Once again, I want to say what a privilege it is to be here this weekend and to renew fellowship with some and to begin fellowship with others. If you have not been here already in these meetings, then you'll immediately know from my accent that I'm from the United States, not. I'm from Northern Ireland, from Belfast, That's my home city. And Mr. Finout sprang upon me, I guess on Friday night, that I was going to give a word of testimony this weekend. Well, it's always a joy to tell what the Lord has done for you. I was brought up in a Christian home. My mum and dad were converted before I was born. And I'm always thankful to the Lord for that. To be born into a Christian home is a wonderful privilege. It's not a privilege that everybody has. I see quite a number of children here today, again. And if your folks are believers in Christ, if your mum and dad are Christians, you have a godly influence in your life, you ought to thank the Lord for that. That is a great privilege. We read in the Bible of Timothy that From a child he had known the Holy Scriptures which were able to make him wise unto salvation through faith that's in Christ Jesus. Timothy had a godly grandmother. Thank the Lord for godly grandmas. He also had a godly mother who taught him the things of God from his earliest days and of course through that I believe the Lord saved Timothy while he was young. It may be that he was converted through the Apostle Paul because Paul refers to him as his son in the faith. But nonetheless we shouldn't forget the part that Lois and Eunice played in his life and in his conversion. Timothy's testimony is kind of my testimony because my folks taught me the things of God from earliest days. I cannot remember a time when I didn't go to church. and Sunday school, and children's meetings, Bible clubs, and all of those things the Lord used in my life. Now this morning I have to say to you that I cannot, as my father can, tell you that on such and such a day, such and such a date, such and such a time even, that I was converted. But I do believe that it was in childhood that the Lord brought me to Himself. It's been my experience through my Christian life and in the ministry that many if not all of those who have a similar testimony to mine suffer greatly from doubt and fear and concern and part of the reason for that is that you hear people give a testimony and they talk about the terrible life that they lived and then this wonderful radical change that took place in their life on the day when they were converted and you apply that to yourself and you say well I'm not familiar with any of that I don't really remember this huge change I don't I'm not really aware of having to put away all of these worldly habits that I was involved in because I never was involved in those things and foolishly as a youngster I used to think that my testimony was no good You know, a great testimony was somebody who could stand up and talk about all the terrible things that they did before they got saved and how that they sowed their wild oats and all these awful things that they did to glorify the devil and then the Lord in his mercy reached down and saved them. Of course, that is a great testimony. That's wonderful to think of what the Lord has done in the lives of many who have had a radical Damascus Road type conversion. But I had to learn that sometimes the Lord not only saves a soul but he saves a life. And I have learned, I believe, that my testimony is every bit as good and every bit as glorifying to God and perhaps more so because I was converted in childhood. The Lord brought me to himself. I believe it wasn't just a profession such as some children do have and then they don't live the Christian life and they don't go on with God. I'm not saying that through my childhood, teen years and so on that I was perfect. You'd only have to talk to my parents to know that that wasn't so. But I do thank the Lord that salvation is of the Lord and that it is through the merit of the Lord Jesus Christ that we are saved. And I'm not so concerned about what happened back then, although I thank the Lord that it did happen. But I'm thinking today, what is it that I'm trusting in to get me to heaven? And that's the question that you should think about just as much as the date, the time, the place of your conversion. Think about today, what is it right now at this moment that I am depending on to get me to heaven? Because that will be an indication of whether you're saved or not. Are you trusting fully in the work of the Lord Jesus for you? And I can say this morning, that is what I'm trusting in. When did I first begin to trust in that? I don't remember. But I thank the Lord that He did save me. He brought me to Himself. I thank Him for the Christian home I was brought up in. I thank the Lord for all that I was taught in those two Sunday schools every Lord's Day. Because you see, I went to Sunday school in the morning, before church, then we went to church, then we had Sunday school in the afternoon and then we went to church at night and sometimes when I had a particular pastor we even had an after service on Sunday night when we went to the city hall, kind of like a big town hall place there in Belfast and would have an open air preaching service and even back then the Lord in his own way was employing me as a poor instrument because Our pastor played one of these squeeze boxes, you know, an accordion. And they used to gather people around and preach the word. But sometimes we would have special singing as well. And I was part of that. And I remember my dad holding me at four years old up to a microphone. And while Mr. McKeown played the accordion, I sang, this world is not my home. I'm just a passing through. My treasures are laid up somewhere beyond the blue. The angels beckon me from heaven's open door and I can't feel at home in this world anymore. And those are precious memories to me as a child of being involved in the Lord's work. I used to accompany my dad when he would go lay preaching and He was involved with a testimony band. It was called the Martyrs Memorial Mail Witness. There were about 12 maybe 14 guys who went around conducting services. That was an amazing time as well as a teenager when I accompanied those men. And I can think back to those days and probably I'm guessing seven or eight of those men eventually the Lord brought them into the ministry of the gospel. They became preachers in their own right. Well, I'm going to skip over quite a bit of my life. I left school, had quite a few different Jobs that I did I could never seem to get settled as to what the Lord wanted me to do But I do remember at 16 years of age an elder a godly man in my home church Asked me what I was going to do when I would eventually leave school. I said well I sir I don't really know what I'm going to do. He said well, maybe the Lord will call you into the ministry Well, that was not something I wanted to hear because I had a sneaking suspicion in my own heart that the Lord