A Pop Quiz #2

Introduction and Series Review Overview

0:02 The following sermon was delivered on Sunday morning, October 14, 2007, at Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. As a congregation, we find ourselves having arrived at the last of a series of studies in that amazing provision of redemptive grace called justification. Now, some of you careful hearers will have noticed, I rarely have said that we've been studying the doctrine of justification. I have chosen to say we are studying an amazing provision of redemptive grace.

0:44 And if you think about it, there's a world of difference in the impact that makes upon our mental approach to this marvelous provision of God. Today finds us at the final message. Message. Number 25 in the series of this crucial doctrine of the Word of God.

1:07 And because a number of you have not been present for those expositions and applications of this foundational truth of the gospel, what I plan to do in this message is to break all of the standard rules of homiletics. And I break them with impunity. Without embarrassment. Because I do so, believing that the great concern of public ministry, according to 1 Corinthians 14, is let all things be done unto edification.

1:43 And pursuing optimum edification of all present, I believe I ought to attempt to do two things in the ministry of the Word this morning. First of all, to give a broad stroke or quick flyover review of the process of edification. Of the previous 24 sermons in approximately 20 to 25 minutes. One minute per one hour of exposition, application, and evangelistic urging.

2:15 I know what a lot of you are thinking. No way you can do it, brother. I like to be challenged. And so I'm going to set my watch here and stick within that time frame.

2:28 And seriously. I do this not only that as we come to the final message you will feel something of the back pressure of what ground we have covered in the previous 24 messages, but I hope for you pastors I can sow some seeds of suggestion that if you are contemplating preaching a series on the doctrine of justification, you might choose to approach it in the way I have approached it, and be persuaded that perhaps there could be other ways that would be equally edifying, but perhaps none that you could trust would be more edifying. And then secondly, having completed that flyover review, I want to complete the last half of last week's message, thereby bringing the series to a conclusion. First of all then, tighten your mental seat belts, as I seek to condense into this brief time the main thrust of 24 hours of biblical exposition, pastoral application, and evangelistic entreaties concerning this wonderful provision of redemptive grace, that article of the standing or the falling church, the doctrine of justification.

Review of the Doctrine of Justification: Importance, Context, and Meaning

3:54 I began the series by seeking to persuade the people of God in this place of the critical importance of this truth in the Word of God, its critical importance both with respect to the glory of God and to the good of men. And I underscored for them without dignifying some of the current aberrations with respect to this doctrine that it has been from the time the Apostle Paul preached it to this present hour, the object of some of the most virulent opposition both without and within the church of Jesus Christ. And therefore it is vital that the people of God have a well-chiseled, biblically-based understanding of what it means to be a justified sinner. Then secondly, I addressed what I called the biblical context of the biblical doctrine of justification. And we looked at three major categories of truth which determine the substance and shape of the biblical doctrine of justification. We considered the fact that who God is in Himself, who God is in relationship to us, and what God has purpose to do in the entire scheme of redemptive grace

5:24 that those three categories of truth determine the shape and the contours of the biblical doctrine of justification. Justification is what it is because God is who He is. Justification is such a marvelous provision for us because of who we are in relationship to God. And if we are to understand the doctrine giving its true weight but not seeing it in an imbalanced way, we must see it in relationship to the entire spectrum of God's redemptive purpose, activity, and accomplishment.

6:07 Well, having tried to underscore the importance of the doctrine, the biblical context of the doctrine, I then sought to establish the meaning of the word to justify. And we came to the persuasion that God's people have come to over the ages that to justify is to declare righteous. It is the opposite of condemnation or the declaration of guilty. It is a forensic, judicial, courtroom term.

Review of the Seven-Room House of Justification (Larger Catechism Definition)

6:39 Then we launched into our study of the doctrine proper, this marvelous provision of redemptive grace, using the larger catechism definition of justification as a teaching outline. I likened that definition of the larger catechism to a beautifully furnished seven-room house. And I sought to take God's people into each room of that house and in that room to focus upon several epitomizing texts which opened up, underscored, and I hope applied to the consciences and to the comfort of God's people that aspect of this provision of God's grace in Jesus Christ. What is that definition? It is this. Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners in which He pardons all of their sins, accepts and accounts their 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,

8:05 and received by faith alone. That's the beautifully furnished seven-room house. And we walked into the seven rooms and on each door we found a label. Door number one, the author of justification.

