Don McClure emphasizes the profound truth of being justified by faith, which grants believers peace with God through Jesus Christ. He explains that this justification is not based on human effort but on faith, just as Abraham was declared righteous by believing God. McClure highlights the significance of having access to God's grace, portraying it as a royal invitation to enter into a relationship with the Creator. He encourages believers to embrace their identity as children of God, fully accepted and loved, and to recognize the glory that awaits them. Ultimately, the sermon calls for a deeper understanding of the peace and access we have in Christ, urging listeners to believe in their royal status as heirs of God's promises.

Romans 5 verse 1, 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 we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulation, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not a shame, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has given to us. Father as we look to your word tonight, and Lord as we look at these really awesome words, humanly in a sense unbelievable words, unless your Holy Spirit takes it and drives it home to our hearts, all other attempts to make it real to our hearts would be futile. And Lord we ask therefore that as we open our heart Lord that the things that you want us to know, this place wherein we stand by the work of Jesus Christ, that you would cause us to know it and understand it. And so Lord we open our heart to you and ask that you would take this book, this unbelievably wonderful book, this glorious book, minister it to us in Jesus name, Amen. Well if you have been with us so far as we have been kind of cruising through Romans here, the first four chapters as Paul has led us so far essentially, there we, Paul has spent a tremendous amount of time essentially there and kind of giving this tremendous statement almost, doctrinal statement, theological statement, I've oftentimes referred to it almost as like a lawyer's brief given before the Supreme Court or something presenting a case, where the first three chapters essentially there Paul presents a case that essentially says that man is lost in sin, all of us, every one of us, that hopelessly, miserably lost sinners, every one of us in our natural state and that the wage of sin is death, he's going to go on to say later on, but the result of that death is that we are hopelessly dead in our trespasses and sin, so dead there's absolutely nothing we can say, nothing we can do, no power left within a dead man, no capacity, no ability to do anything right or acceptable or good, the effect of sin is so total and so complete that no matter what man would attempt to do, nothing can change the state of being in sin and death and hell and judgment is essentially all laid out there and for all have sinned as Paul comes there towards the end of chapter three and he says all have sinned and have fallen short of the glory of God as he kind of goes chapter after chapter by bringing us to this place, there to where ultimately everyone is in this hopeless condition, he then brings us into chapter four where he introduces us to Abraham and Paul very very carefully, very very tediously explains to us something that happened that made Abraham totally righteous, totally acceptable, Abraham just one of the rest of us, another one of the fallen human beings around the planet, just one, no better, no worse, no more alive, no more dead, just as dead as anybody, but yet there's something happened to this man just like us in the sense that when God came to him, there that something happened that made him absolutely acceptable before God, that made him there absolutely totally righteous before God and he was declared righteous without any works, without any effort whatsoever, without any promises of his own, without keeping any laws, any standards, without doing ultimately anything at all, before the law, before circumcision, before anything, something happened that changed his life forever, for eternity and it was simply as Paul says there in the previous chapter that Abraham believed God and it was counted unto him for righteousness, that was it, he went on to have other things happen in his life and in his walk and his growth and everyone else that understands that and begins on that, God has an awfully lot of other things to tell us but fundamentally the place that in the starting and the ending and the continuing place for the most part is the same, believing God, simply being able to rest totally and completely on his work, we're dead, we're powerless, we're hopeless in and of ourselves, so trying to promise, trying any effort, making any commitments, how hard we'll try, how good we'll do if God will give us a chance, it's a waste of time and energy, very simply as we looked at in the previous chapters, God just simply took Abraham out and he told him, he said you look to the north south east in the west, that have I given unto thee and thy seed after thee, he then told him, he said look up and then he said look down and as he looked at the stars of the sky or he looked