Travels now to Romans chapter
5. Subject tonight, the love of
God, our hope. The love of God, our hope. Paul and all the apostles and
the holy prophets came to this conclusion. that a person is justified by
faith without the deeds of the law. That was their conclusion. You read it here, right across
the page, Romans 3, verse 28. When he came to the end of that
third chapter, he said in verse 28, Therefore we conclude that
a man is justified by faith. without the deeds of the law.
That's the way the soul is justified before God. Who shall lay anything
to the charge of God's elect? It's God that justifies. God
justifies us. And then in chapter 4, Paul presents
a primary example of justification by faith, apart from works. And that was the great man God
called out of Ur of the Chaldees, Abraham. He says in chapter 4,
verse 3, what sayeth the Scriptures? How was Abraham justified, huh? The Scripture says he believed
God. Abraham believed God and was
counted to him for righteousness. Abraham was justified by faith.
And then our scripture tonight in chapter 5 starts with this
word, therefore, therefore. And I've told you again and again,
when you come to a portion of scripture that begins with therefore,
you have to look back and see what is therefore. And this is
the conclusion now of those two statements. We conclude a man's
justified by faith without the deeds of the law. And our father,
Abraham, that's how he was justified, by faith, without the deeds of
the law. Therefore, chapter 5, verse 1, being justified, we
have some things. There's some results of being
justified by faith. He said, therefore, being justified
by faith, we have peace. with God through our Lord Jesus
Christ. We have reconciliation being
justified by faith. We have peace with God. Peace was made between the sinner
and God. John Gill said this, Paul, having
clearly stated and fully proved beyond a shadow of that the justification
of a sinner and the salvation of a soul is through faith alone. And here in chapter 5, Paul proceeds
to observe the effects of that justification, which is peace,
assurance, confidence. The great effects of this blessing,
known and by all who are justified. So let's see what some of them
are. Chapter 5, verse 1, Therefore, being justified, not guilty,
sins pardoned, forgiven, separated from us as far as the east is
from the west, through the blood of our Lord Jesus Christ, we
have peace, peace with God. Now the two vital things here,
This peace with God is through our Lord Jesus Christ. That's
where the peace is, through our Lord Jesus Christ. It's the only
way a holy God can be at peace with you and me. Over here, right
across the page again, in chapter 3, verse 25, it says back in
verse 24, back one other, Verse 24, chapter 3, being justified
freely by His grace through the redemption that's in Christ Jesus.
That's how we're justified. Whom God has set forth. God set Him forth. God set forth
His beloved Son to be our justifier, to be our propitiation, our reconciliation. God set Him forth. God set Him
forth in promise. God set him forth in picture,
God set him forth in pattern, God set him forth in person.
Finally he came into the world. God set him forth in a conspicuous,
not to be denied, fashion. Hung a star up over his birthplace.
Sent the angels down to announce it. He's come, a Savior Christ
the Lord. God set him forth conspicuously. So plainly that Paul said to
a heathen king, These things weren't done in
a corner. You know what I'm talking about. You know who I'm talking
about. Because this wasn't done in a
corner. God doesn't do anything in a corner. So all the world
shall know. And God set him forth to be a
propitiation through faith in his blood. To declare God's righteousness. That's what Christ's blood declares,
God's righteousness. That's what the cross screams
loud and clear. God is love, that's right. But
God is righteous and God is holy and God is just. And He cannot
justify a sinner apart from the sins being paid for. The law
honored and justice satisfied. God declared through the blood
of Christ His righteousness. Or the remission of sins that
are passed through the forbearance of God. What's that talking about?
