In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the importance of believing in Jesus and looking to Him for salvation. He uses examples like Peter walking on water and the story of the bronze serpent in the Bible to illustrate the concept of looking and living by faith. The preacher also mentions the significance of number 14 in the little red book, which is not explained further. He then focuses on the message of Romans 4-5, highlighting that God justifies the ungodly through the blood of Jesus, regardless of man's unworthiness. The preacher also discusses the role of repentance and faith in justification, emphasizing that they do not contribute to paying for one's sins but are essential components of salvation. The sermon concludes with a reading from Isaiah 52-53, highlighting the suffering and despised nature of Jesus, who will ultimately bring salvation to many nations.

Let me just read to you here, and you listen to what I'm reading. Behold, my servant will prosper. He will be high and lifted up and greatly exalted. Just as many were astonished at you, my people, so his appearance was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men. Thus he will sprinkle many nations. Kings will shut their mouths on account of him, for what had not been told them they will see, and what they had not heard they will understand. Who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed? For he grew up before him like a tender shoot, like a root out of parched ground. He has no form or majesty that we should look upon him, nor appearance that we should desire him. He was despised and forsaken of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And like one from whom men hide their face, he was despised, and we did not esteem him. Isn't it unbelievable, the most beautiful one who ever walked this earth? Nobody esteemed him, they despised him. What a tragedy. You know, the tragedy of hell is not just you're going to be in some kind of fire. The tragedy of hell is never seeing the beauty and glory, and loving the beauty and the glory of this one. He was despised and we did not esteem him. Surely our griefs he himself bore, and our sorrows he carried. Yet we ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. You know, Paul said to the Jews, a stumbling block? What was the stumbling block? Well, a crucified Messiah to a Jew is a contradiction in terms. You come and tell a Jew, we found the Messiah. Where is he? Well, he's been crucified. You see, he that hangs on a tree is accursed of God. You tell me the Messiah was accursed of God? We ourselves esteemed him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was pierced through for our transgression, he was crushed for our iniquity, and the chastening of our peace fell upon him, and by his purging we are healed. All of us, like sheep, have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way, but the Lord has caused the iniquity of us all to fall on him. He was oppressed and he was afflicted, yet he did not open his mouth. Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, and like a sheep that is silent before shearers, so he did not open his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away, and as for his generation, who considers? He was cut off out of the land of the living, for the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due. His grave was assigned to be with wicked men. There was a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, nor was there any deceit in his mouth. But the Lord was pleased to crush him, putting him to grief. He would render himself as a guilt offering. He will see his offspring. He will prolong his days, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hands. Do you think that death was to make something possible? That death was to secure something. He'll see his offspring, and the good pleasure of the Lord will prosper in his hands, and as a result of the anguish of his soul, he will see it and be satisfied. By his knowledge, the righteous one, my servant, will justify the many, as he will bear their iniquities. I love that word, bear. He bore our sins in his own body on the tree. He will bear their iniquities. Therefore, I will allot him a portion of the great, and he will divide the booty with the strong, because he poured out himself to death, and was numbered with the transgressors. Yet he himself bore the sin of many, and interceded for the transgressors. We began last night to look at the two great Bible doctrines of justification and regeneration. And we saw that the greatest problem of humanity, in fact, really you could say the only problem of humanity, is sin. It's just sin. And that sin is universal and all-pervasive, and absolutely crooked and perverse and defiling and deceitful and hardening, and everything else you could say about it. But that sin problem that man has, has two aspects. First of all, there's an internal aspect to it. Man himself is himself crooked and defiled and perverse inside. But also, as well as the internal aspect, there's an external aspect to my sin problem. That is, not only do I have a bad heart, I've got a bad record. I've got a criminal record in the eyes of God's law. To say it another way, if you're not a Christian here tonight, sin