Good to see you. If you’ve got a Bible, go ahead and go with me to Romans chapter five. And as you’re getting there, let me commend you men, recommend to you that you do go to that Theo Doxo. It’s going to be amazing. I know at least one of the messages that’s going to be involved in that is from Tom Pennington. He’s the senior pastor over at Countryside Bible in South Lake. And he, I’ve listened to the message years ago, he brings it. And if you were raised in any kind of cookie church where they blamed their insanity on the Holy Spirit, come to that Theo Doxo. Nobody? Okay, well, I came from some of that. We were part of, some of that way back in the day. And boy, I’ll tell you what. It is great to know what the Holy Spirit isn’t doing for some of you, I guarantee that’s going to be wind in your sails. Hope you get to do it.
Okay, I don’t really like sermon titles, so I didn’t even try. Because I really, I can’t even imagine Jesus right? Standing up and going “And now the title of this message is ‘Sermon on the Mount’”. So, I didn’t even try. Title of the message is “Pleased to meet you, stand here” (Romans 5:2a). Okay? You’ll see why. I don’t want to explain. I don’t want to talk about it, and don’t email me. Romans chapter five. I’m going to read one and two. “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” And then we’re going to focus on these statements in verse two, “Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand…” And so we’re going to focus on really the different translation of the term “access”, you’ll see what it is here in a moment and “the grace in which we stand.” Those are going to be the 2 point message. You’ll be out by the time the playoffs are on. Rejoice. Go Cowboys. They can still pull it out. Yeah, being a Cowboy fan, thanks for derailing me. We don’t need the Scripture. I’ll just talk about this. It’s like being in a dysfunctional relationship. You feel like your abuser has your best in mind. I think Jerry loves me. You know, I really.
Point number one. Point number one. Our introduction.
1 . “Our Introduction”
Now, introduction, not an introduction to the message, but rather the term used in the verse. You say, “Well, I didn’t see that.” Right. Let’s read it again, Romans 5:2. Now, again this is in the ESV. Nothing wrong with the English Standard Version. I started teaching on an ESV when I got here because that was the Pew Bibles that they had, and so I’ve continued to do that. I know a lot of you read an ESV. Nothing wrong with it. I read it. I like it. But there are sometimes the word choices are not as literal as they need to be. This is one of those times. Okay, so when he when it says here “Through him, we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand.” The problem with that word is it’s not strong enough to give the full picture of what this word is actually saying. The word is better translated “introduction” because what’s talked about here is not the access whereby we can continually come into God’s presence, continue, continually approach the throne of grace, to find grace and to help in time of need. No, that’s not really talking about that. Now, all those things are true, but they are a result of the introduction that we’ve been given, literally to God and God to us. Let me show you this translation in New American Standard. It says, “Through whom also we have obtained our introduction (there’s the word ‘our introduction’)…” That’s New American Standard. Here’s the LSB, which is different than the LSV. This is the LSB. It says, “Through whom, also, we have obtained our (again) introduction…” There it is. That’s the better choice of words. The Greek word there literally means it’s the act of bringing to. It’s transitive in the sense in classical Greek that this is something that happens one time. We are introduced. There’s only one time you’re introduced somebody, and if you already know somebody, and somebody tries to introduce you, you would say what? “I already know them.” You know, “We hang out, and I’ve got his number or whatever.” And that’s what this word is talking about. Through Christ, we’ve obtained our introduction, and it’s important that we use that, because we’re not talking about walking out our discipleship yet. Chapter five is still talking about the peak of justification. It’s still the immediate context. It’s still what the Holy Spirit is driving home, so that we have security in who we are in Christ, so that when we start dealing with sanctification in Romans 6,7, and 8. We’ll have a firm foundation so we don’t get shaken off of it. That’s how important this is. If you don’t use a strong enough word here, you’re going to kind of lower the standard, if you will, of what this word actually means. It means an introduction. If you are in Christ, there was a day, if you will, that you were introduced to God, and God to you. Now you say, “Well, that doesn’t make sense. God’s omniscient. He always knew me. He knows every single person. He knows everything. The hairs on my head are numbered, which is much easier for some than others.” Right? He knows you. But there’s an intimacy of knowledge. You can know about somebody, you know everything about somebody, and yet not have a personal relationship with them. That’s why we need the right word used here, or we lose the sense of what the apostle is actually doing by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. It’s important that we use the right words even if access is still it’s effectively a word. It’s effective word but it’s not the right one.
