Romans 5:1–5Scripture
This morning I get the great privilege of bringing God's Word to you. And I was sharing with our small group, I was kind of hesitant to tell them about that on Sunday, or when we meet Thursday, because I'm always a little nervous when people find out before church that I'm preaching, that they just won't come to church. But man, I'm pretty, that was a great response, thank you, made me feel good. I went out shopping this last week to buy a new outfit. That's the first time i've worn this shirt, and I had to acknowledge something: that this is the second pair of pants that I've bought that weren't skinny jeans. So I believe I might be outgrowing my hipster phase. That did last a few years. But I wanted to go get a new shirt because it was, oh, a month or so ago now, I came to church and was leading worship and gonna teach downstairs, and that morning just thought to myself, like, I want to get a little dressier than I typically do. So I put on my jeans and my nice dress shoes and a little dress button-up short-sleeve shirt that I've got that's kind of blue and it has some kind of like little flower design in it. And I came to church and the first person I ran into said, "Oh, it's Pastor Shawn not here?" I said, "No, he's going to be here, why?" And they said, "Oh, you're wearing your preaching shirt." And so I went back on our website and realized the previous three times that I had preached I'd worn the same outfit.
So I was like, maybe I'm gonna justify this and go shopping. So it was pretty comical. We're going to be in Romans chapter 5 today, if you turn there in your Bibles. I've titled my message "Hope Sustains." For all of you note takers, I'm not a real avid note taker, but my wife and my daughter are. There's your title: Hope Sustains. We're going to be in Romans chapter 5. Pastor Shawn did a pretty killer job last Sunday as an intro
Introduction
To where we're going to be going in chapter 5, so I'm gonna mention a couple things that he mentioned last week, because it has to be mentioned as we go into the next four verses of this section, but I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it. So if you missed Pastor Shawn's message last week, by all means you need to go on the website and watch that sermon back. Also, you should just do that regularly, because I work hard on updating our website. But Romans 5, chapter 1 through 5. Nope, Romans 5, verses 1 through 5 says this: "Therefore," we covered what the "therefore" means, "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 in 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." Last week one of the first things pastor Shawn uncovered is that all of the blessings that are mentioned in this Scripture are inherent by being justified by faith alone. So as we read through these five verses, all of the blessings, the benefits that are mentioned, are only for those who have come to salvation through faith alone in Jesus Christ. Not by works, not by your parents' faith, not by your good service in the church, not by trying to out-tithe the person that sits next to you every week. Do you ever do that? I remember, I was a younger man, I'd look to see what people next to me were going to give, and I'd have to dig some money out of my pocket so that I look good.
None of that matters. It is by faith alone in Jesus Christ that we're justified, and everything else that we're going to mention today is only for those who have come to faith in Jesus Christ. Paul's now addressing Christians, those who have been born again, who have regenerate spirits, who are no longer dead men and women walking around the earth like zombies, because they have been brought to new life through Jesus. They have been resuscitated and are now citizens of a heavenly realm, although we still walk this earth.
