The Believer's Benefits Package

Introduction -

Tell story about MIT Engineer applying for a job

$250k

5 weeks vacation

14 holidays

Full medical

50% company match to 401k

Leased car every 2 years

Make comparison:

We work for a great company!

Product is universal

Reach is world-wide

Benefits are exceptional

Forgiveness for past

Meaning in the present

Peace of mind

Retirement package out of this world

Justification = to declare righteousness

By grace alone. Through faith alone.

Only the beginning

Illustration: Courtroom

Witnesses - Moses & Satan

Law & Accuser

Defense attorney - Jesus

Son of judge

Exhibit A - His blood

Judge - God the Father

Not guilty

God gives believer’s benefits.

Romans 8:32 “He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?”

What are our benefits?

We have peace with God.

We have Privilege of access.

We have preview of our future.

We have purpose in our pain and suffering.

Peace with God

Romans 5:1 “Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ:”

The war is over

Not a feeling of peace. It is a fact of peace

All sinners are at enmity with God - God’s wrath is poured out against sin.

Great enemy of peace is SIN - Sin separates us from God

An unbeliever who is “at peace” or “has no problem” with God is resting in a false peace. God has a problem with them.

A believer who is at peace with God may not have feelings of peace with him because of their carnality.

Our peace with God is objective: it is a fact!

Romans 5:10 “For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

Understanding that we are at peace with God (fact) should give us the peace of God (feeling). That feeling is not always present, but the fact is a constant.

Philippians 4:6-7 “Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”

Jesus as Savior brings peace with God; Jesus as Lord brings the peace of God.

Jesus = Prince of Peace

The peace of God comes through surrendering to Jesus as the Lord of our life.

Privilege of Access

Romans 5:2 “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Access = Someone is brought to someone else by someone else.

Greek word was used to describe a man who made an appointment for you with the King and then ensured you were dressed appropriately for the King.

Inherently we are ill-clad to have an audience with the King. (Righteousness as filthy rags)

Jesus clothes us in his righteousness and facilitates our access to God the Father. John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

Judaism was accustomed to separation from God

Vale of the temple was ripped from top to bottom - No wall of separation.

Jesus enables access

Ephesians 2:12-14 “That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us;”

Preview of the Future

Romans 5:2 “By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”

Salvation is anchored in the past - Jesus made peace with God

Salvation is anchored in the present - We have access to God

Salvation is anchored in the future - Promise of Heaven

Our hope goes beyond today and is founded in the Glory of God

Glory of God = Heaven - God’s glory is on display

Hope = Confidence = Happy certainty

Two Reasons for Hope

Jesus prayed for it

John 17:20-23 “Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.”

Jesus’ resurrection

1 Peter 1:3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”

Purpose in Pain & Suffering

Romans 5:3-4 “And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope:”

Salvation isn’t a fairy tail - tribulation is promised

Justification is not an escape from trials; it is a guarantee that those trials have purpose. Your trials will work for you; not against you.

Tribulation = Tribulum - Board with metal spikes that is dragged over the ground to separate wheat from chaff.

Trials separate what is good for you from what is not good for you.

Trials produce patience, character, and hope.

The believer has the unique ability to rejoice in trials because there is purpose. The unbeliever does not have that same purpose.

Illustration: Joseph

Conclusion

Benefits of the Believer

We have peace with God.

We have Privilege of access.

We have preview of our future.

We have purpose in our pain and suffering.