The Word of Truth is sponsored in part by Paul Rents. Visit paulrents.com for party and equipment rentals. Welcome to the Word of Truth, a ministry of Pastor Lars Larson and the First Baptist Church of Leominster, Massachusetts. It is our desire that our Lord use this broadcast to instruct, encourage, and strengthen both Christians and local churches in the New England region. Pastor Lars is always available to assist you. You may reach him at 978-660-8869. May today's message from our pastor be blessed by our Lord to instruct and encourage you through the Holy Scriptures. The Word of Truth. Greetings, and thank you for listening to our program. Today we will continue our study of Paul's epistle to the Romans. We began last time our consideration of a new major division of this epistle, beginning with Romans 5, verse 1, that continues through the end of Romans, chapter 8, in which we see emphasized the theme, hope as a result of righteousness by faith. Let us pray for our Lord's assistance. Our Father, you are the creator and upholder of all things. You are the ruler of all history, accomplishing your good purposes through Jesus Christ, which is ultimately to bring glory to yourself through all that unfolds through history. We thank you, our Father, that you are glorifying yourself in the damnation of sinners. We affirm what you have revealed to us in this study of Romans and what is set before us in all of scripture, that you made mankind upright, but they have sought out many schemes, many devices to rebel against you and your ways. But thankfully, Father, although man has rebelled against you, he's not cast off your control of him. Indeed, our God, You are the Lord of all the earth, and we pray that Your justice would be manifested. We look and long for the day when the wickedness of this world will come to an end, when every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of You, our Father. But Father, not only are we thankful that you justly damn sinners, we are even more thankful that you pardon sinners who deserve damnation, who warrant your everlasting punishment to be inflicted upon us. For we're no different than all the rest. However, you are our God of your own free grace and love. You've determined that you would love your people whom you have chosen for yourself, that you have determined you would show yourself gracious, merciful, wise, and just, and loving in saving us from our sin through your Son, our Lord Jesus. Help us, our Father, to rejoice in Him and all that You have promised in Him. And help us to proclaim Him far and wide as the only hope for condemned sinners. And may You show Yourself wonderfully gracious in these days by bringing many of us sinners into His kingdom. And to that end, Lord, we pray that You would bless us as we set forth Your Word today in our hearts and minds. For we pray in Jesus' name, amen. I wish to read the first 11 verses of Romans chapter 5. Paul wrote, therefore, there he's drawing a conclusion from all that he's written before. Therefore, since we've been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die. But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. That's the first 11 verses of Romans chapter 5. The Apostle had argued thoroughly for the teaching that God justifies sinners freely through faith alone, apart from works. He proved his case throughout the first four chapters of Romans, and then using the illustration of Abraham in chapter 4. But now, beginning with Romans chapter 5, Paul addressed several blessings that are received by those who are justified through faith alone. Justification is the beginning point, the entrance point into all the blessings of God. Justification by God's grace through faith alone is the ground on which all of our hope in receiving God's promises may be affirmed to us. As the writer to the Hebrews alluded to this in his definition of faith, now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Hebrews 11, verse one. And faith in Christ entitles the believer to all the blessings of God that are bound up in Jesus Christ. Now, God identifies before us several of these promises in the first verses of Romans chapter 5. The first grace, the first blessing of grace is found in verse 1. Again, there we read, Therefore, since we've been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul identified the first great blessing among several, that our justification before God through faith has secured for us. Our justification is written as having taken place in the past. God justified us when we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Because we have been justified, we have peace with God. Let me just interject this, because we live in Roman Catholic New England. If you're Roman Catholic, attend a Roman Catholic church. Roman Catholicism does not teach what Paul just asserted in Romans 5, verse 1. Paul says, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Rome says, however, you haven't been justified until after you've lived a life of faith, plus works born of grace. And even at the end of this life, that's not enough. You have to go through purgatory to be purged of your sins. And maybe after 10 or 20,000 years of that, you'll finally come forth as righteous, righteous as God, and then He justifies you. Now Paul says, we were justified in the past. Since therefore we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God. Rome knows nothing about that. In fact, the Council of Trent declared back in the 1560s that anybody who teaches that you're justified through faith alone apart from works, you're anathema, you're cursed of God, you do not have salvation. Well, if Rome knew what they were saying. They were basically dechristianizing the Apostle Paul because he was declaring here in Romans 5 verse 1 that believers, true believers in Jesus Christ are righteous before God. It's a state of justification, a righteousness, and as a result, peace exists between the forgiven sinner and the holy God. Now, the subject of God's peace has already arisen in this epistle. In the opening greeting to the letter, Paul expressed his desire that God would give his peace to these Christians at this church. Romans 1, verse 7 reads, To all those in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints, grace to you, and here it is, peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now at that time we pointed out that when the Bible speaks of God's peace that the believer enjoys, it comes in one of two forms. There is a subjective peace and there is an objective peace. Both are God's gifts to his people. Subjective peace is the awareness that the believer senses in his soul that he is at peace with God. And so this subjective peace is what people feel. Because of our faith in Christ, we sense peace or a tranquility of soul, a