I haven't given you an outline in a while, and the reason we're doing it today is because the message this morning is more of a teaching message, lots of Scriptures, and we're dealing with some truth in these passages and these verses that deal with critical things that are being faced in the churches today and for the edification of our own lives and to be able to minister to others. There's some truths here we need to get a handle on. And so I hope that you will, if you left your brain outside, please go get it real quick. Because you'll need to concentrate and think and pray. And then if you really want to be blessed, go home and be a Berean. Turn the television off and dig in. The scripture has been read. We're going to look at some of those verses. We're talking about the transforming difference Jesus makes. So let's pray. Father, we ask for the Spirit of God to be our master teacher as we open the Word of God that was breathed out by the Holy Spirit. And now for you to bring it off the pages and into our very souls. May our minds and hearts be attentive to the Word of God. And we bless you and praise you and thank you for that in Jesus' name. Amen. I'll start out with some statistics that point out the fact that even though we live in America and there's lots of Christian religion, there is a lacking in reality. George Barner, the Christian-oriented pollster, says that two-thirds of all Americans in a national survey said that they believe they will go to heaven. About 66% of all Americans believe they're going to heaven. Only one half of one percent said they were bound for hell. Barna used the following eight points to define a biblical worldview. Believing that absolute moral truth exists, number one. Such truths are defined by the Bible. Jesus Christ lived a sinless life. God is the all-knowing, all-powerful Creator and still rules today. Number five, salvation is a gift from God and cannot be earned. Christians have a responsibility to share their faith in Christ. Satan is real and Number eight, the Bible is accurate in all of its teaching. Well, that's pretty basic, and surely most or all of the 66% who believe they're going to heaven would believe that, wouldn't you think? His research revealed that only 9% of all Americans hold such a biblical worldview. And even among those who call themselves born again, only 19% have such a worldview. Among Southern Baptists, there are 16 million plus, 16 million plus who say, who identify themselves as Southern Baptists. On any given Sunday, only about 37 to 38% of them are in attendance. In the 90s, the Assemblies of God had something they called the Decade of Harvest in which they said that 3.1 million people were converted to Christ through their evangelistic efforts. They also admitted that only 5% ever attended a worship service after that profession. My point is to say that even in basically conservative churches claiming to be saved, making a profession of faith doesn't mean much. Most professions of faith, most claims of, I got saved, I'm baptized, is leaving millions of people still married to the world, the flesh, and the devil. There's something wrong. We need a reality check. It is vital we see that Jesus makes a difference when we truly get saved. For example, in Mark 5, the wild demon-possessed man savingly encountered Jesus Christ and almost immediately he was found at the feet of Jesus clothed in his right mind and commissioned to go tell. It might take years to get a college degree. It might take years to learn to be, or months or whatever, to learn to be an electrician or whatever. But when the Holy Spirit of God invades a soul, that person begins to have a different lifestyle and a different ability. the woman at the well in John 4 she was a social outcast she was sin laden she was immoral all of her life she had religious knowledge when you go and you look at John 4 but when she encountered Jesus Christ she immediately was transformed to go back to her community and tell others come see a man who told me all the things that I ever did the beautiful passage in the Acts of the Apostles in Acts chapter 2 on the day of Pentecost, verse 41 through 47. We ought to just make reference to the fact that earlier in the preaching that had been done, it was not as the pastor of the largest Southern Baptist Church in America said, we need to learn how to think and understand the lingo and the lifestyle of the pagans. if we're going to be able to reach out to them. Well, apparently from the statistics we already looked at, most people in the churches already have that. Think about that. They never left it. But be that as it may, on the day of Pentecost in a religious culture, Convinced of their self-righteousness, they may have had more than 66% of the people in Jerusalem if they were Jews. They're all in because they've been circumcised and they're Jews. They're God's people. Let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has made that same Jesus whom you crucified, Lord and Christ. Went right straight to the juggler. You crucified Christ." And they were pricked, stabbed deeply in their heart. What shall we do? And they were told to repent and to believe. And so those who were saved continued steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine, Bible study, fellowship one with another, in