0:02 God is good all the time. And all the time, God is good. A person does not need to know a lot of things in order to be a Christian. You see, the essence of the Christian life isn't about filling your mind with facts and figures, people and places, doctrine and different theology. That's not the essence of what it means to be a Christian.
0:32 You don't need to know a lot of things in order to be a Christian, but you do need to know and love and cherish and believe in your heart certain foundational, non negotiable, and glorious truths to call yourself a Christian. Today, we are going to talk about one of those wonderful, magnificent, essential truths to the Christian faith. Justification by faith alone. It seems like each generation, this particular doctrine comes under attack. And the attacks differ throughout the generations.
1:21 During the fifteen hundreds and sixteen hundreds and beyond, the attacks took the form of imprisonment. If you espouse justification by faith alone, we're going to lock you up, imprison you, or kill you, burn you at the stake. In our day and age, these attacks take a different form, at least here in the West. Because certainly, in other parts of this world, Christians are being persecuted for holding on too fast to this gospel. But here in the West, justification by faith alone is being attacked through misunderstanding of this doctrine.
1:59 Apathy toward this doctrine, deception, and yes, even compromise. All you have to do is open your YouTube app and search justification, and you will be greeted with apologists, Catholic apologists, Orthodox apologists, influencers, even atheists who want to tell you that if you believe in justification by faith alone, you're a fool. Because that's not what the Bible says they argue. We also see this with our friends and family sometimes who are not born again believers who say that, yes, we're Christians. But there's justification by faith alone thing.
2:40 That's let's just agree to disagree on that. This is this is a non essential part of what it means to be a Christian. In the name of ecumenism, we see this all the time. But church, if we water down this doctrine, if we compromise the purity of justification by faith alone, then we lose the gospel. We do not have any good news to proclaim.
3:12 And make no mistake, justification by faith alone is good news. It's the best news in the world for you. Martin Luther says, understanding this doctrine, justification by faith alone, it was as if I entered the gates into paradise. So our topic today, what we're going to talk about today is vital for everyone in this room. It is essential.
3:42 It is magnificent. And truly, it is a matter of life and death. So I invite you I invite you to join me in Romans chapter three. Romans chapter three verses 21 through 26 will be our passage today. And I encourage you to put a bookmark or your finger in there because we will be going through other passages throughout our time here tonight today.
4:15 Romans chapter three verse 21, Paul says, but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law. Although the law and the prophets bear witness to it, the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. Father in heaven, Lord help us now.
5:16 Incline our hearts to your testimony and not to selfish gain. Lord, teach us your way that we may walk in your truth. Unite our hearts to fear your name as we open up your word. Father, help me in my weakness, in my inabilities, in the the limitations of human language to clearly and accurately and joyfully proclaim this wonderful, glorious truth. Father, I pray that you soften the hearts of everyone here today.
5:52 There is any resistance to you. I pray that you smash it. Lord, if there's any hardness, I pray that you you soften hearts. Lord, make us receptive to hearing your words. Use my words and through the power of the Holy Spirit, may you change hearts today.
6:10 In Jesus' name, amen. To help us organize our time today, I've divided this sermon into three points. One, our need for justification. Two, God's power in justification. And lastly, the free gift of justification.
6:33 Our need for justification, God's power in justification, the free gift of justification. Point one. We need to be justified. Now the humanist the secular humanist today will say that men and women, we are basically good people. Yeah.
6:54 We may make some mistakes here and there, but really, I am I'm a good person at heart. I haven't done anything that bad. I haven't murdered anyone. I haven't killed anyone. I haven't done these horrible things that all these other people have been doing.
7:08 I'm basically a good person. Even some philosophers will say that, you know, man might not be inherently good, but certainly neutral. Like, right. We're on a fence. We're neutral.
7:21 We can either be good or be bad. We can either, do things that benefit humanity or be selfish and do things that harm humanity. This is what you will hear when you talk to people on the streets. Different picture and a much more accurate picture of the state of humanity. And without clear understanding of who we are as human beings, who we are as sinners, we can never fully understand nor can we appreciate the power of the gospel.
