I'm delighted to be here again and to see a few familiar faces. I'm still recovering from a little jet lag. I just got back from Thailand and Burma and Laos where I had the privilege to preach on the peace of Christ. Now why I focus on the peace of Christ out there is because the fact of the matter is there's about 98% Buddhists out there. And so wherever you're going, you want to use terms that contrast the true Christian religion with whatever religion you're dealing with out there, wherever you are. And I try to emphasize that to missionaries. When I was in El Salvador, I was trying to encourage young missionaries. You've got to focus on things that are decidedly contradictive to Christian faith, in which the religion of the area embraces. Like out there, it's justification through faith alone. It's justification through faith alone, apart from priests, apart from church even, but through Christ alone. How do we know this? Because of scripture alone. And he saved us because of his grace alone. And I focus on Ephesians 2, 8 through 10, where it says we are saved by the cause of grace. Dative of cause there. It answers the why question. Why did he save us because of karate because of grace through faith that answers the how question how does he save us through the instrument of faith and that salvation grace faith is not of yourself it's foreign to you it's not of yourself it's what it's a gift it's a gift it's a gift of God not by works Because if it's by works, we can boast about it. It's not through a church. It's not through the priest. It's not through Mary, right? It's through God alone. So in Thailand, the issue was Buddhism, in which they gather peace, knowledge, truth, and so on and so forth through that system. So I was privileged to have open air meetings. where I can preach the gospel. You can do that in Thailand, but you can't in Laos or Burma, because you'll go to prison. In fact, if you proselytize a Buddhist, that's like the worst crime of the land in Laos and Burma. Except in December, where we might go back, because they're sympathetic to us Christians, and the government allows some Christian events. The fact of the matter is, when I was out there, I focused on the peace of Christ in that reconciliation That kind of peace is the peace in which scripture speaks of and which will be my topic. Now there's a few different meanings of peace if you go to scripture. There is the gladness of the heart the joy and so on and so forth. But we'll be focusing on the peace that is reconciliation the peace with God from being at war with God for being an enemy of God to peace with God. What I find in particularly the circles I travel with, a whole lot of Christians don't understand the state they were before they got saved. And because of that, their evangelism is conducive to that false notion. They think before they got saved, they were a really good guy or a good girl, but they're just, you know, they didn't have Christ yet. Or you hear the statement, they're almost there. Well, biblically speaking, nobody's almost there. You're either dead or alive, right? Romans 5.10 says, God looked at you as an enemy. It's passive there. Ecthros, enemy. You looked at him as an enemy, indirectly. Hence, the reason for the atonement, to make harmony, katalaso, to bring to harmony you and your dead state to the risen Savior, Jesus Christ, through his blood alone, in which the Father Justifies. Crisis our peace. We are saved not only by his death. That is the atonement in which scripture speaks. But in Hebrews or in Romans 5 10 we also know that we're saved by his what his life his perfect life in which he fulfilled the covenant of works on our behalf. He fulfilled the penal sacrifice. the requirements of the law on our behalf. It's a substitutionary life. It's a substitutionary death in which I stand before the Lord right now as saved as justified declared righteous. We have to understand the state we were before we were we were saved redeemed because if we don't our evangelism is going to be a little different because you're going to see that person the object of evangelism as you know they're almost there. And you might cater your message to an almost there kind of person. No, they're dead. They're dead, just as we were. And the power of salvation that we find, that power of God, is what? The gospel, right? It has the same efficacy today, the same power today as it did 2,000 years ago. So I talk to many Christians who have many encounters with either family, or friends who are Jehovah's Witnesses, or Mormons, or just unsafe folks. And the unsafe folks, especially the ones that troll around the internet to find arguments against Christian faith, against the reliability of scripture. I always tell these folks, don't underestimate the power of the gospel, even if you don't have those answers. Don't underestimate the power of the gospel. There's another issue. What is the gospel? Unfortunately, I know when I teach and I have Bible studies, I always ask this question. Before we start, let's get a clear understanding as to what the gospel is. First and foremost, the gospel isn't about you. It has nothing to do with you directly. It's the work of the Son. That's how Paul defines it in Romans chapter 1. He says, the gospel according to the Son. It's his work. Get off the