Well, it's my first time I get to preach to all of you in 2023. I'm so excited to be here. And I want to take this moment just to remind us what is this we're doing right now, this preaching of the Word. And so, if you've got a Bible, and I saw a lot of you bringing your Bibles on in here, could you open to Second Timothy chapter four with me? Just as we get started in the new year, why do we have this time together? Why is this so important for us to all gather together? And what am I doing up here when I preach the Word? This is not just me giving a talk. This is not just me giving some kind of lecture. What I'm supposed to be doing here is very clear here in this passage, 2 Timothy 4:1-4. It says, “I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching. For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths.”
So there's a charge here, a charge in front of Jesus, who's going to judge the living in the dead, that when a pastor like me comes up here, they better not just give their own personal opinion; they better preach what God says in his Word. So, I'm not here to give you my message. The goal here is that you're going to get the message of God, I'm just going to explain it to you. I'm going to get out of the way, keep my personal opinions to myself, and you're going to hear God's Word clearly explained. That's what we're going for here today. Can I get an Amen from anybody on it? You don't need to hear what I think about something. You need to hear what God thinks in his Word. So that's what I'm supposed to be doing.
And then it talks about you the person hearing it. Like, are you just here to hear what you want to hear? Would you rather hear stories? Or do you want to hear what God has to say? Because look at what it says there in verse 2, it's “and it will reprove, rebuke, and exhort.” Like, are you just here to hear something that you already agree with? Or are you here to hear what God says, and that's going to change your thinking and change your life based on what God says in his Word. And so, if we do this, right, we're going to open up together, we're going to get to hear from God. And we're going to take to heart what not some man like me has to say, but what God has to say to us as his people. That's our goal. And it's so serious what we're here to do, and I want you to know I take it seriously, I hope you do, too, that we are here to preach the Word. And part of the reason I take it so seriously, now that we've been doing this for a few years here in Huntington Beach, I take this seriously for the reason that people die. Like people who have walked into this room and have heard this word, they are no longer with us on planet earth. Like I can remember right over there. I met Dave after a Sunday at 11 o'clock service. I met Dave one time, and Dave had just received a medical diagnosis that he had cancer. And it was terminal. Dave knew that he was going to die. That's why he came to church, I can remember I met a guy named Steve once, who was also sitting right over here. Steve came to our church because one of the parking guys in the street, waved him in and he didn't know what to do. So, he just came to church, and checked it out and decided I'm going to keep coming. I'm going to come back, I'm going to keep checking out this church. And little did we know when Steve came to church, and he heard a sermon about heaven that was interesting to him, and he went to a men's retreat. And at the men's retreat, Steve believed in Jesus. We didn't even know that, by the end of that year, Steve would be dead. But see, God brought Steve here to hear something, because God wants people to hear from him before they die. There's a lady named Joan, who has been coming to our church like all last year, on Saturday night, she was here. She sat right over there. On New Year's Day, Joan went to be with the Lord. She went straight from 2022 into the presence of Jesus Christ. Talk about a Happy New Year experience for Joan! So, I don't know how much time you've got left. I don't know how many more services we're going to have. So, we need to hear what God has to say to us right here right now, together, today. And so, I want to invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 5, verses 9 to 11. That's the part of the word that we are going to study together. Romans 5:9-11. Our church is in the midst of going through the book of Romans. This is something Paul wrote, because he wanted to go see the believers in Rome, but he couldn't get there to teach them the gospel. So, he wrote a letter. That's a masterclass on the gospel, and we're going through it. This is our 24th time opening up to Romans. We're at chapter 5, verses 9 to 11. And out of respect for God's word, I'm going to ask if we would all stand up for the public reading of Scripture. I'm asking everybody in the overflow, can we all wave or say hi, or clap for the overflow? We're so sorry, you're not here with us. But we're glad you're here. So hello, everybody in the overflow, everybody watching online. This is Romans 5:9-11. This is the Word of God, let's give it our full attention.
“Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. More than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.”
