Meaning of the Word

We Will Stand Before God: The Pastoral Stakes

0:00 If the scriptures of the Old and the New Testament, this book that we call the Bible, if it declares anything with clarity and with the emphasis of repetition, it is the fact that each of us is on his way to the final day of judgment. This clarity of biblical emphasis is epitomized in the language of a passage such as Romans 14, verses 11 and 12. It is written, As I live, saith the Lord, to me every knee shall bow, and every tongue shall confess to God,

0:49 so then each one of us shall give account of himself to God. That same truth is epitomized in the language of Hebrews 9.27, as it is appointed unto men once to die, and after this cometh judgment. So it is clear from this book that God will see to it that each one of us, from the youngest to the oldest will have his day in court.

1:22 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 will be the basis on which you will be dealt with

2:08 by the God who put you under that law. 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 down upon the reality of our legal obligations to God. Now, standing at the center, occupying the place of most crucial importance in this matter of the legal dimensions of our relationship to God is the reality of justifying grace. Or those things expressed in the biblical doctrine of justification.

2:55 And in the course of our Sunday morning studies, we have come to this point in studying the cardinal blessings of salvation in Christ where we are concerned with the doctrine of justification. Having considered the threshold blessings of our salvation, namely calling and regeneration, we are now concentrating our attention upon those three blessings which come to us immediately upon passing over the threshold and into vital union with Christ. The first of them is this doctrine of justification. In our two previous studies, we have concerned ourselves with understanding something of the importance of justifying grace.

3:44 And we saw its importance with reference to the glory of God and with respect to our own good. Last Lord's Day, we contemplated the context of this provision of God's grace. Those truths without which we cannot appreciate this truth. And I suggested that the context is threefold.

4:08 A context that involves the character and position of the God of the Bible, the position and character of man as God's creature, and the overall ultimate purpose of God in the redemption of sinners. and all I would say by way of review is to quote a word from John Owen as we come now to our study this morning and it is this. Wherefore if we would either teach or learn the doctrine of justification in a due manner, a clear apprehension of the greatness of our apostasy from God, a due sense of the guilt of sin, a deep experience of its power,

5:00 all with respect to the holiness and law of God are necessary to us. You see what Owen is saying? If we would learn or teach this doctrine, there must be, with respect to God as holy and as lawgiver, an apprehension of the greatness of our fall from God, a sense of our guilt, and an experience of the power of sin. Owen goes on to say, We have nothing to do in this matter with men who, through the fever of pride, have lost the understanding of their own miserable condition.

5:41 If you sit here this morning with the fever of human pride or with the cancer of human blindness keeping you from a felt sense of your sinnerhood, this doctrine will be a tempest in a verbal and theological teapot that will say nothing to the deep chambers of your consciousness. However, if you sit here this morning with some felt awareness of what it is to be a sinner, then indeed, by the grace of God, this study this morning should be spiritual meat and drink to your soul. Well now, having put behind us the importance of this doctrine, the context of this doctrine,

Beginning the Substance of Justification: Two Reasons for Word Study

6:28 we begin this morning an examination of the substance of the doctrine of justification. And our first concern is simply to come to grips with the fundamental significance of the biblical word to justify. In the Old and the New Testaments, this word is found repeatedly. And particularly in the New Testament in such passages as Romans 3 and 4 and the book of Galatians, we find the verb to justify used again and again.

7:07 God justifieth the ungodly. The Scripture foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith preached before the gospel unto Abraham. and we could multiply texts of Scripture. And it is our responsibility then in approaching this doctrine and in seeking to grasp the substance of it to begin with this most elementary discipline, namely, coming to grips with the significance of the biblical word itself.

7:41 Now, this is necessary for two reasons. Reason number one is very clearly stated in 1 Corinthians chapter 2. 1 Corinthians chapter 2. In this chapter, the apostle is speaking of the mighty work of God in this gospel age or gospel dispensation in which he has unveiled mysteries that previously had been hidden.

8:09 And concerning these great gospel mysteries, he says in verse 12 of 1 Corinthians 2, that we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit which is from God, that we might know the things that were freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak, that is, these gospel mysteries that were hidden, but are now revealed by the Spirit for our profit and for our edification, which things also we speak, not in words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Spirit teacheth. In other words, the apostle is saying that the same God who conceived of the great blessings of the gospel,

9:00 who reveal these great gospel mysteries has superintended the language patterns in which those mysteries are expressed. You see the flow of thought. These things were hidden. God has revealed them.

