asked me a lot of questions a lot understandably and a lot of times the questions they ask involve a why why did God do such and such why would God do such and such why did God not do why wouldn't God do and my answer for them is it's always it's usually unsatisfactory because my answer is always I don't know why God would do such that why is a question we're free to ask about God regardless of what it is we're free to ask God the why question but he's not obligated answer and my experience has been usually doesn't and I don't think it's because he's saying well I'm just not gonna tell you I think it's because he is saying if I explain it to you you couldn't understand my ways are not your ways my thoughts are not your thoughts they're higher than yours like the heavens are higher than the earth and so forth and God does not always answer our why questions we wish he would we didn't always do that with that said I want you to look with me at at a tremendous passage scripture from their all tremendous this one is tremendously productive for me Romans chapter five you got verses one to eleven in your bulletin I was a little over ambitious this week so I'm gonna stop at verse eight I'd love to take the whole chunk but there's just no way so Romans chapter five verses one to eight therefore since we have been justified through faith we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God not only so but also rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance perseverance character and character hope and hope does not disappoint us because God has poured out his love into our hearts by a Holy Spirit whom he has given us you see at just the right time when we were still powerless Christ died for the ungodly very rarely will anyone die for a righteous man though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die but God demonstrates his love for us in this while we were still sinners Christ died for us let's pray together Father in heaven we thank you that we have access to you 24 7365 every day of our lives thank you for the word of God that instructs us that illuminates us my prayer this morning as I preach the word of God to the people of God and some who are here today who are not yet part of your people so at the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory you would give us a spirit of wisdom and of revelation the knowledge of him having the eyes of our hearts enlightened we may know what is the hope to which you have called us what are the riches of your glorious inheritance in the saints what is the immeasurable greatness of your power and I assume believe and I pray in Jesus name amen the subject comes up fairly often in the inquiries classes special I teach one week in particular I really kind of dump the theological truck and I give them a lot of for them a lot of heavy theological it's heavy for all of us but all at one time well I've had the theological lifting and I tell them that the Bible does not have in all 66 books it does not have a single book that we would look at and say this book is a systematic theology this book when you start at chapter one and go to the end we'll teach you what you need to know about the Bible about God God the Father God the Son God the Holy Spirit about man about redemption so we're so on we don't have a single book that gives us what we would consider a systematic theology why don't know so we got something to do it but probably the closest thing we get in the Bible is the book of Romans the book of Romans is incredibly deep incredibly rich it's a deep book and men spend their entire life studying it never get to the end of it but the book of Romans is probably the closest thing we get to a systematic theology and here in chapter five man what it has to teach us about how to live the Christian life living the Christian life let me just highlight a couple of things from these verses and living the Christian life faith is the means faith is the means faith is the ignition switch that starts the whole thing up for Christian faith it's the lead off hitter that gets the game going it's the it's the first domino knocks over the others it's the it's the cue ball that puts the others in motions that enough similes for you get the idea faith is the means it starts everything else in motion Paul says therefore since we have been justified through faith let me impact that for a minute therefore Paul says since we are sinners we are made in the image of God but we are as GK Chesterton put it we are glorious ruins because sin has warped and impacted every aspect every area of our lives intellectually and emotionally and volitionally and physically and relationally sin is in fact that every area of our lives and we have fallen far short of the glory of God we need to be made right and therefore Paul says we are made right we are justified what the word means we are made acceptable made right in God's eyes again through by the grace of God his unmerited favor his free gift given to us that we don't deserve his unmerited favor that's what grace is all about God's riches at Christ expense some people use that acronym we are made right in the eyes of God by his grace through faith in Christ alone we should say how many times now I love these conversations how many times I've had the conversation was somebody where I asked them the question what is it that makes you acceptable in God's eyes we talk a lot about our need to accept Christ that's fine why would he accept you why would he accept you or me there's that why question again I don't know except this we are made acceptable in his eyes and let me tell you something answers I get they usually go back to young remember such and such church I've always been remember such as church my parents remember such as church I'm an active member of that church that's good I'm for church membership I'm all for it I am a good person I tried to what do you laugh at that I'm just telling you what they say to me channeling here they'll say they'll say I'm a good person I try to obey the king commandments usually when they say that the unspoken thought is I'm better than most people and preacher I'm as good as you and I think to myself I hope so I hope you're as good as I am I would hate to think in the city of Miami that I am the standard bear for