The Gift of God is God - Part 3 - Reconcilled to God

-GREET EVERYONE-

If I have not had a chance to meet you; My name is Scott and I am a follower of Jesus and have the privilege of serving Him as the Lead Pastor among the people of Stonewater Fellowship.

Our Vision:

We Desire see every follower of Jesus well equipped and fully deployed on the mission of Jesus.

What mission? - This questions leads us to articulate His mission for His church in a simple way.

Our Mission:

Is to engage people into a multiplying relationship with Jesus!

WELCOME-

LETS GRAB OUR BIBLES IF YOU HAVE ONE AND

Open it to Romans 5 this morning as we continue in our current series “The Gift of God is God” knowing that the most powerful Gift from God is God.

NOW If you don’t have a bible or simply would like a new one!……..

PRAYER OVER SERIES

In this series we will be Exposing What the word of God says about the fact God gave to mankind and more specifically those who are saved by faith through grace, Himself.

And as we come to understand that His gift, Ultimately is relationship with HIM, becasue God reveals this to us; What will begin to happen to us is we will trust that there is no greater or superior gift than God himself.

And as a result two things will happen to us -

1- we would be moved away more and more from any form of idolatry where we worship the gifts rather than the gift giver.

2- we would strive more and more in our daily lives to love the lord God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength.

PRAYER OVER MESSAGE

That we would come to know in a deeper and more abiding way the severity of salvation.

And when I say severity, This morning, I am talking about how miraculous salvation really is.

Last week we spoke of the biblical truth that we are saved BY God in beginning to understand the WHY of salvation.

Why does God save?

Why does God desire that All people come to repentance and be saved?

Why does God save people?

Over the next few Sundays we will be moving towards the unfolding 4 over arching truths from the bible of these 4 for Statements.

We are saved BY GOD

We are saved TO GOD

We are saved FROM GOD

and We are saved FOR GOD

This week we are saved TO God.

My prayer in this message is that the power of the Gospel would be maximized and the Hope of the Gospel would be experienced by us all.

As I desire to be a preacher who preaches from as much of the whole council of scripture as I can in the time we have.

In order to do that we must also do that and deal with that which is sometimes uncomfortable.

That is we must navigate well the uncomfortable parts of the scriptures that reveal to us things that we might not prefer to hear.

But as all parts of Scripture - The words of God are breathed out by God and are profitable for teaching, reproof, corrections and training in righteousness so that we can all be complete and equipped for every good work.

This morning I pray we navigate well together!

TRUTH -

ENGAGEMENT –

In our world today we see old enemies raising their heads again in our geopolitical news that is happening again and again.

Russia and Our country.

Israel and the non-Jewish world.

China and Tiwan and Hong Kong

Enemies.

When we think of enemies we really think in terms of two groups of people or two individual people who hate each other.

I mean they certainly don’t love each other.

I remember back in my childhood in the midst of the Cold war - That my dad used to say “We don't hate the Russian people we just hate their government”

And although I got what he was saying it was like there was some weird disconnect between the people and the people who were governing those people.

I mean, the government of the old soviet union was literally wanting to kill us all.

But this “hate the government but not the people” came over and over. Of course when I got to the 8th grade and began dating a girl form that part of the world I really got the Idea of hate the government and not the people.

It is interesting that through out our life we may find ourselves at odds with people.

I think we can all admit that we have all of at one time or another “hated”

WE were so angry and hurt that we wanted justice, WE wanted retribution, WE wanted them to suffer as much as we did that way the score would be even.

And what Jesus tells us and throughout the whole of the new testament is that “Hate is not something that we can live well with”

Jesus Speaks against it.

his closest friend John Speaks against it.

All of the writers of the new testament speak against it.

And as we learn to let go of the selfish passions of our youth one of the things we learn is how not to hate.

Or at least I hope it is!

And What develops in us is this weird disconnect of God.

Here is what develops - And I heard my mom say this a thousand times and I think we have all heard it taught.

Hate the Sin not the Sinner.