settling of our guilty conscience respecting sin. When we receive through faith our free and full pardon of sin due to the death of the Savior, we are secure. And if we're thinking and believing rightly, we feel ourselves to be secure. So in Romans 1-7, when Paul expressed his desire for them, peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, Paul desired that they would experience this subjective peace, this awareness that all is well between them and God. All disciples of Jesus Christ may enjoy this subjective peace with God. And again, this is a feeling of peace, a sense of well-being that God bestows upon his people. Sadly, not all Christians experience this subjective peace, but they all may. Paul wrote to the church at Philippi, In nothing be anxious, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God, which passes all understanding, shall guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus. Now, that is a promise to Christians, and Christians only. They may enjoy that subjective peace. But there is also a second kind of peace that God grants His people. The Bible speaks of objective peace, peace between God and the believer. Through our Lord's life, death, and resurrection, God has brought us, believers, into a state of peace with the Father. And this state of peace is the same for all true believers in Jesus Christ. Subjective peace varies between believer and believer. You can find a Christian who has great peace, no matter what they're going through. And then you have some Christians who have very little peace, and when you examine their life, they're really not going through a whole lot compared to others. And so subjective peace varies from believer to believer, but objective peace is the same for every Christian alike. And that's what Paul is writing about here in Romans 5, verse 1. Objective peace. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now, this word and idea of peace, as understood by Paul, should be seen through the Old Testament meaning of the Hebrew word for peace, which is Shalom. Principled in the idea of Shalom is the character of salvation that the Old Testament prophets declared would appear in the last days. And according to Scripture, we are living in the last days. With the coming of the promised Son of God, Jesus Christ, the last days commence. Now, this idea of Shalom speaks about our peace with God. not the peace of God that we were talking about earlier, but peace with God. as one commentator expressed it, this background, that is, shalom in the Old Testament, this background defines for us what Paul means by peace with God. Not an inner sense of well-being or feeling at peace, what we might call the peace of God, but rather the outward situation of being in a relationship of peace with God. You see, that's what Paul's talking about here in Romans 5, verse 1. Now, before we came to Christ as our Lord and Savior, we were not at peace with God. If you're not a Christian, you're not at peace with God, and God is certainly not at peace with you. Before becoming Christians, our very beings were opposed to God. We were His enemies. And the God of the Bible was our enemy as well. Why, if the true God comes to us when we are in our sin, and apart from grace, He comes before us, we would crucify Him if we had half a chance. That's what happens when a holy God comes into the presence of sinners. And so we were enemies before coming to Christ. We were opposed to His rule over us, just as the people of Israel were opposed to His rule over them. But Christ, as the Prince of Peace, ended that hostility between God and ourselves. Christ gained peace for us by dying on the cross for us. This appeased God's wrath with respect to us, and as a consequence, a state of peace was secured for believers. We read of this in Colossians 121, and you who once were alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his death to present you holy and blameless and above reproach in his sight. This objective peace, this state of peace, belongs only to those who have been reconciled to God through faith in Jesus Christ. For Christ alone may be the basis and secure of peace for sinners. If you're outside of Christ, you're outside of this state of peace, you are, whether you realize it or not, you are at war with God, and God is at war with you, and you're not gonna come out in the end. He's gonna win the day. And so, I would urge you, if you're not a believer, do as we did, we who believe. Capitulate. Surrender. You're not going to win fighting against Him. But rather, do as the last verse in Psalm 2 says, kiss the Son, lest He be angry. But blessed are all those who put their trust in Him. He receives all who come humbly before Him in faith. Now, this objective peace is in the realm of fact. Nothing changes our status with God as believers in Jesus Christ. God is always at peace with his people due to Jesus Christ. But again, subjective peace is in the realm of feeling. Any number of factors may cause one's sense of peace to either increase or diminish, whether or not one is prayerful or prayerless, obedient or disobedient, believing or unbelieving, knowledgeable or ignorant, participating in fellowship with the saints or not. All these will have bearing upon whether or not one enjoys subjective peace. Now, ones who are in a state of peace with God are the objects of God's promise of peace. They are ones for whom Christ died, whereby peace with God is obtained and secured for them. They have an object of peace with God. God is no longer at war with them. A state of peace exists between God and them. And again, Paul states, therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So the reason for that is that we've been reconciled. As Romans 5.11 states, not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation. Reconciliation is a great word. It's a word that describes the cessation of hostility between two warring factions, resulting in peace between them. How does this reconciliation take place? Well, it can only take place when their former hostility and rebellion ceases, and the justice of God toward their crime has been satisfied. Again, God is at war with sinners, and His purpose is to punish them for their sins, because they have violated His laws. Justice is in order, and they must answer to the judge of all the earth. And the reason that Christians alone can escape the condemnation of this unbending, inflexible justice of a holy God is that Christ Jesus bore their punishment on their behalf when He died on the cross. And so by Christ, through faith in Him, all believers may be reconciled to God. As we read in Colossians 1, 19-21, For in him Christ, all the fullness of God, was pleased to dwell, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. and you who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, he