Romans chapter 5, we're going to be reading from verse 1 through to 11.
Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.
And we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
Not only that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance,
and endurance produces character, and character produces hope.
And hope does not put us to shame, because God's love has been poured into our hearts
through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
For while we were weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.
For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.
But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
For if while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son,
much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.
More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ,
through whom we have now received reconciliation.
I want to begin this morning with a quotation from John Dixon,
whose name will be familiar to most of you,
but part of a bigger section I printed in the bulletin this week, or prepared for the bulletin.
So just listen up as I read it to you.
John Dixon says this,
Early in my Christian life, I was quite blown away by the thought of God's love.
But then things fell apart,
and suddenly I had to confront one of the biggest problems in my Christian life.
Did God love me after all?
Struggling to be committed to God, I had this dark cloud hanging over me.
It was horrible.
For months and months, I felt guilt and doubt,
more guilt, greater doubt, even more guilt.
I remember crying out to God a number of times,
Why don't you love me?
As I meet more and more Christians in my travels,
I'm realizing that my experience back then was quite common.
Many of God's people get caught in a trap where they lose sight of God's love for them in Christ.
Friends, I suspect this same dark cloud has settled on all of us here this morning,
at some time or other.
I definitely know it sits heavily on some believers listening in this morning.
And it's a black cloud.
Well, I want to tell you this morning that Paul's letters to the Christians at Rome
is crafted especially for you, if you're in that situation.
Because as Paul addresses their questions and struggles in the way he structures the letter,
he actually anticipated your questions and struggles and my questions and struggles.
So let's do some revision and see this.
Beck's already sort of done some revision for us this morning.
That's been helpful.
So we look at chapters 1 to 4.
Paul begins where all believers begin.
Chapter 1, verse 16.
Incredible excitement about God's powerful gospel.
God's powerful way to save sinners.
We've understood our desperate need for the gospel of Jesus because we recognize that our unrighteousness
or our failure to live in the light of what we knew about God meant we were under his wrath,
under his condemnation.
We were in big trouble.
Then we've delighted to discover that God has provided an alternative pathway to righteousness
through Jesus who has done for us that which we could never do for ourselves.
Dealt with our sin and made us acceptable to God.
Brought us back into relationship with God.
And all this simply by faith or by taking God at his word or taking God's promises at face value.
It's quite a remarkable story.
We've been there as Christians.
We've experienced it.
We've loved it.
But then the fears and doubts start.
We look at our failures on any given day, any given week, and we start to ask,
well, can I be sure that given my ongoing failures,
can I be sure that God just won't get tired of me?
Can I be sure that I just won't, as it were, wear out his love, exhausted?
Can I be sure he won't drop me in frustration?
Dare I think?
Can I be sure he won't drop me in anger?
And despair?
Can I be sure I will not crash and burn as I struggle on any given day to serve God and be the person I want to be in response to my heavenly father's grace and my life?
And that takes us into chapter 5 then.
And this is exactly, that dilemma is exactly what Paul addresses.
And he does that by listing one after the other.
I said last week, he piles them up one upon the other.
The benefits or guarantee or security of being justified, of being declared to be back in relationship with God.
Last Sunday, we started in chapter 5, we explored some immediate benefits.
We said last week that the gospel means a radical change in the way God views us.
In Jesus, we have a new standing.
So now the relationship is defined by peace.
No longer is there any hostility in it.
There's new intimacy and privilege.
God actually adopts us into his own family.
He gives us unrestricted access to himself.
And we have unrestricted access to the privileges and blessings of the Lord Jesus.
And we have a new orientation.
We're now bound for glory instead of bound for condemnation.
Bound for glory with the prospect of being with Jesus in heaven and being like Jesus.
Bound for glory with the Lord Jesus.
And it's in that context, so in verse 4 last week, that we can actually appreciate difficult and painful circumstances as they come to us.
Knowing they are what God uses to draw us closer to himself.
To make us more like himself.
And the process here becomes a cycle, a pattern that's self-affirming.
The more we see that happening, the more we experience these painful circumstances, the more we see ourselves developing that character, that Christ-like character that we so long for.
Which confirms that the hope of glory is real.
Little by little, we're moving towards it.
Because that's what God promised.
Well, this morning we continue to explore the gospel benefits listed in verses 5 to 11.
And these benefits, I think, address our deepest fears.
And they give gospel guarantee that in spite of daily struggle, in spite of constant failures,
we will make it home to heaven to experience glory or the fullness of our hope.
My friends, God will finish what he has started by bringing us into good relationship with himself.
