Title of the lesson is In Hope
of the Glory of God, found in verse two of Romans chapter five. He's speaking of being justified. You know, in the original manuscripts
of the Greek New Testament, there were no punctuation marks in
these original manuscripts. So what that did, it left where
you put a comma or where you put a period, And certainly the
chapter divisions, you know they came much later, even much later
than the original English translations. But these chapter divisions and
all that weren't certainly inspired by God. We hope that men who
did translate were guided by God providentially and by the
Spirit. I believe they were. Sometimes,
though, you'll come to a chapter division, you'll think, well,
maybe it shouldn't have been divided there. But don't worry
about that. If you don't, you know, just
read on. Just go on to the next verse. And I've thought that,
too. But there has been a little bit
of controversy, just like it's verse one. Look at it. It says,
therefore, and of course, the therefore reaches back to everything
that the apostle had said up to this point concerning how
God saves sinners. In other words, the therefore
tells us, don't forget what's been written here before now.
You know, you can't build a denomination on one verse. Well, people do,
don't they? One or two verses. You can't
construct a theological paradigm on one verse. You gotta take
the context. So therefore, what has Paul written
by inspiration of the spirit about salvation? It's by grace. based upon the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, freely imputed to his people. That's
how God justifies the ungodly. It's how God justifies sinners.
It's how God justified Abraham. He just finished up with that.
And if we're spiritually in the brotherhood of Abraham, then
that's how God justifies us. That's what he said back there
in verse 24. It's not for Abraham only, but
it's for us also to whom it shall be imputed since or if we believe
on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead. He's saying
this, if you're a believer, you have the right to claim justification
before God based on the righteousness, the blood, the merits, the worthiness
of the Lord Jesus Christ, just like Abraham claimed. That puts
you in the spiritual family with Abraham. You can identify with
Abraham. Now, if you're a Jew who is physically
descended from Abraham, but you don't believe the gospel, then
you have no just rightful claim, according to God's word, to say
that I'm in the spiritual family of Abraham. And you have no right
to claim that you're justified before God, that you have a righteousness
that answers the demands of God's law and justice. You cannot make
that claim biblically, rightly, and justly until God the Holy
Spirit brings you to believe the gospel. And the gospel sets
the whole tone. And sometimes in this book of
Romans and in other passages of scripture, The gospel and
faith, the word faith as a noun, as a body of doctrine, are synonymous. So that when you see that justified
by faith, what that means is you're justified in the way that
the gospel says sinners are justified. Now if you say, well I'm justified
based on my believing or because of my believing, you've just
gone against the gospel. You've just gone against faith.
Now I said all that to say this, look he says, therefore being
justified by faith. Now the translators put the comma
after faith. Some say that the comma should
be after justified. I say it really doesn't matter
if you understand the context. But look at this, here's the
way the construction would read in the original. Therefore having
been justified. Now if you put the comma there,
therefore having been justified, comma, by faith we have peace
with God. In other words, the realization
and knowledge of true peace with God only comes to us experientially
when we believe the gospel. Now that could read that way.
But if you read it this way, therefore having been justified
by faith, well how are we justified? What does faith say? You know
the word faith, the root word is knowledge, did you know that?
I know whom I have believed and am persuaded. In other words,
to be justified by faith is to be justified by God's grace based
on the imputed righteousness of Christ. That's what it is. And if you see justification,
being made right with God, being forgiven of your sins, being
declared righteous before a holy God, if you see it on any other
basis than his righteousness alone, freely imputed, then what
you believe is against faith. It's against the faith of the
gospel. Now, here's another proof of that. Look at the next line.
We have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, peace
with God. Peace with God, think about that.
How's that accomplished? God is holy and righteous and
just. And he is of purer eyes than
to behold iniquity. The Bible says God hates all
workers of iniquity. Sin is an abomination in the
sight of God. The Bible tells us in Romans
8, when we get over there, it talks about that those who are
after the flesh And you have to understand that being after
the flesh or walking after the flesh describes a person who
is unregenerate, not born again, an unbeliever. I don't care if
they're religious or if they're in the dregs of society. The
highest religion that man can concoct, the highest morality,
the highest ethic that man can devise, is an abomination in
the sight of God when it comes to gaining or maintaining peace
with God or salvation. Do you understand that? I was watching a movie last night
about these girls who wanted to become nuns. There's so much in there that
is so, so wrong. They're trying to fight sin.
