Importance

In this part of the sermon: Martin begins by illustrating the vast and complex problems resulting from sin, using the analogy of a drunk driver. He then introduces God's gracious and complex resolution to…

An intoxicated driver's multiple legal and personal problems (speeding, hitting a pedestrian, wrecking a car, injuries) illustrate the vast and complex set of problems humanity faces due to sin.

Just as the man who goes out and gets himself drunk and then has the audacity to get into his car and attempt to drive it, and in that attempt exceeds the speed limits, wanders over the center line, eventually jumps a curb, hits a pedestrian, breaks off a fireplug, and comes to rest at the side of a brick building with his head through the windshield, lacerated and his skull fractured, he has a vast and ugly and a complex set of problems. He has some legal problems. He has, while driving under the influence of liquor, broken numerous laws, all the way from the... He has a law that says you sho...

1:24 - 2:21 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin begins by illustrating the vast and complex problems resulting from sin, using the analogy of a drunk driver. He then introduces God's gracious and complex resolution to…

The drunk driver's need for a physician, lawyer, and claims adjuster highlights the complexity of resolution required for his problems, paralleling how Christ's person and work comprehensively meet all needs created by sin.

But, in grace and mercy, God has realistically assessed the human predicament in all its complexity, and he has done so by the provisions he has made in his own dear Son. Going back to the initial illustration, you see the man who did what was described needs a physician to take care of his lacerated face and his fractured skull. He needs a lawyer to represent him in a court of law when charges are brought against him. He needs a claims adjuster to take care of insurance matters.

2:54 - 3:34 Read in full sermon

Driving home: a realistic contemplation, a realistic contemplation of your past without this doctrine could only fill you with shame and remorse

The debate among physicists about whether light is particles or waves, which is of little consequence to common people, illustrates how some treat theological doctrines as mere theoretical abstractions rather than vital truths.

Now, it is not because he conceives of justification as the only blessing that comes to those who are called, but, in fact, in terms of the epistle to the Romans, which you now know if you attend the adult class, it is the cardinal or the foundational or the predominant blessing that comes the moment we are effectually called. Notice the language. Whom he foreordained, verse 30, them he also called, and whom he called, them he also justified. The moment we are effectually called, and therefore vitally joined to Christ, from God's standpoint, united to him by the indwelling of the Spirit, from ...

7:05 - 8:24 Read in full sermon

Driving home: a realistic contemplation, a realistic contemplation of your past without this doctrine could only fill you with shame and remorse

Preaching with a ten-ton slab of steel hanging by flimsy ropes above one's head illustrates the dread and terror that a realistic assessment of being a sinner under divine anger should produce if justification were not real.

a realistic assessment of the present, that if indeed I am a sinner and God is not indifferent to human sin, He is angry with the wicked every day, that His wrath burns to the sinner, that could only fill me with dread and with terror. What must it be to have the wrath of the Almighty hanging as a canopy over one's head? If I had to preach this morning with a ten-ton slab of steel hung above my head with a few flimsy ropes and I could hear the strands of those ropes breaking one by one, I'd be a fool to stand here cocksure and unmoved by the reality of that which hangs over my head. You begin ...

10:27 - 11:31 Read in full sermon

The point: Take down the coin of justification, and look at it in all of its various forms, and look at it in all of its various lights, and, as it were, polish it with fresh and intense reflection and meditation, and let our souls…

A miser's intense, fondling, and polishing of his gold coins, drinking in delight from their glitter, illustrates how believers should eagerly and reflectively appreciate the 'coin' of justification.

My friend, as we come now to examine the doctrine of justification, we I say are not engaging in that which is an abstraction. We are not merely examining a doctrine of the Scripture as something detached from us. We are examining the cardinal blessing of God's saving mercy that is addressed to our real need. As surely as that drunk slumped over the wheel of his car cannot regard the presence of a physician and the lawyer as luxuries, if he has any awareness of his predicament, he realizes that they are necessities to extricate him from his predicament, lest it slay him. So in the presence of ...

14:06 - 15:13 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The sermon's first main point argues that justification is crucial for God's glory, as it is the means by which God displays all His perfections—justice, mercy, love, and…

A summary quotation from an unnamed servant of God explains that salvation's plan is God's purpose to overrule the fall for His glory by displaying His perfections in saving sinners through the Redeemer.

As a rational creature, he then ascribes glory and praise to God to whom be the glory forever and forever. As one servant of God has said, the whole plan of salvation which is revealed in the Gospel is simply the unfolding and 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 Redeemer. What has God done? You ask the question, why did a sovereign God ever allow sin to intrude upon His universe? Well, there are mysteries that we cannot ever begin to resolve beside of seeing Him...

