1 Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, 2 through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand; and we exult in hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only this, but we also exult in our tribulations, knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance; 4 and perseverance, proven character; and proven character, hope; 5 and hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 6 For while we were still helpless, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will hardly die for a righteous man; though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. 8 But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. 10 For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. 11 And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.
I want to read to you an excerpt from James Montgomery Boice’s book, "Whatever Happened to the Gospel of Grace?" to preface my opening statements.
This is from his chapter entitled, “Reforming Our Worship”. In it he cites two sources from which he got his information. I cite my resource, which is Boice’s book. If anyone wants to know what his sources were I would suggest that they procure his book and look his sources up in the chapter notes at the back. In the meantime, it would be wise to also read the book.
Here is how Boice began this chapter:
“Several years ago I was invited to take part in a worship service in Geneva, Switzerland, that was about an hour and a half long. Four English-speaking congregations had combined to hold this service, and it had been promoted as a time when the congregations could all worship together, which was good.
About half of the service was music led by a youthful worship team. They used overheads, and we sang choruses, most of them repeated three or more times. There was even one hymn. My part, the sermon, was about forty minutes long. The service was not bad, as services like this go. But what struck me about it was its lack of traditional worship elements, especially since it was on a Sunday morning and had been promoted as a united worship service. There was no invocation, no confession of sin, no pastoral prayer, and although there was a Scripture reading, it was there only because I had chosen it as the passage from which I was to teach later.
I say again: This was not a particularly bad service. But it was part of a contemporary trend which shows how far most churches have moved from an older, better worship style that was thoughtful and genuinely God-centered, as all true worship should be.
Of course, some services are much worse. The Los Angeles Times Magazine reported on a church in southern California that advertises its service as “God’s Country Goodtime Hour” and promises ‘line dancing following worship’. Their band is called the Honkytonk Angels, and the pastor takes part. The Wall Street Journal described a church in America’s Bible-belt that calls itself ‘The Fellowship of Excitement.’ It ran an advertisement for a Sunday evening service that read:
Circus! See Barnum and Bailey bested as the magic of the
big top circus comes to The Fellowship of Excitement!
Clowns! Acrobats! Popcorn! What a great night!
The same church once had the pastoral staff put on a wrestling match during a Sunday service, having hired a professional wrestler to train them how to throw one another around the ring, pull hair, and kick shins without actually hurting one another.
What are we to think of these sad trends? Whatever they are, they are not worship. How can they be if they have abandoned the use of Scripture, in which God speaks to us, and have eliminated prayer, in which we speak to God? True worship is praise of God for who he truly is and for what he has done, and if that is not the very center and heart of what we are doing, our so-called worship is not true worship at all.” James Montgomery Boice – WHATEVER HAPPENED TO THE GOSPEL OF GRACE? – Crossway Books, 2001
Now I decided to open my sermon with that lengthy excerpt after reading it while walking on a treadmill at the place where I get my exercise. I made that decision though, because immediately after leaving the treadmill I went to another machine that put me in view of a dry erase board that the employees had installed so that people could come by and write something on it that they want to express to others. On this day, as I exercised, I looked up and this is what I saw:
Rejoice in your suffering, for suffering brings perseverance
and perseverance character and character hope.
Now I have no doubt that the person who wrote on the board had the best of intentions, and quite probably is a Christian, since the wording so closely resembles what Paul wrote in Romans 5:3 & 4.
But if I could know who the person was who wrote it, I think I would like to talk to that person and ask them what they are suggesting people hope in.
I am going to presume here that the person would ask me what I mean by the question, and I would then, in all kindness and sincerity, offer them this challenge.
“You wrote just a portion of what Paul wrote to Christians in Romans 5, and in this portion you are telling the people who come here to work out that they should rejoice in their suffering because the end result is hope. Hope in what?”
It was as I was thinking along these lines that I decided I was going to return home and write this sermon. Because, believers in Jesus Christ, although the outlandish church activities reported in Boice’s book may be the exception – although I am afraid that if the facts were made available we might all be dismayed to find out how many are exactly that outlandish – they are no more guilty of leaving the path of true worship and glorifying God in their services than the sincere and well-intentioned congregation that has left off preaching about sin, the shed blood of Christ, the need for repentance even in the Spirit-filled believer, and the teaching that all things are from, through and to God for His glory.
The church has gotten off the path, when in the service prayer is neglected, confession of sin is avoided, and the center of focus is on human need, uplifting singing of shallow ditties, and a polite nod at the notion of preaching, instead of on Christ and His cross and the glory of the Father.
The truth of the Scriptures must be taught in full; the whole counsel of God must be presented to the people, and the people must be led into true worship from their spirit that encompasses the whole of the Gospel message or true worship has not happened. When this is not the case in the church, it will slowly morph into something that can never fit into the definition of the true Church at all.
