The Joy Of Justification - [Romans 5:1-11]

Christmastime is upon us, and often I get caught up into kind of Scroogeville, losing my joy around Christmastime.

We were in the mall yesterday, parking lot up in Searstown, and kind of stuck, can't get out because of the craziness.

All kinds of people running around, and crass materialism, and parties everywhere, celebrating everything except Christ's birth, and sometimes

I just lose my joy. I don't want to, though. I want to have a joy that transcends all earthly issues, and to remember that Jesus is

Lord at His birth. And then I read things like this from Upton, California, from St.

Mark's Church. There are few causes to which I'm more passionately committed than that of Santa Claus.

Santa Claus deserves not just any place in the church, but the highest place of honor, where He should be enthroned as the long -bearded

Ancient of Days, the Divine and Holy One whom we call God. Santa Claus is

God the Son. You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout. I'm telling you why. Simply refers to God the

Son slipping into the secrets of the heart as easily as He slips down the chimney of a house. Santa Claus is

God the Father, the Creator of heaven and earth, and whose hand is a pack bursting, as it seems, with the gifts of His creation at the seams.

Santa Claus is God the Holy Spirit, who comes with the sound of gentle laughter, with the shape of a bowl full of jelly to sow the night with seeds of good humor.

Santa Claus indeed deserves the exalted enthroned place in the church, for He is God the

Son, the Father, and the Holy Spirit. It makes you want to lose your joy, doesn't it?

How could someone do that? So I thought, well, what should we do today to kind of restore our joy, to make sure our perception is right, so we see

God for who He is on this Christmas Eve? If you'll take your Bibles and open them to Romans chapter 5,

I want to show you a passage that should give you joy. Maybe the to -do list hasn't given you joy.

Maybe the busyness hasn't given you joy. Maybe people writing crazy things about Santa doesn't give you joy.

But we can go back to the Bible. That's what Bible believers do, evangelicals do. Back to the sources, ad fontes, as they used to say, to see what

God's Word says so that we could have joy today. And we will see not necessarily

Jesus' coming to the earth, but what He did to guarantee us joy.

And we'll see six things that should spur our hearts and stir our hearts to have joy, as we see not

Jesus, the warm, soft, cuddly baby, but Jesus, the one who secured salvation from sins for His people.

And by the way, Jesus did what no one else could do. Who else was sinless? Who else had the power of death?

Who else could come save sinners? If He was a sinner Himself, He'd have to save Himself. Who else loved like Jesus would love, with a motive of just pure love?

And what we see in Romans chapter 5 is the end, the fruit, the result of what

Jesus came to do. In eternity past, there was a pact between the Father, the Son, and the

Spirit that had nothing to do with Santa Claus, by the way. The Father, Son, and the Spirit had a pact to redeem people, to save them, to go on a rescue mission.

He could have just let everyone alone, but no, God in His love decided that He would send

His Son. And you know the verse, for God so loved the world, what did He do? He gave His only

Son. He sent Him. Verse 17 says of John 3, for God did not send the

Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. And so before time began,

God had this plan to rescue people, to rescue certain people to please the Father and glorify the

Father. The side benefits of salvation, certainly. And we see Paul in almost like a hymn, a praise song practically, in Romans chapter 5, extolling the fruit, the effects, the consequences of salvation.

And I just love this passage. I was taught in seminary that if you're a good theologian and you open your

Bible at random, just naturally and normally, it should fall open to Romans chapter 5.

So like a good seminary student, I opened it to Romans chapter 5 and just put a huge crease in that thing. And so it opens up to this marvelous chapter.

And what's so marvelous about it is we will soon see that what Jesus came to do, it had many spillover benefits, blissful consequences, one man called them, for Christians.

Yes, God the Father was pleased by the Son's work. He was pleased by the Spirit's work. It was something to glorify

God so everyone would say, God alone deserves the glory. But we, thankfully, receive the spillover benefits.

It's not just something that pleases the Father, but it is something that affects us in a very real way.

Romans chapter 5 is this great chapter, maybe the best chapter in all the Bible, that shows

God's excellence in saving people. And our response should be joy. That's what I'm after today.

I'm after not, well, you know, I'm happy. I'm not after, well, you know,

I'm kind of encouraged. Those would be fine. But I'm after something that's deeper. And that would be joy that no matter what is going on in your life, family, health, relationships, finances, no matter what it might be, that here is the kernel, here is the essence again of salvation.

And this is what we are all about as Christians, Christ followers. Romans chapter 5 has it all.

