Justification ever comes through
any of our works. It's all through faith in Christ,
through His work for us as our substitute. Now, here in chapter
5, Paul's going to start showing us the blessings that we have
in Christ. And we don't enjoy those blessings
because of our works either. We enjoy these blessings because
of faith in Christ. All through life's journey, the
believer never gets past complete and utter dependence on the Lord
Jesus Christ. We never get past faith in Him. It's always all of faith. We
never get past learning that we have no confidence in our
flesh. Not in ours or anybody else's. It's all of faith. We
never get past that point. And every blessing that we have,
that we enjoy through this life's journey, is because of faith.
Now verse 1, Paul says, therefore being justified by faith, We
have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Because we're
justified by Christ, that's what he's been talking about, being
justified by faith in Him. Because we're justified through
the life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ, we have peace with
God. And peace with God can only come
through Christ. Outside of Christ, there can
be nothing but wrath. But in Christ, we have peace
with God. Now, sin is what has brought
enmity. Sin is what has brought wrath
and separation from God. And there can never be any peace
unless that sin is removed. And justified, as we've been
studying here, justification, you'll remember, means being
made without sin. We're made without sin in Christ. So in Christ, we're made holy,
unblameable, unreprovable in God's sight. He's removed that
sin that made God angry. Therefore in him we have peace
with God, because he's the one who took our sin away. Look over
in Colossians chapter 1. Colossians 1 verse 20. And 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 And even you, even you and me,
that sometime, that were sometime alienated and enemies in your
mind by wicked works, yet now hath He reconciled. At one time
we were enemies of God, yet now in Christ He's reconciled us
to God by taking our sin away and we have peace with God. Look over back in Isaiah 32,
this thing of peace with God. can only come when sin is removed
and righteousness is imputed. Peace with God can only come
through righteousness. If we're ever going to have any
righteousness, it's got to be the righteousness of Christ imputed.
Isaiah 32, verse 17. And the work of righteousness
shall be peace, and the effect of righteousness, quietness and
assurance forever. That's how we have peace, through
the imputed righteousness of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, I
thought this week as I was studying, how amazing, how complete is
the sacrifice of Christ. The blood of Christ gives peace
to those people who have sinned against a holy, infinite God. The God who cannot forget anything
is the one we've sinned against. Yet in the sacrifice of Christ,
in His blood, we have peace with God. We have peace with God even
though we're the ones who declared war on Him. God didn't declare
war on us. We declared war on Him. We sinned
against Him. We declared war on God. And what's
His response? He's the one that made peace
for us through the death of His beloved Son. That's the peace that passes
all understanding. You think about that for the
rest of your life, and you'll never completely understand it.
One of the writers said it can be experienced But it can't be
expressed. It passes all human understanding.
And we have that peace through faith in Christ. And listen. I got this from one of the writers.
This is good. This peace is a whole lot more than the cessation of
hostilities. Two countries can be at war.
One of them will just beat the other one down through superior
firepower and more men. They can beat the other one down.
They destroy their ability to make war. And there's a forced
peace. It's forced because there's no
more open hostilities. There's no more open violence.
There's no more fighting in the trenches. Only because one side
is defeated and they can't fight back anymore. If they could keep
fighting back, they would. Because the hatred's still there.
The enmity's still there. It's just a forced peace. The
peace that Christ makes Not only does it end the fighting, He
brings friendship. He brings fellowship. Christ,
not only does He put away the war, stop the war, He gives a
new nature. See, the difference is, if we
go over to Iraq and we fight some of these folks, we can defeat
them, but we can't give them a new nature. They still have
a hatred of us. Christ gives a new nature and
actually makes us friends of God. We have fellowship and friendship
with God. And Abraham's the example. Justified
by faith. We just spent time studying that,
right? And what is Scripture calling? The friend of God. Made a friend. It's not just
a rebel held in check by superior power. It's a new nature. It's friendship. It's peace with
God. Look over in John 15. And this
doesn't just apply to Abraham. Again, Abraham's the pattern
of this. Everyone for whom Christ died is made a friend of God. John 15, verse 13. Greater love
hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for whom? His
friends. And you are my friends, if you
do whatsoever I command you. Henceforth I call you not servants,
for the servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth. But I have called
you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father I have
made known unto you." And He has made us His friends through
the blood of His cross. And we're justified through faith. And we have this peace with God
through faith. I heard Brother Henry say this
years ago. You can move the comma in the first part of this sentence.
Instead of putting the comma after faith, put it after justified.
