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Everybody okay?
That’s good, because I’m not.
No, I’m well.
I want to do some teaching and preaching and fussing.
Romans chapter 5, verses 1 through 11.
And I have a PowerPoint for you.
And some of you would have received slides of that PowerPoint.
And if you came in a little later than everybody else, you didn’t get any, that’s your problem.
We’re not responsible for that.
But if you see someone that has one, you can sneak over and steal it, though.
See what happens.
I was talking to Steve Moore, or he was talking to me, rather, before we were talking to each other, before service.
And he was telling me about the trip that they took, the ministry trip down to Hondo Prison.
And it was an interesting time to hear him say it.
It was good.
Fifty-eight inmates gave their heart to the Lord after that service.
That’s good.
I would say that God is doing something, right?
All right.
Tonight is called The Explosion of God’s Love.
I think that’s a good title for what we want to fuss with here in Romans 5, 1 through 11.
Explosion of God’s Love.
That’s what the bulk of it talks about.
You need to know that Romans chapter 5, 6, 7, and 8 is a unit, as well as is Romans chapter 1, 2, 3, and 4.
And it’s divided in four chapters, a section through all of Romans.
It’s got 16 chapters all together.
But Romans 5, 6, 7, and 8 is a unit.
And to take one paragraph, which we’re going to do tonight, the first paragraph, out of all of it,
or take a verse out of all of it, it’s good to do that, but it’s not good to do that.
In a sense, it’s got to be together.
You understand?
And it’s a powerful, powerful four chapters.
And this is the beginning tonight.
It’s a powerful chapter tonight.
So I’m trying something here publicly, and that is a PowerPoint presentation for you all.
I know that they like to put the speaker on the screen, but the speaker is not the important thing,
except I realize that this place is long, so the people in the back can see that.
But we don’t have that many critters here tonight.
And so we’re going to use a PowerPoint.
Are you all set to go, dear brother Carl, on that PowerPoint thing?
We got the introductory slide.
It’s already been up, so I didn’t see that.
That’s good.
Starting with Romans 5, verses 1 and 2.
Now, you’ll see a little bit different format there, but that’s okay.
It’s good to learn something.
We’re going to work our way through here and ask some questions.
The first thing that Paul is saying, is declaring in verse 1, is this.
That we have peace with God.
And that happens when?
After we have been placed in a right standing with God, who is the judge.
That happens how?
Through our Lord Jesus Christ, who is, through our Lord, who is Jesus Christ,
and it’s by expressing faith in what he has done, right?
That’s where we are.
We’re going to take that peace and work our way through here, piece by piece.
So let’s get cooking.
I’m going to be a little bit light on the front, because in the middle, I want to hunker down a little,
a little bit, and more towards the end.
But we have peace with God.
Peace simply means to be united, totally united with the purpose of God.
If you’re not totally united with God’s purpose, you don’t have peace with him.
And this, this verb is saying that we have it now.
It’s not something we have been given at one time, and we have all of it at one shot.
It’s not something in the future.
It’s consistently with us, day by day by day, hour by hour.
Minute by minute, it is something that is ours.
We possess it, yes?
And that is, it doesn’t mean that we’re going to feel good all the time about everything.
It doesn’t mean there’s not going to be pressure and tribulation and this, that, and all.
It doesn’t mean that there’s nothing to worry about.
That’s not what peace means.
Jesus operated from a platform of perfect peace with his Father.
He was at perfect unity with the will of God for the universe.
And Jesus has some pretty serious difficulties to work through.
Would you not agree?
So it doesn’t mean that, but it does mean that we are totally united with God’s purpose.
And what is God’s purpose?
His purpose is people.
Like at the Hondo prison last night, his purpose was people.
Fifty-eight people.
That’s God’s purpose.
And we’re in line with that purpose at Tree of Life Church, yes?
Our purpose is to reach people for God.
That is it.
We should have, let me put it this way, we do have peace in the house.
Yes?
Not only just individually, but in the whole place, we have peace.
And we need, peace is something we need to fuss about.
I was going to say we need to fight for.
But I don’t really mean that in that sense.
But it’s something we have to keep.
Are you with me?
We have to keep that.
Nothing should be allowed to disturb us.
Okay.
When do we have that?
It’s not possible to have that.
Unless we have been placed in a right standing with God, i.e. the judge, the court.
God is the judge of the court.
And what we want is a right standing with the court.
Do you not?
You think of God as the judge, and we have an accuser, and we are the defendant.
The judge has to be, I’ve said this to you before, or I’ve said it to somebody before,
in a class or somewhere, I forget exactly where, but what the judge has to be,
the judge has to be concerned about is this, that he knows the law, and that he fulfills
the law, and he acts rightly, and that he protects the people who can’t protect themselves,
the weak ones.
Right?
What God has done, then, there’s a unique two-sided thing about God.
He has to take care of sin, yes?
And he could make us pay for it.
Of course, we couldn’t, though.
There’s no, he could annihilate everybody.