If you've got one chapter to take to a deserted island, what chapter do you think that might be? Well, last

Sunday, it was Matthew chapter 5. But this Sunday, it's Romans chapter 5. This is it.

It's just one of those things that when we look at it, we're not going to say, wow, it was me and God on our way to heaven.

It's not going to be like my brother says, when you get to God after reading Romans 5, you're going to, Romans 5, you high five

God in heaven and say, we did it, God. We saved ourselves.

No, here you can almost see the lens just focusing right as it should to extol

Christ for what he has done. If you've ever seen a big telescope, there's an end to look in and there's an end not to look in.

You're supposed to look at the small end, yes? Because then you can see with the lens on the farther end, just the glories of heaven.

This chapter will not let us flip that thing around so we just see the reflection of our eyelid in the big lens.

It just magnifies and glorifies God so that no matter what you're going through, you can say, you know,

I have joy. I have joy that I'm a Christian, that God did this for his glory with the spillover benefit for me.

And here's this book about being right with God. And if we just jump into Romans 5, if you don't have a pew

Bible, there should be one right in front of you, a black pew Bible that you'll need this morning. If you look at Romans 5, you see this umbrella statement.

You see Paul saying, through the Spirit's inspiration, God the Spirit writing through Paul, therefore having been justified by faith.

And here's this big word, justification. I always find it strange that almost in every area of our life, we can know big words.

You go to work, you go to school, you have a new hobby, there's big words associated with things and we just naturally and normally learn them.

But some, when they come to the Bible, are saying to themselves, oh, there's another big word, I can't, the joy of justification.

No, God told us this word because he wants us to know it. And here's a word where it describes like a judge.

And the judge, based on the work of another, based on the work of his son Christ Jesus, dying for sinners, confirming that fact by raising him from the dead.

God, like with a gavel, he takes the gavel and he looks not at the sinful one, he looks at Christ and says, based on your work,

I'm declaring you what? Not guilty. The gavel comes down in this judicial, this kind of pronouncing way.

Not liable for the law anymore. A verdict of what? Guilty of acquittal.

And that's really what this whole chapter is about. That's why Jesus came, by the way, he came to save his people from their what?

Sins. We need the righteousness of God.

If you look back two chapters, look at Romans chapter 3, verse 2. If God declares us righteous, it's a big deal, yes, but it's a big deal more so if you realize

Romans 3 .20 tells us who we really are. If Jesus wouldn't have come, where would we have been now?

Romans 3 .20, because by the works of the law, no flesh will be declared right, can be declared not guilty, be justified, maybe in other people's sights, but not in God's sight, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin.

You want to know what chapter 1, 2, and 3 of Romans is all about? That's the summary statement. You can't be good enough for God.

You can't try hard enough for God. You can't approach God on your own merits. Can't saunter into God and say,

God, I'm here. No, because by the works of the law, no flesh will be declared right.

And then all of a sudden, there's a glimmer of hope. There's a crack. There's a ray of light in this dark room.

Look at verse 21. But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God, God's righteousness has been manifested being witnessed by the law and the prophets.

God steps in for the rescue. God is going to do something. And God is going to say,

I know you humans. You're all acting like you're from New England. I got your attention, didn't

I? You just all looked up. Where it's kind of the work ethic. I'm going to pull myself up by my own what?

Bootstraps. For those of you who know your Latin a little bit, sola bootstraps, as our pastor, associate pastor would say.

Somehow contributing to God. I have this God, this offering or this worship service or my

Bible reading. I'm good to my neighbors. I'm offering this to you. But we forget that we've been tainted by the fall and all our works to God have been tainted.

We offer nothing good to God. We forget that if Jesus Christ work paid for our sins, how are we going to add to that?

When Jesus said it is finished, we're going to say, well, it's almost finished, but I've got something to add. It's like the illustration

I often use, a boy swimming in a lake. One day he yells for help. The illustration goes, another young man on shore ran to the water and swam out to rescue the first man.

In the process of saving the life of the boy who was drowning, the young man lost his life. The two families who had been observing all this were overwhelmed by the unexpected turn of events.

The father of the youth who had been saved approached the father of the dead young man to offer his sympathy. Quote, I really can't express how much

I appreciate what your boy did and how sorry I am that he lost his life. But I just happened to have $1 .83

on me and I want to offer this to you as an indication of my feelings. We just would never do that.

Except when it comes to somehow making ourselves right in God's eyes. Yes, Jesus died, but I've got to do something too.

