Good morning. Romans chapter 5. Once again, we're at verses 10 and 11, which will close out Paul's argument on assurance here. Well, not completely on assurance. He just takes a different Way of supporting our assurance in Christ in verse starting in verse 12 it starts another section so But we're going to spend our time this morning Finishing up here with verses 10 and 11 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 all right so there there we are and that's what we want to um look at a bit more than this morning. Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word. Thank you for this great salvation in Christ and the assurance of our salvation that you've given to us here in your word. We pray that your truths here would strike us, that we really would experience this rejoicing in you. for all that you are and everything that you've done. And so we commit this time in your word to you, ask that your spirit would empower it to us, and we pray this in Christ's name, amen. All right, well, you remember, then, this whole section here, starting back in, well, actually in verse 1 of this chapter. Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, Then he goes on to give us all kinds of assurance and results of that justification. We have peace with God. We have access into the presence of God. We rejoice in the hope of the glory of God and so on. And even in our perseverance in times of suffering and trials and so on, we can still rejoice. So all of these things, the activity of the Holy Spirit within us, pouring out this assurance of God's love for us in us. And then particularly here at verse 6, for, because, it's like, okay, let's think this thing through together now. While we were still weak, that is, without any ability to set things right with God in and of ourselves. No ability at all to even believe. the word of God because we hated the word of God. So while we were in that condition, while we were ungodly, while we were still sinners, we were Christ. Well, Christ died for us. God shows his love for us in that. While we were in that condition, Christ died for us. And so the whole point here is to give the Christian assurance of salvation. And it's a very reasoned and logical argument here, which he sums up then in verses 10 and 11. For we shall be saved by him from the wrath of God on the day of judgment. Because, for, think about it, if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his son, much more, right, much more than, since God's already done the greater thing, giving his son for us while we were still his enemies, Much more, now that we are his children, now that we've been reconciled to him, surely we're going to be saved by his life. And saved what? Well, specifically from the wrath of God. Romans 8.1, there is therefore now no condemnation, right? no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. And more than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have received reconciliation. And we looked, we considered the fact that what Paul is talking about here in verse nine, being saved from the wrath of God, right? Well, there, the wrath of God means that wrath which is to come upon this world when Christ comes again. There was a couple of verses, I don't know if we looked at it or not, but 1 Thessalonians chapter one here, chapter one, verses nine and 10, for they themselves report concerning us the kind of reception we had among you. And how you turn, he's talking to the Thessalonian believers, and how you turn to God from idols to serve the living and true God. And to wait for his son from heaven Right? That's talking about what? The second coming of Christ. Waiting for his son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, Jesus. And here it is, who delivers us from the wrath to come. So clearly, the wrath to come is when Christ is revealed from heaven, when Christ comes again. And he will judge the world then in righteousness. And that judgment for the world and all the worldlings, all those who are in the world, love the world, that judgment means wrath. His wrath is his judgment. Hell and so on. By the way, if anybody were to ask you what a Christian is, right, one of the ways you can describe a Christian is a person who what? Who has heard the gospel of Christ, received it. See, he talks about, they themselves report, concerning us, the kind of reception we had among you. Paul's saying, we came and we preached the gospel and you received it. You believed it and you received us. There's one way. You receive the word of God. You believe the gospel. A Christian is one who has turned to God from idols. What's that? That's repentance, right? To serve the living and true God. A Christian is a person who serves the living and true God. And a Christian is a person who is waiting. waiting for his son from heaven. And finally, a Christian is a person whom Jesus has delivered from the wrath to come. All those points right there, and ways that we can apply those to ourselves. And tell a person, this is how you can test yourself. Have you turned from God? Have you turned from your idols, from your own ideas of God? to the true God in Christ? Are you serving the living and true God or some God of your own imagination or whatever? Are you waiting for his son from heaven? Well, at any rate, but the point is then the wrath to come is when Christ then comes again. So those are some of the things that we've been looking And let's go back to Romans here now. And so here is this argument on assurance, assurance of salvation. That's what we pointed out before, this volume, Exposition of Chapter 5 by Lloyd-Jones. This edition is from Zondervan. The title is Assurance, because that's what this Romans chapter 5 is about. How can I know that I'm saved? We can know that we are saved. I think I've mentioned before, the Roman Catholic Church says anyone who teaches that a person can be