Importance; Context

Driving home: It was Luther who first said, that this doctrine is the article of the standing or the falling church. If you want to know where a church is in relationship to spiritual health and life, you examine the understanding and…

Martin quotes Martin Luther's famous statement that justification is 'the article of the standing or the falling church' to underscore its foundational importance for the spiritual health of any church.

So then, the importance of the doctrine of justification. Luther's words concerning this matter are well known. It was Luther who first said, that this doctrine is the article of the standing or the falling church. If you want to know where a church is in relationship to spiritual health and life, you examine the understanding and the experimental acquaintance with the doctrine of justification by faith.

4:54 - 5:27 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Now nowhere, nowhere is the delicate balance of all the divine perfections operating in perfect harmony more fully displayed and more gloriously demonstrated than in the gospel method of declaring sinners righteous.

He quotes James Buchanan on how the plan of salvation, through Christ's mediatorial work, is the unfolding of God's eternal purpose to manifest all His perfections for His own glory, illustrating the divine balance in justifying sinners.

Nowhere. Listen to Buchanan speaking to this very point. The whole plan of salvation which is revealed, in the gospel, is simply the unfolding and the execution of God's eternal purpose to overrule the fall of man for his own glory by a signal manifestation of all his perfections in the salvation of sinners through the mediatorial work of Jesus Christ. That's the heart of what Paul says in treating this doctrine in Romans 3, verses 24 and 25.

8:00 - 8:38 Read in full sermon

The point: Unless you have distinct and biblical views upon this subject, unless you can articulate those views to your people, you are in some measure robbing God of glory that is due him in this doctrine that is the heart of the …

Martin quotes William Plummer, stating that 'God's honor is more completely staked on the maintenance, propagation, and reception of this doctrine, than of any other in revealed religion,' emphasizing the doctrine's unique significance to God's reputation.

don't be content with dim, vague, and indistinct views of justification. For the psalmist said, the works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein. William Plummer, in treating this subject of justification, says, God's honor is more completely staked on the maintenance, propagation, and reception of this doctrine, than of any other in revealed religion. God's honor is more completely staked on the maintenance, propagation, and reception of this doctrine, than of any other in revealed religion.

12:18 - 13:03 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He argues that the well-being of unconverted men depends on a clear proclamation of justification, as the gospel is God's instrument for calling the elect. Historically, revivals…

Martin passionately recommends James Buchanan's book on justification, even offering to pool money to ensure preachers can acquire it, highlighting its value for historical perspective and biblical study.

that preachment of his own eternal truth. I quote now from Buchanan's classic work, and if any of you have come without enough money to buy this, and if any of you have come without enough money to buy this, and if any of you have come without enough money to buy this, some of us will pool our pennies and go into hock to make sure that every preacher goes home with a copy of Buchanan, if you have them. Jim, do you have Buchanan? Jim here, Jim Eshleman.

17:10 - 17:30 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He argues that the well-being of unconverted men depends on a clear proclamation of justification, as the gospel is God's instrument for calling the elect. Historically, revivals…

He quotes Buchanan on how the doctrine of justification, though old, becomes a 'new spiritual revelation' in the experience of every individual, bringing fresh apprehension of free pardon and eternal life through Christ alone.

There are many, even in Protestant communities, who have long been familiar with the sound of the gospel, to whom this inward sense of it, in its application to their own souls, would be nothing less than a new spiritual revelation. The doctrine of justification by grace through faith in Christ is the old doctrine of the Reformation. And still the older doctrine of the gospel. Yet the vivid apprehension of its meaning and the cordial reception of its truth must be a new thing in the experience of everyone when he is first enabled to realize and to believe it.

17:56 - 18:36 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And then he goes on to say that this doctrine is like Atlas, and upon the shoulders of this doctrine rests the whole Christian system. And if Atlas falls, all falls with him.

Martin reads several paragraphs from J.I. Packer's introduction to Buchanan's work, which masterfully articulates justification as the 'material principle' of Reformation theology and the central theme of revivals.

How many of us are so indebted to His work that we don't know how to do it? To his introduction to Owen's Death of Death? Well, his introduction to Buchanan is just as masterful in its own right. And I want to read a few paragraphs before we leave now the importance of the doctrine.

27:57 - 28:11 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And then he goes on to say that this doctrine is like Atlas, and upon the shoulders of this doctrine rests the whole Christian system. And if Atlas falls, all falls with him.

Packer's analogy is quoted, stating that 'Romans, my misjustification by faith, would be like Hamlet without the prince,' illustrating how central justification is to the book of Romans and the gospel message.

