 He deserves a praise and all the honor and the splendor and majesty. Powerful, powerful sermon for the glory of God, Pastor Christopher. Next, we have our next sola, sola fide. Pastor Mark Rashir is a pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Chuliota, right here, Chuliota. A northeast suburb of Orlando, Florida. Usually when we explain that, we have to say it's outside of Vito or outside Orlando. He has been married to his wife Karen since 1994 and has two daughters, Abby and Lauren. Cornerstone holds the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith and the mission of making disciples for the glory of God. Has as its mission, making disciples for the glory of God. That mission is sustained and supported by the spirit of God through the faithful exposition of God's word and the faithful obedience of God's people. We are committed to edifying the body through the teaching of God's word, equipping the body through the application of God's word, and employing the body by sending them out with God's word in evangelism. Open air preaching, missions, and more for the purpose of engaging the body and extolling our God, our great God, and Savior Jesus Christ, making disciples for the glory of God. So it is my pleasure to welcome Pastor Mark Richier. Good morning. How are we doing this morning? Welcome. We are delighted to be able to host you all and glad that you're here. And let's open with a word of prayer. Father in heaven, God we praise your name. God thank you for the worship. Thank you for Christ. Thank you for grace. Thank you for faith. Thank you for your word. Some brother was preaching just a parenthetical moments, God, where we're wrapped up in your glory. And we worship you now in this. Be with us as we study your word together, Lord, for your great namesake and for your everlasting praise and worship. In Jesus' name, amen. If you will, please turn with me in your Bible to Revelation chapter 4. Revelation chapter 4. Our topic of discussion this morning is solo fide, justification by faith alone. I want to begin with entering into a glimpse of this doctrine from Revelation chapter 4. Revelation chapter 4. Let's begin reading together in verse 1. Revelation chapter 4 verse 1. Here the Bible says, After these things I looked and behold, and you can just imagine John's astonishment with what he's seen, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me saying, Come up here and I'll show you the things which must take place after this. And we know from chapter 1 that trumpeting voice was the voice of Jesus Christ himself, the risen and ascended Lord. And he's saying with authority here, that sound of a trumpet, with authority commanding, come up here and I'll show you the things which must take place after this. And immediately John said, I was in the spirit and behold, a throne set in heaven. And this issue of the throne becomes a theme of John here in chapter 4 and in chapter 5, mentioned 11 times in this chapter alone. This is not a throne of rest at this point in time, this is now a throne of reigning, ruling, and soon to be a point of judgment, a throne pointing to the judgment that is coming. And one sat on the throne, and he who sat there was like a jasper, and a sardius stone in appearance, and there was a rainbow around the throne. We get a picture of this throne in Daniel chapter 7, verse 9 and 10. The Bible says, I watched till thrones were put in place, and the ancient of days was seated, his garment was white as snow, and the hair of his head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire, and fiery stream issued, and came forth from before him. A thousand thousands ministered to him. Ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated, and the books were opened. Isaiah caught a glimpse of this throne, in this throne room in Isaiah chapter 6, verse 1. I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of his robe filled the temple, and with this throne we see here the glory of God, and the glory of God. He who sat there was like a jasper, and a sardius stone, a sardius, that blood-red ruby. In appearance, and there was a rainbow around the throne, an appearance like an emerald, meaning that the chief color was green, but like a rainbow around the throne. Zekeul, the prophet of Zekeul saw this in chapter 1, verse 27. When he says, I saw as it were the appearance of fire with brightness all around, like the appearance of a rainbow in a cloud on a rainy day, and so was the appearance of the brightness all around it. This was the appearance of the lightness of the glory of the Lord. And so when I saw it, and this is the appropriate response, to the glory of God, I fell on my face, and I heard a voice of one speaking, hear a rainbow around the throne, and the appearance like an emerald. Verse 4, Revelation chapter 4, around the throne were 24 thrones, and on the thrones I saw 24 elders sitting clothed in white robes, just symbolizing the perfect righteousness of Christ, credited to the account of those who would repent and believe the gospel. And they had crowns of gold on their heads, so the throne preceded lightnings and thunderings and voices. It reminds us of Exodus 19, doesn't it? The people of Israel came before Mount Sinai, and they heard the thundering voice of God, and they heard the peelings of thunder, lightning and voices. Seven lamps of fire were burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God. And before the throne, there was a sea of glass like crystal. And in the midst of the throne, there were four living creatures full of eyes in front and in back. And the first living creature was like a lion. The second living creature like a calf. The third living creature had a face like a man, and the fourth living creature was like a flying eagle. The four living creatures, each having six wings, were full of eyes around and within, and they do not rest day or night saying, Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty who was in His to come, His permanent, consistent, constant worship in heaven of God, Lord Almighty, Isaiah 6-3. The prophet Isaiah said, Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is full of His glory. And this holiness and this trifle proclamation of God's holiness is God's complete and total separation from sin. God alone is majestic in holiness. Holy and awesome is His name. In Habakkuk 1 verse 13 the prophet says, you are of pure eyes than to behold evil and cannot look on