9:18 God has given to us as apostles His Spirit that we might now express those mysteries not in thought patterns which we derive by going to men saying, well, here's the general idea. How would you like to have it expressed? No, no. He says, when we come to men, we speak these things in words which the Spirit Himself indicts.

9:45 Now, do you see why it is important for us then in seeking to come to grips with the privileges of grace in the area of justification to begin by asking the question, what does that word mean by which the blessing is most clearly expressed in the word of God? We must be students of words. And one of the tragedies in our day is that well-meaning people have said, well, look, we live in a day when people don't think in terms of God having his day in court. The court system has become such a joke for the most part.

10:23 There is such laxity and there is such inequity and so much of it is a sham. You just can't convey biblical notions in legal concepts. Therefore, we will express some of these things in language that we think best suits the mindset of the age. My friend, we don't have that liberty.

10:47 God has expressed these realities in words which He Himself has chosen. And therefore we say to our generation, if the blessings of grace mean anything to you, gird up the loins of your mind and think God's thoughts after Him, no matter how arduous the task may be.

11:15 But then there is a second reason. as to why we must begin with a study of the word itself, and that is that the history of the church teaches a sad tale because there has been either a perversion or an ignorance of the meaning of this particular word to justify. It's accurate to say that the whole fabric of Roman Catholic theology, with its wicked perversion of the doctrine of justification begins with a refusal to come to grips with the meaning of the word to justify.

11:56 And that controversy is going on right down to this day. Therefore, we begin this morning with this simple goal in view that when the final amen is pronounced, you who sit here this morning will have a clear grasp upon the meaning of the word justify. That's my only concern this morning. We're not going to deal with other things such as the ground of our justification, the means by which we partake.

Definition: To Justify Is Forensic and Declarative

12:31 All of that is kept in the background, and we zero in upon one issue this morning, namely the meaning of the word to justify. 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 court. Now don't be afraid of the word forensic.

12:59 That which is forensic pertains to the court of law or to a debating hall. In other words, forensic has to do with legal relationships, not with the personal condition of the individual involved. When you are in the realm of the forensic, you are dealing with the judge, not the doctor or the physician. It has reference, this word to justify, with a pronouncement that is legal and always has a connection with a standard of right or wrong.

13:38 In other words, the word to justify, if it means a pronouncement, is a pronouncement that has respect to a standard of right and wrong. It has nothing to do with what may happen in a man but has only to do with what is declared true about the man and his relationship to the Lord In his very excellent article on justification in Baker Theological Dictionary something that ought to be a household companion in any well Christian home Dr Packer says in this excellent little definition and description of the meaning of the word, the biblical meaning of the Hebrew and Greek words for justify is to pronounce, accept, and treat

14:31 as just, that is, on the one hand, not personally liable, that is, liable to punishment, and on the other hand, entitled to all the privileges due to those who kept the law. It is a forensic term denoting the judicial act of administering the law, in this case, by declaring a verdict of acquittal and so excluding all possibility of condemnation. Justification settles the legal status of the person justified. Now let me illustrate the significance of that definition.

15:08 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 bear. Now, in that condition, what is his relationship to the law? Well, he's not condemned, but neither does he have the privileges of a law-abiding citizen.

15:38 He's been taken out of the normal context of society. He's been placed in ward, awaiting his trial. Now, he's not yet condemned, but neither is he declared innocent. If he were declared innocent, he'd have all the privileges of a free citizen. He could get on the bus, go where he wants, buy his Nathan's hamburger or hot dog, and go on and do his thing, but not so. And the day comes when he appears in court, and the witnesses are brought in, the jury is settled, and then after the trial, the jury comes back with its verdict, not guilty. Now what happens? He walks out of that courtroom, not only with the sentence not guilty ringing in his ears,

16:24 therefore utterly free from any punishment that could be brought to bear upon him, but he can go right out in the street corner, get on the bus, pay his 50 cents, stop off at his favorite Hamburg joint, order his hamburgs or his hot dogs, go home. He has all of the privileges of a law-abiding citizen. Now that's what's involved in the biblical concept, in the biblical word, to justify. It is a declaration made by the court that the person in question is not guilty, and not being guilty, he is then free to enjoy all the privileges of a law keeper.