did want me in what we euphemistically call full-time service. Well, I think that's a very misleading term. Because, yes, there are those that the Lord puts his hand on and sets them aside, calls them to leave the boats in the nets, and instead of fishing for fish, to fish for men, the Lord does that. But every Christian should be, and ought to be, a full-time servant. We all, if we profess the Lord's name, should be in full-time service. I don't think it's right to imagine that we put on our Christian hat on the Lord's Day and then we put on our secular hat the rest of the week. Someone said one time to the Christian, all things are sacred and nothing is secular. And that's right. So we're all full-time servants. But I felt that the Lord would have me, perhaps, in a full-time capacity in serving him as a minister or a missionary or something like that. I was afraid of that. And eventually my fears were realized because the Lord took me over to Scotland from Northern Ireland. It's not that far away. They do talk a bit different from me. They kind of rule their hours a lot more. I moved over there to work in a Christian office. That was providential as well because I don't want to steal my wife's testimony but I did meet June there and she had come all the way from Iowa here in the Midwest. I'd never met anybody from Iowa or any part of the Midwest but the Lord brought us together and a few years later then we were married just over 22 years ago now. and I thank the Lord for that. God was good to me at least and she'll tell you whether he was good to her or not later on. But at that time when I was in Scotland working in that Christian office the Lord began to deal with my heart about ministry and I do recall my own minister Dr. Paisley saying to me before I left home to go over to Scotland he said I was going to work, you see, in a Christian office where we distributed tracts, Christian booklets, and Christian films. Not videos, we didn't have such a thing then, but Christian films. And I remember my pastor saying to me, he said, look, Stephen, anybody can show films, but there's only one real calling, and that's the call to preach the gospel. And that was a sword in my heart because I thought he'd be all delighted that I was going over to Scotland to serve the Lord. And he was, but I think he knew that I was running from the ministry in a sense. But that time in Scotland was very profitable. I began preaching in the street. Actually, there's a place in Edinburgh called The Mound, and Mr. Finout knows it very well because, unknown to me, just a couple of months before I moved over to Scotland, he had been there on a summer team. In fact, he was the summer team, working with some American missionaries, guys that I later became very familiar with, and we've been reminiscing about that this weekend. The Lord began to speak to me about ministry and I really didn't know what was happening in my heart but I had a fear that the Lord was calling me to full-time ministry and I could never see myself in a pulpit. I could never imagine myself going to a hospital and sitting with someone and trying to open the Word of God and bring them comfort and pray with them. I could never imagine myself doing it. I could never imagine myself messing up somebody's wedding. I could never imagine myself preaching at a funeral or even trying to go to a home where there'd been a bereavement and try to bring comfort. I was afraid of all those things. And one of my greatest fears was not preaching one time, but having to do it week after week after week after week and come up with new sermons. Those were all great fears that I had. But the Lord was dealing with my heart. I remember one day going to my room. I lived in an apartment then. And getting down beside my bed and praying, Lord, what would you have me to do? I want to know clearly your will for my life. And immediately a verse flashed into my mind. I didn't even know where it was. Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. I remember getting my Bible and opening it, and I thought that verse may be in the New Testament. I wasn't sure, but I just flicked over a page or two, and there it was. I found it. 1 Thessalonians 5 24 Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. That was in around the beginning of 1980. I wrote the date in the margin of my Bible. And then of course the devil started to attack me and said well you can't go by that. I mean anybody could find that verse. It would be easy to come up with a text. You can't say that's the will of God. So I was back at base one again, felt really discouraged. But I continued to pray. One night I'd been at a youth meeting, I came home. My mother had bought me a daily reading book. Some of you may be familiar with it. It's called The Daily Light on the Daily Path. And it's scriptures only. There are no comments, just scriptures. There's a morning reading, several verses, and an evening reading. Again, a number of verses. I remember coming home that night, I think it was a Tuesday night, and I prayed before I would read it. I said, Lord, I always read this every morning and every night. Before I get into bed tonight, I'm going to read this portion. But if you want me in the ministry, I want you to speak to me clearly from some verse out of the Daily Late Reading tonight. And I began to read down through the Daily Late, 27th of March, 1980. And the last but one verse was 1 Thessalonians 5 24 Faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. Then I got really scared. And at the same time I'd received a letter from an elderly gentleman in America. He was a Scotsman who had moved to the States when he was 16. He became very interested in missions from the States to Scotland, his homeland. And through these missionary friends of mine, he got acquainted with me and he wrote me a letter. And he was in the habit of putting a scripture at the bottom of his letters. And he didn't know anything about how the Lord was dealing in my life or speaking to me. But when I got his letter down to answer it, you know how you get a letter and people ask you questions, so you want to look at it and answer the various points. And having read the letter a month or so before, a couple of weeks before, I had not noticed the scripture at the bottom. I hadn't noticed it. But that day I got the letter down to answer it and I looked at the bottom of the letter and there it was, 1 Thessalonians chapter 5. And of course I read verse 24, faithful is he that calleth you who also will do it. The Bible says a threefold cord is not easily broken. And I believe with all my heart God was speaking to me then. And then at the same time there was an American missionary over there. He was actually a missionary to American servicemen. Worked in a Navy base in Dunoon, Scotland. Mr. Finout knows this man very well, T.J. Tilly. I think it was from somewhere in the south. But anyway, he invited me up to preach on a Thanksgiving weekend. Again, I didn't know what Thanksgiving was. And