Salvation, more than being rescued from hell. Well, on this episode of Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef, gain a better perspective of the impact salvation has on your life. Now, before he begins, a quick reminder that Leading the Way is a worldwide listener-supported ministry impacting lives through media and local teams across six continents.
You can learn ways to partner with Dr. Youssef at ltw.org or call us at 866-626-4356. Listen with me now as Dr. Michael Youssef begins an encouraging message from his series From Valley to Victory. Romans chapter 5 verses 1 to 11, Paul tells us that the gift of salvation comes with six-fold eternal guarantees. The first guarantee is in verse 1, it is peace with God. The second guarantee is in the first half of verse 2, chapter 5, it is having a favor with God. The third guarantee is found in the second half of verse 2, and it is having hope in God. Fourthly, you're guaranteed that you have a purpose in your suffering for Christ. Verses 3 and 4, number 5, a guarantee of Christ's overwhelming love.
Verses 5 to 10, the sixth guarantee is overwhelming joy. Verse 11, the first guarantee of our salvation is that we would have peace with God. Look at verse 1, therefore, remember the rule about the word therefore?
If it is therefore, you find out why it is therefore. Therefore, because salvation is a gift from God, therefore, since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through the Lord Jesus Christ. This peace that he talks about here is in the present tense.
Why is it in the present tense? Because it means that peace you have with God, not dependent on your feelings, but it's a fact. This peace with God is not down the road sometime, no, it is now, whatever the now is. This peace with God is not pie in the sky in the by and by, but it is a reality. This peace with God is not on occasions when you feel peaceful, no, but always.
You have to look around them and you just listen to the news for a few minutes and you realize there is a desperation for peace in our world today. There are people desperate for a peace of mind, there are peace in the home, peace in politics and society and even internationally, yet the real peace of God can only come through surrender to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Every human being without exception, every human being without exception is born in a state of enmity with God. Regardless of how they feel, they are born with a state of enmity with God.
I did and you did. Sometime ago, a friend of mine was saying, you know, Michael, I'm not in enmity with God, I'm neutral about God. As a matter of fact, I don't fight God.
Here's the answer, listen carefully. Just as those who have been justified by God have peace of God and peace with God regardless of how they feel, those who are not in Christ Jesus are at enmity with God regardless of how they feel toward God. Some of you probably are thinking and saying, Michael, Michael, but I have friends, I have relatives, I have neighbors, I know people, they're in my family, they really don't feel at enmity with God. They really don't hate God.
In fact, they are ambiguous about God. Beloved, there is no such thing as neutrality toward God. Either you are a member of the kingdom of God or you are a member of the kingdom of Satan. You either belong to the kingdom of heaven or the kingdom of hell. You are either for God or against Him. Him and I.
There is no dual citizenship when it comes between heaven and hell. Jesus and Satan. The most instant and immediate guarantee that God gives you when He gives you salvation is His overwhelming peace. Peace with Him. Peace within. And that peace, don't miss what I'm going to tell you, that peace is permanent. That peace is irrevocable. That peace is guaranteed by Christ Himself. I'm going to say more about this in a minute, but I know the hundreds and thousands of you will testify to this fact that you have experienced the peace of God even in your darkest hour.
I know I can. First guarantee is what? Peace with God. Second guarantee is a favor with God. I hear people sometimes say, God give us favor with you. God give us favor. You already have God's favor.
You already have. Here it is. Verse, first half of verse two. Through whom also we have obtained access by faith into His grace, into His favor in which we stand. We saw in the last message that that grace, that favor, that unmerited and undeserved and unsolicited favor is unconditional. This grace, this favor of God is not just merely a proclamation or an announcement.
No, no, no. Listen to me. It is an atmosphere in which we enter. This favor is a privileged posture in which we stand for the rest of our lives and for eternity. It is a privileged position to be in now and forever. Once you enter into that atmosphere of grace, once you enter into that atmosphere of the favor with God, you stay there until either Jesus comes back or you go and see Him face to face. Amen belongs here.
Don't forget what I'm going to tell you. You do not go in and out of that atmosphere of favor. You do not fall in and out of grace. You do not get in and out of favor with God.
You know, politicians get in and out of favor with the electorate. Yes, but not the grace of God. The nature of the grace of God is that when you enter it, you stay in it all of your earthly life until you go home to glory.
Please understand, this is very important. You do not stay in that atmosphere of grace by how hard you grit your spiritual teeth. You do not stay in that atmosphere of favor with God by how high can you pull your spiritual bootstraps.
No, no, no, no. It is because God Himself guaranteed it, therefore God Himself sustains you. God Himself holds you.
God Himself strengthens you. God Himself convicts you when you sin. God Himself forgives you when you confess and repent.
God Himself restores you every time you confess and repent. Here's an indisputable fact. When the Supreme Judge of the universe declares you in favor, there is no higher court that can overturn that decision. There is no higher judge that can overturn that verdict. There is no higher authority that can overrule that acquittal. The very purpose of God's grace and favor is to free you from sin, not free you to sin.
