Justification, Part 1

Introduction: The Most Profound Religious Question

0:03 I would encourage you to follow with me as I read from Luke's Gospel, chapter 18, verses 9 through 14. As we continue our studies in this parable, we want to set the word of God itself before our minds, before we attempt exposition and application.

0:27 Luke, chapter 18, verses 9 through 14. And he, that is Jesus, spake also this parable unto certain who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and set all others at naught. Two men went up into the temple to pray, the one a Pharisee and the other a publican. The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank Thee that I am not, as the rest of men, extortioners, unrighteous, and ungrateful.

1:02 unjust adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast twice in the week. I give tithes of all that I get.

1:14 But the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote his breast, saying, God, be thou merciful to me, thee sinner. I say unto you, This man went down to his house justified rather than the other. For every one that exalteth himself shall be humbled, but he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

1:51 We have come to our study of this parable each time we have addressed ourselves to it by making the statement that there is no more vital religious question than this. How can someone, sinful man, be just with God?

2:11 Or we might state the question this way, How can sinful man be right before a holy God? And that is perhaps the most profound religious question which a man can ask.

2:27 And the genius of the gospel is that it addresses itself directly to that question with an answer that only the gospel can give. An answer that never could be discovered by man, an answer that never, even if it could have been discovered by man, could be wrought by man. Hence the gospel is called a revelation from God, the unfolding of a mystery. And this passage is particularly helpful in the answer of that question because it addresses itself to it directly.

Review: The Pharisee's Self-Righteous Prayer

3:04 There are many passages in the word of God, historical as well as the didactic, the teaching portions, which speak to the question in one way or another, but this passage is particularly helpful because it speaks directly to the very issue. Now briefly to review, I remind you of the historic occasion of the parable. Verse 9, Our Lord detected in some of his adherents a spirit of self-trust with regard to this matter of righteousness. And coupled with that spirit of self-trust was a spirit of censoriousness, of others.

3:42 And it was the detection of this spirit of self-righteousness which provoked this parable. Then we looked at the prayer of the Pharisee as recorded in verses 10 through 12. First of all, the position in which he prayed. He stood up very, very close, probably as close as a man who was not a priest could come to the inner sanctuary of the temple.

4:05 He stood, to literally translate the passage, he took his stand, and he prayed thus with himself, indicating that he was conscious not of the eye of God and of his own heart, but conscious of the eyes of the other worshippers, concerned with his standing in the eyes of men and not concerned with his standing in the eye of God. We looked at what we call the terminal point of his prayer. The original renders more accurately these words, he prayed thus with or towards himself. He prayed thus with or towards himself.

4:40 He was not addressing himself to God, though the name of God was upon his lips, and though there was the semblance of religious expression in his so-called prayer, it was all turned inward and he was not focusing himself upon the true and the living God. Then the heart of the fallacy of the thinking of this man is seen in the specific ingredients of his prayer, and there are two. It is a prayer of self-congratulation for two things. First, first of all, the perfection of his character.

5:13 I thank thee I am not as the rest of men. And secondly, a prayer of self-congratulation for the virtues of his religious performance. Verse 12, I fast and I give tithes. So reducing the error of the Pharisee to its lowest elements, we see this principle.

5:32 As he thinks of acceptance with God, he thinks in terms of what he is in himself and what he has to do with God. He has performed as forming the grounds of his acceptance.

5:46 The reason for his prayer we examined for several weeks, and basically it was this. It was his native spiritual ignorance coupled by his false religious teaching that made him think that acceptance with God could be found on the basis of what he was in himself and what he was able to perform in his religious duties. He was ignorant of his involvement in the formation of God, or he would never have prayed, I thank thee I am not as other men, for he was as other men. He was part of the mass of humanity that fell in Adam.

6:23 And when a man has felt something of the weight of that which levels him with all other men, the nerve of creature pride has been cut. And though he may be preserved from gross and extraordinary external sins, he feels himself in his heart of hearts to be a man of God. To be the sinner, even as did the publican. He was ignorant of the spiritual dimensions of God's law.

