Ron Dunn Podcast - The Results Of Justification

Episode Date: March 11, 2020

From the sermon series on Romans

of Romans chapter 5, verses 1 and 2. Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. It was Charles Haddon Spurgeon who said that until a man has stood before the judgment bar with the rope around his neck and then had that rope removed, he can never know the joy of salvation. And he can never know the real meaning of that tremendous phrase, therefore being justified by faith. Therefore being justified until a person has felt in his own heart that deep conviction.

And until he has stood in the presence of God before God's judgment seat and heard the pronouncement made upon him that he is guilty and he stands accused, he can never really know what it means to stand acquitted. So Paul, as he has been going through these chapters on Romans, as he has been trying to impress upon us what it really means for a man to be lost, because you have to understand what it really means to be lost before you can understand what it really means to be saved. But once a person recognizes that he stands before god accused then he comes to that glorious truth and this is the good news of the gospel and that's what the word gospel means it means good news and the reason that god chose such a title for all that

he was going to do is because those of us who stand before God accused of our sins with a sentence of death upon us have now heard another verdict, that high verdict reversed, and the verdict now is acquitted, justified, justified. That means that when God looks into my life and examines my life, he sees nothing there for which to accuse me. He sees no sin in my life, as one man has put it, to be justified means to be just as though I had never sinned. Now, you and I know that that's not so, that I have sinned, that you have sinned. But the marvelous good news of the gospel is that when I come as a

repentant sinner to the Lord Jesus Christ and I cast myself upon him and I open the door of my heart and invite him to come in to be Lord and Savior, something miraculous happens. God takes all of the sins that were against me and he wipes them clean and blots them out. And the Bible says that he shall remember them against me no more. And someday if the devil were to approach God and say, listen, you know that Pastor MacArthur Boulevard Baptist Church? Yes, I know him. Do you know what he did January 1964? You know what God will say? I can't remember. I can't remember what he did. The devil will say, well, do you remember what sin he committed on March the 1st, 1970? And the Lord

will say, I can't remember. I can't think of a thing he's done because when he came to Jesus Christ, I took all of his sins and plunged them beneath the blood of my son and blotted them from my memory forever. I love that verse in Jeremiah where it says, and I will remember their iniquities against them no more. That's grace, being justified by faith. I'm glad that we're justified by faith and not by works. I'm glad that I don't have to stand before God on my own merit or what I have done, but I stand this morning on the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now what happens when a person is justified? What happens when a person is saved? Well, what Paul is dealing with in these verses, actually the first 11 verses of Romans chapter 5 are the results of being saved, the results of justification by faith. And there are three that I want us to discuss this morning. Paul says, therefore,

being justified by faith, the first thing we have is peace with God. The first thing we have is peace with God. And that's what everybody's after. Everybody wants peace. Everybody wants peace. I was at a youth camp this past week and right outside Birmingham, Alabama, and I noticed nearly all the fellows either had it on their T-shirt or had a chain around their neck or had it tattooed on their forehead or something, the peace sign. And every time somebody would take a snapshot of anybody else on the campgrounds, I noticed they'd stick up those two fingers. You know, everybody's talking about peace.

You can go to your local bookstore and you'll find there a dozen books on the shelf about how to have peace with mind and peace and tranquility, how to live with yourself and how to live all of your life and how to have peace with God. The number one thing that everybody's looking for in the world today is how to have peace and that calm tranquility in their hearts and in their minds. The only trouble is most of us are looking for it in the wrong places. You know God gives us sense enough to know when something is missing, but somehow the devil blinds us and we don't have sense enough to look for it in the right place. I remember years ago reading a comic book about Mutt and Jeff. And here was Mutt.

Oh, Jeff's the little one, isn't he? Been so long. Some of you older folks, help me. Jeff is the little one, right? Well, it was dark at night, and here were a pile of rocks. And there was a lantern on the pile of rocks. There had been a digging out part of the road, and so they had piled the rocks there and put one of these little nightlights so everybody would see it and wouldn't run into the hole.

And here was Jeff looking around in the light on the ground, searching, searching, searching. And Mutt comes up to him and says, Jeff, what are you looking for? And Jeff says, I'm looking for my billfold. I lost it. And Mutt says, well, whereabouts did you lose it? He said, oh, I lost it up the road, back up the road about a mile. And Mutt says, well, why in the world are you looking for it here? And Jeff said, because there's more light. The only thing wrong with Jeff is that he didn't have sense enough to look for it where he lost it. You know where to look for peace?

