Sin Problem in the Christian Life, Part 2

Review: The Justifying Act and the Problem of Sin

0:00 In the past few months, you have heard many times this statement or one very similar to it. The most important question any man, any woman, any boy, any girl can ever ask is the question How shall sinful man find acceptance with the living God?

0:32 How shall sinful man find acceptance with the living God, the righteous judge of the universe? And the biblical answer to that question brings us directly to this amazing provision of God's grace designated by the Bible term justification. And it is, you see, the answer to that burning question which has occupied our minds for a number of Lord's Day mornings as we have sought to examine the pivotal passages in the Word of God dealing with this cardinal blessing of God's salvation in Jesus Christ, the blessing of justification.

1:20 We have seen that perhaps there is no better, uninspired definition of the biblical teaching concerning this matter of justification than that which is given in the larger catechism. In answer to the question, what is justification, we read, Justification is an act of God's free grace unto sinners, in which He pardons all their sins, accepts and accounts their persons righteous in His sight, not for anything done in them nor done by them, but only for the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ

2:05 by God imputed to them and received by faith alone. Well, having opened up for some ten or eleven Lord's Day mornings that great doctrine of justification, we are now considering some of the practical issues that grow out of that doctrine.

2:29 We first of all considered the relationship between faith and works. Since we are justified by faith, that is, it is the empty hand of faith taking the full provision of forgiveness and acceptance with God by which we are justified. How do we reconcile the statements particularly of James in James chapter 2 with this great teaching? Well, I attempted to do that and a number of you said that you found that instruction very helpful.

3:02 Well, now we're considering another very practical problem that grows out of the doctrine of justification, namely, justification and the problem of sin in the justified person. And last week we looked at that problem. God's act of justification is a complete, once for all, irreversible act. When He declares us justified, the guilt of all our sins, past, present, and future, is completely removed.

3:39 We are accepted as having perfectly fulfilled the law of God in the presence of the court of the God of heaven. Well, in the light of the justifying act, set over against the condition of the justified, namely a condition in which they still have sin remaining in them, and they still commit sin, how do we bring together that true condition of the justified with the justifying act, and in no way do injustice either to the justifying act, to the holiness and to the demands of God, and to the reality of the state of the justified sinner.

Review of Principles One and Two

4:25 Still a sinner with indwelling sin and with actual sin. Well, I suggested that in the history of the church, the answers have come forth on both sides of this issue in tragic errors. The error of antinomianism, that is an answer that has failed to give due respect to the law of God, or legalism, an answer that has failed to give due respect to the gospel of God. And if we are to be kept from those two crippling errors, I suggested that there are four simple principles that we must not only understand, but which must become part and parcel of our daily walk with the living God.

5:14 I gave you two of them last week. I'll only mention them and then we come to the third this morning. First of all, principle number one, sin in a justified person must always be acknowledged as sin. We saw this clearly taught in Romans 7 and in 1 John chapter 1.

5:36 Any justified person who refuses to deal with his sin as sin is dishonoring the law of God. And God does not make void His law by the gospel. He establishes it. And then the second great principle that we dealt with last week is that sin in a justified person must never be allowed to bring him into legal bondage.

6:06 Sin in a justified person must never be permitted to bring him into legal bondage. The Scripture says, there is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus in spite of the reality of indwelling sin, in spite of the reality of their actual sins. Or in the language of our Lord, he that heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me is passed from death unto life and shall not come into condemnation. Now, you see, if we don't grasp the second principle, we do injustice to the gospel.

6:48 For the gospel tells us, the gospel of justifying grace, that all of our legal liability is met in the Lord Jesus Christ. The wrath of God against the sins of believers was exhausted in the death of the Son of God. All the positive demands of the law were met in the obedience of our Lord Jesus Christ. Well, so much for that brief review.

Principle Three: Sin and God's Fatherly Displeasure

7:17 Now, this morning, we go to the third principle, one that must, I say, become part and parcel of our spiritual and mental consciousness as we seek to walk with God in the justified state. It is this. Sin in a justified person must be dealt with primarily in the light of God's fatherly displeasure. Sin in a justified person must be dealt with primarily in the light of God's fatherly displeasure.

