← ArchivePeace Produced by Grace - Romans 5:1-5DateAugust 13, 2023Speaker—TextRomans 5:1–5Passages in this sermonRomans 51:51Romans 12:59Romans 102:59Romans 5:103:12Galatians 57:012 Timothy 17:16Romans 87:20Ephesians 2:4–1614:44Philippians 1:2119:291 Peter 121:23James 121:44TranscriptClick any line to jump there.0:00Well, amen. Bethel, how we doing? Good, man. It is so good to be back with you guys again. I enjoyed getting to know some of you guys last year. And nice part is, man, bumped into Josh and some of your other ministerial staff back at the convention over the summer. So it's, man, it's good to catch up. It's like old friends. And I just want you guys to know, you know, first and foremost, and I'm not just saying this just because I'm preaching in your church. But what the Lord is doing in and through this place is special. Like0:29clearly the work of the Lord is at hand in this place. Man, God's favor is on this place. Truthfully, like y'all, I think you need to know on a way less serious note, God's favor is on this area. Because when I pulled off the exit, when I got into town last night and realized that you guys have a Whataburger and a Buc-ee's in the same town, I'm sitting here going, wait, you're telling me I can do sliced brisket sandwich for lunch and then Whataburger0:59patty melt for dinner, all to the glory of God? Like it is a miracle that most of you are not like morbidly obese. Like y'all, y'all have far, far more self-control than I do. That's for sure. So you better believe your boy threw down on both of those last night to the glory of God. I mean, I'll say this. We love the state of Alabama and the Ritchie House. We're1:27literally back here in the state. Three weeks from now, I'm taking my son to his first Crimson Tide game. And man, we're going to watch Alabama curb stomp. Poor Middle Tennessee, man. It is going to be a tough day to be a Middle Tennessee fan. But y'all, we love this state. Truthfully, I love this church. And so if you have your Bibles, turn with me. Romans chapter 5. Romans1:51chapter 5 is where we'll be this morning. And what I want to do is this. Romans 5 is a chapter of Scripture that God truly used in a massive way in my life. This was literally, as a 15-year-old, I am at this youth group lock-in. And at this point in my life as a 15-year-old, I was depressed. I was frustrated. And truthfully, like, I looked at my life like a dumpster fire. Like, I thought there's2:21no way that God loves me, number one, because he made me without arms. So my mistaken thought in that time was that God didn't love me. And then I looked across the landscape of my life. And at that time, I had all sorts of addictions and failures and sins. And I thought, man, there's no way God loves me in my armlessness. And then there's no way that God loves me in my sinfulness. And I will never forget2:46as I sat there that night with this youth pastor, he opens up to Romans. And I mean, truthfully, he took me from Romans 1 to Romans 10. And I'll never forget about halfway through as he's opening up scripture. And he's painting the picture for me. He says, listen, that in the midst of your sinfulness, you are truly, you are an enemy of God. You are opposed to him, as Romans chapter 5 verse 10 says.3:12But God took so much on him. And again, this is not on the screen. I'm kind of like going off the hip here. But if you have your Bibles, go ahead and turn to Romans chapter 5. And if you're there, if you look down in verse 10, it says this, for if while we were enemies of God, we were reconciled to him by the death of his son, much more now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life? What the apostle Paul is trying to say there, what that student pastor was trying to tell me that night3:40is that in the fact of me being this broken, sinful, wayward person, I was not going to save me. I was not going to be able to fix my hopeless situation in me being somebody who had gone off, done his own thing, chose to be the God of my own life and to watch it blow up in my face. I wasn't going to be able to fix that. But God, in his grace, sent his son to do what I couldn't.4:07And that when I was an enemy and when I was weak to fix my situation of being a broken man in light of a holy God, Jesus did what I couldn't. And for each and every one of us in here this morning, that is the greatest hope that you and I can ever cling to is that I am not here holding on to my own hope with my own strength. That my hope, my peace, my joy, my identity, my everything4:33is upheld by him. And that's what we're going to see in this scripture this morning. So look with me, Romans chapter five, and we're going to read the first five verses of this chapter. And the word of the Lord says this, Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in5:02the hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope. And 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. Let's pray. Father, I pray in these few moments, as we look at the amazing weight and power of5:27your gospel, Father, this morning, may we see the