Our Conclusion - Justified by Faith

I come to this conclusion," Paul
said, this is a conclusion, a man's justified, justified, justified
before God, holy before God, redeemed by faith. Now this is what Paul's saying,
and this is what I believe with deep and humble sincerity, that
the greatest sinner in this building, the greatest offender, the greatest
violator of God's law, whatever his past, whatever his present
infirmity, whatever his future holds, problems, trials, tribulations,
any son of Adam, Jew or Gentile, Catholic or Baptist, black or
white, old or young, wise or unwise, can be fully, totally,
completely justified, forgiven, pardoned before the holy God
of heaven, and all of his sins blotted out, and not only blotted
out but forgotten. And he can have before God a
spotless righteousness and a spotless holiness as if he had never sinned,
as if he had never violated the law of God, only by believing
on the Lord Jesus Christ. That's what Paul said. Not by
working, not by serving the Lord, not by giving, not by reforming,
not by performing religious deeds, not by submitting to religious
ordinances, but by only believing in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's
what he's saying. I have come to this conclusion.
A man is justified by faith. Plus nothing, minus nothing.
He's justified by faith. Listen to the Word of God. When
the Philippian jailer came to Paul, trembling, disturbed, troubled,
he said, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? Here's a rank barbarian,
total heathen, a jailer, a man who lived with criminals and
probably worked for criminals, some without the law and some
within the law. But here he is trembling on his knees before
the Apostle Paul and he asked one question, what must I do
to be saved? And the Apostle Paul replied in the words of
the Holy Spirit recorded in this book, believe on the Lord Jesus
Christ and thou shalt be saved. Nothing is said of the church,
nothing is said of the ordinances, nothing is said of works, nothing
is said of the law. Only one word, believing. A man
is justified by faith. He that believeth on the sun
hath light. He that believeth not the sun
shall not see light. Our Lord said to a Roman centurion,
if you can believe, all things are possible to them that believe.
If you'll turn with me to John chapter 20. I want us to read
a scripture together, John chapter 20, verse 31. John 20, 31. But these are written, but these
are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the
Son of God, and that believing you might have life through his
name. Therefore, Paul said, we conclude,
a man is justified by faith. Any sinner here, old or young,
Jew or Gentile, religious or irreligious, by receiving Christ,
by believing on Christ, by trusting in Christ, can be justified before
God only by faith. Now to state this so positively
upsets many well-meaning religious people. It disturbs them. I'm talking about well-meaning,
sincere religious leaders. To state this so positively,
that salvation, forgiveness, redemption, is only by faith,
not by any works, plus nothing, minus nothing, it's by looking
to Christ, by believing in Christ, it upsets them. And they tell
us that We shouldn't declare this doctrine of justification
by faith so strongly because it's dangerous and it may do
serious injury to the church and to the lives of people and
lead men to live in sin while they hope for mercy. And so they
say, let's clarify it. Let's say this. Let's tell men
that they can be saved by believing on Christ if they are sufficiently
convicted of sin. Let's tell them that they can
be saved by faith in Christ if they have mourned apart and been
truly convicted and grieved over their sins. Let's tell them they
can be saved by faith in Christ if they have repented sufficiently
enough, because men must repent, you know, Preacher. And let's
tell them they can be saved by faith in Christ if they're scripturally
baptized and scripturally affiliated with the correct church. and
practicing the gospel ordinances. Let's tell them they can be saved
by faith in Christ if they live a life of godliness and abstain
from worldly amusement and worldly habits. Let's tell them they
can be saved by faith in Christ if they do good works and love
their neighbors. Let's tell them they can be saved
by faith in Christ if they hold to the correct doctrines and
if they hold to the correct truths of Scripture And if they follow
the teaching of orthodox men, let's tell them they can be saved
by faith in Christ if they do not succumb to any great sin. Well then, I don't know who appointed
us guardians of the promises of God. The Word of God says,
He that believeth on the Son of God hath life. It does not
say, he that believeth and mourneth sufficiently, he that believeth
and repenteth sufficiently, he that believeth and is affiliated
with the right church, he that believeth and doeth this, that,
and the other, but he that believeth on the Son of God. The Word of
God clearly says, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth
in Him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so
loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever
believeth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I
don't know who made us watchdogs of the gospel, do you? I don't
know who commissioned us to sit in judgment on men, but the Scripture
plainly declares, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou
shalt be saved. I plan, by the grace of God,
to leave it right there. That's how men are justified.
