Let's open our Bibles again to
Romans chapter 5. In our study of these last chapters
of Paul's epistle to the church at Rome, Paul has proven beyond
any reasonable doubt, if we believe God's word at all, that a sinner
is justified through faith in Christ without any of our works
being added to it. Justification being made without
sin is in the Lord Jesus Christ. It's entirely what he has accomplished
for his people. And this matter of justification,
this is not just a doctrinal idea that's on paper. Justification
has real effects in the daily lives of God's people. And this
is what Paul begins to show us now in chapter five. He begins
to show us the blessings that are through faith in Christ. The blessing we're going to look
at this morning is peace. Peace. I've entitled the message
Peace and Justification. Now peace, peace of mind, peace
of heart, is something this world is very, very interested in.
The whole world is desperately seeking peace. People will do
anything somebody tells if they think it'll give them peace of
mind. They'll take any pill without regard for the side effects or
anything that a doctor will give them a prescription for if they
think it could possibly give them peace of mind, peace of
heart. We desperately need peace. I
tell you, the whole root of the problem is what nobody knows
is is we need peace because we declared war on God. There's
the problem. But what a blessing a child of God has to enjoy peace
in the Lord Jesus Christ. If you have faith in Christ,
if you believe Him, you already have what this world is so frantically
looking for. And you got it for free. A free
gift of God's grace in Christ. Here's the first point I have
about peace and justification. We have spiritual peace with
God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Romans 5 verse 1. Therefore,
being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our
Lord Jesus Christ. Now by nature, this is such an
amazing statement, being justified by faith, we have peace with
God. That is such an amazing statement because by nature,
man's at war with God. Man has declared war on God. We're the ones who made the war.
And if there's going to be peace, God's the one who made it. But
now man can never make it. Man's angry with God. Look at
over a few pages of Romans 7, or Romans 8, verse 7. Man's angry
with God. He's not going to try to make
peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God. It is
hatred against God, for it's not subject to the law of God.
Neither indeed can be. You can't change somebody's mind
to make them not angry with God. It can't be anything but angry
with God. It cannot become subject to the
law of God. And what's more, God's angry
with man too. Don't buy into this myth, this
false God that people preach to say how God loves everybody.
What say the scripture? David said, under inspiration
of the Holy Spirit, that the Lord's angry with the wicked
every day. Who are the wicked? I don't want
God to be angry with me. I don't want to be the, who are
the wicked? But back in John chapter three, our Lord tells
us who it is. John chapter three, verse 36. Well, let's look at verse 35.
You talk about God loves everybody. Who does God love? Verse 35,
the Father loveth the Son, and he's given all things into his
hand. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life, and
he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath
of God abideth on him. That's who the wicked are. The
wicked are those who refuse to believe the Lord Jesus Christ,
who refuse to bow to him. So no matter what we do with
our natural carnal facilities, we cannot make peace with God. It's an utter impossibility.
It's not something that man can do. Because everything we do
is sinful. Everything we do is mixed with
sin. So that just keeps bringing the further wrath of God upon
us. We can't make peace with God. But God's Word has good
news for sinners. There is peace to be had with
God. And it's found through our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul says
here, we're justified by faith. Now, you know from reading these
previous chapters, we're justified by Christ. Justification is accomplished
by what Christ has accomplished for his people as their representative. And we receive that righteousness
by faith, not by our words, but by faith in Christ. Be careful,
don't make a work out of faith. Now, we're not justified by the
act of faith, we're justified by Christ. We receive that righteousness
by faith in Christ. And since Christ has justified
his people, since he has made his people without any sin, they're
at peace. God doesn't have any reason to
be angry with his people. Christ took their sin away, so
he's got no reason to be angry. God is at peace with his people.
He's reconciled because of what Christ accomplished for them
through his sacrifice. God's reconciled his people.
Christ had blotted out their sin and no reason for God not
to be reconciled to him. God doesn't see nor remember
the sin of his people anymore. So he's at peace, but no reason
for him to be angry. The gospel of Christ declares
God's reconciled to his people through the death of his son.
Gospel says, now you be reconciled to God. You be reconciled. God's
not at war with his people. He's not angry with them. Now
you surrender. God's already poured out his
anger upon Christ, our substitute, so he's not angry. So you quit
being angry. You surrender. You stack your
arms and surrender and be reconciled to Christ. Look over second Corinthians
chapter five. Here's a clear declaration of
the gospel. Salvation, justification, peace
with God through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians
5 verse 18. And all things are of God, who
hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given
to us this ministry of reconciliation. He's given to us this message
of reconciliation in Christ. Namely, this is our message,
that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing
their trespasses unto them, and hath committed unto us the word
of reconciliation. Now then, we're ambassadors for
Christ. As though God did beseech you by us. We pray you, in Christ's
stead, be ye reconciled to God. God's reconciled to His people.
