Show Notes
Titus 3:7
Pastor Stephen Lauer
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Let's pray.
[00:00:03] Our gracious Father in heaven, we come to feed upon your Word. We know that your Word brings life. It's good for us. And most especially, as we learn of Jesus in your Word, our faith is strengthened and nourished. And so we ask Lord Jesus that as the good shepherd, you would feed us, nourish our souls with the food, the bread of life, with yourself.
[00:00:30] In Jesus name we ask. Amen.
[00:00:36] We're going to read from God's Word one more time. This time it'll be our sermon text.
[00:00:41] We're going to read from Titus 3, 3, 8, Titus 3.
[00:00:49] Beginning in verse 3 and reading through verse 8. Our sermon sermon text will be focusing on verse 7.
[00:00:56] Hear God's word.
[00:01:00] For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one another.
[00:01:14] But when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that, being justified by his grace, we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
[00:01:49] The saying is trustworthy, and I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works. These things are excellent and profitable for people.
[00:02:05] Please be seated.
[00:02:11] We've been looking the last few weeks at the kindness of God to us sinners.
[00:02:19] We looked first, beginning in verse four, at how the kindness of God in saving sinners is the source of our salvation. It all begins with God's benevolence, His desire to save sinners, and that the whole of our salvation begins there. If he didn't love us and want to save us, it wouldn't happen.
[00:02:47] But then he revealed this kindness first by sending His Son to die on the cross and accomplish salvation, but then through the Gospel. This kindness, this love of God in His heart for sinners to save them, he revealed this to each person as the Gospel.
[00:03:08] The work of Jesus on the cross is proclaimed to sinners as you read it in your homes, as you hear it preached, as you share it with one another, the kindness of God is revealed. It appears to us.
[00:03:22] And as we come to understand it, know it and believe it. God saves us. And you find that at the beginning of verse five, as the kindness of God appears to us, he saves, saved us.
[00:03:36] Last week we looked at the kindness of God, how that is revealed to us as he saves us in our new birth.
[00:03:44] That when we come to faith in Jesus Christ, we are born again by the powerful working of the Holy Spirit in us. He changes us and transforms us. On the inside we talked about and saw how that is the kindness of God to sinners, to take us away our sinful nature and give us a new nature, one that loves God and serves Him.
[00:04:08] Today we want to continue looking at the kindness of God in our salvation.
[00:04:13] As we look at God's kindness in justifying sinners, we find that especially in verse seven, as he continues, Paul continues to unfold the kindness of God in saving sinners. He moves from how God regenerates us, gives us a new nature now, to how he justifies sinners by grace, making us heirs of eternal life.
[00:04:40] We want to explain first what it means to be justified.
[00:04:45] What does Paul mean when he says that God saved us so that we might be justified by his grace?
[00:04:55] The New Testament uses the word justification or being justified in a number of places and we'll look at a few of those as we go through this.
[00:05:06] But this justification is something that happens to the sinner. It's not something that we do, it's something that God does. God is the one who's active in these verses.
[00:05:21] God's kindness appears. God saved us. Verse 5.
[00:05:26] The first part of that salvation is in regeneration. The second part is in his justifying of sinners.
[00:05:35] So this is something God does to the sinner.
[00:05:40] What is it that he does to or for the sinner?
[00:05:44] He declares the sinner to be righteous. This is God in his kindness as the king and judge, taking the sinner and saying, you are righteous, you were a sinner, but I'm declaring you righteous.
[00:06:02] What's going on here? That's big picture, that's what's happening. God takes the sinner and he says, I'm not going to treat you as a sinner anymore. I'm going to treat you as righteous, not a sinner, but just.
[00:06:15] Therefore, he justifies the sinner. It's a declaration.
[00:06:21] This is the language of God as king or judge as the ruler, holding court with the sinner in front of him. The sinner is the one accused.
[00:06:31] He's the defendant. We would say in the courtroom, he has no defense, but he's the accused. God is the judge. And what do judges do? Well, at the end of a trial, they weigh the facts. They look at everything and they say either that they the person is accused is guilty or he's not guilty. Either he's done what he's been accused of or he hasn't.
[00:06:55] Well, in God's courtroom, everyone that comes before him is guilty. We are all sinners.
[00:07:02] But when God brings the sinner before him, his courtroom as judge, God justifies the sinner. He takes the sinner who's guilty, and he says, I'm going to declare you righteous as though you had never sinned.
