CPC Sunday School | Holy Spirit #3 (Paul M.)

The speaker starts by asking for a volunteer and introduces the topic of the study on the Holy Spirit. They explain that they will be looking at justification, which is a legal doctrine. They discuss the concept of God's courtroom and compare it to a regular courtroom. They mention the importance of understanding the Holy Spirit as a personal helper and advocate. They then talk about the order of salvation and the concept of foreknowledge and predestination. They explain the role of the Holy Spirit as the executive agency in applying God's judgment and Christ's sacrifice. They discuss the idea of a legitimate court and the authority it carries. Welcome back. All right, because who I'm looking around for who might have their Bible, I'd be calling on some people for audience participation. And so I've got a volunteer, I've got maybe Miss Christie behind you. Or do you have your Bible? I might I might ask for some help. So we're going to be continuing before we pray our study on the Holy Spirit. And we're going to be really as a goal and what's been the goal to understand and think about the Holy Spirit rightly. And so we're doing that in the order of salvation. And so this week we're going to be looking at justification. So before we start, let's pray. Father in heaven, we give you thanks for an opportunity to think through this for a Sunday that we can set aside to do this for the knowledge that we have in you and for the trust that you've given us to put in you. We thank you for all this in Christ's name. Amen. All right. So we're talking about justification this week. That is a legal concept. So we're going to be introducing us to a courtroom metaphor as it is a legal doctrine. It is a true legal doctrine. It's not a fiction. So we've titled this God's World, God's Courtroom, God's Verdict. We have a good friend. His name is Dr. Halla, who talks about the fact that this is God's world because it's God's world. It's God's rules. And so he starts off, you know, counseling with that very fundamental truth that this is God's world and it's God's rules that apply. Same thing here. So we're going to be going through some scripture. And so let's start with an overview of what we're going to be doing this morning. We're going to do a review of the person of the Holy Spirit, some of what we've talked about. And then we're going to be doing a review of the work of the Holy Spirit. We're going to look at the concept of God's courtroom. Some of it will be a metaphor. You know, metaphors, analogies are useful, but we're going to compare and contrast because in a lot of ways, God's courtroom and the courtroom that we may be aware of is different. We're going to talk about you in that courtroom. So your docket name, your docket number, each of you personally. Don't be nervous. But, you know, it is a very personal thing when we talk about justification in God's courtroom. And then we're going to be looking at God's verdict. Right. We're in court and court requires some sort of resolution, some sort of verdict. So we'll be looking at that and then asking, is that a just verdict all along, looking at the Holy Spirit's role in all of this. So as way of review, who's got who would look at Acts, Chapter five, verses three and four? Anybody? OK. Peter said, Ananias, why is Satan proved in your heart as a lie to the Holy Spirit? You should be back for yourself, part of the place you've been arraigned, while it remained unsold, it did not remain your own, and after it was sold, it is not at your disposal. Why is it that you have been deprived of this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man, but to God. So we have this introduction in early Acts that, you know, as we talked about in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit wasn't dormant. You know, he wasn't just showing up in the New Testament. But in the Old Testament, you know, up until the New Testament, we didn't understand the personhood until the New Testament of who the Holy Spirit was, that he's fully God. And so here in Acts, we have this confrontation that you're not lying to just the Holy Spirit, you're lying to God. And so we have this very strong statement of doctrinal statement of the divinity of the Holy Spirit. Pneuma, Dan talked about last week, does anybody remember what that translation is, as used for the Holy Spirit? That's right, breath, and that's used a majority of the time, 250 times, five points to Eric. And there's another use, another really helpful use, where the Holy Spirit, the translation of the word of the Holy Spirit, I found this useful in studying and preparing for this. It's the word paraclete, and that's used four times in John, John chapter 14. Somebody has 14, 16 through 17. John 14, 16 through 17. OK. So this helper, that's paraclete, and John, interestingly, uses that, you know, four times in John. That word paraclete, we only see one other time, and it's in 1 John, and that's at the section where at the end of 1 John, chapter one, it says that if we confess our sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And then chapter two, it talks about, but if we sin, we have a right. And that is the same word. And so in some ways, Christ is the first paraclete. So as we're thinking through this whole study, you know, it's helpful for us to think about the role of the Holy Spirit being that of a paraclete, somebody that is with you, somebody that's a helper and somebody that's an