Blessed Justification — Keith Malcomson

The Series on Penal Substitution and the Gospel

I want to take you to part 11 of this series, and we're coming down to the end. Maybe next Wednesday night we'll finish it, but as we come to the end, I want to revisit at certain points here the beginning of this series, because as we finish with things like imputation, righteousness, justification, you can actually lose your way and forget where we started.

Remember how we started the first night on substitution, the second night on enemies of the cross, and I laid out the preachers and named the names of men who are destroying the gospel. Do you remember what this series is called?

Penal substitution, and normally I don't use theological words. I'm not being smart, but do you know what? When these men infringe on the simplicity of the gospel, then I will go to war, I assure you.

If you ever want to see this man stirred out of the doldrums, lifted out of discouragement, arise above depression, just allow me to enter controversy, I want to assure you. Let me be challenged by apostates, by those who twist the word of God.

If you want to rouse me like a sleeping jam, attack the blood of Jesus, attack the finished work of Calvary, and I'll forget all my woes, discouragements, troubles, problems, to run to the defence of the gospel.

It doesn't need defended. Remember what Spurgeon said, you don't defend the gospel, it's like a lion in a cage, just open up the door and let the lion out, it defends itself. So I don't defend the gospel as much as just preach it and let it defend itself, because it does, it really, really does.

Romans 4 and the Blessedness of Justification

Here in part 11, there's my title. It's not an easy, fluent title, but I love it. It's not an attractive title, but it's glorious. Blessed Justification. Or we could say, Happy Justification. Or we could say, maybe I should make it this third title, A Really, Really, Really Happy Justified Sinner.

Let's go to Romans chapter 4 here tonight, as we go to this message. Blessed Justification. And I'll explain what that means, as I always do. Romans chapter 4, verse 1. What shall we say then that Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found?

In other words, this was his experience, his testimony, he walked this out, he found it by first-hand experience. What are we going to say then? Verse 2. For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory, but not before God.

For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

Even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man, unto whom God impurities righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin.

Cometh this blessedness then upon the circumcision only, or upon the uncircumcision also? For we say that faith was reckoned to Abraham for righteousness. How was it then reckoned? When he was in circumcision or uncircumcision?

Not in circumcision, but in uncircumcision. And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of faith, which he had yet being uncircumcised, that he might be the father of all them that believe, though they be not circumcised, that righteousness might be imputed unto them also.

What remarkable words. And the father of circumcision to them, who are not of the circumcision only, but who also walk in the steps of the faith of our father Abraham, which he had being yet uncircumcised.

And we could read much more because it's glorious. Let's pray together. Father, we thank you for the word of God that here in the Scriptures, we find sound doctrine, nor God teachings, doctrines, truth that heal our soul, that make the church healthy, oh God.

And we know that this church can only be healthy. This preacher can only be healthy. These Christians can only be healthy if the doctrine is sound, if it is pure, if it is biblical, if it is scriptural, nor God if it is kept in context, if it is believed as it is written.

And my God, I believe that's why we have a healthy church. We have a healthy preaching of the word of God here because there is a font opened up in the Scripture. And these old doctrines that affected Abraham and affected King David and affected Paul the apostle, these old doctrines of imputation, of the righteousness of God, of justification by faith, it made saints of these men.

Nor God, I believe it's the same for us tonight. These same truths, when they're believed and received and accepted and submitted to, they radically change us and raise us up as a certain kind of Christian.

And my Father, I pray that your Holy Spirit would bless us tonight, that we would be those justified by faith who are truly blessed, that we are happy, that we are rejoicing, that we are glad, Lord God, that we are not subdued by circumstance, or Lord God, feelings, or thoughts, or emotions, or even our sins, oh God.

But Lord God, we are overcoming by the blood of the Lamb as justified, redeemed, oh God, made righteous, oh God, walking by faith because we were justified by faith in the mighty name of Jesus. Bless this word to us now tonight in Jesus' mighty name.

Christ's Substitution and the Exchange at the Cross

Amen. Remember in part one, this part 11, blessed justification, in part one, we preached on substitution of a sinner and of Christ changing places. That's substitution. Our series is on penal substitution, that when Christ takes our place on the cross, which he did, that he became a penal substitution.

In other words, when he took our position, which no one can deny, unless you're a rank heretic, someone who doesn't believe the Bible, and doesn't truly love Jesus Christ, but if you believe in substitution, Jesus Christ, when he took your place on the cross, your sin was laid upon him.