wickedness. We're reminded in the words of Christ in Matthew 5 you are to be perfect just as our Father in heaven is perfect. And we hear the words of God Himself saying you shall be holy for I am holy. We see the lightning and we hear the thunder. We feel the heat and we know that our God is a consuming fire. Here in heaven sinless angels charged with the constant and eternal worship and praise of God. They do not rest day or night for worshiping the living God. In chapter 4 verse 11 you are worthy, oh Lord to receive glory and honor and power for you created all things and by your will they exist and were created and the 24 elders cast their crowns before him and are bowed down and worshiping God. He is worthy of our worship, amen. In chapter 5 verse 11 angels numbering 10,000 times 10,000 and thousands of thousands praise and worship Christ with a loud voice saying worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and blessing. Do you see how glorious this glimpse, this view of heaven, how perfect, how fervent and pure the worship and praise of God and how worthy is God to receive it. Do you see in this this is what you're created for you're created for the everlasting praise and worship of Almighty God. Do you feel in this the weight of your sin how imperfect, how impure and in our own righteousness we are hopelessly consigned to stand far off from this glimpse of the glories of heaven and cry out with Isaiah, I am undone. I'm a man of unclean lips and I dwell on the midst of a people of unclean lips understand that the context of this praise of God's holiness here is the judgment of the unrighteous. Because he, God is perfectly holy, God hates him. And in perfect justice and in perfect righteousness he rightly pours out his perfect wrath upon it. And you are a sinner and I am a sinner. What is there that you can do that is not corrupted by the flesh? What is there that isn't polluted by pride or stained by selfish motive? John Bunyan said that even his best prayer contained enough sin to damn the world. In your own righteousness even the apparent good that you attempt to do is as nothing but a filthy rag and you would cry out with those sinners in Revelation chapter 6 to the mountains and to the rocks fall on us and hide us from the face of him who sits upon the throne and from the wrath of the lamb for the great day of his wrath he is able to stand. The prophet, Nam in chapter 1 verse 6 says who can stand before his indignation and who can endure the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are thrown down by him. Psalm 130 verse 3 if you Lord should mark iniquities, oh Lord who could stand? And the right answer to that rhetorical question no one who isn't perfect righteous and holy Martin Luther just prior to his conversion and just prior to the spark that ignited the Protestant Reformation he was about to address God in his first mass and he froze with this glimpse of heaven. At these words he said I was utterly stupefied and terror-stricken I thought to myself with what tongue will I dress such majesty seeing that all men ought to tremble in the presence of an earthly prince who am I that I should lift up my eyes or raise my hands to the divine majesty? The angels surround him at his nod the earth trembles and shall I a miserable little pygmy say I want this I ask for that for I am dust ashes and full of sin and I am speaking to the living eternal and true God and all of created humanity there is no one who can stand before this throne in the light of this holiness under the holy, just and good law of God and be declared righteous and worthy of anything other than God's eternal judgment will you stand before God who defines holiness and profess to be holy profess to be good it then begs the question how can a sinful man be right with God how can I be justified or made right before him how can I be righteous what must I do to be saved the Philippian jailer to Paul and Silas said sirs what must I do to be saved the crowd at Pentecost men and brethren what shall we do Paul on the road to Damascus crushed under the weight of his sin what shall I do lord and this question the most important of questions is answered by the glorious doctrine of the justification by faith alone justification by faith alone as one theologian put it that bears the weight of the entire world on its shoulders the entire weight of Christianity Martin Luther has said that the church stands or falls on this one doctrine it is the essence of historic Christianity and the essence of the gospel and that which makes Christianity distinct from every other religion Christianity is the religion of divine accomplishment it is finished it is done based in Christ's finished work alone and in nothing else all of the religions are ultimately based on human effort the sinner's own efforts to be holy this is the doctrine of the justification of faith by faith alone I want to give you three exhortations with respect to this doctrine justification by faith alone solo fide one you need to prove it yourself you need to protect it and we need to preach it we need to prove it protected and preach it first if we want to be able to prove it let's look at Paul's argument for this turn with me to Romans chapter 3 Romans chapter 3 there's a great argument in Romans chapter 3 for the justification for justification by faith alone that begins in verse 19 we'll walk quickly there are glorious truths in this chapter and we could spend months in these verses alone but in chapter 3 we see Paul's argument for justification by faith alone and we want to be able to prove this doctrine from this passage so let's walk through it together we begin in verse 19 this is Romans chapter 3 verse 19 and here the Bible says that whatever the law says it says to those who are under the law that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight for by the law is the knowledge of sin here in verses 19 and 20 the verdict is in he begins with we know that's the word Oida it's a perfect complete understanding it is unquestioned it is uncontested it's not developing it is known it is known here complete unquestioned the word outside of grace is under the law of God and accountable to God in chapter 2 Paul explains that the Jews were under the written law of God and Gentiles there show the work of the law written on their hearts as Paul says again in Romans 14 so then each of us shall give an account of himself to God in the imagery here of the