Let us now direct our attention for a few minutes to that text that we read in verse 33 of this chapter. Romans chapter eight, and reading again at verse 33. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect. It is God that's justifying. And as you'll notice in the English text before you, the words it is are in italics in the original language. It is very simple. Who shall lay anything to the charge? God, the justifier. God is the answerer of every charge. God is the one upon his people's side. God is the justifier. In justification, we come to the core doctrine of Christian faith. Here we are found as guilty, unworthy sinners in the divine courtroom, under legal accusation before God. Here we are seen as sinners and here we are declared righteous by that same God. What a truth is here. It is God that justifies. What comfort is to be found in these words. What an answer is to be found to every accusation. Truly, who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect. The word in the original language for lay the charge is a legal term, a term of legal accusation. It is that same term that is used when the town clerk in Ephesus said to his fellow citizens, we are in danger of being called in question for this day's uproar, a legal term. The same words translated slightly differently in a slightly different context, but in the original language, the same. Similarly, when Paul is before Agrippa, accused, again, different words in the English, but the same word in the original language. He does a term of legal accusation. And that leads us to notice our first point, the definition of justification. The definition. It maybe seems strange to give such focus to a definition, but in fact, the definition of justification is vital and crucial. Indeed, this is the point upon which the Protestant Reformation brought forth its great protest against the Church of Rome. For Rome, the concepts of justification and sanctification are merged and are melded together. The point at root is actually one of language. In the Latin Bible Revolgate, which is the authoritative Bible within the Roman Catholic Church, the word to justify, the Latin verb to justify, bears this meaning to make just. To make just. But the Greek verb, to justify, bears the meaning to declare just. A fine distinction? Well, fine distinction it may be, but it is the distinction between truth and error. If justification is about making just, then the person has a role to play. Then they themselves must engage in meritorious work to make themselves just before God, such as the teaching of Rome. Add your own merit, add your own works on top of the righteousness of Christ. But the Protestants taught, and rightly so, that to justify properly understood is to declare just. And I want you to see how this is brought out so clearly in the text that is before us. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? You see, the question is one of accusation. Who will bring a charge? Who will bring a legal accusation, an indictment of guilt against God's elect? It is God that justifies. Here is the answer to accusation in a God who justifies. That would make no sense were we to assume that justify means to make just. It can only have meaning understood accurately and correctly that justification is a declarative one, to declare just. to answer the accusation by the declaration, no, they are righteous, they are just. It is the same truth that we find brought out with great clarity in Romans chapter two, verse 13. Not the hearers of the law are justified, but The doers of the law shall be justified. The doers of the law shall be justified. Think about that. Again, how can that mean justified made just? The doers of the law, well, the doers of the law are already just, are they not? They are doing what is good and what is right. The doers of the law shall be justified. It is a declarative work. The doers of the law shall be declared just. So it is declarative, but it is also decisive. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Here is the most decisive declaration that could be conceived of. God is the justifier. God is the one who declares righteous, the one who has made all things, the one who sees all, the one who knows all, the one who is the foundation of law and of morality and of righteousness, the one who is the very standard of justice and of judgment. He is the justifier. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Here we see justification not as an uncertain or gradual or progressive work as the Romanists teach. Here we see justification rather as absolute, decisive, instantaneous transformation in the legal status of the individual. from sinner, guilty, worthy of death, to holy, just, righteous, and worthy in Christ of an eternal heaven. What a transformation in justification. What a change that is made there. And that is the change properly understood which justification brings about. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifies. Now it must follow that this justification be on a solid basis, because God is himself just, and therefore being just, He must justly justify. He cannot look upon iniquity. He cannot merely pardon the sinner. He cannot merely sweep away the memory of sins that are guilty and that are past. So what is required? I want you to follow me in a logical train of thought to see how this justification must be by faith alone. Justification requires obedience. If one is to be justified, the law must be kept perfectly. So justification requires obedience. Such obedience as we see in the holy, perfect righteousness. of the Lord Jesus Christ. His active obedience in life is passive obedience in death. Such obedience is required. Justification requires obedience, but obedience requires imputation. That word, children, means to reckon something. to account it to you. Obedience requires imputation. That obedience must become your obedience in Christ. So justification requires obedience. Obedience requires imputation. Imputation requires union. We must be legally united to Christ. Apart from Christ, there can be no salvation. There can be no justification. We cannot be accepted in the beloved unless we are in the beloved. Imputation requires union and union requires faith. It is by faith unites his people to Christ. It is by faith that we are joined to him. It is by faith that we become the beneficiaries of his grace. It says the Puritan Thomas Macton, faith is the grace of reception, whereby we receive all the influences of heaven. Isn't that wonderful? By faith, we are united. By faith, your maker is become your husband. By faith, you are in Christ, and Christ is in you. As the apostle expressed it right into the Galatians, I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. What an expression of union. And then he goes on to explain the basis. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. If you want to sum it up in a single, simple proof text, take Romans 10, verse 10. With the heart, man believeth unto righteousness. Oh, the beauty of justification. By justification, the righteousness of Christ is made ours. Says Lloyd-Jones, this is not mere acquittal. Acquittal is not enough. Acquittal is the not guilty when the witness statements don't quite agree together, the chain of evidence isn't quite sufficient, there's a few question marks. That's a not guilty, but there's more than not guilty in the justification which God grants in Christ. There is rather the pronouncement, the declaration, just. just, righteous, holy in Christ. Dear friend, do you not see how properly understood this is your need? That there is nothing more vital for everyone here, for everyone in this whole needy world, than that we have this privilege to be justified by God in Christ. This is the one thing needful, the one thing we must have. Who shall lay anything to the charge of those who are not God's elect? Quite all the world will unite in your condemnation. The people of the world will tell of your shameful sins and of the wicked things that you have done in your past life. Your very family members will rise up in accusation against you and tell of how the clean exterior was but a whited sepulcher and how underneath there is pride and lust and temper and selfishness. The very inanimate creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now, and testifies of a covenant of works broken, of sin committed by man, and of that guilt, that blood like Abel's that cries from the earth for vengeance. Outside of Christ, who shall lay anything against your charge? Everything and everyone. And God himself must be the chief accuser, for he knows it all, and has seen it all, and remembers it all, and knows how guilty it all is, and knows how much a punishment it all deserves. You need to be justified. So that then is our first point, the definition justification and that then brings us secondly and more particularly to see then who are justified. The recipients of justification. Are we justified? Consider the text before us. Who shall lay anything to the charge of? God's elect. Now to be elect is not in itself a mark at all. We were the children of wrath, even as others. One may be elect and yet be every much a sinner in this world as the next man. To be elect is not a mark, but to be elect will bring forth a mark. We see that brought out for us in verses 29 and 30. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, them he also called. And whom he called, them he also justified. So the mark of God's elect is that they will be called, effectually called. Many are called, The call of the gospel goes out, the offer of the gospel goes out to all. Many are called, but those effectually called are those who are so called that they must hear and that they must respond. A call that draws, that pulls, a call that The Puritan Thomas Manton makes a very interesting comment. He says, effectual calling is what reconciles justification with God's holiness. That's something to reflect on. It reconciles justification with God's holiness. So effectual calling draws and changes the sinner. How? We have it expressed in the familiar words of our own Westminster Shorter Catechism, convincing us of our sin and misery. The effectually called are those brought to see they need to be justified. The effectually called are those who have such a sight of their sin, such a sense of their guilt that they consciously need this blessing of justification. They are those who are convicted, those whose consciences are awake and those whose eyes are open to see that in me there dwelleth no good thing but wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. For the effectually called, these are not words, that's an experiential reality. You see sin in every aspect and respect of your conduct. You see a falling short in every area of your life. and therefore you see need. Maybe you say, oh, but I don't have a deep enough sense of my own sin. Well, who does? Who does? But have you a deep enough sense of your sin that you see I must have Christ? That's what effectual calling gives. Such a conviction of sin that you see yourself without hope. apart from the righteousness of Christ. That is the conviction which God's Spirit works. The Christian poet Ralph Erskine expresses it beautifully in his gospel sonnets, speaking of how the church, the woman is wooed and drawn to become Christ's bride. He writes, conviction's arrows pierced her heart that so the blood from his pierced heart to hers might flow. Isn't that beautiful? Conviction's arrows pierced her heart that so the blood from his pierced heart to hers might flow. You see, he wounds so that he may bind up. He brings low so that he may lift up in that which is good and proper and right. Effectual calling convicts. Effectual calling enlightens, enlightens our mind in the knowledge of Christ. alongside the sense of our own sin, so there is also a revelation, a shining of the Lord Jesus Christ. To those who are effectually called, the son of righteousness has arisen with healing in his wings and we see him as beautiful and as radiant We see in him the sufficiency of righteousness, which we do not have. We see in him the beauty of holiness, which