This mother superior, she called herself, was trying to tell them,
you've got to be perfect. In order to do that, you've got
to do this and do that and don't do this. And if you do this,
whip yourself. And people will look at that and
admire it and say how noble. It's an abomination to God. And you know what? Only a believer
is going to see that in the reality of what it is. because we're
convinced of sin. We know that if the Lord were
to charge sin, impute sin to us, none of us would stand, isn't
that right? Even the best of us. So how is
peace with God? You know, the Bible says those
who walk after the flesh are at enmity with God. That's an
enemy, that's a God-hater. No fear of God before their eyes.
So you look at the situation of us as fallen, ruined sinners
in Adam. We fell in Adam into sin and
death. We're born dead in trespasses
and sins. And then we come forth from the
womb, speaking lies, David said. So you see that God has a matter
against us. But we're against him. So how
is peace between a holy God and sinful people. How is that gained? How is it accomplished? There's
not but one way. And it's not by giving your heart
to Jesus. Now, it's not. I'm not just making
fun of that. But that's not the way. And it's
not something that you can make at all according to scripture. Somebody says, well, he's making
his peace with God. No, that's not the way it is. How is that accomplished? Well,
he says it's through our Lord Jesus Christ, verse two, by whom
we have also, we have access by faith into this grace, which
reigns through what? Your decision? No, it reigns
through righteousness, which you don't have and I don't have,
and can only be found in the person and work of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Nowhere else. How's peace accomplished
and established? Through the blood of his cross,
Colossians 1.20 tells us. Christ is identified in the Bible
as a king. In Isaiah 32, he's identified
as a king who shall reign in righteousness. And then in Isaiah
9.6, he's identified as the prince of peace. because he's the only
one by whom peace comes from God to his people. Remember the
angel at his birth, glory to God in the highest and peace
on earth and goodwill toward men. You know what that actually
says, it's God's goodwill towards those whom he favors. And who
does he favor? Those who are in Christ. Outside
of Christ, there's no favor from God, there's no love from God,
there's no peace with God. Outside of Christ, And so God
is reconciling. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians
5 that God was in Christ reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing,
not charging their trespasses unto them. Well, God's a just
God. He can't just snap his finger
and say, well, your sins are gone. That wouldn't be justice. He can't just ignore them. He
can't just act like they're gone away. He has to do something
with them because he's a just God. That's the missing note
today, isn't it? Somebody says, what's God's main
attribute? And they'll say, love, you know.
Well, that is a very main attribute. But God's main attribute is holiness
set forth in his justice. He's got to be just. If he loves
me, he's got to do it on a just ground. That's right. If he hates me, he's got to do
it on a just ground. Whatever it is, it's justice.
