How to Rejoice

Just grab our bibles. Just grab our bibles. In turn to Romans chapter

five of Romans five, if you don't have a Bible with you, just

raise your hand. We're passing those out right now. And also a bulletin.

There's sermon notes on the back of that bulletin is going to be super

helpful for tracking along. So just raise your hand if you need a bible

or a bulletin, and just keep it up and we will find you and

we will give you one. In turn to Romans chapter five, we're gonna

be in Versus one through eleven. I'm gonna invite our brother to come on

up and read our scripture text for us this morning, Romans five one through

eleven, and read along. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith,

we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him,

we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand,

and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that,

but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance

produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not put us to

shame because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit,

who has been given to us. For while we were still weak at the

right time, Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for

a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to

die. But God shows his love for us, and that while we were

still sinners, Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified

by His blood. Much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath

of God. For while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by

the death of his son. Much more, now that we are reconciled,

shall we be saved by His life. More than that, we also rejoice

in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

This is God's word. Let me ask you to consider this question,

what is the most Christian emotion? What is the most Christian emotion? I

am I'm not asking a trick question. I think that there's an answer,

and I think that this text helps us understand that answer. I'm going to

argue that the most Christian emotion is joy. It's joy. Now, let

me be clear I am not saying that there's only one emotion that's appropriate for

Christians to have, right, That's not what I'm saying. Like there are

life is rich and complex emotions are too. The Bible doesn't just make a

list of here's the a list of emotions. These are good. Here's the

b list of emotions these are bad. That's not how the Bible talks about

our internal life at all. In fact, the Bible teaches that there are

all kinds of emotional responses that are biblically appropriate, whatever the situation. Like

the biblically appropriate emotion to say injustice towards someone who's vulnerable is anger. That's

biblically appropriate. The response to responsibility would be soberness, a biblically a biblically

appropriate response to say brokenness is lament. So I don't, by my question,

mean to flatten out our view on Christian emotions. Far from it.

I mean to center it on joy. What I mean is that there is

a center to our internal life, like there is a center to our Christian

doctrine. And if the center of our doctrine is the Gospel, right what

our Jesus has accomplished, then the center of our internal life is rejoicing.

And I think this text teaches us that Paul's been laying out the fundamentals of

the gospel for four chapters, and now he gets to chapter five and he

says, this work of God is meant to create this central emotional response from

his people, and it's rejoicing, rejoicing. And if you're paying close attention,

you might notice that Paul is actually comparing this kind of Christian rejoicing to

the boasting he's been criticizing for the last four chapters. He's using the same

word, right, He's using the same word of boasting. Right, we

don't boast in God as if he's our possession. We don't boast as if

we have some station. We don't boast as if we have done this ourselves.

But rather chapter five, now he starts using the same word, but

he gives it a different connotation, and in fact, the translator is translated

differently. They go from boasting to rejoicing. I think that's a good translation

because he's saying, look, the self righteous boast in his works, the

Christian boasts in Christ's work. And that's why, Yeah, that's why we're

going to do that right? How to rejoice? How to rejoice? That's

why we have the strike through there and in your bulletin. Now you can

take your pen or pencil and you can strike through boast and write rejoice instead.

This is the interactive part of the sermon. I always have something for

you to do how to rejoice? Let me ask you another question, how

is rejoicing going again? I'm not trying to be the happiness police. I'm

not saying that all of life is happy clappy, but gospel rejoicing as a

baseline internal response to the work of God. We're meant for it. This

passage shows us how and why. So let's look at it how to rejoice.

If you want a roadmap, I'll go ahead and tell you that answers

on your quiz. Right now, here's where we're headed to how and why

of how to rejoice? We're going to look at some very special aspects of

God's contented closeness, and that's the answer number one, contented closeness. We're

gonna look also at some aspects of his ongoing work and then his promised shelter,

and all of those are going to need some unpacking and explaining So God's

contented closeness, his ongoing work, this promised shelter. That's how we'll navigate

through this passage. Let's look at it. Here's how I put the first

point. If it will go, grace, you got to help me exult

in God's contented closeness. Exult in God's contented closeness. Okay, what I

mean? Do you know that God is with you and he wants to be

with you? Do you know this? Look at verse one. Therefore,

since we have been justified by faith right, declared righteous by faith, that

is to say, not by your faithfulness, we have peace with God through

our Lord Jesus Christ. Right. So we're talking about a settled fact.