And there's four different blessings that I'm going to mention this morning. The first one, Pastor Shawn hit on pretty hard last week, so I'm going to move
Point 1Peace with God comes only through Jesus
Through it fairly quickly. But the first blessing is peace. He says we have peace with God. Ephesians 2:14, Paul says, "For he himself," Jesus himself, "is our peace." You cannot have peace without Jesus. He himself is peace. And we got to talking in our small group this last Thursday about love too, and how love is for those who are in Christ, because God is love. And it really made me wonder, because I've not ever lived outside of being filled with the Holy Spirit, and then being married to my wife, like Lacey and I were both believers, Christ followers, before we were married. I'm curious, and if you fall into this demographic I'd really love to hear your insight on it, I'm curious what love, especially between a husband and a wife, what love looks like in a marriage outside of Christ. If God is love, if God is the source of love, if God is the source of our peace, what does that look like outside of Christ? I don't, I accepted Christ as my Lord, professed my faith in him when I was eight years old, so I don't have any experience in that. But I find this intriguing, that Paul says he himself is our peace. Pastor Shawn did a home run job covering the difference between subjective and objective peace, that there is an inner peace that we have, but there's also outer peace that we experience. If you've missed it, I don't have time to get into that one, nor am I going to even try to recap it for you. You have to go listen to last week's message. But I find it interesting that there's two different kinds of peace, but they're not the same. He covered that we shouldn't and can't misappropriate future promises, and some of what I'm going to talk to you about today is for the future. We should not and can't misappropriate future promises for current events. That means we can't look to things that the Bible promises for the future and try to claim them now, because they're not for now. There are certain things about heaven that are reserved for that side of heaven. And while Jesus did pray, I've heard this argued, I've heard preachers preach complete contradicting messages to what Pastor Shawn preached last Sunday, and while we do have access to heavenly things, we have access to the presence of God in this world, we don't get to see him fully. Literally the Bible says that if you did, you would die in this earthly realm that we live in now. And so when we talk about how we can have all of the things of heaven, no, you can't. Some of it is for believers who walk the earth now. That's where the peace comes from, that's where the joy comes from, that's where the love comes from, but much is reserved as a future promise. And sometimes Pastor Shawn gets into preaching and his preaching really affects my preaching, and it should. When I was a younger man, Lacey and I have been part of this church for 11 years now, so when I was a younger man, still part of this church, I found it intriguing, and it almost kind of bothered me sometimes how much Pastor Shawn rubbed off on me. Now at our previous church, even the way the pastor dressed and the way he did his hair rubbed off on me, but that doesn't happen with Pastor Shawn because he doesn't have any hair. But I was annoyed as a younger man, in my 20s, when I found myself praying at the end of a service that I was given the privilege to preach, and as I prayed I said, "Lord, we love you very much and we're thankful for who you are," and that's literally the first sentence of Pastor Shawn's prayer that he prays regularly: "We love you very much and we're thankful for who you are." And I'm like, that's interesting, and it bugged me at that point. A few years went by and I realized it's really a thing of honor that a man who I look up to as a spiritual leader and a mentor would rub off on me, and that I would see myself, if I'm going to walk in his footsteps, that I would see myself mimicking some of the same things that he does, because he's a mentor, he's an influence in my life. And as he preaches a lot, sometimes even now I sit back and I'm like, man, he is really hammering this point, he's just drilling down on this point, and it almost feels a little excessive sometimes. And then the Holy Spirit kind of checks me on it. And so I began, even last week as he was preaching, began wondering, like, God, what's the reason? Like, where's the significance? Why are we so focused on certain things? Like, as you read the Bible, we've been diving deep over the last couple years, hard, into what it means to have a contextual understanding of Scripture. You can't just go cherry-picking God's word to prove a point that you want to make. And I did that for years. I preached some dope sermons to some teenagers in this room where I went and sought out God's Word for evidence of the point that I wanted to make to the students. Was I wrong in the point that I was making? No, it was a very biblical point, but I was not using God's Word contextually. Why is that so important? It's important because if you only get just two degrees off, it may not seem like that big of a deal now, but if you know geometry at all, two degrees of separation now is going to put you in a completely different hemisphere of accuracy five years from now or ten years from now. So if we're not willing to do our due diligence to make sure that not just the things that we're reading for ourselves, but from a preacher's standpoint the things that I'm sharing with you, and from a hearer's standpoint the things that you're accepting, if they're not contextually accurate, just a little bit of difference can make a huge deal. Would you hand me that plate, please? I used this illustration years ago with some teenagers. Who do I got in here?