I went into this group of American servicemen and they had candied sweet potatoes with marshmallows on the top. I'd never seen anything like that in my life. I thought it was a dessert. And so that was a shock to my system. But I enjoyed that weekend. I preached a Friday, a Saturday and the Lord's Day. But on the way up there on the train, I was praying about this whole matter of the ministry and it shows you what an unbelieving believer I am because having all these scriptures and you would say well that's enough it wasn't enough for me I said Lord if you really want me in the ministry and I'm taking this verse as a calling from God but if it is your calling I want you to save somebody this weekend you say well that's no big deal well it was a very big deal to me I'd never seen anybody come to the Lord through my preaching. Okay, I hadn't been preaching very long, but I said, Lord, I want you to save somebody this weekend. So Friday went by, Saturday went by, Sunday morning went by, nothing. And on Sunday night, I preached at a service, and it was mostly US servicemen from the Navy base there, submarines and so on. But there were a few Scottish people there. Well, at the end of that service, There were three people who stayed behind to seek the Lord. Two of them were from Scotland and one was a 19 year old Navy man called Shane Johnson. And he, I heard afterwards, just a few months later, left the Navy and came here to America back home and went to Tennessee Temple University to train for Christian service. So that was my answer to prayer. And the Lord has been faithful to me, calling me into the ministry. He has kept me in the ministry. And I thank Him for that. He has blessed me, blessed my wife and I with two girls, both of whom are now at Bob Jones University. One is a junior and the other is a freshman. They both love the Lord. They both have a desire to serve Him. And we're so thankful for that. I had five years of ministry in what was my home church when I was When I was born, I was born into the Free Church. I never attended any other church but the Free Presbyterian Church. That's unusual in itself. And I went along to the Mount Marian Free Presbyterian Church in the city of Belfast. And I was actually dedicated to the Lord there as a baby one afternoon by the pastor, Dr. S.B. Cook. And I never knew that many years later I would return to that same congregation as their pastor. That was a strange feeling. And I preached there for five years. The Lord called me back to Scotland with my family. We ministered there in Glasgow for ten years. I could tell you a lot about pioneer work, about the heartaches and the disappointments and the false dawns and the false hopes. And all of that, as well as the blessings, the encouragements and the Lord's goodness. We spent 10 years there. We saw the church grow to some degree. It was still a small work, but it was really small when we went. We saw a church building built. We bought parsonage and manse and left that debt free and so the Lord then called us four and a half years ago to Allentown, Pennsylvania to another pioneer work and sometimes you wonder what the Lord is doing and why not take me to some established work but somehow the Lord must want me to be a pioneer and I trust I'll not always be a pioneer but we'll get beyond the pioneer stage and see the work increasing. We have done in the last four years or so seen the Lord really bless on a Sunday morning now we always are usually anyway have As far as numbers go, in the mid-50s, sometimes 60, we're thankful for those that the Lord has brought in. We have a congregation that is now fully self-supporting, but we don't have a building. And I'm very envious, not in a sinful way mind you, but I am envious of the fact that you have your own place here. You might not think that it's a whole lot, it's not very big, but I wish I had this in Pennsylvania, I really do. Because you can meet here when you want, you can meet as long as you want and so on, you can have special meetings. We can't do that. We just have our morning and evening services with Sunday school and our Thursday night prayer meeting and Bible study. But the Lord is good and we're looking to Him for great things in coming days. And I would just close this part by saying that if you're not a Christian, then thank God today you can come to know the Savior. You can be saved. Not only can you be saved, you can know that you're saved. because these things are written that you may know that you have eternal life and I would say to you children that are here and to the adults that are here seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near and when you serve the Lord you're serving a master who will never fail you and there's no joy like being in the center of God's will And I can honestly say that this morning from experience. There is nothing like the peace and the joy of knowing that you are exactly where God wants you to be. And I trust that you will know that joy in your own life. We're going to read a few verses from Psalm 32. That was a choice of Psalm for singing this morning. Perhaps it was just an educated guess on Mr. Fineout's part. Maybe he knew I was going to read Psalm 32, but probably not. But the Lord orders our way. Psalm 32, just a few verses. Blessed is he. And that word blessed means, O the happinesses of. There are a number of New Testament beatitudes. Blessed are the poor, blessed are the meek. Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. Here's an Old Testament beatitude. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered. That word covered really means atoned for. It's the Hebrew word, the root there, kafar, which means to cover or to atone for. Blessed is he whose sin is atoned for. And here's another beatitude. Blessed is the man unto whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile. And then just a couple of verses from Romans chapter 4. Romans chapter 4 verse 3. For what saith the scripture, Abraham believed God and it was counted, and that means imputed, unto him for righteousness. Now to him that worketh is the reward, not reckoned of grace, but of debt. But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness, even as David also describeth the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, and here you have the quotation from Psalm 32, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. And God will bless the reading of His Holy Word. Perhaps we could stand together for a moment or two for prayer. Let's all be upstanding as we seek the Lord in prayer. We'll ask His help as we come to His precious Word. Our Heavenly Father, we thank Thee today for Thy saving grace. and for thy keeping power. We rejoice, Lord, that salvation is of the Lord. We bless Thee that it is in Christ, that it is in His work. And, O Lord, we praise Thee for that day when Thou didst first show us the Saviour, when Thou didst reveal to our hearts that we were sinners, that we couldn't save ourselves, but that there is a Saviour