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First Baptist Church of El Dorado - Sermons
Tune in each week as Pastor Taylor Geurin leads us into a study of God's Word.
First Baptist Church of El Dorado - Sermons
Tell Me the Truth : How Justification Changes Everything | Romans 3:21
The greatest turning point in human history occurs in Romans 3:21 with two simple words: "But now." After three chapters of bad news about our sinful condition, Paul reveals God's solution through justification by faith in Christ.
• All people, both Jews and Gentiles, stand condemned under sin
• Paul quotes extensively from Old Testament Scripture to prove universal sinfulness
• The law cannot save us; it only reveals our inability to meet God's standard
• Justification comes through faith in Christ, not through our own efforts
• Justification is a point-in-time event, not a process we grow into
• We are completely justified the moment we trust Christ
• Christians stand fully righteous before God, clothed in Christ's righteousness
• Our response to justification should include rejoicing, daily remembrance, and sharing with others
If you don't know Christ Jesus, you too can stand before the Father justified by coming to Him today. Let that justification intersect with your life today!
1st Baptist, baptist El Dorado, will you join me now in listening to our sermon from this week, if you'll open with me to Romans, chapter 3, romans, chapter 3. I'm going to read our verses this morning. I'll read a good bit, starting in verse 9. And so open with me Romans 3, beginning in verse 9. What then? Are we Jews any better off? No, not at all, for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin.
Speaker 1:As it is written. None is righteous, no, not one, he says. They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God, for by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God has been manifested, apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe for there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forth as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
Speaker 1:Let's pray together. Lord Jesus, thank you for your word. Would you speak to us this morning? Transform our hearts this morning, make us more like Jesus? In response to hearing your word, speak through me, I ask in Christ's name, amen. Imagine this morning you are sitting in a house church in the city of Rome in the middle of the first century. You're excited because, as we've discussed, in this house church that's made up of Jews and Gentiles, today's a very special day because a certain letter is being delivered, a ministry associate partner with Paul. Her name is Phoebe. She's arrived and Phoebe is tasked with reading this letter to us in this house church today Maybe we're a Jewish individual reading this we hear this letter read and we love chapter one, this picture of the gospel as we talked about last week.
Speaker 1:We also love chapter one because Paul finally calls it like it is, with these Gentiles who sin in their suppression of the truth and sin in their idolatry. Then Paul then turns to chapter two and suddenly we find that these Jewish individuals in the crowd, they're condemned as well because they do the very same thing. But you and I we're better than the rest. We've got enough self-righteousness to know that we've survived chapter one and we've even survived chapter two, that Paul was talking about other Jewish individuals in the crowd, but certainly not you and I, because we do things pretty well and surely he's not talking about us when he's talking about condemnation. But then Phoebe finally reads chapter 3, and we see a phrase and it's this no one is righteous, no, not one. And suddenly it's game over for us Suddenly. If we thought we survived up to this point, we did not survive that phrase. No one is righteous, no, not one. All are in sin, all rightfully deserve condemnation. And this is the bad news of Romans, the bad news of Romans 1 through 3. That leads to the best news that we'll see this morning the second half of chapter 2 and the very beginning of chapter 3, which we won't read today. Basically, paul continues his conversation with these Jewish individuals and letting them know that they cannot be saved by works, letting them know that God is completely just in his condemnation because, again, all Jews and Gentiles are under sin.
Speaker 1:And then we read verse 9. What then? Are we Jews any better off? Well, no, not at all, for we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, are under sin. We talked last week for these Jewish individuals. It is a neat thing for them to be able to say they are of this Jewish lineage. What a special thing that is that they could say my great-great-grandfather is Abraham Isaac and Jacob. We talked about being from the line of David, and how neat that is. And yet where that ends is when we try to use it to say we're already in, that we have earned salvation just based off of our lineage. And so Paul wants to remind them that you're under sin. No one escapes it. Both Jews and Greeks Verse them that you're under sin. No one escapes it. Both Jews and Greeks. Verse 9, you are under sin.
