Sermon Tone Analysis

Good Evening, it is good to see everyone here this evening!

Tonight were diving into chapter 5 of the book of Romans.

We have learned from Paul that whether you are religious, moral, or just a plain downright rejecter of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you have not accepted Him as Lord over your life then you are still under the wrath of God.

It doesn’t matter how much you serve how many of the laws of God you can or have accomplished, if there is no relationship with the Lord through faith there is no salvation.

We have also been learning that faith true saving belief always is tied to action, we don’t just agree that Jesus is who He says He is but rather now that we know God we desire to follow Him as Lord and that changes the way we conduct our everyday lives.

Paul deals with the issue of the religious man in that the religious man thinks he can earn God’s favor by doing religious acts.

The religious man seeks to appease God through his works.

But the saved or justified man or woman only serves because they already know God through a faith relationship.

Romans

(Let’s Pray)

Paul’s ways of starting an argument is different than mine.

I wouldn’t talk like this.

These long run on sentences they are tough to follow, have you ever been talking to someone and they just go on and on and they are bouncing here and there and everywhere and you are like slow down, so I can follow you.

I kinda feel this way when I listen or read the apostle Paul, to be honest with ya its kinda like he is going one way and then he stops and goes another way, but the things that Paul says are very important, that we see them and understand them.

There is nothing hard to understand about that.

He says now WE HAVE BEEN DECLARED RIGHTEOUS BY FAITH!

and as a result that this has already been accomplished we have peace with God, how? THROUGH OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST!

By the way, the word for peace here comes from the Greek word “to join” the root word actually means to join and the idea here was that before something was apart something was disconnected and now it has been rejoined it has come back together and that describes the relationship that you and I have now with God.

When God created man there was a freindship and fellowship with man but sin entered the world and that fellowship was fractured it was broken.

So that thing was unjoined it was disconnected and there wasn’t peace between God and man.

But now through Jesus Christ that estranged relationship has been put away and we now are connected once again with him.

NOW THERE IS PEACE!

You remember what made our peace, Paul has been talking about this,

Propitiation= to turn away wrath and that is what has happened

God’s wrath has been turned aside so that we could be reunited with Him.

You see our sin brought about His wrath He had to punish that sin, or else He would not be a just judge.

So he had to punish sin, out of the fullness of HIs wrath.

God hates sin, He doesn’t have to work up anger its just He is Holy Holy Holy and because sin violates His holiness it assaults His holiness, His natural response is wrath and that wrath separated us from God and Jesus came as the propitiation.

When we read the OT one of the ideas we find is this picture of the scapegoat, the idea of the scapegoat was that the people had sinned against God and they had one animal that was considered the scapegoat for all God’s people and they would do this ceremony of repentance where they would ask God to forgive them and they would set this scapegoat go and he would run away, and it was supposed to symbolize that the peoples sin was carrying the sin away and the wrath of God awa upon its back.

This was what Jesus was for us, He was our scapegoat all of our sins were laid on His back and then He carried them away as far as the east is from the west, and turned the wrath of god away at the same time.

The brunt of God the fathers wrath was laid on Jesus in our place.

because of that we now have peace, we deserved the wrath and it was heading right for us, but Jesus stepped in the way and consumed it and God was satisfied with what Jesus did on the cross, and bc He was satisfied with the payment now theres peace.

In fact this word Paul uses in the Greek doesn’t just mean we gained peace at one moment in time but we have ongoing peace it is something that keeps going.

This is the interesting thing about this though, you and I are not responsible for creating peace with God.

However we can be responsible for destroying it, I have talked with many people who say I just dont have peace with God I know Jesus died for me, i have assurance of salvation but I don’t have peace with Him.

Why?

One of the surest ways of knowing something is wrong in your relationship with God is if you lack peace.

That is usually a good time for you to come before the Lord and find out why...

ACCESS BY FAITH INTO THE GRACE

The word ACCESS means Privalege of approach.

It literally is a word that is used to mean the privelage of speaking to some high ranking person who very few people can get in to talk to.

You know it’s hard to get an audience with the president of the US but there are very few people who have direct access and can have an audience with Him.

We have the privalege of access that is what Paul is referring to that you and I have the access into the grace or favor of God.

Think about that, we have complete free access into the grace of the most Holy Almighty being in existence.

You and me right now because everything else has been removed the veil has been torn in two.

I wanna remind you of something, not only do you as a child of God have total and complete access into the grace and favor of God.

You have no matter what you are going through the direct access to the throne of grace as anyone else has.

even if they are going through good times and you are having it rough.

You do not lack anything when it comes to access to God know that in your heart and use it!

But I am faced with an impossible decision congratulations you have access to the One who gives wisdom, and can act on your behalf to make things right again.

We have ACCESS INTO THIS GRACE BUT WE ALSO

REJOICE IN HOPE OF THE GLORY OF GOD

This is a future benefit

Even though right now we fall short of the glory of God we have hope and we rejoice in the hope that we will one day share in the glory of God.

This is a crazy thought

Some people might not like this phrase… “what do you mean share in the glory of God”

My Bible says that God says He will share HIs glory with no man...

That’s true but thats for now, but there is a time after Christ returns, that it is all gonna change.

The only thing keeping you from jumping off your seat right now and jumping up and down and cheering that you would at a football game is that we really dont get what this means.

I mean we really dont, we read it and we go oh wow ok cool’

If we truly understood what this means we would rejoice like what Paul is talking about.

But when is this gonna happen?

right now He shares His glory with no man but there is coming a day when your life appears.

when Christ returns He is gonna return in what?

GLORY

guess what your going back with him in what?

GLORY

You are gonna share His glory, your literally gonna reflect His glory in that day.

You know we dont think about the glory of God enough, I dont know about you but I dont wake up in the morning and think I cant wait to see the glory of the Lord.

It is just not the first thing on my mind.

It is our loss that we dont, but the reason we dont is because we really dont know what the Lord in all of His glory looks like.

But just think about it the Bible says the Heavens declare the glory of God...

Have you ever stood in awe at a sunset or sunrise?

By something beautiful in nature?

You just stood or sat there and were mezmorized by it?

Then what will it be like to see GOd in all of His glory and then to think we get to share in that with Him...

We cannot fathom that

All of the early followers of Jesus spent alot of time looking forward to the future hope, you know why?

Because anything that was happening to them in their lives were not that sweet, I think life was tough on early christians and I think we are heading there right now in our day.

Where it is really gonna cost you something to follow Jesus.

We had better be ready

Life’s challenges have away of getting our focus beyond the present

He actually talks about that in the next verse

Not only does Christ change the way we view our future, but here Paul says He actually changes the way we see our present.

WE REJOICE IN OUR SUFFERINGS

How?

SUFFERING>ENDURANCE>CHARACTER>HOPE

Hardship does not always give you character but it will prove your character when the trials come.

It will prove the nasty inside of you or it will prove the godliness inside of you.

If trials come and you turn them over to the Lord and allow Him to handle the situation, then it will produce character, but if you just keep it to yourself and try to figure it out for yourself you will become bitter.

We live in a world where people are just angry all the time and they really dont know why they are angry.

WE HAVE A DIFFERENT WAY OF VIEWING HARSHIP

We know that if we give it to God it benefits us!

Rather than becoming bitter we become better!

God we realize is doing a work in us to shape us more into the image of His Son.

Rejoice!

We read that and we think he is crazy, but he understands that you are being formed into the image of Jesus as you bring those things before Him and say God I need you I give these things to you.

Job understood the proving ground of character.

I havent met a job yet’