Beyond the Roman Road pt2 | Kevin Wallace Ministries | @rttnchurch ​

0:01 [Music] As I've been studying for this book of Romans, I just it's difficult to preach such depth and in in a concise series. I honestly am genuine when I say this. This could be months and months of teaching because Romans is not something you can summarize. But I'm going to attempt to continue to walk through it so that we extract the peaks of this uh powerful uh book and and see what the Lord is saying. And um I want you to go to Romans chapter 4 and then I'm going to take you to Romans chapter 5 and um we're going to jump in today. Look at somebody. Tell them one more time. Say, "Jump in. Jump

0:47 in." Okay. Romans 5 verse uh where is that starting at? Yes. Romans chapter 4 verse number five. But to him who does not work but believes on him capital him Jesus who justifies the ungodly his faith is accounted as righteousness. His faith is accounted as righteousness. Just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God imputes righteousness apart from works. Verse 7, blessed are those saying, blessed are those who whose lawless deeds are forgiven and whose sins are

1:33 covered covered. Blessed is the man to whom the Lord shall not imbue sin. So, but to him who does not work, verse five, underline this. This where I'm going to teach from today. But to him who does not work but believes, look at someone and tell them, "Chill out. Believe." Now, there are people in here who take great offense to the Bible on the way to protect their religious ideologies. But the Bible said that we do not have to work for this righteousness. We believe for this righteousness. And I know you think I'm a broken record and I've been pounding that. But I'm going to keep pounding that because for some of us 20 or 30 years, all we've heard is work, work, work, work, work. And I'm

2:19 going to tell you, the best workers in the church are the ones who believe, believe, believe, believe, believe. Because if you believe right, your work will flow from an identity, not for an identity. I don't work to get to be somebody. I work because I am somebody. And if you know who you are, you work better. Talk to me somebody in the room today. So, but to him who does not work but believes on Jesus who justifies the ungodly, his faith is accounted for righteousness. That's a whole loaded thing. Let me help unpack that in just a moment. Now, flip over to Romans chapter 5, please. Romans chapter 5, verse number one. Therefore, having been I don't know where the first part of that went, but I'm gonna need you to go find that, Charles, and put that on

3:04 that screen because it's the most important important part of the scripture. Therefore, having been justified by faith, having been past tense, 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 we rejoice in the hope of glor of the glory of God. And not only, everybody say not only. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance and perseverance produces character and character produces hope.

3:52 Now hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by what? By the Holy Spirit who was given to us. How many you are thankful the Holy Spirit has been given to us and by the Holy Spirit his love is being poured out in this room. And today I want to talk about faith and how faith leads to a life of favor. Look at somebody and tell them faith will lead to favor. Faith will lead to the favor of God. So help me pray. Father, help us today to teach and rightly divide the word of truth. And we thank you, Holy Spirit, for what you've done already in this service. And how wonderful it is to

4:38 see your work and your grace move on so many lives, continue to work and take us from glory to glory in Jesus name. And everyone said, "Amen." You can be seated in the presence of the Lord. So last week we looked at the key theological movements in Romans chapter 1 verse 1 all the way through the end of Romans 3. And there in Romans 1 through3 Paul successfully proved the guilt of all humanity and the hopelessness that we have when we try to attain righteousness by our works. How many know it's not just difficult to become righteous by works? It's impossible.

5:24 So today we will move from the guilt of all humanity and the promise of God's grace and we will move to Romans 4 and5 where we will turn our attention to the subject of faith. And as we will see today, powerful, transformational, and life-changing things happen when we place simple trust in God and his promises to us. In fact, the reason chapter 4 is so important is that it becomes the bridge that leads us all uh that leads us into all that God has provided for us in Christ Jesus. And the fourth chapter of Romans is really about faith. And we'll talk about that in just a moment because without faith, we will

6:11 never find the favor or the blessing of God in our lives. Now, as I studied for this week's message, I was struck again and I was reminded of how simple faith is. It is difficult to believe that something so simple can become so powerful. And I think sometimes when we come to church, we're looking for breakthrough. We're looking for the blessing of God. We're looking for certain things to happen in our life. But we must be reminded that faith is the bridge that carries us into all that God has for us. It is not just God having a heart of sorrow and pity for us that move God toward us. He does pity us. But how many know a man must believe that God is and that he must believe

6:57 that God is a rewarder of them who diligently seek him. Without faith, it is impossible to please God. And so we we have to be even though we are struck by how simple faith is, we can never underestimate the power of faith. And by faith, even though it is simple, it causes us to have access to the realm of God's favor and the gift of God's righteousness. We're going to talk about this. So faith is what causes us to have access to the free gift of God's righteousness and access to a life of grace. And grace is the favor of God. And all of that comes to you and I simply by believing God's word.