6:50 When he said he was not a murderer, he was thinking of murder only and the external act, not as the law of God describes murder, for our Lord clearly teaches in the fifth chapter of Matthew that the commandment, Thou shalt do no murder, touches the attitudes of anger in the heart. Even the attitudes of derision, and scorn of other fellow creatures. And then last of all, he was ignorant of God's way of accepting sinners. God has only had one way of accepting sinners.

7:23 From that time when Abel brought that sacrifice and his person and offering were accepted, God has had but one way of accepting sinners. It was the way the Old Testament Scriptures taught. The way that Abraham found acceptance and David found acceptance. And Isaac and Isaiah and all of the true saints of God in the Old Testament.

7:47 But this Pharisee, because of his native spiritual blindness coupled with false religious teaching, though he trafficked in the Old Testament Scriptures day and night, that was his business as a Pharisee. He was utterly ignorant of God's way of accepting sinners. The result? He went down to his house under wrath, under condemnation.

Review: The Publican's Humble Prayer

8:09 He did not find acceptance. Then we looked at the prayer of the publican. The position in which he prayed afar off. His very physical proximity to the sacred sanctuary of God's dwelling was an indication of what he felt in his heart.

8:28 He came into the temple but stayed as far from that place where God dwelt in His special presence because he felt the shame and the distance that his sin put between him and his God. And his very physical position reflected it. Then we looked at his posture. He would not so much as lift up his eyes.

8:50 So filled with the shame of his sin, he does not even lift his head, no, not even his eyes, unto heaven. For there was this overwhelming sense of the uncleanness and the foulness of his sin. And then we saw his prayer. And this is where we closed our study two Lord's, three Lord's days, ago.

9:13 A prayer which had a right object. He prayed, God, be thou merciful to me or propitious to me, the sinner. It had a proper confession. He called himself the sinner.

9:27 He did not make a mere admission. I am one sinner amongst many. But he felt what every sinner feels when God has boxed him up by his law. Though the world may be filled with people called sinners, I am the sinner.

9:42 I am the sinner who has dishonored God by my rebellion. I am the sinner who has caused the awful tragedy of the wrath of God to be poured out upon his own son. And then it contained a proper petition, probably with his eye fixed upon the altar of sacrifice. Be thou propitious to me, a sinner.

10:04 Turn away your wrath from me because you've poured out that wrath upon an innocent victim, showing that the poor, the publican, looked wholly outside of himself for mercy and for acceptance. I only mentioned as we closed our study and this completes our review, the Lord's word in verse 14. And here I wish to pick up the thread of thought tonight. And we'll focus here for several Lord's Days to come.

The Result: The Publican Went Down Justified

10:33 I say unto you, this man, this man who prayed a prayer with a right object and a right confession and a right petition, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other. Having looked at the position and posture and substance of his prayer, now our Lord gives us the result of the publican's prayer. He went down to his house justified. Now since the introduction of this word justified brings us into a head-on confrontation with one of the most fundamental words of the Bible,

11:17 we must spend time to examine it and to see precisely what our Lord meant when he said, this man, this publican, when he left the temple and went down to his house, went down a justified man. What did Jesus mean when he said those words? Well, if we're to understand what he meant, we have no right to impose a meaning, upon his words, that may be convenient. We must go to the Scriptures and seek to understand what the Scriptures themselves say that the word justified means.

11:55 And so we shall begin our exposition tonight, and this is probably as far as we'll get tonight, by seeking to ascertain the biblical meaning of the biblical word justified. Now our view of the Bible demands that we treat the words of Scripture this way. I know people who say, look, you're living in a day when people's minds are bombarded with all kinds of mass media and their minds are taken up with visual presentation. You can't get people to listen to the kind of preaching that makes them think about the meaning of words.

12:30 Well, I say if they won't listen, I'll continue to do it and preach to empty pews. God never accommodates his truth to men's particular moods. And if you're serious about this question, how can I, I, a guilty sinner, find acceptance with God? You should be willing, if necessary, to spend a lifetime to discover the words in which God conveys the answer to you.

