In his sermon, Scott Brown explores the treasures of justification by faith as outlined in Romans 5:1-2, emphasizing the four key treasures: atonement for sin, peace with God, access into His grace, and rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God. Brown discusses the irreversible nature of atonement through faith, highlighting that it is not dependent on human actions but on the judicial act of God. He distinguishes between peace with God, which is a reconciled relationship through Jesus Christ, and the peace of God, which is more subjective and emotional. The sermon explores the transformative power of faith, citing biblical examples like Abraham and Sarah, and encourages believers to live consciously aware of the grace in which they stand. Brown emphasizes the Christian hope in the glory of God, both now and in the future, as a source of joy and strength for believers, urging them to rejoice and exalt in this hope despite life's challenges.

Romans 5, 1-11 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, and perseverance character, and character hope. Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For when we were still without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, Yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Much more than having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation." Well, we've just read about what are the treasures of justification by faith And we've just read verses 1 through 11, but this morning we're only going to focus on verses 1 and 2. And we will bring to the surface what we're going to call four treasures of justification by faith alone.

And for me this has been a week of rejoicing in the treasures of justification by faith, of just considering them all week long one by one that are in this passage. And the Apostle Paul just piles them up one after another, four of them in the first two verses of this chapter. And the scripture of course is full of exposition of the glories of faith. What does faith unleash in the heart of a person? The scripture speaks of the faith of a child.

All of these treasures can be known by children. One doesn't have to have a theological degree, one doesn't have to be much more than a person made in the image of God to understand and to receive the blessings from these treasures, from faith. Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. And it's the way that all of us obtain a good testimony, so says the writers of Hebrews. We see many amazing feats because of faith.

We see that by faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out of the place that he was living and to move to the place that he did not know even where it was. And he waited for a city whose foundations and builder was God. We saw faith in Sarah who received strength to conceive seed. We see faith in Abraham as we read about in the previous chapter who offered up Isaac, concluding that God was able to raise him up from the dead. We know that faith subdues kingdoms, works righteousness, obtains promises.

Faith can stop the mouths of lions, quench the violence of fire. It can cause one to escape the edge of the sword. Out of weakness it can make a man strong. It can make a man valiant in battle and turn to fight the armies of the aliens. Women can receive back their dead, raised to life again.

One can be tortured, not accepting deliverance, knowing that they'll obtain a greater reward. One can suffer trials and mockings and scorchings and chains and imprisonment, stonings being sawn in two temptations, being slain by the sword, wandering in sheep skins and goat skins being destitute and tormented, but if they have faith, they are counted worthy. One can wander in the deserts and the mountains and the dens and the caves of the earth, and all these can have a good testimony through faith. Even though they don't receive all of the promises in their lifetimes, they realize that God has provided something better. So in this whole issue of faith, we find that even A faith of a child can access these great treasures of justification, and then all of us, all of our lives, to continue to be blessed by them.

And that's why I've really had a marvelous week just rejoicing in these treasures. I found myself looking at my wife in the eye and saying, oh Deborah, all of your sins have been washed away. You've been justified by faith. I've looked at my children in that same way and have just stopped almost with my breath being taken away that I'm in the presence of those whose sins have been forgiven. And think of that now.

All of us here who have named the name of the Lord Jesus Christ have been justified by faith. We'll talk a lot more about this through here, but isn't it awesome to think about that? You're sitting next to a person who has been made a child of God through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. It really is a very awesome thing that we have here. It's a holy moment to be with another believer who's been justified by faith.

Isn't it so that we're often insensitive to the realities of life? And this is one of them here that there's a tremendous beautiful reality among us that is unmatched and is so helpful and so good. And so chapter 5 here brings us to a new section in Romans and It's it really is the key to understanding the book and it it takes from everything that's been said and then communicates the fruits of the treasures of all these things of justification that have been communicated. And so Paul has just finished these four chapters and now we're moving in, heading off in more directions in his argument. So I want to give you four treasures of justification by faith.

Brothers and sisters, these treasures are ours, together as a family. God has given these to us. And it is so remarkable to consider it. The first treasure is atonement for sin, verse 1. Therefore, having been justified by faith.

