direct in all things. We pray for Your will to be done. Just guide me in the things that I say. In Jesus' name, Amen. Alright, turn to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5, and again, it starts with that word, therefore. When I was in Bible college, one of the things they said was, when you see the word, therefore, always ask yourself, what is it there for? So therefore goes back to the previous chapter, and if you look at the context of verse 1, therefore being justified, so you go back to the previous verse, who was delivered for our offenses, this is chapter 4 verse 25, and was raised again for our justification, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, because he's raised for our justification, because we're justified by faith. Verse two, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, patience experience, and experience hope. And hope maketh not a shame, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto you." There's a lot in here. When you look at verse 1, therefore being justified. If you look at chapter 4, verse 5, But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness. Christ died for the ungodly, and the Bible says that he justifieth the ungodly. So, important just to compare Scripture with Scripture. You've got to take the whole book of Romans together, you've got to take the whole Bible together. One of the problems, as I said this morning, I'll say it again, is that people pick and choose and come up with whole doctrines based on the misinterpretation of one scripture or two scriptures or five. You have to take the whole thing and the Bible doesn't contradict itself one time. So here's the key. You look at it and somebody says there's a contradiction. What do you do? You believe the Bible, you don't believe their words. Then you let God show you the truth if God sees fit to show you the truth. It may be that God isn't going to show you the answer. And if God doesn't show you the answer, you still have to believe the Bible. You still have a responsibility to believe the Word of God regardless of whether you have all the answers. I didn't think about it. I've been studying the Bible 40 plus years. When I first started out, I had somebody show me errors in the Bible, and he got me. Well, then I never doubted it again. And guess what? Since that time to today, I really don't even have any answers, I mean, any questions on the Bible. I don't have any questions on prophecy anymore, although I had a multitude of questions eight years ago. If I studied another subject that I'm not familiar with, I'm sure that I would have a multitude of questions. In fact, there are sometimes people ask me questions and, oh yeah, yeah, here's one. Is the earth flat? You know, and I just don't have the time to invest in that. How many of you ever heard anybody ask is the earth flat or believe the earth's flat? One, two, three, four, five. You know, I swore that I would look into that one day, but quite frankly, you know, they say, well, the government lied to us. Okay. What about all the pilots? What about the astronauts? What about cats? We have a cat. It is proof that there is not a flat Earth, because they push everything off the edge. And if there was a flat Earth, there'd be nothing left in the world. You say, that's just a joke. Yeah, that's about as deep as I can get on the flat Earth right now. Actually, I do have the circle of the Earth. I mean, there's a lot. I mean, you see a ship, and it's over the horizon, and then its mast comes into view, and then the rest of it. I mean, when you fly, why do they fly like this? Because the Earth's turning, and if you If you fly like this, it's a ball like this. So if you fly here, it's longer. If you fly like this, where it's like this, it takes a shorter distance to get there. How does that work if the Earth's flat? It just doesn't work. So I get it, you know, people want to just come up with something new. And I once had a guy, he may be listening now, God bless your soul, you idiot. Just kidding. I once said, and I apologized to him later just like I would now if he confronted me on it. I said, you have to be stupid to think the earth's flat. Well, he was a member of the church. And he called me, and he was listening at home. And I know he was, because he said, he said, would you say that if I was there? And I said, well, of course I wouldn't. I said, I didn't realize you were watching. I said, it just came out. By the way, sometimes you say things, and they just come out. This morning, I was talking about the decorations, and I said, well, something's crooked. And if you look at me and you listen, I was like backtracking, because I was criticizing. And I was criticizing a work that I've always bragged upon and then I'm looking out there and I see something crooked, I say something bad. You know, I'm going to tell you what, you get up here enough times and you will open your mouth and you will fall flat on your face. And it happens all the time. So anyway, I apologized to him. And if he called me and asked me would I say that if he was here, I'd say no. But, you know, there is an element of truth in what I said, so I'd be a little more aggressive because we're not church members now. And I just can't believe he believes there's a flat earth. I just... And he says, well, you know, I've talked to people about it and seen souls saved. Well, that justifies it then. As long as you can tell me a soul was saved because you got into this extraneous issue and talked about it, then it's got to be a good thing because God saved his soul. And usually I don't believe that anyway. Not that he would lie to me, but maybe he would. Just kidding. See, I'm trying to backtrack out. Therefore, being justified by faith. Let me ask you something. How are you justified? Works? The