8:21 It is an act of God, whereby He does this and He does that. We do not justify ourselves. Others cannot justify us. No priest, no preacher.

8:34 God Himself and God alone must justify. Then we considered the recipients of justification. It is God's act of free grace unto sinners. Sinners as objectively deceived.

8:51 They are described by God and declared to be sinners in the Word of God, but it is not just sinners objectively put in that category by God, but sinners who have come experientially, personally, to embrace the reality of their sinnerhood, who are justified, for Christ did not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. Not just sinners who are objectively defined such by God, but brought by the Word and the Spirit to own the reality of their sinnerhood. Until a man trembles before the court of heaven from which a sentence comes, guilty, worthy of death, damned, unless God intervenes, there will be no embracing of God's marvelous provision of justifying grace. Then we went to room number three, the source of justification. It is an act of God's free grace unto sinners. The source of justification is free grace, utterly undeserved favor and love, totally unearned free grace alone.

10:08 And door number four, into room number four, the substance of justification. The definition is beautiful and comprehensive. It is an act of His free grace in which He pardons all of our sins, accepts and accounts our persons as righteous. The substance of justification is pardon, acceptance, and accounting as righteous.

10:38 And though the weight of the Biblical materials comes down upon the pardon of our sins, and in the psychology of an awakened sinner, thinking of appearing before God laden with his guilt, it is the wonder of forgiveness that often breaks in and overwhelms the soul. Justification is more than mere pardon. Justification is more than putting the sinner back to where Adam was before he fell. Justification is putting the sinner where Adam would have been had he stood the trial of his own.

11:17 The trial of his obedience. For in the second Adam, the last Adam, the second man, the Lord Jesus, He fulfilled all righteousness, and we are of God in Him made righteous, constituted righteous in the court of heaven. That's the substance of justification. Then we went to room number five.

11:42 What's the ground or the basis of justification? Negative. Positive. The ground on which God pardons, accepts and receives our persons as righteous, not for anything that even God does in us.

11:58 The ground of our justification has nothing to do with infused righteousness. Nothing whatsoever. Nothing wrought in us, even by God. Nothing done by us.

12:14 Nothing that we can do and present to God that will somehow elicit the sentence of justified sinners. No. Not for anything wrought in us, done by us, but solely or only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ. Christ's suffering obedience that constitutes the warp of the fabric of our righteousness.

12:49 Christ's obedience suffering unto death, even the death of the cross that constitutes the woof of the fabric of our obedience. And it is in that life of representative obedience under the law, meeting all the perceptive demands of the law, and in that place as our substitute bearing the penal sentence of a broken law. This is our righteousness in spite of all the books being written attempting to overturn this ground of our acceptance with God. And then what's the method?

13:30 Room number six. By God imputed to us. That is put to our account. Imputation not infusion.

13:41 The great heresy of the Roman church because we are placed by faith into union with Christ. God imputes, God reckons to us the very righteousness that Christ has wrought and that Christ is. And then finally, room number seven. The means of receiving justification by faith alone.

14:05 By faith alone. By that faith that is the result of God quickening the dead sinner to life and inclining his heart to embrace a whole Christ with his whole heart. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness. Well that was our trip through the seven room house that took us some seven or eight hours.

Review of Practical Pastoral Concerns and the 'Pop Quiz' Format

14:36 Then having expounded the biblical, confessional, catechetical and classic protestant and reformed doctrine of justification I took up two practical pastoral concerns. Number one, the apparent contradiction between James and Paul as to the place of works in our justification. And then secondly, the problem of ongoing sin in the life of the justified. And having done that I announced last Lord's Day that in the final two messages I planned to do something I had not done in fifty plus years of preaching.

15:19 And by the way, I got done in fifteen, seventeen, eighteen minutes. Thank you for the challenge. I announced that I would do something I had never done before in more than half a century of preaching. Not for the sake of shock or novelty but for maximum edification.