That's talking about Abraham's sin. And Moses. And Noah, and
Abel, all those fellows that lived before the cross, before
Christ came, before Christ suffered, God set him forth to be a propitiation,
not only for our sins, but for theirs too. For the remission
of sins that have passed through the forbearance, the long-suffering,
the patience of God, who looked to Christ coming to atone for
their sins, to declare, verse 26, I say to declare at this
time God's righteousness, that he might be just and holy and
the justifier of them that believe in Christ. So we have peace with
God, but only in one place, only in one person, only one way,
and that's in Christ Jesus. God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto himself. Not imputing their trespasses
unto them, but laying them on Him. And God made Him to be sin
for us, that we might be made in Him the righteousness of God. We have peace. It's in Christ. Don't forget where it is. It's
in Christ. And I'll tell you this, like
I tried to show you this morning. In Christ is the only way you
can be sure of this peace. That's the only way you can be
sure that you have peace with God. Anyone who entertains, even
briefly, the thought of peace with God, other than on the grounds
of the Lord Jesus Christ's obedience and blood, well, he's going to
be disappointed. So what's the first blessing
we have being justified by faith through Christ's blood? Peace. Peace with God. by whom also we have peace. Boy, that's plenty,
isn't it? But we also, we have access by
faith into this grace, this state of grace where we stand. We have access into this grace
by faith into this state by which we stand. A little help on that.
Someone said that peace and grace in these two verses are distinguished
one from the other. Peace denotes a significant and
particular blessing, a peace with God. I'm glad it's over. I'm glad it's settled. I'm glad
the clouds of war are gone. I'm glad we have peace with God,
we're reconciled. Access into grace implies not
just a particular blessing, but access into a state of continual
favor with God and blessings. I have peace with my neighbors.
We're at peace. They're at peace with me and
I'm at peace with them. But my sons and daughters have access
to me in my house. They come in without knocking.
A neighbor wouldn't do that. We have peace. We reconcile. We don't have any fights or anything
going on. But now my children, that's different. They have access. You see what I'm saying? Access. Come in without knocking. Come
boldly into the presence of God. My father, what's mine is theirs. And what's theirs is mine. We
have a relationship. So access. into this grace, this
state of favor and sonship wherein we stand, is a whole lot more
meaningful than just peace. A whole lot more meaningful.
Turn to Romans 8 a minute. Romans chapter 8, verse 16. Romans 8, 14. As many as are led by the Spirit
of God, they are sons of God. We just don't have a war settled,
there's an adoption taking place. You have not received the spirit
of bondage again to fear, but you've received the spirit of
adoption whereby you cry, Abba, Father. And the Spirit himself
bears witness with our spirit, we're children of God, we're
sons. And since we're children, we're
heirs of God, we're joint heirs with Christ. If so be that you
suffer with him that you may be glorified. together. All right, this 2B, verse 2,
the second part. We have peace with God, we have
access into this state of favor, state of grace, continual, permanent. We're in his fellowship, we're
in his family, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. What is my hope? Well, my hope
is a part in the first resurrection. Our Lord said, blessed and holy
is he that hath part in the first resurrection. That's my hope. My hope is that when he shall
appear, I shall see him as he is and be like him. He that hath
this hope in him purifies himself. That's my hope. My hope is what
David said, I'll be satisfied when I behold him and I wait
in his likeness, in his image. That's my hope. In his image,
in his likeness. Well, that hope is summed up
in three little words, found in Colossians 1, 27. Colossians chapter 1, verse 27.
