Justification, Part 4

Introduction: The Profound Question and the Parable's Context

0:04 I would direct your attention again tonight to the 18th chapter of the Gospel according to Luke,

0:11 this passage that we have sought to study in great detail for some six or seven Lord's Day nights, and within which now we are studying the broader biblical doctrine of justification by faith, as that doctrine was, in a real sense, forced upon us by the concluding statement of our Lord in this particular parable. I read, beginning with verse 19 of Luke 18, through to verse 14.

0:43 And he spake also this parable unto certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and set all others at naught. Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank. I thank thee that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican.

1:15 I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I get. But the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote his breast, saying, God, be thou merciful to me. Me, the sinner, I say unto you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other.

1:47 For every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled, but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

2:00 This parable of our Lord addresses itself to that which I have called each introduction of our study in the parable, the most profound religious question that a man can ever ask. And that question is this. How can sinful man be right with a holy God?

2:25 How can a fallen son of Adam find acceptance with the Holy One of Israel, the God and Judge of the whole earth? This parable addresses itself specifically to that question. For you will notice that the historical setting in which it is introduced is this detection on the part of our Lord in the thinking of some of his followers of a spirit of self-righteousness. Verse 9, He spake this parable unto certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous.

3:03 That is, they rested in something found in themselves as the ground of acceptance with God. Hence this parable is spoken in order to cut at the heart of that fallacy and conversely to lay before us the only ground upon which a sinful man can find acceptance with God, namely the righteousness of another, one found holy out of himself.

Defining Justification: A Framework from Westminster

3:35 Having, as I previously stated, in some detail expounded and applied each of the verses of the parable, we are presently focusing upon the meaning of our Lord's words in verse 14. I say unto you, this man, that is, the publican, went down to his house justified. When Jesus said that the publican went down to his house justified, what did he mean? And it's obvious that the answer to that is not found in this particular passage.

4:08 It is suggested. But then we must turn to the rest of Scripture. For an answer. And presently this is what we're doing.

4:16 We're trying to bring to bear upon this particular verse the light of the entire range of Holy Scripture on the great biblical doctrine of justification. God's way of pronouncing sinners righteous and giving them acceptance in His sight. Now to come it's so massive a doctrine, one which is dealt with in such detail, in the Scriptures, it would be a hopeless task just to strike out and find all the references from Genesis to Revelation. We must be selected.

4:52 There must be some organization of the materials. And so I have suggested that the best way to gather together the leading lines of biblical thought concerning justification, what it meant for the publican to go down to his house justified, is to take the framework of the larger catechism of the Westminster Synod, the Westminster Standards, and using that definition of justification to bring together the biblical materials under the six distinct lines of thought set before us in this confessional standard. And for those who were not with us several weeks ago, I would just briefly say in an aside, this is the proper way to use creedal and confessional standards. They do not stand over the Word of God to mold it. But rather they stand outside of the Word of God as an aid to tell us what is in the Word of God. The Holy Ghost has been in the Church throughout all of its ages and has enabled the Church with varying and increasing degrees to understand this final embodiment of truth in the pages of Holy Scripture.

6:06 Therefore, the framers of the Confession and the Catechisms being aware of the historic, continuing witness of the Church in its understanding of the doctrine, seeing the errors and deflections, was very careful or were very careful in giving us this definition. I shall read it, spend about three minutes reviewing what we have already covered, and then move on to the material before us tonight. Question number 70. What is justification?

Review: Author, Source, and Objects of Justification

6:34 The answer? 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 His sight, not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ by God imputed to them and received by faith alone. Now I suggest that that massive verbiage that just sort of overwhelms you and hits you like an M1, an M1 bulldozer when you read it for the first time, can be broken down into six distinct categories of thought, which bring together every major line of biblical truth on this doctrine. First of all, we see that the author of justification is God Himself. Justification is an act of God's free grace. And every passage in the Scripture that speaks of this subject clearly indicates that the author of justification is God Himself.

7:41 Justification is an act of God's free grace. And every passage in the Scripture that speaks of this subject clearly indicates that the author of justification is God Himself. Justification is not something that I do with reference to myself. It is a declaration of the living God.

7:49 He is your judge. He is my judge. He is the moral governor of the universe to whom alone we are accountable. And if God does not justify you, it does not matter how much you justify yourself or how much others may justify you.