7:44 And yet Paul sets forth that in the most nonreligious way you can imagine. You and I can step into that favor. We can step into that righteousness. But it is not as we work our way into it. It is simply by believing the report of the Lord. And this is where religion has great conflict with this message. And over the years, there have been all kinds of constrnation and division because some think that Paul is suggesting that that we don't have to work for the Lord. And I don't think Paul is ever suggesting that good works don't follow believers. What he's trying to lay is the foundation of life. And the foundation of life is not your works. It is your believing right. If

8:29 you and I ever get our believing right, then our doing will be right as well. Some people want to do right and they want to rebuke everybody for doing wrong, but they've never addressed what they're believing. And if you're believing incorrectly, you're probably frustrated in your working because good works flow out of a person who knows who they are in God. But if you don't know who you are in God and the gifts that God has given you, you can spend your whole life frustrated trying to work in a church for a church, through a church, or even in life trying to please God when the only person who could ever please God completely is Jesus. And by trusting in what he did for me and you,

9:15 we step into this place of fellowship with God. And I want to I want you to see this today. So, so faith is simple. Everybody say faith is simple. Faith is simple and yet it is profound. And in a very non-religious way, Paul shows us that everything we could ever need in life is accessed not by how we please God with our works, but by believing in his promise. And in order to underscore this thought and this very powerful truth in the fourth chapter of Romans, Paul he brings the father of the Jewish nation into the conversation and he reminds the church at Rome that Abraham did not acquire the promise of God through the works of the

10:02 law. He possessed the promise of God by faith. Everybody say by faith. In fact, he makes the profound point in Romans 4:9-12. Listen to this. He makes the profound point that the promise did not even come to Abraham when Abraham got circumcised or before or after Abraham got circumcised. In other words, it wasn't his work of circumcision that earned him the promise. The promise was given to Abraham before Abraham had the law. Abraham lived before the law was ever given to Moses. And Abraham received a promise before he was ever circumcised. What is the point? Paul is reminding us in Romans 4:9 through12 that when God made Abraham a

10:49 promise, all Abraham had to do for the promise to come to pass was believe. He didn't have to run and get circumcised to inherit the promise. The promise was never contingent upon circumcision. The promise was never contingent on him fulfilling the works of the law. The promise was given by God as a covenant blessing to a man who was old in years. And yet God tells Abraham, "I'm going to give you and make you a father of many." And this is when Abraham and Sarah were old. And it looked like they were beyond childbearing years. And yet your Bible said when God made Abraham a promise, even though Sarah laughed, Abraham believed. And when Abraham heard the promise from God and believed, something

11:37 powerful happened in Abraham's life. God saw Abraham's faith, he saw his commitment to covenant relationship with him, and he said, "This man believes my word. So, I'm going to open up my promises to him and let him become not just the father of one, but Abraham, step out of your tent, look up in the sky, and tell me what you see. What do you see?" He said, "I see stars all over the sky." He said, "As many stars as you see in the sky, that's how many sons and daughters you are going to have in this faith family." This was a man who could not he could not obey a bunch of laws. There was no law. He He didn't get circumcised. He had not earned the promise. God just found a man who

12:23 trusted him. have faith in God. Do you know the supernatural things that are released to people who trust God? Do you understand that if you will believe God, it doesn't matter where you are in life today. Do you understand that faith can move you out of whatever condition, situation, problem, trial, season, whatever it is you're dealing with? Faith has the ability to unlock the promises of God in your life. Somebody say amen. The promise of God was never a result of lawkeeping or being circumcised because God made Abraham the promise before he was circumcised and before the

13:09 law was given. And yet God takes much of the fourth chapter of Romans and you can go home and I hope you're reading the book of Romans with me. He takes the entire fourth chapter of Romans to teach that through faith, Abraham inherited and became an inheritor of the promises of God. Some of us in this room today are desperate to see God bless our lives, desperate to see God bless our children, desperate to see God bless our businesses, desperate to see God bless our marriages. But hear me, you will not inherit the blessing by wanting things or by working harder necessarily. You will inherit the blessing by trusting in the promises of God over your life. God wants to know, not can you work for him,

13:56 but can you believe him? And there's a whole lot of people who find it easier to work for God and try to earn his blessing than to simply trust in him and believe him and inherit the blessing. But I'm going to tell you right now, there are people in this room that can testify they stopped stressing out as much as they used to. And they began believing that God's word is true and they began trusting that God. Now, you got to work with the word. I'm not suggesting that you can just float through life and say, "I believe God." Oh, no. You're going to have to get it down in you. You're going to have to put the promises of God. You live in a world contrary to your redeemed purpose. It is contrary to your redeemed

