A Review (Part 2)

Introduction: Returning to the Doctrine of Justification

0:02 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday evening, June 17th, 2007, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:16 I read but a brief portion of one of those sections of Paul's letter to the Romans, which focuses upon this grand biblical doctrine of justification. I refer to Romans chapter 8, verses 31 through 35. I'm 34, I'm sorry. Romans 8, 31 through 34.

0:44 Having just stated what is often called the golden chain of God's redemptive purpose, from his electing for ordaining grace to our glorification, the apostle then exclaims, What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He that spared not his own son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things? Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect?

1:26 It is God that justifies. Who is he that condemns? It is Christ Jesus that died, yea, rather that was raised from the dead, who is at the right, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Let us again pray and ask the help of God's Holy Spirit in our study of the word of God together.

1:55 We thank you, our Father, for this blessed second book of divine revelation, the only book in which we can know the answer to that burning question, how shall we who are sinners ever find, find acceptance with you? And we thank you that in this blessed book you have given us the answer clearly and repeatedly, illustratively, didactically, in every way. And we pray that help will be given to us as once again we engage our minds with that wonderful biblical answer to that profound and burning question. Give help to your servant and help to your people that together we may be conscious of the present ministry of the Holy Spirit among us. Hear us and answer our prayer through Jesus our Lord, we pray, amen.

3:02 Now I'm quite certain that most of you present this evening were with us this morning, but for the benefit of the few who were not here this morning, I will take just a few minutes to tell you, what I've decided to do in the ministries of the word of God, both services on this Lord's day. Last year, after completing a series of studies on evangelical repentance and saving faith, those twin exercises of the regenerate soul, I designated them the door, the hinge on which salvation turns. That it's when sinners, by the enabling power of the Spirit, repent toward God and believe upon the Lord Jesus, that they are ushered in to the blessings of God's salvation. And so we began to address what are those major blessings given to every penitent and believing sinner. And I identified the blessing of justification as the foundational blessing imparted to every believing sinner. And I had fourteen expositions of that particular doctrine, and then in the providence of God broke off that series, brought two lengthy series,

4:28 some individual messages in between, and now I believe it is time to return to that series of studies. And because eight months has passed since I last preached on that subject, I judged it would be in your best interest to pull together the major lines of biblical truth and the manner in which I sought to lay them out to prepare us for our ongoing study of this glorious doctrine of justification by faith based upon the imputation of the righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. And I stated in reminder this morning that I've gathered the biblical witness concerning justification under three major headings. I address the first heading in the first message, the importance of the biblical doctrine of justification, in messages two to five, the biblical context of the biblical doctrine of justification, and that messages seven to fourteen dealt with the substance of the biblical doctrine of justification. And as an introduction to dealing with the substance of that doctrine, I sought to demonstrate that the verb to justify is a legal, a forensic term,

The Westminster Larger Catechism's Definition of Justification as a Fence

5:52 a declaration of someone being just before the law, not liable to punishment, and yet worthy of receiving all the blessings of a law keeper. Now we come tonight to take up our first in the series of messages that deal with the subject of the substance of the doctrine of justification. And the organizing framework that I used in the original preachment and that I will use again tonight in seeking to define with accuracy is the definition of justification given to us in the Westminster Larger Catechism. And as I said this morning, that statement is as close to anything that is perfect in uninspired literature that I know of. A hundred and fifty godly, discerning, knowledgeable pastor-theologians met over the course of five and a half years, more than a thousand sessions, wrestling with the great doctrines that are articulated in the Westminster Confession of Faith, the bulk of which labor finds expression in our 1689 London Baptist Confession, and they spent considerable time as well

7:19 in composing both the larger and the shorter catechisms. And if you ask, why use a catechism definition that is given to us as the one in the Westminster Larger Catechism, I answer that an accurate definition of catechism functions as a fence. A fence can be used to keep safe what ought to be kept safe within the parameters of the fence, and it can keep out what ought to be kept out. And that's the function of a biblically accurate, theologically comprehensive catechetical instruction.

8:01 It acts like a fence to hold together in the parameters of that fence that statement, the major components of a biblical doctrine, and it aids us in keeping out erroneous thinking and that which would be injurious to our souls. What then is the definition of justification given to us in the Larger Catechism? It is this. Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners, in which He, that is God, pardons all of our sins, accepts and accounts our persons as 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. I looked upon this marvelous, comprehensive, yet succinct and accurate statement like a beautiful seven-room house. Each one of the rooms needs to be examined carefully to drink in its beauty.

Room 1: The Author of Justification – God Alone

9:26 We covered the first five of those rooms in the previous studies, and my commitment tonight, within the allotted time, is to give a review of the major headings of that study of those first five beautiful rooms that compose the mansion of justification. First of all, we noted the author of justification is God Himself and God alone. Listen to the definition. Justification is an act of God's free grace.