He was reckoned or treated like a sinner, like you would have been for your sin, and that on the cross he bore your sin. The wrath of God was poured out upon him and quenched in his precious shed blood.

Listen to what it says in 2 Corinthians 5 and 21, where we started. For he that is God has made him that is Christ to be sin for you and I, for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Do you see the exchange at the cross? He knew no sin, but he took your place. He was made sin. Whose sin? Your sin. He was made sin that you might be made righteous, or made the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.

This is a miracle. Only God can do this. If Christ bore your sin, if he bear the wrath that you deserve, and you were under before you got born again. Remember, you were a child of wrath. The wrath of God hung over your head until you become saved or justified.

You deserve punishment, and yet Christ took up that position, and Christ's righteousness was imparted to you. That's where we left off last week. The word justification means to be pronounced or declared righteous.

Justification as God's Legal Declaration

God declares you righteous, and who would argue with God? If God says you are righteous, God isn't a liar. God isn't a hypocrite. God isn't mistaken. If he says about any individual, you are justified, he doesn't miss the mark.

The old Puritan preachers, and I love the way they explain things, they said an easy way to remember justification is this, just as if you'd never sinned. If I am justified, I am brought into a standing before God, and I'm saying standing, not saying we're sinlessly perfect, not at all saying that.

I'm not saying we're free from the old nature or temptation or the wiles of the devil, not saying that. Neither am I saying that we're free from the old nature, the carnal lusts of the flesh, but what I'm saying is a miracle happens on the day that you're saved, that God pronounces you righteous, accepted, perfect in his sight.

This is a miracle. This is the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. This Greek word for justified that's used all through the New Testament, and this is foundational. If you get this wrong, you have everything wrong, and you're on your way to hell tonight.

I don't care how much knowledge you have. I don't care what experiences you have. I don't care how much you say. I know I'm saved. I know I'm born again. Get this one word wrong in your experience. Nothing is right in your life.

Get this teaching wrong. You have everything wrong. You better forget about the gifts or the baptism in the Holy Spirit or evangelism or how to live your Christian life if you get this truth wrong. Get this wrong.

Everything is wrong. Nothing else matters. That's why it's such a critical, critical truth. This word justification describes the act of God, not the act of man. You can't justify yourself. I cannot justify you.

No church can justify you. I can't give you a little certificate tonight to say such and such was justified on this date. I can't do that. I cannot affect your justification. Neither can you affect your justification.

Listen to what justification is. It describes the act of God by which a man is brought into a right standing or relationship with God. That's what justification is. You are justified. You are now in a right relationship, and it is God saying it.

You're right. You're acquitted. You're okay. We're now friends, not enemies any longer. And so this word is a legal term. It is a courtroom term. It's very legal, and it changes your standing instantly in one second from being a sinner to being a saint.

And so this would be used in a Greek court of law where it was presented as a legally binding verdict by a judge. And you know, in those old courts, when a judge said, you're free, you're justified, everything is canceled.

You can walk out of this courtroom. Nobody has anything against you. Do you remember what it says in Romans chapter eight? If God justifies you, who can condemn you? This is the gospel. If God actually passes a verdict saying, you're justified, you're righteous, you're free, you're forgiven, do you realize nobody can condemn you?

The devil can't condemn you. Others can't condemn you. Preachers can't condemn you. I can't condemn you. You can't even condemn yourself, though we so easily do that. It's so important to get justification by faith correct.

Listen to what it says in Romans chapter three and 24. Being justified. You better learn these words, saints of God. This is the ABC of the gospel. You need to study them. You ought to know the word justified.

You ought to understand it. You ought to understand the word impute. You ought to understand what is righteousness. This is basic ABC, and it affects your eternity. Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

And so here you have the scripture saying that it's through the redemption, the shedding of the blood of Jesus on the cross that you've been justified freely. You're justified just as if you'd never sinned.

The verdict has been passed. Go free. You're forgiven. The debt is canceled. What is the basis of that? Christ shedding his blood on the cross. God gives a verdict. If you believe in this one bleeding and dying on the cross, then I give the verdict.

Go free. Go free. You're absolutely free. Again, here where we read Romans chapter 4 verse 5. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly. Notice here, God only justifies the ungodly.

