SERMON GM16-084
SERIES: Renewal Through Romans: The Gospel Defined, Explained,
and Applied
SETTING: North Kelso Baptist Church
SERVICE: Sunday AM (May 15, 2016)
SUBTITLE: How to Be Right with God (Part 15)
SCRIPTURE: Romans 5:6-8
SUBJECT: Justification produces benefits for believers
SUMMARY: Since
the believer has been declared and is treated by God as righteous, Paul now
provides some of the obvious consequences or benefits of having been justified
by faith. The consequences resulting from justification have been made possible
by the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and by placing faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. These benefits or consequences serve as an anchor giving us
security and confidence that the believer is safely secure in Christ.
SCHEME: To provide proof that justification by faith is secured by the absolute
& abundant love of God for sinners confirmed by the death of Christ.
SKETCH:
3A The Implication
of Righteousness (4:23-5:21)
1B …it is procurable by all men who believe
(4:23-25)
2B …it is productive
for all men who believe (5:1-5)
1C Peace
with God (1)
2C Province
of Grace (2)
[Announce the Text]
Please open your Bibles to Romans
5:6-8
[The Title of Today’s Message is]
How to Be Right with God – (Part 15)
Today’s Truth continues to be:
Justification produces
benefits for believers –
God’s abundant and absolute love for us
Prayer for illumination & understanding
Our gracious Father, help us as we
hear your holy Word read and taught to truly understand; and with our understanding,
that we might believe and believing, we might be in all things faithful and
obedient.
So Father we ask you, through your
Holy Spirit to open our hearts and our minds for the sake, the honor, and the
glory of your Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, so that as the Scriptures are read
and your Word explained, we may hear with joy what you say to us today.
We ask you Father to show us all
that Christ is and what He has done for us by His atoning work on the cross of
Calvary.
Father, will you enable me to
clearly communicate the word of God to your people, I ask you for power and
unction to preach your word. Amen.
Re-announce and read the text
Our text for today is Romans 5:6-8
[Main Introduction]
Attention Getter
C.S.
Lewis once wrote – “On the whole, God's love for
us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for Him.” (C.S. Lewis)
Orient the Text: (CPT) Justification produces
benefits for believers
This morning I want to continue to speak to you about the
consequences or the benefits that are our as a result of justification by
faith. The consequence or the benefit that is in our text and in front of us
today is the absolute and abundant love that God has for each of His children
that He has declared to be just.
We finished a rather lengthy message on the fact that trials,
troubles, and tribulations are the means by which God matures or develops
genuine believers. We cannot escape them. Our passage todays reminds us and
teaches us that our hope of future salvation and glorification is based on this
absolute and abundant love that God has for us.
Genuine believers experience God’s love in their hearts. God
not only says that He loves us and has poured out His love extravagantly in our
hearts through the Holy Spirit, but He offers up prove of His love. In our
passage today we will see the grounds for this extravagant love that God has
poured out in our hearts. God’s love is not just words, it isn’t just theory.
God’s love doesn’t just float free from any type of anchor.
Raise a Need: (POS)
As I
said last week, God tries and tests, He refines and restores His genuine
children. No one would deny that some trials or tribulations hurt far more than
others. At times the pain is deep, so deep that we wonder if God really does
love us at all.
It is
so easy to ask the question, “Does God really love us?” in the middle of severe
trials or tribulations. After all, if God really did love me couldn’t he have
stopped this horrible trial before it even started?
In the
middle of our trials and tribulations we need a reminder that God really does
love us. This knowledge enables us to remain faithful and to endure the trial
or tribulation that has engulfed us.
There
were times as we raised our four (4) daughters that I wondered if they really
did love me. Sometimes it seemed I was just an ATM or some type of means to an
end. But there were those special moments and times when I was convinced by
their actions and attitudes that they really did love me.
Trials
and tribulations can be extremely difficult and painful. They can be
overwhelming to the point where the flickering light of hope appears to be on
the brink of being snuffed out.
We
need this reminder that God really does love us with an absolute and abundant
love!
State the Purpose
My purpose today provide
the evidence supplied by God that having been justified by faith that God loves
us.
