THROUGH: Through The Results of Righteousness

So we have a series it's called Through, it's the word pastor Seth felt, not felt, like God, God gave, I guess you kind of felt it, but you received it from the Lord. Word that God gave Seth for our church for this year. And it's basically that everything comes through Jesus. Kind of rooted in John chapter 1 verse 3, and we're not going to go back to there, but that really through Jesus, everything pertaining to life, everything that we need to operate in this world, everything that we ever have, everything that we would ever desire, God pre-anticipated, millions of years ago, and eternity passed.

And so we're really just looking at the, I mean if I could probably kind of bring it down, how do we tap into, how do we appropriate what God's already provided? Because so often we're trying to get God to do something that he's already done, and we're trying to get him to provide what he's already provided when it's really there. It's waiting for us by faith to reach out and appropriate what he's already done. And so today I had a three point message that became a two point message that now I'm only going to preach the first point.

As I was preparing this morning, so it will be three different messages. I only have time today for point number one. And I think it's a good one, so I believe God will bless you with it, and you will be encouraged and you're going to grow from it. And the title of the message is the results of righteousness, the results of righteousness.

So we're not going to talk a lot today about what it means to be made righteous or to become righteous, although I'll just take a couple minutes in just explaining, in case you don't know what that means. But I really want to talk about now that we have been made righteous, now that we have been justified, now that God has declared over our life, you are acceptable to me. Now that God has said before me, you can stand innocent, you can stand faultless, you can stand guiltless. I give you a sentence, and that sentence is you are completely right and just before me, no matter what you've ever done.

And once that has been spoken over you, once you have received that by faith and you've become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, we want to look at that. We want to look today at the results, the effects, what effect does it have? That's great. I want you to be solid in, I want you to have a foundation theologically that you are righteous, that you've been made righteous, that you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus, but beyond that, that's great, you need to have that foundation.

But beyond that, what are the practical applications of that in my life? What are the implications of having been made righteous? And so we're going to go to Romans chapter 5 today, I'm going to read verses 1 through 5, but really our three points are going to be in just the first two verses. And I was so glad that when we were singing the song, the blessing, talking about may his peace be upon you.

May his peace be upon you. It is, it is, but a lot of times we don't recognize it, we don't walk in it, we just leave it laying there unused essentially. So Romans 5, 1 through 5 says this, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through, through, there's our word, our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom, again, through Jesus. Verse 2, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance, 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. Father God, thank you today for your word. I just thank you that this word is pregnant.

This word is alive, that you are speaking something today that's going to be seeds that will be planted, that the enemy will not steal, that the seed will find fertile ground, that your word always brings forth, that for which you send it to accomplish. Your word does not return void. And Father, I thank you today that you're going to grow us, you're going to mature us, you're going to open our eyes and reveal to us. Father, even more of what you've already provided through Jesus.

And it's in his name we pray. Amen. All right, so three things in this passage, really all three of these are in verses 1 and 2. And just as this, it says, having been justified.

So Paul's talking about, he's writing to the Roman church that has been justified. They've put their faith in Jesus. Matter of fact, let's skip ahead a couple slides here, I just want to look at this. Galatians chapter 2 verse 16 says this, if we could just go ahead, I'm going to go and I wasn't sure what order I wanted to read these.

I'm going to read you a couple verses. It says, knowing this that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. Knowing this that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by faith in Jesus Christ. That at the time the law was written, the only way that you could be righteous as it pertained to the law was to keep it perfectly.

Like, that was impossible. Jesus even said in Matthew 5, 20, he says, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Pharisees, you can by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. Which means this, the Pharisees who were experts, doctors at the law knew all those that were out there, 613 of them, they couldn't even keep them perfectly. And Jesus said, unless you can exceed their righteousness, you can't enter the kingdom of heaven.

