The blessing of forgiveness..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Very good, brother and sister and friend. As I said, I want to speak to you about the blessing of forgiveness.

I want to do that from Romans 5, verses 1 and 2. The blessing of forgiveness. I want to speak to you about the blessing of forgiveness and the reason why I'm choosing those two words, blessing and forgiveness. It's not only because you want to give a title to this so that in your mind you will understand better what I'm going to communicate to you, but rather because this is the way that the Apostle Paul refers to the fact that we are justified and that we are forgiven. If you quickly turn your pages and go to Romans chapter 4, you will see that this is the way that the Apostle Paul refers to the fact that the Christian has been justified or that the Christian is forgiven.

When the apostle is speaking about the salvation of the saints of the Old Testament, and more particularly speaking about the example of Abraham, and applying that to the saints of the New Testament, he calls justification of forgiveness a blessing. If you pay attention to Romans chapter 4, verse 5, or verse 4 better, it says, Now to the one who works, his wages are not counted as a gift, but as his due. and to the one who does not work, but believes in him or has faith, who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness." Forgiveness, if you want, justification has been explained there. That the one who has faith is the one that is justified or the one that is forgiven.

Then the apostle continues in verse 6 to extend and to speak about this reality of forgiveness or this reality of justification in which he's going to call it a blessing. It says in verse 6, just as David also speaks of the blessing of the one to whom God counts righteousness apart from works. Then quoting there the Old Testament in verse 7, it is not only the apostle, but also the author, the psalmist in Psalm 32 that refers to our forgiveness or that refers to our justification as blessedness or a blessing. It says in verse 7, "...blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are covered.

Blessed is the man..." against whom the Lord will not count his sin." And if that was not enough, in verse 9, the apostle is going to make it clear that this blessing was not only for the saints of the Old Testament, but for us. Is this blessing then only for the circumcised or also for the uncircumcised? And as we know, the answer to that is that it's also for the uncircumcised.

I want to speak to you about the blessing, which is what the Apostle calls it, the Spirit of God calls the fact that we are justified, or the fact that we are forgiven. And at least in my mind, the question that follows, if we want to be biblical to the maximum extent of our minds, and to what the Lord allows, is the question is, what is a blessing? What is to be blessed? What do we mean by blessing, or blessedness, or to be blessed? Let me submit to you, brother and sister, that if we want to understand from a biblical perspective, the definition of a blessing or the definition of what it is to be blessed, we need to understand at least two aspects of this experience of being blessed or blessing.

The first one is that blessing is an aspect of relationship. When we speak about blessing, there's always someone who blesses and someone who is blessed. And because blessing is a relational thing, in the blessing there's always going to be an experience that is experienced by the one that is blessed. And let me submit to you that that experience of the one who is blessed is an experience of joy and happiness. The first thing that we are to have in our mind from the biblical perspective is that to be blessed or to have a blessing requires in this relational aspect with God, who is the one that blesses, that the one who is blessed would experience joy.

To the point that many times, and in different translations of the Bible, the word blessed or blessing may be translated as joy or sometimes even as happy. Because a blessing requires this experience, this condition of joy or happiness. And this experience of joy or happiness is the result of the second thing that I want you to have in your mind when you think about blessing. And that is your favored position before the One who blesses. If we are going to think about blessing in a biblical way, we are to consider this experience of joy and gladness and happiness that is the result of your favored position before the one who blesses.

So, a blessing is, once again, this condition of joy as the result of your standing before, in this case, God. So, I want to speak to you about the blessing of forgiveness. Now, this is very important because blessings can be of all types and all sorts. The Lord can bless us with our provision. The Lord can bless us with our children.

The Lord can bless us in many different ways. But the blessing that I want to speak to you about, brother and sister and friend, is the blessing of forgiveness. And if you pay attention to those two elements of the definition of the word blessing, then you will see that the fact that a person is forgiven should move that person in a genuine experience of joy and happiness because of the favored position that that person has before the Lord. To be blessed or to receive a blessing is not an abstract idea that exists outside of you. If you have come to the genuine realization, understanding, and comprehension that your sins have been forgiven, then you're going to participate and partake of the blessing or the joy of that reality.

There's no such a thing as a person who is genuinely aware and believing by faith that they are forgiven, that is going to live with the burden of or the misery of their sins. Yes, this can happen temporarily in the life of a Christian, but that is completely antithetical to having certainty and assurance that you have been forgiven. If a person has the certainty and assurance that they have been forgiven, why is that person going to live with the burden and the misery of having sins that are not forgiven? That is contrary to the definition of what a blessing is. So brother and sister and friend, let us please now come and read together from Romans chapter 4 all the way through chapter 5 verse 11.

And let us please, as the Lord allows us and gives us grace, to speak about this blessing of forgiveness. Let us pay careful attention to this, more particularly verses 1 and 2. That is from there that I want to speak to you about these blessings of forgiveness. Very good, Romans chapter 4, verse 23. After the comparison between Abraham and the saint of the new covenant, then the apostle continues in verse 23 and says, But the words it was counted to him were not written for his sake alone, but for ours also.

It will be counted to us who believe in Him who raised from the dead Jesus our Lord, who was the lever up for our trespasses and raised for our justification. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, in a sense we could change that, forgiven 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. And 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 was 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 demonstrates His own 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. Amen. This is the word of the Lord. Now, my dear brother, my dear sister, my dear soul, as I said, I want to speak to you about this blessing of forgiveness.

And my intention, my only desire is twofold. For the Christian, for those of you who are in the Lord Jesus Christ, those of you who have genuinely been partakers of the grace of the Lord and has been applied to you in such a way that you have a new heart, that you have been united to the Lord Jesus Christ, that you will know that you are forgiven. that in your mind and in your heart you will have the certainty and the assurance that you have been forgiven. For when a person is truly assured and when a person has certainty that they have been forgiven, that is going to empower that person to live in ways that that person didn't even consider that they were able to do. You need to understand, my dear brother and sister, that knowing in the Christian life is that which empowers our external living.

