Sin Problem in the Christian Life, Part 1

Framing the Appendix: Justification and the Problem of Sin

0:00 In our Lord's Day mornings, we have been studying for many months now what I have called the cardinal blessings of the salvation which we receive and proclaim as the people of God.

0:20 We have noted again and again, and we can never be reminded of this fact too often or too frequently that all of the blessings of God's salvation have a common source in union with Christ. For the apostle can say, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in the heavenlies in Christ. As we think of the ultimate blessing that is ours in Christ. Of course, we are traced back to the wonderful act of God's electing purposes.

1:02 If we think of the foundation of those blessings, we cannot help but think of the person and work of the Redeemer. But our concern has been to focus particularly upon these blessings of salvation as they are actually brought into our own life history and into our own experience. And I have suggested that the Word of God at least gives us a broad outline of the order in which those blessings are conferred. God does not dump them all upon us at once.

1:39 and though they all flow out of one or another dimension of union with Christ all the way from election in eternity to glorification in the world to come, there is an order in which God actually applies them to his people. We've considered those that come to us on the threshold of entering into the kingdom of God, namely the blessings of calling and of regeneration. And now we are considering those blessings which come to us immediately upon entering the kingdom of God. And the first of those great cardinal blessings is the blessing of justification.

2:24 And because it is so fundamental to a right understanding of the gospel, we have spent many weeks examining the broad outline of this doctrine as it is given to us in the word of God. Having done that, I am now giving what you would probably consider in a parallel sense as an appendix to the doctrine. Now those of you who do any reading know that occasionally you'll read a book and at the end there will be an appendix or several appendices. and in the appendix of a book matters are dealt with which grow out of the major themes treated in the book but would not properly belong in the major body of the book.

3:11 Now that's precisely what I'm doing with the doctrine of justification. Having covered the major elements of the doctrine as outlined in the larger catechism and having examined the major portions of Scripture which direct our thinking to these dimensions of the doctrine, we are now in the realm of the appendix to this doctrine. And last week we addressed ourselves to the whole question of the relationship between justification by faith alone and justification by a faith that is never alone. And in so doing we saw that there is no contradiction between Paul and James on the subject of justification by faith and justification by works.

4:04 Now this morning I want to come to either a second category in the one appendix, or we can call it the second appendix to this great doctrine. and it is this subject that I'm sure has entered the minds of many of you. It's one with which I've wrestled for years in my own Christian experience, namely, justification and the problem of sin in the life of the justified. justification and the problem of sin in the life of the justified.

Stating the Problem: The Justifying Act and the Reality of Sin

4:45 Now, first of all, I want to state the problem, and then we shall begin this morning to address ourselves to the biblical answer to that problem. Now, the problem is one which arises out of two fundamental issues. First of all, the nature of the justifying act of God, and secondly, the present condition of the justified. Now I hope by now you are firmly convinced and firmly grounded in the fact that justification is a once-for-all declarative act of God.

5:25 When a sinner believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, he is declared righteous by virtue of the union that is established with the Lord Jesus. He is constituted righteous with that righteousness by imputation. God puts it to his account in Christ. and all of his sins are pardoned, past, present and future and he is given a standing in the court of heaven as one who has perfectly kept the law and is thereby entitled to eternal life.

6:07 In the language of the apostle in Romans 8.33 who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? And Paul's answer is, it is God that justifies it. And if the justifying word has gone forth from the Almighty, who will change it?

6:28 Certainly not God, for God is not fickle in his pronouncements. And if God does not change it, there is none that can overrule his judgment. So then, when we understand the nature of the justifying act, that it is a once-for-all declaration concerning the full pardon of all of our sins and our being accepted as righteous in the sight of God, we find then Romans 8, 1 is a precious truth to us. There is therefore now no condemnation to those or to them that are in Christ Jesus.