advocate. So these, you know, words, I think it's helpful as we begin to conceptualize what is the Holy Spirit? How does he work in our lives? And so as we think about an advocate, we think about a counselor, we think about a helper. What are all of those things to us? Are those impersonal things? Obviously not. They're very personal things. So, you know, as we think about the Holy Spirit, you know, we should think about it in a very personal way. Any questions on that? OK, so we're in way of review all of this and is. Looking at, yes, the order of salvation, but the ultimate, you know, what we're looking at is how does that bring us into union with Christ? How does that bring us the benefits of Christ? And so last week, we a little out of order. We were in adoption this week. We're going to be looking at justification. A great quote by J.I. Packer that everything, everything that touches you is through the person of the Holy Spirit. That's a really fundamental concept as we begin to think about the Holy Spirit. If somebody could read Romans 8, 29 through 30. So in there we have foreknowledge, predestination, we have justification, we have glorification. So it's not an exhaustive list, but it provides us a basic roadmap, an overview of this order. Right. And so it starts with this idea of foreknowledge. And so valuable as I was thinking through this and looking into this foreknowledge, the idea of knowledge in the Old Testament. How do we, how is that used in the Old Testament when they say that somebody knew somebody? Right. To think through this idea of total love towards somebody. And so, you know, I think really fundamental as we think about God's relationship to us in the concept of predestination. It starts with foreknowledge, foreloving of you in eternity past. That's a profound reality that we are, that is shared with us, that before you even came into being, before you were born, that the God of the universe loved you, loved you personally. And then from that love, he predestined you. So let's, you know, hang on to that as we're thinking through this. That's a fundamental concept in this order. So we have, you know, a lot that falls into this and into these different places. But after regeneration, the Puritans call it planning a seed of faith. Then we come to this concept of justification. Any thoughts, comments, questions on that? There's a lot in there. Can I ask you a quick question about this notion of the sphere being the executive? Sir. You mean the executive responding to that? Yes. What do you make of that? So what is an executive, if we think about our executive branch in the government, not unfair to a Canadian, but maybe, you know, we've been in the news lately, so don't let that distract you. But the executive agency, you know, as we think about the person that acts, but also the person that acts on somebody's behalf. So if we talk about executive agency, they were really suggesting that they have the authority to do something. They also have the power to do something. And so within the Trinity, the Holy Spirit has the executive agency to apply God's role as judge, you know, Christ's meritorious sacrifice. But those are all true, but they still have to get to you. And so, you know, there's a Puritan, Thomas Watson, that says, the gold that's in the mine, that doesn't enrich you. It's the gold that's in the hand. So how does that, the gospel, how does the gold get to the hand? So it's a concept that the Holy Spirit in his agency, you know, gets the gospel from the mind to your heart. Equal in persons, you know, equal in divinity. In rules, we see distinct rules as we look at Scripture. Good question. Any follow up on that? Okay. He's checking my doctrine. I like that. Yeah, no, that's right. And there are a lot of nuances to this. And so, but we want to strongly affirm the co-equal rules of all that. And when Christ is talking about that, he will send another, a helper. It would be strange for me to say, I'm taking off, but I'm going to send somebody else. But then to be referring to me as somebody that I'm going to be sending. He's referring to a different person. And so that as we just look at it with a common sense reading, it's pretty strongly affirmed. Okay. So let's transition to God's courtroom. Right. So again, justification is a very legal concept. And so what I want to do is start off this morning by thinking about court as we know it. And so hopefully all of your experiences have been maybe through jury duty, something that you've seen on TV that will skew it, certainly. But let's think through this together. And I want to ask you guys a question. What makes for a legitimate court? We think about court. Why is a court legitimate? You know, tomorrow morning or tomorrow afternoon, you go get your mail and there is a summons from court. You open it up. Right. Probably will be the first thing you open and you look at it and then you read it and then you say, ah, you know, no big deal. Okay. So you would only be concerned about it because it carries authority. Anything else as we're thinking about it? So, you know, would we say that, you know, anybody that carries authority or has a position of authority of us would have a valid courtroom proceeding? Would we just recognize the validity of a courtroom by authority or would we say maybe there is something else required? So we have a buy-in that there is something that is legitimate in that way. Okay. So we have an expectation of a just judge. When we hear