from all sin. And dear Lord, we thank Thee for bringing us to Thyself, causing us to trust in Thee, to lean our all upon the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I pray today that if there's any here without Christ, that You will save them by Your grace. Lord, bring them to trust, not in church, or in ordinances, or in good works, or in anything that man can do, but may they be brought to trust in Jesus alone. I pray, Lord, that each of us who know and who love Thee will be drawn into a closer walk with Thee. Make Thy Word live before us today. Speak to us, Lord. I pray for the power of the Holy Ghost to visit us in these services. And above all other things, may the name of the Lord Jesus be honored and glorified, for we pray in His name and for His sake. Amen and Amen. You may be seated. In these services we are dealing with the subject of justification. Already we have noted several important facts concerning this great Bible doctrine. We have spoken of the precise meaning of justification. I suppose the best definition we could give is the one that's found in the Shorter Catechism. Justification is an act of God's free grace wherein he pardoneth all our sins and accepteth us as righteous in his sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone. Justification is a legal term. It is part of the courtroom language. Justification is the act of a judge acquitting somebody of all legal charges. To be justified is not only to be counted as one who, as someone said, is just as if he had never sinned. That's true, but it's more than that. It's a lot more than that. It is actually not only to be declared free from all sin and to be as if you had never sinned, but it is also to be reckoned or regarded or accounted by God as righteous. That is to have rendered a perfect, full obedience to the holy law of God. And therefore it's the very opposite of being condemned. When you're condemned by the law, you're guilty, you're liable to punishment. The Bible talks of that in Romans 6.23 and other places. The wages of sin is death. You're condemned by the law, ruined by the fall. But if you're a Christian, you can say, thank God Christ hath redeemed us once for all. And we noticed that the precise meaning of justification was exactly that, to be free from the law as a means of justification because we are justified by Christ. And that brings us to the plain method of justification. It's not by works. Not what these hands have done can save my guilty soul. Not what this toiling flesh hath borne can make my spirit whole. But it is thy work alone, O Christ. Salvation is by grace, by free grace, sovereign grace, not by works. And yet we have to note, and we have already noted this, that it is not divine mercy or favour at the expense of justice. We've already talked about how that sometimes in school there are teachers who will grade on the curve. If the whole class can't come up to a certain mark, They'll say, well we'll just lower the top mark and we'll grade you on the curve. Greater chance of success then. But that's not how God grades us. God demands perfection. He is just, completely just. He will uphold his law. He's not going to remove one iota of the standards that are required of us in order that we might pass the test. No. God is just. But thank God He's also the justifier of believers. The law is not ignored, it's not set aside, it's not disregarded in order that He might be gracious. No. He is a just God, but He is also a Savior. Because in grace, God's riches at Christ's expense, He has devised a way whereby we guilty sinners can be saved. He can uphold the demands of his law and yet at the same time exercise mercy to the guilty. As the hymn writer put it in the gospel, grace and justice here unite to endless days. We know that the ground of this free justification It is the merits of Jesus Christ alone in his holy life of obedience and in his atoning death. The doing and the dying of Jesus we've called it. The life of Christ lived in complete conformity to God's law whereby he earned righteousness and that life of his given up in death. Because that's what happened when Jesus died. He gave up his life. He laid down his life, his righteous life. for all who will believe. And so the basis or the ground of our justification before God is the merit of Christ alone. No works of merit now I plead but Jesus take for all my need. No righteousness in me is found except upon redemption ground. Now today I want to go on from there to consider some of the precious mercies of justification. In particular I want to talk about what it is that we enjoy as those who are justified. If you have been justified by God's grace, then there are certain mercies that you enjoy. The first of these is a great pardon. Look at Romans 4 verses 7 and 8. saying, here's the quotation from Psalm 32, blessed all the happiness of they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Now what is sin? Well I think there are two good definitions of sin in the Bible, Romans 3 23, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God, or as we could translate it, are constantly coming short of the glory of God. So sin is a failure to meet God's standard. Sin is a falling short of the mark. That's what it is. Negatively. We fail to render to God what is due to Him. But then sin is also, according to 1 John 3 and verse 4, the transgression of the law. Sin is actually breaking through the hedge. Sin is actually going beyond the boundary. Now I don't profess to know a whole lot about agriculture or farming, because I'm a townie, I'm a city boy. I married a farm girl, she knows a lot more about farming than me. One thing I have experienced in my own country where they still have fences and hedges around their fields, and that is when you have a bunch of cattle in a field, and they're all hedged in, that means nothing. Especially if it's a bunch of bullocks, because one of them Invariably, we'll find a hole in the hedge. One of them will find a place to get out. And we call that, farmers call it, breaking out. And what'll happen is one of those bullocks, he starts working away at that hole in the hedge and it gets a little bit bigger and he sees the lovely green grass on the other side that he can't normally get to, so he breaks out and he busts through the hedge. And if he does it, the other 25 or 30 or whatever, 100, will follow suit. Next thing you have the whole road covered in bullocks enjoying this fresh grass by the side. What are they doing? They're breaking through the boundary. They're breaking through the hedge. They're not supposed to do it, but they do it. And the farmer has to get called to come and bring them all back in again. That's a picture of sin. That's a picture of what you and I have done. We've broken through God's hedge, the boundary that He has set. You can eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. What Adam and Eve did, and all men in them, is they broke through God's fence. They broke through the boundary. Sin is the