Who Are the Recipients?

The Certainty of Death and Judgment: The Ultimate Question

0:02 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, July 2, 2006, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. Each one of you sitting here in the pews of this auditorium has a vital organ placed in your chest cavity called your heart.

0:26 And all the while you've been sitting here, that heart has been beating. That vital organ made up primarily of muscle tissue beating at a rate of most likely anywhere from the mid-50s for some of you in excellent cardiovascular shape to some of you in not so good cardiovascular shape somewhere in the mid-90s or higher. It's beaten thousands of times during this service. It has been beating millions of times for a number of us.

1:01 But it is certain, absolutely certain, as certain as this morning's sunrise, that on a given day, at a given hour, at a given second, that heart is going to stop beating. And when it does, you'll be dead.

1:31 That's reality. I don't need to be a prophet to say that. With absolute certainty. Absolute certainty.

1:39 Barring those alive at the return of Christ, and some of you already thought of that, so I figured I'd let you know I understand that parenthetical statement. A moment is coming when you're going to die.

1:53 You can't think it away. You can't reason it away. You may attempt to ignore it away, but a day, an hour, a second is coming. When your heart, when my heart, will cease to beat, and we will be dead.

2:17 However, according to the Scriptures and the testimony of your own conscience, as sure as it's appointed unto men once to die, after this comes judgment. Hebrews 9 and verse 27. And in the light of this ultimate judgment, issue of the certainty of death and subsequent judgment, no issue is of greater importance than that which is wrapped up in the question, how can I be certain that I'm ready to meet God? How can I be certain that when I die, I will die right with God?

3:01 How can I be certain that when having died, I come to judgment, God will have no controversy with me, but will welcome me into His everlasting presence?

The Doctrine of Justification: Author and Definition

3:17 The Bible's answer to that question is what we are studying in these days together. It is the Bible's doctrine of justification, that is, the method by which God declares sinners righteous, that is, the focus of our lives. This is our study in our Lord's Day morning ministry of the Word. Having considered from the Scriptures the importance of this doctrine, the context of this doctrine, that is, the other ancillary supportive biblical truths without which this doctrine cannot be understood or stand in the faith and experience of God's people, we then considered the crucial issue of the meaning of the verb, to justify, that it does not mean to make righteous, but it means to declare one righteous before the law and the authority to which one is answerable. Just as condemning does not make a man guilty, but declares him to be guilty, so to justify is to make a declaration that one stands with no controversy with the law and the authority behind that. The law to which he is answerable.

4:40 Well, then, last Lord's Day, we began to examine the substance of the biblical doctrine of justification, from its importance, its context, the meaning of the word to justify. Now, in the fourth major category, the substance of the biblical doctrine of justification, or better yet, the major elements of this astounding blessing of God's grace, by which hell does not exist. All deserving sinners are declared righteous and entitled to heaven by the grace of God. And as we began to open up the substance of this doctrine of justification, I stated that our organizing framework under which we would gather, collate, and expound many passages of the word of God would be the larger catechism of the Westminster Standards. And by way of setting, forth a rational foundation for this approach, I sought to answer two basic questions. What are the Westminster Standards? And secondly, what are the benefits of studying any given doctrine in this way?

5:53 And I gave three analogies. I said a good catechetical statement of a biblical doctrine operates like a fence, which functions in two ways. It marks out the proper boundaries, and it keeps out intruders. It can function, secondly, like a grid, a sieve, through which to sift ideas.

6:14 And if our statement is framed by the Bible, and we understand it, then when error is thrown against our minds, we can sift out the rocks of error, and maintain only the good material that passes through the grid. And then it can function like a genuine Federal Reserve note, which, if mastered in all its glory, and in all of its details, is the most helpful way to be aware of the presence of the counterfeit. And so I'm not going to be spending a lot of time opening up specific errors in the history of the Church, or errors that are floating around, but my passion is this pastoral passion to cause your spiritual eyes and fingers to be so well acquainted with the genuine, that when your ears hear, and your eyes encounter the full, and the false, and the counterfeit, you'll know instinctively that that's what it is. We then proceeded to take up the first major unit of thought in opening up the substance of the doctrine of justification, that which is found in the words, what is justification? And the answer of the Catechism is, justification is an act of God's free grace. And taking away the possessive part of the narrative,

7:37 I said our Catechism is telling us justification is an act of God. And so the first element of the doctrine that we must understand and grasp is that the sole author of our justification is the living God Himself, and the living God alone. I demonstrated this fact from the Word of God, asking you if you could quote two or three texts which explicitly state, explicitly state that God Himself is the justifier. And of course at the head of that list is Romans 8, 33.