14:44 identity. And there are forces in your job. Forces in the world around you that are trying to conform you into the old man and bring you back into a life that does not have the favor of God on it, but I'm going to get ahead of myself and be blessed while I do it. Paul said, "Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." If you're not blessed, it's not because God is not good. It's because you have stopped believing he's good and you've stopped believing he'll be good to you. I think somebody needs to inform their mind right now. Mind this week, you're not going to feast on the frustration. You're not going to feast

15:31 on what has not happened. You're not going to be led by the voices of culture. This week, I'm going to believe I am who he said I am. He is who he said he is and he'll do what he said he'll do. Somebody say amen. Simple. Somebody asked my Sunday school teacher one time. I'll never forget I was 15 years old. They said, "Stan Gunther, what is faith?" Stan said, "Faith is simply trusting God." Amen. We could talk about deep complex definitions of faith, but the bottom line to boil it all down is this.

16:17 Faith is trusting God, trusting his word. Is he who he said he is? And will he I feel the Lord here. Will he do what he said he would do? Abraham accessed the blessing of God by believing the word of the Lord. It says that Abraham did not stumble at the promises of God through unbelief. And this is verse 20 of chapter 4. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and was fully convinced that God

17:03 who made a promise was able to perform. Lord have mercy. God was able. Abraham did not have confidence in his own performance. I could talk about that right there cuz God said you're going to be the father of many nations and Abraham said I'm getting to be an old man. I don't know how I don't know how much longer Sarah and I have for childbearing. And Paul said Abraham was never convinced he had power in his performance but he knew God could not lie. So he believed God and because he had

17:50 faith, he became the father of a multithnic family. Not just Jewish people, but Gentile people. And the thing that brought us all into the family was not our circumcision. What made Abraham the father of us all was not his circumcision. Because Gentiles were never invited into the moment of circumcision like the Jews were for the purpose for which the Jews were invited in. But we still became part of the family because the family was not known by its circumcision. It was intended to be known by its faith. Which is why Abraham is father Abraham who had many sons. And his sons and daughters are not those known by

18:35 circumcision. They are known by faith. If you got faith in Jesus, you are part of Abraham's family. That's what chapter 4 is about. Now, that's all invitation. Uh in in or I'm kicking I'm kicking vapes. Glory to God. I'mma kick some more vapes before this thing's over. I'mma kill some vapes. Come on, somebody. Faith is simple but faith is powerful. Faith need not be complicated but it not must not be underestimated. See faith moves mountains. Victory comes by faith. Salvation comes by faith. Promises come

19:22 to pass by faith. Hebrews said that there was some who came to God and by faith they conquered kingdoms. This is Hebrews 11:33. By faith, men conquered kingdoms, administered justice and gained what was promised. By faith, they shut the mouth of lions. By faith, they quenched the fiery flames of the enemy. By faith, they escaped the edge of the sword. By faith, weakness was turned into strength. By faith, people became powerful in battle and routed enemies and foreign armies. By faith, women received their dead brought back to life. By faith, people were tortured and refused to be released so that they might gain an even better resurrection.

20:08 And so I remind you family that faith pleases God. So whatever you do, trust God, believe in God. And as Jesus told his disciples in Mark 11, I tell you, have faith in God. For surely I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, "Be removed," and cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes those things which he says will be done, he will have whatsoever thing he says. Therefore, I tell you, whatever thing you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you shall have them. That ain't me. That's the Bible. Whatever things you ask for when you

20:54 pray, believe you shall receive them. I'mma walk around here and you shall have them. Don't bother praying if you're not going to believe what you asking for. Cuz if you mess around and start believing in what you ask for, something's getting ready to happen. And sometimes we just pray almost out of pity. Lord, I need I need. I need. And I dare you to change it. I dare you to say, Lord, I believe for I believe for I believe you're going to do this. I believe you're going to do that. I believe you're going to pay the bills. I believe you're going to open up the door. I believe you're going to touch the children. I believe you're going to touch the marriage. I believe you're going to touch the business. I believe I What are you believing for?

21:41 Because believing God is the bridge that carries you from the land of not enough to the land of more than enough. Abraham believed God. Now catch this. Abraham did not just obtain promises. Abraham didn't just have a child by faith. Abraham believed four promises and God gave him a gift called righteousness. Now, this is crazy. So, God says to Abraham, "I'm going to give you a son." Abraham says, "I believe you, Lord." And the Lord saw his faith in the promise and God said, "I'm going to make him

22:26 righteous." He didn't say, "Abraham, if you'll believe me, I'll make you righteous." He said, 'If you'll believe me in what I say, I'm I'll count that as righteous. Now, what what is the difference? The difference is God will invite you in through a bunch of different invitations. He's not looking for perfect faith. He just wants to know, do you trust him and believe him? He may have given you an opportunity to believe him for whatever it is. I I don't know if it was a job yesterday or last week or an open door, but if God gave you a promise and you said, "Lord, I believe your promises." God said, "That's my son. That's my daughter. They are carrying my righteousness." A free gift to those who will believe my word. I am not interested in how you got

