The Plowman

Introduction:
It is a common objection, “You Baptists and your ‘once saved always saved’ theology promote a cheap grace.”  Some say, “I wish I was a Baptists and all I had to do was say a prayer and then live anyway I want for the rest of my life without a care about eternity.”  Such mischaracterizations are, at best, ill-informed.  I will grant you a number of people have thought that was our position.  A good number of folks have foolishly stake their souls on such false notions as evidenced by the great discrepancy between our church roll and actual attendance.  But it is not now nor has it ever been our position that salvation is a matter of “saying a prayer” and nothing further required.  Yes, we believe that salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone, because of Christ alone, to the glory of God alone.  Salvation is the work of our great and merciful God.  God saves.  We do not.  We are helpless and hopeless in our sin.  We can do nothing to secure our salvation.  It is not a matter that we are drowning and someone throws us a life-preserver in the gospel and we taken hold of it for life.  Rather we lay dead on the floor of the pool and Christ comes to us, breathes life into us and grants to us life eternal and abundant.  But that is not the end of things – it is merely the beginning.  The same grace that rescued us then begins a transforming work in us that will ultimately present us to the Father pure and holy.  We are saved from the penalty of our sin as we come to faith in Christ.  We then begin a journey in which we are being saved from the power of sin as we grow in holiness.  Ultimately we will be saved from even the presence of sin when we enter into glory.  When we talk about salvation we are talking about all of that – your justification, sanctification and glorification.  I’m bringing this up because when you preach the gospel as it appears in Scripture it can lead to misunderstanding.  Let’s face it, it sounds too good to be true.  “I don’t have to do anything?  I just believe?”  Well if that is true and if where sin abounds grace abounds all the more…then let’s have a party!  Let’s eat, drink and be merry because it doesn’t matter we are saved by grace.  Well not so fast.  Our text this morning is found in Romans chapter 6.

Text: Romans 6:1-14
Paul has made us aware of our condition – we are sinners, deserving of God’s wrath.
Yet God has manifested a righteous, apart from the law and it is ours by faith.
This is because Christ lived and died for us.
When we come to faith in Christ we have peace with God.
We are assured a glorious future.
It is all because of God’s costly gift of His Son.
Chapter 5 ends with a statement of grace’s sovereign, victorious reign over sin (5:20-21).

Look at those two verses: Now the law came in to increase the trespass, but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, grace also might reign through righteousness leading to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Note – where sin increased, grace superabounded.

Paul’s experience had been consistent.  When he preached the gospel in its pure form his critics twisted and perverted his words into something all together different.  In anticipation, he brought up the objection himself in verse 1 of chapter 6.

The question before is what about the relationship between grace and holiness?  If salvation is by grace alone, nothing further required, then why live a holy life?  What incentive could there possibly be for a life of righteousness?  If you do not have to do anything to get salvation or to keep it – why would you strive for holiness?  Can you see that this is a understandable question?  Can you see that it is a very practical question?

The problem, of course, is that it fails to recognize a fundamental truth.  That truth being:

Thesis: A genuine experience of grace leads to a life of increasing holiness.

How is that?  In what way does the one follow the other?  That is what our text is about.
I want you to note three things as we work our way through this text.

1. Grace brings us into union with Christ and that union radically changes everything.  (6:1-4)
2. Our union with Christ demands that we begin to look at sin from a radically different perspective.  (6:5-11)
3. This new relationship demands that we now offer our lives consistently to God in the pursuit of righteousness.  (6:12-14)

Grace does not lead to lawlessness.  Far from it.  A genuine experience of grace leads to an ever increasing life of holiness.

Introduction:
It’s what stirred the heart of the old sea captain as he wrote, “Amazing grace how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me.”  It was the thing that broke the shackles that bound the sin-laden heart of Martin Luther.  It is that which loosed the pen of the apostle Paul as he wrote to a world held captive by ritual and superstition, “…by grace are you saved by faith” and “…it is not to the one who works but to the one who does not work but trusts him who justifies the ungodly, his faith is counted as righteousness.”  The gospel.  God’s gift of forgiveness, life and righteousness to all who believe.  It is an amazing message.  One that seems too good to be true, in fact it seems foolish to those who are perishing but it is life to those who believe.  How can sinful men be made right with God?  How is that those who are deserving of God’s judgment and wrath can be loved and accepted?  The answer is found in the gospel.