down at the sands of the sea, he said so shall thy children be innumerable, thy descendants there and here essentially he looked in every direction, you know, north, south, east, west, up, down and there in the midst of it, God told him there, though you have no, you know, human capacity to take the north, to take the south, to take the east or the west or up or down, that's okay, I will do it all, simply believe me and if you will, so will you, you know, you'll be your righteous and Abraham of course wonderfully did that, it tells us back in the previous chapter of, you know, chapter 4 there in verse 21, it says in being fully persuaded that what he promised, he was able also to perform, that was it, they're just simply saying God, if you promise this to me, you are fully capable of doing it all, therefore it didn't require anything of Abraham, he wasn't suggesting I will do it or what's my part or what do you want for me, this was completely a promise from God outside of Abraham, merely offered to him that he took God up on essentially, therefore verse 22, it was imputed unto him for righteousness, now he goes on and he tells us verse 23, now it was not written for his sake alone that it was imputed to him, but for us also, verse 24, to whom it shall be imputed if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, here Paul essentially, now when he moves into chapter 5 and this is the thing that is so important, because chapter 5 begins with the word therefore, and as I'm sure you've heard many times, you know, whenever you see the word therefore, you want to know what is it therefore, because the word therefore simply means I have been presenting a case, I've been presenting argument, I've been making an awfully lot of statements that now lead up to therefore, in light of that, because of the case I have just presented, now this is the implication that it has, that's what he's saying, that's what the word therefore means, after all of these things that happened with Abraham, then he goes on to say for us also to whom it shall be imputed if we believe, and here he's saying this was for us, all of this, he says that God did for Abraham, and all I'm writing is to bring this up, that now, that the same way essentially that God took Abraham out and he told him look north, south, east, west, look up, look down, and essentially there now the Lord is essentially, I believe, wanting now to take us out, and not so much out on the earth, not out here outside where he says to us look north, south, east, and west, or look up or look down, but essentially Paul here is doing a far greater thing essentially, he is now wanting to take us to heaven, he's now going to ask us that just that same struggle, that same process, that same issues going on in Abraham's life when God took him out there with absolutely no capacity to have children, no capacity to take the land, no capacity to do anything, God just simply took him out and he says Abraham look, and what you look at, look up, look down, look north, look down, look south, look east, look west, you just look, and if you'll look and you'll believe me, you've got it, I'll give it to you, it is yours, and essentially in chapter 5, 6, 7, and 8 Paul is going to be as if God is now taking you and he's taking me and he said look, look, therefore there is something that was imputed to him there and it's also for us, this was also for our sake to whom it also shall be imputed if we believe, and now he says instead of geography, now we're talking something even more wonderful than geography that there is for you, and he says therefore being justified by faith we, we, now he looks there and he says we're talking now about us, we've been talking about Abraham, keep him in mind, keep the experience, keep the, you know, the issues in his life, and how he received everything he had, now because that we have been justified there by faith, he says we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, he says now if you understand the justification that there is in Jesus Christ for forgiving us, cleansing us, atoning for us, you know, on the cross, taking all the sins of our life, not just our life, Paul, or the writer of what Hebrews and John alluded to, says that he died not for our sins only but for the sins of the whole world, when Jesus Christ died on the cross it was for the sins of the whole world, in other words he died for all the sins of all the world, of all time, which includes obviously yours and mine, and there as he has done this, that justification, when I realize that I believe that, I believe that, I believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for me and therefore he justified me, we're going to be looking more at the word justification as we get into this chapter, but here is something as you probably are aware that word justification is simply an accounting term, and it's one there that in essentially in accounting, if you know anything about accounting, for every debit there is a credit, to balance the books every time that there is a debit, every time that there's money put in, or you know that it, or in the balance