Transcript
Romans chapter 5 verses 1 through 5. It could get a little confusing, we are running parallel with Galatians. Not on purpose, it is just working out that way. But we started Galatians chapter 5 this morning and now we are in Romans chapter 5 and we are talking about pretty much the same subject. So hopefully you do not get too confused but rather you can see them both together and this will help us in our understanding.
Romans chapter 5 verse 1:
1) Therefore after having been justified out of faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:
2) through whom also we have had access by faith into this grace in which we have been standing, and we boast upon the hope of the glory of God.
3) And not only this, but also we hope in afflictions (or tribulations): knowing that the affliction (notice the definite article, the particular affliction or trial) is working out endurance;
4) and the endurance is working out proof (great word); and the proof is working out hope:
5) and the hope is not making ashamed; because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
This morning in Galatians chapter 5 we started the study on sanctification. But in Romans we are still in justification. Romans chapter 3 verse 21 through chapter 5 verse 21 is Paul’s presentation of the doctrine of justification. Galatians is written to a group of people and it is a letter of correction. It is written in order to correct false teaching. Romans is more in-detail and it is a straight doctrinal presentation as to the doctrines of the Christian faith and it is more detailed. And so we are still in the study of justification that began back in chapter 3 verse 21. We finished chapter 4. Now we have all of chapter 5 to go to talk about justification.
Remember that justification is the act in which God imputes or puts into our account His righteousness. Therefore we are righteous before God. We have a rightstanding with God and that is a one-time act and it is permanent. So I have been justified by Christ dying on the cross for me. And by receiving Christ and believing by faith He has done that, I am now justified.
In chapter 4 we studied the principles of justification from the life of Abraham; very, very important. When we get into it on Thursday nights we are going to emphasize what Biblical faith is all about. Everybody who believes with the same faith that Abraham had, will be justified. What about a Jewish or Hebrew person that is living under the law and trying to earn their salvation in the sight of God? That is not the same faith. The Bible says that Abraham believed God and believed His promise. This is before God gave circumcision to the Jews. This is four hundred thirty years before the law was even given. In fact it was before there were any Jewish people. There was just Abraham, a pagan from Mesopotamia that God called out. And He says, “I promise you that your descendants will be as the stars in the sky.” And Abraham says, “I believe You. Because You are God and if You say You are going to do that, You can do whatever You want to do.” And he believed God.
But while he was waiting for God to fulfill His promise he took some detours. Twice with his wife – who basically and legally was his half-sister, by the way. When he went into a different territory than his own homeland twice he lied, he said, She is my sister.” Because she was so beautiful that he thought that the king or the officials of that country would kill him in order to get her because she was so beautiful. So he says, “She is my sister. Beautiful, is she not?” So that he would not be killed. But, of course, when the various people found out and God warned them in a dream, “That is his wife, not his sister. You touch her you will be dealt with.” They came to him and said, “What have you done? You have told us this lie.” Of course Abraham is like, “Well, it is not really a lie. She is my half-sister.” So he is waffling back and forth.
So twice he tried to protect himself by lying. Once under the encouragement of his wife. She said, “Look, we are getting older and we are getting to the point that we cannot bear children and God promised us descendants. How is that going to happen? Take my servant girl and go into her and have a child with her. Claim the promise.” And so after Hagar conceived and Ishmael was born, Abraham says, “Thank you, God, I got my promised son.” And God says, “No, that is not the promised son. That is the works of man.” God says, “I will provide the son. I promised it. I will provide it.” So he waited even longer, thirteen years more before Sarah conceived miraculously and gave birth to Isaac. And God says, “There is the promised son. I did that. I created him. I gave him to you.” Do you see the difference today in faith and works?
I do not know how many times that I have taught through Romans over the years, but for some reason there is an awakening in me by God’s Spirit to say the whole problem in the body of Christ is number one – there are two of them. Number one, God’s people are not educated in what the book of Romans teaches. It is all of the doctrine of the Christian faith. If we knew what it taught we would not be in some of the situations that we are in. And the second problem is that those of us in positions of ministry have no understanding about what the book of Romans is all about. We can quote Scripture. We can say, “If you believe in Jesus you are justified. If you believe in Jesus you are sanctified.” But many do not even know what that means.