7:13 But now there is a problem because we not only have in Scripture this teaching concerning the nature of the justifying act, but secondly, the present condition of the justified person. He is a called and a regenerated person. He has been given a new heart in the language of Ezekiel, quoted in Hebrews 8 and 10. He has become a new creation in the language of 2 Corinthians 5 and Ephesians chapter 2 and Galatians chapter 5.

7:48 But though he has been given a new heart, that he is part of the new creation and is himself a new creation, there is the reality of indwelling sin and the reality of his actual acts of sin. The one who is a new man in Christ still has to reckon with the reality of indwelling sin. Galatians 5.17 The flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit lusteth against the flesh and these two are contrary the one to the other.

8:28 Or in the language of Romans 7, 18 and following, we find the apostle, as it were, putting a stethoscope or a megaphone to his own heart and letting us hear the language of his own heart as he wrestles with this reality of indwelling sin. I know that in me, that is, in my flesh dwelleth no good thing, for to will is present with me, but to do that which is good is not. The good that I would I do not. The evil that I would not that I do.

9:04 And he goes on to describe that conflict born of the reality of indwelling sin. But then we add to this the reality of actual sin. And certainly 1 John chapter 1 makes abundantly plain that there is no Christian this side of heaven who is beyond the reality of actual sin. Having described a true believer as one who walks in the realm of light, and anyone who claims to be a believer and does not walk in the realm of light is self-deceived, the Apostle John goes on to say in 1 John 1, 7, But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another,

9:49 and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin. As much as walking in the light is a reality and communion with Christ and with his people is a reality commensurate with walking in the light, so is the presence of sin a reality. The blood of Jesus Christ goes on cleansing us from all sin. If we say we have no sin, If we say that sin is not a reality to us, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

10:27 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say that we have not sinned, we make him a liar and his word is not in us. Now here's the problem. Now, the justifying act is the declaration that for all sin, past, present, and future, there is no condemnation to the one who is in Christ Jesus.

Three False Solutions: Antinomianism, Perfectionism, and False Gravity of Sin

11:00 And yet there's the reality of indwelling sin and the reality of actual sin. Now, what are the options of the believer? Well, on the one hand, some have opted for a false magnifying of the glory of justification. And that always moves in the direction of what has been called antinomianism, against law.

11:27 Some have said, well, since we are in Christ, and in Christ we have a perfect righteousness, though there is something there called indwelling sin God doesn't take any account of it He sees me in Christ and though there are actual sins since they are pardoned and they are paid for I should not really concern myself with them and so they have ostensibly magnified the glory of the justifying act by ignoring the reality of their indwelling sin or of their actual sins. Others have come along and said, now that will never do.

12:14 We must accept the reality of indwelling sin and the reality of actual sin, but let's look to God for grace to destroy both of them. And so they have taught a doctrine of sinless perfection, in which by a second work of the Spirit we are actually cleansed of all inbred sin so that we no longer have remaining corruption. We literally get out of Romans 7 and then we can actually live above what they call known sin. So they have sought to resolve the problem by saying no, we don't ignore the reality of indwelling sin or the reality of actual sin, we appropriate grace to rise above both of them.

13:04 Now others have said, no, a plague on both your house. We don't want to deny that indwelling sin is there. We don't want to ignore the reality of actual sin. And if we claim an experience that lifts us above it, then we come under the condemnation of John.

13:22 So what they have said is, well, yes, indwelling sin is there and actual sin is a reality. But since there is such marvelous provision for these things in Christ, all you need to do is just occasionally look over your shoulder and say, All right, God, I sinned. I'm sorry. I goofed. Amen. It's done.

13:41 And if you should so much as be found pleading for forgiveness, grieving over your sin, indwelling or actual, if you are so much as found for one moment with any sense of holy mourning they say Aha You are casting aspersions upon the magnitude of God grace A true believer should never pray the 51st Psalm. There's a man in our day whose ministry goes around the world by the name of Robert Feene, who really has almost a cultic following. And this is his teaching. And thousands upon thousands have imbibed it.

