In this sermon, Pastor Babij teaches on the second Reformation sola, Sola Fide (Faith Alone). Pastor Babij explains how the concepts of justification and sanctification became – and still are – confused in the Catholic church, leading to a gospel essentially based on good works. Pastor Babij then highlights the major differences between the Bible’s teaching on salvation by faith alone and the Roman Catholic tradition. Pastor Babij reminds believers that salvation is indeed an unearned gift of God through faith that is nonetheless displayed in a believer’s words and deeds. In light of these biblical truths, Pastor Babij calls on all who claim to be Christians to soberly examine themselves as to whether they are truly in the faith.
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all right this morning we’re going to continue on and and look at um the five sols of the reformation and uh remember the reason why I’m uh preaching a series like this is because it is the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation uh October 31 1517 to October 31 2017 so this is like the anniversary year it’s the year uh it’s a pivotal uh year and it’s of course it is where Martin Luther nailed his 95 thesis to the door of a Roman Catholic Church in vitberg Germany uh it was a document as I already said that ignited the Protestant Reformation of course Protestant means to protest they he was protesting against the uh Catholic Church uh not everything in the in the the Catholic church but just the thing that were we saw abusive and so out of that Rose these five Solas and I’ve mentioned them solar gratia Sola FID I’m going to do something a little different today I’m actually going to use um some PowerPoint and um and so if that works then I’m going to use it if it doesn’t work I’m just all right this is not going to be a normal thing for me I just I thought that some of the stuff that I’m going to look at is a little bit uh condensed you know or thick and I just wanted for you to do it so should this be working right now is it on it is not on that would help all right that would help all right so solop is the one we’re going to look at today and of course Sola is saved by grace alone and of course uh it’s by faith alone first one was by grace alone this one is solo F by faith alone and of course the other ones that are coming are Solo Christus In Christ Alone solo scriptor according to scripture alone and solo de Gloria for the glory of God Alone Now today I’m going to be working really kind of backwards considering solo Fe day and saved by faith alone and then I’m going to head to some of the things the Catholic Church actually believed on how one is justified by faith so take your Bibles and turn to Romans chapter 3 and look at verse number 38 Romans chapter 3 verse number 38 and as I’m going along and the scriptures that I’m using uh I’d like you to look them up uh some of them I will have on a slide but I don’t want to get used to depending on a slide and not look it up in your own Bible all right so it says Romans 3:28 for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law and then turn over a chapter to Romans 4 4 verse 4 and 5 it says now in verse number four now to the one who works his wage is not credited as a favor but as what he what is due all right but to the one who does not work but believes in him who justifies the ungodly his faith is credited as righteousness all right so this is um this is the whole thing about the Protestant Reformation this actually this one particular area is one of the most important ones because this is really the cause of the Protestant Reformation all right and um that means that there was a couple things happening the doctrine of justification by faith the main question the main question that came up in the Protestant Reformation um was in the 16th century was how can an unjust person be made right with a perfectly holy and just God and Escape his judgment so see that is the question there was a strong belief that the sinner needed to be saved from the wrath of God and eternal destruction now so the main issue on in other words on what grounds does God declare a sinner just right and then the main cause of the Reformation is the material cause of the Protestant Reformation was the doctrine of justification by faith unmixed with anything else it was Martin Luther who declared it is the doctrine of justification by faith upon which the church stands or Falls now RI Sproul uh said several important things about this uh he’s kind of takes all this information that he reads and synthesizes it and he said the D doctrine of justification involves a legal matter of the highest order indeed it is a legal issue which on which of course the CER stands or Falls his status before The Supreme tribunal of God when we are summoned to appear before God’s bar of judgment we Face a judgment based on perfect Justice the presiding judge is himself perfectly just he is also omniscient he knows everything fully aware of every deed we ever had committed every uh thought we ever had every incl inclination of our heart every word we ever spoke so measured by the standard of his Cannon of righteousness we Face the psalm psalmist rhetorical question that hints at this Despair and what is this the spare and what’s the question if you Lord should Mark iniquities oh Lord who could stand see that’s the question the psalmist had and of course the Apostle Paul brings us the answer to that question in Romans 3:1 a very well-known passage of scripture there is none righteous not even one so Romans 4 verse number 8 also says blessed is the man who Sinn the Lord will not take into account all right see that’s the whole point how are you made right with God see that should be the question is it not that should be the question all the time wherever you’re at and of course the blessing that would come when you know how a person is right with God is what it says in Romans and and it’s really quoted from Psalms you’re blessed when you know that the Lord hasn’t take your sin into account right because the problem that we have in God’s judgment is our sin we’re