breaking of bread, not only fellowship but at the Lord's table, and in prayer. And they shared with one another. They ministered to one another. By the time you get to chapter 8 when persecution came, they went everywhere preaching the gospel. And some of them were the founders of the church at Antioch from which godly men were raised up and sent forth on the missionary journeys. They hadn't been to seminary. They had no Bible school. They didn't have a Bible with notes in it. But they had met Jesus. They had been convicted and convinced of their sin. They repented, believed, and they had a hunger, a hunger for the Word of God, a hunger for fellowship, a hunger to go to the Lord's table, a hunger to praise the Lord and to serve Him. Even the carnal Christians at Corinth, Oh, how we love to excuse our carnality by saying, well, I'm just like those carnal Christians at Corinth. Really? Well, they had carnality, but they were radically transformed. Some of the founding members of that church had been lifestyle fornicators, adulterers, homosexuals, lesbians, sodomites, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners. And the Holy Spirit has the Apostle Paul to warn those members. There were some camp followers along. He says, look, if that's still your lifestyle, you won't be in heaven. He says, and such were some of you, but you're washed and sanctified and justified. They were transformed. by the gospel. And no wonder because as Romans 1 16 says the true gospel really is the power of God unto salvation. True salvation is a real salvation not only from sin's penalty but from sin's power. Sin shall no longer have dominion over you. Jesus makes a transforming difference. But let's back up once again and ask the question, why do I even need the Gospel? Well, you go to the first three chapters of Romans, chapter 1, all the Gentiles are sinners. Chapter 2, all the Jews are sinners. Chapter 3, the whole world is guilty of sin. This is why the world acts the way it does. This is why we have the headlines that we have. And Christian, in case you've forgotten, Ephesians 2, verse 1, 2, and 3, that's the way you were before you were saved. And just like them, under the wrath of God, and the only thing that made a radical difference in your life is but God, who is rich in His mercy, gave you His grace, brought you to a place of repentance and faith, invaded you with His divine Holy Spirit, And so now you are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which God has ordained that we should walk in. So Jesus makes a difference. When God saves sinners we are taught in those verses that we read earlier that Mel read earlier in chapter 3 verse 21 that this salvation cannot be by works of the law. It cannot be by our righteousness. Those powerful verses there, it is the righteousness of God. A righteousness from God. God's own righteousness is given to sinners who believe. Verse 21-23. Skip forward for a moment. to chapter 4 verse 1 through 5 that was read. Here we come to an astounding wonder. God justifies the wicked. God justifies the ungodly. Now, most of us would understand that, and maybe all of us, that in criminal law an acquittal is a verdict of not guilty. You've been accused, but in the courtroom you are found to be innocent of all charges. The gavel goes down. Sam is acquitted of all charges. The opposite, of course, is a conviction. And so we've given this before, thanks to Brother R.C. Sproul, true or false? It is in the cross of Christ that we find the only means whereby a sinner is acquitted before Holy God. Sproul said yes to a classroom of seminary students and every one of them got it wrong. They said the answer was yes. And it's false. Why is it false? Because before the judgment of God no one is acquitted. No one is decreed innocent. No one is found not guilty. I'm aware that there are theologians who love the word acquitted. I'll leave it to the Lord to straighten them out. There are translations that love the word. Bible notes that love the word. But in the way we use the word, it is a wrong use. Again, you go before the court, you're charged, and you're found innocent. You're acquitted. Who of us have ever stood before the bar of God and charges were read and said, well, I'm sorry, that's wrong. He's innocent. He's never sinned. I don't know why he's here. No. The whole human race, that's Romans 1, 2, and 3, is convicted, guilty, deserves a just sentence of God's holy wrath. None is found innocent. All are guilty. None are acquitted. I know I'm repeating myself. You'd never value what Jesus did at Calvary until, first of all, you have owned your conviction of sin. Jesus taught this in John. The Holy Spirit, when He is come, He will convict the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. God redeems the wicked. This is this astounding truth here in Romans chapter 3. He redeems the wicked. Instead of acquittal, all who flee to Christ are redeemed and pardoned. All who flee to Christ receive mercy, forgiveness, pardon, redemption, because Christ is the sinner's substitute. He shed his blood. He paid the price that we could never pay. We should never get away from being gripped by that. I may have a lot of things on my plate, and they may be very difficult, they may be very painful, but if my sins are forgiven, a guilty unrighteous