I invite you to open your Bibles with me this evening again to Romans chapter 5. Romans chapter 5. We'll be focusing particularly on the first five verses in my practice, as you know, has been to preach the whole chapter in the morning, covering as much of the content as seems to make sense, and then focusing in on one portion and just was thinking about that this week and the focus that I do choose, the portion that I choose to focus in on, I'm not saying this is the most important portion of the chapter. I'm not pitting the rest of the chapter against these verses. Often it's just particularly struck me, the value of considering these things together. But it's not me alone who's thought of these things. John Owen, The Puritan preacher has been quoted often, I've come across it often, as saying, the greatest hindrance in our Christian life is not lack of effort, but our lack of acquaintedness with our privileges. Again, that's a quote attributed to Owen. Now, full disclosure, I have searched and searched and searched for that exact quote, and I can't find it exactly. And I may be just looking in the wrong place. What I have found is a quote very similar to that. It's in volume two of his collected works that says this, our anacointedness with our mercies, our privileges is our sin as well as our trouble. Whether you made both quotes and I just haven't been able to find the other or whether this one has been modified slightly, I still think it captures the sense that as believers we need to know what benefits, what privileges we have. And verses 1 to 5 of Romans chapter 5 stress some of those. Do not by any means think that this will be an exhaustive discovery of the privileges we have, but a call from this text for you and me to consider these privileges if they are ours in Christ. And so hear the word of God, Romans chapter five, verses one through five. Therefore, 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 the 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. Having heard from God and his word, please join me in your hearts as we pray together. Our Father in heaven, might you acquaint us with the privileges that we have in Christ. And if any are not justified by faith, might you, by your power, the power of your word and your spirit, might you call them even now, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen. What is it to be acquainted with our privileges? What are the privileges to which we're called here to be acquainted? And who is the one who is called? Well, Paul answers that right in the first phrase, since we have been justified, since we have been justified and that word carries with it, perhaps you would find it helpful to remember it this way. just as if I'd never sinned. That is the legal declaration of the one who is justified. That is the legal declaration of justification that God will deal with me just as if I'd never sinned. I am in Christ accepted as righteous. I am declared righteous. It's a legal declaration. It's not make-believe. It's not simply that I like to think that I'm pretty good. It's the declaration of God. I mentioned that last week we see all throughout chapter four, this accounting term. that imputed or counted or counted toward. And it's the idea that something is there, but it's not put there by you or by me. My sin counted to Christ's account and Christ's righteousness counted to my account. And though we haven't gotten there yet, it is touched on later in Romans. but we see it all throughout the scripture. We get Christ's righteousness imputed to us because of our union with Christ. I was talking with Joe Brown last week, and he mentioned a story from his history that I think illustrates this well, and he said I could quote him. When he finished law school, he says he was broke. And he didn't marry Laura for her money. But when he married her, his name got put on her bank accounts. And her money became his money by virtue of their union. It was imputed to him. It was accounted to him. And because of my union with Christ, I am treated by his righteousness. And so it is just as if I'd never sinned, but I have sinned. You have sinned. We are in debt to God because of our sin, an unpayable debt. You'll remember the account of Jesus speaking of that servant who owed him an unpayable debt and the servant pled, Master, please forgive this debt. And the master forgave his debt. And then that man went out to a fellow servant who owed a smaller debt, significant, but smaller payable. And said, pay me what you owe. And he wouldn't. And so he had him thrown into prison. And the master came to that first servant and said, should not you have been merciful? Because I was merciful. And he cast him into prison until he could pay his debt. You and I have a huge unpayable debt before God. If you had to pay it off, you never could. Maybe some of you have struggled with financial debt and you felt like, am I ever going to get out from under this? And yet perhaps you have, or perhaps you're still struggling with that. That pales in comparison to your debt against God. As I mentioned this morning, the illustration of three sins a day is way too few. How many sins have you committed today? I tell you what, anybody that's sinned at least five sins today, no, no, no. No, don't stand up. We have a three-week-old granddaughter, as many of you know. We're sort of excited about her. We haven't met her yet face-to-face. Well, technologically, we've met her face-to-face, but not physically. But Lucy, at three weeks old, is already a sinner. She's not very good at sinning yet, but as she gets older, her sister Mabel is going to teach her how to sin. And her mom and her dad, Maria and Nathaniel are going to teach her how to sin better. And it may be that when we finally get a hold of her in our arms and spend some time with her in