I don't need the napkin. Napkin. Let me get, Colton, I'll pick on you, come on up here. I made some brownies last night, and these are not from-scratch brownies, but these are the best brownies. They're Betty Crocker, and they're the fudge brownies, and I made them with, like, my heart in it. My mom used to say, "Oh, I put my secret ingredient, love." Does your mom ever say that? Yeah. All right, so I made these specifically for whoever I was going to pick out, and I just happened to pick you out. So I want you to enjoy that brownie real quick. Just take a good bite. Can you sense the fudginess as you cut through it? All right, before you put that in your mouth, I want you to know that I did exactly what the instructions on the box told me. I didn't make them from scratch, the box did exactly what the instructions told me to do. But before I cooked them, I went out in my backyard and I got a little Margo turd and I put just a little bit of dog poop in that brownie mix. Now I'm confident that it's a small enough amount of dog poop that you probably won't taste it, and it really shouldn't affect, like, you shouldn't get sick from it, but I just want you to note there is dog poop in those brownies. How bad you want to eat those now? And that's what you get with a teenage boy, you would still eat that. How many, don't, don't take a bite of the dog poop brownie, please don't, you're ruining my illustration right now. Who else wants a good bite of dog turd brownies? Anybody? Okay, you can go enjoy that brownie where nobody else has to watch you eat it. Don't fall off the stairs.
Here's the thing: I used the illustration once with a group of teenagers and the student was not willing to eat the bread. There's not really poop in those brownies, you can enjoy that brownie anyway. Interesting how, except for Colton, how uninterested we quickly become in what looks and smells, and we know to be, a very enjoyable thing, but the presence of something minuscule that we don't like ruins it. Ruins it.
Even a minuscule amount of something that's garbage, that's poop, can ruin the whole thing.
Pastor J.R. Brown · 13:45
And that's what happens when we look at God's Word, when we read it for ourselves, when it's preached, and we're not looking for contextual accuracy, we're not looking to understand what is it in Romans that Paul sought out to communicate to the Christians in Rome, what was his purpose for writing it.
Now, God's Word is living and active, so as I read God's Word the Holy Spirit can speak a lot of different things to me that I may consider truth for me, but that's not necessarily, that doesn't mean that's what Paul was intending to communicate. You follow me? This is important. And the problem that I believe is that we're so willing to jump on board with any kind of teaching that sounds good or that makes us feel good, that encourages us, that builds us up, that gives us those, what they referred to at a middle school Bible camp that I went to as "warm fuzzies," that we will abandon contextual accuracy and truth for what makes us feel better about ourselves. But that's not how Paul talks and it's not how Paul writes. So the first of the blessings is peace, that we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. It is through Jesus Christ. The second blessing is we have access to
Point 2We have access to God's grace
God's grace. Write down: access to God's grace. He says we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. Now there's a commentator named Warren wiersbe who I really like. He gives a definition for the word "access" that is "entrance to the king through the favor of another." So we don't have access to the king.
Think about Esther, the queen, who knew, when Mordecai challenged her to go before the king and to plead on behalf of Israel, she knew that there was a good chance, when she walked into the king's court without being invited, that she could be put to death, even as the queen.
But we have access to God. We have access to God's grace by the favor of another, through Jesus Christ, not being anything that you and I have done.
Ephesians chapter 2, verses 8 through 10 says, "For by grace you have been saved through faith." By grace, by God's grace, by God's doing, by God's will, you have been saved through faith, "and this is not of your doing; it is a gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast." Oh, Paul.
"For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them." And I love, you start talking about God calls us to good works, and people want to then challenge your theology on salvation. Well, folks, you are called. You were created, the Scripture says, for good works that God prepared for you before you were ever even saved, but those works did not save you. We say they are the evidence of your salvation.
"That we should walk in them." This may not seem like a big deal, that we have access to God, we have access to this grace. It may not seem like a big deal at the surface level, and truthfully, I believe it's because we live in a spiritual culture and a spiritual generation that is terribly spoiled. We are terribly spoiled. Why? How are we spoiled? Because we have, they didn't have this yet. Like, as Paul's writing this letter to the church in Rome, the Bible's still being written. Paul's writing it.
We have the full canonized Word of God at our fingertips. Many of us have multiple printed copies of it, and we live in a time and in a generation where you can download the app on your phone. We have the fullness of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who takes the Word of God, makes it living and active, says it's like a double-edged sword. We not only have the fullness of God's written Word, but we have the Holy Spirit, who Jesus tells us is the Helper, to help us understand and apply it. Like, we have all the tools, not to mention that we live several thousand years past the time where God's people didn't have access to his grace. They didn't have access to his presence before Jesus' death and resurrection, as the veil was still intact.
