The Book of Romans VII, No Better Life

Let's read the first 11 verses together, if you've got your Bible in hand. I'll be reading from the New International Version. You can read out loud. If you don't read it, if you have the King James or something, it will sound like tongues or something. Therefore, since we've been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into his grace in which we now stand. There is about three sermons right there. Wow. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance, perseverance, character, and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom he has given us. You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless or helpless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, though for a good man, someone might possibly die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this, while we were yet or still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God's wrath through him? For if when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life? Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Home group leaders, you can pick up your outlines for this study following the service tonight. It will be studying in Romans this coming week. Of all the images that are etched in my mind from the San Francisco Bay Area earthquake, I would expect the image that's in your mind is the same one. What is it? What's the most vivid image of destruction? What is it? That freeway that collapsed, and that's the one that literally just sandwiched people and cars in between it. One newspaper story told of rescue workers who knew there were people up there, trapped and alive, and they were totally helpless to do anything about it. For fear that getting on the structure would just further weaken it and further collapse it and risk other lives. What a helpless, helpless feeling they must have endured. Have you ever felt really helpless? Tell someone next to you the last time you felt helpless. Maybe it was in traffic at McKnight Road, going into the mall, but tell them last time you felt helpless. Think about it. When's the last time you really felt helpless? Go ahead, tell somebody. When did you feel totally helpless? Go ahead. All right. How many have had some pretty scary situations where you were totally helpless? Ever been in an airplane? You know, the thing just rocking and you say, here I am. I mean, I'm just, I'm a little pawn. Maybe you've had some funny helpless situations. But there's something about helplessness that reminds us of our humanity. And before we look at the true benefits, the goodness of God in Romans five, I felt it was essential that we start with this point of understanding because it's so magnifies and brings new light to the glory of God. Listen, the Bible tells us, let's start here right in the middle of this section, verse six. You see just at the right time while we were still, how many Bibles say helpless? Look at that, helpless. That's when God sent Jesus to die for you. It's when, if you'll permit the imagery, it's when you were crushed under the weight of your sin. Some people think that they're giving God a real bargain when they come into the kingdom. Hey, I'm one of the cooler guys here on the earth. I've done real well for myself. I guess you'd be real proud to have me up there, wouldn't you? Look, listen, we don't have one bargaining chip with God. We are not beautiful people. Do you know that the Bible says in Ephesians 2.1 that though we were dead, as good as dead in our sins, it's then that God sent his son. I don't know about you, but that just, I get emotional about that. That shows me how much God loved me. He didn't have any reason. There was nothing about me that said, well, you know, boy, I really think he's trying hard. I was helpless. I had nothing to offer God, and he loved me so much that he sent his own son to die for me. It's like his own son crawled up between the sandwiched ramps of the freeway, pulled me out, and when he did, he collapsed upon me. My God, what love. And that just helps us to get some little tiny bit of a handle on how wonderful he is to us. You see, the first several chapters of Romans that we studied for the last weeks told us that man's condition was awful. Man was a truth suppressor, remember, chapter one, and a truth exchanger, and a pervert. We talked a few weeks ago about man insisting on having his freedom, remember the rope illustration, and saying, let go of the rope, I wanna go on down the river and just have a great time, and all those things that we did. And God just was, through Paul and Romans, sort of writing out for us the fact that, folks, we were in a serious, serious situation. We were dead in our sin, and it didn't look good. And I remember having to apologize at the end of those first few messages, saying, this is depressing. But it is the truth, you see. It's the truth about the lovely people that you'll see in the restaurants this weekend. It's the truth about the ones that you work beside who seem to have it all together. The truth is that they're helplessly, hopelessly, absolutely lost and dead, and they're in their sin. And we can't really appreciate the next five points I'm gonna make. By the way, while I'm talking, I need the ushers to get up quickly and pass up those outlines. When I forget that, guys, you just come up and wave one at me, all right? You see, if we don't see how helpless we were, we won't appreciate how great and wonderful God is. That's what I want us to get ahold of tonight. I want us to see the tremendous blessing that's been poured out upon us in God's goodness. One more illustration of this. Remember last week, if you were here, we talked about the World Series. That didn't take long, did it? And we talked about the all-galactic