Since my mystery workout partner plucked these words out of Romans 5 for his attempt at encouragement, and in defense against this empty shallow use of the Bible, I felt compelled, as I said earlier, to bring you this sermon from that same chapter. As we go, let’s make a deliberate choice to receive this as from the Spirit of Christ, and actively worship Him in acceptance of what He has to teach us from it, to the glory of the Father.
IF TRUTH BE TOLD
If the true church of Jesus Christ is ever to regain effectiveness and fruitfulness in western society it will be as God uses her to do a spiritual work, and that will only happen – can only happen if there is a widespread return to the teaching of the truth.
Now when I use the word,’ truth’ throughout this sermon it will not be in a general sense. I am speaking of the truth pertaining to the Word of God, the Bible.
In His High Priestly prayer recorded in John 17:17, Jesus was beseeching the Father for His disciples and for you and me as He prayed, “Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth”.
God’s Word contains the truth that leads to salvation. We call it the Good News; the Gospel; which is the power of God for salvation to all who believe.
God’s Word contains the wisdom that the saved man or woman needs to live and walk according to His precepts, in obedience and faith.
David the Psalmist wrote, “Your word I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against You” (Ps 119:11)
One day, sometime ago, I heard someone refer to a man’s preaching and they said ‘he doesn’t teach very deep, but it’s nice’, and I silently prayed, ‘Lord, please don’t ever let anyone call my preaching ‘nice’.’
Unfortunately today that is exactly what many people are looking for; and for the sake of drawing and keeping people preachers are dumbing down their message and keeping it ‘nice’.
One well-known preacher said, “Some people, including some immature believers, will go from church to church looking for the right preacher. Unfortunately their idea of ‘right’ preaching is not sound biblical exposition but interesting observations and suggestions based on the preacher’s personal philosophy. They are not looking for a word from God to believe but for a word from man to consider.” John MacArthur
It is not by dumbing-down the Scriptures that we will reach people for Christ or see Christians grow. It will not be done by denying by our words or our silence, doctrines that come difficult to the mind of flesh. It will not be done by excusing the miracles of Biblical record as myth or the imagination of creative writers. If we are going to reach people for Christ, who are only reached and saved by the Holy Spirit of God, then we must present to them in the clearest and most straightforward manner, that which the Holy Spirit uses – the inerrant, infallible, unchanging, all-sufficient, Word of God.
If truth be told, God will use it, for His Word will not return empty to Him, but will accomplish that for which He sent it forth.
Let’s go to this portion of Romans that the unknown writer at the gym misused, and find the truths in this very chapter that lead to life.
THE TRUTH ABOUT SIN
The first truth to tell is that which relates to sin. Sin is not an old-fashioned and out-dated word that has lost its pertinence and its meaning for a society that is enlightened and liberal in its thinking and living and has taken the attitude that any talk that sheds light on wrong is an expression of intolerance and won’t be tolerated.
Even Merriam Webster’s dictionary says that sin is:
A vitiated state of human nature in which the self is estranged from God.
The word ‘vitiate’ means to make or render useless. So Webster agrees with the Bible, which says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
There was recently a disturbance at our local High School that caused them to go into a ‘lockdown’ mode. Someone in the office got on the school intercom and began instructing students and teachers to get in their classrooms and lock the doors.
My daughter, who is in the R.O.T.C. program, later told me that other R.O.T.C. kids who had been spread around the school at the time reported that when the announcement was made students and teachers alike just stood, doing nothing, until they were coaxed by others to get moving and find a place of safety.
When people do not see or sense immediate danger to themselves they will usually need coaxing before they will move to defend themselves or remove themselves from the situation.
People are dead in their sin, and they will feel no need of a Savior until He awakens them to their need. They have to be warned, with the same urgency with which Christian in Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, went about pleading with people to leave the city that was about to be destroyed.
In our text verses we find very clear evidence that we all are in need of a Savior.
In verses 6 through 10 we are called ‘helpless’, we are called ‘sinners’, we are called ‘enemies’ of God. In verse 7 it is implied that we were all unrighteous, when Paul says that ‘one will hardly die for a righteous man’.
What’s he saying? He is saying that if one man knows another and knows him to be a good and honest and upright man, when he sees that man in danger he might give his life to save him. The truth about all of us though, is that there is none who is righteous.
We were all helpless, sinful, enemies of God, and while we were in that predicament is when God in His grace and mercy stooped down to help.
This needs to be told in our witness and it needs to be taught in the church.
THE TRUTH ABOUT CHRIST’S DEATH
Our text tells us that Christ died for us. Simply put, that is the help that came down from Heaven to rescue us from this useless, this vitiated state to which sin had taken us.