10:05 If we drop the possessive at the end of the word, we could read it this way. Justification is an act of God in which He pardons all their sins, He accepts and accounts 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. There are no fewer than five references that point to this fact that the author of justification is God Himself and God alone. And the biblical evidence for this is profuse. I refer just as a couple of epitomizing texts, Romans 8 and verse 29 and 30. For whom He, God, foreknew, He also foreordained to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.

11:23 Whom He, God, foreordained, then He also called, whom He called, whom He also justified. And whom He justified, them He also glorified. Language could not be clearer. Yet, in verse 34 of this same chapter, Paul asks the question, who is He that condemns?

11:48 It is Christ Jesus that died, yea, rather, that is risen from the dead. And in the light of this, Paul can assert as he does at the end of verse 33, it is God that justifies. Or 1 Corinthians 1.30, but of Him, by His activity, God's activity, are you in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us righteousness.

12:19 And therefore, the framers of this definition of justification are biblically accurate in answering the question, who is the author of the justification with the words God Himself and God alone, or with words that justify that description. It is vital that we understand that we do not justify ourselves. Now, the Bible records in Luke 16.15 and in 18.9 and following, people who sought to declare themselves righteous, but they were guilty of the utmost of spiritual folly, and seeking to do so. We do not justify ourselves. No other human being can justify us. No institution or ritual can justify us.

13:10 The witness of Scripture is clear that the author of justification is God Himself, and it is God alone. And the inescapable implications of God's exclusive role as the justifier are these. The act of God in justification is infallible. The sentence that comes from God's courtroom, justified in Christ, cannot be appealed to any higher court.

13:44 Who can condemn when the judge who sits in the highest court of the universe has declared us not only pardoned, but innocent, more than innocent, He deals with us as though we had perfectly kept His law in all of its demands through the entirety of our existence. So the act is inviolable because God Himself is the author, and the act is according to truth, because it is the God of truth who declares us righteous. And as we shall see in our subsequent review and in our ongoing study, when God declares something, it is because what He declares is indeed true. And the God who declares us righteous is the God who can declare it in truth, because in the scheme of redemption He constitutes us righteous, not by anything wrought in us or anything done by us, but because of who Christ is in what Christ has done, God can constitute us righteous before His law and declare that constituted righteousness to be true. So then, we saw first of all the author of justification,

Room 2: The Recipients of Justification – Sinners

15:12 God Himself and God alone. But then secondly, we looked at what our catechism definition says about the recipients of justification, and they are sinners, just plain sinners. I quote again, justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners. No qualifying adjectives.

15:41 It doesn't say gross sinners, people who are respectable sinners. It doesn't say seeking sinners. It doesn't say earnest sinners. It says justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners, sinners as sinners, plain old ordinary sinners of every stripe.

16:04 Then we looked at the biblical evidence in two areas, that it is sinners in their real standing and condition as sinners whom God justifies. Romans 4, verses 4 and 5 is one of the epitomizing texts. To him that works, the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. But to him who does not work, but believes on Him that justifies the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness.

16:40 God justifies the ungodly. After He has justified us by what He does in us, which is not related to the basis of why He justifies us, we will not remain ungodly. But at the point of God's justifying declaration, it is ungodly sinners whom God justifies. And this fits the whole tenor of the biblical witness.

17:07 You shall call His name Jesus, for He shall save His people from their sins. At the point that His salvation reaches them, they are in their sins. And He saves them out of and away from their sins. But at the point of His saving touch, they are sinners in their sins whom He justifies.

17:33 For 1 Timothy 1.15, faithful is the saying, worthy of all acceptation, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. So our catechism definition is accurate. It's an act of God's free grace unto sinners.

17:53 The biblical evidence that it is sinners. In the real standing and condition as sinners, it is such whom God justifies. But secondly, and I want you to listen carefully, and I sought to demonstrate this in great detail when I preach this. The biblical evidence is that it is sinners in the self-awareness of their true standing as sinners whom God justifies.

18:21 Not just sinners who in their objective standing before God are declared sinners that are justified, but such sinners who have been brought to a deep personal awareness that sinnerhood is their true condition. Remember what Jesus said? They that are healthy have no need of a doctor, but they that are sick. I came not to call the righteous.

18:53 Well, I thought there is none righteous, no, not one. Objectively, in the court of heaven, there is none righteous, no, not one. All we like sheep have gone astray. We've turned every one of us to his own way.

19:06 There is none righteous, no, not one. Well, what did Jesus mean when he said, I came not to call the righteous? He said, I did not come to call those who are righteous in their own eyes. Those sinners in their objective condition and state before God, they've not yet owned that reality in their own hearts.

19:28 And Jesus said, I have no salvation for them until they are brought to see and own and feel existentially in their own spiritual gut what they are as sinners. They'll never be justified. It is only those who, like the Philippian jailer, are conscious of their need of salvation that cry out, What must I do to be saved? To whom they answer, Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.