Let me give you an example of why that’s important. My kids, when they were little, they used to chase me. My little kids would chase me and I would run from them because I didn’t have any more money. No, they chased me. It was a kind of a game they like to play, because I I get freaked out when I get chased by a child. It’s weird. I think it’s a weird movie I saw back when I was a kid. There’s just these little kids, you know, it creeps me out to the bone. Now, some of y’all, that’s all you remember from this message, and that’s sad. Well, one day I was probably, I think I was in my early 30s, 33, 34 and one of my children, whose name, I won’t mention, her initials are Micah, was chasing me through our house. And we had a house where you could run around several places, where you could keep going in a circle, and I’m fleeing for my life. There’s nobody else at the house. Kelly was gone so the child’s just going wild on her dad, chasing me fearlessly and fiercely through the house. I go running through the bedroom, and I was going to make a curve around the master bathroom. Master Bathroom had a door in and a door out, right? So, I was going to make this curve and try to escape from this little creature. I forgot that the door going into the bathroom was much more narrow than all of the other doors. And I didn’t mention this but I was barefoot when my right pinky toe smashed full force into the door jam and destroyed my toe, broke it in three places, crushed it. I fell down and all I could say was, “Call mom!” It’s like a little boy, “Call mommy!” I’m not going anywhere with this. I just wanted you to feel sympathy. No. I fall down and it breaks, and it’s the worst pain, one of the worst pains I’ve ever felt. And I’m there yelling and I’m crying out. You know, my foot turns black, not just blue but black. If you’ve ever had a broken toe like this it was horrible. And I had to walk in, like even up into the pulpit. I pastored, and I walking up into the pulpit like this. It was really bad. And people would ask, “What happened to Steve’s foot?” And this is what Kelly was telling people, “He stubbed his toe.” You getting me? “Access”? “Stubbed”? I didn’t stub my toe. I said, “Please stop telling people that I stubbed my toe. I looked like the wimp. I destroyed my toe. I almost lost my foot. That door was an IED. Are you kidding me? Why are you doing this?” She’s like, “It’s true.” I was like, stubbed your toe? You know. And then we had marriage happen. I wanted the full force of the word. And we need the full force of the word here, or we’re going to miss the full force of its application. It’s not talking about the going in and coming out from the presence of God in prayer, although this is where it starts. But this is different. This is much different. That’s why the word needs to be translated correctly. That’s why I’ve gone to such lengths to drive it home.
Look at the same root word here, 1 Peter. Same root, 1 Peter 3:18a says, “For Christ also suffered once for sins the righteous for the unrighteous (look) that he might (look) bring us to God…” “Bring us to God.” Same root as introduction, He brings us to God. That’s something that God does. That’s something that Jesus actually does. He brings us to the Father. Now after that introduction, yes, we have intimacy, yes, we have access. Do we walk with the Lord? Yes, we do all of those things are found at its inception right here. It’s not talking about today Jesus will bring you to God again. Well, now He is your intercessor. He’s your High Priest. He is the one Mediator. I get that. But in Romans chapter five, as well as here in 1 Peter 3, it’s talking about a moment when you were introduced to God. This is much like unto you being introduced to a king, or, in Roman terms, to the Caesar. Brought in and a herald calls your name out, says who you are. You’re aptly dressed, and you will approach the throne and you meet this king as it were. That’s the tense in the Greek. That’s the classic Greek history in the word and that is not the same as the ongoing intimacy. This is the start of it. Why is it so important? Because this is permanent. It’s permanent. The introduction is a permanent introduction. It is a one-time introduction that never ends. In other words, it’s not that you were introduced and then somehow God can then forget you. It’s not the way it works. Ephesians 2:13 says it this way. “But now in Christ, Jesus, you, who were once far off, have been (what?) brought near (how?) by the blood of Christ. What’s that talking about? Justification. That’s talking about the day you were saved. That’s talking about regeneration. You were far off but by the blood you were what? You were brought near. You were introduced to the king, and the king introduced to you.
