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From War to Welcome: The Gospel of Peace · Sermon Podcast at Cartersville1st

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  It is certainly is a huge honor, always honor and privilege to be
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  able to come and share God's Word, to break bread and to let
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  us have a feast on God's word. And I pray that's what will
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  happen today. As Danny has already mentioned,
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  tomorrow is Memorial Day, and there of course, we honor those
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  that made the ultimate sacrifice, those that died so
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  that we might have freedom and peace.
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  But in the book of Romans, particularly the passage that
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  we're going to look at today, we're going to learn about a
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  peace that is far greater and far more meaningful and is
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  eternal, a peace that God provides for us.
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  And so today's message is called from war to welcome the gospel
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  of peace. And before we jump into the to
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  the passage that was read a few moments ago, I want to just kind
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  of navigate, kind of get some context.
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  Where are we in the passage as we lead into this passage?
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  Where are we? Well Paul in in this very
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  glorious book, Paul has been the 1st 4 chapters.
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  He has been explaining to us that the gospel, the good news
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  of Jesus Christ, is the power of God unto salvation to everyone
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  who believes. Therefore, everyone is
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  available, or the gospel is available to everyone, but also
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  everyone needs the gospel because there is no one
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  righteous. No, not even one.
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  We may look good, some of you look better than some of the
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  others, and I won't point out who I'm talking about, but
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  relatively speaking, we may. We may think pretty highly of
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  ourselves, but compared to God, no one is righteous, not even 1
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  and therefore everyone is has a problem.
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  Everyone is under condemnation. We are fallen and we are we
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  cannot get ourselves up. We have a problem.
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  The problem is their sin, the problem is the guilt of sin, and
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  our relationship to God is broken.
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  But Jesus, Paul then goes on to tell us, Jesus, the righteous
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  one, the Son of God, came as a man and came and lived a
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  sinless, perfect life. He obeyed the law in every way,
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  in his thoughts, in his deeds, in his actions, in every every
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  intention of his heart was to obey and to please God.
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  And therefore, because he was God in the flesh, He then was
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  able to bear the penalty that we rightly deserve.
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  So Jesus is our substitute on the cross, substituted for us.
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  He bears the penalty of our sin. He brings into the 1st 4
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  chapters of Romans a word called justification.
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  And it's important that we understand what that word means
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  because he's going to hit the the ground running in chapter 5
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  with the So what of justification.
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  So he says therefore, since we have been justified by faith, So
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  what does that mean? Well, Paul explains to us in the
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  1st 4 chapters that justification means at least two
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  things. One, it's a legal term.
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  We are guilty before God, but because of what Jesus has done,
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  we're declared righteous. Fact.
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  That's what justification literally means.
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  We are declared righteous before God.
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  That in and of itself is great news, right?
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  But there's more, there's even more.
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  It gets better. Justification also means that
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  Jesus's righteousness gets credited into our account.
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  So it's not just forgiveness is not just wiping the slate clean
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  as great as that would be, but we actually get credited with
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  the righteousness of Jesus Christ himself.
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  I I don't know about you, but that's hard to take in.
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  That is hard to fully grasp. In fact, I think the whole
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  Christian life is trying to trying to somehow grasp and
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  fully understand that wonderful truth.
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  Now, it's interesting because here we have to realize and
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  reflect on the fact that Paul had never visited the church at
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  Rome. He'll visit it later, ironically
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  as a prisoner. He'll get there.
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  He'll get to meet his Christian brothers and sisters in Rome in
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  chains. But when he writes this letter,
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  he hasn't yet been there, and he wants to make sure.
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  So he's writing to believers. He's not writing to people who
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  need the gospel, but he's writing it to people who already
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  have believed the gospel. He wants them to fully
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  understand all the implications of the gospel in their life.
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  Now I just want to one other thing that I want to say is that
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  a lot of scholars, Bible students of the New Testament,
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  when they, when they look at Romans and they study the way
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  it's laid out, they compare it to the other books that Paul
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  wrote. They sometimes they think this
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  is interesting because really about now, at the end of chapter
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  4, Paul would normally turn from doctrine over to practical
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  application. But he doesn't do that here.
