In his sermon 'It is God who justifies,' Pastor Steve Hopkins of Burnet Bible Church delves into Romans 8:33, emphasizing that God alone justifies believers. He highlights that Satan, known as the accuser, relentlessly tries to bring charges against believers, but these accusations are futile because it is God who justifies. Pastor Hopkins reassures that no one can condemn or separate believers from the love of Christ, underscoring the eternal security of their salvation. He recounts the biblical narratives of Joshua the high priest and the story of Abraham and Isaac to illustrate God's unchanging promise and the sacrificial love manifested in Jesus Christ. Pastor Hopkins emphasizes that believers are clothed in Christ's righteousness, absolved of all guilt, and can confidently stand before God. The sermon encourages believers to trust in God's word and find comfort in their justified status, despite any accusations from Satan, the world, or their own consciences.

Welcome back to Burnet Bible Church. Join us this week as Pastor Hopkins continues his sermon series through the book of Romans. Let's turn in our Bibles to Romans chapter 8 and verse 33. And if you would stand with me please for the reading of the word of the Lord. Let's read together.

Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Let's pray. We praise you, O God, maker of heaven and earth, for your infinite greatness. You are the Lord.

There is none else. There is no God beside you. And we thank you, God, for your amazing grace, for your measureless grace, a grace that covers all our sin. That grace that your Word tells us was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. And we pray, God, for more grace this afternoon.

And that you might be pleased to give the Spirit, to work in every heart, that as we open Your Word, our understanding might also be opened, and Your people edified, and Your name glorified. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. Let's be seated. In Revelation chapter 12 and verse 10, Satan is called the accuser of our brethren.

He is the accuser of believers. If you're a believer here today, he's your accuser. And he is said in Revelation 12 10 to accuse the people of God, the brethren, believers in Christ, day and night. In Zechariah chapter 3 and verse 1, we read of Joshua, the high priest, standing before the angel of the Lord and Satan at his right hand, accusing him. Satan's purpose in accusing believers before God incessantly day and night is an ongoing attempt to bring charges against them that will stick.

Charges against them that can be leveled and that can be prosecuted that will stick because if legitimate charges can be laid against God's people the law of God demands our condemnation. But the Apostle Paul assures us in the passage before us this afternoon that the leveling of charges against the people of God is nothing but an exercise in futility. Who shall lay anything, anything to the charge of God's elect? The apostle asks. Who?

And if you have your Bibles open and you're following along, you see that here at the end of Romans 8, the Apostle Paul keeps asking again and again, who? Who? In verse 31, who can be against us? Here in verse 33, who can bring any legitimate charge against the people of God? In verse 34, who shall condemn us?

And when we finally get to verse 35, the question will be, who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Who, Paul keeps asking, who? And the answer implied by these rhetorical questions is No one. No one. No one can be against those whom God is for.

No one can lay anything to the charge of God's elect. No one can condemn them, and no one can separate them from the love of Christ. And that includes you this afternoon if you are a believer in Jesus, if you're a believer in Christ. I said in our last session that the Apostle Paul speaking under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, intends for every child of God, every person who has come to trust Christ with their sin and with their guilt, every person who has come to repentance and faith in the person and the work of God's Son. He wants every one of us to reach the obvious conclusion of everything he's been saying ever since verse 1, that believers are secure in Christ, That those whom God has saved can never and will never finally lose their salvation.

It's amazing how many cults and how many sex in the world, religious sex within what is called Christianity, hate this doctrine of the eternal security of the believer. They want to live in such a way that it all depends on them. Their salvation began with them, and their salvation continues with them, and their salvation ends with them, and somehow they receive comfort from that. The eternal security of believers in Jesus Christ cannot be tampered with, it cannot be annulled, it cannot be obstructed, and it cannot be reversed. The objective of the Apostle Paul is assurance of salvation for every child of God.

His objective is that we might come to understand that from the moment God set His affection upon us in eternity past, when He foreknew or for loved his people and predestined them to glory that it's been a done deal. And if you've been listening, you know that the Apostle Paul has not let up here, but he's kept pressing the point and all along the way anticipating objections and then meeting those objections. And in our last session, we traveled to Mount Moriah to meet one of those objections, to the place where God told Abraham to take his son, his only true son, Isaac, and tie him with ropes to an altar and deliver him up as a sacrifice. And we went there because Paul's words in verse 32 seemed to echo what was taking place there in Genesis 22-12. And so we went to Mount Moriah, where God commanded Abraham to take his son Isaac and fasten him with ropes to an altar, but who at the last moment before the knife came down was commanded of God to be spared.