all is good and righteous I hope you're as good as I am I hope you're better because I live in this town I hope you're all least as good as I am but then I ask them the question if it's about church membership which I'm for it's about obedience to the thing commandments which I affirm what does Jesus have to do with that why would we need Jesus why would we need the cross if it was about being good there's more to it than that there's more to it than how we made right God's eyes why would he accept us by the grace of God through faith in Christ alone and when we get hold of that man we get hold of that free at last free at last thank God of money I'm free at last from the burden of trying to be good enough because I know I'm not he's holy perfect and as we just said it as being as wisdom as power his holiness justice goodness and truth he's perfect and all those things I am anything but so I'm free of the burden of trying to be that good I'm made free by the grace of God the faith in Christ alone I think what it must have been like for the slaves when they heard that President Lincoln has signed the Emancipation Proclamation what must have been like for our POW's in World War II on VE day and then on VJ day what is it like for prisoner who hears that he's received a pardon free at last free at last thank God almighty I'm free at last therefore Paul writes therefore we are made right we are pardoned our Lord Jesus Christ we have peace with God he says I want to contrast this for a minute with what the ancient world must remember Paul's writing these words somewhere around 60 AD he's writing to the churches in Rome somewhere around there and at the time at the debut like me did you have to study did you get the privilege of studying Roman and Greek mythology when you were in school I remember and actually had to make a confession I'm kind of big I kind of like this I like those stories so two years in Latin we got to study the the Roman gods and goddesses but you gotta remember for the gods and goddesses for the people at that time my summation of it was that I mean they were they were capricious they were blood thirsty they were my summation is that they were just immortal children you never knew what was gonna tick one of them off you're gonna send a lightning bolt to zap you you never knew and that's the world that Paul writes to the world is superstitious gods and goddesses we don't have to wonder and worry what God's going to do God's spelled it out for us the same writer Paul writes in Ephesians chapter two verses 14 to 18 for Twicken and Jesus he himself is our peace you saw my Jews and Gentiles here who has made the two one has destroyed the barrier the dividing law of hostility by abolishing in his flesh the law with his commandments and regulations his purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two thus making peace and in this one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross by which he put to death their hostility he came preach peace to you who are far away peace to those who were near for through him we both had access to the father by one spirit peace for the Jew Shalom for the Greek Irene it's where we get our word ironic a peaceful person a peaceful situation it's not the absence of conflict no no we don't get that in this life not the absence of conflict but the assurance of God's sovereign control even in the midst of conflict not the absence of conflict but the assurance of God's control in the midst of conflict as they have put it this way in chapter 32 verse 17 and 18 the fruit of righteousness will be peace the effect of righteousness will be quietness and confidence forever my people will live in peaceful dwelling places in secure homes in undisturbed places of rest no foreclosures no home invasions my people will live in peaceful dwelling places secure homes undisturbed places of rest man does that sound good man does that sound good and then Jesus put this way in John chapter 16 you know these words Jesus that I told you these things so that in me you may have peace in this world you will have trouble take heart I've overcome the world peace peace I told you my story I'm not gonna blabber this morning how even as a teenager I wanted morning to have peace if you had known me at the time you would have thought I was an okay kid I was a good kid I wasn't in trouble the decent student better athlete I was a good kid you a you parents you would not have minded having me as one of your kids friends but man on the inside on the inside desperately empty and illities and I had no peace of mind until when night of the youth group meeting that I kind of went to for that at force plus there was a girl there I liked them the ways the Lord mysterious and I went there the youth group meeting and I heard somebody tell me how to find peace with God was the Christ I thought being a Christian was being a good kid so I'm a church every now and then there's more that was not understood that to be a Christian involves an active faith of my part where I repent of my sins and I received the payment Christ made for those sins and I'm making the Lord of my life now's the night I experienced peace for the first time since I was old enough to know what it meant peace is what drew me to Christ what about you what has drawn you to Christ or if you hear this morning I'm so glad you are but if you hear this morning and you've never made that decision you've never engaged an active faith where you've received the payment Christ made on the cross for you let this be your day your day of salvation open up your heart and your mind your soul and receive the payment Christ made on the cross for you and allow him to be the Lord of your life that'll make you acceptable in his eyes because what he has done for us peace therefore pauses we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ so I move the question how now shall we live well he gives us the answer verse two the grace which we now stand we're here this morning because we're so good right because we're just good upstanding Americans we're better than everybody else who are home sleeping off what they did last night or the guys around the golf course or on their boats we're reading the mind we hear all of you might still does that we're here this morning because