1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:10,880 Amen. Thank you, Dave, that ministered to me. I appreciate that. 2 00:00:10,880 --> 00:00:14,280 Well good evening to each of you. We're glad you're here tonight at Grace Church 3 00:00:14,280 --> 00:00:20,880 Roseville. We are studying the book of Romans together, seeking to understand this key book 4 00:00:20,880 --> 00:00:27,160 in all of the Bible. If there were just one book that you could pick to seek to master, 5 00:00:27,160 --> 00:00:33,440 I would encourage you to consider this book. In it we learn about the righteousness of God, 6 00:00:33,440 --> 00:00:42,080 that is the theme. We see that God is righteous in all his deeds. The book of Romans tells us 7 00:00:42,080 --> 00:00:51,680 about the righteousness of God, that in every relationship that he has, God acts righteously, 8 00:00:51,680 --> 00:01:01,340 always. He is righteous in his relationship to the world. The last time we talked about 9 00:01:01,340 --> 00:01:07,240 Romans, we said that God's relationship to the world could be summed up in one word, 10 00:01:07,240 --> 00:01:16,680 and that is the word condemnation. That is a righteous response of God to the world. Why 11 00:01:16,680 --> 00:01:29,360 is that? Because whether pagan or moralist or Jew, all are under sin. In Romans chapter 12 00:01:29,360 --> 00:01:38,000 3, excuse me, in verse 9, the apostle says we have already charged, and that is a legal 13 00:01:38,000 --> 00:01:46,720 word fit for the court system. He says we have charged, we have indicted that both Jews 14 00:01:46,720 --> 00:01:55,280 and Greeks or Gentiles are all under sin. Possessing the knowledge of God, they reject 15 00:01:55,280 --> 00:02:05,520 it. Having a conscience that exposes guilt, they refuse it. Being given the law to reveal 16 00:02:05,520 --> 00:02:16,160 sin, they rather use it to attempt their own self-righteousness. All are under sin. 17 00:02:16,160 --> 00:02:21,920 And the conclusion of this first section of the book, describing God's relationship to 18 00:02:21,920 --> 00:02:32,000 the world, puts God in several roles. First of all, we see God in the role of the judge. 19 00:02:32,000 --> 00:02:38,460 He examines the evidence before him in verses 9 through 12, and basically it says there 20 00:02:38,460 --> 00:02:50,420 is none righteous, not even one. In verses 13 through 15, God is, as it were, a physician 21 00:02:50,420 --> 00:02:58,160 and examines the patient. He gives his diagnosis, and the diagnosis is that the patient is in 22 00:02:58,160 --> 00:03:09,680 a terminal condition because of sin. In verses 16 through 18, it's as though God is an historian. 23 00:03:09,680 --> 00:03:18,080 He looks over the record of mankind, and he finds it full of destruction. And then as 24 00:03:18,080 --> 00:03:28,040 a prosecutor, verses 19 through 20, God says that all are accountable to him. All are accountable 25 00:03:28,040 --> 00:03:35,760 to him. That includes you and me. And so we conclude with this first section of the book, 26 00:03:35,760 --> 00:03:42,640 wondering, how can any of us be made right with God? How can a person be made righteous 27 00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:48,760 in the eyes of God? Is there any hope for any of us? The answer, of course, is yes, 28 00:03:48,760 --> 00:03:57,120 there is. And we see the tide change now in verse 21 of chapter 3, the first two words, 29 00:03:57,120 --> 00:04:07,160 but now actually form something of a continental divide in the text. As you know, at the continental 30 00:04:07,160 --> 00:04:14,040 divide, the water that falls on one side goes to one ocean. The water that falls on the 31 00:04:14,040 --> 00:04:19,560 other side goes to another ocean. It is a division of the continent. And here we have 32 00:04:19,560 --> 00:04:27,280 a division. What has been said up to this point is condemnation for all men, because 33 00:04:27,280 --> 00:04:35,080 we're all under sin. But now we come to good news. There is a division here at this point. 34 00:04:35,080 --> 00:04:44,180 God has taken action to rescue sinners from their deserved condemnation. God provides 35 00:04:44,180 --> 00:04:54,280 a different relationship for those who will believe. God's relationship to the world, 36 00:04:54,280 --> 00:05:03,920 condemnation. But now God provides another relationship for those who believe. The relationship 37 00:05:03,920 --> 00:05:11,040 between God and believers can be summed up in one word, and that is the word salvation. 38 00:05:11,040 --> 00:05:16,680 You may want to write that in your outline. There's a spot for it. The relationship between 39 00:05:16,680 --> 00:05:23,360 God and the believers can be summed up in one word, salvation. God's relationship to 40 00:05:23,360 --> 00:05:30,000 the world, condemnation. God's relationship to believers, salvation. And this salvation 41 00:05:30,000 --> 00:05:40,880 includes both justification and sanctification. Two big words. Tonight we're going to talk 42 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:46,640 about the first one, because he talks about justification in the rest of chapter 3 through 43 00:05:46,640 --> 00:05:56,560 chapter 4 through chapter 5. Justification. Salvation also includes sanctification. And 44 00:05:56,560 --> 00:06:01,160 that's chapters 6, 7, and 8, which we'll talk about next Sunday night, if the Lord 45 00:06:01,160 --> 00:06:09,460 willing. What is justification? Well, let's define it this evening just simply this way. 46 00:06:09,460 --> 00:06:22,400 It is the legal act whereby God declares the believing sinner to be righteous in his sight. 