Peace with God

Good morning, everybody.

For those of you that don't know me, my name is Chris Massey.

My wife, Christina, and I are members here.

We have three boys.

We host a mission group in uh in Milford, and uh that barely fits on the map of uh what we try to hit as far as our community here at Sacred Mission.

But uh we're we're really uh blessed to be a part of this church, um, and I'm really uh blessed to be able to serve you this morning, um give Justin some time off and uh and and walk through uh Romans 5 with you all.

Uh just to bring you up to speed in case this is your first time here, in case you've not been for a few weeks.

We've been walking through the first four chapters of Romans, and what we're seeing is Paul take painstaking time to make sure we understand uh what we have in Christ.

And and the the long and short of it is that we have justification.

Um we have justification through Christ, through no work of our own, um, through no merit of our own.

We didn't earn it, we can't earn it, we don't deserve it.

Um, but in in Christ we have justification.

What that means is we've been made right before God.

We've been made right as as sinners.

Uh we were uh made right with God even as we warred against him.

Uh the Bible says we're enemies of God, and we'll get to that.

Um but I'm I'm excited to be, I kind of feel like I hit the lottery for who I am.

I love being an encourager.

Um I take a lot of joy in walking with people in their journey and just being an encouragement to them.

And uh I love this portion of Romans because there's a little bit of a pivot.

Uh Paul's established this justification, what that means and what we have in it.

Um, and now we get to see kind of the implications of that justification.

And I'll just tell you, it's so encouraging.

Uh we have the we have hope in this.

And we're gonna talk uh at length about what that means.

Um but but just whether you're here today and you are in the midst of the darkest season of your life, um, I'm here to tell you you have you have real hope in Christ.

Whether you're here today um and and you are experiencing the the most blessed season that you've ever walked through, I'm here to tell you that your hope in Christ is better than that.

So um we've just got a lot of encouraging things to look at.

And and I think to start, what I'd like to do is maybe just walk you through how I got to where uh I am today with this uh with this teaching.

And so I'd I'd ask you to look at verses one through eleven with me.

Um I I like to find um if in a in a passage, if there are words that are recurring over and over again, it's a pretty good indication that the author wants you to really get it and really see it.

Um I look for themes that are woven throughout.

Um I it's it's important that we understand what happened right before where we're at, so we can know what the implications are.

You'll see that um as so in verses 1 through 11, you see words like justified, saved, um, you see wrath, uh, you see that that we were sinners.

Um and and what this what what what I go to is we're justified from what?

We're saved from what?

What's God wrathful about?

And and the first poor uh the the first portion of or the first point of our main point, first part of our main point, is that we have a sin problem.

Um we have a sin problem, and and whether you acknowledge it or not, you need to know that you have been saved from a real sin that you chose and that you were dead in.

And so uh that's the first point that I want to make.

Um, if we look back at the scriptures, you'll see um words like suffering and shame, and and then that we were weak.

These could seem discouraging, um, but what this points to um is our state and that suffering is a part of our story.

That's the second part of our of our main point today.

We have a sin problem, suffering is a part of our story, and and and let me just address what could be uh a misconception about suffering um this morning.

Um some believe that, or some think that upon uh conversion, upon um that spark igniting within our soul, that is our justification, that is our saving faith that Tim talked about last week.

Um that after that life's a party.

That everything goes well after that.

And I just want to I just want to let you know that that um there are uh believers all around you uh that suffer in immense ways.

And it's not uh a result of necessarily sin all the time.

It's not necessarily a result of a lack of faith, but suffering's just gonna be a part um of our story.

Um let me say something else about suffering.

What I'm not saying, we're gonna talk about, we're gonna talk about um real implications of hope that we have in suffering.

And as I encourage you to find hope in your suffering, what I want you to not think is that I'm diminishing the pain that you're going through.

I'm not saying that your suffering is uh small to you.

I'm not saying your suffering is insignificant, I'm not diminishing it or uh being flippant about it.

My goal and my prayer is going to be that you would see how exalted God is even in your suffering.

That he's enough, that he's good, that he's near, and that he will sustain you.

So maybe you're here today and you are suffering.

