In the sermon, Paul Carrington explores the doctrine of justification as outlined in the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession. He begins by referencing Ezra's question about reconciliation with God and emphasizes the chasm between sinful humanity and a holy God. Carrington discusses the historical context of the Reformation, highlighting Martin Luther's transformative understanding of Romans 1:17, which shifted the concept of righteousness from a personal achievement to a gift of grace received by faith. The sermon contrasts Catholic and Protestant views on justification, emphasizing that it is not by works or infused righteousness but by faith alone. Carrington explains that justification is a legal declaration where believers are considered righteous through the imputed righteousness of Christ. He stresses that this doctrine is foundational to Christianity, separating it from other religions that rely on human efforts for salvation. The sermon encourages believers to abandon attempts to earn God's favor and to rest in the assurance of salvation through Christ's finished work.

Well, if ever our souls are to be still it's going to be because of what we're going to be studying this evening we're going to be in chapter 11 of the second London Baptist confession of Justification and we're going to be covering off the first three paragraphs of the chapter. And you know this morning as Scott was preaching we ended off with Ezra asking a couple of questions of the Lord, rhetorical questions, but the second question That he asked the Lord, he says this, would you not be angry with us until you had consumed us so that there would be no remnant or survivor? He was asking a question, After all that we've done, all the sins that we've committed, the abominations we've done in your sight, look at this chasm. There's zero chance of us being able to cross this chasm. It's almost like a game over in many ways, in many respects.

It's the asking of a question, how can a filthy, sin-infested man be reconciled to a holy, just, and sinless God? It really is that question that he was asking. So tonight we're going to be looking at this doctrine of justification, but you may think of yourself here as well. This is really the prevailing notion of man in the world and and even Christians oftentimes can be confused and think that their their right standing with God comes from good behavior. It comes from morality it comes from obedience and that that has been a predominant theme in many hearts, maybe not verbalized, but a lot of times lack of assurance might stem from this very fact.

And you know, you look back in history and This year we're celebrating 500 years since the Reformation, but in 1514 We meet this very very studious German monk and a professor he was preparing Lectures on the Psalms and he was preparing lectures on Romans And this was no ordinary monk. He had gained a reputation really of being the most exemplary monk that you could imagine. Later in a letter to the Duke of Saxony, this is what he said of himself, he says, I was indeed a pious monk and followed the rules of my order more strictly than I can express if ever a monk could obtain heaven by his monkish works I should certainly have been entitled to it of this all the friars who have known me can testify if I have continued much longer I should have carried my mortification even to death he was fasting he was doing all of these things to try to eradicate sin by means of my watching prayer readings and other labors and yet with all that he was doing he had no joy whatsoever, he had no peace. In fact, what he had was a slavish fear.

At one point one of his students asked him, do you love God? And his response was, after pausing, he said, there are times when I actually hate God because of God's holiness and righteousness and my depravity that he couldn't scrub away at all. Until one day, this is what happened. He was there preparing these lectures on Romans and he opened up Romans and he came to Romans chapter 1 and as he was sitting at this table you could imagine maybe at candlelight here he was reading this famous scripture that we a lot of us has probably memorized but he says for I am not ashamed this is what the Apostle Paul is writing for I am not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes for the Jew first and also for the Greek for in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written The just shall live by faith and so something happened as he he read these words for the first time It's like the song that we sing, you know, the dungeon, it flamed with light.

He began to understand because now he was reading it not in the Latin, but he was reading it in the Greek, and the Greek word for righteousness is rendered differently, or the Greek word for just is rendered differently than it is in the Latin. I'll talk about that in a minute, but he understood the word for the first time, whereas the Catholics for centuries had understood this word to be just as, you know, you're made righteous, You're made a good person. But he understood it now in reading the Greek to be rather the just shall live by faith, that is those that are regarded as righteous or those who are counted as righteous Or those who are declared as righteous shall live by faith and it was almost like he couldn't believe it This is what he says the moment of awakening He says you mean here Paul is not talking about the righteousness by which God himself is righteous but a righteousness that God gives freely By his grace to people who don't have a righteousness of their own he was speaking of this kind of this alien Righteousness that's given to us and this is what he says ten years after studying in a monastery He'd been there from 1504 to 1514 and finally he comes to this this pinnacle and he says when I discovered that I was born again of the Holy Ghost And the doors of paradise swung open and I walked through so how important is this doctrine that we're talking about?

