Will you turn to the epistle to the
Romans, chapter 3, verse 19.
Verse 21, we'll begin at verse 21.
But now, I'm reading in the authorised version
with occasional emendations, but now the righteousness of
God, apart from the law, is manifested, being
witnessed by the law and the prophets.
Even the righteousness of God, which is by
faith in Jesus Christ unto all, and upon
all them that believe, for there is no
difference, for all have sinned and come short
of the glory of God.
There is no difference in grace, because there
is no difference in sin.
For all have sinned and come short of
the glory of God, being justified freely or
gratuitously by his grace through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus, whom God has set
forth to be a propitiation through faith in
his blood, to declare his righteousness for the
passing over of sins done aforetime, passing them
over in his forbearance.
To declare, I say, at this time his
righteousness, that he might be just and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus.
Where is boasting then?
It is excluded.
By what law?
Of works?
Nay, but by the law of faith.
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified
by faith apart from the deeds of the
law.
Chapter four, verse one, what shall we say
then that Abraham our father as pertaining to
the flesh hath found?
For if Abraham were justified by works, he
hath whereof to glory, he has a right
to boast, but not before God.
For what saith the scripture, Abraham believed God,
and it was counted unto him for righteousness.
His faith in God was counted for a
righteousness which he didn't otherwise possess.
Now to him that worketh and struggles and
does a lot of other things, is the
reward if he ever gets it, reckoned not
of grace, but of debt, it's owing to
him he's done so well.
But for the poor fellow who can't do
so well, to him that worketh not, but
simply believes on him that justifies the ungodly,
his faith in a God like that is
counted for righteousness, is counted for a righteousness
which he doesn't otherwise possess.
Even as David also describeth the righteousness of
the man unto whom God imputeth righteousness apart
from works, saying, blessed are they whose iniquities
are forgiven and whose sins are covered, blessed
is the Lord, blessed is the man to
whom the Lord imputeth not sin.
And then one verse more in chapter eight,
verse thirty-three, who shall lay anything to
the charge of God's elect?
Who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect?
It is God that justifies, woe betide any
being, man or demon, who challenges God's edict
about his dear redeemed elect one.
Our theme this morning is God justifying the
ungodly, that is justification.
To have announced straight away that my theme
was justification would have given you a sort
of technical impression.
I think the word justification, just like that,
has a theological, technical connotation.
And so I prefer to get to the
heart of this glorious liberating truth and say
our theme is God justifying the ungodly.
Beautiful.
When that man confesses that he is ungodly,
then God delights to justify such a man.
Now I want in this theme to end
by making a very practical application of this
great and glorious word of the gospel to
us.
But quite obviously before one makes the application,
one must lay the foundation and we must
understand what this great word and blessing of
the gospel is.
But I want to point at the very
beginning forward to the application a little hint
of it at the first so that you
will know what we're really aiming for at
the end as we lay the foundation.
And the application I want to make of
this great blessing of the gospel, God justifying
the ungodly, is the very application that Paul
makes of it in Romans 8.33. Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's
elect, it is God that justifies.
Some time ago I read in an article
just one little sentence which I underlined.
And it was this, the man who is
justified by faith need not worry what other
people think of him or say of him.
The man who knows himself justified by faith
need not worry what other people think of
him because who shall lay anything to the
charge of that man if God has justified
him.
But the trouble is we do worry, we're
very sensitive to what other people think.
And Christian leaders perhaps more than others, many
a Christian, a pastor, a vicar and his
wife have had sleepless nights about what people
are saying about them, what people say, think
of them.
And they do worry.
But if God has justified that man, he's
the highest authority in the land.
And it doesn't matter what others may say,
what my critics may say.
Of course there's more to it as we
shall see than just this, but this is
the end to which we're coming.
A hymn that we might, oh yes we
did indeed sing, the hymn we've just sung
said, Bold shall I stand in that great
day, for who ought to my charge shall
lay.
But this boldness is not merely for that
great day, it's for me and for you
right now.