And knowing with certainty and assurance that one has been forgiven is going to strengthen and empower that person to live a life of freedom, joy, and devotion. When a person, by the Spirit of God, is genuinely assured, is genuinely given the certainty in the heart that they have been forgiven, this assurance does not reside only in the mind. It not only abides in the brain. But this assurance of knowing that you have been forgiven is going to empower the life of a person to live in freedom, in joy, and also in devotion to the Lord. Freedom from the burden of guilt.

A guilt that will not allow you, if it's in your heart or in your mind, to live your life before the Lord. But rather, when you have the certainty that the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes, then this is going to empower you to live lives of freedom. Not only freedom from the penalty of sin, but more importantly, freedom from the power of sin. And it's going to make you victorious. And if you are going to be partaker of this freedom that certainty in the fact that you have been forgiven provides, then your life is going to be strengthened by the joy of the Lord.

There is not going to be misery. There is not going to be darkness. There is not going to be sorrows of the soul. There is not going to be tribulation in the heart. But rather, the freedom that forgiveness provides is going to come with the joy of the Lord.

And this is not going to be a human joy that simply rejoices temporarily and then departs. But rather, the joy of the Lord is going to strengthen you to live lives of devotion to the One who loved you and gave Himself for you. The Lord is not going to liberate your conscience for you to go and live lives according to the ways of the world. The Lord is not going to free your conscience and the burden of guilt from your shoulders for you to go and be like the rest of the world and thinking that you're a Christian just because you prayed a prayer 5 or 10 or 15 years ago. But rather, the freedom of the Lord is going to empower a person to live a life of righteousness in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Not as a religious person who has a burden of a commandment that has to be obeyed, because there is no burden in the commandments of the Lord. But rather, this person will live in the freedom and in the joy of Christ that will naturally empower this person to be devoted to the one who loves him or her, and died upon the cross in the past for the salvation of that soul. This is the glorious power, brother and sister, of knowing. This is the glorious power of having this certainty. This is the glorious power of being illuminated by the Holy Spirit.

Knowing and having certainty not only of what is written with the mind, but with the heart is what enables us even to go against the things of this world. Pay careful attention there to verse 4, brother and sister. I'm going completely away from what I was going to say, but it doesn't matter. Let's go there to verse 3. It says in verse 3, "...

not only that, but we rejoice in our suffering." You see there, verse 3? "...not only that, but we rejoice in our suffering." How do we rejoice in our suffering?

Knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope. How can a Christian rejoice in times of suffering? By knowing, by being illuminated by the Holy Spirit, by having certainty that there is a God that is sovereign, that rules all things, and that the life of that person is in the hands of this triumph sovereign God. When that person knows, Not as a religious person who has learned the questions to the answers, but rather as a person who has been touched by the Holy Spirit. And when the person reads here verses 3 and 4, it's not only ink on paper that is communicating messages to the human brain, but rather are the words of the Lord that are communicating a divine message into the heart of that person, then that person is able to counted all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience."

This is the enlightenment of the heart that the Apostle Paul speaks in Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13, 14 and onwards. that He prays that the Christians will be enlightened in the heart, in the knowledge of Him, that they will comprehend this glorious hope that the Christian has. And this knowing, this certainty, this confidence in the things of the Lord, brother and sister, is what empowers us to go against the things of the world, to go against suffering, and tribulations, and persecution, and even the things of our own hearts. What a terrible thing it is for a Christian not to know. What a terrible thing for a Christian is not to be assured.

What a terrible Christian it is. What a terrible thing it is for a Christian not to have certainty in the mind and in the heart. Because, brother and sister, let me tell you that there is someone that is seeking to devour you like a roaring lion, seeking to devour your soul. And his name is Satan. And Satan does not have the power to take the soul of a redeemed believer and snatch it out of the hand of the Lord.

Impossible. But what Satan can do is to affect your faith. It is to move you from knowing to uncertainty. It is to move you from having certainty and confidence in the words of the Lord and to take you to doubt and to read the Word. And then this is just simply rocks and stones and bricks that do not speak to you at all.

It is to move your soul from a place in which you come before the presence of the Lord, and you are fellowshipping with the Lord, and being spoken by the Lord, to a place in which you have been taken by the distractions of the world in such a way that when you come to the Scriptures, now these words are... And the things of the Scripture simply are just ink on a paper. And then coming and communing with the Lord has become the routine of a religious person simply with the purpose of ticking a box to appease your own conscience. This is what Satan wants to do. And he is not alone.

He has a whole system of this world that is ready to provide for you and for me means of destruction, so that your well will not be filled with the waters of the Spirit and with the waters of the words of God and the things of the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, but rather that our wells will be filled with tainted, dirty waters of this world. so that we will be confused, that we will be distracted, that we will think that that which matters is for us to build our present empire, that that which is important is for us to build our present reputation, that that which matters is for us to have enough money in the bank account, that that which matters is for us to have a good name before our brethren or brothers and sisters of family. That which matters is for us to have a big house and two cars and three or four. That which matters is those things that are passing away. This is what the world wants us to do.

This is what Satan is moving us into doing, brother and sister. If the Christian does not abide in the power of knowing by faith, If the Christian does not abide in the power of having certainty of the things of the Scriptures, then that person is going to be, in the best-case scenario, an immature Christian that is like a wave of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind from one place to another. Or in the worst-case scenario, this is going to be revealed in the last time that this heart was never, ever truly converted and given to the Lord Jesus Christ. If there is a duty for the Christian, that duty is to know. To know the Savior and the words that the Savior has communicated to His people.