Well, it was the very root of the Reformation a few years later. We all know what happened on October 31st 1517 You know he marches up to the the castle church in Wittenberg and he nails those 95 theses to the door. And a lot of what those theses dealt with were the idea of indulgences. That somehow by paying money and doing this and doing that, that you'd be able to to earn your way or maybe get someone out of purgatory or do some other thing. But it really is the core doctrine, this idea of justification.

It's the doctrine that really set the world on fire and changed the course of history. It's a doctrine that we as Christians can't afford to be fuzzy about so hopefully tonight it will be important to us. Calvin said this on justification that it is the principal ground on which religion must be supported so it requires greater care and attention. Don't be fuzzy on this doctrine of justification For in it this is what Paul says in the gospel The righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith as it is written The Just shall live by faith and so we're gonna go through these first three paragraphs The first paragraph of this chapter is really I think we'll spend the bulk of our time here And it starts off with with these this sentence here It says and we're gonna go not full sentence these are long sentences So I'm gonna kind of break it up into phrases if you will So we'll deal with the first phrase It says this those whom God Effectually calls we dealt with that last week effectual calling Those whom God effectually calls he also freely justifies not by infusing righteousness into them but by pardoning their sins and by accounting and accepting their persons as righteous.

And so here again we're confronted with this idea that if all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, how is it that that we can be made right with God? And this is really the great question of man all the way down through the ages. You know, oftentimes when you're out talking to people and you're evangelizing and speaking to the people, people will say how do you know your religion is right? There's thousands of religions, and they're right There are thousands in fact. There's about three thousand religions in the world, but really it comes down to there's only two And this is what I will say to someone when I'm talking to them there are three thousand, but there's really only two There's the religion that says try your best.

Islam, Catholicism, Hinduism, any ism you want to come back with. Try your best. If you got to walk on your knees for up a mountain or do whatever, try your best, and maybe, just maybe, you'll make yourself acceptable to God. The only faith that says, I'm sorry, nothing you can do can make you acceptable to God is Christianity, and it extends something called grace that we're gonna be going through and so Doing your best to make yourself acceptable to God is the exact antithesis It's the opposite of what Christian Christianity is and So what this first part is basically saying is that God you know and like for example in Romans chapter 8 verse 30 It says those who he predestined right he also called whom he called he justified and whom he justified He glorified and so last week we looked at how he called us and this week we're talking about how in time he also at that time when he calls you he also justifies you and the way he justifies you is freely justifies you this would have been a slap to the Catholic Church back here in 1689 when this was being put together and there people are freely justified not by infusing righteousness into them and I mentioned earlier how Martin Luther for years he was trapped in the Catholic Church is still trapped because they render the word that just shall live by faith.

This idea of justificare, which is, you know, to be made, it's Latin for to be made righteous, by being made a good person. Somehow throughout the course of this process you're made into something that's acceptable to God. Of course it's totally opposite and because it's dealing with again through the sacraments of the church and other things like that that you become righteous and so it's never free because it's works things like indulgences and all that kind of thing. And so it's almost like when Luther discovered this, and there were other groups that understood it like the Waldensians and some of these other groups in history, but very very, the stream had become very narrow. If you want to get a sense of what this would have been like it was like almost like in the time of King You saw Josiah the the young king when the law was discovered after years of lying in the temple unsearched for No one really knowing what the law of God was all of a sudden it was largely sitting dormant and now it became alive and in the case of Luther and so this it's not an infusion of righteousness we're not made right by an infusion of righteousness but rather by a declaration through the pardon of sin.

