How to be a Righteous Sinner

I want to encourage you to open up to Romans 4. it's my privilege to share the word this morning. my name is Mike Berry. I'm one of the pastors here at Cornerstone.

And it's always a great privilege to be able to share the word of God with this body. back in 1994, before I was married, I went on a, summer long mission trip to Mexico, because my plan was, I was gonna move to Mexico and, and be a missionary. There were three things I was not gonna do. I was not gonna be a pastor.

in an American church with whiny materialistic American Christians, and I wasn't gonna have anything to do with facilities. And, and all three of those things came true. But in 1994, as a young idealistic 20 year old, I was down in Mexico and And traveled around with somebody who became one of my spiritual heroes, a missionary named Jim McVeigh, with Crossworld, and back then it was called UFM and Jim McVeigh is just, just a beautiful man, just a wonderful, veteran missionary, and I got to drive all over Mexico with him and just pick his brain and, and chat with him.

Got to watch him evangelize and pray with people, and you could just tell that people, loved his ministry.

this was down, towards the Gulf. He lived in an area called Tamasun Chale. And I never knew that you could live in a, that there were climates that were so damp that the gum or the cough drops in your pockets would melt. The gum just could not keep its consistency and it was the most humid climate I'd ever been in until I went to the Philippines.

And that was quite a joy. But anyway, just traveling around with this man, I, it was just, I was really just blessed by him and his godliness and his love of the gospel, love for people. But I remember one conversation that we were having. Where he turned to me and he said, Mike, The older I get, I feel like the worse I get.

He goes, I'm, I'm, I'm in my sixties and I feel worse now than I did 2030, 40 years ago. And what was somewhat befuddling to me is that as godly as this man was, he was, he had confided in me that he and his wife were seeing a marriage counselor. that they had things that they were dealing with in their marriage and, things, challenges that they faced on the missionary field and, and I couldn't quite put the two together. if I would have stood back and really thought about my own life very deeply or whatever, I, I think I could have pieced it together, but I'm looking at this older godly man.

And I'm just thinking, I'm gonna be moving up hopefully over, the steps of godliness as I get older and, but I'm looking at this guy that's in his 60s who's just an amazing man of God who's saying he feels worse now than he did when he was younger and he's going through marriage counseling. And I was, I was just, what's wrong with this picture? I just remember being a young man in high school and in early college as a single male just spending time with different friends. I remember some of my friends, we'd get to get together, every Thursday morning at 6 in the morning before I went to high school and I'd bring my guitar out to this park and I'm like 1516 years old.

We're worshiping the Lord at 6 in the morning out of the park and praying and praying for each other. Yeah, that's how freaky I was. And and, wearing an I love Jesus button high enough on my shirt so that would get into my school pic and then my parents really loved that to open up my, get my pictures back and to see this big old I love Jesus sticker or a button on my shirt., I was just freaky that way, as I, as I came to know the Lord and, and just saw a real transformation in my life when I became to know the Lord at 14.

but as I've gotten older, I'm like, how old am I?

I always forget, 46. Yeah, I think I'm 46, almost 47 now. And I find myself thinking back to what Jim McVeigh told me years ago and I, I find myself saying some of the same things. I'm like 46 years old.

I've known the Lord since I was 14. I have a seminary degree. I've been a pastor at this church since 1998. And there are days where I feel like I am worse than I ever was when I was 1415, 16 years old.

there are days I look in the mirror and I'm just like, what has happened here? And, and that's not just talking about my physicality, that's talking about my spirituality at times. And I, and I think of some of these, there's good friends that I've grown up with that, we were just praying in the park 6 in the morning. I've got friends, that are now divorced.

They're still, they're clinging to the Lord, but they've been through a divorce. I've got a, a real good friend who has gone through depression and, and has confided that at times he's had suicidal thoughts. I've had other people that seem like that they were really good Christians and then they just completely walked away from the Lord. One of my really good friends in high school later became the author of Halloween 4.

He writes horror novels. I'm like, how does that happen? And, there's There's something, there's, there's truths on scripture that we, it's important for us to get a handle on how does the Bible tell Christians they should view themselves. After coming to Christ.