That's the reading of God's word, please go ahead and have your seat. So, in Romans 5, and we started talking about this in December... You can see here in Romans 5 we make a transition. Go back to Romans 5:1, therefore, since we have been justified by faith, so being justified by faith is kind of a big theme in the book of Romans. It's kind of what the book of Romans is famous for that when you believe in Jesus, that he's God's Son, who died for you and rose again, God declares you righteous. Okay, so then now we're talking about after you've believed in Jesus, there's now… since you've done that there are ongoing effects in your life. That's what chapter 5 is about? Have you believed in Jesus? Okay, well, then you have peace with God; you have access now to God, where you can receive grace; you have now a hope that you are going to experience the glory of God, and your hope will not be disappointed. That's how he began chapter five. And it's almost like, as he was talking about your hope for the future, then he wants to go back and remind you how much God loves you. And that's what he does. And in verses six, seven, and eight, look at verse 8, for God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. So, the reason that we can have peace and grace and hope for the future is because let's just go back and remember how God so loved us, he sent his Son, Jesus. Jesus died for us; he paid for our sins. And because of that, that's why we can think this way about the future. So, he's building his case. And really, these verses 9-11 that we're getting to right now, this is his logical conclusion of how you should think about your life because you have been justified by faith.
Here's what that now means for a new year, like 2023. Here's what that means for your future. So, we do have a handout there in your bulletin, if you want to take some notes, write down some things we're going to learn from the Word. But let's just start with a summary statement of Romans five, 1 through 11: The death of Jesus promises a future for every believer, the death of Jesus promises a future for every believer. If you have said, I can't save myself, I can't live up to God's standard of righteousness, I'm going to trust that God sent Jesus, that Jesus was righteous, and he died in my place; I'm going to transfer my trust to Jesus. When you believe in Jesus, God now has much more in store for you. There's now a future planned and prepared for you. And God doesn't want you going into a new year or facing death, facing the future. God doesn't want you thinking, I don't know what's going to happen. God has written these verses so that you can have assurance in your soul that you know the future God has promised to you. Okay?
So, there's a logic that we're going to see. Look at verse nine, this is Romans 5:9, “Since, therefore,” so let's pick it up where we picked it up in verse 1, because you've been justified. “Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood, much more, shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God? So, there's a logic in this verse that I need everybody to see. If you went to the Latin, it's like an a fortiori argument. It's an argument from the stronger, from the greater to the lesser. If Jesus is going to die for your sin, and when you believe in Jesus, God is going to declare you righteous, if you believe that, and that's true, well then, now let's tell you something more that God has for you, something that's going to happen in the future. Well, you will be saved from the wrath of God that's yet to come in the future. So, it's an argument from the greater to the lesser, since this is true, and you believe it, let me now teach you something that's a logical conclusion from what you believe.
Look at Romans 5:10. It's the same exact format, just a level deeper. It says, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” Or you will be saved by his life. So, it's saying, have you believed that Jesus died for you? Do you think Jesus’ blood washed away your sin? Well, let me now help you see logically, much more than that. There are things that are coming to you in the future, things you can expect and look forward to. Because if this is true, let's go from the greater to the lesser, that means this must be true too. So, look back at Romans 5:9. Let's pay attention here since we've been justified by his blood, much more, shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
So go back to Romans 3:24-25, because this is where we learned what it means to be justified. Justified is when God says, you are now righteous. He counts you as righteous. Romans 3:24, “and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith.” So this idea that God set forth Jesus, and Jesus died, his blood pays for our sin. God has wrath for sin, God is going to judge all the unrighteousness of men. But Jesus satisfied God's wrath, when he shed his blood as a righteous sacrifice to pay for our sin. And when we believe in Jesus, we are then justified by that faith; we’re declared righteous. So, when it says, go back to Romans 5:9, “Since, therefore, we have now been justified by his blood, much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.” You stop thinking you could be good enough for God, you admitted, you were unrighteous, and you trusted that Jesus was the only one who could make you righteous before God, that Jesus paid for your sin, and you're going to receive his righteousness. Okay, at some point, you believe that we'll much more now shall we be saved by him, by Jesus, from the wrath of God. This means that in the future, when the wrath of God comes, you will be saved, you will not be punished for your sin when God comes. And there's a great day The Bible talks about, a day of Tribulation. It's called a great and terrible day. It's referred to many times throughout Scripture as a Day of the Lord, the prophets of old talked about it, Revelation talks about it, there's going to come a day where God is going to pour out his wrath. His anger at sin will be unleashed on planet earth. It is a terrible day. You don't want to be a part of it. You don't want anybody you know to be a part of it. And if you believe that Jesus already took God's wrath, and already paid for your sin, here's a promise to you, you will be saved from the wrath of God when it comes.
Go back to Romans 2:5, because we've learned a lot about the wrath of God in the book of Romans so far. And this day was already mentioned here in Romans 2:5. It says, “But because of your hard and impenitent heart you are storing up wrath for yourself on the day of wrath when God's righteous judgment will be revealed.” So, if you don't believe this good news that Jesus died to pay for your sin, if you harden your heart, if you're not sorry about your sin, if you want to keep doing things God told you not to do, well, then you're storing up wrath and there's going to be a day of wrath. Nobody wants to be here on the day when God's wrath is revealed. And so, there's a promise that was a warning there in chapter 2 verse 5. Now we are promised everybody here who has believed in the death of Jesus on the cross, you will be saved from the wrath to come.