One man, once a year, was allowed to enter the Holy of Holies. We talked about this last week in our small group, and what that must have been like for everybody else who wasn't allowed to go in at all. Like, the one man who once a year could go in for the atonement of everyone's sin did so with such reverence and understanding that they would tie a rope around him with a bell on it, because if God saw him to be unrighteous, he would strike him dead. The bell would be the indicator that he had hit the floor, and they would drag him back out with the rope.
I wouldn't want that job. But imagine what life would be like as everybody else, who wasn't allowed to know that behind this curtain, behind this veil, is the full presence of God.
"But Randy, you're not allowed to go in there." These are God's people who have seen the presence of God move before their army with the Ark of the covenant and strike down entire armies. He's in that room behind that curtain, but don't you go in there. I'm not gonna lie, we talked about this a little bit in our group. I probably would have been the ten-year-old boy whose curiosity got the best of him, and I went in. But there was no, whatever point the high priest came in, he's like, "J.R., seriously?" I found him. Like, I would have been that kid. Because one person, once a year, not to mention the fact that was only for Jewish people. For the Gentiles, there was an outer wall of the temple. They weren't even allowed inside the building.
And so for Paul to write "we have access," but no longer Gentiles, no longer do you have to stand outside and listen to the strings and the horns and listen to the worship from outside the temple. The church, no longer do we have to rely on one man with a rope around his waist to go in and speak on our behalf before God.
You have access to him. We take this for granted.
Pastor J.R. Brown · 21:23
We take it for granted.
Continue on in Ephesians 2. It says in verse 11, "Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called the uncircumcision by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands, remember that you were at that time separated from Christ, alienated from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ. For he himself is our peace, who has made us both one and has broken down in his flesh the dividing wall of hostility by abolishing the law of commandments expressed in ordinances, that he might create in himself one new man in place of the two, so making peace, and might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby killing the hostility." I didn't write this down, but I think it needs to be mentioned that in Christ, not only are we called to have peace in our relationship with God, but Jews and Gentiles who once were separated and hostile with each other have been brought together as one. Why do we see so much division in the church, in our culture, Christians can't even get along? He alone is our peace. And we take this access, we take this connection to God, and we squander it. Romans 5:2 in our Scripture today, it says that we should stand in his grace. We have access to this grace in which we stand. That is a picture of confidence. Hebrews 10:19 says that we should access God's presence with confidence, that we should stand in it. We shouldn't take it for granted, we shouldn't squander it, we shouldn't ignore it. Our Bibles should not be dust collectors on our dressers if we are approaching the presence of God with confidence. So why, if this is the truth of God's Word, why is there such trepidation when the question is asked, why, if we have confidence to stand in the presence of Almighty God, why is there such trepidation and fear and anxiety that overcomes the body of Christ when the question is asked, "Who'd like to pray for us?" Or when the question is asked, "Who'd like to read this Scripture?" Elizabeth. We have access to God, we have the fullness of his Word, but we can sit in circles of small groups and nobody wants to read it out loud. Not last week at our group, I'll tell you that. Previous weeks. I don't envy Jeff compton's job when he's filling in for Kirk, who's facilitating our group right now, and he asks a question, "Who wants to read this Scripture?" And i'm the guy who's comfortable with all of these things, but it can't always be J.R. Talking, so I sit and I wait. Seriously, no one at all. And then I am the turd who will be like, "Oh, I saw Liz raise her hand, she wants to read it." She didn't really. But I mean, why? Think, why, why are we so unwilling? Why are we so anxious about reading God's Word? Why are we so anxious about praying in public?
The veil's been torn, people.
Pastor J.R. Brown · 25:56
The wall has been broken down. We have access to God. Why is that something we squander? And other cultures, excuse me, in other cultures today, not 500 years ago, not a thousand years ago, still today, there are Christians gathering under the fear of real persecution, under the fear that if their government finds them gathering they'll be put to death, and I guarantee you when the leader says, "Who wants to read the Scripture?" There's no crickets in the room. Why do we take access to God for granted?
And I felt this in my spirit as I was writing these notes, and
I put it in all caps: generational negligence can no longer be the excuse.