You don't earn this. You don't do it as a saint. He doesn't justify the righteous. The Bible never teaches that. God only justifies and quits, sets free, cancels the debt, or proclaims you're in a right relationship with me to one kind of person.

He only justifies an ungodly sinner, a sinner on his way to hell, a child of wrath, a hell-bound deserving sinner. That's the only kind of person he'll ever justify. You don't get righteous people earning this, deserving it, or working towards it.

God only ever justified ungodly persons. At the point they're justified, they're ungodly. They're a sinner before God. And yet how does it happen? Him that believeth on him who justifieth the ungodly.

There is only one who justifies the ungodly. The Catholic Church doesn't. Religion doesn't. The contemporary church doesn't. There's only one who justifieth the ungodly. And listen, it says, his faith, the man who believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.

You can't earn this. You have to believe it. You have to accept it. You have to receive it as from God. You have to receive justification by faith. Now God says, I justify you. You can only believe in Christ on the cross, bleeding, dying for sinners.

Sinner, do you want cleansed and forgiven? Do you want radically changed? And I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and all of your sins will be canceled tonight. You cannot be the same tonight if you believe on a bleeding savior.

Zechariah's Cleansed Priest and the Need for God's Righteousness

It's utterly, radically impossible. This is the simple gospel. Back in Zechariah chapter three, you have a story. It's amazing. Of the high priest at a time when revival is about to come. But the high priest in Israel, a man of God, it says Satan was at his side, resisting him.

Resisting him, Satan himself, against this holy man of God who's in ministry. And he goes through a spiritual battle. Satan is there, accusing him, resisting him. It was hindering revival coming to God's people and arising in that day.

Listen to what it says. The Lord says, take away the filthy garments from him. And unto him, he said, behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee. Do you see iniquity is shown in this verse as garments?

Filthy garments. Your sin, your iniquity is like filthy garments. This is someone who knew God, walked with God, was serving God, was in the highest religious position in the nation, who God was preparing for revival.

And yet here is the devil attacking him, looking at his filthy garments. This is one of the most spiritual men in the nation. And yet when the devil comes, the most spiritual person will be assailed by Satan himself to say, you've got filthy garments.

I know every little word, every little thought, every little action, and a dark onslaught from hell can come. But look what the Lord does. Take away his filthy garments. Take away. I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will close thee with a change of raiment.

That had to be clean garments, righteous garments. Here is a man who knew God, who walked with God, but he needed a fresh encounter with the Lord, for the Lord to cleanse afresh and bring him back to that place again.

Do you need that saint of God? Have you, in your walk with God, you have sinned and you have failed? I'm not excusing sin. You know I don't do that. I preach holiness and purity. I get no excuse to casualness, but I'm talking about the foundation of this.

When the devil assails you, when God is preparing you, you know those who walk with God closely, closest, will have some of the darkest onslaughts of hell. Duncan Campbell, that great preacher up in the Hebrides, he's seen a few different revivals in his day, but in his testimony speaks about a time before one of those revivals broke out, that for three months leading into the revival, he walked day and night in absolute darkness.

He couldn't feel God, or see God, or experience God. He actually walked the roadways, in the ditches, lying down, crying out. He felt bankrupt to God, deserted by God. This is a vessel being prepared for a revival.

This is on the threshold of revival, and he goes through three months of utter darkness like this, and then God comes in revival. You see, I want to tell you there are strange spiritual experiences, but this is always your foundation.

Man, I might need to go to next Wednesday night. Romans chapter 10, and I want you to turn there and notice this. I haven't got to my point yet. I'm just laying a foundation. Romans chapter 10, and I didn't get to just say this point last week.

This was what I was going to finish with. Verse 1 to verse 3. Remember what it says about the Jews, believe verse 3, for they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and going about to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted themselves unto the righteousness of God.

That's where Judaism went wrong. So they're trying to create through morality and good deeds, their own righteousness to be accepted by God. Nobody gets right with God that way. No one ever. If you fail God, or if you sin, you can't work your way back into this.

You cannot do that. You've got to come right back to repentance, right back to the free gift of righteousness again. That's where you start again. Not by your works, but by God's righteousness. God's righteousness will heal you at whatever point in your walk that you're at.

But listen to this next part, verse 4. It is powerful. You've got to hear this. You've got to underline it. You ought to have this verse written on your fridge. For Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness to everyone that believeth.

This is a strange verse, greatly ignored, and yet I find it one of the mega verses of the Bible. Christ is the end of the law, for righteousness to everyone that believeth. What does it mean, Christ is the end of the law of righteousness?