[00:07:18] That's what's going on here.
[00:07:21] Verse three, the beginning of this section, says, for we ourselves, we who were saved. In verse 5, we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray. And then, as you remember, as we read all of the terrible, horrible things that we used to to be, that's who the sinner was.
[00:07:45] We were guilty. We were condemned.
[00:07:49] Romans 3:23 says, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. God takes such a guilty sinner who's broken God's law, who's fallen short of God's glory, and God declares him righteous.
[00:08:10] Now that's a kindness, the kindness of God to take someone who's guilty and say, I'm going to treat you as not guilty. It's like an acquittal. But justification is actually better than an acquittal.
[00:08:23] It's not just a not guilty verdict. In a trial, when someone gets a not guilty verdict, that means, well, we didn't have enough evidence to prove in the human court here on earth, we didn't have enough evidence to prove that you were guilty. And so we're going to say that we have to find you not guilty.
[00:08:44] This is better than an acquittal in a human court. Because God says, not only am I going to find you not guilty, I'm going to find you to be positively righteous, as though you were good and had done good and had fulfilled my law.
[00:09:02] It's like a pardon.
[00:09:06] Our governors and our president here in the United States can pardon someone who's been found guilty. And what a pardon means is that your punishment is taken away. He says, okay, I'm not. I'm going to let you go on the punishment part.
[00:09:20] But in justification, it's better than a pardon because not only does God take away our punishment, he also takes away our guilt.
[00:09:30] He doesn't just say, I'm not going to punish you. He says, I'm taking the guilt that you really have. I'm taking that off of you and I'm going to treat you as righteous and as though you had never, ever sinned.
[00:09:45] That is the kindness of God.
[00:09:50] And we can press this yet a little further. When God declares the sinner to be just to be righteous, when he justifies the sinner, there's two parts to it. We've already kind of begun talking about those two parts.
[00:10:05] We read about these two parts.
[00:10:07] One has to do with the removal of sin and the removal of punishment and guilt. The other part has to do with God finding the sinner to be actively, truly righteous.
[00:10:20] We find both of these In Romans, chapter 3, verse 22 and following here, Paul is talking about how God's righteousness is revealed to sinners.
[00:10:33] And in the context, it's the righteousness that God is providing for sinners. We're sinners, we don't have righteousness. God is revealing that. He's making us providing a righteousness for us.
[00:10:45] Paul says that the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ is for all who who believe.
[00:10:52] For there is no distinction. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood to be received by faith. There's a lot there. But we're going to draw out these two parts of justification.
[00:11:20] First part has to do with the removal of the sinner's guilt and punishment. When God justifies the sinner the sin that we had committed, God charges to the account of His Son.
[00:11:36] And then His Son bears the punishment that we the sinners deserved.
[00:11:44] And so God makes atonement for the sinner in His Son. Both the sin in terms of its guilt, the charge of sin, you're guilty as well as the punishment of sin. Both of them God places on His Son.
[00:12:00] Here again, verse 23 and 4. For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God and are justified by his grace as a gift.
[00:12:10] Here's how it comes to Jesus through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.
[00:12:16] The redemption has to do with paying the price to set us free from sin. Jesus paid. He redeemed sinners.
[00:12:26] He paid the price for their sin.
[00:12:30] How?
[00:12:31] Whom? God? Jesus Christ. Whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood.
[00:12:39] Jesus blood. We know what that means. That has to do with the blood that was shed when he died on the cross.
[00:12:47] Paul says that God made propitiation through Jesus blood. That propitiation is a big word that means God satisfied or calmed or turned away his wrath from sinners to His Son.
[00:13:04] So there you have it. Jesus redeemed us from our sins. He paid the price for us. God charged His Son with our sin and then he put him on the cross and there he paid the penalty for sin.
[00:13:18] Both the guilt and the punishment of sin is accounted by God, the Judge, to His Son Jesus.
[00:13:29] To put it another way, in our stead, in the place of the sinner who believes and trusts in Jesus Christ, God accepts the death of his Son as payment made as satisfaction, as full atonement, as a propitiation of his wrath and our guilt.
[00:13:50] Psalm 32 says, Blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.
[00:13:59] God doesn't count sin against the sinner. He counts it against His Son in justification.
[00:14:07] There's the sin and guilt and punishment part. That's one part of what God does in justification.
[00:14:13] The other part is that he treats the sinner as though he's righteous.