They're not justified by works, they're not justified by church
membership, they're not justified by obeying ordinances, they're
justified by faith alone. Martin Luther, I guess one of
the greatest preachers who ever lived. We owe so much to our
God using this instrument, this human instrument, Martin Luther.
Martin Luther was raised in the Popish doctrine of merit and
works, good deeds for salvation, justification by human efforts,
studying to be a priest, sitting there 400 years ago, 450 years
ago, in a stone monastery, punishing his body, abstaining from marriage,
abstaining from meat, abstaining from eating, starving himself,
fasting, lying on the stone floor of that monastery till they'd
find him in such a condition they thought he was dead, trying
to appease God. When he would have temptations
and evil thoughts, he'd take thorn bushes and plait them into
a whip and beat his body till the pain was so great and the
blood would run free to take his mind off the thoughts of
sin. to erase any sinful thoughts
or meditations from his mind. He was trying to please God,
trying to justify himself before God, trying to establish a holiness
before God, trying to declare himself righteous before God.
And one day he was sitting in the library reading the Bible,
and he came across a verse of Scripture which declared, the
just shall live by faith. It's four times in God's Word.
The just shall live by faith. And that scripture stung him
because he wasn't living by faith. He was living by works. He wasn't
trying to find acceptance with God by faith. He was trying to
find acceptance by works. He wasn't trying to find redemption
through faith in Christ. He was trying to find... He believed
Christ was born of the Virgin. That's a Catholic dogma. A doctrine. He believed Christ died on a
cross. He believed Christ rose again. Those things were taught
in his classes. He knew those things, but he
was trying to establish for himself a righteousness before God. He
accepted these doctrines, but his way to God was not by Christ
and his work and his person, but by his own efforts. Well,
he went on doing this, but every once in a while he'd come up
on that verse of Scripture and get, "...the just shall live
by faith." And it troubled him and bothered him. He wasn't living
by faith. He wasn't seeking acceptance by faith. So he went to Rome
on a pilgrimage. And there in St. Peter's, they
had a stairway that they claimed they brought from Pilate's Hall,
where our Lord was beaten and tried and sentenced to be crucified. And the Catholics have a lot
of these traditions that have no scriptural foundation even
factual foundations, regrettably. But anyway, they had it there,
and these pilgrims would get on their hands and knees, and
they'd crawl up these stairs, up which our Lord walked, supposedly,
reportedly. And there were some drops on
these stairs, red marks, and they were covered with glass.
This was actually, they thought, His blood that had dripped on
these stairs. And Martin Luther was there in
Rome, He was going through this penance, and he had his beads
around his neck and his crucifix, and he was on his hands and knees,
and he was crawling up these stairs, up which Jesus was supposed
to have walked, and he was kissing these stains on the steps, and
he was saying all the Hail Marys, Mother of God, pray for us poor
sinners, and he was going through all these things, trying to find
acceptance with God, and he got, he sat about halfway up, and
the voice of God through the Word of God, not audibly, but
through the Word of God, spoke to his heart and said, Martin
Luther, the just shall live by faith. The just shall live by
faith. And he said, when that word stung
my soul and heart again, I jumped up off those stairs and I said,
I'm through with this! And ran out the door of that
place. And brother, I tell you, he started a fire that spread
all over the world. The just shall live by faith. By faith. He married a lovely
lady. They had several children. He
pastored a church. He preached the gospel. He shook
Germany from one end to the other. They even named a denomination
after him. God used him to bring us some of the freedoms that
we enjoy. I now believe, I do believe, that Jesus died for
me. And through his blood, his precious
blood, I am from sin set free. That's it. not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to His mercy He had saved us. I look at that thief dying on
the cross. Our Lord pronounced him saved. No preacher did. Our Lord did. And there that
man, the outcast that the outcast cast out. They were crucifying
him. He wasn't fit to live. And he
cried for mercy. He believed on Christ. He said,
You're coming into a kingdom, you're not going to stay dead.
