January 17, 2016
Pastor Dan’s Message
Romans 5:1-5
Turning Point Wesleyan Church
Today, we will be reading from the
Book of Romans, Chapter 5, verses 1 through 5.
(Romans 5:1-5)
1. “Therefore, since we have
been made right in God’s sight by FAITH,
we have peace with God because of what
Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.
2. Because of our faith,
Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved privilege where we now
stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to sharing God’s glory.
3. We can rejoice, too, when
we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop
endurance.
4. And endurance develops
strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of
salvation.
5. And this hope will not
lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has
given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”
Last
week, we covered the key words within verse 1 and they were:
“THEREFORE” – With this ‘Therefore”, Paul
is summing up all what he had covered from the beginning of this Book up to this
point.
“Therefore, since we have been
made right in God’s sight by FAITH, we have peace with God because of what
Jesus Christ our Lord has done for us.”
We are JUSTIFIED BY FAITH and we have
Peace with God.
The 2nd word was “PEACE” – Paul
makes it very clear that we have PEACE!
Peace with God through Jesus Christ.
Now, you have peace which comes to your
soul when you TRUST in Jesus Christ as your savior and you know that God no
longer has any charge against you. You are no longer guilty and God, who was at
one time against you is now for you. You now have a life of salvation which is
both, Permanent and Eternal.
That is the peace which comes from sins
being forgiven and everything is made right and Holy between you and God.
This Peace is given to us through the GRACE
which came from Jesus’ Blood on the Cross. That means that everything is now
made right and perfect between you and God.
The 3rd word was “JUSTIFIED” –
Paul want us to understand that we are justified because of what we BELEIVE.
Justification is a process. It means that God declares that we are to be made
whole because of OUR BELIEF. God pardons us of our sins and He accepts us as Righteous,
not because of what we do but because of God’s Decision. Being Justified is
totally, that is 100% of a pure Gift from God.
And the 4th word was “FAITH” –
Your Faith is the motor which runs all of this.
Your salvation is directly tied into your
act of Faith. FAITH is the key word which does or does not place everything
into motion.
To understand what FAITH Really is, let’s
go to the Webster 1828 Dictionary.
Faith
is described as:
Evangelical,
justifying, saving faith. It is the approval of the
mind to the truth of divine revelation, on the authority of God's testimony,
accompanied with a warm acceptance of the will or approval of the heart. An
entire confidence or trust in God's character and declarations, and in the
character and doctrines of Christ, with an unreserved surrender of the will to
his guidance, and dependence on GOD’S merits for salvation.
In
other words, that firm belief of God's testimony, and of the truth of the
gospel, which influences the will, and leads to an entire reliance on Christ
for salvation.
In
Hebrews Chapter 11, God shares with us much about what True Faith is and how it
is lived out.
(Hebrews 11)
“Faith is the confidence
that what we hope for will actually happen; it gives us assurance about things
we cannot see. Through their faith, the people in days of old earned a good
reputation. By faith we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s
command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen. It
was by faith that Abel brought a more acceptable offering to God than Cain did.
Abel’s offering gave evidence that he was a righteous man, and God showed his
approval of his gifts. Although Abel is long dead, he still speaks to us by his
example of faith. It was by faith that Enoch was taken up to Heaven without
dying—“he disappeared, because God took him.” For before he was taken up, he
was known as a person who pleased God. And it is impossible to please God
without faith. Anyone who wants to come to him must believe that God exists and
that he rewards those who sincerely seek him. It was by faith that Noah built a
large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him
about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the
rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith. It
was by faith that Abraham obeyed when God called him to leave home and go to
another land that God would give him as his inheritance. He went without
knowing where he was going.