7:59 So we're going to look at several verses and passages that talk about the depravity of man. And it's only through looking at these passages, through looking at the muck and the filth that coats us, that's inside of us because of our corruption of to sin, that we can understand what it means to be washed and cleansed by the blood of Jesus Christ. Only when we see the darkness in our hopelessness without Christ can we truly understand the light of the knowledge of the gospel in the face of Jesus Christ. Our passage, Romans three twenty three says, for all have sinned. All have sinned and fall short of the glory of god.
8:45 Since Adam, humanity has been completely corrupted with sin. All of us. Every single human being born after Adam and Eve has been corrupted with sin and every part of us is also corrupted. Our hearts, our minds, our soul, we are physically, morally, and spiritually corrupted by sin. The bible says so.
9:15 Look at our passage, Romans three. Just go up a couple of verses and look at verse number nine as Paul cleans paints a clear picture for us. Romans chapter three verse number nine. He says, what then? Are we Jews any better off?
9:32 No. Not at all. For we have already charged that all, both Jews and Greeks, everybody, are under sin. As it is written, none is righteous, no not one. No one understands.
9:47 No one seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together, they have become worthless. No one does good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave.
9:58 They use their tongues to deceive. The venom of asps is under their lips. Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood. In their paths are ruin and misery and the way of peace they have not known.
10:15 There is no fear of God before their eyes. Without Christ, this is a portrait of every single one of us. Us. All of us. Paul is not using hyperbole here.
10:30 He's describing the state of humanity without Christ. And yes, you might say, yes, we are born in the image of God. All of us, male and female. We are born in the image of God. We have a conscience.
10:42 So we understand right and wrong. That is true, but that is only further indictment against us. We know right and wrong. We know who God is, and we suppress the truth. We suppress the truth.
10:57 Romans one eighteen. You don't have to turn there. Just listen. For the wrath of god is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. So this corruption, this total depravity of humanity is not a passive thing.
11:19 It's active hostility against God. We before Christ, if you don't know Christ, you hate God. You are hostile to God. The Bible says so. Look at Romans chapter eight.
11:36 Romans chapter eight verse number seven. Paul is describing living in the flesh or the mind that is in the flesh, meaning that you're unsaved. The mind that the mind that is in the spirit is saved, has been has been justified, has been born again. But the mind that is in the flesh is our natural state. He says in Romans chapter eight verse seven, for the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God for it does not submit to God's law, indeed it cannot.
12:11 So passage after passage, we learn that we are thoroughly and completely and pervasively corrupted by sin. And don't mistake this. This corruption isn't just some kind of sickness, this temporary temporary malaise that falls over us. No. We are dead in our sin.
12:33 Ephesians chapter two verses one through three. Why don't you turn there? Ephesians two one through three. Paul is driving this point home for us because it is essential for us to understand who we are before we understand what the gospel is. Ephesians chapter two, Paul says, and you, all of you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.
13:04 Yes. Physically alive but spiritually and morally dead. Following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air. Who's that? Satan.
13:16 Following Satan. The spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. Church, do you understand the depth and the power and the pervasiveness of sin? Christian, to you, do you understand this? Does this fill you with thanks giving that you have been redeemed?
13:53 This is your old life. You but God in his mercy has rescued you from this. This should fill you with thanksgiving and give you a sense of awe and humility at what God has done. If you're an unbeliever here today, I say this. If you do not know Christ today, do you feel the weight of your sin?
14:15 Because you should. It should feel to you as if you're carrying this heavy burden that is pressing you down evermore every day. Do you feel the weight of this burden of sin that is crushing you to death? But then it gets worse. In many ways.
14:35 But then it gets worse in many ways. And hang on with me. We're going through the darkness so that we can see the light. So hang on. Every human being sins against a holy and righteous, omnipotent, almighty god.
14:54 Again, this is not something that we just sit back and do. No. We are actively rebelling against god. When we sin, we are spitting in god's face every time we do that. And there has to be consequences for that rebellion, for that lawlessness.
15:11 Romans six twenty three. This is the consequence. For the wages of sin is what? Death. The wages of sin is death.