under God’s condemnation God commands us to be holy one one sin Mars that whole obligation and really leaves us naked and exposed before Divine Justice once a person sins at all a perfect record is impossible and not only that but our sin has been transmitted to us from Adam we’re born Sinners and even if we could live perfectly after that one sin we should still fail to achieve Perfection so the problem in our day is that people don’t really believe in the wrath of God they really don’t believe in a god of perfect Justice they don’t believe in a real hell they believe many of those things are just fairy tales in the Bible they’re not real so the message of salvation for the most part is that people need to be saved today if they don’t believe those things from bad habits or saved from social failure or saved from some addiction or some phobia or some bad relationship and the list goes on and on see that’s what they need to be saved from well that’s not what we need to be safe from people are so concerned about their relation their relationships they have in this world they are unconcerned really about the relationship they have with a holy God that they’re going to have to stand before and give an account of their life so this is a very important truth that the word of God is concerned about the repair of our relationship to God so that what happened in the Protestant re Reformation was actually an explosion over the essence of how a person is made right with God the reason or the ground in which God declares a sinner just differs radically between I would say the reformed theology and biblical Theology and of course the Roman Catholic church and one of the reasons for that is the Roman Catholic Church really does not have his people read the Bible all right that that is really the big issue for your information though both the Roman Catholic and the reformed and reformed theology are concerned about justification of Sinners both sides recognize that the great human dilemma is how an unjust sinner can ever hope to survive a judgment before the court of an absolute abely holy and absolutely just God now how they arrive at the justification of a sinner is drastically different all right that’s the thing we may use the same kind of words but we have different definitions so when someone asks you what the main difference between what your church teaches and what Roman Catholics well this is it uh it is this whole sense that I’ve been talking about and of course the Roman Catholic view of justification would be uh this that a person is saved by grace that they’re saved through faith and that they’re saved because of Christ now uh it may come to surprise you the Roman Catholic Church do teach faith is a prerequisite of the foundation the root of justification that Grace Grace is needed for being justified before God and that Christ is needed for justification but what the Roman Catholics do not believe and I mentioned it already is that they do not believe number one that it is by grace alone that it is through faith alone and that of course it is by Christ alone so that means that the Roman Catholic formula for justification is really this by Grace plus Merit through faith plus works and by Christ plus inherent righteousness now that’s what they hold to and believe that’s how a person becomes right with God now what I would like to look at now before I pick this up again is what is the biblical view of justification what was it about the reformers that they were so upset about in on this issue of being justified before God all right well they were upset about this very thing here this is the wrong way to go about being justified by God because it is not a Biblical way right so let’s go and examine the biblical way and that’s what I want to look at quickly now not all and of course what what the reform says that we we have no works we have no merit we have no inherent righteousness uh to bring before God and so that simply means this that the reformers for jusic ation of a sinner for them was by God’s grace alone uh of course received through faith alone and of course because of Christ alone and of course based on scripture alone and to the glory of God alone so the reformer called The Church really back to a true biblical Gospel of Salvation in fact one of the goals of Martin Luther during the Reformation was to get the word of God from the Latin to German of course that was the native language but nobody had the Bible in German so he knew though when he put the language of the people into their hands they would sever from Rome and that’s exactly what they did and so that severing from Rome in Roman Catholicism has happened ever since that’s why we have Protestant churches all right we’re still part of that vein in which we looked at the Bible and we says no that’s not the way you’re made right with God the Bible says this is how you’re made right With God all right and so we would have to break with that and of course the key is scripture now the westmin Shorter Catechism that’s the catechism really of uh the Westminster uh Presbyterian Church uh where they say this and it’s it’s a good statement they said it says uh the the Shorter Catechism proclaims that justification is an act of God’s free Grace wherein he pardons all sins and accepts us as righteous in his sight only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us and received by faith alone now in that statement there’s really two pieces to the justification of sinners the first piece is of course uh justification of Sinners is that of the pardon of all sins now again if you’re in Romans look at Romans 4 and verse number 7 and 8 again I want to just reiterate this passage right because here it does speak about the pardon one has that the believer receives a clean slate where condemnation is no longer possible and if it say say this blessed are those in verse 7 of Romans 4 whose Lawless have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account now that is the blessing of someone who realizes that they are Justified before God all right like Romans 81 tells us for there is what no condemnation for