TPW 98 Wilhelmus à Brakel & J C Ryle on Justification and Sanctification

For the Protestant Witness, this is

Pastor Patrick Hines here at Redwell Heights Presbyterian Church in Kingsport, Tennessee, and I'd like to press on here in Velhelmus Abracal in his

Christian's Reasonable Service. I've been reading some more of the section on justification.

It is so excellent, and I think that somebody needs to publish just the section on justification as its own book.

It's probably the length of a short book. I'm getting messages here saying that frames are being dropped.

Okay, let me close some other apps here. Okay. Yeah. And I'd like to press on right where I left off in the

Christian's Reasonable Service. I've read forward a little bit here. One thing about my Kindle app, I've got it on my phone and I have one of these cool little things here.

These are a paper white Kindle. This thing is super cool. And I've got my

Kindle app on my computer, but it keeps track of where you are. So anytime you open the book on another gadget, it will ask you if you want to go to right where you left off.

It's super cool. But when I want to go back to where I left off in the program, I've had to use bookmarks and other things.

So anyway, let's get something a little complicated here. But I found exactly where I left off in the last program, but let's go ahead and continue on here.

This next section, Abracal calls it the components of justification. It reads as follows.

In the second place, we must consider what constitutes the form, that is, the very essence or the nature of justification.

Justification does not only consist in the acquittal from guilt and punishment, but also in granting by an act of incorporation the right to eternal life.

So do you see how Abracal conceives of justification? He sees it in exactly the way the

Bible does. Justification is not just the initial step towards salvation or anything like that.

Justification by itself is what gives the believer the legal right to eternal life.

You see how he says that? It's not just acquittal from guilt and punishment.

We're not just cleared of our guilt. It's also granting to us a legal title, a legal right to eternal life.

Charles Hodge speaks of justification in exactly the same way. I also might read some quotations here from J .C.

Ryle. I've been reading the book Holiness to two of my older kids as part of their homeschooling. The book

Holiness by J .C. Ryle is one of the best books I've ever read on any topic.

It's so excellent. In fact, I had a professor that said Holiness by Ryle was one of the most important books he ever read.

It's just great. But he has a whole section on the distinction between justification and sanctification. And also it's very, very clear, sanctification is necessary for salvation.

But obviously the question is necessary in what way? It's necessary as a fruit, as something that always accompanies justification, but it does not enter into what gives us a right to eternal life.

That's what is supplied by justification. Okay. Abraco continues here. Justification consists in being declared free from guilt and punishment and an heir of eternal felicity.

Both aspects are included in the act of justification. Adam, having been created perfect, did not immediately have a right to eternal felicity, but was first obligated to fulfill the conditions of the covenant of works.

And this is so important. There's so much muddled thinking about the covenant of works ever since really the federal vision controversy started.

But then again, Abraco has a very important section in the Christian's reasonable service on the covenant of works and says, and I know

Carlos has used this quotation, I've used it myself because it's right on the money. If you make an error on the covenant of works, you're going to get the covenant of grace wrong too.

And so Adam was not created in a condition of glorified, permanent eschatological life.

He wasn't like that. He had to pass through a probationary period. And listen to that again. Adam, having been created perfect, did not immediately have a right to eternal felicity, but was first obligated to fulfill the conditions of the covenant of works.

In sinning, man brought upon himself guilt and punishment and robbed himself of felicity.

However, if he were only delivered from guilt and punishment, he would be in the state, in the same state as Adam was in the beginning.

He was then without guilt, but did not as yet have a right to eternal life. You see what Abraco is emphasizing here?

That getting into heaven is more than simply being forgiven. There's also a sense in which there is the legal sense in which obedience positively has to be carried out on our behalf.

The obedience required by the covenant of works has got to be fulfilled by someone. This is something that John Brown of Haddington emphasizes in his work as well.

He has a great book called Counsel to Gospel Ministers, and he speaks at length in that book about if you want to preach the gospel accurately, you have to speak a lot and clearly about Jesus entering into the broken covenant of works and fulfilling it positively for all of his elect people.

And so Adam, just being without sin, still doesn't have a right to enter into eternal felicity or into eternal life.