all-star team. What did we say the two qualifications were to make that team? Bat 1,000 and no errors, right? We said you had to play 10 years in the majors, get a hit every time at the plate, and never miss one ball, never have one error, never one time. And if you did, we said that you'd make the all-galactic team. We talked last week about the fact that most of us are batting about 104 with 300 errors this year. You see, but here's the wonder of it all. God says, I'm gonna draft you on in anyhow. Even though you're helpless, even though you are disgustingly underqualified, I'm gonna love you, and I'm gonna give you the benefits that I'm gonna talk about now. Now, dear ones, just for these next few minutes tonight, we're gonna have a little praise time at the end of our service tonight, because I think you're gonna wanna praise the Lord at the end of this time. I wanna highlight these verses in Romans 5 that talk about the benefits. Before I do, can I say this to you? I know that I could probably be duly charged with talking an awful lot about visitors and friends, and I'm church and all that up here, but one reason why I do every time I get the opportunity is because when I drive around the North Hills, when I talk to my neighbors, when I circulate around, you know what I see? I see people crushed in the freeway, and you have the good news. Now, I know that some of you are thinking, well, they don't know they're crushed. They're just living life. Well, see, part of the challenge that you have is to help them to discover their true condition, and in coming weeks, I hope to just give you a little bit of an insight into how to do that, how you can help people lovingly realize that they need God, and that religion and effort and all that's not enough. They need God to rescue them. They're batting average, you know, maybe they're batting 147, and they think that they're, you know, all-stars. We're gonna look at that in coming weeks. Now, I wanna focus for the remaining about 20 minutes here tonight on the benefits. Isn't it something that once God pulls you out of the wreckage of your sin, He doesn't just then throw you off to the side? What does He do with you? Remember last week's image? What happened? Remember we had the cross up here, and we had the person who transferred their sin to the cross, and then what happened? What was the other side of that? They put a robe on. They got a life, a gift from God, and I want us to see here tonight just a few things that the Lord says He gives to us. These are the reasons to rejoice, all right? Number one on the overhead, we rejoice in our present position, all right? After we've been justified, remember that? Justified as being declared righteous by God, just as if I'd never sinned. After we've been justified, we have peace with God. We're no longer at war with God and with ourselves. We have peace with God. Dear ones, let me just describe this in a little different terminology. Maybe this will help a bit. To me, much of the warfare that we go through is the warfare of am I good enough? How about you? Am I good enough? Am I good enough for my dad to love me? Am I good enough for my teammates to accept me? Am I good enough for my peer group in high school to think I'm okay? Am I good enough for my boss to recognize me? Am I good enough for God to accept me? Just last Monday, we were, a week ago now, at the McCandless Town Council meeting. I had a brother ask me, how did that go? He was out of town. It went very well, in case you missed the report. Very well, and I'm thankful to God. But I want you to know something. I'll just be real honest. Maybe Scott was different, but I went in there and I didn't have perfect peace. I had some anxiety. I wondered, how are we gonna do? Is there someone gonna stand up and ask a question we can't answer? Is there gonna be a councilman that's gonna say, well, I don't like churches, or whatever. Something happened between 7.30 and 8.30, or 8.45. You wanna know what it was? I got a whole lot of peace. When I walked out of that place, the war was over. Why? Because I knew I had done what I was supposed to do, and so had our whole team. Now, if you have to wait until the day you stand before God to know if you've done well enough, folks, I mean, that's a terrible way to live. There's no peace there. Your friends that are trying to work their salvation by doing good works, or going to church, or giving offerings, or whatever, those folks do not know peace with God. And I want you to know tonight, the Bible says that when we're justified, look with me, how many know what tense we have peace is in? What is it? We have peace. Now, it's in the tense of the present. We have it now. And tonight, if you happen to be here as a visitor, or maybe you're here checking this place out, if you don't have peace with God, when you receive the forgiveness of your sins in Christ, you can know peace. When I was a teenager, I don't know about you, I was very sensitive about this war that was going on about being accepted before God. How many of you were like that? When you were younger, you just had a real sensitivity. You wanted to do what was right, but you wanted to have fun, and all this kind of stuff. I'll never forget when I was 16 years old, my mom and dad made me go to a camp meeting. I didn't know what that was. I went up to sing, and it was a summer night. It was warm. I could tell you that the secular song was on the radio on the way out in the car. But you know how old I would be then. I didn't want to do that. And I was daydreaming like most teenagers. You know, I had better things to do, but I got in that place. And Bob Pierce, who was the founder of World Vision, was the speaker that night. The man who gave his life, really, for