Who We Are (Romans 3:9-20)

Introduction: The Question of Justification and Its Context

0:02 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, May 21st, 2006, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Now I would invite you to turn with me in your Bibles to Paul's letter to the church at Rome, the book of Romans,

0:23 and follow as I read a portion from chapter 3 to which reference will be made in the course of our exposition this morning. Romans chapter 3, verses 9 through 20.

0:41 Romans 3, verse 9.

1:06 None righteous, no, not one. There is none that understands. There is none that seeks after God. They have all turned aside.

1:21 They are together become unprofitable. There is none that does good, no, not so much as one. Their throat is an open sepulcher. With their tongues they have used deceit.

1:40 The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. Destruction and misery are in their ways, and the way of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes.

2:05 Now we know that. What things soever the law says, it speaks to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may be brought under the judgment of God. Because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight. For through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

2:37 Now let us again pray and ask God's help in the preaching and hearing of the word of God. Once again, our Father, we come conscious of our present need of the gracious, powerful ministry of the Holy Spirit. His ministry upon the mind and heart and mouth of your servant. That he may accurately and helpfully open.

3:10 Open up and apply your word. His help upon every listener. That there would be that vigorous mental attention. That you would keep the enemy of our souls from causing distracting thoughts to pluck away the seed of the word of God.

3:30 May that word come to every listener in power and in the Holy Spirit. And in much conviction. Be with us as we cast ourselves. Upon your mercy.

3:43 And look to you for help in our time of need. Hear us as we plead for such mercies in Jesus' name. Amen.

3:59 How, how can sinful man be just or right with God? This is the question of all questions. For if indeed there is a God. And there's not a person.

4:16 A person here who does not know that there is. Regardless of what you may protest to the contrary. If indeed there is a God. Then there is.

4:28 And if indeed this God knows all about you. And you know he does. Then this God who exists. Who knows all about you.

4:43 And who is committed to judge all of our actions. And punish those sinful actions. Then this question and the right answer to that question. Should be indeed our great determination to both ask the question.

5:02 And to discern the accurate answer to that question. How can sinful man be just or right with God? To be indifferent to that question and its answer in the scriptures. Is to trifle with both the happiness and the safety of our souls forever.

5:27 If we come to the Bible. That book which is God's voice to man. Seeking an answer to the question. How can sinful man be just or right with God?

5:39 We will find two basic parts to that answer. From beginning to end of the holy scriptures. One negative. The other positive.

5:51 We learn negatively that man cannot be made just or right with God. On the basis of anything he is in himself. Or can do in and of himself. That's the negative.

6:05 The positive. He can only be made right with God. On the basis of what God has done. In the person and work of Jesus Christ.

6:18 And what he has done. And what he has done focuses in the blessing of his grace. That the Bible describes as justification. So a few weeks ago we began a series of studies.

6:31 In this wonderful provision of redemptive grace. When I'm writing out my notes. I'm constantly tempted to put this thing that we began to study. And to call it the doctrine.

6:46 But that sounds so bland. And we're not studying the doctrine. The doctrine of justification. We're engaging our minds in examining this marvelous provision of redemptive grace.

6:58 Perfectly suited to what we are. As sinners liable to the just punishment of almighty God. And thus far in this series of studies. I've attempted to set before you the crucial importance.

7:14 Of this biblical truth of justification. And then. And two weeks ago we began to examine what I have called. The context of justification.

7:26 That is. Those related truths of biblical revelation. Without which. Justification would not be a necessary provision.

7:38 Of God's redemptive grace in Christ. Those truths. It is essential to know. Believe.

7:46 And to feel in our souls. If we are to understand and appreciate. The wonder. Of justifying.

7:56 Grace. And what are those truths that form what I am calling. The context or the setting of justification. Well thus far we've considered two such categories of truth.

Who We Are: A Summary Statement of Universal Guilt

8:09 The first is. Who God is. In himself. Justification is precisely what it is.

8:19 Because God is precisely who. He is. And the contours of the redemptive blessing of justification. Derive from the very character.

8:34 And nature of God. Particularly. As a God of infinite eternal and unchangeable holiness. Infinite eternal and unchangeable justice.

8:47 Infinite eternal and unchangeable. Truth. And then we saw last Lord's day that the second category of truth that forms the context of justification. Is what God is not in himself but in relationship to us.