So listen to that again. He was then without guilt, right? Adam hadn't sinned yet, but he did not as yet have a right to eternal life.

The Lord Jesus has accomplished both matters. By his suffering, he has paid the debt, and by placing himself under the law, he has merited the right to eternal life for them.

We have previously shown that the law had to be fulfilled in order to acquire a right to eternal life.

We have also proven that Christ, by his active obedience, has merited the right to eternal life for his own.

It is thus very evident that justification includes both the acquittal as well as the bestowal of the right to eternal life, for all the merits of Christ are the basis and reason for justification.

So, Abrako understands very clearly, right on the money, what

Jesus did and what was necessary for him to do for anyone to be able to go to heaven. Not only does our debt have to be paid for having broken

God's law and having violated the covenant of works and not being obedient to it, but also our failure to conform positively to it by actively obeying it, that has got to be met as well.

So, there's two aspects to justification. Paul, the apostle, spells this out very clearly in what

I think is one of the clearest statements of justification in the whole Bible, Romans 4 .6, just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom

God imputes righteousness apart from works, and then he cites, so there you have the positive imputation of righteousness, and then he cites

Psalm 32, 1 and 2, blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, so that's the removal of guilt, and whose sins are covered, removal of our guilt, blessed is the man to whom the

Lord will not impute sin. So, our sins will not be imputed to us because Christ has taken them all, but we also have the positive imputation of righteousness right there in Romans 4 .6.

So, very clear that that two -fold aspect has got to be met by someone as a covenant surety, as a legal representative, and that's what

Jesus is. Abrako continues, this can also be ascertained from many texts of scripture where both aspects are conjoined, in Acts 26 .18,

that they may receive forgiveness of sins and inheritance among them which are sanctified,

Revelation 1, 5, and 6, unto him that loved us and washed us from our sins in his own blood, and hath made us kings and priests unto

God, and then Romans 5, 1, and 2, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. When we maintain that justification consists in acquittal from guilt and punishment, we join them inseparably together in order to oppose the errors of papists, and others, who will admit to the removal of guilt and eternal punishment, but who maintain that we ourselves must make satisfaction by temporal punishment.

They maintain that Christ has merited our ability to accomplish this by our own works, and that our merits are needful to have the forgiveness of sins applied which he has merited.

This will be comprehensively refuted at the appropriate occasion. Okay, so you see what he's saying there?

It is a complete misunderstanding of the gospel and of the work of Christ to think that, okay,

Jesus has removed all of our guilt, but what he did at the cross was simply merit grace that we can then make use of in order to produce works which, viewed under the auspices of grace, would then be meritorious enough to acquire a right to heaven, or at least a right to heaven.

We might have to spend some time in purgatory being purged for the remaining punishments of our sins, but eventually we'll get into heaven.

That is not what the work of Christ is about. It is the work of a covenant surety, namely of a substitute, and so at the heart of the gospel of Christ is not, well,

I need to turn my life around, well, I need to work and do a little bit better and try to do more good than bad.

It's abandoning all hope in yourself to get you anything with God, with regard to being saved from his wrath and gaining a right to eternal life, and placing your hope of that entirely and completely on Jesus Christ and his person.

Okay, the next section he calls here the cause of justification. Thirdly, we shall consider the cause of justification.

This is God himself, that is, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each in their own role in the economy of the covenant. This is a work of God, for God is the only lawgiver, the only judge of all the earth, and the righteous judge.

He being righteous can by no means clear the guilty. His judgment is according to truth, and his judgment is a righteous judgment.

Righteously he condemns the ungodly, and righteously he justifies believers. As I stated before, this is the work of God.

It is God who justifies, Romans 8 .33. I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions,

Isaiah 43 .25. It is attributed to the Father. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, 2

Corinthians 5 .19. It is also attributed to the Son, Matthew 9 .6, but that ye may know that the

Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins. The Holy Spirit justifies when he makes known to the elect what

God has granted to them, 2 Corinthians 2 .12, when he, quote, beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God, Romans 8 .16.

It is therefore the abomination of all abominations that the pope claims to be authorized to forgive sins.

Erroneously hiding himself behind the fact that God has granted his servants ministerial authority to declare in his name to repentant sinners that God forgives them their sins.