her very presence that even grandma and nana will teach her how to sin. But she is a sinner. You are sinners. I am a sinner. And the world doesn't believe that. When we were in Australia, I did a Bible study at what we would consider like a community college. Our son Benjamin was attending there and a couple of his of his class friends. And we we had a couple of Bible studies with them. And Troy, a 19 or 20 year old, said, I've never really hurt anyone. And he was using that as a self-justification. Now, maybe that's true, but I doubt it. I mean, how many 19-year-old young men have never really hurt anyone? Maybe he's never murdered someone. Maybe he's never broken someone's arm in a fit of anger or stabbed them, but really have never hurt anyone. And Wayne defined it this way. He said, well, I have a really good moral compass. And my thought is maybe you have a good moral compass, but your compass is not pointing to true north. The world denies that they have sinned. They want to say, well, it's just as if I've never sinned because I haven't really sinned all that much. Our friend Rob, whose mother Betty came to Christ in our ministry in Evansville, was willing to let his mother share with him the gospel as she was trying to learn a presentation of the gospel. And he listened to her contentedly until she said, you're a sinner. And then he said, I don't want to listen anymore. See, the world doesn't want to say that I have sinned, but all have sinned. And so how is it that you and I can be justified? It goes on to say there in that first verse, by faith in Christ, justified by faith. And that is faith that Jesus died for my sins. Justified by faith occurs for the second time here in verse 5 the second time in Romans and what does it mean? What is that faith and expression of it's it's it's a belief that I'm a sinner and a belief that Christ has paid for my sin by his punishment at the hand of God on the cross a punishment that I deserved and and that Christ's perfect life is exchanged for my sin, that I am, as verse 10 and 11, we looked at this morning, I am reconciled. And that exchange is described by Paul in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 21, he made him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf so that we might become in him the righteousness of God. And Paul gives that description immediately after the call, be reconciled to God. I can be reconciled to God because God made him who knew no sin to be sin for me. And you can be reconciled to God If you have faith in Christ, that he died for your sins, that he paid the penalty that you deserved. Since we have been justified by faith, that foundation leads to the privileges. Therefore, we have these privileges. And if you have not been justified by faith, then none of the privileges mentioned are yours. You may have been raised in the church. You may even know many verses of the Bible by heart, but only if you have been justified by faith are these privileges yours and mine. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have, as it says there in the middle of verse one, peace with God. Peace with God. No more hostilities. We are no longer at war against the God of the universe. Later this month, we'll have on our calendar Memorial Day. If I remember correctly, Memorial Day is the day that you have cookouts in your yard for the first nice time since winter. No, that's not what it's about. It's a remembering of war and particularly of those who fought and died in war. In Australia, the more significant occurrence is Anzac Day, celebrating the Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, but significantly also in Australia is Remembrance Day, November 11th, 11 a.m. Peace was declared in Europe. Many of us have never experienced war and certainly none of us have experienced the war of World War I. And like Australia on Remembrance Day, here in the US on Memorial Day, we likely forget what we are remembering. We are remembering that hostilities have ceased. And like that, we sometimes forget that we were actively at war against God. Even if outwardly moral, we were God's enemy. Verse 10, we looked at that this morning. So when is your memorial day? What I mean by that is can you remember when you were declared at peace with God? Some of you will be able to remember the exact event at which God pierced your heart with the gospel. and you repented and believed that gospel. Some of you will remember that as the day that you were baptized in Christ's church on profession of faith, or perhaps you covenant children, you might remember when you were declared a member of the church of Jesus Christ. And so even if you don't remember the day, celebrate and remember that you have in Christ peace with God. In the Remembrance Day events in Australia, and I've been told in the United Kingdom, though I've not experienced that, a repeated phrase often at the end of any Remembrance Day speech is, lest we forget. Lest we forget. And that phrase comes from a poem, the poem Recessional by Rudyard Kipling, that was composed not in the context of war, but was composed for the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Victoria in 1897. And the refrain, lest we forget, is drawn from the King James Version of Deuteronomy 612 that says, therefore, beware, lest thou forget the Lord which brought thee forth out of the land of Egypt from the house of bondage. And this phrase that's uttered each year in Australia, we heard it often in the context of Remembrance Day, lest we forget, is a reminder for a more significant memory that you and I must continue to not forget. Dear Christian, do not forget that you now have peace with God. And you have peace with God, as the verses go on to say, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Now, Jesus is Lord. You don't make him your Lord, but