Published: July 2, 2023 | Speaker: Chuck Hartman | Series: Romans - Part 22 | Scripture: Romans 5:1-5
Transcript
View Full Transcript →
0:16
turn with me please you're reading Romans chapter 5 the first five verses I'd like to ask Chandler Allen if he pray for the ministry of the word this morning Romans chapter 5 beginning in verse 1.
0:29
therefore having been justified by faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ Jesus Christ through whom also we have obtained our
0:39
introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand and we exult in Hope of the glory of God and not only this but we exalt in our
0:51
tribulations knowing that tribulation brings about perseverance and perseverance proven character and proven character hope
1:01
character hope and hope does not disappoint because the love of God has been poured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us let us pray
1:16
Father in heaven thank you for you for word I pray that way that you would open our minds
1:27
supernaturally to see to understand and to have the reality of what we just read I pray that you will help out your heart
1:37
unless he preaches that he will bring out the glories of this text and serve your flock in the whole church will be built up
1:57
if we continue working our way through the book of Romans I think it would be helpful periodically and I do plan on doing this to pause and remind ourselves the situation surrounding the writing of this letter
2:10
reminding ourselves that the church in Rome was not a church that Paul had founded in fact it was not a church that he had yet visited he knew a number of people there as we'll see if we ever get
2:22
the chapter 16. people that he had met in his journeys throughout the Mediterranean world but he had not moved as far west as Rome yet so this letter is a letter of
2:36
introduction and as an apostle and particularly an apostle to the Gentiles it is also a letter of Defense he is presenting to the church in Rome
2:47
his gospel his gospel in fact I believe it's the only one of his letters in which he actually refers to the gospel as my gospel and that is not because he owned it or
2:58
originated or it came out of his theology or that it was different from any of the other Gospels but because of who he was as he says to the Corinthians he was one as untimely
3:10
born not one of the original 12 not even a replacement for Judas Iscariot in fact he was a persecutor of the church he's also a Jew a Pharisee a man who was
3:22
zealous for the law therefore there might be those in the Roman Church especially among the Jewish portion of the Roman Church
3:33
that would have some doubts about this former Saul of Tarsus former persecutor of the church and so much of what he's writing is not like the other letters where he's
3:43
dealing with particular issues in churches that he founded and nurtured and pastored in some cases for years but rather he's laying out for us the
3:54
Gospel of Jesus Christ and so we remind ourselves that he is standing in a position somewhat as a disadvantage to the church at Rome
4:06
whose Founders we do not know probably founded by those returning from that first glorious Pentecost and so he asked the question back in
4:17
chapter three that it really seems you read it and pass right over it and it it doesn't really come out in the commentators either but in verse 27 of chapter 3 he asked this
4:29
question where then is boasting and this issue of boasting actually shows up through the early chapters of
4:42
Romans for example in Chapter 2 he talks about the Jews who boast in God and who boast in the law and in chapter four in verse 2 he says if Abraham was justified by works he has something to
4:53
boast about boast about but not before God this is actually an issue in Paul's own self-defense in several of his letters
5:06
and also a point of conflict between Paul the redeemed Jew and his unbelieving countrymen here he refers to it as boasting but
5:18
elsewhere he refers to it as confidence in the flesh it's a consistent sub theme with Paul and it has led to an ongoing debate
5:29
within Christianity regarding Paul and that is what did Paul the Christian think of Paul the Jew what what did he think of his former
5:41
life before he came to that realization of the Risen Lord on that road to Damascus but the traditional answer since the Reformation is that Saul of Tarsus was a frustrated
5:54
and anxious Jew trying his best to please an unpleasable God that he kept the law vigorously but nonetheless felt himself to be without
6:05
forgiveness and hopeless that picture of Jew of Paul as a Jew is actually more of a reflection of
6:17
Martin Luther Martin Luther than it is of Paul himself that he gives us in his own writings in fact in Philippians he tells us most
6:28
remarkably considering what he says elsewhere he says if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh I far more
6:38
far more circumcised The Eighth Day of the nation of Israel of The Tribe of Benjamin a Hebrew of Hebrews as to the law of Pharisee as to Zeal a
6:49
persecutor of the church as to the righteousness which is in the law found blameless I think if we had met Saul of Tarsus
7:00
we would not be struck by his angst by his nervous demeanor concerning his own well-being before God we would probably be struck by awe in
7:13
his own self-confidence this was a man who knew where he was going because he knew where he came from he was a child of God through the nation
7:24
of Israel of The Tribe of Benjamin circumcised the law was given to him by God and he gave zeal
7:34
