I've preached from Romans 5,
I don't know how many times. I look back in my files and there
are a number of messages from Romans chapter 5. And I've preached
here many times from the fifth chapter of Romans. But every
time we read it and preach from this chapter or any portion of
God's Word, the Lord reveals a new blessing and meets a present
need and causes us to rejoice in His promises and mercies to
us. So tonight, this is my approach. I'm going to approach this chapter
a little differently. The title of the message is His
Loving Grace. His loving grace. And my outline
is three parts. Number one, the blessings. The
blessings to us of this love. His loving grace. The blessings
we have because of His love. And then secondly, we're going
to Consider the proof of His love. Is there evidence of His
love and proof of His love? And then the third section of
the message will be the assurance of His love. Now let's see first,
the first five verses, the blessings of His love, His loving grace,
His loving kindness. You know, David prayed, Lord
be merciful to me. Be merciful to me according to
your lovingkindness." Not my desert, not my merit, not my
worthiness. Be merciful to me according to
your lovingkindness. So here are the blessings of
His lovingkindness. Verse 1. Therefore, being justified
by faith, we have peace with God. through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now I really prefer to read that
this way. Therefore being justified through
faith, we have peace with God by our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore being justified by
Christ, we have peace through faith. You see, it's not faith
that saves us, it's Christ that saves us. That's so important. Faith didn't plan my redemption,
Christ did. Faith didn't choose me, Christ
did. Faith didn't come down here and
obey the law and give me a righteousness and holiness before God, Christ
did. Faith didn't die on the cross
for me, Faith didn't pay my sin debt. I'm not healed by the stripes
of faith. I'm healed by the stripes of
Christ. Faith does not intercede for
me. Christ does. When I reach and take this glass
of water and drink it, it's not reaching
that satisfies my thirst, it's the water. It's the water. It's Christ the
water of life that satisfies my thirst. It's Christ the bread
of life that gives me life. So it's not faith. It's not my
faith that saves me. It's my Lord who saves me. So
we're justified by Christ. We're redeemed by Christ. We're
sanctified by Christ. We're accepted in Christ through
faith which looks to Christ. which reaches to Christ, which
receives Christ, which believes Christ, which rests in Christ. My faith has found a resting
place in Christ. He's my resting place. And by
faith I look to Him. By God-given faith. By faith
I receive Him, believing His Word. But He's my life. So being justified by Christ,
we have here five things. Number one, we have peace with
God. Peace with God. The natural mind is enmity against
God. Is that in the Scripture? Yes,
it is. Romans 8. Turn to Romans 8, verse 7. The
natural man, the man out there on the street, The person, now
listen, the person who's not a believer, who hasn't found
rest in Christ and hope in Christ, he's angry with God. He's angry
with God. He's mad at God. And God's angry
with him. Ronnie read in the study tonight
before we had prayer from Psalm chapter 5, and you read clearly,
what did it say? God is angry with the wicked. God is angry with the wicked.
If God is not angry, then why did Christ have to die to reconcile
us? Christ didn't die to reconcile
a loving God, He died to reconcile a God who was angry, a just God. And natural men are angry with
God. Listen to Romans 8, 7. Because
the carnal mind is enmity against God. Everybody here knows what
enmity means. It means anger, hatred, and wrath. It's enmity against God. It's
not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then
they that are in the flesh cannot please God. They're angry with
God. And God's angry with them. God
hateth the workers of iniquity. He that believeth not on the
Son, the wrath of God abideth on him. God is angry with the
wicked. And the wicked are angry with
God. Why did they nail Him to the cross? They hated Him. Marvel
not, my brethren, if the world hateth you, it hated me before
it hated you. But thank God, listen, being
justified by Christ, we don't hate God anymore. And God's not
angry with us. God is reconciled to us. Turn
to Colossians chapter 1. Colossians chapter 1 verse 19. God is reconciled through the
blood of His Son. He made peace through the blood
of His cross. He put away the anger. He put
away the wrath. In Colossians 1 verse 19, it
pleased the Father that in Christ should all fullness dwell. And
having made peace through the blood of His cross, by Him, by
Christ to reconcile all things unto Himself, by Christ I say,
whether they be things in earth or things in heaven, and you,
that were sometime alienated, enemies of God, in your mind,
by wicked works, yet now hath he reconciled, we have peace
with God. Out of Christ, God is a consuming
fire, what Paul said. Our God, without blood, the blood
of the cross, is a consuming fire. Angry. But we have peace. Then secondly, go back to my
text. Because we're justified by Christ,
secondly, in verse 2, we have access by faith into this grace. Wherein we stand. We have access
into grace. What is grace? It's a state of
favor. When the angel said to Mary,
you have found favor with God. You have found special favor
with God. Blessed art thou among women,
you have found favor with God. And because Christ has justified
us, we have found favor with God. We are literally accepted
in the beloved. God has embraced us. God has
accepted us. God has received us in Christ. We are sons of God. And John
said, our fellowship is with the Father and with the Son.
