On Justification

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All right gentlemen take out your Bibles What Galatians Galatians chapter 2 we're in the same passage.
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We've been in for the last three weeks.
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What did I say about this passage? One of the most important paragraphs in the whole Bible I know it's I have to say it's it's certainly one of the most important passages that Paul has written And then by virtue of that it's one of the most important passages in the whole of Scripture So we're going to read Again verses 15 and 16 for those of you who haven't been here because I know there's some of you who are new Galatians is the Apostle Paul's letter to a Group of churches that are in an area called Galatia.
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It was where modern Turkey is and he had established these churches he had founded these churches and After he had departed from them some other teachers had come in and begun to preach a false gospel And so the problem was you've got good teaching that has left and bad teaching that has arrived and the Galatians have accepted this bad teaching and Paul is challenging them and he's telling them you can't have another gospel.
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There is only one gospel You remember the first chapter? He said I'm astonished that you've departed from the gospel and have gone after another gospel And and so he defends his own message and he defends his own Position as an apostle and he defends his own integrity That's all in chapter 1 then in chapter 2 he continues that defense by saying and I went to Jerusalem and I spoke to the Apostles and the Apostles affirmed what I said Not to say that if they didn't affirm it I would have been wrong because I got my message straight from Jesus This is what Paul says.
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He said I got my message from Christ.
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I wasn't going there for their approval I was going there to make sure that we weren't running in opposite directions He said we're not we I don't want to be fighting these guys I want to make sure we're all on the same page We're not and he says it this way says I want to make sure I was not running in vain Meaning to make sure I wasn't wasn't beating against My head against the rock as it were so in the midst of this he tells a story He says and there was a time when the Apostle Peter Made an error What was the error? Well Peter was in The Galatian or rather he was in the Antiochian community and he was eating with the Gentiles But when the Jews would come he would separate himself because he didn't want to be seen eating with the Gentiles and Paul said that's wrong.
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That's hypocrisy.
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If God has saved the Gentiles the same way he saved the Jews How can you separate yourself from the Gentiles and he and he said I I I wish I withstood him to his face So Paul got in Peter's face as it were and this statement Verses 15 and 16 is the risk is the follow-up to that conversation and I believe it's a continuation of the conversation he says We ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners Yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law But through faith in Jesus Christ, so we also Who excuse me? So we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order to be justified by faith in Christ and not by works of the law because by works of the law No one will be Justified.
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All right, let's pray Father I thank you for your word Lord as we continue to break down faith Works of the law and today Lord Justification I pray Lord first that you would keep me from error for the sake of your name For the sake of my conscience for the sake of these men And their hearts Lord I care about them and I want them to know the truth And I pray that you would keep me from error and I pray Lord as the as the Word of God is Expounded and explained.
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I pray that you would open their hearts to it Lord for those who are believers today who already know the Lord father that today would be to them an opportunity for growth better understanding of the gospel better understanding of the truth and Lord for those who do not know Christ for those who are here today and Are still dead in their trespasses and sins Lord, I pray that by the mercy of God That you would give to them the gift of regeneration that's leads to life that they would repent of their sins And that they would trust in Christ And I pray Lord all this in Jesus name All right Now I have said I have said This is the most important passage in Paul's writing and the reason why I say that is not because it's necessarily Unique Paul says these things in other places but this particular paragraph is a It's like a it's like a condensing of Paul's theology It's it's it's a pressing it in and showing exactly what his point is And it is very clear and over the last several weeks.
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I'm gonna oh my words are still up here Okay, well we're gonna erase this But I'm only gonna I'll tell you what I'll race to you and we'll come back Ain't no use in the race in that because that's what I was going to write anyway That was yes, that was predetermined of the Lord it was decreed by Almighty God that it would be that way.