we do not possess. In Christ there is all that we need. And so as we are driven from confidence in self, so we are driven to Christ as the only answer to our need. Maybe you're inclined to say, oh, but I don't. love Christ as I should, I don't believe in him, I don't rest on him as I should, but can you go with me this far, that you see Christ as the answer to your spiritual need, that you can say with the apostles of old, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of everlasting life, that you believe that he is the saviour and the only and the all-sufficient and the this saviour. That is what effectual calling does. It enlightens your mind in the knowledge of Christ and, third and most vital of all, it renews the will. The Puritans remark on this text that the term God's elect which is often taken by the world as a term of pride, I'm one of the elect, that we are saying of ourselves when we say we are elect, that we are claiming some great thing for ourselves, that actually they are misunderstood completely. To say I am one of God's elect is not a statement of pride at all. but a statement of the most profound and real humility. To acknowledge yourself one of the elect is to acknowledge that you are utterly without hope of yourself, that your only hope depends upon the sovereign purpose of an eternal God, that only by election can there be the slightest hope of you being saved or enjoying the privileges of heaven, and therefore that you are willing to be one of his elect, driven from all hope in self and in works, driven to hope only in God and in Christ. That is true humility. That's Simeon in the temple, old man, wise man, knowledgeable man in the scriptures, respected by all as a man of holiness, as an elder. Simeon lifting the infant Christ, Simeon lifting the holy child, the helpless babe, and saying, now let us bow thy servant depart in peace for my eyes have seen thy salvation. There's a renewed will in that willingness to be saved, not by capacity or works or dignity, but to be saved by Jesus Christ, to be saved by grace alone, to be saved by the wonder of a heart of God touched. and move towards sinners. Has your will so been renewed that you are willing to be saved by Christ? Oh, you say, I don't love him as I should. I don't hold to him as I should. I let him down every day. And can not all the Lord's people say that? But can you go this far? I am willing to be saved by Christ alone. There is the fruit of effectual calling. There is the renewal of the will, whereby he doth persuade and enable us to embrace Jesus Christ as he is being offered to us in the gospel. There we see the solid basis of justification. There we see the Lord's people, thus described and revealed to us biblically, call, God's elect call. Dear friend, are you called? Are you called effectually? If conviction is what makes Christ necessary for you, If the enlightenment of your mind is what makes Christ worthy to you, it is the renewal of the will that makes Christ desirable to you. Will you have this man to reign over you? Search your heart and see. In the answer to that question, you find the distinction between the call between the elect, between the Lord's people, and between those who put him from them, and who say, we will not have this man to reign over us. So much then on our second point, the recipients of justification. And that brings us then further to come more directly to the immediate message of this text, the author of justification. the author. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God elect? It is God that justifies. I want to show to you today the sweet comfort of this text. I want you to see how precious it really is. It is God that justifies. Come to see the wonder of that, that it is God who pronounces his people just. It shows us that this work of justification is a right work and a good work. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? And here we see the judge of all the earth. rightly, justly pronouncing just. Here we see God as the justifier. Who shall lay anything to our charge when God, who knows every sin, pronounces just? That's a justification that is right, that is just, that by its very definition is just. but it is the act of the just one. It is God that justifieth. Take the comfort to your heart of that, that this plan of salvation is a right plan. It is a good plan. It is a commendable plan. It is a morally acceptable plan. And it is therefore a solid basis for hope. It is God that justify it. It's right. It's sure. Oh, consider that comfort that we have. By two mutable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we have a strong consolation. Hebrews 6 verse 18, we have the oath of God, which he has sworn, and we have the promise of God which he has given. And therefore by oath and by promise, we have a strong consolation. We have that assurance which God himself gives. But ye are washed, but ye are clean. Isn't that beautiful? For you who know your sin, For you who know what past life held, for you who can remember the sins of youth, and who can remember many things that you wish had never happened, that you wish no one knew, that you would sink into forgetfulness if only you could, but ye are washed, but ye are clean if your faith is in Christ. For you who know the sin that now is, and maybe that is worse, the sin that is against light. The sin of your worldliness when you have tasted of the sweetness of Christ. The sin of your selfishness when you have seen the beauty of Christ. The sin of your pride when you have seen the exaltation of Christ. And that, such a sinner as you is justified. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Take the comfort. It is God that justifieth. In that is your assurance. In that is your hope. In that is your final acceptance with God. In that is your eternal inheritance. It is God that justifieth. Lay hold on this comfort. Rest upon it. It is that which God gives. Consider the freedom that it brings. God's justification. Freedom from accusation. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? And we're told, Revelation 12, 10, of the devil, Satan, the accuser of the brethren, who accuseth them before God, night and day, bringing these legal accusations against God's people, bringing allegations both true and false, as we see in the case of Job, for example. accusing continually, but it is God that justifieth. What an answer to accusation. We're told that that accuser is cast down and that the Lord's people overcame him. How? By the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony and they loved not their lives unto the death. By Christ, and by faith in Christ. They overcame the accusations of the evil one. They triumphed over them, and the accuser was cast down, never more to accuse. That's justification. You are free from the accusation, for it is God that justifies. You're free from guilt. Sometimes the sorest accusations are those that come not from outside, but from inside. If our heart condemn us, God is greater than our heart. It is God that justifieth. Oh, when you are convicted. when you are ashamed, when your sin is before you, when it is all about you, the memory of it, when you are awake in the watches of the night and it is like a jug of liquid pouring into the mind, all the morass of filth that ever you have done, here's the comfort you need. It is God that justifieth. God is greater than your heart, and he knoweth all things. He knows it all, and yet Christ's blood is sufficient, and Christ's righteousness covers, and Christ's assurance is that he is able to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him. Lay whole upon the capacity of the Savior. Freedom from accusation. Freedom from guilt. Freedom, therefore, from final and eternal condemnation. Look at verse 34, following on logically. Who is he that condemneth? Who can condemn in the face of God that justifies? Here's the answer to the question. It is Christ that dies. Yea, rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. There's your answer. What condemnation can there be? Christ, the judge of all the earth, he it is who makes intercession for you. He will condemn, Christ will condemn, but Christ will not condemn his own. There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the spirit. No condemnation to those whose faith is in the blessed Savior. No condemnation to those who have been called and dropped so to believe in the blessed Son of God, so to behold the spotless arm of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. As we come to a close, dear friends, let us ask them this question. How may we be assured? How may we be sure that we are justified by God? What if you've lost it? What if that assurance is gone? Some of the Lord's people sin, sin grievously against life, backslide. And so they lose the comfort because they have not conducted themselves as the Lord's people. Dear friend, if that is your state, then we do not heal your hurt lightly. The sin must be repented of. If you have backslidden, then take it on your knees to God. On your knees. It is good to kneel before God. Confess it to him. Confess and acknowledge not to man and not in the ears of man, but in the closet where God he is. Confess your sin. Be naked before him. Acknowledge the deadness of your own heart, the deadness of your conduct. Open it all before your God. And so look to the fountain, so look to the living water which alone can cleanse. Repent of that sin, turn from your backsliding and see his face. It's not the wonder so often as we turn from backslidings to God, how quick he is to hear. How soon the comfort and the peace is granted. Have we not sometimes had cause to wonder at that? How scarcely had we begun our confession of sin. How scarcely we had brought our case before God, before there was sweetness, before there was presence, before there was the felt sense of the intimacy of God comforting man. It is God. that justifieth. Do not be satisfied trying to have lost your assurance. Seek it again. Enjoy it again. That's repentance that you will never repent of. But what of those who have never had this assurance? What of those who have never known that they are Christ's? Oh dear friend, for you, I urge upon you most solemnly to seek that. There is nothing more vital, nothing more essential, nothing more precious in this world, to know it is God that justifieth me. So bring your case to him. Be a sinner before God. Acknowledge that is what you are before him. Don't try to excuse it. Don't try to cover it over. Don't try to make it a little bit less than other people's sin. Be before God, by your own confession, a sinner deserving hell. See yourself, as Edwards have it, like a spider dangling over the eternal fires, but a strand of web between you and destruction. Bring yourself low before God. Lay out your felt need before him and ask him to be your saviour. Oh, you cannot demand. You cannot demand. It is of grace. It is undeserved. But you can ask. So ask. So come. The Puritan Manton expresses it very helpfully. He says, we cannot seize Christ's salvation, but what is safe to do is to make Christ our choice. To come before God saying, we would have this man. to reign over us. We would have his salvation in the soul. That is safe, and that is good, for that is obedience to the word and to the command of God. That is safe. And so come before him and bring the promises. plead the promises before God, him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out. Bring that to God and ask him, say to God, make this true in my experience as it has always been true. May I find this text true as thousands and millions of the Lord's people have found it true. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Bring that before God. And so confess your sin and acknowledge it and seek the pardon of Christ and ask him humbly to make that promise a living, an experiential reality for your soul. Oh friends, seek the Lord. While he may be found, call ye upon him. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts. And let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him. And to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. Amen.