as you have been justified by faith, you have submitted willingly to his Lordship. Every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. But for some, It will be too late. And there will come with that declaration, no privileges, but will come with that declaration, the judgment of God that you will be condemned for eternity. that you will face the just punishment for your sin if you do not willingly come and receive and accept Jesus as Lord. It's through Him that we have peace with God. When we remember the end of hostilities, it's Jesus that we remember. Jesus, our Savior. Jesus, our Master. Jesus, our King. And we live in willing submission to Him. Rejoicing that we're no longer under the penalty of the headship of Adam, as we looked at this morning, but that now we rejoice that we are under the headship of Christ, that his righteousness is counted as ours. You have this great privilege of peace with God through Jesus as our Lord. And then the verses go on to describe even more privileges. You have the privilege of access by faith. Our point of access is faith in Jesus Christ, as he said in his time here on this earth, he is the door. And I think we can consider it this way, that faith is the key. And I was trying to remember, and I had to confirm with Buck, and he's younger than I am, and he thought my memory of this was right. You might know that I began using my office here in the building a couple of months before we started using the building. So I was given a key that worked this north door. It didn't work the west door, the main entrance, because that lock was jammed. And so I continued to come through that north door whenever I came to the building. And then around the time that we were getting ready to move into the building, all the locks were rekeyed, and I was given a different key that gave me access. But I found out at that time that between when I first was given the key and when the locks were rekeyed that the west door lock was fixed. I had access. I had the key, but I didn't know it. And may it not be that you Christians do not know that you have the key of faith to access into God's very presence. People try all kinds of ways to access, but there's only one way, Jesus Christ, our Lord. People try moralism, I'm pretty good. They try denial, I haven't really hurt anybody. They try it on their own strength, but you only have access by faith in Jesus. A great privilege that you have access by faith. And where does this faith take us? Verse two goes on to say it gives us grace in which to stand. Grace in which to stand in front of in the face of temptation. Grace to stand with confidence in the resurrection, as Paul outlines in Romans 15, the first couple of verses. Grace to stand against the schemes of the devil, as Paul writes to the Ephesians in chapter six. Grace to stand in the very presence of God, as Jude writes in verse 24. And out of him who is able to protect you from stumbling and to make you stand in the presence of his glory without blemish. and with great joy. When people came into contact with God throughout the scriptures, either Old Testament appearances of God or God, the son in the New Testament, they did not stand but fell, quaking in fear. And we probably would also, but we don't have to. We don't have to fall quaking in fear. We, because of access by faith into this grace, can stand before God. And then lastly, in these first two privilege pact verses, what is another privilege that you have? It's joy in the hope of the glory of God or joy in the hope of God's glory. We've all sinned, we've fallen short. However, because of our justification by faith, we can see God's glory. We will be in heaven with God forever. If you have been justified by faith, you will see God's glory. And I have in the outline joy in the hope of the glory of God. The text in the ESV says rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God. But as we look at this in the next verse, we can even boast in the hope of the glory of God. The word that's translated rejoice in both verse two and verse three is more often translated into English as boast. And it's not this, it's not look at me, I'm gonna go to heaven, boasting as if somehow I were the reason for that to happen. But it's look at my God. Look at my Savior. He has saved me and he will glorify me. In fact, we read in our call to worship that our glorification is so certain that Paul writes as though it has already happened, those he has justified. Those He predestined, He also called. Those He called, He also justified. And those He justified, He also glorified. Not just a future hope, but it's so certain that God can speak of it as if it were already done. We have in Christ these precious privileges. But verses 3 to 5 describe at least one more. We can even boast in suffering. We can even boast in suffering. Boast in suffering? Oh, some people do that. You won't believe how much I've suffered. I think I've suffered so much that God owes me. That's not the kind of boasting in suffering this is talking about. Glory in suffering, rejoice in suffering, somehow think that suffering is something to give us joy, to give us even room for boasting in what God is doing, yes. Boast in suffering because God works out suffering for your good. God works out suffering for your good. We read that in Romans 8. We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose. And if you're not suffering, now is the time to embed that verse in your soul, to become convinced of it so that when you do suffer, you remember it. We always have to be careful when we're trying to help people, when we're trying to bring comfort to them in their suffering. Romans 8, 28 is not necessarily the best thing to say to someone who is struggling with suffering. I say not necessarily because it is the Word of God and the