12:56 It's a matter of grace that God's revealed this. God doesn't owe it to you to come and tickle your fancy and accommodate your laziness. And if God has revealed, as He has in this passage, that this man went down to his house justified, he went down with this great question resolved, he was accepted before God, then we must gird up the loins of our minds and think hard and long upon what it means to be a justified person. For the Apostle Paul says we speak spiritual things in words which the Holy Ghost teaches.

13:32 This is why we send our young men who have aspirations to the ministry off to seminary, that they might have some working knowledge of the original languages. Can you imagine a draftsman who doesn't know angles and who can't measure out tenths and hundredths of an inch? These are the tools of his trade. And a man who is to preach the Word is not to preach the Word on the basis of his cleverness, his ability to tell stories, his ability to break down a text into three P's or three S's and titillate people's fancy for alliteration.

14:08 He is to open up the words of Scripture, the mind of God conveyed in the very words, of that God. And so when we come to a great biblical word such as justify, we must seek to understand what it means. Well then, what does it mean? Well, let me give a brief suggestion and then we'll turn to other passages of Scripture and let the Scriptures interpret the Scriptures.

Defining Justification: To Declare or Pronounce Just

14:34 The word itself means basically to declare or to pronounce just. It is a pronouncement or a declaration that is a declaration of the Word. It is a declaration that is a declaration of the Word. It is a declaration that is a declaration of the Word.

14:44 It is a declaration that is a declaration of the Word. It is legal. It has to do with the courtroom. It has reference to an objective standard of right and wrong and a man standing before that particular standard, either as accepted, having kept the standard, or guilty, having broken the standard.

15:06 And you must never think of the word justify in any other context than the context of the court. It is a legal, or to use another term that is commonly used, it is a forensic term. In his excellent article on this very subject of justification, Dr. Packer, in Baker's Dictionary of Theology, gives this succinct definition that's very helpful.

15:32 The biblical meaning of the Hebrew and the Greek words for justify is to pronounce, to accept, and to treat as just. Now that has two elements. It means on the one hand that a man is not liable to the punishment which a broken law demands, and on the other hand, a man is entitled to all the privileges due to those who have kept the law. That's the negative. Here's the positive.

16:00 To justify a man is to say he's not guilty and he is worthy of the treatment of one who has fully kept the precept of the law. It is a legal term. It is a legal term denoting the declaring of verdict of acquittal and so excluding all possibility of condemnation. Justification then settles the legal status of the person justified.

16:30 Now, shall we take Mr. Packer's word for it because he has an earned doctorate? No. It's because he is thinking biblically.

Biblical Evidence 1: Where No Other Meaning is Possible

16:38 And we're going to trace out now four lines of thought which indicate that, and this is the meaning of the biblical word. First of all, the numerous places where any other meaning is impossible. Turn to Deuteronomy, please, chapter 25. Jesus said this man went down to his house justified.

17:00 We're asserting that that means he went down to his house with no sentence of guilt over his head and with a declaration that he was entitled to all the privileges of a man who had perfectly kept the law throughout his whole life. Now, how in the world can this be? A man who's confessed, I am the sinner, goes down to his house justified. How did he go to his house?

17:26 Declared righteous. How do we know that's the meaning of the word? Well, we look in the first instance at these places where any other meaning is absolutely impossible. Deuteronomy 25 and verse 1.

17:39 If there be a controversy between men, and they come into judgment, that is, they come before the judges of Israel, here's the situation of the court, and the judges judge them, then they shall justify the righteous and condemn the wicked. Now, the meaning in this context is very, very clear. The judges do not do anything in the men who come before them. They do not create any situation in their hearts, in their conduct, in their lives.

18:13 They simply make a proclamation, a declaration, with reference to how these men stand before the law to which that court is committed. Now, the judges in Israel were seated in order to administer the law of Moses. When a man came before these judges, his conduct in the light of the witnesses gathered was such as to cause the judges to say, guilty, and therefore, the punishment prescribed must be administered, or innocent, and then treatment as innocent must then follow. I say this use of the word has no other possible meaning.

18:58 Look at a similar instance in the book of Proverbs. Proverbs chapter 17 and verse 15.