And so it's impossible apart from the provision that he made through Jesus. So it says, not by works of the law which we have done, but by righteousness through faith, and then also over in Philippians chapter 3 verse 9, it says this. It says, and being found in him, having not my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. So that, see, the only way that God can declare you righteous, so if you read the word justified in the Bible, justified means this.

It means the act of somebody pronouncing you or declaring you to be righteous. So that God made a declaration. And he said, when you receive what Jesus did, by faith, not by anything you did, but by faith, that I will make a declaration that you are righteous. And what does righteous means?

Righteous means this. The easiest way to remember it is right standing. See, under the law it was this, it was about what you did, it was right doing. You had to do right, you had to do all those things right.

But by faith it becomes this, it's right standing. That I could stand erect and tall and face to face with a holy God, a righteous God, a just God. I could look him in the eye with no shame, no guilt, no feeling of condemnation. That he looks at me and says, I declare you completely acceptable and just and innocent and faultless before me.

So that's what you receive. And so Paul starts out, he says in Romans, he says, having been justified by faith, we have. So here's three things we have. Let's go ahead and skip, skip.

Next slide, there we go. Three things we have. So the results, these are what we call the results of having been justified. Now look, we're not trying to get justified, right?

If I have been justified, I'm not trying to get justified. I'm not seeking justification. I'm not seeking for God to make me righteous because he has already made me righteous. So this is the current, the present tense results of something that happened in the past.

If you have never accepted Jesus as your Savior today, these things do not apply to you yet. But the moment you put your faith in Jesus and you are made righteous, you can participate in all three of these things that we have up here. So number one, that we have peace with God. That's going to be our message today.

We have peace with God. Number two, we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand. I'm really excited about preaching that one because how can you access grace that you stand in if you've fallen from it? How can you access grace that you stand in if you aren't standing in it?

And so you have to come back for that one. I'm excited about that one. And then the next one is that we rejoice. It actually means to boast.

The new American standard uses the word celebrate. We actually celebrate or brag in the hope of the glory of God. Actually, he's talking about the blessed hope that Paul writes about Titus, which is the second coming of Christ. So these three things here, actually, if you think about it, we have peace with God because Jesus descended.

We have access into the grace of God because he ascended. And we have rejoicing the hope of the glory of God because he is coming again. And so these three things all have to do with the work of Jesus Christ. Now, the third point has three points in itself.

There's another reason why I can't preach that one today because it says not only do we hope in the glory of God, but it also says we glory in our tribulations. And then in verse 11 it says not only that, but we glory in God himself. So there's three points within that. So that'll kind of give you the framework of big picture where we're going, but we're really going to hone in today on we have peace with God.

Say this, I have peace with God. Now, if you were here Thursday night, Phil taught us this past Thursday and he talked about the word peace in the Greek, which comes from the root word that means to be joined together. To be joined together, it means to be in Concord, it means to be in unison, it means to be in harmony with. And that when it talks in Ephesians about maintaining or preserving the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace, it's something that we're not attaining, we're not trying to get it because we already have it because we all who have accepted Jesus already have peace with God.

And if we have peace with God and we're one in the Spirit with peace with each other and so it becomes something to protect and not something that we have to strive or earn. But you have to be here Thursday night to hear that. That was just a quick summary of a really good teaching from Thursday. So we have peace with God.

Bless you. So right up until this when Paul starts out in Romans 5, he says, therefore, having been justified, we need to go back a couple verses to look back at Romans 4, the last three verses in that and Romans 4. I want to read this to you in the NIV because in the translations I usually use, it uses the word imputed. Anybody ever hear the word imputed?

Impute? Impute just is an accounting term that means to put on somebody's account. It means to credit to an account. Now the NIV I like in this situation because it just uses the word credited, which we're probably more familiar with.

But if you think about it, anybody ever used a credit card? Why do I get it? Okay, so when you use a credit card, you make a purchase, right? And if the sales clerk records it right, you don't pay for it the day you buy it, but that purchase gets put on your account.