And there you have those passages, Matthew 16 .19 and Matthew 18 .18. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven, etc, etc.

It's not saying that we in ourselves or that I as a pastor actually forgive people's sins.

The authority of the church is not legal or legislative. It is ministerial and declarative. I can merely declare what the word of God says.

If someone is repentant for their sin and trusts in Jesus Christ, I can tell them the word of God says that you are forgiven and that you are saved.

Those poor people who have set themselves at ease upon his declaration of forgiveness, the pope's declaration of forgiveness, will find themselves miserably deceived.

Okay, the next section he calls the meriting cause of justification. This is extremely important. Fourthly, we must consider the foundation or basis, that is, the moving cause of justification.

Okay, I cannot emphasize to you enough, just breaking from the quotation here, that this is the heart of Christianity right here.

What is it that God looks at to declare the sinner to be righteous and have a right to get into heaven, to go to heaven and be in heaven for eternity?

What is it that God looks at? What is the foundation, the legal foundation, of a sinner's justification before God?

Okay, Abraham continues. Since God justifies as judge, and since he is a righteous judge, he who is to be justified by him must have a perfect righteousness.

See what that's saying? Yeah, this is exactly true. For me to get into heaven, I have to be in possession of perfect righteousness and no sin at all charged against me, none.

Okay, Abraham continues. Man himself is sinful. And in the flesh of the best among men dwelleth no good thing.

The best among them cannot say, I have purified my heart and I am free from transgression. He daily offends in many things, and therefore he cannot answer upon a thousand questions.

He therefore of necessity must pray, and enter not into judgment with thy servant. For in thy sight shall no man living be justified,

Psalm 143 verse 2. Therefore, man's own righteousness cannot be the basis for his justification.

For in order for man to be justified, he must be a partaker of the righteousness of Jesus Christ.

Christ as surety, and just breaking from the quotation here, remember what that word surety means.

The word surety means a legal representative, a legal stand -in, someone who stands in my place and takes upon himself the legal responsibility for another.

That's what Jesus does for the believing sinner. He takes upon himself the full debt, legally, of all that person's sins against God.

And he supplies in his own person the righteousness by which that sinner is declared righteous and allowed to get past the judgment of God into heaven.

That's why Christians call Jesus their savior. Listen to this. Christ as surety has paid for the sins of his elect, and has merited eternal felicity for them by placing himself under the law and being obedient to it.

This righteousness God imputes to them by reason of his surety ship, and they partake of this righteousness by faith upon it being offered in the gospel.

Christ's righteousness thus becomes their righteousness. And adorned with this righteousness, they come unto

God and are thus justified by a perfect righteousness. Paul said the same when he wrote, quote, in Romans 3, 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Those who are estranged from the truth and from godliness deem this imputation to be nothing but imagination and fabrication.

They cannot comprehend how the righteousness of another can remove the sins of someone else and can thus be imputed to someone so that it is as if he in person had paid for all his sins and had fulfilled all the righteousness of the divine law.

He's right, Abraka was right. Those who are dead in their sins, blinded by their sin, and are unregenerate, they'll never understand this.

They will never believe Romans 4, 6, 7, and 8. David speaks of the blessedness to whom

God imputes righteousness apart from works. Roman Catholic cannot believe that. They're not allowed to believe that. They're not allowed to believe that.

Their religion won't let them. And so the unregenerate mind just is not gonna get this. And no matter how many times you explain the gospel to people whose minds and hearts are dead in their transgressions and sins, who are blind and deaf and cannot see and hear this truth, they're not going to understand.

So Jesus takes all this for us? He does it all for us? Yes, that's the gospel. That's the heart and soul of the whole thing.

Listen to Abraka, he continues. In order to clearly understand this, we must know that something can be imputed in a twofold manner.

It can either be done by someone that one does himself, or by something that another has accomplished in his stead.

Number one, when someone's own deeds are imputed to himself, such imputation is a declaration that he has done either well or evil.

Thus, the zealous act of Phineas was counted unto him for righteousness, Psalm 106, verse 31.

Remember the story of Phineas in the book of Numbers, when there were people fornicating and engaging in sexual immorality.

He goes into a tent, and there's a man doing it with a woman, and he harpoons them both with a spear.