9:05 And we saw from the scriptures that he is our creator. To whom we owe our existence. He is our lawgiver to whom we owe implicit obedience. And he is our judge to whom we shall.

9:19 Give an account in the last day. Now this morning we come to consider the third category of biblical truth and spiritual reality. Which forms a vital aspect of the context of justification. And it is this.

9:37 It is who we are in relationship to God. As our creator. Lawgiver. And judge.

9:46 I'm asserting. That the Bible teaches. That the context of justification as it is set before us in the scriptures. Begins with who God is in himself.

10:00 In his holiness. Justice. And truth. What God is in relationship to us as creator.

10:09 Lawgiver. And judge. But thirdly. Who we are in relationship to this God.

10:16 Who is creator. Lawgiver. Lawgiver. And judge.

10:22 The biblical doctrine of justification not only receives its shape and its contours. From the fact of who God is in himself. What he is in relationship to us. But also from the facts.

10:37 The realities of who we are in relationship to. This holy. Just. And true God.

10:45 Who is. Our creator. Lawgiver. And judge.

10:50 To be ignorant. To be mistaken. Or indifferent. With respect to this issue.

10:57 Of who you are in relationship to God. As your creator. Your lawgiver. And your judge.

11:08 Is to be in a place of mortal danger. And in the way. To eternal. Spiritual.

11:18 Shipwreck. And in the way. And in the way. And in the way.

11:19 And in the way. And in the way. And in the way. And in the way.

11:19 And in the way. And in the way. And in the way. And in the way.

11:20 And in the way. Addressing this matter this morning. I shall do so under three heads. Beginning with a simple summary statement.

11:27 Concerning who we are in relationship to God. Is our creator. Lawgiver. And judge.

11:35 A simple summary statement. Then secondly. I will set before you. And this will be the bulk of our study.

11:42 The biblical evidence. That a personal conviction. Concerning the things expressed in the simple statement. statement, are indeed rooted in the Word of God, the evidence. And then thirdly, the corroborating witness of historic biblical Christianity. And I'm going to give you some lengthy but very helpful quotes garnered from those who have gone before us in appreciating God's gracious provision for hell-deserving sinners in what the Bible sets forth as justifying grace. First of all, then, a simple summary statement concerning who we are in relationship to God as our Creator, Lawgiver, and Judge. And it is this. According to the Scriptures, we are all, without one

12:40 exception, and that's why I read that passage with the emphasis on the word, that I did. If anything is taught in that passage is no exceptions whatsoever. None, none, none, no, not, one, all, all, all. And if God has said anything with utmost clarity, and we would say with almost tedious repetition, it is this emphasis that we are all, without one exception, guilty sinners.

13:14 Fully deserving of divine wrath, a wrath expressed in our banishment in body and soul to hell and that forever. A simple summary statement of the teaching of the Bible with respect to this question. Who am I in relationship to the God who is my Creator, my Lawgiver, and my Judge? The answer is, I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God.

13:45 Scripture is that you and I are, without exception, guilty sinners, fully deserving of divine wrath expressed in our banishment to hell in body and soul and that forever. So, if sitting here this morning, you are thinking biblically about yourself, if you have come to feel in terms of the reality, of who and what you are in relationship to this holy, just, and truthful God, who is indeed your Creator, your Lawgiver, and your Judge, you should have no problem with these words sticking in your throat. I, I, even I, am a guilty sinner, fully deserving of divine wrath that would be expressed in my banishment to hell in body and soul. So, if sitting here this morning, you are thinking biblically about yourself, I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God.

14:46 I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God.

14:47 I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God.

14:48 I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God.

14:49 I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God. I am God.