19:08 And as you're turning, may I say, that the great heresy of Rome's teaching on justification hinges on a failure rightly to define the word justify. The whole fabric of Romish teaching hinges on a wrong understanding of the meaning of this word. They think of justification as something God does in the sinner to make him righteous, whereas the word cannot and does not mean that. Proverbs 17 and verse 15.

19:37 He that justifieth the wicked, and he that condemneth the righteous, both of them alike are an abomination to the Lord. Now think for a moment. If justifying the wicked meant making the wicked righteous, then that would not be abominable. That would be virtuous.

19:58 If you could go out tonight and make wicked people righteous, that would be a virtuous thing. That's what God does in regeneration. He gives men new hearts, and he makes unrighteous men into righteous men. So it cannot mean something, God does in a man, but what he is saying ties in with Deuteronomy 25.

20:19 Here's a judge who, when he sees the evidence, in his mind acknowledges a man is guilty, but what does he do? He declares him righteous. He sees him to be a lawbreaker, but he declares him to be a lawkeeper. On the other hand, he sees another man who is innocent, a lawkeeper, and he declares him to be guilty as a lawbreaker.

20:41 God says, either of these things is an abomination, either of these things is an abomination, to him. And the thing that I want you to see that's pivotal to our study tonight is that the word justify here can mean nothing other than to pronounce righteous. Now turn to two New Testament examples. Luke chapter 7 and verse 29.

Biblical Evidence 2: Justification as Opposite of Condemnation

21:03 Luke chapter 7 and verse 29. Our Lord is speaking of John the Baptist and his significant place in the purpose of God. And in verse 29, we read the response of the people to this, and all the people, when they heard, and the publicans, justified God being baptized with the baptism of John. Now how can anyone justify God?

21:41 If justification means actually to make a man righteous, you see how foolish it would be here? God is righteous. He is the perfection of righteousness. He is the perfection of righteousness.

21:51 So now, nobody can make God righteous, but what we can do is declare Him to be what He is in Himself. And so, when men submitted to the baptism of John, they were saying in essence, God, it is right for you to send John calling us to repentance. It is right for you to indict us through John's ministry, laying bare the corruption of our hearts and the sin of Israel, and calling us to prepare the way of the Lord. So when a man embraced the message, the message of John, submitted to the baptism of John, he was making a declaration, God is right in the demands that He makes upon us.

22:31 So you see, the word can mean nothing other than a declaration of innocence, of righteousness, of non-guilt. And then Luke 16, 15, for one other illustration. And I do this not for filler, but I want you to be able to have the tools to use in your own witness, in dealing with others, to demonstrate the meaning of this great biblical word. Luke 16, 14 and 15, And the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things, and they scoffed at him.

23:07 And he said unto them, Ye are they that justify yourselves in the sight of men. But God knoweth your hearts, for that which is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. What were the, what were the Pharisees doing? Were they making themselves righteous?

23:25 Of course not. But they were declaring themselves to be righteous before men. Matthew 23, Jesus said, You're like whitewashed sepulchres. You don't clean the bones out and the rotting flesh, but you take a can of whitewash and you splash it on the outside and it appears beautiful unto men.

23:44 Here again, the word justify has no other possible meaning than a declaration of righteousness. And the only exception, in the entire New Testament, to this fixed meaning of the word is Revelation 22, 11, and there is a textual problem with that particular use. So we are safe in saying, with one servant of God in a bygone day, the usage of common life as to this word is just as uniform as that of the Bible. If such be the established meaning of the word, it ought to settle all controversy as to the nature of justification.

24:23 We're bound to take the words of Scripture in their true and established sense. And therefore, when the Bible says, God justifies the believer, when we read in Luke chapter 18, this man went down to his house justified, we are not at liberty to say that he merely pardons or that he sanctifies a man. It means and can only mean that God pronounces him just. And so, we see, in the first instance, that this must be the meaning of the word because in the places cited, no other meaning is possible.

25:01 Second reason why we know this is the right interpretation of the word is those passages where justification is set as the opposite of condemnation. Now, everyone here knows what condemnation is. If I condemn a man, I don't do something in him. I say something about him.

