We're going to be reading tonight from The Book of Romans,
the 14th chapter. Romans chapter 14.
Beginning in verse 10. The Apostle Paul says, we shall
all stand before the Judgment seat of Christ for it is
written. As I live, says the Lord.
Every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to
God. So then, Each one of us will
give an account of himself to God over the course of the
meeting so far, we have been considering the theme of The
Establishment and increase of the kingdom of God.
And we're not going to be breaking from that theme
tonight, but we're going to be exploring a very significant
part of it, which is The Marvelous question of how it can
be possible. That Jesus Christ is able to
redeem Sinners back to God's good favor.
In the early 1900's, there was a Christian evangelist named
tiller, test Ed Lee who was holding a gospel meeting in a
small west, Texas town where it happened, that a murder trial
was going on at the same time. Curiosity carried mr.
Ted lie to the court room and he took his seat with the rest of
the spectators and the crowd. Hashed as the judge entered in
his long, black Road and took his seat behind the wooden bar
that separated his bench from the audience.
The accused man was brought forward and the charges against
him were read and the judge He leaned forward to him and he
asked him a grim question. How do you plead he expected
that the man would claim to be not guilty but of course
accusations have been made evidence had been brought
forward. So why should the court believe
that claim and allow him to go and live free?
For that, man. This was the question of life.
It was probably the most important question anyone had
ever asked him because how he answered would determine whether
he lived or died. Mr. Ted Lee, was deeply
impressed by that scene and he went back to the place where he
was lodging. And he wrote these words which
are probably familiar to most of us.
Someday. You will stand at the bar on
high. Someday your record, you will
see someday. You will answer the question of
life. What will your answer be?
Mr. Ted Lee was referring to the teaching of the Bible from the
verse in Romans 14, we read before we prayed that one day,
every human being who has ever lived since the creation of the
universe small and great. According To Jesus in
Revelation, 20 and verse 12 from every nation throughout the
world and across time. According to Matthew 25 and
verse 32 will be gathered together and judged by God for
crimes that we are accused of having committed against him and
against his creation. The Bible teaches that God
created the universe with an orderly -, and a structure that
both dictates its proper function and reflects his
perfect wisdom and Holiness. And when that orderliness is
communicated in the form of a teaching, or a commandment, this
is what we call the law of God. The law of God has appeared
throughout history and many forms.
There was the law of Moses, a code, or a list of hundreds of
Commandments and prohibitions and precepts and instructions
over 600 in all. It was given by Moses to Israel
as a part of God's covenant relationship with that people.
And then there's what the Apostle Paul called the law
written on the heart. In Romans 2 verses 14 and 15.
The aspect of God's orderly, structure of creation that we
can discern by observing the world around us with moral
reasoning. And then there is the law of
Christ. As the Apostle, mentions it in
Galatians, 6, and verse to the precepts and instructions and
prohibitions that have given to Christians through the
teachings, of the Apostles and Prophets of We'll have more to
say about God's law in a moment, but the law is that which
defines right and wrong. Good and evil, and to break the
law to do something that the law forbids or to leave undone.
Something that the law commands is to sin.
The Bible says that sin is lawlessness or one translation.
The transgression of the law. First, John chapter 3 and verse
4, the one who breaks the law is convicted by the law.
As a transgressor, a sinner, a criminal, James 2, and verse 9.
And the same Bible that teaches all of those things, makes this
Dreadful statement. All have sinned, Romans 3, and
verse 23. Now, all is a broad term broad
enough to include me and all of you and all of you, and everyone
who is out there and everyone who was born before us and
everyone who will come a long after we're gone, all mankind is
accused of sin. And the same Bible says that the
wages or the penalty for sin is death, Romans, 6, and verse 23.
Now, we can spend a great deal of time discussing the nature of
this death, but it's sufficient now to say that it means
something more than the termination of physical life.
This is an eternal death. Jesus said in Matthew chapter
10, and verse 28, do not fear the one who can kill the body,
but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear God, who is able
to destroy both body and soul in Hell, one day we will all appear
before God to answer to this accusation of sin and to be
found guilty. is to be destroyed in hell, Now there's some people
in this world who are very foolish and they are hardened in
the deceitfulness of sin. And they would tell you, they
know that they are guilty against the law of God, but they
claim not to care. One day, they will care.