Speaker 1:I remember, as we look at verses 10 through 18, in the very heart of COVID, when all offices and you remember these days and you would not wish for them back when in the heart of COVID all the offices went online and Zoom had big business. During the heart of COVID, all the offices went online and Zoom had big business. During the days of COVID, everybody was on Zoom and I remember it became popular or comical to kind of talk about the office lingo that everyone uses on these Zoom meetings. We learn how to mute and unmute. We had to tell some people you need to mute the mic. We had to. I mean, we learned so much. But out of it came this office lingo that you may use every day and you've used it many times in the corporate workplace Phrases like we're gonna circle back, phrases like we're gonna put a pin in it for now, phrases like I don't have the bandwidth for that these things have just become part of the office lingo.
Speaker 1:There is one piece of office lingo that I've never been brave enough or bold enough to use. Some of you may have used it before. It is maybe the most brutal of all the office lingo that exists. It's this phrase. You can tell me if you've heard it Per my previous email. Have you heard this one? Have you used this one Per my previous email? It's just a brutal takedown. Basically, the idea is this If I've told you something in the past, now you've emailed me asking me a question, I hit you with this per my previous email and then I give you the answer once again I had already given you in the past. Now, if you're the most brutal among us, not only do you say per my previous email, but you attach the previous email. And if you've just had enough and it is over for you with this individual, you will attach the previous email and you will CC the boss onto it. And that's just when you're done.
Speaker 1:In verses 10 through 18, I just want to tell you what paul is doing in this moment. He is looking at the believers in the crowd and he is saying, at the highest of levels per my previous email. And not only this, he's attaching the previous email and not only doing doing this, he's copying the boss onto the email. Yet the problem is the boss is not some workplace supervisor. The boss is David, is Solomon, is Isaiah. What Paul does is. He wants to show all of the individuals in this crowd today that you are under sin. And yes, I'm Paul. I've never visited your church, I didn't plant your church. So you may be thinking I'm just some new guy on the block here to tell you that you're a sinner. But, per the previous email, per the entire Old Testament, the facts are already there and you've already been told from the word of God, from David and from Isaiah and from Solomon, that you're not righteous, that you missed the mark. And so look what he does in this moment.
Speaker 1:Verse 10, none is righteous, no, not one. No one understands, no one seeks God. All have turned aside. They've become worthless. No one does good, not even one. That's a quote from Psalm 14. Verse 13, their throat is an open grave, their tongues deceived. The venom of asps is on their lips. That's Psalm 5. That's Psalm 140. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Psalm 10, their feet are swift to shed blood. Proverbs 1,. Proverbs 3, isaiah 59, as we continue in the past of ruin and misery, the way of peace they have not known. Psalm 36 and verse 18, there is no fear of God before their eyes.
Speaker 1:Paul wants to show them that this has been the answer all along Per every email you've been given from the Old Testament. You already see and know, and should understand, that you stand condemned, that no one is righteous. No, not one. And remember, half the crowd today, as this letter is being read, is made up of Jewish individuals, and so even more. This is your scripture, this is your testimony, your scriptures that are pointing to the fact that you are condemned. It would be as if this morning I came to you and I wanted to make some case or prove some point about American life today and you said, taylor, why should I take your word for that? And I just start quoting Thomas Jefferson and John Adams and George Washington and all these founding fathers to make my case. These aren't just my words. Look to the sources. This is Paul, looking at even these Jewish believers and saying if you won't listen to me, listen to David, listen to Solomon, listen to Isaiah. None is righteous, solomon. Listen to Isaiah. None is righteous, no, not one.
Speaker 1:And then verse 19,. Now we know that whatever the law says, it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped and the whole world may be held accountable to God For by the works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin. How do we think of the law, the law? We could think of the Ten Commandments. We could think of all Old Testament law as you read Leviticus, the Levitical law, all this law that so many, specifically Jewish believers in this time tried to justify themselves by carrying out the law, paul wants to show them you can't be justified, you can't do enough, you can't follow the law close enough to be justified before God.