47 00:06:22,400 --> 00:06:27,800 Now more might be said about it, but I think that hardly less could be said about it, that 48 00:06:27,800 --> 00:06:36,280 it is a legal act whereby God, this is God's work you see, not ours, whereby God declares 49 00:06:36,280 --> 00:06:45,920 the believing sinner to be righteous in his sight. The word justification is related to 50 00:06:45,920 --> 00:06:55,720 the word righteous or righteousness. It means that God sees us as being righteous in Christ 51 00:06:55,720 --> 00:07:03,520 because we believe. Now in chapter 3 verse 21 through chapter 4 verse 25 we find the 52 00:07:03,520 --> 00:07:10,080 basis for justification. And I want you to think basically about two words, because I 53 00:07:10,080 --> 00:07:14,080 think the basis can be summed up in these two words. One of them is God word, one is 54 00:07:14,080 --> 00:07:27,040 man word. The two words are grace and faith. Grace obviously is the God word, faith being 55 00:07:27,040 --> 00:07:38,040 the man word word. In order for God to declare a believing sinner righteous, he has to have 56 00:07:38,040 --> 00:07:45,160 a legal justification for it. God simply can't sweep the sin under the rug and pretend it's 57 00:07:45,160 --> 00:07:51,760 not there. That would be unrighteous and God cannot be unrighteous. God has to have a legally 58 00:07:51,760 --> 00:08:01,720 righteous way to deal with the sin. God cannot be anything less than just. And so God in 59 00:08:01,720 --> 00:08:13,880 his grace has provided a means for the forgiveness of sin and the gift of righteousness. And 60 00:08:13,880 --> 00:08:25,520 that means is the sacrifice of his son. Notice that he says verse 24 being justified as a 61 00:08:25,520 --> 00:08:36,480 gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus whom God displayed publicly 62 00:08:36,480 --> 00:08:50,800 as a propitiation in his blood. So the basis for justification is grace in the sense that 63 00:08:50,800 --> 00:09:00,920 God in his grace has provided through the sacrifice of his son so that he can legally 64 00:09:00,920 --> 00:09:08,240 and justly declare us to be righteous. He can forgive us of the sin that we've committed 65 00:09:08,240 --> 00:09:12,760 and at the same time give to us the gift of righteousness in his sight because of Christ's 66 00:09:12,760 --> 00:09:20,160 death on our behalf. Now there are two words that he employs here that give some real meat 67 00:09:20,160 --> 00:09:28,520 to this thought and those are the words redemption which you see in verse 24 and the word propitiation 68 00:09:28,520 --> 00:09:39,320 in verse 25. Redemption means the deliverance of a payment price for a slave. One of the 69 00:09:39,320 --> 00:09:45,480 children gave me a novel based on some of the history leading up to the Civil War for 70 00:09:45,480 --> 00:09:54,120 Christmas. I've just finished that. A thoroughly delightful novel. It's fictional but embraces 71 00:09:54,120 --> 00:10:03,480 a lot of history in it and it reminded me again of the pitiful condition of a slave 72 00:10:03,480 --> 00:10:11,220 as I read that novel. A slave has no hope. A slave does not belong to himself. A slave 73 00:10:11,220 --> 00:10:19,960 is under the control of his owner and he can be treated well or he can be killed depending 74 00:10:19,960 --> 00:10:29,360 upon the whim of the owner. The Bible says that we are all under sin and he says it flat 75 00:10:29,360 --> 00:10:38,120 out in chapter 6 that before we were saved we were under the mastery of sin. Sin was 76 00:10:38,120 --> 00:10:47,180 our master. We weren't slaves but God through Jesus Christ has provided a payment price 77 00:10:47,180 --> 00:10:56,680 so that we could be purchased away from sin's mastery and then set free. The second word 78 00:10:56,680 --> 00:11:05,440 is the word propitiation which is not as hard as it looks. It simply means a satisfaction. 79 00:11:05,440 --> 00:11:11,720 It's that which satisfies God's own righteous demands for the punishment of sin. On the 80 00:11:11,720 --> 00:11:23,320 one hand God is the judge and he says condemnation, wrath is my response to sin and the sinner 81 00:11:23,320 --> 00:11:35,920 must die. On the other hand God himself takes the place of the sinner and satisfies through 82 00:11:35,920 --> 00:11:43,040 the death of his son the very demand that he made upon the sinner for death. That's 83 00:11:43,040 --> 00:11:53,880 propitiation. Because of it God can show mercy righteously. In doing this God demonstrated 84 00:11:53,880 --> 00:12:02,880 or proved his righteousness. He did not spare his own son so that he might give us freely 85 00:12:02,880 --> 00:12:11,560 the gift of righteousness. He mentions here that in the past God had passed over sin in 86 00:12:11,560 --> 00:12:17,040 the Old Testament. In fact when you see that or hear that verb passed over it makes you 87 00:12:17,040 --> 00:12:22,880 think of one of the feasts doesn't it? The Jews. The feast of Passover. When a sacrifice 88 00:12:22,880 --> 00:12:28,360 was offered, atonement was made for the sins of the nation. God passed over them. He did 89 00:12:28,360 --> 00:12:35,600 not give them what they deserved for their sin because of the sacrifice. But all of those 90 00:12:35,600 --> 00:12:44,120 passovers, all of those sacrifices of the Old Testament were like IOUs. They were accumulating. 91 00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:52,160 Those sacrifices could not deal with the sin itself. They could not remove the sin. But 92 00:12:52,160 --> 00:12:59,480 God did that in Christ proving his righteousness for all of those IOUs in the past. May I say 93 00:12:59,480 --> 00:13:12,000 it this way? That God paid up when Christ died. He paid up all of the IOUs in the past 94 00:13:12,000 --> 00:13:21,240 and righteously through the sacrifice of Christ laid a basis for salvation. 