If there is an urgency, it is not about the empires that we're going to build and the programs that we're going to develop and the strategies that will come in place to go and sell Christianity to the world. If there is a duty and an urgent thing, it is that the Christians will be filled by the power of the Holy Spirit, that their hearts will be filled with abundance of the Scriptures, that Christ will be ruling in them, so that the presence of the Christian himself or herself will be so powerful that even darkness will be moved away by the presence and the words of that person who is not himself, but is Christ in him or her. If there's any urgency, my dear brother and sister, it is that we will know that our identity is not found in how much money we have in our bank account. Our identity is not found in what type of family do we have. Our identity is not found in the type of plans that we have for the future.

Our identity is not found in who we are in the present time, but rather in the fact that we are in Christ. And according to the Apostle, this is to be forgiven, to be justified, to find ourselves in union with the Lord Jesus Christ, to find ourselves as Christians not only with words that come out of our lips, but rather realities that strengthen us and empower us to be united to the Lord. And I want to share with you three important aspects of these two verses. Three little things that I just want to present them to you as clear as possible, that even the children will be able to understand what are the blessings of being forgiven. The first one is to be forgiven itself.

And in verse 1, the Apostle is going to use a very important word. If you see it there, it is to be justified. It says, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. The blessing of which I want to speak to you from verse number one, my dear brother and sister, is the fact that the genuine believer has been justified, and as we have it there, by faith. The genuine Christian has been forgiven, if you want, and the means of that forgiveness, it is by faith.

That person has been forgiven of his or her sins, not by their works, not by their deeds, not by what they know or they don't do, or whatever they have in and of themselves, but rather the glory of this blessing of being forgiven is found that is given to the Christian by faith. This person who is a sinner, you, my dear brother and sister, and myself, knowing all the thoughts and all the words and all the deeds that we have done, all the sins that we have committed throughout our lives, those that we are aware of, and those that we are not aware of, all of those things that we have done against the Lord, breaking His law and acting before Him against faith and against His righteousness, those have been forgiven and have been forgiven by faith. We have been justified. And that is that the blackness, the unrighteousness that is in your vessel has been changed by the pure righteousness and the pure water, the pure life of the Lord Jesus Christ. There has been an exchange.

You have received the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, and He has taken your unrighteousness, and your sins have been paid upon the cross. You have been forgiven, and that through faith you have been justified. And brother and sister, let me tell you that being justified, as you very well know, is something that happens Once. And it's something that happened in the past of the life of the believer. Being justified is a once for all event in which the righteousness of Christ is given to a person upon faith.

And that happens in the past. It's a once for all event. We have been made legally right before the Lord. There's no sins that have not been covered. There's no unrighteousness that has not been paid for.

The Lord Jesus Christ has paid absolutely for everything. and there are many aspects of justifications of which we could speak but there's one that perhaps we have not considered very well that is the general things that you know about justification what have just said before but let me just call your attention to something very interesting that the Apostle says in Romans chapter 4 as he's developing the argument come back with me to Romans chapter 4 and let me show you Something very important about the fact that you have been justified or that you have been forgiven. Once again, brother and sister, friend and children, to be justified is a once-for-all event that happens in the past of the Christian. In that moment in the past, the Christian receives the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ and is legally made righteous before the eyes of the divine court. That person is as justified before the Lord at that moment in the present life as he will be in the future, even when the Lord will come back.

There's no righteousness that is to be added to the fact that you're justified. There's nothing that is to be taken to the fact that you are justified or that you are forgiven. Once a person has been justified and forgiven, that person has this status before the Lord. And they say, once for all, once again, that happened in the past. However, There is a very important future aspect of justification that, at times, we don't pay careful attention to, that I think is going to help us not only to understand what justification is in a better way, but also to know with more certainty and more delight and more joy that our Lord Jesus Christ has justified us only by faith.

This important future aspect is found in chapter 4, in verses 7 and 8, when the apostle is speaking about the blessedness of being forgiven. If you pay attention there in Romans chapter 4, in verses 7 and 8, in the last clause of verse 8, we're going to be given some information about justification, not in the present or in the past tense, but rather in the future tense. And I want us just to consider there the blessedness or the blessing of being forgiven in this case of justification. Pay attention to those words. Verse 7, it says, "...

blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered." That is the definition of what it is to be forgiven. That is the definition of what it is to be justified. It says in verse 8, "...blessed is the man against whom, and here comes the future tense statement, the Lord will not count his sin.

He's not speaking about the present, as he has already mentioned in verse 7 and before. He's not speaking about this previous moment in the life of the Christian when they had faith. But rather, he's providing the Christian certainty about something that is going to take place in the future. It says, The Lord will not count his sin. And now, my dear brother and sister, when we are speaking about the glories of the blessings of being saved, justification is perhaps one of those blessings of being saved that is the most difficult to relate or to presently experience.

How do you experience a legal veredict? Veredict is the word, right? Veredict. How do you experience a legal veredict that happened in heaven? You simply don't.

That is the nature of justification. You don't experience justification. It happened in heaven. But let me tell you that there's going to be a time in which you actually are going to experience this heavenly, divine verdict in which you have been made innocent, or righteous, or just. That is the day in which you are going to see the Lord.

You see, justification took place in the moment in which you had faith and you were fully righteous and fully forgiven. You're going to be as righteous and as justified as ever before. But there's going to be a time in which you are going to see the Lord face to face, in which you are going to face your Savior after you have lived the life that you would have lived you would have lived until the end of your days. You're going to see the Lord Jesus Christ, the one who knows all things. And in that day, the Bible gives you the promise that the one who knows all things, because we are told here that it's the Lord that will now count your sin.