It means he is the goal, he is the result, he is the target, he is the final destination. Do you know what it's saying? You can either work hard at law, at obedience to get this righteousness, or you can believe in Christ to put faith in Christ.

What is the goal of putting faith in Christ? What is the final destination? You're made righteous. So what does it mean, for Christ is the end of the law of righteousness? Where you reach when you believe in him, Christ only, absolutely.

His finished work, his blood, his cross work, his faith, his sacrifice, his righteousness imputed to you. And so if you have kept the whole law, when you believe in Christ, you reach, and listen to this, when you put true faith in him, his finished work, you reach the final, exact same destination.

As you would, if you had kept the entire law, every single second of your entire life, every word, every action, every thought, every motive, every second, every hour, every day, every week, every month, every year, 20 years, 30 years, 40 years, 50 years.

So if you done that perfectly, keeping the law perfectly in every area, not a second, if you miss one second or one deed in this, you've blown your righteousness. But if you put faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, he is the, you're suddenly arriving at the final destination.

Saints, which are you gonna base your salvation on? Righteousness by works or righteousness by faith? You better be sure where you're trusting. It says in Romans 3, 26, that he might, that is God, be just and the justifier of him that believeth in Jesus.

How Justification Is Destroyed or Enjoyed

Here's my two points tonight, and I've only got two points. Number one, justification destroyed. Who would ever destroy something like this? Number two, justification enjoyed. I'm gonna pitch these two things against each other.

Justification destroyed and justification enjoyed. What side of the fence are you on? I'm gonna mention two men who are justification destroyers, and I've mentioned that before. Then I'm gonna mention two men who in the Bible enjoyed justification.

And you can either join these modern justification destroyers, or you can join me with standing with these biblical men who enjoyed justification. And you in your own life, by what you believe and what you hold to, you'll either destroy justification or you'll enjoy justification by how you live and what you believe.

Steve Chalke and the Rejection of Penal Substitution

So let me take you here. Number one, justification destroyed. Do you remember in the first weeks I took you to this man called Steve Chalk, an English preacher who I have known all through my, through the years, watching on television?

He's an English preacher who should never have got inroads to the church, but he'd become very popular. In 2003, he wrote a book called The Lost Message of Jesus. If anyone writes a book about the real Jesus, the lost teaching of Jesus, the real gospel of Jesus, 99 out of 100 of those books need burnt.

I've got his teaching, I've got his truths, and it's all contained here. It's a marvelous revelation. Steve Chalk wrote this book, The Lost Message of Jesus, and do you remember what he said about penal substitution?

Jesus dying in our place, bearing our sins on the cross, he caused, he called it cosmic child abuse. An angry, vengeful father punishing his son, and he said this is despicable. I think he's despicable.

He's an apostate who unless he repents will burn righteously in an eternal hell. Don't you ever dare challenge the truth of the gospel. I would rather be an atheist who leaves it alone than to be in the church breaking up the truth of the gospel.

See, men like Steve Chalk are apostates. They are heretics. They are tools of the devil. I believe that they have intimate communion with Satan himself. I believe that. And so Steve Chalk, this man, has damaged, and I've been told by someone who knew him, that his entire present church, this lady, a friend who watches us online, she has gone to people in his church and tried to beg them and talk to them.

She says, they're so far gone they can't hear. You can't even speak to them. You can't raise any issue. They're utterly hardened in this truth that Steve Chalk preaches. You see, Steve Chalk denied that Jesus bear your sin and my sin, and yet he's still on the television, and he still writes his mega books, and they go all over the world about the real gospel, the real Jesus, the real Apostle Paul.

These men are very, very dangerous. That's my first person I want to pitch against my two biblical men. You can make your choice. Do you want to stand with Steve Chalk? Or will you join with me, stand with two biblical men?

N. T. Wright and the New Perspective on Paul

Let me mention the other man we dealt with before, N .T. Wright. He's written more than 70 books. He has an outstanding intellectual mind. He is one of the smoothest, most eloquent men I have ever heard in my entire Christian life.

I have not heard more. He is so cunning that you can listen to him, and even I would say, boy, he's intelligent, and I haven't got a clue what he's just said. It takes a lot of intelligence to do that.

You say, I don't have much intelligence. I've got to speak plainly, abruptly, clearly, biblically, but he has such a remarkable mind that he can transform the gospel in one generation, and that's what he actually done.

