back to index2016-06-05 Saved From His Wrath
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Alright, if you can turn your Bibles with me to Romans chapter 5. 00:00:21.860 |
Since therefore we have been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by 00:00:27.500 |
For while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son. 00:00:31.260 |
Much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life. 00:00:35.440 |
More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have 00:00:44.660 |
Gracious and loving Father, we thank You so much for today. 00:00:48.500 |
And just the great privilege that we have to call You our Alba Father. 00:00:52.780 |
And we're able to pray to You, not because of our own strength, because of our own righteousness, 00:01:02.500 |
That He has mercy, that He's able to sympathize with our weaknesses, that we may not fear 00:01:10.380 |
So we pray, Father God, that we would take that privilege and that we would apply it 00:01:14.740 |
even this morning, Lord God, as we worship You and listen to Your Word. 00:01:20.620 |
Last week I finished the sermon by asking you the question of why. 00:01:25.260 |
We talked about who loves us, when He loved us, how He loved us, and then we said why, 00:01:31.020 |
but then I kind of threw the question out there for you to hopefully you guys had some 00:01:35.620 |
If not, at least by yourself you kind of took some time to think about why does He love 00:01:42.140 |
We know who He is, and the fact that the God of the universe has us in His mind, that fact 00:01:48.580 |
alone should wow us and impress us and change us. 00:01:52.700 |
But when you consider when He loved us, not because we had potential, not because we were 00:01:58.500 |
righteous on our own, we said while we were yet sinners, while we were yet His enemies. 00:02:04.380 |
And then how He loved us, that His expression of love was to send His only begotten Son, 00:02:08.820 |
His most precious gift that He has, and to offer it up as a sacrifice for our sins. 00:02:18.220 |
And just like when we're young, if you're raising young children, as soon as they're 00:02:21.780 |
able to talk, one of the first things that they start asking you is why. 00:02:31.860 |
If you don't get rest, you're not going to go to school. 00:02:33.860 |
If you don't go to school, you're not going to get educated. 00:02:35.860 |
And they keep asking why and why, and then at some point it's like, just because. 00:02:45.940 |
You're naturally curious because, I think that's human nature. 00:02:49.140 |
If you don't understand something, you would ask why. 00:02:52.180 |
But for some reason, at some point in our maturity, we stop asking that question. 00:03:08.280 |
At some point, we get to a point where it's like, stop asking why, you just do it. 00:03:16.980 |
I came to this church and they were doing it, so I did it. 00:03:24.740 |
And so after a while, you don't even know why you're doing it. 00:03:30.620 |
You were raised in a Christian home, this church happens to do this, and everybody else 00:03:34.940 |
And so, it's like, I guess that's what you're supposed to do as a Christian. 00:03:39.260 |
But the question of why is at the foundation of what we're doing. 00:03:43.860 |
So if you don't know why you're doing what you're doing, then it's absolutely meaningless. 00:03:48.300 |
If you don't know why you're coming to worship God, then you may not really be worshipping 00:03:55.620 |
You just do it because everybody else did it. 00:04:01.060 |
That's why it's extremely important to us when we talk about the Gospel, like Jesus 00:04:04.380 |
Christ died for us, and we just accept that, we sing about it, we share with other people. 00:04:09.060 |
But the fundamental question, when somebody tells you that they gave their only begotten 00:04:13.020 |
son to die for you, wouldn't the most important question be why? 00:04:20.460 |
If I told you I had a hundred million dollars I want to give to you, I think the first question 00:04:29.460 |
First of all, do you have a hundred million dollars? 00:04:35.620 |
Because if you don't ask why, you're not going to get it like, "Okay, you know, like, what 00:04:41.540 |
I mean, He offered His only begotten Son while we were yet sinners to reconcile us so that 00:04:46.980 |
we can call Him our Abba Father and have eternity with Him. 00:04:51.820 |
And then we don't contemplate the question of why. 00:04:54.860 |
Now, some of you guys may have, you know, as soon as we finished last week, I heard 00:05:00.500 |
some of you guys saying, like, "Oh, it's for the glory of God," and I heard various, you 00:05:04.860 |
know, discussions going on, and all of these things are true. 00:05:10.820 |
Because David himself says in Psalm 3, contemplating his love for Him in Israel, he said, "When 00:05:17.460 |
