A Once for All Act

The Fire-Drill Illustration: Loud and Clear Directions

0:00 As many of you know, when we meet in this building, we always meet with an official employee of the Board of Education, President Present, one of the janitors.

0:16 And if he were to discover during the next few minutes that this building was on fire, all of us would immediately be placed in a critical, a very real emergency situation. Now, if that situation were to develop, once discovered, any directions relative to our exit to safety and away from that imminent danger of the fire should be marked by three things. They ought to be accurate, they ought to be loud, and they ought to be clear. It would do no good for someone to give us directions that merely seemed to lead us to safety,

1:02 but only to find that we were, as it were, at a dead end that would not lead to an exit. If the building were on fire, all of us would stand in need of accurate directions for a safe exit. Not directions which would give us a feeling of safety or the mere appearance of safety, but which would actually lead us out of the reach of the fire. But then those directions ought to be loud.

1:30 That is, there ought to be sufficient volume for all of us to hear them. And then they ought to be clear. So precise as to leave no confusion as to the way of safety. And none of you would feel insulted if when those directions were given, you were told, leave the auditorium, turn left.

1:50 That is, do not go in that direction or that direction, but only to the left, in the direction of the long corridor to the left. And if the repetition of some of the details seem to even insult your intelligence just a little bit, I doubt any of you would be found in a corner pouting. I'm not going to leave. My intelligence would...

2:12 No, no. You'd be so grateful that amidst the excitement of the issue at hand, the directions came through both accurately, loudly, and clearly. Well, in a very real sense, each one of us is in an emergency situation. It is the situation of the impending wrath and judgment of God, which the Scripture says is the imminent danger of every single one of us by nature.

2:44 The Word of God says the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. Again, the Scripture says the wages of sin is death. And yet Almighty God in grace has come to wrath-deserving sinners and He has spoken. And His word concerning the way of escape is an accurate word.

3:16 It is a word that comes through loud and clear, as we often say. And in our Sunday morning studies we are seeking, as it were, to listen to what God says to us concerning the great issues of our deliverance from the predicament of human sin and its consequences. Now it is within the larger framework of a series of messages entitled Here We Stand that we are presently examining this great salvation which we are privileged to receive and in turn proclaim to others. Thus far, we've examined the witness of Scripture concerning the objects of this salvation,

Reviewing the Catechism Definition of Justification

4:03 the central figure in this salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ, and we are now concerned with examining the cardinal blessings of this salvation. When you open the Bible and listen to its directions for escape from our danger, those directions come couched in words such as calling, regeneration, sanctification, justification, adoption, glorification. And you see, those words are nothing more than the verbal symbols by which God is telling us the nature of the way of escape and the privileges that come to those who do escape from under the curse and wrath of the living God.

4:51 Now in trying to sort out those many blessings, we've considered the first two as the threshold blessings. Calling and regeneration, those inseparable blessings of grace by which we are actually brought out of the kingdom of darkness and condemnation and into the kingdom of light and salvation. And then the moment we pass over the threshold, God confers certain blessings upon us, the central blessing of which is that of justifying grace. And so for several weeks now, we have been unpacking some of the major lines of biblical thought with respect to this wonderful blessing of grace, justification.

5:36 In our previous studies, we've considered the importance of this provision of grace. We then move to consider the context of this provision of grace, the context being the nature and character of God and His relationship to us, our relationship to that God and our character as sinners. and then we looked at the fundamental meaning of the word. It means to pronounce or to declare just and then we began last week to look at some of the details of this particular doctrine.

6:12 And I suggested last week that a good teaching aid or teaching device is that of the larger catechism of the Westminster Assembly in which this wonderful biblical doctrine is described or defined in these words. What is justification? The answer, justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners, in which he pardons all 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 and received by faith alone. Now one very learned and

7:06 godly and useful preacher of another generation said concerning the words I have just read in your hearing, you will hardly find a better definition than this in uninspired writings. It is true, complete, guarded, and comprehensive. And I say my amen to that. After spending many, many, many hours poring over this doctrine as it is given to us in the Word of God and articulated by the servants of God through the centuries, you will not find in any uninspired literature a more complete, accurate, guarded statement of this wonderful provision of grace to guilty sinners. Last week we looked at the opening words, justification is an act of God's

7:56 free grace unto sinners. The author is God, the source, free grace, the object, sinners. Now with that review behind us, now we come today to consider what is really the pith, the essence, the heart of this wonderful provision of grace in these words. Justification is an act in which God pardons our sins, accepts and accounts our persons as righteous in His sight.