8:15 Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. And then we looked at two inescapable implications of this fact. One for our comfort.

8:29 If the Supreme Judge of the universe has sent forth the declaration, no controversy with that sinner, all that he deserves as a lawbreaker has been paid for by another, all that he should do to be received as one who has a title to eternal life has been performed by another. If God sends forth a declaration of justification involving both the pardon of my sins and the accepting of my person as righteous, who will make an appeal? There is no parallel court. There is no higher court.

9:09 There is no greater authority. And so if we are well grounded in the fact that the author of our justification is the living God Himself, and the living God alone, this will be to the comfort and stability of the true believer. But secondly, it should be to the conviction of those who have no biblical grounds to believe that the living God has justified them. There is the record in Scripture of those who sought to justify themselves.

9:39 And they are exposed by Scripture in their folly. And there is the record of those who seek to justify their fellow human beings. And God has not given that right to any mortal. And therefore the great concern we should have is this.

The Recipients of Justification: Sinners and Only Sinners

9:55 Has the living God Himself sent forth the sentence, justified in Christ? Well then we come now this morning to the second major division of our study. Listen to the language of the larger catechism. What is justification?

10:15 Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners. Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners. And we move now from a study of the author of justification secondly to the recipients of justification or if you will, the kind of people God justifies. And their description in our catechism is very simple and straightforward.

10:50 Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners. So just as the word of God is clear in affirming that God Himself and God alone is the author of our justification, they are equally clear in informing us that it is sinners and only sinners that are the recipients of God's justifying act. And the outline we'll follow in opening up this second category of the substance of the doctrine of justification is what we used last week. The biblical basis for this statement and the inescapable implications of this statement. First of all then, the biblical basis for the fact that it is sinners and only sinners who are the recipients of God's justifying act. And as I set out the biblical basis, I want to do so under two major subheadings. Number one, sinners in their true standing and condition before God are the only ones whom God justifies.

12:06 And secondly, sinners in the painful self-awareness of their true standing and condition before God are the only ones whom God justifies. So what does this tell us at the outset? It tells us this. If you are uncomfortable with being called a sinner, you will be uncomfortable with any thought of being justified.

Biblical Basis 1: Sinners in Their True Standing Before God (Romans 1:18-3:20)

12:37 It's only those who've become uncomfortably comfortable with their identity as sinners that can find any delight in the glorious biblical doctrine of God's justification of sinners based upon the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. So, as we try to open up the biblical basis for the fact that it is sinners and only sinners who are the recipients of God's justifying act, first of all, sinners in their true standing and condition before God, these are the ones whom God justifies. Now, how do we bring together the biblical teaching concerning our sinnerhood? I wrestled with that, and this is the fruit of my wrestling. There is, first of all, the all-inclusive indictment of Romans 1.18-3.20.

13:41 Secondly, there is the unmistakable affirmation of our sin in Adam in Romans 5.12-21. And thirdly, there are those epitomizing statements found throughout the Word of God which crystallize and confirm these other two lines of biblical evidence. So then, the biblical basis for the fact that it is sinners and only sinners who are the recipients of God's justifying act, consider, first of all, sinners in their standing and condition before God as set forth in that all-inclusive indictment of Romans 1.18-3.20. Before we're done this series, I hope every one of you will be able to sit down with others and open up the book of Romans and work through with people this tremendously vital issue that we're addressing this morning.

14:41 Please open your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 1. Here in the opening words, Paul identifies himself as an apostle separated unto the gospel of God. In the opening words, the gospel of God. He has been set apart by God with respect to the ministry of the good news of God, the gospel of God.