about a judge that is unjust, how does that make us feel? So there's something in us that, you know, desire that has an expectation that, you know, there's a standard. So I would say that maybe the two things would be that you have authority and then there's some sort of standard, some sort of legal standard that that court is based on and that those two things, I would submit, make for a legitimate court. Yeah. You need something by which the court, the scales of justice, something by which the court balances in ways, some standard. Okay. So let's think more about our courtroom. Does anybody know what that is a picture of? Spring Court. Has anybody been there? Okay. From D.C.? Yeah. So as a clerk in the capacity, okay, so clerks are the best and the brightest legal minds that are getting an opportunity to go, you know, this is, you know, one curtain. So it's an honor to go there. Behind those curtains, right, is where, you know, the Supreme Court justices, thank you, babe, are behind. So I imagine she's very smart. Yes. Okay. And so, you know, here we have, if we just look at it visually, you know, what do we see from this courtroom? We see the bench. The bench is elevated, right? So you have a symbolic representation of what? Who's in charge? Like you walk in, you know, automatically. You know, this happens at a young age, you know, getting taller in a situation, you know, I think gives you some sort of authority. The same in a courtroom. You know, you want to give the bench the rightful place that it has in a courtroom. Is there a symbolism of the clock? As, you know, you may take away from, you know, my talk, people in the legal profession can be long-winded sometimes. And so it's important to, you know, have attorneys stay on time. There's a light here, so you can maybe see a little bit of it, and those lights rule your life. We had an opportunity to go. The Supreme Court met some Supreme Court justices, and I, at my proudest moment, referred to Justice Kagan as a sir. I was with a general that was, you know, a sir, obviously, and so I turned to Justice Kagan, and I said sir, and then I tried to save it, and looked to the general. Thank you for introducing me to Justice Kagan. It wasn't my proudest moment. I'm sure she doesn't remember it. I certainly do. So if you get that summons, and you're in court, you're going to have, you know, really one of three things that you're going to do in response to, let's say a criminal, let's continue this example, a criminal summons. What are you going to do? You're nervous, and obviously, it's got your attention. It's going to give you some instructions on what to do. Let's play that out. What are you going to do? You get a lawyer. You get a lawyer, and what is your expectation for a good lawyer? Has some experience get you off, right? You're not there to just find a buddy, right? You want, you know, some sort of, right, that track record of success, right. How many cases have you won? Well, none so far, but I have a really good feeling about this one. That's right. Good knowledge of the law, so some sort of competence, and then he says, oh, by the way, I play softball with this judge. Where do I sign, right? So, you know, an idea that, you know, if you may want to flush that out, like what was the story, right? Yeah, I beat him every year for the last 10 years, right? Not the guy for you. So that's exactly right, and so, you know, as we begin to think about it, there's usually the closer the relationship between the defense attorney and the judge, so maybe that would bring you somewhat better confidence in going forward. So, you know, let's start to transition in our thinking in, you know, from man's courtroom to God's courtroom in this way. So, you know, you can fight it, so you get this defense attorney, you fight it, you go to trial. What will happen at trial, you're either found guilty and you'll be sentenced or you're acquitted. Some courts have some sort of pretrial diversion program. You go through these 10 steps and then we'll drop all the charges, and then you can go before the judge and just say, I'm guilty. You can admit your guilt, face the sentence. So those are really the three ways that most courtrooms will handle, you know, most proceedings. As we begin to think about this in the context of God's courtroom, let's keep those three things in mind. So this is the front of the Supreme Court on the left. Does anybody know what these statutes are? You've seen these. So this is – they're kind of hard to see, but this is the lady contemplation of justice, and then this is the guardian or authority of justice, right? So this concept that we talked about earlier that there is for this legitimate courtroom, even symbolized, you have a lady that's contemplating justice. She has the scales of justice in her right hand. You have the guardian of justice, and so it's hard to see there, but he's got a sword in front of a tablet that says Lex for law. So, you know, the idea that any legitimate court actually needs the authority to be there and the authority to carry out sentences. You know, if the judge pronounces you to 100 years in prison, there's nobody there to take you to prison. If there's no prison, if there's no authority to do that, then it's really a meaningless sentence. Okay, so let me know what this is a picture of. Good, really good. Yeah, that's impressive. So what was this trial about? War crimes, that's right. So we're after World War II, and what's going on? That's