sheet of it, there's something allotted for where it comes out or where it comes from and how it's moved around, it's balanced, and when something is justified, when books are justified, when the accounting is justified, it means there that when it says my sins, when I'm justified, that all of my sin, when Jesus Christ died upon the cross, my sins were blotted out, he who knew no sin became sin for us, all we like sheep have gone astray, but the Lord hath laid upon him the iniquities of us all, and there God just simply looked, he says here Abraham, I had him, I took him out, looked north, south, east, west, now I'm taking you to the cross, and I want you to look at the cross, that just as Abraham against hope and against anything within himself, he looked at the cross, and he looked there at God's promises that he gave him, and the promise that God gives to a child of God is the cross of Jesus Christ, look to it, and if you look to it, you are justified, and if you are now justified, and you understand this, that justification will produce peace, peace, that word peace in the Greek, let me, the definitions are wonderful, but it means a state of tranquility, exemption from the rage and the havoc of war, of a Christian, the tranquil state of a soul assured of its salvation through Christ, and so God, and so fearing nothing from God, and content with his earthly lot, there when somebody has peace with God, there is something that has happened within their heart, there is a tranquil state that happens between the human soul and before God, through Jesus Christ, that we realize there that I have salvation through Jesus Christ, and now I fear nothing from God, I can look at God and realize that he isn't angry, he isn't hostile, he isn't out to get me, and realize there that what happened when Jesus died on the cross for my sins, and I by faith trust him for that, at that point the war with God is over, it's done, it is finished, all of God's hostilities, all of heaven's anger, anything that God has ever had against sin, that he has ever had against any guilt, any failure, God took all of that out, the full measure of his wrath, the full measure of his anger, the full measure of his hostility, the full measure of his justice, the full measure of everything that was in God toward sin, he poured it all out, all of his hurt, all of his, everything that within God was absolutely vented, totally and completely on the cross, that's what the cross is all about, there when Jesus hung on the cross and the sky was blackened, and there, you know, he who had been guilty for nothing in and of himself, but taking my place, he became guilty of my sin, he there took all of the sin and the shame of my guilt, the heaven was blackened and he was decried, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And the answer is very simple, that he had taken my place, that terrible crucifixion, the agony of it all was an act of complete and total absolute substitution on my behalf, and everything that God would ever have against me, every emotion, every hostility, every anger, every justice, anything whatsoever, he took out upon Jesus and it was so total, it was so complete, that now, not only God has no anger left, but now there is absolute peace with me, there is, you know, now the man outside of Christ, the man who knows nothing, that wrath is still saved for him, it is still, the Bible says, stored up in heaven, to the person there who goes through this life and they think, you know, that they're gonna, they're gonna just go stand before God, everything of the blackened sky and of the agony and of the suffering, all of the hostilities of God, there will still yet be poured out upon them, they who think they're just gonna go and come skipping into heaven with some alibi, some excuse, some explanation, some stupidity, I didn't know, I was dumb, you know, all their life they thought they were smart, but they're gonna plead ignorance, you know, or whatever else when they get into heaven, as if now they can negotiate their way out of it, they think they'll hold back this wrath, this hostility, this anger, it's a fearful thing to fall in the hands of a living God, our God is a consuming fire, the Bible says, the man outside of Christ, that's where he's heading, but just as agonizing and as terrible and as much weeping and gnashing of teeth that there would be for the person that is willfully subjects themself to the judgment of God, so also is the peace and the hope for the person that submits themself to Jesus Christ, that the person that comes and says, Jesus, will you forgive me? Will you come into my life? At that point, all wrath is gone, all anger is gone, it is something there that not only there's forgiveness and there is mercy, but there is absolutely peace with God, Charles Spurgeon once wrote, and he says, look upward and you will perceive no seat of fiery wrath to shoot devouring flame, look downward and you discover no hell, for there is no condemnation that are in Christ Jesus, look back and sin is blotted out, and look around and all things work together for good to them that love God, look beyond