23:13 saved 30 years ago. My question is, do you have faith right now? Because Hebrews says, "Now faith is a substance of things hoped for." And I think sometimes we are sitting in church resting on the laurels of a faith that is four decades old, but we didn't believe the promise God gave us yesterday or the promise God gave us last week. And here's what I want you to understand about faith. Faith needs this fresh expression, not just some old stale uh memory that you have a hard time reconnecting with. When's the last time, I'm not trying to condemn anybody, but when's the last time God offered you something as a gift? something that was a promise and you decided I'm going to believe God. Not just I'm saved and I've been saved for 40 years, but today God

23:59 invited me into this land of supernatural favor and I'm still currently at this moment up to date believing in God. You would be amazed at how many people are sitting in churches with stale faith and have not recently expressed fresh trust in God. When is the last time you trusted in God? When is the last time I I somebody's like on my way to church this morning? I want to tell you right now, this relationship with Jesus is not about monumental mile markers, although I'm thankful for them. It's about just walking with him. Somebody said, "Do you really pray about everything?" I depend on God for everything. I I cannot treat this I don't know how y'all feel about it, but I cannot treat this as a Sunday morning compartment of

24:45 my life. I don't run into situations on Monday and try to solve them without leaning on Jesus. If you run into a situation and you don't know how to fix it, that is an invitation to come to God and say, "I need you and I'm believing you for this in this situation." God will be as close as you let him get. That's good. God will be an everpresent help in the time of trouble. But you got to let him be you got to let him be God. And if he's present, let him be God and you quit trying to be God. Yes. So Abraham got a promise and he believed the promise of God. And when he did, the Bible says that God counted it as righteous. Now, I'm going to rewind and hit this real quick because I've told you this for like four or five weeks now. And I again, I feel like a broken record, but it's so necessary. What is

25:33 righteousness? Righteousness is when God says you are not guilty. Righteousness is God saying you are upright. Pardon me. Justification is when he says he's not guilty. Righteousness is when God says you are actually upright and a a and you are you are free and sin no longer has its hands on you. You are no longer identified by your sin. You have been made righteous. When I look at you, I don't see a failing son or a failing daughter. I see a righteous son and a righteous daughter. You say, "Pastor Kevin, he calls us righteous when we first get saved." Absolutely. Let me help you understand

26:18 something. How many in this room have been saved for more than 20 years? Lift your hands. How many of you have been saved for less than five years? Okay. Okay. Anybody been saved less than a year? Okay. I see some hands. Okay. Let me help you understand something. Do you realize that young man that just lifted his hand right there? Wave your hand at me, baby. That young man right there been saved less than a year. Somebody else who've been saved over 20, 30 years, lift your hands. He is just as righteous as you are. No, he ain't. No, he I hear you, religious dry hide. No, he ain't. He is not as righteous as me. He has not prayed as much as I've prayed and given as much as I've given. He's not read the

27:04 Bible through 23 times like I have. He is not as righteous as me. That's because you don't understand what righteousness is. Righteousness is not something you earned. Righteousness is something God called you the day you believed in Jesus Christ as Lord. You cannot get more righteous than righteous. This is what we do in the church. We have concentric circles of Christianity and we say these people are for real saved. These people are kind of saved. These people are maybe saved. And these folk are sure enough saved. In the eyes of God, anybody trusting in Jesus has been taken out of their old life and put in new life. And God sees you as

27:51 absolutely righteous because of what Jesus did, not because of what we did to get righteous. When he called me and you righteous, when he declared us, that's what he did. He declared it. He didn't just say it. He actually formally declared your sin debt paid in full. When he declared you righteous, it brought justification. He justifies the righteous. Watch this. What does justified mean? Justified is a no is an

28:39 Old Testament term for Paul and it relates to God's righteousness. And it literally means in the original word, it literally means to be declared righteous. If righteousness is what we were all trying to be so that we could be in fellowship with God, then God said through Paul, I want you to know that it was paid in full and God made you righteous and declare you were justified. And if you never heard it, let me give it to you like they gave it to me when I was a boy. Justified means just as if I'd never sinned. You say, "Yeah, but I did sin." I'm not telling you I didn't. I'm telling you what Jesus did was greater than what I did. And when you trust in Christ, his

29:28 blood forgives and his blood removes and his blood takes care of all of our sin. Last time I'll say it, it's the reason why we keep praise on our lips. Cuz when nothing else could save me, the blood of Jesus did. And so we praise God for the blood. Well, I don't like talking about blood when I come to church. It's so violent. No, you're not. You didn't have to deal with the violence. He did. You didn't have to deal with the suffering. He did. You didn't have You didn't have to deal with the reproach and the rejection of men. You You and I weren't nailed to a cross and crucified and whipped with a cat of ninetails. He was. Why? Because Because our sin is what led him to Calvary. and his love is

