Scott returns to Romans with a comprehensive review of chapters 1 through 5, emphasizing Paul’s explanation of God’s righteousness, humanity’s universal need for redemption, and believers' profound access to God through Christ. Beginning with illustrations to highlight the unfathomable distance between God’s holiness and humanity, Scott underscores that both the immoral and moral, Gentile and Jew alike, are declared guilty, unable to attain righteousness through their own works or adherence to the law. The foundation is set on the gospel’s movement from bad news (universal condemnation) to the great news of justification and peace with God through faith.

He also talks about the themes of grace, faith, and the hope found in Christ, detailing how Abraham and David exemplify justification by faith, not works, reinforcing the consistency of God’s plan across Scripture. The practical implications for believers include standing in grace, utilizing privileged access to God, and living as recipients of an unearned, credited righteousness.

Download the Insight Sheets Here:

Blank Insight Sheet:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_KZAH09M5CiopXrO0OSWLjqWXzljXf32/view?usp=sharing

Insight Sheet With Answers: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nfsImtR7dCExDGxzSLXdffdC9sSNXf1r/view?usp=sharing

Key Topics Discussed:

• God’s righteousness contrasted with human unrighteousness
• Universal guilt: moral, immoral, Jew, and Gentile alike
• The purpose and limitations of the law
• Justification by faith: insights from Abraham and David
• The concept of credited righteousness
• The metaphor of the sun and God’s unapproachable holiness
• The progression from bad news to great news in the gospel
• Access to God and standing in grace
• The impact of the gospel on identity and daily living
• The hope of sharing in God’s glory
• Practical exhortations to take advantage of access to God and to regularly reflect on gospel truths

Hi, if you're looking for greater hope, assurance, and confidence through the shifting sands of life, then join me on today's episode as we dig deep into the Bible to discover rock-solid truth for life and living from the God of the Bible. I'm your host, Scott Keffer. Hi, and welcome to today's episode. As always, for a deeper experience, you can go to the show notes and download the blank insight sheet Fill in the blanks along with the group. Depending on how you're listening to this, there will be a link to the episode website at beholdingbibeltruth.com, and a sheet with the answers is included as well. Enjoy today's episode. Well, we were driving in this morning feeling, uh, immensely grateful to, uh, to God for His faithfulness and goodness toward us and for you all. This is our 35th year of doing this, standing up here.

And so, yeah, we're grateful, grateful, grateful. God is faithful, and there's somebody still here. So we said, as long as somebody keeps showing up, we'll, we'll keep showing up as well. So thank you all for your great encouragement to Beth and to me and the work that God has called us to do. Good to be here. And very, um, I don't know what the right word, but that we should be in the midst of Romans as we head into, uh, to this year. This is the second time we've been through it, back in 2010. So we've, uh, we've done 50 weeks, almost a year, going from, uh, 1 through— I don't know where we were— 12 or so.

But I thought it'd be a good idea. Romans is a deep deep book that we retrace our steps and remind ourselves from whence we've come. So we build again the foundation to continue to work through. So that's what we're going to do today. We're going to look at chapters 1 through 5, kind of walk through a review of chapters 1 through 5. But I thought the beginning is to understand where we need to start. The, uh, the old joke, the old Irish joke, is the you know, foreigner was driving through the countryside and he stopped a farmer and he said, I'd like to get to Dublin. And the guy said, if I were going to Dublin, I wouldn't start here.

Funnier for the Irish than it would be for us. But the question is a, a real sense of perspective, and I think that's the hardest thing to have. If you look at a map, the question is— that's a map, but the question is the same as in the mall map, you know, you need that star to say you are here. Where do we begin? And this book begins where we should begin, and that is with God. With God and, and his righteousness. God and his righteousness. Very hard to comprehend, but the, the word God is used 153 times in the book of Romans, more than any other New Testament book. So this is— Romans is primarily about what it should be about, which is God, right? So I always say there's, you know, there's us here, you know, here I am walking through life trying to figure stuff out, and here is God.