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All right, so in the 15th and 16th verse Paul says we ourselves are Jews by birth and not Gentile sinners He's talking to Peter and he's talking about the difference between them and the Gentiles and he says we're Jews by birth meaning we have a certain a Certain positional Blessing that comes with being the covenant people of God And if you if you want to know what that blessing is you go over and read the book of Romans and Paul asks a question What benefit has the Jew? Paul says much in every way for they were entrusted the oracles of God.
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What are the oracles of God? Well, that's the scriptures He says the Jews were entrusted the oracles of God.
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That's a that in and of itself is a blessing.
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I Don't know if you realize this or not But no matter how hard your life has been The fact that you have a Bible on your lap Puts you in a position of blessing that many people around the world do not have If you go over to China You can't just have a Bible like you have right here in fact, there's a there's a there's a video online of a of an underground church in China that received a box of Bibles and They were crying and they were they were passing them out and people were grabbing them and hugging like a child Like a like like when I remember when my baby was born, you know When they come out and they clean her up and they hand her to you and you hold her like she's brand new and you love Her to death that very moment.
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That's the way they see the Bible and and to them and to us, you know I mean I I grew up four or five Bibles on the shelf different translations of the Bible I could go to a Bible bookstore anytime I wanted to and I could buy Bibles and commentaries I mean we are flooded with blessings So just a point when Paul says what was the blessing that the Jews had they have the oracles They had the Word of God that was a blessing that not other other nations didn't have that wasn't that was a blessing that other People groups didn't have and Paul said so there's a great blessing in that There were other blessings too.
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God had not only given them his word But God had given them his love Amos chapter 3 verse 2 speaking of Israel God says You only have I known of all the nations of the world and you say well, what does that mean? Well, the word no there means love Doesn't just God doesn't just know Things because God knows everything When he says I know you that means I love you think about when Jesus said depart from me I never knew you means I was never in a relationship, right? That's Matthew chapter 7, right? That's relationship you go back to Adam and Eve It says Adam knew Eve and and they conceived and bore Cain so that's a more intimate type of love.
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That's a sexual Knowledge we call that carnal knowledge, right? So knowing is a is Relationship so when God says to Israel you only have I known of all the nations of the of the world It's saying you are the one I chose and remember what God says to Israel in the Old Testament He said I didn't choose you because you were the biggest.
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I certainly didn't choose you because you were the most righteous Because Israel had many many Unrighteous, but he had chosen there the nation to be The object of his blessing now, this is the Old Covenant.
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This is the Old Covenant promises We now have the New Covenant where Jesus Christ says that that blessing is no longer held Just within the nation of the Jews, but it's gone to all people and that's what the gospel does the gospel expands the promise the gospel expands the the love and the and the Acceptance and the and the the willingness to reach out.
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That's why the the first century Jews were having such a problem They they had been brought up with this idea that they were God's people and that was it and Paul was saying no God has brought the gospel to the Gentiles and That's what he's saying right here.
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He's saying he's saying look Peter.
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We know our we are Jews by birth We're not Gentile sinners yet.
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We know That a person is not justified by works of the law But through faith in Jesus Christ, why would he say that he's saying he's saying you're not justified because you're a Jew Because the Jews were the ones who had the law the Jews were the ones who were supposed to have kept the law They didn't but they many of them thought they did He says but you're not justified by that You're justified by faith and he goes on to argue if we're justified by faith and they're justified by faith Everybody's justified by faith.
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Nobody is justified by works of the law.
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In fact, that's what he says in verse 16 He says by works of the law.
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No one will be justified so that's the Context over the last three weeks Two weeks, maybe we have looked at Two phrases from this statement.
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We've looked at first the word faith.
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What does the word faith mean? It's thrown around a lot People say it a lot people say you need to have faith people say need is you need to be faithful and they use that word in the Bible the word is It's either translated as faith or belief, but it's the same Greek word And the word in Greek is pistis or pistou.