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  Actually, he doesn't do that until chapter 12.
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  But he does do something interesting here in these 11
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  verses. It's almost as if he's driving,
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  taking a journey through the beauty of the gospel, the
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  message of the gospel. And it's he's, it's almost as if
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  he pulls off to a rest stop, you know, like one of those scenic,
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  you know, drives, you know, you're in the National Park and
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  they have these really nice places you can pull off.
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  And there's a Vista, beautiful view.
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  And it's almost as if Paul has pulled off.
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  He's looking out and he is admiring where he's come from.
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  He's looking at this beautiful view.
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  And so I want to take just a few minutes and explore here the
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  admiration that the Holy Spirit speaking through Paul, is giving
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  about justification. And he says this.
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  He says since we have been justified or declared righteous,
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  since Jesus's righteousness has been credited to our account, we
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  have peace with God. And I want us to look at 4
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  aspects of that peace. First of all, the fact that it's
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  a true peace. The second is it's a grace
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  creating peace. Thirdly, it's a joy producing
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  peace. And then fourthly, it's a
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  personal peace. So first of all, a true peace.
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  When he says we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus
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  Christ, literally we are having peace.
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  It is an ongoing reality in the life of a believer.
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  It is a true people. Why don't I say it's a true
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  peace or a real peace? Well, there's a lot of times in
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  the New Testament, many times in the New Testament that it talks
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  about the experience of peace that a believer has.
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  That is absolutely, completely true.
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  The Bible teaches it. The Bible.
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  A believer does not need to have an anxious heart.
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  He doesn't need to have a troubled heart.
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  We do not need to be. We can be content in our
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  circumstances. We can be content in the Lord.
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  However, as true as that is, that's not what Paul is talking
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  about here. He's talking about a different
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  kind of peace. What he's talking about here is
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  a literal peace. You are no longer at war with
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  God, and God is no longer at war with you.
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  We may feel the struggle. We may say, well, it sure feels
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  like I'm at war. That war is against your own
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  flesh. It may be against Satan, it may
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  be against the world, but God is no longer at war with you if you
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  are in Christ. If you know Christ, you and he
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  are no longer on opposite sides. You are now on His side.
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  You are now a citizen of his Kingdom.
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  He has accepted you. He may discipline you, you may
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  grieve him, but you're no longer at war with him.
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  You are no longer his enemy. I also want you to notice that
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  this is an abiding peace, meaning again, as I said a
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  minute ago, this is a a literal translation would be we are
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  having peace. This is something we
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  continually. This is not, this is not like
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  the Palestinians and the Israelis, OK, they can have a
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  ceasefire. If they announced A ceasefire
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  today, does any person in this room believe that the war has
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  really ended? No.
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  Same thing. Ukraine and Russia.
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  They might have a ceasefire, but they're the reasons for the
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  hostility are still there. That is not true with the peace
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  we have with God through Jesus Christ.
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  There is no long all the reasons for hostility between US and God
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  have been taken care of in Jesus Christ.
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  Now it's not only a real peace, it is a grace creating peace.
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  He says through him we verse 2. Through him we have also
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  obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, or
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  literally in which we are standing.
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  Last fall I had the wonderful opportunity to go with my son to
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  Ireland. In fact, he he actually was my
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  Christmas present from him. It's always great when you have
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  children that make more money than you do and they treat you
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  to nice things like that. But we he we went over there and
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  got a chance to watch Georgia Tech defeat Florida State, which
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  seemed like a really big deal at the time.
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  It it turned out to not be, you know, so you know, one of the
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  easier wins, but it was a great time.
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  And one of the things that that course the the day of the game,
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  we're in the middle of Dublin and we go to the ESPN Sports
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  Center place, you know, where they broadcast the pregame.
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  If you're not a if you're not a college football fan, just
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  believe me, it's a big deal, OK? So there's thousands of people
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  there and they're going to get up and talk about football for
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  hours, you know, which is great. Sounds great to me.