and the glory shines through the veil of the future like the Sun through the morning mist, look onward and the stones of the field and all the beasts of the field shall be at peace with us, look inward and the peace of Christ which passes understanding will keep your heart and mind by Christ Jesus, it is something there that for a person that realizes I have absolute peace with God, and this is something there that is just it's a positional peace, it's just the state of condition, it is how things are, it isn't a feeling, it isn't an experience in a sense, although you can feel it, you ought to I suppose, but it isn't based on any feeling, it's just where there is absolutely no battle, there is no struggle, and there is something there where the peace is there, and this is one of the first things that God looks at you and I that he wants us to believe him for, God when he looks at you and me he says trust me, you have peace with God, no anger against him, no hostility, I love you, and here when we stop and realize how wonderful this is to know that we can have a peace that passes understanding, when I'm in Christ Jesus, that's what he gives, and just like maybe sometimes you look at life and there can be turmoil and there can be struggles and there can be pressure and the world can be filled with all sorts of difficulties and strife and everything but peace, God wants you to be able to look at him and say whatever else you've got in the world, whatever else you've got any other place, I want you to know that between you and me, there is complete peace, and you can run to me, you can have it, through Jesus Christ, it's that simple, it's that wonderful when we realize that's what we have, but the peace is for a purpose, it isn't just peace that just kind of sits there, on one hand right now it may be, if somebody got me, sent me a letter right now and said, you know, and it was from the President of the United States, I mean it'd be nice to get one, and he's never written me, I don't know why, I mean, I gave the guy a job when he was asking for one, but he's never appreciated much to me personally, but anyway, the thing is, is that if he wrote me a letter and said, Don, I want you to know, I have no axe to grind with you, I'm not out for you, I'm not angry at you, I'm not hostile with you, and you have peace, I'd say, well, that's nice, but that's just where it begins, because he then goes on with this peace that we have with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom also we have access, by faith, into this grace wherein we stand, and here he looks now and he says, we have peace that we may have access, and here's where Abraham's promises, I think, start to come, you know, towards us of trusting God, because with this wonderful sense of access that we have, this approach that we have to God, the word access there is a word prosagog, we'll look at that word a little bit, it's a wonderful, wonderful word, but it's one there that essentially says, you now have, because you have peace with God, you have full access to God, you now have full, you know, permission to come right in, it's far more than that, we'll see in a moment, but it is definitely that, that we not only have a relationship with him, but we have desired fellowship, so much so, is that we can now boldly come before his throne of grace. I heard a story one time about a little boy standing outside of Buckingham Palace in London, a little poor little kid outside there, and he, so he one day came up and he said, I want to see the king, and of course there with the guards all kind of standing around and quite sternly rejected as they're there, and, but he was just kind of hoping, can I see the king, he was too young to know that that's not one of those things that kind of just happens because somebody won't go knocks on the door of Buckingham Palace, but he stood there and when he realized he couldn't, he kind of started wiping the tears in his eyes, there he's so upset because he came there wanting to see him, and with that though, and he's, all of a sudden a hand reaches down and grabs his hand, he takes him and he says, come with me, and there as he walked right back to where he had just been rejected, the next thing you know is all of these soldiers, all of the palace guards standing around, were immediately standing in attention, and before him one door after another, after another, walked right through and he was taken right in, and he met the king, because it was the hand that took his hand was the Prince of Wales at the time, and here all of a sudden the prince, the son of the king, had come and seen this little child and said I wish I could meet the king, crying because he couldn't, had no way to do it, there the Prince of Wales just happened to come along at the time and just thought he'd give that little kid the thrill of a lifetime, something to write home about for sure later on when he realized the magnitude of what had happened so to speak, but it is something, that is the sense here of what it is that we have, only we have something far greater, far far greater than simply Jesus coming saying