15:06 And then he gives us, in very terse statements, some of the most vital elements of that gospel. It is a gospel promised afore through the prophets in the Holy Scriptures. Secondly, it is a gospel concerning His Son in the uniqueness of His person, born of the seed of David, according to the flesh, declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead, even Jesus Christ our Lord. He gives these seed thoughts concerning this gospel for which He has been separated unto its ministry by the living God.

15:46 Then he goes on to say that he has a sense of indebtedness with respect to the people at Rome, verse 14, and he longs to come to them in order to discharge his sense of indebtedness by doing what? By preaching the gospel to those that are at Rome. So as much as in me is, I am ready to preach the gospel to you who are at Rome. And why is he so ready to preach the gospel?

16:11 Why is he anxious when in many places preaching the gospel ends up getting Paul stoned, thrown into prison, beaten, driven out of town? Why in the world is he anxious to go to another place and preach the gospel? Well, he tells us, verse 16, for he is not ashamed of the gospel. He has no reason to be ashamed of this gospel.

16:32 Why? Because it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes, to Jew first and also to Greek. Well, how is it and why is it the very instrument of divine power unto salvation to Jews and Greek, to everyone and anyone who believes? He says, well, because, verse 17, in this gospel is revealed a righteousness of God, a way of getting a right standing with the God of heaven.

17:00 It's in this gospel that I can face the facts that I addressed in my introduction. This heart's going to stop beating. I'm going to die and after death I'll stand before the living God of heaven and earth in judgment. How can I be right with this God?

17:19 Paul says, my gospel tells you how. In it is revealed a way of right standing with God, for in the gospel a righteousness of God, one conceived by God, one provided by God, one offered by God in the gospel, one applied by God with power through the Holy Spirit in conjunction with the gospel so it becomes the very power of God unto salvation. And then it's as though someone says, ah, yes, Paul, but why in the world so excited about this gospel that is for both Jew and Greek the answer to the great question, how can I be right? Why be concerned with the whole thing in the first place? He said, I'll tell you why. Verse 18, 4, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who push down the truth in unrighteousness, and then he begins to indict the entire scope of the Gentile world that has never seen the pages of the Bible, never heard John 3, 16 quoted, never saw it on a poster in the end zone of a football game on national television, never saw a bumper sticker, no, never saw a page of the Bible. Yet in terms of what God has revealed of himself in creation

18:47 and the way he's created them, they know there is a God. They know that that God is bigger than the world in which they find themselves. They know they are accountable to him, but they've held down that truth and holding it down, they stand under the judgment of God. Then in chapter 2, in the first 16 verses, he takes up what we might call the Jewish or pagan moralists, those who do have some acquaintance with God's moral standards, whether in general revelation or special revelation or a combination of both.

19:25 They are able to sit in moral judgment on others and say, oh, don't you commit adultery, don't you murder. And yet he says, you who condemn others, you do the same thing yourselves. You stand under the judgment of God, you self-righteous condemning moralists. You're guilty of the very sins you condemn in others, therefore showing you know what is sin, and yet you commit sin, and you have the audacity to stand in judgment on others who do the same things.

19:54 You are under the judgment of God. And so in those 16 verses, he corrals another segment of humanity. He takes all of the pagan world, ignorant of special revelation, and corrals them and says, guilty, no right standing with God, under the judgment of Almighty God as sinners, willful sinners, sinners against light. Then he takes the moralists, in chapter 2, verses 1 to 16, whether Jewish or pagan, and he says, you have a further enlightenment of conscience, you have a further knowledge of right and of wrong, and you also stand condemned before the righteous judgment of God. And then in verse 17 of chapter 2, you bear the name of a Jew, and now he zeroes in on the Jew that had all the privileges of special revelation, had all the privileges of the forefathers, and the prophets, and the scriptures. And he says, you too stand condemned under the judgment of God. And then he comes to his summary in chapter 9, verse 9 of chapter 3, after showing that the Jew has many wonderful advantages, yet they do not take him out from the category of the guilty.