Paul said that just won't work. We need something else. We need God's righteousness. That's why if you look in your

Bibles in Romans 3 .24, we are being justified as a what? Gift by His grace.

God does it because He's kind. He's generous. The same God that sends

His son saves people through the redemption which is found in Christ Jesus. This is the gospel.

This is what Luther stood up for. This is the hinge of salvation as Calvin called it. This cannot be underestimated.

By the way, it helps me in my own mind if I think of Christ's work this way. What is the opposite of the word to justify?

If the gavel goes down and says, not guilty, what would be the opposite of that? The opposite word, the antonym for justification is condemnation.

We have no condemnation now because Jesus has paid for our sins and God doesn't require double jeopardy.

God says this based on Christ's work. He says, I'm going to treat you like you've never sinned because my son never sinned.

He's also going to say, I'm going to treat you like you perfectly obeyed because my son perfectly obeyed.

And basically, you just have three transactions for this great doctrine that should give us joy.

Christ's perfect obedience gets put to our account. Our sin gets put to Christ's account.

And God says, that's a wonderful transaction. Christ, you're in the tomb for three days.

I do what? I raise you from the dead. He justifies us. Skip down to verse 27.

We haven't even got to the six joy givers yet because we're just giving a little background. Where then is boasting?

I got to heaven on my own. I'm better than you. Why is your friend not a Christian and you are?

Because you tried harder. You're better. No, there's no...

How can we boast by what kind of law of works but not a law of faith? For we maintain that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.

The old song says, when I survey the wondrous cross, I pour contempt on all my pride. Our lips are zipped.

God did it all. That's why we celebrate. And Paul gives us umbrella statement. We've been justified by faith.

And then he gives six reasons to have joy. And let me give you those six. If you're taking notes, these first 11 verses of Romans chapter five.

Now we're up to chapter five. We see these blessed results of justification.

Six presence, if you will, that we're just going to unwrap that all come from Christ's perfect work at Calvary.

His perfect life. His perfect resurrection. And I love all these. Blissful consequences.

Consequence number one. Joy giver number one, really. Because of justification.

Because of what Jesus did. You should have joy because Christ came to give you peace with God.

Because Christ came to give you peace with God. Do you see that in verse one of chapter five?

Basically what we do here at the church, if you're new, is we just preach through the text. Just let the text speak. Do you want to know the outline to my sermon?

It's the outline of Romans chapter five. We have peace with God. Well, it's amazing. Paul says we have peace.

In Romans chapter one, it's I'm not ashamed of the gospel. In Romans chapter two, it's you Jews are sinful.

In Romans chapter three, it's, you know, they. And all of a sudden now in chapter four and five, it's we,

Paul includes himself. And he says, we have peace with God. We have a different relationship with God.

What's the opposite of peace? You almost don't want to say it. Wednesday night, we had an

Iwana class. And who was the one teaching Iwana? I think it was, who was it? There are so many people here.

And they said to one of the students that because of the fall, because of Adam and because of our own hearts, oh,

I think it was Gladman. Maybe it was Gladman who was telling me the story. I don't know who was telling me the story. And they said, we were enemies of God.

And here God comes rushing in to say, there was some kind of difference. That difference was caused by sin.

And there was a problem. And Christ comes to give us peace with the father. What he did gave us peace with God.

Jesus is called the what? The prince of peace. Now, I never, when

I was younger, thought I'm at war with God. I'm somehow trying to get God. I've got a sniper rifle.

If it could go far enough, I'd shoot after God. Somehow I need peace with God. What I didn't realize is it wasn't me necessarily at war with God.

It was God who was at war with me because his nature is so holy. And Jesus came to give us peace.

Not like two nations fighting, but like a king and someone in their kingdom.

And here comes Jesus. Jesus takes the wrath of God that we deserved. And then now God says what?

Ceasefire. Putting down the guns. There's no hostility anymore. You know what a rainbow is, don't you?

This is the best illustration I could think of, of having peace with God. We walked out here maybe two months ago.

We saw this double rainbow. Just amazing and awesome. Rainbow consists of two words, doesn't it?

Put together, rain and what? Pretty sharp. Okay, bow.

What's a bow? Here's the bow, right? Here's the arrow. When God says based on what

Jesus has done, it's a good illustration. I know it's before Jesus with the rainbow, but it's a good idea of peace.

I've got this bow and arrow and it's shaped like this, and I'm going to put it away. We have some bow and arrow shooters here, don't we?