95 00:13:21,240 --> 00:13:26,600 The second word is the word faith. God provided also the means for this gift of righteousness 96 00:13:26,600 --> 00:13:33,880 to be received. And that is faith. In verse 22 he says, even the righteousness of God 97 00:13:33,880 --> 00:13:42,920 through faith. Verse 25 he says, through faith. Again in verse 28 he says, we maintain that 98 00:13:42,920 --> 00:13:55,480 a man is justified by faith apart from works of the law. Faith is man's part in this. Faith 99 00:13:55,480 --> 00:14:05,680 is man's only acceptable response to the Gospel. Faith is in itself no virtue. To believe is 100 00:14:05,680 --> 00:14:17,540 not a meritorious act. Because you see all of the worth of faith is found in its object. 101 00:14:17,540 --> 00:14:24,680 Someone has said faith is only as valid as its object. People have faith tonight that 102 00:14:24,680 --> 00:14:28,360 their church is going to save them, or that the rituals they've been through are going 103 00:14:28,360 --> 00:14:34,720 to save them, or that their works are going to save them. They have faith, but it's not 104 00:14:34,720 --> 00:14:42,240 going to save them. Because the object of their faith is invalid. Faith is only as valid 105 00:14:42,240 --> 00:14:49,760 as its object. And the only sufficient, the only valid object of faith is the Lord Jesus 106 00:14:49,760 --> 00:14:57,920 Christ. God has provided the only means by which this gift of righteousness can be received. 107 00:14:57,920 --> 00:15:07,360 It's the opposite of self-reliance, of self-effort, of self-confidence. Faith implies acceptance, 108 00:15:07,360 --> 00:15:15,800 it implies reliance, it implies dependence upon another, and in this case Jesus Christ. 109 00:15:15,800 --> 00:15:21,600 And faith as he says here is apart from the works of the law. Faith and works do not mix. 110 00:15:21,600 --> 00:15:31,200 Whether it be Jew or Gentile, faith and works cannot mix. In the world today there are two 111 00:15:31,200 --> 00:15:39,180 kinds of righteousness, two different religious systems. There is one religious system that 112 00:15:39,180 --> 00:15:45,000 talks about works righteousness. And people do what they can, they try their best, they 113 00:15:45,000 --> 00:15:50,920 turn over a new leaf, they reform, they do this, they do that. It's works righteousness 114 00:15:50,920 --> 00:16:00,480 and it does not save the soul. And you can include under that umbrella many different 115 00:16:00,480 --> 00:16:11,120 kinds of faith, all kinds of religion, man-made, it's all works righteousness when you get 116 00:16:11,120 --> 00:16:18,880 to the heart of it. On the other hand there is biblical Christianity. The religious system 117 00:16:18,880 --> 00:16:27,640 is faith righteousness. It is being made right with God, not through works, but by the act 118 00:16:27,640 --> 00:16:37,040 of believing the promise of God. Through the death, the sacrifice of his son, we can be 119 00:16:37,040 --> 00:16:38,040 saved. 120 00:16:38,040 --> 00:16:47,480 Now Paul takes a whole chapter, it seems to me, to illustrate this, chapter 4. And he 121 00:16:47,480 --> 00:16:56,280 illustrates grace and faith through Abraham. He gives us several facts about Abraham's 122 00:16:56,280 --> 00:17:03,200 justification. In the first place he tells us in verses 1 through 8 that Abraham was 123 00:17:03,200 --> 00:17:10,760 justified apart from his works. He says that if Abraham, or for that matter any of us, 124 00:17:10,760 --> 00:17:20,840 if God saves on the basis of works, then it's not a gift, it's a wage. And God doesn't 125 00:17:20,840 --> 00:17:29,000 give righteousness on the basis of wages. He gives on the basis of a gift. And he uses 126 00:17:29,000 --> 00:17:38,240 here the word imputation or the word reckon as it is in the translation that I have. Verse 127 00:17:38,240 --> 00:17:47,200 2, if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not before God. 128 00:17:47,200 --> 00:17:55,360 But what does the scripture say? He quotes the Old Testament. Abraham believed God and 129 00:17:55,360 --> 00:18:06,540 it was reckoned, imputed to him as righteousness. This word is an accounting word. Some of you 130 00:18:06,540 --> 00:18:18,340 are accountants. All of us deal with accounting if we have any kind of business transactions. 131 00:18:18,340 --> 00:18:25,480 You sit down at your table or your desk and you write out a check for the account that 132 00:18:25,480 --> 00:18:32,240 you have over here at Dayton's, let's say. And you sign your name, you send the check 133 00:18:32,240 --> 00:18:38,560 off and somebody in an office somewhere gets that check and sees there the account number 134 00:18:38,560 --> 00:18:48,880 and sees your name and puts that to your account. That's the word right here. God put righteousness 135 00:18:48,880 --> 00:19:00,020 to Abraham's account because of his faith. It wasn't works. It's a gift. It's not something 136 00:19:00,020 --> 00:19:06,240 that's merited. We don't earn it by wages. It's a gift that God gives. He puts it to 137 00:19:06,240 --> 00:19:14,200 our account based on faith. In fact, 11 times in this chapter 4 you find the word reckon 138 00:19:14,200 --> 00:19:21,640 or some form of it, an important concept. The second thing we see about Abraham's justification 139 00:19:21,640 --> 00:19:29,600 is that he was justified apart from his circumcision. Verses 9 through 12. And of course that physical 140 00:19:29,600 --> 00:19:38,040 circumcision was the boast of the Jew. It was the sign of the law. They were the circumcised. 