We have been considering the titles granted to this Messianic king that we see prophesying our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ from Isaiah chapter 9, wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting father. In this evening we come to the final title of this coming Messianic king in Isaiah chapter 9. And we read that he is the one who will be the Prince of Peace. Now in light of the context of Isaiah 9, this is a title of unbelievable timeliness.
But what one author describes it this way. He says, imagine the country you once cherished, now divided, broken, overrun by corrupt leadership, imperiled by vast international powers, and seemingly on the brink of collapse. Imagine the best of your leaders crippled by poor character, indecision, and unwise international alliances. The political and cultural conditions in Jerusalem in the 8th century were shaped by these dark concerns and provided the immediate background to the prophecy of Isaiah chapter 9.
And so we understand in light of this passage Israel was rent in two that the northern kingdom had allied and formed a coalition with Syria against southern Judah. And this conflict and prevailing cultural wadiness is the backdrop to the promised Messiah, the one who was called the Prince of Peace. And it's no wonder he might be called the Prince of Peace and they might long for Prince that would bring peace, who will not only usher in peace, but bring with him this idea of reunification or kingdom restoration. We see that the outset of Isaiah chapter 9, bringing back all of God's people to be one.
And while surely this begins as the Lord redeems his people from exile, we see a greater fulfillment of this in the book of Acts. As Samaria was reached with the gospel and so engrafted into the people of God, we consider this in Acts chapter 8. That as that kingdom restoration came by way of proclaiming the gospel and holding forth Christ the promised one and the the Prince of Peace. And so the work of the spirit in bearing light in the Samaritans was the way of being adopted as sons and daughters of God along with you and me.
And frankly this challenge is our understanding of peace. For we ask what should we expect of peace? Because if we consider this Prince of Peace to usher in the absence of conflict or the presence of tranquility, we might be sorely disappointed or wonder at Jesus' power to affect peace. Even today there are some 50 to 60 active conflicts globally at this very moment.
The highest number, some say, since World War II. From Ukraine to Israel, Palestine to Myanmar to Sudan and to other smaller escalations globally, we see anything but global peace. Or perhaps we consider our own polarized culture. In your own lives the conflicts you may know at work or in your families or with your neighbors.
We ask as Jesus truly the Prince of Peace. Well, we also read of the hope of this eschatological peace in the book of Isaiah, the day when the wolf and land will feed together. And the calf and the lion will lie down together and a little child will leave them. Like this, there is a day when we will know a global peace in the new heavens and the new earth, a type of restored creation.
And I believe the glory of this title in Isaiah 9 is not that there will be only peace among men, but rather there can only be peace among men because there is peace with God. And so this Prince of Peace will bear in himself our peace with God. Which brings us to our text this evening from Romans 5. Romans 5 as we see the hope of the Christian to be at peace with God and the one through whom we know peace with God.
Before I read God's word, would you pray with me? Let's pray together. Father, we ask that you would grant us such a blessing. Oh Lord, this evening as the presence of your spirit with us, that you would open our ears and that you would open our eyes.
Oh Lord, that you would renew our minds and restore our hearts. Oh God, that we might have our affections for Christ spoke to this evening. And Lord, we pray that as we see Jesus as we behold Him in your word, oh God, would it be that we would love Him all the more and rejoice of the salvation that has been afforded to us. This peace has been granted to us by Christ.
So God, we pray that you would bless us now. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. This is Romans 5 beginning in verse 1.
This is God's holy and inspired word. Let's give you here. 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 ashamed because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us. For a while we were still weak at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person, one would bear even to die. But God shows His love for us and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
Since therefore we have now been justified by His blood, much more shall we be saved by Him from the wrath of God. For 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. The rest withers and the flower falls.
God's word stands forever and ever. Thanks be to God. Now we have two tasks against us in this passage, really this whole sermon ad-it series. And I remind you one of the difficulties of plucking texts from various parts of the scriptures and studying them is that we don't have the benefits of building and following the flow of an argument in a book.