God's not angry. Now you quit being angry. And
you surrender to God. Just surrender. Well, by nature,
I'm angry with God. I'm at war with God. Why would
I ever surrender? Why would I ever quit fighting?
Because of verse 21. Four, here's why you'd be reconciled
to God. Four, he hath made him sin for
us who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of
God in him. You surrender to God for the
same reason God's reconciled his people, because of the sacrifice
of Christ. God's not angry with his people
because of the sacrifice of Christ. And if you ever see Christ sacrifice
for your sin, you'll surrender. loving surrender to Him. That's
why we surrender. You see, peace with God is something
that Christ has already accomplished for His people. That's why we
never tell anybody, oh, you better go make your peace with God.
I've been in a few hospital rooms the past few weeks. It's never
occurred to me to tell somebody laying there in that bed, you
better, have you made your peace with God? Maybe we better, you
know, do something here, make your peace with God. No. No,
we never tell somebody you make your peace with God. A man can't
do that. Christ has already accomplished
peace for his people. If you look at Colossians chapter
1, Christ has already accomplished this. You want peace with God,
you look to Christ. Colossians chapter 1 verse 20. And having made peace, this is
something that's already done, having made peace through the
blood of his cross, by him to reconcile all things unto himself,
by him I say, whether they be things in earth or things in
heaven, and you, oh, even you, that were sometime alienated
enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled
in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy, unblameable,
and unreprovable. in his sight. He's presented
you holy, unblameable, unapprovable. God's not angry. Now you quit
being angry. You look to Christ and have peace
with God in the Lord Jesus Christ. That's spiritual peace. That
enables a man to lay down on his deathbed and die in peace. My sins put away. God's not angry. My friend. All is well. with your soul, you believe in
Christ. If he's justified you, if he's
put your sin away, all is well with your soul. All. All. All is well. What a blessing. What a blessing to have that
peace. And we enjoy that peace by faith. by believing in and
resting in Christ. You can't have peace until you
rest. We have this peace. We enjoy
this peace by resting in Christ. As long as we rest in Christ,
as long as we look to Him, everything's all right in it. As long as we
look to Christ, there's nothing to fear. Perfect peace. Now,
we can't enjoy any peace looking at ourselves, can we? If you'd
have peace, don't look to your faith. If you want to have peace,
don't try to find that new nature God's given you and think you
have peace by seeing Him. We can't have peace by looking,
trying to see some evidence, you know, of the new birth because
we've had some good behavior. You're not going to find any
peace there. If you have peace, look to Christ. Believe Him.
Rest in Him. The only way I can have peace
of heart, spiritual peace, is to know I don't have anything
to feel guilty about. Well, I can't do that by looking
at me, can I? Now, if I look at myself, that just makes me
feel awful, because everything I see about myself, I've got
so many things to feel guilty about. If you would not have
any guilt, look to Christ, who took away the guilt of His people.
The result of Christ's work for His people is peace. The result of righteousness,
the result of justification before God is peace of mind. Look at Isaiah 32, I can show
you that. I didn't just make that up. This
is what God's word says. Isaiah 32 verse 17. And the work of righteousness
shall be peace and the effect of righteousness, quietness and
assurance forever. That's the work of Christ, the
effect of Christ, our righteousness shall be peace and quietness
and assurance forever. What peace there is, this is
the only way you can have peace and knowing your sin is forgiven
because Christ was punished in your place as your substitute
and put it away. Peace, spiritual peace with God. Here's the second thing I want
to see about this peace that comes from being justified. Here's
the results of it. Verse 2, back in our text, Romans
5. By whom also we have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope
of the glory of God. Now here's the first result of
this piece that comes from being justified. If Christ has justified
you, you have free access to God at all times. Free access. Why wouldn't you? If Christ is taking your sin
away, if He justified you, God has no reason to keep you out.