Now, this is very important. Why? Because there are some people who claim to know Jesus, who claim to do things in Jesus’ name but listen to me carefully, they’ve never been introduced. They’ve never met the Lord. They don’t really know Him. They’re not really regenerate. What they’re doing is they’re playing Christianity. And they throw around the name “Jesus”. And they say, “Jesus”. And they bind things in Jesus’ name, and they yell out, “Jesus”! And they think they can tell the devil what to do. They pray like they can tell God what to do. Jesus speaks about these people in Matthew chapter seven. I want to give you the contrast because contrast brings clarity. Look in in Matthew 7:23. Right? Remember, people show up. Jesus says, “Not everybody that says, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom.” He says, “Many on that day will come and say, ‘Lord, we did all these things…’” He says this, “And then I will declare to them (what?) ‘I never knew you. Depart from me. You workers of lawlessness.’” You says, “He never knew them. What does He mean?” It doesn’t mean He didn’t know about them. It doesn’t mean He doesn’t know their sin. It doesn’t mean that He does not know what they’ve done and what they’re about. It means they’ve never come into relationship. Why? Because there was never an introduction. He doesn’t say, “I used to know you and then you left.” No, “I never knew you”. That’s what He says to them. This is someone who cannot say that Romans 5:2 is talking about them. Now that leads us to a question because in a room this size and multiple services and people watching online and another, there are going to be people that are at least going to somehow ask themselves this question, “Oh, no, what if I’m one of these people?” Right? If you’ve ever read Matthew seven and thought, what if I’m one of these people? Well, let me ask you a question, Does the thought of you being someone that the Lord would say that to upset you? Does that bother you? Does that concern you? Does that cause you to feel dread? Does that cause you to tremble inside? Look at me. It’s not you. Because the people who it is don’t care. They don’t care. They absolutely do not care. Jesus says this in John 6:37, “All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me, (‘whoever comes to me;) I will never cast out.” Let me say it to you this way, every one who wants Jesus gets Him. Everyone. Not one single person in the history of time listen, Old or New Testament will ever say, “I want God. I want His Christ. I want His way of salvation. I desire this. And mean it from the heart.” And when I say Jesus, I don’t mean the Jesus of “He gets us” commercials. I don’t mean the Jesus of “The Chosen”. I mean the real Jesus from scripture, who is the King of kings and Lord of lords. Anybody that wants Messiah, Jesus Christ gets Him. He doesn’t turn anybody away. So, if it’s your heart and you say, “I do. I want the Lord. I want the Lord to know me. I want the day of my death to be a homecoming where I go to be with the Lord. That’s what I want.” Listen, that’s the Holy Spirit did that in you. That’s not your mother, that’s not your father, that’s not religious guilt because you were born in America. Prayer, the Holy Spirit did that in you because you were born at enmity against God, and He’s changed your heart to want Him and to love Him, and if that’s you. And let’s say you’ve never had that thought, but you have it now, cry out to Him. That’s where you ask Him, “Jesus, save me. I want You. I want to know You. I want to love You. Change my heart.” There’s really no magic prayer. That’s really all it is. You find yourself believing, and you realize I do I love the Lord. Now it doesn’t mean you love Him perfectly. Doesn’t mean you love Him as you should but you love Him. That’s proof that someone is not going to hear I never knew you. Why? Because you’ve had the introduction Jesus says in Matthew 11:28, “Come to me all who labor and heavy laden.” What does that mean? That they had a hard week of work? That they have a heavy backpack? No, this is spiritually, that they realize, these are people who realize “I can’t make it to God. I can’t stand before God in my own merit. God’s not going to be pleased with my life”. “Come to me, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Rest from what? From the weight of your sin. He’ll take it. And anyone who comes, He doesn’t turn anyone away. That’s incredibly good news. We get asked pastorally a lot. Well, you know, “How do I know if God’s chosen me?” Well, do you have a heart for God? Do you desire that? Yes, then He has, because that’s how it works. He’s created that heart in you. And everybody who comes can come, and they can come freely.