How do you store your bow? Well, that's a good question. I could ask Charlie or Mike or others.

Here's how God stores his bow. This way, pointing down, ready to shoot those people on earth.

No, he hangs it up. The bow's placed. It's not aimed towards us. There's perfect peace.

We see that in a rainbow. We have peace before God. Colossians 1, verse 19 says, for it was the

Father's good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

This is not peaceful feeling. You can have a peaceful feeling and still have God angry with you.

This is a status. This is now we have peace with God, not some internal feeling.

The word peace means something was apart, and now God binds it back together based on Christ's work.

We have peace before God. That's why Peter preached, the word which he sent to the sons of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ.

He's Lord of all. That's why Ephesians 2 says, is

Christ our peace? And if you're a Christian, you can say to yourself, I might not have peace with the government.

I might not have peace at home with my family. I might not have peace with my neighbors. I might not have peace with some people in the church.

But God looks at me in a whole different way because of what Jesus has done. I have peace with God.

Joy giver number two, found right there in Romans chapter five. If the first one was great, this one almost seems better.

You can have joy because he gave you peace with God. That's why Jesus came to on earth. Number two, you can have joy because he gave you permanent access to God the

Father. If you're a Christian, you have permanent access to the Father. Still to this day, there are a few people at the church that don't knock when they come in my door.

And I'm always thinking that they're going to be little because my kids and Kim aren't required to knock. Except the secret code knock.

No, they can just come barging right in. Some of you still come to my office and you think that you can just walk in at any time and you just kind of saunter right in.

Oh, hi, how are you? Now you know why my door is locked off. It's like Fort Knox.

But can you imagine knowing a little bit about the Jewish background with the walls and the courts of the temple, the veils of the temple?

How do you approach this God when Isaiah sees God? He can't even really look at God.

We can just saunter right on in and say, Hi God, I'm here. You know, we're able to do that because of what

Christ has done. We might not saunter, but we have access to the Father. Look at Romans 5, 2.

I love this. Not based on what I have done, I get to go to God anytime.

Through whom, Romans 5, 2, also we have obtained our induction, introduction by faith into this grace in which we stand.

God brings us facing himself, access to him anytime we want.

I thought about a book this week. I thought I should write a book called God, Our Monarch. That if we understood a king, we could understand

God a lot more. People just didn't walk right up to the king.

Hi, king, how you doing? Want to play some tic -tac -toe? I mean, you had access to the king only through one way.

And here, that one way is Christ. We have entree. That's what the French would call it. We have a relationship with God.

It's shocking to a Bible reader to say we have peace with God and now we have access. Fill in the blank, 1

Peter 3, 18. For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, in order that he might bring us to God.

That we could have access to the Father. What's the opposite of access? You can just drive down the street and find one of these signs.

No, what? Trespassing. How'd you like it?

There's this great God of the universe up there and you're not allowed to even enter into his presence. That's why some people say, well, if somebody who's not a

Christian, if he prays to God, does God listen? Well, I'm sure he does because he can hear everything.

But he doesn't have to grant the requests. But we're children, we're adopted.

Adam and Eve driven out of the garden of Eden, Cain driven far from the side of Eden.

And for God, the Father now, based on his son's work, he says to Christians, come anytime you like.

It's a throne of grace. It's no longer a throne of judgment. I love that.

And we're not brought to God for like a quick interview. The friend back in Nebraska and he said,

I'm interviewing for different jobs and this last interview was five minute overview of the company. And then they said, do you have any questions?

He said, didn't go well. You're not going to get the job. This is any time we want to behold his face, as it were, to walk in his presence.

How can a sinner stand in the presence of a holy God? Because Christ is the one who came on a rescue mission to let us do that.

And if you see the text, it's this grace in which we stand. Here's the way I like to think about it. Occasionally I have a stationary bike here and I'll ride the bike.

And then I'll say to myself, you know, I've just ridden for an hour and a half or once in a while, three hours and I'm soaked with sweat.

And I'll say, you know, I've got a soda in the car and I want to get the, I want to get the soda out of the car because I just don't want to drink some water.

Then I start walking outside the door. December 30th.

And it's usually two feet of snow by now. Super cold. Nobody else is around. And we leave the doors locked here most of the time.

And I start walking out the door and I think to myself, if I walk out this door and I shut it and it locks me out.

Here I am. It's 25 below windshield. And I'm standing here with a t -shirt soaked to the bone.

The Nelsons moved far away. They don't live right next door anymore. What am I going to do? So what do you do?