We hope, we have a good hope of the glory of God, Colossians
chapter 3, verse, chapter 1, verse 27, Colossians 1, 27. It
says, To whom God would make known what is the riches of the
glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in
you. That's the hope of glory, Christ
in you. So we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ, we have access into God's family and
permanent favor, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God,
which is Christ in you. And verse 3, verse 3 says this,
and not only so, we have peace, we have access by faith into
this grace, We have a blessed, sure hope of the glory of God,
and not only so, but we glory in tribulation also, knowing
that tribulation works with patience. And this is something that many
people do not understand. We glory and rejoice in trials,
because we know that these trials sent by our Father They have
a work to do. They work patience, and patience,
maturity, experience, and experience, hope. We know that these trials
are for our good, and they work in us, the will of God. The purpose
of God for us and for those whose lives we touch. Now there are
a lot of scriptures that Verify the fact that we are able to
rejoice and glory in tribulation. Let me show them to you. First
of all, Matthew chapter 5. We rejoice. And I'll try to explain
that a little bit after a while, but that's what it says. We glory
in tribulation. We glory in tribulation. All
right, Matthew 5, verse 10. Our Lord said, Blessed are you,
blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake. Blessed
are you when you're persecuted? Yes. Theirs is the kingdom of
heaven. Verse 11, Blessed are you when
men revile you and persecute you and say all manner of evil
against you, false be for my sake. You must know something
or they wouldn't call you those names. You must stand for something
or they wouldn't persecute you for Christ's sake. So that being
true, you must be one of his own. And that being true, rejoice. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad,
for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets
which were before you. So our Lord says, glory in your
trials. Rejoice in persecution for my
sake. Oh, I turn to James, in James
chapter 1. James chapter 1, verse 2. James 1, verse 2. My brethren, a man called me yesterday from
down in Greenville, Kentucky. He asked me, he said, would you
do me a favor? I said, yes, sir. He said, my father is dying of
cancer, and my father's listened to your messages on tape and
video for years, and you're his preacher. And he said, would
you call him and talk to him? I said, well, I have such a bad
hearing problem. that I couldn't hear him, I couldn't
distinguish on the telephone what he's saying. But I said,
I'll write him. He said, would you? I said, yeah. I'll sit down
tomorrow and I'll write him a letter. He said, that'll do him more
good than a phone call, just so he can read you a letter.
So I sat down this afternoon to write to him. Here's a man
way up in years, a child of God, loves the Savior. Cancer, fatal,
he's dying. How do I write it? He's about to go home and be
with the Lord. I can't say I'm sorry that you're going home
to be with the Lord. He said, you have to word these
things carefully. You're going through a trial,
a heavy trial, a difficult trial, but God sent it. It's for His
glory. It's for your good. It's to take
you to be with Him. You're going to be like Him.
You're going to be in His image. I rejoice with you. and thank
God for it. That's right. I don't want to
say, I'm sorry you're dying, because that's the only way you
can leave this place is to die. That's the only way you can go
be with the Lord. So here Paul, James is saying this, listen,
brethren, count it joy. When you fall into diverse temptation,
know in this that the trying of your faith worketh patience.
Let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect
and entire, wanting nothing." Well, brother man, you ought
to have said, I pray the Lord will make you well. He's going
to be well pretty soon now. Plum well. Plum well. That's right. Look at 1 Peter. Listen to this. 1 Peter 3, verse
12. Listen. The eyes of the Lord are over
the righteous. His ears are open to their prayers.
The face of the Lord is against them that do evil. And who is
he that will harm you, if you are followers of that which is
good? But, and if you suffer for righteousness' sake, happy
are ye. Be not afraid. of their terror
need there be trouble. So we glory in tribulation. We rejoice in trials. And I believe
Hebrews chapter 12 now will give us a little help on how we rejoice
in glory in tribulation and trial. Let's look at Hebrews chapter
12. Chapter 12. And this answers Four things
about this rejoicing in trials and troubles. Number one, we
glory in who sends the trial. Look at verse 5, Hebrews 12,
verse 5. We glory in who sends the trial.