That the one who knows the secret of your mind, even as a Christian, The one who knows the depths of your heart, even as a Christian. The one who knows the things that you have done and the things that you should have done that you have not done. The Lord who knows absolutely all the thoughts of your mind, the depths of your soul, the things that you're supposed to be doing and that you're not, even as a Christian. That if you have been justified by faith, Even on that day, you're going to be counted as righteous. Brother and sister, you know, you understand that not even as a Christian, we live the lives that we are supposed to live.

That even as a professing of Christian sons and daughters of God through the Lord Jesus Christ, we don't do the things that we are supposed to do, and we fall short of the things that the Lord calls us to do in many aspects and in many ways. But the promise of justification and being forgiven is, that you are not made righteous only upon faith when you believe, but in the day in which you will see the Lord face to face, there's going to be this future justification. He's going to be the just and the justifier of the ungodly. And this is because they had faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the glorious promise that the One who knows all things, if He has forgiven you once for all, there's absolutely nothing that a Christian, genuine believer can do that is going to remove this status of forgiveness from the Lord.

This promise is not only for the day in which we see Him, but this promise is for tomorrow, for Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday and whatever day comes ahead. There's absolutely nothing that the Christian can do, the genuine believer can do, that is going to remove him or her from the status of being forgiven. And if you think about the temporality of forgiveness of humans, if you think about the passing away, the temporality of the forgiveness that we provide to each other, that we need to reinstate and forgive one another once again. And many times the offense will come back in such a way that relationships will be broken. with our Lord Jesus Christ, brethren.

Never ever. Forgiven once for all. And He said that day, you are forgiven, you are justified, and these will be the words that you will hear in the day in which you're going to have to give an account for all the things that you have done and all the things that you have said. And do not even consider to believe. that the reason why you will receive the words, you are righteous, or that you are justified, is because your life as a Christian, or because the way that you preach, or the way that you don't preach, or the church that you have, or the church that you don't have.

But rather, the same blood that gave you justification upon that day, will be the same blood that will make you justified when you see the Lord face to face, so that He will be the just and the justifier of the ungodly, and all creation will praise the One that in His grace redeemed a people that were dead, so that He will receive all the glory, and the Christian will rejoice in the fact that they are forgiven when they did not deserve. Justified once for all, not only back then when you became a Christian, not only today when you're sitting here listening to the Colombian speak, not only tomorrow, on Tuesday or next week, but in the day in which you come before the Lord. Now, you may come on that day with shame. You might come on that day ashamed for the things that you have done. Remember 1 John 2, verse 28?

You might come with shame for the things that you did and you were not abiding in Christ and the sins that you have committed. But the response of the Lord for those who are united to Him in the Lord Jesus Christ will be the same. Come and enter, my faithful servant. Faithful servant, depart from me, O Lord, I'm a sinner. Faithful servant, I have not done what you have called me to do.

I have not felt what you have called me to feel. I have not experienced what you have called me to experience. I have not treated my brothers and sisters and family and friends as you have called me to do it. Yet, by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, forgiven. And this is the glory, brethren.

This is the glory of Christianity. This is the glory of Christ. This is the glory of this thing that we're doing. It's not about a human celebration out there doing this and that. It's about the Lord Jesus Christ resurrected for our justification.

And in that, brethren, knowing that, there's power. How is a person going to live defeated if the words that I'm saying here really come into the heart of the person? How is a person going to go and give themselves to burden and guilt and darkness and to live lives of misery if the person genuinely believes that He died upon the cross to rescue them, to give them freedom, joy and devotion? Brother, sister, much power in the fact of justification. Second one.

Let me address once again a second important blessing if you return there to Romans chapter 5 verse 1. The first one is that you have been justified, that you have been forgiven. The second one that you have there is peace. You see there, brethren? Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, We have peace with God, through our Lord, Jesus Christ.

Brethren, someone is going to have to share with me a napkin or something, because I'm melting. Sorry. Verse 2. Sorry to distract. Thank you so much.

Okay, so verse 1, once again. The second one, it says, we have peace with God through our Lord, Jesus Christ. Peace, brethren. The Christian has not only been forgiven and justified, the things that I have just mentioned before, but the Christian also has peace. And as I have spoken about this before, this peace here is not the experiential peace.

That is the lack of anxiety, like we are spoken about in Philippians chapter 4, verse 7 and onwards. Remember? That the peace that surpasses all understanding, that we pray that the Lord Jesus will keep our hearts, our minds, This is the experiential peace that the Christian can enjoy, that can feel, that can have in the mind, in the heart. This is the lack of anxiety. Here in chapter 5, in verse 1, we don't have that type of peace.

But we have the objective peace before God. This is peace with God. Not the one that you feel and you have inside of you, but rather peace in your relationship with the Lord. I hope that you understand that. The one in Philippians chapter 4 is experiential.

It's that when you wake up in the morning, because you have done certain things, you may either have anxiety inside of you, or you may have peace. That is the experiential peace that the Lord Jesus Christ can give you in your mind and in your heart. We're not talking about that. We're talking about objective peace. The peace that does not depend upon your emotions.

The peace that does not depend if you have anxiety or not. The peace that does not depend if you're walking in the light or you're not walking in the light. The peace that does not depend if you have had a good week as a Christian or you have not had a good week as a Christian. The peace that is rooted in justification. Justification is once we're all from the past to eternity future.

This peace is the objective peace that the Christian has. In other words, is that the Christian is not in enmity with God anymore. Ephesians chapter 2, we are told that the non-believer, the non-Christian is a children of wrath, a children of disobedience. That is that the relationship of the person that is not a Christian is one of wrath, is one of enmity with the Lord. But when the Christian has been generally saved, now this person is moved from a state of enmity or a state of wrath into a state of peace.