And so what we're gonna talk about this morning, this may sound like an odd title, but it's how to be a righteous sinner. And we're gonna spend a little time looking at a lot of different passages, but one of the key passages is Romans 4:5. But to the one who does not work but believes in Him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness. We're gonna be talking about this morning, a, a biblical truth that was lost and then rediscovered and proclaimed during the Reformation.

Early in the church, I think these truths and Christian theologians and believers would argue that these truths are right in the Bible and that many believers believed them for several centuries, but then there came a time where we began to lose this concept and we thought that there was something on the plate of salvation that we offered. God did his part. And then we did our part and that became what developed in the Middle Ages and up to the Roman Catholic Church, this idea, a big term that we call synergism, the idea that we do something and God does something and that brings about salvation.

What the reformers began to do is they went back and re-examined a lot of these key texts.

And they began to re-examine them in the original languages and so on and so forth. And there began to be this rediscovery of not synergism, but what we call monarchism. And that is, is that salvation is ultimately of God alone. That God alone is the one that saves by grace alone, through faith alone.

And we see throughout the Reformation, this, these ideas of what we call the solas that, that salvation is really from beginning to end, what God has done. That he who began the work in you will complete it till the day of Christ Jesus. And so the battle of the Reformation can really be summed up in this is, is our salvation synergistic? Is it something that we do our part and God does His part, or salvation that's something that is something that God does alone?

And what we're gonna argue this morning is that Christians are simultaneously righteous and sinners. That there's two parallel truths that we see on the pages of scripture, that we are righteous and we are sinners. Martin Luther, wasn't the one who invented this, but he did coin the, the Latin term, that you see down at the bottom of the screen here, Semel Eustace et Picatur. Semel, everybody say Semel.

Eustace et Picater. What does that mean? Semol is the idea of simultaneous, right? Eustace, just, it, that's the past tense of the verb to eat.

Right? No, no, no. It's like, Shakespeare et tu Brute, right? And you, Brutus.

So, and Picater is sinner. The idea, one of the, the foundational teachings of the Reformation is that we are simultaneously just and sinners. And this sounds like a contradiction, but we need to understand what exactly did the reformers mean? What scripture passages were they looking at?

And so let's break this doctrine down. First of all, if you are a Christian, You are righteous. If you are a Christian, you are righteous. You can turn in these passages if you wish, in your own copy of God's word.

We're gonna look at 2 Corinthians 5:21. I just so I, we can expedite things, I put the relative passages this morning on the screen. If you're a Christian, you're righteous. 2 Corinthians 5:21 says this, Paul says, for he that is God, the Father made him that is Jesus Christ, who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in him.

God the Father considered Christ to be sin. Who was sinless on our behalf, that we might become righteous. Let's develop this some more. First, Peter 3:18, for Christ also suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust.

Same concept, Jesus is just, he dies for who? The unjust, that he might bring us to God being put to death in the flesh, but made alive by the Spirit. Jesus dies for unjust people. Let's develop this further.

Paul takes this thinking into his letter to the Philippians, Philippians 3:9. Paul says, and to be found in him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. Where does this righteousness come from? It comes from God.

Paul's desire, one of the keystones or touchstones of his ministry was to be found in Christ, realizing that, what, it has nothing to do with my own righteousness. If anybody could have been saved by their own righteousness, according to Paul, it would have been him because he kept the law as, as the, as, as a, as an excellent Pharisee. But he came to realize that there's nothing that he could do. that would accomplish the law in all of its perfection.

And he could never stand righteously before God in and of himself. But he could have faith in Christ and believe in Jesus and stand in this righteousness of Christ by faith. Simply believing that Christ had accomplished his goodness rather than himself. Let's develop this further.

Romans 4, this is where we had to turn. Paul says, what then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh? For if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. For what does the scripture say?

Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him or credited to him for righteousness. Paul's developing this argument. What is it? How was Abraham justified?