20:03 Only to such is it good news. It was the publican, aware of his true state, who beat upon his breast and cried, God, be propitious to me, the sinner. He went down to his house justified, not on the basis of his conviction, not on the basis of his inward trauma of the sense of his sin. He was justified, as we shall subsequently see, on the basis of what Christ would do for him in his completed life of obedience and his death upon the cross.

20:40 But he was not justified apart from the felt awareness of his true condition. And neither will you ever be justified sitting here, smug in your sinnerhood. I've heard this a thousand times. Yes, you have, but you've never heard it.

20:56 You've never felt it. You've never spent five minutes grieved over the fact that as a creature made by God, to know God, to love Him supremely, to obey Him meticulously, to honor Him, to honor Him universally, you've lived to yourself. And when you begin to see what that is before a holy God, no longer will you treat passionate gospel preaching with indifference like you've done a thousand times. You'll never be justified until you take seriously what God says you are.

21:40 God help you. God help you no longer to trifle with the world. Life is short. Hell is long.

21:52 It's forever and forever and forever and forever. And unless Almighty God gives a sentence from the courtroom of heaven that you're no longer a candidate for hell, that's where you'll be. And that sentence will never come from the courtroom of heaven until in the courtroom of your own heart and your own spirit, you say from the heart, Oh God, I'm the sinner who needs your justifying act. I'm the sinner who unless you reverse the sentence against me, I've had it.

22:29 I may as well be roasting in hell today. For that will be my portion. The recipients of justification are sinners. Sinners in two ways.

22:44 In the objective condition and standing before God. But sinners in the self-awareness of their true standing and condition before God. And dear people, this is why we've got to follow God's method in presenting the gospel. There's all talk today about how we're going to package the gospel to make the gospel attractive.

23:11 Find a wound and heal it. Find a hurt and help it. Let's find where people want Christ to meet them. No, no.

23:23 God's method is the method of Romans. You start with the reality of what we are as guilty sinners before God. That's where Paul started in Romans 1.18 all the way through to the end of chapter 1, verse 32, all of chapter 2, all through chapter 3 to verse 20, which concludes with these words that all the world may become guilty.

23:48 They become guilty before God. Then and only then does he say but now. But now there is manifested a righteousness from God. The recipients of justification are sinners.

24:05 It's not popular to use the word sinners. We want to talk about people with their hang-ups, with their frustrations. The Bible says he came into the world to save sinners. And we must under God be used to persuade men and women, boys and girls that that's what they are.

24:25 Or they will go on and say with Paul, I was alive apart from the law once. Sin was a word. Sin was a concept. Sin had a place in my objective theology.

24:38 But he said in the depths of my being I thought I was spiritually alive as a Pharisee until God's holy law raked through my heart. And I saw there a seething cauldron of constant breaking of the tenth commandment. I found all kinds of evil desire working in me. And I who thought I was alive, I saw myself a dead sinner in need of a living savior.

Room 3: The Source of Justification – God's Free Grace

25:09 Then thirdly, as we looked at this beautiful seven-room house, justification is an act of God. He's the author, the recipients, sinners. Thirdly, the source of our justification is the free grace of God. Again, I read the what's the word I want?

25:33 Catechism. I've got confession in one part of my brain. Catechism in the other. Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners.

25:44 That's it. The source out of which justification flows is the free grace of God. And then what I sought to do to demonstrate this was to look at a crucial text, Romans 3, 21 to 24, and then the overall witness of Scripture that grace is the source of every facet of God's saving activity to sinners. Note with me briefly, Romans 3, Romans chapter 3, when the Apostle has corralled the whole human race, proven all are under sin, then he changes the emphasis in verse 21 of Romans 3, but now, apart from the law, 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 who have sinned or fall short of the glory of God. Now notice, the first time he uses the verb justify in the book of Romans, notice the context and the associations. Being justified freely by His grace.

27:06 And that's where the framers of this catechism got their language. Justification is an act of God's free grace. Well, you say, isn't grace free? Yes.

27:21 But God wants us to get the message. Grace is the outpouring of God's favor, not just to those who haven't earned it, but who deserve just the opposite. Grace is not giving us what we don't deserve, it is conferring upon us the exact opposite to what we deserve. All cannot think of God's justifying act without the words free grace flooding His mind, finding a way to His lips and onto the pen of the amanuensis who took down His letter and wrote it. The source of justification is God's free grace or the whole analogy of scripture in the whole spectrum of God's saving acts from election to glorification and when I originally preached this I had a specific text for every one of those major categories of God's saving activity to men from election to the incarnation to the substitutionary death of Christ to His wrath to the oku

28:50 from its birth to His decadence sent to death He has Wrong He has a gospel of grace from beginning to end and why does this government have with us mercy except through need to be emphasized again and again. I sought to point out when I preach this, it's because we are naturally opposed to grace. Your heart by nature is not only opposed to the law, Romans 8, 7, the carnal mind is enmity against God, is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be, but your natively carnal heart is opposed to grace.