And scripture says that this difference is as high as the heavens are above the earth. Which, as best we can say, is about 90 billion light years, which is a long way. And I always say, for a light year— light year is measuring distance by how far light travels. So if you got in a car and drove 60 miles an hour, never stopped for gas, go to the bathroom, eat, and you were able to drive about 4 and a half months straight. That's how far light would travel in 1 second.

1 second.

And scripture says that God is the God who created light, and light measures because the distance is so great. So getting some sort of perspective of how do we start with God? How do we even fathom the unfathomable, right? How does the The, the eternal God reveal himself so that we can understand. So I put some scripture says that here that gives us some sense. In Exodus, he says to Moses, you cannot see my face. Why not? What's he say? No man can see me and live. You'd say, well, so why is that? Well, he says here, with thine eyes— first of all, thine eyes are too pure to approve evil, and thou canst not look on wickedness with favor. So God cannot look upon sin and upon evil. So part of it's due to his righteous character, his righteous nature.

How does he interact or even look upon evil without bringing judgment and justice to bear? And so he surrounds himself. He surrounds himself so that people can interact with him. He says clouds and thick darkness surround him. Righteousness and justice are the foundation of his throne. So his throne's on righteousness and justice, but he dwells in unapproachable light. He's the blessed and only sovereign, the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, who alone possesses immortality, and he dwells in unapproachable light. So you start to think about, okay, what is that like? What is that like? Well, I always say the sun is like a physical metaphor because the creation is designed to reveal God and his righteousness. So the physical sun is like a metaphor that we can see the character of God and how we can interact.

So the sun is 93 million miles from the Earth. You know how hot it can get here on the Earth, right? You know how the sun, if you're not shielded from it, right, the, the power of the sun, we experience it, we harness it, we use it. Well, on the sun's surface, it is 500 times more powerful than it is here on Earth. 500 times. It's 10,000 degrees, so it's hot. But more importantly is the power in it. There's electromagnetic forces. There are Radiation forces.

And so as a result, you cannot get close to it. The closest they've been able to get a probe is 3.8 million miles. Any closer and the sun would consume the probe. Does that make sense? So in order to get close to the sun, think about it, you would have to be of the same nature as the sun, right? You would have to be equally as powerful so that the sun didn't consume you. A planet that didn't have equal power would be consumed by the sun. Does that make sense? So if that's a metaphor, that's God in his righteousness. How would you and I ever be able to have fellowship with the living God? It would take something miraculous, something miraculous. And of course, this is what Romans is about.

This is what the gospel is about. This is about understanding that God and his righteousness— this is about God and his righteousness, his nature, his character. Let all the earth fear the Lord. Let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. Why? He spoke and it was done. He spoke. I mean, think about that. He spoke out of nothing, ex nihilo, out of nothing, everything.

The cosmic forces, the planets, the stars, the earth, the sun, everything. What? Who can do that? He spoke, and by the word of his power he holds it all together. So it begins by understanding this is what we're talking about— God in his righteousness. So in Romans 1, he talks about how does the immoral Gentile That the immoral Gentile is guilty. We know about the immoral Gentile, don't we? How? We are one. Yeah, raise your hand if you're an immoral Gentile. Yeah, you were an immoral Gentile, right?

I'll raise 2.

Yes. Then in Romans 2, he talks about the moral and religious man. He's also guilty. The moral and religious man is guilty. So underline whole world. The whole world is guilty. The whole world is guilty. But God provides righteousness in Christ.

He provides righteousness. He Provides a righteousness that will allow us to have fellowship, that will allow us to have access, that will allow us to have eternal intimacy at the right hand of the Father.

Huh.

How would that happen?

Through sonship.

A righteousness. So if you start with Adam and Eve in the garden, right, God spoke from a distance, God gave them everything— that's not this fellowship. This is sonship fellowship. This is at the right hand of the Father. This is firstborn fellowship access.

favor.