I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars which you have set 00:05:21.340 |
in place, what is man that you are mindful of him, and the Son of Man that you care for 00:05:28.380 |
He just looks at who God is, and why He's so patient and merciful, he said, "Why do 00:05:35.460 |
He says, "See, it's this mystery that Paul is talking about in Ephesians, saying, "I'm 00:05:42.420 |
praying that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened." 00:05:44.980 |
And he prays at the end of chapter 3 that you may have the, you may be able to comprehend 00:05:50.500 |
the height and width and length and depth of the love of Christ, that you may be filled 00:05:56.740 |
So their whole pursuit of God is trying to understand why. 00:06:05.220 |
It's important for us to see that, because that's what Paul's trying to, he was trying 00:06:09.340 |
He's trying to set the foundation for your understanding, because if we get to the imperatives, 00:06:13.740 |
chapter 12, and say, "Hey, you should do this. 00:06:16.540 |
You should give your bodies a living sacrifice. 00:06:22.460 |
If we get to that, get to, "Hey, you should, this is how you ought to live," which is extremely 00:06:28.940 |
Because that's what, those are in the Bible too. 00:06:31.460 |
But if we get to that without really contemplating and wrestling with why, then you're going 00:06:45.540 |
But sooner or later, sooner or later, something's going to happen in your life. 00:06:51.140 |
You're going to, tragedy's going to happen, or you're going to get laid off of the job, 00:06:54.660 |
and then you're going to, you're going to have a, God's going to force you to take a 00:06:57.140 |
step back, and then you're going to be contemplating, "Why am I doing this? 00:07:07.380 |
So Paul has been trying to wrestle with this and teach us what's going on to get us to 00:07:13.300 |
be contemplating and thinking and meditating so that we would have no understanding of 00:07:18.020 |
the depth of what it is that we already have in Christ. 00:07:21.380 |
So up to this point, he's been talking about justification. 00:07:24.720 |
So now, starting from verse 9, he's going to be talking about, "If you have been justified, 00:07:34.160 |
So if you look at verse 9, he says, "Since therefore we have now been justified by His 00:07:38.760 |
blood, since now you have been the recipient of this love, how much more shall we be saved 00:07:47.640 |
So the first and foremost that he says in verse 9, you understand it, is that you've 00:07:56.000 |
You know, the way that people come to Christ today, the way that the Gospel is presented, 00:08:00.280 |
if we're not careful, is that Jesus becomes a solution to our loneliness. 00:08:06.720 |
Or Jesus can be presented as a solution to economic problems, or political issues, or 00:08:15.240 |
There's so many poor people in the world and all of these things, I think, are connected 00:08:20.040 |
But if the primary problem of mankind was economics, He would have sent an MBA. 00:08:27.960 |
If the primary problem was the government, He would have sent a politician. 00:08:32.560 |
But the primary problem of mankind was His sin. 00:08:36.640 |
So he says, "If you've been justified by His blood, how much more would you have been 00:08:43.680 |
First and foremost, the most primary thing that you and I need to understand about our 00:08:47.480 |
salvation is now we have been delivered from the wrath of God. 00:08:53.480 |
So when we contemplate and think about, you know, we've been delivered by the wrath of 00:08:57.960 |
God, like, again, don't say anything, but how does that affect you? 00:09:02.680 |
My guess is most of you are affected intellectually. 00:09:13.400 |
The reason why is because we never felt the brunt of His wrath. 00:09:21.400 |
So when we say you've been saved from the wrath of God, it's just a theory. 00:09:29.660 |
But you weren't really delivered or you don't really feel like you were delivered because 00:09:33.240 |
you didn't understand, you and I did not understand what it is that we were under. 00:09:38.640 |
It's kind of like, you know, when you travel outside of the country that you're in, you 00:09:45.640 |
don't realize exactly what it is that we have until you go to a poor country. 00:09:49.880 |
And again, like Pastor Peter Troom, his job is to take people into the poorest parts of 00:09:54.840 |
the world and show how they need Christ and how they need help. 00:10:02.320 |
But part of the benefit of that is that you come back and whatever it is that you have, 00:10:06.600 |
you see it in a different light because of that. 00:10:10.280 |
See, first and foremost, if we don't see our salvation as deliverance from His wrath, and 00:10:18.040 |
we see salvation as Him answering our prayers so that we can go to a better school or He's 00:10:22.840 |