17:08 You see, if they simply sent him back into the place where he was held before the trial with the sentence not guilty, that would only be a halfway measure. He still couldn't hop on the bus, pay his fifty cents and go to Nathan's or go to Geno's. It would only be a halfway release from the problem that was his when he entered the court. And bound up in the whole concept of the Hebrew and Greek words to justify is this two-fold notion.

17:37 A declaration that is negative on the one hand. This person is not liable to punishment, but positive on the other. He is the proper recipient of all the privileges of a law keeper. Now, having asserted, let me demonstrate.

17:54 And in the time remaining, I want you to trace out with me, from the Old and the New Testaments, four lines of biblical evidence that this is indeed the meaning of the word to justify. Now, you say, you mean, Pastor Martin, you're going to weary us with 25 minutes of preoccupation with one word? My friend, this is not wearisome. You lie on a deathbed and bring to your deathbed that day in court.

18:26 And you let the sins of your life pass before you. and all the sins of thought and word and deed and attitude and know that you will soon stand before the judge. In that day you will not count it a luxury to know what justify means. It will be your great bosom companion to have a well-grounded, intelligent grasp upon this one word.

18:58 And that day is coming for you and for me. So don't count it burdens to grasp the significance of that word. All right? Evidence or line of evidence number one.

Evidence #1: Texts Where Any Other Meaning Is Impossible

19:09 The numerous places where any other meaning on the word is impossible. How do we know the word means to declare righteous? Not to make righteous, not to fix up the patient, but simply to declare him not guilty and the just recipient of the privileges of a law keeper. Well, the first way we know this is there are numerous places where any other meaning attached to the word is utterly impossible.

19:37 Let's look at two Old Testament texts, two New Testament texts. First of all, in Deuteronomy chapter 25.

19:46 Deuteronomy chapter 25.

19:58 If there be a controversy between men and they come under judgment, now notice the context is forensic, it is judicial. It doesn't say if there be a controversy between men and one man is bruised and bloody. No, it has to do with legal obligations deriving from that controversy. And they come unto judgment, and the judges judge them.

20:30 Then shall they justify the righteous and condemn the wicked. Now you see here the meaning is obvious. The judge cannot in court make a righteous man unrighteous. Nor can he make an unrighteous man righteous.

20:52 If the word means anything other than to declare what is true in relationship to the law, this passage is nonsense. Do you see it? The judge shall judge them and they shall justify the righteous. That is, they shall declare the condition of the righteous to be indeed what it is, not guilty of a certain transgression, and they shall condemn the wicked.

21:22 Proverbs 17, 15 is another text in which any other meaning is utterly impossible. We might even say ridiculous. Proverbs chapter 17 and verse 15.

21:38 He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord. Now think for a moment. If a judge had the power to make a wicked man righteous, would that be an abominable thing or a good thing?

22:01 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?

22:17 Virtuous. Alright, look at the text. It says, he that justifieth the wicked. You see, if justify means to make a man righteous, that would not be an abomination to the Lord.

22:30 That would be a virtue. But the text obviously means he that declares a wicked man righteous when he is not. He who declares a guilty man to be free of liability to punishment and free to enjoy the privileges of a law keeper. That's an abomination to God.

22:51 And that's why so much of our court system is an abomination. because on little technicalities, men who are proven criminals are declared free from condemnation and given all the privileges of law keepers. So you see here the meaning can mean nothing other than declare righteous. And now two examples in the New Testament.

23:13 In Luke chapter 7 and verse 29.

23:20 Our Lord is speaking concerning John the Baptist and says in verse 29, And all the peoples, when they heard, and the publicans, justified God being baptized with the baptism of John. Now, can anyone make God righteous? No, he's already that. All people can do is say, when John comes in the name of the living God, demanding that men repent and be baptized, you can either say God is right and just in demanding this demonstration of penitence and brokenness and the turning away from sin and embracing that kingdom which is now dawning upon us in the presence of the King.

24:08 Or they can say God is unrighteous in making such a demand. But obviously here, to justify God is to make a declaration about God, not to do anything to God. And then in Luke 16 and verse 15, we have another text in the same area of concern. Jesus, speaking of the Pharisees, says, And he said unto them, Ye are they that justify yourselves in the sight of men.

24:41 Now what did the Pharisees do? They did not actually make themselves truly righteous in the sight of men. That would have been a virtuous thing. But they declared themselves righteous by all this empty form and sham and pretense, as our Lord very clearly indicates in such passages as Matthew 23.