[00:14:19] He treats the filthy rotten sinner who's not righteous. He. He says, I'm declaring that you are righteous.
[00:14:27] You are a criminal. You did commit the crime. You are guilty, but I'm not going to treat you as though you are. I'm declaring you to be righteous.
[00:14:37] The righteousness of Christ. Jesus lived a perfect life. He kept God's law perfectly. He did everything that we didn't and couldn't do.
[00:14:46] God accounts that. He charges that to our account even as he accepted Jesus as righteous. He says, I'm going to accept the sinner as though he were righteous for Jesus sake. Our sin placed on the Son.
[00:15:04] The Son's righteousness accounted to the sinner.
[00:15:09] This is what God does when he justifies the sinner.
[00:15:13] He declares him to be free of guilt and punishment and to be righteous for Jesus sake.
[00:15:21] That's what God does. And that is a kind.
[00:15:24] That is a generous, gracious act of God.
[00:15:29] Truly, truly. The kindness and love of God to sinners.
[00:15:34] When.
[00:15:35] When is a man justified? This is important.
[00:15:40] When do we come to to receive this declaration that you are no longer guilty and I accept you as righteous for the sake of my Son.
[00:15:51] All have sinned.
[00:15:54] We used to be. Verse 3. All of these awful things.
[00:15:58] That means we were all at one time condemned and not justified.
[00:16:04] There's some people that teach that we are justified from all eternity.
[00:16:09] I'm not going to explain it, but just understand that's not the case.
[00:16:15] There was a time in the sinner's life when he was condemned and then he came to faith in Jesus Christ and God justified him and he's no longer condemned. And now he's forgiven and received by God as righteous.
[00:16:29] When did that happen that shift from condemnation to forgiveness and justification.
[00:16:37] Righteousness in our text here in Titus 3, we can draw that out.
[00:16:46] Verse 4 talks about how the goodness and loving kindness of God appeared.
[00:16:52] And we've explained in previous sermons and we stated again this evening. This is referring not just to Christ dying on the cross, but. But most especially this appearing of the kindness of God to us in the preaching of the gospel when we come to hear it and believe it.
[00:17:10] When the kindness of God appeared, He saved us.
[00:17:14] So this is talking about when the gospel comes to the ears and most especially to the heart of the sinner, and God saves the sinner, then he regenerates him and he justifies him.
[00:17:31] So when the kindness and love of God appeared to the sinner in the preaching of the gospel, and he came to faith to trust in the Lord Jesus as His Savior, at that moment God justified the sinner.
[00:17:49] It is when the sinner comes to believe in in Jesus Christ that God justifies him. Here's several more verses that make that clear.
[00:17:58] Romans, chapter three, the beginning of what we read, verse 21, 22. The righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. For all who believe they're justified. They're declared as righteous when they believe.
[00:18:16] Or the very next chapter, chapter four.
[00:18:20] Paul talks about how Abraham was justified.
[00:18:24] And he said that Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness. He was declared righteous. Christ's righteousness was accounted to him when he believed, not before, but when he believed.
[00:18:41] Or again.
[00:18:43] Ephesians, chapter 2. For by grace you have been saved through faith you are saved through faith. That is, when you came to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, you were united to him. You became his, he became yours. You were like a tree branch being grafted into Jesus the vine or the tree trunk. You were united to him by faith. And when you were united to him by faith, God justified you, declared you to be righteous, because you were united to his righteous Son and to his death and to his resurrection and to all that Christ is. It's at that moment of faith that God justifies the sinner.
[00:19:30] By grace you have been saved through faith. Now, faith itself is a gift.
[00:19:37] Paul here in these verses, is adamant, very strongly arguing that the kindness of God in salvation is all of him, and salvation is all of him and not of us.
[00:19:49] Look at verse five. He saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his mercy.
[00:19:58] It was not that our faith was something we did like a work we did something good. We believed in Jesus of our own strength and power. And therefore God justified us, forgave us, and declared us righteous. No.
[00:20:12] The faith itself by which we believe, the instrument by which we receive Jesus and His forgiveness and his righteousness.
[00:20:21] That faith itself is something God produces in the sinner. It comes from him. That faith itself is a part of our salvation.
[00:20:32] Again, Ephesians 2. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves.
[00:20:39] The salvation and the faith not of yourselves. It is a gift of God.
[00:20:45] God gives the gift of salvation in Jesus and His Son. And a part of that is the faith that he works in the sinner. The faith itself is a gift he gives to sinners.