8:33 In other words, our attention will be riveted on the fact that justification is an act of both pardon and acceptance. And if by the grace of God with the Scriptures in hand, we can come to some fundamental understanding of that simple assertion, And if by the Spirit of God that truth is burned into the fibers of our soul, today could be one of the most wonderful days in the spiritual history of many of you. If God is the author, free grace the source, sinners the objects, what is the essence of justifying grace?

Justification Is an Act, Not a Process - No Degrees

9:19 Well, whatever it is, it must be understood as an act of God. An act in contrast to a process. You see, a process speaks of imperfection and continuance. I happen to know that in some of your homes, certain rooms in those homes are in the process of being renovated and redecorated.

9:47 That process for some of you has gone on for months and for years. You wish that there were an act of renovation. You go in on Tuesday, everything's a mess. You go in on Wednesday and everything's just the way you want it to be.

10:02 But it's not to be so. It is a process of renovation and renewal. But you see an act like sticking a letter in the mailbox. Once you pull down the lid and stick it in and it shuts, you have posted the letter.

10:18 It is a once-for-all act. It is not a process. There are no degrees admissible in the matter of justification. Every person sitting here this morning is either wholly justified, as justified as he will ever be, if we may use the years concept in eternity, even a million years into eternity, or you are as condemned now as you will be if you continue in that state for a million years into the eternity of outer darkness.

10:54 Justification is an act and either that act has passed upon us or it has not. We sit here this morning either wholly, totally, completely justified or wholly, totally, completely condemned. Now, what scriptures point to this fact? Well, there are many, but I wish to direct your attention this morning to four of the key passages which set forth this truth.

Romans 5:1 - Past Tense Proof of Completed Act

11:21 The first one is Romans chapter 5 and verse 1. Now, for some of you who may not be accustomed to following through a reasoned biblical argument, Your whole idea of preaching is that someone tells you a bunch of sweet nothings and makes you feel kind of gushy and warm. This may be difficult for you, but let me encourage you that it will be worth your pains. Because these are God's directions as to how to escape from imminent danger.

11:53 And they are clear and they are precise. And if you take the wrong turn, no matter how much it may seem to lead to safety, it will lead to destruction. So I urge you to gird up the loins of your mind now and consider with us the fact that justification is an act Romans 5 and verse 1 The Apostle has opened up this wonderful doctrine He has spent a whole chapter underscoring the fact that the way by which we are justified in terms of the human side is by faith that goes out of itself and lays hold of God's provision. Now he says, being therefore justified by faith, We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

12:43 Now notice when he describes the justified state, he does so in a language pattern that points to something that has already happened in the past. For you who are students of the original, he uses an aorist passage. Something has happened to us and it has happened decisively once for all. It is not a process that is going on.

13:08 It is an act accomplished so the apostle can say, having been justified by faith, not we are in the process of attaining, we may ultimately come to possess peace with God. No. Having been justified, we have peace with God. And he points, you see, to the fact that the justifying work of God was an act, a once-for-all act of God with reference to the sinner.

Romans 8:1 - Present Reality of No Condemnation

13:40 Turn over to Romans 8 and verse 1, where the same emphasis comes through very clearly.

13:49 There is therefore, and then he uses that little particle, there is therefore now, at the present time. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. Ah, but someone says, I thought condemnation or acquittal were something or were things that awaited the last day. Yes, there is a sense in which condemnation or acquittal do await the last day.

14:23 But the wonder of justification is that in a very profound and real sense, God has brought into the present the judgment of the last day. And He will say nothing different then from that which is said to us now if we are in Christ. And the last day will simply be the public declaration of the justifying act that has come to us the moment we believe in His Son. There is therefore right now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

15:01 You see, this would be impossible if it were a process, awaiting some point at which there could be the pronouncement. No, it is an act of God, and it has this present reality of no condemnation. Then turn, please, to Luke chapter 18.