8:06 It is to God and to God alone that we are accountable. It is to God and to God alone that we are accountable. It is to God and to God alone that we are accountable. The great lesson that the most important number of the great blessing that this publican knew when he went down to his house was that Almighty God had made a pronouncement about Him.

8:20 God had declared Him righteous. God had declared Him accepted. The second line of thought in this definition or description of the doctrine is this. The source of justification is free grace.

8:36 Justification is an act of God's free grace. That is, grace that flows out unrestrained and unconstrained by anything other than God's own sovereign mercy, being justified freely by His grace. Romans 3, 24, By grace are ye saved, God's unmerited favor to sinners, that does not cut channels dictated by men, but cuts channels dictated by a sovereign God. I will have mercy upon whom I will have mercy, is the teaching of the Scriptures.

9:18 And then we concluded last week with considering the third line of thought, the objects of justification. Justification is an act of God, He's the author. Free grace the source, but it is unto sinners. The recipients of justification are sinners, considered as sinners, with nothing to commend them to God, even as this publican who prays, God be merciful to me, the sinner.

9:51 And then there are no parentheses saying, and I ought to have mercy because... I'm not quite as bad a sinner as someone else. I'm not quite as extensive in my abandonment to sin. None of this. None of this.

10:03 He pleads nothing before God, but mercy to him as a sinner. Though this note of gospel truth is sounded frequently, and I trust clearly from this pulpit, when the Holy Ghost opens a person's eyes to see it, it's good news for the first time. And what a thrill was mine to have someone call me. Just a week or so ago, and say, Pastor, as I sat there Sunday night, perhaps for the first time I saw it clearly, nothing do I bring to God.

10:36 It's unto sinners that the grace is given. Well, they've heard it dozens of times in this place, but they heard it for the first time. I ask you tonight, not how many times have you heard it, but have you really heard it? I'm not asking how many times you've heard it, but have you really heard it?

10:56 That the recipients... That the recipients of God's justifying act, sinners, Romans 4 or 5, to him that worketh not is the reward reckoned of grace, but of death.

11:08 I'm sorry, but to him that worketh is the reward not reckoned of grace, but of death. But to him that worketh not, this is grace, he justifieth the ungodly. Well, then we move to the fourth category of thought tonight. What is the essence of justification?

The Essence of Justification: Pardon and Acceptance

11:25 God's the author. Free grace the source. Sinners are the recipients, but now the blessing itself, what is it? What is the essence?

11:33 What is the substance of justification? And the definition given in the Catechism, and we shall see that it's a beautiful statement of Holy Scripture, is twofold. It is an act of God, as opposed to a process, and it is an act involving two things, in which he pardoneth all of their sins, and accepteth, and accounteth their persons as righteous in his sight. So the essence of justification is, it is an act of pardon and acceptance.

12:09 And that's the heart of the biblical doctrine. Oh, you say that's sinful. Yes, it is sinful. But do you know that perhaps there are precious few amidst the visible church who understand and experientially appropriate that grand and glorious simple truth?

12:28 Justification in its essence, in its substance, is an act of God. It is not a process. There are no degrees of justification. Every one of you here tonight is either wholly justified, or you are wholly condemned.

12:47 You're either under the wrath of God, or you're within the favor of God, a favor that will not improve after you've been in heaven a billion years. There are no degrees of God's justifying act. You are wholly accepted, or you are wholly under his frown, and there is no neutral ground. I ask you tonight, where are you?

13:15 Has God with you as with the publican declared you righteous? By his own free grace to you as a sinner, has this act been performed, or has there been this declaration? It is an act of God. It is an act of pardon and acceptance.

Biblical Proof for Pardon and Acceptance

13:34 Now our review is done. We come to the heart of our study for tonight. Where did the Westminster divines get this idea that justification is not only pardon, but acceptance of our persons as righteous? Not only negative, the passing over and the blotting out of sin, but the positive imputation of a perfect, righteous righteousness.

14:00 Well, they got it from the scriptures. And I want to direct your attention to some of the pivotal texts of scripture. Turn, please, to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5.