you have access, I can take you before the king, because that little boy as much as he was, the story doesn't begin to talk about our story, because the little boy when he was through he was still a little boy, when he got in there he was still a little peasant child who ended up outside the gate just the same as he was before, but with Jesus this word, prosegog, it is far more than mere access into God's presence, the word prosegog, it's actually where we get the English word protocol, and the English word protocol you may know like our president, you know he would have whenever there's some sort of a state dinner or whatever and there's all these people and you know invited to it, that the president of the United States has a man standing at his side who is known as the chief of protocol, and it is the job of the chief of protocol that each person that now comes, that as they come he introduces that person to the president, not only by name but also by identity and by role, and in the word protocos or where we get protocol or we get this word access, it essentially means to be introduced as royalty, it's just as the chief of protocol stands there and says Mr. President I would like you to meet so-and-so, you know the king of, the queen of, you know the ruler of, the president of, or whatever else there is something that is that is royal about this word when somebody has this access, when they have this this protocos, when they have this introduction in before God, and it's a it's a wonderful thing when you stop to think of it, you see what Paul is doing, he's taking you and he's wanting to take me and to say I'm gonna take you someplace and it's gonna be as awesome as where God took Abraham, I want you to know that just as much as God came to Abraham and he says you have peace with me, not only you have peace with me, but you look north, south, east, and west and if you can understand this Abraham it is yours, well here Paul now is coming to you and he's coming to me and he's saying you have peace with God and you have an introduction as royalty into his presence, that's what you have, a desire to be there, I'm one of these type of guys by my nature I just love to get there any old way, you know sort of it, I don't need any royalty whatsoever, I'm very much kind of like the prodigal son in my own thinking, my own heart that you know went off, wasted his life and riotous living and blew it and messed up by every manner that there possibly was and finally comes to his senses, realizes he's totally wrong, he's on his way back to his father, he says look I'm no longer worthy to be called your son but may I be as one of your hired hands, but you know when he got there to his father remember what his father did, he wouldn't hear any of that, the son is sitting there, he says can I go to job, can I get a job, I know I'm not worthy and the father didn't hear a word of it, you may recall that while the son is coming in there apologizing, I'm not worthy and can I have a job and the father is off to the shouting the guy, the orders the guy, hey get the shoes, get the outfit for this guy, put the robe on him, get the signet ring, my son was dead and he's now alive, he's lost and he's now found, I mean he was now, that father brought the son back, he brought him back to his full measure of glory that he had before he sinned and when God, when Jesus gives you and he gives me access into his presence, there's only, he doesn't take us in any lesser terms, I remember one time when I was a kid, I was, my mother said something, I must have just been at the age where it actually kind of troubled me, I couldn't understand what she was actually communicating but she was talking about somebody that was at something and something was going on, I don't remember what the situation was, I just remember my mother saying boy, wouldn't you like to be on a fly on the wall there, now I was just old enough to where I just heard my mother saying she was, she was a fly on the wall, I didn't understand you know that it was a metaphor for something and that there was kind of a, I just thought why would my mother want to be a fly on the wall, I know everybody can have bad days, you know or something, I mean it was just one of those things to where I, whatever age I was, I just had this picture of my mom wishing she was flying a wall, you know and well I'm one of these types that just, I'd love to be a fly on the wall in heaven, just to go, just get me in there, I don't want to go to hell, you know so I just, fly on the wall, oh be wonderful, it'll be great, but you see from God's perspective he says no, you won't be, I don't have any, there won't be any flies in heaven, just the redeemed, on who they really and truly are, and sometimes I think we have such a terrible time coming to grips, the fact that God looks at every single one of us, if you are his redeemed, he says you are kings and priests, you are royalty to him, you are his child, his desire to bless you, and when you're in his presence, he only has one identity for you, and that's the identity that we all had before sin came, before we fell from glory, it