God has declared you righteous and He has made peace with you. In Christ.

Right, you have become his friend. Like Abraham was the friend of

God. You are now in friendship with God, not like Abraham, just

like Abraham. Not due to your faithfulness to do what God says, but

rather your faith that God does what he says. That's worth exulting in.

But not only that, also check out your presence state. Look at verse

two. Through him, we also have obtained access by faith into this grace

in which we stand. So lee, you stand in, you dwell in

a place of grace. Right. This doesn't mean that you have easy access

to the king. That doesn't mean that you can make regular appointments with the

king. It means, like a son or daughter who lives in the royal

palace, you dwell with the king. Right, you're there, You stand

in this grace. You dwell in this grace. And this is the kind

of closeness to God that He has accomplished for you through Christ. Right,

that's what the text says, that through Him, this isn't a closeness that

you've accomplished. He performs it, He preserves it. We rejoice in it.

It's a settled fact. It's a present state. And he puts our

eyes on a future to look at the rest of verse two, and we

rejoice. We exult in hope of the glory of God. Okay, here's

the idea. Because we have been made completely His our eyes look forward to

a day when God's glory covers the earth like the water covers the sea.

We exult in that. We rejoice to see that happen because He is ours

and we are his, and we will even share in that glory as he

makes us completely like him, like we have every reason to exult in how

God is content to have us close to him, together with him, you

know what I mean. Like in my home, I am with my children,

and I want to be with my children. That's done. That is

the essence of our relationship is joyful closeness. Now there's a lot of activity

involved, right I am. I am doing definitely doing some training and some

challenging. I've got some that I'm challenging, you know, in terms of

giving attention to, like career development. And then I've got another that I'm

challenging to just not break his leg on the sofa by jumping on it.

There's the whole gambut. But the essence of my relationship with them is joyful

closeness. My relationship with them isn't defined by the things I'm challenging them towards.

And consider how content God is to be with you. Right, He

has declared you righteous, he has made you his friend, he has stood

you in grace. He puts your eyes on a future of glory with him.

How distracted do our hearts have to be not to rejoice in this?

The enemy, the enemy would call all your attention to the other things,

the sinful habits you haven't broken yet. He would want all your attention on

that. The enemy would call all your attention to the relationships that are still

a mess. He would have all your attention on that. And those things

need some attention, but they don't define your life with God. The essence

of your life with God is joyful closeness. He is with you and he

wants to be with you. Sure he's working with you. Sure he's challenging

you in ways that push you forward. The foundation of your relationship with Him

was never your victory over sin. The foundation of your relationship with Him is

Christ. It's unshakable. We exult in it, so striving even godly grief.

They may be active in the renovation of this house, but the foundation

this house is joy. How do we rejoice? We exult in God's contented

closeness. He is with you, and he wants to be with you,

and he has done it. It's worth rejoicing it. Wow Ese how else

I'll say also this as the passage does glory in sufferings because of God's ongoing

work, glory and sufferings because of God's ongoing work. Look in verse three.

Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, which is not

to say that this is some sort of Christian masochism. Actually, this is

very real, and this is very much one of the most important aspects of

rejoicing that we can learn as Christians. We rejoice in our sufferings. How

does that work? We'll look at the rest of the verse. We rejoice

in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character.

So we glory in our sufferings. We rejoice in our sufferings because we know

that God is doing something important. We know, right, we see that

they're in the text knowing. If I didn't know that the dentist was doing

something important, I would not sit still for that stuff, no way.

So what is God doing? What is the important thing that God is doing

through our sufferings? Well, the text tells us that there is a chain

of results that God is forging. And the first link in the chain,

right goes endure, character, hope. The first link in the chain is

endurance, which I have to agree with you doesn't sound very glamorous, Like,

really, that's what I'm getting out of this suffering endurance. I was

hoping for something a little foxier than that endurance, but it's endurance is super

important endurance. And here's the definition I like for endurance. What is endurance?