Let's get it like this for point number one, if you are taking notes: Understand those justified by faith are eternally safe, understand those justified by faith are eternally safe. Once you trust that Jesus already paid for your sin, you will never have to pay for your sins. There is no condemnation for those who put their faith in Jesus. There's no fear of punishment yet to come, you will be saved from the wrath, and I got this point. Those justified by faith are eternally safe. I got that from one of my favorite preachers, a guy named Martyn Lloyd Jones, and Martyn Lloyd Jones… I don't know if you've ever heard of him. He was a preacher in London in the middle of the 1900s. And he preached on the book of Romans for 13 years. Okay, and he died before he even finished Roman. So, he didn't even finish Romans in 13 years. And he didn't even do it on Sunday, because he knew that people couldn't hang with a 13-year study of Romans. He did it on Friday nights for the diehards, right? And he went through Romans for 13 years. And he thought that these verses that we're looking at today, he says is one of the most assuring passages we could study in all of the Bible. Because it's teaching us something that a lot of us maybe don't know, or don't really talk about, and it's this basic question, have you been saved? Or will you be saved? And the answer is … Both! See, this is what we're here to learn. The answer is, yes, if I believed in Jesus, I was justified, I was saved, but this is telling me much more, I will be saved. I don't hear a lot of people here at our church talk like that. Like in 2023, whatever challenges, whatever trials come up, I know I will be saved when I die. Or when the end of the world comes, I know I will be saved. I hear people talk about being saved in the past, but this is saying much more. You will be safe.
Look at Romans 5:9, you can see it there much more, shall we be saved, and it's a future tense. It's promising you everybody here, did you get justified by your faith in Jesus, then we will all my brothers and sisters in Christ, we will be saved from the wrath when it comes. Promise. You've got that in store for your future. Your past justification should lead you to logical conclusions. And Martyn Lloyd Jones, his whole thing about preaching was it was logic on fire. It's when you make clear what the word is saying. People can understand what God's teaching them, and it burns in their hearts. That's why he loved this passage because it's so logical. Have you believed this? Then you will be saved from this. If you've been justified by faith, you are eternally saved, you will never experience wrath. And so that's why we made the ellipsis, those three dots, like the symbol for this sermon, like, you know, when you see those three dots, like something more is coming. There's something more in store. Like this happens to me when I send text messages, I think of one of my friends here at the church, I send them a message of text. I'm hoping they're having a great day. And then all of a sudden, those three dots show up, you know what I'm talking about. And they kind of have that wavy motion. And you're like, oh, wow, my bro got my text. And he's responding immediately. This is great. I can't wait to hear back from my bro. And you just stand there looking at your phone for a minute, looking at the three dots, waiting for more, and then they disappear, and you never hear back from your bro. Anybody else ever been there? Right? But see, we have here, have you believed in Jesus? Well dot dot dot, you know this is a promise from God, you will be saved from the wrath when it comes. And that's something, first step is just understanding that salvation has an ongoing effect for the future. And sometimes I wonder if we're not really experiencing the peace and the grace and the hope that we could have because we're only thinking I have been saved, and we're not thinking we will be saved. And this is teaching you a way to think that maybe you do think, maybe you don't. But we need to think that God and I have not yet experienced the fullness of my salvation, and I will be saved.
Let's look at it again. Now a little deeper in verse 10. And verse 10, it says, for a while we were enemies. So now let's go back to before you were saved, when before you were saved, your sin separated you from God. You were not in a right relationship with God. You were an enemy of God; you were doing your own thing. Here's what God is saying you should do. Here's you doing your own thing. You are separated by your sin. You're an enemy of God. But guess what? Good news! God wants a relationship with you. God wants to reconcile with you. It says, “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life. So, think about it, you are God's enemy. And he sent his one and only Son Jesus, to take your place and die for your sin. If God loves his enemies like that, how much more is he going to love you now that you're one of his kids, now that he's adopted you into his family, now that you call on him as a father, and he thinks of you as his son, or his daughter, if God was ready to love you and sent Jesus for you, when you were his enemy, he wanted a relationship with you? How much more does he have that relationship with you now as one of his kids. So, you’ve got to see the logic here, that God took the initiative when you and God were estranged parties, when you and God were divided from one another, God wanted to reconcile with you. He didn't just want you to be righteous. God wanted a relationship with you, where you and him could be right in that relationship. This is what reconciliation is. Reconciliation, you might need some of this, you might have experienced some of this, maybe you have a brother or sister in your family, a brother or sister in Christ, and there was some kind of falling out. People are angry, people aren't talking to one another. And now we have to sit down and seek reconciliation. This happens a lot. And now both sides need to own up to what they did. That was wrong. People need to say they're sorry, people need to forgive one another. And if we own up to what we did, and we forgive, maybe we can reconcile. I've had many meetings like this as a pastor, we sit down where people don't want to talk to each other. And we sit down at a table of reconciliation, and we want to get back to a right relationship.
