to turn back in your Bibles to
Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. You can follow
me also in your pastor's commentary. Your outline is in your bulletin.
Romans chapter 5. We are on another mountaintop. We are at the summit of a very
wonderful place in our series in the book of Romans. A contemplation
of an aspect of God's righteousness. The second major theme that the
Apostle is setting forth in the book of Romans And on this summit,
on this mountaintop, we are standing on the righteousness of God in
his proprietary work through Jesus Christ, by which he has
established the grounds of our acceptance before him for all
eternity, and it's called justification. Justification is what we have
been contemplating for a number of weeks now, and it is a term,
a phrase, a doctrine, a work of God essential to your security,
and you want to learn it. You want to know what justification
is. You want to know how hell-bound
sinners can be made right with God in such a way that He accepts
them for all eternity. This is the ultimate question
given in the scriptures by honest men. How can a sinner be made
right with God? How can the unjust be made justified
in God's sight? And we've been contemplating
that over the last several weeks. And I would dare say that the
believer in Christ who is going to enjoy the benefits and revenues
that are his in Christ will only do so as they are fully aware
of as much as they humanly can be of what God has done to justify
them. It is on the grounds of our justification
that all of the blessings flow to us from God through Christ
by the Spirit of God. Justification, therefore, is
a crucial truth for you and I to know, believe, and embrace. And so as we moved into chapter
5, the Apostle Paul has laid out for us on this summit what
I am calling the fruits of justification, the revenues of justification,
the blessings and benefit that flow out of the work of Christ
on the cross by which He merits for us eternal life. the subject
that he is developing in chapter 5 will run all the way through
chapter 8. And I'm kind of categorizing
this as I've been studying. Chapter 5 through chapter 8 will
be a full discourse on the subject of justification. what he did
in justifying us, what comes out of justification in terms
of its impact in our life, and the net effect of justification
in terms of where it terminates. And you guys ought to know this,
who have come to understand the grace of God in Christ, that
the one who justifies us is the one who also glorifies us. that Romans chapter 8 around
verse 30 says, If He has foreknown us, He has also predestined us.
If He has predestined us, He has also called us. If He has
called us, He has also justified us. And if He has justified us,
He has already glorified us. when a man or woman understands
that God before the foundation of the world has chosen to have
a people for himself with whom he will enjoy them and them him
for all eternity. For God, the end game is glory. But in time, because of the fall
and the rebellion of human beings, in order for God to be just and
the justifier of him that comes to him by faith, God had to do
an awful work. He had to offer up his only begotten
son. He had to make him a propitiation
for our sins. You heard a little bit about
that this morning. The proprietary work of God is for his satisfaction
and for our blessing. There's no way that you and I
can be brought back into the presence of God as we are. God had to do something for himself
and for us to bring us into his presence and what we read in
Romans chapter 5 1 is some of the fruit that falls out of the
justifying work of God and I'm going to be Recalling a number
of things before I call your attention to the main point that
we are discussing today what falls out of justification according
to Romans chapter 5 verse 1 is faith and Romans 5 one says therefore
being justified by what faith we have peace with God the first
fruit that falls out of the tree the blessed tree of Justification
is the fruit of faith pastor. Why do you say that because faith
is a gift of God? That's Ephesians 2 verses 1 all
the way through 8 and 9 faith is a gift of God but it is also
the consequence of the obedience of Christ and Faith flows out
of the righteousness of God in Christ. In other words, if you
have faith in God, it's because God has imputed to you the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. That's 2 Peter 1 verse 1. If you don't know it, faith is
not an empty commodity. It's the only tender in the kingdom
of God by which you can have transaction with God Almighty.
He only accepts us through the economy of faith because behind
the gold standard of faith is the righteousness of Jesus Christ.
Behind the gold standard of faith is the righteousness of Jesus
Christ. It's important for you to know then it's a gift of God
It has eternal weight behind it and therefore God is only
pleased with us by faith without faith It's impossible to what?
And you and I have learned that the objective of faith is to
take the sinner and set the totality of his being on the person and
work of Jesus Christ, by which he or she or they find their
complete enjoyment in God. Faith points us to Christ. We
also learned that not only is faith a gift that's given to
us, but access is too. Remember how we enjoyed that?
Verse 2 says, not only so, but by whom we also have access by
faith into this grace wherein we stand. Justification not only
wroughts for us faith by which we believe and trust God, but
justification brings us into the presence of God. Every believer
is in the presence of God. We're not only in the presence
of God in his mind, that means we were always with God. But
we're in the presence of God in the person of Christ by the
work of Christ and remember Christ personally brought us into the
presence he introduced us to the father as The objects of
the father's love and grace through the merits of Christ's righteousness
so that we stand Permanently in the presence of God on the
grounds of grace right there ought to amaze you that you of
all people Stand before a holy God Without ever having to worry
about being rejected again because of the merits of Jesus Christ
we stand on the grounds of grace and I shared with you last week
that gift of Accessing to his presence is by the Spirit of
God is through Christ and the objective is for us to have a
relationship With our Heavenly Father by which we cry what I'm
a father We get to enjoy daddy's house Hope you do because I do
I enjoy being in my father's house. I enjoy his palace I enjoy
his goods his riches his revenues. I enjoy the unsearchable riches
of Christ Another word to put it another way to put it if you
don't quite understand what I mean by the palace of God It's the
kingdom of God The kingdom of God has come to us who are believers
in Christ It has translated us out of darkness into his marvelous
light and we dwell in the presence of God. That's amazing It's absolutely
amazing. But in the presence of God we
we get to enjoy sonship and the blessings of Christ in the presence
of God we get to enjoy Sonship and the blessings of Christ now
you better hold on strap your seatbelt on because we got to
deal with the implications of being children of God and this
world. We've got to deal with the implications.
So what Paul says is that the benefits and fruit of justification
is faith, it's the substance of things hoped for, the evidence
of things not seen. It's access into the presence of God by Jesus
Christ and it produces in us a joy, didn't we talk about that
last week? An exulting, an exulting in the
hope of what? Glory. Every child of God that
is biblically informed and has a right comprehension of the
gospel. Thanks God for what is to come We thank God for the
future. Do we not we thank God that one
day Jesus is coming? We thank God that one day he
will call us. We thank God that one day he
will catch us up. We will be with him We will be
transformed glorified and so we shall ever be with the Lord
And in fact that hope is called a future hope. In fact, that's
what hope is its future faith, right? That hope is the thing
that sustains us While we're down here See you're gonna have
to learn this God is not calling you and me to hope in temporal
things, but eternal things. God is not even calling us to
hope in present things, but future things. The fundamental hope
of the believer is in that which is to come. Now watch this now.
The things that are taking place now, the life that we live in
this world now, the troubles and trials that we go through
now, we can know that God has taken care of that too. It is
for this reason, the next verse says, not only do we hope or
exult or boast in the glory of God, but we also boast in tribulations. We boast in tribulations. And
I talked to you and I about this last week at length, but I have
to actually work this again a little bit more fully and thoroughly
this week, because I want to talk to you about the third person.
It's the third person that is introduced to us in verse four.
