Definition; Author; Source; Recipients

The point: Take the initiative to introduce yourself to anyone you do not know by name, plan to share a meal with someone new, and introduce known friends to new acquaintances to maximize interchange and contribution.

Martin observes that people naturally gravitate to friends, leaving strangers out. He uses this to encourage intentional introductions and fellowship among conference attendees.

Before we turn to this second of our studies together in this great doctrine of the Word of God, there is, or there are, two practical suggestions I would like to make, and rather than trouble one of the other brethren to say these things, I feel it would not be inappropriate if I were to say them. First of all, I've noticed today, on several occasions, there have been some of the brethren sort of off by themselves, not quite knowing, appearing to just wonder if there's anybody around who either knows them or notices them, and it's so easy when we have friends we haven't seen for months or yea...

0:00 - 0:43 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The best preparation for the study of this doctrine is neither great intellectual ability, nor much, scholastic learning, but a conscience impressed with a sense of our actual condition as sinners in the sight of God.

John Owen is quoted to emphasize that a clear apprehension of apostasy, guilt, and sin's power is necessary to understand justification, especially for those proud of their condition.

29 and 30 makes very clear that calling and justification and glorification are all parts of this grander, this more expansive and all-encompassing perspective of the purpose of God in salvation. And therefore we must never wrench this great blessing from that context, lest, thinking it is an end in itself, we cease to understand it in the overall purpose of the living God. I would in closing my review, quote briefly from Owen and then a couple of paragraphs from Buchanan, and then we shall move into our study for this evening. John Owen said, and I quote,

4:23 - 5:04 Read in full sermon

Driving home: The best preparation for the study of this doctrine is neither great intellectual ability, nor much, scholastic learning, but a conscience impressed with a sense of our actual condition as sinners in the sight of God.

Buchanan is quoted at length, arguing that the best preparation for studying justification is not intellectual ability but a conscience impressed with one's actual condition as a sinner, deeply convinced of sin's reality, power, and guilt.

And then, quoting from Buchanan, who speaks to this same issue in greater length, the best preparation for the study of this doctrine is neither great intellectual ability, nor much, scholastic learning, but a conscience impressed with a sense of our actual condition as sinners in the sight of God. The best preparation is not intellectual ability, nor much scholastic learning, but a conscience impressed with a sense of our actual condition as sinners in the sight of God.

5:43 - 6:27 Read in full sermon

Driving home: If justification is confused with regeneration or sanctification, then the door is open for the perversion of the gospel at its center. Justification is still the article of the standing or the falling church.

Professor Murray's analogy of a surgeon versus a judge is used to distinguish regeneration (God doing something in us) from justification (God declaring something about our judicial status), highlighting the purity of the gospel.

To quote Professor Murray, the main point of such terms is to distinguish between the kind of action which justification involves and the kind of action which the word can use to justify. Re-generation is an act of God in us. Justification is a judgment of God with respect to us. The distinction is like that of the distinction between the act of a surgeon and the act of a judge. The surgeon, when he removes a cancer, does something in us. This is not what the

22:54 - 23:31 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin introduces the Westminster Standards (Shorter Catechism, Larger Catechism, Confession of Faith) as a comprehensive guide to justification, likening them to a zoom lens for…

Martin likens the Shorter Catechism to a distant view, the Larger Catechism to binoculars, and the Confession of Faith to a zoom lens, illustrating how each provides increasing detail and precision on the doctrine of justification.

Well then, so much for the meaning of the word, now we come to the substance of the biblical doctrine of justification. Some of you will remember, I trust, when it was my privilege to speak at the family conference several summers ago on the doctrine of sanctification, that I approached the doctrine by reading the Westminster Standards in reverse order. And I would just remind you who were there, and for the sake of those who weren't, that I likened this to looking at an object, first of all, from a distance with the naked eye, and you see the broad outlines of whatever form or figure is there...

25:11 - 25:53 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He begins exegeting the Larger Catechism, focusing on God as the author of justification. He explains that this means the declaration is unchangeable, founded on truth and…

The American legal system of appeals, culminating in the Supreme Court, is used to illustrate that God's declaration of justification is final and unalterable because there is no higher court to appeal to.

We have a system of appeals in our system of jurisprudence if we still may call it that in our country. It may more likely be called farce prudence than jurisprudence. Nonetheless there is a system of appeals. And if you were convicted of a certain crime at a certain court in your county you might appeal to the next highest court.

43:35 - 43:58 Read in full sermon