Pathway to Victory

Speaker 1

Hey, podcast listeners, thanks for streaming today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Pathway to Victory is a nonprofit ministry featuring the Bible teaching of Dr. Robert Jeffress. Our mission is to pierce the darkness with the light of God's Word through the most effective media available, like this podcast.

To support Pathway to Victory, go to ptv.org/donate or follow the link in our show notes.

Now here's today's podcast from Pathway to Victory.

Speaker 2

Hi, this is Robert Jeffress, and I'm glad to study God's Word with you every day. This Bible teaching program on today's edition of Pathway to Victory.

Speaker 3

When you are in a right relationship with God, you can stand firm in your relationship with him no matter what's happening in your life.

When you know your status is no longer enemy but friend of God, you can know that what comes into your life, whatever comes into your life, is a result of God's love for you.

Speaker 4

Welcome to Pathway to Victory with author and pastor, Dr. Robert Jeffress. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden, they brought sin into the world and put us at odds with our Creator.

But when Jesus died on the cross, he provided a way for mankind to be restored. Today on Pathway to Victory, Dr. Robert Jeffress shares how we can have peace with God through Jesus Christ.

Now, here's our Bible teacher to introduce today's message.

Speaker 2

Dr. Jeffress thanks, David, and welcome again to Pathway to Victory. Before we get started with today's message, I'm eager to tell you about a new resource I've prepared for you. Paul, who wrote the Book of Romans, made three historic trips in his lifetime, spreading the message of God's grace far beyond the borders of his hometown.

This multifolded brochure not only includes a colorful map that traces Paul's journeys, but it also explains why his travels were so important to you and me. Paul was the most significant missionary in Christian history, and he wrote nearly half of the books of the New Testament. I want you to have a copy of the Journeys of Paul map. While supplies last, there's no cost when you respond today. The map is my gift to you when you follow the simple instructions @ptv.org.

Now, when your request includes a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, I'm going to send a second resource. This one is a book. It's called An Illustrated Guide to the Apostle Paul. My personal library is filled with hundreds of reference books, and I can tell you this is one of my favorites. Every page will open your eyes to the realities of the first century, and it will revolutionize your understanding of Paul's New Testament writings.

Now, I'm going to repeat this information at the end of today's program, but right now, let's dig into our new study from the Book of Romans. My series is called Grace Powered Living, and today's message is titled Without a Doubt.

Speaker 3

The great novelist H.G. Wells very honestly described his own inability to find any peace in his life. He wrote, "I cannot adjust my life to secure any fruitful peace. Here I am at 64, still seeking peace. It is a hopeless dream." H.G. Wells is not unique. Many people go through life without any peace. They feel like they are helpless, victims of adverse circumstances, hateful people, or simply bad luck. And it's that lack of control most people feel over their lives that makes them resentful of their past, discontent with their present, and fearful of their future. H.G. Wells was right. Peace is an elusive dream, people. The fact is, you will never find lasting peace in your life until, first of all, you are at peace with God. And that's the theme of the passage we're going to look at.

I want you to take your Bibles and I want you to turn to Romans chapter 5 as we look at four very practical benefits of being justified, being righteous with God. Without any doubt, Romans chapter 5. And remember, Paul's theme in this book is that righteousness—that's simply a word that means a right relationship with God—is available only to those who trust in the redemptive work of Jesus Christ. We saw in chapter three, verse 28, that we are justified, made right with God apart from our works. It is by faith in the grace of God. And that's what makes Christianity unique from all other religions. All other religions say that it is works or works plus grace. No, the Bible says it is grace alone, received through faith. So Paul says in Romans 3:28, "For we maintain that a man is justified by his faith apart from the works of the law."

To illustrate that, in chapter four, he uses the story of Abraham. Everybody agreed Abraham was a good man, a righteous man. But what was it that made him right before God? Abraham was declared righteous apart from his works, apart from religious ritual, and apart from keeping the law. Now, you may be saying, "So what? What difference does that make to me?" Well, when we come to chapter five, we find the practical application. Paul is going to share four benefits, four very tangible benefits that come from the assurance that you are in a right relationship with God.