14:50 stick in your throat. They will not merely be framed as vocables with your lips and tongue and teeth. I, I, even I, am a guilty sinner, fully deserving of divine wrath that would be expressed in my banishment to hell in body and soul and that forever. If such words are not an expression of your own deep, spiritually enlightened judgment concerning yourself, you are out of touch with reality. You are out of touch with the truth of the Word of God. And I state up front, it will be my endeavor with all of the faculties with which God has endowed me to attempt to preach His Word, to change your practice. I, I, even I, am a guilty sinner, fully deserving of divine wrath that would be expressed in

15:58 my mouth. I, I, even I, am a guilty sinner, fully deserving of divine wrath that would be expressed in my mouth. And I state up front, it will be my endeavor with all of the faculties with which God has endowed me to attempt to preach His Word, to change your practice. I, I, even I, am a guilty sinner, fully deserving of divine wrath that would has sunk into the very tap roots of our souls, we can have no appreciation of the doctrine of justification. On what basis do I dare to make so bold, right-angled an assertion? Well, we might go to a number of passages in the Word of God to demonstrate it,

Biblical Evidence: Paul's Argument in Romans 1-3

17:13 but I want you to turn with me to the letter of Paul to the Romans. And I want you to see how the great apostle, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, addresses the wonderful truth of the doctrine of justification in such a way as to make it evident that he was persuaded that its native context is this persuasion on the part of all men that they are indeed guilty sinners deserving of divine, divine wrath. Turn, please, to Romans chapter 1.

17:53 After a general greeting in keeping with the ordinary framework of letter writing in the first century Greco-Roman world, and yet suffused with marvelous theological substance, the apostle in verse 8 of chapter 1 expresses his gratitude to God for the Roman Christians and for their witness that has spread through all the world. And then he tells them, that he has longed to see them, has purposed in the past to come and visit, but was not able to do so. But now he longs to be able to come to them, verse 13b, that he might have some fruit among them as among the rest of the Gentiles. Later on in chapter 15, he adds this dimension of why he wants to come to them. He said, I have no more new gospel frontiers where I am, but up there in Spain, there is a new frontier, and I want to invade that frontier in the name of the captain of my salvation, the Lord Jesus. And I hope by coming to you folk at Rome and spending some time among you, you will then be willing to be my support base as I make my way into this new gospel frontier. Then he identifies himself in verse 14 as a debtor to Greeks and barbarians, wise and unwise, so as much as is in him,

19:20 he's ready to preach the gospel to those who are at Rome. He's never been to Rome. They've not had personal interaction. He says, when I come among you, I will preach the gospel.

19:31 And it's as though someone says, well, Paul, what is the essence, the substance of your gospel? And why do you long to come to Rome and preach it? He says, well, here's my answer. For I'm not ashamed of the gospel.

19:45 It is the power of God unto salvation, to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For therein is revealed a righteousness of God from faith unto faith, as it is written, but the righteous shall live by faith. He says, I long to come and preach the gospel because I have a sense of indebtedness to all men wherever they are. And that indebtedness I discharge by preaching this gospel that I've never had reason to hang my head in shame because this gospel, this gospel is the very instrument of God to effect salvation.

20:23 It is the power of God unto salvation. It is God's good news of how men can be delivered from sin and its consequences unto all of the positive blessings of God's grace. Acceptance with God in the court of heaven. Welcome into the heart and living room of God with the blessing of adoption, the gift of the Holy Spirit, the pledge and promise of the resurrection of the body and the glorification of the whole man.

20:55 He said, I have no reason to be ashamed of a gospel that is God's instrument to effect salvation. God's great rescue operation in which He takes sinners and rescues them from the consequences of sin in its damning power, in its binding, blinding, crippling power and it brings them into all, all of the blessings of divine grace. He said, that gospel, I'm not ashamed of it. It's the power of God.

21:26 And then again, as though someone says, and yes, Paul, what is the heart of that gospel? If you had to reduce it to its irreducible minimum, what makes it the power of God unto salvation? He says, I'll tell you. Verse 17.

21:40 For it is the power of God unto salvation for, because in it is revealed, in it is made known a righteousness of God. Now when you find that phrase, righteousness of God, read it this way. In it is revealed a way of right standing and acceptance with God. And you'll find it fits.

22:08 That's the sense of it. What is the righteousness of God? It is God's way of attaining a right standing with Him. And Paul says, I'm not ashamed of this gospel.

22:20 It's God's instrument of power to bring people into the blessings of salvation. A salvation, the heart of which is this. There is a way for men to be right with God that God Himself has planned, that God Himself has procured, that God Himself applies. And it is a way of acceptance with God that is with God.

22:48 That is with God. That is with God. That is received by faith and leads to a life of faith. Now do I carry your judgment about the flow of thought in those opening words?