29:39 You don't like the thought of grace by nature, because you see, when we understand that the salvation we receive is not something we deserve, not something we can earn, we instinctively know that we have a sense of indebtedness to the one who has lavished such undeserved kindness upon us, and we don't like to be beholden to another. And so there is a native indisposition to receive and return, to retain grace. We're inclined to drift from grace. Remember what Paul had to say to the Galatians.

30:17 I marvel that you were so soon removing from him that called you in the grace of Christ to another gospel which is not another gospel.

30:32 Dear people, we have a disinclination to grace. We are inclined to drift from grace, or we are inclined to abuse, or we are inclined to abuse grace and turn the grace of God into license. That's why Paul, after magnifying God's grace in our justification, had to move on to Romans 6. What shall we say then?

30:57 Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! May it never be that we abuse grace, left to ourselves, we oppose grace, we drift from grace, we abuse grace, and therefore we must never tire of being reminded that our justification, along with every single category of God's saving activity, has its source in the free grace of God. Then, in the fourth place, we considered the activity of God in our justification.

Room 4: The Activity of God in Justification – Pardon and Acceptance

31:37 Again, I read from the Catechism, that justification is an act, an act of God's free grace unto sinners in which, now listen carefully, He pardons all their sins, comma,

31:56 accepts and accounts their persons righteous in His sight. The activity of God in our justification is a two-fold act. It's an act of pardon, and an act of accepting, accepting and accounting. There is no comma after accepting.

32:17 They're using these two words almost as synonyms. If one doesn't quite register, the other one may. And they are asserting that according to the Scriptures, when God justifies a sinner, He does two things. He pardons all of their sins.

32:37 He accepts and accounts their persons as righteous in... in His sight.

32:45 So, there is a negation and a confirmation, or a conferral. One is an act that negates. He pardons their sins. Another is an act that confers.

33:00 In the first, He takes something away. In the second, He gives something to us. And they are inseparable in God's justifying act, but they are distinct. Just as repentance and faith are inseparable, but distinct.

33:18 Distinct actings of the soul. So, these two facets of what God does in justifying sinners are always inseparable, but they are distinct. And then I sought to demonstrate from the Scriptures that this is indeed true. We see from manifold Scriptures that in justification God performs an act of complete pardon.

33:45 I read but one of the many texts we studied when I preached this truth some months ago in Acts chapter 13, verses 38 and 39. As Paul comes near the conclusion of his sermon at Antioch, Be it known unto you therefore, brethren, that through this man, Jesus, is proclaimed unto you remission of sins, and by him every one that believes is justified from all things, from which you could not be justified by the law of Moses. All sin is completely, irrevocably pardoned. That's the glory of justification. And it is in the overall teaching of the Scriptures on justification, it is the dominant act of God in his activity of justification. And one of the old writers has beautifully stated the reality this way.

34:58 When God pardons, he pardons all sins, original sin and actual sin, sins of omission and of commission, secret and open sins, sins of sin and of commission, sins of omission and of commission, sins of omission and of commission, sins, sins of thought, sins of word, sins of deed. One unpardoned sin would destroy a soul forever. One unpardoned sin would destroy a soul forever. A single transgression can rouse an enlightened conscience to the wildest fury.

35:39 You kids know, who have a sensitive conscience, one lie told to the world, and one lie told to the world... to mom or dad and you could hardly get to sleep that night in the next day you could hardly look at mom one lie one sin to an awakened conscience can be like a terrifying almost demonic haunting oppressor that's what the writer understands every sin deserves the wrath and curse of god in this life and in that which is to come yet to those who believe in jesus all is freely forgiven full pardon or none at all is what god designs to give yet to those who believe in christ all is freely forgiven this suits human necessities nor is this gift ever revoked by god when he forgives he forgives forever he who is once pardoned never again comes under the curse of the law upon new provocations men sometimes revive old controversies not so with god sin once pardoned by him is done forever he has cast it behind his back and will not return to search for it forgiveness of sins that are

37:00 passed is a sure pledge that future sins shall never have a condemning pardon my sin oh the bliss of this glorious thought my sin not the part but the whole is nailed to the cross and i bear it no more praise the lord praise the lord oh my soul though the chambers of memory still retain the wretched aftermath and the aftertaste of a thousand sins in the courtyard of the lip of his hand christianity is here for him to rest and his heart should be for Christ of heaven, they are blotted out. If we may say it, God's self-imposed amnesia, he says, their sins and their iniquities, I will remember no more. Think of it. You still remember them. And there are times you pray with David, remember not against me the sins of my youth. Do you not find

38:01 yourselves confessing over and over certain sins, though when you do, you say, oh Lord, I know they're forgiven. But just the thought of them fills me with a sense of wretchedness and shame and filth and defilement. Oh God, I know I'm forgiven, but please forgive me. You have that experience as a Christian? David did. Sins long since forgiven, but he said, Lord, remember not.