The Publican: Justified at the Moment of Faith

15:23 Most of you, I'm sure, are familiar with the parable of the publican and the Pharisee. The publican, as we saw last week, pleads nothing before God but sinnerhood. He doesn't ask God to look upon him as a sincere sinner, as a seeking sinner, as an earnest sinner, even as a repenting sinner. He just says, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.

15:48 And then we have this wonderful statement of our Lord in Luke 18, 14. I say unto you, this man, this pure, unadulterated sinner, and I know that's a use of words that on the surface sounds wrong, but I'm doing it purposely. Here was unadulterated, unmixed sinnerhood. Be merciful to me, the sinner.

16:12 And yet Jesus said, this man, this sinner, who mixed nothing of his own performance with his plea, went down to his house. Now notice, justified. It doesn't say he went down to his house in the way of justification, in the process of being justified, in the beginning stages of being justified. It says he went down to his house already in the justified state.

16:39 The moment he stood in the confession of his sinnerhood and looked out of himself to the mercy of God, the Word of God says he was justified. Now, certainly at that time he was also regenerate. He went down to his house with a new heart, and he had a new set of standards. He had new goals, new ambitions, new loves, new hates.

17:05 He was a new creature, and no doubt there was a whole new complexion to his life, to his activities, to the use of his time. But he was no more justified at the end of the week of living a holy life than he was the moment he went down to his house.

17:22 And ten years later, fifty years later, if this man became known as the holiest, most earnest, zealous saint in his whole community, He was no more justified at the end of fifty years living a pure, holy, zealous Christian life than he was the moment he went down to his house. He went down to his house wholly and completely justified. And then the fourth verse is from the Gospel of John. One that only God knows has dispensed such consolation and comfort to the people of God through the centuries.

John 5:24 - Passed Out of Death Into Life

17:58 John's Gospel, chapter 5, and verse 24.

18:06 Verily, verily, truly, truly, amen, amen. When our Lord is underscoring His own statements with a red pencil, as it were, He uses that verily, verily formula. I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth him that sent me, hath eternal life, and cometh not into judgment, but hath passed out of death into life. And here our Lord's words are unmistakably clear that when there is the response of faith to the message of saving mercy, the sinner thus believing, the initial act of faith being the continuous disposition of faith,

18:59 our Lord says such a one does not come into judgment. Judgment for him is passed in terms of giving judicial account for his sins. And here our Lord, you see, points again to this great reality that justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners. It is not a process.

The Thunderstorm Illustration of Instant Sky-Clearing

19:26 It is indeed an act. There is a moment when a man comes out from under the awful canopy of divine judgment and into the smile and favor of the living God and trying to rack my mind for something to illustrate the instantaneous nature of this. The only thing that came to my mind that I thought would register even with the children. Try to imagine one of those days that we'll no doubt get later on in the spring and we get them in the fall.

19:57 when a real billy of a thunderstorm blows up around us. And I mean there are those clouds that look like slate. And dancing off them there is lightning and there's thunder that shakes the table and shakes the house and you wonder if the whole thing is going to come unhinged. Imagine what it would be like to look out of your window and to see those dark, ominous, billowy, slate-like clouds and the lightning playing off the edges and to feel the thunder shaking the house.

20:27 and having gazed at all of that with a sense of awe, you blink your eyes and by the time you open them, every single cloud is dissipated. The sky is just absolute, deep, pure blue and there's nothing but sunlight flooding through your window. You're looking out, ominous, black, dark thunderclouds. The lightning flashes.

20:53 You blink and the moment you blink your eyes and open them, The sky is completely clear from horizon to horizon. Now that would never happen. It's impossible. Unless God were to snap His fingers, He could do it.

21:06 But in the order of things, it doesn't happen. But that's exactly what happens with justification. The moment before a man, a woman, a boy, or girl is justified, there is nothing but a canopy of the ominous thunder clouds of divine wrath and judgment over His head. and the lightning of God's holy wrath and anger flashes and the thunder of a broken law cries for the judgment of that sinner.