is, we're going to be returned as he says here to glory, and we rejoice, he says in the hope of glory, the assurance of glory, Paul says just as much as it's tough for us to grasp it, it's tough for us to believe it, probably as tough as it was for Abraham when God took him out there, you can't have any children, you can't, you tried for the your lifetime to do it, never, never, ever produced, and now God says look north, south, east, west, look to the sky, look to the sand, Abraham, all of this in your seed, believe me, and Abraham believed him, and you know God looks at you and looks at me, and he says you're royalty, you have access into my presence, into this grace wherein you stand, and we so often, we just can't cope with that, we're just so, Jesus, just the fact you'd write my name down in your book, the fact that I get to go to heaven, and the fact that maybe someday there's gonna be, you know, home and glory for me, that is so wonderful, but I can't believe what you, that this is something you say you have for me now, in a sense, to experience your glory in my life now. A few years back, I have a sister who usually is here, she's not here tonight, so I can tell a story on her, but, and brother-in-law, and the Lord has blessed them, and they, they like me, and I like them, and, and they like to bless me with some of the things God has blessed them, and so I like them maybe more than they like me, I don't know. But anyway, one time a few years ago, my sister calls me, and she says, Don, I'm having a birthday, you know, you know, for John, and I want you to come. Do you have your calendar? And I said, yeah. So I look at my calendar, and she's planning it months and months and months ahead, and she said, okay, and I said, when are you having this party? And she said, I can't remember the dates, but something like April 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, you know, something like that, and I, and I said, okay, so I'm just kind of looking at the, at all this, and I said, well, yeah, I'll just hold him, because what I thought she was doing was just kind of wanting to get a block of time, and then she was going to go work on some dates, you know, with other people, and then I wanted me to hold those dates for her, so, you know, for it, and I said, okay, I said, I'll hold them, no problem, it'll be fun, and let me know when you get, get it settled, and she said, well, that's it. I said, what do you mean, that's it? She said, those are the dates. I said, well, that's the week, it's, you know, you're having a week birthday party. She said, yes. I said, what are you talking about? And she said, I'm gonna surprise him, and I'm taking you and Gene with us to Hawaii for a week, and I'm thinking, whose birthday is this? And I said, what? She said, yeah, it's gonna be a surprise, it's gonna be so much fun, and I says, well, it will be for me, you know, anyway. I said, this is, you're serious? She says, yes. I said, well, I got a great idea for a Christmas present for him, let's go to Europe, you know, or something, but the, but she's sitting there, and so it goes out in this plan that she wants to do this, so I'm, okay, well, I think, let me, we had a couple more little things before we locked that sort of a thing in, but then it hit me, and I told her, I said, you know something, I know you two, when you travel, you use, you usually go first-class, and, and here's the deal, we're gonna go, but we're not going first-class, so when you get the tickets, you know, whatever you get yourself, that's up to you, but you get us regular tickets. She said, no, I'm not, yes, yes, you are. We went back and forth, like brother and sister, no, yes, no, and then finally, I just said, that's it, I'm putting my foot down, I don't do that, I don't go for it, and you're not gonna waste that kind of money, and if you're gonna spend that kind of money, I want to go economy, and give me the rest. You know, I didn't say that, but I probably thought it, but anyway, but the, but, so she said, she said, look, she said, let me, she said, imagine something for a minute, will you? She says, how do you think we are gonna feel, sitting up there in first class, knowing you're back there in economy? I thought about it for a moment, and I said, well, I don't want you to feel bad, so we went first class, but you know, when I realized, that is just human love, and I'm one of these, I, you know, to me, going to heaven, I'll go anyway, I'll go baggage, you know, sort of a thing, I'll go, you know, put me in the bathroom, you know, or something, all style, you don't even need an economy seat, just get me on the plane, but the wonderful thing is, Jesus Christ looks at you, and means, you have access, you have prosodog, I want you to come to the realization, that if you know the name of Jesus Christ, and you are his, we don't have second-class people in heaven, there isn't, oh, here's first-class heaven, and here's second-class heaven, and here's, here's, you know, baggage, you know, compartment of heaven, and he says, and we don't have it on the way to heaven, we have full access, into his presence, into