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Oh, and it's it's the same word So when you read in John 3 16 For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever Believeth in him will not perish but have everlasting life, right? That word believeth is the same word for faith It's the word pistou Pascha pistou, huh? Oh for the Greek word well pistis is p is t is and Then the pistou is a is a just a different ending.
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So it's p is t e Piss to e u o You I think would be how it would be in English because I'm transliterating it I'd have to look at the Greek to give you the The Greek spelling the letters but You have pistis is the root pistou is because in that it's believing ones pistou Oh refers to the believing ones So the one believing so if I said if I said believe that's pistis if I said believer Just do up Yeah, those who believe yeah Yeah, so that's just in the ending sort of adds that idea of the one who's believing but again, it's the same word, right? So when we say what is faith we say there's three different ways to describe faith But only one of them is saving faith The first way we describe faith is to understand something or to know something that we call that gnosis If I say to you something if I say Jesus Christ died was buried and Rose again on the third day and you say I understand what you mean by death burial and resurrection That Is Gnosis, you know it, you know what I'm saying, and you understand it make sense That's the first step.
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You can't have faith without knowing what you believe in if anybody ever tells you what just believe And you say well, what am I supposed to believe in it don't matter just believe that's stupid.
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I Mean that really is there's no such thing as faith without an object You got to know what you believe in Or whom you believe who you believe in People say well, I just have faith.
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I always have the very next thing if somebody says well, I just have faith.
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I say in what? Well, I just believe in what You got to know what you believe Well, I believe in Jesus.
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Why what do you do? I don't know I Used to work at a high school and I did security for First Coast High School, and I I worked with kids that had learning Disabilities, I had two different jobs I've worked security in between classes and during lunch and and and I'd work in the classroom with the students during class and and and a lot of those kids, you know I'd say I'd just ask him I say what do you go church anywhere? You know because I was at that time I was a youth leader and I say you're welcome to come to our church You know, I'm just talking and they say oh, yeah, I believe in Jesus Great What do you believe in Jesus? I don't know He died on the cross Why you know, I don't know Sound like a bad time to me So gnosis is the content of the claim And you gotta know so I so that's why I always put that one first If you don't know the claim you can't believe and trust in the claim You can't you guess you got to start out with knowledge.
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The second one is These are Latin words a census a census means to agree with the claim So Jesus died he was buried and he rose again.
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You say I agree to that.
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I agree.
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That's true.
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I Agree that he was dead That they stuck him in the heart with that spear that out of his side poured out blood and water which Demonstrated that he was be a be dead and Yet they pulled him off the cross put him in the tomb and three days later the dead body came back to life and Jesus Christ walked out of the grave no Problem.
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He wasn't limping and he weren't bleeding.
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He was perfectly Restored the only thing he kept was the scars in his hands To demonstrate the work that he had done On this side.
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Yeah, the scars in his hand aside to demonstrate the work that was done otherwise glorified perfect so You say I believe that I agree that that's true Is that saving faith now some people would say it is some people would say that's all you gotta do is agree with the claim But that is not What the Bible means when it says believe Because the Bible when it says believe is referring to what we would call in English trust Now in the great in the Latin it's fiducia or fiducia, it's trust and You've all heard it.
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Well, some of you haven't because some of you knew I Use a parachute as example I say I know what a parachute claims to do if I step out of an airplane it claims to be able to catch me Take me to the ground.
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I believe it will work.
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I Believe if I put a parachute on step out of an airplane, it will catch me and take me to the ground But I ain't stepping on no planes, so I don't trust it That's the difference.
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That's the step So faith is trust That's the best word.
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I don't think believe really does the justice It's trust It's the willingness to put ourselves into the hands of Christ and say I don't have any other hope but you you know If I was falling out of an airplane, I would hope I had a parachute Even though I'm not going to jump out willingly if I was on a plane that was going down.
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I would hope there was a parachute Right because I do believe at that moment.
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I would have to trust it Here's the point every one of you are going to die one day.