Pastor J.R. Brown · 27:04
"My dad didn't really pray. I never really watched my dad read the Bible." As one of your pastors, I don't care.
I don't care what you did or didn't see your dad do. I understand that has influence over your life. This last week I found a picture from our family camp this last summer of Melody riding on my lap while I was driving some people on a boat, and it reminded me of a photo that I went and I found of me sitting on my dad's lap riding on a boat. My dad died two years ago, and I was in a conversation with my sister, I texted her these photos, and we had a sentimental moment remembering our dad. I said, I'm so proud of so many of the ways that I'm like him, and for the ways that I'm not proud of, i'm going to counseling. True story. Because you know what I experienced from my dad, I'm almost three years away from 40, my 37th birthday's in a couple weeks, it's my birthday month, just so everybody knows, I celebrate the whole month. I'm almost 40 years old.
I can't be making excuses for poor character in my life because of what I experienced from my dad anymore. Stop making excuses.
Pastor J.R. Brown · 28:44
If you're not comfortable praying in public, do something about it. If you're not comfortable reading God's Word out loud in front of your small group or in front of your family, men, I don't care, do something about it. Stop making excuses for yourself, because a generational issue you may have inherited, it may have been passed down to you from your father, guess what you're doing with it? With your children. Stop making the excuse.
We have access. We have access to God. That's a big deal. That's a big deal.
I should not get frustrated, this was last night, when I'm watching a YouTube video and I've already told my kids to go to bed and my son comes back in the room because we haven't done devotions yet. That shouldn't frustrate me. I shouldn't have even sent my son to bed when we have a tradition of doing nightly devotions in our home. It doesn't matter that it's after 10 o'clock and that it's Saturday night and that I have to get up early the next morning and lead worship and preach. That shouldn't matter. My son wants to engage the presence of the living God with his father. Stop making excuses.
Point 3Rejoice in the hope of coming glory
The third blessing is much like, nope, just joking, I'm getting ahead of myself. The third blessing, first blessing peace, second blessing access, third blessing is joy, specifically joy and hope.
This blessing of joy has a double portion. First, that we rejoice, that we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
Now this rejoicing, this joy, like Pastor Shawn mentioned last week, see if I could not botch this word, I've been practicing it all week, now I'm really nervous: eschatological. Did I do it? What's sad is all I just thought was maui singing, "You're Welcome." Because I watched that movie at least twice a day right now. Eschatological. This is not a current glory of God, it's an eschatological one that we place our hope in. You don't place hope in current things, you place hope for future things. So when he says that we place our hope in the glory of God, he's not talking about a current thing, he's talking about a future glory that we haven't received yet and that we won't see until we see Christ face to face. And that's the glory that we're putting our hope in. Hope, another good word that I bet if I ask for a definition I would probably get 20 different definitions. It says "the looking forward to something with some reason for confidence." We have a reason.
We have a reason for confidence, so we look forward to it. That's hope. To put our hope in the glory of God. First Corinthians 13: 12, Paul said, "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known." That's interesting. He knows you fully now, but we don't get to know him fully until then.
We will get to know, listen, think about all the Scriptures, every hair on your head, like the grains of sand on the seashore, that he knew you before you were in your mother's womb. Then we will know him as we have been known. That's the first time I took that.
That's big, that we will know him.
There will be no theological arguments in heaven.
Pastor J.R. Brown · 33:16
Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. There will be no separation of churches in heaven, because we'll all stand before Jesus like this, and all of those things that we argued about for years, is it Calvinism or Arminianism, to know him as we have been known.
Oh, that's good. The joys and the hope of the experience. He says rejoice in the hope of this experience of knowing Jesus is so great that we can place our joy, we can receive joy from it, not even the experience itself, just the hope of looking forward, and the confidence that we have looking forward to it should fill us with joy. My son is pretty excited right now. He keeps mentioning it, and like, I'm locked in now. The first time, really, what I said was we should go see that, but Jackson took that as "Dad's taking me to the movie." So now I'm locked in.
But there's a movie coming out in April, I think, that's a Super Mario Brothers movie, and the preview, if you haven't seen a trailer for it's an animated movie, it looks really good, and I'm pretty excited about taking my son to go see this movie. Kaylee's over here like, "I'm gonna go too."