And that among my fellows.
I can walk among my fellows.
I can walk among my critics absolutely bold,
because it's God that justifies.
As I say there's a little more to
it than that, otherwise you might run away
with a wrong impression.
But that's the end to which we want
to get.
And now let's understand what this is when
God justifying the sinner, justification.
First, the word justification is almost identical in
the Greek with the word elsewhere translated righteousness.
Justification and righteousness invariably in the Greek are
almost identical.
Therefore when God justifies a man, you can
really say he righteous-ifies a man.
To be justified is to be righteous-ified.
Now this righteousness, which in another place it's
imputed, that's the same thing.
He imputes righteousness to a man, that's justification.
He righteous-ifies a man.
Now this righteousness, which is counted to the
believer, is not personal righteousness in the sense
of his wonderful, beautiful character.
Years ago, Canon Guy King was writing the
Scripture Union notes on Romans and I found
them tremendously helpful.
And he said at the outset, whenever you
come across this word righteousness in much of
this epistle, you can call it rightness with
God.
And therefore when we read God counts righteousness
to a believer, he counts rightness with God
to that believer.
On ordinary count, he doesn't appear to have
such a rightness with God, but God says
I'm going to do it.
I'm going to count rightness with God.
And I would suggest when you're reading these
parts of Paul's letters and you have come
across this word righteousness, that you equate it
with rightness with God, an absolute, perfect, unassailable,
untarnished, right relationship with God.
And thus it is when God justifies a
man, he counts that man and declares that
man, whoever he is, utterly and completely right
and acceptable to himself.
And if God justifies a man, who shall
lay anything to his charge?
And if he attempts to do so, if
he really knows himself declared right with God,
he needn't worry.
He needn't be disturbed.
The highest authority in the universe has declared
him right with himself.
That's the first thing.
Now the second thing I want to say
is that God does this extraordinary, beautiful thing
of declaring a man right with himself when
that man actually is a sinner, when that
man is ungodly.
It talks about God justifying who?
God declaring those to be right with him.
Who does he declare thus to be right
with him?
If you please, the ungodly.
Now this hardly seems to be moral.
Surely those are declared to be right with
God who on practical showing would seem to
be right.
Those who are ostensibly wrong must be declared
wrong.
And this is how God gave instructions to
the Old Testament judges.
He said you shall condemn the wicked and
you shall justify the righteous.
But in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus
Christ, here is God doing the very opposite
of what he told his judges to do.
This extraordinary thing, God declaring right with himself
those who on any other count are wrong.
Well it's a bit of a thing to
take when you really see it that way,
but all I can say it gives sinners
and failed saints a hope.
Because really and truly you often find yourself
in the category of the ungodly.
The ungodly aren't those necessarily who are cursing
and swearing, they are those who haven't brought
God into the situation and have acted in
the flesh.
And who of us hasn't done that?
And when you've done that you say well
I'm a pretty poor type, there's no hope
for me, how can I enjoy fellowship with
God?
Until you hear that such people, if they're
prepared to be honest about their spiritual state,
become candidates for this marvellous grace of God
and they know afresh the blessedness of God
declaring those right with himself who know themselves
to have shown themselves ungodly.
And so the first thing we've said is
what, that it is God declaring us right
with himself, that this if you please is
done for the ungodly, but thirdly, he is
not unjust in doing so.
He's not violating his own principles of justice
in doing so, although for an earthly judge
to do it, it would be.
But God who is really the source of
all justice, extraordinary, doesn't violate his justice in
thus doing this beautiful thing for sinners because
he does it on the basis of the
cross of our Lord Jesus.
We read this morning in Romans 3, whom
God set forth to be a propitiation through
faith in his blood, that cross, that Jesus
on the cross was a propitiation, the fire
of the anger of the just wrath of
God was spending itself in him and thus
because it's spent, justice has been honoured, it
hasn't been set aside, it's been honoured in
the most awesome way and God now is
free to be just and yet the justifier
of him that believeth in Jesus.