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I've been at the fair all week this week We've been doing our evangelism.
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We've put up a booth and we hand out gospel tracts Most people take them and they're very nice every once in a while you get people Oh, I don't believe and they'll walk on they don't want to listen someone at one old boy told me he was an atheist And I said, well, you're really not And he kind of looked at me.
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I Said can I prove you're not an atheist? Sure.
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Go ahead You want to know how I did it I Somebody tells me if somebody says they're an atheist I say, okay Imagine this circle is all the knowledge in the world How much do you think you have of all the knowledge that exists and all the universe? How much do you think you have and he said well, maybe 1% I said, okay So you're telling me that in the 99% of what you don't know God cannot exist And he said well I said so you're really not an atheist you're a diagnostic you don't know Atheist says he knows God doesn't exist.
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You don't know that.
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I said you're hedging your bets on something.
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That's pretty serious About something you don't know.
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I said here's the reality you do know God exists Romans 1 tells me that every man knows in his heart that God exists and will be Responsible for him on Judgment Day because when you stand before God in judgment He's going to say you are without excuse because he has given you not only the conscience within you to know that he exists But he's giving you the world around you to bear testimony to his existence The heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament above his handiwork There is no man who can justly call himself an atheist before Almighty God Had your hand up brother Romans 18 Romans 1 18 to about verse 24 I think goes it goes down to 21 But it goes on because it goes on to talk about sins and I think it's 18 to 24 I have to look he had a hand at first without I get you.
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Yes, sir Yeah, we agree yeah, yeah it is it's same idea it's with a scent we're all agree Well, you know what con when you put the con at the beginning that means we're coming together like Congress that's Yeah, exactly consensus is a coming-together agreement.
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Absolutely.
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Yes, sir Yeah Yeah Yep, and I and I want to amen and I want to add just Piggyback on what you're saying faith that is real faith changes the way you live That's James's whole point James to faith that doesn't show itself in a changed life is not real faith It's dead faith right faith without works is dead, right? That's a simple way of James saying it's going to change your life It's a changed life a life of faith is a changed life.
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I agree oh, no, absolutely and I That's a good point.
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I ain't saying you're perfect.
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I am saying you're near perfect You are in you're in Christ who is perfect, but but you'll look at the world different You know my one of my old professors said this and it was a He said he said when you are born again, you get a new wanna He say what's that he said well I used to want to do this Now I want to do this.
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I Used to want to serve self now.
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I want to serve Christ.
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I used to want to serve sin now I want to serve righteousness.
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I used to want to serve the world now I want to serve the one who created the world so my so my wanna Changes and and again, it's not that I don't do some of those things that the world wants me to do It's not that I don't fail every day, but I want to do what's right? My heart has changed and so that is faith.
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Yeah Yep Yep Yep, and I would I would take that back up to the gnosis part that's why he says faith comes by hearing because we got to know what the Content is before we can trust in it and then when we trust in it we grow in that content That's what you're talking about renewing the mind Romans 12 1 2 & 3 where we're growing every day by renewing the mind absolutely Yeah All right, so now back to Let's look now.
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We've talked about faith last week I talked about works the law and I spent a lot of time on I don't want to spend a lot of time on this week what I basically sought to prove last week is this works of the law is not limited only to the few things that Paul addresses in Galatians, which are Sabbath keeping circumcision and Dietary restrictions, those are the three main things Paul deals with in Galatians But that's not all the works of the law that Paul's talking about Paul is saying you're not saved by works of the law at all any works of the law and why not because your sin is breaking the law and keeping the law Doesn't make up for breaking the law and I use this illustration last week Some of you weren't here if I stand before a judge and the judge says you have committed murder And I say yeah, but every other day of my life I didn't commit murder every other day of my life I kept that law and he said yeah, but that one time means you a lawbreaker Right that one time makes you a murderer how many times you got a murder to be a murderer How many times you got a lot of be alive? Well, you got a lie to be a liar one time and what is the Revelation 21 8 say All liars will have their place in the lake of fire Yeah, it is We sin and our sins cannot be Fixed by the law all the law can do is condemn it cannot say right see we think about like The judges that we have today.