15:42 And what was it that I announced to the people? I said I planned in the last two messages to give the congregation an oral exam concerning this marvelous provision of redemptive grace. Now usually when a teacher gives an exam he does so because he has a responsibility to make a judgment on the pupils as to whether or not he's taught well and they've listened well. But I said I'm not going to have the deacons pass out sheets of paper and ask you to sign your name and give you a pen or pencil.

16:17 I want you to judge yourself. I want the congregation in self-reflection to see have I really grasped this truth? Because I'm so convinced it is so crucial to spiritual stability, to joy in the Holy Spirit that I did not want to flatter myself that because I bent all of my faculties engaged in some of the most serious arduous labors at the desk that I've engaged in in a long time I did not want to presume that we carried the day with the Lord's help. I wanted you God's people to know whether or not you really got it.

16:59 And if you didn't I said go get the tapes out of the library listen to them take notes pray it in and give yourself no rest until you could take that definition of the larger catechism and expound it to yourself and turn to every epitomizing text on which your faith is based. If you're to be well grounded not tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine it is not beyond the capacity of the average person sitting in the pews of this place to have that kind of a grasp upon this precious truth of the Word of God. So, I announce that my questions would be split according to the two categories found in this place. The only two categories that have any eternal significance the one category being those of you who were in Christ who are sheep those of you who are alive and I went through seven texts where by different metaphors and different nouns God describes those two categories and so I then address seven categories seven questions to those who are in the category of in Christ those who are believers those who are sheep those who have been made alive

18:25 in Christ and by those questions I was seeking to nudge all of the people of God to reflect on whether or not they really got it and I'm not going to go over those questions because I'll be tempted then to give the proper answer which in turn was an opening up and reminder of what those epitomizing texts were under those seven categories. You say, Pastor Martin you make your people think. Yeah, that's right. You don't want to think you want to go carelessly to hell you want to go carelessly through the Christian life.

19:04 Remember, the book of Romans wasn't written to a bunch of guys who had all gotten their PhDs. The epistles of the New Testament are written to people many of whom were slaves common people and you and I by mental laziness can leave ourselves vulnerable to spiritual instability. Well, there's the review. Now this morning I come to category number two.

Question 1 for Unbelievers: Do You Believe the Lie of Escaping Wrath?

19:31 Category number two you who are not in Christ you who have sat through some many perhaps all of these twenty-four sermons on this marvelous provision of redemptive grace in which phrase by phrase that comprehensive balanced definition of the doctrine and all of the basic texts from which that definition grows opened up in your hearing and not just opened up as teaching but you've been pled with at times with tears in one sermon with blood. Some of you remember I got so worked up on the glory of an imputed righteousness that I split my finger open on the edge of the pulpit and yet you're still sitting here out of Christ in your sins under the wrath of a holy God. And you can sit there and look up at me and say what's the big the big deal? Well I pray God will help you to feel what the big deal is this morning as I conclude this series by asking you four very pointed questions as you sit here this morning

21:00 you who are not in Christ still in Adam sheep no still goats. Question number one are you pulling down the shade over your mind? Are you in self protection already seeking to shut me out? Don't frustrate my love for you by shutting me out and turning me off.

21:32 I've labored carefully over every question because I love you and I don't want you to stand in the last day and hear almighty God say to someone who's heard 24 times clear biblically based sermons on how to avoid the wrath of God and have God say to you depart from me you cursed into everlasting fire. Because those are not preachers words to scare you those are Jesus words followed by these words these shall go into eternal torment. I beg you don't frustrate my love for you don't shut me out hear me as I try to get inside your head by the help of God's spirit. Question number one to you who are not in Christ not pardoned not accepted as righteous question one do you really believe the lie that you can continue to refuse the justifying righteousness

22:59 that God sincerely offers you in Christ lovingly entreats you to receive through the lips of the servants of Christ and yet come away from the day of judgment uncondemned. Do you really believe that lie? The lie that you sit here today that you sit here today that you can continue to refuse the justifying righteousness that God sincerely offers you in Christ lovingly entreats you to receive through the lips of the servants of Christ and yet come away from the judgment uncondemned. May that lie whether before the simple truth of Scripture Scripture that without Christ's righteousness to cover your sin, you exist right now in the condition of total, constant, and inescapable exposure to the wrath of God. Right now, you sit, you live, you breathe, you eat, you sleep, you laugh, you play, you stick your earbuds in