Have you ever seen a sign? Big sign, big bold letter that
says, no admittance beyond this point. It always makes us want
to know, what are they hiding back there? I want to go, you
know. If I could get you to do one
thing this morning, it's go to Christ. Go directly to Him. you'll never see a sign that
says no admittance beyond this point. There are no qualifications
to meet. God doesn't have a sign like
that for his people. God doesn't say keep out. Here's
the thing about this peace, peace with God. It's not only that
hostilities have ceased. Now, I've never been in a war,
but I would imagine after you spent some time in war with somebody,
you trying to kill them, them trying to kill you, them mistreating
your friends and comrades in arms, When there's a surrender,
there's still hard feelings, isn't it? Oh, there's hard feelings.
I don't want to treat them right. It's peace with God in Christ. It's not just that hostilities
have ceased. It's not just we quit mobbing,
you know, warheads at one another. When Christ makes peace, we're
friends. Friends. We become friends. And
friends can come talk to each other any time they want. We're
friends. If Christ has reconciled us to
God, we're reconciled. We're not enemies. We're friends. Paul spent time showing us here
justification by faith. Abraham was the example he used.
Abraham was justified by faith. And what did God call Abraham?
Friend of God. You are the friend of God too.
If you come to God in Christ. Justified. If you come to Him,
free access to God anytime you want. Here's the second result
of this piece that comes from being justified. Faith in Christ
gives you access to every blessing of God's grace that he has for
sinners. Paul says, by faith we have access into this grace.
And he doesn't mean just one thing, he means a state of grace.
Living in a state of God's grace. You have every blessing of God's
grace. Well, what are they? What are
some of the blessings of God's grace? How about salvation of
our souls? Sinners are interested in that,
aren't they? How are we saved? Scripture says by grace. How
about election? God choosing a people to save.
We're chosen according to the election of grace. We have that
blessing in God's grace. Justification. Paul says being
freely justified by his grace through the redemption that's
in Christ Jesus. It's by grace. How about the
forgiveness of sin? Paul says in the church at Ephesus,
we have the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of His
grace. Don't ever worry you're too big
of a sinner for God to save. We have the forgiveness of sin
according to the riches of God's grace. How about being called
to Christ? I implore you, go to Christ. I implore you to do that knowing
you'll never go till God calls you. This is the blessing we
have of God's grace. He calls His people to Christ.
Paul said, God separated me from my mother's womb, and then He
called me by His grace. Even faith, even faith to believe,
even faith to look to Christ, we have that blessing by grace. In Acts chapter 18, Apollos went,
he preached, and he helped them, which had believed through grace.
That's why we believe. All these blessings are ours.
through God's grace. Thirdly, Christ has justified
you. You have peace with God. You
have a good standing with God. Standing with God. Now that's
a blessing to have a good standing with God. And the only way that's
possible is in our Lord Jesus Christ. David asked this question
two times. How can a man stand before God?
Psalm 130, verse three, he said, if thou, Lord, shouldest mark
iniquities, O Lord, who should stand? Who should stand? Well,
the only people that are going to stand are people who've been
justified in Christ. People who Christ has taken their
iniquities away by his sacrifice. Look back at Psalm 24. Here's
the second time David asked this question. Psalm 24. What a blessing it is to have
a a right good standing before God. In Psalm 24 verse 3, Who shall ascend into the hill
of the Lord? Or who shall stand in His holy place? Well, the
only people who are going to stand in His holy place are He,
is He, that hath clean hands and a pure heart, that hath not
lifted up His soul into vanity nor sworn deceit. He shall receive
the blessing from the Lord and righteousness from the God of
his salvation. Now that there's only one person
that can be talking about. It can only be talking about
the Lord Jesus Christ. He's the only one who ever had
clean hands and a pure heart. He's the only one who never lifted
up his soul into vanity nor swore deceitfully. That's only the
Lord Jesus Christ. He stands before God accepted. But tell you who else this is
talking about. It's still only talking about one person. It's
talking about everybody who's in Christ. Look at verse six.