One day, they will cry to the rocks and the mountains to fall
on them. That would be painful, but it
would be better in their eyes than to have to face the Wrath
and Judgment of God. And they will only wish that
they had escaped that fate and that those that they loved would
be wiser than they do. I think there's no one here.
Who is so foolish. I trust that you're here today
because you believe Eve in God and you believe the Bible and if
you believe those things and you know that this day of judgment
is coming and we will be asked the same question as that man in
Texas a long time ago but will be asked by God how do you
plead? They want to make sure that we
will give an answer that leads to our acquittal to are being
found not guilty and spared the penalty of eternal.
Colonel death of the idea of being found not guilty before.
God is the meaning of a very prominent scriptural term
justification. I suggest that justification has
been a neglected theme among our people, Now, I don't want to
project my own ignorance on to all of you but I didn't
understand it for most of my life.
I was thinking about this just this morning.
Brother Ronnie Wade, wrote a column in the Old Paths advocate
for 30 years, where people would ask questions and seek Bible
answers and people ask questions about whether or not you should
eat a meal and a church building or whether or not you should
call on a man to wait on the table if he didn't wear a
necktie. But in 30 years, no one asked a
question about justification. The word was never mentioned.
In his column. That wasn't his fault.
It's the questions that he was asked by other people, but that
tells us something, doesn't it that this subject, which is very
important in the Bible has perhaps been a blind spot for
many of us. And I know it was for me, I did
not understand the meaning of the word, the first 15 years of
my preaching career. Justification does not mean
salvation. The two terms are not synonymous
as we're going to see in a moment.
There is only one way to be saved, but there are many ways
to be justified, depending on who the judge is, and the manner
of the Judgment, justification means being regarded as not
guilty of a crime. Now this subject is all over the
scripture, but the Apostle Paul wrote more frequently and
perhaps more thoughtfully about the subject than any other
biblical writers. So tonight, I want us to use
Paul as a legal counselor and primarily to use his writings to
help us understand what the right answer is how must we
plead in order to be justified to be found not guilty.
Guilty in the sight of God. Now the most reasonable plea,
that one could offer. If he hoped to be acquitted of a
criminal charge would be to plead not guilty by reason of
Innocence. I didn't do it.
Now in the Bible, the Apostle Paul expresses, this concept
with the phrase justification by works of law that phrase or some
form of it appears several times in Paul's writing.
And in some English translations you might have that the
translator has inserted the word v in front of Law and capitalize
the ale and when you see that you might be inclined to think
that he's talking particularly or maybe even exclusively about
the law of Moses that's a mistake.
He is in fact talking about the general concept of law.
He's not focusing on any particular.
Legal code. But rather speaking.
How any law law by its very nature, Works in justifying a
person or showing that a person is not guilty and quite simply
the law, only justifies a person who is truly innocent, that is a
person who has never failed to do anything that it commands and
has never done anything that it prohibits and has carried out
all of, its Haitians, absolutely flawlessly.
The Apostle Paul using the law of Moses.
As an example said, in Galatians, 3 verses, 10 through
12, it is written. Cursed is everyone who does not
continue in all things, which are written in the book of the
law to do them. But the man who does them shall
live by them, Jesus agreed. When he was asked, what must I
do to inherit Eternal life. He said oh that's a simple
answer to that question. Love the Lord, your God with all
of your heart and all of your soul and all of your mind and
all of your strength and love your neighbor as yourself and
demonstrate that by keeping all of The Commandments.
And then you'll live. He said that in Luke 10 25 to 28
and Matthew 19. 16 through 19 and James, the brother of Our
Lord, it was an elder in the church Jerusalem and wrote one
of the books of the New Testament.
Said it with particular Clarity, James 2, verses 10 through 11
for whoever shall keep the whole Law, whatever lot is, if you
keep the whole thing. and yet stumble in one point he is
guilty of all For he who said do not commit.
Adultery also said, do not murder.
Now if you do not commit adultery but you do murder, you
have become a transgressor of the law.
Really make sense. If you were dangling over a pit
by a chain of 10 links, you're holding on to the last one.
How many links have to break for you to fall?
Just one. One link broken compromises, the
Integrity of the chain and one commandment broken makes a
transgressor of the law. Now, in that particular passage,
it might appear that James is talking about the law of Moses.
You might even think we'll he quotes from The Ten Commandments
but not. So he makes it clear.