25:21 I say that he's worthy, worthy of a certain punishment or he stands under a certain indictment. Now, God doesn't throw curbs at us. And when he sets things in opposition, he sets things that are in the same category.

25:37 God would not be guilty of doing this. Suppose I told someone the opposite of big is bright. You look at me and you scratch your head and say, what in the world is he doing? You're mixing things that are not in the same category.

25:49 Bigness has to do with what? Size. Brightness has to do with? The luminary quality of something.

25:57 If I were to put together something is hot and on the other hand, something is small, I'm mixing things from different categories. Hot has to do with temperature. Small has to do with size. The words that we put together when we're using contrast are big, small, hot, cold, up, down, in, out.

26:19 We put words in opposition that are in the same ballpark playing the same game. Now God does this when He communicates to us. We all know that the word condemn and condemnation is a sentence, a declaration of the court. And God again and again puts justification in opposition to, antithesis to, condemnation.

26:45 Look at several instances. Romans chapter 8, verses 33 and 34. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.

27:04 Who is He that condemneth? Now do you see? Justification and condemnation are set in this opposition, the one to the other. The text we read earlier in Proverbs 17.50.

27:21 He says the man who justifies the wicked and condemns the righteous, both alike are an abomination to the Lord. Justification, condemnation, set in opposition to one another. You have it again in Isaiah 50, verses 8 and 9. Who is He that condemneth?

27:38 He is near that justifieth me. And so God is telling us in these passages that justification can mean nothing other than a pronouncement, a declaration. You say, Pastor, aren't you getting rather tedious? Aren't you working the point over a little bit too much?

27:56 My friend, I come back to the heart of the issue. If you're involved, with the question, how can I as a sinner be right with a holy God? You'll want to know that your answer will not crumble before the burning eye of God in the day of judgment.

28:12 You better be certain that the foundation upon which you rest is solid, biblical foundation. So it's a hot night, and this is an intellectual exercise, granted, but there's no other way to come to that foundation. If you want a quick way, the devil may sit and see to it you get pushed into a false way. So the third line of evidence that this is the meaning of the word is the passages where equivalent forms of expression are used.

Biblical Evidence 3 & 4: Equivalent Terms and Doctrinal Setting

28:43 God not only gives us examples of the meaning of the word where it can mean nothing else, then he gives us situations where the opposite word is used that we might understand it, but then there are passages where parallel passages or phrases or terms are used, the one throwing light on the other. Turn to Romans 4 as an example.

29:06 Here Paul is treating in a formal way the subject of justification by faith. Verse 2, For if Abraham was justified by works he hath whereof to glory, but not towards God. For what saith the Scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned for righteousness.

29:27 Now to him that worketh the reward is not reckoned as of grace, but as of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is reckoned for righteousness. You see what his subject matter is? It's the subject of how a man attains to righteousness before God.

29:45 And the clear teaching that he's proving from the example of Abraham is that a man is declared righteous by faith. Now in that same ballpark of ideas, he goes on to give an example from David, but he changes his terminology. Look at it. Verse 6.

30:07 Even as David pronounces blessing upon the man unto whom God reckoneth righteousness apart from works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon or impute sin. Here justification is explained in terms of the non-imputation of sin. In terms of the non-imputation of sin.

30:35 Now imputation is a legal term. It's not something you do in someone. It's something you declare about them. Perhaps at times you've done something and someone is misunderstood and you've said, well, they're imputing motives to me that are not true.

30:52 What have they done? They have not put something in you. They've not created anything. They've made a declaration.

30:58 They've made a judgment about you. And so there are these passages where the equivalent terms to justify are legal terms. They speak not of what God does in me, but a declaration He makes concerning me. The well-known passage in John 3.

31:15 John 3, 16-18. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him should be saved. He that believeth is not condemned.

31:37 He that believeth not is condemned already. You see, these parallel terms, equivalent terms, condemnation, non-condemnation, legal terms. Romans 5 and verse 18, a similar instance. And then the fourth line of evidence that this is the proper meaning of the word, that when Jesus said this man went down to his house justified, he meant he went down to his house declared righteous in the court of heaven is what I'm calling the setting in which the doctrine is formally treated.