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What's their job? Their job is to execute Justice You come before them you're either guilty or you're not guilty and they render a verdict The verdict is guilty or Not guilty right and once that verdict is rendered once that verdict becomes a product of public record Can't be changed Less a higher court comes in and shows that there was some malfeasance or something like that But once that verdict is rendered you can't be judged again for the same crime They call that double jeopardy right because the the verdict is in the determination has been made Right you guys know this this is what the verdict is and it's based on Not the works that you've done, but by the crimes you've committed So that's Paul's point You can't be justified by the works of the law because the works of the law are what condemn you They're not what saved you they're what condemn you and every time we've ever broken one of God's laws we have just proven our own condemnation Every time you break the law of God you show yourself to be in agreement with Adam Who's Adam Adam was the first man ever made? When God made Adam God gave Adam one law it was very simple law if you think about it I have given you all the trees of the garden from which to eat But do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil for on the day you eat of it you will surely Die that's right, so he not only gave him the law But he gave him the consequence so Adam chooses To break God's law now we could go into the the devil bringing temptation on Eve and her being deceived and heard Her going and encouraging her husband and even Adam tries that I don't remember the story But Adam says the woman who now has given me She gave me the fruit to eat right he blames her God don't take that Yeah, it's this woman that you gave me she is defective That's that's kind of what he said actually what he did was he accused God Because he says the woman you gave me that you gave me the woman So he points a finger everywhere, but at the one who was responsible for breaking the law now Here's the thing everybody looks at Adam and says oh, what a fool What a fool to have all of the garden to have a place where you can be naked and unashamed To have a place where you can run free and frolic with what must have been the most beautiful woman that ever Existed because she was created by the hand of Almighty God within without any imperfections And and you can run free and eat from the trees and yes, you're going to be a vegan, but that's okay Because you don't know no different At that point ain't nobody had a steak dinner But you're going to eat from the trees and you're going to have this life Everything's going to taste good.
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Everything's going to feel good and you're going to be in this point of joy or You're going to eat of this one tree and everything's going to end and You're going to be under the curse of God every one of us is what a fool But Every time we sin we agree with that You were right What fools we all are right The law does not save the law only condemns.
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So Paul says you're not justified by the law Now we're going to talk today.
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We've talked about faith I We've talked about faith we've talked about works of the law Like I said if you know last week we went over that more and I don't want to dive into that again because I take all my time We're going to look today at the word justify We're going to look at justify And this is an important word in fact if in two weeks I'm going to preach a special message Two weeks from today is October 31st Most people think Halloween and if I come in and y'all are in costumes, that'd be fine No next in two weeks from now is Thursday is October 34 I've been thinking about this for several weeks because I saw that the date that I'm going to be here falls on the 31st Everybody associates that with Halloween and that's fine But It's actually a more important day in history October 31st 1517 is the day Martin Luther not Martin Luther King Not the guy from the 60s civil rights movement, but in the sex of the 1500s.
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This was Martin Luther in Germany Began what was called the Protestant Reformation and he started the Protestant Reformation Because the Roman Catholic Church had become Corrupted and we're selling something called indulgences, and I'm going to explain two weeks I'm going to really tell the story and explain it more, but basically what an indulgence was like a certificate of salvation Yeah, okay, so you guys are know some of it Yeah, and that's good, and I'm going to talk about that some of it You'll already know and Martin Luther's one of my heroes.