24:24 your ear, you sit in front of your computer. All that you are and do, you live, you exist in a condition of total, constant, inescapable exposure to the wrath of Almighty God. The Scripture tells us in Romans 1.18, for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness Later on in that epistle, the apostle says, for the wages of sin is death. John concludes that marvelous chapter from which we constantly pick out that great verse of God's love to a lost world. He concludes it by saying in John 3.36, he that believes not, the wrath of God is abiding. Upon him. You say, well, I don't think about it. No, I doubt you've thought about the fact that every

25:33 minute you've sat in this auditorium, this roof has abided above you, upon you, over you. If I were to ask for a show of hands, how many of you consciously thought this roof is over me? Probably very few. It doesn't change the fact that we've all been under the roof of God. It doesn't change the truth from the moment we walked in the front doors. And you see, you're in la-la land. If you are not in Christ, and if the court of heaven has not declared you pardon of all of your sins, accepted your person as righteous in Christ, the wrath of Almighty God hangs over you right now. And all that keeps it from crashing down upon you.

26:30 Is God stretching forth his finger, touching that organ that's a little bit left of center of your chest. And that wrath will come down upon you as surely as if someone were to come with a huge saber saw and sever these supporting beams. And this roof would come down and crush us all to death. That's reality. Not the lie that you can go on indifferent. To that righteousness offered you in the gospel. That righteousness that God entreats you through his servants to receive. No, the scriptures tell us the wrath of God abides on you. But the

27:21 scripture tells us something more. The truth is, if you go on as you are, that wrath will overtake you, conquer you, and righteously rest on you forever. In a place and a condition of eternal torment. Hear the apostle's word in 2 Thessalonians 1 in verse 8, concerning the return of the Lord Jesus, which was to bring such encouragement to the saints as he addressed it in his first letter in chapter 4. But in his second letter in chapter 1, we find these words, In flaming fire. Taking vengeance on all those that know not God, and listen, and obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is an announcement of good news. But it is an announcement that comes with a divine imperative when God graciously comes and tells us the way of escape.

28:36 From our condemnation, and our guilt, and our bondage to sin, and we treat it with indifference, we are not obeying the gospel which calls us to turn away from all hope in relieving the burden of our sin by ourselves, in ourselves, and to cast ourselves wholly upon the Lord Jesus Christ. And if we refuse to obey the gospel, 1 Thessalonians 1 in verse 8, concerning the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, Whatever our moral condition may be, whatever our outward appearance and activities may be, disobedience to the gospel damns a sinner. You cannot go on in this state of indifference to the offered mercy with impunity and think that somehow everything will still turn out. All right. In flaming fire he will come to take vengeance, on all who obey not the gospel. And then those frightening words from Matthew 25,

29:47 When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and the angels with him then shall he sit on the throne of his glory. Before him shall be gathered all the nations. He shall separate them as the shepherd separates sheep from goats. Set the sheep on his right hand, the goats on his left. Then shall he say to them on the left, Depart from me, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire, which is prepared for the devil and his angels. What happens when he says, Depart? Verse 46, These shall go away. These shall go away. I sat at my desk yesterday and said, Oh God, help me as a preacher to believe

30:39 there are multitudes who shall go away. When the Son of God speaks the words, Depart, they shall go away. And if you go on believing the lie that you can refuse this justifying righteousness and somehow escape, you are living in the la-la land of a fool. Revelation, 6, verses 15 and 16 say, When this day described by Matthew comes, the great ones of the earth, the kings and the rulers, will hide in the rocks and caves and pray for mountains to crush them. Hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb. For the great day of his wrath is come. And who, who, who shall be able to stand? It was 55 years ago, and I was in a little rural

31:51 black church in South Carolina. And the preacher stood up and announced his text. His text was Revelation 6, 15 and 16. And he had this deep Jeffrey Holder type of voice, had a great range.