But Abraham in chapter 4 is used to present the principles of faith. It is not works. Abraham was not circumcised four hundred thirty years before the law. There were not even Jewish people. He was a pagan Gentile when God gave him the promise. Genesis chapter 15 verse 6 Abraham says, “I believe.” And God imputed it to his account for righteousness. “You believe Me. Not just my promise.” But Abraham says, “I believe that you have the ability to do what You say You are going to do.” Think about it. And so today in the body of Christ we are stuck in a rut. We have to go out and work for Jesus, do God’s work for Him. Rather than feeding the sheep, we are trying to motivate them and put them to work. That is not faith. That is works.
If I were to say to you today that instead of repairing our roof, I had a vision from God and all you people were there! God wants to build a multipurpose facility out here that costs $2.5 million. But friends, if we have the faith we can do it. Your response to me should be, “If indeed God gave you that vision, which we doubt brother Bill, but if He did give you that vision that He wants a multipurpose facility built out here on the existing lawn then He will provide.” If God gives us the money, great! We will give it, we will build the church.
You see I was raised in a church – that even though a lot of things are wrong with the teaching of it, yet the principle of the man who was in charge greatly influenced my life. When Calvary Chapel first began down in Costa Mesa in a little tiny chapel, there were about sixty-five of us that were attending Calvary at the time. And then it just – explosion! People came out of the woodwork. People were jamming the aisles and sitting in the aisles. They put speakers out in the patios, so people could sit in the patios on the outside of the building and hear the studies. They had Bible studies every night and the place was packed out. So you know what your mind tells you is that, “Whoa! we need a building. We cannot continue with these facilities. If we keep growing we will not be able to have the people.”
So the pastor of the church announced to the church that right down on the corner there is a piece of property for sale and the cost of the property is one million dollars. And he says, “I am only mentioning this to you, I am going to tell you one time, I am going to mention this to you and if God supplies the finances, we will buy it. We are not going to go into debt.” And so within thirty days the church had one million dollars extra for the property. So he gets up and he announces, “I guess it is the Lord’s will because the Lord motivated some people to give.” Went down paid cash for the property. Now it comes for the buildings. Same approach. If God wants us to have buildings, and at the time that He wants us to have buildings, then the finances will be there. And so in the meantime with no buildings we put up a huge circus tent. I mean huge circus tent. Three rings and the whole bit. Dancing bears on the right, no. And they had like three and four services every Sunday morning, packing the people in, ministering the gospel. They were going to meet in that tent until God gave them the money or else they were just going to meet in the tent. God gave the money for the buildings. He did not have to hound them. He did not have to nag them. Because where God guides God provides.
And if God guides but we fail for His plans to take place, there is something wrong. He does not give us plans and say, “Okay, it is up to you.” In our culture and in our day, that is a real problem. Because not only is it not found in the Bible, it is against the word of God. And I am to the point in my walk with the Lord that I really dislike, I want to use the word hate, but I will not. I really dislike the pain on the faces of Christians because the Christian life is so painful. It is so much work. And it is not, that is us. All the physical things are going to burn. Now God might say, “Yeah, it is necessary for a bigger building,” however He is going to do that. But if that is in His will, He will do it. If not, we do not go anywhere.
So I was raised spiritually under the principle that if God thinks that the building is just too small and we need a bigger building, than He is going to provide the finances. Pretty simple to me. And then I served in various churches where – one church I was in the staff got together and said, “We need to start a building fund to build more buildings.” And they purposely chose the wife of the richest men in the church to be in charge of the committee. And if you are wondering, what does that have to do with anything? I do not know if you understand when Christians are in a system where you are guilt ridden if you are not successful. She was purposely chosen because if she fell short of the goal she could go to her husband and say, “We are ten grand short of me, the head of the committee responsible raise the money, being successful,” with the plan that he will shell out whatever monies we are short. Praise God.
But do you see how that is so contradictory? How do you praise God because you used some business sense to get money out of people? It is not. No sense at all. In the human, yes. But in the spiritual, no.