This is an irreversible ruling in our past that has taken place. The gavel has gone down, the judge has ruled, there will be no more trials, there will be no more new evidence, there will be no fresh stories that will come to reverse it all. No, absolutely not. Nothing from your past will be brought up again. The Lord Jesus Christ has justified you by faith.

He received the penalty of your sins on the cross and then He diffused them and He put them as far from us as the East is from the West. That's justification by faith. This is a judicial action in the past that has taken place. And this is the doctrine of the Atonement. We have been justified by faith.

We have been declared, and that's past tense, to be justified. And so here we find this amazing reality. It is done. I was interested this week to read the comments of J.I. Packer on the meaning of justification, and he gave a number of points.

I just want to read them to you because they really help us to understand what this means to us. Justification determines the whole character of Christianity as a religion of grace and faith. Number one. Number two. It defines the saving significance of Christ's life and death by relating both to God's law.

Number three. It displays God's justice in condemning and punishing sin, His mercy in pardoning and accepting sinners, and His wisdom in exercising both attributes harmoniously together through Christ. 4. It makes clear what faith is, its belief in Christ's atoning death and justifying resurrection and trust in Him alone for righteousness. Number five, it makes clear what Christian morality is.

Law keeping out of gratitude to the Savior whose gift of righteousness made law keeping needless for acceptance. Number six, It explains all hints, prophecies, and instances of salvation mentioned in the Old Testament. Number seven, it overthrows Jewish exclusivism and provides the basis on which Christianity becomes a religion for the whole world. Number eight, it is the heart of the gospel. Luther justly termed it, the articulus santus, vel credentus ecclesiate, a church that lapses from it, can scarcely be called Christian.

So this is the enormous significance of the atonement and how it was accomplished. And this passage of Scripture here tells us that the Romans and also the Wake Forest Indians who are gathered here today, who have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ have been justified by faith. And we can say with all of our hearts, For by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in his sight. For by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God is revealed, being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

Even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all who believed for there is no difference for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God And this is the truth of what we find here in the doctrine of the atonement. And so it is through faith that justification takes place, and it's a faith like Abraham's faith. Do you remember all the things that we said about Abraham's faith? Well, It was a genuine faith. It didn't mean that he was a perfect man.

It didn't mean that he was faithful in every step of his life. But it meant that he had a prevailing faith in God. He believed that God was able to raise the dead. He believed that God was bigger than all the gods of the world. He believed God and this is the faith that saves.

You know, in some ways, This faith, this covenant of grace that has been committed to us is the same kind of covenant that we commit to our spouses in marriage. We make a covenant. It's a commitment in the past and it lasts forever and God forbid that it would be broken. But the covenant of grace of God toward his children is intended to be the same covenant of grace that a husband makes to his wife. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

This image of justification should have implications in every in all of our relationships, particularly the marriage relationship. But here we find that we have our sins atoned for. And this is a treasure that God has given to us. Next, we have peace with God. Here's the second treasure that's spoken of in these first two verses of Romans 5.

Not only do we have a completed work on the books that cannot be revisited, we also have peace with God. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so you might ask, you know, what kind of peace is he talking about here? And the first step in understanding what kind of peace this is, is to remember what an unredeemed sinner is. An unredeemed sinner is a person who is at war with God, who has rejected the commands of God.

And that person also has an enemy, And that person's enemy is God. God is the enemy of those unrepentant sinners. And so we need to understand that we were at war with God, and He was at war with us as well. Romans 5, 10 says, for if we were enemies, if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of his son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved by his life? So he's making a really interesting comparison there further on in chapter 5.

We'll get to this next week. But he says clearly that we were enemies of God. God is angry, there is no peace between a holy God and unholy, unrepentant sinners. Two cannot walk together if they disagree. And that's the problem between God and the unrepentant sinner.

And So because of the anger of God and the war against the works of the devil, there is no peace between God and man until there is repentance. And it is repentance and faith that stops the war between God and man. Paul is talking about confession that brings forth peace. Confession is agreement. Confession is saying the same thing as God.

Sin is saying a different thing than God is saying. But the peace that Paul is talking about here is not, it's not first of all a feeling of peace, but it's a position of peace. You can see the difference. And it's a position of peace where God is no longer at war with us because His wrath has been diverted to His Son and toward us it's peace. He is peace toward us.