And that stops the outbreak of the plague and God bringing vengeance against his people for this great sin. I think that's the episode of Baal of Peor, I think that's

Numbers 25. And it says in the Psalms, remembering Phineas, that what he did, his actions were accounted to him for righteousness.

That's right, Abraha continues. In spite of the fact that there could have been found some outward reason for rebuke,

God nevertheless declared that he had exercised righteousness, that he was righteous, and that he had acted properly.

The sins of the ungodly are likewise imputed to them. That is, God considers and declares them to be guilty, Leviticus 17 .4.

Blood shall be imputed unto that man, he hath shed blood. Therefore, not to impute is to forgive, to hold for good, not to remember, and not to punish, 2

Samuel 19 .19. Let not my Lord impute iniquity unto me. Okay, let me break from the quotation here.

So what he's pointing out here is that if I do something that's wrong, if I, let's say I stole, steal someone's car, and there are three eyewitnesses who see me do it, and I end up in court, all three of them testify against me.

The, the judge will then, that, that sin that I committed, that crime I committed, will be imputed to my account.

I will be charged with it and held responsible for it legally. What happens when Jesus Christ comes into the world, what he does in going to Calvary's cross, is

I stand as a charged, guilty sinner. Okay, the, the verdict has been rendered over me guilty and condemned.

Now, before the eternal condemnation of being sent to hell is carried out, Jesus steps in and becomes my legal surety, my legal representative.

He takes upon himself the full penalty of that sin, of all my crimes and transgressions and sins, and pays for them all in their entirety at the cross.

And then, his whole life of perfect law keeping is also imputed to my account.

That's what Romans 4, 6 is about. David speaks of the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works.

So that's what this is talking about. If my actions are charged to me, I'm, I'm, they're, they're imputed to my legal account.

But in the gospel, my sins are imputed to someone else's account, to Christ. And I bear the guilt of those sins no more, all of them.

Not just my past sins, not just the sins I confess, but all of my sins, original sin and actual sin, all of it is taken away by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Now, Abraha continues here, number two. When that which has been accomplished by another is imputed to someone, it is thus acknowledged and declared that whatever he has not performed by the person himself, whatever has not been performed by the person himself is yet acknowledged as if he himself had performed it.

So Jesus going to the cross and being legally, legally treated as if he had done everything

I'd done. Therefore, my sins will not be imputed to me. They will not be charged to me.

They can't be, because they were charged to Christ and dealt with fully by Christ. Abraha continues, this can be true since he has done so by the agency of someone else, even though the children of Ammon had in reality killed him, the death of Uriah was nevertheless imputed to David.

Remember the, the story where David tells his generals, yeah, send Uriah up near the wall to attack so that he gets killed.

Well, David wasn't the one that, that shot arrows and threw things down off the wall that killed

Uriah. But David is charged with it, even though he didn't actually do it.

Since he had deceitfully exposed him to danger and thereby, as it were, surrendered him into their hands. This can also be due to someone becoming a surety for another person and by making payment as such.

Philemon 18 and 19, remember what Paul says about Philemon? If he hath wronged thee or oweth thee anything, put that on my account.

He says, impute that to my account. So I could say, if this person has done anything, has broken any of your property or stolen anything that you own, just charge it to me.

I'll take care of the cost of it, okay? So I'm taking what he owes, his debt, and it's being imputed to me, and I'm paying for it, so that he will no longer have that held against him.

That's exactly what happens in the gospel. Everything is held legally against Jesus Christ.

So all the stuff that I've done, all the sins I've committed, all of the transgressions of the law that I have committed in my life are legally held against Christ.

It's as if Jesus himself did what Paul did. If that sinner, if Patrick hath wronged you to God the

Father or owe you anything, put it on my account, and I will repay it. That's what

Jesus does for his people, and that's why we are so thankful for him. And so, so zealous to make sure that we don't allow the intrusion of human works of any kind, sanctification, the fruits of our faith, or putting sin to death, or pursuing holiness.

We don't allow any of that to enter into what forms the sole foundation for our legal right into heaven.

My works and my sanctification and my growth and my life cannot provide any part of that and cannot be considered at all as that which is going to get me into heaven in any way, shape, or form.