back to God others would have looked at him and say that there's a righteous man not a man full of angst and anxious worry but rather one who put confidence in his
7:49
flesh because he was doing what God told him to do to do within the context of God's covenant people that's who Saul of Tarsus was
8:01
but when he came to meet the Risen Lord on the road to Damascus two things occurred in that whole Narrative of story surrounding his
8:13
blindness and then his regaining of sight first the realization that the resurrection that God had promised for Israel had already come
8:24
in the person of Israel's Messiah and second the outpouring of the holy spirit that God promised for example in Ezekiel 36 Ezekiel 36 had also come
8:36
which means that all that he had learned all that he had believed was not to be thrown in the trash can as falsehood and lies
8:48
he did not come to view Judaism as a wasted and false religion but rather as the True Religion fulfilled the promises of God features
9:00
of Paul's developed understanding of what God has done for Israel and for the world through Israel's Messiah Jesus Christ
9:17
so as a Jew Paul was confident of his standing before God he had something to boast about but what about as a Christian
9:28
does he lose all confidence does he lose his ability to boast well actually no he continues to boast and he says we
9:40
boast the problem is that in most of our English Bibles we don't catch that because boasting is a bad word in our vernacular boasting means talking
9:53
smack to God trash talk trash talk pulling in glory for yourself but the word actually means putting confidence in what will not bear it
10:05
and the same word that he uses back in Chapter 2 about boasting in God boasting in the law boasting in Abraham in Abraham he uses here in chapter five in verses
10:18
two and three I'm going to read it with the actual Greek word he says through whom also we have obtained our introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand and we boast
10:31
in Hope of the glory of God and not only this but we also boast in our tribulation it is the very same word
10:42
as he uses earlier and reason we don't use it as I said is because boasting has a negative
10:53
connotation but if we understand what Paul is saying we can catch his change of heart you say our English word we go from boasting on we're not going to do that but we're going to exalt we're going to
11:06
rejoice but it's the same word okay which means that what we shouldn't do over here we should do over here and so there must be a difference in
11:18
reason it must be a difference in the object of our boasting because the attitude of our boasting is actually the same we don't boast in the works of the flesh we boast in the hope of the glory of God
11:31
we don't boast in all the things we've done for God we boast rather in our tribulations that's weird that's weird but we're still boasting
11:42
we still have confidence but it's a confidence that is now settled upon something that is firm and sure and something that is worthy of Our Hope
11:54
something that we can be sure will come about boasting to Paul it's not about bragging it's about confidence which it is itself about hope
12:10
foreign challenge the individual the individual the human being whether believing or not believing where does your confidence reside in what do you hope
12:24
search your hearts ask yourself the question in what am I confident in what am I hoping are you are you placing your hope
12:37
at what might happen a year from November there are many professing Believers in our country who have firmly placed their
12:48
confidence in a broken Reed and their hope in a political process that has never shown any signs of
12:58
bringing in the kingdom of God where is yours is your hope in your intelligence in your income
13:08
is it in your family all of us to some degree Place Our Hope on broken reeds all of us to some degree ground our confidence in
13:21
something that is not load-bearing not load-bearing because all of us to some degree place our confidence in ourselves or in
13:33
or in horses and men in Kings and yet we know that they cannot stand against the judgment so Paul can still boast
13:44
and in Galatians 6 he says but may it never be that I should boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ through which the world has been
13:55
crucified to me and me and me to the world that last clause is the most comprehensive statement of
14:05
the Christian life ever written that the world has been crucified to me and me and me to the world
14:17
I mentioned last week that as we enter chapter 5 remembering that these chapter divisions are not original
14:29
nonetheless there's a very important therefore in verse 1. and we are entering into a shift in Paul's emphasis and direction in this letter he's moving we might say from
14:39
Theory to practice but as he gives us our practice in chapters five and onward through chapter eight he never leaves theory he never leaves
14:52
Doctrine and even brings out some more as we as we will see as we go along but for all intents and purposes he is done talking about justification
15:05
and he now begins to talk about what I mentioned last week as the Justified life that justification should not be seen as a single point in time it's done we
15:16
don't think about it anymore we write the date in the front of our Bible and we move on into sanctification no justification is done it's done at the cross it's it's validated at the empty tomb
15:29
but then it keeps being done as we go through life through life we are Justified we are being justified we will be justified