We get— in order to be able to get close to the Father, we need a righteousness that is God's righteousness. Does that make sense? To be able to get near the sun, you need to be encased. In other words, that vehicle, right, that probe would have to be of the same nature, right? And so in, in our case, we are encased If you will, in Christ, in his righteousness, allowing us to have access. Then in Romans 4, he says Abraham proves that righteousness has always been received by what? Faith, not by works. And then in 5, the justified sinner now has underlying peace with God. We stand in grace. We stand in grace. Think about that.

We stand in grace. I like that. And we belong to a new humanity in Christ rather than in Adam. So the problem with being a believer a long time is you say, oh yeah, I know that. I can answer that correctly on my test. I can get an 80, 90, 100% on that. But it is the nature of sin to take the inconceivable and try and make it conceivable. And so, so the, the mysteries and, uh, the, the, the awesomeness of what God has done, it is our nature to make it Oh yeah, I know that.

Pedestrian. So we have to regularly step out and say, imagine encountering this truth afresh, anew, again, because this is the gospel. The gospel isn't just pray a prayer and receive Christ. The gospel is Romans. The gospel is the righteousness of God. The gospel is God providing his righteousness To ungodly people. The gospel is he providing adoption to you and me after we rejected him in Adam. We get to become sons in Christ.

So Romans 1, it's the gospel of God and the righteous wrath of God. Confused most times with our angry wrath, right? And an unrighteous wrath. That's for, for people. Wrath is more— is an unrighteous wrath. It's like, I'm gonna get even, right? I'm gonna get even. I'm gonna get revenge, right? Where God's is absolutely righteous. It's just justice. So we have to remember that.

So Paul begins by saying he has an identity, a calling, and a purpose, and he is proud to call himself a bondservant of Jesus Christ. A bondservant of Jesus Christ. He has a card. I'm a bondservant of Jesus Christ. Who wants to be identified as a bondservant? No, I want to be the president. I want to be the CEO. I want to be the top dog. I want to have the, the, the biggest and the best and the highest title.

He says, no, I have the lowest title. I am a bondservant of Jesus Christ. And then he says, not only does he have an identity, calling, and purpose, we do. We are called of Jesus Christ, beloved of God. Beloved of God. Now, we said I don't use that word, but it sounds really good, doesn't it? Beloved, special, cherished. And we are called saints, hagiai. So we are 3 things.

Underline: distinct from the world. We are distinct, separate, separated, set apart. We are dedicated to God, and we are designed for God's purpose. And I always say, if you're still living, you still have purpose, because God's purpose— if you're still here, you still got purpose.

Amen.

Your purpose hasn't changed. The details may have changed, but you're here because God has work for you to do. Otherwise, you would be home. Otherwise, you would be home. So as long as you have breath, God still has work for you to do, and we are not to be ashamed of the gospel. Gospel, gospel, the good news. But the gospel is also bad news first. It's bad news first.

Why? Because we need to be saved from something. When they present the gospel, hey, receive Christ and receive all these benefits, that's not the gospel. The gospel is you're under God's righteous judgment. Justice means you should spend eternity separated from an eternal God. The question is saved— not saved for what, but saved from what. Before we answer saved for what, we have to be saved from in order to be saved for. A lot of times the gospel is presented as saved for— oh, these are all the things benefits you receive in Christ. But the beginning is you're saved from justice.

And he says all are, are without excuse. 2 forms of evidence: internal— what's that?

Conscience.

Conscience, right? All, all, all— every human being has been given an internal compass, an internal conscience. It can be deadened over time and ignored, and often is, but there's an internal conscience and external creation outside. Look around, look around. I was walking in the woods one day and I came across a Ferrari. sitting in the woods and I said, look what random forces put together. Probably took a million, 2 million, 10 million years, but look, a Ferrari came out of nothing. See, we wouldn't say that, right? So creation itself— look around, look around, look at DNA. Like, we can see DNA now, right? The most complex.

Like, come on.

So did you take the Ferrari?