I'm getting just what I deserve. Remember me when you come into
your kingdom." He never worked, he never washed, he was never
baptized, he never wrote a book, he never walked a step, knocking
on doors, inviting people to church, he never gave a dime
to the cause of missions. But our Lord said, today thou
shalt be with me in paradise. Jesus Christ is the all-sufficient
Savior. And he that believeth in Christ
is not condemned, and he that believeth not is condemned already. The greatest sinner who ever
walked can be cleansed by the blood of Christ. The best man
who ever lived cannot be cleansed any other way. This matter of
justification by faith and faith alone in Christ Jesus and Christ
alone is the very article by which a church stands or falls. This matter of justification
by faith alone, in Christ alone, through the blood of Christ alone,
is the article by which a minister and his gospel stands or fall,
and by which a professor of religion stands or falls. There is no
bridge between merit and mercy. There is no compromise. They
are far apart as the poles, and never the twain shall meet. Salvation
is all of grace, not of works. lest any man should boast. And
no mixture, however small the dose, can be allowed in our message,
in our gospel, in our belief, or in our hope. Look down here
at Romans 4. Let me show you something here
that's enlightening. Talking about Abraham, verse
1 of Romans 4. What shall we say then? That
Abraham, our father, as pertaining to the flesh, hath found Now,
if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory. He can get some glory, some credit,
some praise, some reward, but not before God. For what saith
the Scripture, Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto
him for righteousness. He did what? He believed. He believed God. And it was counted
to him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh, to him
that serveth, to him that seeketh to establish a righteousness
before God by what he does, it's a reward, not reckoned of grace. That's something God owes you.
And God doesn't owe us anything. Look down at verse 20. Abraham,
verse 20 of Romans 4, didn't stagger at the promise of God
through unbelief, but he was strong in faith, giving glory
to God, and being fully persuaded that what God had promised, God
was able to perform. He believed God. Therefore, it
was imputed to him, charged to his account, reckoned to him
for righteousness. Abraham believed God. And his
belief in God was charged to his account as righteousness. Now look at the next verse. And
therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. Now, it was
not written, verse 23, for his sake alone that it was imputed
to him, but for us also, to whom righteousness shall be imputed. if we believe on him that raised
up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offenses,
who was raised again for our justification. Paul said in Romans
chapter 3 verse 28, therefore we conclude a man is justified
by faith. without the deeds of the law.
Now how did he come to this conclusion? I want you to look back at verse
19 and let me briefly give you about 7 or 8, very briefly, 7
or 8 things. How did Paul come to this conclusion?
A man is justified. You men out there, you women,
you young people, you are justified before God. You are killed in
God. You are forgiven by God. You
are pardoned. Your sins are blotted out. You
are cleansed and made holy and you are accepted by God by faith. By faith. That's what he's saying.
That's my conclusion. Without the deeds of the law,
without the works of the law, without Praying at a bench, or
shaking a preacher's hand, or being baptized, or taking the
Lord's Supper, or giving your tithe, or attending church on
Sunday, or reading the Bible, or praying so many times, or
quitting certain sins, or walking the straight and narrow, or reforming
or changing your life, that's not the way a man is justified. He's justified only and solely
and completely only by faith. That's what Paul is saying. Now these things have their place,
and they must be preached, and they will be the byproducts of
faith, and they will be the fruits of faith, and they will be the
results of faith, but we're justified by faith. The man who preaches
fifty years, who lives a godly moral life and sets an example
in his community, and gives His life and his family and his time
and his efforts to the kingdom of God, who crosses the ocean
as a missionary and buries his family over there and dies himself
preaching the gospel, is saved not because of anything he did
or gave, but because Christ died for him. That's the only reason. That's so. He's saved like that
thief. He's redeemed the same way. He's
cleansed the same way. He's justified the same way.