Abrako continues, apply all this to the matter at hand. Note, first of all, that it is consistent with divine justice for God to deal with a sinner by way of a surety.

Secondly, Christ is surety. He's the legal representative for the elect, and really and truly on their behalf, has atoned for their sins by his suffering and death, and as surety, has fulfilled the law on their behalf.

Three, this righteousness is imputed to the elect, and since Christ, as surety, has accomplished this in their stead,

God considers it as if they themselves had accomplished this. You see what he's saying there? When I stand before God, I am going to be allowed into heaven, not because I'm righteous, but because my covenant representative, my surety, my federal head, my covenantal head and legal representative has achieved everything in my behalf, so because I am in Christ, I have legally before God everything that he did.

The full payment for all my sins is gone. It's been paid for by Christ. The fulfillment of the law, living a perfectly chaste and moral and godly life of love and perfection to God and neighbor is imputed to my legal account, so I have a legal title to heaven.

Listen to it again. This righteousness is imputed to the elect, and since Christ, as surety, has accomplished this in their stead,

God considers it as if they themselves had accomplished this. We have already stated the same above.

We find the infinitive to impute used as such in Romans 4 -6, even as David also describes the blessedness of the man unto whom

God imputes righteousness without works. We therefore maintain that Christ's merits imputed to believers are the reason, the basis, and the cause that God acquits man and declares him to be an heir of eternal life.

Now, people hear that and think, man, you have to be an antinomian. But we're not antinomians.

We believe that every single individual that is justified will be sanctified as well.

Now, I wanted to break from a bracket here. Actually, let me put a bookmark here so I don't lose my spot.

Here, okay, good. All right, I'm gonna open up Ryle Holiness. I actually read some of this over the last two days with two of my older children, with my third and fourth babies, my little babies.

This is a great, great section. Ryle, in his book Holiness, says this. I now propose to consider, in the last place, the distinction between justification and sanctification.

Wherein do they agree and wherein do they differ? This branch of our subject is one of great importance, though I fear it will not seem so to all my readers.

I shall handle it briefly, but I dare not pass it over altogether. Too many are apt to look at nothing but the surface of things in religion and regard nice distinctions in theology as questions of words and names which are of little real value.

But I warn all who are in earnest about their souls that the discomfort which arises from not distinguishing things that differ in Christian doctrine is very great indeed, and I especially advise them, if they love peace, to seek clear views about the matter before us.

Justification and sanctification are two distinct things which we must always remember. Yet there are points in which they agree and points in which they differ.

Let us try to find out what they are. Now, Ryle lists a whole bunch of points here. Okay, he lists, let's see,

A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H. So eight things about sanctification and justification.

Listen, these are absolutely outstanding. Reminds me a lot of the Westminster Confession, but there's stuff here that I wanna reemphasize.

In what then are justification and sanctification alike? Okay, so how are they alike? How are justification and sanctification alike?

Number one, both proceed originally from the grace of God. It is of his gift alone that believers are justified or sanctified at all.

Right on. Both are from the free grace of God. Two, both are part of that great work of salvation, which

Christ in the eternal covenant has undertaken on behalf of his people. Christ is the fountain of life from which pardon and holiness both flow.

The root of each is Christ. Mm, he just said, both are part of that great work of salvation.

Well, yeah, considered broadly, these all fall under the heading of salvation proper soteriology, sure.

But Ryle would be the first to tell you that we are not saved from the wrath of God legally by sanctification, as he's gonna say later.

Okay, number three, both are to be found in the same persons. Those who are justified are always sanctified, and those who are sanctified are always justified.

God has joined them together, and they cannot be put asunder, amen. You will never have someone who is merely acquitted and has a right to eternal life.

They've also been born again, made new. The power of reigning sin has been broken in them, and they are on the path toward the celestial city and are at war with sin.

Fourth, both begin, justification and sanctification, begin at the same time. The moment a person begins to be a justified person, he also begins to be a sanctified person.

He may not feel it, but it is a fact. Five, both are alike necessary to salvation.

No one ever reached heaven without a renewed heart, as well as forgiveness, without the Spirit's grace, as well as the blood of Christ, without a meatness for eternal glory, as well as a title.