Therefore, being justified By faith we have peace with God
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is the one who made peace
with us through the blood of His cross. And we enjoy that
peace more fully the more faith we have in Christ. The stronger
our faith is in Him, the more we'll enjoy this peace. The more
we rest in Christ, and the less we depend on ourselves, the more
peace we'll have. I've learned this from myself.
I cannot have peace depending on me and what I do. Peace comes
through faith in Him, through rest and dependence on the Lord
Jesus Christ. Now, back in our text, Romans
5, verse 2, By whom? Also we have access by faith
into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. In Christ, we have access into
the very throne room of God, right into the presence of God
Himself. Look in Ephesians 2, into the
very throne room of God. Ephesians 2, verse 18. For through him we both have
access by one Spirit unto the Father. And therefore, ye are
no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the
saints, and of the household of God. We're fellow citizens. We've been made family. In Christ,
we've been made part of the family of God, and we belong in the
house. We have access to it because
that's where we belong. That's where our Father is. And
we can only have access to the Father now in Christ. We're accepted in the Beloved.
This word, access, as Paul uses here in Romans 5, means a bringing
in. It means the Son taking us by
the hand and bringing us in. When He goes in, we go in in
Him. And if the Son brings you in,
the Father will accept you. We're accepted in the Beloved.
Now look over in Hebrews 4 verse 16. Here's the access that we have
to the Father. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. Now a sinner can't come boldly.
Someone in his sins cannot come boldly into the presence of God.
That would bring certain annihilation. A holy God is not going to allow
sin in his presence. But someone who's been made holy
in Christ can come into the presence of God. And this coming into
the presence of God, coming into His presence boldly, means a
whole lot more than just being tolerated. He just tolerates
us in His presence. You know, there's people at work
that I allow into my presence. They come into my office. I allow
them to come into my office and I've got a chair. They come sit
down in the chair in my office and we talk. I allow them to
come in there because I have to. Because I do business with
them or they're a customer or, you know, In my case, a lot of
times they owe me money and they're going to come explain why they're
not going to pay us or something. And I allow them into my presence
because I have to. Their presence is tolerated.
A lot of times I want to keep working on what I was doing because
this does not bring joy into my life that they're in my office. And once I leave work, they'll
come to my house. Because of the way they conduct
themselves, I don't allow them around my daughter. I don't let
them come in my living room. They wouldn't be tolerated there.
Believers, God's children, are more than just tolerated in His
presence. I don't just tolerate the presence
of Savannah in my living room. She's my daughter. I love her.
That's where she belongs. We're not just tolerated in the
presence of the Father. We have access into a state of
grace. It's not just enjoying the blessings
of grace. We have access into a state of
grace. fellowship with the Father, have
every spiritual blessing because we stand in this state of grace. We have access into a state of
grace before the throne of grace in His presence. Wherein, Paul
says, we stand. Now, we bow humbly with our face
to the ground in the presence of God. Yet, believers stand,
firmly stand upright in a state of grace in Christ, not in ourselves
in Him. Now, we stand. We're not cowering
over in a corner in fear. You know, we're not trying to
hide behind somebody, hoping somebody doesn't see us and realize
we're there and kick us out because we don't belong. We're not standing
there trying to make ourselves somehow invisible because we
know we don't belong and we feel ashamed. Now, we're sinners. We still are sinners and we have
a lot to be ashamed of. Pretty much everything we do,
we can be ashamed of. But in Christ, we have nothing
to be ashamed of. He's taken away all the shame.
And in Him, we stand upright without fear. And we'll continue
to stand because we're upheld by His power. And Paul says we
rejoice in the hope of glory that we have in Christ. And again,
we talked about this last week. This word hope is expectation. It's our expectation to live
in glory with our Savior. It's an expectation to worship
Him face to face. And that gives the believer joy
unspeakable. You might not be able to express
it fully, but it gives joy unspeakable. That was Abraham's joy. Abraham
saw my day and was glad. That was Job's joy, his rejoicing. Even he's sitting there scraping
those boils with a piece of broken pottery. What was his joy? I
know my Redeemer liveth. And I'm going to see Him with
these eyes. And He won't be another. He's
not going to be a stranger. That was David's joy. I'll be
satisfied when I awaken thy likeness. That was his expectation. That
was the expectation of the apostles. And that's our joy today. That
never changes in Christ. And our hope in Christ gives
us joy in every condition and every season. Look what he says
in verse 3. And not only so, but we glory
in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience.
