You know, the book of Romans is considered by many as Paul's greatest epistle. And prior to getting to this point in the New Testament, as we are in the Gospels, we see Jesus' life, we see his example as he lived out his life here on this earth, in his actions and in his words. But when we come to Romans, Paul, the Apostle Paul, clearly and systematically begins to show us the significance of the death of Christ. Why did Jesus die? And what were the results? How does that affect you and me? And in the opening chapters of Romans, he has spent a lot of time dealing with the need of man, and that is that man needs to be saved. Because of our sin, we are lost and separated from God. It's a clear teaching of the Bible, and especially as we come to these opening chapters of Romans, Paul clearly states that he says that there's nothing in religion. There's nothing in the works, the good works that man can do. There's nothing in keeping the law that can save a man's soul. That is not God's plan of salvation. That is not how a person gets right with God. But rather, it is based totally and completely on the finished work of Christ on the cross. And when we come to understand what Christ did for us on the cross and we trust Him to save us, that He will do for us what we cannot do for ourselves. That's God's way of salvation. Now when we move on into this book, we come to this chapter and we see some of the reasons why you and I have to rejoice as a result of coming to this knowledge of God's plan of salvation. What is the results? What are some of the results and why should we be able to rejoice in what has really happened? as a result of the transformation that has taken place. The first thing I'd like to, for us to notice there in verse one, it says, we have been justified. Now, what does that mean? That's one of those Bible words that sometimes just kind of goes right over us. We don't, okay, it sounds good, but what does it mean? It means that we have been counted as righteous. And you say, but wait a minute, God, the Bible says that we're sinners. Yes, that's absolutely true. But when Jesus came and he died on the cross for your sin and for my sin, he paid the debt. He paid the penalty for you and for me. Amen. And so when we come to God and we come to him and we say, Lord, I know I'm a sinner. I know that there's nothing that I can do to save myself, but I believe that Jesus Christ, when he died on the cross, he died for my sin. And then God looks at us and he says, your sin. I will take and I will put it under the blood and I will give you the righteousness of my son. It's not earned. There's no amount of good works that you could ever do in a thousand lifetimes to ever earn that righteousness. It's given to us when we come to Christ by faith. And justified, really, is kind of a legal term. It says God declares that when He looks at us, He no longer sees our sin, but He sees the righteousness of His Son. And I'm glad for that tonight, aren't you? I'm so glad for that truth. So, we have reason to rejoice, first of all, because we have been justified. We have been given that position as a result of coming to Christ by faith. You know, it's very important that we always remember. You know, sometimes after we've been Christians for a while, we tend to forget where we came from, don't we? And sometimes if we're not careful, we even begin to kind of look down our nose at other people. God help us to never do that. God help us to always remember that it's by His grace and by us coming to understand through the work of the Holy Spirit in our own heart that we came to know Him. It's nothing that we've done. It's nothing that we've been able to boast about. Remember what Paul said, that it's by grace through faith and not of works, lest any man should boast. Let's remember how it happened. Now I want to just think for a moment, what do we actually have? We've been We've been justified. We've been declared righteous. And so doing, we can have that relationship with the Lord. But Paul goes on to tell us here, what do we have? What are some of the things that we can really rejoice in as a result of that? Notice what he says. Having been justified by faith, we have peace. We have peace with God. You know, the Bible says that over just a few chapters, you can turn there with me, but chapter eight, chapter eight and verse seven, he says there, Paul, because the carnal mind that is the persons who has not Ben, transformed by the power of God, is still thinking worldly and is the unsaved man. Basically, it's what he's referring to here. He says, is an enemy of God. Wow. You know, it's one thing to have someone not like you in this world. Maybe you say something or do something and you kind of get cross ways with somebody and. But to be an enemy of God, that's scary, isn't it? It should be. Man. But one of the things that we can rejoice in having been justified. We have peace with God because. That's the sin has been done away with. The reason that we were separated from God was because of our sin, but that's been dealt with. And now we have been accepted by God. We have peace with him. You know, um, I do some teaching there at one of the local universities. English, teach