Let me read you this out of Revelation 22:12-17. Jesus says, “Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done.” That’s a scary term. I don’t want to be repaid for what I’ve done. I want to be repaid for what He’s done because that’s the divine exchange. But he’s speaking in terms of judgment and how to escape it. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are those who wash their robes so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside (that’s outside the kingdom) are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star.” Watch verse 17, “The Spirit and the bride (now, what’s that? That’s the Holy Spirit and the church. But what do they say?), ‘Come’…” To who? to Jesus. Here’s a question for you. Is it your heart that Jesus would return? Nobody but somebody who’s regenerate wants that. Somebody is regenerate if they’re saying that the God of the Bible, they want His Christ to return to Earth. “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come’ and let the one who hears say, ‘Come’…” Is there something in your heart that says “Yes, now would be great.” Yeah. I would love to have this sermon interrupted. Oh, don’t get that happy about it. Some guy’s like, “Oh yeah, please. That’d be great.” “…Let him who hears say, ‘Come’ and let the one who is thirsty for (what? Mountain Dew? No) thirsty for the living water. Let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires to take the water of life without price.” The one who desires, let them come “Take the water without of life without price”. You can have it if you want it. It’s free and it’s there for the taking. Don’t feel held off. Why is this so important? Because we continually try to convince ourselves that we’re good enough to come into the presence of God. Jesus is the only one good enough to go in the presence of God. And He went in the presence of God for you. And He’s the only way you get to the presence of God. That’s what the introduction is about. Come and be introduced before God’s throne. He is the one who can bring us before God. We certainly cannot. All our righteousness is filthy rags before Him, we are simply not dressed for access into the courts of the Almighty, but our Redeemer, our Advocate, our Mediator, our Great High Priest, our Champion and King, has conquered sin, defeated death and our enemy, the devil, and has overcome the grave and now takes us by the hand, having called us to Himself, clothes us in royal white robes of His very own righteousness, and leads us into the very presence of God. God Almighty, not by the merits of our own name, but by the merits of His very own name. And thus, we are presented, introduced to God. Beloved, washed, forgiven, justified, adopted, holy, righteous, secure. Made new, rescued and redeemed, all to the praise of His glorious grace. That’s the introduction. Out of that you have constant access. Yes, but that’s what Romans 5:2 is actually talking about.
Here’s point number two, this grace in which we stand.
