Obviously I'm not Dow, but I am very thankful, very grateful to have this opportunity to preach this morning. It's not a small thing for Dow to give up his pulpit s o. I just want to make sure everyone knows I am grateful for this opportunity. I take it seriously, I will say something. That's probably a little silly. First, that I'm probably going to make doubt mad, but he won't know it until this time next week because I didn't have time to trim my beard back, so we had to adjust the microphone. So he's going to have to fix it next week. So hopefully he's not too mad when he gets back or when he listens to this later, he'll be in for a fun, little surprise with the microphone. Anyway, this morning we're going to be looking in the book of Romans in Romans Chapter five. You can go ahead and flip there if you like, but before we dive in too much into the scriptures, I want to talk about Romans for just a second. The Book of Romans is unique in the way that it covers many different theological ideas. Basically any major theological thing you can think of in our faith. You can get an answer to a question just by studying the book of Romans. Because of that, there are, Ah lot of misconceptions about our faith that can be fixed, so to speak, just by studying the book of Romans. So just for fun before we dive in this morning, I want to look at some ways that the book of Romans fixes wrong people, so to speak. There are a lot of people out there who don't like the fact that God is all powerful. They don't like the fact that he can do what he wants, and they think that that means he's a bully over humanity. Obviously, we know this to be wrong, but there are people who think this way. Walt Whitman, who's a famous poet on author, actually says this about God. He says God is a mean spirited, pugnacious bully bent on revenge against his children for failing to live up to his impossible standards. Whitman, though, if he would just read the book of Romans a little bit, would be able to see that in Romans Chapter three, God actually through Paul, right after Paul talks about how sinful we are talks about how he gives so much extra grace to his people even when they don't deserve it. So clearly, we know that Wittman's assessment of God is a little bit silly. There's also people out there who think that God and his people must be bigots or even fascists, because God has certain standards that he has for the world. And they just want to do whatever they want to do any time they want it. If they were to read Romans nine, though, they would see that God does not judge mentally hate groups of people like the word bigot would make you think. Instead, it shows that he gives grace to Jews, his chosen people and gentiles, which is everybody else. So this also doesn't make a whole lot of sense. And then there are people out there who they preach what's called a prosperity gospel. This prosperity gospel says that if you just follow Jesus than everything that you want can be yours, you'll be healthier. You'll be wealthier and you'll be all around Maur prosperous. I think aside from just life experience which we know would debunk this, we can also look in several places in Romans to know that's not true. Romans Chapter seven Paul talks about believers still struggling with sin and Roman's Chapter eight. He mentions that Christians still suffer, and even in Romans, Chapter 11 he talks about Christians being persecuted for the faith. So we know that that's not true. No matter what the televangelist with the Nice teeth might be telling you on TV when he asked for your money, there's another one on a semi lighter note. Some people will look at the ceremonial law of the Old Testament. Will say little Christians can eat pork. Well, say it says Right there in do Deuteronomy, Chapter 14 that pork is unclean for Israel. Well, first, thanks be to God that we are in Israel. And Second and Roman's Chapter 14 God speaks again and says that actually, all food is clean and permissible to eat. So Dow for when you listen to this later, eat some bacon soon for the glory of God, you thought you were going to make it through this sermon with out of bacon reference because Dad wasn't here. But you thought wrong. I just wanted to throw that one in there for him when he listened. And while Romans is certainly useful for debunking a lot of falsehoods about our faith and addressing these misconceptions that there's a lot more to Romans than just that and today a CZ, we look in Romans Chapter five verses one into. I pray that the Lord will be able to speak to us just a bit about who we are in Christ on what it means to be justified. So let's pray before we begin. Heavenly Father. God, I just I am humbled by the fact that you have given us your word God as sinful people. We have no right to have received it as people who rebel against you. We do not deserve to know you at all. But you have given us your words so that we can see who you are. Clearly God, I pray as we study today, and as we look in the book of Romans that you'll just reveal yourself to us, that you will show us a little bit more about who you are, that maybe we knew coming in and God knows, we touched on the subject of justification and peace with you. God, I pray that you will just reveal also something true about ourselves as we following you. God, please let any words. And I say this morning, be yours and not my own. And let what we do here today. Glorify you, Father. We love you. It's in your son. Jesus name. We pray payment. All right. So, as I mentioned earlier, we're going to be in Romans five if you haven't already opened. There you go and do that with me. Looking primarily at Romans. Five verses, one and two today, but just kind of as a heads up, we are going to jump to a few other parts of Romans just to help us. Better understand these two verses. Because these two verses, there's a lot in there, and it would help us to understand them better if we look at some other passages in Romans as well. So we're going to kind of jump just a little bit as you're turning there. I thought maybe we could talk just a little bit more about the context of Romans. Romans was a letter written by Paul, and if you weren't aware of this, it was written to believers in Rome, OK? And it was written to these believers in Rome as essentially a 16 chapter theological overview of our faith. So when you think of Romans, you can think of whatever's in it being largely applicable to any situation you can imagine, because it's generally a theological overview of our entire faith. So if you read something in Romans, chances are it applies to you, too. And that is true for what we're going to study today. So with that thought in mind, Paul begins chapter five with verse one saying this. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, We're going to do something just a little bit unorthodox this morning. We're actually going to start looking at verse one at the end of the verse, and I want to do that because at the end of the verse, Paul used the phrase through our Lord Jesus Christ. And he says this to qualify, that everything that's written before this in this verse is because of these words. So everything that's written before those words is only true through our Lord Jesus Christ. Is that making sense? All right, I'll ask it again because I'm that kind of guy. Is that making sense? Perfect. All right, so we're starting at the end because all in, we're in Romans 51 That is true is true, because it is through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now we know as Christians as people who have been in church, some of us for our whole lives, some us for a long time, that son of some of us. Just a short amount of time. But we know that Jesus is the savior of all of us who have been redeemed from our sins. We know this, and we know that Jesus accomplished this saving work through his undeserved death on a cross dying a death that we should have died instead. And we know that he finished this work through his resurrection on the third day. We know these things, and we know that Jesus requires faith on our part that we must have faith in him and what he's done again. We know this and we're going to talk about all these things during the sermon today. But before we do, I think it's important for us to acknowledge the fact that Jesus is our savior in three distinct offices. Okay? And I say offices like it could have used the word positions. But Jesus, our savior in three offices. The first is Jesus was a prophet for the Lord. Okay. Jesus was a prophet for the Lord. He saved us by just like the old testing profits did by revealing God to the world by revealing his word to the world. And he did this for a people both then and now who would not know him otherwise? If it were not for Jesus, we would not know God. Christ is also a priest of the Lord. And he saved us in this that, like the high priest in Scripture, he interceded on our behalf before God. Because we could have never met with God because of our sin against him. And Christ is the king, the true Lord of Lords. And he has all authority and all power over all creation, period. And thanks be to him. He saved us because he is a benevolent king who loves us and cares for us and as compassion for us and desires that we would get to live with him for eternity. Despite the fact that we don't deserve that. So Christ the Prophet Christ the priest Christ the King is the only reason that we can have peace with God and Christ the Prophet and Christ the priest and Christ the King is the only means that we have of ever being justified through our faith. So as we continue to look at verse one and we think about justification, we think about peace with God. Understand that it's only through Christ. There's no other means of justification. There's no other means of peace with God except through Christ. Now the word justified. It's a word that we probably use sometimes in church, and we definitely see it in the Bible. But we don't always know what it means, and we don't always actually define what it is. It's just one of those church words, so I want to actually try to define it a little bit a deeper dive. Universe one is going to help us to do that. But as part of that deeper dive, I wantto teach everybody super top secret seminary trick. Okay, now, some of you know I graduated from seminary this past winter in February, and you know they taught us some really cool things, so I'm going to show you something. It's like a top level classified seminary Bible interpretation technique. Okay, and I'm elated on here It is. If you see the word. Therefore, you gotta figure out what it's there for. Some of you will get that later, and some of you will still not think it's funny. So because this verse starts with the word, therefore we have to figure out what it's there for. So when Paul says, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have to figure out what he's referencing when he says. Therefore, luckily for us, we don't have to look back very far, because when Paul uses the word, therefore here he is referencing the chapter before this. In the chapter before Romans, five is Roman's for and in Romans, Chapter four. Paul references Genesis 15 in Romans four, Verse three. When he says sorry, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness. Okay, this is key in understanding what Paul means when he uses the word justified. This idea of being counted as righteous is very similar to the idea of being justified. Notice, though, that in Chapter four, Paul did not say that Abraham believed God and Abraham was righteous. It's not what he said. Instead, Paul says, Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness now because of his faith in the saving power of God and therefore his faith in the Lord's plan of salvation, which Abraham hadn't even seen yet, which makes it a whole another level of powerful faith. But because of this faith, Abraham was counted as righteous. Now believers like