sinner, and my sins are forgiven, and the Lord God Almighty is my Father and my Savior, I'm blessed. I'm blessed. Here in these verses, verse 21 through 28, There are four precious words that spell out the nature of God's difference-making salvation. The wonderful word, propitiation. Well, we're not supposed to use that word because people don't use that word and you have to use words that people like and people understand. I don't think we need to dumb down the Word of God to get down to our level. We need to receive the Word of God as it is and look up and receive and seek to understand the Word of God. We don't need to lessen the impact of this Word. It is a Word that speaks powerfully that God's holy wrath is satisfied by the shedding of Christ's blood at Calvary. We're not only living in a time when people want to dumb down, they want to deny the whole thing. Propitiation is hated among a growing number of so-called evangelicals. They call it cosmic child abuse. They call it a disgrace to God to say that he would punish his own son. What kind of father would punish his own son for the sins of another? I understand that on a human level. We're not dealing on a human level. We're dealing on God's level and we're dealing on the fact where the triune God, we're all in perfect unity. God the Father did not force this on Jesus. Jesus willingly laid down his life. What an astounding wonder. of propitiation, redemption by the blood of Christ, reconciliation, no longer enemies. People don't value Jesus because, well, why should I be worried about God? I don't have any problems with God. You might not. He has something with you and I. We are rebels, enemies, but now in Christ friends. Family. We want to spend most of our time on the concept of justification. The Holy Spirit's teaching through Paul on justification. Again, we see a heavenly courtroom. We see Almighty God sitting on his throne as judge. And we can think for a moment of a sinner there before God with no advocate, with no lawyer, and he's guilty. for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. All have sinned. And there are a lot of different words and the Greek doesn't matter but it is helpful to understand that sin comes in many forms. There is a sin of rebellion, of willful rejection of God's Word. There is a sin of failure to show proper respect for God. There is a sin of simply missing the mark. The sin of transgression, crossing the line. There is a sin that is in with ignorance and there is a sin of just downright disobedience. So what is justification? A declaration that the believing sinner whose advocate is Jesus is now considered just in God's sight due to the merits of the precious blood of Jesus. A declaration that the believing sinner whose advocate, whose lawyer is Jesus Christ, is considered just in God's sight due to the merits of the precious blood of Christ. He doesn't say that you're not a sinner. He doesn't say that you're acquitted of all charges. You are declared righteous. He does not declare bad people good. He does not say that you're not sinners. He pronounces guilty sinners legally righteous, free from any punishment upon the merits of Christ. Another has called this grace arithmetic. Grace arithmetic. In redeeming sinners, God subtracts from us our sin and adds to us the righteousness of Christ. glorious is that he took upon himself our sin we gain his righteousness now again this is a critical point if you don't let this get into your bloodstream you'll go out this week sometime and you'll fail the Lord and you'll wallow down in self-pity or you'll try to crawl your way back to God rather than resting in who you are in Christ. But think about it, earthly judges are to justify the righteous, the innocent, the pure. The man or the woman is sitting there and being charged and there's no evidence and so they are acquitted. Doesn't it seem outrageous that the divine judge would do what human judges are prohibited from doing, justifying the ungodly. How can God treat unrighteous people as righteous? How can God be both just and the justifier? Well, it's grace. In verse 24, we are justified freely by his grace. Being justified by grace means we are justified by God. We cannot justify ourselves. We cannot declare ourselves to be righteous or pure. Romans 8, 38, it is God who justifies. Being justified by grace means that it is freely. We are justified freely. It's a free gift. It's not something we earn or deserve. It's not merit. We do not get what we deserve. We get the opposite of what we deserve. All of us deserve punishment. And yet amazingly, all who flee to Christ are justified freely by His grace. How can God do this without contradicting his own justice? God's justice says that sin must be punished. It is punished. But we don't take the punishment. Jesus does. God justifies by the precious blood of Jesus, by propitiation. Christ's atoning sacrifice. Redemption that comes by Jesus. He took our place. Our justice was experienced by Jesus. And again, this is why, with all due respect, we look at the Scriptures and we see the incredible human suffering of Jesus approaching the cross and on the cross. Unspeakable. But it pales into insignificance compared to what took place on the cross when the father turned his back, his back of grace, and poured out a full load