Um I want you to know that your pain is is real and it's known by a God that loves you, and that I'm not diminishing uh the weight of what you're going through, but I'm calling you to see the goodness of God in it.

Um so looking back again at the one more time at the scriptures, we'll see rejoice.

Hope, several times hope.

Um that we're loved and that we're saved.

And so um, though we suffer, though we have a sin problem and we we may suffer, we ought not to spare.

And and and the the final part of our main point today is uh we ought not to spare because in Christ we have real, everlasting, sustaining hope.

And we're gonna talk about um what hope means and what it necessarily doesn't mean as well.

Um but but our story is this, even though we have this saving, sustaining, eternal hope in Christ, our story is that we often look for hope in the fleeting.

We often look for and try to grasp in and hope in things that fall through our fingers like vapor, that will fail us eventually.

Um I I'll admit that I I struggle to not look for hope in my own abilities, in my own ability to perform.

Um I I I uh I listened to guys um like Jordan Peterson that would say, um, the ultimate goal of life is to find the the biggest burden you can and endure it.

And or or quotes from a guy like Mark Driscoll that says, Men are like trucks.

They drive straighter with a lot of weight on their back.

And and while there's some encouragement in there, um I what if I'm not careful, I I look for that as an as as a as a almost like a call for me to do more and to be more and to prove myself.

I can't tell you how many times, and I'm not bragging, this is a shame, how many times I've I've laid awake at night at three in the morning staring at the ceiling, wondering if the time that I'd spent with my sons that day was enough.

If if, or the lack of time or conversation that I'd have with had with my sons that day would be the spark that would view God as uh an insufficient dad because I was that day.

I I I I I've confided with with several friends a few years back, prior to my oldest um coming to faith and being baptized.

I I remember being at a baptism for some dear friends, their sons were being baptized.

And I I was just wrestling with this fear.

I was inundated with fear that God would not save my son.

He might not choose specifically my oldest son.

And I I remember seeing our friends' boys come out of that water, and I was sobbing and and out loud saying, God, I I can't love him more than you do.

You you and it like shaking my fist at God saying, You better save my son.

I was resting and trying to find hope in my abilities.

I was not finding hope in a sovereign king that loves my son way more than me.

I was trusting in my abilities to shepherd him into faith.

And while I've got immense responsibility in that, I wasn't trusting in God's ability and plan to do it, to accomplish what I can't.

So I uh I I guess what I'm what I'm saying is I'm as I'm addressing and will address misallocated hope, I say that as someone that often misallocates my hope in the fleeting.

And in fleeting, meaning my abilities, because those are awfully fleeting.

Um so today, what what I'd like to do is unpack um how Christ has responded to us in our need, our real need, our our inability to address our need and to change our need.

Um and and and the long and short of it is he he addressed it by bringing us peace through reconciliation in him.

Sound okay?

Okay.

Uh good.

I guess verse one is a good place to start.

Let's just go ahead and uh start digging in.

We see, therefore, since we have been justified by faith.

So what Paul's saying is, therefore, keeping in mind all that we've been talking about in verse in chapters one through four, and then kind of summarizing it.

Since we've been justified by faith, we've been made right with God.

Um in chapter four, we we we saw Abraham as the example that he was brought to Christ, but brought to God um not through his own works, um, uh by by by meeting the law.

The law hadn't been established yet, so it's not like he worked his way into favor with God.

He didn't uh it and through circumcision that came after God chose him, he didn't merit his his being chosen.

Um it it I think it I think we we talked about how it showed that his account was credited.

He wasn't just forgiven.

We aren't just forgiven, but in Christ's uh works, in Christ's work on our behalf, we're actually bestowed his righteousness on top of it.

We're not just forgiven and called even, but God gives us more than that in being clothed in Christ's righteousness, that while we're sinners, apart from the law, apart from our works, apart from our merit, we're redeemed uh through Christ.

And so looking forward, because of that justification, we have peace with God through Jesus Christ.

Verse 10 uh shows us that we've been uh reconciled.

That's that's what this peace, um, this that's what this peace accomplishes, reconciliation.

And and having peace is the ultimate hope because we really, really needed peace with God.

We desperately needed peace with God.

But we we also needed Him to establish that peace with us.

We couldn't do it.