32:11 In the book of Romans, the doctrine of how a man attains to righteousness is formally treated. Paul indicates that this is his theme in Romans 1, 16 and 17. And in that setting, the words guilt and condemnation are the primary words preparing men for the great doctrine of justification. Romans 3, 19 and 20 are a summary statement of Paul's approach to this whole theme.

32:43 Now we know that what things soever the law saith, it speaketh to them that are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped and all the world be brought under the judgment of God. Because by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in his sight, for through the law cometh the knowledge of sin. In other words, where Paul is treating the doctrine formally, he does not introduce the theme by talking primarily about the inbred depravity of sin for which justification is the answer. No, no.

33:20 His emphasis is upon the external objective guilt of sin for which justification is God's answer.

Summary: Justification vs. Regeneration (Judge vs. Surgeon)

33:30 Now if that's the setting in which he treats the subject, we must understand that this is the line of thought that the Holy Spirit has set before us. Now may we summarize. When we say that the word justify means to declare or to pronounce righteous, why do we make that assertion? Four reasons.

33:51 Reason number one, the many passages where the word can mean nothing else. Reason number two, the passages where justify is the opposite of condemning. Reason three, the equivalent of the word is the opposite of condemnation. The equivalent terms that are used reason for the setting of the doctrine.

34:08 So in summary, we may say that the meaning of the word justify and the main point of these terms is to distinguish between the kind of action which regeneration involves and that which justification involves. Regeneration has to do with God's work in us. Justification has to do with the declaration of God concerning us. And as Professor Murray so simply illustrates, it's the difference between the activity of a surgeon and a judge.

34:42 Now when a man appears in a court in Newark tomorrow morning and he stands before the judge, he may stand there as a man who has a huge skin cancer, obvious to everyone. But the judge is not concerned with his skin cancer and operating on it and taking care of that. His concern is that a certain indictment has been brought before him. And within that court he is dealing with this man not in terms of his cancer, but in terms of his conduct with respect to the law of the state of New Jersey.

35:16 Now in justification, God is not dealing with the cancer of sin within us. He's dealing with the guilt of sin which cries out to the court of heaven for judgment and for condemnation. Now granted, God never deals with us as a judge without also dealing with us as a surgeon. And God never justifies a man without cutting out the cancer of his own sinful bent and biased and making him a new man on the inside.

35:49 I am not asserting, because the Bible does not, that there's such a thing as a justified yet unsanctified man. No, no. Christ is not only made unto us righteousness, but He's always made unto us sanctification as well. 1 Corinthians.

36:06 But don't mix what God has separated. For though these two things are inseparable in Christian experience, they are separated in Christian understanding. And your peace and your safety depend upon understanding that biblical distinction. And many a person is a hopeless Pharisee because he's not made that distinction.

36:31 And many a person who's not a hopeless Pharisee is a crippled saint because he's not made that distinction. Because he's not understood that distinction in his own mind and in his own heart.

Application: The Reality of God's Court and Law

36:43 As we summarize tonight and seek to bring this to a conclusion that is aimed at our consciences, coming back now to the passage before us, when Jesus said, this man went down to his house justified, Jesus was asserting that there was a real court of heaven to which both the Pharisee and the publican were answerable. When Jesus said, he went down to his house justified, he was asserting that there was a true court of heaven to which both the Pharisee and the publican were answerable. God was there as creator and judge of the world.

37:28 God's law was there as the inflexible standard of his dealings with men. People say, oh, I want to return to the simple teaching of Jesus. Well, this is simple teaching. But it's basic teaching.

37:43 To say this man went down justified, if the word means declared or pronounced righteous by God in the court of heaven, Jesus is saying, there is a court of heaven. There is a God who is creator and judge and who takes cognizance of the actions of his creatures. My friend, just as surely as there was a real court of heaven to which the Pharisee and the publican were answerable, there's a real court of heaven to which you are answerable as you sit in this place. There's a place tonight to which I am answerable.