Now, before you get there, I want you to mark this. This morning
we had a wonderful Sunday school class. Our elder was, he was
forced to, as I was with our women's theology class, to go
back to biblical hermeneutics, how to interpret the Bible correctly.
And one of the areas in which people skate all over the place
is knowing how to deal with what we call typology, symbolism,
metaphors, analogies, and the like. It's going to be critical
if you are going to enjoy God to realize that God deals with
us through a redemptive scheme. And the redemptive scheme demands
that we learn how God talks to us in the scriptures. And when
God talks to us in the scriptures for those who want to know his
truth and understand his glory, he speaks to us in parables,
he speaks to us in metaphors, he speaks to us in symbolism,
he speaks to us in analogies and typology. Critical to your
understanding God is that method of biblical interpretation. Can
I tell you why quickly? One is, is that God's thoughts
are not your thoughts. And our thoughts are not God's
thoughts. So if you demand that God talk to you literally, I
guarantee you'll never know nothing about God. Nothing about God. He has to use symbolism, analogy,
metaphor, typology, and the like in order to come down to our
level and say, little children, this is who I am. Enjoy your
God as he speaks to you through these methods The other thing
is is that I have been pressing home in our classes. You must
understand God in his triune persons So when you're reading
your Bible look for the Father the Son and the Holy Ghost Because
they all work concurrently to demonstrate how all three are
involved in your salvation. I so you're gonna see in the
New Testament the paradigm of God the Father God the Son and
the Holy Ghost Working to bring to pass their eternal plan in
your life hence in Romans chapter 5 verse 1 It opens up that saying
therefore being just about justified by faith. We have peace with
whom that's God the Father Why do we say that wherever the contacts
are? makes a distinction between Theos,
God, and then speaks in that same context about the Lord Jesus
Christ, is going to make a distinction between the two persons. God
the Father, and then God the Son, who is called the Lord Jesus
Christ. Did you guys get that? It's critical
for you to know that. And then it flows on down to
verse five, where we have the third person introduced. And
hope makes not a shame, because the love of God is shed abroad
in our heart. By whom? The Holy Ghost, which
is given us. The Apostle Paul, under inspiration
of the Holy Ghost, uses this Trinitarian formula all the time
because God's elect enjoy the fact that all three persons love
them differently but equally. Did you hear what I just said?
Differently but equally. The love of the Father is to
send the Son. The love of the Son is to lay
down his life. The love of the Holy Ghost is
to show you the Son and show you the Father. This is awesome. And this is where Paul is. And
when he says, not only do we glory in those things that are
coming, we glory in tribulation. Remember I told you that word
means what? Boast. The word glory means boast. It means to exalt. It means to have your head high
in a sense of triumph and accomplishment. Not only do we boast in the Lord
Jesus Christ, boast in our justification, boast in our standing by grace,
but we boast in tribulation. You know what that means? Tribulations
are designed by God to be a tool, an ingredient, a component by
which God reveals himself to us. Therefore, we boast. I'm willing to accept anything
that God brings into my life so long as he shows up when he
brings it. I'm willing to accept anything
that God brings into my life so long as he shows up when he
brings it. Now I want you to get this because
one of the things we don't do, last week I told you, biblical
truth is not designed for you to, what, navel gaze. Biblical
truth is not designed for you to retreat into some monastery
and start contemplating God Biblical truth is designed for you to
be able to walk with God in this raggedy world Until he calls
you home Biblical truth in terms of the aims of the gospel are
very practical It's important for us to know that when God
says lo I am with you always Even to the end of the world
that that's true. I It's important for me to know
that when God says I will never leave you nor forsake you that
that's true It's important for me to know that God says he will
keep me from falling And present me faultless before the presence
of his glory I need to know that and I need to see it in my life
on a daily basis. Is that true? So here's what
God does Because the just shall live by what that's right and
faith is the substance of what? And the evidence of what? Yes.
You know what God's got to do? He's got to keep building your
faith. And you know how he does that? Takes you and throw you
in the water of life. And he says, son, daughter, you
got to learn how to swim. Now, if you start drowning, I
promise I'll catch you and you will respect the journey. But
I'm never going to let you die. I'm going to grow you up in my
gospel in a way in which you'll see my glory. Now, remember,
faith is humbling because we look bad when we drown. And don't
we look bad? There is no existential or form of grace when you're
drowning. And sometimes our walk in Christ
looks just like that, like a drowning man. Is it true? We're not drowning. It feels like we're drowning.
It looks like we're drowning. But God knows we're not drowning.
He's building our faith. And I want you to understand
then that we are calling our attention today to the work of
the third person, the Holy Ghost, of which we talked about this
morning. His primary but not exclusive work is revelatory. His primary but not exclusive
work is to reveal Christ to you, in you, and through you. That's
his work. The job of the third person is
to take the covenant and make it real in our lives. The role
of the third person is to come alongside of you, dwelling in
you, guiding you into the truth. The role of the third person
is indeed that pedagogue that grows you up into Christ. I'm
using analogies. I'm using typology, am I not?
That's the role of the third person. His job is to make you
look just like Jesus when it's over with. you look bad now but
he knows he knows the image into which he is forming you and he
knows what it takes to get you there he knows how to bring us
into conformity to christ so the role of the holy ghost is
revelatory That is, he brings to us the Word of God. Scripture
only comes by the ministry of the Holy Ghost, right? Holy men
of old spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost, so we have
the revelation. Do we have the revelation? Then
the goal of the Holy Ghost is to illuminate that revelation. He has to cut the lights on the
book in order for us to understand the book. Without the Holy Ghost,
you cannot understand the Gospel. You can read a lot of things
in the Bible and think you understand it, but you cannot understand
the gospel without the Holy Ghost. The Holy Ghost is actually the
key that Jesus gives us that gives us access into the presence
of God. He is the one that brings us
into the revelations of truth. And he shall take the things
of mine and show them unto you. He will not talk of himself.
He will glorify me. That's the role of the Holy Ghost.
And the process of glorifying Christ in our life is transformative. Revelation brought down, illumination
opened up, made plain, transformation impacting our life. The only
reason you're saved is because you had a revelation of the glory
of God in Jesus Christ penetrating your heart. That's second Corinthians
318. We are with open face. Behold,
as in a mirror, the glory of the Lord. And we are what? What's the word? Changed. In
our class, metamorphosis. That's the methodology. Changed
from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of God. So biblical
truth in the life of the Christian must be transformative. Your
life must begin a process of change. Your understanding changes. Your affections change. Your
attitude change. Your desires change. The course
of your life change. That's what it means to be born
again. If any man be in Christ Jesus, he's what? All things
that passed away, behold, all things that become what? That's
what we call the process. The impact of the Spirit of God
brings you into the kingdom of light. The lights are cut on.
Now you and I are operating on a set of new principles that's
bringing us into conformity to Christ. And the final thing is
the Spirit of God is the one that inspires us. Revelation,
illumination, transformation, inspiration. What do I mean by
inspire? The only way you and I can move
out in obedience to God is to be inspired by God. God has to
inspire us. Are you hearing me? I must be
inspired. This is what we call in Romans
5, the obedience of faith. I have to be inspired to pray.