And for sure we, as humans beings, the created and not the creator, are to hate the Sin and not the sinner.

But what that does and has done is moved into our understanding and desires for the character and nature of God to be more and more like us.

TENSION

You see one of the things that we so easily do is we want God to be like us and think like us and do like us.

But God clearly says in His word that HE is not like us.

Not only does He specifically say He is not like us, He doesn't even think like us and reason like us.

He actually Roars like a lion in the Old Testament and in the New Testament He is the Lion of Judah

Reality is that Lions are dangerous.

But I think most of us don’t really think about God being dangerous.

It is interesting to think about - Jesus says He is dangerous.

matt 10:28

Matthew 10:28 ESV

28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.

and what a lot of us do, is in very subtle ways we turn God from a Lion that Roars to a domestic house cat.

and when we do that - Like Tony Reinky says in His article “Stop Apologizing for God”

WE can very easily get board with GOD! He becomes Ho Hum!

One of the ways this happens is when we place on God the same guidelines mom tried to lay on us on God.

When we say things like “God loves the Sinner and Hates the Sin”

Loved ones 17 times in the first 50 psalms. The scriptures give us a clear picture of God Hatred and anger and abhorrence against Sinners.

We heard one of them this morning

Psalm 5:4–6 (ESV)

4 For you are not a God who delights in wickedness;

evil may not dwell with you.

5 The boastful shall not stand before your eyes;

you hate all evildoers.

6 You destroy those who speak lies;

the Lord abhors the bloodthirsty and deceitful man.

Reality is loved ones WE MUST remember -

it is not the sin that is cast into hell but rather the sinner that is in the lake of fire. Where the Flame is not quenched and the worm never dies.

Psalm 7:11 (ESV)

11 God is a righteous judge,

and a God who feels indignation every day.

Indignation - Anger! God feels Angry every day against those who do evil.

Psalm 11:5 ESV

5 The Lord tests the righteous, but his soul hates the wicked and the one who loves violence.

SO when we get to Romans Chapter 5 we can approach the wording in this passage with the proper litterary, historical and Biblical context. We can get a real clear picture of what Paul was intending to say to His original readers.

BACKGROUND

A little Background on the letter to the Romans.

You find it FIRST in your Bibles -

If you ever wondered how the Patriarchs decided what order to place them it was in order of frequency of use. If a letter was used prolifically and frequently the more frequent and the more prolific the further to the front it went.

Which means Paul's letter to the Romans was very prolific and used very frequently.

It is often cited as the Christian Constitution. The bed rock of our faith and doctrine.

Paul wrote this letter about year 56 - Some 23 years after Jesus died and was resurrected.

Paul did not start the Church in Rome. It was started from some people who were in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost.

They came to Jerusalem - heard the Gospel - Were part of the 3000 that came to faith that day.

Went home to Rome and began sharing the Gospel and making Disciples.

Paul never went to Rome to support the church as He had in other places.

Part of the reason He wrote the letter to to express his desire to come to them and collect an offering for the people who were in famine back in jerusalem.

The Biggest part was to give important Doctrine instruction from an church leader becasue no church leader had ever been there to give instruction on what to believe and why to believe it.

SO God Spoke and Paul Wrote.

By the time we get to chapter 5 Paul has dealt with a good many subjects.

The Power of the Gospel -

The wrath of God -

The Judgement of God -

The depravity of People -

The righteousness of God -

The Issue of Abraham being right before God -

The promise of Faith -

And we get to chapter 5 and He is now Neck deep in the Gospel and He will center his thoughts on Sinful people being Right before a holy, loving, wrathful, God who Judges - the one who pays all people who sin a wage - A payment for sin that is paid to sinners - death.

In Chapter 5 what we will read is the Severity of the Gospel. How severe it is for us to be save TO God - Reconciled TO God. Saved by God - Saved TO God and this passages even stipulates saved FROM God.

All of it so We can have a relationship with God. God giving of Himself so we can be in relationship with Him

What a Supreme Gift. AMEN?