He joined together with Steve Chalk, defending Steve Chalk in this, in a remarkable way. In fact, he came to the rescue of Steve Chalk, and listen to what he said to Steve Chalk. It's very important. So Steve Chalk is attacking penal substitution, attacking the work of cross, and here is Bishop, he was the Bishop of Durham for the Anglican Church, or the Church of England, worldwide famous.

Don't think it's only the Anglicans. Do you know all the charismatics followed him, and the emergent church read all of his books. You don't hear of it anymore, and remember I was in a house, and that old Assemblies of God pastor, he had all those books of M .T. Wright, a pastor in a Pentecostal church, reading this trash.

You know why? Because it sounds intelligent. They don't even know what the man is saying. This Bishop Wright, actually is a liberal Bible denier. He believes in evolution. He denies the reality of a literal Adam and Eve.

He goes, that doesn't matter. He denies a literal physical return of the Lord Jesus Christ. He denies or questions a real eternal hell. In metaphorical language, he is so smooth that you go, did he say that, or did he not?

Did he do that, or does he actually proclaim it? What does the man believe? It takes a lot of intelligence to blind a generation, I want to tell you. Listen to what he wrote to Steve Chalk. When Steve Chalk's being attacked by Christians, evangelicals, so he wrote to him, and he said, I agree with you, Steve Chalk, but while you're attacking in your way, I will attack in my way.

By keeping the terminology, but I will redeem it. Do you know what he was saying? I'll change what justification means. I'll change what imputation means. I'll change what the gospel means. I will begin to change these things in a very, very subtle, subtle way.

I've got some quotes here from him, and you tell me, what did he actually do? Because you know what, he attacked penal substitution, that Jesus bear our sins. In fact, he said of one book written to defend penal substitution, when he read it, he said, it is deeply, profoundly, and disturbingly sub-biblical.

What I'm preaching over these weeks, that's what he thought of it. He hates the truth. And so N .T. Wright rethinks the gospel, he retells the gospel, he reconstructs the gospel, and he actually has promoted a thing called the new perspective on Paul.

And listen, the new perspective on justification. According to him, the church for 1500 years has got the teaching of justification by faith absolutely wrong, and he's restored it. These men are vile.

I don't have words for them. And so he says some things about the gospel here. He says, when you go to Romans chapter 10, verse 3, where we just read, he says, one day I suddenly got an insight and revelation.

He says, being ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish their own. In other words, what we have here is a covenant status, which is for Jews and Jews alone. Only Jews can work for their righteousness.

So it's not for us. Do you know what he does in his writings? He redefines everything. Listen again. Wright says, the gospel is not an account of how people get saved. Paul's gospel to the pagans was a philosophy of life, nor was it even a doctrine about how to get saved.

My proposal has been that the gospel is not, for Paul, a message about how to get saved. The gospel is not a set of techniques for making people Christians. The gospel is an account of how people get saved.

It is the proclamation of the lordship of Jesus Christ. He says that all of this about justification is not about salvation. It's about your life in the church, being a member in the church. So justification isn't individual.

It's corporate. It's the whole church. We are justified. It's not about you getting right with God. And in fact, it's only those who are saved discover, oh, we're justified. It's not something that happens to make you a Christian.

It's something that you come into because you are a Christian. He says again, I must stress again, the doctrine of justification by faith is not what Paul means by the gospel. Well, sorry, Mr. Wright, you and I differ because I believe Paul.

I'm just trying to give you a feel here. You need to understand the gospel gets attacked in the bookshops, on Christian media, in the evangelical gatherings. You need to be so, so careful. This man is vile.

He goes on to say righteousness is not an object. He's here to deny an imputation of righteousness that God imputes Christ's righteousness to us. He says, that's not true. He said, that's so wrong. Righteousness is not an object, a substance or a gas, which can be passed across the courtroom.

If and when God acts to vindicate the people, his people will then metaphorically speak and have the status of righteousness. But the righteousness they have will not be God's righteousness. That makes no sense at all.

So Christ's righteousness becoming our righteousness, he says it doesn't make any sense. He's so intelligent, so theological, so brilliant. He says it doesn't make any sense that Christ would make you righteous through a gift of righteousness.

Then he doesn't want me to stop here. Listen again. He says, Paul has spoken in Romans chapter two about the final justification of God's people on the basis of their whole life. In other words, it's future, not present.