I have to be inspired to read. I have to be inspired to talk. I have to be inspired to gauge,
engage rather. I have to be inspired to communicate
with people. I have to be inspired to repent.
Yes, I do. I have to be inspired to turn
from sin. I have to be inspired to fight
against sin. I must be inspired. I don't have
it within me. The spirit of God must help me
do what he wants me to do. All right. So now here's how
he inspires us. He throws us in the water and
he throws us in the fire and he tells us I'll show up in a
minute. That's right. That's right. I
got to go to work here. I hope you can hang in there
with me for a minute because this is what I'm saying is true.
What I am saying is true. And I love what Paul is doing
because Paul is speaking to the Romans from a certain perspective
that you and I need to get. I thank God for Paul. I thank
him for this study because he's he's calling the believer to
be persuaded of the power of the gospel to save them completely. Remember what he said in Romans
chapter 160. I'm not ashamed of it because it's able to save
you. When he's talking about salvation, he's talking about
a complete salvation. Do you know you need to be saved
every day? Oh yeah, I know we're saved permanently. Oh yes, I know we already dwell
in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. In fact, I know I'm already
glorified. But God says don't take your
armor off as if you've already finished the war. You still gotta
fight the fight. And you got to still believe
me till the last day you breathe your last breath in faith. We
live in faith and we die in faith. Is that true? So we call this
medium ground between justification and glory the process of sanctification. So we already are and yet are
not at the same time. That tension has to be held or
else you will lie on God. Like some folks will lie and
say that they're not sinners because they're the righteousness
of God in Christ. And I will tell you, you're lying on God.
Because if while as yet you are the righteousness of God in Christ
and you are not a sinner, then Jesus, who is the mediator between
God and man, is sitting there like a Maytag man, ain't got
nothing to do. Because you don't sin. But I know there are a bunch
of us who understand the promise that if we confess our sin, he
is faithful and just to forgive us of our sin, having already,
having already, this is a past perfect tense, cleansed us from
all unrighteousness through Jesus Christ. So God demands that even
though we know our permanent future standing, to deal with
him in terms of real issues because it's relational. If I sin against
my heavenly father, I better come to him. Talk to him because
he told me if I'm walking in a state of unforgiveness, he's
gonna close down the blessings on me and When you're born of
God, you can't live in this world without God's blessings You need
him and you ought to want him as well. And it's as simple as
David saying I'm the man remember that before he could get the
words out of his mouth Nathan said your sins have been pardoned.
Don't worry about it. Let's get on down the road and
And so the believer has to learn how to quickly acknowledge the
blessings of justification in terms of the merits of forgiveness
that come to us so we can keep walking with God. Now, what he
does is brings us into trials to make that occur. What we are
talking about right now is what I call the work of the Holy Ghost.
In verse 5, we read these words. This is how we opened up our
study today. And hope, you see the phrase
hope? future things, things that are not seen. That's Romans chapter
8 around verse 23. If we have it, why yet do we
hope for it? So what experience does is produce
hope, doesn't it? And what endurance does is produce
experience. You see that word experience
in your Bible, verse 4? See that word experience? It
should be translated character. So when Paul says, we glory in
trials because trials force us to endure. We glory in trials because trials
force us to endure. What do you mean, pastor, when
God throws you into a trial? Are you ready? You're not getting
out until your time is up. Stay with me because I don't
want to be long in explaining this, but you need it explained.
Trials force endurance. See, I don't really like the
word patient because patient implies an intrinsic disposition
on my part. Endurance implies that I just
got to put up with the situation until it's over with. That's
the better interpretation. Hupermental means that I remain
under the situation until God opens the door and gives me a
way out. Now, while I'm under the trial,
God is working in me a bunch of stuff and he's working out
of me a bunch of stuff at the same time. When it's done, I
have been purged and forged in my faith. Watch this. When you
and I come out of a trial, what we discover is the faith we profess
is a faith that is affirmed in the midst of the trial. When
we come out of the trial, here's what we discover. I actually
do believe God. The word is character. Tribulation
works, patience, endurance, endurance, character. And we need that.
We need to be able to know that in the midst of the trial, God
shows up, affirms our faith, and then opens the door to let
us out still believing. Am I making some sense? I'm going
to make that good in a minute. I'm going to make that good in
a minute. So when we talk about experience, we're talking about
character. And character then causes our hope to abound, doesn't
it? What do you mean, pastor, our hope abounds? Are you ready?
It's not a vain sense of sort of gloating in the return of
Christ. When it says character develops
and is affirmed and it produces a greater hope, it means that
every time I go through a trial and I am toe up, I want Jesus
to come faster after the trial than I did before. I want him
to finish this thing. I long for the totality of my
salvation more after the trial than I did before. Did you get
that? Okay, so I'm gonna actually nail this point down this way.
When you and I get caught up in this world and we start being
distracted by the cares of this life, and we render our future
hope as something that we can give or take, God now recognizes
that funky attitude. So you know what he does he said
okay, they got to go back in the fire because They have failed
to set their affections on things above and I need them to understand
that their real Escape is when Christ come because they have
been deluded into thinking this world is alright Their character
is alright and everything's alright with the world So let me shake
life up once again so that they can long to go home to be with
Jesus I'm getting ready to affirm that in a minute. I'm gonna affirm
that Can I share something with you? If God, the Father, allowed
us to think with that kind of raggedy, low thinking, it would
militate against the desire that Jesus prayed in John chapter
17 verse 26. John 17, 26 is one of those keys
to why you and I go through trials. John 17, 26 says, As our Lord
Jesus Christ is speaking in what we call his high priestly prayer. This is one of the passages you
read. I have declared unto them thy name. Do you see that? And
I will declare. Do you see that last phrase,
that second phrase? I will declare. That's a future tense. Hold on
to that because I'm going to come back to that. I have already
declared. He's speaking about his apostles.
They've heard the gospel. He revealed the father to them.
He says and in the future. I'm gonna declare it again They're
gonna get more of the father of the revelation of God Given
to the Apostles and therefore given to us, but watch this now
that the love wherewith you have loved me. Ah May be in them and
I in them well, I want you to get this now in order for you
to know the love of God and There must be a continual revelation
of Jesus Christ in your soul. And if you go back to previous
verses, we won't go there. Father, I will that those whom
you have given me be with me where I am, that they might behold
my glory, that they might know the love that you have towards
me and I towards you, that they might know the love that we have
towards them. See, so Christ is praying that
the Father brings us to himself, but he is not denying the process.
See, to be in the presence of the Father is the ultimate blessing. But you and I are going to be
made to desire that. That's what trials are about.