cross. It's his work. It's not about your good works or what you can do, your repentance, your faith, your obedience. That's a different issue. That's after you get saved. The gospel is what Christ did. It doesn't tell you what to do. The law tells you what to do. The gospel defines the work of God, the son, Jesus Christ, his perfect life, his death, and his resurrection, his physical resurrection. We as Christians are called to live, to live and believe in Christ, not only to believe in him, but to live in him. I think the brother quoted a passage in John 11, 25 and 26. I'm the resurrection, the life, whoever believes me, even if he lives or even if he dies, we'll live. And whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Interesting in 26. zon, whoever is living, they're participles, whoever is living and pistoun, believing, it's not just a one-time occurrence, they're active, present tense participles. That's the Christian life. Whoever is living in me and whoever is believing in me will never, as the Greek text says, never, never, not even a possibility, perish. It's a beautiful, I love that construction, double negative followed by the subjunctive arias. What it does, it indicates the strongest way to negate a future possibility. And many times it's used in salvation contexts, like in John 10, 28. My sheep hear my voice, they follow me. I what? I give them eternal life. And the text says they will never, never, not even a possibility, perish. It's beautiful. I think the ones that believe you can actually lose your position in Christ just don't understand the doctrines of justification. I don't think they understand the doctrines of grace where the life of a Christian is an ongoing belief. Why do you keep believing is because we're saved. We have the Holy Spirit in us. We keep living and believing. As I've said before, the Christian life is denoted by present tense participles. everyone hearing him in John 6 37 everyone coming to Christ believing in him. John 3 16 whoever are all the ones believing have eternal life. We're denoted by present tense participles. What did Jesus say in John 6 54 says unless you're eating trogon participles there unless you're eating of his flesh and and drinking Penone, drinking, participle there of his blood, unless you're doing this you don't have eternal life because whoever does this has eternal life. And of course we know in verse 35 the eating and the drinking is defined as coming to him, participle there in verse 35 through 37. Drinking is believing in him because Jesus says whoever is coming to me, regomenon, coming to me will never Same construction we talked about. Never, never, not even a possibility, will you go hungry. And whoever is believing in me will never, never, not even a possibility, go thirsty. So he defines what he means by eating his flesh. It means coming to him. We're always coming to him. We don't come to him once and that's it. Scripture defines our life as present tense participles, always hearing him, always coming to him, always eating of his flesh, drinking of his blood. That's sanctification. That's a true mark of regeneration. Our desire, our belief, our faith, ongoing. You know, Scripture doesn't know of anyone who believes and then they stop believing. Scripture knows of a faith That is the result of regeneration. That's ongoing. So of course we endure to the end because our faith is ongoing. If you're a Christian, that doesn't mean that. Getting all through life and your trust in him through trials and tribulations are going to be a hundred percent spot on because that kind of trust waivers with all of us. Sometimes we just get discouraged. Sometimes we don't really trust him like we should. That goes like this. But our faith in the risen Savior will never change. We will keep on believing in him if you're truly regenerated. So I Paul can say when he was under his house arrest. For me to live is Christ. For us it should be to live in Christ. And because of that to die is what. Of course. John 14, John 1, 4, the eternal word Jesus Christ is our life. It says in him was life and that life was the light of men, of his elect, of men. And in John 14, 6, what does he say? I am the way, the truth and the life and nobody comes to the father except through me. I like that because that passage because he differentiates himself from the father by using different propositions in contrast to groups like one of theology where they think Jesus is the father. Yes that is very important that we understand the distinctions there because too many Christians look at one is Pentecostal because they say Jesus is God. They look at him as Christians because they use our vocabulary. They use our terms. but they deny the only true triune God. In 1 John 5 20 it says, the Son is the true God and eternal life. That's the Son. And then John says the next verse, stay away from idols. What's an idol? Someone who is not the true God and eternal life. Any other view of God is idolatry. Our text, I'm going to use two texts. I'm going to use Ephesians chapter 2, 14 through 16, and Romans 5.1. And Romans 5.1. Because I think it's extraordinarily important that we differentiate the different kinds of peace that's defined in scripture. And I want to, as mentioned, focus on the Irenae, the peace that's tantamount to our reconciliation. our