15:40
in fact pretty much everything God has done for us can be spoken of in that way we are Sanctified in him we are being Sanctified we will be sanctified
15:51
we are glorified in him we are being glorified Paul speaks of being changed from glory to glory we will be glorified at the revelation of Our Lord
16:02
and so and so what we're seeing here that what he is about to say flows from justification as the continuing fruit of justification
16:15
which is really no more than what he quotes habakkuk saying back in chapter one The just or the Justified man literally shall live by faith
16:28
and so that's what Paul is now moving into in chapter 5 having established what true Faith looks like the faith that Abraham had the face that the faith that constitutes
16:38
us his Abraham's rightful children Paul now expands the life of faith to include the other two key features of
16:49
the Christian Life you may not have noticed it in reading this because it is most commonly associated with First Corinthians chapter 13 where
17:00
Paul says there now abides these three faith hope love well they're right here in the passage that I read this morning therefore having been justified by faith
17:13
we exalt in hope the hope of the glory of God literally we boast in Hope and hope does not disappoint because the
17:23
love of God has been poured out within our hearts faith hope and love and faith hope and love are actually a a very good outline of his entire letter
17:34
to the Romans with the possible exceptions of chapters 9 10 and 11 which we'll get to someday but faith hope and love are the the
17:46
points of a triangle that Orient every believer in his walk her walk with the Lord indwelt by the Holy Spirit
17:57
these three interact with each other throughout Paul's letters it's something that perhaps you might want to look for again you you think of it first Corinthians 13 you know the love chapter there it is faith hope and love
18:08
listen for it elsewhere it may not be all three words side by side but you'll see them grouped together interacting with each other one feeding and depending upon the other faith hope
18:21
and love but the focus In this passage is Hope is Hope and there's a reason for that because true faith true faith must hope
18:36
now in that statement is the fundamental problem a fundamental problem with modern evangelicalism because we have been told and we have been convinced that what we have faith
18:47
in we can have now if we just have enough faith we're not interested in hoping because hoping means deferral doesn't it
19:00
Paul even says why would you hope for what you have we do not hope for what we have just as we don't believe in what we see
19:10
we have faith in that which is unseen and we have hope in that which was promised and so true Faith must hope faith does not obtain
19:23
it hopes if you can obtain the answer to what you believe
19:33
in this life and in this world Abraham your faith is not true faith it is not saving faith
19:45
saving faith it is wishful thinking and you have been convinced by false teachers that if you just have enough faith you will get what you want if you have
19:56
enough faith you'll be healed of your cancer if you have enough faith you'll be able to buy that Mercedes although I don't know why you would do that this idea that it that faith is a
20:06
Christian currency Christian currency that if we have enough of it we can put it into that vending machine called God and push the button Jesus and get whatever we want coming out the bottom
20:18
that's the Prosperity Gospel but you know the political gospel is no better that if we have the right candidate the right Representatives the right Senators
20:30
the right president the right Supreme Court then the kingdom of God will appear in America because where else would it appear we will be healed of all of our
20:41
divisions and our afflictions and of our economy see these show that the things that we are putting our hope in the things in which we believe are themselves temporal
20:53
they are part of the form of this world that is passing away and we're riding that Titanic
21:05
the greatest example is the one Paul just gave Abraham he hoped against hope he looked at the situation that he was facing and saw no hope in it
21:18
and yet without becoming weak in faith he contemplated his own body now as good as dead since he was about a hundred years old and the deadness of Sarah's womb yet with respect to the promise of
21:31
God he did not waver in unbelief but grew strong in faith giving glory to God
21:41
but what do we hope for even within our own Christian understanding do we hope that we'll go to heaven when we die you can check me on this but I'm not sure there's a single passage that tells
21:52
us we go to heaven when we die we go to be with the Lord but what was made for us is not heaven
22:03
but this Earth and that is what we look for that's what Peter says what are we looking for A New Earth in which righteousness dwells because this folks is our home
22:15
it's been messed up needs to be cleaned up totally but God has promised you that's part of the promises that Paul brings out in Romans especially in chapter eight it's not just that when I die I'll go to heaven
22:27
it's not just that we might see our children saved children saved I mean that is a real hope and it is a certain and Earnest prayer and it is a rejoicing when it does come by the grace
22:37
of God of God but that is to redirect our eyes downward when they should be upward Paul says we hope in what we hope in the