it's not a shot at them it's just the newspaper industry we hear this one because we're better than those people right no we hear this morning because we know we're not their centers so are we we just know it we just acknowledge it so we hear this morning not because we're so strong committed we're because we know we're not we need the grace of God to stand in this grace Paul says the grace in which we stand so where is our confidence stay with me on this the legalist or the moralist he has his confidence he puts his faith in himself in his own ability to work his way to heaven primarily through the avoidance of certain sin you know drinking and smoking and drugs and sexual sexual escapades and fidelity sexual immoralities the legalist of the more puts his faith his confidence in himself in his ability to avoid those certain sins the liberal on the other hand puts his faith in himself primarily and in his ability to work his way to heaven by doing certain good things by acts of benevolence by giving to certain charities helping out with philanthropic adventures or adventures like habitat for humanity I'm all for those things he puts his faith in himself in his good works pardon my bluntness before the legalist the moralist and the liberal that his function is long what it's just functionally is long it's what the Muslim does he helps to do more good works than bad works and therefore when he dies God the great accountant in heaven will total up his score and he's got 51% good and 49% bad he goes to heaven if 51% bad and 49% good he goes to hell that's legalism and moralism that's the liberalism okay smart guy so what's the answer glad you asked the question the grace focused Christian puts his faith his confidence not in himself his ability to avoid sins and his ability to do good works now our confidence is not in ourselves the grace focused Christian puts his faith in Jesus and in his ability to do the good work that is necessary to make me accessible to God to get me to heaven the fact that he's already done the work necessary by living the perfect life dying the atoning death on the cross the late great rich maul and of course summarizes it for me two very good lines from his song if I stand if I stand let me stand on the promise that you will pull me through and if I can't let me fall on the grace it first brought me to you faith is the means by which we live the Christian life so am I saying theology is not important or Bible says not important or aborting sins is not important or obedience good works is not important am I saying that corporate worship done the right way that that's not important hardly I would never say those things are not important sometimes I think that we in a reform camp sometimes I think that we think that those things are all that's important but God blesses faith ladies and gentlemen those things are important but you read the scriptures God didn't bless good people because there aren't any he blessed people of faith a great faith run Butterfield's a guy that taught mentally disabled teenagers for a lot of years he would look at his students capabilities rather than their limitations by doing that he got him to play chess he got him to restore furniture he got him to repair electrical electrical appliances most importantly time to believe in themselves one young man they bought but really got that lesson one day he came to class with a broken toaster under one hand under one arm and a half a loaf of bread under the other he got it he had faith faith as a writer of Hebrews puts faith as a conviction of things hope for the assurance of things not seen faith is the means folks hope is the result hope is the result verse three not only so Paul says but we rejoice in our sufferings because we know that suffering produces perseverance perseverance character and character hope now I've got to stop here and say something about suffering I need to say is because many of you in here are suffering particularly particularly difficult things right now physical suffering emotional suffering relational suffering I know that not just because I know a lot of your stories and I do you've been good enough to share with me your stories but I know that because as Thoreau said the masses lead lives are quiet desperation quiet desperation I know that because I believe what a preaching mentor told me one time that any group of Christians seven out of 10 have a broken heart I think of anything that might be underestimated so I know a lot of us in this morning are suffering for some of us it's obvious it's a doctor's report it's a wheelchair it's a walker it's an infirmity it's inflicted for some of us it's hidden but I know many of us are suffering so let me say this it's important that you hear me say this suffering is not an aberration it's not a blip on the radar screen oh no what's gone wrong suffering is a normal part of life even for the Christian suffering is a normal part of the Christian experience it is not an indication that you have sinned or the guy is angry with you about something are they punishing you I talk to a lot of people I mean a lot of Christians who think that what's gone wrong with them or even more it's gone wrong with their children it's because in some sin that they've committed and then they'll tell me what that sin was and then they look at me and they wonder what it was that I did and they think well you don't want to talk to this guy now am I a sinner every bit as much as you are my affliction is not because I did something wrong what's wrong with you is not because something to do folks if it was listen if our physical afflictions if our emotional distress is with a result of sin every one of us in here would have cancer and AIDS and Lupus and Lou Gary's disease you get the idea we're all sinners where would God stop I heard Harrison Ford to something funny one time some interviewer said well because Harrison Ford sixty something he's kind of looking he said well did you ever think about plastic surgery and Harrison Ford said well I thought about but where would you stop I like him if God was going to I was going to inflict this because of our sin where would you stop who'd be left now listen I need to say it's possible you're suffering because of your sins if you get drunk and think you're