Abraham is the example. What does faith look like? And what does faith do? Abraham showed us what it is not and what it is. That “If God promised it, do not do like I do,” he would say to us. That if God promised it, then trust Him that He will do it. That is pretty simple. But not in the complex society in which we live where pressure is put on people, not only to be successful but to show success. What are you just sitting there for? The old guilt trip. Next Sunday we will tie a can around Moby’s neck and he will walk up and down the aisles and you can throw into the can. He will be trained on command that if you do not give, well, you know.
So the principles of justification in chapter 4, the privileges of justification in chapter 5. Privileges. There are five of them in the first five verses. We will take a couple of them this morning.
Number one, verse one, first of all, We have peace with God, but notice the translation: after having been justified out of faith. Once justification is taken of. Here are the privileges that we have having already been justified. We have peace with God.
The word peace, (eirēnē) in Greek, means to be at one with or to be united together as one. It has nothing to do with a feeling. It has to do with a relationship with a person. Through the Lord’s death on the cross I have been justified, I have been made right with God, I am now one with Him. See, the Bible says that we used to be at enmity towards God. Romans chapter 8 verse 7, Because the mind of the flesh is enmity (or hostile) toward God: for it is not submitted to the law of God, for neither is it able to be. Ever. The flesh. The mind of the flesh, it can never submit to God. Ever. My spirit is saved, but my flesh is not saved. So through Christ, His death for me, I have peace with God. I am at one with Him now. I am not His enemy anymore. I am not fighting Him, I am now at peace with God. And that is constant, all the time, that never ever changes. I have peace with God. Period.
But being at peace with God is different than the peace of God. The peace of God is experienced in the believer’s life. Our standing and our position with Him is constant all the time. But not the peace of God.
Remember in Philippians chapter 4 we had two women who were in disagreement with one another. And Paul says, “In order for believers to get along,” first of all, the first command was Be satisfied with the Lord at all times. See that is how our disagreements get settled. It does not make any difference what you want or what I want; what does the Lord want? Be satisfied with the Lord.
Secondly, Let your moderation be known to all people. Moderation means that yeah, I have an opinion. Here is what I think should be done. Here is the color of rug we should put in or of the color we should paint the church. But if not, it is no big deal. I m not going to change churches because you want pink stripes.
Then he says, Do not be anxious for one thing. The word anxiety means to have your mind occupied with, worried about the things of life.
Do not be anxious for one thing, but fourthly, let your requests be made known to God. Philippians chapter 4 verse 7 says when you do all of these things, it says, And the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will keep (or guard) your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. You approach this physical world, material world, in which we live in with moderation. We have to live here, we have to do what we have to do, just do not get obsessed. Do not get in too deep. Be satisfied with the Lord and you will never be disappointed because circumstances change. And if something is bothering you give it to the Lord through prayer. Just get rid of it. Give it to Him. And what is going to happen is the peace of God will guard your heart and your mind in Christ Jesus.
In other words, positionally I am always right with Him. I am no longer hostile. I am one of His children. I have surrendered. But in my various situations, I can be so in tune with the circumstances around me that I am not experiencing that oneness with Him. I have taken my focus off of Him and I have focused on something else. I am at one with something else in my mind and with my emotions, you see. Whatever is occupying my mind that is what I am unified with, I am at one with that in my thought processes. Spiritually, I am at one with God but in the human I get caught up in this entanglement here on the earth. So if I back off and submit it to the Lord, His peace, His oneness; my oneness that I already have with Him is going to guard my heart and mind so that it is not invaded by all of this garbage that is all around us. So we can have peace with God, and that is permanent. That is all the time. But then we experience the peace of God, the oneness that we already have by backing off from the things of the world, and being satisfied with Him, and entrusting Him with it. Then we are being guarded.
Notice the terminology with God. Those of you in the Greek class it is the word (pros) and it has to do with face-to-face. That is my position. I have peace with God. I am eye to eye with Him now. I am no longer hostile against Him. My relationship is one.
And notice the way in which I am at peace with Him, it is through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is not by any way or thing that I did. I have peace with God and I experience the peace of God through Jesus Christ. Not through anything I do, other than my focus. And there is a reason why.