those who are in Christ all right a second thing out of that statement is that of a right standing having a right standing before God this is the second piece and that is accepted as righteous before God in other words when God looks upon you as a sinner and you have been now justified by faith in him then God sees something quite different than just your sin matter of fact he doesn’t see your sin at all he sees something else on your account now in other words this right standing becomes ours through Jesus Christ whom God has made our sin and in whom we become the righteousness of God now several scriptures bear uh this very important truth out one of them is 2 Corinthians 5: 21 you know this one well you should it says he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf that we might might become the righteousness of God in him so another words something has to be done for us and accomplish for us before God can can declare anyone righteous before God the Father we will have a righteousness if we believe this way that will be judgment proof in other words when you stand before God declared righteous by God then the judgment has already been taken care of and so you’re not under God’s judgment so both these pieces not pardon before God and a right standing before God are rooted right smack in the work of Christ now the first Adam failed the second Adam was Victorious right the second Adam is Jesus Jesus is not only the second Adam but he is also the last Adam and the last Adam when confronted with temptation and the choice to obey or disobey the father he obeyed when Christ obeyed he obeyed the law of God perfectly he offered himself an atonement substituting himself for us under the curse of the law he became a curse for us and Jesus Christ the second Adam because he was obedient even unto death on the cross and one victory for redeemed Sinners that the first Adam was unable to do unable to attain in fact uh right there back in Romans if you want to go back there again I want you to notice in Romans chapter 4 and verse number 25 and then in chapter 5 of Romans at verse number 1 and two it says this in ch 4: 25 he he who was delivered up because of our transgressions right and was raised for our justification verse number one of chapter 5 therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand and we exalt in Hope of the glory of God so in all those passages of scripture In this passage notice that in verse number 25 of chapter 4 it is the resurrection that justifies Jesus Christ as one counted righteous before God in other words God the Father accepted the Lord Jesus Christ’s sacrifice and he how do we know he accepted it he rose from the dead he defeated Satan and death death could not hold him down so we are Justified and counted as righteous also before God only because we are now viewed by the father as in Christ in Christ in which way in his death in his obedient walk and in his resurrection so so we’re viewed by the father in that way it was Sinclair Ferguson who says we are as righteous before God as Jesus Christ himself is because it is in him and with his righteousness that we are righteous our righteousness is his righteousness and his righteousness is our righteousness so then Christ ground or so then really Christ grounds our pardon by bearing our guilt and Punishment and he grounds our right standing before God by providing his own perfect obedience and his own perfect sacrifice on our behalf for all those who would believe now all this is good but it really it is it’s really the facts of what God’s done that has to be appropriated by faith right you can even Ascent to those facts and not be a believer right you have to believe it by faith all right so here it is by by faith alone now however we are not justified on the basis of Faith itself as a grounds of justification faith is the instrument see Christ is the proper object of our faith again Sinclair Ferguson said faith is receiving and resting on Christ and his righteousness so again as it says in Romans 3 verse 23 even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe for there is no distinction and then again in Romans 3:28 for we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law now this is the verse I started out with and so since indeed God will justify the it says in Romans 32 3:30 circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith well so what then is saving Faith saving faith is really a faith that puts no Reliance on self right a Biblical saving Faith excludes even the possibility of boasting now look at your Bibles in Romans 4 uh in verse 2 and 3 notice what it says there in that passage and of course Abraham is the subject here in verse number two of Romans 4 it says for If Abraham was justified by works he has something to boast about but not before God verse three for what does the scripture say and Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness so in other words Abraham by Faith trusted in the promise of God and the promise of God would that God would give him a seed that would be a blessing to all the nations now of course remember Abraham was really old Sarah was old to have a child at his age at her age is all it’s it it is impossible but only but God promised he would do that right and he told Abraham look at the stars count them can’t do it right there’s too many he says I’m going to bless you and give you a seed and all the nations will be blessed and the multitude that comes to be blessed will be innumerable so see saving Faith puts no Reliance on self also saving Faith makes no self contribution there’s nothing we could do to add to what God has done there’s nothing we can contribute to it nothing not one thing right Romans 4 and: 16 it says for this reason it is by faith that it might be in accordance with Grace So now remember that Grace is that unmar favor given to people who do not deserve it and so the next thing is that saving faith has an object this is not a a blind leap in the the dark all right Christianity has nothing to do with that kind of foolishness right in scripture saving faith has an object it is not faith that saves