It's right. Mark it down. And so God's got
to be just. So what did he do with those
sins? He didn't impute them to his people, it says. And that
reconcile now, that reconcile means peace with God. Whenever
you see the gospel of peace, the gospel of reconciliation,
That's the gospel of peace. That means peace established
between God and sinners. Well, God was in Christ reconciling
the world. And that's not everybody without
exception because first of all, God is not at peace with everybody
without exception. If he were, listen, if God were
at peace with everybody without exception, there'll be no eternal
damnation. There'd be none. In fact, if
God was at peace, if he was reconciled to everybody without exception,
it would be unjust for God to send anyone to eternal damnation. And God cannot be unjust. Listen,
the only way for God to be unjust would be to not be God, to deny
himself. So what did he do with those
sins that he did not impute to his people? He imputed them to
Christ, through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's what he did with
them. He charged them, he made him to be sin. That's what that
means. He imputed them to Christ. And
so by nature, as we're all enemies of God in our minds by wicked
works, which Colossians 1 tells us, What is the command of the
gospel? Be ye reconciled to God. Now
God has always been reconciled to his people in Christ. Even
though we did fall in Adam into sin and death, even though we
were born dead in trespasses and sins and we're by nature
no different than the children of wrath and enemies of God in
our minds. So what's the command of the
gospel to God's people? Be ye reconciled to God. Second
Corinthians 520. Now upon what basis can I be
at peace with God and God be at peace with me? There's just
one basis, one ground, and that's God made him sin, Christ who
knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God
in him. It's his righteousness imputed. That's what it is. And there's no other ground of
peace. And that's what it is to be justified
by faith. Therefore, being justified or
having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ. And I'll tell you what, that's
an understanding and a knowledge and assurance that Christ is
the end of the law for righteousness to everyone that believeth. What
is the gospel? the gospel of peace, how God
can be reconciled to me and I unto God through the blood of sacrifice,
the blood of the lamb, the passover. When I see the blood, I'll pass
over you. Isn't that marvelous? I'll tell
you what now, that'll keep you when times are tough. I know
for sure you do too. That'll give you the assurance. I mean, you know, trials are
hurtful. They're not pleasant. And we
act like idiots all the way through most of the time. But when we
realize, when we realize that God is reconciled to us and we're
reconciled to God, that'll give you the comfort. That's the peace
which passes understanding. Because man by nature doesn't
understand it. The natural man receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. They're spiritually discerned.
And so that's the peace that passes understanding that'll
keep our hearts and minds through Jesus Christ, the gospel of peace. And that's the main way, I wanted
to add this in this lesson, that's the main way that God's people
are to be peacemakers by preaching and witnessing to the world.
That's the main one. Now, we're to be peaceful people.
We're not to be brawlers and fighters and all of that. And
the Bible says for us to follow peace with all men, but it also
says holiness. In other words, we're to strive
to be at peace with everybody, but not at the expense of that
which distinguishes us and separates us, which is the gospel. Not
at the expense of truth. And so that's the kind of peacemaking
that brings persecution. So we're at peace with God. Now
look at verse two. He says, by whom also we have
access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice
in hope of the glory of God. Now that's why it's titled In
Hope of the Glory of God. And what we're seeing here in
these passages, and you know there's a lot of repetition here.
There's a lot of times that the apostle was inspired by the Holy
Spirit to say the same thing, but use different words. But
it's saying the same thing. But think about this. It's clear
that his intent is to show that all of salvation, all peace with
God, comes to sinners by this one person, the Lord Jesus Christ,
God in human flesh, and by his one sacrifice for our sins. For
by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified.
And he sat down at the right hand of God because the work's
done. The work's finished. Peace is
made, he said. It's not up to us to make peace.
Now we do, we are brought by the Spirit to to enter into this
peace through our knowledge and experience as he teaches us and
gives us a new heart, a new mind and all of that. But it's already
made. We have access by faith. Our access into this grace when
we stand is all due to the finished work of Christ. As this grace
reigns through him who is our righteousness. And it's communicated
to us by the Holy Spirit in the preaching of the gospel. That's
where we come to believe the gospel of peace. Gives us a clear
understanding that there is no reconciliation with the God of
this Bible, this holy, just, and righteous God, who is merciful
and gracious and compassionate toward his tender mercies. But
all of that means nothing until we come to see the glory of the
person and work of Jesus Christ. And what it means, who he is,
what he did, why he did it, who he did it for. Preachers telling people that
he did this for everybody without exception. What value does that
place upon the person and work of Christ? When in reality it
places no value on it. What it does is it turns everything
to focus upon the center and what the center does for God.
What the center does for Christ, not what Christ has done for
the center. So who gets the glory? Now this
is in hope of the glory of God. This grace wherein we stand,
I love that. We stand there, here I stand,
I can do no more. And I'm not gonna move away from
that by the grace of God. Satan, he will attack. My own
flesh will sway me from it, try to. The world will try to get
me away from it because it's such an unpleasant message to
the world. And the reason it's so unpleasant
to the world is because they think they're at peace with God.
You know what the Bible calls that, don't you? Calls it a refuge
of lies. Remember Isaiah? What is it, Isaiah 28, I think? 28 or 29. He's talking about
all of the preachers, all of the nobles, all of the princes
of Israel, who are pointing the people to a false hope. And he
says, you go in there and you tell them. It's a refuge of lies. Jeremiah had the same problem.