Then let's work through our points. Our first point in our outline
is very clear. There's a supply of grace called
the love of God poured out. That is Paul's proposition in
verse 4. Are you there? He says, now hope makes not a
shame because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts.
by the Holy Ghost which is given us. Doesn't this correspond to
John 17, 26? Father, show them my love. Show them my love. And
so the work of the Holy Spirit in this context is a dispensing
of a supply of grace that we call the love of God. Now under
our first point, I said the way we comprehend this work of the
Spirit of God is because of Christ's love for us. The way we comprehend
this outpouring of the Spirit of God in terms of the love of
God in our heart is because of Christ's love in us. And the
way we comprehend this love of God poured out in our life is
because of Christ's love what? To us. Christ's love in us, Christ's
love for us, Christ's love to us. And what I mean by that is,
when you understand how the three persons work, the Father sent
the Son, but the Son sent whom? And He sent the Spirit to do
the work of pouring the love of God into our heart. What keeps
us every day of our life is the work of the Spirit of God, pouring
the love of God into our hearts. Now, that's what Christ wants
for us. He wants us to know the love
of God, the same love that he knew when he was here. He says,
Father, you have loved me from the foundation of the world.
Can we say that? Yes, God has loved us from the
foundation of the world. Father, you have sanctified me
and sent me into the world. Can we say that? Yes, God has
sanctified us and sent us into the world. Father, you have kept
me. Can we say that? Father, you have manifested your
glory to me. Can we say that? What I'm getting
at is what Christ experienced when he was here, he called the
love of God. And what he is saying to us is,
Father, I want them to know that same love. That's why I'm sending
the Spirit. That's the rubric and terminology
of verse 5 in our text. And I want you to contemplate
that with me. Mark this now. There is a supply of grace called
the love of God poured out. Why? Because Christ requested
it in his high priestly prayer. Now, what's beautiful about my
last point is Christ's love to us what? Fulfilled. Let me see
if I can use one example and I'm going to use a number today
to affirm what I'm talking about. Thus far I've shared with you
that the joy and triumph of the believer is in the justification
of God, right? Because God has justified us
freely by his grace, you and I stand righteous before God
on the merits of what Christ has done, right? God has declared
us righteous and therefore we can never, ever not be righteous
again. Boy, that is shouting news right
there. Stay right there. But the blessings that come out
of that justification is faith, is joy, is access, and it's the
outpouring of the love of God that gets us down the road. Is
that true? But there's a day coming when it's all going to
be consummated. In between then and now and then,
we go through trials. An example of this, and there
are many in the scriptures. All the saints go through trials,
by the way. If you're a believer you all go through trials and
we got many in the old testament don't let me give you one His
name is stephan. He's the first martyr of the
new testament church. He was filled with faith and
the holy ghost He went about preaching the gospel because
he preached the gospel gospel. He suffered for it. Guess what?
His suffering led to his martyrdom and do you remember the last
few verses of acts chapter 7? While they were gnashing upon
him with their teeth while they were stoning him to death. Stephen
began to kneel, and as he kneeled, he kneeled calling on God, because
he had said, I see the heavens open, and the Son of Man, the
Lord Jesus, standing, not sitting. standing at the right hand of
God the Father. What was he doing? Saying to
Stephen, Lord, I am with you. Saying to Stephen, I'm showing
you my glory. Saying to Stephen, don't worry
about the sufferings. The sufferings are not compared
to the glory that you are about to enter into. Stephen, come
on up. Come on up. In the trial, through
the trial, out of the trial, into the presence of God, because
glory is ours. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? In the trial, through the trial, out of the trial,
because of the glory of God. I expect that same revelation. I expect that same revelation. You don't have to, I do. I don't
wanna go out of here in the dark. I want the Lord to pull back
the curtains. I want him to show me his glory.
He promised he would. I want to see his glory. And
even if it means I have to die for him, I want to see him. I
want to get a glimpse of his glory. I want to see the Lord
Jesus at the right hand of God the Father. Can I ask for that?
Who is stepping that he's any different than me? Christ paid
for him and he paid for me. Christ gave me the Holy Ghost
as He gave to Him. I'm preaching like Stephan is
preaching. The only thing I haven't done yet is died for the Gospel. And if Christ is going to come,
pull back the veil and show me His glory, let me die. Let me
die. Are you guys hearing what I'm
saying? Alright, so we don't have to die, but we have to live. Okay? We do have to live. Point
number two. Point number two. Just in case
you're a little bit scared of dying. Listen to me carefully. Listen to me carefully. You might
be scared of dying, but you're going to die anyway. Am I right,
brother? You're going to die anyway. So
you might as well die gloriously. You might as well die happy.
I mean, you can be in the hospital dying from cancer. Everyone that
come in the room, tell them about Jesus. Preach Christ to him. Let the last words come out of
your mouth. The Lord is good. His mercy endures forever. I
thank him for his redeeming grace. And let the whole hospital be
upside down because you are talking about Christ. Let the doctors
and the nurses and the staff avoid your room because you want
Jesus to show up. You want Christ to meet you in
that hospital room. because you're going to die anyway.
You might as well die exulting in God. Now, having said that, I got
to say this, you're going to have to ask for God's help. And
between now and the deathbed, you're going to have to go through
the trials that build your character, that build your faith, that increase
your hope, that gets you to the point where you can die in that
kind of glory state. Are you hearing me? No bypassing
the steps. I don't care. No bypassing the steps. I've
seen believers who have died with that kind of triumphant
disposition. It's wonderful. Not a trepidation
in the world. such a sense of calm, such a
sense of joy, such a sense of fullness, such a sense of resolve,
such a sense of readiness. I'm ready. I'm ready. I'm ready.
I can't wait to see him. And then every now and then they'll
tell me about things they saw. Can't share them with you. You
won't believe them, but I believe them. Why? Because I'm on my
way to the other side. Why wouldn't he give me glimpses
of glory to let me know? So Point number two, the spirit
sustains our assurance of hope. I'm getting ready to get into
this. This is powerful. He sustains our assurance of
hope. We're using the metaphor of the
pouring out. That's a metaphor. He pours out into our hearts
the love of God. The designated target is the
spirit of the believer. It's the soul of the believer.
It's the heart of the believer. That's where the work is done.
Therefore, it's subjective, okay? It's subjective. You and I must
know Christ in a saving way. Not merely a rational way, in
a saving way. The heart must have a revelation
of His glory. Is that true? As the scripture
says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verses 4 through 6, God commands
the light to shine out of darkness, having shone in our what? Heart. to give us the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The difference
between a saved person and an unsaved person under the gospel,
as we have heard this morning, is that God gives one man to
see and another man not to see. and you and I need a perpetual
revelation of His glory to change. That's the inward work of the
grace of God by the Spirit of God by which our hearts are flooded
with the love of God. And so He works a reality of
grace in our heart, faith through love. Romans chapter 15, verse
16 is the one verse I'm going to share with you on that. Now
Romans 15, 16 actually is a commentary Romans chapter 5 verse 4 listen
to what he says and mark this as being true Romans 15 verse
16 I'm sorry it's Romans 15 verse 13 notice what he says now the
God of what do you see that are we talking about hope in our
text he said now the God of hope feel you feel you are we talking
about outpouring of the Holy Ghost Now, the God of hope fill
you with what? Joy. Are we talking about joy
in Romans 5? See, the joy is the revenue. It's the fruit of the presence
of the kingdom of God in us. Righteousness, peace and what?
Righteousness, peace and what? Righteousness, peace and what?