Now God has become his friend as like unto Abraham. God has become our friend. He's on our side. And it does not matter what happens. Our relationship with the Lord is going to be one of peace.

Yes, that is true. That sometimes, even though we have that objective peace, we're going to be living lives of anxiety, experientially and emotionally speaking. Yes, that is true. But that does not change the fact that a Christian who has been generally justified enjoys objective peace. peace, positional peace with God because they are not enemies anymore.

And the easiest and best way to understand our peace with the Lord is understanding wrath, right? If we have peace with the Lord, that means that we can have wrath, that we are not under the wrath of God. Everyone who is not in Christ, Ephesians chapter 2, is a children of wrath. And we were children of wrath, is what the Apostle Paul says in Ephesians chapter 2. The best way to understand, brother and sister, this blessing of peace that you have, is by understanding wrath.

Because when I speak to you about peace, your mind and your heart immediately go to experiential peace. To lack of anxiety or having anxiety. This is how we relate to the concept of peace. But let me just speak to you about this objective peace that you have if you're in Christ, from the perspective of wrath. The wrath of God.

Everyone is under the wrath of the Lord. Let me add here a concept. This is going to help us, brethren, so please pay attention to me. Every time that the Christian thinks about wrath, wrath is not a word that we use in English much, right? I suppose.

Wrath, perhaps, is just a word that is used here in the Bible, or very limited to the way that people communicate to each other. So when we think about wrath as Christians, brothers and sisters, many times the main thing that comes into our mind is what they call, or what it could be called, the active wrath of God. Bear with me here. Every time that we think about the wrath of God, if I said to you, think about the wrath of God, you will think about an active... I don't know what you think, but it's very likely that what will come to our minds is the active wrath of God.

And by the active wrath of God, I am referring to the type of application of the wrath of God that brings devastation and that brings chaos. So think about the flood, right? Remember the flood? This is a manifestation of the wrath, or if you want, the judgment of God upon sinners because of their crooked ways and, of course, in the plan of redemption. This is an active manifestation of the wrath of God.

And then we will know through the Scriptures that the flood was a manifestation of the judgment of the Lord. If you think about Sodom and Gomorrah, right? Then the only thing that we can do is to picture in our minds fire coming from heaven and devastation and destruction as a manifestation or as an active manifestation of the wrath of God. When you think about the wrath of God, perhaps your mind may come to the end, to the last time and the last days in which the wrath of the Lord will come and the heavens will turn red and all of those things. So an active manifestation of the wrath of God.

Even though, brother and sister, this is very important, and it's a very important element of the wrath of the Lord. Let me submit to you that the wrath of the Lord is manifested predominantly, if that is the way that you pronounce that word, predominantly or mainly in a passive way. The wrath of the Lord, the wrath of the Lord, the judgment of the Lord is manifested more mainly or predominantly in a passive way. Now, it's very important that you pay attention to me and that you follow the thing that I'm trying to say here. Because when you think about the fact that you have peace with God, your mind more easily will go to the fact that there's no fire, that there's no Sodom and Gomorrah, that there's no flood.

Because we do live in the absence of those things, we might be tempted to believe that the wrath of God is not working. That the wrath of God, that the judgment of God is not actually being applied. That the judgment of the Lord is not taking place. Why? Because we believe, perhaps predominantly in our minds, that the wrath of the Lord is to be manifested in this devastating way, this catastrophic way, this wrath that comes and transforms all things.

The wrath of God is predominantly manifested in a passive way. And when I say passive, I'm not making a distinction between God doing and God not doing. What I'm talking about is the experience of those who receive the wrath. Those who receive the wrath of God in a passive way, see catastrophe, and explosions, and fire, and all of these things, this chaos that is visible to the eyes. So then we see that something is going on.

But rather on the passive manifestation of the wrath of God, all of these things are not necessarily present. But the wrath of God is being manifested. The apostle is the only one who speaks about the passive manifestation of God's judgment, or the passive manifestation of God's wrath. He does that in Romans chapter 1. Let us come to Romans chapter 1.

Let me speak to you about the passive manifestation of God's wrath, from which the genuine believer has been saved. Now brethren, once again, I hope that you understand what I'm trying to do here, brother, sister, friend. You're not going to understand the blessing of what it is to have peace with God. If you limit and you reduce down the manifestation of God's wrath only to Sodom, Gomorrah, the flood of the last days. Because you don't see and you don't perceive events like those happening in our present day.

But when you comprehend that the wrath of God is mainly manifested in a passive way, and I hope that you understand what I mean by passive now. Then you will understand and you will see that praise God, that we have peace with Him. Now, brethren, let us read, please, and let us read with reverence these verses from 16. I'm going to read them. I will make some comments and explain to you what the passive judgment or wrath of God is.

From verse 16, let us read to... Let us go, brethren. Bear with me. Let us read to verse 32. Okay?

Let us read to verse 32. Read with reverence. Perhaps some of you already know what I'm going to say. Read with reverence that the Spirit of God will speak to you, even as you simply read there. From Romans 1, verse 16, it says, For I am not ashamed of the gospel.

Some of you have the gospel of Christ. For it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. Now, brethren, pay attention to what we're going to be reading. You have to pay attention so that you will understand what I'm going to speak about this next. Once again, 16.

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith. As it is written, the righteous shall live by faith. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about them is plain to them."

Some of you have manifested in them because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived ever since the creation of the world in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks to Him. But they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.

Claiming to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal men and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up. in the last of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason, once again, God gave them up.

to dishonorable passions, for their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature. And the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error." And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God. Pay attention to that. Since they did not see fit to acknowledge God.

What other word do you have in the New King James or King James for that, acknowledge? If you did not fit to retain or acknowledge God. God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. They, those who were given up or given over, they were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness.