21:16 What then, 3-9, are we Jews better than they Gentiles? No, in no wise, for we before laid to the charge of Jews and Greeks, they are all under sin. And then he takes passages from the Old Testament, from the Psalms, and from the prophets, and the great summary, verse 19, now we know that what things whoever the law says, it speaks to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world be brought under the judgment of God, because by the works of the law shall no flesh be declared right with God in his sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. When Paul would teach his gospel to the Romans, where does he start? He teases us in those opening verses, I'm not ashamed of the gospel, it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believes. In it a way of right standing with God is revealed, both to Jew and to Greek, to everyone who believes.

22:29 And then he holds us there and says, and if you have any question that you ought to be excited about this gospel as a sinner, let me bring you into God's courtroom. I don't care who you are, what your privileges have been or have not been religiously, let me bring you into God's courtroom. And he brings one segment of humanity after another into God's courtroom until he envisions the entire human race indicted in God's courtroom and every individual his hand upon his mouth shut in the presence of Almighty God when the sentence goes forth, guilty, as charged. Now, this is why the larger catechism in seeking to define the biblical doctrine of justification says, justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners. Sinners in their true standing and condition before God are the people whom God justifies. The first line of evidence is this, all-inclusive indictment of Romans 1.18 to 3.20

23:49 and only then in 3.21 does he begin to tell us God's way of right standing with himself. But now, apart from the law, a righteousness of God, a way of right standing with God has been manifested. And then he begins to introduce Jesus Christ and his propitiatory work upon the cross.

24:16 He begins to open up in this very dense, concentrated section of 3.21 to 3.31 the very heart of this gospel by which God has revealed a way of right standing with him. But God's making it abundantly clear as he guided the mind and the pen or the dictating operations of the apostle until we've come to grips with who it is that God justifies.

24:48 We will have no heart interest in how he justifies. There must be a burning internal persuasion. I stand in God's courtroom and if I've heard the evidence right my mouth is shut. It stops.

25:11 I have nothing to say. I have no appeal. I have no excuses. No equivocation.

25:19 The indictment has nailed me. It's found me. And now I'm ready to hear is there anything other than hell and judgment and wrath and eternal banishment. But now, but now, a way of right standing with the very God who has indicted us is revealed in the gospel.

Biblical Basis 2: Sinners in Adam (Romans 5:12-21)

25:45 So I say, the biblical basis for the fact that it's sinners and sinners alone who are recipients of God's justifying act is to be found in that it's sinners in their true standing and condition before God. That condition and standing is set forth in the all-inclusive indictment of this portion of the word of God. But secondly, in the unmistakable affirmation of our sin in Adam. Here I want you to turn to Romans 5.

26:17 In the unmistakable affirmation of our sin in Adam. Whereas Romans 3, 21 to the end of the chapter gave us the heart of the gospel, Romans 4 emphasizes that this gospel and its blessings are received by faith and faith alone. And this was evident in Abraham before the giving of the law, in David after the giving of the law. It has always been true that accepting God's way of right standing with Him has been by faith and faith alone.

26:56 Then in chapter 5, verses 1 through 11, the apostle begins to enumerate some of the present and future blessings that come to those who do embrace by faith God's way of having a right standing with Him. And so he says, having therefore been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And when you read these 11 verses, it just oozes with the name of Christ. Again and again, the name of Christ is brought forward.

27:29 We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through whom? That is, through Christ. And then verse 6, when we were weak in due season, Christ died for the ungodly.

27:42 Verse 8, God commends His love to us and why were we yet sinners? Christ died for us. Verse 9, being now justified by His blood, saved from the wrath of God through Him. If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more being reconciled will be saved by His life.

28:03 Not only so, we rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we receive the reconciliation. See what Paul has done? He's saying, all of these blessings flow down to us in and through Jesus Christ. And then it's as though he paused and said, now I bet by now, people are wondering, what's our relationship to Christ once we believe upon Him, that all of these blessings come to us in Him and through Him?

28:35 And Paul said, now I'm going to answer that. And so in verse 12 through verse 21, he's going to teach this very basic simple truth. Your blessings that come in and through Christ come to you in a way that is parallel in which your sinnerhood came to you. He says in 14b, here's the key to this whole passage, Adam's transgression who is a figure, a typos, a type of him that was to come.