21:33 But the moment, the moment, not three seconds later, not a hundred days later, not six months of being a good boy or girl later, the moment that sinner goes out of himself to lay hold of Christ in that moment. But the sky is clear. There is nothing but the sunshine of the smile of a reconciled God. Being justified by faith, we have a cloudless sky.

Practical Use: Two Fatal Errors When Sin Rears Its Head

22:09 And nothing but the soft rays of the light of God's smile upon us. We have peace with God. Now you ask, Pastor, of what practical use is this distinction that you're laboring to establish and to illustrate? And here I trust you'll cry to God, many of you.

22:31 Lord, give me ears to hear what Pastor's saying this morning. Cry to Him, even as I seek to preach and teach. having determined that His gracious work in us in the realm of sanctification should not be perfected in this life God has purposefully and wisely provided and revealed this wonderful truth that justification is an act a once for all irreversible act of God. Now follow closely.

23:09 Since the blessings of grace are perfectly suited to our real situation, it is essential for our spiritual stability to grasp this distinction. The God who has revealed that justification is an act, as perfect the moment it is exercised as it will be a thousand years from now in the life of the believer, is the same God who has revealed that he does not perfectly sanctify any sinner until he crosses the river through death or is glorified at the coming of the Lord Jesus. Now, the God who has revealed those two truths has revealed them in terms of our real situation.

23:59 You see, as a believer, you have remaining sin. And if you deny it, John says you are a liar and the truth is not in you. You have sin remaining in you. Now, what do you do when sin rears its head?

24:14 Whether in terms of what we would call a disposition or a specific act What do you do as a believer when sin rears its head in terms of spiritual dullness in terms of distraction of mind, in terms of an indifference to the Lord and to His Word and to His people? Or what do you do when sin rears its head in specific acts of sin? angry words, lustful deeds and thoughts, unkind words, walking in forbidden paths. What do you do as a believer when sin thus rears its head?

24:55 Well, if you don't understand this distinction, you'll do one of two things, both of which are fatal to true spirituality. There are some who say, just ignore the presence of indwelling sin. Just rejoice! You're justified! You're accepted in the Beloved!

25:10 Just put your hand over your eyes. Don't look at your sin. God doesn't see it. You're justified.

25:16 What God doesn't look at, don't you look at. And that's the advice that is given. And sad to say, it's advice that is bought by multitudes of people.

25:27 Just don't look at it. It's not your sin anymore. It's been imputed to Christ. You're wholly and completely justified.

25:33 Just ignore it. Well, there's not a shred of evidence in the Bible to justify that. Your sin as a justified person is just as much sin as it was when you were unjustified. It just as much in itself deserves the wrath of God.

25:55 It just as much dishonors Him and His law. What do you do with it? Some say ignore it, and that's fatal. There are others who say, well, can't do that.

26:04 To do that is to war with your own consciousness and your own conscience. It's to put yourself in the high road to self-deception. No, you've got to take your sin seriously. You've got to look your sin square in the eye.

26:17 You've got to acknowledge its presence. Ah, but now listen carefully. And then these people go on. If they don't say it, this is the way they act in their dealings with it.

26:26 Since all sin deserves divine wrath. Since all sin deserves the divine displeasure. And since my sin is real and deserves the divine displeasure, can I really believe that I'm justified? In the presence of this very real sin, in the presence of these very real outcroppings, either in terms of disposition or deed, I cannot deny the presence of sin.

26:53 And I know God is holy and hates sin and He's just and He'll punish sin. And so they allow themselves to come under a sense of what the old writers would call legal bondage, where once again when they look out the window, they see black clouds of judgment, dark, ominous clouds of God's wrath and anger from His throne as a holy judge. And they get themselves in such a muddle then that they can't go to God and pray for help in the victory with sin because they don't know whether or not they have any grounds to pray, whether they are His children, and they're tossed to and fro. Now listen, that person is safer than this one, but he's not very useful.

27:38 It's far safer to be overly sensitive about your sin and have unfounded doubts and fears of judgment. that's far safer than to ignore your sin and put yourself in the high road to hardness of heart. But neither one is scriptural.

