Dear people, we are continuing our study in the London Baptist Confession of Faith. And we are on chapter 11. If you don't have a copy of the London Baptist Confession of Faith, you can turn in the back of your hymnals. And I believe it's at 676 that you'll find we are on chapter 11 of that confession. And as we are coming down, we are seeing how God himself and what he has done to believe. What our reformers have done showed how biblical salvation has come to the heart of men. There are a lot of people teaching a lot of different things about how you get saved. But all those things are not true. And what the reformed Baptists have done, and this is not just a group that got together, say, like in 1972 or something like this. This goes all the way back to the 1600s. It was the breaking away from Catholicism that caused the church to be lost in such a dirge, and we find men who came through it, even those who was under Catholicism. We found, if you go back, John Huss was one that he began to push the truth of the scriptures instead of going along for what the church had died in at that particular time. And you know, even Martin Luther, when he began, and he saw the scriptures, and he saw it was different. The Catholic Church wanted to get rid of him. Even Martin Luther said, we are Hussites now. And indicating what that one man had done. But this has come all the way up to the area, and where we are here. how we have called upon this. This confession is held by many different churches, Baptists and even throughout the world. And so it's not something that is unique to this little group. It is that there are millions of Christians follow this. And so as we're coming through, I have looked upon, or I should say rested upon, the biblical work of salvation in the heart of man, because I want us to understand what is taking place. As we even walk and say we are saved and we are Christians, we can actually fall into areas where we are forgetting some of the true doctrinal things that have taken place in us. And we need to look back and see what God has done. And what we find in chapters 10 to 15 of this confession of faith, that it's all of God. No work is done by us. And it begins by the whole possible truth of that by the chapters themselves. We have already gone through chapter 10, effectual calling, indicating that God is the one who does it. And it's effective when God calls a sinner to himself. Sinner didn't decide to come out of his sins and go to Christ. God calls. But in chapter 11, we have of justification. And as we've looked at this chapter, we have seen that Christ's death on the cross was for those who he died for. And we are justified because of what Christ did on the cross. Now that doesn't mean that justification is infused into each and every one of us. As I said in what is teaching here, justification is more of a legal term. It looks at us now as no longer sinners. but we are Christ's people, we're in Him, and God has changed us. But through this whole process, we see here what God is saying, and we're in, again, that fourth paragraph, what I'm gonna pick up on this morning, and we'll see again how God is dealing and what. Another thing I want you to know, the words that you find in our confession of faith are not words that made up by men. They're not biblical kind of words that they thought, or I should say, religious words that they took up. These words that they use come right out of the Bible. They're God's words, not man's words. So when we look at these words, we should understand that truth. Now, as we come to paragraph four, we have, God did from all eternity decree to justify the elect. and Christ did in the fullness of time die for their sins and rise again for their justification. Nevertheless, they are not justified personally until the Holy Spirit doth in due time actually apply Christ to them. There's a powerful paragraph we see here. And what we see here, there are three main points here, three. It's the statement of true justification of the elect. And also the second statement, how justification was purchased. And then the third statement, when the elect are personally justified. So as we look at this, we see the statement of true justification for the elect. God did from all eternity agree, or excuse me, decree to justify all the elect. Now we already seen what the elect are as we were in the first chapter 10 of this very aspect. And it indicated there that God predestined to life those whom he has chosen. And so now, he's saying here, as we come, now they're justified, and we walk through that, but when does this actually come to the life of the believer? God did, from all eternity, decree, excuse me, to justify all the elect. This truth is made clear by the apostle Paul. Turn with me to the book of Romans, and we'll look at some of the things that Paul has to say here in the book of Romans. And as we move along with this, again, like I'm saying, all this comes from the scripture. It's not what some men sat down and decide that we're going to have our religion to be this way. It's all from the scripture itself. Look at Romans chapter 8. And here we find that the God is saying what Paul says there. He says, let's take it up at verse 28. And we know that God calls all things to work together for God to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose. Now, this is what we are seeing and what we are working on. For those whom he foreknew, he also predestined to become conformed to the image of his son so that he would be the firstborn among many brethren. And these whom he predestined, he also called. And these whom he called, he also justified. And these whom he justified, he also glorified. The verse here, you look at that verse 29, verse 30, excuse me, you find out that what the Apostle Paul is saying, remember, this is not Paul's word, this is God's word, and this is what he's saying. These verses prove that foreknowledge and predestination took place in eternity past. God doesn't look at a person right now and say, oh, you know what? I think I'm gonna make you my saint. No, that was done in eternity past. And then we have three more words, calling, justification, and glorification. That takes