Hi, this is Josh Montez, and welcome back to the Hymn We Proclaim podcast, where we bring Christ-centered truth for everyday life. In this new batch of episodes, we're digging into some of the most foundational and soul-stabilizing truths you'll ever hear. Whether you're feeling the weight of spiritual struggle, longing for real assurance, or wondering how to grow in faith when life is full of tension and temptation, these messages are for you. We start by looking honestly at the struggle and consolation of the Christian life, where Pastor John reminds us that yes, we do wrestle, but never wrestle alone. From there, we explore confident expectation and hope rooted in the promises of Christ, not in our own strength.
And stay tuned, we're going to move into a rich, multi-part series rediscovering the five solas of the Reformation, these five gospel principles that still shape our lives today. Scripture alone, grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone, and to the glory of God alone. These aren't dusty doctrines. They're a roadmap to freedom, joy, and gospel assurance. Whether you're new to these teachings or returning for a refresher, this series will encourage you to rest in what Christ has already accomplished and to live boldly in the light of His grace.
Here's a message called A Confident Expectation and Hope, Part 2. This is what the psalmist asked this question. And we saw last week, if you, Lord, should mark iniquities, Lord, who could stand? Who could stand? And what is the answer is obvious, nobody.
None of us. If you were to mark our iniquities, we cannot stand. Why? Why can't we stand? Because this is our dilemma.
God is holy, and we're not. God is righteous, and we're not. And so the psalmist asked if he should mark iniquities, who could stand? And here's the truth, as we saw last week. He marks our iniquities, all of them.
He marks all our iniquities. and so the scripture says that because of this we all stand guilty under the judgment of god and this judgment is certain and paul says in the book of acts it is certain this judgment is certain why because he has assured us of this judgment, because he has raised Jesus from the dead. You can't escape this judgment. Christ is coming. Jesus, who is the judge, is coming.
And all of us must appear before him. And because God requires this perfect righteousness as Jesus, as we learn, Jesus taught us in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 5, verse 48, you must be perfect. You must be perfect as my heavenly Father is perfect. Because God requires this perfect righteousness.
How can we stand before him? How can we stand?
Well, that's what our conference coming up is about, right? Michael Horton's coming, Scott Clark's coming, Ashland Hall's coming, great men of God are coming to teach us about this, but to prepare us, I think it's helpful to think about what our conference is about. How do we answer this question? How can we stand before God in the day of judgment?
Well, the answers that the Protestant reformers gave to us is very simple. Grace alone, faith alone, Christ alone. It's so simple, yet it's so difficult to get, isn't it? that's why we pray each week before the sermon and we say holy spirit open up our eyes to see open up our minds to comprehend give us the ears to hear where does that come from it comes from paul's prayer in ephesians chapter one in Ephesians chapter 1 verses 3 to 14 Paul rehearses the gospel from eternity past to eternity future and he says that we have been chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world that we might be holy and blameless before him in love he has predestined us to adoption through Jesus Christ. And he just keeps going and going.
He said, and all of this is to the glory, praise and glory of his grace. And he just rehearses all these tremendous blessings that we have been given through Christ. And Paul understands that that message is so incomprehensible that it just sounds too good to be true. Do you know what he does? He says that to the Ephesians.
Paraphrasing what Paul says, he says, now, Ephesians, I just gave you the gospel in verses three to 14, but I know that you don't understand anything that I just said. therefore I pray that our father of glory might give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him he's praying that for Christians you see he's saying I understand this gospel is so great it's so magnificent it just blows your mind it's not natural understanding is too good to be true. It sounds like that. Therefore, I'm praying that the Father of glory might give to you. Listen, this is what we pray for.
A spirit of wisdom and of revelation. A spirit of revelation. The light switch has got to come on so you get this. But here's the deal. You can't just flip the light switch and go, oh, I get the gospel.
One plus one equals two. I get that. But I don't get this, that I was chosen before the foundation of the world stuff. I don't get that Jesus wasn't redemption for me on the cross, which we'll come back to in a moment. I don't understand those things.