courtroom we are all declared guilty guilty there is no parole there is no defense there is no excuse the only response here is silence that every mouth may be stopped there is no possibility of parole there is no possibility or hope of purgatory here the only thing that settles is the certain fearful expectation of judgment what can be said in your defense imagine that throne room in heaven what would you do you would corrupt it there is nothing that can be said in self defense silence your self justification so that you can hear the truth of the gospel silence is the only appropriate response you can't say anything and if you can't say anything what is there that you could possibly do what could you add what would gain merit with God what would gain his favor what can you do you are unrighteous that verdict is in there is nothing there are no works that will justify you in his sight there is no sentence to expect here but the death penalty and rightly so the death sentence is deserved and when we look at works and those things that we think make us a good person or the things that we do that we think are good or righteous in God's eyes we have to be reminded that the law of God was never intended to be a means of salvation we cannot be saved by the law Old Testament or New Testament the law was intended to show the impossibility for someone to be righteous in their own effort to meet to or attain to or rise to a benchmark that God himself in his holiness is set you can't do that through the works of the law the works of the law the law is intended to show us our sin in other words nothing a person does nothing a person does no matter who they are doing it for no matter how appropriately placed or not their motivations are nothing they can do can gain favor with God if you're trying to be a good person if you're working to be a good Catholic you're trying to straighten up your life so that you can become a Christian Christian if you're looking at your Christian performance as the ground of whether or not you're on good terms with God you cannot Paul would say of you in Romans chapter 10 verse 3 that you are ignorant of the righteousness of God and seeking to establish your own righteousness you're not submitting to God's righteousness God's righteousness is the only righteousness that will stand it's God's righteousness alone that is perfect the righteousness alone that satisfies the just demands of God's law in chapter 3 here in Romans in verse 21 the Bible says but now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed being witnessed by the law and by the prophets and now Paul having used the law justly to bring about guilt that reveals hope the only kind of righteousness that man can produce is unrighteousness the righteousness of God here is that righteousness which is authored by God it meets every demand of God's justice this righteousness is characterized in its essence by all that God is and all that God does and this righteousness Paul is proclaiming perfect harmony with and attested to by the Old Testament scriptures being witnessed it says here by the law and the prophets look what it says in verse 22 now even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ to all and on all who believe this righteousness authored by God himself comes to every believer, Jew or Gentile through the vehicle or the means of faith in Jesus Christ this is this righteousness is sinless perfection which only Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone has fulfilled he endured our every temptation and yet was without sin this comes to every believer it's not righteousness through the law for the Jew and through faith for the Gentile but both through the means of faith alone Sola fide verse 22 for there is no difference for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God hear all men whether Jew or Gentile or under the very same verdict all must have the very same remedy for their sin problem and that remedy is in God's glorious wisdom don't you praise the Lord that this doesn't come from within us but it comes by God's grace as our brother preached from without us and God grants and gives it this righteousness is the righteousness of God that comes by faith in Jesus Christ now think about it here for there is no difference all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God with the lost there is no distinction between those who are lost all have sinned and all must have the righteousness of Christ in order to be saved in that essence in that sense the chief of sinners today the chief of sinners was justified he wasn't too depraved to be justified by God whatever sin that you're in the Lord God in his grace and in his mercy can save you from that be sure that he won't save you in it turn from your sin whatever it is God will save if you will put your faith in Christ stop relying on your own effort rely on your own goodness silence your self justification and hear the gospel of God and be saved verse 24 what a glorious explanation here of the gospel being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus we could easily spend weeks on this one verse being justified justification here is the opposite of condemnation condemnation doesn't make a man guilty condemnation declares him guilty in the same way justification is a declaration it's a completely forensic or legal transaction that changes the judicial standing of the sinner before God it is a statement it's a declaration that all the demands of God's righteous law are fulfilled on behalf of the sinner in justification God imputes or credits to the perfect righteousness of Christ to the believer's account and then declares that person right before him this is not the infusing of a righteousness to us but the imputing of a righteousness not the infusing of a righteousness into us but an imputing or a crediting of a righteousness to us and because Christ is the federal head and representative of his people God can impute his perfect righteousness to us because Christ himself has secured that righteousness by his perfect life or his perfect obedience to the law and because he bore the penalty of the broken law on our behalf we will repent and believe in the gospel all of this as our brother preached as by his grace notice that this is a free gift of his grace therefore it's not a result of anything else throughout this passage of scripture it screams grace alone it screams faith alone there's simply nothing else