assured of their salvation, assured that they're justified before God, anyone who believes that or teaches that is anathema. set apart for God's damnation. Think about that. A little side note here. Why would Rome hate the doctrine of assurance, besides the fact that the Roman Catholic Church is anti-Christ? Why would the Roman Catholic Church hate the doctrine of assurance? Well, it's because her whole system is built upon keeping people in bondage to the Roman church, the hierarchy, the priesthood, their supposed sacraments, and so forth. You can't be having people assured of their salvation in Christ because you'll lose control over them. You'll lose power and control. You've got to keep them believing. that they cannot have any assurance of salvation. They have to keep working at it. And the only way that this salvation is going to be dispensed to them is through the Roman church, its priesthood, its so-called sacraments, and so forth. So you've got to keep people in bondage. And that's what Roman Catholic people are in, whether they know it or not. They're in bondage. But clearly, the Bible makes it very plain that we not only can be assured of our salvation, but we need to be. We need to believe that. We know. Look it. Think it through. If Christ died for you, God set his love upon you while you were an enemy of his, then surely now that Christ has died for us, He gave his son to die for us while we were his enemies. Surely now that we're reconciled to him, that we are his children, we need not fear the wrath to come when Christ comes again. Now, what we want to look at here is the last part of verse 10. we shall be saved by his life now we know that we are saved by his death we worked that out of course that's Christ atoning redeeming death on the cross his shed blood for our for our sin Christ we were reconciled to God by the death of his son much more that being accomplished we shall be saved by his life. Now Paul puts this in a future tense because the second coming of Christ is future and that's what he's pointing us to. Not only can we be assured of our salvation now because God loved us while we were still his enemies and Christ died for us. But we can always be assured of that, including on the day when Christ comes again. We will be saved by His life. Now, that's interesting, isn't it? We're more familiar with being saved by His death. But how is it, in what way is the Christian saved by the life of Christ, right? The life of Christ. And that's what we need. There's several ways. Those are things that we want to look at right now then. So, first of all, there's this little word, by. we shall be saved by his life. You know, there's, in grammar, there's these words called prepositions. And they're really, really important. They're usually little short words. In, through, by, these kinds of words. And sometimes they carry, often they can carry different nuances here. So, for instance, let me hit this, see if I hit the right button here or not. Okay, here we are. Notice that all of these translations, New American Standard, we shall be saved by his life. The King James has the same thing, saved by his life, as does our ESV version, by his life. And so, you know, when the experts, Greek experts, are consistent in translating something by the same word here, and we need to be humble, right? We're not Greek experts and so forth. They had reasons for saying we are saved by his life. But nevertheless, there is another little nuance here of this business of being saved by Christ's life that comes out in that word, Buy, because this, I wish I had this other one here, let's see. Let's see, can I kick this one on here? Will that go on here? Yeah. This one, just ignore the numbers here for a minute, it's just kind of a tool. Save, buy, okay. This little word, buy, is you see, I don't know if you see my, the window there very clearly or not, if it's big enough, but it's N-E-N. All right, that's that little word that they've translated by. But it can be translated, and of course you look at the context to decide which nuance of a particular word, particular preposition should be used. These translators said, by. Now, by has the idea of what? Instrumentality. So we are saved by the instrument of Christ's life, okay? that little N, that little preposition, can also mean in. Sometimes it can even mean on, right? So there's room for some different little nuances here, right? So let's go back here. Where are we at here? All right. Saved by his life or in his life. I want us to think about saved in his life Because both of these, you know, both of these things are true that happens a lot That being saved by his life maybe that has More reference to, and maybe that's what all these translators were thinking of, his resurrection, all right? Clearly, his life. Christ is not dead. He's been raised from the dead. And obviously, we are saved by his death and by his resurrection. is if Christ was not raised from the dead, we would not be raised from the dead. When we finish chapter five of Romans and we get into chapter six, Paul's gonna talk a lot more about this thing of being joined to Christ. And specifically, that when Christ died, we died. one, and that is this theme of the Christian is a person who is what? In Christ Jesus. We are in Christ. That is to say, that's why this imagery of we are members of his body. We are one with him. Christ, okay, God made a promise to Abraham and to his seed. And Paul says in Galatians, seed with a capital S, in other words, Christ, okay? So Christ being a descendant or seed of Abraham, then the promise made to Abraham by God, which is the new covenant, salvation in Christ, is that promise belongs to Abraham's heirs, specifically his heir, his seed, who is Christ. When we are born again by faith in Christ, the Holy Spirit regenerates our heart. He does something else. He joins us to Christ. He