Where you lost it. Where did man lose that inner calm, that tranquility? When God created man, he created man whole and complete, man lacking nothing, man having absolute peace of mind and peace of heart and peace with God. Where did he lose it? Where did he lose it? He lost it when sin separated him from God. And the great tragedy that people are making today is they're looking for peace in the wrong places. They say, well, there's more light here and there's more company here. And it looks to me like this would be the obvious place to look for it. But if you want to find peace of mind and peace of heart and peace with God, you've got

to look for it where you lost it or you'll never find it. The Bible says, therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God. That word peace in the Greek language means to bind together that which has formerly been separated, to bind together, to bring together that which has been formerly separated. Now that means two things. First of all, that means that there has been a rebellion in our hearts against God. The only way that I could ever forfeit that original peace that God intended me to have was by rebelling against him would you look at that 10th verse of this fifth chapter the apostle says for if when we were enemies well I thought I thought men were by nature the friend of God no sir men by nature

are the enemies of God the enemies of God And the one message of the New Testament is that there has been a terrific rebellion taking place in this planet. This is the rebellious planet. This is all the only planet of all of God's vast universe that has refused to stay in its place, and it has rebelled against its creator. And sin is the means of that rebellion. And every person in this place this morning who is apart from Jesus Christ and has never been justified by faith, I want you to know that you are the enemy of God.

That a state of war exists between you and the King of Heaven and you brought the first blow. And you're the one that declared that war. When you declared your independence from the Lord, when you decided you would walk your own way instead of God's way when you decided you wanted to be the Lord of your life instead of letting Jesus be the Lord of your life and the very fact that peace has to be made means that a state of war exists and you'll never understand what it means to be justified and know the joy of salvation until, first of all, the Spirit of God opens your eyes to the fact that you are in rebellion

against God. You are in rebellion against God. And I want you to know that is the explanation for so much rebellion in the world. For what a man is on the inside, he will become on the outside. And the reason that young people rebel against their parents is because they rebel against God. The reason that men are rebelling against authority is because they're rebelling against God, first of all. The reason there's war in Vietnam is because, first of all, there is war in the human heart against God. And the final explanation for the sorry state of affairs in our world today is that man has declared war against God. There is no

peace. He is at rebellion against his creator. You are the enemy of God. And the people that need to know this most are the ones that see no need of Jesus, see no need of repentance. They just feel like somehow God is a God of love and God is a God of mercy, and somehow God is just going to let them slip by into glory. When you stand in the presence of mercy, and somehow God is just going to let them slip by into glory. When you stand in the presence of God, you are going to stand in the presence of your enemy. And I want you to know when you have God for an enemy, you've picked the wrong one. A state of rebellion exists in the life of that person who has never surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ. So the Bible says we have peace.

Now, it not only means that there has been a rebellion, but it also means there has been reconciliation. There has been reconciliation. Let's look at verse 10 again. For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

The Lord Jesus Christ, by his death upon the cross, the Bible says, has made peace by the blood of his cross. There is peace this morning because Jesus Christ died on the cross. And when he died on the cross, he was paying, as you well know, the penalty of our sin. I like the way Phillips translates this first verse. He says, therefore, being justified by faith, let us enjoy peace with God. And that really brings out the true sense. Let us enjoy peace with God.

Where were you in 1945? I think I was about nine years old in 1945. I was in the Fort Theater in Fort Smith, Arkansas. That's a picture show. I was out in the lobby, or I was upstairs in the balcony, out in the lobby, the upstairs, and all of a sudden I heard a lot of commotion on the outside. People started yelling. People started shouting.

I heard horns blowing. I didn't know what in the world was happening. After a while, we went out on the street and pandemonium had completely taken over Main Street in Fort Smith, Arkansas. I saw a young man riding a bicycle up and down the street blowing a bugle. Hanging onto the handlebars with one hand and hanging onto a bugle with another. Just like a wild man riding up and down the streets blowing a bugle, blowing a bugle, hanging on to the handlebars with one hand and hanging on to a bugle with another, just like a wild man riding up and down the streets, blowing a bugle, blowing a bugle. People were throwing papers out of the windows. They were clinging on their horns. They were shouting. They were laughing. They were crying. You know what had happened? The war was over. Peace. And I want you to know when Paul says, therefore being justified, we have peace with