And surely Romans has an argument. And this is one of the main reasons I think the Church usually benefits from a series of sermons through books of the Bible. We're able to week after week follow along with the author. And have we been doing this through the book of Romans?
We might come to chapter 5 verses 1 and 2 and sing glorious praises to God. For up at this point we would have seen the pervasiveness of sin, the justice of God's judgment, the deservedness of death for breaking God's laws and the universal nature that all have sinned and falling short of the glory of God. We have seen that the law is insufficient to save and it must be through faith, the part from the law that salvation comes. And Paul shows us this, has always been the case going back to Abraham, the great patriarch and father of the Hebrews.
And then we come to this test, which surely and securely rests our hope of salvation in the one who in himself bears peace by way of reconciling us to the Father by his blood. And so from our text this evening, by way of peace we see that we have access to the Father. This is the overarching theme of the Bible. From the days of Adam and Eve's evictions from the garden and the running theme throughout the scriptures is regaining and being welcomed back into the presence of God.
If in Adam we have been cast out, the question remains, well how do we return home? How are we received back into the presence of God? And I don't want you to miss the absolute wonder and glory of this opening verse. In the light of the finished work of Jesus Christ, through his peacemaking we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
No longer fearing and cowering and hiding our face, but we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. We read that we've been brought in. We have been welcomed back. And it's this grace in which we stand that we have been granted access, this grace which we have obtained by faith as a result of Jesus's bringing peace between God and man.
It is this way of justification. Now this is the question Paul is looking to answer how our center is brought into the presence of God. We read this glorious point that through the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ, sinners are justified before God. Peace is brought between God and man now by justification.
And now this phrase seems technical and like one of those five syllable biblical words that are difficult to get our heads around. But what Paul is getting at is the glory of the gospel, that those who the Father has given to the Son don't get what they deserve. But rather through Jesus's work on the cross, he takes our sins upon his shoulders. And we receive his righteousness which makes us right before God.
And this is the grace we have received and this is the long awaited answer to the question, how do sinners come into the presence of the Lord? Well, they're justified, made right, declared righteous in Jesus. And so when the Father looks upon you, when he looks upon me, he doesn't see Zach the dirty rotten center that I am, but his son Jesus to whom I belong and whom I have been hidden to reference union with Christ from this morning. This act of being justified before God leads directly into our being adopted by the Father, being brought into the family by Christ's righteousness means that we are sons and daughters of God.
This is a different dimension, the kind of access that we saw last week or last time the pair will the Father's love for the Son. We've been welcomed back into the family. Think about the Oval Office in the White House, a place of power where presidents have address the nation in times of crisis and celebration. It's been the place of international diplomacy of laws being signed into being and one does not simply walk into the Oval Office, let alone stroll under the grounds of the White House to begin with.
But it's arguably the most well known and recognized room in the White House. And yet there's this famous picture that sticks out to me of John F. Kennedy sitting behind the Resolute Desk smiling at the camera. And if you look at his feet under the Resolute Desk playing in the Oval Office in the midst of the White House, this is JFK Jr.
peeking out from underneath through an open hatch door. Can you imagine being a child having access to the Oval Office, but even more, imagine being a child with this access to the President of the United States. And that's what Paul is getting at here, the access of which he speaks is not merely access to heaven or access to eternal life, but it's access to the Father. And by this grace that Jesus accomplishes on our behalf and the Spirit applies unto us, we get to go home and be with our God forever.
And this is the second aspect because in our sin, remember the wages of sin is death, deserving of God's judgment. In our sin, we should be terrified by the glory of God. For the wages of sin is death and none is righteous, no not one, he will crush the wicked and he will wipe away the unrighteous. When Christ noticed, we don't run and hide, we don't weep in fear, we don't wish the rocks would bury us to hide us from his glory, but we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God.
And we've been granted access, and so we rejoice. And what Paul implies is that we point to Jesus, and when we point to Jesus, our hope is not in ourselves, it's not in our own righteousness, it's not in our own good works, it's not even in our doing bad things less than other people, or even doing bad things less, but solely we rejoice in the gospel of Jesus Christ. So by way of peace, we've been granted access to the Father, but also by way of peace, secondly, we have been granted power to persevere in trials. We have been granted power to persevere in trials.