Abraham, if you're faithful, sorry to break it to you, that does not mean that you are righteous. It simply means that you are counted is righteous and you're accounted as righteous because the Lord, when he looks at you, if you have been saved from your sin, if you have been redeemed by the blood of Christ and have publicly professed on understanding of the gospel that Jesus died and was resurrected on your behalf, if that is you, then when the Lord looks, that's you instead of seeing the the center that you are. Instead, Scripture tells us that he sees his righteous son. So while you are not righteous, you recounted is righteous because the Lord sees his righteous son when he looks at you. I shared with our summer in the Psalm Group several weeks ago that the word atonement, the word atonement loosely means to cover completely. So we think about Christ's atonement. And when he died on the cross, those resident he atoned for arson. And we think of Christ's atonement. We can think of the fact that he has completely covered us with his perfect sacrifice, to the point that when the father looks at and judges Christians, he only sees the righteousness of his son. Praise God for that. Now you might be wondering what on earth this has to do with the word justified. Well, being justified in a legal sense of the word would mean that you are viewed as legally and sufficiently innocent of any charges. So in a spiritual sense, this means that because Jesus took our place on the cross because Jesus took the death, that we should have died and because she's completely covered us and atone for our sins with this sacrifice that the heavenly father's view of us His view of us A Centers was then replaced with his view of his son. Our faith in this gospel truth is what justifies us. Just like Abraham had faith in God and he was counted as righteous. So to we, we have faith in God. Were counted, is righteous. One person once described justification like this. He said being justified means God views me, Justus, if I'd never send While this isn't a 100% perfect definition of justification, I think this definition does a really good job of explaining that in an eternal sense, the Lord looks on his people just a ziff they've never sent. If you are a Christian, this is to review that the Lord looks at you in any turn away, as if you have never send so back to verse one. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of our status has justified through faith in Jesus Christ. Believers have peace with God. In other words, because of our faith in Christ and his work, we have peace with God. Let me be clear, though I am not in any way saying that the power of salvation or even the ultimate, the ultimate decider of salvation. I am in no way saying that that falls in the hands of man because that's not true. God is the author of Salvation. He is the one who has the power to say if he is mighty, to save all salve if it powers in the hands of God alone. Because God alone is the one who is powerful enough to do that. God is the one alone who is righteous enough to do that. God is the one alone who is good enough to do that. It'd be really easy to take this idea and run with it and think that our peace with God is ultimately determined by us. It's ultimately determined by us having faith, but that's not the reality. This would be a horrible misunderstanding of what Paul's trying to say here. While the strength of our faith certainly matters, Okay, what is much more important is whom we place our faith in. Let me put it to you this way I can have an enormous amount of faith that if I walked down to the pre school Hall right now, and I decided to sit down in one of those little preschool chairs. I'm going to have a whole lot of faith that it's going to hold me. Guess what's going to happen. I'll be sitting on a pile of sticks and a few seconds. But I can also have a very small amount of faith that if I walked down to this front road, sit on the pew that it would hold me. Guess what it would. Because while there is a certain amount of importance to the strength of our faith, it is much more important the strength of the subject of our faith, a large amount of faith in something that is not powerful, a large amount of faith in something that cannot have strength for you is worthless, but even a small amount of faith in the one who is strong. The one who is mighty to save just a small amount of faith has great meaning There. There's a tremendous difference in having faith and placing your faith where it belongs. Through this, you might be wondering, Why do I need to have peace with God? Maybe thinking you haven't really talked about that you've mentioned this world peace. We haven't talked about why I need it. Don't we naturally have peace with God since he loves us? Well, the short answer to this question is no. We do not naturally have peace with God, and we do not naturally have peace of God because we're centers and we sinned against him. In fact, Roman's Chapter three, Verse 12 says that no one does good. Not even one, which makes his words in verse 23 of that same chapter makes sense when he says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. To sum this up pretty succinctly, I think that we can pretty confident, say we aren't good without Christ. We're not good. We aren't good because we sometimes do good things. Sometimes we help old ladies cross the street, or sometimes we give to charity, or sometimes we tell somebody thank you and they do something nice for us. We're not good because we're usually a little bit nicer than we are mean, at least when people don't make this man and we're not good enough where we have just a little bit of good inside us and one day Jesus or unlocked. How good we are for us. No, without Jesus intercessory work in our lives. We are unrighteous. Beings who do not have peace with God were ungodly beings who do not have peace with God. We are sinful beings who do not have peace of God. That's who we are. That is our reality without Jesus and if we're sinful, ungodly, unrighteous people than our reality. According to Romans, 1 18 says this. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all on godliness and un righteousness of men without Christ intervention in our lives. Not only are we not good people, but because we're not good people in because we send were deserving of God's wrath. And that's a terrifying reality. At this point, you're probably really excited that you're here hearing such an encouraging message this morning that were evil unrighteous people. But thankfully, as I'm sure most of you realize, that story's not over with just that because although our spiritual state was up to us, we would be in deep trouble. Our spiritual state is not to us. We know that our faith is built upon one who actually is good our faith is not built upon ourselves. Instead, our faith is built upon Jesus Christ And this Good Christ this good messiah, this good savior that we have. He grants us peace with God because he is good and he died for us. Even when we were still enemies of God. Verse six of Chapter five says it's for a while. We were still weak while we were still enemies of God while we were still ungodly while we were still unrighteous while we were still trapped in our sin. While we were still weak at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly Jesus takes us even while we were still enemies of God. And he transforms us into a new creation. An adopted son or daughter of the Heavenly Father. That's the reality for Christians. The reality is it doesn't stop with the depressing side. The reality is we have more. We have been adopted as sons and daughters of God, and it's only through Jesus. Remember at the beginning, through our Lord Jesus Christ, it's only through Jesus that we can have peace with the father. And this piece isn't just some ordinary piece. Okay? It's not just, you know, throw up two fingers, Say PCL. It's not just that, in fact, that the Jewish people would have likely used the word Shalom here. And the word Shalom is not an ordinary piece. They wouldn't walk around. You know, Shalu, You know, it would have been just that right? Shalom is something so much bigger than that. Shalom is not temporary. Shalom is an eternal harmony with God. Shalom is not just a happy feeling, joyful state of being. This piece that Christians have it is shallow. It is an eternal, joyful state of being. And if we have been saved from our sense, Christians, that's us. If we have been saved from our sins, if we've been redeemed by the blood of Christ that our peace with God, a secure forever period our peace with God is not like peace between two nations that could end if one political leader offends another political leader. Our peace with God is not like the peace between siblings. That could end as soon as one of them yells out in an otherwise silent afternoon. He's touching me. Our peace with God is secure and unchanging. You know how I know that I know that because of who grants it to us. Jesus is the only one who lived in peace fully with God. So if he is the one granting us peace, then we can know that it is a really and complete and secure peace. Because he's the only one who's ever truly lived in Jesus grants us complete peace with God and this leads. It's nicely in tow verse to Chapter five. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. If this point hasn't been hammered home quite enough yet, this is author Jesus again, Paul saying, threw him this through Jesus. We have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. What is grace? That it's another one of those church words that we use. It's another one of those words that we sort of kind of know what it means. But we might not really a simple definition for grace that I like to use enough sharing this with some of you before, but a simple definition that I like to use for grace is getting a good thing that you do not deserve. And for Christians, right? This grace in which we stand is not just that we receive God's grace. It's that were permanent recipients of God's grace because everybody receives God's grace sometimes, but Christians receive God's grace all the time. Romans 8 28 says this, and we know that for those who love God, all things work together for good. For those who are called according to his purpose, this good that we see here may not always look like we think it should look. But whether right now or for eternity, God is working good for you. And this is God's grace for his children. And because of this is it says at the end of verse to Chapter five, rejoice in hope of the glory of God. All reference our summer in the Psalms Group again. By the way, if you weren't a part of our group our summer in the Psalms Group, you really were missing out. We had a really, really good time a fellowship prayer and Bible study. We're actually going to pick it back up, I believe. September 4th, we're going to pick it back up on Wednesdays. If you're available at 12 15 you should really come. It's been a tremendous encouragement to me, and I've heard stories from others who have thoroughly enjoyed that time. So if you're available, please come on out. Just a little infomercyal. They're in the middle of a sermon, but again, I was sharing with our summer in the Psalms group through someone 03 and in solemn 103 If you if you didn't know that's actually the inspiration behind a worship song that we often sing here called 10,000 Reasons and That song and the Psalm in both of those. Matt Redman, the artist behind the song and the Sol N'est both list many reasons why they rejoice in the Lord and we could do that right now. We'd be here all day long, but I think that Paul, here in verse two of Chapter Five, kind of sums up all reasons why we should rejoice in the Lord for the future when he says that we should rejoice in the Lord in hope of the glory of God. This is a clear calling. I think Christians were called to have hope in the Lord, the thought