Speaker 1:We talked about that a lot last week. Does that mean the law is a bad thing? Not at all. Paul will talk about that more throughout the book of Romans. The law is a beautiful thing. The problem is not the law, the problem is me, the problem is you, the problem is the individuals in the church at Rome, that the law is a beautiful thing that God gave to his people so that they would be a people set apart. And yet quickly they realized, and quickly I realized, that I missed the mark and in my own sin and flesh I'm not able to keep the law.
Speaker 1:I think about it like this maybe you've been on a college campus before and maybe on a beautiful day you've been on a college campus and you look around the beautiful landscaping, the, the beautiful lawn, the beautiful flowers and trees it's just a stunning spring day and you're walking on that campus and maybe they might have a sign up that says do not walk on the grass. Have you seen this sign before? Do not walk on the grass. And as I'm walking peacefully on the sidewalk, I didn't wake up that morning thinking I've got to get on some grass. That morning, thinking I've got to get on some grass, no part of me had ever considered it until I saw that sign and immediately I thought that grass looks so good. If I could just get a foot on this grass and step off this sidewalk for a minute and just walk on this beautiful lush lawn that is right here before me. There's nothing wrong with the sign. That sign's a really good thing. It keeps people off the grass.
Speaker 1:The problem is me. In my own flesh I see the law that was given for my good. I see the commands God has given to me to live a life of flourishing in obedience to him. And my flesh, my sin. I realize I'm not able to keep it and it's all the problem with me, amen, that I'm condemned because, as we'll read in just a moment, I sin and fall short of the glory of God. I do not measure up to God's glorious standards, and the whole problem is me. And so we see this not very pretty picture. But the good news this morning I promised you three weeks of really bad news and we have completed the really bad news, because we're about to turn the page now to the best news you've ever heard. Now I've given you a sneak peek each week. We haven't left on bad news each week, but now we see the really good news.
Speaker 1:If you're in my generation, around my same age, maybe a little older, maybe a little younger you remember days in school when the TV cart would roll into your room and Schoolhouse Rock would come on the television and they would start singing a song about conjunctions. And you remember it because you're singing it right now in your head conjunction, junction, what's your function? The conjunction is something in most sentences that you and I skim right past. We don't think about it, they're just everyday words. You skim right over them, you don't think much about them. They're there but you just process it without even processing it. An and a, but an or any of these words, you just go right past.
Speaker 1:And yet there's sometimes in the word of God that a conjunction carries eternal significance, where a conjunction holds so much theological power that we can't just skim past it. We read one this morning, as Katie read in Ephesians, chapter 2, that we were dead in sins. And then what happens around verse 4? But God. There's the change, the conjunction, but God. And now we have seen all the bad news for three whole chapters, verse 21. But now there's a change in the air. But now Something's different midway through chapter 3.
Speaker 1:But now the righteousness of God has been manifested. How? Apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. Again, there's nothing wrong with the law, the law and the prophets, meaning the whole Old Testament. It bears witness to this righteousness that has been revealed by god. What is it? Verse 22? The righteousness of god through faith, not by works, not by my own effort, through faith in jesus christ. For who? For all who believe. For there is Verse 23,. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. One more time for everyone in the crowd hearing this. The first time it was uttered for every Jew in this audience, for every Gentile in this audience, for in a crowd of these individuals, all of us in 2025, for everyone in the crowd, it's all of us For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There is a standard and you don't meet it and I don't meet it. Verse 24,. We get another conjunction You've sinned and fallen short, but look at this and are justified by his grace, as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. You've sinned, you've fallen short, but now you are justified.
Speaker 1:I want to talk about that word for a minute. Justified how do we define the word justified? It's a word that's so critical to the book of Romans, it's so critical to Paul in general. It's so critical to the New Testament. It's so critical to you and I and our salvation. That word justified how do we define it?