First of all, he says righteousness, a right relationship with God, gives us peace with a holy God. Look at chapter 5, verse 1. "Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Now, you need to understand there is a difference between the peace of God and peace with God. The Bible often speaks of the peace of God or the peace of Jesus. For example, in Colossians 3:13, Paul writes, "Let the peace of Christ rule in your heart." We've seen before that word "rule" is an athletic term. In Greek, it means to umpire. You know what an umpire does in a baseball game? He sits behind the batter, and when the balls come over the plate, his job is to call those balls. Is it a strike or is it a legitimate pitch? Now, the umpire controls the pitches that come across the plate. His job is simply to render a judgment about them.

Well, that's the word that is used here. Paul says, you need to allow the peace of Jesus to have the final say over circumstances in your life. You and I can't control the curveballs that life throws us at sometimes, but we can choose whether or not to allow Christ to have the final say. Instead of panicking, we say, "Because God is in control of my life, there is a purpose for that." That's what the peace of Christ means. How do you experience the peace of Christ? Paul says in Philippians 4:6-7, "Don't worry about anything. Instead, pray about everything. Let your request be made known to God and don't forget to thank him for his answers. Then you will experience God's peace which exceeds anything we can understand. His peace will guard your hearts and minds as you live in Christ Jesus." The greatest antidote to worry is prayer. And when you pray, you can have the same peace that characterized the life of Jesus Christ. That's what the peace of God is.

But that's not what Paul is talking about in Romans chapter 5. He's not talking about the peace of God. He is talking about peace with God. We need to know we are at peace with God. And when you're in a right standing with God, you have that assurance you're at peace with God. You say, "Well, why do I need that?" You may be like Henry David Thoreau who said, "I'm not at war with God. Why do I need God's peace? To be at peace with God. I'm not at war with God." That may be true. You may not think you're at war with God. But did you know, apart from Jesus Christ, God is at war with you? Now, you don't hear that talked about much today—that God is at war. He is against non-Christians. But that's what the Bible says. In Romans 1:18, Paul says, "For the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and wickedness of people who suppress the truth of God by their wickedness."

Folks, today, our culture has created a God in its own image. We have created this idea of God who approves of everything and judges nothing. That is not the God of the Bible. God is at war against those who commit wickedness. Romans 1:18 says the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all godlessness and the wickedness of people who suppress the truth of God by their wickedness. When you are born into this world, when I'm born into this world, we are not born as children of God. We're not even born spiritually neutral. The Bible says when we come into this world, we come as children of Satan. We come as enemies of God. And we'll discover why that is next week. The Bible says all mankind is by nature ungodly against God.

But the good news of the cross is when you trust in Christ to remove your sins, your status changes from enemy of God to friend of God. You change from being a child of Satan to being a child of the Creator. And it's that change in status that Paul wrote about in Colossians 1:21-22. "And although you were formerly alienated and hostile in mind, engaged in evil deeds, yet Christ has now reconciled you in his fleshly body through death in order to present you before Himself, holy and blameless and beyond reproach." When you're in a right relationship with God that comes by grace through faith, you know that you are at peace with a holy God. Your status has changed from enemy to friend.

What's the result of that change in status? Notice Paul lists two very practical results for us of our change in status. First of all, because we have changed from an enemy to a friend, it means we have access to God. Look at chapter five, verse two. In talking about Christ, it says, "Through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith." That Greek word "introduction," prosagoge, means access. Because we're in a right standing with God, we have access to God the Father. It's the same word used in Ephesians 2:18 that says, "For through Christ we have access to the Father by one Spirit."

Now again to the word. This is nonsensical. What do you mean we have access? Well, everybody has access to God. Anybody can come to God who wants to. It doesn't matter whether you're a Jew, a Gentile, a Baptist, a Catholic. It doesn't matter whether you're a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Mormon. Everybody is free just to talk to God anytime they want to, and know God's there listening to meet their every need. That idea is foreign to the Bible. There is only one way any of us has access to God, and it is through Jesus Christ the Son. He is the only way we have access to God. He is the one who provides an introduction to the Father. He's the one who escorts us into the presence of the Father.

I experienced a great illustration of that a couple of weeks ago. A couple of weeks ago when I was in New York at Fox News, I walked into the lobby of Fox, and it's a huge lobby. There on Avenue of America is a huge building, and there is this massive wooden security desk, and over to the left is a little gate. You go through to get into the rest of the building, and you have to stop at the security desk, and you show your ID. They look at your ID and they look at the computer to see if your name is in the computer and if you have legitimate business there. If it's there, then they call somebody to come down and escort you through those gates into the rest of the building.