25:04 Well, do you see then, in these four passages, and they could be multiplied many times over in Scripture, that the word in these contexts which God has chosen to express the grace of justification is a word which in many places can mean nothing other than to declare righteous. As one commentator has said, the usage of common life as to this word is just as uniform as that of the Bible itself. If such be the established meaning of the word, it ought to settle all controversy as to the nature of justification. We're bound to take the words of Scripture on their true established sense.

25:53 And therefore, when the Bible says that God justifies the believer, we are not at liberty to say that he merely pardons or that he sanctifies. It means and can only mean God pronounces him just. All right, then there's a second line of evidence that indicates that this is indeed the meaning of the word. And it's those passages where to justify is the opposite of to condemn.

Evidence #2: Contexts Where It Is Opposite of Condemn

26:22 In other words, you have antonyms. Now, you kids who are just learning what synonyms and antonyms and homonyms are, they still teach you that in school? I hope they do. If they don't, shame on them.

26:33 because they rob you of the tools not only of common communication, but of understanding your Bible. 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.

26:50 If I say short, you think tall. Now, it would not be proper, would it, to set tall against hot. You say you're mixing things that don't belong together. Well, in the same way as God speaks to us in his word, he brings together antonyms that are in the same sphere of concern, so that when he says to justify, he gives its opposite, and it's always to condemn.

27:18 Now, everyone knows what it is to condemn. You don't make a man guilty, you declare him so. Therefore, if condemnation is declarative, justification must be declarative, because God has set them before us as opposites. A text in the Old Testament we've already looked at, Proverbs 17 and verse 15.

27:40 And I just refer you to it briefly, Proverbs 17 and verse 15. He that justifieth the wicked and he that condemneth the righteous. Here the two things are brought together as opposites. So whatever condemnation is, the opposite is justification.

28:01 There's no controversy as to what condemnation is. It is always declarative. Now the person whom you condemn may then become the object of a certain activity. He may then be punished.

28:14 He may then be incarcerated. He may then be executed He may be flogged But you see to condemn is always declarative And therefore to justify is always declarative Isaiah 50 verses 8 and 9. The same family of relationships is set before us in Isaiah chapter 50 and verses 8 and 9. He is near that justifieth me.

28:50 Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is mine adversary? Let him come near to me.

28:58 Behold the Lord God will help me. Who is he that shall condemn me? Now you see the contrast is between being condemned and being justified. And that same pattern is brought over into the New Testament.

29:15 We could look at Romans 5 and verse 18, but slip over very quickly to Romans 8 verses 33 and 34. Perhaps this is the clearest passage in the New Testament concerning this fact. Romans 8 and verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?

29:38 It is God that justifieth who is he that condemneth. So we see again the contrast is between a declaration of condemnation, which is the declaration of guilty, liable to punishment, or it is the declaration of not guilty, not liable to punishment, and furthermore, a just recipient of all the privileges of a law keeper. How do we know then that the meaning of the word to justify is to declare righteous? Context where it cannot mean anything else.

Evidence #3: Equivalent Forms of Expression

30:19 Secondly, the context in which it is the opposite of condemn. Thirdly, passages where equivalent forms of expression are used. There are places where the word justify is not used, but equivalents are used, and those equivalents always point in precisely the same direction. You see, God has guarded the word justify not only by its own use, but by the usage of its cousin or intimate family of words.

30:50 I direct you to just two passages, the very familiar one in John chapter 3.

30:56 John chapter 3, verses 16 to 18. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God sent not his Son into the world to judge the world but that the world should be saved through him. He that believeth on him is not judged.

31:23 He that believeth not hath been judged already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. You see, here the contrast is between condemnation or judgment and non-condemnation. Well, you see, that's a declarative thing. It has nothing to do with something being done in the criminal.

31:45 It is the declaration about him. And Romans 4, 4-6 is a parallel passage in Paul's great epistle. Now to him that worketh the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. Romans 4, 5 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.

32:11 Even as David pronounces blessing upon the man unto whom, now notice the language, God reckoneth righteousness apart from works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin. Here you see justification is explained in terms of the non-imputation or the non-reckoning of sin, the covering of sin. Well, you see again, that has clearly to do with legal relationships.