right. That's right, so International War Tribunal, so it's kind of, you know, a large courtroom, an international effort, and you've got 24 people that were in the Third Reich, so military leaders, political supporters, that were tried for war crimes, and out of those 24, you have 12 that are sentenced to death, one in absentia, three are acquitted, the rest are given sentences from 10 years to life. The trial took approximately nine months. In October of 1946, they hanged the 10 people. One was tried in absentia, so he wasn't there. One killed himself, you know, before he was hanged, so very, you know, swift and severe sentences for a lot of them. So this is man's courtroom. You know, this is a row of judges. This is 24 men that have been, you know, tried for atrocious crimes, right? Let's think about God's courtroom in the profound sense that the men of the 24 men in the Third Reich, that's not what we're talking about here. We're talking about not 24 men. We're talking about all of humanity. This is for a God that is rightfully their judge, that is rightfully on his throne, that will rightfully judge all men. And we think about this concept proportionally to how big our God is. If we have a small God, we have a small problem. John Murray, you know, gives us a really good sense of that in terms of sin. And a lot of times when we think about sin of what we do, you know, what we say, you know, and Murray has another quote, this is in Redemption Accomplished and Redemption Applied, that is really profound, but it says it's not simply how can man be just with God, but how can sinful man be just with God? In the last analysis, sin is always against God, and the essence of sin is to be against God. The person who is against God cannot be right with God. His very perfection requires the recoil of righteous indignation, and that is God's wrath, right? So when we think about God's wrath, it's a recoil that it does not mix with sin. You can't mix those two things together. Oil and water don't mix. You know, it would be like in a much, you know, if we think about it, you know, if we were to throw, Caleb, if you were to throw sawdust in your engine, right, what would that do? Like it doesn't mix. It would be, you know, gardening, if you think about, you know, just in normal everyday life, there are things that don't mix. You know, last night we had bath time, right? And, you know, I won't say who, but, you know, somebody turned the bath into a toilet, right? It's okay. And so there were things in the tub, right, that didn't belong there, and that were revolting. This morning, somebody let me know that their offering coin fell in the toilet. I look in the toilet, and it's, you know, got stuff in there, so I'm digging in there. I couldn't get it. I flushed it. I heard a rattle. I washed my hands. Those of you that are nervous thinking I shook his hand this morning, it's revolting, right? You know, as I'm there, I'm thinking, man, I love, yeah, this is, you know, revolting in the very sense of the word. You know, much more, those examples pale in comparison when we think about God, imperfection, and sin recoiling, as you may listen to that example, and you may kind of shrink back a little bit, times a million to God and sin, right? It is, those things cannot coexist. Any thoughts or questions on that? And so it's not just what you do. It's not just what you say. It's also who you are, right? You're born, so you're doubly condemned. It's not just what you did that's sinful. It's not just that you thought sinful thoughts. It's that you're born, right, so we're born into sin, right? And all of that, you know, the wrath of God is revealed from heaven, Romans tells us in 118. And so this starts to introduce us to the concept, the legal concept of justification. We have a God that, you know, is not going to just be okay with sin. We have a God that has his wrath, rightfully so, against a sinful man. And so, you know, all of Romans, you know, from chapter 1 to all of it is talking about this very legal concept, a lot of it in this justification. So chapter 2, God's righteous judgment. Chapter 3, God's righteousness upheld. You know, we talk about all men are without excuse. All of Romans is a dissertation on this doctrine of justification. And we get to this great news that we read earlier in Romans 8, 29 and 30. We write Romans 8, 28. We all know that verse. And then Romans 8, 29 and 30, this idea that God foreloved you. God predestined you. And, you know, God justified you. And so we see, you know, this, you know, theme all throughout Romans. You know, I can think about in state court early on, there was a young female that was there that had crashed. I think what had happened, she had crashed into a tree. And this is misdemeanor court. And so these are low level. And so everybody in misdemeanor court shows up and they try and resolve their cases, you know, with the prosecutor. And then if we get a resolution, I take them to the judge. She comes. She's with her father. Her father is dressed. He's very poor. He's got, you know, a really disheveled shirt on. Very poor. Her brother is with her in a wheelchair. And so, you know, we talk. And she says, you know, I said, you're facing three charges. It was, I think, $400 in fines. And what would you like to do today? She said, I did it. I'm guilty. I said, all right, let's go in front of the judge. And so taking everything into consideration, we didn't have any victims. It was a tree that got hit. It