And even when he reached
the land God promised him, he lived there by faith—for he was like a foreigner,
living in tents. And so did Isaac and Jacob, who inherited the same promise. Abraham
was confidently looking forward to a city with eternal foundations, a city
designed and built by God. It was by faith that even Sarah was able to have a
child, though she was barren and was too old. She believed that God would keep
his promise. And so a whole nation came from this one man who was as good as
dead—a nation with so many people that, like the stars in the sky and the sand
on the seashore, there is no way to count them. All these people died still
believing what God had promised them. They did not receive what was promised,
but they saw it all from a distance and welcomed it. They agreed that they were
foreigners and nomads (or like
travelers) here on earth. Obviously people who say such
things are looking forward to a country they can call their own. If they had
longed for the country they came from, they could have gone back. But they were
looking for a better place, a heavenly homeland. That is why God is not ashamed
to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them. It was by faith
that Abraham offered Isaac as a sacrifice when God was testing him. Abraham,
who had received God’s promises, was ready to sacrifice his only son, Isaac, even
though God had told him, “Isaac is the son through whom your descendants will
be counted.” Abraham reasoned that if Isaac died, God was able to bring him
back to life again.
And in a sense, Abraham
did receive his son back from the dead. It was by faith that Isaac promised
blessings for the future to his sons, Jacob and Esau. It was by faith that
Jacob, when he was old and dying, blessed each of Joseph’s sons and bowed in
worship as he leaned on his staff. It was by faith that Joseph, when he was
about to die, said confidently that the people of Israel would leave Egypt. He
even commanded them to take his bones with them when they left. It was by faith
that Moses’ parents hid him for three months when he was born. They saw that
God had given them an unusual child, and they were not afraid to disobey the
king’s command. It was by faith that Moses, when he grew up, refused to be
called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. He chose to share the oppression of God’s
people instead of enjoying the fleeting pleasures of sin. He thought it was
better to suffer for the sake of Christ than to own the treasures of Egypt, for
he was looking ahead to his great reward. It was by faith that Moses left the
land of Egypt, not fearing the king’s anger. He kept right on going because he
kept his eyes on the one who is invisible.
It was by faith that Moses
commanded the people of Israel to keep the Passover and to sprinkle blood on
the doorposts so that the angel of death would not kill their firstborn sons. It
was by faith that the people of Israel went right through the Red Sea as though
they were on dry ground. But when the Egyptians tried to follow, they were all
drowned.It was by faith that the people of Israel marched around Jericho for
seven days, and the walls came crashing down. It was by faith that Rahab the
prostitute was not destroyed with the people in her city who refused to obey
God.
For she had given a
friendly welcome to the spies. How much more do I need to say? It would take
too long to recount the stories of the faith of Gideon, Barak, Samson,
Jephthah, David, Samuel, and all the prophets. By faith these people overthrew
kingdoms, ruled with justice, and received what God had promised them. They
shut the mouths of lions, quenched the flames of fire, and escaped death by the
edge of the sword. Their weakness was turned to strength. They became strong in
battle and put whole armies to flight. Women received their loved ones back
again from death. But others were tortured, refusing to turn from God in order
to be set free. They placed their hope in a better life after the resurrection.
Some were jeered at (or mocked
at), and their backs were cut open with whips. Others
were chained in prisons. Some died by stoning, some were sawed in half, and
others were killed with the sword. Some went about wearing skins of sheep and
goats, destitute and oppressed and mistreated. They were too good for this
world, wandering over deserts and mountains, hiding in caves and holes in the
ground. All these people earned a good reputation because of their faith, yet
none of them received all that God had promised. For God had something better
in mind for us, so that they would not reach perfection without us.
Whether it was Paul or someone else who
wrote the Book of Hebrews, it points out people, like you and me. They were people
who not only claimed to BELIEVE or claimed that they had FAITH, but they were
people who demonstrated their FAITH by putting their FAITH into action.
They
lived their lives and also died by their FAITH.
Here
in Romans, verse 2 through 5, we God’s Great News:
“Because of our faith, their faith, your faith, Christ has brought us into this place of undeserved
privilege where we now stand, and we confidently and joyfully look forward to
sharing God’s glory. We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials,
for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops
strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of
salvation.
And this hope will not
lead to disappointment. For we know how dearly God loves us, because he has
given us the Holy Spirit to fill our hearts with his love.”
Paul reminds us that we are to “Live by believing and not by seeing.” (2 Corinthians 5:7.)
Paul
is sharing with us that the benefits of a right relationship with God are
direct and immediate. “We have Peace with God… we have gained access… we now
stand” firm and in Good Standing with God. (Verses 1&2)
Just as faith is the pivotal point that
leads us to a right standing with God. This is also the same moment when all of
the benefits of God’s Grace are made accessible to us, the believer.