And then we traveled from Mount Moriah 2, 000 years into the future to that same mount, that mount that was now known as Mount Calvary where our Savior was fastened to an altar of wood to a cross and not spared but delivered up for us all And Paul made the case for our eternal security, once again saying that he who spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? That is, everything that he promised, everything that he promised, the forgiveness of sins, absolution from all guilt and life everlasting in his presence. For if God is for us, he made the case, For if God is for us, he made the case. For if God is for us, and we know he is for us because he spared not his own son but delivered him up to death for us, if God is for us, who could possibly be against us? That was the answer and the obvious conclusion.

And so Paul continues as he asks this fourth question in his series of six questions, intended to bolster the assurance of believers, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Who? Shall Satan, the accuser of the brethren, the accuser of believers in Jesus Christ, who is said to accuse us before God day and night? No, his accusations will not stand. They will not stand before God.

And brothers and sisters, Satan's suggestions and accusations should not be permitted to stand against you either to weaken your assurance or to revive guilt in your conscience. His accusations can't stand before God. Will they stand in your conscience? They can't stand before God. Why?

Because it is God who is the judge. It is God who justifies. Only a judge can justify it. It is God who justifies his people, and he has already dealt with the charges leveled against his people in the death and the resurrection of His Son. Brothers and sisters, if you underline anything in your Bibles at all, I would encourage you this afternoon to underline those first three words of verse 33.

It is God. It is God. It is God. If there are any words that could bring more comfort to us when we are struggling in our consciences with assurance of our salvation and the plague of guilt that many times comes when the accuser of our brethren who accuses us day and night before God begins to accuse our own consciences. It is God when the accuser of the brethren brings past sins to your mind seeking to torment you with thoughts of despair and hopelessness on account of them.

Direct him to God who dealt with your sins in His Son on a cross 2, 000 years ago. When Satan attempts to steal the joy and the comfort that you have in Christ. When his accusations flood your conscience with waves of guilt, direct him to God. Direct him to God who delivered His only begotten Son to death 2, 000 years ago to cancel your guilt and who by His resurrection secured your justification. It is God.

It is God. It is God who justifies. Direct him to God, because it is God who is the judge and not him. And he has judged his Son in your place. Oh, the comfort of it.

He has judged Jesus in your place. Our response to the world, our response to the devil, and our response to our own consciences should be, it is God who justifies. And He has justified me in His sight, and He has laid my sin and my guilt upon his son bless God and judged him in my place and His resurrection from the dead proves it So take it up with God Take it up with God John Calvin comments here, the judge himself, that is God, pronounces him wholly exempt from guilt, whom the accuser would bring in as deserving of punishment. And brothers and sisters, though it is true, every one of us is deserving of punishment because we've all sinned, we've all fallen short, and continue to fall short of the glory of God and all we like sheep have gone astray and turned everyone to his own way that is to his own sinful ways it's also true as Isaiah says that the Lord hath laid on him on him the iniquity of us all of all his people God the Father laid on Jesus the guilt of the sins of all his elect and punished him instead of us.

And his sacrifice was of infinite value, paying the full sin debt for every person who would ever turn from their sin and believe on His name from the beginning of the world to the end of the world. Before Jesus died, He said, it is finished. It is accomplished. Account paid, sin debt paid in full. God could do this.

He could declare us just. As the just judge, He could declare us just because the just one, capital J, capital O, because Jesus, the just one who knew no sin, willingly bore our sins and the sentence of God do us for our sins. Bless God. Praise God. In short, our sins were removed from us and placed on Christ, and His perfect righteousness, like a robe, was put on us.

Accusations against us, whether from the world or from the devil or from our own consciences can no longer stick. There is no sentence of condemnation hanging over the heads of any who are in Christ Jesus. The only sentence that matters, the only sentence that matters, is the sentence of God. The only sentence that matters is the sentence of God. The only sentence that matters is the sentence of God.