It's so important that we understand the difference. You're not made righteous, but you're declared righteous at the point of your justification. And so that's really what the word decao means, the word just. It's a pronouncement. It's almost like before the bar in a courtroom forensically that you're determined to be just before God and Waldron Sam Waldron says this I love this he says justification in it we don't become a good person it is not a change in us it is a verdict about us and so that's very very key and then it goes on to say in the next phrase not for anything wrought in them or done by them but for Christ's sake alone and and this is something that's so contrary to human nature because by nature we are such earners and what I mean by that is we want to have a hand in everything.

It's one of those things that because of man's pride we want to have a hand in it. We're an earner by nature But the scandal of the gospel it's not only that it it merely means that you've been forgiven But it includes that it's much bigger than that, but what it means is that you're declared entirely guiltless Can you imagine that? That's what it means when you've been justified you've been declared entirely Guiltless He regards us as if we had never sinned at all. He pronounces us not only to be entirely guiltless, but now to be just and to be righteous. It's one thing to say, fine, you're free to go, but it's another thing to say no, you're actually righteous and You're accepted by me the great lawgiver and so in doing this he's making this declaration that the law makes against us.

It's as though he's abutting against that and he's judging us saying we're no longer prisoners at the bar but that we've been declared or pronounced just and righteous. And that's what Romans 4 verse 5 to 8 says, it says this, But to him who does not work, but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, by faith is accounted for righteousness. Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputed righteousness apart from works. Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not impute sin." And so we end with this phrase, not by imputing faith itself, the act of believing, or any other evangelical obedience to them as their righteousness, but by imputing Christ's active obedience unto the whole law and passive obedience in his death for their whole and soul righteousness they receiving and resting on him and his righteousness by faith which faith they have not of themselves it is the gift of God And so just as we are not justified by works, we're not made right before God because we have faith.

Because when God finds us, what state does he find us in? We're found dead in our trespasses and sin. And so faith is the gift of God by which we grasp what he's done for us Act what Christ has actively done for us and keeping the law right Christ kept the law Perfectly and then what Christ did for us passively by by laying his life down for us on the cross And so when we grasp that by faith, it's the justification. The righteousness of Christ is imputed on our account and so that's how we receive righteousness. And John Calvin says it like this, we've been all of a sudden removed from the catalog of sinners.

Your name was in a catalog of sinners, you know, like a big book, and now all of a sudden your name has been blotted out of the catalog of sinners. It's an amazing thing. And I, you know, as I was going through this, I'm thinking of the Apostle Paul and This man who went to all of these lengths to establish his own righteousness You know he he made it his business more than any one of us probably ever have To establish his own righteousness going so far as to hunt down and kill Christians who he thought were We're destroying the law of God and this is what he says After giving his resume, you know in Philippians chapter 3 he lays out his resume a Hebrew of the Hebrews circumcised the eighth day You know he he a Pharisee of the Pharisees concerning the law blameless But what things were gained to me? These I have counted loss for Christ yet. Indeed.

I also count all things loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ the righteousness which is from God by faith That I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings Being conformed to his death if by any means I may attain to the resurrection of the dead." And so here's a man who scrapped all of his own attempts at righteousness and literally calls it dung, refuse, flushes it down the toilet and embraces the righteousness that is in Christ. And this idea of faith in this particular paragraph. Sam Waldron gives us an analogy of an engagement ring. If you think of an engagement ring, you look at the engagement ring and you say, wow that's a valuable ring. Maybe it's $5, 000 or even $10, 000, but what makes the ring valuable?

Isn't the band, is it? That might have some value, but it's not the band. What makes the ring valuable is what sits atop the band in the setting, which is most oftentimes the diamond. And you remove the diamond, obviously the ring's value, it diminishes. And so what faith is, faith is like the band That holds what is really valuable Jesus Christ and his atoning sacrifice for us That's what makes us right with God That's what faith actually is It takes hold of the thing and does not let it go.

It's a wonderful way to think about the combination or the marriage of faith and what we're receiving when we talk about justification, what Christ has done for us. Lay hold of that. That's what Paul is talking about in Philippians chapter 3. And so that's how faith is counted for righteousness because of what it takes hold of. And to the carnal man, what is this?