He's loved no more by God. He's justified no more than that
thief. He'll have no more glory than
that thief because the glory belongs to the Lord and not to
us. I know that's not what the world
is saying, but that's what God says. Justified by faith. as if I had never lifted my finger
for the glory of God. I'm justified by faith. Now how
did Paul come to that conclusion? Verse 19, look at it. Now we
know that what thingsoever this law saith, it saith to them that
are under the law. That's every one of us. That's
me and you and everybody else. We're under the law of God. God
is the ruler of this universe and this universe is ruled by
God's law. And God's law is a perfect law
and it requires perfect obedience. It requires perfect obedience
inwardly and outwardly, in attitude and action, in thought and in
conduct, and we're under God's law. And what things whoever
this law has said, it says to every one of us that every mouth
may be shut, stopped, and the whole world become guilty before
God. The law has spoken and every
human is speechless. The law of God has spoken and
every son of Adam is speechless because the law condemns us. The law exposes us. The law of
God presents the case against us and we're guilty. That's all.
We're guilty. All right, the second thing.
Therefore, verse 20, because we're guilty, Because the law
of God has shut our mouth, we don't have one alibi, we don't
have one excuse. Just guilty, that's all. I said
it, I did it, I thought it, I performed it, I imagined it, I'm guilty. Therefore, because we're guilty,
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight. Brethren, I can't be justified
by the very instrument that condemns me. I can't hold up the law and the
law says I'm guilty. I've broken every law to offend
in one part is to be guilty of the whole law. And the law writes,
guilty. How can the same thing, same
law, same word, same instrument say, forgiven? Can't do it. All
the law can do is pronounce me guilty. By the law is the revelation
of my sin, the knowledge of my sin. The law tells me what I
am. The law of God is the looking
glass into which I look and see my faults. I see my guilt. I see my sin, don't you? God
says, love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. I wish I did.
The law of God says, love your neighbors yourself. I wish I
did. The law of God says, love your
enemies. I wish I could. The law of God
says, feed your enemy. Pray for them which despitefully
use you and curse you. Pray for them. That's right,
pay for it. The law of God says, take off
your coat and give it to a man. The law of God says, if you've
got two coats, give your neighbor one. How am I going to be saved
by this very instrument that condemns me? Let me say this,
every son of Adam in this world is a fool, as the old Mexicans
down there, one of the worst things they can say about you
is stupido. That's what you are, stupid, stupido gringo. And every
one of us are stupido gringos who look at a law that says you're
guilty and turn right around and try to be justified by keeping
it. Now that's stupid. That's what Paul said, by the
deeds of the law, no flesh is going to be justified. Verse
21, oh here's good news. But now, the holiness of God
himself, the righteousness of God himself without the law. That is, without my obedience
to it. I'm not going to have a righteousness
by obedience to the law because I haven't obeyed it, and can't.
Not perfectly, and that's what it requires. So God has revealed
the righteousness of God, the perfect holiness of God is revealed,
is manifested without my obedience. If I get any righteousness, it'll
have to be without obedience to the law. And he's revealed
it, and he's witnessed it by the law and the prophets. It's
right here in the book, all the way through. Abraham knew about
it. Abraham knew about it. Now I'd
sure like to know about that. What is it? Oh, well, look at
verse 22. It is the righteousness of God, which is by faith, not
by works, not by church membership, but by faith. Anybody can look. Anybody can
believe. You don't have to be a certain
type of Indian. You can have black skin and still
look to Christ. You can be the most disabled
person and look to Christ. You can be without any nerve
to promote any movement of the body and look to Christ. You
can be the most bankrupt man who ever lived and look. And
it's the righteousness of God which is by faith of Jesus Christ. And it's unto all and upon all
them that believe. There's no difference in men.