7:57 Now this statement obviously anticipates and assumes the provision of adoption. That's the next area of our study in the cardinal blessings of salvation. We'll move from justification to adoption. This statement assumes it, but of necessity, I must assume it in order to deal with this great problem of sin in the justified sinner.

8:21 Now, let me explain the statement. Sin in a justified person must be dealt with primarily in the light of God's fatherly displeasure. The one God of heaven and earth sustains different relationships to different men and women, different boys and girls. And it is the reality of those relationships which God sustains to us, which should condition and regulate our thinking and our relationship to God.

God's Different Relationships to His Creatures

9:01 Let me illustrate from the Scriptures. The Bible says that God is the creator of all of us. The little children sitting here, the oldest adults, God is our creator. because he sustains the relationship of Creator to all men, we then are under obligation to render to him the glory and honor that is due to the Creator from the creature.

9:29 So we read in Romans 1 that they did not honor the Creator as he should have been honored, but they worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator. And that was their great crime. Because, you see, the relationship God sustains to man as Creator demands a corresponding response from the creature. He is to be honored as their Creator.

10:03 Furthermore, Acts chapter 17 says, He is our sustainer. He gives to all life and breath and all things. And in that sense, Paul says in Acts 17, He is not far from every one of us, from any one of us. He is near in His constant provision and care over all His creatures.

10:28 Now, if that's true, it demands a response from us. And Paul deals with that in Acts 17. We should seek to know such a God who is not only our Creator, but our Sustainer, who is the One who upholds us and gives us life and breath and all things. Furthermore, the Bible says that God is our judge.

10:50 Every one of us shall give account of himself to God. While in the light of that relationship he sustains to us as judge, that demands something of us. And in Acts 17, Paul describes that demand. Because He has appointed a day in which He'll judge the world in righteousness, He commands all men everywhere to repent.

11:13 If He's the judge, then we better be right as we anticipate God's day in court in which we will be summoned to stand before Him. The Bible describes Him as the God who so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. He is the God who sincerely sets His Son before every sinner and says, Believe, receive, embrace my Son and the salvation in Him. You see, that demands then something from us.

11:45 It demands obedience to the Gospel. That is why unbelief is never looked upon as some kind of malady. It is looked upon as the height of criminal wickedness. Because, you see, God sustains a relationship to us as the great and gracious God who sincerely offers salvation in His Son, and therefore it demands a response from us.

12:12 Alright, do you see the principle now? That the relationship God sustains to His creatures is a different relationship in terms of the particular position in which those creatures find themselves And our relationship to God our thinking of God our responses to God should be based upon the facts of His relationship to us. We are not to conjure up what we would like His relationship to us to be, and then respond in terms of the dreams spun out of our own heads. We're to go to this book and from this book learn what God's relationship to us is

Applying the Principle to the Justified Believer

12:59 and from this book learn what our response to that relationship should be. And that's what I've done in these few examples. Now bring that into the area of justification. If you are a justified man or woman, boy or girl, one who by faith has fled to the Lord Jesus.

13:22 You have come naked and stripped of any righteousness of your own. You've confessed that you deserve the wrath and anger of God, and you have nothing by which you can appease God. From the heart you've been able to say as well as sing, Nothing in my hands I bring. Simply to thy cross I cling.

13:47 Foul I to the fountain fly. Wash me, Savior, ere I die. Well, if you're such a person, then you are fully forgiven of all your sins. You are accepted in the Beloved.

14:01 There is no condemnation to you because you are now in Christ Jesus. Now, follow closely. Now, if that is so, if you are a justified person, you have no more to do with God as a judge committed to the punishment of your sins. Now, listen carefully.

14:28 You have no more to do with God as a judge committed to the punishment of your sins.

14:42 All of the judicial punishment of your sins was borne by Christ so that the justified man from the moment of his justification throughout eternity will have nothing to do with God as the judge who is committed to punish sin with judicial wrath and anger. There is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. Now, follow closely. I am not saying that God is no longer a just and a righteous judge.