Now anybody can understand how a person can rejoice in a good
hope through grace. You can understand why somebody
would rejoice in thinking of the glory that is to come. But how can a person, how can
anybody rejoice in tribulation trials? That's hard to understand. Now, we don't rejoice in pain
and suffering, do we? You don't rejoice in sickness. In our sickness or the sickness
of loved ones. Andy's been sick. First time
he's going to be here in weeks. Andy, you're not rejoicing that
sickness and pain. I mean, you just haven't. You
don't rejoice in the fear of wondering what's the doctor going
to say. You're laying there in the hospital. I heard Scott Richardson
talk one time about laying in the hospital, being chained up
to the IVs and stuff, and laying there at night wondering what's
he going to say in the morning. You don't rejoice in that fear.
You don't rejoice in hatred of others or mistreatment of others
for Christ's sake. You don't rejoice in the constant
turmoil and doubts and fears going on around you. You don't
rejoice when your children do things that break your heart.
You don't rejoice when you lose a loved one. You don't rejoice
in that loss and pain. But I tell you what we do rejoice
in is the effect of the trial. That's what we rejoice in. That
trial was sent by our wise heavenly Father. He's the master refiner. He sends those for our good and
for His glory. For our good so that we'll learn
something. We learn in trials how frail, how fragile we really
are. We learn in trials how much we
really do depend on the Lord Jesus Christ. In trial we learn
it's not just doctrine that our God's able. In trial we learn
He's able. He really is all-powerful to
deliver me. In trial we learn to depend and
lean on Him more fully. And those are things that we
can't learn anywhere but in the school of tribulation. Look at
2 Corinthians chapter 4. We don't rejoice in the trial,
we rejoice in the effect, what we learn because of the trial. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 17. For our light affliction, and
Paul's not making light of the trial, it's heavy, it's difficult,
it's grievous. but in perspective in the light
of eternity. It's a light affliction, and
it's but for a moment. Worketh for us a far more exceeding
and eternal weight of glory, while we look not on the things
which are seen, but on the things which are not seen. For the things
which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not
seen are eternal. My grace is sufficient for thee,
for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly, therefore,
will I glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may
rest upon me. Therefore, I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions,
in distresses, for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am
strong." Well, Paul, he's not rejoicing in his weakness, in
his pain, in his suffering. We can rejoice in my weakness.
because the effect of that is, I experience the strength of
the Savior. That's what we rejoice in. One more scripture, Hebrews
chapter 12. Hebrews 12 verse 11. For no chastening for the present
seemeth to be joyous, it's grievous. Nevertheless, It yieldeth the
peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised
thereby." That's what we rejoice in, is what we learn in the trial,
what it brings, the fruit that it brings. And the first thing
Paul lists that we learn in trial, in tribulation, is patience. And every one of us could use
a dose of that, couldn't we? But how does it come? Through
tribulation. And we learn patience by experience,
because we learn through trial. That every trial has its appointed
beginning and its appointed end. And that our Father will deliver
us at just the right time. He's not going to give us more
than we can bear. He'll give us grace that's sufficient for
the trial that He sends. And then in that trial, we'll
learn to be patient and wait on Him. He will deliver. When
our girls were just real little, we were first sending them off
to school. It was traumatic for me and Janet. And Janet told
him, first day of school, she says, now mama's not going to
put you in a place that's bad for you. And mama will be back
to get you when it's time. And I won't be late. And that's
comforting to a five-year-old. And over the first couple years,
you know, kindergarten, first grade, there are some rough moments. There are some tears and some
homesickness and, you know, Not knowing how to handle a teacher,
they didn't talk to you sweet all the time. But over time,
Savannah's learned to be patient with the school day. Patient. Because she knows, just be patient.
And it's going to end. There's a point in time that
it's going to end. And it's not thrilling to go
to school every day, is it? You know, they had a couple snow days this
week. And then the first day afterwards,
she's like, I don't know why I can't have another snow day.
I still get to go to college if I could just have this day
off. It's still tribulation. But she's learned patience over
the course of time that the day's going to end and Mama's going
to be there to get her. When all the activities and practices
and so forth end for the day, she'll be there. Now over the
years, once or twice, Jan's been late. By your estimation, she's
been late. She's still there. We never forgot
her. She may be a few minutes late. Our Heavenly Father will never
be late. Never. And we don't rejoice in the trial,
but we do rejoice in gaining a little patience. It's good
for us. That's why David said, it's good for me that I've been
afflicted. Now, verse 4, and patience, experience, and experience,
hope. Patience works experience. Maturity,
that's what that word is, is maturity. In the original, I
looked this up yesterday, this is interesting. You know what
that word experience means? A specimen of tried work. That's where we find out what
our faith is worth, where it's refined in the fire of trial. And trials reveal genuine faith,
and the trial will refine genuine faith. Now trials don't produce
faith. Faith is a gift of God, right?