And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto
children. My son, despise not the chastening
of the Lord, nor faith when you are rebuked of him. For whom
the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, he scourgeth every son whom he
receiveth." We glow in the fact that God's the one that sends
our trials. And secondly, we glow in the
fact that we're His children. Because verse 7 says, if you
endure chastening, if you have trouble and trial, God's dealing
with you as a son. You don't spank anybody else's
children. You don't discipline anybody else's children, only
yours. And what son is he whom the Father
has chastened not? Now, if you be without trial,
well, everybody's a partaker in the family of God. You bastards,
you're not sons. Boy, I glory in the one who sends
a trial, and I glory in the fact that he cares enough about me
to discipline me. He cares enough about me He cares enough about me to put
me under the whip in the deep water. I'm his child. And then
thirdly, I glory in the purpose for which it's given. Watch this
now. Verse 9, Furthermore, we have
had fathers in our flesh that corrected us, and we gave them
reverence. Shall we not much rather be in subjection to the
Father's Spirits and live? our human fathers, barely for
a few days chasing us, discipline us, after their own pleasure.
But He, our Father, disciplines us for our profit, for our good,
that we might be partakers of His holiness. This has got to
be done. If you're going to have what
you want, holiness, the will of God done in your
life, you're going to have to say, Amen, thank you, Lord, for
whatever He brings your way, if that's the purpose. He chastens us only for our profit. All things work together for
good to them who love God, who are called according to His purpose.
Now verse 11. Someday we're going to look back
on this and thank God forever trial, and every tear and every
hurting. Now watch verse 11. No chastening
for the present seems to be joyous. Now I know that, and you know
that too. When we say we rejoice in trials, nobody rejoices in
hurting. Nobody rejoices in sorrow. That's
what he says here. No chastening for the present
is joyous. He didn't say it was. I said
it's profitable. I said it's necessary for patience,
experience, maturity. It's necessary for the purpose
of God, and it's for our good, our eternal good. But there's
nothing happy about it. There's nothing joyous about
it. You just try your heart out. But we don't. Nevertheless, afterward,
afterward, how long? I don't know. In God's own good
time, afterward. Afterward, it yieldeth the peaceable
fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby." That's good. Number one, we rejoice
in who sends the trial. Number two, we rejoice in the
trial because it evidenced that we're his children. Number three,
we glory in the purpose for which the trial is given, your holiness,
your perfection, your growth in grace, your eternal good. And one of these days, I want
to show you an example of that. Turn to Genesis 50. It may be years and years and
years from now. It may be tomorrow. I don't know.
These trials are going to yield that peaceable fruit for which
they're sent. And we're going to kiss the hand that chastened
us. We're going to say, thank you,
Lord, not only for saving my soul, but thank you, Lord, for
sending the clouds and the rain and the snow and the storms,
because I see what you are doing. Now listen, Genesis 50, verse
15. When Joseph's brethren saw that
their father was dead, they said, Joseph will prevent your hate
us now. They felt like that Jacob living
held back Joseph's wrath from them because they'd mistreated
him so badly. They said, he's going to hate us now and he's
going to requite us of all the evil we did to him. He's going
to get even. And so these brothers sent a
messenger to Joseph saying, Thy father did command before he
died, saying, So shall ye say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray
thee now, the trespass of your brethren and their sin. For they
did unto you evil. But now we pray you, forgive
the trespass of the servants of God, the God of thy fathers. And Joseph wept when they spake
these words to him. And his brethren also went and
fell down before his face, and said, Behold, we be your servants. And Joseph said to his brothers,
Fear not, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, you fought
evil against me. But God meant it unto good to
bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive." I'm telling you, when Joseph
was down there in that pit, those boys had thrown him in there,
he wasn't scratching their backs. When he was in that jail, and
there for years, rotting in jail down in Egypt, he wasn't singing
the praises of these boys. But now it's over. Now it's over. And he looks back and he sees
that everything they did, they meant for evil. that God made
it for good. And he was able to embrace them
and say, let's forget the whole thing, because God's worked out
his divine, wonderful purpose in all of this. And you and I
can say that someday about everything and everybody and every offense
and every misunderstanding and everything that's ever taken
place, if we've got children. because it's for his glory and
our good. That's right. Afterward, it yielded the peaceful
fruit for which it was sent. All right, let me give you something
else here, and I'll be brief. Verse 5, and hope. This tribulation works patience
and patience and maturity and maturity, hope, and this hope
maketh not ashamed. Those who are in Christ will
never be ashamed of that relationship. Never. Those who are in Christ
will never have cause to be ashamed, for they're in Him, and they're
holy, unblameable, unreprovable. And those who are in Christ will
never be put to shame. They'll never hear Him say, Depart
from me, because the grace of hope never fails, never deceives
and never disappoints. Now watch this. Because, hope
maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in
our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us. The love
of God. Now this is not the love by which
we love him. It's his love by which he loved
us that's shed abroad in our hearts. We do love one another. And that's the evidence to us
that we're saved. John said, we know we've passed
from death unto life because we love the brethren. That's
evidence. And it's also evidence to others that you know God. Because Christ said, by this
shall all men know you, my disciples, if you love one another. But
the love of God here that gives us a blessed hope, a sure hope,
a good hope, is not our love for him. That's evidence I know
Him, and that's evidence to others that I know Him, but that's not
my good hope. My good hope is He loved me.