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  It may sound awful to you, but anyway, Well, Jacob, my son knew
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  a friend who knew a friend who could get us on the stage, the
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  game day stage at ESPN. Pretty cool, right?
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  I mean, that's not something you get to do every day.
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  I still have a hat. It's got the ESPN on it.
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  It's pretty cool. It's got a Irish flag on it.
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  And so couple hours before they went on the air, we met at a
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  certain place and this young lady who had full credentials
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  ushered us into and onto the stage.
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  And I got to wave to the crowd, pump them up.
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  It was so cool. Now, do you think if I had just
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  walked up and said, I'm, I'm a big fan of Sports Center, I'm
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  going to get on this. Do you think they'd let me on
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  the stage? No, I it was because of someone
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  who I knew or who knew me that I was able to have full access to
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  the ESPN stage. That is really honestly, that's
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  the concept that Paul is trying to communicate here through him,
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  that is through Jesus. We have also, not only are we at
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  peace with him, but he's taken his former enemies and he is now
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  Jesus Christ because of his credentials, not yours, his.
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  He is actually ushering you into a new room.
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  He says we are standing in grace.
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  What is grace? It is God's unmerited favor.
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  It is the way that God now treats his children.
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  It means that there is nothing, nothing you can ever do to be
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  rejected by God. You will never be kicked out of
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  the room of grace. Now that sounds kind of
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  scandalous. We struggle sometimes struggle
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  with grace. Paul even struggles with it
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  later in the same book. One of the objections that
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  people raise is well, wait a minute, if we're under grace and
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  we don't have to obey the law anymore, then why don't we just
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  sin all the more so we can get more grace?
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  God loves to God loves to give grace.
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  I love to sin man great. It's a great that's a what a
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  deal Anybody who believes that has not experienced grace.
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  Imagine go back to the ESPN analogy.
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  Imagine that I had come up on stage after being ushered onto
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  the stage, and here I am as as a special guest, honored to be
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  there. All of a sudden I just spit on
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  the floor. Do you think I would do that?
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  It would embarrass my son. It would humiliate him.
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  If you really understand the grace of God, you're not going
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  to spit on the floor of the throne room.
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  That's the last thing in the world.
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  And when you do, you're going to, you're going to truly have
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  godly sorrow and repentance when you do.
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  That is why grace is grace. Understanding and believing
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  grace makes us holier. It does not give us a license to
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  sin. Do you understand the
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  difference? Think so?
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  OK, now so we're ushered into grace.
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  It's accessed by faith in Jesus. It's almost we're also
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  permanently located in grace. The the Greek here could not be
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  more demonstrative or or more emphatic.
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  It it uses 2 words that are both in what's called the perfect
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  tense in the Greek, which is a past action that still has
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  abiding permanent results. We are accessed.
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  We we are. We are introduced almost as the
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  word where we, we, we are at. We have access because Jesus has
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  introduced us, brought us into the phone room, and now we are
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  permanently standing in a state of grace.
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  We cannot lose it. We cannot get out of it.
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  It is a permanent gift that God has given everyone who has been
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  declared righteous and and for which for whom the righteousness
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  of Jesus has been credited to them.
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  I also want you to notice it gets even better.
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  It gets even better as He's looking out and admiring the
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  beauty of justification and the peace that it brings.
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  It is a joy producing peace. Look at verse 2, the second part
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  of verse 2, and we rejoice or literally we are rejoicing in
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  hope of the glory of God. So first of all, we are
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  rejoicing in hope. Now hope is, is a very critical
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  New Testament concept. The word hope, our English word
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  for hope is really not. It just can't nail the the Greek
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  meaning for hope a a better way. Whenever you see hope in almost
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  every time in the New Testament, just kind of substitute
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  confident expectation or eager and confident anticipation.
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  That's the idea behind hope, and hope is critical to the health
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  of every believer. God's desire for us as healthy,
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  mature believers is we should be just longing for heaven,
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  dreaming about heaven, meditating on heaven.
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  It should be pulling. I don't care even if you're 15
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  years old, 20 years old. I wish I had learned this many,
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  many years ago in my Christian life.