32:07 And he started out very quietly and in low, and said, My text is, the great day of a wrath is a coming, and who shall be able to stand? And then he preached, and then his voice raised a bit in terms of its level, and the great day of wrath is a coming, and who shall be able to stand? And when he was done, his voice was in an upper register with the tremolo of that particular style of preaching. But to this day, the great day of wrath is a coming, and who shall be able to stand? And when he was done, his voice was in an upper register with the tremolo of that particular style of preaching. But to this day, the great day of wrath is a coming, and who shall be able to stand? And when he was done, his voice was in an upper register with the tremolo of that particular style of preaching. But to this day, the great day of wrath is a coming, and who shall be able to stand? And when he was done, his voice was in an upper register with the tremolo of that particular style of I hear his words, the great day of a wrath is a-comin', and who shall be able to stand?

32:50 And it's coming! It's coming! It's coming!

32:58 And are you foolish enough to think you will stand?

33:06 My unconverted friend, I beg you in Christ's name, run from the lie that the devil would have you cling until he has you with him in hell, that you can continue to refuse this justifying righteousness that God sincerely offers you in Christ, lovingly entreats you to receive through the lips of the servants of Christ, and yet come away from the day of judgment uncondemned. Second question. Do all of you not in Christ? Christ, still unpardoned, unaccepted, unreceived, as righteous in his sight. Do you really believe, do you really believe the lie that you can substitute your own righteousness for Christ's righteousness and yet be accepted by God? Do you really believe the lie that you can substitute your own righteousness for Christ's righteousness? And yet be accepted by God?

Question 2 for Unbelievers: Do You Believe the Lie of Self-Righteousness?

34:19 Listen to the description of some in Paul's day who actually believed such a lie. Listen as Paul writes about them in Romans chapter 10 and verse 3. Romans chapter 10 and verse 3. For being ignorant of God's righteousness and seeking to establish their ownness, they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God.

34:54 God's righteousness is set before them as his gift to be received by faith. And faith is, from one perspective, a ranging of oneself under that righteousness. That's the sense of this verb. They did not subject themselves.

35:16 Place themselves under the covering of God's provided righteousness in the perfect righteousness of his Son. God proclaims it in the gospel and he says to sinners, hide in Christ, hide in that righteousness. Range yourself under that righteousness so you can say, with the hymn writer, bold shall I stand in thy great day. For who ought to my charge shall lay, fully absolved from these I am, from sin and fear and death and shame.

35:57 But these people would not submit to that righteousness. And what did they choose in its place? Seeking to establish their own. Seeking to go to the loom of human effort, of human virtue, based upon religious background.

36:16 Religious activity, man-made notions of what might please God and to construct a robe that they think will cover their sin and make them pleasing to God.

36:30 You want to hear the language of someone actually doing this? God's given us a soliloquy of one of these kinds of people in Luke chapter 18. And we read in verse 9, Jesus spoke this parable unto certain, now listen, who trusted in themselves that they were righteous. They did not need to subject themselves to a righteousness external to them, outside of them.

37:00 They felt it was all in them. And now the Lord lets us inside the mind of such a person. Two men went up into the temple to pray. The one a Pharisee and the other a publican.

37:13 And the Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank you that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. God, I have a standing with you. In case you didn't know it, I want to tell you all about it. Now look upon your pretty little child here.

37:38 Your pretty little child who commends himself to you on the basis of what he is not. I thank you that I am not. I am not as the rest of men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, even as this publican. But now Lord, if that leaves me a few brownie points short, let me tell you what, not only I'm not, but what I do.

38:02 Look at the passage. Then he begins to tell God as if God didn't know, I'll tell you what I do. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I possess.

38:14 This man thought that, he had constructed a fabric of righteousness with which he could cover whatever might not be pleasing to God and have acceptance in the very presence of Almighty God.

38:32 Paul himself was once there. Read Philippians chapter 3. If anyone has confidence in the flesh, I more. And then Paul tells you the things that at one time were the basis of his confidence that he had righteousness before God.

38:48 All of the protestants, the protestations, my preacher friends, of some who are reconstructing the whole concept of Phariseeism, etc. Paul lays it all out on the table. And he says, but the things that were gained to me, not that could have been gained, the things that were gained to me, they were all in the plus column for righteousness. I counted them but loss for Christ.

39:13 To what end? That I might be found in Him not having a righteousness of my own, but of my own. But that righteousness which is from God in Christ and received by faith. Are you sitting here today?