This is the generation, the description of them that seek him, that seek
thy face, O Jacob, O God of Jacob. This is the description of everybody
that seeks the God of Jacob. They have a right good standing
before God because of God's grace. And if you have a right standing
before God, you have peace. What else do you have to worry
about? I mean, really and truly, what else do you have to worry
about if we have a right standing before God? Here's the fourth
result of this piece that comes from justification. It's rejoicing,
rejoicing in hope. I've seen pictures of celebrations
that just spontaneously broke out at the end of World War II,
the end of VE Day. The end of VJ Day. I mean, just
enormous celebrations. Oh, how thousands of people just
came out and celebrated just unbridled joy. The killing's
over. The war's over. The separation's
over. There's peace. A believer lives in that rejoicing. Death is over. Christ made an
end of it. There's peace. The separation's
over. God has reconciled himself to
his people in Christ. The war is over. And we live
rejoicing in the promise of God. The promise of God to save his
people. The promise of God to forgive
the sin of his people. Because it's been punished in
his son. And since Christ has justified us, we have a good
hope of eternal glory with Christ. Now this is not a hope. Like,
well, I hope this will happen, but I don't know if it will or
not, you know. Much against my set belief not
to do it, I watched the Kentucky basketball game live yesterday,
and I sat there hoping that they'd win, but pretty much doubted
that they would. That's not this hope. That's not this hope. This
hope is an expectation, expectation. You might think it seems odd
for me to stand here in the weakness and sin and decay of this flesh
and tell you I expect eternal glory with Christ. How on earth
can anybody expect that? Because God promised it. And
if God promised it, you can expect it and rejoice in it. Rejoice. That's a good hope through
grace. Salvation is all of grace. And
I tell you, we enjoy that peace. It's only possible to enjoy this
peace by faith in Christ. We've got to look away from ourselves.
We've got to look away from what we do, what we think, what we
say. We've got to look away from ourselves and look to Christ. Look away from what you can do
and look to Christ. Martin Luther made this statement.
He said, although I'm a sinner, yet I despair not. For Christ
who is my Redeemer and my righteousness liveth. In him I have no sin,
no fear, no sting of conscience, and no fear of judgment. For
in him there is no condemnation. That's peace. It's found in faith,
looking to Christ. And that peace, that comes from
justification in Christ. Justification is not doctrinal
words on paper. and this peace, the spiritual
peace with God, this is not just doctrinal words on paper. This peace is enjoyed by the
believer in the heart, even in the midst of horrible
suffering and trials of this life. The believer lives in this
now, verse three. And not only so, But we glory
in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience,
and patience experience, and experience hope. Now Paul says
that not only so, not only do we rejoice in this peace, but
we also glory in tribulations. Now he's not saying we enjoy
the suffering that trials bring. What a believer does rejoice
in, it's not the suffering, it's not the pain, it's not the sorrow,
What the believer rejoices in is the effect of the trial. The effect of trials upon God's
people is to make us to rely even more upon our Lord Jesus
Christ. The effect of a trial upon God's
children is to cause us to draw closer to Christ. We can rejoice
in that. We can rejoice in His presence.
We can rejoice in depending and relying more upon Him. But now,
if we would grow in faith, we must go through this process
of trials. There's just no way to avoid
it. Earlier this week, Jan and I went to see a movie. It was
about a group of women who did a lot of very heavy math in order
to put John Glenn in orbit. And I guess I'd never really
thought about this before, but when they got that fella in orbit,
they figured that math out pretty easy. But you know, they couldn't
just land him anywhere. I mean, they couldn't even just
land him somewhere where there's water. They had to land him in
an exact spot or the Navy would never find him. They had to figure
that out. They had to figure that math
out. And they did that. They really did that. And when
they sent John Glenn up in that rocket, they all just watched
and watched and watched and that thing went into orbit. Oh, and
they rejoiced. Oh, yeah, they rejoiced. And
then they waited the right time, you know, whatever it was they
did. He came down, splashed down right exactly where they said
he would. And they rejoiced. And people just patting him on
the back and oh, you know. You know, they did an incredible
amount of work to make that happen. But you want me to tell you what?
Not one of those mathematicians, men or women, not one of them
started out doing math at that level. Not one of them did. Not
one of them started out getting that kind of recognition and
praise and pat on the back. Every single one of them started
out with 1 plus 1 is 2. That's where that all started.
And they had to go through the boring task of memorizing their
multiplication tables. Do you memorize your multiplication
tables now yourself to do that? You just use a calculator, right?
When I was your age, I had to memorize my multiplication tables.
And I thought that was the worst thing ever. They had to do that. They had to go through hours
of sitting at their desk. Their friends are out playing.
Somebody realizes this is a math prodigy. You can't go out and
play. You've got to sit at this little old desk and do math problems. And they had to sit there for
hours and hours and hours and do it. And they'd give them homework.
And as soon as they'd get it, they'd give them something else.