a business English class. And one of the things I like to do with these students is talk about idioms. Now do you, anybody know what an idiom is? Anybody? What's an idiom? It's a story that you give that means something else, but it's not exactly what it says. Right. Can you give me an example? Can anybody give me an example of an idiom? Okay, that's a good one. Anybody else have an example of an idiom? We use them every day all the time in our English language and we do it so often we don't even think about it sometimes. It's just part of who we are. What? Okay, yeah, and we all know what that means, right? It doesn't have anything to do with an elevator, does it? But yeah, and our Chinese students love these idioms because they understand, they know that it gives them kind of an opportunity to show off a little bit when they're talking with a foreigner. You know, when they throw one of those idioms out there and the foreigner's not expecting that. And they use it correctly, wow, that's pretty amazing, you know. But one of the idioms that we talked about in class one day was burying the hatchet. You ever heard that one before? Do you know where that came from? Do you know where that originated? It's interesting to kind of find out where some of these idioms come from. But burying the hatchet actually comes from years ago when the like warring Native American tribes would decide. The chiefs would get together and they would decide that we're not going to fight anymore. It's done. We're done fighting. We're going to have peace. Our tribes are going to be friendly toward one another. We're going to help one another. We're going to trade with one another. And so the hostilities are over. And so they would do this ceremony where they would literally take a hatchet or a tomahawk, whatever you want to call it, which was the symbol of their hostility and their history of warring against one another. And they would dig a hole in the ground and they would put it in the ground and bury it. And that was symbolic of their hostilities toward one another being over. Bury the hatchet. Now we use that today. And what does it mean? We're not talking about a hatchet, are we? We're talking about two people or two parties of people that have a history of being angry with one another or fighting and carrying on, coming to peace. When we come to God through Jesus Christ, the hatchet is buried. The hostilities are over. And we are accepted by God. Paul says, not only are we accepted, not only do we have peace, but we also, through our Lord Jesus Christ, have access into his grace. Access, kind of the idea of You know, when we think of royalty, when we think of a king, we think of someone that, or even like here in our country, you know, it's not easy to get to the president, right? You can't just walk up to him and have a conversation with him without being invited or without going through the proper channels, right? And so when we think of this kind of access, we think of being welcomed into the presence of a king. There was a story one time that was told about this little boy that was standing outside of Buckingham Palace there in England. He's standing there with his hands on the bars of the gate and he had this dream of being able to get in and have a conversation with the king. He had some things on his mind that he wanted to talk to the king about. And he would come there day after day and he was on his way home from school and he would stop there and he would just think about, man, it would be so wonderful, so amazing if I could just have an audience with the king. And one day he was standing there and this very distinguished looking man came up beside him and asked him what he was doing. why he was standing there. And the little boy began to tell him that, you know, it was his dream of a lifetime to just be able to go in and have a conversation with the king. He had some things he wanted to talk to him about. This man looked down at that little boy and he said, that's no problem. You come with me. And this gentleman took that little boy by the hand. And I mean that guard stood at attention and that gate opened. And here went that little boy holding this man by the hand. And off they went down this walkway, down this corridor, through these huge doors. And before he knew it, that little boy was in the presence of the king. Was it because of him? Was it because of who he was? Was it because of something that he had done? No. It was because of the one who had taken him by the hand. It was the king's son, the Prince of Wales. Not whales, but whales. And it's so much the same with you and I. We have access into the presence of the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, not because of who we are, not because of anything that we have done, but because Jesus Christ, the Son of God, has taken us by the hand and given us access to the throne of God. I don't know about you tonight, but I thank God that in His wisdom, that His plan of salvation has nothing to do with my ability. It has nothing to do with my bank account, praise the Lord. It has nothing to do with anything that I could ever do to try to earn merit with God. But it's because that one day, as a 