28:04 This is safer than that, but neither one is scriptural because this poor person is no good. He's not useful. He's a poor testimony of the Christian faith. He's got nothing but thunderclouds in his eyeballs.

28:17 And a person like that has very little joy. and the joy of the Lord is thy strength. Well, then what's the answer? Well, the answer is to come to the posture that the Apostle Paul came to, and it is this.

The Pauline Pattern: Romans 7 Wretchedness and Romans 8 Peace

28:32 There is in this book of Romans, and I want you to turn back to it now, a wonderful setting forth of the fact that it is possible to face realistically the wonderful truth that justification is a once-for-all act, at the same time to face realistically the presence of indwelling sin, to feel grief and pain and anguish, and yet in the midst of that pain and anguish, never to relinquish the fact that I am justified once and for all with an irrevocable act of the living God. Now that's biblical Christianity. Now let's look at it.

29:17 Chapter 5, verse 1, we've already examined. Being therefore justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul, what do you see when you look out the window? He says, no clouds.

29:35 Cloudless sky, nothing but sunshine. All right. Now, Paul, what do you see when you look in your own heart? He says, I'll tell you what I see.

29:44 Romans 7, look at it. Romans 7.

29:50 Let's pick up at verse 16. Verse 17. So now it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. For I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing.

30:07 How do you know that, Paul? Because you read it in a theology book. He says, no, I've read it in my own consciousness. For to will, that is, to desire to do the will of God, is present with me.

30:20 But to do that which is good is not. For the good that I would I do not. But the evil that I would not, that I do. But if what I would not, that I do.

30:31 It is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. I find then the law that to me who would do good, evil is present. for I delight in the law of God after the inward man. But I see a different law in my members warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.

30:53 Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Now pause for a moment. The same man who said in chapter 5, Justified by faith, peace with God.

31:09 You put your ear to his closet and you hear him groaning under the burden of felt sinfulness.

31:21 Groaning under the burden of felt sinfulness. The realization of his justification did not cause him to say, Oh well, the sin may be there, but we'll just blink at it. God doesn't see it. God won't judge it.

31:36 We'll just rejoice in what we are in Christ. No, no, no, no, no, my friend. Wretched man that I am. And it breaks out in this lamentable cry.

31:48 Who shall deliver me?

31:52 But now notice the next two verses. I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself with the mind and deed serve the law of God. But with the flesh the law of sin.

32:08 There is therefore now no condemnation. Remember those chapter divisions were not there when the epistle was written. You see how quickly he moves from the deepest depths of felt awareness for indwelling sin to the highest expressions of confidence that he's justified in the Lord Jesus. Do you see that?

32:33 and my friend that's exactly where you and I have got to come if we're going to make any progress in the Christian life you see with the apostle this distinction was firmly embedded in his consciousness as far as God's dealings with my sin as a judge that is past There is now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Now that does not mean that Paul's dealings with sin are unreal. Or that God's concern about his sin is unreal. But it is no longer the ominous, thick, thunderclapping clouds of judgment.

33:23 It is the dealings of a father with his son. in which there may be paternal discipline and rebukes and correction and all the rest. But the apostle was able to face the reality of indwelling sin, and I want to underscore it so none of you is prey to the false teaching so abounding in our day. He faced it not in a passing manner.

33:48 He faced it until it made him groan. But he appended his groaning With a burst of praise I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord There is no condemnation And oh dear child of God Until you are able by the grace of God To hold those things In their concurrent reality in the soul You will not make real progress in grace now there have been some among us who say this was my problem I was so bowed down with looking at my sin I was making no progress but now I've made a wonderful discovery I just need to embrace

34:35 all that I am in Christ once in a while look at what I am but that's dangerous lead you into bondage and my friend that only leads to deception and I've lived long enough to see that that claim to marvelous joy in Christ exist alongside with some of the most blatant, unethical conduct.

34:59 Why? Because the conscience has been numbed.

35:05 And when it's numbed with regard to your sin, it'll be numbed in your interpersonal relationships with people. And on the other hand, I've lived long enough, And as I mentioned last week, spent dozens of hours with many of you sitting in this place to know that some of you have no problem with the groan of Romans 7. But you never, never, never come to the triumphant statement of verse 25 and on into Romans 8 and verse 1. You stop with your wretchedness.

