The Problem of Ongoing Sin #2

Driving home: Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners whereby he pardons all of their sins and accepts and receives their persons as righteous individuals in his sight not for anything done in them or wrought in them …

Martin uses the analogy of the devil's strategy to confuse people about the gospel, arguing that if he were the devil, he would focus efforts on distorting the message of justification, as it is God's way of making sinners right with Him.

Since this is God's way of making sinful man right with himself, and since the gospel is the revelation of God's way of doing that, Romans 1, 16 and 17, and the gospel alone is the power of God unto salvation, if you were the devil, where would you constantly load your efforts to confuse men and women? Surely you would seek to confuse them concerning that message which is the revelation of God's way of making sinners right with himself.

6:19 - 7:01 Read in full sermon

Driving home: In Christ we have a perfect righteousness as perfect now. Hear me now. As perfect now in the court of heaven as it will be in eternity.

He uses the analogy of being 'Pharisees at heart' who want to earn 'brownie points' or 'stars on the refrigerator chart' before God, contrasting this with the publican's humility, to explain why justification by grace alone is hard to grasp.

Because we are all Pharisees at heart. And we want to be able to stand before God and tell him, Lord, look what we did. Here's my brownie points. Here's my stars on the refrigerator chart.

25:00 - 25:08 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He reviews the second reality: sin remains a 'vexing troubler' in all justified persons, even though it no longer reigns. He cites 1 John 1:5, Galatians 5:17, James, and biblical…

He provides examples of Abraham lying, Noah's drunkenness and incest, and Peter denying Christ, to illustrate that sin remains even in the best of God's people.

And he said, you must pray this way. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, assuming that the community of his followers are trespassers who need, who need, continually to acknowledge their sin. And then Biblical biography records the full range of human sin in the best of God's people. It records Abraham, father of the faithful lying.

27:23 - 27:51 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Outside of myself and in Christ I am no sinner. Outside of Christ and in myself I am yet a sinner. And you must hold tenaciously to both of those realities.

Martin quotes John Bunyan's experience of realizing his righteousness was in heaven, in Christ, and not dependent on his 'good frame of heart,' illustrating the liberation that comes from rightly understanding justification and overcoming doubt caused by remaining sin.

In Revelation 2 and 3. And these become the dominant elements in their life. And as a result, their experience is much like John Bunyan's before he grasped the truth of what it meant to be justified. John Bunyan, one writer says, speaks for thousands when he says, one day, this is quoting Bunyan, as I was passing into the field, this sentence fell upon my soul.

32:40 - 33:12 Read in full sermon

Driving home: Outside of myself and in Christ I am no sinner. Outside of Christ and in myself I am yet a sinner. And you must hold tenaciously to both of those realities.

He quotes Martin Luther's statement, 'Outside of myself and in Christ I am no sinner. Outside of Christ and in myself I am yet a sinner,' to encapsulate the two realities of justification and remaining sin that believers must hold together.

Remember I quoted Luther, this marvelous truth. Outside of myself and in Christ I am no sinner. Outside of Christ and in myself I am yet a sinner. And you must hold tenaciously to both of those realities.

34:45 - 35:08 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He begins to explain the right way to handle ongoing sin, asserting that 'Sin in a justified person must always be recognized and dealt with as sin.' This means it's a violation…

The image of Christ on the cross, battered and forsaken, is used to powerfully illustrate that God's holiness and opposition to sin were never more displayed than in His willingness to see His Son suffer rather than compromise His attributes.

God's holiness was never more displayed than when His Son is hanging on a cross,

41:28 - 41:36 Read in full sermon

The point: Do not treat your sins lightly or carelessly, but see them as an affront to God and a provocation of His displeasure.

He uses the analogy of the 'rod of a loving Father in the living room' versus 'the rod of an angry judge in the courtroom' to distinguish between God's fatherly discipline of believers and judicial punishment, which is removed in justification.

Nevertheless, they by their sins fall under His fatherly displeasure and so they need daily forgiveness, the removal of this displeasure and restoration to the light of the divine countenance. Their sufferings, therefore, are not penal inflictions. They are not inflictions that come from the courtroom. Hebrews 12 says our sufferings are the rod of a loving Father in the living room, not the rod of an angry judge in the courtroom.

52:51 - 53:22 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin shares a personal testimony about his own self-centered sin related to his hearing aids, demonstrating how even seemingly small sins are violations of God's law and provoke…

Martin shares a personal story about his struggle with hearing aids in a social setting, leading to self-pity and a desire for others' sympathy, which he recognized as a self-centered sin against the second table of the law.

Many of you know that learning to live with these hearing aids is not a simple thing. Social settings are extremely irritating. It seems like everybody's hollering. And after about 20 minutes, you want to just stand up in any social setting and scream and say, well, everyone, please just shut up.

59:02 - 59:19 Read in full sermon