Listen to me. The person who said, hooray, now that I'm saved, I can sin freely, that person was never saved. Romans 6, 8, Paul says, having been freed from sin, we have become slaves to righteousness. The believer who is constantly doubting his or her eternal salvation, they're doing two things. They are giving the devil the chance to drag you back to sin and they're doing something else. They are questioning the power of God.
They're questioning the integrity of God. First guarantee is what? Peace with God. Second guarantee is what? Favor with God. And the third guarantee is hope in God. Look at the second half of verse 2, Romans 5. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Now let me explain this. The word hope here needs explanation. When you make an appointment and you're going to see somebody, you hope that that person will be there when you go there, right?
If you are organizing and outdoor activities, you hope that it doesn't rain. If you're having a surgical procedure, you hope it will be successful, right? But that kind of hope has nothing to do with the word hope here in Romans chapter 5 verse 2. The word hope here means a sure knowledge. It means a definite assurance. It means an absolute certainty. My hope or absolute certainty is based upon trust in God and his words and his promises.
This absolute assurance is certainty. This is guaranteed by the death and the resurrection of Jesus Christ himself. That assurance makes me live in a state of rejoicing.
It makes me live in a state of jubilation. Even when my whole world is falling apart, even when darkness surround me, even my circumstances are not all that congenial. Paul writes, Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13 and 14 tells us why. The reason you have that absolute assurance is because Paul said in Ephesians 1, 13 and 14, every believer is sealed by the Holy Spirit and nobody can break that seal. First guarantee is what? Peace with God. Second guarantee, favor with God.
Third guarantee, hope in God. Fourth guarantee, is there a purpose in suffering? If you look with me at verse 3 and 4, we also rejoice in sufferings because we know that sufferings produces perseverance and perseverance produces character and character produces hope. Now I need to give you an explanation about the word sufferings here because this is not talking about the suffering of the aches and pains that we all experience in life, okay? This is not talking about fear and anxiety and suffering that way that many of us will go through certain periods of time.
This is not the pain of disappointment that we all face from time to time. But the word suffering here is referring to suffering for the sake of Christ. And yes, it does not refer to suffering that comes as a consequence of our foolish decisions.
I've experienced a lot of suffering that came as a result of foolish decisions that I made. That's not the suffering he's talking about. This type of suffering is the suffering that experienced by students, whether you're high school student, whether you're college student, this is the kind of suffering that comes when you take a stand for Christ in your school or in your college and then you get mocked. That's the kind of suffering he's talking about.
When you take a stand for Christ then you pay a price for it. This type of suffering results from obedience to God and knowing that you are doing the very will of God in your life and yet you suffer. This type of suffering comes directly from living righteous, holy and pure life before God. In Romans 5, 3 and 4 Paul said this particular type of suffering produces perseverance and perseverance produces character. Some time ago I read about John Wesley. John Wesley suffered so much for the sake of Christ that became second nature to him.
That he really worried if he didn't suffer for Christ. And this happened one day. He was walking alongside the road and he was thinking, he said, my goodness it's been three days since no one has thrown an egg or a tomato or a stone, which he was used to on a regular basis.
Three days. Nothing happened. Nobody is persecuting me.
Nobody is throwing anything at me. So he goes immediately on his knees right there in the countryside while he was walking. They said, Lord, is there a sin in my life and why I'm not suffering for you? And he tried to examine himself and as he prayed and he was praying, a peasant came by and recognized him and he threw a stone at him.
It missed him by an inch. He immediately leaped to his feet and began to praise God that he's okay with God now that he's being persecuted again. Now you and I would say, oh thank God for those three days break, right? But not Wesley. He thanked God that he is paying a price for his stand for Jesus Christ. Suffering teaches us perseverance.
Perseverance produces character and character hope. One of the things that really grieves me is what I read about this generation. Now of course there are exceptions.
There are exceptions in this church that I know personally. But what I read about this generation is that they want everything basically handed to them on a platter. They don't want to suffer. They don't want to pay any price. They want it all now.
I guess the notable exceptions, as I said in this place, I know specifically, but I'm talking in generalities. It grieves me. I fear that this generation that has not learned perseverance and suffering for the sake of Christ literally will crumble when the crunch comes, which seems to be coming faster than any of us would want. The word perseverance here comes from the word that is used to refine metal, particularly gold. You know when heat, particularly high degree of heat applied to gold, the drops in the gold rises to the top and then the metal worker would scrape it and therefore you end up with pure gold. And here Paul is saying that if we are going to reign and rule the universe with Jesus Christ, he will purify us and make us become sterling.
Don't miss this. God does not effectively use people who have never learned perseverance. You notice I said effectively, God does not effectively use people who have never been broken. God does not effectively use people who have never learned to lean on him alone.
Look at the people who have effectively served God and honored God in the Scripture as we see them. If you ask Abraham, he will tell you about the crushing experience on Mount Moriah. If you ask Jacob, he will tell you about the pillow stone in which he slept his nights. If you ask Joseph, he will tell you about the Egyptian dungeon. If you ask Moses, he will tell you about the wilderness and dealing with Pharaoh. If you ask David, he will tell you about being hunted down by Saul.