Joy is the undeniable presence of God that brings delight to
the soul of the believer because of what God has done for them
in Christ. Only believers have true joy. I mean real joy. And I mean a joy based upon immutable,
unchangeable things. I mean a joy based upon the promises
of God. I mean a joy that can defy the
circumstances. A joy that can defy the circumstances. It's the kind of joy people don't
understand. Are you hearing me? Now watch
this. The Holy Ghost pours it out into us. It's called the
supply of grace. Paul talks about it in Philippians
1. I don't want to go there. He
says, now the God of hope fill you with all what? When you find
joy in your heart, thank God. Because it's not always there
in an obvious way. Is that true? When you find it
bubbling up and you find yourself giddy about the glory of God,
thank Him because that's an overflow. Now, you would be wise to go
back and track how that thing showed up. so you can capture
that and frame that and try to reduplicate that every day of
your life. But in all likelihood, you're gonna miss how it came.
So enjoy it while it's there. Thank him and say, Lord, if you
will keep this here, will you? Because I like being happy in
the Lord. Now don't stay there a lot, but
you should want it to. He fills you with all joy and
what? Through what? This is my point. Faith is critical too. the work
of the Spirit of God in producing joy and peace in your heart.
So there's a symbiotic relationship between what God is doing and
how we respond, because we respond only by faith. It's only faith
that is capable of embracing and receiving what God says and
what God is doing. Is that true? We are believing
God when he is working in our life to fill us with joy and
peace, believing, watch this, that you may abound in what?
Haven't we been talking about that? So your trials are going
to increase your hope in the glory of God. It's gonna make
you more confident that you're ready to die for Christ and die
in Christ in order to see Christ when you die. It's going to cause
your hope to abound. Now, here is the agency by which
it's done through the power of the what? Romans 15, 13 is a
commentary on Romans 5, 4. Let's go back and deal with our
second point so I can make my way through. This is critical,
the point of which we are dealing with now in our outline. The Spirit sustains our assurance
of hope And he does it through these three means. He works a
reality of grace in the heart. Secondly, he keeps us abiding
in him. He works a reality of grace in
our heart and he keeps us abiding in Christ. What do I mean by
that? The whole of scripture calls
you and me to look to Christ. The whole of the gospel says,
trust Christ. The whole of the gospel says
pursue Christ. The whole of the gospel says
embrace Christ. The sum total of our preaching
is Christ. The sum total of our life is
Christ. I fear that we overgeneralize
the term, yes, but we can sum up safely that what it means
to be saved is to trust Christ. And to trust Christ is not only
something that God initiate, but he sustains every day of
our life. Is that true? I'm gonna trust Christ today.
Does he have to doesn't he have to sustain me trusting him? How's
he gonna do it? We learned earlier by revelations
of Christ Ephesians chapter 1 verse 13. I want you to see it Ephesians
1 13. This is critical Under the second point then that the
Spirit sustains our assurance of hope Faith is the substance
of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen he has to
work the reality of grace in our heart so that faith is operating
through love and And that faith is always fixed on the Lord Jesus
Christ, of which now Paul tells the people in Ephesus to remember. Remember what God has done for
you. Listen to what he says in verse 13. Are you there? In whom
you, having trusted, after that you what? Heard the word of truth,
the gospel of your salvation. In whom also after you have what?
Believed. See, believing is the response
of hearing. Faith comes by what? And hearing
by what? And when the man or the woman
comes to believe the gospel, they believe the gospel because
God had planted faith in their heart to trust the claims of
scripture around the person of Christ. Ladies and gentlemen,
the way our salvation starts is the way that it's sustained.
And it's the way that it ends. Watch this now. As we are called
to look to Christ for our salvation, we are called to look to Christ
for our continual everyday perseverance. And that's why he gives us the
Spirit of God. Watch the language in verse 13. I came to verse
13 for one point, and that is this adjective that's attached
to the term the Holy Ghost. Watch this. In whom also you
trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your
salvation, in whom after you believed you were what? I love it. See, we call that
an analogy. It's also called a metaphor.
If you're going to understand biblical truth, you've got to
be ready to slow down and comprehend the genre of speech because God
now is listening. He's humbling himself to teach
you through a picture image of how he secures our personhood
in the presence of God. You know what he just shared
with me? You know that big old plastic stuff that you wrap around
the box? about a thousand times to secure
the contents before you mail it off, how you wrap it. They
got these big old, does anybody know what I'm talking about?
The big plastic stuff. You wrap it 50 times one way, 50 times
the other way. So many times that you just discourage
anybody from trying to tear it up to get inside the box. Well,
that's a crude analogy of what it means to be sealed by the
Holy Ghost. He seals his purchase possession. Who are his purchased
possession? We are. He seals us with his
presence in order to secure our journey to our destination. We
are sealed with the spirit of promise. Why is he called the
spirit of promise? Because the gospel is the promise
of eternal life through Jesus Christ. And we are on our way
to glory. Now, I love the analogy here because it radically implies
a complete passivity on my part. All I'm doing is going along
for the ride. I'm wrapped as tight as I can be wrapped, and
I'm being shipped to glory without doing one thing. Hallelujah,
the Lord purchased me with his blood and he's shipping me to
glory right now and I'm wrapped so tight I can't do nothing about
it. If I wanted to, I couldn't do nothing about it. More than
that, on this seal, on this seal, he's got his name all over the
seal. Mine, mine, mine. This is a child of the living
God. He's the son of the Father. He's the product of the Son.
He's the work of the Holy Ghost. Leave him alone. This is the
way kings and dignitaries and rulers did it when they stamped
their seal upon that which was precious to make sure it got
from point A to point B. That's the work of the Holy Ghost.
Are you hearing me? But I must go deeper because I'm still dealing
here by analogy with objective work that has to do with the
whole of our person. When yet Romans chapter 5 verse 4 and
5 is speaking to two radical works, the work that's taking
place inside. the work that's taking place
inside. Now, under point number two, He keeps us abiding in Him.
I use Ephesians chapter 1, verse 13, but this seal metaphor is
used several times in the Scriptures. And again, this is because if
you are a Christian, you are a disciple. And if you are a
disciple, you are a learner. And if you are a learner, you
appreciate. Are you ready? God telling us
the same thing over and over and over again. Now in the scripture,
this is what we call it when we deal with genres and rules
of interpretation. Are you ready? We call it patterns. So when he gives us a type, And
he repeats the type over and over again. You know what we
call it? A pattern. Because a pattern is something
that repeats itself. And it repeats itself to affirm
in our life that God means business by the pattern. So this seal
we're reading about in Ephesians 1 is seen in Revelation chapter
7 verse 3. Well, he seals the forehead of
all of his servants. He seals the name of the Father
in our foreheads. so that we are seen to be the
property of God. But this seal had its original
manifestation in the Old Testament. Ezekiel chapter 9, remember where
God was about to destroy the Jews? And he said, but before
I destroy them, go through the city and mark the foreheads with
the ink horn, the writer's ink horn. Mark the forehead of every
man, woman and child who sighs and cries for the abominations
that are done in Israel. And what he meant by that in
Ezekiel 9 was this. Every true believer can see the
apostasy. We can see the error. We can
see the false doctrine. We can see the hellish lies that
have emerged in Zion and have overtaken the authorities in
the church and have abandoned the Word of God and have denied
the glory of God and have abandoned gospel truth. And every believer
sighs and cries for the abominations that are done in Israel. Love
does not rejoice in iniquity. It does not rejoice in false
doctrine. It does not rejoice when Christ is not exalted, where
he's not lifted up, where God is not communicated in the truth.