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I talk about him all the time anyway but anyway Martin Luther Stood against the Roman Catholic Church, and he began to Teach that you were not saved by these certificates these indulgences, but you were saved by faith alone and So he he coined this phrase sola fide which means faith alone and He began to proclaim this truth of set salvation by faith alone but if you actually study the writings of Luther and Calvin and the other reformers You will learn that actually what they were saying is not salvation by faith alone But they were saying Justified By faith alone, and you say well, what's the difference? Well, that's what I want to talk about today for the rest of our time.
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I want to break down what the word justification means Because it does have a very particular Meaning that we need to understand And I've already mentioned being in the courtroom with the judge with the verdict there was a reason for that because I'm going to bring that back up in a minute because justified actually refers to a legal position a legal position with God But let's first look at This idea of salvation because people say we're saved by faith alone, but let's for a moment I'm going to break this When we talk about the word salvation There is so much that that word can be referring to There's a passage in 1st.
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Timothy 2 that says women are saved through childbirth And you say does that mean a woman gets saved just because she has a baby no But that's what it says Because the word saved there is not talking about salvation of the soul It's actually referring in that particular context to a woman's dignity Where she's not to be a leader in the church, but she has children and she's a leader in the home And so there's a dignity that is is preserved for her in the bearing of children Who's the most important person in your life first for you first mom, right? So there's a dignity that is preserved or saved in childbirth Even though a woman can't serve as a pastor She certainly can serve as a mother and that's her job So that's what that passage is referring to and so that's where the word saved can have many different meanings, right? Even when it talks about our salvation the Bible talks about salvation in three ways.
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It says we have been saved It says we're being saved and it says we will be saved So which is it? Is it past tense? have been Present tense our being or Future tense will be well, the answer is all three You have been saved You are being saved And you will be safe.
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Amen.
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And so salvation can have various nuances of meaning And if somebody says pastor, do you believe in salvation by faith? I Would say yes But I would say salvation is is all-encompassing Because salvation not only includes what we call Justification it does and that's what I would say If somebody says have been saved we have been saved have been justified because that's a one-time legal declaration But also we are being sanctified What is sanctified mean that means we're being conformed to the image of Christ every day What you're talking about walking with Christ and being changed and I would say that now in my my Christian walk That God has brought me through many things.
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I've been a Christian for 20 years and in 20 years Save when I was 19.
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That was 20 years ago.
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I Would say in my life.
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I understand more about the word.
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I Understand more about the gospel.
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I understand more about my own sin than I did when I was 20 I care more about the word and the gospel and my own sin than I did when I was 20 and that's the process of Sanctification and that's the being saved see that's the that's the process that's that part right and so that's That that's that's happening and I tell you I hope that in 10 years.
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I'm more sanctified than I am today I'll tell you this though The more sanctified you become the more you are aware of your own sin and the less sanctified you feel Because you when I was 20, I felt pretty good about myself now that I'm 40.
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I feel pretty awful I look at my sin.
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I say why do I still do that? Why do I still fight that battle? Why do I still have that struggle? Why am I still dealing with that sin? See, even though I'm probably Progressively more sanctified.
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I feel like I'm like because I know more now about my sin Yeah, my standards going this way and and that makes me feel like I'm going this way It is and the more the further you go in Christ, the more you realize how desperate you are for Christ Absolutely, that's what I mean.
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Yes.
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Yes the third part of salvation I would say is what we call glorification So we have justified Sanctified that's the process and then glorified that's the day when I am dead It's all over take my last breath heart stops beating or Jesus returns Because he could return before I die.
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He could return before this day ends I Always remember that But if he returned before I die, I don't have to die.
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I just get to go right into glory praise the Lord.
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That'd be great Yes, that's what that's the well done my good and faithful servant That's what you want to hear right and that's when I change my body becomes a new glorified body I'm in a new place new Jerusalem new heaven new earth Everything is new so that salvation in its parts you got Justification that was that was what happened when when God legally declared me to be righteous By the way, that's the definition of justification.
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It is a legal declaration of righteousness Justification is a legal declaration of righteousness Because here's the thing I Stand before God on my own as legally guilty Right.