going to drive 95 on 95 and you have been steaming massive metal you don't have to say why me God I can tell you why you're suffering if you engage in promiscuous unprotected sex and you come down with HIV or some other STD you don't have to say God why are you picking on me I can tell you why you got that or if you like to inject yourself with dirty needles and you come down HIV you don't have to wonder why God's punishing you you did it to yourself but folks it was not something of your own sinners stupidity and something happens to you or your child God's not punishing you listen God poured out his wrath for sin on the cross he didn't have to do it anymore his wrath was exhausted and satisfied at the cross he didn't have anything left to take out on you and he can be he can be displeased with you of course he can God's a good father he wants what's best for his children of course he can be displeased with this but he's not pouring out his wrath on you because of your sins or mine if we did that he did that there'd be nothing left I read you from John 1633 where Jesus says in this life you will have trials you will have tribulation Jesus promises but take courage he says or take hard I've overcome the world Paul and Barnabas except for 14 do I do we must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of heaven flip in 129 Paul says for it has been granted to you on the half of Christ not only to believe on him but also to suffer for him first Peter 419 therefore let also those who suffer according to the will of God and trust their souls to a faithful creator in doing what is right they ever heard a joke you can't rip these past the people who will say to you and they will Christian will say to you oh if you were not if your suffering is cut your sin they don't know what they're talking about and they're feeling really good right now their time will come they will die it's not because God's mad at us God poured out his wrath on the cross but we also rejoice in our sufferings Paul says rejoicing and serving how could Paul say that I mean that's just weird that says warped didn't rejoice in suffering how could Paul say how could Paul do that because he suffered greatly because he had his eyes on the goal not the hardship between us and the goal he wasn't looking at the speed bumps and the potholes and the hurdles he was looking at the goal of dying and going to be with Jesus and becoming perfectly like Jesus we know so little of suffering for our faith at least in this culture where you thank God I think what our brothers and sisters around the world suffer in the Sudan in China in North Korea and all the Islamic countries where our brothers and sisters go through those cultures it's kind of unspeakable couple friends of mine were undercover missionaries in a completely Islamic country where it was a crime to be a Christian and they were there doing work and I'm being vague on purpose they were there doing work the government allowed them to do but behind the scenes undercover they were spreading the gospel and then some of my blue whistle on them they were expelled from the country along with five or six other workers and the six or seven people Muslims who'd received Christ were jailed this is I'm talking about five six years ago folks I'm talking about the book of Acts this is the last five or six years and my friends were expelled the Muslims were jailed one young woman I'll just call her Anna it's not her name Anna was jailed and she was not tortured or beaten but she was cut off from a husband and children and threatened what would happen to her she didn't announce Christ and Anna held her ground and Anna stayed steadfast and this is what she said to her jailers she said we have seen Islam and now we have seen Jesus and we're not going back we're not going back do what you want I'm not going back this past Tuesday as a part of a pastor's gathering a pastor's another it's called a freedom form about what we as Christians or we as pastors are allowed to do what we're allowed to say in this current cultural and political climate you know my name of Harry I can't pronounce the last name starts with them it's from Romania he was born and raised in communist Romania some of you that are very young you don't know that for decades Romania was under communist rule and for the last couple decades under the thumb of a brutal ruthless consciousless man by the name of Nikolai Chalkescu and Harry grew up in that culture that was a pastor undercover underground he passed her seventeen groups of Christians at great threat as that was arrested regularly and brought before the police and he's time he was released praise God but he and the other Christians at culture they were threatened harassed you know then we're beaten some of them were killed but it's because of the courage of Harry's dad and others like him they stood there ground until December of 1989 when they had a prayer gathering outside one pastor's home a pastor been jailed and persecuted and in the end 400,000 Romanian Christians gathered at this home and they prayed and they said we're not going to go home we're not going to be quiet we're not going to go quietly and Chalkescu had to leave and flee and communism fell in Romania and fell throughout all what used to be the USSR the Soviet Union it was the faith and the courage of Christians who stood up to the pressures of the powers to be sending happened in Poland Catholic Poland for years and decades under communist oppression but the Catholic Church refused to die and their men by their elect valence and stood up began to organize trade unions who would not not go under the communists the Catholic Church would not lie down to go quietly until Pope John Paul too and I respect him greatly for this went to Poland and says we stand with you you're not alone and when they saw that they were not alone the people around the world were watching with standing with them they stood up and they backed down the communists the communists had to leave Poland in the Soviet Union fell why am I telling you these things folks it may happen here you know me you know I'm not an alarmist you know I don't come in here every week and tell you the sky is falling and the only thing you can do is write a check for thousand dollars to give it to