30:15 what kept him there. I said, "My sin is what led him to Calvary, and his love is what kept him there." It wasn't three nails that kept him hanging on the tree. It was love. It was when he looked into 2025 and he saw me and you and everybody else who would ever bear the name of Jesus. And Jesus said, "Man, this is hurtful. The father's turned his back on me. If it's possible, let it pass from me." It wasn't possible. He said, "Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done." And the reason he stayed on that tree is because he loved me enough to pay for it all in totality. He did not say, "I'm making a down payment, family." He said, "It is finished." Oh, Lord have mercy. Jesus

31:01 said, "It is finished." And I want you to know the debt was paid in full. I don't care how screwed up you've been and what you got addicted to and how you can't be free. I want to let the whole city know this house is not a mausoleum for a bunch of people who've arrived. It's a hospital for people who need a healer and a savior. And if you're screwed up, come on in. Make yourself at home. Where sin does abound, grace does much more abound. Somebody say yes. So God gave us when we believe. Look at somebody tell them when you believe. When you believe, God made you righteous. Righteousness being a gift given to you cause you to be

31:47 justified. Which means you are now free from sin and its penalty. And when God looks at your account, it doesn't have a debt stacked up against you. It's been paid in full cuz Jesus dropped the charges. Okay, I'm moving on because if I start singing that, we'll go into camp meeting. Okay, now he justified us. Go to uh Romans 5:1. Now, faith was the bridge to get us into the blessing. Faith is the bridge that leads to the favor. Chapter 4 was all about the faith, just believing God, trusting the report of the Lord. When you believe God and you have relationship with God by trusting in him, he gives you the free

32:33 gift of his righteousness and then he declares you justified. Now put up Romans 5:1, please. I want them to see this. 5:1. Romans 5:1. That's it. Therefore, having been what? By what? Told you. Having been justified by believing God, having been justified by trusting God, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. So the first thing justification does. So how did I get justified? Rewind. How did

33:18 I get justified? I was made righteous. How did I become righteous? by faith, trusting Jesus. So when the gospel is preached to me and I hear the good news of Jesus, if I trust and believe and have faith in the gospel, then I am declared righteous. And when I was declared righteous, I also was justified. And when I became justified, justified made me have peace with God. You ready for this? Oh yeah, that's what that is. When you have peace with God, it means you can lay down and rest at night, not wondering if he is ticked off with you, not wondering if he

34:04 thinks about you and gets in a bad mood. Oh, Lord have mercy. Do you know how many Christians think God is in a bad mood? Do you know how many people think God wakes up grumpy? Do you know how many people think God is walking around with a baton ready to wear people out? Let me tell you something. Because of what Jesus did, honey, the wrath of God has passed over. And for those who trust in Christ, I'm not telling you God won't deal with you. Because if you're his children, he loves those and chasens those he loves. But chastening is not about judgment. Chastening is about correction so that I can walk in my purpose and not miss my destiny. Stop talking to me about how God is going to

34:51 judge Christians who have fallen down. He may discipline his children so that in the future they do not repeat their foolishness, but he will never reject his children because he loves them with an everlasting love. I'm about to get in a mood now. We got all these judgment jokers. Can I tell you something? Judgment is coming. But you better be thankful it ain't judgment day yet. And because of Jesus who did not come into the world to condemn the world. John 3:17. But so that the world through Jesus might be saved. So what are we doing?

35:37 You got one job, preacher. You got one job. Preach the good news. How you so mad? You got one job. Tell everybody how much Jesus loves them. And you took one hour to tell everybody how they're about to bust hell wide open. I'm grieved. I'm grieved because we are. You say, "Oh, this is greasy grace." You better watch your mouth. This is amazing grace. This ain't greasy grace. This is amazing grace. And just because you think you've been speaking in tongues all your little life and your dress is down to the floor and you don't wear makeup or jewelry, you're holier. Your tongue is a cesspool of unrighteousness.

36:23 You got a gossiping spirit. And just because you don't struggle with sexual sin. You think you all that in a bag of chips, you are not all that in a bag of chips. You need grace. But the same answer. Okay, Julian, you're making me do something. Listen. So, gospel preached. You heard it. I heard it. When we heard it, we did what? Believe. When we believed, he called us what? Righteous. When we were made righteous, then we were justified. Now, because we're justified, we don't have an enemy with God, right? We have peace with God. I wrote this down in my notes. Hold on. How many How many got uh

37:10 these millennials here? Okay. Uh anybody play pickup basketball? Come on, brothers. Where y'all at? Now, I see some 60- year old men lifting their hand. I'm not talking about where you was 30 years ago. I'm talking about today. Okay. Okay. I know some of y'all feeling this thing. We don't want you to get hurt. Okay. Don't let the devil get you hurt. Okay. Pride go before a fall. Okay. All right. But but how many ever were playing basketball and you fouled that brother, that friend, that uh person that you were playing against? You fouled them and you fouled them pretty good. They fell down. And what's the first thing you said? You good? You good? Are we good? We're good. Can I tell you something about you and God? Because of Jesus. It's good.