How was he made, righteous in God's sight? How was he declared to be righteous? The idea of being justified in this context is the idea of God declaring someone righteous, not just that they're not guilty, that's part of it. It's not just that they're not guilty, but they're also considered righteous.

how is it that Abraham is justified? Is it by his works? Is it because he was good enough and he kept the law and he kept all of the commandments? When we look at Abraham's life, we know that's not the case.

And Paul tells us right here, for what does the scripture say? Adam believed God and it was credited to him for righteousness. The fact that he believed God earned something for righteousness. Is that what he's saying?

His faith earned his righteousness? No, he believed in God providing a righteousness. It was accounted to him for righteousness. Now, to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace, but as debt.

But to him who does not work but believes on him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. Let's talk about verse 4 for a second. If you go and work for an employer. my first, one of my first jobs was at McDonald's.

I'm very proud to share that. I loved working at McDonald's. I really did. They had a great system.

I loved their communication, taught me a lot, and I work, I'd go and I'd work, put in my shift. After a couple of weeks I get a paycheck, and back then I made minimum wage. Do you have any idea what minimum wage was back then? 335 an hour.

So I made $335 an hour. Boy, I was just. In heaven. I thought I made a lot of money.

And so I get this paycheck and that was what I earned. It's what I deserve for the work that I put in. If Abraham is justified by works, then he is getting what he earns, and he can boast. Wages are not counted as grace, but debt.

It's something that you are owed and your, if your boss doesn't pay you, something's wrong. But Paul goes on to say in verse 5, but to him who does not work but believes, there's a contrast between working and believing here. He who does not work but believes on him who justifies who. The ungodly justifies the ungodly.

His faith is accounted or credited for righteousness. So, God justifies not the person who has cleaned their act up a little bit. God justifies the ungodly. Sometimes I'll ask this question, do you, do you wash your hands before you get into the shower in the morning?

When if you wake up, take your shower in the morning, do you wash your hands real good before you get in the shower? No, I think most people just get in the shower, right? God is not in the business of trying to compel you to work out, your salvation in the sense of working for righteousness, and working for justification. He says, come and get in the shower, come and believe is all you need to do, and this will be credited to you as righteousness.

John MacArthur says that since faith is contrasted with work, faith must mean the end of any attempt to earn God's favor through personal merit. So faith is contrasted with works throughout this, this chapter. So faith is not some work that we're putting on the plate of salvation. It's faith, we're expressing faith and belief that there's nothing that I can do for my own salvation.

I throw myself on Christ. I throw myself on his righteousness. in fact, the very faith that we, that we get is really a gift of God. Ephesians 2:8 says, by grace you've been saved through faith, and that's not of yourselves, it's a gift of God.

The whole package, the, the whole salvation package in this context, the grace, the salvation, the faith, all of it is wrapped up and is not of ourselves, but it's a gift of God. so even the very faith that we are, that we use to express, towards our, our Lord is a gift from him. Let's develop this further in Romans 5. Where Paul says, therefore, as through one man's offense, judgment came to all men resulting in condemnation, who's that in our study of Genesis?

Who is it? Adam. So through one man's righteous act, the free gift came to all men, resulting in justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience, many were made sinners, so also by one man's obedience, many were made righteous.

So we are made righteous by whose obedience? Ours or Christ's? Christ's, when we talk about justification, we're talking about, receiving a righteousness that is alien from us. Theologians speak of an alien righteousness, meaning this is something that originates from outside of us, and has absolutely nothing to do with us.

When God declares you and I righteous, if you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ this morning, if he declares you righteous, he declares you righteous on the basis and the sole basis of Christ's life and death. There is nothing that you have done, there's nothing that you ever could do that would make you more righteous because Christ has accomplished it all. And so if you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, you are righteous because you are in Jesus Christ, who is the righteous one, and by the way, is our advocate.

First John 2:1, John says, My little children, these things I write to you so that you may not sin.

But if anyone anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ. The righteous. Let's further develop this. Romans 3:20.

This really, Paul's, is developing, is really trying to answer a, a problem in this passage, and that is, how is it that God can be just. He must punish sin. He will never let any sin go unpunished. And yet, he passes over the sins of ungodly people.