And then when, now if they don't record the purchase, that payment doesn't get put on your account. If for some reason, God bless you. Actually, what do we say in the end? Jesus.

Jesus. You guys are getting good. So that to credit something or to impute something is to put it onto someone's account. So he's saying all this based on Romans 4, which talks about Abraham having had been made righteous by faith and the fact that God credited Abraham's faith and righteousness to his account, that it wasn't just written for Abraham, that it also applies to us today.

And it says the words it was credited to him were written not for him alone, but also for us, to whom God will credit righteousness for us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification. See, when Jesus was delivered off, when he died on the cross, he died because of your sin. But when God raised him up, he was raised because that was proof that God accepted his payment and therefore could extend his righteousness to you.

And so when I want to look at today, I want to look at just a couple different stories in the Old Testament, hopefully paint a little bit of a picture about peace for you today. But I want to start with the story of Abraham, because when Abraham believed God, when Abraham believed God, it was imputed, it was credited, it was accounted to him for righteousness. And if it was true of Abraham, and what was true of Abraham is also true of us. I also want to point this out before we look at this story.

I want to look at Melchizedek a little bit today. But righteousness by faith always precedes peace. Righteousness by faith precedes peace. See, if you're trying to earn God's righteousness, if you're trying to earn God's favor, even if you have been saved, even if you have been made righteous, the way that you got righteous initially is the same way you stay righteous.

You were made righteous by faith, you remain righteous by faith. But what happens a lot of times is people who have been made righteous before God, once they become saved, they try to maintain their righteousness through good works. And what happens anytime you try to maintain by effort, you can never experience peace with God. Because there's always questions in your mind, did I do enough?

Did I read enough? Did I give enough? Did I serve enough? Did I go enough?

Did I attend enough? All those things, did I confess enough? Did I miss a sin? You will never experience true peace with God if you try to maintain what God's given you for free that you received initially by faith.

So it's important that you start there, but it's really more important that you stay there. So let's look at this story about Melchizedek. I want to start in Genesis chapter 14, and I just want to pull a few things about here. We're going to be all over today, so either have your Bibles and be ready, or you can watch up there.

But Genesis chapter 14. So if you remember this story, if you remember Abraham and Lot separate, Lot goes to live in Sodom. Lot gets caught up in a war between nine kings, four against five. They take over Sodom and Gomorrah, they take Lot captive, they take all his kids captive, they take all his stuff and they carry him away.

And Abraham finds out about it. Somebody said your nephew Lot has been captured. So Abraham within his house, he has 318 servants, he sends them, and they go and they attack at night, they capture, they defeat all these kings, and they're bringing all the spoils of war back. And so we're going to pick up right there.

And in the middle of Genesis 14, we have this mysterious figure named Melchizedek that meets Abraham on the return from this battle. And in verse 18 it says this. It says, then Melchizedek, king of Salem, now this is the first time in the Old Testament, bread and wine, are mentioned together. The first time breads mentioned is part of the curse that by the sweat of your brow, you'll make bread.

The first time wines mentioned is when Noah gets drunk and know what he did after he did that. But this is the first time these two words are used in unison. Who do you think they're a picture of? What do you think that's a picture of?

Bread and wine. What do we take? Communion, right? There's a covenant being made here.

It says, Melchizedek, king of Salem brought forth or brought out bread and wine. He was the priest of the most high God. He blessed him and said, blessed be Abraham of God most high, possess earth, heaven and earth, and blessed be God most high, who has delivered the enemies into your hand. And he gave him a tie of the vault.

So here's what we see. I don't want to talk about tithing and blessing and all that today, but let me point this out real quick while we're here. The blessing preceded the obedience. It wasn't Abraham tied to the end.

Melchizedek blessed him. The blessing was released before Abraham ever did anything. As a matter of fact, Abraham didn't live a perfect life. Abraham was told to leave Mesopotamia, which was an idol worshiping, moon worshiping, like he was an idol worshipper.