Evidence #4: Formal Setting in Romans and Galatians

32:46 and then of course the fourth line of evidence is what we would call the setting in which the doctrine is formally treated the book of Romans and the book of Galatians the two great formal treatments of the doctrine of justification both of them are couched in legal concepts the first three chapters of Romans judgment, judgment, judgment condemnation, condemnation and it's in that setting that God announces the good news of justifying grace, something has happened whereby we can stand right in the court of God. Now you see, it's wrong. If God sets the context of this doctrine in the courtroom to bring it over into the hospital room,

33:33 we must not mix what God has distinguished and separated. When Paul is dealing with the problem of human sin, the dominant note in those opening chapters of Romans is the guilt which sin brings upon us. So then he says in chapter 3 and verse 9, every mouth is stopped and all the world is brought under the indictment to the judgment of God. But now, and then he opens up the glorious truth of justifying grace.

34:05 Why you say, Pastor, you're treating us like we were seven-year-olds. No, I'm not. I'm treating you like sheep. Who unless you not only get hold of the concept because it's spoken clearly, but of the passages of Scripture in which this truth is clearly taught sooner or later, this doctrine is so central to spiritual stability, You are going to be shaken to the very foundations.

34:35 And if you can't go back to these texts yourself, turn them up and say, God, regardless of what the accuser of the brethren tells me, regardless of what I hear in this place and that place, Lord, when you say, God justifies the ungodly, Lord, that has nothing to do with anything in me. It has to do with a declaration made concerning my standing before your holy law. You will not long live as a Christian before you'll find yourself in desperate need of a firm, intelligent grasp upon those distinctions. So from these four lines of evidence we see that the meaning of the word to justify

35:25 has to do with a judgment given, declared, or pronounced. To quote Professor Murray, the main point of such terms is to distinguish between the kind of action which justification involves and the kind of action involved in regeneration. Regeneration is an act of God in us. Takes out the heart of stone, gives the heart of flesh.

35:51 Justification is a judgment of God with respect to us. 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.

36:11 He gives a verdict regarding our legal status. If we're innocent, he declares us accordingly. the purity of the gospel is bound up with the recognition of this distinction. If justification is confused with regeneration or sanctification, then the door is opened for the perversion of the gospel at its center.

36:37 Justification is still the article of the standing or the falling church. And my friends, my great concern is pastoral this morning. I am not speaking to you this morning as a theological lecturer. I am speaking as one who for more than half of my life has been involved with not only the struggles of my own soul, but the struggles of the people of God in pastoral relationships.

37:07 And the great problem of the people of God is the problem of sin. And I have seen again and again instability and spiritual weakness because believers were not sufficiently grounded in this distinction. And the moment they began to see some problems in the area of the inward state of the soul, they began to lose sight of the glorious, objective, unchanging reality of justifying grace. And when they did, their instability was a monumental witness to their spiritual folly.

Pastoral Application: The Wonder That God Pronounces Sinners Just

37:52 And so I speak to you out of the matrix of that deep concern, having demonstrated from the Scriptures, I trust to your satisfaction, that the undisputed meaning of the word to justify means to declare just or righteous, and that it has to do exclusively with the court of heaven, the law of God, and the judge of the universe, let me in these closing moments press some questions on your conscience. And the questions are these. Does this thought begin to excite you? That concerning me, it is possible that the very court of heaven, with a judge who knows every one of my thoughts,

38:39 every one of my motives every one of my deeds and words and actions for the entirety of my life from my very conception you mean it's possible that that judge with his perfect knowledge of what I am and what I have done and with a perfect knowledge of his own law in the full extent of it you mean that God has made provision whereby fully facing the totality of the demands of His law and the totality of the mountain of my sin can declare in court in the presence of holy angels and the entire universe

39:25 not guilty,

39:30 just recipient of all the blessings of a perfect law keeper. now how in the name of anything that's right can God do that that's the doctrine of justification that almighty God has indeed in his infinite wisdom and in his amazing grace wrought a salvation which enables this God to do precisely that so that the justified sinner can actually claim the law on his side.

40:12 Now I ask you, does the thought that such a thing is not only possible but a reality, does it create anything at least bordering on excitement within your breast this morning?

40:25 If not, why not? Are you exempt from the jurisdiction of the court? Is there anyone here who would dare to stand and say, hey, that court's never going to summon me. No, no, every one of us shall give account of himself to God.

40:41 Are you exempt from the law of that court? Does God have a lesser standard for you? Has he somehow taken you into his counsels and said, well, I'm going to lower the standard? No, no.