14:24 That no Christian should ever pray the 51st Psalm. No Christian should ever plead for forgiveness. His sins are all forgiven in Christ. Therefore all you need to do is just glance over your shoulder long enough to say, Lord, that's where I goofed.

14:39 And the minute you do, turn away from it. It's all taken care of. And you have what he calls spiritual rebound. And you're back in communion with the Father.

14:48 Well, we're not dealing with hypothetical or theoretical perversions. These are very real things that grow out of the problem of the act of justifying grace on the one hand and the reality of sin. Well, there have been those whose answer has been a false magnifying of the glory of justification that has tended to antinomianism. But then on the other hand, there have been those who have had a false magnifying of the gravity of sin.

15:19 They have said, yes, indwelling sin is real. In fact, it is so real that it's much more real to me than the justifying act. All I have is a word from God in His book that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ, even though they have indwelling sin and even though they do actually sin there is no condemnation. That statement seems so unreal and so far from me.

15:53 My indwelling sin is far more real than any statement from God. I live with it. It plagues me. It haunts me.

16:01 It governs my thoughts. I can feel it pumping as it were its influence into my affections and emotions, my desires, my actions and my reactions. And they say it will never do to believe that a person such as I am is declared utterly righteous in the court of heaven. That will never, never do.

16:20 So what do they do? They allow the reality of their indwelling and actual sins utterly to obscure the glory of the justifying act. And they go mourning all the day long, picking over the garbage of their own hearts. And they're not insincere.

16:37 I'm not talking about hypocrites. They take their sin seriously. But they take it so seriously as to believe that the reality of their sin cancels the validity of the justifying act of God. Others have allowed themselves to become so occupied with their sin as to become demoralized and miserable.

17:04 And that misery has clouded all holy joy, paralyzed all holy activity. Listen carefully now. And it looks upon the height of piety as one in which you obtain the deepest depths of misery and self-loathing.

17:28 If you're on your knees crawling, you're pretty holy. if you're on your belly crawling then you're really getting holy and if you're buried in the dust then you're really making it.

Setting Up the Four Principles

17:41 Now what are we to do in the face of these problems? Now again, these are not hypothetical problems. Some of you know very well I could name names this morning.

17:51 Perhaps some of you even fell a little bit of red coming up the back of your neck under some of these descriptions.

17:58 What are we to do with that problem? There's the justifying act. All sin, past, present, and future, forgiven. In Christ, declared righteous with a perfect righteousness that even heaven itself cannot improve upon.

18:15 Yet there's the reality of indwelling sin. The reality of actual sins committed. What are we to do? Now, for some of you, that question doesn't even strike a response in your heart.

18:29 you are so indifferent to the claims of the Almighty, so indifferent to the reality of the plague of your own hearts, that you can't even see why in the world anyone would ever get concerned about a question like that. My dear friend, if that question is not a question that has haunted you, you're to be pitied, because it shows you are utterly insensitive to the most important things in time and in eternity. Your condition as God's creature. Your condition as a subject to God's holy law.

19:06 Your relationship to the provisions for sinners made in his own dear Son and in the person of the Holy Spirit. But for the true child of God, this question is no academic question. It is no mere legomachy that is a strife about words. How can I honor the God of justifying grace While at the same time do no dishonor to the God Who has claims upon me And whose holy law never changes And whose standard of righteousness is absolutely inflexible How can I do honor to that law And to my coming short of it Which is the essence of sin And yet honor the God of justifying grace

19:53 and how can I do full honor to the God of justifying grace and glorify Him for His free and unqualified pardon of all my sins and yet still do honor to His holy law? That's the question. This morning and next Lord's Day morning, God willing, I want to give you four simple principles from the Word of God that I trust will help you in resolving this very sensitive question of the Christian life. It's what I call spiritual neurosurgery when we get into this realm.

20:32 We're dealing with things where one little slip can be fatal to the soul. May God give us understanding in his word as we seek to wrestle with the answer to the question. All right? You see the problem, and I hope the majority of you feel it.