Couldn't get out of the woods. It says they knew God, but they— underline— refused. They refused. What's refuse mean? I'm not doing it. I'm not doing that. What'd they refuse to do? Honor him or thank him. Honor him or thank him. Self-deity, self-reliance.

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who— underline— suppress the truth. So you probably asked that question at one point in time, or somebody asked you, what about the people who haven't heard? God speaks to all of these, but he's saying man knows. The heart of man, they know, and they actively suppress the truth. They actively suppress the truth. Therefore, God gave them over. What did he give them over to? A threefold judicial and just abandonment. A judicial and just abandonment. And you can put in parentheses, it's also called hardening, a hardening, a judicial hardening.

And we looked at it with John MacArthur's final session. We talked about in Romans 1, sexual revolution is the first, is the first wave, the first phase of God's judgment against a society. that says no. I was going to look, I'd forgotten that, but is his name Richard Barton? Richard Barton said this is when prayer was taken out of school in the '60s. '60s. And he graphed all these things that happened after prayer was taken out of school. Well, the sexual revolution was late '60s, '70s. We'll look at where it happened, right? So when a society openly and actively rejects God, there is a judgment coming.

The wrath of God comes. in an abandonment. First of all, sexual revolution turns into a homosexual revolution, and then a depraved mind. And now we live in a society of insanity where you talk to people, you think, how can you think that? How could you even think that? How can you even think that? So that's Romans 1. That's Romans 1. Romans 2 is no partiality with God. no partiality with God. And then he answers the question, okay, who is the true quote-unquote Jew? Who is the true Jew? So he's— what's that?

And who is a true Jew? Jew.

Thank you, sir. So he says no excuse Because he said, so some people pass judgment and say, well, yeah, they, they deserve God's wrath, not me, not me. And he says the, the immoral can't escape judgment, nor the moralist, nor the religious Jew. And then he asked the question, do you think lightly of the riches? Of the riches? Riches of what? God's Kindness, tolerance, patience. He'll say later on in Romans that he endures with patience vessels of wrath. He endures with patience, that he has righteous indignation every minute of every day. Think about God, who is all-knowing. He sees all sin across the entire world every second of every day.

And his righteousness would be screaming, bring about justice, bring about justice. So then he says, do you think lightly of the riches of his kindness? Because it leads to repentance. It's his kindness that leads to repentance. And then he says, God will render to each person according to his deeds, not on account of his works, but according to his works. Is that scary? So he says, you who think you're not guilty, there's no partiality with God. So he's saying, look, Jews and Gentiles— Gentiles will be judged by their conscience and creation, and Jews will be judged by the law. So then he asked the question, so who, who really is a Jew? Who really is a Jew? Is it Jewish by birth? Your mother had to be Jewish by birth. He said, no, the Jew is one who is one inwardly.

A true Jew is the one who is one inwardly. We are Jews inwardly. In other words, you have a circumcision of the heart. You have a new heart, right? You've been circumcised. He's saying that's what— it's not born, right, as a Jew. It's born again as a true Jew, which is one who is inwardly, right, a believer. We would say a believer, but he's identifying this is what it means to be a true Jew. And then he said, oh hey, by the way, if you're a Gentile and you're now a true Jew, be careful because you're going to be arrogant.

So he said, watch out for smugness, slothfulness. Oh hey, we've arrived, right? Or superficiality, right? Now I'm just cruising because I'm a true Jew. Now I'm cruising because I have the promise. This is— be careful. But your— the recompense will be according to your works. The fact is, there is a judgment that is equal to your works, everyone. So he's saying everyone has, has, um, how else would I say that? You will, your judgment against you, God's particular judgment for you right now as a believer, because he's talking about those who aren't in Christ. He's saying his judgment for you will be on account of all your works.

Not on account of your works, but, but how do I phrase that?

Yes, that's the Bema Seat judgment you're speaking of.

The what?

The Bema Seat.