And the sentence of God upon His people is justified in my sight. You are justified in my sight. That's God's sentence. It is God who justifies. And those He has declared just can never be made to answer again for those things His Son has already answered for.

How just would it be of a just God to say, you now have to answer again for the things that Jesus answered for you in your place? No, no. Again Calvin writes the apostle was, quote, anxious to arm the children of God. As they say, from head to foot with the confidence which banishes all anxieties and all fears. The children of God are not subject to an accusation because God justifies, and He has justified them.

And to be justified, according to Paul, is to be absolved by the sentence of God and to be counted just just in his sight to be absolved of all guilt listen brothers and sisters and at the same time to be regarded as guilty would be a contradiction, says Calvin. Hence, this is a quote here, hence God will allow No accusation against us because He has absolved us from all sins. Isn't that comforting to know? The devil accuses every one of us who belong to Christ. Every one of God's elect and the law of God also accuses us and our own consciences convict us, but Calvin says, but all these prevail nothing with the judge who justifies, with the judge who justifies.

Therefore, no adversary can shake or endanger our salvation. No adversary. Again, this fourth question of the Apostle and the answer to that question is intended to increase the assurance of every one of us who trust in Jesus. We should not allow the devil or the world to rob us of the comfort of the consolation that we have in Christ. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?

No one. No one. No one. If you're a believer in Christ today, it is because God's electing love was fixed upon you before the world began. And no one can lay anything to the charge of God's elect.

Believers are God's elect. Believers are God's elect. In Matthew 20 verse six, the same word that's translated elect is translated chosen Chosen and Ephesians 1 4 says he hath chosen us in him in Jesus Before the foundation of the world Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God who justifies believers. Who is He that can condemn?

I'm going to end with a quote from Robert Haldane, Scottish theologian in the 1800s. He comments on this passage, It is here established that the elect are saved in such a way that nothing can be laid to their charge. All their debt then must necessarily, he's saying, necessarily be paid and all their sins atoned for. That means made satisfaction to the justice of God for. If full compensation has not been made, something might be laid to their charge, but full compensation has been made.

Their election demonstrates the vanity of all accusations that can be brought against them, either by their own conscience, or by the world, or by Satan. Are any of these messing with you today? Your own conscience? You were laying in bed? Oh, God.

The suggestions of the evil one coming at you from all different directions. You certainly couldn't be in Christ. He certainly couldn't love you. You couldn't be one of His elect. You're detached from Him.

You're headed for condemnation, accusation, accusation, accusation, accusation. It doesn't stand before God. Don't let it stand before you in your conscience. Direct them to God. Quote the scriptures.

Brothers and sisters, Jesus never sinned, and His perfect obedience clothed all those in Him by faith. Remember the hymn, clothed in His righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne. That's where you are today if you're a believer in Jesus Christ. Clothed in His righteousness and His perfect obedience, His perfect keeping of the law that you couldn't keep and I couldn't keep, His perfect obedience all the way unto death and suffering and dying for our sins. Clothed in His righteousness alone, you will go before God faultless to stand before the throne.

No one can lay a charge against us who are in Him, because No one can lay a charge against us who are in Him, because no one can lay a charge against Him. Who suffered and died for our sins and rose again the third day for our justification, whom God justifies, who can condemn. Let's pray. Father, we thank you once again For these comforting words of truth, who shall lay anything to the charge of your elect, of your people? That it's you, God, who is the judge, and you have justified believers in your sight, declared them once and for all forever just in your sight, and Faultless we will stand before your throne clothed in his perfect righteousness.

We thank you God For your holy word. Oh Lord Oh God if there are souls who are tormented That are tortured today Even as Martin Luther's Soul was tormented in his conscience tormented When he was in the Roman Catholic Church God help us help your people to trust in your word. The just shall live by faith. Those words, those words when Luther fastened upon them, his heart upon them, gave him the flood of relief and brought floods of comfort to his soul. Oh God, our trust is in Jesus.

Our trust is in Your Word. We take You as Your Word that there could be no charge laid against us who are in Your Son. Elect from the foundations of the world, loved before time began, and predestinated to glory, which one day we will enjoy in your presence when we are made like Christ that is coming, forever and ever to worship and adore our crucified risen, resurrected, exalted, and soon coming Savior.