peace, the joy, the hope that we have an opportunity to walk in, not because we are awesome, but because you are. Father, this morning, help us to be people characterized by your gifts of your grace and nothing else. Father, we love you. We thank you. It's in5:52Jesus' name we pray. Amen. If you're taking notes this morning, man, we're going to hit on three main points just in this text. And the first point this morning that I want you guys to see from here in Romans chapter five is we have a peace that does not make any sense. That in Christ, we have a peace that does not make any sense. Look again in in verse one. It says this, therefore, since we have been6:18justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Now listen, the first time I read through this verse, I think I very mistakenly read it as we have peace from God. Like we have this gift of peace that God has given us for, for us to enjoy day in and day out. Now listen, that, that is biblically true. And that, that's not what it says here. We'll, we'll, we'll talk about that here in a6:48second. But what is incredibly true is God does not want his children to operate in a space of fear and worry. God has given us a spirit of peace. Like you, you see all through scripture, you see in Galatians chapter five, what is the fruit of the spirit? It is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness. We see in second Timothy chapter one, God has not given us a spirit of7:16fear, but one of a sound mind and power. And what we see in Romans chapter eight, man, we, we have not been given a spirit of fear to fall back into the slavery of sin again, but we've been given a spirit by which we cry out, Abba Father. Day in, day out, we see a good, kind, heavenly father that does not want his kids to be afraid, that does not want his kids to have their life dominated by worries, but we have a God7:44that very graciously grants us the gift of peace in our own heart. And I mean, it's like, for, for me as a daddy, that's, that's what I want for, for my kids. Like my kids are not overly fearful critters, shall we say? Like my, my son literally started tackle football this week for the first time in his life. He's played flag football his, his whole life up until now. And so he finished his first practice, man went out there,8:11you could hear the pads popping, the helmets crunching. I mean, it was a, it's a good old like down home football time. And so he comes back up the, the, the hill from football practice and I'm standing there waiting on him. And now I played, surprisingly enough, uh, I played football in, in middle school and high school. Um, and no, I wasn't just the kicker. Your boy liked to hit people. Um, and, uh, and so I played, uh, I played corner, I played safety. And, uh, and so my, my son comes up the hill8:39and the first words out of his mouth were, Hey dad, how can I hit people harder? So it sounds cool. And I'm like, my man, like he is, he is clearly like, he's, he's got a taste of something that he likes. Same for my little seven year old girl. She's in mixed martial arts. And, uh, and that little koala bear is really good at a rear naked choke. Like she will get around behind me. She will lock me in a choke. And before you know it, I'm picking myself off the carpet. So it's like my children,9:09my children, pretty tough, resilient, slightly terrifying human beings. And, uh, and so they're not scared of much. Uh, but this, uh, the, the beginning of May, uh, we took them to Disney world for the first time. And, uh, and we probably should have thought, thought it through a little more before you spend like a bazillion dollars, uh, to go to Disney world. Cause we'd never taken them to a theme park. And so we show up and it's like, our kids are terrified of this whole like9:36rollercoaster thing. And so we thought, all right, let's go big. Let's do the biggest, fastest, most terrifying rollercoaster in all of Disney world. And then everything's downhill after that. And, uh, and so Disney has just opened a new ride called Tron, uh, which is based around, if you guys have ever seen the movies, it's those little, I don't know, light cycle sort of things. And so you literally ride one of these motorcycles at 70 miles an hour and10:02you pull four G's, uh, during the whole course of that ride for, for those of us that are, aren't pilots. If you're pulling four G's, it basically means you're going so fast and turning so quick that the pressure on your body is four times the normal pull of gravity. And so it's like, it's kind of intense. And, uh, and so we're trying to talk our kids into it. They're freaking out, but it's like, you know, it'll be okay. It'll be fine. You'll be great.10:31Now, listen, I am talking from a place of total inexperience because little known fact, uh, amusement parks don't like armless people. Um, like I have, I've been to probably 10 or 15 different amusement parks at different points in my life. Every single one of them will not allow me to ride anything. Like the first time I went to Disney world as a kid, they wouldn't let