Saint Luke Ev. Lutheran Church of Watertown-WELS

Sermon delivered by Pastor Anthony E. Schultz

Holy Trinity Romans 5:1,2 June 3, 2004

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gain access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

People of God—rescued from the flaming lake of fire in hell by the innocent blood of the very Lamb of God:

A lady named Ramona died this week down in Puerto Rico. It was in all the papers. You see, Ramona was old—so old she was in The Guinness Book of World Records. Ramona was 114 years old. Wow! Can you imagine being born in 1890! Just think of all the things she saw in her lifetime! People flying—Orville and Wilbur Wright—to people walking on the surface of the moon! She saw electricity run out into the country and plumbing move indoors. Telephones from something you cranked—with operators and party lines—to cameras that take pictures and video. Television—from two or three channels with snow—in black and white to high definition satellite with remote controls and big screens. She saw World War I and World War II, Korea and Viet Nam and wars in the Gulf. Ramona lived for 114 years. But now she is dead! I wonder if Ramona knew that Jesus died on the cross to wash away all her sins. I wonder if Ramona knew that Jesus lived a life without sin—then died in her place—so that all her sins are forgiven. 114 years is a long time in this world. But it is nothing compared to eternity! Tonight—as we celebrate the Holy Trinity God’s Word is forever law and gospel instruction and encouragement.

We Have Peace With God

1. We are declared not guilty through faith

2. We stand in God’s grace

This is where we have the paragraph about the background of the book from which our text is taken—Paul’s letter to the Romans. The People’s Bible volume about Romans was written by Professor Armin Panning—my Greek teacher at Northwestern College—my teacher at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary, too. Professor Panning points us to essential New Testament Church history—the power of the Holy Spirit spreading the Gospel. Remember the Apostle Paul—near the end of his 3^rd missionary journey—about to return to Jerusalem—bringing thankofferings from God’s people—for the relief of Christians in Jerusalem. Picture the Apostle Paul in Corinth—during the winter or early spring of the year of our Lord 57. Although the Apostle Paul had not been to Rome yet—he wanted to go there as soon as the Holy Spirit would enable him to. In the meantime—what Paul could do—was send this powerful letter—by means of a lady named Phoebe. You couldn’t just write a letter on a scroll—put it in a tube with a bunch of stamps on it—or give it to the UPS guy! You needed a trustworthy and willing friend to hand deliver your message. That’s what Phoebe would do with the original letter to the Roman believers. What a blessing to the Romans to receive this inspired message from Paul. What a blessing for Paul—to be built up and encouraged by the Roman believers. Paul told them early on, “I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.” Romans 1:11,12 What a blessing it is—when Pastors build up their lambs and sheep—and the sheep build up and encourage the shepherd!

Sometimes it seems like the world is in a terrible state—as if it has never been worse. And yet—when you study Scripture—you realize it has always been terrible. Paul wrote to the Romans, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.” Romans 1:18-20 Have you ever felt badly about people who live in the rainforests of darkest Africa—the people in rainforests of the Amazon—people who don’t have all the steeples of downtown Watertown? God’s Word says even these people are without excuse—without excuse! Our Heavenly Father has put his fingerprints and his footprints everywhere. You cannot deny the existence nor the greatness of God made powerfully obvious by everything our Heavenly Father has made. The rain in the rainforests—the forests in the rainforests—the thunder and the lightning—the wind, the wild animals—the insects—the miracle of the birth of babies! The stars that twinkle in the darkest night—where there are no streetlights to make them dim—all point to the greatness of God.