141 00:19:38,040 --> 00:19:48,560 Everybody else was the uncircumcision. But was Abraham saved because he was circumcised? 142 00:19:48,560 --> 00:19:55,480 Paul reminds us in fact that he could not have been because he was circumcised after 143 00:19:55,480 --> 00:20:04,480 God said that he was righteous. Had nothing to do with his circumcision. He concludes 144 00:20:04,480 --> 00:20:11,480 that salvation is by grace, not by some ritual, some outward sign or work for all people, 145 00:20:11,480 --> 00:20:19,840 whether Jew or Gentile. Thirdly, he says that Abraham was justified apart from the law. 146 00:20:19,840 --> 00:20:26,280 Verses 13 through 17. Why is that? Because Abraham lived hundreds of years before the 147 00:20:26,280 --> 00:20:32,480 law was ever given. Now keep in mind that there were many people in Paul's day as in 148 00:20:32,480 --> 00:20:37,780 our day who think that by keeping the Ten Commandments, so to speak, God's going to 149 00:20:37,780 --> 00:20:46,160 say you're okay. God says you're good enough. You're righteous. Come on in. He says no, 150 00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:53,360 no. Abraham's the illustration that we are not saved by law keeping. The law wasn't 151 00:20:53,360 --> 00:21:01,600 even given until Moses' day, hundreds of years after Abraham died. He concludes in 152 00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:12,000 verses 17 through 25 by saying fourthly that Abraham was justified by faith. He talks about 153 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:20,720 the choice that Abraham made to believe God even against impossible odds. He was not overwhelmed 154 00:21:20,720 --> 00:21:28,680 by the fact that a child was physically impossible. God said you're going to have a child. He 155 00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:37,880 believed God. He made the choice to believe God. Faith is that, isn't it? It is for us 156 00:21:37,880 --> 00:21:44,160 today. It's a choice we make to believe God and not the circumstances that we may be facing 157 00:21:44,160 --> 00:21:52,840 at the moment. The promises of God, living by the promises. Faith's consequences are 158 00:21:52,840 --> 00:21:58,440 that it gets results. It did for Abraham and it does for us today. In Abraham's case it 159 00:21:58,440 --> 00:22:07,760 was justification and for us today it's the same. Faith brings justification. Faith in 160 00:22:07,760 --> 00:22:14,840 the Lord Jesus. Notice it says in verse 24, but for our sake also to whom it will be reckoned 161 00:22:14,840 --> 00:22:20,600 that his righteousness will be reckoned as those who believe in him who raised Jesus 162 00:22:20,600 --> 00:22:27,320 our Lord from the dead. He says he was delivered up because of our transgressions and was 163 00:22:27,320 --> 00:22:35,720 raised because of our justification. There's a commentator in the book of Hebrews says 164 00:22:35,720 --> 00:22:44,200 faith sees the invisible, it believes the incredible and receives the impossible. So 165 00:22:44,200 --> 00:22:50,640 in these verses that we have looked at we see the basis for justification. In a Godward 166 00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:57,880 sense it's grace. It's all grace. God has provided for it in the sacrifice of his son. 167 00:22:57,880 --> 00:23:03,600 From the perspective of man the response, the only response that we can give is faith 168 00:23:03,600 --> 00:23:10,280 to believe God. And it is that response of faith that God then uses so that we might 169 00:23:10,280 --> 00:23:21,200 be declared righteous in his sight. He puts the righteousness of Christ to our account. 170 00:23:21,200 --> 00:23:27,520 And now we come to chapter 5 in which he talks about the blessings of justification. First 171 00:23:27,520 --> 00:23:35,840 the basis. Now the blessings that come with justification. He enumerates them first of 172 00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:45,280 all and then he explains how these blessings are ours. As I number them, I number at least 173 00:23:45,280 --> 00:23:51,400 seven of them. Others have different ways of numbering them, but let me give you the 174 00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:59,200 seven that I would enumerate. The seven blessings of justification by faith. Number one we have 175 00:23:59,200 --> 00:24:07,920 peace with God, verse 1. No longer is there war and hostility with God. There's peace 176 00:24:07,920 --> 00:24:16,940 with God. Number two we have access to God, verse 2. We have been given the right of entrance 177 00:24:16,940 --> 00:24:22,600 into the very presence of God through the favor of another, that is Christ. No longer 178 00:24:22,600 --> 00:24:29,160 are we separated from God and held at a distance because of our sin. Our sin's been dealt with. 179 00:24:29,160 --> 00:24:37,160 We're righteous in Christ and now we are embraced and we have access to God himself. 180 00:24:37,160 --> 00:24:45,040 Blessing number three is the glory of God, verse 3. The glory of God, that is our hope, 181 00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:52,000 that is our expectation. We are destined to share the glory of Jesus Christ because we've 182 00:24:52,000 --> 00:24:59,960 been justified by faith. Blessing number four is the working of God, verses 3 through 5. 