Sermon For March 15, 2020

This morning I'll be reading Romans chapter 5 verses 1 through 11

And I'll be reading from the Holman Christian Standard Bible.

In the previous verses,,, Paul had been speaking about the faith of Abraham and how that faith was credited to him as righteousness and that through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ,,, we are credited with that same faith because,,, as Christians,,, we believe in the One that raised Jesus from the grave!

1 Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 We have also obtained access through Him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. 3 And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, 4 endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. 5 This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. 6 For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. 8 But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! 9 Much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath. 10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life! 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have now received this reconciliation through Him.

God bless the reading and the hearing of your word this morning.

Let us pray:

Dear Lord, as we begin this morning, we ask that you open our ears to hear and our hearts and minds to receive the message that you have for us today,,, In Jesus' name I pray,,, Amen.

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As I was getting ready to prepare for this weeks sermon,,, Eric messaged me the scriptures that he was going to use for our revival before we made the decision to cancel.

Now,,, the scripture that I thought that God was leading me to for last Sunday ended up being different than what I started on at the beginning of that week and I wondered why,,, but I didn't mention it last Sunday.

But then after Eric messaged me his scripture choices I thought the reason was clear,,, and I was reminded again of the time when I wondered why God didn't seem to speak any more.

The sermon last week,,, was on Abraham's faith and how that faith is needed to help us see how we need to use our own faith to accomplish what God has planned for us to do.

Which as we will see,,, is basically a building block for today's message and what would have been Eric's upcoming message during the revival.

In case you don't remember,,, or you weren't here during the times that I mentioned it in other sermons,,, back several years ago,,, I wondered why God never spoke.

I would pray,,, (you know,,, like we are supposed to do,,,), then I would get up and go about my business of fixing whatever problem that I had prayed about that day.

God didn't get through to me on that problem until much later in life,,, but that's another story,,, anyway,,,

I never heard an answer,,, and I wondered why!

During one of Phil's messages,,, he said that it was important to pray before reading scripture,,, (and here was where the light bulb went off for me later),,, and wait for God to speak during that time.

I applied that advise to my Bible reading and then carried it on over to my prayer life and once I began to be quiet and listen,,, then I found that I could hear God's voice.

Simply because I was ready to receive a response.

I was expecting a response.

If you are like I was then,,, and you feel like God isn't responding to your prayers,,, then you must examine your response to prayer and be sure that you are acting in an appropriate manner.

God doesn't change,,, so if you aren't getting answers then it must be something that you need to fix or do differently.

And it could be just as simple a fix as mine,,, of waiting "quietly" for God to speak.

(5:22)

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If you remember,,, I said that when Eric messaged me about his scripture choices for the revival,,, my scripture choices became clear and I thought that I was listening correctly.

But when the coronavirus case was found in Forrest County and we made the decision to cancel,,, I thought that I needed to change my scripture.

I was wondering why God's response changed,,, but then I remembered that God doesn't change,,, so I looked up where it says: 8 The grass withers, the flowers fade, but the word of our God remains forever.”

So I knew that I needed to look at my own response to this news and the way that I was reacting to it.

And once I realized that God was in control,,, and gave Him credit for that,,, then,,, I could see where that this scripture had been His choice,,, because He was already prepared for the cancelation.

And once I realized that God was in control,,, and gave Him credit for that,,, then,,, I could see this scripture had been His choice all along,,, because He was already prepared for the cancellation.

So be sure that as we go forward,,, that we remember to Give God credit for that,,, and to be sure that we do it,,, without doubt!

Be sure that as we go forward,,, that we remember to Give God credit for that without doubt!

(6:28)

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Verse 1 says: 1 Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

With everything going on in this world today,,, we as Christians should have peace today.

No matter the situation,,, we should be able to say that without any questions whatsoever.

Now,,, that doesn't mean we won't wonder about what's going to happen or other questions that we might have.

We all have a multitude of questions that we are going to need answers to in the coming days.

And it's a little scary that we don't have the answers to them like we normally do during other types of emergencies.

But we should have the peace of mind to know that no matter what does happen,,, we know that God can get us through all of it.

(7:16)

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Verse 2 says: 2 We have also obtained access through Him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

We have obtained access to God through the life,,, death,,, and resurrection of Jesus and it's through faith in Him that we stand before God in confidence that we are included in the family of God.

It's also through that same grace that we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.

Not because we obtain that glory now but we know that through faith in Christ,,, we will share in that glory and that should give us great joy as well.