[Sub Introduction]
Announce the text under consideration
Paul speaks about
the magnificent benefits that are the results or consequences, the benefits of being
justified by faith by God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ in
Romans 5:6-8. So, join me as we continue to answer the question, How to be right with God?
Review current sermon series
We are in a series that is
currently examining The Provision of Righteousness. God, because of Christ’s death
on the cross, and through His Holy Spirit has imputed the righteousness of
Jesus Christ to all those who believe the gospel. We have looked at the Introduction
of Righteousness, we have looked at the Illustration of Righteousness.
Today we are continuing to look at or to examine the Implication of Righteousness
as we consider Romans 5:6-8. So far we have seen those implications are:
·
Righteousness is procurable by all who believe
·
Righteousness is productive for all who believe
…produces
peace with God
…produces province
of Grace
…produces
process of Growth
Background to the text
Preview the body structure
Our text, Romans 5:6-8 divides
itself into three propositions. The first proposition, which is found in verse
6 gives the fact that Christ died for sinners; the second proposition is found
in verse 7 which proposes a contrast between human love with God’s love, and
then the third proposition is found in verse 8 which emphasizes the uniqueness
of God’s love for sinners.
Our theme today continues to be - Justification produces benefits for
the believer
Interrogatory Sentence: Therefore,
I think it is important that we ask ourselves, how do we know that God really
loves us? Or, maybe, a better question might be, what token or demonstration
does God provide to proof that he has an abundant and absolute love for his
genuine children?
Transitional Statement:
The passage of scripture before us describes at least three (3) features
of God’s love, and they are - the purchase of sinners; the proof of
sacrifice; and the promise of salvation.
[And so we now continue to examine the third implication of
justification which is that…]
3B …it is propitious
for all men who believe (Vss. 6-8)
Paul has
just explained how genuine believers are enable to endure tribulation. They are
enabled by the knowledge that God loves them and that the tribulations are not
indicative of His anger towards them. God has abundantly poured out His love
for the genuine believer by the HS. Here we find that God is not merely saying,
“I love you.”
God proves
that He is favorably disposed towards all genuine believers, which include you
and me. God is propitious towards us because of the death of Christ.
When we think
on these terms that God is propitious or favorably disposed towards us, we are
able to see this three (3) ways. The first way we see the propitiousness of God
toward us is in:
1C The
Purchase of Sinners (6)
In verse
six (6) Paul makes it crystal clear that God through the death of Jesus Christ,
His Son purchases sinners for Himself. We see at least three (3) facts that
amplify this purchase of sinners. Never forget that God did not come to “call
the righteous to repentance, but sinners.”
[First we see…]
1D The
Problem that Motivated the Purchase
eti gar cristos ontwn hmwn asqenwn
“For when
we were weak…”
Paul states
that sinners are weak. This word conveys the meaning of “the total incapacity
for good.” This is the accurate description of those who are designated as
sinners before they are brought to the saving knowledge and grace of salvation.
This word
is also translated as “powerless, without physical ability.” In the spiritual
sense it is translated as wretched, diseased, in a state of sin.
Robert Murray M’Cheyne once said, “The seed of every sin known to man is in my
heart”
This idea of total moral inability or incapability
of any good is also known as depravity.
What does depravity mean?
The
word comes from a Latin word “de” and “pravus.” “Pravus” means
“crooked.” The prefix “de” is intensive. The complete
word “depravo” means “very crooked.”
It does not really imply constitutional
crookedness but the sense of having become crooked. The term does not
imply original structural corruption but that which has departed from right or
straight more with the feeling of deterioration or fall from a former state of
moral or physical perfection.
Remember
when God finished creating man, he said it is good.
Depravity
always means a departure from a state of original integrity. It means
departure from conformity to the laws of being for the one who is the subject
of depravity. We don’t call a person depraved who still conforms to the
laws of his being, physical and moral, only to the one that has departed from
those laws, whether they are physical or moral.
The Bible tells us that the
wicked possess a common wicked heart or character.