They're just constantly working, getting harder and harder and
harder and harder. till they could send John Glenn
into space and bring him back down to Earth. They had to go
through all that. There was no way to avoid going
through all that learning process that took years and years and
years before they'd ever be useful to NASA. Brethren, spiritually, that's
how we got to go through this school. A babe in Christ sees
old, experienced believers. They seem patient. They always
seem kind and gracious, and you just think, oh, I'd like to be
like them. I want to tell you what, nobody starts out that
way. Nobody does. There's a painful
process we must go through. We would become useful in God's
service, and there's no avoiding it. There's no other classroom
we can learn these things except the furnace of trial. There's
just none. Patience. Does anybody here think
you're patient enough? We all need patience, don't we?
The only way it can be learned, God's word says, is through difficult
trial, tribulation. The word tribulation, it means
pressure, anguish. That's the only way patience
can be learned. Patience is a quiet, willing submission to the will
of our God. It's a quiet waiting upon the
Lord to deliver. And when the Lord finally brings
us to the end of ourselves, when the pressure finally brings us
to the end of ourselves, where there's nothing we can do and
we think this is going to crush me. The Lord comes and delivers. And we learn. The Lord will do
what he promised to do. He'll give grace for the hour.
He'll give grace to comfort. He'll deliver in his time. He's
not going to forget and he'll never fail. We learn that. So
that the next time we're in trial and the pressure feels like it's
going to crush us, we remember, I've learned something about
this by experience. I've learned to wait upon the
Lord and he'll deliver in his time. He's not going to forget.
He'll deliver in his time. This patience and learning to
trust the Lord. And it's a constant process.
But if we would learn to trust the Lord, we would have peace
that passes human understanding. Then it's only gained by tribulation. And patience works experience. Experience is a proven, genuine
faith. This thing of saving faith is
too important. It's too important. There's no
salvation. There's no eternal life without
faith in Christ. I don't want to be deceived.
I want to know my faith in Christ is genuine. Well, trials don't
produce genuine faith. Genuine faith is a gift of God.
But what trials do is reveal genuine faith. They reveal false
faith. If a trial drives me away from
Christ, makes me angry with God, so I'm going to run away from
Him. I'm not going to worship Him. I'm not going to seek Him.
I'm not going to hear His word anymore. That's false faith. But if a
trial makes me lean even harder upon Christ, if a trial makes
me trust Christ more than ever, then what that trial has done
is revealed genuine faith. Look at Hebrews chapter 12. If that trial has revealed genuine
faith, I can rejoice in that. Hebrews 12 verse 11. And no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, but it's grievous. Nevertheless, afterward
it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which
are exercised thereby. That's what it produces. It produces
the peace that comes from genuine faith. If a trial, I mean a suffering,
difficulty, if that trial makes me love Christ even more than
ever before, you know, if that suffering is revealed, it's revealed
genuine faith, genuine love in Christ. We all want things, things of
this life, comforts, family, loved ones, you know, we want
those things. But if a trial reveals to me I like those things,
Harold. But if a trial reveals to me
I really can do without any of those things, but I can't do
without Christ. What that trial has revealed
to me is I have genuine faith. And I can rejoice in it. I don't
rejoice in the suffering, but I can rejoice in being shown
I have genuine faith. A believer knows this. If you
come to Christ, God saved you, you know this. Christ cannot
fail. He'll never fail. And again,
this is not something that's just a doctrinal fact we learn
in the book. Trials teach me by experience. Christ won't fail. He's not going to let me down.
He's not going to let His child down. And He won't let me go. Because I am His and He is mine. If a trial teaches me that, I
can rejoice in it, can't you? That's genuine faith. And this
experience is important for the life of a believer. When you
go to apply for a job, every job application, what do they
want to know? They want to know your experience. And I always
thought, well, if you give me this job, pretty soon, you know,
I'll have experience, but they want you to have the experience
first. And here's why. Experience makes you more valuable
to your employer. Experience means they can set
you free out here. When you come across a situation,
you can say, oh, I've seen this before, so I know what to do. That's experience. Well, in the
very same way, experience makes a believer more useful. It makes
it more useful because we rely upon Christ more and rely upon
ourselves less. Experience says, I've seen this
before and I know what to do. Be still, be quiet, and look
to Christ. Just wait on Him to supply the
needy. This trial has taken away all
of my strength. So I rely on Christ to be my
strength. It's taken away every comfort. Then I trust Christ
to be my comfort. It's put me in pain and suffering
and taken away my health. Then I trust Christ to be my
life and my health. That's what experience is. And I can rejoice in that, even
though I do not like the pain and the sorrow and the suffering
of the lesser. And then experience produces
hope. This is a good hope. It's a good
hope through God's grace. It's the hope of eternal glory
with Christ. It's a it's a hope of glory and
peace and joy eternally with him. And people need hope. We need hope. But now you notice
this is a step. This is a process. We didn't
start with hope. We're getting to hope through the process.