That wouldn’t pay for sin.
There’s nothing we could voluntarily offer ourself up.
That’s not going to fit.
That’s not going to fix the problem.
And we will never be reconciled to God that way.
Are you with me there?
So God not only is the judge, but he provided the means to pay the debt,
which is Jesus Christ, his own son.
Not only did he adjudicate it, he paid the penalty himself,
that whoever would stand completely on the price that was paid,
namely Jesus Christ and the completed work of Jesus on the cross,
whoever would stand on that,
whoever would believe that,
whoever would exercise faith in that and trust in that,
then the judge says, you are free.
Are you with me here?
Guilty as sin we are,
but if we are believing on what Jesus Christ did on the cross,
the judge puts us in a right standing with the court,
with the judge.
That’s what righteousness honestly means.
Aren’t you glad that God’s done that for us?
How many here have a right standing?
We’re God, a right standing, we’re God.
So since we have a right standing with God, we have peace with him.
We are brought into alignment.
Making sense to you?
How did that happen?
I just told you, to the Lord Jesus, to the Lord, and the Lord is Jesus Christ.
The Lord isn’t Caesar.
The Lord isn’t any politician.
The Lord is Jesus Christ and him alone.
That’s why it’s worded that way in the text.
Okay?
And that is,
that is through exercising our faith.
We believe in him.
And when we have peace with God,
that means we can talk to God, by the way.
This next line is going to say that.
The word with God literally means face to face.
It’s the same word in John 1.
The word was God.
The word was with God.
Literally it means the word was face to face with God.
We are now sons of God.
We can stand, I’ll say eyeball to eyeball in a sense,
not in an arrogant sense,
but we’re meaning we can approach God.
Not in arrogance, but in confidence.
Just like you come to your father.
That’s just how that is.
And now we also, he says,
we have access through whom?
Through whom?
Through Jesus Christ, it says.
We have access.
And with the word have, this is a right of way.
In my backyard, there’s a 12-foot right of way going across the back
that I have to mow and take up, clean up, and pay taxes on.
But the city can come in there,
whoever has the utilities and come in there at will,
without my permission, don’t have to tell me anything.
And if I’ve erected anything there,
they can rip it all out and that’s my problem.
They have a right of way.
There’s nothing I can do to stop them.
To make it a little more tough, if you will, in that sense,
but they have a right to do that.
And in Baton Rouge, at our house there, they did it too.
Even chairs that were sitting in the way,
they just plowed right over top of them.
I think they could have at least moved them.
They were light enough.
They were light enough to do that.
But anyway, that’s what we have.
We have a right of way, a right of way of access
into the grace, it says here.
And that grace is the completed work of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Are you getting that?
Listen, there’s nothing can come in the way of that.
It is a right of way.
We have it.
It’s a perfect tense.
That means it cannot be taken from us.
We have come into possession of that.
With the present result, it is still ours.
It always will be ours as long as we remain in it.
Yes, if we are in a right standing with God, hallelujah,
we can go to our Father anytime we want,
anywhere we are, in any situation, and talk to Him.
There is no power that can stop us from doing that, bless God.
We have an eternal right of access right into the throne room of God
anytime we want.
Hallelujah!
That’s what God has done for us.
His love has been exploded in our heart, if you will.
We’re going to see that later.
Now, that comes about by faith because we believe in God that is possible.
He says also that is the same grace in which we stand.
Another one of those perfect tenses that we’ve come to stand in it
and we’re still standing in it.
I don’t intend ever not to stand in it.
Yes, how about you?
I don’t ever intend.
I don’t intend to let that go.
It doesn’t matter what happens.
I’m standing on the completed work of Christ on the cross
and there is nothing going to move me from that, bless God.
We have a right of way and we stand in that grace.
Powerful thing.
Paul is prefacing what he’s fixing to say by these things.
And then he says this,
not only that,
now we’re on the last line there,
not only that,
but we brag on the hope of the glory,
of God.
What kind of hope is it?
It’s the hope of the glory.
Whose glory is it?
It’s God’s glory.
That’s what we’re talking about.
But we are bragging on the hope.
Now, a hope is something that we don’t possess.
How is it we can brag on that?
That’s a good question to ask, don’t you think?
How in the world can we brag on something we don’t have?
Well, we do have it in the sense that we have the Holy Spirit living in us
because he’s a down payment on that which is coming.
So we do have a touch of it, if you will.
We don’t have all of it.
Otherwise, we’d be dead and in glory now
in the presence of God in that regard.
So we don’t have all of it.
We have just a taste of it.
So where is this glory?
Well, the glory is with God.
Glory simply means the presence of God.
It’s a manifestation of God’s presence.
Now, that can come if you literally walk into this place.
How many have sensed his presence maybe in here tonight?
You know what I’m talking about.
Well, that’s his glory, whatever that is.
Solomon’s temple, when they dedicated,
that the presence of God came in so strong,
it was like a thick cloud.