going to help us with our marriage or we're going to have, you know, so many, so many 00:10:27.600 |
And so as soon as He doesn't answer that, it's like, well, how come He doesn't answer? 00:10:32.400 |
Without realizing the fact that you and I are delivered from the wrath of God, that 00:10:37.000 |
in and of itself is the greatest declaration of His love for us. 00:10:42.240 |
Even if we don't make a single cent, even if we lose all our jobs and are sick and die 00:10:46.400 |
early, we would owe our eternity to praise Him because we've been saved by, from His 00:10:54.760 |
So that's why when we look at the book of Romans, when Paul is going to the detail of 00:10:59.320 |
the gospel message, how does he begin the gospel message? 00:11:07.820 |
What is the message that Paul gives about the gospel? 00:11:10.320 |
Today, again, you know, we want as many people to come in and hear the gospel so we try to 00:11:17.440 |
And maybe if we said this, the people are going to be offended. 00:11:19.960 |
And so we kind of highlight His love and grace and then we kind of downplay His judgment 00:11:25.400 |
The concept of hell, I mean, I do hear it, but it's not as prominent as maybe it used 00:11:33.440 |
Paul presents the gospel and he begins from the very beginning chapter. 00:11:39.240 |
In Romans chapter 118, "For the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all 00:11:43.280 |
ungodliness, unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth." 00:11:48.920 |
Just in case somebody read that and was thinking, "Oh yeah, those people, right? 00:11:54.160 |
Those pagans who have orgies and sacrifice their children, they're under the wrath of 00:12:02.680 |
Those who are under the law will be judged by the law. 00:12:05.300 |
Those who are not under the law will be judged outside of the law. 00:12:11.040 |
Again, Romans 2.5, "But because of your hard and impenitent heart, you are storing up wrath 00:12:16.800 |
for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed." 00:12:22.360 |
"But for those who are self-seeking and do not obey the truth but obey unrighteousness, 00:12:33.960 |
Again in Matthew 3.7, John the Baptist, when he saw the Pharisees coming, he said to them, 00:12:41.320 |
"You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come?" 00:12:45.840 |
Not only Paul, Jesus himself says in Matthew 5.29.30, "If your right eye causes you to 00:12:58.400 |
He said, "If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out. 00:13:02.360 |
It's better to go into heaven and avoid hell because of that." 00:13:06.520 |
Verse 30, "And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away." 00:13:13.320 |
So the imagery that Jesus is giving to his people is that that's how hideous his wrath 00:13:23.160 |
You know, we kind of try to create hell and to take the edges off of hell so that, you 00:13:29.480 |
Like God just withdraws himself, so it's just a bad, dark place. 00:13:34.160 |
Bible describes hell as created by God to punish the devil and his angels and his followers. 00:13:43.160 |
And whoever chooses to worship the devil are going to have the same punishment under them. 00:13:48.520 |
So hell isn't simply God just kind of like, "Ah, I'm just going to walk away." 00:13:52.920 |
The Bible describes it as his wrath poured out. 00:13:56.360 |
He created hell just as much as he created heaven. 00:14:00.200 |
That's why he doesn't just say he delivered us from wrath. 00:14:03.480 |
He says it delivered us from his wrath, his divine wrath. 00:14:08.880 |
See, without understanding where we stand before God without Christ, grace wouldn't 00:14:20.400 |
We make grace out to whatever we think grace ought to be. 00:14:25.160 |
You know, you can have people pour their lives into you, your parents or whoever, and if 00:14:29.680 |
they don't give you what you want, they did nothing for you. 00:14:33.800 |
So grace becomes whatever we think grace is, but without understanding what it is exactly 00:14:42.280 |
Packer says in his book, Knowing God, of God's wrath, he says, "God's wrath is never the 00:14:46.960 |
capricious, self-indulgent, irritable, morally ignoble thing that human anger so often is. 00:14:53.240 |
It is instead a right and necessary to objective moral evil." 00:15:00.600 |
Hell isn't just God saying, "I had enough and I'm just going to banish you." 00:15:07.360 |
Hell according to scripture was reserved for punishment. 00:15:12.960 |
Right now we live in a period of grace where God, the Bible says that he is withholding 00:15:21.480 |
But as the scripture says, "It is appointed for all men to die once. 00:15:28.640 |
So in Revelation 6, 15-17, it says, "Then when Jesus comes, the kings of the earth and 00:15:34.120 |
the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful and everyone, slave and free, 00:15:39.280 |
hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks and in the mountains." 00:15:42.800 |
Again, from our perspective, when we think of his second coming, he's going to come and 00:15:48.280 |
There's going to be a wedding ceremony to redeem his church glorification. 00:15:53.720 |
But for the world who does not know him, the Bible says when he comes, you would think 00:16:01.120 |
But that's not what the book of Revelation says. 00:16:03.840 |
The book of Revelation says that when he comes in his full glory, that he's not coming as 00:16:13.360 |
The Bible says that he's going to be coming in his rightful throne of king of kings and 00:16:22.380 |
And now he will divide the wheat and the tares. 00:16:25.440 |
He will divide between the sheep and the goat. 00:16:27.920 |
So when he comes, he comes to redeem and to judge. 00:16:32.680 |
And those whose names have not been found in the book of life will go on into eternity 00:16:39.360 |
So the Bible describes him when he comes in verse 16, they said, calling to the mountains 00:16:44.480 |
of rock, fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne and from 00:16:53.520 |
One of the greatest parts of the gospel that illustrated is the Lion of Judah, the coming. 00:16:59.520 |
And they turn around, they see instead of a lion, they see a lamb who comes meek, the 00:17:05.000 |
king of kings and lord of lords who comes meek as a lamb to be offered as a sacrifice 00:17:10.440 |
And yet at the end times, they see a picture of the lamb as a judge, the wrath of the lamb 00:17:19.720 |
for the great day of the wrath has come and who can stand it again? 00:17:27.240 |
Because we don't think, you know, we just kind of like hell is like, oh, we know it's 00:17:34.880 |
We know that every single one of us has an expiration date, but we don't like to think 00:17:42.060 |
And it's kind of like the way that we approach hell. 00:17:45.260 |
We know that the opposite side of the cross is hell. 00:17:50.880 |
It's, it's mentioned in the Bible, but we don't really consider and contemplate and 00:17:59.720 |
I think when Jesus came, the whole book of the old Testament was to, was to prepare for 00:18:07.780 |
And the way that God prepared the Messiah to come is to pour upon his wrath. 00:18:13.760 |
He the beginning of the nation's Israel's history. 00:18:16.360 |
He warned them, if you do not obey my commandments, here's curse upon curse, upon curse, upon 00:18:23.020 |
So if you follow Israel's history, Israel's history, basically Israel piling upon themselves, 00:18:34.320 |
And so at the end of the book of Malachi, the last prophet prophesies and he's done, 00:18:43.400 |
If God is faithful to everything that he said at the beginning of Israel, woe is us, woe 00:18:50.860 |
Because the only way that Jesus is going to make any sense, if they recognize the wrath 00:18:57.640 |
But when Jesus came, that's not what they were looking for. 00:19:03.180 |
They didn't realize that they were under the wrath of God. 00:19:06.860 |
They thought Jesus was going to come, we're the apple of his eye, even though they were 00:19:09.680 |
seeped in their sin, no matter how much they try to keep the law, they can rub off the 00:19:14.360 |
dirt that was piled on from generation to generation. 00:19:19.280 |
Not recognizing that the King, the judge has come. 00:19:25.560 |
The only beings that we see in scripture that seem to have recognized who Jesus was, were 00:19:32.720 |
When demons encounter Jesus, look at what they say, Luke chapter 4, 33-34. 00:19:38.240 |
And in the synagogue there was a man who had the spirit of the unclean demon and he cried 00:19:43.280 |
out with a loud voice, "Ha, what have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? 00:19:53.720 |
The demons didn't see Jesus and say, "Oh, finally, maybe we'll have some deliverance, 00:20:01.820 |
They knew immediately as they saw him and recognized that he was the Holy One of God, 00:20:13.400 |
When he came to the other side to the country of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men 00:20:17.560 |
met him, coming out of the tomb so fierce that no one could pass away. 00:20:23.000 |
And behold, they cried, "What have you to do with us, O Son of God? 00:20:28.000 |
Have you come here to torment us before the time?" 00:20:32.680 |
Isn't that incredible that the demons already knew that the time of torture was coming? 00:20:38.320 |
As soon as they recognized Jesus, what did they do? 00:20:40.640 |
They fall on the ground on their knees in terror. 00:20:43.560 |
"Have you come before your time to torment us? 00:20:52.720 |
See, that was the problem with the nation of Israel. 00:21:02.980 |
They were praying for revival, not realizing that if God drew near, they would die. 00:21:09.280 |
They're praying for God to come near, to come close to them, not realizing a sinful man 00:21:13.760 |