might be running for your mind. What about God? Exactly. Should I have hope in? I know he's good. I know I should be thankful to him, but for what should I have? Hope was Dow shared with us recently through the Book of Philippians. We should rejoice in all things, but even more than that, I think what Paul is trying to get at here is that we must have hope in and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God, which is our eternal salvation. As Christians, we get constant reminders of this in Scripture, just another and Romans comes in Chapter eight, verse 38 39. When the Apostle Paul says, for I am sure that neither life nor death, nor angels, nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God for eternal salvation because nothing can take it away, period for the Christian, there's nothing that could take away our salvation and For this reason, we must rejoice in who? John Piper. He's a He's now an ex pastor, famous pastor and Ryder theologian. Way smarter than me. Okay, so you don't take my word for it. Take it Is John Piper explains it like this. The glory of God is a sure hope in Christ Jesus. There's so much more coming in heaven that we now live in hope we wait We wait for Christ, We wait for health We wait for righteousness and we wait for the glory of God We don't wait and wonder if it will all turn out Well, we can wait and know that the glory of God is our eternal portion. You can say I know I'm going to share in the glory of God because I am justified by faith and because I live at peace with God and because I stand in the center of God's grace and if they say and just how did you get access into the center of God's grace? You will answer with Verse two through Jesus Christ, who loved me and gave himself for me because of Jesus got acquitted me of all my sins and record me righteous in his sight because of Jesus. God is now reconciled to me. We are no longer enemies but friends. And because of Jesus, I have access into his grace where I am safe and secure. You might be thinking that that's a that's a nice thought and all. You're thinking about salvation being eternal and all. But you know, Kevin, I still sit. I'm not worthy of an eternal salvation, which I have a very simple response for you. Welcome to the club. None of us are worthy of our salvation. Be all, still sin. As much as we don't want to admit it, the reality is for Christians. We still fight sin every single day. However, be encouraged by this thought. If you are a Christian and you're fighting sin, you are not fighting in vain and you're not fighting in vain because your victory over that sand is actually already secured. And the reason it's already securities because Jesus has already claimed that victory. If you struggle with the sin of not placing another Godover the one true God will. Jesus was 100% without that sin so that he could save you from that sin if you struggle with the sin of idolatry. Jesus was without idolatry so that he could save you from your idolatry If you struggle with sending against God by taking his name in vain. Jesus never once took the Lord's name in vain so he could save you when you do. If you struggle with honoring the Sabbath and keeping it. Holy Jesus always honored the Sabbath and kept it wholly to save you from when you don't If you struggle with the scent of dishonoring your parents Jesus always honored his parents so you could save you when you don't. If you struggle with the hate in your heart that Jesus actually in Matthew five calls Murder in your heart If you struggle with that hate in your heart Jesus was 100% without hate or murder in his heart. So he could save you when you fail. If you struggle with sexual center, Jesus never gave in to the temptation to send in that way so that he could save you When you do Christians, if you struggle with taking what doesn't belong to you, Jesus never gave in to the temptation to steal so that he could save you when you do. He struggled to live honestly. Jesus never lied, not once, so that he could save you from your own lives. You struggle with covetousness or being jealous of what others have. Jesus was 100% without coveting in his life so that he could save you when you covet what others have, No matter what your sins struggle is. Jesus was strong and victorious in his fight against temptation and he never gave him so that he could save you for when you do so he can save you and you stumble on when you fall because believe me, friends, we stumble and we fought and we do it much more often than we would care to admit with Jesus Christ. Praise be to God defeated sin and its power over us when he victoriously rose from the grave on the third day after giving himself on a cross For us, the death that came with sins power over us is gnome or because death could not hold our risen king. So brothers sisters rejoice in hope of the glory of God because you surely without a doubt will one day be in the presence of the glory of God. If you're a Christian, he has already saved you from sins penalty. We can have confidence and hope in the fact that that is true because he has justified us. If you are a Christian, he is every single day saving you from sends power over you as he leads you closer and closer to himself. And we can have confidence and hoping that fact. And one day when our days on earth are coming to an end, we leave this place. He will have saved us from sins presence completely. But we will no longer need to have confidence and hope in the glory of God at that point. Because at that point friends, our faith, our hope, our confidence, it won't be needed. At that point, our faith will be site and we will be with our heavenly father for all eternity. Worshipping the King Piper's quote from earlier finishes like this. The reason we can always rejoice in God is not that the Christian life is an easy life. It isn't. The reason is that the glory of God is great beyond all imagining. And in Jesus Christ in Jesus Christ it is rock, sure, and so rejoice.