He will bring us home to heaven and make us like him.
Now, what's the basis of that guarantee or certainty or security?
Well, in verses 5 to 8 we say that God has already proved his forever love for you.
Now, I mentioned last week that God actually adopts us into his family.
Well, I want to say a little bit more about that now.
Because parents who adopt a child then go to great lengths to help their adopted child be loved and secure in their new family relationship.
They consciously work hard at it.
They know the background of that child.
They want their adopted child to sense an inner commitment and deep affection which is unbreakable.
They want that child to know that never again will they be abandoned.
And they want to reinforce that inner conviction with outward practical demonstrations of their affection and commitment.
Well, that's exactly what God has done for you and me, his adopted children.
He actually proves or confirms and reinforces the reality of his unconditional, unchanging, unfading love.
He does it first by inner confirmation of the Holy Spirit.
Look at verse 5.
Hope never puts us to shame or will never disappoint us.
Because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
That's a very powerful picture word there, isn't it?
God's love has been poured.
Great bucketfuls of God's love has just been poured in till we're filled to the brim.
That's the picture.
God has put his spirit in us.
And one of his jobs, one of his Holy Spirit's jobs, is to pour a sense of God's love into our hearts.
Filling us to the brim, as I say, so that we're vividly and inwardly aware that God loves us.
That there's an unbreakable bond that is so totally committed to us as his saved children.
Ephesians chapter 1, verse 13 to 14.
You can go and check it out for yourself.
And Paul describes there that the Holy Spirit, the presence and changing activity within us,
as God's deposit and guarantee on his salvation contract.
So the deposit and guarantee is like a contract language.
Like you're buying a house that the purchase is secured when the deposit's paid and the contract's signed.
Well, the Holy Spirit is God's deposit and guarantee of his salvation contract or promise.
What promise?
That we will be loved forever.
And that all his blessings will come.
In other words, to use the word here, hope of glory.
In John chapter 6, 8 to 13, the apostle John uses a different description.
He describes how God's spirit is constantly working in his saved people to create conviction of sin and truth.
And from this, says John, confidence of being in God's family and bound for glory.
Now that's a bit more strange to us, I think, because it's not really how we normally think of God convicting us and giving us assurance.
But here's how it works.
I want you to ask yourself, just go back in your mind, just quickly go back in your mind.
Why is it that you're now so very worried about your sin when you weren't worried about it before you become a Christian?
Why?
Answer.
Because God's spirit is working within you to make you like God.
And he does that by helping you see the things that God hates so that you also hate them, and I also hate them,
and helping you see the things that God loves and wants.
So that we also want those things.
See how character develops?
Proven character.
You're concerned, my friend, about your sin.
Hear this really, really careful, because I think we don't hear it.
Your concern about your sin is evidence that you have God's spirit already working in you, and evidence of God's forever love.
You see, we often rob ourselves of this benefit.
And it's a wonderful benefit that we rob ourselves of it, because we actually assume that when we experience God's spirit working within us,
it will be a warm, fuzzy feeling.
And peace will just be dreamy and hassle-free.
Living.
But that's not what the Bible tells us.
I mean, there will be times like that.
But given our sinfulness, it's not going to be predominantly that.
In fact, it may be anything but that.
The reality is that conviction of truth and sin is hard.
It's painful.
I don't like to on my sin.
I don't like to admit that I'm capable of that, even while I say this about the Lord Jesus.
So conviction of sin, by the Holy Spirit in my life, needs to be painful, because I'm a slow, reluctant learner.
It's painful to face.
It's harder to act on.
But it's nonetheless testimony to God's love, having been poured into your life in great back-upfuls,
that God pursues you so that you do see your sin, so that you do come to hate it,
and that you do want to do something about it and seek God's character in your life.
Or again, some might say more positively than Eeyore up here, does it?
Ask yourself, what of that time when suddenly a promise from God,
just when you're reading the Bible, suddenly a verse or a promise leaps out at you.
You've read it dozens of times, and yet you think, hang on a sec, I've never seen that before.
I've never registered that before.
I've never been able to apply it to myself in a way before.
Perhaps it showcases the Lord Jesus in a way you hadn't seen him before,
or showcases the love of the Father,
or showcases your own sin in a way you hadn't seen it before,
or does something that deepens your longing for heaven and affection for Christ.
Well, my friends, again, this is the hidden persuasion of God through the Holy Spirit,
which floods our hearts.
That's the picture.
It just sweeps over you like a flash flood.
Making us profoundly grateful for God's grace,
and giving us confidence in God's promises of glory to come,
even in hard times,
and in the midst of our failures.