can't stand in the presence of this holy God and not be utterly destroyed. 00:21:22.080 |
They were hoping for Emmanuel, not realizing the wrath of God that was remaining under 00:21:30.080 |
When you and I think about the cross, we think about His grace, His love, and His mercy. 00:21:36.080 |
But think about it from the perspective of the angels. 00:21:40.800 |
What a strange scene to see the God who created them hanging on the cross, bearing the wrath 00:21:49.560 |
I think Dr. Harris many years ago came and he gave us the darkness and the glory, and 00:21:55.480 |
he was preaching through a different perspective. 00:21:56.920 |
I know a lot of us had a difficult time understanding, but it was so powerful because he was basically 00:22:01.880 |
showing us the cross from every angle, from the Father's view, from Jesus' eyes, from 00:22:08.000 |
His mother's view, from the soldiers, from the leaders of Israel, from Israel, from the 00:22:13.680 |
And then he started going to the spiritual realm, from the angels and the demons. 00:22:20.760 |
As much as we see the cross as hope and mercy and salvation, think about what the demons 00:22:29.520 |
They were already terrified that the time was going to come when they're going to be 00:22:33.840 |
tortured because of their rebellion against God. 00:22:36.980 |
They look at the cross and the Father doesn't spare His own Son. 00:22:41.840 |
That He is bearing upon Himself all the sins of mankind on His Son. 00:22:46.600 |
So imagine if the demons are looking at this thinking, "If He doesn't spare His Son from 00:22:55.240 |
Can you imagine the terror that the demons were under when they saw Jesus being crucified? 00:23:05.000 |
That's why it says in James 2, 9, you believe that God is one, you do well, even the demons 00:23:12.720 |
See, believing that Jesus was Son of God did not cause hope for them. 00:23:20.080 |
They were shuddering in great fear because if He really is God, we are ruined. 00:23:28.200 |
Second Peter 2, 4-6, it says, "For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but 00:23:32.760 |
cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept unto 00:23:36.220 |
the judgment, if He did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a heralder of righteousness, 00:23:42.960 |
with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly, if by turning 00:23:47.800 |
the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, He condemned them to extinction, making them 00:23:52.120 |
an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly." 00:23:57.600 |
The whole book of Revelation is a glimpse into the wrath of God that's coming upon the 00:24:04.040 |
It's kind of like the curtain that's been temporarily lifted and John was given a vision 00:24:18.760 |
For those whose names are written in the book of life, it means we have been spared from 00:24:24.040 |
And yet it is warning to the whole world that this is what it means when he says, "The 00:24:30.400 |
You know, those of you guys know, I'm a FAB and I'm proud of it. 00:24:36.240 |
I was born in Korea, you know, and I came when I was seven, went back and forth, and 00:24:44.080 |
Like language-wise, English is much easier, but culturally I'm a FAB. 00:24:50.800 |
So whenever I hear the story about what's going on in North Korea, and I know North 00:24:54.360 |
Korea, Kim Jong-un, the crazy guy, you know, we don't want him to have, you know, people 00:24:58.120 |
are starving to death and nuclear bombing and all this stuff. 00:25:00.360 |
And I know most of us here that kind of detached. 00:25:03.560 |
But I remember what it was like when I was growing up in Korea. 00:25:06.080 |
I mean, even in a young age, because they were terrified of the Korean War happening 00:25:10.760 |
again because the North Koreans were digging tunnels to come into South Korea and they 00:25:17.800 |
So South Korea, especially in Seoul, we were right on the border, so if war broke out, 00:25:26.760 |
If you see spies, if you see anything strange, turn them in. 00:25:31.440 |
And if you don't turn your lights off, the police would come and bang it on your door. 00:25:34.440 |
And so again, as a young child, we live in fear. 00:25:38.120 |
But more I began to understand the history behind the Korean War, I started having more 00:25:45.200 |
Because what happened was, because of this, at that time, the communism and capitalism, 00:25:50.200 |
they were going back and forth and Russia backed North Korea and the US and the allies 00:25:58.080 |
And the North Koreans pushed their way all the way to tip of South Korea, to Pusan. 00:26:03.600 |
So everybody that was living there had to pack up their bags. 00:26:10.160 |
Everybody who lived in South Korea had to pack up their bags, get on a train or boat, 00:26:13.400 |
and they had to go all the way to the tip of Korea. 00:26:16.280 |