15:26 that He is no longer determined to exert legal vengeance and wrath upon sinners. He is. In fact, right now, you see, God's legal wrath and vengeance is pointed at some of you sitting in this building. For the Scripture says in John 3.36, the wrath of God abideth on him that believeth not.

15:53 You see, your relationship to God is still the relationship of a guilty criminal. His relationship to you, if you are impenitent and unbelieving, is still that of a judge who is committed to glorify His justice in your damnation. But if you are in Christ, God no longer sustains that relationship to you. He is in Himself the judge.

16:24 He is still determined to wreak vengeance, and that's a biblical term. Vengeance is mine, God says, I will repay.

16:35 Jesus Christ did not change the face of that God. He is still the God of vengeance. But blessed be God, if I am a justified man, a justified woman, He no longer wears that face to me because He turned it to His Son. And when His Son hung upon that cross, the Father turned His face of pure and holy vengeance towards His Son.

17:05 And He vented upon His Son the full measure of every bit of wrath due to the sins of His people. until his son cried, it is finished. It is finished. All of the wrath of God is expended.

17:24 All of it is utterly exhausted for believers in the sufferings of the Lord Jesus. And now then that means as a justified man, I must in my relationship to this God, dealing with the real world in which I still have indwelling sin, I still actually commit sins, I must learn that my dealings with God are primarily the dealings of a son or a daughter with a father whose frown may be very real because I have sinned. I have displeased him and grieved him by my sin,

18:09 but I'm dealing with the displeasure of my Father and not the anger of a judge. Now, that's what I mean by that third fundamental principle. If you and I are to have any stability and walk biblically as justified men and women, We must learn that sin in the justified person must be dealt with primarily in terms of God's fatherly displeasure. Now, having explained the statement, let's turn to the Word of God to see the biblical basis for the statement.

Matthew 6: The Lord's Prayer and Father-Centered Confession

18:51 And I want to examine you, time permitting, examine with you three or four fundamental passages of Scripture. The first one is in Matthew chapter 6. Matthew's Gospel, Chapter 6.

19:10 In this passage, our Lord is teaching some of the very fundamental principles regarding the subject of prayer. first of all giving a negative exhortation in Matthew 6 5 he then turns and gives positive instruction concerning the prayers that his disciples are to pray and it's evident at the very outset beginning with verse 6 that this whole concept of approaching God as father consciously thinking of him as Father it stands as it were on the very threshold of our Lord's instruction concerning prayer. But thou when thou prayest

19:55 enter into thine inner chamber and having shut thy door pray not to God not to the Almighty but pray to thy Father who is in secret. And by Father who seeth in secret shall recompense thee. And then he goes on to warn against vain repetitions, and he gives the reason for it in verse 8. Be not therefore like unto them, for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of.

20:32 After this manner therefore pray ye, and when he gives the framework an outline of legitimate prayer, He puts to the place of prominence again this same concept. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. And then after giving those basic outlines or that basic outline of true prayer, He elaborates only on one aspect. Now, isn't it interesting?

21:00 It's the sin aspect. That's why we gave principle number one last week. Sin in a justified person must be dealt with honestly and continually. The only petition our Lord enlarges upon is the sin petition.

21:19 Very interesting, isn't it? He knew where we would be and what we would most need. But when he does, notice the language, verse 14. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.

21:34 But if you forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. Six times in this brief, distilled section of instruction on prayer, our Lord refers to God as the Father, your Father, our Father who art in heaven. Now, what does that tell us? Well, it tells us that even though we must take our sins seriously, so seriously that Jesus assumes that concern for sin will be a part of our daily prayer experience.

22:19 He assumes it. After this manner pray ye, and as surely as you ask for bread for the day from the hand of God, you must daily ask the forgiveness of your debts, and you must do so asking yourself, Am I extending the same spirit of forgiveness to others which I myself am seeking from God? But, oh, dear child of God, remember, you are not asking forgiveness of an angry judge. but of a Father whose frown you have raised because of your sin.

22:58 Do you see it? In the midst of this teaching, forgive us our debts, we are to be praying in the consciousness that we are sons and daughters dealing with our Father. The face of God towards us as an angry judge is no longer towards us. You say, Pastor, you've said it once, twice.