35:40 And it's not because you aren't told there is something more than wretchedness. It's unbelief that will not lay hold of the reality that in the midst of the felt consciousness of your uncleanness, Almighty God has declared you are accepted in the beloved. And never, never is faith more heroic in that sense than when it dares to believe in the presence of felt consciousness of indwelling sin, that there is no condemnation for sin. What do I say?

36:30 Has the Spirit of God broken through to some of you pulled away the mists and made this issue clear

36:41 Dear child of God, until that truth comes home to you, I say, you'll be crippled in your Christian life, because you will have no point of reference from which to deal with the reality of remaining sin. And if every time you see your wretchedness, you doubt your privileges in Christ, then where do you go? You just fall down in a heap of self-imposed misery.

37:12 The Scripture says in the prophecy of Isaiah, if ye will not believe, ye shall not be established. You need like Abraham who in hope believed against hope. I don't know what thoughts Mr. Garlington shared with you this morning I had to miss the class but it struck me last week when he was speaking on Romans 4 why is Abraham's faith with regard to bearing a child when he's passed the years of childbearing and his wife Sarah has passed through the change of life and humanly, biologically, physiologically it's impossible to bear a child why is that incident brought in in the context of saving faith?

37:54 Well, my friend, just as it was a heroic act of faith for Abraham and Sarah to believe they could bear children when all the evidence was to the contrary, so you see it's the same heroic act of faith to believe there's no condemnation when all the evidence is to the contrary. Sin is there raging tumultuously within my breast. Can I believe that what Christ has done is sufficient to turn away all the thunderclouds and bring upon my head the smile of the living God. For nothing done by me or wrought in me, but solely as we shall see in subsequent studies for the work that Christ has performed on my behalf.

The Debtor's Prison Illustration: Pardon and Acceptance

38:40 That's the heart of the message of justification.

38:45 Now time obviously is not going to permit me to go on and deal with what the act is. Suffice it to say, and I hope this will whet your appetite and drive some of you into the Scriptures, it is an act that has two sides to it. It is an act of pardon, as the old confession said, He pardoneth all our sins and accepteth and accounteth our persons as righteous in His sight. In other words, it is an act of God with a negative and a positive ingredient.

39:19 It is not only an act of cancellation, but it is an act of conferral. Let me illustrate. Here's a man who's in the debtor's prison. They used to have debtor's prison.

39:31 You couldn't just declare bankruptcy and get off the hook. You went to prison. You say, well, that's not fair. Well, they didn't think that way.

39:40 They said, if you incurred unjust debts and couldn't pay them, you had broken the law, and that's your problem, and they threw you in prison. well how can a man pay back his debts when he's in prison they said that's your problem the law does not exist to solve your problem it exists to punish your misdemeanors and the concept of debtors prison had much more of a biblical concept of law than our present system the law is not there to remedy the problem the law is there to punish violations of its standards so when a man incurred unjust debts and it was proven he was thrown into debtors prison and the law said in essence it's your problem you made it and I live with it so that's true my friend that's the way God deals with sinners

40:25 you've broken his law and in the breaking of his law you've lost all ability to keep it and yet God holds you accountable for the fact that you don't well picture a poor man in debtor's prison and his debts, accumulated debts are ten thousand dollars and he doesn't have a shilling, a dime, a nickel, a penny to pay. Along comes a very benevolent man who takes compassion upon him and he finds all of his creditors and he pays them off to the sum of $10,000.

41:01 Announcement of that is made to the proper authorities. The man is turned loose from debtor's prison. Now what's happened? His debts have been canceled, but the poor guy when he gets outside the prison and turns out his pockets.

41:14 There ain't a dime, ain't a nickel, ain't a shilling there. It's brought him to a neutral state. But he doesn't have anything with which to purchase the necessities of life. If he's going to have that, he needs an act of conferral.

41:26 So the same benevolent man comes by and gives him $10,000. Now what's happened? He's not only canceled his debt, he has conferred upon him that which will enable him to live. Now that, in essence, is what the act of justifying grace is.