They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Though they know God's righteous decree, that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them, but give approval to those who practice them." Now brethren, be with me here. I want you to see here at least two or three things. The first one.

There are three comparisons here going on. The first comparison that I want you to pay attention to is two things that reveal something. The first one is that we have on one side, we have the gospel, right? In the gospel, verse 17, the righteousness of God is revealed. So on one side, we have something that reveals.

In this case, it's the gospel, verse 17. On the other side, we have... What is the other thing that reveals in this passage that we read? It says, "...for the wrath of God is revealed from..."

Heaven. So the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ reveals God's righteousness. You see that, brethren? Verse 18, we have the heavens reveal the wrath of God. Do you see that?

So we have the gospel revealing the righteousness of God, and we have the heavens that reveal the wrath of God. Very quickly come to Psalm 19, because I think this is what the apostle has in mind there. Even though he does not quote that very clearly, you know what I'm going to refer you to, right? Psalm 19. It says, "...

the heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky, or the heavens above, proclaim His handiwork." Right? You see that word? That the heavens declare or revealed, and that the sky or the heavens above proclaim or reveal. In Psalm 19, we're speaking about the glory of God.

We're told about the handiwork of God. I'm pretty sure that this is what the apostle had in mind when he was writing this thing. So we have these two comparisons, brethren. We have the gospel that reveals the righteousness of God, and we have the heavens that revealed the wrath of God. The heavens here is not speaking about the clouds, right?

It's speaking about... creation, as he will elaborate later on. This is the first comparison. Second comparison that the apostle has in mind is those recipients of that revelation. The gospel is the power of God unto salvation for those who believe.

And for those who believe in the gospel, the righteousness of God is revealed. It is from faith to faith. So the gospel reveals the righteousness of God for those who believe, namely the Christian. But on the other side, from verse 18 and onwards, we have the heavens that reveal the wrath of God against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men. We have the comparison between the believer and the lost.

One, the gospel is the one that reveals the righteousness by faith, can be seen, observed by faith. And then the heavens declare the wrath of God to the unbeliever, to the lost. And there's a very important third distinction. I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to explain it clearly, but this distinction is found In verse 18, it says, "...for the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth."

Pay attention to these two terms. It says, ungodliness and unrighteousness. The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness." These two terms are the two terms that the Apostle is going to expand upon from verse 18 to verse 23 and then from 24 onwards. Now be with me because it's not very easy to explain, or at least from my mind to my lips to your ears.

The Apostle has two connections here. One that is moral depravity that is, in a sense, I don't have any better word. Perhaps you may have a better word. Originated or caused in the lack of acknowledgement of God himself. That is made clear in verse 28.

It says, "...and since they did not fit to attain God, or acknowledge God, God gave them other." Since they did not acknowledge God, the result of the lack of acknowledgement of God was moral depravity. So that is that they denied God when the testimony of creation and everything was declaring the glory of God. Then God allowed that people will have in themselves, not so much the conscience that the Apostle will speak about in Romans chapter 2.

He will speak about that. But rather the ability to receive what we call general revelation and to know that there is a God who is divine. The divine power or the attributes that are not seen. Yet because of their denial or acknowledgement of God, then God gave them other. Now, brother and sister, here we will make an error to believe that the moral corruption of the lost is the result of the lack of acknowledgement of God.

Because the key word for us to understand here is the word gave up. Go to verse 24. It says, therefore, God gave them up in the lust of their hearts to impurity. Pay attention to verse 26. For this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions.

And verse 28, And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind. What we're talking about here is not the result of not having acknowledged God, but rather that God allowed them to be who they genuinely are. They had already a devised mind. They already had passions that were against nature. They already had behavior that was unrighteous in and of themselves.

But the restraining hand of the Lord was upon them. But because of their denial and acknowledgement of God, the restraining hand of the Lord is lifted, so that the unrighteous will be led to be according to the corruption of their own hearts. The moral corruption of the heart was already there, and the hand of the Lord simply is lifted. Lack of religious acknowledgment of God moves to a morality, or corruption morality, or blackness and righteousness in the moral aspect, according to the apostle. What is the main point that I want to make here, brother and sister?

That is, first of all, that all of us have inside of our hearts, and by virtue of our human nature, all of these passions and all of this mind that is corrupt. That for the lost and for the reprobate there will come upon a time, or there's even a time now, in which the restraining hand of the Lord is lifted. And this is the manifestation of the wrath of the Lord. We don't need to see. You know, a fire coming from heaven.

We don't need to see a flood. We don't need to see destruction. We don't need to see devastation in order to behold the wrath of God upon this world. The only thing that we need to do is to open our eyes and to see the corruption in morality that we see in society. And that is the result not of people becoming smarter and more wicked, but rather the restraining hand of the Lord being lifted.

so that His wrath will be manifested from heaven and people will be according to their own natures and according to their own desires. The unrighteousness and the wickedness that we see and that we perceive is nothing else than a manifestation of the wrath of the Lord. And brother and sister, let me tell you that if it was not because of the grace of the Lord applied to the heart of the Christian, The Christian will end up in the same practices and in the same things. Do not think, brother, who have never been tempted to homosexuality, that simply you were born with a natural desire towards women. No, brother.

The desire and the passion to homosexuality is inside of you. The thing is that the hand of the Lord has provided such a way that you will not perceive the temptations of the unrighteous flesh. All of our hearts, brothers and sisters, can be as corrupt as what we see and what we perceive. God has given up the lost to their own passions. And you know what the promise is for the Christian?

that the one who began the good work in us, will bring it to completion. The hand of the Lord will be ever, ever upon you by virtue that you're not under the wrath of God. Brother and sister, as we progress through the years, if the Lord does not come back again, as we progress and see the unrighteousness of this world, we will see things that we may think that we have not seen before, but they are already in our hearts. It's just that we have not connected the unrighteousness of our hearts with the mind. Because humanity, including yourself and myself, are as depraved as we can be.