20:47 Now then, what is the biblical answer to the problem? And I want to lay out four principles, two this morning and God willing two next Lord's Day morning. Just two this morning. It's a warm morning.

Principle One: Sin Must Always Be Acknowledged as Sin

20:59 Your level of concentration no doubt will be affected by that. And so I want to give some acknowledgement of my awareness of that. So just gird up the loins of your mind and think with me for the next moments. Principle number one.

21:14 Sin in a justified person must always be acknowledged as sin. Sin in a justified person must always be acknowledged as sin.

21:34 It does no honor to the God of justifying grace to add the devil's logic to the doctrine of justification. You know what the devil's logic is, don't you? It's given to us in Romans 5. Paul says, where sin abounds, grace superabounds.

21:54 The devil's logic is, oh well, if wherever there is more sin, God manifests more grace, then let sin the more that there will be more grace manifested. That's the devil's logic added to the doctrine of God's justifying grace. Well, you see, some have added the devil's logic in another dimension. Are all our sins, past, present, and future forgiven in terms of our liability to punishment?

22:25 In terms of those sins demanding death? Yes. When we are justified, we are not half justified, a quarter or three quarters. We are fully justified.

22:38 Well, then the devil adds his logic and says, if we then are forgiven as far as our legal liability concerning all our sins, then don't take sin seriously. Because the only thing to be concerned about with sin is its punishment. That's the devil's logic. That's not the teaching of the Word of God.

Romans 7: Paul's Honest Grief Over Indwelling Sin

23:01 The teaching of the Word of God is that sin in a justified person must always be acknowledged as sin. And that acknowledgement is both honest and it will draw to itself the appropriate inner disposition of a sinner. Let's take the problem of indwelling sin. Turn to Romans chapter 7.

23:31 is Paul acknowledging the reality of indwelling sin as his sin? And is he acknowledging it in a matter-of-fact way or with a felt awareness of spiritual pain and shame because of its presence? Well, listen to the language.

23:57 Verse 16 of Romans 7.

24:01 But if what I would not that I do, I consent unto the law that it is good. There is an inflexible, unchangeable standard of righteousness. That law is spiritual and holy and the commandment holy and righteous and good, verse 12. And anything that falls short of that is of the very essence of sin.

24:25 so now it is no more I that do it but sin which dwelleth in me someone says oh see he doesn't own the problem he says it's something in there called sin well don't be so quick to draw the conclusion for I know that in me that is in my flesh dwelleth no good thing for to will is present with me but to do that which is good is not for the good that I would I do not but the evil I would not that I do.

24:59 That I do.

25:02 Now there's an apparent contradiction, but only an apparent.

25:07 Not a real contradiction. He says, when as a new man in Christ in which sin has been dethroned, I yet sin or I fail to do what I know I ought to do, It is not I as a new man in Christ that does this. This is the evidence of the remnants of corruption yet within me. And yet when I do it, I do not lay my hand upon indwelling sin as though it were something separate from me.

25:35 He then goes on to say, it is no more I that do it, sin that dwelleth in me. Now he comes down in this passage and says, it is the evil that I do. But if what I would not, that I do. You see, he bears responsibility for it.

25:55 I then find the law that to me who would do good evil is present. For I delight in the law of God after my inward man. But I see a different law in my members warring against the law of my mind. And bring me into captivity under the law of sin which is in my members.

26:14 Wretched man that I am. who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I of myself with the mind indeed serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.

26:32 There is therefore now no condemnation. Do you see the conjunction of those two realities? here the apostle is confessing that he takes the problem of indwelling sin seriously. It is a felt concern to him that there is yet indwelling sin.

26:57 He doesn't lightly and in a cavalier way simply say, Oh, well, you know, no one's perfect. We all have our problems. But that's all right. We're just perfect in Christ.

27:07 That's all.

27:09 That is latent, if not actual antinomianism. To profess to magnify the grace of God in the gospel, so as to have no honest acknowledgement or felt spiritual pain regarding indwelling sin, is to be in an unscriptural position.