That's because the gospel is not natural understanding. It's supernatural. we have to have we have to be given a spirit of revelation why?
so that you can know what is the greatness of his power that he works towards us who believe the same power that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead Paul says that same power that raised Christ is working you through the gospel that's incomprehensible. I want you to know, Paul says, that you don't know, but if you get the spirit of revelation, you can know this, listen, that you are God's exceeding rich inheritance. You're his inheritance because Christ purchased you. I want you to know what is the hope of your calling. We have great hope as Christians because we've been called by grace.
And we come back to this answer It so simple yet it so profound In fact it impossible to understand apart from the spirit of wisdom and revelation that the Father gives to us by the Holy Spirit. And so how can we stand before God, Christ in the day of judgment when he returns? Grace alone, faith alone, and Christ alone. Paul says, for by grace you have been saved. Grace is the heart of the Christian gospel.
It's a doctrine. This is what Carl Truman says about grace. He says, quote, it is a doctrine that touches the very depth of human existence because it reveals to us the very heart of God that draws us back in that precious communion with him that was so tragically lost at the fall. What's wrong with me? What's wrong with me is that I have been cut off from life, from communion with God, and my heart is empty.
The only thing that can satisfy an empty heart, As Augustine said, our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you. And grace, grace restores that communion and it fills up my life. And so on this today, how are we to think of grace? How are we to think of grace? You've probably heard this.
Have you heard this? Grace is what? Unmerited favor. Have you heard that? Hands up.
I just want to see who I'm talking to. All right. All right. So you've heard that. I have to pause and explain that really quick, but you've heard that.
All right. Listen very carefully. Grace is, what is grace? Grace is unmerited favor, but it's much more than that. because grace is not just merely undeserved.
Grace, J.V. Fesco says, has to be defined as God's, listen, demerited favor. That in despite man's sinfulness, God does not give to him what he has merited or earned, namely God's justice. How can we stand?
But rather, he gives his favor, his grace.
So grace is not just unmerited favor. It's God's demerited favor. but it's much more than that because that sounds abstract, doesn't it? That's kind of hard to grasp, put your hands on because you can't see it, it's not objective it's like this abstract idea, unmerited favor I'm thankful for that but what is grace, what am I thankful for? Listen carefully Ultimately, what is grace?
Grace is a person. Grace is a person to whom a believer is sovereignly united to by the power of the Holy Spirit. Listen to what Paul says in Titus 2, verse 11. He says, for the grace of God has appeared. That's the incarnation.
for the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation to all men.
Now, in the context, when he says bringing salvation to all men, he's talking about the prior groups of people in the churches in Crete that he's talking about, all right, to all different kinds of people, not salvation to everybody, so there's universalism. But this is what you have to think about here. For the grace of God has appeared in history, in time, on this earth. That's the incarnation. That's Christ.
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation. What is grace? The incarnation is the embodiment of God's grace. Jesus in his incarnation is the supreme revelation of the grace of God Christ is grace personified grace is a person the supreme manifestation of God's grace in history is found in Christ alone grace alone Christ alone you see now this truth brings us back to the heart of our dilemma which is what was our dilemma our rebellion against God we have morally and spiritually died and because of that we all stand condemned before God who has marked our iniquities and so we cannot stand in the day of judgment we cannot stand and so what is the answer to that what is the answer to this great dilemma that all of us face it's grace what am i saying when i say that if we cannot stand in the day of judgment and the answer is grace the answer is christ because grace is a person and it's his work on our behalf to save us. Listen to what Paul says in Romans chapter five, verses one through two.
He says that we obtain access to God's grace through Christ alone. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Listen, through whom we have also obtained access into this grace, listen, in which we stand.
So we're saved by grace. We're saved by Christ and his work. When we say we're saved by grace, We are saved by Christ and his work for us. God's grace is free, unmerited, demerited favor. What is that?
It's all revealed to us in the person of Christ alone by his actions, not our actions. Let us never be tempted to think of grace in abstract terms. Rather, let us think of grace in terms of a person, Christ, Christ alone. And second, his perfect work for us and for our salvation. As we confess each week in the Nicene Creed, listen, listen to this.
Listen to the creed. Listen to who does all the action. Listen to who has described all the verbs, all the action. Listen to who is the direct object who receives all the benefits of the action being taken. For us and for our salvation, he, Christ, came down.