It puts a little doorstop in. You put a little foothold there. And that's almost the terminology here where because of what

Christ has done, the door to God's presence doesn't slam all the way shut. There's a little doorstop there that makes it open that you can go in anytime you want.

But with the grace of God, he just doesn't leave a little bit open. The door is flung wide open so we can come to God at any time we want.

We don't deserve it. We don't merit it. But God said, I love you. And I'm going to do that because my son, the

Christ did that. And that's why Jude says that Christ can make you stand in the presence of his glory, blameless with great joy.

Well, number three, can it get any better? We have joy because we have peace with God. We have access to God.

Number three, we have the hope of heaven. You should have joy if you're a Christian because you have the hope of heaven. Obviously, if you're not a

Christian, you have all the opposites of these, but we have the hope of heaven. I see it in verse two of chapter five. We exalt in the hope of the glory of God.

This is not hope so, hope the weather's good, positive mental attitude,

PMA. I hope it's going to work out. This is hope based on the sure promise of God that we get to enter in his splendor, his radiance.

We have peace with God. That was something that was in the past for us. We have access with God.

We can, present tense, now have access. And now Paul moves to the future and says, salvation, what

Jesus did, doesn't just affect the past for a Christian, doesn't just affect the present, but also the future.

There is a real hope in the heaven that contains

God. And here the text basically is we get to share in his glory.

One day we get to share in the glory of God and see him in his full glory. The other day

I got a great letter in the mail and it was for a teaching opportunity and I was really thanking the Lord and so happy that I got this opportunity to go teach.

And I was half happy and started to cry and I was half happy and started, half sad and started to cry because I wanted to call my mom and tell her, hey mom,

I got this opportunity to teach at this seminary. For those of you that are wondering, it's a local seminary.

We're not moving away anytime soon. I said, oh, I've just,

Kim looked at me and if I cry, Kim's sweet and she cries along with. I thought if I could only tell my mother, it's like a dream and I could go teach and I just began to cry.

And then I said, in my tears, I said, but she doesn't even care now. My wife, my wife, my wife cares.

She was happy. My mom doesn't even care. She's beholding the glory of God. All the trials, self -inflicted trials, all the trials that come because you're a

Christian, all the things about work and school and home and all those things, they will end one day if you're a

Christian. If you're not a Christian, it's just beginning for problems. But for the Christians, it's gone one day and then glory and then heaven and then beholding

Christ Jesus face to face and we partake of that. And Paul is trying to say, you want a reason for joy? God's not at war with you anymore.

You have peace. God's not holding you off anymore, stiff arming you like a football halfback does.

He says, come into my presence anytime. And also there's this future hope where you think, I get to go to heaven one day.

It's amazing to be in the presence of God, rejoicing only through Christ.

Number four, we need to speed this up. Joy giver number four, peace with God. Access to God number two, hope of heaven number three, based on what

Christ has done. And number four, we can have joy. You should have joy because you can see God's hand in your suffering.

You should have joy on earth because you could see God's hand in your suffering based on what Christ has done.

And to have a joy that transcends. Walking into Children's Hospital last Wednesday and just seeing all those children.

How do we make it in this world? Jesus said, in this world, you'll have tribulation. And just because you have peace with God doesn't mean it's going to be a peaceful world.

And look at verses three, four and five. It's going to be a whole sermon right here. And not only this, but we also exalt or rejoice or have joy in our tribulations.

Not because our tribulations are joyful. We're not masochistic. We're not, oh yeah, this is great.

But because God does something with the trials in his people's lives. As Jesus' suffering servant suffered, so too do his followers.

We exult in our tribulations knowing that tribulation brings about what? Perseverance.

And perseverance, proven character. See, God is working in your hearts. And proven character, hope.

Hope doesn't disappoint. How can hope not disappoint? I'm in a trial. I'm laid low. What is happening,

God? Because within our hearts, we have the love of God poured out by the

Spirit's work. He pours out the fact that God loves us in our hearts.

That's the Spirit's ministry. We're not just, we don't just say to ourselves, we're hoping in the future glory.

We can say, you know what? We can glory in today's tribulations. Because God loves us and he'll help us withstand the trials.

And it's not this stoic, you know, come what may. It's God is doing something. There's something beneficial going on.

God has his purposes. God's going to give his son to die in my place and then he's not going to be concerned about my life?

Of course not. I love what one scholar said. The hope of a hypocrite is like the spider's web. The hope of the believer is an anchor to his soul.