That puts God in a pickle. He must punish sin, and yet he passes over sin. How can God do that? Romans 3:20, Paul says, therefore, by the deeds of the law, no flesh will be justified in the sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

The law is good. What does it do? It brings about a knowledge of sin. but now the righteousness of God, apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

God has revealed his righteousness apart from the law in prophecy in the Old Testament and fulfilled in the New Testament verse 22, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ. This is a righteousness that comes from God, and is granted to us as we believe in Christ, not in our own righteousness. To all and on all who believe, for there's no difference, for all of sin and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace to the redemption that it is, that is in Christ Jesus, whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood through faith.

What's propitiation?

Jesus Christ bears the wrath of Almighty God. Jesus Christ, God must punish sin, right? He is a just God, He must punish sin. Jesus Christ goes and bears the punishment of a righteous God.

and so he dies on the cross, and we receive the benefits of that through faith to demonstrate his righteousness. So God punishes Jesus to demonstrate his righteousness. How does that happen? Because in his forbearance, God has passed over the sins that were previously committed.

God's passed over the sins of ungodly people. How can he do that? Because he's punished their sins, our sins on Jesus Christ. 26, to demonstrate at the present time, his righteousness, that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

That's an amazing verse, if you really think about what he's saying there. God has demonstrated that he is just. By punishing Jesus Christ on our behalf. And he has justified us who have had faith in him.

So what's the conclusion? Where's boasting then? Can any of us in this room who believed in Christ boast and say, hey, I believed I've, I had the intellect to follow Christ. I've, I've had the wherewithal to pick myself up by my own bootstraps.

I saw the truth out there and I went after it. I, I've, I've worked my way up to God and he's brought me the rest of the way. It's excluded by what law of works? No, by the law of faith.

Therefore, we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law. This was the huge clincher for Martin Luther and the Reformation that we are justified by faith. justified by faith. By simply just recognizing that there's nothing that I do to save myself, that it is all of God.

Salvation is completely of God. This is monarchism versus synergism. Martin Luther had grown up as a monk. He'd grown up underneath the tutelage of the, of, of excellent Roman Catholic teachers.

He did the best he could to earn favor in the sight of Almighty God. he was a hard worker. He would do all of the things that you were all, say all of the prayers that you were supposed to pray. He would, flagellate himself.

He would do all of the things to flagellate his flesh, and at the end of it all, he hated God. Until he began to realize that I am justified by grace, by through faith, that God grants me his righteousness. There is no righteousness in and of myself. Doctor Timothy George has this to say about the teachings of the reformers with respect to our fallen human condition, we are and always will be in this life, sinners.

However, for believers, life in this world is no longer a period of doubtful candidacy for God's acceptance. In a sense, we have already been, before God's judgment seat and have been acquitted on account of Christ. Hence, we are also always righteous. So that we, we are proclaimed righteous, not because you and I do anything that makes us righteous.

We are counted righteous because of the life and death of Jesus Christ. I love what Timothy George says here that period of doubtful candidacy for God's acceptance. You and I are not still trying out for the team, right? We're not still auditioning.

Right now, I'm, I'm holding tryouts for our all-star team and I've got these kids that are coming out and working real hard and, and, and I just wish I could take them all. if, if I just did what my heart wanted to do, I'd have 30 kids on a team, where we can only play 9. and you can see the nervousness in the eyes of these kids, and they get up and they strike out and they're walking about the dugout and they're thinking, oh boy, I'm in trouble. We don't, if you believed in Jesus Christ, the audition is over.

You've made the team. And you didn't make the team because you were so good enough or so good looking or so intelligent. You made the team because Jesus Christ accomplished it all. And you were in his family, and, and, and once you've made the team, you've made the team, right?

If it's all about what Christ did on the cross, if it's all about what he did in his perfect life, can you unmake the team? No, because it's all about Christ. Notice what, how, how Paul develops this in 1 Corinthians 6:9. On the one hand, he warns people who are persisting in sin, who don't haven't followed Christ, but then notice what he does in the latter part of this, this paragraph.