Actual Sin in 1 John and the Lord's Prayer

27:35 And what about actual sins? Well here we have of course the teaching of the passage read in your hearing earlier. Now let's go back to it. 1 John chapter 1.

27:52 Verse 8 if we say that we have no sin no sin that needs the continuous cleansing of the blood of Christ, we are self-deceived, John says. We deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. But now notice, if we confess our sins, sin in a justified person must always be acknowledged as sin. If we confess our sins, we own them as our own.

28:29 And in confession we literally say the same thing about them as God says. And to some degree we feel towards them as God feels.

28:44 Then we add to this the teaching of our Lord. When he gave that model, that framework for prayer in Matthew chapter 6 and then the parallel passage in Luke 11. what does he assume will be part and parcel of the daily prayer concern of every one of his disciples?

29:07 He assumes that as surely as they live each day with his honor and the hallowing of his name, the coming of his kingdom is the great end for which they live and labor, that the honest acknowledgement and facing of their sins will be just as much part and parcel of their daily experience. Matthew 6, verse 9. After this manner, therefore, pray ye, Our Father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, as in heaven so on earth.

29:47 Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors. Here sin is looked upon as unfulfilled obligation. Isn't that what a debt is? When you have a debt you have an unfulfilled financial obligation.

30:10 Here the believer who has contemplated the glory of God and the vastness of the interest of His kingdom cannot help but when he thinks of that glorious God and that standard of righteousness expressed in His law, he cannot help but feel daily, we have not loved Him as we ought. We have not served Him. We have not sought Him. We have not feared Him.

30:36 We feel we have an unfulfilled obligation. It's a debt. And we take that debt is ours. Forgive us our debts.

30:47 We take our sins seriously. And we are to do so daily. Now in the parallel passage in Luke, we have different language. Here sin is viewed not so much as unfulfilled obligation, but as actual transgression.

31:05 Luke 11 and verse 4. Luke 11 and verse 4. And forgive us our sins, our trespasses, for we also forgive everyone that is indebted to us. So you see, our Lord assumes again that a justified person will always be acknowledging his sin as sin.

Biblical Examples: David, Daniel, Peter, and Corinth

31:38 Add to the testimony of Romans 7 and 1 John 1 and the Lord's Prayer, the examples of justified people dealing with their sins in the Bible. And what do you find? In that classic penitential psalm, Psalm 51, David is taking his sin honestly. Even though the Lord has said through the prophet, he has put away thy sin, he goes off to confess the very sin that God says is put away and that he will not die.

32:12 And he cries out saying, have mercy upon me, O God, according to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my transgressions. He goes on to say, My sin is ever before me against thee, and thee only have I sinned and done that which is evil in thy sight. And the prophet did not come back and say, Now, David, that's all a tempest in a teapot. Don't you know you're justified?

32:38 The Lord does not impute sin to His own. David, you don't need to gruffle like that. You don't need to be pained and go through the agony of a renewed repentance. You're justified, David.

32:51 Skip along home singing hallelujah. No, the prophet came with a word from God to point out his sin. The prophet came with a word from God to give the assurance of the pardon of his sin. But the Holy Ghost indicted this penitential psalm in David's heart, which is the pattern of how a justified man takes his sin seriously.

33:18 You read the same in Daniel chapter 9 when Daniel confesses his sin and the sins of his people. You read the account of Peter's acknowledgement of his sin with bitter tears in the Gospels. You read in 2 Corinthians 7 the record of the acknowledgement of sin by the Corinthian believers and Paul speaks of it as an acknowledgement permeated with godly sorrow unto repentance not to be repented of.

John Owen on Conscience Condemning Sin in the Sinner

33:51 As that old master of heart theology has said it so accurately, John Owen, listen to this statement. It's been a great help to me. The blood of Christ takes away conscience condemning the sinner for his sin. The blood of Christ takes away the conscience condemning the sinner for his sin, but it does not remove conscience condemning sin in the sinner.