39:29 You've heard the sermons in which I have pressed again and again that this righteousness that God has provided in Christ is outside of us, external to us, and it's only by embracing Christ in the naked, empty hands of faith that we come into possession of this righteousness and yet you have not submitted yourself to the righteousness of God. Could it be that the reason you've not, down underneath, you really still believe that something you are or are not or some things you do give you acceptance with God? That's a lie! You'll sink into, hell clinging to it unless you repudiate everything that at one time you thought because it was in you or done by you gave you acceptance with God. You've got to say from the heart with Paul, I count that all loss.

40:39 I regard it as scubala, rubbish, dung, all scourings. I have no confidence in the righteousness that has any foundation in me. As Luther said it so beautifully and Luther-like, in myself, out of Christ, I am a sinner, nothing but a sinner. Outside of myself and in Christ, I am no sinner.

41:13 That's the righteousness that God extends to you and to me in Christ. The gospel. And you and I must come to that place where like the publican we see our true condition regardless of what we may do that others regard as kind and loving and just and benevolent and all the rest. We say with respect to my acceptance with God only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ will I have righteousness.

41:55 Just as the Bible makes clear that the carnal mind is enmity against God and not subject to the law of God, the carnal mind is enmity against the gospel. You see, the gospel scheme strips away every ground of self-glorying and self-praise. That's why Paul could say, but by God's doing are you in Christ Jesus who is made unto us wisdom from God and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that according as it is written he that glories or boasts let him boast in the Lord. The publican could go down to his house Jesus said, justified. That is declared righteous in the court of heaven and going down declared righteous on the basis of the doing and dying of another he has nothing in which to boast but the Lord his righteousness. Isaiah boasts in that righteousness in Isaiah 61 when after declaring God's gracious purposes to come in saving power and grace to his people Isaiah responds to his own message I will greatly rejoice in the Lord my soul shall be joyful in my God

Question 3 for Unbelievers: Do You Believe the Lie of Dead Faith?

43:23 for he has clothed me with the garments of salvation he has covered me with the robe of righteousness as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. I ask you my unconverted friend sitting here this morning do you still believe that there's something you can become or do in and of and by yourself that commends you to God it's absolute folly then I come to question number three do you still believe my unconverted friend do you still believe and here where I I beg some of you to listen to me carefully the first two you've come through those somewhat unscathed do you really still believe the lie that your professed faith in Christ your professed faith is that faith that justifies even though it has left you still wedded to your sins living for yourself and fondly attached

44:49 to the world you got my question when I've said there's only two categories those in Christ those out of Christ you said oh I'm in Christ I believe in Jesus I'm trusting Jesus yet when we dealt with the matter of the apparent contradiction between Paul and James we showed that what James is going after that is surely as Paul gets in his cross there's dead works that will damn us James gets in his cross there's dead faith that will damn us a so called faith in God or in Christ that we say brings us into the justified state must be more than a mere notional faith for the demons also believe in tremble and so I'm asking you the question this morning do you really still believe the lie that your professed faith is the faith that justifies even though that faith has left you wedded to your sins wedded to yourself and fondly attached to the world my friend you are utterly utterly deceived for the Bible makes clear the faith that unites us to Christ and thereby brings us

46:16 into the justified state always effects a real a radical an all encompassing and perfecting permanent divorce with sin always the faith that unites us to Christ effects in us a real a radical an all encompassing and permanent divorce with sin it does not effect a total annihilation of our sin it does not root out of us the capacity to sin the ongoing reality of needing to confess our sins I am not saying the Bible teaches that I am saying the Bible teaches if you have laid hold of Christ in true saving faith that faith has effected a real radical all encompassing permanent divorce from sin listen to Romans 6 and verse 15 language could not be clearer as Paul continues to respond to the question of verse 1 shall we continue in sin that grace may abound in the first 14 verses he says no it cannot be because in union with Christ we who are such as have died to sin

47:44 that's impossible but now he changes the figure and says if we are truly in Christ we've had a change of masters verse 15 what then shall we sin because we're not under law but under grace God forbid do you not know that to whom you present yourself as servants to obedience his servants you are whom you obey now listen whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness but thanks be to God that whereas you were the slaves of sin all of them at Rome you were you became obedient from the heart to the form of teaching where unto you were delivered in other words your heart was cast into the mold of the gospel a gospel that brings a Jesus who saves his people not in but from out of their sins and being made free from sin sin as the master to whom you pledge your loyalty sin as the master whom you obey and serve you were made free from sin and became the slaves of righteousness he didn't say you ought to if you get surrendered you may eventually if you get again not he said no no this was part of your conversion when you were brought to true repentance and faith