38:28 It's wonderful to think that God says, David, I don't know what's talking. What sins are you talking about? In the covenant of my mercy, I say, their sins and iniquities, I will remember no more. That's the first great blessing of God's activity in our justification. It is this act of complete pardon. But it's more than that.

38:57 You see, if it were only that, it would put us back in the condition where Adam was, in Eden, before he sinned. He had no sin charged to him. And if all God did in justification was to pardon us, he would put us back in the condition where Adam was before the fall. But the framers of the catechism say, in the act of God's justifying free grace, he not only pardons all their sins, but accepts and accounts their persons righteous, in his sight. He accepts and accounts, reckons their persons as righteous, perfectly righteous in his sight. Regards them now no longer as those who have not broken his law, but as those who have perfectly kept his law. In other words, if Adam had continued in a course of perfect, full obedience to God, there are inferences in God's original prohibition, that thing called the tree of life, that Adam would have been rewarded in grace with

40:18 a status of perfection in holiness from which he could not decline or apostatize. But what God does for us in justification? He puts us beyond where Adam was. He puts us in the posture as though we had perfectly kept all of God's injunctions through any single period of trial and are rewarded with the life that is the promise of perfect obedience. And though we anticipate the grounds of it in the life and death of Christ, you see, that's what our second Adam has wrought for us. For he did perfectly, completely fulfill the promise of perfect obedience. And so, we are rewarded with the life that is the promise of perfect obedience. And so, we are rewarded with the life that is the promise of perfect obedience.

41:02 The father could say of him, this is my son, my beloved, in whom I am well pleased. And because we are in him, he is well pleased with us and accepts and receives our persons as righteous in his sight. What text of scripture affirmed this in no equivocating terms? Romans chapter 5 and verse 19. For as through one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous. Or 2 Corinthians 5, 21, him who knew no sin, Jesus, was made sin for us, that we might not merely be forgiven, but that we might be forgiven. And so, we are rewarded with the life that is the promise that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He accepts and receives our persons as righteous in his sight. One writer has said the pardon of sin is an indispensable

42:22 and important part of a sinner's justification, but it's not an adequate or complete description of that privilege. It includes his acceptance as righteous in the sight of God. And so, his acceptance as righteous in the sight of God, his admitting us into the divine favor and possession of the gift of eternal life, his person, although he's still unworthy in himself, and also his services, though they are still imperfect and defiled by sin, are an acceptable, they are acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, both being sprinkled with his blood and perfumed with the incense of his intercession. Some have been asked and anxious to try to show that justification consists in pardon only, and that when all sin has been forgiven, there's either no need of the distinct privilege of acceptance, or if there is, this is not secured by the righteousness of Christ, but is left to depend on the personal obedience of the believer. We are not considering at present the ground on which this acceptance and receiving us as righteous rests. We're not considering the ground, that's our next heading. We are not considering the ground or what that righteousness is on account of which the believer is accepted, but we're seeking to establish this point, says the

43:47 author, that justification includes acceptance with God as well as the forgiveness of sins, and this should be distinctly apprehended if we would form any adequate estimate of the nature and value of this great God. A man may be guilty of a crime, charged by the law, proven guilty in the court, sentenced to pay a penalty, and then he's pardoned. He's pardoned. He's regarded as a pardoned criminal. He is not looked upon as a perfect law-abiding citizen. You see the difference?

44:29 He still, though pardoned, has the mark upon him. He is a pardoned criminal. If a man is spent doing time to pay what the law demands. He's called an ex-con. But God takes us beyond that status and brings us to the status of those who have perfectly obeyed all the laws of the land against whom there can be no charge of deviation from that law, liability to punishment, but all the rewards due to and promised upon obedient citizens. What does God do when he justifies sinners? It is an act of complete pardon, an act of accepting and receiving our persons as righteous in his sight. Then we come, fifthly, what is the ground or the basis of this justification

Room 5: The Ground of Justification – Christ's Perfect Obedience and Full Satisfaction

45:29 with which we are to be justified? What is the ground or the basis of this justification with this justification with which we are to be justified? What is the ground or the basis of this with its pardon, with its accepting and accounting our persons righteous? On what grounds can God do such an astounding thing and still be the God of truth, the God of righteousness, the God of perfect justice? Our catechism answers it. Listen carefully, negatively and positively.

45:53 Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners in which he pardons all of their sins accepts and accounts their persons righteous in his sight. Now here's the negative. Not for anything wrought in them or done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ. The negative, two negatives. What's the ground on which God will make the declaration in the court of heaven? That's the ground. What's the ground on which God will make the declaration in the court of heaven? That sinner is fully pardoned of all his or her sins, original sin, actual sin, sins of thought, sins of word, sins of deed, sins of motive, sins of desire, sins secret, sins open. On what ground can a holy God pardon all the sin? The God of whom it is said,

46:54 the soul that sins shall die. The wages of sin is death. You are of pure arrival, eyes then to look upon iniquity, and will no means clear the guilty. And by no means clear the guilty.