The one is just as necessary as the other, exactly right. But before everyone gets their dander up here and starts screaming that, you see, he understands that sanctification is necessary to salvation.

It is necessary to salvation. But the question is necessary in what way? Sanctification is not what gives us a title to eternal life.

It's not what gives us a legal right to eternal life. It isn't. But it's always found in those who have, by justification, a right to eternal life, a right to heavenly glory.

Okay, so then he summarizes here. Such are the points on which justification and sanctification agree.

Now let us reverse the picture and see wherein they differ. So how do justification and sanctification differ?

Listen, justification is the reckoning and counting a man to be righteous for the sake of another, even

Jesus Christ the Lord. Sanctification is the actual making a man inwardly righteous, though it may be in a very feeble degree.

So you see, the one is the declaration of a change of status on account of Christ alone, the other is a subjective change in the believer, which is not perfect in this life and never will be perfect in this life.

Secondly, justification and sanctification differ in this way. The righteousness we have by our justification is not our own, but the everlasting perfect righteousness of our great mediator,

Christ, imputed to us and made our own by faith. The righteousness we have by sanctification is our own righteousness imparted, inherent, and wrought in us by the

Holy Spirit, but mingled with much infirmity and imperfection. Okay, great, very well said.

Thirdly, in justification, our own works have no place at all, and simple faith in Christ is the one thing needful.

In sanctification, our own works are of vast importance and God bids us fight and watch and pray and strive and take pains and labor.

See that? In justification, what gives us the right to eternal life? Our works play no role at all.

Our works have no place at all, but only faith is the thing needful. In sanctification, our works are of vast importance and God bids us to fight and watch and pray and strive and take pains and labor.

But you can't mix these two things. They are not the same thing in that way.

And Ryle's pointing that out. In justification, our works have no role at all. None. What gets us into heaven?

Our works play no role at all. None. The legal right we have to eternal life is provided by the righteousness and the sake of another,

Christ. Okay, the next thing. Justification is a finished and complete work.

And a man is perfectly justified the moment he believes. Okay, so when the

Roman Catholic Church at the Council of Trent speaks of growing and increasing our justification, total category error.

They're treating justification like it is sanctification. Justification, once it's done, once the act is done by God, it's a finished and complete work.

A man is perfectly justified the moment he believes. Sanctification is an imperfect work, comparatively, and will never be perfected until we reach heaven.

Justification admits of no growth or increase. A man is as much justified the hour he first comes to Christ by faith, as he will be to all eternity.

Sanctification is eminently a progressive work and admits of continual growth and enlargement so long as a man lives.

Next, justification has special reference to our persons, our standing in God's sight, and our deliverance from guilt.

Sanctification has special reference to our natures and the moral renewal of our hearts, okay?

So justification is dealing with our persons, us as whole people, not our works or us subjectively, but our persons and our legal standing in the sight of God and our deliverance from guilt legally.

Sanctification is about the subjective moral inward renewal of the person. Next, justification, listen to this very carefully, everybody,

Piper supporters, listen, justification gives us our title to heaven.

Justification gives us our title to heaven and boldness to enter in. Sanctification gives us our meatness for heaven.

And one of the things that Ryle has pointed out in the book already, if you have ever read holiness, is that someone who has no hunger for holiness, someone who has not been subjectively morally changed by God, they wouldn't even wanna be in heaven anyway.

They wouldn't have a real desire for holiness anyway. And so he says sanctification, he does this in a really biblical sound and very helpful way, is what makes us really long to be there.

Our sanctification causes us to really want to be there and to desire to be rid of every last bit of sin and finally be where we will enjoy the fullness of holiness.

But that's not what gives us a right, a legal right to eternal life. Justification gives us our title to heaven and boldness to enter in.

Sanctification gives us our meatness for heaven and prepares us to enjoy it when we dwell there.

That is so well stated, right on. Then lastly, finally, justification is the act of God about us and is not easily discerned by others.

That's right, cuz it's just a change in legal status. You can't really see if someone has done the psychic act of trusting in Jesus Christ, but the only thing you can see is the sanctification is what you can see.

That's what James chapter two is all about. What good is it if a man simply says, I have faith in Jesus Christ, but their life remains completely unchanged?