For Paul moves on in the series, and the series really builds on itself. I think what's so glorious about this passage is that in the flow of Paul's argument, this reads something like a parenthetical statement. It's an aside almost. In fact, I think you can imagine Paul is getting ahead of himself in this passage.
It's almost as if he can't contain himself. It's like myself, I have this problem when I buy my life at Christmas present, it takes everything in me to not just hand it to her the day I buy it. When it arrives at our house, or the moment I walk in the door with it from the store, I've only kind of ruined her Christmas surprise a little bit this year so far. But it's like Paul can't wait to tell us why this is such good news and what this means for you today.
His joy is overflowing. And so he gets to it. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings. And when that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character, it produces hope and hope does not put us ashamed, but God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.
And to understand his progression, we really need to understand the nature of the word hope. In many ways, the way we use this word, hope is not how it's used in the Bible. We think hope is something like wishful thinking or maybe even reasonable wishful thinking. If what our kids might think of regarding presence, you might hope you get something for your birthday or you might hope you get something for Christmas.
And they might even think that you get something for your birthday or Christmas because you put it on a list or you asked for it. But what Paul means by hope here isn't just thinking you might get what you asked for because you asked for it. But hope is more akin to seeing your parents pick it up at the store and putting it in their cart and checking out with it with receipt of proof. It's going home and watching them take the gift and put it in a bag or wrap it in paper, watching them put your name on it and slide it under a tree.
It's hope for you then is that on that day on Christmas morning, you'll get what your parents purchased surely and securely. The RC Scroll says that hope is not taking a deep breath, crossing your fingers and hoping that things are going to burn out all right. It is the assurance that God is going to do what he says he will do in terms of God's promise access to himself, secure through the very blood of Jesus. Nothing and I mean nothing will keep you from what he's promised because to borrow Paul's words from chapter eight, who shall separate us from the love of Christ, shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword.
No and all these things we are more than conquerors who loved us. And so we consider the series. We rejoice in our sufferings. It sounds strange doesn't it?
And so much of our life is spent at aiming to suffer as little as possible. It's the marketing MO of just about every product imaginable. We long to suffer as little as possible and yet Paul says our sufferings are that in which we should rejoice or James saying, count it all joy my brothers when you meet trials of various kinds. Well, Paul connects our suffering to our hope.
And the reason here is that by the way of suffering through suffering, our hope is made sure. And here's a line of reasoning. Our faith is tested in the midst of suffering, suffering of all kinds of different shades. Like the runner who pushes themselves long distance or the bodybuilder who lifts heavier and heavier wakes its trials in the midst of the Christian's life that strengthens their faith.
And as such, we are able to press on in the strength that's been granted to us by the spirit that produces endurance. The Christian presses on because they've been strengthened in many ways by their suffering to press on. But notice that endurance here leads to something unlikely. We might not associate perseverance with character typically.
What we see here is a character that has been tried and has been strengthened. It is the substance of that faith that perseveres. It's the cumility of the one that's been brought out of sin and restored. It's the joy of one who has seen death in sickness and illness.
It's the contentment of the one who has known days of little to nothing. It's the trust in the Lord of the one who has been sinned against abandoned or betrayed. It's this character that perseveres. Other translations call this patience.
But this word gives to the activity of patience, not passiveness, but growing and living God he lives is what we do while we patiently wait for that day. Would we behold the glory of Christ fully? What do we call home to glory when he comes again? This peace with God brought by Jesus means that even through suffering and even through trial because that we have this peace even through suffering and even through trial because this peace with God bears with us through our dark days, bringing about a strengthening of our faith and enduring character that produces hope because through the spirit we see the end of this peace.
That's not the kind of peace that exists when you tell siblings to stop fighting and get along with each other. That's a fragile peace at best. I'm sure you know it. A false peace at worst.
But this peace is one that reveals to us by the spirit, the love that has been poured into our hearts. And so lastly, we see by way of peace, we have been granted the assurance of pardon through the blood of Jesus. We've been granted the assurance of pardon through the blood of Jesus. By way of peace, we have this.