You see that? That some verb He came down That humility That is grace That is just incarnation That is amazing He has appeared He came down He met us in our disgusting sin. For us and for our salvation, He came down from heaven. By the power of the Holy Spirit, He became incarnate. from the Virgin Mary and was made man.
Listen to this. For our sake, he was crucified under Pontius Pilate. He suffered death. He was buried. On the third day, he rose again.
In accordance with the scriptures, he ascended into heaven. He is seated at the right hand of the Father. He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. And his kingdom will win. None of those verbs apply to you and me.
Aren't you grateful for that? Why? Because we're the beneficiaries. We say it, for us and for our salvation, for our sake. We're the direct object.
We are the pitiful sinners who are being acted upon from someone outside of ourselves called Christ. That is grace. This is grace, which enables us to stand before Christ in the day of judgment when he comes again in glory to judge the living and the dead. That is how we stand. Listen, how are we to understand grace?
Grace is seen, grace is found in Christ alone.
Solus Christus. That's how you say it properly from my Latin teacher that I'm taking.
Solus Christus. He would be happy for me because that's all I can say. but grace grace is seen and found in christ alone who not just obeyed fully god's precepts on our behalf but he has satisfied the full force of the law's penalties on our behalf that's grace what what is grace what does grace look like how do i understand it so it's not abstract What is unmerited favor, demerited favor, free sovereign grace? How do I grasp that? Here, here's how.
Jesus was sent by the Father to live for us the kind of life that we should live, but can't and haven't. That's grace. And as we saw last week, Jesus is a representative, not just in his death, but in his perfect life. has assumed our obligation to fulfill all that God requires of us for perfect righteousness. I haven't done that.
Jesus' representative has done that. That's grace. He came, as we confess here in just a few minutes, he came down from heaven and he assumed humanity. Why? So he could be a true and obedient human, a perfect servant on our behalf, the last Adam.
Because the first Adam, which is all of us, we blew it. He's the perfect Adam. It was his perfect obedience to God alone, to his moral will, his law for us, that constitutes righteousness before God. because as I told you, you can't just, forgiveness of sins is wonderful. Please hear me out.
It's wonderful. I am so glad I'm forgiven, but you don't get to heaven with just a blank slate. You don't. Jesus told us in the Sermon on the Mount, you must be perfect. you must have a perfect righteousness that perfectly and thought word and deed of every split millisecond of your existence is holding heaven over to delighting in doing the will of God as Paul read to us today from Psalm 40 I have come, behold it's written to me in the scroll of the book I have come to do your will oh my God I delight in doing it none of us have done that And that is what causes us to stand before God without fear but joy.
That's grace. Second, what is grace? What does it look like? How do I wrap my hands around this? How do I wrap my mind around this?
Jesus was sent by the Father to die for us on the cross. His passive obedience, his active obedience, he has obeyed for us in our place. His passive obedience, he has died, Paul says in Philippians, to the point even to death on the cross, his obedience led to his death. That is how obedient he was. Because that's how much he loved his father.
By this, the world will know that I love the father because I keep his commandments. by his obedient death on the cross, Christ has fully satisfied the penalty of God's law against me. Listen just briefly, how has he done this? Listen, Romans chapter three, verses 24 and 25, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith. That's grace.
That's how he's done it. The two saving works that Paul says that Christ accomplished on the cross, which is the grounds for our salvation, he says is this. It is redemption and propitiation. What is redemption? What is it?
It means to buy back to secure the release of a person from slavery, from captivity by the payment of a ransom. It reaches back to the Old Testament. The Old Testament, the ultimate act of redemption, which was what? the exodus and the blood of the Passover lamb by which the Lord redeemed Israel from its slavery in Egypt. And Paul is saying here in the book of Romans, he's saying when he says, we have been justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption, which is in Christ Jesus.
He's saying that the exodus in the Old Testament was Christ, and that Christ is our ultimate exodus. It points forward to this greater redemption that Jesus secured for his people by forgiving their sins through his death on the cross. Christ paid our ransom price and freed us from slavery under the bondage of our sin the condemnation of God's law. Ephesians chapter one, verses seven through eight, Paul says, as in him, we have redemption. We have exodus through his blood, through his blood.