Well, the carnal man, how does he like to think of himself? The religion of the day, if you go out and talk to the majority of people, go and talk to 100 people, the majority of people will consider themselves fairly good. Carnal man has a fairly good view of himself because He's comparing himself on a horizontal plane most often. And so this idea that I'm sorry, nothing you do can make yourself right with God is an affront to the pride of man because he's going about to establish his own righteousness. And you can hear a carnal man saying, what do you mean after all this striving all this cleaning of my life you mean it counts for nothing for my acceptance with God you mean someone who hasn't lived as I've lived could be acceptable before God rather than me?

That's an affront. What this whole doctrine does, it's a stain on the pride of man. Because man wants to have a hand in his own justification. This stains the pride of that human glory. Cleaning yourself up is the exact opposite of the gospel.

But what does a man who has been given faith do? Well, to him, it's the greatest news imaginable that someone's perfect righteousness can be imputed to me, and I can become a partaker of this new covenant not by works because I'm a sinner I'm undone I'm like Ezra like we saw today what in the world this chasm is too far There's no way we could ever get over and so this this man Who begins to understand these things he entirely? Abandoned any hope and trust in his own works and in his own morality And so that's that's where chapter one leaves us and then we go to the chapter two and it talks a little bit more about faith. It says this, faith thus receiving and resting on Christ in his righteousness is the alone instrument of justification. This is awesome that Faith is the alone instrument of justification.

And so here was Martin Luther in 1517, and of course the Reformation kicks off like wildfire. It spreads throughout Europe. Well, by the time the Catholics respond, it's 1545, and they come up with, they call this Council of Trent this 18 year kind of symposium to try to figure out how to counter the Reformation and Anyone who believed in this idea of justification by faith Was anathema it says this in their council of Trent it says an anathema means cursed of God But to believe quote that by faith alone the impious is justified. Let him be anathema How can that be? Well, as we said faith looks at what God has done and it lays hold on it.

It doesn't look to itself. Justification is obtained by that faith. And that's what Romans 3 says. It basically asks a series of questions after laying out the idea that man is totally incapable of saving himself, and yet God has made a way in Christ. And this is what it says, Where is boasting then?

It is excluded. By what law of works? No, but by the law of faith Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith Apart from deeds of the law and so we get this idea of sola fide right one of the five solas of Of the faith and so the alone instrument there's no other way by which a man is justified but through faith. And it's in contradistinction to the Roman Catholic Church which would say that faith and good works yields justification. If you want to be just with God faith won't get you there It's got to be faith and good works and of course, how can you ever how do you know when you've done enough good things to merit?

Justification finally and so you see how they're able to keep people in a snare constantly of paying money and doing works, coming to the church to do these sacraments, and that's what these men were were warring against and restoring the biblical understanding. Our assertion as Christians is simply that good works are not required for justification. And so it ends, this paragraph ends with this, yet it, being faith, is not alone in the person justified, but is ever accompanied with all other saving graces, and is not a dead faith, but works with by love. And so here we get the idea that when a man is justified he by faith grasps What Christ has done? There's gonna be evidence of that.

How do you know you've been justified? Well, hopefully there'll be some evidence in your life that you're now walking you're a new creature That that hopefully will be the case if there's zero evidence then it may be right that you don't have much assurance. But this is what James is arguing in his epistle when he says, You believe that there is one God, you do well. Even the demons believe and tremble. But do you not know, oh foolish man, that faith without works is dead?

So there's this combination of life flowing, Like we read in Ephesians chapter 2, we're not saved by good works, but we're saved unto good works. And Luther put it this way, good works do not make a good man, but a good man does good works. A man who's made just or right with God will do good works. And so, in Catholic theology, and I keep going back to this because this is really what this chapter is Destroying is this false view of how a man can be right with God, but any other ism any other Religion would fall in this category because again, There's only two religions the religion says you try your best and the religion says give up trying Lean on Christ entirely for your justification. So Catholics they they in their theology They had this idea that that your works have some sort of meritorious Effect towards salvation in addition to safe in addition to your faith whereas in Protestant theology Righteous works are seen as a result and the evidence of a truly justified and regenerate believer who has received these things by faith alone.