If we had that here, we couldn’t see the move
and the priest had to stop.
Well, that was Old Testament.
The Holy Spirit hadn’t even come yet.
In the Old Testament, how many have seen that?
We haven’t seen that kind of thing.
We haven’t really experienced much of God’s presence then
on one hand, have we?
If you can make the comparison.
But that’s what it means, the hope of the glory.
So what’s it talking about?
Well, we have a hope.
Peter says we have a living hope,
not a hope.
That is dead, but a hope is alive.
Jesus is our hope.
Our hope is always future.
If we had all of it now,
there wouldn’t be any hope left.
Because if you’ve experienced it,
then it’s no longer a hope, it’s a possession.
A hope is in the future.
So it’s out this way, if you will.
Out there is eternity.
Hope is out there.
And because we have a living hope
and because we have a hope, we have a future.
People who have a hope are people who have a future.
People who realize they have a future are hopeful, yes?
People who think, oh, there’s no hope, there’s no future,
it’s all over, may as well shoot me and bury me and all that.
Well, how does that come?
Well, it may come by depression, but how does that come?
Well, there’s no hope of anything getting any better.
There’s no hope of any future.
There’s no hope, there’s no future.
People without hope and people without future
are dull kind of critters, like a lot of Christians.
Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
That went right shoot low, Sheriff.
They’re riding Shetlands.
So we’re bragging on the hope.
What are we bragging on?
Our future.
Our future.
We have a good future.
It’s a future with God.
It’s an eternity with the Lord.
Are you listening to me?
It’s happening tomorrow.
There’s a future tonight.
There’s a future tomorrow.
There’s a future the next day.
There’s a future next week, next month, next year.
There’s a future on.
There’s a future.
There’s a future.
All of that’s going to call.
Eliminate all in one grand eternal future
when time is over, when the Lord comes back.
Are you with me?
Hallelujah.
We need to be bragging about that.
That’s what we’re saying here.
Because we’ve been placed in a right standing with God,
we have peace with God.
We have access into all that the completed work of Christ
on the cross has provided.
We have access to that.
No one can shut that access off.
And we stand in that grace.
Therefore, we brag on the future that we have, bless God,
because of that.
Amen.
Don’t know where you’re going, but I know where I’m going.
That’s what we’re talking about there.
Okay, let’s go to the next slide.
Are we okay with that?
Let’s go to the next one.
Not only that, he says,
but we also brag in verse 3 in pressure, in stress.
This is a little harder to get, isn’t it?
But there’s a good thing here.
We need to brag.
We need to fuss with this.
How many have experienced you’ve been in a squeeze?
Pressure.
You were in that in the prison the other night.
Steve actually started out as a squeeze, didn’t it?
Ended up as a explosion of God’s love.
Yeah, that’s what we’re talking about there.
Wasn’t easy, but it did.
It did happen.
How many have experienced that pressure?
Life is full of that.
You can’t live.
If you don’t experience it, you got in real trouble.
You better check and see if you’re alive.
But in this sin curve,
in this fallen, fallen, fallen, fallen, what is it?
Creation.
We have stress and we have pressure and we’re put in squeezes and all of that kind of stuff.
We brag on that.
How many really brag on their stress and pressures?
We moan about it probably.
We need to start bragging about it.
You know why we don’t moan?
You know why we only moan about it?
Because we don’t see past it into the future of what it’s going to produce.
Are you with me here?
We’re still stuck in a temporal setting.
We think, oh, that’s all there is, is distress and this pressure.
My God have mercy, it’s over.
Are you with me here?
You ever think like that?
So we moan and we groan.
We need to take a look.
Take a lesson on this.
We brag in that, knowing this.
It says here that we have come to know this or we should have come to know this.
With the present result, we still know this.
Signative knowledge, experiential knowledge, this is talking about.
Both.
We know it in our head and we have experienced this.
And I’ll bet you, every one of you, have experienced this to some degree.
Now, this is what he’s saying.
We’ve noticed the construction there.
We brag in pressure because pressure produces patience.
Patience produces approval.
Approval produces hope.
That’s called a stare-like parallelism.
Do you understand?
Or a climatic parallelism.
Do you see the stair steps there?
When you have those words that are highlighted, repeated like that,
you can look for that when you read the Bible.
There are several of them.
First Peter has one.
Add to your faith this and add to that this.
That’s one of those.
It’s a stare-like parallelism or it’s called climatic parallelism.
So we are bragging, we’re boasting about the pressure, the thlipsis, the squeeze.
Jesus was put in a lot of squeezes and Gethsemane was a real squeeze.
On the cross was another squeeze.
You understand?
And all the squeezes, what does it say?
He learned, he learned.
The Bible says he learned, he learned obedience, obedience from the squeezes and whatnot and
all led to hope.
Anyway, let’s get back to this.
We rejoice, we brag on pressure because we know that pressure produces patience or
understanding.
Now that word produce is a word that is very emphatic in the Greek text.