What does that mean? It just means the cross, his bloody death on the cross. What do we have? The forgiveness of our trespasses according to the riches of his grace which he has lavished upon us God doesn skimp on Christmas Day Your Christmas tree, when you wake up every Sunday morning to come to church, is packed full of gifts. He lavishes you with Christ.
it was God's justice that Jesus satisfied it was his cup of wrath that Jesus emptied and paid a ransom price the highest price that could be paid that's grace that's what it looks like that's what grace is second propitiation Romans chapter 3 verse 25 Paul says propitiation what is that it reaches back to the Old Testament, day of atonement, by which the sprinkled blood of the slain goat on the mercy seat foreshadowed Christ's propitiation. What is propitiation? It's his full exhaustion, satisfaction of God's wrath against us for our sin forevermore. and so by Christ's redemption and propitiation he is the great exodus he is a great slain goat whose blood is poured out on the mercy seat all of that that is Jesus Christ alone that's grace that's what grace is that's what grace looks like and that's what has been given to you freely You see, it's all his verbs. It's his redemption.
It's his propitiation. But it's your forgiveness of your trespasses. You see how that works. And so, because Christ has fully satisfied the law's precepts in our place, because Christ has fully satisfied the law's penalties against us. Through faith in Christ alone, you can receive the righteousness of God in him.
And therefore, Christ's end-time verdict is not, depart from me, never knew you, but it is, well done, good and faithful servant. and enter in into the joy of your master. That's the good news. That's the gospel. That's our conference.
Share this with people. Invite people. We have 350 seats. Fire code. We can't break the fire code and the marshal will shut us down.
but I want to have 350 to make him sweat. I want this place jam-packed with 350 seats. Why? Not so our church can be slapped full. That would be nice, but here's why.
People need to hear this. People need to hear this. And that's a whole weekend is what you just heard in 27 minutes. but much more profound than what I can do because everybody's coming has taught me to teach you. I didn't make this stuff up.
The people coming taught this to me. That's why I want them to come because if I've got this, I want them to give to you what they gave to me. And I want everybody to hear it.
So bring a whole group, bring 10, bring 15, drag them in here. but just bring them to hear this gospel. Let us never be tempted to think of grace in abstract terms. Let's just set that aside. To say that we're saved by grace is to say that we're saved by Christ, Christ alone.
Let us think of grace in terms of a person, Christ, and his perfect work for us and for our salvation. grace. What is grace? Grace is God's response to the fall. You ever thought about that?
There was no grace in this world prior to the fall because you didn't have to have it. But grace, Christ, is God the Father's response to the fall. And it has to always be understood in that context.
So why? Because we'll be filled with increasing gratitude only as we more clearly recognize our need for grace. Olivia is about to say, I do, in about three weeks. And I get to do that part. Pray for me because I don't know if I will make it or not, but I'm going to do my very best to get through it.
But when she got engaged, she had a big diamond ring, right? Beautiful diamond ring. But what do diamond rings always come in? A black velvet box. Why?
Because it highlights and shows the brilliance and beauty and dynamic sparkle and shine of every single facet of that diamond. When you turn it, it reflects the light and it's just brilliant light. It's a beautiful diamond. That's grace next to us in our sin. And the gospel shines brilliant when it's set at the backdrop of our rebellion against God.
that one to whom we have rebelled has reconciled us to himself by his son through the power of the Holy Spirit. That is grace. The colic that we prayed today was talking about standing before God. I don't know if you caught that, but let's pray it as we finish. guard your church heavenly father with your continual mercy because in our frailty we cannot stand without you keep us from all that may harm us and lead us to all that makes for our salvation our glorification we pray this through Jesus Christ our Savior.
Amen. for. With his shepherding heart, John shows that the gospel, not practical steps or more self-discipline, is God's provision for the power to live a life of sexual purity. And it's available to every Christian. What I like is the book is available in three convenient ways, paperback, audiobook, or Kindle.
The links are in our podcast descriptions, or just search for Hope and Holiness by John Fonville on Amazon to get a copy for you, and it's a wonderful book to go through with a small group. Hymn We Proclaim is a ministry of Paramount Church in Jacksonville, Florida. You can find us at paramountchurch.com. We'll talk again soon.