position with Christ as an alive person not a dead person. Reconciliation that kind of peace. Because that kind of peace you can be the most discouraged depressed person in the world and everything fell on you your whole world collapse. But the fact the biblical fact of the matter is you still have peace with God. You may not feel like it. Because salvation is not some kind of subjective kind of feeling where you feel saved sometimes, sometimes you don't. It's not predicated on feeling, but faith in the risen Savior, Jesus Christ. And that peace is permanent. See, the peace in scripture is the shalom. It's not a ceasefire. It's not that kind of peace where two nations at war and all of a sudden, There's a resolution. They have a cease fire. But what happens. They can always go back to warring. Right. That's not a permanent peace. We have in spite of how your situation is take where it's taking you. We have a permanent peace reconciliation. We're friends now. We're alive. With. The creator of the universe. Ephesians chapter 2. For he himself. is our peace. Remember, it's based on the gospel. That's why it's called the gospel of peace. Our reconciliation with God rests on the gospel or the work of the Son. That's what the gospel is. It doesn't rest on your meritorious works. It doesn't rest on the particular church you go to. It doesn't rest on your Christian friends. but it rests on the work of God the Son, the Lord of Glory. He is our peace who made both groups, Jews and Gentiles, into one and broke down the barrier of the dividing wall by abolishing in the flesh the ecthros, the enmity, the hatred, the hostility, the war, which is the law of commandments contained in the ordinances in order that In himself, he might make the two into one new man, thus establishing peace so he might reconcile them in one body to God through the cross, having put to death the ekthras, the enmity, the war that we had, that God had. You know, it's two-sided. God's not the beggar up there. just begging you to believe him, as it's so often presented in Christianity, where Christ is on the cross and he's the beggar. He's begging everyone, please, just accept me. Just pray in your heart, Jesus, come into my. He's not the beggar on the cross. He's powerful Savior, not the beggar. Savior, not the beggar. Amen, brother. Peace, as mentioned, is used many times in salvation contexts. As in Ephesians 2, notice the contrast between at war and Christ is our peace, enmity and peace. Reconciliation to bring down to a decisive point of change. That's what happened. We had a kind of heart, stony heart. We didn't want him. We weren't trying to, you know, doing our best in life. We weren't almost there. We were dead. We weren't, as Paul says, we weren't seeking after him. Because if you're seeking after the true God and Christ the risen Savior, if you're seeking him, what does that tell you? Your heart has already been changed. No need for a sinner's prayer. You're saved. That's what we call regeneration. We're God the Holy Spirit. The triune God sends God the Holy Spirit to regenerate you. And what's the result of having a new will? You want him, you believe, you have faith, and then you live out your participles, living, hearing, believing, following, asking, right? We now have peace with God when we were at war. That's why Paul can say in Romans 8, 1, therefore, there is Now, noon, now, no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. That starts that context in Romans 8. It's beautiful how he starts that context. There is now no condemnation for those in Christ Jesus. You know, we know how he ends chapter 8. Nothing can separate you from the love of God because there is no condemnation. You're at peace with God, reconciled with the God of the universe. There is no war. But don't confuse that with there is no discipline for disobedient Christians. Look our sanctification life is ongoing. We're victorious a lot of times and sometimes we're not. But we're victorious permanently in the sense of our reconciliation and our peace with God. That doesn't change that doesn't waver. That's promise in scripture. It's a guaranteed as Paul says in Ephesians. There is a. Contextual opening in Ephesians 2, talking about the peace of God, and we all, we should be familiar with passages 1 through 5, and it's a contrast between being dead and being alive. I don't know why so many people have a problem with this. It's overwhelmingly clear in scripture, your state before you were saved. You were dead, not terminally ill, not super sick. There's no Greek word for super sick that I'm aware of. It doesn't say that. It said you were dead. It said you were a corpse. What does a corpse do? He doesn't do anything that would denote him being alive. Look, if you're a non-believer, you can do good works before man. You can feed the homeless. You can clothe the homeless. You can have all kinds of programs. You can help people and all these things. But how does God see those works if you're a non-believer? Filthy. In fact, in Proverbs, I think it's Chapter 20 or 21, it says the works or the sacrifice of the wicked or the non-believer is an abomination. In other words, if you're a non-believer, it's better for you just to stay home and don't do anything because the more works you do, the more abominable it is because you're rejecting the only means of peace through the blood of the cross. Filthy. Note the contrast. which is really the opening context of Ephesians 2 that we just quoted. And it's found in verses 1 through 5. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, in which formerly you walked according to the course of the world, according to the prince of the air, of the spirit who is now ergamentos, who is now working. It's a very interesting term here. Energuntas is a participle of the verb energeo, which you have works, ergon, and then it's intensified by the preposition en, enworking or energize. Here you have the participle. Know what it's saying? It's saying that the non-believers, the dead ones, as we were, all of us were, is walking, according to the course of the world, according to the prince of the air, the spirit who is now energuntas, or energizing, energizing the sons of disobedience. Why do these skeptics come up with these, you know, complicated arguments to try to befuddle and discourage Christians? Why is the Mormon church growing? Why is Islam growing? Paul says they're energized. They're energized. They're energized by the prince of the power of the air, Energonitas, the sons of disobedience. It's really interesting because the same participle is used in Philippians 2, 12, and 13, where it says, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. And what does it say? Energon, it's God in you who's Same participle. Who's energizing you? So in other words, both to do to will and work according to his good pleasure. We as Christians are being energized to will and work according to his good pleasure. We have the spirit of God that's energizing us in contrast to the sons of disobedience who have the prince of the power of the air. That spirit is energizing them to proselytize, to go out, to be in cults, to do all kinds of ungodly things, do not believe, or whatever it is. They're being energized. In the same way, we are being energized, same participles used, by the Spirit of God to do good things. See, we can please God by our good works. There's a lot of ways we can please God. What is the religion that pleases the Father? What is it? It's taking care of whom? The widows and the orphans. We know that pleases God, and there's other works that please God, but you can only please God as a believer who's living in Christ. That's what we do. We're constantly living in Christ, constantly hearing Him, constantly believing in Him. It doesn't stop. That's why we can please Him. We're energized. Always being a participant there. Among them, verse 3, Ephesians 2, Among them, we too formerly lived in the lust of the flesh, indulging in the desires of the flesh and the mind. We were by nature, children of wrath by nature. That's what our will. That's how our will lived according to our nature as dead people. Our natures are in bondage. Our will is in bondage. Now I have new or friends, Christian friends, and it's interesting when someone first is exposed to the doctrines of grace, or when they're first exposed to Calvinism. They're hyper-Calvinists when they're first exposed, because they really don't understand all the nuts and bolts of it. So they'll tell people, no, God took our will away. God forces me to be saved. That's not really the biblical presentation. But the fact of the matter is, our will lived according to its nature as dead people. And dead people don't believe in Christ. Paul says in Romans 8. 7 and 8 says the one whose mind is literally possessed by the flesh, it's a sarcastic genitive of possession meaning the unsaved folks, their minds are literally possessed by the flesh, says they don't submit to God. They can't, cannot submit to God's law. It doesn't say they choose not to, there's no word for choosing there, there's no word for will there, but they said Paul says they can't. Undunamai, no ability. No ability. This should affect our evangelism and the people we talk to. Understanding it's not articulated, you know, articulate arguments that's going to save these folks. It's not presenting, you know, the reliability of the 66 books for the authors. I think that's a good benefit for Christians. But you're not going to convince someone in bondage to sin by way of evidence that all of a sudden, oh, okay, I believe now. We see that in Luke 16. Remember the rich man, Abraham? By the way, the earliest manuscript of Luke, it's fairly interesting, actually, P75, actually gives the name of the rich man. Now, I believe it's the sole manuscript, so it's probably not in the original. But it gives it the abbreviated form of Nineveh as the name of the rich man. Little interesting factoid. But we have Abraham, and we know the narrative. We have Lazarus, and we have that arrogant rich man. It's really interesting. The rich man's in torment, and he's still arrogant and prideful because he's still ordering Lazarus around. He's still ordering him, send Lazarus to cool my tongue, you know, to dip water with his finger. I mean, he's still ordering Lazarus. He didn't learn anything. It doesn't mean I don't believe personally. That just because you go to hell, all of a sudden you're regenerated, and now you believe. Says who? The gospel is what regenerates through means of the gospel. That's the power of God. That's what Paul said. So the rich man