No, no, no, we're not talking about believers. We're still— this is the beginning of Romans 2. So he's saying again, there are Gentiles who are unbelievers, and then there are Jews who think they're religious, have it. So he's saying everyone is going to be judged according to your works, right? According to your works. Not on account of your works, but according to your work. So every work you will be judged for, which means God is just in bringing justice and calling you a sinner. Does that make sense? This is before they're a believer. Just again, this is his— this is his argument that he's laying.

It doesn't matter whether you're a Jew by birth or you're a Gentile by birth. It doesn't matter whether you're moral or Right? You're a moralist. It doesn't matter whether you do some right things or not. Everyone— he's building this argument that everyone is guilty. So he's dealing with everyone who would be reading this. Well, I'm a good Jew. I keep the, you know, I keep the law. Oh, I'm, you know, I'm a Gentile.

And hey, I, you know, I'm not so bad. How many thought that? I'm not so bad.

Come on.

I'm not as bad as some of those people, right? I didn't murder anybody. I keep some of the commandments. This is who he's speaking to here. So he's saying there's no partiality with God. Gentiles and Jews will be judged because he's building— he's building the case that everyone needs Christ.

That—

did that answer that, Linda?

Yes.

So if you go to Romans 3, it says every mouth is closed. Like, mic drop. Everyone is guilty. Because, you know, if you, if you came to Christ as an adult, there was a time when you maybe thought, what are you talking about? Not that bad. I mean, not that bad. I don't do that. I don't do that. I don't do that, right? I'm not so bad, right? I'm not so bad.

So then he asked, what, what advantage has a Jew? By birth. Now he's talking about a natural Jew. He's saying, well, great. First of all, they were entrusted with the oracles of God. God came to them first, if you will. But then he says, there's none righteous, not even one. And this is going to lead to, you know, how do you come to know the need for God? There's none righteous. No, not one.

No, not one. And he said the law. So if you're a Jew and you think you're keeping the law, the law shuts everyone's mouth. Oh, I'm doing pretty well. Which one? There are 613 commandments. 613. Huh. How's it— how's it going? Can you get 3? You got, right? But of course it, it points back because we say, you know, when there were 10 Commandments, how'd you do? When there was one commandment in the garden, how'd they do? It's not the number of commandments, it's the heart of man.

So, loss. He says, therefore, what's the point? What, what's the purpose of the law? God reveals his holiness. God reveals. You cannot if you haven't studied. I think when I started 31 or 35 years ago, they gave me Leviticus. That must have been a joke. I think it must have been, and I can't remember who gave it, but it was either— it was either like a Marine boot camp. Okay, do this one, you know, go slog in the mud, in the water.

I don't remember. And I didn't appreciate it at the time, but later I went through Leviticus and I thought, this is worship, this is worship. But if you go through Deuteronomy and you go through Leviticus and you look at the law, the law is trying to show the righteousness of God in 613 commandments. You can't, you can't describe The eternal, immortal, invisible one with 613. You'd need an eternal number of commandments. Everybody get it? So the entire— right, the entire system of worship is to show the holiness of God. The holiness of God. And only the high priest went in once a year, access into the inner— right, into the inner court.

Again, to show us, give us a little glimpse that this is what the holiness of God is like. You think you're doing well? You think you can, you can, you can be holy? Like, it's to show us you can't. The law points. What's it pointing to? The law has become our tutor. It's a tutor, right? It's a trainer. It's a headmaster saying, hey, look. Hey, look. Hey, look.

Hey, look. This is showing you you can't, and the only one who can is the Messiah. There has to be a Messiah or you're stuck. The Messiah in the future. That's why the entire Old Testament is pointing to Jesus Christ everywhere, every corner, every— around every corner you will find, oh, there's— oh, there it is. Oh, there he is. Oh, there he is. So he said to the he's walking with them, he opened the scriptures, opened their eyes to the scriptures, and showed them from Moses on Jesus Christ everywhere.

