Listen Now

Culture around us continues to degrade at a rapid pace. Christian morals no longer stand as the norm. Rather those that hold to Biblical truth are viewed as wicked. In Romans 1, we discovered that this trend is no surprise. As God’s wrath turns against culture, it will continue to degrade and become more hostile. Further, believers face struggles and challenges throughout life. Romans 7 informed us that sin still impacts our lives and we can’t get away from it. However, as we saw in Romans 1:16, and throughout chapter 8, the Gospel is the answer to these issues. The Gospel is the answer to your trial.  Throughout the book so far, we observed the depravity of man in chapters 1-3. We observed the glorious news of the gospel (Jesus’ death for sin, burial, and resurrection for our justification) in chapters 4-6. And we observed our ongoing struggle with sin in chapter 7. However, chapter 8 brought the glorious news of forgiveness and the amazing benefits of faith in Christ. We observed that we can find strength in the trial through our glorious future, our divine comforter, and our enduring promise. Today, we answer the question, so what? How does all this really matter in everyday life? We still struggle. Life is still hard. How should we respond?

There are certain verses in Scripture that are very popular because of their message. Often, these verses can inadvertently turn into empty platitudes. Romans 8:28 is one such verse. Whenever someone is facing difficulty, they have a fellow believer to remind them, that all things work together for good! This can often feel very unhelpful.  However, as we turn today to our enduring promise from God, and look at this promise in its context, I believe that this can turn into one of the most glorious passages in Scripture.  Over the past two weeks, we have looked at verses 18-27 examining two of the three blessings from God which grant us strength in the midst of trial. We have a glorious future and a divine comforter.

The Holy Spirit is the most misunderstood, misrepresented, and ignored person of the Trinity. Pentecostals have turned the Spirit into a sideshow. And in response, most protestants have swung the pendulum to ignoring the Spirit. However, when we face trials and struggles in life, we do ourselves a disservice if we do not understand the Spirit’s role and working in our life.  Many Christians face struggle with a kind of sad resignation. We understand that trial and struggle in our life is a reality and that one day God will make it right. However, we then tend to fall into a kind of despair and depression about the state of our life and this world today. However, God has something much better for us. When we understand the role of the Spirit, we can maintain an eternal perspective in trial. This perspective, far from bringing frustration today, leads us to engage the world with joy. As we walk through the need for an eternal perspective in trial, today we will discover that we can find strength through the divine comforter God has given to us. 

Why do bad things happen? Every day we feel the struggles and toils of life. Many of you are currently walking through deep struggles in your life. Yet Romans 8:1-17 speaks of the fact that we are children of God. We are no longer under condemnation. The Spirit dwells within us! So why do bad things happen to the children of God? Doesn’t this seem to contradict the idea that we have life in Christ? TV’s popular health and wealth preachers regularly claim that if you have faith, you stand as a child of God and he promises you health. You just have to claim it. However, they themselves suffer from illness and ultimately die. The truth of Scripture is those bad things will happen to you. You will suffer in this life. But how is that possible since we are God’s children? Doesn’t he care to keep us safe? Paul seeks to give the believer hope and comfort in his answer here in this week’s text Romans 8:18-30. Admittedly again, this will probably take us three weeks to work through. 

Through faith we are made children of God. The most amazing benefit of salvation is that we become part of God's family. 

From an early age, children look to their mothers and ask, "Mommy, did you see that?" We all long for approval and acceptance from our mothers. In a similar vein, many have long given up any hope that they can be assured of God's approval. They simply hope that he will accept them. However, as we look at our text this morning we will discover that God is pleased with you because of Christ. 

God's holiness cannot allow sin to go unchecked. However, God's grace stands greater than sin. 

Many believers live in the throws of shame and guilt. The sins and mistakes of the past continually haunt them and destroy their lives and relationships. Some endure intense shame because of sin against them. But the glorious news of the gospel is that they are not condemned in Christ.

Over the past two weeks, we have discussed the reality that you can and must say no to sin. Sin is a challenge in every individual’s life. The struggle is very real. So how do we overcome sin? How do we say no to sin? Often when a particular sin struggle enters into a life or to a society, the regular response to that struggle is to make a rule to keep you or others in society from that sin. In our personal life, we begin to make rules for ourselves to make sure that we keep from sinning. Perhaps we have the sin struggle of gluttony. So we make a rule that we will never go to the buffet. Maybe we struggle with anger. So we make a rule that we will always count to 10 before answering anyone. We see this trend in some churches as well. Young people struggle with morality. So we make a rule that the girls need to dress like little house on the prairie. People struggle with commitment to God, so we make a rule that you have to be in church every time the doors are unlocked. We see this trend in society as well. Gun violence takes place and there is a call for stricter gun laws. Abortion is rampant and so there is a call to outlaw abortion.  Now we need to note that for the most part, rules are not bad things. There are such things as bad laws and bad rules, but society, churches, and our own lives would be in absolute disarray without rules. But we must understand that rules are not the answer to sin. Rules don’t fix sin problems. This is not a new issue. By the first century, the Jews had come to view the Law as the solution to sin. If you made sure to follow the rules the Law laid out and you followed the rules the Rabbis added to the Law, you would be good. The problem was that this did not work anymore then than it does today. The Law is not the answer to sin. 