14:14 Remember, what we're doing now is just tracing out this fourth category of the doctrine of justification. The essence of it, an act of pardon and acceptance. In 2 Corinthians chapter 5, a chapter in which Paul is treating the subject of the Christian ministry, and in particular, his ministry as an apostle along with his colleagues. And he says in this passage to which I direct your attention, chapter 5, verses 20 and 21, We are ambassadors therefore on behalf of Christ, as though God did beseech you by us, we beseech you, we beseech you, we beseech you, we beseech you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. Him who knew no sin, He made to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. Now, do you see the scope of this statement? He says one of the fruits of Jesus Christ becoming sin for us is not merely that we should receive pardon, that's negative, but that positively we should actually come into the possession of the very righteousness of God, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him.

15:43 Back to verse 19, you see the concept of pardon and forgiveness. To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not reckoning unto them their trespasses. Here, justification is viewed as the non-reckoning of our sins. In verse 21, it is viewed as the positive impartation of a perfect righteousness.

16:08 And both elements are there in the biblical doctrine. When Jesus said that that publican went down to his house justified, did He mean to teach that he went down to his house simply as a pardoned criminal? No. Something more grand and glorious than this was in the Bible.

16:28 It was envisioned. He went down not only pardoned of all his sins, but he went down possessing a righteousness that was perfect because it was the very righteousness of God. He went down to his house no longer regarded as a lawbreaker, but actually regarded as one who had perfectly kept the law. And there is a difference between those two things.

16:53 Turn then to the book of Romans, as we see other areas of biblical law, for this concept that justification involves passing over, pardon of sin, and the imputation of righteousness. Romans 4. Notice what the concept here, what the concept in focus is in this passage. Romans 4, beginning with verse 5.

17:20 But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, the theme is justification by faith, his faith, his faith, his reckoned for righteousness. When he believes in the realm of God's grace, he comes into the possession of righteousness. That's the positive imputation of a perfect righteousness. But then he goes right on to say, even as David pronounces the blessing upon the man unto whom God reckoneth righteousness apart from works, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

17:58 Blessed is the man, unto whom the Lord will not reckon sin. There's the negative. God no longer reckons sin when he justifies, but he does reckon positive righteousness. And you have the two strands of thought here in this passage as you had it in 2 Corinthians 5.

18:16 Turn to Romans 5.19, and we see a similar statement. Romans 5.19, in this section in which Paul is showing that God deals with all men in terms of the two representative men, Adam, Christ, in Adam, death, in Christ, life, and righteousness.

18:38 He says in the development of that argument, verse 19, for as through the one man's disobedience, that's Adam, the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made, or better translated, shall be constituted righteous. See the positive aspect? In Adam constituted sinners. In Christ we have something more than just the reckoning that we are not sinners.

19:09 We are actually constituted as righteous having fully kept God's holy law. Acts 13 and verse 39.

19:22 Here the focus is on these similar elements. Acts 13 and verse 39.

19:38 Perhaps we should back up to verse, verse 38. Paul is preaching at Antioch. He's coming to the conclusion of his message with exhortation. And he says, Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man, that is Jesus, is proclaimed unto you the remission of sins, and by him everyone that believeth is justified from all things from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses.

20:05 Here, justification is joined with the concept of remission of sins. That's the negative. But in Acts chapter 26 and verse 18, you see something added to the negative of forgiveness.

20:25 Acts chapter 26 and verse 18. The Lord is commissioning Paul. This is Paul's testimony and he's reviewing his commission from Christ. And this is a distillation of his gospel commission.

20:40 Verse 18. And to open their eyes that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive remission of sins, that's the negative, forgiveness, no longer their sins reckoned to them, but something more, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me. Well, I don't want to labor the point. I've given you six passages of Scripture which are the key portions in the New Testament.

21:11 Demonstrating that when the Westminster divines said justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners by which He pardoneth all their sins and accepteth their persons as righteous in His sight, they weren't just spilling out theological language willy-nilly. They had their noses in the book and they were facing the full and the glorious concept of what it means to be justified. Forgiveness and acceptance. And Reformed theologians have been careful to point out that anything less than these words does not do justice to the biblical teaching on justification. It is not enough that we be declared no longer guilty. We must be declared as those who have a title and a right to eternal life and all the blessings that flow from it. They have been careful to point out if we're to stand before the law of God and the God of the law truly acquitted and accepted, we must stand as having fulfilled the precepts of the law as well as having had satisfaction to the penalties demanded by the law.

22:31 And this is the great heritage that is the portion of every believer when he is in Christ. May I quote from J.I. Packer's article on this in Baker's Dictionary of Theology.