And so we end with the third paragraph here, and we see it begins with this. Christ, by his obedience and death, did fully discharge the debt of all those that are justified. I'll read that again. Christ, by his obedience in death, did fully discharge the debt of all those who are justified. I remember a few weeks ago our pastor brother Mike was talking about that where he used John Flavell's example of the Father and the Son in eternity past looking down through history and the Son talking about the fact that he will pay all of our debt, even to the last dregs he will drain that cup of wrath poured out against sinners.

And God himself, the Father says, I will not relent, and the Lord Jesus says I am able to discharge it, referring to the debt that Jesus Christ is able to discharge it and this points us right back to the cross this particular this particular paragraph Christ by his obedience and death did fully discharge the debt of all those who are justified. To me this is just ridiculous and scandalous that we we are accepted into God's favor as though we were righteous. It's really scandalous that Christ's righteousness had been imputed to us and and our sins both the past sins that we have committed and all the sins that we will commit are paid for entirely. And it's important that you realize that, that it's not just that Christ gets you to the finish line, fine, I'll pay for your previous sins, But hey, you've got a work to do if you're gonna maintain your justification from the start of the finish from the start of the race to the end That's not how it works But from beginning to end in that moment of time that you are justified You are no there's no you don't become more of a son by doing good works or less of a daughter when you fall into sin.

It really should give us a sense of true peace if indeed that is true of you. And if it's not true of you, If you still stand outside the door, how long will you stand outside the door when such a thing like as this is extended to you? Are you gonna try your best to make yourself acceptable to God some other way? Or are you just gonna delay and put it off when Christ calls, when he has paid such an extreme, extreme debt for you. And so it goes on regarding this, And did by the sacrifice of himself in the blood of his cross, undergoing in their stead the penalty due unto them make a proper real and full satisfaction to God's justice in their behalf and we'll remember when we went through Isaiah the 53rd chapter the whole chapter is amazing speaking of what Christ has done but but that particular verse in verse 6, it says, all we like sheep have gone astray.

We have turned everyone to his own way, and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. And so God's wrath has been diverted towards his son entirely extinguished towards us who are the rightful, we deserve it, and yet it was diverted Towards Jesus Christ. I don't know what you say to such a thing as that. I don't know how you Shrug at such a thing as that and it talks about this proper real and full Satisfaction that in Christ God was both just because if you look at Romans chapter 3 that in Christ God was both just and the justifier. It's as if with one stone.

You know, you've ever heard that phrase, kill two birds with one stone? Well, with Christ, God was just in that he punished sin because he must punish sin. He cannot look upon sin, but at the same time in punishing sin he was justifying those who are sinners. And how do we know that God received Jesus Christ and his sacrifice? Well, three days later he rose from the grave victorious And so he put death to death and it ends with this particular phrase In chapter in paragraph 3 it says this yet inasmuch as he was given by the Father for them and his obedience and satisfaction accepted in their stead and both freely Not for anything in them their justification is only a free grace That both the exact justice and rich grace of God might be glorified in the justification of sinners.

And so a lot of times I know when I first started when I first became a Christian you know I would rack my brain you know why did God choose me? You know I'd try to search you know through my own self as though maybe there was something there that that God chose me for and you know, no Simple answer if you're looking and you're racking your Lord. Why did you choose me? Look no further because there's nothing in you Whatsoever that deserves any goodness from God, you know the world's mantra. What is the world's mantra?

One of their mantras I heard, it's almost like a proverb in the world, God helps those who help themselves. Well nothing could be further from the truth because when you were dead in your trespasses, it was then that Christ died for the ungodly. It's amazing. And so it's this idea, you'll notice the phrase here, it talks of free grace. And that's another one of the solas that we talk about, and you know, it's only, it says, a free grace.