Well, they're not justified in saying that they have faith. That's what James 2, 14 to 26 is all about. Okay, so justification is the act of God about us and is not easily discerned by others.

Sanctification is the work of God within us and cannot be hid in its outward manifestation from the eyes of men.

You can't help but be known as a Christian because of the fruit that God will bear in your life, but we're not saved by fruit.

We're not saved through that fruit. We're not saved by that fruit. That fruit's not what saves us at the last day at the final judgment.

What saves us at the last day in the final judgment is the shed blood of Christ at the cross and his righteousness legally imputed to us.

That's what gets us into heaven, not our sanctification. But everyone who has that legal right to heaven is being sanctified and will have some degree of sanctification in their life.

Then Ryle continues here. I commend these distinctions to the attention of all my readers. And I ask them to ponder them well.

I am persuaded that one great cause of the darkness and uncomfortable feelings of many well -meaning people in the matter of religion is their habit of confounding and not distinguishing justification and sanctification.

It can never be too strongly impressed on our minds that they are two separate things.

No doubt, they cannot be divided. And everyone that is a partaker of either is a partaker of both.

But never, ever ought they to be confounded, and never ought the distinction between them to be forgotten.

You see how he's laboring the point here. I mean, he saw people making this mistake.

We see people making this mistake today. He continues. It only remains for me now to bring this subject to a conclusion by a few plain words of application.

The nature and visible marks of sanctification have been brought before us, what practical reflections ought the whole matter to raise in our minds.

Number one, for one thing, let us all awake to a sense of the perilous state of many professing

Christians. Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Without sanctification, there is no salvation.

That is a proper understanding of Hebrews 12, 14. He quotes it there. That's one of Piper's favorite verses to quote constantly.

Ryle continues. Then, what an enormous amount of so -called religion there is, which is perfectly useless.

He is exactly right. Ryle is correct. So many people say they're Christians. You know, there's a young guy at the church here that goes down to the campus of East Tennessee State University, and witnesses to people, and he records some of those conversations.

And I went down there with him once, and we talked to a couple people. So many people there, they really do think that they're

Christians, but it's just as plain as it could be, that they're nominal. Because when you ask them, well, why do you think you're getting into heaven?

Well, I try to go to church, and I try to be a good person. And you think, wow, there's no understanding of the gospel, no understanding of what the legal basis is of our acceptance with God, and no understanding of the role of sanctification.

People think they're saved by sanctification. Or they'll say they're Christians, and they don't go to church anywhere, and they're grotesquely immoral, or they say they're gay, and they're

Christians. Without holiness, no man shall see the Lord. Without the demonstration that God is at work in a person's life, that person has no right to think that they've been justified before God.

Rob continues, what an immense proportion of churchgoers and chapelgoers are in the broad road that leadeth to destruction.

The thought is awful, crushing, and overwhelming. Oh, that preachers and teachers would open their eyes and realize the condition of souls around them.

Oh, that men could be persuaded to flee from the wrath to come. If unsanctified souls can be saved and go to heaven, the

Bible is not true. Exactly. He's exactly right. If unsanctified souls can be saved and go to heaven, the

Bible is not true. Notice how he's pointing out that they're not saved by sanctification. He's simply pointing out a person who has none of the fruits of genuine sanctification in their life, they have no right to believe that they're

Christians. None. Yet the Bible is true and cannot lie. What must the end be? Okay, number two, another practical consideration for understanding the difference between justification and sanctification.

Two, for another thing, let us make sure work of our own condition and never rest till we feel and know that we are sanctified ourselves.

What are our tastes and choices and likings and inclinations? This is the great testing question.

It matters little what we wish and what we hope and what we desire to be before we die. What are we now?

What are we doing? Are we sanctified or not? If not, the fault is all our own.

Third practical consideration. For another thing, if we would be sanctified, our course is clear and plain.

We must begin with Christ. We must go to him as sinners with no plea but that of utter need and cast our souls on him by faith for peace and reconciliation with God.

We must place ourselves in his hands as in the hands of a good physician and cry to him for mercy and grace.

We must wait for nothing to bring with us as a recommendation. The very first step towards sanctification, no less than justification, is to come with faith to Christ.