15:20 Yes. Physical death. Because of the corruption of sin in our mortal world, we will all die because of that sin physically. But even more so, the second death, this spiritual death. What what what is that?
15:34 What is the second death, the spiritual death that we will you will have to face if you do not know Christ? Two verses. Let's look at second Thessalonians chapter one. Second Thessalonians chapter one verse number eight will begin. Paul is describing the second coming of Jesus Christ when he comes back in power and in glory.
15:56 In second Thessalonians one verse eight, he says, Jesus will come again in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might. Now don't kid yourself. Judgment is a reality. Now some people will wanna say that, no.
16:32 When you die, you cease to exist. You're annihilated. You don't exist anymore. You're just in the ground. Nothing happens.
16:42 It's nothing. The Bible says that, no. We're going to live forever one way or another. It's either going to be in the loving presence of the Lord or it's going to be in the judgment, wrathful presence of the Lord away from him. And Christ, Jesus Christ will be our judge one day.
17:02 Our second passage, Revelation chapter 20. Turn there with me so you can see this. This is reality. This is the coming reality for humanity. Revelation 20 verse number 11.
17:19 Then the apostle John, in his vision, he is speaking and describing what he sees at the end of this age. He says, then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence, earth and sky fled away and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne and books were opened. Then another book was opened which is the book of life and the dead were judged by what was written in the books according to what they had done.
17:51 And the sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them and they were judged and each one of them according to what they had done. Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.
18:16 What is that lake of fire? Scroll up to verse number 10. Where they are tormented day and night. This is the future reality. The ultimate reality for all those who reject God.
18:37 That should terrify us. That should terrify you if you do not know Christ because it is forever. And ultimately, what the Bible teaches us, what our passage teaches us, is that ultimately, we are not, we do not need to be saved from our sin. We do not need to be saved from the devil. Ultimately, man's greatest dilemma is the wrath of God.
19:09 It is God's wrath because of our sin, because of our rebellion and hostility against him. The wrath of God will be poured out on all those who reject him. Now some people some people, even in Christian denominations, don't like this idea of the wrath of God. But it's essential that we understand that this is our ultimate problem, our ultimate dilemma, the wrath of God. Some denominations wanna say, no.
19:34 God is not wrathful. He can never do anything like that. God is always love. And even one denomination I don't know if you know this but that that wonderful modern hymn, In Christ Alone. We sing it all the time.
19:49 It's beautiful. It's a wonderful hymn. There was, several years ago, a large protestant denomination who wanted to have that song in their hymnal, but they wanted to change some words in the song because they hated the idea of the wrath of God. So in that second stanza where the song says, till on that cross, as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied. They said, no.
20:13 No. No. No. No. Keith and Keith Geddy, we wanna change that song.
20:18 Get rid of the wrath of God. Let's change it to the love of God was magnified. And to their credit, Keith Getty, Stuart Townen, said no. Because that's not what the bible says. So you're not gonna change the words of that song.
20:32 So we need to understand everyone in this room that we need to be saved from the wrath of God. That's why we need to be justified. And so we move on to our second point, God's power in justification. We also need to remember that, yes, we need to be saved from the wrath of God, but God is not a God of wrath. That is not part of his character.
21:03 God does not delight in the destruction of the wicked. He does not rejoice in sending people to judgment. He is not like a Greek or Roman god sitting up on Mount Olympus laughing as he smites people left and right. That is not our god. That is not the god of the bible.
21:21 You don't believe me? Turn to Ezekiel chapter 18. Ezekiel chapter 18. This is the character of God. Ezekiel 18, let's look at verse number twenty three first.
21:40 Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked? Declares the Lord God. And not rather that he should turn from his way and live. Scroll down to verse 32. For I have no pleasure in the death of anyone, declares the Lord.
21:59 So turn and live. God does not rejoice in the destruction of the wicked and neither should we. But do not mistake God's not rejoicing with his inability or his unwillingness to act because God, yes, he is a God of justice and righteousness and he cannot ignore sin and still be God. And at the same time, God is also a God of compassion and love and mercy. And and and this is this is spectacular.