He is, He is our peace. Now, so this is not the same as the peace that's spoken of in Philippians 4, the peace of God that passes all understanding, which will guard your minds and your hearts in Christ Jesus. It's not that kind of peace. It's not the absence of emotional turmoil. It's not the same peace that Paul talked about in Galatians 5, but the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience.

This is a different peace that the apostle is talking about here. He's talking about peace with God, not the peace of God. You see the difference? There's the peace of God that floods the soul. This is something that God blesses his people with.

But this is peace with God, so that the war between God and man is over. And so peace with God is an objective thing. It's a status of peace. But we need to also understand that this peace with God does have an effect. I was reading Lloyd-Jones this week and he said that you can never experience the peace of God without peace with God.

And that absolutely is true. But here Paul is saying we are no longer objects of his displeasure. And we've been translated from the kingdom toward which he is at war to the kingdom of his beloved son and it's the kingdom of peace in that sense you know I don't know if you've ever lived in a relationship where there was constant displeasure with you. If you ever had a boss who just was constantly displeased or it's possible that you're married to someone like that, God forbid, God that and pray that God would change a marriage relationship where there's constant displeasure of one spouse to another. This would be a wicked thing to maintain.

But imagine what it's like to live under the constant frown of those who are around you. Well, God is taking away the frown, and He is living in peace with His sons and His daughters. And this is the fruit of propitiation. Remember what propitiation is? It's satisfying the anger of God.

The anger of God dissipates through the propitiation by His blood on the cross. I often try to read a sermon by Charles Spurgeon on Sunday night. It's a very refreshing thing and Spurgeon is so passionate. He speaks so directly and beautifully, far beyond anyone you can possibly read. But last night I did that.

I read one of his sermons on Romans 5.1. And he said he took on a certain issue regarding peace. But I just want to tell you how he explained it. He said, you may say, you may say, I don't have peace in my heart. You may say, I'm a believer, but I don't enjoy the fullness of peace.

So he begins to engage. He's coming off this passage saying, yes, But some of you don't are believers, but you don't have peace right this moment. What's that all about and He says and he gives a number of points and I'm just going to give them to you as best I can the way he did he says he first of all you need to understand that peace with God is promised, that peace with Satan is never promised. And that if the devil left you alone and never tempted you, you might think that you are one of his, but the devil is out to kill and steal and destroy. He can distress you while you are living in this world.

He says, you never had a promise of peace with the Prince of Darkness, but there is another promise, far better, and it is this, that the Lord will bruise Satan under your feet shortly. Depend on it. Inmatee between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman will continue and there will be no truce to the war. So we can have peace with God but we'll never have peace with the devil and the devil will always be out there to kill and steal and destroy. And that will cause some turbulence in our peace.

The second thing he says is, did the Lord ever promise that you would have peace with the flesh? No, the moment you were converted, The moment you were converted, there was a battle between the flesh and the spirit. And that battle will last till that flesh of yours will lie in the dust. So there's the battle of the flesh. There's a turbulence in our spirit because the flesh is warring against the spirit and we have conflicts in this life and it's a disturbance it works for a disturbance of peace but that has nothing to do with the peace of God who has made peace with his son in this time of battle and he says another might say I have little peace because those surround me vex me when I serve the Lord they malign me and misrepresent me and they scoff and slander and they take up an evil report against me.

And he says, how can you, you can't have peace with the workers of iniquity. It's a vain thought, perish the thought. There will be disturbances to your peace in this world because of what he says, those who would vex you. And then he brings up another kind of person who says, I find that I sin every day and I hate myself for sinning. He says, a sin-hating soul is a God-loving soul.

If sin never distresses you, then God has never favored you. Unless you hate sin, you do not love holiness." And so he says there's this disturbance of the peace in our souls because of our hatred of sin and our falling. How we do the things that we don't want to do. How we say the things we know we shouldn't say, but we say them anything anyway, and they disturb the peace that we have. But that has nothing to do with this great treasure of salvation, and that is peace with God.

That God has made peace with his sons and his daughters. Imagine that. All these people in this room who have been converted, and maybe some of you are not converted, but if you've been converted, all of you are part of this fellowship of peace. God is not at war with you anymore. And the peace of God that comes from justification is upon you so even though we may have trouble with the devil and the flesh and enemies and there may be disturbances of our peace through our own sin, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

Isn't that wonderful? What a treasure. Well, there's a third treasure here. Access into His grace, verse 2. Through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand.