Word of God is living and active and powerful. But it may not be the best verse always. Sometimes when people are suffering, the best thing to do is sit with them and weep. But you can boast in suffering because God works out suffering for our good. But not only does God work out suffering for our good, God works in suffering for our good. One writer put it this way, when Paul mentions that suffering produces endurance, he has more in mind than the truism that we grow strong through adversity. More than the boast that whatever doesn't kill me makes me stronger. You've heard that, maybe you've said that. Paul wants us to see that the goal of life is not to find pleasure, but to gain maturity and endurance. Whether trouble comes through illness or poverty or slander, trouble can produce hope because trouble teaches us to rely on God. Trials can seem like random evils that befall us, but the Lord oversees them so they create character and hope. And so you can rejoice or boast in suffering because God works in suffering for your good. Verses three to five, Paul repeats this idea of this produces that, and that produces this, and there's work going on in the Christian. There are things that God is doing even in your suffering. This is not a natural outcome. For the unbeliever, suffering typically leads to bitterness and anger, further rebellion against God, destruction of relationships, you've probably observed that. This is describing God's supernatural work. God working in suffering to produce endurance. Endurance for the marathon of life as Hebrews 12 talks about. Therefore, since we have such a large crowd of witnesses surrounding us, let us lay aside every hindrance and run with endurance the race marked out for us, looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, suffering, God says produces that endurance and endurance produces proven character. Character that's tested and proved genuine, as Peter writes to the saints dispersed in first Peter one proven character of your faith, more valuable than gold, which, though perishable, is refined by fire, may result in praise, glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. We live not far from gold fields. People have spent their whole life trying to find gold in the mountains to the west of us. And God says this proven character is more valuable than gold. And proven character produces hope. Not wishful thinking, not simply hope that the suffering will end, but a settled confidence in God. Jeremiah writes, the person who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is in the Lord, that person is blessed. The confidence that God works in suffering for our good doesn't mean that suffering isn't suffering. We live in a day in which I think some Christians want to deny that or want to ignore that. Most often, as I have observed, Christians facing death, they want to have a celebration of life. And there is life to be celebrated, even for the believer who dies, because though he die, yet he will live. And yet Jesus wept at the tomb of his friend Lazarus. The hymn, it is well with my soul revealed and taught an idea that no matter what I need to say it as well with my soul, but sometimes it's not. Sometimes my soul, like my saviors, is in despair and yet without sin. Calvin says they're recorded in scripture, some complaints full of despondency with which the saints had made for the Lord sometimes depresses and distresses for a time his people that they can hardly breathe. and can hardly remember any source of consolation. But in a moment, he brings to life those whom he had nearly sunk in the darkness of death. Suffering is suffering. Don't take this boasting or rejoicing in suffering to be glib about suffering, to think that as a Christian, you just need to be hap, hap, happy all the time, time, time. Suffering is suffering, but you can rejoice in it because God works it out for your good and God works in your suffering for your good. And so Paul could say we are afflicted in every way, but not crushed. We are perplexed, but not in despair. We are persecuted, but not abandoned. We are struck down, but not destroyed. One writer says this, we can exult in suffering because it is the path to spiritual maturity and glory. The great saints of God, he says, all agree. Ask Abraham and he will direct your attention to Mount Moriah. Ask Jacob and he will point you to his stone pillow. Ask Joseph and he will tell you about his dungeon. Ask Moses and he will remind you of his trials before Pharaoh. David will tell you of his songs that came in the night. Peter will speak of his denial. John of Patmos and Christ of the cross. But you can rejoice, even boast in suffering, because God pours out his love into our hearts. God pours out his love into our hearts, not just a little bit, but gushing out, overflowing by the Holy Spirit, not rationed bit by bit, drop by drop, but given in super abundance. God's love for you is true even in suffering. And the Holy Spirit says to us, the Comforter says to us, while suffering, God loves you. And any thought contrary to that is of the devil. Christians, should you make diligent effort as a Christian? Absolutely. Should you persevere in doing good? Yes, you should. But our sin and our problem is unacquaintedness with our privileges. As one who has been justified by faith, one who can legally say, it is just as if I'd never sinned, be acquainted with your privileges. Because you have been justified by faith, you have peace with God and so much more. Rejoice with me in prayer. Father, work in us for good. cause us to know our privileges that we have in Christ, to boast in them because we boast in you, our God. And Lord, if anyone here is suffering, may they rejoice and boast even in their suffering because you were at work. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.