is both defiling you, it defiles you because of who you are. But it's not only defiling you, it's condemning you because of what you've done. See, there's two aspects to this thing. On the one hand, sin's power is reigning in you right now. It's riding you and ruling over you. But on the other hand, sin's penalty is crying out for your death. And even if you had some way to get yourself out of the helplessness of being held in sin's power, and you are helpless in the power of sin. But even if you had some way to get yourself out of that helpless position, you'd still be in a hopeless position because of sin's penalty. If you could change tonight and never commit another sin, you've still got all those past crimes that call for your death. Now when a man begins to see that, the name Jesus begins to mean something to him. He shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins. And he saves us from our sins in both ways. He takes care of this problem inside in regeneration. He takes care of this problem outside in justification. He takes care of all of us. Now we began last night then to consider justification. How can a man be in the right before God? And this has tormented mankind down through all history. All over the world. Men offering sacrifices, doing all kinds of things, even burning their children in the fire. Martin Luther crawling on his knees up those steps. Men wearing hair shirts with fish hooks in them. Everything under the sun. To try to somehow deal with this problem. How can a man be right with God? And there's only one answer. Only by the life and death of the Lord Jesus Christ and the imputation of our guilt to Him and His righteousness to us. He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him. I'd like for us this evening to consider seven truths regarding justification. This is a subject that you know we have a problem because it's so commonplace and that's almost blasphemy to talk like that, isn't it? We're up so close to it sometimes that we can't feel the wonder of justification. And so we've got to just take some time and separate things out and look at this. We're going to look at seven things. Everything I talk about tonight is Scripture and we're going to have Scripture for each one and you can think about these. The first thing is this. And oh, if we could let this soak in. Justification is based on the blood of Jesus. Very simple, isn't it? Justification is based on the blood of Jesus. Romans 5, 9 Much more than having now been justified by His blood. Remember there in 1 John the blood of Jesus Christ God's Son cleanses us from all sin. What justifies it? The blood. He says it, doesn't He? Justified by the blood. The blood does this. In other words, justification proceeds on the basis of a ransom paid. It proceeds on the basis of a satisfaction of justice. In other words, when God justifies a man He's not looking at the man. Do you get that? You're justified by the blood. So when God justifies you He's looking at the blood of Christ. Another way of saying this when God justifies a man He does not justify him on the basis of anything in the man. Oh my! Men go to heaven on the basis of what somebody else did. In particular, it's not because that man is or has been or has become in any way, shape, or form godly. God does not justify a man because he is or has been or has become in any way, shape, or form godly. What's it say, Romans 4, 5? He justifies the ungodly. That's the only kind of people that God justifies. Do you feel unworthy of being justified? Well, I hope you feel unworthy of being justified. Because there's no way you are justified unless you know that. There is nothing in man in fact, everything about man that cries out against God justifying him, but he justifies him on the basis of the blood of Jesus. That includes our repentance and our faith. Here's a guy standing in front of the judge. He's committed seven counts of murder. And he feels really bad about it. Repentance. He's really sorry. What's that do to pay for his crimes? It doesn't have a thing in the world to do with paying for his crimes. Repentance has nothing in the world to do with that sentence of justification. That pronouncement of justification. Same thing with faith. Who was it? The top lady said this. Could my tears forever flow? Could my zeal, no respite, no. Just be as zealous as you could be every moment of the day. Could my tears forever flow? All for sin could not atone. Thou must save and thou alone justification is based on the blood of Christ. Now that explains why a person can have a very weak faith and still be justified. Picture a bridge going out over a chasm. Here's a weak bridge going out over a chasm. And here's a strong bridge going out over a chasm. And this fellow over here, he's so confident about this weak bridge he just knows it will hold him. He just gets right out on it. You know what happens? Down he goes to destruction. Here's a strong bridge over here and this guy is scared to death. He's got a very weak faith and a very strong bridge. He's so scared and he just trembled barely able to get out on the bridge. You know what's going to happen? It's going to hold him up. Because he's being held not by his faith, he's being held by the