is now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy, blameless, and irreproachable before him." Again, that's Colossians 1, 19-21. The blessing of peace can only be appreciated fully when one considers the state of the non-believer who is not at peace with God. We live in a world in which people will allow you to believe any kind of God you like, but if you say that you believe God is a God of wrath against those that are outside of Jesus Christ, you will be rejected and opposed. And I know unbelievers listening to me are probably just horrified. I can't believe that guy said that. But Paul declared, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. But what of those who are not justified through faith? They do not have peace with God. Rather, the wrath of God rests upon them. Consider that. John 3, 36, he who believes in the Son has everlasting life. He who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him. People who are outside of Jesus Christ are not in a state of peace with God. There exists a state of war between God and them. Jonathan Edwards wrote of their dreadful condition in his sermon entitled, Natural Men in a Dreadful Condition. He had a way with words. Listen to Edwards. They are not only without God, but the wrath of God abides upon them. There is no peace between God and them, but God is angry with them every day. He's not only angry with them, but that to a dreadful degree. There is a fire kindled in God's anger, and it burns like fire. Wrath abides upon them, which, if it should be executed, would plunge them into the lowest hell and make them miserable there for all eternity. For they have provoked the Holy One of Israel to anger, and God has been angry with them ever since they began to sin. He has been provoked by them every day, ever since they exercised any reason, and He's provoked by them more and more every hour. The flame of His wrath is continually burning. There are many now in hell that never provoke God more than they do now. Wherever they go, they go about with the dreadful wrath of God abiding on them. They eat and drink and sleep under wrath. How dreadful a condition, therefore, are they in! It is the most awful thing for the creature to have the wrath of his creator abiding on him. The wrath of God is a thing infinitely dreadful. The wrath of a king is as the roaring of a lion. But what is the wrath of a king who is but a worm of the dust to the wrath of the infinitely great and dreadful God? How dreadful is it to be under the wrath of the first being, the being of beings, the great creator and mighty possessor of heaven and earth. How dreadful is it for a person to go about under the wrath of God, who gave him being, and in who he lives and moves, who is everywhere present, and without whom he cannot move a step nor even draw a breath. Natural men, inasmuch as they are under wrath or under a curse, God's wrath and curse are continually upon them. They can have no reasonable comfort, therefore, in any of their enjoyments, for they do not know but they are given them in wrath, and shall be curses to them, not blessings. As it is said in Job 18, verse 15, brimstone shall be scattered upon his habitation. How can they take any comfort in their food or in their possessions when they do not know but all are given them to fit them for the slaughter? Now that's the direct approach, folks. John Gill wrote of the wrath of God under which unbelievers exist and for their need of reconciliation with God. Here are Gill's words. First, by observing the character of the persons reconciled, which will show the cause, reason, and necessity of a reconciliation to be made, they are enemies. And in one of the texts referred to, they are said to be enemies in their minds by wicked works, which is expressive of the internal enmity there is in their minds and hearts. The carnal mind, as every man's mind is naturally carnal, is not only an enemy, but enmity itself against God. Romans 8 verse 7, To the very being of God, wishing there were no God, to the nature and perfections of God, denying some of them, misrepresenting others, and framing God in their own minds as altogether such a one as themselves. to the purposes and decrees of God, which they cannot bear, and to which they insolently reply, and to the providences of God they charge with inequality and unrighteousness, and they are inwardly and secretly enemies to Christ, to his person and offices, particularly his kingly office, being unwilling that he should reign over them. and to his gospel, and the special doctrines of it, and to his ordinances they care not to be subject unto. And they are to the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, to his person, whom they know not, nor can receive, as to his operations which they deride and ridicule. The things of the Spirit of God are foolishness to them, and they are enemies to the people of God. There is an old and implacable enmity between the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent. The saints are hated by the world, because chosen and called out of the world, God's elect, themselves, while in a state of nature, are hateful, hating one another. Paul, a chosen vessel of salvation, was, while unregenerate, exceeding mad against the saints. But there is an external enmity which appears by wicked works and sinful actions openly committed, which are acts of hostility against God, and they are contrary to His nature and will, are abominable in His sight, provoke the eyes of His glory, excite His wrath, and cause it to be revealed from heaven, and for which it comes on the children of disobedience, and all are deserving of it. Sins are breaches of the law of God. Render men liable to the curses of it and to death itself. Oh, may God have mercy upon us through Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God for those that have been justified through faith, they have peace with God. Well, until next time, may the grace of God be abundantly granted to you. We trust that God has blessed you from listening to Dr. Lars Larsen. Today's program as well as previously recorded messages are available through our website. We invite you to visit the wordoftruth.net. The First Baptist Church of Leominster and Concerned Friends have sponsored this broadcast of the Word of Truth. If we may assist you by directing you to a sound, reformed church near you, please contact us. If Pastor Larson can assist you further or answer a question that you may have about today's subject, he would be pleased to speak with you. You may reach him at 978-660-8869. Until our next time together, may our God bless you richly through our Lord Jesus Christ. Today's The Word of Truth program was sponsored in part by Paul Rents. Visit paulrents.com for party and equipment rentals.