He's speaking to Christians about what he calls the law of
the king, that is the law of Christ.
And my point there is that these Statements are generally true of
any legal system. And the lesson is this, the law,
only justifies a truly innocent person, that is a perfect
Flawless person who has kept all of its parts with all of their
hearts. That's what the Bible says, and
that's why the Apostle concludes.
If you are a sinner, if you have ever in any respect violated,
Any part of God's law, you cannot be justified by works of
law. Only the innocent will be found
innocent and that excludes me. And it excludes all of you.
And you and those who are out there, those who came before we
were born and those who will live after we are gone only
Christ himself and the Holy Angels can make such a claim
because other than those all have sinned.
And that's the reason for Paul's consistent unassailable,
unyielding, conclusion, in, Romans, 3, and verse 20 by the
Deeds of the law, no flesh. Will be justified.
Now if this is the case, if the law will not help us to be found
not guilty, instead it will be that which screams our guilt.
Then what hope do we have? We might hope to be found not
guilty by reason of insufficient evidence throughout history.
There have been many people who committed crimes even very
serious crimes and they were arrested and they were brought
to trial but in the end it was determined that the a Evidence
was not sufficient to prove their guilt and so a righteous
judge was unable to condemn them and there's no doubt that God is
a righteous judge. He will not condemn any person
unless it is shown. But before Heaven and Earth, and
all creation, that, that person really is guilty, but that's no
consolation for me. Not for you either because God
knows everything about our lives, he knows us better than
those who know us best in this world.
The writer of Hebrews declares that the word of God is living
and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword piercing even to
the division of Soul and Spirit and of joints and Marrow it,
slices through the facade of are externalities and exposes our
innermost being it is a Cerner of the thoughts and intents of
the heart and there is no creature hidden from his sight.
But all things are naked and open to the eyes of him to whom.
We must give an account. Hebrews 4 11 through 13 the Old
Testament, prophets described God as one, whose eyes scan to,
and fro throughout the whole earth.
And so, the Prophet Jeremiah said there's no iniquity.
ET hidden from his vision, Jeremiah 16 and 17.
And with all of this, the Apostle Paul agrees.
He warns that in that day, God will judge the secrets of men,
Romans 2 and verse 16. The wise men Solomon says that
the life passes by like a vapor and every moment even the most
meaningful in heavy burst like a bubble and they die.
And you might think well there went that that's over now we
just move forward into the future.
But God in that day will by his mighty power gather up, all
those moments. And the Bible says in
Ecclesiastes 12 and verse 14, he will bring every work into
judgment including every secret thing.
Whether good or evil. I've known people who were very
smooth talkers even in very difficult situations.
I've never been that kind of person myself, but I've known
people who you could, you could catch them in the act and they
could talk their way out of it. They have the ability to obvious
Cade and muddy the waters. But that won't work with God.
I know, because in the Bible, there was a man like that met
Jesus. He's the man who asked him what
must I do to inherit eternal life and Jesus gave him the
answer and he tried to justify himself.
The Bible says there in Luke chapter 10 by sort of
insinuating, that the words God had used, didn't really have any
meaning. Jesus answered him and he had
nothing to say. And in that day of the Bible
says, every mouth will be stopped, no one will be found
not guilty by reason of insufficient evidence.
Perhaps then, we should resort to some of the arguments men and
women give for why, even though they are technically guilty,
they should not be held responsible or suffer any
penalty for their actions. Some people plead not guilty by
reason of privilege, they might claim that because of Of their
race, or their nationality, or their family, or their
education, or their position in society, or their money, that
they should be treated differently than others.
And, in this world, those things will generally cause you to be
treated differently than others, but not before God, Paul says
there's no partiality. No, favoritism with God Romans 2
and verse 11, if you think that you might give some In to God a
gift. Something that could change his
mind and his disposition towards you.
You know how he would respond? Psalm fifty nine through 12, I
will not take a bull from your house nor goats out of your
folds, for every beast of the forest is mine and the cattle on
a thousand hills. I know all the birds of the
mountains and the wild beasts of the field a mine if I were
hungry, I I would not tell you for the World is Mine.
And all of its fullness. You see everything we have in
this world, God gave to us. We don't have anything that he
needs and even if you could think of something he wouldn't
take it because you can't bribe him.