Near the midway point in the first century the apostle Paul picked up his pen and wrote a letter of introduction to the church at Rome.  It was his desire to preach the gospel in Rome as he had done in Athens, Corinth and Ephesus.  What better way to see the gospel spread than to bring the gospel to the cultural, political and economic capital of the world?  Paul said, “I long to come to you.  I want to encourage you and be encouraged by you in the work of the gospel.  I want to see fruit among you for I am confident of the power of the gospel.”  In laying the ground work for his arrival he laid out the gospel as it was given to him by God’s grace.  Thus we have in this brief letter the most detailed outline of the gospel to be found in Holy Scripture.  Chapters 1-3 hammer home the reality of our guilt before God.  We are sinners deserving of God’s wrath.  But, in grace and mercy, God has manifested a righteousness, apart from the law, that is ours by faith.  Chapter 4 speaks of God’s gracious provision in Christ.  This righteousness is given, as a gift, to those who trust in God and God alone.  It is the result of a faith that has dealt honestly with all objections and obstacles and choices to believe God’s promise.  A faith that has as its goal the glory of God and a genuinely righteous life.  In chapter 5:1-11 we learn what this gift has done for us.  It has secured for us a glorious standing before God – peace with God and access to His grace in which we stand.  This gift came at great cost – Christ died for us.  This standing assures us of a glorious future.  Now Paul pauses to reflect on the wonder of this gracious gift.  In our text we are reminded of just how amazing this grace of God is.  Our text is found in Romans 5 beginning with verse 12.

Text: Romans 5:12-21
This is, without a doubt, one of the greatest theological passages in the entire Bible.  In a sense Paul is summarizing the theology of the preceding chapters dealing with man’s lostness and his rescue through God’s provision.

It is also a very difficult passage.  Paul’s thoughts seem to rush on one to another without leaving a clear or carefully formed expression.  Anders Nygren says Paul’s thoughts flow like a torrential mountain stream.  Or you might say, “It’s kind of like drinking from a fire hose!”  But, if you break it down and work your way through it, this is a glorious restatement of the truth Paul has been driving home.

Note the progress in thought from the misery of man’s ruin in sin to the wonder of God’s deliverance through Christ to the sovereign and triumphant reign of grace.

As we work our way through this passage I want to point out three things along the way.

1. First, I want you to see sin’s universal and devastating ruin.  (5:12-14)
2. Second, note Christ’s amazing and overwhelming reversal of sin’s ruin.  (5:15-19)
3. Finally I want you to see that this is all because of grace’s sovereign and victorious reign over sin.  (5:20-21)

This is the gospel.  No matter how great your sin – God’s grace superabounds to you!  No one is beyond the grace of God.  You can come to Him.  You can know His grace.  Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.

Introduction:
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 chapter 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 is a new section in Romans.  I do believe that Paul is talking about the effects of this righteousness in this chapter but I don’t think that is all that is going on in the text.  I don’t think this should be read like a laundry list.  I think there is something more foundational here.  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 hope 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.

1. The love of God secures for us a glorious standing before God.  (5:1-5)
2. Such a glorious standing was secured at great cost.  (5:6-8)
3. Our standing assures us a glorious future.  (5:9-11)

Introduction:
It is an interesting question.  One that tends to create a lot of discussion, involves a great deal of emotion and can get a little heated.  “What constitutes saving faith?”  What does a person need to know in order to be saved?  Is knowledge of the truth enough or is there something else?  How much faith does one have to have?  What if your faith stumbles?  What if you doubt?  Can anyone really be sure?  I think we can all agree these are important questions.  They are questions worth considering and questions for which we need biblical answers.  The apostle Paul wrote to the church at Rome to introduce his gospel.  He was saying, “This is the message I am proclaiming.  This is the truth given to me by God, the message I am faithful to deliver.”  Thus we have in Romans the most detailed presentation of the gospel found in all the Scripture.  In chapters 1-3 he drives home the point that all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.  We are all guilty.  We are sinners.  We are deserving of His wrath.  Heathen, hypocrite and Hebrew have all been weighed and found wanting.  The out and out godless, the self-righteous and the garden variety sinner are all under sin and therefore accountable to God.  Having established our great need he moves to God’s glorious provision – “…but now the righteousness of God has been manifested apart from the law.”  God has provided an alien righteousness.  A righteousness that is outside of us, that fully meets God’s holy standards and is given to us as a gift.  That righteousness, or right standing before God, is appropriated by faith.  He uses Abraham and David as examples of such saving faith in chapter 4:1-15.  In this morning’s text Paul takes that example a bit further.  Our text this morning is Romans 4:16-25.