And Christ said, my Father and I will come and take up our bows. Brother Mahan, is that the same
thing as peace? No. No. Peace and grace are almost always
distinguished. Separated. Paul does that every
time he writes to a church. He says, grace and peace be with
you. Grace and peace. Grace and peace.
You see, peace denotes a particular blessing. A particular blessing. God is not angry. God is reconciled. Wrath is put away. It's peace. There's no war. There's no condemnation. There's no judgment. But grace,
we have found, we have been given access into grace. Grace implies
all blessings. All blessings. Blessed be the
God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with
all spiritual blessings in Christ Jesus. There is nothing we lack
in Christ Jesus. as far as spiritual blessings
are concerned. In Christ we have wisdom, righteousness,
not only peace, but wisdom, righteousness, sanctification and redemption.
All blessings, all things are yours. Let me turn to that and
read it to you. I'll quickly listen. All things
are yours, whether Paul or Apostle, Apollos, or Cephas, or the world,
or life, or death, or things present, or things to come, things
to come, all things are yours, and you're Christ, and Christ
is God. All things are yours, and you're
Christ, you're His, and He's God's. Grace, we have access
into this grace by Christ. My, thirdly, in verse, the same
verse, two, by whom we have access by faith into this grace wherein
we stand and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. I and you who believe have a
good hope, a living hope. A blessed hope, a sure hope of
being like Christ. Listen to the Word of God. The
hope of eternal life, which God, who cannot lie, promised in Christ
Jesus before this world began. What I'm talking about is when
I close my eyes here, absent from the bodies to be present
with the Lord. That's a blessed hope, a good
hope, a living hope, a sure hope, because God, who cannot lie,
promised that hope in Christ before this world ever began.
David said, listen, I shall behold thy face in holiness. I couldn't look on the face of
God. Now Moses couldn't. God said, Moses, even you can't
look on me and live. No man look on God and live.
But one day, I'm going to behold his face, David said, in righteousness. Oh, his face is righteous, but
then mine will be too. I shall behold his face in righteousness,
and I shall be satisfied when I awake in his likeness conformed
to his image. Behold what manner of love, John
said, the Father hath bestowed on us that we should be called
sons of God. And it doth not yet appear what
we shall be, but when he shall appear, we shall be like him. We shall see him as he is. And in that time, we'll be as
He is. Now I tell you, there can be
no joy in this world apart from that hope. Isn't that right? There can be
no permanent joy. What does a man my age do who
doesn't have this hope and life is so uncertain? What does he
do? Well, some of them create their
own hope, not based on the Word of God. And that's foolish. And I'll tell you this, without
this hope, the departure of our loved ones would be impossible
to bear. It would be impossible to bear
the death of a close loved one if we didn't have this hope that
they're with the Lord. But this hope, we rejoice in
this hope. We rejoice in hope of the glory
of God. The glory Christ said that you
gave me, I've given them. That they may be one as we're
one. The third thing, fourth thing, we have peace. Being justified
by Christ, we have access into this grace wherein we stand.
We rejoice in hope of the glory of God and forthwith. And not
only that, but we glory in tribulations also. Because we have Christ
and this peace and grace and hope, we are able to triumph
over our troubles. We're able to rise above present
difficulties. We're able to live in reality as a sojourner in
a strange land, a land of trouble and trial and sorrow, looking
not at that land, but looking for a city whose builder and
maker is God. We're able to triumph over our
troubles, and we're able to rise above those difficulties, whatever
they may be. Because we know this. Let me
read you some scripture. First from John 16. John 16. The disciples of Christ were
always honest with the people of God, and our Lord always told
them the truth. He said in John 16, 33, These
things have I spoken unto you, that in me you might have peace.