He says, do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? So unrighteous people, what's, what's examples of the unrighteous? Do not be deceived, neither fornicators, idolaters, adulterers, homosexuals, sodomites, thieves, covetous, drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Spirit of our God.

Notice what Paul contrasts, he lists all these various sins, and he doesn't go on to say, but such were some of you, but guess what, you don't sin anymore. You have no problems with sin. You've, you've put your offering on the salvation plate. No, he goes straight to salvation doctrines, washing, sanctification, justification through Christ.

Let me just quote from Pastor Milton's Gospel primer. He says, in saving, God also did justify me accounting me righteous by his own decree, declaring me guiltless of all my sin, and bringing his wrath against me to an end. The wrath Christ, this wrath Christ appeased in full brunt on the tree. When bearing my sin, he endured it for me.

Yeah, I don't know if you've read this book. It's a great book. You guys should check it out. Sometimes we don't, we're a little embarrassed to pump it and stuff like that, it's our own pastor and things.

This is a fantastic book. Go on Amazon, look at all the comments. It's really great. Pick it up.

And, and this is an excellent summary of that we've been accounted, righteous. So, if you are a Christian, one of, one of the, the main hallmarks of the Reformation, and these guys weren't just pulling this out of a hat, they're just going back to the Bible, rediscovering what was already in the Bible. If you're a Christian, you are righteous. If you believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, And you're sitting here today, you've made the team.

OK? So that fear that I see in your eyes, that you're gonna get cut. Guess what? You've made the team.

Jesus Christ has, has accomplished it all. But there's a second aspect of this truth that we must keep in mind. And that is, if you are a Christian, you are a sinner. If you are a Christian, you are a sinner.

You say, Pastor Mike, how can that possibly be? You just told me I'm righteous. You are righteous in God's sight as God looks at you, dressed in the righteousness of Christ. But on this side of death, there is other stuff going on, and it's very important for us to understand this.

Otherwise, we're gonna find ourselves, you guys ever drive a car that has the alignment out? You, you, you let go of the steering wheel and it's just like, you head that direction, right? As wonderful as the truth of justification is, and imputation and the righteousness of Christ, if we don't understand this doctrine of sin in the life of the believer, it can lead to some real imbalance in our lives and imbalance in the way that we view and treat other people. Let's just look at, I'm gonna look at several passages, but I want to start with this one by way of analogy first.

You have the apostle John, who's writing the book of Revelation. This guy walked with Jesus Christ. He was about 90 years old, I believe when he wrote and recorded these particular words. So here he is, and I, John, saw these things and heard them.

He's having this heavenly vision. And when I heard had heard and seen. I fell down to worship before the feet of The angel Which showed these things, showed me these things. Then saith he unto me, see thou do it not, for I am thy fellow servant and thy brethren, the prophets, and them which keep the sayings of this book, worship God.

Think about it. Here's a guy who's right on the brink of crossing over into heaven, right? This guy's been, he's the guy who is right there in the upper room, just really close with the Lord Jesus Christ, sweet, intimate fellowship, right? One of the privileged three.

and right when he's getting, he's having a heavenly vision. And he's about, probably just a few years away from death and all of a sudden he's falling down before an angel and committing idolatry. Right? What in the world's going on?

John, you've been walking with the Lord for a long time. I would think you would be beyond that. What this demonstrates is several truths that we find all throughout the Bible that relate to us as Christians that are righteous in God's sight. First John 1:8 says, if we say that we have no sin, guess what, we deceive ourselves, the truth is not in us.

John's writing that to Christians, he's not writing that on believers. So if we say, hey, I don't have sin anymore. I believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and now I am perfectly righteous, and I don't struggle with sin anymore. John would look at that type of person and say, you are deceived.

First Timothy 1:15. Paul says, the apostle Paul, this guy's amazing. This is a faithful saying worthy of all acceptance that Jesus Christ came into the world to save whom? Sinners, of whom I, present tense, am chief.

