Sermon for March 12, 2023
Romans 5:1–2 1Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God.
We believe in justification. Not that we justify ourselves, we cannot. We believe that we are justified by Christ Jesus. We believe that Jesus died for our sins taking the punishment therefore justifying us with all sins fully paid for. We believe that our justification through Christ gives us passage into heaven and therefore we have eternal life. But our belief did not cause this all to happen.
This justification we now possess brings us to the faith and knowledge of our salvation that was paid for with the very body and blood of Jesus Christ. Our hope then is a sure thing as God keeps all of His promises and that He also does not change His will to save that which He created.
Now that we have the knowledge of our salvation and that we will live for an eternity we should be very compelled to give our God glory, thanks and praise.
Rather we remain complacent in our joy if you can count complacency as joy. Know this is not just those in this church that I speak about but in all of our churches and especially all who claim to be Christians. For what you claim may not be the truth coming out of you. Remember the evil one believes and knows Jesus Christ exists.
Knowing that we were the ones who should have been nailed to the cross of a criminal. And knowing we escaped this crucifixion as did Barabbas a thief and murderer. You would think that we would be, not thanking our lucky stars, but thanking our Lord Jesus who suffered a criminal’s death and died for us. Instead, we go through the writ of our worship and hope that the pastor’s message is short and entertaining.
Not that you are not thankful or that I am not thankful, but we should be so joyful that others are going to want what we are having. YES, AMEN, JESUS MY SAVIOR, PASS SOME OF THAT OVER HERE, SHARE MAN, SHARE!!! Give me that old time mountain top experience. Is the hour of worship for this week over yet?
Romans 5:3–5 3More than that, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5and 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.
Yes, Jesus suffered and died for me, but then why am I still suffering or did I miss something here. Yep, I missed something here. This is not the life we should be looking at; this life is too much in the flesh. The life I need to transfer my thoughts and doings to, is my spiritual life that I live for Christ Jesus.
I can take my sufferings and let them mold me to be sorrowful or I can take my suffering and let them mold me into a God thanking child of God. I thank God for my suffering and thank Him for the molding I receive from Him as He gets me through my suffering. Now I know that I do have hope and my hope is in Jesus Christ.
God’s love is poured into me each time I suffer to let me know that He will get me through my suffering. Jesus suffered and died, but now He is resurrected and lives. We may suffer in this life, but God will get us through it and we to will die be resurrected and live with our Lord and Savior. We have the Holy Spirit who works in us on a constant shift to keep us holy and good for our life everlasting.
Romans 5:6–8 6For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. 7For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— 8but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
So here while we are still weak, Jesus died for us the ungodly. This tells us that we did not earn our way to heaven, but that Christ Jesus paid our way with His very body and blood. Jesus Christ did not die for the holy, but the unholy. We are the ungodly and the unholy. So why and how does Jesus expect us to have free passage into life eternal? It is all God. Jesus justifies us with His suffering death and resurrection, the Holy Spirit sanctifies us by making us holy through God’s word. With God doing the work we now can understand the why. God loves all that He creates, and He created all that made us. God loves us and He loves us to life. You might say The Father created, Jesus saved, and the Holy Spirit purified what is saved. Amen.
Written by Pastor Curtis A. May
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