And this kind of hope doesn't disappoint. My love for God disappoints. God's love for us, it never disappoints.

He pours out his love into our hearts. Can't help to think about it.

But when I think of pouring, this isn't dribbling. This isn't dabbing. This isn't a little dabble -do -ya.

This isn't kind of just, you know, just a little tiny bit, couple ounces.

The only thing I can think of for this pouring, this dumping, this kind of geyser -like thing is when some football player is at the end of a game.

It's January 20th. And they get one of those big orange Gatorade things and run up to the coach with a couple other really big guys and dump that thing on the coach's head.

They don't pick one with just a little bit of Gatorade. They pick the most. And here's what's happening. Christ comes on a rescue mission and that rescuing is such a great rescuing.

God doesn't do anything half -baked. God does it all the way to show his glory. And God says, when

I rescue you, you have peace with the Father because I perfectly do it. There's no more cessation.

There's no more lack of cessation. When I come and rescue you, you can come into the

Father's presence anytime because you're coming in with my righteousness. You can have the hope of heaven.

And when you're on earth suffering, you can still glory because I'm in charge.

I'm working these things together for good. And you can tell because there's this love subjectively that just pours out into our hearts that we say, you know what?

I know God loves me. There's no doubt. I can rejoice in this trial.

God's working in my heart. But there's an objective kind of love too.

Number five, the fifth joy giver. Peace, access, hope of heaven, joy, knowing that God's working in your life while you're suffering.

And now number five, you can have joy because God loves his people in a self -sacrificial way.

In other words, God has shown his love at Calvary. There's a subjective love. God is pouring out his love through the spirit in my heart.

I can feel it. I can sense it if you will. But here it's objective. Oh, how does

God love me? I don't know if he loves me or not. Well, here's the way. Verses six, seven, and eight.

For while we were still helpless, at the right time, Christ, the first time you'll see the word died for the ungodly.

For one will hardly, second time you'll see the word, die for a righteous man. Though perhaps for a good man, someone would even dare even to, for the third time, die.

But God demonstrates his own love towards us. And that while we were yet sinners, Christ, for the fourth time, you'll see the word died for us.

Here is the external, the objective proof that God loves his people.

They're subjective. The spirit pours out his love in our hearts. But here is objective. Do you want to know if God loves you?

He's proven it 2000 years ago when he sent his son to die at Calvary. He proved it.

It cost him. He sent his only son. And he sent his only son for a strange group of people, for helpless people.

Do you see that in verse six? Weak, uncapable of doing anything for God. No power to say, you know what?

Let's just scheme this whole thing out. How am I going to go to heaven when I die? Here was my scheme, by the way. First, I'm not going to die.

And so when I was a young kid, I'd get in the elevator and I'd say, all right, I'm on story 38. I'm in some

Chicago building really tall. And if this thing starts going down super fast, then what's going to happen before it hits the ground?

What would you do if you were a kid? Well, I'm going to jump. It's always some kind of little scheme. Got to be careful for this.

And we could do that instead. And I just thought, you know what? I am not going to die. Everybody else might die, but I've got my own little

Abendroth scheme. So far it's worked. But it's the same thing.

We, before God rescued us, we were in that same boat. And we try to devise in our minds some little security blanket so we could kind of be comfortable knowing that, you know what?

If we die, get in a car accident, you know, everybody else dies. But, you know, I know I will, but I know

I'm going to be right with God because, you know, I'm not as bad as Hitler. I'm not as bad as Osama.

I'm not as bad as my neighbor or whatever. I've got this little plan. I'm going to say to God, here's my

T -sheet. Here's what I did really good. Here's what I didn't do so good. This one kind of balances out in the scale of things and got it all schemed out.

God would say through his messengers that there is no scheme that you can come up with to get saved.

Because if you could, why would God the Father murder his own son if you could get to heaven?

So here God in his love and his mercy, he says, you know, I'm just not a God of wrath and justice. I'm a

God of mercy and love and kindness. And I'm going to send my son on a rescue mission for these people that can't help themselves.

Fallen and I can't get up. Remember those old commercials? It can't help themselves. And they're not even just unconscious.

They're laying there dead. They're laying there dead. They can't reach over. It's like the antidote is sitting right there.

They could just reach over and grab it and put it down their throat. They'd be saved. Problem is they can't see it.

They don't know it's there. They can't put out their arm. They're just, they're dead. Luke was doing a study last night.

We had this little God's riches fill in the blanks. And Luke said,

I'm supposed to write down what it's like to be spiritually dead. I said, well, unresponsive.