[00:20:57] And you see that too. Maybe not as clearly, but if you look carefully, it's here in these verses in Titus.
[00:21:05] For the gift of faith comes through the work of the Holy Spirit. It says verse 5 and 6. He saved us not by works of righteousness that we've done that would include our faith, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit.
[00:21:26] The Spirit indwells us, gives us a new nature, enables us to believe that we might be united to Christ and be justified in Him.
[00:21:38] So justification is a declaration of something God declares about us.
[00:21:43] That we are righteous in Christ and forgiven in Him.
[00:21:46] It happens when we're united to Christ by faith. And that faith itself is a gift.
[00:21:53] Everything is the kindness and gracious working of God.
[00:21:59] But let's roll through that from a different lens.
[00:22:03] Justification, Paul says, is gracious. He emphasizes it in this verse, being justified by his grace. So we've defined what it means to be justified, a gracious thing. But he adds that we're justified by his grace. He wants to underscore the kindness of God to undeserving sinners. Here.
[00:22:31] This is God's gift.
[00:22:35] Grace is a gift.
[00:22:37] It's a favor that God gives us that we don't deserve.
[00:22:43] The Bible is very clear about grace being a favor that we haven't merited or earned. That's what a gift is. You can't earn a gift. If you earn a gift, it's something you purchased.
[00:22:57] You earned it.
[00:23:00] You get a bonus at work. That's not really a gift. You earned it with your work.
[00:23:05] But a gift is different. It's something you didn't earn.
[00:23:09] Verse 5. He saved us not because of works done by us. He righteousness.
[00:23:16] Why?
[00:23:17] Because we had none. We had no righteousness. All we had was sin and condemnation.
[00:23:25] But God graciously declares us righteous in His Son. That's a gift.
[00:23:32] You see the gracious kindness of the Father, who declares the sinner to be righteous and gives his own Son as a gift the that he might declare his sinners righteous. You see the kindness of the Son, Jesus Christ, who went to the cross for undeserving sinners, that he might make atonement, that he might offer righteousness in justification.
[00:23:59] You see the gracious kindness of the Holy Spirit who comes and God the Spirit indwells filthy sinners, regenerating and giving the gift of faith. See, all is of the gracious kindness of God. Everything in your justification comes from God as a gift.
[00:24:23] So has God's kindness appeared to you.
[00:24:31] Have you received God's verdict, His declaration that you are forgiven and righteous in His Son.
[00:24:39] That for Jesus sake all your sins are forgiven and for Jesus sake He accepts you as righteous. Have you received the declaration? God says there's peace.
[00:24:50] We're no more at war, but we're friends.
[00:24:55] Have you heard that from the Father?
[00:25:00] All are sinners, all are condemned. We were conceived and born in sin. And then as soon as we could speak and do things, we piled on our own sins on top of our sinful nature.
[00:25:13] And the wages of sin is death. Not just physical death, but eternal death, eternally being cut off from the Father.
[00:25:23] The Gospel says that God sent His own Son to reconcile sinners to Himself.
[00:25:33] Jesus, the one that you have to believe in in order to be justified.
[00:25:39] Jesus is the sinner's hope.
[00:25:42] God put his own Son on the cross as a sacrifice so that Jesus might make atonement, pay the debt for sinners, be redemption for sinners, so that when sinners believe in His Son, the Father might declare them righteous and forgive them.
[00:26:02] The Son in His work on the Cross is the means by which he can reconcile sinners to Himself.
[00:26:10] Not guilty, not enemies.
[00:26:12] Peace, forgiveness, friendship, love. Love.
[00:26:16] That's what God is offering in His Son.
[00:26:20] All this is from God. 1 Corinthians 5:20 God, who through Christ, reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation that is in Christ. God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them and entrusting us with the message of reconciliation.
[00:26:47] That's what God is doing. And that's what God is doing. Every time the Gospel is preached, he's holding forth what he did in His Son. And he's saying, come to My Son, believe in him, be forgiven, be received, be reconciled.
[00:27:04] If you aren't justified, if you don't know the Lord Jesus Christ, then you are condemned. And he is what you need.
[00:27:12] You need Jesus. You don't need your own works. You don't need something good. There's nothing you can do.
[00:27:18] All you have is Jesus.
[00:27:22] Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making His appeal through us.