34:28 See the difference? Before we come under the justifying act When the word takes hold of the conscience Under the power of the spirit It says you've broken the law of God You stand under condemnation You sinner must die because of your sin Conscience condemns the sinner because of his sin When we have fled for refuge to Christ and we've laid hold of the promise that in Christ there is no condemnation. Now when we sin, what happens? Conscience still does His work in conjunction with the Word and the Spirit.

35:11 But now what does conscience do? Conscience does not bring the sinner under a sense of the dread of the wrath of God because of his sin. It does not condemn the sinner for his sin, but it condemns the sin in the justified sinner. And it leads us to seek pardon and forgiveness, not from an angry judge, but from a pacified heavenly Father.

35:41 But take sin seriously, we must. In fact, the awareness of sin is heightened and intensified by the work of the Spirit and in the light of gospel privileges. Nowhere is any saint in the Bible ever rebuked for taking his sin too seriously, or confessing it too earnestly, or being too grieved or too humbled for his sin. Do you hear me?

36:11 There's not a record in the Word of God of any sin, any sinner ever being rebuked, any saint, converted sinner being rebuked for taking his sin too seriously, grieving over it too much, or being too humbled. But there are warnings to pay attention to sin. The risen Christ says to his own church at Ephesus, whose only sin was a deep inward heart sin in the midst of flourishing religious life, loss of first love, Jesus said, Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent. He calls them to take their sin seriously.

36:55 He doesn't say, Now look upon me in all the glory of my justifying grace and forget your sin. such advice never came from the lips of the Son of God he warns about hardness of heart he says beware lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin show me a verse where God ever rebuked a man for being too sensitive for sin it isn't there because sin in a justified person must always be acknowledged as sin. Now let me ask you, sitting here this morning, you who profess to be justified in Christ, do you take your sin seriously?

37:43 Has your professed confidence in Christ made you more sensitive to sin than you ever were before you professed faith in Christ? More tender of conscience? Or have you begun to add the devil's logic to your newly discovered truth of justifying grace. I would love to believe that while we've been preaching justification, the devil went on a vacation. But I know better.

Principle Two: Sin Must Never Be Allowed to Bring Legal Bondage

38:17 And no sooner does that great truth have a full and clear preachment, but that the devil is there pumping his logic into the minds and hearts of those who hear that preaching. what do we do with the problem of indwelling sin and actual sin in a believer principle number one is a justified believer is under solemn obligation to take his sin seriously until he sins no more and that's when he gets to heaven but now the second great principle and oh hear me this morning is this sin in a justified person must never be allowed to bring him into legal bondage.

39:03 Sin in a justified person must never be allowed to bring him into legal bondage. You see, if the former principle respects the perpetually binding nature of the law of God, even when its condemning power is silenced, So this principle respects the full and unalterable provisions of the gospel, even in the face of sin. Do you see it? If we take sin lightly, we dishonor the law.

39:38 If we allow sin to bring us into legal bondage, we dishonor the gospel. But it's the one God who is both the God of the law and of the gospel, and He administers neither in such a way as to obscure the glory of both.

39:58 Now you say, Pastor, what do you mean by legal bondage? Well, I hope you're asking the question. If you aren't, let me put it in your head. What do I mean by legal bondage?

40:08 Well, it's that sense of dread and terror in the face of sin. A dread and terror that has as its indispensable ingredient the thought that I'm out of sorts with the court of heaven and with the judge on the throne. Legal terror has to do with the awareness of a broken law in the face of a righteous judge and of an unchangeable law. it's always joined to a dread of penalty follow closely and an aversion to the God who inflicts that penalty when the conscience of Adam was stung with the awareness of his sin

40:57 he had an aversion to God he ran to hide and the aversion to God is always an accompaniment of legal bondage Now such an attitude in one who believes on the Lord Jesus Christ is a denial of justifying grace and it contradicts the gospel. I take you back now to this chapter in Romans that we've had occasion to refer to again and again. The apostle in the midst of the honest acknowledgement of indwelling sin and acknowledgement marked by honesty by grief by holy longing for deliverance makes the confession of the confidence of His ultimate deliverance in verse 25

Romans 8: No Condemnation for the Honest Sufferer

41:55 And then remember, His letter had no divisions as we now know them in our Bibles. In the full consciousness of all the ugly reality of indwelling sin, He can say, there is therefore now, in this present condition, with this contradiction of indwelling sin, no condemnation. Why? Because he understood that though his indwelling sin was sin, it could not bring him back under the terrors of an unsatisfied law.