29:08 He says, if you understand how you became a sinner in relationship to Adam, then you'll understand how you got all these blessings in your relationship to Jesus Christ. And so in verses 12 through 21, 11 times, 10 plus 1, you have the numeral 1 used. You go through and circle it. The little Greek word, heis or heis, depending how you pronounce the epsilon, yoda, diphthong, it is used 11 times through the one man, through the one, through the one man, through the one.

29:53 And what's the point of the whole thing? Here's the point. He is making plain unless you understand how you became a sinner, you'll never understand how you become a justified saint. How did you become a sinner?

30:07 Well, look at verse 12. Therefore, see, it's connected. He says, I'm going to tell you, this is all connected. Therefore, as through one man sin entered into the world, who was that one man?

30:20 Adam. And death through sin, and so death unto all men. For that, all sin. Where and when did all sin?

30:30 For until the law, sin was in the world. But sin is not imputed where there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the likeness of Adam's transgression, who was a figure of him that was to come. If by the trespass of the one, the many died.

30:50 You see? He's going to go on to show that through the one man, Adam, sinnerhood passed to the whole human race, not waiting till each individual was born, but Adam sustained a relationship by God's appointment so that his sin became our sin. We sinned in him and with him as our representative, as our covenant head. Had Adam stood in his integrity, all who would come from him would have stood in him.

31:28 Adam falls and we fell in him. So the same apostle can write in 1 Corinthians 15, 22, for as in Adam all die. In connection with Adam and his action and his transgression, we died. Through the one man, sin enters for all sin in him.

31:54 And in the same way, he says, God appointed his only begotten son in the councils of eternity. And here we mumble and fumble for words when we talk about God and eternity. And here we mumble and fumble for words when we talk about God. But before time, before the creation of Adam and Eve, God seeing before his own eye all of his own plan and that there would be a creation of man and there would be a fall, God appoints his only begotten son to be the head of a new race.

32:32 He appoints his only begotten son to be the federal head and representative of a great multitude out of Adam's natural seed. A multitude whom no man can number out of every kindred, tribe and tongue and nation. And he appoints his son to represent them and to represent them in their condition. And the son willingly takes to himself the responsibility of assuming our nature, a true human soul, a true human body, in the language of Paul, made under the law and submitting himself to the very law that he himself gave to his ancient people at Sinai.

33:16 He submits himself to all the requirements of that law, that he might render perfect obedience to that law in every thought, in every word, in every motion of his heart, in every passion of his soul, in every relationship, heavenward and manward, that he might render an obedience to that law that was a perfect righteousness, not for himself, but for those whom he represents. And then that in time he would go to a place called Golgotha, and there, in that place, he would be charged with all the liabilities of the law that the people he represented had broken, every one of the crimes they had committed in thought, in word, in deed, in attitude, in disposition, in relationship, vertically and horizontally. And there, the scripture says, God made him who knew no sin to become sin for us. He becomes the curse for us, and the billows of divine wrath will break upon his head, that he might swallow up in his own suffering of soul and body all the judgment due to us, that God in the court of heaven might now say for all those whom he represented, his righteousness represented them well. He has rendered

34:43 a perfect obedience, a righteousness comprised of all the sum total of his holy obedience, a righteousness comprised of his fully satisfying all the demands of my law. In the face of that law his people broke, and because he was their representative's head, I can treat them as though they were him, he is my well beloved, fully obeyed my law, fully satisfied all the demands of my broken law, and when by faith they are incorporated into him, he treats us like his own well beloved son. Through the one man, Adam, you became a sinner, and it's only through the one God-man, Christ, you find acceptance. You say, I wasn't there to vote about it. Friend, you weren't there in Golgotha to vote about that either. You are a sinner by virtue of your relationship to Adam.

35:52 I don't like it. Well, that very attitude shows you are. Who are you, little creature of the dust? Who are you to tell God how should he arrange the affairs of his moral government?

36:07 You're a creature, put your hand upon your mouth. Who are you to reply against God shall the thing form say to him that formed it? Who are you to make me thus? This passage in Romans 5 is an unmistakable affirmation of our sin in Adam.