22:39 - 23:51 Read in full sermon

The point: If this truth lives in your breast, and this pulpit begins to be silent, there's going to be some people beating a path to the elders, saying, what's with this business? We're just getting nice little poems and nice litt…

The Protestant Reformation is cited as historical proof that when the doctrine of justification comes alive through preaching, it leads to widespread saving work, contrasting with centuries of ignorance under Rome.

Now, if that's so, and we long to see men regenerated and brought to repentance and faith, do you see why we must be concerned with the doctrine of justification? It lies at the heart of the gospel. And if gospel proclamation is not distinct, distinct and clear at this point, then you see, the spirit of truth, if I may speak reverently, cannot help but be reluctant to own with power an emasculated and a distorted gospel. Now, thank God he is sovereign, and he often takes a very impoverished and emasculated gospel and makes it effectual to the salvation of men.

34:21 - 34:58 Read in full sermon

The point: If this truth lives in your breast, and this pulpit begins to be silent, there's going to be some people beating a path to the elders, saying, what's with this business? We're just getting nice little poems and nice litt…

A summary of Scottish theologian Buchanan's view that the powerful preaching of justification, offering free pardon and title to eternal life through Christ, can be a 'new birth' even for those who previously professed conversion.

Then when God was pleased to come forth to vindicate his own truth, and he raised up such men as Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, Knox, Farrell and others, continental and English reformers and divines, they differed on many things, but on this thing they stood, as it were, on precisely the same ground when the sinner would cry out, On what basis can holy God accept a sinful man or woman? They pointed them to this provision of justification, which was to be in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ. Buchanan, a Scottish theologian of another generation, speaking to this very issue, says, and I will only s...

35:35 - 36:59 Read in full sermon

The point: If this truth lives in your breast, and this pulpit begins to be silent, there's going to be some people beating a path to the elders, saying, what's with this business? We're just getting nice little poems and nice litt…

Dr. Packer's point that every true revival in church history has been linked to a fresh proclamation of justification by faith is used to underscore its importance for the salvation of men.

the preaching that this is the actual and immediate privilege of any sinner, the instant he relies on Christ, he says this truth coming home with power, is indeed a new birth, even to some who profess to have been converted before that truth was preached. Dr. Packer, in his introduction to this book, makes the point that the history of the church will reveal that every true revival of religion has come in the context of the fresh proclamation of this truth, the truth of justification by faith. So if we have any desire, for the salvation of men, we can't be indifferent to this thing. And it's n...

36:59 - 38:12 Read in full sermon

Driving home: God's way is, I give you your cookie, now be good. You see, God's way is to confer the mercy for nothing in us and to get us so taken up with the wonder of what is given that our zeal to serve Him far outstrips the zeal …

The contrast between 'If you be a good boy, God will give you a cookie' (man's way) and 'I give you your cookie, now be good' (God's way) illustrates that God's grace precedes and motivates holiness, rather than being earned by it.

And so for us as the people of God, if we would be able to stand in the midst of our own little world of trials and testings, in great measure our appreciation of this doctrine is the thing that will make the difference. You see, God's way of moving His people to holiness of life and zeal and patience is not man's way. Man says, if you be a good boy, God will give you a cookie. If you do, you will obtain.

40:21 - 40:51 Read in full sermon

The point: Are you disturbed with your lack of zeal and holy joy? The lack of sacrificial service? Could it be? Could it be? That it is the absence of a clear, unfettered grasp upon this doctrine that lies at the heart of your prob…

The analogy of a dog stopping running if the rabbit is removed in a dog race is used to represent the Roman Catholic Church's fear that free pardon would lead to license, implying that Christians need a 'rabbit' of merit to motivate them.

For nothing which they do solely on the grounds of the work of another. And their great objection is that will lead to license. That will lead to carelessness. You see, it's like the poor dog in the dog races.

41:49 - 42:02 Read in full sermon

The point: You can't afford the luxury of ignoring this doctrine, my friend. You're a lawbreaker. And though you may not take your sins seriously, God does.

The drunk driver's insensitivity to his broken laws and impending consequences due to alcohol illustrates how unconverted individuals, dulled by preoccupation with the flesh, may not feel God's anger but are still under judgment.

The drunk, insensitive by his alcohol, slumped over the wheel of his car, may feel nothing. It doesn't cancel the reality of his obligation to the laws that he has broken. And when he gets sobered up, he'll feel plenty. He'll feel his cuts.

44:02 - 44:21 Read in full sermon