me ride the merry-go-round because they said, Ooh, if you start to fall off, you can't grab on with your hand10:58and you're going to die on the merry-go-round that looks bad on us. And, uh, and so I have literally, I have literally been disallowed from riding any ride at any theme park throughout the course of my life. So we show up trying to encourage the kids. It'll be fine. No worries. All in my heart going, y'all have fun suckas. I'm going to hold everybody's stuff while y'all go on the ride. And so we show up to like the little agent person or whatever. And, uh, and, uh, and you know, we're going through the11:27whole spiel and, uh, and my kids knew I couldn't ride and they go, can my daddy not ride the ride? The lady goes, Oh no, we made this ride accessible. People with disabilities can totally ride this ride. And I'm going, I'm sorry, what? Uh, and, uh, and so now suddenly there's three members of the Richie family that are about to ride a rollercoaster for the first time. And I'm sitting here going, what, what am I going to, I can't hold onto anything. And I looked at this lady and I was11:55like, what happens if like the little bar thing gives out? And all she said was, well, the chances of a catastrophic failure of your restraints are minimal. I'm going, lady, I want you to stay zero. Don't tell me, don't tell me minimal. And all of a sudden I'm going flying and trying, you know, and, uh, and so it's like, I'm waiting in this line the whole time and I'm trying to keep my stuff together so I don't freak out my children, but I'm sitting here going, what if I'm that guy12:23that shows up in the news, armless man dies on Disney ride for, for some dumb reason. And so it's like, y'all, I'm terrified this whole time we get on this ride. And I mean, y'all straight out of the gates, zero to 60, two and a half seconds. You're pulling four G's in the first turn straight out the gates. I was convinced my soul left my body for those next, next 90 seconds, man. We get, we get done with the ride and it's like, I get off and it's like jelly legs, man. My wife said she looked12:53back at me, all of my blood had left my face. It's a miracle I didn't throw up or pass out. And, uh, and we get done and I'm like, Hey, kids, did you have a great time? And they're like, let's ride it again. And my wife's like, let's ride it again. And I'm like, I don't want to die. But it's like, you know, for, for, for us in that moment, man, the, the peace overrode the fear. It took a little13:16cultivating, but it's like, we, we got to that place and that's exactly how the father wants us to operate in this life. He knows and understands we're going to face things in this life that are far beyond our control, that are super scary, that we don't want a part of. But over and over God is saying, I want you to know I've got you. That is the gift of peace that comes from God. But again,13:41as I said at the very beginning, that's not the peace that we see talking about here in verse one, read it again. We have a peace with God. What he's painting the picture of is that you and I, in terms of our own acts and our own behavior and our own sin, we have declared war on God.14:02As he says in verse 10, we have made ourselves enemies of God for those of us just based on our own behavior, our own righteousness. As, as Romans goes on to say that all of us have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God and that the paycheck that our lives have earned us is death and separation from God for eternity. But as we go on to see this beautiful picture of the peace that we have,14:31since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God. And I mean, truthfully, Ephesians chapter two, verses four through 16, it says this, for he himself talking about Christ, he himself is our peace. And he made us both one and has broken down in his flesh, the dividing wall of a hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in his ordinances, that he might create14:56in himself a new man in the place of two. So making peace that he might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility. So here is the picture that, excuse me, that we don't have a peace from God, we have a peace with God, and it is because of the Son of God. That when we were15:17once completely separated from God, had no hope, had no eternal peace, Jesus stepped in and he paid the debt that you and I should pay, that we might have life in him. This is the picture of the peace that we have. And for some of us in here, it's a peace that we might not be fully grabbing onto with both of our15:44hands in the realization, like some of us think that we have to spend our life living the perfect life to earn our salvation. And that's not going to happen. There are some people in here this morning that you know that you know that you know that if you die right this minute, that you would spend your eternity separated from God. And the only excuse that you hold up to him is you think you've sinned way too much for the grace of God to cover it. And if that's you, I want you to know Jesus