Can't do anything. It's the same thing. We were helpless. And then in the wonder of wonders,

Calvary comes. Not the Calvary, but Calvary. So at the right time, do you see the text?

Christ died for the ungodly. The law goes on and on for centuries and nobody can save themselves.

The fullness of time has come. And God says, enough testing. Here comes Jesus Christ in the manger to die for sinners.

Verse 7 says, for one will hardly die for a righteous man, though perhaps for a good man, someone would dare even to die.

You don't go to death row and say, you know what? I'll die in your place because those people are crooks. But maybe

Jonathan might die for David, somebody good. But it's an exception.

Yet Jesus, I think of John 15, greater love has no man than this, than a man laid down his life for his.

And then God puts it in bold. Verse 8, God makes it conspicuous.

God makes it displayed. It is like walking into Times Square or walking to Las Vegas.

And you see these huge lights. I'd have to go to Vegas about every two weeks for work.

And I would just go down to the strip and just, I was shocked by two things. Number one, how easily a fool and his money are separated.

Number two, I was shocked by the heat that came off these lights. You go by these old, these casinos, and there are so many lights.

It was hot. Kind of like if you go watch these jet cars racing sometimes, auto racing.

And you can see the fire come out. And all of a sudden, five seconds later, you go, oh, I could just feel the heat from that thing.

Man, it's obvious that thing's hot. Here, God sets off like a fireworks display his conspicuous love.

You doubt that God loves you. You're in a trial. Something's happening. I'm not sure what's going on. Does God love me?

And here, what Jesus did made the Spirit of God flood your hearts in a subjective way. But now, objectively, overtly, his own love.

He displays it by having Jesus die for sinners. And then, lastly, wonderful, make it to heaven.

Lots of things can happen. Joy, number six, we've got peace with God, access to God, hope of heaven.

God's working in our trials. God loves us, shown at Calvary. And finally, number six, the sixth joy giver is that because of Christ, you will have full assurance you're going to heaven.

If you're a Christian, you're going to heaven. Verses 9, 10, and 11.

Much more then, having now been justified, declared righteous, not even by our faith, but by his blood, his death, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through him.

For if while we were enemies, do you see the logic from the greater to lesser? If while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of his son.

Much more now, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. That is to say, if God had his son die in your place when you were an enemy, now that you're a friend and you're adopted in the family, how is he going to treat you?

And not only this, you just can't contain Paul. We also exult in God through our

Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation from the greater to the smaller.

Nothing else is withheld. God makes reconciliation.

The whole text here talks about it. It's not us baby stepping to God. God did it all. The movement is from God to man.

It is not about our ascent to God like the Tower of Babel, but God's descent to us in the form of a little baby named

Jesus, the God man. I love that. God loved us when we were enemies.

Of course, he's going to love us now even more. So he's given his son for us in Romans chapter two, verse 17.

I find this just dumbfounded, makes me dumbfounded. Romans 2, 17 talking about those who try to get saved by the law with Jewish background.

But if you bear the name Jew and rely upon the law and boast in God, well, you're in big trouble.

If you try to rely on the law to get to God and then boast, hey, yeah, I obey the

Ten Commandments pretty much. God condemns that. But here, if you say, I couldn't save myself, so I will boast in the work of another.

What does God do then? If God condemns those who are the self -starter bootstraps kind of people, and I want to obey to get in,

God says, no, you can't boast in that. But if you boast in me, if you boast in God, if you exult in what

I've done, he's pleased. That's why we praise God.

That's why my notes say I've got that joy, joy, joy, joy down in my heart. Why? Because when the fullness of time came,

God sent forth a son born of a woman, born under law. He obeyed the law when I couldn't.

He died for my sins when I couldn't. And that's why we can boast.

How about this for a verse that rocks me to the core? Proverbs 20, verse 9. Who can say

I have cleansed my own heart? I'm pure from my sin. Can anyone? No, that's why

God sends his son. Now, maybe some of you have a little more shopping to do.

Maybe some of you have a little more busyness to do. Maybe there's a few more joy robbers out there that are left.

But for the Christian, we can have not just happiness, not just feeling good.

We can have a joy knowing that if God does something, A, he does it well. B, he does it perfectly.

And if it's done for us, we know we have the hope of heaven. It is my desire for every one of you,

I don't think anyone came by accident, that you know when you die, you're going to heaven. John chapter 20,

Jesus said, you can know for sure. He said through his apostolic messengers that when you die, you're going to heaven.

