Partial Audio
Introduction
In the next six weeks, there will be a lot of talk about peace on earth. The reality is that peace in this fallen world does not seem to ever last very long. In 2006, the cruel dictator Saddam Hussain was taken out of power, captured and executed by hanging. Five years later, Osama bin Laden was shot by a Navy Seal team. In both cases, there was a brief time of celebration knowing that these men would no longer be able to organize their forces to terrorize innocent people.
In recent news reports, however, there is proof that the peace is short lived. The latest leader of a group we call ISIS recently released this statement, “”O soldiers of the Islamic State, continue to harvest the soldiers,” the recording said. “Erupt volcanoes of jihad everywhere. Light the Earth with fire.” The extremist leader claimed the bombing campaign against ISIS in Syria and Iraq is failing, saying: “America and its allies are terrified, weak, and powerless.”
I read that and I thought, “Well, here we go again!” Peace is this world is fragile. A momentary lapse in fighting and war inevitably give way to another conflict as soon as our troops are brought back home.
I did a search in my Bible software to find if the term “peace on earth” was actually located anywhere in the Bible or if that was something we made up and attributed to the Bible at Christmas time. To my surprise, the term “peace on earth” is found in the Bible in one place, but its context might surprise you. Jesus uses the term and says in Luke 12:51, “Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division.” Then Jesus explains that the gospel will not bring peace on earth. If fact, it will tend to bring division. Verse 52, “52 For from now on in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three.” …and he goes one from there…
It is very important for us to understand (especially at Christmas time) that Jesus did not come to bring us peace on earth, but He came to bring us peace with God! There is an important distinction between having peace on earth and having peace with God. We may not ever experience peace on earth this side of eternity. BUT, the Bible does teach that we can experience peace with God.
When Paul is writing in Romans, he is talking about the end of the very worst kind of unrest. There is a terrible war at hand. It is a war that has nothing to do with Al-Qaida or the Taliban or ISIS. The vast majority of people in our country today are engaged in a war of epic proportions. They are friends of this world and therefore the Bible says they are enemies of God. James (4:4) puts it this way, “…Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.”
Fallen man is at war with God
By nature (without God’s intervention), all of mankind regards God as their enemy, but few people own up to that fact. They will play off their war with God and simply act indifferent towards Him and the truths of His word. But … a man who is ignoring God always has a heart that is rebellious towards Him. Many are so hardened to the things of God that they lack any spiritual life whatsoever. They may abound in secular living, but they are absolutely dead to spiritual things.
I have had people comment to me that I should never talk about mankind’s fallen position from this pulpit… They say I should never talk about God’s wrath or the FACT that God is actively at war with those who reject Him. They say that those comments might drive people away from church and they might never find God. They think that I should instead only talk about God’s love.
The problem with that reasoning is that the Bible talks about those things and if we go through the Bible verse by verse, we are going to run into those truths time and time again. They are not easy to ignore. But more importantly, if I was in a war with someone, I’d want to know about it. If I was at war with someone and I was on the wrong side of that war (I was the bad guy), I’d really want to know about it so that I could change sides. God is not taking this conflict lightly. The psalmist painted a vivid picture of God’s battle against fallen man in Psalms 7 picking up in verse 11:
11 God is a righteous judge,
and a God who feels indignation every day.
12 If a man does not repent, God will whet his sword;
he has bent and readied his bow;
13 he has prepared for him his deadly weapons,
making his arrows fiery shafts.
Most people in our community need to be reconciled with God, but they have no idea that they are even at odds with God. Forget about “peace on earth.” Mankind’s biggest need is to have “Peace with God” and that’s why we celebrate Jesus’ birth this time of year.
Reconciliation with God is the central theme of the New Testament. In order for someone to be reconciled, they need to be made aware of an estrangement. (That’s why we talk about sin here at Canyon) Where there is no estrangement, there is no need for reconciliation. So as a church, we openly talk about the truth that without Jesus, we are all lost.
- If we are not aware that there is a war going on, we will never make arrangements to negotiate for peace.
- If we never know that without Jesus, we are enemies of God, we would never be compelled to make peace with God.
The reason we celebrate Christmas is not to bring about peace on earth. We celebrate Christmas because God sent his Son, Jesus, so that through Him we might have Peace with God.
Jesus provides a way to have peace with God
5 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
The Book of Romans begins with a lengthy explanation that the wrath of God is directed against sinful people. God is seriously opposed to those:
- Who refuse to recognize that He is God
- Who act indifferently towards Him
- Who are thankless – especially considering that every good gift, every breath and even existence itself is a gift directly from Him
God is especially opposed to those who refuse to recognize that He is the creator and who choose to worship His creation instead of choosing to worship Him. That’s a sin called idolatry and we are all susceptible to it. When God looks upon our idolatry, make no mistake: He is not OK with it. He is not at peace with those who reject Him. He is at war. We might be so hardened or so indifferent in our hearts that we think, “Surely God is not at war with us.”