It means that the only, this is, this means to a believer, not to an unbeliever, to a
believer, to one who is in a right standing with God, who has peace with God, who has
access and boasts about all this, that and the other, then that person, to that person,
this word produce means that the only thing that a pressure and a stress can produce is
patience.
Are you with me?
It can’t produce anything else but patience.
It’s locked into that.
Are you catching what I’m saying?
Just give a head nod or I’ll say it again.
Okay, I don’t think I need to say it again.
I’ll say it again anyhow.
That that verb means that that’s the only thing that pressure will produce and can produce
in a believer is patience.
We’re going up a stairway.
Okay?
Then what is, what is patience?
Patience is under abiding.
Patience is sitting in the chair.
Patience is allowing God to work through the pressure.
How many have learned that through experience?
I’m getting better at that, but I still got a ways to go.
When stress comes and pressure comes, I squirt out less and I’m more patient and I think
there’s, there’s an end to this and more when you look for the end, there’s, there’s
that you understand you get that when you get older, that’s called, that’s called some
wisdom would age under abiding instead of picking the thing out.
And when you’re going out and pitching it, you wait and wait and wait.
God is very patient.
Jesus was patient.
The Holy Spirit has been, is patient, yes?
So the stress, if we allow it to work through, will produce a patience and under abiding.
And if we allow that patience, as James says, to half its end oriented work, it will produce
approval.
The only thing that under abiding can produce, because this is its target, is an approval.
That word approval.
Approval means something that has gone through the stress, the testing and has come out the
other side, validated.
It is genuine.
It is authentic.
You understand?
But we can’t get to the authenticity without the pressure and without the under abiding.
Then when we get the under abiding or the patience, then we have the approval.
Hallelujah.
Are you getting what I’m saying?
Approval.
What is that?
Just think of it like this.
Well, again, it’s back to that which has gone through the examination.
Gold tried in a fire.
The word tried is this word.
Tried in a fire and has come out purified.
We come through this process purified.
And when we sense God’s approval on our life, it’s like having the approval of your parents
when you’re little.
It’s like getting an A on a Greek exam.
You have the approval of the prof.
You know, that really jacked me up when we get that approval.
What does approval produce?
Hope.
A kid that grows up in a home, I know home is perfect, but in general speaking, a kid
that grows up in a home that is, let’s say, a whole lot more positive than negative, if
you will.
A home that says, man, your God is good and God loves you and God has a special purpose
for your life and you’ve got this and that and you praise him.
Do you not think that that produces a sense of hope and a future in that?
Well, that’s what this is too.
So when we go through this, we have approval.
It’s like the smile of God that has a sense of hope, which means we’ve already talked
about it.
We have a future.
Are you getting anything out of this?
We have a future.
Now he says this, this is the powerful thing.
This is really, to me, I don’t know if it’ll be to you, really, really is a powerful thing
here.
And I got some things written down I don’t want to forget.
I can’t remember all this stuff.
It goes over to hope will not embarrass us now or in the future.
Our hope in God in the future, our hope will not embarrass us now nor then.
Paul says, I’m not ashamed.
It’s the same word as embarrass here.
It will not be a shame.
Hope will not make us ashamed.
I’m not ashamed of the gospel, Paul says.
Are you catching this now?
Hope will not embarrass.
If we feel slightly embarrassed because of that hope or the gospel, we really need to
pray that through, in all honesty, because it’s the only thing that’s going to take us
through is this gospel and this hope.
Are you with me here?
Don’t be embarrassed by that.
How many have suffered with that once in a while?
You get just a little bit, I have.
We got to stop that.
Let’s make an agreement tonight, now, right this very minute.
How many would raise their hand and say, I’m agreeing with you.
I’m agreeing with you.
We’re going to quit that right now.
Amen.
In the name of the Lord.
Stopping that.
It doesn’t mean we get arrogant the other way, but we’re not going to be ashamed of
that anymore.
Bless God.
We’re going to stand up and talk about it when it’s the right time.
Amen.
And we’re not backing off of it.
We’re not going to be stupid about it, but we’re doing it right, but we’re going to do
that.
Hope will not embarrass us.
Let me explain a couple things of that.
Think of it this way.
God will not, this is what it means, God will not expose your weakness in public or to anybody.
Now here’s, you think, what in the world has that got to do?
Good question, but it’s got everything to do with it.
I have put my entire life and future, I’ve, I don’t want to use the word gamble, but if
you understand what I mean, I don’t want that at all because there’s not, but I’m standing
on the completed work of Christ on the cross.
Everything is on that.
Are you with me here?
Amen.
Hope will not embarrass me.
In other words, it’s out there, it’s, I’m not there yet, but it’s out there and I’m
believing that and I’m going that way.
God because of that, God respects that and honors that and he’s not going to expose your
hidden things, if you will, and expose your weaknesses to anyone else or to the public.
That’d be a good time to do something.
Are you guys okay?
It’s quiet.
But that’s okay.