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  The hope of heaven purifies us and pulls us toward him.
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  I'm thinking about a few years ago I went to Las Vegas for a
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  business convention. I did my one time in Vegas.
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  I'll never go again. I don't advise it's if you
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  haven't gone, you're not missing anything.
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  But now that's my little rant on Vegas.
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  But it is an interesting town. It is a fascinating place.
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  And it was a museum that we went to, and we went in the daytime.
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  I think at the night, in the night, it's lit up.
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  But I went in the daytime and it was an old it's basically a
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  boneyard for old neon signs that used to decorate Las Vegas.
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  In fact, one of them is very famous.
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  It's the Stardust sign, but it wasn't lit up and, and, and the
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  paint was like peeling off of it and it looked you could get a
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  sense of the former glory when it was, you know, you could kind
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  of imagine what it would have looked like.
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  But now it's just kind of pathetic.
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  You know, it's kind of sad. Looks kind of like tensely
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  cheap. When the Bible says that we
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  rejoice in the hope, the confident expectation, in
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  confident expectation, that's kind of what what the scholars
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  tell us is that this is, yes, this is referring to the glory
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  that we one day believe we will experience, where we will know
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  God fully and he will be fully revealed to us.
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  But this is also talking about the glory that we will have as
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  believers, and we will reflect the glory of God to him as well
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  when God glorifies us fully. Right now we're like those
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  burned out old neon lights, but one day we will shine brightly.
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  That's the hope that we have also.
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  It's not just hope in the future though.
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  It's it's that we can rejoice in our suffering.
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  He does something really interesting here, verse 3.
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  Not only that there's more, but we rejoice in our suffering,
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  knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces
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  character, and character produces what?
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  Confident expectation, hope. And hope does not put us to
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  shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts
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  through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
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  Now it's interesting here again, the Bible teaches many places in
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  the New Testament. It teaches that all suffering
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  for a believer, all suffering can be redeemed.
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  But here specifically, the word is really could be translated
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  probably more accurate to translate it tribulation.
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  This is referring to the suffering that we have for the
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  sake of the gospel. Remember, the war's over.
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  We're at peace, right? So whose side are we on?
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  We're on God's side, right, If we're in Christ.
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  But there are still, there are still rebels out there and
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  they're still fighting against God.
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  What did Jesus say? He says if they hated me, they
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  will hate you. A servant's not greater than his
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  master. This is a reality now.
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  This is not a license for us to be rude.
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  It's not a license for us to be self-righteous.
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  And there has been much harm done in the name of Christ by
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  people who were not living a life worthy of the gospel.
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  However, it is inevitable. If we are living and presenting
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  the gospel, it will rub some people the wrong way.
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  It is offensive. And why?
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  Because it insults our pride. What do you mean God has to die
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  in my place? What do you mean I'm an enemy of
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  God? What do you mean I'm I'm not
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  right before God? It can be offensive.
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  It is offensive. In fact, if the Holy Spirit
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  didn't illuminate our hearts, it would it it probably for all of
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  us. It was offensive to us before we
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  came to know Christ now. So why is he rejoicing then that
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  he's having tribulations or why the Romans are having the Roman
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  Christians are having tribulation?
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  It's because it's not because of the suffering.
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  We're not happy that people are offended, but it's what the
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  suffering produces, he says. Knowing this is something you
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  got to know because if you know, if you don't know it, you're
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  you're just going to get hurt, upset, frustrated, and you're
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  going to feel like you're doing something wrong.
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  He wants you to know something. He wants you to know that your
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  tribulations are going to produce endurance.
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  That is our capacity to believe in Jesus is going to just get,
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  as we trust him more, he's going to get sweeter and he's going to
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  get more real. And our capacity to trust Jesus
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  actually grows through experience.
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  And that endurance then is going to produce proven character.
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  That's, I think that's basically just talking about the fruit of
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  the Spirit. God's going to produce that in
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  our lives as we trust Jesus more and more.