law, baptism, faith. Just as if I'd never sinned, justified. We have peace with God. Now, this thing about peace is really neat. I talk about it a lot. I'll mention it again tonight. I have peace, okay? I have the peace of God through prayer. I have peace with God through salvation. I am at peace with God, the God of the universe. He doesn't consider me as enemy. He doesn't even consider me ungodly. He doesn't consider me any of those things that I was before I got saved. I have peace with God. Look at Ephesians chapter 2. Ephesians 2. Look at verse 14. For He is our peace. who hath made both one and hath broken down the middle wall of petition between us, having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances, for to make in himself of twain," that's Jew and Gentile, one new man, so making peace. He made peace between two divided entities. Look at Colossians chapter 1. Again, you know, we have peace with God, we have being justified by faith, we have peace, justification, faith, peace. Now look at Colossians 1.20 and look at another aspect here. and having made peace through the blood of his cross by him to reconcile all things unto himself. I say whether they be things in earth, things in heaven. And then you were alienated in enemies in verse 21, and now in verse 23 you're grounded and settled. But notice it says, having made peace through the blood of His cross. So how do you have peace? You have peace through the blood of His cross. You have peace through faith. You have peace with God at salvation. So why don't Christians really have peace? Sometimes we depend upon ourselves too much. Sometimes we look at the details, or we look at life, and we just don't think that God loves us, or God cares for us, or God protects us, and we lose that peace. Don't lose that peace. That peace is real. And then he goes on in verse 2 of Romans chapter 5, he says, "...by whom," that's by Jesus Christ, it's always whom. You know, in whom we have redemption. By whom. Also, we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. So he says, by whom also we have access. One of my favorite verses, look at Hebrews chapter 10 about having access. Imagine if you didn't know for sure you had access to God. In other words, you could pray and it really doesn't matter, he doesn't care, he's just, you know, like the heavens are brass, he doesn't want to hear from you. What if that was true? You'd really struggle. In Hebrews chapter 10 verse 9, having therefore, brethren, boldness to enter in the holiest by the blood of Jesus Christ. We have access, we have boldness to enter in the holiest through prayer, by what? By the blood of Jesus Christ. That's why we sing on the blood, the song you were singing when I walked in about the blood. We have access, Hebrews 10, 19, we have access by the blood of Jesus Christ. Did I give you the wrong verse? See, you see everything up here. You wonder, you know, I saw Carrie first, she was confused. Then I looked over here after I said it, and I saw Mary go to, you know, she turned her head like this to go to another verse. I was like, oh, okay, I said the wrong one. You pick up on cues like that after you've been speaking a while. So it's Hebrews 10, 19, we have access, we have boldness to enter into the holiest. What's the holiest? That's God's abode. By what? By the blood. Isn't that amazing? Look at Ephesians chapter 3, Ephesians chapter 3 verse 12. Look at what he says here. He says, In whom, remember it's always through Jesus Christ, so it's in whom, by whom, through whom. In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of Him. We have boldness, just like Hebrews 10, 19 that you guys didn't get to read, actually you did. We have boldness and access. I have access to the holiest in heaven. Through the blood. You do too. So why do we act sometimes like we don't have that? That's important to understand. Why does our faith fail us? Why do we second-guess God? Why do we doubt His love? Well, sometimes it's when you're going through trials and tribulations, you don't realize that even those trials and tribulations are to bring out the good in you. All things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the call according to His purpose. All things work together for good. We have that promise of God. To them that love Him. How do you love Him? If you love Me, keep My commandments. To them that love Him, to them who are called according to His purpose. So, when I look at things, I look at things differently than a lot of other people. I realize that, look, I may go through trials and tribulations. I may go through something that is bad, bad, bad. Can God use that for good? And the answer's yes. And then as you, so as I go through 40 years and I see 10 years ago, I went through something and it just about destroyed me. 15 years, you know, five years later, I go through something and it hurts. Five years later, five years later, five years later. and now it's pretty hard to really shake me. Why? Because I got 40 years of experience of God coming together and working things for my good together, even though the individual aspect is bad. So go on and look at Romans chapter 5 verse 3. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations. He talks about joy there in 1 John. I'm not going to go to. But we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience." Look at Romans 12, 12 about this thing on patience. Romans 12, 12. Look at what he says here. And it says, rejoicing in hope, Patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer. Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation. Why do you need to be patient in tribulation? Because if God works all things together for good and God is in the act of working it out, what is your responsibility other than to be patient? You see, when we get impatient, we start talking to God, or really, generally, we start talking to others, and we just, you know, oh, we do all this, and then we're not patient in tribulation, and then by talking and complaining and bickering and all the other things we have a tendency to do, it makes the problem worse. And if it doesn't make the problem worse, it makes the problem seem worse. And that's where we fail. But notice he's talking about knowing that tribulation worketh patience. People say, well, don't pray for patience. Well, because tribulation is going to come. You don't really control God that way. Don't pray for patience. How many have ever heard that? Come on, all over the room. Almost every one of you. I tell you, you should pray for patience. Why? Because patience is growth. Don't you want to grow? I mean, you go, well, I don't want to pray for patience because then tribulation will come. Well, that's like saying, well, if I pray for it to rain, you know, for the next 40 days and, you know, it starts raining tomorrow, I did it. It's unrealistic. You pray for patience because you want to be all you can be for Jesus Christ. You say, well, I don't want the tribulation that comes with it. Guess what? Tribulation is coming. All those who live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. If you live godly, you're going to have things come in your life that are going to test you. And you have to decide, hey, am I going to come out shining or am I going to come out worse than when I went in? And it's up to you to determine how the outcome is because it's how you handle it that determines the outcome or the growth or the maturity that you get. If you start looking at it and, you know, maybe God looks down and says, man, I thought that God doesn't say this, but I thought they could handle it. Well, they can't, so I'm just gonna, you know, you know, notch it down, you know, take it down one notch. He doesn't usually work that way, I don't think. But still, pray for patience. It's important. Now, look at 2 Thessalonians 1, 4. 2 Thessalonians, And again, notice patience and tribulation are always seemingly interconnected. 1-4 says, so that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure. Paul was bragging on them. He said, we glory in that, in your patience and faith in all the persecutions and tribulations that you endure. I love to brag on people. If you start going through something and I watch you go through and you come out on the other end and you've really succeeded, you've grown, you've matured. See, I've been in it long enough to see people fall by the wayside, quit on God, and all those things, and it's very disconcerting But I wish I could go and say, man, I've seen more people with patience that they endured, they came out of the tribulation, they were better off for it. By the way, I can say that time and time and time again. But sometimes the way that we pray tells a lot about what we think about things. Do you pray for God's will to be done? Or do you pray for God, deliver me, stop it, don't let it happen. It's all got to be my way or the highway. I can't handle whatever it is, no matter if it's your will or not. We need to pray for the will of God, accept the will of God, be guided by the will of God, hope for the will of God, and pray like Jesus, not my will but thine be done. And if we'll do that, when things come in your life, you can handle them a lot better and a lot easier. Listen, like I said, I've been saved a long time and I've watched things happen and you want to handle it in the flesh. you know, crush all that, you know, all those people, all those minions, you know. You can't do that. You have to step back and go, hey, what's their motivation? You know, if you check people's motivation, many times you'll find out that they really intended for something to be good, even though they may come across as harsh or hateful or against you. And then when you wait and you think about it, you go, wow, you know, they really had the right intention. Not good implementation. I mean, I've never failed on implementation. I can't even, you know, sometimes make a statement and have good implementation. Because we're human. So here's the thing, I'm human. How ought I to judge other people? As humans? Frail? that fail, that do things that come across. Listen, if you react to everything anybody does, I mean, you're gonna be impossible to be around. You know what trap pastors get in is they get into a position and they look out there and they go, man, they're attacking me. And you got to look at it and go, well, they really don't understand. Well, if I try to tell them everything, are they going to understand? Is it going to make things worse? And by the way, I used to try to explain everything to everybody. You know what I found out? Man, sometimes you just got to sit back and just let God be God. I used to try to fix everything. Oh my goodness, I found out you can't fix everything. I used to intervene for everybody. And you know what? I don't jump in the midst and in the mix of things very quickly anymore. Because you know what happens? It's like the Bible talks about a dog and then the dog turns back on, you know, and goes after you. That's the way it is when you meddle in other people's matters. That's what we have to be very careful of. So he goes on and he says, look at 2 Corinthians 12, Paul's testimony in this thing. Look at what he says in 2 Corinthians 12. This ought to be our attitude. It frequently is not. And listen, I know you're just like me. We sometimes, you know, take things personally when we shouldn't. 2 Corinthians 12, verse 10, Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses. For Christ's sake, for when I am weak, then I am strong. You know, sometimes we're so self-sufficient we forget