bridge. That has to do with the righteousness and blood of Christ. All you've got to have is a pithily paltry little faith to get you out on the bridge and it will hold you up. You see, our confidence is in the bridge. Somebody said to Hudson Taylor, you sure are a man of great faith. He said, no, I'm a man of very little faith and a very great God. And the bigger God is, you know, the less you've got to have. What did Jesus say? Just like a little mustard seed. That's enough to move mountains. It has to do with the size of God. It has to do with the value of that blood. Remember in the Passover, here comes the Death Angel through. He was not looking to see how those people felt inside of the houses. He wasn't saying, are they confident or are they scared? He said, when I see the blood, I'll pass over you. The reason he passes over you is the blood. James McKendrick was an evangelist in Scotland there a hundred years or so ago. And there was a fellow that was a notorious sinner that was converted. And I've forgotten his name, maybe Sandy or something like that. He came back through later and this man was totally downcast and dejected. He said, Brother McKendrick, I don't feel the way I felt when I first became a Christian. And James McKendrick said, Sandy, how much money have you got in your pocket? He said, well, I've got a shilling in my pocket. He said, let me ask you a question. When you feel real good, how much does that worth? He said, it's worth a shilling. When you feel real bad, how much is it worth? He said, it's worth a shilling. And that's exactly the way it is with the righteousness of Christ. It does not change, it does not fluctuate, it has nothing to do with what's going on inside of you. Aren't you glad about that? Horatious Bonari said, I hear the words of love, I gaze upon the blood, I see the mighty sacrifice, and I have peace with God. His everlasting peace, sure as Jehovah's name, His stable as His steadfast throne, forever more the same. That's how stable that peace is. He says, the clouds may go and come, and storms may sweep my sky, this blood-sealed friendship changes not. The cross is ever not. That's the foundation of everything, isn't it? Christian, are you looking inside for your confidence? That's like trying to cast the anchor in the hole. That doesn't work. You throw the anchor inside the ship, it's not going to help you, is it? You've got to take the anchor out and throw it outside of your cell and cast the anchor outside of your cell. That's where you get into something solid out there. You're not going to get anything in here, no help inside. Number two, to justify means to declare righteousness. It does not mean to make righteousness. It means to declare righteousness. When God justifies us, He declares that something is true about us on the outside in relation to His law objectively. He declares that we're right in the sight of the law. Now, justification does not make us good on the inside. God does us to do that. But that's regeneration. This new man that is created in righteousness and true holiness, that's regeneration. Justification means to declare righteousness. Now, I told you that I would give you verses on this. Well, we've got one for this. Here's one example. We've got a lot of them, but here's one, Romans 8, 33 and 34. He says, Who will bring a charge against God's elect? It is God that justifies. Who is He that condemns? Now, what's the opposite of justify? Condemn. Let me ask you a question. When you condemn a man, do you make him bad on the inside? You don't affect anything what he is. You're bringing a charge against him. You're making a declaration about him on the outside. You see that? To justify is the opposite of condemn. Justification is a statement or a declaration about our standing in the eyes of the law. Number three, justification has no degrees or gradation. It has no degrees. You are either 100% righteous in the eyes of God's law or you're condemned. Here's a man that's got, I'd like to have this man have seven counts of murder against him again and he is acquitted of all of them but one. He's a condemned man. If you have one sin, I'm talking about one thought, one bad thought, one sin that you've got to pay for yourself, you're going to be in hell forever. You are a condemned man under the wrath of God. Romans eight one, there is therefore now no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. Zero, none, no condemnation for those that are in Christ Jesus. If you're a Christian, you are 100% justified in the eyes of God's law and the righteousness that you have is not just a good righteousness. The righteousness that you have is the very righteousness of God. It's the righteousness of Christ. It's absolutely perfect. It is contrasted not only with all human unrighteousness but with all human righteousness. It is the righteousness of God. You remember what Paul said? Not having a righteousness of my own derived from the law but the righteousness of God which comes down to you through faith in Christ. Justification has no degrees. Oh, if we could get ahold of this, the devil will tell you and get you to thinking, you know, you're just a little bit dirty in the side of God's law. Every time he forgives you and you ask his