37:57 Have you ever made a mess in life and you were feeling like God was against you or maybe God was mad with you? I I I I can I can relate to that. And I've God, are we good? And he looks at me and he says, "We're good." You say, "Oh, that's too good to be true." No, no, no. That's what Jesus did for you. You must understand. You must understand. All my life, Anna, I got raised. I got saved every Wednesday. And by Sunday, I was lost again. And my Sunday, I was like, I need to get saved again because in 72 hours, I lost it all. And God said, Kev, I got you. I knew you were going to struggle. I knew you were going to have some faith conflicts. I knew you going to walk through some stuff, but I want you to know, even though you failed me, you never stopped believing in me. And

38:42 because you kept on believing and trusting in me, your faith helped you catch up to my declaration that you are righteous. I called you righteous the day you got saved. And now I'm watching you walk in a righteousness that is yours. Not just positionally, but in actual behavior because I couldn't be. Behavior modification did not work for me. Andy, I will go into the mirror and say, "You going to fix this? You going to fix it?" I fixed it for 24 hours and then I did it again. And can I tell you something? Behavior modification don't fix you. Grace does. So, so hear the

39:28 gospel. Believe. When I believed in the good news of Jesus Christ, he made me righteous. When I was righteous, it justified me. Now that I'm justified, meaning that I am free from sin and I am righteous in Christ. Watch. Now I have peace with God. God, we good because of Jesus Wallace. We're good. Not only do we have peace with God, but we have access to grace. Now, this is where you lose religious people because religious people want you to pay and keep on paying for what you did. Oh, I see some of y'all gathering y'all's things right now cuz I just I

40:15 just stepped on every broke toe you got. You don't have a problem with people going to heaven, but you have a problem when people who have a past you know about. Come on. Start accessing the favor of God. Let me give you a religion check. If God can bless your neighbor who you know about their sin and you start saying, "How could God do that? Why would God be so good to them?" You might be religious if we going to start a sermon series called you might be religious

41:01 if if you struggle with God being kind and good to somebody who you knew failed and you know the details of their failure. If you struggle with that, you might be religious. I'm wrapping up, but not before I come for that Pharisee spirit who gets mad when the people who went to work in late afternoon get paid the same wage as those who went out working in the morning. Well, they ain't been serving the Lord as long as I did. Why did God do that for them? Cuz God's good.

41:48 And the Bible said by faith we receive the free gift of righteousness. When he declares us righteous, we are justified. When we are justified, we have peace with God and we have access to favor. Now, now let me give you these three things. Three things. Number one, we have received. Everybody write this down. We have received. Somebody say, "We have received." Peace and access. Come on, say peace and access. We have peace with God. It does not say in uh Romans 5, it does not say that God was reconciled to us. In fact, nowhere in the Bible does

42:34 it teach God was reconciled to us. It teaches everywhere that we were reconciled to God. Why? God loved us too much to leave us in sin, but he waited on us to respond in faith to his word. So when we were the work of reconciliation was never about Jesus doing something to make God like us because God has always loved us. But the work of reconciliation was accomplished in that Jesus died so that we could come back to God. Number one, we have received peace and access. Oh, I got to tell you this because this is great. Listen, the word access is the Greek word for courtly

43:20 introductions. It was used to to to to demonstrate how a person with pre-approved access was ushered into the presence of the king. In Greek culture, no one came to the king without an invitation and without properly following procedures. You did not just get to come into the king and have access, but when you were verified. And we can testify this because when we've been to the White House, you don't just get to stroll up in the White House. That's right. That's right. Oh, that's my house. No, that ain't your house. It ain't my house. You don't just get to roll up. You got to actually have credentials and you got to be preapproved. Talk to me somebody. When

44:05 the Bible says that he gave us access to favor, it means that you have actually been all of the boxes have been checked. All of the prerequisites have been met. You are not an intruder. You are not a foreigner. You are not treated like you don't how did you get here? When you come into the presence of God, you belong there because Jesus checked the boxes off. And now you have been touch your neighbor. Tell them, "I got clearance for this. I got clearance for this. I know I know you know my mess, but I got clearance for this. I know you don't agree with God's goodness, but I got clearance for this. God through faith in the blood of Jesus has given me divine access." How can you, some of you brothers and sisters in this room, how