that we're not really self-sufficient. God has to knock us down a notch. You know what? Paul was praying about this thorn in the flesh in verse 7. He prayed three times. And then God answers him in verse 9. He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee, for my strength is made perfect in weakness. My strength is made perfect in weakness. You remember whenever Gideon had all that help and he knocked it down and he knocked it down and he knocked it down? Oh, I was talking to Dennis and remember he said 186,000 Assyrians? I said, man, that just doesn't sound right. It was 185,000. So he missed it by a thousand. So we were talking after church, I said, man, it was 185,000. I said, I knew that number wasn't wrong, but it was so close, I couldn't figure out what was wrong with it, because it sounded right. I just had said 185 so many times, I knew. And he knew too, but he said, I'd said 186 so many times, you know, I couldn't remember. But anyway, when you look at, I just wanted to tell you that, because Dennis and I talked about it later, and we were just like, you know, he said, he said, where's the verse? Second Kings chapter 19, I think. And I said, uh, I didn't know at the time that I, I got it and went back and talked to him about it. But look at what he says here. My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness. Now Paul concludes most gladly. Therefore, will I rather glory in my infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions, distress for Christ's sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong." See, that's where we need to be. And it is not easy to get there, and it's not easy to stay there once you get there. It's not easy to be consistent. Remember I tell you, you start over every day. You say, man, I got that last week. How are you this week? I'm back to where I was. Not really, but it seems that way. I got it, and then you have a setback. And then I got it, and you have a setback. But each time you got it, it almost seemed like you go a little further ahead, and the setback doesn't take you as far back. At least that's the way we hope it is. But it takes time. It takes a diligent effort every day to fight this battle called life. You know, the Bible says we're in a battle. We're in a war. We're in a race. Then why do we stand on the sideline? Man, get busy. Get racing. Get working. So as you go on, going back to Romans, And he says, he talks about hope here. And he says hope in verse 4, for patience, experience, and experience hope. Now watch this. Go back to verse 3. For not only so, but we glory in tribulations. Now watch how this goes. Knowing that tribulation worketh patience. What does patience do? Experience. What's experience do? Hope. and hope maketh not a shame. How many would like to have hope? I think that's what the politicians, I think that was what Obama's thing, change and hope. By the time he got done, all we had was change in our pockets. Yes, it comes from the Bible, this hope thing. But this hope is a sure hope. It's not like, well, I hope it happens. He talks about that hope, and he goes on in verse 6, for when we were yet without strength and due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commended his love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. In Colossians 121, he talks about being enemies in your mind by wicked works, that he's now reconciled. He's now reconciled. Oh, and that's verse 9. Much more than being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. Now, much more, now justified by His blood. You are now justified by His blood. It isn't a future thing. That's one of the things about Christianity. Once you get saved, you get all of this stuff that you don't even know about. I mean, think about it. When you get saved, how much Bible do you think you really know? Now, I know there's some people that go to church for 10, 15, 20 years, learn some Bible, get saved. You know, they're sort of ahead of the game by being behind the game for 15 years. But most people have very little knowledge of the Bible until they get saved, and then as you get saved, man, you start learning about justification, propitiation, consolation, you know, predestination, even though most people don't really understand that. But you get this understanding of some of the terminology. We have peace with God. We have the peace of God. All those things you knew nothing about when you got saved, but now you do know them. So he goes on. Let me give you a couple things on that word now. Look at 2 Corinthians 6. 2 Corinthians 6, verse 1. We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that you receive not the grace of God in vain. For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, in the day of salvation have I succored thee. Behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. That's that one use of now. Now look at chapter six of Romans. Verse 1. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? That is not the one I wanted. Romans 6.2. That is not correct. It says now we are free from sin. Where is that? It is not Romans 6, 2 though. Look at chapter 7, verse 6. Chapter 7, verse 6. But now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein we were held, that we should serve in newness of spirit and not in the oldness of the letter. We are delivered from the law. That law cannot judge you. Thou shalt not. It can't condemn you to hell. We are now delivered from that law. Look at chapter 8, verse 1. There is therefore now no condemnation of them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit. There is now no condemnation. By the way, it says who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit, meaning that if you walk after the flesh, there is some temporal condemnation, but no eternal condemnation. Now, we have all