In this world you shall have trouble, tribulation, sorrow. But now be of good cheer, I have
overcome this world. And then in 1 Thessalonians,
Paul writing to the church of Thessalonica, In 1 Thessalonians
chapter 3, he had this to say about these troubles and sorrows
and trials that come into the lives of God's people. In 1 Thessalonians
3, Wherefore, when we could no longer forbear, we thought it
good to be left at Athens alone. and sent Timothy, our brother
and minister of God, our fellow laborer in the gospel of Christ,
to establish you and comfort you concerning your faith, that
no man should be moved or defeated or faint by these
afflictions. For yourselves know that we are
appointed thereunto." We are appointed unto troubles and afflictions
and trial. For barely when we were with
you, we told you before that we should suffer tribulation
even as it came to pass and you know." So that's clear. He made it clear to the church
that they'll suffer trouble and trial and tribulation. In Hebrews 12, listen to what
the Apostle Paul writes about about these trials. You see,
these trials are sent by God. Everything in the life of a believer
is of God. Either His directive intervention
or His permissive will in some cases. But the trials are sent
by God. And they're for our good. Even
as you chasten and discipline and correct your children for
their good, you withhold certain things, you give certain things.
They are taught by trial and discipline and chastisement.
It says here in Hebrews 12 verse 3, Now consider him, consider
Christ, that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself. You think people contradict you
and find fault with you and despise what you believe. Think how they
called him a devil. They called him a winebibber.
They called him Beelzebub. They said all these things evil
against him. They harassed him and ridiculed
him, contradicted him. Lest you be weary and faint in
your mind, you've not yet resisted unto blood. Nobody's drawn any
blood from your body for what you believe. You haven't resisted
unto blood, striving against sin and striving against the
enemies of God. And you have forgotten the exhortation
which speaketh unto you as unto children. Don't forget this. My son, despise not the chastening
of the Lord, the correction of the Lord, the discipline of the
Lord, the intervention into your smooth sailing by the Lord, the
troubled seas, the high winds, the disappointments. Don't faint
when you are rebuked of Him, when you are dealt with in strong
terms by the Lord. Don't faint. Listen. For whom
the Lord loveth, he chasteneth. Somebody said one time to a friend
of mine who had had a lot of trouble, he said, the Lord must
really love you. Whom he loveth, he chasteneth.
And he scourges, he disciplines. I like that word better. Scourging
brings some kind of connotation I don't think he's meaning here,
he disciplines every son whom he receives. Now, if you endure
chastening, God deals with you. If you have chastening, if you
have troubles, if you have sorrows, if you do business in deep waters
and storms, God deals with you as a son. What son is he whom the Lord
chastens not? If you're without chastisement,
As those people were in Psalm 73, David said, everything they
touch prospers, everything they do prospers, everything they
want they have, everything. He said, that's the way they
are. But if you're in that kind of
state, you're not a son. The sons of God are dealt with
in discipline. So over here in my text, The
fourth thing that we have being justified by Christ is we are
able to triumph in trouble. We rejoice, we glory in tribulation
and troubles. We don't glory in the suffering.
Now that would be sadistic, wouldn't it? We don't glory in suffering. We don't glory in the trial itself. We're glad when it eases up.
But we rejoice in the results. Now write that down. We rejoice
in the results. We rejoice in the results. And
here's the results. We glory in trials and troubles
and disappointments, knowing that trials and tribulation worketh
patience. Patience. What is patience? Well, it's learning four things.
It's learning to wait on the Lord. That's what David said in Psalm
27. He said, wait, I say on the Lord. Wait, I say again. Wait on the Lord. He said, I would have fainted
had I not believed to see the goodness of the Lord in the land
of the living. So wait on the Lord. Secondly,
it's learning to be still and know that He's God. It's so easy in this day of prosperity
and plenty and opportunity and freedom to just about get what you want
if you want it badly enough, whether God wills it or not.
Isn't that right? It's just about. We're just about
in this land of prosperity and plenty and freedom and opportunity
and so forth that if a fellow wants something, it's like a
young preacher. I was in school in Chattanooga
and a friend of mine was there And he usually said what he thought. And this young preacher drove
up in a new car. And he, as preachers piously
do, he said to my friend, he said, come and I'll show you
the car the Lord gave me. He said, he did? He said, yeah. They went out and there it sat.