the gospel. And I'll never forget, at the end of that message, the war just raged the whole time. You know, I wanted peace. I wanted to know that I knew that God accepted me. But I wondered what that meant to walk up there and give my life. You know, you know what I'm talking about. Most of you have done this. And I wasn't going to do it when he gave the invitation. I wasn't going to do it. And I don't know who the person was. I don't remember to this day. But behind me, a lady tapped me on the shoulder, and she said, you're supposed to go up there, aren't you? Remember, I was 16. You know, I was not like, I didn't have it all together. But that loving nudge, that was what it took. And boy, by the time I got up there, I was like sliding on my tears. And I was changed that night. And I can tell you, I walked up from that place, and from that moment, 1962, I've had peace with God. How many of you know what I'm talking about? Isn't that a marvelous thing? Now, many people, dear ones, don't have that. They want it, and they think they can work their way towards it, and they deserve it some. You only get it one way, by being justified. And that peace is a gift that we're never to lose. We're to cultivate it. Jesus said, my peace I leave with you. Not as the world gives. Give I to you. I give you my peace. Philippians 4, 6, and 7. Give God all of your prayer requests. Give him all of your burdens. And the peace of God which passes all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. So number one, rejoice in your peace. Number two, rejoice in your personal privilege. Still in the first couple of verses. Rejoice in your personal privilege. Look what it says. We have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. How many of you remember the Old Testament hierarchy of how things were done? Who was able to go stand in the presence of the Lord? Just one man, who? The high priest. How often? Once a year. I don't think it's possible for we here tonight to fully fathom what God says in this verse. What one man could do once a year, we are told we can do at any time. You can say thank God or something for that. And to me, it's sort of like too good to be true in a way. It's too wonderful to believe. That's why we stumble over. It's so enormously generous of God to say, hey, anytime you wanna come, I'm here. And we don't have to earn it. We don't have to climb the pecking order. Something funny I've been experiencing a little bit lately. Because of the property issue and the bank that owns the property, we have an interesting relationship there. We happen to know personally the chairman of the board of the bank. And so on a few occasions, in rather casual attire, like a polo shirt, that kind of thing, I'll go into the bank and go up to the 29th floor and just kind of go sauntering in with the polo shirt look. And all these guys are running around with their white shirts and black ties, looking very banky, however bankies look. And people will stand with their books open and they'll kind of look at me like, this man is really making a big mistake. He's blowing his whole career right here and all that. And I'll walk right in, say hello to the receptionist and go right to the secretary of the chairman of the board of the bank. And even without an appointment, I've been privileged just to walk in and see him. And I say, I just have to chuckle about that. It's kind of like, it's this wonderful access we have to the highest person in the bank. I say, wow. And it's only because there's a relationship there. I don't deserve it, no. It's not because we have more money than any other account. I can promise you that. And see, God says to us, it's the same way. He just says, get in on the elevator anytime you want to come up to the 29th floor and walk right in. You have access. Well, strangely enough, there's a special sense of God's presence when people gather corporately. And I have to say on the downside of things, my heart grieves when I walk by here on a Wednesday morning and there's three people at morning prayer. And I say, God, you said to come. You said to bring our needs, to bring the needs of the North Hills and the city and the world to you and you'd meet them. And I see a congregation of 1,500 or more people. And I say, there's gotta be more than three people. We have a burden to pray. We have access to God. I think if we saw it that way, if we really saw it that way, it would change us. Hebrews 10, 19 and 21 says, we've been given access by a new and living way. You see, what happened was when Jesus died on the cross, the Bible says that that curtain that separated the holy of holies and the most holy in the holy place, the most holy in the holy place, that curtain was ripped from what? Top to bottom, God saying by symbolism, come on in. And that's what we have the privilege of doing. And by the way, don't think that just, you know, you need to have a title like elder or pastor to have that access. God is an equal opportunity provider. There's no hotdog in all the world. It's more privileged than you are. Isn't that great? I don't care how many seminary degrees you have. You don't have any more privilege than I do. I don't care how many times you've preached to thousands of people or whatever. We all have the same access. Isn't that great? God just knows how to make you feel special. All right, number three, rejoice then in your future possibilities. You see, it says, we rejoice. And by the way, that word rejoice crops up three times in these 11 verses, rejoice. It's a funny Greek word. I won't even try to pronounce it because I'll just, I'll fumble it. But that Greek word rejoice sometimes is translated exalt or glory. And here it says, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. So