Benefits of Justification, pt. 4

Romans 5:5-10

Ill.—How do I get the air out of this glass?

The love of God is the 5th benefit we find in our text.  And it goes together with the 6th benefit we'll see in a few minutes.

It's God's love for us, not our love for Him we find.  And this passage may be the greatest in Scripture on this subject.  The most overwhelming truth in the Bible is that God loved sinful, fallen, rebellious mankind.  He loves us not because we are lovely or lovable.  It was while we were still dead in sin.

It's like He dug up an old casket in the graveyard and peered inside and said, "Oh, how I love you!" He saw potential in what He saw.  And if He loved us that much when we were still His enemies, how much more does He love us now?

“Scarcely for a righteous man”

Today we have a warped view of love/lust/infatuation.  Even when it is real, we talk more about it than we show it.  We say it more than we mean it.  But God demonstrated/proved it.

v. 5b        'shed abroad'  This is the first mention of the Holy Spirit in Romans.  The Spirit in our hearts is the 6th benefit of justification, and the fact that He is deposited in our hearts is proof positive of God's love for us!

1. The Spirit is our guarantee of heaven.  [seal=ownership, earnest=down payment/deposit] Ephesians 1 does away w/ the concept of losing your salvation.
2. The Spirit makes God's love real to us.  'Shed abroad' in our hearts.  It means 'poured out'.  Imagine a bucket poured over your head.  It's not a picture of drops or a trickle, but an immeasurable downpour that overtakes you and leaves you breathless.  An outlandish, lavish outpouring to the point of overflowing.

John 7:38
He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

It can only flow out because it has been poured in!

Before salvation the Spirit convicts...after He communicates...the love of God!  He makes it real...actualizes it!

3. The Spirit places the power and the presence of God in us immediately at the moment of salvation.

Many believe you get saved and then wait and hope for the Spirit.  I don't want the Spirit to CALL me, CONVICT me, CONVINCE me, and then CUT and run, abandoning me right after I agree...and I assure you on the authority of God's Word that's not what happens.

We can draw on the power of the Spirit from that very moment.  These 4 things happen, and you don't seek or ask for these:

• Regeneration - your dead Spirit which died in Adam is quickened...brought back to life!  Born Again of the Spirit!
• Indwelling - He takes up residence in us, Col. 1:27.
• Baptism - this is the 'shed abroad' thing...not water baptism.
• Sealing

But there is one other ministry of the Spirit we are to ask for and seek...the filling of the Spirit.  He may be resident but we need to seek to make Him president!

Ephesians 5:18
And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit;

It doesn't mean you get more of the Spirit, but He gets more of you!

ill.--why do they say cows give milk?  You have to fight for every drop.  A city slicker bought a cow to save money, and she went dry.  He asked a farmer why?  "Did you milk her every day?"  No.  "When you did milk her, did you take all she'd give?"  No, just a bowl here or a glass there.

        That was the problem.  And so it is w/ the Spirit...we should seek all we can get, not just what is convenient...or don't be surprised if we run low!  We need to seek the filling on a daily basis!

You say, when I got saved I had victory and joy, and could say no to sin easily, and now it has been a while and I seem to have run out of gas.  It may be that when you first got saved you were filled w/ the Spirit but didn't realize that is a continuous command to seek after.

Paul said, "I die daily."  He yielded himself to the Spirit.  He laid aside the flesh.  We are no more expected to be sanctified in our own strength and power than we are expected to be saved of our own accord.

ill.--a drunkard got saved and immediately quit drinking.  A few months later he walked down the street and he had some business to do next to a tavern he used to frequent often.  As he got close he got nervous...he broke out in a sweat and stopped dead in his tracks.  He didn't think he could pass by w/out going in.  He was flat scared!  What am I going to do?

He turned around went the other way to a diner and had a buttermilk.  Then another...pour me one Sam!  He got so full he had no desire to turn into that tavern!

        That's silly, but it's exactly how it is supposed to work w/ the filling of the Spirit...no room for sin!

D.L. Moody stood before a crowd one day and asked, "How can I get the air out of this glass?"  Suck it out w/ a pump!  "No, it would create a vacuum and it would shatter."  Other suggestions wouldn't work.  Moody simply filled it w/ water, and all the air was gone.

Like me, do you have a besetting sin?  You think about giving up because it gets you down so often...you can't seem to get permanent victory.  You feel guilty and you are reminded often of your king sin.

        Yet you know that you don't pray about it every day, yielding to the filling of the Spirit.  Don't say you can't do it until you've tried to do it God's way.  God hasn't asked us to live the victorious Christian life in our own strength.  He will do it for us if we will allow Him to, and seek His help.