The restraining hand of the Lord is what allows this world to exist. If the restraining hand was not upon Adam and Eve, Eve would have killed Adam, or Adam would have killed Eve the next day. If the restraining hand would have not been upon them, they would have killed and sacrificed their children, and that's it, no humanity. But brother and sister, for a greater purpose, the restraining hand of the Lord is not only working in everyone that has been created, but it continues to work in the life of the Christian. But the promise is that he who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it.

For the lost, he gave up." It's not that he gave up and said, no, I'm tired. It's just too difficult just to make these people worship me. Oh, no, it's just such a difficult task. It was a manifestation of the wrath of God.

"...restraining hand removed, let them be according to their own hearts." Now, brother and sister, if there is any fruit of righteousness in us, If there's any sin that you have had victory upon from the moment that you were saved, you must acknowledge every time that this is the hand of the Lord. And if there's something that you're not tempted to, and if there's a sin that you have not committed, this is not because you were born in a moral culture, or because of this or that, or because you were homeschooled, or you were not. It is because the grace of the Lord prevented you from those things.

It is because the ways of the Lord, from the moment that you were born, shaped you in a particular way so that He will complete the purpose. Not only from the moment that He saved you, but from the moment that you were conceived because you were chosen in Him. That is not to be under the wrath of God, brethren. Imagine, you have been witness of your own thoughts. There are things that you will be ashamed to say here to your brother and sister, to your spouse, to your husband or whoever.

There has been things in your mind and in mine that are so black. That we will hide and just go into a cave and then just simply not want anyone to see us or have a conversation with us. You know the things that you have got in your mind. Now imagine the things that are rooted in your heart that still have not been manifested. It is the hand of the Lord, the only one that is forming us like the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are not under the wrath of the Lord, brethren. And to be a Christian is to have the promise that He is working in us and bringing to completion. These men that should have ended up having unnatural sexual relationships, to have a wife, and to love his wife, and to honor the Lord Jesus Christ with a wife. Well, this woman that should have ended up having unnatural relationships with another woman, and given unto all of these practices, ended up being a faithful woman that honors his husband, and that glorifies the Lord through motherhood and being a wife. All of it is the grace of the Lord for His glory.

Because what exists inside of us, it is simply chaos and darkness. He has given us this promise, and He will bring it to completion. And let me please, now briefly, if you return to Romans chapter 5, to finish there, because now I went way too long. If you go to Romans chapter 5. Let me speak to this as brief as I can.

As brief as I can. Romans chapter 5, verse 2. I know that you're tired, perhaps, but we need to do a little bit of an exercise here, brethren. So please bear with me. Bear with me just the last one.

It says, remember that I'm just simply trying just to show you the blessing of forgiveness. It says in verse 1, Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now pay attention to verse 2. Through Him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. The first one, I called it the blessing of forgiveness or the blessing of justification.

The second one, I called it the blessing of the fact that you're not under the wrath of God, but rather that you have peace with God. This third one, I call it permanence. You have this word permanence in English, that you stand. You see the word there that says, "...through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand."

The Christian who has been justified, The Christian who is not under the wrath, not only the active, but not the passive wrath of God, is also the Christian that has received the blessing of having the ability to stand. In what do we stand? We stand in this grace, it says there, verse 2. In this grace. What is this grace?

What do you think that this grace is, brethren? Verse 2, "...through him we also have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand." Let me just answer with this myself, otherwise we will go very long. This grace, one will be tempted to believe that is the peace with God that we have just spoken about in verse 1.

It says there, Verse 2, "...through him we also have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand." What is that grace in which we have access and we stand? One might say, well, it's the peace that he has spoken about because that is the last thing that he spoke about. While that could be an option, there is a key word that tells us that it's not peace, and that key word is, also.

You don't say, also, when you're referring to the same thing. So it says, through him we also have obtained access. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. It is not the peace that we have with God, but we know that it's a blessing that he has mentioned in verse 1. Bear with me, please.

The other blessing that he has mentioned in verse 1 is justification. It says that we have been justified by faith and we have peace with God through our Lord, Jesus Christ. Through Him, we also have access by faith into this grace, the grace of justification. How do we know that it is the grace of justification and not peace with God? Because this is by faith.

You see there how it says? Through Him, we also have obtained access by faith into this grace. We have accessed this grace by faith. Which grace do you access by faith? You access the grace of justification.

You access it by faith. Once I have done that, pay attention to this. Justification, brethren, is the once for all legal verdict that happens once you have faith. 5 years ago, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, whenever that was. Upon that justification and that forgiveness, now you're not under the wrath of God.

You have peace with God, as I have said now extensively, I suppose. You're not under the passive wrath of God that everyone else is. But rather, you are now being object of the work that the Lord is completing inside of you. But by the same Lord, you have access into the experience of justification. The experience of justification is simply to be aware and to know and to remain in the fact that you are forgiven.

You are forgiven once for all, but your mind will not always be aware of the fact that you have been forgiven. Your sin, darkness, and the world will tempt you sometimes to forget that you have been cleansed from your former sins. 2 Peter chapter 1 verse 10 and onwards speaks about the Christian having forgotten that they were cleansed from their former sins. Having forgotten in their mind that they were cleansed from their former sins. By forgetting, that means that now your sins are imputed to you?

No. It means that you simply have forgotten the experience or the fact better that you have been forgiven and that you have been justified. When the Christian forgets or is blinded to the fact that they are forgiven, then that Christian has fallen from grace. And I believe, even though there are discussions about this and people might disagree with this, if you go to Galatians, I think that this is the experience that the Galatians were going through. If you go through Galatians chapter 5, please.