wanted to send Lazarus. He had brothers. He's still arrogant and prideful. He didn't change. Even in torment, he didn't change. It's like the men in Sodom. Don't change. And Abraham said, even if what? Even if they're presented with infallible evidence, infallible empirical evidence of people rising from the dead, what did Abraham say? They still will not believe. They still won't believe. Paul says the gospel is the power of God for salvation. Even when we are dead in our trust, trust Gresham's that's verse five. He made us alive together with Christ by grace. You have been saved. Interesting in Paul's letters. He frequently contrasts where you were and where you are now. All the time. He wants you to understand how dead you were, because the more you understand your state before you were saved, and the more you understand that it was God alone that saved you, the more that grace will be amplified. And the more you'll understand what grace is. the more you'll understand what peace of the blood of the cross actually is. But if you think that you were kind of good, you were almost there, searching, seeking, really trying to find, well, you know, God helped a little by kind of revealing Christ. It's part grace, but it's somewhat grace in man. That's Roman Catholicism. It starts with man and argues to God. Rather than starting everything with God, and going down to man as scripture presents. God is the infallible savior, is he not? He's the one that saved us and he's the one that delivered us from this dead at war state. We didn't do it. That's Rome. And virtually all non-Christian cults start salvation with what man is doing or what he should be doing. Also, Every single non-Christian religion and cult, virtually, have some kind of reason why sola scriptura doesn't work. They have some reason why it doesn't work. Look at the Watchtower. What do they have? They have a New World Translation and the Watchtower Bible and tract society. Look at the Mormon. They go by a quad. You know, they have the Book of Mormon. They have Doctrine and Covenants, Pearl of Great Price. Oh, yeah. And they have the Bible. Insofar as it's translated correctly. So the Book of Mormon's here all lit up by the glory of the body god, the god that has a body. And then you have the other writings of the prophets. And then way down the bottom of the totem pole, you have the Bible. But yeah, insofar as it's translated correctly. Not one in a thousand Mormons know how to translate scripture. And what they really mean is that the Greek texts were corrupted, but they use the word translation because they don't really know what they're talking about in that area. The fact of the matter is, they all have a reason why scripture alone doesn't work. They all have a reason why grace alone and faith alone just doesn't work. There's no aloneness in these groups. When scripture says in Galatians 1.30 and 31, or Colossians 1.30 and 31, It's who's doing it's his doing that what that you're in Christ Jesus who became to us the wisdom of God. And he became to us righteousness. Christ became to us righteousness. He became to us. Santification. He became to us redemption. And Paul says, therefore, whoever boasts, let him boast in the Lord. Of course we boast in the Lord because salvation from A to Z, everything we know, the forfeiture, God is forfeiting his revelation to us. That's all grace. That's all the doctrines of grace. But Paul says, by him alone, he became, Christ became our righteousness. When I speak to Roman Catholics, I tell them it, or when I speak about it, it is a decidedly different Jesus. And I have objections. Well, wait, they believe in the deity of Christ. They believe in the Trinity. They believe in the incarnation. They believe, of course, in the virgin birth. Yeah, but the Jesus that's presented in Scripture became to me my righteousness. In Catholicism, he does not become the righteousness. In fact, righteousness is something infused by meritorious works. In fact, if you commit a mortal sin, Even if you confess it and you don't pay enough merit, what happens when you die? You go to purgatory. You go to purgatory. Look, purgatory is not in Roman Catholicism. It's not for non-believers. It's for believers in their mind that was not pure enough because of the blood of the Lamb. They don't believe it's just efficacious enough. So what happened? You go to purgatory, you got to get scrubbed up. You got to get purified, or they also call it saddus passio in Latin, the suffering of the souls. So you justify yourself. Then after you're squeaky clean you arrive at your you're allowed to come into heaven. Jesus said in John 6 47 a simple passage. Everyone who believes or the believing one has eternal life. The verb a chi has with the present tense participle denote a simultaneous action. Right now, as a Christian, we have eternal life because of the peace that Christ provided on the cross through the blood of the cross. Similar contrasts we find between, as in Ephesians, enmity and peace. We find another contrast, and this is our second passage, our last passage, Romans 5.1. If you have a Bible, I'd like you to turn to Romans 5.1. Tim has an iPad, so everyone switch the pages. It's good for the soul. Romans 5.1. First word, I believe in most translations, therefore. Even a corrupt translation like the New