of his wrath. Because in those moments, our sin was laid upon him. And Jesus paid the price. My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Our guilt was borne by Jesus. Justified by his blood, Jesus bore the penalty. Now we also, we learned in Romans 5-1 and Romans 3-22 that we're justified by faith. God's grace is the source, God's blood is the grounds, and the means of justification is by faith. which graciously God gives. For by grace are you saved through faith in that and not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. We are His workmanship. The word pictures in John 3, 14 through 16, if I be lifted up, I'll draw men as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. Look and live. based on what took place in Numbers 21. And so the lost sinner today, sitting here today, who owns his own poison of sin, who looks away from his self, away from all he can do, and puts all of his hopes in what Jesus did at Calvary, that sinner lives. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. You shall be justified. How glorious that is. Let's conclude by looking at three effects of justification. And the first is acceptance. When God justifies us, he accepts us. He knows that we're miserable sinners. He knows that we're not worthy to be called his children. He knows that there's nothing pure and holy about us, but he accepts us as his children. as true descendants of Abraham, as a part of his church, into his kingdom. Because, as Ephesians 1, 6 says, he accepts us in the Beloved. He is wholly satisfied with what Jesus did at Calvary. And so as believing sinners, we are now in Christ, and Christ is in us, and we are clothed with his righteousness. He got our sins we get His righteousness. Therefore on that basis and that basis alone that's the foundation of one of the most precious verses in the whole New Testament for the Christian. Hebrews 4.16 where we are encouraged to come boldly not arrogantly but boldly to come to the throne of grace to find help in time of need. And as a Christian, you have no greater time of need than in that time when you have just miserably failed your Lord. And it is so common to try to crawl back or to say, well, I can't read my Bible, I can't pray, I can't come to church, I can't come to the Lord's table because I've sinned. And so we try to earn our way back. We are never to minimize the reality or the seriousness of sin, but we are to come boldly to the throne of grace, not a throne of works. Thank you, Jesus, for paying my sin debt. Thank you, Jesus, that the blood of Jesus goes on cleansing from all sin. Thank you, Jesus, that that sin so horrible was paid for. And now, Lord, I want to meditate upon the price you paid for that sin to be paid for, because that is going to be my chief motivation not to go back to that sin hole again. In view of the mercies of God, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, to present your bodies a living sacrifice. That's our motivation. A second effect of justification is holiness. or godliness or sanctification. People who are justified by God are not only pronounced holy, they have their character and their conduct changed so that they now have a heart to seek after God and to follow Him all the days of their life. Why is that true? Because when you're born again, you are now indwelt by the Holy Spirit. You are baptized in, with, and by the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is now at home in your heart. You are now God's dwelling place. And you are no longer in bondage to sin. You may sin. If you say you have no sin, you're lying. But if you're still a slave to sin, you better do some checking around, see what the root problem might be. I've told you before about a friend we had who's with the Lord now, Drain Adams, who had been in the Navy for many, many years and was an IBM salesman with travel. And so he comes to one of the, there's a naval base, I believe, in Memphis area. He had served there. He'd been there many times in uniform. He is now totally civilian, not in any of the after things or nothing. He's totally civilian, dressed in civilian clothes, going to go by to see some of his old buddies. He walks down a hall, he comes around a corner, and suddenly he's face to face with one of his former superior officers. You know what he did. Saluted him. And sometimes when you come out by grace out of sin, self, and Satan, in the twinkling of an eye, in a moment, you find yourself saluting to some sin. This is why God has so designed that we must live not by bread alone, but by daily bread. Thy word have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin. Hiding the Word in my heart is a little bit different from just dabbling, playing around, enjoying a little Bible study, being curious. Oh, isn't that nice? Oh, I have this theory. Oh, I believe this. I believe that. No, it's about food. It's about looking upon it as milk and steak and sustenance and feeding upon the Word of God, breathed out by the Holy Spirit of God, having fellowship with Him. The born again child of God is also subject to discipline. The Lord disciplines the one he loves and chastens every son who he receives. Some of you may have seen a quote put out on Facebook by a brother of years past named Thomas Brooks. He said, there can be no greater evidence of God's hatred