He was the lead to a country that God would show, but he only went halfway and dwelt in her hand until his dad died. He was supposed to leave all his family, but he took a lot with him. He was supposed to stay in the land that God told him to go to, but when a famine came he went to Egypt. And when he got to Egypt, he had his wife lie that she was a sister and not his wife.

Didn't live a perfect life. After all that, Melchizedek shows up and says, blessed be Abraham of God most high, possess earth, heaven and earth, and blessed be God most high, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And he blessed him and in response to that Abraham gives the tie. Completely backwards is the way we do things today, or at least the way we try to do things today.

But I want to point something out here that you don't see. Many times people will say that the first mention of the word righteousness shows up in Genesis 15 verse 6, which we'll look at in a minute, but it doesn't. Look at Hebrews chapter 7 verse 1. I want to show you this.

So I believe this was possible Paul, whoever you think wrote Hebrews. It doesn't matter, but he says this, Melchizedek, King of Salem, priest of the most high God. So also Melchizedek is both a king and a priest. Who else was a king and a priest?

Jesus. He brought forth bread and wine. Jesus brought his body and his blood. He says the king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth of the part of all, first being translated king of righteousness, and then also king of Salem, meaning king of peace without father, mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days, and of life, but made like the son of God.

He remains a priest continually. Alright, there's a lot in there. Here's what I'm pointing out. It says that Melchizedek, he was the king of Salem.

Salem was the territory over which he was the king. Salem, they think, probably is what became Jerusalem, which means teaching of peace. The word Salem means peace. His name was Melchizedek.

He ruled over a territory called peace. But the writer of Hebrews tells us this. He said that his name, Melchizedek, first, being translated means king of what? Righteousness.

His name, Melchizedek, comes from two words, malek, meaning king, and sadek, meaning righteousness. Melchizedek, malek king, sadek righteousness. First and foremost, he was the king of righteousness, but he ruled over a territory, secondly called peace. What comes first?

Righteousness or peace? Righteousness comes peace with God, always follows righteousness. And so here comes Melchizedek, king of righteousness, to bless him with bread and wine, the bloody and blood of Jesus. And as a result of him receiving that, what should be the result?

Peace. Genesis chapter 15, verse 6 and verse 15. Abraham, it says, and he believed the Lord, and God credited it to him for what? Righteousness.

And then God goes on to tell him a few things about his life while he's asleep. Now this all takes place while Abraham, he prepares an offering, he splits the animals, he, God puts him to sleep on the side, and then God makes a covenant with himself to himself that he's going to take care of Abraham apart from Abraham's effort. And in the midst of that, he says, as for you and your fathers, you shall go to your fathers. Now we think of that like this.

I'm going to die in my sleep. Who doesn't want to die in their sleep? Like I do. So when we think of going to our ancestors, going to our fathers in peace, we think of that in terms of why I'm going to die in my sleep.

I'm going to die peacefully. That's not what he's saying here. He's saying, you'll go to your fathers in peace, and you shall be buried at a good old age. At the time he's telling this to Abraham, Abraham is 99 years old.

Abraham doesn't die until he turns 175. 76 years later, God's saying, for the next 76 years, you'll go in peace. Not just that you're going to fall asleep one day peacefully. See the word he's saying, you'll go into shalom.

That shalom means nothing missing, nothing lacking. It means completeness, soundness, wholeness. Everything joined together the way it's supposed to be. And that's the way you're going to live the rest of your life until the day that you die.

A little bit different than dying in your sleep. He believed God. It was accounted to him for righteousness, and God releases a life of peace over him until the day he dies. How does that apply to us?

Paul said that he didn't just do it for Abraham for Abraham's benefit, but for us also who put our faith in Jesus. See, there's a King Jesus who is the King of righteousness, who's also the King of peace. That came to earth 2000 years ago with his body and his blood. That made payment for sin so that you could by faith receive what he offered, that you could be made righteous.

