Meaning of the Word

Driving home: Now it is because of this fact, rooted in the realities of our legal obligations to God and his law, that none of us, none of us, can afford the luxury of ignorance or of indifference to those biblical truths which bear …

The analogy of a courtroom, with God as the judge, is used to vividly portray the coming day of judgment where each person will give an account of their deeds.

When each one of us will of necessity have self-conscious dealings with God, not as our creator and sustainer in a general way, but we'll have dealings with God as our judge in a very specific way. In other words, there's a day coming in the reckoning of God when God will call his court to order, when the judge will sit on the bench, and when you will stand before the living God to give an account of the deeds done in the body. There is a day coming when the law of that court

1:23 - 2:04 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Now the word itself simply means to declare, or to pronounce just. It is a pronouncement or declaration that is legal or forensic to the core.

The example of a man indicted for murder, awaiting trial, and then declared 'not guilty' by a jury, illustrates the two-fold meaning of justification: freedom from punishment and entitlement to the privileges of a law-keeper.

It means to declare that a person is not liable to punishment and, on this other hand, is entitled to all the privileges of a law keeper. Now, here a man has been indicted for murder in the first degree. He's been placed in ward, no bail. Now, in that condition, what is his relationship to the law?

15:08 - 15:32 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first two lines of biblical evidence are presented: passages where any other meaning for 'justify' is impossible (Deuteronomy 25, Proverbs 17:15, Luke 7:29, Luke 16:15) and…

This hypothetical example clarifies that if 'justify' meant to make righteous, a judge making a wicked man honest would be virtuous, not an abomination, thus proving 'justify' means to declare.

If a judge had the power to make a wicked man righteous, would that be an abominable thing or a good thing? If in court tomorrow, county court, there is a judge here in Essex County who can take a chronic pickpocket and make him an honest man, would that be an abomination to God or would that be a virtuous deed? Virtuous. All right, look at the text.

21:51 - 22:20 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: The first two lines of biblical evidence are presented: passages where any other meaning for 'justify' is impossible (Deuteronomy 25, Proverbs 17:15, Luke 7:29, Luke 16:15) and…

The analogy of antonyms like 'hot' and 'cold' or 'short' and 'tall' is used to explain that 'justify' and 'condemn' are opposites in the same sphere, meaning if condemnation is declarative, so must justification be.

When we take antonyms, we set in opposition to one another things of the same kind. If I say hot, what is the antonym of hot? It is cold. If I say short, you think tall.

26:40 - 26:54 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not lose sight of the glorious objective unchanging reality of justifying grace when you see problems in the area of the inward state of your soul, as instability will be a monumental witness to spiritual folly.

The distinction between a surgeon (who acts in us) and a judge (who gives a verdict about us) is used to clarify the difference between regeneration/sanctification and justification.

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 the cancer does something in us. This is not what the judge does. He gives a verdict regarding our legal status.

35:56 - 36:15 Read in full sermon

The point: None of us can afford the luxury of indifference, insensitivity, or ignorance of the great provisions of justifying grace.

A vivid description of lying on one's deathbed, reliving sins, and facing the imminent judgment of God is used to impress the urgency and comfort of understanding justification.

your death bed if God is pleased to give you such what will it be like to live with the sentence of guilty that's already gone from your head upon your head upon your head will you this morning be like to lie immobile all of your vital powers as it were oozing away and all that is left is perhaps not even the strength to raise a hand but just enough vital power to think clearly what will it be like to lie upon a bed to have your life flash by all of those acts of conscious rebellion against the law of God the general pattern of failure to love him with the whole heart mind soul soul

42:22 - 43:07 Read in full sermon