183 00:24:59,960 --> 00:25:08,820 The working of God in our lives. The tribulations, that is the pressures that we face, become 184 00:25:08,820 --> 00:25:18,280 the stuff that God uses to refine our character. God uses these experiences in a process which 185 00:25:18,280 --> 00:25:27,000 he names as being perseverance, first of all. We learn to abide under a load of pressure 186 00:25:27,000 --> 00:25:34,800 and stress. It's not easy. None of us enjoy that. The tribulations are a part of life 187 00:25:34,800 --> 00:25:41,840 and one of the blessings of justification is knowing that these tribulations have a 188 00:25:41,840 --> 00:25:48,880 purpose. God is working in us and it involves our patience, our perseverance, which then 189 00:25:48,880 --> 00:26:00,020 results in our proven character. God is about the business of maturing us as people, growing 190 00:26:00,020 --> 00:26:06,480 us up in Christ. He wants to prove, test, and find acceptable our character. He's building 191 00:26:06,480 --> 00:26:12,400 a way inside of you and me tonight through the tribulations of our life. I don't know 192 00:26:12,400 --> 00:26:16,560 about you, I'm glad Phil was break-server now and then. And it would be awfully nice 193 00:26:16,560 --> 00:26:24,920 if life could just be one continuous break from tribulation, but that's not reality. 194 00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:33,040 Reality is that life is stressful, but God's using it. God's working through our stress. 195 00:26:33,040 --> 00:26:45,740 And the end result is hope. I want you tonight to believe that God is at work in your life. 196 00:26:45,740 --> 00:26:53,000 Not in some broad, intangible way, but he's at work right now in that thing that is eating 197 00:26:53,000 --> 00:27:01,160 away at you, or that pressure that is pushing down on you, or squeezing you. God is at work 198 00:27:01,160 --> 00:27:10,340 in that tonight, right now, at this moment. Believe that, because God says he is. Abraham 199 00:27:10,340 --> 00:27:15,480 believed God, didn't he? And his circumstances are a whole lot more tough than what most 200 00:27:15,480 --> 00:27:23,920 of us are facing. Well, another blessing he mentions in verses 5 through 8, the blessing 201 00:27:23,920 --> 00:27:31,880 of justification is the love of God. God's love is just poured out upon us. It's not 202 00:27:31,880 --> 00:27:38,400 that God's sprinkling us with his love. It's not that God is a garden hose and he's holding 203 00:27:38,400 --> 00:27:43,680 it out here with his love. But he's saying God has just flooded our hearts. He's just 204 00:27:43,680 --> 00:27:50,260 opened the gates of the dam and the water has just flooded out and filled everything. 205 00:27:50,260 --> 00:27:57,680 His love has consumed your life. And he says that God has objectively demonstrated this 206 00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:04,440 love through the sacrifice of his Son. And you and I can subjectively sense it and know 207 00:28:04,440 --> 00:28:09,440 it. We have the love of God active in our lives. 208 00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:16,200 Verse number 6 is the deliverance of God, verses 9 through 10. He says we shall be saved 209 00:28:16,200 --> 00:28:24,880 from wrath through him. I take that as being a very specific wrath, not just wrath in general, 210 00:28:24,880 --> 00:28:30,780 but a future expression of God's wrath, which is going to come upon this world in the tribulation 211 00:28:30,780 --> 00:28:38,120 period. We're not going to be a part of that whole scene. We are going to be rescued or 212 00:28:38,120 --> 00:28:44,360 saved from that wrath of God that's coming upon the world through Jesus Christ. It's 213 00:28:44,360 --> 00:28:49,520 not that we're going to be free entirely from tribulation. I'm not saying that. I've already 214 00:28:49,520 --> 00:28:56,380 said we're in tribulation now. But we're going to be saved from that aspect of tribulation 215 00:28:56,380 --> 00:29:03,280 that can be defined as the wrath of God being poured out upon this world that has rejected 216 00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:14,000 Christ. And then in verse 11 he says that a seventh blessing is joy in God. You and 217 00:29:14,000 --> 00:29:23,400 I not only exalt in what we have in Christ, but we exalt or we boast in whom we trust. 218 00:29:23,400 --> 00:29:29,840 We boast in the Lord himself. We have the joy of God in our lives. Jesus said, you will 219 00:29:29,840 --> 00:29:38,360 have my joy because I've chosen you out of the world. And so he enumerates the blessings 220 00:29:38,360 --> 00:29:47,400 of God. And now in verses 12 through 21 he explains the blessings of God. This is perhaps 221 00:29:47,400 --> 00:29:54,400 one of the most complicated paragraphs in the book of Romans. Verses 12 through 21 talk 222 00:29:54,400 --> 00:30:01,480 about identification. All of these blessings that he's just enumerated come to us because 223 00:30:01,480 --> 00:30:12,480 of our identification with Christ. You will notice that this text revolves around two 224 00:30:12,480 --> 00:30:27,320 persons, Adam and Christ. And I want to emphasize these are two historical people. Those who 225 00:30:27,320 --> 00:30:36,200 think that Adam was not historical but merely represents something completely obliterate 226 00:30:36,200 --> 00:30:46,120 the meaning of this passage. If Genesis chapter 1, chapter 2 don't require a historical Adam, 227 00:30:46,120 --> 00:30:57,040 and they do in my opinion, Romans chapter 5 does require an historical Adam. Just as 228 00:30:57,040 --> 00:31:03,880 through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, so death spread to all 229 00:31:03,880 --> 00:31:14,080 men because all sinned. There's Adam. I'm going to take a moment to digress and just 230 00:31:14,080 --> 00:31:24,640 give you some conjecture on my part. So don't hold me to this as though I had proclaimed 231 00:31:24,640 --> 00:31:29,160 that