I know we like to think we've got our class system, we've got
folks we think are under us, or above us, or beneath us, or
less than us, or not as important as us, or blacker than us, or
not of the race we are, not as intelligent as we are, but God
says in my sight there's no difference. All of you sin, all of you sons
of Adam, fallen sons of Adam, all of you guilty before God,
there's no difference. There's no difference. Look up
at verse 10. There's none righteous, no, not one. There's none that
understandeth, there's none that seeketh after God. You tell that
preacher that tells you he's without sin, he's had a second
blessing, he's got the Holy Ghost, his old nature's eradicated,
and he doesn't sin anymore, you tell him he's a liar and the
truth's not in him. That's what God's Word says. They're all
guilty, they've all gone out of the way, they've all together
become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. There's no difference. Verse 23, all have sinned and
come short. We hadn't come short of our standard
or our church rules and regulations. But that's not the law by which
we're going to be judged. We've come short of the glory
of God. Now I know there's some fellas that think they don't
sin, they live above sin and all this sort of thing, and they
don't do some things that the church says is wrong. The church
has got its rules and regulations and laws that people are not
allowed to do or so forth and so on, how they're supposed to
dress and all this. And they've got that all down, you know,
and they don't violate those rules, but that's not the rule
by which we're going to be judged. We're going to be judged by that
man, Christ Jesus. God has appointed a day in which
he's going to judge the world by that man, Jesus Christ. The
one whom they hated, and he loved them in return. The one whom
they spit upon, and he said, Father, forgive them. The one
whom they reproached, and for whom he prayed. The one that
they nailed to the cross, the one that was tried in all points,
yet without sin. The one who never hated, and
never lusted, never coveted, never lied, and never lusted,
and never did anything contrary to the Father's perfect will,
who knew no sin. We're going to be judged by Him.
That's right. And that shuts every mouth. All
right, verse 24. But he says, being freely justified,
freely, by His grace, Through a work of redemption that is
in Jesus Christ, He came down here. Jesus Christ came down
here and became a man. And being tried and tested and
tempted in every point, every point as we are, yet He knew
no sin. And not only that, but He went
to the cross and bore our transgressions in His body on the tree. It says
in verse 25, God set Him forward. That word is foreordained. God
Almighty set him forth in purpose. Did you know there was a Savior
before there was a sinner? That's right. Before Adam ever
fell, God set forth his Son to be the Lamb slain. That's what
Scripture said. He was the Lamb slain before
the foundation of the world. In the everlasting covenant of
God's grace, God set forth his Son. The fall didn't take God
by surprise. Nothing does. All his works are
known unto God from the beginning. That's right. He declares the
end from the beginning. And Christ Jesus was the Lamb
slain before the foundation of the world. God set him forth
in purpose, and then God set him forth in promise. When Adam
and Eve fell, he came to them and announced the seed of woman
would bruise the serpent's heel. He promised the Savior. He promised
him to Abraham. He said, Abraham, I'm going to
make of you a great nation, and from your loins shall come him
in whom all nations will be blessed. He prophesied him to Isaiah,
David. Moses saw his day. That rock
was Christ. Our Passover is Christ. God set
him forth in promise. God set him forth in picture.
That old tabernacle out yonder in the wilderness, it just says,
Christ, Christ, Christ. It says sacrifice in his blood. It says Christ the priest, every
priest, every atonement, every offering. the smoke of incense, the intercession
of Christ. God set him forth in person in
the fullness of time. God sent his Son into the world,
made under the law to redeem them, born under the law. He
sent him forth in the preaching of the gospel. Then look at verse 27. God set
him forth, verse 26, to declare at this time God's righteousness
that God might be just and the justifier of him which believeth
in Jesus. You see, my friends, God, our
God, is a God of attributes, character. God is holy. God is love. God is just. God is merciful. God is righteous. And God is grace. But the Lord
God cannot do anything to violate any of those attributes. He can't
express His love and violate His law, His holiness. There's something God can't do. God can't lie. That's what Scripture
says. And God can't show or reveal or give His mercy and violate
His holiness. So in order to justify sinners,
if he sets out to save the guilty, now, if he puts his love upon
a guilty man, and he puts his sins away, he says, well, I'll
just tear up your record and throw it away. Now, I'm going
to take you to heaven. I'll just forgive all this you've
done and said, and I'll weigh your good deeds and bad deeds.
And whichever comes out the most, I'll let that go. Now, we wouldn't
put up with that down at City Hall. In other words, the man
comes in there, Say he's a banker, and this banker has supported
the Ramey home, and he's given milk to the orphanage and food
to the orphans, and he's taken children off the streets and
been nice to them, and he's been a great contributor to the hospital,
and he's a benevolent benefactor, and a band that is just, he's
never, he's always at home at night, and he's never been drunk,
and all he says, but suppose he's stealing from the bank,
and he comes before the judge, and he's stolen the bank blind,
and the judge says, well, boy, I'm in a mess here now, he's
such a nice guy, but he's done this thing, What am I going to
do? Well, I tell you, his good deeds outweighed his bad ones,
so we just let him go on back. No, sir. He broke the law. And that just judge has got to
make him pay. The law has got to have some
teeth in it. It's got to be honored. Now,
here you and I, here you stand. Some of you got this idea in
your minds. And I'm trying my best to get it out of your minds.