that you can add to the perfect wisdom of God in redeeming a sinful humanity a gift by definition is something given freely, it's unmerited and here it's another way of expressing that this is not anything to do with works it's apart from any work anything that you can add all this only through the price paid by Jesus Christ the ransom price paid for our rescue is seen as well the act of justification is now seen as a matter of grace on God's side and a matter of faith on ours grace and faith fit perfectly together and we'll see that the ground of all of this is the perfect life of Christ and his perfect substitutionary death you must have a substitute will you stand in that throne room with your sin will you stand before God the holy of holies before thousands and thousands and ten thousands times ten thousand and have your sin laid bare before him you need the righteousness of another the price paid for our redemption was the atoning sacrifice the substitution of Jesus Christ at the cross he paid for it with his blood he shed his blood he was not simply a witness it wasn't simply an example it was a sacrifice it's an actual substitution verse 25 goes on whom God set forth as a propitiation by his blood through faith to demonstrate his righteousness because in his forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed to demonstrate at the present time his righteousness just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus in verse 25 the satisfaction here of God's wrath inherent in justification is also through the vehicle of faith it's also through faith alone then says that God in his forbearance passed over the sins that were previously committed what that doesn't mean is that God swept sin under the rug doesn't mean that he excused it or winked at it this in reference if you think about it to Old Testament saints for example take Abraham God exercised patience exercised forbearance in passing over those sins in light of the certainty of Christ's coming sacrifice God never tolerates or excuses sin sin in any form then in verse 26 it says here that he might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus Christ God is serious deathly serious about sin you don't want to receive justice from God you want to receive mercy from God justice gives you what you deserve mercy is a grace the perfect justice of God is proven upheld it is displayed in the death of his own son in the death of Christ the horrors and the glories of the cross the sacrifice of his own son is how is how God maintains his perfectly righteous character at the same time that he justifies ungodly people Proverbs chapter 17 verse 15 says this in that sense he that justifies the wicked is unjust that God is perfect justice God certainly is an unjust here God maintains his justice because Christ himself bears his justice on behalf of the ungodly begs the question then to prove the point here of justification by faith alone in verse 27 where is boasting then it is excluded by what law of works no but by the law of faith therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law and that there apart from the deeds of the law with everything that's been said to this point is faith alone faith alone because of the power of the cross of Christ because of the sacrifice that was made because of the infinite value of that sacrifice because of the completeness of that work which Christ said on the cross it is finished and because of the perfect righteousness of Christ there is nothing further for a wicked sinner to add here to do so would render the cross of Christ and that sacrifice of no effect what could it be but faith alone what could it be but grace alone what could it be but Christ alone to the glory of God alone according to the scriptures alone it can't be anything else what would you add you're standing in the throne room in Revelation 4 what would you add to the glories of heaven what can you add besides the righteousness that is not your own therefore a man is justified by faith and that justification by faith alone many false religions will say that they uphold grace many false religions will say that they uphold faith but it is as our brother said this word alone that differentiates wicked works systems from the only true salvation as wonderful as other Christian graces are it must be only by faith the bible doesn't say that you're justified by repentance but be sure that if you do not repent you will perish right it's not justification by humility although humility is a great Christian grace it's not justification by meekness it's not justification by hope it's not justification by love which the scripture says is greater than faith he that does not love does not know God but it's not justification by love it's not justification by prayer you can't say a prayer you can't make a decision it's not justification by sacraments if righteousness came by any of these sources it would be the antithesis of grace it would be the antithesis of faith it is by grace alone and because it is only by grace it must be by faith and by faith alone whatever you add to chapter 1 only ends up subtracting you add anything to grace you negate it you add anything to faith you negate it you negate both 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 in the Ephesians chapter 2 verse 8 and 9 for by grace you have been saved through faith and that not of yourselves that not of yourselves anything that you could add anything that you could imagine it's not of yourselves it is the gift of God not of works which is another way of saying not of yourselves lest anyone should boast oh God in Christ having not our own righteousness which is from the law but that which is through faith in Christ the righteousness which is from God by faith why here why isn't it repentance why isn't it humility why isn't it love why isn't it hope why isn't it prayer why isn't it those sacraments rest upon Christ and upon his righteousness the very substance of faith is that it rests that it trusts that it relies upon the righteousness of another faith is the receptive empty hand of the depraved destitute beggar in that sense it is completely compatible with grace rather than anything that we would do anything that we would do is incompatible with grace there aren't any works that we could add nothing in my hands I bring simply to thy cross I cling fowl fowl I to the fountain fly wash me savior or I die the faith is a a trusting of everything we are