So let's look first at why did we need God to establish the peace?

And the reason is because we needed God to do what we were too weak to do.

We couldn't do it, we couldn't initiate it.

Uh the truth is we didn't want it.

We needed God to take that step and make us His.

Verse 6 uh says, while we're still weak, um other translations uh use the word helpless for this.

We couldn't do it on our own.

This this word, this root word, occurs a few other times in the Bible.

Um John 5, 7, um, Jesus encounters a man that's bedridden, um, said he was invalid, couldn't even get himself out of bed to get in the water, completely crippled as an as an invalid.

John 11 1, um we we see Lazarus completely uh weak, weak to the point of dead.

Um Romans 14 is going to show us an example of uh kind of comparing those weak in faith to people that um only eat vegetables, which um I find uh yeah, I find great encouragement the Bible calls us to eat meat.

Um and then uh 1 Corinthians uh refers to uh those that are weak being destroyed.

Guys, we we had no ability to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and uh propose a peace treaty with God.

We were we were too weak to reach for our bootstraps.

We needed him to accomplish it, but why did we even need peace?

We needed him to uh to accomplish it.

Why did we need it?

And the truth is we needed peace as sinners.

Verse 8 says, while we were still sinners, we didn't uh we didn't initiate this uh because we were too weak.

We were actually dead in our sin.

Dead is an awfully weak state to be in.

We didn't initiate it, we were dead, we were completely separated from God.

Other places in the Bible, like Ephesians, say we were children of wrath.

Recalling uh back in Romans 2, it says God stores up his wrath in his kindness that we might return to him.

In Psalm 79, David talks about God's wrath being poured out.

Um, 2 Chronicles chapter 12, um, God withholds his wrap, his wrath for the humble.

2 Chronicles 12 · chapter mention

Later on in 2 Chronicles 34, um, it talks about God pouring out his wrath on those that would forsake him and that it would be unquenched.

That's terrifying.

Romans 9, uh, in a few weeks when we taught when we go there, um, it's gonna, it's going to uh Paul's gonna show us side by side um what what we do with wrath and what God does with wrath, and it shows that he withholds wrath while we actively are vessels of wrath.

We're literally waging war against God's holiness with our wrath, and he withholds it in his great mercy.

That's grace.

We were enemies of God.

We needed this peace from a war that we started against him.

So, what does this mean?

Um, that we were dead in our sin, uh, deserving of the wrath that we literally warred against God with.

But but through Christ we find Paul letting us know that we've got reconciliation.

In verse 10, you'll see that we're reconciled.

And the root for this, um, the the Greek root for this word, um, it means that there's an exchange that has happened, specifically an exchange that uh uh allows for a restoration to favor.

Through no work or merit of our own, uh, we can now fall directly at the feet of a God that has reconciled himself to us and reconciled us to one another.

We are uh we're not separated anymore.

Um I I I've been challenged by some friends to not uh that I that I often don't acknowledge that uh that I'm not separated anymore from God.

And I lean too heavily into that identity of sinner.

Talking about um, you know, referring to myself as broken or or weak or a mess or a wretch.

And I've been reminded by really good friends that that's not who I am anymore.

Who I am in Christ is totally separate from what I might do.

And that that brings me much hope.

We're we're in Christ, we're new creations, we're his workmanship, we're a chosen race, we're royal priesthood.

The Bible even says we're saints.

That's who we are.

That gives much hope.

Though I might fall and I might sin, then I'm his.

And I ought not to simply refer to myself and see myself and proclaim myself a sinner because that negates all the work that he did.

So we offer nothing for this, yet Christ has reconciled us to himself.

Isn't this all just encouraging?

It all feels if we just sit and and and savor the weight of this, it's good news.

And I hope that that's coming through.

But it gets even better.

There are real implications to this hope that we find in Christ.

Verse 2 says we have access.

So there again, we're not we're not separated anymore.

And this access allows us grace, this grace that we rest in, this grace that we need, this grace that we call upon daily, this unmerited favor, giving us what we don't deserve.

We don't deserve a position of being welcomed through Jesus into God's favor and unconditional love.

This is joyful news for us.

Find joy in that, this peace that gives us access, that gives us grace, that allows us to rejoice in this hope.