And because you've been made righteous, you can now experience and have complete peace with God. I want you to see this in 2 Corinthians. I want to read a very familiar passage, but I want to pull something out of it that maybe we don't talk enough about. But I want to read 2 Corinthians 5 verses 17 through 21.

I'm leading up to a word God gave me this week. There's actually more of a question God gave me this week, but I want to get to it. I love when God asks me questions. It's not like he's looking for the answer either.

You know, when God asks you a question, it's not because he doesn't know, he wants you to figure it out. He's probing. It's like a probing question. You're going to recognize a couple of these verses.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, how do we get in Christ? When you receive Jesus as your Savior, the Holy Spirit places you into Christ. You're part of the body of Christ. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. And now all things are of God. Everything that was made new in your life, the old's gone, all things are made new.

Everything that's made new is of God or actually means is out of God. Everything you in your life is God's stuff. It's God's kind. It's equivalent to God.

Who has reconciled us to himself through the Jesus Christ. There's a word through again. Who has reconciled. That's the word we're going to want to talk and spend some time on.

Who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and has given us the ministry of reconciliation. So we'll come back to this, but the thing that God did through Jesus, this is now the ministry that God's given to every one of us. So if you ever wonder, why don't a ministry is? I don't have a ministry.

Start here. Like, this is where you need to start. Do this. If you don't know, do this.

He says, He's given to us, not the Apostle Paul, but to us, including him, the ministry of reconciliation. That is, God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself. Now, we just read that God reconciled us, right? But in the next verse, Paul says that God reconciled who?

All right, I'm going to point it out to you. Are you guys with me? All right. Verse 19.

God was in Christ reconciling what? The world. Now, it just said He reconciled us, but in the next verse, it says, He reconciled the world. So whatever He did through Christ, He did it for everybody.

But then there's a different part that we have. So we're going to figure out what that is. Not here. Look, here's how He did it.

How did God reconcile the world to himself? Not imputing their trespasses to them. Remember we talked about impute? So what did God impute to Abraham?

Okay. We'll go back a few slides. Abraham believed God and it was credited, imputed to him for what? Righteousness.

Okay. Imputation is putting it on somebody's account, crediting it to their account. So Abraham had righteousness imputed to his account. But here, when God does this thing called reconciliation through Jesus Christ, how did He do it?

He did it by not imputing. It wasn't that He was imputing, He was not imputing. What did He not impute? So He took all the sins of who?

The whole world and didn't impute them to the whole world. Which means He took all the sins that were ever committed, ever will be committed, and did not put them on anybody's account. And then He goes on to say, and He has committed to us, the universe 19, the word of reconciliation. So we have the ministry of reconciliation, the word of it.

So this is a big deal that God did something so phenomenal that Paul says, because He's now committing us this ministry of actually doing it, ministering this to people, and speaking this message to people. Verse 20 said, now then, we are ambassadors for Christ. So what's an ambassador do? An ambassador goes to another country and establishes a home base called, what?

Embassy. And within that embassy, the rules and the laws of their home country apply within that embassy. And they actually represent the country from which they came, in another country. We are in this world, but we're not of this world, but we are ambassadors for a king who's the king of righteousness.

And we're here for a reason. It says, we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us and imploring on Christ's behalf, be reconciled. So that's confusing. It says, God reconciled us to Himself.

God reconciled the world by not imputing their sins to them. And then Paul said, the job of an ambassador said, be reconciled. Well, duh, I got to ask. If I've been reconciled, why do I need to be reconciled?

Why would the job of an ambassador say to be reconciled if God already reconciled the world? That's like inquiring minds want to know. Like, I want to read a scripture in, why? We're going to talk about that.

Verse 21 says this, for He made Him who knew no sin to be sinned for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. God did not credit the sins of the world on the world. He somehow scooped up all those sins, took them off your books, took them off your books, took them off your books, not imputing them to you. And He imputed them all to Jesus.