You can't buy him. He is a righteous Incorruptible
judge. He gives the same judgments to
the rich and the poor. He never condemns the righteous
but Terrible thought he never justifies the wicked by his own
testimony. In Exodus 23 Verses 4 through 8.
No one will be found not guilty by reason of privilege.
Well, what about this? One, Not Guilty by reason of
moral or religious superiority. This is a rather popular answer
among religious people. And I think most of us are
religious people. So we need to think about this
and the Bible has a lot to say about it.
This was the reasoning of the Pharisees in Jesus own day and
it found its way into the church, through their influence,
in the doctrine of the judaizers.
I want you to consider how they thought the Pharisees and the
judaizers knew that they had not kept the whole law perfectly.
They knew they were not innocent, that was to use the
words of the Apostle Peter, a burden that Neither they nor
their fathers had been able to bear, so to justify themselves.
I think about that when you think of a Pharisee, what's the
first word that comes to mind? Probably the phrase.
Self-righteous what does self-righteousness mean?
It means self-justification. To justify themselves.
They reinvented the meaning of perfection into something that
was more manageable for them and preferably less manageable for
others. So they would select and create
a short list of laws and they came out of God's law but these
were the laws that mattered These were the ones to use some
of our own language that were essential oils.
Germane to salvation Salvation issues.
This was the important part and everything else could be
overshadowed, and ignored, and relegated to the status of
non-essential. That's why when the Rich Young
Ruler was told that he had to keep the Commandments in order
to have eternal life. He said which command Moments
certainly you can't beat all of them.
Nobody does that. But which ones to be just
enough, which ones to make us better than others, different
than others. Now, this can be structured in
many different ways, not guilty by reason of moral, or ethical
superiority. I live better than other people.
Not guilty by reason of religious superiority, I worship
better. Or I serve God better than other
people. Not guilty by reason of
doctrinal or theological superiority.
I believe better than other people.
Now you might even be able to find them and drag them as
evidence for your plea. You might be able to point over
there and say look there's an example.
We are better than that church. We teach better than them.
We worship better than them. We work better than them.
We are better than them in all these ways.
Now, where will that kind of plea?
Get us. Jesus told us because he told a
story about a man who made that very argument and he was able to
point out a fellow that was right by him and tell God I'm
better than this man. And I can even tell you how And
Jesus said that men did not go home Justified.
The Apostle Paul says, if we reason this way, if we say I am
justified because I do this thing or these things, right?
And even better. Then the law will become a curse
to us because the law does not demand better.
It's not satisfied with superiority.
The law demands Perfection and it's satisfied with nothing
less. If you have read your Bible, you
know that what I'm about to say is true.
God has not divided his word into Essentials and
non-essentials. Any such division is man-made
arbitrary, a fabrication. And if we seek to be justified
by works of law, everything is an essential and if everything
is an essential, you have failed already.
Even if you manage to keep your short list perfectly for, he who
said do not commit. Adultery also said, do not
murder. Let me bring it home for us.
He who said, take this cup and drink from it.
All of you also said, love one. Another as I have loved you,
You. so, if you do the one, but you failed to do the other You
have become a transgressor of the law.
No one will be justified or found not guilty by reason of
moral or religious superiority. Now we're nearly out of options.
What about this one? Not Guilty by reason of
ignorance. Now, here like the first plea we
considered and in contrast to all the others, the Bible
actually indicates. God takes this one seriously.
God does not judge a person who is truly ignorant when Israel
sinned against God at Kadesh barnea, they said that they
wouldn't obey God because they were concerned for the welfare
of their little ones and God told them you have sinned and
you're To die. But your little ones and your
children who you say will be victims, who today have no
knowledge of Good and Evil. I'm not judge them.
They'll go in there and I will give it to them and they shall
possess it. Deuteronomy 1 and verse 39.
The little ones were not judged because they were truly morally
ignorant. So, God is Mindful and merciful
toward those who truly do not, and cannot know.
No. There's some people like that in
this room, but most of them are being held in the arms of their
mother. That does not mean anything to
the vast majority of us or of other people in the world.
In Romans 1 verses 19 through 20 and 2 verses 14 through 15, God
declares that in creation. And in the capacity, to exercise
moral reasoning, which most people develop as they grow,
older, comes accountability to the law and condemnation to
those. Those who break it.