22:57 Okay. If I have, then someone says, but wait a minute, Paul. Why should I get all excited about a gospel that is the power of God unto salvation, the divine rescue operation? A divine rescue operation which fully discloses and makes abundantly plain a way of right standing with God.

23:22 If you had told me your gospel reveals a way to have a big bank account, ha-ha, you'd turn me on. If you had told me you have a gospel in which is revealed a way to a life in which there is no crippling sorrow, a life in which there is no hardship and tribulation, then, Paul, I'd be excited. Why should I get excited about it? About a gospel that has as its central blessing the revelation, the display of how men can be right with God.

23:59 He says, well, I'll tell you, you better get excited about it because, look at verse 18, for, that little connective word of logical structure, for, and what are his first words? The wrath of God is revealed from heaven. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man. Paul is making it plain.

24:30 You never get excited about the righteousness of God revealed in the gospel till you've been sobered by the wrath of almighty God against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of man.

24:49 And if that were the only, if that were the only passage, I could rest my case. You think he would go, I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It is the power of God to salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. And then quote John 3.16, for God so loved the world that he gave his... No, no.

25:07 Not God so loved the world. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven. You'll never get excited about the revelation of the righteousness of God.

25:19 It'll be just so much, religious gobbledygook. And preachers will preach until their eyeballs fall on their cheeks and their voices are raw. And you'll sit there utterly unconcerned until you've trembled before these words. The wrath of God is revealed.

25:39 The wrath of God is revealed. The wrath is revealed.

25:50 The wrath and God together, infinite, omnipotent, almighty, and harness that to the chariot of wrath and run it up. All ugliness and all unrighteousness of mere puny little men.

26:13 And you'll tremble.

26:15 And you ought to tremble. And then you begin to say, oh, is there a way to avoid that chariot of wrath hitched to a God of infinite, eternal, unchangeable power and almightiness? Do I want to contend? With that kind of a God?

26:37 When He comes forth in wrath, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. And then, right through to the end of this first chapter, Paul describes how that wrath is presently manifested among those who've never seen the leaves of one Bible, one page of the Bible, never heard a verse quoted, never had a mom or dad teach them a Bible verse, never went to Sunday school. All they have is the light of general revelation from within and from without. And yet, notice how he concludes his treatment of those people.

27:16 Verse 32, Who knowing the righteous judgment of God, that they that practice such things are worthy of death. They know of a righteous judgment of God. A judgment that results in spiritual death, separation from God, banishment to hell, in body and soul forever. And then in chapter 2, he begins to address, some say, moral people who've had some measure of enlightenment from God's law, perhaps Gentiles, others, and I think I move more and more in that direction, that he begins to deal with Jews in chapter 2, in verse 1. He obviously is dealing with them explicitly in 2.17, but you bear the name of a Jew. And what's the drift of thought there in chapter 2?

28:16 Well, he's going to demonstrate again that in spite of an enlightened conscience and the knowledge of right and wrong received from special revelation, what has happened? Verse 5, But after your hardness and impenitent heart, you are treasuring up for yourself right? Wrath? Oh, oh, here we are.

28:37 Wrath again. In the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgment of God who will render to every man according to his works. And what will he render? Verse 9, Tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that works evil of the Jew first and also of the Greek.

29:01 Tribulation and anguish upon the soul of the workers of evil. And then all the way through chapter 2, he seeks to, as it were, take the posture of a prosecutor who is presenting his case until every single person is left utterly without excuse and takes the place of a sinner before God. Then he takes up an objection in chapter 3 and verse 1. Well, if the Jew is guilty in spite of, in spite of all his privileges, even as the Gentile who has had fewer privileges, wrath is upon the Gentiles, wrath is coming upon the Jew, what advantage is there in being a Jew? And he takes up that question in chapter 3 and verse 1 and he says there are many advantages and many privileges. However, however, those advantages and those privileges do not negate their equal standing before God as what? Guilty sinners fully deserving of divine wrath.

30:09 And so his conclusion is verse 9. What then? Are we Jews better than they? No, in no wise.

30:18 For we before laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. That's a key phrase. He said, what I have sought to do before I can move into what is the delight of my heart to explain how it is that the gospel is the power of God to salvation. How it is that there is a right standing with God wrapped up in this gospel before I can speak to you of this.

30:52 I want you to feel in the depths of your souls your desperate need for this righteousness of God. And so he deals with the Gentile. He deals with the Jew. And now he's summing up.