Unfortunately our culture has no capacity for a God who is a righteous judge. Many people in our culture think God’s job is to give us stuff when we ask Him for it. That is the kind of god that is popular in our culture and in our marketplace. But that god is not the authentic God of the Bible. He is an idol. We love to hear that we are God’s children, but we cringe when we encounter God’s wrath. But the God of the Bible is a Holy God and in His perfect holiness, he does not put up with our ungodliness. Our ungodliness makes us estranged from God and at odds with God. We need reconciliation in order to have peace with God.
That’s where the gospel comes in…. That’s why Jesus comes into the picture… The gospel is the power for reconciliation with God. The gospel is the terms of everlasting peace with God. Romans 1:16 says, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes…”
With one hand, God is bending His bow and aiming His holy anger and righteous wrath at the ungodliness of men and then with the other hand, He is writing up the terms of an everlasting treaty to make peace with His enemies… All people who would receive the work of His Son, Jesus, have peace with God. God waged the war but God also provides the means of eternal peace through His Son, Jesus.
We did not come up with the terms for peace with God. We didn’t write up the agreement. The only way of salvation is by surrender. It’s by admitting defeat. It is by coming to grips with the fact that there is no negotiation and no resolution that we could devise that would ever make us right with God. We give up and come to God on His terms. That’s why Christians sing songs with raised hands that says, “Lord, I surrender.”
We are conquered by Him. Surrender means that we gladly lay aside our old allegiances to sin in order to pledge an eternal allegiance to follow Jesus as our savior and Lord. Romans 10:9 says, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” On those terms, we have everlasting peace with God through the work of His Son Jesus Christ. There is no other way!
Once we have established a new alliance with the King of Kings, we still sometimes stray away and fall into sin. It troubles our conscience. Sometimes believers will look back over their shoulder to see if God’s wrath is still aimed at their unrighteousness only to discover that because of Jesus, everything in their life is different. The war with God has stopped. The reign of sin has ended. God calls the disciples of Christ His children. He may discipline His children, but they are far from being His enemies. He has brought Jesus’ disciples into His house, seated us at His table, called us sons and daughters of God and given us an eternal inheritance.
Being a child of God brings about certain privileges. The first privilege Paul mentions (in Romans 5) is having a type of access to God that was impossible before…
Jesus gives His disciples access to God
One commentator recalled this story:
Following the Civil war, a dejected Confederate soldier was sitting outside the grounds of the White House. A young boy approached the man and asked him why he was so sad. The soldier talked about how he had repeatedly tried to see President Lincoln to tell him that he was deprived of a certain piece of land in the South that he felt entitled to own. On each occasion when he tried to enter the White House, the guards crossed their bayoneted guns in front of the door and turned the man away.
The boy signaled to the man to follow him, so the man got up and followed the young boy back to the door. As they both approached the guarded entrance, the guards came to attention and opened the door for the boy and for the soldier.
The boy led the man into the White House library where President Lincoln was resting and he introduced the man to his father. The boy was Tad Lincoln, the president’s son. The soldier gained an introduction and access to the president through the president’s son. In a similar way, we have gained an introduction and access to God the Father through His Son, Jesus. Look at verse 2
2 Through him
The Greek word for ‘access’ means to “bring near” or to “introduce.” In the world, I couldn’t expect to be able to walk up to a powerful dignitary, introduce myself and begin a relationship with that person. I can only begin a relationship with a powerful person if someone introduces me to them. That is a picture of “access by faith into this grace in which we stand…”
‘Access to grace’ means that we are given a favorable position from which to develop a personal relationship with God. Because of our relationship with Christ, we get way past God’s library. We are ushered into the royal throne room and we are allowed to stay there.
Jesus fundamentally changes our relationship with God
Romans 5:2b “…we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.”
For those of you who serve as usher, wouldn’t this be a great job in heaven? To welcome people into eternity and then to have the privilege of walking them through the courts of the King and right into Our God’s royal throne room!
Imagine this reality: Those who were once regarded as God’s enemies and are totally deserving of God’s wrath are now ushered into His presence. They are not brought there as enemies of God. They are brought there as His friends… as His children. And even more incredible, they brought there for the purpose of magnifying the glory of God for eternity.
This new position we have goes way beyond peace with God. It is not just an ending of hostility. It is the beginning of a personal relationship. God knows us, hears us and answers us. This change in our relationship with God does far more than just end the war. It produces hope.
Hope is poorly defined in our world. If you are asked, “Do you think the Cardinals are going to win this weekend?” You might reply, “I don’t know, but I hope so…” Our common use for the expression of hope expresses the desire that something will happen, when there is some uncertainty that it will ever happen. That is not Biblical hope…
The Bible describes our hope in Jesus Christ with this metaphor: Hope is the anchor of our soul. Hebrews 6:19a says, “We have this as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul…” The hope we have in Jesus is a hope with absolute assurance. God is absolutely trustworthy. He cannot tell a lie and he does not make a promise that He does not intend to fulfill. So when we have hope in God and in His promises, it is a hope with absolute certainty. The hope we have in Christ is steadfast assurance that God will fulfill his promises completely. He doesn’t change His mind. He is absolutely stable and trustworthy.