49:13 you experienced a real a radical and all encompassing permanent divorce from sin and yet there sit here today men and women boys and girls who give precious little if anything of that divorce and you say oh I'm alright I believe in Jesus I trust in Jesus how can you how can you go on saying you truly believe in Christ when sin is your master when sin is your lord when your passions and your lust call for the obedience of your eyes your ears your hands your feet you present yourself servants unto sin whereas the scripture says if you have been brought to obey from the heart the gospel that has come to you you have been made free from sin and become the slave of righteousness furthermore the faith that unites us to Christ effects a real a radical and all encompassing and permanent divorce from living for yourself by nature each of us lives unto himself 2nd Corinthians 5 and verse 15 and that he Christ died for all that they who live should no longer henceforth live unto

50:41 themselves the assumption is all of them without exception before the power of the cross is implanted in them they live unto themselves but when we have experienced the liberating power of the cross of Christ we now live unto him who for our sakes died and rose again this is why in all of his calls to discipleship Jesus made it plain if any man will come after me you want to be attached to me in faith in love in obedience you want to be attached to me in such a way that all that I do in my life of perfect obedience all that I will do when I suffer under the wrath of my father upon the cross is put to your account then you've got to be attached to me and if you'd be attached to me you must deny yourself the first requirement of discipleship is the fundamental real heart repudiation of living to yourself as the fundamental orientation of your life that's why Jesus could say in several contexts whoever would save his life shall lose it but whoever loses his life for my sake and the gospels the saints shall save it except a grain of wheat fall into the ground and die it abides

52:10 by itself alone Christ is speaking of why he must die but then in the next verse he says yes I will procure your salvation by my death but if you would enter in to possess that salvation you must die whoever loves his life will lose it he that hates his life shall save it the way Christ procures salvation is the way we enter into it he must die vicariously we must die experientially to living to please ourselves our standards for right and wrong our desires with respect to what I'll listen to what I'll watch where I'll go who will be my friends what will be my use of discretionary no this idea that we're we can just kind of float Jesus in there to fix us up so we won't need to be afraid of judgment in hell is utterly utterly unbiblical it's heretical it's heretical and thirdly the faith that unites us to Christ also affects a real a radical an all encompassing and permanent divorce from the world from the world this world system under the control of the devil and the devil and the devil in opposition to God with its standards with its goals with its perspectives

53:38 the scripture tells us Galatians 6.14 God forbid that I should glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ by which the world is crucified unto me and I unto the world in other words Paul says the cross by which myself salvation is procured is the cross that has effected this mutual crucifixion in the cross of Christ where God condemned my sin my sin that was the fruit of living as a worldling for remember Ephesians 2 Paul says all men walk according to the course of this world according to the prince of the power of the air the spirit that works in the sons of disobedience among whom we all had our manner of life Paul says I was a worldling a religious worldling a moral worldling an upright worldling but I was a worldling but he says when I see all that I was in Adam as a worldling condemned in the immolated battered bruised bleeding body of Jesus of Nazareth I see that world is not worthy of my affection that world

55:07 is not worthy of the pursuit of my mind and my energy that world has no right to tell me what's good what's bad what's nice what's not nice no no it is seen in its native ugliness in the bruised torn battered body and the shrouded heavens of the son of God the world is crucified to me and he said by the way it works both ways because of Christ capturing my heart and divorcing from the world you know what the world thinks of me I am as attractive to the world as a cadaver hanging on a Roman gibbet the world is crucified to me I to the world you know what the world thinks of me go out there and watch what they do when they walk by a rotting body on the cross and they turn away in disgust that's why Paul said we are the off scouring of all things to this day my friend if the world loves you because you are like it you are not a Christian settle it this world will take you down to hell with itself and it's only in Christ that you see it for what it is and when you do and embrace him there will be a real a radical an all encompassing and permanent divorce