Text: Romans 4:16-25

In Romans 4:13-15 Paul makes it clear that righteousness is by faith and not by the law.
The law came 430 years after the promise which Abraham believed.
There is no way the law can invalidate or restrict the scope of the promise.
To make the promise conditioned on obedience to the law would nullify the promise.

It is clear faith brings us into God’s favor.
Faith brings us into God’s family.
The question is – what kind of faith?
What is saving faith?

Thesis: Abraham provides us the model of saving faith.

Saving faith from the perspective of popular religion is best defined by doing your best, working hard and eventually you will make it.  In spite of our culture’s love for the song Amazing Grace most people think if you do your best God’s got to let you in heaven.  In fact, the whole notion of justification by faith alone through God’s grace alone is deemed unacceptable.  After all that would mean that no one is “deserving” of heaven.  That would mean my accepting that I’m no better than the worst person on the planet.  Yet that is the biblical gospel.

Paul said in Romans 3:28 – “We are saved by faith in Christ and not the good things we do.”
In Romans 4:3 he quotes Genesis 15:6 – “Abraham believed God and it was counted to him as righteousness.”

In our text Paul talks about the struggle that went on inside of Abraham as he believed God.  From his example we learn three things about saving faith.

1. Saving faith trusts in God and in God alone.  (4:16-17)
2. Saving faith honestly and realistically considers every obstacle to belief and yet continues to believe.  (4:18-20)
3. Saving faith has as its goal the glory of God and genuine righteousness.  (4:20-22)

What is saving faith?

• Saving faith trusts in God and in God alone.
• Saving faith honestly and realistically considers every obstacle to belief and yet continues to believe.
• Saving faith has as its goal the glory of God and genuine righteousness.

Introduction:
It was really frustrating.  We could never surprise him.  He always had it figured out.  He would shake the box.  He would ask questions.  He lied, cheated, schemed and deceived.  But dad always knew what he was getting for Christmas.  My mother was infuriated.  Not once had she ever managed to surprise him until that year.  I really didn’t know my mother was capable of such deviant behavior.  She got my dad a pair of boots.  But she used an unusually large box and weighted it with bricks!  She also stuffed it with paper so there was no movement or sound.  His questions yielded nothing useful in fact she mislead him!  She managed operation deception with the skill and expertise of a senior operative in the CIA.  Christmas morning, as we were opening gifts, dad kept putting his off as he said, “I’m looking forward to opening that drill.”  Later, “I’m going to get all kinds of use out of that saw.”  “Music is going to sound great through that stereo.”  Mom just smiled.  My brothers and I began to look at mom a little differently that year.  She had become a force to be reckoned with.  Finally with a great deal of satisfaction she placed his gift in front of him and said, “Well, you better go ahead and open those boots!”  She came so close but she managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  We looked at each other and shook our heads.  Undefeated.  Dad knew what he got for Christmas before opening his gift.

There’s just something wonderful about being surprised.  The joy of the unexpected is beyond comparison.  When you give a gift and it is followed by wide eyes, an open mouth and stunned silence – you know you have done something good.  When a gift is described by words such as surprised, stunned or staggered you know you are in the presence of greatness.  The most surprising and wonderful gift of all is the gift of Christmas.  It is the coming of Christ to save His  people from their sins.  I worry that in the midst of all the hustle and bustle of the season, in the business of the parties, dinners and get-togethers we lose a sense of the wonder.  I’m not talking about the “pagans” out there.  I’m not talking about those folks who think Christmas is about Santa Claus, Jingle Bells and decking the halls – I mean us.  I mean church folks who too often fail to remember and to reflect on why He came.   I worry that we fail to remember that…

Thesis: The joy of Christmas is found in the wonder of the Gospel.