But that trial will reveal what's already there and it will refine
what's already there. Now trials most usually will
cause the false professor to quit. It's not worth it to him
because it's false. But trials will never cause a
true believer to be separated from Christ. A trial will never
cause a believer to run away from Christ. What will the trial
do for the believer, for the child of God? Draw us closer
to Christ. Make our faith in Him even stronger. Trials will give us less dependence
on ourselves and more dependence on Him. You know, physical exercise,
it works the same way. It's hard. That's why we don't
do it all the time. That's why we don't do it regularly
because it's hard. There's absolutely no problem
for me finding time in my day to do things that are easy. Eating,
watching TV, relaxing, Sitting on it, my lazy boy. I never had
difficulty finding time for that because it's easy. But it's hard
to find time to exercise like I talk to you every day because
it's hard. If you go run a long distance, that taxes your lungs,
your heart, your muscles, and you're going to be sore later.
You can go lift weights. If you lift them enough, it's
going to cause muscle pain because you strain those muscles. But
what's it produce? a stronger, healthier person,
a stronger heart, a stronger set of lungs. And that's what
trials will do. They'll be painful, but they'll
make us stronger. We'll learn to rest more fully
in Christ once we learn how much we really do need Him. We learn
in trials, when we're knocked flat on our back and thrown for
a loop, that's when we learn how much we really need our Lord.
When all of our power is taken away, and that can only come
through trial, that's when we'll learn more about His power. You
know, it's one thing to say doctrinally, all of the Lord's sovereign.
It's another when all your power has been taken away and see,
He's all powerful. When everything else is taken
away, and everything else, you know, that we have seems to be
taken away, we don't learn about our faithfulness. We might learn
about the fickleness of our faithfulness. What we learn is his faithfulness. He is faithful. You can't know
he gives songs in the night till the sun goes down and you're
left in darkness. That's when you learn he gives
songs in the night. You'll know his grace is sufficient
when you're brought low and you need it. That's when you learn
that. An experience says the Lord's
delivered in the past and he'll deliver again. And he's given
us patience to wait for it through trial. In business, the CEO is
never some guy fresh out of college who's wet behind the ears, is
it? It's always somebody with some experience, some age. The
captain of a ship is always the guy with the gray beard. He's
never the guy that can't even grow one yet. Why? Because you
want him to have some experience. So when trouble comes, because
of experience, he can say, I know what to do. I've seen this before. And that's why the Lord sends
us these trials. So when the next one comes, we
have the experience to say, I've seen this before. The Lord's
going to deliver. I'm confident He's going to deliver
because He has in the past. Experience and maturity brings
hope. Now our expectation, our hope
doesn't change. But as we mature, as we grow
in grace and the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ, We know
that hope more fully. That expectation grows stronger
and stronger and stronger. I'm going to see Him. Now verse
5, 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. Hope maketh not ashamed. Whoever has a good hope through
grace will never be ashamed. You won't be ashamed because
in the end, you're found guilty. You know, you see these people
who, I see them on court, you know, and the head of the jury
stands up and says, we find them guilty. And they hang their head
and they cuff their hands and they lead them out of that courtroom
in shame. That'll never happen to the believer. You're never
going to be found guilty and come before the judge and stand
condemned and hear the sentence read to you. Why? Because Christ
stood condemned before you. He became guilty and He was condemned
for you. So you'll never be ashamed. You'll
never be ashamed because Christ has deserted you and you're left
alone, naked. Because He's clothed you and
He's promised, I'll never leave you, nor forsake you. And the
reason we'll never be ashamed is the love of God is shed abroad
in our hearts by the Holy Ghost who's given unto us as the earnest
of our inheritance, as the earnest of our expectations. The Comforter
comes. He spreads abroad the love of
God in our hearts, just like the Lord sends the rain. And
He spreads that rain abroad across the field. And the seed starts
to grow. And it grows and grows. It's
got the right mixture of sunshine and rain. And we have a good
harvest. The Holy Spirit comes and sheds abroad the love of
God in our hearts. And causes us to grow and gives
us a good harvest. Now I ask you, What can give
you more comfort than that? What can cause us to rejoice
in hope more than the love of God Almighty being shed abroad
from our puny heart? That will give you joy in every
season, even in the dark ones. Alright, well, the Lord bless
you.