Uh last week, Tim talked about this hope being uh an expectation.

We can, we can we can expect that God is faithful and will come through.

We can have a confidence.

Um R.

C.

Sprohl is a is an author and a Bible teacher that I that I really love.

He he said it like this hope is not taking a deep breath and hoping things are going to turn out all right.

It is assurance that God is going to do what he says he will do.

And this is incredibly encouraging and suffering.

We can confidently look forward.

Our hope is like an anchor or a north star.

It doesn't change no matter what's going on around us.

We have hope in a returning Christ.

We have hope in an eternal kingdom.

We have hope in a day when we're no longer battling for holiness, but fully clothed and thriving in righteousness.

That's hope.

Not I hope, uh, I hope the weather's good today.

Or you have a good day.

I hope the mask mandate is lifted.

None of that.

That we have assurance of our future, very comforting in suffering is our hope.

Verses three and four.

We rejoice in these sufferings because God is working to accomplish much amidst it.

Suffering, which leads to endurance, which brings us uh character to hope.

And so let's just break that down because it's easy to gloss past that.

So suffering, which allows us to endure, and that endurance builds character.

And what what I'm not saying, what this is not saying, is that it builds us into like good people, that we can, that we can then find hope because of how good our character is.

But the the the root for this um some translations call it perseverance.

And and what it is, it's it's it's a it's a state of knowing that that this is proof that we can have confidence, that God has proven himself through trial, through our trial, he's proven himself faithful.

And that's the character that this is talking about.

And in that, in seeing time and time again that God is faithful and enough and sustaining us that we can have true, confident hope.

Maybe this is maybe you're, maybe, maybe you it's like your first rodeo of like a desperate situation or a devastating loss, or um, I it can be hard to cling to that hope sometimes.

But for for those of you in the room, or those of us in the room that have seen trial after trial after trial, maybe, and you've clung to that hope, you can approach the next one with confidence, like, wow, God has never failed me.

God has never let me down.

So if this is your first time walking through a really dark time, hold fast to that hope.

God will not fail you.

Um you can be confident that this will pass.

But but um not just confident that it's going to be over, but confident that in right now God's working and doing something great.

Um I'll say specifically in suffering, I've I've I've been one to misallocate my hope and not find hope in a sustaining God with a good plan and a desire for my good.

Um Christine and I got married right out of uh college.

Um and prior to that, uh we had we had dated since we were juniors in high school, and then prior to that, I had known her since I was five.

We we grew up together, we were neighbors.

And so we had a lot of life together, a lot.

Um, but we still wanted some time, just us.

So we we we made a five-year plan going into our marriage to go back to school and save money and build careers, maybe buy a house.

Um, what we didn't have at the end of that five-year plan written down was a four-year-old.

Uh, but that's what we had at the end of our five-year plan.

Or at the end of at the end of that actual five years.

Uh, we were very surprised with the arrival of uh of Isaiah.

And um, we didn't try right away to build our family anymore, but um, after a couple of years we we did.

We started um really trying.

We we wanted more, we wanted more kids.

Um and and that led to uh years of of really tough um fertility struggles.

It was it was really hard as people around us were exploding with kids, seemingly.

Uh we we went from um a kid that we weren't really asking for, glad you're here, Isaiah, um to desperately wanting and hoping for another child.

And it and it was what it was some of the hardest years that we that we endured.

Um specifically for Christina and the discouragement and the wondering.

And eventually we we did conceive and we were absolutely ecstatic because what we had hoped for had come true.

And then we were crushed when we lost her through miscarriage.

And actually, in two days, it will have been nine years since we lost her.

And I remember walking into our garage and seeing uh shelves full of bins of baby stuff.

And I God spoke to me so clearly when I walked out there, and he said, Your hope is in the wrong things.

Your hope is stored in uh storage bins full of baby stuff.

And it was so convicting, but it was true.

We were we were looking for our hope in having more babies.

We were looking for hope in being parents of more kids.

We were looking for hope in things that um were not better than hope in Christ.

So when when I'm exhorting us to find real hope amidst our suffering, I I I'm saying it as someone who didn't find hope in the right places amidst suffering, and Christ was was was good enough to call me to himself in that.