Actually, from, you know, from after the garden, you know. So he says, but now, but now, but now. So he said every mouth is closed, right? Every, every, everyone is shut up under the law, but now But now, but now is a glorious statement, because understand, he's saying there is no hope. 613 commandments, and if you break one, you've broken them all. 613 commandments, you're stuck, right? Do you understand? There is no hope. There is no hope in the law. The law reveals your hopelessness. But now, but now, that's why I, I used to think in, in the Psalms it would say, sing to him a new song.

And I thought, what does that mean? Sing to him a new song. Sing to him a new song. Sing to him a new song. I thought, what was the mine disaster? Cure— cure— cure— what was the mine disaster? What was it?

Q Creek.

Yeah, Q Creek, where they were stuck down there and there was no hope, and they finally broke through. They would be singing a new song. They would sing a new song because they would go from death to life. That's what it means, sing a new song. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been made known. It's been manifested. So he says the good news is our need Has been met in Christ. Justification— that's our standing before God.

Redemption— that is the forgiveness of our trespasses. Propitiation— the picture there is of the mercy seat, where the blood has been poured out upon the mercy seat, sprinkled, and God's wrath is averted because the blood of Christ— think about the blood on the doorpost. The wrath of God comes, and the blood on the doorpost saves them from the wrath of God. We have blood on our doorpost, the blood of Christ. The blood of Christ. What's the bullet before that? That, that's the point, that you can't understand the good news unless you understand the bad news. And the good news will only be in proportion to understanding how bad the bad news was. No matter who you are, if you don't understand how bad the bad news is— was, you don't understand how good the good news is.

It's not good news. It's great news. It's life-saving news, right? That's why I say it's not good news. It's great news. And then he finishes to say, God is just. God is just, and he is the justifier. He's justified you. There's only one who could do that.

The one who is just, the just judge, can do that. And we are justified by a gift of his grace.

Grace.

So you're seeing, you start to get grace. You can only recognize grace if you understand what you deserve to Grace only is grace when you understand this is what I— this is what we deserved. So in Romans 4, he's going to say this is not new. This is not new to the Jew, and it's not— it probably is new to you as Gentiles, but he's saying this is not new to the Jew because Abraham and David, righteousness was credited, not earned. Righteousness was credited, not earned. So he says Abraham believed God and it was credited— underline that— credited to him. What was it credited to him as?

Righteousness.

How much is the righteousness of God worth? The glory— the word for glory is heavy, right? It's weighty in that sense. The glory of God is valuable beyond all things. Well, it means it's been put into your account. Somebody made a deposit into your account which was beyond— you can't count up the value of it. Righteousness of God has been deposited into your account. Stop and think about that for a minute. You wake up in the morning and you open up your account and there's $10 billion in there. You think, honey, what was that crypto? Did you, did you buy crypto? Where did that come from? Where did that come from? Where did that come from?

Scott, may I interrupt here? If that were Money was the answer. Read the dying words of Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple. Yeah, encourage all of you to read this. It was— it's heartbreaking.

It's not the answer, of course. No, it's not the answer.

Billion dollars wasn't the answer. So on. So read his dying words.

So he says God justifies the ungodly. The ungodly. The ungodly. And he reminds you, if you work, your wage is not credited as favor, but as what is due. And then he throws in David. He says David speaks of the blessing of a man whom God credits righteousness apart from works. I had shared with my mom, and we shared many times, Beth and I did. And, and she had prayed a prayer, but I just, I just really wasn't sure where she was.

And she had cancer. She was dying of cancer. And she said, I, I want, I want to know for sure. I want to know for sure that I'm saved. My mom never used words like that. That was just not—

occur.

And I remember going to Psalm 32, blessed is the man whose sins are not counted against them. And I said, you can know that because of the Lord Jesus, right? You can know that because of the Lord Jesus, right? And so he speaks of David, and then he says, think about Abraham. He was credited 14 years before he was circumcised. 14 years before So he's saying, in case you're confused, in case you think that circumcision saved him, his— he was credited with righteousness 14 years before he was circumcised. Circumcision is a sign and a symbol, much like we would say baptism is the— it's the same today. Doesn't save you. It's a sign. It's a sign.