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I mean if I if I if I took all my sins and just regurgitated them on a table or somebody put a jump drive in my brain and pulled out all my thoughts and all of the 39 years of sins Put them on a video screen and played them back One at a time here was when he sends here and when here's what he sent in.
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Here's when he did this.
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I Wouldn't have no more friends If they I mean honestly if God took just the just the mental images you've been able to produce in your life the thoughts you've had the angers that you've that you've come up with and you Fantasized about the sexual perversions and all the other things and he put that all on a big screen And he showed it to all the friends and family You'd be in bad way I would Yeah Had to have many many terabytes Right, so that's so I stand before God and he's the only one who knows Who I really am.
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Yeah, I Don't even know who I really am.
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I know what I think I am and most men think better of themselves than they ought to You know, that's what Charles Spurgeon said this he said if you ever get mad that somebody's talking bad about you He said just let it go because they don't know the half of it He said if somebody's talking bad about you let it go because they don't know the half of it Yeah, yeah, you're worse than they could even ever say So here is my sin.
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I am I am guilty before the judge of the universe And I'm standing there absolutely Guilty the verdict is in the gavel is about to fall and In comes My defender Jesus Christ And he Has no sin He never in that I can't even wrap my mind around I know the Bible says it yeah Hebrews 4 15 He was tempted in every way as we are yet without sin Peter who knew him best probably during his ministry said there was no deceit found in his mouth He never lied He never stole anything He never even had a lustful thought You ever see the movie The Last Temptations of Christ? It was very popular came out in the late 70s and it was an attempt to say that the last thought that went through Christ's mind when he was on the cross was a Temptation to come down and have a sexual liaison and a marriage relationship with Mary Magdalene Yeah, it's a it's a horrible movie.
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I'm not encouraging you to watch it.
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I'm saying the point is the point is That's what Natural sinful men want to think about Jesus they want to think that he had sinful thoughts They want to think that he had lustful intentions.
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They want to think that he had Relationships some people say Jesus was a homosexual some people say Jesus was a was a was a multiple abuser of different types of Women, you know, they they come up with all these things because they want to find something Because they can't accept the fact that there was ever a man who lived without sin But Jesus did and not only did he live without sin But he was also perfectly righteous and there's a difference one is a negative category one's a positive category Because you can be without sin and still not be fit for heaven because heaven doesn't require of you No sin heaven requires of you righteousness there's a difference between being without sin and being righteous without sin just puts you on a neutral plane That's right.
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Well Righteous is what you're what you need.
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Yeah, so Jesus was not only without sin He was perfectly righteous and he comes and here I stand in the guilty penalty box of the of the courtroom and I deserve Death I deserve hell If I died and God sent me to hell, he would not be unjust Because I would get what I deserve.
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I might not like it, but I couldn't complain you know there there's You'd hear about hell weeping and gnashing of teeth RC Sproul said this and I thought it was so great.
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He said he thinks that's actually two different types of people in hell Some people are weeping Because they realize they deserve it and they're getting what they deserve But some people are gnashing their teeth gnashing teeth is a is anger Because they're saying to themselves.
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I don't deserve this But the reality they do If I went to hell I would know I deserved it I Would know I deserve So here I stand guilty ready to take the penalty and Jesus comes in perfectly righteous not just sinless, but righteous He moves me out of the way He stands in the box And he takes all that sin that I had regurgitated out that now I'm now guilty for and he says punish me And he takes the punishment that I deserve and A Miracle of miracles He gives me his righteousness That way the judge God Can lower the gavel and say No Righteous He is righteous.
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It's a declaration It's a truth because righteousness has been given to me not only am I not guilty Because again if I was only not guilty I'd be right on the I'd be I'd be neutral.
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I'm not not guilty.