“And GOD saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of
the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
(Genesis 6:5)
“This is an
evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there
is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of
evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after
that they go to the dead.” (Ecclesiastes 9:3)
“The
heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who
can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)
“Because
the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can be.” (Romans 8:7)
The
Bible declares it a universal necessity that men be regenerated, saved because
of this utter depravity or total weakness:
“Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God.” (John 3:3)
“…for all have sinned and
fall short of the glory of God…”
“Behold, I was brought forth
in iniquity, and in sin my mother conceived me.”
"For from within, out of the heart of men,
proceed the evil thoughts, fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries…”
“…for you were formerly
darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light”
"The heart is more deceitful than all else and
is desperately sick; who can understand it?
“Indeed, there is not a
righteous man on earth who continually does good and who never sins.”
“For the flesh sets its desire
against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in
opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.”
“Then the LORD saw that the
wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts
of his heart was only evil continually.”
“What then? Are we better
than they? Not at all; for we have already charged that both Jews and Greeks
are all under sin; as it is written, "THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NOT EVEN
ONE; THERE IS NONE WHO UNDERSTANDS, THERE IS NONE WHO SEEKS FOR GOD…”
“…whose are the fathers, and
from whom is the Christ according to the flesh, who is over all, God blessed
forever. Amen.”
"Yet they did not
listen or incline their ears, but stiffened their necks in order not to listen
or take correction.”
“…having eyes full of
adultery that never cease from sin, enticing unstable souls, having a heart
trained in greed, accursed children…”
"This is the judgment,
that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than
the Light, for their deeds were evil.”
“To the pure, all things are
pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both
their mind and their conscience are defiled. They profess to know God, but by
their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for
any good deed.”
So, Paul is stressing that God’s love came upon us
or to us when we were utterly helpless to do anything about our condition as
sinners.
As sinners, we were completely unable to rescue ourselves
or to remedy our situation. There is an utter inability for any man to improve
this status, change his condition, or make a move toward God and salvation.
This word helpless is a serious and sobering word
and condition. Apart from God doing anything for us through Christ sinners
would be absolutely, totally, and completely unable to save or secure salvation
for ourselves.
So, we have seen why God poured his love into the
hearts of sinners. While we were sinners and weak, that is helpless and totally
unable to rescue ourselves, God provided a way for us to be helped.
Mind you God was motivated by His sovereign love and
not by human merit. Christ died for the weak and helpless sinner. Christ did
not die for the righteous or for the good, but for helpless sinners.
[So,
as we look at the purchase of sinners, it is clear that the problem that
motivated the purchase was the utter helplessness of mankind.]
[Secondly,
we see…]
2D The
Period that Managed the Purchase
kata
kairon uper
“…in due time…”
This phrase is a bit difficult to determine what
Paul actually meant. Remember, when interpreting Scripture, we are always
trying to determine what the author actually meant and what his readers would
have understood.
The word itself, kairon, can be translated as season,
opportune time, at the set time, or particular time being spoken of.
Acts 19:23 says, “Now there arose during that time
a serious disturbance concerning the way.” What time? During the time
that Paul had dispatched Timothy and Erastus to Macedonia and he stayed by
himself in Asia.
So what time is Paul talking about? Paul could have
speaking about one or more of the following times:
·
A particular time or point in world history
·
During the time that God would have poured out His wrath if Christ had
not prevented it by His death
·
The appointed time in God’s eternal plan & calendar
·
When at the specific time when sinners were weak
This seems to be easy enough
for us don’t you think? I think Paul is referring to the specific moment in
God’s eternal timetable. Christ died right when God ordained or appointed Him
to die.
[So,
as we look at the purchase of sinners, it is clear that the problem that
motivated the purchase was the utter helplessness of mankind and the period or
time of the purchase of sinners was right on schedule with God’s timetable.]
[Thirdly,
we see…]
3D The People that Mandated
the Purchase
uper
asebwn apeqane
“…Christ died for the ungodly.”
Christ died
for us! Christ died for sinners. Christ died for the ungodly. Paul is
emphasizing or stressing that God’s love is seen in the fact that Christ died
on our behalf. This fact proves God’s love for us. There should be no reason to
doubt God’s love for us.