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  And then that Lovejoy, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness,
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  all of those fruit of the Spirit as as the Holy Spirit births
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  those and and grows those in our life, what's going to happen
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  then is our confident expectation of heaven is going
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  to get even stronger. Our hope of heaven today should
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  be stronger than our expectation and anticipation of heaven
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  yesterday. And every day it should grow
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  stronger. Now we are in a very unusual
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  time. Historically, we're probably,
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  there's probably few generations of people on the planet of the
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  last 2000 years that have had to suffer less for the gospel than
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  where we are where we Live Today.
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  However, I can look across the room.
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  I know many of you and I know that we, if you have made a
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  stand for Jesus Christ consistently, most of you, I
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  suspect, have experienced the pain of someone very close to
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  you, maybe even in your own family or friends who have
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  rejected you or cut off all contact with you or have very
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  little to do with you. And it is only for one reason
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  and one reason only. It's because you proclaim the
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  gospel. That's suffering for the gospel.
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  But God says he will even redeem that.
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  But if we respond, if we trust Jesus in the midst of that, it's
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  going to produce even greater expectation and eagerness for
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  heaven and for glory. But then he goes on and he says,
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  and we're going to jump down to verse 11 here, and you have to
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  trust me on this. This is grammatically correct,
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  to do this, to jump to 11. He's got one more thing to
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  rejoice in. He says more than that.
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  We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through
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  whom we have now received reconciliation.
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  His last rejoicing is just in God himself, because after all,
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  that's what it's all about. The gospel is God.
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  If you get God, you don't need anything else.
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  What does God desire? He desires your heart more than
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  anything else. He wants you to desire Him more
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  than anything else. This person that you were once
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  his enemy, He has now ushered you into the throne room of
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  grace. He's given you so many reasons
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  for rejoicing and more than anything else, He just wants you
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  to desire Him. I, you know, I think about
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  heaven sometimes and I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm going to love to see my
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  mom, to see friends, my, my father-in-law, Ralph Powell, to
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  see the Mansfields, to see Bruce Thompson.
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  He's, he hasn't been there that long.
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  He's pretty new, but I believe if, if we could talk to any of
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  those people today, they would tell us don't, don't be, don't
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  be excited to see us when you get there.
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  It's all about Jesus. That's what's really that.
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  That's what it's really, that's what it's all about.
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  It pulls us. It's supposed to pull us now.
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  It's not only a true peace, it's not only a glory creating or a a
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  grace creating peace. It's not only a joy producing
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  peace, it is a personal peace. And here I'm going to switch the
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  order in your from your bulletin.
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  We're going to do the second one first in verse 5.
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  It says, and hope or confident expectation does not put us to
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  shame or disappoint us because God's love has been poured into
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  our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given us.
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  It is a personal peace that is proven by a gift.
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  We just said a minute ago, the joy of heaven is the gift of
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  God, the joy of our life. Here is the indwelling Holy
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  Spirit. That is the best gift God could
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  ever give us. He gave us Himself in the person
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  of the Holy Spirit. If you know Christ, I'm not
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  saying you're aware of it every minute of every day, but you
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  know what I mean when I talk about the witness of the Spirit.
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  You know if you possess the Spirit, there have been times
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  that you're clearly can distinguish.
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  Yes, God's Spirit indwells me. In fact, you could never have
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  put your faith in Jesus in the 1st place had not the Spirit
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  poured out the love of Christ into your heart.
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  Why would you even want him? The Holy Spirit has to show that
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  to you. So it's proven.
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  This personal peace is proven by a gift, but it's also motivated
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  by love. How many of you like to read a
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  good book that has a plot twist? I mean, a really incredible plot
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  twist that you never saw coming? You like that?
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  I do. OK, so here I will say this is
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  the biggest, greatest, most mind blowing plot twist ever
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  conceived. Verse 6 For while we were still
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  weak, listen to all the flattering terms that God is
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  going to use to describe who we were before we came to Christ.
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  We were still weak at the right time.
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  Christ died for the really good people.
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  Is that what it says now died for the ungodly?
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  For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps
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  for a good person one would dare even to die.