(7:57)

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Verses 3 & 4 says: 3 And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, 4 endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope.

Christians can enjoy the peace of God by looking to our time spent in heaven,,, but we have problems today that need to be dealt with.

Hard times that we are going through now.

We are told to rejoice in our afflictions because all of our troubles help to build up our faith,,, they make us realize that we need God,,, we can't make it on our own,,, and it gives us something to look back on as testimony to ourselves and others as we go through future trials.

That doesn't mean that we are happy that we are going through tough times,,, but it just gives us the confidence that we need to be aware that God is with us along the way and He will help us to get out of it,,, if we allow Him to help us.

(8:59)

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Verse 5 says: 5 This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

The reason that we can rejoice in our afflictions and we know that hope will not disappoint us is because God has poured out His love into our hearts.

It's through the Holy Spirit that this love has been given to us.

It's the Holy Spirit living inside us that gives us strength and guidance each and every day and assures each of us that God's love for us is never ending.

And the reasons why we are given the Holy Spirit are given in the next few verses.

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Verse 6 says: 6 For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly.

In these next verses,,, Paul begins to explain how much God loves us and under the conditions that He loves us!

Paul is saying that Christ died for us during a time in our life that we could do nothing for ourselves.

It's also during this time of helplessness that we as sinners realize that we need Jesus Christ as our Savior.

And it's during those times that He is willing to answer,,, He is wanting us to call out to Him,,, so that all of us can spend eternity in heaven with Him.

says: 3 This is good, and it pleases God our Savior, 4 who wants everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

This is available to everyone,,, not just the Jews,,, or the Gentiles,,, but everyone.

My Bible Knowledge Commentary says that when Paul says that Christ died for the ungodly,,, he meant that it was a substitutionary death.

Meaning that Jesus took our place on the cross,,, took our punishment,,, for our sins,,, even while we were still sinners.

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Verse 7 says: 7 For rarely will someone die for a just person—though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die.

A person that is willing to die for a righteous or a good man is obviously offering himself as a substitute so that person can go free.

This is something that we would be willing to do for someone that we love or care for very much,,, but we wouldn't be as willing to die for someone that we didn't know or like.

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Christ died for us as someone that He loves and cares for very much,,, even though we deserve for Him to think of us as someone that He didn't know or like.

That's why verse 8 says: 8 But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us!

That's how much God loves us!

(11:41)

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Verses 9 - 11 says: 9 Much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath. 10 For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life! 11 And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have now received this reconciliation through Him.

Paul is saying that since we have been saved by the blood of Jesus,,, we have been saved from the wrath of God,,, which,,, again,,, I might add,,, we did deserve,,, and if we were saved through the death of Jesus,,, then how much more will we be saved by Jesus' life,,, which he spends interceding for us in heaven.

And not only that but we will also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ because we have been brought into the family of God forever,,, and nothing can take that away from us.

Because as says: 35 Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? 36 As it is written: Because of You we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. 37 No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us. 38 For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, 39 height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Let's remember these words as we go through these next few weeks.

We may need them,,, to remind us of God's love for us and everything that He has done and the things that He continues to do!

(13:46)

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For those of us that are Christians today,,, this isn't a time for us to be fearful,,, no matter what happens with the coronavirus outbreak here in this country.

But,,, that doesn't mean that we ignore our officials that give us advise about things to do to keep all of us safe as we go forward.

We will continue to monitor the situation and make decisions that will hopefully keep all of us safe.

We will follow safe hygiene practices,,, like washing our hands,,, keeping them away from our face as much as possible,,, covering our mouths when we cough or sneeze,,, and staying home away from everyone at the first hint of sickness or known exposure to any spreadable illness,,, especially covid-19.

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But,,, the main thing that we need to remember,,, is that God loves us.

The plan to bring us all into the family of God was put into place thousands of years ago,,, so I believe that if God can plan that far ahead,,, then I'm sure that He knows how to get us through this crisis too!

I believe that God is trying to tell us today,,, that He is in control,,, no matter what kind of chaos we see because of this.

Not only is He in control,,, but because of these things that we will go through together,,, we will come out of it stronger and more faithful than when we began.

(15:05)

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So as we sing our final hymn,,, let me remind you that the alter is always open,,,

If you feel God speaking to you,,, don't hesitate to come,,, maybe you just have questions,,, God will answer,,, you just have to ask Him,,, whatever the need may be,,,

As we sing the final hymn,,, come if needed!

Oakdale - Hymn Page - 348

Seminary - Hymn Page - ???

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