But we've watched the trailer for it, and Jax and I both are like, oh, I mean, when Donkey Kong comes out and just like beats the tar out of Mario for a second, like because they bring in all the different games, so Smash Brothers has to be part of it too. I'm deciding this game, or this movie, looks awesome, and we are stoked about this movie, and all I've seen is a preview. A 30, 40 second clip has me ready to go. By the time it's me and Jackson and Kaylee, it's probably going to be a hundred dollar night, because I don't go to the movies naughty. Snacks. Snacks is my nickname, y'all.
But I'm pumped for this movie, but all I've seen is a preview of it. That's what hope is. We have hope. We should rejoice. Is that my phone?
We should, we mute this so that doesn't do that again. Oh, that didn't happen like I wanted it to. Sorry. Laney's all coming for her face.
Then we should rejoice, have joy in the hope of the glory of God. Listen, in our microwave society of instant gratification, why should we get so excited about a future experience? I mean, it's gonna happen in the future. Why should I have joy? Why should I be so excited even in just an animated movie? Why am I so excited about something that I'm gonna experience in a couple months, but why does it have me so excited now?
Why should we get so excited and have so much joy in something that is to come, that's not for us now? Now often what people do in that excitement is they misappropriate it and they try to claim it for now, because we're excited and we are in a microwave, instant gratification society. But why should our hope be, excuse me, why should our joy be in the hope of something? Keep reading, because it's about to get real. The fourth blessing
Point 4Hope sustains us through every suffering
Is joy in suffering. Who said yay? "Not only that," Paul says, "but we rejoice in our sufferings."
Sufferings. Here's a fun word for you, Greek word thlipsis: affliction, distress, oppression, tribulation.
Through Christ Jesus we get to have joy. We get to rejoice in our affliction, in our distress, and our oppression, in our tribulation. We get to have joy in these things. Guys, I mean, you mean to tell me that in a matter of three sentences Paul goes from talking about having peace with God to suffering?
What? Now there's a mixture of opinions, I've read a bunch, there's a mixture of opinions on the specific context of the word "suffering" that's mentioned in this passage. Some commentators take it to mean a more serious, actual persecution or affliction specifically for the sake of Christ. So the suffering that we're talking about is being persecuted, like we talked about, churches still today in different areas of the world, that they should rejoice in their persecution, and that if you're not being persecuted for the sake of Christ, you're not actually experiencing suffering. But others broaden this word to include even general hardships that Christ followers face.
Now either way you want to slice the pie, the one thing that you can be certain about through all of Scripture, it's clear, there is no gray area in Paul's teaching or in Jesus' teaching: if you're a born-again follower of Jesus, you will face suffering. Period. It doesn't matter how you want to break it down. If you look at your life and say, "Well, just because I'm not being persecuted for my faith, I'm not suffering," you may, even in our society, persecution of the Christian faith is looking more and more like it's right around the corner. Some broaden it to even include hardships that Christ followers face. Why is it so important to, again, hammer down and point out that if you're a Christ follower you will experience suffering? Why do we have to make such a big deal about suffering? Well, Jesus did. Jesus made a big deal about it. Paul wrote most of the New Testament, Paul made a big deal about it.
And then the third reason for me is because there's a lot of so-called Bible teachers out there today who are teaching a false representation of the Bible. They're using the Bible to falsely teach. Let's go back to my previous illustration.
They're putting a little bit of poop in their teaching. Just get you two degrees off. James chapter 1 is my favorite book of the Bible. It's my name.
James chapter 1, verses 1 through 4 sounds a lot like Romans 5. In this section James says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds." That's why I tend to broaden my definition of suffering, just for me personally. "When you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." Notice there's a big significance in the Scripture when he says, "Count it all joy, my brothers, when."
It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when you face trials.
Pastor J.R. Brown · 41:30
Not if you face trials, not if you draw the short straw, when you draw the short straw, it will happen.
And it's troubling for me to see how many Bible teachers are teaching an avoidance of suffering instead of teaching how to endure it.