me and I'll fight for you you know I don't do that and I'm not doing that now although if you want to give me the thousand I won't turn it down so what I'm doing but I am telling you that it may happen here that we're Christians we may have a choice to make we do what the government says always stay faithful to Jesus we may have a choice within our lifetime and it could happen with astonishing quickness where we'll have to say like Peter and John did whether it's right in the side of God to do what you say what God says you decide we can help but proclaiming the gospel Christ it could happen in our lifetime so what is my stuff we have to do with that what's your suffering you have to do with these globally maybe nothing maybe nothing maybe something somebody may be watching you what's your suffering what's your going through suffering produces perseverance perseverance character and character produces hope Leon Morris New Testament scholar says there are qualities of character that are forged in the fires of inflection that never emerged in days of careless eaves God uses our sufferings to do things in our lives that ease and plenty will not accomplish suffering is one of the tools that the carpenter has in his toolkit to pry the world suction cups off of our hearts and make us more willing to say not my will but yours O Lord if you want to call me home call me home I'm willing to let go I don't like to suffer anymore than you do and I don't consider myself to know a great deal more about than you do but I know a Paul says suffering produces perseverance perseverance produces character and character produces hope and as I said sitting right here little over a week ago at the funeral of our dear brother Keith Perry I said to you all then I said again suffering is not meaningless it cannot be meaningless because Jesus has suffered Jesus has entered into our sufferings and if Jesus does it it cannot be meaningless notice the Paul says we rejoice in suffering and not for suffering to use different folks that one little proposition we rejoice in our suffering not the cause of our not for our sufferings that would be weird that would be worked but we can rejoice in our sufferings because we know God's going to use it for his glory for our benefit maybe for the benefit of others around us I told you a couple of weeks ago I'm maybe longer ago my good friend my mentor Steve Brown likes to say when a non-Christian gets cancer Christian gets cancer the world can see the difference I don't know that his algebra is exactly right but his point is dead on we get everything the world gets everything the world gets Christians get we're not exempt from anything so the world can look at us and say now how really is your faith to you now how really is your Christian faith to you now that the world's rolled over on top of you God uses our afflictions for his glory for our benefit for the benefit of those around us faith is the means hope as a result when I was in seminary RTS Orlando back in 89 to 92 93 hurricane Andrew maybe take a semester out you all understand if you're here have a seminary class your friend and Miss Susie Susie was one of very few females who took classes at least at that time in our school is almost all men I used to tease Susie and tell her she was the prettiest and best dressed of all my classmates Susie took her own life one summer we didn't know why she can give me warnings she can give me clues but she took her own life and she meant it wasn't accident she meant it I remember talking with a group of friends people knew Susie wonder why would she do that and somebody said doesn't didn't she know don't we know it's Christians that for the Christian we always have no matter how bad it is we always have hope that things can get better we always have hope that things will be better eventually in heaven we have hope that things can get better and one of them said yeah Susie forgot Susie forgot don't forget folks whatever you're going through whatever you're going through don't forget hope things can get better and ultimately they will get better you know Jesus faith is the means hope is a result and love is the reason now I'm back to the wine well I don't always know why but I know on the base of this text why did God do this stuff why did Jesus come and die for us because of love did you notice the flow of the passage by the way faith hope and love you seen that before look at the end of first Corinthians 13 now remain these three faith hope and love and the greatest these love Paul's doing it again faith hope and love verses 6-8 especially this is gospel in miniature you see it just the right time when we were still powerless Christ died for the ungodly very rarely anyone died for a righteous man though for a good one good man someone might dare possibly to die but God demonstrates his own love for us in this while we were still sinners Christ died for us he goes on in verse 11 to call us enemies Jesus didn't die for the good he didn't die for his friends he died for his enemies would you do that there's no way I would do that we do allow your son your daughter to die for an enemy not gonna happen so here's a why question I can't answer why did Jesus come why do you leave this funders of heaven inhabit flesh dwell among us walk our streets breathe our air be subject to our illnesses and diseases take on our nerve endings and our flesh our muscle our sinew our blood now allow those nerve cells and skin cells and muscle and blood to be broken and poured out because of his love for lost men and women young people love makes you do crazy things folks love makes you do crazy things God's love made him do the craziest thing of all send his son to die for us we pray with me my father I do not understand I don't begin to understand this kind of love it is amazing grace indeed and it covers us from beginning to end his grace has brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home it's grace from beginning to end from first to last grace thank you for your love thank you for Jesus name my pray amen amen we thank you for being with us today invite you now to receive the Lord's benediction go now in the love of God the Father the grace and mercy of God the Son the fellowship and companionship of God the Holy Spirit live the life amen