22:48
glory of God we hope in the revelation of the glory of God that it might cover the Earth as the waters cover the sea that is our
22:59
hope and it is a confident hope because it is God's promise God's promise that he will do it and yet
23:10
live in an age
23:23
one author I think very poignantly and for me very powerfully calls this phenomenon a contradictory present reality
23:37
and he makes the point and I think he makes it very in a very Pauline manner that a contradictory present reality is the atmosphere of hoping and hopeful
23:51
faith now a contradictory present reality evangelicalism has erected as a system of church and of
24:06
evangelism too much of modern American evangelism expects the fruition of Hope in the present life present life and we spend a great deal of effort trying to bring about what we hope for
24:18
in the social realm in the political Realm in the realm of marriages in the realm of Health in the realm of prosperity in all the various facets of a human life
24:29
we have turned Christianity into a means by which we make ourselves live our best life now life now and what we are doing
24:39
in all of those different efforts is nothing more than having a whole bunch of ishmael's just as Abraham did
24:51
taking matters into his own hands and thinking well you know what we can we can do this we can take care of this and coming up with a mess
25:03
ishmael's social ishmael's political ishmael's the history of the church is full of them the Holy Roman Empire was a Ishmael the whole concept of it
25:14
and the church itself many unbelievers realize as they look at the church in the world today and if they could put the words to it if they had the knowledge they would say there goes
25:25
Ishmael not there goes Isaac the son of the promise but there goes someone who is the product of man trying to do God's will on his own with his own programs
25:41
and seeing not even seeing the failure of their efforts hope however now let's get back to the passage here what does Hope consist of
25:55
which manifests perseverance and results in character honestly it sounds like a spiritual diet who wants to do this sounds like exercise
26:12
seriously count the cost laid before you in the Christian life is not prosperity not prosperity is not victory over all your sins is not the love of everyone around you
26:23
but it's actually tribulation perseverance and at the end of it proven character now the church is full of characters
26:35
but how many of us have a proven Adolf Schlatter wrote suffering produces the capacity to
26:53
continue where this is found there is character the genuineness of faith is proved thereby and lends hope its certainty and
27:08
Adolf schlotter was a German Evangelical who wrote that sentence in 1935. in 1935. and those of you know anything of modern history know what was going on in Germany in 1935.
27:22
that was definitely a time of contradictory present reality for any believer in the Lord Jesus Christ in Germany and yet Schlatter recognized that this
27:33
suffering was the order of the day from our father suffering however does not mean persecution there is no record that Adolf Schlatter
27:45
was persecuted he died in 1938 he was actually an honored Theologian in his own time and yet a man who saw what was happening under the Nazis and what was happening
27:55
worse in the German Evangelical Church as they faced the Nazis compromise assimilation and even Alliance
28:08
was one of the worst manifestations of the wickedness of the human heart that mankind has ever seen and from that contradictory present
28:19
reality Schlatter defended suffering but suffering does not mean persecution though that certainly is a form and we live in a world in which physical persecution is not likely there are
28:31
those who tell you it's coming especially if so and so the worst was 19 or 1800 or 1800 you know Thomas Jefferson was elected who was an atheist he's gonna he's gonna
28:41
take away all your property he's going to shut down all your churches he's going to take away all your Bibles none of that happened okay it's not going to happen next year
28:52
that kind of persecution is is outward it's visible it's it's horrible when you see it but history is prone it is actually
29:03
counterproductive to the guile and the strategy of the devil because in persecution the church tends to get stronger and to come together more perfectly
29:16
and so I'm not preaching that we should go out and seek persecution so that we can suffer can suffer that's not the point and yet suffering tribulation is part of our discipleship
29:27
it's part of our life so what does it mean what does suffering mean
29:39
suffering means persevering in faith in the midst of a contradictory present reality and suffering means not trying to change
29:51
that reality that reality on your own or on the churches own program own program it means it means realizing in truth
30:03
that we live in a wicked and perverse generation but it also means not trying to turn back the clock and live in a prior generation not trying to find the answer
30:16
back in 17th century Puritan England or New England puritanism with the pilgrims or or whatever you might want to see to see whatever you read in history and say oh
30:26
they got it right then they didn't have any problem they were pure no they weren't if you read their own writings and the sermons that they preach they realize that their age was just as messed up as
30:38
ours and they were vexed and lamented the wickedness of their fellow man and the church just as much in the 17th century as we can do in the 21st