God, that means the war is over. That means the war is over. That means the war is over and you ought to rejoice in it. You ought to be happy about it. We ought to act just as wild and just as excited and just as exhilarated when we think about the fact that the war that existed between God and myself is over because Jesus has died in my place. I don't know about you, but I'm glad I have peace with God this morning. I'm thankful that Jesus Christ came. And like the song says, God forgot the foolish man I used to be. I'm free. Praise the Lord. I'm free. The first thing that happens when you let Jesus Christ come into your life and take away your sins is you have peace with God. The war is over. The war is over. And the only way that war can be over is when you make an unconditional surrender to the Lord

Jesus Christ. The second thing we have when we're justified by faith is we have a position in grace. Now, I want you to look at verse 2. It's not real easy to understand at first, and I want to help you to understand it. And I think if you ever really understand what he's talking about in verse 2, brother, you'll rejoice. Therefore, being justified by faith, first of all, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Secondly, by whom also, in addition to this, we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand." We have access into grace wherein we stand. You know what the word access means?

Access means being brought into the presence of a king. It was also used of a little tugboat leading a ship into a harbor of safety, being brought into the harbor. It means to be ushered into a place of graciousness or safety or honor. It was used of being brought into the very presence of the king. Here's what Paul is saying. Paul is saying, once you have peace with God once the war is over

God gives you something in addition God brings you into the presence of grace it's like being brought into a gigantic room that's filled with treasure and we call this room grace and God gives us entree he gives us access

to come into this place of grace. And everywhere I look, there's grace. Now he's talking about grace for living. This is a present position. All the riches of God's grace are made available to the person who knows Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. This means that every resource of heaven is at my disposal right now. All the glories of God's power and of God's grace are at my fingertips, are available to me right now. Once I trusted Jesus as my Savior, God gave me entree. He opened the door and gave me access to come into his great treasure house and find there everything I needed in order to live my life.

Do you see what he is talking about? The peace with God takes care of the past, and this present position in grace takes care of the present. This means that everything I need in which to live my life during this present time is made available to me. Wherein we stand, I wish that you understood what this verse really meant this morning. I will tell you, if the Holy Spirit would ever open your eyes as it did Jonathan Goforth, when Jonathan Goforth was at the age of 45, he was a missionary in China and had been serving there for a number of years.

One day the Holy Spirit of God began to work on his heart, began to open his eyes to the present resources that were his as a child of God. Jonathan Goldforth, like most of us, had always known that his past was taken care of and he'd always known that his future was taken care of, but the present life, the present life was one of oftentimes failure and despair and sorrow and agony. And he could not find a way in which to make this present life everything the Bible says it ought to be. When he was 45 years of age, the Spirit of God began to work on his life and began to open his eyes and he began to see things he'd never seen before. And one day he realized the

truth of this verse, that once God had saved him, that God brought him into this great treasure house of grace. And God's grace makes everything available. God's grace makes everything possible. And Jonathan Goporth had everything he needed to make life livable and abundant and victorious. It was his for the asking. And he rejoiced over it so much and got so taken up with it that all the time he was looking in the Word, all the time he was reading, all the time he was praising God, all the time he was rejoicing about this. One night his wife came in. It was late. He should have been in bed hours ago. There was Jonathan Goforth on his knees with his Bible in one hand and a pencil in the other hand, jotting down all the things that belonged to him in this life as a child

of God. And his wife said, Oh, Jonathan, you've got to stop this. Of course, she didn't understand. She hadn't seen it. She said, You've got to stop acting like this. You're going to wear yourself out. You're going to have a breakdown. Rosalind Goforth said, Jonathan got off his knees and he put his hands on my shoulders and he looked at me with a glance. She said, Jonathan got off his knees and he put his hands on my shoulders and he looked at me with a glance. He said, I could never forget. And he says, oh, Rose, you don't understand. I feel like a man who has just tapped an infinite mine of wealth.

And it's so wonderful. I wish I could get everybody to see it. I feel like a man who's just tapped a mine of wealth. Do you need grace? Some of you say, oh, preacher, I need grace this morning. I need grace to get along in my home. Well, there it is. Just help yourself to it.

Just help yourself to it. Like the psalmist said, thou preparest a table before me. God just sets a big banquet table, and here's a big old helping of grace. What do you need? You need grace for living at home and making things go the way it ought to at home. God says, do you have entree? Do you have access into all of God's grace? Just help yourself to it.