40:53 The Scripture makes it plain that every one of us shall be judged by that law, and it's inflexible in its demands. Is any one of you able to avoid the judge to cancel the demands of the law? No. Well, my friend, listen to me.

41:08 Listen to me this morning. Unless you are prepared to live with the sentence of guilty that's already gone forth from your head, upon your head. Unless you are prepared to die with the sentence of guilty.

41:23 And unless you're prepared to go before the God of the universe to have him make the pronouncement. and then have that same God follow up the pronouncement with the infliction of the punishment, you better start taking the doctrine of justification seriously.

41:41 You see, you can sit here this morning, well and healthy and the world is, as it were, before you in all of its excitement and the rest. My friend, listen. It's only a few breaths. If you even live out your three score in ten, which you have no assurance you'll do, but even if you do, and that ultimate reality will come to you as well as to me, God's going to have His day in court with you.

42:11 God's going to have His day in court with you and with me. Therefore, none of us can afford the luxury of indifference, insensitivity, or ignorance of the great provisions of justifying grace. Will you this morning for just a few minutes Bring near your death bed If God is pleased to give you such What will it 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 up on a bed, to have your life flash by,

42:58 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 and strength. The indifference to the gospel of His Son. Your sins of thought and word and deed.

Solemn Warning - Conscience Will Have Its Day

43:16 Try as you may with those remaining faculties to push them down. What comfort will you have when you lie there all the vital powers ebbing away? to try to conjure up some delight as you relive some sensual experience, as you try to relive some carnal delight, and you try, as it were, to take away the sting of that panoramic view of your life by bringing back some associated memories of pleasure and carnal indulgence. My friend, you'll not be able to do it.

43:51 Conscience will have its hour.

43:56 As you allow your mind then to rest upon the thought of your sin, and that soon you must stand before the God of the universe, are you going to find any comfort in the wish? Well, maybe, maybe God will be a little lenient to me. Maybe God really didn't mean what He said. And so you try to pump your conscience from the lies.

44:16 But conscience will have its day. And it won't buy the lies. and you'll be left with the naked reality of holy, infinitely just, almighty God, the mountain of your sin and the fact that the court is being set.

44:38 Now, my friend, what are you going to do in that day? I tell you, when I bring that day near, there is but one thing that gives me consolation. And that is to think of one who, fully knowing that law, fully kept it, of whom the Father could say, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. This one whose words we read this morning, as the Father hath given me commandment, even so I do.

45:14 Arise, let us go hence. And he became obedient even to the death of the cross. And there the Father's wrath because of that broken law was poured upon him. And in the language of Scripture it pleased the Lord to bruise him.

45:32 He hath put him to grief. God has made him an offering for sin. And oh, what consolation comes to bring near one's deathbed and there to say yes. Yes, I can remember with shame my sins And though I do not know the one thousandth part of my sins This I know That there is one who perfectly obeyed that law There is one who died for all of the breaches of that law that were mine And oh God, the great judge of the universe, you have said there is now no condemnation to those that are in Christ Jesus.

46:19 Oh, my Father, my faith, I have entered into union with your Son. And when my day in court comes, this shall be my only plea. Christ has lived. Christ has died even for me.

46:36 And may I say it in language of reverence You and I can challenge Deity to damn us Believing in Christ Isn't that what Paul says in Romans 8 Who is he that condemneth? It is God that justifies What a wonderful thing to have a righteous judge on your side in the court and to have him declare, accept it in the beloved. You see, and that's the wonderful thing with God's justifying grace. It is a present possession to everyone who believes in Christ.

The Believer's Boast: Christ Has Lived, Christ Has Died

47:21 It is a constant possession through all the trials and turmoil and conflicts and defeats of the Christian life. And then in the language of the old confession in the last day, there will be an open declaration and Almighty God in court will say the final word of justifying grace. He will say to every sinner who believing in Jesus stands before Him, acquitted. Acquitted!

47:52 No guilt! No condemnation! Grant to Him everything that is deserved of those who fully keep my law. They will enter into the glories of the new heavens and the new earth with their hearts ravished with gratitude and love to Him whose life and death formed the raw materials out of which the judge of the universe could justify the ungodly.

48:26 My friend, what a wonderful gospel. To justify. What's the substance of the doctrine? It's all locked up in the meaning of that word.