12-year-old boy, I heard the Word of God preached. I'd heard it many times before then, but that day, I heard a message about standing before God in judgment someday. And God saying, depart from me, I never knew you. And the Holy Spirit gripped my heart. And I knew that as a 12-year-old boy, I didn't want to stand before God and have to hear those words. And in simple faith, I just came to Jesus that night. He took me by the hand and He took me into the presence of the King. I praise Him for that. We also have a great assurance that what He has begun, He will finish. Now I want to make it clear tonight, salvation in the Word of God is always in the present tense. Amen? A person is foolish if they're hoping on something that happened 20 or 30 years ago and there's no evidence of the work of God going on in their life today. Now I'm not the judge, but I believe the clear teaching of the Bible is that a person who has come into a union with Jesus Christ and has been transformed by the power of God, it's an ongoing thing. And we continue in that fellowship with him. And that's where we can have great assurance. When our spirit bears witness with his spirit that we are his. And that day in and day out, we have that communion with him. Now, does that mean that we're always perfect in doing this? No. That's why, as the pastor said, we have 1 John 1, 9. Amen? I thank God that there is forgiveness. And I thank God that he understands, as the psalmist said, that we are dust. He knows our frame. And he has mercy and grace. But I thank God for his assurance. I thank God that in those dark times, when maybe Satan would try to put doubt in our mind and things are going on that we don't understand. And we go to that refuge. We go to that quiet place. And we hear that small, still small voice saying, you are my child. Amen. I thank God for that. Now, I know that it's normal for human beings. You know, it's easy for me to stand up here tonight and talk about these great blessings and try to, through God's help, remind you of the things that we possess as a result of being justified by grace through faith. But then we get out there in our daily life and in the challenges that face us day in and day out. And Satan tries to cast a shadow, he tries his best to cast doubt in our mind. And that's why it's so important to be reminded that we're in this, it's a spiritual warfare that's going on. And Paul tells us very clearly, you know, that's why it's so important to take these things that he's given us. He calls them the armor of God. You know, I don't have time to get into all that tonight, but you know what I'm talking about. Taking advantage of those things that we have, that he's given us. to be able to fight against the devil and his tactics and him trying to always trip us up and discourage us. And it says there in verse two, he says, through whom also we have access by faith into his grace in which we stand. Remember, that's what Paul said. Stand. Put on the whole armor of God so that you can stand in the evil day. We can't do it on our own. We're foolish to think we can do it on our own. We must walk with Him every day of our life. Now finally, I just want to mention a few things that we have also that are very important to us that he mentions in the latter part of this passage. You know, not only can we rejoice in the fact that we have peace with God, not only can we rejoice in the fact that we have been accepted by Him and that we have the assurance in our heart that we belong to Him, but we can even rejoice, he says, in tribulation. And that's amazing. When you think about it, It's amazing that we could do that, but we can't. He says it's possible right here. Now is it easy? No, but it is possible. And I've heard many testimonies, and I'm sure you have too, of Christians maybe on their job or out doing their daily thing, going through a very, very difficult time of life. Maybe a tragedy in the family or loss of a loved one or whatever the difficulty may be. And those around them who are not saved, watching and thanking. How can they have the spirit that they have? How can they smile? How can they even go on with their life with what's happened to them. But as a believer, we have the Word of God and we have the Spirit of God who is our comforter. And the Bible says, Romans 8.28, Denise Allen's favorite verse in the Bible, what does it say? And we know that all things work together for good. to them who love God, who are the called according to his purpose. Now, does he say that all things are good? No, he says all things work together for our good. He even takes those moments in our life where we feel like we're being wrung out like a dishrag and he brings it somehow around for our good. That's amazing, isn't it? But that's the promise of God. And if you've lived the Christian life for very long, you've experienced it yourself. To be able to rejoice even in the dark times of our life, knowing God's got some kind of purpose in this. God's doing something. I'm not sure I understand what it is right now, but I know that he loves me and I know that he hasn't forsaken me, he promised he never would. He's doing something and I'm sure in his time he'll let me know what it