but faith in Christ that say right so we’re we’re trying to make distinctions here and then also saving faith has three dimensions according to the reformers number one it involves knowledge of God in Christ you have to have a knowledge of God in Christ to be able to understand what God has done right and then secondly once you have that knowledge of God and of of Christ what Christ Has Done Right it compels you’re compelled by the truth of the Gospel to do something all right um the gospels preached to you you realize that it is Christ is the only way to be saved to be made right with God and so now you’re left to do something something right you’re left with this understanding now third thing the reformers said is that there is also an irresistible consent to that truth all right in other words you can reject the gospel you can reject Christ a 100 times but there’s that one time that it all comes together the spirit of God Can vict Your Heart Makes You Alive and then all of a sudden what do you have to do you are irresistibly drawn to believe all right you can no longer fight against it you are now uh you come and and you believe and how do you do that you do that by faith that so that means the bottom line is this that saving faith is a gift of God all right now I do want you to turn to this passage look at Philippians chap 1 and verse number 29 Philippians chapter 1 and verse number 29 and notice what it says there and I what I’m I’m stressing here that salvation is a gift of God and remember the very definition of a gift is you can’t work for it you cannot pay for it you take it you receive it right so look what it says in Philippians 1:29 for to you it has it has been granted for Christ’s sake not only to believe in him but also to suffer for his sake so in other words that what God has given you has been granted to you it is something that and what has been granted to you to believe in him that’s what has been granted to you that is the gift that has been given to you of course the passage of scripture I looked at last week the the one that we all know for by Grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves it is a what a gift of God all right and it’s a gift of God that we can’t boast there’s nothing we can claim there there’s no contribution we could give there’s there’s no Reliance on the flesh or on whatever we can do so see that is really justification by faith is received by a uh is actually received given to us and we receive it now God gives us Faith to believe but it is exercised by us not by him it’s not God believing for us we’re believing in fact uh we not God are the ones who believe all right that this is true of all of us see we come to the place where we as it says in Romans 10 we confess him with our mouth and believe him in our heart that God raised him from the dead and you’ll be saved see there’s this what going something going on in your heart it has to come out of your mouth I’m confessing Christ because I now believe he’s the only way the truth and the life all right now something does there is a little bit of a monkey wrench in this you know what the monkey wrench is let’s take our Bibles for a minute and turn to James chapter 2 all right here’s the monkey wrench for it’s not a monkey wrench CU we’re going to solve it all right in other words what about the other passage what other passage is the question well I’m glad you asked that because the passage is found in the Epistle of James in chapter 2: 24 and this is where part of the controversy lies look what it says in James 2:24 you see then you see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone is that a problem well what do we do with a verse like this what do we do with this whole chapter well we examine the context to see if James is saying the same thing the Apostle Paul has been saying or is he saying something different is he contradicting Paul or is he complimenting Paul see that’s what we have ask because James is before Paul right so James is really making a contrast In this passage now I want to look I want you to look closely at this passage James chapter 2 look closely at it James is making a contrast between two different people all right both say they have faith and are professed Believers all right both say they have faith and are professed Believers right well the professed professed believer number one let’s examine his professed faith it notice in several passages first of all his faith is without Deeds verse number 14 it says this of James chapter 2 what use is it my brethren if a man says he has Faith but he has no Works can that Faith save him and then look at verse number 20 of chapter 2 but are you willing to recognize oh foolish fellow that faith without works is useless all right so he is doing something here he’s saying first of all this first person says they have faith but it has no Deeds connected to it second thing he makes a contrast of this person’s faith in verse number 18 of chapter 2 of James all right and he says this but someone may say well say you have faith and I have Works show me your faith without the works and I will show you my faith by my works all right so a second thing is that he’s contrasting that there are two ways to look at this faith that saves or not or doesn’t save and then a third thing he’s doing with this person is in verse 17 his faith is UN accompanied by action notice says verse 17 even so faith if it has no works is dead being by itself so this person says they have faith but there is no work so therefore their faith is dead and then a last thing in verse 24 is that his faith is isolated from any Deeds you see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone right here there it’s isolated from Deeds now that this becomes very important because let’s look at the second believer all right this believer number two verse number 18 go to James chapter 2 his faith is shown by what it does it says I will show you my faith how by my work and then a second thing about this man is that his faith is accompanied by actions verse number 21 and 22 of James 2 was not Abraham Our