And then the allies come in under MacArthur's rule, he pushes them all the way back to the 00:26:25.440 |
And so they're going back and forth, North and South. 00:26:33.040 |
So they just drew an arbitrary line right in the middle of the country. 00:26:36.160 |
And if you happened to be stuck in North Korea, you became North Korean. 00:26:40.400 |
And if you happened to get stuck in South Korea, you became a South Korean. 00:26:44.920 |
But the problem with what happened was, so many young men were forcefully recruited into 00:26:57.720 |
And many of the people who were forced to take their children and go back and forth, 00:27:02.360 |
and some people were up there for business trips. 00:27:05.720 |
And Christianity was thriving in the North Korean side more than the South Korean side. 00:27:10.700 |
So all the famous pastors and missionaries were all stationed up in North Korea. 00:27:15.500 |
So when the country got divided in half, basically all of them got stuck in North Korea. 00:27:21.500 |
And now, after 50 plus years of watching what happened in the North, and how they've been 00:27:29.360 |
under suppression and starving to death, and you even hear stories of cannibalism and all 00:27:36.340 |
When I look upon that, I said, "Many of you who come from Korean tradition could have 00:27:47.320 |
I'm talking about your grandparents, or maybe great-grandparents. 00:27:51.280 |
They could have easily been stuck in North Korea or been dragged into the army, and we 00:27:59.960 |
So all the stories of North Korean suffering and the oppression that they are under, you 00:28:09.900 |
So when I look upon that, I have sympathy because, one, I thank God that that didn't 00:28:15.320 |
But then I look at the people who got stuck out there, and pray for mercy for them. 00:28:22.280 |
See, when you and I don't understand what we have been saved from and how you and I 00:28:27.320 |
were deserving of this wrath, we don't recognize what we have. 00:28:32.200 |
That's why Christianity, to some people, becomes boring. 00:28:35.800 |
If the church isn't exciting enough, if it isn't done properly enough, if there isn't 00:28:42.920 |
enough older people rushing out to younger people, if certain things don't happen a certain 00:28:50.040 |
See, if we really understand what it is that we have in Christ, all this other stuff is 00:29:00.800 |
If we've been saved from the wrath of God, that you and I were deserving of hell, and 00:29:07.240 |
by His Son's death and sacrifice, He plucked us out of that, for the rest of our lives, 00:29:13.080 |
even if we go hungry and sick, shouldn't that be a source of praise and glory? 00:29:20.840 |
It's because we forget what it is that we and I have been saved from that the air conditioning 00:29:30.440 |
The distance of parking, the cleanliness of bathrooms, the smooth transition of songs. 00:29:36.960 |
All of a sudden, these things become a much bigger deal than it needs to be, because we 00:29:42.640 |
have forgotten what it is that we truly have in Christ. 00:29:47.360 |
"Therefore," he says in verse 10, "for while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God 00:29:55.160 |
Much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His life." 00:29:59.360 |
If He was able to save us by His death, how much more can He sustain us by His life? 00:30:07.400 |
Not only did He pluck us out of hell, we're secure in His hand. 00:30:13.000 |
That this was not a one-time thing, and that we keep slipping back to that. 00:30:19.760 |
If He saved us by His death, how much more will He reconcile us by His life? 00:30:26.000 |
Romans 8.31, "What then shall we say to these things? 00:30:31.760 |
He who did not spare His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also with 00:30:39.720 |
And finally, verse 11, he says, "More than that." 00:30:42.360 |
More than just being plucked out of hell, more than being able to sustain us, he says, 00:30:49.680 |
"How much more we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have 00:31:01.720 |
Ultimate goal of salvation is not simply to get you out of hell. 00:31:05.360 |
We have to be delivered from the wrath of God, because the ultimate goal was what? 00:31:09.480 |
Jesus said, "I have come to give life, and to give this life abundantly." 00:31:18.240 |
There's the bios, which means the biological life. 00:31:21.640 |
And what's the word that Jesus uses exclusively? 00:31:27.660 |
He didn't just give us life so that you can exist in heaven forever. 00:31:31.920 |
He says, "No, He brought us back to life, to be alive." 00:31:36.460 |
So let me ask you, when do you feel the most alive? 00:31:43.520 |
I know some of you guys who've been a Christian for a while will say, "When I worship Jesus." 00:31:49.600 |
This is not a seminary class, you know, you're not going to pass or fail, so don't say what 00:32:07.000 |