In other words, it's not by faith, but it's your entire Christian life that justifies you. Let me prove it. There's a direct quote from him. The declaration, this vindication occurs twice. It occurs in the future as we have seen on the basis of the entire life of a person, that a person is led in the power of the spirit.

That is, it occurs on the basis of works. Do you see what he's just said? He's actually said your justification takes place on the basis of your works. What we dealt with last week is there's two kinds of righteousness, either by your works, which he's proclaiming, or by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

That's enough of that trash. I can't handle any more. Saints of God, I just want you to understand. These men change and redefine the word grace, impute, justification, righteousness. They will confuse you with their highfalutin, smooth, heretical words.

It is poison. It's against the written scriptures. Be aware of it. What does it say in Romans chapter 4, 2, where we just read, for if Abraham, remember what my point is here, justification destroyed.

I'm going to show you from scripture that men can destroy justification as preached by Paul. For if, he's bringing up an argument here, for if Abraham were justified by works, let's look what it looks like when men destroy justification.

So okay, let's take Abraham as an example. If Abraham actually had been saved by his works, made righteous, justified, accepted by God because he was perfect, or he lived good, or done everything right.

If that happened, what's it say in verse 2? He hath whereof to glory, but not before God. What he's saying is, if Abraham's justified by his works, he's got every reason to glory, but not in God. All the glory goes to him.

All the praise, he ought to be saying, aren't I a great guy? But listen to what it says in Ephesians chapter 2, verse 9, not of works, lest any man should boast. Do you realize if salvation acceptance by God is by works, you boast, you will boast.

I promise you. And when you get someone boasting in their works, they're boasting in themselves. They're not boasting in the work of God. They're actually boasting in their own deeds, in their own works.

It says in Romans 3, 27, where is boasting then? See, he's talking about justification. It is excluded. By what law? Of works. Does works, good works. Remember the Catholic church is built on this. The entire Catholic church for millennia has built its salvation.

You're saved by works. That's one of the major reasons that I am not a Catholic and I call it heresy and damnable. The entire Catholic church is built on good works. You're saved by your good works, by your righteousness.

Can you point the Catholic to me who is righteous then or accepted of God? You see, it says that it creates a boasting. But when you come to the real gospel, Romans 3, 27, where is boasting? It is excluded.

How is it excluded? By the law of faith. If you're saved by faith, boasting in self is excluded. If you're saved by believing in Christ's blood, you can boast in yourself, or your goodness, or keeping yourself, or making yourself righteous.

When you believe in Christ, boasting and pride and arrogance is excluded. If you're really born again, how can you be a proud person? Oh, aren't I righteous? Aren't I good? Look at my prayer. Look at my preaching.

Look what I do. Are you kidding me? When you're really justified by faith, made righteous, and this is what N .T. Wright is destroying. And listen to me so carefully. They not only challenge that Christ bear our sins, they challenge that Christ gave us His righteousness.

Do you see that where we began connects now with where we're finishing? You will destroy justification by faith. When you begin to say, Jesus didn't actually bear our sin. He didn't bear the wrath of the Father.

Yeah, go ahead and destroy that. You know what else you destroy? Righteousness by faith. It's connected. You can't deny that Christ bear our sin without denying that we bear Christ's righteousness. It goes hand in hand.

So when you begin to say, I don't believe God the Father poured out wrath on the Son. I don't believe He got punished for my sin. I don't believe He suffered the consequence of my sin. Then you've destroyed righteousness by faith, and you're going to have to be saved by works.

That's your only hope now. You've destroyed the message of the cross. This is why I get so angry, church. Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. I'm showing you what it means when you begin to destroy justification.

You become proud. Or in Romans 11 verse 6, and if by grace, if you're saved by grace, then it is no more of works. Otherwise, grace is no more grace. If you're saved by works, your own righteousness, it's not by grace.

See, righteousness from Christ is grace. His grace says, I'm giving you my righteousness. You haven't earned this. You haven't worked for it. I give it to you because you believe and you receive at the beginning of your walk with me.

But you know what? If you reject that and you say, no, righteousness comes by works, by doing the right things. Do you know what? It's not of grace anymore. You've just destroyed the entire message of grace in the Bible.

I'm talking about justification destroyers. You know, over in Galatians, it says similar things. Galatians 2 .21, I do not frustrate the grace of God. For if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.