Now, 25 years ago I preached from this text, and I was blown away by it then, and I'm blown away by it today. It's absolutely the most wonderful thing to consider that God has done for us as we walk around in this world. You think about this even right now from this moment until we walk tomorrow and the next day, we stand in grace and how aware we should be of it, but yet how often we lose our awareness of it. And the blessing seems to fade when we lose that awareness of it. But there are riches all over this sentence.

Through whom? Let's just stop there. Through whom? It's through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is His magnificent act by His omnipotent power is how this happens.

It doesn't happen because of you or me. It happens because of what He has done. Through whom? It's the Lord Jesus Christ. And who is the Lord Jesus Christ?

He is our faithful and merciful high priest. That's who He is. He's our advocate before the Father. He is the one that stands before the accuser of the brethren and tells him to stop up his mouth. He is the one who gives us access into this grace in which we stand.

For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly before the throne of grace that we might obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need. This is the one through whom we stand in this grace. Ephesians 1, 8 through 22 speaks of the access that we have into this grace. And we have it through the Lord Jesus Christ.

Paul, through the Ephesians, he talks about how it is accomplished and what it accomplishes. He says, for through him we have access by one spirit to the Father. Now therefore you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building being joined together grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you are also being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit. So here you have this idea that not only do you have a faithful and merciful high priest that brings you before the Father, but you have access that takes you from a stranger and a foreigner and an enemy to a son, to one in whom there is fellowship. And in that fellowship there is a building up in the body of Christ.

Not only do we stand in this grace with God the Father, but He also brings us into the fellowship of His own people and makes us one and builds us up all together. But he brings us individually and all of us together into this access of the grace of God. And so this access transforms us. And that's why we're told to be bold, to enter into this grace. Hebrews 10, 19 reads, Brethren, having boldness to enter the holiest by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which he consecrated for us through the veil, that is, his flesh.

And having a high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart, a full assurance of faith. There's that word again. Faith has unleashed so many treasures toward us, and our only entry point is made way by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ as we are entered into the holiness the holy of holies and we have access by faith. You will never once you have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ see the message access denied No, we enter through the blood of the Lamb who was slain forever and nothing can stop it for all eternity so we have received access it's past tense I want you to notice that from this text, that means we have received an introduction once for all. We have been introduced into this grace, Just as if you would be introduced to a king, or someone of great importance.

You have been introduced, and nothing is the same from then on. And We are introduced into this grace. And what is it? Well, it's a throne of grace. It's a presence of the grace of God.

But it's even more than that. It's something in which we stand. This image is so wonderful to me. It reminds me of my salvation. It reminds me of the imagery that God has built into baptism, water baptism, as we are immersed and washed and made pure.

We stand in this grace. You know, I just, When I read this, ever since the first time I read it, I can't think of it hardly any other different way than this. It says if you're just standing in a shower of grace, you're just under the waterfall, cascading down, washing off every unclean particle that could possibly be on your body. It's a refreshing, beautiful, cascading grace that you're standing in. And I believe that's why God has established the ordinance of baptism so that it would help us think about it.

It would help us think about just being completely immersed in water and to be cleansed and to help us understand that we've been washed and that we also stand in this grace that He has given to us. But this standing in grace, this baptism, doesn't just deal with the outside. It goes all the way to the inside and washes us internally as well. And you know, all of this obviously from this text you can see is an act of God. It is something that God does for his people.

He introduces us into this grace in which we stand. And he allows it and he facilitates it. Paul said to the Corinthians, he said, now he who establishes us with you in Christ and Has anointed us is God Who has sealed us and given us the spirit in our hearts as a guarantee it is God who? Establishes us in this He said later in Romans that it is God who is able to make you stand. Only God can make one stand in grace and that's why Paul could say by the grace of God I am what I am.

You know, when we were studying this last Tuesday in our Bible study, one of the men said, oh, I've had my head in the sand. I need to pull my head out of the sand and get my head out into this waterfall of grace again. This grace in which I stand. My head is down in the sand. I need to stand in that grace.