He put all your sin on Jesus' account. And then He takes the righteousness that's on Jesus' account. And when you receive it, He places it on your account. The word reconcile means this.

Go to the next slide. Go to the next slide. Reconcile means this. It means to change mutually or exchange.

So it's an accounting term. It means to exchange coins of equivalent value. So if I gave you four quarters, and you give me how many times? I see some of your, well, you're awake.

Okay, right, four quarters, ten times. We're exchanging coins of equivalent value. But it also means this. It means to resolve that which causes a variance.

Now, I know most people don't do this anymore, but does anybody remember in the day? Or maybe you ever reconcile your checkbook for your bank? Okay, I do. I'll give you my age way.

My kids don't have a checkbook. They don't know what a checkbook is. But I still record all the transactions. Because why?

Because what my ledger says, and what the bank says, are always two different numbers. Because there's always things in, like, in flux. There's checks that have been written that haven't hit yet. And so when you reconcile your bank statement, you find the variance.

The bank says I've got X. My checkbook says Y. And I've got to reconcile the difference. I've got to figure out what the difference is.

It also means to restore to friendly terms where one ceases to be angry with another and receives them in the favor. If a husband and a wife are at odds, out of variance, there's an issue. Now, I'm speaking from experience. I've been married 31 going on 32 years.

Thank you. God bless Christen. His favor is upon me. He is for me.

A thousand generations. I need it. When there's a variance in our marriage, we could separate, right? And let's just say we separated.

And over time, things sort of dissolve. But then we come back together. If the issue that caused the variance is not dealt with, it won't be a matter of time before we're enemies again. To where it odds again.

Because what? It's still under the surface. It's never been dealt with. And so in order for God to reconcile man to himself, he had to deal with the issue that put God and man out of variance.

Unless the issue was dealt with, there could never be peace or harmony. There could never be concord. There could never be intimacy. Because at the heart of it, that issue would be there.

The issue that had to be resolved was called sin. Sin was the issue that put God and man out of variance. And so what did God do? God says, I can't just overlook sin because sin needs punished.

I can't just like make it go away because I'm a just God. I've got to punish sin. But I love people. And so what I'll do, I'll send my son to earth to deal with the issue called sin.

And I'll take everybody's sin and put it on my son and then make it a possibility that when they accept that by faith, I'll credit his righteousness on their account. It's the only way that he could reconcile his love, his justice, his righteousness, all in one action. And he did it through this thing called reconciliation. Paul says this is the ministry I want you to have.

This is the word that I want you to speak. That God has reconciled the world to himself through Jesus Christ. So I got to ask if God has reconciled the world, why did Paul say be reconciled? We're ambassadors for Christ imploring you, pleading with you, be reconciled to God.

Go to the next slide. Here's the word God spoke to me this week. He said, most Christians live with a ceasefire mentality instead of a peace treaty mentality. See, when God reconciled the world to himself, he dealt with the issue between man and God called sin.

And under the old covenant, we see a God in the old covenant punishing people for sin. The earth opens up and people fall in it, wiping entire cities out. Because the justice of God demanded that sin be punished. But we see a different, not a different God, but a God who reconciled the world to himself.

And God demanded that sin be punished. But we see a different, not a different God, but a God who reconciled his justice and his righteousness and his love and his mercy by dealing with the issue that put us at variance with him. And what happens a lot of times is we recognize that God paid for my sin the day that I accepted him. But we live with a ceasefire mentality the rest of our Christian lives.

Let me give you the definition of the two. And I think you'll understand it. A ceasefire is this, it's a truce. A temporary agreement to stop fighting.

A suspension of hostilities. It does not reflect an end to the hostility or to the state of war. Israel and Hamas, anybody follow the news? Israel and Hamas who have been fighting, I don't know for how long, recently for two years probably but for thousands of years.