I think, I think, I hope you’re all thinking.
He won’t dishonor, he won’t disgrace you, won’t expose your nakedness or hiddenness.
He won’t humiliate you.
God’s going to hold you up.
You see these people here?
They believed in me.
Okay.
All right.
Hope will not embarrass us.
Why do we know it won’t?
Because if one reason I can think of, because, because the love of God has been exploded in
our hearts through the Holy Spirit that has been given to us.
And now we get to God’s love, the explosion of God’s love, and we’re in good shape time-wise
here too.
I think it might get done early.
We could get the hot dogs early.
The love of God has been exploded in our hearts and he’s going to talk now about that explosion,
but let’s just fuss at that a little bit.
Since the love of God has been exploded in our heart, and we’re going to talk all about
what that means and what God’s done for us, because it’s been exploded in our heart and
because God has done all that he can do for us, all that needs to be done and has gone
way over bound, because of that, for God to expose your weaknesses and secrets and hidden
things that are in him and have been in him for years is to violate the love that has
been exploded in your heart.
You listening to me?
You can trust God with anything.
Can’t trust people with everything, but you can trust God with anything and everything.
Does that help you?
Does that make you feel good?
I hope so.
All right.
Now, the love of God has been exploded in our heart, he said.
This is why we’ll not be embarrassed.
Best way to describe this explosion is, take a water balloon.
And I don’t want to use an illustration, because I could use a few that would be hilarious,
but I won’t.
The time forbidden it there.
But if you take a water balloon to the roof here, a big one, and drop it, what’s going
to happen when it hits the floor?
Is it going to stay in one piece?
No.
What’s going to happen?
It’s going to explode and that water is going to go everywhere.
Well, that’s what’s happened with God’s love.
It exploded in our heart and it just makes not a small thing.
Small little explosion.
It wasn’t a small water balloon with just a little bit of water that when it dropped it
just sort of mushed around and didn’t blow up.
That’s not God, but God has given everything he has for us.
God is going all out for you.
He’s not holding anything back.
He hasn’t held anything back.
So you take that great big old water balloon, fill it with water and drop it.
The water is going to squirt out where?
Everywhere.
There’s not an area in your life because of the explosion of God’s love in your heart
that hasn’t been touched by the love of God.
Are you with me here?
He has exploded it.
Now let’s fuss with that just a little more.
You think of a parent with a child who is halfway across the world, maybe in Iraq or
Afghanistan or a missionary.
Halfway across the world there’s separation somehow.
And there is a love of that parent.
I don’t know if this is a good illustration or not, but you can expound on that more if
you will.
And there is a love.
That love is almost an aching love.
Is it not?
Yes?
I remember when I was in college and I would come home and mom would embarrass me to the
degree, I mean, not that she would expose hidden things, I don’t mean that, but she
would embarrass me to the length of what she would do.
She would do to make a homecoming good.
Are you with me?
All kinds of everything and invite people all around.
That’s not exactly what I wanted.
I’d like a little more peace and quiet, but she would have all that around.
Something like that.
Her love exploded in the house when we came home for a break.
Are you with me here?
That’s like God.
He’s so much love.
He is love.
I mean, love just excludes all over the place.
My Lord, he created you because he loved humanity.
We are here because he loves us.
There’s nothing.
His love.
He would not do for you, bless God.
Hallelujah.
That love exploded in our heart is what he’s talking about.
He has, it has to do something.
It has to, it has to be expressed and he did it for us.
And this now, the rest of this is how, is how that has happened in verse, in verse six.
We can go to the next slide now.
Christ died for us.
How did this happen?
This is what we got to understand.
He died for us while we were still weak.
Every one of us was born weak.
Weak in two ways.
One, we were born into the realm of sin.
Secondly, we’re born with a sin nature and there is no way could we save ourself or earn
a salvation.
That’s what weakness means.
Absolutely totally helpless.
We’re born that way.
When we were absolutely totally helpless.
That’s when Jesus died for us.
Not when we were strong.
Not after we were saved.
We couldn’t get saved until he would die for us.
He would have to die for us while we’re still weak.
Yes.
Are you getting this?
That’s what he’s saying.
While we’re still weak.
What does it mean?
We had nothing to offer him.
It was not to his benefit to send his son to die for us.
There’s nothing we could do for him that would enhance who and what he is.
Are you listening?
He doesn’t need us in that sense.
He doesn’t need us to complete himself.
Himself would still be himself without us.
But because of his love.
Are you getting that?
Because of his love, which he exploded in our heart this way.
While we were in our weakness, absolutely helpless.
Think of a baby, a newborn baby being left in a trash can in a back alley.
That’s weakness.
That’s the way we were, lost humanity.
That’s when God died.
He did it according to the right time.
There was a right time for his death.
I believe Jesus died just at the right time.
The Bible says he came in the fullness of time.
Yes.
His death was at the right time.
His second coming is going to be at the right time, too.
He’s an on-time God.
May not come when you want him, but he’s always right on time.