I love that image because he described really what happens to us so often. You know, in the midst of our lives, we just, in our hearts and our thinking, we get disconnected from the grace of God and we end up Not walking in that grace consciously. There's nothing that can stop that grace in which you stand But what how much more wonderful it is to walk in the knowledge of it to walk every step knowing that it is the grace of God that you stand in and He is cascading it down upon you. What a joy it is to live that way, to know that grace is being extended to you you know moment by moment and then to apply it, apply the grace of God to those that you're speaking with that you also know that the grace of God is upon your brother, if he is a brother, and if he is not, that he so desperately needs it. But this ability to walk in the grace of God and be conscious of it, is one, On the one hand, it's something that's done.

On the other hand, it's something that we forget. And that's the rub for us. And I pray that God would just help us even more to be conscious of this grace in which we stand. You know, you just might think for a moment, what If we were far more conscious of this grace, what would it do with the culture of your household? What would it do to the culture of even our church if we were more aware of this grace in which we stand?

And the grace that's been extended to us. The shower of blessing that God keeps pouring out upon us in our sinful state. You know, if You're saved, five minutes later you don't get any more grace than the guy that's been saved for 50 years. Isn't that amazing? Coming right out of the world with all kinds of worldly ideas and practices, that person doesn't get any less grace than the guy that's been walking for 50 years.

This is a wonderful thing. And to have a church that's affected by this understanding of the grace of God in which we stand is a wonderful thing. What about the culture of your heart? What effect can this have on the culture of your own heart? Well, this is a great treasure of justification by faith that we have this grace in which we stand.

And then the fourth treasure of justification in this passage is found in verse 2 and it's rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. He says that. He says that we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Now what in the world does that mean? There are three words here.

Rejoice or exalt, That's one word. We could just dive into that word for days, if we wanted to, exalt or rejoice in the hope. And then hope, that's another key word in this sentence. And then the glory of the glory of God. Those are the three basic ideas that are there.

And so let's just sort of take them one by one. Before we take them one by one though, I just want to say this. And that God desires that our hearts would be blessed with these things, that these would be the conditions of our own hearts, that He would use this perhaps to remind us of this great thing that is happening to us in through through the right understanding of these words well let's take the first word exalt it has to do with boasting exaltation praise thankfulness celebrating So there should be an atmosphere of celebrating. He's talking about the reason that one could celebrate and The last phrase tells us what we're celebrating. But first of all, this is a call really to celebrate this great treasure that God has provided for us.

And then hope, that's the next word. What kind of hope is this? Is it a normal human hope? Is it the same hope that says, I hope it will not rain today even though it's 80% chance? Is it the hope that says, I hope the value of my house will rise not fall?

Is it a human hope like that? Or is it a different kind of hope? Well, it's a different kind of hope. It's not a human kind of hope at all. It's a Christian hope.

It's a Christian hope in the promises of God. It's the same kind of hope that Abraham hoped against hope. Hoped when there was no human hope. It's a godly Christian kind of a hope. It's not a blind hope.

Abraham looked at his body not blindly. He didn't deny that his body was dead. He just believed God was greater than his body. And that's the kind of hope that he's talking about here. Abraham who contrary to hope, in hoped, believed so that he became the father of many nations according to what was spoken, so shall your descendants be.

It was that kind of hope. It was the kind of hope we'll run into in Romans 12 where we're rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation. Yes, you can have hope in tribulation as long as you have a Christian hope, As long as the promises of God are the things that guide you in interpreting all of your circumstances. So this is a Christian hope. We know that we have been saved in this hope.

But hope that is seen is not hope. For why does one still hope for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we eagerly wait for it with perseverance. So it's a hope in something that God will do. It's a Christian hope.

It's not a hopefulness based on certain conditions that ebb and flow according to economies or feelings or anything like that. It's not that kind of hope at all. It's not even a hope that's based on your past. In other words, past is prophecy. It's not that kind of hope either.

It's a Christian kind of hope. So we exult, we celebrate the hope. And of course this is a godly and a Christian hope. And what's the hope all about? It's for the glory of God, rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God.

Now, there are two ways that we must understand this. There is the hope of the glory of God, the same way that Moses saw the glory of God. We will see that glory face to face. Moses said, Lord, show me your glory. And God said, I'll show you the backside of my glory, and I will show you my goodness.