Go over to 2 Corinthians 5:18. Paul hasn't mentioned this idea of reconciliation before in the book of Romans. This is really the one time he brings it up in the book of Romans. But this is something Paul regularly referred to. And this really defines reconciliation here in 2 Corinthians 5:18, that even though you are God's enemy, God took the initiative to start a relationship with you. It says here in 2 Corinthians 5:18, “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling[a] the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake” for us, God made Jesus “to be sin who knew no sin, so that in God, we might become the righteous in Jesus, we might become the righteousness of God.” So, here's what it is, God is in heaven. You're his enemy here on earth. He starts reconciliation, he sends Jesus to take the place for your sin. And then he sends somebody to you one of His ambassadors, one of his messengers, maybe you heard it at a church service like this. Maybe it was a family member trying to tell you about Jesus, maybe it was in a small group, maybe it was one on one where somebody told you, God wants to have a relationship with you. He sent Jesus to die for you. And that person was pleading with you, on God's behalf, you can be reconciled with God, you can have a right relationship with God, you can call him your father, you can pray to him. You can know him, it's all there for you. He put all of your sin on Jesus. And now you can have the righteousness of Jesus counted to you. Will you be reconciled with God and if that's happened, if God loved you when you were his enemy, and he reconciled a relationship with you, what do you think God's going to do for you now as one of his people? He's got much more in store.
Go back to Romans chapter 5, verse 10. And notice what it goes there since we've been reconciled, since we're no longer enemies, since we're now in a right relationship with God much more… now that we are reconciled. Look at this, this promise here you will be saved by his life. So, two times in verse 9, and verse 10. It says, we will be saved at some level in the future. It's saying we already are saved; we've already been justified. We've already been reconciled, but much more we will be saved by the life of Jesus. Does everybody here understand that Jesus is alive right now? Okay? Jesus is not some dude we remember from 2000 years ago, on the third day, Jesus rose from the dead, he ascended through the clouds into the very presence of God. And God was so pleased with Jesus, that he exalted Jesus to the place of all authority, to the name that is above every name, and God gave Jesus a seat there at his right hand. That's where Jesus is right now. He's ready to come back and reign here on planet earth, and establish an everlasting kingdom. And you will be saved by the life of Jesus that he has in heaven right now. That's the promise. So, do you think like this? Do you think like, hey, when 2023 gets started, what's going to happen this year, because some bad things are going to happen? That's what we're promised. Things don't work out in this world. There's a lot of evil happening all over the world. Some of it might happen to you, do you think, well, one thing I know is I will be saved by the life of Jesus. That's what it's teaching us to think.
Go to Hebrews, chapter 7. Hebrews chapter 7. Let me show you a specific example of what it means for you to be saved by the life of Jesus in a future sense. This is in Hebrews 7:23-25. And if you know the book of Hebrews, you know that the point is, it's written to the Jews. And it's to show them that the Old Covenant they had through Moses has now been… there's a better covenant, a new covenant through Jesus to all of us. And so, it's comparing how Jesus is the guarantee of a better covenant. And here's one of the comparisons Hebrews 7, verse 23. It says, The former priests were many in number, because they were prevented by death from continuing in office, but he holds his priesthood permanently, because he continues forever. Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.” And so they would have the priests but the priests, they have the same problem we have, where they would die. And so, they couldn't just have one priest. They kept having new priests all the time, because the priests kept dying. But look what it says here, verse 24, but he this is Jesus. He holds his priesthood permanently, because Jesus continues forever. That's what it says. He has overcome death. And Jesus is alive. Consequently, verse 25, Jesus is able to save to the uttermost, to the end to the completion, those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them. Okay, so this is a thought that we need to learn how to think. And where it says that he will save them notice he is able to save them to the uttermost. And that's the idea of to the fullness, to the perfection. See, this is where we get back to our question. Let me ask it again. Let me see how we're doing. Have you been saved? Or will you be saved? Okay, so you have been saved, but there is an uttermost. There is the end, the fullness of your salvation that you have not yet experienced.