has saved bigger sinners16:13than you. He doesn't look at the skeletons in your closet and go, man, this one's too busted up for me to rescue and redeem. The peace of God, the peace with God that he gives through his son is a peace that doesn't go anywhere. It doesn't fail. It doesn't tear apart. It is a peace that comes when we trust in and rest in Jesus as our savior, our Lord, our hope, our everything. You don't have to get your jump16:41together for you to be at peace with God. You just have to trust his work of his son crucified and his son resurrected. And you have to say this morning, God, I trust that sacrifice and I trust you to lead me through this life. Whatever it looks like, whatever it costs, God, I give you all that I am. And some of you this morning need to do just that. And we'll give you a chance to do that here in a17:09minute. But I want you to know that for those of us in Christ, man, celebrate the peace that we have with God because of the son of God. Second thing I want us to see this morning is this, is that we have a growing joy that is not dependent on circumstances. We have a growing joy that is not dependent on circumstances. Look in verses two through four, again, talking about Jesus through him,17:34we have obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand and in which we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, endurance produces character, and character produces hope. So here it's this two-fold joy that I think we have to know and understand, y'all. First and foremost, the worldly perspective of joy is pretty jacked up. Like, when we think of the world's perspective of what it means to have joy, it's18:04probably like having this cheesy smile on your face no matter what comes. Like, you're always happy, it's always sunshine and rainbows. Y'all, that is not the joy that we have in Christ. The joy that we have in Christ, it says that apart from my circumstances, I am satisfied, I am content, I am at peace, I am good, because I know I have God, and I know He's got me.18:28That is truthfully what we see in this picture of what it means to rejoice, to have joy. Because as he goes on to say first, we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. What Paul is saying here in Romans 5, he says, y'all, our great hope is the day that we see Jesus face to face. The reason why I can rejoice is this is not the best that God has to offer us.18:53Y'all, if this is our best life that we're walking in right now, then man, this is not a great way to live. Like, if we look around in this broken world, that we see fear, we see failure, we see sickness, we see all sorts of things that come up against us. If this is the best that life has to offer, man, that's a tough thing to sign up for.19:17But we rejoice in the fact that knowing one day, we will pass from this life to the next, as Paul says in Philippians 1.21, for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain. Why is death gain? Because, y'all, the moment that we die, we pass from this life to the next. And for those of us in Christ, we see the one person that we've lived our entire life for in the first place. Death passes away.19:47Sadness and tears pass away. Suffering is gone. Pain is gone. It is all gone other than him and his glory. And we rejoice in that fact, knowing that one day, for those of us in Christ, that is a promise that is going to come true. And that even if I sit in this sanctuary this morning, and I'm suffering, I'm scared, I'm hurting, I can rejoice in the fact that one day this will not be my reality.20:14But then we can also rejoice in the fact that, as he goes on to lay out this, he lays out this thread, starting in joy in verse 3, and it ends in hope in verse 5. But, y'all, look at the three things that come in between joy and hope. We see suffering, and then we see endurance, and then we see character, and then we see hope. Y'all, I think we can also rejoice in the fact that God is with us in the joyful moments in life.20:44God is with you in the midst of your suffering. God is with you in the midst of the growth in your character that he sees, and that he brings about through endurance, that ultimately leads us to our great hope that is him. Y'all, I want you to know, God is sovereign, and God is working, even in the midst of your suffering. Like, there is this bizarre tie that we see in Scripture between joy and suffering.21:15You see it here in Romans 5. You see it in 1 Peter chapter 1. Peter's writing to the persecuted church, and he says, listen, you've got to rejoice in this. Rejoice in your persecution. Rejoice in your tribulation, knowing that this trial produces for you a faith that is more precious than gold, even though it's refined by fire. James writes to the dispersed church, James chapter 1.21:44He says, listen, rejoice in this. Rejoice in this trial, knowing that God is at work in you, bringing unto you a complete faith. So, y'all, it seems crazy in the day and age that we live in that we can have joy in our hurt, and joy in our suffering, and joy in things not going