The day we were saved, we received three huge benefits from our salvation.
- First, because of Jesus, we have been freed from our past. The old record of sin was wiped out. Sin was put behind us and now we have peace with God.
- Second, we are free in the present to fully enjoy a new, personal relationship with God
- Third, we have real lasting hope! We have total assurance that an eternity awaits for us in the full presence of God.
It all sounds idyllic, (that might sound like a good place to end today’s teaching) but it is somewhat disconnect with the reality of our day-to-day lives. It’s great that we have a forgiveness from sin, a friendship with God and a future hope, but how do we deal with the trials we are facing right now? In verse 3, Paul answers that question. Paul says we handle our tribulations with………. REJOICING.
With what? Did I hear you right? With rejoicing? With rejoicing! (in fact the Greek word for rejoicing means a lot of rejoicing)
There is nothing more unnatural than to rejoice in affliction or tribulation. Tribulation is something we desperately try to avoid. BUT… once we have been saved,we have a whole new perspective on tribulations.
Life APPLICATION: A right relationship with God completely changes our perspective on trials.
Verse 3a says, “3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings…”
Being a child of God, we have incredible benefits. BUT… life is complex. It involves pain as much as pleasure. Paul is saying here that the joy and hope and friendship we have with God is not lessened because of our trials, but it remains steadfast during the storms.
Paul does not say that we rejoice for our sufferings. That would be masochism. Some people feel like they need to be physically punished in order to deal with their sense of unworthiness or guilt. This feeling is not founded on God’s Word. God’s Word says to rejoice in suffering not because of suffering
It is also possible to view suffering as part of a works-based righteousness. Some feel that God owes them redemption because they have lived a difficult life. He needs to grant them salvation because they have gone through some hard times. People who do not process their suffering through the gospel of grace can either become sinfully prideful (because of their trials) or they can sink into a godless state of cynicism.
Neither of these extremes is what Paul is referring to when he tells us to “we rejoice in our sufferings.” When we suffer, there might not be ANY joy in the trial itself. God hates the pain and the troubles of this life. But God uses those trials and He is trustworthy through them. A disciple of Jesus knows that God can use any trial to produce beneficial results in their life. Romans 8:28 says, “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”
So what are these positive results of suffering? Paul points to a chain reaction that happens in the life of a disciple as a result of suffering in their lives. Look at verse 3 again, “3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance.”
#1 Trials bring authentication. Trials help us to know if our faith is one that endures. If our faith can weather the storm, then our endurance (or perseverance) is proof that we really are children of God and we really have hope of eternity with God in paradise after this life is a distant memory.
Look at verses 3 & 4, “..we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character…”
#2 Trials produce strength and character. The Greek word for character literally means “testedness.” It reminds me of a veteran soldier out on the battle field. A new recruit comes onto the front line and he is scared to death. He’s never seen anything like this war before. The veteran is able to turn to the young man and say, “Stay right by my side. I’ll help you through this battle. I’ve seen this before. I’ll get you through this battle safely.” And the young man is able to rely on that veteran’s strength. The veteran has been tested and the test had made him strong.
Trials produce strength in us so that we can help others keep their eyes focused on God in the midst of trials like they never experienced before.
Let’s continue in verses 3 & 4, “we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character and character produces hope”
#3 Trials produce hope. Biblical hope is a strong assurance that God will, in fact, deliver on His promises. Suffering removes from us all rival sources of confidence and hope. When we suffer, we are brought to a place where we can only afford to put our feet on solid ground. There are no more games. It drives us to a place where we need real hope, real confidence and real certainty. In the midst of our greatest suffering is where God shows Himself to be the most trustworthy.
That brings us to verse 5, “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.”
If I am able to rejoice in suffering, I know that’s not me. That is Christ in me. That is the work of the Holy Spirit. Romans 8 says, “1 If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” And if Christ is in me – that means I’m really, genuinely saved. I have assurance that I have peace with God and all the promises that await for God’s children in eternity. Romans 8:16 proclaims, “16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.”
Teaching Outline
Fallen man is at war with God – Psalms 7:11-13
Jesus provides a way to have peace with God – v. 1, Romans 1:16, 10:9
Jesus gives His disciples access to God – v. 2b
Jesus fundamentally changes our relationship with God – v. 2b, Hebrews 6:19a
APPLICATION:
A right relationship with God completely changes our perspective on trials – v. 3a, Romans 8:28
#1 Trials bring authentication – v. 3-4
#2 Trials produce strength and character – v. 3-4
#3 Trials produce hope – v. 3-5, Romans 8:1, 16-17
16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.” Romans 8:16-17
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