John K. Jenkins Sr - The Benefits of Being Justified

While you're standing, grab your Bibles and turn to the Book of Romans, chapter 5. This is a very familiar passage of Scripture. I'm not going to preach long; I'll try to get done in an hour, an hour and a half or so. Romans chapter 5. I want to thank Pastor Keith Battle for preaching this morning at First Baptist. That joker tried to take over my church ! Romans chapter 5, verses 1 and 2 say, "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God." I want to talk about the benefits of being justified. Tell your neighbor, "There are benefits to being justified." Now tell the person on the other side, "You may not know it, but there are benefits to being justified." You can be seated.

The Book of Romans is written by the Apostle Paul. There is certainty about that-no question or debate. He writes to the church in Rome. There 's no debate about who wrote it, when he wrote it, or who was with him when he wrote it. It is crystal clear, outlined in the Scriptures. What Paul spends time doing in this book of Romans is trying to convey two key points to the church in Rome : he wants them to understand some key biblical doctrines, and secondly, he wants them to learn how to live and walk out the Christian life in a practical way. We have a lot of folks who know about Jesus and claim to be Christians but don't walk out the Christian walk. You might not want to admit it or say "Amen," but you know some people who claim to be Christians; however, if you were to follow them around , there would be very little evidence to prove that they are Christians. There are some things that keep people from being able to live a Christian life . There are many things that bog people down and trip them up , preventing them from living victoriously .

It is the will of God that every person live a victorious Christian life. If we don't live a victorious Christian life, it's because we don't want to. God has made available to us knowledge, information, and principles that, if we apply them to our lives, can free us from every bondage of the enemy, and we can walk in victory. Preach on, Pastor! One of the principles, one of the doctrines that Paul discusses with the Church of Rome, and he spends a lot of time on, is justification. In fact , in chapters 1 through 11, he spends a substantial amount of time discussing justification . What does justification mean? The doctrine of justification means this : it means that God forgives you of all your sins and treats you relationally as though you never committed them. Let me rewind that and give it back to you again because that's an important point I want you to understand. I want to drill this down into your spirit: what God does for us-and what the devil does not want you to know, remember, or recognize-is that when Jesus forgave us, He wiped the slate clean and no longer remembers what you did ; He treats you as though you never did it.

Now, the reason that is important is that the devil keeps tripping a lot of us up by reminding us about our past . I know you all want to act like you don 't have a past, but everybody in here has a past. And for some of you, that past isn 't far back . Look at your neighbor and say, "Your past isn 't that far back." And in case you think you're so spiritual and have it so together , you do know that there are some folks who think they are so super spiritual that they are above everybody else. If you think you don't have a past, let me remind you that you do have a present. We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Amen. And guess what? You also have a future.

But the great news, the thing that gives me great comfort and joy, is that when God looks at me-because I'm guilty , I'm messed up, I'm the chief among sinners- I'm torn up from the floor up. I have not arrived. You will never hear this pastor try to perpetrate to you as though I dotted every "i" and crossed every "t." I'm a jacked-up joker, torn up from the floor up , messed up. But the thing that I keep reminding myself is that the God I serve treats me as though I never did it at all . Woo! I wish I had an "Amen" from somebody right there! He doesn't recall it; He doesn't remember it; He doesn't hold it against us; He forgets about it. He comes into fellowship with us. Oh, that's a great thing-in spite of our past, in spite of our present failures , and in spite of our future issues. I'm shouting deep down inside that His blood has covered all of my mess. Somebody ought to give God some praise! I don't think you all really understood or got it, because you do know we have some people in our midst who will remember what you did. I don't know if you' ve ever met somebody who specializes in recalling your yesterdays . Y'all know anybody like that? Hold your hand up if you know someone like that. Now, those who don't have their hands up ...