'm under God's Favorite has nothing to do with my performance. We need to believe this, that we have God's favor, and it is a gracious, undeserved, ill-deserved favor that has nothing to do with whether we're having a good day or a bad day spiritually.

It's always a grace. Part of believing in the gospel, in a sense, is, is, is learning where Jesus says, keep your hands off of this. he's justified us, he maintains it. But we often want to put our hands into it and, and try to help out and, and participate in it some way.

And Jesus is like, back off and keep your hands off this. I did it. I did it. And what I have done is complete and total, your only job is to simply live in the good of it, rejoice in it.

That's and just just celebrate this, what I have done. Now I know a question that may be asked is, what about sin? What, what about when we sin? Does God still, am I still under his good favor when I sin?

as a believer, and my answer is a resounding yes, and his favor doesn't change or it's not modified in any way, shape or form. God favors you just as much when you're in the middle of some sin as he did when you were having a good day. By the way, on your good days, you're no more worthy of this favor than on your bad days. You believe that?

There's enough sin in our best deeds to send the whole world to hell. if we're really honest about our hearts, and, and the way that the evil that's still within us can manifest itself and the selfishness and the pride can manifest itself, even attaching itself to the best deeds, God favors you just as much on your bad days and when you're sinning as he does when you are not sinning. but let me explain it this way, God favors you so much when you're sinning. He favors you so much that he will send chastisement into your life.

He's grieving. He's grieving when you sin because in your moment of sin, you're not walking in the fullness of his love and favor that he wants you to have experientially. God will even send chastisement and discipline into your life so that you can be weaned from your sin and be a deeper partaker in His holiness, but the whole reason he disciplines you is because He favors you. Because he loves you.

He only disciplines those whom he is for. He only disciplines those who he favors, and his discipline is always rendered with love and with favor. In fact, the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 12 says, the fact that you're being disciplined by God is a sign of his favor. It's a sign of his love.

God must really love you, if you're being chastised by Him. You may say, well, what, I think I hear what you're saying. But Pastor Milton, if what you're saying is really true, that once believing in Jesus, we're justified, and our performance can never alter that in any way, even when we sin, if that's really true, then logically, people can just go plunging headlong into sin. And remain justified.

And God's grace will just keep abounding toward that person, maintaining their justified status. If you're asking that question, if anyone in this room is asking that question, based on what I'm saying, that would tell me that I'm rightly preaching the doctrine of justification. Because the doctrine of justification rightly presented raises that exact question. Go to Romans 6:1.

Paul is talking about justification. And he anticipates this exact question in Romans 6:1, What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may increase? Well, if we're under God's favor all the time, and it has nothing to do with our merit or our performance, well, then we can run headlong into sin.

And we're still justified. Well, Paul has some answers to that in Romans 6, but we're not studying Romans 6 this morning. But I will say this. That on paper, what you've just asked is very logical.

But the reality is that there's something about God's grace operating in the heart of a believer, and there's something about the doctrine of justification, as I just explained it, to where if you're really believing it and celebrating it, it has a rearranging effect upon your heart, and it makes you want to run away from sin. One of the things I love doing when I'm tempted, when I'm, when, when I'm in gospel mode, like we're talking about, and I'm tempted with a sin, what I like saying to myself is, what, I can commit this sin, and God's grace will abound to me all the more as he maintains my justified status.

But it's precisely for this reason that I choose not to commit this sin. And I don't know, this, in those moments, I, I turn from that sin with laughter in my heart.

It's like, oh, this is so amazing. I, it justification, and, and celebrating it and believing it, even in a moment of temptation has a rearranging effect upon my heart. And I, I want to walk away from the sin precisely for the reason that God's justification is so free and so infinite, and so unmerited. And so this is the truth.

And imagine actually believing that you have this gracious favor, all the time. Don't let the devil lie to you. Don't ever let him shame you away from believing in this truth. How dare you think you have peace with God?

How dare you think you're under God's favor after what you did this morning? Listen, you need to, you need to sit up and say, I will not be ashamed to believe, to believe the gospel is true for me. I am under God's favor. Sometimes when I'm counseling people, I'll tell them, just imagine believing this.

What would you want to do? And they're like, if this were really true, I've talked to Christian people and explained this to them, and they're like, I'm gonna have to think about that. That's like too good to be true. but I'm like, imagine believing it.

What would you do? Oh, I would love God. Oh I would. I, I would, I would do anything for God, If this were really And I'm here to tell you that it is true, and just let that truth set your soul on fire with love for him.

Can I read one more right to you before you leave? The 6 right is you have the right to exult in the hope of the glory of God because of your justification. You have the right to exult in the hope of the glory of God because of your justification. Start back in verse one.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we are exulting in hope of the glory of God. Let's focus on the glory of God first. Paul is saying, at the very least, we are pumped about the glory of God. We used to be consumed with our own glory.

But one of the blissful consequences of our justification and rejoicing in that is that we are now caught up in God's glory, not our own glory, and not the glory of anyone else other than the glory of God. That means that someone who is truly justified, anywhere where God's glory is displayed, they're into it. They love it, they're rejoicing and exulting in it. And let's just real quick rattle these off.