forgiveness and just as you live the Christian life you just get a feeling, you know, just a little bit of tarnish on there. Maybe a little bit more tarnish. That's not the way it is. When God justifies you that righteousness of Christ stays absolutely the same, perfect, absolutely perfect. It doesn't make one bit of difference how you feel. It doesn't make one bit of difference how you fail. It has to do with Christ and it's perfect and it's absolute and it's perfect righteousness. Who was it, Zinzendorf? Jesus, thy blood and righteousness, my beauty are, my glorious dress. Midst flaming worlds in these arrayed with joy shall I lift up my head. You realize that? I mentioned last night this serial killer, David Berkowitz. It looks like maybe the Lord has really truly saved him. Can you imagine a man that's murdered, has in his mind, he remembers those, I don't know how many it was, seven or eight girls that he murdered. You've got that in your mind and you're standing in the midst of flaming worlds. Well, with your robe, with the righteousness of Christ, he says, with joy. Midst flaming worlds in these arrayed with joy shall I lift up my head. Now, you don't have to talk about David Berkowitz. God just opened your eyes to get a little glimpse again of what you've done and I'll tell you what, if it wasn't for the righteous robe of Christ, you'd have your head hanging down and you wouldn't even crawl into the midst of flaming worlds in these arrayed with joy shall I lift up my head. What's he say? This spotless robe, the same appears when ruined nature sinks in years. No age can change its glorious youth. The robe of Christ is ever new. It's not getting worn out. It's ever new. You know, that robe is not just the least little bit dirty. It's the righteousness of Christ. You know, isn't this something? Paul, the Apostle Paul, knew God better than we do. At least he knew God better than I do, I guarantee that. But Paul did not have one bit more justification in the eyes of God's law than what you have. Isn't that something? Very same justification, perfect, 100% absolute perfect justification. Number four, justification is more than pardon. Justification is more than pardon. In many governments, the president or the governor has the power to pardon criminals. And sometimes some very wicked men are pardoned by the president or by the governor. Now, let me ask you some questions. When those men were pardoned, were their crimes paid for? No, their crime wasn't paid for. Let me ask you another question. When they were pardoned, was the threatened sentence of the law carried out? You see what that makes God? He threatens death. The soul that sinneth, it shall die. Forget about it. It doesn't need to be any death. That is the reason, again, for Christ dying. God's word will not, cannot fail. His justice will not, cannot fail. Pardon gets the man off the hook without justice being satisfied. That's what pardon does. And there is a sense of outrage. I mean, there is a sense of outrage. Even in the pardoned man, if God, if your eyes are open to your crimes, there's an outrage in the heart of the pardoned man. Pardon is an act of executive clemency and the sentence of the law is never carried out. By contrast with that, and I get this, justification is the declaration of a judge. Pardon is an act of executive clemency. Justification is the declaration of a judge. When God justifies you, He does not let you off of the hook and your sin is still hanging out there in the air. That's not what happens. You know, I mentioned this serial killer. There was a lady, Carol Everett, I saw her testimony, she was one of the big people in the abortion industry at the beginning and God saved her and she looked back on that and she said all the faces of those babies, not one or two or ten, thousands. You realize if you really believe here I am on death row, I deserve to be here, I deserve to die for what I've done, I see all those faces coming out and God comes along and says, don't worry about it, you're free to go. You know, once the Holy Spirit has shown you your sin, you'd be ready to come back and say, I want to get back in there. I deserve to die for this. And the Christians, I think there's Christians walking around, they don't understand this, they still think that sin's hanging out there, why haven't I been killed for this, I deserve to die for this. That sin still needs to be paid for. No, beloved, if you're a Christian, you think of it, whatever sin the devil brings to your mind, whatever that worst thing was, and you say if it hadn't been for that, that fell on the Lord Jesus Christ and he paid the penalty for that sin and it has been paid for. God does not let you off the hook and leave justice unsatisfied. That sin has been paid, it's been paid in full. And so the devil comes along and he tries to condemn you, you say, listen, it is God that justifies, who is he that condemns? And that's the next thing, it is Christ that died, that's why for the justification. And now he's risen and he's interceding, who shall separate us from the love of Christ. Justification is not pardoned, it's a whole lot more than that. Justification proceeds on the basis of justice. Justice is satisfied. When God justifies you, he