But they recently signed a ceasefire. A ceasefire is a temporary agreement to postpone or haul hostilities. So they're sitting there, they're like this. They have a truce, okay, we're going to call a truce, but the war is not over.

It's a temporary halt. But what happens the moment somebody gets a while or hair up their rear end? Alright, so what happens when we fire it, what happens now? Now guess what's back on?

Right? And we live under this mentality with God that we think the next time I sin the judgment of God is going to follow me. That's a ceasefire mentality. But the truth is God exhausted all his wrath and judgment on Jesus.

So that it would never be poured out on you unless you die with never accepting him as your savior. You don't have to, but if you don't receive what he did to settle the debt, then there comes a time after you die that you have to pay for your own sin. When he's already paid for it, he's already reconciled. A peace treaty is this, an agreement between two or more hostile parties, which formally ends a state of war between the parties.

It's a binding contract that establishes the conditions of what? Lasting peace. And it defines the foundations for a new international order. See, in order, let's just say Israel and Hamas, they sign a peace treaty.

I'm sorry, they sign a ceasefire. Let's just say they got to the point of signing a peace treaty. Let's say Israel signs it. What else has to happen for that to be a binding contract?

The other side has to sign it. See, it's not a binding peace treaty until both sides sign the contract. See what happened when God sent Jesus, he ended the war. The war is over.

God's no longer mad at you. God's not angry at you. He's actually ratified a new covenant and he signed it with the blood of Jesus. He reconciled the entire world to himself.

And he's no longer standing like this. He's standing like this. But in order for the peace treaty to be active, in order for the peace treaty to be active, two parties have to sign it. Through Christ, he reconciled the world to himself, not imputing their sin to them.

But as ambassadors, we're saying, be reconciled. Why do you have to be reconciled and God already reconciled you? Because it takes two signatures. He signed in blood.

You signed with your mouth. I believe. And the moment you say I believe the peace treaty he signed 2000 years ago, actually an eternity passed because the Lamb of God was slain before the foundation of the earth. As soon as you say I believe the second signature, we put our amen to his yes and righteousness is now credited to your account.

And what's the result of righteousness? Peace. See, once I've been declared righteous, I don't have to fear God. I'm not waiting for the shoot of fall.

I'm not waiting for the lightning bolt to hit me. I'm not waiting for the fire to kill me. Because I have a daddy God that thought enough of me and you to send his own son to die to reconcile the variants that kept me from him. And he didn't just sign a ceasefire.

He didn't just sign a temporary agreement until the next time you mess up that he's waiting to whack you upside to head. He signed a peace treaty and actually better than a peace treaty, he signed a covenant of peace. It says in Isaiah 54 verses 9 and 10, This is like the waters of Noah to me. This is like the waters of Noah to me.

As I have sworn, the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth. And you remember in Genesis 6, it said the world was so bad, so sinful God actually didn't like that he created man. He's like, I wish I never, I'm going to wipe out all flesh. I'm going to send a flood so massive and of such magnitude that nothing will remain alive except eight righteous souls, imagine that righteous.

And I'm going to save them through an ark. That's a whole other story. And when the waters subsided, what was the token, the sign that God gave after that? What was the sign God gave?

A rainbow. Okay, I want you to think about this. It says this is the waters, as of the waters of Noah as I have sworn. So when God swore that he'd never do this again, he said, here's the token that I'll give you.

I'm going to put a rainbow in the sky. It says, I swore the waters of Noah cover the earth. So I've sworn I would not be angry with you nor rebuke you. The mountains shall depart and the hills shall be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from you, nor shall my covenant of peace be removed.

See, when we see that rainbow in the sky, we instantly think of Genesis chapter 9. And Genesis chapter 9, God says this. Let me read it to you. What you guys know what he said, right?

It says God spoke to Mo into his sons. It says, as for me, behold, I establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you, every living creature that is with you, the birds of cattle, every beast of the earth, with you, all that go in and out of the ark, every beast of the earth. I establish my covenant with you, never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, never again shall there be any flood to destroy the earth. And God said, this is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, perpetual generations.