22:46 He summarizes what I've been trying to lay before you from these passages in a very succinct way. Justification has two sides. On the one hand it means pardon, remission and the non-imputation of all sins.

23:03 Reconciliation to God and the end of His enmity and His wrath. That would be enough. But that's just one aspect. On the other hand, it means the bestowal of a righteous man's status and a title to all the blessings of the just.

23:22 A thought which Paul amplifies by linking justification with the adoption of believers as God's sons and God's heirs. A man may be a criminal and for years find himself in a penal institution. It is one thing for a decree to go forth that he is pardoned, that society will no longer deal with him as one who has broken a law, stolen a bank, killed a man. But suppose you ask men to regard him as though he not only had never done those things, but as though he had perfectly kept the law and had never stolen anything.

24:05 You say, that's too much to ask. We can't do it. No, we can't. But God does just this.

The Grand Scope of Justification: Peace and Hope of Glory

24:09 He not only pardons our sins, but He has conceived, then contrived a gospel method by which the guilty may not only be declared pardoned, but declared as though they'd fully kept the law and therefore entitled to all the blessings of perfect law keepers. And that's the grand scope of the biblical doctrine of justification by faith. Look at the classic summary of it in Romans 5, verses 1 and 2. Here the apostle lays this before us in such vivid language.

24:43 Having been, therefore, better translation of the verb, not being justified as though it were a present act. The verb form means something that happened once for all in the past and the blessings continue to the present. Having been and being would be a better way. It's rather awkward English, but it gets the force of the original.

25:07 Having been and being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. No longer do we fear His wrath. No longer do we sense that we're at enmity with Him and He with us. The frown is changed to His smile.

25:24 But he goes on to say, Through whom also we have had our access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. What is he saying? He's saying as justified men and women, we not only are done with the, dread and fear of His wrath, we have come into the positive expectation of blessings that can be described as nothing short of sharing in the very glory of God. We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

26:04 That's the thought. And Paul, as he contemplated what it meant to be justified, never stopped with the concept, shall I say, of mere pardon? No, pardon is a wonderful thing. But he doesn't stop with pardon and goes on to acceptance.

26:20 Now apply this to the publican. When Jesus said, This man went down to his house justified, how did he go down to his house? How did God who justified him regard him? Did he simply say, Now, Mr. Publican, I no longer will remember all the times that you were dishonest in your business dealings, all the time you were, nasty to your wife, and all the times you cheated when you were playing ball as a kid in the playground at the local school. I won't remember the times when you stuck your hand into your mama's pocketbook and took a quarter. Is God simply saying, I will no longer remember your sins against you, you're forgiven, and you're now, as it were, as Adam was in the Garden of Eden? No, no.

27:06 When Jesus said, This man went down to his house justified, God not only saw all of his sins blotted out, and pardoned, but God looked upon him by virtue of his union with Christ as one who had perfectly kept the law, and God could say, You are now by grace entitled to all the blessings of those who have fully kept my law. That's why the Bible says, if we're justified because of our union with Christ, we are what? Joint heirs with Christ. All that he is entitled to because of his perfect righteousness is ours in him.

27:42 And we are called, co-heirs with our blessed Lord. We do not magnify God by a false humility that will not confess faith in the magnitude of such provisions. I find this subtle tendency in my heart to say, Lord, that's something too good for the likes of me. As though I must somehow accommodate God's provisions to my ideas of what would keep me humble.

28:12 We do not magnify God by confessing confidence in anything less than the full measure of the provisions that he's made in his dear Son. For angels, innocence is a sweet word. But for sinners, forgiveness and acceptance alone are sweet words. As one man has said, when God pardons, he pardons all sins, original sin, actual sin, sins of omission, sins of commission, secret, secret sins, open sins, sins of thought, word and deed.

28:48 One unpardoned sin would destroy a soul forever. And listen to this next statement. A single transgression can rouse an enlightened conscience to the wildest fury. My friend, you lay upon your bed at night and think of how God must deal with you if there is but one sin unpardoned.

29:12 Dare you meet him who is holiness in the entirety of his being with one unpardoned sin? Dare you meet that God who says the soul that sinneth it shall die with one sin that is unpardoned? Mr. Plummer has rightly said a single transgression can rouse an enlightened conscience to the wildest fury.