Now we're normally used to the conception of
writing across that wondrous scene where the Prince
of Glory died to declare his love, but
in Romans 3 he says you've got to
write something else across that cross to declare
his righteousness.
Righteousness demanded it, God gave it and it
was really due for God had passed over
the sins of Old Testament saints.
How's that done?
Is that just of God to declare Abraham
and others to be right with himself?
Is God not violating his own principles of
justice?
And so there was waiting this great deed
done on Calvary to declare God's righteousness retrospectively
for the passing over of sins done at
wartime, passing over them as he did in
his forbearance.
How he was just in doing so was
only revealed when the Lamb died the just
for us the unjust.
One arm of the cross goes back to
the dawn of history and the other arm
of the cross goes on to the end
of history.
So God is seen to be just in
doing what he did for sinners in the
Old Testament era and now he's seen to
be just in justifying the ungodly who believes
in Jesus.
Because the sinless Savior died, my guilty soul
is counted free and God the just is
satisfied to look on him and pardon me.
There's a hint of this in Isaiah 45
where Jehovah says, there is none beside me
a just God and a Savior.
Now this is good for us because you
know you've got to know you're not only
lovingly saved but justly saved.
My God to know that thou art just
gives rest and peace within.
I could not in a mercy trust which
takes no count of sin but the mercy
that comes to you is sprinkled with atoning
blood and God has taken account of sin
and really this should satisfy the most troubled
conscience.
I hear the words of love, I gaze
upon the blood, I see the mighty sacrifice
and I have peace with God.
Yes, God does his great deed for us
sinners on the basis of the cross and
all of it is done completely apart from
works.
John chapter 3 of Romans 3.28, therefore
we conclude that a man is justified, declared
right with God apart from the works of
the law.
That's how the word is.
I don't know how it is in the
other version, the authorised has without the works
of the law.
That my margin gets it accurately apart from
any question of works.
Oh we've got some good works, sure we
have, so glad you have.
No one wants you to go around behaving
in a disruptive way but then we've also
done some bad works which you might think
would disqualify you but not under grace.
Under grace all the moral distinctions are levelled.
Your good doesn't help you one iota, the
fact you've been a good mother, you brought
up a lovely family, you've done your duty,
you enjoy your church, you do all those
good good things, you're liked and loved in
the community, when it comes to your relationship
with God isn't going to help you one
iota.
You've got to take the whole lot as
a bundle of filthy rags which God says
it is in his sight.
I'm sorry, and lay it at the foot
of the cross.
It's apart from any good you've done, but
oh thank God it's also apart from any
evil you've done.
Your good isn't going to help you, sorry
about that, but oh praise the Lord, your
bad isn't going to hinder you, not for
one iota, or the sins of a lifetime
when a man comes to the cross, it
says they shall not be mentioned unto him.
All together of undeserved grace, all together apart
from the question of works.
We go on to say further, that though
this great glorious being counted utterly right with
God, where as it is completely apart from
works, is not apart from repentance and faith.
Now in Paul's letter, he doesn't say being
justified by repentance and faith, as I've just
said, he says being justified by faith, as
opposed to works.
But, repentance is all the time implied and
presupposed.
Take for instance this lovely verse about those
that believe on him who justifies the ungodly.
How can you believe on him who justifies
the ungodly unless you see yourself to be
ungodly, and to have acted in an ungodly
way?
And seeing yourself and confessing that fact is
repentance.
So this great blessing is not apart from
repentance and faith.
And repentance is very important for the Christian.
Now someone has said that the Christian life,
ideally, should begin with repentance and go on
in faith.
But in practice, it starts in faith, and
if it goes on at all afterwards, has
to go on in repentance.
It certainly was that way with me.
Here in Southwold, many years ago, I was
reconciled to God, and I let Jesus come
into my heart and I laid down the
arms of my rebellion, and he came in.
And it was just faith.
Now brother, don't trust your feelings, count the
promise, he's dwelling in you.
And I did, I knew he was, and
I entered in by faith.