47:09 On what ground can God pardon sin? On what ground can he say to a sinner who has broken God's law from his very conception because he is implicated in the sin of Adam, in the solidarity of the human race, who goes astray from the womb-speaking lies, who goes astray from the womb-speaking lies, who goes astray from the womb-speaking lies, who goes astray from the womb-speaking lies, who goes iniquity like water? How can God say of such an individual, I accept and I receive you as perfectly righteous in my sight? On what grounds can God do these two astounding things? Well, their two grounds don't count. First is this, not for anything wrought in them. What are they talking about? They're talking about the fact that they're not going to be pardoned. They're talking

48:01 about the fact that they're not going to be pardoned. They're talking about the fact that they're not going to be pardoned. They're talking about the fact that whenever God justifies a sinner, he also does something in the sinner. Remember this morning, I used the analogy of the courtroom and the operating room. We as sinners not only have a legal problem, we have a personal inward moral problem. We are defiled. The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked out of the heart of man proceed. And then the Lord lists all the sins. Well, they recognize that God never justifies a sinner. He justifies a sinner. He justifies a sinner. He justifies a sinner. He justifies a sinner.

48:33 He justifies a sinner without at the same time doing something in the sinner to change him. If any man be in Christ, a new creation. The old is past, the new has come. We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, except a man be born again, he cannot see, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. God never justifies a sinner and does something for him in the court of heaven, but what he does, something in him, radical and powerful and life-transforming. But the problem comes when people begin to look for the evidence of God's work in them, to truly believe he has justified them, and that's to mix up things that need to be kept separate. And therefore the wise pastor-theologians who composed these definitions said, not for anything wrought in them. Some of you come out of backgrounds where people will not believe that they can lay

49:44 hold of God's promise of justifying grace until they feel a certain measure of conviction, until they have some evidence that God may have regenerated them. Then they believe on the basis of what they see or think they see God doing in them, that they can trust what God promises to do for them in Christ. And they go limping all their days. They have churches with members of hundreds, memberships into the hundreds, with only a handful that come to the Lord's table, because they're the only ones who, having seen what they think is God's work in them, can believe.

50:28 Trust in what Christ has done for them. It's so destructive, dear people. These were wise men who knew how the devil will take a good thing and turn it into poison. Yes, men must have some degree of a felt sense of need, or they will never come to Christ. The devil takes that truth, and he drives it beyond the balance of Scripture. And then people begin to say, well, unless I've mourned for three months and sought with tears the tears for six months, and unless I've felt myself dangling over hell for a year, I haven't had enough conviction. My friends, there is nothing God does in you that could ever be the basis of His pardoning your sins and accepting your person as righteous in His sight. Not for anything wrought in us. That's why the Lord, in that parable of the publicist, the

51:28 publican and the sinner, sets out in vivid, verbal picture how stupid it is to think there's anything in us that can commend us to God. Not for anything wrought in us, or done by us. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, Titus 3, but according to His mercy, He saved us. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, that not of works that no man should boast or glory. If the Scripture is clear on anything, it is that the ground or basis of our justification is not anything done in us by God, or anything done by us in an effort to please God. But positively, notice the two things. But only, only, solely, exclusively, that one word cuts the living cord of a hundred heresies. But only, for what? The perfect obedience,

52:47 and secondly, full satisfaction of Christ. What are they referring to? They're referring to the fact. That when our Lord Jesus, as the last Adam, the second great representative head, when He takes upon Himself by the Father's appointment, to represent those sinners upon whom God set His love in eternity, mark them out to be the recipients of His salvation, Christ assumes the posture of their representative.

53:23 And as their representative, what does He do? He comes into our condition. Galatians 4, in the fullness of the times, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law, that He might redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive adoption as sons. He comes into our human condition, places Himself under the law, makes us a part of the human condition, and makes Himself obligated to keep the very law that He Himself thundered from Sinai. He makes Himself obligated as the God-man in His true, holy, real humanity, with mental functions and emotional constitution, and with all that makes us truly human. He is committed to keep that law in all of its breadth. That law that touches the first springs of thought, that law that touches the motives that precipitate our actions, that law that touches our reactions to others and our actions

54:45 towards others, that law that according to our Lord's teaching, especially in Matthew chapter 5, touches every word. Every intent, every motive. Our Lord fully, perfectly, impeccably kept that law in the totality of its demands, so that the Father could say from heaven, this is my Son, my beloved, as He comes to present Himself there in the waters of Jordan, on the threshold of His public ministry. Thirty years of life in a situation of sin.