UNPACKING

VERSE 6

Romans 5:6 ESV

6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.

Paul says While we were still weak”

This doesn't mean physical weakness - The Word that Paul is using here mean weak but it means weak in the framework of In ability - and especially in reference to morality.

We are Unable to be moral. Is framework that Paul is using here when He said WEAK.

at the Right TIME Jesus Christ Dies for the UNGODLY.

The work Ungodly is pretty severe - It means a Person who Lived with no regards to any God or religious practice

VERSE 7

Paul then spends verse 7 unwrapping how in our human terms and human thinking, Christ dying for the Ungodly makes absolutely no sense in human reasoning.

Us humans - we rarely if ever would die for a person who is righteous, In other words a person who morality exceeds that of every other person we know.

But perhaps it might happen for a good person.

VERSE 8

But GOD - BUT GOD

When Paul places the words “But God” at the beginning of this next thought that we now know as verse 8 - What Paul is specifically pointing out is that God is not like us.

God doesn’t reason like us, God doesn’t think like us, God doesn’t have ways like us, and thank you Jesus God doesn’t love like us or treat His enemies like us.

Because God Shows His love love for us -

Some of the other faithful versions use the term demonstrated His love.

Both the English word “shows and demonstrated” are Understatements of the word in the original language.

The Word in the original language of the New Testament was often used in the ancient world to mean - To make a fact, something that is true, known by action - To Prove a fact by action.

What does God prove, through the death of Jesus for the Ungodly, for us who were weak and unable to be Godly?

God proves His love for us!

How does He prove this out -

That while we were still sinners, Christ Died FOR us.

Loved ones this is such and important passage of Scripture to grasp onto and hold on to and soak and bathe our souls in.

Christ dies FOR us.

In our condition as Sinners, Rebels against God, loving sin and hating righteousness, While we were behaving in that manner, thinking in that manner, reasoning in that manner and living in that manner - Christ died FOR us.

Jesus dies the death that was due us - Jesus was substituted for us.

Jesus absorbed our guilt that we bore before YHWH and took it on and suffered the penalty that we deserved.

VERSE 9

Paul then begins to unpack the severity of God saving us and the effect of God saving us.

Since, therefore - This is a great transition Statement that Paul makes and when He uses these tow words together he is looking forward to the conclusion He will draw and he is also looking backwards to the previous statements that cause Him to draw the conclusions.

Since - Christ died for us while we were still rebelling against God.

Therefore - We have been justified.

Justified is a phenomenal word that we must grab onto and completely understand.

Some people use it to mean “it is Just as if I had Never sinned” and that is one way - and it is also I think way too short.

The Scripture says “We have been Justified by His blood”

I believe this is the way we need to understand this - God’s justice, concerning me and my rebellion against YHWH, the Holy and Perfect and Good God who is the only one who is.

His justice, concerning me, had been satisfied.

You see God will not let the guilty go free -

Over and Over in the Old Testament you hear that God will not let the guilty Go free.

Nahum 1:3 (ESV)

3 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power,

and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

Even in the new testament Jesus is the dispenser of Justice against those who do not love the lord and are not saved by grace through faith.

SO when the Scriptures use the phrase “WE have been justified” we must grab hold of the fact that what that means is the Justice of God concerning me as an individual has been distributed.

The Justice of God has been exercised.

How Has God justice Concerning me been distributed out and satisfied?

By the Blood of Jesus.

and the Back half of verse 9 Paul then begins to unfold the effects of God’s justice being distributed out and satisfied by the blood of Jesus!

WE shall be saved by him from the wrath of GOD.

You see loved ones we are saved BY God

God saves us by proving out His love for us that while we were sinners God the Father, sent God the Son in human form, Jesus Christ and by the predetermined will of God, Jesus was put to death by the hands of Sinful men. Christ dies FOR us.

VERSE 10

Paul begins Verse 10 - unpacking the severity of our justification The severity of our Salvation

“For if while we were Enemies...”