Endurance is choosing to stay under the work. Endurance is choosing to stay

under the work. My grandfather was a wood craftsman, a very skilled one.

While he was alive, and in his workshop so many tools, so

many tools. There was one tool that probably got used more than any other,

and that was the vice right the bench vice. So any piece that

it was working on, he would place in the bias and would tighten it

down so that he could work on that piece with any other tool, and

that piece wouldn't fly right, He wouldn't that piece of wood would be like,

I'm out of here, which is how we respond if we don't have

endurance. God gets to work on us through suffering. God gets to work

on us through hard times. God gets to work on us through messy relationships,

and we're like, I'm out of here. God says, no,

I am producing first in you, endurance. I'm producing in you first,

a conviction to remain under the work that I'm doing because I'm doing something important,

endure without it. When God's uncomfortable work comes, we slip out from

underneath the change he intends for us to have. And so then the next

link in the chain then is endurance produces character. Character. That's the change.

Here's my definition. I like this definition for character. The change of

heart that better reflects the heart of God. The change in my heart that

better reflects the heart of God. Right, so there's Grandpa again. He's

got the piece, it's tightened down in the vice, and now he actually

brings the hand tools into work, and it actually starts to shave and sand

and eliminate everything about that piece that doesn't reflect his intentions. And as he

gets to work because of the endurance, because of the if you could say,

suffering, that piece against to take on the shape that the craftsman intends.

And so it is with us. The craftsman intends something different in your

heart than once already There. As I talked about this passage with at least

three different people, everybody had a similar story to share. It's about suffering.

All of these people shared about the uncomfortable work of God and how it

shaped their character. All of them had experienced loss, all three of them

had something of their identity stripped away from them, the way they thought about

themselves and the world, what they were made of. It was suffering.

It hurt, and all of them, all of them said, God changed

me for the better in this aspect of my life. I started to handle

things, and I started to look at things more like God. And I

am so glad that I went through that suffering. I rejoice in it.

And maybe for you, you're not on the other side of suffering. Maybe

right now you're in the middle of it, or maybe you're just starting to

stare it down. You don't have to be on the other side to rejoice

in suffering. That's not what this text is teaching. We rejoice in our

sufferings. And in fact, one of the persons that I talked to so

that he wrote out a meditation to God because of this suffering. And what

he wrote out was, God, I know that you are doing something important,

and I know that in your way you will rescue me. And so

I want to rejoice now. I don't want to be like the Israelites who

were belly aching and despairing and panic on this side of the Red Sea.

And once they have received their deliverance, and they were on the other side

of the Red Sea. Then there was joyful singing. I want to joyfully

sing now while I'm looking at this, because I know who you are and

I know what you do. You don't have to wait till it's over.

The scriptures are saying, we rejoice in our sufferings because we know endurance character

and character produces hope, hope. What is hope. Here's a definition.

I like hope is a settled confidence in a future that gives the present promise

and purpose. Hope is a settled confidence in a future that gives the present

promise and purpose. That's not how we usually talk about hope. The way

we usually talk about hope is more like wishful thinking. I hope it rains

tomorrow, right, it might, it might not, I hope it does.

That's not biblical hope. Biblical hope is about knowing what is coming,

and that changes how you act and feel. Now like, I know that

Christmas is coming, whether I hope that it does or not, I hope

in what is coming, so it changes what I do. It means I

gather recipes and I browse Amazon, and I'll do much more of that next

week. I'll get faster and faster as the month progresses, because I know

it's coming. There is a future that changes how we act and feel now,

and here is your future. God is going to finish the job.

God's glory will be known and you will be like his son. That is

your future. Let it change everything about your joy now. You can count

on it. How do you know you can count on it? Here's what

the Bible says. Look at verse five, and hope does not put us

to shame, which is to say, hope doesn't disappoint. You can count

on it because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit,

who has been given to us. In other words, we know that

God has this future for us because of his love for us. And his

love for us is shown in two ways. The first one is here,

the Holy Spirit's been given to us. The second one is coming, which

is the timing of Christ's death. But listen. To have the Holy Spirit

is to have the love of God in abundance. Even though the spirits work,

maybe sometimes convicting towards repentance, or maybe assurance of grace, the most

important thing is that He's there. The presence of the Spirit is the testimony

of God's love, because apart from the Holy Spirit, there is nothing able

to bring a person to faith or to take a single step in holiness.