And it might be that there are people in this world who have
never opened the Bible and never heard about Jesus, but if they
have shown that, they have no interest in God himself, in
spite of all that, he's done to reveal his glory to them in the
things that are made, then they show that they would equally
reject the Bible or Christ if they were exposed to those
things. And so the Apostle Paul
concludes they are without excuse Today, it's very popular
to be agnostic. And the sense is that those who
claim to be agnostic, they think it's a safe position, whatever.
Turns out to be, right? I'll be okay because I didn't
commit to anything but myself and my own opinions.
Some people think you're smarter if you're an agnostic which is
very strange because the word agnostic is the Greek word
version of the Latin word ignoramus.
It means to be without knowledge.
Now, in reality. if you have a thought, if you have an opinion,
you're not an agnostic. You might be ignorant but you're
not that ignorant. You're not ignorant enough to
justify you. You're not safe, just because
you choose to neglect certain information.
No one capable of observing the world and reasoning about Good
and Evil will be found not guilty by reason of ignorance.
So then what hope does anyone have?
Nah. Not.
That's what I'm trying to show us.
If it's just us, if we come before God ourselves we're
hopeless. There is only one way for a
sinner to be found, not guilty, and that is by pardon and
religious terms. We would call it the forgiveness
for the remission of sins. And we might use the word
salvation, pardon is the judicial term.
If the judge tells us that though, we are guilty and he
knows it, we will be pardoned, then we will be treated as
though, we're not guilty. Justification will be accounted
to us and we will be allowed to live even though we deserve to
die. Just as the Apostle, Paul speaks
of those Not Guilty by reason of Innocence with the phrase
justification by works of law. He speaks of those Not Guilty by
reason of Pardon, with the phrase, justification by faith.
And for our remaining time, I want us to consider the meaning
of that expression, the doctrine of justification by faith is
simply this centers are Justified or made right with
God. By means of Pardon on the Of the
work of Jesus Christ, especially his death on the cross and on
the condition of Faith, pardon is the means that's how we are
made, right? The work of Jesus is the basis,
that's why we are pardoned, but to whom does God give this
remarkable gift. That is to those who believe.
Why would God forgive anyone's sins at all?
Because of Jesus. Jesus is the Lamb of God who
takes away the sin of the world, says, John 1 and verse 29.
Jesus defeated sin, and Satan and death and he made pardon
possible. He accomplished our
justification by his own bloody death on the cross, Romans 5,
and verse 9 and by his resurrection, Romans 4:25, and
by his present rain and intercession for us.
Romans 8:33 34 and he gives this pardon to everyone that believes
Romans 1:16 and that's the consistent answer throughout the
Bible. But what does it mean to
believe? This might be the most important
part of the study, we've discovered that there is hope
for Sinners. But only one hope pardon is
given because of the work of Jesus Christ and this offer of
Pardon has both a universality And a limitation it is to
everyone that believes. Now everyone is a broad term
just as broad as all as in all have sinned, it's broad enough
to include me and you and you and everybody out there and
everyone who lived before us or comes after us, but among
everyone only those that believe.
So what does it mean to believe what is Faith?
Now we're going to look at this in Is simple terms faith in the
Bible includes three components or aspects knowledge trust and
I'm using the word repentance alongside that word.
I'll explain that in a moment and then loyalty knowledge and
you might hear the term mental assent, simply means that you
have to learn something and you have to accept it before.
You can believe it. The Apostle Paul says, how shall
they believe in him of whom they have not I'd heard Romans 10:14
and he concludes. So then faith comes by hearing
and hearing by the word of God, Romans 10:17.
What is the content of the knowledge that you must learn
and accept in order to be pardoned of your sins?
Not everything. Thank God.
The knowledge that you must have is the person and work of Jesus
Christ. Who he is the Christ, the son of
God, what he has done, especially his death and
Resurrection Ascension. What he's doing ruling, and
reigning from Heaven, what he will do.
When he comes again to fully accomplish his work of
redemption, that's why the ancient Christians.
When somebody was going to become a disciple, they ask them
the question. What do you believe?
And the right answer Was I believe that Jesus Christ is the
Son of God. Trust means the personal
appropriation of that knowledge into one's own life and I find
it to be. So seamlessly connected with
repentance, it's difficult to see where one ends and the other
one begins when One Believes on the Lord with all of his heart
trusting him fully that necessitates a personal turning
to Jesus and that's what the word.