wasn't hurt too bad. And so we say, you know, in front of the judge, Your Honor, this is case number such and such. In the interest of justice, the state agrees to dismiss all the charges. Right? And the look on her face is one of profound thankfulness, but also relief. Right? Unexpected. Nothing that she did. She was there to admit the charges. As we think about God's courtroom, like we don't have that sympathetic defendant that's appealing because of something that they did to God and to say, well, you're repentant, you know, that you, because of something that you've done or because of your situation, we're going to acquit you and dismiss all the charges. Like we are in need of something much more significant to appeal to a holy God. We're in need of something that's much bigger than ourselves. There's nothing that you can do, nothing you can say, nothing that you can, you know, present of yourself, bring your family. When your docket is against a holy God. So in the Westminster Confession, and we talk about justification, you know, what is justification? I think there's a very, you know, Westminster does a great job of just providing a very, you know, concise summary of doctrinal statements. And a lot of times that, you know, a lot of what they're saying, you know, every word in there is weighty. Every word in there is there for a reason. It's reacting to things, reacting to heresy. And so we have here a really good summary statement of justification. And so, you know, the basic concepts here, as we look through it, we see God's free grace. That's the act, it's unto, what's the target of that? It's sinners. He acts to pardon their sins. And that it's not anything in them. That it is only satisfied by the perfect obedience and full satisfaction of Christ. And it's received by faith alone. I like in 11.1, at the very end, I think it adds hopefully to it that as we are, Chad says, we're greedy for glory. You know, that this idea, well, the faith is mine. You know, that I need to conjure up the faith. I get credit because I provided the faith. And then because of that, that God then acted, that 11.1 chops that down and reminds us that it is a gift of God. Faith itself is a gift of God. And then 11.4, as we're talking about the Holy Spirit, you know, bringing us back to that, that the Holy Spirit is applying this work of Christ to them. Somebody could look up Titus 3, 4 through 7. Okay, thank you. So the renewal in that sentence was from who? The renewal of who is the agent that was doing that? The renewal of the Holy Spirit. That's right. And so Westminster captures that for us. Okay. So as we're talking about justification, I mean, let's not forget here that this is, you know, when we identify as Reformed Christians, what do we have here a picture here of? We have a quote by Calvin, but a picture of? Yeah. So here we got, you know, Romans 1.17 that Luther is looking at right before we're talking about the wrath of God. And, you know, this is this pivotal moment of Luther thinking about, you know, what is this righteousness, you know, thinking about it in context of Catholic's control of this doctrine. And so, you know, we're talking about a really profound doctrine, you know, some say the most profound doctrine in the last 500 years, the ice storm of the Reformation, as Packard puts it. You know, this is, you know, a doctrine on which people have spilled blood over. And so this is a fundamental contrast to religions that would have control over justification, see justification as a process. You know, Thomas Aquinas talks about justification as a two-story house, right? The first one is the stairs and the second floor is the state of grace. And so you try as hard as you can. You get on that pretrial diversion program, you run up as many steps as you can, and then you rely on God to, by his grace, do the rest, right, through purgatory, through different acts. So that is a fundamental difference in terms of how we think about justification. Any questions or thoughts on that? I think Catholicism, without going off too much into that, sees baptism as the primary means or start of justification. Anybody grow up Catholic? Okay, a little bit, a little dabbled in Catholicism. Huge contrast. And so we'll talk about, you know, God's verdict and the finality of God's verdict compared to living life like that, where, you know, you've got charges, you're acquitted, oh, by the way, we're back, you've got another summons. You know, that is a really weighty way to understand this world and our relationship with God. So God's verdict, right, Romans 5.1, we've been justified by faith. We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So let's flesh this out. So we're in a courtroom. We talked about, you know, what we'd want in a defense attorney. So we've got God from eternity past that you have to personally, not your family, you personally have to stand before God. And so with your standing in front of God, you've got this profound orchestra of the trinity happening with you. God himself is judge sitting over you that you've got already a difference there that, you know, if you go in front of a judge, a criminal judge, and he says, oh, I know you, what's going to happen to that judge? Right, he will get recused and he'll get another judge. But you can't have a personal relationship with the defendant. You've got an equal player in the courtroom to the judge, Christ himself, coming in there and saying, that one, that's the one that I