23:22 I must continue to say it, trusting that the Spirit of God will take the repetition of the truth and cause it to break through the fog and that thick veil that hangs over some of our hearts until we can learn what it is in practical experience to deal honestly with our sins, Not adopt the antinomian position. Oh, yeah, I've got a little problem called sin, but that's all right. In Christ I'm perfect. No, no, that's antinomianism.

23:57 But oh, that we may avoid the legalism that says, Oh, my sin, my sin, my sin. It's a provocation of God's wrath. It deserves hell and damnation. That's true.

1 Peter 1: Hope, Holiness, Fear, and Calling on the Father

24:09 But my friend, your sin is to be dealt with in the confidence that it is your Father to whom you come acknowledging your sin, not an angry judge. Now the second passage is 1 Peter chapter 1. We're just seeking now to establish from the Word of God this very simple, this very elementary, but very profoundly necessary principle. 1 Peter chapter 1.

24:39 Now notice the emphasis of this paragraph beginning with verse 13. We have first of all a call to a settled hope of a completed salvation Verse 13 Wherefore girding up the loins of your mind he using a figure of speech when a man or a woman particularly was in earnest about getting somewhere, they would take the loose folds of the garment and tie them up around the waist. Girding up the loins of your mind, don't be a spiritual scatterbrain, have concentrated spiritual perspective. girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly

25:24 on the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. The first thing he does is gives a call to a settled hope of a completed salvation. No uncertainty here. He says, set your hope perfectly, not on the judgment, but on the grace that is to be brought to you when Christ returns.

25:45 The grace of glorification. All your sin will be fully and finally taken away in that day. You'll be given a glorified body. The grace that will be brought at the revelation of Christ.

26:00 He says, have a settled, confident expectation of the grace that will come at the return of Christ. Then he says, secondly, growing out of that, there must be a serious pursuit of holiness. Verses 14 and 15. as children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves according to your former lusts in the time of your ignorance, but like as He who called you is holy, be ye yourselves also holy in all manner of living, because it is written, ye shall be holy, for I am holy.

26:37 Not only does He call them to a settled hope of a completed salvation, for a serious pursuit of holiness. And notice he doesn't say, but you can't be holy, the Lord must do it. He calls them to holiness and he says, you've got to be active in it. Look at the language.

26:54 As children of obedience, not fashioning yourselves. You've got a responsibility in this. Like as he who called you is holy, be ye holy. Then verse 17, he calls them to godly fear in the light of a future judgment based on works.

27:14 Look at verse 17. And if ye call on him his Father, who without respect of persons judges according to each man's work, pass the time of your sojourning in fear. So he's calling them to three things. He's calling to a settled hope of a complete salvation, a serious pursuit of holiness, and to godly fear in the light of a future judgment.

27:43 But now the interesting thing is that in the midst of that, he says you are to deal honestly with your sins, pursue earnestly a life of holiness, walk in godly fear, but what's the context? Is it the context of God as a judge or God as a father? Well, look at the context. Verse 13, Girding up the loins of your mind, be sober and set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought at the revelation of Christ.

28:20 He doesn't say judgment. To these people, he says, the one thought that should fill your mind as you contemplate the return of Christ is, it is grace that will be brought to me. Verse 17, and if ye call on him as Father. You see to the believer, it is his Father who will judge according to every man's work.

28:48 Not the judge who will judge. It is the Father who will judge. And then he goes on in verses 18 to 21 and says, you're to pursue holiness, dealing with sin, not fashioning yourself according to your former lust. Notice now, with this assured confidence of redemption, verse 18, knowing that ye were redeemed not with corruptible things, with silver or gold from your vain manner of life, but with the precious blood as of a lamb without blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ.

29:27 Now, do you see the things that he brings together? Are they to take their sins seriously? He says, yes. Don't fashion yourself according to the former lust in your ignorance.

29:40 Seek to be sensitive to those impulses and perspectives and desires and actions and reactions that are the outgrowth of what you were when you were in your former state as an unconverted, unjustified man or woman. Be conscious of those past patterns. and whenever those impulses are sent forth, don't be fashioned by them, but rather contemplate the pattern of holiness that God Himself is. Be ye holy as He is holy.