Now, what was interesting was I was standing there in line with my ID, and in front of me was the publisher, the multimillionaire Steve Forbes, and he had out his wallet to show his ID. And then over to the side was Donald Trump, and he had his wallet out showing his ID. The fact is, you know, here we all three stood there. It didn't matter whether you were a multimillionaire or whether you're a billionaire celebrity or if you're a holy man of righteousness like myself, it didn't matter. They didn't care who you were unless you had access—somebody to escort you in. You weren't getting into that building, ladies and gentlemen. It's the same way with the presence of God. It doesn't matter how much money you have. It doesn't matter what religion you are. It doesn't matter how moral you are. There is only one way to God the Father, and it is through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. Through Him, we have access.

Now, this idea of access to God was a foreign concept to the Jews. You know, their temple and earlier the tabernacle were really a picture of how inaccessible God was. Remember how the temple was laid out? I mean, you had all of these walls, these barriers in the temple. But when Jesus Christ came and offered His blood as a sacrifice for our sins, the Bible says that dividing wall was torn from top to bottom. And because that veil has been torn in two, you and I have confident access to God the Father through His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The writer of Hebrews said it this way in Hebrews 4:16: "Let us therefore draw near with confidence to the throne of grace that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need." When you approach God with your needs, with the difficulties you're facing, you can have the confidence that you're not facing somebody who is at war with you, but somebody who loves you, somebody who has forgiven you, somebody who wants the very best for you. That is the access we have that comes from being in a right relationship with God.

The fact that we're at peace with a holy God gives us access to God. Secondly, it gives us confidence with God. Look at verse two. "For into this grace in which we stand." When you are in a right relationship with God, you can stand firm in your relationship with Him no matter what's happening in your life. Do you remember the Roman soldiers? One of the pieces of clothing he had on were the boots. Those boots had spikes in the bottom of them. The reason they had spikes was it helped ground him so that no matter what was coming at him, he never wavered. He was able to stand in the heat of battle. When adversity starts assaulting your life, nothing will cause you to waver or to fall any more than wondering about your relationship with God.

You see, if you're not sure that you're in a right standing with God, you don't know if those problems that come into your life are a result of God's love or His revenge against you. But when you know your status is no longer enemy but friend of God, you can know that what comes into your life, whatever comes into your life, is a result of God's love for you. Paul says righteousness, a right standing with God, provides us, first of all, peace with a holy God. Secondly, it gives us hope in a future glory. Hope in a future glory. Look again at verse two. "Into this grace in which we stand, we exalt in the hope of the glory of God." The hope of the glory of God. Paul uses that same phrase in Colossians 1:27, which he says, "Christ in you, the hope of glory."

Now let's unpack that for a moment. What does that mean, the hope of glory? What benefit is the hope of glory to us? Let's look at that first word, hope. You've heard me say before that in our language, the English language, we use the word hope to mean something we hope will come true, something that may or may not come true. A hope is a desire that may not be realized. For example, we say, "I hope it doesn't rain during our Mother's Day lunch today," or, "I hope I don't get sick next week." A hope is a desire that may or may not be realized. But in the Bible, hope is an assurance of something that has not yet been experienced. That's what Hebrews 11 says. It is a confidence. It is assurance. That's what hope is. It is the assurance of something that has not yet been realized.

So when Paul says, "Christ in you, the hope of glory," the hope of the glory of God, he's talking about when you know you're in a right relationship with God, you have the assurance of the glory of God. Now, what does that mean, the glory of God? You know, glory is one of those Christian words we toss around all the time without really knowing what it means. Glory this, glory that. Glory, glory, glory, hallelujah, glory, hallelujah. But I think most of us, if we took a little pop quiz, we're not going to—I ask you, what does glory mean? You probably don't have a real clear understanding. Can I admit to you, before this week and I started studying the word, I didn't have a clear understanding of it either.

The word glory in Hebrew is the word "kabad." It literally means something that is heavy, something that is weighty, as opposed to light and immeasurable. Something heavy, substantive. And so when we talk about the glory of God, we're talking about the heaviness of God, the weightiness of God, the substantiveness of God. The New Testament Greek word is "doxa." We talk about the doxology in which we praise the glory of God. The word "doxa" originally meant to have a high opinion of, and it was a word that was actually reserved for kings. You only spoke of "doxa" in terms of kings. And so when we say Christ the King, King of Glory, we're saying Christ is the one of whom we should have the highest opinion.