Paul never
thinks of God’s love apart from the cross. God’s love is always attached to or
a part of the cross.
Paul never
thinks of Christ’s death on that cross apart from the fact that God gave up His
Son to die on that cross.
It is here
that we see the priority of God’s love for sinners. You see God’s love when you
examine the fact that:
·
Christ died for God’s enemies
·
Christ died before we made any move toward God
·
Christ died to overcome the enmity, the hostility, and
the anger that God had and has towards sinners
·
Christ died to fulfill the promise longstanding in the
Scripture
·
Christ death had been planned in eternity
·
Christ died as our substitute and as our
representative
·
Christ’s death accomplished atonement for sinners.
Jesus took the punishment that was intended for sinners.
Paul’s
intention here is to underscore or highlight the greatness and distinctiveness
of God’s great love by sending Jesus Christ to die for those who are wicked and
rebellious and who actually hate Him.
God’s love is unparalleled and unprecedented.
Christ died for us who as sinners was bad, bad, bad, - bad to the bone. Christ
died for those who had no reason to be loved.
Listen, when we love someone it is
almost, not always, but almost always based on some form of attractiveness in
the object of our love. We usually love people who:
·
Love us
·
Are physically attractive
·
Are talented
·
Have money
·
Can benefit us in someway
·
Are the same as us in values, interests,
Remember Jesus said, “For
is you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax
collectors do the same?” Even
tax collectors love other tax collectors.
But God loves us when we:
·
Were ungodly. – godless, without any fear of God,
without any reverence for God. We were ones who practiced the exact opposite of
what God required or deserved. Before Christ we had no fear of God or of what
God wanted. Sinners are the exact opposite of what is righteous.
·
When we were ugly or unattractive
·
When we had nothing of value in and of ourselves
·
God loves us when we could offer no benefit to God
whatsoever.
And this is good, because listen
carefully to what Charles Hodge stated in his commentary:
“If God
loves us because we3 loved him, he would love us only so long as we love him,
and on that condition; and then our salvation would depend on the constancy of
our treacherous hearts. But as God loved us as sinner, as Christ died for us as
ungodly, our salvation depends, as the apostle argues, not on our loveliness,
but on the constancy of the love of God.” [1]
Remember our context! Here is the
foundational truths that support the promises that:
·
Our hope of future glorification will not cause us to
be ashamed
·
Our future and complete salvation is guaranteed
And so, we see another benefit of
having been justified by faith. Justification is propitious for all men who
believe. It is so because we have been purchased by God because of his great
love for us. God purchased us when we were utterly and totally helpless or
depraved. God purchased us by the death of Christ on the cross at the exact
time that God had appointed or ordained Chris to die. Christ purchased the
ungodly, the unrighteous.
Let’s turn our attention to the
second that we see the propitiousness of God toward us is in:
2C The Peculiarity
of the Sacrifice (7)
Moles gar uper diakaiou tis apoqanetai uper gar tou
agaqou taca tis kai
talma apoqanein
“For
scarcely on behalf of a righteous man will anyone die; yet on behalf of the
good, perhaps someone might even dare to die.”
The main
point of verse seven is very clear. Paul is emphasizing the love of God that is
shown in the cross of Christ by reminding us that the height of human love is
the giving of one’s life on behalf of someone else. Such as:
·
Our spouse
·
Our child or children
·
A buddy in combat, or law enforcement
We are all
aware of the stories where a soldier or marine fell on top of a grenade taking
the blast to save the lives of those near him.
But of
course God’s demonstration or proof of love is different. Christ died for His
enemies, He died for those who hated him. So verse seven serves as a contrast
of human sacrificial love that might motivate you to give your life for someone
else and with God’s love which sacrificed for evil and wicked men.
Paul’s
point is that it is common for a person to make a sacrifice, even with his life
in order to save someone who is “good” or “deserving”. Few people might die for
a bad person but most likely not.