What a tragedy it would be to die and say, you know what? I think I'll just keep my old life and my own schemes of things.

And I'll just take my chances when I get up there to see the big guy up in heaven. Friends, maybe no one else will tell you.

Maybe no movie will tell you. Maybe you'll get mad at me even if I tell you. But if you just look at the opposites of what

Christians get in Romans 5, you'll know your resume today. And your resume, and I don't have any great joy in saying it because I have family members who don't believe.

But the resume of the unbeliever is there's no peace for them. Actually, the

Bible says there's no peace for the what? For the wicked. God's at war with you and the bow is hanging down pointed at you and you'll die one day.

But for the Christian, there's peace. God reconciles. Wouldn't you believe a Savior that would do that for people?

If you are not a Christian, my advice to you is don't pray any prayer except this prayer.

God, give me faith. God, have mercy on me. God, I don't believe, but I'm at the end of myself.

Don't pray that you might get, you know, Nintendo Wii. Is that right? Nintendo Wii?

Whatever it is. PlayStation 3 because you have no access to God.

There's one that can enter you in. It's like the boy. I don't know if it's an apocryphal story or not, but I love the story.

There's the soldier. The Civil War is over. He's walking back to the White House. He's got the

Confederate Army uniform on. He's trying to get into the White House. And of course, the guards are guarding

President Lincoln and won't let these Civil War Confederates in. And the little boy sees the man.

He says, you know what? Come right on with me. I'll let you come in and walk right in past the guards one after another and introduces the

Confederate soldier to his own daddy because the son has access to the father.

If you're not a Christian, you have no access. And I beseech you, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ today. There's access to God.

If you're not a Christian, there's no hope for heaven. None. No hope at all. It's a pipe dream, friends.

There's only one way for heaven, and that's when God descends. He gives his son to die as a sin sacrifice.

So wouldn't you believe today instead of having no access, you're going to have access to the father. No hope of heaven.

Now you have the hope of heaven. What about suffering today? You say, I'm really suffering.

Well, I'm just telling you that when you die and you go to hell, if you don't believe in Jesus Christ, you're going to think you're suffering today was like heaven compared to what hell's like.

So wouldn't you believe? Would you please believe? I beseech you to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then you could even see God's hand in your own trials. Now, wouldn't you like to know that God loves you?

There are times in my life where I'm wondering, you know, does anybody love me? I remember when I was single and I was flying from Christmas time in Nebraska to Christmas time in Los Angeles.

And I said something to my mother. I made her cry. She said, well, who's picking you up from the airport? I said, you know, I don't know.

It was before I was married, of course. I don't know of one person in a city of 12 million who would be willing to come and pick me up.

But it sure would have been nice if I would have said to myself, but I know Jesus loves me because he laid down his life in my place.

Wouldn't you believe? Wouldn't you like to know you're going to heaven? It's through the cross.

It's only through the cross. And the Bible says it's as simple as turning from your sins, acknowledging that you can't save yourself, and looking to the cross and saying,

God, receive me. I'm sinful. But you're a great savior of sinners. And you save sinners to the utmost.

Let's bow in prayer. Lord, I praise your name that you're a savior of sinners. I praise you that through the hustle and the bustle, we could be reminded, and I even got to be reminded this week in the study, that you're good and kind and that you're a

God who gives. And Lord, all our giving in the next day or two and presence and all those things are a dim mirror of your son's greatest gift.

Father, as your gift to us, Lord, certainly there has to be people here, young kids, visitors, maybe even some members.

We know they can't save themselves. We know they can't do it. They're helpless. But Lord, you're a helper.

You're a savior. You're a rescuer. And Lord, it would thrill our hearts to see those people believe.

And Lord, how much glory it would give you. We know that it would. And Lord, may the angels rejoice today because those among us who aren't saved would turn and bow the knee and confess

Jesus Christ is Lord. And then, Lord, we would pray, like you do anyway, but we would ask that you would flood their hearts with joy.

Lord, we remember that when we first got saved, thinking all those times, at least in my own mind, when I could have died and went to hell, yet you saved me, that you would choose me and love me and I have peace with you.

Lord, it turned my world upside down. I could not say thank you enough. And today, as Christians, we say thank you.

We say thank you that you have given us this great gift. We would ask, Lord, that you would be pleased to help us to be courageous to tell other people that Jesus is the only way and that the only way to have a merry

Christmas is to believe that Christ is the Messiah, the Savior, not just of the Jews, but also the