44:51 can you possibly explain the good life that God has given you without understanding that God has given you access to a favor that you did not even uh deserve? How do I live in something I don't deserve? Because I believe in a God who died. I believe in a savior who died, who shed blood to get rid of all of the incriminating sin that I have committed. So, I've been given access. So, number one, we have peace and access. The next time somebody asks you, "Who do you think you are?" Ask them how much time you got. We have received peace and access. Number two, we have been reconciled. I'm hurrying through this. We have been reconciled. We have received peace and access. We have been reconciled. This is

45:38 Romans 5:11. Can you put Romans 5:11 up, please? Romans 5:11. We have been reconciled to God. God has not been reconciled to us. God was not the one who committed the treason and the offense. So God is still in the place where God was. We're the one that walked off and left him because of sin. So the Bible said, not only that, but we rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation. Reconciliation means that you and I who were enemies, not that God was our enemy. We were God's enemy. This is the bug uh the the the the bug

46:24 in the in the computer system of all this teaching going on about how God has never been. I didn't say God was mad with you. I didn't say God hated you. You and I hated God. There is a great difference. I was I was not just indifferent regarding Jesus. I was born antagonistic and an enemy. He was never my enemy. God has never been your enemy. God is the one that sent his only begotten son to pay the price so that you could come back to him. This has never been about trying to get God out of a bad mood. It's about transforming me from being an enemy of God to being a friend with God.

47:11 So God has always loved you and believed for you and paid for your sin, but the issue has been we were antagonistic and enemies of Christ by nature. And yet Jesus dies for us. So we have been reconciled to God. What does that mean? It is not just forgiveness of sin. Hear me. Reconciliation is not just I forgive you. Cuz you know what? You have forgiven some people you still don't like. I'm going to walk back here. I said you have forgiven some people you still don't like. Reconciliation is not just I forgive you, but I'm going to turn around and ignore you. Reconciliation is I'm moving everything out of the relationship that hinders me

47:58 from having the fullness of relationship. So now I am not just Oh Lord have mercy. I am not just being tolerated by God. I'm actually loved by God. Do you hear what I'm telling you? I I you are not just tolerated by God. All of the hyperverbal people in this place who get on everybody else's nerves cuz you don't know when to turn it off. Do you know God likes when you don't know how to turn it off? And you just keep talking to him and oh I love you Lord and thank you for this Lord Jesus and thank you for that that and for that and Lord will you help me today and Lord I believe you for this and Lord and Lord and Lord and I know people who say you can't talk to God like that. God ain't interested in all that kind of conversation. That's because you believe he tolerates you. But I do not believe the blood of Jesus was shed just so he could tolerate me and just so that I

48:44 could be forgiven. He is not just interested in me being forgiven and walking through life all by myself. I am a friend of God. You are a friend of God. You are not an intruder. You've been given access. And you've been given access because the one that you were an enemy of died to save you. And when you found out that he loved you that much, you can't do anything in response but love him back. Am I making sense? Last one. I'm done. We reign. We've received. We're reconciled. This is the craziest scripture in the whole thing for me. We have been given grace to reign. Can you

49:31 put a Romans 5:17 up, please? I'm done. I'm done. But not before I put this one up. Romans 5:17. For if, now this is crazy. I didn't get into this, but there was two families. One was Adam's family. D. Come on. Where's cousin? Anybody in here? Cut. Come on. Do you understand? There's two families roaming the earth. Uh-oh. I'm getting ready to bust a move right here. There are two families roaming the earth. It is not Republicans and Democrats. I'm letting it sink.

50:16 It is not black and white. I'm letting it sink today. I'm coming for all of it. It is not rich and poor. It is not west coast, right coast. There are two families roaming the earth. Adam's family and Jesus family. And some people, how many ever seen the Adams family come on TV? You know them some creepy jokers? Them some creepy jokers. And I want to tell you right now that if you're not in Christ, you and I before we met Jesus, we were some creepy jokers. But that but that's because we had we had extracted our identity from Adam and his failure. And if you read the middle chapter of Romans 5, it is all about describing the old family under Adam and the new kind

51:01 of family that is walking the earth that has trusted Jesus as Lord. Here's what I want you to hear me say when you look at this scripture right here. He says, "If for if by the one man's offense," who is he talking about? He's talking about the first Adam. Through the first Adam, one offense caused what to reign? Death through one. How much more than those who receive abundance of not a measure of grace. Stop this religious rationing. Stop giving people, you know, we got to make sure we don't give too much grace out. First of all, you don't own grace. Jesus owns grace. He is not stingy with grace. He is not rationing grace. He is not He's not keeping some in his pocket

51:48 for later. He's throwing it out like you can't imagine. Grace upon grace. John chapter 1. It's not a little bit of grace because he doesn't want you to live a little bit of life. I feel like preaching right here. It's a whole lot of grace. It's amazing grace. It's Monday morning grace. It's Tuesday morning grace. Where am I helping this church? It is Wednesday and Thursday and Friday and Saturday and Sunday grace. It's grace when you get the job and grace when you didn't. It's grace in the good times and grace in the bad. It's not a measure of grace. It's an abundance. [Music] If by Adam's screw up, death reigned, how much more those who receive the abundance of

52:34 grace and the gift of what? I told you it was a gift. Will do what? Reign in where? Life. Well, one day when I get to heaven, I'm going to rain. Well, that's all well and good. It ain't biblical, but it's good. And you can hear this all in our theology in our songs. I told you this all the time. I love some of these songs, but they were not scriptural. God wants the dark heels. No, he actually don't. He walks through every season.