Pastor J.R. Brown · 41:56
There are famous and rich, of which I am neither, famous and rich Bible teachers who take the Bible to teach their congregation that they are blessed, that they are prosperous, that they are highly favored, and in Christ they will receive nothing but blessing. Have you ever read the list of how each of the disciples died?
Only one, well, I'll give you a clue, only one of them wasn't murdered, and that doesn't even mean that they didn't try to murder him, he just didn't die, so then they exiled him on an island all by himself. So if you're listening, which ain't gonna get it here, just saying, if you're giving your ear to biblical teaching, I'm going to air quote it, that is an avoidance of suffering, and that is not preparing you for how to endure it, you may need to throw that brownie out. Probably got a little poo in there. That's actually a lot. Two famous, misrepresented Scriptures, popular ones, I'm not even going to get into the full list, just two famous ones, misrepresented Scriptures which then takes God's Word and makes it a lie. Just so we're clear, Jeremiah 29:11: "For I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope." This is a pretty popular verse. My wife even quoted this verse to me in our wedding vows. I can stand here today and tell you we did not have a contextual understanding of what Jeremiah was communicating to Israel, what God was communicating to jeremiah, and Jeremiah was penning for Israel. This is not a prosperity Scripture, but it sounds good. "I know the plans I have for you, declares the LORD, plans for welfare," plans to prosper you, some translations say, "and not to harm you, to give you a future and a hope." That sounds good, welfare and prosperity, but this is not what God's telling Jeremiah. Israel was being taken captive by Babylon. The nation of Israel had another army taking them over, and God's telling Jeremiah that they're going to be in captivity for 70 years. That's literally three verses before this Scripture, for 70 years.
But then God ends this with a promise that he has good plans for Israel, that he has a future and a hope for Israel. But Jeremiah, you guys are about to endure 70 years of captivity. So, not a prosperity Scripture.
It is a promise of a future hope. The 70 years are going to stink, Jeremiah warned Israel, but in 70 years I'll release you. Here's my personal favorite: "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."
I can laugh about it now, but when it happened I wasn't laughing. I was actually really angry, storming around my bedroom wanting to throw my cell phone at the wall, because I just, in the last few years, had somebody refer to me as a false teacher because of my position on this Scripture, because I shared in our small group that this is not an empowering Scripture. Paul's not saying that through Jesus' power you can do anything.
If that were so, then I could walk over to the wall and with assurance I could punch the wall and know that I would not get hurt.
Now would that be an amazing thing if that happened? Yeah, that would be pretty awesome. Am I going to go punch that wall? No, because chances are I'm going to hit a stud and I'm going to break my fist. Paul is not saying that because of Jesus' empowering that you can do anything you want to do.
What Paul is saying, go back a few verses, Paul says, "I rejoiced in the Lord greatly that now at length you have revived your concern for me." I rejoice in the Lord greatly that now finally you're concerned about me. "You were indeed concerned for me, but you had no opportunity. Not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low, and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me."
You can easily take the word "do" out of that Scripture and place the word "endure."
I can endure all things through Christ who strengthens me, because I know what it means to have a lot.
Pastor J.R. Brown · 48:01
I know what it means to have nothing. I know what it means to check my bank account and feel a sense of peace, and I know what it means to open that up and my stomach drop out. I know what it means to walk in great peace and harmony with my spouse, and I know what it means when there ain't none. I know what it means when people talk favorably of me, and I know what it means when they curse me.
I know what it means to have a roof over my head, and I know what it means to have to sleep in the car. I know what it means when we don't even have a car to sleep in. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. We have got to stop listening, and listen. I believe that for those of you who are in this church today, whether you've been coming for a few months or you've been here for years, even if you've only been coming for a few weeks, if you have come back, I believe because of the biblical teaching that you hear on a weekly basis, that you have understanding of what I'm talking about.
But it's at the moment in our lives that we feel like the rug's been yanked out from under us that our minds are very easily swayed to bad teaching, to try to encourage us, to build us back up, try to make us feel better. It's in that moment that the rug's yanked out from under us that we can easily begin to isolate ourselves and allow the enemy to wreak all sorts of havoc in our minds. And do you know what the enemy, for a born-again Christian, often uses in our world today to wreak havoc in our minds? Other Bible teachers.