died for. So, you know, we think about what does it mean for a meritorious, a Christ's meritorious sacrifice. We can think about that, you know, oftentimes in very far off terms. It is actually your sins, my sins, that Christ died for. But because of who Christ was and because of his obedience and because of his death, that then covers your sins. So when we think about, you know, the person in the courtroom equal to the judge saying, that's mine and that one I died for, and the Holy Spirit applying that to you, you know, then we think about regeneration. We think about justification, you know, rightly. You know, we think about the differences, again, with how we would normally expect a courtroom to go, but these are profound differences because they have eternal implications. Every single person will stand before God as judge, every single person, and they will be judged on the basis of whether the wrath of God is still against them or whether the wrath of God has been appeased and taken care of in the work of Christ. Thoughts on that? I mean, obviously, there's a profound, it should bring us a profound sense of gratitude and not a sense of, well, I'm glad that's over with, right? It should bring us a profound sense of, well, how do I then live the rest of my life on the basis of this truth? What are your guys' thoughts on that? Not the good kind of test. One of the other great, just profound differences compared to a human courtroom, and you correct me if I'm wrong, but when the judge gets a sentence, it's always not guilty, right? It's appraised as not guilty. That's right. Yeah, so it's never, in a sense, just, we're not saying you're innocent. Yep. Right. Yeah. That's a great point. It's a profound point because in a courtroom, if you're guilty or not guilty, you're still the same person. Your status has changed. You'll probably lose your liberty or you'll regain your liberty. Nothing about you has changed. In the sense of God's courtroom, there is what Dan brought in last week. Justification is what we need. Adoption is what we get. And so it's the judge running off the bench and saying, not only I've foreloved you since the foundation of the world, but now come home with me. That's adoption and all the benefits of adoption. That would not happen in our courtroom, nor should it happen, but that is what we're talking about with the highest judge and the greatest privilege of being adopted into that judge's home. Any more thoughts on that? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, it's a profound difference that in a courtroom you can have an adversarial process. So this person isn't aligned with this person, and this person has to be fair and imbalanced and considering the different things. In this case, you have a unification of the parties that matter, and you stand before them with a unified trinity together before the foundation of the world and them all together in harmony saying, not like I said, Your Honor, in the interest of justice, but in the interest of Christ, all charges are dismissed for this one. This one's mine. It's a profound reality. So Ephesians 289, again, we are quick to try and take credit for this. Faith itself is given to you. It's a gift of God, and faith is the means by which we exercise this. It is not because of faith, but it is by faith. And there's a lot that we could talk about in that, but just the idea that after regeneration we're given that our response, that we are through faith. Faith is contrasted in Romans to the law, right? So by the law, you will not make it. It doesn't matter how good you keep the law. By faith, which is a gift of God, we have been saved. Well, but doesn't that seem unfair? Doesn't it seem unfair that, you know, you are who you are? You've sinned as you are and that you maybe have sinned greatly, maybe have not sinned a lot, that you have to stand before the God of the universe and that he says that you are declared righteous, right? And so Murray is helpful in this in reminding us that, and he talks about this as being forensic or judicial, but to say something is wicked doesn't make it wicked. To say something is just or justified doesn't make it justified. These are very external statements. You're just saying what is. So, you know, when God would look at us and say that this person is justified, how is that the case when we're talking about, you know, a statement of what is? And so Murray helpfully, when he says he constitutes the ungodly righteous, he makes the ungodly righteous because of the meritorious work of Christ. He has this profound statement that he is actually declaring what is to be what is. And he's saying that you are justified because I am, through the work of Christ, constituting the ungodly righteous and then because of that he's rightly then declaring what is to be. Does that make sense? So that, you know, we would say that it's an unjust judge if somebody freed somebody that should be held accountable. We would say that it's an unjust judge that would convict somebody that should be acquitted. But in this case, he's just in that he's declaring rightly what is, but he can do that because he's constituting or making the ungodly righteous. Any thoughts on that? Okay, there is an appeal. There is an appeal by Satan. There is an appeal by Satan to condemn you. We know this. There is always, you know, a criminal court, somebody will oftentimes, if it's significant enough, you know, they're going to appeal. If it's a big, you know, claim