You think, well, a lot of Christians have this attitude where they're like, well, I'm good. I've already believed, I'm already saved. Things are not good. I mean, are you living in the same world I'm living in? Things are not good. Satan is prowling around like a lion. Satan is devouring souls. The world is a system of evil. That seems like where we live, it's getting worse. And even from within me, there are evil desires, temptations that rise up from within me. If this is the fullness of salvation, this can't be it, there's got to be more than this, that salvation to the uttermost, that's us, we will be saved. And he is ready. He always lives to intercede for you. So, when you have something bad happen, and it just sucks the life out of you, and you feel like this trial is so heavy, it's going to crush you. And when you have that temptation that rises up within you, where you want to sin and you're thinking about doing something and you know it's wrong, but there's this passion, this desire rising up within you to want to sin. Do you know that in that moment, you can pray to God in heaven, and Jesus will intercede for you, and he will save you out of that trial, he will deliver you out of that temptation, that you will be saved in 2023. When you pray, Jesus is there in your prayer, he will answer your prayer and he will deliver you from evil. Can I get an Amen from anybody on this? This is how he taught us to pray, Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one, right? Deliver us, save us, rescue us. See, this is what I know from knowing many of you how your life went in 2020. To many of you, you had a hard thing in your life, and Jesus saved you out of that heartache, you got saved way before 2022. But he was still saving you in 2022. See, and I can go into 2023. And I can think if when I was God's enemy, he sent his one and only Son to reconcile a relationship with me and my hard heart and he wanted to save me well, now I'm one of his kids, and I will be saved by the life of his Son Jesus. He's got much more in store for me. See, this is the concept that we really need to grasp
Let's get this down for point number two: Expect Jesus to save you to the end. Expect Jesus to save you to the end, don't just know that you're going to be saved. This is something we should start looking forward to something we should pray about when we're feeling overwhelmed or burdened or tempted. We should be thinking, hey, if he reconciled me when I was his enemy, he'll save me today. Because Jesus always lives to make intercession for me. Jesus right now stands in my defense, he tells God that I'm one of his people. When I offer a prayer in the name of Jesus, Jesus is saying yes to that prayer right there in the presence of God. Do you realize that every single time you pray, Jesus is there interceding in your prayer, always living to be there for you, you will be saved by his life.
Go over to First Thessalonians chapter 1. Let me show you one other way that you will be saved by the life of Jesus. This is 1 Thessalonians 1. And I really am asking everybody, will you read First Thessalonians? You can see this book, it's five chapters long. If you read one chapter, Monday to Friday, you'd read the whole book with us this week, you could read the whole book in one sitting maybe if you wanted to. But first Thessalonians, this is the book of the Bible that we used to start this church, to get everybody on the same team. And so, it'd be awesome if we could read it. And really, it's a theme verse for our whole church. Look at 1 Thessalonians 1:8. This is how he described this church. Not only has the Word of the Lord sounded forth from you in Macedonia, and Achaia, but your faith in God has gone forth everywhere. So what Paul's saying is, he went to Thessalonica, he preached the gospel to these people, and the Gospel, it's like it rang out from them, it echoed from them. It's not just that they believed it. But they spread the gospel like ripple effects going out further and further. And so now Paul's going to other places, and other people are telling him what happened there when he preached the gospel there, because it's like the gospel has echoed, and people knew those people really believed. Those people, they believed in Jesus. We can see the ongoing effects of their belief in Jesus in their life. And here was one of those effects. 1 Thessalonians 1:10. It says, this is how they describe this church of people, and to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus, who delivers us or saves us from the wrath to come. There's this same idea that they were saved, but they expected Jesus to come and save them still. And it's like they were looking at heaven waiting for Jesus to come back on the clouds. They knew that Jesus rose from the dead, they knew he was at the right hand of God. They knew there was a great day of wrath coming, and Jesus was going to come and get them before the day of wrath came. In fact, when somebody died at their church, it was like, oh, no, what are we going to do? I don't know what the person's name was. But let's just say it was Fred. Oh, no. What are we going to do? Fred's dead now! What are we going to do, Fred, miss Jesus coming back to get us? That's how ready they were to be saved by Jesus, that when Fred dies, they're like, oh, Fred could have just hung on a few more days, maybe Jesus would have come back. And he has to say in this letter, no, it's okay. Those who die in their faith in Jesus, they're going to rise with Jesus, just like the people who are still alive when Jesus comes back. But don't you worry, you will be saved and whether you die or whether it's the end of the world as we know it. Jesus is going to save you in the future. You will experience the fullness of your salvation. You will see Jesus with your eyes, you will behold him in all of his glory, and you will be made like him. There will be no sin anymore within you, because you will experience salvation to the full in the future; there is much more in store.