his power, into his love, in Romans 8, he's gonna go on and say, for you have not received the spirit of bondage, you get into fear, but you have received the spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba Father, and the spirit himself, he bears witness with our spirit, that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, in John 17, if anybody else had said it, but Jesus, I suppose it'd be hard to grasp, but in John 17, when Jesus was praying, he says, Father, thou lovest them, as thou lovest me, we don't realize that the love of God is so rich, is so pure, that when I am in Christ, when God looks at me, and he sees me in Christ, I'm not merely with peace, he just doesn't say the battle is over, he just doesn't say there's no war, all my animosity is gone, all of my hostilities are gone, he looks there, and he says, why don't you come home, and come home royally, I've got a coat here, I've got shoes for you, I've got a signet ring, I've got power, I've got life, I've got a fullness, everything for you, and if you accept the one, and your sins are forgiven, why won't you embrace the greater, and no, you have prosegog, protocol, says, you maybe don't know who you are yet, but I do, you don't know who you were created to be yet, but I do, your royalty, you were created in my image, only God knows, only man has never yet known, we've never even had the slightest real capacity of it, when God said, let's create man in our own image, and created he male and female, and there when God created each one of us, each one of us, not a one of us here, that when he, that you were not created to be in his image, in his glory, and when God looks and he says, you're going home with me, you have peace with me, he sees what yet none of us see, and it takes maybe the faith of an Abraham, to look there and say, well if Jesus Christ died on the cross for me, if God spared not his own son, will he not yet give us all things, I have not seen, neither has entered into the heart of man, the things that God has prepared for those that love him, but they are revealed to us by his Spirit, when I open my heart to God's Spirit, and say, this is who I really am, there's a ton of evidence out there that says I'm not, there's a ton of human behavior within my own heart and life, that says, I am not this person, but the amazing thing is that God says you are, before you go to bed tonight, maybe you ought to take a little time, go to Exodus 28, and you'll look at this wonderful picture of the high priest, and I love it there, is here God tells Moses, he says, I want you to, for, you're going to make, you know, garments for Aaron, for the high, for the priesthood office, for the office of the high priest, and you'll make them, with, for glory and for beauty, and he says, you won't spare any expensive, and there'll be gold, and he says, there'll be purple, and there'll be, you know, scarlet, fine twine linen, all these wonderful things, and there they completely covered, and they hid the high priest in it, because it's all a picture of our high priest, Jesus Christ, who's passed into the heavens, whoever lives to make intercession for us, who presents us flawless, they're pictures of Christ, who presents us perfectly before God, and there when the high priest, when he went in, he had onyx stones upon his shoulders, engraved in the onyx stone, six on one, you know, where the first six names of the children of Israel, the next six names engraved into the onyx stones on the other, and here these beautiful polished stones, and then on the breastplate of the high priest, he had four rows of three stones each, now all different stones, all precious, all beautiful, beautiful gems and jewels, the Lord said of the children of Israel, they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in the day that I make up my jewels, God looks at Israel, he looks at his redeemed, and he says, in the day that I make up my jewels, you're mine, you peculiar people unto me, and God looks there as he sees us, like nobody else sees us, because he created us, and there as he sees this, and he tells the high priest, you come in with these beautiful stones, they're onyx stones, they're with the same love for every name, and yet, interestingly enough, twelve individual stones, each of the names of the twelve tribes of Israel, and each one individually named, where God looked at them to tell them, listen, I want you to know what I see when I see you, I see you perfect in Christ, I see you presented faultless, I see you as royalty, I see you as priests, I see you as kings, I see you in your full glory, and when he brings you in, every name is loved with equal love, and yet, everyone is individually loved, individually has a different glory of each one, you realize God has a glory for your life, that he wants you to know and experience, different from everybody else, as Abraham had a glory that God had for him, Sarah had a glory that made her different than anybody else, no two Sarah's, no two Abraham's, there's only one Rahab, but she had a glory, she had something to reflect and to tell of Jesus, and God's redemptive love