But you will not see my whole glory, or else you will die. Now, on the Mount of Transfiguration there was the glory of God, And it obviously wasn't the full glory of God because they all would have died if they had seen it. God is restraining his glory toward us. But there will be a day when we see him face to face. So there's the glory, there's the glory of God alone that's implied here.

But honestly most commentators, and I was really stunned by this 25 years ago when I preached this, because I must have read 10 or 20 commentaries because it was just hard for me to believe that this was the thrust of it. The hope of the glory of God is you. That's the hope of the glory, the glorification that God brings about in you. That's the hope of the glory of God. It's actually hope for yourself that God will bring about his glory that he has promised toward you.

So it is a hope in the glorification of the believer. And this we should rejoice in, we should exult in the hope of the glory of God. We know from scripture this glory is happening now. We know from 2nd Corinthians that as we observe the face of the Lord Jesus we are transformed into his image from glory to glory. That the glory of God is at work now.

Rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. You see the glory of God on you now, maybe not like you hope, maybe not like everyone else around you would hope, but There is hope that God can work his glory out through his people now, but finally God will make it absolutely perfect. And so We ought to rejoice in the good news of the hope of the glory of God. This should make us a hopeful people. Again as we sit together here in this church, we should have that same hope for one another.

We know that we are not sitting with perfect people, but here's one thing we also know. We are sitting with people who will finally be touched by the glory of God. And He will right every wrong, He will bring complete glory to Himself. He will sum all things up in Christ. And He will take us and He will give us a complete glorification.

And we'll need a new body in order to experience it. But he will bring about this hope of the glory of God. You know, it is so true though that often our hopes can be dampened. We can end up like David and we can say, restore unto me the joy of my salvation. Often sin causes a dampening of the hope of the glory of God.

We fall like David did and we cry out to God and say, oh God, restore my hope back to me of my salvation. Renew a right spirit within me. We often need that because we're sinners. But we must restore our exultation in the hope of the glory of God, so that we are an exulting people. I don't believe that God really desires for His people to be a sad people.

He desires His people to be an exulting people, not disconnected from the realities of their sins, not that at all. Not flippant about sin, not flagrant in their sin, not thankful for their sin, Not sinning so that grace would abound not that at all but at the same time Exalting in the hope of the glory of God God would have us and it really you know an exalting an exalting kind of people And if we're not to be like our brother David who says, restore to me the joy of my salvation and renew a right spirit within me. Do any of you need to make that prayer this morning? If possible, let that prayer fly before God. Come and ask that He would give you an exulting spirit.

And why an exulting spirit? Why is that important? It's because we are a body, we're a family. We affect one another. Think of the effect of a scowling, angry, frustrated father in the home.

It just makes for a scowling, angry, frustrated family. And God has made us a family here. And we have a responsibility to deal rightly with our emotions and to think rightly about ourselves. We should exalt in the hope of the glory of God. Is it possible that we could perhaps even exalt more in the glory of God than we did last week?

I trust that we can. So Here's a question. Do you have hope for yourself? Are you exalting in hope for yourself? Or do you think, no, no, there's no hope for me.

Now, it's not hope in yourself, but for yourself because of what God has promised to do with yourself. So it's not confidence in ourselves at all. It's confidence in God for the hope of the glory of God in ourselves. My daughter Blair wrote some words the other day, and I want to close with them. She said, here's an eye-opening understanding of God's infinite power and complete authority in all things.

And I want to leave us with this sense of the might and the authority of God to accomplish these things because He alone, upon Him alone rests this ability for the glory of God in us. And she quotes three passages of scripture, and I'll just read them. I know that whatever God does, it shall be forever. Nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken from it. God does it.

That men should fear before Him. That which is has already been. And that and what is to be has already been. And God requires an account of what is past. Ecclesiastes 3.14.

Job 42.2. I know that you can do everything, and that no purpose of yours can be withheld from you. And in Jude 1. Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory, with exceeding joy, to God our Savior, who alone is wise, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and forever. Amen.

And that is the hope of the glory of God resting upon His own almighty power. Not upon my emotions, not upon my behavior, but upon Jesus Christ and His blood shed on the cross. So these are the treasures of justification by faith. Atonement for sin, peace with God, access into His grace, and rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God. Praise God for his indescribable mercies toward us as people.

Would you pray with me? Well Lord, your treasures are immense and We do not deserve any of them, but we thank you for them. And I pray that you