Go back to verse 5 again.
Ask for verse 5.
Hope does not put us to shame.
God says,
I promise
you will
experience glory.
We will never be disappointed by God's promise,
because he has reinforced that promise by pouring,
putting the Holy Spirit within us,
to pour his love into our hearts on a daily basis.
As I said before,
great bucketfuls of God's love.
Just topping up,
because it leaks out in the way we think about life,
and experience life.
Always topped up,
never disappointing us.
Well,
the second way in which God operates
is by outward demonstration,
verses 6 to 8.
Now,
we all know the saying.
I've heard it many times from Alison in my marriage,
to my shame.
Don't just say you love me.
Show you love me.
So,
what does God's actions
demonstrate about the nature
and extent
of his love for his people?
Well,
verses 6 through to 8.
While we were still weak,
at the right time,
or the most judicious time,
Christ died for the ungodly.
one would scarcely die for a righteous person.
That's a person who had something going for them
that was really worthwhile dying for.
Though,
perhaps,
for a
reasonable person,
one would dare even to die.
But God shows his love for us in this,
that while we were still sinners,
Christ died for us.
My friends,
in that sentence,
we're told that God's love
was all in.
born and expressed
an incredible cost to himself.
Even more amazing,
it was a totally unique love.
As the picture gives us here,
we are highly unlikely
to give up our life
for someone we thought
had lots going for them.
Let alone a down and out
living under some bridge
or some serial rapist
or murderer.
But God acts to love
and save those
who are totally
offensive to him.
Who have nothing at all
to commend themselves
to him.
Just look at these verses
and see how God viewed us
before he poured his love
onto us.
We were powerless.
It's a strange word
because at the same time,
we were aggressively committed.
We were powerless.
And yet we were aggressively
committed to treating God
with indifference
or veiled contempt.
That was at best.
And at worst,
just treating God
as an enemy.
Ignoring.
Rejecting.
Despising his authority.
Despising that
he described
and defined
and offered to us
as the good life.
In response,
verse 10,
God declared us
to be his enemies.
Those with whom
he would have nothing
to do
except hostility.
What sort of God
would love people
like you and me
who are so
unlovely,
so undeserving,
so horrible
in the way
that we treated him
before we were converted.
And all the while,
like Nemo,
being totally oblivious
to the predicament
we were in.
And we're told here
that knowing
all of this,
knowing the very worst
about us,
Jesus died
for the likes
of you and me.
That's a pretty
strong demonstration
of love.
Friends,
God has proved
the nature
and extent
of his love
for you
as Jesus
went to the cross.
And since
his commitment
to you
was made initially,
knowing the worst
about you,
then
he's not going
to change his mind
about you.
It's not as if
we get into
the relationship
a couple of years
and he thinks,
oh,
blimey,
Charlie,
if I'd known then
what I know now
about Calderwood,
I would never
have started
this relationship.
That's how
everybody else
reacts to me.
But not the Lord,
thankfully.
He knew the worst
about me
when he committed
to me.
He's not going
to change his mind.
Nothing draws
a loving response
from a wife
more than
when a husband
leads off
with a selfless,
constant,
costly,
unconditional love.
So my friends,
I say to you this morning,
if anything,
if anything
will find
your trust in God,
your desire for God,
your delight in God,
then surely
understanding
something of the
nature and extent
of God's love
will be it.
So the second
part of our
certainty
or guarantee
of getting
your glory
is that
if you're a Christian,
then God's
already done
the hard part.
The rest
is easy.
Picking up
verses 9 to 11.
If you see
a high jumper
clearing
the bar
at 2 metres,
then you've
got pretty
great confidence
that he'll be
able to clear
the bar
at 300 mils.
In other words,
having achieved
the much harder
task,
the easier
is just a matter
of course.
And that's
exactly what
Paul's argument
is in verses
9 to 11.
Since
God has
already
at great
cost
reconciled
his enemies,
then there
is no doubt
whatsoever
that he will
keep his
friends.
Since he has
reconciled his
enemies,
that he has
made his
enemies into
his friends,
then there is
no doubt
that he will
actually keep
those friends
as friends.
since he's
already done
the much
harder work
of dealing
with our
sin,
adopting us
into his
family with
unrestricted
privilege and
blessing,
how much
more will he
do the
easier part
of bringing
his renewed
people home to
glory?
him.
How do we
know that
for sure?
Well, go
back again to
Jesus.
It's all about
Jesus.
Because of
Christ's death,
Jesus died
for us.