Am I making some sense? And what the Spirit of God does
is he affirms in the life of every true believer that godly
mourning that we have for lies when they prevail in Zion. See, when you mourn over error,
it means you understand the difference between a truth and a lie. And
when you mourn over error, it means you love the truth and
you hate the lie. And when you mourn over error,
you are willing to suffer for the truth. because of the lie. And so God marks you out because
he knows if you stand for the truth, you're going to suffer
for him. But he puts your name in his forehead so the angels
can know who you are when they hunt you down to protect you
and guard you. Which one? Oh, there she is.
Oh, there he is. I see the name. I see the stamp. I see the code. That's the product
of God. Let me help them get through
this trial. Am I making some sense to you? Can I keep talking?
This is so very important for you to get because when we turn
the corner here and start dealing with federal headship I want
us to understand paul's plea So the spirit sustains our assurance
of hope by working a reality of grace in us He keeps us abiding
in christ. You and I can only abide in him
by the spirit That's first john chapter 2 verse 28 and then we
can say this with all assurance if he started it he will what?
He always will what are you saying pastor? He will always work He
will always keep Philippians chapter 1 6. He who has begun
a good work in you shall perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ.
And you need to learn this one by heart so I can go to my next
point because my next point is going to be the real point that
I developed today. If he has given you his grace, you are
guaranteed his glory. That's Psalm 84 verse 11. You
need to learn it. He who gives grace gives glory
also because the fruit of grace is glory. When a man or woman
has come to know the grace of God in Christ, you are assured
of glory. That's Romans 8 verse 30. If
he has justified you, he has also what? Glorified you. So
this is critical to our understanding what Paul is doing. First, before
we go to our fourth point, let's affirm point number three. The
Spirit of God, before we go to our next point, let's affirm,
okay, point number two. The Spirit of God sustains our
assurance of hope. That's his job, to make sure
our hope continually abounds. You guys got that? His job is
to sustain our hope. By implication, what that would
mean, We go to our next point you can pull it up by implication. What that means is if God backed
away from me My hope would wither and completely dissipate to nothing. I Want to drive this point home
if it wasn't for the love of God in Christ, keep me me I wouldn't
have a hope for the glory of God because of my own fickle
sinfulness and my weakness my hope would diminish and Disappear
it would evaporate Thus, he must sustain it by a continual pouring
in of a supply of the grace of God in my life. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? Point then number three, here
it is. He affirms in our life God's unchanging love in Christ. Go ahead on, Paul. I know what
he's doing. I want you to get this now. See,
thus far, I've been talking to you about the subjective work
of God, and I've been using the metaphor of pouring out water,
analogies and types of the ministry of the Spirit of God, the typology
language is very subjective because the net result is faith growing,
hope growing, joy growing. Is that right? The kingdom of
God in our heart. But how does he do it on an objective level? Objectively, concretely, how
does the Holy Ghost strengthen our faith? How does He cause
our hope to abound? How does He bring about this
mysterious joy in our soul? Concretely, He does it by seeing
to it that you and I have a constant diet of the unchanging love of
Christ communicated to our soul. This is the work that we're getting
ready to go into. This is verses 5 and 6 of Romans 5. Go there.
Now watch this. I want you to see this. Fantastic. What is he doing? He's helping
the church at Rome to understand how to get through trials without
falling apart completely. See, because sometimes we can
hear the promises of God, but they don't mean much to us until
they are made crystal clear in terms of the concrete and practical
manifestation of them. So when he says and hope makes
not ashamed because of the love of God being shed abroad in our
hearts by the Holy Ghost Which is given us he's given to us
permanently. The question should be pastor. How does he do that?
What's the question? Pastor, how does he do that?
Glad you asked This is powerful I'm gonna answer
two questions when I answer this I'm gonna show you in our text
how he does it and why he does it And I've been preparing you
for why he does it. But I'm going to show you how
he does it. He, the spirit of God, sheds abroad the love of
God in our hearts by his work, through the means of calling
our attention to what Christ did when he saved our wretched
souls. Watch this. He is speaking in
verse 4 and 5 of the work of the Spirit of God, and then he
moves to verse 6 and 7, and he says, 4, you see that little
word 4? This is what we call a conjunction. This is what we call a purpose
clause, and what a purpose clause is, is an explanation for the
previous statement. So the previous statement is
a promise, and what he's about to do is make good on the promise
by now explaining what he does. There are what we call conclusive
clauses. Often in the New Testament, they're wherefore clauses. But
there are what we call purpose clauses. In the New Testament,
they are the word for. The word for in this context
can be translated better, because. Are you ready? He pours out the
love of God in our hearts. through the Holy Ghost which
is given to us perpetually to sustain our hope because while
you and I were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Do you see that? Because for when you were without
strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. Notice
verse 7, for scarcely for a righteous man will one die, Yet perventure
for a good man should some would dare to die Verse 8 but God commended
his love towards us and that while we were yet sinners Christ
died for us These three verses I want to couch in a certain
set of circumstances that are biblical to help you understand
what I'm saying Here's what the Spirit of God must do for you
and me. He must remind us that What Christ has done for us to
redeem our wretched souls from hell. Do you agree? But he also
must remind us when he did it Because your trials and the challenges
that go on in your life can be so difficult That they can shake
you to the core of your being and bring into question your
faith in Christ Let me keep going for a moment The trials that
come when God throws us into the water and he tells us to
swim and we start sinking. The trials that come can be so
difficult in our life that they can actually challenge the claim
of faith we possess in God. I know more than I can count
the times I have talked to people that say, Pastor, I don't know
if I believe this thing. I don't know if God's really
saved me. I don't know if I'm one of God's elect. And do you
know, inevitably, when they are saying that? When they're in
a trial. Why? Because trials humble you. They
bring you down. They bring you down. I'm going
to use one analogy for today. One analogy. And it's Brother
Peter. Can I use him? Peter is going
to be a good example of my argument that it's necessary for you and
I to hear the truth of the gospel communicated accurately to our
soul, especially when we are in trouble. The Lord Jesus knew
this, when as he was headed to Calvary, Peter had fallen prey
to the false assumption that he was better than the rest.
And you and I have fallen into that too. But on a good day,
God will help you to know that you are no better than anyone
else on planet Earth. On a good day. On a good day,
you and I are no better than the devil himself. And sometimes
we act like it. On a good day, when we're honest
about our rebellion, when we're honest about our unbelief, when
we're honest about our fears, when we're honest about our doubts.
But it is crucially true when you fall. And see, while you
and I have to deal with the world, and while you and I have to deal
with the devil, the world is contrary to you. We learned that
last week. Love for God means hatred of the world. The devil
is contrary to you. When you know Christ, the devil
is coming after you. Is that true? Oh, but we can
overcome those two. It's the third one that we struggle
with. Do you know what that is? The flesh. It's all falling at
you. Let me help you. I'm almost done.