The Ground of Justification: Not in Ourselves

29:41 And there's only one thing that can calm the fury of an awakened conscience. It's the knowledge that acceptance has been found in Jesus Christ, that we've been justified. We have come into the orbit of that act of God's free grace to sinners wherein he pardoneth all our sins and accepteth us as righteous in his sight. This then is the essence of the blessing of justification and act of pardon and acceptance and now we begin as time permits to consider upon what grounds would God ever do this to the likes of you and me.

30:24 What is the ground of such an act of God? And the Westminster larger catechism takes us right into it. In this act by which he pardons and accepts our persons as righteous in his sight is not for anything wrought in them or done by them. Two negatives.

30:46 But only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ. Two positives. Not for anything in us, done by us, but solely for the obedience and the satisfaction of Christ. We'll see how much time we have in covering this ground.

31:09 I rather think we'll get only to the negatives. Following the thought patterns of the very parable before us, the Westminster divines were careful to state that the grounds of our justification are not to be found in ourselves. Wasn't this the problem of the publican? He came into the category described in verse 9 of those who trusted in themselves that they were righteous.

31:39 So what does he do when he prays? He does two things. He says, God, I thank thee I'm not as other men. What is he saying?

31:46 There's something in me that is the ground of my acceptance. Then he tells God what he's done. I fast and I tithe. What is he doing?

31:55 He's saying there's something in my person and something in my performance that forms the ground of my acceptance. But the teaching of the word of God is that if God ever says to any man, be he publican or pharisee, you are justified. It will never be because of anything in them personally or in their performance. And let's look at those two things in that order.

32:25 Not for anything wrought in them. This is a calculated attack upon the heresy that has plagued the church for the centuries that God will justify us because of something we have in ourselves by nature or because of something that even God has put in us by grace. Now, the Roman Catholic teaching is not that we're justified by anything that's in us by nature. They believe in the doctrine of original sin.

33:00 That's why they're willing even to get a few drops of water from the hands of a priest on a fetus in a dead mother of a stillborn child. Why? Because original sin will be purged away by the application of the waters of their christening. They take the doctrine of original sin seriously.

33:19 The Roman Catholic Church does not believe there's any reason for anything in us by nature that can form the grounds of our justification. But what they do teach is this, that God works grace in us, which grace then becomes the grounds of His declaring us righteous.

33:37 And so with one breath all the credit apparently is given to God, but the whole ground of justification is false. When God said to that publican, you are justified, when Jesus says he went down to his house justified, the reason did not lay in anything God had done in him. Now had God worked the spirit of repentance in him, yes or no? Sure he had.

34:03 Of course he had. He's crying out, God be thou merciful to me, the sinner. He sees his sin. And with the spirit of repentance, God always gives all other graces.

34:14 There was born in his heart the beginnings of true love to God, true desire to serve Him, to obey Him, to honor Him. That's always present when God does a work of grace. So when he goes down to his house justified, why does he go down justified? Is it because God beholds the work in that man's heart of repentance and faith and all of these other things and says, now because of these virtues I've put in you, I declare you righteous?

34:40 Virtues I did not put in the Pharisee? No. The ground of his justification was not found in himself. Pastor, you're laboring the point.

34:50 Yes, I will labor it, my friend, for failure to see this will land multitudes in hell.

35:00 We find the same error in our poor, deluded, liberal people who think that because of some ethical virtue in themselves that makes them better than other people in their external conduct and we don't despise that. Any man who's a good, law-abiding citizen, even if he's proud as the devil because of it, I'd rather have him as my neighbor than some guy that would pick my pocket and chase around with my wife and, and steal stuff off my back porch, wouldn't you? I'd rather have a self-righteous hypocrite for my neighbor than some outright thief. Sure, but the delusion of teaching that does not hammer out the biblical concepts of God's holiness and the inflexibility of His law is that people think, well, I must be all right. I'm not as bad as other people. How many times have you heard this in trying to talk to people? Well, God, I think I'll make it to heaven.

35:55 I'm not as, I don't do everything I should, but I'm not as bad as other people. What are they saying? They're saying the ground of my acceptance is something in me. And whether it be the delusion of Roman Catholic theology or the delusion of the false teaching of liberalism, whatever it be, anything that points you to anything in you by nature or even so-called by grace as the ground of your justification is absolutely false.