But you know, though I tried to go
on in faith for a bit, I found
ultimately, even after I was evangelist, I got
stuck, and I found there were things that
I wasn't calling sin, and I found I
had to go on in repentance.
And therefore, repentance and faith, yes, together, always
the two.
But you know, for the Christian, he can
think it's all by faith, all by faith,
all by faith, and he's getting away with
a whole heap of things that are grieving
the Holy Spirit, and so it's repentance and
faith.
Now just let me, of course, make a
distinction.
There is an overall justification of the sinner
unto life, unto eternal life.
Which doesn't change with the walk and the
current condition of that sinner.
He isn't in and out of a right
relationship with God in an overall sense.
But that justification of himself before God has
got to be lived in, and enjoyed, it's
not a doctrine merely for the textbook, it's
a contemporary, up-to-the-minute experience.
But whereas you are justified by faith in
an overall sense, you're not, you do not
enjoy that when you're not repenting.
When things come in, you won't call them
sin.
So I want to make that clear, and
we're thinking, well, we're thinking for some there
needs to be this overall justification, maybe you're
not really clear there, but some of us
are.
But you're not in the happy enjoyment of
it because there are things that need repentance
and need taking to Jesus.
All right then, going back to this particular
heading, not apart from repentance and faith.
And repentance is that which says I'm wrong,
change my mind, oh God, you're right and
I'm wrong.
And you know, the moment you're broken enough
in spirit to say, oh God, I've been
so wrong, God says you're right.
And you have the sense you're right.
When you say you're right, it's the other
fellow who's wrong, God says you're wrong.
I'm not wrong.
What about that attitude?
That's wrong, isn't it?
But when you break and say, I'm wrong,
the Lord says, wait a long time for
that.
Now, I want to tell you, because the
sinless Saviour died, I declare you as right
with myself as the blood of my Son
can make you.
Think of the story of the publican who
beat upon his breast in the temple and
said, God be merciful, God be propitiated to
me, the sinner.
And Jesus said, I tell you, that man
went down to his house justified rather than
the other, declared right.
That's strange.
He'd just been saying, oh God, I'm wrong.
And now says, God says, you're right.
Lord, I don't think you understood me properly.
I've been so wrong.
I've been wrong in the home, I've been
blaming the wife, I've been blaming the kids,
I'm in a mess.
Oh God, I'm all wrong.
And God says, I've waited a long time
to hear you say that.
I didn't want to see your attempts to
improve and try and be better and bite
your tongue and not let it out.
I wasn't interested.
I've been waiting a long time to hear
you say, oh God, I'm wrong.
And now at last you've come to that
place, I'm going to tell you, you are
right with me.
You go down to your house utterly right
with me because of that sacrifice on the
altar in a way that that other fellow
who was so pleased that he was right
doesn't go.
Indeed, the man who said he was right
at the front, God says, you're wrong.
But the man at the back who said
he was all wrong went down to his
heart, declared, counted, absolutely right with God.
Isn't that beautiful?
Isn't this the greatest inducement to take the
sinner's place?
Then you get the sinner's righteousness and the
sinner's peace and the sinner's joy and the
sinner's title to enter the holiest by the
blood of Jesus.
Some of us are trying to get the
good Christian's peace or the soul winner's peace
or the consecrated one's peace and you can't
sort of make it, you never quite get
it.
But there's another peace available.
It's the only peace there is, it's the
sinner's peace made for you by the Lord
Jesus on the cross and when you take
a sinner's place you walk right into it.
If there's an argy-bargy going on, everybody's
saying it's the other person's fault and someone
who's remained silent says, fellas, I'm sorry, I've
been involved in you in telling, talking about
the other people, I'm the fellow who's wrong,
my attitudes have been wrong, do you know
he's the only one who's right in the
circle?
All the others are wrong.
This man's right.
Look at his face, peace, hallelujah, he said
he was wrong and now I'm praising Jesus,
the blood has reached me now.
And you know you can't be more right
than what the blood makes you when you
confess yourself to be absolutely wrong.