according to plan, but we can have joy knowing that our God is still in control, and He's still working it for His good.22:14We don't have to have the perfect circumstances, because sometimes when we walk through the hardest things in our life, and yet there's still a peace about who we are, there's still this contentment about who we are. The world has a lot of questions. Like, y'all know, like, I, you know, I got into town yesterday afternoon. I wanted a little time to just, like, settle in, clearly get some Whataburger in my belly, and then just get a good night's sleep.22:43And so, you know, those no-joke thunderstorms rolled through yesterday afternoon, cooled things off. And so yesterday evening, I was like, man, I'm going to go sit by the pool at my hotel. I'm going to read through my sermon notes. It's going to be a great night. So I go, and I come into the pool area, and there's only two people at the pool. It's this dad and his seven-year-old little girl. And now, listen, y'all, armless people and kids go together like fire and gasoline, because the moment I walk into the pool area,23:12and, you know, I catch a lot of attention when it's got the little security gate around the pool. And so I stand up like a little flamingo, and I lift up the little tab on the fence, and I flick it open. I don't even get in the pool. And this little girl goes, Dad, what's up with his arms? And it's like, I looked over at that poor dad, and it's just like all the blood left his face. Like, he's just like, he's so embarrassed. And he did not make eye contact. I walked by him. He just had his,23:42he had his face down like this. And boy, she was just going to town, man. She was asking, Daddy, how's he eat? Daddy, how's he drive? Daddy, daddy, daddy. And it was just like, this poor guy was like, he was freaking out. And, and finally, I don't know why, but this little girl was like, Daddy, I know you can open that gate with your feet, just like that man did. Daddy, you're, Daddy, you're awesome. And he's like, he gets in an argument with his little girl there at the pool, because he's like, baby, I can't, baby, I can't. And finally,24:12And finally, he walks over and he goes out of the pool, and then he starts trying to open the gate, like I opened the gate. And then finally he goes, baby, you got to let me in, because I'm not, I'm not getting in like this. And, and so they go through this whole spiel. And then the guy finally walks over to me and he's like, hey man, listen, I'm sorry about that whole like thing that we just had, you know, just now, the questions, the, the opening of gates. He's like, man, I'm sorry. I'm, I'm,24:41I'm, I'm just trying, I'm just trying to teach my girl. I'm just trying to be a good daddy. I'm like, man, you're good. And so we get, we get in this little small talk. And I mean, come to find out, I get to hear this life, this dude's life story. Survivor traumatic brain injury hasn't worked for, for the past five years. And, and as we talked, he's like, man, I've been asking God, like, why am I going through this? God, what are you doing in the midst of this? And as he wants to know, like the parts of my story,25:10he's like, man, how, how are you navigating this without asking God the wise and the, what are you doings? And God, how can you redeem this? And man, to just sit with this dude who's, who's apparently a brother in Christ from, from all I can gather. And man, for me to lay out to him just what it means for us in Christ to have a joy that is separate from our circumstances and a joy that is like a light that draws the25:39world unto itself. Because y'all, what you and I have in Christ is the one thing that the world wants. It is the peace with God. It is the peace from God. It is a joy that we get to walk through even when things are difficult. Y'all, what we have in Jesus is a stable and firm footing that does not need you to live26:03out the American dream for your life to matter and your life to be full of hope for us to have joy. It is for us to rejoice in who Jesus is. The fact that we get to see Jesus face to face, one day. And the fact that he is enough, even when the world is not. This is the joy that we have in Christ. And it is a joy that does not end for us ultimately until it gets to the place26:32where we are firmly in hope. And so that is the third thing I want you to see this morning is this, is that for those of us in Christ, we have a hope that anchors our soul. We have a hope that anchors our soul. The very end of verse four, that character produces hope. And then going into verse five, 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.26:59Again, like just as much as I think joy is misunderstood in terms of a worldly perspective and a Christian perspective, so is hope. You know, it's like when we look at hope from a worldly perspective, it's like, man, I hope Alabama wins the national championship this year. Or man, I hope the weather's going to be nice today. Or man, I hope things go according to plan. Like hope is this like iffy, wishy-washy sort of, maybe if I wring my