Pastor Greg Fadness from Lighthouse Christian Fellowship

Man, man, what a good looking bunch you guys got here.

Somebody just shouted out, I thought they shouted out, "Grease somebody."

I thought that must be a cowboy church thing.

It was "Greet, greet somebody."

Alright, I'm going to pray for us.

Lord, right now as we open up the Bible, we pray that your word would open us up and that

it would go down into the depths of who we are.

That's what it does.

And would bring forth some kind of change today, some kind of forward progress toward

Jesus, toward Christ-likeness, toward seeing the world through the grid of your truth.

And so, Lord, if any of us is carrying weight in here this morning, baggage or failure or

whatever it is, Lord, we pray that we could leave it at the foot of the cross today and

be free.

And so speak to each and every one of us.

We pray in Jesus' name.

Amen.

Well, Pam and I are very, very grateful for all of you.

When I first heard about you guys, this church, Out West Bible, and what the Lord was doing

here, I mean, my heart was absolutely filled with joy.

And Scotty and Connie Brown, I mentioned already, they were a huge part of the early years of

our church, Lighthouse Church in Twin.

And their faithfulness, their, man, there's just certain people that you just know are

going to show up and that are solid.

They're not like water, you know, just kind of, you know, splashing around.

They're not blowing around by the wind.

They're solid.

And those people are gold.

And your pastor knows that because some of you are solid like that.

And it is such a profound, and especially when you've been walking with the Lord for

40 years, you've seen people come and go.

You've seen people, you know, what do they call it now, deconstruct or whatever, you

know, bail on the Lord.

And so when you have people that are steady and faithful over time, over years, it's like,

man, you are awesome.

God is, he's made you a Psalm 92 person, you know, you're planted, you flourish because

you're planted in the house of the Lord.

That's who flourishes in life.

So you got to know that Scotty was a bit of a legend in our family anyway, in the Fadness

family.

My mom and I have three boys and two girls.

They're all growing up now.

But to give you an idea of the status that Scotty held, and maybe still does in our family.

So this is probably, you know, oh, 25 years ago, somewhere in there when Scotty and Connie

were still with us in twin.

And my boy Luke was about four or five at the time.

And he was in a philosophical mood as my boy Luke tends to get every now and then.

But his big brother Ian had just burnt his upper arm on a pan that was on the stove,

and which got Luke to thinking.

And Luke says, hey dad, you know, after Ian was taken care of, he says, hey, dad, would

that hurt you if you touched it?

Meaning the hot pan, right?

And I said, well, yeah, son, it would.

It would burn me.

And then he says, would it burn Jesus if Jesus touched it?

And I said, well, not right now it wouldn't, because Jesus, he shed his mortal body and

received his glorified body, and Jesus, his body, it's not like ours.

One day we're going to get a body like his that won't feel pain and can't get burned

and so on.

So no, Jesus wouldn't feel that.

And then after a long pause and some deep thought, Luke says, so dad, is Jesus stronger

than everybody?

I said, yep, you got it, he is.

And then says, is he stronger than Scottie Brown?

So there you go, that's who Scottie Brown is to my family.

So in the next few minutes, I'm going to do my best to unpack these five verses of Romans

chapter five, which are super potent, super practical.

We'll see how far we get.

But you know, I think Scottie, what did you get?

Two hours, three, what was it that you guys do here?

Like, oh, kidding, I'm kidding.

Okay, number one.

And we're just going to work our way down through the verses.

So the first one that we want to see, and these are four or five things that are ours

through Christ.

This is the big idea, let's get the big idea out there.

The things that are ours through Christ.

Because you've given your life to Jesus, you've accepted him as Savior and Lord, through him

now you have, the first thing is peace with God.

Therefore, verse one, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our

Lord Jesus Christ.

Therefore, since we have been justified by faith.

See we're going to get this song into you today.

That's our evil plan.

Is to get five verses of Bible in you.

So through Jesus we have peace with God.

Not talking about the peace of God, although we get that too, but that's different.

So the picture that Paul is painting here is that God is at odds with us, with humans.

And it's because of our ungodliness, our sin, we would say.