does not pretend that your sins have been paid for. He looks in the books and he sees your sins actually have been paid for and he makes a declaration on the basis of truth. Justification is a declaration on the basis of what's really happened with your sins. Again, let me say it, he bore my sin in his own body on the cross. It's been paid for, God looks at it and that death has been paid for. Number five, justification is both positive and negative. Remember there in Romans 4, verses 6 to 8, David describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputed righteousness without works. Saying, blessed are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord will not impute sin. Two sides to it. First of all, negatively, he will not impute sin to that man. That's the negative side of justification. Why will he not impute sin to him? Because that sin has been laid upon Christ and he paid for it. On the positive side, he imputes, he reckons righteousness apart from works. That's something more. Let me see if I can explain. You know, it is scriptural to compare sin with the debt. Jesus does that. Forgive us our debt as we forgive our debtors. Here's another one, Matthew 18. He gives that parable of that man that owed so much money. He was owed millions and millions. I can say as a law sinner, I owe a terrific debt. It is a big debt, too. That debt there in Matthew 18, if you figure it out, he said he handed him over to the torturers to be punished until he paid it all back. You know, it would only take 164,000 years if you didn't have any breaks for Sundays or holidays. You could pay it back in 164,000 years. I don't know how you're going to do that while you're in jail and while interest is accumulating all the time. Isn't that amazing? It's a big debt. I owe a great debt of sin. Christ pays for that debt. Now, we're talking about the negative side. That brings you up to zero now. That's the negative side. There's a positive side to justification. He imputes righteousness to you. In other words, he not only pays that debt, but he makes you fabulously wealthy in the eyes of God's law because Christ's very righteousness is imputed to you. That's the positive side. Romans chapter 5 and verses 1 and 2, you remember what he says? He says, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. That's the negative side. Before that, we did not have peace with God. Not only are we mad at God and fighting Him, God's mad at us. That's a big thing. You know, here's a criminal and he's got his gun and he's running and the police are after him with their guns and they surround him and he throws his gun down. Now, what's wrong with this picture? He throws his gun down and all the police throw all their guns down. Why don't they do that? Because that gun is going to be held on that criminal until justice is satisfied and they'll put the gun away. You see, when he says we have peace with God, he's saying God has put his gun away. That's what he's saying. That's what the peace is. This thing of me not being mad at God, that doesn't amount to anything. When you say God's not mad at me anymore, I have peace with God, God's not, he doesn't have one thing that he's mad about in the eyes of his law about me. Now that's the negative side. That's just, we're at peace with God. What does he say? He goes right on and says we exalt right now in hope of the glory of God. We're rejoicing, exulting, and that hope is not I hope I'm going to get to heaven. That is confident, joyful expectation of what I know is coming. We don't go into that, but you study what the idea of hope is. It's the same thing when I was a boy growing up. We used to haul hay and I remember I knew what it was like at the end of the day when everybody was all tired out and sweaty and you wash your arms off and my dad would get out his billfold and bring out those crisp twenty-dollar bills. And I labored all day in hope of what I knew was coming at the end of the day. Now that's what he's talking about, the labor. He talks about that in Corinthians, you remember, the plowman plowing in hope and stuff like that. Joyful, confident expectation of what I know is coming. Now look, not only do I have peace with God, but right now I'm exulting and I'm going to be in heaven in just a few heartbeats. I'm going to be in heaven. You see, in other words, the Christian has eternal life. Eternal life is not something that I may have someday. Jesus said, beholds the Son and believes on Him, has eternal life. And he's not going to come into condemnation. He's passed out of that into life. And so God, when He justifies a man, He goes way beyond just forgiving his sins. He gives him a title to eternal life in His Son. He makes him a joint heir with Christ. Number six, justification is once for all. It's once for all. Romans 5, 1. You miss this a little bit in the authorizer. It says being justified, but you know in the old English you're not talking about all every moment you're being justified again. It's talking about something that happened. Having been justified. Having been justified by faith. It's a once-for-all past completed thing. Justification is once for all. In other words, you don't get justified and then fall under condemnation and then get justified