Nearer I cannot be;

For in the person of His Son,

I am just as near as He.

Dear, so very dear to God,

Dearer I cannot be;

For in the person of His Son,

I am just as dear as He."

IV. THE TIME OF JUSTIFICATION

There remains one question still to consider, though we have really answered it in what has already been said, and that is, the time of justification, or when a believer is justified. When is a believer justified? This question is answered plainly in one of our texts, Acts 13:39, "And by him every one that believeth is justified from all things, from which he could not be justified by the law of Moses." What I wish you to notice particularly now in this verse is the word Is, "Everyone that believeth is justified from all things." This answers plainly the question as to when a believer is justified. In Christ Jesus every

believer in Him is justified from all things the moment he believes. The moment a man believes in Jesus Christ that moment he becomes united to Christ, and that moment God reckons the righteousness of God to him. I repeat again, if the vilest murderer or sinner of any kind in the world should come into this room this morning while I am preaching and should here and now believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, the moment that he did it, not only would every sin he ever committed be blotted out, but all the perfect righteousness of God in Christ would be put to his account, and his standing before God would be as perfect as it will be when he has been in heaven ten million years. Let me repeat to you again the incident I told you one Sunday night some weeks ago. I was preaching one Sunday morning in the Moody church in Chicago on Rom. 8:1, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus," and in the course of my preaching I said, "If the vilest woman there is in Chicago should come into the Chicago Avenue church this morning, and should here and now accept Jesus Christ as her Saviour, the moment she did it every sin she ever committed would be blotted out and her record would be as white in God's sight as that of the purest woman in the room." Unknown to me, one of the members of my congregation that very morning had gone down into a low den of iniquity near the river and had invited a woman who was an outcast to come and hear me preach. The