Justification, Part 2

Driving home: no intelligent Christian will despise or in a smart-alecky way say, well, I just got my Bible and the Holy Ghost and that's all I need. Dear ones, that's pure ignorance. And, I might add, impudence as well.

Martin quotes Spurgeon's introduction to the Baptist Confession to defend the use of non-inspired confessions as aids to faith and edification, not authoritative rules.

And may I just say a word for your sake about the use of confessions and catechisms, and I think the best thing I can do is just to quote from Spurgeon in his introduction to the baptism, which was an adaptation of the Westminster Confession with minor changes in several areas. Spurgeon says, upon initiating a reprinting of this, this little volume is not issued as an authoritative rule or code of faith, whereby you are to be fettered, but as an assistance to you in controversy, I'm sure Spurgeon would have said controversy, being a good Britisher, a confirmation in faith, and a means of edifi...

12:31 - 13:14 Read in full sermon

Driving home: no intelligent Christian will despise or in a smart-alecky way say, well, I just got my Bible and the Holy Ghost and that's all I need. Dear ones, that's pure ignorance. And, I might add, impudence as well.

He uses the analogy of viewing a scene from 500 yards (Shorter Catechism), 100 yards (Larger Catechism), and with a magnifying glass (Confession) to explain the increasing detail and scope of the Westminster Standards.

And help us to understand it. Now, let me begin, as I did with the doctrine of sanctification, with the shorter catechism. Because the shorter catechism is like looking at a scene from 500 yards. You'll see the biggest objects, you'll get the general overview.

15:41 - 15:56 Read in full sermon

The point: Recognize the importance of justification by feeling the weight of your sin and seeking acceptance with God.

A friend's encounter with a hitchhiker who asked, 'What's the question?' after seeing a 'Christ is the answer' sign, illustrates that the significance of the gospel is lost until one feels the burden of sin.

Because we're dealing with God's answer to that problem. Now, you may be like the fellow that a friend of mine picked up one time in a car, and was hitchhiking, and driving along the road, and he saw a sign which said, Christ is the answer. And the fellow turned to my friend and said, Sir, what's the question? Christ is the answer.

34:17 - 34:39 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And it will do you no good. Should your own conscience declare perfect innocence? Should the whole world declare perfect innocence? What will you do when you stand before God and God declares you guilty?

Martin poses a hypothetical scenario where the entire world declares someone righteous, but God declares them guilty, to emphasize that only God's declaration of justification truly matters.

So then, when our Lord declares that that man, that publican, went down to his house justified, He declares him to go down to his house, the object of a declaration made by the living God Himself. And this is tremendously important. I might be able to get half the world's population to declare me righteous. Suppose by some means I could get every last human being who ever lived to declare myself, my character, such as to be worthy of acceptance before God, to declare my religious performance such as to be acceptable before God.

40:37 - 41:17 Read in full sermon

Driving home: And it will do you no good. Should your own conscience declare perfect innocence? Should the whole world declare perfect innocence? What will you do when you stand before God and God declares you guilty?

He describes people who mistake a 'nice feeling' or emotional excitement from a religious meeting for biblical justification, contrasting it with the publican's experience of God's declaration.

I must be all right. There are multitudes mistaking that for biblical justification. They go to a meeting where there's religious excitement, and people talk about, smile, God loves you, and I found Jesus to meet all my needs and take away all my hang-ups, and in the midst of a crowd atmosphere, they get some kind of a nice feeling, and their sense of frustration and burden and guilt is gone. They've heard nothing of God, of law, of the cross, of substitution, of repentance, of faith, but they feel great now, and they go down to their house justifying themselves, saying, I must be justified, I...

43:15 - 43:52 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He draws three implications from God being the author of justification: it is an unalterable declaration, it must be founded on truth and reality (through Christ's righteousness)…

The analogy of a Supreme Court decision being final and unappealable illustrates the unalterable nature of God's declaration of justification.

Since all sin is against God, and all judgment will be by God, when that God has declared a person righteous, when that God has declared a man as possessing a title to life and acceptance, who will override God's declaration? One of the curses of our present court system is an abuse of a blessing, namely, the right of appeal. And though I'm not making pronouncements, though I'd like to, on the abuse of that system, when appeals have reached the Supreme Court of the United States and a declaration has been made,

46:29 - 47:12 Read in full sermon

In this part of the sermon: He draws three implications from God being the author of justification: it is an unalterable declaration, it must be founded on truth and reality (through Christ's righteousness)…

The historical example of Martin Luther's transformation after understanding justification by faith illustrates the profound impact and boldness that comes from being declared righteous by God.

Now, do you see why this doctrine causes some people to be brought to a state of near distraction because of the glory of it? Why Luther became such a different man when this truth broke in upon his spirit? What are popes to cause me to quake into fear? My God has declared me righteous and so a humble Augustinian monk can send up the popes into councils.

47:52 - 48:18 Read in full sermon

Driving home: He is clothing us in the very righteousness of his own dear Son.

He quotes Professor Murray's term 'constitutive act' to explain that God's declaration of righteousness is rooted in a real change in the sinner's relationship with Christ, not merely a legal fiction.

That's the wonder then of where Christ comes into all of this. Because God's declarative act is rooted in what Professor Murray calls so beautifully a constitutive act. And what God does, and this is the wonder and the mystery of the gospel, by his grace and through the Spirit he brings a synopsis into such a relationship with Christ that Christ's righteousness actually becomes his. So that when God says you are righteous, he's not playing games or blinking his eyes and seeing mirages.

50:03 - 50:40 Read in full sermon