30:15 Furthermore, He says, you're to do this with the utmost seriousness. You're to pass the time of your sojourning in fear. Now, it's not the cringing fear of the guilty criminal who wonders when the evidence will be discovered, when he'll be summoned to court, when the sentence will go forth, when he will be executed. No, no.

30:39 It is that fear that is perfectly consistent with calling on God as Father. It is that fear perfectly consistent with the confidence that I'm redeemed by the blood of Christ. You see, it is that fear that grows out of the consciousness of the majesty and the glory of God, which rather than being diminished by redemption, is augmented and displayed more fully in redemption.

The Antinomian's Embarrassment with Peter's Language

31:15 Now let me say by way of application that Peter not only assumes it's possible but necessary to lay hold of these perspectives in their proper balance. Now you see, the antinomian, he's embarrassed by certain strands of emphasis in Peter. There are people in our own day, as well as in the history of the church, who don't like the language of verse 14. Children of obedience.

31:42 They don't like that term because, see, obedience involves a conscious recognition of authority, a conscious recognition of a standard to which that authority is related, and a conscious compliance of my will with that authority and with that standard. And they don't like that. The antinomian says, look, I'm in Christ, I'm indwelt by the Spirit, so my sins are in a sense irrelevant and obedient. I can't perform it anyway.

32:12 Christ must live His life through me. They don't like the language. Children of obedience. My friend, if you have any reservation about that language, it's a latent antinomianism in your heart that makes you feel uncomfortable with it.

32:30 Children of obedience. Furthermore, the antinomian doesn't like this language. Not fashioning yourselves. That sounds like effort.

32:42 And the antinomian says, I can't do anything but sin.

32:48 Therefore, I'll put forth no effort to do anything but sin.

32:56 You see, the antinomian is not comfortable with this language. Children of obedience. Conscious pursuit of holiness. And then verse 17.

33:05 Oh, how the antinomian doesn't like this. the Father who without respect of persons judges each man's work.

33:16 The day of judgment will find us judged on the basis of our works, as we saw two weeks ago. Not our profession, but our works. The antinomian doesn't like that. He says, since my works cannot save me, my works are irrelevant.

33:32 Not according to Peter. We'll be judged according to our works. And oh, how the antinomian hates verse 17. Pass the time of your sojourning in fear.

33:44 And then he makes Scripture cancel Scripture, and he breaks out 1 John, which says, Perfect love casts out fear.

33:52 I have no fear. My friend, don't you make the Holy Ghost contradict himself. Perfect love casts out the fear of the cringing, guilty criminal who's afraid the evidence will come forward and condemn him, thank God, love casts out that fear. But if it's the love of God in Christ applied by the Spirit, that very love implants this fear.

34:19 For God says in the New Covenant, I'll put my fear into their hearts so that they will keep my statutes and walk in my precepts. Now you see, the language of Peter contains much that is an embarrassment to every incipient antinomianism. Every bit of it. Now do you feel uncomfortable with any of that language?

The Legalist's Embarrassment with Peter's Language

34:43 Do you? Come on now, be honest. Don't answer me verbally. But you answer as in the presence of the God who gave this word.

34:50 If so, my friend, go down on your knees and stay with this passage and cry to God until you feel comfortable with every word dictated by the Holy Ghost in this passage. But now on the other hand, oh, there's much in here that embarrasses the legalist. Look at verse 13. Wherefore, girding up the loins of your mind, be sober, and set your hope tentatively on the possibility of grace.

35:30 No, no, there's no uncertainty here. Set your hope perfectly on the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of the Lord Jesus. You see, the legalist says, well, if you have such certainty, that'll lead to carelessness. You must have a little bit of area of doubt, you see, because only as you have doubt will you continue to perform, hoping God will give you all your goodies, all your cookies.

35:57 Do you feel uncomfortable with that language of certainty? I know there are some of you whose background has programmed you to be utterly uncomfortable with that kind of language of certainty. You've been told that to speak so certain is the height of damning delusion.