The problem—of course—is in our hearts. Paul told the Romans—“For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened.” When we sin—we sin against better knowledge! Over time—refusing to acknowledge God only makes our lives worse and worse! “Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised…Because of this. God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” Our Heavenly Father is very clearly talking about homosexuality. It is our Heavenly Father who calls it unnatural, indecent and a perversion. Understand that. It is our Heavenly Father who says to live an openly gay and homosexual lifestyle is unnatural, indecent and a perversion! That is why it is wrong. Not because people who are afraid call it wrong. It is wrong because our Heavenly Father has called it wrong. There follows a grocery list of painful hurtful sins that flow from a heart of sin. Since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things, but also approve of those who practice them.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ… We have been justified—declared not guilty! Lots of times when I am done doing Pastor jobs—I like to watch TV programs and movies about cops and robbers, murders, crimes and trials. I like it when justice is swift—60 minutes minus commercials—from when the terrible crime is committed until the judge lowers the boom and pounds his little hammer! I could be wrong—but lately—it seems—more and more of those TV trials end—with the bad guy getting off on some technicality—or for some inexplicable reason—the jury says—not guilty—and the prosecutor sits there dumbfounded—the witnesses confused—the victim mortified—and the bad guy smiling. I hate that! And yet—the fact is—we who are guilty are declared not guilty. Not because our lawyer is so clever—but because Jesus has been found guilty and been punished in our place. We are set free because Jesus was condemned instead. Justice was served. We were spared for Jesus’ sake.

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ… A lifetime—by God’s grace is made up of some 25,000 days. A lifetime is made up of thousands and thousands of ordinary incredibly average days. Again and again we wake up. We roll out of bed into bathrooms—into showers. We drink cup after cup of coffee and orange juice. We eat bowl after bowl of cereal. We eat doughnuts. We drink sodas. We have lunch. We work some more--sometimes pretty hard—sometimes not so much. We have supper. We watch TV. We cut the grass—drag plastic bags of trash to the curb. We pump gas into our cars and grumble about the price. We change the oil. We watch the Packers. We cook out. We buy birthday presents and Christmas presents. We go out to eat. We go to sleep. Toss and turn and wake up and do it all over. And then—all of a sudden—someone we love dies and we can’t believe it! We think—somehow—we will just keep on having those ordinary—incredibly average days forever! And we don’t! I was pretty little when I heard a sermon that said—our Heavenly Father seems to tolerate many things. Being ignored is not one of them! We cannot ignore the simple fact—the wages of sin is death. The precious good news is this—the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord! Peace with Jesus because of peace from Jesus changes everything!

Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ… We have peace with God. That’s all that matters! How much money you have—or how many bills you owe—doesn’t matter! How big the screen is on your TV—doesn’t matter! How many rooms in your house—how many stains on your carpet—how much dust on your furniture—doesn’t matter! How fancy the lcohtes in your walk in closet—doesn’t matter! How thick the steaks on your new gas grill—doesn’t matter. How thick your lawn—how many little dandelions—doesn’t matter. How many different things your cell phone can do—how thin your laptop computer—how many video games you have for your X-box—doesn’t matter! All that matters—all that counts—is the historical fact that Jesus died to wash away all your sins. What is a person profited—if you gain the whole world—but lose your soul? Since we have been justified through faith—we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…

We have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand. We had a funeral yesterday for a lady who worked some 40 years in a lumber yard. If you have ever bought lumber—it’s kind of interesting. You go out by this huge stack of boards—with your little yellow receipt with you. The worker starts to work through the stack. They pick up the boards—one at a time and look at them. This one is a little crooked. Push it aside. This one has a knot hole that is busted. This one is a little warped. This one has a scrape. Again and again you push boards aside. This one is pretty good. Good enough? OK! Boards are kind of like people. We are flawed. I don’t just mean cuts and scrapes and flaws on the outside. We are all flawed on the inside. Speaking only for myself—sometimes I am impatient. Sometimes I am frustrated—driving behind people who must have much more time than I have. Sometimes I feel too sorry for myself. Sometimes I am frustrated—when I am trying very hard to do something very carefully—and something entirely beyond my control fails—and what I was trying to do fails! The precious good news is—Jesus was a carpenter who not only made things out of wood. Jesus died on pieces of wood all rough and splintered and stained with blood and sweat and tears. Jesus died on rough splintered wood—to save imperfect fatally flawed sinners like me. Jesus died so that we are in a state of grace—redeemed, bought back, forgiven. Because of everything Jesus did we have peace with God now and forever. Amen!