22:38 Think about this church. We can't do anything for our own justification. In fact, in our sin, we don't want to do it. We don't want to do anything. We don't want to be pleasing to God because we love our sin.
22:52 We don't want to give our sin up. But God made a way for us. In that while we were still sinners, what happened? Christ died for us. God demonstrated his love for us.
23:07 He sent Jesus Christ to die for us. So the person and work of Jesus Christ, the word made flesh, the son of God, truly God, truly man, the second person of the trinity, Jesus Christ is our means to justification. He's the only way for us to be justified. How? Well, justification means to be declared righteous.
23:34 When you are justified, you are declared righteous. It is a legal declaration from god almighty. But the prerequisite for that is that when god looks on you, in order to declare you righteous, when he looks on you, he actually has to see perfect righteousness. That's the only way he's can make that legal declaration. He can't pretend it's there and just say I'm gonna declare you righteous even though you don't have any righteousness and I don't see any righteousness.
24:02 No. He has to actually see it. So where is this righteousness going to come from? Well, we know it's not gonna come from ourselves. Right?
24:12 We are dead in our sins. We are dead in our trespasses. We cannot produce anything to save us, to prove and show and make us righteous. So it doesn't come from with inside of us. It has to come from outside of us.
24:31 Alien righteousness, comes from outside of us. We know it doesn't come from another descendant of Adam because they're in the same boat we are. We know it doesn't come through angels or animals because they how can a temporal being satisfy an infinite god and infinite sin against him? No. There is only one place where this alien righteousness will come from.
24:52 Back to our main passage, Romans three twenty one. But now, the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law, although the law and the prophets bear witness to it. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. The law and the prophets bear witness to Jesus Christ. Righteousness, God's righteousness has been manifested.
25:23 It has been demonstrated. It has been shown. It has been displayed through the sinless and perfect life of Jesus Christ. He came and he fulfilled every righteous requirements of the law. Matthew 17 or Matthew five verse 17.
25:40 You don't have to turn there. Just listen. Jesus says, do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish them, but to fulfill them. We cannot keep the law.
25:56 We will keep on sinning. It is impossible for us to have righteousness on our own, but Jesus kept the law. Every part of it and he kept it perfectly. And that perfect law keeping can be given to us, can be attributed to us through justification. Romans five nineteen, just a couple pages over in your bible.
26:21 Why don't you turn there? Romans five nineteen, Paul says, for as by the one man's disobedience, the many were made sinners. So by the one man's obedience, the many will be made righteous. That's magnificent. Think about that.
26:42 We cannot be righteous on our own. God gives us his own righteousness. Through justification, God says, Christ was the perfect righteousness and now you can be cloaked with his righteousness. So when I look on you, what I see is Christ's righteousness. That's why I can declare you white righteous.
27:03 That's why I can justify you because I look on you and I see my own righteousness. That's amazing. But it gets even better. Christ's life satisfies the righteous requirements of the law. Christ's death satisfies the righteous requirements of divine justice.
27:23 Romans three twenty three through 25 says, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. Propitiation. It's a wonderful word. Never lose that word. Yes.
27:54 It's hard to pronounce. I struggle but never lose that word. In modern translations, in some modern translations of the bible, they say, no. We can't use propitiation because nobody understands what it means so they replace it. Don't replace it.
28:09 Lean into this, children. We're gonna be talking about some hard words today. Understand it. Try to understand as best you can. If you can, ask your mom and dad because you need to know these hard words.
28:21 They're important because they encapsulate magnificent truths. Propitiation, to satisfy the demands of justice. That's what propitiation means. On that cross, Jesus took our place. Yes.
28:38 He was our substitute. He also He bore our sins on that cross and he satisfied the wrath of God, the judgment of God. We deserve death because of our sin. Christ took that punishment for us. And this is what we call double imputation.
28:58 Another wonderful wonderful phrase to memorize and know and love and believe. Double imputation. What does that mean? It means that Christ, our sin was given to Christ. He took our sin upon him.
29:11 It was imputed to him. It was given to him, and then his righteousness, his perfect law keeping was given to us. It was imputed to us. He gets our sin. We get our righteousness.