transgression of the law. 1 John 3 verse 4. Whosoever committed sin transgresseth also the law, for sin is the transgression of the law. Sin is breaking God's law. And as a sin against God, therefore only God can forgive it. Only God can forgive sin. Not a priest. not a parson, not a pastor, not a prelate, not a pope, only Christ. Only God can forgive sin. And He is a God, I'm here to tell you, who delights to forgive. Who is a pardoning God like thee? Or who has grace so rich and free? God loves to save sinners. That's the teaching of Scripture. You know, I often hear Well, not often, but sometimes. Some of my quote-unquote reformed reverend, and I'm reformed in doctrine, unapologetically. But, you know, I hear some of them speak as though God were reluctant to save. As though God is not really willing to save sinners. But I want to tell you, that's a travesty. For anyone to present a God who is almost unlikely to save sinners is not the truth the Bible says in Exodus chapter 34 and verses 6 and 7 that the Lord passed by before Moses and proclaimed the Lord, the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children unto the third and to the fourth generation. Yes, God is holy. God is just. But notice, He is merciful and gracious. He is long-suffering. He is abundant. in goodness and truth. Now one great blessing of justification identified by that catechism definition is pardon from all our sins. Matthew Henry the great commentator said with us there is iniquity and therefore it is well for us that with him there is forgiveness. Justification then includes pardon Remember the preaching of the apostles in Acts 13 verses 38 and 39, they said, Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man, that's Jesus, is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins. And by him all that believe are, what? Justified from all things. From which ye could not be justified by the law of Moses. You can't be saved by good works. You can't be saved by adherence to the law. But through Christ we are justified, for he has kept the law for us. Notice carefully here, forgiveness is through Christ. On the basis of his work of satisfaction to the law of God. God pardons our sins because those sins were imputed to Christ. They were reckoned as being His. What a doctrine that is! That on the cross, our sins were laid upon Him. In any place in Scripture where you read of someone bearing their iniquity, or in Isaiah 53, of Christ bearing our iniquities, it really means bearing the punishment due to those iniquities. And that's what He did on the cross. He bore their punishment. And therefore those sins are not imputed to believers anymore. They are not counted as being our sins. I once heard a song, I wasn't particularly fond of the music or of the tune, but the words were pretty good. And it's a song that talks about a person coming to the Lord as a believer and he starts telling the Lord about all these awful sins that he's committed and how sorry that he is. And it's as if he wasn't saved at all. Or he'd forgotten that he'd been saved at all. And he starts to dredge up all of these sins from years and years and years ago. And the Lord stops him in full flight and the Lord says, What sins are you talking about? I don't remember them anymore. And what a wonderful truth that is. That God can no longer punish us for the sins that Christ paid for. Romans 4 verse 8 Blessed is the man, O the happiness of the person to whom the Lord will not impute sin. This is the doctrine of non-imputation. Now what does it mean? It means that the Lord is no longer counting your sins as belonging to you anymore. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. That same doctrine is spoken of by Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 verse 19. Listen to this. Here's the gospel. God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. Not counting their sins as being theirs any longer. If you're a Christian this morning, that's how you appear in the sight of God. As one whose sins are no longer on Him. For in Christ, our sins are literally dismissed or sent away. That's what it means to be forgiven. Our sins are dismissed. What a beautiful thought that is. Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Now does that mean that as a Christian I don't have to confess my daily transgressions? Of course it doesn't mean that. Because in our sanctification as we seek to go on with God we must keep short accounts with God. And we ask the Lord to cleanse us from the pollution of sin. But it's not from the guilt of that sin. For the guilt of that sin, the liability, the punishment has been dealt with by the Lord Jesus Christ. I as a Christian may have the fellowship with God broken, but the relationship with Him will never be broken. I know you wouldn't know what to look at me, especially you children. But when I was young, sometimes I didn't do what my parents told me to do. Sometimes I disobeyed. My dad's a big fella, he used to lift weights, he was a boxer actually, he was a professional boxer, so you didn't mess with him. And once in a while I wouldn't do what my dad told me to do. And he used to take the hand of correction and apply it to the seat of learning. I learned many times the hard way. But you know what, no matter how much I would have disobeyed my dad, he was always still my dad. You know, he never said, my son, you disobeyed me, so I'm not your dad any longer, and you're no longer my son. No, he never said that. But he chastened me because he loved me, because he was my father, because he is my father and I'm his son. What happened when I disobeyed him? Yeah, he was mad at me, he was angry with me, he was disappointed with me. He would punish me, he would chastise me for that transgression. And in that sense, when I disobeyed, the fellowship was broken. But the relationship never was. I was still his child and he was still my dad. And that's the way it is with God. And we must keep short accounts with him when we come and we say, Lord, I'm sorry for not doing what I should have done. I'm sorry for doing what I shouldn't have done. And so we feel that sense of forgiveness and cleansing in the blood of the Lamb. But we're talking here about the guilt of our sin, the liability to punishment, and it's gone. Our iniquities are forgiven and our sins are covered, it means atoned for. It's tantamount to saying that our sin is taken away or removed or hidden from God's view. Psalm 103 verse 12, As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us. Can you tell me this morning how far is the distance between the east and the west? I mean if I keep travelling East, I can just keep on travelling East and never stop. If I keep going to the West, I can keep going West until I just never stop. How long is a piece of string? How far is the East from the West? It is an incalculable distance. As far as the East is from the West, that's how far God has removed our transgressions from us. Now if that doesn't bless your soul as a Christian, I don't