2. “This Grace In Which We Stand”
Let’s read it in the text, Romans 5:2 again, and this is NASB. So we keep the language the same. “Through whom, also we have obtained our introduction by faith into look this grace in which we stand…” So, think of it this way, you’re brought in, there’s an introduction, and then by grace, which is unmerited favor, you stand. In other words, you stay there. You’re brought in and you’re introduced. And in the introduction of who you now are, it remains that way for eternity. Why? Because of you, because you earn it? No, if you earned it, it wouldn’t be grace. It’s by grace that you remain in the position that you were introduced into. This is very important. This remains the same no matter what. And so now what we say is, we’re what? We’re now under grace not under law. Here’s the difference, under the law, you got what you deserved. Under grace, you get what He deserves. Under law, the soul that sins will surely die. Under grace, it’s what? Jesus Christ has given us faith by grace. He has saved us. One cost you dearly, and the other is actually free because it costs Jesus dearly. The standing is positional and it is not circumstantial. It is positional. When you are adopted in the family of God, when you are justified before God, it is something that is permanent. It can never be taken away. It can never be mitigated. It can never be distilled down. It will never be drained of its potency. Lloyd Jones says it this way about this, “We have had our introduction to God, and we stand before Him in an entirely new manner, and now God looks upon us with grace and in a gracious manner.” I don’t know about you but my religious upbringing was Catholic, and in Catholicism, God’s always mad. He’s just mad. He’s like permanently mad. And Jesus came, and He made a way for you to cooperate somehow with your works, and maybe you’ll get into heaven, and if not, they got kind of a mini hell called purgatory, and you can just sit in there and cook for a while. Mind you, that’s nowhere in the Bible. It’s a doctrine of demons. But then Jesus, He’s really busy, you know, because He’s got a lot of people praying to Him, and so He kind of subs out the work to the saints, sometimes His mom, sometimes a different saint. And so, you can’t really get to God because He’s mad. Jesus is really busy. Maybe Mary will listen to you, but, you know, she’s pretty popular. So, you pick some other saint, and you go to the saint, and maybe the saint will talk to His mom, and then who can refuse His mother? He’ll listen to His mother. Maybe He’s somewhere in that chain of command, you’ll get answered to. That’s belched out of hell. There is a mediator between God and man, the man Christ, Jesus and we have our introduction to the king through Him. You don’t need a priest. You have a high priest and you come directly to Him. He’s not austere, He’s not off-putting and trying to keep you back. But see what we do is we tend to take experiences, usually from childhood or maybe from your parents, or maybe a failed marriage, maybe a horrible authority, or maybe a maybe a terrible church experience, and we take those experiences, and we tend to look at God through this lens of, “Is that what You’re like?” instead of who He really is. Who is a God who is gracious. And He’s a savior, by His nature and His name, and He brings us and introduces us to God Almighty.
Jesus says it this way. Luke 12:32, I love this verse. He says, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” He wants to do it. He’s happy to do it if you will. He’s pleased to do it. He’s thrilled to do it. He’s quotes that He is dancingly happy, if you will. Singing over you with shouts of joy to have you come in. Now, the problem with that is our unbelief says, “I know me. I’m not even that excited about myself.” Yeah, God sees you as He sees Christ, John 1:14 & John 1:17, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father (full of two things) grace (that’s unmerited favor) and truth (that’s an accurate description of reality)”. Jesus always tells the truth but He does it with a gracious motive. Do you understand that? Jesus will tell you. Jesus will warn you in the scripture that He will send you to hell if you don’t repent and believe, but He does it in a gracious manner with a gracious motive. Now we know people. Maybe you’ve met people who they know how to tell the truth but they just don’t have any grace. You ever met that guy, that gal? It’s like, “Hey, did you pay for that haircut?” I remember when I was in school, right? The old joke, “You’re ugly and your mother dresses you funny.” For some people, maybe that’s true. Maybe their mother dresses them funny. Maybe they’re not really ugly but they kinda half-truth. But that’s not gracious. Where to speak the truth in love. When you come to God, you’re coming through Christ, who is the picture, if you will, the icon, the very image of what grace and truth meeting together. He tells you the truth but it’s always with a gracious motive. Verse 17 says, “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” We’re under His grace because He fulfilled the law. And that’s how He now sees us. This is fundamental, see? Because when we get into sanctification, there’s going to be a lot of light shining on you and me. We’re going to see ourselves the way the Bible really does describe us, in a way that is redeemed, yet still in the process of being conformed to the image of God’s Son. And if you don’t have this foundational security of your position in God because of Christ, what will happen is that will knock you around. It will blow you around. It will cause you to perhaps stumble. So, here’s the thing we want to be strong in this doctrine. So, when we get to sanctification, we can become strong in it and rightly understand it. So positionally, is what we’re talking about.