Slavery is a concept abhorrent to our society. The idea that one person can own another as chattel almost split our nation. We fought one of the bloodiest wars in history to end that practice. As Americans, we hold strongly to individual and personal rights. No one, not even the government, holds absolute authority over us. We are free! But what if I told you that is not true? What if I told you that every one of us is actually a slave? As we walk through the Book of Romans, we observed that we were born as depraved sinners, but that Jesus in his love for us paid the price for our sin and grants us life. Last week we observed from the first half of Romans 6 that you can and must say no to sin.  In the second half of Romans 6, we learn that we often don’t because we fail to understand that every one of us is a slave. Until we understand this, we will not be able to say no sin. 

Over the past few weeks, we have been rehearsing the reality that you are justified in Christ. Because of that you no longer need to fear sin. You have been forgiven. Last week we discussed the fact that we have a representative in Christ that has placed his righteousness on us. So that when we stand before God we will be clothed in His righteousness. This means that you are forgiven your sin and you can overcome your sin.  Perhaps as you contemplated these things you responded in your heart with one of three responses. Maybe you thought, What a wonderful truth. But it doesn’t seem like a reality. I struggle so much with sin and feel that I am nowhere near where I should be in my Christian life. Perhaps your encouragement was mixed with a little bit of frustration that you are still in a major battle with sin. Or maybe you thought, So and so really needs this. I hope they are listening. While you would never voice it, you thought, I really don’t need this myself, I am good, but that other person really needs this. Or maybe you thought that because Christ is your representative you are righteous in Christ, so it really doesn’t matter if you are not living for God. God is love and full of forgiveness, so you are free to live how you want and pursue what you want.  Paul turns to the very real struggle with sin in the next two chapters. The first issue that Paul addresses in this text deals with the questions: Does it really matter how a Christian lives? Are we free to live however we want? After all, we are forgiven and no longer face God’s wrath.

All of us are represented by one of two people. One representative leads to death, the other to life. Which represents you?

As lightning flashed and thunder crashed outside the window, terror-filled the child’s heart. In fear, they scrambled out of bed and ran down the hall to their parent’s bedroom. As they climbed into bed with their parents, the child felt her parent’s arms encircle her in a protective hug. There is something comforting and protective when a parent puts their arms around their children. While the storm still rages, something about the protective hug ensures the child that everything will be alright.  Last week we discussed the reality that Salvation means we can rejoice in suffering. Perhaps as you listened to the Word and meditated on it over the week, you wonder how this can be possible. Your life is filled with intense suffering that does not seem to let go. Theoretically, you can rejoice in suffering, but realistically this does not seem possible. How can you rest and rejoice in suffering? We finished the text last week in the middle of the text. Today I would like to examine the remainder of the text and learn that rejoicing in suffering can be a reality in your life when you rest in God’s love.

In 1858, a very successful preacher in Scotland by the name of John G Paton, left his ministry and comfort of home to become a missionary in the islands of the New Hebrides. At this time the Islands were populated by very aggressive cannibals who would eat foreigners and natives alike at a moment’s notice. When John Paton announced his decision, he received very vocal opposition to this call from God. John Paton wrote this account in his biography, “Among many who sought to deter me was one dear, old Christian gentleman, whose crowning argument always was, ‘The cannibals, you will be eaten by cannibals.’ At last I replied, ‘ Mr Dickson, you are advanced in years now, and your own prospect is soon to be laid in the grave, there to be eaten by worms; I confess to you that if I can but live and die serving and honoring the Lord Jesus, it will make no difference to me whether I am eaten by cannibals or by worms; and in the great day, my resurrection body will arise as fair as yours in the likeness of our risen redeemer. John Paton went on to spend many years sharing the gospel in New Hebrides. He saw many of those cannibals won to the gospel.   One hundred years later, the United States was rocked with the news that 5 young missionary men had been brutally killed in the jungles of Ecuador seeking to share the gospel with an unreached people group, the Auca Indians. Jim Elliot, Nate Saint, Ed McCully, Roger Youderian, and Pete Fleming sacrificed their lives.   Why would these Christian risk so much for so little? For the sake of the Gospel. So we must ask, what is so great about the Gospel?

We continue our study in Romans 4. How can one be good with God and sure they will enter heaven in the end? Not through works, status, or rules. Only through faith can one enter the kingdom of God.

Are you good with God? What are you relying upon to make sure that when you stand before God, you are good? Today we examine Romans 4 to see what can take us from being totally depraved to being good with God. 

As we speak about spiritual growth, prayer stands as a vital spiritual discipline which spurs our growth. Yet, this is an aspect of our spiritual life in which we often struggle. Prayer is hard. All of us struggle in our prayer life. Last week we began to look at three important reasons why we must take time to pray. We made it through the first two and today I would like to look at the third.