He’s an on-time God.
Where’s Cody?
He’s an on-time God.
And then, in behalf of the ungodly, that’s us, too.
Ungodly are those obnoxious critters like us.
With no etiquette.
There was, remember Andy Griffith years ago, the Mayberry business?
I remember some people from the hills came in.
Aunt Bee fed them around the table.
And they were a scraggly bunch, but, boy, could they play those instruments, you know.
And so, the meal was all there, and the food was on there.
One of them would yell out, “Meat!”
You know, Aunt Bee, and what’s the boy’s name?
Opie.
And they’d all look like this, and the other one would say, “Taters!”
Like this, you know.
And pretty soon, Opie chimed in there and hollered out there, and he got smacked up.
You know, he didn’t do that.
But that’s what we call ungodly.
Ungodly is like that.
No respect for God.
Just crass and crude and all of that.
When we were that way, God died for us.
The most miserable person you could think of, God died for us.
God’s love has been exploded in his heart.
You think after God’s done that much, we got ways, little ways to go yet, that he’s gonna
betray us?
No.
He’s not gonna betray us.
Okay, what else is cooking here?
Romans 7 and 8 here.
Here’s a comparison.
This is really neat.
Let me compare here with what humanity might do with what God did, all right?
“For scarcely would a person die in behalf of, in the place of,” you gotta understand
that, “in the place of one who was in a right standing with God.”
A righteous person is one who is in a right standing with God.
First of all, what’s the point of doing that, of dying before one who’s in a right standing
with God?
That’s not the point anyway.
It’s just there for scarcely a person might do that.
I don’t know of anybody that would, but a person might do that at the best.
And then he said, you know another thing, a person may even dare to die in behalf of
somebody who was inwardly good.
Now that word good means really of eternal quality, eternal value.
It’s more than just good.
It means intrinsically value there.
A person might dare to die to do that, but he said essentially the idea here is that’s
very unlikely.
It’s very, and very improbable, would take a chance, there would be a real chance to do
that.
I don’t know about you, but I’m not prepared to do any of those two things.
How about you?
I enjoy what I do too much, and life too much, and the grandkids, I’m not looking to end
my life anytime soon.
Yes?
So if you have a problem, you take care of yourself.
Get somebody else to die for you, but Jesus already has done it.
Anyway, he’s saying this is what humanity might do at humanity’s best.
But it really doesn’t happen.
So in the next verse, here’s the contrast now.
But this is the difference between what humanity might do and what God did.
This is what is beautiful here in this passage.
We still all right?
God weaves or sews or stitches.
I like the word stitch.
And the word weave is good.
The word stitch is good.
His own personal love in us, which is this, the following, but let’s back up.
He stitches his love in us.
Now, we got to understand how powerful what it says, his love, his, I translated it, his
own personal love.
The construction is as such that there is no love like this.
It’s more than just the love of God.
When we say that, it’s more than just saying God is love.
And I know it may be difficult to wrap your mind around that, but this is one-of-a-kind
only love.
It’s the love that comes straight out of his own gut, if you will, right out of his
own heart.
It is all that God is.
Are you with me here?
He’s stitching that to our heart and to our life.
I want to give you an illustration here in France.
At that famous Louvre Museum, there’s a tapestry that’s on the wall that’s the most, the last
I heard, is the most expensive tapestry in the world.
How they make those tapestries, and it’s a flawed tapestry, by the way.
How they make those tapestries, I understand, is that there’s a master planner there and
they got a bunch of people at whatever wheels they are with all the colored threads.
He’s got a picture in his mind or he’s looking at something and he’s calling out either the
name of the color.
Or the name of the number of the color or whatnot and he’s hollering, he’s hollering
that out.
And as he hollers that out, the people hold it back and release, hold it back and release,
hold it back and release.
He got going and he made a mistake and called out a wrong number and it was the wrong color
that got stitched in there.
Once you do that, you can’t back up and take that stitch out.
It’s worth, the thing is worthless.
So he stopped and he paced back and forth until he got an idea and then started calling
out more numbers.
That’s the piece.
It was a mistake.
It was a flaw that’s worth more than the most expensive tapestry in the world.
That’s the tapestry.
That’s what God has done with you and with me.
We’re talking about stitching, you with me, how many were perfect before Christ came,
none of us, and we’re not perfect now, at least we’re born again.
But he took all that we were and still all that we are, you understand, all of the mess
that it is.
All of the imperfections.
All of the flaws.
And has taken the only kind of a love that God has, I don’t know how to put it any stronger
than his own, very own, unique, universal, eternal love and has stitched it in our heart
and is stitching it in our life and making something beautiful and purposeful and eternal
value in your life and in my life.
Hallelujah!
His love has exploded in our heart.
Is that making sense to you?
That’s what it means, stitching his love.
And this is what stitching his love in our heart means.
That Christ died in our place while we were still actively being sinners.
That’s the only way he could have done it, by the way.