Biblical Basis 3: Explicit Affirmations (Romans 4:4-5, 1 Timothy 1:15)

36:23 But then, in addition to Paul's universal indictment in Romans 1, 18 to 3, 20, and this unmistakable affirmation of our sin in Adam, we also know from some specific text that it's only sinners, sinners in their true sin state and condition. They're standing before God legally what they are in themselves personally. It's only sinners whom God justifies. Let's look at just two such texts.

37:00 They're in Romans chapter 4 and language could not be more clear. Romans chapter 4 verses 4 and 5. Now to him that does not work the reward is sorry now to him that is working the reward is not reckoned as of grace but as of debt. When you go to work put in your hours punch a clock and then you get a paycheck that's not grace.

37:29 Your employer has put himself in debt to you by your labors and when he pays you he's just giving you what you deserve. Now that's an obvious truism. To him who is working the reward is not reckoned it's not considered to be gracious undeserved but as of debt. To him that does not work he has nothing to present to God.

37:52 He has no performance to bring to God. He does not work but believes on him now look at this phrase justifies the ungodly. The only people God justifies are ungodly people. That's the only ones.

38:12 Until you're ready to stand on that platform and say that's not me I'm one of them ungodly sinner deserving of divine wrath exposed to the judgment of a holy God polluted and defiled to the core of my being ungodly with no comma and words to extenuate who and what I am ungodly with no dash leading to some end of discussion. That's the ones God justifies. At the point of their justification what are they? Ungodly sinners. Now they won't remain ungodly thank God but at the point of their justification they are ungodly period. Nothing to bring for which God will reward them they stand in their ungodliness and then the well-known statement of 1st Timothy 1 15. Among those holy cliches that began to float among the churches in the apostolic period called the faithful sayings of the pastoral epistles.

39:30 This is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptance Christ Jesus came into the world and whenever Pastor Smith quotes it he quotes it according to the emphasis that sinners is put before the verb. He came into the world and the moment you think of Jesus you shall call his name Jesus. Jehovah is our salvation for he shall save his people from their sins at the point that he saves their in their sins enmeshed in them defiled and polluted by them guilty and condemned on account to them in their sins and he saves them out of and away from their sins. So when we ask the question who does God justify the answer is he justifies sinners sinners in their real true state and standing and condition before God. However this is crucial it is not just sinners in their true standing and condition before God but secondly it is

The Crucial Condition: Painful Self-Awareness of Sin

40:59 sinners who have been brought to the painful self awareness of their true standing and condition before God whom God justifies. Now I want you to let that sink in. As surely as God justifies a sinner before God both guilty and defiled so likewise God never justifies a sinner who is really and truly a sinner a sinner by this clear indictment that we have looked at in Romans 1 in Romans 5 but it is sinners who have been brought to the painful self awareness and condition before God whom God justifies before God ever justifies a sinner he makes the sinner feel how desperately he needs God's justifying act always always in bringing sinners to enjoy the blessing of being right with himself in justifying grace the first thing he does is to bring a sinner to know and feel that by nature

42:28 the sinner is all wrong with God and where is that taught in the Bible well I want us to look many texts but I want us to look at two in the interest of time the first from the lips of our savior himself in Luke chapter 5 in Luke chapter 5 in conversion and Levi makes a big feast obviously that he might make known his new relationship to the Lord Jesus in verse 30 says in Luke 5 the Pharisees and their scribes murmured against his disciples saying why do you eat and drink with the publicans and sinners what in the world is your master and you people these tax collectors they are like the Palestinian mafia they are known for their chicanery for their dishonesty they are polluted and defiled because they are constantly in touch with the Roman authorities settling the affairs of these atoll booths that they lease to them and in many cases they have been excommunicated from local synagogues what in the

43:56 world do you think is true now we will look at the historical partnership with your local synagogues it is not so we have over the last hour we are ready to meet the regents and need a physician, but if they don't know their illness, they don't go. They must have felt need. Jesus said, I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Is he saying that there are some who are inherently and truly objectively righteous? Of course not. He's exposing these Pharisees who are justifying themselves, who though they may have a theoretical doctrine of sin, for remember, they are meticulous in all the Jewish rituals, the sin offerings, as well as the thank offerings, and the day of atonement, and the Passover, and all the rest. They may have a