places us in Christ. so that we also then become children of Abraham and New Testament language all over the place, heirs according to the promise, okay? So, being in Christ, in the promise of Abraham, is to be an heir of the promises, salvation in Christ. So this is a whole big theme of being in Christ. Now, so if we think about that little nuance here of this preposition, we shall be saved in his life. Now, in what other way is the Christian in Christ? the life of Christ? Well, we have passed out of death into life. We have been taken out of the realm of darkness, kingdom of Satan, and transferred into the kingdom of Christ, into the light. And it seems like one of the things Paul is saying here, we shall be saved by his life or in his life, is that look at, surely while we were in, if while we were in the darkness, in that realm of death and condemnation, if then God set his love upon us and sent his son to die for us, so we've been reconciled by Christ's death, surely, Think, reason it out. Surely now that we are in the realm of the life of Christ, in his kingdom, in the realm of light, surely we will be saved because we are in his life then, you see? See, you once were darkness, that's where you were, but look, he's taken you out of that and he's put you into the realm of Christ and in his life. And there's probably all other kinds of ways. So here is, we're saved by his life, by his resurrection. were saved by being in his life. Because to be in Christ is to be in salvation. It's to be in life, in the realm of life, rather than death. That's where we are now. And you can never go back. You are in this realm. And God's condemnation is not upon that realm. It doesn't enter into the picture there. Also, what else is true about the life of Christ and how it saves us? Well, it's kind of a present aspect of it, too. Here's a good quote by Lloyd-Jones on this. Because Christ continues forever, That is to say, because he is alive forevermore, he has an unchangeable priesthood. He's quoting out of Hebrews here. A priesthood that never ends, right? Therefore, he is able to save them to the uttermost, that is to the very end, all those who come to God by him because he always lives to make intercession for them. So here's Christ and he's raised from the dead. He is our high priest making intercession for us and that will never change. So So when Christ comes again and wrath comes upon this world, we are going to be saved from that wrath because we have a great high priest and always will have, you see. He always lives to make intercession then for his people. Let's see here. There's a reference here to 1 John 1. And it is, if we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, We lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with him, with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. kind of a present ongoing thing once again. His life, his death because of his blood, but also his life keeps cleansing us then from all sin. And then we'll go to the next chapter here. My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you may not sin, but if anyone does sin, we have an advocate. See? Christ is alive. We are saved by his life, and another aspect of his life is what? He is our advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And it doesn't say he was the propitiation for our sins, and he was on the cross, but he remains. He is always the propitiation for our sins. Okay, so there's all kinds of references here to how our salvation is also from the life of Christ. All right, well anyway, I think that should be pretty clear then to all of us here. Let's go back again. Where are we at here? Romans 5, 10, there we are. Okay, we shall be saved then by his life. Now, verse 11, more than that, and that's a significant statement, more than that, I wonder how, let me check something out here, just a minute, Romans 5, 11, This is kind of like a not only that, I guess. Not only that, but also. Not only that, but also. And incidentally, just a note here, I know you can't read this, but this part of not only that right here. It comes first in the sentence. And in Greek, when they wanted a boldface underline, something for real emphasis, they stuck it at the beginning of the sentence. Not only that, and that's how they've translated it here, too, into the English. So Paul's really emphasized this here. Not only that, but also, here's another thing then, okay? So more than that, we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Everything comes back to Christ, remember that. Our rejoicing, our salvation, now our salvation on the day of judgment, all the blessings of heaven, our new heart, everything, everything is through our Lord Jesus Christ. And any preaching, teaching, whatever, ministry that does not make much of Christ and focus on Christ, something's wrong. It's easy, and it's easy to forget. It's easy to get caught up in little nuances and details and so forth and forget that everything is because of Christ. But Paul says, now here's something else. More than that, here's something else. We also rejoice, there's the word, in God, through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation. Now this is interesting here because Paul says rejoicing in God. Now he's mentioned rejoicing before in this chapter. If we back up here, since we've been justified by faith, we have peace with God. And notice again, see, it's through our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul always brings us back to that. Remember, it's all because of Christ. But he goes somewhere. He goes down here to verse two. 