I want to refer you to a parable that Jesus gave. It’s typically called the “Parable Of The Prodigal Son”, right? And you know the story, one son comes to his father. Jesus tells the parable, one son comes to his father. He says this, “Give me my share of the inheritance.” In other words, “I want it now. I don’t want to wait till you’re dead.” It’s kind of like I wish you were dead because I just want the money. He takes it. He goes to a foreign land, like San Francisco, and he just blows it in this trash town on, you know, wine, women and song, and he ends up dead broke. And then a famine hits. He can’t find a job. He ends up feeding pigs. His head is in the slop. He’s eating some of the husks and some of the things this Jewish, we would assume, a Jewish boy eating this, this junk with pigs. And then all of a sudden, he realizes, why am I doing this? He says it’s better for me in my what? Father’s house. Now, what we got a note in there is that his father’s house because that is still his father and he’s still a son. Listen to me, he went and did in the Jewish Pharisaical mentality that would disqualify him from ever coming back to a father’s house. What is Jesus saying? He’s saying that’s not how God is. Let’s pick it up in Luke 15:20-24, it says, “And he arose and came to his father (after all he’d done), but while he was still a long way off. (Look at this) His father saw him. He felt compassion, and he ran, embraced, and kissed him.” Pop quiz: who is Jesus talking about really here? God. He’s talking about our Heavenly Father. He’s talking about God the Father. And we have this image that somehow, if we’ve walked so far into sin, or we’ve done something so bad now, that somehow if we turn and we say, “I’ll return to My Father”, that He’ll be there saying this, “I don’t want you. I don’t know you. You’re no longer My son.” That’s not what this is saying. What this is saying is, although he did that, he ran a million miles away, but all he had to do was turn around one time. He was seen a long way off and God runs to him. That’s a picture. That’s a picture of someone who is positionally standing in a relationship. Now the intimacy is breached, right? Sin breaches intimacy like nothing else. It’s a killer. But that doesn’t mean the position. It does not change. So, what does he do? Verse 21, “And the son said to him, ‘Father…’” And they’re just going to be honest with you, some guys are going to hear this, some gals are going to hear this and this is your prayer life. If you were honest, this is actually your prayer life. “…The son said to him, ‘Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you, I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’” Here’s a little secret: he never was worthy. He was never worthy. Not in the application of the parable, he’s not. He was never worthy. And this is how people feel. “I’ve run from God. Pastor, you don’t know what I’ve been doing. You don’t know what I’ve been into.” No, but I know what He’s talking about here. He’s saying when a heart changes, that is something that God has done. If the introduction has been made Christian, you can be running from God 1000 miles. He’s one step behind you. And what does He wait with? He comes to you. He meets you where you are. He embraces you, He kisses you, and He doesn’t just stop there look! “But the father said to his servants, ‘Bring quickly the best robe and put it on him and put a ring on his hand, and shoes for his feet’”. I cannot get over this. I don’t want to get over this. This is what position is like. He never stopped being a son. And people are afraid of this parable because it’s like, you’re going to give all these people all this license to go out and do all this sin. It’s like, “No, that’s not what a changed heart does.” Love fulfills the law. When this changes your heart, breaking His heart is the last thing you’ll ever want to do. You need to see this. You need to hear this. You need to get this down in your spirit. If you’re His, it’s permanent. It’s permanent. He doesn’t write in the book of life with pencil. It’s written in the blood. “‘And bringing the fattened calf (he says) and kill it and let us eat and celebrate. For this my son was dead (he’s still the son. It didn’t change. The circumstances changed, but the standing didn’t) the son of mine was dead and is alive again. He was (what?) he was lost and he’s found’. And they (begin to do what?) they began to celebrate.” If your image of God is that, if you go back to Him and you start walking with Him, or you decide in your heart right now to pray that He’s going to be like this, “Where have you been? You know, I’m in San Francisco too.” Sorry if you’re from San Francisco. No, I’m sorry if you’re from San Francisco. That’s not God’s attitude. We have to change that because what we tend to do is we tend to put the masks of the way people have acted toward us upon a holy God, and He’s not that way. and He is holy. He’s justice, and He is the judge of the universe, and He will judge, but He is extend grace now. He’s extending grace. And it’s always this, “Come, come”. That’s the gospel call, “Come to me”. And those of you, those of us that have we have a standing in that grace. We’ve been introduced, and we now stand in that grace and that is permanent and it is absolutely solid.