So what do we mean when we say the glory of God? The glory of God is the full manifestation of who God really is. You know, right now, none of us has seen the glory of God. We have our hope in God. We pray to God, but God is invisible to us. But one day, the Bible says we will actually see the weightiness, the heaviness, the substantiveness of God Himself. And that is the assurance every believer has, by the way. It's the assurance that every believer should long for. Do you remember the story of Moses? Remember when Moses was getting all depressed about the fact that he didn't feel like he could lead the people of Israel? And finally, when he was totally dejected, he said, "Lord, look, just show me your glory. I just want to see your glory. I want to know that everything I'm believing in is real."

You remember the story of what happened? It's recorded in Exodus 33, beginning with verse 19. God said, "I myself will make all my goodness pass before you and will proclaim the name of the Lord before you, and I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious." Verse 20: "But God said, you cannot see my face, for nobody can see my face and live." Verse 21: "Then the Lord said to Moses, behold, there is a place by me. And you shall stand there on the rock, and it will come about while my glory is passing by, that I will put you in the cleft of the rock and cover you with my hand until I have passed by. And then I will take my hand away and you shall see my back, but my face shall not be seen."

And so God takes Moses and puts him up there in that cave, so to speak. He covers his face, and the glory of God passes by. And God just allows Moses to see the trailing edge, the backside of His glory. But from that point on, Moses was a marked man. His life was never the same after he saw just that glimpse of the glory, the fullness of God. The Bible says the assurance we have is that one day, if we're in a right relationship with God, we will see the full glory of the God in whom we have trusted. But you know what? Not only are we going to see the glory of God, we're actually going to share in the glory of God. First John 3:2 says, "Brethren, it has not yet appeared what we shall be like, but we know that when Christ appears, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him just as He is."

I don't understand this, but what I do understand is that one day, because of our right relationship with God, the Bible says we're going to see the fullness of God, and we're actually going to share in the fullness, the glory, the weightiness of God Himself. That is the hope, that is the assurance of every believer.

Speaker 2

Imagine that amazing day when we share in the glory of God. These are the biblical promises that dispel our doubt. It's so good to have you along for the study in Romans. As you continue to listen to A Pathway to Victory, Paul's letter will shape our entire perspective on the future because he shows us that our hope is firmly rooted in God's unchanging character.

Our study of Romans Chapters one through five concludes on Friday. It's a teaching series I'm calling Grace Powered Living, and with time running out, please be sure to get in touch to request the Illustrated Guide I made. Until now, we've never offered this resource on Pathway to Victory.

Paul was not only a prolific writer of the New Testament; he also was a world changer. This book, An Illustrated Guide to the Apostle Paul, will make you feel like you're walking alongside Paul on his missionary journeys. Through pictures and illustrations, you'll have a whole new appreciation for his remarkable story.

The illustrated guide is yours when you give a generous gift to support the growing ministry of Pathway to Victory. As a bonus, and when you respond today, I'll also include a multifolded Journeys of Paul Map and brochure. This map identifies the important cities Paul visited and why those events matter to your life today.

Thanks for giving financially to support Pathway to Victory. Because of the collective efforts of friends like you, we're pushing back the forces of darkness and shining the marvelous light of God's word.

David thanks Dr. Jeffress.

Speaker 4

Today, when you give a generous gift to support the ministry of Pathway to Victory, you're invited to request your own copy of *An Illustrated Guide to the Apostle Paul*. As a bonus, we'll send along the *Journeys of Paul Map* to help you trace the paths that Paul took during his missionary journeys. To make your request, call 866-999-2965 or visit online@ptv.org now.

When you give $75 or more, you'll also receive the audio and video discs for *Grace Powered Living* featuring Romans Chapters one through eight. All of the messages come in their original, unedited form, and if you'd like to request your own copy of the *Grace Powered Living* teaching set, call 866-999-2965 or go online to ptv.org now.

If you'd prefer to write, jot down this mailing address: P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas 75222. Again, that's P.O. Box 223609, Dallas, Texas.

I'm David J. Mullins inviting you to join us again next time for the conclusion of this message called *Without a Doubt*. That's Wednesday, here on Pathway to Victory.

Speaker 1

Victory with Dr. Robert Jeffress comes from the pulpit of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. You made it to the end of today's podcast From Pathway to Victory, and.

Speaker 4

We'Re so glad you're here.

Speaker 1

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