it was gospel truth and revealed from heaven. I'm not saying that. No angel delivered 232 00:31:29,160 --> 00:31:43,080 this to me. A few months ago in the fall there was an article in the newspaper in which at 233 00:31:43,080 --> 00:31:52,160 least one scientist postulated, he's not ready to state this fact, but he postulated that 234 00:31:52,160 --> 00:32:00,600 homosexuality is genetically related. You remember seeing that? I have a friend here 235 00:32:00,600 --> 00:32:05,880 in the Twin Cities that I've been seeking to minister to who is homosexual, part of 236 00:32:05,880 --> 00:32:11,720 the gay community. It wasn't, but 24 hours later that article was on my desk with the 237 00:32:11,720 --> 00:32:21,880 mail because he wanted me to know that what he is experiencing is genetic. The implication 238 00:32:21,880 --> 00:32:30,240 being therefore God can't hold him responsible for his actions because God made him the way 239 00:32:30,240 --> 00:32:42,360 he is. He's genetic, you see. Well, I thought about that. I wondered if it can be scientifically 240 00:32:42,360 --> 00:32:51,780 proven, and it hasn't been, and I don't know that it can be, but if it could be scientifically 241 00:32:51,780 --> 00:33:03,320 proven that homosexuality or kleptomania or adultery or any other sin you want to talk 242 00:33:03,320 --> 00:33:15,200 about can be related to genetics, does that totally destroy our theology? Is man off the 243 00:33:15,200 --> 00:33:30,520 hook by that? Does that mean then these kinds of proclivities being related to genetics 244 00:33:30,520 --> 00:33:39,440 excuses man from responsibility for his actions? The more I thought about that, the more excited 245 00:33:39,440 --> 00:33:51,880 I got because of Romans chapter 5. And here's my conjecture. I wonder if in fact atoms fall 246 00:33:51,880 --> 00:34:02,160 into sin involved in some way his genetics so that the very sin and the proclivity to 247 00:34:02,160 --> 00:34:09,760 sin itself is in fact genetically passed on to his descendants. So it's not merely a 248 00:34:09,760 --> 00:34:21,760 spiritual identification, which is true, but even genetically the proclivity to sin and 249 00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:30,200 to certain sins perhaps is passed on to Adam's descendants. In no way does that excuse man 250 00:34:30,200 --> 00:34:46,760 for his actions. To me, in my very preliminary thinking, my unscientific thinking, it may 251 00:34:46,760 --> 00:34:51,640 in fact just underscore what the scriptures say regarding the identification between Adam 252 00:34:51,640 --> 00:35:01,040 and sin. Or you can think about that and chew on it and don't go away from here saying, 253 00:35:01,040 --> 00:35:08,640 guess what the preacher said tonight? Because I'm just telling you what I'm thinking about. 254 00:35:08,640 --> 00:35:15,880 In verses 12 through 14, he makes a comparison. And of course the comparison is between Christ 255 00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:27,400 and Adam. He says that both Adam and Christ are the head of a family and the kingdom. 256 00:35:27,400 --> 00:35:36,760 Adam is the head of the family of man and the kingdom of this earth, where he was until 257 00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:46,800 he lost it to Satan. And Christ is the head of redeemed man and the kingdom that he is 258 00:35:46,800 --> 00:36:01,000 establishing. And he notes that each of them is noted for one act that has far reaching 259 00:36:01,000 --> 00:36:09,720 consequences. That's another way in which they're similar. Adam's act was sin. And 260 00:36:09,720 --> 00:36:18,080 the far reaching consequences involved the passing on of sin to his descendants and the 261 00:36:18,080 --> 00:36:28,520 death that accompanies it. Christ's one act was an act of obedience, by which he provided 262 00:36:28,520 --> 00:36:38,640 life and justification for his race, for his people and his kingdom. We can say that what 263 00:36:38,640 --> 00:36:45,360 happened to Adam happened to you and happened to me because we were in Adam when he fell, 264 00:36:45,360 --> 00:36:53,440 genetically. We were there in him. And what happened to Adam happened to us. But we can 265 00:36:53,440 --> 00:37:01,120 also say, thank God, that what happened to Jesus happened to us. For we were crucified 266 00:37:01,120 --> 00:37:09,440 with him and we were raised from the dead with him. 267 00:37:09,440 --> 00:37:15,200 Now having made a comparison between the two, they're each the head of a kingdom and a family. 268 00:37:15,200 --> 00:37:21,080 They each have one act that they're noted for that has far reaching consequences. He 269 00:37:21,080 --> 00:37:28,640 now in verses 15 through 17 talks about a contrast between Adam and Christ. And let 270 00:37:28,640 --> 00:37:36,920 me just list the contrasts. On behalf of Adam there was transgression. On behalf of Christ 271 00:37:36,920 --> 00:37:44,120 there was grace and obedience. Verse 16, on behalf of Adam there was judgment. In contrast 272 00:37:44,120 --> 00:37:52,360 to that, with Christ there is a free gift. With Adam death reigned. Verse 17, but with 273 00:37:52,360 --> 00:37:59,760 Christ the believer reigns. The contrasts. And that brings us to the conclusion, verses 274 00:37:59,760 --> 00:38:07,320 18 to 21. He says there's a sort of principle involved here. It's the principle of cause 275 00:38:07,320 --> 00:38:15,240 and effect. Something happened to one and all were affected. Look at verse 18. So then 276 00:38:15,240 --> 00:38:23,820 as through one transgression, that's Adam's, there resulted condemnation to all men who 277 00:38:23,820 --> 00:38:34,560 are