know what will. I don't know what will bring joy and delight to your soul. If that doesn't bring joy and delight to your soul, listen to what the prophet Isaiah said in chapter 44 and verse 22. Isaiah 44, 22. I have blotted out as a thick cloud thy transgressions, and as a cloud thy sins. When my mom went to school, she told me she used to write on a piece of slate with a bit of chalk. And when you made a mistake, or you did something wrong, like got one of your sums wrong, you would take a piece of cloth and clean it. And you could never put all that chalk that was there back on there again, it was blotted out. That's what God has done with our sins. Why? Because Jesus died in our place, paid the full penalty for the sin, and God can then justly forgive us. Believers receive a full and a free pardon, but only because Jesus took our sin. Only because He paid the price. The guilt is no longer imputed to those who trust in Him, therefore they cannot be justly condemned. That is why Romans chapter 8 verse 1 says, There is therefore now no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus. Condemnation is the very opposite from justification. Believers are legally innocent. A divine pardon has been issued. The judge has announced his verdict. We are pardoned. We cannot be condemned. Why? Because the penalty that we deserved was justly inflicted upon the Lord Jesus Christ. So God, I want to tell you, will never deal with his people according to their sins. And it's not because they're not sins. They are sins. It's not because they don't deserve wrath. They do deserve wrath. But Christ has taken those sins. He has borne the wrath that was due to those sins. He has made satisfaction for their guilt. And He makes constant intercession to God for us. He is risen. He is ascended. He is even at the right hand of God where He also maketh intercession for us. A great pardon. I could talk a lot more about that, but I must go on to something else that we enjoy in justification, and that is a great position. Oh, we have a great pardon. Our sins are forgiven. But we have a great position. We have a standing before God's law which is righteous. Now I said that righteous means to be in a position of rectitude before God. It means to be right. It actually literally means to be straight. to be straight. Now look at verse 6 of Romans 4. David describes the blessedness of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works. What does that mean? Well it's the same as the Caricism definition which says, and he accepteth us as righteous in his sight. You see, not only have we been pardoned, not only have we been forgiven as Christians, but more than that, we have a perfect righteous standing before God. We're back again to 2 Corinthians 5.21. For He, God, hath made Him, Christ, to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. An old Scottish preacher called Hugh Martin paraphrased this text as follows, For he hath made him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we who knew no righteousness might be made the righteousness of God in him. This is important. Think about it in terms of our law in the country. A criminal is in jail and he receives a free pardon. Now that's a good thing perhaps, but yet that same criminal who has received a free pardon is not going to be considered perfect or positively righteous before the law. He's a lawbreaker, but he's just been pardoned. The thing is he's just as much a criminal when he gets out of jail as before, except that he has been pardoned. But it's not that way in justification. God not only pardons us as believing sinners, He actually views us as those who are perfectly righteous in Christ. Think about it this way. Here is the holy, righteous life of Jesus. He never did anything wrong. He never thought a wrong thought. He always did the will of God perfectly. And that life that He lived, God views me as having lived that life in Him. That's justification. That's what it means to have imputed righteousness. We have a title, therefore, to everlasting life. We have a perfect standing. Now, if God were merely to pardon our sins, but then leave us alone to maintain righteousness, we would be in serious trouble, wouldn't we? We would be in serious trouble. We could never do it. But not only has the Lord forgiven us, but notice again Romans 4 verse 6. He has actually imputed righteousness to us without works. We have an imputed righteousness. Am I repeating myself? I think I am, and with good reason. Imputed righteousness is a tremendous doctrine. Isaiah 61 verse 10 talks about our salvation in terms of clothing. You know, the Lord clothes us as well as cleanses us when we're saved. Isaiah 61 verse 10. Listen to this. I will greatly rejoice in the Lord. My soul shall be joyful in my God. And why would we not be joyful and rejoicing? For He hath clothed me with the garments of salvation. He hath covered me with the robe of righteousness. As a bridegroom decketh himself with ornaments, and as a bride adorneth herself with her jewels. That's how the Lord has clothed us, with a robe of righteousness. It's put in slightly different terms in the book of Ezekiel, but it's the same thought, it's justification. In Ezekiel chapter 16, you see the picture given there of an abortive, of a young infant left out in the field, lying in its blood, naked, destitute. But it says in Ezekiel 16 verse 8, Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold thy time was the time of love, and I spread my skirt over thee. Remember how that was done in the days of Boaz and Ruth? How that he covered her with the skirt of his garment, and covered thy nakedness? Yea, I swear unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord God, and thou becamest mine. Then washed I thee with water. Yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee, and I anointed thee with oil. There you have a picture of the Holy Spirit. You have the washing away of the blood, first of all, and then the anointing with oil. Then he says in verse 10, I clothed thee also with broidered work. and shod thee with badger skin." Here you have Old Testament ceremonial where some of the furniture of the tabernacle was covered with these things. He says, "...and I girded thee about with fine linen, and I covered thee with silk." And when you look at the New Testament book of Revelation, it describes the bride, the lamb's wife, and how that she is clothed with fine linen, clean and white. For the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. God sees us today as believers, not in our nakedness, but in and through Christ's perfect righteousness. And therefore, nothing that we can do will make God love us any more or any less. Let me say that again. Nothing we can do will make God love us any more or any less. If you go back to the illustration of my father and I, when I would disappoint my dad by not obeying him, do you think he didn't love me anymore? Do you think he loved me any less because I didn't obey him? No, he loved me just the