World Translation has therefore. Interesting though, going back to Romans 8 where it says, therefore now there's no condemnation. In the New World Translation they remove the now in the English. Even though it's in their Westcott and Hort Greek text, they remove it because they don't believe you have salvation now. It's only for the 144,000 who have proven themselves. So they remove the word now, because the cults have a rule when they make translations. If you don't like something, just change it. Just change it. No one's going to know. No one's going to know. But we should know as Christians. Romans 5.1, therefore, literally, having been justified. It's one word. Having been justified. Tachyauthentos, having been justified from or by, ek, faith. Having been justified through faith or by faith, we now, ekamen, we now, right now, have what? Arene, peace with God. Prostondeon, with God, through the Lord, Jesus Christ. So just that one passage has so much Christian theology. Therefore, having been justified from faith, we now have peace. Reconciliation, not just a joy or gladness of the heart, but reconciliation because we've been justified. He doesn't justify non-believers. Faith is the precondition of justification. Meaning, he gives you the gift of faith, which is the result of what he first does, make you alive. And by that, from that instrument, faith, you have peace with God. Unless you're justified, you're a God-hater. There's two ways, too, as we may see later. Romans 5.10, when it says, when you were an enemy of God, he saved you, well, Ektheros can be used in two different ways, active or passive. But in the passive sense, as it's used in, I think, Romans 11, it's man-word. When God looked at you, he credited you as an enemy. And you looked at him as an enemy. That's when he saves you. Therefore, having been justified through faith, therefore, of course, leads back to chapter 4. Interesting, chapter 4. What we find is Paul is saying his whole thesis is really this. Look, and I'm paraphrasing Paul, the means of justification has not changed. He submits Abraham as his first example where God credits righteousness apart from works. He first gives you Abraham. He was justified through faith. He was credited as a righteous person. He was saw, he was reckoned, he was imputed with righteousness apart from works through faith alone. Right? Abraham was pre-law. And then he supplies David. He presents David as a second example, which David in Romans 4 through 8 just, you know, when he quotes David, Paul just hammers this point because he wants you to know that the means or method of justifying his people, his elect, has not changed. It's always been faith alone. from Abraham pre-law that covers everyone before Abraham and before the law and then he submits David even under the law they're still justified through faith alone as David says in Romans 4, 6, God credits righteousness what? Apart from works, apart without works on the instrument of faith. So therefore points back to chapter 4, if you look in verse 25 of 4, it says, he who was delivered because of our transgressions, he was raised up because of our justifications. That's this whole entire thesis of chapter 4, that God's method of justification has not changed. Abraham, pre-law, David, under the law, and us, apart from works. Therefore, having been justified by Kyle Fentis, It's arius, participle, but what's interesting, it's passive, meaning it was done to us. We don't justify ourself. That's Rome. It was done to us. It's passive. It was done to us. We were declared righteous. We were credited as a righteous person. Done to us, passive. And it's interesting because when you look at some of the other passages in scripture, when it talks about being born again and salvation. We find that it's God alone. We find this, these passive verbs to define that. Um, John one 13 is an excellent one, but as many as received him in verse 12, starting with verse 12, he gave the right to become children of God. Even those who believe in his name, even those who believe that's us, we believe in his name, his authority. We believe in Christ. who were born, notice it's a past tense, who were born, not of blood. It doesn't matter if your parents were Jewish or that you come from a long line of priests. It doesn't matter. You weren't born again that way. Not of blood. That was a big thing in first century Palestine. You know, what's your bloodline? Not of blood, nor the will of the flesh. It wasn't your desire to be born again before you were regenerated. just wasn't something that you'd want to do. In fact, you couldn't do it. You had no ability to do it. Not of the will of flesh or the will of man. Remember Romans 9, 16? Therefore, it is not the run, literally, it's not the running man or the willing man, but literally the mercy in God. We don't have a word like that in English, but it's a participle there of mercy, the mercy in God. It doesn't depend on man's running or willing, but the mercying of God. It's beautiful there. Who were born out of the blood or the will of flesh or the will of man, but of God were born. There is passive, again, it's passive sense. It was done to us. It was done to us. Regeneration precedes faith. It was done to us. Hence, those who believe in his name were born. It's before the belief, in other words. What happens for, you're born again. Tantamount to regeneration, you're born again. As a result, you believe. 