John Calvin
wrote: “Most rare, indeed, is such an
example to be found among men, that one dies for a just man, though this may
sometimes happen: but let this be granted, yet for an ungodly man none will be
found willing to die: this is what Christ has done. Thus it is an illustration,
derived from a comparison: for such an example of kindness, as Christ has
exhibited towards us, does not exist among men.” [2]
This is why
I called this point the problem of sacrifice. Almost no man would ever do what
God did. He gave His Son, His precious Son to die for bad men, men who were
enemies, and men who were wicked.
And so, we see another benefit of
having been justified by faith. Justification is propitious for all men who
believe. It is so because we have been purchased by God because of his great
love for us. God purchased us when we were utterly and totally helpless or
depraved. God purchased us by the death of Christ on the cross at the exact
time that God had appointed or ordained Chris to die. Christ purchased the
ungodly, the unrighteous.
God purchased us at a great
sacrifice.
Let’s turn our attention to the
third and final example that shows the propitiousness of God toward us is in:
3C The
Promise of Salvation (8)
Eunisthsi de thn eauton agaphn eis hmas o qeos, oti epi
amartwlwn ontwn
hmwn, cristos uper hmwn apeqane
“But God
demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ
died for us.”
This is
very simple! In contrast to the very best of human love is God’s love. God
demonstrates or proves his love for us by the fact that when we were sinners,
wicked, vile, at enmity with God, His enemies He gave His Son to be sacrificed
for our salvation.
And so we
see God’s love in the death of Christ on our behalf. This is actually a cold
and sobering historical proof of God’s love. This love of God for us as seen in
the sacrificial death of Christ is the reason that we are confident that our
future salvation and glorification will take place and that we will not be put
to shame because of our confident hope.
This love
of God is almost beyond our very comprehension! God hates every sinful attitude
and action and is actually actively hostile against the sinner and yet gave His
only Son to die as a proof of his love for His elect. God’s love is absolute
grace.
So the word
“sunistnsi” means proof, establishes,
confirms, manifests, gives proof or demonstrates. So, confirms or demonstrates
is a far better translation than commends. God has confirmed his love for us or
demonstrated His love for us by the death of Jesus Christ.
It is
through or by Christ’s death that we have proof that God will never abandon us!
He saved us while we were enemies by this supreme example of love. Now that we
are His, He will keep us and take us to the very end or to our glorification.
I think
William Barclay said it very well when he said, “Sometimes the thing is stated as if on the one side there was a gentle
and loving Christ, and on the other an angry and vengeful God; and as if Christ
had done something which changed God’s attitude to men. Nothing could be
further from the truth. The whole matter springs from the love of God. Jesus
did not come to change God’s attitude to men; he came to show what it is and
always was. He came to prove unanswerably that God is love.” [3]
Justification by faith is beneficial
to the genuine believer. One of those wonderful benefits is that …it is
propitious for all men who believe. (Vss. 6-8)
[What do
you say we wrap this up?]
[CONCLUSION]
Paul has just explained how genuine
believers are enable to endure tribulation. They are enabled by the knowledge
that God loves them and that the tribulations are not indicative of His anger
towards them. God has abundantly poured out His love for the genuine believer
by the HS. Here we find that God is not merely saying, “I love you.”
God proves that He is favorably
disposed towards all genuine believers, which include you and me. God is
propitious towards us because of the death of Christ.
When we think on these terms that
God is propitious or favorably disposed towards us, we are able to see this
three favorable disposition in three (3) ways.
·
In the purchase of sinners
·
In the peculiarity of the sacrifice
·
In the promise of salvation
Amen.
Let’s pray! J
[1] Charles
Hodge, Commentary on the Epistle to the
Romans, (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1974 reprint), pp. 136-137
[2] John
Calvin, Calvin’s Commentary on Romans, Vol.
Second (Grand Rapids: Baker Books,
reprint, 2009). Pp.195,196
[3] William
Barclay, The Letter to the Romans, Revised,
(Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1975), p. 77
2 comments:
Great reading Gregg, Very thought provoking.
Yvonne.
Thanks Yvonne. It is both sobering and thought provoking to think that Christ would die for the enemies of God who could not help themselves. This is the path to salvation and heaven, acknowledging that sin and guilt and helplessness and turning to Jesus Christ as the only sacrifice acceptable to God to appease Him and for the forgiveness of our sins.
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