Father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the Altar and then verse 22 you see that Faith was working with his works as a result of the works Faith was perfected in other words Abraham did have faith all right his faith in the promise of God happened before he did anything right so the faith the justifying faith came first and then of course this person’s faith is consummated by his actions look at verse number 23 of James 2 and the scripture was fulfilled which says and Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness and he was called the friend of God so in other words in his believing God before anything was ever done before he offered up his son he believed God’s promise and at that point of belief he was justified and made right before God remember Abraham is before the law he’s before Moses All right so that means that this is a the way a person becomes a Believer and you know what is this strange to what the Apostle Paul said in his Epistle of Ephesians no actually it compliment it and why does it complemented because James is not really contradicting what the Apostle Paul was saying he’s complimenting with he would what he is saying because in Ephesians chapter 2 the the passage that I’ve been reading uh to you also has this passage after where it says that you are in verse number eight by Grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves is the gift of God not a result of works so that no one may boast verse 10 for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works now we have good works after Sal salvation after being justified all right so there’s something that I think we have to make sure that we don’t mix up in our minds and that’s the whole point of justification and sanctification and so and if you mix them up then and I believe that’s what happens with the Catholic Church they they mix it up and so justification and sanctification really should be understood within their own theological context in other words they are different sides of the same coin all right justification is heads and sanctification is Tails but the same coin sanctification should be understood in connection with or to justification when one becomes a Christian the first thing that takes place is that they are Justified that is a person is pronounced just by God then what happens they’re indwell or at the same time with the Holy Spirit and the Holy Spirit Begins the gradual process of sanctification which will take place for the duration of the Christian’s Earthly life change starts to happen in the believer in fact it starts the instant one is a person is Justified but it is not completed until the believer is received into glory and that’s what Paul said in Romans 84 those who he fornew he also predestined to become conforth to the image of his son and these whom he called he also Justified and these whom he justified he also glorified sanctification can also be understood as being cleaned up by the holy spirit that the holy spirit is cleaning up the believer he’s setting them apart unto God he is making changes in the believer’s daily life bringing them into Conformity to God’s Will and to the image of Christ and then sanctification is really Conformity to righteousness this Conformity happens from the inside out Christians are changed from the inside out also God wants to see fruit and what the spirit of God is doing on the inside so the goal of the Christian Life is righteousness holy living Godly all the same thing all right that’s the goal that’s what God does on us uh once we are Justified this this is what takes place immediately afterwards and so the example in our text Abraham being the example was considered righteous when he offered his son Isaac on the altar was not Abraham it says in verse 21 of James chapter 2 justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar all right in other words he believed God’s promises before he offered his son as good works before God all right so he believed God and it resulted in doing something now what’s the point of James contrast well it’s this that Faith by which a person is considered righteous before God will always will always be fulfilled by that person’s acting in a righteous manner by that person doing good works all right so we are Justified and the fruit of justification is works good works that God gives us to do now that in a kind of a nutshell is really the biblical view the reform view on justification now how a person is made right with God is by faith alone now let me go back and pick it up and just give you some quick things just to put in your mind to see the things that the reformers grappled with and we still grapple with today as far as what is the difference between reformed theology and Roman Catholic theology well here’s the first thing is this that Roman Catholic uh the Roman Catholic instrument for justification is first of all of all the first plank is the sacrament of baptism all right now baptism is is the instrument God uses to cause justification at baptism one gets an infusion of divine grace in the soul you keep this Grace until you commit a mortal sin at which time the grace is killed or destroyed but that does not mean you go back to baptism instead you do Penance which is of course the second plank all right the plank is that of penance all right now what is this that justification then is acquired instrumentally through the sacraments the giving of indulgences which linked uh which is linked to this sacrament of penance because the Catholic Church believes that they were given the power of the Keys of the Kingdom and because of this word says like in Matthew 16:19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatever you bind on Earth shall be bound in heaven whatever you loose on other shall loose in heaven so they have this sacrament of penance now what is this well it’s broken down like this that a pen a penitent sinner in their use of the Keys of the Kingdom would do several things first of all uh they would number one confess to a priest and then secondly the priest would give Absolution to the sincere penitent all right then the peniton would do Penance right and