That's how we need to think. And where this shows up, is when you're going to get your bad news this year. I don't know what it's going to be. I mean, we've had some intense years lately, I don't know what bad news, if we're going to all hear it collectively, if you're going to hear it individually. But this is what this looks like, at some point, some man here in the room, some woman here in the room, you're going to lose your job, it's going to happen this year, somebody's going to get fired for something they didn't even do. Somebody here is going to go to the doctor and you're going to get a report that you don't want to get, you're going to have a relationship, a person that you really care about, something's going to happen to cause division between you and that person, there's going to be a separation in that relationship, something bad is going to happen. And when that happens, what do you really believe will become clearer? Will you panic? Well, will you? Will you be uncertain about your future? Or will you believe that you will be saved by the life of Jesus?
Go back to Romans chapter 5, because this is what he was really saying here in the context of this chapter. And this is what he gets back to now in verse 11. So, there's a logic here. Do you understand that if you've believed in Jesus in the past, there's much more for you in the future? Can you even start to look to the future now and smile at it and expect that you will be saved in the future? Well, if you can think this way, if you can understand the logic of what God is saying to us here today, then verse 11 says more than that. Now here's our application, here's our response. We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. So, he's saying, if we believed, and we know that there's much more in store, then we also and it translates it more than that, which in English sounds great, because it fits with our “much more” theme. But I think a way you could really translate it is, but not only that, but also. So not only is God going to save you, is there the promise of much more that you will be saved. But also, here's what we now do. That's what God's going to do for us. We also rejoice in God. And when it says, Rejoice here, this is not the typical word for rejoice where we think of this feeling of joy or the fruit of the spirit of joy in our life. This is the word that means to boast in God, to glory in God, to exalt In God. We already saw this. Look back at Romans 5:2, maybe remember this, because it said here in this verse, “Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice.” And maybe you saw that footnote there, where instead of rejoice, it says it's like boasting. So, I don't know why they decided to translate it rejoice here. Usually, this is the Greek word that means boast, don't boast about yourself, boast in the Lord. When Paul talks about boasting in the Lord in First and Second Corinthians, this is the same word that is always usually translated, boast in those books. I don't know why they translated it rejoice here. But you can see it says, boast in the hope of the glory of God, verse three, “Not only that, but we” boast or we glory in our sufferings, because we know that we're still going to be saved in our sufferings, we're still going to endure, it's going to test our character. And in the end, our hope in God, our faith in the Lord will only be stronger. See, this is something that is uniquely Christian, uniquely, to people who have been saved by Jesus and have faith is when you get that medical diagnosis. You don't have to freak out like everybody else on planet earth, because you know, you will be saved. Can I get an Amen from anybody on that? Like when I see people at this church, and there are people here that are going through real hard physical times, there are people here who have cancer, and it's very serious going through radiation, going through chemo, and they're telling the nurse, hey, you don't need to worry about me, because I know where I'm going. I know what my future is. How about you? Like when the patient starts to preach to the nurse. Now we're boasting in the Lord, see? I know people, people here in this room, they lost their job. I didn't see them freak out. I saw them confident that if God does want me doing that, he's got something better for me. See, they know their future is secure, that they will be saved by the life of Jesus. And even if it is the worst-case scenario in this life, what do they have to fear because they will be saved from the wrath that is to come. See, like bad things are happening, but I'm glorying because I know I will be saved. Who's saying that? See, this is the thing about us as Christians, if I were to ask you, what is the purpose of your life? What is the chief end of man? See, then we all of a sudden get our spiritual voice going. And we say, well, Pastor, the chief end of man is to glorify God and enjoy him forever, right? If I said, hey, let's go start a new church, or a new ministry. Okay, let's write our mission statement for our new ministry. What do we want to do? We want to bring glory to God, like we know that's the right answer. But when was the last time you gave glory to God just by speaking words out of your mouth. It was just so exciting to you that God is going to save, you had so much confidence that your future was secure in the Lord, that you're just glorying and rejoicing. And you're saying, hey, I might have cancer, but let me tell you what I've also got, I've got the righteousness of Jesus Christ given to my account. And so, I'm not really too worried about what's going to happen with this cancer, because I know my Lord has me in his hand. Where's that kind of boasting from God's people? See, I know many of you, many of you are sincere in your faith for the Lord, many of you, you work hard at your job, because you want God to be glorified. You work hard as a mom, or a dad in teaching your kids, because you want to bring God's glory in your household. And so, you're doing things in your life, you're working heartily, you are doing them for the Lord, that's awesome. But when do you say that? When does it come out of your mouth that's the idea here. When do you boast about how awesome your God is? That's the application that we also rejoice.