identified with him. Even so through one act of righteousness, the cross, there resulted 278 00:38:34,560 --> 00:38:46,000 justification of life to all men identified with the cross. For as through the one man's 279 00:38:46,000 --> 00:38:55,000 disobedience, the many identified with him were made sinners, even so through the obedience 280 00:38:55,000 --> 00:39:01,920 of the one, the many identified with him will be made righteous. So you see what I'm getting 281 00:39:01,920 --> 00:39:09,320 at here? He's explaining why we have these blessings of justification. It's because of 282 00:39:09,320 --> 00:39:17,140 our identification with Christ. Just as we were identified with Adam, we are now identified 283 00:39:17,140 --> 00:39:27,800 with Christ. In Adam we inherited death and destruction and sin. In Christ we inherit 284 00:39:27,800 --> 00:39:37,400 life and righteousness and blessings. He says the law came in that the transgression might 285 00:39:37,400 --> 00:39:47,120 increase. That doesn't mean that the law made us more sinners than we were before. But it 286 00:39:47,120 --> 00:39:57,880 means that the law provoked us, as he'll come to in chapter 7, and stimulated us so 287 00:39:57,880 --> 00:40:08,800 that our sin was evidenced. And not only that, it was more defined. An example of that, it's 288 00:40:08,800 --> 00:40:13,560 the common example. If you walk in a park and you come to a bench that says, please 289 00:40:13,560 --> 00:40:18,600 do not touch wet paint, what do you do? What do you want to do at least? You want to touch 290 00:40:18,600 --> 00:40:29,000 it. Why? Because the law says, do not touch it. Well is it really wet and sticky? And 291 00:40:29,000 --> 00:40:33,200 you see that's what the law did. God says, don't do this, don't do that. There were 292 00:40:33,200 --> 00:40:40,020 good reasons, positive, wonderful reasons that God gave the law. But when we sinners 293 00:40:40,020 --> 00:40:49,920 saw don't do this, all it did was make us want to do it. Because we're sinners. He 294 00:40:49,920 --> 00:40:55,000 says, where sin increased, grace abounded all the more. Now he gives the ratio between 295 00:40:55,000 --> 00:41:04,160 grace and sin. That as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness 296 00:41:04,160 --> 00:41:12,160 to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. Where sin abounded, grace abounded all the 297 00:41:12,160 --> 00:41:21,500 more. It's super bounded. If sin is at this level, then grace is at that level. There 298 00:41:21,500 --> 00:41:31,180 is no way for one to sin beyond grace. He says, wherever there is sin, however much 299 00:41:31,180 --> 00:41:42,360 it increases, grace is always superior to sin. Now there are some people thinking, they 300 00:41:42,360 --> 00:41:51,040 say, wait a minute, does that mean that we ought to sin more so that grace can abound 301 00:41:51,040 --> 00:41:57,100 even more? Well Paul is going to get into that next week. Because that's the very 302 00:41:57,100 --> 00:42:06,780 question that comes up as chapter 6 begins. And it begins to deal with sanctification. 303 00:42:06,780 --> 00:42:12,560 Justification and sanctification cannot be separated. They are distinct, but they cannot 304 00:42:12,560 --> 00:42:18,780 be separated. Thus far he's talked about justification. And how God has provided that 305 00:42:18,780 --> 00:42:25,260 through the sacrifice of his Son. He says that when we have believed in Jesus Christ, 306 00:42:25,260 --> 00:42:29,980 we have received the gift of righteousness and with that gift come all of these blessings 307 00:42:29,980 --> 00:42:39,120 he's enumerated. And we are identified with Christ now, made righteous in him. And grace 308 00:42:39,120 --> 00:42:48,820 just abounds in our lives. We are overwhelmed with grace. And so let's sing about it, number 309 00:42:48,820 --> 00:43:06,020 297 in your hymnal. The grace, the grace of God, which super abounds over our sin. I'd 310 00:43:06,020 --> 00:43:12,700 like for you to stand with me please as we sing this in closing. Grace greater than our 311 00:43:12,700 --> 00:43:29,300 sin. Let's stand together. And verse 4 will be our only verse. So sing it together. Marvelous 312 00:43:29,300 --> 00:43:43,620 infinite matchless grace freely bestowed on all who believe. You that are longing to see 313 00:43:43,620 --> 00:44:02,860 his face, will you this moment his grace receive. Grace, grace, God's grace, grace that will 314 00:44:02,860 --> 00:44:22,380 pardon and cleanse within. Grace, grace, God's grace, grace that is greater than all our 315 00:44:22,380 --> 00:44:32,580 sin. Steve, would you come up a minute? Steve Peterson. We've sung about the grace of God 316 00:44:32,580 --> 00:44:39,900 and I want Steve to condense 10 minutes from the small church this morning into about one 317 00:44:39,900 --> 00:44:49,140 minute here and tell us about the grace of God this week in your ministry. Okay, well 318 00:44:49,140 --> 00:44:52,940 as a lot of you know I work with Treehouse and that's working with Trouble Youth out 319 00:44:52,940 --> 00:44:58,700 of Brooklyn Park and I took some kids Saturday night to the Washington Redskins Chapel. That 320 00:44:58,700 --> 00:45:03,660 was a week ago, right? That was a week ago, last Saturday before the Super Bowl and we 321 00:45:03,660 --> 00:45:08,300 had three kids standing up to receive Christ there and I thought that was really neat. 322 00:45:08,300 --> 00:45:13,020 But then the next night we came here, a lot of you probably were here, remember that. 323 00:45:13,020 --> 00:45:18,900 As a matter of fact there was a little grousing about it from some quarters and that's why 324 00:45:18,900 --> 