Okay, if you disagree with me, you can come talk to me afterward. 00:32:12.080 |
I believe you feel the most alive is whatever that you are doing brings the most joy. 00:32:26.720 |
So if bungee jumping brings you the most joy, you're going to have every opportunity you 00:32:32.480 |
get and you're willing to, if you like watching basketball games and that's what brings you 00:32:36.760 |
the most joy, that's where you're going to spend the most time, that's where you're going 00:32:43.240 |
If fantasy baseball or basketball is what brings you ultimate joy, that's where all 00:32:51.880 |
Whatever brings you the greatest joy is where you feel the most alive. 00:33:06.200 |
So when he says that he has come to give life and give this life abundantly is to make you 00:33:12.920 |
So how does this connect to what he's saying? 00:33:15.900 |
If we have been justified by his blood and saved from the wrath of God and rescindled 00:33:21.080 |
and we are firm in his hands, his ultimate goal of this so that you and I may rejoice 00:33:28.640 |
in God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have now received reconciliation. 00:33:34.100 |
So the greatest evidence of justification in the life of a believer is joy found in 00:33:44.760 |
What causes a man and a woman to persevere in his faith? 00:33:54.920 |
If you don't believe that, you may fake it for a period. 00:34:02.640 |
I can fake being a marathon runner for like three minutes. 00:34:08.360 |
I can put on the clothes and get in line and register. 00:34:12.360 |
You know, but I'm not going to fool anybody for a while. 00:34:19.040 |
You can maybe fake it in college, but you're not going to fake it in your twenties. 00:34:23.440 |
You can, maybe you can fake it when you're single, you know, and you're going through 00:34:28.320 |
So you come to church and you, you, you do your duty, right? 00:34:33.920 |
But you're going to go wherever that causes the greatest joy in your life. 00:34:41.080 |
So if it's not Christ, then eventually time has a way of weeding the church out. 00:34:50.120 |
Time and circumstance and, and, and suffering and trials has a way of weeding the church 00:34:56.760 |
If Christ isn't, if your faith is not in Christ, if your life is not found in Christ, sooner 00:35:03.800 |
or later, your life, your money, your time will be spent pursuing whatever brings you 00:35:12.240 |
But those who have been justified, right, have been reconciled, access to God restored, 00:35:19.840 |
that we have the source to go to the author of life and call him our Abba Father, that 00:35:25.680 |
we've been plucked out from hell and we are sustained by his power, his ultimate gift 00:35:34.800 |
It's not simply to be in heaven forever, but to be alive in heaven forever. 00:35:42.280 |
If joy in Christ is not what brings you to church, it will eventually take you out somewhere 00:36:01.280 |
But if your attraction is not Christ, sooner or later it will be revealed. 00:36:07.440 |
That's why the scripture says, when Paul says 2 Corinthians 5, 14 and 15, when all kinds 00:36:12.400 |
of trials are coming, the very church that he almost died for is questioning his apostleship. 00:36:18.080 |
If there was any reason to quit as an apostle, it was in the context of writing this letter 00:36:29.000 |
And yet Paul says in 2 Corinthians 5, 14, for the love of Christ controls us. 00:36:35.960 |
In NIV it says compels us because we have concluded this, that one has died for all, 00:36:43.760 |
And he died for all that those who live might no longer live for themselves, but for him 00:36:52.400 |
So again, as we again wrap up this morning's sermon, as we look and examine to see our 00:36:58.280 |
faith, is our faith in our connection with Christ the source of my joy? 00:37:07.720 |
Are we living each day thinking about something else? 00:37:11.160 |
Only if God would answer this prayer, if only God would change my circumstance, not realizing 00:37:15.440 |
what it is that we have already been given in Christ. 00:37:19.400 |
Joy and happiness is not having what we want, but wanting what we already have in Christ. 00:37:25.200 |
I pray that that would percolate in our hearts and cause us to celebrate and be thankful 00:37:31.480 |
So let's take a few minutes to pray as we invite our praise team to come back up. 00:37:38.800 |
And again, take some time to come before the Lord and examine, to think that maybe if our 00:37:43.560 |
salvation has become mundane and plain, and it doesn't move us as it used to, that as 00:37:49.920 |
we study through the book of Romans, that it would cause us to reflect deeply, right, 00:37:55.200 |
of what it is that we have in Christ, the hope that we have in Jesus in the future, 00:38:01.640 |
So let's take some time to pray as our worship team leaves us.