What's that mean? It means it's in perpetuity. It means there's no end to it. I set my rainbow in the cloud and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.

It shall be when I bring a cloud over the earth that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud. And I will, I think it's interesting. God didn't say you'll remember. He says he'll remember.

When he sees the rainbow, he remembers. And I will remember my covenant which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the water shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature that is on the earth.

Do you see that? The rainbow is a reminder of God's perpetual everlasting covenant that he'll never destroy the earth. But in Isaiah 54, he says, the covenant of peace that I'm making with you is to me the same degree that I made with Noah. As the waters of the flood were unto Noah, this covenant is to me.

I swore that my kindness will never depart from you. That my covenant of peace will never be moved. And so here's what I want to encourage you see the rainbow, you might want to remember God will never curse the earth again with the flood. But more than that, I want you to remember that his covenant of peace will never be removed.

Because to him, that rainbow, that covenant is the same degree with the covenant of peace that he makes with you to the same degree he made with Noah after the flood. Like that encourages me. When I see the rainbow, I think God's covenant of peace is for me. It's for a thousand generation because it's perpetual.

It never ends. The mountains can be removed, but his covenant peace will not be. When the waters subsided, do you remember what Noah sent out of the ark to see if the waters were gone? Well, he sent two birds.

He sent a raven which never came back because there were a bunch of scavengers. I think they settled in a place called Baltimore. The reason the raven didn't come back is because they floated on eight dead animals as they were floating. They were a bunch of bottom feeders.

They took up their permanent residence in Baltimore. But after the raven, he sends out a dove. Remember the dove come back and said because the dove could find a resting place? And then seven days later he sends the dove out again and the dove came back with a freshly plucked olive leaf.

And then he waited another seven days and he sends the dove out and the dove never comes back. The dove holding the olive branch is a symbol of what? Peace. After God made a covenant that he would never punish the earth again.

He puts a rainbow in the sky and says it won't do it again. But when Noah releases the dove, the dove comes back with a message of peace. When Jesus resurrected from the dead, after God settled the variance between God and man, by imputing all the sin onto his son, and he shows up on Resurrection Day, what's the very first thing he speaks to his disciples? He says, peace be with you.

Receive the Holy Spirit. And where we see the dove in peace after God exhausted his wrath on entire world and the dove and the other branch are the result. After God exhausts all his wrath on his son Jesus, the first thing he releases is peace and the Holy Spirit. Psalm 84 says this, it says, the work of righteousness will be peace.

It says righteousness and peace have kissed. See if I can find that. If I can't find it, you'll have to Google it. There we go.

First 10 says mercy and truth have met together. Like mercy and truth had a meeting. That word mercy is has said, which is really what we would translate as grace. Grace and truth had a meeting.

The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. It says mercy or grace and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed. Truth shall spring out of the earth and righteousness will look down from heaven.

And the Lord will give what is good and our land will yield its increase. Righteousness will go before him and shall make his footsteps our pathway. I love that righteousness and peace have kissed. There's this connection between the grace and truth of Jesus, but also the righteousness and peace that is the result of his coming and reconciling the difference between man and God.

You will never have true peace with God apart from being made righteous with God. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God. Let's say that. Therefore, having been justified by faith, I have peace with God.

I have peace with God. That's the first result of your righteousness. You can approach a holy father. You can approach a righteous father without shame, condemnation, guilt.

Because if you're unsaved, even if you've never accepted Jesus, he's already taken care of your sin. Because he reconciled you. Like Paul says this that said, if when we were enemies, Christ died for us, how much more now? That he did it for you when you were on the opposite team.

But now he's reconciled the variance. He signed it in blood. And if you've never accepted Jesus, he's just waiting for your...yes. So that he can put the righteousness on your account.

Let's pray.