rejoice in the future. You see, what we lost by our sin and the nature of our fallenness, dear one, sometimes makes us think that we are no longer candidates for doing anything worthy of glory. I wanna make two points here. Number one, in Christ, now that you've been redeemed, now that you've been reconciled or saved, what was once impossible, that is to see the glory of God in your life, now becomes a possibility. In other words, through your life, you can bring glory to God. What a way to live. That's why we sang on Sunday, in my life, Lord, be glorified. You know that when you're driving your car, you can bring glory to God, or you can, yes, you can strike the fear of God in people too. But every place you go, you have the opportunity by the transcendent power of God in you to bring glory to his name. You see, so if you're a drill press operator, you can bring glory to God doing that. If you're a pilot, you can bring glory to God in the way you do your job. If you're a waitress, a gas station attendant, a salesperson, whatever you are, you can bring glory to God. Why? Because you try? No, because God in you. You see, it says that what's happened in us, we rejoice in the hope that's in us. Christ in us, the hope of glory, Colossians calls it, the hope of glory. Then there's a second glory that's here that I'm hoping for. What are you hoping for down the road? Maybe your road's not too far to go. Maybe you think the road's got miles to go yet. What are you hoping for? Heaven. I mean, do you believe in heaven? Remember I told you some months ago that most Americans believe in heaven and most don't believe in hell? Typically American, you know? I have to say to you that when you back up a bit and you look at the 80 or so years that we have, it's all seemed so precious. Eternal glory in heaven. How many know whether you live 20, 40, 60, 80, or 100, it all doesn't matter all that much. We're all kind of getting there faster than we probably would like to. But I'm glad we're getting where we're going. The glory of God. The Bible says, you know, why do you think heaven is a place where praise just keeps happening? Which is sort of automatic. Why is that? Because people see the glory and they live in the presence. And that revelation just motivates them to keep praising. I'm hoping tonight that maybe just a little bit in you will get motivated that God's glory just brings praise from us. That's what that hope does for me, the hope of glory. There's the hope for reunion with loved ones in heaven. How many of you are looking forward to seeing one of your loved ones? Isn't that great? Isn't God wonderful? I mean, all the heartbreak and all the sadness and tears, all that just kind of like, it just fades in the shadow of the glory of God. Total healing. See, for someone like Chuck Coon, the hope of glory, you know, if you're wheelchair-bound in a body that just doesn't respond, the hope of glory, he ought to give that sermon. The hope of glory, to exchange all of our tears for his joy. Number four, now it gets tough. We rejoice in our personal problems. Now, verses three, four, and five are very challenging, but I'll just touch on a couple of major points here. It says we rejoice also, the same Greek word, in our sufferings. The word phallipsis in the Greek is the word affliction, suffering, or the one you'll most identify with, pressure. Pressure. Anybody here under any pressure? What kinds of pressure? All kinds of pressure. Pressure to produce, pressure to provide, pressure to make right decisions, pressure to be something that people look up to, all these kinds of pressures. The Bible says that God's gonna take all these pressures, and sometimes these things become very difficult, physical suffering, whatever. How many of you know the Bible says later on in Romans that he's gonna take all these things and work them together for good? Oh, isn't that a great thing to know? I mean, isn't it great to know when you walk out and someone backed into your car, God's working that together for good. It's a great thing to know that running down the park and I hit a rock, and that toenail, it's about to fall off, just goes, you know, and you think, well, he's got it, he's gonna work that together for good. What good can come out of that? New toenail, hallelujah, yeah? But the Lord says in the same way that coal under intense pressure over thousands of years produces what? Diamonds. God says, I'm gonna use pressure to produce in you what three things? Let's look at it. It says perseverance or endurance, character, and hope. And isn't it great to know when you go through those things, when you lose a job, when a relationship breaks down, when the news comes from the doctor that something doesn't look right, all those kinds of things, God will take it, and he'll fashion it, and he'll produce endurance, and character, and hope, and good things in us, and how many of you are really here? Really, when you strip it all away, how many of you are here to be like Christ? You see, that's what he's doing in those times, church. He's making us like Christ. The problem is most of us would prefer to be microwave Christians. Give me the seven-minute shot, God. How many of you know God loves crock-pot Christians? But when you're done, I mean, you just, you know, that old crock-pot thing, meat just falls tenderly off. I better watch that, I can see him. I have to reject the implications that some take from the scriptures that God saved you for the purpose of making you comfortable. Comfort is not, I repeat, is not the objective of the Christian life. Christ-likeness is the objective. Not comfort, being like Jesus. You know, I'm preparing to go to India, and just sorting through the whys and wherefores of this whole trip and