And this is the glory of God's love for you and for me. You know, the Christmas season brings with it for better or for worse hallmark movies, which I think I've maybe said here before that it's something that my wife loves hallmark movies and I've been gradually willing to see the thing that I secretly love them too. But so often, the love and trust makes some extravagant display of their love. The scrooge of a big city publicist falls in love with a local Christmas tree farmer who's followed on hard times.
And she learns not only love the tree farmer, but Christmas and refuses her big corporate promotion to live on the Christmas farm happily ever after. There's always some grand display of love in these movies. And yet it all pales in comparison. These grand displays of love that we have come to associate with this even holiday, to that which Paul lays out for us here.
This piece in the means to which peace is made is evidence of grand display of God's love for you. Listen to these words. For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly. For one will scarcely die for a righteous person, though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die.
But remember, Paul's point, there are none who are righteous, no not one, you are not the good person to whom one might scarcely die. But God shows his love for us that while we were still sinners Christ died for us. Since therefore we have now been justified by his blood. Much more shall we be saved by him from the wrath of God.
For 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. Now, there's actually a lot here.
And I'm not sure how long Scott took to get through chapter five in his Sunday school, Sunday school lessons, but we will not be able to unpack everything in these verses more than enough for many sermons is the content here. But here's what I want you to come to see. When God says, I love you, it's more than just mere words. It's more than a phrase he utters towards us.
But it's with all that God is that he loves you. And before we get wrapped up in some fuzzy, valentine's hallmarked sense of love, you need to see the run of Paul's reasoning here. And I'm going to summarize it for you. It simply says this, God loves you and you don't deserve it.
God loves me and I don't deserve it. And honestly, there's not an earthly comparison that will ever come close to capturing the essence of what Paul has in mind here. I've tried to come up with some example or some illustration, but they are so far inferior to the gospel as it's presented here that nothing will compare. God loves you and you don't deserve it.
This is the beauty of the gospel. And so Paul concludes, God loves us and we don't deserve it. And if God loved us when we don't deserve it, the deserving, sending his son to die for enemies of God, how much more sure and certain can we be without a shadow of a doubt that we will be so utterly saved by his life, meaning as Christ has been raised again from the dead, how surely do you live with him and in him? It's through Jesus that we've been granted through and real peace, peace before our Father in heaven not receiving just wrath and condemnation for our sins, but being welcomed as sons and daughters of God, peace in this life we live right now in a peace that we can take to the bank and we can rest upon it surely.
Now, what I want you to see from this passage is that again simply good, through Jesus Christ and the peace he brings to bear in us, we know Jesus who is our wonderful counselor, our mighty God, our everlasting Father, and we can rejoice that he is indeed our Prince of Peace. We know the glorious benefits of these aspects because through Christ there is peace between God and man. What you think of this? What is it that the angelic host sings and announces at the birth of Jesus?
Look at course that and suddenly there was with the angel of multitude of the heavenly hosts praising God saying, glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among those with whom he is well pleased. How on earth can God be pleased with you and with me? In what world can God look upon sinners like me and say, I am pleased with Zach? Well, surely this love, this pleasing that God looks upon me is not exact but it's in his Son because there has been peace brought.
It's not the absence of war or the presence of tranquility but peace brought about and bought by the blood of Christ, the one who came to live and to die and to be raised again that we might have life forever with and in and before God forever. Let's pray again. Would you pray with me? Father, we thank you for in your eternal counsel, O Lord, you saw fit to make a way that we may return.
O Lord, when we were by nature children of wrath, we were at enmity with you. You were rebels clamoring for your throne and yet you saved us, it redeemed us. Father, we thank you that you have given us every reason that we might gather here on your day to praise your glorious name. Father, we pray that you would hide these truths in our heart and that you would have us wonder and marvel at grace with his hours of love and his hours that we might be welcomed into your presence through Jesus.
And so God be asked that you would fill us with all joy, with all praise, with all submission, with all humility. Father, we might seek to love you and know you. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.