Um so I I again maybe you're I know there's real suffering in this room.

And so please just hear this as an encouragement to you that that I that from this pulpit I'm I'm I find hope myself in a God that sustained me through through uh suffering.

So to the masses, this might be ridiculous to find hope in suffering.

Um and and what I want you to know if if if you're here and you're not a believer um uh yet, uh I would just say that that this isn't some sort of like masochistic call to love suffering, to enjoy pain or something.

But it's it's don't find joy in your suffering, but amidst your suffering.

Joy in being counted worthy of being a part of the story that God's writing that includes suffering.

Full of hope that our suffering is ultimately sowing into the fabric of God's glory.

Verses three and four show that it's not just for his glory, but it's actually for our good too.

He's building something in and around us.

Um Matt Chandler is a Bible teacher in uh pastor and a Bible teacher in Texas.

And um if you're not familiar with him, I'd very much encourage you.

He's actually the the leader of or the head of our church planning network, uh, Acts 29.

And a few years back, he uh he was diagnosed with a pretty aggressive, pretty significant brain tumor.

And uh right away he he put out a video that came to mind when I was um contemplating suffering well.

Um and and what he did was he he he let everybody know that he had this aggressive brain tumor, but he he shared um that he had long struggled with wondering if there are people that would say, of course, of course you have faith in God.

Of course you're joyful, everything's gone right for you.

He he he he planted and grew a very successful uh ministry by God's grace.

And so what what he what he what he feared or what he thought was there might be people out there that just you know would say, everything's gone right for this guy.

Of course, of course he has faith in Jesus.

I would too if if my life were that good.

Um and he said, uh, so I'm right now I I I'm I'm saying this as a as a as a man that may not walk my my my daughter down the aisle or see my son uh become the athlete that I never was.

But I say this now, that God is enough, that he's good, and that I that I'm actually grateful that I've gotten to praise his name in the in in the good and all the success that we've enjoyed at Village Church.

But I'm saying this now as someone that may not make it past tomorrow that God is good, and that I'm grateful that I get to be counted worthy to say that in the good and the bad.

So not only does God know our suffering, but he gives us reminders around us of through people that have that have been sustained through suffering to call us to suffer well and suffer with hope and with joy.

And Paul's a good example of this too.

Um in 2 Corinthians 1, 8 through 10, we see him writing um to uh okay, for we do not know we this is what it says, for we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia.

For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself.

Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death, but that was to make us rely not on ourselves, but on God who raises the dead.

On him we have set our hope.

Paul, the very writer of this letter to us through in Romans, um, has he found hope, sustaining hope in suffering himself.

So consider that God might be calling you to rejoice in your suffering so that you might build up those around you.

Consider that God might be calling you to rejoice in your suffering, to call him back to himself.

Maybe you've enjoyed seasons of plenty and found hope in that.

Maybe he's allowing you to suffer and calling you to rejoice in that suffering so that you would just be reminded that that's fleeting, and I'm here and I'm enough.

1 Peter 1, uh, we see in all this you rejoice.

You may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Christ.

So we see the suffering leads us to endure, and as we endure by his grace, through his strength, he builds our character.

And again, this is like proof of genuineness or trustworthiness, which allows us to respond to our suffering in ways that honor him and reflect who he is, and finally we develop in the likeness of him.

We're able to rest in everlasting hope that even within suffering, we can trust that God is accomplishing a wonderful work.

And not only is he accomplishing much, but we're not alone in it.

We don't just need to find hope in the fact that one day this will end and everything will be okay.

But even right now, we're not alone.

Deuteronomy 31, 8 says, The Lord goes before you.

Looking at uh trying to decide where to live based on grocery store options and gas station options and crime and all these things that I might minimize the amount of suffering and how humbling it is that as I was preparing to move, I'm trying to just minimize my suffering, uh, the potential for suffering.

And and Christ is so different.

That He, preparing for his move, had assurance of suffering.

It wasn't I'm gonna roll the dice and this might go well, this might suck.

It was I know I'm going to suffer and I'm doing it anyway, confidently and boldly.

Maybe you're here right now amidst devastation or suffering, be encouraged that it's not for nothing, and that you don't do it alone.