29:26 That's the that's the marvelous exchange of the gospel. And this second Corinthians Let's look at second Corinthians five twenty one because this this wraps it all up. This this encapsulates everything. Second Corinthians five twenty one says, for our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin. So that in him, we might become the righteousness of God.
30:03 We become God's righteousness. Right? For I'm not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God to salvation for all who believe to the Jew first and also to the Greek. In it, the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. Magnitude of that truth?
30:30 We can have forgiveness for everything we've done, everything we will do. There is no sin too great that is beyond the forgiveness of Jesus because Jesus is greater than your sin. And he paid the penalty for your sin. Passage, Romans three twenty five. This was to show Christ's propitiation.
30:55 This was to show God's righteousness because in his divine forbearance, he had passed over former sins. It was to show his righteousness at the present time so that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. We sang it. What's so amazing about grace? Just.
31:24 He's righteous. He's holy. He cannot pass over sin and still call himself God. Think about it this way. You enter a courtroom, a judge is on the bench, the defendant is brought before him, accused of murder, and the judge says, I know you killed this person.
31:41 I know you murdered this person. All of the evidence is there. I know beyond a reasonable doubt that you are guilty. I'm gonna let you free. I'm not gonna find you guilty.
31:50 Walk out that door. What would we call that judge? Wicked, unjust, horrible. Right? So God cannot do that.
32:00 He cannot simply just pass over our sins forever. But because God is love, he made a way. He's the justifier for us and he sent Jesus Christ to die for us. Why? Because of love.
32:22 That's it. Because of love. Put it in another way, the love of God caused the son of God to willingly endure the wrath of God so that we might become children of God. That's grace. Let me say that again.
32:42 The love of God caused the son of God to willingly endure the wrath of God so that we, you and me, might become children of God. That's a gift. You don't earn it. You can't earn it. You don't deserve it.
33:00 You don't even want it. But God extends to you his unmerited favor, his grace to you, which leads us to our last point, the free gift of justification. How do I experience this saving work of Jesus Christ in my life? How do I go from being dead in my trespasses into sins to being alive in Jesus Christ. Let's go back to our passage and look at this again.
33:27 Romans three. Let's start at verse 22. Romans three twenty two. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believe. Verse 24.
33:41 And are justified by his grace as a gift. Verse 25. To be received by faith. Verse 26. Of the one who has faith in Jesus.
33:56 To be received by faith. Received what? What do we receive? We receive all of this. All of this.
34:02 All the propitiation. Double imputation. We receive his forgiveness. Righteousness and his eternal life. And it's by faith alone, the Bible says.
34:13 By faith alone. Ephesians two, eight and nine. Most of you know this. Don't turn there. Ephesians two, eight and nine.
34:19 For by grace, you have been saved, what? Through faith. And this is not your own doing. It is the gift of God, not a result of works so that no one may boast. What is faith?
34:37 Well, the Bible defines faith in Hebrews 11 as faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the convictions of things not seen. Faith means you're assured. You're convicted. Faith means you believe. You believe in Jesus Christ.
34:56 You believe in the cross. You believe in your sin and the penalty that you deserve for your sin. And this belief is not just in your minds, brothers and sisters. It is not up here. If it stays up here, you have not experienced saving grace.
35:12 How many people have you met that know all the right answers, that know all the right doctrines, but their heart is still hard? Yes. You can know this to be true in your mind. You can give mental ascent to this and still be far from God. You can have the appearance of outward morality.
35:31 You can like the idea of God. Yeah. It's good for civilization. Richard Dawkins, that atheist said, yeah. You know, Christianity is it's generally good for civilization but mental understanding will never produce in you a heart change.
35:48 You will never be sanctified. You will never experience fruit that comes from the Holy Spirit in your life. It will be a dead religion because it's just intellectualism. No. Faith is in the heart.
36:05 You believe in your heart. Romans ten nine and ten says this, because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart, one is justified. I'm sorry. For for with the heart, one believes and is justified.
36:35 And with the mouth, one confesses and is saved. What does that mean, Pastor Mark though? What does it mean to believe in your heart? It means this, crying out to God, understanding, I'm at the end of myself, God. I know my sin.