2 Peter 1:13 and 2 Peter 3:1, kind of say the same thing. Peter writes, “I think it is right, as long as I’m in this body to stir you up by way of reminder.” Do you know how you get stirred up to the truth in your heart? It’s by way of reminder. That’s how it works. It’s not through the strumming of your emotions. Also look at 2 Peter 3:1. “This is now the second letter that I’m writing to you, beloved, and both of them, I am stirring (look), I’m stirring up your sincere mind by way of reminder.” That’s why you need the gospel preached to you. That’s why we teach the Word of God, and we impact it with the whole counsel of God because it stirs up our hearts and it stirs up our sincere mind to what? To think rightly. Because everything in our human experience tells us, if you blow it too much, He’s done with you. Not. His grace is greater and the blood speaks louder than your sin or mine.
I want to read you a prayer. Ephesians 1:16-21 and think about this in light of what you now understand Romans 5:2 means. Paul is writing this to the church at Ephesus right where Timothy was a senior pastor, and he loved those people dearly. He knew them intimately. He says, “I do not cease to give thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. (Watch the prayer) That the God of our Lord, Jesus Christ, the Father of glory may give you the spirit (watch), the spirit of wisdom (that’s the ability to see the end from the beginning) and of revelation (that’s the ability to see things that you didn’t formerly see but they were already there) and the knowledge of him (in other words, something that is cognitive, something that is able to be held in the intellect).” His prayer is wisdom, revelation and the knowledge of Jesus. That’s what he’s asking for. And this is what it looks like, “Having the eyes of your hearts enlightened that you may know (that you may know what?) what is the hope to which he has called you. What are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of his great might, that he worked in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him (look at this, “and seated him” Couldn’t find it in that text right there) at his right hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule and authority and power and dominion and every name that is named, not only in this age, but also in the age to come.” Now what is the prayer saying? that we would see all that Jesus is to us, for us, and where He is now. You say, “Well, how does that apply to me?” Well, that’s not the end of this of the epistle. With that in mind, fast forward to Ephesians 2:4-7. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, he made us alive together with Christ, by grace, you have been saved (that would be the introduction) and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.” Listen, if you’re a Christian, you’re seated in heavenly places. You’re like, “I think I’m on Lamberth, somewhere, right near Walmart.” Not circumstantially seated, positionally seated. You’re positionally seated with Christ in heavenly places. That’s what the Bible is saying that our eyes need to be opened to this, not just to the information, but to the wisdom and the revelation of it in the knowledge of Him. And that’s something only the Holy Spirit can do. I can yell at you till the cows come home. It won’t change your heart. But if the Holy Spirit takes these weak words, His words aren’t weak, mine are but if He takes His word and opens your eyes to see it, you’re going to finally understand it. I’m His kid. That’s the spirit of adoption, and you cry out from the heart, “Abba Father”, we’ll get to that in the years ahead. That’s wonderful, but this is the foundation of it, and it is a secure place of grace where we stand. And then he ends that thought with this, “So that in the coming ages (think about that there’s “coming ages”), he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Did you know you’re going to spend eternity finding that out? You know what you can do right now with that? You can believe it, you can actually believe it. But if you’re in Christ, you got your introduction because of what Jesus did. He brought you to God, and you are in grace and you firmly stand. We never lose our standing but we sure do tend to forget. And this is why the church is constantly to be about the reminding of the saints who they really are because of who Jesus really is.
SPEAKER
Steve LeBlanc
KEYWORDS
Romans, Justification, Gospel, Grace, Law, Truth, Access, Introduction, Permanent Introduction, Justified By Faith, Peace With God, Positional Grace, Grace In Which We Stand, Jesus, Father, Holy Spirit, Eternal Security, Parable Of The Prodigal Son, Intimacy, Wisdom, Revelation, Knowledge, Worthy, Online Sermon, Lloyd Jones, Catholic, Grayson County