uh then that would be what they call the work of satisfaction it is it’s a kind of work uh either they would give be given a simple Hail Mary to uh recite or an Our Father or to do some alms to the poor or giving arms to the working of the church whatever it may be these were works of satisfaction uh performed by the penitent who would earn at that point what is called Merit all right now of course what I’m saying to you right now um most Catholics couldn’t even tell you what they believe you know why because they’re not even taught this I mean I I was through Catechism classes and I didn’t know any of this stuff uh I learned all this stuff after conversion because I wanted to know what I was supposed to believe and so when I realized all this I it just confirmed that they did not not hold really to uh the alone the Solas of the reformation and therefore they add things for a person to become a Believer now so what happens is that the church would then grant them indulg an Indulgence because the church has the power to transer Merit to a person person’s account all right and so when that was happened in other words if God saw fit he would Grant a Grace induced Merit to the penitent and he would res restore the peniton back to a state of justification so that means there in the Catholic view of things there is called a treasury of Merit all right now this this would be kind of like extra good things or uh that people would do that would be more than they need to be justified all right so the works of satisfaction performed by the penitent would earn the penitent Merit and what Merit from where well there would be Merit from uh of Christ Merit from Joseph and Mary Merit from the Saints right and of course there would also be excessive Merit offered to them in other words people have in their life accumul ulated Works above and beyond their Call of Duty so now it goes into the treasury of Merit and that people now could receive Merit from that treasury based on their penitent uh Works where they would do whatever the priest asked them to do all right now this is basically what they are saying about how a person is finally made right With God all right now this means that when a person dies and this is where it gets very confusing that a if a person dies if they die if they die with mortal sin then uh that means the baptismal Grace of the washing away of original sin was killed then they go to hell right if they die with mortal sin and they receive the sacrament of extreme unction then they may go to Purgatory for some time and have their impurities purged all right and of course if they die with any impurity short of mortal sin their soul goes to Purgatory where the dross is purged you can’t get to Heaven until you’re purified that’s what they would tell us all right so that means uh if true righteousness inur or is accumulated in the person God declares that person just they can go directly to Heaven however very few people go directly to Heaven they go to Purgatory first so Martin Luther saw in all this a radical Distortion of the doctrine of justification and the suffering of the Merit of Christ as the only grounds for someone’s justification do you see when you move away from scripture how confusing it gets it’s completely complete confusion so that means this that the bottom line is the Catholic Roman catholic’s basis for justification is a sinner is Justified on the basis of inherent righteousness God examines the person and if he sees that person is uh to be righteous they’ve accumulated inside themselves a internal righteousness he declares them righteous but people need the help of faith and Grace in Christ accomplished through infused righteousness so that means it’s going to be Grace plus Merit secondly it’s going to be great uh through faith plus works and then of course thirdly it’s going to be by uh Christ plus the Sinners contribution of inherent righteousness so that’s what actually equals justification Not In Christ Alone not apart from works not apart from any accomplishment or anything we could add to it so you could see that this way of justification does not match what the Bible says about justification so that means this that the reformers or the scriptures and reformers basis of justification again is by God’s grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone and of course that means this the only grounds in which God declares anyone just is the imputation of the righteousness of Christ that’s the only way all right that his atonement in his atonement he Bears the burden of our guilt in his perfect righteous life he perfectly fulfills the law so Faith then is the instrument in which we Embrace Christ the moment we trust Christ the father transfers imputes counts reckons the righteousness of Jesus Christ to our account by faith so that a Believer Believers really are not clothed before God in their own inherent righteousness but clothed in the righteousness of Christ by which they are accepted in the Beloved so that’s what I actually just said but this thing illustrates it that what happens there is that our Christ righteousness is put on uh a transfer to our account all right and then here it’s our sin our sin that is cancelled in Christ and so that that’s really what it is to become a Christian is that when we believe in Jesus Christ apart from anything we could ever have done to to receive the gift is that when we’re Justified God takes our sin puts it on Christ’s account right he takes his righteousness and he puts it over you so when God the Father looks at you what does he see he sees he sees Christ righteousness he doesn’t see sin there’s no grounds for judgment anymore he just sees Christ’s righteousness therefore you are made right with God and accepted in the Beloved accept it in the presence of God in other words Luther says that you have been saved with an alien righteousness all right a righteousness not performed by you or me but a righteousness performed by someone else apart from me and that was Jesus Christ so the bottom line was this and here’s the huge difference and this is what Sproul concluded he says this that here’s