42:35 Christ had lived. Christ had died. Christ was raised from the dead. All the demands of the law were fully satisfied in him.

42:47 And though he owns the reality of his indwelling sin, even to a point of what might be called justifiable misery for a moment, he does not relinquish the reality of what he is in Christ. And so I say sin in a justified person must never be allowed. to bring him into legal bondage. We go on to those wonderful verses again in Romans 8 and verse 33.

43:23 Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth. Who is he that condemneth? And what is his confidence based upon?

43:35 Not that he no longer has indwelling sin. Not that he no longer commits actual sin. But he refuses to let those two realities shake his confidence in the absolute perfection of the work of Christ. It is Christ that died.

43:52 How many sins did he pay for when he died? Did he simply pay for the sins you committed prior to your first approaches to him in faith? Or did he pay for all your sins? How many of your sins did he carry up to the tree?

44:13 When Isaiah says, The Lord hath made to light upon him the iniquity of us all, how much of our sin was laid upon him? When he cried, It is finished, was it only finished for the sins that were yours when you passed over the threshold and must he needs die again for sins committed subsequent to entering the kingdom? You say, No, Pastor, that's wretched theology. But that's the working theology that some of you have in your heart.

44:45 And that's why, though taking your sin seriously as you ought, both your indwelling and actual sins, you allow the accuser of the brethren to drive you back under the canopy of legal bondage. And the moment he does, you have an aversion to God, all prayer ceases, all communion ceases, and there you are on your belly in the dust groaning.

45:15 A wretched testimony of the grace of God? A miserable instrument for any useful service? This man who took his indwelling sins seriously did not spend his days and nights groveling.

1 John 2: Our Advocate with the Father

45:33 He was active in the work of Christ's kingdom because he refused to let himself be brought under legal bondage for his indwelling or his actual sins. Turn to 1 John chapter 2 for another encouraging word that points in the same direction. My little children, these things write I unto you that you may not sin. One of my great concerns, John says, is your advancement in holiness.

46:10 The pursuit of a life free from dishonoring God by sin. And if any man sinned...

46:20 Now notice, we have an advocate with the Father. If any man sinned, he has not forfeited his advocate. if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, and He is the propitiation for our sins. When is He propitiation?

46:44 When we've behaved ourselves and we haven't consciously sinned? No, He is propitiation at the point that conscience cries for propitiation. our sins in themselves deserve wrath as much after we are converted as before sin in itself is always an ugly affront against the majesty and holiness of God and His law but Christ has interposed on our behalf He has shed His blood and at the right hand of the Father He secures our acceptance before Him and for a justified person to let himself be brought back under legal bondage is to dishonor the veracity of the gospel.

Psalm 130: Forgiveness That Produces Filial Fear

47:36 You have a wonderful example in the Old Testament of this same disposition and I touch on this verse quickly to close. In Psalm 130 the psalmist is in the depths because of his sin and he doesn't ignore his sin he doesn't blink at it he doesn't say I'll chuck myself under the chin and just go rejoicing in Jesus because anything else is dishonoring to God no no he's honest with God about the depths into which his sin has brought him and he says in verse 3 of Psalm 130 if thou Lord shouldest mark iniquities O Lord who could stand Lord if you mark sin So as to call the sinner into the court

48:24 And to give the evidence And to issue the sentence Who could stand? Here's a man taking his sin seriously But oh look how he took the gospel seriously In the next verse But there is forgiveness with thee That thou mayest be feared You see you never truly fear God with a proper fear until you've embraced His forgiveness. Legal fear is the fear of devils and of demons. They believe and they tremble.