He couldn’t have waited until we stopped sinning.
That’s never going to happen.
It wouldn’t happen.
Can’t wait until we’re perfect.
That’s not going to happen.
Can’t wait until we’re good.
That’s not going to happen.
He had to die for us while we were still actively sinning.
Man, that’s love.
That’s stitching your love in the heart.
Now we get to verse 9.
Almost got it done here.
Now we have some contrasts and comparisons that are kind of neat.
I’ve started out with the main clause.
It doesn’t look like necessarily the main clause, but it is.
Notice the highlight there, the dark, the bold.
By how much more?
But let me read the bottom part first.
The contrast, Paul’s good at contrasting things.
The book of Hebrews is a real good book of contrast too.
But this, “After having been placed in a right standing with God,” or the judge, when did
that happen?
Back of verse 1, remember?
After that.
“After that, being placed in a right standing with God by His blood,” the shedding of blood
has done that, okay?
That’s taken place.
So on the one hand, we have Jesus dying on the cross, the shedding of His blood, and
that placed us in a right standing with God, with the judge, with the court.
That’s a fact.
It’s a historical valid fact, right?
That being the case then, here’s the rationale, by how much more then is it true, or is it
a fact, that we shall be saved?
How?
Through Jesus and saved from anger.
We have to unpack that just a little bit, the anger of God.
We are not saved so that God would pour out His anger and wrath against us.
That’s not why we’re saved.
We are saved, we escape that, yes?
Honestly.
Does that mean He’s pleased with you all the time?
No.
But that’s not the point.
The point is anger.
Romans 1:18.
The anger.
The anger of God, translated in most English texts to wrath of God, but it’s anger.
The anger of God is being manifested.
Anger and wrath are something different.
Anger is a long settled disposition against sin.
We’re out from underneath that.
That’s what He’s saying here.
We’re saved from that.
God doesn’t have a nasty disposition about sin, because we’re no longer there, are you
with me?
We’re saved.
That’s essentially what this is saying, but this saved is in a future tense.
We shall be, how much more shall we be saved?
We are saved, we’re being saved, and yet we’re not at the end yet.
One of these days we will be saved.
That’s where our hope is.
Do you see how this is all coming together?
Now again, after having been placed in a right standing with God through His blood, how much
more then?
Because God has gone to all that length to do that.
His Son dying, you think He died for nothing?
No.
Because He did, and since He did, and built on that what He did, how much more shall we
be saved?
Through what Jesus did, amen.
We have a great future and a great hope.
And then verse 10, by how much more shall we be saved?
After having been reconciled, then how much more shall we be saved in His life?
Now here’s the comparison.
After having been reconciled to God through the death of His Son, when did that happen?
When we were enemies.
That’s a fact, yes.
When we were hostile.
We were hostile against God.
Think of the most hostile person in the world against God.
I don’t know who that is, but somebody died recently, that might qualify for that, I don’t
know.
You understand?
And I’m not taking that side either, but nonetheless, Jesus did die for the critter.
True or not?
I mean, He did.
That’s a fact.
All right, after having been reconciled, when we were still enemies.
An enemy is an enemy.
It doesn’t matter if you kill one person or don’t kill anybody or kill half the world.
It doesn’t matter.
An enemy is an enemy of God.
It doesn’t matter.
Anyway, having been reconciled when we were enemies through the death of His Son to God.
Think of what all that entails.
I’m not going to break it down.
When we were enemies through the death of it, it took the death of Jesus.
How many times has the death of Jesus been brought up here?
Are you getting the picture here?
When an author repeats it, repeats it, repeats it, repeats it, that’s an important point.
That’s an important point.
Now, we could talk 20 minutes, a half hour, probably, just on that one aspect on that.
But having been reconciled, now, we’ve got to talk about what reconcile means.
There’s a word reconcile, and just a minute, redemption, I don’t know why I forgot that
word.
Reconciliation and redemption, but this is reconcile here.
Maybe I’ll get to that in a minute, the other one.
Reconcile.
The word reconcile means to end a divorce.
So the winged word, the word reconcile, really means divorce.
Here’s what’s happened here.
Go back to the fall.
If this is, this is God here, and I’ll be the first Adam and Eve here, if you will, humanity,
and this is God.
What has happened here is there’s been a great divorce take place between humanity and God.
With me?
Well, this is what, this is what the root means.
It means another.
It means that we left God, who is a husband, and went over here for another one.
Now, what’s happened here?
There’s a gulf between there, right?
So that word, that word means, the first one means that there’s been a separation take
place.
Humanity is separated from God.
Reconciliation means, then, that, that we have been brought back in to relationship.
And so, there are two ways to write that in the Greek text.
One way is that while we’re over here, now when we’re over here in a divorce situation,
there is, there’s that gap between the sort of two entities.
Are you with me?
I don’t want to push too much too far here, but one of them simply means that we are brought
back in to that, away from this.
Are you with me?
So when God reconciles, brings us back in, he puts distance between us.