45:10 theoretical doctrine of sin, but they have no felt awareness of the reality of their sin. And he said, I've not come to call such, but sinners. Sinners who are sinners in their true state, and who have come to know, and feel, and experience the reality of their state so much, that they see in me their only hope of life and salvation, and are prepared to cast in their lot with me, and become attached to me as the Savior of sinners. And I'm persuaded with all of my heart, and I have cried to God. This is why some of you sit here, Sunday by Sunday by Sunday, particularly any of you young people, and you've got all the talk about Jesus, and you've got all the talk about sin, but there is no real deep heart attachment to Jesus Christ, and to a life of radical discipleship. You think like the world, your entertainment is the world, you dress like the world, you carry yourself like the world, your heart is wedded to the world.

46:28 With a thin veneer of Christ, and Christianity, and gospel talk. And the issue is, you've never felt what you really are before God. You've never felt the reality that that world at whose shrine you worship, in terms of what you like in entertainment, what you like in music, what you like in dress, what you like in talk, what you like in this, your heart is wedded to the world. Wedded to the world. The Bible says, whosoever be a friend to the world is an enemy of God.

47:09 And your problem is, you've never seen. I'm as much an idolater as that person in that deep jungle setting that this very day bows down to the carving of his own hands, and offers up some food to that idol. You've never come to feel inwardly, and see with sight. You've never come to feel inwardly, and see with sight. You've never come to feel inwardly, and see with sight. You've never come to feel inwardly, and see with sight. Spiritual perception, your true state. You may with your lips say, oh yes, I'm a sinner like everybody else. Before God justifies you, he's going to wound you. And he's going to wound you deeply with a sense and a felt awareness of your true state. I'm an idolater. I worship at the shrine of the world's standards for entertainment, for what's fun, for what's important, for what's important, for dress, for this, for that. That's where I worship. I'm an idolater. Oh God, you could

48:14 send me to hell for my idolatry. God ever justifies us. He first of all brings us to see, to feel, to own our true state. Now let's look at an example of a man with whom he did that.

Illustration of Self-Awareness: The Publican (Luke 18:9-14)

48:36 Turn over in Luke to chapter 18. And I love this passage because, the word justified is used in it. Here's a man that Jesus says of him, verse 14 of Luke 8. I say unto you, this man went down to his house justified. We have it on the word of Jesus, that the man he's describing went to his house justified. Almighty God sent forth the sentence that all of his sins were pardoned, and that his person, was accepted as righteous in the court of heaven. How'd God bring him to that place? Well, look up at the passage. Verse 9. He spoke this parable to certain who trusted in themselves

49:31 that they were righteous. Said all others it not. Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee, the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God I thank you. I'm not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I get. But the publican, standing afar off. Isn't it interesting? Jesus, first of all, addresses his body language.

50:05 Well, body language doesn't mean anything. If I sit and slouch in church, it doesn't mean my heart's not right. Baloney it isn't. You don't slouch in the presence of God. This man didn't come strutting up into the presence of God. His body language, Jesus identifies it. Not me. Jesus did. He stood afar off.

50:31 Furthermore, Jesus describes some more of his body language. He would not lift up so much his eyes unto heaven. Does he not look it up? Because he knows in the heavens is the God whose purer eyes than to look upon iniquity. The God before whom cherubim and seraphim veil face and feet. And fly with restlessness and cry one to another, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God the Almighty. Heaven's the dwelling place of the God who is the God of burning light, of infinite purity. Before whom these sinless beings veil face and feet. He would not lift up so much.

51:21 He doesn't even say his head. He wouldn't even lift his eyes. Why? Why?

51:30 Furthermore, notice what Jesus describes. He smote his breast. He's beating on his gut. Smiting his breast. Why? Because he's come to feel as well as to see who and what he is. As a sinner, not only guilty and barred by justice from communion with the God of heaven, but internally defiled. And polluted. And he beats upon the place of his distress. He beats upon his breast.

52:07 There's something in me that is offensive to God. And what does he do? Now his words. God, be propitious. Turn away your wrath from me on the basis of an innocent sacrifice.