same, but he chastised me. He chastised me because he loved me and he wanted me to be sorry for what I had done. And I tell you, by the time my dad was finished with me, I was sorry for what I had done. But I also was grieved that I disappointed him. It used to make me feel really bad that I had done what they told me not to do. That's the way it is with the believer. I don't believe that this doctrine of justification encourages loose living at all. Not at all. In fact, Paul dealt with that charge and that objection in Romans chapters 5 and 6. You see, Paul knew what was coming. He knew that people would hear this doctrine that we're imputed with righteousness from Christ. Our sins are all gone. That everything that we have is in the person and work of Christ. And he could hear these objections coming back already. Ah, that means we can live whatever way we like. We can do whatever we want. And it doesn't matter because we're justified in Christ. Paul answers that. Romans 6 particularly, he says, what shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! God forbid! How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? To know that I am regarded as being as holy and as perfect as Jesus in my standing before God. Tell you what that'll do for me, that'll thrill my heart. And that'll cause me to love the Lord more and want to serve Him better. And where that is concerned, I wish I could live as I like. Because I'll tell you how I would like to live. I would like to live all the time in a way that's pleasing to the Lord. I would like to live a sinless life. I would like to live just like Jesus would live. That's what I would like. Oh, that I could live as I like. I wish I could. But because of this old flesh that's pulling me down, I have to say like Paul, O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? What a garment the believer wears. The hymn writer said, this spotless robe the same appears when ruined nature sinks in years. No age can change its glorious hue. The robe of Christ is ever new. We have a great pardon. we have a great position and those who are justified finally also possess a great peace they really do Romans chapter 4 from verse 6 he says even as David also describeth the blessedness it means the happiness is of the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness without works, saying, Blessed are, O the happiness of they whose iniquities are forgiven, whose sins are covered. Blessed, O the happiness of the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. And if we go over to Romans 5 verse 1, it says, Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. That is what we call reconciliation. The justified believer enjoys what the New Testament calls reconciliation. Ephesians 2 verse 12 reminds us of what we were before we were saved. We were without Christ. We were without hope. We were strangers from the covenants of promise. But now in Christ Jesus, ye who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace who hath made both one. There is reconciliation. That's the doctrine that Paul rejoiced in, in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. He talked about the gospel of reconciliation. All things are of God, 2 Corinthians 5.18, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation, to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then, we're ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us. We pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God, for He hath made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. Here is a great piece that we enjoy in our justification. And concerning that piece, I want us to notice two things. It's reality. First of all, it's reality. With the enmity between God and us removed, we are made nigh. You know, whenever you are at odds with somebody, you don't feel close to them, do you? You don't feel close anymore. When two people are at loggerheads, they're not close. But when there's reconciliation, when the wrong is put right, and they're brought together, there's a closeness. It's called reconciliation. The enmity is removed. We are made nigh. That's what happens through the gospel. We're brought into a real fellowship with the God that we once hated, that we once rebelled against, that we once shook our fist in the face of. We are made nigh. And this is a great fact. This is a reality that has been brought about by Christ's atoning work. He has reconciled us to God by His death. The bar to communion and fellowship has been removed. The enmity is gone. The great Princeton theologian Charles Hodge said about this, justification secures peace, not merely because it includes pardon, but because that pardon is dispensed on the ground of a full satisfaction of justice. And what satisfies the justice of God, satisfies the conscience of the sinner. What satisfies the justice of God satisfies the conscience of the sinner. Last evening we were singing in one of those hymns about what satisfies God satisfies us and it is the work of Christ. You see the guilt had to be removed and the blood has done it. Sin has been punished in Christ. Peace has been purchased by the blood of His cross. As the hymn puts it, peace is made twixt man and God. Romans 5 verse 10, For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. This is the reality of peace with God. But I said there was something else. There's it's realization. There is an objective reality. Jesus has dealt with the reason for the separation. He has dealt with the breach. This is the objective reality that we look away to. We look away to Christ for our peace. But yet there must be a subjective experience of this outward reality. And when I get saved, that's what happens. I receive peace within. By faith I come to Him and I receive the reconciliation that He has purchased. And I come to enjoy it in my personal experience. How do I do that? When I come to lean upon the work of Christ. When I come to trust in what He has done. And that's what we call faith. And my joy and peace will be real as I continue as a believer to reckon by faith upon the facts as they are. And you know, that's our problem, even as believers. In our daily experience living in this world, we're not in the sweet by and by, but as one preacher said, we're in the nasty now and now. We're not there yet. And our problem is that in our daily experience, we fail to rest upon the reality. That's what we do. We fail to rest upon the reality. And I think sometimes preachers are guilty of presenting faith as just a state of mind whereby we convince ourselves or we try to convince ourselves that something is really true. You hear some of these charismatic preachers, if you're unfortunate enough to hear them on your TV or radio or whatever, And they tell people that if they can really just believe something as strongly as they can, they can name it and claim it. And they call that faith. One day when I had nothing better to do, and I kind of regretted it afterwards, except I got some sermon material out of it. I