Between us and the separated state.
Are you getting it?
That’s powerful.
I mean, that’s powerful.
That old is no more existent.
And there isn’t a, there is a, there is a space put between us and it.
Hallelujah.
The Bible says when God forgives, he forgives totally and wipes it all away, remembers it
no more.
It’s cast into the deepest sea of forgetfulness.
Amen.
Hallelujah.
We have been reconciled.
Another way to write it.
It is this, that this separation and the gap that is between us, there’s something happens
that puts a limit to this and puts pressure, comes down and keeps it down and keeps whatever
it is that’s keeping us separated.
It puts that aside.
Are you, are you catching this?
I’m not saying it too well.
It, it, it stops it.
There’s something that happens that, that negates whatever force it is that’s keeping
us separated and brings us back in, regardless, whichever way it’s written, that comes out
the same.
Isn’t that powerful?
What is it telling us?
Doesn’t matter how it is that the split took place, God’s bringing it back together.
Hallelujah.
Now, the point is this, after having been reconciled to God through all that we’ve talked
about through the death of his son, when we were enemies, it’s not over yet.
How much more?
If the death of his son caused that to break down.
It’s going to bring us back to God, reconciled.
How much more shall we be saved by his life?
Are you with me here?
It’s not complete just with his death, there was a resurrection as well.
Our God is alive.
Jesus is a living hope out there.
Salvation is out there.
We shall be saved because he is alive and at the right hand of the father, we shall
be saved.
We are saved or being saved.
A great, a great celebration yet coming.
Are we all still with this here?
Okay.
Good.
Now, I don’t have enough time to talk about the difference between redemption and reconciliation,
and in a sense it’s a shame, but maybe one day we will.
But it really is a nice difference.
But it would take about seven minutes to go through that, and I haven’t got that much
time left.
So we go down to the end now, to the last slide, and this is what we have.
And it’s sort of like this.
This isn’t all there is, by the way, there’s more, and that’s the best way I can describe
how to translate that.
That’s a beautiful way to translate it.
Hey, Clyde, this ain’t all there is, there’s more than this, and it’s like this.
Here’s another thing.
The final shot.
We always are bragging on our God because of the Lord Jesus Christ or through the Lord
Jesus Christ.
What’s that saying is this.
We need to be talking about God.
We need to be talking about how good our God is, about what our God has done for us.
And we hear people that have problems, we can say, “Hey, my God can fix that.
The Lord can meet that need.”
Those 58 prisoners, the Lord met them there.
The Lord can meet your need.
Hey, let’s don’t be ashamed of this.
Let’s don’t shrink back on this.
The power of God is flowing through y’all.
We have what that world needs.
Jesus is a hope.
If it’s our hope, it can be their hope.
Are you listening to this?
I hope you get this out of all this.
Cody, bring your critters back, or maybe just you, whatever.
And this is then, “Through whom we have received reconciliation to God.”
Through whom who?
Through whom Jesus we’ve received.
Now in this kind of construction, it could normally, because we didn’t do anything to
earn that reconciliation and redemption, this is usually placed in a passive voice.
But this word “receive” is an active voice now.
And that’s interesting.
There’s a switch there.
So I’m thinking, you know, why is that?
And here’s what’s happening.
It’s not that we had anything to do with it, but it’s this: God did it for us, Jesus won
the victory, and He brought it over to it and offered it to us, and we reached out
our hand and received what He was giving us.
That’s what we need to do tonight.
Reach out our hand, whatever it is you need.
Stand in with me.
If you will, and receive whatever He has for you.
I’ve got one last verse to read.
You know, I’m getting pretty good at winding this right down on 8:30 here.
It’s like watching the clock roll down in the studio.
When Paul gets to chapter 8, verse 1, trying to put a capsule on this, oh, it’s different.
I don’t have a slide for this.
In verse 2 of Romans 8.
Let me start with verse 1: “Therefore, there is no lawsuit to those who are in Christ.”
There’s nothing yet to be done.
There’s no lawsuit waiting on you, so live happily, live freely.
Are you with me here?
Don’t live like there’s some heavy weight on you.
And then let me tell you, in the Greek text, it doesn’t say to those who have their mind
on this, that, and the other.
It doesn’t say that in this Greek text.
It stops right there.
It’s just that simple.
To those who are in Christ, there’s no lawsuit waiting.
But this is the verse I want to read because of this, because the law of the spirit of
life in Christ Jesus, this is the law that the spirit produces.
The spirit is a spirit that produces life, and that life is in Christ Jesus.
Are you with me here?
The great grammatical significance here, let me just repeat that.
This law is a law that’s produced by the spirit.
The same spirit.
The spirit that produces life is a life-giving spirit, and that life is in Christ Jesus.
That law produced by the spirit of life that is in Christ Jesus has set us free from the
law that is produced by, by, the law that is produced by sin and death.
I’m going to hear, “Been set free.”
That’s it.
Are you okay?
I have for you, I’m done.