Way back in Romans one verse 18, Paul wrote that the wrath of God is revealed from heaven

against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress

the truth.

So this is the natural state of human beings apart from God is that we're at odds with

God.

We have unrighteousness in our life.

We aren't always pure.

And so because of that God is at odds.

Romans 8 seven, the mind that's set on the flesh is hostile to God.

It does not submit to God's law.

Indeed it cannot.

So God's anger at our ungodliness is a problem.

And God is angry at ungodliness.

And so this I would argue is the biggest problem that humanity has.

It's bigger than the wars that we currently are seeing break out on planet earth.

It's bigger than the economic woes that the world is going through.

It's bigger than the so-called climate change crisis that's happening out there or whatever.

So if God is resolved to pour out his wrath on us we are in a terrifying position.

Now I know you're not supposed to talk about this stuff anymore.

Even in church.

But it seems to me if you go forward in the book of Romans to chapter 11 right around

verse 32 it says behold both the kindness and the severity of God.

Like look at them both.

Don't you know take one away never to be looked at so you can only look at the kindness.

No look at them together.

Otherwise you're going to have a distorted view of who God is.

So imagine the power of God that's behind his wrath.

God is all powerful.

And so when we look up into a southern Idaho sky we see lots of stars.

But it's a tiny fraction of our galaxy our galactic neighborhood which we call the Milky

Way.

Why they named it after a candy bar?

Candy bar I have no idea.

But they say the Milky Way our galaxy has 200 billion planets in it.

Two hundred billion.

And that we our galaxy is about a hundred thousand light years across or about six hundred

thousand trillion miles across.

And and so a light year most of you probably know it's the the distance that light travels

in a year which is 186,000 miles per second over a year's time.

So presuming Elon Musk could build us a ship that could do that kind of that kind of speed

186,000 miles a second it's still going to take us about 50,000 years light years to

get across to the edge of our galaxy.

And besides our galaxy they say there's 200 billion other galaxies that have 200 billion

stars in them.

So the point is the God that we are talking about here in Romans he made this spectacularly

vast universe from nothing by just speaking.

This God spoke and the universe came into being.

And he holds the universe together by the word of his power.

So if this great powerful God is angry at us then this is the worst possible condition

that anyone could be in.

God is revealing his wrath against ungodliness now and he's going to bring it to a climax

at the last day of judgment.

Romans 5 2 or 2 5 rather says because of your hard and impenitent heart you're storing up

wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.

Because you haven't turned from your sin and turned to Jesus Christ now wrath is just accumulating

it's just piling up for the day of wrath it's just building up over time.

Our only hope is if God would provide a way of reconciliation.

It's the only hope for humans.

So the good news is that God has provided a way.

He certainly has.

When the angel in Luke chapter 2 announced glory to God in the highest and on earth peace

Luke 2 · chapter mention

and goodwill toward men.

That was an announcement that the Prince of Peace himself had just entered the planet.

Through the Prince of Peace we can have peace with God.

The war can be over between you and God.

Well secondly from our passage through Christ we have God's favor so it goes beyond having

peace with God.

Now we get to the place where this is on the positive side through him verse 2 through

him through Jesus we've also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.

So we've gained access into another realm a realm we didn't have access to before but

now we do.

In fact it's an atmosphere we live in it when you come to Jesus you enter this realm of

grace and you navigate your life in that realm.

Physically we live in the atmosphere of earth and so we breathe its air we interact with

its physical material the wood and all of it we walk on the ground we build stuff out

of the raw materials that are a part of this atmosphere and unless our buddy Elon builds

us that rocket ship this is where life is in this atmosphere physically right for us

this is where we do everything we do we're built from the earth we're built built for

the earth and this is our atmosphere.

Well Paul is saying that in the spiritual realm grace is an atmosphere it's a realm

that we enter through Christ and so why do I say that or prove that go down to verse

21 so you know why I'm saying that.