realizing, as I've said a couple times on Sundays, that what is a little discomfort that I may experience over the next few weeks compared to what I think's gonna be a life-changing, character-shaping experience? Paul says it this way in 2 Corinthians 3. This slight, momentary tribulation is storing up for us an eternal weight of glory. The same word, pressure. So if you're under pressure tonight, I want you to know something. God wants to produce good in your life. Rejoice in it. I've learned this last lesson on this point, by the way. The sooner I rejoice, the sooner the pressure ends. All right? Finally, oh, wait a second. Before I leave that point, the Lord prompted me about this. Don't miss this one thing here. This hope doesn't disappoint us because God has poured out His love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit whom He has given us. And I wanted to make a major point here, folks, that love, I'm still under that point of producing things that problems produce in us. You see, we can miss that verse. And for those of us who are inclined to be Spirit-filled Christians, that's an important verse. Romans 5.5, underline it in your Bible. Very important verse. What produces love in you? Oh, let me say it this way. What causes love to be poured out in you? Who pours the love into you? Go ahead and read it. You can't be wrong if you read it. Who? The Holy Spirit. One of the things that people have described the baptism of the Holy Spirit to be is being immersed in liquid love, right? Just the love of God poured into us. And I wanna just commend to you, if it's hard for you to love, if it's hard for you to sense that giving, sacrificial, joyful posture in life, ask God to fill you with His Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit only knows how to do it one way, and that's to pour out buckets and buckets and buckets. People ask me from time to time, they say, how do you, and when they say it, I know they're really fishing for something, they say, how do you get your people to do all that work? I mean, last night, it was significantly close to Zoo City here, and we had a lot of visitors come in, and they were saying, wow, look at all these people here helping out, and then afterwards, and that's when the army moved in and transformed this place. If you'd have seen this place, you're right there in a big pool of ketchup, right where Arlene is. And they say, well, how do people get motivated? You know, we have people visiting hospitals. There's someone here tonight that visits one of our very seriously ill people, goes to their home twice a week just to sit and talk to them, and listen, there are people here who've given up their retirement benefits to go off and live somewhere in the sun so they can stay here and just meet with people and counsel with them. Why do people give, why do our elders give 10, 15, 20 hours a week at a time? It's not to pay. What is it? See, the love poured into them has to come out, and they've learned something, and all these servants have learned something, all, many of you. You've learned that the more you pour out, what? God just keeps pouring in. If you're dry today, the reason probably isn't because you're not getting fed. The reason is you're not giving out. Crack that hardness a little bit, pour out, you know, just a couple drops in it, and you'll find that God will return it for you. The Holy Spirit will pour love back in you. All right, finally, are we on number five yet, or am I bouncing around here? Four? All right, number five then. We rejoice in the person. We rejoice in the person of God. Look at verse 11, I know I'm bouncing over some things. Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God. Same word, through our Lord Jesus Christ. See, it's not just the gifts. We don't just rejoice in the position, or the privilege, or the possibilities, or the problems. We rejoice just in the person. What if God never gave you another gift? Would you still just love him? It's not in most of us to do that. Most of us who have traveled from time to time have probably had the experience I'm gonna recount. This was a few years ago. Took a trip out to Los Angeles. I was gone for two weeks. I was doing my doctoral work at Fuller and all that stuff, and came back, and I hadn't seen my kids for a couple weeks. Came to the airport, and I came down the jetway and all that stuff, and I wanted to go see them, and what do you think was the first thing out of their mouth? What'd you bring me, Dad? They were smaller. And that's just like an immature kid, isn't it? It's the stuff. A really mature love says, I don't care what you brought me. I'm just glad you're here. Tonight as we end this time, can we just be glad that God's here, no matter what gifts he might give, no matter what benefits, just rejoice in him. Jan, would you come, please, and worship team come together. I thought it'd be right tonight just to spend 10, 12, 15 minutes ending the service, rejoicing in the Lord. Don't you think so? Let's close up our stuff, and let's stand, and let's begin tonight. Just for a moment, before we sing, and I'm gonna ask the gals in the overheads, before you put the song up, put up those five things again, please, Nancy and Chuck. Put up those five benefits. Would you spend a moment, just you and the Lord, giving thanks for whatever of those five benefits of the outline we just did, Chuck. Those five things. What would you give thanks for the Lord tonight? What would cause you to rejoice the most tonight? Which of those five things? Just flash them all up. Go ahead and thank God out loud a little bit, would you? Thank him out loud. Thank him out loud for what he's given to you, what benefits you've received tonight. Hallelujah. I love you, Lord. Praise you.