He didn't say I used to be a real chief sinner. I used to be a really bad guy, but guess what? Now I'm a really, really good guy and I don't struggle with sin anymore because I'm the apostle Paul. No, he says, I am chief of sinners.

he says in Romans 7:21, we've been going through this with the men. I find then a law that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good, for I delight in the law according to the inward man. but I see another law in my members warring against the law of my mind, bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. And the list can go on.

In the book of James, James is saying, why do you guys war and battle once against 111 another? Paul writes to the, almost every single book. Think about all the different books that are epistles that Paul writes. He starts to write to the Galatians, what does he say?

What's going on? You guys have been bewitched, right? Writes the the Corinthians after he talks to them about how that they are saints and righteous in, in Christ, he says, you guys are carnal, and he starts going after them on sin. Writes the First Timothy, who's a pastor in, in the Ephesian Church, has to encourage him about his fear, right?

And so you have, you have this, this concept of what we call the remaining corruption or the remaining sin in the life of the believer. The Westminster Confession puts it like this. This corruption of nature during this life does remain in those that are regenerated. There is sin that remains in a regenerated one, although it be through Christ, pardoned and mortified, yet both itself and all the motions thereof are truly and properly sin.

And so we as believers still have sin and a sin problem. Now, there's a couple of ways that you can deal with this. You can do what some people have done in the church, is you just redefine sin, right? You can redefine sin to where it appears as if Christians really don't sin very much.

I'd encourage you to read though, a chapter in a book by JC Ryle. The book's called The Holiness, and he has a chapter called Sin. And he argues in there that if we should, if we're gonna build high on the holiness of God and build high on the gospel, we must dig deep in our understanding of sin. That sin is much more, it is, it's much deeper, it is, it is much more erosive in our lives than we may realize.

And let's see, let's, let me just give Spurgeon as an example. Spurgeon speaking of himself, he says, I've found that I have something in my heart, which when I have bolted my doors and think all is safe, creeps forth and undoes every bolt and lets in the sin. That there's something in our own hearts that is inclined towards sin, even though we are believers., if you were to, you, once in a while, you hear people say that they don't wanna go to certain churches because it's full of all kinds of hypocrites and there's all kinds of sin in that church.

And definitely, we always need to be on the lookout for unrepentant sin.

but guess what? You could take yourself. And just head on up to the Sierras, and go on up to Mount Whitney or one of those mountains that you prefer. Just be all by yourself with you and the Lord and your Bible and the stars.

And guess what? You're gonna bring sin right there with you. You could bring your family, teach your family the Bible and raise up your children and just go off and be a hermit in the forest. And guess what?

Sin is going to follow you there. Spurgeon says in another place that we have heard it said that growing in grace will make our corruptions less mighty. And this is, this is what I thought when I was younger. I, I just had this idea that the doctrine of sanctification goes like this, is, I become born again at 14 years old and I'm struggling with various sins and insecurities and stuff.

But each year, I'm gonna get better and better and better and better. And then by the time I get right about the place when I'm gonna die and go to heaven, God's gonna look down and say, man, you're, it's, you're almost there. It's one more step. You're so righteous by now.

All you gotta do is just take a little step and you're in. And brothers and sisters, that's just not the way sanctification is. read the Bible, read, read the lives of the apostles, read, the, Pilgrim's Progress, which has developed this doctrine so well in a story that Christian throughout his life, he's clinging to Christ and at times he's up and at times he's down. And then when he gets to the very end, he starts to doubt as he's crossing the river and he's yanked out of the river by grace alone.

That is, the Christian life. Spurgeon goes on to say, but I have seen many of God's aged saints and asked them the question, and they have said no. Their lusts have been essentially as strong when they have been many years in their master's service as they were at first, although more subdued by the new principle within. So there's great hope that as we get closer to Christ, and as we're practicing the various grace, graces that the Lord has given us, that our sin become more and more subdued.

But those lusts and those, those challenges are essentially the same. In fact, we always have to be wary of sin raising its ugly head. and I, I'll just be honest with you guys, as, as a 46 year old pastor, I, I don't know that I can tell you that my struggle with sin is any less intense than when I was 1415, 16. I, I'm, I'm sorry to break this to the young people in this room.

the teenagers in college, you guys think that everything's just gonna get easier. Guess what? You get married and then you find out more about your sin, and then you have kids and you find out more about your sin. I remember this time when I was younger.