38:14 Though it's unfashionable to think of God in terms of legal concepts, judge of the world, the God of law, the God of judgment, unfashionable as it may be, it has not altered the facts. The God who is there in the heavens tonight is your creator and he is your judge and he has bound you to his holy law, to perfect, perpetual, personal obedience upon pain of death if you render anything less.

38:46 The reason this man went down to his house justified ultimately is the grace of God, but speaking of how grace worked in him is because he took those facts seriously. He took the fact of the court of heaven seriously. He took the fact of his accountability to God seriously. He took the fact of God's law seriously.

39:09 No man or woman is ever justified until the court of heaven and the reality of the ingredients of that court become a burning issue to his conscience and to his heart. And I ask you as you sit here tonight, have those things become burning realities to you? I'm not asking you to believe in some vague, nebulous way. Oh yeah, I believe in God and I believe in judgment.

39:34 I'm asking if they become such burning realities as they did to the publican that he stands afar off, occupied not with his fellow worshipers, not with his fellow worshipers, not with all of the trappings of the ceremonies of worship and sacrifice, but he stands afar off, swallowed up with one great consciousness. I'm a creature accountable to the living God and before him I'm a sinner through and through and there's no hope in me. Oh God, be merciful to me, the sinner.

40:07 Has this become a burning reality to you? If not, my friend, you're in a bad way tonight. For you stand under condemnation and the pain and the tragedy of it is you're ignorant of that condemnation. Like a man sitting in a drunken stupor upon a time bomb about to blow him into a thousand pieces, mumbling some silly ditty in his drunkenness.

40:35 So you sit in this place tonight, perched and poised, as it were, upon the time bomb of God's own sovereign decree concerning your life and its termination. And with just a heartbeat from standing in that court of heaven and hearing the awful sentence depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. There was a real court of heaven to which both the Pharisee and the publican were answerable and there's a real court of heaven with you and you'll never be a justified man or woman until you take that seriously. This has a lesson for us in preaching the gospel.

41:15 We underscored it a little bit in our reading in Romans, this morning. When Paul tries to get the Romans to seriously consider his gospel, he starts out in Romans 1.18 for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven. He starts out with the theme of the God who is there, the court of heaven that is set, the law that he has given, and the terrible breaches of that law of which men have been guilty.

41:42 And that's where our evangelism must start. Hart was sharing with me last night some of the things that are going on in the Bible. Some of the things that are going on in the Bible. Some of the things that are going on in the Bible.

41:47 Some of the things that are going on Something of the hopelessness of trying to evangelize people who are the end product of three or four generations of religious teaching that has denied the real court of heaven. German liberalism came along and took away the God who sits upon a throne of majesty and power, who gives a law that is inflexible, and who pronounces upon pain of death that men must do and live or fail to do and die. And so now when one seeks to communicate the gospel, there are no categories of biblical concepts. You and I for the most part in speaking to people of our day are speaking to raw pagans

42:32 who need to be told again that God is there, His law is there, and judgment is to come.

42:42 When men tell us, well, people don't think in those categories, so let's alter the gospel to their thinking, I say no. Let's alter their thinking to the Word, not the Word, but the Word to their thinking.

42:55 To try to bring Jesus down and make Him a gutsy revolutionary with hair on His chest and dirt under His fingernails is to prostitute the gospel. He was not a revolutionary. They tried to make Him one. They said, come, we'll make you king.

43:10 You can overthrow Rome. And He ran from them. He said, my kingdom is not of this world. Put up your swords.

43:19 I conquer with weapons that you know nothing of. Don't tell me my Lord was an anarchist and a rebel. A revolutionary in modern terminology He was not.

43:34 He was the humble, obedient servant of Jehovah who did the will of His Father even unto death. And when it meant exposing religious sham, He exposed it. And when it meant exposing duplicity, He exposed it. But He never stood in the train of the Marxist revolutionary and anyone who in the name of Christ tries to make Him into that is neither my friend nor yours if you love the Christ of Scripture.

44:01 And so we need not to accommodate Christ to the thought categories of our day, but bring our generation to think biblical categories. God is there. The law is there. Judgment is to come.