for damages, it's a $30 million, they're going to appeal. If it's somebody that is found guilty at a high level, they're going to appeal. It's going to go to that court, and then they'll appeal to the next court, and then the highest court, they'll go to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court decides to take their case. There's this constant process of re-questioning the verdict. Was everything done right? Well, we see Satan's appeal in Romans 8, 1, our response to Satan's appeal, our response to his condemnation, that there is no condemnation. Those are in Jesus Christ. In this rich, rich passage in Romans 10, 33 through 34, the charges, your charges have been dealt with. Who's going to bring any charges against God's elect? It is God who justifies who is to condemn. Christ Jesus is the one who died. More than that, who has been raised, who is at the right hand of God, who is interceding for us. That is our response as God's children to Satan's condemnation. What's your guys' thoughts? Can you talk a little bit more about the role of Christ? Maybe this is outside of Dr. Zate's, I mean, sorry, justification. Up to Easter next week. That's what we will celebrate next week, is that Christ on the cross actually deals with your sins. If Christ was not God, then that is meaningless. It had to have been God that could satisfy an eternal God. Christ's incarnation, his divinity, and then Christ at the cross, his obedience, his perfect life, and then his death. We have that in its totality, being, As we remember at the very beginning, we talked about the order of salutis. We talked about all of it, the order of salvation. What is that all circling around? Now we are called, in Romans, co-heirs with Christ. All of it is to bring us to union with Christ. That's fundamental. That's what we're talking about. You could do a whole series on that as well. Dan. I think there's a significant amount of overlap. Could you talk a little bit more about where we are at in the Holy Spirit? Yeah. That's a great question. It's a hard question to answer. At the beginning, when I started to think about the metaphor of the courtroom, I kind of shrunk back. Because there's a lot about the courtroom that is so different from the rules. Normally, when I think about a defense attorney or I think about a prosecutor, their rules are so limited in the courtroom. It's difficult to assign, okay, you're tempted to say, well, the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit. So it's difficult to assign, okay, you're tempted to say, well, the Holy Spirit is the defense attorney. He's the helper. But the defense attorney isn't on par with the judge. You think about, well, no, in fact, self-serving the Holy Spirit is the prosecutor. No, the prosecutor is not on par with the judge, and there are significant limitations in their authority. But there is a sense, rightly, when we understand doctrine, to think about God the Father as the judge. And so when we think about the different rules, we think about that Christ himself, that there's something that is historical in Christ's sacrifice that is being brought forward into the present day. So we're recounting some significant piece of evidence of what Christ did, lived, died for you, of a determination that was made in eternity past. But all of that is when we're talking about at the last day, you know, that we have a judgment that everyone will stand before God as judge, and that Christ will return on that last day. So we're looking forward to that return, and that we will see God face to face. But that last day judgment is brought forward to your moment of salvation once and for all. And so, you know, as I think about your good question, I think it's a challenge for the metaphor not to break down, but I do think God as judge of his world, of his courtroom, I think is a profound truth. It's not just a legal fiction. What else? Anything else? We've got maybe one minute or two. Yeah, sir. I'm going to throw out a confusion, in that the judge who sits and Jesus, the Holy Spirit makes the case, Jesus offers to be put to death, and God says, yeah, fine. Right. From what I'm gathering, this is an interesting thought for me. God is really not a civil servant. He's the unaccused judge. Unaccused? Unrecused. Unrecused, yes. But he does have a personal interest. Yes. Yes. Yeah. We all have in terms of as we think about God, and there's a lot of us that as we think about it, we at times have that, and sometimes more than others, where God is disinterested, or displeased, or just kind of, okay, we'll take him, but just barely, or we'll tolerate him because of Christ. And I think that's what's so profound about the foreknowledge or foreloved, whom he foreknew, so that you were loved at the very beginning. And so that is, I think, how we correct that image of the powdered wig, is remembering that this starts with love, the process is one of love, and that Romans then says, okay, what now are we to do? We are then to love others out of how much we've been loved. That's a good question. Yeah. Correct. Good job. Him profoundly. You are sending him, right? That's profound in terms of that amount of love. Yeah, Dan. All right, let's end in prayer. Father in heaven, we give you thanks for this great love that you have shown towards us, the great gift that you have given to us. We pray, Lord, for the continued grace to think about this rightly and to apply this in our lives. We pray this in Christ's name. Amen.