Ephesians chapter 2 verse 14, in fact, I have verses 14 and 15 for you to show you what the word peace means in the Bible. It says, Ephesians 2:14, For He himself is our peace. It has the definite article. Peace is a person. When I am at peace with God I am one with Christ. He himself is our peace, who has made both one. Now he is talking about Jew and Gentile in Ephesians 2, Who has made both one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition. The enmity (or hostility) in his flesh, verse 15, having annulled the law of commandments and decrees; in order that he might create the two in himself into one new man, making peace. Unity. Oneness.
That is understood by the Jews and Gentiles because if you went to the temple in Jerusalem they would have a wall, a partition there. The Gentiles had to worship on the other side of the wall out in the court of the Gentiles. They could not go in to the sanctuary part with the Jews to worship. God broke down the middle wall of partition and brought Jew and Gentile together. Believers in Jesus Christ whether they are Jew or Gentile, they have now become one. That is peace. Oneness through our Lord Jesus Christ. And so the first privilege, blessing, benefit that we have, is that we have peace with God right now, after having been justified by faith. One of my blessings.
Next week will take the next one which is access to Him. What a fantastic study in God’s word. You and I have better access to God than we do to the President of the United States. I can come right to the throne of grace, to the Creator of the universe at any time. Maybe I should type an email to President Obama, “If you do not respond to my email I am going straight to the Higher Powers. He will hear me.” But we must know what we have.
Like I said this morning the whole deception about false teaching is that if you want to have peace with God you have to work for it. Why should we put forth physical human effort to work for something that we already have? We already have peace with God. “Oh, but what if I get into circumstances?” Well, that is my focus – God is asking me to realize what is happening to me and realign my focus and trust Him. That is faith. “Well, what does He want me to do?” Trust Him. That is it. “Well, how do I know He might want me to do something?” Well, if He does He is going to do it. “I trusted the Lord and nothing happened.” Well, you trusted the Lord and His will happened, what is the problem?
It is so simple. Not easy. It is so simple for us. Because God looks at us and we are like dumb sheep here, He knows that. We live in a body that is racked with sin. He knows that. And so He has made it simple. “I am going to send My Son to die for you, He will meet all of my requirements, and I want you to believe that I am going to do that for you.” Okay. “And then after that I am going to put My Spirit inside you because you are a knuckle head and you will probably get lost out there somewhere.” From the Greek word knuckleheado. Because after He saves me, He knows I am going to wander off and who knows what. So He put His Spirit inside of me and He tells me, “You now have peace with God.” I do? Yeah. So when you go out and get caught up in the things of life, remember you already have peace with God. Now turn to Him and believe. That is it? Yeah. Simple.
Which is why here in America we cannot do that. It is too easy. If I told my mother when she came in to wake me up, if I told her, “No, I am going to live by faith today. I am not getting out of bed, unless the Lord gets me out of bed.” And she says, “Well, I have to go to work and do two jobs.” Oh! the Lord’s provision. I do not have to get out of bed.
Faith is believing that what God says He will do. That does not give me the freedom to be lazy, it gives me the freedom to trust. I believe I have peace with God from now throughout eternity through the cross of Jesus Christ. And I believe by faith that in any situation I am in I can experience the peace of Christ. That is Christ Himself at one with me, as my anchor, and as my fortress in every single situation. Not by how I feel, but just trusting Him. I know You are there, I know who You are. Here you go. Here is the situation. I am going to be at peace. It is not something I talked myself into. It is not positive thoughts. It is a relationship with Jesus Christ. Believing Him. Not just who He is but that what He says He will do.
So this year as we continue to study together I am praying for our freedom. That we be not entangled again in the bondage of servitude to the things of the flesh. And God help us that are in positions of ministry and leadership. God have mercy on us when we do not properly represent Christ and we crack the whip to get people moving and doing things and we do not properly represent Christ to the people. That is a terrible sin, point blank. Feed the people. Let the people get to know the Lord and let them trust Him. He will do it. Whatever He wants to do, He will do it. No problem.
Let’s close with prayer.