1 John 5, 1 indicates the same thing. Everyone that is now, literally everyone that is now believing that Jesus is the Christ, remember in John's refutation, the Gnostics thought Jesus had the Christ spirit. So whoever, or all the ones believing now that Jesus is the Christ, have been born from above. God alone was the active voice in these salvation contexts. But again, back to our text. Therefore, having been justified from faith or through faith, we now have peace with God. The term peace, we have the verb ecumen. We have now peace. Not ecumen, but ecumen. We have peace. Context dictates that one. We have peace because we've been justified through faith alone. Interesting, the phrase, we've been justified, having been justified through faith, we now have peace, prostanteon. Of the different prepositions used in Greek, parason, en, meta, pros indicates, can indicate the Intimate fellowship. Intimacy. A couple of examples in 2 Corinthians 5.8 says, I preferred rather to be absent from the body and be at home, proston curion, with the Lord. Intimacy. In John 1.1, in the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God. The Word was the same phrase in Romans 5.1. The Word was proston theon, intimate fellowship that God the Son had with God the Father before time. 1 Corinthians 13, 12, for now I see in a mere dimly, but then prosopon, pros, prosopon, triple use of pros, but now I see face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will fully know just as I also have been fully known. Therefore, Having been justified from faith, we now have peace with God through Jesus Christ. Why? Because he is our peace. We've been justified, and the result of that is peace with the blood of the cross. He is our peace when we are discouraged. He is our peace when we are in pain. He's still our peace. He's our peace when we're in utter despair, when we think nobody else is out there, and our whole world's collapsing. We still have reconciliation. Prostrate on. We still have reconciliation through the blood of the cross. As Ephesians tells us in verse one just as he. At Legami he chose us before the foundations of the world. That we would be homely and blame holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us. In love he predestined us. In love. Very particular love, particular love he predestined us to adoption as sons through Christ Jesus himself, according to what? The kind intention of his will, not according to the meritorious works of what we do, but according to his will, he chose us. Same with 2 Thessalonians. One of my favorite passages, actually, in 2 Thessalonians 2.13, we should always give thanks to the Lord, always. Because he, literally, he chose us for himself before time for salvation. He chose us for himself. Eletah. He chose us. That word's a middle, meaning the subject's doing something for himself. He didn't just choose humanity for a particular plan, and if you fill the right conditions, you might make it. And Jesus is there, and God is there just pleading with you. No. for himself a lot for himself for salvation before time. Now there's many other passages we can go to. But in closing how does God love us. I can think of at least four ways and it's found in Romans 8 29. I'll read 29 30 in verse 30 29 30. We see how he loves us at least four ways here. Because it says, he foreloved us, he foreknew us or foreloved us, predestined us, he called us, he justified us, he glorified us. That's how God loves us. In verse 28 it says, we know that God causes all things to work together for the good. Whatever you're going through, God is causing it to work together for the good. That's what it says. I didn't write it. To those who are called according to purpose, for those who he foreknew, for those who he predestined, to become conformed to the image of a son in order that they would become the firstborn among many brethren. And verse 30, which we call the order of salvation or the order of salutis, beautiful set of passages because it solidifies our position in Christ. It guarantees us that we have peace with God. It guarantees us our glorification. Can't break those chains, those links of that chain. That's why it's called the golden chain of salvation. Listen, verse 30. And we'll close with the end portion of Romans here. Verse 30, and these who he predestined he also called. For these, that's us, who he predestined he also efficaciously called. And those who he called he justified. And those whom he justified, he glorified. You can't break those links. You can't insert the word some in these links. Interesting that the last verb here, all these verbs of God, the for loving, the predestining, the justifying, and the glorifying, but notice this, they're all in past tense. They're all Arius tense. They're all in past tense. He forloved us, right? Predestined, called, justified, glorified. And we ask, wait a second. I'm not glorified yet. Not yet, because I'm not in heaven. Why does Paul put this in a past tense? Very interesting. Semantically, it's a proliptic Arius, which means? He's so certain of the event that he puts it in a past tense. You will be glorified. He's so certain he puts it in a past tense. Then he says, and I can