36:52 I know what I deserve. I can't do it on my own anymore. I believe in Jesus. I want to follow Jesus. I want to turn from my sins and follow after my savior and my Lord.
37:05 That's what believing in your heart means. That's what saving faith means. And we have to remember, and this is where all kinds of mischief occurs in Christendom, the wider Christian world. This faith, this justification is by faith alone. Your good works, your righteous deeds, and law keeping and morality are not the basis of your justification before God.
37:41 Do not add do not even try to add to what Christ has already done because you can't add anything. We've seen your righteous deeds. You wanna stand in on that judgment day in front of God and present to him all of your righteous deeds. He will say these are filthy rags. So do not add anything to Christ's powerful, complete, and sufficient work on that cross.
38:07 Galatians chapter two. Why don't you turn there so you can see this? This is important that we understand this. So you can see this? This is important that we understand this.
38:23 Galatians two sixteen says, yet we know that a person is not justified by works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ. 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. Let's scroll down to verse number 21. Four, if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose.
39:04 Make no mistake about this. The only thing, brother or sister, that you contributed to your salvation is your sin. Christ did it all. Christ's savior. Christ died for you.
39:17 He took your sins. You contribute nothing. It's by faith alone. Believe and repent. That's all you can do and that's all that you have to do.
39:29 Romans five fifteen through 17. We're nearing the end of this passage. Romans five fifteen through 17. Turn there so you can see this. So you can actually make no mistake about this.
39:40 Look at this in in your own bibles. Mark up your bibles to see this. Three verses, fifteen, sixteen, 17. Paul says, but the free gift is not like the trespass. For if many die through one man's trespass, much more have the grace of God and the free gift by the grace of that one man Jesus Christ abounded for many.
40:04 And the free gift is not like the result of that one man's sin. For the judgment following one trespass brought condemnation, but the free gift following many trespasses brought justification. Four, if because of one man's trespass, death reign through that one man, much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ. You think Paul is trying to tell us something? Paul knows that as human beings, we wanna earn stuff.
40:44 Why? So we can be prideful. Our pride wells up within us and see what I did. See what I earned. Paul says, no.
40:50 Five different times. It's a free gift. It's a free gift. It's a free gift. If you add anything to this free gift that's no longer a gift, what is it?
40:59 It's your due. You earned it. Paul says, may that not be. Receive this free gift by faith. There is only one true gospel.
41:12 Justification by faith alone is the only way to salvation. It's the only way. Now hear me. Any church, any ministry, any person whether they be Catholic, Orthodox, Church of the East, Coptic, or even so called Protestant denominations, if they teach anything other than justification by faith alone, then they are teaching a false gospel. They are deceiving you and they are nullifying the cross of Jesus Christ.
41:58 This is important. Yes. I understand. Most of these people believe in the trinity. This is good.
42:05 They believe in the deity of Christ as they should. The bible says it. They believe Christ is coming again. Yes and good. But if you remove justification by faith alone, everything else collapses.
42:19 You don't have the gospel. You don't have assurance. You don't have salvation. These individuals or organizations or ministry are Christian in name only, but they are not part of the true church of Jesus Christ. Now I know hearing this, some people might be uncomfortable or even indignant.
42:49 How dare you say that? And in this room, I'm aware that there are people who who still attend these organizations or so have friends and family who who who go, who subscribe to these other gospels, who do not believe in justification by faith alone. But it is our responsibility as pastors and elders of this church to proclaim to you the pure and true gospel. And this is what we will do. And it is also our responsibility to warn you, to warn you.
43:29 There is deception out there. Do not be lulled by it. Don't compromise the purity of this gospel. It is essential to biblical Christianity. Don't believe people when they say it's just a secondary issue.
43:47 The trinity is more important than this. We can agree to that. The deity of Christ is more important than this. No. This is not secondary.
43:55 It is the core of the gospel. So do not compromise the goodness and the power and the exclusivity for the sake of your relationships with your friends and family. Do not compromise us for the sake of tradition or your culture or your heritage. And look, I understand that can be very, very difficult. People all over the world lose their families, lose their livelihoods, lose their culture because of turning to Christ.