No person will be persuaded of the things of God on his own. But

the Spirit changes everything. As John Owen said, every time we say we

believe in the Holy Spirit, we mean we believe that there is a living

God, able and willing to enter human personality and change it. That shows

the love of God. That shows the love of God. But here's the

other thing that shows the love of God, the timing of Christ's death.

Look at verse six. For while we were still weak at the right time,

Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous

person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.

But God shows his love for us that while we were still sinners, Christ

died for us. Do you know how you can have a settled confidence in

God's future for you, despite your failings, despite your weaknesses, Because when

Christ died for you, you were weak, you were ungodly, you were

sinful. He didn't die for you because you're a righteous person. The basis

of his love. His love is set on you, and that is that.

It would be like one of my kids saying, well, Dad,

you just told me that you loved me because I made all a's. Yeah,

it would be ridiculous, and none of my kids have ever said that,

But if they did, I would laugh in their face. They're like,

listen, I loved you when all you did was cry and poop and

refuse to sleep. If my love for you was based on your grades,

it wouldn't have survived the first six months. I love you because my love

is set on you, and that is that. Christian God loved you before

you ever had a quiet time. God loved you before you ever even tried

to walk in purity. God loved you before you were even attempting to be

a grateful wife or a diligent employee. If his love for you was based

on your Christian grades, Christ would have never laid his life down. His

love is set on you, and that is that. So rejoice in that,

rejoice in it, and rejoice even in the sufferings that God is using

to produce his works of endurance and character and hope. He isn't finished with

you and his love is set on you. Rejoice. So this rejoicing,

this exulting, that belongs in the very center of Christian emotional life. Right,

we rejoice in God's closeness. We rejoice in God's ongoing work. And

there's another source of our rejoicing in this passage, and here it is God's

promised shelter. I put it like this on the slide, revel in reconciliation

and God's promised shelter. Look at verse nine. Since therefore we have been

justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the

wrath of God, the final and full judgment of God. For if while

we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His son,

much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by His

life. More than that, we also rejoice. We revel in God through

our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. So here's

the idea. As Paul has already said in his letter, there is coming

a day when the judgment of God is finally and fully lowered on all the

earth. And the question is how is it going to go? For you?

Will this relationship of closeness with God, Will his ongoing work really prove

out to fully and finally see you sheltered from judge? Can you have confidence

in that? And the scripture is saying yes you should. Here's the argument.

If you've been reconciled to God by Christ's death, how much more will

you be saved from full and final judgment by his life, His risen and

interceding life. In other words, You're gonna make it. You're gonna make

it, and this is worth reveling in. Now. He did not die

for you only to see you fall under final condemnation. He is alive and

interceding like to him, says he will hold you fast when I fear my

faith will fail, when the tempter would prevail, Christ will hold me fast.

He's alive and He's not going to give you up. And all these

failings and flaws that you see in yourself and you consider so worthy of judgment,

God has a plan for those. He's not caught off guard. God

is not up in heaven going. Man, if I only knew what a

disappointment this guy was going to be as a Christian, I never would have

gotten this close to him. I don't really know what I'm going to do

with him in the end. Yes, he does, and he tells us

what he has for us in the end. It's shelter. If you've been

justified by Christ's death, you will be fully and finally saved by his life.

What do we do about that? We rejoice. It's worth reveling in.

It's worth reveling in, not abusing as a license for sin, but

reveling in with joy. This is something to rejoice in. This is what

the center of our Christian emotional life is based on. Rejoicing in his closeness.

He's with you, and he wants to be with you in his work,

even when it's shaped through suffering. It is shelter. He is alive

and he's not going to give you up. What our Jesus has accomp is

the cornerstone of our Christian understanding. Right. The Gospel is the center of

how we understand all of truth, and so rejoicing is the cornerstone of our

Christian internal life. Rejoicing is meant to be the warm home of the Christian.

We may travel to places of grief, we may have errands in places

of remorse, but rejoicing is meant to be home, not because our circumstances

are always that great, certainly, not because we're always that great, But

what our Jesus has accomplished definitely is