Romans 5 21 so that as sin reigned in death grace also might reign through righteousness

leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

So grace reigns that word reign basileo it means you know a king a king who rules that

kind of thing so grace is king in the realm of Jesus and grace reigns over us the favor

of God we would say rules over us you have God's favor through Christ even though maybe

you didn't have a great week this week maybe you didn't feel like a Christian all the time

this week because you you failed here or there maybe some stuff came out of your mouth like

that wasn't holy that wasn't good and so you you come in going man I don't I don't know

that I'm worthy to be worshiping with the people of God in the house of God and you

know and it kind of feels like maybe I I step out of the realm from time to time and and

now I'm out of the realm it doesn't work like that you are enveloped by grace and because

through Jesus you are enveloped by grace God is for you so that all that power that was

against you that that you know you're storing up wrath when you came to Jesus now that same

all-powerful God now he's for you and he's in favor of you so if Jesus is Savior and

Lord you have God's favor and so not only do we stand in this realm of grace we also

we will stand by this grace and favor so in other words because we live in the grace realm

we will absolutely make it here's what it says in verse 2 again through him we have

also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand in which we stand so the

through Christ the same omnipotent God miracle working dead raising create everything the

whole universe out of nothing that same power of God is now working for you and not against

you and if God is for you who can be against you right so what does this mean it means

you're good you're gonna make it that if you're a born-again Christian so Romans 14 5 says

it's before his own master that he stands or falls he will be upheld for the Lord is

able to make him stand by grace you stand now we might be tempted to go man grace just

means that I can just go sin up a storm no then you have the wrong idea of what grace

is Titus 2 11 or 2 13 says that grace teaches us to say no to ungodliness so grace

actually instructs us how to live a godly life so we've entered this realm God his favor

reigns over us and secures us thirdly through Jesus we have a new joy and a new hope a new

joy and a new hope so watch us now again verse 2 through him we have also obtained access

by faith into this grace this realm of grace in which we stand and we rejoice in hope of

the glory of God now what does that mean we rejoice okay we know what that means you who

we rejoice in hope so we're we're expecting something biblical hope is it's not like the

way we typically think of hope we hope that it might that it happens but it might not

biblical hope in the promises of God is absolute it's an it's an expectation of what we know

is going to absolutely happen so it's a promise it's certainty so we rejoice in certainty

of the glory of God what is that I'm asking I don't know I'm cheesy we're gonna we're

gonna carve on okay so if you have an infinite number and subtract a finite number from an

infinite number then what number do you have an infinite number right so so so infinity

minus 1 million equals infinity because that's what infinity is finite only finite numbers

become smaller when you subtract something from them so so the very meaning of infinite

is that when you take away from it there's no less than when you began that's what infinite

means so so that wonderful verse in amazing grace that we sing have sung and you know

a million times when we've been there 10,000 years bright shining as the sun we've no less

days to sing God's praise than when we'd first begun because we have eternal infinite life

in this life in this atmosphere every day that goes by is one day less than that we

have on this planet grandpa Scotty and I were just talking about how time has started to

speed up on this back side of the mountain that we're currently on like we're picking

up steam and so in the life to come however every passing day or century or millennium

will mean that the amount of future left for us is never diminished it's never diminished

now why is this important it's because Romans 5 it begins with two with two infinite realities

that need to be explained they need to explain each other and help us sense what God is what

Paul is telling us about God's salvation his way of salvation the infinite reality at the

end of the chapter is is eternal life but the infinite reality here is the glory of

God eternal life is infinite life it's life of infinite duration it will never end

so if you are Christian you have eternal life now you might not be a Christian and you're

going I mean is that like infinite boring life like life what it is right now

to extend our lives the way they are now probably doesn't sound all that great to you might

sound some people like man I'm I'm living large right now and yeah maybe you could go

for another thousand or whatever but for me that wouldn't be good news I don't want to

extend this life what's the best we can do in this life in this condition I mean think

about what what is it the best day you know is it is it going to your favorite fishing

hole so that that's the that's it that's the glory most glory the most glorious day that

you can get maybe you know if you're younger maybe it's Disneyland or or you're sitting

on a beach somewhere or you know whatever it is what what's the best you can do what's

the best day the greatest pleasures on earth would probably be torture after the ten thousandth

time golfing again so here instead of saying we rejoice in hope of eternal life Paul instead

says that our hope is in the glory of God we rejoice in hope of the expectation of the