You say, oh, preacher, I need grace this morning to overcome this habit and to break these chains that bind me. Just help yourself to it, friend. It's right there. It's available to you if you'll just take it by faith. You say, preacher, I need grace. I need grace to overcome the problems and the tensions and the pressures in my life. Just help yourself to them. They're there. No, you're starving when you're set right before a banquet table spread with all the riches of God's grace. And that's what many of you are doing. You're starving every day and living impoverished lives.

And all the time, God has made everything available to you. I wouldn't take anything for the truth of this. And when God saved me, he gave me a permanent position of grace. And everything I need in my daily life, God's grace makes available. God's grace makes available. I want you to know if you ever learn to live in the light of that truth, it will completely transform your life. You'll understand then what it means to be free from worry and to be free from tension and to rejoice and praise the Lord in the face of difficulty and adverse circumstances.

If you ever come to realize that God has given you a permanent place, a permanent standing in all of God's grace, everything you need to live your daily life is made available to you there. But there's a third thing that we have when we're justified by faith. We not only have peace with God and we not only have a permanent position in grace, but we also have the prospect of glory. The prospect of glory. Look at that second verse. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand

and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. We rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Now, there are two words that you need to really understand in that expression. Number one is the word rejoice. That word means to give a loud shout of victory. And it's found three times in this chapter. And tonight in the message, we're going to preach on those three times it's found in this chapter and the three things that the Christian has to rejoice about. But that word rejoice means that we give a loud shout of victory. The second word is the word hope.

Now in everyday English, hope means kind of a maybe so, a wish. I hope this happens, and I hope so-and-so comes to pass, and I just wish that it would. That's not what the Greek word hope means. The Greek word means certainty that is not yet fulfilled. It's just as certain as though it were already fulfilled. You haven't seen it yet, but it's just as certain as though you had already fulfilled you haven't seen it yet but it's just as certain as though you had seen it and the bible calls that hope there's not a bit of doubt in it

there's not a shred of maybe so in it it's absolute certainty you just haven't entered into it yet you just haven't received it yet i have a hope today that the sun will go down now i'm not saying that it might not i'm not saying that there exists the possibility the sun won will go down. Now, I'm not saying that it might not. I'm not saying that there exists the possibility that the sun won't go down today because it will go down today unless Jesus comes. But I have a hope that it will go down. That means I am certain that it's going down. I just haven't seen it go down yet.

Now, here's what he says. Once a person has been saved and he's let Jesus Christ come into his life, first of all, God takes care of the past. We have peace with God. The war is over. Secondly, God takes care of the present. We have grace. We stand in God's great treasure house and anything we need and everything we need in order to live this life, God makes available to us. So salvation not only takes care of the past, but it also takes care of us. So salvation not only takes care of the past, but it also takes care of the present.

And also God takes care of the future. God takes care of the future. We rejoice in hope, in expectation, is a good word for it, in expectation of the glory of God. That means that one of these days, with all absolute certainty, we're going to see Jesus and be with him forever. And all of this comes through Jesus Christ.

Who is this who comes to meet me on the desert way as the morning star foretelling God's unclouded day? He it is who came to win me by his death on the cross. Oh, the blessed joy of meeting him. All the desert past, all the wondrous word of greeting, he shall speak at last. He and I together entering in those fair courts above He and I together sharing all the Father's love Where no sin or stain can enter Nor the gold be dim In that holiness untarnished I shall walk with him

Meet companion then for Jesus From him and for him made The glory of God's grace forever in me displayed. He who in his deep hour of sorrow bore the curse alone, I who through the lonely desert trod where he had gone, he and I in that bright glory will share one deep joy. Mine, just to be forever with him. His, just to know that I'm there. The prospect, the promise of glory. God takes care of the past, he takes care of the present, and he takes care of the future. Friend, I don't know what more you can ask than that. What more is there? When God has done this, he has done it all. And it all comes when

we are justified by faith. When we come and take our position of condemnation in the presence of God and then by faith receive Jesus into our lives, into our hearts, we are acquitted, we stand free, not guilty. I wonder if you have ever experienced this. Do you know what it means this morning to have peace with God? Do you? You can't have peace in yourself and peace of mind until you have peace with God. Do you know what it means this morning to have peace with God? The Ron Dunn Podcast is available only for personal edification, not to be duplicated, uploaded to the web, or resold without prior written consent. It is managed and operated by Sherwood Baptist Church.

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