Speaker 1:Well, one common definition that often gets thrown out is justified means this just as if I had never sinned. Have you heard that definition of justified? Just as if I had never sinned? Now, I don't mind that definition at all. I actually really like that definition if we understand what it means to be counted just as if I had never sinned. What does it not mean? It doesn't mean that I'm counted as if I've never sinned simply because God just kind of swept my sin under the rug. That God looked at me and just kind of winked at my sin and said, taylor, don't worry about it, do better next time. We're good here, and that's not how it happened.
Speaker 1:When I think of justified, when you think of justified, and we say, just as if I had never sinned, the way you and I are counted as individuals, just as if we had never sinned, is because of this, is because Christ Jesus was treated as if he had done all the sinning. Do you get that? That all of my sin and your sin was placed upon the sinless one? I probably quote it more than I should, but 2 Corinthians 5.21,. He became sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. We are justified not because sin was swept under the rug, but because sin was paid for, because the condemnation and the wrath of, but because of this, because sin was paid for, Because the condemnation and the wrath of God was given out, but was given out to the person of Christ Jesus on our behalf. That's how you and I are justified and treated just as if we had never sinned. That's what verse 25 talks about the one who God put forward as the propitiation by his blood that's a big word we see multiple times in Romans meaning this atoning sacrifice, the one who has been the once and for all sacrifice for us. This is our justification, that you and I are now justified before God. And think about what that means that you and I can stand before a holy God, we can come into his presence, we can stand before him and we are justified. Why? Because you and I are now clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Because he took the sin and he gave us the righteousness. He took it down to the grave, rose defeating, defeating sin and death, and now we are counted righteous before God. We are justified.
Speaker 1:I want to look at a chart, I want to put this chart up on the screen the Christian life right here before us, and I just want to break this down. There's really three parts of the Christian life Justification, sanctification of the Christian life, justification, sanctification and glorification. I mean first you see our unbelief up to the point where we come to Christ. But I want to come back to justification. But look at sanctification. What is that? That's for all who are believers. That is the, once you become a believer, that lifelong process of growing more and more into the image of Christ so that, through the power of the Holy Spirit working in you, you are becoming more like Jesus, you are being sanctified. You then see a dividing line there that if Jesus does not return before we die, there will be a day we will die. Not return before we die. There will be a day we will die. And then there is glorification, as we are raised with Christ into new, glorious, eternal life. There is the glorification where you and I will live and experience Christ Jesus in our glorified, resurrected bodies. Glorification, it's not a process of becoming more glorified, it is a eternal glorification, this body that we have before Christ, where there's no more sin, there's no more tears, there's no more death, this beautiful glorification that takes place in the eternal state with Christ Jesus. Now we've got sanctification, glorification. Let's go back to the beginning of the Christian life.
Speaker 1:Justification. Justification, as we've just talked about, where we are counted righteous as if we've never sinned, because Christ took our sin upon himself. That justification, look with me now. It is a point on the chart. It is a point in time. Notice, sanctification is a lifelong process. Justification is a point. It is not something we grow into. We don't grow more and more justified. We are justified. We are justified by Christ Jesus. It is a singular point in our life.
Speaker 1:Now you say this when does justification happen? I'll give you two answers. And now you say, taylor, you've messed up now because you said it's a singular point. Now you're offering me two answers. It'll make sense in a moment. When did the act of justification occur? I would give you the answer of, you know, sometime around the spring of 33 AD. When did that justification take root in my own life? Sometime in the fall of 1996. We're telling two dates here. The justification event, the spring of AD 33. When did it take root in my life? When was I personally justified, take advantage of that justification? Really, that justification come to me in 1996 when, as a six-year-old believer, I said that Jesus Christ, I want you to be the Lord of my life. And in that moment, little six-year-old Taylor stood before a holy God, fully justified, fully justified. It's interesting, as we think about justification, that again, it's not a process, it's not something we grow in. It's something we are once and for all.