[00:27:28] We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God for our sake. He made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. If you don't know him, turn to him and God will forgive you, justify you and receive you.
[00:27:56] I want to look with you at three blessings of justification. Three things that flow, flow from justification. There's lots more, but here are three. That if you know the Lord Jesus and you've been justified, these belong to you and they should comfort you and encourage you in your walk with the Lord.
[00:28:21] First of all, one of the great blessings of justification is that this declaration that you, the sinner, are righteous for Jesus sake, this in the kindness and mercy of God, is one and done.
[00:28:36] It is final.
[00:28:38] It is unreversible.
[00:28:42] It is a once and for all status.
[00:28:45] When God has justified you, when the Father in heaven has declared you, for Jesus sake to be forgiven and that he receives you as righteous, when that declaration is issued, it can't be reversed.
[00:29:00] It's a heavenly decree, not an earthly one.
[00:29:05] When God has forgiven you, you are forgiven. When the Son sets you free, you are free indeed.
[00:29:12] God forgives all your sins in the past. He forgives your present sins and he forgives your future. S Jesus paid the full debt for all of it.
[00:29:26] And when the Father forgave you, he forgave you for all of it.
[00:29:34] How do you know this? Prove it to me, Pastor. Romans 8, 30.
[00:29:39] Speaking of God saving sinners, he says, those whom he predestined, he also called and those whom he called.
[00:29:49] That calling has to do with the Gospel being proclaimed to call sinners to Himself and the Spirit, drawing sinners to Christ in faith.
[00:29:58] So those whom he's called and drawn in faith to Jesus Christ, those whom he called, he also justified the thing we've been talking about all night, those whom God justified, He also glorified all those whom God calls in faith to His Son and whom he declares to be righteous in His Son, God glorifies, that is, he takes them and one day takes each of those whom he justified and declared as righteous and makes them fully and completely righteous. Actually, righteous glorifies us so that we can be in the presence of God forever and have eternal life.
[00:30:48] All those whom he justifies he glorifies.
[00:30:52] Therefore, if God has justified you, you cannot lose that justification. He will glorify you.
[00:30:59] It is an unbreakable chain of the events of God's working in saving the sinner.
[00:31:08] And so Paul continues.
[00:31:11] God is the one who justifies.
[00:31:14] Who can condemn, who shall bring any charge against God's elect?
[00:31:20] It is God who justifies.
[00:31:24] If God the judge has declared you righteous and forgiven you for His Son's sake, no one can bring a charge against you.
[00:31:32] Who is to condemn?
[00:31:34] He's the one who would condemn, but he hasn't condemned you.
[00:31:38] Christ Jesus is the one who died more than that, who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who is interceding for us. Every time you sin, Jesus is there pleading with the Father.
[00:31:51] You declared him righteous. You forgave him. For the sake of my blood that I spilled for that sheep.
[00:31:59] Don't hold this against him.
[00:32:03] Jesus pleads for you constantly, and no one condemns you.
[00:32:09] If you are justified, it is final.
[00:32:13] See the kindness of God, that this is not a thing that can be lost.
[00:32:20] Secondly, see the goodness and kindness of God in the hope that God gives everyone whom he justifies.
[00:32:29] Verse 7 says that those whom God justified, he makes heirs according to the hope of eternal life.
[00:32:36] When he justifies you and declares you to be righteous, he says, now this one is righteous, and one day I'm going to glorify him. And that means he is entitled, entitled for Christ's sake to the inheritance of eternal life.
[00:32:54] That's what an heir is. That's someone who stands in line to inherit a fortune, whatever that is here in earthly terms, land, wealth, and so on. But the one whom God justifies is now qualified to inherit the kingdom of heaven.
[00:33:16] What does that mean? Well, the very best part of it is that we were made to know and love and serve God and to worship him and to have fellowship and communion with God. We're made in God's image. He made us to know him and live with him and eternal life at the heart of it. Jesus says, this is eternal life, that they may know the one true God and His Son, Jesus Christ.
[00:33:42] So to be an heir of eternal life means that you will spend eternity knowing and beholding the face of God.
[00:33:54] What good is there in this life that you have experienced?
[00:33:58] You will spend eternity in the presence of one who made it all.
[00:34:03] He is far greater and far better and far more wonderful and glorious and better than anything you have experienced here.
[00:34:10] And you will have an eternity of that. And you are sealed as an heir of that inheritance through your justification in Jesus Christ. If you cannot be unjustified, have that condemnation reversed even when you sin because God forgives you, then you cannot lose that inheritance.