They called Jeremiah the weeping prophet. They called him the
burden of the word. It's kind of like today, a lady
told me one time, she said, you don't have anything good to say
about anybody. You're just a burden. You don't
speak peace to us. Jeremiah mentioned that in Jeremiah
6 and Jeremiah 8, those false prophets who would say peace,
peace, when there is no peace. Well, how do I know there is
peace? Well, because of what God's Word says. It's through
Jesus Christ our Lord. It's through His blood, His merits,
His righteousness. Nowhere else. That's what God's
Word says. And any preacher who says it
any other way is crying peace when you know what they're preaching,
don't you? You know who the father of that message was? Peace, peace
when there's no peace? The title of the message was,
Thou Shalt Not Surely Die. Remember that? God said, in the
day that you eat thereof, you shall surely die. Well, here's
the title of Satan's message. Peace, peace, thou shalt not
surely die. Oh, come on. He's just some old
Calvinist. No, this ain't about Calvin. This message is older than Calvin,
folks. It's as old as God himself, who
has no age, who's the great I am. And so this is the glory. Does
this glorify God? Now this is hope in the glory
of God. What is hope? It's the certain
expectation of final glory based upon a right ground, a just ground,
a proper ground. Now what is that ground? Christ
and His righteousness alone. Now does that glorify God? I
can tell you this, it glorifies God in every attribute of His
nature, His character. It not only glorifies God in
His mercy, It also glorifies God in His justice. It not only glorifies God in
His love, but it glorifies God in His righteousness. It not
only glorifies God in His grace, but it glorifies God in His truth. The psalmist spoke of that. I
think Psalm 85, he talks about righteousness and peace. kissed each other, they've come
together. Now my friends, the false gospel that's being preached
that places salvation and peace with God conditioned on sinners
today does not glorify the God of this book. So how can we have
such a sure hope of peace, a sure hope of salvation? Because it
glorifies God. It's the glory of God in the
face of Jesus Christ. It shows how God is just and
justifier, a just God and a savior, a righteous judge, and a loving
father. So that we're brought into a
union with him through Christ, whereby we can cry, Abba, Father. And that's peace that'll last,
that's forever peace. And we can look at this, look
at verse three, it says, not only so, but we glory in tribulations
also. Now you know what tribulations
are, that's trouble. Trouble! Do we have troubles? You know, listen to that song,
you've got your troubles, I've got mine. Yeah, we've got troubles. Job spoke of it. Man is a few
days and full of trouble. Christ spoke of it to his disciples. He said, In the world, you'll have tribulation. That's not just seven years in
the future, folks. It's every day. You say, well,
how do you know it's every day? Romans 8, 36. We are counted
as sheep for the slaughter all the day long. That's not just
seven years. And let me tell you something.
You're not going to avoid it. I think the guy who invented
that in dispensationalism, he just couldn't stomach that believers
would have to go through such trouble, so he said, well, we're
gonna be raptured up before it happens. That's not scriptural. In the world, you will have tribulation. That's what the Bible says, troubles. Now, you may have moments of
joy, Some moments where things seem
to be going right. Health, wealth, whatever. Kids
are obeying, whatever. But you know as well as I do,
it is not gonna last, is it? It's a tough, tough thing to
go through. And when Paul says we glory in
tribulation, well these tribulations, they bring sorrow, they bring
grief, they bring suffering. They cut a hole in you. Don't
they? They leave you helpless, perplexed. Somebody said, well, what good
can come out of this? I don't know except for two things
that God says. It'll glorify him and it'll be
for our good. Now, how that's going to all
work out, I don't know. You don't either. But I know it will. You know why I know it will?