Let me help you. The one that we struggle with,
and we've got to have God's help for this one, is when we go into
trials, and they get us, and they knock us down, and we look
as raggedy as can be. I mean, they tear us apart. They
tear us completely apart. They deconstruct us totally.
Mind, heart, and life. By the time the devil has got
through wreaking havoc in our life, And we have consented to
it by some stupid decision we made. We look around and we don't
find no faith anywhere. None. No evidence of grace. No evidence of salvation. And
in fact, we are so thankful that only a few people see it, if
anybody sees it at all. Because we look so bad. Stay with me. We look so bad.
Stay with me for a moment. We look so bad. That's one of
those trials that God had to lay you so low so you can stop
thinking of yourself above that which is written. Because people
do. People do. You and I get to learn how to
walk and we think we won't fall. You know how our children learn
how to walk? And that's why they have to fall several times and
learn how to appreciate putting one foot in front of the other.
We walk a little while and we think we all right with God.
And then boom, we fall. There are some trials that are
designed to knock you down so bad. Listen to me child of God
That Jesus told Peter James and John the three that were closest
to him Can I keep your attention for a few more minutes? Somebody
had come to me about two weeks ago and they said pastor You
know, Jesus had a crew with him twelve disciples, but he had
three especially close ones Peter James and John they were his
special ones I said, yeah, they were special because they were
the most sinful. He had to draw them near to him
because they were the knuckleheads. See, and when a good shepherd
loves his sheep, he knows the rebels. He's not going to let
them run far from him. The reason why he had to keep
Peter, James, and John under his shoulders is because they
got in trouble all the time. Even up against the Lord Jesus
the Lord Jesus is listening to Peter's thoughts and saying this
boy is out to lunch And he has been vocalizing his
superior love for God Enough for the devil to have heard it
now stay with me for a moment. The devil cannot hear your thoughts I Don't know where you what church
I'll go to I I really don't. But whatever church you go to,
and there are many of them, for some reason you want to deify
the devil. He's nothing but an angel. And if you men are talking
like that, you need to get your tail in the Saturday night's
men meeting and get your theology right. Because omniscience only
belongs to God. The devil does not have an omniscience.
He cannot penetrate into your brain and listen to how you think.
Only God can. Your wife don't know what you're
thinking? Your husband don't know what you're thinking. Your
children don't know what you're thinking. I like it like that,
don't you? I like it like that. I really
do. I really do. And see, I'll go to war with
the devil because I know he doesn't know my thoughts. I know he guessing
what I'm thinking. He's a good guesstimator. He's
been around a long time. He knows the pathology of men
He's seen me mess it up a time a few But every now and then
by the grace of God me and the Holy Ghost trip him up because
he does not know my thoughts Now, uh, let me say this Peter
had obviously so vocalized by his words in his conduct that
he was better than the rest of the disciples that Satan really
wanted to get at him Satan actually wanted to get at all of them
at that point, particularly the three, because it's in what we
call the plural form. Satan has desired all of you to sift you
as wheat. Stay with me, I want you to get
this. Satan has desired to sift you as wheat. And there are trials
that take place in your life that result in the sifting of
your soul. These are extra severe trials. These are the trials that wipe
you out. These are the trials that make
you look really, really bad. These are the trials that bring
you so low that you have no personal experiential confidence that
you are right with God when it's over with. This is what happened
with Peter, James, and John. When Christ warned them, it still
didn't resonate. He says, Satan has requested
of the Father to sift you as wheat. Now, I have already what? Don't you thank God for a mediator?
Now watch this, watch this, because I need to teach you something
here. I want to unpack these few verses and go home. I know
you're hungry, but you need to get this. You need to get this.
He did not say to Peter, James, and John, and I'm not going to
let him take you through that trial. I'm not going to let him
sift you. It's very clear that the request
was given and the request was granted. There are times when
you and I go through so severe a testing that when it's done
for all intents and purposes, we have denied the faith. We
have abandoned Christ. We have forsook him. There are
people who go through that severe a trial. Whether you accept what
I'm saying or not, you have to accept the testimony of scripture.
When the test came, the apostles abandoned Jesus. They forsook
Christ. They denied Christ. Peter Constance
said, I don't know the man. That's a trial. And do you understand what happened?
They were scattered. Smite the shepherd the sheep
will be scattered. They were scattered. They were there was
at that point no grace No faith No capacity to stand before God
does anyone know what I'm talking about when the trial hits you
wipes you out takes your feet from under you and Demonstrates
in your personal life in your personal life in your person
that you don't have any intrinsic grace to keep yourself out You
can't even hold your peace. I mean, sometimes if we could
be smart enough to hold our peace, we could get through a trial.
But there wasn't even the grace to keep your mouth shut. You
opened your mouth and said, I don't believe that. You actually said
what you know was wrong. Wiped out. And when Peter, James
and John and the rest had fallen under this severe trial, do you
know what happened? They hurried up and ran to Jesus
and said, I'm sorry. Is that what they did? They hurried
up and ran to Jesus and said, I'm sorry, Lord, we lied. We
messed up. Is that what they did? No. They
ran out on Jesus. They abandoned the faith. Peter
said, after all this, three and a half years for this, they took
the man, they killed him. And then they're threatening
our life. And look at what we've done. We didn't royally mess
this up. We have lied. We have abandoned. We have denied. We have forsaken.
You know what Peter said? I'm going back to my old job.
And that's exactly what he did. He went back fishing. You know
what John said? I'm going to. You know what Andrew
said? I'm going to. Do you know why? Because at that moment God allowed
their faith to collapse completely. to show them something that you
and I must get. Are you ready? To show them that
apart from His grace, that they are nothing but corrupt and vile,
hell-bound sinners who will deny the glory of God if left to themselves
completely. Are you hearing me? Are you hearing
me? The disciples had to learn this. They had to learn that
there wasn't an ounce of good in them. Oh, I know some of y'all
listening to the song He saw the best in me. But I'm here
to tell you, He didn't see the best in you, because there is
no best in you. All God sees is the worst in
you. There is no best in you. And
if you ever get your gospel right, it better say, He saw the Christ
in me. If there's any hope, he saw the
Christ in me. But that's only if you get your
gospel right. There is no best in us. We're all vile sinners. We're all wicked sinners. We're
all corrupt sinners. We're all denying sinners, hell-bound
sinners, ready to go the wrong way if it's not for the grace
of God. Am I telling the truth? Ready to go the wrong way. Stay
with me now. Stay with me now. Stay with me
now. And had the Lord Jesus left them alone, they would have never
come back. Don't you thank God for his faithfulness? One more point. Stay with me
then. Stay with me. If it wasn't for the fact that Christ came
and got them, they would have never come back. If Christ didn't
go after his sheep, they would have never come back. But the
word of God tells me in John 20 and 21, he went and got them. Even while they were in the midst
of their apostasy, they're out fishing all night long, catching
nothing. Look at the Lord, catching nothing.