You stand before a holy God at the judgment. And you say, well,
Lord, I've been a family man I've given, I've supported the
orphanage, and I've worked hard all my life, raised my family.
Look at these calluses, Lord. I've worked hard. I've done many
wonderful works. I helped build a church. I was a good neighbor,
and I helped build a hospital, and Lord, I did all these things,
and 23 out of every 24 hours, I was a good man. The Lord says,
well, this rebellion in your heart, this hatred, this malice,
this lust, this covetousness, this pride, this evil, all these
things that the eyes of men can't see, this imagination, this self-will,
that's sin. You took part in the crucifixion
of my son. You took part in the rebellion
of Adam. You took part, but now your good
deeds outweigh your bad ones. God can't operate that way. He's
perfectly holy, perfectly just, and our sins must be punished.
But besides that, we have no good deeds. Most of our goodness
is motivated by our selfish purpose. That's right. So God Almighty,
in order to be just and yet forgive the sinner, just and justify,
to demonstrate His love and His holiness, His mercy and His righteousness,
gave His Son to take my place. And our Lord Jesus Christ came
down here and as a man, He perfectly obeyed the law. He perfectly
kept God's law. God the Father can look at His
Son and in Him find no fault. And He stood as our representative.
He stood as our surety. And then Christ went to the cross
and there He took our sins in His body and He was wounded for
our transgressions. He was bruised for our iniquities.
The chastisement of our peace was upon Him. And God's law was
satisfied by the obedience of His Son and His justice was satisfied
by the death of His Son. And His love is satisfied by
the redemption of His Son. It's all in Christ. Well, how
does that become mine? By faith, by believing on Christ. Verse 27 says, now, where is
boasting? Anybody got anything to boast
about? Where is boasting in any of this? Where is the glory?
Where is works? Where is good deeds? Where is it? All of it
is in Christ. I want you to turn with me to
Mark 16. Mark 16. Let me close with this. I think
I can help you a little bit right here. Mark 16. Our Lord sent His disciples out
to preach. And when they were going forth
to preach, this was after He arose from the grave, He said,
Mark 16, 15. Now look at this a moment. And
He said to His disciples, you go into all the world, all the
world, and you preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. He that believeth not shall be
damned. That's it. Justification by faith. What about that baptism in that
preacher? All right, you with me? Now let's consider for a
moment. Faith, he that believeth, receives Christ as a substitute,
which he is. I'm a guilty sinner. He's the
Son of God. I deserve to die. He died in
my place. I'm a guilty sinner. The law
commands me to perfectly obey it. In every jot and tittle,
I couldn't do it. He came down and did it for me
as my substitute. My faith looks upon him and receives
him as just what he is, my substitute. He did all that God required.
He's the God-man who obeyed God's law and died in my stead. Faith
receives him as my righteousness before the law. Now in my flesh
dwelleth no good thing. I mean right now. And in your
flesh dwelleth no good. In the flesh no man can please
God. I attempt to, I'd like to, I want to, I'm commanded to. But there's no way that I can
perfectly please God. But Jesus Christ did. And He is my righteousness. He
in the flesh did all things good at all times, and He is my righteousness,
and my faith accepts that. It receives that. I look to Him
for my righteousness. I look in here and I see sin,
and I turn away and I look to Him and I see holiness. That
faith receives that. Faith receives Christ as my High
Priest. You say, but you pray to the
Father, don't you? Oh, yes. Oh yes, I come boldly
before the throne of grace. I come boldly. But you know how
I can do that? Because I got a high priest there
who intercedes for me. Having a high priest over the
house of God, let us come boldly before his throne that we may
find mercy and grace. Having a high priest. You see
that? So he's my priest, and he cleanses
my prayers, and his blood and his wounds enable me to stand
before God. So my faith receives him as my
high priest, my mediator. One God, one mediator between
God and me. Those poor people in Mexico,
we go in that old Catholic church there, and there's the Virgin
Mary with a crown. She's the Queen of Heaven. You
don't know anything about Catholicism here in this country, real Catholicism
in these pagan countries. in its operation in those places.