is. And he says here that some of the results of these tribulations that God allows to come into all of our life. Somebody said that you either are about to go into some trouble or you are in the middle of some trouble or you've just come out of some trouble and that's about right, isn't it? God has given us this assurance that even in those dark moments, he's there. He is there. He has not forgotten you. You are still in the palm of his hand. And he has some purpose for allowing this to happen. And even in these verses, he says some of the results of tribulations struggle in our life is the things that it produces. It produces perseverance. I remember hearing or reading somewhere one time, I forget now where it was, but it goes something like this, a calm sea has never produced a skillful sailor. Think about that. And that's the way it is with our life. God knows. That when we go through difficulty, it's going to make you stronger. Some of us guys, you know, when we were younger, we all wanted to look like Arnold Schwarzenegger, you know. But you know, old Arnold, he didn't get to look like that in a day. It took some work. It took some sweat and some perseverance. Now, you know, you may have your opinion about that, but I hope you get the point I'm trying to make here. If we want to be physically fit, it's not going to happen sitting on the couch watching television and eating potato chips. It's not going to happen. It's going to take some sweat. It's going to take some perseverance, struggle. It's going to be hard. But the things that God allows to come into our life, he says, will produce these things. It will produce perseverance. It'll make us stronger. It will produce character. Boy, that's something our world is in lack of, isn't it? And I pray that you will submit yourself to God, that I will submit myself to God and allow Him to mold us and to shape us into what He wants us to be. What does He want us to be? He wants us to be like His Son. And when God gets His sandpaper out Begins sanding off those rough edges. It hurts sometimes, doesn't it? We don't like it. It's uncomfortable, but it's for our good. He's trying to make you and I stronger. He's trying to produce character in us. His goal is to bring us to full maturity. And I'm sad to see that very often someone comes to Christ. And they get excited about understanding how they can come into a right relationship with God, and they trust Him, they begin to follow. But then for whatever reason, It's like they just get stagnant. And they stop growing. And they get discouraged. It happens. We have a responsibility as brothers and sisters in the Lord if we see that happening to someone. to go put our arm around them and encourage them, walk with them until they can get back on their feet. I'll just close tonight by saying God does not want us to ever, ever, give up and have any sort of feelings of despair, no matter how bad it gets. If we simply can get out of the rat race for a moment and get our eyes back on him and, and be thinking about who he is for just a moment. It's amazing how quickly those thoughts can disappear. And so we can, we do have the ability as believers to rejoice even in trouble, knowing who God is, knowing that he will never put on us more than we can bear, knowing that he has a purpose in all that he's doing. And we can have great hope, realizing that we are right in the palm of his hand. And his desire for us, for every one of us that know him, is to bring us to full maturity, to the image of his son. Now tonight, I know usually on Sunday nights, mostly believers that come out, And I'm sure that's true here this evening. But God knows everyone's heart here tonight. I don't. I just pray. My prayer is that wherever you are tonight, if you are walking close to God and you have that full assurance that you know him and that you are his child, praise God for that. You know that you've been justified and you know that you have been accepted and you know that you have access to him and you know, all of these things rejoice in that. But there might be a person here this evening that is experiencing some doubt for whatever reason. I pray, my prayer is that God will remind you that there's no, nothing too difficult for Him. Nothing. Our part is to submit ourselves to Him, fully and completely, without reservation. And there may even be someone here tonight that has never really come to understand completely what it means to be justified, to have their sins completely forgiven and washed away and be able to be in a right standing to be reconciled, to be accepted by God. My prayer is also that God would use this message tonight to challenge your heart. that you would know that God wants you. He is inviting you. He has his hand out saying, come. There is nothing to stop you. Everything that has been, that is necessary for you to be reconciled to God has already been done. That's why I love so much. I say this preacher and I'm done. I love, I love, I love that old hymn. Just as I am without one plea. But that thy blood was shed for me. You don't clean up, you don't try to clean up your life first and then come to God. No, you come to him just like you are. And he does the cleaning. Amen.