52:25 Be thou merciful. Not the standard word for mercy, but the propitiation family of words most likely had. His eyes upon the altar of sacrifice. Be propitious to me. Not a sinner. Jesus put the definite article in his mouth. The sinner. Yes, the world is full of sinners, but oh God, at this point, there's only one sinner. And that sinner's me. You see, when God the Holy Ghost brings real conviction, there's only two people in the universe. You and God.

53:05 Nobody else. You and God.

53:09 Jesus says, this man went down to his house justified. Justified why? Because of his conviction? No. Justified because he beat his breast? No. Justified because, no, justified because he went out of himself, trusting only in the divine provision for sinners. But he didn't do it simply admitting on the basis of a well-instructed mind that he was a sinner. He didn't do it simply admitting on the basis of a well-instructed mind that he was a sinner. He went down to his house justified because he went out of himself into the divine provision for sinners with a felt awareness of his true condition and state before Almighty God. And you will never go down to your house justified to take your stand with him. He had a felt awareness. Well, you say, how much must I feel? I'm not about to say, because God doesn't.

54:10 But you will know. You will know when Almighty God has singled you out and isolated you and caused you to face his holiness and justice and your sin. And you will know it. You will know it.

54:32 That's the problem by many of you trifled with gospel truth. Flippantly talk about Christ and being a Christian. There is no tenderness to sin. There is no secret grieving.

54:48 There is no sin over your sin. There is no real evidence of attachment to Christ that he has become the pearl of great price so that you can say with Paul, for to me to live is Christ. Christ is life to me. Yes, you can say Christ is sort of an addition to my life. Give some dimension of direction and purpose and a crutch to lean on in my troubles.

55:19 But he's not everything to you. He's not everything to you. And if God's ever going to justify you, he's going to bring you to the place where you feel keenly your true state, your true condition. And when that state and condition is resolved by the faith grip upon Christ, Christ will become precious to you. He will become the center of your life. He will become what he himself said, the pearl of great price, who having found it, you sell all to have it. He will become the treasure in the field. Well, I've laid out my case. I had hoped to come to the inescapable implications of this fact. That'll have to wait. I prayed that whatever I prepared

Conclusion and Call to Self-Examination

56:23 that God would have me say today, I'd say no more, no less. And I think enough has been said.

56:32 Justification, it's an act of God. He's the author. Who are the recipients? Sinners. Sinners in what sense? Sinners who have faced their true state and condition before God. Sinners who've come self-consciously to feel the reality of their true state and condition before God. And who have gone out of themselves and into Christ alone for salvation. I had a number of quotes I wanted to give you. I may yet give them next week, God willing. Some think, well, this is just a peculiar emphasis of Pastor Martin. Or this some peculiar emphasis of Reformed Baptists. My friends, no it isn't. And I have before me quotations from the masters in

57:27 Israel recognized in all branches of Christendom as some of the greatest gifts God has ever given to his people. And I think enough has been said. And I think enough has been said. And I think enough has been said. And I think enough has been said. And I think enough has been said. And the history of the church. And they all say the same thing. I give you one sentence in closing. Until men know themselves better, they will care very little to know Christ at all. That's why some of you don't want to know Christ at all or are satisfied with the most meager knowledge of Christ because you don't know yourself better. You don't know yourself to be what God says you are. And I urge you to cry to, God, and then say no to all the influences that would keep you from following through. Get down before God with Romans 1.18 to 3.20 and pray over that.

58:18 Pray over Romans 5.12 to the end until you say, I'm in there. That's where I am. That's me.

58:26 Oh, God, so deal with me that my mouth will be shut. And I'll be prepared to go out of myself into Christ. Christ, I'm Christ alone. Let's pray.

58:44 Our Father, what can we say but to ask you to forgive us that we trifle with you. When we think of angels that tremble in your presence, how careless we are.

59:05 Have mercy upon us. Have mercy especially upon those who are utterly deluded into thinking all is well when they've never truly seen and felt and owned their true self. We pray that you would arrest them. Give them no rest, Father, until driven out of themselves they are found in Christ, not having a righteousness of their own, but that which is in him.

59:33 Thank you for the many whom you've wounded deeply and whose wound has driven them through the great physician. And they have found him to be all that he promises to be. Seal, then, your word. To our hearts we pray.

59:49 In Jesus' name, amen.