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. And we talked about that. This rejoicing in the hope of the glory of God, and we said that also is a present and future thing. The glory of God here, he's talking about not only do we rejoice when God is glorified, but especially it's talking about our certain hope that Christ is coming again. God, that's the glory of God. When Christ is revealed in the heavens and he comes to judge the world in righteousness and he ushers in the new heavens and the new earth and he raises us up in our glorified bodies and we rejoice in this This hope, it's certain, we have been given this certain hope. It's not like a cross your fingers and hope it happens. It's a certain hope, all right? And we rejoice in that as Christians. He also mentioned rejoicing in verse three. We can rejoice in our sufferings. Right. Why? Because God uses our sufferings to give us even more hope because it proves our character. It gives us assurance that when we suffer, our faith perseveres. God causes us to persevere. It doesn't fail and put us to shame. So here's this rejoicing that he talks about here, rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. But when we come down to verse 11, it is rejoicing And then it's the outbreak of the pack here, when the male lady comes. It's the same male lady. Every day it's the same male lady, but high point of their life, I guess. Anyway, so, but here in verse 11, we also rejoice in God. Interesting, isn't it? We rejoice that Christ is gonna come again. We rejoice in our salvation. But this one here is a little, it's more direct. We rejoice in God himself. And this is only possible, once again, because it's through our Lord Jesus Christ, because he has affected our reconciliation with God. It's all because then of what God has done in Christ. But the Christian is a person who rejoices in God himself. That's what this is talking about. Rejoice in God himself. The shorter catechism. right? Westminster, Shorter Catechism, and so on. What is the chief end of man, right? In the end, when it's all said and done, what's the real fundamental purpose of man, his reason for existence, right? What is the chief end of man? The chief end of man, sometimes I get this backwards, the chief end of man is to worship God and enjoy Him forever. Here's another way you can answer the question, who is a Christian? What is a Christian? A Christian is a person who worships God, the God of the Bible, and who enjoys God, right? Enjoys God. That's what Paul's talking about here, rejoicing in God himself. One way you can tell, or at least have some serious doubts about whether a person is really a Christian or not, is whether they are rejoicing in God himself. What does that mean? It means to rejoice in everything that God says, everything that God does, and everything that God is. It's to praise him for all of those things, right? Now what do I mean, this is kind of a test. How many times have you heard people who claim to be Christians even, right? But not only do they not really rejoice in God for who he is, what he's done, and everything that he says in his word, but they're always questioning him. Right? Well, God, you know, I'm not sure that this is right. I'm not sure. I recently heard a short sermon by a good preacher, and he was talking about God's judgment, you know, in events that happen. Your town burns up. Flood or storm wipes out your city. These kinds of things. And we see, we believe this is the hand of God. He's providentially sovereign, oversees everything that comes to pass. And certainly when, for example, a culture, a city, a nation is sinful in rebellion against God, has been walking in sin, and your city burns up, well, it's time to sit back and ask yourself some questions, right? Why has this happened? What is God telling us in regard to this? That's what a Christian will do. Okay, that's what we believe. This is God's hand. He's telling us something for our good and for his glory. The phony Christian or whoever, well, they'll come back and say, God, now, oh, you can't say God, God wouldn't do that. That's what, that's not what my God is like. Well, it might not be what their God is like, but it's like, but it is what the true and living God is like. These are the kinds of things he does. And we rejoice in it. We rejoice not only in his, salvation of sinners, His salvation, His grace, but we rejoice and we will rejoice on that day when Christ comes again. We'll rejoice in His glorious justice, right? In His glorious justice and when He affects that perfect justice. We rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We rejoice in him for his salvation in Christ. We don't say, well, surely, God, there must have been another way. You know, all this business about Christ dying on the cross and, you know, all this stuff in your word about sin and condemnation and total depravity and man's deadness in sin and inability to even have a free will and so on. I don't think that's right. Christ just came to give an example for us to follow and then it's our free choice and all of this stuff. That kind of talk identifies a person who is not a Christian because a Christian knows the Lord and rejoices in him for who he is, you see. Think of the, let's see here. Well, what do you think so much of the Psalms are about? Right? Have you ever wondered, is it, I think it's in Ephesians 5, let me look over here, and then we'll come back to the Psalms in a minute. But Ephesians 5, and down towards the end here. Paul says to us, addressing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody to the Lord with your heart, giving thanks to God always and for everything to God the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, all right? Now, what is this all about? How come Paul is saying that we as Christians in the church, we sing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs. We sing and make melody to the Lord in our heart. Well, it's exactly what Paul's talking about in Romans 5.11. Rejoicing in God. Rejoicing in God Himself. Have you ever thought about this? Think about this. You go to church, Lord's Day, okay? Christians, we gather together. Part of the worship is