And a seal of the righteousness by faith 14 years before. And I love that it says, in hope against hope, he believed. He checked his own body. He was 100 years old or whatever. And he said, how about you, Sarah? How's the womb? That's dead too. So you're— we're going to have a son? How's that happening? I love this. Let's read this verse together. Yet with respect to the promise of God, he did not waver in unbelief, but grew strong in faith, giving glory to God and being fully assured that what he had promised he was able also to perform.

And so that's how we think about the promise of God. He's talking about promise in the sense of righteousness, and particularly in the sense of an heir. Because that's the promise that God made to him, right? He believed in hope against hope. What are you believing today against hope against hope? Hope against hope. Then he finishes up in Romans 5 with peace, access, grace, and then he says, and much more, and much more. So he says, having been justified by faith We have peace. We have peace with God, not the peace of God. That's very different.

He says we, 90 billion light years apart, we have peace with God. How is it that we have peace with God, that we can stand in grace before him, that we can go where only The high priest went into the Holy of Holies. How can we do that? Because we have a high priest, Jesus Christ. We have peace with God. Think about that. You have peace with God. And so what he's saying, all the other, all the other stuff you have, understand you have eternal peace with God the Father. There is no double jeopardy.

You can't be tried twice for your sins. They've been paid for by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. Is that good news? No, it's great news. Gospel. So he says we have an introduction. How do you get in? Private club. Well, I'm here with him. I'm here with him, the one at your right hand, the Son in whom you are well pleased.

I'm in Christ. Admission and access. Access. It's not just into the club, but access into the inner place, into, into fellowship with God the Father. The, the Greek word is an introduction to the presence chamber of a monarch. You've been, you've been Uh, brought into the inner court, been brought into the inner court. We don't come in on our own strength. We have an introducer.

Who is that? The Lord Jesus Christ. And so when we go in, we stand in grace, stand in grace. And he says, as a result of who we are and where we stand and, and, and the access that we have, we exalt in the hope of the glory of God. What's the hope of the glory of God? You can write this down. We're all going to die today, tomorrow, next week, 30 years, 20 years. I don't know. We're all dying. But we're not dying.

The glory of God awaits us when we will be made Like him. That's our hope. Not that he fixes everything on this side.

No.

But the, the eternal hope is the glory of God. We exalt in the hope of the glory of God. When we see him, we will be made like him. He will transform the body of this humble state into conformity with the body of his glory. How will he do that? By the exertion of the power he has even to conform all things to himself. When I'll be made like him, of the same nature, guess what? I will have access to the Father. You will be a son in whom he is well pleased. The blessing and the favor of God eternally.

We stand in grace. So he says, in the meantime, we exalt in our tribulations. I don't do that very well. I don't do that very well. He says that gives perseverance, proven character, as John Monroe used to say, proven character and hope. And he reminds us that hope does not disappoint. Why? The— underline— the love of God. The love of God.

You are beloved. You are a son of the Most High God. You are a son adopted and given access to the eternal, and he's poured it out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit. So it's a joyful and triumphant— thank you— confidence in the future. He says not only felt, the Greek word, but it is expressed. We not only feel that confident hope in our future, but we express it. We express it. You know, one thing— I'm not going to get off track, but the one thing about— we've been learning AI a lot and how to apply it into our business.

And the one thing about learning AI is you give it an outcome, but you don't tell it how to do it, right? You say, this is what we want, this is the outcome, but you don't tell it how to do it. And I thought, it's the same is true with God. We tell him how he's going to do it. Okay, here's what I want you to do. I want you to change this, convict this, do this, move this, change this. And the Lord says, you don't need to tell me how to do it. I'm pretty good at designing, right?

Right.

We, we, we exalt him because he created and designed all things. He sustains all things. You don't have to tell God the way to do it. You don't have to tell him. He knows. He knows. So he says, at the right time, while we were still Helpless. Christ died for the ungodly.