48:37 And if you don't get hold of that, and don't pray that the Spirit of God help you to see it, and then enable you to grasp it, if somehow you have this feeling that only when you're walking with, quote, all known sin confessed, and only when you're walking, quote, with all avenues of obedience working as they ought, that you have reason to believe all is well in the court of heaven, my friend. If that's your thought, you are doomed to nothing but unsettledness, doomed to nothing but a life of perplexity and defeat, and the Christian life has enough problems without adding your own.

49:21 What is the one thing that we can take hold of when we have miserably failed, when we have not only obeyed, disobeyed unwittingly, but with eyes wide open? What is our recourse when we come to the living God? It is the wonder of grace that has not disinherited us because of our sin. Oh, but you say, Pastor Martin, doesn't that mean that people will abuse this doctrine?

49:48 Yes, they will. They will. But they'll abuse it to their own damnation. But don't let the abusive that keep you from the proper use of it.

49:57 Paul says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? He realized that this teaching is liable to abuse. But oh, in this context, for everyone I've met that abuses it, I've met ten people who struggle because they aren't making proper use of it.

50:15 And I plead with you this morning, if you're a child of God, cry to the Lord to make real to you that if you are clinging to Christ in faith, God has made a non-reversible, irrevocable declaration, no condemnation, and it will be wonderfully declared at the last day. Then, my friend, you who feel you can have the luxury of being indifferent to this, you'll envy us then. You pity us today. Some of you really do.

50:49 You pity us, Christians. you really do you pity us for being a little weak between the ears you pity us for being a little simplistic about the great issues of life you pity us that we're robbing ourselves of all the dainties of the table at which you feed my friend who's going to pity who in that day in court who's going to pity who when the judge is there upon his bench and before Him the nations are gathered. And to some He will say, Enter into the kingdom prepared from the foundation of the world.

51:31 And to others He will say, Depart from Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. What's the difference? Each of them equally lost, equally deserving of wrath, equally guilty. The difference is some came within the orbit of justifying grace as well as sanctifying grace and all the other blessings of salvation.

52:02 May God grant that you will not put off the reality of that great day when God will have you in court. In a real sense, when a man gets truly converted, God gives him a preview of the day of judgment and he acts in the light of the realities of that day. He's indicted for his sins. He owns the magnitude of his guilt and he knows there's no recourse in himself or in his fellow creatures.

52:30 And he pleads to Christ. And then by faith lays hold of that perfect righteousness that is in the Son of God, in the doings, in the dying of another. and then out of love to so brave a Savior he now seeks to walk as diligently as though getting to heaven depended on his own obedience. That's the wonderful mystery of the gospel.

52:56 He stands on the one hand and says not one tenth of one step of my obedience adds to the path to heaven. It's been paved in the obedience and blood of Jesus. I won't put a pebble of my own performance in it. And yet he walks the path of obedience as though every step was a pebble paving his way to heaven.

53:22 That's the mystery of the gospel. That the believer says, Christ is the way and every pebble in the way. And yet out of love to so great a Savior, I will seek to walk in all his precepts As though the measure of my obedience would determine whether or not I make it.

53:46 Now are those things true of you? Or have you got them mixed up? Or could you just say, I don't give a hoot about the whole thing? Where are you this morning?

Closing Plea and Prayer

53:53 Where are you this morning? Oh, my dear listeners, don't treat with lightness these great, these ultimate issues. May God grant that as we further study this glorious provision of grace, some of you who came this morning and your feet were not in this way may God grant that even this day you will be found in the way of justifying grace as you embrace the offered Savior let us pray oh our Father what thanks can we render to you this morning

54:40 that you the great judge of the universe who could have crushed us with inflexible justice and with holy wrath you would so love miserable rebel sinners as to conceive and then execute so wonderful a plan of redemption in which your dear Son assumes all of the debts and the liabilities of those who would believe upon Him and undertakes to discharge those debts and secure the privileges of full pardon, of complete acceptance before you and your holy law.

55:28 O God, ravish our hearts with a felt awareness of these great gospel realities. Have mercy upon those who are, in their ignorance or indifference, utterly insensitive to these things. For those, our Father, who have been crippled because, for one reason or another, they have not laid hold of this great and fundamental truth of Scripture. O Father, by the Spirit, help them today and bring them to rejoice in the knowledge that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

56:13 Seal the word to our hearts. May your word not fall to the ground, but may it prosper in that whereunto you have sent it. Be with us during the remaining hours of this day. Continue to make it a blessed day in your courts and in the fellowship of your people.

56:33 We ask through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

56:53 Thank you.