And people need hope. People who are truly depressed
are people that don't have any hope. They just don't have any
hope. The situation can never get any
better. And they're in utter despair
because they don't have any hope. A believer not only has hope,
A believer knows this. The situation is going to get
better eventually. It's difficult and painful now.
The situation will get better eventually. This life, with all
of its heartaches, with all of its sorrows, with all of its
crushing pressures, will soon be over. We'll have joy and peace
with Christ. I can rejoice in my teaching.
I can rejoice even though the situation is difficult. And this
hope is important. If Christ is your hope, if the
only hope you have is Christ, you'll never be ashamed. Paul
says in the beginning of verse five, hope maketh not ashamed. There's no reason to ever be
ashamed if you trust Christ. Because Christ has made you not
guilty. So there's nothing to be ashamed of. You see people
leaving the courthouse going like this? Every single one,
I'm guilty. A person who's innocent goes
out that front door and steps up to the microphone and wants
to tell everybody about it. Ain't that ashamed? You trust Christ. You're not guilty. You don't
go before God like this. You don't sneak it down in the
court. No, you come before Him boldly, with reverence, but boldly
in Christ. You have a good standing in Christ.
He's made you not guilty. And that gives peace of heart.
Even in the most difficult situations, when everything else is taken
away, that gives peace because we have hope in Christ. And one
more thing a believer has to enjoy in this life because we're
justified. It's the love of God. Verse five.
And hope maketh not ashamed because the love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. Now,
we'll never find any peace in our love for God. It's weak,
it's fickle, it's ever-changing. But in the darkest of nights,
in the most crushing pressure of this tribulation, there's
peace to be found in God's love for us, in God's love for His
people. And Paul says we know God loves us because of the Holy
Ghost given to us. It's the Holy Ghost that reveals
Christ to us. Look at 1 John chapter 4. I know
people love to say God loves everybody. How do I know? How do I know if God loves me
or not? There's only one way we can know.
There's only one way I can know God loves me. If he sent his
son to be the sacrifice for my sin. 1 John 4 verse 9. And this was manifested, the
love of God toward us, because God sent his only begotten son
into the world that we might believe through him. Herein is
love. Not that we love God, but that
he loved us. Herein is love. How do we know
God loved me? God loved us. He sent his son
to be the propitiation for our sins. That's what the Holy Spirit
shows. The Holy Spirit reveals Christ
to us. And if I know God loves me, what do I got to worry about? I know He's not going to take
away the suffering and the pain and the sorrow of this life,
but what do I got to worry and fret about? I know God loves
me. He sent His Son to take away
my sin. See what peace there is in Christ. This is all in Christ. And it's
peace that comes from being made perfect in Him. He loves me so
much. He loves his people so much.
He came and took our sin away. He made us righteous and not
guilty through his sacrifice. And no matter what else happens,
if he loves you, he will not let you perish. He's not going
to let you go. Whatever difficulty the tribulation
brings, We know this. We know this. He's teaching us
to rely more upon Him. He's not doing it to punish us.
He's not doing it because He hates us, because He quit loving
us. No, He's doing it because He does love His people. And
He's going to bring us, eventually, the trial. You know what it's
going to do? It's going to put this body in the grave to take
us to be with Him. I believe I can find peace in
that. and rejoice in that, can't you?
I hope God, in his mercy, in his grace to his people, will
comfort our hearts, comfort our hearts, and cause us to leave
here looking a little less about the things, the temporary things
of this life, and look to him and rest in him. If you'll give
us that gift, we'll have peace. Let's bow. Father, we thank you. We wish we could thank you more
perfectly. We wish that it would always
remain constant, that the things of this life would not cause
our love and our thanksgiving to waver and to wane. But Father,
we do thank you. How we thank you for the Lord
Jesus Christ. How we thank you for the forgiveness
of sin, the cleansing of sin in you. How we thank you that
though We have declared war on God. In your mercy and your grace,
you made peace for your people through the blood of your son,
the blood of his sacrifice. Father, we thank you. Father,
we pray that in these dark and difficult days, days you've sent
for your glory and for the good of your people, we pray that
you give us this patience and experience and hope to patiently
wait on thee, to continually look to thee, knowing we have
a good hope through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord,
bless this message. Bless it, we pray, for your glory
and to the comfort and edification of your people. It's in the precious
name of our Lord Jesus Christ we pray and give thanks and ask
this blessing.