and wrath than his refusing to correct men and women for their sinful courses and vanities. Where God refuses to correct and chasten, their God has resolved to destroy. Wow. There is no man so near God's axe, so near the flame, so near hell as he whom God will not so much as spend a rod upon. I'd have to look up what that means, but from the context, I mean, he won't even lift a finger. Those whom I love, I rebuke and chasten. In true salvation, the ungodly are not only redeemed, not only forgiven, but changed. And let's go all the way back to the beginning of the message. What we have just uncovered in the Word of God this morning is what is missing from the hearts of millions of Southern Baptists, Missionary Baptists, Independent Baptists, Evangelicals, Charismatic, Pentecostals that have religion but have never been born again. And let me go a little bit further. This is clearly based upon Matthew chapter 7, verse 21 through 23. We were having a conversation earlier this week and how, you know, we've grown up in a society where if you have something medically wrong, it's good to be able to have a physician that you trust. And whatever they say, you do it. But I think more and more people are realizing, you know, I need to be my, I need to do my own research here. With all due respect for their education and for all the stuff that they know that I don't know, I need to do my own research. And there are people who when they come and they turn on the religious television or they come to the church service, whatever the pastor says, I mean, he's the one, he's the pastor, he knows. here's why you need to be careful about that. Many preachers, pastors, Bible school and seminary professors have never been born again. Many. Many. Their secret lives are full of iniquity. They experience no chastening. They preach, they cast out demons, they do good works. They cried, Lord, Lord, and Jesus will say to them, I never knew you. Now maybe there are some verses that we stand in the pulpit and preach and maybe if you're preaching you say, well that kind of goes out there and it's not coming. This one comes, it doesn't even go to you. Except in the sense that you need to be discerning. You need to be a Berean. You need to check everything by the Word of God. You are a believer priest. You have the Master Teacher, the Holy Spirit, living within you. You better study the Word of God. You will never be able to stand before God. But my preacher said, my denomination said. Well, thankfully, some of that, they were right. But that is not something you're going to stay before God. And if you do, it won't stand. The third effect of justification is confidence. Best said later in Romans in chapter 8, who will bring any charge to those whom God has chosen? It is God who justifies. Who is he that condemns? Sort of a rhetorical question. There are many who will bring charges. There are many who will condemn. But it is God who justifies. And when you are resting in what God has done, you can stand up against the torrents of carnal accusation from your own heart or from anybody else. The point is that justifying people can look with humble confidence to the future, the kingdom the coming of Christ and even the final justice judgment they have nothing to fear even though they are guilty and fallen and don't do everything right they have glorious redemption a redemption a justification that is grounded in God's amazing grace grounded in his precious blood has been brought to you by the gift of faith and the effects are you have acceptance a desire in your heart for holiness and a confidence and a rest in Him. Hallelujah. What a Savior. What a salvation. This is the transforming difference that Jesus makes. And we're just touching the surface. But I hope that you will allow this and I hope that I will allow this. I must allow this to cause me to deepen in the Word of God on these points, so that out there in the world I'll be quick to say no to the world, the flesh, and the devil. I'll be quick to discern the false accusations and not be under their thumb. I'll be confident to know that whether I live or whether I die, I am the Lord's, and so I can go forth with a boldness, not an arrogance, but a humility and a boldness that I'm invincible until God calls me home. And surely, when I understand these verses, I will never again have boredom in my life as a Christian. Where in the scripture do you find someone who was plugged in to God's justification who lived a boring life? The Apostle Paul was always in trouble and always going forward and always resting in Jesus and ever the soldier until he finished his course. Cheer up, you saints of God. We have a Savior, and we have a work to do. Father, we thank you for the glorious wonder of the transforming difference that you make, not only in our destiny, but in our life, our lifestyle, so many things. I thank you for the dear saints here. We pray, Father, that the Spirit of God would take these scriptures and dig them deeply into our souls, that we would go forth in a greater fashion as your soldiers of the cross, glorying in Christ. Father, whatever is on the hearts of people, there may be some here who realize I have religion but not Christ. Work by your Spirit in every heart, and we give you all the praise and the glory in Jesus' name. Amen.