And my friend said, how much are your payments? He said $120
a month. He said, God didn't give you
that car. You made up your mind you wanted
it, you went down and bought it, and you got to pay for it
for two years. God didn't give you that car.
Don't blame God with that. And so I'm saying that we're
in the day when if you want it, you can get it. You don't have
to wait on God. But you better. So it's learning. to wait on God and is learning
to be still and know that He is God. He is
God. Be still. And thirdly, it's learning
the frailty of this flesh and that the fashion of this world
really does pass away. It really does. You just might,
tomorrow morning, notice some aching here or here
or some change in your habits and tomorrow you run down to
the doctor and he said, I'm just awful sorry to tell you, but
you've got this, that or the other. Why don't we learn that now instead
of waiting till that happens? You see what I'm saying? Learn
that this flesh is frail. The fashion of this world is
going down the slide. And it's rapidly passing away. Let's learn it so we don't hold
too tightly to it and hurt too much when it goes. Tribulation
worketh patience. that this flesh is, Lord teach
me how frail I am. Isn't that what David said? Teach
me. And how does he teach you? By
knocking the props out from under you. Isn't that right? That's
how he teaches me. And I fall. And I can't get up. I should have known it before
that happened. And fourthly, Patience is learning to set our
affections on things above, our affections, our minds, and not
on the things of this earth. Set them where Christ reigns
at the right hand of God. Establish them. Set my mind,
my heart on Him. That's the results of trouble. That's the results of tribulation.
It works patience. And patience, he says, works
and produces experience. What's experience? It's maturity.
It's maturity. We learn by experience. That's
it. We learn grace, joy, faith, meekness,
humility, gentleness, temperance, kindness, We learn these things
by patience, waiting on God. And experience and maturity,
listen, produces hope. That good hope we've been talking
about, the more I know of His love and His grace, the stronger
my hope. The more I deal with Him and
He deals with me, the stronger is the hope. And that hope, it
says, verse 5, make it not ashamed. It will never be put to shame.
That hope, that blessed hope, will never be put to shame. Why? Here it is, fifthly, because
the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts for the Holy Ghost.
Being justified by Christ through faith, we have peace. Peace with
God. We have access into the grace
of God, into the favor of God, into the acceptance of God. We
have a blessed hope that we'll be like Christ. We have troubles
and tribulations, but we know that they're for a purpose. And
we rejoice in the results. Because we learn a little patience.
And gain a little maturity. And with that maturity comes
hope. And that hope will never be ashamed. It'll never be put
to shame because of two things. I want you to look at this verse
now and pick out, pick out two things here, two reasons why,
you know people, listen, let me say this before we try these
words. I've been preaching the gospel
of grace since 1950, that's 48 years. Pastor of this church,
47 of those years. I've been acquainted with other
churches and other preachers and so I've seen much of this.
I see people make professions. I see them get religion. I see them reform or try to. I see them learn doctrines, become
really doctrinally oriented. I see them join up, join religious
movements. And most of them, or many of
them, after a certain period of time, they lose interest. They just get weary of it. Drop
out. But I see other people who come
to a knowledge of Christ, believe the Word, believe Christ, and
they not only continue in the faith, continue, I mean continue,
But they get more interested. They get more committed. They
get more satisfied. They get more excited over the
Word. They get more joy out of the
Word than they did 20, 30 years ago. 40 years ago. What's the difference? The difference is right here
in this verse. Hope maketh not ashamed because,
because the love of God, His love for me. He won't let me
leave. I'm His son. He won't let me
leave. He won't leave me. Christ said,
I love my sheep. I know my sheep. I call them
by name. Nobody is going to pluck him out of my hand, I guarantee
you, he said. My father gave him to me. And
no man is going to pluck him out of his hand. Nothing can
separate me from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus,
not tribulation, pestilence, sword, death, whatever. Can't
do it. The love of God. The love of
God. But here is the second word,
look, you see it? is shed abroad in our hearts. Our hearts. His love, Ronnie,
and my love. His love for me won't let him
leave me, and my love for him won't let me leave him. That's
the difference. I can come down here and shake
my hand and mean it for the moment. distressed and troubled and upset
and things are going wrong and he's got heart disease or cancer. He's afraid he's going to die
and he wants to get religion and he gets well. And then he
gets gone. But when God saves a sinner,
when God's Holy Spirit conquers a man, arrests him on his road
to ruin, stops him, operates on his heart, loves Him, redeems
Him, and sheds abroad God's life and God's love and God's presence
into His heart. It's a hard word. New heart,
new nature, new family, new direction, new birth. That's the difference. His love, because the love of
God is shed abroad in my hide, not in my head, not in my creed, not in my moral code, in my heart. And if it's there, it'll be in
the other places. It'll be in the head, and my
moral code, and all the rest. That's right. That's the difference. The difference is that God saved