Sentence means you turn to Jesus as your profit and your priest
and your king. You make him the sole source of
knowledge about God of reconciliation with God of
Authority for the direction, and course of your life.
For how can you call on him in whom they have?
Not believed that expression calling on the name of the Lord
refers to that last point of loyalty or Allegiance?
It's Just something you do with your mouth.
It's an act of the whole person and of the whole heart.
It's bowing the knee, and confessing that Jesus is Lord of
the universe, therefore, Lord of your life, it begins with
baptism in water. The event in which God pardons
our sins and washes them away according to Acts 2:38 and Acts
22:16. But it doesn't end there, it
continues from thenceforward in a never intensifying
transformation into the it. Age of Christ himself.
And if we put all of these components together than perhaps
it's better and well within the range of definition for the
original terms, used by the apostles to say that we are
justified by faithfulness. When you read the Apostle, Paul
talking about justification by faith.
He means faithfulness. But what does it mean to be
faithful? Faithfulness is not
flawlessness. I used to think that it was, but
it's not. If it was flawlessness, we
wouldn't need any part, we would be truly innocent.
Faithfulness is not hiding your shortcomings and sins and
pretending to be better than you are.
You can't hide them from God. Anyway, in fact, faithfulness
demands an honest, recognition of our imperfections.
It's impossible to be faithful. If you do not acknowledge that,
you are flawed, Weak ignorant imperfect and you need to
improve faithfulness is not just doing better and being better
than others. That's superiority.
And when we think that we're right, because we are better,
we've changed everything, the condition of justification
becomes our superiority. And the means becomes our
flawlessness and whatever it is that we've convinced ourselves
were Flawless about. And then In the basis is no
longer Jesus, it's ass and that's why the Apostle Paul said
in Galatians chapter 5 that if we think that we can be
justified by works of law we are severed from Christ and fallen
from Grace. Listen very carefully if you
stand before God. And he asks you how do you
plead? And you say one loaf one cup?
No Sunday school. No, instrumental music, no women
teachers. You will go to hell.
With everyone else in the world who did not trust in Jesus
Christ. That will not justify you.
I don't know what God would say to it, but he might say that's
not what I asked. You're not on trial for using
multiple caps. You're on trial for the sins,
you committed, you're on trial for the things that you failed
to do. And telling me all the things
you did, right? Doesn't change any of that.
That's not faithfulness. Faithfulness is not just going
to the right church and living clean and staying away from
people who don't faithfulness is much more than that.
It is the Relentless lifelong pursuit of the will of King,
Jesus in all things to know it and to do it in worship.
Yes. And in life and in truth and in
character and in everything, it is the understanding that we are
flawed every step of the way. But without despair, it is the
determination to pursue Perfection and the confidence
that through the revelation of Jesus Christ.
In his word, real progress can be made.
It is the recognition that we will never be perfect in this
world. But without despair because we
are not justified by our perfection.
We are justified by his part. And therefore for his glory and
for his sake we press on to the end.
What is faithfulness Jesus? I should say, rather the Apostle
Paul offered this definition in Philippians, chapter 3 verses 9
through 14. It is to be found in him.
Not having my own justification, which is from the law, but that
which is through faith. Faith in Christ, the
justification, which is from God by faith that I may know him and
the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his
sufferings being conformed to his death.
If by any means I may attain to the resurrection from the dead,
not that I have already attained or I'm already perfected but I
press on that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has
also laid. Hold of me Brethren.
I do do not count myself to have already apprehended.
That's not faithfulness. It's not deceiving yourself into
thinking that because you've gotten these five things, right?
You've crossed the line, you can settle down and wait for Jesus
to come and scoop you up and take you to Glory.
That's not faithfulness. What is faithfulness?
He said forgetting those things which are behind your failures.
Yes. But also your progress, don't.
Boast in it. Don't think that it makes you
any better. Don't think that it will be the
basis of your justification, forgetting those things which
are behind And reaching forward to those things which are ahead.
I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God
in Christ. Jesus.
That's faithfulness one day, you will stand at the bar on high
one day your record, you will see.
One day. You will answer the question of
life. What will your answer be?
Remember the last verse of that song?
Now is the time to prepare my friends.
Make your soul spotless and free.
Washed in the blood of the crucified one.
He will your answer be.