30:49
and so suffering means not trying to escape it also means not plotting a course of Escape through a tribula or a Rapture that's going to somehow take us all out of this
31:01
and in doing so fail to realize or live in the reality in which God has providentially placed you every one of us can say or say to
31:12
one another one another that God has raised you up for just such a time as this your place in the ark of human history has not been arbitrary it did not evolve
31:25
it was ordered and ordained by a sovereign God sovereign God and therefore to glorify God and to Hope in his glory means to live in this present Darkness
31:37
present Darkness and it means not to try to change things through S ishmael's but rather as with Abraham or yes and amen in Christ
31:50
I believe it's in Isaiah where the Prophet says or the Lord says you who remind the Lord do not take any
32:02
rest now what does that mean what do you have to remind the Lord does he forget no he doesn't forget but in order to fix our eyes on the Promises which are now which now means
32:14
fixing our eyes on Jesus who is the answer to all the promises it means continually being Before the Throne of God In Prayer reminding him of what he has promised
32:25
not for his sake but for yours for ours to remind us that no matter what we see going on in the world around us God has promised that he will renew this Earth
32:39
and he will create and has created in Christ a new heavens and a new Earth that he is bringing to fruition and will do so in his good time
32:52
we can only rightly hope in what God has promised when you listen to people who say well just have a faith just believe in it in it you need to remind them you need to ask
33:04
them is what you're believing in something God has promised you because if it isn't then your faith is presumption and your worship blasphemy
33:20
God has made wonderful promises to us and of them we can remind him constantly living this hope in a contradictory present reality is what true Christian
33:30
suffering has always been whether accompanied by physical persecution or not John writes in his first epistle because as he is
33:42
we are in this world we are as Christ is in this world and Jesus Christ was one who did nothing but what he saw the father do said
33:53
nothing but what he heard the father say and if we do not think that living that kind of steadfast unwavering faith in the midst of a contradictory present
34:05
reality constitutes suffering constitutes suffering try it for 90 days try it with your family try it with your co-workers try it with
34:17
your neighbors your neighbors stand steadfast for the truth of the gospel and of scripture and see if that does not bring suffering and I would venture to say universally
34:28
that it will the present world is contrasted with the promised world
34:39
and as the believing mind meditates on that contrast the believer's soul will become as vexed as was lots with
34:50
Sodom and that is suffering the realization that God's Good Earth has been wholly corrupted the realization that God's glorious name
35:03
and the Beautiful name of Jesus is trashed and trampled in the mud by his creatures and that his creation suffers
35:14
unceasingly because of man's sin and no I'm not talking about global warming I'm talking about
35:28
a good and glorious creation that has been marred almost beyond recognition but not quite and we are the ones in Christ who having seen the resurrection knowing that the
35:40
new creation has begun in Jesus Christ we are truly the ones that can look out and see the beauty of God's creation both in the world and in our fellow men
35:50
and in mankind and yet we are in a contradictory present reality it's not the way it should be should be and that is so tempting for us to
36:01
despair or to attempt to bring about the solution in other means in other ways but that is simply just to serve our own conscience and to another German Jurgen
36:12
moltman said moltman said and I close with his words that is why faith wherever it develops into hope causes not rest but unrest
36:25
not patience but impatience it does not calm the unquiet heart but is itself This unquiet Heart in man those who hope
36:36
in Christ can no longer put up with reality as it is but begin to suffer under it and to contradict it peace with God means conflict with the
36:48
world for the goad of the promised future stabs inexorably into the Flesh of every
36:59
present and in this Faith perseveres In Hope let us pray
37:12
Lord we come to that symbol as we have joined with the one we've already seen in
37:27
the baptism we see the continuing of adding to you the number of the Saints those who believe and that tells us that your work on Earth is not done that there are souls yet to save
37:39
the church yet to build For Your Glory and for the exaltation of Jesus Christ and in the supper we are reminded of that which grounds Our Hope
37:50
Our Hope the death and resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ Jesus Christ and as we contemplate the bread and the cup and the sacrifice that Jesus made on our
38:01
behalf the sin that he became that we might become the righteousness of God of God we ask that you would make our faith
38:13
steadfast and give energy and endurance to Our Hope that we will not be seduced into producing ishmael's
38:23
but rather wait patiently and believingly for the Isaac that you have promised the perusia the coming of our Lord Jesus
38:34
Christ bless our hearts and our minds by your Holy Spirit we ask in Jesus name