Enemies - We were enemies of God - And it was a two way street! We hated God and were rebellious against God and as we read earlier in this message “God hates all who do evil” and that included us.

While we were in this Relational State with God - The state of our relationship with God and His relationship with us was that we were enemies -

Hostile towards each other!

Here is what happened!

We were reconciled TO God by the death of His son! By the death of Jesus on the cross of Calvary.

Reconciled -

Here is what the word in the original language means. becasue I think we can very much miss the severity of it all when we just think about it as “we became friends again”

Action taken to reestablish proper friendly interpersonal relationship after these have been disrupted or broken; after a disruption of friendly or family relations because of a real provocation and overt behavior. Reconciliation is an overt behavior designed to remove hostility, and establish the means of restoration of original friendly and or family relationship ‘to reconcile, to make things right with one another.

What we must really Get from the whole council of scripture is that God is the one who took this action to reconcile those who were his enemies and make the possibility of the relationship right again.

and in verse 10 Paul points this out and them adds that we will be saved by the resurrected life of Jesus.

VERSE 11

So verse 11 We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ

Rejoice - Means to express and unusually high degree of confidence in someone - In other words “We boast” We Boast in God through our Lord - our master Jesus Christ

WHY?

Because through Jesus we have recieved the Gift of God - Though the finished Work of Jesus- action has been taken on our behalf to reestablish our relationship with God after it has been disrupted and broken by out sin. God by the work of Jesus enacted an over action designed to remove Hostility between us and himslef and restore our relationship . Created with creator. He did all that was necessary to make things right, to reconcile us TO GOD.

You see loved ones we are saved By God and we are saved TO GOD.

THE GOSPEL CONNECTION

AS AARON and the team come to lead us into musical worship once again.

You might be thinking this morning - How can God hate sinners and then love us so much that He take this huge overt action to remove the hostilities sinful people have with him and he has with sinful people?

How can this be?

This is the heart of the Gospel loved ones.

God is not like us. His hatred for sinners is born out of his love for sinners.

His hatred of Sinners is right and perfect and actually on our behalf.

God hatred is not like our hatred - Our hatred is born out of selfishness. Out hatred is self serving and self justifying and pride based.

God’s hatred is our of his great love.

He hates the Sin and the Sinner becasue they cause so mush pain and suffering in this world and they are so against His very nature which is Love.

If for any reason you are having a challenged with the Fact that God hates sinners. Look at the Cross - It is the place where God placed the Guilt of Sinners upon His son and satisfied His wrath against guilty people.

And at the same time He loves Sinners. Just look at the Cross - For it was on the cross that God proved, Demonstrated His great love for us.

And this is the heart of the Gospel This is the heart of the Good News that God, God who is Holy, God who is Love, God who is Just, God who is Good and righteous and perfect, Hates sinners so much and at the same time loves sinner so much that at the right time He fixed it all.

How?

He sent Jesus, His eternal only begotten Son, Jesus one with the Father and the Spirit, to take on flesh, dwell among us as God and live a morally perfect life and as a completely innocent person Jesus would freely and joyfully accept a sentence of Execution on a Roman cross and He would pour out His blood as the over action that was needed and required to take the steps to restore us to Himself.

What must we DO?

Trust in this finished work of Jesus on the Cross as the Only means that we are made right with God -

There that there is nothing that we can do, Nothing that we can pay, no work we can work off to satisfy, We must Simply Trust that the work of Jesus is sufficient to wash away all of our sin, remove all the hostility and repair our relationship with God who loves us with an everlasting love.

How must we respond?

Demonstrate the trust we have in Jesus and his finished work by Surrendering to His lordship of over our lives, Surrender our whole life to Jesus to follow His will and His way for our life, and act the Bible calls repentance.

Repent, Be baptized, receive the Gift of God through the person of the Holy Spirit and be saved is what the Bible says.

Here is what happens the Scripture says in

2 Corinthians 5:17–20 ESV

17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. 18 All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 19 that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. 20 Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.

ENCOURAGE USE OF PRAYER TEAM