He's not gonna let them prosper in their apostasy. When He called
them by His grace, chose them in Christ, elected them for something
greater than that, He's gonna let the business fail, He's gonna
let you live miserably, and then in the due season, He's gonna
bring you back to Himself. You can't come back until God
wants to bring you back. you hearing me I'm talking about
our point I'm talking about how he sustains our hope how he keeps
us and he does it by showing us how sinful we are so the argument
in Romans chapter 5 verse 6 and 7 is this you need to know that
there's nothing, child of God, when once you're born of God
and you're called of God and God promises to keep you, there's
nothing in your life that you can do to undo that. But there
are two courts of conscience that you and I have to struggle
with all the time. One of them, God has solved. The court of heaven,
God has solved. That's what justification is
all about. For the believer who understands that he has been
justified freely by God's grace, the courtroom is closed. Who
shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? It's God that
justifies. He's hearing no more court, no
more cases for God's elect. Do you believe that? I've been
preaching this for years. The devil is not going into the
courtroom of God. Angels are not going into the
courtroom of God. Human beings can't go into the courtroom of
God. God doesn't sit on His throne judging the worthiness and validity
of His elect anymore because Christ has justified us. The
courtroom is closed. He has adjourned all cases. He's
hearing no cases of the devil. Are you hearing me? Not for God's
elect. But the courtroom that you and
I have to deal with down here is the courtroom of our own conscience. the courtroom of our own conscience.
Because the one person that is more inclined by the mess we
make to question God's immutable love in Christ is us. Will you
hear me? That's what Peter, John, and
James did. They abandoned the promises of God. They denied
Christ. They did not believe he could
keep them. And they went about doing what they did. See, they
allowed the courtroom of their conscience to get to them. You
know what they said? They said, fellas, we're sinners
anyway. So since we're sinners, we might
as well go live like hell. That's what they said. But Jesus
came. Isn't that good? Jesus came. The Lord Jesus came like the
good shepherd and he walked up on Peter and James and John.
And he said to Peter, James and John, yes, I know you are sinners,
but you don't even know how bad you are. You are not only sinners,
ready? But you're sinners without strength.
And that's when I died for you. I died for you when you were
without strength. So that argument is invalid in
the courtroom of grace. Come on with another argument.
I'm a hell-bound sinner. I love to sin. I don't have any
grace to come to you, Christ. Christ says, I know. I died for
you. I died while you were without
strength. I died when you were dead in trespasses and sins. Are you hearing me? Watch this.
You were dead. I died when you were dead. You
know what that means? God's saving you is not some
bilateral agreement between you and God. It's unilateral altogether. where Christ saves you all by
himself. You had nothing to do with it.
Are you hearing me? Watch this now. Not only were
you without strength, you were dead when he died for you. Ah,
so just because you're a sinner and you don't like to do the
will of God, that's invalid in the courtroom of grace. In the
courtroom of grace, God has already purchased you dead and without
strength. You're his now. That argument
won't work. Christ died while you were dead. He died for you while you were
yet without strength. One more argument. Well, if you
leave me to myself, I'll just abandon you again. He says, I'll
die for that too. If you look carefully at the
text, Paul says not only did he die for the ungodly, he died
for folks without strength. He died for dead men. Are you
ready? But he reconciled rebel sinners. You missed that. Rebel sinners. Is the PowerPoint
up there? Get up there. Don't slow me down.
Rebel sinners. Is it in your outline? Please
listen to God's argument. This is beautiful. I love Paul's
argument. Here it is. His love for us is
unwarranted. We were dead. You see that? It's
a unilateral act. God saved us while we were dead.
How can you beat him saving a dead sinner? How can you do worse
than being dead? Not only that. His love is above
rare. His next argument in Romans 5,
6 was this, verse 7 rather, for scarcely for a righteous man
will one die, yet perventure for a good man would some even
dare to die. Do you guys see that? What is
he doing? Paul, under inspiration of the Holy Ghost, is arguing
in the conscience, the courtroom of the conscience of the believer,
saying, look, he didn't die for the righteous. He didn't die
for good men. You don't need to be a good man
in order to be right with God. You don't need to be a righteous
man in order to be right with God. Saints. Don't we struggle
with that? Don't we struggle with being
good enough? Don't we struggle with being right enough? Don't
we struggle with that? I'm in the courtroom of your
conscience right now with the Holy Ghost. And he's telling
you he died for the ungodly. He died for those without strength. He died for hell bound sinners.
And he reconciled you. You know what that means? He
brought you to himself by the work of his cross while you were
a rebel. Isn't that what he says? Look
at what the next verse says. This is crazy. God is reconciling
what kind of sinners? This is not compliant sinners.
This is not obedient sinners. God's reconciling hostile sinners. See, a few of you are going to
get this. A few of you are going to get this. I'm done here. What
is he doing? He's helping us understand that
when Christ died for us, he died for us in our worst state. In our worst state. And there
is nothing that we can bring to the table of our conscience
that can overthrow the work that Christ did for us when he died. He will dismiss every argument
that we raise. He will point you back again
to his death, why he died, how he died, when he died, for whom
he died, and everything that Christ did in his death will
overthrow your own argument. See, when we said, who shall
lay anything to the charge of God's elect, that means everybody. That means you too. What does
the Spirit of God do? He works in us a remembrance
of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. He argues for the
grounds of our continually looking to Christ by telling us that
we don't have a basis to abandon God because of how weak or how
flawed or how sinful we are. Because in all of these states,
Christ died for us and he reconciled us to himself. Which brings me
to my last point. Under point number four, he retrieves
the rebel sinner. Is that true? You were a rebel
sinner. You were a rebel sinner when
he treated you. And then he also preserves the reconciled by his
life. Is that true? Yeah. Yeah. The
reason why you believe in the gospel today is because Christ's
life is in you. It's the only reason. And my
last point here, I'm way overdue. My last point is, pull it to
point number five. I'll be able to build this. What
this kind of teaching does, it results in our rejoicing in God. Doesn't it it results in our
rejoicing in God? Here's what Paul is stating as
he is dealing with the courtroom of the conscience of his brothers
and sisters at Rome He says very plainly in verse 8 through 10
But God commended his love towards us and that while we were yet
sinners Christ died for us much more than Much more than see
you see what he's doing. He's trying to pour into their
faith and the unchangeable love of God, so that they stop doubting
His grace much more than being now justified by His blood. We
shall be saved from wrath through Him. Here's the next four. Here's the next four. For if
when we were enemies, we were reconciled. That's what I meant,
rebels. When we were enemies we were reconciled to god by
the death of his son much more much more much more. That's the
key He's arguing to keep you in faith trusting christ in spite
of everything that's going on in your life much more much more
He's saying if then much more being reconciled we shall be
saved by his what? His life the promise of christ
is that if because I live you shall live also in my final verse
and not only so but we also what in God? Through our Lord Jesus
by whom we have now received the what? Case closed. The Apostle Paul has stopped
arguing his case and he's arguing for the believer to settle down
on these grounds that the nature of the love of God in Christ
is of such that there is no argument that you can raise against yourself
because when he called you and saved you by his grace You were
in your worst state. It does not get worse than that. Everything after your salvation
is better. As bad as it is, it's better
than I was before God saved me. And he saved me anyway. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.