picture this after writing this beautiful, these four verbs of how God loves us. I can picture Paul pushing away, and at verse 31, what can we say to all these things? I bet he looked up. What can we say to all these things? What do we need more? This doctrine of discontent and prosperity How does all this reconcile with that? No, Paul said in verse 31, what shall we say to all these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? We know this is all courtroom terminology that they would have understood. If God is for us, who can be against us? Look what he did. Look at these four things that he did. In verse 32, he did not He did not spare his own son, but peradokin, he delivered him over for sacrifice for us all. How will he not also freely give us all things? I've heard this distorted, this passage here distorted so many times. So many times this passage has been distorted. Freely give us all things. I've heard a Word of Faith teacher teach that this is a basis for prosperity. He freely gives us all things. And of course, we know that's an utter disconnect from the context. He freely gives us all things according to the order of salvation. He freely gives us all things in terms of what he did for us. He forloved us. It doesn't get better. There's no all things that get better than this order of salvation. That's what he means. He freely gives us all things. Then he says, who can bring a charge against God's elect? Nobody. God is the one who justifies. The father justifies by the righteousness of the son. Who is the one who condemns Christ? Jesus is the one who died. Yes. Rather, he was raised and he's at the right hand of God who also he intercedes for us. He's our pair of clay toss. He's always interceding for us. Roman seven 24. It says his priesthood is Abba rabbit on without successors. I always tell the Mormon missionaries, well, aren't you trying to get kind of that Melchizedek? No, we already have it. OK. But in Hebrews 7, it says that priesthood only Christ and Melchizedek have, and there's no successors. Abba Rabbatan, no successors. Because he is the one who lives forever to intercede for us, it says in Hebrews 7. Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, pearl, or sword. But in all these things, and this is one of my favorite passages, but in all these things, we overwhelmingly conquer through him who loved us. This word overwhelmingly conquer, Paul like creates this word. It's really cool. Huponikai. Huponikai, the preposition hooper, right? Super or above, superior. Nike. What does Nike mean? I have Nike shoes. Victory. We're super victorious. We're not just merely victorious. I know that's the favorite word of charismatics. Victory. You know, they scream it all the time. But we're beyond that. We're, Paul says, we're super victorious. Hyper Nike. We're super victorious. It's not dependent on our performance. But it's dependent on God's sovereign work alone. We're super conquerors. We're hyper Nike. That's what we are. We're hyper Nike. We've got to live that way. Even when you fail in something. Even when you're distressed or depressed. You're still because of salvation. Because of all these things that he freely gave you. You are a super. You're super Nike. That's what Paul says. For I'm convinced neither death, nor life, or angels, nor principalities, nor things present, things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor death, nor any other thing in creation are as able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus. Christ is our peace. That's why we're super Nike. Christ is our peace. That's why we sit here reconciled before God the Father. Since we have peace with God, We should rejoice in every situation because remember whatever you're going through you still have peace with God because of the sovereign work of God because of the sovereign work of the sun. You're still a super Nike. Therefore having been justified by faith we now have peace with God. Let us close in prayer. Thank you Lord God. We have this. This time together. To absorb everything you have for us and we thank you that by grace alone you allowed us. To. Hear your words. We know that only the ones that belong to you hear your words and thank God we belong to you and we thank you that you said we're super Nike we thank you Lord God we thank you that you loved us in which you for loved us. and predestined us to a efficacious call, an unfailing call, an irresistible call in which we responded and you declared us righteous in spite of ourself and our failings. We're righteous before your eyes. We're credited as righteous people. So because of that, help us in our sanctification. As we live out this journey in this temporary earth that doesn't really fit. It just doesn't feel right because we don't belong here. We're looking forward to be Prostant Kurion with the Lord. That's what we're looking forward to. So help us in our sanctification. Keep our faith strong. Let us understand what we came out of as a dead state. As being in bondage to sin. Now we're we're in bondage but we're in bondage to righteousness. We're slaves to righteousness. We thank you Lord God that you see us that way. We pray all these things in the name of God, the Son, the Lord of glory, God in the flesh, second person of the Trinity, in his name alone who saved us, amen.