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  But God shows His love for us, in that while we were still
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  sinners, Christ died for us. Since, therefore, we have now
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  been declared righteous by His blood, much more shall we be
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  saved by him from the wrath of God.
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  For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the
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  death of his Son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we
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  be saved by his life. Jesus never waited for you to
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  get good. He died for you while you were
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  still a Sinner, while you were still weak, unable to save
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  yourself, when you were ungodly. If He did all of those things to
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  bring you peace, will you not rest in the peace that you have
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  with God, that you are no longer at war with Him?
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  You stand in the throne room of grace and he treats you on the
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  basis of grace, not on the basis of your performance or works.
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  I'm convinced and I just I've had two or three interactions
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  with with friends of mine in the last week and I, I am more
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  convinced that ever that we as believers, we really struggle
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  believing that Jesus truly loves us.
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  This is proof this is exhibit A. He died for you while you were
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  his enemy. He loves you that much.
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  And if he if he died for you while you were his enemy, if you
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  put your trust in him, he's surely going to save you from
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  the wrath to come. I want to close with a just a
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  brief story. They're they're in a service
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  like this. You're always going to have
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  you're going to have believers at different levels of of
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  understanding of the gospel. We never, we never move on from
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  the gospel. The gospel is like rebar in
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  cement it. It holds everything together and
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  everything is connected to it. We just don't ever.
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  Everything in the Christian life connects back to the gospel.
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  So we never leave the gospel. We just go deeper into it.
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  But I'm convinced that we struggle with the love of God.
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  There are also people here. However, in a room this big
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  there's I feel pretty confident that there are people here who
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  have never, ever trusted Christ. In September 2nd, 1945, General
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  Douglas MacArthur on the USS Missouri formally accepted the
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  surrender of the Japanese to the Allies.
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  It was a There were celebrations all over the world.
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  VJ Day. It was finally over.
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  The conflict was over. There was true peace.
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  The hostility had ended. But there was a Lieutenant, his
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  name Hiru Hiru Anoda. He was a Lieutenant in the
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  Japanese army. He was stationed in a small
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  island that had in the Philippines that had been cut
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  off from the rest of his army. And people on the island begin
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  to announce the piece. He refused to believe it.
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  In fact, he went into the jungle and for the next 29 years
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  carried out guerrilla raids on the people of the island.
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  They would drop leaflets. They would have bull horns
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  announcing and trying to convince him.
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  And he thought that's all propaganda.
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  He did not believe the news that there was peace.
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  It wasn't until 1974. I was a senior in high school.
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  It's kind of weird to think about this.
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  Finally, he surrendered. And the only reason he
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  surrendered was they had to fly his former commanding officer to
• 38:44
  the island and that that commanding officer had to give
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  him the order to surrender. Now the gospel is an
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  announcement. It is a proclamation that there
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  is now peace between God and man.
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  Only reason you don't experience that peace is if you don't
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  accept it. If you're here today and you
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  have never surrendered, that's what you have to do.
• 39:21
  That's the only thing necessary is to surrender your pride and
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  believe that Jesus did everything necessary for your
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  righteousness. That is, that is trusting
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  Christ. In a minute the praise team is
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  going to come. We're going to sing a hymn or a
• 39:47
  song of invitation. I don't know where you are
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  spiritually. I'm just going to ask you to
• 39:53
  respond. If you want to trust Christ,
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  Brother Steven will be down here.
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  We have other encouragers that will be here.
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  We would love nothing more and to pray with you as you trust
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  Jesus. And to help you and and and to
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  and to speak some words of encouragement to you.
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  Perhaps you're a believer and you have a burden.
• 40:22
  You just come need to come and pray, please.
• 40:25
  Again, we would love, we have encouragers.
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  We would love to pray with you about anything you need.
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  We had a good friend of mine came in the first service and he
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  was just, he knew that he needed to understand the love of Christ
• 40:41
  even more. So that would be my invitation
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  to you. And Stephen James is going to
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  come forward and whatever you want, whatever the Lord is
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  calling you to do, I would ask you to be just to trust Him and
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  be obedient.