We must first live and then work. Fourth, for another thing, if we would grow in holiness and become more sanctified, we must continually go on as we began and be ever making fresh applications to Christ.

He is the head from which every member must be supplied. To live the life of daily faith in the son of God and to be daily drawing out of his fullness the promised grace and strength which he has laid out for his people, this is the grand secret of progressive sanctification.

Believers who seem at a standstill are generally neglecting close communion with Jesus and so grieving the spirit.

He that prayed, sanctify them. The last night before his crucifixion is infinitely willing to help everyone who by faith applies to him for help and desires to be made more holy.

Fifthly, for another thing, let us not expect too much from our hearts here and now. Below.

At our best, we shall find in ourselves daily cause for humiliation and discover that we are needy debtors to mercy and grace every hour.

The more light we have, the more we shall see our own imperfection. Sinners we were when we began, sinners we shall find ourselves as we go on.

Renewed, pardoned, justified, yet sinners to the very last. Our absolute perfection is yet to come and the expectation of it is one reason why we should long for heaven.

Sixthly, finally. Finally, let us never be ashamed of making much of sanctification and contending for a high standard of holiness.

While some are satisfied with a miserably low degree of attainment, and others are not ashamed to live on without any holiness at all.

Content with a mere round of church going and chapel going, but never getting on like a horse in a mill, let us stand fast in the old paths.

Follow after eminent holiness ourselves and recommend it boldly to others. This is the only way to be really happy.

Let us feel convinced, whatever others may say, that holiness is happiness and that the man who gets through life most comfortably is the sanctified man.

No doubt there are some true Christians who from ill health or family trials or other secret causes enjoy little sensible comfort and go mourning all their days on the way to heaven.

But these are exceptional cases. As a general rule, in the long run of life, it will be found true that sanctified people are the happiest people on Earth.

They have solid comforts which the world can neither give nor take away. The ways of wisdom are ways of pleasantness.

Great peace have they that love thy law. It was said by one who cannot lie, my yoke is easy and my burden is light.

But it is also written, there is no peace unto the wicked. PS, the subject of sanctification is of such deep importance and the mistakes made about it so many and great that I make no apology for strongly recommending

Owen on the Holy Spirit here, John Owen. To all who want to study more thoroughly the whole doctrine of sanctification, no single paper like this can embrace it all.

I'm quite aware that Owen's writings were not fashionable in the present day and that many think fit to neglect and sneer at him as a

Puritan. Yet the great divine who in commonwealth times was Dean of Christ's Church Oxford does not deserve to be treated in this way.

He had more learning and sound knowledge of scripture in his little finger than many who deprecate him have in their whole bodies.

I assert unhesitatingly that the man who wants to study experimental theology will find no books equal to those of Owen and some of his contemporaries for complete scriptural and exhaustive treatment of the subjects they handle.

Amen. Amen. Owen himself recognized he was not a flowery writer.

And at the beginning of one of his books, I think it might be the book On Communion with God, he says to the readers, if you're looking for high speaking and an easy read and flowery speech,

I bid you farewell. So Owen definitely is hard reading, but like Ryle said, he's worth reading on almost anything that he ever wrote about, because he's a brilliant godly genius of a man.

So there's justification and sanctification plainly spelled out and laid forth. And the thing is, we still have a lot more to cover in Albrachel.

And it's a glorious thing to take the time to do a detailed study of justification and sanctification.

Because the same errors that Ryle was dealing with, the same errors that Albrachel was dealing with in the late 17th century are the same ones that we're dealing with right now today in the church.

So we want to be clear on the gospel and clear on the work of God and the lives of his people.

So that those that ought to have assurance and comfort can have it. And so that those who shouldn't have assurance and comfort don't have it, and learn to trust in Christ alone for their salvation.

And never to mix the legal grounds of their right to eternal life with the subjective change in their life and their sanctification.

Before that, that is the recipe for disaster, not only for assurance, but also for destroying the gospel itself, as Paul spells out so clearly in Galatians, Romans, Colossians, Ephesians, and many other places.

So with that, thank you for watching or for listening. www .bridwellheightspca

.org. And may the Lord bless you and keep you. The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you.