36:26 No, it is not for anything wrought in you nor, the standard goes on to say, nor done by them. This is a negation of the idea that any works performed by us have anything to do with the ground of our justification. Look at the many passages that exclude works from the grounds of our justification. I'll only give you three or four of the outstanding ones.

36:52 Romans 3 and verse 28.

36:57 We reckon, therefore, that a man is justified by faith, apart from the works of the law. Romans 4, verse 4, Now to him that worketh the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, For by grace are you saved through faith and that not of yourselves.

37:25 It is the gift of God, not of works. Lest any man should boast. Titus 3, 5, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. Now listen carefully.

37:45 Since faith is also contrasted with law and works, we must never regard faith as a kind of work that becomes the ground of our justification. The Bible nowhere says a man is justified on account of his faith. It everywhere says we are justified by faith, through faith, but never on account of faith. You see, the thing on the account of which we are justified is the ground of our justification.

38:20 Faith is not the ground of your justification because faith is something performed by you. Granted, it will never be performed by you apart from the regenerating work of the Spirit, but God doesn't believe on Christ for you. You believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You believe on the justification.

38:39 So when the Bible says the ground of justification is not anything wrought in us nor anything done by us, that excludes even faith as the ground of our justification.

The Ground of Justification: Wholly in Christ Alone

38:51 We won't be justified unless we believe, but we're not justified on account of our faith. Well, you say, if we're not justified for anything wrought in us nor done by us, what then is the ground of our justification? And again, the Westminster Standards state the truth of the Bible so beautifully, not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ. There's the ground of a sinner's justification.

39:26 The perfect obedience and the full satisfaction of Christ.

39:34 Some of you in the past have heard the term the active and the passive obedience of Christ. They are unfortunate terms. It was an awkward way to express this truth that the ground of our justification is bound up wholly in Christ and it is bound up in two facets of Christ, person, and work. On the one hand, you have His perfect obedience to the law in His life, even unto death.

40:02 Then you have the satisfaction to the law which He made in His work upon the cross of Mount Calvary.

40:11 Let's descend from the general to the particulars and I'll see how far we can descend tonight.

40:21 It is obvious that the statement of the confession sets before us first of all that the ground of our justification is to be found wholly in Jesus Christ. Before we descend to the particulars, the obedience and satisfaction of Christ, let's focus upon this general principle. Our justification is found in Christ alone, Christ only. Now the statements of Scripture to this effect are so many, one wonders where to begin.

40:53 Let me lay several before you. Perhaps the most classic text is 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 30.

41:03 1 Corinthians 1 and verse 30. But of Him that is of God the Father, by virtue, by virtue of His mighty working, are ye in Christ Jesus, that is, in spiritual and vital union with Christ Jesus, who was made unto us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, that according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord. That Lord, who alone is made unto us righteousness, but who, when He is made unto us righteousness, is made unto us such a perfect righteousness, such a righteousness external to ourselves, that the only thing we can glory in is Him and Him alone. When that publican went down to his house justified, and you saw him come down from the temple, a man who went up red-eyed and with his head hanging low, bent beneath the weight of his sin and the consciousness of impendingness, of impending wrath, and you see that same man walk by your house on his way home and his face is lifted up and the light of God is upon his countenance and he meets you and he can't help but just mumble under his breath, praise the Lord. Oh, how good is God and you say to him, Sir, what's happened to you? He said,

42:32 I've been justified. I've been accepted. My sins have been pardoned and I'm now reckoned as one who's fully kept the law. And someone says, upon what grounds do you dare make that assertion?

42:44 Are you the same man I saw going up to the temple twenty minutes ago? He said, I'm the same one. Well, when you went by my house, your head was bowed. It was obvious you were bent down with a terrible load.

42:54 What was it? He said, it was the load of my sin. The awareness that there was nothing in me by nature or practice that could commend me to God. He says, you mean to tell me that twenty minutes has made this change?

43:08 I mean, really, you've got to amend your life for a while, don't you? And straighten out and you've got to change your habits before you dare. He said, no, sir. No, sir.

43:18 I go down to my house justified. I am possessed of a perfect righteousness.

43:26 The man says to him, where in the world did you get that?

43:30 He says, I got it in another. Wholly in another. Completely in another. I do not glory in my tears of penitence.

43:40 I do not glory in my prayers of entreaty or the beating of my breast. I glory in Him whom I love. Whom Isaiah called the Lord our righteousness. Whom the prophet Jeremiah called the Lord our righteousness.

