Our Great Salvation
This is an exposition of Romans 5:1-11. This message by Pastor Rod Harris was delivered at Trinity Baptist Church on Sunday morning, June 25, 2017.
Intro:
It was a great sermon. I had heard E.V. Hill on several occasions and had never been disappointed but the sermon I heard that year in Dallas was exceptional. He told of preaching a sermon one evening in Los Angelus when an angry young black man approached him after the service. He told Dr. Hill that he was a member of the Black Panthers and had listen to him call for people to “trust in Jesus” but he wanted to know why he should trust Jesus. The young man said, “After all, what do you have when you have Jesus?” For the next hour Dr. Hill held the crowd spellbound as he told us what he had told the young man many years before. He had just finished the third thing you receive when you receive Jesus – it had been over an hour – and he said, “I’ve got 12 of these!” A year later, I was in Chicago at Moody Bible Institute for their annual pastor’s conference. E.V. Hill got up to preach and he said, “Last year when I was here I spoke on the subject What do you have when you have Jesus…number 4.” I heard points 4, 5 and 6! It was just as good and the sermon I had heard in Dallas the year before. I never did here the other 6 points but I’m sure they were worth hearing. The apostle Paul has been laying out his argument. He has hammered home the point of man’s sin and guilt before God. That we are fully deserving of His wrath. That we are depraved and stand condemned but that God has made provision for us in Christ. That there is a righteousness outside of us that is accepted by faith. This righteousness enables us to stand before God loved and accepted. This is God’s gift to us by grace through faith. We cannot earn it. We do not deserve it. We do not work for it but rather trust God who justifies the ungodly. In Romans Romans 5 Paul begins to speak to believers about what happens to us as a result of God’s gracious gift. Our text this morning is found in Romans 5:1-11.
Text: Romans 5:1-11
This morning we gather around the Lord’s Table. We gather in remembrance and celebration of what our God has done for us in Christ. What is it our Lord accomplished on the cross? What did he secure for us? What happens when we believe? What changes when we trust in Christ?
Please don’t read this section like a laundry list. I believe Paul is emphasizing that God’s gift of salvation is fixed and settled. That the life and hope given to us cannot be shaken. It cannot be lost regardless of what is thrown at us. Regardless of what trials and troubles hound us. It is fixed and settled because it is rooted in the love of God and secured by the presence of the Holy Spirit. Keep that in mind as we work our way through the text.
There is a hymn like quality to this text.
Paul makes a strong statement about what God has done for us in Christ.
There is such an air of confidence in what he says – to the extent that we “rejoice in our sufferings” (5:3).
All of this serves to remind us that…
Thesis: Our assurance of God’s glory rest securely in God’s gracious provision in Christ.
There are three things I want to point out from our text.
- The love of God secures for us a glorious standing before God. (5:1-5)
- Such a glorious standing was secured at great cost. (5:6-8)
- Our standing assures us a glorious future. (5:9-11)
Prayer
Invitation/Preparation for the Table
Observance of the Table