Sermon Central
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Benefits Of Justification
Contributed by Jerry Shirley on May 6, 2011 (message contributor)
Summary: What are the benefits to salvation? Not just in the sweet by and by, but in the nasty now and now? They are many and this sermon will be in several parts. Link inc. to formatted text, audio, PowerPoint.
Benefits of Justification
http://gbcdecatur.org/sermons/BenefitsJustification.html
What are the benefits of justification? Escaping hell? Going to heaven? Yes! In the future. But how about right now?
The first few chapters have shown us our need for justification and how we receive it. Then he illustrated it thru Abraham in chapter 4. Now we’re in a new section looking at the blessings and benefits of justification. Not just the benefits in the sweet by and by, but in the nasty now and now.
1. Peace with God.
v. 1 There are many kinds of peace in the Bible, like world peace, which will never happen until the Prince of Peace establishes it. As long as there’s sin in the hearts of humans it won’t happen.
Then there’s the peace OF God, which is tranquility in your soul. Contentment and anxiety free living.
Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
It’s the peace that passes [surpasses] understanding.
Sometimes I have this peace of God, it is always available to me, but often I allow life to rob me of this. I become worried, paranoid, fearful, bitter, aggravated. That’s not the peace of God. They are mutually exclusive. I cannot be bitter and have the peace of God. If I’m worried them I’m not trusting. If I’m aggravated w/ someone I’m not praying for them.
But peace WITH God is different. It’s the opposite of being under the wrath of God. It’s taking care of the state of hostility that exists between God and man prior to salvation. The war between God’s holiness and man’s sinfulness is won thru justification and a benefit is we are at peace with God!
Before salvation we are God’s enemies.
v. 7-10a
ill.--an atheist was on his deathbed. His Godly grandmother visited and asked if he made his peace with God. Smarting off he replied, "I didn’t know we’d been fighting."
Most lost people don’t know they are God’s enemy because they don’t actively oppose the work of God. They feel they are neutral towards God...but there’s no such thing.
He that is not with me is against me; and he that gathereth not with me scattereth abroad.
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do.
You’re a child of God or of the devil. A citizen of God’s kingdom of the devil’s. A friend of God or an enemy.
6 For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
7 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
8 So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
All unbelievers are the enemy of God. Let’s take it a step further: God is the enemy of all unbelievers. He is angry with them and condemns them.
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for you all, that your faith is spoken of throughout the whole world.
O LORD my God, in thee do I put my trust: save me from all them that persecute me, and deliver me:
21 They have moved me to jealousy with that which is not God; they have provoked me to anger with their vanities: and I will move them to jealousy with those which are not a people; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.
22 For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.
23 I will heap mischiefs upon them; I will spend mine arrows upon them.
24 They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the dust.
16 When ye have transgressed the covenant of the LORD your God, which he commanded you, and have gone and served other gods, and bowed yourselves to them; then shall the anger of the LORD be kindled against you, and ye shall perish quickly from off the good land which he hath given unto you.
"But God would never send anyone to hell."
Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience.
’these things’ is a list of sins in previous verses.
If we are at enmity with God, what can be done? There has to be a mediator!