43:55 Of whom those prophets spoke, as Paul says, it's a righteousness being witnessed by the law and the prophets. It was the prophets of the Old Testament who said, one shall say in the Lord I have righteousness. It was the prophet Isaiah who said that he shall cover me with the garment of righteousness. It was the prophet Isaiah who was the prophet Jeremiah who spoke of him as the Lord our righteousness.

44:22 The only ground of that righteousness was in this unique person, God and man, in the perfection of his own righteousness, the Lord Jesus Christ. One of the most acid tests to apply to any kind of professed Christianity is this, or professed religion. What place does it give to the Lord Jesus Christ? To the Lord Jesus Christ.

44:46 As the only ground of a sinner's hope. What place does it give to him? Does it give to him a parallel place with something else or someone else? With the church?

44:59 With the sacraments?

45:02 Does it give to him some subsidiary, some secondary place with other things? Or does that religion, that brand of Christianity set Jesus Christ to the forefront and say, in that person, in the Christ of Scripture, who is God, the eternal Word, who took to himself true humanity and became the mysterious, stropic person, God-man, God with us, Emmanuel, does it confess with full man, Jesus, his perfect life, his substitutionary death, in that person, there is righteousness to be had for the worst of sinners. I say, my friend, put that test to all professed religion. All brands of Christianity. And if it gives you anything less than that, full blood confession, it's defective, if not delusively damning.

Christ's Centrality as the Ground of Justification

46:07 If men are led to glory in anything else than righteousness, something is wrong. And the Pharisee is somewhere lurking in the shadows, undetected, undiscovered, still in his delusion that what he does and what he is can form the ground of his acceptance before, before God. Will you look at another text that brings this thought together so beautifully? Romans chapter 8.

46:39 All we're doing now is establishing the general principle that the ground of our justification, not being anything wrought in us or done by us, is found wholly in Christ. We're not descending yet to the particulars, his obedience, his death, just the fact that it's all in him. In Romans chapter 8,

47:00 the Apostle Paul throws out this question that we studied for some nine or ten weeks back in the spring. Verse 33 of Romans 8. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Who will bring up one sin committed by one of God's believing people and lay it to his charge and justly lay that sin upon him as demanding condemnation?

47:28 Paul says, who can do this? He said, none. Why? Because it is God that justifies.

47:34 Who is he that condemneth? And it's as though he anticipates a question. Paul, how dare you make such bold, sweeping assertions? Having confessed, as you did in the earlier chapters of this letter, that there's none righteous, no, not one, the whole world lies under the curse and wrath of God, how dare you now say that there's nothing, no one in the moral universe that can lay a just accusation at the feet of a child of God?

48:02 How dare you? Do it, Paul. And his answer zeroes right in on one person. Look at it.

48:09 It is Christ Jesus. Stop right there. There's the full-blooded theology of Christ, the anointed Messiah, tying in Christ with the richness of Old Testament thought, the anointed prophet, priest, and king, who would be the son given, the child born, who would be Emmanuel, that rich biblical heritage, and the, the Christ you have left is not the Christ of God.

48:39 That's why there's no preaching of justification amongst those who've turned biblical Christianity into a mere philosophy. There's no preaching of this doctrine amongst those who do not see the biblical concept of God as holy and man as sinner, God's purposes in establishing a covenant of redemption, His commitment to prepare a people through which He would send His Son to redeem His elect, all of those concepts, once they go, there's no more holding to the centrality of Christ as the ground of our justification. Paul brings it all together. It is Christ, the anointed prophet, priest, and king, the one of whom the Father spoke and said, this is my Son, my beloved, in whom I'm well pleased. How do you identify Him? He is Jesus of Nazareth. The virgin shall conceive and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call His name Jesus.

49:38 Jehovah, Jehovah, Jehovah, for salvation. Now he goes on to say, it is Christ Jesus that died at a certain place in time, in history, on a piece of real estate in Palestine. This unique person, the Christ, the Son of the living God, Emmanuel God, with life's blood, and He died, He expired,

50:06 yea, rather, that was raised from the dead, a literal, physical resurrection. He who died burst the bonds of death, and all the power of death, and the right hand of God, He made a little ascension, frees in time, there was a day when He was at the right hand of God. He is at the right hand of God, and there where He maketh intercession for us. You see what Paul is saying?