glory of God so a lot of people think man what what would I do what what will people

do for a quibillion years in heaven it seems like it'll be boring I think I might prefer

hell at least down there you know Satan's lead leading some kind of a kegger party and

you know I think I want to go there and so first of all that that line of thought is

wrong on so many levels biblically first of all we don't live forever in heaven do you

realize that I mean right now if we died yes our our immaterial us goes to be in an intermediate

state we go to be with the Lord to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord

but then at the rapture will be will be resurrected our bodies will be resurrected and we are

going to live on earth or at least in proximity in the city of New Jerusalem and life will

happen on earth this earth which will be renewed in an amazing way and in reality heaven is

being United to earth once again like it was way back in the day you know God was in the

garden right remember he's walking in the cool the day and God was on the planet before

Jesus was incarnate and so heaven is going to be reconciled once again to earth one day

and every you know everything we know about the lake of fire suggests that Satan is not

going to be the boss of it he's gonna be the chief the chief piece of wood or whatever

and pretty sure there's not beer there either for what I can see in the Bible so so it's

crucial that we hope in the glory of God so we need to talk about what that is because

this is the reason that our future life must be eternal and it cannot be boring it like

it's impossible so any amount of time short of eternity would be inadequate for a finite

creature to experience the glory of Almighty God so it'll take us forever to see all there

is to see to admire all that there is to admire to enjoy all that there is to enjoy of our

God his glory who he is therefore God ordains that there is eternal infinite life for us

so I want us to feel the force of this maybe just a little bit more what is the glory of

God we say that and we don't often think deeply about it the glory of God is is all that God

is it's his substance and he's spirit but when I say substance it's the reality of who

he is his greatness his excellence and all of that so I'm gonna I'm gonna take you down

a deep complex road to try and feel the reality of this think of it this way does anyone here

like ice cream anybody rocky road coffee flight whatever ice cream okay if you don't like

ice cream what is wrong with you I've never met anybody doesn't like ice cream so the

first taste is is kind of amazing isn't it like when you you get ice cream yet maybe

it's just a bowl of ice cream at your house in the evening or you go down to one of the

stores that make the friend and it's just like that's so good and you just it's the

flavors exploding and it's just wow that's the glory of God and you're not convinced

do you enjoy hiking fishing being out in creation you get that sense of awe at times of transcendence

that there's more than than just my little life that's the glory of God that you're sensing

do you like beauty art human beauty it's all it's all the glory of God let me let me connect

this for you James 1 17 every every good gift every perfect gift is from above coming down

from the father of lights with whom there's no variation or shadow due to change so so

we we experience in a shifting changing atmosphere the world is perishing we're perishing everything's

always you know entropy and it's always breaking down but we're experiencing good gifts from

the one who does not change the one who does not shift he gives us good gifts and so we

can enjoy them to his glory God is the very source of every good thing in your life every

good thing that you enjoy from the biggest to the smallest he's the fountainhead of every

pleasure and joy but this life on this side of glory we only get four takes of his glory

it's it's nibbles anybody fans of the free samples at Costco of course you are they're

free what's not to be to be a fan about if you play your cards right do enough of those

samples you didn't even have to buy lunch right game the system that's what I do I recommend

it so the only reason they give away the free samples though you all know that is so that

you'll buy the 10 pounds of whatever the thing is that you just say right it's kind of like

drug dealers right they just give you a little bit and and get you hooked so in the current

condition that we are in we're living on a fallen planet we're dying we get samples of

God's glory and they're everywhere and if your eyes are open to the glory of God then

you'll start to see oh Lord thank you that's so beautiful but God is infinite and his glory

is infinite it has no boundaries it has no limits it has no end it's not small and exhaustible

it will not and it cannot run out this is the godness of God right this eternal being

so you can't you can't spend down God's glory you can't run it out it's it's God's size

it's infinite therefore it will take finite creatures and eternity to see all of it and

taste all of it and enjoy all of it the glory of God so this will not be endless duration

of a boring existence the God who created all things is going to be the one whom we

enjoy directly in that day so ever new sights and wonders and experiences and pleasures

and we'll be able to do things we can't even really dream about and because of that and