31:06 He's standing as it were before the accused. And he is saying, here's the summary of my passion and my concern. Are we better than they? No, in no wise.

31:18 We before laid to the charge both of Jews and Greeks. They are all under sin. It's the picture of all of humanity in bondage to sin. Under the just condemnation of God for their sin.

31:33 And then he marches and commercials passages from the Psalms and from the prophets. The passage read in your hearing. None righteous. No, not one.

The Mouth-Stopping Exercise: All Under God's Judgment

31:43 None that understands. None that seeks after God. Now verse 19. Now we know.

31:49 Now we know. We had better know after this airtight case. Now we know what things whoever the law says it speaks to them that are under the law. Now notice this graphic terminology.

32:04 Notice this graphic terminology. That every mouth may be stopped and all the world be brought under the judgment of God.

32:16 He said what I've been doing I have been on a mouth stopping exercise. I want every mouth to be stopped so that when the indictment comes every one of us without exception is indeed a guilty held in the hands of God. A well deserving sinner exposed to the wrath of God. We have nothing to say in response.

32:45 No, oh yes, but no, no, no, no. Your mouth stopped.

32:50 Is a man, a woman, a boy or girl whose mouth has been stopped before the indictment of God. Not trying to make myself an exception. Not trying to spin out some tale of exemption that well, my sins are not really my responsibility. It's my body chemistry.

33:14 It's my genetic predisposition. It's my sociological environment. No, no. You get your mouth stopped and you say my sin is the product of who and what I am.

33:27 My sin is what I am. My sin is the expression of my own depraved nature. I'm a son, a daughter of Adam's fallen race. I have nothing to say.

33:41 In the presence of Almighty God. Now, as I will have nothing to say in the presence of God in the day of judgment. Conviction of sin is the day of judgment brought into the present. For in that day there'll be no more to God when he indicts you for sins that may indeed be sins to which you are more predisposed because of your genetic makeup.

34:12 But your mouth, your mouth will be stopped. There will be no arguing with God that those sins make you culpable and liable to eternal punishment and excuses from environment and excuses from body chemistry and all the other things that we see proliferating all around us as people refuse to deal honestly with the issue of sin. Paul says, until men's mouths are stopped, I won't open my mouth and tell, the way of right standing with God. I've done all of this.

The Context of Wrath and Sin Precedes Justification

34:51 I've written all of this that every mouth may be stopped and all the world be brought under the judgment of God. Surely it could not be made more clear that the great apostle by the guidance of the Holy Spirit was recording for all time the fact that the context of the reality of God's judgment and God's justifying grace is the ugly but undeniable reality of human sin, human guilt, and divine wrath and hell deservingness. The great apostle does not move to the subject that is the passion of his heart until verse 21. Look at it. But now, apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been manifested. Last time he mentioned that was way back in verse 17. For therein is revealed a righteousness from God.

35:55 Then he spends all the rest of chapter 1, all of chapter 2, the first two-thirds of chapter 3 doing what? Demonstrating that the only context for the doctrine of justification is the context of the realism of divine wrath and human sin. Human culpability in the light of our sin. Then as he begins to give this summary statement in verses 21 to the end of the chapter, notice how he recapitulates and sandwiches this same emphasis in the first few verses.

36:32 Follow as I read. But now, apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith, in Jesus Christ unto all them that believe. For there is no distinction for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. You see what he's done?

37:05 Even now as he's about to open up, how is it that God can still be holy and just and true? And do anything other than forever damn guilty sinners? He said, I'm going to tell you the way that God Himself has made a way of acceptance into His presence. And as he begins to expound it, he sandwiches in the middle.

37:34 Notice, a righteousness of God has been manifested, being justified freely by His grace for all have sinned. The contentment of this manifestation of a righteousness of God, this being justified freely by His grace, is the reality of universal, inescapable indictment of our sinfulness.

38:04 I hope I've persuaded you from this passage that when I say the biblical context for the blessing of redemptive grace called justification, it's not only coming to grips with who God is in Himself, what God is in relationship to us, but what we are in relationship to Him as creatures,

38:35 as those obligated to obey Him, and as those who will give an account to Him.