36:16 You're on the high road to self-deception if you say, I know that when the trump sounds and the Lord Jesus comes, He'll bring nothing but grace to me. But Peter says, that's where your confidence ought to be. Furthermore, he says in verse 17, And if ye call on Him as Father, He assumes these Christians approach God with all the filial joy and liberty of sons and daughters. He describes their whole approach to God in prayer as a calling upon the Father.

36:56 Now you see, the legalist, he doesn't like that. He feels uncomfortable with that. He'd rather hear people pray, O Thou Sovereign, Almighty, Ineffable, All-Glorious, All-Made. All the words that describe the transcendence of God.

37:13 The legalist he doesn mind that When he hears someone say O my Father What are you doing approaching God like that Well, Peter said that's the way these Christians approached him. If you call on him as Father, do you feel uncomfortable with that? Well, then you've got a little bit of a legalist in your heart. Furthermore, look what he says.

37:39 In verse 18, Knowing that ye were redeemed, not hoping, not wishing, not somehow longing that eventually you may perhaps become, he says, knowing that you were redeemed. There's confidence again. Now, do you see how wonderfully the Holy Spirit has preserved us from the two great historical errors of this great problem of the justified and his sin? What does a justified person do with his sin?

38:13 Peter says he takes his sin seriously, not fashioning yourselves.

38:20 He deals with his sin honestly. He accepts no lesser standard of holiness than the very character of God Himself.

38:30 But he does not let himself come under legal bondage. While he's pursuing holiness, he still calls God his Father. He still knows that He's redeemed, and He still knows that grace is to be brought at the coming of the Lord Jesus. But He knows those things in such a way that He walks in fear.

38:53 He walks in sobriety. He refuses to be fashioned by this world. He's kept from the crippling errors of antinomians. oh dear people do you see the balance in scripture and any man that's determined that he'll hew this line like the man who walks down the center of a highway he'll get smacked with boats flows of traffic coming opposite directions I've been called everything from the rankest form of an antinomian to the most vicious legalist on the face of the earth and I'm being called that right to this very day because we insist that the Word of God teaches that when a sinner believes on Christ,

39:40 all his sins are forgiven. He is accepted as righteous in the court of heaven, and God will never bring him into judgment.

39:54 People say, that will lead to license. That's antinomianism. That's the Bible teaching of justification. But the same Bible that teaches that says the justified man takes his sin seriously.

40:08 The justified man is concerned about sin. He grieves over his sin. He daily confesses his sin. Legalism.

Supporting Witnesses: 1 John 2 and Hebrews 12

40:19 You don't understand the freeness of the gospel. You don't understand that God is Father. My friend, it's all right here in one passage of the Word of God. To this I would add, if time permitted, and it's already gone so I can't, but I add to this, and you can meditate upon it, and I think you have the principles now to glean the truth.

40:42 1 John 2, verses 1 and 2, the same emphasis. We have an advocate with the Father, not the judge, with the Father. And then the teaching of Hebrews 12, it's a call to deal with sin. right up to verse 4.

40:58 He says, You have not yet resisted unto blood striving against sin. Here are Christians taking their sin seriously. Verse 14 says, Follow after holiness without which no man will see the Lord. But in the midst of it, he says, God deals with you as sons.

John Murray Quote and Summary of the Change of Relation

41:17 And that whole lovely section on chastisement, the chastisement not of a judge, but of a father to the sons whom he loves. and whom he receives. Let me give you a choice quote from Professor Murray that will summarize the teaching and then a brief word of application and we're done.

41:37 Justification immediately and permanently changes the relation to God, to law, and to justice. It includes the remission of the penalty of all sin. That is, it removes judicial, penal condemnation for past, present, and future sins. God is no longer a condemning judge, but a loving Father.

42:02 Nevertheless, they by their sins fall under His fatherly displeasure, and so they need daily forgiveness for removal of this displeasure and restoration to the light of the divine countenance. Their sufferings, therefore, are not penal inflictions. They are either corrective to the end of their sanctification, or they may be grounded in the divine purpose to vindicate their godliness as in the case of Job or they may be dispensed in pursuance of the gospel so that they fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in their flesh for his body's sake which is the church. So that in my dealings with God in strange providence has come

42:49 I must not think, oh the judge is angry and has sent forth his representatives to castigate and to flog me. No, no, no, no, no, no. He deals with me as a son. And all of the afflictions that come are the disciplinary afflictions of my Father.

