God's Free Grace Unto Sinners

In this part of the sermon: Martin begins with an imaginative illustration of a man on death row receiving a letter offering a way to avoid execution, but he ignores it. This scenario is used to represent…

A man on death row receives a letter offering a way to avoid execution but casually dismisses it. This illustrates humanity's spiritual condition under condemnation and their indifference to God's offer of salvation.

As we begin our meditation in the word of God this morning, I wish to urge you, and that means you children, as well as moms and dads, I would urge you to try to marshal all your powers of imagination. That's your make-believer, you know, let's make-believe. The thing you kids use when one of you is playing policeman and one of you is playing teacher, and some of you is perhaps playing the role of preacher, that's your let's pretend-er. That's your imagination.

0:04 - 0:35 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin reviews the meaning of 'to justify' as to declare, pronounce, accept, and treat as just, using a relatable analogy of a mother and her children to illustrate the difference…

A mother's interaction with her children regarding cookies and obedience illustrates the concepts of justification (declaring them just and rewarding them) and condemnation (pronouncing guilty and punishing).

You kids, you can understand what this means. Think with me for a minute. Mommy's baked a whole batch of cookies because she's going to have company maybe Tuesday night. And she's got to stay up all night.

11:15 - 11:27 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners in which he pardoneth all their sins, accepteth and accounteth their persons righteous in the Lord. In his sight, not for anything wrought in them or done by them,…

The Westminster Standards are likened to dishes that serve up the food (the Word of God) without being the food itself, explaining their role as a teaching framework.

In other words, I'm simply serving up the food, the substance of the Bible, in dishes that are likened to the confession. You don't eat on the dishes. You don't chew the dishes, if you have your sanity. You eat the food that is served in those dishes that help separate the various courses and the various elements of your meal.

15:33 - 15:54 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners in which he pardoneth all their sins, accepteth and accounteth their persons righteous in the Lord. In his sight, not for anything wrought in them or done by them,…

The definition of justification in the Larger Catechism is compared to the Hope Diamond, suggesting it cannot be condensed without destroying its beauty and value.

If someone were to look at the hope diamonds and say that's too big and wieldy, please condense it for me. You'd destroy its beauty. This is a hope diamond. You can't condense it without destroying it.

17:50 - 18:03 Read in full sermon

The point: Understand and internalize the simple principle that God is the author of justification, as this will materially do away with stumbling, groveling, unbelief, and defeat.

The legal system's highest court of appeal (Supreme Court) is used to illustrate that God's throne is the ultimate authority, and His justifying declaration is final and unchallengeable.

You see, we have a system of appeals in our system of jurisprudence. It's gone to seed and made of much of our jurisprudence, much of our legal and penal code. It's made it a sham, this whole system of appeals. But be that as it may, once an appeal has reached the Supreme Court in the Supreme Court has spoken, apart from discovering some technicality that would negate the whole proceeding, there is no higher court to which an American citizen can appeal. Once it's gone to the Supreme Court, there is no supreme, supreme court above the Supreme Court. That's the highest court of appeal. Well, yo...

24:54 - 25:47 Read in full sermon

The point: Understand and internalize the simple principle that God is the author of justification, as this will materially do away with stumbling, groveling, unbelief, and defeat.

The scenario of all demons and the devil accusing a child of God is used to show that if God justifies, no accusation, however vicious, can negate His declaration.

If He has pronounced the sentence justified, then let all the demons in hell come together. Let them come together under the great archer's enemy of God, the devil himself. Let them with one united course, with perfect cadence, without anything to indicate that there is any break in their aggregate conviction and with their one voice, let them hurl into the ears of a child of God the remembrance of all of his sins, the remembrance that God is holy, the remembrance that sin deserves wrath. Let them try to rake his conscience and his memory with all the realities of his sin and of the judgment o...

27:07 - 28:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Understand and internalize the simple principle that God is the author of justification, as this will materially do away with stumbling, groveling, unbelief, and defeat.

The counter-scenario of all angels and saints declaring someone righteous is used to show that without God's own pronouncement, their combined testimony is meaningless.

in His Son, then that sentence will in no way be retracted because of the din of the combined voices of all the imps of hell and the devil himself. It is an irreversible, non- retractable declaration. On the other hand, on the other hand, if all the angels of heaven were to rise up and to declare you or me righteous, if all the saints were to come forth and add their testimony to the testimony of the angels and the entire universe of redeemed creatures were to make a pronouncement that I was just, my friend, if Almighty God has not made that pronouncement, there is nothing that their combined ...

28:34 - 29:56 Read in full sermon

The point: Throw yourself into the boundless sea of sovereign grace and mercy, abandoning any reliance on your performance for justification.

The fear of being 'drowned in antinomianism' (license to sin) by embracing free grace is addressed, arguing that true grace produces a desire to please God.

It's because, you see, there is this subtle twist of our corruption, aided by the voice of the enemy of our souls himself. That somehow, if we dare simply to throw ourselves out in that sea, we'll be drowned in antinomianism, or that is, a license to sin. If I say that the peace of my acceptance is grounded in factors totally external to my performance at any point,

41:45 - 42:24 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not plead your own case before the court of heaven based on your own performances, as God will expose its inadequacy.

God making 'mincemeat' of a self-righteous person's case in 30 seconds illustrates the utter inadequacy of human performance before God's judgment.

You know what Almighty God will do to your case? He'll make mincemeat of that case in 30 seconds.

54:01 - 54:05 Read in full sermon

The point: Stay in the posture of resting solely on Christ for justification, understanding that chastening from God is from a loving Father, not an angry judge reversing your sentence.

The 'sand castles' of human performance are used to represent the fragile and ultimately futile attempts to earn God's favor, which will be consumed on the last day.

It's a gracious act of God. It's rooted in nothing of the sinner's performance nothing of the sinner's merit. It's God's favor to the ill deserving and the objects of this justifying act sinners sinners as sinners sinners with nothing but their sinnerhood to plead oh what will it take for some of you to come as sinners come as sinners you say I don't dare come that's right it is I say it's the most heroic act of faith to dare to put nothing between you and the fiery judgment of God but the doings and the dying of another but my friend that's the only thing that is a certain resting place may G...

58:34 - 60:04 Read in full sermon