Let's get this down here for number three: Don't just know about God's glory, glory in him. That's a way you could translate this word, rejoicing, God-boasting, glory in God. This is a big prayer and a goal that I have for our church in 2023, that it becomes more natural for us to talk about God, just like we would talk about our kids, when we're so encouraged by something our kids are doing, or when we have a best friend who really cares about us. And we tell other people about our best friend, well, we want to talk about God, like he's our favorite person, and look what he's doing for us. And we just want to glory in him. And we want to get past it feeling cliche or, or cheesy or awkward, but no, this is God. And yeah, look what he's done for me in the past, but I know what God is going to do for me because we will be saved. And let me tell you how awesome Oh, my God really is. What the world could use in 2023 is a whole bunch of us telling everybody how awesome God really is.
So, you got it. You got it. This boasting, the idea of this is you're not trying to think you're doing it yourself. You're thinking God's doing it. So, you're really past being a good person, you're really past trying harder, you have admitted that you're not a good person, and you got saved by the grace of God in the face of Jesus. And now everything good that's coming in your life. That's all because of God's work in you. And so, you don't need any glory for yourself. You want to boast about God, and you want to glory in him. Go with me to Psalm 34. Here's an example of this kind of speaking that I'm talking about here. See, I'm afraid that sometimes we think we need Ryan Pearce to come up here and strum his guitar so we can start worshiping. Like if there's no music, how can I worship? You can say glorious things about God out of your mouth 24/7. You don't need to come to church to give God glory. Can I get an Amen from anybody on this? And we need to be speaking more about it. If we know that we have been saved, and we will be saved, let's glory in our God. That's what David wants to do here and Psalm 34, “I will bless the Lord at all times,” I'm going to say good things about God all the time. His prayers shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes its boast in the Lord. I'm not here to boast in my wisdom, my riches, I don't care about any of that, all that I have. I have freely received by the grace of God, I'm here to make my boast, and how glorious God is and how good he's been to me and the humble people, the other people who also aren't in it for themselves, and they want to give God the glory. When you hear somebody boasting about how good your God is, and you're one of his people you're like, Amen. I want to hear more about that, right? The humble here, and they're glad. Oh, magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt his name together. See, wherever we're boasting, we're praying. He's saying, we’re magnifying, we're making God known, right? We're exalting him. That's the idea of this word, like God has saved you, God will save you. But not only that, we also now glory in our God and all that he's done for us in Jesus. So, when do you give God the glory? When does Dad gather the family around and say, hey, the reason we've got money to do all this stuff is because God gave it to us. Let's give him the glory, right? Like when do we speak glory to one another, and not even just here at church, like I had to get to this place in my life where if the opportunity came up, I was going to give God glory, whether I was preaching, or whether I was at Panda Express on Beach Boulevard, no matter where I was. Some of you have been to Panda Express on Beach Boulevard, you know what I'm talking about. I remember one specific day I was there with my family, and we were all eating our Chinese food. And we were ready to open our fortune cookies, we were coming to the end of our meal. And this nice lady walked up to us. And she wanted to say something to us about how nice it was to see a Family eating a meal praying together. She wanted to like compliment me and my wife, Christa, for the basically, translation: Hey, your kids are not completely out of control here at Panda Express. I want to come and say something to you positive about it. All right. That's basically what was going on. The lady is trying to offer me a compliment. And what am I supposed to do? Am I supposed to say thank you, lady. Thank you very much. I'm a good dad. That's why Yeah, kids pay attention. Is that what I'm supposed to do? Or am I supposed to say what I realized in that moment, I need to say to this lady, whether I'm at church, or whether I'm at Panda Express, praise the Lord, lady. Praise the Lord, because I know these kids, and I know me, and the only reason we got our act together is the good Lord Jesus Christ. All right, praise the Lord. She wasn't ready for praising the Lord at Panda Express on Beach Boulevard. She wasn't ready for that in her fortune cookie that day. That's when she didn't know how to respond to that. Exactly. But we're out here to give God glory. See, even here at church. people come up to me after the service, after we've opened up the Word of God, and we've learned such glorious thing. People want to come and compliment me about the sermon like, wow, you've got a gift, or you're really good speaker. I'm like, time out. Please, let's not make this about me. If you just got something from God, if God just spoke to you, let's glory in the Lord together. Let's say hey, the Holy Spirit is cutting to our