what? Singing of hymns and psalms and spiritual songs. Now, we won't get into the fact that there's a lot of phoniness in churches today involving that. We're talking about the genuine thing here, all right? Biblically sound music. Why is that? Where did music come from? I mean, that's a whole issue we could talk a lot about. Where did music even come from? I'm not talking about the dissonant, ugly, wicked stuff of the world, but real, real music, well, came from God. He's given it, he's put this within a person. When we see a person or when we ourselves, you know, when you're out doing something and you're singing or something, right, or humming or whistling, then, well, why? What does that tell you? It tells you that you're joyful at that moment. That person is happy. And if what they're singing about is the Lord, it's because they're rejoicing then in the Lord. Well, so the Bible contains A hymnal, right? Or more properly, a psaltery, the book of the Psalms. I don't know what the tunes sounded like back then there, but just some examples here. Psalm 33, here we go. Shout for joy in the Lord, O you righteous. Praise befits the upright. And then you'll get down here to, oh yeah. Give thanks to the Lord with the lyre. Make melody, here comes the music, to him with the harp of 10 strings. Sing to him a new song. Play skillfully on the strings with loud shouts. for the word of the Lord is upright." See, it goes on to talk about the characteristics, the attributes of God, and his deeds, and so on. He loves righteousness and justice, and so this rejoicing in Lord, praising the Lord, and oftentimes that praise, that rejoicing in the Lord is done in the form of singing, of music. Music is a remarkable thing. I'm certainly, I'm no expert on it at all. You know, think about it. The fact that a human being can sit down, pick up an instrument, and, well, with much practice, Interesting, some people don't have to practice nearly as much. It always blows me away when you see these people that they can't read a note off of a sheet of music. They just sit down and away they go and start playing. That's an amazing thing. It's obviously something that God has given. But Paul's telling us that we rejoice in God himself. And that's what the Psalms so often are talking about. You can go right to the next Psalm here, Psalm 34. Blessing the Lord at all times. His praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul makes it boast in the Lord. It's boast in the Lord. Let the humble hear and be glad. Oh magnify the Lord with me. and let us exalt his name together. I sought the Lord, he answered me, he delivered me from all..." So here's David exalting and praising God, rejoicing in God, for all that the Lord is and what he has done, okay? So this is what Paul is talking about here. We could go on and on and on. Lloyd-Jones uses the example here in Luke chapter one of Mary's, what we call the Magnificat, the Magnificat, right? And my soul magnifies the Lord. and my spirit has rejoiced in God my Savior." That is what Paul's talking about here in Romans 5 11. You know, the Christian We also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, you see. So you think about, you know, this is what makes great hymns. Sometimes in the history of the church, there's been hymns and songs, and still is today, that are superficial. Uh, they're just basically empty sentimentality or or things that are designed to just. be expressions of shallow feelings and so on. You know, let's work up the crowd, this kind of a thing. What makes a hymn or a piece of any, or another, as Paul says, a spiritual song, what makes it great? Well, what makes it great is that it does this. It rejoices in God for who he is. for what the truth he's revealed to us and what he's done for us then in the Lord Jesus Christ. So there's a couple of verses that are examples here. The hymn, come thou fount, come thou fount of every blessing, tune my heart to sing thy grace. That's rejoicing in God. Or doxology. By the way, doxology, doxa, don't say, doxa, is the Greek word for glory, doxa. So doxology means giving glory to God, right? And what does it do? Praise God from whom all blessings flow. Praise him all creatures here below and so on. So the doxology is rejoicing in God. Here's another. verse out of a hymn. Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven. This is what God has done for us in Christ. Who like him his praise should sing, right? Singing his praise. Philippians 3. Rejoice in the Lord always. And again, I say rejoice. This should be the norm of the Christian's life. And as Lloyd-Jones notes, there's something seriously wrong with a person who professes to be a Christian, but you don't see this joy in. This doesn't mean that we're walking around constantly singing, that the Psalms are filled sometimes with grief. and so on. But it does mean, if the overall tenor and habit of a person, characteristic habitually of them, is moroseness, or this, as we said earlier, always questioning God, rather than rejoicing in Him, then something's wrong. Either the person is not born again at all, Or they simply have not ever truly understood justification by faith alone in Christ alone. They've never got it. And next time we're going to look at several reasons. why a person who professes to be a Christian is not rejoicing in God. And then we'll plan to move on to the new section, which as you can see here, the ESV gives the title correctly, Death in Adam, Life in Christ. There it is again, right? In Christ. We plan to pick up those things next time. Father, we thank you for who you are, for what you've done for us in Christ. Thank you for the truths you've revealed to us about yourself and your word. We pray that we always would give you praise, that we would make your name large and great, and that we would rejoice in you always. And we pray this all in Christ's name, amen.