41:42 God not only cancels all our debts, that would just return us to a neutral place, but then he confers upon us all of the positive righteousness of his own dear Son and treats us as though we had perfectly kept his holy law in every single point throughout the entirety of our existence. now you see when a child of God comes to grips with that and God willing next week we'll unpack that in greater detail why it is that amidst the painful consciousness of indwelling sin why it is amidst all of the unresolved enigmas of life the trials, the testings, the apparent injustices

42:29 a man can as it were stand as upon planet and be unmoved For he knows that the God before whom he shall stand in the last day has not only discharged all of his debts, pardoned all of his sins, but has conferred upon him a perfect righteousness. It is an act of God wherein he pardoneth and accepteth. Oh, dear child of God, as every other truth can only be known experimentally, that is, known in the felt power of it by the work of the Spirit, so it is with the doctrine of justification. I can preach it until blue in the face.

43:15 I can study to make it plain and simple and clear and illustrated as I've sought to do, albeit still feeling frustrated that I haven't communicated it with the clarity that it deserves. But even if I could, until the Spirit of God makes it real to you, you'll go on laboring with that unwarranted burden that cripples you. or you'll move in the direction of that deception that will eventually cripple you as well. May God grant that by the Spirit you'll be brought to the place where you will find yourself as comfortable with the Apostle Paul in Romans 7.25 as you feel as uncomfortable with him in Romans 7.24.

44:02 Where you can not only join him in his grown wretched man that I am, but join him in the triumphant shout of faith. There is therefore now no condemnation.

Final Plea to the Unconverted

44:18 Yet I know that in a group of this nature there are some of you to whom this is all a lot of gibberish.

44:27 You've never even considered your plight and your danger. The only things that have ever really gotten you upset are things that arise either from problems within or problems without at a horizontal level. And you've never paused long enough to realize your greatest problems are vertical, totally outside yourself. They have to do with your relationship to the living God who made you and to that law that He imposes upon you, which you have wickedly and openly broken.

44:55 You've defied His authority and you've brought yourself under the clouds of His wrath. My friend, if nothing else has come through this morning, I trust that something of that issue has come through to you. Almighty God takes your sin seriously. You may not, but He does.

45:12 And your safety is in beginning to take your problem of sin seriously. And then taking God's remedy seriously. And that remedy is not in a church. That remedy is not in yourself.

45:24 It's not in some official clergyman. No, no. That remedy, my friend, is in a person. That person is the Lord Jesus.

45:33 And the remedy is not in some sentimental notions about Him so that you have some kind of a Jesus trip, some kind of a Jesus experience, undefinable and indescribable. No, no. The Bible says you've got to have dealings with Him in terms of the acknowledgement of your sin, the acknowledgement that He who knew no sin died in the place of sinners, rose from the dead, and now lives to receive all who come unto God by Him, turning their back upon their sins, going out of themselves, and trusting only in what He has done for sinners. Oh, my friend, you too can leave this place with every dark thundercloud of wrath dissipated in a moment

Closing Prayer

46:19 if you will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us pray.

46:31 Our Father, what thanks can we render to You that You have conceived of such blessings for the sons of men? What praise can we render to You, our Heavenly Father, that for us whose sins deserve nothing but wrath, there should be this wonderful provision of justifying grace? and O Lord we who are your children acknowledge that the sins we commit as your children are indeed violations of your law that in themselves they deserve as much wrath even more than the sins committed

47:17 before we came under the canopy of grace for they are now sins against privilege and against all of the wonderful gifts of grace And yet we praise you that you have condemned and punished all of our sins in the person of your Son. You made him a curse for us. And for this we give you thanks that amidst all of the struggles with remaining sin, we need not come under that frightening state of bondage and legal dread. We thank you that we with the Apostle may say, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.

48:03 O God, write this truth upon our hearts. Give us by your Spirit the ability to glory in Christ and in Him alone. Deal with those who have no felt awareness of their need. with those who feel their need, but who cannot and will not flee to Christ.

48:25 O God, we commend to you your word that you will make it effectual in every heart. Dismiss us with your blessing. Continue with us in this your day. May we all profit as we seek to honor you on this your day.

48:43 We ask these mercies through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.