hearts. And speaking to us here today. Let's not make this about us. Let's give glory to God here today. See, what are your opportunities? Hey, you did a good job on that report. Well, let me tell you why I did a good job on that report. Because God is working in my life. See, you have opportunities to tell people that you have been saved, and you will be saved. And you can give God glory. You don't need to invite him to church to worship the Lord. You can just speak the worship right to him. And we can say it to one another. We can glory, we can rejoice. Look at how good our salvation is. Not only have we been saved, we will be saved as anybody have something they want to say to God about it. See, I remember when I met that guy, Dave and Dave only had a limited amount of time and he knew we only had a limited amount of time. And see the truth is we all only have a limited amount of time. When Satan said to Eve you will surely not die. That was the big lie. Many people are still deceived to this very day, thinking they've got all the time in the world. You live long enough in this world, you are going to die. And Dave, he just now had a timeline. He just knew he was in his last few days. And I remember one Sunday morning like this, Dave's friend Don, who introduced me to Dave, who was Dave's neighbor, he came to me and he said, Dave's only got a few days left at this point. Dave's really not doing well. And when I heard that, it just bothered me because I knew this guy Dave had become pretty much my friend. I mean, I'd spent some time talking with him. And Dave was super honest with me the whole time. I don't believe in Jesus. I don't believe in this stuff that you guys are talking about. It's not for me. And he was very honest, but he was friendly. And he would let me talk to him about it. And I would try to share the good news with him. But I knew that Dave had not yet believed in Jesus. And I was just like, Dave can't die. Dave's not saved. And I did something that Sunday, maybe some of you were here. I went in front of our church, and I said, hey, we all need to pray that God will save Dave right now. Like he doesn't have a lot of time left. Will you join me in praying? And Don, he got fired up that day and he marched over to Dave's house. And he looked Dave, his friend in the eyes and he said, Dave, what are you doing with your life, man? You only have days left. And here's this opportunity. Think you could be saved in your soul, like you got to change your mind about this. And here's Don, just giving it to Dave. And then Don calls me that night and Don is just on fire. And he's like, you won't believe what just happened. Dave said this, Dave changed his mind about this. And Dave now believes. I'm talking to Don on the phone, and we are glorying in the Lord. We are praising the Lord on Don and I are having a special Sunday night late at night worship service on the phone. And then when I woke up the next day, I was like, Is that really true? Like, did Dave really believe because Dave always told me he didn't believe. I got to go talk to Dave myself. And so, I this time, David is at Hogue Newport, right down there off PCH. And so, I'm driving down there, and I get to go see Dave, one on one, just me and him in the room. He's got this beautiful room with this view of the Pacific Ocean. And I come in, and I'm like, Dave, let me tell you, wow, look at this view, man, this is awesome. And Dave's like, hey, I don't want to talk about the view from our room. I want to talk about the view of how I'm seeing life right now. Because I've come to believe in Jesus. And see, Dave went from a man who knew he was going to die to a man who knew he was going to live. Dave knew he was going to be saved. And there's nothing better in life than knowing you are going to be saved by Jesus. Let me pray for us.
Father in heaven, we come before you and we thank you for the logic of this text. We thank you that we could hear from Your Word together here this morning, that all of us who have believed in the redemption that's in the blood of Jesus, all that have believed that you would love us to send your Son to die in our place, and that Jesus paid for our sin. He took our wrath, and we now have your righteousness. Much more than that. We will be saved. Father, please teach that. I pray that that would become something we hear one another say, that we will be saved not just that we are saved, which is true. But that we will be saved by the life of Jesus from the wrath that is to come. And I pray that as we grow in our confidence, as you build up our faith, as we expect to see how we're going to be saved to the end, that we would then glory in you, that we would then speak your praises, that we would then exalt in you and boast in you that our God has loved us so much. He saved us. He reconciled us. We have a right relationship with our Father, and we will be saved. So, Father, please let this be a year where we are the church just like those people that Thessalonians. We're waiting for Jesus to come and save us, to deliver us from the wrath to come. And we're boasting in the Lord Jesus Christ. We've humbled ourselves, we're not in it for ourselves. We're not here to boast about ourselves, but we want to make Jesus known. We want to magnify his name. We want to exalt the name of the Lord Jesus Christ here in Huntington Beach. So Father, let this be a year where we get to be your people where we see you as our God where we know we will be saved, and we give you glory. We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.