If you ask Job, he will tell you about the song in the night when there was nothing to sing about. But that should not surprise us, for it's only the crushed rose that gives off its sweetest fragrance. It is only the pain of childbirth that the joy of motherhood is experienced. It's only the crushing of the wheat that makes bread.
It's only the grain of sand that wounds the body of the oyster that yet out of that irritation comes a beautiful pearl. Suffering for Christ produces perseverance. Perseverance produces character.
And my beloved friends, character cannot be learned from a book. First guarantee peace with God. Second guarantee favor with God. Third guarantee hope in God. Fourth guarantee purpose in suffering. The fifth guarantee is God's overwhelming love.
Look with me please, verses five all the way to ten. You know what I have grown to discover? That the greatest problems with humanity is their inability to comprehend, to comprehend the love of God.
I don't care how long you live, you're going to find that that is the case. People just cannot comprehend it. Some turn their back on it, some just accept it, but it's impossible to comprehend it. And part of the reason is because people love those who love them. So they think of only love God, God will love them. Other people think that the love of God is dependent on us, how much we love him or how much we do for him. But beloved, if this is the case, listen to me, then our salvation is dependent on our treacherous hearts.
And it's not. Thanks be to God, it ain't so. Paul tells us that God's love for us is not dependent on our lovingness. When we were utterly helpless to bring ourselves to God, he loved us. When we were utterly unworthy of his love, he loved us. When we were totally powerless to escape from sin and death, he loved us. When we were totally powerless to resist Satan, God loved us. When we were totally powerless to please God, God loved us. And he sent his son to die our death. Listen carefully to verse 9 and 10.
Here's what he's saying. If God had the power and the will to redeem us from the first place, how much more does he have the power and the will to keep us redeemed? If he loved us when we were enemies, how much more does he love us when we are his children? If the dying Savior reconciled us to God, surely the loving Savior will keep us reconciled to God.
If God had already secured our salvation and rescued us from sin and death, how on earth can he not continuously save us or our salvation can ever be in jeopardy? The first guarantee, peace with God. The second guarantee, favor with God. The third guarantee, hope in God. The fourth guarantee, purpose in suffering. The fifth guarantee, overwhelming love.
Finally, the sixth guarantee is an overwhelming joy. Look at verse 11. In the last message again, we saw how the religionists, those religious people who are bragging about the good works and Paul said you can't do, you're bragging about the wrong thing. You're bragging the wrong way. And Paul showed us in the last message how to brag the right way, to brag about Jesus and his cross and his salvation. And here he is telling us our gratitude to God for all he has done for us should give us such joy in life that nothing can take that joy away from you. Every time, every time you are tempted to allow circumstances to get you down, every time you allow your circumstances to cause you a loss of joy, you must deliberately and intentionally focus on your peace with God, your favor with God, your hope in God, his purpose in your suffering, his overwhelming love and his joy is going to bore you every time.
It will bore you up. So let me ask you as I conclude, are you experiencing some crushing circumstances? Only you and God know. Are you grieving so deeply over the loss of a loved one? Have you been rejected by the near and the dear? Have you been maligned for doing good?
Are you experiencing confusion or discouragement of any kind? None of that will stand when you compare it to the joy of your eternal salvation. Allow nothing and no one to steal your joy.
Say that with me. Allow nothing and no one to steal your joy. Dr. Michael Yusef encouraging you to experience the overwhelming joy of your salvation. Thank you for joining him for Leading the Way. If you have faith doubts or questions, consider speaking with a Leading the Way pastor or counselor.
They'd be happy to listen. Offer help and if you like, you can just visit ltw.org slash Jesus. This is called the navigator. Some of my friends call it pocket missionary. This has the gospel in it in variety of ways, including the Bible, the word of God.
Our Australia team presented this opportunity for navigator distribution into the country of Ethiopia. The pocket missionary navigator has tremendous potential to go to places that we can't that so desperately need to hear the gospel. We've actually trained these pastors and evangelists in how to use the navigator audio Bibles, but also we've given them some creative ideas and how they can use them for their ministry. Many of them cannot read, cannot write. So with this tool, they can evangelize and even disciple their members.
So I would like to get them as many as possible. This is something where they don't have to wait for a specific time, a specific airing on the radio, but they can listen to it whenever they want. They can get their teaching however they want. In the navigator ministry, they're able to reach the 25 million people who call Northern Ethiopia home. However we can help them and build them up, that's the Church of Jesus Christ. Leading the way navigators have impacted lives around the world for 15 years now.
These are little solar-powered MP3 players loaded with life-changing messages. Learn more and join Dr. Michael Youssef when you visit ltw.org or speak with a ministry representative at the call center, 866-626-4356. And keep in mind that all contributions designated for specific projects will always be applied to those projects. When we receive more than enough contributions to fund a project, the Leading the Way leadership team will use the funds for other priority ministry needs. It's our desire to meet the needs laid before us so that Christ is magnified and the gospel is proclaimed. Thank you for your generous support of ministry happening in your neighborhood and around the world through Leading the Way. This program is furnished by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.