[00:34:33] Indeed, it is an inheritance you cannot lose.
[00:34:36] Jesus says that the treasures that are in heaven for his people cannot be lost. They cannot be stolen. They don't grow mold, they don't rust.
[00:34:47] Nothing can touch that inheritance. And you are an heir of that in Jesus Christ. If it's not based on your works, you can't lose it.
[00:34:58] You didn't earn it. Someone can't take it away from you.
[00:35:03] And what's most important here is, is that God who saved you will not let you go. That's what Jesus says. I am the good shepherd. I give eternal life to my sheep, and no one can snatch them away from me. And the Father, who is greater than I, holds the sheep also, and no one can take them from his hand.
[00:35:26] You have the greatest hope of all as those justified.
[00:35:31] Finally, and this is where Paul is driving in all of these verses. It's where he begins in verse one and two, and it's where he's headed in verse eight.
[00:35:43] All of the salvation and the kindness of God that Paul is unfolding here, including the hope of eternal life, and especially our justification, is driving towards the Christian life. We might call it the life that those who are justified in Christ are called live. Look at verse 8. The saying is trustworthy. What saying? All this stuff he's just said about God's kindness in saving sinners, in regenerating them in Jesus Christ through the power of the Spirit, and in justifying them by grace in Jesus Christ and giving them the hope of eternal life. You've received all of that. This is faithful and trustworthy and true. You can hang your life on this saying.
[00:36:27] And he says, if you're going to hang your life on this saying because you've believed in Him, I want you to insist on these things so that those who have believed in God may be careful to devote themselves to good works.
[00:36:45] The justified Christian is called to live righteous, a righteous life. God has declared you righteous, but you still struggle with sin. You still have tendencies to sin, but God calls you to live as righteous, not so that you can be justified, but because he's justified you. He's put his mark on you. He's given you the hope of eternal life, and he calls you to live as one who belongs to heaven, who belongs to Jesus.
[00:37:20] He's changed your heart. He's given you His Holy Spirit. He's Given you faith. He's purified you, and now he wants you to live a purified life.
[00:37:32] And, boy, does justification ever help us with this Christian life.
[00:37:39] Because we know that it's not what we do that earns our place before God. It's not what we do that gives us forgiveness or eternal life or righteousness and reconciliation.
[00:37:54] Because if that were the case, we would fail.
[00:37:58] Because every day we sin, but the seal of justification, God's declaration that he forgives us and receives us for His Son's sake every day when we sin.
[00:38:12] The fact that God has declared you righteous is your comfort and hope.
[00:38:17] My hope is not that I can do something good today. My hope is that God loves me and forgives me for His Son's sake.
[00:38:26] And for His Son's sake, He will bless me today and he will lift me up and help me to serve him.
[00:38:33] If he has justified me, then he will sanctify me in this life and one day glorify me.
[00:38:42] That's the kindness of God to sinners. That the very life he calls you to live, that you can't live on your own.
[00:38:49] He wants you to live with the assurance and comfort that he loves you and he forgives you no matter what you do.
[00:38:57] And that every day he's working more and more in your heart, in your life, to lift you up, to change you, to make you more like his son Jesus. So that one day when he sends His Son Jesus to bring you to Himself, he will glorify you. And that will be the end of it.
[00:39:16] Will you pray with me?
[00:39:22] Our God and father in heaven, We see clearly in your word that were everything left to ourselves, we would be back in that hateful place with misery and sin and slavery.
[00:39:46] But we thank you that all of our salvation depends on you and that you are a kind and merciful and loving God.
[00:39:55] O Lord our God, we ask that not only once again that you would forgive our sins, but that you would show us the beauty of Jesus our Savior. That you would help us to see in his death and in his blood your goodness and his kindness and love towards us, to forgive us.
[00:40:19] That in the resurrection we would see that you have accepted him righteous and that there we would see once again his beauty, that he is the righteous one, the Lord, our righteousness, and that for his sake you forgive and receive us.
[00:40:39] O Lord our God, we ask that more and more you would drive our hearts, our desires, our minds to meditate on Jesus our Savior.
[00:40:49] That we would be filled with thankfulness and praise and that we would be zealous for his sake and with his comforts and his blessing and his forgiveness, that we would be zealous to live our lives wholly devoted to serving him.
[00:41:08] In Jesus name we ask amen.
