Beloved radio, friends, we greet you in the ever-precious and the worthy name of the Lord Jesus. We give you a hearty welcome again to the broadcast of the precious Word of God. We continue our meditation of the week from the Book of Romans, chapter five, and the first five verses on the great teaching, the blessings of justification. We read the words again, Paul writing by the Holy Spirit, Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience, experience, and experience hope Hope that make us not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. May God add his blessing to the reading and the hearing of his own blessed word. The blessings of justification. We have already noted and repeat very briefly the meaning of the word justified. Therefore being justified. Meaning to be cleared of all guilt. to have the condemnation of sin with its penalty removed by God and from before God through believing upon the Lord Jesus Christ and the finished work of his cross. We raise the question, friend. Are you justified? Have your sins been forgiven? Has God cleared you from that penalty that was hanging over you and hanging over all of us by nature? until we come to the Savior. Then we have continued in the preceding message to consider the golden chain of blessings that follow as the result of being justified. Yes, they are blessings of gold without question of doubt. And I commend to my listener the fact they are blessings of eternal gold. They hold within them eternal values that can never be taken away. The first golden blessing we touched upon was peace with God, as we noted it in verse one. The second golden blessing we found in verse two, we are now standing in the position and the place of God's grace. My beloved, is it not a wonderful thing when a poor, guilty, held deserving sinner that was afraid and feared to come before God? But who has now trusted the Savior and has been brought in peace with God? Is it not a wonderful thing, without fear? And in God's presence, he or she stands before God in His grace, in the place permanently where His favor can shine upon them and be ministered unto them. Oh, I commend to my fellow believers, the great joy of knowing more and more the grace of our God toward us. And how great was His grace that He should give His only begotten Son to save us from condemnation and judgment. What a golden blessing. God's favor now shines upon me. We will continue in our study at the end of verse two to note the third golden blessing. And what a blessing it is. I now rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. I am rejoicing in hope. We would very much, and we must, refer our listeners to a verse in Romans chapter three and verse twenty-three. For we would be reminded, though the believer may be standing now in God's grace and favor, and though the believer can say, I now rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Yet before one is saved, that was not so. And we quote, quote particularly the words of Romans chapter three and verse twenty-three. You recall those words many of you, I'm sure. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Oh, beloved, before one is saved, we're in a place where we cannot indeed reach God's glory. We come short of the glory of God. And in our sins we have been placed in a place of great distance away from that glory. My beloved, may I say that as a sinner who has not repented, who has not come to Christ, is not such a one in a place of darkness, in a place where they cannot say, I have confidence and hope to be someday to the glory of God. My beloved, I'm sure that every Christian will confess. My former life was not to the glory of God. Ah, but the great transaction. When Christ becomes my Savior, I find that now I rejoice in a hope I know I shall be, ultimately, and can be even more so even now, by God's grace. rejoicing in hope that I have the glory of God before me. Predestinated to be to the glory of His grace. Ephesians one, chapter one and verse five and six tells us that we are predestinated to be His children to the glory of His grace. My beloved Christian, may I state one fact very emphatically. When you and I get to heaven we're going to be glorified. Oh, yes, we are. Oh, let me remind you of the words of Romans chapter eight. Chapter eight and verse thirty. Let me read them to you, my dear friend. Moreover, whom he did predestinate, and then he also called, and whom he called, then he also justified. God knew you and me before the world began. Then God called us by the gospel. And when we responded to that gospel, then he justified us, as we have noted. And whom he justified. Paul writes, then he also glorified my beloved my fellow believer you and I are destined to be glorified in the likeness of our Savior to the glory of God and before him holy and blame before him blameless in love what a joy what a golden blessing predestinated to be to the glory of God. Now please may I state, I should as a believer live to the glory of God down here, God help me to do so, as much as I can by His help. But I cannot perfectly manifest and will not manifest the fullness of the glory that will be mine. For when Christ shall appear, Then shall ye also appear with him, wrote the Apostle to the Colossians, in glory. Now, beloved, isn't that something to rejoice in? I'm going to be to the glory of God. Imperfect as I may be down here. For the full perfection of my redemption, I will not reach down here, but I know I will up there. And the great change will come when the Lord Jesus comes for his own. and translates us glorified to be in the presence of God. May I raise the question, my beloved friend that is listening unsaved, wouldn't you like to be in eternity to the glory of God? There's only one way you can be. You've got to be saved. You've got to hear the call of the gospel. You've got to believe it. and respond to him and God will justify you save you and then someday thank God may I suggest from Romans eight and verse thirty Paul writes as though it was already just as good as done but it's just we're just as sure of it as if we were already there and one dear friend of mine used to say I'm just as sure of going of being in heaven as if I were already there Ah, this is a golden blessing. But it's a fourth golden blessing. Please let me go on with you. Not only so in verse three, Paul says, but we glory in tribulations also. We glory, we rejoice in tribulation. What is this? Can I enjoy my troubles? Or may I suggest this is a golden blessing of contentment even in the midst of my troubles. Why? How can this be? How can I put up with troubles? My beloved, may I suggest this? If I have peace with God, and I cannot lose that peace through the blood of Jesus, it's mine forever. And if I'm standing in God's grace, positionally and permanently in that place before God and surrounded by His grace, and if I know that I'm going to be someday to the glory of God in His presence forever, Look, should not that help me put up with anything I have to go through down here? Oh, the joy of knowing. This is the fruit of the blessings if I'll enjoy them. I'll put up with the troubles, the trials, the tribulation, the difficulties, the storms of life that will be mine. For within my soul there is the knowledge as well as the joy of having peace with God, and as being a standing of grace before him forever, and then absolutely sure that someday I'm going to be like him when I see my Savior face to face. Now may I ask you, my beloved friend, are not those golden blessings enough to bring us the fourth golden blessing, to glory in tribulation. Now let me give you an example. Many of you may have read, if not, I hope you will read it, the sixteenth chapter of the book of the Acts. Read the account of dear Paul and Silas, cast into the Philippian jail because of preaching the gospel, and there in the night with their backs bleeding, torn, after being flogged and unceremoniously placed into the inner dungeon of darkness and gloom. At midnight they began singing praises and praying to God. That's an example of glorying in tribulation. Not to say that they enjoyed getting their backs beaten and many stripes upon them and suffering as they did physically. No, but there was an inward joy. The joy of the Lord was their strength. And even though they were persecuted, they sang praises unto God, and they prayed. And the prisoners heard them, and you know the outcome was blessing. My beloved, why could they do that? It was because they had peace with God. They were standing in the place of God's grace, and they were rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God. And so the fourth golden blessing is the golden blessing of contentment, whatever the lot. Oh, blessed Father, write upon our conscience and in our hearts as believers these golden blessings, and grant that some dear sinner will come to Christ and receive them too by faith in him. Amen.