Peace with God through Jesus
Notes
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Topic: Peace with God through Jesus
General Objective: Evangelistic
Specific Objective: That the hearers would realize their need to be saved, and come to faith in Jesus Christ.
Thesis: By grace through faith in Christ, man has peace with God and becomes a new creation.
Main Text: Romans 5:1-2, 6-9, Eph 2
INTRODUCTION:
INTRODUCTION:
I want to share a story with you all tonight of a boy who was born in 1889. As with many of you, this boy was born to a small town and a set of parents who worked hard and attempted to raise him to become a successful adult one day. His main passion was for art and he even had the opportunity to attend a school that specializes in classical art. He loved his country and wished that he could help make things better than they were. His opportunity came more abruptly than he could have imagined when World War I hit. At the age of 25, in 1914 he dove into military service and did everything he could to please his superiors and help the war effort.
“...he was also eager for action and always ready to volunteer for dangerous assignments even after many narrow escapes from death. [he] was a dispatch runner, taking messages back and forth from the command staff in the rear to the fighting units near the battlefield. During lulls in the fighting he would take out his watercolors and paint the landscapes of war… unlike his fellow soldiers, never complained about bad food and the horrible conditions or talked about women, preferring to discuss art or history. He received a few letters but no packages from home and never asked for leave.”
He served 4 years in the military and was awarded a total of 5 medals.
I don’t know about you all but this sounds like a worthy young man! Interested in art and music, willing to do the hard and scary thing for the causes he believes in. Reserved in personality, and sacrificial in service.
1. Deserving of Wrath
1. Deserving of Wrath
Explanation:
Explanation:
The young man that I just introduced you to was Adolf Hitler. His actions would later lead to the murder of approximately 17.6 million people in total. Ordering the death of Jews and others based on their race. Attempting to completely exterminate people who have disabilities. Brutally ending the lives of women and children if they weren’t strong enough to work in the labor camps.
What would you say of him now?
Your heart races to condemn him as the worst possible example of a human being that you can possibly imagine! The judge inside you has slammed down the gavel and declared him guilty and deserving of the cruelest and worst punishment imaginable.
Illustration:
Illustration:
My question to you, since you have proven your eagerness to judge: Are you innocent and undeserving of God’s punishment?
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Walk through the Decalogue and count charges of guilt against each of us.
3 “You shall have no other gods before me.
4 “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate me, 6 but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love me and keep my commandments.
7 “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes his name in vain.
8 “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days you shall labor, and do all your work,
12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.
13 “You shall not murder.
14 “You shall not commit adultery.
15 “You shall not steal.
16 “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
17 “You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male servant, or his female servant, or his ox, or his donkey, or anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Application:
Application:
Do not think that God has spent the full measure of His wrath on people like Adolf Hitler. You. Your actions are deserving of wrath yet today.
Therefore you have no excuse, O man, every one of you who judges. For in passing judgment on another you condemn yourself, because you, the judge, practice the very same things.
Do you suppose, O man—you who judge those who practice such things and yet do them yourself—that you will escape the judgment of God?
For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.
You, not just the person next to you, but you are deserving of the wrath of God. And I am deserving of the wrath of God. Every one of us in this room is deserving of the wrath of God.
Romans 6:23 (ESV)
23 For the wages of sin is death,
2. Peace with God comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ
2. Peace with God comes by grace through faith in Jesus Christ
Explanation:
Explanation:
So now what? Does God intend for all of us to just remain in this condemnation? Let us turn to our main text tonight on page ________ of the provided Bibles. Romans chapter 5, specifically we’re looking at Romans 5:6-9
6 For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7 For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8 but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. 9 Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
This is the Gospel. God desired to bring His people back into fellowship with Him but the wage had to be paid! If God allowed a blasphemous, idolatrous, desecrating, disrespectful, murderous, lustful, lying, covetous thief like ME to enter into the Kingdom without the debt being paid, He would be a very bad judge indeed!
15 The saying is trustworthy and deserving of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the foremost.
Jesus paid the debt. Jesus did that. Jesus took my punishment. Faith in Jesus has saved me from the wrath of God and has justified me in the eyes of the judge. And Jesus can do it for you too.
Illustration:
Illustration:
You see, the Bible often compares people to clay, and God to the potter, the one who can shape the clay.
God created mankind with our first representatives Adam and Eve. Each of them was made to be a beautiful clay vase, but in Genesis 3 we saw them fall into sin. Do you know what happens to clay vases when they fall? They Shatter!
As their descendant, we are born broken already. Vases that don’t resemble the beautiful blueprint their creator designed them to be. And with each sin it’s like we crush another piece of the pottery of our soul.