00:45:25,700 I wanted you to share it, what God did because some of the kids didn't act too church-like, 325 00:45:25,700 --> 00:45:34,060 did they, Sunday night? And besides that they half killed you. I was here Sunday night and 326 00:45:34,060 --> 00:45:39,500 we had a bunch of kids, about 18 of us, and during the Super Bowl I started having these 327 00:45:39,500 --> 00:45:45,980 chest pains and they moved all the way down my left arm and so I thought I was having 328 00:45:45,980 --> 00:45:51,440 a heart attack and so did other people so I was taken to the hospital and somebody else 329 00:45:51,440 --> 00:45:56,460 had to take all those kids home. Darrell, thank you very much if you're here. And I 330 00:45:56,460 --> 00:46:02,460 probably thought those kids were pretty well behaved but because I imagine they were kind 331 00:46:02,460 --> 00:46:06,340 of subdued, well I know that they were on the way home because they were pretty concerned 332 00:46:06,340 --> 00:46:13,540 about what happened to me and on the way over to the hospital all these verses of assurance 333 00:46:13,540 --> 00:46:19,700 came to my mind. I was thinking of that verse in Romans, if you believe in your heart and 334 00:46:19,700 --> 00:46:24,740 confess with your mouth that Jesus Lord you will be saved, and I knew that if I died that 335 00:46:24,740 --> 00:46:42,700 I'd go to heaven. When I got to the hospital I was rushed into the emergency room and they 336 00:46:42,700 --> 00:46:46,380 hooked all these things up to me, monitors and all that kind of stuff. The guy next to 337 00:46:46,380 --> 00:46:51,660 me was really having a heart attack and while I was laying there they had to revive this 338 00:46:51,660 --> 00:46:57,780 guy three times so that in itself was kind of scary. But I started thinking about him 339 00:46:57,780 --> 00:47:03,540 because this man had been drinking and when he would come around he had no idea what was 340 00:47:03,540 --> 00:47:08,540 happening to him. He would say things like, I'm just not staying here, I'm going home. 341 00:47:08,540 --> 00:47:13,240 And his wife was there and I started praying for this man because this man was on the edge 342 00:47:13,240 --> 00:47:16,940 of eternity and he didn't know it. It just really hit me that if I died I'd go to heaven, 343 00:47:16,940 --> 00:47:24,180 if this guy died I'm not sure where he'd go. Anyway what happened was those kids were really 344 00:47:24,180 --> 00:47:28,500 concerned about what happened to me, a lot of them called the hospital and by that time 345 00:47:28,500 --> 00:47:35,460 I'd already checked out, I wasn't there that long and it wasn't a heart attack, I'll just 346 00:47:35,460 --> 00:47:43,220 tell you that, it was something else. On Tuesday night I was relating this whole story of what 347 00:47:43,220 --> 00:47:51,540 happened to me and how that I knew that if I died I'd go to heaven. Well I gave to the 348 00:47:51,540 --> 00:47:56,260 kids. Most of these kids were there, most of those 18 plus, well we had about 40 some 349 00:47:56,260 --> 00:48:02,340 kids there. And I gave an altar call that night, something we don't normally do at 350 00:48:02,340 --> 00:48:06,100 Treehouse, but I gave an altar call that night and we had over 30 kids stand up to receive 351 00:48:06,100 --> 00:48:12,260 Christ. And it was fantastic to see because a lot of those kids that you saw here on that 352 00:48:12,260 --> 00:48:18,260 sunny night were some of those kids. And I knew it was genuine because it was like they 353 00:48:18,260 --> 00:48:25,140 all stood up at the same time. And afterwards everybody was hugging each other and it was 354 00:48:25,140 --> 00:48:31,700 a great time of rejoicing. And I think that happened because a lot of you people pray, 355 00:48:31,700 --> 00:48:36,620 you know I've been there in Brooklyn Park for five years and we've been planting the 356 00:48:36,620 --> 00:48:44,420 seeds and finally all made sense to them. And I just want to share that with you and 357 00:48:44,420 --> 00:48:50,460 I want to thank you for being a part of that. Amen. Marvelous grace of our loving Lord. 358 00:48:50,460 --> 00:48:54,500 And that's what we've sung and that's what we've seen illustrated. Thank you Steve for 359 00:48:54,500 --> 00:49:00,260 sharing that tonight. And sometimes people who don't know Christ can be a little trying 360 00:49:00,260 --> 00:49:11,620 to those of us who are saved and sanctified. Nearly perfect. And reaching out in the love 361 00:49:11,620 --> 00:49:21,540 of Jesus made a difference for all of eternity and some lives. Thank God. Let's pray together. 362 00:49:21,540 --> 00:49:32,380 So we rejoice in this evidence again of your grace. Thank you. Thank you for the work of 363 00:49:32,380 --> 00:49:41,420 the Spirit through these unusual circumstances. And our prayer is that that new birth that 364 00:49:41,420 --> 00:49:48,140 has taken place in these many lives will now be nurtured through these early and critical 365 00:49:48,140 --> 00:49:55,900 days. There would be an expression of maturity and growth. Father we would even pray that 366 00:49:55,900 --> 00:50:00,140 some of these young men and women who a week ago here tonight were a little tough to deal 367 00:50:00,140 --> 00:50:06,020 with might go on to become missionaries and preachers. Men and women who would serve you 368 00:50:06,020 --> 00:50:13,540 in a significant way in our world thus magnifying your grace all the more. We worship you and 369 00:50:13,540 --> 00:50:20,380 praise you. And as we go we go remembering that we too are the recipients of grace that 370 00:50:20,380 --> 00:50:46,780 super abounds even over our sin. Amen. Good night.