that no other human being would have, an individual story, an individual glory, an individual purpose, an individual identity, an individual royalty about her, David had one, Elijah had one, Hannah had one, Peter, everyone, there is a glory that God has for you, he has for me, and when we realize that's access, that's what he, royalty, into his presence, in the meantime, God watches us so often as he sees us as these glorious beings, almost like the old story you've heard, you know, of the swan, you know, who grows up in a chicken coop, you know, and looks just the same as the other chickens at birth, but yet, here are all these little chickens pecking around, well, there's this gorgeous swan pecking around in a chicken yard, doesn't know it's got a beauty and a radiance, and God watches us peck around and act like little chickens and do all these little, you know, dumb little things, looking at the world around, instead of spreading the wings that he gives to us, you have peace, come into my presence. Ruth Paxton, she wrote a book called Life on the Highest Plains, and in there she says a wonderful thing, she says, there's a man in the glory, the glory for me, and my life in the glory, the glory must be, and when you and I can realize there is a man in the glory, the glory for me, my high priest, Jesus Christ, therefore, my life in the glory, the glory must be, and if he tells me I have this access, I need to open my heart and say, Lord, show me something of what you have for me, fill me, anoint me, touch me, use me, take me out of the chicken yard, lift me up, and it may, and I'm convinced it'll take, with many of us, the exact same, not for many of us, every one of us, the exact same struggle, I suppose, as Abraham looked out there and said, you know, and when Sarah heard, you know, the Lord came, you know, to Abraham. It's interesting, even when Abraham still struggled with all of this. Genesis 17 once said, when Abraham was ninety-nine years old, the Lord appeared on him, and he says, I'm the Almighty God, you should therefore walk before me and be perfect. This is after thirteen years of no discussions between God and Abraham. Genesis 16 ends thirteen years before Genesis 17-1. Thirteen years of silence, and yet God breaks the silence after he'd had Ishmael. Thirteen years of a project of his own flesh, and he comes and he tells him, and the next thing you know, he says, I'm gonna give you a child, and Abraham looks around. His whole life, he'd been, for thirteen years, he'd been so far from God himself. No conversations. How strange a man who is a friend of God and no communion for thirteen years. Not a word between Abraham and heaven recorded or important enough to be recorded, if there were any. Thirteen years of silence. How far you have to feel away from God, and yet God breaks the silence. Abraham, I haven't forgot my plan. We're gonna have the child. Sarah overhears the thing and laughs about it. I don't think, Abraham, you know, I don't think so. God says, that's a good name. Let's call him Laughter. Because you laughed. She said, I didn't laugh. She said, you did too. And when we can look, sometimes we look at what God has for us. If God was to come and tell us this, and maybe the person sitting next to me, in front of me, or behind me, not me. He says, yes, you. Father, we thank you for your word, and we thank you for your love. Lord, we ask that you would take these things, and we would realize that if you spared not your own son, will you not give us all things? Lord, is it not your desire to take us and to put the shoes on our feet, and to put the ring on our finger, and the robe on us, and says, listen, you may be willing to be a fly on the wall. You may be willing to come and be not a hired hand, but I happen to be your father. And I didn't give birth to flies or servants. I gave birth, and regenerated, and renewed, and restore my children to the former glory, nothing less. And Lord, I pray that you would speak that to our hearts, as only your Holy Spirit can, to have us begin to realize that we are truly sanctified in Christ. We're justified, we're glorified, as we'll see later on in Romans. The work is all done. Now you're just waiting for us to believe you. And Lord, so you give us your word, and day after day, you open it up and read something to us, and then you point at us and say, this is you. And then we say, oh, it isn't. But as we grow, we realize it indeed is. And Lord, I pray that tonight, that when you look at us and you tell us, you have access. You not only have peace, but not the President of the United States is just waiting for you. The God of all eternity is inviting you into his presence, his royalty, as a child redeemed. The work is full done. And Lord, I pray that you would convince us of that, as only you can. And we, who can do nothing to earn it, nothing whatsoever to gain it, all we can do is just say, God said it, and I believe him. I believe I am his, and I believe he loves me. I believe I have access. I believe he desires me in his presence. I believe I'm going and letting him work within me. Lord, help us in Jesus' name. Amen.