Jesus paid
the penalty
for our
sins.
that, we've
already seen
in the
early chapters,
removed all
causes of
hostility on
God's part,
enabling him
to accept
me just
as if I'd
justified,
just as if
I'd never
ever sinned.
The benefit
of Christ's
death in
the past,
which you
and I
as Christians
currently
enjoy,
is also
the guarantee
that we
will make
it to
heaven.
So it's
Christ's
death, but
it's also
because of
Christ's
life,
verse 10.
For if
while we
were enemies
were reconciled
to God
by the
death of
his son,
much more
now that
we are
reconciled,
shall we
be saved
by his
life.
life?
The fact
that Christ
rose from
the dead
and is
now alive
in heaven
is proof
that his
death was
sufficient
to deal
with all
the sin
and penalty
due to,
sorry,
all the sin,
all the penalty
of the sin
due to his
people,
and evidence
that all
God's wrath
has been
dealt with
and soaked
up,
never more
to be seen
in the
relationship.
In other
words,
if soaking
up God's
anger
and paying
the penalty
for sin
was why
Jesus died,
then the
fact that he
was resurrected
or he came
back from
the dead
shows that
all that
wrath,
all that
sin has
been dealt
with,
and there's
no reason
therefore for
Jesus to
stay dead
as it were.
His
resurrection
is proof
that he
achieved
what he
intended
to achieve
in his
death,
that is,
the
reconciliation
of his
enemies,
turning his
enemies into
friends,
bringing them
into his
family,
his adopted
children.
But even
more,
his presence
before God
with the
marks of
death and
the cross
still in
his body
is actually
a visible
reminder
to God
that all
his people
that have
been bought
back,
and restored
to family
membership
and family
privilege.
Friends,
I hope
you can
say something
of the
assurance
that is
ours
as Christ
believing
people.
This is
just not
sentimental
optimism.
This is
fact,
this is
logic.
this is
the statement
of God
himself.
Any
problem we
have
with a
lack of
assurance
is usually
of our
own making,
not because
God has
done something
that is
uncertain.
And here's
what I think
the problem
is.
Too often
we focus
on the
death of
Christ,
Christ.
And that's
a good
thing to
focus on
because we
know that
on the
death of
Christ we
have entered
into good
relationship
with God.
But too
often also
we forget
about the
ongoing life
of Jesus,
his resurrection
life in
heaven,
which guarantees
that what
God started
back there
at the cross
will be
completed in
the future
in glory,
in heaven.
We need
to remind
ourselves that
since God
has done the
hardest thing
in changing
us from
enemies into
family members
through the
death of
Christ,
then the
easiest part
is it
where of
Jesus reminding
the Father
that all his
people have
been secured
and the job
of keeping us
to heaven
will also
happen.
So here's
the problem
in a nutshell.
we often
think separately
about our
being justified
and our
being glorified
or brought
to heaven
and made
like Jesus.
See, we
separate
what God
keeps together
inseparably.
Justification
ends in
glorification.
It's not
justification
then you're
left on your
own whether
you're good
or bad
or indifferent.
Justification
means glorification.
He will
never do
one without
the other
in your
life.
In fact,
if you're a
believer,
you can say
with confidence
that having
done one,
he will
do the
other.
peace,
adoption
into his
family,
the enjoyment
of all the
privileges that
are Jesus's,
the certainty
of being with
Jesus,
being like
Jesus,
and all
this
demonstrated
and constantly
reaffirmed
as God
pours his
love into
us on a
daily basis
by the
Holy Spirit
and
demonstrated
his love
for us
in Jesus.
All that
demonstrates
God's
unconditional
forever
committed
love for
us.
Friends,
it's a bit
of a cliche
but I tell
you,
it doesn't
get any
better than
that.
Join me
in prayer.
It really
doesn't get
any better
than that.
Lord,
we struggle
even to
articulate
it.
We struggle
even more
to make
sure we
keep on
experiencing
it.
We just
find it so
hard to
take you
at your
word.
We keep
separating
that which
you have
put together.
It's as if
we think
we've been
brought back
into good
relationship
with you
and then
you leave
us flailing
around in
our own
devices and
our own
resources.
But Lord,
help us to
see that what
you start,
you finish.
You've
justified us
and you
will glorify
us.
You've
called us to
yourself here
in this
world and
you will
call us
home to
yourself in
heaven.
Help us
to believe
that.
Help us
to delight
in you
because of
it.
Help us
to be
safe and
secure in
it.
in
Jesus'
name I
pray.
Amen.
Thank you
very much.