55:26 In a sinful world, with at least a half a dozen siblings who were sinners in Adam, who we find at one point thinking he's nuts. A couple of years later, they thought he was out of his tree, because he was so obsessed with feeding people spiritually with the words of his mouth, that he skipped some meals. And Mark tells us that his siblings and his mother who came, calling him, they thought he needed to be wished away and punished. But in the funny form, he had no sinful reaction. Simply, quietly, rationally said, who is my mother? Who is my brother? Who are my sisters? These that hear the word of God. Here's my

56:16 family. There was not the slightest motion of sinful hurt. Oh yes, he felt disappointment, but never tinged with sin. Oh fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have said. I read in my devotions this morning in Mark chapter 8, where the disciples, after he fed the thousands, and they're about to pass over to another area, and they forgot to take bread, and Jesus said, beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of Herod. And these dull disciples said, is he warning us about physical bread? He said, do you still have eyes and don't see? And ears that don't hear? Are you still heart of heart? He felt disappointment, but disappointment totally untinged by sinful self-pity, as your disappointment and mine are so often tinged. He spoke sharp words, whitewashed sepulchers, but there wasn't a tinge of sinful anger. He spoke tender words, without any saccharine, unprincipled sloppiness.

57:32 Think of what's going on in this world. He spoke tender words, without any saccharine, and yet the father could say, when he looks down upon him at age 30, this is my son, my beloved, in whom I'm well pleased. I've never seen a thought, I've never detected emotion of attitude, desire, impulse, reaction, not a word, not a beat. I've never seen a thought, that was not mathematically parallel to the full demands of my holy law.

58:13 Why did he do all of that? He did it. He did it. Not only that he might be the sinless lamb of God, without blemish and without spot, but that there would be a life lived in our condition that could be credited. And if I can picture myself somehow hidden, into Christ, as he stands in those waters, and the father says, this is my son, my beloved, in whom I'm well pleased. If I can picture myself hidden in him, the father's pleased with me in him, in him. That's why Paul can write, but by God are you in Christ Jesus, who is made unto us righteousness. There is no condemnation to those who are wronged. There is no condemnation to those

59:06 who are where? In Christ Jesus. The ground of our justification, the basis is the perfect obedience of Christ. We read earlier Romans 5, 19, so that through the obedience of the one shall the many be made righteous. His perfect obedience is part of the fabulous work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the perfect obedience of the Lord Jesus Christ. The fabric of the garment of the righteousness that every believer wears. And then they said, for the full satisfaction of Christ. That's theological language for his substitutionary, his vicarious, his in our place bearing the curse of a broken law. Paul could write in Galatians 3, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having been made, a curse for us. Or the familiar language of Isaiah 53, 6, all we like sheep have gone astray. We have turned each and every one of us to his own way. And in that condition, we've provoked

60:25 God's wrath. We've made ourselves liable to his righteous judgment for the soul that sinners sins, it shall die. But the last part of the verse says, and the Lord, the Lord, Jehovah, hath made to light on him, the servant of Jehovah, the iniquity of us all. He takes our sin, in the language of Peter, in his body up to the tree. This is my blood of the new covenant shed for many. And so accurately, the framers of this wonderful statement have captured this. And so accurately, the framers of this wonderful statement have captured this. And so accurately, the framers of this wonderful statement have captured this.

61:08 The ground of our justification, it is found in nothing wrought in us by God, nothing done by us to please God, but solely, exclusively, all of the threads in the fabric of the garment of our righteousness are woven on the loom of the perfect obedience of Christ's life. And obedience up to the point at which we are to live. And so accurately, the framers of this wonderful statement have captured this. And the Lord, Jehovah, hath made to light on him, the servant of Jehovah, the iniquity of us all. is passed over, and I have every reason to believe, though I can't prove it from the

62:15 Scriptures. The veil of darkness that hung over him for three hours was lifted, and the sun struck upon his face, and it's no longer now, my God, my God, but Father, into your hands, I commend my spirit. Why? To telestai!

62:39 It is finished. It stands accomplished. What is the ground, the basis of justification, the obedience, and the sacrifice of Christ alone, alone, alone?

Warning Against Adding to Christ's Righteousness (Philippians 3)

63:00 There are even in our day men who profess to believe the Bible, love God, and love Christ, who are trying to persuade by the most clever sophistry that we didn't get it right, that these men didn't get it right when they said only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ, and they would weave in some fabric, into the fabric some threads of our own covenantal obedience. No, not by works of righteousness which we have. We have done even the ones we do by the grace and power of God. And we do works of righteousness if we're real Christians. But they have nothing to do with the ground of our acceptance. I close by turning you to Philippians chapter 3,

64:01 and the statement of the great apostle which we did consider when I first preached this series of sermons.