56:35 from the world so when you read 1 John 2 15 to 17 love not the world neither the things that are in the world if any man loved the world as a basic pattern of life listen to these words the love of the Father is not in him and yet some of you say I believe in Christ the love of the Father is in me my friend it's either God's word or your lie what will it take to wrench you loose from your delusion you're not a Christian if you're married to the world and for some of you everything about you what you talk about what you're interested in the music you listen to the clothes you wear everything about you says the world and I are lovers and if you in the world are lovers you're not attached to Christ you get attached to Christ in saving faith there will indeed be a real a radical all encompassing permanent divorce in the world and when you read Romans 12 2 be not conformed to this world but be continually transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove that is work out in experience the good and acceptable and perfect will of God

58:04 you take that seriously and you say Lord I don't want to think like a worlding about my dress about my goals in life about my friends about marriage about what I do about what it's right to do when a boy and a girl have an interest what they touch and what they don't touch and where their hands go and where their tongues go and where their mouths go I want Christ to govern every part of my life not the world be not conformed to this world the one who's been divorced from the world says oh God that's my desire there's so much of this stinking rotten world still in me I want it flushed out straighten my head out Lord that I may be I will think as I ought to think and so thinking put into practice that which is well pleasing unto you whereas with some of you you know what you're doing you're constantly finding where's the line where I can be as much like the world in this area that area this area and still maintain a respectable confession among some people that I'm a Christian that's where some of you are and it troubles me it disturbs me it brings deep pain to my heart that you go on believing a lie that you're alright because somewhere somehow along the way you've tipped your hat to Jesus

Question 4 for Unbelievers: Do You Believe the Lie of Future Time and Desire?

59:33 may God have mercy on you and then finally do you really believe the lie that you will certainly have much more time and possess some real desire inclining you to flee from the wrath to come by laying hold of Christ and his justifying righteousness do you really believe the lie that you'll certainly have much more time and that you'll possess some real desire inclining you in the future to be justified to be found in Christ you see if ever you were to be justified it must be while you're still alive nobody gets justified when they die it's appointed on a man once to die and after this the judgment and furthermore nobody gets justified in whom there is not a desire to be justified God doesn't zampt you on the head unjustified and then wake you up saying you're justified he kindles in us a concern about God and the court of heaven and my sins of thought and word and desire and attitude my sin in Adam my sin and my sins and my sins begin to weigh upon me and getting right with God

61:02 is more important than the next game the next toy the next this the next that nobody gets justified unless they're alive and concerned to be justified and some of you believe the devil's lie I've got lots of time before death overtakes me you don't know that boast not yourself of tomorrow for you know not what a day may bring forth Proverbs 27 1 God says to the man who assumed he had lots of time you fool this night your soul shall be required of you and this is what disturbs me greatly through this series at different points God has drawn near and there's been a sense of eternity hanging over us and when the pianist has finished playing no one has moved for a bit there's been a holy hush almost a reluctance to enter into conversation that might divert the mind back to the mundane and some of you were concerned yes I ought to take care of this man I ought not to go another day unjustified unpardoned uncleansed and yet you did and you say oh well down the road listen to my friend don't you presume upon God not only with respect to time but having any genuine concern about your soul you read Proverbs chapter 1

62:30 it's a frightening chapter where God says I've called and called and stretched out my hands and you've said no no no God says the time will come when you may call and I'll sing my spirit shall not always strive with men it's a frightening thing to push to one side those stirrings of mind and conscience under the impress of the word tasting tasting the powers of the age to come as they break in in the preaching of the word the scripture says seek the Lord while he may be found and while where is and when is he found now today is the day of salvation today if you hear his voice harden not your heart dear people it's been as I said ravishing to my own soul to root around in this truth over these many months split up with other briefer series but all of it in a sense will be a great disappointment if there are not some of you who can mark the concluding of this series as the emergence out of death into life coming into vital union with the Lord Jesus and so I plead with you in his name take seriously the questions

63:57 that I've laid before you and give yourself no rest until you know that you are in Christ let's pray our father what can we do but cry to you have mercy upon those who trifle with their own souls may you be pleased to take your word and make it effectual to blast away at these lies by which the end of life holds his prisoners and set them free we ask you our father to be gracious glorify the power of your grace seal your word to our hearts to the praise of that grace we pray amen