The apostle says that the Christian has access by faith into this grace in which we stand. The Christian can stand firm in the grace of justification. Not being justified, but rather experiencing the benefits of knowing that you are justified, that you are forgiven. When a person knows and experiences forgiveness, that person is empowered to live lives of holiness. When the person forgets, has been blinded to the fact that they have been cleansed from their former sins, that person will try to live their lives in a religious way, according to the flesh and according to the law, according to their own strength and according to their own righteousness.

I think this is what was happening to the Galatians. If you pay attention to Galatians chapter 5, verse 1 through 6, it says, "...for freedom Christ has set us free." Now it says, "...stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery."

Look, you have to hear the groanings of the Apostle speaking to these children of his. Look, I, Paul, say to you that if you accept circumcision, Christ will be of no advantage to you. I testify again to every man who accepts circumcision that he is obligated to keep the whole law. You are severed from Christ, you who would be justified by the law. You have fallen away from grace.

For through the Spirit, by faith, we ourselves eagerly wait for the hope of righteousness. For in Christ Jesus, neither circumcision nor uncircumcision counts for anything, but only faith working through love. Was the apostle telling the Galatians that by having started with the Spirit and now changed to the things of the law, that they had been separated from the Christ, that they were once for all united? No. The person who has been united to the Lord Jesus Christ has been united to Him once for all.

But rather, the Galatians who have started this by the Spirit, Galatians chapter 3, now we're trying to bring the work to completion by the flesh. They had severed themselves from the nourishment that is the life of Jesus Christ. And now they had been blinded in their own flesh. And they were doing things in their own flesh. They were doing things in their own strength.

They had fallen from grace, the manifested power of grace. Now the Apostle is saying, O Galatians, he has bewitched you. Why are you doing these things having started by the Spirit of Christ, having started by faith? Are you now going to make yourself perfect by the law? By keeping the law...

Now, the law, brother and sister, is simply the flesh. I mean, not literally the flesh, but the ability of the person trying to seek righteousness on their own is what I mean. The person now is trying to make themselves righteous before God through their own ability and through their own strength. And that can happen to the Christian. The Christian can be blinded in thinking that we now need to tick these boxes here and there in order to satisfy our God, in order to be religious, in order to be a good Christian, in order to be a good person.

But the promises that if you have been justified by faith, You have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom, Christ, you also have access by faith into this grace, the grace of experiencing sanctification in which you stand. Once you're justified, you're going to be justified until the end. And justification is never ever going to be by works, or the deeds of the law, or by the things that you can do. It's always going to be by faith. And the best thing that the Christian can do, my dear brother and sister, is to remind himself or herself that apart from Jesus Christ, my life is worth nothing.

That apart from the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, I can do absolutely nothing. That apart from the gospel of Jesus Christ, I'm lost. That apart from the righteousness of Jesus Christ, I am like them, or even worse, apart from the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, I'm going to try to make myself righteous, and that is going to bring a burden upon the shoulders of that person. It is the grace of Christ, the only one that can bring freedom to a person. It is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only one who can empower a person to freedom, joy and devotion.

It is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only one that can make the types of Christians that turn the world upside down. Brethren, it is the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the only one that can empower us like the early church. to come against the system of religion and the wickedness of the world, not with programs or systems or words that are articulated properly, but rather with the power of the Spirit in our lives, in the secret place, in our thoughts, in our minds. It is Christ Jesus Himself, the only one, that can accomplish this in the life of the Christian. And when the Christian has genuinely come to the realization that they are forgiven, This becomes a glorious blessing that does not only abide in the external world, but it takes residence in the depths of your heart, in the depths of your soul, and empowers you to live as He lived, to speak as He spoke, to give your life as He gave His life for yours, that you will be made like Him, and enjoy taking up your cross, following Him as you die to self, so there will be a day in which you will receive the voice of God upon you saying, Come, welcome.

Welcome, my faithful servants. All of the sufferings, all of the tribulations, all of the difficulties, all of those wiped out from your face, not with the hand of a priest, but with the hand of God Himself. Why? Because it happened that the Creator of heaven and earth loved you so much in eternity past that He sent His only begotten Son to die upon the cross for your soul, and now you are in His hands, brethren." What am I going to think tomorrow, or tonight, or after this sermon, brethren?

Not other thing that it does not matter what goes through this head, and many things go through this head. The only thing that matters is that He has forgiven me. And apart from forgiveness that comes from the Lord, there will be absolutely nothing. What is it? What is the darkness of this world, the tribulations of this world, the pains in the back, or the pains in the head, or the pains in the arm, or in the pains of whatever?

What is that, brother and sister? Compare with the fact that your name is written in the Book of Life. And if your name is not, children, if your name is not, those of you who are not in Christ, if your name is not, do you have peace with God? No, the wrath of God is upon you and might not be fire that is coming upon your car or house. But it may be that simply your mind is being given over to the things of this world.

And these things of Christ now are foolish. That person is speaking about Christ is just so foolish and so religious and so brainwashed. The things of the scripture are just so foolish because now you're finding agreement with the things of the world. You're finding agreement with the things of Satan. Why?

Because the hand of the Lord is easily removed from you. and the restraining grace of the Lord is lifted so that you're given over to your own passions. Today is the day of salvation. Today is the day of redemption. Today is the day in which the sinner who is not in Christ is to hear the voice of the shepherd.

who is to hear the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ and to confess that He is King and that He's your Redeemer, that He's your Savior. And apart from Jesus, apart from Jesus Christ, there's no way of salvation. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, even as He chose us in Him. before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before Him in love, having predestined us for adoption as us through the Lord Jesus Christ, the One who loved us and gave Himself for us. Amen, brethren?

Let us pray.