Notice that as a broken vase, we have no power or hope of fixing ourselves. There is no glue on this Earth that will get rid of every crack. God, the creator has to step in.
It’s like God looks at us, laying in a pile of brokenness and says “I will save this one” And masterfully, He reconstructs the whole design. Only the potter can do this, because only the potter has the glue that can mend broken souls. That glue is the blood of Jesus Christ.
Application:
Application:
Let’s take a look at the first verse in Romans chapter 5.
1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Allow me to share with you some thoughts from another pastor: Charles Spurgeon: I have changed some of the wording to apply to you tonight.
Notice, the way of claiming this promise to be justified is not by tears, not long prayers, not acting humble, not hard work, not daily Bible-reading, not showing up to Harvest Students every Wednesday, but by something as simple as faith, a simple and utter dependence and believing in the faithfulness of God. It is a reliance with all our might upon what God has said. This is faith, and every one of you who possesses this faith is perfectly justified tonight.
I know what the devil will say to you. He will remind you, “You are a sinner!” Tell him you know you are, but that for all that you are justified. He will tell you that your sin is great. Tell him Christ is greater! He will tell you of all your offences and your wanderings. Tell him, and yourself, that you know all that, but that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners, and that, although your sin is great, Christ is quite able to put it all away.
“Some of you, it seems to me, do not trust in Christ as sinners. You get a mingle-mangle kind of faith. You trust in Christ as though you thought Christ could do something for you, and you could do the rest.”
C. H. Spurgeon, “Justification by Faith,” in The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit Sermons, vol. 60 (London: Passmore & Alabaster, 1914), 67–68.
I am telling you as plainly as I can, your faith cannot be in yourself! It must be in Jesus Christ alone!
3. Those reconciled to God through Christ become new creations
3. Those reconciled to God through Christ become new creations
Explanation:
Explanation:
Turn with me to Ephesians chapter 2 on page ________ of the provided Bibles.
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
This is our natural state: children of wrath. Let’s keep reading.
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.
What a beautiful promise this is! We are completely dead in our sin, BUT GOD, He created the path to salvation. Not only did he create the path but he chooses who can take it, out of His grace! If you have placed your faith in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, that means that God has taken you from the path that leads to Hell and has guided you back to Him, even though you didn’t deserve it.
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; 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.
Again, if your faith is in Jesus alone, if you abide in Him, God has made you a new creation.
Illustration:
Illustration:
Many of you know that I am a carpenter, and that I teach Woodworking. Do you think that a piece of wood, even if it was carved to look exactly like a person, is alive?
Let’s take a look at just how alive a piece of wood is.
The carpenter stretches a line; he marks it out with a pencil. He shapes it with planes and marks it with a compass. He shapes it into the figure of a man, with the beauty of a man, to dwell in a house. He cuts down cedars, or he chooses a cypress tree or an oak and lets it grow strong among the trees of the forest. He plants a cedar and the rain nourishes it. Then it becomes fuel for a man. He takes a part of it and warms himself; he kindles a fire and bakes bread. Also he makes a god and worships it; he makes it an idol and falls down before it. Half of it he burns in the fire. Over the half he eats meat; he roasts it and is satisfied. Also he warms himself and says, “Aha, I am warm, I have seen the fire!” And the rest of it he makes into a god, his idol, and falls down to it and worships it. He prays to it and says, “Deliver me, for you are my god!”
Clearly the idol here does not have life. It’s just a hunk of dead wood.
If we are without Christ, we are as dead as a wooden statue. We may physically resemble the image that God created mankind to be, but there is no life!
Christ’s work in reconciling us to God changes everything. If you are in Christ, you are recreated. You become a brand new creation and a true son or daughter of God.
Application:
Application:
For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.
This should cause us to celebrate! If you’ve ever seen one of the baptisms that pastor Nick conducts on a Sunday morning, you know that we celebrate the salvation of even a single sinner with a resounding “Hallelujah!” And we do not celebrate alone, even the angels celebrate such an amazing accomplishment.
Just so, I tell you, there is joy before the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
CONCLUSION:
CONCLUSION:
Thesis: By grace through faith in Christ, man has peace with God and becomes a new creation.
Thesis: By grace through faith in Christ, man has peace with God and becomes a new creation.
As a new creation, God has appointed us to tell others about His beautiful plan to bring us back to him.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says,
“In a favorable time I listened to you,
and in a day of salvation I have helped you.”
Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation.
If you have never trusted in Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, I plead with you to explain how you will save yourself. We have already established that you are guilty, what is your plan? Just being “more of a good person than bad” won’t hold up in God’s courtroom. Even before a human judge, you don’t get a free pass for murder just because you volunteer or do good things in life. No, you are held responsible for the crime.
Today can be your day of salvation. Today Christ calls you to trust in Him alone.