38:44 And I've sought to demonstrate from this structure of Paul's argument in the book of Romans that this is a scriptural, a scriptural reality. I get weary when people say preaching on sin this way is nothing but a neo-Puritan emphasis.

39:03 The Puritans were psychologically sick, unduly preoccupied with sin. Paul was not a Puritan. He was an apostle. And what he writes here, he writes by inspiration of the Spirit.

39:16 And for you in your mind to say, oh, this is just revisited Puritanism, that borders on bloodlines. Blasphemy. If I have mishandled this passage, you have an obligation to show me how, and I will publicly acknowledge how I've mishandled it. If I have not, don't try to escape by calling it revived Puritanism.

39:38 No, it is Biblical Christianity that comes to us saying until you own the reality of what you are as sinner, you will never understand or appreciate or know the blessedness of what you can be as saint in Jesus Christ. Well, having given a simple summary statement of who we are, the Biblical evidence that this must be a personal conviction concerning our sinfulness and liability to divine wrath and judgment, I want us thirdly to listen to the confirming witness of these realities from men of the past. And I've read a lot of books, I've rarely done this in a sermon.

Corroborating Witness: Historic Biblical Christianity

40:28 In fact, in the last couple of years I've done some things in preaching that I haven't done in the previous 43 years. I guess when you get older you think you can get away with things. But I believe it will fit the injunction let all things be done to edify. Is this just something that few people have seen?

40:45 Or is this the unanimous testimony of the historic, evangelical, Protestant, confessional, reformed church of Jesus Christ? Well, I let you judge as I read. And I seek to read with meaning as though I were preaching these things. The first witness comes from John Owen, who wrote a whole book on justification by faith.

41:14 And he begins that book by identifying the things essential if we're going to study the doctrine to our prophet.

41:22 And then his third thing that he says is essential. If you're going to study the doctrine if you're going to study this doctrine and profit from it, he says thirdly, this is what you must have, a clear apprehension, that's understanding and laying hold, and due sense, that's felt religious experience. It's got to be not only known cognitively, but felt experientially. A clear apprehension and due sense of the greatness of our approach of apostasy from God, of the deprivation of our natures thereby, of the power and guilt of sin, of the holiness and severity of the law are necessary unto a right apprehension of the doctrine of justification. Therefore, unto the declaration of it, that is, the doctrine of justification, does the apostle's premise a large discourse thoroughly to convince the minds of all that seek to be justified with a sense of their sinfulness. Romans 1, 2, 3. That's what he wrote back in the 1600s.

42:44 The rules which he has given us, the method which he prescribes, and the ends that he designs are those which we shall choose to follow. And he lays it down in general that the righteousness of God is revealed, from faith to faith, the just shall live by faith, but he declares not in particular the causes, the nature, the way of our justification until he has fully evinced that all men are shut up under the state of sin and manifested how deplorable their condition is thereby. And in the ignorance of these things, in the denying or palliating of them, he lays, he lays the foundation of all misbelief about the grace of God. He concludes this section with these profoundly simple but oh so insightful words. Until men know themselves better, they will care very little to know Christ at all. Until we know ourselves better, we will not care to know Christ at all.

43:58 Do you know? Why some of you have no panting to know Christ or are satisfied with such a distant memory of some kinds of dealings with Christ, it's because you don't know yourself better in terms of your relationship to the living God as your creator, your lawgiver, and your judge. Then Buchanan, who has written a masterful treatise that some current theologians of no little stature say, has been the finest work written on justification by faith since the Reformation. Listen to the words of Buchanan.

44:40 The best preparation for the study of this doctrine is neither great intellectual ability nor much scholastic learning, but a conscience impressed with a sense of our actual condition as sinners in the sight of God. Sound like Owen, doesn't it? What's the grand pre-reference requisite to study this doctrine with profit? A sense of our actual condition as sinners in the sight of God.

45:10 A deep conviction of sin is the one thing needful in such an inquiry. A conviction of the fact of sin as an awful reality in our personal experience of the power of sin as an inveterate evil cleaving to us continually and having its roots deep in the innermost recesses of our hearts, and of the guilt of sin past as well as present as an offense against God which once committed can never cease to be true of us individually, which, however He may be pleased to deal with it, has deserved His wrath and His righteous condemnation. Without some such conviction of sin, we may speculate on this as on any other part of divine truth, bring all the resources of our intellect and learning to bear upon it, but can have no suitable sense of our actual danger and no serious desire for deliverance from it. To study the subject with advantage, we must have a heartfelt interest in it as one that bears directly on the salvation of our own souls. And this interest can only be felt in proportion as we realize our guilt, our misery, and our danger as a result of our own sin. as a result of our own sin.