Application: The Real Declaration of Righteousness in Christ

44:15 Will you go down to your house justified as the publican? Will you go down to your house as the Pharisee still under the wrath and curse of God? And then I close with this second statement of application. There was a real issuance of the publican's of a real declaration that the publican was now righteous before the court of God.

44:41 When Jesus said this man went down to his house justified, the Lord was not just playing with religious words. He meant that the same God before which this publican stood in shame and in fear and filled with a sense of his sinfulness, that God before whom he stood now says to him, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee. Thou art accepted as righteous. Go.

45:11 Sin no more. Go in peace. Thou art justified. Justified not only in the negative sense that the law no longer can make demands upon him as far as condemnation, but regarded as though he had perfectly kept that law.

45:29 Why? Because the very righteousness of the Christ who spoke these words was imputed to him because he was united to Christ. The very righteousness of Christ became his and he is declared accepted in the Beloved. He looked wholly out of himself.

45:50 He dared to rest his case wholly in the hands of another. And that other was glad to declare that he had taken his case in hand and resolved it. Oh, my friend, if you are determined to leave something of that case of your sinful state in your hands, you'll have to bear the consequences of trying to adjust it to meet God's standards in that awful day. Far safer is he who says, Lord, nothing in my hands I bring.

46:22 Simply to thy cross I cling. Jesus, thy blood in righteousness, my beauty are my glorious dress. And this, this publican was willing to take that stand. He said nothing about his character as did the Pharisee.

46:38 He said nothing about his performance. He just made this honest, this artless address to God. Oh, God, be propitious to me, the sinner. My only plea is my sinner and your grace to sinners such as I.

46:55 This man went down to his house justified. There was a real issuance of a promise a real declaration that he was accepted before the court of heaven. Thank God that the gospel is not just a matter of playing with God's words. That real court and that real God is the place from which the real sentence comes.

47:22 And every time a sinner standing with the publican driven out of himself, driven wholly to look for mercy in another, every time there is the embrace of faith of that righteous, which is in Christ and which is Christ himself, the sentence goes forth from the very throne of God justified, accepted in the beloved. And then that realization of acceptance by grace becomes the driving force in the heart of a justified man to serve that God who has justified him freely with a zeal

48:06 and with a pure heart and with a purity of motive that never can be known by the man who is yet a Pharisee thinking that what he is and what he does helps in his acceptance before God. That's the mystery of the gospel. It's a mystery all along the way. Who but God would conceive of such a way of acceptance?

Application: Justifying Grace Leads to Holy Living

48:25 Who but God would see that the motivation of grace and love is far more pure and powerful than the motivation of merit? The Romanist says, Ah, such a doctrine! We'll lead men to go out and say, Oh, I'm justified, declared righteous through the deeds of another Christ. Well, then I'll live as I please.

48:45 That's the objection they made to Paul's preaching. Read about it in Romans 6. Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? And the only man who makes that objection is the man who's never felt the power of justifying grace within his own heart.

48:59 For when I realize that God justifies me freely according to His grace, then I say a debtor to mercy alone, a debtor to mercy alone. A debtor to mercy alone in the sense that I've been freely loved drives within me or creates within me this longing and driving motivation to please Him who has loved me so freely and has accepted me so graciously. Then understanding of the biblical doctrine of justification never leads to license when we've been taught that doctrine by the Holy Ghost in a heart that has known true conviction of sin. You think that publican went down to his house saying, Oh, I'm justified.

49:42 My sins are forgiven. I'm accepted as righteous. Now I'll go on back to cheating people. I'll go...

49:47 No, no.

49:50 He went down a justified man who then proved by his holy life that God always sanctifies those whom He justifies. And so will you.

50:04 The greatest question that a man can engage his mind in is this. How can sinful man be right with God? This passage, this passage gives the answer. Has that answer been found in your heart and in your experience?

50:18 Or are you still hoping that there's something in what you are and what you do that will gain acceptance before God? May the Holy Ghost through the Word shatter every last vestige of creature confidence and drive you wholly out of yourself to Christ both now throughout all of your days. And then you'll join the song of the redeemed. Whose praise is to the Lamb that sitteth upon the throne who loosed them from their sins in His own precious blood.

50:52 Let us pray.