The enemy doesn't have to come at you with a bold-faced lie. He can take the Scripture and just taint it a little bit
Pastor J.R. Brown · 50:12
and make you believe something that God, nor Paul in a lot of these Scriptures, intended to say to you. Somebody several years ago, after a car wreck that I was in, that was a very bad car wreck, came to me and used Romans 8:28, that God works all things out for the good of those who love him and are called according to his purpose. Somebody in this church, in this room, came up to me and quoted that verse to me and said, "Don't worry, Pastor J.R., God's got you covered. Everything's gonna be all right, because you love God, you've been called according to his purpose, so he's gonna work it all out for you." Like, that's not what that says, just so we're clear. This Scripture does not say that God's going to make this situation all better for me. What that Scripture does say, if you want to look at the full context of it, is that God will use even this situation for my betterment, that in me he will do good things even through this. I lost my driver's license for a year. All right, I didn't go to jail. I didn't have to pay back a bunch of fines. I did have to pay back some, what they call restitution money. Had to go meet with a probation officer.
Brook used to say, "Oh, you got to meet with your parole officer this week." In case you don't know, parole means you went to prison. I didn't go to prison, but I got in trouble. I lost my driver's license for a year from a wreck that I caused.
God didn't make it all better for me, but seven years later I can look back at that wreck and that situation and see what that did in my heart,
Pastor J.R. Brown · 52:15
and what that did in my faith, and what that did in my relationship with my children and with my wife, and what that did in my pride, to have to come to people in my church, because of my wife's work schedule, and be like, "Can you give me a ride?
I could go meet with a probation officer." That was humiliating. I can look back at that seven years later and I wouldn't change it. Why? Because God brought good out of it for me, that it transformed me into a man that I might not have become had God not allowed me to endure that trial.
These Scriptures aren't empowering Scriptures, they're about endurance.
Pastor J.R. Brown · 53:13
John 16:33 says, "I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation.
But take heart; I have overcome the world." So I say all this about the sufferings that we will endure. You will endure suffering.
I say all of this because
It is the blessing, previous joy, it is the blessing and the joy that we have in the hope of God's glory that sustains us to have joy as we walk through the suffering.
Pastor J.R. Brown · 53:40
I love, it's the last Scripture I'm going to share with you, Second Corinthians 4:16-18, Paul says, "so we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction," this dude was in prison in Paul's time didn't include time out in the yard on the basketball court or cable TV, prison included getting beat, he said, "For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal." How many of you have ever read the If You Give a Mouse a Cookie book, kids' book? Anybody? Oh, if you haven't, you need to go look up If You Give a Mouse a Cookie. It's one of my favorite kids' books, and Melody has a copy of it right now. The premise of the book is, if you give a mouse a cookie, he's going to ask for, come on, a glass of milk. If you give him a glass of milk, he's going to need, huh, and if you, and if you, he's gonna need a straw, and if you give him a straw he's going to need this, and if you give him this he's going to need this, and it works its way all the way back around, or it's, he's tired and it's time for bed, before he goes to bed he's probably going to ask for a glass of milk, and chances are if you give him a glass of milk he's going to ask for a cookie. It's a very cute kids' book.
Hear these words in that context: if your hope is in the transient and not the eternal, you're most likely not pursuing the presence of God and not committing time to Scripture and prayer.
Pastor J.R. Brown · 55:39
If your hope is in the transient things that Paul talks about, the fleshly things, and not the eternal, you're most likely not pursuing God or committing time to Scripture and prayer. If you're not pursuing the presence of God, you are probably not walking your days through, boy, I botched that one. If you're not pursuing the presence of God, you're probably not walking through your days with very much peace. It's full cycle, it's circular.
I'm gonna close with this, another quote from Warren Wiersbe. He says, "Peace with God takes care of the past; he will no longer hold our sins against us. Access to God takes care of the present; we can come to him at any time for the help that we need. And hope of the glory of God takes care of the future; one day we shall share in his glory." Let's pray.
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