50:42 He's saying, my ground of justification is that person, and all that He wrought for sinners like myself. And I say that's the acid test. I don't care what professing brand of Christendom you're identified with, this to the test, or put it to this test. What place does it give to this Christ, and to that work, as the only ground of a sinner's hope?

51:07 Second question is, what place does it give to the necessity of coming to that ground as the dominant theme of its ministry? When Paul goes to expound the gospel in Romans, he doesn't expound its social implications as the dominant theme. He does not expound its political implications as the dominant theme. He does not expound its philosophical implications.

51:34 He expounds its personal and eternal implications in terms of a sinner in the presence of a holy God, his judge. And every other social and political and national implication flows out from Romans 13 on to the end. And if you try to build the social and political and philosophical implications of the gospel on any other nation than full-blooded historic doctrine of justification, it's something less than Christianity. And it's being done on every hand by professed friends of Christ.

The Dominant Theme of Ministry: Christ and Personal Justification

52:12 I think I believe that but. And they're going to talk about this mandate and that mandate and this mandate and the other. What about the mandate of God who calls sinners to repent? Believe that but, my friend.

52:33 Believe that and you'll say with the Apostle Paul, woe is me if I preach not, God forbid, that I should glory save in the cross. Now does the cross have any implications? Of course it has implications. But you're not prepared to see them or enter into them until you've started its central message which is one of the purest forms of individualism known anywhere.

53:03 A guilty sinner standing ashamed like a publican in the presence of the God of the universe. He was all alone. God be merciful to me. Then he uses the personal article, the sinner.

53:19 See it? Now he's ready to go out and begin to think of the implications of the gospel in his business. If he was still a publican, he began to have to begin to think of the radical implications of being a justified man. And it would defect the way he conducted his business, all relationships in his home and his country.

53:40 Only a man who's a fool would deny that. But you better start where God starts or you'll never end up where this man ended up. Oh, may God help us as a church. I know you wonder what in the world is a pastor all excited about.

Exhortation: Do You Rest in Christ Alone?

53:56 But dear ones, I mean, this is tragic. On every hand there is deflection from this central note. And I would close with that exhortation ringing in your ears and I trust the Holy Ghost will make it ring in your heart that the ground of justification is Jesus Christ. And you must ask the question what place do I give to Him?

54:17 And the second question, what place do I give to making my relationship to Him the fundamental, the dominant issue in my own life and in the lives of others? God willing, next week we'll attempt. And I confess that it's so profound and sweeping that in no sense do I feel master of the subject. I'll attempt to lay out what it means that we have as the ground of our justification the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Jesus Christ.

54:54 Then we'll look at the sixth line of thought the method by which we are justified imputed to us and then probably the following week God willing the means by which we come into the possession of it and received by faith alone. There's seven lines of thought not six. And you who are biblical numerologists will appreciate that we've enlarged it into seven the so-called number of perfection. I'm not so sure it is that, but in your mind it is.

55:26 You'll be happy and if you aren't why then nothing has been lost. May God help us to understand this truth and to ask ourselves the question do we go down to our houses tonight justified? That's the great issue. That's the issue I press upon your conscience.

55:43 Do you go down from this place to your house justified having stood with the public acknowledging your accountability to God that you have nothing in yourself what you are to commend you to God? Have you looked solely to another even to the Christ of Holy Scripture? Do you rest in Him tonight? Can you say in the Lord I have righteousness?

56:07 Oh if you can dear friend of all the peoples of the earth how wealthy you are to have the Lord as your righteousness a righteousness that can stand the scrutiny of the burning eye of God. May God help you to be able to answer in the affirmative and if you can't what shall I do to come into such blessing? Where shall I begin to prepare? No, no, no no, no it's God's act of free grace unto sinners just as sinners just as I am without one plea but that thy blood was shed for me that thou bidst me come to thee O Lamb of God I come Lord I don't understand a lot of this the obedience of Christ satisfy I don't understand but Lord one thing I know no righteousness found in me and on the authority of the word which was preached tonight in your name I see that Christ and in him is my answer Lord with trembling hand I reach out for him whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved call upon him doesn't say whosoever shall call upon him with an articulate understanding of the way of acceptance whosoever shall call a call born of the desperation of realizing there's nothing in me and it's all in him call as he's offered in the gospel and God says you shall be saved let us pray