place in time. God's sovereign act was that he planned to justify all whom he predestined to life in eternity past. Before he said, let there be light, he justified. Yet those whom he would justify takes place, I said, in time. This is in the life of the believer. Again, God's plan to justify the elect was his decree before, again, before the world began. And this is what he said, and Paul makes this clear, that this is the first thing we see, and we must understand that. But there's a second part to this. How justification was purchased. And it says to us in our confession, and Christ did in the fullness of time die for their sins and rise again for their justification. Let me remind you, justification is, remember, a legal term. It's not something that is spiritually infused in us. It is a legal term. It puts now those who are in the field of saying lost and guilty out of that field into the field of righteousness. It has done that. We have saw already. That is not because of something we have done, but it's because of what Christ have done. And our confession is saying, and Christ did in the fullness of time die for their sins and rise again for their justification. Romans 4 and 25 says, he who was delivered over because of our transgression and was raised because of our justification. Christ died for their sins. It's what our confession says, and this is what the Bible teaches. Our transgressions, our sins, all of our sins were placed upon Jesus Christ when he went to the cross. He carried those sins, every one of them, for all the elect. Try to view that in your mind. Just try to think of somebody carrying all the sins for this little group of people here on himself. Just think of that. That would be a lot of sins, wouldn't it? And we found out from this, that is sins past, present, and future. All those sins put upon him. Not some, not the worst sins, but every single sin. People say, you know, oh, well, I told a white lie. Well, you know what? That's sin. Even a sin to be assumed to be so small, every single sin the elect was going to commit, it was put upon him. Transgressions and sins, they are called. These are the very things we look at. Notice while you're in the Book of Romans, you can turn over to chapter 5 and see what Paul says here, given again the word to him by God himself. of guiding him and how and what he should tell the people and even write these scriptures. And it says in Romans 5, if we look at verse 1, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And notice what Paul says there, having been justified by faith. He now looks at it when it comes to us when he says that. But notice as he goes on, and I wanna drop down to verses six to eight. For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one would hardly die for a righteous man." In other words, Paul said, there would be no need to die for a righteous man. Though perhaps one, for a good man, someone would dare even to die. And he's using some language there. You say, you know, people might be pretty good. If he's righteous, well, who needs to die for him? He needs no justification if he's righteous. Some people think they are that way, you know that? They think they're so good that they don't even need God. But then he goes on. But God demonstrates his own love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And dear people, what this does just takes everything out of our hands into thinking that We would do something in order for Christ to say, yes, I will die for them. We can some kind of way show some goodness to God. And God's going to look at us and say, you know what? You're pretty good. I'm going to send my son to die for you. No, God saw us and all our sins. And he said, there's no reason for me to even like you because of who you are. But I do have a special love upon you because I chose you for myself. Now, the only way you can be saved is I have to do that work also. Because if I leave you to yourself, there is no salvation. And so that's the first thing. Christ died in the fullness of time for their sins. He died for their sins. But it goes on and says, and raised again for their justification. raised because of their justification. The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a historical fact. And the results of his resurrection is that his death paid the price of every sin that the elect committed and will commit, which were on all of us, and it placed on Christ himself, and he died with those sins on the cross. Paul says that the demonstration of God's love for us is shown. Again, here in chapter five, what he says in verse eight, but God demonstrates his own love towards us. Stop for a minute. Just think about that. Think about you and who you are. Think about how you live. Think about what you do right now. You Christians, you say, Christ is my savior. He died for me, and I love him. But you think about it. Do you live through a day without sinning? What is it in us that would even cause God to love us? We don't know. But just think, if we can see how bad we are now, he saw how bad we were, even from a little boy, little girl, coming up to an adult, and what we're going to do even past this day. But he still says, I'm going to make them mine. This is the wonder of it. But God demonstrates his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Christ didn't let you and I become better people, and then he decided that he gonna give his life. No, when we were the worst that we could be, because he can see everything eternal. He sees all that's going on. And at that time, he said, I'm gonna die for him. And Paul captures that pretty nicely too. If you look over in Galatians chapter three, turn to Galatians chapter three, what you notice on the apostle now, even mentions, Galatians chapter 3, and the whole chapter is good. Read it for yourself because you'll find out what Paul is saying here, but I just want to focus in on a few verses. Look at verse 6. Even so Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him for righteousness. Not that Abraham was changed, he believed. Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of the faith who are sons of Abraham. The scriptures, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, all the nations will be blessed in you. And then he goes on and he says, so then those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham, the believer. Verse 10, for as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse of for it is written, cursed is everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law to perform them. That's why Paul brings in Abraham here. Abraham was even before the law, all that. But he said he had a faith. And that faith was looking to God and trusting him. But notice what Paul says after that. Look at verse 11. Now that no one is justified by the law before God is evident. It is not trying to please Christ and God that we are justified. He takes it, he says, we are who we are because it is out of our reach. We don't bring anything to God to show God, here I am, look at me, you ought to love me. No. Again, in verse 11, now that no one is justified by the law before God is evident for the righteous man shall live by faith. And he's saying, and Paul is no doubt pointing to the fact that we're going to have, it's going to be faith that's going to show us and make us understand that it was Christ who gave us what we have. And this is the only way we could be who we are. And that's the very thing that he said. This wonderful truth of justification is taught in the Old Testament. Turn with me to Isaiah 53. And notice what even the prophet says here. And this is way before Paul, isn't it? But God's truth is God's truth through all the annals of time, and it does not change. Isaiah 53, you know the very passage itself, so I'm not gonna read the whole thing, but I'm gonna jump to some of the things that we see here. As Isaiah is writing, he says in verse one, who has believed our message? And to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? And then he speaks about, he's talking about Christ as he goes on in these verses. In verse four he says, surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried, yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. This was done to Lord Jesus Christ, not to us. But he was pierced through for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastisement for our well-being fell upon him. And by his scourging, we were healed. Here is the Old Testament teaching us that it was that Christ had done it. Before Christ came on the scene, God's prophet is preaching that he's going to come and what he's going to go through. The cross is pictured right here in Isaiah's word. He says this clearly. The wonderful truth of justification is taught by him. Iniquities, he says, his iniquities, ours rather, he was crushed for our iniquities. Know what that is? That's sin. That's guilt. It also means punishment for the penalty of sin. And so what is he saying? Meaning that our sins call for God's punishment upon us, but God calls that punishment to fall upon Jesus on the cross. He was the one, he took it. So we can see here, as we think of the second one, justification was purchased. It was purchased, first of all, Christ died for their sins. And secondly, we find that he was raised because of their justification. And the final word we have in this paragraph is when the elect are personally justified. If you're looking at Confession of Faith, it says, nevertheless, they are not justified personally. Let's start with that first. They are not justified personally. Notice what it says. The elect are not justified from eternity or when God predestined them to life. They come into the world just like every other sinner. stained with Adam's sin. They are dead spiritually, have no desire to please God, nor love for God, and they do not have a heart to live for the glory of God. Every human being comes into the world, has no desire for God. All this proves that we are We all come to the world with no desire whatsoever. Speaking about religion, maybe so, but with no faith in Christ and no desire to go after Christ. Isaiah 53 says that all of us like sheep have gone astray. Each one of us have turned to his own way, but the Lord has cast upon him the iniquity of us all. because all of us are sinners. Notice how the Lord Jesus Christ even brings up this point in John chapter 3. John chapter 3, talking to Nicodemus, he has to straighten him out and tell him what it is. That sinner's relief. In John chapter 3, You know the chapter itself. This man, Pharisee, come to speak to Christ. He's been moved in his heart. Something has been moving in him. He wants to know what's going on. So he comes to him by night. He's a popular man. He's up in the high echelon of Judaism. But he comes, and he asks him about him. Notice what he says. This man came to Nicodemus by night, to Jesus by night. He says, Rabbi, we know that you have come from God, a teacher, for no one do these things that you do unless God is with them. Now, he had a pretty good statement he making there. He wants to know well about Jesus, but what did Jesus say? Jesus' answer is different from what he's actually focused upon. Jesus says to him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That's an important statement there, people, unless you're born again. You know what those words mean if you just really think about it? You die and you're born again. Are we going to die and get born again? But Jesus says something as radical as that has to happen. And then Nicodemus, well, he responded in the right way. How can a man be born again? Do we enter our mother's womb a second time? How can that happen? Jesus says, That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you that you must be born again." And then he says this, the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the spirit. Jesus is about to tell this man that there's something new, there's something he have to understand, that he need to understand about it, and he gets onto that when he gets into John 3 in verse 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. And so he said, this is the case. Now, some people take that very statement and take one word in there and they make that word mean what they want it to mean. God so loved the world. But here, Jesus is not talking about the entire world. He's talking about those in the world who has been given to him, and he makes that plain. Notice what he says in verse 17. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him. He who believes in him is not judging. He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment that the light has come into the world. And men loved the darkness rather than the light, for their deeds were evil." So here Jesus is saying that those out of the world who belong to God, these are the ones he loved. And what has he done? He has now moved where he is going to bring them to himself and save them. And so it says, this is the first thing we see, what happens here? What does Christ do? Nevertheless, they are not justified personally. In other words, nothing has happened to them yet in their bodies, in their minds, in their souls, if we wanna say. And the confession goes on until the Holy Spirit doth in time do actually apply Christ unto them. The fact of justification is not experienced by the elect until the Holy Spirit applies this to them. John 3.16, we read that, for God so loved the world, he gave his only begotten son so that whoever believes in him shall not perish. will not perish, but have eternal life. The sinner will be given spiritual life only by the work of the Holy Spirit. Paul gives a list of the signs, sins, excuse me, that are prevalent in man, and emphatically states that there is no salvation for such a lifestyle. Look at 1 Corinthians chapter six, and he says, this is way man, is living and there's no hope for him. First Corinthians chapter 6, notice in verse 9, he's writing to the church and you know some of the things he's interested in telling the church, but he goes, look at verse 9, or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals. Hey, look what's going on today. Be whoever you want to be. Not according to God. Not according to God. Nor thieves, nor covetousness, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. One of the horrible things we see, there was something on the news about the Catholic Church. Now they're doing something now to let the LBGTQ come, and they can take the Eucharist also. They can be under there. Where you get that from? You don't get it from the Bible. Well, you get it from a false church, though, don't you? And that's what it is. And Paul is saying here, no such thing. But he says in verse 11, such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Spirit of our God. Paul is saying here's the same thing that happened. All of you now in Corinth, what was your lifestyle? Look back at that life. How did you live? But you're changed now. And Paul says, until the Holy Spirit doth in time do actually apply Christ to them, they would be walking in their sins. You and I would still be the same way we were before we got saved, if it wasn't for God and his mercy and his grace upon us. God, look in, brother, think about this. Before he said, let there be light, he said, he, she, them are mine. And in time, I'm gonna bring them to myself. And then, but we also find out, but when Christ went to the cross, he died for each and every one of God's people. But though it is in space and time when we will find out who we are, some of us have said, oh Lord, I wish you would have saved me earlier and that I hadn't go through some of the things that I go through. God knew you were gonna go through them. He knew. But what we have here, until the Holy Spirit doth, in time, actually apply Christ to them. The Spirit applies Christ to them. It is clear teaching of the Bible that faith precedes justification. The Lord Jesus Christ purchased justification by his death, but it was the work of the Holy Spirit that regenerated the hearts. Notes in John chapter three, we see the same thing there. It says in 3.18, he who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in. the name of the only begotten God. The Holy Spirit gives us faith, dear people, and Paul says it is a work of God's grace in Ephesians 2 and 8, for by grace you have been saved through faith And that, not of yourselves. It is the gift of God. A man, a woman, we're not telling that. Now you have to now work up some faith. Trust in Him. That's what they tell you today. But the scripture says you can't trust unless God first gives it to you. Galatians 2 and 16, nevertheless, knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but through faith in Jesus Christ, even we have believed in Christ Jesus so that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the law, since by the works of the law, no flesh will be justified. And you know, with Paul, you can understand what he's saying. He come out of Judaism, and everything they had was a works law. You bring this sacrifice, you bring that, you do this, you follow this, you follow the commandments here. Remember Jesus asked, we need water. They talked about all the things you had to be doing to be right with God. And Jesus would basically show them that, no, that's not the way you get it. It's not gonna be done that way. Romans 5 and 9, much more than, having now been justified by his blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him. Oh, dear people, what a wonderful truth. What a wonderful truth. But what does this mean to us today? We look at this and we see that, and what does it mean? If we believe in our heart that we are truly saved, we must apply these truths to our lives. We can't just hear that and just go on and live just the way we are. We should be, no matter where we are in grace with Christ, we should be moving on a little differently as we hear him. Just think about God decreed even before we were born to justify us. Think of that by yourself. Think of you, whoever you are, however you want to dress yourself. Just think right now, before I was even born, He chose me. And we were justified, not because of anything we did, but only by the death of Christ. Christ went to the cross. And all people, it has to be just this personal to you. When Christ was on the cross and he was crying out, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? He saw Even all those, and I believe there are people, not just a conglomeration of little heads on a big picture board, each one of us by name, he's saying, this was for our, this is