Isn't that beautiful?
In an overall sense this is true but
in a practical daily sense, if you're going
to enjoy this overall justification, you must be
going this way and it's renewed to you
again and again and your soul begins to
take wings.
You know I don't often enumerate things, you
know, I thought I might this morning for
a change, you know, I've got to, heading
five, now I come to heading six, this
is the last heading before we come to
this very practical application.
It's terribly important to get the foundation right.
Now this great blessing of being counted right
with God is the fundamental blessing of the
Gospel, shown by the fact that when Paul
in Romans 7 says, I am not ashamed
of the Gospel of Christ, for it is
the power of God unto salvation, he then
goes on to tell you what its first
blessing is, for therein is revealed a righteousness
from God, revealed from faith to faith.
For therein is there revealed for the biggest
flop and sinner a perfect rightness with God
available on the easiest possible terms.
And so rightness with God, which is counted
to the one who confesses himself to be
wrong with God, is the foundational blessing of
the Christian life.
It's forgiveness
about which we've been thinking, it's more even
than cleansing, though they all are different aspects,
to think that I'm not only forgiven and
cleansed, but judicially counted utterly right with God,
so I've got a perfect title and boldness
to walk into the holy of holies of
God's presence as if the place belonged to
me, which it does through the blood of
Jesus.
The blood of Jesus sprinkled within the holy
of hoses has made that intimate place of
fellowship yours as a failure, as a sinner,
if you will only confess it.
Not even the archangel Gabriel has a better
rightness with God than the weakest of us
who confesses his wrong, yes, for our righteousness
is the blood of Jesus, indeed it's Jesus
himself.
Because the sinless Saviour died, yes, we read,
we thought about another one, when Satan tempts
me to despair, and tells me of the
wrong within, upward I look and see him
there, who made an end of all my
sin, my righteousness, and not even the archangel
Gabriel has a better rightness with God than
what you have when you come and hide
under the blood of Jesus and live there.
What boldness!
And it's fundamental to the Christian life because
with this great initial blessing goes every other.
Being justified by faith, what?
We have peace with God.
And what else?
We rejoice in hope of the glory of
God.
I'm on my way to the glory land.
How do you know?
I've been declared right by faith.
Peace with God?
I rejoice in the hope of the glory
of God, and not only so, but I
rejoice in tribulations, because knowing I'm right with
God, I cannot interpret any of the hard
things that come against me as some sort
of punishment, as if God's got a big
stick in his hand.
Rather, I find him with me in my
tribulations, and I find comfort in them.
And it all stems from this great foundational
blessing of the gospel.
Now, I believe it's possible to try to
get those blessings without getting the foundation right.
I believe there are many people who may
be very unsure of their foundational relationship with
God, who've tried so hard to get joy
and peace and comfort, and they rarely in
all sincerity imagine they do so.
I sometimes ask the question, now, are you
saved?
Oh, Mr. Heston, I had this sorrow, I
lost my baby.
I couldn't have gone through it without the
Lord Jesus.
They got so much help.
And all I can say, I had the
gravest doubt as to whether that one had
ever seen herself utterly guilty before God, completely
without excuse, and in her case, God had
justified the ungodly.
She was getting or appearing to some of
the fruits of that without the real thing.
And sometimes ministers are put in a fix
because they have such good, nice people in
their congregation who love their church, and they
love their vicar or minister, and they're so
devout and kind that really they find it
very hard to doubt that person's salvation.
They say, well, of course, I believe they're
coming along, and they're rather, you know, they're
fine, they really do love the Lord.
I know there appear to be some fruits.
But has that person ever seen themselves lost
and undone under the judgment of God, and
seen the cross, and heard God declaring that
one utterly right with himself, the ungodly, the
sinner?
Perhaps not.
I think it's right, we mustn't judge, and
perhaps we want to be generous, but I
want to tell you, some of these dear,
good people that we feel we cannot but
credit with being one of God's children, the
time comes when God speaks to them, and
they tell us, you know, I never have
been a Christian.