I, I didn't grow up in a Christian home, but I had about this time when I was 1213 years old. And I remember my dad just looking at me a couple of different times and just said, Michael, you have got your head so far up your rear, you can't see straight. And I just thought that was the cruelest thing in the whole world. And I said, I am never ever gonna say anything or think anything like that of, of my future child.

That is just terrible. That's an absolute terrible thing to ever think. And then I had a child and had another child and, and then my children started getting around 1213 years old. And I looked at one of my children, which will remain nameless, and one day, and I started to say it.

It never didn't quite come out of my mouth, but I was like, I understand. I understand. And about, I think about 68 months ago, I called my dad and I said, Dad, do you remember when you said this to me once in a while? He goes, oh yeah.

And I said, Dad, I completely understand. And I totally forgive you. And he's like, he's like, yeah, just something goes on in the head of a child when they hit 1314. but yeah, I don't even know why I'm talking about this, huh.

It's just There's, there's these things that we, we think we're going to get better and better and better and you get married, you start having kids, and I don't know, the older you get, you look back and you start to have more compassion on your parents. I don't know about you, but I, I didn't have a whole lot of compassion on older people when I was younger, right? I thought I'm gonna do, I'm gonna do it all different, right? And then I get saved, I'm born again, and I'm righteous and the righteous, and I'm righteous in God's eyes.

I'm dressed in Christ's righteousness. And I'm doing the best I can to repent every day, but I'm sinning every day. but what, I'm a, I am a lot like my dad. in good ways, in, in some not good, so good ways.

but God has had grace in my life and, and I think by God's grace, I'm able to repent daily of my sins, to see it the way God sees it. so let's, let's ask this final question, we gotta wrap it up. So what? OK, this, this has not been an exhaustive development of the doctrine of justification, an exhaustive development of the doctrine of indwelling sin.

I can give you resources if you want to take a look at more in depth on both of those resources, but let's just ask some so what questions. why does this matter? we must always look to the finished work of Christ, not our own righteousness. I just appreciate what Josh said earlier during the worship time.

The verdict comes before performance. we are not trying to make the team. It is the finished work of Christ, right? Luther's phrase to describe this, state of the Christian between regeneration and ultimate glorification, Seel Eustace et pepecaor at once just and center.

This is not a condition that will ever be transcended in this life, rather, the believer must always rely on the finished work of Christ for his or her acceptance before God. You, when we talk about justification, when we talk about righteousness, we're not talking about developing our own righteousness, so God will like us more. Or God will say, OK, now, now I think I'll let you into heaven. Now you can be on my, in my family or on my team.

It's all been accomplished. We sing with the old hymn, Chief of sinners though I be, Jesus shed his blood for me. Died that I might live on high, died that I might never die, Chief of sinners though I be, Christ is all in all to me. And so we, we look to the righteousness of Christ.

but also, our faith in the finished work of Christ. gives us hope as we deal with our own remaining sin. When we look at our own remaining sin, it can be, it can get depressing at times. But when we realized that I'm not trying out for the team, I've already made the team, and God is the one who's begun this work and he will complete it to the day of Christ Jesus.

This gives us hope. This gives us hope to deal with that indwelling sin. One of the, the other phrases that was developed in the Reformation period is this idea of three phrases, always sinning, always repenting, always forgiven. If we really understand what sin really is, every single day, you and I are sinning in some way.

In our best thoughts, in our best acts, we are sinning. And yet every day we have the opportunity through the indwelling of the Spirit to change our mind about sin and say, yes, sin really is as bad as you say it is, God. And yes, Jesus really did die for my sin. And God, help me, help me by your grace to grow and recognizing that we are always forgiven.

Martin Luther has this to say. I love his analogy. He says, the original sin in a man is like his beard. Which though shaved off today so that a man is very smooth around his mouth yet grows again by tomorrow morning.