You don't know anything about it. You've never seen it. They
hide it in this country. But down there they're still
burning candles for the dead. Down there they're still putting
food out. The priests do this, putting food out as a tombstone
for the dead people to come and eat. And the people are paying
for those things. Down there they still have confessional
booths all up and down the walls where the priest sits and listens
to people spill out their garbage and their sin into his ears.
And there's the virgin dressed up in her purple robe with a
crown on her head and the world under her feet. And Jesus Christ
is laying over there in a coffin. They've got him in a coffin with
a crown on his head, laying in a coffin, a wax dummy of Jesus
Christ and his mother's up here. And down in front of her is a
kneeling place and a place to burn candles. And that place
is worn thin where those poor people sit on their knees in
front of that statue of Mary and plead for mercy. Christ is
over there in a coffin. He's my Mediator. One God and
one Mediator. And faith receives Christ as
my Lord. He's my sovereign King. He's
the Lord of my life and the owner of all things. And faith bows
to that Lordship. That's faith and that's what
justifies. You say, what about baptism? He said, he that believeth
and is baptized shall be saved. All right? The first step I take,
the first step that the believer takes after faith is baptism,
which publicly announces and publicly acknowledges this identification,
which publicly acknowledges this representation. I died in Christ. I was buried in Christ, and I'm
risen in Christ, and I'm seated at the right hand of God in Christ.
And what I'm saying in baptism to the people, to the world,
is just what my faith has received. When Christ died, I died. When
he was buried, I'm buried. And when Christ arose, I rose
out of the watery grave to walk in newness of life. Baptism has
no saving efficacy. It has no saving power. It is
nothing but a sign and a symbol that teaches that true believers
are dead with Christ, buried with Christ, and risen with Christ.
That's what it is. The essence of faith is to receive
Christ as representing me in death, burial, and resurrection,
and ascension. And the essence of baptism is
to be buried with Him because I am dead. I'm saying to the
world, this is what has happened. This is what my faith has believed. This is what I acknowledge. I died when Christ died. And
I was buried when Christ was buried. And I rose when Christ
arose. And I'm seated in Him and glorified
in Him. I believe that. And I believe
it enough to declare it publicly to the whole world. Therefore
we conclude, Paul said, that a man is justified by faith. Whatever else follows is by God's
grace. I believe in instantaneous conversion. The Bible teaches that. We have
been saved, we are being saved, and our salvation is nearer than
when we believe. But when a man, by the grace of God, ever comes
to see who Christ is, and what he did, and why he did it, and
where he is now, and his heart acknowledges that, and his soul
acknowledges that, and his heart receives that, he's saved. He's saved. Justified by faith. He may be in the eleventh hour
of life. And you know, I've known some men who've gone through
life struggling to find acceptance with God. They've been faithful
to a doctrine or faithful to a religion or faithful to an
experience or faithful to a law and all these things. Never had
any real peace. Never had any real joy. Never
had any real relaxation of soul and spirit. Always, well, have I worked enough? Have I done enough? Have I gone
to church enough? Have I been faithful enough?"
And the answer comes back, no, no, no. Well, you can't find
any peace in that. But if you could come to see
that Christ died for your sins, that as far as God's concerned,
your sins don't even exist. He said, I blot them out. He
said, Jim, I remember them no more. They don't even exist.
Just don't even exist. They're cast behind my back.
If you could come to that place of faith, you'd have some peace.
Oh, you struggle over your thoughts, you think things you shouldn't
think, and you boil over, and you shouldn't, you know that,
you don't want to. You're a human being. He remembereth
our frame. He knoweth that we're dust. You
get to looking in here, and you're in a mess, but you ought to look
out up there. Look at the cross. Look at Calvary. Look at God's mercy. Believe. Believe.

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Our Conclusion - Justified by Faith

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