What I had before was just phony, was
just human effort.
Now, soon as my all I ventured, on
the atoning blood, the Holy Spirit entered, and
I was born of God.
And so, it is nothing, I don't think
all sermons go through, or she's through.
One day she'll tell us she isn't.
Don't let them off.
Don't say peace, peace, when there is no
peace.
Don't be censorious, but let God do his
work.
On any count, if you'd had John Wesley
in your congregation, you'd say, well, I think
he's all right.
I know he's not quite evangelical, he doesn't
put it the way we do, but he
does love the Lord.
But the time came when Wesley said, it's
only yesterday that I got peace with God,
and it shook all his threads.
They said, if you were not a Christian
until yesterday, where does that put the rest
of us?
And he wasn't very popular among certain circles,
understandably.
Oh, but this is the foundational.
When I fled to the cross for refuge,
and heard this God of grace to care
this poor old sinner right with himself, fully
absolved by thee I am, then I have
peace with God.
Then I can rejoice.
Then I've got all his comforts with me
through any and every tribulation through which I
go.
All right, now we come to the very
personal application.
You know, one of the, there are many
what you might call spin-offs from this
great initial and foundational and ongoing experience of
being counted right with God.
And as I've said, one of the spin
-offs, one of the personal applications is this
one in Romans 8.33. Who shall lay
anything to the charge of God's elect?
But the man who knows himself, declared right
with God, on the grounds I've said, isn't
frightened.
He needn't be worried at what his critics
say of him.
Now everybody has their critics.
Anybody in Christian service has their critics.
The godliest pastor has his critics.
And you, though you may not be in
a prominent position, you have your critics.
But if you know where you stand with
God, that he has justified you, who in
the world is going to lay anything to
your charge if they try?
Why in the world should you have any
sleepless nights?
Why should you cringe and lose your confidence
when you move amongst them?
Now this is tremendously important because as I've
already said, some of us do worry.
This is a very big thing.
A very big thing.
And I believe we need to lay hold
of a sweet balm of what we've been
saying.
Dear one, if it's God that justifies you,
and he's the only one that matters, who
in the world can lay anything to your
charge?
But notice, who is it that God justifies?
The man who's innocent of the things about
which he's criticised?
The man who's so right and they're so
wrong to oppose him?
Hey, we're off the ground of grace if
that's the case.
Because this matter of God justifying with it
then goes vindicating too.
It is always implied his justification of the
sinner is also his vindication of the sinner
against all who come against him.
So dear one, if you're having a hard
time, God is not only justifying you, but
he's prepared to take up arms in your
defence and say no weapon that has formed
against him shall prosper, and every tongue that
has risen against him in judgement shall he
condemn.
But please notice that the one for whom
he does this is a sinner who confesses
himself to be a sinner.
God never justifies anybody but the ungodly.
It's the ungodly man who's seen himself to
be such and knows peace with God that
then God says woe betide anybody who touches
him.
And Isaiah 45 is very important here.
Will you turn to it?
Isaiah 45 verse 17.
And that's not the verse.
Perhaps someone can find it for me.
Let me quote it to you.
I know it so well.
No weapon that has formed against thee shall
prosper.
It's the end of one of those chapters.
I've just put the wrong one.
Here we are.
54, 17.
Great verse.
No weapon that has formed against thee, dear
one, shall prosper, and every tongue that shall
rise against thee in judgement thou shalt condemn.
This is the heritage of the servants of
the Lord, and their righteousness or their vindication
is of me, not of themselves, of me.
But always on the basis on which his
first justification of me was, that I'm the
wrong one.
It's God justifying before others the sinner who's
been to the cross to confess himself such.
It is not God saying, as we'd like,
showing us right.
They'll just see how right I am.
Go on, you're on my side, you'll show
them how right I am.
And then the time will come, sit there,
didn't I say so?
Oh no.