53:20 I'm coming up on the rough side of the mountain. You can or you could talk to the mountain like the Bible says and actually speak to the mountain. Y'all don't want me right now. What I'm trying to tell you is life is often what you believe it is. And if your believing is screwed up, life will get screwed up. But if you ever start believing in the abundance of grace that all this mess that tries to make you think you've got to live in defeat, you've got to live in lack. You've got to live in limitations. You've got to live with a lid on you and a label on you and you'll never be free and you'll always have that on your

54:05 record. The devil is a liar. If God be for us, since God is for us, who can be against us? Somebody tell them neighbor it's time to reign in life. Reign. You are not a pulper. You are a king. Oh God. I I I said that and it was too preachy. So let me slow down. You're a king. You say, "How am I king?" He's the king. He is the king of kings. So if he's the king of kings, I'm trying to find out who are the kings he's talking about.

54:51 Well, you know, he's talking about king president. No, he's not. The Bible said in first Peter, you are a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people. And in Revelation 1, it says this. He He has made us a kingdom of kings and priests. Stand with me. I'm through preaching. He's made us a kingdom of kings and priests to our God. When I say you're a king, don't get nervous. Well, I'm I'm just humble. No, you're not humble. It's not humility to reject an identity Jesus told you was yours. Well, I just don't want it to go to my

55:37 mind, you know? I don't want to get all all proud. You shouldn't. Cuz it ain't about you. It's about what he did through you. Well, how did we get get to kings? How did we get to this reigning in life through abundance and grace? How did we get here? Faith. And I'm going to tell somebody this before I pray for y'all. I don't care how hard you work and how frustrated you get while you work trying to become and trying to attain. Some of us want to work harder but don't want to believe deeper. Don't want to trust. We'd rather panic pout. We would

56:22 rather be controlled by our fear. And I you looking at the person that has to check themsel perhaps more than any other person in this building because sometimes I see things with my eyes and if I'm not careful I'll start speaking according to what I see. When you pray, believe you shall receive it and you shall have it. And so I got a word for you as I close. You can either run over by g be run over by guilt or you can reign by grace. I'm going say it again. You can either live your life getting run over by guilt or you can reign in

57:12 grace. Well, one day when I get to heaven, I'm going to reign. No, you are training to reign right now. Yeah, you're training. Look at your neighbor and say, "Train to rain." Train to rain. Do you think God is going to give nations to people who couldn't manage their checkbook? Well done, good and faithful servant. You've been faithful over a little. Now, I'm going to let your rule reign. over much. Well, Pastor Kevin, I don't know how to do this. I don't have it within me. I'm going to make this real simple before we

57:58 leave today. You don't have to go fix 12 years of bad theology, 5 years of screwed up thinking. Here's the only thing you got to do before you leave this building is decide, God, change how I believe. Let me believe you at your word. If you need that, lift your hands so I can pray for you right now. Lift your hands. I ain't ashamed of it. I want God to fix my believing so he can can transform my living online, in the house, wherever you are. If you need this to happen for

58:43 you, a transformation in your mind and in your thinking that leads to a transformation in life and in doing. Throw your hands up. Don't be ashamed. I pray for every person who lifted their hand right now. God, fix our thinking. address our theology that is not in keeping with your word. A man can believe a lie and stand condemned or he can believe the truth and be set free. I pray for every person that lifted their hands right now that

59:28 there would be a repair of thinking, a shift in their ideology. Some of the people, God, in this room right now, you love them so much, but they're so judgmental. They're suspicious. They walk around judging everything and everybody else because they themselves feel judged and condemned on the inside. Lift that lid off their life today. Let people begin to tap into the power. This is what I've been praying for you all week. That God would help us tap into the power of grace. Grace to reign in this life. If you receive that right there, throw your hands up. grace to reign in this life. God, mark every person that lifted their hands and give them, Lord, the revelation, the understanding of what it means to reign

1:00:15 in life through grace, the unmarited free gift, the favor of God, not by works, lest any man should boast. What you do in their life from this moment forward, let it be a product of absolute, unmistakable, evidential grace so that we can See?