Speaker 1:I think about my son and my daughter, and first James, who's watching online as he's a little under the weather, but he's home today and he's watching right now. And his birthday's on Friday and he'll be five years old this week. And I think back to when he was born, march 14th of 2020. And I think the joy of that day and I think about in like moments before here I was, I didn't have a son and then, all of a sudden, I'm a father and I've got a son in my life. It's a wild moment when that happens. And I think about James on March 14th of 2020. He's my son and he's here and I can hold him and he's my son.
Speaker 1:And then I think about the last four years and 51 weeks that have taken place and I think about all the experiences we've had and I think about the fun we've had, the memories we've made. I think about how he's grown in so many ways Miss Candice is here, I hope she would tell you he's grown academically and intellectually. I think about all the vacations we've been on and we've just gotten to do so much together. But I just ask this question because of all the experiences that me and James have had. Is he more my son today than he was on March 14th 2020? No, my daughter's been with me for 14 months. Is she more my daughter today, because we've had great experiences together, than she was then Katie and I married for a decade? Is she more my wife today than she was in 2014?
Speaker 1:Praise God for the growth and the experience and the joy and the joy, but relationally, he's my son, she's my daughter, she's my wife. Your justification is a point in time Right. You are not more justified today than you were the day Christ Jesus came into your life. You don't have a better standing before God today than the day you first came into the presence of God. Why? Because the day you came into the presence of God, there was not a better standing you could have gained, because you have all standing before a holy God. Why? Because there's not more righteousness of Christ that you can receive than the fullness of the righteousness of Christ. You are justified and that cannot change and that will not change.
Speaker 1:I remember a pastor telling this story of a woman. He was speaking with an elderly woman. She was beginning to suffer from dementia and she knew it, and she knew that all that she knew was just escaping and it seemed like some of you walked through this with loved ones that all that she knew was escaping, memories were fading away and she knew where this thing was heading. She was speaking with the pastor. I'll never forget. The pastor said this. She looked at the pastor and she said this. She said I may forget my Savior, but my Savior won't forget me.
Speaker 1:Justification in the process. Justification in the process. It's not becoming more and more in the righteousness of christ. Justification is a fact about you if you know christ jesus. I'm not discounting sanctification. That's a beautiful process, that's a long process, that's a daily process of obedience. But you will never grow more justified before God than you are right now if you are in Christ Jesus and so we are justified verse 24 by his grace, as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. I close with this how do we live as justified children of God? If that's true of us, if that is the fact that you and I are justified before God, how does that make us live One? I would encourage you this to rejoice in your justification, now that maybe you have more of a framework to think about justification, spend all your days rejoicing in it. Spend all your time worshiping the God who has justified you once and for all. Rejoice in your justification.
Speaker 1:We talk about the things we love, don't we? I probably need to tell less stories about my children in my sermons. They just always come up because I just love them and I like to talk about them. When a certain team won an 11 o'clock basketball game yesterday that sealed a certain spot in a certain tournament, I spent the rest of the day just chatting about it, talking about it, texting about it. Why? Because we like to talk about things that we enjoy, that we think about.
Speaker 1:Are we people that rejoice in our justification and that's something on the tip of our tongue? Are we people that have the best news that we could ever imagine, that we stand before a holy God, fully righteous, closing the righteousness of Christ, and that's something we talk about. That's something we tell others about. You talk about the water cooler conversation at work. That's the conversation we talk about, the things we love. Meaning this we talk a lot about Jesus. Is that true of us? We rejoice in our justification.
Speaker 1:Also, we remind ourselves of our justification. You say this well, taylor, how could I forget the best news ever. I don't need to remind myself. How could I forget? And yet you and I know, in the ins and outs of life, sometimes we are tempted to forget. Sometimes we know we're justified but we're tempted to think that we've still got to earn our way to God or earn our favor with God. We still are tempted to think that could God really forgive those past sins? Could God really use someone like me? We let those thoughts get into our mind. I hope you will wake up each morning and, before your feet hit the floor, you will remind yourself of the justification that is found in Christ Jesus, that before I am anything else today, before even before the beautiful things like I am a husband, I am a father, before I'm a pastor, before you go to your job, before you're a friend, before all these things that are good things and you are those things. But before any of that, your feet hit the floor and you say I am justified before the God of the universe and I am loved by him because of the finished work of Christ Jesus. That's who you are and I hope that will change how you live.