46:31 as a result of our own sin. as a result of our own sin. as a result of our own sin. As transgressors of God's law.

46:35 He says further on in this introductory chapter, no, not the introductory, further on in the book, it might be shown both from the general history of the church and the personal experience of individuals that in both cases alike, partial and defective views of sin have always been associated with partial and defective views of salvation. He goes on, He goes on to say that all of the deviations from apostolic doctrine from the days of the apostles down to his own day in the 19th century had their roots in defective views of sin. Such has been the experience of the church as a collective body and such has been the personal experience of individuals. Their views of the nature, necessity, freeness, and efficacy of divine grace have uniformly been varied with their more or less vivid biblical understanding of the evil and malignity of sin.

47:44 That's the witness of Buchanan. And then the witness of Cunningham in his book called Historical Theology, another 19th century giant in Scotland. He says the natural tendency of men is to consider the guilt incurred by the violation of God's law as a trivial matter. Yeah, we're all sinners.

48:05 Ha ha. We all had measles too. Ha ha.

48:09 I hear people talk that way. Yeah, you know, we're all sinners. You know, we're not perfect.

48:16 You say the words we're not perfect and realize God commanded you to be perfect, you ought to tremble.

48:22 He tells you, tells me, I'm to love him with the whole heart, mind, soul, and strength. And anything short of that incurs the wrath of a lawbreaker due to a lawbreaker.

48:35 True in his day, consider the guilt a trivial matter, which may be, adjusted without any great difficulty. And this tendency is strengthened by the vague, erroneous impressions about the character of God and the principles that regulate his government of the world. People don't understand who God is as holy, just, and true. What he is to us as creator, lawgiver, and judge.

49:02 These light views are strengthened by light views of God. And where something about Christianity is known, this universal and universal law is not just a dangerous tendency appears in the form of leading men to cherish and act upon a vague impression that because Christ came into the world to save us from our sins, men have no need of great anxiety about any guilt that may attach to them, even while they don't have a single, distinct, indefinite conception about the way in which Christ's mediatorial work bears upon the deliverance of the human race from sin.

49:36 Like the man I met years ago. He said, are you a Christian? Oh, yes, sir. I accepted Christ so many years ago.

49:43 Tell me, what do you know about Christ that makes you believe you're a Christian? He said, oh, I believe he's for good.

49:51 That was his confession of faith. I believe he's for good. Didn't have a clue that he is the God-man who had to be what he was if we were to be rescued and God still remain holy and just and true and maintain his rights as creator, lawgiver, and judge. There had to be an incarnation.

50:12 An incarnation in Mary's womb. But with his vague views, yeah, I've done some bad things, I'm a sinner, but Jesus came in the world and he's for good so I'm all fixed up.

50:24 Why? No definite biblical view and experience of the reality of what it is to be a sinner. All false conceptions of the system of Christian doctrine are based upon inadequate and erroneous views and impressions of the nature and effects of the fall. Then, more recently, man of beloved memory, Professor John Murray, too frequently we fail to entertain the gravity of the fact of our sin.

50:58 Hence, the reality of it and the reality of the wrath of God upon us for our sin do not come into our reckoning. This is the reason why the grand article of justification does not ring the bells in the innermost depths of our spirit. This is the reason why the gospel of justification is to such an extent a meaningless sound in the world and in the church of the present hour. We're not imbued with a profound sense of the reality of God, of his majesty and holiness, and sin, if reckoned with at all, is little more than a misfortune or a maladjustment.

The Gravity of Sin and the Glory of Justification

51:40 Dear people,

51:43 this concern that I've set before you, that we come to the study of this marvelous doctrine, this wonderful provision of God's infinite grace to hell-deserving sinners, we will have little appreciation of it unless we approach it in its biblical context, that context in which we take very seriously what the Bible reveals concerning who God is in himself. The holy one of Israel, the one before whom those sinless creatures veil face and feet and cry one to another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty, this one who is inflexibly just, who will by no means clear the guilty, the one who has said the wages of sin is death, the soul that sinneth, it shall die. We must take him seriously. Take seriously what it means that we are his creatures, who owe our existence to him. We are his subjects who owe implicit obedience to him.

