Justification, Part 1

The point: Young men aspiring to ministry should go to seminary to gain working knowledge of original languages to preach the Word accurately.

Compares a preacher needing to know original languages to a draftsman needing to know angles and measurements, emphasizing the necessity of precise tools for their trade.

This is why we send our young men who have aspirations to the ministry off to seminary, that they might have some working knowledge of the original languages. Can you imagine a draftsman who doesn't know angles and who can't measure out tenths and hundredths of an inch? These are the tools of his trade. And a man who is to preach the Word is not to preach the Word on the basis of his cleverness, his ability to tell stories, his ability to break down a text into three P's or three S's and titillate people's fancy for alliteration.

13:32 - 14:07 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: Martin uses Luke 7:29, Luke 16:15, Romans 8:33-34, and Isaiah 50:8-9 to demonstrate that justification is consistently set in opposition to condemnation, confirming its…

Illustrates how God sets words in opposition within the same category (e.g., big/small, hot/cold), reinforcing that justification and condemnation are both legal declarations.

God would not be guilty of doing this. Suppose I told someone the opposite of big is bright. You look at me and you scratch your head and say, what in the world is he doing? You're mixing things that are not in the same category.

25:37 - 25:48 Read in full sermon

The point: Understand the distinction between justification and sanctification in your own mind and heart to avoid being a hopeless Pharisee or a crippled saint.

Compares the activity of a surgeon (dealing with internal cancer) to a judge (dealing with legal indictment) to distinguish between regeneration (God's work in us) and justification (God's declaration concerning us).

So in summary, we may say that the meaning of the word justify and the main point of these terms is to distinguish between the kind of action which regeneration involves and that which justification involves. Regeneration has to do with God's work in us. Justification has to do with the declaration of God concerning us. And as Professor Murray so simply illustrates, it's the difference between the activity of a surgeon and a judge.

34:08 - 34:41 Read in full sermon

The point: If the reality of God's court and your sin has not become a burning reality, you are under condemnation and in a bad way.

Describes someone ignorant of their condemnation as a man in a drunken stupor on a time bomb, about to be blown into pieces, to convey the danger of spiritual ignorance.

Has this become a burning reality to you? If not, my friend, you're in a bad way tonight. For you stand under condemnation and the pain and the tragedy of it is you're ignorant of that condemnation. Like a man sitting in a drunken stupor upon a time bomb about to blow him into a thousand pieces, mumbling some silly ditty in his drunkenness.

40:07 - 40:34 Read in full sermon

The point: Alter men's thinking to the Word of God, not the Word to their thinking, especially concerning God's nature, law, and judgment.

Refutes the modern portrayal of Jesus as a 'gutsy revolutionary' by citing instances where He rejected earthly kingship and violence, emphasizing His true nature as a humble, obedient servant.

To try to bring Jesus down and make Him a gutsy revolutionary with hair on His chest and dirt under His fingernails is to prostitute the gospel. He was not a revolutionary. They tried to make Him one. They said, come, we'll make you king.

42:55 - 43:10 Read in full sermon