The fullest statement of the gospel that the Bible contains is found in the epistle to the Romans. And Romans, my misjustification by faith, would be like Hamlet without the prince. And to those of us who don't know much Shakespeare, I advise you go to the local library and look up Hamlet and see if you can understand Hamlet without the prince. A further fact, a way is that justification by faith has been the central theme of the preaching in every movement of revival and religious awakening within Protestantism from the Reformation to the present day.

29:10 - 29:44 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And then he goes on to say that this doctrine is like Atlas, and upon the shoulders of this doctrine rests the whole Christian system. And if Atlas falls, all falls with him.

Packer's metaphor is quoted, comparing the doctrine of justification to Atlas, upon whose shoulders rests the entire Christian system, implying that if it falls, all else falls with it.

The essential thing that happens in every true revival is that the Holy Spirit teaches the church afresh the reality of justification by faith both as a truth and as a living experience. This could be demonstrated historically, from the records of revivals that we have, and it would be theologically correct to define revival simply as God the Spirit doing this work in a situation where previously the church had lapsed, if not from the formal profession of justification by faith, at least from any living apprehension of it. And then he goes on to say that this doctrine is like Atlas, and upon t...

29:44 - 30:28 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And then he goes on to say that this doctrine is like Atlas, and upon the shoulders of this doctrine rests the whole Christian system. And if Atlas falls, all falls with him.

Martin quotes Packer's conviction that 'the only effective refutation of error is the establishment of truth,' emphasizing that a firm grasp of justification inoculates against many other errors.

It has long been my firm conviction that the only effective refutation of error is the establishment of truth. Truth. Truth is one. Truth is multiform.

30:54 - 31:03 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Let me take you by the hand and bring you before the burning throne of infinite holiness. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodly. Because Paul begins there, wise is the man, the woman, who would und…

He quotes Buchanan (via Packer's introduction) on modern reluctance to see God as a judge with holy antipathy against sin, arguing that this understanding is foundational for proclaiming deliverance from wrath.

Let me quote again from Buchanan at this point in Packer's introduction.

37:21 - 37:26 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin transitions to the context of justification, asserting it cannot be understood in isolation. The first facet is God's character (holiness, justice, truthfulness) and His…

Martin shares a personal anecdote of using a yellow marker to highlight every word related to judgment, condemnation, and guilt in the first three chapters of Romans, illustrating the pervasive theme of God as judge.

In doing an intensive study of the book of Romans, I took a bright yellow felt marking pen, and in the first three chapters, I ran through every word, dealing with judgment and condemnation and guilt. And it's amazing how again and again, phrases such as these, tribulation and wrath, in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men, who judges according to His own will. who judges according to His own will. who judges according to His own will.

40:52 - 41:15 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Until men know themselves better, they will care very little to know Christ at all.

He quotes Professor John Murray, stating that appreciating the gospel requires a 'revolutionized' thinking by the 'realism of the wrath of God and the reality and gravity of our guilt,' to understand God's grace in justification.

And this can be demonstrated again from the scriptures. It can be demonstrated historically. Let me show that this is a note that everyone who has written on the subject of justification, on the subject that I've read, constantly emphasizes. I quote a couple of paragraphs from Professor Murray in Redemption Accomplished and Applied.

44:43 - 45:03 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Until men know themselves better, they will care very little to know Christ at all.

Martin quotes John Owen, asserting that a 'clear apprehension and due sense of the greatness of our apostasy... and of the deprivation of our natures' is necessary for a right understanding of justification, linking Pelagianism to a failure here.

If we are to appreciate that which is central in the gospel, if the jubilee trumpet is to find again its echo in our hearts, our thinking must be revolutionized by the realism of the wrath of God and the reality and gravity of our guilt and of divine condemnation. It is then and only then that our thinking and our feeling will be rehabilitated to an understanding of God's grace in the justification of the ungodly. Listen to Owen as he speaks to this same issue in his monumental work. It's found in Volume 5 of the Complete Works of Owen.

45:03 - 45:45 Read in full sermon

The point: Let us cry to God for a renewed sense of the depth of our apostasy from God, a renewed sense of the awfulness of guilt, the glory and majesty of God's holiness and justice, so that this truth... may come with freshness a…

He quotes William Cunningham, who states that 'all false conceptions of the system of Christian doctrine assume or are based upon inadequate and erroneous views and impressions of the nature and effects of the fall,' underscoring the necessity of understanding sin for justification.

In the first 120 pages of volume two of his historical theology, Cunningham has a masterful treatment of this doctrine, and I quote now from pages 43 and 44. All false conceptions of the system of Christian doctrine assume or are based upon inadequate and erroneous views and impressions of the nature and effects of the fall, of the sinfulness of the state into which man fell, producing, of course, equally inadequate and erroneous views and impressions of the difficulty of effecting their deliverance, and of the magnitude, value, and efficacy of the provision made for accomplishing it.

48:25 - 49:10 Read in full sermon