the huge difference between both views of justification scriptures uh and reformers and of course the Roman Catholic Church the Roman uh the reformers believe that God calls us or you and me just before we’re made just therefore we produce good works right on the other hand Catholic Church is made just by the sacraments before they are declared just so that means their justification has to come from themselves not from God now I think that when you look at it like that uh actually what it does is it distorts the cross it says the cross did not have the power and Christ did not have the power to fully say we need something else we need something more we need additional things all right and of course that is not true scripturally so the bible teach teaches that no person naturally possesses the standard of righteousness that that God demands however in his gracious Plan of Salvation God himself supplies the righteousness to satisfi his holy character and when a person accepts by faith the work that Jesus Christ did on the cross God imputes the righteousness of Christ to the believer and then what happens to the believer they can actually be happy they can be actually joyful why are they joyful where where Paul says in Romans just as David also speaks of the blessing on a man to whom God credits righteousness apart from Works blessed are you blessed are those whose Lawless Le Deeds have been forgiven and whose sins have been covered blessed is the man whose sin the Lord will not take into account who is that man who is that person it’s the person who believes in Jesus Christ alone for salvation that’s who receives that so imputation the imputation of Christ righteousness results in justification before God’s law court that Christ’s death means the Christian believer will not be condemned at the time of God’s Judgment of all people people and the Bible teaches that the horrific effects of the imputation of Adam sin to our account are completely reversed for people who believe in Christ and the imputation of human sin to Christ makes possible the imputation of his righteousness to the believer all right you can see why I wanted to use some of these it’s a little overwhelming and I wanted to give you it instead of three messages W so I crammed it in there but just to give you a sense that there is a huge difference between what the Bible teaches about how to be made right with God and what other religions and the Roman Catholic church has not changed their position till this day they still believe the same thing so you know what also it shows us we need to examine oursel uh make sure that you’re in the faith make sure that you have truly trusted in Christ alone and you’re not trusting something else and make sure that you profession of faith in Christ is proved by the fruit of good works right if you say you have faith I’m going to say what James says show me right if you say you have works then you have to show me your faith but faith in Christ alone comes first and then the fruit of real faith is good works right that it’s automatically going to come God’s going to use you but if somebody says I’ve been I’ve been saved 20 years well where’s your where’s your works that prove you’ve been safe for 20 years well I haven’t really gone to church I don’t really read the Bible um you know I’m just a kind of a religious person and my own because religion is private you know all that stuff people say right well no you need to say what James says to them if you say you’re a Believer where’s your works for the past 20 years where’s your faith in Walking with God what are you going to offer the Lord when it comes to the beam see judgment and God says okay after conversion what have you done for me what are you going to offer him see on both sides we have to really look at our life are we really genuine Believers and have we not only a desire to love Christ but to serve him and service is going to be part of works and of course we mean works and be as basic as giving a cup of cold water to someone who needs it but you’re different you’re changed you’re living for God you’re free to live for God that’s what the difference is between a Believer and unbeliever is and so therefore we have to have both you say you profess Christ let me see it what are you doing were you serving were you using your gifts see that’s going to be the question so what Paul was teaching us is justification by faith alone what James was teaching us is this if you’re justified by faith alone then you’re going to have fruit that proves it amen let’s pray Lord thank you again for this day and for all that you’ve done I pray Lord that you would take these things and you would impress them upon our mind and heart so we would realize that when we come to the word of God the word of God truly does give us an understanding more than anything else these things I’ve written unto you that you may know you have eternal life that you want us to know not hope so not with a bunch of Doubt behind it but you want us to know that we have eternal life and that confidence and belief comes because we believed in Jesus Christ the only begotten Son of God who came to accomplish what the first Adam could not accomplish to live in a perfectly obedient life to die as the perfect sacrifice for sin to defeat sin and death to raise he raised up from the dead and in his resurrection because all the work has been done that when someone comes and believes in Christ by faith they are Justified on the spot and they from that day forward will live for you and will produce in their life fruits of real conversion please Lord allow us to examine ourselves to see if we are truly in the faith and if we are I pray that we would be like that man in Psalms we’d be happy that you don’t use our sin against us or can use it in a court your court of law because it’s been covered by Christ’s blood it’s been sent away and now the father sees the righteousness of Christ on our account and no longer our sin thank you for that and I pray that you just bolster our faith by these truths also to know that we may know what we believe in Christ I pray amen let’s