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I'm righteous I Have the goodness of Christ given to me Why I Watched a video this morning guy was doing these man-on-the-street interviews And he says to the lady and this lady was he said can you tell me one of your deepest secrets and boy did she And she tells just this this this crazy thing that happened in her life just the most sinful thing and She says it happened in a church There's a very wild thing and then he says well if you did that in a church, you're going to go to hell Again, these are not believers.
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This is just some crazy video And he said if you did that in a church, you're going to go to hell and she goes no I'm not going to hell because I'm a good person Yeah, yeah, very ill-informed amen we're not good people Jesus is good we're not righteous Jesus is right So what is justification? Justification is God Declaring that I'm righteous not because I am And you say well, it's God lying This is where Catholics and Protestants disagree and this is huge.
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This is very important theological distinction Catholics don't believe this This is called Forensic justification Forensic you've heard like forensic science simply means legal right? It's simply it's a it's a fancy word for Legal right and so when God Declares me righteous the Roman Catholic Church said no He can't do that because you're not righteous and if you're not righteous God's lying They said God's exercising a legal fiction and that is fancy way of saying a lot Say no, he's not lying.
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I am declared righteous because someone else Has given me their righteousness it'd be like this if I stood up and I said, I'm a millionaire and I ain't got a million dollars.
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I'd be a liar But if somebody gave me a million dollars now, I've become a millionaire and I can say I'm a millionaire Jesus has this righteousness.
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I don't have it Without him if I say I'm righteous, I'm a liar.
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But when he gives me his righteousness that makes me Able to be declared righteous.
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I am righteous in him That's justification Some people will say this and you might have heard this and I'm not challenging Anybody else who comes and stands here? I just want to add to what they've said some people will tell you justified an easy way to remember that is justified never sinned You ever heard that anybody ever taught that here, okay.
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Well, I'm just But they'll say it's just as if I'd never sin justified means just as if I'd never sinned, but that's not all it is That's only half Because that would just put you on that neutral plane.
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It's not just as if I'd never sinned But it's just as if I'd live like Christ That's what justified is.
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I Get the benefits of Christ I am given the righteousness of Christ That's what it means to be legally declared Justified he said well, what a Roman Catholics teach.
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I do want to tell you this I'm going to end with this because next time on October 31st when I talk about the difference between Roman Catholics and Protestants and the reason for the Protestant Reformation this will help you Understand a little because Roman Catholics would teach this they teach what they call rather than forensic justification They'll say justification is transformative, which means this You begin the process of being justified when you become a Catholic whether that's as a baby You're baptized or maybe as an adult you become a Roman Catholic you begin the process of justification But you're not truly justified Until you are actually righteous Which takes time to become righteous and you do that through the taking of the mass you do that through? Participation in the seven sacraments of the Roman Catholic Church and through those seven sacraments you become Righteous through this process and this is why they believe in purgatory Because if you die and you're not righteous you have a place to go to keep becoming Righteous purgatory means to be purged or to be cleansed and you're still not righteous So you got to go through maybe a million years of purgatory before you can be righteous and so they have this process the problem is Even if you were given a billion years And a million times You're not going to be righteous by your own works The only way you're going to be righteous is if God declares you righteous because he has given you the righteousness of Christ That's the difference between Catholics and Protestants is we're not working toward justification We have been justified Paul says Romans chapter 5 verse 1 my probably my favorite individual Bible verse therefore Having been justified by faith We have peace with God Through our Lord Jesus Christ therefore having been past tense justified declared righteous By faith we have present tense peace with God That's not something we look forward to that's something we have right now Alright guys, I've taken my time.
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Let's let's pray Father I thank you for this time of these men I pray that the words that I've said to explain faith and works and justification have been heard and clearly understood Lord I thank you for all that you give us.
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I thank you especially for Christ and the righteousness He provides may it be Lord that as we go out today That we have a better understanding of what it means To be in Christ to be in him and to be found in him not having a righteousness of our own that comes from the law But a righteousness which comes through faith in Jesus Christ, and it's in his name.