for each and every one of us in here. This is for LaSalle. This is for Joseph. This is for Lorraine. This is for Randy. This is what he's saying. Dear people, we have to move into just that much to really understand what he's doing and what has happened to us. We were so lost, we couldn't do nothing about it. But Christ, when he died, he didn't just go to the cross and we have some idea that many people are going to say, because I went to the cross. No. He knew us before we were actually born. And he knew for time and space, we're going to come into the world. And he knew what segment of our lives were he going to call us to himself. He knew it all. And you see, this takes salvation out of the hand of a person has to do this and do that in order to get saved. And what we learn from justification is that now we are righteous not upon our own action, but upon Christ's act, upon the cross. If we were in him, if all our sins were laid on him when he was on the cross, that means every single one. Christ paid the penalty for all of our sins. Pass. Sometimes we look back there and we say, oh my Lord. I wish I hadn't done this or that. I remember as a younger man, living and having a fight after leaving a bar. These guys followed us down the street, but I had got slick. I went into my car and I hit him. I got a jack thing, jack. I move that up to the top, and I'm walking down the street. They follow behind me. I turn around, hit the man. His legs crossed, and he hit the ground. Didn't move. So me and my buddy, we left. That week, I was so painful. I didn't know if I killed a man or not. I searched through the newspapers to find out if they found somebody dead up in that area where we were. And oh, sometimes I look back at the sins that I committed. I said, Lord, you should have saved me before then. But then I said, Lord, you knew what you were doing. And dear people, there's some sins we're going to even commit in this day right now. Now, we ought to say, oh Lord, why? But at least knowing that we are justified by the death of Christ on the cross, this causes us to see and look earnestly at everything we do and how we live. and that we will not. There is some sins we can walk away from. We can change our lives. By the grace of God, we want to change them. And we can find ourselves saying, no, I'm not doing that. I am not living that way anymore. That we put away. Because, see, this is what justification does. Christ paid the penalty for all our sins. But we don't walk around saying, well, you know what? I can live any way I want to. My sins are already paid for by Christ, so I might as well just enjoy life. We cry over our sins. Oh, wretched man that I am. And it could be small things now, dear people. If you're in the kingdom, you're not crying over some things like you did, like I hit somebody upside the head and I thought I killed him. No, you may say a word. It is so sharp and so biting. And you say, God, please forgive me. change this man that I am, that I will be more like Christ Jesus. He never said a mumbling word, even when he went to the cross. He never said anything cruel at anybody he spoke to. Oh, let me be like Jesus. Dear people, the truth of justification is brought to our hearts by the Holy Spirit. You see, we can't make ourselves be justified. We can't say, OK, that's a good biblical doctrine there. So what I want to do, I'm going to consider myself being justified. It doesn't happen that way. The truth of being justified is brought to our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Remember. justified. It's what Christ has done on a cross and now that thing is made new and real in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Christ has been applied to our lives and we live to his glory. And dear people, that's the difference. That's what a Christian is. A Christian is living to the glory of Christ, not for himself, not for herself. Oh, yes, we got a lot in this world that we have to do, and what things we must take care of, families we have to do, and all the things we have to do, jobs we have to do, and show ourselves as good employees and all. But we live our life for Christ. I'm going to do this work to the glory of Christ. There was a little Christian song going around years ago. I guess it might still be found. If you be a garbage man, be a garbage man to the Lord. If you be a street sweeper, be a street sweeper to the Lord. Whatever you do, do it to the Lord. That's what it is. When we realize what God has done, if he'd have left us where we are, some of us might not be living today. He has set his love upon us. Are you living your life, dear Christian, in thankfulness to Jesus Christ? That's where it comes. Do you look at him? Do you look at what he's done? And do you say, oh, Lord Christ, thank you for saving me. Thank you for dying for me. And are you dying to self every day, dear child of God? Are you looking at the things that we do through the course of the day and you say, this is not right, dear? Are you dying to that thing? Or are you making some excuse for it? It's all right for me to be that way, you know, so on and so forth. No. Are you really showing yourself to be one who is now in Christ? Are you aiming to be more like Jesus? That's what this is. And that's what it surely shows us. You must understand that. Oh, dear people. This is not just some man's work here. When we go to the confession of faith, this is God's word and God's truth. And here we have what takes place. Justification is what God has done in us. Let us pray. Our blessed God in heaven, we ask your mercy and grace for us that you would help us to be able to live. To the glory of you, the almighty God, what love, what marvelous love you have showered upon us that you sent your son to die and he took upon himself every sin that we will commit Not only those in the past, but even the ones, even the little ones, or whatever may be, even in the future. He died for every one of them. We're justified in your sight. And now, Lord God, you have made this truth known to us in our hearts by the work of the Spirit. Oh, help us, oh God, to grow more and more like Jesus Christ. Bless this truth to our hearts. It's in his name we pray. Amen.