God's glory is displayed in creation, right? The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament speaks of his handiwork and all everything we see in creation on earth and in the heavens is screaming the glory of God. Someone who's been justified exalts in God's glory as it is revealed in creation. There have been people even in this church who have given testimony to the fact that once you've been saved, it radically changed the way you looked at the clouds and the sun, and creation all around.

DL Moody, the great evangelist, tells about his conversion. And as he's telling the story, he goes in a really strange direction. listen to what he says. He says, I remember the morning on which I came out of my room after I had first trusted Christ.

I thought the sun shone a good deal brighter than it ever had before. I thought that it was just smiling upon, upon me. And as I walked out upon Boston Common and heard the birds singing in the trees, I thought they were all singing a song to me. Do, I fell in love with the birds.

I had never cared for them before. It seemed to me that I was in love with all creation. Just, he walks out and just notices, this is different. What's that song Heaven above is softer, blue, earth around is sweeter green.

Something lives in every hue that Christless eyes have never seen. Birds with gladder songs overflow. Stars with deeper beauty shine. Since I know as now I know, I am his and he is mine.

why that makes a difference? Because the same God that just saved me and lavishes love upon me is the same God that created all this. And now it's a part of my relationship with Him, and I exult in His glory displayed in creation. Not only that, but a justified one exults in the glory of God revealed in the Gospel.

1 Timothy 1:11, I believe it's the gospel of the glory of the blessed God. 2 Corinthians 4, it's the light of the gospel of the glory of Jesus Christ. the gospel is the location where God's glory resides in its thickest density. And so if you're justified one, and you're exulting in the glory of God, you're going to exult in the gospel.

That's where God's glory resides in a very thick density. But not only that, but you will rejoice and hope that's a forward looking hope of the glory of God. There's something that awaits that has to do with God's glory. At the very least, that's a reference to the coming of Christ.

We learn in Mark's Gospel, chapter 13. 13 verse 26 that Christ is going to come in the clouds with power and with great glory. So he's going to come, he's going to split the skies. His glory is going to be revealed for all of creation to see.

And we are exulting. Today, we're jumping up and down today over the fact that that's going to happen one day. Paul says, I love looking forward to this. My son Brendan, of all the members of our family, he's the most who's into Christmas.

And he, man, as soon as fall comes, he's locked in on Christmas and counting the days. he's in Virginia right now, but he's probably already honed in on Christmas. And, and there have been years where like he's been really looking forward to Christmas, and we're getting real close to it. And he's like, it's going to be sad when I won't have Christmas to look forward to anymore.

And then Christmas comes and he's like, man, I've, all these days I've been enjoying looking forward to it and now it's passed. Meaning that there's joy he found simply in the looking forward to. And Paul says as a justified one. I, I'm finding great relish just in the looking forward to Christ's coming, His glory being revealed, and what makes His coming and all of those events even more compelling to the apostle Paul is think about this, guys.

When Christ is revealed in His glory, we're not going to stand there passively detached from that glory. No, according to Colossians 3:4, when Christ is revealed. We will be revealed with Him in glory. We will be glorified.

We will see Him. We will be like Him. We'll be transformed to be like Him because we will see Him just as He is, and deposits of His glory will just overwhelm us and attach themselves to every part of our person, and we will be changed into glorious beings. Paul would say, you look at me now, and I'm not all that impressive to look at.

But I will be glorified. Romans 8:30. Those whom God justifies, He glorifies. You can take that to the bank.

And Paul says, I'm exulting in the hope of the glory of God. Just in closing, like in Romans 3, Paul says all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. You guys know that passage. And part of what that means, obviously, is we've sinned and failed to give God the glory he deserves.

But I think a part of the meaning is all of us have sinned and failed to live up to the glorious intentions God has for us, had for us as His creatures. We've fallen woefully short of that. But Paul's saying, I'm a justified one. And I will be glorified.

We will, as justified ones, fully realize God's highest ambitions and glorious plans for us, His creatures. That day is going to come, and Paul says, I'm rejoicing now over these events that are to come. Guys, these are two verses in Romans 5. Justification is simply one doctrine amongst many contained inside the gospel, and we've not even looked at all of justification, just two verses, and And we see so much of God's love, His favor, and His goodness.

I, I just, I dare you. I dare you to go out of this room believing. What we've talked about this morning and what God has said to us through His word. Let's bow our heads.

We're going to take an offering in just a moment. I want to encourage you to give, as the Lord leads you to give. If you're here today, and you've never had God justify you, just, you're a man, what do I got to do? I got I got, I'll make a list.

Just tell me what to do. No, all you got to do is just sit there. Just sit where you're sitting. And see your bankruptcy, and believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, just cry out to God for salvation.

God justifies apart from works. My prayer is that God will regenerate hearts even in this room. And that you will receive that verdict from God that will stand forever. Let's pray together Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for your amazing love for us, the very specific, powerful ways that you have shown us that love.

Thank you for justifying us, Lord, and thank you, Lord, that you didn't justify us by grace, but then somehow we got, we got to maintain it by our performance. That would be exhausting. That would be oppressive, Lord. Thank you that we're justified by grace and that justification is maintained by grace.

And it's just up to us to keep our hands off. Let the finished work be done and just rejoice in it and feast on this. And exalt and Thank you for the salvation you've given. Thank you for the opportunity to give of our offerings to you this morning.

Receive these offerings and do much with them for the glory of Jesus. And we ask these things in the name of Jesus, and all God's people said,