us. Well, let me give you these two
things and I'll let you go. The proof of His love. Verse
6. Here's the proof of His love.
We were without strength in due time. Christ died for the ungodly. Christ died for us. Is there
any better proof of God's love than the willingness to die for
us? Even, Paul said in Philippians 2, even the death of the cross. He became obedient unto death,
even the death of the cross. This is the sum and substance
of our gospel. This is the great article of
our faith. Who died? Christ died. How did He die? A death of shame, suffering,
condemnation, ignominious death for us. Why did he die? For us? For the ungodly? In the stead of sinners as a
substitute, as a ransom, as a sin offering to reconcile God, that
God may be just and justified? When did he die? When we were
without strength. Look at verse 8. God committed
His love toward us in that while we were sinners. That's when
He died, when we were without strength, ungodly, had no desire
or ability or strength. When we were ungodly, then He
died for us. One of the hymn writers, listen
to this. What gauge shall I borrow to
thank my dearest friend for his dying sorrow, his grace and mercy
without end? Mine, mine were the transgressions. Thine, thine the deadly pain. Thy grief and bitter suffering
were my eternal gain. O Lord, make me thine forever,
and should I fainting be, Lord, let me never, never, never outlive
your love for me. Be with me when I'm dying, show
again thy cross to me, thy grace my hope supplying, from death
then will set me free. What's the assurance of His love?
Well, let me show you this. Verse 9. Much more then. Verse 8 says, God commended His
love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died
for us. Well, much more then. Being now justified by His blood,
we shall be saved from wrath through Him. If God's love to
us in Christ was so great and rich that He gave His Son to
die for us when we were ungodly, much more, much more than, much
more certain and sure that being now righteous in Christ and holy
in Christ and free from sin in Christ, I shall be delivered
from any future punishment. You see what Paul is saying?
If when we were sinners, We were reconciled. Look at verse
10. If when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God for
the death of His Son, much more. Being reconciled, we shall be
saved by His life. If when I was an enemy, God loved
me and sent His Son to die for me and save me. Now I'm a son.
I'm not an enemy anymore. I don't hate God anymore. I love
a sovereign, omnipotent, almighty, eternal, just God, don't you? I'm not mad at God anymore. Well,
if He loved me when I was mad at Him, He loved me much more,
if possible. If when I was an enemy and a
slave of sin and a rebel, He came there and died for me, now
that I'm a son in fellowship and righteous in Christ, much
more. That's what it says. The last
verse, or the 20th verse, watch this. Moreover, the law entered
that the offense might abound. The law was given to make apparent
the evil that was already in us by birth and nature. The law
takes away all my excuses and alibis and fig leaf aprons and
reveals my dirty deep, ugly, abounding, overflowing guilt
and sin. That's what the law does. It
exposes. It strips. It reveals. Moreover, the law entered that
the offense might overflow. It might be just seen for what
it is, hated for what it is, abhorred for what it is, what
we are. Do you ever think something and
think, That's ugly. That's selfish. That's cruel. That's what we
are by nature. And the law enters, the perfect
law of God. If a man ever gets a glimpse
of it, Paul said, when the law came, I died. I died. This old religious Pharisee,
he said, died when the law came. I died. He killed me. It literally absolutely killed
me, he said, to see what I was in the light of God's law. I
thought I was pretty good. But I found out what I was. And
sin literally overflowed me. Overflowed me. But wait a minute.
See? Listen. But where sin abounded,
overflowed. Grace. His grace. His love. His mercy did much
more overflow. So take your eyes off of the
sin and look to the sinner's Savior. Take your eyes off of
the filth and the guilt and look to the one who put it away. Because
where my sin did overflow, His grace did much more overflow. That's my assurance. Greater is he that's in you than
he that's in the world.