God doesn't help those who help themselves. God helps those who can't help themselves. And he says, if in case you're confused, he demonstrates— underline demonstrates— his own love toward us. When did he demonstrate his love? When you were a sinner Literally an enemy, an enemy, an enemy of the Most High God, who have— who actively rejected the grace of God. No matter how good you thought you were, there was an active rebellion going on. So he finishes by saying there are 2 men. There are 2 men, 2 humanities, and 2 destinies. 2 men, 2 humanities, 2 destinies.

Who are they? One man, Adam. What happened through Adam? Death reigned and all died. One humanity, death reigned. Through the one man, Jesus Christ, grace reigns through righteousness to eternal life. And then put, and even more, scripture says. We have no idea. We have no idea. We have no idea.

And Even more and much more. So I thought about 2 things. Okay, it's a lot of stuff, Lord. But daily, do I— what righteousness am I standing in? What righteousness am I hoping in? What righteousness am I walking in? My own or the righteousness of Christ? Which has been purchased for me, which has been deposited in my account, if you will. Daily, what am I standing in, my own righteousness or Christ's righteousness? The other thing I thought is, how can I take better advantage of access? I have access. I have access. I have access to the Holy Father. I have access to the Son.

I have access. And David cries out, for a day in thy courts is better than a thousand outside. I'd rather stand in the presence of God than dwell in the tents of wickedness. For the Lord is a sun and a shield. He says the Lord is a sun. Sun, like a sun, right? All the light and warmth and protection, right? He's a sun and a shield. The Lord gives grace and glory. No good thing does he withhold from those who walk uprightly.

So how better can I take advantage of the access I have in Christ if a minute with him is better than 1,000 outside? If I have a problem and I'm running around with 1,000 minutes to fix something, he says, take a minute. It's worth 1,000 running around. 5 minutes is like 5,000 minutes. Think about that leverage if you're about efficiency. See, take advantage of access. All right, write down an insight, question, thought. Write down an insight or question or thought. And so he lays this foundation here that there's none righteous.

Right? He starts with— he starts with the immoral Gentile, like irreligious, right? I don't believe in God. I don't care about God. I don't— great. Maybe you're a moral man. Maybe you're a Jew. Maybe, right? So it begins with all have fallen short, right? It begins with all have fallen short. In order to understand the grace of God, you have to begin with the bad news to understand the good news, right? Understand the great news. Yeah, and I think, you know, as you spend more time with him, as you stand in grace and wash yourself in grace, there's more.

Because at the end of the day, it's Christ in us. So, so there's him flowing out of you, right? He said, talk about we're the sweet aroma of the knowledge of him in every place. There's a, there's a spiritual part of that. So we don't just grunt, tell people about Jesus. We just let Christ flow through us more, right? And the more that we are with him and spend time with him, the more you see your own sin, the more I see my own sin, the more I realize the grace of Almighty God. And they, they, they— then he opens opportunities to let that grace flow out of us and just say, shit, not me, not me, I don't deserve this. And, uh, you have access. You have an open pass.

Yeah.

Open pass to the Holy of Holies. You have an open pass to the eternal God who dwells in unapproachable light. He, he hears you. The Father hears you. And Christ, right? If any man sins, we have an advocate at the right hand of the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. You have an open pass. He's saying take advantage of the open pass. Don't go to Google or AI for your answers.

Go to me. Stop going to your friends for answers. Go to me. Stop looking here and other places. Come to me. That's what he's saying. Come to me. I bought access for you, right? Take advantage of the access.

Come in. Preach the gospel to yourself every day. Every day. Yes.

Amen.

Maybe the God of all grace and mercy, may he bless you, may he keep you, may he cause his face to shine upon you, may he lift up his countenance and give you his shalom deep in your soul, that you can rest, walk in his righteousness and his mercy and his grace. May he bless you and keep you always. Amen. Thanks for listening. I hope you have greater hope, assurance, and confidence in your life and a deeper trust in the God of the Bible and His Son, Jesus Christ. Until next time, may the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you. And may the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you His peace, His shalom, in your soul and in your life.

Until next time, may God bless you and keep you.