It excludes any merit whatsoever. And so in one, in these first three paragraphs, we don't only see sola fide, but also sola gratia, and it talks about this idea. It excludes any cooperation on our part. And so it's really important that we understand that salvation is what can be referred to as monergistic. It's one way, like mono, it's one way versus the Arminian view or the Catholic view that man and God are cooperating.

It's synergistic and somehow, yes, I'm acknowledging I'm gonna be resurrected from the dead. How much did Lazarus contribute to his resurrection? Nothing, but a dead body in the same way when a man is born again or justified before God you contributed Absolutely nothing and that's what Roman says when we were still without strength when we were still sinners, it was then that Christ died for the ungodly. And so hopefully if you are a Christian, you're gonna see in this chapter of justification why it is that you cannot lose your salvation. You can't lose it because it wasn't conferred on you because of anything that you did.

You did nothing to obtain it, but you're justified, a legal term. You are justified, you were declared righteous and innocent before God and God confers that righteousness on you and he even gives you the faith by which to grasp and hold on to that justification. And so Paul speaks of this in Ephesians 1, he says he speaks of the praise of the glory of his grace by which he has made us accepted in the beloved. So I want to just wrap up here with the last couple comments of these three paragraphs. What we see with justification is it totally blew off the doors.

It changed not only the course of Martin Luther who says he felt like the door of paradise swung open and he walked through, but it blew off the doors of this enslavement of man trying to make himself right with God. So critical that we get that. And then this idea of justification, right? When you look at Romans chapter 1 verse 16 and 17, that becomes the entire basis of the book of Romans. Probably the arguably, you know, when you look at just the teaching of the book, it's so so important and that very book is entirely based on this teaching.

It leaps off from verse 16 and goes through the rest of the book Speaking of this doctrine really of justification the first four chapters specifically deal with justification. It goes on before that your resume before the throne of God is nothing. Mine is nothing whatsoever. But not only is it the basis of Martin Luther's life, not only is the basis of of Romans, but it is the entire basis of our religion, of our faith. If you don't understand justification or you're confused about it, you can be led astray very easily into all sorts of other things.

And it is the thing that separates Christianity from all those other 3, 000 religions in the world. And this is why I think it's important to say this, that we cannot compromise. We live in an age, we heard today, an age of tolerance, an age of, hey you know, let's put aside, let's put aside our, the weapons of our warfare. Last year a few of us went up to DC for this ecumenical movement conference called Together 2016, where 500, 000 people gathered and said, you know what, let's just agree on the little things we can agree with. Doctrine divides.

And many of these well-known, very many well-known pastors said, you know what, let's just put aside what divides us. Well, when you put aside something like justification, you get something altogether that is not Christianity. And so we cannot afford to compromise on something like this. That is why I think you should go so far and it would be responsible to go so far as declaring that the Catholic Church is being a heretical group rather than just a group that well you know they're what they call what do they call the Protestants separated brethren well they're another foundation altogether than that of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and we should recognize that versus compromising, even when we agree on certain themes. And I want to just recall again, this was the path, this path of works that the Apostle Paul was on before he met the Lord Jesus on the road to Damascus.

And if you are on that path tonight, somehow thinking that you're gonna Make yourself acceptable to God by any works. I say today Abandon that path turn to Jesus Christ turn to the gospel Because in it as Paul says the righteousness of God is Revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith. Let's pray. Father, we come before you, overwhelmed, Lord, by this massive doctrine, Lord, of justification. How can it be that?

We who are so filthy Lord many of us even in a worse state than we see Ezra when you found us be made right with you and not only just told that we're free to go but then adopted as sons and daughters Lord it is it is just something that ought to boggle our minds and cause us to worship you as though we've never as if we've never worshipped you before father please move on our hearts father help us to abandon any attempts to make ourselves right with you and trust solely and wholly in Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God. Thank you, Lord, for Christ. Where would we be without him? So thank you, Lord. We do pray that you would root this understanding of what you've done for us in Christ in our hearts, that we would not be swayed or turned aside, Lord.

Thank you for it. In Jesus' name, amen.