64:10 Paul is warning the Philippians, people are coming along saying, the robe of righteousness made of Christ's obedience and Christ's death is not quite complete. It's got a few holes in it. And you need to stitch into those holes some of the threads of circumcision and of obedience to ceremonial laws. And Paul warns them.

64:38 Verse 2 of Philippians 3, Beware of the dogs. He calls these Judaizers dogs. Unclean animals. This is blunt language.

64:48 Beware of the dogs. Beware of the evil workers. Beware literally of the knife wielders. These people that are wielding their knives to get you down to the local rabbi and have you circumcised so your righteousness is complete.

65:02 Beware of them. Beware of them. For we are the circumcision who worship by the Spirit of God something wrought in us, who glory in Christ Jesus, that's what his work causes us to do and have no confidence in the flesh. No confidence in the flesh with respect to what he's going to tell us.

65:27 Though I myself might have confidence even in the flesh, if any other man thinks to have confidence in the flesh, I yet more circumcise the eighth day of the stock of Israel of the tribe of Benjamin, the Hebrew of the Hebrews is touching the law of Pharisee, touching zeal, persecuting the church. Touching the righteousness which is in the law found blameless. As to external conformity, no one could call me anything other than a strict, consistent, kosher Jew. How be it?

65:58 What things were gained to me, these I've counted not second-rate or third-rate, but I've counted them loss for Christ. Yea, verily, I count all things to be loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and count them but scubala, refuge, offscourings, dung. I count them but refuse, notice, that I may gain Christ, and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own, even that which is through the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is, from God, by faith, a righteousness concerning which we add nothing to Christ. It's all in Christ, and if I'm found in Christ, I have all the righteousness I will ever need to be declared in the court of heaven, fit for the presence of a holy God. What is the ground or the basis of justification, the obedience and the full satisfaction of Christ alone? Now, God willing, in the subsequent messages that I hope to preach

Conclusion: The Method and Means of Justification, and the Importance of Sound Doctrine

67:26 in the subsequent Sunday mornings, we'll look at the method by which this is given to sinners, imputed to them. Imputation is the method, the means of reception, and received by faith alone. And in those words starting with justification is concluded with by faith alone. You have this marvelous, comprehensive, beautiful statement that can act like a fence to help you hold together the leading lines of biblical truth, not just so you will appear as an astute theologian, no, so that you can manage the problem of your ongoing sin. You can manage the accusations of the devil when he comes and reminds you of what a rotten stinking sinner you are. And you'll be able to take your stand in a biblically informed posture of a justified man or woman, and be able to maintain spiritual stability and progress in the life of faith and of grace. And then when strange winds blow about, winds of doctrine, and people say, Ah, but we have something more to tell you. We have a great command.

68:43 We have a great command. We have a great command. We have a great command. We have a great command.

68:45 And we have a great command. We have a great command. And we have a great command. have some new wrinkle it's called in our day the new perspective and that sound very very appealing the new perspective the new federalism oh boy that even sounds learned hogwash on this issue god would not allow his people to be fundamentally blind from the days of the apostles until these men come along and tell us you got it all wrong luther had it all wrong and calvin had it all wrong and owen had it all wrong no no my friends it's proud and arrogant men who've got it all wrong and these old standards are a wonderful gift that god has given to us and i trust as the people of god you will not grow weary of these catechetical instructions in the adult class it's not popular i know I listened occasionally when I could still hear the radio I can't listen to much it just doesn't my ear doesn't process the words but I get sick and tired of these radio preachers dealing with these subjects five ways to spice up your sex life with your wife and seven ways to have a better relationship with your kids and six ways to be more successful in your work the great issues

70:07 of sin and of grace and of repentance and faith and of love and of love and of love and of love and of love and of love and of love and of love and justification and sanctification these issues are passed over as though they hardly exist the day you get a stomach for that stuff it's all over as far as this church having anything worthwhile to offer to this generation and I pray god that that conviction that burns in my heart and in the heart of not a few of you will be your conviction and that you will be determined by the grace of god to be satisfied with nothing less than a ministry that whatever else it does sounds a clarion note of the biblical doctrine of justification by faith through the imputation of the righteousness of christ although let's pray our father how we thank you for your word we thank you for its truth we thank you that you have made and revealed a way whereby we guilty defiled hell deserving sinners may stand not just acquitted in the court of heaven but declared righteous lord it seems too

71:32 good to be true we need strengthened faith to lay hold of it and to rejoice in it and to live in the light of it oh god help us we pray and for those who sit here this night still with the sentence of heaven against them with nothing but a heartbeat separating them from your fury in cutting them off in their sins awaiting the day of judgment and the awful sentence depart from me you cursed oh father father be merciful arrest them in spite of themselves lay hold of them and magnify your subduing grace in their hearts and in their lives yes it's responsibilities with its peculiar temptations and pressures we pray lord that we who are your children may indeed be salty salt light mix with the crooked and perverse generation you to that end praying for the hope with your spirit dismiss us with your we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.