48:58 But the fear of a forgiven saint is permeated with love and with delight in its object and becomes the very main spring of a life of godliness and of obedience. Now isn't this the very point where some of you need to come to grips with God? It's not a problem that you don't take your sin seriously. You do.

49:24 It's not a problem that you don't face it honestly. You do. But you're allowing yourself to come under legal bondage. And every time you do, you turn away the object of your gaze from the perfection of Christ.

Pastoral Application and Looking Ahead

49:42 his life, his death, his resurrection, his ascension, his intercession. And you dishonor God in the gospel. God willing, next week we'll take up two more simple principles. Sin in a justified person must always be dealt with in the context of God's fatherly displeasure.

50:05 Sin in a justified person must always be dealt with in conjunction with evangelical repentance. but we must leave those for next week and I want to simply press on your conscience these two simple principles that I've attempted to open up in your hearing this morning the Bible takes the problem of sin seriously do you? what about a young man, young woman boy, girl, adult do you take the problem of sin seriously? well God does the cross is the monumental witness to how serious God takes human sin.

50:45 Hell will be the final witness. My friend, don't drop into that frightening place because you refuse to take seriously what God takes seriously. But assuming I'm speaking to the majority of you this morning who are taking your sin seriously, and I trust I'm not presumptuous in assuming that many of you do indeed believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for pardon and acceptance. How do you measure up to those first two simple principles?

51:18 Growing out of that problem, justification is a once-for-all act. But my indwelling and actual sins are realities. What shall I do? For whatever I do, I must never ignore my sin.

51:30 I must never treat it lightly. Sin in a justified person must always be taken seriously. and if some of you have been adding the devil's logic to the doctrine of justification I pray God that he'll bring you up short this morning show you the air of your way for you're on the high road to a hardened and a seared conscience and it could be it could be the first steps into total apostasy but I do know there are some of you who need that second word and needed desperately. Sin in a justified believer must never be allowed to bring him into legal bondage.

52:14 Do you see how you dishonor Christ? You say your sin's bigger than His righteousness. You see how you dishonor God? You say the law is bigger and better and more powerful than the Gospel.

52:27 Now that's dishonoring to God.

52:31 Repent of that sin and say, Lord, I shall dare face every accusation of conscience with this claim, Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ intercedes. And all the accusations of conscience are silenced in the face of the perfection of the work of the Son of God.

Closing Prayer

52:57 May God grant that as believers who must live until we die or until He returns, with this problem of sin, may we live with it biblically so that we may not, on the one hand, quench the Spirit by a hardened heart or breathe the Spirit by unbelief in the full provisions of the Gospel. Let us pray.

53:35 Our Father, we would this morning take seriously the magnitude of our sin. We cannot gaze upon that awesome scene of Golgotha.

53:51 There behold your own Son immolated upon a Roman cross.

53:58 We cannot hear his cry of abandonment and dereliction.

54:05 And ever regard our sin in any other light but that of the most grave and serious light. Forgive us when we've had low and light and careless views of sin. We acknowledge that the greatness of our privileges augments our obligations. While acknowledging our sins, we thank you for the provisions of the gospel.

54:33 and we pray O Holy Spirit will you not apply the word with power to those who have taken their sins too lightly and in particular to those who have allowed themselves to come again and again under legal bondage O God bring them bring them we pray by the word and the spirit to rejoice in the liberty of full and free forgiveness. We can only ask, our Father, that you will do what we cannot do in making the Word to come home with power to every heart. For those who have never taken their sins seriously at all,

55:22 who as it were, act as though there were no coming judgment, no heaven, no hell. Lord, arrest them this morning. O God, bring them up short. Give them to feel something of the terrors of their state until they flee to Christ and find refuge in the Lamb of God.

55:45 Hear our prayer. Seal the word to every heart. And may it bear fruit unto eternal life. Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

55:55 Amen.