God does not act in such a way as to measure
out His Peace and Grace to us in small doses as to only give it to us when He
sees us worthy of it as when we take steps in our lives to follow Him. No, that
isn’t how it works. God offers us a new relationship and a new nature simply on
the basis of our faith in Him.
The faith of the Gospel is that emotion
of the mind, which is called TRUST and CONFIDENCE. Through our FAITH, we place
our TRUST and CONFIDENCE towards the moral character of God and particularly of
Jesus Christ our Savior.
·
Our
FAITH is built upon LOVE.
·
Our
Faith is and Everyday Event.
·
Our
Faith is built upon our Assurance.
·
Living
a Life of Faith is living a life with affectionate practical confidence in the
testimony of God.
In this world, we have basically three separations
of people.
1.
We
have those who don’t believe there is a God. There is no reason for life except
for the time we have here on earth.
2.
We
have those who believe they have faith in the Trinity (God the Father, God the
Son, and God the Holy Spirit) but their faith falls more in the line of having
knowledge of the Trinity. Knowledge that God exists but they chose to leave it
at that, knowledge. Their life does not show any fruit of that knowledge.
3.
Then
we have those who have knowledge and they choose to believe and they show their
FAITH through their way of life.
God gives us situations all the time
where we can test ourselves in which of those three categories that we really
belong in. One of such example may be found in this past week’s events centered
on the 1.6 Billion dollar Power Ball Lottery.
Questions
which you should ask yourself are:
Did
you purchase a ticket or do you trust within the Lord to provide for you.
And
if you did purchase a ticket, for what was the true reason behind that
purchase?
Was
it for fun and games?
Or
was it for fame and fortune?
How
many tickets did you purchase?
Did
you put your trust in the Lord’s understanding with having only 1 ticket?
Or
did you try to beat the odds and purchase multiple tickets?
How
did the Lottery affect your prayer time?
Did
your prayer life increase drastically during the time you purchased your ticket
and the drawing?
Did
you pray non-stop for God to give you the winning ticket?
Would
it be accurate to describe your prayers as being of greed and desperate
selfishness?
And
what were your emotions when you found out that you were not a winner?
Was
your reaction full of only thankfulness and blessings towards the winners?
Or
was your reaction of being jealous and disgruntle that you were not a winner?
The Lottery is only one real life
situation, or temptation which we deal with every day.
However, we can use these real life
situations to test ourselves, to see how we are measuring up, whether we are
conforming to this world, living within this world or living a life for God
with having our Trust and Faith resting in God Himself.
FAITH is a firm, affectionate Belief in the Truth
of God, in all the Declarations of His Word; or a Full and Loving Confidence in
the certainty of those things which God has declared, and because He has
declared them.
(2 Corinthians 5:17) “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has
gone, the new has come!”
In Romans 5:2, we have a place “in which we now stand”.
We have access to Grace, whether by way
of introduction to the Father or finding refuge from the storms. This brings
us, the believer, to a position of security, to a place in which we can stand
firm. One of the great blessings of our life in Christ is a sense of stability.
When we gain access, by FAITH, to God’s Grace, our position in Him becomes
secure.
But don’t get misled here. Satin loves
to lead us down the dark road and he loves to fill us up with doubt. We gain
doubt from this world. From people who we know who so easily point out our spiritual
flaws and from those who question us, asking for us to confirm for them whether
we really truly are a Christian or not.
And maybe even more harmful are our own
doubts and questions. We many times, find ourselves surprised or even ashamed
at things we have done or things which we have not done all the while we claim
that we are walking with Christ.
We should never minimize the subtle work
of the Evil One who finds great delight in raising questions and fears about
our relationships with God, even as he did with Eve and Adam from the very
beginning.
In moments of doubt, we need to remind
ourselves of where we stand. By FAITH we have TRUSTED God for our salvation. And
God has credited our FAITH as RIGHTEOUSNESS!
As we continue to TRUST in Him, we can
shift our focus away from our sometimes less-than-perfect performance, to the
TRUTH that Our Salvation is of His Works, and not ours.
We stand by His Grace.