44:33 And like, if I can encourage you with one thing, if you are struggling with that today, if you're saying, how can I do I can't I can't do that? I'll lose my mom. I'll lose my dad. I won't have many cultural identity anymore. If this is you, turn to Mark chapter 10, and let this be an encouragement for you.
44:52 Not from me, but from our Lord. Mark chapter 10 verse number 28. Peter began to say to him, to Jesus, see, we have left everything and followed you. Jesus said, truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands for my sake and for the gospel who will not receive a hundredfold now in this life? Houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the age to come eternal life.
45:41 Do you believe that today? Do you believe what Jesus said today? Do you believe that in your heart? And if you do, act based on that belief. The fact is, if you encounter people, no matter how close they are to you and they do not believe, do not hold to justification by faith alone.
46:10 If they don't hold to this, they don't cherish them, what are you to do? You love them. You respect them. You cherish them. You honor them.
46:21 But for the sake of Christ, do not call them a brother and sister in the Lord. You do them no favor by calling someone a Christian who you know is not a Christian. You do them no favor by crying peace where there is no peace. So what can I do? What can I do?
46:40 You tell them the good news. You live out the gospel. You show them the gospel. And what I'm telling you today, say say say to them, as I'm saying to you, if you do not know Christ today, if you have not experienced this saving work through the cross, through Jesus Christ, through faith alone, come to Jesus today. Come to Jesus.
47:04 You don't have to do penance. You don't have to make yourself acceptable or presentable to God. I've talked to people who said, I'll come to church when I get my life in order. No. Come to Jesus now.
47:16 Your life is a wreck. Good. Come to Jesus because he will heal you and he will forgive you and he will save you. I tell you, you do not become a Christian through baptism. It is not through your money or indulgences to tap into a so called treasury of merit.
47:34 You do not have to kiss a ring or say ritual prayers, forgiveness of sins. Absolution from your sins does not come through a priest or a pastor. It does not come through a patriarch or a pope. Forgiveness of sins comes through the person and work of Jesus Christ alone. And so I tell you, this is the good news, folks.
48:04 Repent of your sins. Turn away from your sins and believe on Jesus Christ and you will be saved. And the moment you do that, you will be forgiven. No matter the horrible things you have done in your past, no matter the sins that people would run screaming if they knew that you had committed, you will have forgiveness of your sins in that moment. The penalty of sin is gone.
48:28 The power of sin is broken in your life. Through faith alone, you will be transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. So I tell you, come. Come and take the water of life that is without price. Come.
48:47 Come to Jesus by faith alone and receive everlasting life. Let's pray. Father, we thank you. Lord, we thank you for this glorious, wonderful, magnificent truth. We thank you for Jesus Christ and the work that he accomplished on that cross for us through his perfect life, his death, and his resurrection.
49:24 We are united with him through our faith in Christ alone. We thank you for that. Lord, I wanna pay pray for three groups of people. For those who have entered this room, who do not know you, who do not even claim to know you, Lord, may you do a miraculous work in their heart today. May your word pierce through resistance, pierce through hardness.
49:51 And lord, may you give them a heart of flesh and may they understand what the gospel is and may they receive it by faith. May they run to you today. And Lord, for those who have been in the church all their life, who know all the right answers but they only know it in their minds, Lord may you awaken them to that truth and that reality. May you awaken them, convict them of their sin. Lord, I pray that the the the understanding that they have in their minds will penetrate their hearts to the power and work of the holy spirit.
50:30 Father, make children today. Make brothers and sisters of Christ today through your grace alone. And finally, father, for those who have put their trust in you, for those who believe on you unto eternal life, who have repented of their sins and are born again through faith alone, may this message give them assurance that is unshakable. May they rejoice in the work of Jesus Christ. May they delight in knowing you and being known by you.
51:03 May they have hope for the future because their salvation is secured. Lord, may they rejoice and may they spread the gospel to those they come in contact with. Help us this now. Help us today. Lord, we love you.
51:20 Teach us to love you more. Enable us to love you more. In Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.
51:28 Church, will you please stand as we sing about this glorious gospel that we have?