But instead of looking backward in time to the cross, let us in our imaginations go back in time and look forward to the cross. Back before the events of the Old Testament, back before history itself, back before sin, back before the world was.
God is. There can be no legitimate reference to God in past or future tense, as He simply is. Before this world, before He spoke the universe into existence, before He said, “Let there be light”, there was no need of created light for He Himself is the Light. We read about that in the book of John’s Revelation, that in the new heavens and new earth which He will create there will be no need of the sun by day nor the moon and stars by night for He will give light to all out of His glorious Self.
So go back now, as much as our puny minds will let us, back to when there was only God. Now I use the word ‘only’, but that is inaccurate.
God is complete in Himself. He is all, He fills all, there is none beside Him and there never needed to be anything or anyone but Him.
Does that boggle the mind? It might even strike our thinking as a little offensive, since we all like to think that we’re pretty indispensable and God did all that He did for us as though we deserved something.
But as Paul said to the philosophers, “God who made the world and all things in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands; neither is He served by human hands as though He Himself needed anything. For it is He who gives to all, life and breath and all things.”
So back when there was God and nothing else; no one else, the Divine Trinity loved perfectly and needed nothing.
There’s an old poem that starts out:
“And God stepped out on space,
And He looked around and said;
I’m lonely - -
I’ll make a world. THE CREATION – by James Weldon Johnson
No He didn’t! And no, He wasn’t!
There’s no place in the Bible that says God was ever lonely. He is perfectly fulfilled and complete in Himself. And where do we get that He stepped out on space? He existed before space!
And let’s get over any arrogant, self-aggrandizing nonsense that He created the world for us.
The Bible says “In the beginning God created”, not ‘God needed’, and in the writings of Isaiah we find:
Bring My sons from afar and My daughters from the ends of the earth, everyone who is called by My name, and whom I have created for My glory, (43:6-7)
God created for His glory and His alone. Remember, for Him and through Him and to Him are all things.
Are you there yet – back there with God when there was nothing else? In your imagination now, try to see the Persons of the Godhead; God taking counsel with His-selves (as some writer put it), and the Second Person of the Godhead saying, “I will go”.
Knowing all, perfectly, from eternity past, this is the great Love that IS God; the great eternal Love that is shown in Christ, …
…”But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”
In eternity past God determined to create for His glory a people who would sin against Him, war against Him, wallow in their pathetic helplessness brought about by their arrogant rebellion against holiness, and He determined that while they were in this miserable state He would shed His blood and die to redeem them – and at whatever point in eternity past that was determined is when it was a finished work, because when the mind of God decides, it is done and cannot be changed.
Then He became a baby, grew to Manhood, showed us the Father in Himself, and carried out in history what had been conceived in eternity. He died.
And if “…while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life.”
THE TRUTH ABOUT THE RESURRECTION
And there is where we have a reference in our text to the resurrection of Jesus.
If by His death we are reconciled, having been reconciled to God, we shall be saved by His life. Now that He is alive from the dead forevermore, our salvation, our eternity, is in Him.
Jesus is risen from the dead! Doesn’t that fall with joy on the ears after hearing so much about sin and uselessness and helplessness and separation from God?
It’s kind of like eating all your peas first just to get them out of the way, choking them down all the while, then taking a bite of the chicken. Ahhh…
What a relief. And not only is the chicken tender and juicy and tasty, but the peas are all gone. I don’t have to go back to them. As pertains to this meal, they are gone forever.
Be reminded once more of our trip to eternity past. This One who before Creation said ‘I will go’, has finished His work demonstrating God’s great love for us by shedding His blood and dying to save us from the wrath of Holy God, is now risen bodily and glorified out of the tomb, never to die again.
It is He who said, “…because I live, you will live also” Jn 14:19
If you have been faithful to tell someone that they are a sinner in need of a Savior, this is the joyful part you have earned the right to tell them next. Jesus died to pay the penalty for your sin, but death couldn’t keep Him. He rose from the dead. His is risen, for you! Only believe. If truth be told in the church, the resurrection of Christ and its provision for the believer must be taught.
THE TRUTH ABOUT JUSTIFICATION
If truth be told in the church it must include the doctrine of justification and it must not be done shallowly. I have known many people who when asked what justification is, can say ‘it’s just as if I never sinned’, but they do not know what the word ‘justified’ as used in the New Testament means.
To borrow from Boice, “Justification is an act of God by which he declares sinners to be righteous by grace alone through faith alone because of Christ alone.”
Therefore the Apostle at the beginning of our text chapter says, “…having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ”.
Now we know that faith is a gift from God, because in another place Paul teaches that we are saved by God’s grace through faith, and that faith that saves is itself God’s gift so that no man can lay claim to any work as part of his salvation.
Therefore, God gives faith to believe the Good News, declares us right with Him, and makes peace with us through the finished work of His Son Jesus on the cross. Did you hear anything in that giving any man or woman credit for any part? No, you did not.