Speaker 1:And lastly, we rightly respond to our justification, I think in two ways. One is obedience. Again, I said a moment ago works aren't out of the question. No, no, good works are to be done by believers. But, as we've talked about over the last few weeks, we fixed the equation and so now it's not as if I do good works, therefore I'm justified. The equation is this I'm justified, therefore I do good works in response to what Christ has done, because of the relationship. Now, like Ephesians 2.10 tells us, I get to live out the good works that God has prepared for me to walk into. And so now I get to live in obedience. I get to sanctification that we talked about by the Holy Spirit's power, look more like Jesus day by day and live in the obedience he's called me to, not to earn my way, but because Christ has already paid my way.
Speaker 1:And now, in response, I get to live life of obedience to him, but also rightly responding to our justification in our own evangelism, in telling others what Christ has done, in letting other people know that we have the best news the world has ever heard that there is one who has come to pay for your sin, that there is one who has come to pay for your sin, that there is one who has looked upon you and said if you will come, you too can be justified before the God of the universe. That's what evangelism is. It's just telling others about the one we love the most and about the life that can be found in him. And if we are people that have truly been justified and have tasted and seen the goodness of the Lord, we should be the first people to let others around us know that there is a good Savior and in a world of darkness and sin, there is a Savior that can make all things right and will make all things right and will make all things right. And in my own life, has has fixed my sin problem. The hole in my heart has justified me. We ought to be people living in response to justification, who tell others often what Christ has done for us.
Speaker 1:So church, family, if you forget everything else today, I pray you won't forget this. That if you know Christ Jesus, as you sit here in this room, I'm talking to you. I'm not even talking to the person next to you right now. I'm talking to you as you sit here in this room. You sit here as one who is justified before God, clothed in the righteousness of Christ. Someone called sanctification this becoming who you already are. You are clothed in the righteousness of Christ, the beauty of sanctification. We get to grow in righteousness in the here and now. But in that heavenly place, before the holy God of the universe, you and I stand not condemned, but justified if you know Christ Jesus.
Speaker 1:If you don't know Christ Jesus, I've got the best news in the world to tell you right now, you too can stand before the father, justified how, by coming to Christ, by letting that justification intersect within your own life, that one day you would talk to someone telling a story of the trajectory of the Christian life and you would say that Christ died on the cross back then and then, in the spring of 2025, he opened my heart and I was justified by him. Could that be your story this morning? If you want it to be, please come down and let me chat with you about that. If you want to come be a part of this church family, let me talk with you about it. If you just want a pastor to pray with you or over you, if you want to come to the altar and pray on your own, if you want to sit right where you're at and just do business with the Lord, maybe just thank him. Thank you, lord, for your salvation, your justification.
Speaker 1:However, you need to respond. Now is going to be the time to do it. Let me pray for us and then let's continue in worship as we respond. Lord Jesus, thank you. Thank you for justification, thank you for justification, not a justification that we've earned we couldn't, but a justification that you and you alone have provided.
Speaker 1:And so, lord, let us be people who live in response to that, who who rightly understand that, who live every day, um, knowing that we are yours, that we are forgiven and for all, time and forever, that no power of hell or scheme of man could ever pluck us from your hand. But because we are justified, we will be with you for eternity. Lord, we give you praise and we thank you, lord. Lord, if there's one, if there's two, if there's more that need to respond in these moments, would they do so? Give them a holy boldness to do it, lord, and I just pray that we would all respond in worship, because we all have a response to make. Lord, let us worship you even in the here and now. You are the justifier. We thank you, lord, in Christ's name, amen, would you stand, and if, for any reason, you'd like to come, I'll be right down front.