Text: Romans 4:1-12
Paul has just made the case that we are all under sin.  We are dominated or controlled by sin.  Sin touches, affects every area of our lives.  Meaning that even the good we do is marred by sin.  Therefore we cannot save ourselves.  We need a Savior.  We need a righteousness that is outside of us, an alien righteousness that enables us to stand before God accepted and loved.  Such a righteousness is received by faith and made possible by the work of Christ.

Now he is going to take that argument a bit further by emphasizing righteousness by faith alone and not by works of the Law.

This is God’s gift to us.
I want you to note three things from our text.

1. Surprised by the extent of Gospel grace.  (4:1-5)
2. Stunned by the effects of Gospel grace.  (4:6-8)
3. We are staggered by the scope of Gospel grace.  (4:9-12)

Surprised, stunned, and staggered we stand wide-eyed and speechless by God’s good and gracious gift bound up in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  Now that’s a Christmas present.

Introduction:
I know that Christmas is about more than gifts but gifts are great aren’t they!  I remember Christmases from my childhood like they were yesterday.  Rheadon says that I was spoiled and I’m sure she is right.  I remember one Christmas in particular.  We had Christmas at my aunt Ruth and uncle Ed’s place.  I remember getting up early anticipating a lucrative morning but I was not prepared for what I got that year.  It was beautiful.  I couldn’t believe my dad spent that kind of money.  My first car.  I was stunned.  Speechless.  It was white with a red pinstripe.  A convertible.  It was the most beautiful peddle car you’ve ever seen.  The problem was that was the year my brother Ronnie got the grenade launcher and I made for an easy target in my car.  I still loved racing around in my car – welts and all.  As a kid I though nothing could be greater than a bountiful harvest at Christmas time.  Then I became a parent and discovered something far more wonderful.  I saw the joy in the face of my own children as they discovered the wonder and excitement of gifts.  It’s about to get much worse – next year I’ll be a grandpa!

I know that we can moan and complain about how commercial Christmas has become.  We can cry out against the secularization of the season and speak with distain about how “out of hand” things have gotten but like it or not, gift-giving is part of Christmas and some of that giving is wild, reckless, extravagant and costly.  But none more so than the gift of Christmas itself!

Christmas is a gift.  It is the gift of a holy and righteous God who created a world filled with beauty and wonder.  A world perfect and whole.  As the crowning glory of creation God created man in His own image and likeness.  A creature capable of love and fellowship with the Creator himself.  But something happened.  Something changed.  Through the temptation of the Evil One man sensed he was lacking.  He was being denied something that was rightfully his.  Adam chose rebellion as a means of gaining what he was denied and in the process lost everything.  First and foremost he lost fellowship with God.  Once God’s friend he was now God’s enemy.  Once God’s confidant he was now the object of God’s wrath.  Christmas is God’s gift to sinful man restoring what was lost and making intimacy with the Creator possible once again.  Our text this morning is found in Romans chapter 3 beginning with verse 21.

Text: Romans 3:21-31

Again this is not “your father’s Christmas text.”  This is not what you would expect to go along with Carols and hymns celebrating the birth of the Savior but I’m convinced of this:
Thesis: The true beauty and wonder of Christmas can only be understood from the perspective of God’s great and glorious gift to those who stand before Him as objects of His sovereign and holy wrath.

There are three things I want you to note.

1. God’s great gift to us is the provision of everything necessary for us to stand before Him loved and accepted.  (3:21)
2. This great gift must be received by faith.  (3:22-24a)
3. This gift is made possible by Christ alone.  (3:24-26)

God did not act is such a way as to suggest our sin didn’t mean anything or that the law was without meaning.  He upheld them both while upholding his own righteousness.

The result?
We are loved and accepted because of Christ.
Fellowship/intimacy restored.

That’s what Christmas is about.  It is about God’s wild, extravagant and costly gift.  A gift that allows hopeless rebells to become beloved children.