Jesus made peace between us and God, then having made peace He ushered us into the presence of the Father to stand justified by His grace alone; and notice in verse 2 that the Apostle says ‘this grace in which we stand’. It is not later, it is now.
THE TRUTH ABOUT TRIBULATIONS
Now before I end I want to answer the question I would have asked my mystery workout partner, ‘hope in what?’
That’s only fair. But first we have to look at the hard part of this chapter and reconcile all of this good news with this disturbing phrase of Paul’s in verse 3.
We exult in our tribulations? Doesn’t exult mean something like ‘be joyful’? Yes, it does. It means to rejoice.
Now, I ask you; does this fly in the face of a lot of the teaching going around these days?
To listen to many of the voices coming from behind pulpits in our day, or to read their books and articles, you’d think that as soon as we become Christians we should be invincible, forever young, wealthy, happy, popular, fulfilled in every way, and of course they themselves appear to be all this, but only because stupid people give them their money. If you were able to get a close look at their private lives, and more importantly, a deep look into their hearts and minds, you would find a vastly different story.
You would find poverty and sickness and hypocrisy and all sorts of evil – for they are wolves, deceivers, false teachers, demonic and teaching demonic lies.
How can we teach a gospel of prosperity and wealth and ease, when the men who gave us the Bible went about destitute, living in tents, despised, beaten, imprisoned, starved; and rejoiced with singing and praises to God right up to the headsman’s block or the cross and nails that awaited them?
What did they know that we so easily forget, if we’ve ever learned? They knew what Paul was talking about when he said that tribulation brings perseverance; and perseverance proven character; and proven character, hope.
Christians, if you remember nothing else from this sermon today please remember this. Paul only knew this – other ministers of the Word only know this – Christians around the world who understand this, only know and understand, because they’ve lived it.
Suffering under persecution, the trials of life, tribulation that the enemy brings in his attacks, when met with faith and the knowledge that it is for Christ that one suffers, will build endurance. Endurance for what? For the next trial! For the continued work of ministry, which, if it really is in the name of Jesus and led by His Spirit will most certainly result in more suffering.
But that endurance that comes by faith and patience through the trial builds character; it proves character.
Mother Teresa humorously said that she knew God wouldn’t give her more trouble than she could handle, but wished He wouldn’t trust her so much.
But she is remembered for her diligence and faithfulness to her work. She is known for her strength of Christian character, proven through the things she patiently endured.
“For what credit is there if, when you sin and are harshly treated, you endure it with patience? But if when you do what is right and suffer for it you patiently endure it, this finds favor with God.” 1 Peter 2:20
The rejoicing in tribulation Paul speaks of is infinitely higher than that of one happy in the exercise of his physical body. And the perseverance and endurance that come with faithful waiting through trials for Christ’s sake, are of an eternal worth and value. For they nourish and strengthen hope.
THE TRUTH ABOUT HOPE
And here is where I will answer the question, “Hope in what?’
Actually, I’ll let the Apostle answer, from verse 2.
“…we rejoice in hope of the glory of God”
This is speaking of your future, believer! It is not merely to see God’s glory, but to enter into it! “When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.” Colossians 3:4
It amazes me that Paul was able to write that in his letter to the Colossians and not end the sentence with an exclamation mark!
And this is why he talks of tribulation here. It is a necessary part of the Christian life. It is the Christian life in this world, because this world hates Christ. If there is no tribulation in your life, stop rejoicing.
Why can we rejoice? Because our hope – that sure and certain thing to which we look forward – is glorification with our Lord. So we rejoice, we suffer, we exercise faith and patience and thus grow in Christian maturity and in relationship with Him who suffered so much for us. We sense His approval of our steadfastness in trial, and at the other end of the tribulation, we rejoice again; because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us, who lives in us, who points and draws us ever and always closer to Christ.
Can you see why this cannot be conveyed on a t-shirt or a bumper-sticker…
…or a dry erase board…?
Christians, when you talk to your unchurched and unsaved friends and family, tell them they have to hear you to the end, because just like any story the best part is at the end.
You have to start with their sin, their death, Christ’s death in their place; His death caused by their guilt. But once they’ve understood you get to tell them that Jesus is alive forevermore, and no matter what their lot in this world, and no matter what life brings, no matter how death comes, for the believer there remains the promise that because He lives, they too shall live, and their everlasting future is glorification with Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation with God.
This is the message of the church, my friends.
If truth be told, this is what will be heard.
If truth be told, God will save and grow His chosen ones.
If truth be told, there will be opposition from the enemy, but the blessing of the Holy Spirit will rest on true ministry and uphold the truth of the Word; and in the end, there will be the realization of our unfailing hope of the glory of God.
Let truth be told.