Because he said it. That's the only way I know. I don't feel
it. Has nothing to do with how I
feel, because I feel bad. I feel terrible. But I also have
some comfort, and I have some assurance, have some peace, have
some joy. We're walking contradictions,
as that song says, partly truth and partly fiction, taking every
wrong direction on our lonely way back. Not so. We know the
word of God. He's mapped it out for us, hasn't
he? Our steps are ordered by God. He's working all things
after the counsel of his own will. But these things still,
we sorrow, we grieve, we hurt. So when Paul says we glory in
tribulations, he's not saying we enjoy or boast. And that word
glory there in verse three, we glory, that's the same word that's
God forbid that I should glory, boast. I'm not going around bragging
about my afflictions, are you? Oh, look at me, I've got cancer,
you know? No, that would be foolish. And it'd be a lie. So when Paul
says we glory or boast in tribulation, he's not saying that these tribulations
will not cause us grief and sorrow and perplex us, all of that.
What he's saying is this, we glory in the fact that these
tribulations cannot and will not cause us to lose our salvation
and our peace. Listen, it's like I was telling
our son here, I said, this cancer has racked your body, but it
hadn't touched your soul. Hadn't touched your spirit. You
got a good hope. To die is gain. This body's dead because of sin. You say, well, you're not dead
yet. Well, it's dying. It's in the process, isn't it? I'm just not like I used to be
30 years ago. But it hadn't touched my soul.
In fact, I've gotten stronger in that way by the grace of God,
growing in grace and in knowledge of Christ. Hadn't gotten any
more righteous, as people say, because I'm righteous in Christ. So we glory in tribulation. Read sometime, I've got it marked
here, Romans 8, 35 through 39. Who shall separate us from the
love of God in Christ? See, all those things that Paul
lists, they're the tribulations, but they cannot separate us from
the love of God in Christ. That's what we know. And then
he says, knowing that tribulations work patience, the word patience
there is endurance, perseverance. In other words, these tribulations
cause us to endure, persevere in the faith. You know why? Because
they cause us to look to Christ more, to rest in Christ more,
to value Christ more. That's how. Hebrews 12 speaks
of that. The peaceable fruit of righteousness
that comes afterward, see. You go through it, you sorrow,
you grieve, you hurt, and as God brings you out of it, whether
he does it eternally or does it temporarily here on earth,
you still come out looking to Jesus, the author and finisher
of our faith. That's the endurance, that's
the patience. Perseverance in the faith, looking
to him even more. That's what tribulations do for
believers. That's what happened to Job. I've heard of you by
the hearing of their, now I see you and I repent sackcloth and
ashes. I knew who God was before this
Job saying, now I've experienced some things that really bring
it home to me. and we grow in grace and in knowledge.
Look at verse four, patience, endurance, experience. That word
experience means proof or evidence. You know what the proof and the
evidence of a person being saved, being at peace with God, being
one of God's leg, that person will always look to Christ alone
for salvation, for forgiveness, for righteousness, for peace.
and he or she won't let go by the grace of God. 1 John 3. You
can't leave Christ, no matter what. You can't leave him. And the reason is because he
won't leave you. He won't let you go. And then that experience,
hope. That's that certain expectation
that he's talking about. And look at verse five, we'll
close. Hope maketh not ashamed. Now you know, to be ashamed is
to be found before God without righteousness, without grace. Think about those in Matthew
7. They stood before Christ and said, haven't we preached in
your name? Haven't we done this? And only to hear him say, depart
from me, you that work. You think about how ashamed they
were. Well, this hope maketh not ashamed. The Bible says, he that believeth
not shall be ashamed. And this is the way the love
of God, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts
by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. How's the love of God
shed abroad in our hearts? As God shows us more of the glorious
person and finished work of Christ. Herein is love, not that we love
God. The basis of this, the assurance
of this, the hope of this, the peace of having this love is
not based upon our love to God, even though we can say we love
God. It's His love to us through the propitiation, the justice
satisfying, wrath removing righteousness, blood of Christ. Knowing that that's my only hope.
It's like a fella told a preacher one time, he's talking about
how he disagreed with him on a particular point of doctrine
that was not a gospel issue at the time. It's kind of developed
into one since then. And he called up this preacher
and he said, well, he said, one of us is going to burn in hell
over this. And the other preacher told him, he said, well, if I
tell you what, if I burn in hell, I'll be the first person in the
history of mankind to burn in hell while looking to Christ
for my whole salvation. That's just not gonna happen,
is it? If you're truly looking to him as he's identified and
distinguished in his word, okay.