I gotta start winding down here folks because of that we have a third experience through

Christ or third blessing and that is we get a we get a new perspective and that's verse

three more than that so we're we're rejoicing now in hope of the glory of God so so we're

we're rejoicing as we're making our way through this crazy period of time but we're joyful

man we're happy warriors right we're we're happy in the Lord we're making our way the

glory of God is coming and I'm I know it's gonna happen but now we can also rejoice in

our suffering so so I'm not just rejoicing in in what's coming I'm able to rejoice even

in the midst of my sufferings for a different reason it's a weird it's a weird thing to

say rejoice and sufferings it kind of doesn't belong together it doesn't fit it's like yelling

in a library or a snowman in the desert it's incongruent like rejoice in suffering but

that's exactly what Paul is saying that we get to do through Christ because of our future

suffering is meaningful and beneficial to us so we have statements like 2 Corinthians

4 17 our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far

outweighs our troubles so our our trials right now that we're going through our financial

situation or our marital conflict or whatever is actually achieving achieving for us some

things God is setting you up for eternity right now he's working on that our troubles

our suffering our afflictions they they work for us suffering even death itself is employed

for us and some of you are going well I want to fire those employees I don't want to suffer

in this life well reality is that they do set us up and there's three ways that Paul

points to and these are things that we gain in this life and let's go through these real

quick suffering produces three things Paul says number one it produces endurance that's

verse three knowing that suffering produces endurance so that's what suffering does if

you're walking with the Lord and you're you're a disciple of Jesus here's how it works something

happens in your life that causes you frustration and pain and disappointment that by faith

you look to Jesus and his sufficiency and his love and his wisdom to deal with the situation

and you don't give in at least you fight off the bitterness you fight off the complaining

the nasty stuff the poison stuff right and and Jesus brings you through the trial and

Paul says if you go through the trial you now have gained endurance endurance has been

produced in you suffering produced that suffering is a producer it helps you and so your faith

is stronger having gone through the suffering how well the same kind of way that that tempered

steel is stronger than steel that hasn't gone through the fire and the flame so it takes

more to break after it's gone through the tempering process suffering is the tempering

of our of the steel of our faith and then out of endurance comes a second thing character

verse four endurance produces character so it's an interesting word in the in the Greek

document and it means proven or authentic or genuine so the I the idea is that once

once you've suffered a trial of some sort your faith is tested and it endures you then

they then get this not only can you endure more now in the future but you get us now

you've gained a sense of authenticity of genuineness you know knowing that there would be probably

a pretty good amount of cowboys here at out west bible church because I know Scotty I

considered wearing boots cowboy boots and a cowboy hat and I'm glad I didn't because

it dawned on me I would be the biggest poser like in the history and there's a lot of posers

right who wear the hat or the boots or you know and when I lived in Southern California

a lot of poser surfers they didn't do any surfing but they they hung out on the beach

and you know and had the shorts and the talk the lingo and all that just posers listen

there's a nagging voice in all of us that says you're a poser of a Christian because

you come to church and and like everybody sees you oh man yeah you're at church or not

west bible and you're taking in the study and you're singing the songs but then you

live out your week and like there's some nasty stuff going on in you in your heart and in

your mind and you go man I don't am I for real because I don't think a godly Christian

would have this nasty stuff going through through their mind listen when you go through

a trial and you come out the other side you've added endurance but not only that endurance

has given you a greater sense of authenticity that you really are a Christian that the nasty

stuff that you deal with every week that's not you that's not the genuine you that's

the old you and you begin to realize that and know that and feel that like I really

am a Christian I really am God's son I really am going to experience the glory of God and

out of that jet sense of genuineness as a Christian is a third blessing and that's hope

and we'll end on this one here this morning hope verse four character that sense of genuineness

then produces hope verse five hope does not put us to shame because God's love has been

poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who's been given to us so so you suffer through

a trial and and maybe it's a health thing or a relational thing or a loss thing or a

you had that you lost your business and declared bankruptcy whatever I mean there's all kind

of trial this isn't any certain it's just the general difficulty we go through in life

and you go through with your faith intact your eyes on the Lord your faith is strengthened