hands enough,27:28it'll all work out. Y'all, for us in Christ, hope is the belief that God has done what he said he will do. He is doing what he has promised in his word right now. And he will do what he has said he is going to do in the days and weeks and months and years and millennium to come, that my hope is built on nothing less, as the old song says, than Jesus' blood and righteousness.27:58My hope isn't a ringing or a waiting. My hope is this firm foundation that God's got me. It isn't my own strength that is going to hold me up. It's like, y'all, I am, I am not exactly a power athlete. Like if I am depending on my strength to get me through life, y'all, I'm dead. You know, it's like when, when I first met my wife, we were working at a, at an outdoors28:26camp in the mountains of North Carolina. Um, and so we had all sorts of like high rope sort of things. And we had a zip line that literally would go from the side of a mountain to a huge oak tree in the middle of our property. And then we'd go from a huge oak tree down to like a soft pad down in the middle of this field. And so one day, I don't know how I ended up on our maintenance team, but your boy got signed up for maintenance team. And, uh, and they said that the, the platform on the side of the mountain where the zip line28:54started was getting a little creaky. So they're like, Hey, can you guys go look at it? So we go out there. Where it's me and then it's a 265 pound college football player are the two members of the maintenance team. It is like Sesame street. One of these things are not like the other. Right. And, um, and so we go and we walk out onto this platform and no lie, like we're both walking out there. And as I step on the very end of the platform, the wood was rotten, it gave way and totally29:23blew out underneath my feet. And in a split second, it was either I fall off the side of this mountain or I try to find some way somehow to grab the safety railing off to the side. When you don't have hands, grabbing things are an issue. And, uh, and so the only thing I had to grab onto or the only thing I could grab with was I used my chin and my shoulder and I grabbed the safety railing as I was going off the side29:52of this mountain and hung there for about 10 seconds and glory be to God himself. He put the biggest man on staff right beside me who just no big thing for him. He just grabbed me by the collar of my shirt, yanked me up and put me back on the platform. He's like, you good? I'm like, no, I, I, I almost died. What do you think?30:21Like, and it was just like, I just kind of sat there for a minute. Like, oh my goodness. Like I was an eyelash away from seeing Jesus face to face. Thank the Lord. He gave me like Paul Bunyan to snatch me, snatch me from my death. Y'all, the, the, the picture that we have in Christ, us in our feeble attempts to hang on to hope in this life. It is an eyelash from us falling off the side of the mountain.30:48But what we have in God is one who holds onto us when in our own strength, in our own works, in everything that we've built up in this world, God is reminding us, I'm holding you. I'm carrying you along. I've got you. And y'all, that's the best news for each and every one of us. Because if I know anything about myself, I know I fail.31:17I know I fear day in and day out. I know I'm scared. I know I stumble. I know I fall. But I know he doesn't. I know he is my strength. I know that he loves me even when I don't love him. I know he has a purpose even when I can't see it. I know he's at work even when I'm completely clueless what's in front of me. Y'all, our great hope in this fact is that God has us.31:46And for some of us this morning, we just need to stop fighting. We need to stop saying, I've got this. I can do this. I'm going to get through this life. Some of us this morning just need to lay down and say, God's got this. I don't. Some of us this morning need to stop being so dang self-dependent and self-righteous. Some of us just need to say, God, I need you.32:17And so this morning, I don't know where you're at on that spectrum. I don't know if, man, you and God are good. Y'all are in a great spot. You're pursuing him, chasing him. I don't know if some of you in here, if you need the saving work of Christ, if you need this morning to confess that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. If that's you this morning,32:47man, here in just a moment, your pastor will be up here. I just want you to grab Pastor Josh by the hand and just say, Josh, I want to know what it means to be saved. I want to know what it means for Jesus to be my hope, my righteousness, my everything. And for the rest of us in here this morning, man, I just simply pray that we would live like Jesus is our peace, our joy, and our hope.33:16Let's stop living so dang miserable. Let's stop dragging ourselves around like a bunch of wounded animals. Let's start living like he's our everything. And to watch how he will change the world through a church who's willing to live like that. Let's pray. Father,More sermons on Romans →