again and fall under condemnation again. That isn't the way it is. He says there in Romans 5, too, he says through Christ we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. Look at that standing in grace. You're in this position now standing in grace. In other words, justification puts us in a whole new position, a whole new standing, a whole new position in the eyes of God. Let me try to illustrate this. Suppose I got up this morning and I was a little bit unkind toward my wife, a little bit rude toward her. I didn't even really think about it. And a couple of hours later I began thinking about that and I think, that was sin. That was sin. And so I get on my knees and ask God to forgive me and I go to her and ask her to forgive me. And look here, right here I started out the morning justified. I committed a sin. And it was clear over here when I confessed the sin. Suppose I die in between there while I've got this sin and I haven't even confessed it. Will I go to hell? No, you won't go to hell. I'll prove it to you as soon as I get ready. I see that sin. I didn't mean to do it. I see it was a sin. What do I say? I say, Father, forgive me. He's still my Father. Now think of what we're saying here. It means that I remained in a justified state while I had a sin that had not been confessed. Now let's make it a little harder. Suppose I got up in the morning and we had an argument and I knew that I did wrong. I knew that I sinned. And you go separate from each other and man, all day long you're miserable. You can't stand to lift up your head. You're so miserable and your heart finally breaks down and you say, Lord, forgive me for that. Call your wife or whatever and go to your wife and ask her to forgive you. Now this is a known sin. Between the time that I committed that sin and I knew it was sin the whole time and I didn't confess, suppose I died right in there, would I have gone to hell? No. Now I can prove that too. Why do you suppose I was so miserable all day long? Because you're a child of God. That's why. In other words, you remained in a justified state the whole time. What's going on here? And you see there's a total difference between a Christian, a justified man and a lost man. He lives in that sin. You know, I made a decision 45 years ago. I just never have grown. But we're talking about a Christian here now. What has happened? What's happened is he is no longer a criminal before a judge. He is a son in the loving care of his father. He has entered into a different realm. Over here is the realm of the flesh. Over here is the realm of law. Over here is the realm of sin and condemnation. Whenever God justifies you, He takes you out of that realm entirely and puts you in the realm of a son in relation to a father. Now, listen. What the brother said, God might have to take you out to the woodshed and chasten you. But that is an entirely different thing than judicial punishment. Judicial punishment is suffering inflicted to satisfy justice. Chastening is suffering inflicted because of love for the one being chastened. That is a totally different story. And when God does take you to the woodshed, He holds your hand on the way there, and then He carries you on the way back. If this were not true, that justification is once for all, we would lose our salvation every time we commit one sin. And then we would have to become a Christian all over again and get justified again. And man, that would be a never-ending process, wouldn't it? A never-ending process. Now let me just give you a little scripture on this. How far are we? We've got one more left. We've got a little bit of time here. Do I have two more hours? Hebrews chapter 10. I'll try to follow here. This is not just some fanciful reasoning or theological reasoning. This is what the Word of God says. Hebrews chapter 10 verse 1, For the law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come, and not the very form of things, can never by the same sacrifices year by year which they offer continually make perfect those who draw near. Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered because the worshipers, having once been cleansed, would no longer have had consciousness of sin. But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. He's talking about this yearly day of atonement, Leviticus 16. There's a reminder of sins year by year for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sin. Now, you've got to follow the argument here. He says we know the blood of bulls and goats we know they couldn't take away sin. Prove it. Well, obviously because look, they kept offering the sacrifices year by year. Well, you look at that and you say that doesn't prove anything. Yeah, they got cleansed up to this year but they had all the sins in between there and then they got cleansed again that year and then they got cleansed again the next year. It doesn't prove anything. He said no. If you ever know what it is to be cleansed in conscience in relation to sin by the blood of Christ, you move out of that realm entirely. There's no repeated then. It's something that's done once for all and he says that. Once the blood of Christ is applied, we are perfected for all time. Back down here in verse 14. For by one offering he has perfected for all time those who are sanctified. The Holy Spirit also bears witness to us for after saying this is the covenant that I'll make with them after those days says the Lord. I will put my laws upon their heart and upon their mind. I will write them. He then says their sins and their iniquities, their lawless deeds, I will remember no more. Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin. He says conscience is cleansed. Remember old B.B. Caldwell talking about the singing pilgrim. He said he gave all the reason the pilgrim was singing. My statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage. Why is the pilgrim singing? Well he's singing because his sins are gone forever. Isn't that quite a thought? Your sins are gone forever. We're saying that justification is once for all. What's that mean in daily life? It means when I come to confess my sin to God when I've done something wrong, I do not come as a criminal before a judge. I come as a child to his loving Father. Isn't that a difference? That's a big difference. I'll tell you what, as a father when any of my kids came to me and they were broken, they said I'm sorry for what I've done. Did you hold them at arm's length? I mean you are instantly ready to receive them. Last one. Number seven, justification is received by faith. Romans 5.1 Having been justified by faith. Faith is not the ground of justification but faith is the instrument or the channel by which I receive what? We call it in chapter 5 the gift of righteousness. Those which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness. You receive the gift of righteousness. Faith is the instrument by which we receive the gift of righteousness. When somebody comes to you and says I want to be saved what must I do to be saved? Maybe your children talk to you and say I want to be a Christian I want to know God. Well honey ask God to give you a new heart. Ask Him to give you a new heart. You know what that's doing? That's directing them inside. What is the Biblical answer? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. So what do you talk to your child about? You say well honey no matter how bad your sins are you may have terrible things. There is a Savior whose blood can wash away any sin in the whole world. It could be ten thousand times worse than your sin. His blood can wash away that thing in an instant. See the difference? You direct men to faith in Christ. They are called upon to believe on Him. Justification is by faith. Brother Gibb was talking about faith. It's not some kind of force or power that you wield out here like a big club that knocks things down. That's not what faith is. You don't turn your faith loose. Faith is the opposite of doing something. Justifying faith is giving up on doing anything and letting go and falling upon the mercy of God and casting yourself upon the blood of Christ. I think Brother Conrad told the story. Maybe it's somebody here. This woman giving her testimony. She said, I saw I was lost. I saw I was going to go to hell and I was doing everything in the world I could to try to keep from going to hell. And she said, it was like somebody hanging on the edge of a precipice and I was holding on trying to keep from going to hell and I could not. I got weaker and weaker and weaker. My fingers were starting to slip and finally I couldn't struggle and strive anymore and I just let go and fell right into the loving arms of Jesus. That's what faith is. That's giving up. Notice here we're not saved by faith in general. We're saved by faith in Christ. You say, well I had this experience back so and so. That experience is going to take away your sin. That's not going to pay for any sin. I was talking to an elderly man who was just about to the point of death. I said, do you ever think about eternity? He said, oh I think about it a lot. I knew it was lost. He said, I think about it a lot. I said, does it bother you? No, it doesn't bother me at all. He said, the Bible says if you have faith, you'll be saved and I have plenty of faith. Now what's that man trusting in? There's not one word about Christ. You ask a Christian what's your hope? You know right now if the floor just dropped out from under us all right now and that was the end, we were gone. Every Christian in here would say, Lord Jesus, just like that you would say, my faith. Isn't that true? The Christian's trust in faith is in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith is like the eye that cannot look at itself. It's occupied with the object. We're looking to Him. We're trusting in Him. You remember there in John chapter 3, Jesus talking about that serpent being lifted up in the wilderness? He said, even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Whoever believes, what is believing? What's Jesus tell us believing in? Same thing as what happened back there with that serpent. What'd they do? Go out and believe on it? They went out and looked at it. He says, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him. That's looking, looking away from yourself and looking to Christ. That's what faith is. Even with Peter, he's out there on the water and he starts looking at the wind and the waves and he starts to go on. Look and live. Look and live. Amen.