like steel is tempered and can endure more and now because of that now you also have

a greater sense of your genuineness that you really are a believer like you really do walk

with Jesus and and so now out of that that genuineness this this the sense of being for

real will come greater hope a more powerful hope hope is the expectation of coming good

so the coming good in this case we talked about it's the glory of God it's our glory

with God and this hope this expectation is vital if you don't have this hope you will

go like this in life you will you will go side to side instead of going straight towards

the mark of the upward call you're going to be off in the weeds and the ditches quite

a bit hope is really important for keeping us on track and so when someone gets pregnant

we say that they're expecting right our youth ministry director Jed and his wife they're

very young early 20s Eunice his wife is pregnant they're expecting and they shared the news

with us we were at a prayer getaway a couple months ago and and they asked us not to spread

the news because it was pretty early in the pregnancy right and so their thinking was

that if you know God forbid if Eunice would miscarry you know something like that happened

there's all that little kind of a nagging fear in those early months for for a lot of

gals and and so on so so we don't want the word to get out at this early stage yet and

because we you know if God forbid we lost the baby we would have to have so many conversations

with so many people and relive all of it again and again and again so that that's kind of

the thinking but they still moved forward in expectation obviously they fixed up the

bedroom for their baby the the nursery they had a shower where those who loved them gave

them baby clothes and strollers and dimes they're preparing because they're expecting

and so expecting this is changing the way they live it's changing what they do and what

their focus is in life God's people we are expecting we are expecting and Paul says that

this hope that we have will not put us to shame we will not miscarry this is an absolute

and so we prepare because we're expecting we prepare our future for our future by serving

the Lord and pursuing Christ's likeness in our life and preaching the gospel to our neighbors

and loving our spouses well reconciling with those to whom we are in conflict discipling

our children doing a great job at the place of employment we're prepared we're expecting

we're getting ready we're prepping because we have an expectation that we know is going

to happen it's biblical hope not it might happen might not happen no biblical hope is

it's gonna happen it's sure so Titus 2 11 the grace of God it's where we live people

right in the realm of grace the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all

people and it teaches us to say no to ungodliness and worldly passions and live self-controlled

upright godly lives in this present age while we wait for the blessed hope the appearing

of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ who gave himself to redeem us from

all wickedness and purify for himself a people that are his very own eager to do what is

good are you expecting let's pray Lord we praise you this morning that you pursued us

in our rebellion you came after us in our lost condition and maybe it came through a

Christian friend that we knew maybe we showed up at out west Bible Church on a Sunday morning

maybe it happened early in life as a kid at vacation Bible school or at home with mom

and dad but you pursued us Lord and you brought us out of the darkness and into your marvelous

light and so Lord I suspect we were so just barraged with negative news in the world it's

just so non-stop that maybe sometimes we're not we're not looking forward enough we're

not expecting enough what's going to happen and because we're not expecting we're not

just living with that certainty of what's going to happen in the near future I mean

it's no matter how old or young it's relatively near whether the rapture comes or we live

out our days because Lord surely you do want us rejoicing in these times you don't want

us sour and grumpy people aren't attracted to sour and grumpy but man when they see real

joy powerful so make us a joyful people Lord a joyful people happy are the people whose

God is the Lord Lord you it says in the Psalms there that that you look down on the earth

you see the kings of the earth and the influential people there they're gathering together in

secret meetings and they're just devising plans to try and cast off the chains the restraints

of God to get free once and for all and Lord that Psalm says that you see that and you

just laugh you just laugh oh Lord take the weight off of us we can laugh at the silliness

of rebellious people they can they can rest the world away from you so Lord you're coming

we're a day closer today than we were yesterday and the world seems to be crazier than it

was yesterday today but Lord if you come today hallelujah if it isn't going to be for a year

or five may we grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus may we grow in depth as disciples

of Jesus God I pray that you would raise up in this church Lord men and women of God who

are going to be killers who are going to be so solid so rooted that the the fruit of their

ministry and faithfulness will be felt for years to come bless out with Bible Church

Lord for anyone that doesn't know you here this morning bring them into a saving relationship

with Jesus Christ we pray in his name amen amen God bless you guys

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