It's simply God owning you as his, as
his servant, as his child, one who's made
many a visit to his cross, confessed himself
wrong on this, that, and the other, and
God takes up his cudgels on that man's
behalf, and he doesn't declare this man was
right all along, but this man is my
own special man, my own special woman, and
he demonstrates it.
The man himself knows what he is.
I suppose all these things are best illustrated
from experience.
For 40 years it's been my privilege to
be a trapped preacher, as I sometimes call
it, in evangelistic and Bible teaching work.
And over those years, one has had one's
critics.
Nobody can there be who doesn't have their
critics, both personally and with regard to the
things I've tried to say.
And over many years have I had that,
and I say, well Lord, now you, you,
you vindicate me, you see?
You, you show.
Let it be known this day that thou
art God and Israel, and I'm thy servant.
It's what Elijah prayed.
But when I went to prayer, I never
felt that my case was really quite good
enough for God to show me to be
right.
There was always something where I instinctively knew
I was wrong, and I had no confidence
in really expecting God to rise on my
behalf, because I wasn't altogether innocent of the
things the critics said.
And if they didn't spot the real things,
God had spotted them.
I might have been innocent of perhaps comparatives
of some things, but oh, oh, I knew
there were so many others, and God was
showing them to me, and therefore I had
no, I thought my case wasn't good enough,
therefore I could never enter in to God's
vindication of his servants, until God took me
back to this very text.
He said, your, my, your righteousness, your vindication
is of me.
Tell me, how did I first vindicate you
as mine?
How did I first justify?
It was altogether of me when you confessed
yourself to be a sinner.
He says, my further vindications of you are
going to be on the same basis.
And so I used to go to the
cross on this, that, and the other.
And the vindication I could only expect for
was not to show everybody I was right,
and they'd go so wrong, but he simply
owned another sinner as his own, and was
pleased to use him or do something with
him.
Do you see?
And what it means is this.
If you've been to the cross and had
a fresh experience and renewal of the consciousness
of being declared right with God, because you
confessed yourself wrong, you couldn't look anybody in
the face.
If they think you're this, that, and the
other, you say, well, brother, that's exactly what
the Lord's shown me.
You couldn't, you couldn't be truer, righter, to
use a wrong expression.
Very often, the Lord's shown you that, and
a lot more, and you can share it
with them.
There was a time when we were much
criticised, Revel and me, in the early days,
when revival first came, and there was a
great deal of criticism.
And doors were shut, not only to me,
but to that little early team all over
the country.
And I remember Revel being almost frightened to
go out to the door of our flat
in Bristol, lest she should meet some Christian
who she felt was criticising us.
But we said, they'll see, time will show
how right we are.
But the time came when God showed us
where we were lopsided in what we were
trying to share.
We'd seen a new vision, but aspects of
the vision had got a little more in
the centre than Jesus himself.
And in our anxiety not to miss anything,
the harder the thing, the more we felt
we had to do it.
And God had to show us, through William
Lagenda, who came back five years later, that
we'd got under law to walking in the
light and other aspects of things.
Don't burden yourself if you don't know what
these terms mean, because we're through on that
now.
We don't want you to wade through all
our particular mistakes.
And it was he who said, it's Jesus
in the centre.
These things have their place, but not central.
Otherwise they become law to you and they
nearly kill you, having to try and cough
up everything to somebody else in fellowship.
It not only nearly killed us, but it
put other people in bondage.
And though people couldn't discern what it was
that seemed to draw them back, others were
greatly helped, but some, God showed us what
they couldn't express.
And you know that early team repented.
They said, Lord, we've been wrong.
It was a very hard time for us.
One of those early years at Abu Dhabi,
a very hard time for us.
And only when I personally had repented, the
others all had their story to tell, that
God allowed me to go to America for
the first time, I might have gone with
a rather lopsided message, instead of which I
simply went with the Gospel.
That Gospel which I'd preached to sinners, I
was now preaching to saints.
It was so simple, so right centred on
Jesus, good news for bad people, even when
the bad people happened to be converted.