53:05 We are those who will be summoned to stand before him, for we must all give account of ourselves to God and then to take seriously what the Bible says we are. In relationship to this glorious God who sustains the relationship of creator, lawgiver, and judge to us, that we are guilty sinners. We are hell deserving sinners. We are sinners who need a way of acceptance with God that does not tarnish who God is in himself.

53:46 Can there be such a way? How can God remain in the world? How can we be God in all his glorious person and do anything other than damn us all? There is a way.

53:59 The infinite mind of God alone could conceive it. The infinite love and power of God, the whole triune Godhead alone could provide it. And the infinite, glorious, gracious, triune God alone can apply it and make it ours. But we'll not get goose bumps.

54:21 And we'll not sing until our throats are sore. And we'll know nothing of the exhilaration of forgiven and pardoned sinners unless we take seriously the context in which this glorious truth is set before us in the word of God.

Call to Reflection: Escape Distractions and Think Deeply

54:45 May I urge you, turn your stinking TV off for a week.

54:52 Get your telephone, cell phones, out of your ears.

54:57 Spend a few moments thinking,

55:02 thinking. Get all your devices that are pumping your music into your ears. When I see people can't even take a walk without this stuff pumping in their ears. Telephones ringing in restaurants everywhere.

55:17 Don't spend any time thinking. My dear people, don't let the world rob you of the necessary exercise of thinking about these realities. Until they grip you. Until the question how can sinful man be just with God and God still be God.

55:38 Until that becomes the haunting question that meets you when you wait. It's with you when you go to sleep. And as God spares us and we're privileged to open up from the scriptures, what is this righteousness of God? How is it procured? What does it bring to us? What are its marvelous benefits? There would be seasons here when I would have to step aside from the folk that while you all broke out in marvelous, exuberant praise. And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood?

56:20 Died he for me who caused his shame? For me, who him to death pursued amazing love? And can it be that thou my God should die for me? No condemnation now I dread. Dear people, it was the reality of the context of this doctrine when it sunk into the hearts of multitudes in the evangelical awakening and they heard the great truth of justifying righteousness provided in Jesus Christ and received by faith. That's what gave birth. To this kind of hymnody of Wesley's. Long my imprisoned spirit lay fast bound by sin in nature's night. Thine eye

57:11 diffused a quickening way. I woke. The dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off. My heart was free. I rose. Went forth and followed the hand. Been a long time since some of us have busted a gut singing songs like that. And you know why? Here's one of the reasons. So much junk coming in our eyes and in our ears for these truths until they burn, mesh and rob your soul. Rear and say not me. Not me.

57:59 Know what it is to have a soul that flourishes because it stays near the truths that God has intended should be like live coals that cause the soul to burn and to snap and to spark. And almighty God is knocked into a accommodate to our allowing the world to suck us into the orbit of the obsession with modern technology that drains the mind and bleeds the spirit. Makes it impossible to think about anything serious long enough to feel its weight and its power. Now I know, a lot of you are the younger generation. If God doesn't deal with you I know what you're thinking. That's the old man. He doesn't understand. He'll be gone for a while.

58:50 Maybe somebody will come in and say this ain't an old man talking. This is biblical reality. And if you allow the spirit of this world to suck you in, you've had it. I thank God I was born and reared when I was. There weren't all this stuff. There weren't all this stuff. Constant. You gotta say, no.

59:18 No. I am not going to allow it to do that to me. May God help us. Let's pray.

59:35 Father, we feel at times so utterly, utterly helpless.

59:42 We feel the tidal wave of this wretched world system under the control of the devil just sweeping over and drawing out to sea a whole generation. How we pray that you would by the power of your grace break in upon us. Lord, deliver us from these things that would damn us. That would dull us.

60:10 That would take away the flush and the fervor of our first love. We who are your children. That would keep others from entering the kingdom because the God of this world keeps their minds so occupied with this, that and the other. That there is no time to reflect to think, to feel the weight of your truth.

60:34 God, I pray that the exhortations, given this morning, will not be in vain. I can only cry to you to do what you alone can do. Hear our cry and answer us for Jesus' sake. Amen.