Christ is with you.

But not only that, he's reconciled us to himself and to each other.

So now we can lock arms and suffer together.

We don't have to suffer, nor should you suffer in isolation.

Um Justin will probably talk about this later, but we um we have mission groups um here at Sacred Mission.

And uh I think I mentioned this earlier, but we lead our mission group in Milford, and I can't tell you what an encouragement it is to gather weekly with uh dear friends and family at the at this church and be encouraged by one another.

And and often that involves uh crying and praying with each other and dealing and bearing each other's burdens together.

That's why that's why we have one another.

That's why he's sown us together, so that we might celebrate together and make much of his name when things go phenomenally, and we might suffer well and celebrate his name when things are going uh poorly.

We can do that together.

Don't suffer in isolation.

Our gospel conviction this morning is this in Christ, our justification brings us peace with God and allows us access to God where we can find unfailing hope in the glory of God.

Verse 5 reminds us that all the work that we just talked about, not ours, but righteousness imparted upon us out of the overflow of a loving Father, a love that transcends and flows through his Holy Spirit to justify us when we were but dead men, this will not fail us.

This has been given to us and it will not put us to shame, according to these scriptures.

So, what do we do with all of this hope?

Paul says three times over that we should rejoice.

First, we should rejoice in our justification, our justification, which which ultimately leads us to more hope.

It's not our work, but his.

Remembering Abraham's example, for instance.

Paul himself said, if it were about works, I've I've outworked all of you.

I'm the works guy.

But not I, but Christ in me.

Paul acknowledging that we can't work our way into this justification that we don't deserve.

We don't get to boast of ourselves.

We get to rejoice that when Christ stormed out of his grave, he pulled our dead bodies out of ours.

Next we get to rejoice in our suffering.

2 Corinthians 4 calls us to not lose, not lose heart.

That uh this light, momentary affliction is working in us an eternal weight of glory.

And when we see light, momentary affliction, don't hear that that your suffering is diminished, but in perspective of the eternal weight of glory that we will feel, this is light and it's momentary.

Keep that in mind.

This is not making little of your suffering, it's making much of a good God.

We have eternal, unfailing favor and hope.

We're adopted into a family by a dad that we ward against.

And now we're reconciled to him and to one another.

And in this we can rejoice in our Father, who is our hope.

He's done the work on our behalf.

Our gospel vision is this through abiding faith in Christ, let us put sin to death in our lives and joyfully experience the freedom we have in Him.

Oh, that we might live in that.

That as our as our hope is well founded and we take our hope to our neighbors, that the name of Jesus would flow out of the mouth of Mason.

And everywhere else we are.

A plea to find your hope in what will sustain you.

Stop looking for hope in a bottle and drink from a well that never runs dry.

Stop looking for hope in politics and hope in the power over all principality.

Stop putting your hope in money and find your hope in the unsearchable riches of Christ.

Stop looking for hope in sex and find hope in the giver of that gift.

Stop looking for hope in your work, hope in the finished work of Christ.

Stop looking for hope in your children and hope in being and find your hope in being the adopted, treasured child of God.

Stop looking for hope in your spouse and find hope as the bride of Christ.

Stop looking for hope in your pastor and find hope in the king that he serves.

Stop looking for hope in the stock market and find hope in the steadiness of our Savior.

Stop looking for hope in your title and find hope in the name above all names.

Stop looking for hope in your plans, find hope in him with saving plan over all.

Stop looking for hope in your secrets and find hope in the mighty hand of God.

Stop looking for hope in your image and hope in your find hope in your unfailing identity as an image-bearer of your Father.

Stop looking for hope in your sports teams and find hope in him with victory over all, victory over Satan and sin and death and the war that we started with him.

Store up your hope in Christ, friends.

You will not be found wanting.

Let's pray.

God, I'm so grateful for uh the time that we have this morning to uh to explore the unsearchable extent of the hope that we can find in your goodness and in your grace and in your son Jesus.

God, I pray that you were made much of today.

I pray that we can leave here um full of hope, full of confident expectation of your goodness and of your favor over us.

God, we love you, and I'm thankful for this opportunity, and I'm thankful for your son, Jesus.

Amen.