That's our good hope. He loved me. And here's the proof
of it. Listen. Verse 6. For when we
were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the
ungodly. That is the proof of it. Hearing
is love. Not that we love God. We do. Not like we ought to, not like
we will, not like we want to, but we do. But let me tell you
something, here in his love, he loved us. And the proof of
it, he gave his son to be the propitiation for our sins. Verse
7, he said, For scarcely for a righteous man will one die,
yet for a good man some would even dare to die. You know what
he's saying here. He's comparing two men. Here's
a man that's self-righteous, religious, overbearing, arrogant,
hard to get along with because he's so holier-than-thou, righteous
man. He thinks he's righteous. Not
many folks would die for him, would they? But here's a man
that's, he's a good man, he's a kind man, he's a good father,
good friend. Would somebody even dare to die
for him? But, listen to verse 8, but God commended his love
for us in that while we were sinners, while we were sinners,
Christ died for us. And that's our hope. Here's our
hope. Here's our consolation. Here's
our comfort. Here's our assurance. God commended
his love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Christ died for us. Verse 9, Much more then, being
now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through
him. If God loved us from eternity past, when we were yet sinners,
now that Christ has actually died for us and justified us
through his blood, how much more is the love of God evident? How
much more? As you read this chapter a while ago, you saw these words,
much more, much more, much more, five times. That's the key to
this chapter. If this be so, then this is so,
much more, much more. For if when we were enemies,
we were enemies, not anymore. We were. I'm not, I don't hate
God now. We did, but I don't now. You
don't either. We were enemies. If when we were
enemies, not anymore, we're sons now. When we were enemies, we
were reconciled. What's reconciled? Peace. Peace
with God. Friends. Reconciled. To God. How? By the death of His Son. That's
how we're reconciled. By the death of His Son. He hath
reconciled us unto Himself. By the death of His Son. So being
now reconciled. is one certainty, we shall be
saved by his life. I've got to give you those couple
of points that I wrote on that, saved by his life. Being reconciled by the death
of his son, much more being cleansed, justified, sanctified, redeemed,
reconciled by his death, how much more Shall we be saved by
his life? What life is that? Right now. Right now. His resurrected life. Because the scripture says there's
one God and there's one mediator between God and man. Scripture
says who is he that condemns? Christ is at the right hand of
God, making intercession. The scripture says if we sin,
we have right now an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ,
Hebrews 4 says, see that we have right now a high priest. Let
us come boldly before the throne of grace to find mercy and grace
to help in time of need. And Hebrews 7 says he's able
to save us because he ever liveth to make intercession. So if when
we were enemies we were totally reconciled by the death of his
son, how much being now justified, being now reconciled, shall we
be saved by his life. Our forerunner is in the presence
of the Father on our behalf. It's done. It's as sure as God's
Word is God's Word. As sure as the promise is true.
Let's sing as our closing hymn, number 471.