listened to a man called Oral Roberts. And he was speaking to some seminary students. He was talking about what he called faith, but it's not what I would call it. And he said, I want you to say this after me. And they must have said it 10 or 12 times. He said, say after me, I know because I know. Then they all, you know, like sheep, followed him. I know because I know. And they did it about, as I say, 10 or 12 times. And I thought to myself, you know what that is? That's a self-help course. That's mere psychology. That's all that is. Psychology. I can convince myself that something is true if I tell myself that it's true often enough. I will tell myself not to doubt and therefore I will stop doubting. Well, actually that's garbage. It's not so. Because you see, the problem is you can have no assurance of salvation by merely telling yourself over and over, I am saved. Oh, I know I'm saved. There's no peace in that. You know how I know that because I've done it? There's certainly no peace there. No peace that's lasting and true just by telling yourself that something is so. I'll tell you where peace is found. It's found by looking away to the objective reality of Christ's work. and resting on the facts, whether you happen to feel it or not. That's faith. It's not feeling it necessarily, although as the Scotswoman said, it's better felt than tellt. It's better to feel it than to tell it. But even when you don't feel it, it doesn't mean that it's not so. Because if you're resting upon the reality as God has outlined it in His Word, that's faith. You're resting upon what has actually taken place. Christ has died. He's borne the sins of those that look to Him. And I look to Him, even if that faith of mine is a trembling faith. That's not the important thing. The important thing is the truth of that which I'm resting in. That's the important thing. It's not this generic thing that people call faith. It is what faith is in. I know lots of people who will tell me, oh I have great faith. Well so do the Muslims. Muslims have great faith. They have great faith in Islam. There are people who have great faith in Hinduism. There are people who have great faith in themselves. Norman Vincent Peale, the power of positive thinking. A lot of people like that. They have great faith. But the problem is what their faith is in. It's not faith at all. Because what saves me is that which my faith is in. And we'll be dealing with that more later in the evening service in the will of God. But I want you to know this folks, that faith is not a leap in the dark. Faith is not hoping for the best. Faith is not even let go and let God. It's not. I'll tell you what faith is. Faith is being reconciled to God in your experience by placing all your confidence, all your hope for eternity, all your trust in the real work of Christ. Hodge put it like this, when we take our true place and feel our ill desert and look upon pardoning mercy as a mere gratuity from God we find access to Him and His love is shed abroad in our hearts producing that peace which passes all understanding for what satisfies God satisfies the conscience of the sinner the convinced sinner never finds peace until he lays his burden of sin on the Lamb of God until he apprehends that his sins have been punished in Christ. That's what faith is. It's resting on the reality of what Jesus has done for me. That's the way of peace. Look at what the Bible says. Look at what the Bible says. I had a poor soul call me and actually I found out he was calling a number of my colleagues as well at the same time. In tremendous torment of soul And he told me why it was. He had been reading over and over and over again a piece by John Bunyan about the man in the iron cage. And he said, I believe I'm the man in the iron cage. I said, well how do you know that? And he said, well I just think I'm the man in the iron cage. Plagued with doubts. It was almost as though he looked upon doubt as a virtue. But I said to him, I said, Sir, look, forget about the Puritans, not that I forget about the Puritans, for I love the Puritans, but forget about all these books that you're reading, forget about all, this one said this, and this one said that, and the other one said the other thing. Let me take you to John's Gospel, chapter 6. This is what I quoted to him. John 6, 37. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. That's election. That's sovereign grace. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Jesus knew that there was a people that were given to Him by the Father from eternity. He came to die for them. But He said, you know something? They're going to come to me. All that the Father giveth me shall come to me. And listen to this, here's the good news of the gospel. And him that cometh to me, I will in no wise cast out. Under no circumstances will the Lord cast you out if you come to him. I said these are the words of Christ. Can you not take Christ at his word? Can you not take the Lord Jesus at his word? This is Jesus who said this to us. Him that cometh to me, I will under no circumstances, I will in no wise cast out, I will not cast you out if you come to me. He said, Ah, but... Ah, but... I said, well there's your problem. You're not willing to take Christ at His word. What is the way of peace? It's resting upon the reality of what Jesus has done for me and upon what Jesus has said. The blood of Christ makes me safe. The word of Christ makes me sure. The blessedness of the believer is in full trust in the objective reality. What Christ has done, I am saved and I'm sure of it, not because I feel like this or I remember this or I remember being taken into an inquiry room and talking to this one or that one and praying such and such a prayer. That is not the basis of my assurance. The basis of my assurance is the work of Christ. What Jesus has done, I'm resting in His finished work. Are you today? Can you rejoice in that truth, Jesus paid it all? All to him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven and whose sin is pardoned. Let's all pray. Father in heaven, we're thankful for thy word today. Thy word is truth. We rejoice in the wonderful truth of justification by faith alone in the finished work of Christ. Oh, may we all today be assured of this great standing in Christ. We thank you, Lord, for a great pardon that we have through His blood. We thank you, Lord, for a great position that we have before God where righteous We thank the Lord for the great peace, the reconciliation that has been made and which is also enjoyed and can be enjoyed by those who believe. Lord, I pray that souls this day will be saved and those who are saved will be able to rejoice in full assurance of faith for these things are written that you may know that you have eternal life. We thank you Lord that it's true today as it was when it was written, He that hath the Son hath life. Lord, we praise Thee today for Thy mercy and for the truth of Thy glorious gospel. Write it upon our souls, we ask of Thee, in Jesus' name. Amen.