As long as a man lives, why am I getting teary eyed on this? This is weird. As long as a man lives, such growth of the hair and the beard does not stop. But when the shovel beats the ground on his grave, it stops.

Just so original sin remains in us and bestirs itself as long as we live. And so, we're righteous, and yet we've got this knowing sin. We shave and then the sin comes back, we shave and the sin comes back, and it's never gonna stop until, somebody does your funeral, or pronounces you dead, right? And then you will be complete and no longer sinning.

but until then, by God's grace, we're shaving every day as it were. Spurgeon says this, the, the truly loving child of God, though he knows sin is there, hates that sin. Don't you feel that? Right?

it's there, but you hate it. It is a pain and a misery to him, and he never makes the corruption of his heart an excuse for the corruption of his life. He never pleads the evil of his nature as an apology for the evil of his conduct. This is, you can take good doctrine and apply it in the wrong way.

The Puritans talked about right and wrong uses of doctrine. Here's a wrong use of the doctrine of dwelling sin. You totally are just mistreating all of your friends and all of your family members or whoever, somebody in your life and you're just being sinful and they're like, why are you doing that? That's just who I am.

I'm just a sinner. This indwelling sin. I'm Irish. It's just, it's just who I am.

You gotta deal with it, honey. That's who I am. No, that's not what we do with the doctrine of indwelling sin. What we do with the doctrine of indwelling sin is we confess it and we repent, knowing that we're forgiven.

And what it does for us is it actually gives us, it gives us, enables us to be gracious with one another. Because you deal with the same indwelling sin that I deal with. Your your husband or your wife has this problem with sin. And so when you come home from work and your wife is, is struggling with sin and she sins against you, we don't say, I thought you were a Christian.

No, we, we look at our wives, we realize that she is righteous. There is a future her, but in this life, before the dirt is poured on her grave, she's gonna struggle at times. And sometimes the reason she struggles is because of you, right? And, and so we can be gracious, we can well up within our hearts, God, help me not be the older brother.

Help me not get judgmental of this person in my life who struggles with the same struggles that I have. Finally, we would say this, just as the old hymn says, when he shall come with trumpet sound, oh may I then in him be found clothed in his righteousness alone, faultless to stand before the throne on Christ, the solid rock, I stand. All other ground is sinking sand. Do not trust in your own righteousness is part of the message of the Bible.

There is an alien righteousness, there's a righteousness that has been provided for you by God. And if you just believe in the Lord Jesus Christ today, if you have not yet done so, you believe in the Lord Jesus Christ today, you can be saved. And as you're saved, it's not something that poof, all of a sudden you become some completely, some alien who never struggles anymore. No, God dresses you in the righteousness of Christ, and he looks at you as having committed all of the righteous acts of Jesus Christ himself.

And when you sin, he sees you as in his family and on his team. And he has provided this advocate, Jesus Christ, who always is at the right hand of the Father, interceding for us, right? God has begun the work. He will complete it to the day of Christ Jesus.

Let God be true and every man a liar. Right? We are always sinning. Always repenting, always forgiving.

So, as you guys head home and, and talk about this in your care groups, let's make sure that you guys can say Semo Eustace at Picater. Simultaneously at once justified. And sinners, we are righteous sinners in the biblical sense of the term. Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you so much for your goodness to us this day. We, of all people should be very humbled not to look out at other sinners in our world and culture and to judge them. but to look at our own hearts and recognize that, but for the grace of God go we, we thank you that you have provided salvation for us in your Son Jesus Christ. We thank you, Lord Jesus, for laying your life down.

We thank you, Holy Spirit, for applying this salvation to us. We pray in dwelling Spirit that you would help us more and more resist the indwelling sin. And we pray, Lord, that as we each struggle with sin in this life, that it would humble us, make us gracious and, and kindhearted and patient with one another. We thank you, Lord, that those of us who have believed in this room are not trying out for the team.

We're no longer auditioning, but we are part of your family, adopted by grace alone, through faith alone. We pray this in the name of Jesus Christ our Savior. All God's people said, Amen.