And you know, when I saw that, God
says, now you've said you're wrong, you're right.
And I didn't mind anybody.
If I met anybody who began, I said,
yes, brother, sure, and a lot more than
you don't know.
And I was ready to give my testimony.
As it so happened, I didn't find myself
often giving my testimony.
There didn't seem to always be the occasion,
but I had the testimony to give.
And when I put it in one of
our newsletters, oh, a lot of barriers began
to come down.
Not everywhere.
When you take the sinner's place, you won't
satisfy all your critics, but you've made God
and you've declared right with God.
And if God justifies you, who shall lay
anything to your charge?
And I found myself free with people.
Just ready to give my testimony on these
lines.
And nothing more disarming when a man begins
to share about himself more than you've criticized
him for.
And you're clad in that.
I'd like to say that sometimes I have
acted in a way that showed me to
be a son of Adam.
And really I felt so ashamed in front
of other people.
And I found that, oh, what are they
thinking of me?
Sometimes my precious Pam has said to me,
Roy, I didn't mind personally you speaking to
me in that sharp, impatient way.
But if it was in front of all
those other Christians, oh, I'd feel so terrible.
What do they think?
I'm supposed to have written Cowdery Road.
What do they think?
And you know, I found myself wanting to
rush round and sort of give a bit
of testimony, etc.
Not as testimony, but simply to reinstate myself
in their eyes.
And the Lord says, stop it.
Come back to the cross.
And I did.
He said, Lord, I was wrong.
Absolutely wrong.
He said, now you're right with me.
And then I said, if they think I'm
a pretty low-down type of Christian, and
even if they think me a hypocrite, if
they think the truth, Amen, brother!
You're dead right, but the blood of Jesus
is availed.
And knowing myself right with God through the
blood, I can be free.
And I'm owned as his as I take
that place.
This needs a lot more amplification.
But this is not only the way of
walking through the criticism of others, but it's
the way of meeting the accusation of the
devil.
Agree with thine adversary quickly when you've been
to the cross.
Of course you don't have to make white
into black.
You mustn't make a formula of this.
Maybe our testimony won't satisfy them all, but
if God has declared you right, and he
had dealings with you, can you have a
better righteousness before him or the world than
this?
And I want to tell you, clad in
that righteousness, the sinner's righteousness, you can reprove,
rebuke, with all long-suffering, as Paul urged
Timothy to do.
Because you've been to the cross yourself.
You've had things to tell them, and some
things, yes, yes, and a great deal more
than you think.
And then, clad in that boldness, you can
really help those.
And they know that what you're saying is
not out of self-defense.
You're concerned that the flesh is operating.
And your very boldness is in use of
God.
Who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect?
Which elect know what the cross is?
Which elect are quick to go to that
blessed place at the feet of Jesus?
There God justifies them, the highest authority in
the land.
That's one of the many, and very blessed,
spinoffs of God justifying the ungodly for Christ's
sake.
Amen.
Let's pray.
Lord Jesus, we love you this morning.
We love you because you're the sinner's friend,
and we're sinners.
Lord, we love you because you've got something
good for failed saints, and we're often in
that condition.
Lord, sometimes we feel like hugging your feet,
washing them almost with our tears of love
and gratitude.
For this great miracle of grace.
Oh, we thank you for thee, for thee
doing this great thing for us.
And may some of us here shed the
last bit of self-reproach.
If there's something that's got to be acknowledged
to thee, may it be acknowledged, and may
the last shred of self-reproach and blaming
ourselves and all the rest be gone.
Because you don't impute iniquity unto us.
You've imputed it all to thy beloved Son,
and you want us as free as grace
can make us.
And with regard to our brothers, just interpret
these things.
Some of us may have a lot to
think about how this is to apply.
Will you do that, Lord, for us?
Because we can't always apply thy word to
current situations if we do it in our
own strength.
But dear Lord, set our poor captive spirits
free to rejoice in thee and to be
free with our brothers and even free and
loving to our critics.
We ask it in thy dear name's sake.
Amen.