these things now. I mean, you know, it's just an amazing thing. In Ephesians 2.19, it says, now we are no more strangers. In Colossians 1.21, we are now reconciled. Look at all the things we have now. And he goes on and he says in Romans 5.9, much more. then being now justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him." We are saved from wrath. Now, there's a couple of ways to look at that. The wrath of God's coming upon the world in the tribulation. We are saved from that wrath. The wrath of God will be on all those that are in hell. We are saved from that wrath. So we're both saved eternally, hell, and physically by not going into that period of time called the Tribulation Period. Verse 10, Romans 2.10, I mean Romans 5.10, For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled we shall be saved by His life. We were enemies. Enemies. Imagine that, and imagine for a moment if you're lost. You are an enemy of God. You're not a friend of God, not a child of God, not a follower of God. The Bible says your father, the devil, who is a liar from the beginning, he says that's your father. He's the father of lies. But he says, we were enemies until we were saved. We were ungodly until we were saved. We were undone until we were saved. And now no longer are we enemies of God. Imagine that lost person that doesn't understand that. You see them all the time. I mean, they march on the streets and they got those signs that, you know, tell about every perversion. I would suppose most or all of them are lost. They're the enemy of God. I'm glad I'm not his enemy, but I once was. Most people don't understand that. They go, well, that's negative preaching. Okay. You know, what do you do? How do you soften that one down? You're the enemy of God. Now I got to soften it down. Let's see. God doesn't like you very much. He loves you enough to send His Son, but He doesn't like you if you're His enemy. We're reconciled to God by the death of His Son. So you're reconciled by the blood, you're reconciled by the death of His Son. Much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. We're saved by His life. His life saves us. If we were not sinless, there'd be no salvation. If He wasn't sinless, There'd be no salvation. We're saved by the life that He lived. He lived a perfect sinless life and we're saved by the life that He lived. And that sinlessness is applied to us in God's eyes. Doesn't mean you're without sin. I'm a sinner saved by grace. Verse 11, last verse, and not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ by whom we have now received the atonement. When did you receive the atonement? You received it now. When were you made friends with God? Now. When were you made sons of God? Now. That's 1 John 3, 2. I didn't give it to you. When were you delivered from the law? Now. When is there no condemnation? Now. When were you ambassadors for Christ? Now. On and on and on. It's all now. We have a now salvation. Everything is in the future. You go, wow, I can't wait for heaven. Yeah, that's future. Most everything else is present. In this life, at this time, in your body, right now, you have the promise and the hope and everything God wants you to have. In your mortal body, you have it right now. Now, He wants to destroy your old man, but He tells you to do that. And He says, hey, submit to the new man, strengthen the new man, feed the new man, you know, stop the old man. Not only so, but we joy. He talks about that joy in Matthew 25, 23. He says about entering into the joy of the Lord. Look at chapter 15 of Romans about this joy. Chapter 15, 13. There's that word now again. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing that you may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace. You know what I want to be filled with? Joy. Peace. It's a joy to be a Christian, but listen, there are some times when I'm not, you know, uppity-up. Doesn't happen often. Psalm 51-12, you know, David is praying, take not thine Holy Spirit from me, because you could lose the Spirit back then. Didn't mean you lost your salvation. But in Psalm 51-12, he says, restore the joy of my salvation. Restore the joy. And I could, you know, 1 Peter 1, look over there, 1 Peter 1, 7 and 8. He says, that the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honor and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen ye love, in whom though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. Isn't there a song, Gary, Joy Unspeakable? Joy Unspeakable. You can't even express that joy. One more verse, look at chapter 14 of Romans. You can tell I started a little bit early tonight. Chapter 14, 17. Those of you that have long rides, Congratulations, you will arrive home 10 minutes early. If you don't go to Walmart. Chapter 14, verse 17, For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink, but righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. You know what the kingdom of God is? The kingdom of God that we preach? It's an internal thing. Not the kingdom of heaven, Matthew. The kingdom of God, it is joy in the Holy Ghost. If you don't have that joy, it's a decision that you make because you refuse to take now what God's given you. Why are people so ornery? They don't have that joy. Listen, even if the devil throws everything he's got at you, you've got a reason to have joy unspeakable. He can't touch your soul. Joy unspeakable. Let's all stand together. Lord, thank You for Your many blessings. God leading direct in all things. We just pray for Your will to be done. We pray that You would help us to be faithful servants. Help us to know Your will. Help us to have that joy unspeakable. All these things that we now have, help us to be thankful to You for what You've done for us. We pray this in Jesus' name. With your head bowed, eyes closed.