43:08 And when I sin, I come to Him and say, My Father who is in heaven, forgive my debts, forgive my trespasses. Oh, my Father, have mercy upon me. But it's seeking the mercy and forgiveness and the restored smile of a frowning father, not an angry judge. Now my final word of application, what is it?

Application to the Unjustified and to the Child of God

43:34 Well, I say to you who are not justified, God has one face to you this morning, my friend, and it's the frowning face not of a displeased father, but of an angry judge. And I marvel that any of you can say you believe that and yet sit in your sins. Sit impenitent, unmoved, undisturbed, not seeking the Lord in earnest. If you really believe that the Creator who gave you life, who holds your life in His hand, who can snuff that life out with one slight exercise of His sovereign rights and power.

44:16 Oh, my friend, if you believe that that God is your judge and has a controversy with you, How can you sit through another Lord's day and not seek the Lord while He may be found and call upon Him while He is near? Oh, my friend, that God who punished sin in His Son says that in His Son there is plenteous redemption. Flee to Him. Call upon Him.

44:41 Repent of your sin and lay hold of the offered Savior. we've been speaking to the people of God when we say God is their Father. He is not your Father. Only in the lucid sense by creation.

44:56 But the relationship that predominates is that of your sustainer and your judge. And I plead with you to take seriously your relationship to that God and to seek Him in earnest. But dear child of God, I plead with you particularly this day. have you come to grips with what it means to be in Christ?

45:19 To know that your guilt is utterly and forever swallowed up in the death of your Redeemer, and that because it is, though your indwelling sin is a reality, and it causes you grief and pain, even unto groaning, as it did the Apostle Paul in Romans 7 and 2 Corinthians 5. though your dealings with sin must be honest and specific according to 1 John 1, 9 and Matthew 6 and a host of other passages have you come to grips with the fact that in all your dealings with sin you're dealing with your Father you're dealing with your Father and if you must tell yourself a hundred times a day until it becomes as it were

46:05 a matter of spiritual reflex do it until it becomes his reflexive spiritual response, that when conscience smarts at the first awareness of sin, you come to your Father, and you acknowledge that you've encouraged his displeasure by your sin, but you ask his pardon and forgiveness based upon all that he is to us in Christ. The great problem of sin in the justified person. How do we deal with it? Well, we've got three working principles now.

46:42 Sin in a justified person is to be taken seriously. Sin in a justified person is never to be allowed to bring him into legal bondage. Sin in a justified person is to be dealt with primarily in terms of God's fatherly displeasure. God willing, the next principle and the final one will be sin in a justified person must always be dealt with.

47:07 in evangelical repentance there must be genuine grief and full purpose never to go back to the sin even though we know we may fall before that sin the very next day without these principles understood and worked into the fiber of our being to some extent we will be crippled as we seek to walk before God have I flushed out any antinomianism this morning I hope so and if it's been flushed out my friend pray that God pray that God will forever keep it from your heart have I flushed out some legalism pray that God will deal with that for we would not dishonor the God of the law or the God of the gospel

Closing Prayer

47:53 but we would honor him who has magnified his law in the gospel and made it glorious in the person and work of his dear son Let us pray.

48:13 Our Father, we thank You for that name by which we are warranted to address You. Our Father, who art in heaven. Oh, we thank You for all the mingled dispositions of Your fatherly heart to us. pity and love and patience and longsuffering and even your fatherly displeasure that brings your rod upon us for our good.

48:44 We thank you. Forgive us when we've dishonored you by not having sufficient confidence in your relationship to us as fathers. Forgive us when we've dishonored you by an antinomian spirit. Lord, left to ourselves, Our hearts are fickle and will run either into this cursed spirit of legalism or the equally cursed spirit of antinomianism.

49:13 Lord, keep us from both of these things and enable us to call upon you as fathers while passing the time of our sojourning in fear. and yet with all the confidence that we have been redeemed and that grace shall be brought to us at the coming of the Lord Jesus. Seal the word to every heart and may it bear fruit to your praise and to our profit through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

49:54 Thank you.